Disclaimer: All references to Maple Story objects, places, or names are the property of the guys at Wizet and Nexon. I do own the DungeonPolice guild and all characters that I bring into the story, but that's about IT.
Chapter 1: Bad Luck
The dull green Snail slowly ambled through the Sunset Sky, near Kerning City. I watched it strut around for a minute before I absently killed it with a swing of my Mythril wand. It shriveled in on itself before completely fading, leaving only an empty shell. I stared at the spot where it had been, almost envying it. It would have been great to just disappear and not have to worry about the mess I was in.
Three days ago, everything had been going so smoothly. My best friend had invited me to join his guild, I had made millions by finding a 10 jump scroll in the Dungeon, and I had just found a great new training ground. However, my joy was short-lived. I can only suppose that some GMs had seen my success and said, "Hey! Let's blow this up in his face!" Before long, I had been expelled from my guild for no apparent reason, my account at Orbis had been looted, and an odd guild called the DungeonPolice had been defaming and harassing me whenever I saw them. The guild was by far the worst part of this change in my life. They would often use force against me, and never hesitated to relieve me of some mesos. Eventually, it got to the point that I would duck out of sight whenever I saw any Mapler wearing black, the uniform color of the odd guild. It seemed that the whole Maple world had suddenly turned against me.
"Yo! Arthur!" I swung around to see a familiar archer running towards me, carrying a slim case. Oh, great. Now her, too? "Oh, hello, Monica," I sighed in resignation, hoping to get my depressed and irritable mood across. It seemed not to work, as she raced up to me, grinning. She opened her case to reveal the glistening black crystal she had been trying to sell. "Listen, I'm going to take the price down on this, just for you. It's a wrench, but how about 5 million mesos for it instead of 7 million?" She had tried the bargain with me several times before, and I wasn't sure why she expected my answer to change.
"Look, I'm not about to bargain here, so can you PLEASE go away?" I asked, somewhat rudely. I was not in the mood to humor a punk archer, especially not one that I owed a debt to. About four months ago, I had been accidentally accused of a Cash Shop embezzling incident by a GM who had gotten his files messed up. He had been about to take me away when Monica had miraculously seen the commotion. She had some relation with the GM, and managed to smooth the entire thing over and detain the real crook. Unfortunately, she had tried to stick to me like glue afterwards, trying to find buyers for her huge collection of odd trinkets and Monster cards, and someone to mooch experience off by partying them. Usually, she expected that someone to be me.
Instead of giving up, Monica followed me through Kerning City, pestering me with questions as to what was wrong with her great find.
"Aw, come on, Arthur, do you just hate its beauty?"
"You don't come across a treasure like this every day…"
"Gee, Arthur, can't you consider my offers for once?"
I considered shaking her off by ducking into the weapons store and out through the back exit, but reconsidered. Instead, I turned to her with a great effort.
"Look," I tried to patiently explain, "Even if I wanted your shiny trinket, my account has just been looted. I have about 5,000 mesos left, and I'm not about to throw it away on that dumb shiny jewel." As she stood, obviously shaken, I seized my chance and sped away.
I headed through the city, oblivious to all the vendors and the giant mass of people clambering for a shot at the Party Quest, until some PQer bumped into me. I could tell by his pleading look that he thought I was under level 30, and he desperately wanted me in his party.
"Dude, you have to do me a favor! You just…need to PQ with us! We have track, and high-leveled members, and you just HAVE to!" A small box flashed up in front of me, flashing the message Party request from archerdude1223. Accept?
"Well, buddy, I'd love to help, but I'm over level 30, so..." The rest of my reply was lost as an eager young thief, hoping to pick up a quick Party Quest partner, bumped into me, knocking me over. As I fell, my finger accidentally brushed the Yes button on the box.
Immediately, icons appeared over the archer who was talking to me, and two burly warriors right next to Lakelis. They both bombarded her with demands to enter the Party Quest, and she responded by saying something about a party member being at the incorrect level for the Kerning City PQ. As the warriors stood in disbelief, another group of four strode up to Lakelis, talked to her, and disappeared.
All three of my new party members turned slowly to face me, scowling. I was expelled from the party and defamed by all of them at once. As I turned to leave, one of the burly warriors charged at me, swinging a dangerous-looking broadsword and muttering curses. I needed no further encouragement to hot-foot it out of there.
As I stormed through the forest near Kerning, something caught my eye, high in a tree. It was steel helm, but it was colored black instead of the customary steel gray. Too late, I realized that it was probably a member of the DungeonPolice. He must have been following me in the city, waiting for a deserted place to strike. Immediately, I sprang into galvanized action, weaving through the foliage of the forest. A small ditch in the ground up ahead caught my eye-perhaps it could be used as a makeshift shelter. I put on a burst of speed, trying to get towards it, and my foot caught on a protruding limb on the ground. I fell heavily in front of the ditch, sprawled out on the forest floor.
As I glared at my view of the ground and the ditch, all I could see, the guild member dropped from a tree overhead to land right next to me, just inside my range of vision. Appearing as just a shadowy figure, he knelt down, hesitated, and then dropped a small, folded piece of paper into my pack. Probably some joke or bit of bad news for me, I thought resentfully. The DungeonPolice member started to say something, but then broke off, staring at something I could not see. Obviously shaken for some reason, he pulled out a blunted throwing star. My head was roughly jerked up, and the guild member thrust the star between my eyes and quickly removed it. The sudden pain, along with an odd look on his face, accompanied me into unconsciousness.
"Arthur? Are you okay?"
I didn't want to open my eyes. It was so peaceful just to lie here, enjoying the day. But as I tried to drift back to sleep, some fragment of memory flickered. A person, dressed all in black, staring at me. Looking at me with such sorrow in their eyes. There had been a funny symbol on the person's clothing, like a bull's eye. It meant something to me, but I didn't really care what.
DungeonPolice. The single thought pierced me, and I realized where I was and what had happened to me. Sighing inwardly, I decided to open my eyes.
Monica's face, marked with concern, was inches from my own. Seeing me awake, the face relaxed in relief. I blinked, and the rest of her body came into focus. She was bending down, feeling my forehead for a fever.
"Oh, thank heavens you're up!" she exclaimed. "Lucky for you, too… My next step in trying to wake you up was to slap you until you moved." She grinned fiendishly.
Groaning, I shakily stood up. My doros robe was now splattered with mud, and my bronze pride had somehow rolled down a long hill to my left. I opened a bottle of red potion and gulped down the contents, which helped my headache a bit. I cursed the whole day and my own bad luck.
As I reached for my pack, something crinkled inside. Puzzled, I opened it up to find the note that had been slipped in there minutes before. Although I had dismissed it as a joke before, my curiosity led me to unfold the scrap of paper and find out what the mysterious guild member had written. What I found, however, was very different from the sarcasm and cruelty I had anticipated. The short message was hastily scrawled, and appeared to make little sense.
"What's that? What does it say?" Monica asked, obviously ready to begin butting into my business again.
"It's…just a note. It says, 'Help me. In KC swamp. Please.'" As I read the note to Monica, I got the same uneasy feeling as when I had glanced at it earlier. Something was very wrong with this arrangement. Why would my supposed enemy ask me for help? I stared at the note. KC swamp probably referred to the Kerning City swamp, which was a perfect spot for ambush. The muddy ground slowed your movement, and the dense undergrowth could easily conceal danger. There was no way I was going to let my curiosity led me into a trap.
Even as I made my decision, I felt my resolve slipping away. The Mapler's face entered my thoughts, its sorrowful eyes begging for help. I looked again at the scrap of paper. The single word Please, underlined and smudged, seemed to shine as I read it. In a frenzy of indecision, I looked up at Monica.
She met my gaze and asked, "Well, shouldn't you go help? They did say please…"
And with that the matter was settled. I knew almost nothing about the writer of the note, except that he belonged to a guild that seemed to dedicate itself to punishing me. And yet I was about to trudge through swampland to try and save him, despite the possibility of trouble from the rest of the guild or the vicious monsters that resided there.
I thought about my day so far, and realized that the events so far left me with one realization: Hey, at least my life's never ordinary.
Reviews are highly appreciated, especially constructive criticism. The next chapters will be longer, since this is just an exposition of Arthur (based on my level 33 ice/lightning mage in Scania, Arthurman).