《Parallel Online》
Volume One
Post any questions you have here. I''ll answer them as long as it won''t spoil the story.
Prologue - Beginning of a New Era
PROLOGUE - BEGINNING OF A NEW ERA
==========
On a stone balcony attached to large keep, a young, slim figure was leaning on the stone railings as the amber sun slowly descent down the tall, distant mountains. The cool breeze caressed her face and blew through her long silver hair, making it flutter around in the air. Her pale amethyst eyes showed tranquillity as she calmly look over the large darkening city below her.
Since it was starting to get dark, the magic lamps built by the streets has been poured with condensed qi, making it faintly glow azure under the golden rays of the sun. The shops and recreational areas has started to close it''s doors as the city residents began to head home. It was the same thing that repeated over and over again within the city walls ever since the city, Saorun, came to be millenniums ago.
It was peaceful, yet melancholic at the same time.
The girl then sighed at the thought and then laid her head on her arms. She closed her eyes and began to slowly drift into a trance like state. However, just as she was about to fall asleep, she felt a presence slowly move towards her from behind.
The girl slowly lifted her head and turned her head towards the presence. When she got a good look at the person, her eyes flashed a hint of surprise, but it slowly dissipated back into calmness.
"Uncle, what may you be doing here?" she asked politely as she elegantly turned her entire body around to face the middle-aged man.
The middle-aged man, Augustus Remirium, was once a powerful soldier of the army and has climb in the ranks up to Lieutenant General before retiring due to his injuries. After he retired, due to his efforts while serving the military, he was given land within the wealthier inner district of the city. Thereafter, since he had nothing to do, the king asked him to guard his daughter, in which he humbly pledged to protect her from there after.
Even though Augustus had lost his right eye, arm and parts of his internal organs, he was once a revered {3rd Rank Platinum Fighter}. Unless the enemy was of equal rank or higher, they would not be able to take him down unscathed. This was why the king entrusted him with that job as he can''t spare any other powerful soldiers due to the neighbouring empires becoming restless nowadays.
"I could be saying the same for you, your Highness." Augustus sighed, "We have to prepare your coming of age ceremony in the coming month, and yet you''re here daydreaming your fantasies."
"How rude, Uncle!" the girl huffed as she stared back at her uncle with feign malice. "I''m merely here to cool off my head as everything in my life has become extreme busy due to my fifteenth birthday coming soon, nothing else. Also, I believe that I told you to call me by my name if there''s no one around. I dislike being called ''your Highness'' as I have a name for that purpose."
"Yes, yes, your Highn-, Sylvia..." Augustus corrected himself, "Anyways, you should know very well that this isn''t the time to dally around. We still haven''t pick a dress for you to wear."
"Isn''t this dress enough?" Sylvia asked as she twirled her silky white empire dress with delicate-looking silver rose motifs around the slightly bulging chest area and near the bottom of the skirt.
Augustus examined Sylvia from the top of her head to her feet, however, he just shook his head.
"I''m afraid that it may be a bit too plain to the eyes of nobles." Augustus told Sylvia with a shrug.
"I thought so..." Sylvia sighed, "I''m starting to wish that I could enter my fantasies right now."
Right when Sylvia said that, her uncle showed a face of pity.
"Sylvia, I know that you really want to be an adventurer from the time I told you about my adventurer days from the past, but that dream is naught but a foolish fantasy. The king, his Highness, will never allow it."
"I acknowledge that, but one day, once I gain scholarship and graduate from the Arcane Magicka branch of the Crimson Empyrean Academy in the capital city, Albatross, he will have no choice but to make me an adventurer." Sylvia confidently told him.
"You''re not even an adult and you''re ambitions are already that big." Augustus told Sylvia in wonder. "Only the genius of geniuses are accepted in that academy. Not only that, but due to the strict teachings they do there, only a handful of them graduate. Our city has sent countless amounts of geniuses to the Crimson Empyrean Academy throughout the millenniums, but sadly, only just short of a thousand graduated. Are you sure you are confident enough?"
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
"Uncle, I know that you only want me to be safe, but this is my dream and I want to achieve it, no matter what cost; be it my status or my life." Sylvia told her uncle without a hint of hesitation, "My private tutor said I''m special as my qi capacity is twice as large as a normal person''s and my affinity towards both fire and water spirits are extraordinary. Though fire and water contradicts themselves making them a useless mix, when used separately, I could utilise them better than a normal {Spiritualist}. With these, I''m sure I''ll be able to at least past the scholarship test."
Augustus then realised how much Sylvia was passionate about this. He began to look at Sylvia through a new light. Normally when she is with a family member or anyone else other than him, she is always polite and passive. She rarely talks and speaks with facial expressions and hand gestures. However, right now, she is neither of those. Sylvia is still courteous, however she is being assertive as well. She is also being very talkative while speaking out her dreams and ambitions. It''s like she is a whole new person. That''s why Augustus just shrugged his shoulders and decided to gave up.
"If you''re that confident with yourself, then it would not simply be me if I were to stop your dreams." Augustus sighed.
"Thank you, Uncle." Sylvia spoke softly with a smile.
After that, Sylvia turned around and leaned on the stone railings once again. She looked at the buildings below again, however, during the small chatter she had with her uncle, the sun had already set and darkness quickly engulfed the land. But with the magic lamps and flame torches below and on the stone keep illuminating most of the city, the darkness never overtook the entire city.
Augustus soon followed and leaned on the railings right beside her. It was quiet for a long time with the wind and the occasional talks from the civilians below the only source of noise that can be heard. But after a while, Augustus finally broke the silence.
"Can you feel it as well, Sylvia?" Augustus asked in a solemn voice.
Sylvia''s expression didn''t change, but her eyes betrayed her as a hint of dismay quickly shone across it. Truth to be told, she had felt a weird disturbance in the air lately but couldn''t find a reason for it. She hasn''t told anyone as of yet because it would either give them some unnecessary fear. Or, they wouldn''t believe her at all. However, Sylvia decided that it should be fine to tell her uncle about it.
"Yes, Uncle." Sylvia softly replied, "This feeling that I''m getting... I believe that change is about to happen in our world, and I have a feeling it won''t be a simple one."
"I concur. This feeling that you talk about has been felt by only a small portion of people in our city. Most of them are Platinum ranked or higher Combatants like me." he paused, "I''m surprised you knew of it was well, considering you''re only an {4th Rank Silver Spiritualist}."
"Like my tutor said multiple times during our lessons, I''m a special person." Sylvia humphed.
"Yes, yes, you are very special..." Augustus replied as he patted her head with his large hand.
Sylvia smiled again and looked towards the dark mountain range in the distance. Her smile slowly fell down as her expression turned tense.
She glumly looked at her uncle and asked, "Do you think we''ll be alright?"
Her uncle didn''t reply for as he looked as if he didn''t hear her. But after a while, Sylvia realised that her uncle was actually thinking hard about the question she inquired. Finally, Augustus replied in a solemn but reassuring voice.
"I don''t know what fate has got in stored for us, but the only thing we can do right now is to hope for the best."
++++++++++
Author''s Note: Hey guys! Hope you enjoyed the start of my new story. There are many things that I''m not very experienced with in terms of story making, but learning them through experience is the reason on why I began writing in the first place.
07/04/2016 - Did some minor changes. Nothing too much right now, but it will affect how the story will turn out in the future.
07/09/2016 - Moved
07/15/2016 - Final update to this chapter/prologue. This will completely change the future of the story now. I may fix somethings here and there, but not as major as now.
Chapter 1 - Part 1
Chapter 1 - Part 1
==========
I gazed into the distance as I saw the silver-lined clouds drift onto the massive floating chunks of land that hovered hundreds of meters above the ground. Many of those islands were a kilometre in diameter while the smaller versions that floated around them were only a few hundred or so meters across. Majority of them has a flat top and has a small forest or a grass field.
I was on one of those large floating islands, standing right beside a massive corpse of a newly killed red dragon.
"We got quite a huge catch this time!" a tall, muscular man with a huge crossbow on his back said with a smirk on his face.
He patted the dragon with his hand before looking at me.
"We''re so lucky to have you. There aren''t a lot of {Tempest Mages} because almost no one liked the {Wind Mage''s} magic due to it being so weak, even as a support character. Honestly, even when people found out how powerful the buffs that the sub-classes of {Wind Mages} had, no one would want to spend thousands of gold just to switch affinities."
After that, he began to dissect the dragon to get the valuable parts.
"It''s not like I wanted to be a {Wind Mage} at the beginning of when I started the game." I replied to the man, who''s name was ReGrelan64, "I was originally thinking of becoming a {Fire Mage}, but I lost to a bet with one of our guild''s Administrators. Now I''m stuck as a {Wind Mage} forever."
"Oh, that sucks." He said nonchalantly as he continued to slice the scales off the dragon, "Not that it matters. Thanks to your magic, we were able to fly using your wind magic into one of these floating islands. The only other way to get onto these massive floating rocks are to get onto one of those trained wyverns from the city."
"Yeah, those wyverns would''ve costed us a fortune just to get one." A feminine voice came out from behind the corpse of the dragon.
The girl, LilyIsla, or Lily for short, was in charge of collecting the spinal spikes on the back of the dragon. This required her to cut open the back of the dragon and hack the spike until it breaks off. That''s why when she came out to see us, her small, lithe body was covered in blood.
"Come one, Kieta, you should always look at the positive side of life!" Lily merrily told me with the sweetest smile I''ve ever seen all day.
"You know, that would''ve held a lot more meaning if it weren''t for the fact that you''re covered in blood while holding a bloody cleaver." I said as I passed a clean rag onto her.
Lily caught it and began to wipe her face. Once she was done, she passed the rag back to me and began to walk towards the nearest tree. After that, she sat down and began to rest.
"Phew, collecting materials sucks. I''m supposed to be a weak mage, not a warrior! Why do I have to help?" She complained.
"Now look who''s looking at the positive side of life." I sighed as I began to walk towards another person, who was checking the scales on what was supposed to be the dragon''s tail. "How''s the condition on the scales of the tail, Rufold?"
The young man didn''t say anything at first, but after scratching his brown hair, he finally looked at me with a dull gaze.
"Due to a certain {Pyro Mage} being and idiot and blowing off the tail instead of the stomach..." XxRutherFolderxX, or Rufold, said as he showed me the destroyed scale segments.
"Hey! I heard that!" Lily shouted to us from the tree.
"It''s a complete loss." Rufold continued, completely ignoring Lily.
"I had a feeling..." I sighed as I saw the charred remains of what we thought to be something extremely fire resistant. It just goes to show how powerful the explosion Lily created and how terrifying it would be to be shot by one, if she could actually shoot it accurately.
After that, I began to help ReGrelan64 collect the valuable parts of the dragon. Since his inventory was getting full, I decided to use mine as well. The reason why I didn''t in the first place was because I was about to log out soon and I didn''t think the amount of space the dragon would take would be this much. That''s why I decided to just leave them in the guild bank later on and have the others sell them for me.
About an hour or so has passed when we''ve finally stored everything valuable that the dragon had. All what was left were some spilt blood and a couple of scales that were too small or broken to sell. Other than that, we took everything from the bones to the skin.
Once everything was all set, I began to tell everyone what to do next.
"Alright, our work here is done. Now, everyone go to the edge of the cliff."
"Right... and why are we going to do that?" ReGrelan64 asked me in suspicion. "Can''t you just use your flying magic thing again?"
"We will jump off, what else is there to do?" I answered back. "And as for the magic thing, I can''t use it again today."
"Eeh? Why can''t you use it again?"
"The cooldown time for that still hasn''t ended yet because I recently just got the spell." I answered back, "Thanks to that, I would have to wait another two hours before being able to do it again. Instead, I''ll just use my levitating magic."
"Oh, well, are you sure this levitating magic will work. If we die, we''ll lose a lot of things, you know." He replied.
"I do know it will work. Now stop complaining and go." I told him.
"Come on, just go and do it, you pussy!" Lily urged him as she tried to push him towards the edge. However, being a ''weak'' mage that she is, she couldn''t even make ReGrelan64 budge an inch.
"Fine." ReGrelan64 reluctantly agreed, realising that he is making things unnecessarily difficult. Apparently, he was afraid of falling, but I didn''t know of it at the time since this was the first time we''ve ever partied together.
We began to slowly walk towards the edge of the floating islands. Once we reached it, ReGrelan64 looked down below and then stared back at me.
"You know, maybe we should wait until the cooldown for your flying magic ends." He hoarsely said to us.
"You know we can''t wait that long because I have to log out soon." I reminded him.
Sighing, I looked at Rufold and we both nodded together. After that, we began to slowly walk back.
"But, I mean. We can always-" ReGrelan64 started to say, but before he finished, me and Rufold ran towards him and body checked him right off the edge.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" ReGreland64 screamed at the top of his lungs as he flailed all over the place, "WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO ME!!!"
Due to the momentum of, both Rufold and I fell along with him. Seeing how everyone jumped off, Lily realised that she was left out and was the only one left on the floating island.
"Hey, don''t leave me!" Lily yelled as she jumped down with us.
As we were falling, the cold wind slapped my face over and over again as I forced to keep my eyes open. Dry eyes honestly hurts so I blinked as fast as possible so that I could keep my eyes moist while checking out to see how far off we were to the ground. Though, it was pretty hard to concentrate when a large, muscly guy kept on flailing around and crying as if he was about to die, even though this is just a video game.
After about twenty seconds, we were about to approach, I shouted a warning to everyone.
"Guys, stay within a hundred meters around me! If you wander away, once I activate levitate, It won''t affect you and you''ll just plummet into the ground and die!"
After I uttered those warnings, everyone tried to be as close to me as possible.
We continued to fall down at terminal velocity towards the grassy plain below us when I finally invoked the activation for the levitation magic. Soon after, we quickly began to decelerate until we were barely falling at all.
After slowly floating down a hundred meters, we finally touched the ground. I brushed my robe and looked at everyone. They all had messy hair and some parts of their clothing or armor were misplaced, but other than that, they were fine-ish.
"That was so much fun!" Lily exclaimed as she tidied her long, messy auburn hair, "Let''s do it again!"
"Yeah, sure." I replied without looking at her, "Is everyone else okay?"
"Yeah..." Rufold answered back while rubbing his forehead.
"Ugh..." ReGrelan64 managed to say before gagging.
I stayed silent as I looked at the lost causes and then looked towards a small town in the distance.
"Come one, guys, we''re almost to the town. Once we teleport to the capital city, we can just take a break. You guys can sell the stuff later." I persuaded them as.
It took a while to make ReGreLand64 to walk with us as he was too busy hurling in the background. But after he was done and we began walking, we finally reached the small town. There were a small amount of other players within the vicinity, but there wasn''t as many as it used to be.
We then walked toward the center of the town, which was a small park. In the middle of the stone park was a monument made with four pillars. Once in a while, the center of the monument would begin to glow and then some people would walk out.
The four of us walked onto the center of the monument once the other people got out. After that, a blue window popped right in front of us.
"Caldoronia!" All four of us yelled in sync.
After that, light began to envelop all of us. Consequently, I began to feel weightless and then, everything began to fade into white.
About ten seconds later, the whiteness began to fade away. It was soon replaced with huge, tall marble buildings. Majority of them are over ten stories high and arched bridges connected them from up high.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
On the ground were many people and demi-humans, just standing and looking up. Whether they were NPCs or players, they were only looking at one specific place. And that was where four huge screen projections that were floating in the air was located.
Within the screens played out two opposing armies, the demons against the combined army of both players and NPC, fighting each other in a massive battle. Massive catapults hurled flaming boulders onto a dark wall that seemed to be made with obsidian as siege towers stood tall besides the parts walls that weren''t targeted by the catapults. Explosions made from magic attacks were everywhere as both sides spared nothing to annihilate one another.
"Do you think our guild is doing fine on the raid?" Lily asked us as another massive explosion happened on one of the screens.
"They should be. I mean everyone from our guild that participated in the [Grand Raid] are the elite of elites. Our guild, the¡ºFreedom Hope¡», is one of the top guilds in the entire world for a reason, you know." ReGrelan64 reassured Lily, "Also, we have a role to play in this as well. Since we''re too under-levelled to join the raid, we are in charged of getting supplies like potions for them."
"Yeah, going into a large-scale raid without health potions is like breathing toxic air without a gas mask. You''ll die eventually." I said, "They may have healers, but their magic has a fairly long cooldown, plus they also have limited mana. With all the people getting injured, it''s good to have a backup plan just in case the healer dies or becomes useless."
"Wow, kinda harsh, but it''s true. That''s why we have to work hard." Rufold stated, "Though, after the ordeal we had. I kinda wanna rest for a bit."
"Yeah, me too." ReGrelan64 sighed as he looked at me with dead eyes.
I shrugged it off and then faced them.
"The club room is about to close so I have to go. I''ll leave all the materials I''ve collected in the guild bank and then log out. Can you guys sell them for me and then buy the supplies?" I asked them.
"Sure." Rufold replied, "It must suck not owning your own VR headset. Thanks to that, you''re under levelled and can''t join in the last [Grand Raid] of Atlas Commander."
"I know, if I owned my own, I might''ve capped this character. Though, with the money I have, I''m just happy the school is letting me use their headset and game." I sighed, "Anyways, I''m off."
"Yeah, see ya." Rufold said his farewells.
"See you tomorrow, if the raid hasn''t finished." Lily smiled. "You are going to party with us tomorrow again, right?"
"No promises." I replied.
ReGrelan64 didn''t say anything and just stared at me with his dead eyes.
Like before, I shrugged it off and began to walk towards the massive cathedral-looking building that was adjacent to the warp monument. When I went inside, players were chatting together as they looked at the screen projection that was playing the same thing that was outside. From the look of things, they''ve finally broke through the ninth of the ten obsidian walls of the Demon Lord''s fortress.
The raid is probably gonna end soon and the entire process of taking over nine of the ten walls took six months, both in game and real life.
The VRMMORPG that I''m playing, Atlas Commander, or AC, is about to close it''s servers. This is because the company who made AC, Sandstorm, is about to release a completely new VRMMORPG, Parallel Online. Since the company can only host one super server at a time, they decided to close AC to make way for Parallel Online.
Apparently, Parallel Online''s world is at least a ten times larger than AC. To put things into perspective, if you were to stretch out Earth into a map, you could fit at least twelve Earths onto the world of AC. That would mean that Parallel Online''s world''s surface area would be a hundred and twenty times larger than Earth itself.
It may seem large, but with billions of people playing not from just earth, but space stations and settlements on other planets, it''s only natural that Sandstorm would want a large area where people could explore to their heart''s content.
There are also many other features to the game that people are being hyped about, but due to me busy grinding materials to help my guild members win the [Grand Raid], I haven''t had the time to research them. As for my time in real life, I''m either procrastinating or watching the live streams of players in the midst of the raid.
I walked down the path that led to a counter where a beautiful female guild receptionist was standing and helping adventurers.
"Hello, young adventurer, what would you like to do today?" She asked me in an alluring voice.
"I would like to enter the guild room of¡ºFreedom Hope¡», please." I answered back nonchalantly. Even though the young woman in front of me was very hot and something a fifteen year old kid like me would love to be with, she is just a programmed NPC. Nothing more and nothing less.
"Oh? Well, can I see your guild card, please?" She asked me.
With that, I swiped my hands in front of me from right to left. Then, a menu opened with six different buttons to choose from.
| Character | Inventory |
| Friends | Guild |
| Quest | Options |
I chose the Guild button in which another window replaced the menu before. The window showed our guild''s insignia, a side view of the dove with a blue sun on the background, and a list of the members that are in the guild. On the bottom showed another button with the words "Guild Card" on it.
I pressed it and after that, something began to glow in front of me. I put my hand underneath it as it began to materialise into a small card. Once it stopped glowing, it fell onto the palm of my hands.
"Here." I said as I handed the card to the receptionist.
She began to inspect it to see whether it was real or fake, which was unnecessary considering I got it from the actual guild menu. But, it adds to the authenticity of the game so I don''t really mind it.
"Alright, Sir. Please stand on the warp stone to the right." She said as she gave back my guild card.
I opened up my menu to despawn it and then walked towards the supposed warp stone that was placed to the right of the receptionist''s counter. After that, like what happened to the warp monument outside, my vision started to go white and then it faded down again.
Once the warp was done, I was transported to our guild room. It consisted of three floors. On the first floor was a large hall on where most people from the guild would meet. There were tables and a bar with an NPC on the left of the room and the guild bank was on the right.
The second floor consisted of a hundred rooms on where members could sleep in if they couldn''t find a suitable hotel a player home. Within the rooms are three beds and one washroom. There wasn''t anything else as it was only meant to be a place to sleep in.
The third and final room is the Guild Master''s office and rooms for the Administrators. This is where most of the top secret plans for the guild are held, obviously. I''ve never been there before as Administrators and the Guild Master can only go there.
I placed all the loot I got from the red dragon onto the guild bank, which was just a large gold and platinum chest. After I placed all the scales and bones that I got from it, I closed the chest and began to gaze around the empty building.
The guild building was normally always full, but now it''s empty. During the start of the raid six months ago, everyone was either busy trying to level up to be able to join the raid, or if their level is too low, helping the vanguards which consists the Guild Leader, the Admins, and the Officers of the guild get ready.
As you should''ve known already, I''m one of those who helped them as my level is way too low to be able to be much of help in the raid. Right now, the lowest level a person should be to be able to enter the [Grand Raid] without getting killed by the miasma alone is Level 400. I''m only Level 248.
This, as I stated before, was because I don''t own my own VR headset and the game. I could only play three hours a day. if I''m lucky, I could do four during weekends. If you''re a die hard fan of MMORPGs, you should know that three to four hours a day is not going to get you very far, especially when using a trash character.
But I made due and managed to reach my level with some help of my only actual friend both in game and real life. However, since he is one of the Admins, he could only help me when he was at break.
Well, it doesn''t really matter anymore since all our accounts are gonna be deleted due to the shutting down of the server.
After finishing that thought, I opened up the menu again and pressed options. There, three more buttons popped up.
[table]| Settings |
| Character Select |
| Log Out |
[table]
I hovered my fingers above Log Out and pressed it.
Subsequently, my vision started to black out and I was put back into the starting menu of AC.
On the top of the screen, it showed two huge words that said the name of the game, ATLAS COMMANDER. On the background was a projection of the battle that was taking place between the two opposing sides. Before all this, what was shown in the background was a serene overview of the world, Atlas. It showed many crystal clear lakes and rives and many lush forests along with massive human and non-human cities.
"I guess it really is the end of this world." I said as a massive explosion occurred and destroyed one of the siege towers, killing many players and NPCs alike.
Knowing that I''m gonna get in trouble if I don''t get out of the school soon, I logged out of the VR headset and returned back to reality.
++++++++++
Author''s Note: Woot! I finally got the tables working. It may be a bit wonky, but I''m learning. Anyways, here''s the first chapter, hope you guys like it! If you find any spelling errors or grammar mistakes, just post it.
Chapter 1 - Part 2
Chapter 1 - Part 2
==========
As I opened my eyes and woke back up to reality, I took off the VR headset on my head.
The VR headset looks a lot like visor glasses, only with the front bulging out a bit and the entire headset goes all around your head. The entire exterior is white except for the front which was a dark-tinted glass lens.
After placing the headset down, I stretched my sore limbs as I''ve been sitting on the same place for at least three hours.
I looked around me, only to see that everyone who was here had already left. All the couches were bare and the headsets brought back to their lockers. Only me and the clerk who took care of the headsets were left in the empty room.
I stood up and brought the headset to him. After paying for the time I''ve used it, I left the room as they were about to close.
Outside of the room is a hallway that went both left and right. I took the left turn as further along the hallway, the stairs that lead down to the main floor was located.
The right side of the hallway had the elevators, but they are closed since school hours ended long ago.
After taking the flight of stairs down to the main floor, I was met with a massive corridor that was at least five hundred meters long and thirty meters tall. The roof was completely made out of glass while all ten floors of the school can be seen on the each sides of the corridor.
Since it''s already late at dawn, most students have either already gone to their dorms or they went shopping around the shopping districts of Corrosa city. That''s why there were almost no one other than custodians in this massive corridor.
After walking out of the front doors, the view of a distant sunset hit my eyes. The orange sun shone through the massive skyscrapers in the distance, making their metallic exterior shine bright amber while casting massive shadows to the ground below.
It was a beautiful sight, however I looked away as the sun began to hurt my eyes.
Once my eyes adjusted to the brightness, I began to walk down the set of steps in front of me. Down below was a circle walkway with a large fountain in the middle. There were three different walkways from there, each going in their own direction.
I took the one on the right as it was the path that leads to the boy''s dormitories.
After walking for about twenty minutes, I finally reached the dorms. Since it was about two kilometres away from the actual school building, it took a while for me to reach it. However, I didn''t really mind as the scenery was pretty. The setting sun made the trees have a golden ambience while the birds chirped along the branches.
The dormitories are five story buildings and has twelve rooms on each floor; six on each sides. Each room is about 76 meters squared and 3 meters tall. The room can hold two people and still be fairly spacious. This is because we don''t really need books, bags, and paper anymore as everything now is one way or another electronic.
My room is located on the third floor and is the 21st room.
I also have a roommate with me and he''s probably the only friend that I can trust in this school. He should be in our room right now fighting in the [Grand Raid] as not only is he a part of ¡ºFreedom Hope¡»''s vanguards, but he is also an Administrator. The same Admin that I lost the bet that ultimately forced me to build a trash character.
I knocked the door to see whether Soren, my roommate, was there or not. After waiting for a good minute or so, it dawned to me that even if he was in the room, he wouldn''t hear me as he would be in Atlas Commander. All five main senses of the human body would be cut off by the device.
Sighing, I pressed a button that was on the door in which a section began to slide off. Behind the section of the door was a hand scanner.
At first it was red as it''s getting booted up, but after five seconds, the screen turned green. I placed my hand on it and let it scan for me.
A bright white horizontal line then appeared on the screen as it scanned my hand. It went up and down before I heard a clicking sound on the door. When the section of the door went back to cover the screen, the door automatically opened.
I then went inside our room, which consisted of two dressers, two closets, two beds, two desks, and one washroom. Within the washroom had a toilet and sink. There is a bathhouse within the campus so there isn''t any here.
When I looked at Soren''s bed, I was surprised to see that he wasn''t here. Also, from the looks of it, he hasn''t been here for quite some time now as his bed is tidied up and his headset is lying on his desk.
Shrugging my shoulders, I just dropped myself on my bed. I tried to remember what I did today when I was in the party, only to realise that I barely did anything combat-wise. The only thing that I did was find the dragon, make my party members fly, and then made sure they didn''t fall to death.
ReGrelan64 and Lily were our main attackers and the ones who destroyed the dragon. Rufold on the other hand didn''t do anything combat-wise either, but he is a {Mercenary} which meant that his inventory is five times bigger than any of ours. He carried most of the dragon for us.
I''ve just met them today, yet they''re already acting as if I''ve been with them forever. I kinda liked that feeling since I often play solo while doing odd and easy quests. However I''m probably never going to meet them anymore as I''m going to stop playing Atlas Commander as of today. There''s nothing left for me to do and even if I did find it, the game is going to end soon so it wouldn''t really matter.
From what I''ve seen, the tenth and final wall is the Demon Lord''s castle itself. No matter what the demons do, they''re probably going to fall either this week or the week after. That''s why there''s no point on playing.
After lamenting about the thought, I sighed and realised how uncomfortable it is to be in my school uniform. I took off my black blazer and loosened my tie. After I took them off, I unbuttoned my dress shirt and took it off as well. As for my pants, you should know by now.
I inhaled a breath of fresh air as I felt how good it was to take off my uncomfortably hot school uniform. I probably have the weirdest expression right now, but it doesn''t really matter to me. As long as I feel good, I''ll be happy.
As I stood in the middle of the room while not listening to my surroundings, I failed to hear the door of the room unlocking. Before I could react, it was already too late. Standing just outside is a person who is wearing the same uniform that I was wearing before while holding a plastic bag.
His short and skinny body just stood there while his girlish face showed the expression of apathy.
For a while there was an awkward silence as we just stood there, looking at each other. But after a while, he finally entered the room and closed the door.
"If you''re gonna change your clothes, you could at least use the washroom." He said, breaking the silence.
Snapping back to reality, I retorted, "Or you could''ve just knocked on the door. You should know by now that I should be here during this time."
This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
"I shouldn''t have to knock on my own room." He replied as he set down the plastic bag on his desk, "And anyways, normally, you don''t take off your clothes until like midnight just before you go to sleep. How should I know you were gonna go commando?"
"Today''s summer hear was extremely hot, so I didn''t want to keep it on. I''m pretty sure you would''ve done the same, Soren."
Soren is the friend I was talking about before. He is a bit shorter than me and fairly skinny. He has platinum blond hair the reached down to his shoulder and is often jagged down on the ends. His icy blue eyes were large and round, giving him a feminine look. However, his eyes weren''t the only thing that looked feminine. His face is spotless, free of any blemishes or scars. His nose is short and pointy while his lips looked soft and supple. It isn''t much of a stretch that he looks a lot more feminine than majority of the females in this school. That''s why when he transferred to the school nine months ago and told everyone he was a male, no one believed him.
A lot of people constantly followed him where ever he went to see whether he was a boy or girl after that, but they found nothing. Also, the stalking got so bad that the police had to intervene. After that, no one questioned him anymore and publicly accepted him as a boy.
Though, in the end, it doesn''t really matter if he was a boy or a girl to me. If he is a boy, then good for him and I curse the gods for giving a wang to such a beautiful looking person. But if he just happens to be a girl, then nothing would happen between us. Not only is he not interested in romance, whether between different sexes or the same, but he is also the child of the CEO of the famed game developing company, Sandstorm. Compared to my commoner status, not only would his parents not allow us to be together, but his followers would kill me. Just being his friend has cause animosity within my class room.
However, no matter what they say, I feel happy to be his friend.
"No, I wouldn''t." He sighed.
After that, he didn''t say anything else. He just sat on his bed and took out a popsicle from the bag.
During that time, I put my dress shirt back on and then looked at Soren. Not wanting this awkward silence, I began to talk again.
"Anyways, what were you doing outside? Shouldn''t you be fighting in the raid as one of the vanguards." I asked him.
"I was at the raid, and we were doing great as well. However, we were all killed during an assault on one of the castle corridors. One of my party member was careless and triggered a pitfall trap." Soren sighed as he licked the popsicle, "You can imagine the rest."
"That''s surprising that you actually got killed." I said in shock, "Aren''t you an {Imperial Paladin}? Those things are like the tankiest class you can get in the game. Something like a pitfall shouldn''t have killed you or your party members."
"If it was an ordinary pitfall, then yes. However, this one not only had spikes that were serrated, but it was also coated with an extremely potent poison. We died almost immediately."
"Wow, that''s kinda harsh."
"Yeah, and thanks to that, I lost to a bet."
"A bet?" I asked, interested, "What sort of bet was it?"
"It was to see who would die first." He replied, "Now I have to do the thing she told me."
"And that is..?"
"It''s nothing worth mentioning." Soren said as he turned away his head, "Ahem! Anyways, enough about me. How was your party today?"
I really wanted to know what the bet was about and I planned on urging him to tell me, but from the way he looks, it would be better if I stayed out of it.
"They weren''t that bad, I mean they got the job done." I replied. After that, I told him the details of our two hour long hunt for the dragon.
I tried to exaggerate it a little, trying to make it sound like I was useful. But with the extreme toughness of the dragon''s scale mixed in with over a hundred levels difference, I couldn''t find anything to brag about.
"Hahaha, sounded like fun." Soren said. "I''m sorry that I couldn''t help you anymore. Thanks to this raid, I barely even have time to go with firends."
"No, it''s fine. A very popular game is game is about to end so you should join it." I told him enthusiastically, "And anyways, a small hunt like what we did is nothing compared to raiding an entire continent of demons. I''ve always wanted to join it as the battles are always on the grand scale. Do you know how awesome it would be to join in battle between armies consisting of millions of soldiers?"
"Chaotic and nerve wracking." Soren replied with a tired voice, "You have no idea what it''s like to be in one. It may look cool on television, but it''s a whole different story when you''re actually fighting. You will often lose track of what you''re doing and you''ll never know when you would be killed. I''ve lost at least thirty levels from dying in the battlefield alone."
"Well, a perk of being a support class is staying in the back. Unless I get shot by an arrow or magic, I won''t die." I said.
"Good. For. You." Soren emphasised his words.
After that, we ran out of things to say to each other. Seeing that it was already dark and Soren couldn''t go back to Atlas Commander due to death penalty of waiting for twelve hours, we decided to call it a night.
Soren changed his clothes in the washroom while I put on my nightwear on my bed. They was just a simple shirt and shorts, but it''s comfortable when it''s hot in the room.
After a while, Soren got out of the washroom with new clothes. Unlike me, he is wearing light blue pajamas
Before we turned off the lights I asked Soren something, "When do you think the [Grand Raid] will end?"
Soren stayed quiet for a while, thinking about the question.
"Since Parallel Online is going to be released next month and we''re raiding the Demon Lord''s castle itself, I''m sure it will end either this week or next week." He replied, "Though, from the speed we''ve been going in the castle, it may even end tomorrow. After all, unlike the first eight walls of the [Grand Raid] which were giant mountains that span around the territory with the circumference reaching thousands of miles, the castle itself isn''t very large. The only things that are holding us back now are the mobs and the mini-bosses."
"Oh, well, good luck on that, I guess." I told him.
"You could at least try to sound like you care." Soren replied from the other side of the room, "Anyways, what about you, what are you going to do now?"
"Probably nothing. Using the school VR headsets costs me money and I want to save up so that I could play Parallel Online as well." I told him while sighing.
"Hmm, well, that sucks for you." Soren yawned as he turned his body away from me, "Anyways, I need my rest for the raid tomorrow. Good night."
"Yeah, it must feel good to be rich to the point where the only thing you''d be worried about is homework and your gaming life." I whispered as I closed my eyes.
"What was that?" Soren asked in a drowsy voice.
"I said good night." I replied.
It''s not something I would say to him, whether I was joking about it or not. After all, I do treasure this friendship a lot.
++++++++++
Author''s Note: Sorry that some parts may sound awkward. I''ll try to fix my way of writing later.