Evolution: A Warlock’s Rise To Power

Lucan rode on his flying carpet through the air. He continued to scan his surroundings with Omni-vision in hopes of finding a pocket dimension. He had been looking for over three hours but had yet to find anything.

The warlock knew that it wouldn't be easy but he had still hoped that he would get lucky and find one quickly.

Suddenly he saw something that shouldn't have been.

A level 75 player was running for his life through the shadow realm. This was not out of the ordinary, but when Lucan saw his pursuers, it was cause for concern.

Three level 100 drow were chasing the player.

Where did they come from?

How did they get into the shadow realm?

Lucan would normally ignore the situation, but since it was the drow that were involved, he decided to make his move.

***

Tim Kelly had been sent into Evolution by his bosses to expand their company. The last thing he expected was for the players he paid to escort him to flee the moment they saw the drow.

Thankfully, most of the dark elves chose to follow the players he hired who abandoned him. Only three continued to chase after him.

Tim Kelly panted as he ran, he wasn't the active type. It was already impressive that his character was able to get to level 75. He didn't have any faith in combat against those his same level, and now he was face with three opponents that were all higher level than himself.

All he could do was run, but the drow didn't let up, they weren't far behind him.

For a moment, Tim felt like his luck was turning for the better. When he looked over his shoulder he could only see a single drow running after him.

He faced ahead and pushed forward.

He wondered where the other two had gone off too, and his question was answered soon after.

Up ahead a drow appeared on his left, and then another on his right. He was surrounded.

Tim pulled out his sword.

Even if he died fighting, he would try to take at least one of them with him.

A green portal opened overhead.

A small flying creature and a one-armed man fell through the portal.

The moment the man hit the ground; he sprang forward towards one of the drow. His flying companion flew towards another.

Tim Kelly felt that he may be able to survive this incident. He turned around and faced the last drow elf.

He ran forward with his sword and slashed with all his might.

The nimble elf easily avoided the blade and stabbed him twice with a dagger. When Tim went to raise his sword, he felt something was wrong. His movements were sluggish, and his two wounds hurt more than they should have. He stumbled forward missing his second attack.

It was at this point he noticed the notification telling him that he had been poisoned.

"Damn it." He cursed while looking up towards the elf that was about to strike again.

He closed his eyes as the elves dagger was about to strike again. But nothing happened. Tim slowly opened his eyes to see that black chains formed from shadows tied down the elf.

Looking back over his shoulder, he saw one of the drow had been clawed apart and charred while the other was covered in numerous cuts. Both were dead.

A small shadow drake sat on the shoulder of the one-armed man that was walking his way with his wand raised.

"Stranger, thank you, thank you." Tim said, struggling to his feet, but then falling down because he couldn't maintain his balance.

"Where did the drow come from?" Lucan asked.

"I don't know, we were traveling through the wilds when over thirty of them came out of nowhere. My escorts abandoned me and took off. They opened a portal back to the material realm and escaped but the rest of the drow followed them through. I didn't dare to chase after, I could only run deeper into the forest."

"Hey mister, can you help me get to a city with a teleporter, I will pay you. Please don't leave me out here alone. I have money, lots of money. The corporation I work for will reward you. I will make sure it is worth your time. Protect me till I can get somewhere safe."

***

Lucan ignored Tim while he looked over the elf. He didn't notice anything special. It seemed like an ordinary drow soldier.

The warlock had determined that Tim was complete beginner. He believed that the player really was just some employees of a corporation instead of a true gamer. Heck, Tim didn't even know how to check a player's name, he just kept calling Lucan, Mister.

Lucan waved his hand; the chatty player fell asleep. Normally it wouldn't be easy to send someone to sleep after a blood pumping combat session, but the drow poison had greatly weakened the player.

'Hey old man, I got bad news. I just found drow in the shadow realm.'

Lucan had mentally contacted Raze to let him know what was going on.

Instead of a reply, the old man appeared before him. Of course, Raze waited till Lucan blinked and then showed up from nowhere, causing the warlock to jump back and become startled.

Raze ignore Lucan who was chastising him for always showing up when his eyes were closed.

"Just three?" Raze asked after looking at the two dead elves and the one imprisoned elf.

"According to this guy, there were over thirty. He said the rest chased his escorts through a portal back to the material realm. He didn't seem to be lying but I can't confirm if it is true."

"Hmm, not good." Raze said, pondering to himself while stroking his chin. "Alright, I will be taking this one and the two corpses back with me."

Before Lucan could say anything, the drow, along with his patron, disappeared. He received a notification that 35K experience points were transferred to him from Raze. For his current spending habits, the amount wasn't much at all. But when you consider that he earned them for only 30 seconds of work, it was an appropriate payment.

***

Tim Kelly was woken by the sound of wind rapidly rushing past his ears. He opened his eyes to see the sky quickly moving overhead.

Sitting up, he immediately became startled. He was flying through the air with the ground whipping past him below.

Regaining his senses, he realized that he was sitting on a magic carpet with the open armed man.

"Hey mister. Thanks for the help."

Lucan looked behind him to see the middle-aged man.

"No problem."

"My name is Tim Kelly. I really owe you for this one."

"Lucan Quilldrake." The warlock responded.

"Hey, I know you. You are a Baron in the shadow realm."

Lucan nodded but didn't say more. His eyes occasionally flashed green as he looked around while they flew.

"Geez, I can't believe those people abandoned me like that. Do they really think I won't let them off." Tim grumbled to himself. "Hey, you are a pretty resourceful guy. Do you have any interest signing a contract with my company? If you help protect us in the shadow realm, we will make it worth your while."

Lucan pondered the question, but he really had so many things going on right now. He didn't think it would be a good idea to take on even more work.

"Before you say no, let me tell you about the company I work for. I am sure you have heard of use before. I am a manager at Starlight Express Entertainment."

"Any entertainment company?" Lucan asked.

"You may not know, but many of the large entertainment groups are making their way into Evolution."

"Why would they do that?"

"Why wouldn't they? Let me ask you this. Since Evolution has come out, have you watched any new movies? Have you followed any television programs? Have you gone out to watch a concert?"

Lucan shook his head.

"That's right. Nobody has. Ever since the Evolution has come out, the entertainment industry has fallen onto hard times. That is why all the big companies are moving into Evolution. At Starlight, we plan on releasing our newest movie directly into Evolution. We just have to pay 'Source Creations' a fee to import our film and then have to find a way to display it. It is not much different than working with distributors in the real world."

"Hmm, I imagine people stealing your movie might turn into a big deal. Can you really keep it safe in Evolution?"

Tim smirked. "What are you saying? It is the same game just on a different playing field. Aren't pirated movies already a big thing in the real world. It is no different."

Lucan nodded. Now that Tim had mentioned it, the same problems also appeared in the real world.

"We are just starting now, but the company plans to move almost everything into the game. Over the past month our celebrities have been working on getting their characters a few levels. In the future we will move our main focus to in-game projects. Especially when you consider the time dilation, we believe that more people would be willing to spend their money on entertainment in the game."

"Alright, makes sense." Lucan mumbled.

Tim nodded happily. "Just imagine, when we hold concerts people will be able to come and see, regardless of where they live in the real world. People can stay at their homes and enter the game and still get front row tickets to watch their favorite idol to perform. We plan on doing movies, concerts, plays, and all kinds of events. Right now, we are still working things out. A lot of our old operation models have to be tweaked since we are coming to a new world but I have high expectations. We even have some plans to open night clubs, karaoke rooms, and other entertainment venues. It should be quite profitable."

"Hmm, that is interesting."

"Of course, and we our target consumer won't be those rankers. That is what makes us different than all those mega corporations that entered the game and are propping up guilds. No, we will make our money off of the casual players." Tim Rambled on.

"Have you ever thought of opening a dungeon for entertainment? Like those videogames, where you have two teams face each other."

"I know, Rising Meteor Entertainment had hired a few dungeon masters. I heard that they are developing a capture the flag game that they think will be profitable. The rumor is that they are trying to develop a game that will allow them to create a league. They can make money off of advertisements and selling seats to watch it live. We considered the idea but ultimately, our company is a step below those three big entertainment groups. We don't have the time or funds to research and develop a game from scratch. It isn't feasible for us."

"Really?" Lucan asked with a grin. "Why don't we have a talk?"

ATTENTION!!!!!

Read the author's note.