Chapter II
Polygons flew past him as if he was falling down a long tunnel before he 'landed' in a sparsely populated area. It took him a moment to orient himself properly, it was weird how real things felt, but that was the point. It was virtual reality after all. Looking around, he discovered he was in fact in a room, but it didn't look organized in any particular fashion. It was like everyone was trying to shove as many things as they could into their respective spaces without really thinking about how much room they had to work with. He examined the layout, particularly in the portion of the room where it looked like it had been blown out, leading to the outside. A girl approached him shortly after and gave him a pleasant smile, spreading her arms. She was cute in a way, friendly, white hair, blue eyes, short, along with the Cait Siths usual features.
"Welcome to ALFhiem Online, this is Butterfly Valley's tutorial area. The people here will help you become accustomed to the game mechanics and interface." Ah, an NPC, now it makes sense. He thought and nodded to the girl. So he probably spent about an hour learning the game mechanics, fighting system, weapon types and how each weapon felt along with how to use sword skills and magic. He even learned how to fly with the flight controller fairly well. The only thing Darien didn't like too much was how the flight controller took the use of your hand. However, he had seen screen shots of people flying without the use of the controller, so he would have to figure that out somehow.
Darien spent most of his time on the training dummies, while they gave very little in the way of skill progression. They were still very helpful in getting to know how everything felt; he discovered fairly quickly that his martial training in weapons did carry over. Which was very helpful as he knew all too well, especially with these types of games, the tutorial would only tell you the most basic of the basic. Everything else he would have to learn on his own. Eventually it came down to his starting equipment, there was one of every weapon type and either leather or light metal armors to start with.
He took leather armor without even thinking about it, in his opinion, it was better to be lightly armored and be able to move more freely and start wearing heavier stuff for protection later. Rather than doing it the other way around. As far as weapons went, he was stuck between a straight sword and a curved sword. Both offered distinct advantages and disadvantages. His first choice was of course a straight sword, it had the longer reach of the two and reach was a great advantage to have. Where as a curved sword had more cutting power for the length of the blade and a sturdy spine to block and parry with. The spine was also useful to grab and maneuver with to get in close, if that was his game.
Darien decided, on a whim, to branch out and take a curved sword. He could always change later and besides, it's a game and is supposed to be fun, may as well branch out of his comfort zone a bit. After equipping all of his gear, he was all set to leave. However, the same girl at the start came over and directed him to a mirror, which also happened to be connected to your account should you choose to alter your appearance. Sly dogs. He looked similar but different enough that he didn't automatically recognize himself in the mirror. His tall and lithe build was still much the same, with high cheekbones, slim jaw line and stubborn chin. His mischievous features were accented well with the cat like appearance of the Cait Siths.
His hair had and eyes had undergone the most dramatic change. Instead of the tangled wavy mass he was used to, his hair was now straight and stark white. Strands of hair shot down his forehead and reached the nape of his neck in an organized chaos. Giving him a devilish look and stopping just above his bright golden eyes. In addition he noticed his skin had darkened to a more olive complexion. He decided to add one more thing and spent a little money to make it happen. A triangular black stripe curved down both cheeks to end at his jaw. As far as his gear went, his plain brown leather armor was unassuming and the sword sheathed on his hip didn't look like much either.
With that he made his way to the exit and stepped out into the heart of Cait Sith territory. The Capitol of Butterfly Valley, Freelia, currently lead by, Alicia Rue. The sound hits him first; the place was packed by players and NPCs alike. It wasn't the biggest gathering of players he had ever seen, but there was enough there that you could clearly tell this was a major city. There were a few other races that he managed to pick out of the crowd, but they all seemed to be partying with the majority race. For equal parts being friends and protection he assumed. The second thing he noticed was the time in-game, the sun had begun to set so the sky was dyed in various different hues of crimson and orange.
The city itself was what you'd expect from a fantasy world. High walls, statues of various people of importance, fountains and shops. Though to avoid looking like the local new guy, he kept his eyes down and blended in with some of the people browsing the shops. He had some basic starting Yrd so he may as well see what the city had to offer. Freelia had a variety of items and actual players were also trying to sell custom wares, but most of them were out of his price range for the time being. Darien, eventually found his way to one of the cheaper shops; looking at the prices he guessed these are wares for new players. Still, it'd be a good opportunity to try out some of the gear that he hadn't gotten in the tutorial area.
He bought cloth wraps for gloves and some throwing knives. Those items alone nearly cleared out his wallet, so he wouldn't be buying anything else for a while. Weaving his way around the flux of people he made his way to the front gates of the city and within a couple of minutes he found his way to the small village just outside. This was likely the quest hub he was supposed to do first and then from there he could plot his next course of action. Plus the quests here were probably designed to give him some decent upgrades over his current gear, or at least lead him to monsters that would. Overall it gave him a very medieval Europe feel. Wooden homes built out of the forestry that stretched for miles, various farms populated with cattle and chickens. Farmers going to work in the fields and still others tended to their gardens.
The first quest Darien came across was called Scaly Vermin. Large reptiles were causing trouble in the local farms, eating everything in sight. Besides him there were a few different players doing quests of their own. It wasn't too hard to pick out who was actually a new player and who wasn't. There were even a few parties here and there. Then there was the steady flow of people entering and leaving Freelia. Returning his attention to his quest, he picked a field to go in. It was a simple, kill an x amount of creatures quest. There were also other options to complete the quest faster, from smashing eggs to vanquishing the brood mother. While killing the brood mother sounded really cool, there was apparently only one and she was hard to find. So he just focused on killing the normal lizards.
He found out fairly quickly that surprise attacks and back attacks did more damage. Especially with smaller weapons like knives and daggers. Activate a sword skill and it did even more damage. So he could throw them normally and save the sword skill delay or be guaranteed a hit by the system. The Cait Siths enhanced vision came in handy for the long throws. He barely used his sword simply because the enemies were somewhat small and annoying to hit. It was more effective to use his throwing knives. Which he could retrieve after he threw them or wait for them to reappear which took about ten or more seconds for each knife.
Darien was about midway through the quest when he jumped on a mound of dirt and threw two throwing knives and killed some unsuspecting lizards, it was quite satisfying to throw more than one at once. He was even starting to unlock some sword skills for his knives and was getting small amounts of progress towards the Dagger skill. Suddenly the mound beneath him started moving. On reflex he leapt from it, throwing three knives that sunk solidly into the rising mass. It shook the dirt from its hide to reveal a rather large version of the lizards he had been fighting, it didn't look very happy about the knives he had struck it with. Its scaly back was brown and a large wrinkled pile of flesh massed around it's throat. It looked like an overgrown komodo dragon.
An adult one, he thought, and about the size of a large dog too. He drew his simple curved blade and readied himself for its attack. It charged, swiping at his left side with its claw. He back stepped smoothly, and countered with a slash to its forearm. A dark red gash of data marked where the creature had been cut as it retreated with a hiss. Darien pressed the attack and clipped it on the muzzle before it got too far out of his reach but his basic sword was too short. He pressed forward again, trying to keep pressure on the thing, but it was a fast and lithe creature.
Its chest swelled and Darien skids on his heels to a halt to leap away as a cloud of green gas spewed from its maw. His vision of the lizard was cut off, he had to think, it could be approaching him from any angle. But it would have to move through the cloud to get to him so he focused on the lingering fumes for signs of movement. To the right! Something shot out of the cloud at lightning speed, Darien managed to twist so the blow mostly bounced off but he still took damage. It shot out twice more, both narrow misses and that's when Darien realized it was the lizards tongue!
As the gas cleared, he saw it more than a dozen feet away and cursed. No way he'd be able to get close enough without taking at least one or two more hits and if he wasn't lucky, those hits could take him out. His armor wasn't the best, nor was his weapon. He had to get in fast and hit it hard with a sword skill. Speed and power… He needed both in equal amounts, if only he had a better sword! Sword… He managed a quick glance at his weapon. Curved, sabers were curved. Sabers, horses, cavalry sabers! A toothy smile made its way onto his face, there was a way. He summoned the flight controller and his wings flickered to life.
He crouched like a cat preparing to spring, its tongue rocketed forward again and he dashed, keeping his head low as the appendage sailed over his head. It came out again, clipping him in the shoulder and leg. He saw the next attack coming and ducked to the side and followed through into a roll before launching forward in a burst of speed with his wings. Darien banked low, his nose nearly touching the ground as the tongue sailed overhead. As he sped towards the overgrown reptile he activated a sword skill and the curved blade began to glow with a fierce red light.
Dariens sword slashed a bright red line down the length of the reptile's body, it wobbled, then fell, exploding into polygons of various colors and he was met with a reward got quite a bit more money for defeating an adult one, giving him enough credit to finish the quest, and he got a piece of armor. A random drop the adults have a chance to give. Light metal bracers, no fancy name but it was armor he didn't have which counted for something in his book. Getting a new piece of gear always felt nice and this was the first of many. Putting the bracers on he realized that they didn't get rid of his gloves, so he decided to try something. By wrapping the cloth over the armor, you couldn't even tell that it was there. Perfect, he thought, I'm loving this game already.
With that, he returned to the village and claimed his reward. For killing an adult, he also got a sword made by the local blacksmith and got to choose what it would be. He chose a cutlass called Scale Shaver, it had a scale pattern on the false edge and a short edge near the tip of the blade. Now we're talking, a pleased smile touched his lips as he replaced his modest curved short blade. He knew very well that this wasn't a huge upgrade, but, a journey of a thousand miles and all that. Now that I've gotten a feel for the combat, exploring may be a good idea. The Sylph territory should be a good start, with our alliance there shouldn't be any trouble going that way.
He briefly checked the world map and found a path that would lead him to the south. Checking the clock, he saw he had already been playing for quite a few hours. Time does fly, that's for sure. He should be fine playing for a few more yet, he did get an early start. I'm getting a little hungry but I should be fine for a few more hours, right? The thing Darien enjoyed the most about ALfheim so far was that he wasn't confined to a single area. Sure the monsters were tougher the further you got away from the capitals, but if you were good enough it didn't matter. High level gear was an advantage, a reward for skilled play. It complimented your abilities, and wasn't the sole factor for survival.
Granted, it would be more effective to fly there, Darien decided to make the best of the time and work on his sprint and acrobatics skills instead. Can't work on those if I'm just flying everywhere, he told himself. It felt absolutely riveting, slowly but surely gaining speed as he dashed down this forest pathway, he could never run this fast in real life, even if he wanted to. So this is full dive technology, I can see why it's addicting. Just to add in some fun, he added in some acrobatic tricks to dodge some of the random obstacles and monsters along the path. The wind howled in his ears and blew out his hair behind him as he became a flash of silver through the forest.
After about thirty minutes of running he slowed and came to a stop, leaning his shoulder against a tree to catch his breath. In the forest the sun had already sunk below the horizon and the stars had come out. Though he couldn't see the moon through the surrounding trees. A smile played across his face as he panted, he never would have dreamed that running would have been such an experience. I made the right choice; checking out this game, now how much further do I-, he stiffened. His ears shot up in alarm, tail twitching. What was that noise? It sounded like… There it was again! A metallic clashing sound. Someone, he was certain, was fighting. Not too far away either. He only pondered the situation for a few seconds before his curiosity got the better of him and he tracked the source of the noise through the thick foliage.
It didn't take Darien long to find the skirmish. It was a woman, a sylph by the looks of it, or at least she was wearing the typical green sylvan colors, she had pale skin and dark hair but he couldn't gather much else from this distance. Her opponents where dawned in the red and black of the Salamanders, with a couple of remain lights scattered about. Under normal circumstances she would have been winning but they out-numbered her eight to one. They were slowly forming a half circle around her, backing her into a corner and there wasn't much she could do about it. If she took off then they'd have a clear shot with some fire magic, but if she stayed put she'd be boxed in. Either way it didn't look good.
"Come on lady, there are eight of us and one of you. We'll get the items no matter what, do you really want to take a death penalty?" He heard one of them say.
"I'll take at least half of you down with me, so come get me." She snarled. Darien balled his hands into fists, his jaw clenched. This was like elementary school all over again for him. He hated bullies, especially when they ganged up on a single person like this. He wouldn't allow himself to sit by and do nothing, even if he went down, he'd take the rest of them with him. Darien climbed a tree behind the group, he saw the woman flick her eyes up in his direction and he put a finger to his lips. Then be brought out six throwing knives, three in each hand and activated a Sword Skill Death Lotus. His knives began to glow a dark purple as he leapt into the air, using the branch as a spring board. The large moon behind him cast a large shadow on the ground below. The back attack and sneak attack damage, combined with the sword skill meant two swift deaths.
Before he hit the ground, he summoned the flight controller and turned his momentum forward, drawing his cutlass as his third victim turned to meet his demise head on. He barely got out a surprised gasp as the slash came, removing his head from his shoulders. After the fatal strike the Salamander burst into flames. Dismissing the flight controller and his wings, Darien spun around, digging his heels into the ground. The long skid brought him to the Slyphs side, leaving a contrail of dust in his wake, he brought his sword up in a ready position.
"Who the hell are you?" One asked, the tone was heated but tinged slightly with fear.
"I've come to deliver some bad luck." Darien said, his expression cold; words dripping with scorn.
