《Demonify》 Prologue - Discovery ¡°Finally!!! I finally found it!¡± Both excitement and tiredness could be heard in the voice that ran through the usually quiet library room, nearly startling me to death. The loud sound caused me to jump, which in turn resulted in me falling off the bookshelf I was comfortably reading on. In fact I had been so shocked I couldn¡¯t even shout in surprise. So after a few seconds of seeing naught but stars from my fall as well as overcoming the dizziness that had come from hitting my head on the floor I simply grumbled some curses no gentleman should ever utter and sorted my feathers back into place. My master in her excitement hadn¡¯t even noticed my predicament and was merrily continuing her rant, excitedly scribbling down on a piece of parchment placed on the table next to her. ¡°This is it!¡±, she exclaimed again, all tiredness from the long research gone from her voice. I sighed to myself and attempted to calm my still wildly beating heart while flapping my wings steadily to fly onto the desk she was working on. ¡°Master¡±, I addressed her respectfully. I was after all one of her trusty familiars and very proud of the position. Never in my wildest dreams would I dare to disrespect my master by cursing at her for nearly shocking me to death¡­ ¡°Kra, there you are!¡±, she smiled as she looked up from her piece of parchment, an excited glint in her red eyes. The glow in those reptilian-like eyes made me shiver despite myself. The rest of her appearance also did naught to support my knowledge of her innocence and purity of heart. Her long slightly wavy black hair dropped down past her waist, shrouding her figure in darkness. Her bangs were just long enough to hide her eyes should she not face directly in front or up. Only on the side were they parted by two black horns growing out of her temples and curving backwards, drawing nearly a full round across her pointed rigged ears that were peeking out of her hair. Yes, you have read correctly, my friend. Horns. For my master is of the proud Devil race. The rest of her devilish appearance was currently hidden by her clothing. Two mightly dragonlike black wings which she usually kept in their smallest form when not in use as well as a long devil¡¯s tail that was covered by her robes. In fact her wings could reach a stage so small one could mistake them for fashion accessories as long as she did not move them. ¡°What seems to be the matter, master?¡±, I finally inquired. ¡°Kra, look at this! I finally found a clue to his whereabouts!¡± Kra was the nickname my master had bestowed upon me, the great crow Krabitius Windigus III of the Sky Spirit Empire. It was a name I wear with pride. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Having understood the reason of my masters excitement I quickly hopped over to her side to take a glance at the passage she had pointed out with a conviction unlike of her. And surely enough, there it was. After years of research in this hidden library that had led to nothing but frustration we had found the hiding place of the greatest calamity the races of NeoPangea were facing at the moment. The Great Cyclops. The location wasn¡¯t disclosed precisely but with this much information it would prove easy enough to find. Then my master could finally execute her vengeance upon her oldest and strongest foe¡­ it wouldn¡¯t be an easy fight. I don¡¯t doubt she hasn¡¯t been the only one growing stronger over the years. I cast a worried glance upon her. She noticed my gaze upon her and put me at ease with just a few words. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Kra. After all I have you guys with me now!¡± Shocked I looked up at her. ¡°Master¡­!¡± I was touched. She would put so much trust into us¡­ even though we were demons mortals frowned upon and cursed with all their heart. Even then our master did not hesitate to trust us. Truthfully it was something we didn¡¯t deserve at all. But this was exactly the reason why I and my companions would readily give our everything for this small devil. Without fail, we will definitely protect this small light granted to us in those hours of darkness and despair. ----------------------------- [A/N]: First of all welcome back to the rewritten version of my previous story. I hope you''ll enjoy it and stay with me until the end of our journey. I will be aiming for at least 2000 words per chapter just for the practice. I will also try going for weekly releases, but this might not always be possible since I m a student. In these cases please bear with me. Other than that I¡¯m looking forward to any comments and criticism you may and hopefully will throw at me! I¡¯m looking for holes in the story, grammatical errors and even just something that bugs you while reading. Tell me if you¡¯re curious or confused about something and what goes through your head while reading. Thanks a bunch!~ [box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Chapter 1[/col][/box] Chapter 1 - Intro - The Demon [box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]In an undiscovered mountain range in NeoPangea[/col][/box] ¡°Say, do you really think this is a good idea? I believe we¡¯re close to where the giants spawn¡­¡± ¡°No worries, we¡¯ll be fine!¡± Another one just sighed and shook his head. A party of 25 players made their way through a valley. They wanted to take a shortcut to the neutral city beyond the mountains. Pressed for time the merchants they were escorting had unwillingly agreed to travel through the undiscovered path that had lead them here. The merchants were so-called NPCs, a short term for non-player characters, who hired the players as escorts for their dangerous journey. They were inside a game world. Which meant that said merchants were merely part of a program written for humans¡¯ enjoyment. This however was not obvious from their actions. You couldn¡¯t tell which people you were talking to were real humans and which were part of the game, that¡¯s just how amazingly detailed the programming had been. The party was made up of humans and some angels, who were surveying their surroundings carefully. Some angels had taken to the sky to get a better overview and scout ahead. The merchants had chosen a group of the most experienced players to guide the caravan but even so he slowly started to doubt if they hadn¡¯t gotten in over their heads with this shortcut. The monsters they encountered had gotten stronger with each encounter, which had driven sweat to the NPC¡¯s foreheads. They themselves were absolutely helpless after all. Each of them was a driving a fully loaded wagon covered by a huge linen cloth secured with ropes which were pulled by sturdy oxes. The escort were flanking the carriages carefully, always keeping an eye out for new enemies. Far above them, a figure wearing a black sleeveless coat was watching them with cold eyes. The hooded person was standing in the entrance of a deep cave engulfed in shadows. The figure waited until the caravan arrived at the exit of the valley where tall cliffs flanked the path, making it narrow. The party of players now had to change their formation to a straight line and continue behind each other due to the cramped space. The wagons only barely managed to pass through, the oxen had to use more energy to pull their weights as the way led slightly upward. The figure took something from its bag and raised its hand to place it on the wall right next to it. Concentrating and murmuring an incantation, the cavern shook and the walls started glowing with dark energy. As the tremors grew the figure smiled. The incantation had been successful. The tremors spread from the cave to the surrounding area and soon the ground shook violently, causing small rocks to come lose and roll down the mountain. The growling of the earthquake had also caught the attention of the caravan below, but they couldn¡¯t pinpoint where the sound came from. The high walls around them caused echoes and confused their senses. The figure stepped out of the cave as it started to collapse. Then the ground around them cracked open and in its stead a large dragon appeared, shaking its lithe form as if it had just awoken from a deep slumber. Stone pieces flew off its body as it roared out its first cry. It seemed oddly happy as it made its presence known to the world. Then it noticed the dark figure and lowered its head to it. The figure next to it took out a small knife and cut into its own hand, letting the blood drip out. From the blood a red wand materialized. It was slightly curved and formed into a claw at the end. The figure raised its hand above its head and dripped some blood onto the dragon¡¯s forehead. Then it gave the new-born Mithril dragon the order to attack the caravan. The dragon¡¯s white eyes turned red as its master¡¯s blood dripped onto its forehead and it let out another mighty roar, taking off into the sky before diving down towards the party below. The caravan was in turmoil. They were trying desperately to retreat into the valley behind them and regroup while avoiding the stone avalanche that had reached them in no time. Their panic only increased as the first roar of the dragon resounded, but they were too slow. The dragon had already landed on the cliff above them, its long neck bending down into the opening and it snapped at them with its jaws opened wide, swallowing an ox whole. Horrified screams could be heard from the female users but the dragon ignored them, reaching out with its sharp claws and wiped out 6 players with a sweep of its tail as they tried to dodge its head. Its rampage went on for less than 5 minutes before all the players and merchants had turned into red light, only leaving behind the deserted carriages of the caravan. Oddly enough the wagons hadn¡¯t been harmed at all, but scared cries and sobs could be heard from within. The figure that had been watching the spectacle smiled. It hurried down the mountain and entered the path the dragon was now peacefully relaxing over. The figure quickly walked towards the carriages. It raised its hand and took off its cloak, revealing its features. She was a young girl with long black hair and clear red eyes. Her pupils were slit like a reptile¡¯s and two curled ram horns were growing out of her temples. She was a devil. The girl sighed audibly, hoping without conviction that her suspicions had been incorrect. Then she raised her staff and with a small swing the covers over the wagons fell down, revealing the large steel cages within. Anger welled up inside the girl. She had caught some slave traders. Again. She had found many of them over the past months, merchants selling normal wares on the surface, but engaging in illegal slave trading behind the scenes. The worst part about it was that ¡®players¡¯ didn¡¯t even know about it, nor would they care if they did. After all the slaves were just ¡®programs¡¯ without feelings¡­ She gritted her teeth in helpless rage as she helped the half-starved devil NPCs out of the cramped cages. Her schedule was delayed. [box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]A short while later on the General forums of NeoPangea[/col][/box] There was a thread that had gotten quite a bit of attention lately. It was about a specific ¡®player¡¯ in NeoPangea Online (NPO), someone called Zayvin. Another new post was made on this thread.
Hey¡­ we just escorted a merchants caravan and were attacked and completely wiped out by a huge white dragon. The notification we got when we died was¡­. ¨CYou have been killed by Zayvin ¨C Seriously, I can¡¯t figure this one out, we swear to god there wasn¡¯t any player around there and we were all killed by a monster. Are you absolutely sure it¡¯s not a bug?
Nah, Zayvin always kills like that¡­ Last time it was a tiger I think¡­
The Dev has confirmed it¡¯s not a bug¡­ seriously, we¡¯ve been hunting this player down for ages and no one has even seen them. They¡¯ve ruined HUNDREDS of missions or dungeon runs already. Honestly, I don¡¯t get how he keeps doing it.
Yea, that guy is seriously messed up, I mean what¡¯s his problem? We were just questing, for god¡¯s sake. Guess some people just enjoy messing with others¡­
The question is¡­ what kind of demon is he to just casually wipe out a party of 25 of the highest ranked players just like that¡­
The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Dude¡­ you give me goosebumps, let¡¯s just not go there. I want to believe it¡¯s a bug.
¡­
The girl - Zayvin - had become the most infamous character in the game. On the other hand the Devils¡¯ forum was deserted. In fact not even 1000 players were playing as Devils anymore. The reason? Simply because all the other races antagonized them. Even Quests were handed out to kill them. Therefore no one had been attracted to the race since it came out. The creator Furan Corp had now started intense discussions how to handle this dying race. They had foreseen that this race wouldn¡¯t be as popular among the general player base due to the intense PVP forced upon them by the game, however, not to this extent. They simply hadn¡¯t expected the players to give up that easily. The PVP was supposed to be a perk of the race for players who enjoyed combat, but that idea had thoroughly backfired. The executives and creative heads of the company had been working on a solution ceaselessly and were going to introduce their ideas now. [box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]The conference room within Furan Corp[/col][/box] ¡°Alright, quiet down everyone!¡± The room grew silent as the product manager of Furan Corp. raised his voice. Then he began the conference. ¡°Alright, guys. I really don¡¯t need to remind you about what we¡¯re talking about. So let¡¯s just get to the point. Mr. Eden, I¡¯d like you to start, what ideas did you gather?¡± ¡°Of course, sir.¡± A man in his early 30s stood up and went to stand in front of his colleagues. ¡°Actually me and my team have been working on a way to save the devil race. As to why ¨C we believe the initial concept is worth saving. A lot of players enjoy PVP, there is no argument on that.¡± He looked at his colleagues that were murmuring nervously and continued. ¡°The problem was simply how we went about introducing the race. This is what we came up with to give them another chance. It¡¯s actually quite simple. " "Firstly we¡¯d like to introduce a forced stalemate between the races for at least 1 year. This way the devils can build up their strength to some degree so the same situation as last time won¡¯t happen again.¡± The murmuring grew more intense as the others quietly discussed his words, a few people sent some very sceptic remarks his way, but he didn¡¯t let it bother him. ¡°However¡±, he continued, ¡°this will only work if there are enough players willing to convert to this race. Which is why we need to make starting or re-starting as a devil more attractive.¡± Someone finally couldn¡¯t hold themselves back anymore and asked loudly. ¡°Why don¡¯t we just close the devils as a starting race? They obviously weren¡¯t a big hit with the players and we have no guarantee this will change, despite our efforts.¡± ¡°A valid question.¡± The Community Manager (CM) of NeoPangea didn¡¯t lose his cool and answered patiently. ¡°This is because there are still a few hundred users playing as devils.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t mean to erase existing ones, just close them for new players.¡± ¡°That¡­¡±, biting back a sarcastic comment, he asked back. ¡°So you wish to antagonize only a few hundred players against the rest of the races?¡± The CM stared coldly at the person that had just spoken. ¡°Also, what if those players wish to play with some friends? When they recruit relatives and their race is closed just what do you think will happen?¡± Hushed murmurs could be heard within the meeting room while the CM surveyed the room. He decided to continue and opened a flipchart. ¡°Which is why we will introduce¡­ Grell! A pet that will stay with the user until they reach their 3rd job advancement. It will be in the form of a small black wyvern that will serve as an assistant for the user. There will be a support version for healing and buffs and a combat version that the players can choose from. If they fight alongside the wyvern their experience gain will increase and she will even pick up item drops from slain enemies and place them into the players¡¯ inventory automatically. She is truly a useful little helper.¡± Approving comments could be heard from the room. But¡­ ¡°Are you crazy?? Pets are supposed to be rare to obtain, even for Beast Tamers it isn¡¯t easy to train a pet to that extent, but you want to give them away just like that?¡± Of course there was also that. There was a point to that statement. Not many players actually knew about the existence of pets. ¡°That¡¯s exactly why. We will reveal a small secret of the game, making our plan more tempting. Plus, it won¡¯t be a permanent pet in that sense so the advantage a beast tamer has won¡¯t be lost.¡± Of course Mr. Eden hadn¡¯t been unprepared for the question. Indeed, if it was until the 3rd job advancement then that would mean lvl 150. Having AI support until then shouldn¡¯t be a problem for the company since the largest amount of players ranged in the early 200s. Therefore new players as well as the ones below the average would be very tempted to try out the devil race because of the AI. Of course the AI wouldn¡¯t be granted to everyone. They had decided to just grant the first million players to convert after the implementation a chance of obtaining this pet. After an hour, they had further refined the plan and the head of marketing department was rushing down the corridor with the necessary information. The announcement would be made within the week. He had to hurry. *** Two days later the announcement was made. The stalemate and implementation of Grell would be set into effect on the first of next month. This gave the players enough time to read and discuss this new development between themselves. As expected the announcement caused quite the uproar. Furan Corp had never done anything like it before. This just showed the seriousness of the situation. The news spread like wildfire, after all NeoPangea, or NPO for short, was the most popular as well as most realistic online Full Immersion Game. Users had only dreamed of true virtual reality games and then Furan came out with NPO. The hype after the announcement that NPO would be a MMORPG was unbelievable. So there was no surprise that people everywhere could be seen discussing the new announcement.
Hey, if it¡¯s this much¡­ should we convert?
Hmmm, I don¡¯t know¡­ Grell looks really cute and if we weren¡¯t close to even lvl 100, so maybe...?
Discussions like this took place everywhere, the limited amount of personal AIs peaked their curiosity even more. And so more and more players were waiting for the next month in excited anticipation. ------------- [A/N]: Hey there guys~ I hope you enjoyed the first chapter :D Leave any thoughts you had while reading or any comments/criticism in the comments, I''ll read them all :D [box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Next Chapter[/col][/box]
EDIT: Check for my writing progress as well as interesting bits about my world here
Chapter 2 - Furan Corp Robin held the headset on her lap, right next to her beloved plush bunny. She had logged out a few minutes ago since it was lunch time and waited for the nurse to come in like every other day. She tilted her head in the direction of the window, unconsciously caressing the bunny¡¯s head while she thought about the game. NeoPangea, the most popular and the extensive multiplayer online game, was basically the world she lived in. Only when she put on the game helmet was she truly free. She could move freely, explore the world and enjoy nature all she wanted. Unfortunately she still couldn¡¯t talk to people. She could put on a facade and converse with others, but that wasn¡¯t who she truly was. She wanted to be herself, express her own thoughts and feelings, without lies and pretenses¡­ but she couldn¡¯t. Outside of the room, unknown to her, a doctor was watching her. He had developed dark circles under his eyes from lack of sleep and had a worried look on his face as he watched at her. His colleague came to stand beside him. ¡°Dr. Stevens¡­ this has been going on for years now. I think it¡¯s safe to assume that¡­ she has actually been getting worse. Have you seen her make any expressions at all these past few months?¡± The older doctor¡¯s voice sounded sad. His idea to introduce the patient to the game had been a good one, but apparently something happened in that world that made the girl close herself off even more. Due to privacy reasons they hadn¡¯t looked into the automatic recordings of her gameplay but¡­ it had saddened them, to see a girl so young grow more and more distant. ¡°No¡­ she has also started talking less¡­¡± ¡°I see¡­¡± After a while Dr. Stevens hesitatingly asked. ¡°Do you think¡­ it would be a good idea to deactivate that game? That¡­ what¡­ should I do?¡± he sounded sad. After all this was the only link to the outside world this girl had. ¡°¡­ You should know the answer to that without asking me, Dr. Stevens.¡± With those words the old physician walked away, patting his shoulders as he went. Daniel thought back to a certain time some years ago. After he suggested she try the game, the girl had visibly brightened up. She had been happy, talking about it to him and the nurses and had seemed to open up to them more. But one day all of that had stopped. At some point, perhaps due to some incident, Robin hadn¡¯t smiled anymore. Without answering their questions as to what had happened she had spent more and more time in the virtual reality. The more time passed, the less she had talked and the more distant she had seemed. He couldn¡¯t take the game away from her anymore, he knew that. That would simply be cruel. So what should he do? He thought back to the time before she got the system. She had laughed brightly whenever he visited her and had worried over him working too much. ¡®If she can¡¯t open up to me here anymore¡­ should I¡­ go there? Should I play that game with her?¡¯ honestly, he knew the answer to that. He couldn¡¯t. His work kept him too busy... He was one of the few specialized doctors in brain medicine and his patient base grew by the day. But then what could he do? As the nurse came with a food tray for Robin, realization suddenly hit him. He waited until she came back outside to stop her. ¡°Nurse Paris, may I have a moment?¡± ¡°Of course, doctor.¡± ¡°You used to be very close with the patient, right?¡± The nurse hesitated for a moment before confirming. The doctor smiled at that and told her about his idea. Paris grew more and more surprised at what he suggested, but then agreed. Starting next month she would play together with Robin. Only if she agreed, of course. The nurse went back inside to collect the food tray. Before Robin could fade back into the game, Paris stopped her. ¡°Robin, may I ask you something?¡± ¡°Y-yes?¡±, the girl tilted her head questioningly. The nurse sat down next to her and continued. ¡°You¡¯ve been playing for a long time, do you enjoy it?¡± ¡°Y-yes, it¡¯s just¡­ a bit¡­ lonely.¡±, she stuttered. ¡°Then would you like to play with me?¡± ¡°Eh?¡± ¡°Usually I wouldn¡¯t be allowed to play with a patient like that, but I got clearance to ask you. Would you like to play together?¡± ¡°Ah¡­ but¡­ what about your work?¡± Robin looked shaken. She was unsure how to react, after all she hadn¡¯t played with anyone in a long time. At the start she had asked her friends here if they wanted to play with her but they weren¡¯t allowed to for privacy reasons. She was delighted, honestly. But before she could scream ¡®YES¡¯, she remembered that Paris was a very hardworking person. ¡°Of course I can¡¯t join you all the time, but I would love to play together in my free time, what do you say?¡± ¡°Y-yes!!¡±, Robin smiled happily and automatically clutched the headgear in her lap tightly. ¡°Great! I will join you in a few weeks then, I still need to wait for my system and the official documents that I can play with you.¡± ¡°O-okay¡­¡± Robin was really happy. She would finally get to play with someone! They could go out and have fun, train together and explore the world together! She had waited for so long, a few more weeks meant nothing now. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°Then I will leave you to the game for now, I¡¯ll be counting on you later!¡± ¡°Y-yes!¡± Happily Robin put the helmet back on and faded into the game as the nurse left the room. Back in the game Zayvin¡¯s excitement quickly turned to worry. She would play together with someone again, but¡­ was she strong enough? Strong enough to prevent the past from repeating itself? ~~~ Three weeks later the atmosphere in Furan Corp. was very hectic. Managers could be seen running around with documents, programmers were typing into their screens busily, many employees were also logged into the game to perform tests on the new content that would be released in two days. Mr. Eden, the CM of NPO and the one responsible for the buzz in the building, was rubbing his eyes tiredly. The progress they were making was good. It wasn¡¯t like they were creating a whole new system, since it was already possible to obtain pets like Grell in the game. Therefore it was actually less hectic than it could have been. At this point he himself couldn¡¯t help with the preparations anymore. The rest was up to the programmers and testers. It was time for him to get back to his own responsibilities. That was the players. The reactions they had gotten for the announcement were very positive. The only real complaints they got was why they hadn¡¯t done something about the devils earlier. He sighed. It couldn¡¯t be helped. Furan Corp had actually wanted to do something way earlier, but they had been in the middle of too many other projects to come up with a real plan. Various events were still going on right now. Smaller ones were organized by NPCs or some of his GMs. Then there were some grand quests and objectives that Furan Corp would give rewards for. The biggest ones like a race to lvl 400 or the defeat of the current world boss were events that he personally was in charge of supervising. To be honest, the program that was NeoPangea could handle everything on its own. Furan Corp itself decided to only jump in personally for special events or announcements to new contents, maintenance on servers and updates. They didn¡¯t have much contact to the players at all. In fact most of the employees didn¡¯t have access to actual data on the game. They simply didn¡¯t need it. Since most of them also played the game in their free time for enjoyment, the management had therefore decided to only grant very few people access to confidential information. Even the CM himself couldn¡¯t access the data. He would simply get a notification on his computer when one of the events he supervised was attempted or completed. Needless to say, his surprise when one of them came in right then was huge. ¡°WHAT!!!¡±, he couldn¡¯t keep himself from shouting as he opened the window. A few of his colleagues raised their eyebrows and looked at him questioningly. His eyes flew over the page and he shouted again ¡°Someone¡¯s challenging the Great Cyclops!¡± The room grew deathly silent for a moment as everyone stopped whatever they were doing to look at him with an open mouth. Then confused voices were loud. ¡°What, when did they find the hideout??¡± ¡°I haven¡¯t heard anything about this!?¡± ¡°But nobody announced it?¡± ¡°How? Didn¡¯t they recruit anyone?¡± The CM was shocked himself. He followed the news about NPO closely himself and no guild had managed to gather the strength required to beat the world boss. He hurriedly picked up his phone and called his boss. ¡°Eden, I hope there is a very good reason you¡¯re calling me in the middle of the conference¡­¡± ¡°Yes, sorry, boss. Someone is attempting the Cyclops. I need your clearance to let my assistant supervise the testing here so I can take a look.¡± ¡°What did you say?? Who???" ¡°We aren¡¯t sure, Director. None of the players have announced it.¡± ¡°Right, they will probably take some time to beat it. Get Tim down there as well, he needs to calculate the reward. Don¡¯t forget the recording, this will be huge!¡± ¡°Yes sir! I just hope they give us clearance to go public with it¡­¡± ################# [A/N]: Somehow I''m addicted to writing today ovo Enjoy! I do still have a few chapters that are nearly done, so you may expect more shortly! Other than that I cant promise daily updates since I''m mostly only able to write on weekends. [box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Next Chapter[/col][/box]
EDIT: Check for my writing progress as well as interesting bits about my world here
Chapter 3 - The hideout [box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Three weeks earlier[/col][/box] Zayvin had logged back in next to her dragon, Kra. Apparently he had gotten used to his new body and was napping peacefully on the ground. She smiled and thought back to a year ago, when she had first met him. Ever since Zayvin started the game, she had been obsessed with magic. It was beautiful, wondrous and most of all ¨C fun. Ever since she learned magic she was sure that she would never want to do anything else. She loved learning more about her powers, experimenting with the wonder that was magic and holed herself up inside the library for weeks to gather knowledge and raise her various statuses and skills. NeoPangea was unique in the way that you could create skills through your own actions. You could also raise your status points through hard work and diligence in training. Another unique feature was, that time flowed differently in NPO. One hour in reality equalled 5 hours within the game. This was so everyone was able to play during both day and night time of the game. However, Zayvin wasn¡¯t very comfortable with moving normally so she had chosen to play as a Devil. Due to her winged race she was able to fly, something she increasingly loved. Quickly flying was like second nature to her and she never walked anywhere anymore. Soon she had reached the limit of what one can do without real combat experience. Zayvin had created and discovered various skills and combat tactics during this time and one year in reality after she had started the game she began her journey through the continent. She clashed with various other races and players on the way, but her growth progressed smoothly and steadily. Soon she reached lvl 200 and unlocked her subclass. Unwilling to be anything but a magician, she chose to take the path of a sorcerer for her secondary class and training her new skills she moved deeper and deeper into the depths of unexplored territory of the game. She started experimenting with her magic more, infusing it into inanimate objects and controlling them. Then one day she had found a weird energy source. A lot of magic was infused in it and upon closer examination she had found out it contained a sealed soul. The soul had started talking to her, revealing its history and pleading for help. It was an ancient soul of a demon that had been imprisoned in solitude for a long time, sealed within the core of an ancient tree. She extracted the core and after many failed attempts managed to grant a body to the soul. After that she had unlocked her current class ¨C the Demon Queen. She could summon demons by channeling energy through spirit cores. If those demons yielded to her and were willing to serve her she would form a contract with them, reviving them into another body. They would be under her command from that moment on. But rather than as servants, Zayvin saw them as her friends and partners. They were imposing creatures, emitting a dark aura continuously and she had to keep them supplied with enough energy to keep their forms, but it was well worth it. They possessed cunning and finesse, but were loyal to her and protected her. Unfortunately they spread a panic wherever they appeared even if they weren¡¯t hostile. But when they were attacked they could wipe out whole parties of players. Some of them excelled in their use of elemental magic, some used darkness and illusion magic and some weren¡¯t able to use magic at all and instead excelled in physical attacks. By this point the legend of ¡®Zayvin the Demon¡¯ had already spread around the continent. She continued her journey, finding new comrades as soon as she got her hands on new spirit cores. They grew stronger with her and she shared all the experience she got by killing monsters with them, but so did they. And thus, Zayvin soon reached lvl 399, just one step below the highest level you could reach within the game. And then her research had finally paid off and she started on a new journey. The girl stretched and looked at her reflection in the small lake they were resting at. The long travel had made her look weary, her clothes looked dirty and there were dark circles under her eyes. The search for the hideout had taken longer than she thought. Two leathery wings grew out of her back, as well as a long tail that ended in a small spike. She kept her wings in a shrunken state when she wasn¡¯t flying, so they wouldn¡¯t get into her way. Right now they were barely long enough to reach her elbows. She sat down next to her partner, leaning on his body for support. Suddenly she got a distressed call of one of her smaller demons. She could converse with any of them telepathically regardless of where they were. [k]¡°Master! Please help me!¡±[/k] He quickly explained his situation. The ground fox had been trapped in the opening of a volcano and couldn¡¯t get out. She quickly got up and revealed the true size of her wings. Then she took to the sky and flew to free him. Zayvin floated above the bubbling lava, completely ignoring the heat, and surveyed the area. Having found her companion she quickly descended and freed the small demon that had been stuck between huge boulders. Normally boulders like that wouldn¡¯t have been a problem for him, but the boulders had a strength draining properties, leaving anyone touching it unable to move or cast magic. As she had pulled the small fox out of the trap, her gaze fell onto a hidden opening in the cliff close to them. She flew towards it, planning to examine it and put her small companion on the ground within the opening. There was a limit to what one can do in the air after all. That was when she found it. As her feet touched the ground a loud ding! Reached her ears and a transparent system window appeared before her eyes.
First player to discover the Great Cyclop¡¯s Hideout!
Do you wish to register this achievement on the bulletin board?
Newly found dungeons could be registered on the bulletin board. The discoverer would be listed next to the dungeon and would receive many fame points. Adventurers would also get quests to clear the dungeon. If you refused to register it, the system gave you 2 months to keep it to yourself. If you hadn¡¯t managed to clear it by then, it would automatically be registered anyways, just without your name next to it. Due to the high level of realism in NPO once a dungeon has been completely cleared, monsters wouldn¡¯t respawn there anymore for a long time and the same boss monster would not appear again either. ¡°No¡± she simply said and the message disappeared. But soon afterwards another message popped up.
The Dungeon on the Great Cyclops has been discovered! The time for the Escapee to pay for its sins against the races of NeoPangea has come!
This green box was¡­ A world notice¡­ just her luck¡­ ¡°¡­.¡± ¡°YESSSS!!!!¡± Ignoring the fact the whole world would be looking for the hideout now she cried loudly. It was as if all her excitement burst out with that shout. Actually her supplies were close to running out, but she still had enough to survive for a month under normal circumstances. But honestly she had been half prepared to return to resupply. That was before she found it. She was confident she could clear the dungeon by the time they ran out. Making up her determination in that way, her eyes started to glow with emotion and she sent a telepathic message calling for her companions. It was show-time. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.Zayvin was currently sustaining thirteen demons. On her telepathic command they all made their way towards her location, the ones that could fly assisted the ones who couldn¡¯t and after just one hour her group would be ready. In the meantime Zayvin sat down calmly, examining the small demon fox by her side. His complexion already looked much better so she fed it some of her blood to replenish its energy. Nothing else seemed to be wrong with it. It just seemed a bit exhausted, curled up next to her and took a short nap. Having fed her companion, Zayvin took out various items from her inventory and started her preparations. She made some food for herself and created various potions for her companions, to increase their fighting potential to a maximum. She also took out her Cores. The ones her companions had been sealed in. Over the last few weeks she had continuously infused them with magical power. After using them for summoning once, no other demon could be summoned through them, making them quite useful as storages for magic. She placed them on the ground and took out some mithril ore she had found. She heated the ore to the right temperature, substituting the heat of a furnace with magically created one and formed the ore into a simple but elegant necklace. The necklace had 13 openings where she inserted the cores. She would probably find herself in need to use magic quickly. This way she wouldn¡¯t have to meditate or gather magic first and could release the stored up energy in the cores in emergencies. When she had finished her work and wanted to put on the necklace, she noticed it was too long. Sighing she changed her mind and used it as a belt, putting it on without even checking its properties. She wasn¡¯t a crafter so there wouldn¡¯t be any options worth mentioning on the accessory. She also quickly ate some of the soup she had made for herself and gathered the finished potions around her feet. [box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Meanwhile on the NeoPangea forums[/col][/box] A new thread had been made a few moments ago and was already flooded with replies. The topic was simply ¡®Cyclops raid¡¯.
Whoever discovered the dungeon, please let me in on the raid!
Where is the hideout???
Let me know if you need any help in clearing the place!
Please please, let me join!
Me too, me too~
Post like this were made en masse. But no matter how long they waited, nobody answered.
What the hell, man, at least say no!!
It¡¯s not registered, so they are obviously going to try clearing it, but none of the big guilds have made a move¡­ What¡¯s going on?
[td]You¡¯re saying no one knows anything about this?
The players couldn¡¯t contain their curiosity. Various inquiries were made to media stations as well as to Furan Corp itself. But the media hadn¡¯t been able to get any information either and Furan Corp had made clear that they wouldn¡¯t divulge player information. [box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]At the same time back in the game[/col][/box] ¡°Master¡­¡± At the quiet voice coming from the cave entrance Zayvin smiled warmly. Her companions had all arrived. Zayvin would have to leave some of them behind, simply because their bodies were too huge to fit into the entrance and there were no good materials nearby that would provide suitable bodies for them. So she had decided to summon merely 9 of her companions. Kra would also have to wait for them outside. Zayvin smiled and gave each one of them 4 different potions. She also readied several healing items just in case. Then she asked Kra to wait for them close by and gave him some free time to rest or hunt. After surveying her party and smiling at them calmly, as a sign of her trust, she picked up the small fox and then lead the way into the dungeon. The space was rather narrow at first and Zayvin was tempted to walk normally, but then changed her mind. She just wasn¡¯t used to walking. After some time the path opened up a little and flying got easier. They progressed rather quickly, slaying the Cyclops¡¯ minions one group after the other. The fights themselves weren¡¯t even worth mentioning. Relying on their teamwork and keeping their minds on alert was enough to overcome all of the enemies that stood in their way. But the dungeon was deeper than she first expected¡­ but the group kept on moving. No matter what the enemy, she and her loyal companions slew them all. Even some Minotaurs or Chimeras couldn¡¯t keep them from progressing. After a few weeks of exploration they had finally reached the boss room. A majestic gate of bones and jewels was the final wall between them and their enemy. An undefinable green light source gave the area a particular atmosphere that screamed danger and caused everyone to squirm uncomfortably. After a short rest for everyone to relax and get accustomed to the strange air around the place, Zayvin walked up to the gate and poured magic into it. The huge double door swung open, revealing the Great Cyclops and its minions eating a feast made of humans in what she could only assume to be the throne room. On the walls, treasure upon treasure was lined up into a display of war trophies. Disgusted, Zayvin focused on the monsters themselves. The Cyclops, greatly angered to have its meal interrupted let out an angered roar as it got to its feet, toppling the tables in the progress and throwing its minions into chaos as they fled out of its reach. Zayvin and her party of course didn¡¯t plan to watch idly as they regrouped and so her companions split up, keeping the Cyclops¡¯ reinforcements busy on both sides while Zayvin and one of her demons walked straight up to the Giant. He stared down at them with his bloodshot eye and raised his arm, a huge spiked iron club in his hand to blow away the insolent creature that dared to challenge him. #################### And with that epilite cliffhanger I shall excuse myself for the day! *bows* [box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Next Chapter[/col][/box]
EDIT: Check for my writing progress as well as interesting bits about my world here
Chapter 4 - The Cyclops Zayvin waited until the last second to dodge, jumping back a few steps and then up onto the club as she took out a small pouch and opened it. She jumped in front of the Cyclops¡¯ face as it tried to shake her off his arm and emptied the insides of the pouch into its eye while muttering a spell that increased the powder¡¯s weight, making sure it would spread where she wanted it to. Then she grew out her wings and got out of his reach, flying above the battlefield. Surely enough, she hadn¡¯t retreated too fast since the Cyclops let out an enraged roar mixed with pain. As she looked down she saw the whites of his eyes had become blood red. He was blinded and swung around his club aimlessly, destroying pillars and hitting its own companions. ¡®Success! You shouldn¡¯t underestimate chili powder as a weapon.¡¯ She thought evilly. But in her heart she knew she had only been lucky. Lucky that the monster had stupidly underestimated her and let down its guard. Her companions had managed to avoid the barrage of the blinded monster and kept on taking down its minions even as more of them arrived from the other side of the room. They were all focusing on defense and on keeping the minions from aiding its master. They knew this would be a lengthy fight. Zayvin took a deep breath moved behind the Cyclops and started releasing spell after spell, causing the Cyclops to tremble from the intensity of the hits. If the situation had continued like this, everything would have been fine. But sadly it didn¡¯t. The Cyclops let out a tremendous roar as its health dropped too low and her companions were stunned for but a second. But that time had been enough. His minions overwhelmed some of her demons and aided him in attacking Zayvin herself. ¡°NO!!Dammit!¡± she shouted and quickly moved closer to the place her demons had died. She barely managed to seal their souls back into their cores while enduring some hits from behind. Then a huge blow hit her in the back, sending her crashing into and destroying the nearest wall. She had been too careless and open so one of the stronger monsters had easily blown her away. The impact pressed all air out of her lungs and caused Zayvin to cough loudly. ¡°Master!!¡±, her demons shouted loudly, trying to aid her right away. ¡°I¡¯m fine! *cough* C-continue!¡±, she gasped quickly. They couldn¡¯t afford to abandon formation here. With much effort she stood back up and quickly downed a healing potion all the while heading back towards the battlefield. Doubts started welling up inside her. This was too much¡­ they were too strong¡­ at this rate they would lose...and she would lose them all again¡­ ¡®NO!¡¯, she slapped her mental self. She couldn¡¯t give up now! Her companions were fighting for her, risking her life for her! If she gave up now it would be like betraying them, right? She remade her determination. One way or the other this would end here today. In the meantime the Cyclops had regained its balance and was fuming with anger. Zayvin kept on dodging and moving around as she resumed hurling her spells at the monster but the effectiveness of her attacks on the Cyclops was decreasing since she had to keep moving so she couldn¡¯t disrupt its balance. The boss monster had familiarized itself with the tactic of its attacker now and steadily managed to close the distance between them, soon cornering Zayvin with the help of its minions. ¡°Che¡­.¡±Left with no choice Zayvin let some of the minions hit her, just protecting her vitals to save as much energy as possible. She gritted her teeth and gathered her mana, waiting for the right moment. Then, as the Cyclops raised its club up high, assured of its victory, Zayvin slipped through his open legs and came out behind the monster, casting a spell at the condensed monster mass behind her. Loud screeches of pain could be heard as the shadows around them started ripping apart the monsters, but as expected the Cyclops itself was barely fazed by the spell. Looking around for the enemy that had vanished before its eye the cyclops finally found her again, charging at the devil like a mad bull. Smiling confidently Zayvin was just going to sidestep the reckless attack, but something was holding her down from behind. ¡°Eh??¡± Looking behind her shoulder, one of his minions had managed to sneak up behind her and held her down, even as it was bleeding from its head. It snickered evilly at her. ¡®Sh-shit!¡¯ She quickly got rid of the annoying fellow but she was delayed too much. She wouldn¡¯t be able to dodge in time! In that instant something jumped out. ¡°Mistress!!¡± Her loyal companion, who had been with her for so many months shouted and pushed her out of the way. It was the small fox. The impact decreased her health slightly but since she instinctively lightened the fall by rolling she only took minor damage. But her companion turned into blue light and vanished. ¡°Ali!¡± she shouted. ¡®No!! Even him!!!¡¯ She quickly got back onto her feet, sprinting over to the blue light and sealing him, careful to dodge the attacks raining down around her. Zayvin then turned around, her eyes raging. She would have to take the risk. She called the few other companions around herself. ¡°Guard me for a minute. Pukka, distract the boss please. I¡¯ll hurry.¡± Faithfully they executed her commands, surrounding her in a circle while a mid-sized winged demon shaped similar to a tiger headed towards the cyclops. Zayvin kneeled down on the floor and closed her eyes. She trusted her companions completely and believed they would execute her orders perfectly. Therefore she could concentrate mindlessly on the task at hand. She gathered an enormous amount of magic around herself and began constructing the spell in her mind. When she opened her eyes again a bloody scene greeted her. Her own HP was nearly depleted, causing her to quickly drink two of the potions she had prepared for herself even as she dodged an incoming fireball that would have killed her. A cold sweat spread across her back. Her companions were still alive, but all of them were heavily wounded, telling her that they had used up all their recovery items as well. Some limbs were missing and the pain on their faces was obvious to anyone, but they still preserved, keeping anything from reaching her with a tenacity and desperation unlike any she had seen before. Even Pukka who was distracting the cyclops had taken heavy damage and at the moment it seemed that the cyclops was playing baseball with the loyal demon. Gritting her teeth in helpless rage she quickly stood up, tears forming in her eyes. For her loyal companions that so desperately protected her¡­ she would definitely win! With a ripping sound magic erupted from her body and enveloped them, leaving behind nothing but a lump of ash. She had revoked them into their cores. She didn¡¯t want to lose even 1 of her companions again because of this twat of a Cyclops! Thus she had absorbed them back, fueling her spell with the additional mana gathered from them and the magic stored in her belt. As she was re-sealing her comrades, the Cyclops hadn¡¯t been watching idly and had summoned more minions to its side. The magic energy was violently flowing around her body, she was barely able to control the violent outburst magic at all. A thin layer of sweat was forming on her forehead as she concentrated to suppress the eruption of the magic, silently praying that it wouldn¡¯t explode into her face. She then directed it towards her poor weapon. ¡°Uaaaah!¡± With a determined shout she released the magic in a straight line, directly at the Cyclops. Just as the magic had been cast, she flew up higher, forming another weaker ball of magic. She concentrated it onto the approaching minions and released a dark meteor shower, devastating the ground below her. She could hear screams and howls of pain from the minions and debris flew up into the air. She continued casting her spell until she couldn¡¯t sustain it anymore. Dust covered the ground, making her unable to see if she had succeeded or if her enemies were still alive. Exhausted she flapped her wings and closed her eyes. She concentrated on her hearing, but couldn¡¯t make out any sound except for the still falling debris in the area. As she waited for the dust to settle, she kept her guard up. You never knew where an attack could be coming from in these cases. That was the only bad part about spells like this, that caused huge destruction, in addition to the limited accuracy, of course. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. When the ground was finally visible again she found it to be deserted of any life. Wait, no, that wasn¡¯t quite right. There behind where the Cyclops would have stood she could make out a small, shivering goblin. Mercilessly she descended on it like a comet, and finished it off by simply stepping on it as it collapsed in fear. Yes, it was cruel, but an enemy was an enemy. They had done the same thing to her race and the humans. So who could judge her for that. At that moment a few System messages popped up again.
You have cleared the Dungeon of the World Boss Great Cyclops! Agility + 100 Stamina + 90 Accuracy +85 Fame + 5000
Achievement cannot be registered, since bulletin registration was refused.
Received Title ¨C Cyclops Executioner: Title cannot be removed. Effects: Leadership +900 Strength +90 Accuracy + 75 Wisdom + 50 Stamina regeneration speed + 25%
Level up! You have reached lvl 400! For being the first to reach the current lvl cap, 2000 Fame will be awarded! 10 Status points gained
A new skill has been unlocked ¨C ¡®Teleport''
New skill has been learned ¨C Teleport Teleport allows you to freely travel between big cities you have visited. Able to set 3 custom locations. Saved locations: Firchten Requirements: 1000 Mana, Consumes 1 pure Crystal Shard Cool down: 1 day
Due to your actions you have unlocked¡­.
Too exhausted to read the messages she simply collapsed on the spot after reading the first few. This would prove to be a huge problem later on. Zayvin simply rested there for a few moments, enjoying the feeling of the cold floor against her sweaty back, then she sat back up with some effort and opened her eyes, tears blocking her vision completely. She was deeply shocked. The battle flashed back before her eyes. She knew best just how lucky she had been in this fight. Then she was angry with herself. Anger that she was still too weak, anger that she had endangered her important companions, anger at how stupid she had been. She clenched her fists in frustration. Then she decided to lament about her failure later. For now she thanked her luck from her heart that it had let her win this fight. And she renewed her oath. She would get stronger. Way stronger. She wiped the tears from her eyes and forced her emotions back for now. The messages had disappeared, but a small happy smile spread across her face due to the messages she had read. She could now travel around and restock easier. The stats she gained from the dungeon would help a lot as well. In fact, she had nearly maxed out most of the useful stats by now. But the best reward she got, was that she had reached lvl 400. This was the highest lvl you could reach in the game. In her head he was now qualified to play with others. She should be strong enough to protect her party now! It would definitely be different from the past! Slowly she got up, ignoring her protesting limbs and happily whirled around in a circle and proceeded to pick up all the drops lying on the ground. Then another system message popped up in front of her.
The Great Cyclops has been destroyed and revenge for the many deaths it cased has been taken! A holiday to commemorate this event has been called by the representatives of the races and a great feast will be held in every city and village tonight! The authorities are also looking for the hero who has freed them from its oppressive reign!
Another world notification¡­ sighing she ignored it and kept on picking up her drops. She couldn¡¯t stop them anyways. She had taken all the items on the ground now, including some rare jewelry and gear, as well as a sealed spirit core from the Cyclops. She quickly summoned some magic to form another space for it on her belt and put in in. Now she had 10 demons to summon later¡­ Then, as she gathered all the treasure in the room as well, she happened upon a magically sealed black box. She released the seal and found a book and a red orb within the box. Curiously she took out the book and opened it. Ding!
Forgotten information on the Warlock profession has been recovered. Warlock has therefore been unlocked as convertible class. Would you like to convert the profession ¡®Sorcerer¡¯ to the Secret profession of ¡®Warlock¡¯?
¡°Y-yes¡± she said excitedly Ding!
Secondary profession changed to Warlock
Void magic has been unlocked for use
Satisfied and excited that her new class seemed interesting, Zayvin put the book back into the chest and pulled out the orb. ¡°Identify!¡±
Failed to identify the item
After failing a dozen more times she gave up and put the mysterious orb back into the box as well and shoved it into her inventory. She¡¯d read it later. She looked forward to experimenting with her new class later on. She had collected all the treasure in the hall and turned to leave when the room suddenly started to shake and a spiral of light formed in the middle of the ruins that could now hardly be called a throne room, stopping her in her tracks as she promptly fell on her behind. She really hated walking¡­ but her body was too weak right now so she couldn¡¯t be picky¡­ then the situation ran through her mind again. White swirly energy¡­ a portal! All alerts went off in her mind. ¡®More enemies?¡¯ She thought warily as she forced herself up again and got into position for battle. If an even a little powerful enemy appeared she would be done for¡­ and she knew it. ############################ Hey guuuuys and good morninggg xD So since you LOOOVE cliffhangers, have another one! :D [box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Intermission/Extra 1[/col][/box] or don''t read about our small hero and jump directly to the
Next Chapter
EDIT: Check for my writing progress as well as interesting bits about my world here
Small Extra/Intermission -The slime hero The small slime sat on a tree branch peacefully. He just got born recently so he was still quite hungry. Therefore he found a safe position on the wood and made sure he couldn¡¯t accidentally fall by adhering to it. He basically created a small vacuum by sucking the air out between himself and the wood. Then he peacefully started disintegrating a few yummy leaves. He preferred to be in an oval shape, like a raindrop that fell onto a smooth surface. Just a little rounder. His eyes were quite huge and covered nearly a third of his whole body, providing him with a rather large field of vision. He usually kept them in the upper half of his body. His irises were violet and provided a small contrast with his milky white membrane. Slimes were usually very peace loving creatures that mainly ate leaves and plants that they would disintegrate within their bodies. But if you provoked or angered them they would defend themselves and fight. Just like right now. ¡°Squeaaak!¡± A distressed call echoed up to him from the forest ground below him. Alarmed the white slime hopped along the branch towards a point where it could see the ground below. What he saw shocked him motionless. It was a human. The human held a pointy stick in his hand and kept on poking one of his fellow slimes with it! She was another white slime that often ate together with him when they were still small slimelings in their nest. She was peaceful even for a slime and couldn¡¯t even bear to hurt a caterpillar. Thus she simply couldn¡¯t defend herself at all. And that human tortured her continuously even though she just tried to hop away desperately. Determined to help her, the slime concentrated and formed two whip-like arms out of his body. Before they could even form completely, he already selflessly hopped off the branch and directly onto the cruel human¡¯s face. He adhered to his face, not doubting he would be killed if he fell and effectively sealed the vision of the man. Sadly he wasn¡¯t big enough to cover the whole face yet and thus the human¡¯s mouth stayed uncovered. Then he used his newly formed arms and whipped them at the human repeatedly, not caring where on his body they landed, but trying to concentrate on the head. The human was so surprised by his small ambush that he had dropped his pointy stick. So he could only helplessly cry out and pulled and punched at the slime, failing to get him off his face. The punches also didn¡¯t really affect the heroic slime, seeing as his body consisted mainly of liquid and thus the unarmed man couldn¡¯t harm him at all. Only his nails scratched the surface of his membrane. The damage wasn¡¯t anything he couldn¡¯t repair in seconds though. He had just eaten after all and had enough energy to spare. The human had lost his balance now and fell down. He proceeded to crawl around the floor, desperately trying to find his weapon or anything he could use to get the cursed slime off his face¡­ but as fate wanted it he didn¡¯t find anything and could only cry for help loudly. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. The small female slime had recovered from her fright a little in the meanwhile and promptly started to disintegrate the pointy stick of the human. She had even managed to repair the worst holes in her membrane and squeaked at her hero slime thankfully. The slime gurgled a short reply and told her not to worry about it, Then the human suddenly screamed in shock. One of the slime¡¯s arms got stuck in his ear. The slime had whipped his arms around so fast that he had destroyed his eardrum and couldn¡¯t pull it back out without absorbing it back into his body. Thus he hesitated for a second, but then shrugged in its mind and curiously decided to explore this strange hole the human had in his head. So he made his arm thinner and felt his way deeper inside the head of the human¡­ After just a few moments the human threw up with a pained grunt and then collapsed to the side, dead. Suspicious the slime continued poking the man a few more times before absorbing his arms calmly back into his body. He looked over to the female slime worriedly, but she just cheerfully hopped up and down, squeaking happily that she was fine to calm him down. He believed her and gurgled an OK towards her. After all he had jumped in quite fast and gave her enough time to repair herself before she lost too much liquid through the holes in her membrane. But just to be sure he would make sure she drank enough water later. Then he looked back down towards the now dead human and squeaked thoughtfully. If they just left him there, other humans would surely find him and try to get revenge. They couldn¡¯t risk that. Thus he made up his mind and whistled loudly. He was calling out other slimes that were closeby. Not even 5 minutes later the forest floor around them was swarmed by slimes of all colors and sizes. After he had briefed them of the situation they quickly started disintegrating the human. After all food was food. While the others ate the slime he had saved came up to him and hopped onto his head, nuzzling up to him thankfully. Inspired by: Disclaimer: I do not own the picture above, all props for it go to the original artist! ##################### So after I saw that picture randomly I couldn''t stop myself from writing this short story :c As a compensation I decided to share it with you guys although it doesn''t really have much to do with the main arc xD Forgive me! And I hope you like it! :D [box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Continue with the main story[/col][/box] Chapter 5 - An Ero Angel has Appeared?!
WARNING: THE CONTENTS OF THIS CHAPTER ARE A LITTLE BIT MATURE
(if it can be considered that xD?) ################################################ What appeared from the portal was an angel in shiny white armor. It was the avatar of the CM, Mr. Eden. He was looking around curiously and as he spotted her he let out a surprised sound. ¡°Huh?¡± He kept looking around but nobody else was there. Since he didn¡¯t seem to be hostile Zayvin relaxed a little and turned around to drag herself out of the room. Seeing that, the man hurriedly tried to stop her. ¡°Ah, wait!¡± he quickly ran after her. In her condition it really wasn¡¯t hard to catch up to her. She stopped and looked at him with a tired sigh and raised eyebrows as he arrived right in front of her. ¡°Are you one of the ones who killed the Cyclops?¡± He questioned hesitantly, still not quite believing that a devil was here. ¡°Y-yes? Why? Was that¡­ bad?¡± Confused and tired Zayvin didn¡¯t know how to react to the random angel coming through a portal just when she was at her weakest. It was already hard enough for her to keep standing at all, her stamina and satiety had dropped to dangerously low levels, causing her body to not listen to her properly. She also had a headache from concentrating so long and intensely. ¡°Eh¡­ no, actually I got the notification that it was killed just now. I¡¯m the CM in charge of NPO and have been entrusted with the task to reward the team that would finally take it down, but I was a little late. We didn¡¯t think you would take it down this soon. Great job!¡± ¡°Th-hanks¡­¡± She couldn¡¯t continue anymore after that. Her vision went blurry and she felt extremely dizzy. ¡°So¡­ did the others leave already?¡± Naturally the CM assumed she wasn¡¯t alone in her dungeon conquest and again turned to survey the area. The amount of destruction this raid had caused gave him the chills. He could only imagine how intense the battle must have been. As he was excitedly imagining the battle in his mind he suddenly felt something heavy on his chest. Instinctively holding onto it, he felt it was warm and hurriedly looked at what it was. It was the user. She had completely passed out and fell forward towards him. Probably exhausted after the tension from the battle had left her. He looked at her with a warm gaze. Then he noticed the state she was in. One of her horns had cracked and blood oozed out of it, her clothing was ripped in so many places it could hardly even be described as rags, revealing her chest almost completely. Involuntarily his gaze dropped even lower. They were black. ¡®N-nice view¡­¡¯, he thought to himself before snapping out of it. ¡°GAH! This isn¡¯t the time for that!!¡±, he shouted, shaking his head. ¡®What the hell am I doing?¡¯ Then he heard a loud thud and felt a strong pain at the back of his head as a piece of debris fell from the ceiling before unconsciousness claimed him. [A/N): Kids, this is what you call divine punishment! *** Slowly Eden¡¯s consciousness came back. His head and back hurt a lot. The ground below him felt hard and uneven and something sharp was poking into his back. Just where had he falls asleep? Then he noticed something warm and soft on his left hand. What could that be? His blanket? Testingly he felt across the warm something. Somehow this sensation was familiar, but it definitely wasn¡¯t his blanket¡­ ¡°Hnnn?¡±, he heard a low sound coming from very close by. ¡®Wait¡­¡¯ Suddenly all sleepiness was gone from his mind and he hurriedly opened his eyes. His eyes met with 2 red disoriented and confused eyes staring down at him. Then a sudden realization seemed to run through them followed by anger and embarrassment. ¡®Uh oh¡­¡¯ He had been groping her chest¡­ ¡°Ah¡­¡±, a stupid sound escaped him. His memories came flooding back to him. Apparently he had blacked out when a part of the ceiling hit him in the head, causing him to fall down with her¡­ and when he regained his senses she was lying on top of him and he had unconsciously¡­ In embarrassment she blushed furiously and then let out a scream. ¡°W-waaaaaaaah!¡± The next thing he knew he was flying through the air. He crashed into the wall of the hall and for the next few minutes he only saw stars and sheep. *** A few minutes later he was kneeling on the ground bowing deeply to the girl in apology. It was a splendid dogeza. After he had regained his senses for the second time within an hour he had looked up to see a very embarrassed and angry devil staring at him from across the room wearily. She had apparently just finished eating a small meal and was about to leave when he sat up. She was now wearing a plain short black skirt and hoodie along with knee long boots, effectively covering herself. Thus he had quickly gotten up and performed a dogeza right away, asking for forgiveness and explaining the situation. Luckily for him she had listened. ¡°I-I see¡­¡±, she simply answered. She was inwardly relieved. So that¡¯s how it had been¡­ but still¡­ She quickly shook her head before she could remember what happened again and added. ¡°Y-you can get up, i-its ok¡­¡± ¡°R-really?¡±, cold sweat was still running down his back. ¡°Y-yes¡­¡± He sighed in relief and slowly got up. He coughed a little before thinking back to their earlier conversation. ¡°So then¡­ as I was asking earlier, could you tell me who the other players were that completed the raid with you? We need to calculate the rewards to give out.¡± ¡°O-others?¡± she asked, still flustered but going along with the change in conversation ¡°Huh?... Wait, don¡¯t tell me¡­ you soloed it?¡± ¡°S-soloed?¡± Zayvin wasn¡¯t familiar with the word. ¡°Did you kill the boss alone?¡±, the angel cleared up. ¡°Ah, y-yea. I-is that bad?¡± ¡°N-no¡­ I mean yes¡­ I mean¡­ are you serious?¡± ¡°Yes¡­? I-if that¡¯s all then I¡¯ll be lea-¡° ¡°Wait here for a moment.¡± He cut her off with a serious expression and vanished. ¡®Really?!¡¯ Zayvin was in a bad mood. But resigned to her fate, she quietly sat down and took out the warlock book she found earlier to read while she waited. After all she didn¡¯t want to find out what CMs did if you don¡¯t listen to their orders. Just as she had finished reading and put away the book, about ready to just ignore his request and leave, the CM came back. ¡°Sorry for the wait¡­ Zayvin.¡± He said with an unreadable expression. ¡°I hope you understand, I had to confirm the situation first. This boss is not meant to be able to be killed by just a single player after all.¡± He paused slightly as he mustered her. ¡°We have looked into your information as well as the system data and came to the conclusion you are telling the truth. You have also just reached lvl 400, the current level cap. Therefore, another huge congratulations, this was an incredible feat.¡± ¡°Thanks¡­?¡± Zayvin said suspiciously. ¡°Furan Corp would therefore like to award you with two special items perfect for your current class.¡± As he said this a long black box materialised out of his hands and he elegantly held it out with both hands. ¡°The reward usually would be a lot less, since it would be shared amongst many users, but in your case this much is appropriate. Please accept it.¡± Zayvin sighed and walked over to the CM. She hesitatingly took the package. As her fingers touched it a red light emerged from it, enveloping her body, she felt a strange energy coming off it. ¡°W-what!?¡± Zayvin tried to retreat but she couldn¡¯t let go of the package. The black material slowly dissolved and converted to mist that entered Zayvin¡¯s body. ¡°St-stop¡­¡± Summoning her magic, she tried to block the progress of the mist but her efforts were in vain. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it won¡¯t harm you.¡± Ensured her the CM quickly. ¡°This is how it accepts its user.¡± He was watching the situation calmly. Somewhat reassured Zayvin was still observing the strange mist carefully as it faded into her body, leaving nothing behind in her hands. ¡°Okay¡­ so¡­ now what?¡± ¡°Ah, you can summon your weapon through your own blood. That¡¯s the nature of it. Just shed some of your blood and call out to it, either in your mind or loudly. Its name is ¡®Zaharon¡¯. It¡¯s one of the rare weapons that possess their own will. It will also grow stronger with the user, so that is quite the treasure you have got there, if I may say so myself.¡± Although he didn¡¯t show it the manager was actually shocked. That was why he had taken so long in coming back. A user of the devil race had reached the highest lvl first and had singlehandedly taken down the world boss. Who wouldn¡¯t be shocked? Especially since the player was unknown¡­ He shook his head, quickly dismissing his train of thought. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. ¡®Wait¡­¡¯, his thoughts jumped back. ¡®Her name is Zayvin, could it be¡­ from that rumor?¡¯ He had thought back to the reports of the mysterious player killer who no one had ever seen before. Then he quickly shook his head again. Couldn¡¯t be. In the meantime Zayvin had taken out a small knife and cut her finger, calling out ¡°Zaharon!¡± As expected a long back staff materialized out of her blood. It was an elegant staff that was taller than Zayvin herself. At the tip the dark material it was made of spread out like vines and surrounded a huge red crystal that was enveloped in magic ¡°Do you have any more questions to the staff?¡± the smiling CM asked her. ¡°Not really¡­ I¡¯ll figure the rest out myself¡­ T-thank you¡± Zayvin said shyly. ¡°Good, then here is your second reward. You can choose one of these items.¡± The CM materialized a relatively small box again. There were 10 items inside it that would be rewarded to the first 10 magicians to reach lvl 400. Since Zayvin was the first player to reach the cap, she was able to pick amongst the 10. Hesitating a little, she surveyed the content of the box. She could see a staff, some bracelets, rings and necklaces, as well as a mask, a hairpin and even a robe. ¡°C-can I touch them?¡±, she finally asked. She wanted to identify the items before choosing. ¡°Of course. Take your time.¡±, the CM smiled. She seemed to be a very innocent and shy girl, quite contrary to her name and race. To be honest an angel would probably suit her best, in his opinion. Zayvin carefully took out the bracelets and examined them. Next the rings. ¡°Ah!¡±, she finally exclaimed as she looked at a small ring. It was pretty normal looking, a golden ring inlayed with a small red ruby. But what had gotten her attention were the effect it granted.
--Ring of Ages (incomplete)--- A ring bestowed upon the world by the gods themselves. A piece of the ring seems to be missing. Effects: intelligence +100 Wisdom + 50 Mana regeneration + 25% Charm + 500 Requirements: Lvl 400 or higher, Mage class
Finding items with mana regeneration was very rare so Zayvin chose this ring without hesitation. ¡°T-this one.¡±, she said as she put all the other items back inside. The CM smiled and made the box vanish again. In the meantime Zayvin happily put on the ring. ¡°Now to the last point on our small agenda. May I ask you a few questions?¡± ¡°S-sure¡­¡± ¡°Firstly, we would like to create a clip about your raid on the Cyclops for our homepage. Would you agree to let us air it?¡± ¡°That¡­ could you¡­ not show my character?¡± After a small surprised pause he replied ¡°That is possible, yes. We can blur your character out.¡± ¡°T-then that¡¯s fine.¡± ¡°The next question. Although I think I already know the answer. Would it be alright to include your information on the website? Name, race, class and similar.¡± ¡°Ah¡­ no, please don¡¯t.¡± ¡°And lastly¡­ Would you be interested in joining us at Furan Corp this weekend? We are going to have a small celebration. It¡¯s the birthday party of the director and we would love to have you as a special guest.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Of course we won¡¯t force you to come. There will be no media present and we will organize and pay the trip for you. All of us from Furan would be very delighted to meet you and congratulate you in person.¡± ¡°Um¡­ I¡­ will have to ask.¡± ¡°Ah, that will be fine. In that case, let me send you an email with all the details. You can just reply to it to contact me. Would that be alright?¡± ¡°Y-yes, thank you.¡± ¡°Just let me know if you can come by Thursday.¡± ¡°O-ok.¡± The CM nodded and then stretched out his hand. ¡°I¡¯m looking forward to it.¡± ¡°Y-yes¡­¡± She took his hand and shook it. Then the angel vanished again, leaving the devil alone in the devastated hall.
The forums of NeoPangea
The Cyclops is dead¡­!
What, really!? Who killed it???
It doesn¡¯t say! Sh*t, I really want to know!
Same, which guild was insane enough to kill it?
Come on guys, we¡¯re dying here. TELL US!
Guy, there¡¯s a new announcement by Furan! They¡¯ll put a clip about the raid on their website!
What, really? When??
It says this weekend¡­ I CAN''T WAIT!!!
At Furan Corp.
Mr. Eden had just faded out and was greeted by a room full of people. His colleagues were waiting for him in excited silence. ¡°So, what happened??¡± Someone asked as soon as he took off the headset. They had been waiting ever since he hectically faded out an hour ago to talk to the director. Curious as to what had put their usually calm CM off so much, they hadn¡¯t been able to continue working and simply waited for him to finish. Brian Eden simply sighed and got up. Then he surveyed the room with an expression that said ¡®It can¡¯t be helped.¡¯ ¡°You guys¡­ why aren¡¯t you working¡­ oh well.¡± He scratched his head helplessly. He sure as hell wouldn¡¯t tell them about the small incident they had though. ¡°I know you¡¯ll just keep pestering me until I tell you anyways, so here it is." "Someone killed the Cyclops¡­ and they reached lvl 400 in the process.¡± Stunned silence was the only reaction he got. No wonder, after all the Cyclops and his minions had been developed by them personally. They knew best how strong it was. The second part of the sentence was even more shocking though. ¡°W-wait a second. Arrow and his guild are the strongest group out there and even they aren¡¯t ready to challenge the Cyclops¡­ besides, reaching 400? Now?¡± ¡°Weren¡¯t the highest lvled players at below 350?¡± ¡°Just how many of them were there?¡± The CM simply shrugged at the questions. ¡°The player somehow managed to solo it. We¡¯ll know more once we look at the footage.¡± ¡°¡­¡± Nobody even knew what to answer to that. A lone player had managed to kill their strongest creation. Shock wasn¡¯t even enough to describe their feelings right now. ########################################## Muhahaha, here is the next chapter! This time without cliffhanger *bows* thanks for bearing with meeee~ Anyhow, the scene with the angel with a bit stereotypical but i couldnt resist xD Hope you enjoyed it ~ [box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Next Chapter[/col][/box]
EDIT: Check for my writing progress as well as interesting bits about my world here
Chapter 6 – Civilisation and another accident!
WARNING: THE CONTENT OF THIS CHAPTERIS ALSO A TINY BIT MATURE
better safe than sorry, right? o.- ###############################
Back in game
Alone again Zayvin pondered about what had just happened. She had received a few rewards from someone from Furan due to her achievements in game. This person had also invited her to a party. Should she go? Did she want to go? Actually she did. She really did. She hadn¡¯t had a chance to meet new people for a long time and she smiled happily just thinking about it. She forced herself to forget the fact he touched her chest though. But anyhow¡­ Would she be able to go? Her condition had been stable for a while, but would they allow it? ¡°No use worrying about it now¡­ I¡¯ll just ask them when I fade out¡­¡± She muttered quietly. Then she remembered the rewards she got earlier. She hadn''t even taken a closer look at her new staff. Quickly she took it out. She looked at the sleek dark material curiously and then simply said. ¡°Identify!¡± Ding!
The Abandoned Faith ¨C Zaharon: Type: Artifact Status: Soul bound to Zayvin. Cannot be discarded or stolen. Description: Black Longstaff embedded with a red Energy stone. This black staff was lost in a dungeon for a long time after its master Zeheloth had been sealed and has only recently been rediscovered as his dark inheritance. Only the truly evil may wield it. Restrictions: Magician class, Lvl 350 or higher, Infamy 9,000 Durability: 980/1.000 Faith: -5,000 Infamy +9,000 Affinity to darkness: +90% Magic Attack power: +4300~5250 Int + 980 Wis + 475 Critical Hit Chance +15% Accuracy +40% Decreases cool down of summoning spells by 30% Grants additional skill: Battle Recovery (passive): The staff receives power from the screams of your enemies. Automatically regenerates 50 HP/ second for 30 seconds when your party kills an enemy. Can stack up to 5 times. Will break if Holy Magic is used with it.
Zayvin simply stared at the description for a while. Her Infamy was pretty high since she had clashed and killed a lot of players and NPCs, so he could easily use the staff. What left her at a loss were the options it gave. Especially the extra skill! She had gotten a lot stronger just by switching to this weapon. Happily she jumped around and swung the staff. She really couldn¡¯t complain about the rewards she got. And she hadn¡¯t even identified the normal drops from the dungeon! ¡°Mistress, is everything alright?¡± A worried voice resounded within her head. Her companions outside had noticed the others disappear and were worried that something had happened. She quickly composed herself and send a telepathic reply. ¡°Yes, I re-sealed everyone because it got too dangerous. Don¡¯t worry. I will come back outside now.¡± ¡°Good¡­ in that case shall we search for some materials for their bodies?¡± ¡°Please do, I should be outside in 2 d-¡°, she hesitated. She had gotten the teleport skill earlier. Should she use it and meet up with her companions close to Firchten? She had a few pure crystal shards to use after all. ¡°Mistress?¡± ¡°Ah, sorry. Could you guys head back towards Firchten? I learned a new skill and would like to try it.¡± ¡°Of course, as you wish.¡± ¡°Please take any useful materials you find with you if possible.¡± ¡°Certainly. The others also wish you a safe journey.¡± ¡°Aww, thank you!¡± Zayvin had gotten used to the company of her demons and didn¡¯t have any trouble talking to them at all. Perhaps because of their connection. Other than with them, she was very bad at holding conversations as one might have noticed. She sighed quietly and held her staff vertically in her hands. Since she just got the skill she wasn¡¯t able to use it manually and had to rely on the system to use it for her. She hated the feeling when the system assist took over her body to use a skill, which is why she preferred learning skills from experiments rather than automatically. But in this case it couldn¡¯t be helped. But before that¡­ she looked down at herself. Her gear was too conspicuous at the moment. So she decided to simply wear her old robes. She opened her inventory with a flick of her wrist and dequipped all of her clothes except for a simple black sleeveless undershirt and fitting short schoolgirl skirt. Then she equipped the Apprentice Mage robe with a simple white color. Honestly, it nearly looked like a doctor¡¯s coat, just without buttons and with a hood attached. This outfit is what she called her casual clothes. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. ¡°Teleport ¨C Firchten!¡±, she shouted. The system then took over her body. She surrounded herself with magic. In fact so much magic it covered the space around her in a red aura. Then the magic shot back towards her, compressing her body into a ball of red light. The feeling wasn¡¯t pleasant. The ball then shot up through the ceiling and into the sky towards her destination. The whole journey happened so fast that Zayvin didn¡¯t even have time to analyze what had happened before she found herself in the central plaza of Firchten, the Capital of her race. When she turned back into her usual form, she felt dizzy and disoriented. Her senses weren¡¯t working correctly at all! Promptly she lost her balance as she felt the ground under her feet again and fell onto her behind with an undignified ¡®thud¡¯. At some point she had also let go of her staff, causing it to vanish back into her body. Somehow she had landed on something soft. She was certain the ground in Firchten was cut out of stone¡­ so what¡­? Slowly the world stopped spinning around her and she could clearly perceive what was going on around her. Confused Zayvin looked around to see various Devils staring at her with open mouths, flabbergasted. ¡°Ah¡­!¡±, she should have thought of that. Of course people would see her use the skill!! She was such an idiot. The ground she was sitting on suddenly twitched and she could hear something groaning. Reflexively she looked down. ¡°Wa-!¡±, she let out a stupid sound. ¡®AGAIN???¡¯ Apparently she hadnt landed on the ground¡­ She had landed on a person. It was a male devil wearing simple white clothes. A shirt and a pair of pants, the starting gear of players of their race. He looked to be about 17 or 18, had pale skin and red hair that was kept pretty short, only partly covering his pointy ears. Two small black horns were growing out of his temples. He looked to be from Asia, if she had to describe his face. Stunned speechless, Zayvin simply stared at him for a moment, before he opened his eyes. ¡°Ugh¡­¡± Confused the devil looked up at her. ¡°Nice view¡­¡±, he simply said. ¡°I¡¯m honoured and all, but could you please get off?¡± ¡°Huh?¡± Zayvin looked down on herself. One of her arms had slipped out of her robe and it was now hanging from her left shoulder. Her sleeveless shirt and skirt also slipped out of place, revealing part of her underwear. ¡°KYA!¡± With an embarrassed scream Zayvin scrambled off the guy and quickly fixed her clothing. In the meantime the devil had sat up and was now holding his painfully throbbing head. ¡°Uh¡­!¡± Too embarrassed to say anything, Zayvin quickly walked back towards him. The guy flinched back, as if expecting her to jump him again or something. ¡°S-sorry¡­¡± Seeing his reaction she quickly apologized and cast some regeneration magic on him. Then she offered him her hand. The onlookers had now regained their composure and were giggling or whispering openly. ¡°I-It doesn¡¯t hurt anymore¡­ right?¡± she asked quickly, still blushing deeply. Honestly, she simply wanted to run away, but that wouldn¡¯t be nice towards the guy she fell on. He stared at her hand as if it would bite him any moment, but then he carefully took it and let her help him up. Then he noticed the pain was indeed gone and stared down at her curiously. He was a lot taller than her, even though his height was average at 175 cm. Zayvin herself was 158 cm, she hadn¡¯t bothered changing it when she created her character. ¡°Yea¡­ thanks.¡± ¡°N-no¡­ I¡¯m sorry¡­ that is¡­ I didn¡¯t think¡­ I¡¯d land on someone¡­¡±, she hurriedly explained. ¡°Ah, don¡¯t worry about it¡­¡±, he looked at her curiously now. Honestly, he had expected to be hit instead of helped¡­ after all he had seen her like that. Not that it was his fault, but in his experience women didn¡¯t often make sense, so¡­ As if reading his thoughts at that moment a girl that had been stunned until now dashed out of the crowd and skillfully kneed him into his face, sending him flying back to the floor. ################ BACHINGGGGG and suddenly there''s violence. ALRIGHT! Here is your next chapter! Hope you enjoyed it! #small spoiler: will get serious again soon! [box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Next Chapter[/col][/box]
EDIT: Check for my writing progress as well as interesting bits about my world here
Chapter 7 – Chocolate and Man-hunts ¡°HI-KA-RUUUU!¡± She said in a dangerously deep voice. ¡°YOU PERVERT!!¡± She shouted loudly, dashing at him again to continue beating him up. ¡°I leave you for one second and you do something like this again! I DON¡¯T BELIEVE YOU!!¡± Stunned speechless by the aggressive girl, Zayvin couldn¡¯t do anything but watch as the poor devil, apparently named Hikaru ¨C it seems her assumption that he was Asian was correct ¨C got kicked around like a punching bag. ¡°UWAAAAA!¡± His scream finally made her snap out of it and she hurriedly went over to the pair, catching hold of the furious girl just as she was about to lunge at him again. ¡°P-please wait¡­!¡± She said as she contained the struggling devil. ¡°What! This has nothing to do with you! Get off me!!¡± In her fury, the girl didn¡¯t even care who was stopping her and simply tried to shake her off. ¡°It does¡­¡± ¡°LET GO, LET GO, I NEED TO PUNCH HIM!!!¡± Realizing the girl wouldn¡¯t listen to her reasoning, Zayvin summoned her magic again and cast a sleep spell on the devil. After moments where her struggling grew weaker, the girl finally fell asleep and slumped back into Zayvin¡¯s arms. ¡°S-sorry¡­ but you didn¡¯t listen¡­¡± She muttered. In the mean time Hikaru had used Zayvin¡¯s intervention to slowly sit up again. He was bleeding in various places. In fact there wasn¡¯t one part of his body that didn¡¯t hurt. He sighed and then looked up. There was no way his crazy sister would let him go just yet, even if this whole matter obviously wasn¡¯t his fault!. What he saw didn¡¯t do anything to calm him in the least. She was still in her rage mode, alright, but the girl that fell on him earlier was trying to hold her back. Hurriedly he scrambled up from the floor and just wanted to yell at the girl to let her go before she got hurt, but it was too late. His crazy sister was about to elbow the other girl in the face! Just then her struggles started getting weaker for some reason and just a few moments later she went limp. ¡®What the hell just happened¡­¡¯ Zayvin placed the girl on the floor carefully and then went over to Hikaru. ¡°Are you ok?¡±, she asked worriedly. ¡°Y-yea¡­¡±, he answered, he hadn¡¯t really gotten any serious injuries but was still confused about the whole situation. ¡°W-we should go¡­ before she wakes up¡­¡± ¡°Ah¡­ yea.¡± So she wasn¡¯t dead. He had figured maybe the whole rage thing had finally made her brain go haywire. The girl lead him off the plaza and away from the onlookers that had gathered for the disturbance they had caused. They entered a tavern just off the main road. Without thinking Hikaru simply followed her and sat down across from her at an empty table. She sighed lightly and then started talking. ¡°I-I¡¯m sorry, this was my fault and yet¡­¡± ¡°Ah, no¡­ my sister is always like that¡­¡± ¡°I-I see¡­¡±, she stuttered and looked at him sympathetically. ¡°M-must be hard¡­¡± Hikaru just sighed and shrugged. ¡°I got used to it¡­ She will beat me up again later¡­ Even more cause we just left her there¡­¡± ¡°B-but! T-that was my fault, so why¡­!¡± ¡°Beats me, I don¡¯t think she cares about anyone¡¯s opinion but her own. So I got used to it...¡± Just then a waitress came to their table and asked about their order. Zayvin quickly ordered a hot chocolate for each of them and looked back at Hikaru. Then she realized he was still pretty beat up and leaned over. ¡°Huh??¡± He let out a confused sound as she stretched out her hand towards his face. She closed her eyes and cast another healing spell. After a moment she then sat back onto the chair normally. Seeing as the throbbing from his wounds stopped, he simply said ¡°Oh¡­¡± and let her heal him. ¡°Thanks.¡± ¡°No problem¡±, she muttered. Then there was an awkward silence between them until the hot chocolate arrived and he wanted to pay. ¡°No, l-let me.¡±, she insisted. This was supposed to be a small apology for all the trouble she had caused him. ¡°Okay.¡± They both took a sip out of their cups. The hot chocolate here was pretty good. Not like the milk with colouring they sometimes sold in shops. ¡°So, if I may ask. How come you fell out of the sky like that?¡± ¡°Ah, that¡­¡±, she pondered about what she should tell him. She didn¡¯t want to lie, but telling him about the Teleport skill wasn¡¯t really an option either. ¡°You don¡¯t have to tell me, if you don¡¯t want to. I was just curious.¡± ¡°No, it was just¡­ I tried out a new spell, but¡­ I don¡¯t have the hang of it yet¡­¡±, she decided to simply leave out the specifics. ¡°Oooh, so you¡¯re a Magician. Neat!¡± ¡°Y-yea. Sorry again¡­¡± ¡°No, don¡¯t let it bother you, it happens. Besides, you healed me back up and even invited me to get a drink¡­¡± While they were talking he took a closer look at the girl who literally fell from the sky. She was really cute, now that he took a closer look. She seemed to be a bit younger than him though and was fidgeting around a lot. A shy one. He smiled and set down his cup. ¡°So, uhm, we didn¡¯t really have the chance to introduce ourselves. I¡¯m Suitcase. Nice to meet you.¡± ¡°N-nice to meet you¡­ not Hikaru?¡±, Zayvin asked curiously. ¡°Ah, Hikaru is my real name¡­ Guess I can¡¯t expect my crazy sister to play by the game rules and use my character name¡­¡± ¡°I-I see¡­¡± ¡°Yea, she¡¯s never played any online games before she bugged me to show her this one.¡± ¡°Haha¡­¡±, Zayvin laughed quietly and then introduced herself as well. ¡°I¡¯m Zayvin. T-this is also my first game, so I can understand a bit.¡± ¡°Zayvin huh, nice name! Though it doesn¡¯t really suit you.¡± ¡°Ah¡­ i-is that so¡­¡± ¡°Yea, sorry to break it to you¡±, he joked. Zayvin smiled back at him shyly and asked. ¡°So you¡­ played many games before?¡± ¡°Not that many.¡±, he admitted. ¡°I like sticking to one for a long time. I mean you only really discover the game after a certain point. I¡¯ve actually been playing this game since it came out though. It was too tempting to not try out. Back then my sister wasn¡¯t interested in it, but now all her friends play it so she decided to beat me up until I agreed to restart it with her¡­¡± ¡°T-that¡­ is scary¡­¡±, Zayvin was bewildered. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°Ah, I don¡¯t really mind. I did a lot of things I regret with that character, so the timing to switch was pretty good. Though I didn¡¯t manage to get a Grell.¡± ¡°I see, then that¡¯s good¡­ W-what¡¯s a Grell?¡±, she asked curiously. ¡°Hm? You don¡¯t know?¡± She shook her head. ¡°Ahh, I see. You were a devil even before the event, weren¡¯t you¡­ Though I¡¯m still surprised you haven¡¯t heard about it¡­¡± He said excitedly. ¡°Grell is the name of a pet that Furan introduced for devils. They started a campaign to make this race more popular for starters and came up with that. The first million or so players that created their characters today got one. There¡¯s a combat version that helps you fight, or a support version that heals and buffs you. Its pretty useful actually. Too bad I was a little late¡­ my sister got one though.¡± ¡°Wow¡­ I haven¡¯t heard about it¡­¡± Zayvin was truly surprised. She never accessed the website or the forums so she wouldn¡¯t have known about it. ¡°But yea, all the cities are pretty stuffed right now. The players are literally fighting over every monster in the starting areas¡­ ¡° Suitcase sighed dramatically. ¡°Wow¡­ that many people started?¡± ¡°Yea, it¡¯s intense! Users who didn¡¯t get a pet sometimes even assaulted the ones who did¡­ A few hours ago the Lord had to step in, so it¡¯s quiet now, but¡­ it was hell I tell you.¡± ¡°S-so that¡¯s why no one has it summoned?¡± ¡°Yea, better safe than sorry, right?¡± Like that they held some more small-talk and drank their chocolate. ¡°Speaking of which¡­¡±, he stared at her. ¡°When will she wake up?¡± ¡°Ah¡­ the sleep only lasts 5 minutes so¡­¡± At those words he swallowed hard. That meant she was already awake. Cold sweat was running down his back. ¡°Th-then I should probably log out¡­ or find her¡­ before she decides to smash my system¡­¡± ¡°O-okay¡­¡± ¡°For now, do you want to be my friend?¡± A system message popped up in front of Zayvin at those words, asking her if she wanted to register Suitcase in her friendlist. ¡°Y-yes.¡± As soon as she accepted he simply waved at her and faded out with a last ¡°See you!¡± Poor guy. Zayvin sighed and looked at the lone empty cup he had left behind. Then she blushed and hid her face behind her hands. Her first friend!!! She was really happy to finally have a friend. She quickly waved her hand, calling up the option window and selected her friend list and stared at it happily. There he was.
Suitcase ¨C Location: Firchten ¨C Status: Offline
Just as she was about to order some more hot chocolate as well as a cake to commemorate the day, she got a notification once more.
Outside interference detected. Activating communication
This happened when someone in reality came close to her body. A microphone would activate and she would be able to hear what was going on in the room. ¡°Robin? Could you come out for a moment?¡± It was Paris. Robin quickly logged out of the game. Moments later, she carefully took off her headgear and put it onto her lap. Then she pushed herself up into a sitting position and straightened her hair a little. The world around her was dark. Just a monotone nothingness¡­ like always. ¡°There you are!¡± Said Paris cheerfully. From the sound of it she was sitting right next to her bed. ¡°S-sorry for the wait.¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay, sweetie. Never mind that. I got a surprise for you!¡± ¡°W-what is it?¡±, Robin asked shyly. ¡°I got the letter today! That means I¡¯m heading home now and then¡­ we can play!!¡± ¡°Really??¡± Robin couldn¡¯t believe it. Today had to be her lucky day. By far! ¡°Really! But I figured I should ask you a few questions before I go~¡± ¡°Hm? Q-questions?¡± ¡°Yea! After all I heard there are different cities and such that I can start in! So I need to know what city you¡¯re close to so I can meet you right away!¡± ¡°Right, uhm¡­ I¡¯m in Firchten right now.¡± ¡°Oooh, isn¡¯t that a devil city? You¡¯re a devil, sweetie?¡± ¡°Y-yea.¡± ¡°Uwaaah, how exciting.I cant imagine you as one. You¡¯re way too cute and innocent!¡± ¡°H-hey¡­¡± ¡°Haha, but its true~¡± ¡°¡­¡±, Robin pouted silently. At that Paris giggled even more, then coughed once and asked seriously. ¡°So where do we meet?¡± ¡°How about¡­ the central plaza? Then you can do the tutorial.¡± ¡°Sounds great. Then I¡¯ll be off. I should be there in like 2 hours!¡± ¡°O-okay, I¡¯ll be waiting!¡± With those words the nurse hurriedly left the room and Robin smiled sillily. Somehow her day had been way too amazing. She got some new items she liked, had a lot of fun with her demons while killing the Cyclops, she got invited to a party and met her first friend in the game! Not to forget, Paris would be able to play with her starting today! Speaking of which, she still hadn¡¯t asked the doctor about the party¡­ After hesitating for a few moments, she pressed the button calling for a nurse. She would ask now.
Meanwhile at Hikaru¡¯s house
¡°UWAAAAHHHHHHHH! SPARE MEEEEEE!!¡± The man-hunt continues. ################################# So two siblings join the picture! What will happen next?~ [box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Next Chapter[/col][/box]
EDIT: Check for my writing progress as well as interesting bits about my world here
Progress, General Info, Polls, etc. Hey guys, Mono here o/ This is where I''ll be posting anything related to my story that doesn''t actually belong into it. Similar to a huge glossary as well. I''ll post about my progress and at what stage I''m at so u r not left in the dark. I will also be posting a map of NPO and similar useful goodies in the future so look forward to it! For now I will sticky this thread and update it accordingly! Progress EDIT: Thank you very much to Dan for PRing for me, I love you! XD Note: The goal is a weekly update. Depending on how much time I have this will be faster or slower. But I promise to update at least once every two weeks Chapter 22 -> writing~... Story in total -> Arrived at the first big arc Awesomely Drawn Character sketches I apologize for the bad quality in advance. Zayvin Our Villain! The Lord This one actually came out decent since I''m feeling better today xDD Sorry for bad lighting. The hospital From the left: Paris, Daniel and Robin Arrow On request of my awesome PR, here he is! Queen Nereida I need to work on my drawing skills. :( Awesomely Drawn Map of NeoPangea Online Map Description: 1. Settlement ¨C Settlement for Humans and Angels. Its a beachy area with little greenery until the central mountainrange 2. The Horde ¨C Lycans live in this region. Flat terrain, forested steppe, rocky areas with wild untouched nature 3. The Elven Woods ¨C Home to the Elfs Jungle-like woods with breathtaking beauty cover most of their territory 4. Asylum ¨C Devils have settled down here after their escape from hell A intimidating forest as well as a rocky mountain range with many caves and dark corners. 5. Neutral Zone ¨C Common ground of the settlers and lycans, Elfs. Devils get hunted a lot in this region. Many areas are still unexplored. 6. Frontline ¨C Unexplored area that travelers only recently set foot into. The Cyclops¡¯ Hideout can be found in this area. Capitals: Settler¡¯s Capital Faren: Humans and Angels have decided to build their capital at the beach where they first landed. The Horde¡¯s Capital Dengalen: Lycans are generally wanderers by nature, but have decided to build a capital deep in the woods where it¡¯d be save for them to raise their offspring in safety, protected by the community. Tree-top Capital of the Elven Woods: The Queen of the Elfs has lived here for centuries, living inside ancient trees or groves, natural palaces and houses formed over the years, as if to accept their presence in the forest. The Elfs decided to settle in this place, their biggest settlement being the tree-top city in the heart of their territory. Firchten: The Devils fled hell chaotically, but still have managed to gather together and build their first city within the Caves of the barely explored mountains out of stone. They say screams can be heard throughout the caves regularly, leaving travelers petrified. Antwerpen: A newly built capital close to the borders of the 3 races¡¯ territories. Acting as the base for adventurers in a largely unexplored area, Antwerpen is a prospering city for trade and lively with people. Only capitals are shown on the world map! Other towns and settlements have to be found through exploration by adventurers themselves! Information to ¡®Explorable Area¡¯: Natural boundaries that can¡¯t be surpassed by current means exist here. (Area largens as events of the main storyline in NPO progress. Example: King orders NPCs and players to build a bridge across a huge uncross-able river after the famine is over or similar) Races of NeoPangea Online Angel Affinities: Light, Air Racial Skill Name: Fly Skill Description: Sprout white wings from your back to soar through the sky. Stamina consumption is increased by 100% while in use. Stamina consumption decreases as skill mastery increases. Cannot be used when out of stamina. Must learn to use wings before usage. Skill name: Feel Holy Element Skill Description: As creatures of god Angels are born with the ability to feel the Holy Element needed to learn Healing magic. Requires concentration and meditation to use. Racial Characteristics: Pure creatures with white wings sprouting from their back. They often have a childlike appearance and live on clouds. Otherwise they can¡¯t be told apart from humans This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. Racial buffs: Skill effects +80% during sunny days. +40% effect of Holy/Light magic. Speed while flying +20% (increases as skill lvl increases) Buffs do not apply when the sky is overclouded completely! Racial Weaknesses: Penalty buffs do not apply on holy ground! Darkness/Chaos spell effect -90% Destructive magic effect -40% Can only utilize 20% of their power during the night Agi -50% at night Can¡¯t use cursed objects Devil Affinities: Darkness, Destruction, Chaos Racial Skill Name: Fly Skill Description: Sprout black/leathery wings from your back to soar through the sky. Stamina consumption is increased by 100% while in use. Stamina consumption decreases as skill mastery increases. Cannot be used when out of stamina. Must learn to use wings before usage. Skill Name: Life Absorption Skill Description: Restore your own health by drinking the targets'' blood. Must bite the target. Target cannot be a monster. Cannot be used if Satiety is full. Racial Characteristics: A cunning race of evil creatures that escaped from hell. They assumed humanlike forms and live apart from other races as renegades. Can¡¯t completely hide their true forms, so they sometimes have horns/black wings or tails befitting of devils. Racial buffs: Do not apply on Holy Ground - All stats/skill effects +80% during the night - Agility +100% in the air - Senses sharpened by 50% - Night vision. - Effect of Spells of Darkness +100% Racial Weaknesses: - After 30 minutes of direct exposure to the sun your skin will start getting burned heavily. Will die 15 minutes later if you don¡¯t move out of the sun. - Heavy burns inflicted holy objects. May kill you in an overdose. - All stats/skill effects -50% during the day(-20% only on overclouded days) Elf Affinity: Light, Water, Nature Racial Skill Name: Meditate Skill Description: Rest your soul by synchronizing your spirit with nature, restoring your health completely. Must concentrate to use. Stunned for 50 seconds if concentration is interrupted during usage. Cast time: 2 minutes Skill Name: With the Wind Skill Description: Feel the flow of the wind around you and make use of it to increase your movement speed by 10%. Since you are moving with the wind the noise you make while moving will decrease by 5%. Skill effect will increase as skill mastery progresses. Skill can¡¯t be used if you move directly against the flow of wind. Racial Characteristics: A race of the forest with radiant grace and beauty, living in harmony with nature and its inhabitants. They have pointy ears as proof of their ancestors. Racial buffs: speed in green zones +30% sensetivity to enemies +50%, AGI +50 Stamina +60% Accuracy +40% Automatically born with Charisma stat. Racial Weaknesses: Spells of Destruction -90% efficiency Str -40% Effect of Destruction magic on Elfs +60% Poison Resistance -30% Lycan Affinity: Earth, Nature, Darkness Racial Skill Name: Howl Description: Let out a terrifying Howl/Roar, increasing the Morale of allies by 80% for 5 minutes while intimidating the enemy! Enemies with 10 lvls above the character or below -30% morale. Slight chance to cure weak movement speed debuffs from allies. Skill effect will increase as mastery progresses. Skill Name: High Jump Description: Jump 2 metres into the air using your animal traits to the fullest. You will have to wait 15 minutes for your body to recover after using this skill. Cooldown time will decrease/skill effect will increase as mastery progresses. Racial Characteristics: A hybrid race between humans and animals. They often live in forests and live secluded from humans. A wild and charismatic race. Their appearances differ depending on their ancestors¡¯ race as well as the density of animal blood so they often have a human body with only some parts resembling animals. Like additional limbs or different ears, etc. Racial Buffs: Illness resistance +60% Night vision Speed in Forests/free nature +30% Sensitivity to enemies/Perception +50 Born with Leadership stat, Leadership +30% Efficiency +50% during a full moon Racial Weaknesses: -50% WIS Fire/Burn resistance -70% Get horrible burns from silver, might kill them if contact lasts too long or large amount Perception -30% during sunny days Efficiency -80% during a new moon Human Affinity: Technology/mechanics Racial Skill Name: Study Description: Passive skill. Makes it easier to learn skill books or languages. Also increases ability to understand problems and speed of research. Requirements for Skill books -20%, Reading speed +30%. Skill effect will increase as the mastery of the skill progresses. Skill Name: Ride Description: Ride an animal to move faster. Small type animals can¡¯t be mounted. Some animals require a higher riding skill to mount. Can¡¯t be used on monsters. If piercing type attacks are executed on a moving mount, depending on speed and accuracy, the damage of the attack will increase by up to 100%. Must acquire the animal¡¯s trust first. Racial characteristics: Originally a weak race humans have gained power through their natural craftiness and adaptability. What they lack in strength they make up with cunning. Often live crowded together in towns or cities. Racial buffs: WIS +80% Born with Handicraft skill (increases accuracy, able to learn crafts faster) Born with Charm Animal Skill (can gain an animal¡¯s trust) Racial weaknesses: Unable to fight in absolute darkness, since they don¡¯t have night vision. This weakness can be discarded if other senses are sharpened. Curse resistance -30% Chapter 8 - Dark Clouds
In game, Guild Headquarters of the Hunters guild
The guild leader Arrow had called for a meeting. Nearly everyone was here already. All admins and members of the guild. More than 5.000 users were sitting in the hall of their base. Hushed conversations were taking place everywhere, the atmosphere was tense. Arrow surveyed his surroundings. The guild hall he and his comrades had built reflected the splendour and elegance one would expect of the most prestigious guild in the game. They had continuously renovated and amended the place, causing it to turn into something grand. The hall they were currently in was only one of the rooms in their guild building. But it alone covered about half the size of a normal soccer stadium and was designed in a baroque style. Candles could be seen on the walls every few feet and lightened up the hall along with huge chandeliers. Arrow himself together with his Admins was sitting at the head of the hall, on a long table. Due to his archer profession he was wearing leather armour in green colours that would blend into the forest well. All the other guild members were sitting on similarily long tables slightly below them aligned with the length of the hall.All the players in here were at least lvl 280. They were wearing all kinds of rare protective gear, each individualized to them personally. They just had one thing in common. Everyone¡¯s armour had an engraving with their guild symbol on it, A bow, sword and staff were crossed into a triangle and met in a small star, reminding one of the three musketeers. The name Hunters was engraved just beyond that. As soon as he heard the news about the defeat of the world boss he had been honestly shocked. He and his party had been playing the game since its release years ago. They had all freshly graduated from college when the game had launched and since they didn¡¯t have any real idea as to where they wanted to work, they had fully immersed themselves in the world that was NeoPangea. After a few weeks they had been completely hooked, playing day and night with the minimum hours of sleep and only short breaks in between. Soon they had been known as hard-core gamers and were the strongest group of players in the game. They had founded the guild only for their party¡¯s use at the start, but soon recruited more and more other players. After 4 years of hard work in game they had risen to the top. Afterwards they had only worked harder, increasing the gap between them and the next best. So hearing about the death of the world boss came as no small shock to them. Their guild hadn¡¯t even caught a glimpse of the Cyclops anywhere and now someone else had defeated it? There could only be 2 reasons for this. Either the world boss had been weaker than anticipated and they had simply been unlucky that someone else had discovered it before them¡­ Or there was a group out there that rivalled or even surpassed them in strength who had discovered and slain it. Analysing the world they created, he seriously doubted that Furan would create a World boss that was weaker than normal monsters. He also knew for a fact that NPO as such was unhackable. Therefore he had come to realize¡­ it had to be the second reason. To find out who this group was, he had called for the meeting today. The situation was serious. They might lose their stand in the world soon. Seeing as the last few members just arrived, Arrow stood up. They would not go down easily.
A few hours later, Robin¡¯s room
Robin put on her headset and activated it. But this time she didn¡¯t fade back into the game but accessed her desktop room. It was a blue room with a white couch in the middle. She had talked with Dr. Stevens until moments ago. And luckily he had agreed to let her attend the party this weekend! On the condition that she sent him all the details about it first. She would also have to have someone come along with her. Since Daniel himself was too busy she was planning to ask Paris for that. Especially since they would meet up soon anyways. Excited Robin called out to the system. ¡°System, open browser and go to emails. Password *******.¡± ¡°Access confirmed, displaying browser.¡± A system window opened up in front of her showing the page with her emails on it. She quickly manipulated the page and opened the email Mr. Eden had sent her earlier today.
Dear Zayvin, Please find he invitation to the party and location attached. Please also let me know about your travel costs so I can arrange for them to be returned to you. The festivities will start on Saturday evening at 6 pm with an open end. The location is at our office building on the 29th floor. The specific address is included with the invitation. Please feel free to bring an acquaintance or friend along. We have invited you as a surprise guest and would be honoured to welcome you to the birthday party of the director. As I have already informed you in game, there will be no media coverage of the event and only staff of Furan Corp. and their family will be present. I sincerely look forward to your reply, Brian Eden, Community Manager of NeoPangea
As he had written the invitation as well as a small map of the area around Furan¡¯s office building was enclosed to the email. She sent all of it over to Daniel with a small notice that she would ask Paris if she could accompany her today. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Then she closed the window in front of her, closed her eyes and asked the system to open the game. A few moments later she opened her eyes as Zayvin. She re-appeared in the caf¨¦ she had logged out in before and stretched thoroughly. Then she checked her friend list, to make sure suitcase was still on it and smiled brightly. He was online! She closed the window again and made her happy way back towards the central plaza to wait for Paris. On the way she surveyed her surroundings. As Suitcase had said she could see new players everywhere. The usual quiet buzz of the city now seemed deafening. Players over players everywhere. They were forming parties excitedly, talking about the town, some were discussing about Grell and some were busy running around doing quests. Only few of them were flying around and she couldn¡¯t see anyone who wasn¡¯t using a controller to fly though. Apparently flying without one wasn¡¯t something popular amongst the general players yet. Zayvin bought some delicious smelling cookies from a street stall and slowly made her way forward through the sea of excited newbies. She herself caught some curious glances due to her clothes, but nobody talked her up. Her clothing was very ordinary, just a sign that she was an apprentice mage. They simply figured she had reached lvl 10 already and started her path as a magician, nothing out of the ordinary, really. And that¡¯s how she liked it. She was glad she had changed out of her other gear earlier. Speaking of which¡­ she stopped in her tracks and slightly changed her direction. She still had about an hour in game until Paris was going to log on so she might as well try getting some of her old gear fixed! Meanwhile Suitcase and his sister had somehow come to a stalemate. They had logged back in and were now looking for interesting quests to take.
At the same time, at Furan Corp.
Brian Eden had just finished up the last of his work. He had stayed later than the others today, in fact he had been the last to leave the office for the past few days. Today as well he hadn¡¯t been able to finish up everything he¡¯d have liked to despite the successful launch of Grell. He slowly got ready to leave for the day. Still sitting in his office, he rubbed the sleepiness out of his eyes, stretched thoroughly and took a look outside. It was pitch black. He quickly glanced at his watch. It was 10 to 8. He had been in for nearly 14 hour today¡­ Then he stopped his train of thought. It shouldn¡¯t have been this dark this early into the night¡­ ¡®Oh crap!¡¯ He had forgotten about it. He concentrated again and stared outside, discovering small lightning discharges that revealed a thick layer of dark clouds covering the sky. ¡®I¡¯m an idiot!¡¯ The weather forecast had warned them about a thunderstorm approaching but¡­ he hadn¡¯t expected it to be THIS bad. He hurriedly stuffed his belongings and some documents into his bag and quickly did a last server check before leaving the office in a hurry. He wouldn¡¯t want to be caught up in that¡­ it felt eerie just looking up at it. He switched off the lights and locked the entrance securely, quickly getting into his car, that he had left at the HQ¡¯s parking lot and set it to autopilot to his home, leaving behind the office building. Somehow as he looked back at it from his seat in the car, a bad feeling overcame him and he shivered. It felt like he was looking at the open jaw of a monster. Quickly shaking off the feeling, the Manager silently ridiculed himself and was determined to get enough sleep today. He didn¡¯t want to start hallucinating after all¡­ Meanwhile the storm behind him produced an eerie thunder as the cloud masses collided, leaving him with goosebumps despite himself. The wall of clouds kept thickening. Their rumbling grew louder and louder. Their restlessness could be heard as the black clouds moved ceaselessly, electricity building up inside them more and more as they collided and merged with one another, lighting up the overclouded sky in an ominous bluish white color. Unknown to the world a rare phenomenon had taken place behind the thick cover at the same time. The same phenomenon that had happened two years ago, and was first reported in 1917¡­ the sunlight had changed its color. The light illuminating the sky above clouds over the lone building of Furan HQ had changed to an ominous dark red, dying the clouds in its color. It had caused the very nature of the storm to change. The rumbling intensified and small red lightning now released within the clouds. The ominous aura of the storm enveloped the area, sending shivers down the spines of any onlookers and they got a very bad premonition. Not long after Mr. Eden had finally arrived at home, the first raindrops fell from the sky. ################################ Fufufufu... things are starting to heat up a little~ What do you guys think? ;) [box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Next Chapter[/col][/box]
EDIT: Check for my writing progress as well as interesting bits about my world here
Chapter 9 - Mirabelle Thank you very much to Dan for Proofreading this story for me! :D ###############################################################
Now York, downtown
Paris had long arrived at home and finished setting up her game system. She had taken a hot shower to get rid of the last remnants of work that lingered in her body and now lay down onto her bed to connect to NeoPangea for the first time. The calibration hadn¡¯t taken as long as she thought and so she happily logged in, only to find herself staring up at a white space, she felt as if she was floating for a moment but then¡­ ¡°Ouch!¡± she complained as gravity kicked in and she landed, sitting up and rubbing her throbbing backside. Even pain was recreated in the game, huh¡­ Ignoring the fact she had just been dropped from about 2 metres in the air, a cheerful voice rang out and made her lift up her head. A smiling girl about her own age with two pink pigtails was greeting her. ¡°Welcome to NeoPangea! The update today has successfully been applied!¡± While listening to the girl talk, Paris had looked around the area. Apparently the loading process had finished. She could now make out her surroundings. She was sitting in a large lobby with checkered floor tiles and a long red carpet that led up some stairs to a pair of massive wooden doors. The stairs seemed to continue upwards to the left and right of the door but she couldn¡¯t tell, since the stone railing was blocking her view. The girl before her was probably a program. She was wearing red transparent glasses that covered half her face, making it impossible to tell her eye-color and a modern pink-white school uniform that was moving along with her excited gestures. ¡°Dear user, we couldn¡¯t find any character backup data on your hardware. Since you don¡¯t seem to have a character yet, would you like to create one now?¡± Some suppressed annoyance could be felt in the girl¡¯s words. It seemed that she hadn¡¯t asked for the first time. Paris snapped out of her daze and quickly replied ¡°Yes, please.¡± ¡°Alright, let me explain the creation system to you then!¡± Just as the words had left her mouth 5 huge mirrors appeared and formed a circle around Paris. The girl walked over into the circle as well. ¡°There are 5 basic races in NeoPangea that users may start as. Many others are still undiscovered and therefore unusable. Let me show you a sample of each of them.¡± She snapped her fingers and an image appeared in each mirror. Just as Paris was about to look at each one more closely, the girl spoke again. ¡°For now we basically took all the data from your system calibration and used it as reference to create a virtual image of yourself as each race but you may customize your body later if you wish. Although I say that, we only allow a certain degree of modification so you will still resemble yourself, no matter what. This measure was taken to make the game seem as realistic as possible. That¡¯s also the reason we haven¡¯t removed the feelings of pain completely, although the pain settings have been lowered compared to in reality~" "Now let me give you a brief overview of each race.¡± Actually Paris had already decided on her race, but she was still curious, so he let the cheery NPC go on with her explanation. ¡°Firstly the one directly in front of you is the Human race. No changes have been made to your original body for this race at all." "Originally a weak race, humans have gained power through their natural craftiness and adaptability. What they lack in strength they make up for with their cunning.¡± Still listening to the girl, Paris took a closer look at the image in the mirror. A young woman with blond medium long wavy hair and green eyes curiously looked back at her. She was wearing a simple white shirt and short pants. Her body looked lean and elegant, her skin slightly tanned and she didn¡¯t seem to mind her gaze as she stretched amply. The NPC moved over to the next mirror. Confused, Paris didn¡¯t notice any difference to the image in the first one, but just as she was about to ask about it, she noticed. The body looked almost the same, but her features were more delicate and elegant, her face looked more radiant and the form of her ears was different. The ears of herself in this mirror were a little stretched out, ending in a beautiful tip. The character was smiling back at her brightly. ¡°This is an image of yourself as an elf. This is a race of the forest with radiant grace and beauty, living in harmony with nature and its inhabitants. They have pointy ears as proof of their ancestry and live within trees and groves.¡± She now moved on towards the third mirror. She looked more childlike in this one, her features in general got softer and her face brighter. The character was very radiant, dancing around behind the glass like a child. As she watched herself move around, she noticed some small white wings growing out of the back of the character. The girl had started explaining again. ¡°This image displays you as an Angel. These are pure creatures with white wings sprouting from their back. They often have a childlike appearance and live on clouds. Otherwise they can¡¯t be told apart from human beings.¡± Swiftly the girl now moved to the 4th mirror, holding it from behind cheerfully and looking at Paris from above the frame. ¡°This one portrays you as a Lycan! A hybrid race between humans and animals. They often settle within forests and live secluded from humans. A wild and charismatic race. Their appearances differ depending on their ancestors¡¯ race as well as the density of animal blood so they often have a human body with only some parts resembling animals. Like additional limbs or body part substitutions. As an example you¡¯re now displayed as a Lycan Cat. We only switched your ears and eyes and added a cat tail in this example.¡± ¡®This¡­ is a bit scary¡¯ Paris thought honestly as she watched herself claw at the mirror glass. ¡°And finally! Let me introduce you to yourself as a Devil!¡± Paris finally turned towards the last mirror and gasped. She looked very pale in this picture and had two horns on her head. When the character in the mirror turned around two bat-like wings and a black tail could be seen growing from her back. ¡®Wow¡¯, Paris thought. ¡®This looks so real, and somehow dangerous. I bet it will be fun to scare people with though.¡¯ ¡°Let me tell you about the devils~" "They are a cunning race of evil creatures that escaped from hell. They assumed humanlike forms and live apart from other races as renegades. They can¡¯t completely hide their true forms, so as you can see they sometimes have horns, black wings or tails befitting of devils.¡± After a short pause the girl continued cheerfully. ¡°Please firstly decide which of these basic races you¡¯d like to play as!¡± Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°I¡¯ll be playing as a devil.¡± She said without hesitation. The other mirrors disappeared and only the devil remained, smiling evilly at her as she showed off her pointy teeth. ¡°Alright! You have decided to become a devil! You may now customize your hair and eye color. Small customizations in your face and on your body are also allowed, so please let me know what to change and I¡¯ll apply the changes to your character!¡± Watching herself in the mirror, Paris thought quietly and then asked the girl for a couple of changes. After a few minutes Paris was satisfied and excited. ¡®I always wanted a tattoo!¡¯ She had given herself yellow eyes with slit pupils like a reptile, and modified her hairstyle slightly. She now had short pure white hair. She decided to also darken her skin color as much as possible. It was now a dark brown color, similar to milk chocolate. She had two sharp fangs in her mouth and two short black horns were growing out of her temples. Her pointed ears were sticking out of her hair, giving her an elegant touch. Two small black leathery bat wings were growing out of her back as well. Her character flapped them nervously as she touched her horns. She had chosen not to have a tail. It would feel weird to have a limb there¡­ Lastly she had gotten an extensive white tattoo that ran over half of her body. It was a dragon that snaked itself over the whole left side of her body from her ankle ending on her eye that seemed like it was gripped by the dragon¡¯s claw while the head and most of its body were on her back, proudly curling around a ball that represented the earth. ¡®This is it.¡¯, Paris thought. ¡°Are you satisfied with the changes to your character?¡± the girl asked a little tired from all the modifications. ¡°Yea¡± A notice appeared before her.
Character appearance has been set
The girl turned around cheerfully and finally said: ¡°Then please choose a name for your character!¡± Just as the girl had uttered those words a virtual keyboard appeared in front of Paris, floating just in front of her chest. She glanced over at the character in the mirror again, who was just turning around and glanced into the glass as if looking at her own back, exposing her bat-like wings. ¡®Name, huh¡­ I¡¯ve aready decided on one, so¡­¡¯ ¡°Mirabelle¡±, the girl said, as if reading out what she had just typed into the keyboard, ¡°Are you sure you¡¯d like to take this name? Once you¡¯ve chosen a name it can¡¯t be changed anymore so think carefully before you choose. Please press enter to confirm your choice.¡± Paris quickly pressed Enter. ¡°Your character has successfully been created. Since this is your first time playing NeoPangea, I have initiated the tutorial dungeon for you! Unless you¡¯d like to apply any more changes, please step into the mirror to merge with your character and enter the game!¡± Hesitantly Paris stretched out her hand towards the mirror, unsure whether she¡¯d hit solid glass or not, but her hands slid through the surface, causing small ripples in the surface that flowed toward the mirror¡¯s frame. It felt like touching a water surface. Holding her breath and closing her eyes, Paris carefully stepped into the world behind the mirror with her whole body. She was floating again, in bright white space when a message popped up in front of her saying
Character synchronization in progress
She closed her eyes, waiting for the feeling of zero gravity to fade. At that time Zayvin was paying for the completed repairs on her equipment, this time munching on some chocolate coated fruits. She didn¡¯t have anything to do while waiting so she had kept on eating sweets and other snacks to kill some time. Luckily you didn¡¯t gain any weight in game¡­ She put her items back into the inventory and thanked the tailor for a job well done. Then she left the shop and shortly afterwards stepped into the plaza. She pondered about the situation for a moment, then decided she would never find Paris in this crowd. After all she didn¡¯t know what the nurse actually looked like¡­ She quickly ate the last of her fruits and then searched her inventory for a flat piece of ore. She soon found a piece that would do for her purposes and took out the small knife she usually used for cooking. Then she slowly and clumsily carved ¡®PARIS¡¯ in capitals into the metal plate. Ding!
Finished horribly engraved name plate
There were so many things she wanted to retort to that system message¡­ but¡­ she took a look at her finished work with a complicated expression that clearly showed just how poor a job she had done at engraving the plate¡­ well, this had to do. She quickly cast a small spell to make the letters shine brightly. The effect made her failure even more apparent but she was determined to ignore it and instead silently complained about how a simple glow spell cost way more mana than a small meteor shower. How did that make any sense? She flew up to the roof of one of the buildings surrounding the plaza and settled down on it. She then pulled out her fishing rod and hung the plate onto the end of its line to let it hang down. Then she extended the rod as far as she could and waited. Due to the spell she was sure that Paris would be able to spot the plate if she only looked around a little. She relaxed and dangled her feet from the edge of the roof, humming a small tune. Slowly growing bored, she decided to strike up a telepathic conversation with her demons to kill some time. That was when it happened. The event that would change the world as everyone knew it. #################################### Here... weeeee.... goooooo! The cliffhanger! A little! [box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Next Chapter[/col][/box]
EDIT: Check for my writing progress as well as interesting bits about my world here
Chapter 10 - Calamity Thank you very much to Dan for proofreading!
ANNOUNCEMENT!! After this Chapter I have no more Chapters that I prepared in advance, meaning I''ll need to actually write again now! That means from now on the releases will be slower. I will aim for a weekly release if possible, but I will release at least once every two weeks. I cant write a lot due to school so please bear with me. Please continue following and enjoying my story even after this!
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Ruins of the previous throne room of the Cyclops
Lava had flooded the whole place. The walls of the place had caved in after the destruction the boss fight had caused and cracks spread all the way to the lava pool of the volcano, allowing magma to flood in. Not caring about the heat and toxic gas in the room at all a group of 5 figures shrouded in darkness stood on some of the few footholds that the lava hadn¡¯t consumed yet and held a serious conversation. ¡°They killed him.¡±, one figure started the conversation with just a short statement. ¡°Travelerssssss¡­.¡± ¡°Shit, that¡¯s it for our plan then.¡± ¡°Aaaaaah¡±, another sighed. ¡°We stopped bothering with them long ago. Stupidity overload I say.¡± ¡°Cent change et now, wert we gonne do?¡± ¡°Ssshhh¡­¡± ¡°I say we go ahead with the ritual and show those shallow travelers just who theyre messing with.¡± ¡°¡­¡± The figure that had started the conversation hadn¡¯t said another word and quietly listened to the others. He seemed to be the leader of the group. ¡°Eint et too erle?¡± ¡°Who cares, man! Not like it won¡¯t work just cause we do it earlier than planned!¡± ¡°Thisssss one agreesssss¡­ we cannot wait longer than thissssss.¡± ¡°¡­¡±,the leader stepped forward slightly, getting the attention of the others. ¡°Let¡¯s do it.¡± ¡°Now?¡± The leader simply nodded and started walking, stepping into the magma without a care. The others followed and they formed a circle, extending their arms to the side and gripping the one of their neighbor. Then everyone of them summoned their mana, directing it all towards the open middle. The amount was ridiculously large, showing to the naked eye as a large glowing white sphere. As soon as enough mana was condensed in the sphere the leader started muttering a lengthy incantation while the others swayed slightly, continuing to pour mana out of their bodies. The leader finished his incantations and the sphere moved upward slowly, then suddenly shot down into the earth. As soon as it had started moving the figures had already gathered more mana, a smaller amount this time, and surrounded themselves in a strong barrier. Not a moment too late as a low growling could be heard and the ground below them started to shake. The figures smiled. Their spell had succeeded. *** A shockwave spread through the game world and the earth all over the continent started shaking. Cracks appeared from the violent tremors and players as well as NPCs helplessly lost their balance. Zayvin was also one of them. She had let down her guard and when the earthquake began, she performed a very undignified fall from the rooftop and landed on her behind. Players and NPCs around her were shouting in confusion and fear as the first boulders started falling from the ceiling of their underground city, hitting devils all over the place. As one of them crashed into the floor right next to her, Zayvin quickly summoned a shield around herself o she wouldn¡¯t get hit. But before she could also surround others with it, her vision suddenly went dark and her body lost all its feeling. ''Huh??? What¡­'' Then the world around her came back, but everything was in black and white and her senses weren¡¯t working correctly. Her body wasn¡¯t listening to her at all and her shield was gone as well, seeing as she was unable to control mana in her current state. The world started spinning around her and she felt sick. ¡°Ugh¡­¡±, she groaned but no sound came out of her mouth, in fact the whole word was silent. Then a loud crash resounded and a blinding light shot through the cave, causing her to close her eyes on reflex. When she opened them again the world around her was crumbling. The whole area around her was caving in and her vision was tinted a bloody red. What on earth was happening here?? She tried getting up for the 5th time, but her body still refused to listen to her. Then the world around her went dark as she lost her consciousness.
A few minutes later in reality
Sirens resounded shrilly on the quiet evening as several fire fighter trucks and emergency helpers made their way towards various buildings as fast as possible. The blue blinking lights on top of their vehicles dyed the dark street in an unnatural light on streets all across the world. The clouds overhead had started dispersing little by little, revealing small patches of the starry sky. But the growling of the storm could still be heard clearly. Minutes ago the world had experienced an earthquake on a scale larger than anything ever recorded. Tokyo, Shanghai, Sydney, Moscow, Berlin, New York, Toronto, Johannesburg,¡­ anywhere you went it was the same view. Destruction. The earth had cracked open in various places, creating huge gaps that swallowed whole buildings and caused the death of thousands of unsuspecting people. Relief units were trying desperately to reach buildings that had collapsed into themselves, but there simply weren¡¯t enough people to cover the whole place. The world had sunk into chaos.
At the same time in Robin¡¯s hospital room
¡°Robin¡­?¡± A nurse had just come into the room to deliver her daily medication and make her round after the earthquake. Honestly, the building was quite well built so no huge harm had been done to the hospital. The electricity had gone off for a second, but the hospital had its own emergency power supply so the nurses decided to quickly make their rounds. They were very worried about their families at home but the patients here only had them, so they forced themselves to endure and do what they could right now. She called out again but she couldn¡¯t find the girl. Her bed was empty, only her old plush bunny remained. ¡°Robin?!¡±, her voice grew louder as she frantically looked around the room. Quickly she made her way around the bed and discovered the girl lying on the ground unconscious, her head still connected to the headgear of the game. She had landed quite unfortunately as the earthquake had pushed her out of the bed, causing her arm to be crushed under her body. It was now standing off in an unnatural direction. Carefully the nurse placed the girl back on the bed and inspected the damage. It was serious. ¡°Doctor!¡±, still screaming worriedly, the nurse hurried out of the room. It seemed like Robin would not attend the party after all.
A few moments later, Hikaru¡¯s home
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. ¡°Hikau! Hinami! Are you alright??¡± A worried female voice resounded through the house. It was their mother. She had just gotten home when the earthquake started and hadn¡¯t been able to go upstairs to check on her children since her balance had been completely thrown off by the tremors. She could only desperately shield herself from various plates, glass and other objects that fell from the shelves closeby. Now that it seemed to be over she desperately called out to them. But she didn¡¯t get any reply. Carefully she made her way through the house towards the stairs. Luckily their home hadn¡¯t caved in. Quickly she climbed up the stairs and entered the living room. She knew that¡¯s where they probably had been before the disaster, playing their new game. And surely enough she found them. Both lying on the ground unconscious with the headset still covering their head, probably knocked out from falling from the couch they had been lying on. ¡°Hikaru!!¡± She hurried over to their side and checked up on them. They were both breathing normally and their pulse was stable as well. There weren¡¯t many items scattered around the room, only some plants had fallen over and some DVDs had fallen down, some of them hitting the two unconscious children in the process. But apart from a few bruises nothing seemed to be wrong with them. Breathing a sigh of relief their mother started on moving them outside. You never knew, the earthquake might start up again¡­ and this time their roof might not hold.
FFX News, a few hours later
¡°¡­ electricity has finally been restored in most of the major cities.¡± One of the reporters, a tired looking elderly man had just finished his report and turned towards his colleague, an equally tired looking younger woman. ¡°Beth, I noticed you just got another report in, please enlighten us on the situation.¡± ¡°Of course, Henry. Sadly it seems that the estimations had been correct. The scale of the earthquake exceeds anything we have seen before. Relief units have come up with an estimate of about 500.000 confirmed deaths so far only within the US and over a million people are still missing. The numbers keep rising as we speak." "So the question everyone is asking now is¡­ why haven¡¯t specialists been able to warn us about a natural disaster of this scale¡­.¡±
One day later, an unknown area in NeoPangea
A girl was walking across the grass barefoot. She continued on playfully, sometimes turning, sometimes jumping as she hummed a small tune happily. Now and then she stopped and crouched down to stare at a flower or small insect in wonder. She was running around a field full of the most beautiful flowers, all in full bloom. She herself looked quite orinary, a little cute maybe with her white hair and yellow eyes. The only part that really stood out was the white dragon tattoo on her dark skin that coiled around the left side of her body. Then she suddenly heard some rustling and turned around. There she saw a tall figure standing in the shadow of the trees just outside the field. ¡°You are back.¡±, she addressed him quietly, but somehow her voice carried over to him clearly. ?Yes, milady.¡°, the voice of the hooded figure was deep and rough and he seemed to dislike talking. Nonetheless he addressed her respectfully. He bowed deeply towards the girl but did not dare to leave the shadows of the forest. It was the leader of the mysterious figures that had met up within the old cyclops hideout earlier. ?That means you were successful, I assume?¡° It was a rhetorical question. The girl knew full well of what had happened, but she still awaited his report. ?Of course, milady¡°, he simply replied, ¡°after all you personally have instructed us on the plan.¡± A smiled formed on her lips. A dark and cruel grin that was as far from her earlier demeanor as a snail from the sky. The smile of a predator. Then she started laughing. It was a nasty laugh, a laugh that even caused the shadow to shiver in fright. ¡°Good, very good¡­¡±, her voice was now deeper and she turned around and around in crazed ecstasy, dancing around in a circle. She stretched both of her arms out on the sides and continued laughing, a gruesome aura spread from her tender figure as she went, decaying the flower field around her. The corruption in the air caused the flowers around her to wither and burst into black ash within seconds. The circle of dead and withering plants around the girl continued to spread until the whole flower field around her had turned into ash. She stopped laughing and turned one last time to face the shadow, not minding the dead ash below her feet. Then she crouched down and stared at the ash curiously, letting it rinse through her hands. ¡°Nemesis¡±, she addressed him again, ¡°last time those ignorant fools didn¡¯t react to our warning. Do you think they will take us seriously this time?¡± ¡°That stands without doubt, milady. This time it isn¡¯t possible for them to ignore us.¡± ?Hahahaha... you are right. After all they have proof they cant hush up this time¡­¡± With ice cold eyes the girl got up and walked towards the shadow with an expressionless face. ¡°We are leaving.¡±, she simply said and walked past him. ¡°Of course¡­¡±
FFX News
¡°Welcome back to FFX newsand lets get straight to the point." "The catastrophe that has been affecting the whole world. Specialists have determined the origin of the earthquake to be the pacific ocean and are extending a warning to all cities and towns close to the shore, there is a high chance of tsunami like waves reaching the coasts within the next few days. Please take appropriate precautions." "Relief forces are still working 24/7 to save even one more life from the ruins of collapsed buildings but the situation looks grim. Confirmed deaths have reached the 2 million mark and over 1,5 million people are still missing. Over 500.000 people have been saved from the debris with serious injuries, causing hospitals to be filled to their capacity¡­" ###################### Wooohooo~ Sorry this chapter was what I''d call ''all over the place'' xD Also finally our villain made her appearance! I hope you enjoyed it! :D With that my reserves are exhausted and I can go back to actually writing new stuff! Yaaay! xD See you next time, hunsies xD Edit2: I have noticed the appearance of our villain was described wrongly! Corrected! I underlined it in the story for you!
EDIT: Check for my writing progress as well as interesting bits about my world here Some character sketches and a map have been added.
[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Next Chapter[/col][/box] Chapter 11 - Case Omega So I''ve been sick at home and had a bit of time,so here comes Chapter 11! Thanks very much to Dan for proofreading! I''ve actually had this ready yesterday evening, but then the site was down and I couldn''t upload it :c EDIT: I noticed yesterday that I previously used the wrong description for our villain girl! Please go back to the Previous Chapter and check out the underlined part for what''s changed!
WARNING: THE SCENES BELOW CONTAIN QUITE A BIT OF GORE! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
A few hours later, a small town at the coast of the Pacific Ocean
A small child was running through the streets, laughing, carrying a basket full of light tools, behind her two others were carrying a similar weight. Reconstruction work was in progress in their village. They were only a small village really, only about 100 people lived in it. And as luck would have it they had all been outside in a forest clearing when the earthquake began, so there hadn¡¯t been any causalities. Their yearly harvest festival had been up so they prepared a huge campfire and had a feast¡­. That is until the earthquake started. Well¡­ when they hurried home afterwards they found only 2 of the sturdiest houses still standing. Thus they had all decided to join forces and reconstruct their homes! Even the children were helping like this, carrying around some light tools for those who needed them. A few hours ago they had sent out a few people to fish, seeing as their supplies were running low and they couldn¡¯t move to the closest city to buy food for now. It would probably be a few more days until the world started going back to normal and their supplier would send another food delivery to their local store. And their boat was just heading back towards the small harbour. Or if you could call it that. It was simply just a small rack that extended from the beach. The few men that had gone out excitedly jumped off the small boat, hurling their catch for the day out as they went and quickly headed towards the small town square to hand out the fish to everyone. What they didn¡¯t notice was the shadow that had followed their boat from the middle of the ocean. It wasn¡¯t a particularly big shadow and was cautiously hiding beyond the now still boat until now. Seeing as they seemed to have arrived the shadow slowly and cautiously moved towards the rack, hiding below it, covering itself from the rays of the sun, patiently awaiting its time to strike, its eyes glowing red with a predator¡¯s anticipation.
2 days later, the outskirts of the town
¡°Otter reporting, no movements.¡± It was merely a whisper, but it was loud enough to disturb the complete silence of the area in a small perimeter, causing the man reporting in to shiver. The silence was unnatural. Nothing at all was moving except for them. No birds, no dogs, no children, nothing. Only silence. It was twilight, the time just before the dark settled in, the best time for covent operations such as this one. He and his comrades had gotten the mission to investigate what had happened in the town. Suspicions were a mad man was on the loose so it was their job to find him. Reason was a report from a local truck driver who had come to deliver some necessities for the first time after the earthquake. The scene he had found caused him to throw up on the spot. The town had been heavily damaged by the disaster, but that wasn¡¯t what had shocked the guy. What was truly gruesome was that all the inhabitants were gone. Not simply gone but¡­ he could only conclude they were dead. He couldn¡¯t really be sure but what he had described and what they later found spoke for itself. Blood. Blood everywhere. The streets were painted red, so were the houses, there were clear signs of a fight. Bloody hand and footprints, scratch marks clearly made by humans trying desperately to escape. All of these couldn¡¯t be overlooked. It had been slaughter. But there wasn¡¯t anything but that. No flash, no bones, only blood. It had dried over the time, showing that it was approximately two days old. The soldier shivered again. He could only imagine just what had happened here and what kind of mad-man was responsible. He was on look-out right now. To make sure nothing and no one entered the town while his teammates investigated. He turned on his night vision gear early, to make sure he didn¡¯t miss anything in the now only sparely lit area. It was also equipped with a video function that would automatically record what he saw back at the base. It was better to be safe than sorry. He could miss something. They would analyse the video later. He shifted slightly, checking over his equipment, making sure his camouflage suit was still bending the light properly, making him invisible from the outside. That was when he heard it. A small scraping sound coming from his left. Reflexively he turned his head around and met with a pair of glowing red eyes staring at him from the darkness. ¡°UAAaAAHHHHHH!¡±, he could only manage a scream and quickly roll away before his world turned red from pain. He had only heard a loud snap, but when he looked at his left side that was causing him to shout again in pain there was¡­ nothing. His arm was completely gone and only blood gushed out from where it had been. ¡°SHIT!¡±, he weakly fumbled with his helmet with his remaining arm, barely turning on the communication before¡­. *SNAP* *crunching sounds* ¡°GUAAAAHHH!¡±, he screamed again in pain and desperation. His leg had been torn off, taking half of his lower body with it and his intestines were flowing out just to be slurped up by the monster like spaghetti. The man couldn¡¯t bear to look anymore and just endured the sharp pain that accompanied the ripping sound the monster caused when it ripped out his stomach. Tears came to his face, the whites of his eyes were clearly showing as he recognized this was the end. Struggling here would not do him any good. He knew it and yet¡­ He still tried it, his arm reaching out with a last effort to escape the inevitable. With the same quiet scraping sound the shadow with red eyes appeared in front of him again. He stared at the monster that had ended him so easily in hate before his expression turned to disbelieve. What the hell was that thing??
Military operation base
A man that was obviously a high ranking officer scrambled up from his desk and pushed a button in front of him. He had heard the cry from the soldier through the communication and checked the visual data right away. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. ¡°GET OUT OF THERE RIGHT NOW! CASE OMEGA!¡±, was all he shouted into the microphone in front of him before he turned off the communication, not waiting for a reply. Case Omega meant the danger level was beyond what they could handle. Their equipment proofed useless against THAT and they weren¡¯t armed for combat. Their only task was to scout. He knew they would follow his command without hesitation. He turned back towards the screen and ran the fingers of his left hand over the keyboard furiously while operating his own communication device. This was serious. Sweat started spreading on the face of the veteran. Even he was unsure of how to handle the situation¡­ The monster that had killed one of his men without more than a slight warning¡­ He could only describe it as an oyster.
Meanwhle, in the middle of a field of ash
Her white hair was swaying in the wind as she stared into the distance. She had done her part. Now it was time to wait. The travellers as she referred to them, or the people from another world had to make their move now. She would watch the spectacle unfold for now. She raised her hand and brought it close to her face. She hadn¡¯t had the time to even look at herself yet and had only revered in the joy moving one¡¯s body brought. After all she and her mates hadn¡¯t had a body for a long time until just a few days ago. They hadn¡¯t even been able to talk to each other or their minions personally, but only with magic. It had been quite draining to get even a telepathy spell outside of their prison cells. But now all of this had changed. A smirk spread on her face as she snapped her fingers and summoned a tall mirror. ¡°Heeeh¡­ nice taste that traveller had there.¡±, she grinned as she tried posing in front of the mirror like a little girl. ¡°I will use this body well¡­¡±, she said to no one in particular and blew a kiss towards the mirror. Then she waved her hand and the mirror shattered, disappearing back into nothingness. The fun probably started already. She¡¯d better get some snacks and get ready to watch.
Back in Firchten
¡°Ugh¡­¡±, her whole body was hurting. Slowly Zayvin opened her eyes and blinked, her vision was blurry. So she was still in game. ¡°What¡­ ¡° What happened? She could only slowly recall what happened before she passed out. I was waiting for Paris and then the earthquake¡­ Reflexively Zayvin sat up and looked around, ignoring her protesting muscles. ¡°Oh god¡­¡±, she muttered involuntarily. She was clearly still at the edge of the plaza in Firchten. Debris from the cavern ceiling had fallen down and crashed into buildings and streets, causing some of them to collapse. She could see some other devils walking around, disoriented, some had injuries and some were calling out to find their relatives or friends. Their cries filled the streets, giving the whole place an aura of sorrow and death, like on a battlefield. ¡®What was with that earthquake anyways?¡¯, she thought angrily. ¡°Are you one of Lilith¡¯s children, adventurer?¡±, a voice asked from behind. Lilith¡¯s children is what NPCs used to refer to players of the devil race. According to legend she used to be an apostle of god until she got cast out from heaven. She decided to join Lucifer, one of her kin and chose him as her mate. Their offspring were the players. They themselves had stayed back in hell and only sent their children to join the devil community on NeoPangea and support them. Zayvin quickly got up and turned around to see who had asked and found a tall devil wearing a black robe with golden lining. He had straight black hair that fell down until with waist and was watching her with piercing red eyes similar to her own. Two horns grew out of hi temples and curved upwards in an s shape. ¡°Y-yes, milord.¡±, she stuttered and bowed down deeply, assuming the position of a typical knight. The person before her was the ruler of the devils. The Lord. He had apparently been using magic to remove the biggest pieces of debris. ¡°Rise, there is no need for formalities at a time like this.¡± ¡°Y-yes.¡± ¡°Child of Lilith.¡±, he spoke to her again ¡° Many of your siblings have also awoken. I shall explain the situation to everyone. In the meantime please head to the castle and help us tend to the injured first. I shall continue to look for survivors.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± If at all that¡¯s probably where she would find Paris, unless the nurse had already logged off due to the incident. Zayvin quickly straightened her clothes and checked over her body. She didn¡¯t seem to have any serious injuries, only a few scratches here and there. Her wings and tail also still worked normally. She only took a few moments to check over herself, but the Lord had already moved on in the meantime. So she sprouted wings and took to the sky, heading towards the castle. Zayvin clutched her fists as she flew on towards it at full speed. She needed to hurry, in this situation even a moment of delay could cost lives. The black castle stood tall over the roofs of the other buildings in Firchten, so the damage to the building was obvious even from far away. One of the towers had been completely destroyed and a few side buildings lay in ruins. ¡°AH!¡±, she shouted in sudden realization. What happened to her demons? Were they alright? She quickly called them over telepathy. ¡°You guys, are you alright?¡± ¡°Master!¡±, the reply came right away. They sounded like a huge weight had just been taken off them. Apparently they had been calling for her for a while. All of them were alive, although one of them had gotten injured, but it wasn¡¯t something some rest couldn¡¯t fix, according to the dragon Kra. Just then she reached the vicinity of the castle and landed in front of the main entrance. Then she quickly walked inside. The guards that usually prohibited anyone from entering were gone, probably helping with the excavation.
Check for my writing progress as well as interesting bits about my world here I''ve also added a few sketches of how i imagined my world and some characters
[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Next Chapter[/col][/box] Chapter 12 - The truth YES!!! A double release! Now love me! Jkjk, please enjoy the chapter! Huge thanks to Dan for proofreading for me! Back to writing I go!~ ####################################################### The huge throne room inside had been changed into a field hospital. Injured devils had been brought inside and those who could still move without major difficulties were hurrying around the place to tend to them. An old devil was barking orders towards those who didn¡¯t know what to do. She looked extremely drained herself but didn¡¯t seem to mind as she hurried from one end of the hall to the other, tending to the most serious cases personally. Zayvin quickly headed towards her. She seemed to be the healer in charge right now, so it was best to consult about how she could best land a hand with her. ¡°E-excuse me.¡± ¡°What now? Cant ye get anything done yerself?¡±, the devil shouted brashly without even looking up from her work. ¡°T-that is, I came to help¡­¡± At those words the devil finally looked up and mustered her. ¡°Magician, eh? What can ye do?¡± her tone was way less harsh now as she quickly got to the point. ¡°I-intermediate recovery magic, s-some detoxification and alchemy.¡± Zayvin had amassed a lot of different skills over her playtime. But she wasn¡¯t specialized in healing so she hadn¡¯t concentrated in training those skills too much. The devil grunted. ¡°Fine¡¯lley someone useful. Ye take over the left side of the hall. Start with the worst, if ye can¡¯t deal with something call.¡± ¡°Y-yes!¡±, Zayvin quickly hurried over to the other side and surveyed the patients. ¡°YE THERE!¡± the shout of the healer echoed through the hall ¡°GO BRIEF THAT LAD O¡¯ER THERE!¡± Zayvin cringed at the volume of the shout, but soon heard hurried footsteps approaching. ¡°Follow me.¡±, a young devil panted and took off again, leading her towards a patient at the far end of the wall. So Zayvin got to work, casting recovery magic where she could. She had some patients with blood poisoning or even missing limbs. But the most severe were those with internal injuries. For them she could only close the wound to stop the bleeding and ask the healer to treat the inner damage. She had two assistants, both of them seemed to be players. One of them lead her around and kept track of any new patients coming in, while the other assisted her and brought fresh water or bandages along where magic wasn¡¯t needed for treatment. At the start she felt awkward about leading them, but after she observed their reactions for a while she got more confident. She was careful to not waste any Mana, fully aware that she would dearly need it in case of an emergency. Luckily she did have some equipment on that increased her recovery speed. Fully immersed in her task, she didn¡¯t notice how the old devil was watching and assessing her and kept giving her more and more work so she could also save at least some of her own strength. Some more devils volunteered to help, making her job a little easier. They took turns in assisting her and resting. After what seemed like ages, the flow of new patients finally slowed and they got the opportunity to move some of the recovered patients to another hall. This one was a bit smaller and was going to function as a resting room for the patients that hadn¡¯t regained their consciousness. Hours later, all the urgent and more seriously injured patients had been treated. Nobody was in danger of dying anymore. ¡°Ugh¡­¡± completely exhausted, Zayvin allowed herself to collapse onto the floor. ¡°Here.¡± She looked up to the voice and found one of her assistants holding a bowl and a bottle out to her. ¡°You should eat and drink something. You look horrible¡­¡± ¡°¡­t-thanks.¡± She ignored the last part and quickly wolfed down the stew and the water she was given. The devil sat down beside her and watched her with an amused expression, while he also ate something. She quickly finished up her meal. She felt like she would live now. ¡°T-that saved me.¡± ¡°Haha, yea. Just leave them here, I will take them back to the kitchen.¡± ¡°O-ok.¡± With those words Zayvin stretched her tired muscles and was about to go back to work when ¡°Wait a second.¡± It was the old healer. ¡°Ye¡¯ve done enough here, laddie. Ye¡¯re a daughter of Lilith, right?¡± ¡°Y-yes.¡± She didn¡¯t notice the surprised reaction her assistant made when he heard that answer. He had figured she was a NPC. ¡°The Lord came back earlier. Wants to talk to ye all. At the plaza in a few minutes.¡± ¡°O-ok. I will head there then.¡± The healer nodded. ¡°Thanks fer yer help. Many woulda died without ye.¡± ¡°N-no, that¡­ anyone would have done that.¡± The other just smiled knowingly and sent her off with a pat on the shoulder before heading back to her patients. With one last deep breath Zayvin grew out her wings and quickly left the palace, heading back to the plaza. She landed on the edge of the round square and walked towards the crowd of players that had already gathered together. That was when she noticed. The default interface was gone. ¡°Huh?¡± A stupid sound escaped her as she stopped in her tracks. The small watch and menu bar that were usually always at the edge of her vision were gone. ¡°What¡­!¡± She quickly tried to call up the System menu, but nothing happened. ¡°You just noticed now¡­?¡± An unbelieving voice resounded beside her. She quickly turned to see who was talking and her eyes widened in realization. ¡°H-hikaru!¡± ¡°Eh, Zayvin?¡± Apparently he had talked to her without knowing who she was. ¡°H-hi..¡±, she just said stupidly. ¡°Honestly, how did you only notice it now¡­¡± He went back to his previous statement. ¡°W-what¡¯s going on?¡± she simply asked. He sighed and explained ¡°This is what we found out until now¡­¡± All system functions including the inventory were missing. You couldn¡¯t access any system related functions such as status or skill windows. ¡°You can still use skills though¡­ Somehow this whole situation is strange. Don¡¯t you think this all feels just a bit too real right now?¡± ¡°N-now that you mention it¡­¡± The players got information and images from the game directly into their brains. But Furan had deliberately limited the degree to which the game felt real. So nobody would confuse it with reality. For example pain would still be felt, just not as strongly as in reality and your vision would go slightly blurry around the edges to not overexert the system. But this blurriness was gone. She hadn¡¯t noticed earlier since she was so confused and focused on helping the patients¡­ ¡°H-how¡­¡± He scratched the back of his head helplessly. ¡°We don¡¯t know. And nobody is brave enough to try the obvious and die. We don¡¯t know what might happen. I mean this just smells like something went wrong¡­ if I didn¡¯t know better I¡¯d say this is the real world.¡± ¡°¡­¡± Zayvin was shocked. What did this mean? Was Furan in trouble? Would they take down the game? That was the first worry she had. After all this was the world she had basically lived in for years. Then the second worry came. How would they get back? Would she be disconnected if they simply cut her connection in reality? What if she couldn¡¯t? They would probably worry about her a lot¡­ Speaking of which¡­ shouldn¡¯t she already have been disconnected? She didn¡¯t keep track of the time but she was sure she had been around for a few hours, wasn¡¯t it time for her medication? A nagging fear spread through her mind. Just then the Lord stepped into the plaza and raised his voice. The place was filled with players by now, there were at least 40.000 people stuffed into the place. But as soon as the Lord stepped out all the conversations stopped automatically and it grew quiet. Zayvin automatically fell into the knightly kneel she had also assumed earlier that was quickly mimicked by the people around her, until everyone was kneeling in front of him. ¡°Children of Lilith¡±, he addressed them simply. ¡°I need to inform you of something. I am sure you have already noticed the changes in your bodies yourself but I will confirm what I have noticed with you. After the calamity that shook the earth our link to Lilith has been severed. Thus her blessing on you is not effective anymore and neither can you return to her side.¡± Shocked murmurs were loud and finally someone started to shout, several of the players stood up and were about to protest. ¡°What do you mean we cant go back???¡± ¡°What I said. The link has been completely severed. It isn¡¯t possible for us to contact any of the devils still in hell at all.¡± ¡°Who cares about that, just let us go home!! This is only a game for god¡¯s sake. I have a date today!¡± A sign of anger crossed the Lord¡¯s face at the word ¡®game¡¯, but he quickly seemed to calm himself and went on with his explanation. ¡°Just before the calamity happened I sensed a large amount of Mana being concentrated underground. The only explanation I can come up with is that the link has been severed through that. Considering the sheer density of magic it is the most plausible explanation I can come up with as of now. As for a solution¡­¡± He surveyed the crowd of now desperate, confused and scared players with emotionless eyes before continuing ¡°I cannot think of one at the moment. But my guess is that you will have to find it yourself¡­ If there is one.¡± The last part was but a whisper, but they could still hear it clearly. With those words the Lord turned around and vanished. He probably went back to his castle. He left the plaza in chaos. People started panicking and screaming, cursing Furan or various gods or simply the fact they logged on today at all. ¡°W-what are we gonna do now¡­?¡±, Hikaru¡¯s sister next to him muttered quietly. Suitcase /Hikaru seemed to snap out of his shock at those words and raised his voice. ¡°Ah, that¡¯s right! Don¡¯t panic, everybody! I¡¯m sure we will be out of the game soon! There is no way the devs are gonna stay quiet about this! Rather, I bet some of us will be logged out any second by their parents removing their headgear! It¡¯s simply a bug, so don¡¯t panic, alright?¡± He sounded like he wanted to convince himself. ¡°That¡­ but it¡¯s been like this for hours already¡­¡± ¡°Yea, usually my family would have had dinner ages ago¡­ and I¡¯m still here¡­¡± ¡°That..¡±, Suitcase didn¡¯t know what to respond anymore and awkward silence spread around the plaza again. No one was sure what exactly happened or will happen now. If this was an event or a joke no one was enjoying themselves. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. ¡°Ah¡­¡± Zayvin let out a small voice. ¡°Hm?¡±, Suitcase looked at her questioningly. ¡°Suitcase, s-sorry for asking but¡­ y-you¡¯re from Asia, right?¡± ¡°Yes, why are you asking in this kind of situation?¡± ¡°AH!¡± Another shout of realization came from someone else in the crowd. ¡°Right, there¡¯s no way you¡¯d all be talking Spanish right now, right?¡± Confused, many people simply shook their heads. Realization also showed on Suitcase¡¯s face as he turned back to the crowd. ¡°RIGHT! The auto-translate is still working! Why didn¡¯t I realize that!!¡± So not all system aspects had stopped working. The AIs in game also seemed to still work perfectly. They needed to find out just to what extent the game had changed. The group quickly divided, everyone volunteering to test out different system run or assisted processes. Some went to check the shop systems, some went for production and some went to test skills, etc. Nervously Zayvin pulled on Suitcase¡¯s sleeve, to get his attention. And surely enough, he quickly bent down so she could whisper something to him. ¡°I-I need to go somewhere, c-cover for me, okay?¡± He stared at her questioningly, but then simply nodded in affirmation. ¡°T-thanks.¡± With that she gave him a thankful nod and cautiously separated from the group, heading back towards the castle where she suspected the Lord to be. Most streets and houses had been cleared of debris so she couldn¡¯t think of another place for him to head to at this moment. If her feeling was correct he hadn¡¯t told them something earlier. He had seemed to hesitate over whether to tell them or not, but after one of them had called this world a game he had apparently decided against it. If her hunch was correct he was hiding something important.
An office in a military base in New York
¡°Mr. Eden, thank you for coming.¡± A man in a military uniform greeted the Community Manager of NPO. He dark circles under his eyes and he hadn¡¯t shaved for a few days. His hair was a mess and he looked 10 years older than just a week ago. The reason for that was the earthquake. He had had a lot of work to do privately as well as at work in order to get everything back on track. When the earthquake happened the servers had completely shut down, some of the hardware had broken completely and a ton of data had simply been erased. There had obviously been data back-ups but many of those had been destroyed as well, leaving the employees at furan with a mountain of work they most likely wouldn¡¯t be able to finish in weeks. In the middle of all that he somehow or another had then been called here by someone called Captain Morgan, a soldier who had asked him to answer some questions. Still stressed and worried by the aftermath of what happened, Eden had agreed and had taken the next flight to California. Apparently his superiors had been unable to reject the request and deemed him the most suitable ¨C or most expandable, he mused ¨C for the job He literally had no idea what the military would want with an employee of a software company like them but he would simply oblige. The sooner this was over, the sooner he could get back to work. The one who had called him here, a sharp looking officer in his 30s, greeted him with a charisma unique to those of the battlefield. His bright blue eyes seemed to see right through you, his face had an edge to it that screamed elegance and his body was well trained, something you could see even through the slightly baggy uniform. Even with his thoughts jumbled up and his mind tired as it was, Eden felt deep respect for the man from the moment they met. ¡°Not at all, captain. I heard there was something you needed from me?¡±, he therefore answered simply, not in the mood for unnecessary pleasantries. ¡°Ah, straight to the point. I like that.¡±, Morgan smiled. ¡°Please have a seat, this will take a while.¡± With those words he gestured behind him to some cushioned chairs that were standing around a table. Eden simply nodded, too tired to push the topic and just sat down at the front of the table. ¡°My colleague would like to join us to take some notes, if you don¡¯t mind.¡± ¡°Ah, not at all.¡± The captain as well as another soldier took a seat across from him. ¡°But captain, please do enlighten me as to how I can be of service to you today?¡± ¡°In time, Mr. Eden. Let me ascertain a few things first.¡± He simply nodded. ¡°Go ahead then.¡± ¡°Right. Let us start.¡± He nodded towards his subordinate who then took out some files and placed them onto the table. ¡°Mr. Eden, what do you know about the earthquake?¡± With raised eyebrows Brian Eden looked at the one sitting across from him. ¡°I know what¡¯s been on the news. It happened the day after that thunderstorm, it killed millions of people and it caused even more disasters, like flooding many areas on the coast. If I remember right, Tokyo got almost completely destroyed. New York was comparably lucky. We¡¯re still dealing with the aftermath right now¡­ That¡¯s about it. I don¡¯t know what else you want me to tell you.¡± Morgan nodded. ¡°That¡¯s already quite alright. Now let me take over from there.¡±, Morgan paused and took out an image from a file lying in front of him. ¡°Most of the military has been asked to help with causality minimization after the earthquake. I and my team were one of the exceptions, as gladly as we would have liked to lend a hand.¡±, he explained. ¡°The reason for that is this.¡± He pushed the picture towards Brian. It seemed to be some seashells that had been washed up the beach. ¡°Take a look at it, I¡¯m sure you recognize it.¡± Brian picked up the picture and took a closer look at it. Then he frowned. ¡°What does a screenshot have to do with all of this?¡±, he asked. This picture was obviously taken in NPO. The reason he was so sure of it was what he had assumed to be some seashells. In fact it was the corpse of a monster. A monster that nested on the beach at the northernmost part of NeoPangea. It was a Gloomster. A monster that looked almost like an oyster, just larger. And obviously more aggressive. The monster inside the shells was shaped like a black ball. They were the first real challenge for beginners in the area due to their high defence provided by their shells. ¡°The point is¡±, Morgan started to explain, ¡°that this is no screenshot, Mr. Eden. It¡¯s a photograph. A photograph I personally took one morning on a beach not too far from here as part of an investigation.¡± ¡°What? If this is supposed to be some joke-¡°, ¡°MR. EDEN.¡±, Morgan interrupted his angry shout with one of his own, revealing just how unbelievable he himself thought what he just said to be. ¡°I don¡¯t joke about something like this. We got sent there after it ate a whole village of people. Two of my men died trying to fight that thing without any information! Plus, we actually took the corpse and preserved it here, if you would like to see it¡­¡± ¡°¡­ you are serious?¡±, disbelief couldn¡¯t describe what Eden was feeling now. ¡°Very.¡± Morgan sighed. ¡°That¡¯s not all. We also have it on tape when it was alive. But that¡¯s not all. The worst part is this.¡± He took out a USB from the files and connected it to his monitor, then turned the screen towards his guest. ¡°The real reason is this. It¡¯s a recording of the communication between another team and ours. Some video went along with it. I requested clearance to let you watch it.¡± ¡°The situation was that one of our recruits had also identified the monster as a Gloomster I believe it was. Of course at the beginning his claims sounded ridiculous to us. However, seeing as he is a good fellow I convinced my superiors to send a small squad of divers out to make sure it was just a coincidence.¡± ¡°After this we lost contact with them. My guess is they ran into another monster. But I shall let you be the judge of that.¡± ¡°Pleas e stop this joke of yours, it¡¯s not funny.¡± With those words he got up and shook his head. ¡°Look, I¡¯m really tired. I¡¯ve worked the last 48hours without sleep. I cant handle jokes like this right now, so if you¡¯ll excuse me¡­¡± ¡°Sit down, Mr. Eden. I¡¯m not joking.¡± ¡°You¡¯re telling me to believe that there is really a monster from NeoPangea roaming around earth randomly? A monster from a game? A programm? Please, Captain, that cant be anything but a joke.¡± ¡°Yes, I do want you to believe just that.¡± ¡°That¡¯s ridiculous! NPO is something we created ourselves, there is no way it could be real!! Stop messing with me!!¡± At that Morgan stood up, a furious expression on his face. ¡°Mr. Eden. I don¡¯t have time to deal with your reluctance to face reality right now. My men are out there as we speak, facing god knows what kind of creature and you are the best chance we have of identifying it! Let me rephrase that! You are our only chance of knowing what happened to them! We don¡¯t have the luxury of time and you are the most knowledgeable about that world!¡± It was true. As the Community Manager not only had Eden overseen most programming processes, he was also one of the few employees to access the game and one of the founders of Furan. ¡°If you cannot identify what attacked them I shall look into other possibilities. And only then.¡± ¡°Have I made myself clear?¡± The captains expression softened slightly. ¡°But if you still cannot believe me not matter what, I can still show you to the corpse we preserved.¡± ¡°¡­¡± Brian was shocked. Utterly and completely speechless. He quickly shook his head before what Morgan had said completely sunk in. If what he said was true then depending on what was out there millions of people may die. Even if it turned out to be a wrong conclusion, he wasn¡¯t ready to regret not believing the captain at this point. ¡°Play it.¡±, he simply said.
Check for my writing progress as well as interesting bits about my world here I''ve also added a few sketches of how i imagined my world and some characters
[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Next Chapter[/col][/box] Chapter 13 - The Link Fufufufu... since the doc told me to stay the hell home i had time to write another chapter! Shishishi! Thanks to Dan for proof-reading it for me! Having someone else look over my work really takes a weight off me! On that note... my art is kind of bad... sooooo.....
I would appreciate if someone who got inspired by my story and drew out my characters/ a scene of the story! I''m excited how you guys imagine my world! Please post your ideas and art in here
Now enjoy! :D ##############
A few miles off the shore of the pacific, 8 hours ago
¡°Got the recording going?¡± ¡°¡°Yes, sir.¡±¡±, two of the divers answered. ¡°Let¡¯s get the party started then. Everyone in position!¡± On that remark of their leader all 9 other divers got into position to dive, 4 on each length side of their small ship. The leader then went over to the smaller group and sat on the edge with them. ¡°Final check.¡±, he simply said, causing everyone to go over their equipment one more time. They each confirmed everything was in order. Then the leader faced one of the divers on the other group. ¡°Lieutenant, you¡¯re in command of your group now. Don¡¯t forget the plan. Proceed with caution. Don¡¯t forget ¨C your life comes first regardless of what you find.¡± ¡°Understood.¡±, he confirmed with a salute. ¡°¡±Dive!¡±¡±, both of them then ordered and with a *splash* all 10 divers then rolled backwards over the edge of the boat and broke the surface of the water. They dove down about 50 meters and checked over their equipment again, slightly adjusting anything that might have gotten out of place while they broke water and confirmed everything was fine with hand sign. The lieutenant then led his group west, while his superior head north. They had planned the search area beforehand. This operation would take a few days but they had to make sure nothing else was out there. For the next few hours the divers were combing through the water, returning to the boat every hour to warm up and then changing the direction they headed in slightly. This would be their last dive for the day. The lieutenant knew that if he and his group pushed on, exhaustion would kick in and they would risk making a fatal mistake in their dive¡­ be it in overlooking something in the water, or simply not checking vital parts of the equipment. This time they headed straight southwest. They had noticed a slight anomaly in the current there last time, just before taking a break so he had decided to return here and check it out. He had informed his superior of their find and had gotten clearance to investigate the phenomenon more in depth. After all if even they as ordinary soldiers noticed that there was something wrong with the current something was wrong. And they needed to know it wasn¡¯t something dangerous. He looked at his wrist where a watch-like GPS system was blinking every second. He confirmed their location. They had reached the place. So they spread out in a small circle, making sure they always stayed within reach of two group members and worked their way around the area. For minutes they found nothing, but then a beeping in their earpiece informed them that one of them had found something, calling the others over. They all headed towards the diver that had caused the mini alarm. The diver waited till everyone was there and then pointed towards what he had found. At first they couldn¡¯t make out anything out of the ordinary. But seeing as his colleagues didn¡¯t make it out he moved a bit closer to the anomaly and switched up his flashlight, pointing it to the most obvious spot he could find. It was hard to describe it. It was like the space of the area he was pointing to was blurred and warped and shifted. The area had an effect similar to the blurriness you saw the are in when it was extremely hot, just the effect was way more obvious. Towards the centre of the affected area it felt like the space itself was bending outside, creating what looked like a tunnel of water. They had never seen anything like it. But despite a nagging feeling of dread in his gut, the lieutenant motioned for his team to investigate the tunnel before them. It wasn¡¯t very long, in fact it seemed to just be a few meters so he didn¡¯t hesitate to motion for his team to pass through it. If they swam into it vertically they would barely fit through after each other, seeing as how small in diameter it was. So they all entered the tunnel, with the diver carrying the camera going last. That was when they lost the video feed. ¡°Guooooooonnnn!¡±, only a deep voice resounded through the audio afterwards. It was similar to the sound a whale would make, yet very different. Brian Eden, still sitting across from Captain Morgan in his office watched the video with a complicated expression. At the end his face lost all colour as he watched the video cut off and heard the mysterious sound before the communication ended. He knew that sound. He knew it quite well. After all he and his colleagues had spent countless hours tuning all the different monster voices while creating their game. After staring at the black screen blankly for a few moments he finally opened his mouth. ¡°Captain¡­¡±, he simply said quietly ¡°if that was real and if it was a monster from NeoPangea, I indeed know what it was. And if they encountered it I¡¯m afraid your men might already be dead.
Presently, back in game
¡°Why have you come, child of Lilith?¡± ¡°Lord, I-I apologize for coming so suddenly¡­¡±, Zayvin started. ¡°Don¡¯t mind it.¡±, he spoke quite shortly, reflecting the tiredness that showed in his face from recent events. ¡°I-I will keep this short then.¡± Zayvin explained their situation truthfully, how they were actually from a different world and most of them had a family waiting for them at home. She also added how she had been looking for a friend who had wanted to join her today and asked if he knew anything about it. ¡°I see¡­ so that is how it was. But why do you believe I would know anything about it?¡± ¡°I-I¡¯m sorry if I sound imprudent, milord, b-but you seemed like you were h-hesitating to tell us something¡­ earlier¡­ so I was wondering¡­ if that might have anything to do with it¡­ maybe.¡±, Zayvins voice grew quieter and quieter towards the end, worrying she had offended the lord with her honest reply, but he simply sighed deeply and nodded. ¡°Very well, since you have picked up on it either way, I shall entrust you with this information, even though I cannot be certain it will be of any help to you. However¡±, his gaze grew sharp at those words, ¡°I have a task for you to complete in exchange. Will you lend me a hand?¡± Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. ¡°W-what kind of task, if I may ask?¡± ¡°In fact it is related to the information I was going to tell you. Do not worry, it is not an impossible task, I give you my word.¡± Zayvin bit down on her lips and thought back to earlier¡­ After she had separated from Suitcase Zayvin had headed back towards the plaza after all and asked him to shout out for ¡®Paris¡¯. She had been too shy to shout out to everyone so he had readily agreed after she explained the situation. A few players had reacted but none of them were the nurse she was looking for. Maybe she had logged off before the earthquake since she couldn¡¯t find her? That would be for the best. Yea, that had to be it. The whole city had been cleared up, including the area where new players arrived. So if she had been online she must have been here somewhere¡­ Seeing as all players in the city were gathered here right now and she wasn¡¯t among them that meant she wasn¡¯t online. Thus biting back her unease in her heart Zayvin headed towards the castle. ¡°A-alright. I agree.¡±, Zayvin trusted the Lord. He always wanted the best for his people and he did consider the players to be a part of his citizens. So she believed him when he said the task wouldn¡¯t be impossible and was willing to take it on if she got any information on the situation, she was especially worried about what happened to the nurse, seeing as she hadn¡¯t heard anything. Plus, seeing as he was determined to get her to agree it seemed to be something he considered very important. ¡°Thank you.¡±, he breathed a sigh of relief. Then he started his explanation. ¡°We usually get notified by Lilith before she sends new children up to us. Before the earthquake we had been informed that 153 new children of Lilith¡­ or shall I call them devils from another world? It matters not. 153 new ones were scheduled to arrive around the time of the earthquake. From what you have told me it is safe to assume your friend was one of them. However, as I have told you earlier, the earthquake caused the connection to hell or your world to be severed completely.¡± ¡°I had attempted to stabilize it myself, but I couldn¡¯t both reinforce the cavern system as well as the connection, so I chose to concentrate on using my power to keep the cavern from caving in over the city instead. I apologize for my powerlessness.¡± ¡°N-no¡­¡±, Zayvin said weakly. After all she couldn¡¯t blame him for his decision if she looked at the situation objectively. ¡°C-considering the situation¡­ it was the right thing to do.¡± ¡°Thank you.¡±, he nodded at her in appreciation and then went on with his explanation. ¡°However, even though I couldn¡¯t reinforce the link, I did manage to watch over it in my mind and sensed the movements of our new arrivals in the corridor. Usually the devils on the way up from hell would perish as a result of the destruction of the link. However, I did not feel their life force disappear. Rather than that I noticed a strong energy surrounding them and teleporting them somewhere just before the link was cut. Where they were taken, I cannot say. I can also not be sure if they survived after that.¡± He looked at Zayvin with a sad expression on his face, obviously regretting that he could not tell her more. ¡°I-I see. T-that was plenty, thank you very much, milord!¡± He held up a hand to stop her from talking. ¡°I¡¯m not finished quite yet. Let me come to the main point.¡± Zayvin nodded, her heart was already heavy. ¡®Paris¡­ what happened to you¡­¡¯ ¡°Zayvin.¡±, he addressed her, snapping her out of her thoughts, ¡°when our city first got raided by the other races you were present, correct?¡± Her eyes widened at that when she remembered that incident. Images flashed past in her mind despite her efforts to push them back Zayvin and her party quickly flew over to the unusually brightly lit city and could soon make out the sounds of battle. Swords were clashing and they noticed arrows flying through the air. All of this was mixed with the sounds of burning fire and pained screams of the wounded. ¡®What the¡­¡¯, she thought to herself. What was going on here?? The scene changed towards a tall figure standing in front of some devil children. He raised his sword, mercilessly cutting down the crying kids pleading for their lives. Zayvin quickly shook her head to clear her head of the memories and bit down on her lips. That attack had been like a wake-up call for her as well as a curse. They had died a lot in that raid. Afterwards her companions had deleted their characters and restarted as another race, leaving her alone. So she had started training desperately. Telling herself that she would not let that incident repeat itself, that she would become strong enough to protect her comrades. ¡°Y-yes¡­¡±, she finally muttered. ¡°I was.¡± ¡°How do you think they found our city?¡± ¡°Huh?¡±, she stared at him dumbly. She had never thought about it. ¡°We are nhabitants of the darkness. We live underground, the cavern system surrounding our city is as complex and confusing as it gets, so how did they find us?¡± Zayvin started thinking intently at that, but there were only 3 answered she found, none of them seemed very probable. Either they had simply been lucky, they had searched until finding it or somebody had led them there. The Lord nodded. ¡°Good. But not quite correct. It was because of the link.¡± At that Zayvin tilted her head questioningly, not understanding what he wanted to say. ¡°The link is a space constructed purely of magic. It emits a very large amount of energy. Any magician with high enough skill proficiency who knows what to look for can easily find it. It¡¯s something that is impossible to conceal.¡± ¡°Ah!¡± It was true. She had sensed a large amount of Mana in the area around the spawn point, but hadn¡¯t really thought of examining it. To think it was because of the spawn point¡­ ¡°That is why I could easily tell that the other races on the continent also possessed such a link. And all of the links that existed before the earthquake have been severed.¡± He waited for a few moments for his words to sink in. ¡°T-that means¡­ all links before¡­ are there any links¡­ after?¡± He nodded. ¡°I sensed an aura similar to the previous links forming. However, it feels very different. I have never seen or heard of such anything like it¡­ the energy is still very unstable, but after observing it for a longer time¡­ it seems to be some kind of link.¡±
Check for my writing progress as well as interesting bits about my world here I''ve also added a few sketches of how i imagined my world and some characters
[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Next Chapter[/col][/box] Chapter 14 - Fracture A new day home, a new chapter! Hope you like it! Let me know below! :D Huge thanks to Dan my awesome PR! :D ################################################### Zayvin sat on her bed in a local inn in a daze. The events of the day were replaying before her inner eye as she tried to process everything. Could she believe his words? And everything they implied? Was it possible that¡­ they couldn¡¯t log out? Cause the connection was gone? What happened to their bodies in reality then? Were they in a coma? What were the people around them doing? Worrying over them? And¡­ Would they ever be able to go back? Questions over questions were racing through her head. Doubt and fear replaced the confusion and uncertainty, then she went over to remember the facts. How the lord had treated everyone until now, how most the system functions were missing, how they hadn¡¯t been disconnected yet, how no GM or other representative of Furan had appeared yet and lastly¡­ how everything seemed different than when this was still a normal game. Slowly and hesitatingly her mind came to accept the facts. She was scared, very scared, but she couldn¡¯t proof it wrong. This game¡­ somehow¡­ had turned into their reality. So the most important question right now was¡­ if the system was indeed not working anymore¡­ then that meant they were basically NPCs so¡­ if they died¡­. What would happen? She shivered uncontrollably, her arms hugging her knees as she curled up on the bed. ¡°I-I don¡¯t want to die¡­ I don¡¯t¡­ I dont want to die¡­¡±, without her noticing she had started saying her fear out loud, tears were gathering at the edge of her vision. ¡°-ster¡­¡± ¡®Eh?¡¯ ¡°Master, is something wrong?¡± Kra¡¯s worried voice made her jump and she involuntarily snapped out of her daze. ¡±K-kra?¡± ¡°Master¡­ you were transmitting a really intense fear just now¡­ did something happen? Are you in danger?¡± Tears were now flowing from her eyes and she pressed her hands against her mouth. What was she doing?? Her companions and everyone in this world faced that danger every day, yet here she was, bawling her eyes out when the world she loved became real. ¡°talk about contradictions¡±, she laughed, wiping away her tears. ¡°Yes, everything¡¯s alright. And Kra¡­ thank you!¡± Zayvin smiled and then made up her determination. She had never treated this world lightly, nor had she really considered it a game. But she hadn¡¯t consciously thought of it as real either, so being shocked was a natural thing after such a thing happened. However¡­ she wouldn¡¯t be weak like this and hide in her room because of that! ¡°Alright¡­ Let¡¯s start on the preparations then!¡±, she told herself ¡°Master? Are you sure everything is alright? You aren¡¯t acting your self today¡­¡± ¡®Aww, he¡¯s still worrying about me¡­ how cute.¡¯, she thought to herself before answering seriously. ¡±Yes, Kra. Don¡¯t worry about it. I¡¯m fine. But I need to tell everyone something, can you guys talk?¡± The last part she had transmitted to all her demons. ¡°Just a minute! Fighting¡­!¡±, the short reply came back from one of them. ¡°Yes.¡±, confirmed the other three. So after a few minutes she explained her situation to them. She told them everything, the same way she had told the Lord and then told her about the conversation he had had with her. He had told her the exact location of the newly formed link, but made sure to caution her since they knew nothing about the link. There was also a possibility it didn¡¯t lead to their own world, or that they couldn¡¯t use it to get back. But it was the only clue she had to find Paris or get back. There was no doubt that this new link was somehow connected to everything. Since the lord knew she would undoubtedly want to head out to investigate after hearing this he had asked her for a favour before she went. It was regarding the situation between devils and the other races. Seeing the trouble they were facing now and the death of the Cyclops she had decided it was time to once more aim for a peace treaty. She was to guard the messenger he would send out in two days and lend him a hand in the name of all the ones from another world. If she could recruit other players to the investigation in the process then that was even better. After all there were bound to be thousands of them in each capital they would visit on their mission for peace. All of them would want to search for a way to get back without doubt. However¡­ she wasn¡¯t blind enough to notice that she wouldn¡¯t be able to do that. Not alone that is. She herself knew best just how bad she was at talking to people and expressing her thoughts and opinions. That¡¯s why¡­ she would need Suitcase. Even though he was only a beginner he was the only one she really talked to, so he was the best choice she had for now. There was just one problem. He himself couldn¡¯t survive under the sun yet, but her protection spell could be used on other people as well. There would be a time limit until she had to re-cast it, otherwise the sunrays would kill him within 45 minutes. But he wouldn¡¯t have to leave her side during the trip¡­ If he agreed to come along. She was confident she could protect two people with the help of her demons. ¡±So I¡¯m asking you, while knowing about me¡­ and my situation¡­ will you still follow me?¡± After she ended her speech she decided to stay quiet and wait for their reaction. She braced herself, prepared for curses and accusations aimed at her. The silence that followed didn¡¯t last for more than a minute, bit to her it felt like eternity as she waited for their reaction, ready to accept any reply they gave her. ¡±Master¡­¡± ¡°Master¡­ of course we will follow you!¡± ¡°Eh¡­?¡± ¡°We don¡¯t care if you are from another world. You were the one to summon us, to free us from the darkness and despair we were living in. Master, you were the only one to treat us kindly in thousands of years.¡± ¡°Yes, who cares that you aren¡¯t from this world, lad. We¡¯ll still follow you.¡± ¡°Kra¡­ Don¡­ ¡° Zayvin was touched. ¡±Yea, yea, how could we chicken out when its finally about to get fun?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t you ever take anything seriously, woman? He means now that you really need us, how could we just abandon you!¡± ¡°Isa¡­ Amy¡­ Everyone¡­ I¡¯m so glad¡­.*sob*¡± She couldn¡¯t go on anymore and started crying. They were so good to her. To someone who hadn¡¯t truly lived in this world until today, someone who didn¡¯t truly know their troubles and pains. They simply followed her because they liked her. She was truly blessed to have companions like that. If others had seen her companions right now they would have truly been surprised. In this world all of them were considered symbols of fear and despair, yet here they were, all of them, a heartfelt smile on their faces, all glad they could be with her and worried about her. The dragon Kra was curled up in a cave, giggling like a mother hen who was spoiling her chick. The Arachnid Don was the one who had been fighting earlier. He was now chewing on some meat of the foe he had slain, waving it around as he gesticulated while talking and grinning sheepishly as some blood dripped down his face. As for Isa, she was a Valkyrie of Flame. She was burning some bones in anticipation for a fight. Lastly Amy was a water construct. Her body was surrounded by blades of never-melding ice that created a beautiful but deadly armour. She was half annoyed yet half smiling, crushing the bowl of ice she was just about to eat in her hands accidentally. As she remembered her four comrades a smile crept onto her face. ¡®Yes, I¡¯m really lucky.¡¯ ¡±But Master, if we¡¯re leaving soon when are you going to summon the others? We haven¡¯t found many useful materials yet¡­¡± ¡°That¡­ do you remember the system I talked about earlier?¡±, Zayvin said sadly, tears were coming back to her eyes ¡°It has a storage function *sob* Earlier before I came here I stored the belt *sob* I made for their cores there¡­ *sob* and now I can¡¯t access it¡­¡± This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Cross residence in reality
Today the young lady would return home. It would only be a temporary stay but the maid was still excited to finally meet the last grandchild of the madam. She had already met her two grandsons, both of them extraordinary people in their own right, but she had only ever heard stories about the young miss from the other maids. She had only been working at the mansion for a short while so it was no wonder she had yet to meet every person of the household. Both of her brothers were very handsome and were excellent in a different way. The older one was currently attending Harvard university and in the process of becoming a doctor specializing in brain medicine. Thus he had very little time and always seemed very distant and cold regardless of whom he talked to. The second brother was almost the polar opposite of his brother. He was charismatic and athletic. But instead of following his dream of becoming a professional soccer player he had decided to inherit his grandmother¡¯s business and was currently studying management under her supervision. Having such incredible brothers, she could only imagine what kind of person the young miss would be. The older maids had refused to share any details on the miss with her, so her curiosity was rising by the minute. Just as she imagined the thousandth time how beautiful the girl must be, the doorbell rang. ¡®She¡¯s here!!¡¯, she thought excitedly. Their butler already headed towards the door to welcome the guest. ¡°Good day, miss. How may I help you?¡±, he addressed the one on the door. Apparently it wasn¡¯t the young miss. ¡°Ah, I am Nurse Paris. I just came to escort Robin back for now. I have to get back to work again as soon as possible so I apologize for making this quick. Please thank Madame Cross again for agreeing to look over her here until we are over the worst. The patients just keep on coming and we are fighting to create even just one more space to treat everyone.¡± Paris turned over and faced Robin beside her. ¡°Robin, don¡¯t forget to come in for a check-up on Monday. We need to make sure your arm is healing properly, you hear? And if you notice anything weird in your condition at all, come back right away, okay?¡± ¡°Yes.¡±, a clear voice replied dutifully. The young miss sounded really cute! The maid couldn¡¯t wait to see her, but for the sake of her job she had to endure! Just a bit longer! ¡°Well then, I shall take over from here.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Excuse me.¡± The butler took Robin¡¯s uninjured arm carefully and lead her inside. ¡°It is good to see you back after so long, young miss.¡± ¡®Eh?¡¯, had the girl been in the hospital for that long? The maid could only catch a glimpse of the girl as they went by towards the west wing where Robin¡¯s room was. She was a frail looking girl with shoulder long black hair. She looked like she would break even if the wind was just a little strong. But from her angle she couldn¡¯t really make out anything else. Pouting silently, the curious maid swore she would see the miss properly today.
In Robin¡¯s room
Robin sat down on her bed in silence as the butler left her to continue his usual duties and mechanically started undressing to change her clothes. Her grandmother would be expecting her to greet her at dinner today. She sighed deeply. This was very complicated when you could only use one arm. Her thoughts started to wander off, back to the day of the earthquake. After the weird earthquake in NeoPangea the game had completely crashed, forcing everyone connected to the servers to log out. She had lost consciousness for some time after that and when she had regained it she had been back in her hospital bed with a broken arm. A few hours later everything had started making sense after she found out there had been a large scale earthquake in reality that caused power outages all over the world. Buildings had collapsed everywhere, burying thousands of people under tons of debris. Cracks appeared on the surface of the earth, swallowing whole schools of children. It had caused millions of people to die. Hearing that she couldn¡¯t help but worry about Hikaru. After all he had also played the game at that time. Was he alright? Afterwards hundreds of patients had swarmed into the hospital each day. So since her condition was stable for now she had agreed to stay back at her grandmother¡¯s place until the situation had calmed down. On the condition she would come in for check-ups regularly. Her grandmother had agreed so here she was. The servers of NPO would probably also stay offline for a few weeks. There would be extensive repairs and upgrades done, so once the world had recovered to a degree everything could go on. Until then she would have to wait in order to find out if her friend was doing well. She had finished changer her clothes now. The maids had prepared her change of clothes already and left a basket for her to place her old clothes into. So she did. Afterwards she got up and headed towards where she knew the window was and opened them. Just then there was a knock on the door. ¡°Miss, dinner has been prepared.¡± ¡°Please enter.¡± The butler entered the room and bowed before her, even though he knew she couldn¡¯t see it. Then he took her arm once more and led her to the dining room. They entered the room and he led her to her place on the table. Before sitting down she bowed towards the right where she knew her grandmother was sitting and only took her place when she beckoned her to sit. The butler had informed her that only her grandmother and her second brother would be present at dinner today. They took their meal in silence. There was no conversation whatsoever until everyone had finished their last bite and the servants had cleared the table. Only their glasses remained now. ¡°You are back.¡±, with that simple statement her grandmother started the conversation. She could tell from her voice that she was frowning, probably unhappy with her appearance. Or the fact she was back at this house at all. Not bothering with pleasanties her grandmother quickly said what she wanted. ¡°Make sure you stay out of the way. You are not to leave your room unless I call you or you leave. That¡¯s all.¡± Those words cut like knifes even though she was prepared for them. After all this was the treatment her grandmother had always given her ever since that incident. After all she was a useless and unneeded child unlike her brothers. ¡°Yes¡­¡±, she replied. Her grandmother did not want to hear anything else so she left right afterwards, leaving her and her brother alone in the dining hall. ¡°To think you¡¯d still dare to come back here¡­¡±, he started, anger clearly showing in his voice as he banged his hands on the table. ¡°If it had been me I would never welcome the killer of their son back in my house. Sadly, I don¡¯t have a choice, but don¡¯t think for a second I¡¯ll accept you.¡± Robin couldn¡¯t stop herself from shaking. She had thought she had prepared herself for this but¡­ you truly couldn¡¯t fully prepare yourself. So she only faced him with a sad expression until he had stormed out of the room. Then she slowly got up and pushed her chair back inside, waiting for the butler Severus to lead her back to her room. This would be a long stay home.
While you wait... check for my writing progress as well as interesting bits about my world here I''ve also added a few sketches of how i imagined my world and some characters
[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Next Chapter[/col][/box] Chapter 15 - Imprisoned Hai guys o/ Have another chapter *throws* Also~ I got a creative flash today and drew out the Lord! Check out the Progress post to see what he looks like! On that note, I plan to re-draw both Zayvin and the villain seeing as I feel better now and my hand stops shaking lmao. Thanks to Dan for PRing the Chap for me once again! ########################################## Daniel Stevens looked up from his paperwork tiredly. The hospital had been very busy the last few days. He had hardly caught any sleep and worked up to 20 hours a day. Honestly, he was reaching his limit. But even though he shouldn¡¯t have any time to think about anything besides work he was still worrying about that small patient of his, Robin. She was a very bright and kind girl, she and insecure but she had still managed to brighten their days in the hospital. How was she doing at home? As her doctor he had talked to her a lot and she had told him about many things. Thus he knew of the situation with her family as well. The decision to ask her to stay home for a small while had been a very hard one for him to make for that reason. Yet he had made it. How pathetic of him to worry about it now. At that moment the phone in his office rang, nearly causing him to jump out of his chair. ¡°Stevens?¡±, he answered the phone simply. ¡°Dr. Stevens.¡±, the hospital director got straight to the point. ¡°We had an offer from the ivy league to have some of their students lend a hand. 5th semester and up. There¡¯ll be 5 students assigned to you, got it? Make sure they get jobs they can do. Might decrease the load a bit.¡± ¡°I got it, director. Did you send me their info?¡± ¡°Of course I did, Stevens, now get back to work, we can¡¯t afford chit-chat right now.¡± ¡°Yes, sir.¡± Daniel sighed heavily as he hung up. So now they would even allow medicine students without practical experience in here¡­ He was too tired to argue against the decision of his superior, but¡­ well, he¡¯d just have to make sure they wouldn¡¯t mess up then. And he could really use the extra hands. He quickly manipulated his computer unit and called up the students information. One of them especially caught his eyes. Darren Cross It was Robin¡¯s brother.
The Cross residence
Robin was lying down in her bed curled up into a ball. She pressed her plush bunny tightly against her chest and clenched her teeth, biting back her tears with all her might. She had been ready, she had prepared herself to come back here¡­ or so she thought¡­ but that wasn¡¯t it. It wasn¡¯t right. She had simply been conceited and stupid. She had expected something had changed, if even just slightly. But that was wrong. Time doesn¡¯t close all the wounds, it just covers them slightly and then with just a word they would rip back open, bleeding just as strongly as before. She knew. She knew her grandmother felt nothing but contempt for her. She also knew that her brothers hated her. They hated her for taking away their parents and they would never forgive her for it. Right now her mom and dad should be here. They should tell them how they had grown up nicely, scold them for being picky with their food, hug them and console them when they were sad¡­ but they weren¡¯t here anymore. They wouldn¡¯t laugh together anymore, go out on a picnic and have fun, they wouldn¡¯t laugh together anymore¡­. Just because of her. There was no place for her here anymore. Why had she agreed to return? Why? As soon as she wondered that she hated herself for it. She only had a broken arm right now, the other condition had been stable, so now that thousands of people were still waiting for treatment it wasn¡¯t her place to selfishly stay in the hospital. If she did someone might even die because they didn¡¯t get a bed. ¡°You¡¯re still pathetic and selfish as ever, Robin¡­¡±, she scolded herself quietly. ¡±You are like a demon! You can only destroy the happiness of others! And now you¡¯re a murderer as well!!¡± ¡°Useless child, do not expect any compassion from me. Someone who cannot hope to be independent has no place in my family.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t talk to me, I¡¯m busy.¡± The words of her family echoed in her head, cutting out small pieces of her heart every time she remembered them.
Volunteer relief force in Japan
¡°Hey, Hinami! Over here!, Help me with him for a moment, will you?¡± ¡°Coming, brother!¡± The girl stopped talking to the field medic and quickly went over to him and together they picked up the old man, carefully placing him on a stretcher and pushed him to the ambulance that had just arrived. Once they woke up after the earthquake the both of them had volunteered to help the relief forces and had been asked to help the field medics to get the patients to a place they could be treated. They had learned fast and were now the only two people accompanying the medic. Surprisingly they hadn¡¯t fought at all since then. It was probably true what they say. Emergencies truly do bind people together. While they were working hard to save even one more life Hikaru still thought back to the game. ¡®That girl, Zayvin¡­ I wonder if she¡¯s alright¡­¡¯ Thus since he had been staring out the car window, lost in his thoughts he got his first smack from his sister in days. ¡°Ouch! What was that for??¡± ¡°No time for dirty dreams, bro! Take this seriously, will you?¡± Involuntarily he had blushed while thinking about her, causing his sister to misunderstand. But once she was like that she wouldn¡¯t listen if he explained anyhow¡­ A deep sigh escaped him. ¡°Yes, yes¡­¡±
Some time ago, in the deep-sea
¡°Why did her highness send us out into the middle of nowhere again?¡±, one of the guards muttered. ¡°Don¡¯t be impudent! Her highness had a reason for sending us out here! Her orders have never been without sense!¡±, his superior scolded angrily. ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am¡­ still¡­ we haven¡¯t found anything for two days, the water tastes like usual¡­wait¡­ this taste is?¡± ¡°Humans? But the taste is weird¡­ Blood and something else?¡±, ignoring her complaining subordinate the female guard quickly swam ahead towards the source of the taste in the water and hid herself behind some corals as she got close to check out the situation first. Soon her comrade caught up and was about to complain about how she left him behind but she cut him off with a gesture before he could even open his mouth and motioned to the front. Comprehending what she meant the guard stayed quiet and they carefully swam closer to see what was happening. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. Humans never came out here, the water was too deep for them, they couldn¡¯t breathe here. Plus, the taste of these humans was strange. The whole thing just screamed suspicious. There was a small group of what seemed to be humans ahead, but they didn¡¯t look like any humans they had seen before. They wore strange tight clothing that spread a bitter taste in the water and attached weird fins to their feet. They were fighting an Aquiell right now. It was the guardian of the sea horse colony. Apparently they had unconsciously invaded its protection territory, causing it to attack. From the looks of it one of them had already died and another was wounded. Those stupid humans! The blood would attract even more predators if they didn¡¯t move! Anyhow, deciding she couldn¡¯t just leave things be she gave her subordinate a sign. They would intervene in the conflict. They had to find out what those humans were doing here and what those weird things were they had with them. It could potentially pose a danger to their kingdom. So she and her companion quickly swam out of their hiding place, moving their tails as fast as possible before they were too late. They arrived just before the Aquiell could end the injured humans life, successfully causing it to hesitate. Just enough time for her subordinate to pull him out of harm¡¯s way. While he motioned for the humans to come over to him it was her job to calm the angry guardian. ¡°Oh great guardian of the sea horse colony, please listen to me!¡±, she quickly shouted. ¡°These humans surely meant no harm towards you and your people! I ask you to let us escort them to the queen, she will thoroughly question them and their motives!¡± ¡°Guoooo..!!!¡± ¡°W-what? They appeared from nothing and suddenly attacked you??¡± ¡°Guo, uoooouuu¡­¡± ¡°I see, I will include that in the report¡­ Thank you for understanding, dear Aquiell!¡± ¡°Guoo¡­¡±, with a last glare at the humans he quickly swam away. Anger clearly shown on her face the mermaid guard turned around to survey the humans. The four of them were huddled together around the other merman. One of them was looking at the injury of his companion, but underwater it was hard for him to apply first aid. She sighed deeply and motioned for them to follow her. If they didn¡¯t comply she would make them. She needed to report this to her majesty right away. The humans were apparently very confused and shocked at the situation, she didn¡¯t know why they hadn¡¯t expected to meet creatures of the sea underwater, but her patience was running low. Not caring what the humans thought she quickly used some magic to bind them and then motioned for the other merman to pull two of them. At first they were struggling pretty hard, but underwater they weren¡¯t a challenge for merpeople at all, so all they managed to do was exhaust themselves.
Presently in Captain Morgan¡¯s office
¡°I see¡­ so it was a monster like that. Can you tell us about the area it usually lives in?¡± ¡°Yes, in the game the Aquiell is something of a guardian existence for the sea horse tribe. They don¡¯t leave the area they are supposed to guard and only attack when provoked or when they feel the tribe faces danger. That¡¯s how WE created it either anyhow.¡± Morgan nodded, motioning for Mr. Eden to go on. ¡°It lives in the deep sea, approximately 900-1200m underwater but it can survive up to 2500m deep. Higher than 500m and it¡¯ll be in trouble as well¡­¡± Morgan was listening to everything the community manager had to tell them, making notes and thinking constantly. ¡°Other than that¡­ the sea horse tribe is allied with the merfolk who are demihumans of the sea.¡± ¡°Merfolk?¡± ¡°Yea, mermaids and other humanoid seadwellers.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve not heard anything about them from other sources before¡­?¡± ¡°That¡¯s because in NPO there is no way to breathe underwater and diving deep enough to find them is impossible as of now. They¡¯re basically an undiscovered race. We planned to introduce them soon.¡± ¡°I see¡­¡±, the captain said, thinking carefully. ¡°So since they are allied they can obviously converse with each other as well. We need to take this into consideration when creating a plan.¡± ¡°Pardon? Why?¡± ¡°I hardly believe what I¡¯m about to say myself, but¡­ don¡¯t you thing that tunnel looked like a sort of portal? If you look at the video feed closely before it cut off¡­¡±, he rewind the scene back where he meant, ¡°right here¡­ one of them is gone. He should have been about halfway in the tunnel, but he¡¯s not there.¡± Morgan tipped at the screen with his finger, pointing to where he meant. And surely enough the first diver was missing. After that scene the video cut off. ¡°So if that tunnel leads somewhere else, where could it be? Judging from what you just told us we have to leave the possibility open that¡­ it¡¯s the game. Or a place very similar to it. That would also explain how that Gloomster got here.¡± Before Eden could protest against it he raised his hand and continued. ¡°It¡¯s very unlikely, but I need to be open minded about this. Of course other possibilities are that a normal animal mutated due to radioactivity or another reason and coincidentally resembles one. And my men just weren¡¯t careful and got sucked away by a strong current that coincidentally caused such a sound before their recording broke. That doesn¡¯t explain why we can¡¯t locate their GPS though. There are probably other explanations as well, but I¡¯m not willing to take the risk. What do you think, Eden?¡± ¡°I still think this is a crazy idea you have, captain and I am not willing to believe it.¡±, he sighed deeply, ¡°but I also know that you aren¡¯t the type of person to give in just because I disagree. So what¡¯s the plan now? Judging by your character there is no way you¡¯d leave this in peace if there was even a small chance your men are alive¡­ what¡¯s your plan?¡± Morgan grinned knowingly, slightly impressed by how well the CM knew him already. ¡°Well deduced, Mr. Eden. Well deduced¡­ Indeed, I don¡¯t plan to abandon my men. Therefore as you¡¯re probably expecting¡­ we¡¯re going there. This time I¡¯m coming along personally. And so are you.¡±
While you wait... check for my writing progress as well as interesting bits about my world here I''ve also added a few sketches of how i imagined my world and some characters
[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Next Chapter[/col][/box] Chapter 16 - The Merfolk Hi there! Here I am again! First of all thank you to Dan for PRing this chapter for me! I really appreciate it! Next thanks to you guys for all the comments. I read them all and am currently thinking a few things over. Amongst others I might change a bit of the last part of chapter 15 as well as my synopsis soon. If I do, I will let you know in the next chapter. This chapter wont be affected by the change I''m considering. That said, please enjoy and let me know your thoughts as usual! Thanks for helping me improve my writing and story, I love you all! XD ######################################## Dr. Stevens was shaking the hands of the student volunteers, greeting each one by their name and thanking them for wanting to help. Quickly getting to the point he then briefed each one on what task he assigned them for. ¡°Finally, Cross, you¡¯re with me. You¡¯ve had some experience in surgery and I need another hand. Everything clear?¡± ¡°Yes, sir.¡± ¡°Off you go then.¡± Daniel and Darren thus made their way to their first surgery of the day. But before they entered he stopped for a moment to talk to the student. ¡°Darren, do you know we had to send Robin home for a bit?¡± ¡°Dr. Stevens, with all due respect, this is hardly the time for me to be concerned about my sister.¡± ¡°I see, let¡¯s go then.¡± He could only shake his head to this family. It seemed like Robin hadn¡¯t been overly dramatic when she had told him about her family¡­ ¡±Why don¡¯t you visit your family for a few days on Christmas, Robin?¡± His shift had just ended and he had decided to spend some time with the small girl under his care. He had only started working here recently but somehow she had caught his attention and he had befriended her. ¡°¡­¡± The girl cast down her face and pressed it into her plush bunny that had proofed inseparable from her the whole time he had been here. This reaction was unlike her. She wasn¡¯t flustered or embarrassed or looking for words to say but¡­ she seemed sad. Just as he was about to swtich topics a quiet and sad voice came from the girl. ¡°There¡­ is no place for me there.¡± After that she had slowly told him about what happened with her family. But somewhere deep inside he had still doubted her words. As pathetic as that was, only now with the cold words of her brother did he truly believe her story.
The mermaids¡¯ palace, deep in the sea
Queen Nereida was staring down at the humans before her with cold eyes. She had received the report from her guards and had arranged for the water to be drained from her throne room for the questioning of the intruders. The hall had been built especially for occasions like this. It was a bit mossy and slippery due to being submerged for a long period of time, but corals and other plants had been cleaned out regularily, giving it a touch of the surreal in this underwater world. When submerged the room was like an underwater coliseum with about the size of 100 meters in diameter. You could swim in and out freely and they often used it for plays and other events that the whole capital could attend. The floor was made of marble tiles and very smooth. The whole space was round and 10 rows of benches had been built around it, serving as sitting opportunities. The arena only opened up to an entrance in one direction except for above and facing the exit the throne of the ruler was located at the opposite end of the throne room. Below ground there was a magical device that allowed the queen to construct a transparent bubble around the arena, the size stretched up to half a mile in diameter, allowing the whole area to fit into it, including seats as long as she wished it. The bubble would automatically drain the water in the arena, successfully separating it from the water outside. Nothing could come or leave through it until the bubble had been destroyed by her, not even sound. It could even serve as a shield as long as it was supplied with Mana. The Queen had willed it to span a 10 meter radius for this occasion. It was enough to hold her and the 4 human intruders. This would be a private questioning, not even the guards were present. The queen was confident they couldn¡¯t hurt her. If they tried anything she would simply destroy the bubble, causing tons of water to crash upon them. Unlike her humans could not survive that without serious injury. So she leaned back in her intricate marble throne and relaxed. The guards had just left them through a tunnel she had opened below. They had simply swum up as far as the water reached and pushed the humans outside. Sadly communication through hand signs hadn¡¯t worked with them, so they had had to use some force. The humans seemed shocked for some reason and were looking around in wonder. It seemed the architecture of the merfolk was a new experience for them. She herself took a look around. The arena had been built to fit the sea floor, disguising the walls quite well from outside. It was situated in what you would refer to as a hilly area on land. The colourful underwater plants gave the place an unique atmosphere unlike any other, not even considering all the sea life swimming around them in swarms, playfully poking the bubble with their noses, curious as to what their queen was doing inside. They had grown some Aqualight Corals to provide natural lighting all over the area, causing it to be lit up brightly, enough for even humans to see normally. Finally they seemed to have gotten back to their senses and stared at her. She was a Lyretail mermaid. Her tail was of a gorgeous orange red colour. The scales on it sparkled like pearls every time light reflected off them. Her back fin ran all the way up to her shoulder blades and flower down like silk. Her golden hair was long and curled like seaweed, as it was not used to be on the air, accentuating her red fin-like ears that spiked out of her head similar to a dragons wings. Her crown was carved out of pears and its simple but gorgeous design made it seem like a part of her body. Her piercing green eyes were staring down at them as if searching for something in their eyes, as if she could look right through them, despite her young appearance. Then she opened her mouth and addressed them in a common human tongue. ¡°Can you comprehend my words?¡± This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. Their eyes glowed for a moment as they heard her words as if they enjoyed the sound of her voice. Then they looked at each other and shrugged. Apparently it only sounded like glibberish to them. ¡°Lieutnant¡­ what¡¯s with this situation¡­ What should we do?¡± ¡°¡­¡± The queen had tilted her head curiously at those words. They were speaking a language she had never heard before. ¡°Lets go along with this for now¡­ be quiet and wait.¡± ¡°¡­¡± The queen sighed. Time to experiment. She addressed them in any language spoken on land that she knew, but they always just shook their head, apparently comprehending she was trying different languages to talk to them. They didn¡¯t understand anything. Nearly at the end of her rope she tried the youngest language she knew of. ¡°How about now? Can you understand my words?¡± They looked stunned for a second, then one of them stepped up and nodded. ¡°Yes, we can understand English.¡± She sighed in relief and then continued. ¡°I see. It is good I am capable of speaking your language. Then let us get started.¡± ¡°Please wait a second. Get started with what?¡± ¡°I am the ones asking the questions here, intruders.¡±, she coldly said, confirming to them that this was an interrogation. ¡°What were you doing in the territory of the sea horse tribe? And you dare attack their guardian on top of that? Surely you know what happens to those who disturb the peace of the seas?¡± ¡°Why do I have to answer to you? That aside, with what authority do you confine us on our own land? Whatever the hell you are, monster!¡±, one of his subordinates didn¡¯t manage to hold back his fear and confusion anymore and snapped at her before he could try to stop him. The temperature in the room seemed to drop and fury replaced the coolness in the queens eyes. Suddenly the man that had spoken flew through the air and crashed against the bubble shield, coughing up blood. She had executed her magic so fast they hadn¡¯t even seen it happen. ¡°IMPUDENT! You dare trespass into my kingdom and call it your own! This insult isn¡¯t a small one, humans! As the 352nd queen of the sea I shall not forgive you for those words.¡± Quickly catching the implications in her words the lieutenant quickly stepped forward and bowed deeply towards the queen. He didn¡¯t have any idea how they had gotten here, but this was obviously not earth. The oceans had long since been explored and an existence like a kingdom of merpeople would have easily been discovered long ago. He didn¡¯t know anything about their culture but rulers always demanded respect. And they had just insulted the whole kingdom. Cold sweat was running down his back as he opened his mouth. ¡°Y-your majesty, please forgive my subordinate¡¯s words. Please let me explain our situation to you before you judge us for our impudence.¡± Especially nations with a single ruling power required one to use a delicateness that bordered on a high wire walk when negotiating. He had quickly realized that they had somehow or another managed to act in a way that would require the queen personally to interrogate them. The situation wasn¡¯t good. They could not afford to offend her before even explaining their actions. He thus decided to concentrate on the situation at hand first before trying to find out where on earth they were and how to get back. He didn¡¯t want to dwell into it yet, especially why no back-up had arrived yet. The recording should still be going¡­ ¡°¡­so you are their leader. Very well. I shall overlook it for now, however be warned, I will not excuse any further disrespect to my people or myself.¡± ¡°of course. I will vouch for my subordinates from now on.¡±, he shot them a look that spoke for itself. Be quiet and let me do the talking, is what he said. The other two also seemed to guess just how much trouble they had somehow gotten into and simply nodded. ¡°May we check on him?¡± ¡°Go ahead.¡± The one who had been injured underwater quickly went to check on the now unconscious man. ¡°Thank you.¡± She simply nodded and then asked. ¡°Now tell me why you have intruded into our land. Do not lie to me. If your answer does not satisfy me you and your comrades will lose their lives here. The lieutenant swallowed hard and nodded that he understood. Then he started his explanation. He had decided to stick as close to the truth as possible, without revealing anything he was not authorized to. ¡°We are with the human army and only doing what we¡¯re told. You are probably aware that many dangerous creatures life in the sea. One of them had come to shore and killed all residents of a peaceful village close to the shore. Therefore we were sent to investigate its origins¡­¡± The temperature was sinking again as he continued before he was cut off by the queen. ¡°I thought I told you not to spout lies, human. All the creatures in the sea are under my rule and would not attack without a reason. Do not dare to accuse us of breaking the treaty unjustly.¡± ¡°I am telling the truth, your majesty.¡± Anger flared up in her eyes again. ¡°It would seem you need some time to think.¡± she waved her hand and 8 guards appeared from the tunnel below the arena. ¡°When I call you the next time you#d better tell me the truth, human. Don¡¯t be mistaken, I can kill you any time I want without consequences. I will make sure one of your subordinate dies a very slow and painful death the next time you lie to me. I shall even have you watch.¡± Hate rang clearly in her voice as she spat those words at him before commanding her guards. ¡°Take them away.¡± They were bound with magic once more and pulled back underwater by the mermen
While you wait... check for my writing progress as well as interesting bits about my world here I''ve also added a few sketches of how i imagined my world and some characters
[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Next Chapter[/col][/box] Chapter 17 - Preparations Haihai! Mono here! I kind of got hooked on a light novel so might be a bit slow this weekend!~ Sorryyy~ but addictions are addictinggggg I''ve also been drawing a lot so I can show you guys my world with my own power! Fufufufufu! With that said, please enjoy this new chapter! No changes have been made to previous chapters! Thank you very much to Dan for PRing it for me <3 ########################################### Robin leaned onto the window ledge of the open window and let the wind run through her hair. She took a deep breath. The air smelled really sweet after the rain. A small smile spread on her face as she listened to the sound of the first birds leaving the safety of their nests the first time after the rain, the sporadic sounds of water droplets falling to the ground and savoured the feeling of the first sun rays after the rain. Just then the door to her room was kicked open roughly and someone entered without bothering to knock. Robin quickly turned around, wondering who it was. ¡°Hey, murderer. I got you food.¡± *CRASH* With a loud noise the tray he had been carrying landed on the floor. ¡°Oops¡­ my baaad¡­ seems like I dropped it. You better not waste the work the maids put into making this, hear me, psycho?¡± Just after he said that she could hear the shocked voice of a maid outside followed by hasty footsteps. ¡°Oh my god, young master, young miss, are you alright? What was that crash just now?¡± ¡°Che¡­¡±, seemingly not wanting to stick around with an audience he turned around and left. Robin was sure he would be back.
The Pacific Ocean
¡°Why did I agree to this?¡±, Brian Eden grumbled for the umpteenth time. He silently cursed himself for falling into the pace of the captain. He had gotten a call from his superior asking him to meet the guy and before he knew it here he was. In a boat miles off the coast of the Pacific ocean staring at a monitor with a headset on his head connected to the twenty divers that were a few hundred meters underwater heading towards the underwater tunnel where their comrades had disappeared not 36 hours ago. Luckily he hadn¡¯t been asked to go down there with them. He would have flat out refused. He had no experience whatsoever in diving and didn¡¯t think it would do the situation any good to have a newbie down there. But that wasn¡¯t what the captain had in mind anyways. After all he was most effective up here where he could talk to them. He was close enough for his signal to go through and give them life advice depending on the situation. Good thing you couldn¡¯t talk underwater. Eden sat in a room below deck. In front of him several screens were lined up, two of which showed the divers while two others were for him to work on. Behind him another soldier was sitting in front of a similar set-up. He called up information from the game on both. He muted his line to the divers for a moment and looked over his shoulder to the soldier behind him. Noticing his gaze the woman who seemed to be in her early 30s nodded at him and muted her line as well before dialling a number. ¡°Sergeant. Report, how do things look?¡± It was Captain Morgan. After the scouting incident last time his superior the Colonel had apparently decided the course of action afterwards. Thus various marine biologists as well as he himself had been asked to participate in the investigation. Morgan himself was overseeing another group of soldiers that were still searching the area a few miles east from here. All fishing spots in the vicinity had been closed temporarily but they had a time limit for how long they could close the area without revealing the truth. And the truth was an unknown carnivore sea monster had appeared in the area. If it became public then the small illusion of order that had finally started returning to the world after the earthquake be blown apart once more, causing a panic. They couldn¡¯t let that happen. ¡°Sergeant Cruz reporting, according to the GPS I get they nearly arrived. Nothing particular so far. Over.¡± He kept his eyes on the monitors all the while. ¡°Very well. Continue your observation. Next report when the target is visible.¡± ¡°Understood.¡± With that the sergeant ended her report and they both turned their lines to the divers back on. At no point had both of them averted their eyes from the screen. They knew well that the life of the divers down there could be in danger if they overlooked something.
In Firchten
Zayvin was rushing towards the plaza where she had heard Suitcase would be organizing the players¡¯ movements. Somehow or another he had proven to be the most charismatic and practical one of the bunch who had quickly adapted to the situation. And the players had naturally decided to follow him and ask for his advice. She felt bad about what she¡¯d have to ask him but she didn¡¯t see any other realistic options. She needed someone whom she could somehow talk to and that was that. She flew there as fast as she could. She had crossed the whole length of the city in only a minute and prepared to land on the plaza. A few smaller groups of players were standing around it. She spotted Suitcase in one of them, pointing somewhere and gesticulating as he explained his intention to them. Zayvin folded her wings closely to her body without slowing, making her seem like a black blur rather than a person that descended towards the plaza like a bullet. She only opened her wings at the very last moment to decelerate enough to not lose any health from the landing. *Boom* With a loud sound she landed next to the speechless players, causing the ground to shake lightly and creating a indentation in the floor. The wind she had created by her stunt was whipping up a huge dust cloud, reducing visibility greatly. Some of the players had seen the black blur descending and were now starting to shout. ¡°What¡¯s happening again? Is it a bomb?¡± ¡°What¡¯s with this cloud¡­ did some more debris fall?¡± Confusion was clear in the voices. But Zayvin ignored them all. Making use of the confusion she quickly approached Suitcase¡¯s group and pulled him away. ¡°Uwaa, what??¡±, he resisted lightly and turned around to look who or what was pulling him. ¡°Oh, Zayvin, it¡¯s just you¡­ don¡¯t shock me like that please¡­ I thought my heart would stop.¡± ¡°S-sorry¡­ but c-could you come with me for a second¡­ p-please.¡± ¡°Huh? I need to find out what¡¯s going on here¡­¡± ¡°Ah, t-that cloud¡­ was me¡­ sorry¡­ so¡­¡±, Zayvin was embarrassed at herself. Obviously he wouldn¡¯t just come with her like that if she caused such a ruckus in the plaza. Anyone would be confused by it¡­ ¡°Huh? Ah¡­ really? Then it¡¯s nothing dangerous?¡± The dust slowly cleared as they talked and more and more loud voices could be heard calling for someone or asking for an explanation. ¡°Hika¡­ I mean Suitcase! Where¡¯d you run off to, huh?¡±, the shout of his sister could be heard as well. Zayvin just shyly shrunk back and pulled on his shirt, trying to make him understand she wanted to leave asap. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Suitcase was troubled and didn¡¯t know what to do. Then he looked down at her and saw her desperate expression and came to a decision. ¡°Guys, everything is fine! It was just some debris! I¡¯ll be back in a few moments, got it?¡±, he simply shouted. Then he grabbed Zayvins arm and pulled her along with him towards the outside of the city. ¡°Is the library fine?¡±, he asked her as they went. Zayvin simply followed him with a surprised expression. He had suggested the library to talk since it was the closest place to sit and talk that could be accessed publicly. ¡°Ah¡­ yes¡­ b-but¡­ is it alright? T-the others¡­¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine. I told them I¡¯d leave for a second, right?¡± With that they went through a small gate and went down a long flight of stairs. Now they were standing in the underground grand library of Firchten. This place was like a second home to Zayvin. She had loved reading when she was small so naturally as soon as she had discovered there was a library in the game, the game where she could see, she had holed herself up in here at every chance she got. She stared up at the meter long book cases that were lined row on row on the floor. This was the general section of the library. She could see a barrier above the cases that slightly rippled the space it covered, making it seem like the surface was made of water. Only devils with a special magical permit could enter through it. You could see hundreds of bookcases floating around chaotically in the area beyond it. Suitcase and Zayvin headed towards the right, where various tables with dividers were located for people working in groups and sat down at a suitable one. ¡°So what happened? You wanted to make sure of something, right? ¡°Ah, yes that is¡­¡± Zayvin made sure no one had followed them and then started explaining the situation. Suitcase was a good listener. He stopped her every now and then to ask some questions but otherwise let her talk. In the end she had told him everything that happened in the meeting with the Lord. Towards the end her stuttering also got better. Maybe she was getting used to talking to him a tiny bit? ¡°so that¡¯s why¡­ I-I need someone to come along¡­ with me.¡±, she concluded and looked up at him. ¡°Suitcase, y-you¡¯re the only one I¡¯ve talked to here, s-so¡­ c-could I¡­ ask you¡­¡± ¡°Just a second, Zayvin. Before that I need to make sure of a few things. At those words Zayvin seemed to shrink into her chair, but she nodded, motioning him to go on. ¡°So that NPC says the link to reality we logged in from is gone, meaning we can¡¯t log out... it doesn¡¯t make any sense to me. This is a game that simply gets projected directly into our consciousness. How would it keep us from logging out? It stops working once you cut the power. Sure, you might be dizzy and feel sick if you get forcefully logged out but it¡¯s not possible to keep us in.¡± ¡°I-I don¡¯t know¡­ but¡­¡±, Zayvin answered, ¡°it¡¯s true nobody got out for hours, r-right? Shouldn¡¯t there have been¡­ at least 2 or 3 people to get kicked off?¡± ¡°That¡¯s true¡­¡± In the first meeting the players had divided into groups. If any of their members had been logged out the rest of the group would have reported it to the others. They also hadn¡¯t heard anything from Furan so it wasn¡¯t really hard to convince Suitcase the possibility was worth looking into. ¡°Its also¡­ always better if we look into it too much than too little¡­ right?¡± Zayvins voice was quiet like a mouse. She wasn¡¯t used to convincing people of anything so she had just told him her thoughts truthfully. ¡°I see¡­ yea, that¡¯s true¡­¡±, Suitcase trailed off as he thought about what to do. Zayvin simply waited quietly. She had also needed a lot of time to work everything out in her head so she didn¡¯t plan to rush him. ¡°You said the messenger leaves today, right?¡± ¡°Y-yes.¡± ¡°When?¡± ¡°I-in a few hours¡­ he told me to come to the castle whenever I was ready.¡± ¡°Alright¡­ I¡¯ll need some time to properly think this over¡­ Until then could leave all the preparations to you? I will leave a message at the inn when I decided. You¡¯re staying there, right? Is that fine?¡± ¡°Ah¡­ yes¡­ I am and that¡¯s fine. T-thank you.¡± With that she got up and bowed towards him to show her gratitude and said her farewell for now. ¡°I-I will go get things ready now then¡­¡± ¡°Please do¡­ also, Zayvin?¡± ¡°Y-yes?¡± ¡°Thanks for asking me.¡±, he smiled at her with that crooked smile that was typical for him. ¡°N-no, thank you for listening to my selfishness¡­¡± ¡°Haha, see you later, Zai!¡± At that Zayvin nearly fell down right there, that¡¯s how surprised she was. Zai? Apparently he had read her mind as he quickly laughed again and explained. ¡°A nickname. Don¡¯t like it?¡± ¡°N-no, I like it¡­ a lot¡­ th-thanks.¡± ¡°Great!¡± With that they waved one last time and then Zayvin headed back outside. She would need to get a lot of things now that she couldn¡¯t use the things in her inventory anymore. 4 hours later she wiped away her sweat as she wrapped up the last item she had bought. She went over the items in her head again to make sure she had everything. She had obviously had to compromise on many items. She couldn¡¯t bring anything that would restrict her movements so the size and quantity of items was limited. She had bought a few backpacks and cast some simply void magic to them. Void magic was simply put a power that affected space itself. So she effectively enlarged the space inside compared to the outside. At first she had failed a lot since the skill was new to her and actually made one of her backpacks explode but eventually she had gotten the hang of the magic she had learned just recently and stacked the magic up multiple times. Permanently casting magic like this had cost her an enormous amount of mana and concentration though so she had used a lot of recovery items. But in the end the result was worth it. This alone had cost her two hours. But with these bags she had been able to pack provisions and necessities for two people for more than a month into two backpacks. Luckily a player¡¯s money was stored in a pouch outside the inventory so she hadn¡¯t had any trouble buying everything. She had even bought a change of clothes. It was a necessary expense since her old battle clothing was lost. She also bought some protective items for Suitcase while she was at it. Thus she took one bag into each hand and made her way back towards the inn. Maybe, just maybe Suitcase had already left a message for her there.
While you wait... check for my writing progress as well as interesting bits about my world here I''ve also added a few sketches of how i imagined my world and some characters
[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Next Chapter[/col][/box] Chapter 18 - The journey begins! Here I go again muhahahaha.... Ooooo! Over 1.000 average views! Tht is until I posted this. XD So to celebrate I just HAD to getthis chapter ready for you guys today, even at the cost of my addiction! The pace is picking up a little now, action incoming! Thank you for reading through the more quiet chapters with me m (_ _) m (<- a bowing person) Now lets get this started! Please enjoy!~~ ############################################### ¡°Miss Robin!¡±, the maid came rushing into the room. ¡°Are you alright?¡± ¡°Ah yes¡­ p-please don¡¯t worry about me.¡± ¡°Oh my, what happened here? I¡¯m so sorry. The young master had insisted he take your meal to you in person. To think it got destroyed like this¡­ I shall go arrange for a new tray right away¡­¡± ¡°No, please wait. I-I am sorry, this happened because of me¡­ the good food.¡± ¡°No, miss, please don¡¯t worry about it. But it will take a while for us to remake this¡­¡± ¡°Would you please help me over there?¡±, Robin insisted and had the maid lead her to where her brother had dropped the food. Then she kneeled down onto the floor and picked up the half broken plate. It had been cleanly split in half by the fall. Only the glass of water and the teapot had completely burst into pieces. ¡°Are there¡­ any splinters in it?¡±, she asked. ¡°Miss, you can¡¯t mean to¡­¡± ¡°Please¡­ are there?¡± The maid sighed deeply and answered ¡°No¡± after she inspected it carefully before interjecting ¡°however, I cannot allow the young miss to eat something like this!¡± ¡°W-what are you saying! I will get mad! Everyone¡­ worked hard to make this for me, right? H-how can I let it go to waste like this.¡± Robin insisted and promptly started eating. ¡°Miss Robin!¡±, the maid didn¡¯t know if she should be shocked or happy¡­ but in the end she decided herself for shocked. But Robin didn¡¯t seem to listen to her as she continued eating. Right. This was her place.
Firchten, the palace
¡°I just received word from your escort. Have you prepared yourself?¡± ¡°Yes, milord. Amelie is ready to go anytime.¡± The Lord sat in his throne room that had now been cleared of any signs of blood and medicine, returning it back to its former glory. In front of him kneeled a young devil with long white hair braided tightly starting from each of her round horns and ending in two long braids reaching to her chest. She had bright yellow eyes like a cat and her wings were a dark red. She didn¡¯t have a tail or it wasn¡¯t visible under her short robe. She wore a white blouse with a dark red vest over it along with pair of red short baggy trousers. Over that she wore a black short cloak that reached to her knees. For some reason she addressed herself in third person. ¡°Good. You are the most trustworthy person among my subjects I can afford to send. Please forgive this Lord for burdening you to this extent.¡± ¡°Your majesty! Please do not worry about such things. It is necessary and Amelie will not fail this task. In fact Amelie is honored the Lord has deemed her worthy of such responsibility. Besides¡­¡±, she smirked gleefully, ¡°your majesty had mentioned that a Lilith¡¯s Child called Zayvin would be her escort. Amelie is very happy to hear that.¡± ¡°Oh?¡±, the Lord raised his eyebrows questioningly, ¡°It seems you know her, Amelie?¡± ¡°Yes! That is because she was Amelie¡¯s pupil!¡± [A few hours later] Zayvin was standing in front of the palace. She was alone. She had talked with Suitcase again and he had decided it would be better for everyone if he stayed here. She was disappointed. Very disappointed but¡­ she could understand it to some extent. Firstly anyone would hesitate to go on a long journey they don¡¯t know will be useful at all with a stranger they just met. Secondly¡­ if the link was truly gone and robbed them of everything the system provided then that might imply players could die for real now. She could understand he didn¡¯t want to risk death outside. Devils would die after all if they were exposed to the sun for more than 45 minutes. The danger was even higher since they were also being hunted like monsters by the other races. And lastly¡­ he would have to leave his sister here. There was no way for him to risk her life by taking her along, nor did he want to leave her here. He was also the unofficial leader of the players here, so he needed to take responsibility for them. He had however promised that he would try preparing the others to travel towards the new link if the peace treaty was accepted. This meant that she was on her own on this. While she was in thoughts like this, someone had come up behind her and seeing as she had been lost in her own world they decided to¡­ hug her with all their might! ¡°Uwaaa?¡±, she jolted up from her thoughts instantly and jumped from the surprise before she heard their voice. ¡°Zayyyy~vinnnn!¡±, Amelie sang gleefully. ?Wa wa wa... M-master??¡° ?Heeeyyyy... Zayvin, didn¡¯t we agree you wouldn¡¯t call Amelie that anymore? You graduated, you know? You¡¯re stronger than Amelie, you knowww? You need to be punished~¡± With that Amelie abused her position and thoroughly started groping Zayvin¡¯s chest. ¡°Huuuh, uwaaaah, w-where are you touching¡­. Nnngaaah! S-stop it pleaseee¡­. A-amelieee!¡± ¡°Fufufu, it¡¯s good that you understand. Amelie shall let you go this time.¡± She stopped groping her and backed off a little to allow Zayvin to calm down and face her. With a flushed face she thus turned around and looked at the perpetrator half embarrassed and half happy. ¡°A-amelie! I-it¡¯s good to see you were alright!¡± This time it was Zayvin¡¯s turn to hug the girl. She was truly happy to see her. After all this was the devil who has first introduced magic to her in this world. She would always hold a special place in Zayvin¡¯s heart. ¡°Ufufufufu¡­ the earthquake? There is no way such a thing could hurt Amelie! But Amelie is also happy that you seem healthy!¡± ¡°Hehehe¡­ is that so? So why are you here?¡±, she couldn¡¯t stop herself from being curious. ¡°Araaa? Oooh, could it be he hasn¡¯t told you?¡±, she was stunned for a second but then a mischevious grin spread on her face. ¡°The one you are going to escort is Amelie~!¡± ¡°R-really?¡± The uneasiness that she had felt ever since Suitcase had rejected to come along slowly disappeared. If it was Amelie then it was fine. That was how she felt. Because she fully trusted this devil. She thought back to a few years ago¡­ ¡±AMELIE HATES YOU! AMELIE HATES EVERYONE WHO MESSES UP HER HOUSE!!! GET OUT NOW!!¡± she shouted, emitting an enormous amount of magical power. Zayvin had been practicing hard to overcome the last hurdle of her training with the devil. That was to ¡®create¡¯ a skill herself. She couldn¡¯t always rely on books to learn skills so she had to learn it. As a result¡­ she accidentally blew up half the training room when she succeeded. ¡°Waaaaah!¡± both Zayvin sensed the massive amount of mana building up and quickly left. What she didn¡¯t notice was that there had been tears in Amelie¡¯s eyes. She ran upstairs and out the door, took to the air and flew away for her life. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. Back in her basement Amelie had collapsed to her knees and was crying silently, her power nowhere left to be found. She had managed to clear the last hurdle. There was now no reason for her to stay anymore so she had chosen the easiest way and chased her out. ¡®So lonely¡­.¡¯ Just a few minutes later Zayvin had returned, obviously having seen through the scheme of her master to take the easy way out of the goodbye. After that Amelie had become her first NPC friend in the game. ¡°So¡­ are you ready, Zai?¡± Zayvin smiled brightly at the prospect of traveling with her old master. If it was with her she could make up her determination and do this, even without another player. ¡°Yes!¡± ¡°Then let¡¯s move out! Operation peace treaty start!¡± With those words Amelie confidently grew out her wings and took off. Zayvin quickly put on her backpack and followed after her and soon they left the vicinity of the city. But after just a few minutes Zayvin realized the first problem. ¡°Ah, Amelie! Stop! That was is wrong!¡± ¡°Hm? What are you talking about? I always fly out this way, you kn-AGUYA!¡± *BOOM* Amelie had completely relied on her memory to navigate through the labyrinth-like cavern system and had looked back carelessly. Thus she had magnificently flown into the wall of a dead end with full force. ¡°Amelie!! Are you okay?¡± Zayvin quickly cleared off the dust around the area with some wind magic and found the girl lying on the ground unconscious. For the impact to have been that strong¡­ but¡­ Lord¡­ was it really alright to send her for this?¡¯, Zayvin couldn¡¯t help but wonder as she spread a blanket on the floor and lay the messenger down on it in a safe position. No choice but to stay here until she woke up. Considering the happenings soon after this, their small accident would prove to be a blessing in disguise¡­ as well as a curse.
Back in reality
. Robin¡¯s grandmother sat down in her work chair and rubbed her forehead with her fingers. She had tried hard to overlook it but today had been the last straw. Her patience and goodwill had been used up. She had Severus call her granddaughter to her the next moment. ¡°Grandmother, good evening.¡± Robin greeted as she entered the room. ¡°Stay there.¡± Not bothering to return the greeting she ordered her to stay standing. ¡°Yes.¡± Robin sat down and the butler went back outside to leave them to their conversation. ¡°Until now I have taken care of you. Because that is what your parents wanted and also because that is what society considers the duty of blood relation.¡± Robin simply let her continue. ¡°I am sure you realize how much I emphasize independence and skills. You have neither. That is the reality. Thus you are only a burden. There the old woman paused for a moment and looked at her coldly. ¡°But to think you would lower yourself to the level of an animal¡­¡±, anger and disgust were clear in her voice. ¡°Huh?¡± A small confused voice escaped Robin at that. ¡°Oh don¡¯t try to hide it, I was told about it today, that you sold yourself to the servants. Just how barbaric and crude can you get? I do not consider animals part of my family in any way. You are to leave the house at this moment. Pack your things and go.¡± With that she considered the affair to be over but the next moment. ¡°Grandmother, I¡­¡± Of course Robin had done no such thing and tried to tell her but¡­ ¡°Have you forgotten human language now? I made myself quite clear, did I not? Leave now before I call someone to drag you out. One more word and I shall throw you out. How despicable¡­¡± Not able to bear her words any longer Robin simply lowered her head and turned to leave. ¡°G-goodbye, grandmother.¡± Then she went outside the room, unable to hold back the tears in her eyes. Not willing to let anyone see her like this she didn¡¯t wait for anyone to come by and relied on her memory to navigate back to her room. So she had been given up. Her family had abandoned her now. She couldn¡¯t go back to the hospital either since she had no way to get there. Neither did she have any money to pay for treatment. The truth slowly made its way into her heart. The punishment her grandmother had given her was the death sentence. And they both knew it. Robin closed the door to her room behind herself and slowly slit down the door frame, unable to keep standing anymore. ¡°Uuuuuh¡­¡±, she couldn¡¯t hold back anymore and cried without restraint. She cried all the tears she held back until now, over everything that she had been made to endure up unto this last bit. She still couldn¡¯t completely accept that her grandmother truly believed she would do such a thing as selling herself. What reason would she have to do that? And who would tell her something unreasonable like this? But she didn¡¯t have time to think about this right now. But what should she do then? From now on what should she do? What should she do to survive? She started to panic. ¡°NO!! You cant, if you panic everything is over. Think. Think, Zayvin! I know you can do it!¡± The words her master in game had told her suddenly came to mind and she barely managed to calm herself a little thanks to that. That¡¯s right, she couldn¡¯t panic. If she lost her head then everything was over. She needed to keep thinking. She didn¡¯t care if this was reality or not but decided to still act as she would in the game. She hadn¡¯t been able to stand on her own feet in the real world. Truthfully life had been too easy for her. Due to her illness people had always insisted on doing things for her. But now she needed to live herself. But the only way she knew how to do that was what she had learned in the game. But that was the only chance she had. So her decision was her only possibility. Her mind started working as she decided this. Right. She had been dropped somewhere without eyes and her stats and level had been reset to one. ¡®Let¡¯s go with that.¡¯, she decided. Her HP wasn¡¯t full and she didn¡¯t have anything that belonged to her. ¡°Ah¡­¡± That was wrong¡­ She did own something¡­ A smile spread across her face. It was almost as if she discovered a missing puzzle piece as a plan formed in her head. Right. She could survive. No. She would survive. Definitley.
While you wait... check for my writing progress as well as polls and tidbits about my story here I''ve also added a few sketches of how i imagined my world and some characters
[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Next Chapter[/col][/box] Chapter 19 - Awakening Haihai, Mono here! Another new chapter it is! This one actually has some action! Everyone is overjoyed now! fufufufu... Its a bit of an evil chapter but I still hope you like it~ Thank you very much to Dan and Nox-sempai for PRing it for me and pointing out mistakes I made :D #################################
WARNING: This chapter contains a lot of gore and such¡­ please read at your own discretion!
¡°Ugh¡­¡± When the pain had started she had excused herself from the others and hurried towards the basement she had created for this very purpose. Hours later she was still lying on the rough, cold ground of black stone in the darkness. The pain had grown so intense she couldn¡¯t stop herself from panting and groaning every few breaths. It was random where it would strike so she couldn¡¯t even prepare herself for it. As a new wave of pain started assaulting her head she thrashed around and dug her fingers into the ground before screaming and curling her body into a ball. She couldn¡¯t keep herself from hugging her throbbing head. As expected¡­ her spirit couldn¡¯t adapt to this new body¡­ the pain was necessary. It was natural. That¡¯s what she told herself. After all her spirit was now reconstructing it. Little by little. This was just the beginning. She had expected it, she had braced herself for it. It would be days more before it would stop. The intensity would only increase, yet¡­ ¡°IT ****ING HURTS, **** ********¡± Somehow the cursing had relieved her a little¡­. For a second that is. Until the pain came back even stronger. In the next few hours she cursed everything. Herself, this world, the traveller who had created this body and the ones who had caused her to be in this situation. Especially the latter. She would get her revenge against them, against this world. She clawed at the ground, punched at it with everything she had. She screamed, she cried and finally she pleaded but obviously the pain didn¡¯t stop. She herself knew best it wouldn¡¯t. She was unsure exactly how much time had passed. At one point she had stopped thinking and gave in to the pain and rage. The pain in her body made her groan, but this pain was different from the earlier one. Sharper. She looked down at herself and saw what caused it. There were countless wounds on her body. Deep dirty scratches spread out on nearly every part of her. Her hand wandered up towards her head only to find a huge laceration on her forehead. No wonder blood was flowing into her eyes. Apparently she had banged her head on the walls, repeatedly from what she felt. She was a bloody mess. She forced herself to get up and look around. What she saw caused her to chuckle. Somehow the space she had created for her transformation had doubled in size. Rocks and debris lay all around her. Various deep claw marks were spread over the ground and walls and small craters occupied the space between them. And there was blood. Quite a lot of it. ¡°Kukukuku¡­. Seems I made quite a mess¡­¡± Her voice was broken and scratchy. It came out as nothing more but a whisper and it hurt just to use it. But still she smiled. Her lips curled into a cruel grin. It was over. This body now truly belonged to her. ¡°Just you wait¡­ I¡¯m coming for you¡­ kukukuku¡­ HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!¡± Not caring about the pain in her throat she laughed uncontrollably, her voice echoing off the walls of the room.
A ravine below Firchten
*BANG* Behind a wall something was repeatedly bashing against the stone. *BANG* Cracks spread through the wall and small pieces of stone fell from it. There was a small break in the banging as the shadow smiled gleefully at the sight of the cracks. It stepped back carefully to get more momentum. It had awoken due to the strong earthquake. After it regained its consciousness from its long slumber it had found itself trapped within a small space. Angry at being enclosed there its bloodshot eyes had scanned the walls of the place. It moved over towards the opposite wall and confirmed its suspicions. It sensed a large empty space behind it. There was probably food there. It felt truly starved after the long hibernation. Food¡­ It had started destroying the wall after that for several hours until now. It started towards the wall as fast as it could. Determined, it slammed its body against the wall with full force one last time. *BOOM* With a huge noise it broke through. The force made it shoot out of the natural jail like a bullet. The gargoyle quickly spread its wings to stabilize itself and howled loudly, overflowing with bloodthirst. It could smell food. Its scream easily echoed up the bottomless ravine it was in up to the city of Firchten. *** ¡°But what if¡­¡±, Suitcase started but got stopped as he heard the howl from afar. ¡°W-what was that?¡±, Hinami whirled around towards the sound, completely forgetting that she had just been in the middle of a conversation with him. ¡°I don¡¯t know¡­ but it sounded bad¡­¡±, Suitcase next to her had gone pale as well and stared towards the outskirts of the city. They heard the howl again, closer than before. This time, however, it was followed by terrified screams. Apparently, whatever made such monstrous sounds had reached the city. ¡°S-shit! Hinami! Go get the others! I¡¯ll go check it out!¡± ¡°No, I¡¯m coming along!¡± ¡°Hinami! We need to regroup!¡± ¡°B-but¡­¡± ¡°GO!¡± Suitcase pushed her towards the plaza and quickly took off towards the source of the screams. Someone needed to scout out what was happening. Thus he entrusted his sister with the task to gather the others for now. He knew she usually put up a strong front but in situations like this she would easily freeze up. He didn¡¯t even consider flying there. He wasn¡¯t good with using the controller and didn¡¯t think he could be stealthy enough in case he needed to get away fast. So he ran. Once he got close to the screams he swiftly climbed up a small house and worked his way ahead over the rooftops more carefully. ¡°NOOOOO! Stay away from me!¡± A shrill shriek echoed up from just below on the street and he could hear hurried footsteps of a woman. He bit back the urge to simply jump down and help her and carefully pulled himself closer to the edge of the building to see what was going on. Once he could see below him horror spread over his face. It was a gargoyle. It stood at least 10 meters tall and measured 15 meters from head to tail and had stone grey skin. Only its yellow glowing eyes were a different colour and screamed hunger and blood thirst. A single horn was growing out of its forehead and its ears were pointy, but not longer than a human¡¯s. His snout was huge and went over to huge fangs that lined his mouth. Huge wings grew out of its back and shadowed his long tail that ended in a spiked club. Dangerous looking claws grew out if its hand and feet, completing the picture of a high level monster. ¡®Shit¡­¡¯, Suitcase thought. If he remembered right gargoyles were at least Lvl 100. One this size should be even higher than that. Plus, judging from the tail this wasn¡¯t a normal gargoyle¡­ A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. It had closed in on the woman and was now about to attack. What should he do? Should he help her? Deep fear spread in his guts and made him unable to move. He was scared. He was hesitating now that he was faced with real danger. The fighting spirit and blood lust of the monster pierced into him mercilessly. So all he could do is watch in horror as the monster closed in on the helplessly fleeing woman. Her wings seemed to be broken so she couldn¡¯t fly away. Even if she did the gargoyle would probably have caught her either way. Tears of desperation were flowing down her cheeks as she cried for help hysterically. ¡°Anybody¡­. Please¡­! UAAAAAHHH!!¡± The gargoyle¡¯s eyes flashed in certain victory and swung its claws, tearing into her back without hesitation. Suitcase watched horrified as blood gushed out and the gargoyle split her in half. Before her body could even fall to the ground the monster had caught hold of both halves and brought them towards its face. Then it opened its snout and started tearing into her hungrily, not caring about the blood that was dripping down its chin. ¡®More¡­ MORE¡­ I¡¯M HUNGRY¡­ HUNGRY!!!¡¯ The gargoyle had tossed aside its thoughts and had lost itself in the hunt. Its craving for flesh grew stronger and stronger, pushing back any logic it might have had left. Suitcase could just stare in shock, unable to move at all as the monster raised its head and sniffed loudly, trying to locate its next prey. Then it slowly turned its head and looked straight at him. It screamed a bloodcurling battle cry and leapt up towards him. The stare of the monster had broken through his state of shock and suddenly he was able to move again. Quickly he scrambled away from the roof and allowed himself to fall from the edge on the other side of the building. The monster was hot on his heels. Just a second after he had moved it landed heavily on the spot where he had just been, claws destroying the tiles of the roof underneath him as it let out another roar. The hunt was on. Hikaru landed on all fours on the street below and rolled, then he scrambled up and ran. But his speed was no match for the gargoyle. With just a leap it was right behind him. One more and he would be dead. Just then he had reached the edge of the building and threw himself behind it, into the small space between this building and the next, hoping he could somehow pass through to stall the monster. That was a mistake. It was a dead end. ¡°Sh-shit!!¡± He squeezed in as far as he could but the space got too small for him to pass eventually. ¡°ROAR!¡± The monster had slithered past the entrance due to its momentum, but with a leap it was already back in front of the small alley, cutting off his escape route. It reached inside with its long arm but couldn¡¯t reach him so it opted to destroy the buildings to get to its prey. Just then¡­ ¡°KYAAAA! H-HIKARU!!!¡± That voice was¡­. his sister!! She followed him after all!! ¡°H-HINAMI!! RUN!!!¡± He shouted desperately but it was too late. After she saw what happened his sister had bravely picked up a random long piece of wood and now beat against the monster, trying to stop it from reaching her brother. She succeeded. The gargoyle turned around and roared at her, sure his other prey wouldn¡¯t be able to escape even if it had another snack beforehand. ¡°U-uaa!¡±, Hinami let out a scared sound when it turned towards her. She stumbled backwards and fell, dropping her wooden plank in the process. ¡°Aaah¡­ aaah¡­¡±, she sat there shivering uncontrollably, unable to move or get up at all. ¡°HINAMI!!! NO!!¡± Suitcase tried to move desperately, this time towards the monster, completely forgetting his fear just a moment ago. Not her! Everything but her! But he was stuck. He had managed to trap himself between the walls and couldn¡¯t move at all. The monster roared hungrily and licked its lips in anticipation. But instead of leaping at her it simply raised one of its claws at her. ¡°N-no¡­ p-please¡­ b-brother¡­.¡± Hinami pleadingly stretched out her arm towards him, silently asking him to help her. But no matter how hard he tried he couldn¡¯t get out. ¡°HINAMIII! DON¡¯T YOU TOUCH HER!!!¡± Suddenly black flames formed in its hand and not even a second later Hinami screamed. It was a scream so full of pain that it froze the blood in Suitcase¡¯s veins. ¡°HINAMIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!¡± Tears flowed from his eyes as he screamed desperately. The worst part was that he could see everything from here. Flames enveloped her, burning her slowly. She thrashed around as she screamed, trying to put out the flames by rolling on the ground but it was no use. Moments later she grew quiet and lay still. She was dead. ¡°No¡­. NOOOOO!!! HINAMIIII! *hic*¡± The gargoyle snickered and reached out to pick up the burned body. ¡°GET YOUR HANDS OFF HER!!¡±, Suitcase screamed angrily but of course the monster paid him no mind and devoured the body greedily. He made a sick crunching noise every time he ripped out some meat from her body. The sound would stay to haunt him for decades to come. ¡°Hinami¡­¡± Somehow his fighting spirit vanished completely and turned into a feeling of helplessness. Helplessness and anger. Anger at himself for not protecting his sister. Anger at himself for just watching as two people died before his eyes. He loathed himself. He was pathetic. A weakling and a coward. He gritted his teeth and knocked his forehead on the wall in front of him. Someone like him didn¡¯t deserve to be alive when his sister wasn¡¯t. ¡°Hinami¡­¡±, only a whisper escaped him now while tears were rolling down his face. The gargoyle had nearly finished devouring her now. It would come for him soon. He knew it. And he accepted it. This was the end. But at least they would go together.
While you wait... check for my writing progress as well as interesting bits about my world here I''ve also added a few sketches of how i imagined my world and some characters
[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5] Next Chapter [/col][/box] Chapter 20 - Emptiness Oooooookay, here I am again! Sorry for the slightly longer than usual wait, school is up with exams in its full glory! Which means i might be a bit slower than usual the next few weeks! But do not despair! Have an extra long chapter! Pleas enjoy! Also thank you to Dan for PRing for me, you are amazing! ##################### Zayvin¡¯s head snapped up. She heard something. It was faint so she wasn¡¯t very sure. A howl? Was it the wind? She tilted her head and concentrated on her ears. There it was again! That didn¡¯t sound like the wind! Especially since it didn¡¯t seem to come from outside but from the city¡­ She looked down at Amelie. She was still unconscious. This area was still within the safe zone so no monsters appeared here. Plus they were on top of a small cliff without any way for the nearby monsters to get up. In the proximity of the city there weren¡¯t any monsters that could fly or climb up this far. None that were aggressive that is. So she quickly decided to check what was happening. Judging from the collision Amelie probably wouldn¡¯t wake up for a while and she was starting to become restless herself since she had nothing to do but wait. Thus she covered Amelie with a blanket carefully and left a small note that she would be back soon scratched into the dirt of the cavern wall next to her bag. She decided to leave her luggage here after securing it with a simple binding spell. Magic was a really fascinating thing. Once you grasped the basics on how to make proper use of it you could do almost anything as long as you could picture it in your mind. Of course you also needed the concentration and some flexible thinking to reach the desired effect. All of this only applied if you did not use the system to assist you in spellcasting though. The first hurdle was to convert your mana into the right type of magic. Some types of magic felt fierce and uncontrollable like lightning and some felt soft and fluffy like a small kitten. Of course you didn¡¯t physically feel the magic, you felt it with your spirit. For beginners it was a very faint sensation that grew more and more intense the more they practiced their magic. For the binding spell Zayvin called up a robust and heavy type of magic. It was a combination of wind and earth magic that would keep small animals out of her luggage and alert her if anyone touched it. It also greatly increased its weight so thieves would have a hard time carrying off her things. It was very handy. After she was done she quickly grew out her wings and stood at the edge of the cliff and leaned forward until she fell over the edge off the cliff. She spread her wings as she fell, concentrated her energy in her legs and pushed herself off the wall with all her might, catapulting herself forward towards the city. 5 minutes later she was over the city and looking around to see where the commotion came from. It didn¡¯t take long for her to find people fleeing from the eastern part of the city. Thus she did the logical thing and flew east. ¡°No¡­. NOOOOO!!! HINAMIIII!¡± She heard a desperate shout from close by¡­ that voice¡­ Suitcase? Without thinking she headed towards the rough location it came from. ¡°GET YOUR HANDS OFF HER!!¡± ¡®Over there!¡¯, she thought and slightly corrected her course. She floated over the city nd surveyed the area, but couldn¡¯t find him anywhere. Where was it? Her heart was pounding urgently in her chest¡­ somehow she felt she had to hurry or it¡¯d be too late. She heard a faint crunching noise and turned towards it but her vision was obstructed by the buildings. While she was still hesitating wether to head towards it she heard a loud inhuman shriek followed by a loud noise like shattering glass. She pushed back her hesitation and flew towards the source of the noise. It wasn¡¯t very hard to spot. It seemed to be a gargoyle, a huge grey winged monster that was destroying some buildings. What was a gargoyle, a high level monster, doing here?? Stunned, Zayvin could just stare at it for a moment. Worry spread inside her. What if another one of those was around? Was Amelie safe? About to curse and fly back towards her old master right away, she suddenly heard a pained scream from below. ¡°Uwaaah!!¡± It was Suitcase. Without thinking she dived straight down towards the gargoyle, performed a spin mid-air and kicked it straight into its jaw, causing it to stagger backwards a few steps. The recoil was huge and Zayvin herself tumbled against one of the still standing walls of the buildings before she could steady herself. The gargoyle had really gone all out. The impact had caused her to fall onto the floor between the buildings and into the dirt and debris caused by the rampage of the monster. The scene around her was one of destruction. Not minding it at all she forced herself not to look for Suitcase for now and quickly gathered some magic power in her hands. She concentrated and constructed a weak barrier to stall for some time. Without a weapon the type and strength of magic she could cast was greatly reduced. So she quickly grabbed a small nearby piece of sharp debris and stabbed it into her own arm, causing blood to flow out. In the meantime the gargoyle had recovered from the sudden attack and was running at the barrier in a fit of rage. How dare this puny rat interrupt his meal!! It destroyed the hurriedly constructed magic in just 3 attempts and howled in triumph. ¡°Zaharon!¡±, Zayvin shouted and as expected the long slender staff formed out of her blood. Good thing it wasn¡¯t stored in her inventory¡­ Just as the gargoyle was about to lunge at her she spun the staff around, channeled magic through it and fired it at the approaching monster. It was another shield spell, a stronger one this time. In an instant all of its momentum was gone and it crashed into the invisible wall with force. Not waiting for it to recover Zayvin launched another spell from her staff, a destructive one this time. It was a combination of wind and fire magic. She combined the two and spiraled it around the dazed gargoyle, creating a flaming tornado that caused the gargoyle to howl in pain. Afterwards she called up some water magic. It wasn¡¯t her strongest magic but it would be enough to deal with the now steaming hot stone attribute monster. She showered him with ice cold water that contrasted heavily with the warmed skin of its body. And surely enough, the monster flinched and started twitching uncontrollably while wailing in pain and shielding its body. But the effects couldn¡¯t be stopped. The reaction from icy cold water touching hot stone was almost instant. Huge cracks started forming all over its body, dealing massive damage to its health. That was when Zayvin dealt the finishing blow. She ran towards the wall while gathering magic in her feet, kicked off of it to propel herself over the monster¡¯s head and cast another spell. It was a magic called ¡®Impact¡¯. It strengthened the tip of her staff with earth magic that would cause a shockwave when it came into contact with anything. So she beat her wings and dived down on its head, driving the staff into a crack in its skull. This took the tip of the iceberg, the cracks in its skin widened and shook and finally with a last desperate howl its body crumbled, leaving but a pile of rocks. She breathed a sigh of relief as she took a last look at the pile of rocks below her and then looked back towards the space between the two buildings it had tried so hard to destroy. She had desperately tried to protect that space during the fight, thus why she had used the barriers and only small scale magic. Because this was where the monster had tried to get to, so she rightfully judged that another devil was there. ¡°Kya!!¡±, she screamed involuntarily at what she saw. Indeed it was Suitcase. It seemed like he got stuck between the two walls of the building. Blood dripped down his side and slowly colored the ground red. His left arm was missing from the shoulder, it seemed she had just been a moment too late and the gargoyle had reached him and ripped off his arm. He didn¡¯t make a sound or move at all¡­ Was he dead? Quickly Zayvin forced herself to snap out of the shock from the scene before her and rushed over to him. ¡°Thank god¡­ he¡¯s still breathing.¡±, she sighed in relief as she checked his breathing and pulse and found he had only lost consciousness. Then she turned her attention towards his shoulder. A part of his shoulder and the whole of his left arm had been ripped off. Muscles were ripped and a part of his shoulder bone was sticking out of the wound. She bit back the nausea that welled up inside her while she inspected the wound and gathered some magic inside her staff. She called up some water to clean the wound. Unfortunately his arm was lost, the monster had probably eaten it, otherwise she would have been able to re-attach it. She handled his wound delicately, which took up a lot of concentration and sweat started forming on her forehead. But she didn¡¯t stop. After cleaning the wound she stopped the bleeding and closed the wound. Then her knees gave in and with a thud she plumply sat down on the floor. Her heart was racing and thoughts were flashing through her head. This kind of wound only appeared on NPCs, if players lost limbs they would either regrow after the monster had died or they would die and respawn with their body intact. But the gargoyle was dead and his arm didn¡¯t show any sign of regenerating and he was still alive. This meant the system¡¯s handling of wounds and death had stopped. Thus it was safe to assume if they died then they would stay dead. If they received a wound the wound would be permanent and only treatable with the game¡¯s¡­ no, this world¡¯s methods. Cold shivers ran down Zayvin¡¯s back. What if she hadn¡¯t showed up when she did? Suitcase would probably have died. Her friend would be dead. She had been na?ve. She had thought the players would be safe in the city while they ascertained the situation and built up some strength. But that wasn¡¯t the case. The logic she got used to in game didn¡¯t apply anymore. The gargoyle had shown that monsters didn¡¯t keep to the borders programmed for them anymore. That meant this was unknown territory. When she concluded thus her mind immediately jumped towards Amelie. Was she safe? But before she could fly back she had to make sure Suitcase was alright and would be taken care of. Just as she was getting back up she heard hurried footsteps and the clanking of metal approaching their location. ¡°It was in this area! Please hurry!¡± It seemed one of the civilians who had encountered the gargoyle had gotten help and guided the guards towards the location. The guards were soldiers employed by the lord to guard the city. But only the wingless squadrons were left in the city. All the others had been sent to scout the situation in the other villages situated in the cavern labyrinth. Great! Perfect timing! Zayvin let go of her staff, causing it to disappear back into her body. Then she ran outside of the small alley where debris lay scattered around and looked around. They seemed to be behind the other buildings on the wider street. So she quickly flapped her wings and leapt up, flying over the building that stood in her way and landed on the street below in front of the surprised guards and the small boy that was leading them. ¡°Out of the way! We need to hurry and kill the monster!¡±, one of them yelled then, trying to pass her by in a hurry. ¡°Ah, wait!¡± ¡°WHAT! There is a gargoyle rampaging! Let us through!¡± ¡°N-no that is¡­ I killed it... but¡­¡± ¡°Heh? It¡¯s dead?¡± ¡°Y-yes¡­ but¡­ ¡° ¡°What, a scrawny thing like you took care of it¡­ Not so strong after all huh? Ahahahahah!¡± One of the guards made fun of the situation, saying conceited things. ¡°T-that is¡­ someone was hurt¡­ and is stuck between some walls¡­ could you take him to the Lord, please?¡± ¡°Eh? Ah, yes, we are going to head back then. But before that¡­ Where are the gargoyle remains?¡± Zayvin stutteringly explained the location of the pile of gargoyle rock as well as where Suitcase was. The guards promised to take him back to the castle. ¡°But missy, you¡¯ll have to come along as well. We have some more questions to ask.¡± This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.One of the guards stepped forward and told her thus. He looked at her suspiciously, probably misinterpreting her shyness as the suspicious actions of a shady person. ¡°T-that is¡­ the Lord asked me to go on an urgent mission somewhere so that¡¯s a problem¡­¡± ¡°Oh, is that so?¡±, The commander squinted his eyes, clearly not believing her at all. ¡°Then we¡¯ll need your name. Also show us the documents for the mission.¡± ¡°Ah¡­ m-my name is Zayvin¡­ and I left the papers with my luggage, so¡­¡± ¡®This girl¡­ is clearly lying. This is getting ridiculous.¡¯, the guard thought and was about to have the shady girl dragged with them by force when one of his men walked up to him after noticing his intention. ¡°Boss¡­ it¡¯s suspicious but what if they are telling the truth? You¡¯d be in trouble¡­ maybe you should go along with her for now?¡± ¡°What to do¡­ I see, Zayvin, let me follow you then, I¡¯ll take a look at the document and then head back.¡± He was really suspicious of her but a mission from the Lord himself couldn¡¯t be ignored and hindering her if she was telling the truth would have ended up in himself getting punished instead so his decision was correct. He felt it was really troublesome but he had no choice. If what she said turned out to be a lie he could always apprehend her then. ¡°Guys, go gather the corpse and help that fella. Move it, will ya!¡± ¡°Yes, sir!¡± With that the rest of the guards left off towards the direction she had pointed to. The commander also thanked the boy for alerting them and then sent him off after ruffling his hair. ¡°Let¡¯s go then.¡±, he said. ¡°O-ok, we¡¯ll have to¡­ fly¡­ so excuse me¡­ for a moment.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± The alarm bells started ringing in his head. ¡°Lad, I¡¯m a wingless devil in case you haven¡¯t noticed.¡± ¡°T-that¡¯s fine¡­¡± ¡°What do you mean fi- whoa!!¡± At the end of his sentence he shouted out in surprise. Because he was floating. With full plate armor and weapon, simply floating in the air. Zayvin had cast an earth spell on him, one that negated gravity for a period of time. Coupled with a weak binding spell this would cause him to follow her while in the air. It was similar to an invisible leash made of magic. [A/N: Good doggy ^_^] ¡°Wa-wa-wa¡­ LET ME DOWN!! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU¡¯RE DOING?!¡± The guard was starting to panic and waved his limbs wildly, cursing at her and threatening to apprehend her right then. ¡°D-don¡¯t panic¡­ it¡¯s so you can follow¡­ i-is it no good?¡± ¡°Eh? Ah¡­ magic? I see¡­¡± Slowly he calmed down and understood the situation. It was apparent he didn¡¯t feel comfortable with it though. ¡°But¡­ Why didn¡¯t you warn me beforehand!??? Are you trying to make my heart stop?? Also where the hell are we going that we need to fly anyhow??¡± ¡°S-sorry¡­ I didn¡¯t¡­ think? Also¡­ outside.¡± She indeed hadn¡¯t thought about it¡­ she needed to work on her people skills more. Zayvin scolded herself quietly. Then she spread her wings and took off. ¡°R-ready?¡±, she asked quietly, making sure to get his consent this time. ¡°No, wait!! Where outside?¡± ¡°That is¡­ just before¡­ where the cocoons appear.¡± ¡°O-okay.¡± It wasn¡¯t a very dangerous area, but what worried him most was this suspicious girl. She looked like an apprentice magician so he had let down his guard and was shocked at the floating spell. How careless. This mistake wouldn¡¯t happen another time. The commanders hand rested on top of his sword, ready to activate tha magic interruption device installed on it at any time. ¡°Let¡¯s go then.¡± ¡°Yes¡­¡± With that Zayvin waved her hand, activating the binding spell and causing him to move towards her with a surprised sound. She then turned and flew towards the outside of the city once more. Her worry for Amelie was so strong she didn¡¯t even think about the condition of the poor guard that was floating behind her, crying out from time to time at the speed and out of fear of falling. ¡®How can she endure this??¡¯, he thought in awe. But after some time the guard got used to it and started enjoying the feeling of air running along his body, intruding into the spaces between his armor and the feeling of flying through the air, leaving the usual world far below your feet. Zayvin flew straight towards the small cliff she had left Amelie on and luckily she was still sleeping there undisturbed. With another wave of her hand the guard behind her also landed. Somehow despite the rejuvenating experience he got while flying he was still glad to feel the ground beneath his feet again. He let out a relieved sigh and watched as Zayvin walked towards her bag. ¡°Eh, someone else was here too? Are they sleeping?¡± He had caught sight of the improvised sleeping bag made of blankets that Amelie was rolled in in. ¡°Ah, y-yea¡­ She didn¡¯t look where she was flying¡­ and knocked herself out¡­ kind of¡­¡± ¡°Haaaaa?¡±, the guard made an unbelieving expression and shook his head in disbelief. ¡°Ah¡­ f-found it.¡± Zayvin pulled out a piece of parchment from her bag. It was rolled up and bound by a red thread, sealed with his majesty¡¯s seal. ¡°S-sorry, I can¡¯t let you open it though¡­¡±, she muttered as she brought the scroll over towards the guard. ¡°That¡¯s fine. I just need to be sure its authentic.¡± With that he pulled out a small identification device and turned it on. It was a device that could read the magic infused into items. Seals contained a type of binding magic. Usually the magic identification device would just reveal the general type of magic infused into an item, like what type of curse something was infused with. But it was different for magic seals. For seals the device would show the type of seal, the creator of the seal as well as when it was placed. The guard looked at the small magic machine and then he nodded, apparently satisfied with the result. He gave returned the scroll to her and she quickly put it back into her bag. ¡°Nguuuh¡­¡±, a moan escaped from the blanket Amelie was sleeping in, causing both of them to turn towards it. She was waking up. Zayvin quickly went over towards her and freed her from the blankets. ¡°Amelie, are you alright?¡± ¡°uuuuh¡­ Amelie is fine¡­ but Amelie¡¯s head feels like it¡¯s going to explode¡­¡± ¡°Amelie-sama?!¡± ¡°Huh? Zayvin, who¡¯s this?¡± ¡°Ah¡­ a guard¡­¡± Amelie was a very well-known person within Firchten. She was well respected because of her powerful magic at such a young age, especially since the lord had appointed her to be the mage instructor of the city. Therefore there was hardly anyone who didn¡¯t know her. ¡°W-what are you doing in a place like this, Amelie-sama?¡± ¡°Ah¡­ Amelie and her escort Zayvin are to act as messengers for his majesty but¡­ what of you?¡± ¡°Ah, Amelie, t-this guy¡­¡± Zayvin explained the situation and also added how she had doubts how such a strong monster would have come into the city this easily. ¡°I see, that is indeed true¡­ we have placed a number of barriers and redirection shields around the area but¡­ Well something like this does happen. After all our spells only ward off what¡¯s outside them. Monsters that were inside already aren¡¯t affected at all. It isn¡¯t strange for a monster that had been slumbering until now to awaken due to the earthquake¡­¡± ¡°Ah, so that¡¯s why¡­ the labyrinth changed due to the earthquake, so if it was freed by accident¡­ but¡­ there might be more of them¡­¡± ¡°Zayvin¡­ its good we found out about this and that you prevented anything further from happening¡­ but from now on Amelie suggests we leave it to his majesty. Amelie is sure he will handle it accordingly now the danger is known.¡± ¡°True¡­¡± But¡­ a cold shiver ran down Zayvin¡¯s back as she thought back to what had happened. Suitcase¡­ What would happen to him now? It wasn¡¯t clear to them at that point but with this incident a seed had been sown into Zayvin¡¯s heart. It would influence what was to happen a lot.
The black castle in Firchten
¡°Wh-where¡­¡±, a small voice escaped him before he knew it. What happened? Where was this? Who was he? ¡°Ah¡­!¡± Slowly his memories came back. Right. He was Hikaru or Suitcase. He was a player in this game but then one day an earthquake happened and now they couldn¡¯t log out. The gargoyle attacked, he tried to get away but got stuck¡­ he watched as his sister got eaten¡­ and then the gargoyle had come for him and ripped off his arm. The last thing he had seen before he blacked out was how the bloody grimace of the monster as it chewed on his arm. So¡­ Why? Wasn¡¯t he dead? Why did it hurt so much if he was dead? The pain in his head and left shoulder was still present and when he turned to look at it, his arm and half of his shoulder was missing. So he wasn¡¯t dead¡­ He lost all belief he had left that this was a game. It was too real, it was too painful. He had lost his sister. His sister was dead. Deep down he knew she was gone, but despite that he stumbled out of bed and walked towards the window of the room. He opened it and simply jumped out. He was only on the first floor so the fall wasn¡¯t great. Where exactly he had been he didn¡¯t care. He only knew it was close to the respawn area. He lost his balance as he landed and dropped squarely on his face, but that didn¡¯t matter. Suitcase pushed himself back up and stumbled towards the edge of the building. He ran onto the street and made his way towards the small curch-like building that served as a respawn location for players. If only she was there. With a loud bang he kicked open the doors but¡­ It was empty. The light reflected beautifully from the stained glass windows in the room, lighting up the desolated place, trying to give light to the souls that returned here. But instead of light Suitcase held only darkness in his heart. Instead of hope he only felt desperation¡­ and hate. He hated the gargoyle who had taken his sister away from him. He hated this city with the people that hadn¡¯t helped her at all. He hated the person that saved him and not his sister¡­ he hated them because he was still alive to feel this way. But most of all he hated himself. His weakness and cowardice. His helplessness. Brothers were supposed to protect their sisters, yet what had he done? Nothing. Self-loathing and sadness overflowed and tears fell from his eyes as he kneeled down in desperation. He couldn¡¯t put strength into his knees anymore, they wouldn¡¯t support him anymore. ¡°UWAAAAAAAHH!!¡± The sorrowful scream resounded through the empty room and echoed outside through the city. He pounded his fist against the ground as he cried. ¡°WHY!! Why her¡­ WHYYY!¡± Slowly the self-hatred consumed him, it ate away at his mind and consumed everything. One hour later, when the maids at the castle had noticed his absence and found him outside he was still kneeling in the entrance of the building. One of the guards tried to talk to him but when they looked into his face he flinched back involuntarily. Nothing was left. There was only passive emptiness left in Suitcase¡¯s eyes. It was like his soul was gone.
While you wait... check for my writing progress as well as interesting bits about my world here I''ve also added a few sketches of how i imagined my world and some characters
[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Next Chapter[/col][/box] Chapter 21 - New Shores I Yay, just in time! *superman pose*! Thank you very much to Dan for the PR and thumbs up! :D Enjoy! Anyhow, releases will be a little slow since I''m in the middle of exams! I will keep to the 2 weeks deadline though! ########################################## *Rumble rumble* The thunder rang out, serving as a messenger for an impeding storm. Due to the early hour the streets of the metropolis that was New York were already almost devoid of humans, everyone that didn¡¯t have to stay outside had fled into the warmth of their homes or had found shelter elsewhere. The few people who didn¡¯t were all hurrying along to do so, many of them holding their umbrellas ready, some looked worriedly up at the sky, probably hoping to be inside once the downpour began. There were quite a few short-rental cars driving through the streets. More people than usual had called for this convenient form of transportation. It was comfortable and way better than getting drenched by the rain later on. The short-rentals had long since replaced the taxi business. They were cars equipped with the latest auto-pilot function that didn¡¯t require anyone to steer it. You could simply call one with your phone and it would automatically drive to your location and take you where you wanted to go. Truly convenient. Therefore, pedestrians were quite scarce. Amongst the few pedestrians one could see the short figure of a girl. She was wearing a dark red trench coat that reached a little past her hips and looked like someone had successfully combined the concept of a dress with a useful jacket. She was carrying a black bag about the size of an average school bag in one hand, the other she held at her side carefully. The sleeve of her coat just barely concealed the bandages underneath. It was Robin. Somehow or another she had finally reached the busy city center. She felt truly grateful to the well-developed infrastructure of New York. Thanks to that and her watch she had found her way without major problems. This watch was something she had gotten from Daniel. It was a small wristwatch configured for voice operation. It was actually a small computer. It could access the internet, local map data and had many other useful functions. She could even make calls from it if she wanted to! But from outside it just seemed like a normal watch. ¡®Not that I have anyone I could call though¡¯, she sighed to herself. But this wasn¡¯t something just anyone could have. In fact it was still a luxury normal people couldn¡¯t dream to afford. That wasn¡¯t because of its functions but because of its size. If normal people wanted all these functions they would at least need a computer desktop sized machine for it. Each model made to date was unique and specifically created only for their owner. The technology used on it was simply that new, the effort put into each watch was too huge. In fact not even 50 of them existed in the whole world. That was why she would have to keep it a secret from now on. As a blind girl without a family to turn to for help this wasn¡¯t something she could lose. Not to mention¡­ she felt like the AI that ran her model was like a friend. With many breaks in between and without sleep she had stayed up the entire night to walk. It showed. Her demeanor was tired and her limbs all ached from the strain she had put on it. But her face still showed a strong determination. ¡®I refuse to die like this!¡¯ ¡°Momo, when do you think it will start to rain?¡±, she asked into the air. She was talking to her watch. She was wearing a small wireless earpiece that was connected to her watch so she wasn¡¯t worried about anyone hearing the response from the AI. The voice of a cute girl sounded into her head, it sounded completely natural, unlike AIs of previous generations. ¡°Yes! The data from various weather stations implies it will start pouring down any minute now! But from what my own sensors tell me it should still take about 15 minutes! You should be there by then!¡± ¡°That¡¯s good, thanks.¡± ¡°No problem, Robin! But say¡­¡± ¡°Hm?¡± ¡°Your condition doesn¡¯t seem to be very good. As I predicted you overdid it! Once you arrive there you have to rest up properly, you hear?¡± ¡°Ah¡­ you are worried about me. Thank you, Momo.¡±, she giggled and smiled silently before quietly muttering ¡°But that might not be so easy¡­¡± She could hear the AI sigh and grumble some words she couldn¡¯t quite make out. Something about selfishness maybe? ¡°Ah, turn right here and cross the street, no signal. No traffic detected, fine-tuning sensors just in case. Ok, cross.¡± Robin followed the instructions without hesitation and not even 10 minutes later she arrived at her destination. The small shop she arrived at was located in the middle of a side street. Unless you specifically looked for it you probably wouldn¡¯t be able to find it. The exterior was quite ordinary, like thousands of small cozy shops in the city. Yet this one held a particular importance to Robin. It was an accessory shop. She had asked Momo to search for a place meeting a few requirements. Her experience regarding the real world was minimal. She didn¡¯t go to school after elementary school, she hadn¡¯t worked in her life, but that didn¡¯t apply to Zayvin. As Zayvin she had a lot of experience. Though she was still poor at talking to people that wasn¡¯t important right now. Zayvin was a mage, her specialty was battles using magic. In reality magic did not exist, neither did she have the constitution to fight in this body. So the only thing she could rely on was her poor crafting skills. As a frontliner she had never taken up any major craft but only the ones she might need on the field. Alchemy was obviously out of the question. Most of the herbs and ingredients she needed didn¡¯t exist here after all, neither could she easily identify them because of her eyes. The only option she had left was her jewelry skill. She acquired it to process raw gems and precious metals. It was also useful as some groundwork for magic enhancements. Working with gems was something she was quite familiar with and she had often converted them into jewelry to sell in game. Thus this was the easiest choice for her. She had asked Momo to find a jewelry store that was small in size that had recently lost a craftsman and was looking for a new apprentice on a long term basis. It had to have a good reputation with employees and customers and specialize in handmade goods. A family owned business would be ideal. As for why¡­ obviously she was way too suspicious. Plus she needed a job right away and couldn¡¯t afford to wait for weeks before the application process for a bigger store was finished. She would be dead by then. She also wasn¡¯t delusional to think she was good enough to work as a full employee so this is what it had come down to. Reconfirming her determination, Robin took a deep breath and stepped up to the door. According to Momo the store would open in an hour, but the deliveries all arrived around this time so the store was probably staffed already. ¡°Momo, is there a bell?¡± ¡°Raise your arm a little, the camera angle is a bit off.¡± ¡°There you go.¡±, she said as she raised her arm a bit. ¡°To your right on the wall next to the door. It¡¯s the second from below. Its an old one with only voice transmission.¡± Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. ¡°Thanks! You¡¯re the best!¡± ¡°Ehehehe¡­¡±, somehow the AI had happily started laughing. A few awkward seconds later Robin pressed the small bell and waited for a reply. A few moments it was quiet and Robin was just about ready to wait outside until opening time after all, but then with a small cracking sound the almost ancient intercom buzzed to life. ¡°Good morning, how can we help you? Sorry, but Gina¡¯s Glitter is still closed¡­¡± The bored voice of a young man sounded over the intercom, startling Robin quite a bit. ¡°Ah, sorry for disturbing you. I-I came because I was informed you were¡­ looking for a new jeweler apprentice¡­ i-if this is a bad time I will just wait until later¡­¡± ¡°Ohh, an applicant?? Seriously??¡± A few strange cracking noises sounded out from the intercom before it turned off. Confused Robin just stared for a moment, unsure of what to do. Her heart sank. ¡®I¡­ made him mad¡­¡¯ She was about to turn around and leave when suddenly with the ringing of a bell the door flew opened and someone jumped out of the store. ¡°Are you the applicant?¡± A young man stood in front of her, his breathing slightly heavy as he stared at her expectantly. ¡®D-did he run here? Moreover, he sounds really excited¡­ What¡¯s going on here?¡¯, Robin wondered quietly, unsure how to react. ¡°Y-yes?¡±, she carefully replied. ¡°Perfect! Come on in for now, I¡¯ll go get the owner. Sorry, we still have some deliveries coming in right now so I¡¯ll have to leave you.¡± ¡°Ah no, please don¡¯t worry. I-it was me who just suddenly came outside of opening hours¡­¡± ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll be right back then!¡± ¡°O-okay.¡± Robin stepped into the small shop and carefully shut the door behind her. She didn¡¯t want anyone else to come in before the shop was ready. Plus the first raindrops were starting to fall. ¡°Momo, how does it look?¡± ¡°Ah, its quite an ordinary small shop. The workshop is probably out back. The front has three glass cases and some glass cabinets meant for display. Referring to other sources¡­ Their quality is very high simply judging from visuals. The workmanship for the pieces is intricate and beautiful. All of them are made to last, there is only roughly 5% of works that have some weak points but they aren¡¯t very large.¡± ¡°Good work, thank you, Momo.¡± ¡°No problem! But I found something worrying as well¡­¡± ¡°Eh?¡± Just as she was about to ask what Momo found she could hear some quiet stops approaching from the front. The steps were soft and gentle, quite different from the sound of the man¡¯s steps from earlier. ¡°Ah, good morning, young miss.¡± ¡°G-good morning, madam.¡±, Robin greeted nervously. She hadn¡¯t expected the shop owner to be an old lady like this. Judging from the voice alone she was a gentle and kind woman. The years seemed to have treated her well. ¡°Kristian informed me you would like to take up an apprenticeship with us.¡± ¡°Yes, I do.¡± ¡°I see, please follow me into the back. You look tired. We can talk more comfortably in my office.¡± The woman had discreetly looked her up and down as they exchanged greetings and motioned for her to follow with a smile. Momo automatically directed her so she didn¡¯t crash into anything and thus she followed the kind woman into a small office. Various folders and filing boxes lay around the room in an orderly fashion. This was most likely were all the paperwork related to the store was done. ¡°First of all, good morning and welcome to my humble shop. I¡¯m Regina Francis, it¡¯s very nice to meet you.¡± ¡°You are too modest, i-it¡¯s a very nice shop, I¡¯m happy to be here today.¡±, edginess had made its way back into Robin¡¯s mind. She swallowed it back with all her mind. This was something she had to do no matter what! ¡°M-my name is Robin Cross, it¡¯s a pleasure¡­¡± They shook hands and exchanged some basic information. Robin really started to like the owner. ¡°So¡­ Robin, tell me¡­ why did you really come to our shop? You¡¯re a very bright child. From your age you should still be going to school. Even if you had graduated your first choice certainly shouldn¡¯t be a small shop like ours. Please be honest.¡± Robin sighed into herself as cold sweat gathered in her palms. This was the critical point. ¡°Th-then I¡¯ll be honest. I¡­ I couldn¡¯t go to school since elementary due to some p-personal reasons¡­ n-now my family¡­ they got tired¡­ of me and kicked me out.¡±, Robin took a deep breath to steady herself before continuing to speak. The old shop owner waited with a serious expression. ¡°I¡­ I enjoy making accessories and learned about it myself before. Right now I don¡¯t¡­ have anywhere to go¡­ I need to support myself from now on so looking for work like this is my only option... to survive on my own. I-I chose this shop¡­ because I¡¯m not¡­ very good with people¡­ I don¡¯t know¡­ so a smaller shop¡­ is better for me. You have a really good reputation and the quality of your jewelry is great. This kind of place I want to learn from. I¡­ I will work hard to learn from you. P-please give me a chance!¡± The expression on the owners face was grave and she pondered silently for a while. Robin stayed quiet. This was something the owner needed to decide. She had been honest as to her intentions. Finally she sighed and started. ¡°Let me quickly sum this up for myself. You have no place to go so we¡¯d have to arrange some quarters for you. Since you don¡¯t have anything but what¡¯s on you we¡¯ll also have to see to your living expenses for one month in advance and I still don¡¯t even know how capable you are, not to mention you are blind¡­¡± She sighed and shook her head. Obviously she hadn¡¯t missed the small indications in Robins behavior that her eyes couldn¡¯t see. In fact she was quite impressed on how well she conducted herself despite her blindness¡­ ¡°This is really more trouble than its worth¡­¡± Robin had closed her eyes and waited quietly for her to continue speaking. She would be rejected¡­! ¡°But somehow¡­ I have the feeling I should give you a chance.¡± ¡°Eh¡­!¡±, Robin raised a surprised voice at that. She had already been sure it was hopeless, the chance of success had been really slim in the first place. She had already resigned herself to swallow her pride and turn to the authorities. Even though the waiting time would have been far too long¡­ to think Ms Francis would give her a chance! ¡°Follow me, I¡¯d like to see what you can do.¡± ############ Whoooo, a skill test for Robiiiin!~ Can she pull it off?~ Will her experience in game help her in reality? Find out in the next chapter! ;)
While you wait... check for my writing progress as well as interesting bits about my world here I''ve also added a few sketches of how i imagined my world and some characters