He saw the tower and felt the bile build in the back of his throat as he turned into an ally he remembered. The world was overtaken with greenery and what was once was a magnificent city of modern technology was now a ruin with trees shimmering with dew and grass abounding. Oftentimes the trees pierced one building or another in their path to the light and the entire world had a feel of something at once completely unknown and intimately familiar.
Littering the streets were shells of humanity. They were likely Adventurers like he was, but where he moved with some flimsy purpose they moaned and cried.
"What's going on?" An innocent question.
"I've gone insane. Anyone wake me up!" A plea for help.
"What's happening?" A broken sob.
He continued past the sounds of the hollow people and kept moving. The misery gripped his mind and it was all he could do to not break down like all those around him. Suddenly he glanced down at his feet and noted them for a moment.
"Shit," he exclaimed as he tripped over his own feet and managed to slam face first into the ground. For a moment he contemplated just sitting there before he tears himself up. 'I can move in this body, as long as I don't think about my hu…. old one.'
He shook his head and thought back.
He'd been playing Elder Tales. It was actually a long-running game with twenty years of history behind it. Of course over the years various patches updates and overhauls had given it a modern look but the greatest attraction to most was the enormous amount of depth that the game brought forth. Today had been Launch Day for the Twelfth Expansion, The Nova-Sphere Pioneers, and it had been this update of content that had brought out a lot of players all at once. He didn't have any way to prove that theory but he considered it nonetheless even as he checked his Friends List and confirmed that a great deal of them were online. There were over one-hundred thousand players in Japan alone.
He remembered a flash of black flames. A sky of the darkest sort pierced solely by a shimmering full moon, and then nothing. His memory abruptly shifted to when he first opened his eyes, and now he was running through the streets of Iyo with ease that he never would have had if he were still himself.
There was a chime of crystal that told him he had a pending voice call. He concentrated on his forehead like he was tensing to squint without completing the action and a menu came into simi-transparent view. He then tapped the receive call function. It had taken him a good hour of freaking thoroughly out before he'd found this and then another hour to become adept at working the interface.
"Where are you coming from anyway, Raven?" A voice asked as Raven jumped some derelict stairs.
"North Gate," Raven gasped as his old friend, Amidamaru's, voice comforted him and he made the final turn, "came back from a quest-line in Awa." He slowed to a stop to take in the view.
The summer sun shimmered off the harbor and the massive trees and buildings threw into detail everything around him whilst have dark shadows to peek into. He could feel the wind and smell the ocean and it was this overwhelming sense of realism that firmly convinced the young man that he wasn't dreaming. He finally arrived at an open area, once a four-way stop, and saw Amidamaru stand.
Amidamaru was like a ronin out of an old samurai film. He bore a worn mantle of silvery grey cloth over ashigaru armor, light armor often worn by feudal peasant soldiers, consisting of a light breastplate shin and arm guards all done over in crimson. His silver hair had a strange lavender tint to it was always pulled into a top-knot and he had a pair of katana at his hip. He was almost six feet tall and he had a serious expression as if he were taking the new world around them in with his blue eyes and letting nothing go. These were the eyes of the man who shot to create a boogeyman in a videogame.
"Hello, Raven," Amidamaru said as he fell easily back into the role-play that they had been working on for years.
"Amidamaru," Raven replied with a slight incline of his head
Elder Tales had a standard voice chat system; players were able to communicate while playing the game by using speakers and a microphone, like chatting on the phone. Some players didn't like to use voice chat and insisted on text messages, but Raven and Amidamaru were not like that.
That was why Raven remembered and was very familiar with Amidamaru's voice.
Amidamaru.
If anyone asked Raven who was the most reliable person in the game, he would be among the first few choices that came to mind.
Online gaming referred to playing a game through the Internet. Elder Tales was a 'Massively Multiplayer Online' or 'Massively Multiuser Online' game. Several hundreds or thousands of players would be connected to the same game space to play this game. In other words, this type of game allowed players to know many other players, working or competing with each other.
Raven had played Elder Tales for many years, so he knew quite a lot of people in the game. But the people you knew in the game remained in the game. Different people might have different playing styles and opinions, but most people would not reveal their real identity in the game world. With the increase in online crimes after the year 2000, protecting your personal data was common sense for the online community. But that didn't mean you couldn't make real friends. Raven let out a sigh of relief when he heard Amidamaru's voice. While the pair had never met outside the game the things they shared were in ways deeper than what they didn't share.
They might not have met in person before, but they had spent much more time conversing through the game screen than was proper. Amidamaru spent countless nights with Raven in a party, mostly because they had the same trait of never using experience short-cuts because it interfered with experiencing the game, fighting innumerable battles together. He was one of the players in Elder Tales whom Raven was great friends with. They had chatted about so many things under these skies. They even discussed their boring feelings. Amidamaru was completely unlike a friend he only met in a game.
For Raven, this solemn but upbeat tone was as much a symbol of Amidamaru as the character he now stood in.
"This is quite nerve wracking." Amidamaru said simply.
"Yeah," Raven said as he gazed into a nearby water cistern to see his own reflection. His eyes, now violet like his characters, glanced over the deep blue hair that was nearly black and then down at the cloths he wore. Arm and leg guards over dark wrappings with an ebony body glove were the base but the outfit grew from there. A vermillion pence-niz sat on his nose and a set of prayer beads were wound about his left arm. His feet were sheathed in supple leather sandals and he had a jade magatama earring. Over all of this was a cloth jacket that reached his mid-thigh and had azure flame designs embroidered into the sable cloth. As he continued to stare his personal information popped up.
Raven Xanthus
Race: Half-Alv
Class: Monk Lv. 32
Title: Sage of the Void Lv. 20
Sub-Class: Holy Warrior [Templar] Lv. 18
Guild: Lost Canvas [Seated-Member]
He glanced over at Amidamaru and tried to pick up the information that he wanted. He nearly laughed aloud.
Amidamaru
Race: Human
Class: Swashbuckler Lv. 32
Sub-Class: Man-Slayer Lv. 55
Guild: Lost Canvas [Seated-Member]
"What?" The swordsman asked with a raised brow.
"Only you would manage to have a sub-class that much higher than your actual class." Raven said wiry.
"Coming from the Sage of the Void I have to say," the silver haired man smirked and tapped his weapons at his hip, "that we could forge a new pair of blades with all the irony."
"Hey that Title is really easy to get." Raven said, suddenly finding himself on the defensive.
"Oh," Amidamaru was now having fun with the ribbing, "and how does one get this title."
"Read everything in the library on the tutorial island." Raven said plainly.
"That's really it?" The swordsman asked with sudden shock.
"Yeah," Raven said as he scratched the back of his neck, "no one believes me when I tell them so I tend not to."
"Huh," the silver haired man grunted, "what does it do?"
"First of all it allows me to have the Title and equip another sub-class, some Titles don't do that." Raven explained. "Secondly it allows me to regenerate mana at higher speed, which I'm hugely thankful for because my mana is so low I need every bit of it. Finally I can have multiple Sub-classes, though I can only use one at a time. Switching between sub-classes puts the old sub-class on a cool-down timer. The lowest I've ever see for a cool-down was fifteen minutes, NEET if you're wondering." He shook his head. "Also I have to level a skill up to higher than my own level or ninety, whichever's lower, before I can choose another sub-class or I lose all progress I've made on all my sub-classes, including the progress made on Sage of the Void. I lost three sub-classes when I figured it out."
"Seems like a better form of the Apprentice sub-class, with a few restrictions to keep balance." The swordsman commented then he added. "Wait you have sub-classes that are higher than your level and you were harassing me about that kind thing just now."
"Well," Raven stopped for a moment, ignoring his comment, and turned to the man with a bored look, "there are eight-hundred fifty-eight books, and only eighteen of them actually are manuals. The rest is just loads and loads of fluff and filler that was made to teach about the setting. Most people don't stop at the tutorial for that long." He then shrugged. "I guess the creators were relying on human expediency to keep the Sage of the Void hidden, and it's worked. Had I not been role-playing a half-alv seeking knowledge and spent six and half hours reading through the library I never would have known about it."
"So about how long will it take for you to get back to your Holy Warrior sub-class if you were to switch it right now?" The swordsman asked as they began walking to have something to do.
"About an hour," Raven said shortly with a grimace. "It started out as a solid hour and has lowered about two minutes from all the leveling I've done to the title, which only gains experience by switching sub-classes. You don't even want to know how long it took to get it back to this level after I lost the experience. The amount of time that needs to be committed to leveling this ability up could be its price, in my style of thinking. From my calculations even at level ninety it would only shave a total of nine minutes off the cool-down of any sub-class."
"So," Amidamaru began as they continued to circle the small cistern, "what happens when we die?"
"Wish I knew," Raven firmly kept the spike of panic out of his voice, "best guess is we either die for real or we come back at the Cathedral."
They finally stopped for a moment and both of them sat on mossy rubble. As long as they kept their chat light both of them had the ability to ignore the despair that was clawing at their minds, but just as Raven began to shift the conversation to a more light hearted tone a crystal tone echoed in his mind. He noted that it was a text message before he opened it with a smile. It was from one of the newer role-players that he'd been told to help and he just hoped that he could help her get around any problems she was having.
'Help sempai some bad men have me.' It read simply. A strange sensation sunk into his gut. He suddenly lunged off the rubble and Amidamaru glanced up to see his friend sink his fingers to the second knuckle into a nearby tree, nearly twenty feet away. He then watched as the young man flexed his fingers in their wooden confines sending cracks through the bark before he ripped a chunk straight from the tree.
"Whoever you are," Raven said in a voice Amidamaru instantly recognized as the White Tiger, a persona that Raven role-played when he wanted to make an impression, "if you hurt that girl. I'll test out the Cathedral using your soul."
"Whoa," Amidamaru said as the young man before him slipped a hand into his belt pouch and pulled out a pair of violet potions, "what's up Raven?"
"Just got a text from a friend," Raven said as he downed one of the potions and tossed the other to Amidamaru, "she's in trouble."
Amidamaru didn't even look at the potion as he downed it and nearly coughed it up as it tasted like grape medicine. He dashed after the faster monk as his own body blurred under the effects of the potion. Haste potions increased movement speed and decreased cast and cool-down times by a particular amount. With the speed that the pair were tearing through the town Amidamaru guessed the pair they'd just used were of high quality. Finally they got to a small area outside the wall proper, an area that newer adventurers often used to grind for common materials, often called mats, for production sub-classes to use in their work. The swordsman felt his frown grow as he heard a young woman's scream and a heavy thud.
Raven turned the corner and then his face lost all expression.
"I challenge you all to combat." The sound of the Raven's voice was something that ground at Amidamaru's very being. It was less human and more living ice but it held the emotion of rage and despair that colored the elemental tones oddly. Then Raven blurred so fast that the air cracked with displacement.
Duels were a way to have combat in a safe-zone, but there were protections in place and duels were a way to get around the Royal Guard who would be summoned if violence was had in such places. Most people didn't use the duel system since there was nothing to gain from it unless you had a role-play sub-class such as Gladiator that you needed to level up. No gold was rewarded nor was there experience for besting another player, no matter the disparity in level, so most saw the system as an afterthought, but to role-players the ability to have a tavern brawl was a great way to get into character so people like the swordsman and Raven both used it often enough.
When Amidamaru turned the corner he saw the reason. A young woman lay on the ground whimpering as she reached for her staff. Her crimson pants and white top were thrown about the ground and she had little to no dignity left to hide, so she'd instead focused on getting to her weapon. She didn't have the look of someone who'd gone through a fate worse than death, but she did look like she'd had a close brush with one such fate.
Five men were facing the monk with bemused expressions on their faces. Each of them had the smug look of a man about to get away with some petty revenge or crime. Amidamaru nearly choked on his own bile at that expression.
"Hell no," the obvious leader of the group said, "you aren't getting into a duel with any of us monk. No way we're going to "
"So," the vicious White Tiger's fangs began to show as everything fell into place in Amidamaru's mind, "you will not allow me the pleasure of your battle. I name you all Heretics of the worst sort. My reasoning is the young woman who lay's before you, a priestess sullen by your gaze on her bare flesh." He raised his hand and did something with his menu before a message appeared before the swordsman. Amidamaru chuckled darkly at the notification he'd just gotten.
Back when this world was just a game Amidamaru had chosen the class Swashbuckler because it fit the theme he was going for. Not in the fact that he was looking to be like a pirate or something but in the fact that several of the skill trees of the Swashbuckler involved area of effect weapon attacks and some ranged attacks that he'd wanted to get a hold of. In his hometown there was a story of a samurai who turned traitor and killed his brethren without pause or thought. He'd cleaved through groups of better armed and armored foes with sheer skill and it was this perfection of martial art that Amidamaru had envied so much he'd named his role-play character after that ill-fated samurai who'd stood on a hill of bodies till he died of no wound but of exhaustion.
His sub-class was chosen for similar reasons and he'd become quite well known among the lower leveled Player Killers as the best Player Killer-Killer in the game for the first forty levels. The boons of the Man-Slayer sub-class had made the already lethally built swordsman into a monster worthy of the name given to him, That Which Walks Behind. He was a hunter of men, the most dangerous game, and his sub-class made that permissible as long as conditions were met. Of those conditions was the Contract which allowed him to hunt another Player, even in the safe-zones, if there was an active bounty on their heads. He'd get a bit of gold and all experience from 'taking the head' would go to his sub-class instead of his class, which made it easier to level up than his own class in truth.
Raven had just placed a bounty on their heads and the swordsman kept chuckling darkly as he accepted the contract before he moved through his skill menu. He opened up with an area attack that cut every one of the five men for a single critical hit split between them and then allowed him to appear in the center of the targets.
"Crazy bastard," the leader yelled as the status effect increased his cast-times and he found that he couldn't cast before the swashbuckler began cutting him with his glistening blades that shed the blood like it was so many tear, "you'll bring the Guard down on us for sure!"
"What are you talking about?" Raven said as he helped the girl up and into her clothes. "The Guard only care about Adventurers who abide by the law, and when I dropped that bounty on your heads Amidamaru," he indicated swordsman who was tearing into the men with great gusto, "as a Man-Slayer in good standing has every right to them. He's just trying to get by in a cutthroat world without," the monk's voice suddenly grew gravelly and loud, "raping a girl only eighteen levels into the game like the meat that you are." The monk grinned as his friend finished off one of the men and kept going. "But even the most rancid meat has a purpose. I'll go to the Cathedral and wait for you there. If you revive I tell everyone that such is possible and lift a weight off all our backs." His feral grinned only widened as another of the men died.
"Crazy," the leader said as he cast a healing spell on all those around him that Raven noted was from the Cleric class and therefore foreign to the land of Yamato, "this is still murder!"
"And what you tried was still rape." Raven said as he pushed up his glasses, a useless gesture from when he wore a normal pair. "The only difference between you and I is that I figured out long ago to keep the part of me that was willing to indulge in such things under lock and sealed until it was needed." The Monk let his violet eyes shimmer and he laughed as Amidamaru cut through two of the men at once, killing both. "Sociopaths can be functionally insane, you know. I very much doubt I'll be as lineate in the world of sword and sorcery as I was in that other Shitty Game. This is our New Game, learn to be the heroes like it wants or die as the heroes use you for experience. I truly don't care." Amidamaru finally sheathed his sword as he killed the last man with a vicious combo that Raven recognized from the game. "How'd you do that Amidamaru?" He asked as the silver haired man kept his eyes closed, not willing to acknowledge the crimson tint they'd taken during his battle.
"It just came to me." The swordsman said as he opened his eyes. "Come let's see if the criminals get a reprieve from the death god."
"Is what you said true?" Maya asked as she stepped away from the pair. "Did you mean all that sempai?"
"Depends," Raven said as he waved his hands, "the old world was a Shit Game. This one is better, but still could get bad if we let it. As for my little rant," his grin became completely contrite, "I'm a great method actor and have studied psychology at university since three years ago. For a person with a minor like Political Engineering understanding the human mind is an asset. I was merely scaring them just in case they did come back." His expression then switched to comply serious. "Rape, by my beliefs, is a crime worthy of death and I wouldn't lose sleep if those men really were dead forever. Those kinds of worm are lower than dirt."
With that they left for the Cathedral to await the men when they revived, not noticing the figure standing on a flagpole eight stories above their heads. The figure smiled.
A.N.
So, I'm going to be writing me a story set in this great world of Log Horizon. I was tempted to make the characters high leveled and just focus on world building the Four-land Dukedom, where this is going to be set, but then I thought about the small role-play guild I was once a part of and then I couldn't help it. Lost Canvas was my best of times on an MMO and while it has since disbanded I'm sure there are some of us who still remember those days fondly. These characters are going to be interesting, especially Raven and Amidamaru, and expect some psychological bull-paddies from the Monk as he may or may not actually be certifiably insane.
So, here's their equipment since I'm not going to have little pages here and there to show you. It should be noted that the class just tells you how many abilities the items give not how good they are. All that Raven and Amidamaru use are exceptional for their level but if they wish to continue to grow they will have to either put aside such things or learn how to up-grade them somehow.
Raven Xanthus
Race: Half-Alv
Class: Monk Lv. 32
Title: Sage of the Void Lv. 20
Sub-Class: Holy Warrior [Templar] Lv. 18
Believer lv. 33
Apprentice [Fire Sage] Lv. 35
Guild: Lost Canvas [Seated-Member]
Equipment: Raven is a bit of an odd one. His clothes are to both be functional and to help with his RP.
Reversal Force Uniform [Crafter Moshe]: Clothing suited for a high speed style of combat. A high-level Production Class item that increases the wearer evasion temporarily during the cast-time and cool-down of skills that force the wear into a new position, like Afterimage or Shadow Step. Buffs last longer on the Wearer and Debuffs are shortened by the same amount. This also mitigates some hate-build for DPS.
Sacred Bead of the Successor [Quest-Only]: An item that can be updated by going through the Quest [Mountain of Trials]. It is currently a high-level Magical Class item after Raven's most recent trip but at level ninety the quest will grant a person who has done it enough times a Phantasmal version.
It allows a person to accumulate mastery points faster for skills and experience faster for sub-classes, but since this isn't an enormous thing in comparison most people don't think it is worth the fact that you have to solo a dungeon with a mirror image of your character, plus five levels, at the end as the boss.
Necklace of Infinite Souls [Crafter Moshe Event-Only]: A Production Class item. A length of one-thousand eighty beads that were forged from the remains of the Great Oni boss of the Festival of Lanterns Event by a Player Crafter who was there for the Event. The beads now lend great spiritual weight to the attack of the wearer and allow the wearer to access the most basic Kannagi exorcism spell [Sharp Edge of Nirvana].
[The dark part about this is that one bead is guaranteed to drop after the Great Oni consumes a Soul of the Departed. I suspect that no one will be farming the materials in the future but who knows. As for the Exorcism spell, it is useful but a monk has such a low MP that Raven would literally be taking about 4% of his total mp for this low level spell.]
Rose-Colored Glasses [Event-Item]: A Magical Class item. This was an item that could be brought back from the Dungeon-World Wonderland and it carries with it a beamish sensation that chases away uffish feelings. Both the effects are list as [?] but Raven knows that it increases his mana pool by a measurable amount.
The Fire Sage's Coat [Event]: An Artifact Class item. Once worn by the Fire Sage during his battles with the oni armies, and said to be the key to his success in holding the pass when adventurers could not.
It is also said that it was not the demons that killed the Sage but his own willingness to burn both blood and soul to defend the village beyond the pass.
Allows you to use a toggle type ability that makes it so when you use a skill it will use Health instead of mana to do so [Note; This ability is called Inheritance of Willing Flame]
Gained from the Sage of Fire after he is slain at Heaven's Pass, to anyone who was nearby and had the apprentice sub-class… what an odd perquisite. Aprentice sub-class is locked to a usually Lander unique sub-classes Fire Sage.
Amidamaru
Race: Human
Class: Swashbuckler Lv. 32
Sub-Class: Man-Slayer Lv. 45
Guild: Lost Canvas [Seated-Member]
Equipment: Amidamaru is focused on Player Killing and his entire set up is for that only. Cursed objects like the Harvester's Array are too useful for him just to put down. After all it doesn't have a special effect.
Harvester's Array [Quest]: The Harvester's Array are a pair of katana whose steel shimmer with malevolent energy.
These are cursed swords and place a stacking debuff on the wielder until he hurts another Player, the debuff appears after six hours without hurting a Player. The Debuff lowers evasion and seems to stack infinitely but after the first strike on a Play the stack turns into a buff that increases damage while lowering defense and last in proportion to the amount of stacks of the Debuff the user was under.
The main hand sword Sow has a long lasting debuff that makes healing half as effective and the off-hand sword Reap deals additional mana damage proportionate to the amount of damage Sow has dealt up to that point.
Theses Artifact class weapons can only be gained by killing the Death God, a Lander Assassin who uses them during battle, and refusing the payment of gold.
Vagabond's Cloak [Event]: A Magical Class item. This cape is worn by men who wonder the world seeking something.
Hides Sub-Class from all but Guild-mates and party members. The stat bonuses are sub-leveled at this point but it has a unique look so Amidamaru likes to wear it.
Gained from the [King of the Haunted Hill] PvP event for being the lowest level character in the event.
Nameless Armor [Event]: A Production-Class item. This armor is worn by those who have hunted down the lawless for their blood instead of gold. Stories are told of men who wear crimson armor become like demons on the battlefield.
Buffs the wearer when fighting in another player and Debuffs lower leveled players within an area.
It was gained from the [River's Sanguine] PvP for the lowest level character in the event.
Precious Dragon's Whisker Hair Tie [Crafter Moshe]: A simple cord of Dragon's Whisker can suppress the worst sort of curses. Drastically decreases the effects of debuff.
Blood Stained Eyes of a Murderer [Event]: They say that those who fought on that Hill were tainted by the amount of killer intent. The people who survived that bloody slaughter became accursed people who lived like angry spirits from one battle to the next.
Applies a buff to the wearer for every humanoid foe slain in the last six-hundred sixty-six seconds. Buff increases cast-speed of skills and maximum stacks of it can make even a samurai able to chain moves together as well as monk.
Granted to every Player who participated in the [King of the Haunted Hill] PvP event and survived to the end.