Slowly I opened my eyes, my vision clouded and my mind shaken. My body even felt a little numb.
When I looked at my hand, it was a clear white. I looked around at my body, it was completely white and completely bare of any features. I was sitting on a metal blue platform and around me was complete darkness, besides the words WELCOME in large font floating in the darkness.
"Welcome!"
I looked up above me, seeing a floating sphere. Under the sphere was a large circle button. The sphere began to lower itself, to the point where it was right in front of me. I then put my hand out onto the button.... and it all turned white...
Two large images appeared. To the left, two swords clashing against each other and a dragon. To the right, two guns in the same position, but with a metallic dragon.
"Choose your world!"
Fantasy or Sci-Fi world? The decision was hard, considering I had a history with guns before. As much as I wanted to choose the right, I choose the fantasy world.
"You have chosen the Etolan Realm. Prepare yourself for a world of magic, swords, and demons!"
The surroundings began to flash once more before finally stopping. The darkness turned white and two small avatars appeared in front of me. A man and a woman.
"Choose your gender!"
I tapped on the guy and immediately my features on my clear and sparkling avatar changed a bit. I looked slightly more masculine, but had no actual skin or features.
The world began to flash again and several men and women appeared in a circle selection. Each of them looked different and carried different weapons.
"Choose your weapon class!"
I turned my head and began to spin the wheel around. A man with green hair, but more importantly a bow. I spun it again, a guy with a sword. Then one with a lance, a spear, an axe, a staff, and a book.
"Swordsman..... vanguard..... brawler.... mage.... cleric..." I muttered quietly as I examined the class. I wouldn't want to be a healer, it wasn't exactly the most exciting. A vanguard is just tanking, it can't take anything out. A mage.... too many complicated spells.
I put my hand up to the swordsmen and pressed my finger against his icon, causing the man to turn white and disappear in a cloud of sparkles. I then looked at arm and watched as my fingertips began to change. The pixels my body was made of started to change, slowly becoming skin and cloth.
Finally, my entire body was changed and a mirror lowered itself from the ceiling. I looked towards it, seeing myself. I looked just like I did in the real world, except for my clothes. I wore a simple black shirt with armor plates over my arms, legs, and chest. Over the shirt was a cloak and a sword sat in the sheath in my belt. One thing my different. My hair was still long and messy, though it had a slightly different style and an ahoge on top that I quickly brushed down.
"Welcome Swordsmen. Please choose your Username."
A box appeared in front of me, a holographic keyboard appearing right under it. I slowly moved my finger forward and began to type it in.
Dyla
I stopped before I could type the last letter. Even I knew that using a real name online wasn't the smartest. I sighed and deleted it, retyping my name.
Aldren
I took my finger away, hitting the enter button next to the box. The box slowly began to glow before disappearing in a puff of sparkles. The world then began to change, slowly flashing white and black.
"Aldren, prepare for a new world. BEGIN!"
......
.........
...........
"Another newbie?"
"Must be the third in the past hour."
My hand was no longer numb. I could move, my body felt lighter. I opened my eyes, immediately turning over. I felt a little sore, a little different. In the corner of my vision sat a white bar filled with a yellow line. A health bar most likely. Above that was a second bar, but filled with blue instead.
"Sup newbie."
I looked up, seeing the shining blue sky and a glowing yellow sun. It was nothing like the real world, where the grass was pale green, the sky a gloomy grey and the sun hidden above the clouds. I was in the middle of a village, lying in the dirt path. A man sat nearby, a username above his head and a health bar floating right under it. Next to him was another man.
"Derek, go start unloading the caravan. I'll help out the newbie," said one man. The one he called Derek walked off and the other stayed.
He wore a long black cloak over a brown tunic, beginner shiny armor over it. He had a long lance on his back and his short brown hair looked a bit similar to mine, though his skin wasn't as pale and his eyes were green. He also had a large in his hand, the blade digging into the ground.
"Uh... who are you?"
"I have a username y'know."
I looked up at his user, squinting my eyes as my vision became a bit less blurry. His name read: Dunlas.
He put his hand out and I took it, getting up off the ground. I dusted off a bit of dust and dirt off my shirt and looked over to the guy.
"Are you an NPC?"
"Nope. Most of the villagers and quest givers here are though."
I took notice of several men and woman walking around, bringing things from different houses into others. Some ran shops, others sat outside watering flowers. It looked to be peaceful and a bit real, though most of the people there were all generated to do their respective actions.
"So uh... where am I?"
He sighed, "you got a lot to learn. Follow me."
Dunlas lead me across the town, taking me to the largest hat there. It was a big wooden cabin, set up on stilts above the ground. We walked up a small staircase onto the deck, an NPC speaking to another NPC outside. We passed them and entered, and I realized the true meaning of this world.
The cabin was a bit big, with NPCs and several other players scattered around the room. A boy and a girl were dueling and another guy was practicing magic, summoning several small birds to fly around another player's head. But there was one main thing that stood out.
A large map sat on the wall in front of me, showing the land. It looked to be like an island, completely surrounded by water with dots scattered across it.
He pointed out a dot in the bottom left corner, surrounded by trees.
"This is where we are. Varlan Village. Outside here is the Warlock Forest, we're completely surrounded by it so it's a bit hard to get out of here for new players."
He then pointed out a larger dot near the center.
"That is the capital of the realm, Bandora City. Most people hang out there, due to it being the biggest and greatest settlement and a home base for many."
I then noticed the largest dot in the middle, completely black and taking up a lot of the map.
"What's the one in the middle?"
He grinned and pointed at it, "that is the Boss Tower, officially known as Dominus Tower. Now there are mobs and enemies scattered across the world like normal, but there it's harder than any. Each floor contains creatures and monsters stronger than ones in the wild, and every five floors there's a boss."
"So you fight bosses there?"
"Not completely. The Dominus Tower contains the main challenge of the game. Defeating a level grants all parties in the room rewards and exp. Boss levels give more respectively though. But there are bosses outside of the boss tower that give rewards too, though are much more challenging."
He pointed towards the Warlock Forest.
"Warlock Forest, a place of centaurs, Gnomes and Golems. The boss in the forest is a Master Warlock, though it's the weakest boss considering it's so close to the spawn area. I followed a party there that went to defeat it and they all got decimated in minutes. Though that boss drops the Champions Wand."
He pointed towards a large white area to the north of Dominus Tower.
"Those are the Frost Plains. Mostly filled with just Crystal Wolves, Ice Giants, and Frost Spirits. But in the mountains next to that, inside a cave in Mount Cicero is an Ice Serpent. That's the boss of that place and drops the Champions Battleaxe."
Dunlas then moved his hand towards the far end of the map where a large orange spot was.
"The Crystal Desert. A very unique place, with red sands and large crystals literally just sticking out of the sand. You'll find FireBirds and Sand Worms there most likely. It's also a great place if you want to grind off of low-level players, since that is the least laggiest place on the map, so most players with bad computers just hang there. The boss of that place is some sort of shapshifter. That boss drops the Champion Sword."
His finger then moved downwards to a place close to the Warlock Forest and under the Bandora Kingdom and Dominus Tower.
"That is Mordere City. That place is relatively dark, is almost always nighttime there and is.... one of my favorite places to go!"
"Why? Low level monsters? Rare drops?"
"Better. Succubus bar. For free."
I felt a small pull towards that place
"Anyways anyways. The boss of Mordere City is Lord of the Vampires, Python. She's one of the most dangerous of the bosses, and you gotta be a high level to even touch her health bar. She drops the Champions Whip."
Next he pointed to the jungle between the Frost Plains and the Warlock Forest.
"This is the Jungle of Stars. A beautiful place full of beautiful sights. Personally it's a nice place if you're a photographer kinda guy, but there are very few settlements out there so there's a hel
luva lotta enemies. But it's a paradise for people who use nature magic. The boss is some kind of spider creature who drops the Champions Daggers."
He finally pointed to Dominus Tower.
"Whoever beats the final boss of Dominus Tower on Floor Omega.... they get the Champion Armor. Whoever defeats all the bosses and clears Floor Omega becomes the champion of the game. The Omega Boss can only be defeated once and if a large group fights it, whoever contributes the most gets the reward. Only one sword, no others."
He then turned away from the map, pointing towards a small chest under it.
"You can get an extra map from there. I suggest you also use your starting money and buy a better weapon then.... that."
I looked to my sheath and pulled it out to reveal a rusty sword. The hilt was a bit heavy and the blade had a bit of rust towards the end.
"A hit from that in the duel would probably give them some kind of infection, well if that thing is sharp enough. Cmon I'll take you to the merchants."
He began to walk towards the door, but not before I knelt down and took a map from the chest. I then followed him outside and was basked in the sunlight.
"Wowwww!"
I stood at the stand, looking over all the weapons while he looked at me with a smile. One sword was double sided, the two hilts fused together. Another looked to strike lightning upon a powerup charge. One even had the power to change size.
"It's not that big of a deal dude."
"Yeah but... I've never done anything like this before."
His face changed to a more confused one, "VR or gaming in general?"
"I guess just gaming. Never got into it that much, I don't exactly have the money for it."
I took a look at my balance: 5,000 World Chips.
"Why not get that one in the corner. Decent stre-
Before he could finish I tapped one in the middle and watched as the sword materialized in my hand. It was a broadsword, the hilt black and the blade a shining silver. A lightning bolt symbol streaked from the hilt to the tip and engraved on the blade were several golden runes. The label read "StarBlade".
Why'd you buy that one!? The StarBlade is the weakest in the game!" he exclaimed in disappointment.
"It suits me, it calls to me. That and it just looks pretty cool," I answered.
He groaned, "usually players buy that as a cosmetic to look like their wielding it when they actually have a stronger but uglier sword. But that's when they have money to spare!"
I looked at my bar. Only 1,000 World Chips left.
"Alright. Well you can use the rest of your money and buy a few health potions. Then you should be.... wait. I should probably teach you element attacks."
Before I could even ask what those were he grabbed me by the hand and yanked me down the path.
Outside the large cabin that contained the map was a training dummy. It stood out of the ground and looked to be made of wood and flour bags.
"It's an invincible mob with infinite stun. Can't do a thing. So try it."
I approached it, holding my sword up.
"Um.... what exactly am I trying?"
He facepalmed, "alright slash at it once. Then you'll be engaged in combat mode."
I rose my sword before cutting down the dummy, slicing into it. However it didn't cut into it, just made a slashing motion in the air before disappearing. But now something was different
The health bar had grown a bit for emphasis and there was a small bar on the side of my screen. On the bar were several circles in different colors and on each was a different sword attack.
I decided to copy one and cut downwards, then upwards and then back downwards and watched as the tip of my blade began to shine before cutting down the dummy.
A smile appeared on my face. I attempted to do the next one, jabbing forward several times in an extremely fast motion before lightning enveloped my sword and shocked the wooden dummy.
I did it once more and made an X motion with two slashes, causing the tip to glow green before finally making a single slash down the middle. I began to breathe heavily as I began the next, but a hand grabbed my shoulder.
Dunlas yanked me away, causing me to drop the sword. Combat mode stopped, my health bar shrunk again and the element bar disappeared. I noticed the second blue bar above my health bar had become drained.
"Your energy, or mana for mages and clerics, should be almost drained. You can't just spam element attacks or it'll kill you. But.... that should be enough. It's best for you to head on outta this town."
Dunlas grabbed his small satchel that laid on the ground and began to walk down the path.
"Aren't you coming?" I asked.
"Nah, not yet at least. I bought a beginner house in the town for extra storage and I still need to load in all my potions. Then I'll be off to Bandora for awhile."
He swiped his finger in a certain way, bringing up the home menu.
"Oh yeah um.... just do what I did and it'll pull up your inventory, quest log and basically your whole menu."
I did what he did. Swipe down, then up left, then right in three strokes. The symbol glowed in the air before a small white menu appeared. The log out button was in the corner.
"Thanks Dunlas."
"No problem... um.. Aldren?"
I nodded and he smiled, walking off in another direction. He was a generous person and I was sure I'd meet him again.
I then looked down at my sword, and more specifically at my reflection in the golden blade. If I wanted to become a true player I needed to fight. To become stronger. To beat all the bosses. I had a goal now.
To become the Champion of the game.
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