Fantasy World Creations

A breeze?

The player was confused at this sensory feeling.

Why do I feel wind? I'm indoors!

He opened his eyes. Low and behold, he was NOT indoors. He was lying back-down in the grass and dirt. Grass and dirt that were unfamiliar.

Quickly, the man sat up and looked around.

"What tHE HELL!?"

This wasn't home. There were trees, and ruins, a-and...wait, something was familiar. This layout, and the way buildings were designed.

"...Elder Tale? This is Elder Tale, right? While looking around quickly, he noticed something move out of the corner of his eye. He quickly grabbed out at it, but then flinched in a slight amount of pain. "N...no way..." What he'd grabbed was his own tail. A fox tail.

"...This is definitely Elder Tale. Without a doubt. And I'm Kuwan..." At this point, his hand was on his head. Where he found his fox ears, confirming his identity. He was currently in the body of his avatar in the MMO "Elder Tale", Kuwan of the Fox Tail race. Which means he's on the level 1 character he'd literally just created when he bought the game yesterday. Well, was it yesterday? It's hard to tell what time has passed considering he just woke up in an entirely different world.

Now that he knew, sort of, what the world around him was like, he began to wander. Luckily, it seemed he was fairly close to the city he'd been in before he'd logged off.

"So this is Elder Tale's Seattle..." Kuwan noted aloud, looking up toward the skyscrapers, which only got higher as the hills rose from the waterfront. Though, most of the buildings were worn or partially destroyed. It was a ruined setting, after all. Something stood out to him while looking at those buildings; there was a sale sign. For ungodly sums for money, but these buildings could be bought. That's not what he thought strange, however. The sign was a hologram, as though it was virtual.

He froze where he stood. Is this a virtual world or reality? What is this!?

As though to test this fact, he attempted to open his character menu. Just as if he was in the game, the menu popped up, displaying all of his stats, and his friends list (though it was empty). At this, he sighed dejectedly.

As he walked further into the city to see if anyone else was in the same predicament, only a single thought constantly reappeared in his mind.

What the hell is going on!?

[spoiler=BGM]http://www.youtube.com/v/UvCIH550mA8&loop=1&autoplay=1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvCIH550mA8 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvCIH550mA8)[/spoiler]
Darkness.

The same darkness that envelops a room with the windows closed.

Not really an unusual thing to a gamer he must have fallen asleep at his desk again without realizing it. He did have to stay up pretty late to log on due to the time difference. But wait, something was off. His eyesight was still taking a long time to focus as if he had bee hit over the head and he had the headache to prove it. Even in this blur however, he was able to tell one thing.

This didn't feel like his room.

And he could feel the concrete floor under his head cold and soothing to the throbbing. Far different from his usually cramped cold room. Had he somehow attempted to go the bathroom and ended up on the floor without realizing it. The cold breeze that sent a large shiver down his spine giving his entire body had something to say on that theory.

Sitting up while rubbing his still painful head he tried to make out where he was, and he could not make out much.  He could only make out the barest of outlines of a wall that was only a few feet away. Had someone broken into his house and kidnapped him? Looking around frantically He need a means of getting to some kind of light to see where he was. If he used the wall as a guide the surely he would be able to find a door or something. He stood up slowly and when he got all the way standing his head began to swoon. As if he was a lot higher up then he was used to. Bracing himself on the wall he managed to wait till the feeling began to abate slightly and then start walking.

Well, more like stumbling really. Every few steps he kept tripping on his own feet and almost falling flat on his face. "Did I get drugged or something?" He kept pushing forward however, despite the issues. Going on for what felt like hours he finally reached a place where the shadows began to lighten. His heart rose at the idea of escape. As he followed hallway after hallway he saw it, a means of escape from the dark. A gaping hole of blinding light stood before him and rushed to his freedom.

"Holy-!" he said his freedom was not so easily assured, as he was suddenly greeted with a good five-story drop and teetering on a crumbling ledge. He managed to pinwheel his arms just enough to barely reverse his moment causing him to fall on his but hard. A portion of the floor continued to fall away and land to the ground with a sickening thud.

"One more step and that would have been me!" he sighed heart still beating in his throat. In a matter of seconds after his near death experience he had broken out into a cold adrenaline fueled sweat. Wiping the wet droplets from his brow he took a moment to look at his surroundings.
And his jaw almost hit the floor. "Toto, I don't think we're in Philly anymore." In fact this did not look like any place he knew of in the States. He was in a lush landscape of over grown and wild ruins. From his vantage point he could see building aver building that were in disrepair and half destroyed. All of them were covered with different stages of overgrowth. From his spot he could also make out the outline of some kind of building clustered closer together. The wilderness form what he could make out seemed to be cut away there, and had been forced back for the most part.

"A town of some sort maybe?" It was worth a shot. If he could get there perhaps there would be others who would know where he was.

When he let his hand drop to the side however something even more bizarre happened. A jingling sound like computerized bells and then out of nowhere a small back rectangle appeared before him hovering in the air. After he got over the startling manifestation. He realized that it wasn't going to hurt him he locked it over more closely. It looked like some kind of user interface from a game. It felt familiar but he could not tell exactly where he had scene it before. Touching it again the black box sprang to life with all kind of tabs and information. All set up exactly as it would have been as if he was playing Elder Tale.

Suddenly he felt his stomach drop as he tapped the status screen out of curiosity. The screen was set up just like the status screen for Elder Tale. Everything was exactly how he remembered from where the name was placed to the statistics. But wait these Stats seemed eerily familiar. And the name that it had written down was not his own. It had the name of his character Xen written on it. This was the moment that this really started to feel like a weird fever dream only his senses said he was all to awake.

That's when he noticed them for the first time, the inky black design pattern of a tattoo that his friends had worked so hard to create for his character. If He was in Xenos' body them the height difference could explain why he had so much trouble walking.

Was it possible?

Had he somehow ended up inside the game?   

[spoiler]http://youtu.be/2_kKFjwpwqc?list=LL8AvS7dIPEHp5e4QhVdDkZg[/spoiler]BGM

A brisk wind brushed over his face, leaving a cold aftershock. Annoyed, he turns over and grasps at blankets non-existent. Shouldn't have left that window open. He brushes it off as he tries to get back to sleep....wait.....what window???

As he could recall, there was no window in his basement headquarters.

Opening his eyes, he was greeting by a near pitch black scene, surrounded by grass in an open space. The sky was beginning to brighten, the calling of the coming dawn. He glances up toward where his ceiling should have been; instead, was greeted by an explosion of stars in the sky above. The annoying scratch of the grass was beginning to dig into his back as he lay there, gazing up at the expansive sky. Not standing for it any longer, he rose up to a seating position to get a better sense of his surroundings. With his eyes adjusting, he could begin to make out large shapes in the distance, looking more and more like tall buildings. Another breeze ran by him as he sat there, causing something on the top of his head to twitch.

Reaching up, he grasped at something fuzzy, giving a slight tug. Whatever it was twitched underneath his hand, sending chills down his spine, followed by a sharp pain at the top of his skull. It seemed to be latched onto his head. Shooting up to his feet, he caught something snake-like whip around behind him. His reflexes shot out as he latched onto a brown object. Again, this responded similarly to his head leech, sending a shock at the lower base of his spine, spreading along his lower back. Was....it...attached to him as well. In a confused stupor, he looked around for anything to see his reflection. Spying a small sandy beach, he noticed a calm body of water with slowly receding water nearby. Letting go of the strange object, he dashed over to the water and slid onto his knees at the waters edge. Panicked, he gazed down at a blurry reflection on the disturbed water. As the water stilled, he was greeted by a face he did not recognize. In fact, he wasn't even sure if it was even human.

Staring back, was the image of a humanly proportioned head, but replaced with cat features. Eyes, teeth nose, all surrounded by a brown covering of fur, littered with spots of a creamy tan color. What he thought was attached to the top of his head was what appeared to be his ears, perked up and hair standing on end, much like he would see in a disturbed house cat. This cant be real... He reached up with a fur covered hand and pulled at the whiskers on his face. A sharp pain rang out as his face scrunched up in reflex. Sitting back away from the water, he began to look himself over. His whole body seemed to be covered in fur, claws for nails, and a full on tail protruding from his backside.

As his nerves began to calm, he tried to get a grasp on the situation. Given that he woke up in an entirely different body, let alone a whole different species, he thought he was taking this at a decent leveled reaction. Raising up his hands, he gazed at the new claws garnished at the end of his fingertips. Flexing his fingers up and down, he could feel how alien this new body felt to him. Stretching his arms out, a small holographic box appeared midair in front of him. Cautiously, he relaxed his arms and reached over and touched it with a finger. A new dialogue popped up in a large square, filled with what looked to be stat listings and character equipment. Gazing upon this new discovery, he began to get a familiar feeling of seeing this before. He browsed through the tabs and ended up at the character menu, displaying a large cat-man with assorted stats and skills. Lars..... he spoke out loud. That's the name of the new character he created in Elder Tale that very evening.

Sudden realization struck him in the face as the dilemma began to come clear to him. Judging by the appearances, it looked like he was stuck in the body of the character he created in a video game, but what does that tell about this place. The rising sun began to eclipse through the gaps of the distant buildings, striking his eyes. Raising his hand up to shield from the sun, he gazed out at the city, deep in thought. He knew he should at least investigate the area, perhaps he could find a clue as to where he is and how he got here, maybe finding a way to wake back up in his own body and out of this crazy dream. Humming to life, the world around him seemed to begin stirring with movement and noises in response to the morning sun. He took his first step toward the city in a desperate plea to find out what in the world was going, but deep down he knew, he was in the world of Elder Tale.....

The town's populace was on the verge of emotional breakdown. And Kuwan was right there with them, if anything he had more reason to be than most. He'd never actually played this game, and he was low level, thus he was completely unfamiliar with his new surroundings and unable to protect himself in them if he were to explore.

"Why did I choose a healing class...? Well, at least it'll make surviving and running easier...But..." Kuwan was constantly muttering and sighing as he roamed the streets. It'd been hard to really tell from outside the game, but the area was full of hills of varying degrees. It made it difficult to gain a bearing of where places of import were located. That bird's-eye viewpoint would be REALLY helpful right about now... He thought to himself. If I'm not careful, I could get lost in just the town! Talk about embarrassing.

Still, Kuwan avoided direct conversation with others for now, as he wanted to gather his thoughts and resolve first. Though he really wanted to ask for directions so he didn't end up going in circles. ...Wait! That's it! My subclass! He shouted in his mind. He was a scribe, which he'd chosen immediately only because he heard they were cartographers, which he needed to over his sub-par directional sense. He headed back to the fountain he'd just passed. It turned out that the fountain was THE central fountain of Seattle, located in the Seattle Center. Though it was much less the display piece he'd heard it was in reality, now seemingly made into a practical, decorative fountain. It was surrounded by a plaza, from which slim, cobblestone pathways lead winding outward up grassy hills toward the rest of the center. From here he could make out the broken form of the Space Needle, which, when thinking back to the town map from before he ended up...like this, Set him at the Center of town to the north of most of the important structures in the city. So by heading past the Space Needle, he'd be able to stumble upon other areas of import.

Before leaving, he decided to check the operation of the travel gate in the town, which was disappointingly inoperable once found. But he realized that now was not the time to sigh and mope, he needed to understand at least his basic surroundings. And so his mapping began. Strangely enough, the Seattle Center was quite far from the rest of the markets and buildings. The only exceptions were the Arena and McCaw Hall, which served as a player-vs-player dueling ground and an oratory/performance space respectively. They were practically right around the corner from the toppled Space Needle. After walking away from the center, the markets that gathered began thinning out, and the ruins of Seattle surfaced, stretching for a mile or two until life began showing in the surroundings again. With this, Kuwan knew he was getting close to the second major market area. "Alright...so one mile between the center and the market..." He spoke aloud to himself while continuing his survey. Upon reaching Benaroya hall, he began making more stops in order to do a more detailed map of this area.

First was Benaroya hall itself, which was the second oratory space, along with McCaw hall. Looking at the movement of the crowd, however, he realized he must've missed an area, and backtracked accordingly. Toward the coastline from the hall was where the Pike Place Market, the other major trading hub, was located. Kuwan got a headache thinking about mapping those shops out, so he simply kept track of the overall size of the facility, and made a note to come back later. From there he headed back to Benaroya, which on closer inspection he realized was right next to the Guild Meeting Hall. Kuwan was delighted to have finally found this building, as he knew there would be many more experienced players here that could inform him of changes and such later.

From there, Kuwan headed directly West, which started going uphill. The reason for this decision was that he saw the bell towers of what could only be the Santuary. However, a couple blocks before this, he stumbled across a courthouse-like building, which seemed to be the bank in town. This was a thrilling find for him, as he'd not actually found it yet when he'd played outside the current circumstances. Or more, as a level 1, he hadn't needed it yet. Either way, he jotted down its location, and then progressed up the hill to find the cathedral for player respawning, the Sanctuary.

While recording the cathedral's location, a thought crossed Kuwan's mind. Wait...respawn...I know that this reality, whatever it is, is a cross between the virtual world of Elder Tale and the real world. But, does respawning exist? Or do we die permanently? Is it even safe to leave town any longer? Slowly, Kuwan's curiosity was slowly replaced by fear. What if this game turned out to be a fatal one?

[spoiler]Sorry for the info-dense post, but I felt now was a good time to outline the area so we all knew where the important buildings were :P

Also, here's the city map, courtesy of google haha. I'll make a more game-friendly version another time.
https://www.google.com/maps/@47.6159215,-122.3375277,15z (https://www.google.com/maps/@47.6159215,-122.3375277,15z)

Note that he started in the NW and went SW to St. James Cathedral near the bottom.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]Quickly read my character thread (http://forums.fantasyworldcreations.com/protagonists-166/sir-hemsworth/new/#new) first! :D[/spoiler]


Sure it was fun making the character. Spending hours on the character creation screen was something that Aria had found to be fun after all. It was just like dress-up, except this time she had control over almost everything about the looks of the character. Even the parts where it got into the more game-related statistics like race and class only served to help draw Aria into the world of the game. It would have been her first experience with the game, in fact, it would have been her first experience with any sort of online game.

In truth, Aria was never much of a gamer, casual at most. But after the insistence of her friend that lived in the US, did she finally give in and join him. The game was 'Elder Tale', she had no idea what it meant, it sounded like a generic title for those many computer games people play, but she did recall hearing that this particular game was some sort of commercial success. That doesn't neccessarily mean it would be something Aria would try. If not for the fact that she knew someone already playing it, it wasn't likely something she would have picked up on her own.

Yet, there she was. Or more specifically he was.









Her character in the exact likeness of Thor displayed out in his full glory. His rippling chest, his blonde and flowing hair.










Aria drooled, she considered calling her friend who lived in the US about her new character, and probably go on about how sexy Chris Hemsworth was, but figured she should get familiar with the actual game first before meeting up with him.

She couldn't contain her excitement, first to try out the game, then call her friend right after. Ready to venture out into this world, she quickly clicked on the 'Next' button.

It was at that moment that everything became pitch black. Aria shrieked, or rather she tried to, but she found that her voice did not come. Everything around her was dark, no longer was she in front of her computer or her room. Silence ensued as she felt her heart race, and this time around it wasn't from the sparkling smile of her favorite actor. This time, it was from fear. A dreading fear of not knowing what was happening; a fear wondering why in the world did she ever get her friend to convince her to play a silly game.

In a few more moments, the darkness dissipated as she felt a breeze of chill wind blow into her. Her eyes darted back and forth, but nothing looked familiar. Tall ruined buildings stood around her, many of them deprecated, and it looked like some sort of scene from a post-apocalyptic movie. She had started to walk forward then, looking down at the path that she stood upon, but as she did so she realized her legs looked different.

In fact... They looked just like Thor's rippling legs.

She grasped at her chest, and instead felt the stony muscles beneath the shirt she wore - the same shirt she had constantly fussed on when she was making her character. She felt her knees buckle, as a palid feeling came over her. Her thoughts was racing, but there was only one question that kept popping up her mind.

Is this Elder Tales?

Lars was beginning to feel more at home in his new form as he walked the broken city streets. His form was a little taller than his actual body, so taking longer strides felt quite different to him. His new ears picked up sharper sounds, sending his body into alarm over the over sensitive sense. He wasn't quite sure what to think of the tail, it felt "alien" to him still, but seemed to respond like moving any other limb.

Picking his destination at random, he seemed to have wandered into an older abandoned part of the Seattle server. Broken buildings and overgrown blocks encircled him. Holographic signs could be seen floating around some, offering hefty price tags for the opportunity for purchasing property. Small groups of people seemed to be huddled under supporting structures as most kept to themselves. Lars gathered them to also be people who were sent into the game, worry and fear was apparent on their faces as they tried to cope with this new world. Then there were other groups he noticed that fit into the backdrop, almost matching the crumbling buildings as they ran shops or muddled around town. Perhaps they are the People of the Land... he wondered. It seemed whenever these people gazed upon his presence they either seemed to look past him like he wasn't there, or give him odd looks. What's wrong...never seen a walking cat before... he would often think to himself, never bothering to voice any vocal opinion on the matter.

Suddenly stopping in his tracks, a slight scowl crossed his face as he gazed upwards toward the tall buildings, trying to gain any insight on where he was. All of the street corners look the same here, how am I supposed to know where I'm supposed to go? As he tried to gain his bearings, a sudden idea came to him. Perhaps with a higher look, I can find some sort of landmark. He wasn't sure if it was the fact he was in a game world, but Lars felt amazing amounts of energy running through him. If this truly is the game, may as well have some fun with it.

He had put a lot of thought and work into creating Lars. Eager to try something new, he wanted to go for a quick, agility build for a character, something that can move quick and act fast on their feet. He merged these thoughts with the Werecat race to give him the maximum benefits toward his Dexterity and Agility, and created Lars.

Without a step of hesitation, he hopped over toward a low wall and braced himself to leap for the edge. Firing off on the energy building in his legs, he bounded away from the ground and toward his desired destination about twice his length up. Within seconds he was reaching out with his hand to grasp the edge, but quickly realized a slight miscalculation. Not accounting for his new height and build, he instead overshot the edge and found himself rising above it, his body slowing as his torso rose above the edge and collided with it, tearing the air out of his lungs with a thud. Reeling from the shock, his arms shot out along the roof to find something desperately to grab so he didn't plummet back down to the bottom. Claws out, he managed to sink his hand into enough of a crevice to slightly support his failed attempt, his feet scratching along the wall till they found a crevice to rest in.

Taking in a deep breath to recover, his raised hairs began to settle, an embarrassing expression of shock on his face. He sure hoped no one was around to see that. He pulled the rest of himself over the edge as he stood, patting the dust off his clothes. He gestured with his hands, smoothing back the unsettled hair on the top of his head as he sort of whistled a short tune gazing about.

This time, slightly more fanciful, he climbed up some crumbled blocks to find himself on top of a destroyed building's roof. Cupping a hand above his eyes to block the sun, he began to take in the surrounding elements. The city seemed to stretch quite a ways in the distance. Noticeable bodies of water surrounded a good portion of the land, with rising hills scattered around the horizon with what seemed like normal houses dotting throughout. He was only slightly familiar with the actual Seattle, so he could only recognize some of the more major landmarks. As he gazed about, something did manage to catch his eye. The town gate stood off in the distance a short ways from him. Eying a reasonable path along the streets, he picked out the best route to get there. Perhaps some more level headed players would be there to provide some answers.

Keeping to the rooftops he could reach, he leaped and bounded along his destined path toward the gate.

The sun was hanging high up in the sky when Lars made it near the gate. Bounding from his rooftop perch, he landed with a solid thud on the ground below, absorbing the impact of the landing through his legs. Quick observation pointed out larger groups of people huddled around the area, some inspecting the apparently shut-down gate, others seemed to be looking through shop stands, leaving with new weapons and armor selections. His ears perked up at the thought of browsing through the weapons stands. Working his way through a throng of people, he stopped at the front of a weapon stand and gazed up on the wares. Swords, maces, shields, bows, this stand seemed to carry it all. Every piece polished and set out in a dazzling display, Lars could be blinded by staring too intently at some of the shiny bits.

"Hey buddy, try notta rust the merchandise with all the droolin'." a largely disgruntled looking blacksmith grunted behind the stand. Polishing a broadsword with a cloth, he eyed Lars up and down, then passed his gaze onto other customers.

Lars smirked and shifted slightly away from the table. Browsing through the inventory, his eyes fell upon a pair of fencing sabre's. His hands shot out as he snatched them off the table for closer inspection. "How much for the blades pops," he blurted out, pulling out slightly out of his scabbard. The gauntly blacksmith gazed in Lars direction. "More than what you probably have." Lars ran his hands through his pockets, pulling up nothing. Remembering his game UI, he popped up his inventory menu and looked for the gold amount, a whopping value of "0" glaring back up at him. Ears drooped, he returned the blades to the table and turned away from the table. Looks like he'll have to find a way to get some cash.

Xen kept moving as he finally made it into the town he had seen from his perch on that crumbling building. It had taken him the better part of an hour to find a workable path that he could climb down. Finally having to resort to jumping the last story to the ground had not been a fun idea, but he had not hurt himself, so that is all that really mattered at the moment. The walk from the ruined outskirts to the town proper was otherwise uneventful.

He had immediately went through his inventory finding only his starting gear and a few books his friends had given him. Speaking of his friends, his friends list did show the character names of his companions though all showed as offline or away. Had they too gotten sucked into the game? If they had most of them were probably on their home server since you manually had to transfer in game to play globally with others. His attempts to try and contact anyone seemed to be failing miserably. Hopefully they were still safe at home. He knew on the other hand that he needed to keep moving.

With his patchwork hood drawn he silently crossed paths with a number of people like himself. Strangers with new faces who were huddled together amongst the rubble crying, screaming, and examining themselves out of pure curiosity.   He did not blame any of them. After all it was not everyday that one woke up in a new world in a new body. When Xen was safe and alone he would be doing very much the same. Seeing what exactly was different about his body and what had stayed the same. He was surprised however, by some of the apparent ages of the players he came across. Most were around his age or a little older, but there were a suprising amount of kids as well who must have played hooky from school to long in for the new expansion. Some of the older folks were trying there best to calm a few who were really breaking down. 

For now though he was keeping to himself well out of the way of the others and just watching those along his path. Ever since he had activated his UI he had left the character tracking bars up.  Sure the info it displayed would get annoying eventually, but for now it was somewhat entertaining to put faces and level stats to names.

The people actually traveling along this path seemed far less shell shocked to the rest and understood like he did that the safest place to be right now was probably in town. Then he could here the sound of horses. Whinnying as they attempted to push past the new foot traffic. The noise was a covered wagon driven by a man who was trying to remain in control of the beasts as he too continued towards town. He was different from the rest of them. He wore no armor only worn leather pants and a linen shirt. As Xen moved to the side to let him pass he nodded his appreciation, but he never dropped eye contact. He was trying to hide it but he was as afraid of the horses were. Looking more closely sat the man?s identification bar as the wagon pulled ahead of him he saw what he was looking for.

Instead of being identified as an Adventurer like Xen and all the other players he had past. This man was marked as a Person of the Land the collective moniker used to identify Non-Player Characters, or NPCs of the game.  So, those who had been sent into the game were not alone. An interesting piece of information he chewed over as he continued. Finally crossing the entry threshold into the city proper the hilly landscape made it difficult to identify many landmarks. Never actually having been to seattle did not help either. For now he stuck to the main roads knowing that in games like these they modeled town around one central point like a wheel. As long he did not deviate into one of the many side streets he would no doubt find a central square of some sort.

To pass the time he opened his bag and pulled out a book, his starting grimoire that he had gotten for being a summoner, and began flipping through the pages. Three fourths of the book appeared completely blank but the fist few pages were filled with all kinds of ritual markings and strange words that he could not pronounce with translations scribbled in the blank space. At lest for the time being he would not be bored. As he entered the square with the city teleportation gat he noted how many people had actually gathered, choosing to stay somewhat obscured in the shadow of a nearby building.

Kuwan decided that, now that he had a rudimentary map, he would go back to the guild hall to ask questions of the more senior members. Just as he finished heading the map for easy filing and recognition, something unexpected happened. Well, a few things. One, the paper he'd been writing on suddenly gained a new item ID and some basic flavor text.

Quote

-Unfinished Map of Seattle-

This map details the major landmarks for adventurers in the city of Seattle, as viewed by Kuwan. The map is incomplete, but usable.

The next surprise was a small flash around him, which seemed to indicated a level-up in his Scribe sub-class. As it was now only level 2, nothing was gained from this level-up, but this further drove home that this new environment did have the rules and interface of the Elder Tale MMORPG. It still felt so surreal to him, that he was suddenly living inside a game. He wasn't depressed about it, strangely enough. He only missed a few things from his own reality, but for all he knew he could return at some point. At that thought, some ideas swam through his head. Could he return home at some point? Assuming so right now could be setting himself up for breakdown later, so it would probably be best for himself to just consider this his new home. But with that, what would happen to his life before? And what's happened to his actual body? Would loved ones be huddled around a comatose, soulless body; would I be considered dead? What if I had no body to return to by the end of this whole thing?

Realizing his mind was wandering to a dangerous place, Kuwan shook his head vigorously. This, in turn, made his ears wave slightly. It was a strange feeling, considering they were now toward the top of his head, instead of on the side. And they were much more sensitive to both sound and touch, which lead to rather jarring sensory information. It would certainly take some getting used to, but if anything, these facts were a blessing. Just as he was pondering his new abilities, they picked up an odd sound. From above.

Looking up, he could he could see a silhouette jumping over rooftops deftly. Well, at least some people have gotten used to their surrounding a bit more. Wait, this is actually a good opportunity, as Kuwan couldn't explore up there nearly as easily. This character could probably see the terrain surrounding the town, which is something Kuwan was unfamiliar with even while this was a normal game. It would be good information to have if he got to the point of exploring, maybe even seeing some points of interest.

However, as he called out to the figure, he realized that whoever it was had already gotten a good distance away. "Hey, you, on the rooftops!" Was all he managed before the figure seemed out of earshot. Kuwan had no confidence that he'd been heard, but could at least hope. With that, he took out his map to plot his course back to town and gather more information. After all, keeping himself busy and well-informed was not only good for confidence and stability, but made his mind wander less. And he did not want to end up despondent like those along the roadside, sitting lost in thought.

Even if she had never played an 'MMO' before, Aria knew well enough that this wasn't how it should have been. There was some new virtual technology stuff she remembered reading in the news, but this definitely felt completely different. Wasn't some sort of goggles put on your head to make virtual reality work? All she did was login to the game, no way that could make the entire scenery around her change. Everything felt real as well; the chill wind blowing against her, the sights and smells, the feel of the stones and rocks beneath her as rather gorgeous legs made their awkward way forward. She knew something was wrong, but she held on to hope that perhaps this was just an expected part of the game.

When the initial shock of logging into the game wore down and finding out she was in Thor's body, the girl-turned-sexy-hunk began exploring her surroundings. Admittedly the thought did cross her mind to explore her new-found body as well, but the idea made her flush completely red, and she couldn't quite bring herself to even further think about such things. Besides, getting used to her new body was difficult. Her legs were a lot longer than before, and Aria at first had trouble even doing something as simple as taking a few steps. It didn't take her long to at least get slightly used to the walking, but she knew it would be awhile yet until she was comfortable with walking.

It was during her fumbling when Aria had accidentally triggered her in-game menu. Following the road to where-ever it would lead to, screens magically popped up in front of her, and as she began reading in her head each of the options. She was haphazardly going through each of the menus, reading her character menu, looking at the items in her inventory, and so on and so forth. She was just getting immersed into the game. She had no idea what half of it meant, but there was that spark of curiosity and was getting just a bit excited to try things out. There was still a nagging feeling that something was wrong, but she couldn't be so certain.

Eventually she found herself at the very end of the menus, with the last option before her. A simple "logout" option. She waved her hand over it. Nothing happened. She then pointed at it again slower, yet nothing still happened. For good measure she did it a couple more times, each time more furious than the last. It looked as if the menu option had been clicked on, but try as she might nothing happened at all.

"Why isn't this working!" She said angrily out-loud. She hadn't paid much attention to the other people around her, and though she didn't realize it at the time, to the onlookers it would have been strange hearing a grown and muscular man named 'Sir Hemsworth' sounding like a teenage girl.

Panic had begun to settle again, just like when she first bumbled into the new world.

This isn't real. It's just a game! But she couldn't help it. Suddenly all that awe and wonderment of playing a new game became more akin to fear. Her menu closed down. A moment later, she opened it back up, frantically her eyes searched for the log-off command again, and with trepidation, selected it again.

Nothing.

Her fingers quivered, and she felt the trappings of fear and worry take root within her. Only then did she start paying attention to the people around her. Some were standing or lounging in the shadows, others frantically hurrying about, some standing calmly, and even a good number who seemed as if they were just going about their daily lives.

The large man (Aria) turned towards someone nearby.

"H-how can we quit?" The feminine voice of the large man in the likeness of Thor cracked. But Aria was frantic, she did not want to get stuck in some virtual reality if it was one. She hadn't even called her friend yet to let him know of her new character! Most of all, and one thing she had been mentally denying, she did not want to come to terms that she may be stuck here with no way of going back home.

[spoiler]Anyone can interject themselves as that person Thor (Aria) is talking to.[/spoiler]

Rico is the son of a major crime syndicate boss who is in charge of the metropolitan crime ring in Seattle. The prime focus of the crime ring is to commit major robberies and heists with the intention of redistributing the items they steal for a profit. As a young boy Rico was constantly exposed to items of high value and became specifically adept at identifying items of particular profitability. With the guidance of a particularly benevolent underboss Rico was able to raise money for a top of the line computer system and immediately became hooked on Elder Tale.

When Rico began attending High School the underboss he had befriended attempted to break away from the criminal group and was discovered by Rico?s father who immediately killed him to make an example for others who might try to leave the ?family?.

Rico became aware that he would need prove himself to gain trust and reputability in the eyes of the group, particularly to his father.  Rico was made to choose a role within the organization within days of his mentor?s death. His decision was to become a hitman working for his father, however he insisted on choosing his marks. He would only carry out contracts on individuals older and physically superior. Rico secretly plans to one day use these skills to take out his father so he and his mother can escape the criminal underworld.

In order to escape the abusive nature of his home life Rico often retreats to his room and escapes reality within video games on his tri-monitor extreme graphics computer. Elder Tale for Rico is a way to re-define himself outside the constraints of the real world which is largely a painful existence. Within the game Rico develops particularly close friendships which he sees as impossible outside of this virtual sanctum. Rico seeks approval and a bond of togetherness which is not based on fear, profit margins, or revenge. Although he is versed in taking lives of others outside of the game, Rico is not particularly ?good? at playing Elder Tale. The game world where respawns and regeneration can bring anyone back from the brink of death is in many ways a foreign concept for Rico. As he begins to see the game as more of a mental challenge than a physical one a transformation begins to occur in Rico?s lifestyle. Retreating more often to this virtual world begins to become apparent to his father and reflected in his bad grades in school.  Rico already struggles between two worlds, and two very different lives with two conflicting mentalities. With the upcoming expansion Rico has hatched a plan to be the one of the worlds best. Nova Sphere was an opportunity for Rico to showcase his video game skills and prove himself as skilled in the realm of Elder Tale. Rico knows that soon he will need to choose between his criminal family and the alliances forged within the game.

The choice taken from him as he logged into the new expansion for the first time. He felt at first as if he had fallen asleep while playing, although this dream was far too real. When he looked down and saw that he was no longer in his own body, but that of his in game persona. He did not know if he should be terrified or relieved. He surprisingly was not afraid, nor did he question how or why he was here. Only one thought dominated his mind:

?This is my chance.? He thought, ?My chance to change everything.?

Something seemed off, he didn?t have any of the fancy armor or equipment he had grown accustomed to his avatar wearing.

?Nooooooo!? He cried, ?Im back to level one?!"

He had assumed the, well, character that approached him thought him knowledgeable due to the map, but Kuwan was too shocked to correct them right away. After all, he now had a completely built guardian standing in front of him, though posing in the stance of a panicked girl. He took his time responding, first blinking a couple times while staring at the "man".

"So logging out doesn't work, huh? Funny, I hadn't tried that yet. Guess my survival instinct kicked in before my common sense, there." Kuwan chuckled, trying to somewhat lighten the mood. Dealing with a panicking person was what he'd been trying to AVOID. Why was he singled out like that? He inwardly sighed. "So you made a fan-avatar, and are stuck in the body, huh? Well, I'm sorry to say it, but despite how the map makes me look, I'm fairly new to this game as well. And still have no idea what's happened. From your voice, you're...a girl?" He answered cautiously, still trying to make heads-or-tails of what was going on.

Looking her over quickly, he had to admit he was impressed. "Well, I have to say, you really put some work in your character. So to that end, well done!" Kuwan gave as comforting a smirk as he could, given the situation, "... But from what I've seen, and what you've told me, you could very well be stuck like that." He sighed a little, knowing very well what emotional outbursts could come from saying that. Upon seeing their expression, he sighed once more, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. "Well, I was just heading to gather information about this anyways. Feel free to tag along if it'll help you calm down. Oh, and the name's Kuwan, by the way."

Being comforting was...not a talent of his.

Xen from the shadows noticed a man who looked like Thor out of the corner of his eye, but something was off with how he stood. Looking at the statue of a man more closely the way he was holding himself was surprisingly timid and afraid for such a imposing figure. Then he heard his/her voice as the Guardian named Hemmingsworth spoke to a nearby fox tail . It was the feminine pitch of a teenage girl. Had she chosen to play with a male avatar? Playing games like these as the opposite gender was far from uncommon after all. He himself had tried it, but mostly only in solo rpg for the story differences. To be stuck in the body of the opposite gender would no doubt be a little off putting. He continued to watch the pair interact and could not help but have his interests peaked by the girl's circumstances. pulling him from his book.

He was quite happy spying from the safe distance as the two continued to talk. The Foxtail also caught his attention by the scrape of paper he seemed to be holding onto rather desperately. From what he could make out it looked likely it was a badly drawn and he assumed incomplete picture. What was so important that he would hold onto it like that? His subclass read Scribe maybe he had attempted to make something to test how skills work if they did at all?  That spawned a myriad of other questions. The UI did seem to work, but it had not even occurred to him that other aspects of the game could as well. Then he had an idea.

Opening up his menu he clicked the screenshot button. A holographic square opened up and he waited. He waited for The fox named Kuwan was consoling the girl and swung his hand with a map wide. Taking the snapshot quickly without the flash a little pop up appeared stating photo saved to inventory. He most likely would not be able to show it to anyone else because he did not have a physical copy, but it would be useful for keeping track of the pair at the very least if he so choose since it had there names and HP gauges in it. Looking for a way to access the photo he found it and opened it in the UI. He attempted to zoom in closer as if he was using a touch screen, it worked well enough, and he was able to make out the basics of an unfinished map, most likely of the area of the town he could use this to get around.

Closing the menu quickly he continued with his people watching mainly keeping the pair in his sight from his hideaway 

The person Sir Hemsworth talked to was someone who had these strange ears and a tail to match. She recalled the other races as she was going through the character creation, and this person was a... "fox-ear" or something similar. Aria couldn't quite remember, only that she stroke out that option as a potential choice for her Thor look-alike. Mr. Chris Hemsworth did not have ears after all. The fox-person blinked a couple of times, and from his tone of voice implying shock asking that she was a girl did Aria pause and reconsider the situation.

"U-um." She stammered, only realizing that she was still in Chris Hemsworth body. It must have looked ridiculous seeing a tall and imposing figure with her voice and immediately did Aria feel embarrassed.

"S-so what's it to you! Chris Hemsworth is a total hotty!" Aria exclaimed feeling the need to explain herself. She said something incoherent afterwards, blabbering almost, as she felt her cheeks redden. But she quickly nodded her head. "Y-yes. I didn't think I would get stuck in his body though." She found it intriguing being in a body like Mr. Hemsworth's, even just a little bit naughty, but she had to admit that if she were stuck in a body, it would preferably be a girl's. She hadn't yet begun to think of all the potential consequences were of being stuck in a man's body. "Thor's body has to be perfect." She replied back taking the fox-person's compliment in stride. She was still new to the game, and she had only learned a few of the basic commands that she found in the menus. But she at least brought up the view to see the stranger's name. It read "Kuwan".

"I really don't know what I should do." She told Kuwan when he offered the chance to tag along with him. Aria was still troubled, and she did what she could to quell her panicky feelings. A thought crossed her mind.

"Hey Kuwan? W-we don't have to use bathrooms in game do we?"

Just as Rico was discovering that he had in fact fallen in level, he heard some commotion nearby.

He walked around the corner, taking efforts to blend in with what appeared to be townspeople. Rico was unsure if he was the only person to have been transported into the game world or not.. Until he got a clear view of the conversation between what appeared to be Thor with a girls voice, talking to a fox tail.

He walked to the pair with an eyebrow raised..

"Are you guys real?" After the words left his lips he wondered if he needed to clarify the meaning of the word.

"You know, are you guys REAL PEOPLE?"

He could think of no other way to ask. Of course this world was real, he just did not understand how, or if these other characters were actually other people or if somehow he was interacting with people playing the game. He needed to find out if he was alone.

"I-I see..." was all Kuwan could stammer out as the girl(?) ranted and flaunted her borderline-fanatical love of this celebrity. But then she asked a peculiar and very important question.

Quote"Hey Kuwan? W-we don't have to use bathrooms in game do we?"

Kuwan thought a moment, but then decided it was better to say his ideas after seeing the worried expression before him. "Well, I'd already noticed that I get hungry and tired, so it's not like Elder Tale in that respect. I can't say what other necessities we'll have to do, but...in this case, I imagine we'll find out very soon." Seeing the look of fear on the face of the one before him told him he'd delivered that wrong. Again. Well, I don't think there was a way to make that sound good, anyways...

It was hard to explain what he'd considered a simple act, especially since he didn't know her age, so he purposely kept it vague. "All I can say is aim and shoot, if the time comes." Despite a serious expression, and keeping his voice level, he couldn't help blushing and turning his gaze to the side. That he had to explain this to a woman was...awkward. He was happy to change the subject, however, as another figure approached. "Looks like we have more company."

Quote"Are you guys real?"

"You know, are you guys REAL PEOPLE?"

Once again, Kuwan was reduced to speechless blinking, before he finally understood what was being asked. "Yes, we're also players. Or were. My personal feelings are that we shouldn't treat ourselves as 'people playing a game' anymore. So I guess 'adventurers' is more appropriate?" Kuwan REALLY was having trouble dealing with this amount of panic and surprise, considering he'd spent so much time convincing himself not to do so.

"I think for all our sakes, we shouldn't treat this as the game we knew. Though it's kept features from it, many new ones have shown up. Survival features, like hunger, thirst, and fatigue. This game-world is our new reality, one we have to get used to. We live here now, and I don't know if there's a way back to our reality yet." From what he could tell, everyone had just 'woken up' here, with no recollection of how. But one thing was for sure, they were all former players, either new or veteran. So this was related to Elder Tale as a game that was for sure.

Breaking from the crowd, Lars was at a loss of what to do. Slipping over to a shady spot, he gazed up at the towering town gate. It matched the town's run down demeanor, bits of rubble surrounded the monument, while spots of wildlife lightly began to grow among it. Judging from what Lars saw, it looked like this gate hasn't been used in some time. Still, it stood out from the town by it's sheer mystery. It seemed something powerful must have been used to power this ancient device, but us Adventurer's seem to have arrived after it's run high and dry.

With a slight twitch, his ears picked up the distress of what sounded like a young female, accompanied by a male voice. As he gazed over, he was only greeted with the sight of a large, blonde male over-towering a smaller Fox Tail. The character design of the larger one looked oddly familiar, but was disturbed by the way they held themselves. The bigger one seemed slightly skiddish and scared. speaking with a feminine voice. Behind him was a calmer looking male Fox Tale, apparently trying to calm the larger one down.

Good luck to ya mate, I'd hate to be in your shoes. Lars chuckled to himself as he leaned against a wall and opened up his character menu.

Browsing through his inventory, noting the basic armor and inventory items in his possession. Something he quickly noticed was a lack of task bar, or quest giver. If this still was a game, wouldn't he have received a notice typical of a starting character in any MMO? There was no note to find some NPC to talk to, or to head to a particular area, his inventory only filled with his items and stats.

Switching through his character menu's, he checked over his professions. He was still labeled as a Swashbuckler for his main class, and apparently had chosen Food Fighter for his sub class. Hmm...must have been hungry during character creation. 

Still running through his menu's, Lars heard a third party speak up to the strange group near him, asking something about if they were real people or whatnot. The shock and alarm of people finding out they were in a video game was beginning to wear on Lars. "No sense fretting about it now..." He gave a sigh as he closed his menu. Man, he wished interesting would pop up somehow.

Xenos noticed a catfolk male with brown cow spots slipping down from the roof of one of the buildings surrounding the square. He too seemed interested in the scene unfolding around those he was watching before. He looked as he took a stance relatively close by where he was standing. His tail was flicking in the air as if in anticipation. Most people who choose catfolk he remembered his friend saying went for the options that did not actually have tails. Something about them looking more bestial then the other races when they had them because the model walked differently.

Xen could not help but smirk as he remembered one of his best friend's laughter over the phone. He had wanted the tail to standout from the crowd. It seemed like this cow cat Lars had a similar idea. The bored look that was beginning to form across his face it was eerily quite after all. Like everyone was waiting for something to happen. When would the other foot drop? What would happen next in this seeming bizarre dreamland?

Maybe it was the fact that his model resembled what his friend would have chose,but Xen left his hiding spot and found himself leaning next to the other man still in shadow.

"They seem like they are having fun don't they?" he motioned to the other group. His green eyes slightly humorious as he looked side long at the cow cat in question.

"All I can say is aim and shoot, if the time comes." Kuwan had said.

Aim with what? Shoot at what? The look on Aria's face was pure horror as the thought started to settle. Her eyes were wide as she began to think about what Kuwan had meant. And in Thor's body too - a muscular, gorgeous, and fit body. Since she chose one of the tallest height and largest body builds wouldn't that also mean other parts of his body were to match, specifically like Thor's-

But the poor girl couldn't finish her thought as she furiously shook her head blushing all the while.

"No no no no NO!" She yelled, trying to push away the very awkward thoughts she was having, visibly waving her hands with each 'no'. She still idolized Chris Hemsworth and she would not let herself think of things, futile attempts though it was for any young adolescent girl.

"I'm sorry Mr. Fox Person, but even if you've decided this is your reality, it certainly isn't mine." She continued her loud and high-pitch voice as she still furiously held on to the hope that there was a way out. Her cheeks (or rather Thor's), were still red, though she stood her ground in her belief. This was a game after all. Even if a way out wasn't apparent, there just has to be one.

"Who's in charge of the game? Can't you like, call them or something? Look, I'm not even sure if I'm dreaming, but people just can't suddenly be in a game. It's not right. It's not possible!"

Kuwan got a fairly good laugh out of her response to his hint. Seeing a grown, well-built man furiously blushing a posing as a woman would was just too much for him. So much so that he made a misstep and slipped, flopping onto his rear and back, laughing more after a pause of surprise. But seeing her frustration, which she was slowly aiming toward him, Kuwan righted himself, cleared his throat a bit and calmed himself. "I didn't 'decide', I never had a choice in the first place. This IS our new reality, at least for now. It's best you get past that denial as soon as possible."

Brushing himself off, Kuwan took a look at the two panicking figures before him. "Either way, I'm not here to ride through your emotions with you. I'm going to get informed a bit more if possible. And level up a bit if deemed safe, for my own protection. I'm looking to survive and make due, at this point." As he said this, he noticed a peculiar duo under a tree to the side, as well as many others staring at the commotion they were making.

Damn, ended up a center of attention.

Kuwan sighed a little at his predicament. Just today, he'd woken up in a fantasy world, found out he was part fox, realized he may not get his old life back, and after finally settling his own sense of panic, ended up dealing with two other oddballs that couldn't handle make sense. He hadn't even figured out if he could continue his hobbies for piece of mind yet. Putting his hand to his head and closing his eyes momentarily, he began walking toward the guildhall. He didn't even know if the duo, or more, were following him. But he didn't really pay that any mind unless he was addressed again. There was only one thought that kept reoccurring in his mind, a pleading one.

I really need some music. please let there be a way to have music without being a bard! I can't mellow out without it...and I can tell this'll be a day I need to.

As Kuwan started to leave, Aria hesitated, quickly glanced over at the person with them, named 'Rico'. He sported a set of ears like Kuwan, though they looked different than the Fox person's. She knew their was some distinction but Aria didn't really need or want to know at the time. This Rico was probably a good and calm guy in real life, but being rattled herself she didn't want to think more of what's real or not, she just wanted to get out.

"I'm as real as you are. I think... I'm going to follow Kuwan, someone has to have the answers and he seems to know his way around." She said, finally replying to Rico's question after things had slightly calmed down. She turned back towards Kuwan who was already more than a few steps away.

"H-hey wait up!" To Aria, there was no where else to turn to. Everything was different and strange. Nothing was familiar. To someone who's never played an actual serious game like Elder Tale before, her new surroundings was daunting. The ruckus she had made earlier caused more than a few individuals to stare and look at their direction, but that fact was lost on Aria-now-Thor as she followed Kuwan. That fox-person, whether Aria liked it or not, was the closest thing to a friend.

Rico steeled himself and began to look around, taking in the environment. He felt exposed and vulnerable, something he did not normally feel outside of the presence of his father.

The result was that he looked calm, collected, unfazed and probably notably detached. This was his defense mechanism in real life, he did not want to carry his life into his game persona, however, they were now one. The opportunity to change his life presented itself, however he did not want to be too quick to invest, just incase this was some kind of dream or temporary game error.

Rico squinted and moved in a slight run until he was walking next to Aria, moving with her following Kuwan.

Without breaking stride or looking in any direction except for ahead, Rico quipped "I'll go with you guys. If this is our situation I would rather not get caught without a party. I don't know if you guys have considered this, but I for one don't feel like finding out if we can re-spawn."

He then said under his breath, to himself "What happens when its time to sleep?"

He did not know why he felt the need to bring up the subject of their mortality or lack there of. He was able to mask his emotions in the form of jest, however this concern was one of the biggest. Video games could be just as unforgiving as the streets, and Rico lacked all of his real life resources. He knew already these other players were best resource he had available, or would likely have in this world.

He would use them.

Use, he thought to himself. Not even close to the right word. The word rely, that was more accurate, he just didn't want to admit his reliance. Not yet.

Thor girl said: "I'm as real as you are. I think... I'm going to follow Kuwan, someone has to have the answers and he seems to know his way around."

"I grew up in Seattle, but this clearly is not the same place. I do not want to count on anything I think I knew." His words even confused him slightly, this game / reality concept was just INSANE.

"Kuwan just be careful not to assume anything, we don't know what may be different, this expansion just came out" he said, masking the concern. "As long as you are making sense though I will keep quiet."

Lars snapped out of his thoughts as another body placed themselves next to him. Glancing over, he was greeted with another face that seemed blatantly normal. Some of his features seemed to be a little off and he could have swore he saw some tattoos. Hmm...must be one of those ritual race things.... He found that the newcomer was staring at him so Lars returned the stare back.

"If you're referring to the awfully feminine Thor verbally assaulting the fox, then yes, some probably more than others." Lars said in response to the other man's question.

Lars spotted the fox beginning to depart, followed by his two new companions. Finally, he pushed himself from the wall and decided to follow this group around till he got bored. Standing still was never a strong point for Lars, in the real world and apparently this virtual one as well. Passing his new friend, he turned his head and smirked at his general direction. Pointing with a finger in the direction the group was going, he gave a wink as he turned away from the other man and made his pursuit.

Xen got the message that Lars was sending him relatively quickly. It seemed people who chose the catfolk race had similar attitudes. That behavior reminded greatly of something his other friend might have done. But he had a leg up in regards to following them if that is what he choose to do.

He had the image from earlier with the map. Opening his logs he found the image and zoomed in. It was a crudely done map with only the most significant paths and buildings scribbled badly on it. But, he could guess where the group was headed. Using the map and his knowledge of games he might be able to snake his way ahead of them using the back streets.

"Let's just see how far this goes." he smirked quickly turning and becoming swallowed in the shadows of a near by building his tattered patchwork cloak fluttering dramatically behind him. He ended up reemerging slightly a couple blocks down. he made sure to stay out of anyone elses way. Back alleys like these tended to be best for danger and homeless regardless of the world and he made sure to avoid anyone who seemed like they belonged in such a place. He ended up having to take several loops but lucky nothing too far out of the way he could just see them rounding a corner down the way.

Kuwan had nodded along with Rico's train of thought as he started walking. "Yes, I've considered the problem of whether we can respawn or not. And after seeing how many people are just lounging around hopelessly, I'd imagine they've had the same thoughts. The question is who would be willing to risk it? I mean, at some point, we'll need to gather ingredients to survive, so there's bound to be a test in a while." Kuwan paused after that thought, "With that in mind, maybe it'd be best not to go out of town for a while?"

He turned to look at them both to confirm that thought. However, he noticed that multiple random people were following them, as well. He turned back around and sighed, grimacing. Since when did I become a leader? Did they just need someone to take action? Why meeeee~. He complained internally, wishing he could just relax, or at least be left to himself like when he was making that map. ...I need to work on my scribe skill... He thought as he looked back at the map he'd drawn, trying to distract himself. Accurate, but crude. Another sigh escaped his mouth.

Quote"Kuwan just be careful not to assume anything, we don't know what may be different, this expansion just came out"

As Rico said this, Kuwan flinched a bit. He'd completely forgotten about the new expansion. This meant that even veterans may not have quality information. He continued to walk toward the guild hall as intended, but at this point he was biting his thumb in thought. What if they're in just as much of a panic due to the expansion? It makes sense. Heck, we could be surrounded by mid-level monsters when they used to be beginner level. And new abilities are bound to surface. With mortality still being questioned, this is bound to drive even veterans nuts. He cut his thoughts there as he neared the final bend in the road to the guild hall. Better to see it myself.

When he rounded the corner, he was surprised for multiple reasons. First, there was a broad, patchwork-cloaked back inches away. He'd been going fairly fast despite not paying attention, so stopping would be troublesome. But that didn't matter, as we came to the second reason. Being shocked, Kuwan had stumbled, tripping over himself. There was no stopping him as he went face-first into the cloaked figure before him, bringing them both to the ground with a muffled yelp and grunt. When he finally regained his senses, he moved off the man, looking around to gain his bearings. They were before the hall, but couldn't see it due to a large mob of people gathered around it. Guess I'm not the only one who thought to ask some experts. Maybe they'll address the crowd in one go?

Hearing a groan, he realized that now wasn't the time to worry about the guilds. He'd just knocked down a complete stranger. Turning to his victim, Kuwan cautiously asked, "H-Hey...are you alright?" It was all he could manage. After all, he wasn't sure how to react, and was rather embarrassed. Seems even being reborn in another body doesn't help my clumsiness... He thought dejectedly to himself.

Xenos wasn't expecting those who he had been spying on to fall directly into him. He had only locked away for amount to double check his surroundings and then he was suddenly colliding with the ground. His higher center of gravity did not help matters as he went over like a tree in a forest, to tall to course correct in time before falling.

It took them a moment to untangle from each other, and he tried his best to try not and pull any furred appendages by accident. It was in that moment of awkward silence where Kuwan looked at the crowd  however, that Xen hatched a plan

"I'm fine, I'm fine really" he said with an honest wave extending a hand to help be pulled up. "It's my fault, I was looking at the mess in front of the guild hall and wasn't paying attention. It doesn't help any that whatever happened to us changed my body size." He tried his best to give a smile. Readying himself to lay a bit of truth as bait.

"My friends started a small guild when the game came out, and they finally talked me into joining them for the new update. I figured if they got stuck here too then they would be somewhere close by due to spanning and bases rules. Though I doubt I'll be able to find anyone in that mess. And here I thought they'd help me Level fast for the game since most of them got close to the level cap."

It wasn't a total lie they had incentivized his joining by promising to help him level with their favorite characters, which were close to the cap. Though now that this had happened, whatever this was. He very much such.a deal was still on the table. The promise of information alone should be enough to get them at least curious.

"Oh I'm sorry, I forgot to introduce myself please call me Xenos, my friends call me Xen."

Rico appeared over Kuwan and Xen, offering a hand to each to help them back on their feet.

At this moment he could not help but think he had made a huge mistake.

Even being virtual bad asses could not avail the others from their worldly physical prowess. In so many words, he felt like he was surrounded by nerdy gamers who had never done anything physical in their lives.

Yes he was a different size than he was in the real world, and far more hairy than he was comfortable with, but he still was nimble on his feet and just as capable as he was on the streets. He had a twinge of excitement thinking about what might happen as he leveled up, he never was able to get stronger without doing a great deal of training and dieting. This might be the best thing that had ever happened to him.

He faced mortality in the real world many many times. Hospital visits were almost as regular as holidays. He could not help but feel he had a slight advantage over the others he had met so far.

"You guys got to be more careful, next time it might be a nest of creatures you step in."

Realizing he was staring to sound a bit like an ass he smiled.

"If we are not going to get any help from these folks perhaps we are just better off forming a group of our own. We will after all need to eat."

He thought back to earlier when he had thought about using these people. He felt that given his real life experience they may in fact need to use him. He did not want to have to take a position of authority, his father had always been the model of an authority figure in his mind.

Perhaps that is why he was here, if not to lead at least to advise. The other players seemed to have no motivation outside of the group he had joined. If mortality is an issue, the world may become sparsely populated before very long.

"I think we should keep moving.."

He turned away from his companions and the smile quickly melted from his face. A sinking feeling gripped him as the inevetablity of their first combat situation was increasing with every passing minute. Nobody plays a game for too long before they get attacked, otherwise why would it be fun?

He put a hand on the handle of his dagger, not to be threatening, but just as a precaution.

He leaned over to Kuwan and whispered so only he would hear. "Perhaps we should do some sort of practice, do you know of a training arena nearby?"

Respawning? What are these people talking about? What do they mean by respawning? Aria thought. She had been keeping up with Kuwan, trying to take in as much of her surroundings as she can. Everything was so different, and even though she had already been there for what felt like an hour or so now, she still couldn't help but keep watching intently the new sights that surrounded her. Though it didn't take long for Kuwan's quick pace to get the best of him, crashing into a stranger right before a large gathering of people surrounding some sort of building in the distance. The new individual introduced himself as 'Xen'. Aria had never really been into fantasy or sci-fi stories, so even the name 'Xen' sounded foreign and strange. She pulled out the option to take a look at the player names around her, and sure enough he was called 'Xenos'.

So is that how it worked then? People introduced themselves by their character's names? Aria thought. She found the idea strange, but then she realized that the game was supposed to be in the cyberspace, and everyone knows of the horrible stories one always hears in the news about sketchy people in the internet.

"Keep moving... where?" 'Sir Hemsworth' asked.

"Ah, Xenos, no Xen, is it?" Kuwan replies sheepishly, "Are you sure your friends ended up here as well? Have you been able to contact them?" Suddenly, Kuwan had a thought. "Wait, does the friends list and private messaging work in this environment?" Unfortunately, being new, the fox tail had no official 'friends' on his list. So, to test this, he decided to pull up his character interface. Sure enough, there was a (blank) friends list, so he decided to drag his new Thor friend's name into his list. He knew he'd probably end up doing anyways, due the girl's insistent, panicky attitude. "Alright." He paused in anticipation before hitting the chat icon.

"...Is this working?" He spoke softly so as not to cause an echo or anything distracting. And by the gasp/shriek from behind him, he figured it worked. And he laughed at the surprise. "Hemmingsworth, it's me, Kuwan. I was just testing if personal messaging worked. Thanks for your help." And he closed the chat. He could feel a glare of some sort drilling into the back of his head, knowing full well it was Hemmingsworth, but not sure if it was malice or otherwise. I'm bound to get a rant in a little bit...oh boy...

"Well, it seems the friends list and chat still work. Similar to telepathy, from what I can gather." He then turned back to the newcomer, Xen. "It seems that it's not too great an idea to look for the guild hall now. With this kind of crowd, leaders are likely holed up inside. I don't know how guilds work in this game, but that seems right, and would explain why the crowd isn't getting anywhere. Since you seem knowledgeable about the guild system indirectly, does that sound right, Xen?"

As he was asking this, he noticed Rico extending both his hands for the two of them, and gratefully accepted his offer, getting to his feet with his help. At Rico's points, Kuwan felt a bit embarrassed. He had a point; after all that talk about survival, Kuwan had assumed the city safe. What if it wasn't. "You're right about that, looks like I should be a bit more careful...and yes, for now, we should probably party up." He popped open the character interface, dragging their character frames to the party list instead of friends list, which sent invites to Rico, Sir Hemmingsworth, and Xenos. The holographic dialog box popped up in front of them, with the simple 'Accept' and 'Decline' options.

"Good, that works, too. Things are looking up, in the case of operating like a game."

Quote"I think we should keep moving.."

"Keep moving... where?"

"Perhaps we should do some sort of practice, do you know of a training arena nearby?"

"Training arena? The closest thing I saw to that was the dueling arena near the fairy gate at the city center. That probably won't work, since we've no idea about the game's mortality. We need something like training dummies...but I didn't see that either. Would ruins work? The town thins out between the center and the market area, so it may be open enough to at least try different abilities. I can't say for certain if creatures will be there, but it's still part of Seattle, so I doubt it." He discussed quietly in reply to Rico's question.

Probably not good to assume...but considering the lack of peril in the city, I imagine creatures can't be here. He thought to himself hopefully.

The sudden voice of Kuwan echoing in her head caught her by surprise. Her nerves were already rattled and she did not need any more surprises. Aria in Thor's body glared at Kuwan. Oh Mr. Fox Person's back was turned, but she was sure he could feel Sir Hemmingsworth's piercing gaze at the back of his head.

There were too many words that were confusing, or rather, used in a context that Aria simply could not understand. "Training", for one, confused her at first until she realized that they must have meant training how to play the game. Normally she would have found it slightly amusing to use such a serious word, but at the time there was nothing better to do. When they had mentioned "partying", chips and soda came to mind, though they used the words in a different context. It didn't take her long however to understand that "partying" simply meant getting into a group with others. She quickly waved her hand over 'Accept'.

These people were the only things she had in this strange new world, and if they decided to go to some sort of training arena, she would do her best to participate. At the very least, she herself was curious about it. She still wanted to get out of the game, and the fact that the people around her have started to become more used to the fact they were in this new world had started bothering her. But she held her comments in check. Her primary goal was looking for someone in charge, and get back home, but at least for now she had people to be around with. There was wisdom in their words. It was better to be with a group than without.

And if there's anything anyone needs the most in a foreign new world was people to be with.

Rico was slightly startled by the prompt when it appeared. He had always ran his game with minimal interface prior to the expansion. He felt more at ease letting his instincts guide him rather than a map or hud. This prompt may have been part of the changes. He hit accept and his fellow party members gained small colored circles above their heads which represented their class.

Well I guess my add on progarms are still in effect. Rico had a friend who specialized in breaking code and occasionally re-writing it, which was a nice way of saying, he was a hacker. Rico had to assume that the more complex macros he had emplaced were not compatible with the new abilities and skills of this expansion. However, the more simple ones appeared to be functioning.

With more and more functions of the game being revealed Rico was beginning to think that he might be better off than he first had thought.

Perhaps I was too quick to judge the others. he thought. If the interface is in tact then it stands to reason that in a fight the games mechanics would kick in and everyone would have their special abilities. Physical prowess should not be an issue, he just needed to make sure they all stayed alive until they could level and become better equipped Rico smiled, confidence returning to his face.

Xen smiled slightly as he saw the message pop up. then responding to Kuwan's question, "I checked the friend status menu as soon as I logged on, but they are mostly based abroad and have to transfer their characters to this server. Since the game lists friends on a different server as offline I can only hope they are safe. One of my friends is listed as 'Away' though. If she was actually logged on and not just AFK then she has to be around here somewhere. Or, out living it up she is rarely fazed by things that would cause normal people to freak."

He clicked the accept button quickly before someone could stop him. At least he wouldn't be bored for the time being. They could use another damage dealer though if they were going to party for the time being. Then, he saw Lars swooping round a corner. he might just fit the bill. Quickly he began waving "Hey Lars, Over here!" he waved. "Hey do you guys mind letting him join? I owe him because he helped me down from the ruins where I spawned in. I kind of owe him for the help." It was a bald faced lie though it might make things fun.

Quickly he sent everyone follow up friend requests before closing his menus. "So Kuwan, what were you thinking of doing? There is no telling what we might find out in the wilderness. Though gathering information here might be difficult till things calm down a bit. "

"Is it...even possible to be 'AFK' in this environment. I mean, there's no separation from the avatar anymore. How can you be away?" This was somewhat rhetorical, as Kuwan was simply voicing his confusion. He shook himself of that train of thought, "In any case, none of your friends are available, and most aren't even on this server. Considering the fairy gates are down, that means we may not be able to meet them. so we'll delay that idea of meeting up with them for now." He pondered a moment how to best get more information about what had happened, and why they were here.

That reverie was broken by the friend notification he received from Xen, which he calmly accepted. Right as he was about to recommend what they do next, Xen pointed out a passing cat folk, one that seemed oddly familiar. Doing so made it apparent that most of that random crowd that'd been following him had dispersed, though a couple stragglers remained. Is it strange I'm relieved? Kuwan thought to himself.

"Ah, sure, if he accepts, he's welcome to join in." Following this statement, Kuwan quickly sent an invite to the familiar stranger. He took this opportunity to look at the classes the group composition. A druid, a guardian, an assassin, a summoner and a swashbuckler. Amazingly there wasn't even a single repeat class. Kuwan whistled in appreciation, though some of the group was probably a bit confused with why he did so.

"As for what I plan to do...I'd say it's best to figure out how combat works before actually fighting. As level 1's, we're likely to die if we're not careful, and we still don't know what death entails here. My thoughts, thanks to Rico's suggestion, is that we head to the ruins between the city center and the market we're in right now, and test out our abilities. If worst comes to worst, we can test on each other, and I can heal." It suddenly dawned on him that he was the only healer of their members, which made him sigh slightly. This is going to be a bit of work...

Suddenly, Kuwan's stomach growled, leading to a rather embarrassed look as he scanned his new friends' faces. "Looks like I DO need to eat..." The fox tail said, sheepishly laughing. He popped up and scrolled through his short inventory until he came to the bread he'd gotten early on when he'd first tested the game out. Selecting it, a loaf of bread suddenly popped into his hands, to his surprise, and he was sure everyone else's.

"Well that was...interesting. May as well see how it is." Kuwan stated, leaning in to take a bite. That 'bite' was one of the more disappointing experiences he'd had since entering this world. "Ugh...it tastes like...soggy crackers...bleh." He stuck out his tongue after swallowing. "Well, it's bland, but it does the trick. Can't explore on an empty stomach." He told himself this more than the rest, motivating himself to eat the whole loaf and be sated.

Halfway through the 'meal', Kuwan turned toward the ruins he'd mentioned. "Well, shall we?"

Lars slowly stalked the unsuspecting group, keeping a few corner distance behind them.

He couldn't quite put a finger on it, but for some reason he kept his pursuit. This world made him feel different. His thoughts, his actions, something new drove him to act unlike he normally would. Perhaps the aftershock of being isolated in such a strange world, maybe he had a deep fear of losing his chance of meeting new friends. 

He always figured himself a social outcast in the real world. Being unable to interact properly with people, he normally led an isolated life. With no one to rely on, he found himself drifting toward the virtual world. It was easy to take the mantle of another character, He could be loud, obnoxious, or strong and silent, all behind the safety of his keyboard. No one would be the wiser. But ever since arriving here in this place, maybe he really believed this was still the game world. Perhaps with that thought, he could alter his persona and be something he could never be in real life.

His thoughts were disturbed by a random ping, alerting him of a new notification. Glancing down, he noticed a party invite. Opening the tab, a spreadsheet of characters appeared before him, consisting of the ragtag group he had decided to stalk. Among the throng, he noticed Xenos's name. That sly dog, how did he get so far ahead of him so quickly. He had of course interacted with Lars before this so he imagined it was quite easy for him to present himself to the group and gain acceptance.

A smile spread across his face as he floated his hand above the accept button. With a tap, his name was added to the group. Changing tabs, he swapped out to his inventory screen and equipped the one-handed sword from his starting gear. Instantly materializing near his hip, Lars rested a hand on the hilt as he sped up towards the group. Having to use such a horrendously inferior weapon went against everything Lars stood for. As soon as he could gain some quick cash from mob kills, the faster he'd get something more up his alley. Gazing up in thought, he scratched his furred chin as he contemplated his sub-class. Food Fighter, maybe that explains his sudden obsession with finer quality objects.

Closing the gap between his new associates. He heard the one called Kuwan mention something about moving on. A few more steps would put him in the social perimeter of the new group, a slight edge of nervousness scratched at the back of his throat. Shaking it off he faced the group as he raised an arm in greeting. "Yo", he smiled.

Rico heard someone say "Yo", and he turned around to meet the voice.

"Welcome Lars. Good to have you." Rico said, secretly doing an inspect on Lars' gear and stats.

The party was hastily assembled however there was a very good balance for classes, abilities, and races.

Rico nodded at Kuwan, motioning that we should continue.

As they all reached the edge of the ruins Rico scanned the area, searching for threats or possible targets for practice. He pulled his dagger from its sheath, he found it to be unbalanced and slightly dull. The tip however was pointy and it was something he could use if he were in the real world to take someones life. He suddenly had a nervous tingle up his spine, would he retain his real life strength and skill or would the game world hold him back?

The time for doubts was over, now was the moment for action. Rico was ready, he flipped his dagger downward and pressed it against his forearm, concealing it from anyone except those directly behind him. When it was time for him to strike he would live up to his class, he picked assassin for a reason, it was familiar.

He began to get into the zone, taking a stance which could easily allow him to strike or defend. His countenance was serious, eyes slightly squinted as he scanned.

"Ready or not, here we come." He said under his breath. It was a phrase often used by his father. No matter how much you dislike someone you can still absorb habits if you are around them enough.

As the conversation went on, Aria had to admit that she was completely lost in whatever in the world they were talking about. As the saying goes, "it's all Greek to me", and to Aria she didn't understand half the things her companions had been saying. She knew she had to learn quickly, if only to keep up with the people around her. This was her first time playing any serious video game, and she couldn't help but feel lacking in that department.

Words like A. F. K.? What does that stand for? What are fairy gates? Abilities? Healing? They mean with bandages right? Weren't all these people American? This is the North American server. Did everyone who play this game talked like them, or was it an American thing?

She continued listening, but couldn't bring herself to ask any questions. The conversation was at a whole different level. However, everything was confirmed a moment later when a voice behind them spoke a single word: "yo".

Yup, must be an American thing.

It didn't do her any good that she was tired and exhausted either. By her estimate it was already midnight or even past midnight. At least where she lived in the UK. All the recent events and being trapped in this game world kept her adrenaline high, and it was easy to ignore the pangs of hunger and weariness that was slowly becoming more and more pronounced as she started to daze off from the conversation her party members were having.

Then Kuwan pulled out a load of bread. The fox-person had said something then, though Aria was far too fatigued to pay attention. She only watched as that fox person took a bite after bite from the bread. Each of Kuwan's bite chomped down on the morsel as Aria slowly and unintentionally smacked her lips together. Aria had been staring intently, and as the loaf of bread became smaller and smaller, it felt as if each bite had been a mocking blow.

Moments later, there was a loud rumbling, deep and foreboding. It was a sound that could have only come from one place:

Thor's stomach.

Kuwan patted his stomach upon arriving. It may not have tasted good, but the bread certainly hit the spot. The destination they'd arrive at? Some ruins off the beaten path between the city center and the markets. Considering there were "For Sale" signs throughout the area, he assumed it was simply unowned land, perfect for testing abilities. Nodding to himself in approval, he turned back to the group. Rico seemed prepared to try something, which meant that this location would work. But as he scanned the group, he picked out one thing. Their faces displayed upset expressions. He wondered why, until his eyes rested on Hemmingsworth's person.

Is that...drool...? Oh. Oh geez. Don't tell me...

"None of you have eaten since you got here...?" The growls from a few of them, loudest being Hemmingsworth, confirmed that. "Why didn't you say anything!? Well, I don't have much to share...who else did some of the starter quests, or otherwise have food to share, before we became like this? While the hungry eat, those that aren't can test some skills." With that, Kuwan scrolls through his inventory and takes out another loaf of bread, breaking it in half and handing one half to the obviously-most-hungry, Sir Hemmingsworth. "Remember it tastes...well, it doesn't have a taste. But it'll get rid of hunger. Anyone else want the other half?"

Xen was oblivious until he heard Hemmingsworth?s stomach growling. He was used to staying up all night playing games eating mostly nothing and drinking water. Since he had just started up the game right before he had logged on he made sure to have a rather large meal. If he had to take a long enough break to eat, or if he dared eat while at the keyboard Lorelei would have crucified him for it. They had all built their computers from scratch at her instruction if they did anything to break them.

He visibly shuttered at the thought.

?I?ll be fine for a while. Though if we due need to eat for the time being I remember my friends telling me about the instant food crafting menu that anyone can use regardless of class. If you go to the crafting menu and have some basic ingredients there should be a basic list. Though I cannot guarantee the taste. He shrugged as he kept looking down into the entrance of the ruins.

?You sure you want to do this guys? From what I remember about battle in this game from what I watched battle works with a semi turn based system that uses skill cooldowns. While not all that uncommon for MMO?s we don?t know how monsters will react now that we are in the game. Plus, from the quick glance through the systems menus it looks like we might have to have our systems menu open the entire time and click on the skill we want to use for it to activate.?

Though to be totally honest with himself when he saw that singular summon that his friends had gifted him for joining it took all his will power not to press the button there and then.

?So how do we want to go about this??

Xen: "So how do we want to go about this?"


"I would prefer to eat some meat, can we kill an animal then eat that?" Rico asked.

"If there are some nearby they may be a good trial for our combat abilities."

Rico knew there was no way to avoid coming across a combat situation and it would be better if they encountered it on their own terms. If they initiate the combat it is much more likely they would be able to strike first.

Better to not fall upon a random encounter unprepared.

"We can't put it off.. We should just get it over with." Rico quipped.

Even Kuwan almost drools at the mention of meat. "Ohh now THAT would be good. At this point even a critter-level creature would do for something." But then he quickly snapped out of his meat-induced trance. "But if we run across a beast, we'll have to fight. And mobs in this game never seemed to travel solo from what I saw. I just really hope whatever's nearby isn't too high a level for us. Either way, for now, let's get some ingredients if possible."

Kuwan begins to wander down toward the cavernous entrance to the ruins, "These ruins are fairly grassy, so we may be able to find some rabbits, or even boar. Let's just hope there are no smiles or the like here JUST yet." The fox laughed nervously, then peered through the cavern opening into the ruins. He honestly hadn't expected there to be a zone within the city limits. The fact that there was unnerved him a little bit, as cities were supposed to be safe areas. He takes his crude, beginner staff from where it's fastened behind him, then turns to face everyone.

"Someone else is going to have to lead, I have no offensive power yet nor defense, as a healer. As there's no longer an action bar, I guess I'll have to keep my skill menu open so I can immediately cast whenever you're in trouble. I'll make sure you don't die!" He says confidently.

Why did I have to pick a group-dependent class? He thought to himself, sighing internally, disappointed he couldn't move as he pleased as he was.

When the fox person had offered the food, Aria's hunger seemed to increase tenfold. She looked casually at the other people, but they didn't seem so interested, at least from how they were acting. Sir Hemsworth bit his lip, a strangely uncharacteristic gesture from such a large 'man'. The others had been talking about fighting things, and this was supposed to be a game after all, but she couldn't quite focus on that, too focused was she on her hunger and the loaf that Kuwan had with him.

"Before we do anything Kuwan. That bread."

Her eyes were pleading, and it was easy to tell what she wanted.

Xen threw her a piece of bread from his own inventory. Looking at the size of the Guardian she would most likely be eating four times everyone else to keep up with her size. Walking over to Hemmingsworth he grabbed her hand gently, "Here let me help you. Starter players start with five rations when they join in the game I'll show you how to access your inventory." Even though her status screen was invisble to everyone but her he used his own inventory as a reference to guide her through the process. He first showed her her basic inventory and food systems menus. Then he quickly showed her the status symbol overlays, and how to equip and unequip her gear.

The last part had required a little more fast learning on his part, but they eventually both got there. The final thing he showed her was her skills menu if they were going to fight monsters she would have to know those basics. He could not tell her when to use them however he was going to be winging fights on his own.

With the quick lesson done he smiled, "I'm sure it's alot to learn if you have not played online before but we have your back so just try your best and it will work out. If you forget something after this just ask me and I'll make sure to write it down for you next time." he began walking back to the ledge by the cave then turned. "Oh and if you end up still being hungry after you eat just say something. I don't eat much in general so I always have spares. If you end up getting hungry and losing focus in battle there is no telling what could happen. We support you and you keep the monsters off the weaker members. You have to keep yourself at your strongest at all times or we'll all end up dead remember that." With that he returned to looking through his own menus trying his best to memorize the layout.

Kuwan watched as Xen led Hemmingsworth through the ropes, leading him to realize something astonishing. "Wait...Hemmingsworth...you've never played an MMO at all?" it dawned on him slowly, but made quite an impact. It explained why they rarely offered any sort of technical opinion about the game, but why didn't they SAY they needed help understanding? Kuwan though to himself. He did his best to avoid a facepalm and a sigh as he watched the extremely built 'man' munch on the soggy-cracker bread with gusto.

"That means you barely understood what we've been saying..." This last realization left Kuwan somewhat speechless. All the game terminology that was used just went straight over Hemmingsworth's head, and they didn't ask a single question for clarification. Kuwan was slowly starting to lose hope in being able to deal with this one. A newbie is fine, but one that doesn't try to learn is...well, not easy to deal with.

This time, Kuwan DID sigh. He left the 'giant' to Xen while he began searching for some form of beast to fight. It was looking like they'd need to enter the cave to find anything.

Lars chuckled a bit as he observed Xen walking Hemmingsworth through the ins and outs of the game. He subconsciously walked a short distance from the group, probably his habit of never getting too close to people he didn't know.

Turning around, he tried to keep his eyes out for anything unsuspecting he could poke. The safe zone limits of the city seemed to be quite extensive, so he wasn't sure how far they would have to walk before they saw any sort of wildlife. A sudden jerk of his ears gave him a shock as his attention was drawn toward a lonely Kuwan staring off at a cave. Stepping farther toward the entrance, he leaned over and tried to peer deeper into the cave. "Hmm....wonder if anything could be hiding in there...." he said aloud.

Grasping his sword hilt, he drew it out a few inches, testing the condition of the blade. He grimaced as he looked upon his horrible possession. Lv 1, no good stats, starting weapon. Even touching it, Lars felt uncomfortable and wanted to throw it down the deepest hole he could find. He knew he'd have to tough it out though, new blades aren't cheap, especially the nice ones, after all, one should go after the finer things in life. Refraining from touching the blade for any longer than he had to, he snapped it closed with a finger, shaking his hand slightly as if to knock loose any sort of bad luck it could bring him. Without waiting for anyone, Lars broke from his pose and began venturing into the cave.

She had eaten the bead with much gusto. The first bite, had her nearly gagging, and she had almost spat it back out. But the stares of her newly found companions would have been too much so she had forced herself to swallow. Eventually the bland taste of the food started to become a bit more bearable, and she couldn't help that she was already starving.

When Xen began attempting to teach her how to use the inventory, Aria simply nodded as he guided her to the various options on the screen. She kept glancing his way however, more curious about this tattooed person called Xen. She didn't really care so much about tattoos, but she found him intriguing at least. There were guys back at home who would make slight moves or suggestions, but this was certainly the first time willingly held her hand - gently too, even though it was for simply learning a game. She may have blushed in another time, but with the events that had transpired, and the fact she was uncomfortable with the lack of food, and rest, she had so much more things to deal with.

"Thank you Xen..."

"Wait...Hemmingsworth...you've never played an MMO at all?" Kuwan asked. Aria stared back, unsure what to say. Was she caught? She didn't want to be called stupid or strange if she admitted she didn't know, nor did she want to be the outsider of the group. These people were the only ones she knew, excpt perhaps her friend who had invited her to the game, and though she had felt guilty about it, she nodded.

"N-no... It's just that... It's just that this game is a lot different than other games I played. And we're living in it now or something right? It's just confusing!" She responded hastily.

That wasn't really lying... This game is a lot different than anything I've ever done. She thought to herself, justifying her words.

"Huh...well if you're not new, you're not new. Doesn't really matter, just wanted to make sure all this wasn't going over your head." Kuwan had turned to look back from the cave entrance, "Survival counts on understanding, after all. Looks like someone's got that covered, already." He was of course referring to Xen. With a smile, Kuwan turned back around, "I'm going to follow after Lars, can leave a DPS without a healer or tank at this point!"

Kuwan rushes on ahead into the darkness, catching up to the Swashbuckler. He was truly surprised by the detail of this world, he could even feel the dank humidity of the cave, and hear the dripping of condensation along the walls. Fantasy had turned to reality, and after spending a day or so in this world he had mixed feelings about it. Realizing it was getting quite dark, Kuwan dug through his menu and used 'Magic Light', causing the end of his staff to glow like a torch. After a short while, Kuwan speaks up, "So what do you think of this situation so far, Lars? Scared, homesick...or excited?" Kuwan gave him a curious look. He had no idea what this person was like, so he figured this question was a good way to gauge that. Plus, it went along with his ow n thoughts; he could use a second opinion on it.

It took Lars a second to realize that Kuwan was talking to him. Lost in thought and not used to being referred by his username, Lars was caught a little off guard.

"So what do you think of this situation so far, Lars? Scared, homesick...or excited?" Kuwan shot at him.

Lars pondered at the question. How did he feel about the situation. Being ripped from the world he knew and placed in what seemed to be a physical manifestation of a game he got on sale. Curse your holiday sales, he thought to himself. His mind began to wonder as he walked. I wonder if I can get back to catch a few more games on sale.

His mind continued to reel until a noise drew is attention to their virtual reality. OH, right....Kuwan...

"Well...." he began, tapping his chin as he thought to himself. "This is still a game isn't it?" Tapping in the air, he pulled up his in-game HUD to clarify. "Characters we created, skill list, exp, what seems to be a small girl trapped in a giant's body...." he went on, trying to focus his thoughts. "I guess you could say interested," he went on. "How did we end up here, and what does that leave the world we left behind? And if this is a game, I plan on enjoying every second of it" 

He gave a slight smile in Kuwan's direction, hoping to pass by his interrogating question. Casting his gaze forward, he closed all player HUD's and gave a brief sigh. "Don't you think it's odd that we haven't run into some form of creature yet?" he offered, hoping to change the topic of the conversation.

Kuwan nodded along with what Lars was saying, Finally someone who ISN'T beside themselves. This is a fantastic change of pace. Oh, wait, I guess it really was only Hemmingsworth. Even Rico steadied himself quickly. Kuwan breathed a sigh of relief at the change of company. Though still a little on edge, he finally got a little bit of the peace he was hoping for earlier.

"Yea, as far as I can tell, this is still a game, but at the same time, it's quite real. And hopefully we can answer those questions and get some peace of mind. BUT!" Kuwan emphasizes. "Since we can't answer those questions now, I'm not gonna bother thinking about them. Instead, I want to know what we're able to do. Considering we have a skills list, it seems we may be super-human now. Oh, not that that wasn't the case already, considering our bodies. Kuwan noted that both Lars and himself were already a bit animalistic. "But similar to this magic light spell working, I think we can actually do everything we could in the game. But what I REALLY want to know is if we can do more. I mean, we're fully in control of our avatar's movements now."

Kuwan stopped his semi-monologue when Lars brought up the lack of creatures. "It is pretty strange...maybe they're just empty ruin after all?" However, right as he said that, grunts could be heard deeper into the ruins.
__________________________________________________________________________________

Right as they peered into the darkness to investigate, a pair of boar came rushing out, their heads lowered in a charge, aiming to gore you. Having been somewhat alert, you manage to dodge their first charge, but you're not sure how long you can keep that up. However, the hope for meat is before you, and you're not about to let that chance slip away!

[spoiler]Damage taken
Boar 1: 0
Boar 2: 0
Lars: 0
Kuwan: 0
[/spoiler]

When part of the group moved on, Aria followed behind.

When the boars had appeared, Aria had her skills menu open. Most of the words didn't make any sense, but she realized they must have been some sort of abilities, kind of like special attacks you see in those Marvel movies. Aria ha a momentary relapse of drooling when she imagined Thor bashing away boars and sending them flying as if they were nothing, but she quickly shook herself from the reverie as the immediate danger was upon them. She had barely gotten out of the way from the first assault, and she frantically started scanning her skills and abilities list.

So many options. Battle Master? Decoy Action? A-ahh... As she continued to fiddle with the controls, more and more menus appeared. Attack? Attack.. Where is that!

[spoiler]SO, I'd forgotten that I meant to do an example post of combat (to my knowledge, correct me if I'm wrong on anything, Mystic), then left town for a couple days. Kind of left everyone hanging XD sorry.

Also, a reminder to fill out what you can in your google character sheets in your character post. If you have any questions, feel free to private message me about them :)

NOW THEN, time to get to work.[/spoiler]

"Uwah-oof!" Kuwan managed to jump to the side in his surprise, but did a light shoulder-check to the wall. There was a soreness, but no actual damage was taken. Well, I guess pain can be felt. It's becoming less and less of a game... After patting his shoulder, he turned his attention back to the boars. They'd both charged past, and were now standing between Hemmingsworth, Lars and himself. Of course, he'd wished that one of the more healthy members of the group attacked first, but could see the chaos of not knowing how to engage.

As a druid, me knew he had a ranged blast he could do with his staff, but had no idea how to activate it. So he just stuck is staff in the boars' general direction, scrolled through his menu and hit magic attack. Immediately, a glowing orb-like projectile of green light shot out toward the creatures.

[spoiler=An explanation/How to approach this game system]Ok, so now for a small explanation of combat. All basic rolls are 2d6+(some bonus). An auto attack is 2d6+(Hack and slash) for melee and +(Volley) for ranged. For now, mage basic attacks will be 2d6+(Your caster ability modifier) until I figure out a name for it. On a 10+ you hit your target. On a 7-9 you hit, but are also exposed to a counter-attack. 6- you miss and something bad happens (enemy attack, dropped weapon, etc.)

This system is very reactionary and story-driven, where creatures only really hit back if you don't hit them flawlessly. This is because characters in this system are treated like a group of action TV show protagonists. The focus is the players and the story, not the enemies, just like the camera is mostly focused on showing the protagonists and the plot more than how the bad guys are fighting back. So think of the group of enemies as just that, a group threat. Their damage isn't dealt individually, but in one, flowing instance, using the highest damage die among the group +1 damage per additional creature assisting that attack.

For instance, these boars do their damage die +1 because there are two boars. however, were they to split up and attack separate targets, each would do just their damage die to their respective target. Once again, please ask questions, as this is a much different system than most. Not difficult once you have the perspective, but quite different.

Also, a note. This system is fairly lethal if you're not a tank. If possible, don't go for a fair fight. Make traps and ambushes to kite enemies into, so on, so forth. If anything, you're gonna be planning out situations similarly to how you'd have a strategy for a raid in MMO's. Damage can be taken at any moment's failure.

I do have to apologize, though. I'm still not sure how to make armor and attack power scale in this system, so information on how game stats work is still pretty lacking. Working on it ^_^[/spoiler]

[spoiler=My combat rolls]
[blockquote]Attack (To be named):  2d6+3 : 4, 1 + 3, total 8[/blockquote]
[blockquote]Damage if hit:  1d6 : 6, total 6[/blockquote][/spoiler]

Games are so complicated these days! Aria was almost frantic, there were too many options for her, and though Xen had told her how to open the skills list, she had no idea what was what. There were boars going at them, and she hardly had the time to go through each of the options one-by-one. So Aria did the unthinkable.

"Something's gotta work!" With that she began randomly pressing all the skills and buttons.

[spoiler]
+3 modifier for Hack and Slash
(http://forums.fantasyworldcreations.com/Themes/envision2013_smf20_rev3/images/dice_warn.gif) This dice roll has been tampered with!
Rolled 2d6+3 : 3, 3 + 3, total 9
[/spoiler]

[spoiler]/roll 2d6[/spoiler]

Rico simply used his dagger to strike the Boar, not trying to get TOO fancy yet.

Xen stood in the back with his grimoire open in his hand and his menu open infront of him. Pressing the buttons as fast as he could he shouted

[spoiler]roll to summon
Taking gm choosing something bad to happen
(http://forums.fantasyworldcreations.com/Themes/envision2013_smf20_rev3/images/dice_warn.gif) This dice roll has been tampered with!
Rolled 2d6+1 : 4, 3 + 1, total 8[/spoiler]

"Summon servant: SNOWMAN!" At the top of his lungs. Within seconds the pages of his book began glowing the only pages with symbols shining a white. The air suddenly grew colder around Xen, cold enough to see his breath. Power like he had never felt before coursed through his body in that moment. It felt bubbly, like soda was coursing through his veins and into the book. The only thing that could fill his mind in that moment was. This must be how real magic feels.

And out from the sky materialized a giant snowman right in front of the boars. The thing was as large as a basket ball player and wore a upturned bucket for a hat.

It was all Xen could do not to start  laughing. He had called something into existence! Something adorable to boot! As the snowman tried to look menacingly at the boors he could not help but smile at the absurdity of the thing. Apparently it's cute but pudgy appearance kept most people from choosing the low level servant.

But seeing his guardian face to coal eyed face he knew he had made the right choice.

"Kaiser Ice breath!" He commanded as the two boars got covered in a cone of cold
[spoiler](http://forums.fantasyworldcreations.com/Themes/envision2013_smf20_rev3/images/dice_warn.gif) This dice roll has been tampered with!
Rolled 1d6+5 : 6 + 5, total 11

5 cold damage to second boar[/spoiler]

As the boars charge past, Kuwan manages to recover himself from dodging against the wall and fires off a blast of magic. Just as he does this, however, the boar that had nearly hit him turned around and rushed back at him. Just as it takes the damage from Kuwan's blast, it gores the fox tail with one of its tusks, throwing him back against the wall once more.

It is at this point that Sir Hemmingsworth enters the range of the combat. Unbeknownst to the them, guardians gain a small bit of aggro by entering combat, thus the other boar immediately begins running at them instead of back to Lars. In your flurry or button pressing during this charge, you activate 'Anchor Howl' as setup, further increasing aggro and nullifying a small portion of the damage taken per hit for the round. With the boar right on top of you, you finish your panic by lashing out wildly with your blade, trading blows with the boar. This boar doesn't manage to gore due to the armor, but still manages to get a good hit. You also notice that the boar that had attacked Kuwan is also drawn to you, heading your way.

Then, in a surprise feat of magical aptitude no one had really expected, Xenos calls forth an impressive ice summon. Though simply a large snowman, it lets lose a large blast of ice, which nails both of the boars. Unfortunately, Xenos, in his excitement, got too close to the origin of the blast, and a frigid gust resulting from the summon spell ended up knocking him over. The one before Hemmingsworth collapses and shatters into specks of light, disappearing and dropping a few gold pieces and what looks to be raw boar meat, though you don't know how much. The second boar also takes a solid hit from a gust of ice magic made when the snowman was summoned, but is still standing. From the way the boar died, it's confirmed in your eyes that this really is a game world gone reality.

There's no time to rejoice just yet, however, as the final boar begins to charge.

[spoiler]I rolled the damage for those that didn't. Sir Hemmingsworth rolls 1d10, got an 8. Were Rico or Lars to roll, they would roll 1d8. Xenos and Kuwan roll 1d6 for damage.

Damage Taken:
Boar 1: Dead, dropped 5 gold and raw boar meat.
Boar 2: 11
Kuwan: 3
Lars: 0
Rico: 0
Xenos: 0
Sir Hemmingsworth: 2 - 1 (Anchor Howl) = 1

Hate (Aggro):
Sir Hemmingsworth: 2

Status:
Xenos: Summon Servant: Snowman, Prone

Anchor Howl's effect expires.[/spoiler]

I did something! No idea what though, but it was still something! Aria said excitedly. She swore, right after this battle and a good night's rest, she's going to sit down and look through that skills menu Xen had showed her earlier. It was almost exhilarating, seeing wild boars in real life, Aria would have simply fled the other direction, but in body of Thor, Aria couldn't help but feel almost invincible.

"Okay... take this then!" Gripping her hammer, she pushed another few sets of buttons.

[spoiler]
+3 modifier for Hack and Slash
(http://forums.fantasyworldcreations.com/Themes/envision2013_smf20_rev3/images/dice_warn.gif) This dice roll has been tampered with!
Rolled 2d6+3 : 3, 5 + 3, total 11
Damage included this time:
(http://forums.fantasyworldcreations.com/Themes/envision2013_smf20_rev3/images/dice_warn.gif) This dice roll has been tampered with!
Rolled 1d10 : 10, total 10
[/spoiler]

'Beginning' to charge is all the final boar managed as Hemmingsworth's hammer slammed down straight between its eyes as soon as the creature drew close. The force of the blow caused the creature to stop dead in its tracks, quite literally, and plunge into the rock and dirt beneath it. There was no movement to collect itself, obviously overkilled. The strike had come as a surprise to anyone watching, as the ferocious excitement displayed by the guardian was a near-polar opposite to the timidity shown before. It was clear the thrill of combat had reached them.

The boar soon shattered into red, digital shards like the one before it, also ending up as a pile of raw boar meat and some gold coins.

The end-of-combat loot menus popped in front of the battle's participants.

Sir Hemmingsworth and Xenos see:

QuoteVICTORY!
Earned
3 gold
1 Raw Boar Meat

Kuwan sees:

QuoteVICTORY!
Earned
4 gold

Kuwan had just been preparing to cast his Heartbeat Healing spell on Hemmingsworth when he saw the hammer brought down hard. Eesh...that'd even knock me silly. Where'd that confidence come from!? Seeing that the guardian was just fine as is, the fox tail decided to instead focus on healing himself. Pointing his staff upward, he hit the command for the skill and brought forth a green light to cloak himself. After a short moment, his missing three health points were quickly healed.

"...Hmm, not bad." He muttered at himself, surprised by the heal's effectiveness. It was a regeneration spell, so it was not instant, but recovered a small amount every second or so. It seemed to take effect after a slight delay, but would recover 10 health with his current skill. Though he noticed it stopped as soon as he stopped focusing on it, meaning he could only effect one target at a time. Kuwan made sure to note this to himself for later.

"Anyways, not that that surprise is gone...what was that ability from before, Hemmingsworth? It drew the enemy's attention to you, which is pretty useful. You'll want to use that later." While speaking, he accepted the loot window before him. "So what did everyone get as loot?"

Xen took the moment to stand up then as smoothly as he could manage. His new height was going to pose a real problem if a simple gust of wind could knock him over. If Hemmingsworth had not been there. He might very well been the first to test the limits of this world. Pulling his cowl over his head to hide his embarrassment he tried to just make it look like he was shacking off frost.

But regardless of any embaressment he felt. Inside he was bubbling with joy he had performed actual magic. MAGIC! Casting his spells and seeing something physical manifest! It was in that moment that it finally sunk in that they were no longer in their reality.

The ritualist  took the moment to accept his victory spoils feeling the purse at his hip get heavier. Checking his inventory he also saw that he was now in position of some boar meat. It was apparently classified as an "ingredient" grade consumable item.

"I got a few coins and a crafting item." He was guessing based of off the ingredient tag but it made the most sense.

Hemsworth. Aria thought to herself.

To be perfectly honest, Aria was still finding it strange that she was being called by her idol's name. Though one quick look down, reminded her well enough that this was still some sort of fantastic world. Aria had slightly blushed, Hemsworth did have quite a package...

No! Musn't think that! She stayed completely still, but to the onlooker, they would have realized Sir Hemsworth's face turn red slightly. She shook her head though as she noticed her movements felt sluggish.

The adrenaline from the fight was dissipating fast, and though the fight breathed in a new sort of rush, the weariness from the day, as well as hunger was beginning to creep on her. Aria had enough sense to respond back to Kuwan however, as she stared at the notification telling her she earned new items.

"One of the buttons... I think." Aria said as she yawned, answering Kuwan's first question on what 'ability' she had used. "Or something. Anyways I got the same stuff as Xen. Meat?"

Aria was hungry, but more than that she was tired.

"I don't suppose anyone knows a place to sleep? Like a hotel? I'm not sure about the rest of you, but I'm pretty tired of just gallivanting around... I'm pretty zonked out." She said, her tone of voice tired more than anything else.

Lars stood idly toward the back as he slid his weapons back into their holsters. The battle was over as soon as it had begun. Being caught off guard by the sudden realization of boars, he hadn't noticed the other party members approach from behind. Instantly the cave was full of adventurers throwing their weapons at the poor beasts, not to mention a freak blizzard that he would much rather avoid. The sudden snowman left him mostly confused. Had that really come from the spry little man Lars had met only recently. No matter the fact of giant men swinging hammers or killer snowmen, Lars' hand stayed when it came to rising up and attacking the invaders.

When it came to crunch time, Lars had failed. Slightly embarrassed and a little awkward, he couldn't believe he was shown up by an odd looking snowman. Giving a sigh of defeat, he was slightly saddened by the loss of opportunity to try out a few attacks. . 

Kuwan takes a moment to change targets from himself to Hemmingsworth, healing them back to top health. Admittedly, they were not missing much in the first place, but may as well take the time to bring everyone to their best condition. To see the glow surround another was a bit more eye opening. This wasn't some in-born ability, and he wasn't simply a "fox tail" now, but legitimately using some form of magic. HEALING magic. The most miraculous form of fantasy. It was...exhilarating.

"A hotel, huh..." Kuwan responded off-hand, breaking from his reverie of fantasy magic. "I didn't see an inn back in town, but I'm sure there is one. I have to agree, though, the day has been tiring. I'm ready to find a bed. Also, it'd be great to get that meat cooked!" He says eagerly, mounting his staff back behind him and beginning to head out of the cave.

____________________________________________________________________________________

About half way back out of the cave, strange noises were occasionally sounding from the walls and ceiling around you. It was a strange bubbling noise that left all in the group slightly unsettled. The source of the sound was soon discovered, however, as strange, green blobs began to ooze out of the crevices in the walls and fall from the stalactites above. There were 5 in all, 3 toward the exit, and 2 behind the group, completely surrounding you all. Their tags listed them as [Mob] and [Green Slime], and their health seemed around the same as the boars. Any other qualities, if any, remained unknown.

[spoiler]Damage Taken
Hemmingsworth: 0
Lars: 0
Xenos: 0
Kuwan: 0
Rico: 0

Slime 1: 0
Slime 2: 0
Slime 3: 0
Slime 4: 0
Slime 5: 0

Hate

Status[/spoiler]

Xen focused his attention to the two slimes in the back with this enclosed space his snowman might fair extremely well. Attempting to pull forth the power he had felt before he attempts to make an attack.Feeling that icy sensation coursing through his veins he felt the energy leave his body hopefully to some result

Summon Snowman!

Kaiser Beam
[spoiler][blockquote]Rolled 2d6+1 : 6, 2 + 1, total 9[/blockquote]

Damage
[blockquote]Rolled 1d6+5 : 5 + 5, total 10[/blockquote]

Second enemy takes 5 damage[/spoiler]

"Not again." Aria sighed. She picked up her weapon again, and this time took better care of using her specific skills. 'Anchor Howl', it sounded decent.

"Bugger off you slimey things!" Aria said as she stared at the 'Anchor Howl' skill. She clicked on it.

[spoiler](http://forums.fantasyworldcreations.com/Themes/envision2013_smf20_rev3/images/dice_warn.gif) This dice roll has been tampered with!
Rolled 2d6+3 : 6, 5 + 3, total 14
(http://forums.fantasyworldcreations.com/Themes/envision2013_smf20_rev3/images/dice_warn.gif) This dice roll has been tampered with!
Rolled 1d10 : 7, total 7[/spoiler]

Kuwan
Knowing that Hemsworth would be the focus once more, Kuwan stands down until after the fight has begun. As a healer, his job was making sure no one died. Instead, he waits until after combat starts and fires a magic blast at one of the slimes Xenos had blasted.

[spoiler](http://forums.fantasyworldcreations.com/Themes/envision2013_smf20_rev3/images/dice_warn.gif) This dice roll has been tampered with!
Attack:  2d6+3 : 5, 1 + 3, total 9
(http://forums.fantasyworldcreations.com/Themes/envision2013_smf20_rev3/images/dice_warn.gif) This dice roll has been tampered with!
Damage:  1d6 : 6, total 6[/spoiler]

Hemsworth
At the activation of your skill, your shout ends up echoing and reverberating through the tunnel. The slimes seem to focus exclusively on you, jumping into action. You see that a status has appeared on your enemies, and a corresponding buff has appeared on yourself. 'Taunt' and 'Cancel: 1' respectively. The slimes rush past the group to aim directly for you in retaliation.

[info]Taunt: For the entire round, negates any attacks on allies nearby by redirecting them to yourself.

Cancel: Negates an amount of damage per enemy striking you for the round. (In this case, it canceled the group damage bonus)

As you were top for threat, you would have also healed 5HP. But HP was full.

You deal 7 damage to a slime.[/info]

[error]Hemsworth takes 3 Damage.[/error]

QuoteSo, I know you rolled a 14, and thus should not take damage. But I'm ruling that having Hate Top (highest threat) negates 10+ rolls for damage.

Also, as this ability seems OP to spam, I'm going to introduce a 3 round cooldown.

Xenos

Your snowman hits its mark, blasting the two smiles that were began running past you toward Hemsworth. You then see a blast from Kuwan broadside the one you focused, which causes it to lose form, splattering on the floor beneath it.

[spoiler]Damage Taken
Hemmingsworth: 23/26
Lars: 0
Xenos: 0
Kuwan: 0
Rico: 0

Slime 1: 7
Slime 2: 0
Slime 3: 0
Slime 4: DEAD
Slime 5: 5

Hate
Hemsworth: 2

Status
[/spoiler]

Legato had been exploring, getting used to this world and his new body. He hears a booming shout. It must be Anchor Howl, a battle is going on near by. He wasn't a pro by any means but he had been around Elder Tale for a while before moving servers to play with a co-worker. Then.. It happened, he was stuck in the world. He rushed towards the sound, hoping to help whoever he found.

He made it to the mouth of the cave,. A party of adventurers, under attack by slimes. He drew his lute and began to play. His fingers gracefully stroking the strings, as the sound of music bounced and echoed off of the cave's walls. A smooth voice left his mouth. "May the Etude of the Swift Blade guide your blows." His voice was soft, but carried down into the cave.

[info] Etude of the Swift Blade: Legato gains 1 hate each clean up phase, allies gain +1 to hit checks.[/info]

Xenos smiles at the affect of his snowman on those slimes, "It seems as if your hell has frozen over." he chuckled as he continued to attempt to will his construct of a snowman into attacking more of these monsters. They would be the ones to face his chilly embrace and see just how cold winter cold be. His ally seemed to feel the same way he did as the snowman twirled in place like the cannon of a turret to face a new enemy and the one he had gazed before. With a smirk from Xen the snowman fired bobbing back almost toppling over as it did so and waved its arms in little circles to maintain balance/

It was then that he heard a tune carry its way down the cave allowing him to more easily focus his mind. He felt like a weight had been lifted making the attack that much easier. Turning to look towards the entrance he saw someone new join the fray.

Kaizer Beam
[spoiler]
to hit
(http://forums.fantasyworldcreations.com/Themes/envision2013_smf20_rev3/images/dice_warn.gif) This dice roll has been tampered with!
Rolled 2d6+2 : 6, 5 + 2, total 13
Rolled 1d6+5 : 2 + 5, total 7

5 additional damage on non wounded[/spoiler]

"No, no, no!" Aria yelled frantically as the slimey creatures attacked her all at once. She felt their attacks hit, and to her surprise, it actually hurt. Just a tad bit.

Okay Thor! Don't let those... snot monsters touch you!

Getting back into the action, and pulling her hammer to her, he begun to swing wildy again at the monsters.

"Die you rubbish snot balls!"

Quote(http://forums.fantasyworldcreations.com/Themes/envision2013_smf20_rev3/images/dice_warn.gif) This dice roll has been tampered with!
Rolled 2d6+3 : 5, 1 + 3, total 9
(http://forums.fantasyworldcreations.com/Themes/envision2013_smf20_rev3/images/dice_warn.gif) This dice roll has been tampered with!
Rolled 1d10 : 4, total 4

QuoteHit rolls for the 3 slimes
[blockquote]Rolled 2d6+2 : 2, 1 + 2, total 5[/blockquote]
[blockquote]Rolled 2d6+2 : 2, 6 + 2, total 10[/blockquote]
[blockquote]Rolled 2d6+2 : 3, 4 + 2, total 9[/blockquote]

Lars spun his attention to the three slimes in front of them. Frosty could cover the rear, allowing Lars to attempt to finish this in one fell swoop. Fishing through his ability list real quick, he double checked if that one ability was still around. Much to his joyful surprise, there it was, mindlessly sitting among the few skills he currently possessed.

Prepping the skill, he lanced out his swords and spun into an action pose. He wondered if this would be too flashy.

One foot after the other, he charged his way down the narrow space and brushed his way past Hemsworth, slipping past the swinging hammer. Skill set, the three slimes before Lars were marked as targets. "Party time," he whispered to himself. His blade moved effortlessly through the air, seeking out their targets like they had a mind of their own. With spinning grace, he moved past the slimes, striking each of his unsuspecting targets and flipped after his last strike, landing with a crouch, his back to the slimes. "I was never one much for surprises," he idly spoke.

Skill executed,
End of Act!
3 slimes...dead....

Hmm, no one is in need of much healing right now, I guess I'll strike the injured one. Kuwan thinks to himself, once again charging his staff and flinging a bolt of energy at the nearly-frozen slime. We were outnumbered, but with this setup, it's become an easy encounter. But...who's playing that music? A bard?

[spoiler]
[blockquote]Attack:  2d6+3 : 5, 2 + 3, total 10[/blockquote]
[blockquote]Damage:  1d6 : 3, total 3[/blockquote][/spoiler]

[spoiler]So I was out while chatting with you Mumble, and mis-remembered the End of Act skill. It's only one attack. Because this mistake is on me, I'll make it so it's an auto hit this time. Whoops.[/spoiler]

With the spare assistance from a nearby bard, and Lar's sudden dancing across the battlefield, the fight was nearly complete. Xenos' snowman once again tore through the slime he'd injured last, leaving it unstable, but still intact. The energy then surged past, hitting the slime in front of Hemsworth, which combined with Hemsworth second hit, finished it off with a 'splat'. Lars then lunged forward at the last two remaining in front of them, stylishly dancing past and striking from behind with both his blades. Though seemingly non-effective due to lack of force, the blades seemed to draw the slime apart, ending it in one blow. Kuwan then threw a decisive bolt of energy at the slime before Hemsworth, causing it to collapse to the ground. The slimes, in the mean time, gathered around Hemsworth, but he manages to dodge and defend himself from harm.

And so, two slimes remained.

[spoiler]Actions
A Combination of Hemsworth's hit, Kuwan's blast and Xenos' secondary damage kills Slime 1
Lars dashes in and one-shots Slime 2
Slime 5 takes 7 damage.

Two slimes remain, one in front untouched, and one in back wounded. Both are flanking Hemsworth.

Damage Taken
Hemmingsworth: 23/26
Lars: 0
Xenos: 0
Kuwan: 0
Rico: 0

Slime 1: DEAD
Slime 2: DEAD
Slime 3: 0
Slime 4: DEAD
Slime 5: 12

Hate
Hemsworth: 2
Lars: 1
Legato: 1

Status
2 rounds until Anchor howl can be reused.[/spoiler]

The Bard examined the scene a bit more closely, as those around him sprung into action. A summoner, A Guardian, A Druid, and a Swashbuckler. A pretty solid party. He continued to play his Etude, and approached the slime that was closest to him. Legato swung his staff, hoping to strike true and provide some assistance to his fellow adventurers.

[spoiler=rolls]
[Info]Still playing Etude of the Swift Blade, +1 to hit, +1 to hate for Legato each turn.
Legato is swinging at whatever slime is closest to the entrance.[/info]

Swinging my Staff. [blockquote]Rolled 2d6+2 : 4, 3 + 2, total 9[/blockquote]
Damage, if Hit - [blockquote]Rolled 1d8 : 2, total 2[/blockquote]

Sorry if my numbers are off, since I am a noob![/spoiler]

As she swung her hammer over and over, Aria's adrenaline was running high. It was exhilarating, and her movements felt so fluid. Her weariness and hunger from earlier were still around, but she had stopped thinking about them, and indeed watching the slimey snot-buggers fly from her heavy blows was extremely satisfying.

She started giggling.

[blockquote]Rolled 2d6+3 : 4, 3 + 3, total 10[/blockquote]
[blockquote]Rolled 1d10 : 5, total 5[/blockquote]

Xen saw his final opportunity to use his new turret. The Snowman seemed to respond to his orders just as quickly as he moved and shifted to  face the remaining foes. This was his last chance before the encounter was over and then have to go back to town.

Beam
[blockquote]Rolled 2d6+2 : 2, 5 + 2, total 9[/blockquote]

[blockquote]Rolled 1d6+5 : 6 + 5, total 11[/blockquote]

5 damage to a second opponent

Kuwan continues to stand on the backlines, throwing out another bolt of energy from his staff. Low level healing feels just as useless in person as it does from the normal game. He remarks to himself mentally. The bolt sails through the air to strike the slime blocking their exit.

[spoiler][blockquote]Attack:  2d6+3 : 6, 5 + 3, total 14[/blockquote]
[blockquote]Damage:  1d6 : 6, total 6[/blockquote][/spoiler]

[spoiler]Rule: I know it's like I'm winging it, but I'm trying to balance this as we go. In Dungeon World, 7-9 means the player is hit while attacking, and a 6 or less would mean they miss and are hit. As Hate is a thing in combat for this, I'm instead making it that your poor rolls generate extra hate. 7-9 = +1 Hate, 6 or less = +2 Hate.[/spoiler]

The fight was wrapping up now, and the tables had certainly turned in the minute of the combat's duration. The slime in the back flash-frozen and shattered by Xenos' beam attack, with a secondary wave of energy crashing into the last remaining slime. At the same time, the newcomer bard ran up and slashed with his sword. Unfortunately, the strike was a little reckless, and he ended up pulling aggro, leading the slime to lash back, clubbing him in the gut with a section of its body. Before more was done, Hemsworth and Kuwan both attacked, splattering the slime across the floor.

Hemsworth
[info]Victory!
Earned
5 Gold[/info]

Legato
[info]Victory!
Earned
5 Gold[/info]

Xenos
[info]Victory!
Earned
3 Gold
Filthy Mucus [Grey][/info]

Kuwan
[info]Victory!
Earned
3 Gold
Filthy Mucus [Grey}[/info]

Lars
[info]Victory!
Earned
3 Gold
Filthy Mucus [Grey][/info]

[spoiler]Actions
Xenos destroys the back slime, then deals 5 damage to the remaining Slime 2.
Legato deals 2 damage, but takes 3 himself.
Hemsworth and Kuwan execute Slime 2 before the bard can take another hit.

Damage Taken
Hemmingsworth: 23/26
Lars: 0
Xenos: 0
Kuwan: 0
Legato: 18/21

Slime 1: DEAD
Slime 2: DEAD
Slime 3: DEAD
Slime 4: DEAD
Slime 5: DEAD

Hate
Hemsworth: 2
Lars: 1
Legato: 3
Xenos: 1


Status
1 rounds until Anchor howl can be reused.[/spoiler]

QuoteSheets were updated.

The bard saw the popup of earning 5 gold as he approached the fellow adventurers. This group seems interesting, he thought to himself before speaking. He bowed to the group. "Well met, adventurers. You can call me Legato. I was exploring and trying to get used to.. well this. When I heard the sounds of combat and thought I would see what was going on. And well, now I'm here. Hopefully the music helped." He tried his best to be courteous unsure of how the others would react to his sudden presence. He gave them a friendly smile as he sheathed his sword. "Though perhaps it may be better to talk outside?" He took a few steps towards the entrance of the cave, looking back to see what the others were doing.

"Did you see that? Did you see that!" Aria exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear. The strength, the power, the way her movements felt. She felt invincible. This truly must be how Chris Hemsworth feels on a daily basis. Aria couldn't contain her joy. Thor was a literal god! It felt as if she was getting closer to her idol. She blushed at the thought.

"They were flying! Those snot-balls were smashed!" She continued giggling for a short bit and smiling all the while.

She noticed that the newcomer was suggesting that they walk outside and had already been leading the way, so in response Aria had begun walking towards the exit following Legato. And that grin on her face never left.

Kuwan began walking as the newcomer suggested, regenerating the small amount of health lost in the combat as he went. "Legato, is it? Good to meet you. Yes, that was definitely helpful, but be careful when you run in, you seemed to pull aggro at the last moment." Kuwan realized that he was now lecturing a strangers, and laughed sheepishly, "My name is Kuwan. We decided to try to explore a little as well, and figured that our party was solid enough that we could handle some combat. It was a frightening idea at first, since we don't know if we still revive at the cathedral."

Hemsworth's excited outburst was a bit refreshing, what with how timid they had been before. Kuwan smiled, "And that excited one there is Hemsworth. The other two are Xenos and Lars."

[okay]Party fully healed[/okay]

Xen stayed in the back his face half obscured by his hood and the shadow of the cave his many new tattoos and simply raised his hand in confirmation of a greeting as he looked at his menus in more detail, "Call me Xen its easier." He was looking over the new item that he had gained and what it could be used for. He was ready at this point to call it a day if it was this hard to take out what would be considered the most basic of monsters, then things would not be easy in this world.

Though as he looked at the people around him he thought things might be easier if he could keep others at his side especially if he wanted to do more then just survive. If he could keep some of these guys together it might be better then trying to go it alone

Legato smiled warmly at the group. "So we have Sir Hemsworth, Sir Kuwan, Sir Xen, and Sir Lars? Good to meet all of you. Do you have any plans going forward that would require the services of a Bard?" Kuwan did give sound advice, and Legato knew it. "You're right, Sir Kuwan, it would be wise in the future to be a bit more careful about what I'm doing. Since the monsters seem weak here though, it might be the best time for us to learn from our mistakes now, instead of doing it against something truly frightening."

He wondered how this group of adventurers had come together, but considering that he knew nobody else in this world, he hoped that they'd want to stick together.

Aria had listened with passing interest at the banter her other companions were having, and though she actually enjoyed that fighting, she had to admit that the adrenaline was wearing off. She was still excited, that much was true, but she was exhausted as well. She knew she was eight hours ahead, after all, she eventually had to manage her time whenever she wanted to meet up with her friend from the States, and of course she had learned then the exact timezone differences. Normally she wouldn't have bothered.

"Can we find a place to rest for now at least? A hotel or something? There has to be one around here, right?" She remembered then about payment. Luckily she still recalled how to open up her inventory thanks to Xen's help. She looked carefully at the numbers as she waved her hands to open the menus.

"308 gold coins! That sounds like a lot, that should be enough right?" She asked the group, but to no one in particular.

The girl glanced back then, it only dawned on her that they were all guys.

"I'm getting my own room."

Kuwan laughed at the outburst and suggestion. Thanks to that large, manly and muscular body, he kept forgetting that the person before him was, in fact, a girl. "Yes, yes, of course. And that is more than enough; I believe a room is 20 gold at an inn, if memory serves."

From there, Kuwan took out his partial map and began leading the way through the streets, passing stalls, players, non-players and establishments of all sorts. Every bit of new searching, he detailed on his rudimentary map. It was far from perfect, but it did the job, at least for him. Finally, they arrived at one, an inn. It was a classic 2-story building, and seemed well-kept enough. Though if it was anything like the game, where you slept didn't matter. It was certainly true that Kuwan was beginning to feel his fatigue, though.

"So, how are we rooming up? Do we all stay separately, or do we double up to save gold? And we should probably find some food, while we're at it."

The bard followed Kuwan through town, examining the buildings they passed by, making a mental note of any that had seemed like they could be useful in the future. He had been too distracted, and a bit afraid of being alone earlier to look around town too much. "I'll room with however many wish to share to split costs. if that is agreeable with you, Sir Kuwan. It also provides a good chance to talk, learn about each other and perhaps forge some friendships to help get by in this new world. Food also sounds pretty good, I'm sure that the inn has some sort of provisioning. Wait a moment and I'll go inquire with the Inn keeper." With that, Legato went off to the counter to question the innkeep, hoping to find provisions for the group.

Being so close to an Inn, Aria couldn't help but yawn. The journey back to the town had taken more of a toll on her, and Aria was just about ready to head to bed. The mention of food interested Aria, after all, other than the loaf of taste-less bread, she hasn't had anything to eat. However, she stuck with her mantra of not eating after night.

The girl wanted her own room to sleep in, but she figured she'd press the matter later once everyone decided what they wanted to do.

"I'm fine splitting with someone its better to save money anyway." As Xenos thought about it going to sleep may just end this whole nightmare. But he did not want to say it out loud for fear of getting people's hopes up if it worked they did not need to plan for it. As they walked he almost tripped and fell several times. But staying in the back meant that he hoped no one would notice. The difficulty moving just drew more attentiion to his body and that of the others. He wished he could get a mirror to see himself more thoroughly.

As they approached the inn he spoke up again "We probably should let Hemsworth have hi... er her own room, and the rest of us go for one room. It may be a bit tight but it would be best for our wallet. I'm sure they have rooms meant for entire teams considering it would take less code for group rooms versus alot of single rooms." He didn't know if they would be stuck here forever but the more money he had in his pocket the better he would feel if something went wrong.

Legato returned to the group with a tray of food. He hadn't really thought about it, but it made sense. The girl modeled her character after Thor, and was stuck inside this game now. Poor girl. Setting the food down on the table he motioned to the platter. "Feel free to help yourselves, my friends." He sat down and began to eat, starting with some bread. It was simple, but he always enjoyed starting with something light when he was able. After a moment he paused, looking up at Sir Hemsworth. "My apologies for my disregard to what your preferences may have been, but would you prefer to be Lady Hemsworth instead of Sir?" He spoke to Xen next.

"That sounds like a wonderful idea, Sir Xen. Saving some coins here and there is sure to add up." His new found companions might be strangers, but they all seemed to be in the same boat he was. Relatively new to the game, lost, and confused. And trying to make the best of it.

[info]Legato brings back food for everyone, whatever that costs.

As it turned out, a room at the inn was only 10 gold, once the proprietor was asked. And as you'd hoped, they did indeed have 4 person rooms, which were instead 20 gold, thus making it 5 gold a person.

"Well, it looks like we can share a room. However, I vote we all pay 6 gold so that Hemsworth doesn't get cheated out of her money. Does that sound fair?" Kuwan proposed as he began eating the food Legato had bought, nodding to the man in appreciation. However, he suddenly stopped short within the first few bites, making a very displeased expression. "It looks and smells so good, but tastes like...soggy crackers?" Still, food was food, and he continued to eat. Though he took his time doing so, as the flavor was not exactly appetizing.

"I do look forward to sitting down with you all to pool knowledge." He said that, but Kuwan could tell that the bulk of them were tired from wandering today. Not to mention taxed from their sudden 'being trapped in a game' situation.

[info]Legato spends 40 gold (8 per meal) to feed the party.[/info]

Sir Hemsworth or... Lady Hemsworth? Aria couldn't help but blush a furious red as she covered her cheeks imagining what it would be like to actually be Lady Hemsworth. She looked at Legato.

"L-lady Hemsworth is fine." She suggested, the flush of her cheeks never leaving.

When the conversation went onwards talking about the prices of the rooms, Aria had already decided. Having her parents cover all of her living expenses plus plenty of gifts on top of those, and because of the fact she had 308 gold coins, she didn't think it would be too bad to cover the costs herself for her own room.

"Ten gold for a room isn't so bad, right?" Aria asked. "I can cover all of that myself, and I'm already pretty buggered up anyways." She yawned.