《Xana》 Chapter 1: Entering Eternity *Creak* ¡°I¡¯m home!¡± The girl smiled gaily as she took her shoes off and put them next to the welcome mat in front of her. A gust of cold air brushed against her back and she shivered, closing the door she had just opened to enter the house. ¡°Sweetie!¡± Sarah¡¯s head shot up and she smiled as she saw that at the entrance to the living room a few metres away was a man dressed in a suit, holding his arms out for her to run into them and hug him. ¡°Daddy!¡± The man in front of her was named Joel Tour. Outside of the house he was known as the cold, calculating and genius Director of the OmniGame Corporation, a company that specialised in making virtual reality video games. But she just knew him as daddy. She ran and practically jumped into his arms, letting him spin her around in the air. Although she was eighteen, when they were in the household she always felt free to act like a child. ¡°Haha,¡± Joel put her down and she pressed her hands down on her school uniform to get rid of some of the wrinkles that had appeared. ¡°Your mother is at Ines¡¯ so I figured now was a good time to pop up and give you something.¡± He winked at her as he spoke and pressed something into her hands. Because he was the Director of such a large corporation Joel often worked late hours and her mother took the time alone as a reason to visit their next door neighbour Ines and over the years Sarah had also come to view Ines as a close friend rather than just a next door neighbour. Sarah herself always popped over there to visit her childhood friend James, the boy she secretly had a crush on. Joel took a step back and grinned, motioning for Sarah to look at what he had given her. She opened her clasped palm and found herself looking in confusion at what appeared to be a small, metal computer chip. As he saw the look of confusion cross her face Joel let out a little chuckle. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. ¡°Gosh Sarah keep up with the times. It¡¯s called a neural interface.¡± Sarah looked up at him, ¡°Like, for video games?¡± ¡°Yup,¡± Joel nodded his head, ¡°Fresh off the company production line.¡± ¡°Oh¡­ thanks dad.¡± She had never been one for video games. Joel frowned. Sarah had almost always called him daddy unless he failed to impress her somehow. ¡°Oh by the way,¡± He casually lifted his hand into the air as he turned to walk into the living room. ¡°I personally gave one to our neighbour a few days ago. What was his name again? Oh right, James.¡± At the mention of James¡¯ name Sarah¡¯s ears seemed to perk up and Joel grinned as he could feel her eyes boring into his back. A few seconds later he felt her hands grabbing the back of his suit and a small, subservient tone seemed to come from her voice. ¡°Please teach me how to play this game.¡± Joel turned around and she saw a massive smile on his face. ¡°Who do you think I am? Of course I¡¯ll teach you how to play.¡± ~~~~ [The scan on your iris and vein has determined that you are an unregistered user. Do you want to create a new account?] Sarah looked around her as she entered the game. Before anything she noticed the bright, shiny logo of three triangles interlocked and floating in the air. The OmniGame logo of the company her dad worked for. On the top of the logo was a single word, the name of the game she had just entered. Eternity. Chapter 2: Character Creation [The scan on your iris and vein has determined that you are an unregistered user. Do you want to create a new account?] Sarah smiled sweetly as a gentle and somewhat melodic female voice seemed to float softly into her mind rather than through her ears. The voice seemed to be coming from nowhere since the only thing around her was complete darkness lit by twinkling stars that slowly circled around her. ¡®She sounds so beautiful.¡¯ Even though Sarah knew that it was a computer generated voice she couldn¡¯t help but sigh as she compared it to her own. She had always felt that her voice was rougher than the average girls¡¯ voice, she wouldn¡¯t be mistaken for a boy but it was still fairly rough and masculine. It made her envy the girls with nice voices, her own pet peeve. [The scan on your iris and vein has determined that you are an unregistered user. Do you want to create a new account?] After a minute had passed the voice repeated itself. Sarah herself wasn¡¯t a stranger to virtual reality video games, when she was younger her daddy and she had spent many days playing them together. Her mother had always commented that even though he was a married and working adult he had never let go of his childhood, he absolutely loved video games. But her own interest had waned as she grew older. ¡°Yes.¡± [Eternity has one hundred and eighty six thousand races. You may select your race from the primary one hundred and fifty thousand races.] Sarah let out a small snort. RPG games, both virtual reality or not, have been developed and released over hundreds of years. The fact that her father¡¯s company only had around two hundred thousand races made it one of the smaller games in terms of character creation. Nevertheless she had heard that it was already selling a reasonable amount of copies. ¡°Xana.¡± Of course there were races for all types and when she was young Sarah had always played as a mage or backline fighter, she had had no choice since her father had always insisted on tanking on the frontlines. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. ¡®Your friend picked the Spriggan¡¯s as his race. So I think you¡¯d like to pick the Xana race since they share a close relation with the Spriggans.¡¯ Her father¡¯s voice flitted through her mind and she smiled. According to her father the Xana race both shared a close connection with the Spriggans and was also known as a race of females that used magic as their primary means of attack. [Select your gender from male, female or neutral] ¡°Female¡± A girl with jet black hair and pale skin appeared in front of her, Sarah wasn¡¯t surprised to find that she was looking at herself. She walked around her figure and saw that it was a flawless representation of her. The hair reached just below her shoulders and her brown eyes were murky rather than bright. Superficially she had gained little to no physical traits from becoming a Xana, which was one of the perks her father had pointed out. [Select the name of your avatar] ¡°Diana.¡± There was no real reason or story behind picking the name Diana. Sarah had always felt that it was a beautiful name and she used it as often as she could, if she was online then she was always known as Diana. [Your account has been activated. Your stats have been allocated to your avatar automatically. You can decide your class at level ten] As far as Sarah knew her races stats were fairly simple, as a magical race that was made of flesh the Xana were given four stats, Stamina, Vitality, Intelligence and Wisdom. She would gain race stats and abilities once she entered the game. [As a member of the Xana race you will start in the Xana village of Xanandra. Is this acceptable?] Sarah nodded her head, she saw no problems with what the computer was stating. ¡®Sure.¡¯ [Welcome to Eternity, Diana. Would you like to take the tutorial?] ¡°Yes please!¡± Chapter 3: Tutorial Part 1 As soon as Diana had spoken the stars twinkling around her seemed to swirl rapidly and quickly brightened, as though each was a streak of light in the space around her, forcing her to close her eyes. When Diana opened them she found herself standing on top of a patch of bright blue grass and a quick scan of the area revealed that it was covered completely in blue grass and lush green trees. Diana couldn¡¯t help but gaze at the trees, they were clustered around a small glowing pound and seemed to somehow radiate both sadness and power at the same time. They were drooped over like hunchbacks and all around the area a small breeze brought droplets of water down onto the ground. ¡°I see you are admiring the willow trees my dear, you have good taste.¡± She turned her body around and was surprised to see a pale, old lady with completely blue hair and nails. Although Diana could immediately tell that the lady was old, it wasn¡¯t because of her pale skin, which seemed to radiate youth or her hair which swayed in the wind with its healthy blue colour. It was because of her eyes. They seemed to emit an aura of both wisdom and strength, the kind that only one who has experienced years of living could give off. Diana noted that the old woman was dressed in light blue robes mixed with symbols that seemed to be stitched on with an even lighter blue colour. The lady saw her looking and chuckled, ¡°My my, a Xana with Black hair and brown eyes has arrived among us? How strange. Can you hear me child? I¡¯m afraid I¡¯m quite old and my voice isn¡¯t what it used to be, please come closer so that I can speak to you properly.¡±
Try walking towards Indrid.
Diana blanched as she tried to walk and her legs tripped over themselves and she fell onto the ground. ¡®Moving was so much easier when I was young.¡¯ Of course every game would be different and she hadn¡¯t played a virtual reality game for at least five or six years. It took a while but eventually she was able to walk properly and she reached Indrid only to find that the old lady was laughing loudly. ¡°Haha, look at you stumbling like a newborn baby! I¡¯ve never seen a Xana so uncoordinated.¡±
Try talking to Indrid.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. Diana brushed a lock of damp hair out of her eyes and it plastered to her cheek. Even though she would normally be incredibly annoyed at this, for some reason she didn¡¯t seem to mind it. The water even made her feel invigorated. ¡°Is it always raining down here?¡± Indrid raised a blue eyebrow at her question, ¡°Why of course it is my dear, at Xanandra it never stops raining! We are water spirits after all, how would we be able to live without water? Do parents teach their younglings nothing these days?¡± *Crash* Before Diana could respond to Indrid¡¯s questions a loud sound erupted behind her and she quickly turned around, hardly tripping since she was already used to the movements of the game. Indrid too had stopped chuckling and Diana could feel tension suddenly rise in the air. ¡°What is that?¡± A few meters in front of them a patch of darkness had appeared and Diana shivered as a rush of fear tingled down her spine. All around it the water was being absorbed into the darkness and soon after something began to appear. It was a pair of scaly, dark blue claws. ¡°That my dear,¡± Indrid¡¯s somewhat nervous voice rung out from beside Diana, ¡°Is an Ultivate, they are the mortal enemies of our kind.¡± The darkness slowly crept into the creature that had appeared. It looked like a blue lizard that was only about half a meter in height. It was standing on two pudgy blue legs and it kept its balance with its scale encrusted tail that pressed against the grass behind it, its hands were in front of it much like a humans would be. Before she could move the monster suddenly jumped up to her and raised its hands in front of it to swipe at her face with its claws. ¡°Watch out!¡± Diana cried out in pain and panic as she was pushed to the side. She quickly turned around and squeaked at the scene before her, Indrid¡¯s shoulder had been pierced by the Ultivate¡¯s scaly claws and she was lying on the ground and panting. The woman raised her head to face Diana and she could see pain in Indrid¡¯s eyes. ¡°Hurry child! Strike the creature while it is distracted!¡± Diana stood up quickly as a new message box appeared in front of her.
Defeat the Ultivate.
Chapter 4: Tutorial Part 2
Defeat the Ultivate.
As soon as the Diana saw the message pop up, a bright blue ball of light suddenly appeared in front of her, floating about a foot away from her chest. The light grew brighter and then split into two, one piece entering her right hand and the other entering her left hand. As soon as the lights entered her Sarah could feel power flowing through her veins, not the raw, brutal power that came with strength but instead a power that felt graceful and ever flowing, refreshing her as it coursed through her veins and revitalizing her body. It felt like water. Diana wasn¡¯t distracted by the power however, she knew that she had to do something with it or Indrid would most likely die. Eternity was a real time virtual reality RPG game so it was likely that if Diana waited too long Indrid would eventually be killed by the creature. This Ultivate. Before Diana could react another message appeared in front of her.
Battle Tutorial. The Xana are an ancient race, using the essence of pure water to produce powerful magical attacks and also utilizing the essence of life provided by water to hypnotize and punish their enemies through their voices. Novice Xana with no training such as yourself have limited abilities and may only utilize the most basic of magical attacks. You have gained the skill: Water Strike Water Strike: A magical ball of water which flies in the direction the caster chooses. Should the water come into contact with enemies it will deal damage to them. To activate Water Strike the user must first open their palm or else the spell will fail. Current Intelligence: 10, Current damage: 10. Mana consumption 1, Current mana: 10. Water Strike Description: By using magical essence within and around you to gather pure water essence into a magical attack you may command it to strike where you wish. It has been a long practiced attack for novice Xana who cannot yet control nor utilize advanced water magics.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. ¡°Aah!¡± Once Diana closed the message a cry of pain rung out across the grassy area and Diana¡¯s head shot towards the spot where Indrid and the creature had been fighting. Blood was dripping all over the blue grass and mixing into the water soaked mud, Indrid was being continually slashed by the creatures claws and it didn¡¯t look like she would last long. Diana raised her palm towards the blue monster. ¡°Water Strike!¡± It was common knowledge that all skills had to be stated out loud, although they could eventually be practiced enough that the user could simply think of the ability and it would be activated. As soon as she spoke a ball of water the size of her fist suddenly gathered in front of her palm and shot forward at an incredibly fast pace. *Sploosh* ¡®Oh crap!¡¯ Diana stared in horror at the ground, she hadn¡¯t realized that the water would come out of her left hand and had only raised her right palm into the air, meaning that her water strike had harmlessly hit the grass on the ground. Indrid let out another cry of pain as the scaly blue lizard clawed her shoulders and Diana took a deep breath, pointing her left palm towards the creature, grabbing her left arm with her right hand to steady it. ¡°Water Strike!¡± As soon as she had spoken the rain drizzling around her hand was immediately sucked into a ball of clear, see-through water which was again around the size of Diana¡¯s fist. After half a second the ball shot towards the Ultivate, covering the few meters distance in a second and smashed against its side. *BAM* The Ultivate shot backwards and Diana ran towards the injured Indrid, but as soon as she got closer to the old woman Indrid pushed her back with a bloodied hand. ¡°It¡¯s not over yet my dear.¡± Indrid rasped to Diana and looked in the direction the Ultivate had flown when it had been hit. It was slowly walking towards the two females, its eyes blood red and staring directly at Diana. It had a new target now. And it looked pissed. Chapter 5: Tutorial Conclusion *Growl* For the first time since the fight had begun, Diana got a close look at the creature that Ingrid had called an Ultivate. It wasn¡¯t particularly tall, only about a meter in height or perhaps a bit more, it was standing upright like a human would and had a long scaly snout which reminded Diana of a crocodile or alligators, a small tail was protruding from the top of its bottom. It was covered in dark blue scales and its eyes were a menacing glowing red colour. Over the head of the creature were a series of letters and numbers. Health: 20/30 According to the description of her skill, Water Strike, she did ten damage with each strike and she could shoot ten times since she had ten mana and each strike cost only one mana. Diana and the monster stood only a few meters away from each other but she could physically feel the tension in the air as it thickened so much that she imagined it could be cut by a knife. As they stared at each other she realized that the rain around the creature was gathering into it, being destroyed as it¡¯s essence was absorbed into the creatures skin. Health: 23/30 It was healing! Before the creature could react, Diana immediately lifted her left palm up to face it. ¡°Water Strike!¡± *Bam* The ball of water that had shot out from her palm smashed into the creature but instead of flying back like it had before it simply stood still and seemed to yawn at her. She quickly gazed at the creatures head. Health: 18/30 ¡®Why did it only do five damage?!¡¯ Diana was fairly shocked, she hadn¡¯t expected that the creature would be unaffected by her attack. ¡®But it got hit for ten damage before, why is it different now?¡¯ Although she was somewhat used to virtual reality games in general, Diana couldn¡¯t help but feel pressured psychologically as the monster continued to stare at her, not moving and continuously spewing forth rage and killing intent. When it was coupled with the fact that she couldn¡¯t move because it would expose the injured Indrid to danger, it was as though she was mentally being backed into a corner. But after a second of tense waiting a message appeared in front of her.
Weak points. In the world of Eternity there are all sorts of creatures, both big and small. Some creatures, such as the Ultivate you face now have high defence due to their scales and natural affinity to water magic. Despite this natural resistance, all monsters and living beings have weak points which may be exploited and attacked in order to deal the maximum amount of damage possible to the creature. Each weak spot is different for the various races although in general creatures of the same race will have the same weak spot.
If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. ¡®Of course, god I¡¯m stupid, I should have thought of it as soon as I saw the blue scales. It has a water affinity!¡¯ Even though it had been seven years since Diana had played a video game, she had so often encountered different affinities with creatures in games that it didn¡¯t surprise her to find out that there were various creatures here with the affinity feature. It didn¡¯t appear that the creature was going to attack her any time soon and with the tension from the initial confrontation gone with the new message Diana finally had time to think properly. ¡®let¡¯s see, umm.¡¯ Well the first thing was affinities. As far as Diana could remember, a certain creature would be likely to belong to a certain element, such as how the Xana were water spirits so they would belong to the water element. This would mean that they had an ''affinity'' for water element attacks and take less damage from them. But at the same time, the Ultivate in front of her was also dark blue in colour so would probably also belong to the water element and so her water based attack would do less damage to it. It was like splashing water against a waterfall, it may damage the rock behind it but most of the water would be washed away while dealing no damage. But she had done full damage to it. ¡®It was when I hit it in the side.¡¯ Diana glanced sneakily at the monster¡¯s side. If she was going to move it would have to be fast. The creature hadn¡¯t healed yet but it would still take two quick shots to take it down. The creature may have been standing still, but it was still intelligent. It would quickly work out what she was trying to do if she attacked its side and block the second attack or dodge it. ¡®So then.¡¯ Diana moved to the side and the creature stayed standing still, moving only its thick neck to look at her as she moved to its side. Most likely it would only move when she made her move. ¡°Water Strike!¡± As her palm reached out she fired a blob of water at high speed towards the Ultivate. But before it had even left her hand she cried out again. ¡°Water Strike!¡± Two consecutive Water Strikes! Although the creature had already begun to move it was futile, as the first strike hit its side it went flying into the air where the second strike hit it dead at its side. The number twenty appeared in red on top of its head. Health -2/0 Diana sighed in relief and turned to face the injured woman on the floor. Only to find that there was a perfectly fine Indrid standing tall and facing her. ¡°Congratulation my dear, you¡¯ve completed the tutorial.¡± Authors note: I may have accidently made this one too long, it was just barely under a thousand words. Forgive me! Thus I shall strive to make chaps still under 1k words and no longer. Chapter 6: On the way to Xanandra Diana gazed at Ingrid in disbelief, the woman that had been covered in blood just moments before was perfectly fine and healthy in front of her. Her pale skin wasn¡¯t wet with blood but rain water and her hair was matted with even more water and its brilliant blue colour had not a speck of red tainting its luster. ¡°You-you¡¯re fine? But you were just covered in blood!¡± Diana could hear the slight quaver in her voice as she trembled slightly. Even though she knew it was just a game, the experience had frightened her a little bit. After all, she was just your ordinary high school girl. Seeing Diana¡¯s shocked expression Ingrid just laughed and waved her hand flippantly, the Ultivate¡¯s body instantly disappeared and all of the blood which had soaked into the mud on the ground also disappeared. ¡°Oh my dear, you didn¡¯t honestly think that an Ultivate is that weak did you? Oh, now now,¡± She walked up to Diana and reassuringly patted her on the head and hugged her, ¡°I just had to make sure that you really were a Xana, our race has many enemies you know, and not all of them necessarily have to stick to one shape. But you did it!¡± She shouted loudly and felt Diana jump a little in her arms, ¡°After all, you utilized the magical essence of pure water that Xana can use. If I think back to when I first met you, there was really no doubt in my mind from the beginning.¡± She let out a little laugh. After a few seconds Diana calmed down and all that was left was a feeling of curiosity. ¡°How did you do that?¡± Ingrid laughed gaily and spun around, her light blue robes swaying in the air as though the rain water didn¡¯t hamper them at all. She looked so young at that moment that Diana couldn¡¯t help but feel a little envious at the old ladies physical youth. ¡®Perfect skin and hair, video game characters really do have it well.¡¯ ¡°Well my dear,¡± Ingrid stopped spinning and looked closely at her, ¡°I simply hypnotized you with my voice of course, it¡¯s something simple and you¡¯ll learn to do it in no time.¡± She let go of Diana and bopped her on the nose as though to show her disapproval at Diana¡¯s question. ¡°Um,¡± Diana looked up at Ingrid with curiosity still in her eyes, ¡°Does that mean I have to learn how to sing?¡± ¡°Why of course!¡± Ingrid looked at her with a smirk, ¡°All Xana are born excellent singers my dear, if your parents haven¡¯t made you try it yet then don¡¯t fret, I suppose that is why you have come to our village, Xanandra.¡± Before Diana could ask any more questions Ingrid suddenly looked up and noticed that the sky had begun to darken. She hurriedly walked back towards Diana and patted her back as she pushed the player towards a small forest clearing. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. ¡°Come along dear, come along. We can¡¯t be arriving too late to the village now can we?¡± As the pair walked towards the clearing the air shimmered around them and a long, natural road made of a small layer of water lay before them. It was as though someone had added water to the surface of the dirt underneath and solidified it, making it appear unmoving and crystal clear like diamond. Ingrid was quite throughout the entire walk and since Diana felt that it wasn¡¯t the time to ask question she took the time to think to herself instead. ¡®Dang it daddy,¡¯ she was silently cursing her father, ¡®why didn¡¯t you tell me that the Xana were a race known for their singing? You know that would only be trouble for me.¡¯ Diana herself had no idea how her singing would be once she begun, but as Sarah in the real world she had a gruff, masculine voice and even if her family and even James had said they didn¡¯t mind it she had come to see it as only an annoyance that interfered with her femininity. Not to mention she couldn¡¯t sing. Girls were meant to sound beautiful when they sung, that had always been what she had thought while growing up. But unlike boys who reached puberty and suddenly gained rough voices, she had been born with it. She recalled a conversation she had had with her mother about her voice when she had first began to worry about it. ¡°Oh sweetie, sure, you¡¯re pretty, physically, but it¡¯s only in a girl¡¯s nature to worry about some minor, right? Don¡¯t worry sweetie, James isn¡¯t the type to care about these sorts of things.¡± Her mother really wasn¡¯t the comforting type. Even if Sarah tried she somehow managed to come out more insulted than when she entered the conversation. ¡°My dear,¡± Diana was brought out of her thoughts by the kind and peaceful voice of Indrid. ¡°We¡¯re here.¡± Diana looked up and indeed, past the path of water there was a small village, lit not by fires but instead by what looked like bright blue gemstones. The village itself seemed to be a medieval, primitive sort of construction and most noticeably, the entire village was lying at the entrance of a huge cave that seemed to be the mouth of some giant monster about to swallow the small houses whole. Ingrid swept her hands dramatically into the air. ¡°This, my dear, is the village of Xanandra, home of the Xana, and of course, your new home!¡±