I'm going to get off my awkward, lazy bum and start answering questions. Though awkwardly. So from now on, I'm going to try to keep track of any questions asked and reply accordingly whenever I have the time (as long as it doesn't spoil the plot). But also, I'm just really stupid and am bad with proper etiquette.
Somehow, I'm wondering if I made Midorima too OP the last chapter.
Also, I really do appreciate all the readers telling me they'll keep on persevering for the plot. Thank you. I love you all and give you internet glomps.
Disclaimer: KnB is not mine~
So without further ado, welcome to another chapter of KWO~
Chapter 8: Light & Dark
System notice: Kiseki World Online will begin its first patch in four hours. Please be sure to finish all game-play necessities before then. The patch will be completed in approximately 16 hours.
In the latest event in his life, Kuroko Tetsuya had just become a Cleric.
This pretty much denoted that he should learn the element of Light, otherwise there wasn't much point in this in the first place. Being a Cleric and having that element gave a lot of magic bonuses, not to mention at least half the spells a Healer-type player could learn required it.
{Kuroko has learned the Element of Light!}
And with that, the skills in the archive could now be upgraded to these types of spells, besides Magic Ball because as it was Kuroko's first attack spell, it upgraded automatically. Spells like these were much stronger against some enemies and usually did around the same damage as their basic forms to others. Exactly why the game allowed the original spells.
The Light Elf set to choosing what he thought would be useful, though Healer-type classes in pretty much any game tended not to have many offensive spells. And so, he maxed out what he could of them and put the rest of his points in buffs, heals, and other miscellaneous spells that he guessed would come in handy in the future; even with this, he still had a pretty good amount of skill points leftover. There were some skills that could only be unlocked at certain levels though, so he guessed he could get those then.
Along with the new spells available, he also received new equipment, which consisted of the following: a silver circlet that rested flat against his head with a dark blue jewel resting on the bridge of his nose; a long, plain frock-like garment, a blue similar to his hair color (there had been a color option for that one); and a flowing ivory colored overcoat lined with silver on the edges. The simple gracefulness of the outfit was accentuated by a silver ring and cross-shaped necklace provided, though it clashed with the darkly colored wood of his weapon.
Because he was level 15, he would not be able to choose another element to learn until level 20–though like with his class, he wasn't sure what to pick; he wasn't even sure if he should learn another.
The upside to having more elements was that they had advantages towards a wider range of enemies. Having less, however, made one extremely strong against certain types. Generally, most mages would have at least two or three elements at their disposal. Any more seemed to take up too many skill points, especially if they were a more specialized class.
A level 3 arch-type class only got two skill points when they leveled, which of course only gets scarcer with time.
Kuroko made his way towards Arsajia's main gate, the entrance he came into the town by.
A few minutes into his walk back to the first city on the island, Medias, he received the beginning of a three-way chat message from Momoi.
"Are you two done yet? I finished a while ago and am waiting in central city."
The speed of a Rogue was to be expected.
Kuroko typed back, "My apologies. I've just finished my class change. I will try to hurry there." Not wanting to keep her waiting too long, he started into a light jog. A minute later, he received a different message. This time from Aomine.
"Sorry. Joined a tournament. Won't be done for a while."
Momoi-san will probably get angry.
"What do you mean you joined a tournament?! Dai-chan! Don't just go off doing your own thing!"
A reply didn't come, so Kuroko assumed the other was either busy or just didn't want to spend the time to deal with Momoi. He sped up his march a bit more.
He finally reached Medias around five minutes later, the entire trek taking up only about a third of the time than it did on the way there.
It was on the side of a large water fountain that he saw her, apparently still angry because she was grumbling and slightly puffing out her cheeks.
The bluenette walked towards her, though she didn't notice him approaching.
The first time he called out, she still sat, fuming. The second time, he tapped her shoulder while repeating her name.
"Momoi-san."
Said girl jumped in her seat, let out a sharp squeal, and nearly fell backwards into the shallow water, though Kuroko caught her before she did.
The peach-haired girl took a deep breath of air, sat upright, and composed herself to the best of her abilities before inquiring, "when did you get here?"
"I just arrived. I called you once, but you did not seem to hear. I'm sorry for startling you."
She gave a slightly nervous laugh. "That's alright. Um… thank you for catching me." Though she did think the blue-haired man in front of her was very polite and all, his habit of seemingly appearing from thin air still bewildered her. A while ago she was still having second thoughts on whether or not he was some kind of phantom.
Nevertheless, she agreed when he asked her to train with him. Because Aomine was still in his tournament and not responding to her messages (she'd sent several more, not in the group chat), she had been contemplating quitting play for the day. Though she was good at combat by this game's standards, there was still the chance that she'd be caught by one of the many boss monsters that spawned on the map–difficult to beat without a party or at least back-up.
The two decided on fighting against level 16 monsters called Amphriz that were found branching out from the route to the Hunter Town. These creatures seemed to be based off lizards, though of course they were bigger. Even though they were higher level than the two, they weren't too hard to take out.
Amphriz did low damage but had high agility, making them tricky opponents to fight. Momoi was just a bit faster than they were. The problem is that these lizard-like creatures are what are known as "group-aggro monsters".
Monsters falling under this category are passive types until one of them is provoked. After that, all of them within a certain range will automatically target the player that attacked them.
After buffing and such, the Rogue of the group calculated she'd be able to kill the monsters in just one or two hits each, though even with boosted speed it'd still be difficult to take on that many on her own.
So, of course, this is where Kuroko comes in. While she tanked and fought close combat, he'd be nearby ready to release an AOE spell on the creatures whenever they became too much for the pinkette to handle with ease. The time it took for Kuroko to cast one of his AOEs and the time it took for the Amphriz to swarm Momoi were quite similar, though the Light Elf still healed and re-buffed whenever he had the chance to.
By this way, the duo gained experience pretty quickly and evenly. At the end of their session an hour later, they had both leveled up four times each. Sadly, Momoi had something to attend to in real life (as well as an Aomine to scold) and left the game.
The Cleric decided to leave the map because he couldn't tank. It was very difficult–though not impossible–to cast spells while being attacked, though one needed a higher level of concentration for that.
The blue-haired man left the map and settled for another where he could get some more training done by himself.
He traveled back to the Mage area and settled for one of the monster maps there.
Skipping ahead about another hour later, the bluenette had just gotten to level 22. His weapon, which he was informed to be called a "Living Weapon" (courtesy of Momoi and her informational forums) was now level 19. Apparently, 613 special weapon items were made and were still being distributed throughout the Japanese server. Out of these, around 100 of them were Living Weapons. Kuroko had really been very lucky during his weapon selection, if this was anything to come by.
Speaking of which, the Phantom's Staff of Arcane Shadows was now looking a lot more like its namesake. The wood had darkened further, now taking on a color similar to that of burnt charcoal. On its end, it had now curved further and formed an almost circular shape–though it didn't connect back to the staff's shaft. Three thorns appeared on the semi-circle that pointed towards its middle. The other end of the staff ended in a spear-like point.
The weapon's owner, however, was just concentrating on killing monsters.
Kuroko was now in the middle of a battle with a… gigantic… butterfly. The map he was in consisted of many smaller monsters similar to the one he was fighting, but it seemed this one was a mini-boss. The overgrown insect was dubbed a "Papirrio"
Its long tongue seemed to be its main weapon; with the appendage it tried multiple times to lash out and skew the Cleric straight through. The other things it could do included sending large gusts of wind with its wings and gathering all the lesser butterfly monsters, Papiko, in the area to its side. If this wasn't enough, it also had an insanely and annoying high amount of HP for something of this level.
The monster didn't do much damage, but all the distracting smaller monsters attacking and the gales of wind sent his way made it so he couldn't cast any of his stronger spells. This meant he had to fight with only his weaker AOEs and instant casts.
Overall Kuroko just found the process of fighting it very tedious. The only good thing about the situation, he supposed, was that he was at least getting some experience from the smaller creatures.
The Cleric dodged another of the large beast's tongue attack and sent a Magic Ball towards it. Earlier on in his battle, he'd found the tongue to be a weak spot. To his chagrin, it was difficult to hit because the Papirrio would reel it back just as quickly as it flicked out. When the bluenette did manage to hit it though, like what he did now, it brought the monster's HP down substantially faster.
[-2,638 HP, Papirrio: {5,423/120,000}]
It was at a time like this that Kuroko wished he had more offensive attacks. The stupid insect had already taken up a good twenty minutes and he was really starting to get tired of this, both figuratively and physically. He was also starting to run out of MP potions, which was not good at all considering he was alone. No way in hell would be abandon this fight when he'd already put so much time and effort into it though.
The monster let out a small screech, signaling it was about to summon more Papiko to its aid. At this, Kuroko got ready to launch an AOE attack, one strong enough to kill the weaker monsters in one hit. He chanted out the words to the spell, releasing them towards the Butterfly creatures when they clustered.
After they were hit he was about to attack the larger beast with another Magic Ball when an unexpected window appeared.
{Phantom's Staff of Arcane Shadows has leveled up!: level 20}
Strange. It never announced leveling up befo–
{Kuroko has learned the Element of Darkness!}
"…"
…What?
"..."
But of course, the bluenette had no time to be confused because the insect creature once again stuck out its long tongue and stabbed at him. This time, it even caused some damage (most previous attempts had been avoided because of the attack's low range).
[-254 HP, Kuroko: {923/1860}]
The next few moments were spent trying not to be blown away while Kuroko healed himself. Unsurprisingly, physical weight seemed to be a factor in this, to his dismay. He stumbled backwards a bit, but regained his footing by impaling the grass-covered plain with his staff and using it as a pivot.
That was when he got a good look at it.
Though relatively unchanged from the last he'd seen it (besides getting even darker), one new feature sorely stuck out.
In the middle of the semi-circle at the top of his staff was a small glowing jewel, suspended in the air between the three sharp points. It was a striking deep blue in color, rather like Kuroko's eyes in real life, and shaped like a diamond. Aside from this though, it seemed to emanate a dark, powerful aura; It was almost as if the weapon itself wanted to shroud this world in pitch black shades and chaos.
Hmmm…
Kuroko lifted his hand and opened his palm towards his enemy, which again was calling little minions to its side. This time, instead of visualizing energy or light forming, the Cleric imagined a ball of pure darkness.
He was rather amazed with his results.
Floating in front of his hand was a black sphere, much larger than any other Magic Ball he'd cast. It was like a black hole, seemingly sucking in even the air around it as it rotated, ready to be released.
And so, Kuroko let the sphere fly off towards the Papirrio. Even the speed had increased, the spell had shot from his hand like a rocket. His widened sky-colored eyes had trouble following the attack because of how explosively it had shot out.
Even more surprisingly, the monster died. All 5k of its remaining HP had been drained with that single last attack–not even on its weak-spot.
After being hit, the Papirrio burst into pixels as if it were a fireworks display.
{+8,000 Experience}
{Kuroko has obtained: Papirrio Wing, Papirrio Whip, 11,481 ladomi}*
Well… I could get used to this.
The next hour was spent putting points in dark spells and testing them out. Just like with the Dark Ball from earlier, his other spells were also much more effective than they were in their basic state. Even skills he had barely trained with before did at least double damage when imbued with darkness.
He was really having so much fun with this that he nearly forgot about the automatic log-out function. The time had really gotten away from him during the last seven hours.
Even though he was enjoying this newfound power so much, he decided it was probably time to take a break. The game patch announced earlier was going to start soon anyways. He also had a night shift at a convenience store to attend to later, and decided doing his chores and a nap would be a smarter move. Playing a game this long did do a number on one's mental state, after all.
Reluctantly, his fingers traced the air, opening the log-out screen.
.
"Are you sure you would like to quit game play?"
"Yes"*
"No"
.
"Yes"*
"No"
.
Once more, Kuroko opened his eyes to his ivory-colored ceiling.
He placed his gear on his desk, careful not to knock over any of his cluttered possessions.
Since he now had the time, he decided he'd use it to go grocery shopping as both his flat-mates and he had been putting it off for the last few days. They were seriously living off instant curry because they were all too lazy, busy, or incapable of buying ingredients and cooking them.
After a quickly asking the apartment's two other occupants for requests, he grabbed his bag and tied his shoes in the doorway."I'll be going now", he spoke out into the hall. Two calls of "have a safe trip!" responded let out a small smile and went about his business, thoughts in his head about magic, eggs, and kimchi.
I just realized. Eight chapters in(nine with the chapter 0) and Kuroko has only been playing the game for two days. Well, I guess different POVs took up two or three, but still, this is taking longer than even I expected. I'm pretty sure it'll speed up soon though, if my brain maps are any indication.
Anyways, thank you for reading~
I'm gonna go to sleep now cuz it's 2:00 AM.
Constructive criticism and/or feedback are always welcome~
