《A.R.I.A.S.: A New Beginning》 Prologue The starry battlefield was colored by the explosions of missed shots, the fight was in full swing, two teams fighting for supremacy in a thick asteroid belt. ¡°Careful of IMayReap! She¡¯s on the left flank holding off Nogard!¡± Was sent through the team channel, the current shot-caller was MechAzz a girl who had struggled with her team to reach the top, and the number one ranked sniper in the world. She fired several shots out into the starry expanse, blocking incoming beam shots with her own high-output beam rifle. ¡°We just have to hold out until All-Bounder manages to flank them!¡± She was concise with her orders, having complete confidence in this team that had gotten to the final battle of the world Championship. ¡°Did someone call for me?¡± They all heard through the com call as a pair of majestic wings of energy flapped forth from the back of his mecha, his signature move, a high output engine¡¯s exhaust being used to drive his mecha into overdrive, he rushed through the enemy ranks, taking out all of them, 4 mecha falling in a moment in his assault, but then another mecha came out of nowhere to clash with his, a dark red one wielding a beam scythe. The second they clashed he woke up, his head lifting off of the desk with start¡­ ¡°Why did I have to dream about those times again?...¡± He mumbled, looking at the Mecha model he¡¯d been painting before falling asleep, it seemed to be in good condition still so he sighed and stood up. ¡°Hey Ti!¡± He heard a somewhat muffled voice call from outside of his house, it was his best friend Josh, also known as ¡®TheMadRaven¡¯ in VRMMO circles, he was the number one ranked Paladin for several games now, always being a split between healer and tank allowing him to make up for the poor game play of his peers ¡®I don¡¯t trust anyone but me to do the job right¡¯ Was his motto, thankfully his high APM and situational awareness allowed him to do this without trouble.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. His name is Arthur Tian, and his friends just call him Ti. Ti opened the window and leaned out, looking at Josh standing there and waving, ¡°What do you need Josh?¡± Ti asked, eyes half lidded, a bit of stubble growing on his face, he didn¡¯t take care of himself very well it seemed. ¡°You know why I¡¯m here, I gotta make you give up that self loathing shit somehow right?¡± He grinned and held up a game card, on it was the symbol for the game that would encompass the next 5 seasons. This world has grown past war, ever since we had created a verdant colony on the moon and the war that happened after between the moon and earth it had been decided that to stop tragedy like that from happening again the world¡¯s problems would be solved using games as a medium for war. 5 years ago the game in question had been ¡®Moonflare¡¯, a mech piloting simulation game, and he had been ¡®All-Bounder¡¯ the number one ranked pilot in the game, someone who had done a little bit of everything and mixed it together in a way that shined greatly.. ¡°So what? You want me to jump on the bandwagon for the new game?¡± Ti sighed and leaned on the window a bit more. ¡°You tried this after Moonflare went down Josh those VRMMO games aren¡¯t really my thing, the only reason I played Moonflare is cause I love Mecha.¡± ¡°Come on Ti, last season the Luna Colony whupped us! ¡®IMayReap¡¯ murdered us last time in the tournaments!¡± IMayReap, such a nostalgic name, Ti had fought that person many times, and it was always a close match as they had alternated number One and Two in Moonflare. ¡°So what do you want me to do about it?¡± Ti asked once more, to Josh who just shook his head.¡°Look just give it a try alright? You don¡¯t have to play but just try it you might like it!¡± Josh called out, and Ti walked away from the window, leaving his house and walking through the small little yard to the gate he opened it and held his hand out. ¡°I¡¯ll try it, no promises though.¡± Josh placed the card in Ti¡¯s hand but didn¡¯t let go right away.¡°Just give it your all like you did back then alright? If you do I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll have fun and do great.¡± Josh smiled and let go of the disk before walking off. ¡°My name will be the same as always, game service starts tomorrow but you can make your character today.¡± He waved and turned a corner, leaving Ti by himself to close the gate and go back inside.
A/N: Just a prologue to see if theres any interest in my story really, I''m hoping to be posting a chapter a week. But I also stream gameplay most of the week so we''ll see if I can do that!
Chapter 1 The VR pods were a rather interesting piece of technology, most of them were given out for free to people with the skills to bring their country victory over the others, Ti had gotten his sleek black pod ten years ago when he¡¯d signed up for the national team in MoonFlare. He hadn¡¯t touched it really since the game had gone down five years ago and he hadn¡¯t regretted the decision. While the pods were amazing he had lost a lot of time and things he cared about being in the pod for so long. The pod itself slowed down your interpretation of time by a factor of four, so every hour was four in game, this allowed for a lot of practice and playtime in a short amount of time, but more than one person had gone insane because of it. Ti looked around the room he used to house his pod, there was little else in the room save a tangle of thick cables on the floor, and several promo posters and other memorabilia from the MoonFlare days including a poster from the final tournament that had his and ¡®IMayReap¡¯s Mech prominently displayed in combat. He crossed the room in several steps and tapped the button on the pod, the lights blinking to life, machinery whirring to life with a hiss as the pod door opened and allowed him to look inside for the first time, the inside was simple enough having a silvery memory gel that contoured to your body to prevent sores, and a headrest that held the Neural Interface for the game. Climbing in was just like old times, he slipped into the comfy gell and the door hissed closed, leaving Ti in darkness. The visual darkness was interrupted by a simple text box that appeared. [Scanning¡­ Previous Profile data found, Parsing¡­ Play data confirmed, Rank 1 Player All-Bounder Initializing Rank 1 Reward.] He was confused at first but the next thing he knew he was staring up at the ceiling of a dark and dreary cave. Wasn¡¯t there only supposed to be a character creator until tomorrow? This was of course the first thing he thought about but the second he thought about it he was met with another text box. [Greetings! Because of the difficulty of having a Monster Race you will be given 1 out of game day of play before release! Enjoy!] ¡°Status¡± The word was out of his mouth the second he read the text box, he hadn¡¯t even gotten to create his character! His jaw dropped at the sight of his character sheet¡­The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. How did he even have a 0 in all three of his physical stats?! Then he looked down at his body and saw that he was simply a floating spirit, sure he had a vaguely human appearance but he was definitely transparent and hazy. His eyes focused back onto the character sheet before his eyes, the little stars next to some things catching his attention. [Incorporeal Body(Unique: Monster Race/Passive): Incorporeal Body is a skill unique to the Dullahan, Ghost, and Wraith races. You cannot have more than 0 in any Physical Ability Score, you take no damage from Physical sources but take bonus damage from magic and healing. You have no Health Pool, instead HP per level is added to your mana pool and all damage is done to Mana instead.] ¡°Interesting.¡± So he was an unstoppable physical tank but he couldn¡¯t deal physical damage and he got destroyed by magic, also any magic he cast drained his health, he wondered idly what he had that offset this, because he just felt useless as a character already. [Monster Race(Unique: Monster Race/Passive): You can use Items and equipment only usable by Monster¡¯s, You can also learn any skill a Monster Race of your type could learn. (Warning: You will be attacked by NPC¡¯s on sight unless disguised or invisible.)] From what he had read in the little booklet that came with the game, Classes were locked until level 10, but to make up ffor that they got to choose several Armor/Weapon types during character creation. Every equippable item in the game had a skill attached to it, and if you used it enough through the item you kept it even after you stopped using that item. Skills could also be evolved from innovative use, or even created by doing something unique. Which led him to his next two passive skills, and the reason he might go on with this character. [All-Rounder(Unique: All-Bounder/Passive): You can use Items and Equipment from Any race (You must still meet the requirements), You are considered to have all Equipment Proficiencies.] [Armor Rider(Unique: Dullahan/Passive): As a Dullahan you can easily enter a suit of armor that you have proficiency for (Ignoring Physical Stat requirements). When Riding Armor of another race you will become that race visually, you no longer take damage to your Mana and instead have an HP pool dependant on the armor equipped, and Physical stats dependant on the armor equipped as well (Ex: Riding armor for the Titan Race would give you more strength, while a set of Inchling armor would give you far more dexterity.)] While he was reading he¡¯d floated up a little bit and began pacing in the air, this was some interesting information, and understanding it fully would no doubt give him an interesting playstyle, he could be sneaky by posing as a person from another race, tanky by wearing great armor, he could learn most if not all magic. His mind made up he began to search the cave for an exit, nothing in the cave could bother him, as the large spiders dealt only physical damage and everything else seemed to ignore him, the skeletons and zombies simply shambling and rattling past his floating body. The tunnels of the cave were a labyrinth, a collection of twisting passages that seemed to lead back to where he¡¯d been previously. But after a couple of hours of meandering around Ti found the exit. Almost excited to see the world outside he rushed forward as fast as his floating body could take him and found himself standing in front of a large barren plain. To the left in the distance he could see what looked like a village, and to the right across a large river there looked to be a gothic manor of some sort surrounded by a forest of dark trees. ¡°Well¡­ I may as well get this over with.¡± Was all he said as he, began floating towards what he hoped, was a vampire manor home... Chapter 2 It didn¡¯t take an awfully long time for Ti to reach the manor, he of course stopped to marvel up at the gothic european styled home and he couldn¡¯t help but think he might have seen one of the gargoyles up above turn to look at him. He had more pressing matters to deal with though, he didn¡¯t want to waste this day of extra play by getting out of his pod to eat, that was just horribly inefficient and though he hadn¡¯t played a VR game in a long time he felt almost compelled to play this one and he didn¡¯t know why¡­ His menu slipped into his vision and he logged out, there was darkness for a few moments before the pod hissed open and he stepped out, already moving towards the kitchen. Every minute he wasted out here was 4 minutes wasted in the game where he could be grinding, questing, trying to get a head start. Every VR pod was equipped similarly, there was a nanobot gel inside that you laid in that took care of Waste and sent tiny shocks to your muscles to prevent atrophy, and on the back were two large tanks, one held water and the other held a long shelf life nutrient gel. Both would be fed into your mouth whenever you needed them and the connection between your brain and the pod allowed the pod to swallow for you. Ti hoisted a single 24 hours worth barrel of the Nutrient Gel over his shoulder and carried it easily into the pod room, the barrel opened easily enough and soon he was dumping a decidedly delicious looking amber gel into the mostly metal container. It filled to only a tenth of it¡¯s full volume and it closed with a mechanical whir and hiss. The water tank was even easier to fill, as he simply turned a nozzle on the tank on and watched as crystal clear water filled to about halfway. Content he stripped down and slipped back into the gel, the door closing and sealing Ti in for the next 24 hours. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The light damn near burned his retinas as he appeared outside of the vampire manor, he floated simply through the barred gate and looked around. The lawn was not in the best condition from what he could tell, at one time it had been taken care of daily but now it was left in disrepair. He continued casting his gaze around when he noticed something was different from the last time he was here¡­ The gargoyle he though had looked at him was no longer on the roof but was instead on the ground smashed into pieces in the yellowed grass, the front door was slightly ajar and now that he was on alert he could hear muffled banging and voices coming from inside. Ti wasn¡¯t one to stick his nose where it didn¡¯t belong, at least out of games, but this just smelled like a quest to him so he slipped into the manor, his undead eyes seeing perfectly in the dark. The foyer was littered with scattered ashes in piles of clothing and armor, blood, there were a few corpses belonging to humans and elves alike, all wearing a holy symbol on the chest regardless of armor or clothing. ¡°Get this damn door open Rivalt, I will not leave until every abomination in this place has been dealt with!¡± Even his voice sounded sanctimonious, like a television pastor. Ti floated over one of the ash piles and touched his hand to the blood red chestplate dusted with ashes and the second he did a menu popped up. [Would you like to Ride Leather Rogue Armor(Vampire)?] He immediately clicked yes and his vision blurred for a moment, and suddenly he found himself standing on solid ground for the first time since logging in, his body felt oddly heavy and it took him a moment to get used to moving his limbs around again especially clad in armor as they were.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. In Moonflare the most he¡¯d had to wear was a flight suit and that wasn¡¯t heavy like this leather armor was. A beep sounded in Ti¡¯s mind an alert to let him know he had a new skill or two to play with thanks to the armor. [Hoard Lv. 1 (Common:Active): The ability to create a small dimensional storage space only you can access, size increases with level.(Granted Upon getting your first Item)] From the look of the skill he had space enough for 60 items, weight and size didn¡¯t matter, and as usual money could be held infinitely. He spent the next several moments collecting loot from the corpses and ash piles in the foyer, he managed to get a set of [Iron Paladin Armor(Human)] and [Cloth Priest Robes(Elven)] which let him realize what was happening, some holy order decided these vampires needed to be wiped out. He¡¯d also picked up a few other things from the corpses, accessories and weapons mostly. Ti stood up and activated one of the abilities his armor gave him [Stealth] it was a straightforward passive that just reduced his chances of being spotted when he was trying to go unnoticed. The soles of his leather boots made little noise as he slipped through the hall and peeked around a corner, he saw two people standing in front of a large door one was an old looking human priest, and the other was an elven warrior, probably a paladin. The warrior was hefting his large two handed hammer high and striking it down onto the door which resisted as best it could but splinters and cracks were beginning to show on the deep colored wood. He thought his approach had gone unnoticed by the time he¡¯d come halfway down the hall, his eyes on the priest who he was going to try and kill. It was his only real shot at winning this fight, take out the healer and do your best to dodge the giant fuck off hammer¡­ And with barely a motion the priest whipped around and threw something, a glowing cross made out of holy light soared through the air towards Ti. Suddenly he remembered why he had stopped playing after ¡®Moonflare¡¯ because instead of moving his body to dodge the incoming projectile he moved his hands in the way he would have to dodge in a Mech. His self hatred at this slip up was cut short by the searing pain of the cross lodging itself in his shoulder. A grunt of pain tore out of his throat as the flesh sizzled around the holy energy, He hated pain¡­ ¡®Why did I agree to this?... I can¡¯t fight I must have been crazy, if only this were a mech instead of armor...¡¯ Looking up he saw the Paladin walking towards him, steps heavy and foreboding, the hammer hefted up into the air a moment later, but then Ti heard a beep.. [The skill Armor Rider(Max) has transcended it¡¯s limit in response to your thoughts and has become Armor Rider(EX)] [Congratulations on becoming the first player to Create or Learn an EX Skill!] Ti¡¯s consciousness faded for a moment before he realized the pain was gone, and that he was seated in a nostalgic chair, with controls in front of him. Almost as if in slow motion he saw the hammer on it¡¯s downswing and his hands moved in those practiced motions. The vampiric body he was in control of slipped to the right, dodging the hammer by a hairs breadth. ¡°This is more like it.¡± He felt comfortable, truly comfortable for the first time in 5 years ¡°Sorry big guy, no hard feelings.¡± He said, a little grin on his face as he swung his hand downward. ¡°Vampire Claw¡± His fingers sprouted a blood red energy and made a satisfying squelch sound as he lodged them into the paladins exposed fleshy throat. Taking a moment to look at his health bar he saw he was at half, that holy spell was still chipping away slowly at his health, it broke easily enough when he grabbed it and yanked it free of his shoulder. ¡°Now as much as I¡¯d love to mess with you gentlemen all day I¡¯m afraid I just don¡¯t have the time so I¡¯m gonna need you to die.¡± He didn¡¯t have any weapons he could use just yet, Vampires generally preferred to use their claws and fangs, and magic to take care of foes. The paladin went down in a couple more swipes of those claws, the armored lump of flesh slow compared to Ti now, it was like watching a tiger play with it¡¯s meal, a dodge here, a light slice there¡­ But the priest wasn¡¯t simply standing there, he was throwing more holy magic at Ti but all of them were either dodged or quickly met with a slash of his claws. The priest fell quickly after the Paladin was dead, and Ti stood in a puddle of fresh blood staring down at the two men he had just murdered and he shook his head. ¡°I know these games are supposed to be a replacement for war but do they need to make everything so...Visceral?¡± He sighed and found himself in natural control of his body again, it seemed like he could only pilot his armor like a mech in combat. He heard the door crack open and there stood a female vampire, obviously a royal from her clothing and the tiara on her head. ¡°Took you long enough to defend your princess¡­¡± First Quest! Ti simply shook his head as he left the grounds of the vampire manor, the ¡®Princess¡¯ had been very short with him, essentially ordering him to check on the village nearby, apparently the village he¡¯d thought was a human one was actually a village of monsters under the rule of the Vampire family that lived here. The walk through the dark woods wasn¡¯t as harrowing as Ti might have thought at first, it was peaceful if a bit dreary it didn¡¯t take more than twenty minutes though before he was standing in the archway of a little town, surrounded on all sides by a sleek black walls like obsidian. ¡°Wow, nice walls¡­¡± ¡°Of course they¡¯re nice, they were given to us by the Lords of our fine town!¡± He heard from atop the wall, where there sat a stout Draconic creature with a crossbow in his arms. Most people looked at Goblin and Kobold type creatures and saw them as stupid, brainless cannon fodder but this Kobold had an air of confidence and intelligence about him. ¡°Greetings, I am Falmouth the resident town elder.¡± he jumped from the wall and a pair of leathery dragon like wings extended from his back and he floated calmly to the ground before Ti. [Your true status has been revealed Due to the ¡®Eye of Gavarenth¡¯] Well., that probably wasn¡¯t good¡­ ¡°Ah i see, you¡¯re one of the travelers? We were not expecting your kind to appear for several days yet and we did not dare hope one of you would appear here so early¡­¡± he crossed his arms over his chest, wings folding back as he stood before Ti, looking up at him, looking very much like a miniature dragon. ¡°Well it''s good you¡¯re here now we have some problems we could use your help with.¡± [You have been granted permissions to get quests in the town of Basa] ¡°Normally we¡¯d only give you permission to take on quests after you¡¯d joined a guild and completed a specific number of quests but it¡¯s a bit of an emergency at the moment and if we wait for that then we might not be here.¡± The gates opened and Ti just stared at the Kobold, this was rather sudden, yea he knew he should be questing but he didn¡¯t even know anything at this point, the state of the world, where he was¡­ ¡°Could you answer a few questions for me? I¡¯m not sure exactly what¡¯s going on¡­¡± Falmouth simply nodded and the two began walking through the town, the heavy black stone gate closing behind them. While walking through the streets Ti saw a great many kinds of monsters all working together in harmony to create a thriving village, and Falmut explained everything Ti might have needed to know. They were currently deep inside of the dark half of the continent, a place where monsters spawned in greater variety and difficulty, but dungeons and raw materials were also in abundance and of higher quality thanks to the mana rich air. The people he had killed in the Vampire¡¯s estate had in fact been from a ¡®Holy¡¯ Faction called The Sons of the Sun from the light side of the continent, who constantly said that all monsters should be destroyed, even peaceful and intelligent ones like the people from the town of Basa, they sounded like they would probably be a pain as Falmouth had absolutely nothing bad to say about the other holy orders on the continent. They passed by a blacksmith shop and Ti spotted an Oni woman hammering a large piece of blazing hot metal. ¡°That¡¯s Ide, she came here from one of the other continents years ago, didn¡¯t even speak the language but she fits in well now, is even the town¡¯s main blacksmith.¡± Ti saw no fire nearby her he wondered how she would heat the blade once again but he heard her let out a grunt and a large draconic head snaked it¡¯s way around the building and breathed a jet of flame down directly onto the blade. ¡°And that¡¯s Xorvu, her wyvern companion and mobile forge¡­ Ide is the only blacksmith on the continent save the dragon cult that makes weapons and armor using Draconian Fired Metal. Speaking of which, that should be your first quest.¡± The two took a few steps closer to the oni woman, her red muscles flexed as she brought the hammer down upon the blazing hot metal, not a waver in her gaze, every hammer strike made with absolute precision. ¡°Ide, I found someone who is willing to go get you some ore.¡± Another strike of her hammer and a grunt later she spared a moment and glanced at her visitors. ¡°Good, need metal from the mountain.¡± Her voice was rough and intimidating, and her gaze wasn¡¯t any less so, Ti felt like she was sizing him up from the moment she laid eyes on him, intent on devouring him. ¡°Sorry about her¡­¡± Falmouth sighed, leading Ti to the gate once more and pointing towards a mountain in the distance. ¡°That¡¯s the Claw of Rezati, it¡¯s a normal enough mountain, has a nice big mine in it but recently our workers haven¡¯t been coming back, were gonna send you in to find out why, and we¡¯ll pay you for any ore you manage to bring back as well, before you go though for the love of god spend your ability points¡­ I saw your status with my magic and it¡¯s been bugging me ever since.¡± Falmouth turned and left Ti standing at the gate, looking a bit sheepish.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. He dumped all of his skill points into intelligence, from the tooltips he looked at it was what decided his Maximum MP, while Wisdom decided his regeneration of mana, so having more Maximum would no doubt help him survive longer if he were to be hit with magic outside of his armor. His walk to the mountain began after his status screen disappeared, he trudged through the dense, dark wooded area, pushing vines out his vision and stumbling through bramble patches that dealt minimal damage to him, about one damage every 5 steps or so through the larger patches. His first indication that something wasn¡¯t right at the mine, other than Falmouth telling him so, was the distinct lack of monsters and animals around the entrance, there were abandoned monster nests, the birds he¡¯d heard cawing on the walk over were gone, there wasn¡¯t even the sound of a cricket to fill to void of silence that permeated the air around the yawning mouth of the dark cave. The first step into the cave was the worst, a sense of dread had rooted itself in Ti¡¯s stomach he expected something to jump out of the darkness and kill him at any moment, but a few steps in he calmed himself, though his heart still beat fiercely in his chest. ¡°Falmouth wouldn¡¯t give me a quest I couldn¡¯t complete right? I¡¯m just supposed to look around and get some ore¡­¡± [Quest! | Investigate The Claw of Rezati | Difficulty: Deathwish | Investigate the mine in the Claw of Rezati where workers have been disappearing and no living thing dares tread.] Investigate: 0/1 Optional Collect Ore: 0/25 He stared blankly at the window that appeared¡­ Alright so he was likely to die immediately if anything so much as scratched him, good to know, he¡¯d have to be careful. His eyes fell on a pickaxe leaning against the wall and he picked it up. [Mining(Commonassive) Lv. 1 | Lowers the time it takes to mine, Raises the chances to get better materials from mining.] Pretty standard fare, nothing special about that but he was sure it would be useful if he ever wanted to get into crafting his own weapons and armor. He cautiously moved deeper into the mine, there were lamps lining the walls every so often, letting off a dim flickering light but once he got deep enough into the roughly hewn stone hall things began to get more suspicious, There were no signs of struggle, it just seemed like everyone in the mine disappeared. Spotting a glint in the wall he stopped and swung his pick at the wall, after several swings he felt he¡¯d gotten a bit more used to the motion and even found himself enjoying it a bit. Ti got lost in the movement for several long minutes and he saw a pile of metal chunks laying at his feet, they shined dully, and were streaked with rock but he had mined them all himself and he felt oddly proud of that fact. Picking the metal up and storing it in his Hoard he saw he had grabbed more than he¡¯d actually needed, a good 48 chunks of Iron ore and 3 pieces of Infused iron re, a good haul, and if he brought back the extra perhaps he could ask Ide to teach him how to smith things! But he had other things to worry about at the moment, he had to investigate, so he slipped into a more stealthy mindset and began creeping further into the dimly lit cavern. After about twenty minutes of walking he had come across something bright in the distance, a speck of almost blindingly white light peaking through down the hall and he pushed forward, getting closer and closer until he found himself before a large scar in the stone, a jagged hole that he would barely be able to slip through. It was a tight squeeze, and the belts and pouches on his armor kept catching on rocks, but eventually he slipped through the hole in triumph, throwing his hands in the air right before he head a loud crack and his body fell to the floor dead. He floated above a pile of bodies, the miners apparently had found this place and decided to try and explore it, only to walk single file into their death, he heard another crack and he flinched when he felt a tickle in his ghostly chest area, no damage¡­ Which gave him a chance to actually look around. The area he was in was brightly lit, and seemingly made out of shiny white metal tiles, which made it look very surgical and clean, almost antiseptically so. He floated forward and was hit with another shot from a turret pointed straight at him above a nearby door. ¡°Well that¡¯s way more technologically advanced than I thought this world would be¡­¡± Ti wondered, floating forward and through the firmly shut door, through it was the same brightly lit white tiled room, but this one wasn¡¯t empty, instead there were plans and tables of scientific material, this was a lab of some sort, obviously. He looked around on the tables, and through the plans but everything was in awful condition, so he moved on to the next room, this room was dark though, that wasn¡¯t really a problem for him once his darkvision kicked in, letting him see through the dank blackness in shades of grey, but it was better than being completely blind. Before him in the room stood something he hadn¡¯t expected to see, it was a bare bones mecha from Lunar Flare but this one was shrunk down to just slightly bigger than human size, and when he reached a hand out and touched it he almost jumped. [Would you like to Ride Nano Armor(Lunarian)?] ¡°That explains it¡­¡± Back in lunar flare it had been a point of contention between the moon colony and earth when earth found out that the controls were different between the two. Earth got the normal control scheme, with a cockpit and the steep learning curve of getting the mech to move how you wanted it to, while the Lunar colony controlled mechas like they controlled their bodies, a lot of the world called them cheaters for that, and it seemed like they were cheating again¡­ Well at least this time he had a chance to even the odds right? He didn¡¯t hit yes, instead he put the armor into his inventory, it would be better to get out of here in dullahan form rather than leave in any armor that could get killed by the turret near the exit. On his way out he saw that the vampire armor he had entered riding no longer had a body in it, instead it was just a broken mess of leather armor, a shame because he hadn¡¯t kept the Vampire Claw skill. As soon as he left the cave he turned towards the town and began his slow float towards it, apparently Dullahans only had one speed¡­ Slow. Chapter 4 After a couple of slow floating hours he arrived back at the town, the smooth black walls once more welcoming him back to safety. He¡¯d seen a few very dangerous looking creatures on his way back, including a large horse sized insect that seemed to be made of wickedly sharp blades and steel hard chitin, though it looked like a good monster for farming materials at the very least. He floated himself through the gate and looked sheepishly at Falmouth. ¡°Uh hey it¡¯s me, I kinda lost my body but I did find out what was happening at the mine! I even brought back some ore for Ide.¡± Ti stated proudly, sure he¡¯d lost his armor but that was replaceable, he was just glad he had survived to get back here and turn in the quest. Falmouth chuckled and shook his head, he beat his wings a couple of times and began floating beside Ti. ¡°Well let¡¯s go to Ide and see if she can¡¯t get you some new armor to run around in for now?¡± The float to Ide was when Ti told Falmouth what he¡¯d found in the mine, when he mentioned the Lunarian lab he saw a scowl appear on the small creatures reptilian face. ¡°It¡¯s been a long time since I¡¯ve had to worry about the Lunarians¡­ Since anyone has really¡± He shook his head and they arrived at ide¡¯s shop, the story would have to wait for another time as the muscular oni blacksmith looked up at them and grunted, eyeing up the ghost with an almost judging eye. ¡°Ore?¡± She growled out, to which Ti simply replied by opening his Hoard and dropping all of the ore out into a trough nearby, She grabbed a larger chunk of metal and squeezed it in her hand, her fingers sunk into the metal and she grinned, nodding her head and dropping the metal back into the trough. ¡°Good.¡± Falmouth simply chuckled and nodded. ¡°Well then your quest is complete traveller, for your reward we can award you a modest amount of Aether, and Ide here will create some equipment for you.¡± Ide grunted without looking up from her anvil, the heavy hammer she wielded slamming down, sending sparks scattering around her. ¡°Vampire right?¡± She asked. ¡°Actually if you don¡¯t mind, could you make me a set of Oni armor?¡± Ti asked, which just had the two of them baffled enough to stare at him, Ide even stopped her hammering for a moment. ¡°Preferably something that can survive an up close encounter.¡± And then he remembered he didn¡¯t have any weapons and he looked dead serious. ¡°Perhaps some kind of hand to hand fighter?¡± Ide shrugged and quenched the sword she had been working on, ¡°Your reward¡­¡± She grumbled, absolutely positive that he was gonna be wasting his reward on an item he couldn¡¯t use. ¡°Come back tomorrow.¡± SHe then got back to work, hoisting the trough of fresh ore onto her shoulder she carried it around back. ¡°Now if you¡¯ll follow me i can reward you with your Aether.¡± Falmouth spoke up and led the specter of a player through town once again, this time to a large blood red crystal that sat in the direct center of town. ¡°This is our Aether crystal, it¡¯s what repairs our walls and buildings over time, and keeps us mostly safe from monsters. It also absorbs all of the aether from the air.¡± Once they were in front of the crystal Falmouth motioned for Ti to touch the stone, and when he did he felt a rush of energy in his body.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. [Congratulations! You have reached level 8! HP up! MP up! 35 Skillpoints Gained!] Ti widened his eyes, 7 levels all at once was nothing to scoff at. ¡°This is a moderate amount of Aether?¡± He asked Falmouth he he knew could see his status screen. ¡°Because that jumped me up quite a few levels¡­¡± Ti watched Falmouth stare at him, and nod. ¡°Of course it did, this area was far above what a traveller could reach at your level, the only reason you¡¯ve survived is the fact that you¡¯re a Dullahan, and most of the creatures in this area deal with poison and physical attacks, things that don¡¯t affect you.¡± He nodded sagely, ¡°About the aether though, killing creatures does not give you Aether by itself instead you must harvest the stone from them and bring it to a crystal, trading it in will get you an appropriate amount of aether.¡± Ti nodded, he assumed this was to make up for his lack of a proper tutorial, he was just kind of, thrown into this world ass first in a high leveled area. ¡°You can¡¯t really do anything for us in this form though, we have more quests we could use your help with but you need a physical body¡­ Why don¡¯t you just rest for a day?¡± Rest was the furthest thing from Ti¡¯s mind as he left the town, floating easily through the gate and looking for a private little clearing in the surrounding woods. Once he was sure he was alone he tapped the icon for the Nano Armor in his inventory. [Nano Armor(Prototype)] A suit of Lunarian Nano Armor that was being researched before the Lunarians were banished back to the moon, Has several functions that are hidden and can only be used by Lunarians. Dullahan Stats HP/Level: 100 STR/Level: 5 AGI//Level: 5 END/Level: 5 Ti looked at the stats and he was quite dumbfounded, the armor he¡¯d worn before only gave him a flat amount of each stat but this Nano Armor would grow with him getting stronger as he levelled up. With a giddy excitement he touched the armor and clicked accept when it asked if he wanted to Ride, within seconds he was seeing out of the armor¡¯s eyes and moving around. ¡°Huh, My body feels oddly light considering how heavy this armor is¡­¡± He tested a few movements, as if he was trying to acclimate to having a body again after hours of floating back to town in his spiritual form. -Booting¡­- He heard in the back of his mind and he looked around suddenly, wondering if someone had seen him, he knew Lunarians were hated on the planet so he didn¡¯t wanna think about what would happen if some NPC saw him wearing their armor and walking around. -Boot Complete- -Error! Insufficient Energy, activating backup power. Error! Backup power non functioning, user must acquire 50 Monster Core¡¯s to bring Basic Systems online.- [Quest! | Power Up the Armor | Difficulty: Normal | The prototype armor you found in the mines has no power, and no backup power, it requires 50 Monster Cores to bring systems online and unleash it¡¯s potential.] Cores: 0/50 ¡°Hmmm, this should be easy enough if I can get to a zone with low enough levels¡­¡± He opened up his hug map and scrolled around and found the lowest level zone around was the basement of the Vampire Manor he had come from originally. ¡°I suppose it¡¯s time to take a visit back to her then huh¡­¡±