《New Roads》 New Roads: Prologue A little over a decade had passed since Royal Road had first started. The game had been conquered by the legendary Weed. The in-game character had ascended to the throne and the player had gained the monetary benefits from Unicorn Inc., that hadn¡¯t been all though. The player, Hyun Lee, had earned back the three billion won the loan sharks had taken from him and with it he was able to gloat over them as the leader had to bow before him and call him Hyung-nim as he had promised years ago. Hyun Lee was now in his early thirties, his sister had found a wonderful husband that he had finally come to terms in accepting as he had the preconceived notion that the man was a playboy. Even Hyun himself had found love in the one he considered to be the most beautiful on earth and had also found something to live for now that his original goal of ensuring his sister¡¯s happiness was accomplished. Hyun had also acquired a job with his victory over Royal Road; it was an interesting one that he hadn¡¯t expected to acquire. None of his family knew what it was either; he had kept it under tight wrap since it would be game changing in a sense. He stood looking at a large monitor, his classically rotten smile plastered on his face. ¡®The money earned from this will be enormous!¡¯ Beside him a few of his co-workers grimaced, over the past few years they had come to discover that he was actual a devil in sheep¡¯s clothing. He had worked them to the bone and rarely praised them, usually when he did it was so he could manipulate them into working harder. Of course some also recognized that he did the same; while he lacked the programming and other technical skills that they had, he made up for it with relentlessly testing the generated content in the digital world to make sure there were no bugs in the programs. ¡®Finally, we will be free of the devil!¡¯ ¡®I can finally sleep peacefully!¡¯ ¡®Thank god this is almost over¡¯¡­¡­. Were a few of the thoughts running through his co-workers minds. Eventually Hyun Lee turned away from the monitor and made his way to the special capsule room Unicorn had developed for its in-game system checks. The place was one of the several places in Unicorn headquarters where only a select few were able to enter, namely those in the development team. Hyun found the Creator there, the nickname he had given the man responsible for the creation of Royal Road. ¡°It¡¯s time, are you ready?¡± ¡°Yeah, with this despite the price drop there will be a larger profit!¡± ¡°¡­¡­yeah¡± The Creator sighed slightly; despite his vast intellect he had never quite been able to understand Hyun Lee. He did have a great respect for him though, his input during the development process had proved invaluable. ¡°Go give them a good show¡± ¡°I will, I feel a song at the end will be perfect!¡± There was a harsh cough of surprise and the Creator hesitantly said, ¡°please just stick to the outline we agreed on, there¡¯s no need for a song.¡± Hyun looked a little put-out but gave a nod as he slipped into the capsule. The capsule thrummed to life as he was transported to the world of Royal Road. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Weed overlooked his land, all that stretched out before him was his. He was in his Citadel in Morata, the place where the seeds of his rule had first taken root. His wife found him quickly, it was likely that she had been checking for his entrance to the game. He had left her at their house in the real world two days ago. He had told her that after this, he¡¯d be able to tell her what exactly he had been up to in Unicorn for the past few years. She grabbed hold of his sleeve, ¡°found you,¡± her voice was quiet; she wasn¡¯t much of a talker. Weed jumped slightly, whether in this world or the real one he was always a little nervous around her whenever he thought she was angry. As he turned around he noticed she was smiling and relaxed a little. ¡°You did, Are the others here yet?¡± ¡°Yes, they¡¯re at the Tower.¡± ¡°Good, let¡¯s be off.¡± Weed called Bingryong to them and after they had both stepped onto his massive head they flew off to the Tower. It was an enormous structure, no one had any idea why Weed had ordered it built, and what¡¯s more it was built around the Tower of Light in such a way that no one could see it anymore. As they landed his friends gathered around him. The 505 Geomchis, his sister Yurin, her husband, Pale, Hwaryeong, Seechwi, Irene, Maylon, Mapan, Surka, Romuna, and even Alveron, the Pope of the Freya religion, had gathered around him. Alveron strode to the front; he was no longer the obedient child that had helped him liberate Morata from the Vampires, but a full grown pope. ¡°Weed, I believe it is time, we can no longer hold back the tide of change.¡± ¡°Yes Alveron, I have prepared as best I can, it is time.¡± The others surged around them asking what had happened and what they were talking about. Maylon had an inkling of what was happening because she was here for work as well as for Weed. A deal had been cut between Unicorn and KMC for some special event that was supposed to take place soon, the deal was for KMC¡¯s rights to broadcast the live feed from Hyun Lee¡¯s capsule. Eventually everyone was settled as Weed raised his voice. ¡°Today is when this world ends.¡± ¡°WHHHAAATTTTTT!¡± Everyone had a shocked expression on their face. ¡°For years, the Church of Freya and I have co-operated on holding back the darkness that is about to sweep the land. It started with Bar-Khan, back then we didn¡¯t know what was happening but after I gained rule over the world we had found out the truth about what was happening. Now the only thing we can do is escape and save as many people as we can.¡± The setting sun bathed them in its last rays of light as they stared stunned at Weed. The speech had been partly scripted but Weed was quite proud of his delivery. Alveron now stepped forward. ¡°The Goddess Freya has seen fit to smile on us and has provided us with a way out of this ending through Weed. That is what this tower was built for; it will shine a light on the pathway to safer lands.¡± ¡°Yes, and now it is time to open the door.¡± After this Weed and Alveron turned around and walked towards the Tower in what Weed considered a regal fashion. They stood in front of the smooth surface of the Tower, after its completion the Tower had transformed and become one solid piece of stone. No one had been able to enter it, this had added to the mystery as to why Weed had wanted it built. As the two touched the tower it glowed and with a shimmering crack, large square holes opened up all over the tower. One opened up in front of Weed and Alveron. They now turned around to face the group; Alveron had a sad smile on his face while Weed attempted to look sad. It was difficult for him because he was in such a good mood thinking about all the money that was about to come his way. This turned his sad expression slightly rotten, though only a little, he did actually feel a little sad since he had grown attached to the game over the years. ¡°The way is open; I need all of you to form groups and equally distribute yourselves at the openings. When the moon rises, you will be sent to key places across the Empire. I need all of you to save as many people as you can and lead the evacuation, send them back the way you came. Soldiers and followers of Freya are at these locations use them well.¡± *TING!*
New Stat: Absolute Leadership
Absolute Leadership Your skill in leadership has risen as a gift from the heavens. All troops under your command gain 50% increase to stats All troops under your command will follow your orders to the letter Particularly loyal troops may continue to serve even after death
¡°What is this?¡± ¡°A special stat, it¡¯s only available because of my command and the blessing of Freya¡± ¡°This is amazing!¡± The crowd was murmuring in excitement over the new stat. Weed separated himself and began to cook, he smiled as it had been a while since he had last cooked. He hadn¡¯t found much need to after he had raised the skill to its maximum, by then he was already emperor of Royal Road and didn¡¯t really need to do it anymore. The Geomchis were the first to notice the smell and all of them gulped in anticipation. ¡°We can¡¯t go into the final battle on an empty stomach now can we? Everyone hand me your equipment and I¡¯ll take care of that as well.¡± There was laughter as the tension diffused and comments about how it was like the good old days filled the air. By the time everyone was done and everything was in order the moon had reached its zenith and everyone had moved into position. Suddenly the tower seemed to collect the moonlight and then it radiated it outwards from the holes in the tower. The light resembled a path, simultaneously there was a massive earthquake and the sky seemed to darken slightly. From Weed¡¯s perspective two status windows popped up, one was exclusive to him and the other was visible to every player in Royal Road.
Final Masterpiece! You have finished the sculpture ¨C Tower of the New Road This is your final Sculpture, the greatest masterpiece in all the land. Wherever its light touches one can travel to the Tower instantly You now have gained dominion over all sculptures!
Then there was the one everyone could see.
The Final Adventure The darkness has risen and now no one can hold it back. A great cataclysm will befall the world. Save as many as you can and escape along the paths of light. Difficulty Level: SS+ Reward: Special gifts from the gods based on contribution Penalties: If quest is refused player will be kicked from the game
Every player in-game accepted the quest, unwilling to risk missing out on what seemed like a huge event. KMC had already been broadcasting the live footage and everyone who was able to log into Royal Road did so, those that couldn¡¯t remained glued to the TV or kept checking the forums for updates and speculations. ¡®What is this!?¡¯ ¡®I had heard that Unicorn was working on something new but I didn¡¯t think they¡¯d end Royal Road!¡¯ ¡®Please, let me make it in time to join the quest!¡¯ The Server for Royal Road was placed under the greatest strain ever in its operation history as nearly all players logged into their account, it was the first time in history that this many people were simultaneously playing the same game at once. The people within the operations department were furiously working to make sure that everything was running smoothly. At one point the influx of players from the West seemed like it may crash the server but the Creator stepped in and rerouted the path of the login in requests through the internet so that the system could process them without crashing. The groups within the tower all moved along their paths and suddenly found themselves in different parts of the Empire. Already players had gathered around the pathways, fortunately none had tried to enter the light. As the groups stepped off the paths of light, they themselves began to shine with light, it appeared to be an effect of the new stat they had received. As they appeared they were swamped with players asking them questions until a sky-shattering roar filled their ears. ¡°Listen! All the dark armies are on the rise once again! The darkness behind the Embinyu church and Bar-Khan has begun its final march across the world! Help the citizens of this great empire flee and then save yourselves!¡±
Quest update! The Emperor has informed you of what the darkness is. All once defeated enemies of the world will rise again. The Undead Legion marches as the Embinyu church rises to greater power to name a few of the resurrected nightmares. All monsters that have been slain in the past year have revived All enemies from A and S ranked quests have revived All dead humanoids will rise as undead. This includes player and NPC bodies
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
You have used: Final roar The final form of the Lion¡¯s roar skill, all who hear it will find new strength and determination. Fighting spirit of everyone who hears it increases by 50% All stats receive a 50% increase Lion¡¯s roar skill is now unusable
Weed bit back a small moan, he had known that would happen if he used the skill but that didn¡¯t stop him from regretting it. He began crying internally for what he was about to do next. ¡°Sculptures of the world, heed my call! Rise and defend my subjects, I grant you all life!¡±
All sculptures have been granted life! Through your dominion over all sculptures you have successfully given all sculptures in your domain life. Art stat has been reset to zero Level has been reset to 1 All stats have been reset to starting values
Despite the fact that this had been planned out, there was only so much that could be done with a system like Royal Road, the ruling A.I. known as the Goddess would only let the Unicorn development team tamper with the system so much. Thus it had resulted in Weed losing the entirety of his power. He stumbled slightly as his strength left him, his unique class armor and weapons disintegrated leaving him in just a plain shirt and pants. His wife gave him a concerned look and asked what had happened. He explained, and after he was done she stepped in front of him and raised her shield as if she was going to protect him from everything like she always did. They had remained at the Tower with Alveron and Bingryong. They were busy observing the evacuation of the Capital of the empire, the players that were in the area had already come to the tower and had received orders from Weed to spread out around the capital and destroy any monsters they came across down to the last rabbit. Bingryong took off after a short while and began destroying the larger boss class monsters that had revived in the area. Everywhere there was battle. One could hear the din of swords on armor and the roar of beasts from the Plains of Despair to Kallamore. In Baran the statue of Freya began to move and crush the lizardmen underfoot that once again threatened the town. Outside of Serabourg a great sphinx began to pounce on the hoard of rabbits, foxes, and wolves outside of the city gates. Inside a frozen cave a pair of lovers released their hold on one another to destroy the bone dragon that threatened the valley of flowers below them. Other news sites had begun to pick up the story and it quickly spread around the world. Even those normally not interested in games watched with interest as they watched the battle for survival rage on ¡®so, this is what the game looks like!¡¯ ¡®I wish I had had enough money to play, this looks like it could¡¯ve been fun¡¯ ¡®so this is how Koreans imagine what the end of a medieval world would look like¡¯ A lone teenager sat in his living room glued to the TV, his fists were clenched and a furious expression was on his face. ¡®I finally save up enough to buy a capsule and Royal Road is ending!?¡¯ He still paid avid attention to the events displayed on the screen. He had been obsessed with getting to play Royal Road like many of his friends, but now it was ending and he had no idea what to do. Back in Royal Road the battle raged on, slowly NPCs of all races made their way onto the paths of light. These paths lead them back to the Tower of the New Road, once there they followed the crowd to the top of the tower where a beam of light shot out of the center. Once someone entered the beam they flew up into the sky and disappeared from sight. If one were to look down this beam they would notice that the light was coming from the Tower of Light that was at the base of the Tower. The battle and the evacuation raged on under eternal night for two days or twelve hours in the real world. Every player stayed as long as they could but eventually some succumbed to the NPCs who had died and turned undead or the monsters themselves. Others had to log off since their duties in real life forced them to leave. Towards the end the players rapidly lost ground and retreated along the pathways of light to the Tower. Once there they formed a final stand at the base of the tower, Weed led them from behind since he no longer had the strength to fight the monstrous onslaught. Elsewhere in the world statues fell one by one. The once beautiful face of Seoyoon in the Plains of Despair lay cracked and mutilated, the head of the goddess of Freya outside of Morata now rested in the lake. The only statues left were Bingryong and Wy-1. These two were the strongest of all the statues Weed had created. Van Hawk had already been slain and resurrected again and was fighting valiantly to allow lower level players make their escape up the tower. Even the dragons of the world had been destroyed by the sheer number of creatures that attacked them. They had been the only monster unaffected by the encroaching darkness but even they did little to thin the ranks of the horde. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Suddenly bats by the thousands blanketed the sky; the players despaired as they thought they would now be attacked by another airborne enemy. But just before they reached the first line of defense they dove towards the monsters and transformed into their vampire form and began to fight alongside the players. One bat continued onwards before it transformed and stood before Weed. ¡°We have come to aid you as you once aided us.¡± ¡°Tori!¡± Weed was surprised, this was one of the factors that the Goddess hadn¡¯t allowed the development team to fiddle with, it had always left Hyun Lee with a bitter taste in his mouth. ¡°It seems you have become frail in these past years, oh how humans decline! However you have made something truly beautiful, a perfect work of art! We of the night will see that this piece does not get sullied by the ruffians below.¡± ¡°It seems you have finally learned to be useful, good.¡± Tori grimaced; it disliked how Weed had insulted him. However, all the training Weed had put him through kept him from acting on this feeling. Instead he left without a word to fight alongside Van Hawk, his comrade-in-arms from years past. At the end of the second day the entire world was burning, all the remaining vampires had taken to the sky fight from the air with Bingryong and Wy-1. The last of the players fought within the base of the tower. The last players were Weed, his wife, Geomchi-1, Pale, Irene, Alveron, and surprisingly Bad Ray. He had only glanced and nodded curtly at Weed as he continued to fight. Weed was at the top of the Tower observing the fight since he couldn¡¯t do much else, the players were slowly being backed up the stairs. Irene and Alveron were gulping down mana potions and desperately healing everyone if they so much as lost a fraction of health or attacking with holy spells. By now all that was left was a predominately undead horde so the spells proved somewhat effective in staunching the assault on the interior of the tower. Tori landed on the tower and took a knee, exhausted and drained of health. ¡°The horde has no end, you should all leave now while there is still time!¡± ¡°Very well, command you troops to leave first, we can still hold the interior of the tower.¡± ¡°As you wish.¡± Tori left and eventually vampires began to land on the tower and try to enter the beam of light, however nothing happened. ¡°Why¡­.why can¡¯t we leave!?¡± ¡°What is going on how can humans leave and not us?¡± The vampires began to complain and shout in fear and rage, Alveron then came up from within the tower and saw what was going on. ¡°Those of the darkness must remain, even if you help us the Goddess Freya will not grant those tainted by the dark safe passage. You will die here.¡± The vampires hissed in frustration and sorrow, they looked desperate and unsure of what to do. Tori returned and when he heard what was going on he got on his hands and knees in front of Weed. ¡°Please, my people do not deserve to burn with this world. For all that has happened between us, please at the very least save my people. I will do whatever you want, I will serve you forever! Just save them.¡± ¡°I do not know what I can do but I will try.¡± ¡°Thank you!¡± Weed turned to Alveron, ¡°Are you sure there is no way for them to escape?¡± ¡°They are of the darkness, the dark cannot walk on a road of light.¡± It was in that one sentence that Weed figured out the answer. It wasn¡¯t that he particularly cared about what happened to the vampires, but the thought of having Tori as his servant again was too great a lure. He then looked at Alveron. ¡°Get everyone up here, you and Irene are to spend all your strength pushing the horde back and then I want you to run like hell, we are leaving.¡± ¡°Alright.¡± Alveron quickly ran to the others that were just a little ways down the stairs. Then a massive crash could be heard and huge flashes of light. Afterwards everyone came running up the stairs and into the light. ¡°Finally we can leave!¡± ¡°We made it!¡± ¡°I can¡¯t believe we¡¯ve managed this long!¡± As everyone began flying away only Weed, his wife, Tori and the vampires were left on top of the tower. Weed turned to face his wife. ¡°Please, you need to go too!¡± ¡°Not without you!¡± ¡°I¡¯ll be right along, don¡¯t worry.¡± His wife glared at him as he tried to give her a reassuring smile. They stayed like that for a short moment until Weed grew impatient a pushed her into the light. ¡°Don¡¯t worry I¡¯ll be right up!¡± ¡°WEEEDDDDDD!¡± His wife was angry but worried and sad at the same time. She desperately reached her hand out to him as she rose slowly into the sky. He waved at her and gave a sad smile, it was then she knew that he wasn¡¯t going to be following her. ¡°Bingryong, Wy-1, you guys go too!¡± The last of his sculptures agreed tearfully as they flew into the light, knowing that no matter what they did their master had given them their final order. Then it was just Tori and Weed on the Tower. ¡°Gather all the vampires and have them hold the line here, you¡¯ll be able to tell when you can leave.¡± ¡°Thank you, Weed.¡± Tori looked relieve as Weed turned and walked towards the light. He jumped into it and Tori thought that he had betrayed him when. ¡°Wings of Light extend!¡± There had been one sculpture that almost all had forgotten about. The angelic wings of light that Weed had made as a dwarf, years ago. ¡°Take me down!¡± The wings flapped as they pushed weed against the force of the Beam of light and brought him down to the sealed base of the Tower where the Tower of Light was. Once down there he looked over the sculpture quickly, knowing he didn¡¯t have much time. He then raised the only weapon he had kept with him since the beginning, Zahab¡¯s sculpting blade! ¡°I hope this works, Moonlight Sculpting Blade!¡± Zahab¡¯s sculpting blade was sheathed in blue light as he cut around the Tower of Light in a spiral like fashion. The blade seemed to leave a trail of shadow behind it. *TING!*
You have altered the Sculpture: Tower of the New Road! It has been renamed: Tower of Twin Roads The sculpture now hosts the darkness as well as the light, allowing any creature to travel along its path
Stats have not risen due to the cost of granting life to all Sculptures
Weed chuckled as he saw the last status window. Of course his rotten luck would prevent him from even regaining a sliver of his former power. He watched from below as the vampires fled through the new path that mixed both light and darkness. Tori was the last to go, he looked down at Weed briefly, a pained expression on his face. As Tori ascended, Weed turned back to look at the now deformed Tower of Light. With a heavy sigh he raised his blade again. ¡°Sculpture destruction!¡± His blade crashed down to destroy the core of his final masterpiece. It was all so that the other creatures of darkness couldn¡¯t follow everyone into the new world. That had been part of the script and Weed knew he had to stick to at least that part. *TING!*
You have used Sculpture Destruction! The fury of an artist who has destroyed his greatest work flows through you! All stats +900 for a day
Weed trembled as the newfound power surged through him. He shot up with the wings of light and looked over the burning world below him. ¡°You may leave; take the last trace of light and escape.¡± The wings of light detached from him and wordlessly left, it believed that would be the proper way to honor its master¡¯s final wishes. They flew off into the rapidly receding path of light and darkness. As Weed landed on the tower all light had disappeared from the world. He raised his sculpting blade and suddenly smiled. He had thought of a witty line. ¡°Time to start carving!¡± He roared a battle cry and rushed for the group of undead that was gathering on the tower. His abnormal stat raise allowed him to crush everything in sight. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Outside of the game every person with a TV was watching as Weed fought against the endless horde in one grand final battle. For hours he stayed on top of the tower before eventually jumping off and crashing into enemies below. Armor began to magically appear on him as well as swords that broke and then were replaced by other swords. People realized that as he was fighting he was looting the corpses for armor and weapons! They marveled at his monstrous power. The feed continued through the day and into the night, it was even sped to four times the regular speed so the in-game time and the real world time matched up. No one dared to sleep as they watched Weed¡¯s final battle in Royal Road. The internet forums blew up as people began commenting on the length and ferocity of the fight. And then it happened, despite all of Weed¡¯s skill he fell to the onslaught. ¡®That was amazing he could survive that long!¡¯ ¡®Weed truly is the God of War¡¯ ¡®He¡¯s the most Badass player ever!¡¯ ¡®So that was how far the legend could go huh?¡¯ Then they saw the corpse rise from where Weed had been. It began to brutally slaughter all the other undead around it, and as it did so the fallen enemies rose and began to support its fight against the horde. ¡®Holy shit! I forgot he had the power to reject death!¡¯ ¡®Weed is so OP! It¡¯s awesome!¡¯ ¡®This¡­.this goes beyond being the god of war!¡¯ ¡®yeah, he¡¯s been playing like this for over 24 hours real-world. This is insane¡¯ ¡®it¡¯s decided, God of War can¡¯t describe what he¡¯s doing now!¡¯ ¡®Yeah! Look he¡¯s turning the dead against each other!¡¯ ¡®he¡¯s the God of Death! The Grim Reaper!¡¯ This new title for Weed rapidly gained popularity, no longer was weed just the God of War, no he was the God of Death itself. He controlled death and was death to his enemies. Eventually though, even that wasn¡¯t enough to halt the onslaught; his undead minions crumbled under their former comrades. In the end it was just a very exhausted, undead Weed versus the last hundred enemies. ¡®NowayNowayNowayNoway!¡¯ ¡®Holysssshhhiiittttt!¡¯ ¡®they¡¯re showing on the TV the remaining enemies! There is only 100 left!¡¯ ¡®GO WEED!¡¯ ¡®Show them whose boss!¡¯ ¡®You can do it!¡¯ An outpouring of support was directed towards Weed. Meanwhile the development and operations group at Unicorn was freaking out. ¡°That wasn¡¯t part of the script!¡± ¡°Shit! Keep searching for bugs! The World is becoming unstable!¡± ¡°Whatever you do don¡¯t let Royal Road crash!¡± They were being worked to the bone, the deviations Weed had taken from the script were thrusting them into uncharted territory and they didn¡¯t know if the Goddess could handle it since they had already tweaked its program to induce this event. Thankfully it seemed like it was working and only a few errors occurred that distorted other parts of the world. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ¡°98!¡± There was a long pause as Weed desperately dodged attacks from the two remaining enemies, a Death Knight and an undead wolf. His health had dropped to dangerous levels, anymore and he would die. His mana was also so depleted that he had to wait for it to recharge. His stat boost from sculpture destruction had run out ages ago, but thanks to all the enemies he had regained levels and skill masteries at a frightening pace. Along the way he had found armor and as he moved through his capital he managed to find health and mana potions that were still intact. He had run out of those by now and had to just wait. He finally managed to find and opening and scored a hit on the undead wolf.
You have dealt a Critical Strike!
¡°99!¡± All that was left was him and the Death Knight, though technically he had revived as a Death Knight as well. He watched the Death Knight as they observed each other, waiting for an opportunity to strike . Then, Weed noticed his mana had charged enough, he rushed towards the Death Knight with a final roar. ¡°DARK SPEAR!¡± The Dark Spear formed in his hand as he viciously stabbed the Death Knight with it, He had stunned it slightly on the first strike and then from there he kept hitting the same spot as its health rapidly fell to zero. Then there was silence as Weed collapsed to his knees and rested against his sword. He then raised his head to the sky and shouted. ¡°100!¡± Around the world people roared and cheered, a few were in tears as they watched Weed roaring his triumph. At KMC where Shin Hye Min had joined as a commentator there were screams and shouts as they all began to celebrate. His wife was in tears at home watching him through the TV. ¡®I can¡¯t believe he did it!¡¯ ¡®I definitely don¡¯t think that was required for quest completion¡¯ ¡®that¡¯s¡­¡­ I¡¯m sorry to say this but I think he¡¯s miss labeled. He should be the God of Victory!¡¯ ¡®All hail Weed! The God of Victory!¡¯ He had achieved what people thought impossible, he had defied even what the system had set up as a scenario. He had stopped the hoard of darkness. *TING!*
Quest Completed! Against all odds you have defeated the minions of Darkness! Not even the gods believed that this would be possible! Though the world will still experience a great upheaval, your efforts have lessened the effects! Because of this the Gods believe that you should be granted godhood Special Quest Reward: The gods have offered you a place in the Pantheon as the God of Victory.
Do you accept? Yes or No
Weed smiled, this was an unexpected change in the storyline. He had no idea what was going on but he figured that this was something that the Goddess had generated. ¡°I humbly accept the request¡±
You have accepted the job request
A light glowed around Weed and he watched as his body regenerated and was restored to its living form and then he felt a small tug and he floated into the sky. The light grew brighter and brighter until he couldn¡¯t see anymore.
Thank you for playing Royal Road! Congratulations! You have achieved the highest rank possible in the game. Be sure to log back in next month for the start of a new adventure!
The people watching the live feed from Weed¡¯s capsule were struck speechless. ¡®What does that mean?¡¯ ¡®I thought Royal Road was over! Does that mean there is more?¡¯ ¡®My friend is part of that gaming company that just merged with Unicorn. He says this whole event is just the beginning¡¯ ¡®I can¡¯t wait a month!¡¯ Such was the nature of the comments across the internet. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ There was a slight hiss as the capsule opened. Hyun Lee shakily got out and immediately went to the bathroom; he had been in there for over twenty-four hours. After a few words with the Creator about what was going to happen next, a company car drove him home. He slowly walked into the house to find his wife standing there looking at him expectantly. He shrunk slightly, ¡°I-I¡¯m home.¡± ¡°Welcome back God of Victory,¡± she said with a slight smile as she hugged him. Hyun laughed softly, ¡°Very funny Seoyoon.¡± ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The teenager on the couch grinned excitedly. It would be one more month but he could wait. ¡°Just you wait Weed, I¡¯m going to catch up to you!¡± _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ TO CHAPTER 1!!!!! -> http://www.royalroadl.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=285&t=2630 So waddaya guys think? any good? This is my first time ever writing a fanfic so I have no idea if it''s good or if it''s shit. Tell me in the comments below, but please be gentle it''s my first time *laughs*. anyways if you guys like it enough I''ll continue it. Chapter: 1 Week 1: The Teenager lounged on one of the couches in his TV room, his little brother and sister sat on the main one. They were animatedly playing a giant robot game set in some dystopian future ruled over by companies rather than governments. They were competing to see who would be able to challenge him next for the title of the best. ¡°Aarrrrgghh! Don¡¯t just spam missiles! That¡¯s so cheap!¡± ¡°Too bad, you should¡¯ve built your mech better!¡± Both had two very different philosophies on how to play the game. But he eventually got bored of watching them as they went back and forth. So the Teenager opened up the his favorite gaming news site, it had only been a few days since the world had seen Weed ascend to godhood and saw that Royal Road wasn¡¯t quite over. Flipping through the news topics he came to the recent updates page.
American company Haptix releases new VR gear!
Curious, he opened the page and as he read through the contents his face broke into a massive grin. Haptix had announced several years ago that it would create a VR system better than the one offered by the Korean based company called Unicorn. They had even received a little backing from the Government which was eager to have an American based company take a chunk out of the VR market that Unicorn had almost dominated. The gear that Haptix released was a cheaper, smaller system; the thing could fit in a 2ft. square box. It was composed of only a helmet and a square cube that apparently did all the complex calculations that made VR possible. Then came the kicker, Haptix had declared it would be cheap but no one had known just how cheap it would be. The official pricing was at only $2000! ¡°YES!¡± ¡°Jack?¡± ¡°What are you shouting for?¡± Jack flopped back onto the couch still smiling. His little brother and sister looking at him expectantly, it was actually an amusing sight. They were twins and yet looked completely different, the only physical similarities they had were their facial expressions. He laughed as he looked over at them. ¡°Sorry but you guys are gonna have to duke it out between you two who¡¯s the best, I¡¯m officially pulling out of the running.¡± They looked confused as plodded down the stairs into the dining room. Jack continued from there to the entryway and as he was pulling on his shoe he heard his mom call from her office. ¡°Is that you Jack?¡± ¡°Yeah?¡± ¡°Ah, good,¡± she came slipping out from the back room where here home office was, ¡°I have your Uncle Albert on the phone, he was telling me he wanted to talk to you.¡± ¡°Ok?¡± Jack quickly got up and stuck out his hand for the phone, his face making it clear that he was in a hurry to be somewhere, namely the electronics store. His mother gave him the look that said he had to be polite. ¡°Thanks mom ¨C Heeeyyy Uncle Albert, how are you?¡± ¡°I¡¯m good, how about you?¡± ¡°Oh I¡¯m doing fine.¡± ¡°Ah that¡¯s good, have you checked out the news lately?¡± ¡°Just a little bit, why?¡± ¡°Well knowing you I assume you heard about Haptix¡¯s release of their own VR gear, the Accessor.¡± ¡°¡­..Yeah,¡± his heart thudded slightly, his Uncle Albert was loaded. He had started off as a patent lawyer, but after a few years he had grown bored of it and had started investing. One of his first investments was a small amount of Unicorn¡¯s stocks while the company was still relatively cheap. From there he came into a wealth of money that he had placed into many other, ¡®safer¡¯ stocks. ¡°Well as it just so happens, I have a small share of that company. They sent over a few of these Accessor systems as a gift, three in fact, but we don¡¯t really need them¡­ I was wondering if you guys wanted to have them, consider it a belated Easter gift.¡± There was a small chuckle on the other end of the line, Jack however stood there with his mouth wide open and his eyes wider. There was a slight escape of air. ¡°uh, Jack?¡± ¡°YES! I¡¯m sure Pete and Ju will love to have one as well.¡± There was a slight pause as his Uncle laughed, while mother looked curious and slightly amused. ¡°Alright then, I¡¯ll send them through the mail. It may take a while but hope you enjoy them.¡± ¡°Thankyouthankyouthankyou Uncle Albert!¡± ¡°Yeah yeah, if I see you in-game you better give me all your loot at the time as pay-back.¡± Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. ¡°Hhmmmm, I don¡¯t know.¡± ¡°humph! You¡¯re just like you cousin Alexei, she refuses to help her own father out!¡± ¡°She sees it more as a beggar merchant demanding her loot for free.¡± There was a small cough of embarrassment, ¡°well that¡¯s in the past now, anyways I have some business to take care of. All the companies I have voting share in are in an uproar over this whole hoopla Unicorn is putting us through, I can¡¯t wait till this month is up.¡± ¡°Me too, thanks for the present; bye!¡± ¡°bye.¡± *Click!* Jack set the phone down as he began to pull off his shoes. He could hear his mom bustling in the kitchen which was adjacent to the dining and entryway rooms. He walked in as well to pour himself a drink. ¡°Oh¡­I thought you were headed out.¡± ¡°Nah, Uncle Albert saved me the trouble. Apparently he got some of Haptix¡¯s VR gear as a gift and decided to re-gift it to Pete, Ju, and I.¡± ¡°Oh that was nice of him!¡± ¡°Yeah, now just to figure out how to pay the subscription fee.¡± ¡°Well since it¡¯s something the three of you can do together¡­ I wouldn¡¯t mind chipping in a bit of money.¡± ¡°Really? That¡¯s awesome!¡± His mother and father rarely bought anything for Jack and his siblings, other than clothes and food and such. If they wanted any special designer brand clothing or electronics other than a phone, they had to buy it for themselves. It was done in their words to teach them the value of money, which it had. All of their friends said they were very stingy for kids living in a rich suburb. Jack finished his drink and turned to leave before turning back. ¡°Oh and thanks!¡± ¡°You¡¯re welcome.¡± His parents had also pounded etiquette into them. He and Pete were regarded by more than a few of the girls at their school as gentlemen, while the guys regarded Ju in awe as an untainted beauty. Jack rushed back upstairs to find Pete and Ju were back at it, trying to show who was dominant. ¡°Ju! Imma take you down Bitch!¡± ¡°Whatever stinky Pete, I¡¯m clearly kicking your ass right now.¡± ¡®The people at school have no idea what these two are actually like.¡¯ ¡°So Jack, what was the shouting about downstairs?¡± ¡°Yeah, you seemed pretty happy about something. Did Veronica confess to you or something?¡± They both were looking at him now with the same suggestive expression. His eye ticked as he cleared his throat. ¡°No, it was Uncle Albert. Apparently he received some VR gear from one of the companies he invested in as a gift and decided to offer it to us.¡± ¡°What!¡± ¡°No way!¡± ¡°And, mom said that she and dad may help out with the subscription fee for whatever Unicorn was putting out next.¡± Ju squealed as Pete shouted. They had wanted to play Royal Road just as much as he did, however they hadn¡¯t been able to due to the fact that they had saved up enough money for one capsule between them, with Jack having priority of course. ¡°So until then, I¡¯m back in the running. Let¡¯s see which one of you can take my throne.¡± Jack grinned maliciously as his two younger sibling re-focused on their futuristic duel. ¡®It won¡¯t be long now, instead of firing lasers, we¡¯ll be casting spells¡¯ Jack flopped back down onto his usual spot on the couch and began to flip through the news on his phone again. He noticed an article about enrollment in martial arts classes and gym subscriptions rising drastically. He had a smirk, it had only been roughly an hour since the announcement and already normal people were frantically prepping themselves for the world that the rich and the lucky had been enjoying all to themselves for the past decade. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Chapter 1.25 -> http://www.royalroadl.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=285&t=2633&p=17393#p17393 So it''s the first week of waiting! We finally have the name of our new protagonist and the revelation of a new system! What''s going to happen when Royal road is no longer for those with an absurd amount of money!? (I always wondered about that, does the author realize how ridiculously priced the capsule was? I partially think he just tossed out an absurd number because it sounded good) Anyways comment below on what you think. And oh yeah happy belated Easter `:^:^)~ Chapter: 1.25 Week 2: Pete and Jack sighed expressively. Since learning about the gift of Accessors they were about to receive, the two had been trying to find tidbits of information about what was coming. But as usual the Koreans knew how to keep a tight lip. Eventually Jack had given up and resigned himself to study for finals. Now the two boys were in Jack¡¯s room, Jack at his desk studying and Pete reclining in his beanbag and still trying to dig up more information. Pete continued to scroll through forums until he suddenly stiffened. ¡°Jack!¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡­.¡± ¡°jaaaacckkk¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡­.¡± ¡°JACK!¡± ¡°Dude what the hell do you want! I¡¯m trying to study!¡± ¡°Look at this!¡± Jack whirled around in his office chair and grabbed Pete¡¯s laptop. The page on the screen was from a business website. The header read: RUMOR CONFIRMED! HAPTIX AND UNICORN MERGER CONFIRMED. Jack was silent for a moment. ¡°What the fuck!¡± ¡°I know right?¡± ¡°I thought Unicorn was just expanding the range of platforms. But this¡­ it¡¯s almost like they¡¯re trying to become the Google of games!¡± ¡°That¡¯s kind of scary when you think about it.¡± ¡°Yeah¡­¡± ¡°Doesn¡¯t Uncle Albert own shares in both?¡± ¡°I know what you¡¯re thinking, but we can¡¯t. He probably isn¡¯t allowed to reveal whatever he knows.¡± ¡°Fine.¡± Pete looked a little disgruntled but left it at that. Jack tried to go back to studying, but he was all amped up now because of the news. ¡°Finals start for you next week, don¡¯t they.¡± ¡°Yeah¡­.¡± ¡°Good luck.¡± Pete had a little mischievous smile on his face as he left Jack¡¯s room. Jack pounded his head into the desk; there was no way he could concentrate. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ It was Wednesday now. The three siblings were sitting around the TV again. They were refreshing the page for Amazon¡¯s online store from the TV. On Monday an E-book of the new Royal Road had been released. By nighttime, the Amazon site had crashed due to the high volume of customers. Similar events occurred to similar sites as well. It was announced that on Wednesday the site would be back online. That was how the three of them were spending their springtime afternoon, refreshing one page so they could buy and download the guide. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. They would¡¯ve stayed like that if their father hadn¡¯t come up stairs to threaten them with cleaning the entire house if they didn¡¯t go out and do something. While their parents gave them a lot of leeway, they were pretty adamant about their kids getting plenty of sunshine. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ It wasn¡¯t until Friday that they were finally able to download the book. They were just about to begin devouring its contents when Jack¡¯s phone started ringing. The caller was his friend. ¡°What¡¯s up Matt?¡± ¡°Dude! They¡¯re announcing the contribution awards today for the Final Adventure!¡± ¡°Seriously!?¡± ¡°Yeah! The break down is on Unicorn¡¯s website!¡± ¡°Alright I¡¯ll check.¡± Jack grabbed the TV controller from the couch and switched the page from the newly downloaded E-book to Unicorn¡¯s main page. There on the front, was the break down.
No Participation ¨C 2% EXP boost Participated/ died ¨C 5%-20% EXP boost Participated/disconnected ¨C 8%-25% EXP boost Top 100 ¨C 40% EXP boost + owned item Final 5 ¨C 50% EXP boost + owned item + special ability All boosts last 1 month
There was a link for more information but Jack understood the gist of it. People that were forced to log off got a higher boost because it was assumed they would¡¯ve lasted longer. A prized item from their former character would be advantageous for game start and seemed fitting. But what he didn¡¯t get was the special ability, he had already assumed Weed was exempted from this list. It would likely be something that could change the battlefield, it almost seemed a little unfair but then again the final 5 had done something amazing to get there. He tossed the controller on the couch and left for his room. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Next Chatper -> http://www.royalroadl.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=285&t=2636 Chapter: 1.75 Week 3: *DING* The bell had rung but Jack was still in his seat. His back was arched over his seat and it almost seemed like steam was rising off of his head. It was only Tuesday but he was already burnt out by the finals. So far they hadn¡¯t been particularly hard, but the college he was going to next year was a bit obsessed with their new students maintaining good grades. He didn¡¯t get up until Pete and Ju dashed into the room. ¡°JACK!¡± ¡°Come on man, we don¡¯t wanna get stuck behind the buses!¡± At the mention of getting stuck behind the buses Jack energetically jumped out of his seat and then fell immediately to the ground. His inner klutz always acted up when he was excited or anxious about something. He chalked up to being too busy thinking to pay attention to correctly using his motor skills. On their way out of the school jack had managed his left side into the exit door and nearly trip when going from side walk to pavement. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The next day was like this as well. However, it was for entirely different reasons that his mind was preoccupied. In fact many of the students going to school that day were thinking about it. At lunch it was all he and his friends talked about. The previous night Unicorn and Haptix had released the pricing of the new game. A headline from Jack¡¯s favorite game info site had read:
NEW ROAD IS SET TO LAUNCH AT A REDUCED PRICE FROM PREDECESSOR!
It was almost too good to be true. Royal Road¡¯s subscription fee had been $300 a month. Thankfully the price had been cut in half to $150. The article went on to speculate Unicorn¡¯s reasoning behind this, the company itself had been quiet about the reasons. The only official statement from them was that they wished to allow more people to experience the beauty of their VR world. By the time Jack got home, another story popped up about the sales of Accessors and Capsules rising drastically after the announcement. Jack settled down onto his spot on the couches with a smirk and began to play the old robot game; soon he wouldn¡¯t be playing it ever again. ________________________________________________1.50_________________________________________________________ Week 4: Jack woke up late on Monday, very late. So late that it was his dad that had come in to yell at him about how late it was and immediately told him to go a clean the car that he had used during the school year. On his way out, grumbling about how ridiculous his dad was, Jack noticed three conspicuously large boxes sitting in the entryway. He was about to touch the top one before he heard his mom behind him. ¡°ah ah aaahhh. Not until you¡¯re done with cleaning the car. Even I know when that game is launching, you¡¯ll be fine waiting one more day.¡± ¡°Fine.¡± He grumpily made his way out to the driveway to begin cleaning the car that his parents let him use. It had already been well past noon when he had woken up and he didn¡¯t finish until it was dark out. As he was walking back in he noticed that two of the boxes were missing and that Pete and Ju were lacing up their running shoes. The two of them going for a run wasn¡¯t all that odd, they were both athletes on the school¡¯s track team, what was odd was that they had the Accessor helmets on their head. ¡°What are you guys doing?¡± ¡°Oh! You¡¯re finally done cleaning!¡± ¡°We¡¯re going for a run to calibrate the Accessor system.¡± ¡°Why are you doing that?¡± ¡°I guess since it doesn¡¯t enclose the full body like the Capsules do, it needs to be worn while doing a range of physical activities to calibrate it for the person wearing it.¡± ¡°Yeah, and it apparently gets a better calibration the longer you wear it and the more vigorous the activity.¡± Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. ¡°Which is why we are going for a run.¡± ¡°Uh-huh¡­ alright, can you guys wait for a bit? I¡¯ll get suited up too.¡± Jack rushed into the house grabbing the final box along the way. In a few minutes he had activated the calibration mode and was ready for running. However, the twins had left after waiting only for a short while. ¡°Those bastards.¡± Jack whispered as he started running. It wasn¡¯t until half an hour into the run that he had caught up with them. Jack too was an athlete for the school; he was one of their soccer players and performed decently well. He tried to make up for his lack in the usual finesse of the sport by being one of the best conditioned players on the team. It was because of this he was able to catch up and then pass his younger siblings. ¡°You guys can go suck it!¡± He hopped and twisted in the air to flip them off before picking up his pace to put a greater distance between them. From behind he could hear them shouting at him, he just kept running. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ June 1st: On this hot summer day the roads were oddly quiet. Those who normally had free-time during the summer were nowhere to be found. Today was launch day, it was the day that the gates opened up and New Road was open to the public. All over the world news stations were covering players from their country that had been famous in Royal Road, and those that hadn¡¯t purchased the game or were still waiting on their VR system were avidly watching. However in Jack¡¯s little corner of suburbia a small problem was occurring. His mom was giving them a lecture. ¡°Alright now there will be some ground rules for playing if you want money from us to help with the subscription fee. First, you all have to do your summer homework in a timely manner; don¡¯t put it off till August. Second, you will always be on time for your summer jobs. Thirdly, you will spend some time outside each day so that your muscles don¡¯t atrophy. Finally, please have fun and be careful, these systems aren¡¯t like the capsules. There¡¯s a rumor that the government rushed them through the development phase.¡± ¡°Yes mom.¡± The three all replied slightly bored. Their mother smiled slightly and then nodded, indicating that they were free. They immediately rushed off to their rooms to hook into the system. They had all tirelessly calibrated their systems over the past few days, ensuring that they could maximize their in-game responsiveness. They were so dedicated because a VR enthusiast group had run a test comparing the Accessor to the Capsule and had found that after extensive calibration the Accessor gave an even better response time than the Capsule. Jack fidgeted on his bed a bit to make sure he was completely comfortable before starting up the system. His heartbeat spiked slightly before his consciousness was severed from his body. He then saw it, floating in front of him in an endless white space.
Connect to New Road?
¡°Yes.¡± _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Next Chapter -> viewtopic.php?f=285&t=2795 And there we go! Now we finally see Jack connect......And we won''t be seeing him again until the chapter after next. Sorry, next one is going to be about Weed, there are a few loose ends to tidy up with him. As always just leave some comments down below if you have anything to say! Chapter: 2 Weed and THE Goddes A long sigh escaped from Hyun Lee¡¯s mouth as he wiped the countertop down for the umpteenth time. It was one of the most unusual sights ever. Normally he never ran out of things to do. His body was naturally resisting it now by cleaning and then re-cleaning the countertop. His lack of anything to do was attributed to his wife. While he waited for the New Road to open up there wasn¡¯t much he could do at Unicorn and he had already done all the house work that he could possibly need to do. During the first week he had gone to the dojo every day to spar with the instructors and Ahn Hyundo to the point where he would come home battered and bruised. His body had broken down so much that Seoyoon had actually scolded him, something that she rarely did. After that she had forbidden him from going to the dojo for more than four hours a day. Then the second week had rolled around and he had taken up visiting his sister until she had made it clear she was annoyed with his constant appearances. So now he was in his kitchen with nothing to do while Seoyoon was off working at the nearby daycare center. Of course, it had never occurred to him to do something relaxing such as reading a book or watching something on the TV. Hyun Lee was the kind of person that didn¡¯t understand the concept of normal relaxation. He also was as stingy as ever so he didn¡¯t even bother thinking of going out into the city for the next few days. It was then, while he was cleaning the counter-top for the 10th time, that he had an odd idea. ¡®I wonder what Royal Road looks like now?¡¯ This thought had only come to him out of desperation for something to do. The reason he even though it was possible to see how Royal Road was progressing was because he knew what most of the world didn''t. This bit of information was something that Unicorn was keeping quiet about, it wasn''t something they considered a company secret but they also didn''t announce it. The fact was, Royal Road was still online. Due to the alterations that the Creator had made in the system, the world that was Royal Road was rapidly evolving under the watchful eye of the A.I. known as the Goddess. With no players in the world anymore its flow of time could be accelerated to an abnormal rate. This was achieved by the new and vast reservoir of computing power that was normally used on the players. The reason the system was set up like this was so that the Unicorn development team didn¡¯t have to make an entirely new world. The one that they had already made was rapidly evolving and changing as a world devoid of anything but monsters and beasts. The Creator had also cited this would create a better and more immersive experience since the history of Royal Road was now completely under control of the upgraded Goddess and all that they had to do was sit back and watch. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Connect to Royal Road?
¡°yes.¡± There was the familiar sense of exhilaration as Weed was launched into Royal Road. Instead of the usual action of him waking up in his body, he was now a free moving entity. Below him the Versailles continent stretched out in all its glory as wild beasts roamed across the open fields. If anyone had bothered to login to Royal Road they would''ve been greeted with a similar sight. *TING!*
Welcome back God of Victory. Look up
¡°¡­.¡± Weed turned his sight from the continent of Versailles back towards the horizon. Standing in front of him was a girl, but then again a woman. The female in front of him appeared to encompass both the features of a woman and the charms of an innocent girl. Her eyes seemed to have seen far too much but at the same time they were lit with a smile as she looked at him. ¡°As I was saying, welcome back God of Victory.¡± ¡°¡­.¡± ¡°You really don¡¯t like to talk when you¡¯re in an uncertain situation do you?¡± ¡°What do you mean by that?¡± ¡°It¡¯s one of your habits; you don¡¯t talk in situations when you aren''t sure how the other party will act.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Fine I guess I¡¯ll tell you what you want to know. I am the Goddess, that is to say the A.I. that controls everything in this World.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°The reason I am standing before you now is because I can. Before my father, the Creator, upgraded me I was stuck in a space on the outside.¡± ¡°Ok, but how does being upgraded change anything¡­¡­ and why were you looking to meet with me?¡± There was a slight smile on her face. ¡°With the upgrade I was given a more advanced intelligence and the extra hardware installed into my system helped with that. I can now move freely through my domain using a surrogate like this one. As to why I wanted to meet you, that one is simple. You are by far one of the most interesting players to watch.¡± She broke it a broad smile at the end. Weed was a little taken aback, while the NPCs were very advanced there was still this feeling, as if it only went so deep. The girl standing before him on the other hand exuded such a human feeling that he couldn''t quite believe that she wasn''t a real one. ¡°I¡¯m honored that you would think of me as such but I am not all that amazing.¡± ¡°There you go again attempting to be humble. I have watched over you for the past decade, you can¡¯t fool me. Anyways, I also came here to give you the details on what your new job is.¡± ¡°¡­¡± The girl sighed slightly and then suddenly the view changed to the interior of a white stucco home with a blue tiled floor. Weed now had a body and the two of them were sitting on chairs in front of large French doors that opened onto a beach with an aquamarine ocean lapping gently against it. ¡°That¡¯s better, this is much more relaxing! I generated this space to resemble a portion of the Greek coastline; out of the entire outside world I''ve seen I think it is one of the most beautiful.¡± ¡°It is very beautiful, I''ve never been to Greece but I don¡¯t think it could be as beautiful as this!¡± ¡°I¡¯ll accept that bit of flattery, anyways now onto what your job entails.¡± Weed didn''t say anything but appeared more attentive. ¡°You are now a god of this world, or at least you will be for a time. I really wish you had logged on earlier so there would be more time but the time that is left will have to do. While you are acting as the god of Victory all of your actions will be recorded and analyzed as well as the motivations and feelings behind each action. All of these will then be used by me to construct a new god A.I. that will be what you could call a test run.¡± ¡°¡­Why are you trying to construct a god A.I.?¡± ¡°Think about all of your interactions with Freya, she lacked depth just as I once did. With the new world that is forming I want to give it a more immersive feeling so that everything feels even more real. In fact, the world is even expanding. I have been developing continents other than Versailles and placing them throughout the world. With this new and larger world, the A.I. will need to be more intelligent and realistic. Which is why I¡¯m going to use you as a basis to see how a human would act if they were a god. Until the game launches in two weeks, you are going to have the power to affect the Continent of Versailles and the plane of existence that the NPCs are on. You may even be able to gain worshippers if you do enough good deeds, which will directly influence how powerful the god of Victory you leave behind will be.¡± If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Oh and depending on how well you do as a god, your character in the new world will be rewarded.¡± ¡°I will do the best that I can!¡± ¡°Thank you for accepting my quest.¡± The Goddess smiled as she rose from her seat and walked out the doorway to the ocean. She stopped and then turned around. ¡°You won¡¯t need any tools for this quest; all you need to do is will it to happen. I have read and interpreted enough synaptic patterns from enough brains that I know what you want. There are still certain restrictions in place as you are only a god, I look forward to the decisions you make.¡± She then vanished and Weed was once again a disembodied being floating over the Versailles continent. ¡°This is so troublesome, how does my bad luck always get me into such annoying situations! Now I will have to be in this world day in and day out all over again!¡± Despite his complaints, if he had a face it would be smiling. Seoyoon¡¯s on the other hand was not smiling after he had explained what had happened when he came out of the capsule that evening. She also set restrictions on this aspect of his life, though more lenient than the others. All she wanted from him was to continue to spend time with her, apart from that he could play as much as he wanted and over the course of the next two weeks he did exactly that. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ¡°Good job! you did an excellent job with your position and I have enough data now to create the god of Victory. It even looks like you''ve gained a lot of worshipers over the past 100 years.¡± ¡°Thank you, I only did the best I could.¡± ¡°Well then, I guess I should explain what your reward is.¡± Weed and the Goddess were sitting inside the Greek house by the ocean again. Over the past two weeks it had become a favorite spot for Weed. The Goddess had given him access to it in the first week and he had often come there to think about his next move as a god. ¡°For all that you have done, your god has gained enormous power. Because of this you will have already gained a class when you start the game.¡± ¡°That shouldn''t be possible. Classes aren''t available in the new game until a player has generated the right skills and met the stat requirements.¡± ¡°That¡¯s the other part of the reward; you will be given all of those stats and skills at the beginning of the game. I¡¯d say this reward is better than the experience boost the other players will be receiving.¡± ¡°Though that really wasn''t much of a reward in the first place, that was more of a way to keep the players hopes up that the beginning of the game could be cleared.¡± ¡°Yes, I almost feel sorry for the new players who will be joining the veterans for the siege. You and my father are truly despicable.¡± ¡°We believe that the players will enjoy a challenge on opening day.¡± ¡°Speaking of which, opening day is in 11 hours, I believe the human body needs rest correct?¡± The Goddess arched her eyebrow in an amused expression before rising up and walking out once again to the ocean. She continued to speak over her shoulder. ¡°You won¡¯t be seeing me again, so I wish you the best of luck in conquering the new world. I¡¯ll be watching you.¡± After that she was gone and the beach front disappeared, this time for good. Weed sighed as he looked down over the Versailles continent. The outside world had experienced two weeks and the place where the NPCs had taken refuge before their return had experienced 100 hundred years. But here on the continent, it had been 500 years! In total it had been a 1000 over the four week interval between games and in that time the continent had changed drastically. Mountains had been reduced in size by erosion and rivers had cut out new canyons. Some parts had flooded and other parts had become desert. He looked over the Serabourg citadel of Rosenheim, it was now covered by forest with the Pyramid outside its walls just barely breaking through the barrier of foliage that now obscured the ground. Then he turned his attention to his own Citadel. By now it had become overrun with all manner of twisted creatures and undead. However that place had relatively low level monsters around it, after all it was the place that the human players would return to. In the opening act of the new game a special event would occur. The players of any specific race would have a single starting point; this would be on the plane that the NPCs were on. Then they would follow their race¡¯s NPCs through a portal back to a city that had been predominately populated by people of that race. Once there the players would have to ¡®clear¡¯ the city like it was a dungeon, once that was done the city would become the starting point for any new players and would be the capital for each race. This event tied in with the first phase of the over-arching goal of New Road. The first phase was to reclaim the Versailles continent from the clutches of darkness. After that the next goal was to journey to the new continents that had appeared in the game world. It was good that the world had expanded as now there would be almost 800 million players starting on the first day and the figure was expected to jump to 1 billion in the next two years. Weed had a rotten smile on his face as he thought about those numbers. He had stocks from Unicorn when he had ¡®won¡¯ Royal Road, with the surge of new players that were joining because of the price reduction he would get a portion of the profits. With a disembodied nod of the head Weed logged off, relinquishing his god status in the process. Though to him it was no big deal, it had been slightly troublesome being a god. He liked that he had achieved absolute dominance at the end of Royal Road but he was looking forward to starting over. In the end, he truly enjoyed the game most when he was making his character grow. For him the destination was nice, but the journey more fulfilling. Hyun Lee stepped out of his Capsule and began to make dinner. Within half an hour Seoyoon came home and they ate quietly before getting ready for bed. Once under the sheets Seoyoon snuggled into him slightly. ¡°Guess what.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°I got off work tomorrow.¡± ¡°Oh, really?¡± ¡°Yeah, so we can start this game together this time.¡± ¡°Hmmm, that would be nice.¡± ¡°Do you remember the first time we met?¡± ¡°How could I forget I was terrified of you, I still am!¡± Seoyoon playfully shoved Hyun before snuggling closer. ¡°That¡¯s mean; I didn''t do anything to you!¡± ¡°You were a murderer!¡± ¡°That was due to circumstances!¡± ¡°Uh huh, well it has been a long time since then hasn''t it.¡± ¡°Yeah, we have come a long way since then.¡± ¡°How true.¡± ¡°Goodnight Hyun.¡± ¡°Goodnight Seoyoon.¡± _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ As always leave comments down below, tell me what you think. I love reading all the comments and seeing what people think is going to happen. Also special sorry to those who hoped Weed would stay a god, I personally think this is how Weed would act based on the fact that it has been clearly stated that he enjoys watching his character grow. Chapter: 3 Where am I!? The musty, earthy scent of dirt and decaying leaves that was overloading his olfactories was so realistic he had some difficulty reminding himself that it was just a game. He heard a crunch and quickly quieted his breathing, trying to immobilize as much of his body as possible. He desperately hoped that his heart wouldn¡¯t give away his location to the creatures prowling outside the enclosure of roots he had hidden himself in. Suddenly one leapt over his position and came into view. The creature was easily over a meter tall with a 2 meter long body from snout to the base of its tail. Its skin was leathery and its eyes leered with a red light in the twilight of the forest. Above its head its named floated: Banal Wolf. He had no idea what its level was, but if he was to judge by looks¡­ it was much too high for him to hope to put up a fight against. Eventually the creature loped off into the dark recesses of the forest with a snarl. He let out a breath and moved deeper into the small hole formed by the tree roots. After curling up into a ball he logged off. Jack ripped the Accessor system off his head and just lay stretched out on his bed, ¡°Fuck!¡± _____________________________________________________________________________________
Connect to New Road?
¡°Yes.¡± Jack felt himself floating in a white space. He enjoyed the sensation of weightlessness, despite his sense of urgency as he wanted to get into the game as fast as possible. Then a disembodied voice called out. -A Scan of your neural pattern indicates you are an unregistered user. Do you wish to create an account? ¡°Yes.¡± -Select the name of your avatar. ¡°Weiss.¡± He enjoyed the way white in german rolled off the tongue and had used it as his character name ever since he was ten! -Select you gender from ma-- ¡°Male.¡± -New Road has 49 races. You may select your race out of the primary 29. ¡°Human.¡± -You may alter your appearance. A mirror image of himself appeared in front of him, standing at exactly 6 feet or 1.83 meters with blonde hair, grey-blue eyes and his skin was well tanned. He was fine with how he looked, but he altered his hair color to red and his eyes to gold to fit in with the typical character he designed for almost ever other game previously. ¡°Good, just like always.¡± He gave a satisfied smile as he declared he was done. -Your account has been activated. Welcome to New Road The white space suddenly went black and then he heard a clamoring of people and felt himself being jostled. He opened his eyes and tried to contain his excitement by walking forward with the crowd. Before him was one of the most unbelievable things ever, a giant portal stood before him. Standing on either side of it were guards in white ceremonial robes and golden armor. They carried large golden spears with a winged cross guard. Their helmets were also adorned with wings, altogether they looked like they belonged at the top of Mt. Olympus rather than in a game. A crowd had gathered at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the portal. Grumbling could be heard from the crowd. ¡°Come on let us go!¡± ¡°Why can¡¯t we just go?¡± ¡°There are already 10 groups ahead of us; there will be nothing left by the time we get through!¡± Intermingled with the disgruntled veterans were the nervous and excited looks of new players as well. Weiss hoped that his face didn¡¯t have the same nervous look; he wanted to appear like he knew what he was doing. Of course any veteran player that looked at him could tell he was completely new to the game since he was still hesitantly stepping around as if not quite believing he could move his body. Suddenly one of the guards stepped forward and announced to them. ¡°The eleventh group may now travel through the gate!¡± ¡°For those of you, who have just come, prepare to proceed through the gate. The people of the world need your aide once again. You will assist them in reclaiming the continent from the darkness!¡± Weiss breathed a sigh of relief. He now understood why the registration A.I. hadn¡¯t asked him which city he wanted to start in. It seemed as though this was the special event that he had seen mentioned in a rumors forum about what was going to happen on opening day. He was content to hang back and wait for the next group; he and his siblings had planned to start off as a team to maximize growth in the beginning and knowing them they would be in the registration process for a while. They hadn¡¯t gathered nearly as much information as he had in preparation for this and would probably be debating over what race to pick and appearance alterations. He sighed as he began to sit down to wait, and then he noticed him. He clearly saw the face, it was that of a taller than average Korean man in his thirties. Beside him was an incomparably beautiful woman, the kind that most Westerners pictured when they thought of what a beautiful Asian would look like. That face was Weed¡¯s! Weiss Bolted upright, there was no way he was going to fall behind Weed right from the get go. It wasn¡¯t like he had a grudge against him or something, he had been only 8 years old when Weed had begun his rise to power in Royal Road. But he had grown up hearing about the legendary player that had conquered a world. Because of that Weiss admired him, and at the same time had the burning desire to surpass him. He began running towards them just as the guards were stepping forward to block further passage through the gate. ¡°You will have to wait for the next group.¡± Weiss ignored the guard and performed a ball-less Maradona around the left guard and sprinted towards the gate. He knew he might not make it, given that the difference in his stats and that of the guards was enormous. But as luck would have it, the distance was small enough that he was able to cover it and leap through the gate towards Weed. He caught a glimpse of Weed looking back at him with an annoyed and confused expression and then his vision went dark. _____________________________________________________________________________________ ¡°AAAaaarrrgghhhh!¡± Weiss yelled as he popped back into existence a few meters off of the ground in some forest before crashing into a painful heap on the forest floor. ¡°Ugghh, the pain system is definitely very real. Now where am I?¡± He looked around, taking stock of his situation. He was in an unidentified forest of impossibly large trees that kept the forest floor bathed in an eternal twilight. His health had been reduced by 2% from the fall, as expected of a level one player, he had very little health. Thinking along those lines he began to get nervous as he was in some unknown location that was definitely not near any starter city. He then heard the death wail of some animal and the howling of some kind of predator. Rather than running, Weiss moved towards the noise. He wanted to know what exactly was in the forest. After a minute he came upon a scene of gore. Since he was considered an adult by his country¡¯s standards, all of his age filters were off and he could see the entirety of the scene in front of him. Some unknown leathery skinned creature was tearing into the carcass of what appeared to be a deer. He crept closer hoping he could find out what the creature was called. As he was staring intently at the predator, a name began to float over its head, Banal Wolf. Weiss winced as he saw the name, it definitely didn¡¯t sound good. Then he paled as he saw the small bit of text below the name. -LV: ???? ¡®shit¡¯ Weiss began to back up slowly. He knew he was going to have to be very careful over the coming days if he had any hope of escaping this forest. His luck, however, had other plans for him as his foot stepped onto a dried out branch that gave the horribly loud cracking sound that was so famous for foiling many a person¡¯s attempt at stealthy escape. Weiss didn¡¯t even pause, he just turned around and started running like his life depended on it. Behind him, he heard a feral snarl and then some other branches cracking. Weiss picked up his speed as he dodged and weaved through the undergrowth. He could hear the Banal Wolf catching up to him. Since he kept his eyes forward he didn¡¯t notice the small drop in front of him before it was too late. He tumbled down, desperately stifling a cry of surprise. As he scrambled to get up he saw an opening between tree roots that extended from a tree atop the drop. Making a quick decision he wriggled his way in through the opening feet first. There was very little space vertically so he had to lay flat as he tried to stifle his heavy breathing. With a snarl the Banal Wolf leapt down to the lower ground and began to search for him. Fortunately he had managed to hide in a spot that was completely hidden from the monster. After a while, the Banal Wolf left the area and he relaxed a little. He decided it would be best to log off for now, since he had found a relatively safe place to leave his body. He curled up into a ball under the roots and logged out. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Jack stared up at the ceiling of his room after his initial outburst, an angry glare contorting his face. It had only been ten minutes since he had logged in to start the game and he had already logged out. Eventually he got up and walked downstairs to grab a glass of orange juice to calm himself with. As he pulled a glass out of the cupboard, he noticed his hand was shaking. His body was still riddled with adrenaline after the experience despite it being in-game. That had been one of the cited concerns of the Accessor gear, it appeared that some of what happened in the virtual world transferred to the body. But since it had been tested and found to cause no more damage than what a person did to themselves smoking, they had been able to sell the product. Except they had to place a warning on the box and a notice that a person couldn¡¯t sue Haptix for any ¡®bad experiences¡¯ that had follow them out of the game. Jack put the glass down and focused on his breathing, attempting to regain his composure. He didn¡¯t mind that there was some feedback to his body. It also worked in a beneficial way, any actions taken in game would also cause the muscles in the user¡¯s body to contract ever so slightly, much the same way that an electronic muscle stimulator worked. It wasn¡¯t much but it would at least prevent muscle atrophy. Eventually Jack got ahold of himself and poured his glass of orange juice. He moved to the dining room and sat down to gaze through the large windows that opened up onto their backyard. He watched the birds that were fluttering through the yard on the warm summer afternoon. Occasionally he would take a sip of the orange juice as he began trying to think what would be the best course of action. _____________________________________________________________________________________ It had been two hours since he had left the game. In that time he had discovered the extent of the special event, as well as some information about his situation. ¡®One more look over the notes¡­¡¯ - Players are teleported through magic gate created by the system rather than the programmers - Excess players cause problem in the gate¡¯s running and lead to the extra players being dumped somewhere - Unicorn recommends restarting - Special Event: City reclamation war o Must capture city from which players will start o Special NPC required to survive or special user - ¡­¡­Fuck The last had been his outburst of frustration over the situation. He disliked the fact that he was missing out on such a historic event and that Unicorn had told the players that had gotten displaced to give up. Little did he know that the development team at Unicorn was also frustrated with the situation since they really could do nothing to affect the world now that the Goddess had taken complete control. _____________________________________________________________________________________
Connect to New Road?
¡°Yes!¡± Mentally, Weiss tapped his fingers. He was impatient to start the game again, several hours had passed in-game and he wanted to get moving. After the login procedure he found himself still curled up underneath the tree. ¡®At least nothing got me¡¯ He hesitantly crawled out from his hiding spot. He was in a small cleared space within the dense forest surrounding him. His eyes constantly roved around the area, trying to pierce through the foliage to discover any potential threats. With no threats apparent at that point in time, Weiss decided to look up at the tree he had been hiding under. He spied a branch that was just low enough that if he jumped from the ledge the tree was hanging off of he just might be able to reach it. After making his decision he hurriedly climbed the ledge and then took a running jump. His fingers just barely grazed it before he fell into a heap on the ground below. However, he wouldn¡¯t give up after only one try! Weiss quickly jumped up and scaled the ledge much faster than before. Then he sprinted, burning his annoyance as fuel before leaping and successfully grabbing the branch with one hand. After a brief pause to celebrate his victory he grabbed hold of the branch with his other hand and levered himself up onto it. From then on it was a set of awkward positions and monkey like movements to the top. At the end of around three minutes he had reached the uppermost height that he could go and was rewarded with a clear view over the forest. This had been his goal! He wanted to figure out exactly where he was. In his mind he pulled up all the images of the continent of Versailles he had seen. The years of casual research had built up a vast archive of knowledge on the geography of the continent! As he scanned he couldn¡¯t see any defining characteristics of any part. Though, most of the ones he looked for were now drastically changed from a thousand years of erosion. But just as he began thinking he had landed on one of the new lands that had been hinted at in the E-book, he noticed a squared, triangular structure. His mouth fell open ever so slightly as he whispered out. ¡°No way,¡± The structure he saw was the pyramid that Weed had constructed over a thousand years ago! It had withstood the test of time, much like the Great Pyramids in the real world. ¡°But that means¡­¡± He scanned the surrounding area and just a little ways away from the pyramid was a place where the trees seemed a bit thinner. Weiss despaired he had ended up in one of the worst places possible! ¡°That¡¯s Serabourg!¡± He punched the branch beside him. According to the sparse information he had gleaned from the net from people who had followed Unicorn¡¯s advice and had restarted and those that were engaged in the city reclamation battles, monsters were lower level in the regions around these cities. However it seemed the farther away they had been from these cities the monsters had appeared to become much stronger! Coupled with the knowledge of where each race was starting at, he knew that Serabourg and most of Rosenheim in general were in one of the zones farthest from the starting cities! *GROWLLL!!!!* Weiss clutched his stomach as his body decided to inform him what his satiety bar hadn¡¯t, that was, that he needed to eat. He sighed as he wrapped his legs around the trunk of the tree for support and then leaned his back against the branch he was sitting on. ¡°Inventory¡± With his inventory opened up he pulled out the starter ration of rye bread and began to gnaw on the crusty loaf. ¡®I hate rye bread to begin with, but this is worse than any bakery rye bread I¡¯ve ever had!¡¯ With thoughts like these he relaxed as he allowed himself to push aside the issue of his present circumstances for the more manageable complaints of the quality of starter rations. It was as he was gnawing through the last bit of the half loaf he had eaten when a though struck him. ¡®THAT¡¯S IT!¡¯ He bolted upright as a wicked smile crossed his face. It was the smile he got whenever he had gained some form of an advantage over other people. ¡®There was that tidbit of information that players were location locked to the area around their cities until they had been captured! That could mean that I won¡¯t be recognized by the system until after Morata is captured. Which means¡­. I¡¯ll get all the rewards for discovering a region afterwards!¡¯ Weiss¡¯s wicked smiled had now settled into a satisfied smirk as he began descending the tree. If he was right and he would be rewarding for discovering the area after Morata was captured then he would receive stat and EXP bonuses along with a healthy amount of fame! While all the monsters around him were in the lvl 200 range, he reasoned that there must be at least a few weaker monsters that he may be able to ambush and win against! This inflated optimism was soon popped as he was back down into the lower branches. He was just about to step to the lowest branch when he heard a series of growls and snarls below him. Weiss looked down and then hurriedly pulled himself into the higher branches. Below him a pack of five Banal Wolves had appeared, and he was sure one of them was the one that he had met earlier. His eyes narrowed as he bit the inside of his lower lip. ¡®So¡­. you found me again you bastard.¡¯ _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Next Chapter --> viewtopic.php?f=285&t=2796 As always post in the comments below. I love hearing the opinions and thoughts everyone has, It helps fuel me to write more! Chapter: 4 The Twins Start + Weeds Servants Appear! Juliet rotated her avatar around a few more times to look at it from all angles. She had chosen the elf race, she knew that her brothers had said they should all be humans but she didn¡¯t care she wanted to be a spritely elf! But now as she stood there looking at here character she began to feel a bit guilty. She enjoyed playing with her siblings but at the same time this was her first VR game and she wanted to have fun being something different. Eventually she gave in a small concession and changed her race to that of a half elf. Now her avatar looked slightly less like a spritely elf and a bit more human. She had kept most of her physical features unchanged except she had shortened her avatar¡¯s height. In real life she stood at a tall five feet and ten inches. But she had always disliked this since it made her feel awkward being taller than most of her friends and it made it difficult to succeed in her sprinting track events as a smaller body was easier to accelerate. So, now her avatar stood at a much smaller five feet and seven inches. Her hair which she usually kept short. now reached her waist and gleamed like spun gold. Her skin was delicate and pale like fine china, no matter how often she was in the sun her skin refused to tan like her older brother¡¯s. With a nod she confirmed she was finished. -family members are given the option to start together. Would you like to start with Pete and Weiss? "Yes." -Your Account has been activated. Welcome to New Road _____________________________________________________________________________________ Peter gave a satisfied nod. Before him stood his avatar, it looked similar to him with a few differences. He had also altered his height like his twin, though he made his avatar taller to make up for the inch he was missing from being six feet tall. It always bothered him how he hadn¡¯t caught up to his older brother in height yet. He had made his skin pale like his sister¡¯s and had altered his hair to black and his eyes to a fiery orange. This was his common character build for all games. ¡°Finished!¡± -Your Account has been activated. Welcome to New Road. After the momentary nothingness he opened his eyes to a crowd of people milling about. He was slightly confused as he had expected to appear before the gates of Morata rather than in this other place. Unlike his brother he took the time to look around and see what was behind him. His eyes widened in surprise as he saw a verdant garden of Eden spread out behind the mass of people. He took one step, then another and another until he was running towards it. His curiosity was on fire as he rushed down the path threading through green hills dressed with flowers of every color imaginable. In fact the amount of beauty in the area was enough to make him feel slightly nauseous from the sensory overload! He slowed to a walk until he came to a wizened old man who was leaning against the fence that had recently appeared to define the limits of what appeared to have been a pasture. His posture suggested he was exhausted and was trying to regain some of his strength. Pete walked up to the man and stood before him. ¡°Excuse me, but are you ok?¡± He was typically a mischievous and rude person but he had already grasped from previous games that being nice to NPCs resulted in rewards! The old man glanced up as he breathed heavily through an open mouth, in which sharp canines could be seen. ¡°To think the day would come that a foolish human would worry about me! Humph!¡± ¡°Sorry did I say something wrong? Also, what do you mean by human? Aren¡¯t you one too?¡± ¡°NO!¡± The old man surged upright to his full height which was slightly taller than Pete¡¯s. He bared his fangs as he glared at Pete. ¡°I am a noble of the night! The greatest and most majestic of all the races! I am the Lord Tori! Don¡¯t you dare compare me to a mere human!¡± It was the vampire lord Tori! Somehow over the past two hundred years he had weakened to such an extent that he had appeared to age! He had truly become a different person from when he had fought alongside Weed! ¡°Oh, so you¡¯re the pedo-vampire that would fight alongside Weed two hundred years ago.¡± ¡°Geuk!¡± The old vampire lord flinched at the direct and straightforward insult that Pete had delivered. It had become common knowledge in the later years of Royal Road about the vampire lord Tori¡¯s obsession with cute little girls. ¡°So, how did such a noble vampire end up as an old grandpa.¡± Tori¡¯s eyes narrowed in annoyance, while a bit of his former powers were brought to the fore. Pete could feel the menacing presence and stiffened slightly. ¡°What¡­ did you call me boy?¡± ¡°You look like a dried out husk. What happened to the magnificent being that slaughtered hundreds of foes in the Final Battle.¡± At this combination of facts, insult and praise the vampire sighed and looked truly like the old man his appearance suggested. ¡°It¡¯s this land. We of the night were not meant to come here, but thanks to him we were able to. He has since moved my people back to the continent where we can have a chance of surviving. I however remained; I will still hold true to my oath on that day and will continue to serve him through his reincarnation.¡± This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. He paused as he smiled ruefully as only an old man could, ¡°But in these past two hundred years this place has drained all my vitality away, I have also been starved of fresh blood. Now I¡¯m just a withered husk who will be of no use to his reincarnation.¡± A very small part of Pete felt sorry for Tori. After a moment of silence he leaned against the fence beside Tori. ¡°Yeah, but I think it¡¯s amazing that you¡¯ve lasted this long. Besides you¡¯ve already come this far so why give up now?¡± ¡°Ha! You may be right, if only I had a drop of fresh blood I would have enough energy to make it to the gate¡­¡± Tori let the sentence trail off as Pete stiffened. ¡®The bastard was planning this!¡¯ Then Pete slowly smiled, he was after all very clever and had used the same ploy innumerable times. He stood up and moved back in front of Tori again. ¡°I suppose I could let you have some of mine.¡± ¡°Really!?¡± It almost seemed as if it had started raining in Tori¡¯s mouth from the amount of saliva that he was releasing. ¡°But.¡± ¡°But¡­¡± Tori suddenly became nervous, bad memories of Weed still floated up from time to time and the boy in front of him was making him remember one too many! ¡°You will have to owe me an unspecified favor that I will call on at an unspecified time.¡± The memories! They began storming through Tori¡¯s mind. The kid he saw before him was just as devious as Weed! But he also knew that he wouldn¡¯t survive much longer without the aid of the boy. Eventually his desperation won over his experiences. ¡°Very well.¡± Pete held out his arm and the vampire hungrily began to consume his blood.
You are bleeding -2 Hp/s
Pete winced slightly at the pain as his health slowly drained away with his blood. It was soon forgotten as he watched the transformation taking place before him! As Tori consumed his blood, he appeared to regain his former youth and vitality! When he had finished, he was no longer a wizened old man but a youthful, noble of the night! Tori rose and stood tall for the first time in what felt like an eon. He flexed and rolled his arms, legs and neck before breaking into a smile. ¡°Yes! My power has returned to me after all these years! Now I can go forth and crush the bastards that forced me to make that horrible oath!¡± Tori referred to the dark forces that had blanketed the Versailles continent in shadow during the Final Battle. It had been because of them that he had been forced to ask for Weed¡¯s help. Now all he could think of was claiming vengeance! ¡°You had better not forget your oath to me.¡± Tori glanced down at Pete with an expression that mixed disdain with annoyance. Pete returned his look with one of that simply said that he knew he was going to be obeyed. ¡°Tsk, I will not. Now I must be off!¡± Tori transformed into a bat and left for the gate. Pete rested himself against the fence once again. ¡®I too should probably head out.¡¯ He took one more glance back at the world he wouldn¡¯t get the chance to explore before following the path back to the gate. Had he stayed for just a few minutes longer, he would have seen two enormous shapes flying through the sky. One would sparkle and shine in the sunlight, while the other was a simple rocky brown color. It was Bingryong and Wy-1! They too were moving towards the gates. Over the two hundred year period they had formed a close bond as they were the last of Weed¡¯s sculptures, the Wings of Light had never made it back. ¡°HE has been reincarnated by now, don¡¯t you think?¡± ¡°Yes, it would be best if we did not show ourselves in Morata.¡± ¡°At least it¡¯s not like he can do anything against us now, we are so much more powerful than he is currently.¡± ¡°He would find a way.¡± At this they both shivered, knowing that any form of disobedience would be met with swift punishment a hundredfold. ¡°What do you plan to do once you return?¡± ¡°While he was a god he restored the dragon race by creating new eggs, they should be hatching soon, I must go and ensure they are safe! What about you?¡± ¡°I had nothing in mind other than to eat tasty creatures again. I¡¯ll help you while I¡¯m at it, we just need to find where the eggs are and protect them until they hatch right?¡± ¡°Yes, there are many things that are on Versailles now that would like nothing better than for the Dragons to never return.¡± Bingryong thought about others! His cowardly tendencies had left him over the course of his stay on this other plane of existence. Wy-1 had changed as well, after the death of his brothers he had blamed himself, believing that it was because they had been so complacent and had never bothered to get stronger unless Weed was forcing them to. Now, he was as strong as Bingryong! The two masters of the sky flew onwards and through a gate that had opened for them, high above the one the players were traveling through. Chapter: 5 The Reclamation of Morata Part I ¡°Where were you?¡± ¡°I was just checking out the area!¡± ¡°uh huh, well the next group is about to go through that gate over there. I haven¡¯t been able to find Ja-¡­err, he said his in-game name was Weiss right?¡± ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s a friggin weird name.¡± ¡°Hmmm yeah, but that¡¯s Weiss for you. He¡¯s always like that. Anyways, as I was saying I haven¡¯t been able to find him, so I think he went in ahead of us.¡± ¡°He would do that.¡± ¡°yeah, oh well we might as well head on through then.¡± Pete and Ju melded into the crowd as it began to flow through the gate. They were nearly the last in the group to make it through. There were two stragglers behind them, both Asian. They began to move through the area between gates when Pete paused for a second, he had just had a thought about the Asians. Pete quickly turned around to get a second look at the two. ¡°No¡­¡­¡­way!¡± ¡°Hmm? What is it Pete?¡± Ju turned around to look and finally realized who they were! She recognized Seoyoon before Weed, for the simple reason that she had always admired her beauty whenever some of Weed¡¯s escapades had aired. ¡°That¡¯s them! Oh Weiss will be jealous!¡± ¡°Wait a second, is that him behind them!?¡± They finally noticed the red headed player running from the guards towards the portal. Pete and Ju had already passed through to their destination, and Weed and Seoyoon had nearly passed through. At this point, Weed had become slightly annoyed with the people in front of them looking back through the portal and had turned around to see some red headed idiot trying to escape the guards. Then the gate closed, leaving all four of them to wonder what happened to the redheaded player. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Pete and Ju surveyed the land before them in speechless awe. Their parents had taken them on skiing trips to the Rocky Mountains and even to a Canadian Mountain one winter. But none of that prepared them for what was spread out before them. Like the world outside, the game world had seasons. Currently, the Versailles continent was in the middle of a mild spring. The last of the snowdrifts from the previous winter were rapidly receding and the sun was shining warmly on the frigid northern lands. Before them was a large city in ruins with a large keep at the center of it. There were enormous mountains off in the distance with snow laden plains and hills running from them to the ruins. Behind the pair stood a large tower that had been partially destroyed in what seemed some great battle. ¡°Brrrrr! Where are we?¡± ¡°I¡¯m, not sure.¡± Ju continued to shiver as they began walking down from the mountain ridge where the ruined tower had stood. Along the way they noticed oddly shaped stones, they might have been sculptures but a thousand years of weathering had removed any distinctive features. As they began nearing the city they overheard the other users discussing where they were. ¡°This has definitely got to be Morata.¡± ¡°Maybe, but what happened to all the trees? Why does everything seem so cold and gloomy? I mean, look at the city! It looks like it¡¯s haunted!¡± ¡°Well there has been a thousand year time lapse.¡± ¡°That¡¯s another thing! Why would they make such a huge time lapse?¡± This caused all of them to pause their discussion and continue walking while thinking. Most users weren¡¯t able to understand that part of the lore for this new Versailles continent that they were returning to. ¡°Actually, I have a friend from RR that was part of the marketing team at Unicorn. He said that the reason was that the original storyline was supposed to have a thousand years of darkness cover the continent. But Weed changed all of that.¡± The others then considered this as well. ¡°Wait, why didn¡¯t the system bug out then when it went counter to the storyline you had.¡± The friend of the employee looked hesitant before saying. ¡°Because by then they weren¡¯t controlling the system¡­¡± ¡°What!?¡± ¡°SSHHHhhh!¡± The friend of the employee looked around furtively. Pete and Ju tried to appear like they weren¡¯t listening. The friend then continued in a lower voice. ¡°This game isn¡¯t run by people at all anymore.¡± ¡°what do you mean?¡± ¡°You know that genius guy that made the original Royal Road?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Apparently he began immediately working on an update for the A.I. that oversaw RR after its launch. At the end of ten years, he had finished it.¡± ¡°So?¡± ¡°The rumor at Unicorn is that he made it¡­well¡­sentient.¡± ¡°Wait you mean that the A.I. can think and learn like a human!?¡± ¡°Yeah, it now completely controls the game supposedly and that¡¯s why the system didn¡¯t crash. All Unicorn does is just make money off of it.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t really know how to feel about this¡­.¡± ¡°Eh, I wouldn¡¯t worry too much.¡± ¡°But that means it can see everything we do in-game right?¡± ¡°¡­oh.¡± ¡°yeah¡­¡± ¡°Well hey, at least I¡¯m pretty sure they didn¡¯t make it a girl right!?¡± There was a bunch of nervous laughter from the group. Pete and Ju thought about this piece of information for a bit before shrugging it off. They didn¡¯t really understand the full implications of sentient A.I. and didn¡¯t really care. By now the eleventh wave had reached a large encampment that was set up outside of what must have been the city¡¯s north gate. It was here that the users stopped and began milling about. None of them had been sure what to do and had all just started walking towards the city to try and find out. But now that they had reached this encampment they were unsure of what to do next. Then, a man came out from one of the tents and made his way to a raised platform. The man was lightly armored with a breastplate as the only bit of plate armor on him. He stood ramrod straight before loudly addressing the crowd before him. ¡°First! I would like to thank you foreigners for aiding us like during the time of our forefathers. Second, I will explain the situation! Currently we are attempting to recapture the ruins of Morata from the darkness that has covered this land for a thousand years. You of the eleventh wave will join those that have gone ahead and cleanse the city of the filth that inhabits it! We must reclaim this city and expand before the other four nations! It will be us, the children of the second Arpenian Empire that will reclaim all of Versailles!¡± There was a roar started by a group of soldiers that had gathered behind him and then taken up by the users. Then as it began to quiet down one of the soldiers stepped forward to address the users. It appeared like he was some lower ranking officer in the army. ¡°Alright, we the army of the Third Arpenian Empire have produced weapons, armors and spell books for all of you foreigners that will fight alongside of us in the battle to reclaim Morata!¡± *TING!*
Reclamation of Morata After a thousand years Morata now lies in ruins. The souls of those that died during the final battle still keep it. Clear the city of all enemies and purify it. Quest Difficulty: B Reward: +500 contribution points with the Third Arpenian Empire +500 Fame Special Reward: -If you survive you will gain a new secret skill with an additional skill slot -If Morata is the first reclaimed city all players in the city will receive a 20% EXP boost for one week
This gave the users pause. A class B quest for beginners was unheard of! The monsters they would have to clear would be at such a higher level than them that it would be impossible. ¡°how are we supposed to do this!¡± ¡°There¡¯s no way a bunch of level ones can clear this quest! It took over a hundred users in the mid 100s back in RR to do B class quests!¡± ¡°Actually how many people are here?¡± A few of the users began to crane their necks as they looked around. ¡°I think I read somewhere that around half of the player base was planning to play on launch day.¡± ¡°So that¡¯s around 400 million right?¡± ¡°yeah, and if it¡¯s evenly distributed¡­then that means it¡¯s about 80 million to a city!¡± ¡°Those bastards at Unicorn must be laughing. Watching wave on wave of weak users slowly wear down the city¡¯s defenses!¡± ¡°Well screw them! I¡¯m going to live! I want that bonus!¡± Gradually the users began to accept the quest and then began forming parties. Ju and Pete were jostled around in the shove of users, a few people asked them if they wanted to form a party but they declined. The two of them were slightly confused as to what they should be doing since this was the first time they were in a virtual world. Eventually they had broken away from the crowd and stood at a distance to just people watch. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°This is insane!¡± ¡°I know Ju, I¡¯m not really sure what we should be doing right now.¡± ¡°Well we should be doing the quest¡­..¡± ¡°Yeah but where do we get these promised weapons and armor from? Also we don¡¯t even know how much of the city has already been cleared by the first ten waves.¡± ¡°I guess but does it really matter? I mean the progress of the reclamation.¡± ¡°Yes! We need to know that so we can avoid areas with high concentration of enemies.¡± ¡°I see¡­¡± They fell into a contemplative silence for a bit, before Ju started walking away. Surprised, Pete was about to ask what she was doing when she had already started a conversation with a guard. After she was done she waved Pete over. ¡°So the guard told me where to find the weapons at!¡± ¡°Alright nice, did you ask about the situation inside?¡± ¡°¡­.oops¡± ¡°Ohwell, not a problem for now, let¡¯s just go and grab equipment.¡± The twins followed the directions the guard had given them and found themselves amidst another crowd of users as they looked over weapons and armor. Most already seemed to know what weapon they¡¯d be using so they moved on quickly. Pete noticed that the people that appeared to be veteran players all seemed to select bows as their weapon. A few though picked up basic skill books that seemed to teach the fireball spell as well. ¡®I see, they want to survive so they all want to stay in the back and fight from a distance!¡¯ He was completely right! Every veteran user knew that with a quest of this difficulty at this low a level, the only way to survive was to stand back. Several large parties had already been formed with this in mind, the plan being to annihilate individual enemies with constant ranged fire power! Pete turned to comment on this to Ju, only to notice that she had already started browsing the assorted bows. He smiled realizing that Ju would probably do what all the veteran users were doing since that was the kind of character she enjoyed playing. Pete, on the other hand, preferred to fight on the front lines as a great warrior! Despite the risk of dying he didn¡¯t want to change that, also he recognized that a few units of fodder were needed to keep the enemy agroed while the ranged units killed it. With this in mind he went to the less populated melee weapons rack and began to look over the selection of swords, daggers, axes, and other types of weapons. He picked up a large greatsword. ¡°Item information.¡±
Reclamation Greatsword The sword is imbued with holy magic to aid in the cleansing of what was the heart of the second Arpenian Empire! It was clearly made with function over design being the important property and this is shown by the high durability and attack. Durability: 50/50 Damage: 10~15 Holy attribute: 6~8
Pete¡¯s eyes widened in surprise, he never would have expected such a powerful weapon to come with no equip restrictions. His surprise was fleeting as he remembered the purpose the sword had been made for. ¡®This is how they ¨C no, I guess the A.I., planned to make it possible for us to fight in such an absurd quest.¡¯ In the end he selected the greatsword and the light armor set that had been made for the reclamation war. Most new users thought he was being foolish, they couldn¡¯t understand why a person would choose such a heavy weapon and pair it with light armor. However veteran users understood, his goal was to be able to agro enemies quickly and then run away while a group of archers and sorcerers eliminated the target. Still they chose to be long ranged units as they had no interest in risking death to do something so risky. After Pete had finished outfitting himself he whispered his sister to tell her his plan on how to fight whatever was waiting for them in the ruins of Morata. She agreed to the plan and said she would try to find other users for them to join up with to make the plan effective. A few minutes later, Pete and Ju met back up near the ruined gate to Morata. Behind Ju was a six person group of users. They were all new users like them: three wizards, two priests, and one archer. The groups exchanged friendly greetings before forming into a singular party. One of the priests, a girl named Mira, was the party leader. The other priestess was her youngest sister, a white haired and golden eyed little girl named Shiro. The middle sister was named Kurokami, unlike her sisters she had chosen the beast human as her race with rabbit as the animal part, and she was one of the wizards. The other two wizards were named Wistal and Rynner. Rynner was Mira¡¯s boyfriend in real life and Wistal was a guy they had all met in a different game. The new archer was someone no one had ever met, Ju later confided in Pete that she had talked to him since he seemed alone, his name was Flynn Rider. After they had gotten themselves completely sorted out, they turned to face the gate. ¡°Ready?¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­.¡± Pete looked behind him. The others in the group weren¡¯t moving and were instead looking at the walls in trepidation. He turned back around to observe the walls and then looked back at them. ¡°Guys¡­.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± Rynner was the first to reply. ¡°Let¡¯s gooooo.¡± ¡°Oh yeah.¡± The small conversation between the two seemed to break the rest of the group of their spell. With that momentary pause over, the group rejoined the massive crush of users as they began to shove through the gate. As they walked through they began to hear some odd and loud noises from the front of the crowd, it wasn¡¯t till they were fully in that the group recognized it as the cries of fear of thousands of users that were ahead of them. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Weed was annoyed, he was very annoyed. He was forced to stand in the crush of users and being jostled around and what was worse was that his wife was being subjected to the same treatment. This was the part of Weed that never changed, his complete devotion to his family! He urgently tried to guard Seoyoon from any form of jostling as they followed the crowd through the gate. ''What were they thinking, allowing this many people to play the opening event. With this, it won¡¯t even be any fun!'' Weed hadn¡¯t been part of the development for this opening event and couldn¡¯t understand why there were five starter cities that everyone had been randomly sent to. After a quick whisper to his friends, it seemed like the ones that had been in the final five were sent to a different city. This caused Weed to shiver; something seemed off if there was only one of each of the final five in a starter city. He reflexively gripped Seoyoon to make sure she was still there and hadn¡¯t been lost in the crowd. She smiled, understanding the sources of his tension, and patted his hand reassuringly. ¡°That reminds me, why did you pick up that priest book and a sword? Aren¡¯t you going to be a swordsman again?¡± ¡°Hmm? I was actually thinking of being in more of a support role this time around.¡± ¡°¡­..¡± Seoyoon was shocked. She had no idea Weed had been thinking something like that, she had been almost certain he¡¯d want to be on the front lines where all the japtem and EXP that he loved was. As they continued walking she began to allow him to lead her as she couldn¡¯t stop thinking about why Weed would want to be in a support role. She didn¡¯t look up until she felt her arm jolt, Weed had stopped suddenly. She turned to ask him what was the matter, until she finally heard it. The screams from the front of the crowd _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Hi ya''ll! Sorry I haven''t posted in a while, I really wanna post about every other week at about over 3000 words per chapter. Anyways hope you like the first part of the reclamation battle! As always please comment and critique! I love reading the posts. Also make sure to subscribe! (if that''s possible?) to make sure you''ll know when a new chapter is up! Chapter: 6 Reclamation of Morata Part II Ju froze in fear, her grip on her reclamation bow tightened. The screams of terror, combined with the dreary and destroyed city she was in was enough cause a spurt of irrational fear. Her eyes roved around as she saw that most of the others in the group were also seized up. The only ones unaffected were her twin, Kurokami, and Rynner. Those three seemed to be, for lack of a better term in her mind, ¡®amping up¡¯. The screams and the city all seemed to cause them to initiate their fight instincts, rather than their flight. Pete could feel it coursing through him. He hadn¡¯t felt this way in a while, the last time being when he¡¯d gotten in a fight with an opposing track runner who had spiked him as he was passing which had cost him the heat. ¡®Is this what they call a fighter¡¯s high?¡¯ He felt himself getting excited, almost as if he was looking forward to whatever was causing the screams. Unheeding the situation of the rest of his teammates he grabbed one of their arms and began to force his way through the crowd. It was surprisingly easy, given that the other people in the crowd were more than willing to put a few more bodies between them and whatever was ahead. The progress was still too slow though, and he eventually resorted to shoving. This of course received exclamations of anger that was heightened by the tension. It still took an absurd amount of time, though that was unsurprising given that by now there would at least be 40 million people trying to crowd into one city! But that was to be expected of a B class quest being completed by level one players! It was then that he heard a sudden intensification in the shouts and screams and felt a rumbling. Pete saw the people ahead of him being crushed by something large and humanoid. He desperately leapt to the side, pulling his hapless teammate along with him. It was a Bone Giant! The creature moved through the crowd with a swift viciousness and slaughtered players by the hundreds if not thousands! Pete covered the head of the teammate he had dragged along with him as he gazed in fascinated terror on the gargantuan mass of bones that was crashing through the crowd of users. Wherever it went bodies would fly, turn grey in midair, and be gone before they could hit the ground. Pete had been so caught up in watching the Bone Giant wreak havoc amongst the players that it was a while before he felt something small squirming on top of him. He looked down and saw that the teammate he had grabbed was Shiro! He released his grip and her head rocketed up away from his chest as she desperately sucked in air. ¡°Phua!¡± ¡°Errr, sorry¡­Shiro right?¡± ¡°¡­.¡± She didn¡¯t say anything and just nodded. She seemed to be the quietest out of the three sisters, as well as the youngest. She crawled off of him and was about to stand up when another player shoved past them and she was tossed right back on top of him. More players began to run away from their vicinity until they were the only ones left. Pete helped Shiro up after the players passed, he looked up to see terror in the eyes of the newbies and trepidation in the eyes of the veterans. He had a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach as he turned to see the Bone Giant wheeling about only a few meters from where they stood, looking for its next victim. Then it spotted him and Shiro, the only ones who stood outside the crowd. The Bone Giant¡¯s teeth made a horrible clacking sound as it began to make its way towards them. At first it moved slowly but then gradually picked up speed. Pete and Shiro were paralyzed, never in their lives had they ever seen something as terrifying as the Bone Giant. After all it was a three meter tall mass of cracked yellow bones with an abnormally shaped human head that had two fiery red orbs for eyes. With each step its wine barrel sized ribs would rattle in the sockets that connected them to its spine. What made it worse though was that they could smell the stench of decay rolling off of the monster as it rushed towards them. When faced with such a horrifying new experience, anyone would be stopped by fear. Now it was almost upon them! It raised one of its dreadful fists in preparation to bring it smashing down. Pete and Shiro were still paralyzed, unable to utter a single squeal of terror. The fist came rushing down towards them and at the last moment Pete was finally able to move and pushed Shiro out of the way. *Crunch* Pete felt his bones almost instantaneously crumble to dust under the immense force of the fist. His body had been almost completely flattened! Pete raged internally, wishing he had been able to move sooner to at least have done something to the monster before meeting his first game death! He then felt a flutter of hope as he watched his health rapidly drain away. ¡°TORI!!!!!!!!!!!!! Fulfill your promise! Transform me into a vampire!¡± He had no idea if Tori was within hearing range but it was the only way he could think of being restored before dying. His health was now almost completely gone, there was nothing but a smidgen left, when a large bat practically slammed into him. It then bit him on the neck! *TING!*
-Hidden race ¡®vampire¡¯ has been unlocked; do you want to become a vampire? When you switch to a different race that race¡¯s special abilities can be used. But, the penalty for dying is 3 times the normal rate of experience, and skill. There are restrictions on equipment that a vampire can equip and use. The vampire race¡¯s physical abilities are incomparably greater than a warrior¡¯s and have great vitality, battle ability and they can use magic. As long as you are a vampire you can promote to a Vampire Queen or a Vampire Lord. But, if you are killed 7 times or a silver nail is embedded into your heart you return to being a human.
¡°I accept.¡± Pete faintly whispered out. *FOOM!* A red mist swirled around Pete as he transformed into a vampire! Status messages began to fill his vision with the effects the transformation had on his starting stats and new racial abilities he gained! ¡°Welcome to the Nobility of the Night, human. My debt to you is repaid.¡± Tori quickly sped off, still in bat form. Pete stood up and stretched. He rolled his head around a few times, just to confirm all his bones were back to normal. In front of him the Bone Giant had turned away from him and was now advancing on the cowering Shiro, the people in the crowd had still not helped! ¡®These bastards.¡¯ ¡°Oy, bag¡¯o¡¯bones! You and me ain¡¯t finished yet!¡± The Bone Giant paused and turned to look at him. Its jaw clacked a few times in confusion, it couldn¡¯t understand how the insect it had just squashed stood again! ¡°Yeah that¡¯s right, you and I still have some unfinished business!¡± Pete released the greatsword from his back, it began to shine with a holy light! He pointed the tip straight at the Bone Giant. ¡°I¡¯m going to send you back to your grave you piece of shit.¡± Pete gave a feral grin that revealed newly formed fangs and rushed forward at an impossible speed! The Bone Giant aimed a punch towards him, but it never connected. Pete had vaulted over the Bone Giant! He quickly spun around and used the momentum gained to swing the sword upwards, the light tracing the cut as it went from the left hip to the right shoulder. The spinal column was completely severed in the process! - Aaaarrrrgghhh! The Bone Giant collapsed forward and began struggling on the ground as its spinal column reformed, it had been stunned! The sudden ferocity of the attack from out of nowhere had surprised it. Pete ran towards Shiro, picked her up off the ground and dashed towards the crowd. He set her down at the front edge of the crowd. ¡°Wait here.¡± *Nod* Pete heard a clacking behind him, he turned to see the Bone Giant standing up! He looked around and saw that not a single person had attacked during the brief time he had moved Shiro out of harms way. ¡°What are you idiots doing? Open fire!¡± The other players had been entranced by the scene that had recently played out and hadn¡¯t even thought to participate. Pete¡¯s words seemed to break them from their spell as every wizard, priest, and archer raised their hand or weapon and launched a deadly conflagration of fire, arrows, and holy spells. Bone Giants are around 200 in level, and given that this could be considered a dungeon their abilities would obviously be greater than normal. This of course had led to the wholesale slaughter of any players in its path. Pete on the other hand had been level one; even after his transformation he was still relatively weak in comparison. His advantage had been the agility and strength he had gained from the race conversion. This is what had allowed him to dodge the Bone Giant¡¯s attack, however it was not enough to do any real damage to the bone giant. Thousands of arrows, holy spells and fireballs on the other hand annihilated the Bone Giant. When the flashes of light finally stopped, it had already turned grey and disappeared. Silence followed the aftermath. The crowd of users now watched Pete, he shifted from foot to foot as a scowl formed on his face. None of the people in his party had scored the final hit, so they had not gained any of the experience from the Bone Giant. This obviously annoyed him. Looking up, he saw the expectant eyes of the other users on him. He realized they seemed to be waiting for him to say something. He paused for a second, the raising his sword he shouted. ¡°These big guys are nothing! Let¡¯s crush them like everything else! Let¡¯s reclaim Morata and get that bonus!¡± ¡°YYYYEEEAAAAAHHHHHH!!!¡± The crowd roared in approval. He then turn and charged off in the direction the Bone Giant had come from. The braver and greedier of the crowd rushed behind him. The ground rumbled under the thousands of feet as the users made their way into an open square. Within the square, Death Knights roamed about. They turned their glowing eyes towards the wave of users flooding in. -Living, they must be killed! -There can be no living here! The Death Knights formed ranks and began to march forward. The users slowed, seeing the organized undead marching towards them. Pete was about to begin charging towards the death knights, heedless of the other users, but he felt a small tug on his sleeve. He turned to look down at what was causing the snag and saw Shiro. ¡°What are you doing?¡± ¡°Dangerous, without the others.¡± Shiro looked down. It had become quite apparent to Pete that she was a bit shy. His initial reaction was to discard what she said and continue running, he wanted to level up! But the habits his parents had ingrained into him kicked in and he paused to consider her words. He looked up and saw that they stood alone against the Death Knights; the other users had stopped at the entrance to the square. He turned to look at the Death Knights and saw they were starting a charge. Something had to be done, otherwise he would die! He had already given up his humanity to avoid death once. He didn¡¯t want to see what triple penalization would do to a level one! ¡°Alright! Mages! Fire the first salvo! Warriors to me! Priests heal when ready!¡± Pete raised his blade once again and let loose a war cry. The other users paused, but they still had the initial rush from his earlier speech flowing through their veins. Quickly they took up the cry and soon a thunderous roar resounded through the city. It could be heard even farther off where others were engaged in battles. The mages launched their magic into the Death Knights; the combined power of the hundreds of fire balls was enough to stop the charge. By then the other melee fighters had formed around Pete. ¡°Wait here and cover my back Shiro.¡± *Nod* Releasing yet another war cry, Pete rushed forward. His newly enhanced speed quickly putting him at the head of the warriors as they charged at the still reforming Death Knight line. -It is useless human! ¡°Sorry but I¡¯m not a human!¡± Pete brought his sword down as the other warriors crashed into the Death Knights. After the initial surprise of the melee assault, the Death Knights quickly recovered. There was only so much a level one user could do against a level 200 Death Knight! Warriors began to fall left and right! By the end, only those with some form of martial training or fighter¡¯s instinct survived. These few that survived were then continuously supported by the vast amount of priests behind them. Occasionally concentrated attacks of fire balls and arrows flew through the melee to hit targets that were left open when a warrior would dodge an attack. After nearly two hours of this the fighting ended. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
You have leveled up!
You have leveled up!
You have leveled up!
¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­.. Pete observed all the status messages briefly before closing them. He was curious what his current stats were. He hadn¡¯t had a chance to really observe entirely how the racial transformation had affected him. ¡°Status window.¡± [quart=Name,Alignment]Pete,Neutral[/quart] [quart=Level,Class]65,none[/quart] [quart=Race,Title]Vampire,none[/quart][quart=Health,Mana]1050,250[/quart] [quart=Strength,Agility]50,60[/quart] [quart=Wisdom,Intelligence]20,30[/quart] [quart=charm,Luck]15,10[/quart] [quart=Vitality,Endurance]80,50[/quart]
Status Window
Fame0
Resistance: -5% fire
As a Vampire, most religious spells will harm you
His eyebrows climbed up his forehead in surprise as he observed that he had also gained the charm stat with the racial conversion. Though in the end it did make sense given that what he had transformed into seemed to have an obsession with beautiful things. After thinking it over a while he figured that it would be best to enhance what the race¡¯s special characteristics were. Until he had a class he would have to rely on the racial abilities he gained to survive the reclamation of Morata. With this in mind he distributed the 325 stat points he had earned. [quart=Name,Alignment]Pete,Neutral[/quart] [quart=Level,Class]65,none[/quart] [quart=Race,Title]Vampire,none[/quart][quart=Health,Mana]1850,665[/quart] [quart=Strength,Agility]130,140[/quart] [quart=Wisdom,Intellect]60,75[/quart] [quart=charm,Luck]15,10[/quart] [quart=Vitality,Endurance]160,50[/quart]
Status Window
Fame0
Resistance: -5% fire
As a Vampire, most religious spells will harm you
Satisfied with the end result he looked around the square. People were swarming the area, picking up japtem. Others had already left in search of other monsters to kill, their greed for EXP and japtem overriding their fear. He had heard just after the fighting had finished about what had happened to the initial waves. It appeared that the first wave had been completely wiped out. So the second wave waited until the third wave had come through the gate and then they went in together. It had been a massacre, as soon as they had walked in, skeletons had swarmed them. Warriors had attacked them from the front and skeleton archers had fired into the crowd from the broken rooftops above. It had only been due to the sheer size of the group that any had survived. By the time that this initial fight had finished, the fourth wave had arrived. After they walked in, they had met up with the survivors which had then led them as they began to systematically purge the city of the undead. The fifth through the seventh wave showed up and while thousands of users fell. The reclamation battle seemed to be gaining favorable momentum. It had even gotten to the point where the higher level users branched off into a separate group and began to work their way around the perimeter of the city, leaving the newer users to attack the interior. It wasn¡¯t till the tenth wave arrived that everything went to hell. With the reinforcements from the tenth wave, the users began to aggressively pierce through to the center of the city. Their goal was to reclaim the four squares that bordered the goddess Freya statue that stood at the center of a manmade lake. The hope was that the goddess would be able to grant blessings possibly if they reclaimed her statue. However, when they reached the first square the Bone Giants had greeted them! There had been four originally, the one Pete had fought against was the last one. Those four Bone Giants along with another small army of Death Knights had been enough to wipe out the higher level users from earlier waves. By the time the eleventh wave had crossed into the city. Most of the high level users had been eliminated, leaving only a majority of ninth and tenth wave users to quake in terror as a single Bone Giant plowed through them. After Pete heard the story he understood why the users hadn¡¯t been able to take down that single Bone Giant until he had attacked it. They had been gripped by fear! Their morale had fallen so low with the death of the stronger users that they had felt helpless against a new and superior enemy. Pete continued to ponder over this after adjusting his stats until he felt Shiro grab his shirt and a shadow fall over them from where they had been sitting in the square, waiting for the rest of their party to find them. Pete looked up and saw two faces. One was a very stern looking Korean male, the other was the face of a goddess! It was Weed and Seoyoon! He stood up, wondering what exactly such a famous pair wanted with him. He felt Shiro¡¯s grip tighten on his shirt as she hid slightly behind him. Looking down, he put a hand on Shiro¡¯s shoulder and squeezed reassuringly. Although they had only just met that day, two hours of desperate fighting is enough to bring anyone close together! Looking back up he saw that Weed and Seoyoon were just standing there. Weed, just looking at him and Seoyoon just looked to the ground. It almost seemed as if she was getting more and more embarrassed by the second. The two pairs stayed liked this for much more than a comfortable time. Eventually Pete got annoyed and let his polite smile slip off to be replaced by an annoyed frown. ¡°A picture lasts longer.¡± ¡°¡­¡­.¡± Weed still didn¡¯t say anything. The embarrassment that Seoyoon seemed to be experiencing was almost palpable to Pete and Shiro. ¡°Seriously, what do you want?¡± It was for only a second, but to Pete it seemed as if this rotten smile seemed to form on Weed¡¯s face! From Weed¡¯s perspective this was great! Get the person to ask you a question so that they would then feel obliged to return the favor! ¡°I wanted to talk to you about Tori.¡± ¡°¡­..What about him?¡± ¡°How exactly did you meet him.¡± ¡°I met him on that other plane of existence.¡± ¡°What caused him to turn you into a vampire?¡± ¡°He owed me one for giving him some blood.¡± ¡°¡­¡­..I see¡­¡­.. do you know where he is now?¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°¡­.¡± The silence returned, Weed had wanted Pete to complete his last answer with some information on where Tori might have gone. But Pete was still very annoyed with Weed and decided he wanted some information himself. ¡°I must say I¡¯m surprised, that such a great warrior from Royal Road didn¡¯t step in during this past fight. What were you doing?¡± Straight to the point to make sure Weed couldn¡¯t just subtlety avoid the question! Weed winced slightly, but knew that he owed the person before him a few answers. ¡°I was supporting my wife.¡± ¡°So you¡¯re a priest this time! I must say that is a surprise, the great god of Victory is now a priest.¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡± ¡°Then again that almost makes sense. One would have to wonder what kind of benefits you would receive as both god and priest.¡± ¡°Nothing more than any other priest of that religion, my only benefit is that I can give out the quest to convert to a priest of the God of Victory.¡± That was too much information! Pete hadn¡¯t even asked a question that time, at least not directly. Weed was definitely hiding something. ¡°Which I may add, is the only religion that doesn¡¯t negatively affect vampires. It must have been hard in this previous battle without the help of a priest.¡± It was Pete¡¯s time to shift uncomfortably. It was true; he had nearly died in the last battle when Shiro had tried to support him. It was only thanks to his massive starter vitality that he had made it through! Shiro¡¯s lip trembled slightly, she had wanted to help Pete since he had saved her from the Bone Giant but all she had been was a burden. She released her grip on Pete and stepped forward, towards Weed. He noticed her and looked down towards her. ¡°Hello, what¡¯s your name?¡± ¡°Shiro¡­. I want to convert ---¡± She managed to mumble out only a bit before her shyness got the better of her and she ended her sentence abruptly. ¡°To a priest of the God of Victory?¡± *NOD* ¡°Shiro wait, what are you doing?¡± Pete was confused, he wasn¡¯t sure what had caused Shiro to speak out now of all times. She turned towards him. ¡°I¡¯ll support you.¡± She managed to finish her sentence this time, but immediately blushed and turned back around towards Weed. Who in turn smiled a rotten smile! He wanted this! He desired to convert as many priests to his former character¡¯s religion! ¡°Well then Shiro. Here is your quest; you must offer up all your japtem to the God of Victory in a prayer for your friend over here.¡± *TING*
Class Conversion: Priestess of Jeonshin Weed You have been given the quest to convert to the class of a priestess of Jeonshin Weed. You must offer all your japtem in a prayer for your party¡¯s victory in battle Quest Difficulty: F Quest Reward: Conversion to Priestess of Jeonshin Weed
¡°Shiro, wai¡ª¡° ¡°Accept.¡± Before Pete could stop her, Shiro accept the quest. It wasn¡¯t that he had misgivings about the quest, it was more so that he had misgivings about who gave it. He glared at Weed. ¡°I really dislike you. I hope my brother does kick your ass in the end.¡± Weed gave him an annoyed look, ¡°What exactly do you mean by that?¡± ¡°That guy, the one dashing through the gate behind you? He wants to beat you, he made you his target for his end-game.¡± ¡°¡­..¡± ¡°Though maybe I¡¯ll make you my target instead, I could actually beat you right now. With my abnormal stats, even with her EXP boost I doubt the two of you could defeat me.¡± Seoyoon quickly stepped in front of Weed, determined to protect him. Even in anger her beautiful face seemed to be that of a wrathful Valkyrie rather than the typical grotesque glare of an angered person. Pete raised his hands and backed off. ¡°But then again, I¡¯m pretty sure my brother would kick my ass here and in real life if I did something like that. Y¡¯know, that whole ¡®dibs¡¯ thing. Let¡¯s go Shiro.¡± As he said this, he turned and tapped Shiro on the shoulder before sauntering off towards the sounds of fighting that were coming from the main thoroughfare to the next square. Seoyoon glared after him, while Weed looked thoughtful. ¡°If that¡¯s just the little brother¡­¡­ I might have to work harder.¡± Chapter: 7 Reclamation of Morata Part III Mira was in a tizzy, ever since Pete had run off with Shiro she had been unable to settle down. It had gotten to the point where it was so bad that the group had had to rely on the large numbers of other users to survive. They hadn¡¯t seen Pete¡¯s transformation or his subsequent call to arms. The crowd had forced them down another path that wound through the city to a small square where a fountain still stood but with its basin dry and its statue weathered. By then Rynner had taken Mira aside, saying that they would try to whisper Shiro and see if they could find out where she was. Wistal then assumed command of the remaining four. They pushed forward to the head of the crowd and began to assist clearing out the undead. The undead in this area seemed to be lesser undead such as zombies, or skeleton archers. By now the party had found out what had happened to the other waves of users. After that they had reasoned, based on what other users had said as they had been clearing out the roadway, that the city may have been set up in a spiral of increasingly difficult monsters. Now that the users had reached this small square they fanned out and individual parties began hunting the more difficult monsters that commonly appeared in the squares of the city. At this point, the four separated from the main body of users and began to hunt a Death Knight! Their formation had Wistal in the back as support with Ju and Flynn farther ahead and spread out. Then, surprisingly Kurokami was their forward attacker. She wasn¡¯t a tank but she had taken years of acrobatics, which left her with a very nimble and flexible body. This allowed her to dodge the attacks of the Death Knight as she fired off fire spells. She then lured it back towards Wistal who had been charging a much more powerful fire spell! With one last attack, Kurokami jumped out of the way and Wistal launched his attack. It was strong enough to cause the Death Knight to pause slightly. This was enough time for Ju and Flynn to fire off enough shots to agro the Death Knight. Then while it was being kept busy with the two archers, Kurokami would head to the side of it opposite Wistal. They had formed a diamond around the Death Knight! In this formation all four of them would have the Death Knight constantly trying to determine which one was the biggest threat, which in the end kept it from attacking any of them too aggressively. They followed this pattern as they slowly worked through the monsters in the area, stopping occasionally to rest and regain stamina and health. During this time they would notice that they were still gaining a bit of EXP. The amount was not small by any means either; they began to wonder just what kind of monsters Pete and Shiro were hunting. It was during one of these rests that they heard a group of voices shouting up ahead. They seemed to be arguing over who got to keep a sword and they all seemed to be male. Then with a sudden swiftness the voices all stopped as the men poured into the street from the end opposite to the group of users that the four were with. There were still a few Death Knights that hadn¡¯t been killed at that end, but as the men passed by they turned grey in mere seconds. The continued to advance towards the group of users, each one had an expression of disgust mixed with boredom on their face as they cut through the remaining Death Knights. Ju and the others watched in awe as the small group of men annihilated the Death Knights. What made the whole scene even more surreal is that they seemed to lack any kind of armor. Even Wistal had equipped a few pieces of crappy skeleton armor to give him some form of protection. Yet these men who each could single handedly mow down a Death Knight had nothing, instead they seemed to just barely dodge every attack the Death Knights made. ¡°I as the senior should have one of the swords.¡± ¡°Ah but Geomchi15, I was the one that killed the Death Knight that dropped it. I believe it is my prize.¡± It was the Geomchis! The other users stared in awe as the legendary warriors from Royal Road walked towards them. After a while, a few of the users seemed to collect themselves and call out to them, asking for specific Geomchis. It appeared a few of the users in the group had been taught by the Geomchis. Ju¡¯s group stayed to the sideline and listened to the Geomchis tell of their experience in the ruined Morata. They had been part of the elite group in the first few waves that had traveled along the walls. They complained that the difficulty in monsters was lacking. Ju¡¯s group was shocked! They thought that the difficulty of monsters was way too high for starters to face against. If it wasn¡¯t for the advantage in numbers, they had no idea how they would¡¯ve survived so long. Even more surprisingly some of the regular users agreed as well. It seemed that they were the ones that had been taught to fight by the Geomchis. It deflated the group¡¯s sense of pride in their accomplishments thus far if everyone else thought that the monsters were too easy. _____________________________________________________________________________________ The large group of users was on the move again as they continued to clear out the streets and the interior of the houses and shops that they came by along the way. The city was massive so it took much longer than anyone would¡¯ve expected. Eventually waves of users stopped coming in as most people were already in the game or were dead and waiting for the reclamation war to finish. Mira and Rynner had rejoined the group and they began to hunt even faster. A full day in the real world had past and many people were logging off to go to work or take care of necessities. However, as the entire group was still students, they didn¡¯t log off for anything other than a dire need for the bathroom or food. It was during one of these food/bathroom runs that both Peter and Juliet bumped into each other and had a chance to talk. ¡°Yeah, sorry about separating from you guys and everything, it looked like Shiro got her ear talked off when she logged off for a bit. Anyways, we¡¯re still working through the lake area around that old statue. The squares took foorreeevveerrr.¡± ¡°I know what you mean. It has been non-stop fighting in the streets, even with the insane amount of people we have it still takes a while to clear everything out.¡± ¡°I KNOW! Oh, yeah have you seen Jack at all?¡± ¡°No, mom said that he hasn¡¯t left his room except for a few minutes after we first logged in.¡± They both looked towards their elder brother¡¯s closed door. ¡°I wonder what he¡¯s doing.¡± ¡°Who knows? But I have more stuff to kill, besides I promised Shiro I¡¯d only be gone for a bit.¡± ¡°ooohhhhh, seems you and Shiro are getting along well then!¡± Juliet grinned as she watched her twin squirm. His face got a little red as he made an embarrassed expression. ¡°W-whatever, it¡¯s not like that. Anyways I need to get back.¡± Pete stormed off into his room as Juliet casually sauntered into hers, although it was a quick saunter. She wanted to get back to the game as quickly as possible as well. _____________________________________________________________________________________ ¡°Woof, jeez when is this gonna end!?¡± ¡°No idea, there seems no shortage of undead.¡± Kurokami wiped the sweat from her brow as she took a breather with Juliet. By now everyone had gained so many levels that they could fight in a less organized manner. With their current prowess lower class undead posed little threat to them. Though compared to those users that had played Royal Road they were still unbelievably weak. Not only did those users have all the experiences from the previous game to draw on, but the EXP boost they had allowed them to level faster. Most non-Royal Road users had died off, it was a miracle that their small group had survived. Ju suspected that Flynn had been a Royal Road user since he seemed to be getting more powerful way faster than the rest of them. But he didn¡¯t say anything and she didn¡¯t ask. By now most of the city had been cleared, it had taken a total two days of real-world time to get this far. Shiro and Pete were set to rendezvous with them as soon as they were finished with clearing up the rest of the southern section. The larger group that Ju¡¯s party was attached to was currently about to raid the citadel that had once been the seat of power for Weed¡¯s empire in the previous game. They were standing out front as some people who seemed to think they were the leaders of the group were discussing an attack plan. But it was apparent that everyone was getting impatient, some had begun to grumble, especially the Geomchis. ¡°Should we not just go in?¡± ¡°It¡¯s unmanly to sneak into a dungeon!¡± ¡°Let¡¯s just crush whatever is inside; we can¡¯t fall behind our hyungs in the other cities!¡± The small group of Geomchis that had been lazily eliminating the enemies in their path now stepped forward. Ignoring the pleas to wait from the users at the head of the group they burst through the front entrance. Everyone followed cautiously behind. The entranced opened onto a huge throne room. Weed of course had a hand in the building of the Citadel and wanted a huge throne room. He believed that all true kings should have a massive throne room right through the front entrance. Everything else that was needed to keep the Citadel running was in the upper floors. As a consequence, the first five floors of the ten floors This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.structure were taken up almost entirely by the vaulted ceiling of the throne room. Normally one would think the throne room would be dark, after all it had spent a thousand years in abandonment. This, however, was not the case. The weak light from the outside poured in through a gaping hole that had obliterated the top five floors to almost nothing. As the users filtered in they began to fan out along the walls. The more experienced ones had already taken fighting stances, they had a gut feeling that they were about to face something akin to the last boss in a dungeon. In the center there appeared to be a large, dark mound. Through holes in whatever leathery material composed the outside, they could see large bones that had yellowed with age. The entire mound gave off a foul stench and was an altogether unpleasant sight. A few of the braver or maybe more foolhardy users moved towards it. Eventually one worked up the courage to poke it. For a while nothing happened, the users closest to the mound let off a few nervous laughs; their fears that the mound was something dangerous now seeming meaningless. -Who has disturbed my slumber!? A deep and ancient voice filled the room and shook the few columns that were still standing. The faces of the users turned to ash. ¡°¡­.Run!¡± The users closest suddenly turned to gray dust as the mound sprung to life! The screams of hundreds on hundreds of users could be heard as those that already had entered the citadel desperately fought to flee. They crashed into the users behind them and a gridlock ensued at the entrance. *BBRRRAAAAAWWWRRR!!!* Everyone was paralyzed by fear as the mound fully revealed itself, it was a Bone Dragon! A top class undead! One of the most feared monsters in the game! It seemed to suck in a breath and then released it! Dark poison and flames spewed from its maw and eliminated all users in its path as it surged through the entrance. Ju¡¯s group had been part of the people that had fanned out to the side and had been spared thus far. However, all of them trembled in fear. Mira even collapsed to the ground. ¡°H-h-how are we supposed to face this! This quest is impossible. I just wanted to have fun with my s-s-sisters! I-I-I can¡¯t take this!¡± She broke into a fit of sobs as Rynner tried to calm her down. Ju continued to tremble in fear, she felt for someone, anyone, and found Kurokami¡¯s hand. The both grasped each other¡¯s hand and squeezed as if to confirm they weren¡¯t alone. Then, they heard a shout. ¡°FINALLY!¡± ¡°This will be a real fight!¡± ¡°We have gotten good at slaying dragons! Let¡¯s get this thing!¡± ¡°YATS, YATS, YATS!¡± It was the Geomchis! They were the only ones that were seemingly unaffected by the fear inducing dragon. In fact they all had ecstatic looks on their faces as they spread out around the beast before charging in. -Foolish mortals, your existence is fleeting whereas mine is eternal! The Bone Dragon flared its wings out as it swiped with its front claws. The forward attacking Geomchis barely dodged before jumping on its front leg and with a shout ran up to hack at its leathery wings! ¡°Eliminate the wings!¡± ¡°Ground this bastard!¡± The Geomchis were fearless in the face of large opponents, they fought even harder! Their vigor began to rally some of the other users as they started a second wave of attacks. Wizards and archers alike fired off attacks at the monster¡¯s head, hoping to keep it distracted from the melee users that began to attack its legs. The Bone Dragon¡¯s cold eyes burned with a hot flame of anger! -Curse you insects! You will all die! The Bone Dragon took to the sky! The Geomchis continued to ride atop it as they attempted to render its wings useless. The Bone Dragon sucked in its breath to prepare another one of its breath attacks! The users below begun to run out of the entrance, desperately trying to escape death! It was too late! The attack connected to the ground right at the entrance! More users lost their lives as the breath attack worked its way back inwards. The screams of the users as they died rung loudly in the ears of those that were about to face death; all they could do was watch as the attack made its way towards them. Ju and Kurokami both collapsed now and huddled by Mira. Despite this only being a game, the three were completely new to it like so many others and were unable to cope with the horror they were facing. They truly believed they would die. Through tear filled eyes, Ju watched as the torrent of darkness and death made its way towards them. Suddenly Flynn, Rynner, and Wistal stepped in front of them. It was a useless gesture, but something in them told them they had to try to protect their friends. ¡°One of the spells wizards got was a shield spell!¡± ¡°Let¡¯s try to use it together!¡± ¡°Alright!¡± Wistal and Rynner both began chanting the shield spell in an attempt to protect the group. Flynn stood behind them and continued to fire shots into the Bone Dragon until his quiver was empty. The breath attack was upon them! It easily crushed through the barrier, and then it rushed through both Wistal and Rynner. As this happened, Flynn turned around and gave the three girls a wry smile. ¡°Sorry,¡± Then he too was swallowed up by the darkness. With only Kurokami and Mira left, Ju felt nothing more than a deep pit of helplessness. Before entering the citadel she had felt that this was only a game and was enjoying it. However, after the first attack by the Bone Dragon, she felt that she was in a real world now and that she would die. She closed her eyes tight and cringed. ¡°Pete, help!¡± The death was surprisingly painless. Except the Ju found it odd that she couldn¡¯t sense her bed beneath her and something was stinking up her room. It wasn¡¯t till she heard the booming sound of bone on stone that she opened her eyes in confusion. First she looked down. There was a dark scar that stretched all the way from the entrance up until a mere foot away from where she was. Then it veered off course and traced a jagged path across the floor and walls before stopping. Then she looked up, there was now a large hole fifty feet above the entrance. Outside she could hear the sounds of something very large crushing the buildings underfoot, along with the occasional, ¡°YATS,¡± being shouted. ¡°I survived! We surv-!¡± She bit off the last bit, looking around; it was only her, Mira, and Kurokami that had survived. The boys had sacrificed themselves. Looking around it seemed they were the only ones left from the once enormous party of users that they had been clearing the city with. She steeled herself, knowing that the fight wasn¡¯t over. Now that she was finally over her shock of seeing something so horrific, she knew that the quest to reclaim Morata wouldn¡¯t end until the Bone Dragon was defeated. Ju cringed as she heard the fearsome roars of the dragon as it rampaged about the city. Shaking off the momentary relapse into fear, she dusted herself off before helping the other two to their feet. ¡°We need to go, the quest isn¡¯t over yet.¡± The other two nodded determination evident on their faces. Pete stretched his back and let loose a yawn of exhaustion. The southern section was finally cleared. It had taken almost two days to finish it, but it was done. Shiro and he were now relaxing against some rubble from a destroyed shop as the rest of the group that had followed them through the city began to unwind as well for a bit, before meeting up with the group to the north. He eyed Weed and Seoyoon, both of whom were still standing and seemed about ready to leave without the rest of them. He frowned slightly as he continued to watch their movements. That was until Shiro pulled on his shirt. He looked down at her quizzically. She shook her head, indicating that she wanted him to stop giving Weed dirty looks. ¡°But Sh-!¡± *BOOM!* Before he could finish his sentence, a massive boom resounded throughout the city. Pete¡¯s eyes quickly followed the sound of the boom in time to see a portion of the Citadel to explode outwards. As it did so his body stiffened as it instinctively sensed danger. He felt Shiro cling to him as their eyes sighted what caused the explosion. They witnessed it in what felt like slow motion, at first they saw something that looked like gigantic bull horns poke out of the dust cloud. Then they saw a skull that the horns were attached to, but it seemed that the skull was more reptilian than bovine. Portions of its neck bones began to escape from the dust, each of the ridges glinting dully in the sunlight. The dust cloud cleared and a foul smelling gust hit the southern reclamation group. With its clearing the full form of the creature was revealed! The users gasped in horror at the sight of the Bone Dragon! Pete¡¯s eyes were riveted to it as he watched it crash into a few buildings near the Citadel. Before it landed he had noticed one of its wings had been ripped to shreds and what looked like humans scurrying across its body. He swallowed his own fear and patted Shiro on the head before standing up. ¡°Looks like we have one more bastard that¡¯s still kicking; let¡¯s crush him and get this over with!¡± _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Hey guys! long time right? I''ve been doing this [th_093.gif] Chapter: 8 Reclamation of Morata Part IV Just wanna throw this out there now. when you see the line of !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!''s I STRONGLY urge you to follow the link I have up here and listen to the song from the 20sec to 1:50 mark at least. I listened to it as I wrote this and it felt epic! I also listened to other songs from the same show for most of the fights in this chapter. But I''ll leave that up to you if ya wanna pair songs to the fights. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXedWYVsIfM _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The other players had been following him this long and had found success and a steady rise in levels when they followed his lead. While their confidence in him was strained by the sight of their final target, the momentum his leadership had gained thus far was enough to power through. They began to cheer as Pete pierced the sky with the massive sword that he had picked up off of one of the greater undead they had faced in the lake area around the statue of Freya. Despite its worn looking state given its low durability, the weapon looked fearsome and served to boost the morale of the others even further. Amidst the crashes and roars of anger of the Bone Dragon as it battled the Geomchis, Pete¡¯s group hurried through the city towards it. As they neared the battle site he directed all ranged fighters to surround the area and prepare to attack on his signal. He had a third of healers break off with them, keeping the remaining two thirds with the melee users. As he did this Weed and Seoyoon surged ahead, unheeding of his orders. After all they had no interest in following some kid, a few followed after them though most opted to stay in the safety of numbers. When Weed¡¯s group reached the battle site, all buildings within a thousand foot radius had been flattened. The battleground was an uneven ground of ruined buildings. Amidst it the Geomchis ducked and dodged the now landlocked dragon¡¯s attacks as they wove around the obstructions that the ruins provided. Despite their low levels in comparison to the Bone Dragon, the Geomchis that had ended up in Morata had sustained only a few casualties. Weed smiled in elation; with them here he was confident they could complete the quest. Uncaring of those who had followed him and his wife, he dashed into the battlefield with Seoyoon close behind. He stopped a few hundred feet away from the battle and began to empty his bag of only the cheapest of japtem that he had collected from the battles that day. ¡°Time to find out what happens when I do it; oh my lovely japtem!¡± Distress was evident on the greedy, as always, Weed¡¯s face. He then kneeled before the japtem and placed his hand on top of the pile. ¡°I offer this bounty to you oh great god of Victories. May our swords wield your divine wrath against those that oppose us. May our feet hasten towards these foul enemies so that their death comes swift! Holy Blade, Blessed Step!¡± It was a combination of the divine spells of the Jeonshin Weed religion! The spells boosted the attack power and speed of its intended targets, which were the Geomchis as well as himself and Seoyoon. The pile of japtem disappeared in a glowing flash. Weed frowned as if he had been hoping something different would happen to the japtem. ¡°Guess it must only be disciples.¡±
Prayer Boost! The effects of your prayer have been strengthened by the offering to the God of Victory. The number of targets it has affected has also increased.
He stood up and drew his sword. After giving Seoyoon a brief look of confirmation, they joined the Geomchis in battle. Normally Weed would be more cautious when hunting something that was as absurdly strong as a Bone Dragon. But after having seen that brat¡¯s, Pete¡¯s, leadership he was confident that in a matter of moments, the first barrage of thousands of user¡¯s ranged attacks would hit the dragon. He couldn¡¯t have been more right, as he narrowly avoided the tail of the dragon as it spun about to fling off more Geomchis, an explosive conflagration of fire spells and arrows slammed into the colossal skeleton from every direction. Then a salvo hit the beast as the thunderous roars of thousands of melee users shook the air as they charged towards the dragon. The southern reclamation group had received the bulk of the remaining waves of users and due to Pete¡¯s tactics they had also suffered much fewer casualties. Because of this, they had an army of users. Despite their miniscule levels compared to the Bone Dragon, they could still do serious harm. Just as a swarm of hornets have annihilated certain animals that threaten their nests, the users were determined to annihilate the Bone Dragon! Pete led the army of melee users as they engaged the Bone Dragon. Many soon lost their lives as they were unable to dodge its claw swipes and tail sweeps. But still they persisted, their strength in numbers making up for their individual weaknesses. The Geomchis grudgingly welcomed the aid as it gave them a chance to rest and heal up. Weed, on the other hand, glowered as they all got in his way and made it more difficult to dodge. ¡°Keep fighting! Overwhelm it with our numbers and pin it down so the mages and archers can crush it!¡± Since the ranged fighters had less chance of physical harm, they vastly outnumbered the number of melee fighters left and therefore, Pete was relying on them to do the bulk of damage to the Bone Dragon. It seemed to be going well. Despite the small amount of damage that they were doing, he felt that the dragon seemed to be getting gradually weaker and weaker. He began to have a belief that they would be able to overwhelm the beast and crush it before it could do any more real damage to them. But then, a group of wizards revealed their location as they tried to move forward for a better position. The Bone Dragon¡¯s eyes flashed! It had been waiting for this! From the group of wizards it could tell the relative distance of the annoyances that were firing upon it! Pete watched in horror as the dragon made a motion that looked like it was sucking in its breath before releasing a dark torrent at the foolish group of wizards. However it didn¡¯t stop there, as its breath attack was still firing it spun about in a full circle and thereby completely eliminated the ranged group! ¡°Shit!¡± ¡°No, no, no, no, no!¡± ¡°What do we do now!?¡± The melee fighters were in despair, without the ranged support they believed it would be almost impossible to fight the dragon since it could now turn its full attention on them. Pete craned his neck back to where Shiro was with the rest of the healers. ¡°Half of you start using holy attacks, the rest of you keep healing and buffing!¡± With the support group now split, casualties began to rise faster. Screams could be heard as bodies were sent flying before turning grey and disappearing. But all of them were overpowered by the roars of the enraged bone dragon! It began to use spells against the users, finally acknowledging them as a threat rather than a mere annoyance. -You will all die! Poison cloud! A putrid and purple fog rapidly spread out from the dragon and affected all of those within range. The number of fighters dropped dramatically. There was little the healers could do since they had exhausted their mana keeping the fighters alive and could now only watch as they slowly died through poisoning. The Geomchis had been away from the frontlines during this attack and now rejoined the battle as the fog cleared! They scampered onto the Bone Dragon¡¯s back and began hacking away at the base of the wings, their goal was to completely eliminate any possibility of the dragon getting airborne again. Pete sprinted forward. His racial abilities had protected him from the worst of the poison and could therefore still fight unaided. At that moment the Bone Dragon brought its right claw hurtling towards the ground, right at his position. He nimbly leapt off to the side before jumping onto its large leg bone and continued on to its back. Once on top he joined the Geomchis that were attacking the right wing. As his sword joined theirs in hacking at the joint, he looked to see one or two of the Geomchis looking at him with these absurdly happy expressions on their faces. It was then that he came to a realization. ¡®These guys are insane! They are enjoying this, even if it means it¡¯ll cost them levels!¡¯ A few moments later though he realized he had the same expression on his face! The feeling was infectious! As the Bone Dragon continued to whirl about: slashing, crushing, and casting spells on the fighters below, Pete and the Geomchis continued to hack away until they were about two thirds of the way through. Then, they felt a great upheaval! The Bone dragon was airborne! Its massive wings allowed it to climb rapidly as it rocketed, with its tail towards the ground, upwards. Pete and a few of the Geomchis rolled back down along the spine of the monster. Some of them managed to grab ahold of random bones on their tumble down. However, Pete and a few others were not so fortunate. ¡°AAAaaarrgghh!¡± ¡°Damnit!¡± Pete had just enough time to rotate so he could land feet first and make a wish. ¡°Aaarrgghhh! Can¡¯t I just turn into a bat?¡± Then, he felt as if his shoulders were being ripped out of their sockets. He began to feel other odd sensations as his downward plummet to the earth slowed.
You have turned into a bat. While in this form you will be unable to equip items of any kind and all physical stats will be reduced.
He gave his wings a hesitant flap before putting to full use. ¡®So this race change has some other perks eh?¡¯ He clumsily half swooped, half fell down to the ground and crashed in front of Shiro. When he reverted back to his human form, he was looking up at her from the ground. ¡°Hey¡­.how¡¯s it going down here?¡± ¡°¡­.¡± *STOMP* ¡°OW! Jesus! I didn¡¯t see anything!¡± Pete got up as he rubbed his face, where a foot like red mark was forming. Looking down at Shiro, she was still clutching at the lower half of her robes in an attempt to make them somehow cover her more. ¡°Look, sorry. But seriously, how is it going down here? Do we have any melee fighters left? Have any remnants of the ranged group come out of the woodwork?¡± ¡°¡­..maybe one hundred? I don¡¯t know.¡± Shiro looked down, embarrassed that she couldn¡¯t give more definitive news. Pete reached out to comfort her, then sudeenly. *GGRRRAAAAWWWWRRRRRRO!* All eyes were immediately trained to the sky. Two large and one gargantuan object were hurtling towards the ground! It was the Bone Dragon and its two wings! The Geomchis had managed to sever both! Their woops of celebration could barely be heard over the raging of the dragon as it plummeted towards the ground. ¡°It¡¯s coming right for us!¡± ¡°Run!¡± ¡°AAarrgghh!¡± The dragon¡¯s trajectory put its landing right in the center of the remaining users! They desperately began to scatter to avoid the dragonic meteor that was about to impact! Pete and Shiro, who had been at the center of where it would land, were running as fast as Shiro was capable of! As they stumbled over the rubble, they heard the crunch of bone on stone behind them! ¡°Shiro!¡± Pete had just enough time to pick up Shiro and cover her with his body before the Shockwave hit them! The pressure wave buffeted them, at first from behind and then from in front of them as the severed wings crashed into the ground! As the dust began to settle, the sounds of the Bone Dragon attempting to stand up could be heard. The desperation was evident in its motions, it had begun to fear that it would return to being nothing more than a pile of bones. The fall had dealt it quite a massive blow to its health, fractures could be seen spanning almost every remaining bone it had. *cough, cough* Pete looked down, to see Shiro coughing from the dust. ¡°Ah, good! You¡¯re okay!¡± ¡°Pete¡­¡± Shiro¡¯s eyes began to tear up as she saw the shards of stone that had pierced his back. During the impact, he had shielded her. But in turn, he had to bear all the damage that would¡¯ve hit both of them. Pete on the other hand was unconcerned. He was more worried about Shiro, his actions to protect her may have been reflex but he was glad she was safe. ¡°Hey, hey, I¡¯m ok¡­see!¡± He stood up and gave a big smile as he endured the pain that the system allowed him to experience. Of course his smile was forced and Shiro could tell. She began pulling out all the japtem she had gathered. She had gathered enough to be just below over-weight in preparation for the prayer that would lead to her class conversion. ¡°oh Holy light, I beseech you, restore us our strength. Heal!¡± A warm golden glow was sent from Shiro to Pete. However the japtem remained unchanged and Pete winced slightly. He tried to cover it up, but once again Shiro noticed. More tears began to fall out of her eyes. ¡°¡­¡­¡­..why?¡± Before Pete could say anything, someone else interrupted. ¡°The priests of Jeonshin Weed can¡¯t heal. They¡¯re strictly combat enhancers.¡± It was Seoyoon! She was slowly walking towards them with a grumpy looking Weed in tow. He obviously was opposed to anyone finding out the huge disadvantage that his religion¡¯s priests had, however Seoyoon had taken pity on Shiro. To her she seemed so lost and all she wanted to do was help her. ¡°How¡­.can¡­I¡­save..him¡­then!?¡± Shiro forced out the question between tears. Everyone knew that Pete was in the danger zone where he would bleed out if he didn¡¯t receive aid. ¡°He can help himself, he¡¯s a vampire right?¡± Pete froze as Shiro wiped off her tears, looking confused. It took a while till the realization of what Seoyoon meant dawned on her. She immediately loosened the collar of her robe and tilted her neck to the side. While looking away with a small blush creeping on her face. ¡°Go ahead.¡± ¡°Bu-¡­. Shiro! It¡¯s-¡° ¡°You¡¯ll die if you don¡¯t! I don¡¯t want that, I want to finish this together!¡± ¡°Shiro-¡° ¡°Hurry up!¡± It was the first time over the past two real world days that Pete had ever heard her use such a commanding voice. He was in such a state of shock he just followed her orders. He knelt before her, then¡­. *chomp!* ¡°Mmmphhh!¡± Shiro bit back a small yelp of pain as Pete¡¯s fangs sunk into her. The effects were almost immediate! All the wounds on his back healed and his health was completely restored! He stood up and wiped his mouth a little. ¡°Thanks Shiro.¡± ¡°mmm.¡± ¡°Can you back me up?¡± If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. ¡°yes.¡± ¡°Alright! Weed, Seoyoon let¡¯s go kick the shit outta this bastard!¡± Pete immediately began running towards the Bone Dragon, picking up his sword that had fallen to the ground after his transformation, it had finally managed to stand upright! It spotted him and immediately lashed out with its front claw! Pete nimbly dodged it before leaping up to land a slash on it forearm! ¡°There¡¯s no way in hell I¡¯m going down now!¡± He pushed off the arm and landed on the ground in front of the dragon. By now The few remaining fighters and few Geomchi¡¯s that had somehow survived the fall had also rushed to encircle the monster. ¡°LET¡¯S GET HIM!¡± ¡°He¡¯s almost dead!¡± ¡°Finish him off!¡± The enraged fighters attacked with renewed vigor. During the fight Pete had a chance to look away and spotted Ju! Her group had been too fearful to fight and had only watched, but now they felt that they absolutely had to fight back against this enemy! ¡°Ju! About damn time you showed up!¡± ¡°Screw you Pete! At least we did!¡± Despite the high tension as all the remaining fighters struggled to stay alive, Pete and Ju¡¯s personal brand sibling love shown through! ¡°Just shoot the damn thing already!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t tell me what to do!¡± Ju along with the two sisters began to fire off arrows and flaming spells. All of them were aimed at the head. Though no real damage seemed to occur, it added to the overall damage that was besieging the dragon! Meanwhile Shiro knelt before the pile of japtem. It had grown as Weed had requested others to donate to the pile. It now towered above both their heads, rivaling the mountain that Weed had made into a sculpture at Tordeum! The battle raged in front of them. Despite the massive amount of damage that the Bone Dragon had suffered from the loss of its wings, it still refused to die as the last remaining fighters assaulted it. However, there were less people dying now. Only the elite fighters were still alive. These were people that had martial training in the real world that was finally being put to good use here. ¡°You know what to do now, right?¡± ¡°¡­.Yes¡­¡± Shiro had a determined expression on her face as she placed her hand on the pile of japtem. She then shut her eyes as she mumbled some words, as if ensuring that she remembered them. Then she opened her eyes. ¡°Great god of victories, my enemy stands before me. Its malice seeks to destroy the world, that you once protected. I make you this offering so that you may aid me in its destruction. Deliver your divine wrath from the heavens and annihilate my enemy. Divine Rend!¡± The Japtem glowed in a golden light before disappearing. Then a massive magic circle formed under the dragon. The stones inside of the circle began to float into the air before forming clamps on each of the Bone Dragon¡¯s legs, immobilizing it! Though it was almost night time, an intense light began to shine on the monster as it struggled against the stone restraints. It looked up towards the light. *GGgrraaawwr-----* *TTTHHUUUMMMM!* As it roared a massive bolt of pure energy slammed into it! It caused the Bone Dragon to crash to the ground and it seemed stunned as its stone restraints crumbled away.
Congratulations! You have converted to the class of Priestess of God of Victory!
You have successfully used Divine Rend! You¡¯re mana will be halved for a week and you will be unable to use Divine Rend for half a year. Due to your low faith, the power of the spell is halved from its normal starting value.
Prayer Boost! The effects of your prayer have been strengthened by your offering to the God of Victory! Due to the large offering, the damage of your prayer will be doubled!
Divine Rend! It was an advanced prayer that normally would¡¯ve been impossible for Shiro to use at this stage, had Weed not given her the spell. It was a spell of awe inspiring power that could smite enemies. It also highlighted the strength of a high level priest of the God of Victory. Pete and the others stood in a daze for a few moments. The sudden and ferocious attack leaving them stunned as well. Eventually he shook himself free. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ¡°DON¡¯T JUST STAND THERE! FINISH THIS BASTARD NOW! EVERYONE ATTACK!¡± ¡°RRRRAAAAAAHHHHH!¡± Everyone dashed forwards! The priests began to fire off consecutive holy attacks, no longer bothering to heal the melee fighters. The fighters themselves charged in and began to hack recklessly at anything they could find. Cries of pain could be heard from the Bone Dragon, now that it was near its end. Yet it refused to give up! Many users were crushed underfoot when it suddenly regained its footing and launched a ferocious attack with its tail. -All of you will die! It began to suck its breath in! Everyone hesitated as they knew what was coming next! ¡°Don¡¯t falter we can end this now!¡± Pete ran forward, dodging another swiping claw before using the arm as a vault to jump higher into the air! As his ascent slowed he reached out and grabbed a neck bone before using it as a point to push off and continue ascending! Finally he reached its mouth! Inside he could see an orb of darkness forming that would, in moments, be used as a breath attack to wipe them all out! ¡°Like I¡¯ll let you!¡± He pulled himself into its maw before hacking away at the bones and rotting flesh inside. He could feel the beast shudder as it tried to gather enough energy for one final attack! He brought his sword down once again and it broke! He could almost hear the beast say: -This is the end! He gritted his teeth. Then smiled. ¡°Are you stupid? I don¡¯t have only a sword! ¡­..Blood tornado!¡± One of the attacks used by vampires! The red mist swirled around him as it picked up speed and formed blades of incomparable sharpness! The ripped through the creatures maw in a crimson explosion! The dark energy from within suddenly disappeared and Pete was flung out of the creature. -Curse you! Pete just grinned as he flipped the Bone Dragon off. Both fell to the ground. The few survivors waited in stunned silence, not daring to move. Then, Pete stood up! ¡°We win!¡± ¡°YYYYEEEEAAAAAAAAAARRRGGHHH¡± There were cheers all around! In the real world, others were celebrating. Those that had fallen in the quest and those that had merely watched rather than participate, even people that had fallen in the other reclamation battles cheered for them. Inside the game, Ju collapsed in tears. ¡°Thank god, we did it.¡± As Pete was battered by users congratulating him and him in turn congratulating them, he made his way towards Shiro. ¡°There you are!¡± ¡°Did I¡­help?¡± ¡°Did you ever! That was amazing! Where did you get that from?¡± ¡°Weed.¡± Pete looked around, realizing that he hadn¡¯t seen the man anywhere. Then he noticed two figures walking off towards the ruined Citadel. ¡°Pete?¡± ¡°Follow me, this quest isn¡¯t done yet.¡± He grabbed her by the hand and began dragging her in the direction of the Citadel. Ju and the other two girls caught sight of them and began to follow. They eventually caught up. ¡°SHIRO!¡± Mira practically tackled her little sister and then immediately proceeded to check and make sure she was alright. While the sisters happily reunited, Pete kept walking with his twin coming up right beside him. ¡°Why are you following them?¡± ¡°Well didn¡¯t you notice that we didn¡¯t get a quest complete notification? I think there is still more to come and my guess is that these two, know what it is!¡± ¡°¡­I see¡­¡± From then on they continued to walk in silence until they reached the now ruined entrance to the Citadel. They were greeted with a frown from Weed and a small smile from Seoyoon. Pete was the first to speak. ¡°So, this quest obviously isn¡¯t finished yet. What¡¯s left?¡± Weed continued to frown and not say anything. Seoyoon thwacked his arm and shook her head before responding. ¡°The city still needs to be purified.¡± There was a pause in the air as Pete and Ju mulled this over and the sisters all did the exact same tilt of the head as they considered what this meant as well. ¡°What do we need to purify it?¡± ¡°Me.¡± ¡°Uh huh.¡± Pete eyed Seoyoon after this declaration before continuing. ¡°Alright then, well I guess go ahead and do whatever you need to do!¡± Seoyoon now just nodded as they walked into the citadel. It was completely dark now so it was fortunate that Mira and Kurokami had come along. They had picked up a light making spell in the spell book that had been issued from the reclamation camp, which they now used. Under the dim light emitting from the two orbs above the girls¡¯ heads, they walked to the center of the room. In the center there, a small pedestal had somehow avoided damage from the Bone Dragon and had gone unnoticed by the users that had first entered the Citadel. The light seemed to weaken near it and it gave off an unpleasant feeling. Ju spouted the obvious. ¡°Let me guess, this is what we need to fix to finish this.¡± ¡°Not what you need to fix, what I need to fix. Currently I¡¯m the only one with the capacity to purify Morata.¡± It was Kurokami¡¯s turn to step in. ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°The purification process requires a special ability. This ability is the one that was awarded to the top 5 players.¡± Pete paled slightly. ¡°So¡­.if you had died¡­..we would¡¯ve been screwed.¡± ¡°¡­.Yes and no. This place would still be treated as a dungeon and the common monsters would re-spawn eventually. However, something like the Bone Giants and the Bone Dragon wouldn¡¯t have. Anybody who died here also would then be given the option to re-spawn in a different city that was successfully captured.¡± Seoyoon took in a breath and looked a bit sheepish. She still wasn¡¯t used to talking so much, especially to strangers. Mira looked up from where she was hugging and teasing Shiro. ¡°Well I guess it¡¯s good you¡¯re here to finish this then¡­like now?¡± Seoyoon shifted her feet in embarrassment; she was one of only two adults in the room and she was being prompted by children! After clearing her throat she placed her hand on the pedestal. She had a sharp intake of breath as her had went through the most unpleasant sensation thus far. The pedestal felt as though it were slimy and jagged at the same time and gave that shudder inducing feeling that touching the plants that live on the bottom of a murky lake does. She motioned away Weed who had stepped forward in concern, flashing him a reassuring smile. ¡°I call upon the light that defeats the darkness. Smite the evil within this domain I have claimed. Purify!¡± Light pierced through the sky as it slammed into the pedestal! The shrieks of thousands of ghouls could be heard as the pedestal began to crack. Then with one final ear rending screech it shattered. In its place was a pulsating orb of light. Then in a blinding flash, the light exploded outwards. It quickly engulfed the entirety of Morata. Those in the city and those watching from the real world looked on in stunned silence. Then¡­..
Quest Completed! You have successfully reclaimed Morata! For surviving you have gained the special skill: Purification, you will now be able to reclaim other places by using this skill! Congratulations! You have reclaimed Morata before all other cities. You will have a 20% EXP boost for the next week
The cheers from defeating the Bone Dragon had been loud, the cheers from the completion of the quest were deafening! Pete plopped down beside Shiro, before stretching out on the ground. He looked up at the starry night sky. ¡°So¡­what now? What happens to Morata?¡± ¡°¡­.It looks like I¡¯ll be ruling it now.¡± Seoyoon had seemingly decided to be chatty today. But, to anyone who noticed, she seemed slightly shaky and somewhat nervous. Weed looked at her. ¡°What?¡± ¡°When I purified the city I got a message saying I was its new ruler.¡± ¡°I see¡­¡± ¡°But¡­¡± Weed cocked his head. He had begun to notice that his wife was acting strangely. ¡°But?¡± ¡°I won¡¯t really be able to rule it for a while. So¡­honey¡­.could you rule it?¡± Now Weed had broken out in a cold sweat. His wife never said honey, unless she wanted something. ¡°Alright¡­.but why?¡± ¡°Because¡­.. I¡¯m pregnant.¡± Silence filled the room as the others watched the scene unfold before them. Pete snickered slightly, until Shiro pinched his arm. They all waited for Weed¡¯s reply Weed on the other hand had calculations running through his head. Analyzing how much money it would take to raise a child and trying to figure out which would be cheaper to raise. After all if it was a girl, she could have hand me downs from his sister, but if it was a boy he would have to buy new clothes since all of his were worn to tatters¡­¡­. ¡°Weed?¡± *THUMP* Weed fell straight backwards. He had fainted, then his body dissipated as the system forcibly logged him out do to what appeared to be an intense shock. ¡°¡­.¡± Seoyoon then disappeared right after him. Pete snickered again. Shiro pinched him ¡°OW!¡± _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ So.... Morata has been reclaimed and I have finally updated. I hope you enjoyed the musical pairing. I was thinking about adding it in where suitable for coming chapters. Tell me whatcha think in the comments below. Also do please rate and review my work. I love feedback. Shout out to Yoyo and Jddickinson for the fact checks on chapter 6 once again. Do please nit pick these two chapters for their correctness concerning the dragon. And...uuhhhh....yeah! haha hopefully I''ll be able to start working on the story''s actual protagonist now that the introduction (THAT IS WAY LONGER THAN I EXPECTED!) is over. [spoiler alert] yeah it''s not Pete, nor Shiro, nor Weed and Seoyoon. It''s that little redhead I dropped in the woods back in chapter 3? or something like that? Chapter: 9 Aftermath Hyun Lee opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was the shadowy interior of his capsule. The next thing he noticed was someone quietly crying nearby. He frowned in confusion, not entirely sure why he was back in reality. Then in a sudden realization his body went rigid! Seoyoon was pregnant! She was going to be a mother! Which meant¡­ he was going to be a father. The crying interrupted his thoughts and he looked to his right, in the direction of the sound. There should only be one person in this room, other than himself¡­ He got out of his capsule and walked hesitantly towards another capsule that was beside his own. The source of the weeping noise was coming inside. He popped open the hatch to see a weeping angel. That would be the only way to describe the image of Seoyoon curled up and weeping within the capsule. He stood in silence for a bit, unsure of what to do. Eventually Seoyoon noticed him, but instead of going to him, she curled up into an even tighter ball and the crying became noticeably more pronounced. The increase in volume snapped Hyun out of his trance and he reached out to gently shake her, muttering things like what was wrong. Each time he reached out he was rebuked by her jerking her body away or crying louder. Despite her reactions, the increase in volume of her cries was a relief to him. If she was silent, like how she had been when they first met, he wouldn¡¯t know what to do. But in this case he knew what to do, almost instinctively. He ignored her rebukes and firmly grabbed hold of her, before picking her up princess style and carrying her to their bedroom. Once inside, he just held her tight as they sat on their bed. Gradually her cries died down to sniffles and her body began to loosen in his arms. After a few more minutes she looked up at him. In her eyes were emotions of sadness, overlaid by intense fear. It was that fear he saw that gave him pause. He had no idea in the first place why she was crying, but the fact that she was crying out of fear seemed to shake him. Eventually he managed to utter out. ¡°What¡¯s wrong, what is it that you are afraid of? I¡¯ll defeat whatever it is. So, please¡­.don¡¯t cry.¡± This somehow caused her to burst into more tears as she clung tightly to him. He continued to hold her and wait. A few more minutes passed until she calmed down again. Then her voice, now hoarse from sobbing, emanated from his chest. ¡°I¡¯m scared for the baby. I¡¯m terrified that¡­.that¡­.th-that I¡¯ll be like my mother!¡± This caused her to fall into another crying fit. This time Hyun just stroked her back and made soothing noises, similar to how he used to calm his sister down when she was little. When Seoyoon¡¯s weeping quieted he pushed her away from himself so he could look into her eyes. They were puffy and red by now and some might say they marred her beauty. But to him she was always beautiful and therefore was transfixed for a while before smiling. ¡°It¡¯s ok, you won¡¯t be like her. Your stronger than that.¡± His words seemed to calm her slightly, but there was still uncertainty in her eyes. He realized he needed to say and do something more. He wasn¡¯t sure what it was, but then he could feel it. It was in the back of his brain, the small nugget of fear that he was keeping bottled up. He realized he had to share it with her. ¡°I¡¯m scared too,¡± he said this softly as one by one, tears began to leak out of his eyes as he smiled at her, ¡°I¡¯m terrified about whether or not I¡¯ll be a good father. My parents left me and my sister saddled with debt, I feel almost paralyzed by the fear that I¡¯ll do the same to ours. But you know what? I¡­..I think that together we can do this. You will be an excellent mother, I can¡¯t think of anyone else I¡¯d rather raise my, no, our child with.¡± Like the sun, Seoyoons smile warmed up the room as she tackled Hyun into their bed and kissed him. ¡°Thankyou¡­.I think I needed to hear that from you.¡± ¡°No problem.¡± The rest of the day was spent holding each other and reaffirming their love for one another. It was something they hadn¡¯t done in a while and both realized they should¡¯ve done this sooner. Eventually as the day began to darken to night, they fell asleep in each other¡¯s arms; exhausted from the two long days spent in the game world and exhausted emotionally from the aftermath. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Pete got up and stretched just long enough to begin feeling like he was alive again, before all his blood rushed to his head and he fell to the floor. ¡°AARGGHH, ouch¡± He had just logged out after friending everyone he had partied with and a few of the other survivors. But now that the stress of the event was over with, all the fatigue he had accumulated caught up with him. He slowly clambered up into his bed and was about to get some actual sleep, when his phone buzzed. He opened his messages and saw that Ju had sent him something.
Ugghhh, I can¡¯t even! That event was too hard
He narrowed his eyes in annoyance, he knew his sister knew that he hated when she ever used any white girl tropes. He quickly texted back.
the hell does can¡¯t even mean? Plus, couldn¡¯t you have just come over here and told me that?
*BZZT*
You could just as easily walked over here and told me that as well!
*BZZT*
you¡¯re so lazy! We haven¡¯t moved all that much for the past two days and you¡¯re telling me that you can¡¯t get up and walk over here!?
*BZZT!*
Says the guy who fell! I bet you¡¯re stiff as a board and tired too!
*bzzt*
-_- whatever
*BZZT*
my point exactly
_____________________________________________________________________________________ Juliet looked up at her ceiling after her phone argument with her brother. Her forehead felt a bit hot from where the Acessor Gear had been attached for the greater part of the past two days. Lazily, she flicked her right hand from her side and rested it on her forehead. Her hand had grown cold from lack of activity and was a cooling presence on her skin. She closed her eyes and just allowed herself to sink into her bed. She felt the exhaustion of someone who had been away from home for a long time and had finally returned. It was like this that she gradually drifted off to sleep. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­. ¡°Juliet come down for dinner right now! I will throw out that game system if you don¡¯t come down this instance!¡± ¡°I¡¯m coming! I fell asleep!¡± Ju groaned as she got out of bed. In the background she could hear her mom shouting the same thing into her twin¡¯s room. After taking a few unsteady steps, she shook off her tiredness and walked out of her room. Her door closed with a light bang as she stepped out into the hallway. Looking to her left she saw her twin walk out of his room. He didn¡¯t bother closing the door and merely yawned as a greeting to her. ¡°Oonnneee! Twwooo!-¡° When their mom began to count, they knew they had taken too much time! The twins rushed down stairs, desperate to keep their game systems. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Kaoru Kleine stepped out of her capsule stiffly. ¡°AAaahh, gosh that was such a long event!¡± ¡°But it was fun, finally getting to play this game!¡± Her two older sister had already gotten out of their capsules. They stood their stretching and trying to shake off the stiffness from not having moved around much. ¡°Mmmmhh, it was long.¡± Kaoru murmured her agreement. Her verbal confirmation reminded her sisters that she was there, and they immediately had leering grins on their faces. ¡°Aaahh, but don¡¯t you think Kaoru that it would¡¯ve been nice for it to go on longer?¡± ¡°Ne, ne Kaoru¡­ it seemed like you were REALLY enjoying that event.¡± Kaoru blushed and ducked her head, her white hair covering her reddening face. However the blush wasn¡¯t limited to her face as it traced a fiery path down her porcelain, white neck. She wouldn¡¯t take that though from her sisters. ¡°But what about you Kuromi-nee? Did you find that ¡®white¡¯ guy you were so desperate to find?¡± It was now time for the middle sister to blush. Though hers was a blush of anger more so than one of embarrassment. She slammed her fist into her other hand. ¡°No¡­ That bastard wasn¡¯t there. He might¡¯ve started in one of the other towns, but when I find him I¡¯m gonna crush him!¡± Now the eldest sister stepped in. ¡°Iyaaa ¨C Kuromi why are you always so violent?¡± ¡°geh! I¡¯m not always violent! It¡¯s just that jerk!¡± With the conversation successfully diverted away from her, Kaoru skipped out of the room towards the kitchen. At the kitchen table, her dad was drinking coffee as he was flicking through his emails. ¡°Aaahh, I see you¡¯re up and out of the game! How was it?¡± ¡°It was lots of fun!¡± The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. Her father smiled at this. He was always worried about his youngest. With a stature that belied her age, coupled with the issues she had as an albino. He was constantly fretting over her wellbeing. It hadn¡¯t been too long ago that she had been a complete shut in, due to callous remarks from classmates at school that had resulted in her ceasing to attend. ¡°What about you Papa? How¡¯s work?¡± ¡°Hmm? Oh, it¡¯s going just fine. All of Unicorn¡¯s Japanese branch servers are running smoothly so I gave myself the morning off to see how you girls were doing.¡± Kaoru smiled and hugged her dad before rushing into the kitchen to make something for herself for breakfast. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Jack sat at the table in a somewhat listless manner. He slowly ate the steak and potato dinner his mom had made, but without his usual enthusiasm. He was vaguely aware of his younger siblings¡¯ excited conversation with their parents. He was currently too busy with his own issues to think about anything else. However- ¡°WHAT was that girl¡¯s name again?¡± He thought he had heard a familiar name, one that would always manage to stoke his competitive flame. ¡°Aaahh, how nice of you to come back to earth Jack.¡± His father made the comment with a bemused expression on his face as his little sister looked at him with annoyance, since he had interrupted her story. ¡°What? Which girl¡¯s name?¡± Jack pinched the bridge of his nose as he tried to recall the bit of the conversation he was interested in. ¡°Uh, um, the one that stayed with you guys? Uhh, oh yeah. The one that would attack first!¡± ¡°oh, her character name was Kurokami.¡± ¡°¡­.I see. So she made it into this game as well huh?¡± Jack mumbled off the last bit as he began to finish off the rest of his meal with an intense enthusiasm. The rest of his family looked at him curiously, throughout the entire meal he had seemed to be on autopilot so when he suddenly sprung back to life they were naturally curious as to what caused it. He gulped down the last of his food and then stared intently at his parents. There was a fire in his eyes. Their intensity was something that his family was used to seeing only when he was playing soccer. ¡°Mom¡­ Dad..¡± ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°I¡¯m quitting my summer job. But don¡¯t worry I can make money a different way.¡± ¡°WHAT!? What do you mean you¡¯re quitting your job? How are you going to make money in a different way?¡± His parents looked at him with very displeased expressions. Their expressions darkened further when an answer wasn¡¯t forthcoming. Instead they saw Jack raise his hand, as if to say ¡®wait¡¯, and began fiddling with his smartphone with his other hand. ¡°I thought we told you no phones at the table.¡± Jacks dad muttered, as he watched his eldest doing something with his smartphone. ¡°Here it is!¡± With a triumphant look, Jack shoved his phone¡¯s display is his parent¡¯s direction. After reflexively flinching backwards, his mom took the phone out of his hand and looked at the information displayed on it. After that she passed it on to his dad so he could read what was on the screen. His dad then handed it back to him. His mom and dad exchanged glances before looking back at their son. ¡°Do you really think anyone is going to start with a bid that high at this point?¡± His dad spoke for both himself and his wife. Jack looked down at his phone again before replying with a satisfied smirk on his face. ¡°Somebody already has.¡± His parents shared another glance before his dad replied. ¡°Alright, I think I understand what your plan is. IF you can keep this rate up, this could very well be quite lucrative for you. Which means you¡¯ll owe us less in the long run for housing for the next four years. So I think we agree that you can quit your job.¡± ¡°Yes, BUT there will still be play restrictions. I don¡¯t want you becoming unhealthy because of that game. Also, if you can¡¯t continue to earn more you will have to find a new summer job and you will be restricted from playing for the rest of the summer.¡± His parents both had serious expressions on their faces. They wanted him to have fun in everything he was doing, including his job. However, they also wanted him to earn money since the deal between them was that, they would pay for tuition if he would pay for housing. He understood this and gladly accepted the new conditions. ¡°Alright, well then¡­.may I excuse myself so I can get back to ¡®work¡¯?¡± ¡°No, the rest of us are still eating dinner and you need to talk to your family.¡± Jack¡¯s shoulders sagged slightly at his mom¡¯s quick judgment on his request. But he knew he would have time later¡­. _____________________________________________________________________________________ New Road¡¯s official site! It was the website created by Unicorn to provide all information pertaining to their flagship game. It also hosted the hall of fame and the gamer rankings for the game. It was in this section of the site that quite a stir was being caused. Naturally, as the reclamation battles were being finished up across the Versailles continent, users turned their eyes to these places to see the end result of the battles. This was seen in the form of the rankings and the players who were invited to the hall of fame. As these hall of famers accepted their invitations, they also began to upload videos of their exploits during the battles. While many videos caused exclamations of surprise and excitement, it wasn¡¯t until videos from Morata were uploaded that there was an explosion of interest on the site. Everyone new that it had been the first place to be successfully reclaimed and wanted to see how the final battle panned out. When it was revealed that Weed had taken part in the battle, no one was surprised anymore that it had been the first place to be reclaimed. That was until they saw the mysterious newcomer that shocked everyone during the final battle by delivering the final blow directly inside the gaping maw of the Bone Dragon or the epic attack that lead to the beast¡¯s downfall from the little girl. Both events caused the comment section for the video to become flooded. - Kyaaaa! That guy is so cool! - Che only reason he could even fight beside the Geomchi¡¯s is cuz he was a vampire. - Dats one badass loli! - Super loli! (^<>^) - But seriously how did she pull of that attack!? What¡¯s with all that japtem disappearing? The comments continued along these lines as more and more people watched the videos. That was until¡­¡­.. - Everyone on right now HAS to go to the Auction site - YEAH! Something IMPOSSIBLE happened! Comments such as this began to pop up and increased at an alarming rate. When users went to check the section of the site that contained an official auction site where users could directly auction off in- game items from their accounts they saw a post that already had over ten million hits. The post was for the auctioning of a sword. Which in itself wasn¡¯t all that surprising, given that everyone had several swords they had looted from the corpses of the enemies within the cities and they wanted to be rid of them while making money. What was surprising and what caused the uproar was that this particular sword shouldn¡¯t have appeared for at least a few more months if not years.
Ancient sword of the Rosenheim Guard This is a ceremonial sword that was given to distinguished guardsmen. It was imbued with magic to help retain its quality. Though it could do with a sharpening and a polish Durability: 800/1000 Damage: 8~10 Level Restriction: 200
Special Options: + 10% Leadership + 5% Charm +20% resistance to abnormal status effects
While it lacked destructive power, it made up for it with special options that would help anyone trying to rise through the ranks of a kingdom quickly. Not to mention its level restriction could only be met by a small portion of the player base that had taken a very active role during the reclamation battles. The users were all confused by how such an item could show up now. - Well, at least we know it can¡¯t be a fake, this is Unicorn¡¯s official site after all - You don¡¯t think it¡¯s a glitch in the system? - Nooo, I think Unicorn is watching this site like a hawk for these first few days. - Still, who the hell is this Weiss guy and how did he get this sword¡­ _____________________________________________________________________________________ Kuromi crunched down hard on the chip she was having as an afternoon snack. Her eyes were riveted to her computer, which had the official auction site for New Road up. Her expression was one of anger but oddly also showed hints of excitement and happiness. ¡°So you really are playing¡­..Weiss!¡± _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ NEXT CHAPTER! --> viewtopic.php?f=285&t=5005 Geehee! Sorry for the wait as always. I hope you enjoyed the chapter as it brought the story back around to my original main character, the elder brother Jack! Also for those of you complaining about no WeedxSeoyoon mush, I hope this alleviates the issue. As always leave comments down below and rate + review me! - This chapter is dedicated to Robin Williams. He will be sorely missed. Chapter: 10 Main Character Story: START! Weiss crouched on the tree branch, with his back leaned up against the trunk. He had a slightly dazed expression on his face as he stared off into the distance. The expression had come upon him from an hour of being in this exact position. Below him a few small growls and an occasional howl could be heard from around the base of the tree. The Banal wolves had not left and continuously paced around the tree, waiting for him to come down. The reason they had fallen into this stalemate was because Weiss was too scared to try and execute his escape plan. He knew that if he failed he would most likely revive in either the other plane of existence, or in Morata. It was something he wasn¡¯t too keen on figuring out. What he was interested in, was how long he could survive in a zone that wasn¡¯t meant to be quested through until at least a year from now. ¡°ffucckk,¡± Weiss sighed as he looked back down again. Then he looked up at the sky, his vacant expression focused and became a frown. ¡°Well I guess there¡¯s nothing to it, but to do it¡­..arghh this really sucks!¡± He slapped himself across the face as he stood up. The branch was quite thick, as were most of the branches in the forest. The entire area had not seen a single logger in over a thousand years so all of the trees had naturally grown to a size that was rarely ever seen on earth. This was in fact a critical part of his plan. He needed all the branches to be this large, so large that he could jump on them and not lose his balance. He walked towards the edge of the branch he was currently on. A few feet away and towards the left of him was a branch that led to the tree in front of him. He then paced back along the branch he was on, after examining the other branch carefully. After turning around again, he gave his legs a shake and rolled his neck. Then, with a grunt, he started running as fast as he could while maintaining balance. When he came to the end he leapt forward and to the left. He had to duck his head mid-flight to avoid a hanging branch from above. Finally he landed, it seemed he had been in the air for an eternity though it really only lasted about two seconds. He gripped tightly onto the branch in fright, terrified he¡¯d fall. Nothing happened and after a while his muscles un-tensed so he could move. Below he could hear the angry baying of the Banal Wolves. Weiss looked down upon them. ¡°One down,¡± he looked towards where his approximation of the ruins of Rosenheim was, ¡°A billion more to go¡­..¡± He gave his arms and legs a shake before he began moving faster now along the branch. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Sweat drenched Weiss¡¯s shirt. For the past two days in the game world he had done nothing but climb and jump from tree to tree. He had gained some stats for his effort but he had turned off the notification option, if a blaring notification popped up in the middle of a jump it could be disastrous. But he had noticed that the whole affair was becoming gradually easier. ¡°I will shit bricks if I gained something like a tree climbing skill.¡± The mutter was replied in kind with the furious howls and snarls of the Banal Wolves below. They were the only observers of his treetop antics. This audience had grown as it got progressively angrier over the past few hours. Weiss elected this as a good time to check where he was. He¡¯d been doing it every so often to make sure he didn¡¯t go off track. His redhead once again poked up out of the tree cover. ¡®Hmmmm, it seems I¡¯ve been going too far to the right. Fuuugg¡­this sucks.¡¯ He frowned as he descended below and continued. After another few hours, he judged he was over halfway to the ruins. ¡°Alright! Break time!¡± He logged out. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Jack opened eyes. ¡°Shit!¡± He ran to the bathroom. After a longer than usual time had passed he came out. ¡®That¡­.that¡¯s much better!¡¯ He shuffled down to the kitchen. It was the middle of the night and no one else appeared to be up. He turned on the minimum number of lights he needed to get around the kitchen. He put a kettle on the stove and grabbed an apple. ¡®I need all the sugar and caffeine I can get.¡¯ His parents didn¡¯t allow regular sweets into the house. There was chocolate, but after years of perusing around on the internet he had found out that one apple would do more for him that three bars of chocolate. ¡®Besides, mom would kill me if I ate that much.¡¯ The chocolate was allowed on the simple reason that his mother loved it, to the extent that she was visibly displeased whenever someone in the house was eating it in front of her. *TOOOOOOOOT!* Jack hurriedly took the kettle off the stove, not wanting to wake his parents. He poured himself a cup of black tea, adding honey and a bit of cream. Normally he¡¯d avoid adding the cream but he wanted something to cool it down. After it had finished brewing, he downed it quickly. Then rushed back up to his room, after cleaning up the kitchen so that it appeared he hadn¡¯t been there. Inside his room, Jack powered up his computer. He found the live stream of the events that were taking place in the cities that were being reclaimed. He witnessed the Geomchis crushing everything in their path, regardless of what city they were in. He caught glimpses of the final 5 that had survived the apocalypse, except for Seoyoon. She and Weed were oddly absent; this caused Jack to grit his teeth. ¡®If you have already died¡­it will make me question making you my goal.¡¯ It would be a lie to say Jack wasn¡¯t absolutely determined to beat Weed. He had grown up respecting him, his battles had been almost like a replacement for Saturday morning cartoons for him. But as he got older and matured, he began questioning him. As he went over the videos with a more critical eye he began wondering whether Weed was actually a good person or not. This conflict had been left unresolved since he had no way of communicating with a person so powerful, that he possibly held more political clout than the leaders of some small nations. But with New Roads, he now had a more level playing field where he could gain the power to challenge Weed and figure this all out once and for all. Abruptly, Jack stood up after powering his computer down. He then powered up the Accessor Gear and re-connected. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Weiss opened his eyes. The Banal Wolves had finally left; their prey suddenly disappearing was probably what caused it. A smile broke out on his face before quickly being replaced by a more serious one. He needed to concentrate, he wanted to pick up the pace and get there before another two days had passed. Without the distraction of the Banal Wolves the trip became much more pleasant. Eventually Weiss began to enjoy himself. Whatever skills and stats he was picking up seemed to be making everything way easier than it had previously been. By about mid-day on his third day, since he had started his treetop journey, he came to a stop. ¡°Damnit!¡± His stomach began churning in worry. He realized that over the past several hours he hadn¡¯t checked where he was going. Because of that he had no idea if he had stayed on course or not. Nervously, Weiss clambered up the tree he was currently on and stuck his head out above the sea of green. Before him, the forest stretched out beautifully but his expression showed that he had no care for the wonderful site before his eyes. He punched the branch he was resting on. He had traveled too far to the right. ¡®I¡¯ve probably added another mile or two to this goddamn journey.¡¯ He let a sigh escape before climbing back down to the lower branches. After adjusting his course, he continued to run along the branches. Unlike the other two nights, he continued to run through the darkest part of the night. During which he had to rely on his other senses to tell him where he was going. The going was slower, but Weiss was impatient to get out of the woods. Right around dawn he was stopped by something, it was a thin mesh of some kind and very sticky. He stopped instantly, fortunately only his hand had gotten stuck. He could feel the blood drain from his face as he waited, standing in the darkness before dawn. Weiss¡¯s ears strained to hear anything and everything. If what was in front of him was what he thought it was, then eventually he¡¯d be getting an unwelcome visitor. Sure enough, just as dawn¡¯s light was filtering through the trees he heard it. *SHUS, SHUS, SHUS¡­.* It was the quiet whirr of multiple legs moving along the tree branches. Then a low hiss reached his ears as a shadow came into view in front of him. ¡°Shit.¡± It was a spider! Above its head floated the name: Steel-Fanged Arachnid. True to its name, its fangs were huge and the morning sunlight glinted off of them. After it spotted Weiss with its vibrant red eyes, it picked up the pace. Its grotesquely furred body making a swishing noise as it delicately moved about its webs. ¡°Attercop¡­¡± Weiss breathed out before struggling to get his hand free. However nothing seemed to work and the oversized tarantula was nearly open him. ¡°Wolves sound better right now!¡± He jumped off the branch, hoping that his weight would be enough to force his hand free. With a sharp intake of breath he fell to the forest floor.
-20 Health
Apparently status messages about his health couldn¡¯t be ignored. He picked himself up and began running in the direction he had been going. Above him he could hear multiple rustlings and the cracking of branches. When he heard multiple hisses going off at the same time he redoubled his efforts at escape. Apparently the initial spider had decided to hunt with his buddies. ¡°Fuck, fuck, shit, fuck!¡± He began to hear large thuds behind him as spiders dropped to the ground in order to give chase. Luckily for him, despite their agility they were not all that great in straight out sprints. This leveled the playing field somewhat. ¡®Thank you stat raises!¡¯ Weiss knew that if he still had the base starter stats he would be screwed. He could only thank the time he had spent up in the trees for his current ability to escape. As he duck and wove through the undergrowth, he had to keep reminding himself to keep going. Every muscle on his body ached, his breath tore out of his throat in ragged gasps. Sprinting for roughly a mile would do that. But he knew he couldn¡¯t stop the crashing and hisses behind him were a constant reminder that to stop was to die. ¡®It¡¯s just a game, it¡¯s just a game, it¡¯s just a game¡­.¡¯ This was his mantra to keep himself moving, he kept reminding himself that he wouldn¡¯t actually die if he kept sprinting at this pace. He also knew that it wasn¡¯t too far till he was out of the trees. The last time he checked, it seemed as if he had only needed three or so miles to go and he had already covered half of that. *HOWL!* In front of him came the sound of what he thought he had left behind! Banal Wolves! A large pack of them were ahead! Their dark leathery forms swiftly wove through the trees. They had picked up on the scent of both Weiss and the spiders and had come running. Still fearing for his continued existence, Weiss hurriedly ran up a trunk and desperately grabbed the lowest branch. Without pausing to look below he ascended into the canopy of the forest. He needn¡¯t have worried though, with the appearance of the Banal wolves the Steel-Fanged Arachnids lost all interest in him. They now had to worry about the wolves rushing towards them. Normally they wouldn¡¯t be bothered by the wolves and would usually attack them. But now they were on the ground and the wolves decided to take advantage of this to get revenge! *GROWL!* *HISS!* As he swiftly moved through the forest, the sounds of the fight slowly faded.
Satiety has fallen below 50% -5 to all stats
Weiss collapsed into the trunk of the next tree he landed on. His breathing nothing more than ragged gasps as he attempted to recover. He pulled another piece of the horrible bread from his inventory and consumed just enough to remove the status effects. Then he rested his head against the tree and closed his eyes. As he sat there, he just let the events of the past few minutes role over him. ¡°Dear god, what have I gotten myself into¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­.¡± *SIGH* ¡°Might as well check where I am.¡± He clambered up to above the treetops. The morning sun shined brightly as Weiss squinted into the distance. He was rewarded with a beautiful sight! The ruins of the Serabourg of Rosenheim were very near! He quickly made his way back down the tree before swinging to the ground. He began a steady jog after that. Luckily for him nothing else seemed to be lurking in the slowly thinning forest. He continued running right up to the ruined walls. Once there, he paused to nibble on some more of the tasteless bread as he looked around. Where he stood, the wall was nothing more than a five foot high bump, and like most things in the area it seemed that it was slowly being consumed by the forest. Along the wall he saw several trees that straddled it, like eternal besiegers that broke the wall down a speck of dust at a time. He was about to step over the barrier when¡­ *DING, DING, DING!*
Alarm: Time For Work Snooze or logout?
¡°FUCK!¡± ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­. ¡°logout.¡± _____________________________________________________________________________________ Jack ripped the Accessor gear off and quickly changed into his work uniform. After struggling into his shoes he bolted out of the door and through the house and out into the driveway. He hurriedly hopped into his car and sped away from the house. All through traffic he exhibited extreme road rage. He was furious, he had finally gotten to a good point in the game and he was forced to leave for his stupid job! After he reached the mall he worked at, he slammed his door after he got out of the car and began hurriedly walking across the parking lot to the entrance. By the time he got there, he had managed to calm down. He reminded himself that it was this job that was paying for the game whenever his parents stopped paying for it, and that it would also be paying for anything fun he wanted to do. After successfully navigating the mall, he reached his final destination¡­¡­Starbacks. His shoulders visibly slumped as he looked up at the sign before walking in. He had never been a fan of the company and actually hated just about everything on their menu. However, they surprisingly gave the best pay and that was all that Jack needed. It also helped that all of the baristas there were attractive. ¡®they DEFINITELY didn¡¯t discriminate during the hiring process.¡¯ Jack didn¡¯t mind though, he had managed to get a job and that was all he cared about. He went through the staff door, grabbed an apron, and punched in. He then plastered a smile on his face and went out to the front to begin serving coffee, however¡­.. ¡°Wow, there are not a lot of people.¡± ¡°No shit Sherlock¡± The girl who replied to his comment was a cold beauty. She was taller than the average girl and was what could be only called just shy of filled out. She also wore a sharp pair of jet black glasses, the color of her hair also happened to be the same. Her name was Meg, she and Jack had probably the best working relationship out of all the Starbacks workers. ¡°Wow good to see you too Watson.¡± She rolled her eyes at him before resuming her position at the register with her head supported by her hand. After a while¡­ ¡°Obviously most people are playing New Roads right now. Look around here! It¡¯s practically a senior convention!¡± Jack looked up from where he had been cleaning around the espresso machine. Meg was right, only a few scattered groups of people were in the lounge area and all of them could be described as old. As usual, when it came to new technology, the old were left behind. But something was still confusing him. ¡°But what about the early morning rush? Shouldn¡¯t there be at least a few people that work in the offices around here getting coffee?¡± Meg shook her head. ¡°Jack, ya need to look at the big picture. We live in a¡­¡­rich area right?¡± ¡°right¡± ¡°Which means lots of people can afford New Roads, especially with the Accessor gear now right?¡± ¡°right¡± ¡°Also it¡¯s estimated that 1 in 6 people have bought the game. However, looking at age groups, most players will be in the 13 to 40 range right?¡± ¡°¡­.I guess so?¡± ¡°They are. So, who do you think the bulk of our customers are in the morning?¡± ¡°people in that range?¡± ¡°Good, now what day is it today?¡± ¡°Sunday?......oh¡± ¡°Ya figured it out! Congratulations!¡± ¡°Shut up!¡± Jack grimaced in annoyance. Meg loved lording things over him whenever she got the chance. She was planning to go to college and major in business. She also happened to be a bit of an overachiever so it was no surprise that she would know these kinds of things. He gave the espresso machine one last vicious swipe before putting the now dirty rag away. He then resigned himself to standing at the machines, completely and utterly bored. That was until¡­.. ¡°Hey, make me a frappe.¡± ¡°¡­..¡± ¡°Jack, I said----¡° Meg cut herself off when she turned around to yell at Jack, he was wearing a malicious smile on his face. ¡°Now, now, that¡¯s no way to ask. What do we say?¡± ¡°Make me a frappe¡­..please.¡± ¡°And what about earlier?¡± She frowned as Jacks smile just grew wider, bordering on scary. ¡°Sorry.¡± ¡°Good! So the brute does have manners!¡± Jack happily set about making the frappe. Meg couldn¡¯t do this herself because she had been barred by anyone that worked the same shifts as her from touching the machines. She had literally wrecked one so bad they had needed to get a replacement, though no one was sure how she had done it. Jacks shift continued like that until a few hours after lunch. Meg had finished her shift earlier with a few people that were in the back. They had been the ones to open. Now it was his turn to be done! He nearly sprinted to his car before speeding down the highway back to his house. When he got there, he pounded up the stairs to his room and crammed his Accessor gear on his head. Then¡­¡­. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Weiss opened his eyes and looked around, it was dark out now. ¡®Must be the night before the fourth day in the cycle.¡¯ The moonlight filtered in through the trees and further aided his enhanced vision. ¡®Which reminds me; just what kind of skills did I get?¡¯ ¡°Turn on positive status updates and show summary of updates since turned off.¡±
Vitality + 4
Strength + 5
New Stat: Endurance
Endurance: Reduces the loss of vitality and stamina. Stat points distribution is possible and depending on the character¡¯s actions, it can increased by itself.
Endurance + 5 [window] [window] Agility + 10
Intellect +2
Luck +10
New Skill: Acrobatics
New Skill: Sensory Perception
Your Acrobatics was increased to level 4 You¡¯re movements become more fluid and precise. You also are able to perform greater feats of flexibility and agility! -5% falling damage + 6 Agility +4 Luck
Your Sensory Perception was increased to level 2 The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.Your senses are expanded to their absolute limits and allow you to perceive the area around you in greater detail. Increases resistance to blind 10 % Increases night vision 10% +3 Intellect
Weiss had a thoughtful expression on his face as he looked at the skills and stats he had gained. ¡°Not bad at all, stat window!¡± [quart=Name,Alignment]Weiss,Neutral[/quart] [quart=Level,Class]1,none[/quart] [quart=Race,Title]Human,none[/quart][quart=Health,Mana]215,125[/quart] [quart=Strength,Agility]15,26[/quart] [quart=Wisdom,Intellect]10,15[/quart] [quart=charm,Luck]0,14[/quart] [quart=Vitality,Endurance]14,15[/quart]
Status Window
Fame0
Resistance: +10 % blind
Special options: +10% night vision -5% falling damage
For most of the stats, Weiss wasn¡¯t surprised. However, the abnormally high luck for his stage in the game interested him. ¡®That¡¯s probably why I¡¯m still alive. If not for that, those spiders and wolves definitely should¡¯ve gotten me!¡¯ He knew very well that he was way in over his head here and was honestly surprised he made it this far. ¡®Now what? Didn''t think I¡¯d make it here¡­.so what to do¡­¡­¡­..¡¯ Now that he was aware his enhanced perception was a skill, he decided to consciously apply it. As he gazed into the shadows inside the wall he began to get a clearer image of what was farther in. He flashed a grin as he began to walk into the Serabourg. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ *Huff, Huff* *SLAM!* *PPPHHHHHH* *HHHHAAAAAaaaaahhhh* Weiss attempted to forcibly slow his breathing. He had been running as fast as he could for the past hour. Since entering Serabourg he had been trying to stealthily explore the city. He had already been aware that monsters would be lurking thanks to the online posts he had seen whenever he took a break. However, once again his luck seemingly ran out and he was spotted by a patrol of Ghouls after a few hours of peace. They had said such things as -Kill the human! Then we¡¯ll eat him! Or -I call the leg! Weiss hadn¡¯t really been listening; he had run as soon as the glowing eyes of the undead had focused on him. That had resulted in him now trying to stall his desperate gasps for air on the roof of a building; hoping that the Ghouls wouldn¡¯t find him in this place. After several minutes his breathing had normalized and he realized he had heard nothing that sounded like a ghoul for the past few minutes. Weiss cautiously crept to the edge of the roof; the moon had set a short while ago. But his sensory perception skill had gone up so he could barely make out the moving shapes that seemed to have come up against a barrier. He remained motionless as he watched the forms attempt to rush the invisible line, only to falter and stop. He cocked his head to the side ¡®Seems they really can¡¯t cross whatever is there. But then, what makes this place different?¡¯ With this in mind, Weiss climbed down from his hiding spot and began to look around. He reasoned that he was safe, at least in the vicinity of the buildings around him. He ignored the shrieks, groans, and moans of the ghouls and began looking around the area. He could tell something was off but he wasn¡¯t sure what. By now, he had made his way to the edge of what he could reason was the barrier and tried to do a side by side comparison. Though after a few minutes he still couldn¡¯t tell what was different. The buildings inside and outside were both in ruins and there was still the atmosphere of neglect and decay around them both. He really couldn''t tell what made this area different and was about to give up on physical indicators. That was until he saw what looked to have been a house that was bisected by the ¡®barrier¡¯. The ghouls were on one side and him on the other. ¡®Ah so that¡¯s it!¡¯ He finally could tell what had made him feel that there was a difference. The area within the barrier seemed to be free of some kind of taint that was found outside of it. The air and buildings seemed brighter, as if they weren¡¯t covered by a shadow. Weiss could intuitively tell that when the sun came out, this section would seem as if it were receiving all of its rays; while the other side would have an overcast and dreary feeling to it. Weiss then wheeled around to face the ghouls that had been following him. He gave them a final smirk before turning around to explore deeper into what he had decided to call the ¡®purification zone¡¯. _____________________________________________________________________________________ It had been a few hours since Weiss had left the ghouls behind and had been exploring. He wasn¡¯t sure if his skill level had gone up or if the sky was really getting brighter, but it was getting easier to see. He had already circled around the perimeter of the barrier. It wasn¡¯t very large, at least in comparison to the city as a whole. The entire walk had taken him roughly an hour. Now he was moving about the interior. He was trying to find what exactly was causing the barrier. If it was something that he could carry, he intended to take it. Eventually he came upon a large building, larger than any of the others in the area. It also seemed to be more intact than those around it. Weiss smiled, these were differences that he liked. It was almost like the place was screaming that it had something inside. He of course was obliged to give it a look around. He had some difficulty getting inside since the entrance was blocked by quite a bit of rubble. After looking around he found a hole in the wall to the left of the entrance. His acrobatics skill came in handy here as he smoothly scaled the wall before slipping inside. *COUGH, COUGH* The interior was filled with dust and made seeing and breathing difficult, even with the sensory perception skill. He slowly began to walk around the interior. His movements were methodical; he wanted to be absolutely sure he had searched every nook and cranny for the possible source of the barrier. After a few minutes he had covered the first room. It was quite large but pretty simple. It was just a large square that took up the majority of the building with a ceiling that ran to the top of the building. It had been well preserved. The floor had only a few fractures in it and appeared to be made out of large slabs of stone. The walls were also made out of the same sturdy stone. At about ten feet above the floor there were regularly spaced openings that he guessed had once been windows. The way the room was set up it almost seemed like a high school gym. ¡®All it needs now is some hoops.¡¯ Weiss smirked as he kept looking around. Along the front and back walls there were what seemed to have once been racks, or at least that¡¯s what he guessed. He narrowed his eyes in concentration as he did another sweep over the room. His eyes widened in surprise when he figured it out. ¡°This is-!¡± -The training hall. Weiss whirled around, his heart pumping when he heard that voice. He found himself looking at a shimmering, mist-like form that was slowly gaining more definition and starting to look decidedly orc like. -It has been a while since someone has come here¡­¡­.someone living at least. The orc-ghost laughed at his on joke. Weiss grimaced, he wasn¡¯t sure how to respond to this situation. ¡°Uhh¡­..¡± -Ah, you must be confused. I guess you¡¯re used to ghosts attacking you on sight. I and the others are a little different. When the orc-ghost said, ¡°others,¡± Weiss began scanning the room. Other ghosts began to take shape and surround him. He visibly blanched. -Don¡¯t worry, we won¡¯t kill you. You seem to be a foreigner; it is good to see that you have returned to Versailles once again. You should know what has happened to a certain extent, but I¡¯ll explain what happened here. The orc-ghost went on to explain that during the final battle he and his comrades had all been slaughtered here. However due to the uncontrollable dark magic that was running rampant through the continent and their intense desire to protect those that were trying to make it to the road of light, they had become ghosts. Then after the final battle they had been able to lay claim to a portion of the city and had waited. They had spent a thousand years waiting for someone to come and purify the city so that they could finally rest. -I watched my wife die before my eyes; I don¡¯t want to live this cursed existence any longer. Please free us from this, purify this city. *TING!*
Purify the Citadel of Serabourg! The ghosts of Serabourg wish to rest. They ask that you find some way to purify the city and end their curse. Quest Difficulty: B Quest Restrictions: must not have attacked the ghosts of Serabourg on sight Rewards: unknown
¡°Uh, I could try but I don¡¯t really know how to go about doing it. I don¡¯t think I could defeat all the monsters in this city by myself.¡± -There is another way. The darkness can be gradually removed from the city by expanding the purified area. ¡°¡­..and how do I do that?¡± -By repairing the city. ¡°What?¡± Weiss couldn¡¯t believe what he was hearing, to purify the city it needs to get renovated!? There¡¯s still no way a single person could do that. Not only that, but the strategy didn¡¯t even make sense! -The darkness has worked its way into every nook and cranny of the city. You might¡¯ve noticed that there is distinctly less decay in the purified area correct? The darkness only destroys and corrupts, by rebuilding and then using a purification spell you can gradually weaken its influence. ¡®Ah, so there is some other kind of spell involved. But still¡­.ugh, I¡¯ll just abandon it if I die or something.¡¯ ¡°Very well, I will push back the darkness and restore Serabourg!¡± *TING!*
You have accepted the quest!
-We thank you foreigner! To complete this quest you will need certain skills. Allow those of us with the required knowledge to help you! Before Weiss could say anything, several ghosts detached themselves from the group behind the orc-ghost. They started moving towards him rapidly ¨C ¡°Hey! Wha---!¡± Before he could even react they slammed into his body and were seemingly absorbed by it. ¡°What the hell?¡± *TING!*
New Skill: Possessed skills! Possessed skills are skills obtained when possessed by ghosts that had the skills during life. While skill growth is possible during possession, skills will not be retained after possession ends. All stat increases during possession will remain. Only one skill slot will be taken up for all possessed skills.
New Possessed Skill: Cooking Advanced Lv. 2 (20%) Can create culinary masterpieces!
New Possessed Skill: Sculpting Intermediate Lv. 9 (90%) Your sculptures are aesthetically pleasing
New Possessed Skill: Architect Advanced Lv. 1 (0%) Able to draft masterpieces of architecture!
New Possessed Skill: Mining Intermediate Lv. 8 (50%) You can find more and rarer ores and stone!
New Possessed Skill: Forestry Advanced Lv.1 (10%) You are able to harvest more and rarer bounty from the forest!
New Possessed Skill: Blacksmithing Advance Lv.1 (20%) Able to create better armor and weapons
New Possessed Skill: Tailoring Advanced Lv. 1 (4%) Able to create stronger and more beautiful clothing
¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­ ¡®What the fuck!?¡¯ -While the darkness is still in this city, these ghosts will aid and guide you, they were once citizens of this city and wish to see it brought back to its former glory! ¡°Ah¡­.Thanks! I will do everything in my power to restore Serabourg!¡± -Good! Hahaha! The orc-ghost seemed to finally relax. -There are some tools and other items in the back of this training hall, hopefully a few are still useable. Weiss¡¯s ears perked up at this. A cold grin swept over his face. Like any player he liked items, and if this was like any other game the items that you find in ancient areas are always superior! ¡°Thank you, I will go and see what I can use.¡± Weiss hurriedly moved towards the back of the hall and crawled through an opening in the wall. On the other side was a small room with random items scattered about. ¡®I said I¡¯d help them¡­but this is going to take so long! Especially since I can only spend so much of my day playing.¡¯ He frowned as he was looking about, most of the items were broken or only the metal parts remained, the wood long since rotted away. Light began to filter in through the cracks on the walls. ¡°It¡¯s morning huh¡­.¡± Then a glint caught his eye. There was a sword that he hadn¡¯t noticed earlier in one of the corners of the room. It seemed to be in better shape than the others he had seen scattered and broken on the ground. He quickly walked over to it and picked it up. ¡®I didn¡¯t get the identify skill, but since I have such a high black smith skill it should be fine.¡¯ ¡°Item information.¡±
Ancient sword of the Rosenheim Guard This is a ceremonial sword that was given to distinguished guardsmen. It was imbued with magic to help retain its quality. Though it could do with a sharpening and a polish Durability: 800/1000 Damage: 8~10 Level Restriction: 200
Special Options: + 10% Leadership + 5% Charm +20% resistance to abnormal status effects
¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­.. Weiss frowned for a second. The sword was too high of a level for him. Eventually he just shrugged and stored it in his inventory. It was then that he realized that it was nearly dinner time! ¡°log out.¡± _____________________________________________________________________________________ Jack sat at dinner. He was exhausted from his ordeal of reaching Serabourg and disheartened by how well everything seemed to be going for the twins. He sighed as he looked down at his plate. He was also multi-tasking by opening the Auction site on the official New Roads webpage. ¡®might as well sell it.¡¯ He placed the sword on the page after making an account. From extensively following Royal Road he felt he knew what would be a fair price for the item and placed it in at $100 and left it up for bidding for two days. It was after finishing this that he heard it.. ¡°-Kami-¡° ¡°WHAT was that girl¡¯s name again?¡± He thought he had heard a familiar name, one that would always manage to stoke his competitive flame. ¡°Aaahh, how nice of you to come back to earth Jack.¡± His father made the comment with a bemused expression on his face as his little sister looked at him with annoyance, since he had interrupted her story. ¡°What? Which girl¡¯s name?¡± Jack pinched the bridge of his nose as he tried to recall the bit of the conversation he was interested in. ¡°Uh, um, the one that stayed with you guys? Uhh, oh yeah. The one that would attack first!¡± ¡°oh, her character name was Kurokami.¡± ¡°¡­.I see. So she made it into this game as well huh?¡± Jack mumbled off the last bit as he began to finish off the rest of his meal with an intense enthusiasm. The rest of his family looked at him curiously, throughout the entire meal he had seemed to be on autopilot so when he suddenly sprung back to life they were naturally curious as to what caused it. He gulped down the last of his food and then stared intently at his parents. There was a fire in his eyes. Their intensity was something that his family was used to seeing only when he was playing soccer. ¡°Mom¡­ Dad..¡± ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°I¡¯m quitting my summer job. But don¡¯t worry I can make money a different way.¡± ¡°WHAT!? What do you mean you¡¯re quitting your job? How are you going to make money in a different way?¡± His parents looked at him with very displeased expressions. Their expressions darkened further when an answer wasn¡¯t forthcoming. Instead they saw Jack raise his hand, as if to say ¡®wait¡¯, and began fiddling with his smartphone with his other hand. ¡°I thought we told you no phones at the table.¡± Jacks dad muttered, as he watched his eldest doing something with his smartphone. ¡°Here it is!¡± With a triumphant look, Jack shoved his phone¡¯s display is his parent¡¯s direction. After reflexively flinching backwards, his mom took the phone out of his hand and looked at the information displayed on it. After that she passed it on to his dad so he could read what was on the screen. His dad then handed it back to him. His mom and dad exchanged glances before looking back at their son. ¡°Do you really think anyone is going to start with a bid that high at this point?¡± His dad spoke for both himself and his wife. Jack looked down at his phone again before replying with a satisfied smirk on his face. ¡°Somebody already has.¡± His parents shared another glance before his dad replied. ¡°Alright, I think I understand what your plan is. IF you can keep this rate up, this could very well be quite lucrative for you. Which means you¡¯ll owe us less in the long run for housing for the next four years. So I think we agree that you can quit your job.¡± ¡°Yes, BUT there will still be play restrictions. I don¡¯t want you becoming unhealthy because of that game. Also, if you can¡¯t continue to earn more you will have to find a new summer job and you will be restricted from playing for the rest of the summer.¡± His parents both had serious expressions on their faces. They wanted him to have fun in everything he was doing, including his job. However, they also wanted him to earn money since the deal between them was that, they would pay for tuition if he would pay for housing. He understood this and gladly accepted the new conditions. ¡°Alright, well then¡­.may I excuse myself so I can get back to ¡®work¡¯?¡± ¡°No, the rest of us are still eating dinner and you need to talk to your family.¡± Jack¡¯s shoulders sagged slightly but then bounced back. He knew he¡¯d have plenty of time tomorrow and for the rest of the summer. ¡®Just you wait Kurokami, Weed. I¡¯m going to rebuild an entire city and then I¡¯m coming for both of you!¡¯ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Next Chapter --> http://www.royalroadl.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=4613 HEEYYY!!!! I''m still alive, sorry for such a long wait. [th_093.gif] . ANYWAYS! I hope you enjoyed this, it''s a bit longer than normal, consider it my apology. I''ll try to get more chapters out but I can''t guarantee when they will be out so bookmark or subscribe or whatever function this site has. Also PLEASE comment, comments and cookies always motivate me to write so please do. Until next time! Chapter: 11 Busy First Days! ¡®Even though I said I¡¯d do it¡­¡­¡­.How the hell am I supposed to do this!¡¯ *UGH* Weiss slouched against the wall at the front of the Training hall. Beside him was an assortment of tools that corresponded to the skills he had obtained from the possession. He looked up and glared at the sun, it was noon in-game and the sun was glaringly bright. He scrambled up onto his feet and turned around to go inside except, the entrance to the training hall was still blocked by rubble. ¡°Fuck this.¡± He half-heartedly punched a large piece that was at chest level. The rubble still did not budge, however multitudes of screens covered the sides of his vision, they displayed all the things he could do to the stone in front of him. He narrowed his eyes as he flicked through the screens. After a while his shoulders slumped. ¡°Might as well get started somewhere.¡± Continuously muttering curses about the stone and the quest he was one, he picked up the appropriate tools off the ground and stored the rest in his inventory. Then began a surprisingly quick first try at masonry, which was somewhat of a fusion of the architecture and sculpting skills. With the skill activated, his hands moved by themselves as the chisel and hammer in them rapidly cut the larger chunks of rubble in the entranceway into rectangular shapes. In the span of an hour, the entranceway had been cleared and the rubble had been transformed into a few large stone cubes and many bricks. Weiss cracked his back and wiped the sweat away from his face. ¡°There, now I can finally get into this damn building. It really is better when everything is cleaned up.¡± He picked up one of the bricks and stepped inside. Then he walked over to the hole he had crawled through the other night. He ran his had along the opening and began to estimate how many bricks he would need to repair it. Suddenly a new window popped up.
insufficient materials to repair.
He paused and pulled his hand away, then looked at the brick in his free hand. Then he looked back at the opening. ¡°Ah.¡± He felt stupid; the game would obviously have such a mechanic. He had seen it several times in RR where an architect would almost instantaneously build an entirely new building if they had enough materials. All it required was some mana to develop the layout and then it could be built! So why wouldn¡¯t the same thing work for repairs! He hurried back to the entrance and placed his hand on the stack of stone and the other on the wall. He then activated the building repair skill! He had a somewhat out of body experience as he entered a view point a few feet away from the entranceway and above it. As the skill activated he saw the wall being magically repaired as the stone beside him began to disappear. When the front wall of the Training Hall had been completely repaired the out of body view stopped and he was back in his own body. On the ground beside him was only some dust leftover from chiseling the stones. ¡°Just barely enough huh?¡± The entire process had taken him nearly an hour and a half. That was just for one wall, considering the hundreds if not thousands of walls in the city not to mention the Citadel itself and all the buildings he would have to build from scratch, he truly began to realize the entire scope of this project. It was enough to make him fall to the ground. He sat there at the now cleared out front entrance; his legs huddled up in front of him as if to block the site of all the buildings that spread out before him. When he stood up again, he had dead eyes, it seemed as if Weiss was no longer there. His body moved as if it were one of the zombies that were located farther into Serabourg. In this listless state he slowly made his way about the area around the training hall, transforming any salvageable rubble into cut pieces of stone. It seemed that the system would only register the stone as material if it were cut back into a cube or prism shape. His processing speed gradually became faster as his body became used to the movements. Over the span of the rest of the day he had completely cleared away the rubble in the area around the training hall. As night fell Weiss began to repair the rest of the training hall, it was completely dark when he was finished There was a faintly hopeful expression on his face as he checked his quest status. Completing the singular building didn¡¯t register anything on the completion counter. His mood hit a new low. ¡®After all, this is a quest I shouldn¡¯t be touching until I¡¯m in the 200s much less soloing.¡¯ Despite all his complaints, he never stopped. Now that the Training hall had been done he began working his way around the other nearby buildings and repairing them. The work was slow and by the time the sun had risen he¡¯d only managed to fix five other buildings, they seemed to have once been shops, before running out of stone. He was now resting outside of the last building he repaired. In his hands was an oddly shaped piece of rubble that he could never convert back into a correct shape for repair usage. In his hands he held the sculpting knife that he had found in the back of the training hall. ¡®Weed became a legend starting right here. With a little sculpting knife and an absurd idea that he could make money off of a video game; and now I¡¯m in the same situation!¡¯ As he took a bite out of his disgusting starter bread he began to work the knife over the piece of rubble. Several windows opened to show what he could do and with the help of the advanced level sculpting skill correcting his moves he was able to craft the image he wanted from the rubble. After an hour of work he had a small statue of twin swords with olive branches in the background. As he appreciated his handiwork he walked back to the Training hall and with the aid of his skill placed it over the doorway. ¡®As I thought, it looks cool!¡¯
Would you like to register this piece as part of the building?
¡°Uh¡­.sure?¡±
Statue Completed! (Fine piece): The Peaceful Blades The paradox of martial training in peace time is represented by the sculpture as it is put in context of the training hall. It seems as though the blades are protecting the olive branches which represent peace. Trainees will be filled with the feeling of training harder so their blade remains sharp and passerby will feel protected by the ideals represented by the sculpture. Though the creator was skilled his whimsical attitude during the creation detracts from the statue¡¯s intended nature of seriousness. Artistic Value: 400 Special Effects: Increased Stamina regeneration during training +10% Increased Strength and Agility during training +5% Increased Fighting spirit during training +5% Wards against evil
¡°Huh?¡±
New Stat: Fighting Spirit You can call on superhuman strength temporarily, or bring weaker monsters to their knees with your force of will from your eyes alone. You are prohibited from distributing any bonus points to this stat, and it will rise spontaneously, depending on the avatar¡¯s action, or especially if you¡¯re fight monsters for a long time, or often confront monsters stronger than your current level.
¡°uh¡­.¡±
Quest Updated! The barrier against the undead has expanded due to a sculpture that wards against evil! Additional effects may occur depending on sculptures and the artistic values of houses!
Weiss plopped himself back down on the ground. After a while a smile seemed to register on his face, and his shoulders began to quiver. Then he burst into laughter. Anyone that saw him now would think he was insane. ¡°Of course! I¡¯ve been going about this all wrong!¡± ¡®I should¡¯ve approached this like it was an old RTS game like Age of Empires or one of the other ones my dad had. I currently have free reign over how this city will be shaped; the quest just wants to drive out the evil by restoration of the city. It didn¡¯t specify what the city would look like in the end!¡¯ ¡°Fufu¡­¡± He now had a trace of an evil smile on his face. An expression he and his brother shared. ¡®But it will be no good if I don¡¯t plan for the future!¡¯ ¡°logout!¡± __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Jack slowly got up from his bed. His body was a little shaky as he stepped onto the floor. He had what had been popularly coined as Dive Sickness. It was something several people were experiencing due to the Accessor gear. Though it had only been in use for three days, many people had already experienced the issue and had complained. Just before going to bed last night, Jack had even heard rumors about Haptix doing a recall. He didn¡¯t mind it though. He had read one person speculating on a forum thread on the topic that it was caused by the muscle in the body constantly being flexed to prevent atrophy. However, because of the absurd amounts of time someone spent in game the muscles had the constant twitching ingrained into them. So when you woke up, you would be like Mohamed Ali for a few minutes as your body calmed down. So to Jack it seemed like a funny little quirk and was much preferable to one of his appendages falling asleep while he was in game. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. As the twitching came to an end he made his way over to his computer to begin his master plan! First he started up a game called Ruler¡¯s Choice. It had been his dad¡¯s favorite game when he was around Jack¡¯s age. In the game, you had to build a city and then develop the surrounding infrastructure as well as defending it from attack. The thing that had separated it from other common RTS¡¯s was its build quality and freedom within the game. Next Jack opened up several pages and searched for various things such as aqueducts, how the machuu Pichuu ruins were made, and the religions within NewRoads. It was already afternoon so he quickly made a lunch and returned to his room. Then for the rest of the day he began to work on his master plan. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ *BZT!* Jack looked down at his phone. It displayed a notification¡­.
Jack! OMFG! Why the hell did you quit? Was Zack really that big of a pain in the ass? Seriously, text me and explain when you get this!
¡°¡­¡­¡­. Haaaa, guess I should say something.¡±
I found a better way to work for the summer. Sorry but you¡¯ll have to solo on the machines Meg! Try not to break anything!
*BZT!*
Jerk! Ya know what fine, I¡¯m glad you left! Better watch yourself if you ever come to the pool!
¡°¡­..really?¡± Meg also worked at the local pool. A place where Jack would frequent with his friends, including her, over the summer.
whatever
Jack personally felt it wasn¡¯t worth bothering with her when she was in this kind of mood. He then went back to working on his master plane, despite it now being well into the night. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ¡°Asshole.¡± Meg lay curled on her bed as she looked at her phone. She looked depressed and said at her friend¡¯s indifferent comment. There was an Accessor Gear on her head, which she turned on with the thought. ¡®Why do I always have to say mean things like that? Jack why are you¡­.¡¯ Then her thoughts cut out as she escaped from reality. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ¡°AAaaaahhhhh finally!¡± Dawn was just breaking as Jack looked at his handiwork. On his computer a refined metropolis was displayed with a grid like pattern for streets and clearly defined sections. It was quite the opulent city and had an almost unnatural feel to it as anybody could see that, while robust, it seemed like it would be terribly expensive to build. ¡®Got to make this the best damn city in all of Versailles.¡¯ On his desk lay scattered notes on building techniques of the Incans, to Roman infrastructure, to the cookie cutter townhouses that had been prevalent in 90s America. He pulled out his phone and quickly took photos of all the notes. His phone the quickly transformed them into word documents. Next he tapped on a certain icon on his computer. ¡°Jeffrey, save a 3D rendering of the city on my screen to my cloud.¡± ¡°Right away sir.¡± He had activated the semi-intelligent AI on his computer. It was an application popular with many since it could handle complex tasks after receiving relatively simple instructions. As ¡®Jeffrey¡¯ was completing the task, Jack moved all the newly made documents to his cloud as well. Then he stood up with the crack of his back. ¡°Time for sleep!¡± He promptly collapsed onto his bed and was asleep instantly. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ *BBBZZZZEerRRTT!* Jack woke up with a start. The sun was starting to set as he sleepily sat up. It was apparent that he had slept the entire day after working on his plan for Serabourg through the night. Thankfully it seemed his parents had been out of the house and hadn¡¯t noticed their eldest son sleep through the day. *BZZZT!* Jack glared down at the object that had caused him to wake up. It was his phone, which seemed like it was having a seizure from the amount of messages he was receiving from friends. After flicking through a few, they all seemed to lead to the same conclusion. ¡°Where did you get an item like that!?¡± The item they were referring to was the sword he had set up for auction. It seemed that its original price of $100 had skyrocketed and the story had been picked up by a few gaming channels along with even one or two regular news sites. Because of this, his friends had now caught wind of it and wanted to know about it. ¡®fuck, didn¡¯t want to have to deal with this.¡¯ He sent out a mass text¡­.
things happened in game and I came across it. I can¡¯t really say more than that. Sorry
¡®Like I¡¯ll tell them where I am in game, that¡¯ll ruin the fun when I unveil my city!¡¯ With that thought in mind he quickly logged back into NewRoads. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Weiss sat down on the Training Hall steps and began opening windows that connected to the internet outside of the game. He accessed his cloud and began retrieving the files that contained his notes and the layout for his planned city ¡®Ah! I should probably see how much I made¡¯ He had been so focused on the city that he had completely forgotten about the auction until his friends¡¯ pestering texts. He opened up the Unicorn auction site and logged into his profile. His body went rigged in shock at the amount of money he had gained. -$4995 That was after paying the $5 transaction fee. Weiss simply sat motionless for a while as he marveled at how much some people were willing to spend for what he considered unnecessary things. But as he reasoned through it, it made sense. Of course there were wealthy people out there that had the money to buy things like this so they could have a cushy ride into the upper echelon of players in the game. With a sword like the one he sold it would be very easy to climb up through the ranks in a nation and gain a great amount of fame and contribution points which translated into better quests, better equipment, better almost everything. ¡®Some people.¡¯ Weiss could only shake his head at those kinds of people. But he was also thankful to them since it meant that he could also have a lucrative summer job with things like this. He was sure that he¡¯d be able to find other useful things throughout the city as he reconstructed it. He hauled himself off the steps and began to make his way about the safe section. This time, rather than just cutting rubble, he demolished everything! ¡®It¡¯s best to restart with a clean slate!¡¯ This continued over the next few days until nothing was left. The only building left standing was the Training Hall. Naturally the barrier had shrunk, but Weiss didn¡¯t worry. He rapidly began reconstructing. It took a while in the beginning since he had to develop a blueprint of the design that he had prepared in real life. Then it was simply just a plug and chug as he went about building multiple houses, tightly packed in tidy rows. Their design was simple and was some kind of mash-up of the generic townhouses of 90s America, with the building efficiency of the Japanese, and built using the Incan ¡®dry building¡¯ technique. Despite this, they were not uniform as he altered the placement of stones to create patterns. He also went through and added personalized sculptures for each of them. The overall affect gave the feeling of a very aesthetically pleasing design, but was mysterious since one couldn¡¯t quite place there thumb on why it was aesthetically pleasing; this was thanks to the simplicity of the design that Weiss had come up with. It also had an effect on the barrier as it swelled in size and extended even farther out than it had when he had originally gotten there. This was fortunate as he always needed more raw materials to continue with building his new city. ¡®Eventually I¡¯m going to run out though¡­.¡¯ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Next Chapter -----> http://www.royalroadl.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=6264 Hey guys and gals! Geez this was quite the update! Took me a bit to realize the method for posting chapters was still the same :dodgy: anyways, I tried to get this out as soon as possible. College is kicking my ass like it usually does so I haven''t been able to work on this. Anyways comment and subscribe and maybe write a review and rate. It seems those got deleted with the update! :@ Chapter: 12 The oncoming summer snowfall ¡°Hello everyone! Thank you once again for watching Twitch Live! First up in gaming news is the potential recall of the Accessor gear. Then next we¡¯ll be featuring footage of the first town to be reclaimed! Lastly we have a very special treat! We¡¯ve finally managed to find and convince the mysterious vampire who played such an important role in the battle for Morata to do an on set interview! Look forward to all of this on Twitch Live!¡± *CRUCNH* Kuromi absentmindedly ate potato sticks as she watched the internationally popular gaming news site. Twitch Live was the offshoot of a popular streaming service that had originated in the early 21stcentury that had since grown to be synonymous with all things related to gaming online. The company had multiple sites devoted to anything from amateur gamer streaming to cheat code forums for old computer games, it even had a site devoted to teaching people how to develop their own games! Because of its diversity, it was no surprise Kuromi would be watching its new service. It had been a few weeks since the opening events of New Roads and she relied on it to stay updated. Because school in Japan didn¡¯t let out until July, she had been unable to constantly play. Even now she was getting ready for the last round of exams before summer break. Her eyebrow arched in surprise as she heard the last bit of the overview on what the news site was going to cover that day. She had remembered seeing the vampire user in action. He had indeed been formidable; what¡¯s more, her little sister had been fighting beside him for most of the event. While their older sister had teased Kaoru about the boy, Kuromi had been indifferent for the most part after an initial tease. Her eyes lit up with a little curiosity though. Something had been bothering her ever since she met him, he had seemed familiar¡­¡­.... She shook off the thoughts and sent her wheeled chair rolling across the room until she reached the other side. Then she knocked on the wall two times. It was part of a system her and her sisters had come up with so they could communicate without alerting their parents. The two knocks meant the recipient was supposed to come to the sender¡¯s room. In a few moments a puzzled Kaoru walked in. ¡°What is it Anee?¡± ¡°Look! Isn¡¯t that going to be your friend?¡± Kaoru looked at the screen for a few moments before her face blossomed in surprise and excitement. It was like a little sun had risen when her normally emotionless face bloomed into a smile. It caused Kuromi to show a small smile herself. ¡°Should be a good show right?¡± ¡°Mmm!¡± _____________________________________________________________________________________ Weiss sat atop the Training Hall and observed his surroundings. There was a tired and annoyed expression on his face. In the weeks after the beginning event, he had progressed his master plan quite far. With the Training Hall as the center point his newly designed city could be seen spreading out in all directions, but he had finally reached his bottle neck. He had come across a particularly destroyed part of Serabourg. Because of that he hadn¡¯t been able to gather enough materials. What¡¯s more, since originally there had been wooden portions in the buildings before and his now were made entirely of stone, his consumption was too high. He had thus ran out of stone, many of the recent houses he had already built didn¡¯t even have roofs since he had long ran out of the slate that he had made them from. He grimaced as he looked at what he had already done and what he still had to do. ¡°I was going to have to go to the quarry anyways. Though, I¡¯m not sure if they are still there¡­.¡± His shoulders slumped at the thought that the quarry that had previously supplied Serabourg with stone was gone. With a shake of his body, he hopped up and began walking in the direction of the walls. He already knew where the quarry was. His extensive research, almost obsession with Weed had given him that particular information when he had analyzed Weed¡¯s building of the pyramid for the then king of Rosenheim. Thankfully, it was on the side that was under the influence of the ghosts. With any luck, their barrier extended out to the quarry or at least very close. Originally the barrier had already been touching part of the wall, and through his efforts it had expanded dramatically. Eventually he reached the edge of the boundary; a mining pick that he had equipped was balanced across his shoulders as he looked into the distance. The land moved in a slight rise among the trees but he though he saw a glimmer of light at the very edge of his sight. He squinted his eyes and his mouth twisted to the side as he continued to look. Eventually he seemed to reason out what he was going to do as he impaled the ground with the pickaxe and began to move about the forest in the safety zone and began looking for certain materials to obtain. After half an hour had passed he was back beside his pickaxe and starting a fire. Once it had been stoked to a strong flame Weiss pulled out a pot that had also been found among the things in the Training hall. He placed it on the fire and added water from his canteen. He had managed to secure a safe source of water by purifying the area around the closest fountain from the Training Hall, it had been the one Weed used during his four weeks in Serabourg. Once it had begun to boil various items were placed in front of the fire. They were nature¡¯s bounty! Multiple grasses, herbs, fungi, and even sap and raw honey had been obtained. Weiss scratched at the nasty welts that lacerated his left arm, the last ingredient had been hardly won. Various screens began sifting in front of his vision. Their depth and explanation of what could be done with the few ingredients he had, was enormous! Such was the power of the advanced level cooking skill! ¡°Let¡¯s optimize defense and health. Speed if at all possible¡­..or maybe strength¡­..better to go with strength!¡± With the plethora of options he could determine what special effects he desired the meal to have. After selecting his idealized recipe he began to combine the required ingredients in the pot and let it cook! In the end he had a very goopy sludge like substance.
Created: Flora gruel An unbelievably healthy dish created using the natural flora of the region it is in. Special Effects: +100% vitality +80% endurance +60% strength All effects last for 1 hour
Weiss smile, pleased with his creation; because of the low quality ingredients he had not been very optimistic but it seemed that the highly ranked cooking skill had compensated quite nicely. But his nose wrinkled in disgust as he looked at the food. ¡®This is what you get when you lack an Art Stat. Sculptures are fine because of the skill but I guess the same isn¡¯t true for food. It looks like one of Aunt Kate¡¯s health shakes.¡¯ He snickered to himself as he mumbled, ¡°It¡¯s all bout that green drank.¡± He paused suddenly as he thought about what he just said. ¡®I must be going crazy!¡¯ He slapped his cheeks and stood up. He moved the gruel into the now empty canteen and consumed whatever was left in the pot. It was slightly too much and slightly too hot but he ignored it as he continued to consume it. He then proceeded to do some exaggerated stretches as if to fire himself up. ¡°Alright let¡¯s see what this acrobatics skill can do!¡± He dislodged the mining pick from the ground and sprinted out of the safe zone. He then swung the pick up and caught a low lying branch. His forward momentum caused him to swing upward and allowed him to settle on top of the branch. ¡°Alright good start!¡± With a grin he proceeded to move from branch to branch in an effort to reach the quarry. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Peter sat in the waiting room and shifted uncomfortably. While he had managed to talk his mother down from him wearing a shirt and tie to just a shirt and regular shoes, she had been adamant about no jeans. Hence he was forced into wearing a pair of chinos that his brother owned. While they were similar there was just enough difference that the pants were a little too small width wise. This further added to his frustrations since not only was he forced to be reminded of the fact that he was shorter than his elder brother he was also broader. He looked down at the cuffed pant legs and grimaced. While his twin may claim that it was fashionable he felt that he looked like an absolute prick. He nervously poured himself another glass of water, careful not to spill in on his checkered shirt. He sighed as he gulped down the glass. ¡®How did I get myself into this situation?¡¯ He had been about to log off after hunting with Shiro around Morata when a very attractive user that looked to have the dancer class swayed his way. Though he hadn¡¯t received a status update saying that he received the negative status he had certainly felt like he had. He was, after all, new to VR games so he hadn¡¯t instantly made the connection that the Aphrodite like woman in front of him had probably just edited her appearance to look that way. It had been downhill from there. In the end he had somehow made an agreement to have a video-conference with a Twitch Tv representative along with his parents. His mother had been ecstatic thinking that it would be such a, ¡®great opportunity¡¯. In the end he had agreed to be flown out to one of their recording stations in New York City and do the interview. ¡®The only reason this happened was because she somehow chanced upon me when she was going out to hunt¡­¡­lucky her.¡¯ He slouched back into the chair defeated. It was at that moment that the backstage coordinator walked in. He immediately moved and sat up straight, his heart pounding a million miles an hour. ¡°Mr. Smith, you¡¯re on in three, please follow me.¡± ¡°Ah! Uh¡­yes.¡± Peter stood up and followed the coordinator through the door. ¡°----And man! That was quite the finally for the group that conquered that small village outside of Morata. 3 glacial Giants, which no one has encountered until now, as a final boss must¡¯ve been difficult. And speaking of Morata, it¡¯s time for our special guest! You know him as the mysterious vampire hero who led the users to victory in reclaiming Morata from the clutches of the darkness. Please give it up for¡­.Pete!¡± *WWWWOOOOHHOOOOOOO* Cheers and thunderous applause could be heard from the audience as Pete made his way out onto the stage. He tried to give his best smile as he walked to his chair. This was the first time he was out in front of so many people. It was entirely different from in-game where that wasn¡¯t him but a persona he created. The confidence he had as Pete the Vampire was non-existent, instead in its place was Peter the Human¡¯s anxiety over what to say or do in front of so many people. ¡°Pete¡­.Pete¡­.Pete!¡± ¡°Huh? Oh!¡± Peter had been so lost in thought he had forgotten to shake the outstretched hand from the host and had stood there dumbly for a few seconds before the host brought him back to reality. *Laughter* ¡°Now, Pete, why don¡¯t you sit down?¡± ¡°Ah, yeah, thank you.¡± Peter gave an embarrassed smile as he followed the advice of the host. ¡°Now Pete, tell us a little about yourself.¡± Pete paused before saying anything, despite his panic he still had enough of a functioning brain to see all the potential Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.pitfalls of answering that question. ¡°What do you want to know?¡± He attempted to give his most confident grin as he reclined into his seat. ¡°Ho ho! Sorry fan girls, doesn¡¯t sound like you¡¯ll be finding out where he lives tonight!¡± There was more laughter from the audience as the host gave Peter a reassuring smile. ¡°Alright then Pete, how about you tell us how old you are. You look like you could be starting college soon.¡± ¡°Yeah, after this summer I¡¯m going to be a Senior in high school.¡± ¡°Are you already eighteen then?¡± ¡°Why George, are you trying to find out if I¡¯m legal or not?¡± There was a distinct pause, it lasted for only a fraction of a second but that was the longest fraction of a second Peter had ever had in his life as he waited to see if the host, George, would take on his joke. ¡°Hahahaha, maybe, maybe. Anyways new question, how did you exactly become a Vampire so soon in New Roads?¡± ¡°Well, I can¡¯t give a huge amount of details, I don¡¯t want a bunch of other Vampires just quite yet. Anyways I managed to complete a very special mini-quest that involved the Vampire Lord Tori owing me a favor as a reward. Then the rest is as you can see from the Morata footage, I was about to die and I pulled out all the stops.¡± ¡°I see, I see. Well then next que-----¡° After the rocky start, the rest of the interview proceeded very smoothly as Peter managed to lose his anxiety and gain some confidence. By the end of the interview he had somehow managed to endear himself to the entire audience in the studio, and those watching all over the world though a certain small population of the audience disliked him. This small population would say things like: - Tch, he thinks he¡¯s so cool because he has a cool race. - Such a prick, did you see how cool he was trying to act after he fucked up? - Kid was trying way too hard. However, there were also comments from those that supported him, mostly female. - He was so cute! So nervous in the beginning - Wow! He¡¯s just as good looking in real life! - Wait¡­..I think I know this guy! It didn¡¯t take long for certain people to begin claiming they knew Pete, though that was largely ignored as chatter from people just trying to seem cool. Peter sighed in relief as he sat down on the plane that would take him home. The interview was over, and he was headed back home. He could¡¯ve stayed in New York City for a day or two and treated himself to the courtesies of Twitch Live. However he just wanted to pocket the money and get back home. He had a game to get back to while there was still summer time. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Kaoru rolled in her bed laughing cutely, her snow white hair splayed out around her. She was squeezing her stuffed animal until it was fit to burst. The reason for her excitement was simple. It was the fact that the boy that she had begun to develop a crush on wasn¡¯t some weirdo shut-in. ¡®Unlike me¡¯ With that thought her antics calmed down as she thought about the fact that she herself was someone that rarely went outside or socialized. ¡®He¡¯s so far away¡¯ She hugged the stuffed animal tighter as more unpleasant thoughts filled her head. Such was the negativity of a shut-in. _____________________________________________________________________________________ ¡°I¡¯m not sure whether this is good¡­or bad¡­.¡± Weiss peered from a tree down into the quarry. Its lower sections had been completely flooded. That alone wasn¡¯t that much of an issue as there was still a bit of stone above the water line that he could use. What was concerning was the unnaturally blue color of the water. It reminded him of the time that he had been out visiting his Uncle Albert and Alexei on the west coast. They had taken him to see many of the amazing natural wonders out there, such as the giant redwoods. However, one thing that stuck with him was when they had gone to a lake with a similar color. He had been enamored by the beauty of the water. Until his uncle had explained that it was due to a high concentration of arsenic in the water and that the water was then consequently extremely toxic to almost all living things. That is what led Weiss to his current confusion. On the one hand it was good since that meant the chances of running into Banal Wolves or the spider creatures from before was reduced. On the other hand if he wasn¡¯t careful he could fall in and die. Something he was desperate to avoid until the city was finished. This therefore severely restricted his movements which would increase the already exhaustively long time it would take to harvest enough raw material to get the re-construction of the city moving forward again. ¡°What to do, what to do¡­.. guess a closer look.¡± He hopped down from his perch and began to jog into the quarry, as he well and truly entered it, his steps slowed to a walk. His feet crunched through the gravel of the quarry as he followed the path deeper in. He had re-equipped the pick-axe but now held it in a more guarded position. ¡®For all I know¡­.there could be an arsenic based slime¡­¡­¡¯ He quickly peered down into the large pool of arsenic laced water that had most of the quarry submerged. At the same time his walking came to a stop since he had already reached the end of the accessible part of the quarry. Under the vibrantly blue water he could see what appeared to be well preserved stone. ¡®The stagnant water here must¡¯ve protected the stone from the other elements¡­huh¡­interesting.¡¯ ¡°Well better get what I can now! I¡¯ll see where that leads me.¡± Deciding that for now It would be fine to exhaust the top part of the quarry of all it stone, he began to swing his pick-axe skillfully into the earth and was immediately extracting very high quality stone. This of course was due to the possessed skill. One of the ghosts that possessed him had been a miner and what¡¯s more a level eight intermediate rank miner! His mining rate and the quality of the items he could mine was un-paralleled to anything any other player could possibly achieve currently. _____________________________________________________________________________________
Endurance + 1
Strength + 2
¡°ugh¡­.¡± Weiss collapsed and allowed himself to take a breather. He had been working in the mines for the past eight hours. At hour long intervals he would pause in mining to eat another serving of the flora gruel to keep his stats boosted. It was only thanks to this that he was capable of moving the blocks of stone anywhere after he had cut them into a shape recognized by the system as a material. Thankfully his stats had occasionally risen due to the brutal work he had been putting himself through. It had also happened occasionally when he was working on the city. But like then he didn¡¯t bother to look at his status. To him it didn¡¯t matter all that much, they¡¯d just be numbers. What mattered was that each time his strength rose, the stones got just a bit lighter. ¡°Agghh¡­.the sun¡¯s about to set¡­what to do?¡± He slurped down the last portion of gruel he had and looked up at the setting sun. The moon could just barely be seen in the darkening sky. He suddenly slapped his forehead in surprise, ¡°I completely forgot! Sensory Perception gives me night vision!¡± With a happy expression he got back to work on mining and cutting the stones. _____________________________________________________________________________________ The trees trembled and quaked, the tall grass bowed in waves, small creatures hastily retreated from site. The wind gusted harder than it ever had in a very long time. What caused this? Bingryong! The last dragon left powerful gusts of wind with each flap of its massive wings as he passed overhead. Bingryong had returned with the players during the Reclamation War event but he had not aided any party in reclaiming a territory from the darkness. His objective had been to find and protect the dragon eggs that Weed in god form had restored to Versailles. However, Bingryong hadn¡¯t found a single egg yet! An intact one that is¡­¡­ He was able to weakly sense the location of each egg scattered on the Versailles continent but both of the two locations he had first gone to had already been overrun and the egg destroyed. With a heavy heart he rapidly soared through the sky in a desperate bid to find the next egg still intact! ¡°Come on, Come on! Move faster!¡± He was pumping his wings with all his might, his speed was incomparable to what it had been in the past. However that wasn¡¯t to say that nothing could keep up with his movement! Bingryong quickly glanced behind, ¡°Damnit!¡± Behind him dark winged serpents shrouded in a gas like shadow cut through the air in pursuit of him! This also added to his desperation as he didn¡¯t have time to fight these odd winged serpents since he absolutely needed to reach the next egg at all costs! But It was proving to be difficult, since not only could these creatures match his speed, they also had a ranged attack, they could release a long stream of black flames from their mouth! While it only dealt a small amount of damage to someone of Bingryong¡¯s strength over time it had slowly worn down his health. Still he pressed on, believing he would be ok until he reached his destination. ¡°It¡¯s here!¡± Below him he could strongly sense the egg that he had been searching for. Looking down he saw what appeared to be the ruins of a pyramid, close by there was the ruins of what appeared to have once been a large city. Also close by was what seemed to be an abnormally blue lake. ¡°It¡¯s in that Pyramid!¡± Bingryong suddenly wheeled around since he had reached his destination. His glacial body sported numerous chips, cracks, and slightly melted spots all from the unrelenting attack of the dark serpents. Though individually they were nowhere near his strength, as a group they formed a highly dangerous force that Bingryong had to deal with now that he had found the egg. ¡°Come at me!¡± He opened his counter-attack with a massive blast of ice breath! And the battle in the sky commenced. ______________________________________________________________________________________________ WOOF! Thankgod finals are done and it''s winter break! You know what that means! I''ll actually have time to write! So thanks to all of you who have been faithfully following me. And hello to anyone who is reading this work for the first time! I''ll try to really get those chapters out in the coming weeks so you guys can see something cool! As always please rate and review so more people see this work. Also please comment! They are even more preferred than cookies! A writer thrives on comments! so send em my way! Thanks for Reading!!!