Chapter 1: New File

"Hah!" The punch sent him skidding back as I retracted my arm, before jumping back to avoid the dashing slash he launched at me. "Damn." I chuckled. "You almost got me there."

"Not good enough I guess." My opponent shrugged. "Seriously though, you gonna keep playing the defensive game?"

"It's working, isn't it?" I smirked.

Username: Colix, Class: Fighter, Power: Paper

I raised my arms in preparation, after all I could tell he was worn down, and I couldn't slip up now. After using it for a while, the character model I had created now felt like a second body (which in a way it was). The arms, admittedly, had been the strangest, being paper thin and zigzagged in a way that they could bunch up and stretch out instead of just unfolding like with a...what was it called?...Shinde! That's it! Except not like that, like what I described before.

Anyway, I had been sure to include four paper thin fingers and a thumb to match the rest of them, looking like fringes when not folded into a fist shape, both arms being cobalt blue and crimson red, alternating in colour. I admit I was kinda lazy with the lower body, having black goomba-like shoes with thin orange legs, connected to my upper body comprised of a yellow hoodie with no zip, instead having a red spiked swirl on the front. My head was basically a white sphere with two emerald green bob-omb eyes, and black hair in a swept back style, being shot up into a big spike at either side of my head.

The person I was currently battling had golden armour covering his chest, legs, and arms (mainly just for show) whilst the rest of him was covered in a red skin tight suit. He had flared up silver hair with a long spiky ponytail down his back, with a mouth, red eyes, and a dual scythe-like blade.

Username: Silvio, Class: Swordsman, Power: Minerals

"Alright, take this!" He coated his blade in gold and charged at me swinging hard, I anticipated it though and flattened myself paper thin against the ground, slinking past him and popping up behind him with normal proportions. "That trick isn't gonna work a second time!"

I cursed in my head as he did a backhanded swing, and though I pulled a large sheet of paper up from the ground in defence, he also foresaw that and hardened his sword with steel to slash through it and into me, sending me crashing down in defeat.

'LOSE!' appeared above me as us two battlers relaxed from our battle instincts. "You okay?" He asked, offering me a hand.

"Yeah, you got me." My eyes turned upwards to signify a small smile as I accepted the hand up.

"Hey, you were a pretty tough opponent." He complimented. "How about we both get a bit more EXP and have a rematch sometime?"

"Sounds good." I agreed. "Looking forward to it." We bid each other farewell as I set off back to ;Mechcity.

"I gotta admit, that was a close one." A familiar voice spoke next to me.

"Hey! James!" I greeted my friend, the bright green robot with hose pipe limbs and laser blasters for fingers, with a black visor where his face should be and cylinder feet.

Username: Infaray, Class: Mechanical, Power: Lasers

"Ahem." He coughed.

"Right, right. 'Infaray'." I chuckled. "You sure are a picky about that."

"Says you!" He laughed. "Seriously though, you did good out there."

"That's all I can ask for." I said. "The outcome decides it though."

"Buuuuut you've been gaining a lot of experience points lately." He continued. "Don't worry, you're bound to win one match at some point."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence." I smiled.

"Oh yeah, Liz just got hold of a good quest we could go on together, whaddya say?"

"Sounds fine by me, has she set up a meeting place?"

"The plaza of ;Mechcity, we'll be there in no time."

"Okay then, let's get moving." So we both dashed off.

I had been logged into the Terrain of Magical Expertise, or TOME for short, for quiet a while now, and I can safely say that I've definitely enjoyed the experience, despite me only being able to beat NPC's so far. It all began when I got the game...

Flashback...

As soon as I opened my eyes I saw nothing but white. It took me a few seconds to register this before looking around to be met with nothing but white.

"O...kaaaaaaaay..." I spoke to myself. "Is this...the pre-login or something?" I then realised something and looked at my hands. "Woah!" It was the strangest feeling to be met with paper thin hands coloured red on one side and blue on the other. I delicately held my new head, and surveyed my new body and feet. "It's just how I designed it!"

I took a few seconds to marvel at the development of technology to reach this point, before I began to feel...weightless. "Huh? Now what?" I looked down to realise I was leaving the white space behind me, and flying into a sky! "Incredible! I can't really feel anything like this but, it looks like I'm actually flying!"

I looked forward into the floating island that was the game, clearly defined into its three categories with its rotating sun and moon system as more white dashes like myself landed down onto various places. "Wow...the Netkings really put their hearts and souls into making this."

I didn't have time to continue admiring it though, as I landed fairly easily despite my speed in the middle of a bustling metallic city which I guessed to be ;Mechcity. I once again found myself looking around, this time at the large multitude of unique players bustling around the tall skyscrapers, one of which depicted all the continental times.

"This really is incredible..." I breathed as I started tentatively walking. "Being able to make all this, plus the MMO element, as well as being in virtual reality! I can't even begin to think what the Netkings could have used to make all this, and still keep it running smoothly, considering how popular it is!"

I distinctively positioned myself underneath the previously mentioned continental times power, making sure to keep out of other players ways. "Now, he said just to wait here and look for a green robot...hope he doesn't take too long..."

"Trip? Triiiip?"

I froze at the familar sounding voice and turned around to see a-you guessed it-green robot looking around for me.

"James!" I grabbed his arm and tugged him to the side. "I told you not to use my name here!"

"Oh! Here you are!" He laughed. "Guess that was poor planning on my part, with me not knowing what you'd look like, but this is your character model? It looks cool! What's your class? In case you couldn't tell, mine's Mechanical."

"I'm a Fighter." I told him after checking to see if anybody had heard him say my name, I decided as soon as I signed up to just NOT use my real name on here.

"Fighter? Really? I thought you would've chosen Morphological, that really suits your style, y'know."

"Yeah, I considered it, but I had this character model in my head for a while and decided to just use it here, and I guess it got classed as a Fighter."

"Makes sense. So now you have to tell me what your Power is, mine's lasers."

"I chose my Power to be paper."

"...I'm sorry, did you just say...paper?"

"Uh-huh."

"Wh-What kind of Power is paper!?"

"Paper is actually a very flexible Power, that's why I chose it, for a large range of diversity."

"If you say so." He shrugged. "So, whaddya think of TOME?"

"It's...incredible." I honestly could not think of a better word to describe it. "It's like an MMORPG and a social networking site, as well as being virtual reality, its beyond belief!"

"Thought you'd say something like that. I gotta agree, it really is an expansive and friendly enviornment. And it connects on a global scale too, with us being British, I've met some Spanish, some French, and Japenese too! They were all pretty good people."

"That's great! But, I'm just here for the gaming aspect." I admitted.

"Not gonna change your tune? Okay, I'm not stopping you, but your gonna have to talk to other people besides me and Liz."

"I will, I will." I assured him.

"How about I give you a tour? I can show you ;Mechcity's important places, then go scope out ;Sanctuary and ;Lavandera."

"I'd like that, thanks James."

"Oh er, here you can call me Infaray. That reminds me, what do I call you?"

"You can call me Colix." I stated proudly.

"Colix? Nice idea, how'd you come up with it?"

"X and c are favourite letters of mine, and I just through in an o,l and i."

"...Makes sense. C'mon then, I HAVE to show you Balanstadium first." And so we walked onward.

Flashback End

Much like how we were doing now.

"She said to meet us here, in the main area." Infaray (I'm keeping to game names thank you) said as we stood aside from the other groups.

"Kinda reminds me of when I first joined." I smiled.

"Heh, was a while back, wasn't it? Guess time flies when your having fun."

"Isn't THAT the truth?"

We both turned to see Liz walking up to us. She had a tanned human body clothed in seemingly battle weary brown and red clothing, the shirt having a red diamond embedded in the center whilst two more where in her trousers knees. She had icy cold blue eyes and a sharp smile, and a katana hung by her left side in its red dragon designed cover, plus long purple hair straight down her back with violet strands shaped like crescent moons behind her ears.

Username: Twilight, Class: Swordsman, Power: Music

"Hey, Twilight!" I waved.

"Yo." She gave her typical greeting. "You two doing okay?"

"Pretty much." Infaray shrugged. "Just got back from ;Lavendera, where have you been?"

"I've been busy looking around." She replied vaguely.

"For what?" I asked curiously.

"Hackers. I heard two or three surfaced up somewhere, but I had no luck finding any."

My eyes squinted into a soft frown at her first word. I classified hackers in TOME next to trolls and flamers, in that they were all out to be complete bastards and ruin everyones time, just for the sake of it, which really pissed me off! However...

"I get it, just don't get me involved with it." Like trolls and flamers, I kept hackers as far out of my thoughts as possible, so they didn't bother me.

"We get it, Colix." Infaray nodded. "C'mon, you didn't call us here just for that though, right?"

"'Course not! I just found this great quest where we could get a whole bunch of EXP, maybe even a boss fight! I figured we might as well go in together."

"EXP and a boss sounds good." I smiled with my eyes. "What about rewards though? Remember that one we did where we got Spellcaster stuff?"

"You're never gonna let that go, are you?" Infaray laughed.

"Double-checked, thanks." Twilight rebuffed. "It's Fighter gear, figured you could use it, Colix."

"Oh, thanks." I giggled. "Seriously though, if that's it, then I'm all for it."

"Me too, its always good going with you two." Infaray agreed.

"Alright then, let's get moving." So we all set off together.

This is my life in TOME.

Save Game?

Hello! I have shifted to the category of Web Shows, purely for my love of this particular series, Terrain of Magical Expertise: TOME! So thank you to anyone who's read this!

Now, this fanfic is important to me, as it is a symbolic representation of my own experience watching the show, with each new chapter showing a new development of mine involving it. Of course, this won't apply to every chapter, but I shall let you know if it does, with the following text:

For example, this chapter represents when I first watched TOME after web searching, and how amazed I was at the effort put into it, and the respect I had for all the people I worked on it, with me instantly taking a liking to it.

So, to anyone who does read this, thank you so much, and I shall see you next chapter!