《Oroborous》 Chapter One Like a child at Christmas, I couldn¡¯t sleep. Not that I usually slept much anyway, the pain made that difficult enough, but the excitement of getting in the new VR (Virtual Reality) immersion capsule was killing me! I tossed and turned best as I could, trying to get comfortable enough to will myself to sleep. These VR capsules promised an escape from reality to a world with magic and adventure. Yeah I know, basic RPG(Role Playing Game) hook line. But this time, you lived it literally. This was no keyboard and mouse jobby, no your mind is transferred across to the game, so the you in the game acts in the way you would normally! Insane! The best bit is you can do anything you can think of. Most people, like I was planning to will be adventures, though many others would be builders, gamblers, thieves, guards or maybe even kings. It all depends on how you want to try and play. Imagine casting magic, feeling the flames shoot out of your hands! Or being actually as strong as an ox! A true fantasy realm. But best of all for me at least was the promise of a new start, the pain and issues of reality don¡¯t bleed through to Ouroboros Online. Yup, Ouroboros Online will be perfect for me and others like me, true bliss. As if on queue, pain shot through my body like lightning, sporadic and unforgiving. Enough pain to put a damper on my mood, which had finally picked up this evening after hearing I''d made it into the trial for Ouroboros Online. ¡°Shit, make a cure already!¡± I all but screamed through gritted teeth, tensing up wherever the pain decided to sit for a second before moving onto another part of me. These spasms of agony could last anywhere between a few seconds to tens of minutes, in some rare cases.. Hours. Luckily it was over in a handful of seconds, this time, though it felt much longer. I was one of many people suffering from an odd and unexplainable disease that had taken hold on earth over the last few years. Most people hate going to work or college or whatever else their daily grind consisted of, the idea of sitting at home all day relaxing; playing video games or watching TV sounds great. In reality it gets very shit very quickly. What I¡¯d give to be able to get back out there and do some work, even if it was just back to the old way of picking up whatever came my way. - I mused as I tried to get comfortable enough to sleep. Well ¡®at least¡¯ I only lost use of my left eye, right arm and the bottom half of my left leg. Some poor sods can¡¯t move at all. I shuddered at the thought. The horror of being trapped in your own body. But no matter what you lost, the pain was ever present to all of us. -- ¡°Jon, Jon¡± - Came the words on a soft and kind voice. The voice was raised slightly but felt like a whisper. I cracked a heavy eyelid open, It was barely morning, I sat up as fast as I could. Not my best idea, reeling from a headspin, I scoured the room looking for who¡¯d been looking for me. A pretty bland place really, cream walls with a few cheap pine cupboards along them for personal effects, with a simple pine wood door, with a think window down one side, well you couldn¡¯t expect much more from a hospital, at least I had my own room. I couldn¡¯t live with having to be packed into one room with several other guys. It was the nurse, Lilith, I should''ve guessed, no one else came to see me. She was in charge of my ward, lucky for me, she was filthy hot. Legs for days, topped by a perfect hourglass of hips and ass, a tiny waist and neither too big or too small breasts. All emphasised by the tiny nurses uniform that clinged to her in all the right places - Yes I had a hell of a crush though I¡¯m sure the uniform wasn¡¯t standard as any man with a heart condition would probably die from seeing her walk about. She was topped off with a slim face framing giant purple eyes and a boyish mess of black hair. A petite nose and succulent red lips which stood in stark contrast to her pale skin.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. Lilith stood there beaming a smile at me like sunrise, which to be honest I don¡¯t think had long past. ¡°Lilith, what time is it? Is it even morning yet?¡± I groggily asked while rubbing my one good eye with my one good hand, awkwardly on opposite sides, sods law. ¡°Six o¡¯clock¡± she replied heartily. ¡°Now, time to get up, a quick clean before we take you over to the VR suit.¡± She cut me off as I began to groan - I¡¯d completely forgotten about the VR somehow, though at the mention of it I was a little more awake and ready to move. One of the new treatments along with physiotherapy and psychology check ups was going to be this new ¡®Life reinforcement treatment¡¯ to try and stop the growing suicide rate of patients suffering from #disease. Well that''s what they say anyway but in reality it¡¯s just free alpha testing for the new technology. Have to read the small print when you sign up on these things. Basically we waved a lot of rights if anything went wrong while we were in the VR, so in death, maiming etc. etc. we or our families couldn¡¯t even press charges. Not that that was an issue for me, I didn¡¯t have any family that I knew of. Upside of growing up on the streets I guess. They¡¯d designed it to be a game, as a lot of sufferers from #disease were younger children, though of course they weren¡¯t in these early tests, bad publicity if anything went wrong. So they¡¯re using the 18-34 range as a first set of test subjects. The idea is while we¡¯re in the capsule living in whatever way we wish, using limbs and organs that may be failing us in real life, they hoped when we come out after our sessions, the brain will make them start working again or some such. A long shot if you ask me but I don¡¯t have a doctorate in that sort of field so who am I to question it? Either way I was happy to be able to play, well live a game. A long time dream of mine as an avid gamer, though not so much now, bit awkward to use controllers in this state. -- After a quick scrub up, I started hobbling off to the new VR suite. Luckily not too far,only a few hundred feet from my room, as its damn awkward hobbling along with a single crutch,.. As I ambled through the bare and bland corridor, plain cream walls only split by a green line at waist height stating I was on the #disease ward. A plain white floor below me and a white tiled ceiling above me, probably asbestos... We barely saw a soul, though at this god-forsaken hour I wasn¡¯t all that surprised. We finally came upon the VR suite, a little busier around here with technicians and nurses flitting about checking all measure of screens and tubes. Though in general another bland room, just the same cream walls and white floor and ceiling with a large window along one side at least there was a nice view, the hospital was situated on the edge of a city and you could easily see the green swaths of farmland and forests for miles. The room would of been pretty sparse if it wasn¡¯t for the giant VR capsules and their accompanying screens and doodads, each a good eight feet long, four foot wide and another four foot tall. Massive chunks of machines that to be honest resembled large technological sarcophagi, with their massive lids slump to one side on a massive arm of hydraulics and wires. ¡°Not at all ominous..¡± I snarked at the sight of them. ¡°They¡¯re not that bad, they look pretty comfy inside¡± Lilith replied nonchalantly. ¡°Look? Have you been inside? I mean sure I don¡¯t mind a comfy coffin, but I¡¯d rather not die quite yet.¡± I bit, even more snark in my voice. But she wasn¡¯t phased. ¡°I¡¯ll be on the soft VR headset watching how you all do in there, so don¡¯t worry. You¡¯ll be able to contact me if you need to get out or aren¡¯t feeling well.¡± She said this softly, as if a mother to a child, which was part reassuring and part belittling. But I didn¡¯t say anything, I just wanted to get in already, if my body wasn¡¯t a shambles I¡¯d be bouncing off the walls in excitement. It seemed one nurse from each participating hospital was to oversee the handful of patients going in, a sort of real world liaison using a VR headset to keep track of the patients. All in all there was supposed to be a few hundred people going in from around the world. There was a quick physical examination to take my stats, current weight, height, hydration etc. of course this was still a medical facility and this was a test, not for pleasure, well not entirely. After being poked and prodded, then covered in patches to keep an eye on my vitals, I was finally helped into my coffin, I mean VR capsule. ¡°Now this could be a bit claustrophobic for a while, but just keep calm we¡¯re right outside if you need anything.¡± A quick last minute safety check took place while the nurse gave me this soothing speech. ¡°Things will go black, then after a few seconds you¡¯ll fall asleep and be connected into the machine, where the game will start.¡± then with a smile added ¡°You probably know more about that than I do so I¡¯ll leave it to you.¡± The machine started closing as the hydraulics heaved the giant lid across the front of me and light edged out of view though I¡¯m sure I saw Lilith wink at me slyly before I was left in a cool darkness. Chapter Two A sudden bright white appeared all around me, though oddly it didn¡¯t make me recoil as I had expected, after a second, a room faded in. Everything around me changed all of a sudden I was in what I could only describe as a rather posh, i guess, medieval dressing room. I say guess because I didn¡¯t know what a medieval dressing room should like, did they even have them back then? Either way there was a long mirror in front of me, rather grubby around the edges, with a silver frame of swirling floral patterns.I got a full view of myself in it. To one side was a slatted wooden wall painted white, and well looked after it seemed. On the other side was a railed curtain, a deep royal red in colour. I spread it open in the centre with both hands, but all I could see was the previous vast whiteness. ¡°Wait, my other hand works?¡± I questioned myself out loud. Stretching it out in front of me, before realising I was standing on two legs and seeing with two eyes, all completely without a physical aid! None of this I¡¯d been able to do in almost 18 months. It felt amazing. With a small giggle of joy, I jumped on the spot a little covered and uncovered my eyes with both hands one at a time. After a few minutes of stretching and messing about I remembered where I was, feeling very impressed with the technology. I mean my hands were photorealistic, I wouldn¡¯t of thought they a 3d model. Which was actually my own body. It must of been scanned inside the sarcophagus, awesome. Suddenly a UI popped up in front of me, well not in front of me. In my eyes. Creepy. ¡°Welcome to Ouroboros Online, please setup your character.¡±The little box with a confirmation button on it stated. I reached out and touched it, which was oddly instinctive yet seemingly impossible. Yet it worked. Another notification popped up. ¡°Please select a race and gender.¡± which quickly disappeared with a staggeringly large list of potential races and what genders they could use, most were either male or female, a few with only one or the other, or even neither. As I browsed down through the list, a potential stat sheet and preview of the race popped up. Each race had its own specific base stats and a passive skill or two, as a base the human was selected, the preview showed an exact model of how I normally looked, A tall, gaunt, pale and skinny man, I was about 6 foot tall, and what little muscle mass I had beforehand had been lost to living in a hospital bed for far too long. Every detail down to the scar across my left eye where I fell when the disease first kicked in was present, though I was able to still see through it for a while before the vision was stolen from me by #disease, painfully at that, but now returned by the power of the virtual world! I had pronounced cheekbones with a dark auburn scruffy beard I¡¯d not been able to keep on top of lately and similar with my hair, which had grown just long enough to put into a ponytail. Cold blue eyes but apart from that I was pretty standard looking, neither overly attractive, or ugly.. I think. The humans were very well rounded, with decent strength, agility, intelligence, wisdom and constitution, they had a passive skill called ingenuity which let them level up faster in certain skill trees, like crafting and the use of technology of all forms, as well as one called Haggler, which allowed them to get more bang for the buck in shops.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. Each stat oversees specific substats of which delegate how your character would play.
Strength Your physical ability to carry more stuff, wear heavier armour and swing bigger weapons. It also affects damage done by maces and sword type weapons.
Dexterity Your nimbleness, the ability to sneak, not fumble things and critical damage. It also affects how much damage you can do with daggers and ranged weapons.
Intelligence This is the big stat for spellcasters, it affects how much mana you will have and how much damage your spells do as well as magic staffs and wands damage.
Wisdom This stat oversees your mana regeneration as well as your social sub skills and your ability to pick up general knowledge and learn things quickly.
Constitution This is the wellbeing of your body. The more of this you have the more health and stamina you will have, it also affects the regeneration of both of these.
Passives are a sort of racial perk that help with certain things common to that races lore traits, for example humans as stated above are well versed in technology and trade. I browsed over a few other races; Elves had high intelligence and agility as expected making them great at spell casting or as a rogue or archer. There passive was Nature''s Blessing. It gave the ability to commune with nature, calming beast type enemies and getting directions and help from trees. - The race preview showed them as a slim but well toned race, very similar to your average human, but generally taller, with long pointed ears. The game seemed to base the model around how I looked, to an extent, though I¡¯d have to garner a little better looking that normal. Orcs had tonnes of constitution and strength, this would make them great warriors or tanks. Their passive was Berserker, this allowed them for a short time to enter a berserk rage dealing more damage and attacking faster. - They were towering green walls of muscle, ugly as sin.. Even though it did sort of resemble me still.. Creepy. I¡¯m pretty sure I didn¡¯t have tusks jutting out of my lower jaw up to just above my top lip, well not normally anyway. Goblins were rather pathetic in general stats, low intelligence, not much strength or constitution but, damn they had agility, it was ridiculously high. They had a passive that worked when having a lot of Goblins together called Horde, it added a small amount of stat bonuses depending on how many Goblins were about, though it did reduce their agility in the same way. That could get scary if there were a lot of them. - Goblins were small creatures barely to an average person''s chest, with thin stick like arms and legs, apart from that they rather resembled an orc, though rather than the large tusks they had a long witches nose, which, seeing myself like that did bring on a bout of giggling. After going up and down through the list looking at how the different races looked and their stats several times. I finally decided on the Elemental race, dark to be specific. The Dark Elemental, though sexless looked badass, with a barely humanoid form, well half a barely humanoid form. They were floating torso¡¯s of stone shaped like a breastplate, with large jagged stalactite arms split into two parts for upper and lower arm ending in a set of rocky clawed fingers. A small flat head like an old barbuta helmet from the middle ages floated on top with a stony scruff at the bottom I assumed was to represent my beard, I liked it, but the best bit was the eyes glowed with an eerie darkness. - Yes childish I know, but hey if I was going to be spending a lot of time here I wanted to look badass! Stats wise the Elementals had an advantage in the fact all stats were generally high, but the downside was very limited on equipment they could use¡­ Namely none.. But I was assuming between the basic stats and stat growth as I levelled that would be nullified, until major late game when I¡¯d of picked up a load of cool spells and skills to counter my weaknesses. Additionally the passive skill for the race was called Dark Minion, which let you summon a creature of shadow, awesome. After selecting the Dark Elemental, I had a small amount of customisation I could do, It was mainly colour and height, I opted for a medium size elemental, slightly smaller than a human stood, though that was not counting the lack of legs, but at floating height. I set myself up as an obsidian black stone with dark, dark purple energy coursing through me like veins of magic lava. I was able to asymmetrically enlarge the top of one of my stalactite arms into a sort of pauldron of a spiked crown with a glowing purple mist flowing in the centre.
  1. Looked. Badass.
Chapter Three Happy with my design choices, I clicked a small accept button in the bottom corner and a popup asked me if I was sure I wanted to finalise my choices, attached to an overview of my stats. I thought I was pretty buff for a level one character but I didn¡¯t have anything to compare it against, I noticed I had a skill straight off the bat, a ranged one at that, which would prove useful. Though it was a shame I couldn¡¯t change my name, I always enjoyed making up cool sounding names for my characters. Brimstone or Meteor Shadow would be cool. But I was stuck with my boring name, though at least it sort of fit, Jon Dark the Dark Elemental. Well nothing I could do about it.
Name Jon Dark Dark Elemental
XP 0/120 No Title
Level 1 200/200 HP
Sex None 100/100 MP
Strength 8 (+8) 10-14 Physical Damage
Dexterity 8 (+8) 8 - 12 Magic Damage
Intelligence 7 (+7) 20 Armour
Wisdom 7 (+7) 5 HP/5s Regen
Constitution 9 (+9) 3 MP/5s Regen
Skills Dark Minion (summon your shadow minion -locked) Dark Shard (conjure and throw a stone imbued with darkness) Elementals Boon (doubles all base stats) 0 Stat points left
Again I accepted. Then another popup appeared; ¡°You will now be transferred to the starting zone for your selected race, remember all races react differently to each race, so be careful who you approach and how. Please have fun, and try to enjoy your time in Ouroboros Online.¡± ¡°Shit, I hadn¡¯t thought of that..¡± I muttered in a low rocky voice, not completely unfamiliar but not exactly my own voice, which shocked me. ¡°Didn¡¯t think of that either.. Well least I can speak.¡± I affirmed to myself. The scenery of the changing room vanished and a red and orange sky shot up around me, sunset I guessed. Clouds appeared from below my feet passing me slowly at first but gaining ever more speed, wind roared around me, growing stronger and stronger.. ¡°Aw bollocks, what the hell!¡± I gasped to myself, struggling for air and flailing in my freefall. Just before my freefall landed me in a rocky mess of Elemental guts and rocky bits I came to an abrupt stop a few feet off the floor, and then proceeded to fall again flat onto my face, it hurt but not much, it was more uncomfortable than anything.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. ¡°Well that''s a shitty way to start anything¡± I spat venomously cursing who¡¯d ever decided to implement that stupid idea. I looked around my surroundings looking for anything that could be a tutorial, but all I saw was rocks, everywhere, I seemed to be in a deep gorge filled with boulders of different sizes, hundreds of them. Some were spiked like the top of the gorge, which held long tendrils of rock protruding out like fingers grasping at the sky. As I spun around looking high and low, it hit me for the first time, I was floating up and down, propelled in whichever direction I wanted like a ghost would, so cool. As I began checking out how high and fast I could go like this, which turned out to be a bit above my own height and about as fast as a pure sprint for a human. I bumped into one of the boulders and was swatted away across the gorge a good ten feet. -10 hp. - ¡°Pain seems to work fine¡­¡± A low grumble surrounded me and a few of the rocks began to move, the one I had knocked into and subsequently been bashed aside by unfurled into a much, much larger version of myself, the other rocks doing the same thing into all sorts of sized Elementals, though all looking slightly different, and gaining a hue of colour as they, I assume, awoke. The largest Elemental, the one I had first disturbed, was huge. It towered a good twenty feet tall and was made of a rainbow of different colours of rock and magic flowing around it. I guessed this was the leader of the Elementals, and this was quickly confirmed by the other newly awoken Elementals taking a metaphorical knee, before heading off to rouse the rest of the still sleeping Elementals. After a few moments, the large Elemental turned to me and spoke ¡°Oh, I see we have a new addition, it has been a long time since a new Elemental arrived, and a dark one at that. Well don¡¯t tally, go help the others rousing our brethren.¡± His voice was that of an old grandfatherly figure, yet tinged with the low grumble of rocks. Yet it still exuded strength and authority. A screen popped up in front of me, a quest dialogue.
Quest: Wake 5 Elementals of any kind.
¡°The Elemental King has requested you to help wake the other Elementals so that you can be initiated into their ranks and helped to learn the ways of the Elementals and your own powers.¡±
They can be awoken by touching them and saying ¡°awaken¡±. Current Progres 0/5. Reward: 55xp and racial passive unlock.
Would you like to accept the quest? Yes / No
The decision was a bit of a no brainer really, I had to accept it to unlock my passive skill. I touched the accept button in front of me and a small popup said quest accepted before disappearing. I had a quick look around me trying to find the closest few unawakened Elementals, a few seconds later I spotted a clump of seven or so rocks, I decided to head that way, bobbing up and down as I floated a long, which seemed really natural to me, and worked in the same way as when I would walk normally, well beforehand. The ground below me, would have been horrific to walk on if I had feet, thin but deep crags surrounded by pointed spikes like grass made of rock were strewn all over the place, with only small amounts of flat areas, where I assume the Elementals had slumbered. As I got to the closest Elemental I placed my rocky hand on it. ¡°Awaken¡± I mumbled, rather unsure of myself hoping it wasn¡¯t just a rock. A strand of dark purple rushed out of my hand, circling the elemental before diving into it, with a low rumble the rock started to shift into a more humanoid appearance, taking on a reddish hue as lava like veins appeared across the body of the Elemental. A deep grumble of ¡°Hmmm, is it morning already..?¡± came from the Elemental as it stretched into a large yawn, it was nearly twice the size of me and looked down at me, with what I assumed was a smile, it¡¯s rather hard to tell with a jaw made of spiny rocks. ¡°Thank you little one.¡± it stated before floating off towards the Elemental King to pay its respects. I repeated the steps on four more rocks, getting similar responses from the different coloured rock-beings, after the red one, I saw blue, white and green Elementals of all different sizes and lastly a black one, looking very similar to me, yet much, much larger. As the Dark Elemental awakened, a little box popped up saying: ¡°Quest complete return to the Elemental King for your reward.¡± Before disappearing. As the box closed I noticed the Dark Elemental had already started to move. The Elemental looked back at me as it wandered off towards the King. ¡°Hmm, a new face, come on then young one. I¡¯m the only other Dark one left, so I guess I¡¯ll be your mentor until you¡¯re ready to rock.¡± it rasped before I¡¯m not sure, but think it winked at me, before letting out a low chuckle, like with the smile earlier, it¡¯s really hard to make out expressions with these rock like features. Then it hit me, that pun was horrific. I sighed ¡°Fucking hell, that''s terrible.¡± But as prompted I followed behind, since I had to return that way anyway to turn in the quest. When we got back to the King, the Dark Elemental, stooped as if kneeling, though the lack of knees made it look odd. It wasn¡¯t much smaller than the King, in fact it was the largest other Elemental I¡¯d seen. Turning back towards me, the Elemental barked in it¡¯s low raspy voice. ¡°Show some respect little one.¡± Before grumbling on. ¡°No sense of respect with these younger boulders..¡± Followed by a tut. I complied with a weak smile not wanting to annoy anything large enough to crush me with a pair of rocky fingers. I willed myself to bend my non-existent legs down to one knee, which surprised me a dash when it worked. The King bellowed a massive chuckle as I did. ¡°Now, now, Onyx. Don¡¯t be too harsh on the rockling. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll teach him well.¡± Still chuckling in his rock-laden grandfatherly tone. ¡°I see you¡¯ve finished the simple task I gave you, good to see you¡¯re not too pebble brained!¡± He continued after he finished chuckling, only to laugh at his own pun, as did Onyx. I gave a small grimace and nodded, the King gave a little cough and carried on with the end of the quest. ¡°Right so you¡¯ve now got a mentor to teach you the strengths and weaknesses of the Dark Elementals, as well as your passive. Hmm, return to me once you¡¯ve mastered the basics and I¡¯ll help you find out your direction!¡± He waited for me to acknowledge this commandment before dismissing us with a quick flick of his wrist. Chapter Four Onyx led me to a small alcove of the gorge that seemed much darker than the other areas. He did a quick spin holding out his arms. ¡°Welcome to the Dark Enclave.¡± he exclaimed seeming rather proud of himself, I was still unsure with these Elemental expressions, but that seemed to be the case. I had a quick peek around, it didn¡¯t really seem like much. Not a tiny cave, but neither was it particularly big, considering the size of Onyx. There wasn¡¯t much around, a workbench of some form and a pool of shadows, apart from that there was some large dreamcatcher-esque accessories hanging about. Noticing the lack of excitement in me Onyx gave out a quick sigh. ¡°Yes, I know it¡¯s nothing grand anymore, we¡¯ve been relegated to this little cave since our numbers have diminished over the eons past. All the good places have been inhabited by the larger Elemental groups.¡± He explained seeming rather dejected yet also reminiscent. ¡°Anyway on to the exciting stuff!¡± Onyx continued, perking up a fair bit ¡°Let¡¯s find you a shadow pet and teach you how to look after it and upgrade it!¡± He gave a broad stoney grin, noticeable even on the rather rigid Elemental face, it wasn¡¯t pretty. Onyx nudged me toward the shadowy pit with his massive obsidian claw and began to explain how getting a shadow summon works, a quest popped up as it started.
Quest: Enter the void and bond with a shadow summons.
You¡¯ll have to prove your worth to get a shadow summon on your side.
Current Progres 0/1 bonded shadow summon. Reward: 120xp.
Would you like to accept the quest? Yes / No
I accepted the quest, again little choice if I wanted to get the most out of my passive. ¡°Well, basically.. We throw you into the void and if you come back that¡¯s great, hopefully you¡¯ll form a bond with one of the monsters there.¡± He paused, thinking to himself, ¡°That¡¯ll become your shadow summon, simple!¡± He finished. I felt like there was a big issue with this explanation. I mean seriously, throw me into the void? Whats the void? Also IF I comeback, this seemed dodgy as hell! ¡°Urm, I don¡¯t want to sound rude.. But what the fuck kind of explanation in that..?¡± Feeling a bit pissed off and a bit of dread at the same time. ¡°For starters what is this void? How do I get back? And how would I make a bond?¡± I spluttered rather quickly trying to suppress my short-fuse. Onyx floated over slowly and placed his giant claw on my shoulder and gave a deep sigh, before hurling me with ease into the void portal, before bellowing after me. ¡°Don¡¯t think so much about it, it¡¯ll be fine!¡± ¡°Mother fu---¡± I tried to scream as I hit the pit of shadows or void portal, but was abruptly cut off as the freezing cold shadows ripped the voice out of me. I instinctively closed my eyes and tensed my already rigid body as much as possible. When I opened my eyes barely a moment later everything was a shade of purple, a purple so deep it was almost black. But I wasn¡¯t in the Dark Elemental cave any longer I was now stood in a vast forest with insanely large trees, like seriously how old would they have to be to seem like articulate lorries stacked end to end and out of sight. These giant Elm like trees had an almost obsidian bark and must of shot up a hundred feet or so before splitting into a set of branches that could have easily been trees of their own. Covered in thick purple leaves, and I mean purple not just tinted, but like someone had painted them that way. After finally pulling my eyes away from the colossal trees around me I finally thought about where I was and that this is full of monsters. I doubted they¡¯d be high level as I¡¯m only level one, but it was best to be wary. Then it hit me, I¡¯d not had any combat training yet, how am I supposed to fight anything? ¡°Onyx - You. Are. A. Dick.¡± I enunciated probably a little louder than I should. The previously silent forest started to stir into life, the unnoticed purple and black bushes ruffled and scampering feet could be heard from several directions, crunching sticks and other things under heel. I¡¯d obviously startled something.. Or told them lunch is here.. After several seconds it all went back to silence, but now it felt eerie and unnatural, I floated there looking around me almost jumping at shadows, which was pretty ironic considering the place was basically a realm of shadow. Suddenly from behind me without making a sound I was rushed, razor sharp claws tore through my rocky exterior, which friggin¡¯ hurt, seriously friggin¡¯ hurt! I screamed out in both shock and pain, I thought this was meant to be a game. Nothing should hurt that much. A health bar popped up in the top left of my vision, I¡¯d lost a good 10% of my health, not good. I stumbled forwards, if I¡¯d had legs I would of probably tripped over my own feet. I span around trying to find the attacker, but they seemed to of disappeared back into the brush. Quickly I tried to formulate a plan, the gamer brain taking control, first I hovered as high as I could and moved over to the closest tree and pushing my back against the dark bark. -It used surprise attacks so covering my back would limit where it could attack from. To my surprise a small growl echoed around me, as a small cat, fox.. Thing, sauntered out from behind another tree twenty feet ahead of me, obviously after losing the element of surprise it now thought it could take me in a straight up fight, which it probably could. As I looked closer a name appeared above it and a level. Shadow Fennec - Level 6. ¡°What the fuck!¡± I exclaimed, five levels above me as my first fight, seems fair. The Shadow Fennec was the size of a medium dog, about half a meter to the shoulders, and about a meter long, though this was extended by the long furry tail. It generally looked like a normal Fennec Fox, a small cat like face though with a small protruding snout with a slightly out of proportion mouth full of razor sharp teeth and massive ears on top of its head each about the size of the rest of the head sticking up like half diamonds. But it had some quite obvious differences, it was dark black, like black hole black, with small dark purple markings. The tips of the ears seemed serrated with the way the hair stood on end ready to stab or cut it¡¯s enemies. A similar set of the serrated hair protruded from it¡¯s shoulders like a pauldron of stalagmite similar to my own. Last but not least was the tail, the same spiked blades of hair adorned this turning the fluffiness into a spiked mace, yet still keeping its ability to bend. To top it all off a small flicker of shadowy flame sprung forth from the spiked areas, which I noticed were all marked dark purple. Pretty intimidating for a first fight, even if it was small and sort of cute. It still looked like a death machine. ¡°Maybe it¡¯ll leave if I stay up here out of reach,'''' I thought to myself out loud, still a little confused by my own voice. ¡°Huh!? You¡¯re gonna hide up there you little bitch?¡± I heard in an almost stereotypical japanese delinquent style, like you see in anime, though it didn¡¯t seem as gruff, it was actually almost noble sounding.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. I looked down at the Shadow Fennec in amazement, it could speak. That¡¯s cool, monsters can speak, though that would make killing them a little harder. I imagined slimes in my mind, the typical weak RPG monster new players would level on, but they¡¯d be begging for their lives.. It sent shivers up my spine.. Do I have a spine? I shook my head, I needed to get back on the problem at hand. I thought for a quick second before remembering the ranged skill I had. With a quick thought I focused on summoning my Dark Shard. A surge of power shot from my chest down my arm and into my palm where a sharp chunk of black stone floated, it was about the size of a large spear head and similar in shape.It was coated in a fog of dark purple emanating as an eerie glow. At the same time my mana bar popped up drained by almost a quarter, expensive spell. I threw it as hard as I could at the Shadow Fennec, it was caught slightly off guard but managed to dodge most of the attack, just a slight graze across it¡¯s cheek. Which did a small amount of damage as a health bar popped up above it, with barely anything shaved off of it. The Shadow Fennec snarled at me as it wiped it¡¯s cheek with paw full of claws that were still dripping with my purpley blood, essence lava? I¡¯m not sure what It was really, I¡¯ll just go for blood, even though I¡¯m a rock. A ping in my brain told me that my cooldown on Dark Shard had finished, it was only five seconds between each use of the spell. I readied another Dark Shard with the same surge of power flowing to my hand at breakneck speed, another quarter of my mana bar disappeared, though it had already regenerated a small amount from my first shot. Again I hurled the shard as hard as I could at the Shadow Fennec, and to both our surprise it actually hit it square in the forehead, doing a massive amount of damage, critical hit I guess.The Shadow Fennec¡¯s health bar raced down to just below half health. With a whelp and a growl the Shadow Fennec shook its head to clear what I guessed would be stars in its eyes. ¡°Not bad for a whimpy rock I guess. Hmm, maybe you¡¯ll do I¡¯m fed up of this forest.¡± it pondered for a second before continuing. ¡°I take it you¡¯re here to get a shadow summon, it¡¯s been far too long since one of your kind has come through here, I thought you¡¯d gone extinct. If you let me kill things and feed me well, while showing me the far reaches of this world I¡¯ll join you.¡± the Shadow Fennec finished with a snarl and shooting daggers at me with it¡¯s eyes. ¡°But don¡¯t bore me, or I¡¯ll eat you.¡± A pop-up appeared
¡°Do you want bond with Violet as your first Dark minion?¡± Yes / No
Followed by a statsheet.
Name Violet Shadow Fennec
XP 332/860 The Shadow Claw
Level 6 180/180 HP
Sex Female 120/120 MP
Strength 12 22-26 Physical Damage
Dexterity 20 12 - 15 Magic Damage
Intelligence 11 7 Armour
Wisdom 10 2 HP/5s Regen
Constitution 9 3 MP/5s Regen
Skills Shadow Fox Fire (fires 3 shadow flames at an enemy) Stealth (sink into the shadows becoming invisible) Lacerate (tear at the enemy, chance to inflict bleeding) 0 Stat points left
I quickly nodded and clicked accept. Violet was strong, I was really lucky she was bored of life in the void, I wonder how long she¡¯d been there she made it seem like eons, but she was only level six, I didn¡¯t want to piss her off so left it for now. Another notification popped up.
Quest complete, you¡¯ll now be removed from the void. Talk to Onyx for your reward.
Seeing Onyx reminded me of how pissed off I was at that damnable hunk of rock, though it turned out okay, it was still a dick move to throw me in like that. -- Then just like that we were back in the Dark Enclave, the teleport was a little disorientating, more of the quick change in scenery than anything else as I wouldn¡¯t notice I¡¯d even been teleported if my eyes had been shut. ¡°Oh, that was quick, you¡¯re already ba--¡± Onyx burst into a graveled splutter at the site of Violet. ¡°The.. Shadow Claw.. I¡¯d never.. of guessed to see you.. Of all shadow summons here...¡± Onyx carried on still stuttering the words. He looked at me, in a very obvious disbelief, either I was getting really good at reading the elemental expressions, or that was a lot of disbelief. ¡°You, bonded with... The Shadow Claw?¡± Pausing for a second to look me over. ¡°I can hardly believe it. Never in all the eons has she agreed to bond with anyone and many have tried and died, so why you?¡± The look of disbelief slowly giving way as the words spilled out. ¡°She was bored.¡± I answered shortly with a smug grin on my face, still unsure what was so great about a level 6 minion. Onyx looked to each of us and back to the other several times. Before letting out a rumbling rock laden belly laugh. ¡°Well grind me to gravel, you pair are two shadows cast from the same boulder.¡± They chuckled this as the last of the belly laugh trickled off. ¡°Anyway.¡± Onyx let out a little cough to bury the last of its laughing. ¡°Since the quest is done, here¡¯s your reward.¡± A box appeared in front of me.
Congratulations quest complete. You¡¯ve received 120xp.
Another box appeared.
Congratulations you¡¯ve reached level 2!
¡°Now to move onto the next task.. Upgrading The Shadow Claw and making sure she¡¯s in tip top condition!¡± They stated this with a tone of a school teacher, it was actually a little belittling, but at least I was going to be told what to do this time, I think¡­ ¡°Oh, it seems you leveled up, I¡¯ll let you sort that out quickly. Then we can proceed with the Shadowcraft.¡± They prompted, before floating off to check on the Shadowcraft bench. I brought up my stats screen with a mere thought and began to plan out how I was going to level and what sort of build I¡¯m going in for. Noticing I had 5 stat points to spend this gave me quite a lot to work with and considering Violet was a stealthy Rogue style character I had a few choices. I could also go down a stealthy path this would allow us to sneak around and dispatch enemies before they even knew what was happening. The downside being if we got caught out we didn¡¯t have any survivability and would soon be dead. Another option would be a front line tank, this would allow me to take all the ¡®aggro¡¯ all the ire of the enemies onto myself leaving Violet to freely sneak up behind them and dish out lots of damage without needing to worry about being hit back. Though this means I would take a lot of damage myself and so far I didn¡¯t have a way to heal my injuries There was also the option of going down a magic or trap route so that I could seal the enemies movement and we could pick them off before they could do any damage to us. This also left us vulnerable to being swarmed and quickly dying if things didn¡¯t go to plan. Or a little bit of everything, not something I¡¯d recommend usually as your stats are stretched so thin you¡¯re not really great at anything in particular. Though I could sway more towards one build than the others if need be. Oh wait, shit, I don¡¯t even know how to get skills. I guess I would have to look for someone to teach me, the games classless system left you open to be able to play however you wish, but it did leave you in the predicament of potentially making a terrible build due to the sheer overwhelming amount of paths you could take which could be ever so confusing. ¡°Isn¡¯t there a wiki or game guide somewhere..¡± I sighed to myself thinking of what to do next, depending on how to get skills could change how I pick my class. ¡°Onyx?¡± I questioned. I received a grunt in acknowledgment, so I proceeded to ask him about the skills system. ¡°So, where do I get new skills?¡± I mumbled, feeling rather stupid about the question, but hey I didn¡¯t have a clue. ¡°Hmm, well that¡¯s a tough question. See depending on the skill type you want.¡± They stated. ¡°So physical skills like attacks and the like are found through sheer practice, though you could ask someone to help teach you to get better quicker, the more you practice the stronger they become.¡± They continued on - surprisingly helpful considering. ¡°Then you have Magic, which for the most part you¡¯ll have to learn the basics, then you¡¯ll be able to learn or create new magic as you get more proficient.¡± ¡°Lastly there are Passive skills and Title related skills, like the ¡®Elementals Boon¡¯ that we inherently have this is a passive skill that doubles our base stats. You can earn both types of these by reaching certain conditions, such as reaching certain stats or completing feats etc. but that¡¯s up to you to figure out.¡± They finished with a triumphant pose. ¡°So are you ready to proceed?¡± ¡°Not quite yet sorry, thanks for the info though!¡± I replied before looking back to my stats screen. Weighing the options of how best to proceed with this newfound information made life plenty easier. It¡¯s an all-rounder build, but based mainly on the stealth aspect. With that settled, I proceeded to dump two points into dexterity, two into constitution and one into wisdom. I decided I¡¯ll go work on some physical skills first and try to find some magic later on.
Name Jon Dark Dark Elemental
XP 55/220 No Title
Level 2 240/240 HP
Sex None 100/100 MP
Strength 8 (+8) 15-20 Physical Damage
Dexterity 8 (+8) +2 8 - 12 Magic Damage
Intelligence 7 (+7) 22 Armour
Wisdom 7 (+7) +1 7 HP/5s Regen
Constitution 9 (+9) +2 5 MP/5s Regen
Skills Dark Minion (summon your shadow minion -locked) Dark Shard (conjure and throw a stone imbued with darkness) Elementals Boon (doubles all base stats) 0 Stat points left
Chapter Five With my stats upgraded and my build path sort of decided. It was time to finish the Shadowcraft tutorial and then start exploring the world! The thought of this got me all giddy inside. I floated rather nonchalantly over to Onyx ready to begin the tutorial, they were still checking out all the tools over at the Shadow Bench, The bench itself was almost nondescript, a basic bench made from a large flat topped stone, but set into it was a small fountain of shadows and to each side were a myriad of tools. From hammers to knives, and odd shaped tongs, I was guessing to be used by our claw like hands, rather than dainty human fingers. Each time they picked a tool up it would grow to fit their own claws, then when put back down shrinking to its original size, a little smaller than would be needed for me to use them. Noticing me sauntering along towards them Onyx finished relaying all the checked tools and turned towards me in full. ¡°I take it you¡¯re all sorted now and ready to rock and roll?¡± Another pun, another low graveled chuckle. I think I¡¯ll lose my mind around these lot. I sighed, and nodded. ¡°Yeah, let''s get this over with.¡± Gesturing to its side my mentor waited for me to reach them before turning and showing me the bench in full. ¡°Yes, okay. It¡¯s a bit bland, but what it can do will leave you in awe!¡± Onyx stated in part admittance, part excitement. ¡°I¡¯ll teach you a couple of recipes, the rest you¡¯ll have to figure out on your own, though it''s more like you design them.¡± Then placing a rocky claw over the shadow fountain, suddenly there was a large inky purple tinged ball of shadow, floating like oil in water. Using their claws to sort of draw with the viscous liquid shadow, Onyx flattened it out into a long sheet that resembled a sort of shimmering silk cloth. Then grabbing at some form of rolling pin mixed with a clamp of some form, they put it on one side and quickly dragged it down the length of the shadow. A sort of mix between a singe of leather being cured and a tearing slice of a blade. Moving the rolly-clamp-thing (technical term-- I know) away from the shadow what was left was immeasurably different, no longer was the shadow a watery silk shimmer but it was now a solidified length of blackened leather as if the shadow had solidified. Onyx turned to me with a particularly annoying smirk, like the sort of thing you¡¯d imagine a seagull having on its face after stealing your chips and proceeding to shit in your hair. Yeah the large Elemental had a proper shit-eating grin plastered across his face, very noticeable compared to previous expressions. I really wanted to smash a rock on it, which would obviously be pointless. ¡°Okay, very cool.¡± I admitted with a bit of disdain, but it was cool. ¡°So, what is that and what are you going to do with it?¡± I posed the question to my mentor in my least interested tone. Scoffing at my obviously forced disinterest Onyx proceeded with the lesson anyway. ¡°I¡¯m not going to do anything with it rockling. You. Will make armour for The Shadow Claw.¡± This was a pointed statement which would have been much stronger if Violet hadn¡¯t started huffing. ¡°Just call me Violet you stupid old boulder. The Shadow Claw, The Shadow Claw. Bleh, sounds ridiculous when it¡¯s used every other sentence, too formal, too long and too damn tedious.¡± She finished with a flick of her head and trotted off before jumping up onto a rock that somehow managed to catch some sun in this gorge.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Both of us turned to each other looking a bit shell-shocked by the sudden outburst. With a bit of a stutter Onyx returned to the lesson, ¡°W-well, as- as I was saying. You, are going to craft some armour for Th-V-Violet.¡± he quickly changed words and gave a quick nervous glance to where she was sunning herself on the rock. Giving a quick raspy sigh of relief he passed me the shadow leather and with claw outstretched and a small bow, like a butler showing someone into their masters house, he guided me towards the table to proceed. Skeptically I accepted the leather and giving him a little distance proceeded to the table to try and work out this Shadow Crafting malarky. As soon as I arrived at the table and put the Shadow Leather down, I was bombarded with notifications and information, instantly knowing how to use the tools and what they all did. Which came as quite a surprise and somehow Onyx could see it in my rocky face -must be something you pick up on over time- letting out a low rumbling chuckle before telling me to start making an armour. ¡°Mmm.¡± I grunted my ascent and swept aside all the notifications that weren''t relevant to making the armour. Looking down at the leather piece a blueprint of what I wanted was shown across its surface. I quickly picked up a tool that I knew was required for cutting out the shape, it grew to fit my claw as I touched it. The tool was some weird amalgamation of some calipers, sheers and a hammer¡­ I set to work cutting out the shape as if I¡¯d done it a thousand times. The rest of the crafting process came to me in the same fashion and after about an hour or cutting, twisting and pinning the leather together into a sturdy ¡®chest piece¡¯ for Violet I was finally done. Picking up the finished product I looked it over and a notification popped up.
Shadow Barding
Armour +5
Reward for crafting - 50xp
Not exactly anything to write home about but free experience and some armour to help Violet. I could live with that. Nodding to Onyx I walked -floated?- over to Violet to help her equip it. Looking up at my approach she raised an eye-brow. Seriously this fennec has sass for days. Raising the armour up to place it upon her back I felt a bit of unrest in my stomach. Suddenly I was smashed to the floor from a tail to the top of the head. -25 hp ¡°What the actual Fuu---¡± I started before being cut off by Violet landing a four-footed drop kick to my face. -10 hp ¡°Try putting that piece of scrap on me and I¡¯ll turn you to gravel¡± She very pointedly informed me. ¡°Okay, okay. No crap armour. Got it.¡± I placated her with, hands up in surrender. ¡°No. Armour. Period.¡± Violet, violently stamped on my head with every word. ¡°I don¡¯t need it, I¡¯ve my own Shadow Bound gear, I just¡­ Need.. to level up...a bit..¡± The confidence and haughtiness from the start of the sentence slowly faded into a mix of annoyance and loss. She leapt down from my face as I started to rise, dusting myself off with a bit of a crunch and the scrape of rock on rock, wincing at the sound more than any actual pain. ¡°Sorry, Onyx. Seems I won¡¯t be needing anymore lessons.¡± I gingerly joked to the huge boulder. ¡°Mm, guess I¡¯ll go to ground. Wake me if you need anything.¡± he grunted before floating off to find somewhere to bunk. Looking at back at Violet I proceeded with a quick thought that both excited me and sounded like a good idea if I didn¡¯t want to be torn to pieces by the vicious little shadow fox. ¡°Well then, let¡¯s go level up! What else is there to do? See the world. Kill the enemies and loot the loot!¡± I stated, getting more chipper as Violet seemed to perk up at the idea of exploring and killing. Then suddenly it hit me. How long have I been here? Where is Lilith? Surely she should have contacted me by now. It¡¯s been hours, hasn¡¯t it? ¡°Lilith?¡± I meekly called out to the odd stares of Violet. ¡°Who¡¯s Lilith? Did I stamp on your head to hard? Or are you just bat-shit crazy?¡± The snarky comments rolled off her like machine gun fire. Though she did seem generally concerned and was looking around for this ¡®Lillith¡¯. After a few seconds without an answer, I started going through my interface trying to find anyway to contact the real world or an emergency logout button. With very little success. Deciding not to panic, assuring myself there is probably a reason why it¡¯s like this or maybe a bug they¡¯ll fix and just pull me out soon, give me an apology and then throw me back in for some more. I took a deep raspy breath and put on my best smile, well elemental smile, or was it a grimace? Constipation? I can¡¯t tell even with my own expressions..