Fabled Age ch. 1

Hey guys! Well I decided to try my hand at writing an SAO fic, but it's got nothing to to with SAO

All the credit for the mechanics, rules, and features go to the Writer Ignatius the Cannuck, who has graciously allowed me to continue writing his story that he stopped writing.

If you want to read the first chapter he wrote, then look up Ignatius the Cannuck

I recommend you read it before starting my story here

Ok now without further ado, on to the story!


Rain sat beside Mason on the bench outside their school, Wellington High

They were both 17 years old, Rain had met Mason last year when she and her dad had moved here in New Zealand from London, England

The two had quickly became good friends

"Oi, your mum is late." Rain huffed

"She is your ride too, so you had better smarten up." Mason frowned at her.

"Whatever, just tell her to hurry up." Rain got up and paced a little bit.

They both wore their school uniforms, blazers and dress pants/skirts.

Mason knew how much Rain hated the school uniform, she didn't ever like being told what to do. She pushed every boundary the school set.

She had gotten looks when she had moved there and enrolled with her bright blue hair. They'd told her to dye it a natural color, but her dad had gotten them to allow it

"What was that game you play again?" Mason asked Rain.

"Huh?" Rain turned to him. "I've told you a million times Mason, it's called Fabled Age."

Fabled Age was one of the biggest VRMMORPG's in the world, Rain had played it back In England sometimes but she'd started seriously playing a lot after moving here

"You had better be nice to me, because my mom is stopping in town to pick something up, and I'm getting it!" Mason smiled. "Say hi to your newest group member!"

"Dear lord..." Rain face palmed.

"HEY!" Mason said, offended.

"Not that you wouldn't make a... adequate team mate, but if i know you you'll play as dawn." Rain explained

"Dawn?" Mason asked, making her facepalm again

"You know, sunrise, The good races. Human, gnome, elves and such." Rain said, making him nod.

"Well if you had been paying any attention to me, you would have heard I am a night elf. One hundred percent Dusk. The people you'd fight against."

"Oh..." Mason sweat dropped as he realized what Rain was saying "so we're"

"Enemies" Rain confirmed with a nod "but don't worry, I'll show you the ropes and stuff" she told him

"Oh ok, for a minute there I thought you were just going to farm me for easy exp and not tell me anything" Mason told her

"Oh come on, I'd never do that!" Rain said, actually sounding offended "I'd at least tell you the basics first" she said with a smirk

"Great..." Mason muttered "thanks"

"Anytime" Rain said with a chuckle and noticed a car pulling up "Finally, your mums here" she said and grabbed her bag "lets go, I'm ready to go home"

-later that day, in the world of the game-

A lone figure stood at the center of a town, by a fountain

But perhaps calling it a town was too generous, it was more like a large village. These 'towns' were good stops to trade in unwanted loot for quick gold

This particular town though was seldom passed through by anyone due to it being far from almost any significant quest mark, it offered no special npc requests, and all it's wares could easily be bought at another town just like it

Which made it perfect for the meeting spot for Rain and Mason. Since they couldn't meet in any Dawn village, if they did Rain would have been run out. And she didn't want Mason walking into a ruthless Dusk town

Just as Rain predicted, Mason had gone to the dawn side. He'd chosen a human too. Always such a do gooder, Rain didn't understand it. But then, he probably didn't understand why she acted how she did

All this went through Rain's head as she waited on Mason to arrive, she'd figured that it would take him 10 minutes at least to run through the basic tutorial, plus another 10 minutes to get here

So that left him with another minute or two before he could be considered late

No sooner than Rain had thought that, a player came walking through the 'town'

He was clad in the basic heavy armor, and carried a club and kite shield. When he got closer, Rain could make out his avatar name 'Ignatius'

That confirmed it, the player was Mason, he used that same alias for everything. Mostly because he knew how much it irritated Rain that he never used anything else

Mason finally made it and frowned at Rain "you look like you belong in assassin's creed"

Rain was wearing a black long coat with a hood that wasn't unlike the robes of an Assassin from that new black flag game that had come out a few months ago

Rain shrugged "it's practical for my build" she said and pulled her hood back, her skin was a dark purple, and her pointed ears poked through her blue hair, and she went barefoot.

She detested wearing shoes of any kind except flip flops in real life, that had carried over to the game as well

"What class are you anyway?" Mason asked

"It's not a class Mason, it's a build" Rain corrected "there's no set class system like in other games, instead you spend your skill points on all sorts of different stats and abilities to make your own unique build" she explained

Mason nodded "oh ok, so what's your build?"

"It's a bit of a cross between a Mage an an assassin" Rain explained

"I call it the Spellcloak build. I'm set up to maximize damage against one or two opponents at a time like a ranger or assassin. But I can also use damaging spells from afar like fireballs or flames"

Mason frowned "why one or two people? Why not go for a bigger sword build?"

"Because fighters are more crowd control people, they can fight at least four or five people at once, but they don't do that much damage to any of them, the damage adds up over time" Rain explained

"With this dps oriented build, I can deal tons of damage to one someone quickly and move on to the next guy all in the span of a minute or two"

"So if this build is better for damage then why does anyone use the fighter stuff at all?" Mason asked

"Because" Rain said "it's better for a solo player due to its high defensive rate and access to bigger weaponry. My build has low defense, but it's much quicker because I'm not weighing myself down with heavier armors and shields"

"So your all about speed and damage?" Mason asked

Rain nodded "right, and this outfit is perfect for it, it's light weight and light armored, and I had it enchanted to boost my magic damage"

"Ok, I think I'm understanding things a little better now" Mason told her

"That's good, because I haven't even started to tell you about the main things to do here" Rain told him

Mason frowned "hey wait a second, your avatar name is all a bunch of gibberish"

"It's Japanese Ignatius" Rain said with a roll of her eyes "now can I continue?"

"But I can't even read it" Mason complained "and why'd you call me Ignatius?"

Rain face palmed "you don't call someone their real name in the game, just like you don't call someone their avatar name in real life"

"Why?" Mason asked

"That's just how things work" Rain told him

"It's stupid" Mason muttered

"Whatever, so make sure you call me my avatar name when we're in the game" Rain told him

"Sure thing whomo akira" Mason said

"Ugh... It's Honō Akuma" Rain said irritatedly "it mean Flame Demon"

"Whatever, I'm just going to call you Rain" Mason said

"Gods, why do I put up with you?" Rain asked the sky, after receiving no answer, she returned her gaze to Mason

"Anyway, the bread and butter of this game is the forts"

"Forts?" Mason asked

"In this game the term fort is loosely applied to any fortress, city, castle, or any kind of large territory" Rain said "there are about two hundred 'forts' in fabled age"

"That's a lot" Mason said

"Yeah, now the two factions, Dawn and Dusk, are constantly fighting for control of the forts. Capturing a fort provides a number of benefits to the side that owns it

"For one thing it provides security, a place to stop, log off, and trade supplies. And there's bonuses for the guild that owns it

"The guild that plants their flag inside the fort gets to use it as a base of operations, an amount gold every week to the master as an allowance to distribute among the members, and discounts and better deals at the stores and other facilities inside the fort"

"So capturing forts is good?" Mason deduced

"Right" Rain told him "of course, Solo players can capture them too, but it's harder to do without a guild backing you, and the benefits are lessened slightly, less gold, not as good discounts, that kind of thing"

Mason nodded "and these forts are always being fought over?"

Rain shook her head "not always, every Sunday of the week is widely considered a sort of peace day. There's no official rule about it, but almost everyone acknowledges it, basically there's no fort battles on Sunday"

"Why the peace day?" Mason asked

"It's like a chance for everyone to rest and lick their wounds, do any menial tasks, trade in equipment and such before going back to the slaughter the next day" Rain explained

"but it only concerns forts. Everything else is done still, but lots if people go to arenas to test out new builds. And also, there's a clearly defined front line on the map. Check it now"

Mason brought up his menu and clicked on the map. A large 2D map of fabled age popped up, it was circular and was dotted with hundreds of little symbols representing quests or stores and things. However Mason's attention was on the bright blue and red overlay of the map, a little less than half the map was red, while the rest was blue. A white line, connecting several black dots, split the two colored areas up

"What your looking at I'd the current territory standing" Rain explained

"The blue represents Dawn, and red is Dusk. The line represents the edge of both factions territory, the dots are the forts along the front lines. Those are the forts most often under attack" she explained

"So Dawn controls more territory right now?" Mason asked

Rain nodded "right, but don't get too cocky, we'll turn it around this week for sure

"Anyway, the map is updated every hour on the hour. We're in dawn territory right now. A mile or so from the front lines"

Mason frowned "so how'd you get here so easily?"

Rain shrugged "it's not like the borders are monitored that closely, the space between forts is mostly empty, as a result it's easy for a single player like me to slip in unnoticed"

Mason nodded "so about these guilds, are you in one?"

Rain nodded "yep, I'm a member of the Reaper kings guild. They're one of the larger guilds in the game, about two hundred members or so"

Mason whistled "what's the average guild size?"

Rain thought "I'd say an average guild is about twenty to thirty members, but they range from eleven all the way to two hundred. but any group ten or lower isn't considered a guild"

"Why not?" Mason asked

"Any group of ten or less members is officially labeled a mercenary band" Rain said "they're usually made up of friends in real life. But if they get enough members they can apply for guildship and get out in the listings"

"So are there a lot of these mercenary band?" Mason asked

"Oh yeah, hundreds of them" Rain said

Mason nodded "ok, I think I understand everything now"

"Good" Rain said "now, lets take some low level quests and get you some experience points, that way you can start making your own build" she said and hopped off the fountain

"Can you take the quest with me since your not in my faction?" Mason asked

"Sure, factions don't matter for quests and things, you see mixed groups pop up a lot on some of the bigger quest lines" Rain said "just be careful if you go into another factions town, the guard NPC's might run you out if they realize your not part of the ruling faction there"

"Oh ok" Mason said "now lets get questing"

"That's the spirit" Rain told him as they walked off to find a quest to grind out


Ok that's it!

Again, most of the story and such is to be credited to Ignatius

He's the one who came up most of the mechanics and the idea of it

This is the spiritual chapter two to his story

So again, make sure you read his first chapter

Ok see ya!