Chapter 1
"It's nearly over" thought Argus.
23:55:03
Yggdrasilwas shutting down in a mere five minutes and all he could do was play his lute and look at the stars.
Argus sighted.
He had been one of Yggdrasil's most famous players for his dedication to role-playing but now it was all meaningless.
He looked around him. He looked at the beautiful small lake surrounded by trees where he was camping. He looked at his companions, the NPCs of The Wanderers.
Eberk Ironfist, level 100, mercenary, dwarf cleric and cook.
Lezalit Le Goff, level 100, mercenary, human general and fighter.
Chalia Erthana, level 100, adventurer, elf ranger and rogue.
And then there was him Argus "The Wandering Bard" Grey, level 100, cursed human bard.
"The Wanderers" weren't a guild; it was simply the nickname the community had given him and his NPCs.
The Wanderer was the number one player explorer in Yggdrasil; he had discovered well over 30% of Yggdrasil and was famous for his songs.
It had begun as a joke but he had fallen in love with the game and had started exploring the game. Then he took bard classes to be able to play instruments and the songs from the game. Before he knew it he had started composing songs about the game and great feats.
Amongst them was a song about the first battle against Yggdrasils final boss, the great invasion of Nazarick, and songs about the each World Champion and World Destrroyer.
The NPCs were acquired after completing several missions and questlines.
Chalia was a ranger that "decided" to travel with him after he quest to save a elf kingdom.
Eberck "took a liking" to him after the Great Undead war.
Lezalit was an exiled general turned mercenary who "sold his service" to him after he helped him escape from his former masters.
In their settings it was worth noting a line that said they were utterly loyal to him.
Being a bard he was the definition of jack-of-al-trades. Magic, healing, fighting, tanking, and even summoning he could do them all, but only at about the level of a medium dedicated character.
He was actually a pretty decent rogue and a general buffer and debuffer but what made him so famous were his abilities in large scale battles where he would use all of his skills along other complete classes.
In 30v30 battles upwards it would seem the enemies add a numerical advantage.
Being able to do a bit of everything it also meant he could support almost everyone.
However he only had half a dozen 10th tier spells so he couldn't compete with a pure wizard alone. Same with the all other classes, he was never a master.
There was another ting worth noting in his party.
Lezalit.
He had the commander and general classes which gave a passive bonus in stats and gained experience.
Since Lezalit was a fully levelled general the boost was ridiculously high.
By the way the game developers refused to nerf it saying that the character himself was pretty weak with all the levels put into a class that gave no bonus to character.
That being the case general class became quite rare and Argus was regularly hired because of Lezalit.
Severing his thoughts Argus gazed upon himself.
He was clad he Divine-class items and he even had a spare set. Right now he had a multicoloured gambeson and trousers, and a bright red cape. He had a musketeer hat with some feathers and fingerless gloves.
Strapped to his back were a lute, a massive two bow crossbow, and some throwing knives. He also had a rapier and a longsword.
His NPCs were also covered in Divine items but they only had a single set.
Chalia wore regular ranger clothes, green and brown, with a cape that helped her hide.
She used a massive longbow and two shortswords.
Eberk had chainmail, a shield, a warhammer and throwing axes.
Lezalit wore heavy armour, a shield, a spear and a katana (because Argus was a bit of weeaboo).
All the items had top tier enchantments of course.
They also had big level 100 horses which increased their carry weight to a ludicrous amount therefore they always had all items on hand.
23:59:40
"It's time" said Argus.
"Goodbye Eberk, my friend" he said to the dwarf.
"Goodbye Lezalit, my brother" he said to the human.
"Goodbye Chalia, my love" he said to the elf.
"Goodbye Yggdrasil" he said to the world.
23:59:57
23:59:58
23:59:59
00:00:00
00:00:01
"Huh?" said Argus.
"The hell? Didn't the game end?"
"What happened boy? What game are you talking about?" said a rough voice next to him.
Argus looked to his left to find Eberk staring at him.
"What? Cat got your tongue?" he asked.
Argus said nothing. He couldn't say anything. Inside of him there was giant storm brewing.
"What the fuck is happening?" he wanted to shout that out but something stopped him.
Looking back at Eberk he finally managed to answer.
"I'm fine."
"You sure? You looked pretty startled there for a moment."
"I'm good."
"If you say so. Come on I'm gonna make dinner. Lezalit, want some? 'bout you Chalia?"
"I'll have some." said a powerful mans voice.
"Me to." said a beautiful woman voice.
It was around this moment that Argus wanted to give up. I mean, can you imagine it? The NPCs, which are supposed to be without emotions, unable to speak or move their mouths. Suddenly start speaking to you and acting like living beings. It was a bit too much.
Trying hard to control his pulse, Argus noticed something.
He had a pulse.
Of course he had a pulse. He was a living being. Except in games were it isn't presented. More than that he could smell the food Eberk was making and boy did it smell good.
There was no smell feature in DMMO-RPG. There was a limited sense of touch in DMMO-RPG. There was no sense of taste in DMMO-RPG.
If he could prove that the 3 of them now were real them he would be able to accept that something was probably, certainly, catastrophically, wrong. But first he should try the Forced System Access, Chat, Call GM, Log Out.
It was then that he realized there was no control interface.
"I'm in another fucking world" said Argus looking at the stars.