SAO (Closed for Lucian_Devine)

[La_Reina]

Nadia slung her backpack from her left shoulder to her right as she walked up the sidewalk to her home. She was 23 years old, worked at a local deli, and still carried her old college backpack. She had headphones on, though nothing was playing. It was to give the illusion that she was listening to music and hopefully would stop the guys from trying to hit on her. It didn't always work though. Like now, when Marcus walked up and stood in front of her. She tried to walk around him, but he kept stepping into her path. She moved the right earpiece from her ear and tilted her head. "What do you want Marcus?"

"Hey, girl. I just wanted to see if you wanted to go out to a party tonight?"

"Naw, I'm not in the mood to go out tonight. I'm tired."

"Damn girl! You never go no-where. All them looks wasted sitting at home." Marcus stopped and stared down at her 5'4 frame not moving. Nadia's heart started to pound. as her flight or fight kicked in. She gave a big dramatic sigh and put her hands on her hip feeling the outside of her knife.

"Marcus, you know what your problem is. You're still the same when we were in high school. I'm 23. I'm trying to better myself. I'm-"

"You still spewing that same bullshit! Girl, you left and went to college! You have your degree. What did that get you? But in debt! You're working at the same job you would have had if you hadn't left. You ain't doing nuthin with your life." Marcus turned and left Nadia staring. He was right. Dammit he was right.

Nadia practically ran to her parent's home. Her parents were home, but her baby brother was in the front room playing. She gave him a hug and went to her room, defeated. She hated Marcus, but she hated how right he was. She had went off to college and thought she was going to have a real life. Get out of this fucking neighborhood, make something of herself. But after she graduated she didn't have anywhere else to go, so she returned home. Nadia was bitter as she had a college degree, was working a job that didn't actually require one, and was back in this fucking dump. Why did she leave if it was just to return here?

Nadia looked on her bed and yelped with joy. Her brother burst into her room concerned. She turned and hugged him, catching him by surprise. "It's here! It's here. thefirstevervrmmoandIhaveit!" Nadia laughed when she realized he understood none of that. "It's my VR-"

"Yeah, yeah ...nerd." Her brother said half jokingly. He was the only one who knew how much she loved video games and knew she spent her savings on it. "I'll tell mom and dad you had an early night so you can game for the next few days in peace." He walked to the door, turned, and in a rather weird brotherly moment, "I love you sis." Then he knocked off the picture of her and her best friend, farted, and cut off the light before running out as Nadia chased him out her room. There was 10 years difference, but that didn't mean she still couldn't beat him up.

Nadia closed her eyes in annoyance as she closed her bedroom door and picked up the picture of her and her bestie. Now that everything was in order it was time! Nadia squealed as she picked up the 1st ever virtual reality headset, laid on her bed, and put it on. She powered it up and went over a few mechanics, like look left, look right, scan your brain, all normal things... RIGHT?!

"Hello and welcome to the American - " Nadia skipped through the boring parts, thinking she'll learn this part later. Finally she got to pick her name. Sweet & Vicious. Now it was time to pick her skills. There was literally millions!

"This .. I need help," Nadia muttered more to herself, but then that voice at the beginning piped up.

"Finally! Yes, I can't tell you what to pick, but I can make suggestions." Nadia jumped as the voice materialized into a cute redhead. "Let me be of assistance. I am Caroline."

"Hi, Caroline. Can I tell you what I want and you make a suggestion of what would be a good class and why." Caroline nodded her head. Nadia meant to only give pointers, but she word vomit and told Caroline about how she wanted to be strong, but not get hurt and if she did, always be able to survive and heal. The only clarification Caroline needed was what was more important to Nadia strength or Health. After a long pause Nadia decided on health.

After what seemed like hours Nadia emerged at a huge tree. She had chosen the Healer Class. She had both White and Dark Magic and because of a special bonus she was able to start with her MP at 50% more than everyone else (which she can rank up), but her HP would start at 25% less than everyone's else (which she can rank up as well). The first location was the Town of Beginnings, so she headed there. She was able to get good tips and pointers on what to do. This wasn't her first MMO even if it was her first VRMMO, so she was disappointed when she struggled to even kill a rabbit, but with her healing skill she was able gain a point.

Nadia was sitting with her back against a tree marveling that she could feel the wind. She knew this was a game and she swore she could feel the heat of the sun and wind on her face. She was staring at her stats and reading on her magic. Part of her dark magic skill was necromancy, but she had to learn magic circles, rituals, and she had the potential to control millions of minions .. well according to the info page.

Nadia got a good grasp at the beginning levels of her skill. There was so much potential. She was staring at her stats page smiling at the Time Played: Day 1. There was something off that she couldn't put her finger on. It was like she was trying to remember something and her brain couldn't quite get there. Whatever, she was starting to get hungry and decided she'll log out, eat, and come back. Nadia blinked. Wait! Where is it! Nadia swiped through every single tab on her stats page. She stood up. She hadn't made a friend to link and ask, but "WHERE IS THE LOG OUT BUTTON?!?!"

Suddenly, there was a loud boom. Nadia looked up in the sky. There was a weird cloud thing forming directly over Town of Beginnings. Nadia ran to the town and entered the safe zone of the gates. People were talking, some scared, some amused and she caught snippets. Other people couldn't find the log out button either. What was going on?!

 

[Lucian_Devine]

Zayne let out a soft sigh as he opened his eyes, coming out of another short and restless sleep. Unlike most people when they weren't able to sleep though, he knew damn well what was causing it, and a simple turn towards his nightstand was all it took for him to confirm what day today was. He moved his arm across his body to grab the marker he kept by it for this purpose and put an X through another day. His eyes scanned the 14 X's and the words printed between the top lines of the first one, "SAO release date". With another soft sigh, he pushed himself into a sitting position and cradled his head in his hands. He knew what he was thinking was stupid, utterly stupid, but deep down, he knew that he didn't have a choice.

There was a fair bit of stuff that Zayne had to do to pack and get ready for what he was about to do. So he turned on the TV, turned it to the news channel, and started packing. He knew that he wouldn't be able to pack his entire apartment in a single bag, but he at least hoped to get the few things that he truly cared about, pictures of him and his sister, no parents to be seen in any of them, a small stuffed elephant that he stroked lovingly for a few seconds before packing, and as many sets of clothes as he could get to fit. Yes, he naturally wanted to bring more, but he knew that he was going to be a burden as it was, and didn't want to be any more of a burden than he absolutely had to be. He let the news play on as he ate breakfast, and it confirmed that everything was as it had been last night, the last night he'd said he'd give the players in SAO. They hadn't completed a single floor, and as far as anybody could tell, they hadn't even figured out the puzzle that would lead them to the right tower with the boss in it, and all of this just on floor 1. He could only imagine how hard things were going to be as they got higher up.

It was because of the news, and what it was covering, that Zayne was packing his things. He'd been a gamer for as long as he could remember, loving RPG's and especially the puzzles within them. He just had a knack for them, even though he wasn't a savant or anything like that.

The only new information on the news today, was them actually figuring out what had happened within the game, or more specifically why it had happened. Though plenty of people had helped create the game, it was mostly the brainchild of 2 people, Akihiko and Kayaba, though you wouldn't know it from all of the print about the game recently and the financial statements of the company. Akihiko had screwed Kayaba out of his half of the project, and Kayaba was doing this as revenge. Just before the game launched, he snuck a patch in that made it so that the players would go from feeling none of the pain their character felt to all of it. This wouldn't harm their physical bodies, with the system just making the nerve endings fire as though the hits were real. The problem came when the character died...The brain could only take so much stimulation, and character death caused an overload in the system, making it effectively fry the brain of the player. This in and of itself was bad, but it was ESPECIALLY bad when you consider that hundreds of thousands of players had access to it on day one. News of the "glitch" spread fast, but there was no way of knowing just how many people were trapped, because removing the headset while the game was on had the same effect. It was for those people that Zayne was doing what he was doing, stepping in to help, despite the risks. He knew that his parents, neglectful as they were, would never understand. His friends, his coworkers, nobody would understand why he was doing this, except his twin sister.

Zayne turned off the news as he pulled into his sister's driveway. Her house was small but homely, big enough for her needs, which was all that mattered. He parked his car, grabbed his bag and the box that contained the Nervegear and the SAO game, and rang the bell. He took a long and slow breath as he heard movement inside the house, and he offered up a small smile to Zyra when she opened the door. She did the same, but her smile disappeared when she saw what he was carrying. He saw her take a hard swallow before her gaze lifted back up to meet his, a gaze so very much like his own. Still she didn't say anything. She just nodded her head and stepped aside so that he could enter, which he did.

"I don't suppose I can talk you out of it?" Zyra asked with her back to him as she led him through the house to the guest bedroom, where she once again stepped aside, but this time so that he could enter the room first.

Zayne stepped into the room, slung set the boxes on the bed, and slung the bag off of his shoulder. He didn't start setting things up right away, but rather sat on the bed and lifted his gaze to meet Zyra's. "It's hundreds of thousands of people Zy..." He said softly, bowing his head once more. He let his eyes drift closed as his hands lifted to cradle his head once more. What he didn't see or hear though, was Zyra approaching him with that soft step of hers, not until he felt her arms close around him.

"I know...but I had to try..." She said softly to him before taking a step back, moving a hand beneath his chin, and guiding it up to look at her. "Zeke Durran's going to have his hands full this time isn't he?" She asked, a bit more life in her voice this time, and a small smile on her lips. Her words pulled a soft chuckle from Zayne. She knew him so well.

"Heh, he sure does Zy...He sure does." Zayne said, agreeing with his sister about what he intended to name his avatar, a name from their past that had helped them through some rough times. He pushed himself to his feet then, closing the distance, hugging her close, and pressing a soft kiss to her forehead before stepping back once more. "Thank you for this Zy, truly. Nobody else would understand." She simply nodded then, the smile still on her face as she turned around to leave. She didn't want him to see her cry, lest it make him change his mind. She of course closed the door behind her, giving her brother privacy.

Zayne was quick with his preparations then, stripping down to comfortable clothes as he opened the Nervegear box and physically set up the system, complete with plugging it into the wall. It had a backup battery if needed, but he wanted it to be fully charged if the power ever went out, or if his body had to be moved. The last thing he did before putting the Nervegear on and turning the game on, was putting that little stuffed elephant next to his head, for luck.

 

[La_Reina]

Nadia blinked as the last of the words lingered in the sky. There was no going home. They were stuck there. They could ...DIE?!?! it wasn't until people started to panic and run that she did the same. It wasn't until she saw a man turn and stab another and his character didn't dissolve or respawn like normal. I-I-It was pure chaos. People who wanted to do bad; did bad. They did really bad things. That didn't mean everyone was bad. There were good people and the NPC's were still around which helped normalize some things. Plus there was no killing in towns or safe zones. Also, Nadia figured out if you were kind to NPC's and did that extremely long dialogue tree every once in a while you get an NPC worth a damn and gives you a reward! Nadia was doing her usual bit of going through every bit of information the NPC had on file, this was her life and she was going to do the boring parts. She needed knowledge.

Thank you for talking to me! Please take a reward. Magic Potion x1000 or Grand Grimoire?

Nadia stared for a moment. She's received rewards before for talking at length with NPC's, but this was different. The magic potion was almost a gut reflex take especially here on Day 3, but the Grand Grimoire... that gave her pause. "Grand Grimoire, I guess." Nadia didn't know what it was, but she assumed it was a magic book (the name grimoire gave that away). The item appeared in her inventory. Nadia brought it out. opened the first page, eyes bulged, quickly recovered and, closed the item storing it back in her inventory. Nadia looked around and went to the next shop keeper.

2 hour later Nadia had purged every bit of Col she had, which wasn't much, on supplies: a cloak with hood, candles, food, potion, water, and the sharpest dagger she could afford. She took a deep breath and left the safety of the town heading back into PVP territory.

Day 5
Nadia was healing herself for what seemed like the 1 millionth time. Her cloak was torn, but she stared at the dead jackrabbit breathing hard. Nadia felt a familiar tingle run through her body as she leveled up. Her healing skill had increased once more, her HP had increased as well as her MP. She finally had all the ingredients she needed. She created the circle, laid out the items, and opened up the grimoire. She read about the ritual she would need to do only once to become a necromancer. She had all of the souls ready. She cited the words and everything glowed a deep purple before going into a deep, dark blue and then a black she's never seen before. The circle turned red and absorbed everything inside. Nadia noticed she had a new title: Necromancer. Nadia clicked on the stat reading more about it. She saw she had a one time chance to gain a legendary dead companion.

Hell yeah! Nadia confirmed her decision and almost immediately she received a 'Good Try, the legendary dead companion was already claimed. Consolation.' Suddenly a hand shot through the dirt and a skeleton climbed from the ground. Nadia watched as her MP drained and then stopped. She noted if she was at full health this is how much her MP would be drained if she ever needed to call in this skill. The skeleton was a named character and Nadia stared at the name. 'Jack', that was kind of cliche. Jack stared at her, she stared at it.

"Cool, so Skeleton Jack ... I wonder if it's strong."

"I would be with a sword." Nadia screamed as she swore that skeleton talked, but how. HOW!

"You scared the shit out of me. I thought you would be ... I dunno dumb or something. Aren't you like level 1." Nadia said to Jack still a bit shaken.

The skeleton blinked. "Do you know who i am? I'm Terrible Jack the Terror. I've slaughtered many with my sword and ... and died as well. I saw that you were in need of a companion and your MP is quite high. Hmm! Yes, you will do. I will serve you well."

This time it was Nadia who could only blink in silence as she processed all that.

Day 10
Nadia and Jack were farming monsters, leveling up, and she was learning her skills so she could bring them to mastery level, eventually. She had another title as well Dark Healer having used healing magic on Jack so many times. This did raise her HP and gave her the ability to choose to heal with Dark Magic and use MP and if she was out of MP her HP or White Magic that utilized MP only. She could now survive and be strong just like what she asked Caroline for. "Thank you Caroline"

"Who the hell is Caroline?"

"Nothing. Just go back to showing me how to fight." Nadia knew the basics of fighting and a bit of self defense from her father and other family members. Jack was a terror and was training her. From the first moment he came from the ground Nadia hadn't returned him trying to see how much of her MP would be drained the longer he stayed out. It seemed none at all. Her MP was only drained when she had called him that first day and when she went to see if she could heal him; she could. Since he was dead he didn't need to sleep, so he stood guard over her while she slept at night and truth be told she liked the company.

Day 14
Nadia learned real quick how to heal herself and where so she would tire out less. She didn't do a lot of fighting preferring to use Jack, but she still practiced on her own just in case she needed to. Nadia checked her stats and was reading over a newly acquired healing pool skill. It seemed it had a 10 second duration and healed 2 HP/second to anyone in that pool, but drained her MP for also 2 MP/second. That's 20 ticks of MP. Nadia was glad she had proactively received the bonus MP before the game and had continued to rank up her MP since then.

She looked down into the brush and pulled out what others may think was weeds, but she knew was the good magical herbs to help her create potions and poisons. Nadia opened her grimoire and flipped through the pages until she found the page with the picture of what she was holding. She nodded and added that to her inventory. As she foraged Jack stood nearby always ready.

 

[Lucian_Devine]

Zayne breezed through the early calibrations of the Nervegear, but naturally slowed down when it came time for the actual character creation. The first thing he got to pick was his name, which he'd already decided, and of course his Zyra had deduced, Zeke Durran. After he picked his name, it was time to pick the skills. He read every single skill, even though he already knew what kind of character he was going to make. He might not have done so if it weren't for the rumors of players killing other players. He couldn't do anything about the infinite number of unique skills that had been advertised, but he could at least be prepared against the abilities that players had at the start of the game.

Once Zayne was as prepared as he felt he was going to be, he set about actually picking his own skills. There were 4 primary stats, strength, stamina, agility, and intelligence, as well as a variety of sub-stats. He picked stamina as his main stat of interest, because MMORPG's almost always had a shortage of tanks and healers, which was almost certainly going to be the case here, with the majority of people picking their initial character specs before they knew it was a death game. He, thankfully, knew what he was getting himself into, and made his decisions accordingly. For his special bonus, he chose the one that gave him higher health regeneration when his health was low. He was already 14 days behind the people that were going to min-max their stats, which might not sound like a lot, but was. Thankfully though, tanks were an archetype that could do more with less. As long as he had enough health to not get 1-shotted, he could try and avoid taking damage while his heath regenerated. It would naturally slow down as he got closer to full health, but that was when he didn't need it as much.

Once he was done selecting the tank-specific aspects of his character, Zayne moved on to what could be called the profession portion of character creation, more specifically the crafting professions. Now that he'd decided to be a tank, he had to figure out what kind of armor he wanted to wear. Plate armor naturally offered the best protection, but it also only allowed you up to 50% of your max agility while you were wearing it. Scale mail offered less protection, but up to 75% of your max agility, with leather/hide and cloth armor offering the least amount of protection, but allowing you every bit of your agility in return. It made sense of course, the more cumbersome the armor, the better the protection, the less nimble you were, and vice versa. He chose to specialize in scale mail, because of what he saw in the crafting section. When you leveled up your armor crafting skill enough, you could specialize in making one type of armor. The stat bonus you get for wearing your own crafted armor increased, but what he was more excited about was the removal of the agility cap. Well, it actually just increased it by 25%, making plate have the same cap as scale, and scale having no cap like leather/hide and cloth armor. He chose blacksmithing as well, for the ability to make his own weapons. They came with the same stat increase for wielding weapons you made yourself that armor crafting did, and the choice to specialize in a type of weapon that would then let you embed one more gem in it. Most people tended to focus on just one type of crafting, so that they could put all of their time and effort into it, and of course the gathering/mining that you had to do if you wanted to collect your own materials rather than buy them, but with so many lives at stake, this was definitely more of a marathon than a sprint, and he was happy to work harder if it meant more rewards. He'd have to skin animals and mine ore like his life depended on it.

With his skills and professions all sorted out, Zayne was just about done with character creation. The last thing was the appearance of his avatar. It would look like him for the most part, black hair, dark brown eyes, but it wasn't going to be the same modest 5'6'' height that he was, or have the wiry, barely noticeable muscles that he had. No, Zeke Durran was 6'6'' tall, broad-shouldered, with a body that was layered with muscles.

When his character was finally done, and he loaded into the Town of Beginnings, he looked around before taking his first steps as Zeke. His head swam a bit as he took his first few steps, his brain not used to standing and walking with that extra foot of height. He took the time to admire his hands, once again bigger than he was used to. The best part though, was when he closed those giant hands into fists and could literally FEEL the muscles rippling just beneath the skin. He smiled at that, his brown gaze flicking upwards as he set off at a sprint.

The first few days were...experimental to say the least, with Zayne trying different weapons, different shield sizes, and of course getting used to the feeling of hitting things and being hit. He'd prepared himself for a lot of things, but you couldn't really prepare yourself for the feeling of a wolf biting into your arm for the first time, the goring tusks of a boar, or the claws of a lioness. Still, he did the best he could, while always making sure to keep an eye on his health bar and making sure to have health potions on hand and keeping an eye out for other players, especially those with an orange icon.

Of all the things that Zayne had expected when he first made Zeke, it was ultimately his weapon choice that surprised him, or rather weapons. Yes, he was a tank, but he found that he was incredibly clumsy with a shield, both in terms of blocking incoming attacks, and attacking while he held one. He loved the feel of a weapon in his hand though. So wielding two of them came more naturally to him than he expected. There were of course things a shield could do that a second weapon couldn't, but he pushed forward all the same. Hell, it would even make specializing in weapon crafting later that much more efficient!

With his gear choices sorted out, Zayne's next choice was how to allocate his stats and what kind of bonuses he was looking for on his weapons and armor. He decided early on that he was going to be putting the fewest points in intelligence. He didn't hate the sword skills, quite the opposite really. They certainly had their uses, but he also didn't like being locked into an attack pattern that he couldn't change until the skill was complete. He'd ended up timing things badly more than once early on, and gotten hit as a result. So with less reliance on sword skills, he didn't need the larger MP pool and regeneration that came with intelligence. All three of the other skills were useful though, and he found himself splitting his stat points between them equally. Yes, he wanted to do damage, but you can't do damage when you're dead, and you can't do damage if you're moving too damn slow in your armor. He even doubled down on looking for gear that gave all three stats, even though it gave less points to each stat than if he chose gear that only had one or two stats. Again, he'd never have the highest strength, stamina, or agility among the players, but that wasn't his goal. He was trying to be well-rounded, just in case. He even bypassed the opportunity to take pieces that had all four stats, trading that to other players in exchange for what he was looking for. Yes, he was trading down, but he was making friends along the way, and it was those friends that he told the solution to the first boss puzzle, hoping that eventually word would spread to the people preparing to fight it.

Zayne grinded like a madman those first two weeks, getting more and more frustrated that the boss still hadn't been defeated, or even attempted. He was leveling up fast, and found himself happy with the choices he'd made during character creation, including the 2 crafting professions. If he ever found a player skinning the animals he wanted to skin, he just switched to mining ore, and vice-versa when there was another miner around. Sometimes he even followed players around, with their permission, skinning the animals they killed and giving them the loot from it. He cared less about the loot than he did about leveling up his skinning, and if he could help out another player along the way, all the better. It was another player to rely on if an orange player showed up, and if you can't cooperate in a death game, you don't stand a chance anyway. Still his frustrations over the boss situation continued to grow until he finally heard that the puzzle had been solved, and somebody was holding a meeting to discuss challenging it. So, with the game and servers having been live for just under a month, the players were getting ready to challenge their first boss. He didn't think he was ready for the fight, but he went to the meeting all the same.

 

[La_Reina]

"I've been thinking. You're a Healer right? Aren't you supposed to wear a robe, be connected to God or something" Jack wore a long cloak and had a stick in his mouth chewing on the end. He reminded her of an old western cowboy.

Nadia thought about it. She guess in the lore and probably in Jack's history database she was supposed to, but Healing was a skill. She could rank it up like any other skill and it didn't really require faith. Nadia shrugged as she finished her 10th bottle of potions. She had gotten quite good at making healing potions, probably because she was constantly making them. She did not like getting hurt. You could actually feel the pain in the video game. Drinking a healing potion almost immediately stopped any pain as it literally healed you. At first her healing potions was average potion of healing, expected. Currently, her healing potions were at above average skill or greater potion of healing.

Nadia felt the tingle and she glanced up. Did she just level up again? She looked at her health potions and gasped. The last one was now rated rare potions of superior healing. She ranked up her healing potion skill! Nadia squealed gleefully. She could start selling these in NPC shops now. This was another form of income. and it didn't require her getting hurt! Nadia packaged them all into a box and placed it in her inventory. Then she began finishing the agility buff potions. She had just finished her 15th bottle when she felt that tingle. Agility potions took more to rank up and the last 3 of these were now rated above average. This also gave her the ability to sell it in shoppes. Nadia was having a fantastic fucking day. She created 5 more Potions of Superior Healing and 5 more above average Agility buffs double checking it wasn't a fluke.

"Come on, Jack, I'm all done." Nadia said happily as she packaged the 14 bottles of Agility buff and 1 bottle of Agility Buff+ into a box and placed them in her inventory. Jack followed Nadia to a nearby bar and they sat down. Nadia ordered 2 plates of food and 2 beers. Jack didn't need to eat and she was fascinated the first time she saw him do it. The food... it was like he swallowed, but he had no skin, no organs. It was game magic she mused. Also, having Jack eat helped people forget she was a necromancer and they thought Jack was just a poor guy stuck in character. She had gotten a little grief when people found out she did Dark Magic. Like it was evil or something?!

A weretiger sat down across from Nadia. He had 3 other weres with him, but they were sitting at another table nearby. They all ordered food.

"BigHammer," Nadia said to the weretiger using his character name in greeting.

"Sweets," he said back shorting her name in greeting. "You got the stuff?"

Nadia laughed. It sounded like they were doing a drug deal. "Yeah." Nadia took both boxes out of her inventory and placed them between BigHammer and herself.

BigHammer opened the lid of both and nodded. There was a twinkle in the potion and he stopped himself from closing the lid and took a deeper look. "Is that rare?!"

"Yup!" Nadia said lazily even though inwardly she was giggling like crazy.

"Wait.. and a high end agility buff too? Sweets, baby you spoil me!" BigHammer said closing the top and stashing it away in his inventory. "Where did you find such good stuff?"

"You know I can't tell my sources." Nadia said. She knew better than to let them know she could create them. She was well aware the orange status, when a character hurts another character purposely, fell away after 5 days (not cannon), and she was sure the were on BigHammer's right was orange just 6 days ago when she had last seen him holed up at their base. There was another status red, for PK'ers and she wasn't sure when or if those fell off and she sure as shit wasn't about to find out.

BigHammer laughed. "Okay, Merchant Lady." BigHammer said calling her what he thought her character was and placed a bag of col on the table paying her. Jack picked it up and stored it for her. Nadia had found a concealment charm and always had it on her body, ever since the Necromancer - BAD - thing. It hid her status, what her character was, her skills, rank, and even some of her stats from those who had skills that could see anyone's stats or when she friended people to sell them items. Once a job was complete, like now, she unfriended or ended the party. Leaving just herself and Jack on her list. She smiled not correcting him. BigHammer and her had done so many deals together they no longer needed to party up. Which was good as his clan was always in a war or out doing something. She did not need him figuring out she was healer. She didn't want anyone to know she was healer, a rare character set she hadn't realized. Well, not until she was stronger.

The barmaid came around and BigHammer paid for his and his clan's food. The barmaid looked questioningly at him. "That's for my Sweets meal too. Treat them right," he said as he got up and a 1/4 of the patrons stood up too. "Find me next week. I'll pay double for any Superior Potions and Agility Buffs+."

Nadia nodded her understanding as he walked out of the bar. "Sweet, he paid for our meal," Jack said. "Another round for me then!"

He didn't even drink, Nadia mused. She looked down and saw a flyer on the ground. She reached down, picked it up and gasped. No freaking way! She checked the time in her stats and nodded. "Jack, it's happening." She shoved the flyer in his face. "They figured out the puzzle. Let's go!"

"Hell yeah! This is what we've been training for!"

It's finally happening. She can be of use. She had good potions, she had buffs, she had Jack who could fight. They were a strong duo. Nadia checked her inventory she had 50 Healing Potions, 5 Superior Healing Potions, 8 Agility buffs+, 20 Agility Buffs, 20 Strength Buffs, 20 Stamina Buffs, 12 Magic Recovery potions (Her MP was pretty high, so she didn't make these often), and various potions and sleeping gas all at 10 quantities each. This should be good enough, Nadia thought as she walked out followed by Jack.

 

[Lucian_Devine]

Zayne was of course at the player-organized meeting they were having to decide how they wanted to handle the first boss. He didn't show up early or first, but he at least wasn't last. He didn't really want to draw much attention at all really, given that he basically knew that he not only wasn't on the same level as pretty much any of these players, but also wasn't really ready for the boss fight itself. Still, this was what he'd come here for, and he wouldn't respect himself in the morning if he didn't come.

When the time for the meeting to start came and went, Zayne wasn't truly surprised. The person who called the meeting was likely giving any stragglers a few extra minutes before they got started. He didn't really mind though. It gave him time to study the character pages of most of the players. His research pretty much confirmed all of his suspicions. He had less strength than the melee damage dealers, less agility than the people with bows and crossbows, less stamina, and thus health than the man who he guessed was the main tank, as well as a few other people, and of course less intelligence than the magic users. There were of course some people whose character pages and statuses he couldn't see, but the majority of them were like him, an open book.

It was eventually the person that Zayne had guessed was going to be the main tank, a blue-haired man named Diavel, who stepped forward and spoke. He introduced himself. He was clad in bronze armor from neck to foot, leaving just his head exposed. He of course had a helmet, but all of their armor pieces could be displayed or not, and many players chose not to display their helmet, particularly the honest players, wanted others to be able to see their eyes. He had a longsword and a kite shield, which was another reason that Zayne suspected that he was the tank, in addition to his high strength and stamina scores, and of course his low agility and intelligence scores. He was clearly min-maxing for his tank stats, which one could hardly fault him for. Diavel announced what they all knew, but just for clarification anyway. The puzzle of the towers had been solved, and the boss room had finally revealed itself to them. After nearly a month, they were finally ready to challenge Illfang the Kobold Lord. It was then that Diavel produced a small diary looking book, describing it as something that the former beta testers of the game had put together. It didn't discuss his attack patterns, but it did talk about how he would be aided by multiple waves of Ruin Kobold Sentinel minions. Diavel had a healer for himself, and there was plenty of damage dealers, but they would need a backup tank to assist with tanking the minions to keep them off of the damage dealers and healers.

Zayne, as well as a majority of the large group of people, just under forty-five in total, all looked around expectantly. Morale quickly dropped though, with even Diavel's strong personality faltering slightly, when not a single person stood up or stepped forward. Zayne closed his eyes then, shaking his head as he took in a deep breath and let out a heavy sigh. It was suicide, he knew it, but if there was nobody else there was nobody else, right? His dark brown eyes opened as he rose to his feet, all six foot six of him, clad in his greed drake armor from neck to toe, just like Diavel. "I'll do it!" Zayne called out, looking down the wooden bleachers at Diavel as he saw more than a dozen people's hands move to open the menu and look at his character page. "I'll need a full group though, with a healer and three damage dealers, preferably two AoE damage dealers and one strong single target damage dealer who can focus down any stray minions that I lose agro on." He tried to sound strong as he made his demands known, knowing that he knew just as little about what they were marching into as everyone else, but trying to project confidence all the same.

Diavel looked up at Zayne with his blue gaze, holding Zayne's dark brown one for a few seconds before finally nodding. "Any volunteers? We need one healer, two AoE damage dealers, and a strong single target damage dealer!" Diavel's strong personality was back, now that he at least had a second tank. Now they just had to hope that there was a second healer and some other brave volunteers in the group!

 

[La_Reina]

Nadia watched with growing concern. She wasn't sure how she could assert herself. She noted that every other healer here was in a clan. She didn't want people to know she was a healer, not until she was strong enough to stop anyone from just taking her and forcing her to join their clan. She also didn't trust her fighting skills. She could defend herself, but that was all she trained for. Nadia wanted to be of use, but she wasn't sure how. Also, how would people react to her using Dark Magic, Nadia turned her head to look at Jack. No, they had worked hard at people thinking Jack was a poor kid stuck in a weird character form. He could fight one-on-one, but she had to be in proximity. If he was to go off on his own or if she was separated from him, he would evaporate. What can she do?

Nadia bit her lip, groaning slightly at her distress. Jack kept glancing at her worried about her. He knew she wanted more than anything to prove her worth. Something deeper than just finishing this game. It was almost an obsession to prove she wasn't weak, which was ironic since she was very strong in her own right. He could tell she would grow stronger which is why he fought through a horde of other undead to reach her. He saw her potential.

Then another tank was volunteering. Jack stared at Nadia, but Nadia was staring in her hands inwardly in turmoil. She didn't notice when Jack stood up. "I can do the single target damage, but only if she," Jack pointed at Nadia who was staring at him with horror. "... comes with me. She's no healer, but she has a vast supply of magic potions, other potions, buffs, and poisons." Jack kept speaking before anyone could say no. "Especially if we're down healers, she could throw the potions at her feet which will heal us or she can give hand it to us and we can drink it on the go. It's better than having no healer." Nadia could only stare with growing terror.

She heard some laughter and then some others volunteering. She glanced up as it was decided and since they didn't have another healer she would take that position. Jack led her over to the Tank and the two other fighters. She gulped as she eyed each one. She could see the slight look of pity and then resolve as they looked at Jack who kept nudging her forward. She wondered if that was pity for him being stuck as a skeleton or that he insisted on bringing her along. She was sure they thought she was useless.

"I uh have a lot of magic potions, but I'm going to give each of you at least 1 super healing potion. Please use this only in extreme circumstances when you think your life is danger. It should bring you back to 75% HP when not buffed." Nadia wasn't sure why she was telling them common knowledge. "Uh, I'm Sweet & Vicious, but people usually just call me Sweets," Nadia said introducing herself using her gamertag. People didn't use their real names unless they were friends outside the game or real close.

"I'm Jack The Terror, but people just call me Jack," Jack said after Nadia. "Should we party up at least for this expedition"

 

[Lucian_Devine]

Zayne held his breath after Diavel called out for volunteers, his dark brown eyes scanning the crowd as he tried to portray as much strength and confidence as he could. There was another long stretch of silence, just like before he'd volunteered, and it was taking more effort than he would have wanted to admit to keep his legs from shaking.

The sound of somebody speaking up, even if it wasn't a healer, made Zayne let out his held breath in a long and slow whoosh of air. He turned his gaze to look at the person who spoke. The kid looked more than a little worse for wear, but Zayne knew better than to judge somebody on appearances alone. Hell, his avatar alone was a clean foot taller than his normal body, and while some people like to make their avatars bigger than themselves, and others make them look like themselves, some people liked to make themselves look smaller, weaker, or just plain weird. Besides, it's not like he was flush with volunteers and the luxury to pick and choose.

Zayne listened to what the weird looking guy said and smiled. Yes, there was some laughter from the crowd, but he paid it no mind. The guy was right after all. Any healing was better than having no healer at all. His own build was proof that there was more than one way to skin a cat as well. He smiled and nodded at the guy and the girl that he insisted on partnering with. Even better than that though, he heard a couple more people volunteered, likely because somebody else bit the bullet and volunteered first, giving them enough courage to do the same.

"Seventy-five percent you say?" Zayne asked as he approached the weird-looking kid and who he guessed was his friend. Her hair was the first thing he noticed was her hair. It was like a wavy brown halo behind her head that also extended down, reaching almost to her waist. The next thing that caught his eye was the tattoos crisscrossing her flawlessly smooth and coppery skin. The thing that his dark brown eyes finally settled on though, was her big amber eyes. "Th-That's pretty damn impressive..." Zayne said, giving his head a quick shake to clear his thoughts so he could focus on the task at hand. "When this is all over, remind me to add you to my friend's list in case I need more potions in the future." His gaze was soft and reassuring, hoping to inspire in them the same confidence that they'd inspired in him. "It's nice to meet you Sweets, and you too Jack. I'm Zeke..." He was about to say more when a couple of people approached the trio.

"We can help with the AoE damage, if you still need it." Zayne turned towards the pair, one of them was a tall leather-wearing man with a cloak that was open in the front, a bow slung over his shoulder, and a quiver of arrows strapped to his back. The other was a red-headed woman, wearing red robes, and carrying a wooden staff with a large ruby on top, clutched between finger-like branches on top. The archer introduced himself as Aiden, and the fire mage introduced herself as Rebecca, Becca for short.

"It's nice to meet you guys!" Zayne said, giving them a smile. "I'm Zeke, and this is Jack and Sweets." He gestured to each of them as he spoke before he continued. "Jack suggested that we party up for this exhibition, and I think it's a good idea. It'll make it easier for us to see who's in trouble, respond faster, and save them if necessary." He looked around at the group, a small but determined smile on his face. "I know none of this is...ideal, but I want to thank you guys all the same. With what we know, I have some ideas, but we're all going to have to work together and trust each other." He paused to scan everybody's faces before he spoke again. "So...I don't have the strength to easily hold agro like a normal tank does, or the stamina to tank hits and retaliate. I'm going to have to do a lot of dodging, which means less time attacking." He turned his attention to Aiden and Becca. "You guys are going to have to be really careful with your agro since you are going to be AoE'ing, you're going to be hitting a lot of enemies at once, which means that there is a pretty big chance of pulling agro. So wait for me to use my Whirlwind Attack before you start AoE'ing." He then turned his attention to Jack. "Jack, I need you to focus your attention on the enemies with the lowest health. They will be the ones that I am most likely to lose agro on, but also the easiest ones for you to burst down and kill." With the damage dealers taken care of, he turned his attention to Sweets. "Sweets, I'll do the best I can do dodge as many attacks as I can, and I do at least have pretty good health regeneration, but any help you can provide would be appreciated." His smile widened a bit after he spoke, holding her gaze for a few extra seconds before he turned his gaze to the rest of the group. "Any questions?"