Grind 1.1
M-Y-R-I-A-D
[ Welcome back Myriad! Would you like to load your previous character data? ]
I blinked at the pop-up, surprised. I'd heard rumours of something along these lines, but the ones that suggested this always got shot down, for a good reason. If beta testers were given their previous character data back, they'd be unstoppable compared to other players, and, considering that this was a PVP game, having a group of people with such a huge advantage would be disheartening for the other players.
Oh well, they'd probably created some sort of system to prevent that; the creators were literally geniuses. They wouldn't let their game fall apart just because of some stupid oversight like that.
Ignoring the prompt for now, I mentally went over my plans. Emma and I would join the starting island <<Introtius>>, as I'd drilled into her earlier, and from there we'd work out our <<Abilities>>, and how to use them. We'd stick around for a few hours, before exiting the game, whereupon I'd go over to her house for dinner. If the game went well, we'd probably spend the rest of the night playing it as well --making sure to go to bed at a reasonable hour, of course.
The prompt chimed again, presumably trying to attract my attention. I relented and accepted the prompt.
[ Please wait while we retrieve your previous character data], it alerted me. A glow washed over me, growing brighter until it filled my vision with a searing white. All of a sudden, it faded, leaving me in the middle of a crowded, dusty street lined by worn sandstone buildings. My gut plummeted as I recognised this place. I didn't even need to look at the pop-up to know where I was.
[ Welcome to <<Entrada>> ]
I groaned and buried my head in my hands. <<Entrada>> was where I'd chosen to spawn during the Beta phase, and evidently that was included in my 'previous character stats'. Fortunately, I had chosen <<Introtius>> for its close proximity to my old spawn, and by extension to my old online friends, so if Emma had spawned there like planned, it wouldn't be too difficult to meet back up with her. If I remembered correctly, both islands were linked to a third, but that could only be reached after defeating the first boss.
Flicking my right hand down sharply, I opened the game menu and took a quick look at my stats. They were all at their base values, but it looked like my old <<Ability>> had been kept. I wasn't surprised, but it still would have been nice to have kept my old stats, as the prompt had implied I would. I navigated to the skills menu, and equipped a few of the most basic ones. The one-handed dagger skill went on first, followed shortly by sprinting. I checked my inventory and found a set of clothing (already equipped), a pair of basic shoes (also equipped), a weak starter weapon and a small supply of starting gold. Dismissing the menu, I took a look around me. The street was full of new players, most of them either going through their menus or playing with their power.
I looked past them, at the buildings. During the beta, I had picked up some basic weapons and armour at an NPC run store, which had been just over... there. Yup, still here. I pushed through the crowds of excited players to reach the ancient sandstone building. It was just as I remembered it -- the inside was as worn out as the outside, the wooden floor was covered in sand, the shelves were full of rusty, cobweb dusted gear and the owner of the shop couldn't seem to decide whether he wanted to be a skeleton or a zombie. Either way, he looked old enough to be undead.
"Hi," I greeted him, and he looked up. He opened his mouth, and coughed. He shook his head and tried again.
"Huff, sorry miss. What can I do for you?" he wheezed, and a menu opened up in front of me. I scrolled through the available items. Most were far too expensive for my current budget, but down the bottom there were a few pieces of gear I could afford. I selected the <<Cured Leather Curiass>> and <<Cured Leather Greaves>>, but when I went to select a pair of <<Cured Leather Boots>>, I didn't have quite enough gold. I checked out the items I'd already selected, and the man wheezed some sort of thank-you.
"Hi again," I re-initiated the conversation. He went through the exact same series of actions as he had the first time, and as before, a menu opened up in front of me. I selected the "Sell" tab, and dragged my <<Rusty Iron Dagger>> into the box. It gave me only a handful of gold, but it was just enough to let me buy the <<Cured Leather Boots>>. I thanked the NPC, and quickly exited the dreary building, now decked out with my new items.
Equipped and ready to head out, I made a beeline through the streets for the best grinding area for this level. I briefly considered taking on a few of the level 1 quests, but none of them awarded more than a handful of gold and EXP -- not enough to make the wasted time worth it.
While I walked, I started flexing my power, grinning as the familiar emerald gemstone appeared in my cupped hands. Projecting the shape of a dagger in my mind, I triggered the gemstone, and it grew into an almost perfect replica of what I had imagined, only a touch smaller, and missing a cross guard. I clicked my tongue in annoyance at that. It was irritating not having my old stats, but it was something I'd have to adjust to quickly. It wouldn't do to misjudge the amount of charge my gems had in the middle of a boss battle.
The cooldown icon on my HUD flashed, then disappeared, alerting me that my power was ready to be used again. I triggered the gemstone again, this time forming a bracelet around my right wrist. I repeated this while I walked to the edge of town, slowly forming a bracer of sorts on my right arm. Matter created by my power wasn't really that durable, but it was still better than nothing, and it awarded a fraction of EXP every time I used it.
<<Charged Gem Creation>>, how I've missed you!
The seemingly endless array of buildings gave way to a sandstone wall, alerting me that I'd reached the end of the city. Making my way through the gate, I noted the increased number of players as compared to the beta. It occurred to me that although fighting over newly spawned mobs, re-pops, had never been a problem during the beta, that might not be the case now. There was one spot free of relatively undisturbed <<Sand Scavengers>>, and I got to work hacking away at the waves of ugly teddy bear creatures.
---
Were these houses? Or just rocks with holes in them? I honestly couldn't tell. The fact that there were no roads, just grass trodden down by hundreds of players, didn't help either. My power suddenly went off, alerting me as to the entrance to the building, and I swore at the sudden flash. A few people turned and gave me odd looks, but then went back to what they were doing.
I couldn't understand this power! All I could figure out was whenever I focused on something, a flash would appear somewhere on it. For people, it was usually their head, for buildings; their entrance. Taylor would have been able to figure it out, but I was clueless.
Speaking of Taylor, where was she? I couldn't find her anywhere for the life of me. Had her internet gone down? Or maybe she'd had to sort something out before she'd been able to go on. It was frustrating, and I couldn't work out how to logout of this stupid game, so I couldn't even call her to find out what was going on. Maybe if I played for a bit, I might be able to work out how most of this stuff worked.
What was the main thing you did in this game? Fighting, really. I didn't want to fight other players, I'd be crushed like a bug, but even I knew that in games there were always weak slimes that you could fight. I just needed to find out where the slimes were. There were none in the city, presumably because it was what Taylor had called a <<Safe Zone>>, so the logical thing to do would be to go outside the city.
I set off at a light jog, exploring the confusing maze of stone buildings. I felt like the whole city had been created by just dumping a bunch of giant pebbles on the ground and putting holes in them. I was pretty sure there was something like it in real life, but I couldn't remember what it was called. I did have to admit that it certainly did have a nice look to it, but I was struggling to appreciate it when they refused to show me a way out.
After what felt like forever, I finally found the 'buildings' thin out, giving way to an endless field of grass and hills.
Oh, and spiders.
A quick glance at the closest spider, and a cherry-red diamond appeared above it, followed by the back of its neck flashing, courtesy of my power. Were these supposed to be the slimes? If they were, I was going to kill whoever made this game.
Reminding myself that it wasn't real, I drew my dagger and charged. As I got closer, it turned around and fixed its beady red eyes on me. Its black fur bristled, and, with a shriek of bestial fury, it leaped towards me. Completely unprepared, I was knocked onto my back with the spider on top of me and far too close for comfort. It looked even worse up close, particularly with its fangs inches away from my face.
"Help!" I shrieked at the top of my voice. I started punching at it, and a ribbon of green appeared around its head. It shrieked back at me and BIT MY FACE. It didn't hurt at all, but I still reflexively screamed, almost drowning out the chime that came from a now yellow health bar in the top left of my vision.
Yes, I knew what a health bar was.
It bared its fangs to strike again, before suddenly bursting into a shower of blue polygons. The spider had been replaced by a black haired boy, standing over me with a sword in his hand and a smile on his face.
"Ha! Did you hear the way she was screaming? It was almost like she didn't know this was a game!" Someone outside of my field of vision laughed. I swatted away the black haired boys proffered hand, and stood up. The culprit was a redhead who kind of reminded me of Shaggy from Scooby Doo. Both of them were wearing starting gear, though it was hard to tell with the redhead; he was bent over laughing.
"Fine," I snapped. "Laugh all you want. I bet you got awesome powers, didn't you? All I got were these stupid flashes that don't even do anything."
"Flashes?" The black haired boy asked curiously. The red haired boy grinned.
"Oh yeah, Kirito'll help! He's just a nice guy like that, aren't you?" he teased, slapping Kirito's shoulder, who grimaced and pushed away the redhead's hand.
"Yeah, sure. What's another one? What's your name?" He asked me.
"Emma." Both of them looked surprised, and the red head burst out laughing. Again. "What? Did I say something wrong?"
"Well," Kirito explained. "People usually don't use their real name in games. For example, my name isn't actually Kirito, it's just my online name."
"And Klein's not my real name either. It's just the one-"
"Alright!" I snapped. "I get it, jeez. I'm not stupid. That name thing is though, what's the point of hiding your name? Ungh, don't answer, I don't really care. What are the flashes I keep seeing?"
Kirito frowned. "Sorry, I'm not really sure what you're talking about, is there a pattern to when they happen?"
"Um, whenever I look at something. When I look at players, their heads flash, for buildings their door flashes, and that spider thing from before, I think its neck flashed."
"Seriously? That's so OP!" Kirito laughed. Klein looked confused for a moment, then a look of shock covered his face.
"Holy crap, that's insanely useful!"
"What? What is it?" I asked them, feeling left out.
"Weak points. I think you see weak points. For example, if an attack hits a player's head, that would do extra damage. Lots of mobs have similar spots, but unlike the player weak spot, which is well known, the only way to find a mob's is by getting lucky and hitting it by chance. Apparently your power tells you where that spot is. For the buildings, I presume it counts the entrance as the weak point, because that's the easiest way in?"
I shrugged. "I guess that's kinda useful, but it's pretty weak as compared to, say, controlling fire."
The two guys groaned simultaneously.
---
"Huh. That's neat." I observed. The small chubby girl in front of me smirked.
"You kidding? It's like, super speed or flying, except better!" she exclaimed.
"Will be," her brother, Grue, corrected. While his sister, 'Imp', had such a comical look that it had to be a joke of sorts, his avatar was obviously designed to just be a slight adjustment of his real body. Tallish, dark skinned, and handsome features. I wouldn't mind meeting him in real life. "At the moment, I think the only thing your power is good for is running away."
"Hey!"
Deciding to intervene before Imp used her <<Curved Sword>> to knock off Grue's head, I stepped between them and pointed out a lone <<Sand Scavenger>>.
"Over there. Using what I showed you before, try and kill that mob." I suggested. She harrumphed, and took off towards it. A shimmer appeared around her, and her speed increased notably, courtesy of her <<Warped Speed>> ability. The <<Sand Scavenger>> turned around and raised its mace, but never got a chance to attack before it was cut down by Imp's <<Reaver>> sword skill. The weak mob burst into a spray of blue polygons, and Imp sheathed her weapon.
"Too easy," She gloated, when we reached her. "This whole game is too easy. When do we get to the player versus player part? My sword has Bri- er, Grue's name written all over it!"
"Um, PVP comes later in the game. At the moment, we can't reach any other <<Islands>> other than ours, and PK'ing members of your own starter island is generally frowned upon." I explained. Imp pouted.
"Alright, fine. Tell us then, miss robot-"
"-Myriad!"
"How do we get to other <<Islands>>?"
"Basically by defeating the <<Island Boss>>. Doing that opens bridges to other <<Islands>>,"
"And where do we find the <<Island Boss>>?" Imp followed up, barely giving me a chance to breath. I opened my mouth to answer, but Grue saved me.
"I think we'll need a few more levels under our belt before we can take on something like that." He suggested, putting a hand on his sister's head. She knocked it off and took a step away from him.
"Fine. Is robot girl gonna help?" She asked. They both turned to look at me, and I grinned sheepishly.
"I'm kind of more of a solo player, but I do really need to get to <<Introtius>>. Sure, I can help," I decided. Imp smirked, and her brother smiled.
"That's great! Hey, can we form a <<Guild>>? So that we can leave each other messages if we're offline?" Grue questioned. I shrugged.
"Yes and no. We can't form a guild right now, but there should be five <<Dungeons>> here on this <<Island>> that award an item you can use to create a <<Guild>>. If you're interested, we could try for one of those; it should provide a decent opportunity for levelling up. In the meantime, we can friend each other, and that'll do what you're talking about." Opening the menu, I shot them a friend request each. Moments later, a pop-up alerted me that they'd been accepted. I opened my mouth to say something, but Imp burst out laughing.
"Dammit, accept my friend request!" Grue growled at her.
"Never!"
Feeling another fight coming on, I started to intervene, but I was again interrupted, this time by a sudden sharp gust of wind. Was it a player? I'd never heard of an <<Ability>> that could do this, but then again, the amount of <<Abilities>> in this game was supposed to be infinite. The wind steadily increased in strength, and Grue and Imp looked at me quizzically.
"What is this?" Grue asked.
"No idea-" I answered, and a sudden bright light engulfed me. When it faded, I was back at spawn, surrounded by hundreds of players, some just arriving. Everyone was yelling, no one knowing what was going on. A sharp crack sounded out above me, drawing the crowds attention.
A point in the air glowed a bright silver. It slowly widened, and morphed into a humanoid form.
"Greetings players," it spoke. "I am Thinker, the creator of this world. Listen carefully, because what I am about to tell you is a matter of life and death…"
