All additional characters belong to me, unless otherwise stated. They either came from my own characters in any MMORPG I've played, or from my story Virei Xi at fictionpress. Again, I have publish dates and game accounts to prove such (Among other things).
Some quick vocab: (Skip if you've played an online RPG before, it's a long list.)
NPC - Non-player Character, or rather, controlled by the game program or server.
PK - Player Killing or Player Killer. One actual player killing another actual player.
Ninja (loot) - To take the items or money (loot) off of a monster that was killed by another player without their permission.
Lag - The result of a poor connection, or too many processes running at once on a computer.
Named - A monster that has a name that differs from other monsters of the same type. Usually the boss or mini-boss of a zone or dungeon.
Mob - Another name for monster.
Train - A string of three or more monsters, usually in pursuit of a (few) character(s). Normally results in an announcement to the zone, to warn other players. To be trained is to be "Run over" by the mobs unexpectedly, and either die, or get close to it.
Raid - As a noun, it is the collective group of adventurers that are working towards the same goal (ie. To kill a big monster that needs several people to do it, to solve a quest that requires more than one person, etc.). As a verb, it means the act of invading a zone to complete that certain goal.
Guild - A group of people that have the same goals, and want to be committed to completing them with others. Different guilds have different ideals, and different requirements to join them.
Thanks for the reviews, everyone! Keep them coming!
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"Kaiba's in the store!" Yugi announced to Jounouchi, who was lazily napping on the couch. He was wearing blue jeans and a white tee shirt. Yugi of course, was all dressed up as usual, even though he had no plans of leaving the house today.
"Oh, what does that jerk want?" he yawned, getting to his feet. Yugi had already disappeared. He figured he might as well see what the creep was up to.
Yugi was working the register in place of his grandpa. The old man had stepped out to buy something at a store down the road. The short boy handed Kaiba a blue bag that had some sort of book in it, and said, "Thanks for coming, Kaiba!" The taller one just glared at him in return and turned to leave the store. His black trench coat, of course, was defying gravity as usual.
"Hey! You jerk!" Jounouchi yelled at him, "Yugi gives ya good customer service, and you just ignore him? Why, I oughta…" He tightened his fist and shook it in the air before him.
"You're right, mutt," he turned around and pierced him with his icy orbs, "I should thank him for having the only store to carry this item in all of Domino." His voice was bitter and sarcastic.
Jou yawned and then ran right up to Kaiba, getting in his face. He showed him his clenched fists and and said, "I'm not a dog!"
"Well," Kaiba malevolently smirked, "You seem to have been sleeping like a lazy dog would, at noon, as a matter of fact." He grabbed him by the collar of his tee, "What's wrong, did you stay up all night chasing your own tail?"
"Grr," Jounouchi growled, shoving the snobby boy away from him. He was thankful that Kaiba let go willingly, being considerate enough to not tear his shirt at least. He stared him in the eyes and remarked, "Yeah, well your face looks like you've been up all night too! What were YOU doing? Cuddling all of your Blue-Eyes White Dragon cards the whole time?"
"Tch," Kaiba grunted. He huffed and turned his back to the annoying boy, leaving the store. The jingle of the bells tied to it sounded like a triumphant fanfare in Jounouchi's head.
"What did ya sell him anyway, Yug?" the agitated and tired boy asked, yawning again.
"Some game magazine, I think," the very alert one replied, shutting the cash register, "I didn't really look because I didn't want to bother him." He brushed a neon bang out of his eyes, and stepped away from the counter.
"Ahh," he opened his mouth wide. He really was tired.
"Why were you up all night?" Yugi inquired, "Did I…" The door jingled, signaling that someone entered; "Make too much noise when we slept together?"
A gasp was heard. Jounouchi turned around, and saw Otogi standing with his jaw gaped open. He pointed ahead in disbelief.
"You…two?!" he exclaimed, "You two…you're…dating?! You guys…AHH!" Even his verdant eyes seemed to shake in place.
"What?" Yugi innocently stared at the trembling dice-kid. He blushed when he realized the double entendre of what he said.
"No! No!" Jounouchi's arms created an impervious barrier around him, "I'm staying with Yug over the break! I just didn't sleep last night! It's not what you think!" It was hard for him to explain it to his friend, mostly because his face was beet red at the thought of it. Yami's eyes flashed in his head, not to mention the sexy avatar of "Duke" when he stared at Otogi.
"Then why is your face so red!" Otogi teased. He couldn't hold it any longer, and began to laugh. He really was too cruel to his friends sometimes.
"So why are you here?" Yugi asked him.
He shrugged and answered, "I just wanted to stop by and ask if you two would play again today. I was running around last night and ran into Bakura's character."
"Ryou Bakura?" the blonde asked, "I didn't know he was into that sort of stuff!"
"Oh, you bet he is. You know how much of an introvert he is," Otogi fondled a strand of his black hair, "It's the perfect place for people like him to break out of their shell. He actually is level fifteen!"
"WOW!" the two other boys shouted in unison.
"Yeah, I know," Otogi agreed, "He has a dark knight. Looks pretty neat. He said that he would help us level more over the week if we wanted to."
Jou was excited. He thought of his hunting expedition last night with that girl, and smiled. Would she be on tonight as well? He hoped that she would group with him again. Nymphe was a great player. Her spells kept Joukatsu well healed, and when they actual found themselves in deep trouble, they had managed to use their chemistry to beat one of the named monsters of the dungeon. It dropped a silver sword, something that was much better than the beginner broad sword he and Honda both had.
"Well, I'm going to go log on now," Jou said, waltzing trance-like back into the house portion of the building.
Login Name: jouk01
Password:
Loading world files…
You have entered Laen!
Finally the server let him log in. Jounouchi was anxious to gain more levels with Nymphe today. Yugi was still in the store, working. He typed in a search command for people on his friend list.
Friends Online: 1
(Lvl: 8 Dragon Cleric) Nymphe; Zone:Laen (Click to send message)
"Alright!" he said out loud. He couldn't wait to see her. Joukatsu ran over to the inn where they had first met, and found her in the same corner, face to face with a short and ugly halfling archer.
"Come on, group with me! Pleeeeeezzzzz!" he whined.
"No, I don't group with hobbits," Nymphe responded. Her arms were folded in a nonchalant manner that seemed vaguely familiar to him.
"Come on baby, you know you want to group with this sexy haffer!" the short annoyance said. He wiggled his rear end and twirled around in a stumbling circle. Jou stared at the scene, disgusted. He had to do something, and soon.
"Archer's should be taller," the heavenly voice scathed, "And more honorable. Go away."
"But I'll need sum healin' luuuuv!" he informed her. That's it.
The blonde warrior stomped in to the corner and stood in front of his friend. He stood in an offensive stance and clicked the "Duel" icon, with the halfling targeted. Glaring at the tiny pervert, he proclaimed, "The lady said that she doesn't wanna group, now beat it!"
"Joukatsu, you don't have to defend me, I can take care of it," Nymphe informed him.
"I have to defend a maiden's honor, and the dignity of decent players," he turned his head and winked at her.
"Fine, I accept," the hobbit said. The duel prompt showed up on Jou's monitor, and the fight began. Other characters began to form a half-circle around the fight.
Jou readied his sword, waiting for the other to attack him first. He had to know his abilities before taking the offensive. After several minutes of nothing, and a small eruption of laughter, Jou yelled, "Come on, do something!" The hobbit grinned and shook his head, which angered him. After (not) thinking for a moment, Jounouchi clicked attack and started swinging his sword at the archer.
"Take that! Can't hit me with a bow at close range can ya?"
"Jou…" the girl behind him sighed.
An NPC guard charged into the tavern, and in one swipe, did two hundred damage to Jou's health, killing his character. Jou sighed and leaned back on the chair, thinking of how unfair it was for there to be an interference. He waited as his character loaded back into Laen. He popped in at the bind spot, wearing nothing but a dusty pair of cloth shorts.
"I suppose I have to run back to the inn and loot my body," he yawned, leaning back in the chair, and almost tipping it completely backward.
"Jou," Nymphe shook her head. She was sitting in a chair next to the corpse.
"That was lame," he said to her, looting his body, which poofed when all of the items were transferred back to him. He scanned the inn, searching for the halfling, to duel him again.
"He teleported out of here after you died," she informed him.
"Hehe, it was a good move too!" a troll, dressed in oracle armor added, "Don't you know that if you fight in towns, the NPC guards'll kill ya?" Jou tilted his head to the side. The troll just laughed at him.
"Well, do you want to group today?" Jou asked the cleric.
She looked to the side and said, "I suppose. I don't have much time to play, I have something important to do in real life."
"That's okay, I have to catch up to my friends," Jou said, "They are all level ten already." The two of them started their journey to the Undead Caverns, never communicating the fact that they both wanted to head there. They both just knew.
"I don't believe that we will be able to gain two levels in an hour," Nymphe relayed her thoughts to him, "We can try, though. I've scribed a new spell that can do up to fifty points of damage on undead creatures."
"Let the skellie slaying begin!" Jou bounced, "Do ya think that the named will respawn again?"
"I've read in this strategy guide that most non-quest lower level monster bosses have a respawn rate of five hours real time. So, if we have the zone to ourselves again…" she turned to smile at him, "Then we could probably catch him."
"Well, we better clear them quickly, before you have to go."
"I have an hour," she informed him, "It should be enough time." A satchel poofed into her hand, and she pulled out two blue potion bottles. Handing one to him, she stated, "Earlier today, some high level knight gave these to me. The effect on them is Running Spirit, so let's use them so we can get there faster."
"Alright!"
The skeleton fell to the ground, its bones making a funny clattering sound. It was Jou's turn to loot it, and he found a very strange item.
An Ancient Book: Page 405
Weight: .01
Size: Tiny
Effect: Doom
"What does the spell 'Doom' do?" Jou asked his partner.
"I'll look it up," she answered. A few moments later, she replied, "It is a spell that can cause instant death." A few seconds later, she said. "If the target is more than five levels below you, there is a one-hundred percent chance of it working. If the target is within five levels in any direction of you, the percentage is sixty. Six or more levels above you, the chance is reduced to forty, except for named mobs." There was another pause; "There is only a one percent chance of it working on them. You also can't use it to PK."
"What is PK?" the warrior asked. He was already level nine, and Nymphe had just gained level ten.
"Player kill. You can't use it in duels."
"Oh, sounds cool. Can players learn it?"
"No," she explained, "There are only two items in the game so far, aside from hidden ones, that have that effect. It says here that the items disappear after they are used, like a potion. They are also rare."
"Well, you take it then," Jou said, handing his friend the scroll. She reluctantly accepted it.
"Um…Thanks, but you don't have to give it to me."
"No," Jou thought for a moment, "You can't fight up close with monsters, because they can interrupt your spells. You might need it to get out of danger." He took a sip of his pop that was set next to the keyboard. He liked to help people out, even if it was just a computer game character.
"Um…Thanks," Seto typed, "But you don't have to give it to me." He had been receiving gifts all day. He really didn't need another item to fill up his inventory. He figured that he would take it anyway.
"No, you can't fight up close with monsters, because they can interrupt your spells. You might need it to get out of danger." It seemed like Joukatsu genuinely was concerned for his character's safety.
"Big brother," Mokuba burst into the office, "They're here, and waiting in the conference room."
Seto sighed, knowing that he probably shouldn't have played the game at the corporate office. He looked up from his laptop and told Mokuba, "Five minutes." The preteen nodded and left the room.
"I have to go now," he typed, "Real life awaits me."
He watched the human dig his heel into the cavern floor. The torch beside them made his hair appear slightly orange. After a few seconds of idling, he said, "Oh…"
Kaiba was hurt slightly. Had he really disappointed his hunting partner? He quickly keyed, "I'll be back later, around midnight."
"Awesome! I'll try to be on and we can hunt again!" Seto smiled, something that he found himself doing more often since he started playing this game.
Nymphe bowed, then sat down to set up camp, or log out. It suddenly hit Seto, to cancel the process quickly. There was one last thing that he had to do….
Joukatsu has been successfully added to your Friends List!
He restarted the logout process, and shut his laptop as he left for the meeting.
Thanks to Santurion2, nasako, mangafan6, Egypts, and Kumora Sakusho formerly Saelbu for all the lovely reviews!
To answer the main questions - This game is made up by me, but NOT made up by me. It is a conglomerate of games like this that I have played myself, but it is most heavily influenced by a game called EverQuest. So yes, these types of games do exist! If anyone needs a good reference of how the games work, the .hack series is a great reference (However, I played EverQuest for three years before I had even heard of .hack).