AN: Welcome to Chapter 3! It was a monster to write, as it accidentally got deleted twice. So let me know how I did, please! I made this one a bit longer to make it a little more interesting for y'all. I'm gonna try to keep that up. Once again, thanks for reading and enjoy this update!
CHAPTER 3: Life is a Game
"So," I stabbed out with my sword, killing another low-level boar monster. "How many more of these things do we have to kill for the quest?" I asked, grimacing at the unbalanced Beginner's Sword. I really hated that I couldn't choose my starting weapon, that sword was weak and bulky. And somehow Tobias managed to get rare loot right of the bat, as usual. I glanced over at him to see how well he was fairing, and was not surprised to see that he was taking on three boars by himself.
"The quest requires that we get thirty-five total kills. We have eighteen," He blocked a charging boar with his new, rare shield named 'Aegis', and finished it off with his newest sword skill. I rolled my eyes at his luck.
"How do you always manage to get the good loot at the beginning of the game?" I muttered to myself as I did a quick assessment of our situation. We were in the middle of an open field, with several level 3 boar spawns in a circle around us. It was an excellent location for this quest. We still had to kill sixteen more boars for the quest that Tyler, er...Tobias, had noticed on our way out of the spawn location. The plains we were on completely surrounded the Town of Beginnings, which was to the South of where Tobias and I were currently fighting. To our North was a forest, which we decided to avoid until we reached at least level 8, and we were only at level 5 each.
The boars didn't cause us too many issues once we were two levels higher, but the sheer number of them made it difficult for me to only fight one at a time. As a DPS player, I tended to stay out of the battle; but this blasted sword forced me to get up close and personal with these beasts. Luckily, Tobias plays as a tank, and was able to pull them all off of me when I was too overwhelmed.
Two more of the boars spawned in behind me, making grunting noises and pawing at the ground. I spun around and deflected the first charge with the side of my blade, shoving the boar off course. The next boar was quick to take its turn attacking me. Luckily, I knew how to dodge, and rolled to my right. Thrusting my sword out in front of me, I practically sliced the monster in half as it ran passed me, shattering it into little blue shards. The first boar was now to my left, charging at me again. I got into my fighting stance, feet shoulder-width apart, shoulders squared on my target and my eyes on the weapon of my opponent (in this case tusks of my oppenent). But, just before it was able to reach me, it was impaled by a curved scimitar, weilded by a warrior covered from head to toe in black and grey iron armor.
"And that makes thirty-five! Let's get back to that lady and get the Sol and armor peice," Tobias said, oblivious to my accusing glare. He knew he had stolen my kill with his overpowered gear.
"Lucky little prick..." I mumbled to myself as we pulled out our teleport crystals that we had both gotten as loot from earlier kills. Tobias glanced over at me, grinning just before he teleported. "Town of Beginnings," I stated, holding out my own crystal, which burst, surrounding me in shards that began to rapidly grow in brightness until all I could see was white.
We've been playing for about six hours, I realized as we looked over the items for sale at a weapon store in the Town of Beginnings. "Tobias, maybe we should log out. Get some food," I glanced up at him from the halberd I was examining. He was looking over the swords, trying (and failing) to find a sword more powerful than the one he earned. He looked up at me and laughed a bit.
"It is getting to be about that time, huh?" He said, checking the time on his HUD. "Do you want to get off so you can eat?" As always, he was leaving the choice to me.
Sighing, I shrugged and shook my head. "Not yet. I'm gonna buy some new armor to match this," I gestured to the dark brown and green chestplate I had equipped, and placed the halberd back on the weapons rack. "And I have to decide on a weapon to use since a bow simply isn't a thing in this world. Then, we can go eat." We nodded at each other in agreement and I followed in suit as he walked away from the weapon stand and further down the street, which was lined with stores, as we looked for a good armor shop.
The street was overly crowded with the rest of the new players, looking for new weapons and armor. People of all shapes and sizes surrounded us, as we pushed our way through the crowd. We didn't stop to talk to any of them, because we knew that they simply weren't what they seemed to be. We pushed our way through the crowds and noticed a store named "The Blackened Anvil". Tobias pointed at it without turning to check if I noticed, and together, we entered the store to take a look around.
"These look promising," Tobias said, pointing to an armor set that matched my armor almost exactly, the only difference being the cost of the peices.
"Man, that stuff is pretty good. But I don't know that I can afford something like that," I opened my menu to check my monitary value. "1500 Sol," I sighed, "in order for me to get that I need another 1600. Some things just aren't meant to be." Sighing again, I turned away from the relatively powerful armor peices. I walked across the wooded floor, ignoring the NPC shopkeep's constant, looped conversations from behind the desk at the back of the store.
The layout of the store was fairly simple. Glass cases lined the single room, filled with armor and armor sets. The armor peices Tobias mentioned were on display in the center of the room. My back was to the center of the room, and the NPC merchant was to my right.
I opened my menu with a swipe of my hand, and clicked on my inventory to see how much money I had compared to how much the, much less impressive, armor was priced. I sighed, but just before I could click the 'buy' button, a notification appeared on the top right of my HUD. 'Tobias would like to trade. Accept?'
My eyes narrowed and I turned to see Tobias giving me a look I knew very well. It was the 'don't argue, just do' face. I touched the yes button only to see my inventory populate with the brown armor set from the display case. I gasped and glared at my best friend.
"Oh you might as well quit shooting daggers at me and wear it. It's free!" Tyler exlaimed. I rolled my eyes and followed his advice, trying to forget the amount of money he spent for something stupid. Looking at myself in the reflection of the glass, I looked pretty freaking awesome. The armor was a light metal-leather blend. My chestplate was a dark brown color, accented by the lighter green leather under the metal. Instead of a helmet, I wore a brown hood, to match the metal. The dark green-brown mixture made for a cool camoflauge effect, I had to admit...I really appreciated Tobias' gift.
"Thanks man," I muttered in defeat. "Now, let's go find a nice weapon sh-" The door suddenly flew open with a bang, allowing a short blond haired kid to run/stumble into the shop as the taller blond and wide-eyed boy nearly pushed him into the room and they both ran to the nearest armor casing. I nearly scoffed as I recognized them as noobs (new MMO players) immediately. I knew it was bound to get loud in here, noobs travel in packs.
As expected, more players walked in the door. Quickly following the tall blond was a very excited girl with dark brown eyes and mocha colored skin.
"Ohmygoodnessthisplaceisso" she took a quick breath and continued her nearly incomprehensible sentence. The pause was minute,"oooweird!" Another girl followed her in, a brunette who walked very cautiously.
"Nudge, slow down and talk normal people. I can't understand you when you talk so fast," she said, eyeing the dark skinned girl with a look of exhausted annoyance mixed with fondness, and followed her to meet up with the two blond boys who were discussing armor types.
Tobias, who had moved over to my side of the store, glanced over at me in a way that said 'let's get out of here.' I agreed with an enthusiastic nod and started to head toward the door. Before I could even take a step, a blond girl with big blue eyes walked in, escorted by another brunette.
This one was more confident than the last, and had a very protective look about her as she glanced around the store and back at the door where another boy was slowly making his way in. The blackclad, dark haired boy slid into the room and took a protective posture behind the odd group of new players.
I tugged on Tobias' arm and practically ran from the building and gasped out about stupid noobs. Tobias, who followed quickly behind me, nodded and opened his mouth to say something.
He was interrupted by a loud noise, almost like a bell, that rang out three times. Just after the last bell rang out, a white light burst in front of me. I was teleporting, but why?
AN: So...the Flock has been introduced...sorta. And yes, I did add a new member, just roll with it. Thanks for reading and please review to let me know how I did! I need feedback to make this story better.