I claim no rights to the settings and characters from the .hack// series.
.hack//Azure Past
This story is mainly about Balmung after he just starts the game, shown from the view point of Swift. Here I will attempt to fill in why Balmung became a solo player.
This is my first fan-fiction and I'm not sure how good I can make it, bear with me.
Chapter One: Logging On
Registration process for 'Fragment' is finished.
"Ugh, finally, that took forever…"
Reconfirming user name and character.
Your Name
Character Name
Swift
Registering Name.
Proceed?
"Yes! Yes! Yes! How many times do I have to do this before the damn game starts already? I hope they fix the registration process in the public version, I've been on for thirty minutes already!"
User registration is approved.
To start the game, select 'Fragment' from your desktop.
"Duh."
Please enjoy 'Fragment'
Welcome to Δ (Delta) Server Zone: Root Town, Port Town, Mac • Anu
"Hmmm, this is pretty cool."
I was standing in the middle of a pleasant looking city with water ways running through it following the streets reminding me quite a bit of Venice, not that I've ever been there. Mac • Anu was like a city that had reached its outer limits and had begun to build sky-word, shops and homes were built on top of one another, and there wasn't a single one-story building in sight. I looked down a well maintained road that would likely hold quite a bit of traffic. There were several shops that seemed to be operated by NPCs, all selling things like armor, weapons and potions. It was fairly well done, for an online game. And viewing it through the latest accessory in gaming, the FMD (Face Mount Display), I almost imagined that I could reach out and touch the building walls.
After getting used to the viewing controls, I decided to take a closer look at the character that I had created. 'Honestly, I amaze myself with my own ingenuity.' Standing in the middle of the screen was a young man, probably in his late teens or early twenties, with short dark brown hair and ice blue eyes. Only slightly taller than average, he was wearing a dark crimson jacket with the elemental symbol for lighting embossed on each sleeve. Under the jacket he wore chain mail that was interwoven into a cloth vest that he hand fastened all the way up to his chin. The vest had been neatly tucked into a loose-fitting pair of tan pants that were being supported by a thick leather belt. The pants, in turn, had been tucked inside a sturdy set of leather boots with innumerable buckles. In his hand he held what was obviously a beginner's spear, having no special markings or cool designs or…anything; after all I had just started the game.
I stood there for a while, expecting something to happen. But nothing did. After about another five minutes I realized that this game didn't really have a story line, you were meant to just find out what you were going to do and where, then try to fit in with everyone else.
"Wow, now I wish that I had read the manual, too late now though."
I quickly looked around to see if anyone would help some stupid newb get used to the game, when I quickly realized that there wasn't anyone here. It was late at night and I was on a newbie server. Also, since I had gotten my version of "Fragment" late, the majority of the beta testers were already bored with this area and had moved on to higher level.
I went back to the large, spinning, golden circle, with a shimmering blue substance inside, that I had arrived at and stood there dazed, thinking about what I was going to do next.
Just then, a Blade-Master appeared right next to me. Putting my cursor over his avatar and found out that his name was Balmung, he reminded of the classic knight in shining armor. The character had pure white hair and a handsome face, and was decked out in highly polished plate-mail. Over all, I thought he was a pretty sweet looking design, both heroic and aloof at the same time. 'Well, I guess this guy is as good as any' I thought.
"Uh, excuse me," he turned and looked at me waiting for me to continue, "um, I just got this game and, uh, I kind of forgot what we are supposed to do. Ah, could you help walk me through it a bit?"
He looked at me in an exasperated way and said, "You know, you were supposed to read the instructions first."
"Yeah…"
"Well, I guess you can tag along. I just started, so we will probably last longer together."
"Uh, thanks."
After Balmung explained what he knew about the basics of how to play 'Fragment', we exchanged member's addresses and he invited me into his party. Honestly, he was starting to sound a little stuck up.
"So… what happens now?"
"In an e-mail I got it suggested that we go to a beginner's area by inputting B, P, and A as key letters at the Chaos Gate. It would be wise to go there first."
"Yes! Time to get down to some old fashion monster hunting."
After giving me a questioning stare, Balmung approached the spinning circle. 'Jeeze I'm just trying to lighten the mood a bit.' After a few seconds, our characters were each surrounded by three golden rings that made our avatars disappear as they moved toward the ground. Soon, both Balmung and I had rematerialized in an area that reassembled a large, hilly field with unusual spires sprouting out of the ground and bluish-grey mountains deep in the background. At the bottom of the screen both Balmung's and my names appeared showing our stats. Balmung was at the same level as me, but because of his character's class, he had more of both health and defense. I had known when I had chosen my class that I was sacrificing these two traits for more speed and attack power. My opinion was, if I can kill them before they strike, why do I ever need to defend?
Breaking my train of thought Balmung spoke, "We should head for the dungeon. There is no point in wandering around in this field forever."
"Right, um… which way?"
"It's a beginner field, the thing can't be that far off. It is a pity that we have no maps to guide us."
"Just one more improvement CC corp. needs to make before 'Fragment' goes public." This time I could swear that I heard Balmung smile into is headset. Then again, I could just be imagining things.
Just as he had predicted we only had to face two or three goblins before we found some old steps leading into an unknown underground area. Once inside I noticed that this particular dungeon was designed to look like it had at one time been used for holding prisoners from a long destroyed castle. Going through the first floor wasn't too difficult. Most of the monsters were just like the few creatures that we had encountered in the field above us. On the next level down, the difficulty was upped slightly and we were forced to use a couple of the potions that we had obtained on the previous level. This dungeon was obviously designed so that even just one beginner player could reach the bottom and come out again without needing a lot of skill. That being said, it was looking like Balmung was a much better player than I. He controlled his avatar well enough for me to begin to wonder if this was his first character that he has designed.
The next section of the dungeon that we entered appeared to be a large square chamber, with only one other door that was at the opposite end from which we had come. Immediately after entering, an iron gate slammed shut behind us, indicating that we would have to kill all the monsters in this room before we could move on to the next. Right in the middle of the room was a quite a bit larger monster than we had faced in previous areas. But the odd thing was that it appeared to be pursuing a girl probably only slightly younger than my avatar. She had long chestnut brown hair that was braided into two pigtails and hung all the way down to the small of her back. She wore an azure blue mage's robe that had black markings, indicating her character's element as darkness. Flaring out from the sleeves and collar of the robe was a pure white silk shirt. Underneath the skirt of the robe she wore what I was fairly certain to be light tan pants, which partially covered a pair of brown leather sandals. Her face, from what I could see of it between the panicked running and spell casting, was very beautiful and unblemished. Not wanting to take anyone's kill, I stood back and observed the frantic Wave Master. I was perfectly fine with letting her die if she didn't ask for help.
It quickly became evident that one: the Wave Master had no idea we even existed, and two: the battle would never end the way it was going now. Every time the Wave Master would get a spell off the monster would heal before she could gain enough skill points back to launch a second attack. And every time the monster would finally mange to hit its fleeing foe she would make sure that she was healed before he managed it again. Each the monster did get a hit in, the Wave Master's health would instantly flash red.
"I've heard that soloing as a Wave Master was difficult, but this is ridiculous." Balmung said. I had to agree with him on that point. After all, she couldn't even take a hit from a monster in a level one dungeon.
Finally the girl stopped and looked at us. Apparently Balmung had been in Talk Mode since we first met. Talk Mode refers to a type of chat system were anybody within a certain range can hear you, compared to something like Party Mode so that only your party, no mater how far they are, can hear you. So obviously the girl couldn't help overhearing his comment
The Wave Master's moment of confusion was exactly what the monster was looking for. It let out a roar and launched devastating attack that instantly turned the unfortunate girl into a ghost.
"I guess it's our turn now, she shouldn't have been a Wave Master if she wanted to come here alone," I said, making extra certain that I was in Party Mode before speaking.
Adjusting my view point to see if he was listening or not, I noticed that Balmung had run up to the now dead girl. After what appeared to be a small conversation in Whisper Mode (used for private chats between two people), a ball of light engulfed the girl, and when she re-emerged her soul had regained its body.
I adjusted to first person Point Of View (POV) in order to look at my companion before yelling. "Hey Balmung, why the hell are you wasting a phoenix down on her?!"
This was getting stupid; we never started out with phoenix downs to begin with, so we only had the one that we had collected since entering the dungeon. Now if I died I would have to follow Balmung around as a ghost until I either reset the game or Balmung decided that he wanted to go back to town. In either case I would get no share of the treasure or the experience.
Balmung looked at me then crossed his arms "It is our fault in the first place that she got distracted. The least I can do is revive her." I sat at my desk confused as to why he was so concerned about something like that in an online game. "Besides, she agreed to join our party, and we might need a healer later on."
"Ugh, fine, whatever, it is your damn party anyways. But I am not going to be her meat shield, if something starts attacking her I expect you to bail her out, because I won't do it. I'll leave that pleasure to you." Before I could comment any more on the matter, a new feminine voice interjected.
"Ha! I wouldn't trust you to do the job anyways!"
"Huh?" I stared around blankly for a bit before I realized that the fore-mentioned Wave Master had already joined our party before the conversation had even started.
Taking my lack of awareness in stride she cheerfully said, "Hi, my name is Febris, it's a pleasure to meet you, um…" Her voice was pleasant but for some reason I got irritated by it all the same.
"His name is Swift," Balmung supplied before I had time to think of a snide comment.
Determined to not let me get a word in, Febris went on to say, "Well, Swift, I don't think that I'll be giving you my member's address. Honestly, you're not my type."
By now I was ready to tear her head off, but what she said next took my mind off the matter. "You may want to pay a bit more attention to what is behind you if you want to live."
"The what?" Just then I remembered that there was still a decently strong monster roaming around this section of the dungeon. I adjusted my vision just in time to notice the large creature bearing down on me.
WHAM! my health bar instantly dropped to about 75 and my avatar was pushed back a good foot. I could feel the controller shaking in from the impact. I couldn't believe that it had caught me unprepared.
"He's not very bright is he?" That stupid girl just had to say something didn't she.
'Grrr, it's her fault that I got distracted from the beast in the first place.' It was an ugly thing, like a seven foot tall goblin on steroids. In one hand it held a stout club that it had just finished bludgeoning me with. On the other arm was a crude looking buckler.
Balmung decided to get us organized before we all started falling apart, "Febris step back a bit and work on recovery. I'll try to get it to focus its attacks on me. Swift, use as many skill points as possible, but when you take too much damage, back up and wait to be healed."
I never let my personal feelings get in the way when I have a job to do. And, as much as I hated to admit it, Febris was a huge asset to our party. We would have run out of potions after the first few minutes of the battle if Febris hadn't been supporting us from the rear. Permeating the sound of clashing steal with feminine shouts of "Repth!" Even Balmung was taking a reasonable amount of damage for every hit. After about ten minutes, both parties were still dealing massive damage then healing. When the monster was a bit too slow to recover from one of my attack, both Balmung and I spotted our chance to finish this.
"TRIPLE DOOM!"
"CROSS SLASH!"
Both of our attacks hit at the simultaneously. My character let loose a complex series of swings, crouching low then jumping high to hit every inch of my foe. Next to me I watched Balmung execute his more simplistic attack. His character forced all his strength into two diagonal cuts across the enemy's torso. Our foe turned grey and toppled backwards. Finally we had managed to kill the thing.
After a monster dies, the person who inflicted the most damage would get the treasure, and the person who executed the finishing blow would receive a greater amount of the credit. This time I was fairly certain that I would be the one with the treasure chest in the end. For one thing, my last attack had lasted longer than Balmung's attack. And though I couldn't be certain of when it had died, there was a good chance that I had gotten the last hit in. Another point was that my character had a higher attack as well, meaning I had most likely caused more damage during the battle.
After a few seconds, when I saw no sign of a treasure chest I grudgingly decided to congratulate Balmung on his victory, "Seems like you won Balmung. What did you get?"
"Huh? It wasn't you?"
At that moment we heard a slight girlish giggle, and a small message run across the bottom of the screen telling us that Febris was the MVP for the battle.
"What?! Why would she get Most Valuable Player?" I was outraged; Febris hadn't launched even one attack since she joined our party. It was inconceivable that her damage count could be greater than either Balmung's or mine. It had to be a glitch, it just wasn't possible.
"Well, I was here for almost an hour trying to beat that thing myself. And it's not like you would have wanted it anyways. I got a level two staff. I would have made you give it to me anyway."
"Ha! I'd like to have seen you try." This girl was asking for it. There was something about her that just got me constantly fired up. Her very presence was eating away at my patience.
"Balmung, why did you ever choose this guy as your partner?" Evidently, she felt the same about me.
"Let's get going." Balmung said already heading for the door leading into the next room. We both then decided to shut up and follow him. I wanted to finish this quick so I could leave this annoying girl behind me.
After entering the room, I noticed that it was a dead end with a single treasure chest sitting in front of a deep whole with floating marble statue hovering above it. This must be the Devine Statute Room that Balmung had told me was at the end of every dungeon. Only the party leader was allowed to open this chest.
After opening the chest, I watched Balmung equip a brand new sword. After that he walked up to Febris and gave her an item. Then he walked over to me, selected the trade command and gave me… Aromatic Grass.
"What the hell is this? You get a sword, she gets a staff, and I get GRASS!! In what twisted game is grass an item? Why in the world have I want battle my way threw floors of monsters when all I get is something I can scrape off the ground, from the fucking field right above my head?!"
"Swift! Be quiet!" it was Balmung's turn to shout, "All you've done is complain since we met Febris. If you really must know, Aromatic Grass is a highly valuable item that you can sell for enough gold to by both my new sword and her staff."
I was stunned; I never thought Balmung would ever give me something so valuable. "I, I, didn't know…" I stammered not knowing how to make up to him for my outburst.
"Tch, you know, he only gave me a single phoenix down." Febris sounded upset, which lightened my mood considerably.
I remained quiet on the trip back out, mollified by Balmung's generosity after my childish behavior. I was so out of it that I almost didn't catch the fact that Febris kept trying numerous ways to attract Balmung's attention. He, of course, was completely oblivious to her. I highly doubted that he was capable of small talk.
Once we reached the field our party gated out and returned to Mac • Anu. "Well I guess I'll log off now. Thanks Balmung, e-mail me if you ever want to form a party again. And Febris, even though don't like you, here is my members address. If you ever feel like being less annoying contact me." Without letting them say anything in reply I walked up to the Chaos Gate and logged out.
Back in my room I stood up and turned off the computer. A faint grey light was beginning to creep into my window. Walking over to my clock, I saw that it was 5:30 in the morning. Instead of trying to get a few hours of sleep before I had to go to church, I went over to my desk and pulled out the 'Fragment' instruction manual. Taking it over to my bed, I plopped down and began to read.
Well this is it for the first chapter. If I get good reviews I might do more chapters. If all goes as planned I'll actually make quite a few chapters. It will be a while before I get to Balmung abandoning all other players.
It is hard to get down Balmung's personality since Orca is the sociable one, so sorry if I offended anyone. Febris is actually the Roman goddess who protected people against fever and malaria. In the games Aromatic Grass really isn't that valuable (it's worth 5 GP and potions 100 GP), but this is 'Fragment' so a few things are different. Bear once remarked how in older games they didn't have maps and had to write it out on paper. The attacks that Balmung and Swift used are actually taken from the game. I don't plan on them ever meeting W.B. Yates or Alberio.