《Realm of Infinity》 1) Turn of the table The first week of July 2035 had turned out to be the worst one thus far of my twenty-seven years of life¡­ It started when I lost my job as a project manager at a software company when they folded, the owners claiming they were bankrupt while they all took off overseas with a shit load of money that supposedly didn¡¯t exist. Then I got home early to find my girlfriend of three years screaming and moaning underneath the man who was supposed to be just a friend. I walked in to them going at it like wild animals and froze in non-comprehension for a few moments before a crashing sound brought them to notice my presence. That sound had happened to be my fist going through the wall next to the door. Really, I hadn¡¯t even consciously known I did it until after the fact, but the sudden light ache in my knuckles told me that it was indeed my hand buried within the plaster of the light green colored wall. I left the house in a fog immediately after my initial outburst, not able to trust myself to contain my anger at the situation in the least. My car was older, an almost outdated electric car that had served me well for several years now, but the vehicle was trustworthy and I engaged the manual drive on the machine just to keep my hands from shaking over much as I wove through the city while still in a mild daze. That was when I found out just how fragile those older model cars were as a semi had a brake failure and plowed through a red light right into the rear side of my car. The explosion of sound consisted of shattering glass, screeching steel and quite a few thumps as I was sent on an acrobatic tumble while trapped within a ton and a half of death trap. Perhaps some would say I was lucky that day to have survived at all, let alone able to walk away from such a wreck on my own power¡­ But I wasn¡¯t of the mind at that time as I stood off to the side and watched as other people came scrambling over to check on myself and the driver of the semi-truck. I didn¡¯t walk away totally unharmed, several cuts dripped crimson tears to the pavement and I knew I would be in a world of pain once the adrenaline of the situation wore off. Ah, there it was¡­ Ouch. The rest of the weekend had gone by in a blur as I made trips to the hospital, lawyer, my apartment to collect my things, over to a motel to get away from that bitch Janet, and several more little stops here and there to wrap up that chapter in my life. Thankfully I had never gotten to the point of sharing financial accounts with my ex to a high degree and my money was all safe from tampering with a simple call to my bank to cancel all access to the accounts by the secondary authorized name. I woke up Monday morning at the normal six am and looked about the motel room in confusion before collapsing back onto the pillow as the events of the past several days filtered into my sleep addled brain and the reality of my situation flooded back into my mind. Lying in bed, I stared at the ceiling and thought over what needed to be done next. First thing on my list was to find a new apartment for myself, and preferably on the other side of town to be safe. Second thing was definitely a new job. I had plenty of money in the bank to last for a few months, worst case scenario, but I liked having that buffer for emergencies and draining that all down would only lead to me being in a worse position than I was. With a sigh, I got out of bed to shower and ready myself for the day. The hot water helped greatly to get my head on straight, nothing like the steaming spray of a shower to soothe away the pain of aches and bruises that covered my body. Once I stepped out of the shower I checked the mirror and frowned at the sight of my own face in the mirror. Slight black color lined the bottom of my gray eyes emphasizing the horrible quality of sleep I had gotten the last few days. Three days growth of beard covered my jaw and neck, making me look like a vagabond. My black hair, already due for a trim before the previous weeks¡¯ fiasco, stood in random directions from the vigorous toweling I had given it to dry off and added to the effect of making me look like I was at the at the end of my ropes. I wasn¡¯t exactly bad looking when cleaned up¡­ Strong square jaw, high cheekbones and a sharp nose gave me a handsome look when coupled with a defined and toned body. Not that I was overly muscular, but I spent enough time at the gym to make sure I was in good shape and it showed with a sculpted physique right down to my six pack abs. Now I just looked like I spent a week stranded on a deserted island. With a sigh, I smacked my hands to my face to draw myself out of the depths of misery. No, I wouldn¡¯t let this series of events start me on a spiral of destruction! ¡°Right¡­ Change of plans. First I need to get a shave and haircut!¡± Decision made, I dressed in a simple pair of jeans and a long sleeved black shirt with a simple pair of sneakers to complete my outfit. My suitcase didn¡¯t have much in terms of casual clothes, as I tended to work more often than not. Most of my wardrobe was button down shirts and nice pants to wear to the office with a selection of ties to wrap the ensemble together. As soon as I finished dressing, the sound of ringing filled the air as my pers-com trilled out an incoming call. The watch-like personal communicator had replaced cell phones over a decade ago and made people¡¯s lives so much easier. They handled everything from identification to bank account access to phone calls and internet browsing. All in a simple band that fit on the wrist and displayed their info in an AR screen that popped up over the device. I slipped the band onto my left wrist and held my arm up in front of me as the light blue display popped into view once the pers-com recognized my DNA and allowed me access to the device. The small box showed that I had an incoming call from Alex, one of my few remaining friends. I poked at the accept button and the image of his sharply featured face popped up in a larger screen for the video call. ¡°Dale! I just heard about what happened last week man. Why the hell didn¡¯t you call me and let me know what was going on?!¡± The volume of his voice pulsed out from the speaker of my pers-com and echoed throughout the small room I was standing in, the anger of his tone apparent to go along with the harsh scowl he was giving me. ¡°Hey Alex. Sorry, been in a bit of a funk and had a lot going on with all of this shit honestly.¡± I brushed a hand through my hair to put it into a presentable style to appear in public. ¡°I was just heading out to get cleaned up and figure out where I am going to live for the foreseeable future¡­¡± ¡°Yeah, I guess that is understandable.¡± His face softened some as he merely frowned at my appearance. ¡°I have to say though¡­ You look like shit.¡± His thin lips turned into a small smile at the friendly jab at what I already knew. ¡°Tell you what, don¡¯t get too far into a new pad yet and meet me for lunch after you hit a barber. I know you have plenty of free time for now, and I want to toss something by you that might just be a solution to your problems.¡± I had to raise a brow at that. Alex wasn¡¯t one to toss out a line like that without having something to back it up with and I was instantly curious. ¡°Oh yeah? Don¡¯t hold out on me man, spill the details!¡± With a shake of his head, Alex grinned. ¡°Doesn¡¯t work that way Dale. Get yourself straightened out and meet me at Driskal¡¯s for twelve-thirty. Lunch is on me and I will give you details then and there. Trust me man, this actually might be just the thing you need right now¡­¡± His face turned off to the side as the muffled sounds of another person were heard. ¡°Yeah, I got it. Give me a minute to wrap this up and I will handle it.¡± Turning back to me, Alex gave a stern look. ¡°Hey, I need to run. Lunch. Driskal¡¯s. Twelve-thirty. Don¡¯t be late!¡± The image of my friend winked out, replaced by a flashing screen showing ¡®Call Terminated¡¯ on the AR screen before me. Alex was a busy guy, being high up on the totem pole in a company that ran a huge virtual reality project that was out on the market. I didn¡¯t know much about the details of his job or his company, but I had heard him mention that it was getting pretty big among the gaming community. I hadn¡¯t played any kind of game in a long time now, adult life taking over as soon as I was done with college and leaving me little time for trivial things like games. It was sad really, as I had made several good friends over the years in the gaming community that I had since lost contact with when I graduated and got a full time job. With a shake of my head, I banished my worries and thoughts over Alex for the moment and headed out to take care of my appearance. * * * * *The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. It had just turned twelve-twenty when I got out of the cab outside of Driskal¡¯s and swiped my pers-com over the payment reader. The restaurant was of a higher end type that normally had some kind of soft jazz band or string ensemble playing during dinner hours, but for lunch they carried a bit more casual crowd most days. Great food as well, if a bit pricey. The front of the building was a wall of tinted glass that reflected the sight of the street and myself back at me, and I was looking a hell of a lot better now that I had made it to a barber for a shave and a haircut. Looking at myself now, I was much more presentable with a smooth jaw and fashionably styled hair to once more make me acceptable to face the world confidently. As soon as I walked through the main doors, I was greeted by a man in a nice suit standing at a host podium with a smile. ¡°Welcome sir. Do you have a reservation or shall I mark you down for a table?¡± I nodded back to the gentleman and gave a smile in return to his own. ¡°Good afternoon. I am meeting someone here, but I am a few minutes early I think.¡± ¡°Very good sir. What is the name of your associate so I can see if he has already arrived and found a seat?¡± The host glanced down at his chart, looking over the names of parties already seated. ¡°I believe it will be under an Alex Chapman. If he isn¡¯t here yet, please put me down for a table if you would.¡± I flicked my wrist up to bring an AR screen open to display the time and check if Alex had messaged me. Twelve twenty-two on the clock, but no messages outside of one from my lawyer stating that the company owning the truck that hit me was happy to quickly settle the lawsuit quietly so as to avoid any bad publicity. Score one for me! ¡°Ahh yes, here we are. Mr. Chapman has already arrived and is seated over this way. If you would please follow me, I will take you directly sir.¡± He motioned with a sweep of his arm in the direction, then started off with one more smile at me. Such an affable fellow. ¡°Thank you.¡± I followed behind him as he weaved his way through the tables scattered throughout the large open dining room towards where I could see Alex sitting at a table in the corner. My friend was looking down at an AR screen in front of him as I approached and didn¡¯t notice me at first. Alex was a good looking guy with light Asian features of sharp lines and dusky skin, straight black hair, and intense eyes so dark in color they were nearly black as well. His personality was definitely more positive than his looks made him appear however, and we had been friends since high school. The host paused and pulled my chair out for me before motioning me to sit with a small nod of his head. ¡°Here you are sir. Enjoy your meal.¡± With that, the man turned and proceeded back to his podium to await the next guest to the establishment. Alex raised his head and greeted me with a grin. ¡°Dale, early as always! Please, sit and check out the menu. I said lunch is on me, and I mean it. Order whatever you want, this is going on the business card so don¡¯t hold back.¡± He held out a hand over the table towards me as he spoke. Taking his hand, I shook it with a firm grip and returned his smile. It had been several weeks since I had seen Alex in person as life seemed to always conspire against me socializing with many of my friends outside of work. ¡°Oh you know me, I hate being late!¡± I sat down and did as he suggested, taking a peek at the menu. ¡°Business card huh? Got a promotion again Alex?¡± I asked with a chuckle. ¡°Hmm¡­ Well I guess you could say that. More like a side shift to a new department a couple months back. It is in part why I asked you to come out today, and why you being free of commitments is such a good thing for me at the moment.¡± He stopped and chewed on his lip as he dismissed his AR screen to look at me contemplatively. ¡°But let that wait for a few until we order. For now, how are you holding up?¡± I shrugged and instantly decided on what to order. I had been to this place many times before and knew their menu fairly well without having to study the options over much. ¡°I am doing as well as can be expected I guess¡­ Taking care of the stupid little things after what all happened has taken up a surprising amount of time actually and has kept my mind mostly occupied.¡± ¡°I am glad to hear it, my friend.¡± He glanced off to the side and smiled, seeing a pretty waitress approaching the table. ¡°Ah, it looks like our drinks have arrived. Perfect timing! I ordered the first round already. Hope you still drink the same as you used to.¡± Alex smirked as I looked up to see a young woman in her early twenties with a knock out figure setting a rum and coke before each of us with a smile. ¡°Here you are gentlemen. Are you ready to order or shall I come back in a few minutes?¡± She had wonderful blue eyes on top of a lovely face and I had to smile back at her. ¡°Well, I know I am ready. Alex? You go first if you are all set.¡± With a few short exchanges, we placed our orders with the woman and she nodded and headed off to put the ticket in to the kitchens. With that out of the way, I turned back to Alex and sipped my drink with a sigh. ¡°Ahhh, this is much needed.¡± I set the glass back down and then raised a brow at my friend. ¡°Now, what did you need to talk to me about?¡± ¡°Ah, well¡­ Ahem. First, I will need you to sign this before we get into the actual discussion. Not my call mind you, but our lawyers are anal about these damn things and I will have my head cut off if I don¡¯t get this done first¡­¡± He brought his pers-com up and opened an AR window in front of himself. Sweeping through a few menus, he finally found what he was looking for and flicked his finger to send the file to my own device with a chime on my wrist. Pulling up the new notification, I saw it was a semi long form with the company name of Dumadine Technology titled at the top and followed up with several lines of disclaimers and warnings¡­ Really all in all a standard NDA it seemed. Apparently, this was a legit meeting and Alex was looking to bring me in on something. ¡°Hmm¡­ Alright, seems to be in order.¡± I pressed my thumb to my pers-com and the fingerprint appeared on the document next to my prerecorded signature before I sent the form back to Alex again. ¡°There you go. Now spill, what is this about?¡± Alex checked the signature quick to confirm and then spent a moment sending it off to the legal department for filing and recording before answering me. ¡°Well to start, what do you know about the company I am working for Dale?¡± He lifted his own drink and took a sip as he watched me carefully. I tilted my head slightly in thought, trying to recall all I had heard from both Alex and the news. Dumadine Technology, or DT for short, really was a big company and had their hands in several pots that I knew of so I went with that to see where this was heading. ¡°Well, I know that you guys cover a broad range of fields from military to medical to entertainment. DT put out the latest model of VR headsets a few years ago too, which are used for several applications that I know of and are top of the line. Beyond that, I am not entirely sure honestly. My old job focused more on pers-com and AR software than anything relating to the VR field.¡± ¡°Yes, all that is true enough. We have made several breakthroughs over the last couple years and are ready to move on to the next phase of VR technology. That¡¯s why I needed the NDA¡­ What I am going to be bringing up here is still sensitive information and the company doesn¡¯t want it getting out just yet. All of that will be coming to light soon enough though, and that is what I want you for.¡± He paused and smiled at me with a pleased expression. ¡°Have you used any of the VR tech that is out at the moment?¡± I shrugged my shoulders a bit in response before replying. ¡°Not a lot recently. You know I was big on it back in the day with all of the gaming we used to do, but since I graduated college I haven¡¯t had much call to put my headset back on much other than for a few meetings that my company made me attend.¡± Alex glanced about us to make sure there was nobody close by before deciding we were private enough to speak again. ¡°Well your gaming past is exactly why I thought you might be perfect for this job that I have open right now. You were what, ranked eighth in the world in that MMO you played?¡± ¡°Fifth, actually.¡± I smirked, remembering those days where I spent countless hours logged into a simple game. ¡°And thirteenth in the RTS one as well. Not that those credentials hold much credibility in the world now¡­¡± ¡°Actually, they are the exact things that have made this meeting possible. You see, I am working on a project now for a new game that will be put out onto the market in a few weeks and the company has determined that we need a few people to be pioneers into this digital world to lay the tracks and bring some publicity.¡± He trailed off as he noticed the waitress bringing a tray with our food over for us. The woman set our plates in front of us carefully and glanced at our still mostly full drinks. ¡°Here you go gentlemen. Do you need anything else at the moment?¡± Seeing us both shake our heads, she smiled and nodded. ¡°Right then, enjoy and I will be back in a few to check up on you!¡± She turned and headed off once more as both Alex and I picked up our forks and started in on the meals. I had to admit to myself that I was kind of curious as to where Alex was going with this, and decided to ask a few questions. ¡°Okay, from all I have ever heard DT doesn¡¯t make video games. They only make the hardware to sell off and let other people deal with the software aspect of it all for the most part. I know that some software is involved with the actual units themselves, but I thought most of it was outsourced to other companies to maximize profits on that front?¡± Alex took a sip of his drink to wash down the mouthful of food he was working on before he responded. ¡°Yes, well¡­ Pretty much that is true, however this project is a bit different. We have made another breakthrough on tech once again, and this game is the first and only software for the new unit.¡± He grinned at me and watched my face to catch my reaction before he went on. ¡°This game is going to be using full dive technology! Actually being able to be in the game and perform all of the actions as if you are truly there!¡± My fork had stopped half way to my mouth at his announcement, the implications of what he was saying making me freeze as I tried to fully comprehend it. I had to lower my fork back to the plate before I dropped it completely, then opened my mouth a couple times before finding my voice. ¡°Wait¡­ Are you serious? We used to talk about that all the time when we were younger and how awesome that would be! How did you guys manage to do this?¡± He laughed quietly at me and shook his head. ¡°Even with that NDA I can¡¯t go into the details. The information is way too restricted to spread around, but I guarantee that this is one hundred percent legitimate and fully functional with months of testing already put into it. The units will be sold with the game and is expected to totally revolutionize the gaming and entertainment industry, not to mention the potential applications in several other fields from education to military. What we are worried about now with this situation is the draw for consumers to actually spend the money to buy our product. It won¡¯t be a cheap sum we are talking about after all, and Dumadine wants some hardcore gamers to be the first ones into the game in order to make some good headlines and incorporate some real player feedback to add into the advertising.¡± ¡°Holy shit man¡­ That is incredible.¡± I leaned back in my chair and took another sip of my drink before I spoke again. ¡°I don¡¯t see how I can really help you out here though. I don¡¯t exactly have a ton of money set aside to buy one of these units, and I need to worry about finding a place to live as well as a new job too¡­¡± I trailed off, my little speech left open for Alex to get to the point of calling me out and signing a NDA. My curiosity was certainly piqued, and Alex damn well knew it. ¡°Oh, that is simple enough Dale. See, I am here to offer you one of those positions of full time gamer and endorser of our product.¡± Alex gave me a predatory grin, knowing I was going to have a damn hard time of turning an offer like this down. ¡°Thanks to your history of gaming, and no small part of having yours truly as a best friend, Dumadine Technology wants to offer you a job!¡± 2) The proposal I sat there stunned momentarily as the idea of working for Alex¡¯s company filtered through my mind. Sure, it would be an amazingly fun idea, but there were so many open questions that I wasn¡¯t sure where exactly to start! ¡°Well, I can see that you are thinking about it, but let me guess¡­ You are concerned about a million and one things about it and have no idea where to start?¡± He grinned and I saw his shoulders shake slightly as he contained his mirth at my situation. I can only imagine that my face had the look of a fish out of water right about now¡­ ¡°Uhmm¡­ Yeah. Pretty much really. Like, how the hell haven¡¯t I heard about this yet?¡± I very nearly threw my hands up at that one, but remembered where we were and controlled my reactions in time. ¡°I mean I understand that you have all of these NDA policies and all that, but how have you kept this a secret so deep I haven¡¯t even heard of rumors about it?¡± Alex shrugged, his smug smirk still plastered on his lips as he picked at his food still. ¡°Oh, that is easy enough really. There are only a few of us working on the project in a broad enough scope as to have the full big picture. Most of the people we have working on it only deal with small pieces of the whole, and while they are very good at their tasks, have no idea how it is all being put together into this new venture.¡± I shook my head, the scope of that task being beyond my skills as a program manager as I thought more about the sheer number of people that they had to be coordinating between for such an undertaking. ¡°Damn¡­ I really don¡¯t envy you that job Alex. Anyway, how about some more actual details on what you want me to come in and do? You can¡¯t just say ¡®here, have a job and be in the office tomorrow at nine¡¯¡­ Give me something to work with here man!¡± ¡°Oh, and you are in such a position to decline that kind of offer at the moment?¡± One of his brows arched as he lifted his glass and sipped the liquid while he took his sadistic pleasure at that jab. He wasn¡¯t too far off with his comment, but I would be damned if I was going into any kind of job blind. Before I could say so though, Alex went on. ¡°But you are right. Details. Right then, let us start with the basics and move on from there for now. ¡°Realm of Infinity is what we are calling it, and it is a fantasy MMORPG based in a setting about the size of Earth. Massive scale environment with similar weather conditions and climates that you are used to, but with common fantasy differences such as magic and other races. Players won¡¯t be able to start out as any race other than Human, but after progressing through the content there is the chance of unlocking new races for players to use. I have a few documents here that I will send you to read over if you do decide to join us on this proposition.¡± ¡°Hmmm¡­ Well it sounds interesting, honestly. But you said this was a job, right? So what are my options for payment? Also, I will need to still find a place to live, and then I have to worry about whatever interface device your company is using to log into the game.¡± I went back to eating, mulling the options over as I polished off the last of my meal and set my fork down. I had never really thought about becoming a professional gamer, but there were a lot of people in the world who have gone down that path. Most sports had filtered out of popularity through the last twenty years, and the rise of e-sports had changed the way people found entertainment through the genre from fighting to FPS to MOBA games. The sport was growing exponentially every year with top tier players easily making celebrity status and living off their winnings well beyond their few years in the spotlight. ¡°Dale, if you sign on with us you won¡¯t need to find a place to crash. You would move in to one of our buildings with top of the line security. Outside access would be severely limited unfortunately, but our facilities have state of the art equipment including a fully stocked gym to keep up your physical condition. We will want you to be playing the game a lot of the time, limiting your real-world time to a few hours a day and living on our grounds will allow you to do that easily. As for a salary, well, let me just say that my boss has authorized me to make sure this is worth your while.¡± He grinned as he flipped through an AR screen on his pers-com and then flicked it towards me once more. My unit pinged again and I held off any of my comments in order to pull the display up and check out the message I had just received. And then read it again. And again. Wow¡­ Okay, maybe Alex wasn¡¯t kidding when he said Dumadine Technology was really intending to make me work for my meals if that is the sum they were going to be paying me. The figure displayed in the air before me was astronomical. Easily triple what I was making as a yearly salary at my old job, and there was a footnote saying that there was a possibility of a bonus every month based on ¡®other factors¡¯. ¡°Wow. Okay, I might be putting my foot in my own mouth here for asking, but what are these ¡®other factors¡¯ that are mentioned here?¡± ¡°That is an easy question to answer. You will be playing for us as a company with no assistance or special treatment. However you will be plugged into our network and will be streaming everything you are doing to our web page to be used as promotional propaganda. The bonus is derived from number of people on average following the stream, quality of the content you are feeding us, and the number of people who use your stream ID as a reference when they buy the game. Really, don¡¯t expect a ton of extra money from that to start. I can see it building up over time as you make a name for yourself in the game and other companies start buying advertising slots on your stream, and you will get a portion of those profits as well.¡± Alex looked to be highly excited over this prospect, and really it was kind of contagious as he spoke and I quickly found my own expectations rising by the moment. Something felt off about it to me though, and I had to hold up a hand to forestall him from going on any more. ¡°Wait, does that mean there are other people in my situation who will be playing as a representative for the company?¡± A frown formed on Alex¡¯s lips, but he didn¡¯t lie to me and nodded. ¡°Yes, there are nine others that are being given this offer as well. We have ten slots open for this gambit and part of the job will be to compete against these other players. The amount of content within this game is mind-boggling and our CEO decided that using ten top tier gamers to progress into those expanses right off will allow others to easily step into the world and fit into their own roles without much difficulty.¡± He sighed and sipped his drink, contemplating his next words carefully as I sat there and digested the information. ¡°Also,¡± he started hesitantly, then pressed on, ¡°there is the fact that you and the nine others will be starting out on the ¡®hard¡¯ difficulty and not the normal one that all other players will be using. The differences might not seem to be much on paper, but I can assure you that you will need to do a lot of reading into the game manual before launching as the hard mode will be a big set back right off the bat.¡± Now it was my turn to frown a bit. I was used to playing games on their ¡®hardcore¡¯ modes often enough. That was where the real power items and artifacts come into play and allow a person to progress much farther than most casual players, but being a pioneer into this new game would make it that much harder without guides and such to go off of. ¡°Are you saying I get one life and no second chances here?¡± Alex shook his head quickly and waved a hand. ¡°No, no, no. You will be able to respawn still, but the death penalties are extremely harsh and you don¡¯t have access to some of the starting options. The details are all in a data packet I will be sending you if you want to go forward with this, but I can¡¯t divulge much without you actually agreeing and signing on to this.¡± He paused and glanced around before leaning in closer and grinning at me. His voice hushed down to a whisper I was barely able to hear. ¡°Trust me Dale¡­ You want to take this offer. RoI, Realm of Infinity, is unlike anything you have ever seen or heard of before!¡± He sat up all the way again and raised his glass to me with one more smug smirk. ¡°Now, are you on board with me and Dumadine Technology?¡± I stared at his glass as I thought quickly. This was indeed a once in a lifetime chance if Alex wasn¡¯t over-hyping this game and hardware, but I still didn¡¯t have all the information I wanted. Granted, from what I had heard so far from Alex I wasn¡¯t going to be able to get more until I had agreed to work for DT. Alex was my best friend, however, and he has never turned me wrong before in the past. Plus, the sum of money I would be receiving for doing this seemed well worth my time no matter how I looked at it. Alex seemed to sense that I was right on the edge of accepting, and let an almost feral smile cross his face as he threw in the one thing he had absolutely no doubt I could resist. ¡°Oh, by the way, Kayla and Archie are being offered this exact deal right now too.¡± Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. My eyes snapped to his instantly as I felt a rush of emotions come over me. Those two were bitter rivals of mine back in the day when I was a major gamer. Incredibly skilled and ruthless in their ways, they always gave me a good run whenever we met in a game. If Dumadine managed to get those two skilled players on board, then I just had to make sure I was part of this undertaking as well. ¡°In that case¡­¡± I raised my own glass and clinked it against Alex¡¯s before we both drained the remaining liquid before setting the glasses down with dual thumps. ¡°Count me in! I haven¡¯t run into either of them in years, and I seem to find myself wanting to test them out again.¡± ¡°I also hear Kayla is single again.¡± Alex looked at me slyly as I focused back at him. ¡°Maybe with yourself being single as well something can happen there this time? I seem to recall the two of you having some pretty good chemistry back in college.¡± That was true enough, I supposed. Kayla and I had indeed clicked when we were younger, but she had a boyfriend at the time she was fairly serious about so I kept my distance as much as I was able to. Being in a small circle of top tier gamers made it hard for us to not be close though, as most high level groups tended to stick together against the world in the end. Sure, we were usually on the opposite sides of encounters, but that didn¡¯t stop us from respecting the others¡¯ skills and determination when it came down to it and we always parted ways on good terms. ¡°Oh I highly doubt that Kayla even remembers me much, Alex. Besides, it seems like I will be having my hands full starting from behind in this game compared to how other players will start, so probably not much time for reconnecting.¡± It was an interesting idea though, and maybe I could speak with her again either in game or out. ¡°Hmmm¡­ Maybe there is more options for that than you are thinking. I can¡¯t give out too much yet, as you haven¡¯t signed anything, but I can say that you will definitely be seeing her again soon. If she signs up for this as well that is.¡± His face had a mischievous look to it before he turned to get the waitress in order to pay the bill. I was curious as to what he meant by that, but didn¡¯t want to get him in trouble with his company for divulging info he wasn¡¯t supposed to and maybe ruining my chance at a new leaf in life. So, I took everything at face value for now and let the matter drop on that front for now and changed the topic slightly. ¡°So when and how is this going to work then? I am assuming I will need to head over and sign a ton of paperwork and turn my soul over to Dumadine in order for this to go through?¡± Maybe I was exaggerating slightly, but the point of my comment surely got across to my friend. ¡°Pretty much, actually. We aren¡¯t starting this venture for another week honestly, but we can get all of the documentation and stuff taken care of today and you can move into the apartment building whenever you are ready. Knowing your situation at the moment, I would think that it would be a big help to get a pad set up as soon as possible.¡± The pretty waitress came over carrying a small tablet and she smiled at the two of us. ¡°Thanks gentlemen. Can I get you anything else today or are you just looking to settle up and get back to work?¡± This woman really was a good waitress. Straight to the point while being friendly and not bothering us overmuch so we could discuss or business. If Alex didn¡¯t leave the woman a good tip I was going to have to add some in on my own. ¡°No, thanks. We are ready to settle up and head out.¡± Alex tapped his wrist to the woman¡¯s tablet and an AR screen popped up before him with the bill total. I could just see the amount and wasn¡¯t that shocked. As I said, I had been here a few times before and knew what the prices were roughly even if the menu didn¡¯t list them individually. Alex added on a healthy tip of about what I wanted to give her so I didn¡¯t bother tapping my own pers-com to the tablet. ¡°There you go, thanks for the meal!¡± The waitress noticed the tip that was added in and beamed a smile at Alex as she slipped the tablet into her apron. ¡°No, thank you! Have a great day gentlemen, and please come again!¡± After gathering up some of the dishes, she walked away towards the kitchens once more to leave us to stand and exit. Alex stood up and looked at me, waiting for the waitress to stride far enough off before speaking. ¡°Want to come with me back to the office now and get things rolling? I have a car waiting for me outside so you won¡¯t need to grab a cab or take a bus.¡± I got out of my seat as well and shrugged. ¡°Good a time as any to get this all done and out of the way. Plus it isn¡¯t like I have anywhere to be. How does the living situation work out anyway?¡± I followed behind Alex as he started weaving between the tables on his way towards the main entrance. ¡°We have an apartment building attached to one of our corporate offices. It was originally meant to be for out of town workers to crash in so they didn¡¯t have to get a hotel, but we have fixed it all up and made them full apartments instead of little hotel style rooms.¡± Once out of the restaurant Alex walked right up to a sleek black car waiting on the side of the road and opened the back door, holding it open and motioning me to get in. The sudden light shift from lightly lit interior to bright sunshine made me squint my eyes until I climbed into the back seat of the car, the tinted windows once again relegating the light levels to acceptable levels. ¡°Sounds like you guys have this all figured out. How long has this plan been in the works? Just doesn¡¯t seem like something dashed together at the last moment after all.¡± Alex climbed in behind me and closed the door softly. The car immediately pulled out into traffic, the privacy barrier between the front and back half of the car rolling up to keep our conversation private. ¡°This plan has been in motion for a couple months now, and we have just recently gotten things squared away in regards to bringing in the professionals and housing them in the apartment building so as to keep all the tech secret still. Can¡¯t go and sending these state of the art devices all over to private residences until the market has had a chance to get stabilized with this equipment.¡± Well, I couldn¡¯t exactly fault them there on that line of reasoning. Smart move really, even if it meant that I was going to be living under a roof I wasn¡¯t familiar with. I would be able to manage under those conditions well enough, especially if I was going to be spending a good amount of time inside of the game. More small talk and hashing out unimportant details went on while the car took us through the city towards Dumadine Technology¡¯s main headquarters right in the middle of the hustle and bustle. While situated almost directly center city, the compound was walled off with a lot of active security personnel patrolling along the walled off grounds. Security cameras covered every angle and there were even guard towers spaced out along the length of the tall white walls topped with barbed wire. They even had drones buzzing back and forth in the air both with the patrols and on their own doing security sweeps. Bit overkill if I could say so, but it wasn¡¯t my money at work here. The car rolled through the checkpoint at the main gates and drove on down a narrow road towards a large building I knew by reputation if not by sight. Well over thirty stories tall, the headquarters of DT was made of dark metal and tinted windows in a twisting pattern of visually pleasing graceful architecture. Several other buildings dotted the huge compound owned by DT that weren¡¯t nearly as large but still held to the general appeal of dark metal and equally dark glass that reflected the sunlight back at those looking upon them. In the dark I imagined that the structures would be quite hard to see well if there weren¡¯t any lights shining on them directly. Our conversation tapered off as we entered the area, leaving me to take in all the sights and notice the little things like the immaculately maintained hedges dotting the side of the main road and a few park like areas with little fountains centered in the middle of the grass, some benches set out near the flowing water. Some people were actually sitting there eating lunch and staring at the arcing water shooting out of the top and sides of the fountain. Our ride ended as the car pulled to a stop outside a set of short stone steps leading up to the main doors of Dumadine Technology and Alex popped open his door to climb out of the vehicle with me right on his heels. Alex closed the door and leaned down to wave into the front passenger window to the driver, signaling him that he was free of his passenger burden, and then turned to walk up the steps. ¡°Welcome to my work place Dale. This is both the brain and heart of our operations where over three thousand people work. Please don¡¯t mind security here, DT is paranoid about corporate espionage and all that.¡± As we approached, the double doors that consisted of the main entry way opened up with two security guards nodding a friendly greeting to Alex. ¡°Welcome back Mr. Chapman. How was lunch?¡± The right guard asked. He was a burly man with a clean shaven face and a wired earpiece that lead down to a radio at his belt. He was armed with a sidearm on his hip and carried his large body smoothly as if he knew how to fight. ¡°Very delicious and productive Carl, thanks.¡± Alex stepped aside and motioned at me. ¡°Carl, this is Dale Sullivan. Dale, this is the head of security for Dumadine and he is in charge of all operations involving the comings and goings of these premises.¡± I held out a hand towards Carl with a smile. ¡°Nice to meet you Carl. If everything goes well here I will be seeing a lot of you over the foreseeable future.¡± ¡°Ah, the mysterious man Mr. Chapman himself had to go out and interview huh? Well it is nice to meet you as well Mr. Sullivan.¡± He shook my hand in a firm grip and then motioned us into the building where a security checkpoint was set up. Metal detectors and an x-ray machine for bags were manned by more security officers and blocked entry going forward. ¡°If you would please empty your pockets Mr. Sullivan and step through the metal detector we can get you signed in. I am afraid I will need to keep your pers-com here at the main desk until such a time as you have a security clearance.¡± He spoke kindly, but unapologetically as he stepped up with us to the desk and allowed the main doors to shut behind us. Alex walked over and swiped his pers-com over a podium near a side gate which buzzed and allowed him to step through and bypass the heavy search. ¡°Don¡¯t worry Dale. We will get you set up soon enough and you can use the VIP access over here after that and skip the hassle. Until then, go ahead and leave your things here as this will only take an hour or two anyway before we move you over to the apartment complex.¡± I nodded and did as requested, pulling my pers-com off and a set of keys out of my pocket to add to the plastic bin set there for personal belongings. ¡°No worries, I understand. Here you go Carl, this is all I have on me today seeing as this guy called me out of the blue.¡± I hooked my thumb over to indicate Alex as ¡®this guy¡¯. The large man chuckled and nodded. ¡°Thanks, Mr. Sullivan. Everything will be kept safe here and won¡¯t be tampered with. As soon as you get your clearance you are free to pick your pers-com up again and so long as a door opens to your device you can go there. I would like to say now though that if a door doesn¡¯t open to the first swipe, try once more if you want but don¡¯t trigger a third failure in a row or security will be swarming you in five seconds. At the same time, that can be a good way to get help in a bad situation too, so just keep it in mind.¡± ¡°Thanks Carl. Will do.¡± I walked through the metal detector and proceeded on with Alex towards a shiny metal door that had to be the elevator going up to wherever I had to sign my life away for this job. 3) Sign, sign, sign! The inside of the elevator was just as sleek at the rest of the building with tastefully recessed lighting and a glowing touch pad with the floor numbers showing beneath a pers-com reader. Alex swiped his wrist over the reader which caused almost all of the floor numbers but the highest three to instantly brighten and allowing him to select what floor he wished to go to. With authorization handled, Alex selected the twentieth floor and the elevator doors slid smoothly closed before the car started rising through the shaft. ¡°The paperwork should only take about a half hour and I know President Willcot wants to meet you himself before we see you settled into the apartment building. As far as I know, you will be the first person to be moving into there so you will have the pick of the place.¡± Alex smiled at me as the elevator continued on its way up, the indicator above the doors flashing as each floor was passed by. ¡°You mean I am going to be meeting the president of the company today? Shit¡­ I should have worn a suit if I knew all of this was going on today. Thanks for springing this all on me when I am in casual clothes you prick.¡± I laughed softly, not really putting any venom into the words which Alex would pick up on that I was joking with him. ¡°Please¡­ I am just glad you managed to get a shave and haircut before this all happened or I would have to call you a hobo for the entire day and never let you live it down. Carl might not have let you into the building the way you looked this morning!¡± He laughed at me and I joined him easily as the car finally dinged that we arrived on the designated floor. The silver metal slid aside to reveal an open area with a receptionist sitting behind a desk. The woman sitting there rose to her feet as Alex stepped onto the floor and she smiled warmly at him. She was a bit older, maybe forty-five or so and had a motherly look about her. ¡°Mr. Chapman, hello. What can we do for you today?¡± ¡°Good afternoon Dorris. I need an empty conference room please and send word up to President Willcot that I have brought Dale Sullivan in and we are going through the paperwork in whatever room you have ready for me.¡± The matronly woman smiled again and nodded before motioning down one of the side halls. ¡°Sounds good sir. We were informed this morning that this might happen, so we had conference room four readied for your use. All the papers were sent up in advance and are stacked neatly in triplicate for you to go over. Go ahead and head over whenever you wish and I will get the word on its way to Mr. Willcot that you are ready for him at his convenience.¡± ¡°Perfect, thank you Dorris. As efficient as always!¡± He grinned and winked at the woman before clapping me on the shoulder. ¡°Shall we Dale? Sooner we get this done, the sooner I can get back to the mountain of work I have left to do for the day.¡± Alex started walking down the hall with me following behind him. Several doors lined each side of the hallway, each numbered and titled with a little plaque to the side of the door for easy and quick reference. As I looked around I noticed even here cameras were spread about to capture all angles of travel with what looked like zero blind spots. ¡°Damn, are there cameras in the bathrooms too?¡± I spoke quietly, more to myself than to actually bring the topic up, but Alex heard me anyway and laughed as he opened the door marked conference room four and lead me in. ¡°Just ignore them Dale. DT is a bit on the paranoid side and likes to keep track of any and all people wandering the halls. So long as you aren¡¯t doing anything wrong the cameras are just a decoration.¡± The inside of the room was spacious and dominated by a large oval table surrounded by chairs. From the ceiling hung a small AR projector that looked to be able to display multiple screens before each seat for a presentation. The soft color of the walls went well with the muted sunlight streaming in from the wall of windows on the far side of the room bright enough to almost not even need the continuation of the recessed lighting in the ceiling. ¡°Yeah, you say ignore them, but are these things going to be all over the apartment complex too? I can understand security and paranoia¡­ But damn Alex, there has to be a limit somewhere!¡± I walked around to the seat with three neat stacks of paper set before it and pulled the chair back to sit down. Alex settled into the chair next to mine and shook his head softly. ¡°No, there are a few cameras in the common areas, stairwells, elevators, entrances and the roof. Not that many, but enough to make sure the company feels that they have a good eye on their employees without invading the privacy of individual residences.¡± He shrugged softly and laughed. ¡°Besides, if you think that is bad, you should see the spyware they have on my pers-com to make sure I am not divulging anything confidential to the wrong people. Once again it comes down to they pay damn good and if I don¡¯t do anything wrong the security is redundant.¡± I shook my head again in wonder at how he can be so matter of fact about all of it. He had a point though, the money made the invasion of privacy well worth it and so long as I obeyed their terms nothing bad would come out of it. ¡°I will have to live with it I guess¡­ Doesn¡¯t mean I won¡¯t bitch and moan about it all though. Now what all do I have to sign to get this rodeo going?¡± There actually turned out to be quite a lot of paperwork, and all of it in triplicate! Talk about paranoid, but at least I was able to keep a copy of my own to go over as often as I needed or give to my lawyer for that fact. After he too signed a NDA of course¡­ Yes it was a stipulation on page one of the contract that any outside attorney also had to sign a basic NDA for the information. As I mentioned a few times now, paranoid. After twenty minutes of reading, re-reading, and talking over the various bits and pieces of the contract, I finally got down to the longer process of signing every individual clause by hand. I never had to sign something by hand since I was in grade school! All in all, there were thirty-two places on each copy to sign and the process was making my wrist hurt when you figured in that each signature had to be done three times. A little over halfway through the signing we were stopped as the door opened to allow in a tall thin man of older years with salt and pepper hair and thing wire framed glasses. He was dressed impeccably in an expensive suit and shiny black shoes that screamed money as well with their obvious name brand design. Outside of the door I saw a pair of huge men in black suits with conspicuous bulges under their left arms who had to be private bodyguards for the man who was obviously President Willcot. Alex stood up and extended a hand to the older man and started speaking quickly, but not making that big of a deal about such an important man in his presence. ¡°Ah, Mr. Willcot, good afternoon! Please have a seat if you have time and meet Dale Sullivan.¡± Willcot shook Alex¡¯s hand with a chuckle and indeed took a seat across from us before holding his hand out to myself next. ¡°Yes, the infamous Dale Sullivan. Welcome to Dumadine Technology! We are glad that you came aboard for this venture, as Alex here never stopped talking up your skills as a gamer from back in the day. I swear, how he goes on you were a god in the games.¡± I laughed as I shook the company president¡¯s hand and shot a look over at Alex before replying. ¡°Well, not to be a braggart or anything, but I was pretty high up on the global rankings for several years when I was invested in playing those games. It actually paid my way through college with all the add sponsors and tournament prizes.¡± ¡°By all means, with a history like that, brag away!¡± Willcot laughed heartily and I found myself almost instantly liking this man. He didn¡¯t hold back on his thoughts and his tone of voice was so upbeat and energetic despite his old age that I wanted to make sure he kept that happiness. It probably worked on more than just a simple employee like myself though, so I shouldn¡¯t read too much into that kind of act. Alex spoke up again before I could say anymore and maybe make a fool of myself. ¡°Yes, Dale here is a bit on the shy side when it came to his fame six years ago when he stepped down from the gaming world. We will crack him out of that when he gets situated here I hope, or at least set it up so that his gaming skills can do all the bragging for him!¡± ¡°Eh, what can I say¡­¡± I broke in, ¡°I was only concerned about making sure my bills were paid back then and not about finding a fortune in the industry. E-sports were getting huge back then and the area was still fairly new and not well established so I didn¡¯t want to toss all of my cookies in that pot at the time. Now though, it is a rife field of treasure and cash galore!¡± I grinned at the president and motioned to all of the paperwork before me. ¡°So now that I am signing my soul away here, what more can you tell me while I have you here? I figure you are the man at the top so you can answer my questions without going through hoops.¡±The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. I heard a coughing sputter and looked over to see Alex¡¯s eyes nearly bulging out of his head at my disrespectful address of the president of the company. Willcot on the other hand let out another burst of laughter and spoke up before Alex got anything intelligible out. ¡°Dale, I like you. Not afraid to cut to the heart of the matter where it concerns you! Don¡¯t do anything to get rid of that son, it is actually impressive to be that way to most men in my position.¡± He turned to Alex and shook a finger at him. ¡°Not you mind you! No getting a cheating shortcut by taking Dale¡¯s lead here.¡± Willcot grinned as he looked back at me and leaned back in his chair with his hands folded neatly on the table top. ¡°Now, as for your questions¡­ Well I can tell you easily that the technology we are going to be having you use is quite expensive and sensitive and will require you to have a full body scan to input all of your data into your own machine. Once synched up to your body nobody else will be able to use the machine unless it is reset and reconfigured again. While I can see this being a problem in the future, it isn¡¯t as important of one as you might think as we are working on a few different ways to get around that. ¡°Another thing you need to know is that we are expecting a healthy competition inside of the game between yourself and the none other endorsed players that will be living in the same building as you, but if we hear of any incidents between players in the real world we will be cracking down hard on that.¡± His face took on the stern look of a father looking at a misbehaving child as his eyes seemed to shoot daggers at me. ¡°I know that some of the people who will be involved here are old acquaintances of yours, so just make sure to keep the disagreements to in game please.¡± I shrugged and nodded my head, knowing that Willcot had a point on the arguments that were bound to happen with active players going at each other¡¯s throat living next to each other in real life. ¡°Honestly, knowing who is going to be here involved with that, you shouldn¡¯t have much of a problem. I can¡¯t speak for all of the players, but Kayla and Archie will have zero trouble keeping things in and out of the game separate. We have butted heads countless times in the past within a game and usually met up for dinner afterwards in the real world when we could.¡± I laughed softly and poked Alex in the side. ¡°He was part of that too mind you, but at the professional level in gaming there is a bit of comradery involved since the circle is so small.¡± Alex gave a nod to Willcot at that and added in his own thoughts on the matter. ¡°I have mentioned that before, sir. It is why I thought we should bring in groups of known pro level players to do this project. There will be little spats here and there in real life, but the bulk of it will be dust under the rug once the players have been logged out and work their frustrations out in the gym.¡± My head nodded vigorously at that and I chimed in again. ¡°Oh yes, the gym was a good call actually. Especially if it has a few rows of heavy bags and a sparring ring with full padding available. Nothing like hitting something for twenty minutes to vent your anger and then a hot shower to wash it all away. After that I can look even my worst in game enemy in the eye and smile with a ¡®good game¡¯ attitude.¡± I looked at Willcot and smirked. ¡°So long as you got all adult players that is. I have seen a ton of teenagers go on a butt-hurt rampage when they lost to the point of even smashing their VR rig against a wall. Not a pretty sight, let me tell you. The president nodded his head at my words and smiled at Alex. ¡°Good call on bringing this one in.¡± He turned back to me and went on. ¡°I am glad you are here Dale. If all of the rest of these gamers are as level headed as you seem to be I think this will all go wonderfully! Alex has vouched for you above all others, even if he is a bit biased, and I would like to receive reports from you every few days on the situation in the apartments if you don¡¯t mind. We can work out the extra in your bonuses for these reports, so you don¡¯t feel like I am taking advantage of you here.¡± ¡°Woah, wait¡­ Does that mean more paperwork here? I swear my hand is going to fall off if you keep piling more of this stuff on me!¡± It came out without any thought, and I almost thought I may have blown Willcot¡¯s opinion of me with that outburst. I let out a relieved breath when the old man began laughing heartily again. ¡°No, Dale. No more paperwork once you finish up everything here. Ha! Your younger generation have it easy with these pers-coms. When I was a young man your age, we didn¡¯t have an option to just press our thumbs down and be done with it.¡± He tilted his head some and leaned in almost conspiratorially. ¡°Not that I mind the easy way we have now mind you.¡± He straightened in his chair before pushing it back and standing. ¡°But anyway, I will handle the bonuses you receive personally if it will make you feel better and if you have any complaints about anything feel free to get a hold of me directly or bring it up at one of our meetings. I have gone over a lot of your past record and I have to say I am quite impressed with all of your achievements to date.¡± He pulled a thick business card out of his front jacket pocket and set it on the table in front of me. ¡°There is a direct line to my secretary on there, so if anything comes up please give me a call.¡± I was actually kind of shocked that this man was giving me such a privilege as I picked up the card and looked it over quickly. Thick stock of a white color with etched in black letters consisting of the company name as well as a single number beneath the name ¡®Henry Willcot¡¯. I stood up and tucked the card into my pocket so I didn¡¯t lose it and extended my hand out to Willcot again. ¡°Thank you, sir. I will keep that in mind and don¡¯t see any problems with keeping you up to date whenever I am free of the game. I imagine it will be taking up a lot of my time though, and until I am in game and have things running I am not sure what kind of schedule I will have to be keeping at the moment.¡± I frowned slightly, not wanting to put this important man out. ¡°I don¡¯t mean to be rude or anything, but if I am going to be playing this at full time pro level I can¡¯t just randomly log out to make it to a meeting without it having a negative impact on my game play.¡± Willcot actually seemed pleased at this statement, despite my apprehensions and grinned at me to show perfect white teeth as he shook my hand. ¡°Never be sorry for putting in dedication to your job Dale. That kind of attitude is well worth small inconveniences on my part, and any boss who says otherwise will never make it in the big leagues. We will work it out though, fear not.¡± He flicked his wrist up and looked at an AR screen above his pers-com with a sigh. ¡°As it stands though, I need to head out and get to another meeting. Pleasure to meet you Dale, and Alex, we if you can make it to a dinner meeting at six-thirty I would appreciate it.¡± ¡°Not a problem, sir. I will be there, just have Trish send me the details please and I will clear my schedule.¡± Alex also shook Willcot¡¯s hand and the older gentleman swept out of the conference room with a wave, the body guards taking up positions around him as he walked away. Once he had left, Alex turned back to me and we both sat down once again. ¡°Now then, let¡¯s get this finished so we can set you up in one of the apartments. My day just got busier so no more breaks!¡± ¡°Hmmm¡­ Maybe the first note of business with Mr. Willcot will be to bring up the slave driving tendencies of a certain individual?¡± I grinned at Alex as I picked up my pen once again and got back to the business of signing forms for the next fifteen minutes. Finally done with the mess of paperwork, I put the cap back on the pen and slipped it into my pocket with a devilish smile. Alex raised a brow at me and chuckled. ¡°Wait, are you seriously stealing a pen? There is a camera over in the corner you know¡­¡± ¡°Oh, they can take it out of my first paycheck if they are that uptight about it¡­ Besides, this pen and I have some unfinished business when I get the time to deal with it. I can¡¯t destroy the contract itself, that would be dumb, so the pen will feel the brunt of my displeasure. Damn thing will rue the day it was manufactured!¡± Alex sighed and got up from the table, gathering two of the copies of the contract and shuffling them into a neat stack. ¡°You know, you were just saying that we didn¡¯t want juvenile people in on this testing, and here you go acting like a damn kid.¡± ¡°Hey! Let me have my little victories where I can with this bull shit.¡± I stood up as well and collected my copy before pushing the chair back in and looking around once more. ¡°Right then, so how about we work on getting me to my new pad? I kinda want to relax for a bit after running around all morning, and not having to work the rest of today sounds divine right now!¡± I paused and frowned. ¡°Wait, I still need to get all my shit from Janet¡¯s place¡­ My VR rig is there as well as a bunch more of my stuff.¡± I got an evil smile on my face as an idea came to me. ¡°Any way I can borrow a couple guys from security to escort me? Would love to see the look on that bitch¡¯s face when I bring goons to use as intimidation against whatever douche bag she is shacking up with now.¡± ¡°Eh, that seems kind of petty, Dale. I mean now that you are an employee I can have Carl get two guys to go with you, but to use them for that seems a little, I don¡¯t know, childish?¡± Well, maybe Alex had a point there, but damned if I cared about that at the moment. In all reality, I really just wanted to use them to keep her cowed and away from me when I collected the rest of my things and left her in the dust. ¡°Maybe¡­ Either way, I would still prefer to have them even if it is just to use as movers.¡± I chuckled as we made our way out of the room and back down the hall towards the reception desk and the elevator. Alex called the car to our floor before stepping up to Dorris at her desk and setting the double stack of contracts down there. ¡°Dorris, please make sure these get to legal before they close up for the day?¡± ¡°Not a problem Mr. Chapman. I will have one of the assistants run them over in a few minutes so it is done and out of the way. I take it room four is open again?¡± She pulled up her pers-com and flicked through a few AR screens to summon someone to run the errand quickly. ¡°Yeah, we are all done with it and it is still in good order, no need to send in a cleaning staff.¡± Dorris nodded at Alex¡¯s words and waved to both of us as the elevator doors opened up with a chime for us to enter in. The ride down to ground floor was a quick and quiet affair as I went over everything that had happened so far today. It was only a little before four in the afternoon and I was already set up with a new chapter of my life. Interesting how things can turn around so quickly without much effort put into it to make it all happen on my end. As soon as we stepped out from the elevator, Carl and his buddies were standing at the security checkpoint chatting quietly before they noticed us walking towards them. Once they saw us, all of them stood up and nodded politely to us as Alex took the lead to speak with Carl. ¡°Before we leave here Carl, please update Dale¡¯s pers-com with security clearance level three as well as sub set level D if you would. Everything is all set upstairs and he is now a permanent employee of Dumadine.¡± ¡°Sure thing Mr. Chapman, and welcome to DT Mr. Sullivan.¡± The burly man picked up the bin with my things in it and pulled my pers-com out to set on top of a plate connected to a computer behind their desk. A soft hum filled the room and several AR screens popped up over my device as it registered the new programs quickly. ¡°Here you are Mr. Sullivan, you are all set to go.¡± ¡°Thanks Carl, I appreciate it.¡± I slipped my pers-com back onto my wrist and looked over to Alex again as I swiped my wrist over the quick pass podium to skip the checkpoint. Thankfully it seemed the programs took to the band easily as I didn¡¯t set off any alarms on my way out the door. The sun was starting to sink towards the western horizon when we stepped out into open air once again, and I took a deep breath of the clean air. Sounds of the city were a distant noise while standing here in the center of this closed off area, and it was a nice thought that I wouldn¡¯t have to deal with those sounds anymore unless I wanted to. Turning to Alex as he joined me outside, I smiled and started down the steps. ¡°Now then, let¡¯s head over to where I am going to be staying for the duration of my employment here! I want to get settled in for now!¡± 4) Settling in It turned out that the trip to my new apartment was only a few hundred yards away from the huge building of DT¡¯s headquarters. Like most of the buildings I had seen so far on the grounds, this one was made of dark metal and tinted windows, but in a more basic style when compared to the thirty story tower. Not to say that it was lacking in architectural design, but mostly such things are beyond me anyway and it would have to be an odd design for me to take extra notice of such things. ¡°Here is the apartment building. Your pers-com will allow you access at the front door and when you select your residence you can key the lock to only respond to your device and those you wish to allow access to.¡± Alex walked up to the main door and swiped his wrist over a small grey square to the right of the door. A little light flashed green once, then held steadily lit until he pulled the door open. Before we went inside, my friend let the door close once more and the green light went out. ¡°Go ahead and use your pers-com to open it up and make sure the software took.¡± ¡°Yeah, probably a good idea. Would hate to have you let me in and get myself all set up only to find myself unable to access anything once you are gone.¡± I chuckled and moved over to the security lock and waved my wrist over the pad, pleased to find the light flash and hold again as it accepted my credentials. ¡°So far, so good!¡± I pulled the door open and stepped inside with Alex following behind me. Immediately inside the main door was a small room with a row of small cubby holes along the left wall. Ten columns of five rows, each column with a number at the top, appeared to be a nice option to put umbrellas and spare shoes among other unimportant things that I wouldn¡¯t want to be dragging into the main building itself. Above each number was another gray pad similar to the one outside the front door which I would assume let the room owner lock the storage somehow. I didn¡¯t try to do anything there, as I hadn¡¯t picked a room for myself yet and assumed nothing good would happen if I tried to access them just yet. Along the right wall sat a long bench with large potted plants at either end, giving the clean white room a pleasant splash of color. Directly across from the front doors was another door, but this one didn¡¯t seem to have a lock and when I moved over to pull on the handle, it came open without any troubles. ¡°This place was finished not that long ago, but everything should be up to standards and perfectly livable. A few janitorial staff have access to the main portion of the building as well for cleaning the main areas, but they won¡¯t be able to get into any of the rooms once they are claimed.¡± Alex walked around me into the hallway that extended farther into the ground floor of the complex. There was a door on either side of the hall, and he motioned to the left one first. ¡°Through here is the gym, which everyone can access, and on the other side is the laundry room with a few sets of washers and dryers. You guys will have to arrange a schedule for doing the laundry on your own, but it shouldn¡¯t be that big of a deal for you all.¡± I shrugged, taking a peek into the gym while I spoke. ¡°I am sure it won¡¯t be an issue, especially if there are more than one of each.¡± The inside of the gym was actually quite spacious. Along the right wall sat a row of treadmills and bikes that all looked to be brand new models and never used. The center of the gym was dominated by a wide array of weight machines with free weights, dumbbells and kettlebells along the far wall. What really drew my attention though was the pair of heavy bags spaced out in the back left corner and the sparring mat in the front left corner. Shelves of padding and gear were available for use as well and the whole set up looked quite pleasing to me. Curious about the rest of the building, I pulled my head out of the gym and let the door close behind me as Alex walked on down the hall. I followed behind him, taking note of that the gym seemed to take up a good portion of that side of the ground floor. The hallway opened up about thirty feet ahead with the right wall breaking away to a large common room area with couches and single seats in a U shape with a large AR projector centered between them all at one wall and a low table in the middle of the floor. It all seemed comfortable enough, though I doubted that we would be using this area much when it came time for the game to launch. ¡°This room is mainly going to be used for meetings and such when they come up. We have some plans on gathering you all up once in a while in order to go over things as this project progresses, but nothing set in stone as of yet.¡± Alex pointed off to an open doorway along the far wall. ¡°Through there is the kitchen and dining room. It will be kept pretty well stocked, but you are all responsible for your own meals and such. Each apartment has a mini fridge for snacks and drinks, but we figured some human interaction would be good so we kept it as a communal area for the bulk of meals.¡± A sharp ping seemed loud in the mostly empty room as a message came in over Alex¡¯s pers-com. Holding up his wrist, I watched as my friend flicked through a few screens of messages with a severe frown forming on his face. ¡°Son of a bitch¡­ Sorry Dale, I am going to have to leave you here to finish the tour on your own, something has come up and I need to take care of it.¡± ¡°No problem Alex.¡± I shrugged as I glanced around the common area again before looking down where the hall continued on straight across from where it opened into the room. ¡°I am pretty sure I am going to be just as busy as yourself in another week, so just remember that when I blow you off on the next lunch meeting after the game launches.¡± I smirked at Alex, letting him see the teasing expression as he lowered his arm once more. Alex grinned back at me and barked a quick laugh. ¡°Ha! Well I suppose I will just have to force you to get some fresh air once in a while and tag along to those meetings with President Willcot.¡± He lifted his arm and motioned toward the continuing hall. ¡°Anyway, down there is the elevator going up to the next two floors where the rooms are. The second and third level each have five rooms of mostly the same design, so it isn¡¯t that big of a deal which one you pick. I would suggest either room three or eight however¡­ They are set up slightly different than the rest and I must say, eight in particular has a really great view!¡± As he finished speaking, Alex waved at me and quickly made his way back to the entrance to go off wherever he was needed. I returned the gesture, letting my ears take in the heavy silence after he had left and enjoying the sensation as I hadn¡¯t had total quiet in a very long time. When a sharp yawn overcame me, I realized that I was actually feeling quite tired now. With the crappy sleep I had gotten over the last couple days combined with the excitement of running around today, I felt like I could sleep for a solid day once I picked my room. I could always go back to Janet¡¯s and get my stuff tomorrow or the day after, so I wasn¡¯t too concerned about that part just yet. She may have been a cheating bitch, but I doubted she would do anything to my belongings. Plans for the next day set in my own head, I turned and walked down the hall towards the elevator. I should probably take Alex up on his advice and grab myself room eight before anything else. Worst case scenario I get stuck in a room only slightly different than any of the others, and that hardly seemed like a tough situation when I would be spending most of my time playing a game anyway. The elevator doors looked normal enough as I approached and pressed the call button for the car. The smooth steel doors slid open right away to my request, the car already at this floor and awaiting passengers, and I stepped inside. Quite roomy for an elevator, the car had what I was coming to realize was normal for a DT set up with a gray pad above the touchscreen floor selections where I had to swipe my wrist to light up the floors I could access. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. There was something odd though that Alex didn¡¯t mention¡­ In addition to the ground, second and third floors were two more selections. B1 and B2 were also displayed, although only the first basement level lit up to my pers-com which had me quite curious. I would have to ask Alex about that when I saw him again, or maybe I could ask Mr. Willcot if I saw him first. Selecting to go up to the third floor, I noticed yet another camera in the top corner above the doors of the car and chuckled. Getting a strange impulse about the surveillance, I looked right into the camera and waved a hand, speaking out in case they had audio too. ¡°Tell Carl I said ¡®hi¡¯ if anybody is watching!¡± I chuckled and leaned back against the wall as the car started moving up into the building, then nearly jumped out of my own skin as a crisp flat voice emitted from a hidden speaker. ¡°There is nobody currently watching this feed, Dale Sullivan, although I can pass on your message to Carl Striggan easily enough if you wish.¡± The male voice sounded older, and more than a little odd without any inflections to his words. ¡°What the actual fuck?¡± I was a bit creeped out, if I was being honest, and slid over to a corner opposite the camera with my eyes locked on the device. ¡°Wait, you are watching me right now¡­ How can you say nobody is watching this feed then?¡± It may have been petty of me to call him out on such a detail, but I was still trying to recover from my shock at actually getting a response to my solitude inflicted temporary insanity of talking to a camera. ¡°Forgive me, Dale Sullivan, on my use of terms. I say ¡®nobody¡¯ because that implies an actual living person to be involved in the act, and I do not fall under such a category. The correct term here would be, ¡®something¡¯ is watching however.¡± I looked all around the elevator quickly, trying to find the voice, or at least the speaker emitting said voice, but to no avail. ¡°So, if you are a ¡®something¡¯ instead of a ¡®somebody¡¯, what exactly are you? And how do you know my name already and what is yours?¡± I had an idea of what was going on now, and was slowly starting to relax as the elevator chimed to signal I had passed the second floor and the third was approaching. ¡°The answer to your question is easy enough to give. I am the fifth generation AI in charge of this building¡¯s operations and the processing of the occupants¡¯ immersion devices. My actual name is quite long and hard to remember, but my creators have given me the nickname Jensen to be used for most interactions. As to how I know your name, Dale Sullivan, I have been given a full accounting of your file and those of the other residents as they agree to join and sign the documents involved.¡± That sounded plausible enough, and the monotonous voice speaking to me certainly didn¡¯t sound human in the least made the story even more believable. It wasn¡¯t quite a mechanical tone, but without any inflections to the words it really didn¡¯t seem like I was talking with a person. ¡°I see¡­ Well Jensen, please just call me Dale if you would. Using both first and last names is kind of annoying.¡± ¡°Very well Dale. I shall endeavor to do as you have requested and processing your motives, I believe I will be doing so with the other residents when they arrive as well to try and remove any negative feelings towards me in the future. Thank you for the assistance in my relations programming.¡± Yeah, that wasn¡¯t strange or anything¡­ The elevator dinged again, the door sliding open to reveal a hallway with two sets of doors on either side and one more door set directly across from the elevator doors at the end of the hall. ¡°Well Jensen, nice to meet you but I am going to go and settle into my room.¡± I had another strange thought and spoke up while still half in the elevator. ¡°Uhmm¡­ You can¡¯t hear or see into the rooms, can you?¡± ¡°I cannot access anything inside of the private dwellings without being invited to do so by the room owner, Dale. On your pers-com is an application that will allow you to contact me that will enable both a video and audio feed to me with audio recording only during the exchange. Outside of that circumstance however, there is no way for me to see or hear anything within your room except for the immersion device room. Due to the nature of the device, I will have unfettered access to that area and anything that happens in that room is under strict legal doctrines to be recorded for the sake of technical and legal review at any time.¡± That seemed fair enough, really. I was getting a damn good paycheck from this on top of free room and board for the duration of the endorsement so I couldn¡¯t truly complain over a small invasion of privacy when it came to the actual game. It was quite a relief that the rest of my room was safe from prying eyes though. ¡°Alright, thank you Jensen. I will have a lot of questions for you soon enough if you are able to speak about the game itself at all.¡± I stepped fully into the hall, letting the elevator door close and looked at the room numbers. Starting at the first door on my left and proceeding in clockwise order, the rooms were numbered starting at six. Jensen¡¯s artificial voice followed me into the hall as he spoke up again. ¡°I would be happy to assist you in any way I can, Dale. In whatever room you select will be an AR computer with all the information you could ask for already loaded onto it. I would suggest you start there and read up on the game before bringing many questions on the matter to me though.¡± ¡°Fair enough Jensen, thank you.¡± I found that I quite liked this AI. He was friendly enough and seemed like a decent program once I got past the dull voice. I would have to ask someone to alter his coding to have a more realistic voice though or it might start to get annoying. Shrugging off the thoughts for now I headed down the hallway to the door marked eight and swiped my wrist over the security pad to the right of the doorframe. An AR screen popped up over my pers-com and I pulled my arm up to see the message it revealed. You have selected apartment room eight as your personal residence within the grounds of Dumadine Technology. If this is indeed your choice, please confirm your selection and add in a secondary number code to be used for entry in case of missing pers-com device. What the hell, why not just go with it. I confirmed my choice and plugged in a seven digit number combination on the AR screen to complete the process before a beep of confirmation told me the changes were accepted and saved to the room itself. I tried the door and found it was still locked, so I swiped my wrist over the pad once more and a green light flashed once then held just like it did at the main entrance of the building. Opening the door and stepping inside, I stopped to look around as the soft click of the shutting door sounded behind me. I entered the room from the front left side, which opened up ahead and to my right, taking up quite a large space. More dorm room style than apartment, the room had a large bed in the far right corner beneath a stretch of windows that ran along the length of both the back and right walls. Through the tinted windows I was able to catch a very nice view of the park areas as well as being able to see over the wall surrounding the compound and getting a good view of the rest of the city within sight. At the foot of the bed sat a comfortable looking couch facing the wall that connected to the front door I had come in from. The section of the wall that the couch faced had an AR projector over it which would be used as a television if I wanted to. To the left of the bed ran a long and low dresser, left of that sat a mini fridge. The left wall had two doors which lead into other sections of my apartment, but between them sat a desk with the AR computer sitting atop of it. Brand new and top of the line just like everything else in this building, the device had an AR projector that could be taken away to anywhere I wanted and used wifi to stay connected to the actual console itself. Pretty neat technology there and I had been planning on eventually buying one for myself anyway. I tried to open the door closest to the main entry to the room but found it locked. I didn¡¯t see any security pad to get entry here, and then remembered one of the clauses in the contract I signed stated that I wouldn¡¯t be able to access the immersion device until I had my body scan to get synched with it. That must have been in that room and Jensen was making sure I didn¡¯t break anything before I could even start. Smart AI¡­ I probably wouldn¡¯t be able to resist checking out this new technology extensively even if I wasn¡¯t able to use it quite yet. There was only one other door in my room that I wanted to check out, so I walked around the desk with my AR computer and opened the door closer to the back wall. That doorway lead into a spacious bathroom with a huge walk in shower that looked to be better than any I have used before. Several sprayer heads were arranged along the top rim and the thing was easily large enough to fit two or three people inside of it comfortably. A frosted glass sliding door beyond the shower itself showed part of a large soaking tub that I would probably never use, but was a nice touch in case I ever had any sore muscles from working out in the gym. The option was never frowned upon even if I only ever used it once or twice a year. The rest of the bathroom was pretty standard with a toilet, sink, medicine cabinet and a tall cabinet to the left of the sink that was stocked full of towels and robes. All in all the apartment reminded more of a cross between hotel room and dorm room from college. Large enough to suit all of my needs, but not quite the scale of what I was used to when referring to an apartment. If I added in all the rest of the amenities though, it fit the picture well enough that I wasn¡¯t going to complain about free housing in the least. It all came back to the point that I was going to be spending an extremely large amount of time locked up in that one room I didn¡¯t have access to just yet anyway. The rest of this apartment was just there to make sure I was comfortable when not in the game world itself, and to that degree I was more than happy with the accommodations. Looking around the main room once again, I thought about diving into the AR computer and start researching the game right away. Another yawn from my exhausted body said that would probably be a bad idea though, so I decided to take a nap and see where things stood once I woke up from that. Once I started reading about the game I knew I would probably be up all night, so it came down to priorities, and rest won out over curiosity for the time being. 5) Explanation of the Realm My ¡®nap¡¯ ended up consisting of twelve solid hours of sleep which left me waking up at five AM Tuesday morning feeling refreshed and not quite as sore as I had been since the accident. Maybe it was the comfortable bed or the simple peace of mind that I was no longer just drifting after the events of last week, but I felt better than I had in some time as I rose to my feet and stretched. The first thing on my agenda was freshening up in the bathroom as much as I was capable. I didn¡¯t get a shower, as I had no other clothes with me to change into, but that would come later after I got the rest of my things both from the hotel and Janet¡¯s apartment. I refused to call that place our apartment anymore after what she did, and honestly most of the stuff left there could burn for all I cared with the exception of a few things. Once finished in the bathroom, I grabbed up the AR display that wirelessly connected to the computer and decided to head downstairs to the kitchen for some food. The AR display was a simple pyramidal shape that weighed about ten pounds and was roughly ten inches a side at the base of the device with a flat bottom to rest on a desk or table. As soon as I exited from my room and closed the door behind me, the flat voice of Jensen greeted me from the hidden speakers set in the hallway. ¡°Good morning Dale. Today¡¯s weather is clear with a high temperature of seventy-one degrees. Sunrise will be in eleven minutes with sunset at eight forty-one PM. Is there anything I can help you with this morning?¡± I chuckled at the AI and shook my head. In the three years I had spent with Janet, even she had never greeted me so warmly in the morning and thinking back on the time we spent together made me realize just what a toxic person she truly was. Or maybe that was just my bitterness peeking out¡­ ¡°Good morning Jensen, thank you for the report. As of right now, I think I am alright.¡± I paused my speech as I got to the elevator and a thought hit me. ¡°Actually, wait. Maybe there is something¡­ You said you can pass a message on to Carl, the head of security, right?¡± I hit the elevator call button and the door slid open right away for me to step inside and select the first floor. ¡°That is correct Dale. I can relay a message to just about anyone in the Dumadine Technology ladder, with the exception of President Willcot himself and a few select others. Should I compose a message to Carl Striggan for you?¡± ¡°I would appreciate that Jensen, thank you. Please ask him if he would be able to arrange for a person or two to accompany me to collect my belongings from the hotel I was staying at as well as my ex¡¯s apartment. I have no timeframe in mind and can go at his convenience.¡± The car slowed to a stop and the door slid open to allow me to head into the kitchen to make myself some breakfast while I talked with Jensen. ¡°Also, please add in the link to my pers-com if you would. That way Carl can get a hold of me easily. I don¡¯t want to impose and keep using you as a middle man, as it were.¡± I chuckled as I opened one door of a huge stainless steel industrial refrigerator to examine the contents. ¡°Of course, Dale. Though I would like to point out that I have no objections to being used in such a way. My processing power is well above and beyond what is needed when all ten immersion units are running full power, and at the moment with nothing happening I must admit I am quite bored.¡± I paused in the process of pulling a carton of eggs out of the fridge in thought. An AI that got bored? Then again, I supposed it was a possibility seeing as they were programmed with a basic sense of emotion for at least an understanding basis. ¡°Well, don¡¯t feel too bad about it Jensen. I am sure I will have lots of questions for you as I am studying up here this morning.¡± I went back to fixing myself some breakfast as I spoke. ¡°Also, any idea of when the rest of the players are going to be showing up here?¡± ¡°As of this moment, there are five others who have signed on, three of which will be moving in within the next couple days with the other two holding off until the day before launch. The remaining four candidates are scheduled for approach later this morning with word of their decisions coming in as soon as they are available. If your room isn¡¯t up to your satisfaction, I would suggest changing the assignment as soon as possible or the rest of the team will be taking up residence shortly.¡± The large stove top flared to life as I turned a burner on to cook my eggs, scrambled, and tossed in a few strips of bacon for good measure. ¡°Nah, I am good with the room I am in Jensen. Thanks. While I am cooking and eating, how about you tell me some things. Starting with the immersion device itself, preferably. How does it work roughly?¡± ¡°I would first like to remind you that the details of the immersion device are highly confidential under the terms of your NDA and contract to Dumadine Technology. That aside, the device closely resembles an MRI machine in all appearances. The player wears a cap with diodes and sensors then lays on a sliding table that will retract into the immersion device where the combination of cap and machine coordinate to intercept and translate the player¡¯s brainwaves into digital signals to be used in the game. At the same time the machine will also translate game features back into the player body to a degree which is what allows the person to feel like they are actually experiencing what happens.¡± I had finished cooking while Jensen explained and sat down at a cafeteria style table to eat by the time he finished. ¡°Jensen, that sounds remarkably dangerous¡­ How much testing have they done on these machines?¡± Truly, the device sounded like it would actually effect his real body depending on what happened in the game itself, and that seemed a bit on the reckless side. ¡°The device has been fully tested over the course of the last six months and approved by several government agencies on top of that. While it is true that your real body is involved in the process, the percentage of transfer into the body is minimal. After your first couple sessions in the game, a person may experience muscle fatigue from the transfer, but it is only a mild case in all reported events and the occurrences dwindle down the more a person immerses themselves in the device and gets used to the sensations.¡± Well, that made some sense. This was the first unit of its type and I didn¡¯t think they would be able to fully replicate the sensations without having some relation to a physical body on the first incarnation. Well, a little pain never killed me yet and this looked to be well worth the cost. ¡°Alright Jensen, thanks. I think I understand as much as I can about it for the moment until I actually see the device and get hooked up to it.¡± I spent the next ten minutes eating and making small talk with the AI who was my only companion for the time being. After everything was cleaned up and put away, I was distracted by a message on my pers-com. The AR screen popped up and I saw it was Carl, having just clocked in and gotten the message from Jensen. He was looking for the addresses of both my hotel room and apartment and that he was going to send people out to gather my things for me so I didn¡¯t have to be bothered. That was fine by me, as I really didn¡¯t want to run into my ex anyway, and I sent him what he needed as well as a list of essentials from Janet¡¯s place that I really cared about. I informed him that beyond my clothes and that other short list the rest could stay behind. His reply came quickly, and stated that he would have it taken care of before lunch time and to expect a few boxes of things to be delivered to the ground floor of my new apartment building. I quickly thanked him and set about closing the AR screens and moved into the common area to settle onto a couch with my AR display. It was time to get down to business and do some serious research! Moving out into the larger room full of couches, I settled in on one of the larger sofas and placed the AR display on my lap and brought the main screen up in front of me. Several icons greeted my sight including the Realm of Infinity information manual, which I opened up right away to start reading. It looked like a version set up for hard mode players, which suited me fine since that is what I will be playing on anyway. * * * * * Thank you for playing Realm of Infinity! Step into a world full of magic and adventure containing several warring factions, one of which you will be allying yourself with in order to further your progress along with. There are no alignment scores in RoI, so moral actions will not reflect upon your stats in a harsh way. On the other hand, each faction has its own goals and methods with all of your decisions factoring in real time how the game in its entirety will advance, so choose how you play wisely! All players will go through a basic trial at the beginning of the game before being given the option of choosing a faction to join for your adventures. Fear not though, as you can change factions throughout the game depending on your choices in how you handle the relations with each faction. Bonuses to skills and stats are available the higher you climb in faction ranks, so be wary of changing sides too often or such benefits may become beyond you. Stats and skills in RoI are important, but one of the main factors of your power will lie with your Fairy Companions. All players will have access to the same skill set when dealing with weapon skills and abilities, however all magic within the game can only be performed by making a contract with a Fairy Companion. Causal account players will start the game with a common quality Fairy of their choice from the basic elements of Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Infernal or Celestial with a total limit of two Fairy contracts active at any given time. For example, one may have a Fire type Fairy and an Earth type Fairy, but if they wish to attain a Water type Fairy, they would have to choose one of their current Companions to dismiss in order to attain the new one. For those with a hard mode account, you will not have the option of attaining a Fairy Companion at the start of the game. In exchange for forsaking this starting perk however, hard mode player¡¯s contract limit is set to three at any given time. This can allow a player to have many more options to their power sets and skills and can be a large edge when dealing with the trials of RoI in comparison to the casual account. In addition to the aforementioned differences, hard mode accounts will also suffer a much higher penalty to their character upon death. Unlike a casual account, hard mode players will lose all of their non-soulbound equipment and items upon death if not picked up by another player or NPC within one hour of death. Consequentially, you will not respawn for ninety minutes upon death and a four hour debuff is suffered by the character upon respawn and will stack if the player dies again before the debuff expires. While the death debuff can be cleansed away with the proper spell or item, the second penalty to death cannot be negated via spells or items. Upon every death, five percent of the player¡¯s total experience pool is put in ¡®stasis¡¯ and all experience gained thereafter will be applied to that total until such a time as it has been met or exceeded. Until the stasis experience is recovered, a player cannot advance their total experience pool in any way towards their current level via the use of items, completing quests, or killing mobs. While death carries harsh penalties within Realm of Infinity for hard mode players, the difficulty is rewarded by having access to much better quality of rewards from quests as well as being able to receive more unique and ambitious quests from NPC¡¯s of all variety. The game AIs are always generating quests to be given out to players, and no two people will ever experience the same game play, but only those playing in the harder difficulty will be granted access to certain chain quests that will have a much higher chance of affecting the game world to a large degree. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. * * * * * My thoughts on this system were starting to look up! Yeah, it looked like I had a lot of work ahead of me with the lack of magic to start the game, but the more I read up on the benefits of playing the hard mode account the more I was able to live with the down sides. I could see so many ways that even just having one additional Fairy when compared to a normal account can make a huge difference at the higher levels, which from what I gathered there was no level cap in the game and a person could grow indefinitely. Information on the various factions within the game was nearly non-existent, which kind of irritated me. At the same time, it looked like the multiple AI inside of the game would offer me a choice of factions suited to me after doing this starting trial thing. I could understand DT wanting to keep some of this a mystery, but I wanted to know what I was getting into in that department! The sound of people entering the building through the front door of the complex drew me out of my thoughts and I noticed the time in the corner of my AR screen showed ten-thirty already! Three men in Dumadine Technology security uniforms came into the common area and spotted me sprawled out on the couch as I was. Each of them carried a large box in their arms and none of the men looked familiar to me. ¡°Mr. Sullivan, good you are down here already. Mr. Striggan sent us to collect your things for you and I think we got everything you requested.¡± He shifted his load a little before nodding at the elevator. ¡°Would you like us to carry this up to your room?¡± I quickly dismissed the AR screen before me and set the display down on the low table between all of the couches to rise to my feet. ¡°That would be great, thanks! Here, let me get the elevator and hold the door for you guys.¡± After everything was deposited in my room, the security guys left me alone with my clothes and a few other things that I wanted from my ex¡¯s place. I spent a good while putting everything away carefully followed by a nice hot shower now that I had clean clothes to change into when finished. Clean and feeling refreshed after my shower, I decided to make myself something for lunch before diving back into more study. If I had spent that long reading into the game so far, I didn¡¯t know when I was going to come up for air again and wanted to make sure I didn¡¯t starve myself needlessly¡­ I had a feeling there was going to be a lot of that when the game launched and didn¡¯t need an early start on malnutrition. While I was eating, I quickly sent off a message to Carl to thank him again for getting my stuff for me to which he replied that it wasn¡¯t a problem and he was happy to help. I knew it was his job, but I still felt that he went out of his way to make sure I didn¡¯t have to worry about it and I appreciated the gesture. Maybe I could buy him a drink when he was off work to make it up to him as I saw there was a bar attached to the company cafeteria near the headquarters building. Dumadine was a huge company and had roughly six thousand people working on the premises, some of them living on the grounds just like I was now, and almost never leaving the walled compound. With the necessity of food and hygiene out of the way, I once more got comfortable on the couch and brought the AR display back to my lap to read more about the game. Now that I had a good understanding of what the hard mode held for me, I wanted to check out the stat system and see where that went. * * * * * Stats within Realm of Infinity play an important part of a character¡¯s development. All characters start the game with ten points in each stat (twenty points in each stat for hard mode accounts) and gain five additional points to place wherever the player wishes upon every level up. At level ten, and every ten levels thereafter, players gain an additional five stats to assign for a total of ten points at those benchmarks. Factions can modify a player¡¯s stat gains as well, with each faction offering a different bonus upon level-up. If a player decided to leave a faction and join another, all previous gains will remain as they are and the new faction bonus will apply upon leveling up once more. Obtaining a higher rank within a faction will also confer a higher faction bonus to your level-up boosts as well as some factions even adding to skill levels at the higher ranks within the hierarchy. There are six main stats for character development within the game and are as follows: Strength- (Str): Adds partially towards your physical damage dealt with melee weapons as well as adding to a player¡¯s total carrying capacity. Dexterity- (Dex): A higher Dex stat will allow you more easily hit your targets with both melee and ranged attacks as well as influencing the critical success chance of all physical damage. Agility- (Agi): Increasing this stat will allow a player to have a higher movement speed and dodge rate while also affecting the overall attack speed of melee and ranged weapons. Fortitude- (Fort): Just like it sounds, Fortitude adds to the overall health and energy pools at a set ratio of one Fort equaling ten health and five energy. Certain skills within the game also depend on the Fort stat to determine an addition to armor rating as well. Intelligence- (Int): A staple for anyone wishing to cast spells, Int determines mana pool totals, a ratio of ten mana per one Int, and also increasing the damage done with spells. Some spells within the game have area of effect (AoE) damage, and Int will increase the radius of such spells. Willpower- (Will): Willpower factors into the regen rates of health, mana and energy levels while in combat. Outside of combat players will regenerate all of their pools rather quickly, but to last during extended fights a player will need to invest themselves some into this stat. All stats also have hidden features to them that are not listed in the descriptions and are left up to the players to figure out for themselves as the game progresses. All skills and spells in the game are linked to at least one stat, but some are controlled by more than one and can have varying results based on the ratio of the two or more stats linked to a skill or spell. A new and important feature to this game involves two sets of level systems. The level most other players will be able to see in regards to your character is your experience level. The secondary level is based off of your stat points. Leveling up is not the only way to gain stats in the game, and you will find you can improve your stats through various activities. This can skew how powerful a character truly is and to show the actual applicable level of a character you can see your Stat Level (SL) to the right of your Player Level (PL). With this system in mind, even an apparently low level player could very well be on par with another player many levels higher, and disregarding that knowledge may well have disastrous consequences. Those of true power should realize that it is a balance of PL, SL, and a good mix of skills and spells that will win the day over a purely high level. When it comes to skills within Realm of Infinity, there is a near endless amount available for players to learn or discover. A mere fraction of the in game skill list is able to be taught, and the bulk of them are made to be discovered through actions of trial and error, or maybe even pure luck. Skills are all linked to one or more stats and have no requirements to learn them, but will perform better with the increase of the corresponding stat levels in addition to the level of the skill itself. * * * * * My jaw split wide with a yawn from reading over information for so long, and I noticed that the time had once again gotten away from me with a casual glance at the clock on my AR screen. Sinking myself into all of this studying was really starting to take a toll on my mental state as the floating screens wavered in and out of focus. ¡°Right, that is enough of this for now¡­¡± I closed out the windows and powered down the AR display, setting the device on the low table so I could stand and stretch my stiff body. Really, staying in the same position for most of the day wasn¡¯t the best move on my part. ¡°Jensen, you there?¡± It was a dumb question, honestly, and the AI spoke up almost at once. ¡°Of course, Dale. I am always available for the needs of you or any of the other residents here. What can I help you with, Dale?¡± I swear the AI actually almost sounded excited that I was talking to him now¡­ Or maybe I was just getting too used to the programing and started to personalize him too much. Meh, whatever. Not like I had anyone else to talk to at the moment. ¡°Perfect! I am going to get some gym time in before I make dinner. Mind explaining some more things about the game for me? I am going cross-eyed from reading off of these damn AR screens so much!¡± I was already wearing a pair of loose shorts and tee shirt, so I didn¡¯t need to change into appropriate clothes and headed directly towards the massive gym Dumadine had supplied for our use. ¡°Of course, Dale. Now that you have a good understanding of the basics of the game I am more than willing to fill in any details you are missing from your knowledge. What would you like to know about?¡± Inside the gym room I made my way over to a treadmill. I needed to warm up some and loosen up my muscles before starting anything strenuous, so I started off at a fast walk and would slowly up the speed to a quick jog while speaking with Jensen. ¡°Well, to start how about filling me in on these Fairies that the game mentions?¡± ¡°Very well. From what I saw that you read, you know what purpose Fairies serve in the game, and that you will be starting without any. What you didn¡¯t get to is the fact that the Fairies are ranked just like gear with a quality. Normal, Special, Rare, Epic, Legendary, Divine and Unique. The names are also color coded just like gear too, in the order of: white, green, blue, purple, orange, silver and red.¡± A frown crossed my face as something nagged at me. ¡°Wait. Unique? How does that work? Do they have special abilities or such to make them unique and better than some of the others?¡± There was a small suspicion of mine that I wanted to see if Jensen was able to confirm. ¡°While that is true, it is not the entirety of the whole. Normal through Epic Fairies within the game will mostly be of the basic elements with more branching power as the rarity of the Fairy rises. Starting at the Legendary levels, the Fairies become less standard and have powers over other less common things. ¡°A simple example would be a Normal Fairy of fire being able to grant you a fireball spell. A Special Fairy of the same element would be able to grant the fireball spell as well as a flame pillar that you can drop onto an enemy from above. A Rare Fairy would then be able to do more with fire in addition to the previous spells, such as being able to raise the temperature evenly throughout an entire room or area. An Epic Fairy would then have even more control over the element, to the point that you can start harnessing attacks of that element directed at you and allow you to either negate or redirect the spells of fire sent at you.¡± ¡°I see¡­ So basically, the higher the rarity, the more it can do with the element it is affiliated to? So, what about when they start getting into the Legendary ranks?¡± There could only be so much that they can manipulate if at the Epic level they would already allow a player to negate attacks of that element¡­ ¡°Starting at the Legendary rarity, things start to get interesting. While there are still Legendary and higher Fairies of the six basic elements, only at this rank do they start branching out with different abilities over what that have control of. For instance, you could plausibly find a Legendary Fairy with the power over gravity and attain spells associated with that. This is a rough example, however, as Dumadine Technology has kept the exact specifics of the game under tight lock and key. The basics are accurate to the best of my knowledge though.¡± Oh Damn! Now that is what I am talking about! Most games I have ever played to date only gave players the options of basic elements for magic, and while effective in the short term, the repetition of casting the same spells over and over with everyone you come across knowing the exact same spells got old real fast. Hold up though¡­ That covered Legendary, but what about Divine and Unique? I would assume that they are going in order of power, so I was curious how much more powerful the highest two tiers would be. ¡°Okay, Legendary rarity is where the real technical details will start coming in, but how about the last two?¡± ¡°Divine quality Fairies are just as they sound. They are as close to gods among Fairies as they can be and are incredibly powerful in their control over whatever affinity they have. It would be on par with total control of the element or affinity within their zone of control. To elaborate, let us go with a Divine Air Fairy. Such a companion would be able to grant the player the ability to suck the air right out of an area, and if targeted at another player could potentially cause them to suffocate. While immensely powerful, they are incredibly rare at the same time and I summarize that there are only a few Divine rarity Fairies of each affinity available in the game. ¡°Unique Fairies are a bit outside of the norm. From what I have been able to gather, there are no Unique Fairies of the six basic elements. They also fall completely outside of the normal rarity power level as they are obtained at a weak level, but as they grow in level they can become even more powerful than Divine quality Fairies. In truth, I haven¡¯t been able to gain much information on Unique Fairies and equipment within the game thus far.¡± ¡°No problem, Jensen. Thanks for the info!¡± I turned my attention inward as I thought over what I had learned. It seemed I really had a lot of work ahead of me, and I was eager to get into the game more than ever now! I picked up that Fairies leveled up alongside of the player, without actually impacting the player¡¯s overall experience gain thankfully, and that the higher the level Fairy, the more spells that could grant the holder of the contract. Actually, come to think of it, nothing really talked about those contracts in detail. The developers must want to keep that a mystery to people for the time being, I guessed. Warmed up now from the treadmill, I moved off the machine and made my way over to the free weights to start working out in earnest, my mind floating in the clouds as I imagined a character that wasn¡¯t restricted by anything like a class or job and could learn anything I wanted without having to roll a dozen different characters. Granted, if I wanted to be among the top players in the game I would need to specialize in something, but just having the option to change my mind in the middle of the game was sure nice! 6) First step The next couple days passed in a much similar manner as I spent my time diving deeper into the information available about Realm of Infinity while getting in some extra gym time. I figured it wouldn¡¯t be a bad idea since I wasn¡¯t going to be as active after the launch of the game and the better shape I start in, the less overall deterioration I would experience. Other players started arriving on Thursday afternoon, with two people I didn¡¯t know moving into the second floor. Both male, one was named Adrian while the other was Hidashi as they introduced themselves to me. Adrian was a tall well-built man of about twenty-five years of age with sandy colored hair and a goatee, and Hidashi was an Asian guy with spikey black hair of equivalent age. They both seemed friendly enough, but they didn¡¯t exactly open themselves up to me much. Granted, I wasn¡¯t exactly out there with my life story either, so I couldn¡¯t complain. It wasn¡¯t until Friday just after lunch time that Archie and Kayla moved into the building. I had just settled into my customary place on the couch in the common area when I heard the familiar voice of my longtime friend and rival speaking in the hall. I couldn¡¯t make out what he was saying, but I stood up quickly and moved over just as Archie came into sight. Tall and skinny, Archie had short red hair with a smattering of freckles over his face and a pair of thin frame glasses perched on his face highlighting his bright green eyes. His voice was surprisingly deep for such a thin guy and he grinned when he saw me standing there. ¡°Well if it isn¡¯t Dale! How have you been?¡± He glanced behind him and sighed. ¡°Kayla, come on! Dale is already here and looks like he has been for some time!¡± Archie moved farther into the common area and set down his duffel bag with his clothes while he kept a box of other things tucked under his left arm and against his side. ¡°Hey Archie, been a while huh?¡± I shook his hand as he extended it to me, his grip firm and friendly. Despite all of our competitiveness, we really were on good terms with each other and enjoyed discussing the mutual interests we shared. I wasn¡¯t able to get anything more out before a beautiful blond missile impacted my side and made me stagger a step with a small ¡®oompf¡¯ from my throat. Kayla was shorter than myself by a good head and surprisingly strong for her slender build as she wrapped her arms around me for a hug. ¡°Dale! What the hell is wrong with you? We haven¡¯t heard from you in over a year!¡± Just like her strength, her voice was deceptively powerful as it came from such a small frame. Now, I wasn¡¯t one to normally deny a pretty woman from hugging me, but the intensity of that squeeze was more along the lines of trying to break my ribs than a show of affection. ¡°Ack! Kayla¡­ Need to breathe here!¡± I carefully extricated myself from her embrace and gave a mock glare at her. She looked down in embarrassment, her shocking blue eyes showing no remorse at all for nearing cracking my ribs with her hug. ¡°Sorry. We just missed you is all¡­ Neither of us have had any real competition since you stopped gaming.¡± Archie snorted and shook his head. ¡°Don¡¯t let her fool you Dale. We have run into plenty of strong opponents since you left, but I do have to say, none were quite as cunning as you used to be. Still gave us a good run for our money though.¡± He smirked with a mischievous glint in his eye. ¡°Although, Kayla here has been going on and on about being able to game with you again¡­ Seems that the word through the grape vine is that you are attachment free again and have nothing holding you back from some¡­ Ouch!¡± He cut off mid-sentence as Kayla¡¯s foot impacted with his shin before she spun and retreated back down the hall to get her bags. I couldn¡¯t help but laugh at their antics. I really had missed their company and didn¡¯t quite realize how much so until just then. ¡°Yeah, a lot has happened recently. Honestly the timing was rather fortuitous, I have to say. It all happened right before Alex got a hold of me to sign me up for this project here, and if it all hadn¡¯t happened as it did I don¡¯t know if I would have joined, truthfully.¡± ¡°Well, despite the shitty nature of what happened, I am glad you are here. We will have to meet up in game and run together again. I have gotten better at shot calling and tactics, but there was never anyone as good as you for that kind of stuff.¡± He grinned at me and nodded over to the elevator. ¡°But for now, we need to get set up. What room are you staying in?¡± Kayla joined us as I lead the way to the elevator and pressed the call button. ¡°I am in room eight on the third floor. Two other guys, Adrian and Hidashi, set up on the second.¡± The metal door slid open and I held it there as Archie and Kayla stepped in after me. ¡°We will settle in on the third floor too then.¡± Kayla paused and tilted her head slightly as I nodded and pressed the proper floor button. ¡°Wait, I know those names¡­ They are adoptive brothers who are in the top ten world rankings for various FPS and team fighting games. Different circles than us, but still damn good players from what I have heard and read.¡± That was news to me. I hadn¡¯t really kept up with the gaming community news as much as I used to, and almost never with FPS games anyway, but the fact that they were even here spoke up to the fact that they were just as good as Kayla said. Alex had mentioned that Dumadine was bringing in the best of the best in order to get the good publicity that they wanted. ¡°Hmmm. Makes sense. Not sure exactly how well FPS experience will be fitting in with an MMO game, but we will have to see as we move forward.¡± As the elevator moved up, Jensen spoke up through the hidden speakers. ¡°Dale, I would like to remind you that you are scheduled to be at the medical wing in one hour for your scan to set up your immersion device.¡± ¡°Got it, thanks Jensen.¡± Both of my friends looked around in puzzlement as I chuckled. ¡°That is the AI in charge of the building and the immersion device. His name is Jensen and so far he is a pretty chill AI. Voice takes some getting used to though¡­¡± Archie spoke up before Kayla had a chance. ¡°Cool! We get our own AI? Nice!¡± The elevator chimed and the door opened to let us all out onto the third floor. He immediately went to room six and swiped his wrist over the security pad and went through the process of assigning himself to the room as Kayla went to room seven and did the same. ¡°You guys get settled in and talk with Jensen. He will arrange for your scans as well and I will catch up with you guys for dinner.¡± They both waved at me and agreed to the plans before I stepped back into the elevator to head off to my appointment. I made it to the medical building early, as I hate being late, and stepped into what looked like a typical hospital hallway. There was a large desk sitting right inside the doors with a man seated there typing information into an AR screen, who I approached to check in with. ¡°Hello. My name is Dale Sullivan and I have an appointment for two o¡¯clock.¡± The man nodded and swiped a few screens away and typed something else in quickly before he smiled and nodded at me. ¡°Yes, we have you here Mr. Sullivan. One of our techs will be out in a moment to take you to the proper room. Please have a seat over against the wall and they will be with you shortly.¡± I moved over and was just about to take a seat when an older woman wearing a white lab coat over blue hospital scrubs waved at me and motioned me to follow her. ¡°Mr. Sullivan, this way please. We are ready for you in the scanning room.¡± Following along behind her down the hallway of closed doors, I noticed that it was set up like a hospital wing with patient rooms along this hall with five rooms to a side. At the end of the hall, the path split in a T, which we took the right turn and proceeded down another short hall with only one door at the end. ¡°Through here please, Mr. Sullivan.¡± We entered the room which contained a massive bank of AR screens showing various graphs and medical details, the exact information blank at the moment as there was nobody in the scanner at the time. Another door opposite the one we came through stood slightly open and hid what was inside. ¡°Please proceed into the next room. Once there, please remove all of your clothes and stand inside of the yellow circle.¡± ¡°Sure, not a problem.¡± Following her orders, I moved through the partially open doorway and shit it behind me before looking around. A small bench sat right inside and to the left where I assumed I should stack my clothes for the scan and did just that. The rest of the room was mostly barren except for a single metal bar set at the edge of the yellow circle on the floor. A small groove ran around the edge of the circle and was mirrored on the ceiling. As soon as I disrobed and stepped into the designated area, the woman tech¡¯s voice filtered in through a speaker. ¡°Stand in the center with your arms at your sides and try not to move too much please. This will only take a couple minutes and won¡¯t hurt at all, but moving around too much will make the process take longer.¡± ¡°Got it.¡± I did as she asked and stared straight ahead. ¡°Alright, I am ready.¡± I almost panicked as the lights in the room died out, leaving me in darkness until a red sheet of light emitted from the metal pole at the edge of my circle. The light struck my body, making a red line run from the top of my head all the way to the floor. With a mechanical whirring sound, the pillar began to slowly rotate around me following the track I had noticed on the floor and ceiling, the light contouring against my body as it went. The whole process indeed only took a few minutes, the sensor circling around me a total of ten times. As soon as the lights came back on, the tech¡¯s voice told me to go ahead and put my clothes back on and return to the outer room. Dressing only took me a minute and I was soon standing next to the woman in front of the multitude of AR screens showing vitals, brainwaves, a representation of my body, and numerous other graphs and charts I had no idea as to the point of. It all really looked quite interesting to me, even if I was clueless as to what the bulk of it meant. ¡°You are all set here Mr. Sullivan. I have to upload this all to the AI and it will handle programing it into your immersion device.¡± She pulled up an AR screen over her pers-com and read off it in a professional tone. ¡°According to your contract, you will need to perform another scan every month for the first year of using the immersion device so we can collect additional data for our use as well as insuring that your personal health is not being impacted negatively by the immersion device and software. The AI Jensen will handle setting up the appointment times and shall inform you five days prior to the next required scan to give you enough time to arrange another visit to this building. Dumadine Technology would like to thank you for your cooperation in this and all other matters.¡± She let out a breath, as if relieved to have that speech over with. Giving me an apologetic smile, she shrugged her shoulders. ¡°Sorry, I am required to read that to you exactly as it shows or I will get in trouble. Have a good day Mr. Sullivan and enjoy the game.¡± ¡°No problem at all, I understand having to follow the script.¡± I smiled back at her and nodded my head. ¡°Thanks, and I will see you in a month!¡± With a polite wave, I headed out of the room to make my way back to the apartment building. * * * * * The rest of the week and following weekend went by quickly with a lot of catching up between myself and my old friends, with even Alex swinging by for dinner a couple times so the gang could get back together again. Lots of old stories were laughed over, even after hearing them several times before, and even more time was spent going over ideas and information involving RoI in general.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. More people moved into the building during that time as well, and finally on Sunday all of the rooms were full up with all the residents having introduced themselves and a casual level of acquaintance established between everyone. I didn¡¯t know any of the newer members, but Kayla and Archie knew a couple of them and tended to include one or two at a time into our group to hash out thoughts. Sunday night, everyone retired early in order to get set up with the launch of the game at ten AM in the morning when the servers went live around the world for hard mode characters. Casual account gamers would go active one hour after that, but it still left enough incentive to go with the harder version on launch day when one looked at the fact that only basic quests were repeatable by other players with the majority of quests being supplied on demand by the game AI. Since there was the faction trial to go through before actually logging into the game world, players were allowed to initially log into the immersion devices starting at eight in the morning, giving them two hours to get through that portion in time for the hard launch of the game. Monday morning found me waking up early to shower and eat a quick breakfast, most of the others in the complex joining me for the meal with eager anticipation for getting into this ground-breaking game. A final well-wishing and promises to try and meet up at some point in the game were made as the clock ticked closer and closer to the soft start before all of the residents collectively filed into the elevator that was just big enough to fit them all at once. I entered my room with a swipe of my wrist and stepped in front of the door I hadn¡¯t been able to enter as of yet, calling out to the building AI. ¡°Jensen, is this room unlocked now?¡± ¡°Yes, Dale. All players are able to enter their immersion room at this time and can get ready to hook into the machines. Actual connection will begin in another eight minutes, but that leaves you enough time to familiarize yourself with the machine and get ready for immediate connection.¡± A wide grin split my face as I finally pushed open the door I had wanted to walk through for the past week. Inside the room there was actually very little space available. The massive unit that acted as the immersion device took up a large portion of the small room, looking just as Jensen described like a MRI machine. Boxy in shape, there was a round tube-like hole in the face of the device with a table extended out of it which the player would lay down on and be retracted into the unit. Eagerly, I closed the door behind me and picked up the tight-fitting cap that had to be worn with all the diodes and sensors in it. A flap extended down to the back of my neck and a thin strap wrapped around my throat at Jensen¡¯s direction to secure the last of the sensors to my spinal cord there. Preparations completed, I lay down on the table with my head towards the machine and reached up to push the button to slide the table smoothly into the immersion device. The interior was dark, the only light coming from the opening by my feet. Inside of the tube was actually more spacious than it looked, leaving me plenty of room to reach my arm up to my face to handle an itch on my nose as Jensen started speaking. ¡°Initiating pre-game launch in five. Four. Three. Two. One¡­¡± As the AI spoke, a soft hum started from the unit around me, and right as the word ¡®one¡¯ reached my ears, all light and sound faded away from me until a burst of bright light blinded me momentarily. I stood within an empty room maybe twenty feet square with a single doorway ahead of me. On the door itself was the game logo, a double loop lemniscate, or infinity symbol, with a fairy resting inside the left hoop of the design. This was the player¡¯s home room. The place where a person would find themselves after logging into the immersion device and could then select the program they wished to activate by simple walking through the appropriate door. There were options to change how it actually worked, but with Realm of Infinity being the only program available to this system so far I didn¡¯t feel the need to mess with those settings. Time was ticking and I quickly approached the door to the game, a hand rising up to push it open when I stopped suddenly. Moving felt so natural, to the point where I could feel all of the muscles in my body working together to propel me across the floor which felt solid to my mind! ¡°Awesome!¡± Even with nobody around, I couldn¡¯t hold back my excitement at the sensations, then swiftly pushed the door to the game open and stepped through the pitch black threshold. A brief sensation of falling flashed through my body until I closed my eyes reflexively for just a moment. As I opened them once more, I was no longer in darkness, nor even within anywhere that could remotely be classified as Earth! I found myself standing in the middle of a grassy clearing in the center of a forest, trees surrounding me evenly at about a hundred paces away. Sounds of birds chirping and softer sounds of animals running around in the woods filtered into my ears while I felt a soft breeze tickle along my cheeks. Everything just felt so real, like I wasn¡¯t in a game but there in person! A bright sun shone down over the forest giving plenty of warmth and light, letting me see clearly all around. I turned a full circle, taking in all of the sights from atop the small rise I was standing upon. Looking down, I noticed I was wearing a standard outfit of black pants and a white shirt with simple shoes on my feet to complete the beginners outfit. ¡°Ahem¡­¡± A voice behind me nearly made my heart stop, as there was nobody there when I had first looked around me. Spinning quickly in place, I saw an elderly man standing before me, wrinkled face staring up from the base of the hill. He was slightly bent with both hands clasped to the top of a walking stick and wearing simple brown robes over his thin frame. ¡°Ah, there you are Outlander. Welcome to the Glade of Trials. To start, what is your name?¡± I frowned slightly, kind of disappointed at such a generic start for the game, but then again this was just the pre-game assessment with the AI getting a feel for my personality and gaming style in order to place me in an appropriate faction. Well, time to get the show on the road! There was no thought involved to selecting my name, as I always used a variation of the same thing in every game I played. ¡°My name is Calamity. I am assuming Outlander is what you call adventurers like myself who are coming into the game?¡± The old man frowned slightly at the name I gave, and pretty much ignored my question. ¡°Calamity, eh? Are you sure this is the name you wish to use within this world Outlander? Once you have chosen, there is no going back on that decision.¡± Figuring this to be some kind of name confirmation setting, I merely nodded my head and replied to him. ¡°Indeed. My name is Calamity. What is your name sir?¡± I tried another question, hoping to draw some information out of this NPC in any way I could. ¡°Very well, Calamity. An auspicious name you have chosen for yourself in this world. Maybe it will turn out that the calamity befalls you instead of the other way around, hmm?¡± He chuckled dryly at his own words and thumped his short cane slash walking stick against the hard packed dirt at his feet. I felt a wave of anger starting to rise within me at my questions all being ignored while an AI mocked me on my name choice and lashed out before I thought better of it. ¡°Oh, my name is so terrible, is it old geezer? And how do you know that I won¡¯t be the calamity that rules this world when all is said and done?¡± Shaking his head at my outburst, the man sighed. ¡°Oh the impetuousness of youth. I remember the days when I was young and headstrong¡­ But no time to reminisce now. No, no, no. Now is the time for action!¡± He practically yelled that last bit in his dry shaking voice, then coughed a few times as it seemed to have irritated his throat. ¡°But first¡­ How about a drink for an old man? At the base of the hill behind you there is a water skin. Please retrieve it for me?¡± I was a bit miffed at being treated that way, and was honestly considering telling the guy off when a better idea struck me. ¡°Very well¡­¡± I turned and walked down the hill, finding a small pack laying on the grass behind a jut of rock that made it impossible to see from the top of the small rise. Opening the bag, I found several things. Two water skins actually, a few packets of travel rations, a strange stone made from what looked to be obsidian, and finally a small glass vial of clear liquid. There had yet to be any prompts or UI of any kind so far, so I tried something new and concentrated my focus on the glass vial, which caused a small window to pop open before me.
A vial of poison. This contains a single dose of toxic substance that will cause the poison status on any target that ingests it. Deals a maximum of 25 HP worth of damage per second for thirty seconds with a 25% chance of paralyzing the victim for the duration.
A simple bit of math on my part gave me a grand total of 750 damage! Wow. That seemed a little OP for a starting item. Maybe I wouldn¡¯t get to keep these items once the actual game started¡­ Well in that case, I supposed I should have some fun with it. Originally, I was just going to drink the water in front of him and laugh, but there were more entertaining things I could do. Flipping the cork off of the water skin, I popped open the vial of poison and poured it in before swirling the water around a bit. Corking the vial, I tossed it back into the bag thinking I might get some other kind of use out of it before the day wore out. A quick sniff at the water told me you couldn¡¯t tell anything was put in it and I was hoping the effect wouldn¡¯t be too reduced since I mixed it with a liter of water. I was just about to put the pack on and stand up when another idea hit me and quickly swapped the poisoned water into the bag and carried the clean one in my hand. The pack fit nicely on my back when I stood up and began making my way over the hill once more to find the old man. He was still standing right where I left him and I approached with a big smile on my face, hooking a thumb over my shoulder at the bag on my back. ¡°Nice pack I found it all in. Here is your water!¡± My grin took on a bit of an evil twist with a gleam in my eye suggesting I was up to no good. ¡°Uhm¡­ Hold it there¡­ Give me the other water skin that was in the pack! I don¡¯t know if I trust that look you have going on there, and with a name like Calamity I don¡¯t think I should take anything you willingly hand over.¡± Bingo! Just what I was hoping for. The AI wasn¡¯t stupid, but at the same time it wasn¡¯t exactly overly smart either. A bit of misdirection and implication and the program played right into my hand like I wanted. I let a hurt look cross my face, lips drawn down in a pout as I reached behind me and pulled out the other skin. ¡°Awww¡­ There goes my fun.¡± I tossed the good skin down at my feet and then held out the tainted one I pulled out of the pack to the old man. ¡°Fine, here!¡± A look of triumph crossed his wrinkled face as I played my part by looking dejectedly at the ground. He popped open the skin and took a long drink of the water, draining nearly half of the skin in a couple long swallows. Grinning, I bent down and picked up the good water and took a drink myself. I looked over and saw the old man¡¯s eyes bulge nearly out of his head as he watched me drink, then choked as the poison in his skin took effect. He seemed frozen in place as a health bar appeared over his head, slowly dropping by about 5% a second. Nice! Looked like the paralysis worked too! And it should be more than enough to finish the geezer off. Choking gasps came from his lips and I tilted my head at him, a look of anger finally crossing my face. ¡°Is there a problem sir? Oh yeah, you don¡¯t answer my questions¡­ Sorry I can¡¯t help you!¡± I brightened up as I stepped in a bit closer to him, watching his health bar tick away each second. ¡°On second thought, I think I do know a way to help you!¡± He had just enough control over his body to let a look of hope peek out through his eyes, but it quickly died away when he noticed the malicious smile returning to my face. This is how I always tended to be in games. Kill first, sort it out later. PvP games tended to have a lot of people out to get you, and I had learned that the best option is to take others down well before they had a chance to get me. And this guy just pissed me off, even if he was just a NPC. My foot lashed out, sweeping the bottom of his cane out from him and causing the old man to topple over once he lost the balance of his stick which rolled out of his grasp. A low groan of pain came from him as I sauntered over and lifted the cane, looking it over critically, without bothering to try and call up a menu on the item. It was all a show after all. I wanted to set the AI straight here and now that it wasn¡¯t going to fuck with me in this game and I wouldn¡¯t take its shit. Turning around, I lifted the cane over my head in two hands and brought it crashing down on the old fart¡¯s head. You have dealt 110 damage! (12 weapon damage + 10 Str modifier X 5 for striking an incapacitated target) The text popped up in open air next to where I hit the man and I cursed, waving it away quickly. I would have to fix that in the menu when I got a chance later on, but for now the frail looking man still had about twenty percent HP left. Time to help him on his way to oblivion! You have dealt 100 damage! (10 weapon damage + 10 Str modifier X 5 for striking an incapacitated target) You have dealt 105 damage! (11 weapon damage + 10 Str modifier X 5 for striking an incapacitated target)
You have killed Old Man. Unfortunately, this is just a practice area and no experience or loot is given out during this time.
Well shit! They could have given me something for that! Then again, I wasn¡¯t aware of the damage multiplier for hitting a paralyzed target, so I guess information was a good enough reward for such little effort. I nudged the corpse at my feet with the toe of one foot, wondering why it didn¡¯t vanish and finally noticed quite a bit of blood¡­ Scratch that, a lot of blood! Looking closer, I noticed that I did a good job of splitting his skull open too and the results were quite vivid and graphic. I knew this was a video game, and the sight didn¡¯t make me sick or anything, but I could see some people getting way too involved in the surroundings and suffer some sort of breakdown. Shrugging, I turned and took a deep breath of the fresh air and thought about what I should do next. Yeah, I just killed the guy who was supposed to guide me, but oh well. Worst case scenario I deleted this character and made a new one, starting over again with a different outcome hopefully. Nah, since I was able to kill the NPC so easily, this had to be an option the AI thought might occur. With that in mind, I walked up to the top of the hill and sat down on the grass. I had just plopped down on my ass when a new window popped up.
Congratulations! There is no right or wrong way to pass these trials, and you have shown just how you deal with a given situation! Due to the outcome of your encounter, it has been decided that the player Calamity will start in the town of Tyrith under the faction of House Tyrith. Have a good game!
7) City of Tyrith I had only a few moments to read the message before the box seemed to explode towards my face. On reflex I closed my eyes and shielded my face as I threw myself backwards and away from the perceived danger. Tumbling backwards down the hill with my eyes closed, I once again felt that sense of vertigo, as if I was falling from a great height. Opening my eyes, I saw that the grassy hill and clearing were all gone and I now stood in the middle of a town. Looking almost medieval in design, the buildings were mostly single story with plenty of space between them and set up in neat orderly rows. Directly around me was a penned off area, apparently where new players spawn within the game after finishing the placement trials. Throughout my vision, I began to notice new things that weren¡¯t there before, and they moved right along with my sight as I turned my head. To the top left were three bars, one each of red, blue and green. Below them at the bottom of my vision were several icons lined up that I recognized as possibly being my character menu, inventory, quest log, and settings. Lifting my hand up, I tried to push the icon for the settings, but nothing happened. Thinking back to what happened earlier with the vial of poison, I was just about to concentrate on the icon in order to bring it up when a couple new windows popped up before me.
Welcome to the world of Grendor! You have taken the first steps into this wide new world and have been deemed to be most suited for the province you have been transported to. Please remember to log off and take care of your body at least once every five hours. A notification will be displayed on your UI when five hours have passed. Dumadine Technology warns that according to the EULA, the company is not responsible for any ill effects suffered when ignoring this warning system. Enjoy your game!
Quest received! Introductions. New to this area and a possible recruit to the faction controlling these lands, you are tasked with reporting to Captain Vermund of the House Tyrith guards. Warning! He is much more powerful than a sickly old man, so don¡¯t do anything stupid! Rewards: Experience, coins.
Blinking a few times, I re-read the quest and had to chuckle to myself as the AI personalized the details to my own experiences thus far in the game. It was a pleasing touch and made me happy that I handled the trials as I did if it garnered this kind of AI attention. Then again, maybe I would have to check with Archie and Kayla about their experiences during the first portion to compare¡­ Waving away the messages, I once more attempted to focus on the settings icon, which looked like a gear you see as the icon in almost every game for this feature, and after concentrating a moment, a window popped up with game settings. Several options were available to customize the UI as well as the data that popped up during combat and all that fun stuff. It took me about ten minutes just to organize everything how I liked it, modifying the colors of the menus, adjusting the transparency, putting all messages on hold during combat except for high priority things such as receiving a crit or a few other things. Some of the stuff should be able to come up just in case after all. I didn¡¯t see any mini map or chat logs, nor any options to turn them on in the settings, but since I literally just started, I wasn¡¯t too put out by that yet. Next on my priority list was pulling my inventory up and checking through what I had available. Focusing on the icon was a bit easier this time, as I was starting to get used to just how to do it, and another screen popped up with a short list of things. Most of it was common stuff, like my starter armor with 1 defense on each piece of gear, and a few rations and a full (non-poisoned) water skin. One of the items I saw was actually written in red! I actually started the game with a unique item? According to the name of it, perhaps everyone started with such a thing¡­ I focused on it and checked it over quickly.
Calamity¡¯s Shifting Weapon (Soulbound) Unique Damage: Varies Durability: Indestructible A special weapon for new Outlanders to begin their journey. While it might take a lot of getting used to, this weapon can take the shape of any weapon the wielder can imagine, within reason, and will reflect the damage of a base quality weapon of the imagined variety.
Neat! Having such a thing would be rather handy, even if I just kept it as a backup weapon for when I die, since that was bound to happen at some point or another. Not to mention the fact that there were no classes within the game, this one item could cover just about every category of basic weapon that could be used by any particular play style. Initial assessment done for the time being, I looked around in search of some indication of where to go next when I froze. There were a few NPCs around, and some of them had little things flying around them or perched on a shoulder here and there. Looking closer, I noticed they were Fairies! And here I was without one at all, though judging by the populace around me, they weren¡¯t as common to the point where everyone had one. Each Fairy looked like a small person with wings and came in both male and female varieties, which was actually quite hard to tell when trying to see them from any distance beyond a few dozen paces. Between six to twelve inches tall, all the Fairies I saw seemed like miniature adults with beautiful wings on their backs, no two looking quite alike in both wing and face features. Some had butterfly wings, others had dragonfly looking wings, and others still had little feathered wings! Captivated by the sights around me, I realized that I had been standing in the same spot for almost fifteen minutes now and was starting to garner some strange looks as it probably appeared I was staring off into space for a while and then began looking intently at the people with tiny beings with them. Yeah, if I had seen someone else doing that I would have classified them as a creeper right off too¡­ Shaking my head, I started walking out of the small penned off area through an opening in the short wooden gate surrounding the patch of hard packed dirt I had arrived in. Figuring this would be a bad crowd to start asking directions after my fabulous display of noobness, I walked along a street half again as wide as the rest around which I took as the main thoroughfare through the town. Judging from what I could see, this could probably classify as a small city by the size of the area. The main road alone continued for what seemed to be about a mile in total, maybe a bit less, with a castle in front of me, and a stone wall with a gate behind me. With both nice weather and comfortably warm temperatures, I had no problem walking along the road for a time towards the castle until I deemed myself far enough away from the people who were probably judging me harshly when I made a spectacle of myself. As I was walking, a thought suddenly came to me. I never went through a character creation option! One of the buildings along the side of the main road had glass that was particularly clean and smooth, showing some reflections of the cobbled road I was walking along. Heading over to one of the windows, I peered at myself in the reflection there and laughed softly at what I saw. Apparently, the scan to synch myself to the immersion device also recorded my body type and features to be used as a character. Thankfully I wasn¡¯t bad looking and was happy with how I looked, as that might be a negative point for a good number of potential players. Turning away from the window I was using as a mirror before I started getting awkward looks once again, my sight was drawn across the road to where a man was emerging from a small building that looked to be a shop of some kind. Tall and thin with a shaved head, the man wore an apron and seemed to be the shop keeper as he hung up a sign with a picture of a shirt on it to the left of the door. Walking over, I waved a hand at the man and smiled in a friendly way. ¡°Good morning sir! I was wondering if you would be able to help me and give me some directions?¡± As I spoke, I tried to concentrate on the man to pull up any kind of information on him that I could. My attempt was side tracked as the NPC spoke up in a voice loud enough to hurt my ears. ¡°Welcome! Where are you trying to go young man?¡± His tone was happy and energetic, if a bit too enthusiastic in its delivery. Wincing at the pain stabbing at my head, my feet took me back a step away from him in an attempt to mitigate another spike at my brain from that voice. ¡°I¡­ I was wondering if you could direct me to a Captain Vermund? I need to find him as soon as possible.¡± As soon as my ears ceased being pained, I tried once again to check this guy out and was rewarded with a pair of windows that popped up in my vision.
Ivan the Tailor Level: 25 HP: ? MP: ? A boisterous merchant who resides in the city of Tyrith and is unfortunately mostly deaf. Those who deal with the man should be cautioned to not stand too close lest they suffer the same condition.
Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Inspect Skill level: 1 (3%) Knowledge is power, and details of people and things around you are sure to make your adventures more successful. As you progress this skill, more information about beings and objects will become available to you.
Score another win for me! My first skill and it is useful too. Seemed kind of easy to gain though, so it was probably a fairly common one. Stats in this game seemed like they would be important, but the skills should be where a character would start to show how much more advanced they were when compared to like-level players. Reading the character description of Ivan made the volume of his voice understandable, if a bit late. ¡°Eh? The captain of the city guard, was it?¡± He scrunched up his face in thought, studying me curiously until I nodded at him. ¡°Well then, that is simple enough to point you towards!¡± One of his thin arms rose and pointed off towards the keep which was much closer now than when I spawned in the city. ¡°Follow this ¡®ere road up to the keep and there will be a building just outside of the gate. That be where you can find Sir Vermund.¡± Wanting to leave this NPC far behind me before I actually did go deaf myself, I nodded once more and waved at Ivan in appreciation while I spoke up a bit louder so he could properly hear me. ¡°Got it, thanks!¡± I started off up the road once again, eager to see what was all in store for me ahead. The street was still pretty clear, so to pass the time as I walked I pulled out the black sphere from my inventory that was supposedly my starter weapon and held it in my palm. According to the description, all I had to do was focus on a particular type of design and it would shape itself into a proper weapon. Didn¡¯t seem too hard I supposed. After almost ten minutes of imagining several different types of dagger, I still had no luck in making the lump of black metal do anything at all! How the hell was I supposed to use this as a weapon if I couldn¡¯t figure out how to make it work? I growled in frustration, the keep only a hundred yards ahead of me when I squeezed the sphere in my fist hard and yelled in my head at the thing to turn into a fucking dagger already! Surprise made me stop in my tracks as the pressure of my hand on the ball of metal made it shift! Smoothly changing shape, I felt the material flow in my grip as the structure rearranged itself into one of the mental templates of a dagger I had been trying to form. The sensation was extremely strange, but the idea of what I did differently actually made sense to me. I had been just holding the item in an open palm before, and if it had changed shape like that I would probably have dropped it instantly. If I did that in combat, it very likely would have been the death of me. With understanding in place, I willed the weapon to change shape several more times going from dagger to a sword and back. It took a bit of concentration to make it change shape, but each successful attempt made the next one slightly easier. Fully caught up in my testing of the weapon, I minimized a window that popped up in my view to read later and completely missed the sounds of a dozen booted feet stepping in time as they approached behind me until I heard an angry voice shout from right behind me nearly as loud as Ivan had been.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°What the hell do you think you are doing standing in the middle of the road fucking around with a damn weapon?! Put that thing away right now or I swear to all the gods that I will drop your ass in the dungeon for a week!¡± Spinning around, I saw a group of six soldiers standing behind me all in full metal armor and carrying halberds upright in their right hands. The one who spoke to me had no helmet on unlike the rest of the men and also had a gold emblem on his breastplate. All of them stood at about my height, but were more muscular than me by far, and carried their weapons like they knew how to use them. I gulped slightly at the intimidating sight, my inspect skill showing me that the ones with helms on were a whopping level 50 with the ranking soldier at level 60! The level 50 men all showed as Tyrith Infantry while the level 60 was shown as Tyrith Sergeant. Shit, these guys could make paste out of my measly level 1 without even trying! ¡°Uhmm¡­ Sorry, sir. I kind of just learned how to use this and got caught up in the moment.¡± I made a show of putting the weapon back into my inventory then held up both hands, palms open, to placate the Sergeant. ¡°Hmph. See that it doesn¡¯t happen again. I wasn¡¯t screwing around when I said I will imprison you for recklessly playing with weapons in the middle of the street.¡± His tone was more reasonable this time, but still tinged with a hint of irritation at me. He waved a hand, and the soldiers all started forward again to pass by me on their way towards the large keep. Disaster averted, I wished I had more of that poison left from the trial zone. Granted, it would still be a bad idea to do anything to the Sergeant in front of all of his cronies, but there should be a way of finding the man alone later on when he was off duty. Everything I was seeing thus far in the game made it seem like things here imitated real life in the way the NPCs went about their lives. Once the patrol got far enough away, it seemed like a good time to get moving again. Didn¡¯t want another group to come upon me and have a repeat occurrence¡­ I made my way slowly up to the building that Ivan told me about and looked the large two story stone structure over quickly. It was built for defense, windows that were too small for a person to fit through and sturdy wooden door with a heavy metal latch. Maybe not impenetrable, but not easily broken into at the same time. I pushed open the door carefully and stepped inside to look around a large open floor space with a stone staircase off to the left going to the second floor. The back wall was covered in a huge tapestry depicting a black raven on a dark red background which I assumed to be the house emblem. Set directly in front of that was a heavy wood desk behind which stood a huge man in black plate armor easily standing at six and a half feet tall, the hilt of a great sword poking up over his shoulder as he stared at some papers spread out before him. Thinking this was the man I was looking for, I tried use inspect on him and a window appeared.
Captain Vermund Level: ? HP: ? MP: ? ?????
A frown formed on my face at the complete lack of information that showed for him. He must be too high of a level for me to get anything other than a name, but at least it confirmed for me who he was and I moved across the open floor of the building towards the desk, stopping a few paces away to wait for him to notice me. I wasn¡¯t about to piss this guy off¡­ There was a time and place for everything, and at the moment I was way too weak to even contemplate doing anything in regards to the monster before me. Besides, if the AI decided to put me in this faction after killing that first NPC, maybe there was a good reason for that. For ten minutes I stood in the same spot looking around me at the sparse room with little in the way of decoration or adornment. There were a few benches set up along the walls and to the left of the desk was a heavy iron bound chest that I had to actively resist peeking into. I also spent some of the time studying Vermund himself. Huge and imposing, the man had a neatly trimmed beard to match his dark hair flecked with gray and appeared to be in his mid to late forties. The sheer size of him, however, lead me to believe that despite his advancing years he would still be a terror on a battle field. When Vermund finally looked up with dark eyes to look me over, he spoke in a deep firm voice that brooked no argument. ¡°Well, at least you have patience. Can¡¯t say much more about you on the other hand¡­¡± He let out a sigh and crossed his arms over his chest as he studied me more carefully. ¡°You are the first Outlander that has come here, but that doesn¡¯t grant you any special dispensation in my eyes or those of Lord Tyrith. Hell, you don¡¯t even have a Fairy! Useless¡­ What is your name, Outlander?¡± Bristling at the tone of the man before me, it was all I could do to keep the tone of my voice civil as I responded to him. ¡°Calamity, Sir Vermund, my name is Calamity. And I shall not be weak for long if I have any say about it.¡± I let a hint of determination creep into my voice with the last bit, and smiled softly as a new window appeared before me.
Quest Completed! You have completed the quest Introductions! Reward: 100 experience, 5 silvers Continue your discussion with Captain Vermund to find out more about this area and how to grow stronger so you may be of use to your new faction!
A hint of a smile twisted one corner of the older man¡¯s lips as he heard my words. ¡°Oh, confident, are we? Well, maybe there is a spine within you somewhere yet.¡± He reached down and pulled open a drawer in his desk and lifted a couple parchments out, setting them near me and motioning for me to take them. ¡°Take these. One is a map of the surrounding area that may be of use to you, and the other is a task that very well may help you prove your worth. I will say though.¡± His face took on a stern look as he once again raked me with a disdainful glance. ¡°Without a Fairy, you will be next to worthless. Go to the place marked on the map. It is rumored that Fairies gather within a cavern there, and perhaps you can attain a Contract with one if the gods are willing.¡± He shooed me away with one hand. ¡°Now be gone. I am very busy. Do not return here until you have received a Fairy Contract as well as completed the task assigned to you.¡±
Quest received! Vermund¡¯s Trial. Captain Vermund has tasked you with completing his assignment and obtaining a Fairy Contract before officially welcoming you into the faction. Rewards: Experience, coins, Faction Title Warning! Attempting to return without fulfilling all of the requirements will result in an unfavorable outcome!
I blinked at the man for a moment, then shrugged and lifted the papers Vermund offered me. As soon as I touched them, the parchments vanished. A new icon appeared at the bottom left of my UI and a mini map appeared in the bottom right centered on my location in the city. Well, that explained why it wasn¡¯t there before. I turned and left before Vermund could say anything else and left the building, heading down the main road towards the city gates. A red arrow pointed in that direction on the mini map which appeared to be a guide towards the marked location I was supposed to go to. That made things a bit easier. With a few coins in hand, I decided to try and find an armor shop before I left the city. The crappy starter clothes I had on didn¡¯t offer much in the way of protection and only gave me a total of 3 armor at the moment. With the death penalty being as high as it was, I really didn¡¯t want to push my luck if I could help it. A few shops caught my eye as I made my way towards the edge of the city, but one look at the wares left me feeling depressed as the cost of even the leather armor amounted to a couple times more than my current 5 silvers. I was just about to give up on the prospect entirely, when I spotted a shop only a hundred paces away from the city walls that displayed low quality common tier armor in the windows. Figuring it was worth a shot, I stepped inside and started looking around in the hopes of finding anything that might help me out. ¡°Greetings customer. Can I help you find anything in particular?¡± A woman came out from behind the counter and approached me unseen as I perused the goods and I turned around to get a look at her. She appeared a little younger than myself with a simple dress and a leather apron over top of it, an average looking face with a head of long brown hair tied back in a bun. ¡°Good day. I am finding myself a little short on funds at the moment, but have to head out into the wilderness and need something to protect myself. Do you happen to have anything useful I can buy for cheap?¡± I had wasted enough time looking around so far, and had little hope of getting anything before leaving the city, so I came right out and asked to save a little more time. She eyed me critically for a moment before replying, brown eyes sweeping me from head to foot and back. ¡°Hmmm¡­ Outlander, eh? Well, perhaps I might have something that will fit the bill for you. Follow me.¡± Spinning in place, she walked back to the counter and stepped behind it once more. Reaching down, she pulled up a pair of bracers and a belt to set onto the counter. ¡°Each of these are one silver. They are the cheapest things I have in stock, and I doubt you will be able to afford anything more at the moment.¡± Skeptically I looked them over using my inspect skill. The items were both of normal quality and named Simple Leather Belt and Simple Leather Bracers, but both added 3 armor a piece. 9 armor was better than 3 armor no matter how I looked at it, so I agreed to the price silently by handing over a pair of silver coins for the gear. ¡°Thanks. Also, if you happen to find any animal skins and hides, bring them back to me and I will craft them into equipment for you at a steep discount. I am close to breaking into the Master ranks of leatherworking and all projects will help speed that along.¡± She beamed at me as I put the new armor on quickly, feeling slightly better about my chances. ¡°Sure thing. I have no intentions of learning how to make armor any time soon so I would be happy to bring you what I find.¡± I smiled at her happily. She might not make the best gear in the city, but just by cutting me a deal for new gear if I brought materials made her a step above the rest in my books. Stepping out of the leather shop, I noticed across the street another interesting store. Deciding to check it out, my feet carried me across the road and into the dimly lit interior. Shelves lined the walls behind a counter that ran the entire room, ensuring that customers couldn¡¯t steal any of the small vials populating the shelves. An old man with long gray hair slowly made his way closer to me and smiled at my arrival. ¡°Welcome, son. Are you in search of a particular potion?¡± His voice was calm and collected, no hint of shaking or sickness about him. I supposed that being an alchemist let him do something about combating the effects of old age in some way. ¡°Indeed. A few health potions and maybe even a few poisons if you have them?¡± I raised a brow at the man curiously. I doubt I would be able to get my hands on another vial of OP poison, but even some basic assistance in that department would go a long way towards ensuring my rapid experience gain. ¡°Ah, yes. Health potions I can do. Poisons, on the other hand, are illegal to be sold in Tyrith.¡± The old man smiled apologetically before pulling three vials down from a shelf and setting them on the counter for me to inspect. ¡°Three for a silver.¡±
Weak Healing Potion A simple potion that restores 25 HP instantly, and another 25 HP over 30 seconds.
Well that looked simple enough. I dropped a silver coin on the table and fit the three vials into the quick access slots on my new belt. I still had two more slots for potions, but wanted to get poisons in there somehow. Maybe I could find a black market here or something, though I didn¡¯t know if a city this small even had such a thing¡­ The old man seemed to sense my disappointment at not being able to get ahold of any poisons, and must have felt bad because he motioned me to wait and slowly made his way into a back room with shuffling steps. Happy enough to wait for him to come back, I took a look at my UI and clicked on the new icon that appeared a short while ago with Vermund. It turned out to be just a quest log, giving me details for the task Vermund had assigned me. Apparently there were creatures in the cavern I was heading to, and I had to bring back a specific trophy along with a Fairy in order to be accepted into the House Tyrith Faction. A loud thump drew my attention back to the shop I was standing in, and I waved away my window to see a heavy book on the counter before me. ¡°This is an herbology book, lad. Take it. You are the first Outlander I have seen here and you have an interest in specific things that I really wish I could help you with, but cannot. At least legally.¡± A sly grin came over his face as he tapped the book. ¡°Learn what to find, collect the raw materials, then bring them back here and we will see what we can do about brewing you up some less than healthy substances, eh?¡± Grinning, I knew this old man and I were going to get along just fine. ¡°Thanks a lot sir, my name is Calamity. I will definitely be back when I get a good haul of materials and anything I don¡¯t need immediately I would be glad to offer to you in return for this book.¡± I placed a hand on the book, and my eyes widened as a new screen opened before me.
Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Advanced Herbalism Skill level: 1 (0%) A rare skill, Advanced Herbalism gives you an inherent knowledge of all the uses of a plant you find without the need to experiment to determine its properties. The higher this skill, the more precise information you can observe about rarer plants.
¡°While you will find some of the plants out there can be used without any special processing, the bulk of the herbs and plants out there will need to be refined by alchemy. When you get a small supply of materials, come back here and I will let you use my equipment while I teach you what to do.¡± He smiled at me and placed a small black velvet pouch on the counter with a wink. ¡°My name is Derek, and these didn¡¯t come from this shop. You have a look about you that says these may be useful. Have a good day Calamity and be sure to work on your Herbalism skill.¡± Turning away, Derek shuffled off into the back room once more to return to whatever he was doing there. Happy as a pig in shit at the moment, I took up the pouch and looked inside, curious as to what my newest gift was. The items inside shocked me and made me even more elated than I was a moment before!
Weak Spider Venom A common spider toxin that can be applied to a weapon for one hour. Once applied, every strike will have a 10% chance to paralyze your target for 5 seconds
The venom gave me more ideas about what I needed to collect if I wanted to seriously get into making my own poisons and such. There were no plants involved in those vials, but the paralytic effect seemed pretty damn good for a ¡®weak¡¯ quality concoction. I left the alchemy shop and headed towards the main gates again to leave the city in search of greater power. A thought struck me as I remembered the window I had ignored and minimized when playing with my weapon, and I called it back up now in order to check it out.
Congratulations! Due to the fact that you skipped over most of the tutorial in the Glade of Trials, you have received +1 Int for figuring out how to use your starting weapon. Too bad you missed out on all of the other benefits of -not- killing a helpless old man¡­
The cheeky AI! Not that I would turn down a free stat point, but the sarcasm levels of the AI were a bit on the irritating side. I couldn¡¯t complain over much really, as I had indeed lost my temper and did things my own way. Oh well¡­ I willed my character screen to pop up so I could check my overall stats to see where I stood.
Name: Calamity Player Level: 1 Stat Level: 12 Exp: 100
Title None Fame 0
Armor 9 HP 200/200
Energy 200/200 MP 210/210
Str 20 Fort 20
Dex 20 Int 21
Agi 20 Will 20
I raised a brow silently at the stat level, then remembered hard mode players got a bit of an advantage in that department due to the higher downsides of death. SL was calculated by adding up all stat totals, subtracting 60, then dividing by 5 and rounding down to the nearest whole number. Since I started with an extra 60 stat points over a casual account, I had a bit of a leg up on the average player in the game, although in the later levels that gap would be drastically reduced. With a wide smile on my face, I closed all the windows and pulled my unique weapon out of my inventory before striding confidently out past the city walls. My real adventure had just begun and it was now time to learn just how intense this game would really become! 8) Solo pains Excitement and eagerness coursed through my body as I walked out from the city proper and into the cleared space between the walls and the forest beyond. The road leading up to the gates extended ahead of me, cutting a path through the trees and leaving a clear space wide enough for two wagons to pass each other. The cobbled streets ended with the wall and going forward the road was made of merely hard packed dirt with signs of shallow ruts where wagons constantly traveled over the well-used trail. Looking at my mini map, the arrow pointing me towards the location I needed to be aimed off to the north away from the main road itself. That seemed fine by me as I wanted to cut into the forest anyway and see what mobs I would be able to find in order to gain some more experience. The combination of realism and standard game mechanics made me believe I would be able to run into some basic low level creatures that I would be able to test myself against. Curious as to exactly where I had to go, I focused on my mini map and expanded the small box into a full-sized map in order to see both myself and my destination. A red dot showed the location of the cave I needed to enter, and judging by the size of the city behind me, it was roughly four miles away and well off of the beaten path. I squeezed the lump of metal in my hand and willed it into a short sword shape, the item quickly complying to my desires, and started in a direct line into the woods following the arrow on my now small again mini map. Once in the trees, I had to slow my pace slightly in order to keep an eye on my surroundings. I didn¡¯t want to be caught off guard by anything if I could help it, and watching out for threats in this new environment seemed to be the prudent thing to do. Sunlight filtered down through the canopy of branches above to give plenty of dappled light to see by, but also left a good bit in shadows where mobs could possibly hide. Everything around me looked and smelled so real that it was hard to concentrate on the task at hand, my mind overwhelmed at the realistic nature of the game I knew I was playing. Despite trying to focus on my environment, I still almost missed the movement off to my left when I was about a hundred yards into the woods. Thankfully the trees weren¡¯t densely packed around me and there was little in the way of underbrush over the carpet of twigs, leaves and grass. All of that combined allowed me to catch sight of the mob as it walked between the trunks of trees with yellow eyes turned in my direction. It appeared to be a small wolf with a dappled gray and black coat which seemed to be wandering around alone. That struck me as a little odd, as from all I had heard of in real life said wolves hunted in packs. A little nervous about the prospect of having to fight several mobs at once, I quickly focused on the beast and tried to use my inspect skill on it.
Young Forest Wolf Level: 2 HP: 100 A species of wolf where young adolescents are sent out on their own in order to prove their worth to the pack. Those that prove their might by felling prey then return to the pack and take up their place with the rest.
A smile crossed my face at the information window. It seemed like the AI had thought of everything when they designed the mobs around here. I guessed that when I got deeper into the woods I would run across packs of the creatures at a higher level, but around the edges I would be able to pick off individuals without the threat of being overwhelmed. The prospects of trying out real combat drove off any misgivings I had about dying, and I needed to get stronger anyway. The only way to do that would be to kill mobs and gain experience. With those thoughts in mind, I readied my one handed sword and faced the wolf, stepping carefully towards the creature. A low growl sounded from the beast as I got within twenty paces, and suddenly it dashed towards me, mouth opening to reveal a set of sharp teeth which looked quite capable of ripping me open easily. The sheer speed of its movements shocked me, but I reacted quickly enough and brought my sword around in a horizontal slash at it when it got close enough. As fast as I reacted, however, the wolf was still quicker. With a savage snarl, the beast caught my sword on its side as it sank its teeth into my left shoulder. The force of the charge backed by the weight of the animal knocked me backwards as a red health bar appeared over its head in my vision. 5% of my own HP fell away from the wolf¡¯s attack, but 15% of the mob¡¯s health drained away from my strike. Hanging onto my shoulder, it shook its head which caused some more of my HP to bleed away slowly. The pain of it was shocking! While not quite as sharp as if it were real life, the translation of pain from the game was still quite intense and was enough to make me pause for a moment. The wolf took advantage of the lapse and released my shoulder, head rearing back slightly to position itself to dive at my throat. Reflex was probably the only thing that saved me from receiving critical damage as I brought my arm up to catch the jaws on my new bracers. The pressure was still quite painful, but without the actual tearing feeling of the teeth biting into my flesh, it was tolerable. I had little room to swing a sword properly while stuck on my back, so I willed my weapon to change shape again into a dagger and plunged it into the thick fur of the wolf¡¯s neck as hard as I could. 50% of the health bar drained away with that one attack as I landed a critical hit, the wolf releasing my arm with a pained yelp as it leapt away from me in shock. I quickly jumped to my feet again and shifted my dagger into a sword once more with a glance at my own HP. At 90% still, I knew this fight would be mine, but damn if it didn¡¯t feel like it was a lot closer when I considered the amount of pain from those attacks I received. The wolf only had 35% of its health left and growled at me as it circled, looking for a chance to lunge at me once more. I turned with it, keeping my sword up between me and the beast as I tried to time myself to its movements. As soon as it lifted a paw to take another step, I took the initiative and lunged forward with a swing of my weapon. With a nimble dodge away, the creature quickly changed directed and leapt for me once again when I was over extended from the miss with my blade. Pure luck let me spin my body into a roll in the direction of my momentum, and I felt the passage of the wolf above me as it jumped straight over me in a clean miss. Ha! Like that would work every time¡­ I spun around and caught sight of the wolf crouching down for another leap at me. A quick thought and a bit of focus, and I thrust my weapon forward as it shifted form again just as the wolf left the ground. My weapon just finished changing into a one handed spear as the point impacted the wolf¡¯s chest, piercing the animal deeply with the force of its own momentum. Apparently the game took such measures into account, for the remaining HP fell away from the health bar over the wolfs head and its eyes dulled in death, blood leaking from the wounds I inflicted onto the forest floor as I pulled my weapon free of the dead animal. My breath came in quick gasps from the adrenaline pumping through my body after the fight. It all felt so real, the mild panic in my motions during the battle reflecting the complete lack of skill in fighting as I thought over what happened. I resolved to throw myself into more battles quickly to overcome such reactions. This game was entirely too realistic in design and in order to excel I needed to overcome the inhibitions of my mind during these fights. Even despite knowing it was a game I still acted as if my very life were on the line, and while that might prove beneficial at some point, I needed to keep a clear head in order to ensure I didn¡¯t die and suffer the loss of my gear as well as the death debuff. With a deep and calming breath, I reached down and touched the dead body with my left hand to loot it, receiving a wolf hide and chunk of wolf meat as my prize from the duel. Not bad, as I didn¡¯t expect to find anything of real value on the corpse of an animal and the hide could go to the leatherworker in town if I got some more of them. I had also gotten 50 experience from the fight, but there was no indication of how much I needed in order to level up. After looting the corpse, the body seemed to just fade away to leave a small pool of blood on the ground where it once lay. Convenient, that. I stood up again and looked around me, spotting another wolf a good distance away as it looked at me with those yellow eyes. Now that I was out of combat, my HP was steadily climbing higher and I noticed that my energy had taken a much more severe dip than I anticipated. While it too was climbing again, I noted that it had fallen to about 60% over the course of that short fight and set a mental reminder to keep an eye on it in future encounters. One thing was certain, though. I needed to come up with a better strategy to use against these wolves if I wanted to be efficient in how I dealt with them. The pain of their attacks made me flinch, and I doubted that would be easy to overcome as the sensations just felt all too real here. Maybe if I had gotten into more fights in real life and learned to deal with such things there it would have made a difference, but that wasn¡¯t the case with me. That left me with only one real option. Tactics. The weapon I had at my disposal gave me several possible options to use when confronting these wolves, but the only way I could make sure it worked was by testing myself against them over and over. With a plan in mind, I grinned to myself and started walking towards the next wolf as my bars both finished filling up to full once more. My plan was simple. Close combat with these mobs was a terrible idea when it came down to it, so I decided to use what I learned from the first encounter to my advantage and formed my weapon into a two handed spear to start. Shifting it into a larger weapon took some more concentration, but was easily managed without a problem, especially while out of combat. As I approached the next wolf, I noted that this one was also level 2 with the same colorings and HP which promised a similar encounter compared to the first one. That was a good thing since I wanted to get used to combat here and varying the details too much at once would never allow me any measure of comfort with the actions. Like the first time, the wolf growled and sprang into action as soon as I got within twenty paces of it, which seemed to be its aggro range. Unlike the first fight though, I was ready for the sudden burst of speed it displayed as it charged with a snarl and my long spear was held ready as I watched the movement of the paws. All four feet left the ground for a short time during the run, and I took advantage of the momentary lack of dodge ability to thrust my weapon forward. To my utter surprise, the tip of the spear pierced the wolf¡¯s chest easily, dealing a huge amount of damage and reducing the total life of the animal to 25%! The force of the impact drove me backwards some, but I was more or less ready for it and kept my balance well enough as I twisted my body to throw the wolf off of the spear. With a single thought and force of my will, the spear tip changed shape to a halberd with a crescent axe head which I lifted and swiftly dropped onto the neck of the prone wolf. And just like that I killed my second wolf. It was surprisingly easy once I had seen how the creatures reacted, but at the same time, these were the simplest of mobs that I would be encountering within the game so it was no real shock that they were easy to kill. No matter, it was another 50 experience in the bank. The red arrow directed me farther into the forest and away from both the main road and the city, so I followed a winding course with the cavern as my destination killing more wolves along the way as I encountered them. I was nearly at my destination and had just finished killing my eighth wolf when a couple messages flashed into being within my view.
Congratulations! You have gained a level! Current level: 2 You have 5 stat points available to distribute. Warning! If you die before assigning your points, they will be lost!
Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Polearm Mastery Skill level: 1 (1%) Continuous use of polearms has deepened your understanding of their function and versatility. +1% damage with polearms +1% attack speed with polearms Increase the skill level for additional bonuses.
I grinned to myself at the screens and waved them away in order to pull up my character screen and assign my free points. It was a tough call on where to place them at the moment as I didn¡¯t really have any idea on how I wanted to develop my character now that I was in the game. So much would depend on what kind of Fairy I got that until I had one, there would be no real specialty I could focus on. Those thoughts in mind, I decided to put two more points into Fort, and one each into Str, Agi and Dex. Better to keep myself an all arounder for the time being than to start focusing in on the wrong things, and melee weapons were the only thing I had going for me at the moment. Happy with my choices, I looked over my overall stats again with another smile.
Name: Calamity Player Level: 2 Stat Level: 13 Exp: 500
Title None Fame 0
Armor 9 HPThis story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. 220/220
Energy 195/220 MP 210/210
Str 21 Fort 22
Dex 21 Int 21
Agi 21 Will 20
I hadn¡¯t forgotten about my herbalism skill either during my travels, and had picked a number of common quality plants which sat in my inventory and added a couple percentage points to my skill as well. I had 13 herbs picked and each one added 5% to my skill total, which seemed a bit much but I figured must have diminishing returns at higher skill levels. I focused on my skill list next to check that over again.
Skill List:
Polearm Mastery: lvl 1 (1%)
Inspect: lvl 1 (54%)
Advanced Herbalism: lvl 1 (65%)
Not much so far, but according to the clock on my UI I had only been playing for a little over an hour in the main game world now. Over all I was happy with my current progress, and I was getting more and more used to the combat against the simple mobs of starter level. Yeah, my stat level had a lot to do with how easy the fights were, but I also took into account that most players with a casual account would be grouping up in order to power through the starting zones. As a solo player, I needed to take every advantage I could get! Closing the windows, I looked around in search of the next target but didn¡¯t see any wolves nearby. My mini map showed that the cave wasn¡¯t very far away now, maybe two hundred yards, so I gave up hunting more mobs and started walking towards the marker with renewed vigor. I approached the cave cautiously, wary for any dangers that might be lurking near such an opening. I wouldn¡¯t put it past the AI to have something charge out of the darkness and lash out at me, or even ambush me from outside as my attention was focused on the cave itself. Judging on how much damage I had taken from the level 2 wolves so far, I figured I would be safe enough with whatever happened though so I didn¡¯t hesitate to approach. The cave was a simple opening in a jut of stone that poked up from the ground, the path within leading down sharply for a dozen feet or so until the light from outside couldn¡¯t penetrate any farther. That was going to be a problem if there wasn¡¯t any kind of light source inside I could use. I didn¡¯t have any torches in my inventory, nor any way to light them even if I did. There was no way the game wouldn¡¯t account for new players not having a light source though, so figuring I would find something useful inside to use, I carefully moved into the opening and down the slope. The stone ramp gave just enough traction that I didn¡¯t slide, but it felt like any misstep could end up having that happen anyway if I didn¡¯t place my feet in a smart fashion. With not enough room to use my previous strategy, I shifted my weapon back into a one handed sword just before I ran out of light from the outside. I paused a few more steps in to allow my eyes to adjust and caught a soft glow ahead of me that outlined the walls well enough to navigate, just as I suspected. Still traveling at a downwards angle, I saw that the light ahead was coming from an opening into a hallway which appeared to be more or less flat so that I wouldn¡¯t be descending any more. The closer I got to the level portion of the passage, the brighter the light seemed until I was able to comfortably see normally as I set my feet on even ground again. The light itself turned out to be plants of some strange variety with pods emitting the glow I saw. Cave moss happened to be growing along the walls from which the pods themselves grew out of, each pod roughly the size of my fist and the large quantity of them being the only reason that there was enough light to see by, as each pod only seemed to give off a moderate amount of light individually. Walking down the passage, I looked farther ahead and saw the tunnel curved off to the right with the glowing plants easily lighting the way forward for me as I moved. I wanted to collect one to see if it had any alchemical properties, but as the moss all seemed connected I left that for on my way out just in case any tampering made the glowing stop and plunge me into darkness. It would be just my luck to screw up something useful because I was greedy and while I would be taking one to examine, it was best to wait for the time being. My mini map showed me absolutely nothing, leading me to believe that the map I was given didn¡¯t have any exact details as to what was down here. What got me curious though was why it wasn¡¯t updating as I went along. I put those thoughts aside as I rounded the bend in the passage and saw something amazing open up before me. An underground cavern spread out at the end of the turn in the passage, the walls covered in the moss with glow bulbs scattered all over to illuminate the entire place. The ceiling was a good fifteen feet high here and against the far wall a stream of water ran down the rocks to collect in a deep looking pool around which gathered dozens of Fairies. All of the small figures seemed to notice me at the same time as I watched the throng of heads turn in my direction in unison before the soft sound of many wings reached my ears, the Fairies scattering to little holes dotting the walls. Most likely their homes in this secret oasis. The floor here was still smooth, but sloped slightly down to the edge of the water where it dropped sharply to for a well to which I walked carefully. The heads of a few curious Fairies peeked out from the small cubbies in which they hid, but none dared come out into the open as I dropped down to one knee to look into the water. There was something down there, just at the edge of my sight which I couldn¡¯t quite make out. The water was crystal clear and I was able to see where a dark shape rested within the depths of the pool. Curious to see if a crazy idea would work, I lifted my weapon and tried to imagine a net or a catch pole, something that could reach down into those depths and attempt to retrieve whatever it was that sat down there. Nothing happened to the shifting weapon though, leaving me to assume that it didn¡¯t count as a basic weapon in the games coding. I almost let the matter go, figuring that it was beyond me when I noticed a slight shimmer from the thing down there. The sound of several gasps was heard coming from the walls as a light flashed dimly once again in a fantastical pattern that captured nearly all of my attention. I was aware enough to catch a glimpse of a few of the wild Fairies emerging from their hiding places and flying up high overhead, outside of my reach, as they looked down upon the water right along with me. Deep down in the water, motes of light flared up and collected, swirling around an oval shape that was revealed by the dancing illumination. Faster and faster they spun, condensing tighter and sinking into what looked like a stone until all of the light within the depths sank into the object which seemed to shudder once. A rumble filled the air suddenly, which caused a panic in the Fairies flying around. All of them once again darted to the walls, hiding away as I looked to the source of the sound. A slab of stone quickly settled down to block off the entrance to the cavern, making me curse out loud at what it might mean. A door locking you into a room like this usually meant one thing¡­ Boss fight. There was plenty of room here in this cavern for me to wield a two handed weapon, so I quickly shifted mine into a spear, hoping I would be able to use the same tactics that had been working for me thus far on whatever was coming. The trickling sound of water falling down the wall stopped and drew my attention to where it had once poured into the chamber, and I saw a pair of glowing red eyes at the hole where the waterfall originated. Filling the space that had previously allowed the water to drain into the room, the body of a long snake squeezed through and pushed its way into the chamber. Well fuck me sideways¡­ The thing looked huge as it continued to work its way out into the open. Never one to let an opportunity pass me by however, I quickly used inspect on it to see what I was dealing with.
Grotto Guardian Level: ? HP: ? MP: ? A creature who has lived in the Fairy Grotto for many years and sees all of the winged beings as its personal food supply. The Guardian is very territorial and will try to kill anything that comes in to disrupt the natural order of the Grotto.
Well, so much for anything resembling a lucky break! The creature was still trying to get its mass into the room, but was well within striking range of my spear so I took advantage of its distraction to jab the point of my weapon at the head which was creeping closer to the ground by the moment. The spear point sank into the flesh of the snake just behind one eye which revealed the health bar above its head, now missing 2% of its HP. I cursed at how little damage it took and pulled my weapon back again, letting the momentum to drawing back slide the haft of the spear through my hands and bringing the tip closer. I ripped a vial of the spider venom from a quick access slot on my belt and poured it over the spear, dropping the now empty vial before resetting a proper grip on the weapon again. I didn¡¯t want to have to use one of those precious vials yet, but it seemed like it was now or never. If I died, they would be lost to me anyway. The Guardian was almost fully into the room now, if the slowly narrowing portions of the body sliding through the hole was any indication, so I once again went on the offensive before it got the chance to settle in and try to strike at me. A few more stabs at a head the size of one of the wolves I fought earlier resulted in another 8% of its HP being whittled away before the body finally settled fully before me. A hiss echoed in the cavern as the snake coiled up and glared at me for the little damage I caused to it so far, apparent indignation flaring in those ruby red eyes. Its scales had a dark gray and green pattern to them, but that was all I noticed as it suddenly shot forward to bite at me. A knee-jerk reaction and pure luck saved my ass once more as I twisted my spear just enough so that the haft turned the creatures head aside, missing me by mere inches as it impacted the stone floor to my right. Not wanting to let it strike without a counter, I willed the spear to shift to a halberd and stepped to my left, dropping the axe head down onto the back of its body, dealing a much larger chunk of damage to it than my spear had. Understanding hit me then that the snake was resistant to piercing damage, which mostly just screwed me over as I had become familiar with using the spear up till now. With the adrenaline pumping in my body, I completely forgot about boss mechanics in the heat of the moment and missed the tail as it hit me square in the chest and sent me onto my back a half dozen paces away, a quarter of my HP missing in that one strike. I popped and drank a potion with my left hand as I rose to my feet again, the snake coiling to strike once more as we both returned to equal footing. Its health bar looked to be at about 80% or so, mine a bit higher and climbing slowly back to full as the regen portion of the potion ticked away. Hissing in fury and pain, the snake stared at the cause of its frustrations as I bent my legs slightly, readying myself for the next attack. I didn¡¯t want to be the first one to move, as that would probably leave me wide open to the boss who was obviously much faster than I was. Instead, I waited and watched. The powerful muscles beneath the surface of the Guardians scaled hide flexed and shifted slowly as it coiled tighter, readying itself to spring at me again. Still I waited¡­ I had to time this perfectly if I had any chance of winning the fight. There! I saw a savage bunching of muscles signaling the start of its lunge and leapt to my left as fast as I could while I turned and swung the blade of my halberd down on where I was just standing. A resounding crash came from the snake¡¯s head as its jaws snapped closed on empty air, followed by another as my halberd drove into the top of its head to cause the bottom jaw to smack onto the stone floor. Trying to predict the follow up tail attack, I away from where I stood and looked over to where the attack should be coming from, but saw nothing. The whole snake had stopped moving and I grinned as I suspected the venom had paralyzed the Guardian for 5 seconds. I had wasted two of them to dodge an imaginary attack, but used the rest to get a pair of axe strikes in with my halberd, shaving off more health and leaving the snake at 50% HP. My own HP had just finished filling when the delayed tail attack came right as I was trying to get in one last strike. My hit connected, but I was once more sent tumbling as my HP bar fell to 75% once again. A second potion was consumed as I stood up, but then I barely had time to dive away from my position as the beast had immediately struck again. I had no time to counter attack and continued to jump around, avoiding the follow up this time as the tip of the tail made a whip-like crack in the air right beside me. Breathing heavily, I looked at my energy gauge and cursed. The green bar was down to a quarter with all of the jumping and dodging I was doing, and because I was in combat, the refill rate was abysmally slow. Thankfully the boss was down to 40% HP and was once again studying me from its coiled position critically. I was completely fine with the boss taking its time, as every second I wasn¡¯t making crazy attacks or dodges allowed my energy bar to fill up that much more. I didn¡¯t get to wait too long though, as the boss decided that it wanted to end this sooner rather than later. Once again, I caught the harsh flexing of muscle and jumped to the right this time, slashing down with the blade of my weapon and catching the top of its head again. There was no time for any kind of happy feeling, or jumping away, or anything else as I immediately felt the tail snap against my side to send me on another trip across the rock floor, my HP down to 65% as pain coursed through my battered body. I couldn¡¯t even drink my last potion yet, as that would negate the remaining ten seconds of regen time I still had on my last one. Another curse flew from my mouth as I swiftly got back to my feet. My energy was dangerously low now, only 15% of the bar was full while the snake still had 30% of its HP left. I had just enough time and energy left for one more desperate ploy. The AI had seen me dodge left and right once each, but it hadn¡¯t seen me consciously stand still and counter the lunging strike yet. My last hope was that I would be able to fool the boss into missing me with the follow up tail attack. The AI in control of this boss was definitely living up to my expectations, all things considered. It used a set attack pattern, but was able to shift the patterns enough to make it so that the fight was more realistic! In most every game I had played before, the follow up attack would always be at the same time and place, not following the player around as accurately as this one did and even striking almost at the same time as the primary attack. The sheer challenge of this fight was able to bring a wide smile of enjoyment to my face, despite the pain my body was still feeling as my HP crossed above the 70% mark. Right, time for a last-ditch gamble. All or nothing in the next attack, as I didn¡¯t have the energy remaining to draw this out any longer. Looking back at when I leveled up, I wished I had put all of the points into Fort so I could possibly have had enough energy to finish this conventionally. Oh well, hind sight is twenty-twenty as the saying goes. Following the same patterns as I had the last couple times, I set my body as if I was going to dodge aside and counter again as the snake coiled tightly to lash out at me one more time. In my head, I brought up a new weapon design, but held back on pushing my focus onto the weapon in my hands. This would come down to timing again, and I couldn¡¯t mess it up if it was to work. Even if it did work, I figured I would still have a fifty-fifty shot of surviving. I waited patiently, carefully watching the Guardian as it in turn watched me. Both of us tried to judge where and when the other would strike, and I could see the light of intelligence in the creature¡¯s eyes. Then it happened. As soon as I saw the snake begin it¡¯s strike, I twitched my body to the left slightly, hoping to throw off the aim of its second attack, then dropped immediately to a knee as I forced my weapon to change shape into a boar spear. A long, straight spear with a heavy cross guard at the base of a foot and a half long flat blade, the weapon was designed to stop a charging enraged animal dead in its tracks when the butt of the weapon was planted against the ground and braced by a body. With the mouth of the snake wide open, it couldn¡¯t quite see me when I dropped low and missed the point where I did just what the spear was designed for. The blade punched up into the roof of the boss¡¯ mouth and pierced its head, the shaft bending as the force of the snake¡¯s own attack was stopped by the braced cross guard. A crack in the air signaled that the tail attack would have taken me out before I could counter if I had followed through with the jump to my left. Then everything went still. I was out of energy, and the HP bar over the boss¡¯s head drained away as the critical strike damage I had dealt finished the fight off.
Warning! You are out of energy. For one minute, you are unable to perform any actions or move.
It was the longest sixty seconds of my life as I was frozen in place unable to do anything at all. If my plan had gone sideways in any way, I would be watching as the boss finished me off at its own leisure. By the time my forced paralysis was through, my energy bar had refilled to 25% and my HP was up to 85% due to natural regen. Feeling returned to my limbs almost all at once, and I twisted my spear to the side in order to not get crushed by the head falling on me. Thankfully, when I was unable to move my body had kept the spear braced well enough so that didn¡¯t happen when I couldn¡¯t avoid it. Getting to my feet, I looked around at all the Fairies who were poking their heads out of the hiding places dotting the walls around me and smiled at the shocked expressions still plastered on their faces. I hadn¡¯t noticed how human-like the little beings were until just then, and a laugh bubbled up out of me at the sight. They were still afraid of the snake it seemed, for even with the boss dead, none of them emerged fully from their positions. I bent down and looted the snake, getting a Grotto Guardian Hide, Snake Fang, and a Glowing Ruby Eye. The last item was listed as a Quest item, and was what Vermund had tasked me with retrieving even though it said nowhere in the log book that I had to kill a fucking boss monster to do it! Damn AI and their damn quest systems¡­ As soon as I took the spoils of my efforts, the body faded away without even leaving a pool of blood this time, the floor perfectly clear and clean as if such stains didn¡¯t belong in a refuge for the tiny beings who lived here. Behind me, the stone rumbled again as the door opened up to allow me passage out of the cavern now that the boss had been looted and vanished. A flash of shimmering light caught my attention from the pool of water, and I turned to see the glowing oval object that was at the bottom of the water now floating in the surface at the edge of the small pond. I walked over and picked it up, studying the item that felt like stone in my hand. Now that I was out of combat, an icon flashed at the bottom of my UI showing I had missed messages, and a new window popped up in front of me.
Congratulations! You have completed a hidden quest! Fairies Plight Kill the monster that has plagued the Fairies in the Grotto of Tranquility. For years, the Fairies have lived in fear of the beast that considered them food, it has now fallen upon you to defeat this menace and allow the Fairies to live in peace once more. Quest Complete! Rewards: 500 experience, Unique Fairy Contract Warning! This is a one-time Unique quest. While the boss will respawn in time, these rewards will not appear again.
9) A new partner The hits just kept on coming! I checked the remaining messages that had popped up during combat and saw that I had gained a level in my Polearm Mastery skill on top of a bonus stat point to both my Fort and Will due to depleting my energy completely during the fight. While not the best way I could think of to gain free stat points, who was I to turn such a gift down? I was a little peeved that I hadn¡¯t leveled up from that fight, but seeing as I had just gotten level 2 right before heading into the cave I supposed I shouldn¡¯t have gotten so greedy. Looking back on the fight with the Guardian, I wondered if there were any people watching my stream through the DT promotional website. Surely that would interest a few spectators into joining the game. Lost in thought and flipping through message windows as I was, I didn¡¯t notice the Fairies as they emerged from their hiding spots to fly around me and the pool of water, the flow into the chamber once more streaming down the wall now that the boss was gone and out of the picture. When I finally did finish all of my private musings, I looked up and saw a matronly looking Fairy floating in place before me. Clad in a simple dress of a dark green color, I would have placed her age at around sixty or so if she had been a normal human, but I had no idea if Fairies aged like normal people did. Actually¡­ The thought of where these wild Fairies got their clothes once again distracted me momentarily. Was there a store they could go to for such things? Or did they simply make the clothing themselves with salvaged material? Shaking my head to clear my thoughts of such details, I smiled at the Fairy and gave a nod of greeting. ¡°Hello there. I do hope you will pardon my intrusion into this beautiful cavern.¡± She returned my smile and gave an elegant curtsy while floating in the air on her lovely butterfly-like wings. I noticed her long hair was pure white, the wrinkles on her face further hinting at her old age. ¡°Greetings, Outlander. Nay, there is nothing to apologize for with your presence here at this time. You have done us a great service in slaying the monster, and in fact I find myself in a position where I must thank you for your services.¡± She smirked softly with a knowing look on her wizened features. ¡°Even if you were not aware of our plight before you entered this chamber.¡± I had to let out a small chuckle as she caught me dead to rights on that part. ¡°Yeah, you got me. I was here for a totally different reason, although I must say it is rather fortuitous that I came in any case. No matter the reason for me coming here though, I am honestly glad I was able to help you all out here. That snake was a bully if I ever saw one. My name is Calamity, by the way. What is yours?¡± She joined me in the light laugh, but shook her head slightly at my request for her name. ¡°While you have done us a great service by freeing us from that menace of a creature, our names are not so freely given. I know you humans all want something to call others, so I will say to just call me¡­ Sarah.¡± She tilted her head, as if weighing the name in her own mind. ¡°Yes, that name will do as I find it pleasing. I am sure you aren¡¯t aware of the nature of us Fairies, so I will choose not to take offense at the blunt asking of my name, but do try and remember that for the future?¡± ¡°Forgive me Sarah. I indeed did not know about that, although I am curious as to why it is that way? If it is not too presumptuous of me to ask, that is. I freely admit I am absolutely clueless as to Fairies, as I do not even have a Fairy Contract of my own yet, but would love to know more as I believe I will need to borrow upon the strength of Fairies in the future if I wish to further myself in this world.¡± With a beckoning gesture, Sarah slowly flew off to the side as she headed towards the wall. Once there, she turned and sat on the edge of one of the holes which hid the Fairies earlier. When I approached her she once again began speaking. ¡°Fairies are magical creatures, Calamity. As such, our true names have power over us and we tend to keep them to ourselves when dealing with beings outside of our race.¡± She motioned to the glowing item in my hand, a soft smile on her lips. ¡°That there is a new Fairy that will join this world very shortly. You say that you don¡¯t have a Fairy Contract yet, so I offer you this one here and now.¡± The tone of her words shifted, a sense of power infusing her speech as she went on. ¡°Protect this life, guard it against the profane horrors of the world. Treat this soul well and with kindness, and in return may it grant you the power you seek in order to attain the heights to which you desire.¡± When the sound of the old Fairy¡¯s voice faded away, a new screen opened up before me while I stood awkwardly with what I thought was a curious bauble held in one hand.
Congratulations! You have been offered a Contract with a Unique Fairy that will be born into the world just for you. By agreeing to the terms of this Contract as set forth by a Fairy Matriarch, you will be joined with this new soul and become bonded as Companions. Will you agree to these terms? Yes / No
Well, that was as dumb of a question as I had ever heard before¡­ Yes! I focused and accepted the terms of the Contract without any outward indication of my inner joy. The moment felt solemn and sacred, and I sure as hell didn¡¯t want to ruin it by doing anything stupid, so I spoke in as polite a tone as I could. ¡°I agree to these conditions whole-heartedly, and will do my best to ensure the safety and wellbeing of my Companion.¡± With another warm smile, Sarah bobbed her head in acceptance of my words and motioned once more to the, well I guessed it was an egg, in my hand. ¡°Then the only thing that remains to seal this Contract is to hold the soul stone in both hands and focus your will upon it. Search within it for the true name of your new Companion, seek it out and beckon to it in your mind to call it forth. Only then will the Contract be complete.¡± I honestly had no idea how exactly Sarah intended me to do what she said, but I would sure as hell try my best in order to not lose out on this opportunity. Lifting the soul stone in my hands so it rested cupped in both of my palms, I closed my eyes and tried to focus on the item carefully. A strange pulsing came from the object, the waves emanating from it were extremely faint as they flowed into my hands, but I felt them acutely as I concentrated. How it happened I will probably never understand, but as I stood there I felt an odd sensation within my mind. Not quite words, not quite pictures¡­ It was more like emotion or a feeling that began to take shape in my thoughts, growing and shaping into a sense of rightness. The sensation grew slowly in both depth and clarity in a time frame that somehow felt like hours and mere seconds at the same time until a name took form in my thoughts. When the structure of it solidified, I called it out in my mind, not daring to utter it aloud and break myself out of this trance I was in. Alysandaria. A bright flash of light nearly blinded me despite my eyes being shut as the weight in my hands shifted suddenly. Blinking rapidly to clear my vision, focus slowly returned to my sight as I looked upon the tiny being in my hands. The first thing I noticed was the bright electric blue color of her long hair, the color a shocking difference compared to all of the normal hues I had seen upon Fairies thus far in the game. Four thin wings like those of a dragonfly extended out behind her back and over the tips of my fingers, the Fairy¡¯s legs tucked underneath her body as she sat calmly. Eyes the same color of her hair were part of a pretty face, as I had yet to see an ugly Fairy, and she appeared to be fully grown despite having just been born. Sarah¡¯s words cut into the silence that had fallen over the area, startling me with the sudden intrusion to the stillness. ¡°Congratulations Calamity, and welcome to the world Alysandaria.¡± The old Fairy had a joyful smile on her face, her eyes shining with the reflection of her emotions. I frowned slightly as Sarah spoke the name of my Fairy aloud. ¡°Wait, why are you saying her true name so casually? I thought it was a bad thing to do among your kind?¡± My game play was being streamed to the world at all times, and I sure as hell didn¡¯t want to give other players a leg up on me just because they knew my Companion¡¯s name. ¡°Do not worry, Calamity.¡± It wasn¡¯t Sarah who responded to me, but Alysandaria who spoke up in a high musical voice. ¡°Once a Contract has been formed, only my bonded partner can use my name to draw power from me.¡± The weight of her small body lifted out of my hands as she flew up into the air a little, smoothing her simple white dress out as she smiled. ¡°Nice to meet you, by the way.¡± Before I could respond, or even react, to her words, a message box appeared in my sight with a deep bell tone accompanying it unlike any other sound I had heard so far in the game.
To all within Realm of Infinity, Rejoice! A new Unique Fairy has been born into the world! The power this wonderful being has chosen is now unable to be obtained by any other Fairy until such a time has come that it is released from its Contract.
I waved away the box that I assumed was a system-wide announcement just in time for another message to appear before me.
Congratulations! You have successfully formed a Contract with the Unique Fairy Alysandaria! As the first player to have bonded a Unique Fairy, you have been awarded +100 fame.
Once again I waved the window away after reading it over. I was happy about getting an extra reward from this, but I still hadn¡¯t ready anything where fame was concerned. Going off of all the other games I had played, I assumed it would have something to do with unlocking new quests and being able to build relations with NPCs more easily, but it was still just a speculation when it came to this game. I turned my attention back to my Fairy and couldn¡¯t hold back a happy grin. ¡°It is nice to meet you too, Alysandaria. May I call you just Aly?¡± Her name really was a mouthful, and hopefully the AI controlling her wouldn¡¯t punish me for not wanting to spit the long name out every time I needed her attention. ¡°Of course!¡± She seemed overly excited at that, and looked at Sarah as she flew in a quick circle around my head. ¡°Matriarch, I got a nickname already!¡± My companion sounded just like a child who was praised, and it drew a laugh from both myself and the older Fairy sitting and watching the exchange. ¡°Wonderful, my dear! A lovely name both in full and shortened version.¡± Sarah focused on me once more and waved a hand at my partner. ¡°Alysandaria¡­¡±Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. ¡°Aly!¡± My Fairy cut in sharply, placing her hands on her hips and glaring at Sarah. ¡°Ahem¡­ Yes. Aly here is obviously still young, but she will mature quickly as you experience the world together. To that end, you will need to supply her with your mana in order for Aly to use her powers. The bond you two share will make that easy with practice, and the more mana you can supply her, the stronger of a manifestation she can create.¡± The elderly Fairy had taken on a lecturing tone like one of my college professors in a way I found amusing and had to bite my lip to keep from laughing again. She frowned slightly however, and studied Aly carefully. ¡°What is odd though, is that I cannot tell what exactly her powers are¡­ It is strange as I can normally tell exactly what my kind are capable of just by looking at them.¡± That seemed a little ominous. ¡°Uhm¡­ Could it possibly have to do with me being an Outlander?¡± I hadn¡¯t tried to use my inspect skill on Aly yet, but turned towards her now so I could focus and do so. Another odd thing happened when nothing came up at all. I felt inside of me when the skill worked, but nothing happened and no window appeared to show me her information. ¡°Maybe. At least I hope that is the case. Calamity, try and feel the bond in your mind and will your mana into her.¡± Sarah quickly held up a hand and added more into her advice. ¡°Just a little bit, mind you. I want to see if you need to somehow activate her abilities before they become apparent.¡± I shrugged, figuring it couldn¡¯t hurt to try. There were no actual spells within the game from what I read, and to use the power of a Fairy one had to do just as Sarah said and feed mana into the Companion while imagining what you wanted to happen. As it was described in the manual, one would have to feed mana to a Fire type Fairy and picture a fireball in order to create the equivalent manifestation. Simple enough, in theory at least¡­ From the moment that Aly was ¡®born¡¯ I had felt a connection to her, subtle though it was, and that bond is what I focused on. I couldn¡¯t exactly feel my mana, but the mere knowledge I had it gave me the motivation to try and push a sense of power through that link and towards the eight inch tall woman floating beside me as I stared at her. Those bright eyes of Aly¡¯s began to glow softly with their exotic color, giving me hope that the process was working even without me consciously picturing what I wanted to happen. With a blur of movement, Aly dashed through the air with a cry of glee at a speed the eye wasn¡¯t able to quite follow. She was able to fly all the way to the far side of the cavern and back within the span of three seconds before she stopped right in front of my face. The shock of her sudden solidifying appearance there broke my concentration and caused the flow of mana to stop, her eyes losing their glow. ¡°Oh my god that was so fun! Do it again Calamity!¡± She clasped her hands in front of her pleadingly as her gaze begged me to resume the flow of energy to her. Despite having the image of a fully grown twenty-two year old woman, if downsized to eight inches tall, Aly¡¯s personality was still that of a much younger girl and made me laugh with her innocence. ¡°Sure, sure.¡± I went to push my mana into her once again, and blinked. ¡°Eh?¡± I couldn¡¯t feel anything to give to the tiny Fairy¡­ My vision went to my mana bar at the top left of my UI and I frowned. It was almost completely empty! Aly had taken over 200 mana in the span of three seconds, that glutton! ¡°Uhm, it seems you will have to wait a bit, Aly. I am all out of mana, sorry.¡± My bonded Companion pouted and flew over to flop her negligible weight onto my shoulder, her bare feet kicking into my collarbone in irritation. Sarah, meanwhile, had kept her gaze on the younger Fairy with curiosity. ¡°Ahhh, now I see what she is capable of. Calamity, you too should now be able to get a read on young Aly here. Quite fascinating really, if I may say so.¡± Interested, I once again tried to use inspect on Aly and was rewarded with a result this time.
Alysandaria the Chronomancer Level: 1 Type: Support Born in the Grotto of Tranquility, Alysandaria is the Contracted bond partner to Calamity. Upon entering the world, she has chosen dominion over the power of time itself and can grant enhancing effects to others with her abilities. Skills: True Haste
Such an awesome Fairy to have received as my first Contract! The possible potential of such a Fairy really blew my mind, though I doubted the devs and AI would allow the effects to get too carried away and OP. She did only have one skill so far, and I had heard of a Haste spell before, but this one was slightly different in name. I tried to focus on the skill itself and opened up an explanation.
True Haste A Unique Skill known only to Alysandaria the Chronomancer. Unlike a normal Haste ability, True Haste actually modifies how a target perceives time itself. The effects are similar as the target will have increased movement and attack speed, but the True Haste skill also lets the target think faster than normal as their whole body will be moving at a faster rate of time. Time increase: 20% MP cost: 30MP/s (Cost is calculated and paid in relation to the time perceived by the target of the skill)
Well, that explained how I burned through all of my mana in no time at all. While three seconds had passed to my mind, seven had passed for Aly as she flew through the air. Doing the calculations in my head, it still seemed a bit off to me. If she only grants an extra 20% with the skill, how did she move so fast¡­? As if reading my thoughts, Sarah explained her opinion on the matter. ¡°Don¡¯t hope to move as fast as Aly did just then for quite a long time, Calamity. As a Fairy, she can use the skills full potential on herself from the start, while only being able to impart a portion of the ability to others, yourself included. While support classification Fairies are rare, they aren¡¯t so uncommon that we do not know how they operate.¡± I nodded, thinking I understood the Matriarch and her words. ¡°Got it. But at least that gives me a good idea of what the skill will let me do in the future. Even still, I think it will be quite interesting to see just how Aly here will grow.¡± I caught a glimpse at the clock on my UI and did a double take. Damn, it was already past three in the afternoon and I had only leveled up once so far! Not to mention that there was an icon flashing by the clock that I had missed. It must have been the warning to log out. ¡°Hmmm¡­ It is getting late in the afternoon, Sarah. Is there anything else I should know before we head on back to town? There is a lot I need to get done, and not much daylight left to do it in.¡± ¡°No, not that I can think of at the moment. But please, don¡¯t be a stranger to us here Calamity. You have done us a great service, and even if the others are quite shy, we do appreciate what you have done and will always welcome you here.¡± The old Fairy smiled warmly at me before shifting her gaze to Aly as she sat on my shoulder. ¡°And Aly, you behave yourself and do everything you can to help your partner. Upholding a Contract is a Fairy¡¯s greatest responsibility in life.¡± In a serious moment, Alysandaria nodded her head in agreement. ¡°Of course, Matriarch. I have all of the inherited memories, although it is difficult to sort through them all at the moment. I swear I will do my best.¡± With a final wave of farewell and round of well-wishing, I turned us back towards the entrance to the chamber and headed out of the cave. I paused at the last of the glowing bulbs and looked at it wistfully, but decided that I couldn¡¯t risk taking one in the off chance that it would ruin all of the remaining bulbs. Pretty sure I would feel bad for the wild Fairies if I took away their light source just because I wanted a sample of a plant. Sighing at my display of altruism, I carried on and left the cave passage and emerged out into the open air again. I normally wasn¡¯t one to be bothered by tight spaces, but being out of the cave seemed to lift a weight off my shoulders I hadn¡¯t realized was there. A deep breath of fresh air seemed to lift my spirits, and I noted that my mana bar had almost completely refilled. ¡°Right then. Ready to take on a few wolves on the way back to town Aly?¡± I wanted to try out this True Haste skill, and having a baseline already set for the wolves around here I would be able to judge just how effective this skill was. Her small form leapt from her seated position on my shoulder to fly ahead of me eagerly. ¡°Yup! Let¡¯s show those things what we can do!¡± She spotted one of the wolves as it emerged from behind a tree thirty yards away and froze. A sudden squeak came from her mouth before she turned and dived behind me. ¡°Actually, on second thought¡­ You show them and I will stay out of the way.¡± I laughed at her and shook my head, willing my weapon into a normal spear shape and starting off towards the wolf. ¡°This is just a weak mob! What are you going to do if we run into another creature like the Grotto Guardian?¡± ¡°Eeep!¡± I could feel her bury her face into the back of my neck as she tried to hide herself even more. ¡°Don¡¯t even joke about that Calamity! I never want to see a thing like that for myself. I am glad I was still locked up in my soul stone and didn¡¯t see that one outside of the memories I got when I awoke.¡± Actually, those words brought up the question of how that all worked. Inherited memories? Must be the way that the game allowed a new Fairy to be born fully grown and functional. I should have asked Sarah before we left, but I had already wasted enough time in the Grotto and wanted to get on with the game. I banished those thoughts from my mind as I got nearer to the wolf, the growl from the beast rippling through the air. No time to consider such things now, it was time to have some fun! ¡°Aly, what do you need me to do in order to give me True Haste?¡± The little Fairy flew straight up into the air high enough that the wolf wouldn¡¯t be able to get at her with a jump and giggled at me. ¡°Silly, just send me mana with the intent to gain the skill. I will handle the rest.¡± Could it really be that easy? Considering what I had read from the manual it actually should be, but now that I was in a position to actually use a Fairy¡¯s power I had my doubts. Well at the very least I knew I could handle a single wolf without any issues if the skill didn¡¯t work right. I charged straight at the beast while starting to feed mana to Aly with the thought of using True Haste on myself. The wolf charged towards me at the same time, but as it did so Aly¡¯s skill washed over me and the creature seemed to slow down a good bit. In fact, everything around me slowed down¡­ A leaf falling through the air as it fell from a branch above floated gracefully down towards the ground in slow motion while my own actions didn¡¯t feel effected at all. It was interesting to experience, and I was distracted almost to the point where I missed the wolf leaping towards my throat even with the Haste skill activated. While the world around me was moving slower, it wasn¡¯t quite like slow motion in a movie as things still moved somewhere between that aspect and normal speed. The edge was more than enough for me to anticipate the wolf¡¯s movements and shift my body to the side, my spear jabbing forward to catch the beast right in the eye. It was quite easy to adjust my aim to match the slowed motion of the animal and my strike was true, causing a fatal crit to the mob in once attack! As soon as my spear connected with the wolf, I cut the flow of mana to Aly and checked my mana bar. Almost half of it was gone already, and I realized that this wasn¡¯t going to turn into a free ride skill. The cost was just way too high for this to carry me through an extended fight. Timing was going to be important if I was to make full use of Aly¡¯s power. Clapping could be heard above me as the body of the wolf settled to the ground unmoving, my Fairy dropping down to eye level as she grinned at me. ¡°Good job Calamity! You showed that wolf who was boss. Though I don¡¯t suppose it will remember that for future meetings¡­¡± I laughed again at her words while looting the creature, another wolf pelt added to the pile in my inventory. ¡°No, I don¡¯t think it will. Pretty sure it won¡¯t be remembering anything from now on.¡± The corpse faded away as I stood up straight and turned in the direction of Tyrith. ¡°Right, let¡¯s head off to town. I have some things to take care of and there are a bunch of wolves between here and the city to try and stop us.¡± ¡°Ha!¡± Aly snorted her thoughts on that happening and settled down to sit on my shoulder for a free ride. ¡°With how easily you managed that one, I am pretty sure I can just take a nap while you prance back to the city.¡± I marveled at the Fairy. Not twenty minutes ago she had seemed like a child and already I could feel her maturing in mentality. It must be her sorting out all of the memories she was born with but didn¡¯t have straightened out in her mind. I was secretly happy that I didn¡¯t have to deal with that initial personality for long, as I was never one who did well with children over long periods of time. ¡°Yeah, yeah. You go ahead and sleep the journey away if you want. I can handle the few wolves we run into on the way¡­¡± She didn¡¯t really take a nap while I walked, and floated up into the air during the two other fights I had before arriving at the city gates once more. I noticed that the wolves gave me less exp now that I was the same level as them, and I didn¡¯t want to waste time on the small fry when my SL was so much higher than the area I was in. I had also been using True Haste whenever my mana was full, wanting to get used to the feeling of being effected by the skill. As soon as I entered Tyrith, I put my weapon away and called up my character sheet to see where I was at now.
Name: Calamity Player Level: 2 Stat Level: 13 Exp: 1420
Title None Fame 100
Armor 9 HP 230/230
Energy 230/230 MP 154/210
Str 21 Fort 23
Dex 21 Int 21
Agi 21 Will 21
Skill List:
Polearm Mastery: lvl 2 (19%)
Inspect: lvl 1 (68%)
Advanced Herbalism: lvl 1 (65%)
10) Welcome to the fold Now that I was back in the city, there were a few things I wanted to do before going to see Captain Vermund. My first stop was to pop into the alchemist shop and smile at the old man as I dumped eighteen herbs of various types onto the counter. Some were useful for poisons, some for potions of basic quality, but all were useful to him. He once again offered to teach me alchemy, but I declined for the time being with the promise that I would go out the next day and gather a large stock of herbs in order to learn the profession when I had an hour or so to spare. Instead, I left the shop with the man promising to have several potions and poisons ready for me in the morning and would pay me for what was leftover then. My second stop was to the leather armor shop where I had received my bracers and belt, and that visit was a bit more interesting. When I stepped inside, the woman who ran the shop greeted me warmly. ¡°Ah, welcome back! I hope your adventures went well?¡± I waved at her and nodded with a smile of my own. ¡°Indeed they did! And I have to say, the armor you sold me went a long way in helping it turn out for the best.¡± I moved over to the counter and withdrew the seven wolf hides I had looted. Not all of the wolves dropped one, which seemed kind of silly to me, but I didn¡¯t need to skin the beasts to get them at least. ¡°I brought some materials for you if you can use them!¡± She stepped over to the pile of pelts and grinned as she flipped through them with a nod. ¡°Oh of course I can use them! As for what they make, well the armor you can get out of these will surely be better than what you have on¡­¡± ¡°Well, that is good to know, but I actually had something else in mind for my own armor if you can use it¡­¡± By this point, Aly knew what I had in mind and flew out of the store quickly so as not to see the large bundle of snake hide I pulled out of my inventory next. ¡°I really wanted to see if you can do anything with this one.¡± Her eyes went huge and round as she gazed upon the Grotto Guardian Hide folded up in my hands. The item was the size of the snake I had killed, and weighed a good thirty pounds on its own. ¡°That¡­ I¡­¡± She stammered a bit and took the bundle from my arms. ¡°Yes! This is actually perfect! With this hide I will be able to make a full armor set, with a bonus, and hopefully break into the master ranks of my craft finally!¡± I couldn¡¯t help but grin at her, and waved my hand at the wolf pelts. ¡°Would these be good enough as a payment for crafting that set for me then? If you need more, I can try and get some money together. Even with bringing the materials, I assume you will still require some compensation for your work.¡± The woman nodded her head to me, her eyes still glued to the Grotto snake hide in her hands. ¡°Yeah, that will be more than enough. Come back tomorrow before you leave the city for the day and I will have it ready for you. My name is Amara, by the way.¡± ¡°Sounds good to me then Amara. I am Calamity. I will visit you again before I leave in the morning.¡± I waved and then left the shop to find Aly so we could head up to Vermund¡¯s building. I thought about it, and decided I should probably log out for a bite to eat and to take care of other business instead. I wasn¡¯t sure how long of a spiel Vermund would have for me when I turned in my quest to him. Once I was outside again, Aly flew down onto my shoulder and stretched her arms out in front of her body. I was curious about something, so I decided to just ask the Fairy about it before any nasty surprises popped up. ¡°Hey Aly, what happens to you when I return to my world? I am an Outlander and shift between my own world and this one quite frequently¡­¡± ¡°Oh that is easy enough to explain.¡± She shrugged her shoulders and drummed her bare heels against my collarbone lightly. ¡°Since we are bonded by a Contract, I will go to the ?ther Realm until you return to Grendor. In that plane, a Fairy goes into a kind of stasis where we don¡¯t notice the passage of time.¡± ¡°I see. Well I am glad you won¡¯t be stuck flying around here bored until I come back. I need to go back to my world for a short time, but I will return in a little while.¡± I smiled at Aly and called up my menu in order to log out. ¡°No problem. From what I know, it is like a peaceful rest for us to spend time in the ?ther Realm, so take your time.¡± I didn¡¯t reply to her, instead focusing on the log out button. A pale light surrounded Aly and her body vanished right before I blinked my eyes and found myself in the white ready room between the game and my waking body. Looking around this place, it reminded me almost of a hospital room with its smooth white walls and stark lighting. I would have to spend some time eventually to figure out how to change the room around to be more inviting, if I could. Not now though¡­ Now I needed food. I could feel my hunger in the real world like a distant echo, and I wanted to get that taken care of quickly. To log out of the ready room, I only had to touch a pad on the wall opposite the door to RoI to bring up a ¡®Return to real world?¡¯ menu. Accepting that, darkness closed in around me and my reality slowly returned to stare at the roof of the tube inside of the immersion machine. Soreness hit me like a ton of bricks and I groaned faintly as the table began to slide my body out of the tube. All of my muscles felt like I had spent way too long at the gym, and that wasn¡¯t even counting the pangs of hunger coming from my belly. ¡°Welcome back Dale. Please take your time and be careful when standing up please. Until your body gets used to the experience of the immersion device you will be a bit sore upon logging out.¡± Jensen¡¯s voice called out from the hidden speakers. ¡°Yeah, I feel it, trust me. Ugh¡­ Why do I feel like I got beaten up Jensen?¡± As soon as the table stopped moving, I swung my legs over the side and sat up to remove the cap from my head and neck, then stretched my body carefully to try and relieve some of the pain. It helped, but only slightly. ¡°In order for you to feel the realism of the game, the machine sends out tiny stimulating impulses to the muscles of your body to allow your brain to feel what happens inside the game itself. Dumadine Technology does not yet have the ability to directly plant those impulses into the brain, and the muscle fatigue is a side effect of the process used currently, as your muscles are actually twitching slightly while you are inside of the game world and performing actions.¡± Hmm... That was quite interesting, but at the same time it really sucked. Oh well, nothing I could do about it except get used to the sensations. The human body was quite an effective organism and I knew I would soon get used to it, and my muscles would soon function properly when I log out in the future. Of course, it would take several more sessions in order for that to happen, but it was only a little pain. What really shocked me was the suddenness of it as soon as I regained awareness. ¡°Right then. Up we go.¡± I stood carefully, wobbling slightly as my legs had a slight case of that jelly-like feeling that comes about after a session in the gym on leg day. Balance came quickly, and I walked slowly out of the room and out into the hall to head downstairs for some food. I figured I would grab a small snack, step into the gym for some light exercise to work the soreness out of my body, then I would sit down for a proper lunch. Or dinner, as the time was getting closer to then anyway. My whole routine only took me an hour before I walked back into my room. Nobody else was about in the complex, all of them still either logged into the game or recuperating in private to deal with the aches of surfacing into the real world. I was still a bit sore, but a hot shower did wonders on top of the gentle exercise I did in the gym before eating and I was now ready to dive back into the game. Surprisingly, I was just as excited to log in now as I was earlier. The realism of the game world, the power I could feel there, all of it just seemed addicting. In all of the games I had played to date, none had captured my attention as thoroughly as Realm of Infinity seemed to be doing. The cap replaced and strapped around my neck, I laid on the table and pressed the start sequence on the lip of the tube to draw myself in. The soft hum of the machine whirred to life around me as Jensen informed me the launch countdown. Darkness, then a bright flash, and I was back in the ready room staring across the small space at the door with the game logo. An almost childish grin split my face as my hands rubbed together in anticipation of diving back into the game world. I walked steadily forward and pushed through the door, logging back into RoI with eagerness. The familiar sensation of vertigo hit me, but vanished quickly as I blinked my eyes open to view the city of Tyrith before my sight. Another flash of light on my left made me look over to see Aly appear beside me with a yawn. She greeted me warmly and I returned the salutations, then she took her place on my shoulder for the trek through town. I didn¡¯t realize it before, but the way the townsfolk acted towards me was as a complete stranger to this world. Now, with Aly bonded to my character, I could feel a sense of acceptance from the NPCs. They saw not just an Outlander, but someone who had managed to make a Contract with a Fairy and looked to be on good terms with the small being. From what I gathered by looking at the NPCs, they valued their Fairies highly so me doing the same raised me a bit in their esteem. Striding down the road, I noticed again the various stores and buildings lining the main street. One in particular caught my attention, the clothes on display looking to be tailor made for Fairies. Once I got some money in my pouch I decided to see what they had available, but with almost no funds it would be a waste of time. Quickly enough I made it back to the keep and the two-story building containing Captain Vermund and his desk. I pushed inside and strode across the floor to stand a few paces back from the man as he was once again looking through papers. Busy man, this NPC. Thankfully, Vermund only ignored me for a minute while he scrawled on a piece of parchment. Once finished, he set the quill down and rose to his full height to eye me up and down. I noticed his gaze catch on Aly, and the corners of his lips twitched slightly as if hinting at a smile. ¡°Well, I see you made it back alive and have followed part of my orders¡­¡± His hard gaze locked with mine as he waited for me to prove I completed the rest. ¡°Yes¡­ Uhm. Here.¡± I reached into my inventory and brought out the Glowing Ruby Eye, stepping forward to set it onto the desk. ¡°You know, you could have warned me that this thing was part of a gigantic fucking snake¡­¡± The grimace on my face made Vermund chuckle as he lifted the item up in his hand to look it over. He nodded in satisfaction and placed it in a drawer of his desk. ¡°Now why would I do that, Calamity? House Tyrith doesn¡¯t take just anybody in, and a trial is necessary in order to make sure only the worthy are given entry to this faction.¡±
Quest Completed! You have completed the quest Vermund¡¯s Trial Reward: 200 experience, 25 silver, Acceptance into House Tyrith.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Due to your going above and beyond the definition of the quest by returning with a Unique Fairy, you have been awarded an upgraded rank within the faction. Speak with Vermund to learn more.
Congratulations! You have gained a level! Current level: 3 You have 5 stat points available to distribute. Warning! If you die before assigning your points, they will be lost!
Nice. Looked like I had to hit 1500 exp in order to make level 3. My stat points would have to wait for a bit though, as I still had to talk with this NPC more apparently. I doubted he would appreciate me messing with my character screens when I was supposed to be listening to him. I dismissed the windows and focused my attention on Vermund again. ¡°Now that you have proven yourself quite well to me, I can officially give you a position in the ranks here.¡± He drew out yet another paper from his desk and lifted his quill to write some things down on it. ¡°Seeing as you were quite productive in the results of your task, I think we can fit you in with a title of Nightblade. Not exactly high up on the list in the grand scheme of things, but still more than a normal new recruit would get, so be grateful.¡± The paper was slid across the desk towards me, and when I went to pick it up, it vanished with a new window opened before me.
Congratulations! You have gained a Title within the faction: House Tyrith Your rank: Nightblade A rank 3 title, you are now eligible to receive Faction Quests from those of higher rank than you within your faction. You will now also receive the following bonuses to your character: 1. +3 Str, +3 Dex, +1 Int 2. Upon level up, you will receive +1 to a random stat 3. Upon level up, you will receive +1 to two random skills. (Skill level bonus can possibly effect the same skill twice.) Warning! Leaving the faction will remove the first effect bonus from your character, but the level up rewards will stay with you.
I nearly jumped for joy at the perks of joining a faction, and seeing the bonuses I got upon level up made me grin from ear to ear. I quickly pulled up my character screen, and my smile faded away as quickly as it came. I didn¡¯t receive the bonus for making level 3¡­ Damn. Oh well, I was still a low level character so I had plenty of opportunity to make use of these perks. ¡°Thank you, Captain Vermund. I will strive to make sure I do my best to represent this House.¡± I embellished my words with a grateful bow to the hulking NPC. ¡°Is there any chance you could tell me more about House Tyrith by chance? I would wish to know more about the faction I am now allied with.¡± I had thought the Captain would give me a derisive answer, but I was pleasantly surprised to see a look of approval on the older man¡¯s face. ¡°A good topic to start your career here.¡± He circled around his desk to lean against the front of it just to my left, his arms crossing over his chest. ¡°Although, it isn¡¯t a short subject¡­ To start, I think I should bring you up to date on the current course of Grendor.¡± ¡°This continent is divided up into seven parts. The central providence is the Royal Domain, with six providences surrounding this central area. Each of the six outlying providences are ruled by a different House, and every House is always vying for control of the central domain. The House who controls the Royal Throne can control the tide of the continent itself. For the past two hundred years, the six Houses have warred, negotiated, and performed treacherous acts all in the name of gaining dominance over the rest and claiming the throne for themselves. All of this was to no avail though, as no House has yet succeeded to date.¡± ¡°Roughly fifty years ago, a new prophecy had surfaced which caused a lull in the power struggle of the land. That prophecy was of the arrival of you Outlanders and the power you would be able to gain the more time in this world you spent. Every House saw the benefit of these Outlanders immediately and switched focus from destroying each other outright to preparing for the arrival of these new people. Every Lord and Lady in Grendor began to hoard their power, accumulating wealth, weapons and armor in order to buy the Outlanders into their service. Even Lord Tyrith is of this mind set, despite me telling him that only the strongest should be welcome among this House.¡± ¡°So for fifty years, the land has known a form of peace. Not quite bloodless, as Houses still try to sabotage the others, but nowhere near as bad as before the prophecy was given. This all brings us to now, with you - an Outlander - standing here before me. House Tyrith has always been one of the stronger Houses within Grendor, although our might isn¡¯t what one might consider normal. We strive for power of all kinds here, be it honorable or otherwise, and a person¡¯s position within the House is determined by that strength. Due to you bringing back a powerful Companion, you were given an according rank here. There is still plenty of room for you to grow, and there are many ranks ahead of you should you wish to rise in power with House Tyrith.¡± ¡°Among our ranks we include many different skill sets, some of which are shunned by the other Houses, but since they are a power to be reckoned with we welcome them here. At least so long as they prove themselves useful to our cause that is. We do not allow slackers and laggards to remain in House Tyrith, so remember to keep up the same quality of effort you have shown me today and you may well rise far in our fold.¡± ¡°Now then, that is a history and explanation of the state of the continent as a whole. As to how the state of affairs look for us right this moment¡­ Well, we are between a rock and a hard place.¡± He grimaced slightly and rubbed a hand over his face. ¡°Besides you, only two others have arrived to this providence to join House Tyrith. We were actually expecting many more, but if it comes down to it I would honestly prefer quality to quantity.¡± He chuckled ruefully then and shook his head slightly. ¡°Anyway, Lord Tyrith and I both have the same goal in mind, but we need our Outlander recruits to get stronger before we can put some of these plans into motion. Towards that end, I will have several tasks that I can give you as they come up. Maybe not the most entertaining things ever, but it should help you well enough anyway.¡± Vermund seemed to have wound down with his talking, and it left me with countless questions after hearing all he had to say. Most importantly was what the plans were that he and the Lord had in mind and how I fit into them. I was glad to see there were others who completed the Trial in a similar way that I had too. Perhaps if they were serious enough about the game I would be able to count on some help when going forward with the main story quests¡­ I was just about to ask a few questions of the NPC when he spoke up again. ¡°Anyway, you need to get stronger. To the west of Tyrith City lay some old ruins overrun with goblins and other monsters. Your first task as a member of House Tyrith is to get some better equipment, then clear out these problems and bring me back the Banner of the Goblin Chief. You should have enough coin to buy yourself a new weapon and another piece or two of armor, so don¡¯t come back until you have obtained the Banner and grown stronger.¡±
Quest Received! Show of force. Captain Vermund has tasked you with clearing out an infestation of Goblins and other creatures that have settled into the Old Ruins to the west of Tyrith City. You must also grow stronger before you can receive the next portion of tasks, so don¡¯t hold back and let your enemies know how dedicated you are! Requirements: Kill Goblins: 0/30 Kill Creatures: 0/15 Banner of the Goblin Chief: 0/1 Level: 3/10 Reward: experience, coin Bonus rewards available based upon unknown variables.
Vermund waved me away, then walked back behind his desk as if I was no longer in the same room as him. Damn, that was one callous NPC¡­ I didn¡¯t get to ask any of my questions, and I was pretty sure that he wouldn¡¯t be a fan of mine if I were to lay into him with them now. Grumbling under my breath, I left the building. As soon as we were outside, Aly let out a long breath from her position on my shoulder. ¡°Hah¡­ That man is so intense I was afraid to move, let alone make any kind of comments!¡± I chuckled at the little Fairy and shook my head. ¡°Oh, he isn¡¯t that bad really. A bit serious and maybe more than a bit of an ass, but he has a lot on his plate I think. He didn¡¯t have to fill me in on everything he did, but the fact he told me all of that puts him in a better light in my books.¡± ¡°That is all well and good for you Calamity, but he is gigantic to someone my size and I thought I was going to die if I breathed wrong¡­¡± She flew up off my shoulder and circled my head a few times. ¡°So what are we doing next? You can¡¯t get the stuff from the shops until morning, and it is starting to get late¡­ Night time isn¡¯t exactly friendly to people outside of the city walls.¡± Shrugging my shoulders at her comments, I thought about what I needed to do yet. ¡°Well, I need to spend some time figuring out my stats for a bit, then I suppose we can head to a couple more shops before they close and end the day at a tavern.¡± I paused and tilted my head at Aly. ¡°Actually, do Fairies eat and drink like Humans?¡± Aly giggled and shook her head. ¡°Not quite. We can enjoy food and drink if we want, but we survive on mana. That is why we are happy to make a Contract with people. They feed us mana in large quantities and allow us to grow stronger than we ever could alone.¡± ¡°I see¡­ Then we can have a drink together to celebrate our Contract!¡± Aly grinned at that, spinning in a happy circle through the air at the prospect of a party. The first thing I wanted to do though was assign my stat points. Now that I had a Fairy, I would have to start placing them in a smarter fashion or I would fade away into the crowd of average players¡­ There was a bench along the wall of the building, so I took a seat to stay out of the way and looked over my stats quickly to see where I was at, and thought about how I would be going forward with the game in general. So far, my Strength and Dexterity were my highest stats, with Fortitude right behind them. Aly¡¯s power gave me an advantage in melee combat, and so far I had been doing fairly well on that front but I wanted to do more than just hack and slash in this game. Well, I should be able to add to my options as I grew in level and acquired my second and third Fairies. In respect to Fairies though, I would need to boost up my mana pool and regen rates if I wanted to be able to use their power more. Aly¡¯s skill alone took a good portion of my mana every second while I used it, and that didn¡¯t take into account any more skills she would gain as she leveled up. As a Unique Fairy, she was essentially limitless in her growth potential just like a character was. With my Faction Title giving me an extra random stat point every level, I felt that I should be able to focus on Agility, Fortitude, and Intellect for now. Agi would allow me to make better use of the True Haste skill by attacking and moving faster, Fort would do the obvious thing by giving me more health and energy to fight for longer, and Int would let me channel True Haste for longer periods at a time. With any luck, my extra point every level would go into one of the other stats to let them grow, but I could always put a point into a different stat if one of my main three get the random bonus. Plan for the future development of my character in place, I assigned my points. Three points went into Int, and then one into both Fort and Agi. I still looked like a jack of all trades character at the moment, but given time my development should shape up to become something interesting and useful. It wasn¡¯t like I had gotten a ton of free stat points yet, and repeating actions was supposed to be the easiest way to get those free points so I wasn¡¯t too worried about it yet. With that task done, I closed out my character window and paused. I hadn¡¯t noticed when it happened, probably back when I actually got the Contract with Aly, but I had yet another new icon at the bottom left of my UI. This one was in the shape of a Fairy, so it seemed pretty self-explanatory, and I focused on it to make sure. Sure enough, it opened a new window with Aly¡¯s level and abilities listed and also had a tab at the bottom marked ¡®Path¡¯. Curious as to what that was, I opened it and grinned widely. A talent tree opened up before me with True Haste at the bottom which branched off into three more skills, each of those leading to one or more skills. All of the skills except for True Haste and the three connecting to it were grayed out unfortunately, so I looked at the three in the second tier to start.
Time Heals all Wounds A Unique Skill known only to Alysandaria the Chronomancer. This skill allows the Fairy¡¯s Contractor to recover from status ailments and severe injuries faster than normal. Status Ailment Duration: -10% Severe Injury Duration: -5% This is a passive skill. Exp: 0/500
Swift Regeneration A Unique Skill known only to Alysandaria the Chronomancer. This skill increases the rate of Health, Mana, and Energy regeneration both in and out of combat. Regeneration Rate: +10% This is a passive skill. Exp: 0/500
Temporal Step A Unique Skill known only to Alysandaria the Chronomancer. Freezes time around the target for five seconds, allowing free movement of the target if able. No actions can affect the world while this skill is active, including damage or looting. Duration: 5 seconds Cooldown: 35 seconds MP cost: 50 Exp: 0/1000
All in all, some very nice skills that would be awesome to have. And it looked like I could have any and all of them! Each time I focused on a skill, it became highlighted on the tree and stayed that way until I selected a different one. So, thinking logically, the highlighted skill would receive exp and once completed Aly would learn the skill. Shit¡­ That meant I missed out on the 200 exp from turning in Vermund¡¯s quest towards a skill! Dammit all to hell¡­ I cursed this game with no real guide book or tooltips, then made sure Swift Regeneration was highlighted before closing the windows out. That was my first targeted skill, with Temporal Step being number two, despite the doubled exp cost. The skill seemed to be my Fairy¡¯s equivalent to a blink spell from older games, which transported a caster a short distance instantly. Granted, mine seemed a little more versatile, but was balanced by the fact that I had to actually move the distance required. That meant that if I wanted to get up onto a low roof top, I would need to still physically get up there instead of just magically appearing like with a blink spell, and I only had five seconds to use with it. Oh well, still useful. The rest of the first evening in the game was spent looking through various shops until they closed down, then heading over to a tavern with loud music and equally loud voices spilling into the street. Aly and I shared a drink and I chatted up various NPCs, all around enjoying myself like I hadn¡¯t done in quite a long time. It may have been just a game, but the realism aspect of everything just swept me away and I found myself enjoying the relaxation just as much as jumping around in combat. Finally, the time came when my UI flashed its warning that five hours had passed and I should log out to attend to my real world body. I bid goodbye to the few NPCs I was talking with and headed out onto the dark street in order to log out. I needed to get some sleep, and knew I was going to be back in the game bright and early the next morning in order to collect the items from Amara and the old alchemist. 11) Preparations and new foes Five in the morning found me covering a yawn with my hand as I stepped into the kitchen of the apartment complex. I needed to get some food in me for a long day of grinding that was ahead of me. I needed to make seven levels to turn in this latest main quest, and I doubted it was going to be that quick of a task. Five hundred experience to make level two, a thousand more to hit level three¡­ How much would I need for level four? The formula could go a few different ways and I could need anywhere from fifteen hundred to two thousand to make my next mark, let alone getting all the way to ten. Lost in thought as I was, I didn¡¯t notice that I wasn¡¯t alone in the kitchen until a hand grabbed my shoulder and Archie¡¯s voice cut through the rolling ideas running through my head. ¡°Hey! Did you hear me? I asked how your first day in the game was!¡± I jumped at the disruption to my thoughts and looked over to find Kayla sitting down and watching us as she stirred a bowl of oatmeal. ¡°Shit man¡­ Don¡¯t scare me like that. Sorry, I was kind of spacing out.¡± I chuckled and shook my head, pulling out a bowl for cereal and a protein shake from the fridge. ¡°Not bad for a first day I think. Got a Fairy and was accepted into House Tyrith with a rank 3 title, so it was productive.¡± Archie raised a brow at me and shook his head. ¡°Lucky bastard. I haven¡¯t gotten a Fairy yet, although I have a good lead on where to get a good one that I plan to check out. As for a House, I am located in the lands of House Eventide but need to obtain a Fairy before joining officially. Kayla here got herself a Fairy too though.¡± He sighed and sat back down in his seat to pick at his bowl of sliced fruit. ¡°Oh? Glad to see I am not the only one who got a Contract. What kind of Fairy did you find Kayla?¡± With my breakfast in hand, I sat down beside Archie and dug into my simple meal with a gusto. While technically laying down all day, the immersion device was still triggering my muscles and burning calories at a decent rate so I needed to keep my health up if I wanted to keep up extended sessions. Thankfully I wasn¡¯t sore when I woke up this morning, the night¡¯s rest doing wonders to ease the aches of my body. Kayla tucked some of her long blonde hair back behind an ear and shrugged her shoulders. ¡°Oh, nothing too fancy, just a rare Celestial Fairy that looks promising, if a bit on the common side. I also got accepted into House Fairfield with a rank 1 title and have a nice long quest ahead of me today. What kind of Fairy did you get Dale?¡± ¡°Yeah, I saw a system message saying a Unique Fairy already entered the game. That couldn¡¯t have been you though, could it?¡± His tone was more teasing than serious, thinking he could jab fun at me and that I only got a basic Fairy for myself. ¡°Uhm, actually it was. I got stuck with a quest to kill a boss class monster right off the bat, and one of the rewards from killing it was a Unique Fairy. Her name is Alysandaria the Chronomancer.¡± I grinned at the expression on his face, wide eyes and open mouth the picture of shock before he grumbled and shoved a piece of fruit into his mouth. ¡°Chronomancer? So if I get this right¡­¡± Kayla paused and tilted her head in thought slightly. ¡°Chrono as in time, and mancer as in diviner or mage. Similar to pyromancer being a fire mage in most games. Damn, Dale. A titled Fairy on day one of the game is a bit on the broken side.¡± ¡°Heh, yeah a bit. However it isn¡¯t as good as it sounds. Sure it is useful as all hell, but the mana cost of her starting ability is ridiculously high and has to be channeled. Add to that the fact that it is classified as a support type Fairy, and I can see it as only being OP at much higher levels. As it stands now, it is a bit of a boost, but not as useful as a Celestial or an attack type Fairy.¡± The blonde woman nodded her head. ¡°Yeah I can see that. High cost for a skill, then a long wait for the regen to let you use it again. Makes it so that it will only be an emergency ability for now. Having a healing ability right off is nice, but a rare quality Fairy will only take me so far. You get a scaling Fairy early that will grow right along with you as you start to level.¡± ¡°The both of you are enjoying the chance to rub this in, aren¡¯t you?¡± Archie gave us a mock glare, but it soon fell from his face as he smiled. ¡°Heh, don¡¯t worry. I am just messing with you. I all reality I am glad for you both, and hope to join the ranks of hard mode Contractors by the end of the day! It is a shame we all got sent to different Houses though¡­ I kind of wanted to get all three of us together in the game to take on some of the later content.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t get all gloomy, Archie¡­¡± Kayla reached across the table and snagged a grape from his bowl to eat. ¡°You never know, we might be able to meet up in time. Have either of you gotten the low down from your House representatives yet?¡± Archie shook his head gloomily ¨C to our amusement ¨C and I spoke up. ¡°Yeah, I got a basic explanation from the Guard Captain. Seems like we will all be enemies in the scheme of things.¡± I smirked at the pair. ¡°Sounds like old times, really.¡± That brought a chuckle from the both of them and Kayla shrugged. ¡°Not the first time we have been on opposite sides of a war, won¡¯t be the last either probably. But what I really wanted to bring up was the possibility of getting our Houses to join forces somehow. Or maybe we can even ditch our current Houses and head over to another.¡± I shook my head at her last suggestion. ¡°Nope, not me. I got into this faction at rank 3 to start! I am not going to let that go to waste. I am not against the two of you coming to join my faction, and I know right where Archie could get a Fairy in my providence. Where I got mine, there were plenty of others. I was actually planning on going back when I made level twenty-five and unlocked my second Fairy slot.¡± Kayla remained silent as she pondered my words, but Archie had a look on his face that said he wasn¡¯t a fan of that plan. ¡°Well, to be honest with you¡­ I think I might be able to pull off the same trick as you, Dale. With how hard my quest is, I think I might get a strong Fairy at the end and want to see this through. I am not against trying to join your faction, but if I can get a strong Companion early on it will help me in the long run.¡± He had a point. I knew that in the long term, me getting a Unique Fairy would pay off dividends at the higher levels. It would make my early game a bit harder, but I also had a nice plan with my character build that took full advantage of what Aly could offer me. Our conversation devolved into casual chatter, the heavier topics done for the time being as we simply enjoyed a meal together just like we used to. All that was missing was Alex and his wife, who used to join us on a regular basis too when she was still only his girlfriend. In all, we had a good time of it and were even joined by a couple of the other gamers in the complex. It was almost six AM when we parted ways at our doors, the sun coming up in the game shortly that would mark the start of the second day of release. All three of us were excited to dive back into the game, the desire to level our characters and experience as much of the world as possible driving each of us to want as much time in game as we could manage. The log in process was becoming familiar to me as I went through the ordeal for a third time. I didn¡¯t even pay attention to the ready room and rushed right for the doorway into the game world itself, welcoming the short feeling of vertigo before I blinked my eyes open to gaze upon Tyrith City just as the first rays of dawn lit up the street and buildings. Aly flashed back into this realm and stretched her body with a cute yawn before settling down on my left shoulder. ¡°Morning Calamity. Are we going to those ruins today?¡± ¡°Morning Aly, and yeah. As soon as I get my armor and potions I was planning on heading out. Vermund didn¡¯t mark it on my map, but looking at it now I think I see where we need to go.¡± Indeed, looking at the expanded mini map showed me an area that fit the bill, and I set a waypoint marker so that my mini map would direct me towards the location. I had a bit of walking ahead of me, the tavern I had logged out in front of being fairly close to the keep while the shops I needed to hit were at the north gate of the walls. Setting off, I waved at a couple shop keepers as they opened the doors to their buildings to get ready for the day. Fifteen minutes of walking brought me into Amara¡¯s shop first, my excitement at getting my new gear driving me to visit here first. Stepping into the shop, I didn¡¯t see the woman anywhere and frowned. ¡°Hello? Amara, you here?¡± Amara emerged from a door behind the counter, bags under her eyes indicating a lack of sleep but a huge smile on her lips as she saw me. ¡°Calamity! Good timing. I just finished the last touches on your armor and got my Master rank in Leatherworking! Once you collect your armor, I am closing up the store for the day and sleeping till night fall then partying with my friends.¡± ¡°Nice! I am glad for you.¡± And I found that I truly was. The AI made all of these NPCs seem so real and lifelike that I couldn¡¯t help but feel happy for her achievement. ¡°You didn¡¯t have to stay up all night to make it though¡­ Another day wouldn¡¯t have been the end of the world for me if I had to wait.¡± She waved me off and shook her head. ¡°Nope. I wouldn¡¯t have been able to sleep anyway knowing I had such rare materials to work with, and this way I can sleep satisfied at a job well done. Plus I have a lot of work ahead of me know to start stocking up higher grade armor to sell, so a day or two of rest will be much needed with the Master rank opened up before me.¡± Her eyes lit up suddenly and she turned back towards the rear room. ¡°But never mind that! Come see what I managed to make for you.¡± A broad grin spread over my face as I followed Amara into the back room. The space was set up as a work shop for crafting leather products, scraps and tools scattered over benches lining all the walls and an armor stand set up in the middle of the floor with my new gear set up on it. The coloring was that of the snake, a mottled dark green and gray pattern that broke up the outline of a body in shadows and looked quite cool to boot. ¡°I managed to make it at rare quality with a full set bonus on it too. A full eight piece kit, each item with an individual stat bonus on top of the full set bonus. It was just what I needed to advance my skill rank.¡± She grinned and motioned towards the armor. ¡°Go ahead and try it on.¡± With eager motions, I quickly moved forward and equipped the armor. Each of the pieces fit well, either by game design or being tailor made for me I wasn¡¯t sure, nor did I care. The stats on the gear was nothing to sniff at either! In total I was looking at 34 armor, 8 Str, 6 Agi, and 2 Fort with another 5 Fort and Dex from the set bonus! My only concern was that the armor didn¡¯t give me any more Int¡­ Considering where the armor came from though, I supposed it was understandable. Since it was made from the hide of a snake boss, it imparted characteristics of the creature and the Grotto Guardian was surely strong and fast. ¡°This is amazing Amara. You have out done all of my expectations with this gear! I kind of feel bad that I only had some wolf hides to pay you with now¡­¡± ¡°Don¡¯t give me that¡­ You brought me a rare material that allowed me to level up my skill! That alone would normally be enough to pay for a set of armor like this. Not that I am giving you those hides back, mind you. Consider them payment for this being a rush job.¡± The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. I had to laugh at that and nodded to her. ¡°Well thank you for the armor in any case. I will be sure to bring you any more hides or leather I find on my journey. For now, I should let you get some sleep¡­ You look like you are about to fall over where you stand!¡± She grinned at my tiredly and agreed with my words. ¡°You bet I am. As soon as you are gone I think I am going to fall asleep right here in this room for a few hours just so I can make it home for a proper rest. Take care Calamity and I hope to see you again with more rare materials!¡± With a final wave, I left the shop and crossed the street to pay a visit to the alchemist shop. Like the previous afternoon, the visit was straight forward with me gaining a few potions and minor poisons. The old man couldn¡¯t legally sell me any poison, but there were no laws against giving them away if materials were brought to a skilled alchemist. Maybe a minor loophole, but I doubted there were many alchemists who would do work for free, even if the mats were provided. The potions I got were of a better quality than what I previously had, giving me double the initial and regen HP amounts which were labeled as Basic Healing Potion. In total, it gave +50 HP, and the same amount again over 30 seconds. Not too bad considering my new HP levels. I also got my hands on a couple Weak Energy Potions which gave me an instant +150 to my energy, but had a 60 second cooldown on their use. I only got two vials of poison from him, but they seemed to be quite useful in their own right. When used on a weapon, it lasted for one hour and granted a 25% chance of poisoning the target for 60 seconds, dealing 20 damage every 3 seconds. Each additional trigger of the effect would extend the duration, but it didn¡¯t stack extra damage unfortunately. My new belt had six quick access slots, so I loaded up three health potions, two energy potions, and one of the vials of basic weapon poison. The spider venom I would save for the chief, the chance to paralyze an enemy still being a much stronger element to my build when considering that I could potentially turn those five seconds into six with True Haste. Broken? Maybe. I bid goodbye to the old alchemist, Aly and myself heading outside into the morning air to look around. I had a minor desire to look into a new weapon if I could find one that was affordable, but the versatility of my starter weapon made up for the lower damage it put out. Besides, my newly boosted strength stat should more than make up for it still being base tier weapon damage. All set, I exited the city and started making my way towards the marker on my map. The few wolves that we encountered were easily dealt with, adding in more experience to the pool with minimal effort. I noticed that leveling up again dropped the exp I gained from each level 2 wolf by another 10 points, leaving me only gaining 30 exp per beast. Not too bad for such easy prey, but the animals took time to respawn and I really didn¡¯t relish the thought of slinking through the woods in circles for hours on end when I potentially had more entertaining quarry awaiting me. The trip took nearly an hour to make it to the edge of the ruins marked on my map. Crumbled stone buildings were slowly being reclaimed by the forest surrounding the area with vines covering the still standing walls, one house having a tree growing right out of the middle of a collapsed roof. It actually looked like the place was once a large town, the area it covered being roughly half that of Tyrith City itself, if less organized in the layout. Looking around from my position at the edge of the ruins, I couldn¡¯t see any enemies about and frowned slightly. ¡°Right then. Let¡¯s head on in Aly. Hopefully we can get some good exp here as I need seven levels before I can hand this quest in.¡± I smirked and readied my weapon in a spear form as I had taken a liking to the reach and power of the weapon. ¡°Plus, I need you to learn some more skills!¡± ¡°I leave the combat to you, Calamity. Just feed me some mana and I will help you out though.¡± She grinned at me and flew up off my shoulder to hover over my head, staying out of the way and ready to move should the need arise. I agreed with her tactics, and was just about to step forward when a message appeared in my vision.
To all within Realm of Infinity, Rejoice! A new Unique Fairy has been born into the world! The power this wonderful being has chosen is now unable to be obtained by any other Fairy until such a time has come that it is released from its Contract
I blinked as I read the message, then chuckled quietly as I hoped Archie was the lucky one this time. I dismissed the system message and began to make my way into the abandoned town slowly, eyes sweeping back and forth as I tried to find some of these goblins that I was supposed to be hunting. I didn¡¯t have to wait long before catching sight of the monsters. Rounding a corner of a building, I froze in my tracks as I spotted a group of three figures crouched down over something. They looked short, maybe three and a half feet tall with dull green skin, and wore only basic loincloths in the way of clothing. Stubby ears ended in points with small shocks of dark hair sprouting from the tops of their heads, the creatures looked thin but with the muscles of their arms well defined from what I could see. Each of them looked similar, so I focused on the closest one and tried to use inspect on it.
Goblin Sentry Level: 5 HP: 250 The weakest of the warriors within the Goblin race, these creatures have limited intelligence but are stronger than they appear. Timid by nature, Goblins tend to only fight if they outnumber their foe and will try and flee if things start to look bad for them.
I chewed on my lip as I thought about what I was up against. Three mobs of level 5 might prove to be a problem for me if I wasn¡¯t careful, and from the description I wasn¡¯t about to get a chance to take them one on one¡­ My armor rating was pretty decent now compared to when I fought the Grotto Guardian, but I still wasn¡¯t sure just how much protection that afforded me. An idea started to form in my mind, but I would need to get a better angle on them if I was to try and take them out with as little risk to myself as possible. I retreated back around the building and circled around the mostly standing structure until I was closer to the mobs. Still out of sight, I readied myself for the battle with a deep breath. I readied my spear, then rounded the last corner to find the goblins still in the same position roughly ten running steps ahead of me. Trying to make as little noise as possible, I ran ahead with my spear leveled like a lance aimed at the back of the closest goblin. Luck was on my side as I crossed most of the distance before the left goblin noticed me and froze, stunned into inaction at the surprise of my appearance. The pause was just enough to let me ram the tip of my spear into the back of my target. I stopped my forward momentum and thrust the spear forward to shove the goblin off the weapon. A quick push of my will on the spear brought the halberd head back into place and I spun to my right to drive the axe blade into the chest of that creature before jumping back to ready myself to their counter and checked their status. The first hit I made must have had some bonuses from charging and attacking from hiding for the thing was nearly dead from that one hit while the right goblin had taken about 15% damage. The second hit wasn¡¯t very promising, but at least my ambush attack had left the first one with only 20% health remaining. All three goblins picked up rusty swords from off the ground and spun to face me, their bare feet shuffling to draw them forward as they barked at me in their guttural language that I didn¡¯t understand. I grinned at the feeling of adrenaline that coursed through me as I set my feet in place and readied my spear to counter their attacks. As one, they charged at me with swords raised, cries of anger directed at me. The center goblin was still the most damaged, so I thrust my spear at him as soon as he was in range. The point caught the goblin in the chest squarely, his HP bar draining dangerously low. Both flanking goblins started to swing their weapons, and I knew I wasn¡¯t going to be able to dodge both of them. Making a split-second decision, I raised the haft of my spear to block the sword coming from the right, and took a cut to the back of my shoulder from the left goblin for a little less than 10% of my health. Damn, the little bastards could actually hit fairly hard when I took my armor score into account. Using my speed, I drew back and thrust once more as I took the damage, killing off the first goblin and leaving me to face the remaining two on a more even footing. Now came the harder part, as I didn¡¯t want to kill off one of the goblins too quickly lest I have the last one running away and alerting more of the mobs that might be lurking nearby. My normal stance had me standing with my left side facing the enemy, spear held parallel to my chest and pointing at my foe for a quick and powerful strike. By no means was I a trained fighter with the weapon, and I supposed there were more potent ways to wield the weapon, but this strategy had worked well for me so far. I kept a good eye on my energy levels as I readied my next move. At 80% still, it looked like I would have enough to not have to worry about running low for this fight as my passive regen ticked away slowly to refill what I had spent. Absent-mindedly, I wished that the actual number tables were available to see just how much my regen charged my energy bar per second, but the thought was driven away as the goblins both moved again at me. Using the same tactic again, I blocked the right goblin¡¯s sword and stabbed the left one in the throat to earn myself a crit against the mob for 33% of its health! Perfect. If things kept up like that, I shouldn¡¯t have too much of a problem dealing with two enemies of this level at once. Before my foes could reset their balance, I pulled back my spear slightly and swiped it to the right, slashing the other goblin across the chest with the point for another 15% damage to him, roughly evening up their HP. From that point, it only took four more exchanges of the same strategy to finish off the goblins, although I missed one of my blocks and took another 12% damage from the strike. I had held back from using True haste, wanting to save my mana in case of emergency, and it turned out I didn''t need it in any case. My energy levels were starting to get low, only 25% of my bar remaining when the mobs finally kicked the bucket and several messages popped up before me.
Congratulations! Alysandaria the Chronomancer has gained a level! Current level: 2 Alysandaria has learned the skill Swift Regeneration. Select a new skill from the talent tree in order to continue the Fairy¡¯s growth.
Congratulations! Your skill Polearm Mastery has grown in level! Skill level: 3 (6%) Continuous use of polearms has deepened your understanding of their function and versatility. +3% damage with polearms +3% attack speed with polearms Increase the skill level for additional bonuses
Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Combat Tactics Skill level: 1 (10%) Using your head in a fight against multiple opponents has given you a new outlook on battle. While you have no assistance in combat, you gain the following bonuses: +1% damage dealt -1% damage received Increase the skill level for additional bonuses
Let the bonuses rain from the sky! I grinned in pleasure at the messages, closing each one out as I read it over. The level five mobs had given me 150 exp a piece, and was more than enough when added to the wolves for Aly to learn her first second tier skill. Since they were a higher level than me, the exp they gave was boosted a bit, but that worked in my favor as my SL was much higher than my PL. It seemed almost unfair to be so much stronger than my level suggested, but I took solace in the fact that all of the other hard mode players were in the same position I was. I looted the three corpses, gaining myself a total of 30 copper. It looked like their swords were of too poor a quality to even count as loot and remained on the ground. I tried to pick one up and inspect it, but no window opened up on it to indicate that it was a useable item. Pity, since I could use a backup weapon or two¡­ Opening up Aly¡¯s menu, I selected the Temporal Step skill on her talent tree as my next goal as I thought over the last fight. It had seemed pretty easy, but these were supposed to be the weakest of the goblins, and I was still technically in a starter area. The fights were bound to get harder as I progressed through the levels, and this was just the beginning. One thing became clear to me after reflecting on the battle¡­ I would need a stronger weapon, and soon. I liked being able to change the shape of my starter item, but the low damage output would soon be more of a hindrance than the versatility would be a boon. Without crits, it took about six or seven hits to kill one level five goblin, and I doubted I would be fighting less than two of the mobs at any given time. I didn¡¯t want to change my growth plan for my character, so that meant I would have to find something that would boost my damage without me having to invest stat points into Str. I really didn¡¯t want to go back to Tyrith City just to look into buying a new weapon, only to find out that I couldn¡¯t afford something good, so I decided that I would just continue as I was and hope to keep up my current path of fighting smarter than the enemies. If it came down to it, I would just keep wiping out packs of these sentries to keep a steady income of coins and then head back to town if the next step up in difficulty was too much for me to defeat easily. My newest skill gave me hope that playing without a party for backup was viable, but at the same time I was worried it would only become harder to not bring others along with me. All of my bars had refilled while I was pondering my situation, and Aly had settled on my shoulder once more in boredom as I stood still in thought. I shook my head and looked at the small figure. ¡°Right, let¡¯s move on and find the next group. We are going to have a long day ahead of us.¡± I checked my character and skill screens quickly, then headed off to resume my grinding of this area.
Name: Calamity Player Level: 3 Stat Level: 21 Exp: 2120
Title Nightblade Fame 100
Armor 34 HP 310/310
Energy 310/310 MP 250/250
Str 32 Fort 31
Dex 29 Int 25
Agi 28 Will 21
Skill List:
Polearm Mastery: lvl 3 (6%)
Inspect: lvl 1 (94%)
Advanced Herbalism: lvl 1 (90%)
Combat Tactics: lvl 1 (10%)
12) A morning well spent Things were going smoothly for me as I wiped out another group of goblins using the same method as the first. I still took a bit of damage from the initial charge in, as I had no way to block two extra strikes while I killed my first target, then I missed another block during my two on one ordeal to leave me with 60% health at the end of that round of combat. I was getting slowly better at judging how these goblins attacked though, and towards the end of the fight I was becoming pretty good at predicting where the block had to be placed in order to stop taking needless damage. Realm of Infinity seemed to like leaving a lot of things in the dark, which actually made it more interesting in my opinion. Not having exact numbers displayed for every little thing made it so that I had to immerse myself more and more into the game to understand what was going on. For example, I couldn¡¯t see a numerical representation of my gear durability, so I had to pay attention to the wear and tear on the items to see how damaged they were becoming. On top of that, I had to try and spread out the incoming damage over my body in an attempt to keep one piece of armor from taking too much wear, lest the item breaks on me and leaves me in a bind. A glimpse at my own info screens showed another 10% increase to my new skill, while Polearm Mastery added another 6% to its level. Between the mastery skill and my agi, I was beginning to feel like I could be more aggressive in my techniques while fighting these mobs, but that might be at the risk of taking a bit more damage. Would be worth a try in any case though. The loot I got from the last pack was disappointing as I only got 16 coppers and nothing else. I was a little on the upset side when it came to the lack of drops while Aly and I continued on through the outer edge of the old town. I wanted to clear the outskirts for now, gaining as much experience as I could from the small packs of goblins before I ran up against harder foes. My first complication in my plans came when I ran into the third group. Not just three, but four goblins crouched around each other at a crossroads, one of which carrying a crude bow which could complicate things. This was going to be the first ranged unit that I would be dealing with, and the uncertainty of the prospect made me pause to go over my options. According to the inspect pop-up, it was still a Goblin Sentry with 250 hp, so no new surprises in that department. The good thing that came of the group was that my inspect skill grew to level 2 from that! Happy that something good came my way again, I went over a blitz attack idea in my mind and tweaked my own plans slightly. Swift Regeneration should make this possible, but I double checked that I had a health and energy potion ready to go in my quick access slots on my belt once more. Remembering where each was in the middle of a fight was going to be important so that I didn¡¯t grab a wrong vial when I was distracted. A quick instruction to Aly for her to be ready, as I was probably going to need True Haste for this fight, and I took a slow breath to prepare myself. This could work well, or go spectacularly bad depending on how well I could manage their attacks. I berated myself for the doubt in my mind. Such thoughts could undermine my decisions in the middle of the fight and that could lead to disaster. I let all doubt drain from my thoughts, and charged around the corner towards the goblins. This tactic called for quick movement and dodging over block and counter attacks. A curse flew from my lips as the creatures spotted me almost instantly this time. The archer squealed in surprise and snapped off a shot with his bow at me, which flew wide thankfully. The downside was that I wasn¡¯t able to take the archer out quickly as the sword wielding mobs jumped in front of the one with the bow. Oh well, time to get creative! My spear was leveled, the extra damage dealt with a charging strike being too good to pass up in any situation, as I shifted my target to the right most sword sentry. As I got near to striking range, I took a few more steps to the right, putting more space between me and the other two melee sentries. Then I was upon the group, thrusting my spear forward to catch my target in the throat and dealing a crit on top of the charge damage! I didn¡¯t kill the mob right off, but he was left dangerously low with only 10% HP in his health bar above his head. There was no time to savor the strike, and I kept moving with a shove of my weapon to fling the wounded goblin into the next sword wielding sentry, knocking them both to the ground. That would buy me a few precious seconds as I changed my spear to a halberd which would suit my needs better in this situation. Thanks to the longer reach of my weapon, I didn¡¯t run the risk of a counter attack from the goblin farthest to my left and I ran straight at the archer, winding back for a powerful swing at the mob. While I was doing all of that, I saw an arrow nocked and drawn, the release coming before I would be able to strike or dodge. Well, looked like I was taking some damage¡­ I knew I would, but I had hoped I could avoid it for more than a couple seconds. Pain blossomed in my left thigh as I felt the arrow strike my armor, but the tip didn¡¯t penetrate the thick leather. Hah! The Grotto armor kept its piercing resistance from the boss! Still, it shaved off a couple percent of my life and I felt like a bruise would be found if I checked. I hadn¡¯t slowed my motion and as the archer got into range, I swung my halberd around with a yell to slash the blade at the mob¡¯s knee. 20% of the archer¡¯s health fell away, and a new symbol appeared by the health bar, flashing red. It looked like a broken bone and looking at where I hit the goblin, I saw I had indeed shattered its leg. My first sight of a severe injury! I had little time to celebrate my achievement and quickly kept moving, circling around to slash at the still standing sword goblin. Again, the reach of my weapon over those of the mobs saved me any headaches as I caught the creature in the side before he got in range to hit me with his sword. The two goblins I had knocked over were just getting back to their feet, and I activated True Haste. Bringing the halberd up and over my head like a huge axe, I chopped down on the one with the lowest health, putting the thing down for good. The world around me looked like it was moving through molasses, giving me time to read the movements of the goblins. A grunt escaped my lips as somehow the injured goblin behind me managed to fire an arrow at my back, bringing me down to 90% HP. I made a mental note to save that one for last¡­ It needed to suffer some more for this annoyance. The two sword wielding goblins were the greater threat anyway, as their damage was higher and they had full mobility. A quick glance showed my mana draining rapidly, giving me a limited amount of time to get the job done. The polearm in my hands would probably have appeared to be a blur to the goblins stuck in regular time as I took full advantage of my higher agi and time rate, stabbing forward with my weapon as I shifted the head into a spear point again. I focused the goblin now to my right which I had already hit, getting five hits in quick succession and dropping it dead to the ground before my mana ran out, the world returning to full speed around me. Another arrow hit me, this time right in the ass and I cursed loudly as 5% more of my HP was whittled away. I couldn¡¯t spare a glance behind me, as the last of the sword goblins was swinging his sword at me with a savage yell. I was unfortunately at a bad angle to block or deflect the blow, and I took another 15% of my life in damage from the sword, which I countered with a strong thrust from my spear into its throat. Trying something new, I left the tip of my weapon embedded in the goblin and twisted to my right. My strength must have been high enough, for the goblin was dragged off balance and fell while falling back off my spear. A few stabs of my weapon and another arrow hitting my back later, and the last of the sword wielders were dead. As soon as it was alone, the archer started whimpering behind me, the sounds of crawling clearly heard as I turned to face it. The mob was trying to flee from me now that it was alone, but the broken leg was seriously hindering his attempt. I let a wide smile cross my face and stalked forward, shifting my weapon into a two handed axe with double crescent blades adorning the top. The heft of the weapon was greater than my spears, but was easily manageable with my strength rating. This little bastard was going to suffer for pissing me off. A grunt escaped my throat as I lifted the axe over my head and chopped down onto the archers remaining working leg. I must have gotten a serious bonus on the attack, because the blade passed cleanly through the leg just below the knee to the monsters pained shriek. A second icon appeared over the now 50% health bar, this one a picture of legs surrounded by a circle with a diagonal line through it. No walking allowed. I paused in my assault at this revelation, letting the goblin whimper in pain and terror. I went over the damage dealt to this creature and made a few notes. First, the crippling blow restricted its movements with a small damage bonus added on. Second, it was possible to keep an enemy from fleeing by taking out its legs with well-placed blows. That would make future fights easier now that I knew it was possible. The wounded goblin tried to make one last attempt at saving itself as it tried to lift its bow while laying on its back to try and shoot at me. I gave a hearty chuckle at the thing and swung the axe out to knock the bow from its grip. Hmmm¡­ I wondered if I could maybe take advantage of a now incapacitated creature for a killing blow. The goblin had suffered enough pain and humiliation to satisfy me, petty though it was that I felt the need to do so to a string of ones and zeros. Circling around to the side of the goblin, I positioned myself and raised the axe up once again. Taking careful aim, I grunted and swung down at the neck lined up before me and grinned when the head separated from the shoulders with a crunch and squelch. Fatal crit. Man I loved that aspect of the game. It had saved my life with the Grotto Guardian, and made quick work of the low level wolves when using a well-placed spear strike. It made sense too, in the grand scheme of things, to be able to kill with one blow if the situation was right. As soon as I finished the last goblin, a window sprang open in front of me announcing a new level!
Congratulations! You have gained a level! Current level: 4 Faction Bonus: +1 Str +1 Polearm Mastery +1 Advanced Herbalism You have 5 stat points available to distribute. Warning! If you die before assigning your points, they will be lost!
I grinned, seeing that Aly had leveled up to 3 as well and learned the Temporal Step skill. What gave me a bit of disappointment was the fact that Advanced Herbalism was almost about to level anyway, and the skill was now set as level 2 with 0% towards the next level. Bit of a waste, but oh well. Quickly looting the corpses for 60 more copper, I leaned against a wall nearby to assign my stat points and check out Aly¡¯s talents again. Looking at my stats, my Int needed a lot of work. 250 mana just wasn¡¯t enough to be too useful with the demands of my skills. With a sigh, I made the decision to dump all of the points there for this level to bring up on par with the bulk of my other stats. With the exception of my Will stat, I was starting to look pretty beefy now. Given a few more levels and hopefully my targeted stats will start to pull away from the rest and give me the edge I needed to really shine with my build type.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. The fight had gone well, and it gave me hope that I would be able to use speed and reach to my advantage more often instead of just relying on a block and counter routine. My armor made it all the easier as I should be able to ignore archers with the piercing resistance. Of course, it might explain why I was taking so much damage from the swords at the same time when I thought back to the slashing damage I did to the boss being quite effective. A drawback to every positive feature, I guessed. Moving on to Aly¡¯s talent tree, I frowned. The third tier skills were still grayed out and when I tried to focus on them a message came up saying she needed to be level 5 in order to learn these skills. Bah¡­ I wasn¡¯t horribly interested in the Time Heals All Wounds skill as it didn¡¯t seem that powerful, but I sure wasn¡¯t going to waste the exp points. Selecting the last of the tier two skills, I closed out the menus and stretched my arms while looking about me. Time to do some more hunting! ¡°Uhm¡­ Calamity?¡± I looked around, finding Aly floating above me just over the top of the broken building I had just been leaning against. Her voice carried a note of worry, which instantly put me on edge and made me grip my weapon harder. ¡°Yeah, what it is Aly? See something?¡± The ruins around me were fairly open and I hadn¡¯t needed to ask my Fairy to fly up to scout for me yet, but if she was spotting something that made her nervous then maybe I had better keep her up there from now on. ¡°Yeah, kind of. There is a patrol roaming around a few streets over, and they look to be coming this way next. From the direction of their travel, I would venture to say that they have visited the last couple sites where you took out the previous goblins.¡± She bit her lower lip and looked down at me with those exotic electric blue eyes of hers. ¡°There are only two of them, but they are mounted on strange lizard things and are wearing armor¡­¡± Shit¡­ I wasn¡¯t ready to deal with enemies like that just yet. If they were still far enough away, it was time I beat feet and made my escape. Maybe I could even use them to find the next pack of goblins after they pass me by. ¡°Got it, thanks Aly. Let¡¯s move and not be here when the pair show up.¡± My Fairy flew down to join me and I sprinted away from the site of the recent carnage. I didn¡¯t run too far, finding a building within eyesight of the crossroads to climb up on in order to see what I could. I settled down on my belly, my eyes just above the rim of the building so I could hopefully see without being seen myself. I didn¡¯t have to wait long until the mounted warriors made it to the area I had just fled. Just as Aly described, the goblins were larger than the sentries and covered in shoddy chainmail that still seemed like it might cause me problems. The mounts themselves looked like chameleons, only much, much bigger. Easily seven feet long from nose to tail, the lizards appeared quite dangerous in their own right without even counting in the long spears of decent quality the riders wielded.
Goblin Outrider Level: 9 HP: 600 The scouts of the Goblin race, Outriders use their lizard mounts to travel quickly ahead of a marching Goblin army. They also serve as the sergeants of the Goblin ranks, keeping the lesser Sentries and Guards in line when encamped.
Forest Lizard Level: 8 HP: 500 Commonly found throughout the world, these beasts are normally very passive and tend to avoid fighting. When bred in captivity, races have been able to turn them into a perfect combat mount. Fast and agile, these creatures have sharp claws on their toes with which to climb surfaces or fight.
Damn, that looked like it might be hard to deal with on my own¡­ At least for the time being. Once I got a few more levels under my belt, I had the feeling that I could take them without much difficulty. The Outriders inspected the area of battle and spoke to each other in their guttural language quickly before spurring their mounts forward again. Hoping they were heading to the next sentry post, I scrambled off of the building I hid on and paralleled their path, doing my best to keep them in sight. I was thankful that the color of my armor did a good job of allowing me to blend into the surroundings of buildings, rubble, and foliage that was growing all over the place. So long as I stuck to the shadows, I was pretty hard to spot from any distance. Sure enough, the pair of mounted goblins came upon another pack of four sentries, this pack containing two with swords and two with bows. Perfect! This set up will let me take out the pair with swords and then turn on the archers who I could pretty much ignore at the start. One thing made it harder though¡­ The Outriders must have been smarter than what I had encountered so far, as it seemed they put the pack of sentries on alert to someone killing off their brethren. The mounted goblins soon left to move on with their patrol, but the sentries remained wary, staring out in different directions with a small space in the middle of the group. Hmmm¡­ That looked like just enough space for me to stand in and get the jump on the critters. I grinned and checked that Aly was ready for some action and found her floating beside me with a grim smile on her tiny lips. All set. A small chunk of mana fed through the Bond activated Temporal Step, and that left me five seconds to sprint down the road and duck behind another building, much closer to the group. I had to wait for another 30 seconds to use the skill again, the 5 second duration counting towards the entire cooldown period. Once the cooldown was complete, I waited for another few seconds to allow my mana to completely refill before triggering the skill one more time. I made it to the middle of the sentries with a second to spare, and changed the shape of my weapon to the two handed axe once more. I readied my body for the world to return to normal. As soon as the skill ended, I wound up and spun a complete circle with the axe outstretched to damage all four goblins in a row! Surprise added a good chunk of damage to the mix, letting me take out 25% of every goblins health from the ambush. The four mobs cried out in pain and leapt away from me, giving me plenty of room to shift my weapon into a spear again and stabbing one of the sword goblins in the throat for more extra damage. Knocking my target to the ground with a jerk of my arms, I turned towards the other standing sword goblin and slashed at it with the point of my spear, dealing a normal hit to the mob. Two arrows impacted my back, knocking me down 10% HP in total as the prone goblin slowly got back to its feet. True Haste engaged, giving me enough time of sped up perception to finish off one goblin, and bring the other to 10% health while I took another volley of arrows to my exposed back. A final block of a sword and slash of my spear dropped the second sword goblin, leaving me with just the two archers. Knowing what was coming, as I had roughly estimated the time between arrows, I dived into a sideways roll with a half second to spare as two arrows flew through where I had just been standing. I got to my feet and once more shifted to a large axe weapon. A smile curled my lips as it was now just me and defenseless archers. These ranged sentries were really annoying me with their pelting arrows, and I had found space for their kind in the darkest corners of my heart. My hatred of them must have shown, for the pair almost immediately dropped their weapons in order to turn and flee with strangled cries of panic. Those cries changed to ones of pain as I leapt forward and slashed at one, then the other, taking out a leg on each to cripple them. ¡°No, no, no¡­ You aren¡¯t going anywhere.¡± Using the axe, I alternated between the two goblins as I hacked them apart with petty glee, the sight of their blood flying all over not disturbing me in the slightest as their screams of pain slowly faded away just like their lives. ¡°You know¡­ I think you find way too much enjoyment in that.¡± Aly had an almost disgusted look on her features as she floated down from her position on high. ¡°Can¡¯t say that is healthy for you Calamity.¡± I shrugged my shoulders at the little Fairy, unashamed of my violent behavior. ¡°Maybe, but I can¡¯t stand annoying things and tend to take my aggression out on the ones I find. Don¡¯t worry, you are quite safe from my temper Aly.¡± I looted the corpses for total of 48 copper, the bodies fading away once their spoils were claimed. A box appeared, showing that Aly had learned her last second tier skill just from this pack alone and I chuckled. The skill was mostly useless to me anyway, but I was glad I had still gotten 500 exp from one pack of enemies to cover the cost of the skill. Aly seemed to follow the same experience requirements to level up as I did, so she still needed 850 exp to make level 4, and then however many as were needed for level 5. The only downside I was seeing was that she only got the same amount of exp that I did, meaning I couldn¡¯t expect her to get experience from a mob in relation to her own level while I got less for my own pool. The exp was flowing in nicely, in any event. Getting to level 10 shouldn¡¯t be too hard in a location like this, but I also noticed that it was nearing 11 AM and I would soon be getting a warning to log out. My health had returned to normal by now, but my energy and mana bars were still at 75% and 50% respectively so I would need to rest a bit more before moving on. At least, that was the plan. The two mounted Outriders who rounded the corner a short way away had other ideas. Their enraged shouts filled the air and the lizards they rode launched themselves forward quickly at me. ¡°Oh fuck! Damn patrols!¡± Panicking a little bit, I glanced around and saw a good chance. Temporal Step froze time around me and I used every second of it to sprint up the road and dive into a mostly whole building, Aly flying along behind me and ducking in as well just before the skill ended. I held as still as I could, not wanting to make a sound and alert the scouts of my location. I could hear them and their shuffling mounts, confusion evident in their voices even if I couldn¡¯t understand the words. A sharp yell sounded from one of the goblins, followed by the noise of the lizards creeping closer to my location. Shit, they must have found my tracks or something¡­ They were almost at the doorway I dived through when a new sound echoed over the ruins. The deep bass bellow of a horn sounded from another portion of the city, a long single note tone that rolled through the air and made my chest vibrate slightly. Right outside on the street, another horn answered the first with three short bursts, the sounds fading away to allow me to notice the noise of the lizards racing away from my location towards the first sound. Phew¡­ Saved by the horn. I chuckled at that thought and relaxed where I sat. Maybe now was the best time to log out and take care of things quickly, then I could log back in and get back to the party at hand. Opening the menu, I selected ¡®log out¡¯ and accepted the 60 second timer that required me to remain out of combat for before actually exiting the game since I wasn¡¯t in a safe zone. The countdown struck zero, and I went through the whole process of traveling through the ready room and waking up in the bulky machine in my apartment. After a quick stop in the bathroom, I grabbed the AR display from my desk and headed down to the kitchen to get some food and do some internet surfing. I had a few things I wanted to check out, and if there wasn¡¯t anyone else about then I could do so without worry. It turned out I wasn¡¯t the only one who decided to take a break then, but it was one of the gamers I wasn¡¯t familiar with, so I left him alone and sat down with a cold cut sandwich to munch on. As I chowed down on my lunch, I pulled up a screen and went to my own stream page on the DT site. Of course, the window showing my game view was black, an ¡®offline¡¯ message scrolling over where the game world should be. The comments section was abuzz with activity though, and I scrolled through them all in amazement. Before Alex had approached me with this job I hadn¡¯t heard about this game at all, but it appeared as if there had been advertising galore prior to the release and the company streamers were a big part of that. Among the lists of abusive language berating me for how I acted, there was quite a lot of people who were fascinated by both my playstyle and Aly too. Some of the comments raged that they should have been allowed to see the Glade of Trials since not many people had been able to get into the same area as I was in. Even as I watched, more comments came in calling me a coward for fleeing the mounted Outriders while some other people defended my actions. It all reminded me of when I was one of the top players back in the day and received a decent amount of attention from both players and media, and the memories made me smile. Curious, I switched to Archie¡¯s feed and was pleased to see him wandering through a wide open plain with a Fairy floating along with him. Looked like he got his partner like he hoped, and as I scrolled through the comments I noticed that he did indeed get the Unique Fairy the system told me came up. Good for him. Kayla¡¯s feed showed her wandering through a forest calmly, her Celestial Fairy flitting around her. The Fairy¡¯s mouth moved, but I didn¡¯t have any sound on so I missed what was said. I scrolled through her comments and saw the bulk of the posts were the common stuff when on a female gamers page. All of the ¡®you¡¯re hot¡¯, ¡®are you single?¡¯, ¡®give me your number¡¯ posts would be deleted when Kayla checked most likely as the woman was truly put off by seeing such things all of the time. My meal done, I cleaned up my mess and grabbed my AR display to head back to my room and back into Realm of Infinity. Things weren¡¯t going to kill themselves after all, and I tended to enjoy being the one to gain the exp over someone or something else. Setting myself up into the cap and machine was becoming second nature to me by now and I was quickly ready to go, pressing the button on the device to draw me into its depths. Skipping through the white room and into the doorway for the game, I welcomed the vertigo that announced my arrival into the virtual world. Opening my eyes, I immediately clapped my hands over my ears as loud horns were sounding all through the ruins in every direction. What the hell? I stood and glanced out the door way to check the area, but saw nothing. ¡°Aly, fly up into the air and try to make out what is going on?¡± The little Fairy nodded at me and did as I asked, rising into the sky above the buildings to scope out the surrounding town quickly. I saw her raise a hand to shield her eyes from the bright mid-day sun before she darted back down to me to report. ¡°I can¡¯t make out the reason, but I can see a ton of goblins massing on the Eastern side of the ruins. The horns are the Outriders calling for reinforcements. If I had to guess, I would say another person or group of people got caught and are about to be destroyed. Probably allowed one of the goblins to run off.¡± I cursed softly. That was going to make my task all the harder¡­ Or would it? All of the mobs were now collecting in one location, and I had the skillset that could let me pick off stragglers without any problems! A laugh replaced the curse on my lips as I grinned at the coming game of cat and mouse. 13) Convenient timing I grinned in glee as I crept closer and closer to the unsuspecting goblin that was trotting down the road. There weren¡¯t any others in sight, this one being a straggler that got left behind by the rest of his group. Not that I was one to complain about my own good fortune. Hefting my spear, I launched myself ahead faster and thrust the spear point into the base of the creature¡¯s skull, dealing a major crit of 80% of its HP. A single extra thrust finished it off before it could utter a cry of warning to any other nearby mobs. Another 125 exp and 15 copper in the bank, and no surprises bearing down on me! Aly flew around above me, and a look up showed her pointing off down a side road between the buildings. We had discussed the plan ahead of time. She would fly up high and keep an eye out for easy groups of goblins that I could take out easily and without problem, and we would both grow fat on money and experience! Metaphorically speaking, at least. I took off down the indicated road at a run, marveling at how easy I could move my body in this world. I didn¡¯t get winded so long as I had energy to spare, and my strength stat gave me a much higher carrying capacity compared to real life. A person could get addicted to this shit! Just around the corner of the building, I saw a single Outrider trotting his mount down the street at a slow but steady pace. Nothing else around¡­ I looked up and silently raised an eyebrow at Aly to ensure that this was the only mob around. She nodded down at me, then went back to looking out over the buildings. The debate of whether nor not I should try to take this one on warred in my head. Yeah, my SL was much higher¡­ Actually, fuck it. I was going in. There really wasn¡¯t much of a downside besides death, and the easy exp I was getting here from the sentries would get me over the exp setback easy enough. I charged out of my hiding spot, rushing towards the lizard mount that was to be my first target. My feet hit the road in time with the lizard¡¯s own pace, muffling the sound of my steps enough to allow me to change my weapon into the two handed axe and slash down at an angle as hard as I could against its rear right leg. The blade bit deep into the flesh of the lizard with a spurt of green blood spraying out right along with a shriek of pain from the beast. I had managed to do 30% damage to the thing with the ambush crit as well as the disable icon that popped up next to the health bar above its head. The Outrider on the mounts back spun around, but the angle was bad and it couldn¡¯t get his spear around to strike at me, and left me with enough time to swing the axe once more for another 10% damage on the mount. I felt a sharp pain in my side as the tail came around and clubbed me hard enough that I stumbled back a pace, taking 10% damage from the blow. I was actually happy with how the initial contact went, and as I stepped back a pace, I pulled a vial of Basic Poison out and used it on my weapon. The extra damage would help out against these foes with much higher HP. The goblin was still struggling to get out of its saddle as I charged back in swinging my axe at the wounded lizard. 20% more damage added, and the poison stuck on the second hit adding a green drop icon next to the broken bone icon. Finally the Outrider got down off the less than mobile mount and turned to face me. Pfft¡­ As if I was going to stand for that! I triggered Temporal Step and used the 5 seconds to run around the lizard to get at its other side, swinging my axe with fervor as soon as the skill ended. Three more hits, with my poison extending once, and I left the lizard alone to die from the poison. The goblin had circled around as well by then, and was charging at me with his own spear leveled at me, his intent to skewer me plain on his face. No thanks, not in the mood to become a shish kabob. I used a short 2 second burst of True Haste in order to narrowly avoid the thrusting spear and swung my axe horizontally into the Outriders stomach, dealing a pitiful 5% damage. Crap¡­ That didn¡¯t bode well. I wasn¡¯t looking forward to fleeing the single Outrider, my pride out ranking my sensibilities when confronting a single opponent, and settled in for a painful fight with the mob who out-leveled me by a decent margin at this point in the game. Using my speed, I got two more meager hits in before things started to go sideways. Unlike the previous mobs I had encountered, this one seemed more proficient at combat and changed tactics when it saw I was getting free shots on it while within the reach of the spear. Shifting its grip on the spear, it began to wield it like a staff with a wide grip holding the weapon before it. The damn thing then began to use my own tactic against me, blocking my attack with the haft of his spear and countering with a slash of the spear point. The fight had just become a personal challenge to me, with no chance of me backing down until I looted the damn goblin¡¯s corpse. The AI were good at making sure I had a sufficient challenge against a mob over double my PL as our duel went on. I had a few advantages over the Outrider, my shifting weapon and the skills I could use from Aly, so the exchanges become roughly even in terms of the number of hits each of us received. Although, I took the damage a lot worse than he did¡­ After a short number of blows dealt and received, I had to pull one of my health potions off my belt and drink it, my HP having fallen to half and making me edgy. Didn¡¯t want a random crit or lucky blow to take me out of this fight early. With the boost to my HP bar, and my energy bar looking at about half, I dove back into the fight. My axe swung around in a strong arc, and I used a quick burst of True Haste to alter the angle of the strike and get around the Outrider¡¯s block attempt to shave off some more HP. An idea hit me then, and I kicked out my leading foot against the front knee of my opponent. Apparently the system had accepted the strike as worthy, for I was rewarded with a cry of pain from the mob as the thing stumbled, its leg buckling from my hit. With 110 mana in my pool still, I smiled and took advantage of the moment. 2 seconds of True Haste let me inflict a pair of critical strikes against the exposed neck of the Outrider, stripping it of a good 30% of its HP. That left it at 40% while my HP was climbing slowly from the potion at 70%. That looked much better in my opinion. The moment of triumph passed quickly as I felt a strong blow knock me back, the goblin having regained its senses and striking me with a solid hit. I was caught off guard by the attack and lost a further 15% HP, stumbling backwards but at least retaining my standing position. Depending on how a person looked at it, my potion regen was still ticking away to give me more HP back, but that meant I couldn¡¯t take another without wasting the remaining effect of the liquid. Oh well, I needed to finish this quickly anyway or I wasn¡¯t going to last much longer. More enemies could potentially show up at any second. Something rather unfortunate almost happened then. As I regained my balance, I noticed the Outrider reaching for a horn on its belt. The same kind of horn that was blowing to call reinforcements in the distance. That would be bad, to say the least. I cursed and used the last of my mana to activate Temporal Step again, then ran to the side of the goblin at what I deemed the perfect angle. In position, I timed my actions and raised the double bladed axe high over my head. A short pause at the top of the arc was needed to make sure the skill would end in time, and then I swung down as hard as I could just as the last second elapsed and the world started up once more. My axe struck true, digging deeply into the arm that had grasped the horn and sheering through the wrist where the chainmail didn¡¯t cover. 10% more HP taken off, a crippled debuff, and poisoned now as well! I had wondered why it didn¡¯t take before now, but I figured this was the games way of making sure I didn¡¯t poison a much higher level creature to death in the main game world. The lizard had been poisoned easily enough, but it was also only 4 levels higher than me and the Outrider was 5¡­ The theory needed testing, but seemed plausible at least. The goblin screamed in pain at having its hand taken clean off, and now that it didn¡¯t have any real way to defend itself, I ended the fight in a few more swings of my axe with the help of the poison. My breathing was coming in hard gasps by the end of the fight, my adrenaline pumping fiercely and my nerves on high alert as I looked around for more opponents in order to convince myself that this fight was over.
Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Two Handed Axe Mastery Skill level: 1 (10%) Continuous use of large axes had deepened your skill at wielding such normally awkward weapons. +1% damage +1% ignore armor Increase the skill level for additional bonuses.
Well, that was nice, but the exp gain seemed quite low¡­ Doing the math quick, it showed that I had only gained 525 exp total from those two mobs. A good chunk of change, but hardly worth the effort I had to put into the fight. Actually, I was getting 125 exp for killing level 5 mobs, so the scaling gain of experience seemed on par for what I had seen so far. The AI were much better at figuring the math out than I was, and the game had to be fair still. Aly floated down from her position high up and poked my cheek. ¡°Hey, quite standing around! There are more goblins a few streets over and you have a lot of work to do!¡± I frowned and rubbed my face where it was poked. ¡°Hey, give me a break. That was a tougher fight than the other goblins I dealt with. Plus, I still need to loot them¡­¡± I turned away from Aly and did just that, gaining a full silver from the Outrider and a Strange Key item that only showed question marks on the description. The lizard gave me a Lizard Hide and a Vial of Lizard Blood, which looked exactly as it sounded. Yuck¡­ Into the inventory with that to hand over to my alchemist friend when I got back to Tyrith City. ¡°Stop being a baby, Calamity. Get your act together and get back to killing these things already!¡± Man, Aly had really gotten blood thirsty over the course of these last few fights¡­ ¡°These creatures stink and I want to go back to the tavern for another drink. That stuff was yummy!¡± Nope, not blood thirsty, just being a pain in the ass. ¡°Yes, yes. As my slave driver commands. Which way to the next group? And please avoid more of these guys for now. They are too much trouble for me at the moment.¡± My bars were all on their way to filling back up, and should be ready before I ran into my next enemy. ¡°Over this way. Hurry up! I don¡¯t know how you can stand the smell of these things¡­ How many more do you have to kill to be satisfied?¡± She pointed her arm then flew off slowly in that direction, facing me as she moved backwards. I couldn¡¯t really complain about the smell over much. Yeah it wasn¡¯t pleasant, but I wasn¡¯t getting any overwhelming odors that made me disgusted. ¡°Ya know, you should probably get used to stuff like this. I plan on doing a lot of it in the future, and don¡¯t want to hear you complaining the entire time.¡± My feet carried me after her, the weapon in my hands shifting back into a spear again to continue my tried and true techniques of killing mobs. Aly gave me a glare at my words and turned her nose up at me. ¡°Well it just goes to prove that my nose is more sensitive than yours. Fairies are more delicate than you brute Humans.¡± As if she couldn¡¯t contain herself, Aly broke into a fit of giggles as she turned around and darted ahead to scout out my next targets. With a chuckle and shake of my head, I hurried after my Fairy. I could have made a comment or two about her jab, but let the woman have her victory and focused myself on taking out more goblins. I really did have a lot of work ahead of me if I wanted to close out this quest before the week ended. Each battle took time, and the distance between each fight took more time to traverse. So far, the game wasn¡¯t making it easy to find a string of enemies to kill one after another in an endless gain of exp. In a lot of older games, a player could stand in the same spot and kill mobs as they spawn, earning exp in a steady stream that would add up quickly. In Realm of Infinity, mobs didn¡¯t respawn in the same spots which cut that strategy out completely. The process actually made it more interesting, in my opinion, as it made a player actually work for every scrap of experience they gained. No shortcuts on the road to prove your worth.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Over the course of the next two hours, I had encountered and defeated a total of twelve more goblins and both myself and Aly had gained another level. I went about putting my points into Agi, Int, and Fort as well as leveling a couple of my skills some more. The most encouraging thing that happened was when my Polearm Mastery hit level 5 and it gained another bonus.
Congratulations! Your skill Polearm Mastery has grown in level! Skill level: 5 (3%) Continuous use of polearms has deepened your understanding of their function and versatility. +5% damage with polearms +5% attack speed with polearms +10% extra damage when charging Increase the skill level for additional bonuses
The extra damage dealt when I charged at an opponent now dispatched the common goblin sentries without any effort at all if I caught them off guard and in a critical area. The bonuses from hitting them from ambush, charging, and targeting a vital area all stacked together for some serious damage! Hitting level 5 also gave me a free 50 HP to my total on top of my Fort score. The devs must have decided to give players who wanted to focus on magic a chance to skip out on dumping points into Fort instead of their Int and Will. At least to a point. I doubted even a pure casting build would want to pass up putting a few points into their HP and energy levels. I had noticed that all of the goblins were still rushing to the continued horn blasts that occasionally came from in the distance. I had tried to avoid that area, not wanting to end up in a situation where I would be overwhelmed by a crush of mobs. Now, after ten minutes of wandering around without finding any enemies, I decided that I needed to start heading closer to the source of the commotion. I sighed at the repetitive nature of the combat I was in. Sure, it was entertaining when I ran into a new or tough situation, but the gritty nature of grinding out mobs for exp was never my favorite thing in the world. After a half dozen encounters of the same thing, with a good amount of time between fights, I was getting bored. There was no chance of me stopping in my progress, but this always happened to me in every game I had played which required a player to kill the same creatures over and over with no variation. Granted, the immersive nature of the game made it so much more enjoyable than other VR games. My main problem at the time had to be that it was taking so long to do everything thanks to me playing alone and all of the mobs congregating around whatever activity was going on in the distance. If I had others with me, I would be more inclined to take on more mobs at once and even try for the harder Outriders so long as I had the backup. Right then. First thing I needed to do when I got back to Tyrith was to try and see if any of the other players who made it to my faction were of a suitable level to group up with. There should be a good deal more in the city and surrounding areas by the time I finish this quest up and having more players with me would make farming mobs and quests so much faster. During my internal conflict and thoughts, Aly and I had been traveling through the long-abandoned town and were almost to a large building that marked the center of the ruins. The two-story building was mostly intact still even after the years of neglect and encroaching flora, which surprised me greatly. Almost every building I had come across had some kind of damage from collapsed roof or wall to being reduced down to a simple pile of rubble. We were still about a quarter of a mile away from the disturbance, but I wanted to take a peek into this place. If the Chieftain was to be found anywhere, I thought it would be here and I wanted a look at the creature. The thought of fighting the thing now didn¡¯t cross my mind, as I was having issues with a level 9 Outrider and the chief was sure to be a higher level than that. ¡°Aly, come on down and stick close by me. I want to check out this building real fast before we move on and I am not sure about having you scouting too far ahead in confined spaces¡­¡± It was all true enough. Without my Fairy within my line of sight, I didn¡¯t feel comfortable. Part of the Fairy Contract said I had to keep her safe, and I really didn¡¯t want to test the exact parameters of that stipulation and run the risk of losing my Unique partner. She did as I asked and floated down to follow along behind me while looking over my shoulder. ¡°Sure, sure. I don¡¯t think that would be a good idea either. Let¡¯s leave you to be the punching bag of whatever we run into.¡± I glanced behind me at her and raised a brow. ¡°Cheeky devil¡­ I will remember that when we get to town and you want a drink at the tavern.¡± ¡°What? No! Forgive me Calamity, I am sorry!¡± She had a panicked look on her face which made me laugh softly. The little Fairy must really enjoy the alcoholic beverages she had tried the night before. Heading towards the doorway, which had no door after all the years, I grinned. ¡°We will have to see. Quiet now, I don¡¯t want to announce our presence.¡± Once inside, I looked around and noticed signs of goblins frequently traveling through this way. The dust had been disturbed a great deal along the floor, and a path was easily made out leading deeper into the structure. The rooms were mostly empty, piles of old and broken furniture and other various decorations all piled off to the side of each room I passed through. There were no enemies at all within the entire first floor, although I saw signs that a few goblins had made their homes here if the blankets laid out in one large room meant anything. That room had two staircases along the walls, one heading up and the other leading to a basement. I was about to head towards the stairs going up when Aly grabbed the collar of my armor to stop me and whispered, ¡°Wait. I think we should head down first¡­¡± Her lips twisted into a frown. ¡°I feel something down there. I can¡¯t explain it, but we should go there first.¡± Well, who was I to argue if the AI controlling my Fairy said to go somewhere? ¡°Alright. Stay behind me and keep an eye behind us in case any of the residents decide it is time for a nap.¡± The Fairy nodded to me, then took up the requested position while I moved towards the stairs leading down. Moving as quietly as I could, my spear point lead the way. At the base of the steps I froze in place, looking around carefully at all of the lizards curled up and sleeping. A tunnel through the back wall lead out of the building, allowing the creatures easy access to the outdoors with this being their nest apparently. Ten of the beasts were curled up and snoozing, my inspect skill showing them to be between level 6 and 9. Off in the far corner I saw what might have drawn Aly¡¯s attention as I saw a heavy chest next to a crude wooden throne with a tall pole stood up behind it. From that pole hung a long piece of cloth that I couldn¡¯t see well as it hung limply with no wind or bracing arm to keep the design on it visible. I frowned slightly as I looked over the placement of the sleeping creatures. I supposed I should be able to take them all out easily enough, them being asleep and all, but that would only work for the first couple until the rest woke up. Hmmm¡­ Conundrums. Time for a new application of poison. This time I used a second vial of the spider venom, the paralytic aspect looking to be much more useful in this situation than a little extra damage. A glance at my bars assured me they were all full and ready to be expended on this fight. With a deep breath, I charged forward and stabbed my spear into the closed eye of the first lizard to earn myself the first kill with a fatal crit. No noise to wake the rest yet, and when I checked the corpse I saw it was a weaker lizard which explained why I had no trouble with it. The second and third died just as easily as the first, then I was left with only level 7 plus lizards. I paused a moment, allowing my energy bar to fill back up just to be safe, and then targeted the next weakest mob to continue my spree. Whatever god ruled over luck was a fickle bitch as I charged in and stabbed the next lizard, I missed my targeted mark and only dealt 75% damage to the creature. Thankfully, the lucky part was that it was paralyzed for 5 seconds which allowed me to finish it off before it could make noise. Four down, six left. Two more died quickly from well placed charging strikes that depleted their HP bars in one shot until I slipped on a bit of lizard blood that had pooled on the floor and I unconsciously cursed aloud. It wasn¡¯t a large noise, but apparently between that and the scent of blood quickly filling up the room the remaining four beasts all woke up and one. Eight yellow eyes focused on me instantly as I regained my balance, yet another curse flying from my lips while I readied my spear. A level 9 lizard rushed at me first, charging with a hiss of air from between its jaws. I rejoiced at the mechanics of the game that counted a mob charging at me towards the bonus damage from my Mastery skill as I caught the beast in the chest with my spear point and dealing a good bit of damage to the creature. It was time to abandon stealth and quick one hit kills, so I triggered Temporal Step and moved between the lizards in order to strike at all of them as fast as I could. When the skill ended, I had a halberd in my hands and spun around rapidly. The long reach of my weapon allowed me to slash at all four of the mobs in turn while I spun, and I was able to get two hits on each before the lizards recovered and turned to attack me again. The first lizard got frozen from the spider venom, so I focused myself on that one. Shifting my weapon back to a spear, I dived in and finished the creature off as it only had 15% HP left at that point. My jumping around worked well, the lizards swiping at empty air while I constantly moved. Using the bodies of the fallen mobs as much as my speed, it was only a short amount of time before I managed to finish the remaining three lizards off, their combat potential much less without a goblin riding them.
Congratulations! You have gained a level! Current level: 6 Faction Bonus: +1 Will +1 Two Handed Axe Mastery +1 Combat Tactics You have 5 stat points available to distribute. Warning! If you die before assigning your points, they will be lost!
I grinned at the level message, and also saw another one saying Aly was level 5 now! I pulled up her info page and switched to the talent tab in order to look at the third tier skills she could learn. ¡°Aly, keep an eye out for me while I set this all up quick!¡±
Rapid Revival A Unique Skill known only to Alysandaria the Chronomancer. Time flows differently around the Contractor, allowing them to revive faster after death. Respawn timer: 75 minutes This is a passive skill Exp: 0/2500
Demi Speed A Unique Skill known only to Alysandaria the Chronomancer. The target of this ability is constricted by the will of the Fairy, slowing them by changing the rate of time flow around the target. Speed reduction: 50% Duration: 3 seconds MP cost: 50 Cooldown: 60 seconds Exp: 0/3000
Unfortunately, that was it for the third tier skills and the fourth tier wasn¡¯t available until level 20 according to the grayed out icon. I had to wait 15 levels to get new skills? What BS¡­ Then again, I was able to get access to a good number of decent skills in the early levels, so I guessed my power spike was coming to a slow end and I would level off once more. Both abilities would be useful, but only removing 15 minutes from my respawn timer wouldn¡¯t help me a lot at the moment. Oh well, I couldn¡¯t be too greedy. I selected the Demi Speed skill for Aly to learn next and pulled up my own character window to assign my points. Two into both Agi and Int, with the final point dropping into Fort to round me out. I nodded to myself as I looked at the final results. My primary stats were starting to grow now, and by level 10 they would be ahead of the rest and giving me the benefits I wanted from them. Task of leveling up completed, I went around and looted all of the lizards to add six Lizard Hides and four Vial of Lizard Blood to my inventory, some of the bastards not even dropping me any loot! Ugh¡­ damn RNG mechanics. With that finished and the bodies all clearing themselves away, I turned towards the chest and throne against the side wall, my hands rubbing themselves together as I walked over. The first thing I noticed was a heavy lock on the chest, but then I caught sight of something lying on the floor behind both the chest and throne which drew my attention. Excitement filled me as I moved over and lifted the item in my hands, a wide smile on my face. I held a marvelous weapon that had to have been of excellent workmanship with a long pole handle and a three foot curving blade sharpened on both edges. A scythe made specifically for combat, and not one of those farmer implements. I quickly pulled up the inspect window on the item, eager for some good news.
Runed War Scythe Rare Damage: 32-45 Required Level: 5 Required Skill: Polearm Mastery lvl 5 An enchanted weapon once owned by an experienced adventurer, this scythe has tasted the blood of countless foes. While most would find it awkward to wield, those who specialize in exotic weapons should find it quite useful.
Now that is what I was talking about! Just what I needed to find in order to finish this quest up quickly and get the hell out of these ruins! The damage on this weapon was almost triple of what I figured the base damage of my spear was, and my mastery and other skills should boost it up even more. I quickly equipped the weapon and slung it over my back to replace the shifting weapon I had started the game with. I would keep the unique item as a backup, but now I had myself a real tool of destruction! Hyped up by the prospect of trying out my new toy, I turned back to the chest. Then froze and spun in a circle once again to check out the pole behind the throne. No¡­ It wouldn¡¯t be that easy. No way in hell it -could- be that easy. I took the two steps required to reach out and touch the item and confirmed my suspicions with the item window. Banner of the Goblin Chieftain. Son of a bitch. This was supposed to be the boss room, but whatever commotion was going on outside drew the beastie out of his hiding hole. Putting the Banner into my inventory, no need to lose that freebie, I tried a third time to focus on the chest. Remembering the key I had claimed from the Outrider, I tried it out on the heavy lock. Well, not everything could work out perfectly I guessed. The key didn¡¯t fit the lock, so I returned it to my inventory and resorted to the good old fashioned barbaric method of smashing the damn thing. There were a few piled of rubble around, and one chunk of stone made for a perfect lock pick set. The process was a bit on the loud side, but after a few bashes with my impromptu key, the metal gave way and fell off, allowing me to open the chest in anticipation. Roughly three by two by two, the chest wasn¡¯t particularly big. Inside of the sturdy iron bound wood were a few vials, some I recognized while others came up as all question marks to my inspect skill. The ones I knew were energy and health potions, and they went right into my quick access slots to replenish what I had used so far. In addition to the potions was a heavy pouch of coins equaling 1 gold, 13 silver, 48 copper. Damn, I was rich! Rummaging around, I was curious to see what else this crate of goodies would yield for me. A pair of gloves were at the bottom of the chest, stats on them not quite as good as the ones I had equipped, as well as a stone that gave me all question marks when inspected. With all of the good fortune I had been having, I wasn¡¯t about to question the AI anytime soon and just stuffed it all in my inventory. Another inspection of the room turned up nothing and it was time for me to move on before the chieftain himself decided to come back and found me lounging in his throne. That wouldn¡¯t end well most likely, and I wasn¡¯t in the mood to wait to respawn after getting all of those good things. Add to that the fact that the flashing icon by the clock on my UI was back, and it spelled time for me to exit stage right. The horns had slowed down at the other edge of town from where I started, although I still heard them blaring intermittently. After I took a break, I decided it was time to check that out finally and see just what was going on. If there were other players here and were having trouble after surviving all this time, I would see about helping them. After my break¡­ No reason to get caught up in things when I had a real body to take care of. The streets were fairly empty of mobs as I traversed to a building far enough away from the town center as to feel safe, then initiated the log off. I didn¡¯t want to come back in right on top of a horde of pissed off goblins, even with as much as I wanted to try out my newest toy. Time and place, and that would be neither. 14) Old thoughts and new battles As soon as I logged out of the game, I noticed a message on my pers-com and pulled the AR screen up as soon as I was able to. President Willcot had sent me a message about setting up our first meeting within the next couple days. I wasn¡¯t quite sure how much longer I was going to be farting around in those ruins, so I sent a reply saying to meet for breakfast and coffee Thursday morning. That done, I stretched my sore body and enjoyed a hot soothing shower to loosen my muscles up a bit. The micro impulses from the immersion device were still making me a bit uncomfortable, but the overall stiffness was decreasing with every log out. Hopefully in a few more days it wouldn¡¯t be a bother at all. Once I was out of the shower, I dressed and sat down at my AR display to check up on the commentary on my feed. My bonus depended on good results from this stream, so I needed to make sure I was getting some good feedback. The bulk of the comments looked average. Nice job on a fight, do it this way instead of how you did it, don¡¯t build your stats like that. Common drivel. Most people had an opinion on everything and using the internet they were able to say it without repercussions. Hell, I would like to see them solo an entire town like I was doing. Plebs. I closed out the display and headed down to the kitchen for some food. It was starting to get to be late afternoon, and I wanted a good meal so I could play well into dark to get as much done as I could. Sitting in the kitchen was Archie, happily munching away on a large hamburger that he looked to have made himself. I waved to him and grinned. ¡°Yo! I see you got a good Fairy. What does it have power over?¡± Wandering over to the fridge, I opened the doors to check out what was available. Some precooked pasta, no sauce, and a few various ingredients to whip up some chicken alfredo came out of the chiller and I got to work. ¡°Hey Dale. Yeah, Unique quality with the power over moonlight.¡± He spoke in a chipper voice, adjusting his glasses with his free hand while the other set down his burger. ¡°Moonlight? Seriously? That is cool and all, but does it still work during the daytime? I know that in the real world the moon is visible for a good portion of the daytime too, but how does that work in the game?¡± ¡°Easy enough actually. See, the game world actually has five moons, two of which are in the sky during the day, three at night. I had to do a bit of Q and A with Fallon, my Fairy, to figure it all out, but his abilities really are quite good.¡± He seemed quite pleased with himself and went back to eating his burger as I prepared my own supper. ¡°Glad to hear it Archie. Give any thought to meeting up with me in my providence? I am out of the main city for now, but will be heading back in a day or so hopefully.¡± With my quick and easy dinner complete, I sat down across from my friend at the table and dug in. He nodded his head to me and smiled. ¡°Yeah, I am actually heading out tonight to go to Tyrith City. There is a caravan departing later that I can join and then log out. Travel can happen while I am asleep and then tomorrow I can make the rest of the journey while working on my skills.¡± Archie took another bite of his burger and waved his hand up. ¡°I am not sure if Kayla was going or not as well, but I doubt she will want to play alone if she can help it. Who knows, maybe she found a group in her own providence.¡± I shrugged as I swallowed a mouthful of food. ¡°No idea, but it will be good to have you along when you show up. If you aren¡¯t there already, try and make level ten before you get to Tyrith City. I can probably get you into the faction easily if you come in ready to go.¡± ¡°Yeah, not a problem. I am level nine at the moment, the quest to get my Fairy really put me through the ringer and I even had help from some other players.¡± He chuckled and finished the last of his meal. ¡°Getting the last level won¡¯t be a problem at all by the time I get there.¡± Standing, Archie took his dishes to the sink and loaded them into the dishwasher. ¡°Anyway, for now I am going to go log back in for a bit. Caravan will be leaving soon, and I will try to get some hunting in while on the road.¡± ¡°Good luck man!¡± A quick wave good-bye and I was alone in the kitchen to enjoy my simplistic, but tasty, meal. As I ate, I thought about Archie and all of the shit he went through as a kid and what lead him into high level gaming. When he was younger, Archie was in an accident while his mother was driving, and unfortunately, she didn¡¯t make it out of there. Raised by his father, who was a military man, he spent a lot of time playing games to entertain himself while alone at home. His dad was an officer of significant rank and was almost never home, so that left Archie to keep himself busy. I met him on accident one day while playing a four player game of a RTS and we ended up going toe to toe for a long time after wiping the other two players off the map rather quickly. After almost an hour into a game that normally only took twenty minutes to play, I sent him a voice chat to shoot the breeze while we played. He had accepted it and was happy to find another person who was capable at the game like he was. Just like that, as kids tend to do, we became friends. Competitive and quick to anger, Archie usually ended up on the opposite side of the field from me when it came to the multiplayer games. He had this need to beat me at every chance he could, and he was good enough at gaming to manage it as often as he lost. Quickly enough, we became rivals of sorts, even if it was by his choice in the matter. We would team up when needed to wipe out anyone who was getting good enough to challenge us, but when it came down to it, Archie wanted a good challenge and I was the best one he could find. Throughout or school career, Archie and I remained close frenemies ¨C as the saying goes ¨C and even decided to go to the same college after graduating high school. By that time, we had entered the professional level of gaming and were making some decent money to pay our way through school with the tournaments. Kayla had come into the picture around then as well, with her boyfriend of the time being a member of the lacrosse team and not into gaming at all. She found both Archie and I one day chatting over one game or another, and instantly recognized the two of us from the competition streams. She had joined us that day and got to talking over the various tournaments and how she was a gamer herself, but couldn¡¯t find anyone to shoot her up into the pro levels. It was a time when if you didn¡¯t have any backing, you weren¡¯t invited to the big stages in the gaming world. There were no amateur tournaments or anything like that, and players had to fight tooth and nail in order to make it into the pros. Quickly enough, Archie and I found out Kayla was just as good at gaming as we were and we started a new team of three people and began breaking world records across the board with Alex as our coach and manager. He even joined in on the game play once in a while when we needed an extra player, and he always managed to hold his own on the gaming scene. Thus, our college years went by rather quickly with me crushing hard on the taken Kayla, who despite having a boyfriend still managed to flirt back at me occasionally, and Alex and Archie both getting involved with women of their own. After graduating, we all went our separate ways and barely kept in touch after getting regular jobs. Well, Alex and I got regular jobs¡­ Archie and Kayla spent a few more years mooching off the pro gaming scene and making some good bank in the process. Lost in thought, I finished up my meal and took care of the dishes in a mechanical way before heading back upstairs to my room. I glanced at Kayla¡¯s door as I passed it, curious about how she had really spent the last few years, but shrugged it off and entered my own apartment to get back to work. And indeed that was what this game was to me¡­ Work. Granted, it was fun as all hell, but I still had expectations to meet in order to keep up my end of the contract. I splashed some cold water on my face to clear my head of all thoughts about the past, and then moved into the gaming room to log back into my avatar. It was a little past six when I made it back into the game rested, fed, and rearing to go. Aly appeared with a flash of light before settling down on my shoulder in her customary position while I readied my scythe and double checked my potion slots to ensure everything was in order. What can I say¡­ I am a stickler for making sure I am ready before doing something potentially stupid. One thing caught me off guard, however. I could only hear one or two horns coming from the edge of the ruins now. Feeling like I missed my opportunity to really see what was going on, I checked the road and headed out to thread my way through the chaotic design of streets towards the last remaining sounds I could hear. There were no enemies about on the roads for the most part. I saw one or two packs of goblins running towards the horns, but didn¡¯t engage them as I wanted to make all haste to the site of whatever it was that was happening. Drawing closer, the sounds of battle began echoing between the crumbling buildings, alerting me that I was nearing the edge of the ruins where all the activity had been going on. I kept Aly close to me for now, not wanting anything to happen should she be spotted, and climbed up the side of a pitted stone wall to get a look at what was happening. Once up on the roof, I was able to see over the few buildings to where a large battle was still going on. The goblins were charging against a veritable army of humans in matching armor of unfamiliar design, and the mobs were dying by the handfuls every few minutes. This army was a well oiled machine that knew how to hold back the tide of rushing green monsters. Something wasn¡¯t right though, and I couldn¡¯t put my finger on it right away. It wasn¡¯t until a few minutes later that I realized what it was. Their armor and tabards were all of a different color scheme that what I had seen in Tyrith City. Were these guys from another providence looking to encroach onto our territory? Or was it some other detachment of the faction soldiers I just hadn¡¯t seen yet? Too many questions that had no obvious answers at the time. As I watched, I saw why the horns had been dying down. The bulk of the goblin forces were hiding behind a screen of crumbled walls to gather their forces, only sending in a few batches at a time to keep the group of humans busy while they mustered. That couldn¡¯t be good, as I saw a huge goblin in the middle of the pack wearing plate mail armor and a huge war axe slung over his back. My inspect skill only gave me a name for the six and a half foot tall monster¡­ Goblin Chieftain. The thing I was supposed to kill for the quest rewards, but was drawn away due to the threat of these humans looking to wipe the tribe out completely. Even as I watched, a grizzled looking Outrider approached the Chieftain and spoke in their guttural language for a moment before falling into place with the rest of the mounted units. The big goblin then lifted his giant axe over his head and bellowed at the top of his lungs, joined by the deafening tone of three dozen horns sounding as one. The ground shook with the force of almost one hundred fifty goblins stampeding out from their hiding places in a semi-coordinated charge at the line of professional looking soldiers. The horde of mobs easily outnumbered the humans, but it wasn¡¯t an overwhelming difference. Especially if you brought the quality of gear into account. The goblins only had crude armor, if any at all, while the humans all wore good quality gear and weapons. Still, the sight of so many monsters charging the human force at once made an obvious impact on the soldiers¡¯ morale. The front line of humans wavered slightly before firming up once more, tower shields moving into tight formation to block the swift advance of the monsters. I watched the start of the massive battle from my place in hiding, and saw that two groups of Outriders split off, one in each direction, to flank the humans and attack from the sides. The tactic was effective to a degree, but was spotted quick enough and measures were taken to shore up the small army¡¯s defenses. The huge Chieftain himself lead the charge and smashed into the shield wall with devastating force, the slower goblins catching up to harass the humans as they could. An idea of opportunity unfolded in my head as I watched both armies preoccupied with one another, leaving me free to wreak havoc on the ranks of green skinned bastards. I felt a feral grin spread across my face as I looked to Aly. ¡°I am going in¡­ Fly high enough to avoid getting hit, but stay nearby just in case.¡± ¡°Right, avoid dying and make sure you don¡¯t kick the bucket either. Got it.¡± Smartass Fairy. I had to admit though, that attitude was growing on me slowly but surely. I shook my head and climbed quickly down the wall before pulling my new weapon from my back. Maybe not the best idea to test my new toy, but damn if this wasn¡¯t going to be fun! Besides, it didn¡¯t look like it would end well for the humans in the long run. Despite being better equipped, the odds were a bit off kilter with the sheer number of goblins. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. Before charging off, my new weapon blade got a coat of Basic Poison for good measure. I wasn¡¯t going to be standing still and fighting enemies in turn, so the extra damage that I could inflict from poison may well be enough to finish off any goblins I merely wounded instead of outright killed. Hopefully. Otherwise, I would be taking a bit of a dirt nap till I respawned. Finally set, I crept around the alley ways and roads to make it to the field where both armies were engaged and took stock of my best angle of approach. Still thinking this was a dumb idea, the possible rewards outweighed the risks. Temporal step took me right to the trailing edge of the goblin force, the skill allowing me to approach with zero chance of being spotted too soon, and I began to move. Twirling my scythe around me as swiftly as possible, I pushed my attack speed and movement speed to their limits as I moved forward in a whirlwind of death. The back ranks were the slower goblin sentries, and every sweep of my powerful weapon backed up with the boosting skills killed two of the closely packed enemies, each swing backed by my charging run while I danced through the press of bodies. Staying still would get me killed, so even if I had been leaving living mobs behind me I couldn¡¯t stop. All around me the world took up a red haze as I became a veritable cyclone tearing a swath of destruction through the back lines of the goblins. The weaker ones had to go first, and after one pass through the group, I immediately turned and mentally marked a path to angle in and join the human lines. Hopefully they would take me killing all of these goblins as a sign of alliance. Another trigger of Temporal Step brought me to a new starting position and my rapid assault began again. The scythe was light as a feather in my hands, the weapon flashing in the light of the fading sun with every swipe and spin, the kaleidoscope of flashes distracting the goblins nearby enough to allow me to plow through their ranks with ease. Getting closer to the middle section of the army, my blows lost the one hit kill ability, the mobs¡¯ levels rising and giving them more HP than I could deplete with a single hit. Still, the ones I left behind me were quite injured or crippled, a good deal flashing a poison debuff by their health bars to signal their inevitable death. I had little time to contemplate the situation as the stronger goblins began to notice me tearing through the hoard of monsters and turned their attention onto me. Weapons finally began to be thrust at me, most missing but some making enough contact to shave off some of my health. What worried me more was my energy bar beginning to slide dangerously low¡­ Stopping in my charge, I gripped the handle of my scythe as low as I could and spun rapidly in a circle with the weapon at full extension. Three times I spun in place, killing a few more goblins and pushing the rest back to give me a second of breathing room. First an energy potion, then a health potion, and my bars were both in much better shape. Mana was still good, as I had yet to use True Haste at all and only relied on my naturally high agility score this far. A glance around me made it clear I was nearing the front lines of the human army, although my angled path put me more towards the side of the formation than the middle which suited me fine. Setting a proper grip on my weapon, I let a feral yell out from my throat and charged forward once more before the goblins pressed in on me again. A quick double cross slash of my scythe opened up a hole for me to begin my swirling dance of destruction once more to leave broken and poisoned bodies in my wake. All of a sudden, I was out of the group of foot soldiers and encountered a pack of Outriders on their lizard mounts. Shit, these guys had long spears and matched my reach with my scythe. I hesitated for a moment, thinking my options over and decided on the best course quickly. I didn¡¯t have the time to deal with the Outriders, but if I removed their mounts from the equation then it would be much better odds for the human forces. Plan set, I used a short burst of True Haste to weave myself through the group of five lizards while slashing at the legs of every mount I passed. Unlike my first encounter with the beasts, I was dealing a good chunk of damage with every contact of my blade to their hides. Not quite half of their health per blow, but it was pretty close to that. I circled around without slowing and made a second pass through the Outriders, adding in a second hit to all of the lizards, some even getting a third to finish them off. With the detachment of mounted units in chaos, I triggered Temporal Step and ran away quickly away from the goblins and behind the army of human soldiers. When the skill ended, I was far enough away from the two armies that I felt reasonably safe and collapsed down to the ground with ragged breath. My energy bar was down to almost zero again, and my health had suffered from the spears of the Outriders too. My gambit may have been devastating to the goblins, but they still managed to get their licks in on me too. My bars all slowly started to fill back up as I kept a close eye on both sides of the battle, minimizing several windows that flashed before me now that the game registered I was out of combat. I was looking forward to reading them, but with two armies arrayed before me I couldn¡¯t spare the distraction. The sight before me was quite interesting in its own way too. I had seen real battles that had been recorded in real life, but actually having a front row ticket to such a realistic medieval style war with two large forces clashing was another matter entirely! The sounds were deafening, the clash of steel striking either steel or skin, the screams of the dying and wounded, the shouts of orders, and the piecing bellow of horns all mixed together into a cacophony of noise that could only be described as chaotic. The smell wasn¡¯t much better either, the coppery scent of blood permeating the air with a hint of the acrid scent of burning metal. Every strike of metal on metal sent up sparks which added that layer to the mix of things, which surprised me. I never thought that you could fill an area with that kind of smell, but with the number of strikes and blocks going on it kind of made sense to me that it would. Thousands of small sparks adding up to give the underlay to the mix. As I watched, the tide of the battle turned. Behind the front row of shield bearers, a line of soldiers were concentrating hard. As one, they thrust their hands forward over the shoulders of the men in front of them. From every extended palm burst forth magic of differing varieties. Fireballs, icebolts, spears of rock, bolts of lightning, even a couple balls of pure darkness which I assumed was infernal magic. Looked like these guys had Fairies too. Screams sounded louder as the waves of magic devastated the front ranks of the goblins, and the following three waves of spells thinned out the goblin army enough to make the remaining creatures run away with squeals of terror at the thought of continued battle. The human army must have been holding that back until they were sure it would have a large enough impact on the battle. Seeing that the fight was done at this point, I figured now would be a good time to scram myself. I didn¡¯t know if these humans would welcome my assistance or kill me off hand just like they did the goblins, and I really wasn¡¯t in the mood to find out. I was just about to stand up and make my swift escape when the flat of a blade rested against my shoulder, the edge pressed against the side of my neck. Shit¡­ Why didn¡¯t I keep an eye behind me? I should have told Aly to watch my back while I was resting¡­ Dumb mistake and one I was probably going to regret. The realistic sensations of this game were screwing me up more than I liked to admit, making me forget even the simplest of contingency plans. A hard feminine voice hissed out behind me in a tone that brooked no argument. ¡°Hold, Human. Remove your hand from the weapon slowly, or you will be deprived of your head.¡± The voice held contempt, and maybe a little bit of uncertainty as well which gave me some slim hope. Well, I wasn¡¯t one to follow orders well¡­ Especially from someone I didn¡¯t know. My bars were all full now, minus 1% HP from the sword against my neck which apparently drew blood. Triggering Temporal Step, I extracted myself from my vulnerable position and stood up. I had just enough time to see the woman behind me was wearing the same armor as the rest of the army before I exchanged out positions. The time I had available allowed me to move behind her and slip the curved blade of my scythe against the front of her throat with the pole pressed against the side of her neck before the world moved around me again. Her reaction was instant. A shocked gasp, then recognition of her new position as she froze completely in place. ¡°Now, I don¡¯t see why you have to be such a bitch about this¡­ I just helped your asses out and this is the thanks I get? What the hell is wrong with you people?¡± I sighed, and with my point made I withdrew my scythe from her neck. I kept it ready just in case, but didn¡¯t hold it in a threatening manner. ¡°Aly, keep an eye around me for any other ungrateful guests please.¡± My fairy floated down and gave me a worried look. ¡°I was looking Calamity! This one just popped up out of nowhere! I swear I was taking my task seriously¡­¡± She seemed almost hurt that I would suggest she was slacking in her job and I instantly felt bad. ¡°Sorry, Aly.¡± I didn¡¯t have time for more as the woman before me turned around slowly and lowered her sword. ¡°As for you¡­ What is with the pitiful thanks for my help?¡± Her face was covered by a full helmet, leaving only her eyes, mouth, and chin exposed. The eyes were a brilliant purple color, lips pressed into a pissed off line. From the features I could see, she was probably quite beautiful. That made me frown slightly, as I wondered what she was doing on a battlefield against a force of goblins. If my history lessons served me right, women didn¡¯t partake in combat in medieval times. ¡°Why should we offer thanks to a Human for interfering with our war?¡± She spoke to me, but her eyes seemed to track the movements of Aly. ¡°We were handling our fight quite well without you barging in and stealing our kills.¡± I was just about to respond, when Aly suddenly stiffened beside me. ¡°Calamity! Off to the right, more are coming this way!¡± ¡°Shit¡­¡± I flipped my scythe up into a readied position for combat. I tried to inspect both the woman and the oncoming squad of five soldiers, but only question marks was my reward. Damn inspect skill was being useless¡­ The soldiers spread out as they approached and stopped in a semi-circle centered on the woman I first encountered. All of them eyed me with the same mixed look of curiosity and contempt, but eventually stared at Aly in the end. A shade of uncertainty tinged their motions, as if they weren¡¯t sure whether to kill me or thank me suddenly, and it put me on my guard. I didn¡¯t like how the AI was spinning this situation in the least. Finally, one of the soldiers spoke up. ¡°Lady, your father has requested that you return to him.¡± He didn¡¯t look away from the woman, but when he spoke again it was obviously towards me. ¡°Also, we would request your presence in our camp. We didn¡¯t see your Fairy during the fight, so I am not certain as to how that will change things¡­ But please take a few more minutes to rest after the battle and then report to our commander.¡± With his speech done, the woman and squad all backed away a few steps before turning and jogging back to the main force of the army. I didn¡¯t even have any time to respond, as I was preoccupied with a quest window that popped up in front of my eyes.
Quest received! Meet the Commander After the battle against the goblin horde, you have been asked to report to the army Commander. Due to your participation in the destruction of so many foes, you will not be attacked on sight and have been granted free passage in and out of the encampment. Rewards: Unknown Warning! Disregarding this quest will garner you the hatred of this army. Failing to complete the quest will mark you as an enemy and you will be killed on sight by any soldier of this force in the future.
Splendid¡­ If I decided against this I was going to be blacklisted by this group. And I didn¡¯t even know if they were actually a part of my faction! Fucking AI¡­ Oh well, they said I could take my time and rest some more, and I had several messages already waiting for my attention. One thing that had me worried was how the female soldier was able to sneak up on me without Aly noticing¡­ More questions. Lovely. With a sigh, I dropped down to sit on the ground and pulled up the list of messages.
Congratulations! You have gained an achievement! Soul Reaper Like the famous Grim Reaper you have wielded your scythe in battle and slain over 50 enemies without breaking combat. The gods have witnessed your feats and look upon you in favor. Rewards: Title, +200 fame Title: Soul Reaper +5 Str, +5 Agi +10% damage dealt +10% lifesteal
Congratulations! Your skill Combat Tactics has been changed due to your achievements and the results of your battle. New skill: Blooded Tactician Skill level: 8 (36%) Due to your experience in battle, you have learned what it is to fight against overwhelming odds. Your knowledge of battle has granted you benefits in future encounters for yourself and those allied with you. +8% damage dealt -8% damage received This skill affects all members of your party or raid group. Increase skill level for additional bonuses.
Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Spoils of War Skill level: Max You have neglected the loot of over 50 slain enemies and left the trophies of your victory behind. From now on, you will no longer have to loot your slain foes to gain these rewards and all drops will automatically be transferred to your inventory.
Congratulations! You have gained 3 levels! Current level: 9 Faction Bonus: +1 Will, +1 Str, +1 Int +1 Two Handed Axe Mastery +2 Polearm Mastery +2 Inspect +1 Advanced Herbalism You have 15 stat points available to distribute. Warning! If you die before assigning your points, they will be lost!
I could only stare at the messages in my vision. Damn, that was one hell of a battle to get that kind of reward! Going by the color scheme of things, the title was of Divine quality due to its silver color. Plus, getting some lifesteal out of the mix made me happier than a pig in shit! Going by all previous game mechanics I ever knew of, 10% of all damage I dealt would be returned to me as HP. Hah! That will make my future much more interesting. Right then, too much to do, not enough time to do it all in. I assigned my stat points into my three main stats to bring them all up. Strength was powering up quite nicely on its own thanks to my gear and titles, and I was never going to turn down the extra damage. After that, I opened Aly¡¯s page and selected the Rapid Revival skill to learn next, Demi Speed having more than finished, and pulled up both my own charts and Aly¡¯s.
Name: Calamity Player Level: 9 Stat Level: 30 Exp: 18,820
Titles Nightblade, Soul Reaper Fame 300
Armor 34 HP 450/450
Energy 400/400 MP 410/410
Str 39 Fort 40
Dex 29 Int 41
Agi 40 Will 23
Skill List:
Polearm Mastery: lvl 11 (0%)
Two Handed Axe Mastery: lvl 3 (0%)
Inspect: lvl 5 (0%)
Advanced Herbalism: lvl 3 (0%)
Blooded Tactician: lvl 8 (36%)
Spoils of War: lvl Max
Alysandaria the Chronomancer Level: 8 Type: Support Born in the Grotto of Tranquility, Alysandaria is the Contracted bond partner to Calamity. Upon entering the world, she has chosen dominion over the power of time itself and can grant enhancing effects to others with her abilities. Skills: True Haste Swift Regeneration Temporal Step Time Heals All Wounds Demi Speed
15) Interlude Archie/Kayla -Archie- After leaving Dale in the kitchen I wandered back up to my room to log back into the game. He never said what his intentions were in RoI, but knowing that guy it was bound to be entertaining. I had always enjoyed both teaming up with and squaring off against him in the past. We always meshed so well when cooperating, Kayla and Alex fitting into their roles perfectly as well. I had always been the analyst of the group, breaking down stats for min-maxing as well as ability ratings and gear. Kayla¡¯s forte was skill technique and timing, her ability to use the exact item or skill at just the right time was beyond average. Alex was our support, both in game and out, and tended to stick to the role of healer or buffer when in game. Our strategist and point man was, of course, Dale. Always he had a plan, but he always stuck to the rule of no plan survives first contact. That didn¡¯t stop him from improvising on the fly, but it worked out every time in the end with our top tier group. The prospect of running with him again, and maybe even having Kayla join us, was thrilling. The last few years had been good to me, paid advertising and tournament prizes have kept me well off till now and I enjoyed the aspect of pro gaming. Having Kayla along for most of that was great too, the woman being the closest thing to a sister as I had ever known. Even Dale may as well have been my brother from all the time we have spent together. Right down to the stupid fights we had all the time when younger, which only ever lasted until we slept on the issue. I sighed and lay down on the table to my immersion device, cap attached to my head and making my scalp itch with the press of the material and prodding of sensors and diodes. There were things to do, and I still had to make another level according to Dale to fit into the plans. My caravan had a way to go yet, and one stop was in the city of Fairfield. Hopefully Kayla will have made up her mind by then and I could just add her into my party for the caravan. Dismissing my thoughts, I heard Jensen¡¯s countdown to log in, and found myself in the ready room. I smiled at the homey feel of the place, having decorated the room to look like the inside of a comfortable log cabin, fireplace and relaxing armchair before it included. The settings were easy enough to figure out, and while here I could access the internet through AR screens which made that chair so much better. No time for relaxing at the moment, however, and I walked over to the doorway leading into the game world. Pushing the oaken door with the game emblem on it open, I stepped through to welcome the feeling of vertigo that lasted but a moment until I could open my eyes once more within Grendor, my home away from home. At least, that is how it felt to me. Everything seemed so much more vibrant here than in the real world, the sights and feelings seeming even more real than outside of the game. I supposed that was my mind making sense of the situation, but I didn¡¯t really mind at all. The game world was so intoxicating in its enjoyment factor that I really didn¡¯t think I would be able to downgrade to basic VR games without a feeling of severe disappointment. No matter, there was a lot to do here with this game before I would ever think about picking up a different one. As I took in my surroundings, I noticed that the carriage I had logged out in was moving steadily along now. It was still when I had logged out, still getting ready to leave, but the wagon train seemed to have gotten under way already. That worked out for me well enough. The inside of the coach I had hired was small and cramped, barely room enough for four people to sit within, but the bright side was that I had the thing to myself during the travels. According to the caravan master, the trip was supposed to take about two full days of travel in order to make it to the city of Tyrith, with a stop for four hours in Fairfield. RoI had an increased travel speed for caravans that somehow worked so they could cover distances in less time, while not seeming to go any faster. How it worked, I had no idea¡­ But one could walk right alongside of the caravan the entire time, and still it would cover the ground just as quickly with the landscape passing by at what looked like a normal speed. If I had tried to walk the distance to Tyrith, it would have taken me two weeks to get there, and that wasn¡¯t counting on all the mobs between me and my destination that would be looking to hinder me. Fallon floated around slowly inside the carriage, apparently bored out of his mind with the monotony of the ride, even though I had just logged in. He really had a short attention span, although I had to admit he was by far more patient than I ever could be. Short -even by Fairy standards- at six inches tall, he had bright silver eyes and a shock of pure white hair on his head with a face that seemed pulled right out of some male model catalogue. His wings were like a butterfly¡¯s, broad and translucent with veins of silver streaked throughout the white color of the membranes. All in all, he was quite an interesting creature. ¡°Come, Fallon. I think we should walk along outside and see if we can drop a few creatures while we travel. I need more experience and you look bored.¡± I smiled at the diminutive Fairy and popped open the side door of the carriage to hop out. It was a task to not stumble and fall when getting out of the moving vehicle, but the speeds were slow enough that I managed without eating the dirt of the road. ¡°Finally! Something to do. I was worried that you would sit there lost in thought the entire trip.¡± He flew out behind me and stretched his arms and wings out wide with a groan. ¡°Zexceed, there is a rather large bear looking on curiously off the road there if you want a go at him.¡± I raised a brow at the Fairy, then looked over to where he indicated. At first I didn¡¯t notice anything, so I activated the skill Twilight Sight. It gave me the ability to see any living creatures around me in a thirty yard radius by outlining them in a faint silver glow that only I or Fallon could see. Having a Fairy with command over all the moons was really fun, if limited in these early levels. The possibilities were really quite high in the higher scale of things, but that was the joy of having a Divine or Unique Fairy. ¡°There it is. I got it. Shall we go and collect ourselves some loot?¡± At Fallon¡¯s nod, I waved at the guards walking along with the caravan. ¡°I am heading over there to take care of a bear. Will catch up in a moment.¡± ¡°Right, sir. Need a hand or do you want to have some fun with it?¡± The closest guard was one I had talked with before departing, and he knew I was going to try and get some hunting in while we traveled. Really a decent fellow for a basic NPC, and his level was 25 so I could reasonably just run back and let him or his buddies handle the bear if it was too much trouble. ¡°Nope, I will take care of it. May bring it back to you if it turns out to be too much for me though.¡± I grinned at him while he laughed and shook his head at my antics. Without waiting for any more, I motioned to Fallon to follow me and headed over to the large silver outline I could make out in the woods ahead of me. As I walked over, I called up Fallon¡¯s sheet again to check up on his skills.
Fallon of the Six Moons Level: 8 Type: Combat Utility Born in the Well of Prayers, Fallon of the Six Moons is the Contracted bond partner of Zexceed. Upon entering the world, he has chosen dominion over the power of moonlight itself and can grant enhancing effects to others with his abilities. Skills: Lunar Weaponry: Spiked Knuckles Twilight Sight Moonlight Blades Wrap in Night Lesser Celestial Armor
All of the skills Fallon had learned so far had been quite good. The Spiked Knuckles skill gathered moonlight around my fists, condensing and solidifying them into weapons for me to fight hand to hand to quite good effect for fairly cheap mana cost. Moonlight Blades was a much higher casting cost at 80 mana per blade, but it was my only ranged attack at the moment. The skill created an arc of moonlight that sliced through the air in a straight line however I wished to place it and dealt decent damage. Wrap in Night was a pretty basic stealth skill that allowed me to get up close to an enemy so long as I wasn¡¯t standing in direct sunlight, while Lesser Celestial Armor gave me just that, armor. The defense bonus from the skill wasn¡¯t great at 20 points, but it was still in addition to my gear so it was a worthwhile skill to have. Fallon was still working on his last tier three skill, but it was one that I really didn¡¯t see a great use for as it only called down a pillar of moonlight to brighten a dark area. The one good thing to that skill was that I could still use it indoors or underground. It may be useful in the right situation, but so far I had been mostly above ground and in well-lit areas so I put it off to learn after the armor skill. More than anything, I was curious as to his name. According to everything I read in real life and what I learned within the game said there were only five moons. Where the sixth one came in, even Fallon himself didn¡¯t know. Fallon said he had a connection to the five moons in the sky, as well as another distant one that he couldn¡¯t understand just yet. Perhaps at a higher level it would become clearer, but for now it was just downright frustrating. My thoughts only lasted as long as it took me to close in on the bear which had turned towards me and chuffed out an annoyed sound. As I got within twenty paces of the animal, it growled savagely at me and stood up on its hind legs to tower over me. Really, it was quite large and my inspect skill showed me it was level 10. Not much of a challenge, but experience is experience. Activating my Armor and Spiked Knuckles, I grinned and leapt in at the roaring brown bear. I focused my stats on strength, dexterity, and agility, planning on making myself a heavy and quick hitter with the skills I had at my disposal. My fortitude was a little low, having only 300 HP at level 9, but with my extra armor it wasn¡¯t that bad. Since I wasn¡¯t using an actual weapon, my energy levels actually lasted when in combat which added in to my needing less Fort. When I got within five paces of the bear, I dove into a tumbling roll to avoid the first swipe of the animal¡¯s paws and made my feet at the creature¡¯s side. Putting my whole body into the strikes as my real life martial arts instructor taught me, I delivered three rapid blows to the exposed ribcage. My own skills added a huge boost to my damage, and with those three blows the bear was down to 30% HP already.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. This had been my path so far. Hit hard, move, hit again, victory. My Unarmed Combat Mastery added to my attack speed and damage, and at level 5 had given me a higher Str stat calculation to each blow. I had experimented with the logs and weapons earlier on, and figured out that unarmed and one handed weapons each added in 25% of a player¡¯s strength to the damage, while two handed weapons added 50% of the Str stat. Some exotic weapons added a bit more, but that was the general breakdown of the base bonus that I had seen thus far. The bear roared in pain at my attacks, and swung his paw around to try and strike me on the back swing. My speed was pretty high at this point, and I countered his attack by punching at the incoming arm, the resulting snap and bellow of pain informing me the strike broke bones as it stopped the swing cold, as well as dropping another 20% of its HP. I chuckled and finished the bear off, collecting the loot mechanically. If I had to put a finger on what I was building here, I would have to admit I took the idea from an old pen and paper RPG and pretty much built a Monk class. Fist weapons, lighter armor with skills to back it up, fast and strong. In a setting where I was actually doing the combat, this suited me just fine. Despite being a bean pole in real life, I had trained in a few different forms of martial arts throughout the years in order to understand combat in games and excel at it. Most games had done their research on hand to hand combat, and as a pro level gamer I had to know what was going into the game I was playing in order to read my opponents as well as I could. In all, it translated perfectly into this game here where I was able to use all of what I had learned to top efficiency as my Str stat directly related to how much damage I was doing and not my physical real world body. Heading back to the caravan, I fist bumped the guard I had talked to when I stepped up to him. ¡°No worries, bear is gone. Thing was a push over really.¡± ¡°Hah! Poor dead bastard. Well, you are more than welcome to march along with us for a while and have some fun with the local wildlife.¡± He reached up and scratched his beard, eyes traveling along the roadside. ¡°Also wouldn¡¯t say no to you lending a hand in the case of a bandit attack. Not that many along this road, but rather be safe than sorry, if you know what I mean.¡± I nodded to him and agreed, walking along and shooting the breeze with the NPC between breaking off to take out a few more bears. They seemed to be the local mob flavor here, mixed in with a large predatory cat I saw up in a tree but couldn¡¯t reach. The time passed quickly, and soon enough it was dark with three bright moons in the sky to light the way. Fallon relished in the feeling of the moonlight without the hindering rays of the sun to drown them out and I stayed logged in for a bit longer than I wanted to give him some time to enjoy it. Despite the Fairy being an AI, I wanted to make the little guy happy with the small things. Never knew when something would come up where he wouldn¡¯t be able to enjoy the night sky for a time. As the five hour warning began to flash on my UI to indicate the end of my session, I waved Fallon back over and we both headed into my coach in order to log out. I had gained a good bit of exp, and by my calculations I would hit level 10 on the road after leaving Fairfield at this rate. So long as the progression rate didn¡¯t change as I broke into the double digits at least. * * * * * -Kayla- I had woken up early to see a message on my pers-com from Archie. Seemed he was heading to my city and would be there some time in the late morning, his caravan traveling along through the night while he was logged out. That brought a small smile to my face but also caused me a bit of uncertainty. I knew what he was going to ask of me, and I wasn¡¯t sure if I wanted to travel to meet up with Dale in his providence. It was a stupid thing, but I couldn¡¯t deny the fact that my presence would probably cause Dale some distress. He had just gone through a horrible situation with his old girlfriend, and my own naturally flirty personality was sure to grate against the raw nerves of the bad break. Not that I didn¡¯t enjoy the thought of going back to the old days of the two of us with our playful word games and casual flirtation¡­ But that was back when I had a relationship and he was emotionally stable. The thought of creating an endless stream of awkward situations was almost as bad as trying to change my base personality in order to avoid those situations. I bit my lower lip in thought as I went about my morning routine of working out in the gym, showering, eating and then logging back into the game. I would have to settle on a decision sooner rather than later, as Archie was going to arrive in short order. Logging back in was a familiar experience at this point, and I welcomed opening my eyes to the virtual world of RoI. A flash of light to my left told me Celeste had popped back into this plane and I smiled at the Fairy. She wore her long blonde hair loose about her shoulders, a tiny pink flower worked into the locks just above her right ear with those bright golden eyes set in a lovely face. Celeste was only a Rare grade Fairy, but the AI running her had just as much personality as Archie said his Unique Fairy had. ¡°What do you think about traveling to another province and meeting up with some friends from my world, Celeste? I am a bit on the fence with it at the moment, but your opinion will add to the scales of my pros and cons list.¡± The Fairy flapped her white feathered wings to position herself in front of me, one arm wrapped across her middle while her other hand supported her chin in a pose of consideration. ¡°Hmmm¡­ Well, as you are asking for my opinion, I would say go for it. You are bored here, even I can see that. You finished all the tasks assigned to you easily, none of it giving you a challenge even though you are going solo.¡± The tiny face took on a hint of mischief as she winked at me. ¡°Plus, you have been talking about your two friends a lot since we met. Lots of history there I would think.¡± I bit my lip in the typical nervous habit of mine and shrugged. ¡°Yeah, lots of history alright. At the same time, I see one all the time while I only saw the other once in a while over the past several years. Plus I told you he had just gone through what he had¡­¡± I broke off, feeling wrong inside for bringing it up yet again. Celeste waved her hand through the air in dismissal. ¡°So what? You trying to say he can¡¯t use a friend now above all other times? I highly doubt he would spurn your friendship, and would probably be glad to have things go back to the way they were before he even met that other woman.¡± One slim finger was held up to stop me from saying anything. ¡°But! I am also not saying that you should join up with them without leaving yourself an excuse to back out of it should you feel the need. Pick up a quest here that isn¡¯t important and use that as a reason to drop out of their group and return if you are too uncomfortable.¡± She shrugged her shoulder as if it made perfect sense. ¡°Hmmm¡­ I suppose that would work well enough then. Thanks for the advice Celeste. Even if you are just a puny little thing.¡± I smiled at her, the teasing tone in my voice carrying on the running joke we had going between us. ¡°Uh-huh. Let¡¯s get moving, my giantess master.¡± I received a mocking curtsey from the Fairy which made me laugh. I adjusted my heavy plate armor so that it fit a bit more comfortably, then headed out of the inn room I had rented to make my way out into the streets of Fairfield. The sun was shining brightly down on the city, the air pure and clean. Turning towards the main city gates, I reminisced on my game play so far. I had found Celeste really early on, and she fit my preferred playstyle perfectly. I always enjoyed playing a tank type role, the feeling of being indestructible always gave me a thrill in battle. Strength, fortitude, and a small mix of intelligence and willpower for using my Fairy skills made me a wall of armor and strong enough to dish out a fairly impressive amount of damage. My armor was all high quality that I got from doing a chain of quests for the merchants of the city and gave me a damn impressive 70 armor, with my shield adding in another 5 plus a flat damage reduction of 15%. Celeste gave me a decent healing skill to start off with. Then with second tier skills I got a Fort stat buff that lasted for one hour, a flat regeneration skill and finally skill that let me blind my opponents with a flash of light. Third tier only gave me one skill, but it was pretty damn useful even if it was the only skill on that level. Holy Smite added extra damage to my attacks at the expense of mana, at a ratio of 5 mana to one point of damage. The best part was that it was before my multiplier bonuses! In all, the Celestial Fairy gave me just what I needed to be an indomitable force among the starting area. I was actually in the process of deciding how to get a quest to move on from here, as I had hit level 10 already with Celeste right behind me at level 9. Archie¡¯s message and my Fairy¡¯s advice had me wanting to collect the quest, but going on to Tyrith all the same and leaving my acquired quest to simmer on a back burner. Before me, the gates of the city were bustling with activity with people milling about everywhere. There were no buildings within five hundred feet of the gates, making it a natural square for people to gather and set up little mats to vend their wares. This was the closest thing to a market in the city, Fairfield being more of a laid back setting where NPCs set up their shops in the open, hand carts behind each area which the owners used to move their goods back and forth. It was a nice set up, honestly. All the vendors gathered in one location to make it easier for the players and other NPCs to do their business and get back to their tasks. Fairfield had the largest player population it seemed, the players here having gone through all two hours of the Glade of Trials to do every stupid and annoying task the old man had for them. No extra bonuses were given, but this was the zone for the people who liked to follow all the rules to the letter, as well as the noobs to gaming who had no idea that most players skipped tutorial zones. Personally, I had used the tutorial to get used to the game itself, and when I logged into the main world I had flown through all of the tasks that were assigned to me. I heard that those who didn¡¯t stay for the whole tutorial were gaining stat bonuses by figuring things out for themselves, but I hadn¡¯t been able to confirm that yet. I wasn¡¯t complaining in any case, my hard mode starting stats more than making up for the couple points of stats I missed by getting taught everything. Fairfield had a few other hard mode players, although none of them were part of Dumadine Technology¡¯s team where I was now living. I had met several players over the last couple days and enjoyed chatting with them and joining on some quests when I met a group struggling in the woods. Over all I was quite impressed with RoI and the feel of realism the game had to offer. Going solo was a bit boring, as I was used to always having someone to talk to even if it was my opponent. Trash talk during one on one gaming could never be looked down upon and that wasn¡¯t even counting the friendly banter when my opponent was a friend. A line of wagons entering the large main gates drew my eye, and I noticed Archie walking along and chatting with one of the guards. I had to laugh a little at that. Archie was normally an introvert, but when he found someone he liked he would talk their ear off for hours on end, and he was personable enough that they enjoyed it too! Walking over to greet my friend, I noticed his character name and smiled. Zexceed. The same name he had used for almost every game he had played in the past. I was at least creative enough with my naming that I rarely ever used the same name twice, but the guys I knew always stuck to their favorite. I had to admit, it did give their fans a link between their characters and them easily enough, but being female my fans followed me no matter what character name I used. It was a bit on the disturbing side, but I dealt with it. ¡°Hey there Zexceed. Have a good trip so far?¡± I waved at him and smiled at the guard who did a double take at my appearance. I had to admit, it was rather odd. I wasn¡¯t super model beautiful, but I was definitely well above normal in my looks and when you added that to a massive set of steel armor I was quite the sight. Plus, the armor did a lot to hide my figure so that when I had my helmet on I didn¡¯t draw undue attention. ¡°Hey there Kay¡­ I mean, Serena.¡± His cheeks flushed slightly in embarrassment at the slip up, lips quirking in a smile of apology. It was bad form to call people by real names in the game world, at least out loud. In text it was never an issue, but other people could overhear spoken greetings. ¡°Yeah, trip is going good. Have you decided to join up then?¡± I eyed his Fairy with a small smile, catching the red color of the name and shook my head at his luck. ¡°Yeah, I have some stuff going on here, but I can set it aside for a time and go with you. I have to admit, it will be nice to get most of the gang back together for a time.¡± ¡°Good, good! Here, let me send you a couple requests now that we are face to face. Hate how I have to be in line of sight to do all of this¡­¡± He seemed to freeze up for a moment as he went through his windows, then finally a couple boxes opened up in my view.
Player Zexceed has sent you a friend request. Accepting this will allow you to private message the player, and them you. In addition, you may see each other¡¯s location on the mini map. Accept? Yes / No
Player Zexceed has invited you to his party. Accepting this will give you access to the party chat as well as giving access to see any markers a party member has created. Accept? Yes / No
I quickly accepted both requests and gave Archie a high five as soon as I saw his name and bars just under mine on the top left of my UI. ¡°Perfect. Now, let¡¯s go get a drink while the caravan gets set up. I can¡¯t see this trip being horribly entertaining, but the end result should be enjoyable hopefully.¡± Archie smiled and nodded at me, slipping his arm around my shoulders in a friendly way, hamming up the RP portion of the game. ¡°A grand plan my dear! Let us be off for ale and wine with a dash of food to round our lunch out!¡± I couldn¡¯t hold back a laugh as we went on, chatting over stupid stuff and just enjoying the company of a longtime friend. It wouldn¡¯t be long before we got on the road, and I wanted to enjoy the relaxation for as long as possible. The trip would only take a day apparently, but that was a day I could have spent leveling up instead. Time would tell if this would be a waste or not, but I was certainly hopeful. 16) Diplomatic relations It was time to face the music and find out just how fucked I was. Granted, I was pretty sure they weren¡¯t going to be that mad with me for interfering with their battle, but damn that woman soldier was cold. And apparently important too¡­ ¡°Aly, keep your eyes peeled when we go into this encampment. I am not sure how far we can trust this little army here.¡± I caught her nod from the corner of my eye and stood from the ground, dismissing all of my windows. ¡°You got it boss. I will watch from on high and try to warn you before that woman finishes what she started.¡± Her tone was entirely serious, and it made me stop in my track and glare at her. ¡°What? Don¡¯t give me that look. I was looking right at where she popped up out of nowhere! She must have a Fairy of her own with stealth skills.¡± I sighed and shook my head. The attitude Aly was growing at least kept me on my toes. I considered making a remark back, but the thought of bickering good naturedly as we walked ¨C or more precisely, I walked while Aly floated ¨C into the army camp didn''t sit well with me. There were only a few large tents set up at the back of the clearing, some fires burning brightly between the dark green material of the shelters. Each tent looked like it could hold ten or twelve people inside of it, and one was obviously for injured people awaiting healing judging by the lines of people moving in and out of it. The quest marker on my mini map lead me farther into the area, past the big tents and fires to a wide space full of milling bodies. In the center of the mass of people sat a table which seemed to be the point of interest for those gathered. Well, that and the tall man in golden armor standing in front of said table at least. Actually, probably more that man than the table. Nobody wants to talk to a table¡­ As my steps carried me closer an aisle formed for me, which I have to say was kind of creepy. The more I looked at these NPCs, the more something seemed off to me and I couldn¡¯t quite place what it was no matter how hard I tried. Closing in on the table, I stopped just at the edge of it and stood straight. Behind me I heard the soldiers all close ranks again, blocking my escape. I could probably get out using Temporal Step, but it would be a near thing and I would still probably get caught. Hopefully it didn¡¯t come to that and things wouldn¡¯t be quite so dire. Looking to the man in golden armor, I admired the craftsmanship of his gear, my fingers lightly drumming on the table as I considered the possible stat bonuses of that set of exquisite armor. Probably something like a total of +30 to two or more stats¡­ ¡°Ahem¡­¡± A voice brought me out of my stray musings, deep and clear with the hint of a musical quality to it. Looking up, I saw the commander was staring at me while I stared in longing at his chest¡­ Yeah, I would have been creeped out too I supposed. ¡°So. You are the one who decimated the rear ranks of the goblin forces?¡± He looked me up and down quickly, almost dismissing me off hand until his eyes caught sight of Aly. Seeming to freeze for a few moments, I was about to say something when he continued. ¡°I see. That explains a good deal. What is your name, dear Fairy?¡± A loud click was heard in the silence, my jaw snapping closed in surprise when the man addressed Aly instead of me¡­ What the fuck? Apparently I was not liked¡­ Aly settled down on my left shoulder in her normal spot, her features serene enough given the circumstances. ¡°I am Alysandaria the Chronomancer. Bonded partner to Calamity the Soul Reaper.¡± She laid her hand on the top of my head at my name, adding in the Divine title I had gained from the last battle. ¡°Commander, is there a reason why you have armed soldiers breathing down the back of our necks? I would appreciate some breathing room please.¡± I winced at her words, peering around me hesitantly. Yeah, she was getting a bit too cheeky. Surprisingly enough, the man in gold just laughed loudly and sincerely, probably from a combination of Aly¡¯s audacity and my expression. It took him a moment to get himself under control, and when he did a finger wiped away a tear of mirth from his eye before waving a hand through the air. ¡°Sorry, Lady Alysandaria. Give us some privacy everyone. I will reconvene the meeting in an hour.¡± Most of the people around us left then, with the exception of a half dozen soldiers, one of which was the female who glared daggers at me still. What was her problem? Aly¡¯s voice cut my musings off. ¡°Thank you, that is a lot better.¡± She gave the commander a winning smile, hand still on my head like I was a pet. Meh, so long as it didn¡¯t get me killed I supposed she could do as she wished. ¡°Forgive me, future Matriarch. I was unaware that you accompanied this man when I asked my soldiers to invite him here.¡± Giving a slight bow to Aly, he continued to ignore me as if I was on par with the table. ¡°Now that you are here, I can understand how a simple Human was able to deal so much damage to my enemies. Please, tell me Alysandaria. What brings you here?¡± A smirk of amusement quirked my Fairy¡¯s lips as she glanced at me. ¡°Perhaps you should ask Calamity here that question? He is my Contracted partner and I cede to his desires in where we go and what we do.¡± Mister high and mighty gold armor finally focused on me once more, a frown on his lips. ¡°I see¡­ Well then Calamity, same question.¡± And there was the condescension again. Just as I was missing that tone¡­ ¡°You know what? Aly, can you take us back in time so we can help the goblins instead of these ungrateful bastards?¡± I pulled a card from the commander¡¯s book and ignored him right out, instead looking at Aly sitting on my shoulder. I did catch a look of shock cross the tall man¡¯s face at my words, but didn¡¯t address him directly. Aly, for her part, merely tilted her head in thought with one finger tapping her pursed lips. ¡°Hmmm¡­ Maybe someday I will gain such an ability, but for now I am afraid I cannot change the past no matter how recent. Besides, If I did that than your Divine title might be taken away. You are a Chosen of the gods now Calamity, time to step up!¡± ¡°Right, cheeky attitude is in full swing. No ale for you when we get back to the city!¡± ¡°Wait! No, no, no! I was joking!¡± She raised her hands in front of her, shaking them side to side as if to take her words back. ¡°Come on Calamity, be nice to me. I am cute!¡± She tilted her head, hands clasped together by her ear and rapidly blinked her electric blue eyes at me innocently. I couldn¡¯t hold back the laugh and was once more surprised to hear the soldiers around us laughing as well, including the commander. Looking over at them, they had all seemed to have relaxed. Well, all except the woman soldier who was still glaring at me. Did I step on her foot during the battle and not notice? Between fits of laughter, the commander spoke again. ¡°Hah¡­ Forgive me¡­ I am sorry for how I treated you, Calamity.¡± With a deep breath, he straightened up and placed his left hand on the table, right extended over it towards me. ¡°My name is Caius Sylden, commander of the Fae forces currently here to retrieve the key back to our lands stolen by the goblin Outriders.¡± As he introduced himself, his nameplate changed to reflect the information. I stretched out my hand and shook his carefully, curious as to what kind of key they had lost and¡­ Wait. Fae?
Quest Completed! You have completed the quest Meet the Commander. Rewards: Access to Unique quest chain Continue your discussion with Commander Sylden to obtain details about your reward.
What? No experience? No shiny new gear? Bullshit¡­ Then again, Unique quest line should give me a huge bonus. No, wait. Back it up a bit. Fae? ¡°Uhm, Commander Sylden¡­ You are a Fae? What is that? I am so confused here¡­¡± Caius smiled and raised his hands to his head, lifting the helmet off and setting it on the table to reveal close cropped jet black hair and long pointed ears. He looked like what most games called an elf more than anything else. ¡°Yes, a Fae. Cousins to Fairies, but not quite so tiny.¡± ¡°Ahem! Who are you calling tiny? You are just compensating¡­¡± Aly sniffed and crossed her arms, head turning to the side. ¡°But Aly, you are tiny¡­¡± I couldn¡¯t resist poking fun at her, and her exasperated expression made it all worthwhile as her mouth opened and closed a few times, trying to think of something to say in response to that. ¡°Anyway, Commander, you said something about looking for a key? Can you explain any more about that and yourselves?¡± Caius shrugged and leaned against the table. ¡°Sure. I do owe you for assisting us before. Let¡¯s see here, as I said, Fae are the cousins of Fairies. My ancestors and the ancient Fairies came to these lands a very long time ago, before Humans emerged to this plane. See, this world was empty when we came here, and both the Fae and Fairies lived peacefully for many years. They developed the lands, made their cities in conjunction with nature, and even welcomed a few other races that immigrated here when their planes became unable to sustain their numbers. ¡°First came the Elves, which appear similar enough to the Fae that we welcomed them as brothers and sisters. Next came the Dwarves who were more than happy to leave us alone and delve deep into the ground in search of their precious minerals and gems. After them came a few other races, not all of them good, until finally the Humans emerged into this world. ¡°Violent, short lived and greedy, the Humans began to conquer the land as if it all belonged to them. War-like and vicious, the original races tried to live peaceably with the Humans, but to no avail. They wanted everything they set their sights on and would not take no for an answer. At first, we tried to give them as much as we could spare, for we were numerous then and had needs of our own, but it was never enough. ¡°For almost two decades the Humans pressed on and on, killing all they encountered in order to attain more land for themselves. Oh, they died by the droves, but were so proliferous that it turned out to be impossible to kill them fast enough!¡± He broke off here with a sigh, shaking his head. ¡°Not even the Dwarves were able to escape their deprivations, and soon enough they had enough of Man and locked their gates to the surface, sequestering themselves to the deeps beneath the surface. And they had the right of it. The Elves were the next to leave, sailing across the oceans to another continent where there were no Humans to desecrate their sacred forests and temples. When it came time for us to leave, the Fairies had misgivings. ¡°Always, the Fairies were the voice of peace and reason to all the races, even us Fae. A small portion of their number refused to leave, hoping to change the nature of Human kind in an attempt to allow all of the races to once again live in reasonable peace. So it was, the bulk of my people and those of the Fairies abandoned this part of the world, locking ourselves into another plane close to this one. We refused to go too far, for fear of leaving the rest behind forever.¡± As he spoke, Caius flipped over one of the papers on the table and drew out a picture of a large island. Connected to it was a tunnel of some sort that lead to another island of almost similar size and shape, little differences marked it as separate though. On this side of the tunnel he drew a gate with a heavy lock to signify the barring of the way across without a key. ¡°Every so many years, a force of my kind make the trip back to this plane in hopes that the goal of the Fairies had come to pass and the Humans had finally become peaceful enough to reunite with the Fairies who remained here. This time however, we were beset upon by goblins almost as soon as we made it through the Realm Gate.¡±A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. He glanced over his shoulder towards his daughter, who now had a look of shame on her face. ¡°Our scouts missed the pack of monsters, and our camp was ambushed in the night by a pack of Outriders. They killed a few of our group, and stole several things. One of the stolen items was the key to return to our plane.¡± Got it, little miss attitude over there fucked up and got them stranded here, and because I was a Human, she hated me on principle. That about sums it up at the least¡­ Right then, backstory filled in, I remembered the key I had found before and pulled it out of my inventory. ¡°Is this the key you were missing, Commander?¡± Extending my hand out, key on my palm, I raised a brow at the Fae. He picked the item up and looked it over before placing it back in my palm with a shake of his head. ¡°No, it is not. It is slightly enchanted, but just a normal key I think. What we are looking for is a stone, heavily enchanted to open the passage between planes and allow us to cross.¡± Wait, did the AI of the game throw me yet another bone? I dumped the Strange Key back into my inventory for future study, and pulled out the stone I got from the chest in the Chieftain¡¯s room with all of the lizards sleeping. No, wait¡­ Bad Dale. I put the item back and closed my inventory. ¡°I may know where this key is after all. I know I probably sound greedy, but what are you offering to the person who gets it back for you? I mean, I already risked my neck out there to help you all out with no expectations, but I say that was a one-time deal.¡± The Commander¡¯s daughter opened her mouth to say something, probably cruel and degrading if the set of her face was any indication. I held up a hand towards her and cut her off. ¡°Shut up, Princess. Not going to listen to you. Grown ups are speaking.¡± I looked directly at Caius the entire time I spoke, not deigning to give the bratty soldier my full attention. ¡°Yes, I am a greedy Human. I have my own interests at heart here, but am willing to try and help you out.¡± I smirked and held up one finger. ¡°If the rewards are worthwhile that is.¡± The woman I dubbed Princess had a shocked look on her face at my casual dismissal of her, obviously not used to such treatment. Her father ignored her too though, a serious look on his face as he crossed his arms over his plated chest in thought. He was taking me seriously it seemed, which was good. I had yet to receive a quest that was promised me by the system, and I was not giving up a potential windfall of rewards. ¡°Hmmm¡­ Yes, you are greedy.¡± He studied me closely, then his gaze flicked to Aly. ¡°But you have also gained the trust of a future Matriarch of the Fairy race. I will take that as a sign from the gods and give you a limited amount of trust. The Fairies are important to my people, and if one as powerful as Lady Alysandaria here has chosen you, then I will give you the benefit of the doubt.¡± As soon as he spoke, a new quest window popped up before me which made me grin broadly. This is what I was looking for, a concrete system generated outline of what I would get for helping these people out. Enough freebies from me, I had to get stronger as soon as I could!
Quest Received! The Way Home (1) The Fae Commander has asked you to hunt down and retrieve the key to allow his entire exploration party back through the Realm Gate so they may return home. Rewards: Experience, a ring, access to next part of the quest chain Warning! You are limited in the amount of time available to complete this quest. Bonus rewards possible based on time remaining upon turn in. Gate Stone: 0/1 Time remaining: 47:59:48
Heh, two days to complete a quest that I very well might be able to turn in immediately. And a bonus based on how soon I complete this quest! Just the reason why I wanted to wait for an exact quest. I would rather have exact details just in case I got ripped off. I checked my inventory and the stone I found indeed now showed two words in addition to the question marks. Quest Item. Perfect. Withdrawing the unknown stone with the Quest Item tag from my inventory, I held it out right away to Caius. ¡°Is this the Gate Stone, Commander?¡± ¡°You crazy son of a bitch!¡± Princess strode forward and reared her hand up in a fist to punch me. Fuck that noise! I triggered Temporal Step and slipped the stone back into my inventory, moving around the table and getting behind the woman. As soon as the skill ended, I grabbed her wrist and twisted it hard behind her back, lifting up enough that her shoulder threatened to dislocate. Now pissed beyond measure at this short-tempered bundle of hatred, I hissed into her ear loud enough for all the soldiers present to hear me. ¡°I swear to any and all the gods that I am fed up with your attitude towards me, Princess¡­¡± ¡°My name¡­¡± She tried to interrupt me, but a quick jerk upwards made her wince in pain as I held her immobile. ¡°I don¡¯t care what your name is. You have done nothing but hate me since I met you, and that was after I risked my ass to help you out. I showed you no hostility first, and you attack me not once, but twice now. This I swear, you attack me one more time and nothing in this world will stop me from doing my best to end your life.¡± A strange bell sounded in the air as the last of my words faded away, a new system message popping up in front of my sight to accompany the noise. Apparently, I wasn¡¯t the only one who heard the bell, as the other soldiers nearby also looked around quickly, then focused in front of them.
You have called upon the gods of Grendor to witness your vow of retribution upon Katherine Sylden in the event of another unwarranted attack. Know that the Divine support you in this claim of just retribution as the bearer of a Divine Title. Should Katherine Sylden attempt to attack you again without proper provocation, no punishment will be allowed to befall you should you fulfill your vow.
Something similar to what I saw must have shown before the others near me, as they all looked quite shocked, Commander Sylden most of all. He rounded on his daughter with a look of absolute fury on his face. ¡°Katherine! This behavior does not suit us! You are remanded to your tent until I can find a suitable punishment for you.¡± He glared at the younger Fae, adding in another comment to drive his point home. ¡°Know that Divine blessings on his vow or not, I would still support Calamity¡¯s claim on your life should you attack him without reason again.¡± The woman sagged in my grip, all fight draining out of her body as the consequences of her actions sank in. I released her and stepped back quickly, not quite trusting that her temper was contained yet. Seeing her merely drop her arm and bow her head to the Commander, I moved back to my original spot. Princess turned and moved off without a word, following her father¡¯s command. ¡°I am sorry, Calamity. She is young and wild. I did not wish to bring her with us on this venture, and I am finding out again and again that it was indeed a mistake.¡± Caius raised a hand to his brow and rubbed at one temple with a sigh. ¡°I was not aware that she had attacked you once before now, or I would not have allowed her to be present for this meeting in the first place.¡± His glare returned, focused on the soldiers behind him. One or all of them must have been the squad that approached me outside of the camp. ¡°No, it is alright. I cannot say I am the best at controlling my anger much in recent days either. I will follow through on my vow though, if needed. Might be best to keep her far away from me for the time being so she doesn¡¯t draw down some Divine wrath.¡± I once more withdrew the stone from my inventory and set it on the table before Caius. Before he regarded the stone, the Commander raised a brow at me in question. ¡°Had some problems in your life in the near past? I understand. Truly I do.¡± With another sigh of a disappointed father, Caius picked up the stone I set before him and gave a wane smile, nodding. ¡°Indeed, this is the Gate Key. Thank you for returning it to us.¡±
Quest Completed! You have completed the quest The Way Home (1) Rewards: 5000 exp, a ring, access to quest The Way Home (2) Due to you turning the quest in with over 12 hours on the timer, you have gained a bonus reward. A magic ring Due to you turning the quest in with over 24 hours on the timer, you have gained a bonus reward. A magic amulet Due to you turning the quest in with over 36 hours on the timer, you have gained a bonus reward. A legendary quality elixir
Congratulations! You have gained a level! Current level: 10 You have gained a Bonus +100 HP Faction Bonus: +1 Dex +1 Blooded Tactician +1 Inspect You have 10 stat points available to distribute. Warning! If you die before assigning your points, they will be lost!
Caius tapped the table, then picked up the Gate Stone and slipped it into his own belt pouch. Probably never wanted to let the thing out of his sight ever again, not that I blamed him. ¡°Right then. Come with me Calamity, I have some rewards for you in my personal tent.¡± He motioned towards the buildings of fabric and started off, myself falling in beside him. ¡°While we walk, I see that you have no jewelry. Tell me, what traits do you value for yourself?¡± Now we were cooking. Windfall of rewards indeed! Lady luck was on my side yet again with having gained the stone before even receiving the quest. There was probably an arc where I had to meet these Fae before completing Vermund¡¯s quest in order to draw out the Chieftain. Oh well, I did it all backwards. More goodies for me! ¡°Ah, well for myself I seem to be focusing on agility, intellect and fortitude, with a dash of strength mixed in for good measure. My partner is a glutton and devours mana like it is going out of style.¡± Aly scoffed at me and thumped the top of my head with one tiny fist. Yeah, I deserved it. The Commander found my words amusing, and chuckled lightly as we walked by the first tent. ¡°I think I shall withhold my comments on that statement, for health reasons.¡± He smirked at me and winked to Aly who giggled. ¡°But besides that, I think I have a few things that will be handy on your journey as well. Also, after I give you these items, I would ask you to join me once more and hear me out on another request.¡± We turned into the second tent, the inside containing rows of bedrolls with a chest at the head of each one. Seemed the Commander slept right with his men and didn¡¯t desire special treatment. Caius stopped at one of the chests in the middle of the pack and knelt down to open the box. Two rings, an amulet and a vial were all set down before me. ¡°Here we are, your rewards. From my own personal stash of goodies, no less.¡± That drew a chuckle from both of us as I picked up the items and inspected them. ¡°One ring will enhance your strength, the other your intellect. The amulet actually holds a few charges of a powerful regeneration spell which restores both health and mana. The elixir is, unfortunately, beyond my understanding. None of my people could ascertain what it does, but it is quite rare. They all agree on that point.¡± I looked over each item as he explained it, +6 to both Int and Str for the rings. The Amulet was actually the best of the jewelry in my opinion. It gave me a regen of 500 HP and mana over 20 seconds with a 20 second cooldown, and it could stack with potions. The only downside was that it had a mere five charges to the item. The vial was indeed unknown with only an item name of Legendary Elixir and a bunch of question marks for the rest. Oh well, will have to save that for when I get back to the city. All of my new items went on, the vial going into my inventory. While I was at it, I assigned my stat points as per my usual routine and whistled softly as my stats began to really take shape like I had hoped. My new friend Commander Sylden sat down on his bedroll and motioned me down to join him. From his personal chest, the Fae pulled a wineskin out to take a drink before offering it to me. ¡°Now then, my request. Our numbers have been severely depleted from this fiasco, and I fear we may lose even more should we try to fight our way back to the Realm Gate alone. What I wish to ask of you is this. Would you be willing to help escort us back to the Gate so I may try and lose no more of my people?¡±
Quest received! The Way Home (2) Commander Sylden has asked that you join the Fae forces in the effort of making sure as many of his unit get home safely as possible. With a fighting force of only 78 Fae remaining, Commander Sylden is determined to lose no more of his soldiers without cause. Rewards: Experience, coin Bonus rewards available based on percentage of surviving Fae upon turn in.
I immediately accepted his quest, then rubbed my chin in thought for a moment. No great rewards were shown, but I assumed the good stuff would come if all of the Fae soldiers survived the return trip. Clever AI, yet bastards all the same. I had an idea, and ordered my thoughts while taking a swig of the offered wine. It was really quite good, the best I had tasted in the game as of yet, and had to offer a sip to Aly, lest she get upset with me later about it. I passed the skin back to Caius and pressed forward with my suggestion. ¡°Would it be possible to wait a few more days before returning to your own plane? I have at least one friend, maybe two, coming this direction as we speak. I have known them both for a very long time and would be able to vouch for their integrity. With their help, the chances of getting your people all home alive rise a great deal.¡± Taking my words to heart, Caius didn¡¯t reply right away. He took another sip of the wine and passed it around once more as he thought it over. ¡°Hmmm¡­ I suppose it would be better to have the extra swords. I cannot guarantee that I can compensate them as dearly as I have done for you thus far though¡­ We didn¡¯t exactly pack a lot of useless gear for this trip after all.¡± My head bobbed in a nod as I accepted his terms. ¡°That is fine, I am sure they will join just for the fact that it will be interesting, although any rewards given will be gratefully accepted.¡± Had to add that last part, lest I sign Archie and Kayla up for a quest with no payment. Even I am not that cruel¡­ After Aly and I had another taste of the wine, Caius returned it to his chest and closed the lid, locking it up once more. ¡°Very well then. We will need a day to settle our wounded anyway, so one more on top of that shouldn¡¯t be an issue. The goblin forces have been severely weakened here, so I don¡¯t think we will need to worry about them so long as we keep a good night watch going.¡± A twist of his face made me think it was a pained look, but I couldn¡¯t quite tell. ¡°On the downside, I am afraid I cannot let you stay within the encampment during our wait. My daughter is looked upon as an idol among the bulk of my troops, and your vow to her may ruffle a few feathers, as it were. For everyone¡¯s safety, I would ask that you return to your city and then bring your friends back when the time comes.¡± The Fae had a point, the respect and admiration shown to Princess when the squad came to collect here was rather apparent, and like most idol worshippers, I didn¡¯t put them above underhanded tricks to pay me back for my treatment of the woman. ¡°Right, not a problem. I would need to meet them in Tyrith city anyway in order to guide them to this location. It works out for the best then, as I have just enough time to make it back before full dark. I hope.¡± With a friendly pat on the shoulder, Caius stood up. ¡°I am sure you will have enough time. You and Lady Alysandaria are quite fast when the need arises.¡± I stood up with him and chuckled, then tilted my head to him. ¡°That reminds me, you and I need to have a little chat on the way to the Realm Gate about why you call Aly ¡®Lady¡¯ and ¡®future Matriarch¡¯ so much. I don¡¯t have the time now, but I will be expecting answers on the trip.¡± ¡°Yes, yes. Of course I can explain that. Not quite a quick topic, so I agree that the journey would be a better time. Go now, and best of luck from fate and all the gods be with you.¡± He waved me off with a smile and headed in the direction of the table set up in the clearing once more. Busy man, Caius. I rubbed my hands together and started walking through the camp, the eyes of the Fae soldiers following my every step on my path away from them all. I would have to deal with the issue when I returned, but it could wait and simmer for a couple days while I get my stuff in order. I had quests to turn in and loot to sell! The best part of any game right there. 17) Fickle fate My journey back to Tyrith was boring and uneventful. The odd skill set I had accrued combined with the fairly strong weapon I had found made the trip remarkably easy, although the little bit of extra exp I got was a drop in the ocean at this point. The lower level mobs were barely giving me anything worthwhile. The only reason I was killing them was the fact that even being a much higher level, they still aggroed onto me as soon as I stepped within twenty paces. The sun had completely set by the time I saw the city gates, and I had to run across the open field separating the forest from the walls so I didn¡¯t get locked out at night. I could always just log out if that happened, but I wanted to swing by the tavern and get Aly a much deserved drink. The cheeky little devil may press my buttons all the time, but without her I doubted my solo adventures would have gone so well thus far. Judging the time, I had another hour before the UI would start bitching at me. Just enough time to stop by a tavern and log out for the night. It was still a little early in general, being only eight in the evening, but that was fine by me. I had been neglecting my gym routine for the most part thanks to the game and needed a serious session in order to feel better about the circumstances. The last hour of the night passed quickly with lots of drinks being passed out and good conversation between all of the NPCs and myself. Even with this being just a game, the AI gave every NPC a top notch personality and it was entertaining even to just sit and bullshit with them all, a mug of ale in hand. When the time came, I waved goodnight to the patrons and exited the tavern to log out on the street. Most players would opt for an inn room, but I didn¡¯t see the small buff you got from that as worth the time and coin to deal with. A 5% exp gain for 4 hours was a nice boost, but not enough to make me want to spend the time getting it, especially when it didn¡¯t count towards quest completion rewards. As soon as I logged out and got out of the machine, I went right for my AR computer in order to check out my feed comments. How well people judged my play was a large part of my bonus, and keeping updated on the opinions of my viewers was only logical. Dumadine Technology¡¯s website had a link to all ten of its paid players feeds on their main page, and I clicked on my own to see how things were going. The big ¡®Offline¡¯ message was slowly winking in the box where my feed was supposed to be located, but the comments were still rolling in like crazy. Several people were arguing over the revelation that the various races were close to being opened already, although I knew that to be false. I highly doubted that I would be getting the Fae unlocked just by doing this, considering their backstory Caius had shared with me. Until the human populations became more peaceful, the Fae were staying well and truly away from Grendor with no chance of returning in force. Equally so, I figured the Dwarves and Elves were in the same boat. Perhaps once one of the factions had taken the central throne things might be different, but at the moment the pending war was still overshadowing the return of other races. Oh, the current of the game wasn¡¯t exactly broadcasting the encroachment of a war, but just looking at the state of things I knew it was only a matter of time. Once players started getting strong enough there was going to be a lot of bloodshed. The thought of the future wars made me grin, the taste of my mildly large scale battle from earlier fresh on my mind. That feeling was thrilling and intoxicating at the same time, and I could easily see how the Fae considered humans a war-mongering race. In fact, I agreed wholeheartedly with them! A new thread of comments caught my eye, the topic being that of players making threats and plans of trying to intercept the Fae party in order to get some good loot, with the possibility of wrecking my own plans being a pleasant bonus. Cocky bastards, did they think I didn¡¯t check my own feed for the comments? Idiots¡­ Now I knew to look out for some players looking to ruin my day at least. Surprise would be on them when Archie showed up and came with me. I wasn¡¯t sure how he was building his character, but if I knew him as I thought I did, then his character would be a force to be reckoned with. That man¡¯s ability to break down a game into relevant numbers to min-max the shit out of his toons was unparalleled. Plus, I shouldn¡¯t discount the chance that Kayla would join up with me too. Perhaps not as skilled at the analyzing or overall tactical aspects, she truly did have the best instincts of our group. If she built along her normal lines, then I could look forward to having a nice frontline tank with good forms of CC that would be used to perfection every time. The prospects of taking on these fool players who thought to ruin my plans with my friends beside me made the threat laughable. It would take a lot more than these ten or twenty players to ruin our day. Judging by their posts, they weren¡¯t even hard mode players. Their stats would be almost half of what ours were. Most of the other threads here seemed along the lines of what I expected. People trying to find out where exactly I was, others trying to ask me about how to find their own Unique Fairy. A thread with a good amount of posts caught my eye, and looking in that one I saw something rather surprising. There were a large number of players looking to have me start a guild up and letting them join. Most of them were pretty much just looking to ride a wave of fame and leftovers, but a few of the comments sounded quite serious. Hmmm¡­ Ideas. Shelving those thoughts for the time being, I closed out the stream page and checked several messages I had waiting for my attention. My lawyer had settled the accident stuff quickly and quietly, leaving my accounts much richer from the ordeal, minus his fees of course. Worth every penny, that man. The rest of it was mostly a bunch of random things, nothing important and deleted or ignored for later. I fired off one more message before I forgot about it, giving a warning to the President¡¯s secretary that I was going to be busy in game at the time of our originally scheduled meeting and that I needed to reschedule for when this quest cleared up or perhaps immediately in the morning we could meet for breakfast before Archie showed up in Tyrith. I didn¡¯t expect him to show up until the day after tomorrow, so this new meeting time would leave me plenty of opportunity to get my stuff together during the rest of tomorrow. A reply came back almost right away stating that the new meeting time would work for his schedule and to meet at the company cafeteria at eight AM sharp. I sent a confirmation back to the secretary and then set my alarm for seven to give myself enough time to wake up and get ready tomorrow. Right then, problems solved and plans were made. Now it was time to get changed and head down to the gym for an extended workout. My muscles actually felt great now that I was used to the immersion device. The impulse stimulations kept my muscles working while in game which put any atrophy I may have experienced at bay. Not that it would replace a targeted workout routine though. With an eager smile, I got ready and headed off. * * * * * When my alarm sounded the next morning, I rose quickly from my bed well rested and eager to get this meeting over so I could hop back into the game. A quick shower in that glorious bathroom was followed by me dressing in black slacks and an equally black dress shirt. Forgoing a tie, I really hated the things, I left the apartment building behind to make my way across the compound to the cafeteria. The weather was warm, but clouds threatened to dump rain on us at any given time with the humidity to match. I didn¡¯t have an umbrella, so hoped the precipitation would hold off until I made it back to my room. Once there, the weather could do whatever the hell it wanted for all I cared. I made it to the meeting location with ten minutes to spare, so I got in line to order myself a coffee and some breakfast, figuring Willcot would be sending his secretary up to get his own stuff if he was even eating. The line moved smoothly and efficiently allowing me to place my order for a spinach and mushroom omelet with a slice of fired ham to balance it out. Tray in hand, I moved over to an empty table to sit down and eat just as Willcot and his guards stepped into the large room. He spotted me almost instantly and gave me a wave and smile as he started in my direction. Shaking hands with a friendly greeting, we sat down at the table where Willcot began to speak. ¡°Again, thanks for meeting with me Dale. This project is at the front of our company at the moment, and all the feedback we can get is much appreciated. Much like this, I have a couple of the others meeting with me for their insights as well, so don¡¯t hold back on me son.¡± Sipping my coffee, I chuckled and nodded at the old man. ¡°You got it Sir. Well, in all honesty, I can say the game is truly amazing. Perhaps a little more balancing for the early levels though. I just hit level ten, but a good deal of the fights were a bit on the easy side once I got a couple damage boosting skills leveled up.¡± Willcot rubbed his chin as he thought about my words, a piece of omelet making its way into my mouth before he replied. ¡°Hmmm¡­ How many damage boosting skills do you have? At your level you should have a weapon mastery, but that should be it¡­¡± ¡°Ah, well I have my weapon mastery, but I also have the Blooded Tactician skill, as well as a Divine title that gives me more damage and even lifesteal now, plus I get even more damage from charging an enemy from my use of polearms. It is really adding up to quite a lot of damage so far.¡± His eyebrows rose some at my words, his finger tapping the table as a smile quirked his lips. ¡°So in other words, you just happened to have built a heavy damage dealer and got yourself a rare title to back it up. I see no problems there really. But, what is this Blooded Tactician skill? I have never heard of it.¡± I explained about the skill, adding in how I got it on top of the title during the large scale battle from the day before. ¡°Also, I have to say¡­ Nice touch on the devs for giving glimpses of the other races even before they can be unlocked. That will pique the interest of many players and cause them to rush around trying to find more and trying to be the first to become one.¡± Laughing, the President picked up his own coffee and took a sip after saluting me with it. ¡°Caught that, did you? Well, we figured someone would make that connection sooner or later, just don¡¯t publicize the fact that they can¡¯t be opened yet.¡± He checked his pers-com, flipping through AR screens while he spoke. ¡°As for the skill, it must be the AI modifying the game already. I don¡¯t see it on the list we designed. The title is available in different forms for several different weapons, so the fact you got yours just indicates you might be on the right path in choice of weaponry. Others will be eligible to gain the Divine title for almost every type of sword, dagger, axe or mace once they meet the requirements. Each one has a back story in the game too, so check out yours when you get a chance.¡± My food was quite good, the chefs here being top rate, and I quickly finished my meal while Willcot was talking. ¡°Well, I suppose that it is all good then. Have to say, I am liking the polearms in the game though. Every other game I played made them awkward to use to say the least, but RoI integrates them perfectly.¡± ¡°Good. I am glad to hear that, as we want all of the different types of combat to be comfortable and managed easily enough with a bit of practice. Real world experience also helps out greatly, but I don¡¯t think you have ever used a spear in real life before?¡± I had to shake my head at that one. ¡°Nope. I actually tended to avoid them as they were next to useless in most other games anyway. Swords and axes I have handled before to understand how they were used, but I never even had much formal training in them either. Add to that, it was all a good while ago too.¡± I chuckled and shrugged. Willcot waved a hand to dismiss it. ¡°No need to fret over it. The game assists a lot in the way weapons are handled so it isn¡¯t a big deal. Now then, have you come across any serious bugs or other issues in the game?¡± That was something I had to really consider. Some of the things in the game just lined up too perfectly, making it pretty much a cake walk. ¡°Actually, the AI seems to be a little on the lenient side. I have had great luck in almost everything I have done so far right down to finding a quite powerful scythe in the game right when I had just met the requirements to use it. On top of that, the Fae event drew out the local boss I was supposed to kill and allowed me to loot all of my quest items without even fighting the boss. Maybe I am just expecting it to be a bit harder, or if it is tuned down for the first part of the game, but it seems a bit on the ¡®here have a ton of free shit¡¯ side of the equation.¡± Willcot frowned at me with a chuckle. ¡°You mean to tell me you don¡¯t want, as you put it, ¡®free shit¡¯?¡±This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. I laughed and shrugged. ¡°No, I like to get goodies, but at the same time I want to earn them and not just be handed OPness on a silver platter. I can tell you right now that without that weapon, I would never have tried what I did that got me in the good graces of the Fae.¡± ¡°I get it. I have been hearing similar stories from a couple other testers as well actually. Perhaps we will patch in some changes, but not as many as you might wish. Most of the people we are going to cater to aren¡¯t as hardcore as you and the others here, not to mention that they are casual accounts for the most part so their stats aren¡¯t as high.¡± He flipped through a few AR screens and took several notes down from our conversation before nodding to me. ¡°Right then. Anything else Dale?¡± Shaking my head, I set my coffee down and extended a hand towards Willcot. He seemed like he needed to go soon, and I really didn¡¯t have anything else to bring up at the moment. ¡°Nope, that would cover just about everything for now I think. Like I said, my only real compliant is that I am being handed everything a bit too easily.¡± Willcot shook my hand and then laughed. ¡°You know, I saw the battle with the Grotto Guardian when you fought it. Can you really say you were handed everything?¡± ¡°Hah! Okay, you got me there. Maybe not everything.¡± I stood up with the President of DT and gave him a final nod. ¡°Alright, I am going to jump back into the game and take care of stuff. Have a long quest coming up I think, so not sure when I will have some free time again.¡± ¡°Oh, no problem Dale. I get highlights from all ten streams with relevant information and get the gist of what is going on. These meetings are just to get personal opinions on the state of the game while not actively inside it. Thank you for your time.¡± He smiled at me once more, then walked away with his body guards surrounding him. The whole meeting only took twenty minutes, and I understood that he really was interested in our take on the new game. The opinions of us ten were of great interest to Willcot and the rest of the company as a whole, which made me look forward to helping direct the future of the entire game even if only in a small way. Finished eating and ready to get things done, I set my tray in the receptacle on top of a trashcan and headed back to the apartment complex. There were a few people in the common area when I passed through whom I greeted casually before continuing to my room. Neither of my close friends were in sight, so I sent Archie a message to let me know when he got to my province in order to meet up with him. That achieved, I changed into comfortable clothes and logged back into the game. The feeling of vertigo was now my favorite sensation, as it heralded my entrance to Grendor and all that it entailed. Aly flashed into this plane beside me and settled on my shoulder as the bright sunlight shining on the city all around. ¡°Hey, Calamity. Can we go back to the tavern tonight? I want some more ale and wine.¡± Aly gave me a bright smile, hoping to sway me to her cause. I chuckled and shook my head at her. ¡°You are turning into a right little lush, aren¡¯t you? Just remember, the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem.¡± Turning towards the gates, I decided to swing by the shops before turning in my quest to Vermund. ¡°I don¡¯t have a problem! I just like the taste of it.¡± She huffed at me and crossed her arms over her chest. ¡°Fairies don¡¯t need food, but we can still enjoy it you know.¡± Grinning, I patted her head with one finger, mussing her hair up a bit. ¡°Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say Aly. Tell you what, we can go back tonight for a bit, but after that we will be out of town for a while. Don¡¯t pester me about it while escorting Caius, and maybe we can even get him to share some more of his wine, eh?¡± Tiny hands worked to fix the messed up hair as she glared at me, but changed it to a smile at my words. ¡°Sure! Sounds like a plan to me. I really liked that wine he had¡­ Think we can get some more off him as part of your reward for helping?¡± ¡°Damn Aly, you really are turning into a drunkard!¡± Actually, that sounded like a good plan. That Fae wine really was a cut above everything else I had tasted either here or in real life. How the game made me taste something that I have never tried before was beyond me, but damn if it didn¡¯t work quite well. My Fairy didn¡¯t deign to respond to my taunting, and instead looked over at a shop specializing in clothes just for Fairies. I caught her longing gaze and laughed. AI, code or Fairy, a woman always wanted clothes. Without a word, I cut across the street and entered the shop to my partner¡¯s delight. She clapped her hands together and darted off my shoulder to the shelves lined with little dresses, skirts and tops. A young girl came towards me from behind the counter, maybe sixteen years old. Short and cute, the kid could only be the owner¡¯s daughter or niece. ¡°Good morning Sir. Can I interest you in anything in particular, or is your Fairy just browsing?¡± I gave the girl a smile and shrugged my shoulders, nodding my head in Aly¡¯s direction. ¡°I will pick up a set of clothes for my Fairy here, but the decision is all hers. All this fabric is well beyond my understanding.¡± Laughing brightly, the girl bobbed a curtsey and moved over to check with Aly while I went through my menus. In my inventory, I had a large selection of items to get rid of. Some had to go to Amara, while the alchemy stuff had to go to the alchemist. I probably should learn the alchemy myself, but I never did like crafting professions¡­ I was a raider and PvPer. All those side projects just seemed like a waste of time to me in most games, as I could just buy items from those who enjoyed crafting. Sure, some games made you pick up a profession or else you miss out on some decent benefits, but at the same time those benefits weren¡¯t of the be all end all quality. Proper min-maxing of my stats and gear made up for the lack of the profession boosts, so I would probably pass up on the crafting bit here too. Shame I got the Advanced Herbalism skill wasting some of my free skill points upon leveling. Perhaps I could get rid of it as some point¡­ Something to look into at the least. My musings were cut short when Aly rapped her knuckles on my forehead. ¡°Hellooo¡­? Wake up Calamity! I picked an outfit.¡± I shook my head and saw Aly floating in front of my face with a put off expression. Apparently, that wasn¡¯t the first time she tried to get my attention. Heh, oh well. She would deal, I was buying her clothes after all. ¡°Right, sorry. Was thinking over some things. Let¡¯s see what you are getting.¡± I shooed her back so I could examine the new clothes she was already wearing, but her close proximity to my eyes made it impossible to see it properly. Twirling around a few times, Aly flew backwards and beamed a smile at her new clothes. The outfit looked like something from a fashion magazine, or maybe just a normal set of female clothes, I don¡¯t know¡­ Not my area of expertise really. Either way, the top was a black halter looking shirt with the back open to facilitate her wings and leaving her midriff bare. A black skirt started at her hips and went down halfway to her knees, those tiny feet still bare. Fairies obviously didn¡¯t appreciate shoes since they are always flying. ¡°Very nice! Looks good on you.¡± Truly she did look quite lovely, and it made me thankful that she was so tiny. The thought of having a normal human partner running around in those clothes with her figure¡­ Well, the game was rated Mature 18+ and I was a red-blooded male. Turning back to the young woman working the counter, I paid the ten silver for the clothes. Quite pricey for such a small outfit, but worth the cost as Aly seemed to be happier than a pig in shit as she flew all around with her bright smile. My remaining stops both went smoothly with me dropping off all of the hides and leathers I looted at Amara¡¯s shop and the rest of my loot at the alchemists. I even left my elixir with him so he could study the vial and try and work out what it did. Amara offered to make me some more gear with the materials I left, but I declined her offer. What I really needed was to upgrade to chainmail at this point. My skill set was looking to be that of a front line fighter, and I needed more protection than just leather could offer. Shopping stops all done, I made my way up to the keep and into the building Vermund used as his base of operations. I had really outdone the quest parameters in regards to goblin slaying, so I was hoping that I might get a bonus for my efforts. My quest sheet was sitting at 86/30 Goblins killed. Nearly triple of what the quest called for. Pulling the Banner out of my inventory, I leaned it against the wall behind Captain Vermund¡¯s large desk, then took up my position in front of him to wait. The huge man liked to make people wait until he was ready, and wouldn¡¯t address me until it was convenient for him. Currently, the black armored knight was writing something down on some parchment. Vermund finished quickly and flashed his gaze up at me, then to the banner and back again. ¡°So you have finished the task already? That was rather quick¡­¡± He trailed off as he studied me, and the weapon slung across my back. ¡°You have been touched by the Divine¡­ What title has been bestowed upon you, Calamity?¡± I hesitated a moment before answering. The look on his face made me pause, that expression seeming unreadable but in a cold and not quite friendly way. ¡°Uhmm¡­ I was gifted the title Soul Reaper. Seems the gods liked the fact that I wreaked havoc on the goblins with my scythe here.¡± A sharp nod of Vermund¡¯s head was the only response for a moment, the man seeming lost in thought for a solid minute before he spoke up again. ¡°There was once a man who wielded a scythe and was blessed by the gods in this House. Allistar Halshome was a fearsome warrior on the battlefield who brought terror to our enemies. The only problem was that he was blind¡­ As if that would stop Allistar though. His hearing was beyond anything you could imagine, and using that instead of sight he slaughtered hundreds of enemies in his lifetime.¡± Resting both of his hands on the desk, Vermund leaned forward with his gaze still locked on me in an uncomfortable way. ¡°The story of the Grim Reaper was brought about because of him, you know. He was a fighter so wore plate armor, but since he needed to hear to fight, Allistar wore heavy black robes over his armor to muffle the sound of his own body as much as he could. All of those who saw his scythe and black robes fled as quick as their feet could carry them, lest they fall to such a strong foe. ¡°There was a downside to his tale, however. In the midst of battle, Allistar could not determine friend from foe and killed all he ran into once set loose. That is why people fear the name Grim Reaper. To see another title so close to that of Allistar is a bit alarming to be honest.¡± Well that was shocking¡­ So the Grim Reaper in this game was an actual person who pretty much was the personage of death on the battlefield to any and all who encountered him. To think that it was a Divine title he had received made a lot of sense really, as the gods seemed to like blood and carnage from what I had noticed. I had no idea of what to say in response to Vermund, so I instead kept my mouth shut. Probably the smartest thing I had done in the game so far actually¡­ The Captain shook his head and straightened up again. ¡°I will have to talk with Lord Tyrith about you, Calamity. Until then, I cannot give you any more tasks. Here, your reward for completing this latest one for now.¡± A bag of coins was set on the desk, then pushed towards me. Inside was a good bit of silver.
Quest Completed! You have completed the quest Show of Force. Rewards: 1000 exp, 1 gold Return to Captain Vermund at a later date to learn of Lord Tyrith¡¯s decision of your future within House Tyrith.
Congratulations! Alysandaria the Chronomancer has gained a level! Current level: 10 All available skills are now eligible to reach level 2. Refer to the Talent Tree to select the skill you wish to level up next.
Well, Vermund¡¯s words seemed ominous¡­ But on the bright side, Woohoo! Level 2 skills for Aly! Had to enjoy the good things where I could, considering I wasn¡¯t liking where my position within House Tyrith might be going. If this Allistar guy was that big of a pain in the ass for them, Lord Tyrith may just kick me out of his House and ban me from these lands. That would suck, especially with Archie on his way here even as I interacted with Vermund. ¡°Uhm¡­ Alright. I have some other things to take care of starting tomorrow, but I will return after I complete my objectives and find out your decision.¡± I frowned, thinking of what to add in that might swing the vote into my favor. ¡°Know that I am grateful to House Tyrith for their treatment of me thus far, and hope to stay with you here for a long time yet.¡± Vermund merely nodded once at me, then shooed me away so he could get back to work. Perhaps I spoke too soon to Willcot¡­ Things looked like they could be going sideways rather sharply on me with this situation and all of those goodies I got are coming back to bite me in the ass. Giving up on the situation for the time being, as I had no chance to do anything about it at this point that I could see, I left the building and stood at the side of the road to pull up my menus. Aly was able to level up her skills, and I quickly pulled up her talents tab to see what I could do. The tier one True Haste skill was the only skill I was able to select to gain experience, so it looked like I was going to have to do them in order once again.
True Haste Skill level: 1 -> 2 A Unique Skill known only to Alysandaria the Chronomancer. Unlike a normal Haste ability, True Haste actually modifies how a target perceives time itself. The effects are similar as the target will have increased movement and attack speed, but the True Haste skill also lets the target think faster than normal as their whole body will be moving at a faster rate of time. Time increase: 20% -> 30% MP cost: 30MP/s -> 35MP/s (Cost is calculated and paid in relation to the time perceived by the target of the skill) Exp: 0/6500
Hmmm¡­ That looked to be a good boost for only leveling it up once. The time boost versus MP cost got better at level 2, even if it would cost me more per second. A fair enough trade in my book if it continued on this route every skill level. Looked like I would still need a lot more MP for skills to really shine though. I closed out Aly¡¯s window and pulled up my own for a quick check before dismissing it as well and looking at my partner. ¡°Well, we have all afternoon to do whatever we want. My friend will be here around mid-morning tomorrow. Any suggestions?¡± I raised a brow at her and saw her eyes light up, then cut her off before she could utter the expected answer. ¡°Besides the tavern¡­¡± The click of her mouth closing in reaction to my last words echoed in my ear from her position on my shoulder. Her predictability and expression made me laugh as I started walking towards the city gates to gather myself some more experience. ¡°That¡¯s not nice Calamity! You can¡¯t get my hopes up like that and then dash them against the rocks like a forlorn wave breaking against the shore!¡± Hah! Getting poetic in her attempts to sway me now? Well, two could play at that game¡­ ¡°Tough shit. Suck it up, buttercup.¡± Okay, so mine sucked. Whatever. I never claimed to be the wittiest person on the planet. ¡°You will get your fix of booze later tonight, so keep your skirt on.¡± I almost said ¡®don¡¯t get your panties in a twist¡¯, but that brought up a whole other topic I really didn¡¯t want to get into with the tiny Fairy. To be quite honest, I wasn¡¯t even sure if the little beings wore any underwear, and I really didn¡¯t want to find out¡­ That would just be wrong.
Name: Calamity Player Level: 10 Stat Level: 35 Exp: 25,320
Titles Nightblade, Soul Reaper Fame 300
Armor 34 HP 570/570
Energy 420/420 MP 500/500
Str 45 Fort 42
Dex 30 Int 50
Agi 45 Will 23
18) Friends, Fairies and Fae It was finally time for Archie to show up in Tyrith city and join me in the game. Granted, it would only be for a short time in the city itself. I had a force of Fae to return to their own plane with a force of disgruntled players dreaming of glory looking to wreck my plans. The poor bastards better bring their own army and not just a small pack of idiots, or it wouldn¡¯t even be worth the time it took to end them. On the plus side, free loot from whatever they drop! I could never say no to goodies. Aly was excited to meet Archie and his Fairy as well. She had pretty much been relegated to only dealing with me and I knew that my conversational skills weren¡¯t exactly top notch. It would be good for her to meet Fallon and have another Unique Fairy to talk to. The tiny woman was flitting about in crazy patterns through the air as we made our way down the main road of the city towards the gates. Checking the time on my UI, I noticed that the caravan was due to arrive a few minutes ago and I was late¡­ I hated being late, but Aly had convinced me to stop by the tavern for one final drink before we left the city. Call me a sucker, but it is hard to deny the cute Fairy a single drink even if it was enabling her bad habit. Due to the layout of the city, the train of carts and wagons had all set up just outside of the main gates with a make-shift market being thrown together right outside of the walls. Goods of all different varieties were set up on tables with a selection from weapons and armor right down to potions and raw materials of all kinds. Some of the armor caught my eye, but the rarity of the pieces weren¡¯t quite up to par when compared to my current leather set I had equipped just like the items available in the city. I wanted to upgrade, but not at the cost of losing so many of my stat bonuses from my gear for a meager few more points of armor. As I was browsing the items available for purchase, I felt a hand clap down on my right shoulder which caused Aly to squeak in surprise and shoot up into the air from my left side. ¡°Calamity is it? Why does that not surprise me in the slightest? Your originality has always astounded me.¡± The voice from behind me brought a grin to my face as I turned around. Knocking the arm from my shoulder, I punched Archie in the shoulder then saw his name plate. ¡°Zexceed¡­ And you have the balls to bitch about my name?¡± We both laughed and moved away from the stand while Aly dropped back down to my shoulder again. Glancing over at her, I motioned towards Archie. ¡°Aly, this is Zexceed. Zex, this is Alysandaria.¡± Aly waved at Archie and beamed a smile at him from her spot. ¡°Nice to meet you Mr. Zexceed. Please just call me Aly.¡± Her shocking blue eyes looked all about in search of something, and I noticed Archie¡¯s Fairy wasn¡¯t anywhere in sight. ¡°Calamity said you had your own Fairy Contract? I was looking forward to meeting them too.¡± I watched as Archie waved back behind him towards someone in full plate armor with two Fairies floating about them talking animatedly. ¡°Fallon and Celeste are both back there with Serena.¡± He motioned me to follow him and started making his way back to the group. ¡°Oh, by the way. Here, accept these and Serena will probably send you a friend request as well.¡± Two messages popped up before me, one a friend request with the other being a party invite. I accepted both quickly and raised a brow at Zexceed. ¡°So, she decided to come along then? Glad to hear it. I hope neither of you were looking for a grand tour of the city though. I have a big quest that I need your help with right away.¡± I opened up my map and set the waypoint marker on the Fae expedition camp. I switched over to the party chat option so nobody else around would be able to hear me even if they saw my lips moving. ¡°I marked the location on the map, so you should be able to see it yourself. Let¡¯s head out and I will explain on the trip.¡± Zex seemed more than happy with the circumstances and had an excited grin on his face as he caught up to Serena and the Fairies. ¡°See, I knew he would have something big planned already. The bastard never could just fly under the radar.¡± I saw one Fairy break away and float at his side, silvery eyes looking back at myself and Aly during our approach to join them. ¡°This is Fallon, Serena is the plate wearing barbarian, and Celeste is the other Fairy here. Everyone, this is Calamity and Aly. Play nice kids.¡± All three of the little beings flew up into the air an extra couple feet and started floating about as they exchanged greetings, just as us Humans did below. It was good to see my friends in a game once more, and the prospects of our future adventures began to look up. Staying in the party chat, I gave them both a quick rundown on what was going on. ¡°Right, thanks for coming guys. No time for sightseeing though. So, you know how there are supposed to be more races in the game than what we have seen?¡± At the nods from the others I went on. ¡°Well I may have run into one of them and gotten a quest to escort their group back to a gate so they can go home¡­¡± ¡°Of course you did.¡± Archie broke in with a huff and shake of his head. ¡°Let me guess, you killed all of their best fighters in a misunderstanding, then swept up their damsel in distress to get into their good graces?¡± Kayla laughed at that but didn¡¯t say anything, instead waiting for me to confirm or deny his accusations. ¡°Yeah, not quite. I actually helped them fight off an army of goblins and returned to them a magical key that will let them get home. Princess actually hates my guts, so no chance of sweeping any feet there.¡± I paused and rubbed a hand over my face, thinking back to my meeting with Caius. ¡°On top of that, I may have received the blessing of the gods in a vow to kill the bitch if she attacked me another time.¡± Both of them joined me in a good laugh, and it was Kayla who decided to comment on my endeavors with the Fae. ¡°Wait, are you saying you did the exact opposite of clich¨¦? Hah! Go figure. This Princess must be a real piece of work for you to turn around and give her a death threat like you did.¡± She grinned at me, her helmet tucked away in her inventory while we walked to keep her face open to the sun filtering down through the tree canopy. ¡°Heh, yeah I am still a violent asshole in games. Not going to deny that one ever.¡± Returning her smile, I was feeling good at the moment. My friends were with me, we had a good quest to fulfill, and we were each playing to our old school main strengths. ¡°I have to warn you though¡­ We will probably have company along the way. I can¡¯t pin down any exact details, but trouble is brewing and this escort quest will turn into a defend and slaughter the attackers one at some point. PvP combat with maybe fifteen players of various levels, most casual account type from what I can figure. Zex, I will be relying on you to break it down when it comes then I will lay down our strat.¡± Archie held up a hand curled up for a fist bump which I gladly gave him. ¡°You got it. Just like old times. Remember that raid back in Trinity Online? I have a feeling it will be going along those lines with the way we are building.¡± He paused and tilted his head, then looked me up and down. ¡°Actually, forward me your stats and gear specs and I will do my magic and see what needs fixing. Going for a two handed berserker build?¡± I opened up my menus and selected the option to allow party members to view all of my stats and gear while Kayla scoffed beside me. ¡°Psh¡­ Please. Idiot here is always a berserker.¡± Her bright smile took any sting out of the words, even if they were quite accurate. ¡°The only time he has played anything else was when we either bribed or tricked him into it! Hell, even in TriOn we had to have Alex come in as a healer in order to do anything properly with this guy floor tanking all the time.¡± ¡°Hey! The ground and I just had a mutual understanding and respect! Don¡¯t be jealous that even when I died halfway through a fight I still did the most damage out of everyone in a raid.¡± I smirked at her with a chuckle. ¡°Maybe it was the tank who couldn¡¯t hold aggro, eh?¡± ¡°Oh no!¡± Archie cut us off before the old banter could shade to topics we all argued over for hours on end back in college. ¡°No debates on blame placement. I swear to God if you two start that up again I am muting the both of you and will laugh at your deaths which I will arrange as swiftly as possible.¡± Kayla and I both got a good laugh at his expense on that one, with even our Fairies giggling at the byplay between the group. Aly had once more settled on my shoulder after spending the first half hour of travel conversing with her peers and spoke up. ¡°You know, it is good to see Calamity here in such a good mood. He has mentioned the both of you to me before, and I have to agree that you and your partners are quite fun to be around.¡± I snorted at the tiny Fairy and shook my head at her. ¡°You are just happy that I have others to poke fun at and not just you anymore. No need to hide it, I am aware of my faults for the most part.¡± Aly merely giggled with a smirk and shrug, not refuting my words which made the rest of us laugh as well. ¡°Anyway, back on track here. Zex, I am building a bit differently in here thanks to Aly. I need more mana than a typical berserker build and my strength is coming from titles and items so far. My original plan was to build more like an Amazonian line. High speed and durability to make up for a lower strength score. With my scythe here I can get in about two attacks every three seconds, and about one per second when activating True Haste. Granted, that is when going all out with no blocks or parries, but I have been able to make do with swift counters in those situations.¡± Archie nodded his head as he perused my numbers and listened. After a few moments, he began using his fingers to push at things in the air I couldn¡¯t see. I was about to ask what he was doing when he caught my look and laughed. ¡°I figured out how to use an in game calculator from the ready room and it works like an AR screen only I can see. Give me a few here and I will have some thoughts for you.¡± He trailed behind Kayla and I while he worked, following us with his peripheral vision as he concentrated on his work. ¡°You know, he really has missed gaming with you. We both have.¡± The soft words came from Kayla, her eyes flicking back to Archie before scanning our surroundings once more. She carried her shield on her right arm, the sword belted to her right hip for a cross body draw with her left hand. She was a lefty in real life, and the game must have taken that into consideration for the realistic levels of combat. ¡°The last few years have been rather boring, to be honest. There are a lot of good gamers out there, but they all take it way too seriously. The world of pro gaming has turned into a job to them, unlike the fun we used to have of it back in college. Even with everyone at DT, we are the only ones who look at this like a game, and not a work project that needs to be perfected, packaged and shipped off just to meet the next deadline.¡± She shrugged, seeming a bit apprehensive about something. I had noticed it from her since joining up back in Tyrith city. She had this, aloofness to her that was very unlike the Kayla I had known in the past. It was rather bothering to me actually, as it made me feel like I had missed out on too much with my friends whom I had all but lost contact with in recent years. ¡°Yeah, well to be fair¡­ We never really were looking to make a living of this back in school. It was entertainment to us that also supplied a few nice paychecks at the same time. From all I have seen, the newer pros all have to work incredibly hard to keep up with the curve, the way games are going.¡± I offered her a shrug and went on, ¡°We were just the talented and lucky ones, I think. We met up at just the right time and each of us had the right skills needed to rise above the rest in the grand scheme of things. I am not saying I can beat any gamer out there, but I am damn sure I can beat the bulk of them still. We all worked hard to understand games back then, even if it didn¡¯t look like it, and our group synergy was always above and beyond that of anyone else.¡± She thought about that for a moment, then nodded with a small smile of acceptance. ¡°You are right. We were the ones who just happened to be good at games when the whole rise to popularity began. Then by default we were vaulted to the top of the lists with our group being as good as it was.¡± Her words stopped as she turned to eye me critically. ¡°As for you beating most of the rest of pro gamers out there still¡­ Well I will be the judge of that after we deal with a few real obstacles. Don¡¯t forget that while your ass has been lazing about with a nine to five job, the rest of us have been working our butts off to stay on top.¡±Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! Her words brought another chuckle from me as I had to concede that point to her. ¡°Fair enough. I suppose I have been out of the loop for a while. But it is like riding a bike to me¡­ I learned a lot of good things back when I was pro, and I still remember them all, I think. Should be enough to keep me afloat here in RoI with the competition I have. Especially now that the team is back together!¡± Archie walked up between us then, forcing us to step aside so he could take the middle position of the group. ¡°Okay, enough idle chit-chat. Your build is looking to be viable here, so I would say to keep up with it. Although I would suggest you add more into agility to really boost that one up higher. If you are going to rely on speed with a two handed weapon, agility should be head and shoulders above the rest of your stats. We have a tank here with the proper skills to hold aggro, so I want to see you getting in five attacks in three seconds soon, with your top end going well beyond that. Keep building agility-centric and you should feasibly hit that mark by level fifteen.¡± He paused, his fingers pushing at the bridge of his nose like he was adjusting his glasses in real life. ¡°In that time, only bring up Fort another eight points, then dump the rest into agility. Both Serena and I have gone over our own stats, so you are the only one out of whack at the moment, although it isn¡¯t by much.¡± I shook my head at his projections. Only in a game could I ever hope to move fast enough to swing a polearm fast enough to get five strike in three seconds, but that was the glorious joy of my current situation! ¡°Damn, that sounds like it will be devastating. Is that with or without True Haste?¡± ¡°Without. While using it, you will be able to get much more done in less amount of standard time. I read over Aly¡¯s skills, and I swear, she is the perfect match for your play style. You got damn lucky when you found her. Fallon here was what directed my build path, not the other way around like you. Lucky bastard¡­¡± He grumbled the last bit, but it sounded good natured and a small smile curled the corners of his lips to reinforce that opinion. ¡°He does have a point, you know. Hell, the both of you are lucky bastards!¡± Kayla spared a glare for each of us before turning back to our path. ¡°Only one of us here doesn¡¯t have a Unique Fairy after all. Keep bragging about it and I might have to bash your knees out and leave you behind.¡± She tilted her head slightly then shrugged. ¡°Actually, no. I am fine with only having a rare class Fairy considering what Celeste can do for me.¡± Archie was about to reply to her, but I put a hand on his shoulder as we were about to come upon the Fae camp after circling around the edge of the goblin ruins. ¡°Shelve it folks. Time to get this show on the road. I will bring us into the camp and head over to the Commander to introduce you, then we will do what we can to help them get their shit together to get on the road. Serena, helmet on. From this point forward I want everyone ready for a fight. Shit can go sideways in an instant, and it is on us to ride herd on anything that threatens these people. Quest has a bonus for not losing any more soldiers, so do what you can.¡± I grinned at the two of them and stepped to the front of our group. ¡°Do good, and drinks will be on me when we get back to Tyrith.¡± The meeting with Caius went smoothly, his psycho daughter nowhere in sight thankfully. My friends each received a quest to help escort the Fae back to the Realm Gate, although their rewards weren¡¯t nearly as good as my own according to Caius. That was fine by them, as they really just wanted a chance to see something new in the game that was quite interesting. I mean, who wouldn¡¯t want to be part of the first player contact with a different race? This quest alone would probably boost their stream views by a good margin, which in turn may very well add a decent bonus from Dumadine Technology. Caius had been ready for us when we arrived, and it only took another hour to finish breaking down the remaining tents and get the soldiers into marching formation. Princess made a short appearance during that time, but as soon as she saw me and my friends the walking attitude turned around and scurried off. Probably under orders to stay far away from me lest I felt the need to fulfill my vow to kill her. In other circumstances it would have been a smart move, but with Kayla and Archie here I had more entertaining things to do than tormenting an NPC. Once the remaining army got moving, I split our group up to best facilitate our chances of preventing casualties. I took the lead position ahead of the army, Kayla and Archie each taking one of the flanks to be ready for ambushes I didn¡¯t spot from the head of the group. This was all my plan, but neither of my party members argued with the suggestion and went along with my idea. Some may have argued against splitting our group up, but we couldn¡¯t be everywhere at once as it was, and this was the best solution to the problem in general. According to Caius, it would take three hours to make it back to the Realm Gate, which would be pushing us past the five hour marker by a small bit. Good thing the game didn¡¯t force us to log out as soon as we got to that point, or this would be a much harder endeavor. The commander himself walked up front with me, and it was finally time to pick his brain over the topics I was curious about. I couple quick setting changes allowed my party to hear everything I did, which would save me from having to explain anything more to the others as well as giving them something to think on while we marched. ¡°Okay, time for some answers. You promised me an explanation about what you know of Aly and even Fallon.¡± I kept my eyes scanning the trail and woods ahead of us, looking for any discrepancies or other things that seemed out of place. ¡°You called Fallon ¡®Lord¡¯ just as you call Aly ¡®Lady¡¯. Let¡¯s start there if you would, please.¡± ¡°Yes, I did promise you some answers. Although to give you them, I must go into some more of the history of the Fairy race in general.¡± The golden armored commander paused, collecting his thoughts before starting his story. ¡°To begin with, you saw how Fairies are born. They don¡¯t give birth like normal people of the various races, and are instead¡­ Created. Going back to the beginning of our knowledge of Fairies, we know that the race originally descended from the gods themselves. There were only twelve original Fairies, one of each of the main elements with a couple extras, and they served as the direct assistants to the gods who rule over this world and many of the others that we know of. Some people believe that each plane has its own set of gods, but the truth is that there is only one pantheon who watch over every realm we have discovered. ¡°In the beginning of the race, the gods took a piece of themselves and gave it life to start the species. It is why they are among the few beings capable of directing and manipulating raw mana into useful spells and abilities. Just about every species has access to the raw aspect of mana, but only those directly related to the gods can do anything serious with the power. Continuing along those lines, we get to how Fairies are created. Due to the nature of their first creation, Fairies do not possess any of the typical reproduction systems commonly found among sentient races, and must reproduce in the same way as they were first made. ¡°Only the most powerful of the Fairy race can become a Matriarch or Patriarch, the sheer amount of mana needed in order to create another of their kind being quite vast and beyond the abilities of the more common rank and file. When one of these powerful Fairies become old enough, they will begin to gather mana and hoarding it away within themselves until such a time as they can manipulate it into a new life.¡± After the Fae explained it, I was able to understand more about the Fairies in general. Thinking back to how I had met those in the Grotto, I could see that it was indeed a nest area for the older Fairy who seemed like such a kind and friendly being. Actually, being a Matriarch herself, Sarah was probably a Divine or Unique ranked Fairy. Once more, the game amazed me at the level of detail that had been put into the story and history behind everything I was seeing. Most of the time, one had to dig deep to find out the lore of a world, but here I was getting a mostly full story from a race that wasn¡¯t going to be playable for a long time to come. Not even mentioning that Caius had already informed me about a lot of other neat background before as well. I took a glance up to Aly as she flew around above me, working in an overwatch capacity to try and spot any problems from on high that I couldn¡¯t see from the ground. She never really went far from me, always within easy speaking distance, but the idea that she would someday have the task of creating more of her kind gave me a new respect and appreciation for the fact that I got a Contract with her. ¡°So, there is going to come a day where I will need to release Aly from her Contract with me in order to fulfill her role of furthering her species then?¡± That thought had me worried. What if she decided that the time to do so came sooner rather than later? So far in the game, I had been relying quite heavily on her abilities and had plans to make full use of her for a long time to come. She was one of those things in a game one just didn¡¯t part ways with. Caius followed my gaze and smiled at the sight of Aly performing her duties with all seriousness and shrugged his shoulders. ¡°In time, yes. She is quite young, and has a lot of growing to do before that time comes though. Perhaps in a hundred years or so Lady Alysandaria will be powerful enough to create a new Fairy.¡± He looked back to me and patted my shoulder. ¡°Fear not, Calamity. She will be with you for many years yet so long as you hold faith to the Contract you formed with her.¡± The Fae Commander misunderstood the reasoning behind my worries, taking it for sentimental attachment rather than the possible loss of a valuable tool. Perhaps he was right though¡­ Despite this being just a game, I was rather fond of Aly¡¯s personality and considered her to be a friend to an extent. Maybe it was a bit crazy, but the realism here was just too high to do anything but that after spending so much time with her. AI or not, she had her own characteristics that made her unique that had nothing to do with her rarity levels, and seemed to be working wonders on drawing me away from my internal brooding over the current state of my life. Call it what you will, she was still cheaper than a therapist. ¡°Thank you for the information Caius. It will be of great help to me in the future, and explains a good deal on how and why the Fairies are treated as they are.¡± I wasn¡¯t joking about that either. The NPCs of this world all treated Fairies with a deference and respect that now made sense knowing they were descended from the gods. ¡°Actually, my thoughts have brought up another question if you don¡¯t mind me asking?¡± ¡°Not at all. Ask away and I will answer what I can.¡± He smiled at me quickly, then looked back to the front. ¡°The conversation is helping to pass the time nicely, and spreading knowledge has always been one of the Fae¡¯s greatest pleasures. Despite what you have seen with this group of my people, we rather tend to be scholars and teachers, avoiding the prospects of war and fighting as much as possible. Obviously we keep ourselves up to the task of combat should the need arise, but a great many of my kind refuse to deal with anything to do with violence.¡± I nodded at him and gathered my own thoughts for a moment. The question I had could be taken with offense, and I didn¡¯t want to alienate this group against me by being inconsiderate. ¡°Well, forgive me if this comes out as too blunt¡­ But why do I not see any temples or churches in Tyrith city, nor have I seen any religious symbols or even people praying? With all of this vast knowledge and assurances of the gods, why isn¡¯t there much more worship of them going on?¡± The older Fae chuckled at me and waved his hand towards the forest surrounding the wide path we traveled on. ¡°I am going to answer your question with one of my own, for perspective. To all of the animals and insects around us, those which we kill on a regular basis for sustenance and the use of their skins, would we not seem as gods to them? We can kill them easily, and do so rather often, and must seem as all powerful beings in their eyes. Yet they do not worship us. In turn, why would we worship any beings more powerful than us?¡± He shrugged his shoulders at me, adding in some more since he must have felt his point wasn¡¯t quite made yet. ¡°The gods are simply above us in the grand scale of the universe, but they do nothing overly great to aid the mortal races in their lives. That is why there is no devotion to the higher beings.¡± Yet again, the Fae made perfect sense to me and made me ponder aspects of religion in general within the real world as well. He made some quite valid points, but at the same time the lore of the gods here was quite different than the religions outside of the game. Ugh¡­ These musings were making my head hurt. Yeah, time for a topic change. I was just about to say something to direct the conversation away from such things when Aly flew down quickly with a look of worry on her features. ¡°Calamity, we have a problem. Roughly three hundred paces ahead there is a group of warriors hiding along the side of the path. They are using the brush to hide themselves from sight from the group but are easily seen from above.¡± A smile curved my lips at the prospect of impending battle. ¡°Thanks Aly.¡± I stopped walking and raised a hand, turning behind me and calling out loudly, ¡°Right, time for a quick break. Grab some water and rations and rest up. Perimeter guards set up and keep your eyes peeled for ten minutes, then rotate out with the second group to continue on our way.¡± I spoke in a clear tone that would easily carry ahead as well as behind, and Aly was tiny enough that she would hopefully have been missed by anyone in the ambush party ahead of us. For all intents and purposes, this would look like any old stop for a break while on a long march. Switching over to party chat, I spoke while facing away from our foes ahead. ¡°Serena, Zex, come on up here. Quietly inform the second guard group to join the active roster and get ready. We have a welcome party ahead asking for our attention and I want the Fae to be ready in case there are more.¡± I got a confirmation from both of them, then I followed my own advice and brought out a skin of water from my inventory to share with Caius. He raised a brow at me, curious as to why I was stopping the main force, so I decided to explain my plan to him. ¡°These are Outlanders like me. By stopping the Fae soldiers this far back I have a chance of taking my group ahead and dealing with the problem before any of your people even become at risk.¡± I smirked at him, perhaps a bit of my eagerness reflecting in my expression. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, my friends and I have done this many times before. Give me a few minutes and we will be able to carry on to the Realm Gate without a problem hopefully. Stay on guard though. As I said, there may be more about.¡± ¡°As you say Calamity. We will leave these trouble makers to you and yours while we hunker down and defend our position. I overheard some of the plans you were making with your group and have to agree that you have an idea of what you are about. Good luck.¡± With that, Caius turned and melted into the mass of Fae milling about the road while they rested some from the journey. Kayla and Archie joined me at the head of the column, both looking ready for combat as Archie clapped me on the shoulder. ¡°Old times and good company. Let the fun begin! Fallon, buff our friends here with some extra armor, then we can get the party started.¡±
You have received a buff! Lesser Celestial Armor For 1 hour, you have been clad in ethereal armor spun directly from pure moonlight by the Fairy Fallon of the Six Moons. Effect: +20 armor Remaining duration: 59:46
19) PvP fun and proper farewells Three Fairies floated around our heads as we walked into the tree line to the side of the road. The foliage was dense for the first few steps, then thinned out once the tree canopy hindered excess growth with its shadow. Now out of sight from our enemies, I drew my scythe from my back and grinned at the others, still using the party chat so my words would only be heard by us. ¡°Zex, go ahead with your skills and scout it out. Let me know what we are dealing with exactly and then we can make a plan.¡± Archie nodded at me, then faded away from sight as he seemed to melt into the shadows around us using his Wrap in Night skill. I was mildly curious as to how the PvP aspect of this game would work with so many different types of Fairy support available to players. I was actually looking forward to the challenges and surprises that such things represented, as it gave the game a way to completely alter the play style by every player. Kayla and I crept closer to where the players were supposed to be hiding, trying to make as little noise as possible. Through the party chat, I heard Archie begin his report into my ear as if he was right beside me. ¡°I am seeing twelve players, levels eight to ten. Fairies are all visible, but I can¡¯t tell their types. Rarity are all blue or lower, so don¡¯t need to expect any serious surprises I think. Have four with sword and board, three with various melee damage builds, and five archers. Not a bad group make up for assaulting a NPC group, but we should be able to mop them up easily enough. Layout is typical raid formation three.¡± To Kayla and I, that last bit made sense. We had made up several preset formations to use in previous games, and formation three had the tanks in front, melee damage split on the sides of the tanks, and ranged set up behind the rest to do their work freely. I smiled at the familiar situation within a new setting and crept off to my left some to go a little deeper into the woods. ¡°Right, plan time. Typical entrenched assault I should think. Zex, get ready to join in on the archers with me while Serena dives in to tangle up all of the melee. Serena, Keep your heals flowing at the start in case their damage is higher than I am thinking, but with your armor score, you should be fine for the ten seconds we will need to end the archers. Serena, mark the melee dps when you engage them, leave the tanks blank. They will be the last to go down.¡± The entire time I was speaking, Kayla and I had been moving around to get into position. Finally, I saw the group Archie had described crouched down behind the thick brush lining the road. Just as he had said, the group of players were peeking out from the bushes towards the Fae army a little way down the path. ¡°Alright guys, go time. Serena, run in and do your thing, Zex stealth in and I will use Temporal Step to pop up at the archers as soon as our tank has their full attention. Zex, don¡¯t jump the gun and wait for Serena to be in the spotlight.¡± Keeping low, I held my scythe with the blade parallel to the ground in order to not reflect any of the dappled light filtering down and give away my position. ¡°You got it! Celeste, keep an eye on my back when they surround me and get ready to work your magic muscles with healing.¡± Kayla gave a feral grin and then circled away from me some before charging headlong towards the pack of players. She made a lot of noise while sprinting and was quickly heard as an alarm was raised. Her right arm lashed out, bashing one of the archers out of her way with her shield as she drove past the back lines to engage with the rest. Right as Kayla was about to hit the tanks and melee dps, she did something new. Her left arm swung her sword into her shield hard, the resulting clang coming out much louder than it seemed that it should in a small shockwave centered on the armored woman. The effect of her hidden skill seemed to have stunned those around her for a moment, giving the tank a chance to hit three of the players with a heavy backswing of her weapon. Nice! She was holding back on us it seemed, or at least never mentioned an AoE stun ability. Health bars appeared over all twelve heads as my party engaged and I triggered my ability for five seconds of free movement so I could close the distance to the archers. It wasn¡¯t quite enough, and the skill ended when I was still a few paces away. Luckily, Kayla did her job and nobody was looking towards me as I swung my scythe around me rapidly. Speed was my friend, and there was no slash, pause to reset, then another slash from me. Nope, I kept my scythe flowing around me in a continuous motion dealing heavy damage to those within range of my polearm. Archie had built a decent amount of speed as well, and his stealth skill faded away as he joined me in the assault of the archer group. With rapid strikes, Archie laughed as he targeted the joints of the enemy group with his fists. Every hit dealt a good chunk of damage and most caused a crippled debuff when he struck just the right place. A hit to an elbow or shoulder prevented the players from using the arm for a short time, giving us a chance to deal even more damage to the lightly armored ranged players. A glance at my UI showed Kayla¡¯s health dropping slowly then filling back to full as Celeste topped her up with heals when needed. My own health was still full, as was Archie¡¯s since we were trouncing the archers without them capable of fighting back very well. One tried to pull a backup sword from his belt, but a couple swift blows from my friend dropped him quickly. It had taken a bit more than ten seconds to get rid of the back line, their HP being a bit higher than I had thought. The group must have run into some hard times if they pumped that many points into Fort to have that much health. Either that or they kitted their gear out with as much HP boosting stats as possible, which if they expected to go against all of those NPCs was understandable. Tearing through a lot of health was our job though, so their preparations were a bit of a waste. With the last of the back lines down, Archie and I turned our attentions on the melee dps, who were each marked with a glowing shape over their head in typical rpg style. ¡°Calamity, Zex¡­ Grab the X first. He is really chunking me out with his combos¡­¡± Serena seemed to be flagging now, her health not remaining full and the heals having slowed down. Her mana must have gotten low and was in desperate need of assistance. Without a word, Archie and I shared a smile and charged at the X who was wielding two swords quite efficiently. The dash turned into a race between my friend and I, but I never play fair¡­ Triggering True Haste for a few seconds, I pulled ahead of Archie and delivered a charging slash to the targets side, then spun a full circle for a second blow to the same location. The two hits took a full quarter of his HP away, another sizeable portion being shaved off when Archie made it to the fight and gave a powerful one-two combo at X¡¯s kidney. With the mana I had in reserve, I had another eight seconds of True Haste and I intended to use every second of it. The din of battle was almost deafening, metal clanging off armor and shield, shouts of anger and pain, everything I had come to expect and enjoy from game combat. People who have never seen a war scythe in action would be hard pressed to follow the next few seconds, as the weapon became nearly a blur at the ends with my increased speed. Every pass hit two players, not wanting to waste the chance to deal more damage, and X fell quickly from the combined assault of my weapon and Archie¡¯s fists. Two of the tanks realized what was going on finally, one of them delivering a kick to Serena so they could disengage and then turned on Archie and me. My fellow damage dealer didn¡¯t see what happened, and caught a harsh shield bash to the back of his head, making him stumble and costing him a chunk of HP. It must have been a crit, for he got a short dazed debuff from the blow and it left both of the heavily armored players facing off against me. I was almost out of mana, so I cancelled True Haste to let my mana refill some from regen, then grinned and twirled my scythe around to attack the pair of tanks. Archie would recover shortly, and when he did the two of us would ditch the tanks and work on the other two dps on Serena¡¯s other side. The sheer number of opponents was beginning to wear on my energy levels, so as soon as the opportunity came I drank an energy potion to bolster myself up some. It wouldn¡¯t last long at the rate of my consumption, but hopefully the battle wouldn¡¯t last that much longer. With my completely offensive style I had taken up, the hits to my health started to come on now with two players singling me out. The damage was fairly low, as these tanks had focused on Fort to max out their HP levels, but after a half dozen hits I had to pull back. I was at 50% HP thanks to my lifesteal, while both tanks were hovering at about the same levels. My weapon was tearing them apart rather quickly, the damage bonuses I had from all of my skills really adding up until suddenly both players flashed with a golden light and had full HP once again. Great, they had Celestial Fairies to back them up¡­ Lovely. Serena cried out in pain off to the side and I saw one of the other dps players with a broadsword covered in flames. Fire Fairy with him, the last remaining dps looking to have a Water Fairy judging by the ice coating his axe. The other two tanks hadn¡¯t shown the power of their Fairies yet, so I took that to mean they had ones that could boost their defense or maybe even more Celestial healing partners. That was all taken in at a moment¡¯s glance, and then Archie was back with me. ¡°I am heading to axe man with the square over his head. As soon as I get there, use your Step skill to join me.¡± Archie vanished, using his stealth skill to fade into the darkness and leave me alone. It wouldn¡¯t be for long, and I altered my strategy so that I was spinning my scythe in front of me like a quarterstaff, blocking and knocking away the flicking blades from the pair of tanks riding me hard. ¡°Alright, good to go!¡± Hearing Archie through the party chat, I grinned and winked at the two players in front of me, then triggered my Temporal Step skill. All around me, the world froze in place. The detail all remained the same, but now I could weave through the combatants to get in position to strike at ice axe man. As soon as the skill ended, my scythe connected to the back of his neck to score a crit while Archie blasted a powerful right cross to his jaw. The combined massive amount of damage stripped away a solid 40% of his hit points at once, the rest falling away swiftly as the two of us laid into him with everything we had. A bright arc of pain blasted through my body, the smell of burnt skin and leather assailing my nose from the middle of my back where the broadsword wielding dps got around me and gave me a good cleave. My HP was dangerously low from that surprise attack, the damage having crit me with the flame effect adding even more on top of it. With my HP bar flashing in the red zone at 12%, I triggered my amulet to regen my mana and health by 500 points. It wasn¡¯t instant though, and another solid hit would probably do me in¡­ That left me with few options. Temporal Step was on cooldown still, and True Haste wouldn¡¯t let me move fast enough probably, so I did the next best thing. Diving forward, I tucked myself into a roll with my shoulder impacting the ground hard and making me grunt from the pain. I never was good at tumbling¡­ On the bright side, the blade of the sword missed me by a few inches to spare my life points which were climbing rapidly. Already I was at 20%, the bar filling fast enough that I would be able to get back into the fight as soon as I got my feet under me. It turned out that I wasn¡¯t needed to deal with him though. Archie flung out one hand and a silver blade of light launched out to take the player with a triangle above his head out at the knees. Damn that was a cool skill¡­ Seeing the blade of moonlight form and sail through the air looked so fucking epic. There wasn¡¯t time to appreciate the attack though, as Archie made short work of the fallen player, leaving us with only the four tanks. They weren¡¯t stupid, and saw that it was now an almost even fight, their side having lost all of the damage dealers on top of it. Three of them grouped up tightly, the one in the middle pulling out a crystal from his inventory. A flash of light surrounded all four players, and when my eyes cleared of the light blindness, they were gone. Bastards gave up and used some kind of teleport item¡­ Oh well, I was nearly out of energy anyway and wouldn¡¯t have been much use in the fight. If all of them had kept up the attack, the remaining players may have been able to take out at least one of us. Serena dropped down on her ass in the brush, panting heavily as she tried to catch her breath from the fight. Her health was hovering around 40%, and according to my UI she was nearly out of energy too. Damn, that really could have gone badly if those players had pressed on. Archie was still perfectly good, both his HP and energy at around 80%. ¡°Hey! Where is all of the damn loot they were supposed to drop?¡± Archie cursed and kicked at a fallen branch in his anger. It was quite justified, really. At death, a player was supposed to drop all of their non-soulbound gear and items. That was the best part of PvP¡­ Getting all of the trophies from your battles with other players made the whole ordeal worthwhile. ¡°This is some serious bullshit! Come on, were they fucking cheating or something?¡± Curious about it, I checked my inventory and laughed. Filling the spaces of my window was a nice list of gear and items, my money count also having increased by quite a bit. ¡°Oh calm your ass down Zex. Open your inventory and check to see if there is anything there. I have a skill that automatically loots fallen enemies and mobs, but I am not sure if being in the party with you splits it up automatically or if I need to divvy up the loot in my menu here.¡± I was leaning towards the fact that the party settings split it all up already. I had a good bit of stuff in my inventory, but not eight players worth. My gold saw a nice increase though¡­ They must have been PKers and prayed upon others to make some coin as I was now sitting at eight and a half gold. ¡°You are so broken¡­ How the hell did you get that skill?¡± Kayla apparently beat Archie to the inventory screen, as she laughed and shook her head at me. ¡°It is all here already. Convenient, that. Will make splitting the take easy enough, but at the same time it will be annoying. Some of this stuff would be better used by you guys, while I am sure the opposite is true and you have stuff that should go to me.¡± She gave me a pointed glare, although her lips were turned up at the corners. ¡°Dammit man, why can¡¯t you just play a game normally?¡± This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. Archie gave a laugh at that, then clapped me on the shoulder. ¡°You should know by now that he could never not try to break a game. Hell, even his weapon choice is unorthodox.¡± He broke off a moment, probably checking his menus, then picked up again. ¡°Damn those buggers were rich. Got a good haul here from them, but it was a lot closer of a fight than you promised us Calamity. Out of practice, eh?¡± Aly was actually the one who spoke up in my defense, surprisingly. The little Fairy came down to sit on my shoulder again, and I had the sudden thought of comparing her to a parrot. I decided against it though, as she would probably get back at me somehow later. ¡°To be fair, we haven¡¯t really had any run ins with any other Outlanders so far.¡± Her pale blue eyes glanced from me to my friends. ¡°Calamity has done the best he could from all I have seen, and has come out on top with everything so far. Here today, he would not have been able to make it without you and your partners. To that, you have my thanks¡­ What? Why are you all looking at me like that?¡± She got indignant towards the end, and none of us could hold back our laughter. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Aly.¡± I managed to get that out, then broke down chuckling again. After a moment, I was able to take a deep breath and speak again. ¡°They are only picking on me, don¡¯t take it seriously.¡± Damn, the game AI had taken their words seriously and tried to have the Fairy stand up for me. I supposed that to a new gamer or one of the people who liked the roleplaying aspect more it would have been a good touch, but among us it was a wasted gesture. Aly herself took on a pissed off look at our dismissal of the words she was speaking in all seriousness. We may have hurt her feelings a bit, but it was just too amusing. ¡°Indeed, little Fairy. This has been a common practice of ours for a long time, we have fought together and against each other countless times over the course of our lives.¡± Archie stretched his arms over his head, his back making a popping noise as his spine shifted. ¡°For future reference, any time that seems like it should be serious, expect one of us to make a joke or to tease another.¡± That seemed to mollify Aly for the time being, and even the other two Fairies seemed to take that advice into consideration while they floated in close to their Contracted partners. ¡°Right then, break time is over.¡± The whole fight had only taken a few minutes, even if it had felt like it was a lot longer for the ones fighting, and it was time to get back to the Fae to get the force on the march once more. ¡°I don¡¯t think there will be any more, this was about the number I was expecting. Let¡¯s get on the move again and finish the quest.¡± I turned to go, but paused and checked my inventory once more quickly. ¡°Hey, any of you guys get any good chain armor by chance?¡± Both of them froze a moment, then shook their heads. ¡°Damn¡­ Tyrith doesn¡¯t have anything above green quality available without me gathering the mats myself. Looks like I am stuck with my leathers for now.¡± Caius and the rest were right where we left them, now rested and fresh to travel the rest of the way since they didn¡¯t have to lift a finger to fight off the players. That was all fine by me though, as this way left them no chance of getting killed and making me lose my bonus rewards for getting all of them safely to the Realm Gate. The Commander himself emerged from the mass of Fae to approach my little party. ¡°And they return, alive and well.¡± He looked us over quickly, a smirk on his face. ¡°I am going to assume that the problem is dealt with?¡± Archie pulled the broadsword he had gotten from the fight and looked it over, holding it up for Caius to see with a matching smirk on his face. ¡°Well, it comes down to my favorite saying in the end. To the victor goes the spoils!¡± He gave a dark chuckle and slipped the weapon back into his inventory to sell in a town or wipe his ass with at a later time. To each his own¡­ ¡°Well I am glad to see that everything went well. Are you good to move on, or do you need a few minutes to recuperate?¡± Well, that was nice of the Commander to give us the option of resting. Too bad our bars were all well on their way to full already anyway so it was a wasted gesture. ¡°No need. Get everyone up, set the perimeter guards, and let¡¯s get a move on. Daylight is burning and we don¡¯t want to be stuck out here forever.¡± I watched Caius nod, then turn to deal with the Fae under his command. A few shouted words and we were all under way once again. We didn¡¯t bother splitting up to watch the sides and instead stayed at the front of the group traveling with Caius. Kayla was mumbling to herself as she walked, her eyes flicking back and forth as if reading something until she finally turned to me. ¡°What skill do you have that offers damage reduction? I was just looking over my logs from the battle and things aren¡¯t adding up on my end.¡± She held up a finger and added in, ¡°Not that I am complaining, mind you¡­ I am just curious.¡± Chuckling, I opened my options menu and selected the choice to allow my party members to see my specs again. It included my skills in the list and Archie already saw everything, but Kayla must have not bothered to look while I had it open before. I left her to peruse my info while turning to Caius. ¡°So, now that we are back on track, what are your plans for the future? How often do you come back to this plane?¡± The Commander looked over at me and shrugged his shoulders. ¡°We come and go all the time. The Realm Gate changes locations after every other crossing so that we can avoid being tracked and ambushed when we visit this plane again. I doubt we will meet again by chance, Calamity. To that end, I am having something commissioned for you at the moment. My own daughter is actually making it. Call it reparations for her actions towards you thus far. And no, before you ask, I will not tell you what it is until it is finished.¡± Damn sneaky bastard. Curiosity was always my biggest weakness and this was going to bug the shit out of me until I find out what he was talking about. I bit back my annoyance though, and instead nodded my head to him in reply. ¡°Alright. I will be looking forward to it so long as she keeps herself civil with me. I do not want to kill her if I don¡¯t have to, but damn me if I won¡¯t should it come down to it.¡± ¡°That should not be a problem. Young and impulsive she may be, but I believe I have driven home some sense into the girl during our time here on this plane. As difficult as this foray has been, I think it will be good for her in the long run. It is due time for her to grow up and learn the actual way of the world. I fear her mother and I spoiled her and kept her sheltered for a bit too long.¡± He sighed and shook his head in regret over what he probably felt was a personal failing. ¡°Ahhh¡­ Don¡¯t be too hard on her Caius. Despite her attitude, she really is a good warrior. Managed to sneak up on me with Aly watching out for her after all. Can¡¯t say there are many people who could do that. All she really needs is a muzzle!¡± I grinned at the last bit, the tone of my voice turning up at the end to show I was merely joking. It brought a small chuckle from the Fae, my words striking a true chord. ¡°But enough about that for now. Look in the distance there, I see our destination approaching.¡± Honestly, I saw on my mini map that the quest marker was just ahead¡­ Semantics. ¡°So it is! Very good. Looks like we will make it back without any more problems. Forgive me, friends. I need to go and arrange my people for the trip through the Realm Gate. Please, await me by the cave entrance and I will give you your rewards momentarily.¡± With that, Caius turned and swept into the mass of Fae to do as he said, leaving us to our own devices for the time being. Ahead and off the path a short way was a giant tree easily reaching three hundred feet tall, the trunk roughly twenty feet wide. At the base of the tree a was a hole large enough for two men to walk through at the same time, the darkness within seeming endless as no sunlight penetrated into the opening. Curious about the Realm Gate, I picked up a long stick and tried to poke it through the opening only to find that a shimmering blue barrier stopped the wood before it could pass through the entrance. In short order, Caius got all of his unit arranged in single file order to make the trip through the Gate. Princess made an appearance, standing on the opposite side of the entrance from me and my friends. She didn¡¯t look our way, instead focusing on the Fae with her hands cupped before her holding something I couldn¡¯t make out. The Commander came to the front of the group and lifted the Gate key in his hand, touching it to the shimmering barrier blocking the opening. With the sound of shattering glass, the light faded away before Caius stepped aside towards me and waved the Fae forward. As each soldier passed, they reached out a hand towards Princess and touched whatever it was she held in her hands before stepping into the tree where they seemed to just vanish into thin air. While the small army made their journey through the Gate, Caius turned to speak to us. ¡°Now then, as I said before I don¡¯t have a lot to give you at this point, but please accept this from me.¡± From his waist pouch the Commander pulled three smaller sacks of coin which he gave one to each of us. The bag was full of coins nearly to bursting, and I quickly tossed it into my inventory to see my coin count jump up by three and a half gold! Nice reward for an easy escort quest.
Quest Completed! You have completed the quest The Way Home (2) Rewards: 5000 exp, 3 gold 50 silver Due to you ensuring the survival of all of the remaining Fae, you are eligible to receive a bonus reward. Speak with Commander Caius Sylden to receive your bonus.
Congratulations! You have gained a level! Current level: 11 Faction Bonus: +1 Agi +1 Polearm Mastery +1 Advanced Herbalism You have 5 stat points available to distribute. Warning! If you die before assigning your points, they will be lost!
Congratulations! Your skill Polearm Mastery has grown in level! Skill level: 15 (0%) Continuous use of polearms has deepened your understanding of their function and versatility. +15% damage with polearms +15% attack speed with polearms +20% extra damage when charging Increase the skill level for additional bonuses
I whistled softly at the message boxes, and quickly assigned my points into Agi and Fort like Archie told me to do while I heard a simultaneous exclamation of ¡°Ding!¡± from both of my friends. Apparently I wasn¡¯t the only one who had leveled from the quest turn in. Ignoring them for the moment, I turned to Caius and nodded my head at him with a smile. ¡°Thank you, Commander. We appreciate the rewards you have provided us. It will go a long way towards ensuring we remain well geared and ready for greater challenges.¡± There we go. That seemed diplomatic enough with just the right touch of role playing to make the AI happy hopefully. Indeed, Caius seemed quite pleased by my answer and smiled broadly at me. ¡°Ahhh, but you, Calamity, are getting some more yet as the one who has done the most to aid my people here. We do not have any blacksmiths in our group, nor the forge to craft anything even if we did, but we were able to collect up a good bit of raw ore that we are gifting to you in order to use as you see fit.¡± One of the Fae soldiers came up and set a basket of unworked metal at my feet before returning to his position in line to cross the Gate. ¡°I am loathed to admit, it isn¡¯t the rarest quality of metal though¡­ The veins around here are quite basic, but we did manage to find this vein of Dark Iron. Rarer than normal but not particularly superb when compared to the Brightsteel of our armor, I am sure you can find a good smith to forge you something useful from it however.¡± ¡°No, this will work nicely. Thank you, Caius.¡± I reached down and added the ore to my inventory with the hope that the smith in the starting city was advanced enough to work with the metal, otherwise I would have to wait till I got to the next city. I was sure I would be leaving Tyrith soon anyway no matter what the Lord¡¯s decision. The location was only good up to level ten or so and it was time to move on. The Fae were moving through the gate rather quickly, each one still pausing a moment to reach out towards Princess, and during our conversation the bulk of the Fae forces had moved through the Realm Gate. Only a few remained in line, and they dwindled down to just Caius, Princess, and a few other guards remaining on this plane. ¡°Now then, for the last item I have for you. Katherine, please come forward and present it to our friend here.¡± Caius kept his tone kind, although the note of warning to his daughter was obvious to those listening as he stressed the word ¡®friend¡¯. ¡°Yes, father.¡± Princess stepped closer to me while holding something in her palms. She turned her eyes up to meet my own, and I saw a lack of hatred or contempt there with surprise. Maybe the Commander finally talked some sense into the woman. ¡°This berry here has been imbued with a large portion of mana from every surviving Fae soldier whom you have done your best to assist during the last few days. With the power of my people, I have woven an enchantment around this morsel to grant you a boon for the rest of your days.¡± She held out the little red berry which I accepted and held up to look it over. ¡°Please, eat this berry and you will gain the blessings of the Fae. My father has told me of your desire to become stronger, and I have woven the enchantment to enhance your abilities to those ends. Thank you for your assistance, and I wish you the best for the remainder of your life.¡± Her speech done and gift given, she turned and walked through the Gate without another word. I raised a brow at Caius at the actions of Princess, but he just chuckled and shrugged as if to say, ¡®That went better than I hoped actually¡¯. With a grin in return, I quickly popped the berry into my mouth to eat it. I was curious as to what I would gain from the power of over seventy Fae all pouring their power into one item, and the system message that popped up answered my question beyond anything I could have imagined.
Congratulations! You have consumed the legendary item Fae Enchanted Berry which has been imbued with the power of many members of the Fae race in thanks for your services. Only a few members of the race can create one of these items, and at no small cost to themselves as they will lose a portion of their mana permanently upon the creation of the enchantment. Congratulations! You are the first Human to receive such a gift and blessing from the Fae! Rewards: +150 fame, +10 Str, +10 Agi, +10 Fort, +15 Int You are now considered an official friend of the Fae and members of the Fae race will be displayed on your map at all times.
Well slap my ass and call me Sally¡­ That was definitely a legendary item! To think that the stuck-up Princess was capable of creating such an item, not even mentioning how much it cost to her own personal mana pool for all of her life. Maybe she really was sorry for her previous actions? Well, there was no way to confirm it now seeing as she had already left to her own plane. Hamming up the RP aspect of the game, I offered a bow to Caius. ¡°Thank you, Commander Sylden, for the gifts you have given me. Should we ever meet again, you can count on me to assist you in any future endeavors of the Fae race.¡± Caius patted my shoulder as he stepped up to the entrance of the Gate. ¡°Just rewards for your hard work. And also a gift to repay you for your kindness. I hope that the next time we journey to this plane there will be peace in the land. Only then will my people return in force to this plane that we had called home for so long. Be well, and good luck my friend.¡± With that, Caius and his guards walked through the Gate. As soon as they vanished, the tree seemed to warp and grow again, the opening becoming covered up by bark to leave it as just a normal ¨C if large ¨C tree. My UI was flashing its warning that over five hours had passed and it was time to take a break. Looking back to Kayla and Archie, I gave them a smile in thanks for their help. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s take a break and meet up again in an hour or so to head back to Tyrith. If we hurry, we should make it back before dark and will be able to sell off the gear we got from those players. Extra coin would never hurt, and I also want to look into some kind of bank system in the game so we don¡¯t lose all of these riches.¡± ¡°Sounds like a plan to me, and yeah it would suck to get all of this gold just to be ganked and have it all taken away.¡± Archie sat down on one of the large roots from the tree, Fallon settling in beside him. ¡°Alright, logging out. Kayla can make us some food!¡± 20) The hits keep coming Logging out took the required thirty seconds, and then I was in my ready room once again. The plain white room had no inviting feel to the place, and I really should have gotten around to making it more comfortable before, but it always seemed like such a waste of time to me. Even now I looked at the bare walls and shrugged the idea off once more, instead opting to just finish logging out and getting back into the real world. Back in reality, I really needed to take care of myself and my first stop was the bathroom, for obvious reasons as well as a shower. It was only mid-afternoon, which left me plenty of time to play some more before night fell in the game world itself. Being at the home of Dumadine Technology gave us here an edge in the time department, as the day in game was synched with the real world based on this time zone. From all I gathered, every country had their own server with a centralized time zone chosen as the basis for that area to go off of as well. Showered and presentable to the rest of humanity, I left my apartment and went down to the first floor in the elevator to check if Archie and Kayla had made it there yet. Poking my head into the kitchen, I saw Kayla at the counter working on something to eat but no Archie anywhere in sight. Shrugging, I wandered into the large area and leaned against the fridge to see what was going to be for dinner. The appliance shifted a little at the weight of my body, the sound making Kayla jump with a squeak of alarm, one hand reaching up to pull an earbud out of her head. ¡°Jesus Dale! Don¡¯t fucking scare me like that you asshole!¡± In front of her was an assortment of onions, peppers, beef, garlic, mushrooms and a few other ingredients that she was working on. Looked like we would be having some kind of stir-fry based on what I saw, but I was only a mediocre cook at best so I could have been wrong. I laughed at her reaction and held up my hands in surrender. I was never dumb enough to argue with a woman holding a big kitchen knife¡­ ¡°Sorry, sorry. Didn¡¯t see the earbud.¡± I dropped my hands as my apology seemed to mollify her and she turned back to her task. ¡°Need any help here or should I just be a good boy and stay out of your way?¡± Those blue eyes of hers flicked towards me, a glimmer of mirth showing within. ¡°I am pretty sure if I let you help me, it would end up turning into a disaster. No, I am fine here. Archie should be down in a few more minutes though and will probably want to break down everything from our PvP encounter. I swear, he finds more enjoyment in stuff like that than seems healthy¡­¡± Shaking her head, she went back to slicing up the veggies on a cutting board and placing them all in a glass bowl. My answer to her complaint was only a shrug, as before I could speak Archie himself came into the kitchen with the AR display for his computer in hand. ¡°Good, you are here Dale. Did you check out our stream pages since logging out?¡± He flopped his skinny frame into a chair at one of the tables and called up an AR screen, tapping in commands faster than I could follow. ¡°Uhmmm¡­ No, not yet. Wanted a shower first. Why, what¡¯s up?¡± Stepping around the table, I stood behind him so I could watch the screen over his shoulder as he manipulated the display. The window shifted rapidly to his ministrations, and quickly he had the page for my own stream up in front of us where I could see threads being commented on almost nonstop. Primary among the posts were those of the players who tried to jump us earlier. They were pissed off, threatening to hunt me down in the game and kill me over and over if I didn¡¯t give them back their stuff. Silly really¡­ We had beaten them once already when they were fully geared, and now they were all set back a good ways now that they had nothing. Other people were calling them every name under the sun, saying that they just got what they deserved and that if any one of them tried to go after me and my party, every member of the PK group would be black listed. Judging by the number of people backing up those claims, I doubted there would be any tries at revenge. ¡°What is the big deal? Just some butt hurt bastards¡­ Nothing we haven¡¯t seen or dealt with before.¡± ¡°No, not those posts¡­ This one.¡± He trailed his finger through the air, circling a lone post that wasn¡¯t attached to a particular thread in the comments box. The user was named Ghost_In_The_Machine, and when Archie tried to see the person¡¯s info, nothing came up as if the profile didn¡¯t exist. The message itself was rather odd too¡­ ¡®You missed something big. Prepare yourself, Reaper. War comes and you are in for a shock.¡¯ Well, that just seemed like a giant bucket of crazy woven in with a bit of stalker issues. ¡°Yeah, still not seeing a problem here Archie. What are you getting that I am not?¡± Truly I was puzzled by what he was going for here. Yeah, I miss things all the time. I was never what some called a completionist who has to get everything there could possibly be, and rather focused on what worked for me and me alone. ¡°Dude, how have you survived in the game this long without me?¡± Archie shook his head and switched the screen to another page, this one that of another player in the complex we were staying in. It looked to be that of one of the two adoptive brothers, Adrian I think his name was. He was currently in the game, and I saw on his stream that he was dealing with some NPCs in a city environment. Archie skipped the live feed though and scrolled down through the comments till he found the section he wanted and let me read. Apparently, despite me thinking I was being handed everything on a silver platter, other people were getting the golden treatment in the game twice as much as I was. Adrian and Hidashi both had received full sets of Unique armor as well as Divine titles for achieving some rather impressive feats in the game already. While I had been traipsing off with the Fae, the brothers had run into an actual dragon! Now, one might assume that meeting a dragon at such an early level would lead to quick and certain death, but somehow these guys had managed to convince the beast to let them join with the monster. All the rage on this thread was about how they abandoned their House and teamed up with the dragon in order to fulfil an old oath for the creature. Comments mentioned that Calamity was screwed with both of these players as well as a dragon now hunting me down. Things here weren¡¯t adding up though, and I raised a brow at Archie. ¡°Okay, you obviously read all of this already¡­ Give me the details.¡± Closing the AR screen, Archie sat back in his chair while I sat beside him. ¡°Right. From my research, I have found that the dragon is named Ashderkantus. He is ancient and is known as one of the closest beings to the gods of the game known, since he is the direct child of two of them, and is seen as a pillar of justice among the NPCs. Even the Fairies aren¡¯t as powerful as this being. Word has spread about Aly¡¯s power since you have acquired her, and apparently the dragon is claiming that there is a prophecy about a Fairy with dominion over time being the cause of destroying the world. Adrian and Hidashi told this beast that they knew of you, which is how they got on his side, and now they are actively hunting you down as part of a Divine ranked quest issued from the dragon himself.¡± ¡°Are you fucking serious? What the hell is wrong with the AI in this game that they are setting a fucking dragon against me already?!¡± I ran a hand through my hair, trying to sort my thoughts out. ¡°Does this have to do with being the first person to gain a Unique Fairy in the game?¡± Really, that was the only thing that made sense to me that would explain what was going on. Archie nodded his head at me, adjusting his glasses on his face. ¡°Indeed I think that is exactly what it is about. If another player had gotten a Unique Fairy before you, I could probably guess that their power would have been the one in the prophecy. Tough luck, Dale. With great power comes great¡­ Hardships.¡± He chuckled at his joke, with my own grim amusement joining in. ¡°But on the bright side, both Adrian and Hidashi are on the other side of the continent from you and it will take them a long time to track you down I should think. There is no hiding. Our streams will tell them where you are at all times, but outrunning them or out playing them is certainly on the table. Currently, they are one level ahead of us in the game, but their gear is above and beyond what we have by a long shot. Add to that the fact that they are each backed by a Divine ranked Fairy, and it is looking like we are going to be in for a world of hurt unless we make a plan.¡± Well, this shit kept getting better and better. Not only did I have two of the best players in the world coming at me, they had a fucking dragon backing them! What kind of bullshit is that? Ugh¡­ Complaining about it wouldn¡¯t help, and I needed to get my head on straight in order to make it through this event without losing my Unique Fairy. While Archie and I were talking, Kayla had prepared the meal and set a plate before each of us to start eating. The meal went in mostly silence, my thoughts turned inwards as I contemplated what needed to be done, and my friends knew when to keep their mouths shut to let me think. That was part of the reason we had always worked so well together in the past, really. The food was good, but I paid little mind to it as I ate mechanically. Right then. Problems were starting to compound and add up quickly for me and I had to get a handle on them before shit went so far sideways there was no chance of setting it right again. The real world had to be my base of operations for this too, since my stream was probably being watched and reported back to the brothers with details of my conversations and actions. But two could play at that game¡­ First step would be to get some people watching those two streams and spying on them for us. I had a couple friends from work who owed me some favors, and I was sure Archie and Kayla had a couple people willing to lend a hand as well, so that aspect was covered. My next issue was gear, I was wearing starter gear for the most part still. Granted, it was good quality and had saved my ass many times so far, but I would need a serious upgrade if I was going to try and come out on top here. Third was leveling up rapidly, and to that extent I had almost no idea of how to go about it. Being a brand new game with the ten people living here at the forefront of advancement, there was no guide or info portal to look up as to how to best level up. Everything was looking to point at how well we could make use of everything we encountered. As it stood, I didn¡¯t have enough information to make the best plans that I could. Too many unanswered questions in Tyrith city on top of where exactly the brothers were. That left me little options in my mind and the best one was to keep pressing forward and gaining levels. The stronger we got, the better off we would become. In truth, I really wanted to get to level 25 and acquire a second Fairy before dealing with these guys and their bastard dragon. My best bet would be to avoid the monster entirely if I could help it¡­ I doubted a dragon would be a low level mob that I could smoke without any effort. Actually¡­ I had my own personal benefactor possibly. The outlines of an idea began to form as I thought on the topics of gods and their scions, but to put it in motion I had to be careful. My face must have shown that I was coming to a solution as Archie slapped me on the back. ¡°Alright, looks like we are back on track. Welcome back to reality, by the way.¡± I blinked at him, then noticed we had all finished eating and all of the dishes were taken care of. I really had to stop spacing out when deep in thought¡­ It was bound to bite me in the ass someday. ¡°Yeah, I have an outline in mind as to how I can deal with this. Not sure about how you both will grow in the end, but my own path seems to be opening up before me if I can play my cards right.¡± I leaned back in my chair and ran a hand through my hair. ¡°When we make it back to Tyrith I can show you around quickly if you want, but there are some things I will need to do alone. No offense, but you guys don¡¯t have the fame or rank I do here so if you come along it may not go as well as I hope.¡± I paused, then looked sideways at Archie. ¡°Actually, you may well be a help to me with your Fallon when I head off to one of the locations. You should come too, Kayla, when I head there. Might be worth it for you.¡± She gave a smile and nod, her eyes locked to an AR screen on her pers-com as she checked messages. ¡°No problem. We shouldn¡¯t split up for long anymore in the game. Our feeds have shown us together for a little bit now so I am sure that both Archie and I are going to be targets as well for this situation.¡± The blonde had a point. Being watched all the time was really starting to show downsides. Oh well, all part of the game as I saw it. We may not be normal players, but that just came with the whole work for DT package in the end. ¡°Good point. Alright, let¡¯s head on up and get logged in again. I have a lot of stuff to get done in a short amount of time to be ready for trouble.¡± I stood and stretched, my body having cramped a bit from sitting in the chair for a good half hour straight without moving. Taking my own advice, I headed out of the kitchen area and pressed the elevator call button with my friends following along with me. As soon as I got back to my room, I moved straight into the game room so I could log back in. My mind was full of possibilities and plans that were as of yet like liquid. Nothing was set yet, and depending on how things turned out, the backup plans for my backup plans may not even be viable. I needed certain things to fall into place, and for that to happen I had a lot of scheming ahead of me.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. Once all three of us were logged back into the game and we were on the road back to the city, Kayla opened up the conversation with a question. ¡°So, what is the first step for this? No sense in hiding too much since people are going to see it all as we do it anyway.¡± She was right of course, but at the same time I didn¡¯t want to give a heads up to where we will be in advance besides the obvious locations. ¡°Well, first things first we are heading back to the city. I need upgrades and to talk with some people there before we head out again. I will probably end up stuck in town overnight and will head to the next place on my list in the morning.¡± I gave a wolfish grin at the two of them. ¡°I think that it is past time you met my first big friend in this game tomorrow.¡± Maybe I said too much there, someone smart would be able to connect the dots depending on how much they had followed my stream, but I didn¡¯t come right out and explain what I meant so I felt reasonably safe. ¡°The rest of today will be spent doing business and getting upgrades to my armor as well as meeting with the Captain.¡± ¡°Make sure we go with you so we can be introduced to him too. I still have my old title and want to switch to your faction if I can.¡± We were jogging down the trail, and Archie was having absolutely no trouble keeping up with his light leather armor while I lugged a large scythe and Kayla was wearing full plate. It wasn¡¯t the actual weight that was the issue, but our energy bars depleted slowly when moving faster than a brisk walk and the weight we carried made it drop all the faster. ¡°Sure thing. Still not sure where I am standing in the House at the moment though, so don¡¯t get your hopes up in case it turns out to be bad news. Then again, the faction bonus is quite nice even if it is random advancements, so you might want to join up anyway.¡± Both of them had told me what their faction bonuses were and they were decent as they added to two different stats every level, but getting free skill levels was looking to be much more worthwhile even if it was randomized. We had to take a couple breaks to let our energy refill, but in the end it only took a little over an hour to run back to the city from where the Realm Gate once stood. The caravan was gone and the slap-dash market had been broken down with their departure, leaving the gates clear of people and allowing us quick entry. Something seemed off as soon as we stepped past the walls, soldiers were rushing around everywhere as they emerged from houses and made their way towards the keep at the far end of the road. One of the guards at the wall spotted me and approached quickly. ¡°You there! Calamity! Captain Vermund has been looking for you all afternoon. You are ordered to report to him immediately.¡± With his message delivered, the man wandered back to his post to keep an eye on things. I dismissed the window that popped up giving me the proper quest to visit Vermund before the end of the day, with failure being a demotion to my title rank. Shitty drawbacks for making him wait. Well, he was one of my main objectives tonight anyway, so that was fine. ¡°Looks like the tour will have to wait for the most part. Let¡¯s swing by a couple shops on the way towards the keep. I have loot to sell and armor to commission if I can!¡± For the next hour, we wandered to several shops to dump the extra gear weighing us down as well as making a stop at the blacksmith to hand over the Dark Iron to be crafted into a set of Rare quality chainmail armor for me. It was at the high ends of the NPC¡¯s skills, but he assured me that it would turn out better than my current gear which is all I cared about. We also found a storage bank that could be accessed from every city in the game and dumped the bulk of our money in there. The longest part of our trip to the keep was when Kayla saw the clothes shop for Fairies and nothing else would do but that she ducked in and spent fifteen minutes with Celeste to pick the best new outfit for her. Actually, it was three outfits, but who was counting? For our entire trek through the city we saw soldiers all making their way towards the keep in alarming numbers. Something must have happened for that many warriors to gather in one spot, and it made me want to get to the Captain that much faster as my curiosity was starting to bother me. As we neared the two-story building Vermund used as an office, I saw all of the soldiers were lining up in formation. At least three hundred men at arms were gathered, all in the black and red of House Tyrith¡¯s colors as they stood at attention while still more men filtered in and took up their positions. Waving the others to follow me, I headed into the building to find out what was going on. Vermund was in his normal place behind his large desk, but this time there were half a dozen men surrounding the open surface. Voices argued back and forth while they discussed something I couldn¡¯t make out from the door. Heading that way, I saw the top of the desk was covered in a large map of Grendor where the officers with Vermund were all pointing to various places in turn to report on troop movements as well as other topics of war. The giant man in black armor caught my approach, his hard gaze following me as he straightened up from looking at the map. That deep voice which demanded attention and obedience called out to me, drawing my gaze up from the map to meet his own. ¡°Ah, so our last Outlander has decided to join us finally. Of the forty Outlanders under my command now, you are the final one to follow orders and report for duty, Soul Reaper.¡± That name got the attention of the others surrounding the table, all eyes turning to look me over. Apparently, my fame score was starting to show, my feats spreading through the province farther and farther as my fame increased. Either good or bad, my deeds would be known through the lands as that number increased which could have some interesting consequences. Anonymity would become a thing of the past if I kept accruing fame, but the new quests that would be opened because of it would hopefully be only a good thing. As if by some unspoken command, the officers all stepped away from the desk and moved out the door to handle the gathering troops outside. ¡°Captain Vermund, first let me introduce my two friends. This is Archie and his Fairy Fallon, and Serena with her Fairy Celeste.¡± I motioned to each as I spoke, then turned back to the Captain. ¡°Depending on the decision set forth by Lord Tyrith, they might wish to join the House and help with whatever it is you have planned for me.¡± Crossing his arms over his chest, Vermund looked the pair over where they stood a little behind me, gauging their strength and worth with a glance. Finally, after a couple seconds he nodded at them. ¡°Glad to hear you wish to join us. You can have his rank as he won¡¯t be needing it any longer. I gave Calamity a rank above that of the average starting recruit to the faction, and it has borne fruits much greater than we could have hoped. Hopefully, as his friends, you will be able to do the same for House Tyrith.¡± He pulled out three pieces of paper, jotting down his writ and handing one to each of us. Archie and Kayla each got papers saying they were accepted into House Tyrith, but mine was quite the opposite¡­
You have lost the title Nightblade! Captain Vermund of House Tyrith has revoked your title and rank within the house. You have lost the following benefits: 1. +3 Str, +3 Dex, +1 Int 2. Upon level up, you will receive +1 to a random stat 3. Upon level up, you will receive +1 to two random skills. (Skill level bonus can possibly effect the same skill twice.)
What the fuck? Did I not make it clear that my friends would only join if I was in the faction still? I wasn¡¯t that worried about the loss of the stats at this point, even if I would miss the nice level up benefits. Yeah, this was so not going to fly¡­ Balling up the paper, I tossed it back onto the desk and opened my mouth to say something. Vermund held up a hand before I could even utter a syllable. ¡°Peace, Calamity¡­ I will explain in a moment. Wait here.¡± He turned and walked away from us towards the stairs, his armor making noise as he climbed up to the second floor to vanish from sight. This was all just a heavy dose of strange, and I really hoped this wouldn¡¯t ruin any of the plans I had made to deal with everything. I glanced at Kayla and Archie, but they were both looking around them and paying no attention to me standing there. Typical, as soon as I get knocked sideways, they pretend nothing happened and leave me to fix it all as if nothing happened. Well, things might not be as bad as I feared, although getting kicked out of the faction was certainly not going to help me in the long run. After only a minute or two, the Captain started clanking down the stone steps to the first floor again. In his hands was a large scythe made of solid black metal, and even from my place across the room I could make out engravings covering the shimmering black blade and most of the long handle. As the light from the outside hit the metal, it reflected off in rippling bands of dark purple color. The craftsmanship was excellent, but pulling up the inspect window only gave me a list of question marks on the item. Vermund walked over and dropped it on the desk before taking up his place once more. ¡°Now then, take this weapon to reveal its power, Calamity. Once you have seen what this is, I will explain what is going to happen.¡± Not being a person that says no to new loot, I did as instructed and lifted the scythe from the desk. I was expecting it to be quite heavy, but to my shock the metal was lighter than wood yet I felt the strength and durability of the weapon easily.
Elrayna¡¯s Pride Divine ¨C scaling Soulbound - indestructible Damage (lvl 11): 54-62 Bonuses (lvl 11): +5 Str +5 Dex Requirements: Polearm Mastery lvl 10 ¡®Reaper¡¯ title Made from Black Mithril, this scythe was forged by Elrayna, Goddess of War herself and gifted to her chosen champion Allistar the Grim Reaper. Only someone blessed by Elrayna may wield this weapon, which will match the power of the one wielding it. Before gifting this item to Allistar, Elrayna engraved several hidden enchantments within the blade and haft, leaving it to the one who could use this item to figure them out on their own.
Now there was a weapon! I stepped back to the middle of the room and twirled the scythe around a few times in practice motions to marvel at the lightness of the massive weapon. Made of solid metal, it should weigh more than would be comfortable to use, but thankfully the game made it work. Grinning from ear to ear, I moved back to the desk and focused on Vermund, looking for an explanation as to why I was receiving such a gift. Granted, I was the only one who could possibly use it at the moment, but nothing is ever free. ¡°As you have most likely figured out, that was once the weapon of Allistar, whom I told you about last time. Lord Tyrith and I have discussed you to great length and have decided to give you his weapon to use. To that end, you are also gaining a new title outside of the typical rank and file of the House. That is why I had to revoke your current rank.¡± He pulled out a folded piece of paper from his desk, sealed in wax with the faction emblem pressed to the red blob. ¡°I cannot grant you this title, only Lord Tyrith is capable of this task. Here, take your new charge and then I will explain what needs to be done.¡± I reached out and took the paper, then watched it vanish to be replaced with a message window.
Congratulations! You have gained a Title within the faction: House Tyrith Your rank: Harbinger of War This is a high-ranking title within House Tyrith that is beholden only to Lord Tyrith himself and Captain Vermund as his second in command. With this rank, you will be able to command every soldier on the field of battle for the faction as well as receiving high end and Unique quests from the Lord of the House. You will also now receive the following bonuses to your character: 1. +5 Str +5 Dex +5 Agi +5 Fort +5 Int +5 Will 2. Upon level up, you will receive: +1 Str +1 Fort 3. Upon level up, you will receive: +1 Skill Point to assign as you wish. Warning! Leaving the faction will remove the first effect bonus from your character, but the level up rewards will stay with you.
Not a bad deal, but I was still feeling like there were strings attached. A powerful Lord didn¡¯t just up and give away a weapon that had to be worth thousands of gold and a title at the top of the ranks for nothing. ¡°Right, what¡¯s the catch? I want to hear the reason that I am getting all of these high end things.¡± Vermund nodded his head and leaned against his desk to speak. ¡°You are right. All of this comes with a stipulation. Word has spread through the city and beyond of your feats thus far, Outlander. The common soldiers all look up to you as an omen of great importance due to the timing of your arrival here. Less than a week after you arrived, you have become worthy to take up a weapon made by a goddess after you yourself have been blessed by her.¡± He paused and motioned to the map in front of him. ¡°War is here. A dragon has woken from his slumber and marches towards our borders with an army and two paladins. I gather and send our troops now to meet the threat at the border before it can do damage to our lands.¡± He gave me a hard, cold eyed stare. ¡°You are the figurehead. The decorative piece that will unite the common soldiers into a cohesive whole. You probably haven¡¯t noticed it yet, but all of the soldiers look at you with respect, and Lord Tyrith and I aren¡¯t people who will let such an advantage go to waste.¡± He straightened up and looked me over once again, my paltry level 11 to his still question marks. ¡°I don¡¯t expect you to be able to actually contribute much to the endeavor, you are still weak for now, but in two weeks we will be meeting the dragon¡¯s army and you will be there.¡±
Quest received! First Contact Captain Vermund has tasked you with the duty of joining in the war against the forces arrayed against House Tyrith. You have just under two weeks from the issuance of this quest to prepare as best as you can for the coming struggle, then you and your party members will be teleported to the command tent for the start of the battle. Time remaining: 324:32:18 Rewards: Experience Warning! This is a mandatory quest and cannot be failed or dropped.
21) Planning and explanations Well, it seemed like I had two weeks to get my shit together and become something that could survive on a massive battlefield. No pressure¡­ I sighed and ran a hand through my hair, thinking over my options on how exactly I was supposed to gain enough levels to be a viable factor in the coming war. A few ideas ran through my mind, some of the events having coincided with my current plans anyway so not all was lost. I had hope yet that some of my other plans would fall in line, and my new scythe gave me the idea that I might have been on the right track at least. For the time being, I was happy that I was at least not kicked out of the faction and actually got a nice promotion to boot. Vermund looked me over critically, his thoughts hidden behind an impassive mask. ¡°You have your orders for House Tyrith. Even if you are currently too weak to truly help out, I know of a few places that might do the trick of increasing your power base.¡± He shuffled around the maps on his desk until he found the one he was searching for. Pulling the paper out of a stack, he extended it towards me. I took it, then watched as it vanished to add on to my map interface as two new markers towards the north closer to the central province. ¡°Take that and don¡¯t let us down. We shall see how dedicated you are in two weeks. Now scram¡­ I have a lot of work to do tonight before I can get any rest.¡± As per his usual routine, the Captain ignored us from then on, looking his maps over as another officer came into the building to speak with the large man. I waved at Archie and Kayla, then headed out of the building with them right on my heels. Once outside, I headed towards the closest tavern. ¡°Well, that went a bit differently than what I was hoping. I think we can work with this turn of events though.¡± I opened up my map and checked the new points that were marked. Both looked to be dungeons of some kind, probably instanced areas that we could level up without any unexpected problems arising. Archie, ever the analyst of our group, looked over the locations and raised a hand as if to adjust his glasses. ¡°Oh we can definitely work with this. Do you know what these are?¡± He glanced between myself and Kayla, then saw we had no idea where he was going with this. ¡°Guys, these are both instances that haven¡¯t been cleared yet¡­ Ever. Did you not read that the first group to clear an instance gets insanely increased rewards? The experience and gear are both boosted for the first clear of a dungeon, and we just got two freebies marked on our maps to take advantage of!¡± That did indeed change things slightly. Now we had to rush to clear these dungeons before anyone watching our streams could find them first. Thankfully the streams were only live feeds, and couldn¡¯t be played back so the markers could be studied. I grinned at my friends and spotted a tavern just ahead, the light and music inside being the most inviting sight I had seen all day. ¡°Alright. We have a little time left tonight to get Aly a drink, then we will get some sleep. I have a few things to do in the morning and then we can get on the road to the first of these dungeons. Archie, see what info you can get on these places so we can prepare properly. Would hate to lose time by failing to clear them.¡± Aly cheered at my mention of getting her a drink, the little lush was really starting to show her true alcoholic nature¡­ I couldn¡¯t really blame her though, the drinks in the game really did taste amazing even if I couldn¡¯t get drunk off of them. ¡°Well, Celeste and I don¡¯t really care for the food and drink here, so I am going to take off first. You guys check your pers-coms when you log out.¡± She gave both Archie and myself a pointed look, not looking away until we each gave her a nod of agreement. ¡°Great. Goodnight Fallon, Aly and Celeste.¡± Not bothering to sit in a chair, Kayla just stood to the side of the door for the thirty second log out period. Archie joined me at a table to get a drink, and we passed the last hour of the night in game chatting about old games and fights in fond remembrance. The talk served to highlight our previous fame for the stream viewers as well as pleasantly pass the time with pleasant conversation and laughs. In short order, we were both tired enough to call it a night and bid goodnight to our Fairies before logging out for the night. Back in the ready room, the glaring white box was really starting to irk me in its blandness. Grumbling to myself, I finally gave in and spent the next twenty minutes playing around with the settings to add in features to the area that made it homelier. A large beanbag chair went into the middle of the floor on top of a tan carpet, the walls changed to a deep blue color and several hanging lights dotted the ceiling. Along one of the side walls I put in a huge window that showed shifting landscapes that changed every thirty seconds. Good enough. With that done, I went over to the log out console and returned fully to the real world. Stretching out my muscles, I walked into the main room of my apartment and yawned before checking my pers-com as Kayla had insisted. A message was waiting for me saying to meet Kayla in her room once I had logged out. I sighed at the prospect of another meeting about what needed to be done in the game so soon, but headed out of my room all the same to knock on Kayla¡¯s door. She opened up almost right away, her irritated expression telling me I was in hot water. ¡°Took you long enough! Get in here¡­¡± She grabbed my arm and practically dragged me into her room, shutting the door behind me. Inside, Archie was already sitting on a chair with a beer in one hand while the other manipulated AR screens. ¡°Have a seat, I got an idea of what we are going to be facing and Archie has been adding in to my research.¡± I raised a brow at her in curiosity. Kayla was never one who willingly did extra background work in the past if she could avoid it. She had always focused on her skills in the games and let others do the rest, and it had worked out well in our previous endeavors. ¡°Okay¡­ I am all ears, fill me in.¡± I did as I was told and sat down in the only other chair, Kayla sitting on her bed and folding her legs under her. Picking up her own beer from the stand by her bed, Kayla took a sip before speaking. ¡°When I logged out, I did some digging and made a few calls. Some of my friends are following the streams and I asked them if they had seen what was going on with the army marching towards us.¡± She chewed on her lip a moment, then dished up the bad news. ¡°They did see what is coming, and it doesn¡¯t look good¡­ An army of five thousand soldiers is on the move, backed up by about four hundred players as well as the dragon himself. That dragon will be the biggest problem, I think. Level 100 divine ranked creature, he has some nasty abilities from what I have been told, though it all falls in line with your typical dragon boss. Breath attack, tail and claw, high defense¡­ The biggest issue though is that it is a Divine being. It can use magic without a Fairy and he seems quite strong at it.¡± That did seem to be a large issue, and not one easily overcome in the long run. Level 100 wasn¡¯t that big of a deal when we had an army of level 50 plus soldiers, but the fact that he could hide behind his own army and rain magic down on our forces was going to suck. I frowned in thought, then looked over at Archie. ¡°What are you estimating our forces will be? I know you have information I don¡¯t, so give it to me.¡± He smirked and adjusted his glasses then tapped an AR window before him. ¡°In the grand scheme of things, the NPC counts will be roughly even between the two armies with our side actually having an advantage in that regard since not every soldier in the enemy province is marching. They have to leave some defenders, after all. I am estimating that a total army of about six thousand will be met by our forces of eight thousand, though we don¡¯t have a dragon to back us up.¡± Draining his beer, Archie looked at me and raised a brow. ¡°You still up to par on your RTS skills? I have never been that great at the application of tactics in them, even if I can break down all of the numbers¡­¡± I grinned at him and nodded. ¡°Yeah, I am sure I can still run the battle well enough with you backing me up. The hard part will be convincing the NPCs that I should be the one actually giving the orders for the battle instead of Vermund¡­¡± I tapped my chin, thinking that problem over but the answer eluded me. ¡°Well, we will cross that bridge when it comes time. We have two weeks to get the details of both armies, then you get to have the fun task of breaking down the figures for me so I can handle deployment. I am thinking we make our way to the battlefield before we are summoned so we can get better information.¡± ¡°Agreed. That would be the best option, maybe get there a full day ahead of time so we can take control of things.¡± Archie nodded, and then looked over at Kayla. ¡°I have an idea for you and me when it comes time for the actual battle. Think you will be up for some guerilla tactics with me during the fight?¡± Kayla grinned wolfishly at him and winked. ¡°Oh, you know I am always up for some hit and run devastation when it comes to large scale battles. Think you will be able to do enough damage in a short period of time to make it effective?¡± Her taunting tone made both Archie and me laugh. Despite the seriousness of the situation, the prospect of a huge battle was actually exciting and all three of us seemed to be looking forward to it. ¡°Alright, shelve that for now. Archie, what do you have on these two dungeons Vermund gave us? Were you able to dig up any information on them at all? We need to farm these locations for everything they are worth in order to level up and be effective in this battle.¡± My friend shook his head at me sadly. ¡°Unfortunately, no. As I mentioned, these are undiscovered dungeons thus far and we have no idea what we will be running into. I can guess some based on the locations, but that is all it would be and I have no confidence that it would be accurate so I would prefer to withhold my judgement on it.¡± He sighed and flipped through a few AR windows, looking at some information. ¡°The game is still just too new. I found three groups who have managed to find and clear a single dungeon each, and they are rather interesting. The instances are variable in level, the mobs conforming to the average group level for the difficulty of the dungeon with the weakest mobs being the players level and then increasing as they go deeper.¡± I nodded, making a mental note of that fact then asked a question that would possibly make or break my ideas. ¡°How much experience did these groups get from the first clear, and what were the group comps?¡± The composition of the groups was going to be interesting to me. This was unlike any other game I had played, the Fairy system making it so that every role could be filled with half the number of people. Strategizing had become so much harder when you couldn¡¯t judge a player by what his equipment was¡­ ¡°Comps all looked standard, a tank, at least one Celestial Fairy, some DPS back up. Typical format so far, nothing is standing out to me. I did notice that no fewer than four players went into a dungeon with one group fielding ten players in the instance, so I am not seeing a high-end limit. I am seeing that the more players you bring, the harder the dungeon becomes. In theory, every dungeon could be a full raid if enough people group up for it I think.¡± I watched him pull up another AR screen, his fingers working the window to find what he was looking for. ¡°As for rewards, the first clear groups each gained about three levels but failed to deal with the extra rewards boss after the final boss that counted towards the full clear. This last mob is a lot stronger than the final boss, and is supposed to give a ton of experience by itself as well as some extra goodies.¡± He flicked his finger over two windows, sending the screens to my own pers-com for me to view myself. I checked over the info quickly, trusting Archie¡¯s analysis of the fights and merely checking out the format of the instances. Of the three, there wasn¡¯t a repeat of setting making all of them different in terms of design and mob style. The AI in the game probably made dozens of these dungeons, all of them unique in their own way so the experience would never become too repetitive to players. The average clear time was only an hour or so, but the groups had all noted that the instance could be reset after a clear in order to dive right back into it. That would make farming the places easy in that case, and I had to give a mental tip of my hat to the AI for that feature. Instance leveling was always a good option to have in a game, even if it wasn¡¯t as fun as PvP in my opinion. Kayla spoke up as I was reading, her voice sounding eager and excited. ¡°Also, I would like to add that the full clear groups were going fairly slow. I was reading over the info while waiting for you Dale, and I saw that those who cleared them faster all got more rewards than the groups that went slower. I think the game is rewarding those players who complete the instance quickly in little ways. Nothing too extreme, but if you compare the total rewards per player in each group, you can see that the faster runs got slightly better results.¡± This was apparently news to Archie, as he frowned and quickly got to work with his AR displays. ¡°Wait, are you serious? How did I miss that?¡± He shook his head as he read, a sigh escaping him as he confirmed Kayla¡¯s words. ¡°She is right. Minor, but the experience is higher for the groups that had faster clear times. Nice touch.¡± He smiled, then hid a yawn behind a hand. ¡°Well, I am done in for today. My armor will be done in the morning, as will Dale¡¯s, so I am going to bed now.¡± I rose from my chair with him and nodded in agreement. ¡°Yeah, time to turn in for today. Let¡¯s meet up in the morning at eight to get started. I have one more place I want to go while we are in the area, then we can head to the first dungeon to get to work.¡± We all said our goodnights and then Archie and I went to our own rooms to get some rest. There was a lot of work ahead of us with the end result still being up in the air. This battle could swing either way, and a lot depended on how much we could get done in the two week time frame. * * * * * Eight AM found myself and my friends back in the game and making stops all over town as we collected up our ordered gear. Archie got a new set of leathers similar to my old Grotto Guardian set but with better armor rating, while I got my new chainmail that gave me double the armor with a couple extra stat points to boot. Kayla didn¡¯t get any new armor, hers being better than what this city had to offer, but all of us stocked up on potions while we were at it. The old alchemist also had my legendary quality elixir identified.
Potent Elixir of AdvancementIf you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. This vial of highly rare liquid, when consumed, will allow the imbiber to learn from their experiences to a much greater degree for a limited time. The effects are limited but powerful, and may only be used once every 7 days. Effect: Double all exp gains Duration: 4 hours Cooldown: 168 hours
That was a damn nice vial, but I had to time its use properly or it would go to waste. Perhaps during one of our dungeon runs in the coming couple days, but that would cause a bit of a discrepancy between my level and that of Archie and Kayla, so would probably be a bad idea¡­ Oh well, the elixir wasn¡¯t going anywhere, so I had time to figure out the best chance to use it. As soon as our shopping and pick up trip was finished, I lead the way out of Tyrith city and off to the west into the woods with my friends and their Fairies following along. The wolves still tried to gnaw our faces off, despite being out leveled by a long shot. I even let one latch onto my arm to test out my new armor, the damage I received being the absolute minimum of one point to my HP. In opposition to that, the animal died with one hit from any of us which was expected at this level. Our travel path lead farther into the woods, heading to a location I had only been to once so far but remembered quite well. It only took a half hour of hiking, but I grinned as we came upon a jut of rock sticking up from the ground, a dark opening descending down into the ground. ¡°Alright guys, we are here. Come on down and check this place out, it is awesome!¡± Aly grinned and settled down on my shoulder as I carefully walked down the narrow path into the cave. She knew my plans without me having to say anything, as she knew exactly where we were. ¡°Oh, so pretty!¡± Kayla exclaimed as soon as we entered the tunnel lit by the fluorescent bulbs lining the walls and ceiling. Everything looked exactly as it had on my first visit, the bend in the tunnel just ahead veering off to the right which would lead to the Grotto of Tranquility. ¡°I know, right? This place is awesome. Come on, go ahead of me so you can get the full experience. Keep on down this path and there will be an opening into a cavern ahead. You guys are going to love this.¡± I stepped as close to the wall as I could and let them pass, an evil grin on my face as soon as they were beyond me and couldn¡¯t see. I followed behind them down the tunnel where the pair froze in the opening to the Grotto itself, blocking the mouth of the tunnel. ¡°Alright guys, have fun!¡± I placed a hand on each of their backs right between their shoulders and shoved them forward, then stepped back to clear the entrance. Their exclamations of surprise were drowned out by the grating of the stone slab settling into place, locking them in and me out to my amusement. After the grinding and thud of the door sealing faded away, I heard both of them yelling through the stone as well as a few impacts as if they were beating on the door. Silence fell suddenly, then a single high pitched scream pierced through the stone. The sounds of a short battle were heard between fits of laughter from me, and even some from inside, until the noise faded and the door slid upwards once again. Inside of the large cavern I saw Kayla laughing hard still, holding her sides with tears streaming down her face with her mirth. Curled up into a ball against the wall near the door was Archie, the source of the scream. For as long as I have known him, Archie had always been deathly afraid of snakes and this was an opportunity I couldn¡¯t have passed up for a million dollars. Kayla walked up to me and punched my arm lightly, her shoulders still shaking slightly with laughter. ¡°That was epic. How did you know the snake was going to be here?¡± She continued past me, reaching down and forcibly standing him up on his feet. His face was pale, eyes wide as he franticly looked around in search of the source of his terror. Seeing that the snake was gone, his eyes found me instead and his face twisted into a look of anger. Three deceptively swift strides, and suddenly my jaw was aching from the blur of his right hook that I knew was going to be coming but considered a worthy price to pay. ¡°You son of a bitch¡­ You knew that thing was in here and you shoved me into this hell hole anyway!¡± His face was flushed now, but seeing his Fairy laughing hard right alongside the still laughing Celeste made him go even brighter red. I held up my hands in surrender, grin still locked in place. ¡°Yes, I knew that it was in here. Consider it payback from that time in Steel and Sorcery when you locked me in that creepy ass maze full of zombie clowns.¡± That made Archie pause, his thoughts going back to that moment as a grin split his own face. ¡°Okay, fair point. We are even.¡± He brushed his clothes off from non-existent dust and turned towards the pool of water set below the trickle of the waterfall coming down from the opening near the ceiling. ¡°So, why are we here anyway? Was it just so you can scar me for life with a giant snake?¡± He knelt down at the edge of the water and looked over the rippling surface. ¡°Sure, it is nice here¡­ But I am not seeing the¡­¡± he trailed off as his eyes caught the small forms emerging from the walls of the cavern. I merely grinned at him as Aly flew up off my shoulder and darted towards one of the little caves dotting the walls. She dived into one, a squawk of surprise announcing the presence of Sarah still within. Both Fairies emerged from the cubby hole a moment later, the elderly Fairy Matriarch straightening her hair and clothes in a manner that said she was flustered by the sudden attack of affection from Aly. I turned back to Archie and grinned at him. ¡°This is why I brought us here. Zexceed, Serena, meet Sarah. She is the one who is in charge of this Grotto and all of the Fairies here.¡± Both Fallon and Celeste flew up and offered a respectful greeting to the old Fairy, Aly still clinging to Sarah¡¯s arm like a child. For her part, Sarah seemed to accept the situation despite getting a rude wakeup call from my Fairy. ¡°Greetings and welcome, friends of Calamity. Be at ease here and thank you for taking care of that creature for us again. We have come to enjoy not having that thing around since Calamity got rid of it the first time, and it just came back again yesterday.¡± Kayla and Archie both came over and greeted the elderly Fairy, their expressions slack as if they couldn¡¯t believe there were this many wild Fairies all about them. I chuckled at the both of them, enjoying their shock before I turned back to Sarah and smiled at her. ¡°It is nice to see you again Sarah. I am glad I could have these two help you out in removing another of those snakes from this beautiful Grotto once more.¡± The skin about her eyes crinkled up as she grinned at me. ¡°Oh, the lady was marvelous in her efforts. The young man, however¡­ Well, he tried his best I suppose.¡± She winked at Archie who flushed bright red once more, causing Sarah and the rest of us to laugh once more at his expense. ¡°No, seriously. I am grateful to the both of you all the same.¡± She turned back to me and motioned me to follow her as she floated towards the water. ¡°Not that I am complaining, but what brings you back here Calamity? I am glad to see you and Aly again, but I sense something different about you.¡± My shoulders rose and fell in a shrug as I thought about how to phrase my thoughts. ¡°Honestly, Sarah, I am here for advice and answers.¡± I pulled my scythe from my back slowly, holding it before me so the Matriarch could examine it. ¡°I have stumbled upon a strange situation, and have learned about the history of the Fairies as a whole race. I was wondering if you would be able to assist or advise me about a couple things. It appears that Elrayna has set her sights on me and is interfering in my life on this world. I was hoping that as a Matriarch you would have some way of contacting the gods so that I might be able to talk with the Goddess of War myself.¡± I paused with a sigh, returning the weapon to my back before speaking again. ¡°The dragon Ashkerdantus is leading an army towards this province in a hunt for Aly, and I fear I might be low on options as to how to deal with this threat.¡± Sarah looked back to where Aly and the other Fairies were all surrounding Archie and Kayla, clamoring for attention and all speaking over each other in general enjoyment. She smiled and folded her hands over her stomach, watching them with a look of happiness which slowly faded as the implications of what was coming sank in. ¡°I see¡­ That is indeed a problem. On a lighter note, I am glad that you have shown interest in my kind and have learned some of our history. Not many humans, Outlanders or native, care to delve into the past to learn more.¡± She raised a hand to her chin, thinking over something it seemed before coming to a decision and turning away. ¡°Follow me Calamity.¡± The Matriarch floated away from me, heading towards the wall to the right of the waterfall. Set into the wall there was a cave opening slightly larger than the ones the Fairies hid in when the snake boss was around. Inside of the hole was a stone filling most of the space with a strange symbol carved into it. Almost like a Celtic knot, the pattern twisted and turned on itself several times to create an artistic design that was pleasing to the eye. Curious as to what this was, I looked at Sarah and raised a brow in silent question. ¡°This is the alter to the gods. We normally don¡¯t have any direct contact with the Divine anymore, but on the few occasions that it has arisen this is the place we have done it.¡± She gestured towards the opening with the stone nestled within. ¡°All you need to do is reach in and touch the symbol and if the gods are listening, you will be in contact with them.¡± It was that easy? Simply find a stone with a pretty shape carved into it and then a person could speak to the gods of this world? Looking at the alter skeptically, I raised a hand and extended it into the opening to place one finger against the design. Nothing happened for a moment, and I was just about to turn back to Sarah and call her senile when the world around me flashed bright suddenly, forcing my eyes to close against the harsh glare. The light faded quickly, allowing me to see once more, but what I saw wasn¡¯t the Grotto¡­ I was now standing in a different cavern, the walls all decorated with weapons and armor of exquisite craftsmanship and design, made of metal I had never seen before. No, that wasn¡¯t true¡­ It was the same metal my scythe was made out of! I whipped my head around to look behind me and found the gaze of an amazingly beautiful woman a mere pace away from me. Taller than me by a good three inches and built like a warrior, she still retained all of the feminine looks and curves that the armor she wore looked like it accentuated in all of the right ways. How that was possible, I had no idea¡­ Armor was supposed to be bulky and ugly, not shaped to fit a sensuous body like a party dress. Dragging my gaze upwards and away from that pulse-pounding body, I got caught once more by a face that put every other one I had ever seen to shame. Heart shaped with bright silver eyes, flame red hair cascading down to frame her alabaster cheeks and ruby red lips that seemed to put fantasies directly into my brain about what I wanted to do with this woman. ¡°Hmmm¡­ I always do appreciate a good admiration or two, but perhaps you might wish to actually speak with me instead of just staring at me with those lust filled eyes?¡± The voice was light and sultry, but contained a power to it that snapped me out of my daydreaming and back to where I was standing. She sounded like she meant the comment about liking my looking at her like that in other circumstances, but I had to shake those thoughts from my head before I wandered back into helpless drooling zombie mode again. ¡°Ah, yes. Sorry, got distracted¡­¡± Score some more lame points for me as my brain tried to reboot itself after the shock of seeing this woman out of nowhere. Wait, I was in the Grotto of Tranquility a moment ago touching the¡­ Oh shit. ¡°You¡­ You are Elrayna, aren¡¯t you?¡± I gulped, further raising my idiot score with my slow wits. The goddess merely laughed softly, the sound beyond pleasant to my ears as those lush lips curled into a bright smile. ¡°Indeed I am. Goddess of War, among other titles that have been attributed to me over the millennia. And you are Calamity, Soul Reaper and wielder of Elryana¡¯s Pride, favored of the gods and blessed by my hand personally. Glad to see that introductions are over¡­¡± She folded her arms under her breasts, which caused another short lapse of my thinking power until I forced my eyes back up to her own again. I had to concentrate hard to keep my thoughts on the task at hand, and it was a hard task in all honesty. ¡°Uhmm¡­ Thank you for speaking with me, Elrayna. I am here to ask your advice on the war that is coming against me. You have blessed me and apparently chosen to support me for some reason, and I fear I may be overwhelmed by the situation I am finding myself in.¡± I trailed off, not sure exactly how to go about asking for her aid without sounding like a child running to his mother to stop a bully¡­ Elrayna seemed to pick up on my hesitation though, and shifted her weight from one foot to the other as she contemplated my words. ¡°Yes, I have watched over the world of Grendor for a long time and have only ever found a couple people worthy of my direct attention. Your predecessor was one of those people, and you are very similar to him in many ways. Strong, driven, proud and not given to letting anything sway you from your chosen course of action. If you are feeling like the world is overwhelming to you, then maybe you need to step back from the problem and reassess the situation. I did not guide events the way I did just for you to drown in sorrow, and if this little trouble breaks your will then maybe I chose wrong in selecting you for the test to become my Paladin¡­¡± Her words made me pause again, my mind racing to analyze her meanings until I was a confused mess. I really wished Archie was here with me, as he would be able to understand all of the intricacies of her words without any effort. As I thought about it though, a kind of understanding dawned on me and I raised a brow at her. ¡°Are you saying that this whole thing of a dragon coming after my Fairy is a mere test you organized?¡± Those ruby lips frowned slightly as she waved a hand through the air. ¡°Not entirely¡­ I am not the only Divine being watching over the world at the moment. My brother has decided to give a trial to a pair of Outlanders for them to become his Paladins, I merely directed his plans to coincide with my own to see if you are worthy of serving me. The war was coming one way or another, but I admit I did have a hand in directing it at you.¡± Great¡­ I had the gods of this game setting me up to get my ass kicked unless I stepped up my game in a big way. On a side note, holy shit were these AI amazing. I could see the hands of multiple AI running things and making the entire game much more entertaining than if only one program had control over everything. I drew my thoughts back on topic, and raised a brow at the goddess standing before me. ¡°So, you mean to tell me that having a dragon backing them up is supposed to be a fair test to see if I am capable? Two Outlanders and a fucking dragon, against me? You either have damn high standards or I have yet to find the balancing act in this game of yours¡­¡± I was graced once more with the sound of her laughter, but a sudden blur brought pain to my face as if I was hit by a truck. My HP fell all the way down to 10% with just that one hit, and fuck it hurt like hell! ¡°While I appreciate your honesty, you will show me the proper respect. Consider that a warning.¡± Her arm returned to its previous position as she regarded me with those silver eyes. ¡°As to the balance of the ploy, you have everything you need to make this a fair fight¡­¡± She raised a hand, a single finger extended to silence me before I could say anything. ¡°But, I can see your point. Things are a little skewed against you.¡± She tilted her head slightly in thought, then smiled lasciviously. ¡°Tell you what¡­ You will be gaining strength rapidly over the course of the next couple weeks. Think long and hard over what kind of Fairy partner you want before the battle and when you can handle a second Contract. Your enemies have both received a Divine ranked partner, so I will do them one up. I will create you a Fairy to help you with whatever power you desire to even the odds. A Fairy created by the gods directly are rather powerful, and your opposition has two of them as my brother has meddled far too deeply into the affairs of this world.¡± Her smile turned into a wolfish grin as a fire seemed to burn behind her eyes. ¡°He has stepped too far out of line this time, and it falls upon me to ensure the little bastard learns his place once and for all.¡± Ah, that explained it. The AI was making this into a proxy war between two gods of the game world and I was now a prime pawn in the battle to come. Well, at least the game was entertaining beyond all of my expectations! I was thinking it was going to be a basic and common story line that would be mildly entertaining and I would get all of my enjoyment out of the PvP aspect of the game at later levels. This storyline was rapidly becoming my favorite part of the game, and there were still several other gods in the world beyond the Elrayna and her brother so other people would get a chance to experience something similar. I gave the Goddess of War an equally wolfish grin as I rubbed at my sore cheek still. ¡°You have yourself a deal. I will think of the best option to suit my abilities and will let you know before the battle ahead of me. I would also suggest you take a look at my two friends who are traveling with me. They are both strong warriors as well, in their own way, and can assist you greatly if you are looking for more disciples.¡± Her eyes unfocused for a moment, then blinked as she looked me over once more. ¡°It seems you are full of surprises my little Reaper. Do well on this task, succeed where many have failed, and I will consider bringing them into the fold as well. For the time being, I will keep a close eye on them as well as you and see what comes of the trials you have before you.¡± Her gaze hardened, boring into me with a power that made me feel like I was drowning. ¡°Do not let me down, Outlander. You will not enjoy my displeasure should you fail too miserably at your challenge that I have personally arranged for you.¡± With the last of her words echoing in my ears, a flash of light blinded me once more. Shaking my head to clear the spots from my vision, I noticed I was once more standing in the Grotto, hand still touching the alter in the wall. Sarah was in the same spot, and the others were all where I had last seen them too. The Matriarch seemed to know what happened though, and she reached out a hand to pat my shoulder. ¡°Welcome back. Don¡¯t worry, you didn¡¯t actually vanish. You just looked like you were staring off into space for a short time.¡± She winked and then floated off to join the others while I contemplated all I had learned, my health still flashing in the red zone from the slap delivered by a goddess¡­ 22) Forest Dungeon - part one Archie was laughing at me almost as hard as we had previously been at him, his mirth the result of my explanation of how my HP had plummeted suddenly. ¡°So you were bitch slapped by a goddess for your flippant tongue? Damn I wish I had seen that! Do you have any idea how many times I have been tempted to do that with you in the past?¡± We had left the Grotto and started the journey to the first dungeon after having said out good-byes to the Fairies living in the cavern, and I had explained what had happened then. Even Kayla was amused by what had happened, her small giggles drawing my attention towards her, where she forced herself under control and raised an eyebrow at me. ¡°What? Your charm wasn¡¯t effective against some digital code? Shocking¡­¡± She broke down into another fit of laughter, even the Fairies floating above us laughing at my sorry state of affairs. ¡°Yeah, yeah¡­ Laugh it up while you can. Just remember who is going to be controlling the armies when the time comes.¡± I grinned and turned a dark look to each of them in turn. ¡°I might accidently get you confused for the enemy and make you both targets. Oops. Mistakes happen, sorry in advance.¡± My threats had no effect on the pair, they probably knew I was joking and would never make the mistake of friendly fire in a game, but it was worth a shot. The mirth slowly died down, and Archie turned towards me with a thoughtful expression. ¡°On a more serious note, I think the meeting went rather well actually. You got information from one of the gods of the world and are even in a position to reap some damn nice rewards from Elrayna. Knowing you, I am sure you have already figured out what the best choice of your second Fairy is going to be, but keep it to yourself while in the game for now. No need to let the stream viewers in on what you will get.¡± I nodded at him, my thoughts running exactly along those lines. ¡°Yeah, pretty much. Although, it might be some time before we make the level requirement for the second Fairy. We will have to see where we get in this dungeon before I start counting my eggs.¡± ¡°You have a point, but I am still jealous of you two¡­¡± Kayla frowned at both Archie and myself, and I even caught a small hint of maybe anger in her gaze. ¡°You both have Unique Fairies, and Calamity is set to get a second one as soon as he hits level 25, while all I have is a Rare quality Contract.¡± It seemed she was still a little bitter about that subject. I was about to make a comment, but Archie beat me to it and brought up a highly valid point. ¡°Ahhh, but you see, even if Celeste is only a Rare Fairy, she compliments your style perfectly. If we were to stop and duel right here and now, you could easily defeat myself or Calamity simply by outlasting us with your armor and healing. Add to that your gear is of Epic quality, and you have a leg up on us in that department as well.¡± Kayla seemed to take that in for a moment then nodded her head, mollified for the moment with Archie¡¯s argument. ¡°You have me there I suppose. It is nice to know that I could beat Calamity here, even if I can kick Zex¡¯s ass any day of the week without trying.¡± She flashed my friend a wolfish grin at the jab, to which he merely held up his hands and bowed his head in acceptance of her words. Archie always knew how to pick his battles¡­ The rest of our journey took a good three hours of traveling by foot, and we decided to call a break when the map marker indicated we were nearly at the location. The icon on my UI would be popping up soon to alert me of the five-hour mark, and the dungeon run itself would be best done when fresh from a break anyway. We didn¡¯t make any plans for the time during our log out, all of us were eager to dive into our first instance of the game and score some nice loot and experience. That was the best part of playing an RPG game after all. Forty minutes later found us all logged back in and standing before a solid wall of trees and impassible brush of a huge section of forest. There was one way into the location, a gap between two trees that was conspicuously clear of flora and had a shimmering rainbow colored barrier stretching between the two trunks. I saw no indication of any other alert that this was the place, no glaring location sign alerting players to ¡®beware of man-eating creatures¡¯ or the like. In fact, the location seemed to be part of the natural landscape for the most part with the only difference being the barrier shining dully before us. ¡°Well, this seems to be the place¡­¡± Archie shifted his weight between his feet, anxious now that the time was upon us. Without looking away from the portal, he spoke up again. ¡°By all means, ladies first¡­¡± Kayla turned to me and raised a brow as if to say ¡®did he really just say that?¡¯ I merely shrugged at her and smirked. ¡°He is just jealous that both of us are prettier than he is.¡± That earned me a small laugh from the plate wearing woman before she stepped forward and passed through the entrance to the instance. I moved to follow her, calling back over my shoulder to add a second barb to my taunt. ¡°Come on Princess, we will protect you.¡± Grumbling under his breath, Archie moved to follow and we both stepped between the trees behind Kayla. The transition between open game world and instanced dungeon was fairly seamless, there weren¡¯t any bright flashes of light or loading screens ¨C thank God ¨C and we were just suddenly standing on the other side of the portal with a message prompt appearing before us.
Congratulations! You have found an unexplored instance! Rewards for being the first players to clear this dungeon have been improved until the final boss has been killed or the instance is reset. Should you die while in the instance, you will be respawned at the entrance after half the appropriate amount of time. Good luck!
Yup. Definitely the right place. Looked like Vermund¡¯s information was accurate and we would be able to get some level grinding in finally. I dismissed the message, then took a look around at what we were dealing with. The scenery kept up with the dense forest motif with thick trees all around, colorful flowers and various vines everywhere. I couldn¡¯t see any mobs, but we had just stepped into the area so that wasn¡¯t unexpected. Sounds of local wildlife filled the air with the calls of birds and the rustle of brush and leaves in the distance, and everything was tinted in a light green color of the sunlight filtering down through the leaves high above. ¡°I swear to God if we run into spiders I am leaving you both to die horrible deaths¡­¡± I raised a brow at Kayla, who had made the comment, and smiled. Where Archie was deathly afraid of snakes, our female friend was terrified of arachnids in all forms even in games. ¡°Zex, buff us up with that armor enchantment and let¡¯s get started.¡± ¡°Right-o, one armor buff coming right up!¡± He flicked a hand towards Kayla and myself, applying said buff for another twenty armor points. Every bit helped in the end. ¡°Okay, after you my brave and fearless tank.¡± With his task complete, Archie activated his Wrap in Night ability and faded from view, appearing as a blob of darkness in the shadows of a tree. Kayla scoffed, shaking her head as she readied her sword and shield. ¡°Coward. How the hell did you make it anywhere in this game without me?¡± Her smile gave away the teasing taunt for what it was, and then she started forward. I got my scythe out and ready as well, following the armored woman while my eyes looked about. ¡°Now, now children¡­ Don¡¯t make me put you both in time out.¡± The familiar and playful banter was part and parcel of our history as gamers. Even when faced off against each other, we had always kept the friendly nature of our friendship open to public ears. It was in part what made us three ¨C or four if you included Alex ¨C so popular on the pro gaming scene several years ago. Our dialogue was aired right alongside of our actual game play footage at competitions and the viewers loved it. A chorus of, ¡°Yes dad,¡± came from the two, followed by a short bit of laughter by all of us as we walked deeper into the dense landscape. We were following a trail through the trees, wider than an animal path but not so wide as to be called a true road, it allowed two people to walk side by side without any troubles. Despite all of his teasing and banter, Archie had fallen into his role as our stealther and worked his way ahead of us to scout out what was to come and after a minute of walking a ping sounded on my mini map. ¡°Alright folks, first pack of mobs sighted. Just around the next bend the trail widens into a clearing. Our enemy of the day is, drumroll please¡­¡± He paused, and I could imagine the smirk on his face as he made us wait for the announcement. ¡°Bandits! How boring¡­¡± His disappointed tone was evidence enough that he wasn¡¯t joking, and soon enough Kayla and I had joined him at the edge of the clearing to see he was right. I used my inspect skill to check their info, and sure enough there were six humans sitting around a campfire. Each mob was between level 11 and 13 with simple names of Bandit. ¡°Well, that is a bit anticlimactic¡­¡± I said as I crouched down to study the layout. Behind the group of people were three two man tents, each bandit dressed in leather armor with swords. Two of them had shields to go with the stabby weapons while two others had quivers of arrows visible sticking up over their shoulders. ¡°Oh well, guess it is just our luck to find the most boring instance in the game. Looks like a typical mob pack, two ranged, two tanks and two melee DPS. The three of us should be able to handle them just like the PvP group.¡± Archie nodded his head, his stealth skill having faded while we studied the group, but Kayla frowned. ¡°Hang on¡­ Something seems off here. I can¡¯t quite put my finger on it, but I am getting the feeling that it isn¡¯t as straight forward as you are making it out to be.¡± Now it was my turn to frown as I looked closely at the men sitting ahead of us. Nothing was standing out to me, but that didn¡¯t mean she was wrong about her hunch. ¡°I am not seeing anything. Unless you want to suggest another plan, we should move and get this started. The clock is ticking and we need to clear this fast for the extra rewards.¡± Chewing on her lower lip in contemplation, Kayla shook her head and sighed. ¡°You are right. I still think there is something wrong, but we need to keep moving. Zex, stealth up and head in then I will do my thing and charge and Calamity can use his cheater ability to dive the back line with you.¡± ¡°Hey now! It is a legitimate ability!¡± I glared at her, the sound of Archie¡¯s laughter fading as he did his thing to get ready. As soon as he had left, I marked up all of the enemies with raid icons to make our work go faster. ¡°Zex you have square, I will take the circle. Once they are down we move on to skull and X and finally the last two. Simple encounter, let¡¯s not screw it up.¡± I got affirmative noises from both of my party members, our Fairies floating up into the air to stay out of the way during the combat. As soon as Archie pinged the mini map, Kayla dashed forward with her weapons at the ready. All of the bandits saw her immediately, the noise of her armor combined with the flashes of light reflecting off the steel plates pointing her out even if her shouted battle cry didn¡¯t. A mad scramble ensued as the bandits all rose and drew weapons to meet the woman¡¯s charge with shouts of their own to coincide with the clang of steel on shield. Triggering Temporal Step, I ran ahead and managed to cross the distance in time before my spell wore off and the world returned to normal. The two archer bandits shouted in surprise as I seemed to appear from nowhere before them, their bows twisting to aim at me as the highest threat. Archie dropped his stealth ability right before his target could fire, a fist crashing into a kidney to cause the arrow to fly wildly off to the side. My marked target had no distraction to prevent his shot, and he promptly loosed his arrow at me with a vicious smile. The look changed to terror a moment later when I ignored the arrow, taking the hit to my shoulder and losing 5% of my HP from the shot and ignoring the pain. Then it was my turn to give a wicked grin as I planted my leading foot and pivoted around, my scythe twirling around to deliver a swing backed by the full power of my shifting momentum as well as the strength of my charge. A solid 40% of his HP drained away instantly as the blade of my weapon slashed over his neck for a crit, my body continuing the spin to keep the momentum of my attack up. Reeling from my initial attack, the bandit stumbled backwards a little until the flowing pattern of my attacks sent the mob sprawling to the ground with only a sliver of health left after a couple more blows. Archie whistled casually as he came up and kicked the fallen bandit in the head, finishing the thing off and giving me a grin. ¡°Hurry up man! You are too slow.¡± He chuckled and dashed past me, heading towards our next target that was currently engaged with Kayla. Her life was flickering back and forth as she took damage then healed up again, her foes having some of their health bars whittled away while she mainly focused on defending to buy more time.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. It was then that things started to get a bit hairy, literally¡­ Seeing that their two comrades were already out of the fight, skull and X both dropped their weapons and emitted a deep growl that echoed out from deep in their chests. With a sudden flexing motion of their shoulders, both of them seemed to explode as their armor fell off, the ties seeming designed for just such a tactic. The pair¡¯s bodies shifted and grew, quickly standing easily at seven feet tall and covered in thick dark fur with wolf-like heads and sharp wicked looking claws on their hands. Son of a bitch¡­ They were werewolves! With a savage roar, both of the once melee DPS bandits crouched down to leap at Archie and myself, but were stopped in place as Kayla slammed her sword against her shield to use her AOE stun ability. Spinning a quick circle, her sword flicked out and hamstrung both of the wolf creatures in quick succession before she settled back into a full defensive position once more. The slowed debuff showed next to the health bars above the wolves¡¯ heads, but it looked like they didn¡¯t take a lot of damage from the strike. The stun duration lasted just long enough for myself and Archie to close in with our next target, each of us getting in one solid blow a piece to the creature before it began to move again. The effectiveness of our strikes wasn¡¯t nearly as good as I had hoped, the creature sitting at 75% HP after the pair of strikes. Archie and I had each done about 10% damage with our attacks, Kayla having done 5% with her own, and the wolf looked to be more pissed than injured now. Moving with surprising speed, skull flung out an arm and raked his claws down Archie¡¯s chest to strip him of 15% of his HP with the casual strike. Damn, these things looked like no joke! Grimacing at the sudden turn in the situation, I activated True Haste to give myself some extra maneuver time and spun my scythe around me in a continuous motion, every pass striking the werewolf and whittling away more and more of its health. For his part, Archie seemed to recover quickly and dived into a roll to get behind the beast and unload his punches at the exposed back. Our attacks didn¡¯t go unanswered though, the creature fighting back with frightening speed that matched Archie to deal a good chunk of damage to myself with those sharp claws. My armor negated a good portion of the damage I received, and my lifesteal further helped in that department, but even still I was sitting at 70% HP by the time our combined assault dropped the first of the transformed bandits. The second werewolf was focused on Kayla after her stun and attack, and her own HP was suffering from the constant stream of incoming damage that her heals couldn¡¯t keep up with. With a shared grin and nod to each other, Archie and I turned out attention and attacks onto werewolf X. Less than ten seconds later, we dropped the second fuzzy beast and turned towards the remaining two just in time to see them transform as well! Their health recovered completely as soon as they took werewolf form, the aggro tables apparently zeroing out as well seeing as they turned their attentions to Archie and myself and ignored Kayla. Our tank was having none of that though, and despite having her health floating around the 50% mark she flashed her sword out to strike one then the other to draw their attention back to her. ¡°Get circle first, my mana is almost out!¡± I watched as a golden slow surrounded her once more, increasing her life up to 80% as her mana looked to be almost totally empty. We were now running on a time crunch, and I dove forward to drive the blade of my scythe deep into the targeted werewolf¡¯s side for a crit! Archie had followed right along behind me and laid into the wolf from the other side, his fists making audible thuds as he rapidly punched at the beast¡¯s ribcage with unrestrained violence. Kayla abandoned her defensive stance, instead lashing out with her blade to add into the massive amount of damage being rained down on werewolf circle. The beast spun in place as we each drew aggro in turn, the next strike pounding into the creature before it could attack again. All praise the game mechanics that made a mob focus on the highest threat! As soon as circle fell to our combined assault, the final beast was easy pickings and it too fell rather quickly. The whole fight had taken just under a minute, but in that time we had each taken a hit to our bars in varying degrees and were panting with the adrenaline coursing through our bodies. Even after dozens of battles, the sheer realistic nature of combat within the game continued to draw out my baser instincts to make me sink into a frenzied state of survival. Only after I saw that no enemies were left standing did I relax finally and lower my weapon to catch my breath. ¡°The shoes!¡± Kayla exclaimed. ¡°The bandits weren¡¯t wearing any boots or shoes of any kind. That¡¯s what had me suspicious. Boots are one of the few things that can¡¯t really be designed to fall apart easily when they shifted forms.¡± Now that combat was over, our health, mana and energy bars all refilled steadily as we looked around at the corpses fading away. Their loot would already be in our inventories thanks to my skill, and that only left us with the job of gathering our breath and moving on. As I thought back on how the camp looked before the battle, I realized she was right and they hadn¡¯t been wearing anything on their feet. ¡°Well shit¡­ Now we know what we are up against at least.¡± I grinned at my friends before turning towards the path that lead deeper into the woods. ¡°On the bright side, this just became an interesting instance and not quite so clich¨¦! Let¡¯s keep going and get this cleared as quick as possible.¡± The loot we got was mediocre at best, the gear the bandits were using not being of great quality. What had me curious above all else was the lack of experience added to my total and instead now showing a number beside it in parenthesis. When I brought this to the attention of the others, it was Archie who had the answer as usual. ¡°That is how the instances work in this game. All of the experience you gain in a dungeon is tallied up separately until you either die or complete the instance and then you get it all at once with modifying bonuses based on the circumstances.¡± That was an interesting take on the dungeon idea for DT. I saw how it could work in our benefit if we didn¡¯t die during the entire dungeon and killed the final boss to claim the upgraded rewards. It also made it easier on the servers since the mobs adjust their levels to accommodate the players in an instance. Accepting things as they were, we moved on from the first clearing in search of the next fight. A few hundred yards of tightly packed woods on either side of the path and we found the second clearing. This one contained another group of bare foot bandits, only there were seven total in this pack. With just the three of us, we had to start planning our fights out better now that we knew what they really were. All seven mobs were level 12, which was a plus, and the group comp was similar to the first with the addition of another dual dagger wielding man. I surveyed the group, my thoughts turning over how to best deal with the threat of their transforming abilities. An idea hit me, and I grinned as I passed it along to my party members. In short order, we were ready to go. Archie faded away and got into position and we began the fight almost exactly like the first one. I held back on my Temporal Step skill, keeping the free movement in reserve should anything bad happen and just charged in right behind my plate wearing friend. The din of combat quickly filled the air with its harsh sounds as I focused my damage evenly between the three melee DPS units beating on Kayla. Staying so close to the woman during the fight I noticed she kept up a steady stream of curses and insults at the mobs, drawing on their anger to retain their aggro as I steadily stripped away their health. I caught a few hits here and there, but my lifesteal was more than enough to compensate for the damage I received and I remained above 90% health for the first part of the fight. ¡°Incoming! On my mark Serena.¡± Archie dived past me, tumbling through a roll to avoid the flailing weapons and limbs and leading his two archer buddies in close to me. In his fists he clutched two dozen arrows, the ammunition from the archers to make them abandon a ranged position. Everything was going to plan so far. My enemies were all between 20% and 30% HP, and if Archie was coming over with his, they were low too. ¡°Now!¡± On cue, Kayla slammed her sword against her shield to stun all of the bandits. As soon as Archie had spoken, I started my part of the plan. Setting my grip on the scythe, I angled the blade parallel to the ground and quickly spun around in a circle four times. Before the stun effect wore off, five bandits were lying dead on the ground from the rapid series of attacks I had delivered. The plan had worked wonderfully. None of the bandits would transform if they thought the battle was even, and Archie had guessed that at 15% or so HP they would change and reset their health bars. My plan was simple, whittle down several bandits, draw them all close to me, then finish them all off at once before they could change and make the fight harder. I counted this ploy as a success in my book! With five of their group dropping at once, the remaining two bandits showed their true colors and burst out of their armor into their werewolf forms, weapons abandoned right along with the shed armor. Like the first fight, dealing with only two of the mobs was a cake walk and we soon were rewarded by the sight of seven bodies that were beginning to fade away. Our bars had barely taken a hit this time, the effectiveness of taking out the bulk of the group before they went into wolf mode was quite efficient it seemed. We joked and chatted as the next three clearings all passed with similar results. Once we got our plan down, the battles went by in less than forty seconds even if it seemed like longer from my perspective. Something about the fights always seemed to dilate time in my mind, even beyond my True Haste skill, and a forty second fight seemed like it dragged on for three minutes. Glancing at my character sheet showed that we were going to be gaining a nice chunk of exp once it added to our pools, and that was before the first clear bonus took effect on the totals. I was currently sitting at 11,300 exp in my temporary pool, making this run more than worth farming over and over. At almost fifteen minutes into the instance, we came upon the sixth clearing and froze in place at the edge of the area. There was no simple bandit camp in the middle, nor even a large one¡­ Nope, we now had to fight a huge centaur! He stood at nine feet tall at the head, his horse body being huge like a Clydesdale, torso large and bare with corded muscles covering every inch of him. Two axes rested in slings on either hip, the weapons massive enough to make me think I would need two hands to wield one of the instruments of destruction. I scratched my chin in thought a moment before glancing at my friends. ¡°Well, seems like we found the mini boss. I am going to assume that he is strong as hell and pretty fast on top of it, but beyond that I never really ran into centaurs before¡­¡± The name plate that showed up when I inspected him was Centaur Mercenary, making me think that this was a guard set to prevent anyone from getting past and to the main boss shortly further along. Kayla seemed to be studying the creature thoughtfully, her eyes locked on the huge mob as it paced across the clearing. ¡°Zex and I have dealt with some before, but this game likes to throw twists at us it seems, so I am going to say we stick with a simple tank and spank and see where that takes us.¡± ¡°I have to agree with Serena on this one with the addition that Calamity and I focus on trying to take out the legs. If we can reduce its mobility, we should have an easy time with this fight so long as we keep a constant stream of damage up. Assuming Serena here can hold out taking blows from those huge axes¡­¡± Archie looked a bit worried as he also eyed the massive weapons. ¡°Hmmm¡­¡± Kayla contemplated those words and finally nodded. ¡°I should be good. If I focus mainly on blocking his swings I am confident I can hold out for at least two minutes.¡± She seemed quite sure about her statement, which made me believe that we were going to have this in the bag in short order. ¡°Alright then, let¡¯s get in there and take down a centaur!¡± I readied my scythe and glanced at Kayla so she could start the party off like usual. The blonde woman grinned and ran forward, Archie and myself flanking her as we bee-lined right for the pacing centaur. As soon as the creature saw us, he let out a booming laugh and drew out those twin axes and ran to meet our charge. Seeing the massive form charging down on us with axes raised, Kayla took an unorthodox method of dodging and dropped into a slide to pass under the front legs of the horse body. Both axes swung down, but missed her thanks to the swift actions of our tank. Archie and I both chuckled and split to the sides, each of us hammering home a few blows as the centaur¡¯s charge lead it straight past us. The damage was minor, only dealing a few percentage per hit, but it added up to almost 10% off its total health with one pass. Not a bad first exchange in my book as we didn¡¯t take any damage. Learning from its mistake, the centaur circled around and approached slowly this time, axes swinging back and forth as if it was testing his reach. Kayla had gotten back to her feet with a small laugh at her tactics, and readied her shield to meet those deadly axe blades. The first blow came swiftly, the axe arcing down to clang off of the raised shield but still stripping away 15% of her HP in the process with a grunt of pain from the woman. The second swing from his other hand came right after, and Kayla had to dodge backwards to avoid this blow. Seeing my chance, I waved Archie to split off to the beast¡¯s right side while I took the left. My reach with the scythe was enough to get some good hits in before Archie got close enough to start pounding into the bulk of the horse body with his attacks. A harsh clang and a golden glow coming from the front of the centaur told me Kayla got hit and had healed herself back up again while I continued to whittle down the boss¡¯ HP. The process was slow going, and at 75% HP the centaur got a surprise hit on me and Archie. As soon as it hit the three quarter mark, the centaur spun quickly and slashed once at Archie and full on horse kicked me in the chest with his back legs. I took the unexpected blow in surprise and was rocketed backwards as a full 40% of my health vanished in an instant! Fuck that thing could kick¡­ Archie was in a similar boat, having taken 30% damage from the single swipe he had taken before Kayla could draw it back onto herself. Shaking myself off as I stood, I popped a health potion from my quick access belt slot and chugged it, then pulled out a vial of Basic Poison to apply to my scythe blade. The extra damage would help, and I couldn¡¯t be skimpy with the vials like I had been recently. Diving back in, I slashed hard and fast at the back leg of the horse several times until finally the debuff of both poison and crippled popped up next to the slowly draining health bar of the boss. Kick me now you son of a bitch¡­ Between the potion and my lifesteal ability, my health was quickly working its way back to full and a glance at my UI showed Archie and Kayla had both popped a potion as well to help with the damage coming in at us. At 50%, the boss once more performed a different attack and took a page from my book. Holding his axes out in front of him, he rapidly spun a circle and clipped both Archie and myself with his attack for another decent chunk of damage, but spared Kayla the attack which gave her the time needed to regen some more HP and save her mana. Figuring that at 25% there would be another attack directed towards Archie and myself, I grinned and watched the health bar above the centaur. As it neared the mark, I shouted out into the party chat. ¡°Serena, do your stun!¡± The resonate clang and shockwave coming off of her shield did the job of freezing the boss for a few seconds, and I activated True Haste and unleashed hell on the stunned monster. Twirling my scythe in a blur, the health bar began to drain rapidly as all of us laid into the boss hard. ¡°Zex, Serena! Drop to the floor!¡± I followed my own advice as soon as I saw the boss move once again, and we all barely avoided the rampaging legs and flailing axe blades as the boss spun a circle to do his 25% HP attack. Having neatly dodged the effects of the attack except for being clipped by one of the flailing hooves, we jumped back up and once more began our assault. I kept my Haste skill up for the remainder of the fight, and the centaur finally gave up the ghost after one last blow from Archie on the other side. Another 3000 exp added in to my temporary pool to my delight and I quickly pulled up my inventory to see what loot was dropped. I found a few more potions of decent quality for health and energy, but no gear appeared in my inventory. Kayla shouted in excitement as her sword vanished to be replaced by one of the axes the boss had wielded. ¡°I can use this! My strength just exceeds the requirement on it and the damage is ridiculous!¡± She swung the large axe with a grin, the blade humming through the air on its arc. The weapon had sized down slightly in comparison to what it looked like in the centaur¡¯s hands, but it still seemed like a dangerous item all the same. ¡°All I got was some potions and a glowing crystal¡­¡± Archie frowned slightly as he looked over the item in his inventory. ¡°Ah, I see. It is a key to access the extra fight after the final boss. We will need this in order to try for the extra loot and experience later.¡± He sighed in irritation, probably having hoped it was a new and awesome item he could make use of. ¡°Anyway, regen up and let¡¯s move on. We are thirty minutes into this dungeon already even with moving quickly so we need to step it up.¡± ¡°Good idea, I only got potions as well but we should walk while we regen and see what the next area has in store. Have you checked your exp yet? We are going to be leveling up at least once or twice by the end of this run.¡± I grinned at my friends, then rested my scythe over a shoulder and headed towards the path leading deeper into the forest. This dungeon was turning out to be quite fun and entertaining to my delight, and I was eager to keep up the pace of our progress. 23) Forest Dungeon - part two Four more clearings containing werewolf bandits were cleared out rather easily, all except for the last of the batch at least. Instead of the normal six or seven mobs, the latest batch we had just dispatched had nine enemies to deal with at once. Things had gotten a bit crazy during that fight, our timing and precision with so many mobs to juggle being subpar for a first attempt with such a large group. Five of the nine bandits managed to transform during the fight, making our battle stretch out longer as their health all refilled back to full and pretty much resetting all of the work we had put into the fight to that point. We had succeeded and vanquished the werewolves in the end, minus a couple health potions and a lot of swearing, and were now walking along the path towards our next battle. Well past the half hour mark at this point, I was losing hope of clearing the instance faster than any of the other groups had. Even if we came upon the final boss of the instance next, it would be a hard press to finish the battle before the forty-minute threshold. Despite that, I was sitting at a total of over twenty-three thousand experience from just this run before any modifiers were added in. The first clear boost was really giving an edge on the exp gain at least, even if we had yet to find much in the way of good gear or items from any of the normal mobs or their tents. Kayla and I had been walking along with Archie scouting the way ahead as usual when his voice seemed to be speaking from right next to me thanks to the party chat feature. ¡°Uhm, guys¡­ We have a problem here I think. I found the next clearing and you both really need to see this.¡± ¡°What¡¯s the problem? More centaur mobs?¡± Kayla sounded a bit worried that might be the case, she had taken a good beating from that battle even if she had gotten a nice new weapon out of the experience. Pain was mild in the game, but still more than present. I waited for a moment in silence, nothing coming over the chat line for a long enough time that I was just about to speak when I heard his reply. ¡°No, there is nothing here. And when I say nothing, I mean nothing. No mobs, no path forward, not a damn thing! Just get up here and see for yourselves¡­¡± Sharing a look between each other, we shrugged in confusion and picked up the pace to catch up with Archie. The path was twisted and confusing to map, but with the only way forward being set by the trail it was impossible to get lost at least. Finally making the last bend, I saw Archie seated on the ground and staring at the empty clearing intently, as if he could see something else just by staring. The clearing ahead contained all of what Archie had described, at least that we could see. There had to be something here in this area, some kind of trap or hidden boss somewhere. I couldn¡¯t believe that the devs would leave one of these clearing completely empty with nowhere to go after it. ¡°You don¡¯t think we missed a branching path, do you?¡± I posed my question to our scout, Archie having traveled ahead of us on his way down the trail. If anyone should have spotted a branching path it was him. ¡°No, I made sure to check too¡­ Never know where we can find extra loot.¡± He shook his head, eyes still locked on the empty area just ahead of us. ¡°It has to be a trap of some kind, but I can¡¯t see¡­¡± He trailed off, his mouth hanging open mid-sentence as if an idea hit him. ¡°I am going to try something. Not sure if it will work, but what the hell. Not like we will learn anything just sitting here.¡± He paused for a moment, then flung out a hand. The area in the center of the circular glade seemed to brighten a bit, his skill to call down a pillar of moonlight working even in the daylight. The only downside was that nothing at all happened. I frowned and shook my head. ¡°Worth a shot I suppose, but I think we are at the point where we just walk in and see what springs up. I am assuming this is the final boss, so it is just a matter of being ready for anything.¡± I glanced at the others and raised a brow. ¡°I could always just walk in and when something happens I can use my Temporal Step spell to gtfo.¡± The others looked at me, then each nodded with Kayla being the one to speak up in ascent. ¡°That seems like the best plan, honestly. We haven¡¯t tried to leave one of these clearings during combat yet, but I didn¡¯t see any kind of walls or shields keeping us in at the previous areas. Worst case scenario Zex and I can jump in and try to take on whatever pops up.¡± ¡°Right then.¡± I stood back up from my crouch and checked the timer on the poison coating my scythe to make sure there was plenty of time left. ¡°Wish me luck. Hopefully I don¡¯t die¡­ That would really suck after all of this work.¡± Archie clapped me on the back and gave me a shove forward, the bastard having a wide grin on his face since he wasn¡¯t the Guinea pig being sent in as bait. I swear, sometimes I really hated my friends¡­ I walked forward carefully, keeping my steps steady and short in case I had to turn and flee at a moment¡¯s notice. With no idea of what was going to happen, I sure as hell didn¡¯t want to get caught with my pants down. As soon as I made it to the middle of the clearing I stopped and held my scythe up, ready for something to happen. Ten seconds went by without a stir in the clearing, then a rustle of motion in the trees drew my attention. Straining my eyes to try and pierce the dense foliage, I caught the first glimpse of what we were going to have to face. Heavy steps sounded from the woods accompanied by the breaking of branches as a massive twelve foot tall monstrosity of fur, teeth and claws emerged into the open area. Labeled as Werewolf Alpha, the boss was covered in rippling muscle with extra long arms that nearly dragged against the ground. Red eyes that glowed even in the bright sunlight focused on me, causing my feet to take an involuntary step back. The creature was the stuff of nightmares with its extended jaws dripping saliva and hate filled glare that promised a slow and painful death. ¡°Level 15 with what looks like a shitload of health, I can¡¯t really help with plans without more information¡­¡± Archie¡¯s voice filtered in to me from the party chat, breaking me out of the shocked state I was in. Despite knowing this was merely a game, I had been taken by surprise at the realistic sight of such a menacing creature radiating power. I shook my head, clearing the last vestiges of my stupor off without taking my eyes off of the boss monster. ¡°Alright, looks like there are no traps and we just had to draw the boss out. Come on up guys and let¡¯s drop this thing like yesterday¡¯s news.¡± I got two verbal confirmations before I heard my friends leaving the wood line in order to join me. All the while the boss stood there with intelligence flashing in those red eyes, waiting for me to make the first move. Kayla drew up even beside me, her shield up and ready. ¡°Should we start this off like tank and spank? We have to begin somewhere, and until we find out what this thing can do we should stick with the usual methods I think.¡± ¡°Yeah, that seems like the best plan. I am going to attack, but will be holding back a little to make sure I catch whatever surprises this bastard has in store for us. You go in and grab its attention while Zex and I deal some damage to the thing from the sides and back.¡± I glanced around quickly, my eyes scanning the woods all around us. ¡°Keep your eyes peeled though, if you see anything strange from the boss or our surroundings call it out.¡± As soon as my words faded, we started the fight in earnest. Kayla leaned forward and dashed ahead, the Alpha growling loudly and launching itself forward remarkably fast in order to meet the sprinting woman. The long arms of the werewolf rose up in preparation to swing at Kayla with the full force of its charge, but I wasn¡¯t going to let that happen if I could help it. For the first time since I got the spell, now seemed like the prime opportunity to make use of it. I lifted a hand and cast Demi Speed on the boss just before it met Kayla, the monster slowing to half speed for just long enough to allow our tank to avoid the heavy swing of those insanely long arms. With a yell of battle lust, Archie and I converged on the Alpha¡¯s back and began our work of laying into the boss after Kayla got in a few swings to keep it focused on her. Playing the tank in this game was awkward without an actual taunt ability, but Kayla had mentioned she had a skill that gave her actions increased aggro on enemies around her to make up for that fact. In the end, it didn¡¯t take more than a couple seconds for her to establish enough of an aggro level to allow us DPS to do our job. Not that we were doing a hell of a lot to the boss¡­ Every hit was only shaving off a sliver of health from the gigantic werewolf, and after my slowing spell wore off the boss was dealing heavy blows in rapid succession to Kayla. I watched the attacks of the boss carefully, measuring its patterns and styles as it wailed on our tank who had taken up a full defensive position to reduce the incoming damage. ¡°Serena, time to change it up. The left arm is fast and weak while the right is slow and powerful. Keep your shield in line with the left one and try to use your axe to parry the right arm for return damage. Aim for the knuckles and claws to try and take the hand apart.¡± Really, this worked out well since she was wielding her shield in her right hand which aligned it with the Alpha¡¯s left perfectly. ¡°Got it, will give it a go!¡± Her actions reflected her words as she altered her stance slightly to allow her shield to catch all of the left handed blows easier and used her axe to attack the right hand as it slashed down at her. The tactic worked to a degree, with her still taking a bit of damage from the right hand blow but also dealing a nasty wound to the clawed hand at the same time. 10% of the boss¡¯s HP had fallen away after an exchange of blows, all of us still taking the fight slowly and waiting for the first ability of the boss to trigger. As soon as the HP ticked down to 89%, the beast took in a deep breath and gave a loud howl up into the air. The noise was so loud that we all faltered a moment, taken off guard by the deafening cry from the Alpha. With the howl fading away, Kayla shook her head and got back into her stance in time to catch the next blow on her shield and resume her routine. From the forest came a single answering howl, the sound of a werewolf running through the brush quickly closing in on the clearing we were fighting in. From the side burst a level 12 werewolf covered in black fur that kept running right at us. ¡°Zex, break away with me and let¡¯s take out this add. Serena, stay on the boss and keep it occupied.¡± Archie turned with me and followed to intercept the new addition to the fight. While running at the weaker wolf, I spun my scythe around to add in more momentum and twisted my whole body into a slash with all the power I could muster into the mob¡¯s reverse jointed knee. A sickening tearing sound met the blade of my weapon as I got a massive crit, the fact that the mob was charging at me while I ran at it having added more damage into the attack and allowing my scythe to cleave straight through the joint. I wasn¡¯t the only one in action here though, and as the werewolf stumbled to the ground, minus one leg from the knee down, Archie had leapt high into the air to bring a fist down hard into the back of the werewolf¡¯s head with a loud crack. Instantly, between our two attacks, the mob was down to 60% HP and now had three debuffs next to its health bar, crippled, stunned and poisoned. Luck must have been on our side with that little fight and we managed to finish the add off quickly before it managed to put up any semblance of a counter attack. ¡°Good job. Back on the boss and let¡¯s whittle it down some more.¡± I glanced at my UI, checking all of the bars representing our health, mana and energy to ensure we were on par for the course. All in all, we were still looking good. That was until the Alpha reared both arms back at once and slashed them forward quickly to knock Kayla backwards with a powerful double attack. Shit¡­ The Alpha readied another standard attack on the prone tank which would add to the decent 20% chunk of damage she had taken from the one blow. The next set of attacks couldn¡¯t be allowed to land on Kayla if we wanted to survive the rest of this fight¡­ I triggered Temporal Step, using the short period of frozen time to run in front of the boss so I could intercept the attacks before they reached Kayla. When the spell ended, I quickly felt two strikes against my readied scythe that still managed to deal damage to me even through the block.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. ¡°Alright, switch back.¡± Those words through the party chat were what I was waiting for, a glance at my UI showing Kayla¡¯s health rising back up from a potion she drank as she stood up. I skipped giving an answer, instead diving into a roll under the next attack that headed my way and avoiding the blow as best as I could. Archie had ignored Kayla and myself, having seen that I was handling the situation, and instead focused back on delivering thundering punches to the exposed back of the Alpha Werewolf and shaving off ever more health from the massive bar over its head. My energy levels were still around 70% or so, but we were barely into the fight as a whole so I popped one of my energy potions to fill ack up and let the cooldown tick away. By the time I would possibly need to use another, enough time should have passed to let me do so. Then I too was back in action swinging at the boss with my continuous pattern of attacks, lifesteal filling my HP back up steadily without having to drink a health potion of my own. Thankfully, my poison had taken on the boss before we broke off to deal with the add, and we were quickly nearing the 80% mark in the fight already. Like before, as soon as the HP bar dipped to 79% another howl echoed out from the boss. This time, we were ready for it and managed to attack some more through the distraction to shave away some more of the boss¡¯s life. Zex pinged the mini map, indicating that the add was coming from his direction this time, and the two of us rushed ahead to meet the threat. Since Archie was in the lead this time, he pulled the tripping maneuver and performed a slide tackle to take the werewolf down in a tumble of flailing limbs. Following up right behind him, I gripped my scythe like an axe and raised it over my head to chop down with the blade into the monster¡¯s back. Apparently, the creature didn¡¯t like that as a roar of pain and anger filled the air, the muscled body pushing up to try and regain his feet. Archie had other plans for the thing though, and he quickly kicked out the arms attempting to push its bulk back up from the ground while I kept up a steady whirl of damage into the prone beast. Just before I finished the add off, Archie turned and called over to Kayla in a calm and steady voice. ¡°Serena, get ready to jump back if it does that big attack again!¡± His words proved true when as soon as I finished off the smaller werewolf, the Alpha reared back to do his wombo-combo once again. Thanks to the warning, Kayla managed to avoid the attack and then stepped smoothly back in to swipe her axe across the massive werewolf¡¯s muzzle. The unfortunate part of that action became clear a moment later when her attack dropped the health bar to 75%... With a snarl of anger and frustration, a new buff icon appeared above the red HP bar over the Alpha¡¯s head with a ten second timer. While we couldn¡¯t focus on it quick enough to read a description, the effects were obvious as the boss began to slash incredibly fast with its claws and leaving glowing red trails behind them. It went into a temporary fury stage at this point, and the damage Kayla was taking began to add up quickly. I flung out a hand as fast as I could and cast Demi Speed on it once more, thankful that I had been preserving my mana so far in the fight and not using it on True Haste thus far. Seeing that the boss had slowed down, Kayla leapt backwards and ran away a short bit. Standing in range of a boss in fury was never a sound strategy and she knew it. My spell had only lasted for a couple seconds, but that time was enough to allow Kayla to get out of range for the remainder of the buff timer as well as chug yet another health potion. She still had plenty of mana, but no need to put extra stress on that supply when we still had another 75% HP to deal with. From that point on, it became a rinse and repeat battle with another add every 10% and another fury buff at the 50% and 25% marks which was all easily handled now that we knew the fight mechanics. The only hard part we encountered was the last 10% of the boss¡¯s HP. When it went critical, the Alpha got a soft enrage buff that increased the damage it dealt by 25% which turned the last bit of the combat into a race as we made sure Kayla survived by dealing as much damage as possible to finish the large creature off. Archie was the one who got the killing blow, launching himself up into the air with a flourish to slam his fist into the base of the Alpha¡¯s neck. The resulting snap of bones coinciding with the depletion of the last of the HP made us all cheer in glee that the battle was finally over. While it wasn¡¯t that tough of a fight in the end, having to do all of it ourselves was mentally exhausting when the battle stretched out over the full five minutes it took to take the Alpha down. In spite of that, I was feeling that wave of excitement that I always got when coming across an entirely new encounter and then surpassing the obstacle with victory. There really was no other feeling like that, in my opinion. Checking our inventory to see what kind of loot we had gotten, I quickly noticed we merely got a few more potions and nothing out of the ordinary. What the hell? This was a boss, where was my loot? I was just about to say something out loud to that end when I heard Archie yell out as he pointed to where the boss had come into the clearing. ¡°Hey! There is a chest over here!¡± Sure enough, there was indeed a large ironbound chest sitting at the edge of the clearing now that the boss was dead. Got to love video games! Despite Archie and myself being the faster of the group, it was Kayla who bowled past us to make it to the chest first with a squeal of glee at the prospect ahead of her. ¡°I call dibs on opening it!¡± With a burst of laughter, Archie held up a fist for me to bump my own against before we followed our excited tank to the trove of loot. Still running all the way to the heavy box, Kayla dropped to her knees and skidded along the ground for the last couple feet to stop just in front of the chest. There was no lock on this one, the thing designed to be opened easily as a reward for killing the instance boss, and she flipped the lid back hastily to peer inside. ¡°Oh, nice! Got something in here for each of you guys, but nothing for me¡­¡± She seemed to pout at those last words, but shrugged it off as she had gotten her new axe from the mini boss earlier. ¡°Here, ring for either of you, but I think the leather bracers were made specifically for Zex.¡± Curious, I moved up to the chest and looked inside. The bracers she mentioned were only leather, inferior to my new chainmail set, but added a hefty boost to agility as well as boasting a decent armor score for leather. They were of Rare quality, as was the ring that drew my attention more than the bracers. I was only wearing two rings at the moment, but each character could wear up to eight in total so I had room for more easily. When I pulled up the information on the item, I had to let out a low whistle at its stats.
Ring of Brute Force An enchanted ring made of silver, this item was stolen by the werewolf bandits from a hapless victim. Since it was made of pure silver, the creatures were unable to wear it and the item was stashed away in their stores. +8 Str +15 damage dealt
Nothing to sneeze at really¡­ The item was rather decent for a rare item that can only be found in this instance, and I was more than happy to take it since Archie was more than happy with his new bracers. I picked it up and slipped it onto an open finger, happy for any boosts I could get to my stats. Also inside of the chest was a bag of coins totaling up to 6 gold which we split evenly between us. Right after we split up all of the loot inside the chest, the container faded away as a rumbling behind me drew my attention to the center of the clearing. A stone pedestal had risen from the ground with an indentation on the top of it, looking like something needed to be placed into the middle of the slender column. ¡°Well, I think that is my cue. I got the crystal to open up the extra boss if you guys are good to go for it?¡± He glanced to Kayla and myself, to which we each gave a nod. Our bars were all refilled at this point, and the extra loot and experience that would come from the boss before the first clear bonus went away would be fantastic. ¡°Okay then, tally-ho!¡± He grinned, then moved over to place the crystal we got from the centaur into the depression. It fit perfectly, and the column of stone sank back down into the earth once more. Yet another rumble shook the ground as part of the landscape shifted, a slab of grass covered rock sliding back to reveal an opening at the edge of the clearing. When the sound faded, I looked between my friends and the newly opened hole wondering to myself if we should go and check it out or if it was just letting a new boss in. My thoughts were answered as a gelatinous blue form began to slowly spill up and out of the hole, slowly taking shape into a large sphere-like design. ¡°Son of a bitch¡­ It is a fucking slime! I hate these things¡­ They are a pain in the ass no matter what game we are in!¡± The grumbling came from Kayla, her dislike of squishy slimy things making itself known to all upon the sight of the new boss. I had to agree with her at least in part. Slimes are indeed a major hassle to deal with, especially since we didn¡¯t have anything in the way of powerful elemental magic to use against the thing. In most games, slimes tended to be highly resilient against physical damage and that left us with a major problem. I quickly used inspect on the boss, hoping to find out what we were dealing with exactly.
Unstable Experimental Slime Level: 17 HP: ? MP: ? Unlike typical slimes, this one has been endlessly tampered with in order to create the perfect guard for the treasure of the bandits. Unfortunately, the creature has yet to be perfected and is highly erratic in its behavior.
Six levels above us as well as being resistant to physical damage¡­ Well shit, this was going to be a slow and tough fight. Motion above us caught my attention as I saw our Fairies floating around high up, staying away from the actual combat while still being close enough for us to use their abilities, when an idea hit me. ¡°Zex, Serena¡­ You each have a ranged magical attack to use at least. Fallon can do his Moon blade things, and Celeste has a holy bolt attack. Not very mana efficient, but it is what we have. Keep your distance for now and use up your mana to bombard this thing to start and we will see where it goes from there.¡± Nods of acknowledgement from each was followed up by the two of them lifting their hands and tossing out an attack from their palms. A golden sphere shot from Kayla while a blade of silver light shot forth from Archie to strike against the blue slime ahead of us. The holy bolt did a couple percentage points of damage, but it was the moon blade from Archie that was the real surprise. Instead of just hitting the slime and dissipating, the silver light actually hit at an odd angle and shaved a portion of the boss off. A good chuck of HP fell away from the slime, and the piece that was cut off splattered to the ground and began to steam as it shrank in size. ¡°Nice! Well, seems like we found a cheap way of beating this thing. Keep it up and whittle it down. I will jump in and attack it with the reach of my weapon to try and poison it.¡± I followed my own advice, running off to the side to keep the firing lane clear for my friends as well as hopefully keep the attention of the thing on a melee target so they could shoot at it freely. Keeping as much distance between myself and the blue slime as I could, I slashed into it with my scythe to almost no effect at all. Two more ranged attacks pounded into the boss, dropping a bit more of its health before Archie called out to me. ¡°This won¡¯t work for long¡­ We are losing way too much mana at this rate. I have enough for maybe two more and Serena can only toss out another holy bolt. The spells cost way too much to use.¡± That was going to be a problem, but just then I had a problem of my own right away as the surface of the slime quickly formed a spike which shot out in my direction. Distracted as I was by Archie talking, I wasn¡¯t able to dodge fully out of the way and got caught in my side by the attack. That fucking thing could hurt! 20% of my HP was stripped away in that one attack, but thankfully the boss was extremely slow in moving and I was able to back away before another spike could form. ¡°Yeah, this thing is going to suck¡­ Fuck it. Move in and let¡¯s get to work. Watch your energy levels and as you regen mana keep dumping spells into the thing. If you get too low, back off and use potions. This is going to take a while.¡± Two more spells drove in, the moon blade shaving another chunk off the mass of blue slime, and then the others were in range and pounding away at the boss. When the cooldown for Archie¡¯s spell wore off, he depleted his mana by using his blade at close range to take the boss down to 70% HP. Nine minutes and a few rotations out of range to chug potions, and finally the tanky boss was whittled down to 2% health. That¡¯s when things went to shit¡­ It must have been on an enrage timer, for the boss grew spikes out all over its body and began to pick up speed as it rolled around. It nearly trampled Archie right away, and only a lucky dive out of the way saved his bacon. As it changed, the color of the slime also shifted, now a dark red color instead of the blue we were used to seeing. ¡°Holy shit¡­ Looks like we are down to just using spells on the thing at this point.¡± Archie flung out a hand, draining his mana once more to shoot a moon blade at the boss. Instead of striking the creature though, the spikes broke the attack apart before it could do damage to the main body and rendered the blade useless. ¡°Well fuck me five ways to Friday¡­ What the hell are we supposed to do now?¡± The rolling ball of red spikes was starting to really pick up momentum now, turning around to roll towards the three of us once again. I was honestly at a loss for a plan of attack now¡­ The boss was almost dead, and I had it poisoned, but we had no real way that I could see of doing more serious damage to it. ¡°Well, we can try and stall¡­ Maybe the poison will finish it off? There is 123 seconds left on it at the moment, so I hope that is enough to do the trick.¡± We had to scatter as the ball rolled past us on a path of destruction, the ground getting torn up viciously wherever the ball of death rolled thanks to the multitude of spikes covering the red boss. It was Archie who came up with the idea, his eyes widening with the thought as he looked around quickly. ¡°I got it! Come on, run to that big tree over there at the edge of the clearing.¡± The boss was becoming rather fast now, and I calculated that we might not make it to the proper place in time. I threw up a Demi Speed spell at the boss, giving us a chance to get in position and turn towards the oncoming threat. ¡°Now what? That spell doesn¡¯t last long!¡± Archie just grinned at me and winked. ¡°Now, you dodge the hell out of the way fast enough to not get flattened!¡± Seriously? That was his glorious plan? For fucks sake, that was why I was the one who came up with the strategies in these games¡­ Oh well, too late to argue now as the sphere of spikes bowled its way closer to us. Unlike the others, I at least had a sure fire way of avoiding the boss, and I took the guaranteed way out. Just before the others could react, I used my Temporal Step spell to causally walk away from the path of doom, the thought of an old movie with a guy who explored ancient temples coming to mind as I did so. Bet he would have loved to have this skill¡­ Time resumed after my spell ended, and my other two friends dove out of the way in the nick of time, the boss rolling quickly forward and slamming to a dead stop against the massive tree with spikes embedded into the thick trunk. Archie performed a graceful roll, coming up and flinging a hand out to shoot one last moonlight blade at the now stationary boss and taking the last of its health away. The red ball of slime slowly lost its form and sank into a thick puddle of goop as a window popped up before us.
Congratulations! You have successfully been the first party to clear this instance! You have been awarded enhanced experience rewards as well as gaining extra fame for your achievement! Rewards: +36,300 exp (total) +500 fame Legendary Skill: Dungeon Raider Chain Shirt of Wrath Boots of Nimbleness Shield of the Saint
24) Levels and surprise As soon as that last window was dismissed, I looked at my friends with a huge grin on my face. We had gotten more experience from this one first clear run than we had accumulated thus far in the game! No wonder people were so crazy on the forums about finding these places. The potential for benefits in a short period of time were beyond amazing. Despite the joy I knew they should be feeling at the moment too, and indeed they were quite happy if the stupid grins on their faces spoke towards anything, their eyes were glazed over and unfocused. The must have been dealing with their notifications before actually celebrating, which seemed like a good idea. I had several glowing icons on my UI including my character tab and my Fairy tab. Level up notifications there probably, but I wanted to check out this new piece of armor I had gotten first. Better to equip that now and see where my stats lay before dealing with point assignments after all. Pulling my inventory screen open, I flicked my gaze to the sole item with a purple border in my bags. The Chain Shirt of Wrath¡­ Let¡¯s see what we had here. Using my inspect skill was becoming easier every time I did so, and at that point I barely had to focus at all in order to call up the item stats.
Chain Shirt of Wrath Set: 1 of 8 Bonuses: +18 Armor +10 Str +10 Agi +3% Damage dealt Rage* Part of the Wrath armor set, this equipment was used by a seasoned warrior at one time. After the former owner of this set retired from the adventuring life, his armor was lost from his wagon and the pieces picked up by bandits. Over time, the various pieces of this set have been scattered throughout the lands. (*Rage is a battle skill that can be used once every 120 minutes. While the skill is active, the user will have increased attack speed and damage for fifteen seconds at the cost of a 50% reduction of the users armor score. More pieces of the set equipped will enhance the effects and reduce the armor penalty.)
Now that is what I wanted to find! I immediately equipped my new chest armor, grinning at the feeling of power I got as soon as the increase to my stats hit me. The Rage skill looked to be quite a powerful, if limited, ability that I would be able to make good use of. With Kayla to tank for me, I didn¡¯t have to worry about the armor penalty while Rage was active and would be able to deal an insane amount of damage. Rubbing my hands together, I dismissed the equipment screen and inventory to open up my character screen to deal with my level ups.
Congratulations! You have gained 4 levels! Current level: 15 You have gained a Bonus +50 HP Faction Bonus: +4 Str +4 Fort +4 Skill Points You have 20 stat points available to distribute. Warning! If you die before assigning your points, they will be lost!
Alright! Four levels from this first clear, and we still had the location of one other untouched dungeon! My second Fairy was looking to be right around the corner with a bit of heavy grinding and hard work. I doubted any subsequent clears would net nearly as much experience, even if it would still be more efficient to farm a dungeon than hunting random mobs. Another 50 HP was added for level 15, the pattern becoming obvious now in regards to the bonus in that department, and I quickly distributed my points. My Fort had dropped a little due to losing the bonus from my old chest armor, so I popped three points there just to round me out, then grinned manically as I poured all seventeen remaining points into agility. I hummed an old Blue Oyster Colt song that fit me perfectly as I checked over my current stats happily.
Name: Calamity Player Level: 15 Stat Level: 54 Exp: 66,620
Titles Harbinger of War, Soul Reaper Fame 950
Armor 72 HP 850/850
Energy 650/650 MP 690/690
Str 90 Fort 65
Dex 37 Int 69
Agi 93 Will 28
I had to admit to myself, I was quite pleased with how my character was shaping up. Enough armor to withstand some hits, but built in such a way as I could overpower any defense I came across. My new Agi score had me feeling as light as a feather, and I was beyond eager to see just how fast I would be attacking now, and then I could add in Rage too! I was nearly salivating as I switched over to my skills tab. I tried to dump all four points into Polearm Mastery, but after using three a window popped up which I minimized. Upon attempting to add the fourth point, I got a message saying that level 20 in the skill was as high as it could go for my level. Well that was shitty¡­ I sighed and dropped my remaining point into Blooded Tactician to raise that skill up to 14. Before I checked the pop up message, I remembered that we had gotten a new skill upon clearing the entire dungeon and looked that one over as well.
Dungeon Raider Skill level: 1 (Max) A special skill rewarded to those who were part of a group to clear a dungeon for the first time. Each additional first clear of a dungeon will add a level to this skill, reflecting your mastery of raiding the mysteries of this world and vanquishing the foes found within. Continue searching out these places of danger and battle, and you will become even more capable of reaping the rewards these locations have to offer. Bonus: +5% exp gain inside of instanced dungeons
Congratulations! Your skill Polearm Mastery has grown in level! Skill level: 20 (Player level capped) Continuous use of polearms has deepened your understanding of their function and versatility. +20% damage with polearms +20% attack speed with polearms +25% extra damage when charging +5% chance to inflict a serious injury Increase the skill level for additional bonuses
Even more good news to come crashing down on me! Having stuck with one type of weapon consistently and for so long was really starting to pay off. I did some quick calculations with my new stats as well as the upgraded damage from my scaling weapon, and I figured that if I went back to the fight with the first pack of bandit werewolves, I would be able to solo them without any issues. Granted, that was without them scaling up in level to match my current state, but it was a good indication in my mind that I might not be quite so helpless in the coming conflict against the dragon and his armies. I pulled up my final skill page and checked it over, still wishing I could get rid of the useless skills I would never touch like the Advanced Herbalism and the Two Handed Axe Mastery. Oh well, I was able to select where my skill points go every level now so not a big deal.
Skill List:
Polearm Mastery: lvl 20 (0%)
Two Handed Axe Mastery: lvl 3 (0%)
Inspect: lvl 14 (60%)
Advanced Herbalism: lvl 4 (0%)
Blooded Tactician: lvl 14 (0%)
Spoils of War: lvl Max
Dungeon Raider: lvl Max
Once all of my own stats and skills were settled, I closed out the windows and pulled up Aly¡¯s page. My Fairy had leveled up right along with me, but unlike in previous situations I was able to manually distribute the experience points she had received into her skills. Thank God for small favors on that boat too, for wasting over thirty thousand experience on one skill at this point was a bit on the insane side honestly¡­ With all of the experience banked from this instance run, I was able to level up True Haste, Swift Regeneration and Temporal Step to level 2 before dropping the few remaining points into Time Heals All Wounds. With the newly leveled skills, I was looking at +20% regen rate at all times and was now able to have 6 seconds of free movement with a 36 second cooldown. No luck in being able to use that skill more often unfortunately as I had hoped the cooldown would remain the same as before. Oh well, the biggest boost to me was the level 2 True Haste which gave me a 30% increased perception of time now. Beware the new Reaper of battle! I was going to be a blur to most normal enemies if I kept up with this build path. I glanced over the newly updated page for Aly, my excitement soaring high with the freshly opened possibilities of the future in this game.
Alysandaria the Chronomancer Level: 15 Type: Support Born in the Grotto of Tranquility, Alysandaria is the Contracted bond partner to Calamity. Upon entering the world, she has chosen dominion over the power of time itself and can grant enhancing effects to others with her abilities. Skills: True Haste 2 Swift Regeneration 2 Temporal Step 2 Time Heals All Wounds Demi Speed Rapid Revival
I closed out all of the windows, my head turning to take in Kayla and Archie still tinkering with their menus for the time being. The whole issue of getting their stats and skills just right was important, and I was happy enough to give them the time to do as they needed. They did put up with me wasting plenty of time with the same situation after all. Call me what you will, but I have always been fair to my friends. After another minute or two, Archie¡¯s eyes focused once more and he grinned at me with a wide smile. ¡°Sorry, I am all done now. Haven¡¯t had to deal with that large of a flood since I started the game! So what is your epic item like?¡± Kayla finished up her own stuff at that point and raised a brow in curiosity, eager to hear as well.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. I filled them in on what my new chest armor could do, more than excited about the Rage skill I had gotten from the armor. ¡°How about you guys? Boots for Zex and a shield for Serena I am going to assume. Fill us in on your stuff too!¡± Kayla was the first to speak up, lifting her right arm with the shield attached to the limb. ¡°I unfortunately lost the AOE stun ability since it was part of my old shield, but this new one is above and beyond my old item! 45 armor and a 30% overall damage reduction with extra Fort stats to boot.¡± She practically squealed out the words, her excitement matching my own at the amazing quality of the items. ¡°Also, if that wasn¡¯t enough, it has an ability as well! It only has three uses per day, but damn if that isn¡¯t worth it. The skill has the same name as the item, and places a magical shield around me for eight seconds to prevent all damage I would receive! It is part of a two piece set as well, so I am assuming there is a matching weapon too.¡± Well shit¡­ And I thought my item was good. That shield would probably last her for the rest of the game just based on that ability! How that item was a mere epic rarity I couldn¡¯t fathom, but it meant that our clear speed of instances just increased drastically. I was happy for her though, my own weapon being a scaling type that I would never replace. Thinking on that, I actually needed to pull up the stats for that as well and check out the new damage it was doing. Before I could even begin to go down that path, Archie spoke up with a shake of his head. ¡°You both got better than me, but my new boots aren¡¯t bad at all. Decent armor, they add a lot of Dex and Agi as well as a 15% increased dodge chance. No extra special skills or anything like that, but I should be able to feasibly dodge tank a mob or two if I get another couple pieces of the set.¡± He smirked and raised a brow at Kayla and myself. ¡°Shall we reset the instance and do another clear? If we can farm more good gear from this place it will help us out greatly.¡± The voice of reason came from Kayla surprisingly. ¡°No. Definitely not. We need to get to the next dungeon and attain the first clear bonus before we do anything else. Don¡¯t forget, our streams have leaked the info even if it wasn¡¯t up for long. I will not let this chance slip by me, so we are going to clear the other instance and then we can worry about filling out our gear.¡± Okay, maybe ¡®reason¡¯ was inappropriate. Bullying would probably fit more accurately, even if she was, in theory, correct. ¡°Alright, I wouldn¡¯t mind taking out the second dungeon before farming myself. If we can easily hit level 19 or 20 that will only leave us five levels worth of grinding until we each can get a second Fairy.¡± I smirked at the two of them. ¡°I already have mine planned out, but if you want to go with me back to the Grotto, Sarah might be able to hook you guys up with something.¡± It was a sore spot for the both of them, as neither knew yet where to get their hands on a powerful Fairy for their second contract, and of course tormenting my friends about it was my number one job. ¡°That¡¯s okay. We will just steal your Fairies when we get to 25.¡± Kayla had her helm tucked under her right arm, her left hand flipping her hair back over a shoulder as she grinned at Archie. ¡°But I call Aly. You can have whatever other Fairy he picks up.¡± Archie nodded his head in agreement before turning towards the path out of the instance. ¡°That is fair I suppose¡­ I should probably start working on getting him to pick a Fairy suitable for my style of play then huh?¡± As he walked, he shot a smile over his shoulder at me. ¡°Hear that? Pick something I can use so when Serena and I kill you we can acquire your Contracts!¡± Well, my teasing backfired¡­ ¡°Wait, you are kidding, right? Is that even possible?¡± I followed after them, catching up easily. ¡°You both know I am only joking. I will do what I can to make sure you both get good partners too!¡± I glanced upwards, our Fairies floating around above. ¡°Aly, help me out here!¡± The small creature floated down and sat on Kayla¡¯s shoulder, exactly in the same spot she normally sat on mine. ¡°Miss Serena, can I keep my name when you kill Calamity and claim my Contract?¡± ¡°Oh, of course you can Aly. I will protect you from the evil Calamity just as soon as I am able to!¡± Kayla lifted a hand and patted my Fairy on her head. ¡°You are all traitors¡­ Aly, next time we are in a town I am going to buy myself a drink and leave you to watch me without one of your own.¡± I glared at her, not serious in the least which they could tell as both of the girls broke down into a fit of giggling laughter. Aly sprang up and flew over to my shoulder, hugging my neck from her seat. ¡°Don¡¯t worry Calamity, I won¡¯t leave you. We have way too much fun together!¡± She grinned at me from her perch and I couldn¡¯t help but smile back at my AI friend. ¡°And just to put your mind at ease, it is impossible for another person to break our contract. Even the two paladins coming to hunt me down, I cannot see how they will manage to get rid of me¡­ It seems like a pointless quest.¡± I frowned in thought as we walked, her words sending me into a curious state as I contemplated how exactly they would manage it. ¡°Well, if it was me¡­ I would have asked the dragon for an item that would capture you. If they can contain you and take you far away from me it would effectively do the same thing as breaking the contract as I wouldn¡¯t be able to use your powers. A Fairy needs to be relatively close to the Contractor in order to cycle the mana we offer.¡± I shrugged a shoulder, this being the only way I could see the plan working at all. ¡°So to counter this, I just need to keep you safe from capture and it will be a moot point.¡± Archie, ever the analytical type, was the first to speak up. ¡°And how do you plan to do that? She needs to be close enough for you to use her during battle, so there will be no leaving her in a safe location. At the same time, she can¡¯t really sit on your shoulder during the war ahead of us either. Aly will be exposed to danger as some point or another, so it will have to come down as to how to minimize the risks¡­¡± ¡°Oh, I already have an answer to that. It won¡¯t be easy or cheap, but there is a way to do it.¡± I glanced over at Kayla, eyeing her plate armor up and down. ¡°Serena, how did you get plate armor so early in the game anyway? The highest defense armor I found in Tyrith was chainmail, and even that was poor quality unless I brought the materials to make a set.¡± Kayla seemed shocked that I brought that up for a moment before laughing softly. ¡°This armor was a reward for completing a rather annoying quest chain about finding a nobleman¡¯s lost dog, of all things. It was a one-off Unique quest, and the rewards was this set of plate armor that is actually way too good for the early levels by all means.¡± She tilted her head at me curiously. ¡°Not that it was really a secret, but why do you ask?¡± I nodded to her at the story, then smiled and replied to her question. ¡°Well I have noticed that a lot of the NPCs who wear plate armor have a certain bulge at the base of the back. Not a large one, but big enough that a Fairy could hide in and gain the protection of the heavy armor. I was really wondering why yours didn¡¯t have that feature. Did the nobleman who gave it to you not have a Fairy?¡± She shook her head, eyes flicking towards Celeste who was hovering nearby. ¡°No, he didn¡¯t. That was part of the reason he gave for valuing his dog so much, he didn¡¯t have a Fairy Companion to share his time with¡­¡± A single finger extended on a risen hand to tap at her lips in thought. ¡°So you mean to say most player plate armor will have the space to hide our Fairies?¡± ¡°I am not totally sure, honestly. It is a theory of mine that seems plausible at the least.¡± I shrugged my shoulders again, only having what I had seen as evidence to support my claims about it so far. ¡°I never asked any of the NPCs about it before because I was so far away from the heavy armor at the time, but now it looks like I should be able to start upgrading to plate soon enough. Just something to consider for both of us in the near future. Zex is just shit out of luck though.¡± Aly had to fly up as the insulted person slugged my arm hard at my quip. I laughed, Kayla and the Fairies all joining in with me, as I rubbed the spot he hit. It didn¡¯t truly hurt much, but the action was ingrained and more out of habit than the need to soothe away any pain I may have felt. ¡°You, my friend, are a dick.¡± That was all I received from Archie before he took off at a run ahead of us, the portal of the instance now visible ahead. I laughed all the harder because of his reactions, but soon stepped through the shimmering space to leave the dungeon behind. It was like walking through a waterfall¡­ A bit of distortion and then I could see clearly around me once again. The only problem being what was waiting for us on the outside of the instance. Easily two dozen players were standing up and readying weapons from when Archie appeared, the bulk of the players ready for a fight. I still had my scythe out, I would never put the weapon away while walking through a dungeon, just in case of a mob we may have missed along the way, and looked over the crowds. All of them were levels 8 to 12, not a single one being on par with our new strength. ¡°Welcome to the Forest Dungeon! We just cleared the place, so you are more than welcome to pay me for any advice you may have about how to not die!¡± Maybe a little flippant, but hell¡­ These guys wouldn¡¯t pose a threat to me in the slightest at the moment. I had done the math, and with an average hit from my scythe, I was dealing about 250 damage per hit before armor cut down on that. I gave each person here three hits to die to me, maybe four if they built for PvP defense. They didn¡¯t stand a chance¡­ A slender man in leather armor twirled a dagger in each hand as he stepped to the front of the group arrayed against us. He was a level 12 player and looked like he was quite intimate with the use of those knives, probably even in real life. ¡°You misunderstand¡­ We are here to collect the exact location of the second dungeon you have coordinates for. There are twenty-seven of us against you three, just hand it over and nobody has to get hurt. You are hard mode players, with a lot of good loot.¡± He grinned wickedly at me and lifted a dagger to point at me. ¡°Some of us will surely die, but we will get you in the end. With our numbers, we will split the stuff you drop easily. I am sure your inventory is loaded with loot from the dungeon you just ran.¡± I feigned a yawn, not even bothering to hide it behind a hand, which caused the rogue-like man before me to go red in anger. ¡°Serena, Zex¡­ Want to make a bet?¡± I turned to the side slightly, bringing my friends into my peripheral vision more. Both of them turned their heads slightly towards me, the international signal for ¡®I¡¯m listening¡¯. ¡°You two get comfy here, and I bet you in less than two minutes I will have all of these pricks sent off for a respawn. Let¡¯s wager¡­ Twenty gold. From each of you.¡± Both of my friends glanced at each other before smirking and giving me a nod. They leaned against some trees, relaxing and ignoring the throng of people arrayed around us while Mr. Rogue looked like he was going to burst an artery. ¡°You think this is a joke? You don¡¯t stand a chance of killing all of us at once!¡± I sighed, shaking my head at the man. ¡°Oh ye of little faith. Also, you are a complete idiot if you think you can all actually attack me at once. Have you never done VR PvP before? It is quite similar to real life¡­ You can¡¯t attack me through the bodies of those around me, so at most five or six of you at one time can get at me. But by all means, shoot your arrows into the fray! You will do more damage to your team than me.¡± I leaned in closer slightly, my voice dropping in a very loud whisper so everyone could still hear me. ¡°And yes, friendly fire is a real thing in this game¡­ Tell you what. I will give you all three seconds to get out of here.¡± I held up three fingers on my left hand, right clutching my scythe. ¡°Three¡­¡± Murmuring came from the lower level players. They could see how confident I was in my assessment, as well with how comfortable I was in the situation. The rogue guy turned to yell at the others to not go anywhere as I dropped one of my fingers. ¡°Two¡­¡± A single arrow fired from an archer in the back of the group. Some serious luck or skill was with the archer, for the shaft passed cleanly through the crowd to strike squarely against my chest. Fortunately for me, it didn¡¯t have the power to pierce my armor and it only dealt me twenty points of damage. Must have been a level 8 or 9 player to do so little. Silence fell instantly on the gathering, all eyes turned towards me and the sight of my eyes looking down at the arrow laying upon the ground. I looked back up, anger flaring in my eyes. ¡°Well then, no need to keep counting is there¡­¡± I slapped my hand back onto the handle of my scythe and triggered Temporal Step. I had six seconds now to find the perfect place to assault as many people at once as I could. Unlike them, my weapon had a long reach and could easily hit more people at once than a sword could. With two seconds to spare, I found myself in the middle of a group and readied my stance. Right before my skill ended, I activated both True Haste and Rage, my attack speed and damage becoming significantly higher in an instant as I hoped to deal a swift end to as many people as possible. As the world returned to motion, I let a grin split my face as my body rotated around twice in a mere second. Truly, the attack and move speed I was now at with all my skills activated was frightening to anyone watching, the black metal of my scythe seeming to create a solid ring around me with those two attacks. In that one second, six players collapsed to the ground as they were sent to the blackness of death. Not one to let an advantage go to waste, I turned and dove into another knot of players, my weapon a blur to those without a high enough agility score to perceive my movement. Which just happened to be nearly everyone present. The players that had gathered to try and bully information out of my group were beginning to catch up to what the situation had become and yelled loudly as they began a counter attack. Damage numbers began to come in at me, my health bar getting chipped away some only to flicker back up a bit as I dealt damage. My lifesteal really was a cheat-like ability when it came to physical combat like this. After killing about fifteen of the players gathered, a box flashed open before my eyes, only to be minimized automatically to view after combat. I had caught a glimpse of what it contained in that brief moment though, and my grin only grew wider at the implications at what it was. I only read a couple words, but what I saw was definitely in keeping with the theme of how I was building my character. Having that boost in confidence combined with the excitement of seeing exactly what my new skill was able to do, I picked up my pace in the rampage through the ranks of players. The damage I was taking was actually decent, my health bar was steadily dipping lower as it neared the 50% mark. Yet with every attack I sent out, my lifesteal would greedily fill a portion of my life once more. The fight was becoming a battle of attrition as it was coming down to whether they would run out of players first, or my lifesteal would be unable to support the influx of damage. After clearing out the back ranks of players, my rage skill went on cooldown which slowed me up some and reduced the damage I dealt. At the same time however, my defense rose back up to full and the damage I received lessened proportionally. I took the opportunity to drink a health and energy potion, filling my bars up a good bit while the melee oriented players began to close in on me finally. My words to the leader of the group had proven accurate as they were unable to truly use their numbers to a full advantage. Now was where I had to become careful though, as the players approaching me were wearing heavier armor. With my damage dealt being reduced, my lifesteal would be giving me less of an advantage in the rest of the battle. Here, it was speed that was my friend more than sheer damage quality. Right after drinking my potions, I took off towards the approaching line of players. I skipped going for kills and instead struck only once at a target before dodging away to slash at the next with my flowing movements. Wielding a weapon such as a scythe had both advantages and disadvantages¡­ On the up side, the reach and damage of the weapon was exceptional. The downside being that to make full use of the weapon, it had to remain in nearly constant motion and reversing a swing took that much more effort. In the end, my style of choice became a whirling dance of cuts as I leapt around just outside of the reach of their swords and axes. These melee oriented fighters were tougher than the ranged units, each one taking four or five attacks to bring down since they focused more on defense than attack. At the same time though, the few damaging hits I received were rather on the low end of the spectrum and I was easily able to compensate them with my lifesteal. The biggest surprise came when I wasn¡¯t expecting it¡­ With only six players left alive, my health bar dropped 20% instantly and I became unable to move for a second! The leader of the group had managed to slip behind me and locked me up with a skill that did a good bit of damage at the same time. Before I was able to function once again, a couple more hits rained in at me which caused my health to drop precariously low to the 25% mark. A glance at my UI showed I had just enough mana left for one use of Temporal Step thanks to my regen, and I quickly activated the ability. Since there was only a few enemies left, I decided to skip playing the slow game and positioned myself behind the farthest player. I still had some regen time left from my last potion, but my current health situation was too dire to worry about waste, so I downed another one for the instant healing effect as well as refreshing the secondary regen. With my health stabilized and the combat locations reset once more, my skill ended and allowed me to quickly drop the first player in range. The remainder of the battle only took another ten seconds, and the rogue-like leader yelled out a curse at me as he fell to the ground. Silly people, waiting for us to get a power-up from the dungeon before attacking was a stupid idea¡­ With a smirk, I turned to look at my friends and raised a brow. ¡°So, what is the time verdict?¡± Kayla frowned and sighed, shaking her head in dismay. ¡°One minute forty-three seconds¡­ Damn. We almost won that bet too! A few more attacks and you would have kicked the bucket after that daggers guy stunned you.¡± She stood upright from the leaning position against a tree and kicked the ground. ¡°Fuck¡­ I will have to get the gold from the bank when we get back to a city.¡± ¡°Same, but I have to say¡­ You had a lot of wasted movements in that battle.¡± Archie grinned at me and winked. ¡°Double or nothing on the next group that tries this says I can beat your time if it is a comparable group.¡± I had to laugh at his proclamation and shrugged my shoulders. I would enjoy seeing what my friend could do in that kind of fight so I gladly accepted his terms. ¡°Fine by me. Though I doubt these idiots would try that again any time soon. We will only be much stronger after the next dungeon, and they have no real way of closing that gap in such a short time.¡± I shrugged and rested my scythe on my shoulder. ¡°Anyway, come on. Let¡¯s head towards the next dungeon and get back to the goal at hand. I want to hit level 20 before the day is out!¡± Before I began walking away, I checked out the new skill I had gained from the fight. It was a hidden skill of my weapon! And useful at that.
Congratulations! You have unlocked a skill of your weapon! Elrayna is the goddess of war and battle, and as such she is a terror in combat. Using the weapon made by this goddess against others has deepened the link between yourself and the spells enchanted within, granting you more access to the true might of this scythe. Last Breath Upon killing an enemy, you steal the last of their vitality and transfer it to yourself! For every foe slain, you will receive 5% of your max health, mana and energy back. (Cannot exceed your maximum values)
25) Town of Rudnan With the business of PvP out of the way from our surprise guests, it was time to get back on the road and make our way towards the next instance. First clear bonuses were nothing to sneeze at, and I was sure as hell not going to let them get away from me. At this point, I refused to look at my full map and stuck with glances at my mini map in order to track our progress. Kayla and Archie knew to avoid leaking the location of the second dungeon, but there was an indicator on the mini map to guide us in the proper direction at the least. As we walked, I let my friends chat and keep an eye out for anything worthwhile as I went over my own stats and skills. My character was fleshing out nicely with the bonus strength I was getting from gear and titles. I was closing in on 100 strength and agility, the main stats I was focusing on with my goal of being a massive physical damage dealer that attacked faster than my opponents could properly react. With as much damage I could deal, I needed to focus on what my next Fairy would be. Level 25 wasn¡¯t that far out of reach at this point, what with another first clear boost coming up let alone farming the hell out of the dungeon over and over to speed level. My options for a second Contract was wide open in all reality, but some things would work much better than others if broken down properly. My main goal was damage and survival, with no emphasis on dealing extra magic damage from extreme range in my future. I was building a pure melee berserker type with Aly giving me the gap closing option with Temporal Step, so my primary choice should be some kind of damage boosting Fairy. I could pick an elemental type to add extra magic damage to my physical attacks, with the extra bonus of getting a ranged attack as a back-up, but that wasn¡¯t really my style with Aly sucking up so much mana as it was. No, my best choice would be to figure out just what I wanted my Fairy to have dominion over that would give me the best advantage. I had the time and speed aspect down, Aly giving me several good options that made my style that much more effective, so maybe something along the lines of bleeding¡­ Hmmm, maybe even a Fairy with control over metal that could strengthen my weapons and armor even. Again, the choices were wide open as to what would serve me best. I would have to talk with Archie outside of the game about where I should head exactly with my choice, as he would be able to run down all of the numbers and help me make the right decision. ¡°Hey, what¡¯s going on there?¡± The feminine voice of Kayla drew me out of my musings as I noticed on my mini map that we were finally approaching the town between the two instances. ¡°Is that¡­ Is that a troll?¡± She squinted her eyes while looking farther down the road, bringing my own focus towards the area she was watching. It was quite a way off yet, but the fact that something large was attacking a group of people was quite obvious. The road we were walking along was fairly straight and level with trees lining the wide avenue on either side, the view ahead and behind us was clear. ¡°Looks like we should pick up the speed and get a better look before this ends. If that is a pack of NPCs from the town, then we should help them out and reap any extra rewards that could be had.¡± I grinned at my friends and took off in a straight sprint, holding nothing back and using my agility score to its full potential. Really, it was quite a fun experience to run that fast. Like a shot from a gun I launched forward at max speed, the trees flashing by rapidly as I ran. A glance back showed me Archie not too far behind me, his own high agility granting him a movement speed nearly on par with my own. Looking back ahead of me showed that I was rapidly closing in on the action just outside of the town, the sounds of combat reaching me now. Kayla was right, it was a troll that was being attacked by a pack of town guards, or maybe it was a group of guards being attacked by a troll¡­ Semantics. The battle was quite lopsided though as the troll was regenerating health almost as fast as it was taking it. Well, can¡¯t let that keep going on or it would wipe out the guards in the end. Judging the distance as well as I could, I triggered Temporal Step to close the distance that much faster. With the world around me frozen, I got a good look at the situation without limbs and weapons flailing around. What I saw wasn¡¯t good for the guards though¡­ Most of the six NPCs were missing half of their health while the troll was still mostly full. My skill ended while I was still a short distance away, but that just gave me time to ready my scythe and sweep it around with a powerful charging strike. I nearly stopped moving when the health of the troll dropped by half just from the one strike! To the troll¡¯s credit, in the bare moment I gaped at the result of my attack, its health already started to climb once more. Setting my grip, I settled into my normal flurry of attacks at speed and activated True Haste on top of it for the added boost. The health bar began to drop rapidly, though the damage wasn¡¯t nearly as great as my first attack. I would have to check the logs after the fight, but that must have been a major crit to have wiped out that much HP in one go. The troll regenerated 5% HP per second, but I was easily able to outpace that rate and when Archie made it to my side and started in with his own attacks, the monster fell easily. Between two well geared damage dealers left to do their job, the beast had no chance even with a massive regen rate. Kayla was just running up to us by the time the battle was over, her movement speed much lower than mine and Archie¡¯s. I looked around at the town guards, eyeing their HP levels before spotting the one who was marked as a sergeant. ¡°Greetings Sergeant. Glad to see we could make it in time before any of your men got too roughed up.¡± I smiled at the NPC, this whole situation smelling like a perfect quest opportunity. All I needed to do was talk well and the guards should offer up some task or another that would help the town and give us some good rewards. The tall man ran a hand across his brow to brush away a sheen of sweat, his bearded face looking me over critically. ¡°Aye, you did indeed make a big difference. Trolls are nasty creatures.¡± He kicked the troll¡¯s corpse followed up by spitting on the slain enemy in hatred. ¡°These buggers ¡®ave been harassing us for a while now and we¡¯ve only a vague idea of where they are coming from.¡± It was surprising that the troll didn¡¯t despawn after it died, but I figured it was a quest mob and was coded to remain for storyline purposes. ¡°Anyway, I s¡¯pose you folks want to enter the town now and go about your business, eh?¡± At our words of affirmation, he nodded his head. ¡°Right then, go on. Swing by the headman¡¯s house ¡®fore you leave, I will ¡®ave a guard fill him in on what ya did for us.¡± ¡°Sure thing, will do that. Thanks and good luck Sergeant.¡± I waved at him then rounded the stinking corpse to enter the town. The battle had been fought a mere twenty feet outside of the pathetic excuse for a town wall. Said barrier was merely a large number of roughly hewn stakes driven into the ground with a patchwork scaffolding built on the inner side of the wall to fend off any attackers. In all, the thing would probably not even hold up to a full minute of me pounding on it. Good thing this was only a stepping stone town in the large scheme of things. Our first stop in town was a merchant to offload all of our drops both from the dungeon and my gains from the group of PKers. Their loot was average quality at best, nothing standing out to me in the end as they didn¡¯t even have any jewelry on them. That wasn¡¯t too out of the ordinary however, as most jewelry was rated for higher level players. I was lucky with my gains thus far getting what I did as quest rewards and such. I checked out the item list of what the merchant had for sale, but there was nothing worthwhile in the stock and left with my new pile of gold. In all, I was feeling rather rich in the game if I added in the gold Archie and Kayla owed me. After all was said and done, there was a total of 148 gold to my name at the moment. That gave me high hopes of buying a set of plate armor as soon as I find a good set, at least if we didn¡¯t find drops of it in the next instance. Selling bender done and out of the way, we headed over to the Headman¡¯s place in order to see what exactly we were going to gain from saving the guards. The structure before me was in decent repair, made from stone unlike the wooden buildings mostly dominating the town, and had a second story on it compared to all of the other buildings which were single story. The main drawback I saw to it was the garish bright green pain coating the outer walls. At least it made the building stand out¡­ Yeah, the less said about that the better in all actuality. Such terrible design features for some reason made me quite¡­ Aggravated. Call it a terrible personality quirk, but such things truly drove me nuts. Pushing aside my complete distaste for the building as a whole, I approached and knocked on the wooden door that was the front entrance. A male voice reverberated through the door with an, ¡°I¡¯m coming!¡± A mere few seconds later, the equally ugly green door opened up to reveal a large barrel chested man with a thick black beard and not a single hair on the top of his head. He appeared older, but not any later than his late 40¡¯s or so if I was to judge. ¡°Ah, the heroes of Rudnan!¡± His deep voice was loud and powerful, the tone of his words implying he was used to being obeyed without question as he stepped back and motioned us in. ¡°Paul told me how you helped him and his boys out with the troll that attacked the walls. You have my utmost thanks for that little feat, by the way!¡± I put two and two together and figured Paul was the Sergeant we dealt with outside of the gates and nodded my head with a smile. ¡°Yes, we did our best to help out the soldiers in need. I am Calamity, and these are Zexceed and Serena.¡± I took a seat when the headman offered such, settling in on a soft and comfortable couch. ¡°But tell me, from what I gathered these trolls appear fairly often. Where are they all coming from?¡± Like hell I was going to let this kind of side quest get away from me. Saving a town from constant attack was the kind of thing that nets a player more fame, and I was oh so close to a thousand already! The stat wasn¡¯t explained much for this game, but judging from what I had seen of it and taking ideas from previous experience told me I would be able to access better quests with a higher fame rank. In any case, it was part of the main stat page, so it was guaranteed to be important at the least. ¡°Ah, Paul was speaking too freely again. He was not wrong, however.¡± The older man settled into an arm chair and sighed, a hand rubbing over his face. ¡°We have been plagued by these monsters for some time now, and despite sending out our soldiers to try and deal with the issue we have no solution. Every time our men get close to where these things are coming from, a dozen or so trolls pop up and run them off. We are a small settlement here, not a lot of spare men we can just throw away in order to end this threat, but something must be done.¡± He paused his words, eyeing our group carefully. ¡°But, you lot seemed to have dealt with the troll at the gates easily enough just by yourselves. Maybe, just maybe, I can persuade you three to take a look at our problem here and do what you can? The exact cause and location are beyond my knowledge, but we do have a starting grounds on where to look at the least.¡±
Quest Received! Defending Rudnan The small town of Rudnan has been plagued by the threat of trolls in recent times. The headman has asked you to look into the source of these troubles and to do what you can to alleviate the town¡¯s woes. Speak more with the headman for further details regarding the information previously collected. Rewards: variable
Variable rewards from a quest like this? What the hell is the AI thinking? There aren¡¯t even any definitions as to what needs to be done to get the best rewards! At least in my previous quests I had a set outline of what was required to complete the quest fully and get the best benefits. Bah¡­ No helping it now, I supposed. I dismissed the notification and focused back on the man who gave me the quest in the first place. ¡°Of course. My friends and I will do what we can for the town. First, though¡­ Please tell us what you have found out so far. Any information you have that can help will be of great use.¡± Clapping his hands together, the headman grinned in pleasure and nodded at us. ¡°Of course!¡± He settled back in his chair and got comfortable, a weight seeming to lift off his shoulders after passing off the task to us. ¡°We have found that the trolls are approaching from the east. Our scouts are only able to make it about three miles into the forest there before the bogs and trolls become too numerous to advance further. We are thinking that those bogs are the spawning grounds of these beasts and they are trying to expand their area of influence to make way for more of their numbers.¡± He stopped speaking and snapped his fingers, a thought seeming to come to him as he sat up a bit once more. ¡°Ah yes! I nearly forgot! Our local alchemist has developed a poison to use against the trolls just recently that will slow the regeneration rate of the trolls greatly. We have very limited numbers of this substance, but I am sure we can spare some for you folks in order to clear out this threat. Please, stop by Alton¡¯s shop and tell him I said to give you a few doses for your adventures.¡± Kayla grinned at the idea of having an extra edge on the trolls when we faced them. ¡°That will be perfect, thank you! Have you been able to get around the bogs by circling about the long way?¡± It was a good idea, and honestly I was planning on asking it myself if she hadn¡¯t beaten me to the punch. ¡°No, we have not bothered. To circle around would be a trip of over a week in order to gather that information.¡± The old man sighed and shrugged his shoulders in apology. ¡°We cannot afford to send off a scout that far away with so little a chance of success for our forces. As I said, we are not so numerous that we can throw lives away. I am sorry we cannot offer you any more assistance than this, but we are a small town after all. Any other questions before I need to get back to work, Outlanders?¡±Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. I glanced to the others, but they just shook their heads and I waved off the headman. ¡°No, I think we will be able to manage alright as things stand. Thank you for your time.¡± Really, I was more than happy with how things were going. We got a decent quest that appeared to be in the direction we were heading anyway, so we would be able to knock it out on our journey to clear out the next instance. Extra rewards were never something I was able to say no to. After exiting the headman¡¯s house, we made our way to the aforementioned alchemist shop and picked up our batches of wounding poison. It was pretty basic stuff, reducing all natural regeneration of the poisoned target by 75% for 30 minutes, useless in most situations but perfect for what we were going up against next. In all, we got four vials each of the poison and each of us slipped a pair of vials into our quick access slots. Those vials would be more than effective in taking out the trolls quickly. With all of our preparations done, we made our way out of the village and off towards the woods in the direction of the map marker. Right after leaving the ramshackle gates, I pulled open my combat logs and cycled through to find that massive crit I had scored on the troll. Upon finding the correct spot, I blinked and whistled softly at the damage I caused. Damage Dealt: 1134 (94 weapon damage + 67.5 Str modifier + 31.5 Mastery + 22.05 Blooded Tactician + 15.75 Soul Reaper bonus X 5 massive crit). That was just insane! In one strike, I did enough damage to kill my own character even factoring in the armor I had if it were a PvP setting! Thankfully, PvE combat didn¡¯t account for natural armor on mobs, and only added in defenses based on what equipment a mob would be wearing. Since the troll was dressed in what amounted to a loincloth, that meant zero armor to soften the blow I dealt to it. I tapped an icon on the screen to make it visible to other players and turned so that Archie could see the line in my logs. ¡°Ha! Check this one out. My highest damage hit yet I think.¡± He came over to look, all three Fairies floating over to see the odd screen floating in the air and read the lines. Archie let out a low whistle comparable to my own at the text and shook his head. ¡°Dude, that is a BS hit right there¡­ Whatever hacks you are using, I want them.¡± He grinned at me, knowing there was no way in hell I was able to be using any kind of hacking system in this game. There was no way to code together something that sophisticated in the time since the game went live on hardware that was well beyond anything seen before. Celeste and Aly both sniffed in unison as they crossed arms over their chests, noses turned up in evident disdain as Celeste spoke up. ¡°Oh please¡­ I have seen Serena take bigger hits from bosses and shrug them off like they were nothing.¡± She turned towards me and poked a finger into the tip of my nose. ¡°You want to impress us? Deal a significant portion of damage to her and then come back to gloat!¡± All three females fell into laughter at the tiny Fairy¡¯s words, leaving Archie, Fallon and myself staring at each other. ¡°You know¡­¡± Archie started, eyes darting to the women who were still giggling, ¡°Even though the numbers are technically equal here when it comes to males versus females, I still feel like we are outnumbered.¡± I snorted a laugh at my friend and clapped him on the shoulder. ¡°Ain¡¯t that the truth! Hell, we could have five more guys here and still feel that way!¡± I shot another glare at the women and picked up the pace of our travel a bit, dragging Archie along with me. ¡°Some things will never change. Like letting us have our pride, for example.¡± Now it was Kayla¡¯s turn to let out a snort as she hurried to catch up, Fairies floating over her shoulders. ¡°Yeah right. Wouldn¡¯t that imply having something to be proud about in the first place?¡± She smirked at me, causing a laugh from all of us at the ribbing. The good-natured teasing was always one of the best things about gaming with my friends, and none of it was really said in seriousness when it came to making fun of one another. ¡°Touch¨¦! Your words strike true and to the quick as usual, my beautiful companion.¡± I grinned and made a mock bow to her, to which I received a swift kick to my shin in return. ¡°Don¡¯t give me that bullshit. We both know you carry enough pride in that inflated head of yours to afford losing a bit of it.¡± She whirled around and poked a finger into Archie¡¯s chest with an evil smile as he chuckled. ¡°And don¡¯t think I forgot about you there Zex. Just remember who knows all of your darkest secrets when it comes to the women in your life. I am sure some of our faithful viewers would love to hear some horror stories.¡± A panicked look came over his face at that threat, and his hands shot up to wave back and forth. ¡°No, no! I am good. Don¡¯t need to air that dirty laundry out and about for all the world to see.¡± He grinned and slipped an arm around Kayla¡¯s shoulders as we walked. ¡°Besides, I can always fill Calamity and the world in on some of your escapades in revenge! It was a two-way street for all of these years, don¡¯t forget!¡± He gave a dark laugh for a second, then yelped in pain as a booted foot crashed down onto his toes. ¡°I swear to all that is holy, if you even so much as whisper anything about what I have told you I will send you for respawn for the remainder of your time in this game!¡± Her face held a glare that could freeze flames, while at the same time her cheeks burned a bright red knowing he could indeed spill some of her deepest embarrassing secrets. I laughed at the pair, knowing neither of them would actually ever breathe a word about what they had shared between themselves over the years. I even had a few of those stories about both of them myself, some I was sure were even told only to me. Once more it came down to the fact that I would never betray their trust and share those stories though. ¡°Alright children, behave and play nice. We are coming up on the waypoint marker soon and need to get serious.¡± I glanced at my UI and noted the time. We had a little over two hours before hitting the five hour marker and I wanted to get this first dungeon clear out of the way tonight. We had aired our location way too much for my comfort levels, and the last thing I wanted was for some scrubs to swoop in and take our first clear bonus. I was just about to continue speaking when a chime sounded and a system message popped up in my view.
Attention All Players! At 1:00 AM Server time, the game will institute a forced log out for any players still within the game in order to apply the first patch. A few changes are coming to Realm of Infinity with this update, all of which can be found on the official forums, with the most prominent being the first Server Dungeon Reset! Our AIs will randomly select several already explored dungeons and remove them from the game in order to open up more fresh experiences for the players. Only instances without quests attached to them will ever be part of this initiative, so do not fret if you have an active quest line tied to an existing dungeon as it will be unaffected. Please see the Forums for more information. From all the staff at Dumadine Technology, Thanks for playing!
I dismissed the message, and noticed an alert near the clock on my UI indicating the system shutdown. Nifty bit, that. Should make things a lot easier to time properly if the game gave this level of notification at the very least. We had plenty of time to clear the dungeon before the update time, and hopefully neither of the two instances we knew about would be moved. It would suck to have our planned grinding locations taken away so soon after discovery, but I hoped the system would recognize that these two dungeons were still too freshly opened to be replaced just yet. As if sensing my worries, Kayla huffed and walked past me towards the waypoint marker. ¡°Stop fretting over what may or may not happen guys. They might just be putting this in place now for future use seeing as there are only about eight instances opened up at the moment from all I have gathered. People are finding them quickly between yesterday and today, and we are not the only ones with the Dungeon Raider skill.¡± She glanced back at me and Archie, a smile curling the corners of her mouth. ¡°Let¡¯s take care of this problem first, then deal with what comes tomorrow!¡± Archie and I shared a look then we each chuckled lightly, our feet carrying us forward again. My friend shrugged and chimed in as he pulled ahead of me slightly. ¡°Hard to argue with a beautiful woman who keeps the baddies off of my ass!¡± That did the job of making all of us laugh as we proceeded further into the woods, the scenery slowly changing as the trees here looked like they were dying or already dead. Overall the feeling was turning into quite the creepy place. Then the stench hit us as the wind shifted to blow lightly into our faces. Fetid smells of rotting foliage and dank waters washed over us just in time to see the landscape change from a mere forest to that of a bog with strips of land running just above the water¡¯s surface, trees hanging thick with strange vines growing right up out of the water itself. All of us stopped to take in the view of the area, the mini map of my UI showing we were at the waypoint marker for the trolls quest, the dungeon marker showing we still had a bit more land to cover though. Islands dotted the waters connected by raised paths of solid ground, some of those paths obviously ending in dead ends to make crossing this area a bit of a maze. Trolls apparently called this area home as they were interspersed across the land bridges and islands everywhere we could see. I pulled my scythe off my shoulder and grinned at the other two. ¡°Well, at least the scenery is different from what we have dealt with thus far! I will take what blessings I can out of this situation.¡± Looking ahead again, it seemed like the land bridges were wide enough for two people to walk side by side in most places, some parts wider or smaller. ¡°I think our best bet would be to push those trolls on the narrow parts back to an island so we can surround them and do our thing. If this is like other games, I would suggest avoiding the water as much as possible. Probably some nasty things hiding in there to make a meal out of anyone dumb enough to take a dip.¡± Archie grinned and buffed us up with his armor spell, then created his spiked knuckles out of moonlight before applying the poison to them. ¡°Right then, let¡¯s get this party started! I want to see what kind of dungeon we will be delving into next!¡± Despite his apparent haste, he still noticeably waited for Kayla to take the lead as she hefted her shield in her right hand, axe ready in the left. When she passed him, Kayla rolled her eyes in his direction. ¡°What? I just prefer the sight of your ass to that of the bog here!¡± That brought Kayla up short, her body starting to spin around to put the hurt to Archie when I intervened and stepped between the two. ¡°Yes yes, we get it. Zex is an ass and your maidenly honor has been impugned. Beat each other up later after we have done what we came here for.¡± That seemed to mollify Kayla for a moment, right up until I had to put in one final comment. ¡°Although I do have to say the view is indeed much better from this position when compared to the surroundings.¡± ¡°Men!¡± Kayla¡¯s exasperated voice was the only response as Archie and I laughed at her expense, the woman marching forward onto one of the paths heading towards the islands. As if to remind us of her capability, she lifted her shield and bashed one troll hard enough to send it stumbling backwards onto the first island. She followed it up with a heavy chop from her axe, the poison on the blade making an icon pop up next to its name to indicate that its regen was slowed considerably. With a chuckle, I dodged around to the rear of the troll and started slicing into it with my own weapon as Archie took up position at the creature¡¯s side to deliver sharp punches to the exposed portions of the torso. With the concentrated attacks of the three of us, the mob fell quickly with little in the way of damage done to our lady tank. As soon as it fell, I noticed a new problem¡­ As if sensing us here in their home turf, a large number of trolls began making their lumbering way towards us from all around. ¡°Well shit¡­ It appears as if dinner has arrived and we are the main course. Zex, crunch the mental numbers quick. Stay here and fight them off at an island or make a break for the dungeon and only deal with the ones we can¡¯t avoid?¡± Reaching up with one hand to adjust his non-existent glasses, Archie glanced about quickly in thought. ¡°Staying here would actually be the worst idea¡­ It takes us too long to deal with one troll to tangle with being surrounded by them on an island. It would actually be safer to find a narrow strip of land bridge so they can only come at us in singles or pairs at most.¡± He shot a look to the cloudy waters all around and shivered slightly. ¡°But at the same time, we run the risk of falling into the bog and finding out just how deep it is.¡± I followed his gaze and nodded, shadows of something nasty under the water causing ripples to spread out from the beast just under the surface. ¡°Right, we run for it. Serena, you get the lead as usual. Try and go for bashing attacks to send them into the water instead of direct confrontation. For now at least¡­¡± One look around to make sure my friends were ready, and I slapped Kayla¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Go!¡± At my word, she darted forward onto the path leading to the next island in our way. I followed right behind her, Archie on my heels as we ran. There was only one troll in the way on the narrow trail, and a hard swing of Kayla¡¯s shield sent the mob stumbling to the side and into the water. I watched in dark fascination as the troll flailed and struggled, those large dark shadows under the water converging on the creature and dragging it under in an instant, only bubbles and turbulence indicating it was ever there. When we made the next island, Archie pointed off slightly to the right. ¡°There! Keep going and don¡¯t slow down. They are not far behind us!¡± On the trail he pointed to, there was two more trolls steadily making their way towards us. That didn¡¯t stop Kayla from following the orders though, and she adjusted her run to collide with the newest obstacles. The shield trick worked again on the first one to similar end, but the second troll was apparently smarter and braced himself for the hit and didn¡¯t take a dive into the bog. What the mob didn¡¯t expect, and honestly neither did I, was Archie jumping up and walking over our shoulders to kick the troll in the side of the head hard enough to send it tumbling into the water on the other side of the first one. Hey, whatever solution works really. He jumped down between myself and Kayla and gave her a push forward to keep us moving. ¡°This is fun! Are we there yet?¡± I had to laugh at him and shake my head as we moved ahead, bashing trolls out of our way and dealing with the couple we couldn¡¯t avoid on the islands. The monsters fell to our attacks quick enough once we got the poison into them, but every time we were delayed the remaining trolls moved ever closer. I was sure our exp gain was severely hindered with these tactics, but being surrounded by dozens of trolls would spell our deaths out here so it was a trade-off I was willing to live with. Live being the operative word there¡­ The last thing I wanted was to go into a new dungeon with debuffs from death and an exp penalty to overcome. Once we finished the instance I would be more than happy to spend a couple hours tearing into the rather large number of trolls living here, but that had to wait for now. From my position at the rear of our train I didn¡¯t notice our goal approaching ahead of us, my eyes keeping our rear covered in case any of our new friends decided to crawl up our asses. That would have been a bad kind of surprise and I had to deal with a couple such encounters, either killing them or knocking them into the water to the sides. Thus when I collided into Archie¡¯s back, I cursed and actually looked ahead of us and blinked. How I missed coming up on this structure I have no idea, but the large dilapidated castle before me was surely the instance we needed to clear out. Rather impressive in size, though the location of the structure had something to be desired, the castle had those odd vines crawling up the sides of the stone walls dark with grime and age. Situated on a massive island in the middle of the bog, we had come up to the castle slightly off center and needed to walk along the walls for a short distance in order to find the portal into the instance. With a host of trolls dogging our tails, the three of us leapt through the portal and phased into the instance itself, a message box popping up before our eyes.
Congratulations! You have found an unexplored instance! Rewards for being the first players to clear this dungeon have been improved until the final boss has been killed or the instance is reset. Should you die while in the instance, you will be respawned at the entrance after half the appropriate amount of time. Good luck!
26) Castle crawl As soon as we got inside the dungeon, one phrase came to mind immediately. Out of the frying pan and into the fire¡­ The first area of a dungeon was supposed to be a sacred place free of problems where a group could gather up and prepare themselves without hassle. Apparently, nobody told the devs and AIs about that since we were directly beset upon by a pair of skeletal guards wearing mail armor and wielding halberds. Level 16 Undead Guards, their weapons slashed out to catch Kayla and Archie with their attacks. Kayla¡¯s defense score was easily able to shrug off the brunt of the attack, but poor Archie took a solid 20% of his HP in that one strike with a cry of surprise and pain from the man. It had all happened so quick that I didn¡¯t even have time to slow down, so I used my momentum to my advantage. Turning to the side slightly where the Guard was, I leapt up and kicked out to strike the skeleton in the chest, sending the mob stumbling back a few steps from the force of my blow. Once my feet were back on the ground I spun my scythe around and slashed out at the kicked Guard to score a solid blow against the mob for a good chunk of damage. ¡°You two alright over there?¡± The clang of metal on metal accompanied the call from our female companion as she dealt an exchange of blows with the Guard on her side of the dungeon entrance. A quick glance over at her showed that she was handling her mob with ease, the undead not being able to really break through her armor rating very well. ¡°Yeah, Zex and I got this one alright.¡± Focusing back on my own target, I activated True Haste to increase my attack speed more and tore into the slower Guard that regained its balance. The battle didn¡¯t last long, Archie helping me finish off my mob and then spinning to deliver a quick combo of punches to drop the one Kayla was dealing with. These two mobs seemed fairly weak, at least in terms of what I assumed a level 16 mob should be, and were probably just here to keep players on their toes. ¡°Okay, that is some serious BS¡­ Who puts mobs right inside of the entrance of a dungeon?¡± Archie¡¯s grumbles were low but still loud enough to hear easily. ¡°I mean seriously, what the fuck.¡± He rubbed at his arm where the skeleton¡¯s halberd scored on his character, the memory of the surprising pain still fresh in his mind. Yeah, the pain sensitivity was a lot lower than real life, but the surprise of the sudden feeling was sure to be a shock for anyone when it was unexpected. Kayla walked up and poked him in the ribs with a gauntleted finger, a smirk on her face. ¡°Oh suck it up sissy. Now you know what I deal with every damn encounter! How about you tank these fuckers for a while and then I will deal with your bitching and moaning about a bit of pain.¡± I chuckled at them and shook my head, turning to look around us and figure out where we were now. The room we were in was a through-way to the interior courtyard of the keep, a portcullis just ahead of us dropped down and blocking the path that way. Torches burned on brackets on either side of the wide path, a single door set into the wall on the right where I figured arriving guests to the castle would enter in order to await their audience with the lord of the keep. The dark stone all around was dark and weathered, smooth with age and covered by dust and grime as if not having been cleaned in ages. Well, that was to be expected if this place was staffed by undead. Peering through the portcullis into the courtyard, I could see a stable set up along the far wall with a few other buildings spread out in the surprisingly large area. The whole area looked to be almost a perfect square, the walls of the keep proper rising up all around the open section, keeping the inner area secure from all outside threats. ¡°Right then. Shall we get this show on the road?¡± Kayla grinned at myself and Archie, stepping over to the only door leading into the castle itself that we could access at the time. The door opened easily, albeit with a screeching of the hinges, and revealed a waiting room of sorts. Plush chairs and small tables dotted the room, all of it a bit rough looking thanks to the age of the furniture. Judging by the appearance of some of the seats, they would probably have fallen apart if I decided to test them out. Contrary to everything else in the room, the large fireplace set in the wall held a large burning pile of wood to light the room and throwing shadows everywhere. Weapons at the ready, we all looked around the room as we walked to the middle of the floor. Archie looked like he had to suppress a shiver as he spoke, ¡°This place is creepy as fuck. We should hurry up and try to speed run this thing¡­ Less time spent here the better.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know, I think this place is cool.¡± I stated that while taking in all of the details of the ancient keep. Truly it was interesting to me seeing the level of details put into the crafting of this castle by the devs. ¡°Then again, I remember you never could handle a good horror movie.¡± Archie¡¯s glare at me brought a laugh from me before I smirked at him and shrugged. ¡°But anyway, you are right. Let¡¯s try to beat our time from the last dungeon and see if we get a noticeable increase of rewards.¡± I pointed my scythe at a door leading deeper into the castle and nodded at Kayla. ¡°After you, my dear.¡± ¡°Awww, such a gentleman!¡± The sarcasm lacing her voice made me laugh again as she moved to the indicated door and pulled it open, sticking her head through to take a look. Pulling back, she turned towards Archie and waved him forward. ¡°Hallway. Zex, time to stealth and scout. Move quick!¡± She grinned and kicked him in the ass lightly as he went by, a laugh coming from the man as he ducked past and faded from view. She next tapped me with her shield and tilted her head to motion me through the door. ¡°Come on, time to wreck an instance.¡± She grinned at me, a happy sparkle in her eye. ¡°Besides, if this whole place is undead, I might be able to do some real damage with Celeste here!¡± ¡°Heh, well then try and keep up on the damage charts, Miss Tank.¡± I slipped past her before she could make any more comments and moved swiftly down the hallway. Candle holders lined the walls to provide light for us, even if it wasn¡¯t the best for brightness, and revealed faded paintings and wall hangings lining the hall. It was only two minutes before Archie¡¯s voice carried over the party chat, tone sounding excited at the prospects of combat. ¡°Here we go folks. Hang a left at the next intersection, right is a dead end to an empty guestroom with nothing interesting, and I am about thirty feet down. Found a room that looks to be a dining hall, two packs of skeletons here. Have an interesting set up though¡­ Four are more Guards but with sword and board and the rest look like nobles, only long dead and rotted.¡± ¡°Got it. Will be on you in a moment, then we will take a look and see where we stand.¡± Indeed, Kayla and myself were not far behind Archie and quickly closed the gap between us without difficulty. I poked my head around the doorway and took in the sight of the large room in order to make plans. Long tables that could sit about twenty people each were arranged in a U shape with hanging candelabras covered in crystal scattering light over the whole room. There was no food anywhere in sight, but two Guards stood on either side of the head table where three of those noblemen sat, staring at nothing and not moving. The rest of the nobles were sitting at a table close to us along one of the arms of the U shape. Eight in all, I inspected them and found out that they were indeed Undead Nobles. Nothing interesting came up with the details, but I figured we would be better off pulling this pack and see what they could do before dealing with the Guards. Outlining the basic plan to the others, I tapped Kayla on the shoulder to send her into the room and draw the attention of the closest undead. Aggro range in the game was easy enough to figure out, as a mob would raise its head and stare at you when you got near the edge of its range, then would attack when you took another step beyond that. As real as the game felt in most senses, it was still just a set program of algorithms and code. Once you figure it out, the rest just becomes simple enough. Kayla stepped into the large room and lifted her shield up in front of her, axe pointing at one of the closer nobles and casting a healing spell on it. The gold glow encompassed the mob, a shrill shriek emitting from it as the creature¡¯s health dropped by half instantly. Whipping their heads about, all eight of the closer undead jumped rather spryly to their feet and darted towards our tank, giving Archie and myself time to spread out to the sides and wait. We didn¡¯t have to wait long until the nobles crashed into Kayla. While they didn¡¯t have proper weapons, their fingers were sharp as hell and scraped loudly across her plate armor, though did little in the way of damage to Kayla. With the mobs all focused on her, Archie and I stepped up and started doing our jobs. Fists covered in a softly glowing silver hue shaped into spikes darted about, breaking bones audibly with every strike as I twirled my scythe about and laid into the backs and sides of the lightly armored nobles. A few flashes of golden light told me Kayla was flinging more healing spells about and wreaking havoc on the pack of undead. Thank the devs that they didn¡¯t alter that common mechanic in games where a healing spell on the undead deals damage instead. With such a feature in place, the first pack of mobs dropped easily and in only twenty seconds. ¡°Right, so these nobles are the trash of trash mobs, Guards a bit more effective, and I will go out on a limb here and say that we will soon run into packs that are more formidable.¡± As Archie spoke, he seemed to be focused on something I couldn¡¯t see, probably checking his inventory for any loot that dropped and was automatically picked up by my skill. With a grunt of disappointment, he turned back to the remaining mobs in the room and waved Kayla ahead. ¡°Draw the Guards on to you, Calamity and I will wipe out the Nobles and then focus one Guard at a time. Conserve mana for this fight, Kayla, until we figure out how hard these Guards hit.¡± ¡°On it!¡± She jumped forward and into the aggro range of one set of Guards. They quickly raised their shields and drew swords, approaching Kayla even as she jogged up to them and swung her axe to fully secure their attention. The other Guards and the Nobles all started approaching Kayla as well, and I took advantage of aggro mechanics to activate Temporal Step. With the second pair of Guards already drawn to Kayla, they would pass right by me unless I attacked them to draw their attention. That in mind, I used the time my skill was active in order to move behind the Nobles and swung my weapon around to slash all three, bringing me to the top of their threat list. All three Nobles turned and swiped their clawed hands at me, only one actually being close enough to score on my armor and dealing a couple percentage points of damage to me. It wasn¡¯t a lot, but if I let them attack for long it would all add up quickly enough, not that I planned on giving them that chance. ¡°Zex, help me here with two then mark up the Guards and set order for me to join!¡± I wasn¡¯t inactive while I spoke, gaining two more hits on each of the undead before me to shave off more of their health. These mobs were fairly weak, trash to suffocate with numbers and take up space to make the players spend more time in the instance, but that didn¡¯t mean they could be ignored. Two to three percent damage a hit was enough to make any player fall if they just stood there and took the abuse. By the time Archie and I finished with our small group of friends, Kayla had all four Guards focused intensely on herself. As I had asked him, after helping drop two of the nobles he had spun and marked the four important mobs and started in on one of them quickly, leaving me to catch up to him and help with the rest. Our group worked like a well-oiled machine, time spent playing with and against each other over the years shining through once more as we systematically dropped mob after mob until none were left standing with minimal damage received from the enemies. Dusting his hands off, Archie grinned then gave a jaunty salute before fading from view to move up and scout ahead again. A glance at the clock showed us being in the instance for only a few minutes so far, which suited me just fine, and had plenty of time before our five hour warning would sound. We could always ignore the warning if it came down to it, but I hoped that we would be able to wrap this instance up in less than the time we had remaining. The game wouldn¡¯t kick us out, but as paid employees of Dumadine Technology we had to set an example of following the suggested play time parameters as much as possible.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. If those of us who were streaming logged out for a time every five hours, our viewers would see that as standard practice and most would follow suit with the habit. Monkey see, monkey do. Perhaps a bit simplistic in my thinking, but I had yet to see much that changed my views on the world as a whole when it came to public personalities. Even look at the actors and actresses of the world. They wear a certain style of clothing and then half the population is sporting the same look a week later. Humans were impressionable creatures and it was our job now to put a good practice for playing habits out into the world. My current goal in life was to enjoy the game while at the same time making more people want to play it, and play responsibly. If people started losing their jobs or getting ill from this game, then public opinion of it would drop and then I would end up losing my job. Can¡¯t have that happening, now could I? Kayla and I had followed behind Archie slowly, giving our friend enough time to scout the area ahead and report his findings. The result of his latest excursion turned out to be him running back towards us, yelling in party chat at the top of his lungs. ¡°Incoming pat! Ran into a squad of guards and they saw me!¡± Pat referred to ¡®patrol¡¯ or a group of mobs that moved along a pre-set route, another common feature of game dungeons that we didn¡¯t see in the first instance we completed. We were just at an intersection when Archie¡¯s voice came through, and Kayla nodded despite him not being able to see her. ¡°Got it, we will set an ambush here for them. Keep them close to you and draw them back. As soon as you pass our hallway I will jump out and grab them up, you and Calamity do your thing. Mark and burn.¡± Luckily for us, the halls were fairly wide and would allow us to deal with the mobs without much effort in terms of the confines. Six people could easily walk side by side through the corridors, more than that if they bunched up some. ¡°Good plan, four seconds out.¡± After the said time had passed, Archie darted past our hall from which Kayla instantly stepped out and swung her shield around to catch the first Guard in the face with it. A loud clang filled the air as the impact dropped the mob flat onto its back and dealt a large portion of damage to it. Must have been a crit for such a result, not that I was complaining. Archie wasn¡¯t merely running when he was leading the group to us, and each mob already sported a glowing icon above their heads to indicate the kill order. Efficient as always, my old friend. With all the attention firmly on Kayla now, Archie and I turned our own focus on the kill priority and settled into a minute and a half of battle with the eight Guards. Kayla had to stay on the defensive for the most part, as these mobs sported swords and shields but still managed to put out a good bit of damage to the tank. Every hit she received that wasn¡¯t intercepted with her shield shaved off a few more percentage of her health, causing her to cast a heal on herself every fifteen seconds. Thankfully the undead mobs hated the holy magic enough to really want the woman dead and completely ignored the men dropping them one after another. When the last of the mobs fell we took a short break to regen our mana and energy, then proceeded to rinse and repeat the practice. Room after room, hall after hall, we cleared every mob we ran across in a timely fashion. We were making good progress through the trash packs, when we stumbled across the first boss of this dungeon. A Guard room separated us from this wing of the castle and the next, two doors leading out of this room of which I assumed one lead into the courtyard while the other went to the next wing. A tall skeleton was in the middle of the room, a two handed bastard sword slung across his back, and surrounded by six more Guards with swords and shields. ¡°Well then, looks like a straight forward fight to me. Shall we get it rolling and see what comes of it?¡± Kayla raised an eyebrow at us in question to which Archie shrugged his reply and I merely nodded. No information was available on this dungeon yet, so we had to figure out the encounters as we went. Again though, I wasn¡¯t complaining much. This was one of the more exciting parts of playing games for me. Running into a new encounter that had every possibility to surprise me, then figuring out the mechanics and surpassing the boss was always a rush for a gamer like myself and made the prospects of playing a brand new game that much more fun. Seeing that we were all ready, Kayla gave a giddy laugh and moved forward with shield raised to start the fight. I quickly marked up the smaller Guards to take out first, my plan being to wipe the small fry and only leave us the one big guy, and then quickly jumped ahead to attack the first target. Archie joined me, and suddenly it was like clockwork. Once Guard fell, followed swiftly by another, then two more. Kayla was taking a thrashing from the Captain with large sword, but held out easily enough with her Celestial Fairy pouring in heals. In under two minutes, Archie and I had all six Guards down and out, leaving us only the Captain. Turning our attention to him, we were surprised to see Kayla had already dropped him down to 75% HP! She must have spent some mana on using her Holy spells on him while we were taking out the Guards. Well, that should make the whole fight easier now in that case. I had refrained from using my mana thus far on skills in order to save it for emergencies, but this fight was looking straight forward so I activated my True Haste in order to rain blows on the Captain. Archie joined me, and the bosses HP began dropping steadily under the combined onslaught. Everything was going well for a short time, Kayla was able to withstand all the Captain¡¯s attacks easily enough and both Archie and myself were heaping on the DPS. That is, right up until the boss hit the 50% HP mark. With a yell and flourish, the Captain spun a full circle and slashed all around to knock all of us back ten feet in one go while dealing minimal damage. Seemed the skill was more to make room than to hurt us. With room to maneuver, the boss spun and ran to one of the doors, bursting through it to reveal the courtyard beyond. While we all got back to our feet, I watched the Captain run towards the stable, a shrill whistle escaping his lips. In reply to that call, a hellish scream similar to that of a horse echoed from the wooden structure. What emerged from the stable could hardly be called a mere horse however. So black that it looked to be made directly from shadow, the beast had purple flames for a mane and tail, more tufts of violet flames at the hooves. Eyes shone a glowing purple with a thin reptilian slit pupil that burned red instead of black. I froze in shock as I used my Inspect skill for details on the creature.
Nightmare Stallion Level: 17 HP: ? Nightmares are made from taking a pure Unicorn and twisting the soul with dark magic to produce a creature of pure hatred. The process has only ever occurred once, making the original Nightmare Queen, but her children are all nearly as vile as the mother. This creature was born of the flesh of the Nightmare Queen and given to Lord Hashrom as a gift when he signed away his soul to the darkness.
Now that was some fun lore right there. A nice little twist on the common myths, once again. The devs all put a good amount of work into this game, and I was appreciating every bit of it during my adventure here. My party and I filed out the door just as the Captain leapt onto the Nightmare without a saddle. Not what I would call a comfortable ride, but necessity dictated the events I supposed. With a yell, the undead soldier spurred the horse forward, puffs of purple flames spitting up whenever the hooves hit the cobbled courtyard and scorching the stone. ¡°Well shit. This just got a lot harder¡­¡± I dove to the side, narrowly avoiding those trampling hooves as the devil¡¯s own steed dashed past me. Turning that dive into a roll, I made it to my feet and spun around to keep an eye on the boss as he in turn wheeled his horse around to face us once more. ¡°Serena, Holy Bolt that thing. Zex, Use that moonlight blade thing of yours. Let¡¯s see what hurts this fucker.¡± A pair of hands shot up, one from each of my friends, as they shot off their ranged spells towards the Nightmare and his rider. A streak of golden light flared from Kayla¡¯s hand while two blades of silvery light made an X as they shot from Archie¡¯s. Bastard must have leveled up Fallon¡¯s skill and gained a second blade per cast. Both magical attacks shot true, colliding with the Nightmare¡¯s chest and making the beast scream in pain as it reared up. Between the two strikes, 10% of its HP was shaved away according to the bar that now appeared above the horse¡¯s head. Good, we should be able to deal with this as long as we were careful. When those front hooves slammed once more into the ground, the beast must have used a special ability. From the point of impact, a shockwave of purple flames burst forth along the ground and raced outwards in a circle. I saw Archie jump into the air in surprise as the flames past him and he took no damage, so when they approached me I tried to do the same. No luck¡­ For all my speed and time abilities, I couldn¡¯t properly time the jump to avoid the flames completely and took 15% of my total HP in damage from the flames. To my right, Kayla had cheated. Instead of trying to jump the flaming ring, she dropped to one knee and slammed her shield down in front of her. When the flames reached that shield they merely parted and left a hole in the circle behind her as the ring continued to expand. Damn tanks and their tricky shields¡­ Lesson learned for the next time that ability would happen, I readied my scythe and leapt forward to slash at the mount, calling out into the party chat as I did so. ¡°Serena, save your mana for healing! Zex, unload those ranged attacks into these fuckers. We need to end this one quick so we don¡¯t get any more nasty surprises we won¡¯t like.¡± Following my orders, Kayla stepped to the side of the horse that held the massive sword of the Captain¡¯s while Archie went to the other side where he could do his business without friendly fire. That left me the front of the horse. Not what I would say was the ideal position, but necessary for the job at hand. The length of my scythe allowed me to stay away from the head enough that I was able to dodge most of the bites and flailing hooves of the Nightmare, and my lifesteal helped mitigate the damages from the ones I couldn¡¯t avoid in time. Plus, potions were my friend. Since the phase transition of this boss where he got his mount, the fight once more went into a rinse and repeat state as we jumped the flame rings and I used my speed to my advantage to dodge as much damage as I could while still putting out the DPS as heavily as I could. Archie soon ran out of mana for his ranged attacks and stepped up to use the Nightmare¡¯s side as his personal heavy bag, to great effect. Apparently the moonlight weaponry he used did bonus damage to this creature of darkness, and he easily outstripped my DPS by a good margin. Two minutes after Archie joined me in melee range, the Nightmare Stallion let out a terrible cry as the last of its HP faded off the health bar, the creature falling over onto its side in death. The Captain tumbled out of the saddle, now sitting at 40% HP from his exchanges with Kayla, and the three of us surrounded the undead soldier to finish the job off. No more real surprises came at us from the fight, and after the Captain fell I looked back on it and realized that I enjoyed the transition from inside to courtyard for the battle. It made the encounter interesting and fresh, something that had become a strange experience since most games used the same mechanics over and over for every dungeon, only changing little aspects. Almost as soon as the Captain fell, I pulled my inventory screen up and checked to see if I got anything good from the boss. Scanning the list, I didn¡¯t see anything that really caught my eye except for a single item.
Eye of the Nightmare Soulbound On use, this item will summon forth a Nightmare Stallion that will remain under your control until dismissed. The Nightmare Stallion can be ridden by one player at a time, but may not be used during battle.
Hell yes! I got a mount out of the deal! I linked the item to the party chat and then watched Archie and Kayla to see their reactions. When nothing happened, I noticed they were too busy looking at their own screens to see the chat. I was just about to say something when Archie whooped loudly and pumped a fist into the air. ¡°Yes! I got a mount! Now I can ride around in style on my own personal Nightmare!¡± I blinked, looking to Kayla as she didn¡¯t say a word and instead used an item. Right beside her, a portal of green flames split open and her own Nightmare Stallion stepped from the opening to stand beside her. A look of pure glee crossed her face as she focused on the rest of us again. ¡°So, it seems we all got a mount out of this fight? That has to be some kind of bug¡­ I highly doubt the devs would give away mounts like these to everybody just for beating a mini-boss in this dungeon. I am going to open a ticket and report this, you two do the same. We will probably be able to keep the mounts as a reward for finding the bug.¡± She was right, of course. We had to report this in case it really was an unplanned occurrence. Better to report this now ourselves then to have the admins find out about it later and then rain their wrath down on us for not bringing this to their attention. I was just about to open up my system menu to send a ticket to a GM when a thunderclap sounded beside us in the courtyard. A man in white robes now stood with us where nobody else was supposed to be. Unlike most players, this man also had a nameplate over his head while not in my party¡­ He must be a GM for this all to occur. ¡°Greetings, players. I am the Game Master Archimedes. I saw Serena¡¯s ticket and instantly came to check on this issue as it is of grave importance. Players should not be gaining free mounts this easily, and it is indeed a bug in the code. There is a very small chance of this drop from the boss of course, but it is only supposed to happen once every two hundred boss kills or so, and only one at a time at that!¡± He grinned at us and waved his hand through the air, seeing our dismayed looks. ¡°Oh, do not worry. We will not be taking the mounts away from you. You are not the first players to make out decently on a bug that was discovered and reported right away, nor are you the first to gain mounts. I see no reason not to allow you to retain those Nightmares in payment for being honest with us. This bug should be patched in the update tonight, should our programmers get to it in time. Thank you for playing Realm of Infinity!¡± And with that, the GM vanished in a clap of thunder just as he had come in. Unable to hold back a grin, I looked at Kayla¡¯s Nightmare and saw that the mane, tail and hooves all had green flames on it. Curious, I summoned my own Nightmare and was rewarded by a portal of blue fire which spat out my own mount. Like the portal flames, my Nightmare¡¯s mane, tail and hooves were blue fire. Neat! Kayla inspected my horse, comparing it to her own and smiled with a shrug saying, ¡°I like green better anyway!¡± Both of us turned to look at Archie next, waiting for him to summon his own horse so we could see what color he got. Turned out, his flames were silver. With me and Archie, our Unique Fairies probably had a bit of influence over what color the flames turned out to be, but only time would tell if ours were odd or if everyone got different colors. Aly floated down, comparing the color of her hair to the flames on my horse with a smile, the two shades nearly identical. ¡°So, we are now the proud owners of our very own Nightmares.¡± I grinned at my friends and dismissed the mount. ¡°We will need to take them for a celebratory ride after we finish this instance! But that comes after we reap the first clear rewards.¡± I pointed back into the guardroom and the other door waiting for us there. ¡°Tally ho!¡± 27) Tough fights give the best rewards Once back inside, I grinned at my two party members and rubbed my hands together in anticipation of finishing this instance up. ¡°Alright, time to get back to work. Zex, go scout and find our next target, Serena and I will check this room quick and then follow behind you. Keep your eyes peeled for more pats and try not to train the whole castle back to us.¡± I grinned, showing him I meant that in jest. I trusted Archie to handle his job without much issue as he had never let me down in the past. ¡°Right-o boss. I am off!¡± He gave a mocking salute to me, then stopped to glare. ¡°And if you find anything good I better be told!¡± With that, he was off, the only door of meaning left in the room opening and his form fading away from sight to scout the way ahead. When Archie had made his way deeper into the castle, Kayla turned to me with a raised eyebrow. ¡°Just for that, I say even if we don¡¯t find anything we make up a story about getting something amazing and refusing to share it with him.¡± She gave me a Cheshire grin. ¡°It would drive him nuts!¡± I had to laugh at her, shaking my head as I started looking around the room for anything that may be lootable. ¡°You know, there is a term for women like you¡­¡± I opened up a storage box off against the wall, but it didn¡¯t contain anything of use. Searching the rest of the room, which contained mainly benches and a couple desks to leave the main portion of the room clear, I found nothing. ¡°Yeah, I know I can be a bitch at times. Not like you didn¡¯t know that back when we were in school though.¡± She laughed a little at that, but I had to admit to myself that she was right on the money with that comment. ¡°Besides, it isn¡¯t like Zex can¡¯t be a bastard at times. Hell, even you have your moments.¡± Pulling open the desk drawers, she fished around and drew out a pouch of coins with a grin. ¡°I seem to recall a couple times in school where you decided that being civil to other humans was too much effort to you. Especially when you were hungry!¡± I paused, catching the bag of coins she threw me to let the AI distribute them between the party members, and tilted my head as I thought back to those days. Yeah, she had a point¡­ ¡°Well, if you put it that way¡­¡± I grinned and shrugged, not refuting her accusations since they were indeed true. ¡°Anyway, let¡¯s head after Zex and finish this place up. I have a meeting tomorrow and want to get to bed early tonight.¡± Kayla tilted her head at me, an inquisitive look in her eye as she walked with me towards the door. ¡°You too? With the Old Man?¡± She lifted her shield up, ready for anything, and took the lead into the hall beyond the guard room. There was no alert from Archie just yet, but we never knew if he had missed a pat on his trek and weren¡¯t taking chances. I had to take a moment to process her words about who she meant by ¡®Old Man¡¯, but when I compared it to the meeting I had the next day I made the connection. ¡°Ah, yes. Not sure what is up, but he had sent me a message during our last break about having an emergency meeting with me tomorrow morning.¡± I shrugged my shoulders, not having a clue as to what it might mean should multiple people be meeting with Willcot at the same time. I figured it would probably be a group update to the state of the game and our part as employees to Dumadine Technology as a whole. ¡°Well, I for one am glad we will be doing a group session. I have a few things I want to bring up with everyone, but none of which I want to be mentioning in game at the moment.¡± She smiled ruefully at me as we traversed along the halls, finding nothing but empty corridors and dust along the way. ¡°With how the game is progressing, I am sure you have a few concerns yourself at any rate.¡± I had to shrug at her choice of words, remembering my previous meetings with Willcot about my thoughts of the game. ¡°Yeah, there are a few things on my mind, but I have already brought the bulk of them up in previous meetings. Although I must say that I am looking forward to pulling the Old Man aside and have a word with him in private, probably with you and Mr. Obnoxious up ahead of us as well.¡± Kayla laughed at my choice of words, and was about to say something when Archie¡¯s voice filtered in through the party chat. ¡°You do realize I am listening to you two at the moment, right?¡± I heard a deep sigh through the chat, my friend letting his opinion on our antics be known. ¡°I swear, the shit I put up with between the two of you.¡± That brought a laugh out of both myself and Kayla, with the latter springing up with a comeback before I could. ¡°Oh you are just pissy that you never make up any good names for either of us quick enough to make it worth even a pity laugh.¡± She flashed a grin at me, egging Archie on with her comments. ¡°Hold up folks. Time to work.¡± The tone of voice coming through to us sobered myself and Kayla up instantly. ¡°We got a pat incoming, and the next hallway looks¡­ Weird. Something seems off about it, and I want you two up here with me before I progress any more.¡± It was a logical and reasonable idea if he was getting such an off-put feeling. Even in games one has to trust their gut after all. If a person got a strong urge to do something, seven out of ten times it was worth following that feeling. The other three, you ask? Well, then you just respawn and try again! ¡°Got it. We are picking up the pace, lead the pat back to us and we will deal with these problems one at a time.¡± Kayla readied her shield in her right hand as I took up position right behind her and a little to her right. I would be able to strike past her on that side without fear of getting in the way of her swinging axe at all during the combat at least, plus it left plenty of room for Archie to run past us and let Kayla grab aggro. It only took Archie forty seconds to pass us by, calling out as he did so. ¡°All yours my lovely savior!¡± As soon as he was past us, Archie spun and ducked down behind me to lose line of sight on the mobs, seven of them. All were the normal Guards we had been seeing for most of the instance, only this time there was a new addition that rounded the corner and into my field of view. Tall and thin, the thing still being a skeleton and all, it wore robes of dark red and had orbs of flame rolling in the normally empty eye sockets. With a squint of my eyes, I focused on the thing. ¡°Is that this game¡¯s version of a mage mob?¡± I watched in fascination as an orb of light floated around the corner and hovered over the robed mobs shoulder. As if to confirm my question, it lifted a hand and thrust the bony palm forward to lob a fireball over the guards and splash against Kayla¡¯s shield. ¡°Right, mage dies first.¡± I threw a skull icon over its head and looked at Archie. ¡°I will jump over and take care of that one, start working on the normal guards and I will attack from the back when I finish the mage.¡± Not waiting for confirmation, I knew they would follow my plans unless something I wasn¡¯t aware of changed, I triggered Temporal Step and dodged around the frozen Guards in order to get behind the mage. I barely made it in time before my skill faded and the sounds of running skeletons filled the hallway once more. With a savage grin, I dug in one heel and swung my scythe hard at the mage just as it was lifting its hand up once more. The angle of my strike was off a bit, so I twisted a little to alter the course and slashed the blade of my weapon right into the shoulder of the arm that was raising. A crunch and rattle filled my ears as the health bar over the mob¡¯s head plummeted by a full third, the arm I hit falling away from the rest of the body as my strike inflicted a crippling wound to the undead. It may not feel pain, but let¡¯s see it cast spells without one of its hands! With a flare of those burning eyes, the mage proved that it could cast spells with the left hand as well as the right¡­ Flame exploded out of the skeletal left hand in an outward blast like an explosion, the force of it knocking me backwards and almost making me fall on my ass as my HP took a healthy hit. 20% of my life was gone in an instant, the bright flare leaving spots in my vision as I leaned my weight forward and swung my scythe around at the enemy that was still within the long reach of my weapon. Luckily, the exploding magic must have had a cooldown, because I made short work of the remaining life the mob had left while only having to dodge a fireball and eating a flame spike spell for another 10% of my HP. The damage I received was negligible though, since my lifesteal had me back up to 90% by the time I finished the mob off and turned back to the rest of the pat. Archie and Kayla were making good time on the mobs before them, two of which having dropped already thanks to the holy spells Kayla was slinging around when the opportunity presented. Each spell cast sent at one of the Guards dropped a third of its HP in one go, if not a bit more, with the only downside being that she was having to focus more on blocking than casting. Perhaps it was time for me to lend a hand there and try to even the playing field a little more. Dashing back down the hall once more, I activated True Haste as I stepped in range of my attacks and laid into the exposed backs of the squad between myself and my friends. My HP quickly filled back to 100% with my attacks, while at the same time I dropped one more of the low health Guards under my assault. From that moment on, the fight went like all of our previous ones as we focused the mobs down one at a time until none were left. A quick check of our inventory revealed more trash loot and some more coins to line our pockets, but nothing of remarkable note. At least until I turned around and noticed Aly floating next to the orb that had followed the mage skeleton, which remained hovering in the air above the skeletal remains. Those bones should have vanished when the fight ended, leaving me to grin at the prospect of another quest. I walked over to my Fairy who looked at me with concern showing in those electric blue eyes. ¡°Calamity, do you know what this is?¡± She turned back to the pale red colored orb and stretched a hand out, not quite touching it. ¡°This is the soul of a dead Fairy! We need to help it, Calamity!¡± With those words, I received a new quest.
Quest Received! Final Rest You have found the soul of a deceased Fairy that has been forcefully tied to this world. Find a way to help this innocent being to pass on to the afterlife and end it¡¯s suffering. Rewards: Experience, choice of 1 item from an armor set of this instance.
Happy as a pig in shit, I looked to my friends to see if they got this quest as well and received knowing nods from each of them. Perfect! With this quest combined with the first clear bonus, we should be well on our way to a good set of gear that would hopefully serve us well in the coming levels. I nodded my head at Aly, a smile still on my lips. ¡°Of course we will do all we can for this fallen Fairy, Aly. Do you have any idea as to what is keeping it here in this world?¡± Crossing her arms over her stomach and hugging her body lightly in apparent distress, Aly shrugged her shoulders and bit her lower lip as she thought. ¡°Uhmmm¡­ I am not well-versed in these matters, but from what I do know it is probably some dark and forbidden magic used by whoever is in charge of this castle. The same magic that re-animates the skeletons is the most likely culprit for the reason of this Fairy¡¯s undeath as well.¡± She turned towards me and my friends again, a look of pleading in her eyes. ¡°Our best bet would be to try and kill the Lord of this castle, I think.¡± Yay for free loot! We were going to clear this place out anyway, and if all this quest needed was for us to kill the final boss then we were guaranteed some extra loot! ¡°You bet Aly. We will put down this castle Lord and do everything in our power to free the Fairy here.¡± I lifted a hand and patted Aly¡¯s shoulder with the tip of one finger. It never hurt to suck up to an AI for the possible chance of more freebies in the future. Turning to Archie, I nodded at him. ¡°Alright Zex, lead on to this strange hallway of yours so we can make progress again.¡± He gave me a mock salute, then took the lead once more to guide us to the area in question. ¡°It isn¡¯t far, and there wasn¡¯t anything else in these corridors besides that patrol.¡± He shook his head as we walked, one hand rubbing the back of his neck as he spoke. ¡°I don¡¯t understand what is making me hesitate here, honestly. Something just feels wrong and I would rather have the back-up in case shit goes south quick.¡± Kayla lifted a hand to her mouth and faked a couple coughs, fitting in a barbed comment of ¡°coward¡± in between them. I chuckled, but turned my head to her with a knowing grin. ¡°You say that now, but I remember a time when you ignored one of his feelings. Remember that one Serena? The time when you called Zex a loser, then proceeded to get ambushed by a rare spawn boss?¡± Archie laughed while Kayla sputtered, apparently having forgotten about that little mishap of hers. She had died almost immediately from that ambush, but if she had listened to Archie, she probably could have lived with a prepared defensive cooldown. To his benefit, Archie didn¡¯t press the issue and instead pointed at the next corner of the hall. ¡°Right, focus time people. Up here is the corridor in question. No mobs in sight, but it seems off to me.¡± We stopped at the corner and peeked around the wall to take a look. Nothing seemed out of place to me right off, but I immediately understood where he was coming from.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. I couldn¡¯t put my finger on it right off, but then it hit me! ¡°The ceiling is different!¡± I reached an arm out and pointed at what I noticed. Every ten feet or so, there was a shadowed recess in the ceiling that wasn¡¯t there in any of the halls we had previously passed. ¡°Think they are traps?¡± That was the only thing I could think of that would explain those indentations here while there were none beforehand. This whole dungeon seemed to be a step above the first instance we cleared¡­ That one had been about as straight-forward as they come, while this one was proving to have a lot more depth to it. Kayla frowned and peered closer at the hallway. ¡°Hmmm¡­ Maybe. I can¡¯t make out any trip wires or places that might trigger the trap if that¡¯s what they are though.¡± I saw her eyes lose focus a moment as she accessed her inventory and drew out a trash item that looked like a broken helm from one of the Guards. ¡°Doubt this will work, but worth a shot.¡± Without further ado, she rolled the helm like a bowling ball down the middle of the hall. The piece of armor hopped and bounced loudly down the corridor until it came to a stop about halfway along with nothing else happening. Archie shrugged his shoulders and patted Kayla on the back. ¡°Well, it was a good idea anyway!¡± He looked at me and grinned. ¡°Now it is your turn! Use your haste skill to perceive time better and keep your step skill ready. Walk down the hall and if you see anything or hear us yell, activate the step ability and get back here.¡± I tilted my head at him in thought, then nodded. It was a good idea and with Aly I was the most likely candidate to survive springing a trap in this castle. ¡°Good plan¡­ If it fails, I am going to throw you off the parapets of this castle though.¡± I gave him a wicked grin, letting him wonder if I was joking or not, then stepped around the corner fully and stared down the hallway. I took a deep breath and activated True Haste while keeping an eye on my mana. If it got too low, I would have to stop and wait for it to refill so I could always have enough MP to use Temporal Step to jump my ass out of danger. With my mana already starting to drain, I moved forward steadily down the hall with my eyes flicking all around me. Most important to me was the floor in all honesty, as that would probably be where any trap triggers resided. Nothing about the area indicated a possible pressure plate system, as there weren¡¯t any tiles of varying colors nor did there appear to be any floorboards that were higher than any of the rest. Despite all of my attention though, I nearly missed the moment when I heard a faint ¡®click¡¯ of something beneath my foot as I stepped. Triggering Temporal Step, the world around me froze as I flicked my gaze up to see a spear dropping out of the hole in the ceiling, the point frozen only a few inches above my head. Sighing at the close call, I took a couple steps backwards and waited. Once the skill ended, the spear dropped the rest of the way and embedded itself into the wooden floor of the hall where it quivered slightly. ¡°Oh! Damn that was a close one.¡± Kayla hooted from the corner behind me. ¡°I thought for sure you were toast when we didn¡¯t yell in time!¡± I glanced back at the two and grinned, Archie looking a bit pale at the close call while Kayla seemed quite pleased it wasn¡¯t her in my shoes at the moment. She shooed me forward again with an evil smile on her face. Yeah, Kayla was enjoying this way too much¡­ Setting my shoulders, I stepped past the spear embedded in the floor and continued on once the cooldown on my skill ended and my mana refreshed. Now that one trap was sprung, I figured any more would be easy enough to trigger and remove from our path. Farther down the hall, I saw another recessed hole in the ceiling and merely put pressure on the floor just beneath it. I felt the floorboard depress and quickly pulled my foot back in time to avoid the shooting spear of the second trap. ¡°Awww¡­ Another miss!¡± I turned and glared at Kayla, which only made her laugh again at my expense. I had to admit, if our positions were reversed I would probably be doing the same thing. ¡°Yeah, yeah¡­ Come on guys. I have this figured out now and we should be fine if I trigger the traps as we go!¡± I waved them forward and moved ahead to the next trap to trigger it and move on again. Once I figured out exactly what made the trap spring, it was easy to avoid any damage from them with my high speed ratings. Within a few more minutes, we cleared the corridor and pushed open a large door at the end of the hall. The sight awaiting us there was rather shocking¡­ Despite the lack of mobs between the first boss and where we were now, it seemed like we had made it to the main throne room. The area was large with a high ceiling supported by thick stone columns with a balcony running around the edge of the second story, a gigantic chandelier hanging in the middle of the room to provide light. While we had only run into the one patrol on our trip from the Guard room to here, the milling mass of mobs in this area more than made up for that deficit. Groups of Nobles filled the large chamber, Guards lining the walls to the left and right, and a big group of more Guards standing at the base of a raised platform at the far end of the room where the throne resided. Sitting on that throne was a living man, dressed in heavy plate armor with a glowing orb over one shoulder which appeared to be another Fairy soul. We were too far away to get any details from the mob, but he appeared to be the boss of this instance at least. Now it appeared to be my turn to give Kayla an evil grin. ¡°Alright my vicious beauty, your turn to step into the fire.¡± I put a hand on her back and pushed her into the room as Archie and I stepped back and got ready. ¡°Start pulling packs and let¡¯s clear this instance!¡± Grumbling under her breath, Kayla readied her shield and picked out the closest pack of Nobles to cast a spell on and draw back to our waiting combat zone. After my hasty look, I guessed that there were a good eighty mobs waiting in the room for us before we could make any kind of attempt on the boss on the throne. It was time to get to work and clear this trash up! The first pack of Nobles were upon us quickly with Kayla¡¯s spell, and we dove into the combat that was now so familiar to us, each filling the role we needed performed. Being the weakest of mobs in the instance, the Nobles each fell rather quickly, requiring only a handful of attacks from either myself or Archie. Within fifteen minutes, we had cleared out the easily accessible Nobles and began working on pulling the Guards over a few at a time. We wanted to be efficient, but at the same time we didn¡¯t want to pull too many and get overrun with mobs. We could probably handle all 20 of the Guards lining the walls, ten to each side, at the same time if we burned cooldowns, but why test fate? Anything could go wrong with an accidental misplay, so it was better to handle the mobs in smaller groups. In the end, it only took us ten minutes to mop up the Guards not near the boss and left us allowing our energy and mana to recharge while taking a look at the big baddie on the throne. Taking a peek at the boss¡¯s stats, it turned out to be the Lord Hashrom who I noticed mentioned earlier when we ran into the Nightmare boss. Level 18 with no other vital information available, he looked to be a handful with his heavy armor and group of six Guards who were all better equipped than the previous ones. Perhaps these guys would drop better armor than what we were getting, since plate armor had dropped a few times now but only of trash quality. I grinned in anticipation at the chance of maybe getting a couple pieces of good plate armor from all of the rewards of completing this instance. ¡°Okay, game plan time. We have no idea what this battle will bring, so Serena keep your mana solely for healing and be ready to use your bubble skill from that shield. Might need more than one charge from it for this fight depending on how it goes.¡± She nodded to me, her hands adjusting potions in the quick access slots of her belt for a better configuration. ¡°Zex, you and me will do our jobs of dropping those Guards as fast as possible, but if that whole group decides to come at once I will try and pull two or three of those adds onto myself and rely on potions and lifesteal to survive. I give myself about a minute and a half of that before I fall, so any mobs on me will be first priority.¡± I paused, looking the boss over and trying to pry his secrets free. ¡°I don¡¯t see what kind of weapon he has, so this fight will be major touch and go until we figure it out.¡± Glancing at the UI, I noticed our bars were all full once more and nodded at my friends. ¡°Alright, show time.¡± Preliminary plan set, we all readied ourselves while I applied my last poison vial to my scythe for a little extra damage. With the use of that one, I only had one vial of the paralytic poison left to my name besides the couple vials of the regen poison. I had to admit that the poisons were useful, but I wasn¡¯t about to spend hours upon hours grinding my herbalism and alchemy up just for a minor convenience and saving a few coins. Gold came easily when you were at the head of the pack in games. Items sold for decent money as I leveled up and I was getting first crack at all of the rare quest lines since we were the first party through the area. Nope, wasting the time on boring professions was nowhere in my mindset. Never was and most likely never would be in all honesty. Too much wasted effort in the end when I could just spend a couple coins to get what I needed. Musings aside, we nodded at each other and grinned with anticipation as Kayla walked forward slowly, trying to aggro the Guards without pulling the boss as well. I doubted it would work, but we could only try and find out. As she took a step, we saw the Guards all raise their heads and look at Kayla, the indication that she was approaching the max range of their aggro zone. One more pace and then the Guards all started towards her while the Lord lifted his head to look at us. Tight zoning there, but luckily it seemed like the adds could be pulled separate from the boss himself. All six well armed and armored Guards approached in formation, their easy discipline showing that they were indeed a tier above the previous versions. Kayla let out a loud whoop of eagerness and stepped back a few paces to leave the range of the Lord, no need to pull him on accident while dealing with the adds, right? All of this was standard dungeon practice to a gamer really. Separate the trash from the real threat, wipe it out, then focus on the biggest mofo in the room without distractions. Maybe in the future we could figure out a way to skip some packs of mobs, or find a shortcut of some kind to make it easier, but the first time in an instance always paid to be careful and leave nothing alive behind you. After several steps backwards, the pack of Guards were on Kayla and she was wielding her axe and shield to full effect as Archie and I waited a few moments to allow her to build aggro on all of them. Not that I was idle during that time, of course, since I had taken the down time to mark up the mobs with raid icons. Not only would that tell Kayla which one we were attacking first to gain max threat on the mob, but it also laid out our entire focus pattern down early in the fight. Once our tank had sufficient aggro, Archie and I did a fist bump and dove into the fight with abandon. Between our concentrated assault, the mobs began to drop fairly quickly while Kayla managed to keep her own HP up in the high zone without much healing needed. Her armor class was seriously something to be envied at this point in the game, negating a very large portion of the damage incoming towards her. Everything was going according to plan for the first few minutes, we had dropped two of the six Guards and had a third in the red zone, when things started to go sideways like a good encounter should in my opinion. Simple and straight fights tend to be boring, honestly. As soon as the third Guard fell, something hot and extremely painful slammed into my back and dropping my HP to the 30% mark in an instant! Burning sensations all along my back told me I was hit by a fire spell of some kind, and as I stumbled forward and past Kayla from the force of the blow I looked back to see the Lord standing in front of his throne with his left hand raised. In the right fist he gripped a longsword made out of pure fire that looked like it would be quite irritating to deal with. My mind reeled as I went over options on how to deal with the boss being drawn into the fight already, and a plan quickly settled into my thoughts. I ripped a health potion from by belt and drank it down as a golden glow encompassed me and healed me up to 80% between the two, the regen ticks making my red health bar climb even higher. ¡°New plan! Serena, leave these mobs here and get on the boss. I will grab the attention of these guys with Zex to help me finish them off while you busy body the boss and turn him away from us. I can¡¯t take another of those fireballs and neither can Zex. Keep him busy until we can join you!¡± I wasn¡¯t sure if the magic attack had crit me on the back or if that was the flat damage, but we couldn¡¯t take any chances and find out the hard way. Kayla nodded at me and shifted around so her back was to the boss for a moment while I activated Rage and True Haste. My armor would drop a lot from the Rage skill, but with the increased damage and speed of my attacks I should have little problem keeping up with my lifesteal. It took all of four seconds with my berserked status to pull the remaining three adds onto myself, allowing Kayla to spin around and rush the boss. What she did then, I had no clue because I was fighting for my life against three mobs while my armor was reduced by a good margin. My initial assault on them stripped all three of 25% HP, but that still left all of them standing to focus on my squishy self. Archie took it upon himself to focus one of the mobs and make it focus on himself, his dodge rate allowing him to easily tank one mob for a short time, and left me to deal with the remaining two. And deal with them I did! In the time I had while both Rage and True Haste were active, I managed to finish off one mob and start in on the second before my mana ran dry. That True Haste skill really was a mana sink! 20 seconds of True Haste was all I had the mana for, and it ran out before the 30 seconds of Rage did. I was taking damage faster than I could heal it, but the destruction I was dishing out more than made up for it. With 60% of my HP left, I finished off the first mob and focused on the second in time for Archie to join me on taking that one down. After our Guards were dropped, I popped another potion and activated a charge of my amulet to pump my health back up to stable levels while Archie drank a potion himself. Lives safe for the time being, I looked at the situation with the boss and grinned. Kayla was handily dealing with the hulking plate boss, stepping back every time the fiery swords swept out and kiting the boss across the room. Her health and mana levels were still decent, although she was down to about half mana and energy, but the boss¡¯s HP was already at 95%. She had gotten a few clean hits in already obviously, and that meant this wasn¡¯t a lost fight in the end. Archie and I started towards Lord Hashrom and readied ourselves to dive into the fight once more when out of the corner of my eye I saw the Fairy Soul suddenly flare brighter. That couldn¡¯t be good, and I quickly grabbed Archie¡¯s arm and jumped back to pull him with me. It was just in time, as the boss spun a complete circle with his sword extended to send out a wave of fire all around him. The flames fizzled out before reaching myself and Archie, but Kayla grunted with a grimace as 20% of her HP was stripped away instantly. ¡°Keep an eye on that Fairy above him! It flared brightly when he was about to use that fire spell!¡± Warning delivered, I jumped forward and started in on the boss with everything I had left in me. My energy levels were decent, but it hadn¡¯t been able to fully recharge after my furious use of it against the mobs I was tanking. With a resolve to keep an eye on my UI as well as the Fairy Soul and the boss all at once, Archie and I piled on the damage as quickly as we could to great effect. Well, great for a boss wearing full plate armor at the least! Hashrom¡¯s HP bar began to steadily decline at a slow pace under the combined focus of our hard mode characters with boosted stats and good gear. Every 5% mark of his health, the boss would spin around with his fire cleave, but it was telegraphed enough that we were able to dodge it most of the time. Kayla had the hardest time of it since her movement speed wasn¡¯t nearly as high as ours, but she still managed it half of the time at least. At the 75% mark, things got a bit hairy. Instead of using his cleave attack, the boss seemed to drop all aggro and switched his focus onto me! He ignored Kayla and Archie and started hacking at me with a fury, dropping my health to half frighteningly fast. My mana had regened enough at that point where I easily triggered Demi Speed on the boss followed by a Temporal Step to get out of his range. Archie had stopped dealing damage as soon as he noticed what happened while Kayla continued to beat on him and cast a heal on me for extra aggro. The boss had taken several steps towards me before our tank could bring the attention back onto herself and we rejoined the fight in earnest once more. Of course, almost as soon as we did we had to jump away from a cleave at the 70% HP mark. The fight mechanics were fun, but annoying at the same time with all the running and dodging needed. The fight went on like that for a time, the boss resetting aggro at the 50% mark once more, though we were ready for it that time and I didn¡¯t take much damage before getting out of the way and allowing Kayla to bring it back to herself. At 25% though, things became really tough¡­ As soon as he hit the final phase, Hashrom lost all aggro tables apparently and began swinging around completely at random. One moment he would focus on me, then turn on Archie, then back at me or Kayla in a completely random set of attacks. No more cleave attacks came after that point luckily, or we might have wiped, but by the time we finished off his last bit of health all of us were at low health and energy with almost no mana remaining. Really it was one of the hardest encounters we had faced yet even if it was for only a quarter of the fight. Perhaps with more party members the damage would have been spread out more and easier to manage, but with only three players it was a tight ending. Sweating and weak from exertion, at least simulated, we all fell back onto our asses and panted for a moment before grinning at each other. Seemingly as one, our eyes went a little out of focus as we called up out menus to dig into the inventory screens and see what goodies we had gained from this bastard of a boss. My hopes were high, the difficulty of the fight preluding good rewards for a job well done, and sure as shit I wasn¡¯t disappointed.
Plate Bracers of Hashrom Set: 1 of 8 Bonuses: +15 armor +10 Str +10 Fort +3 Int Bracers from Lord Hashrom¡¯s personal armor set, this armor has been forged of excellent quality material with all of the skill of the crafter poured into it. Years of use by the powerful Lord Hashrom have also added to the power of this item. Collect more pieces of this armor set for additional bonuses.