Disclaimers are the same for all chapters.
Nevaeh is my character name, however, Bakura is not my creation.Vocab:
Hate list - The list of all NPCs or characters that a monster has been attacked by. To wipe a name off a hate list, the character has to be killed (Forcing the character to zone), run into a different zone (again, forcing a zone), or the monster has to be killed. Monsters will attack players on its hate list.Aggro - Think Aggression. The more aggro a person has (as in, they've done the most damage OR they have a very high damage per second rate), the higher priority on the hate list they are for target.
Aggro Range - The maximum distance between a hostile monster and a player, where the monster will detect the player and begin to attack it. Different for different monsters.
Bind - Bind is a spell that resets a character's respawn point (Where they pop up after death). Spellcasters can bind anywhere, as they have the spell, but fighter types of any kind can only be bound to cities, towns, and villages. The default bind point for all characters is their starting town, until the player changes it themselves.
Emotes - Think emoticons. Commands that a player can enter in order to see their character do a certain action or animation.
-Sigh- Even though the quick editor has the indentation button, it won't save right, so the story format is going to hell.
Read, Review, Enjoy :)
"Ahh! Train!"
Jounouchi, Yugi, Anzu, and Honda, were all standing together in a zone called the Frozen Plains, waiting for Otogi to show up. Jou watched as a figure approached at a terribly high speed, dashing for the zone line behind them. Pursuing the figure was what looked like a pack of dogs, and three beefy ogres.
"Ahh! Train!" the figure called again, whizzing by the group so fast that they couldn't see him. He zoned, dropping his aggro completely, but now the pack of monsters was within aggro range of Jou and his group.
"Run and zone everyone!" Yugi yelled. Everyone except Anzu made it. She was quickly killed, and sent back to her bind point…which was ten dangerous zones away. She had forgotten to do what the rest of them had done, and bind in a nearby ice village.
"Whew, sorry about that, everyone," the trainer apologized on the other side of the zone line. Everyone, save Anzu, was in a zone called the Blue Crystal Caves.
"Help," Anzu had typed in the group's personal chat window, all the way from Laen.
"Try to find a teleport," Honda typed in.
"Okay," she said.
Jou studied yet another finely detailed body. The trainer, whose name was Nevaeh, had his name set to "Anonymous", so that one couldn't tell his level or class unless they were good at eyeing armor. While he didn't know much about the game, Jou certainly knew how to eye armor…
He could only assume that the elegance in front of them was a half-elf. He had very long and layered hair, nearly pure white, just like his skin. His tribal pigments on his face were silver, and his eyes were crimson. Nevaeh's armor was similar to Duke's, in the sense that it was extremely tight, but it was made of abysmally black leather. The one thing to mention was the black cape made of feathers which drooped down to his ankles.
"You killed our friend!" Honda accused him. Jou snapped out of it, and became angry as well.
"I'm sorry, I truly am!" The beautiful avatar's voice was very familiar to everyone.
"Hey guys, sorry I'm late," Otogi strolled up, strumming his lute. He turned to Nevaeh and said, "Hey man! You found them already?"
The pale half-elf blinked and replied, "I did?"
"You mean this was purely by accident?" Otogi questioned everyone as he joined the group, "Well, I suppose that I did ask you to meet here, but I was expecting you all to be on the other side of the zone."
"O..Duke? Explain?" Jou requested.
"It's Ryou," he stated.
"OH!" everyone exclaimed. They hugged him quickly and invited him to join the group as well.
"Sorry that I got you killed, Anzu," Bakura typed in group chat.
As everyone else started speaking to each other, Jounouchi flew off into space. He kept imagining his next encounter with Nymphe, and he couldn't help but stare at the characters Duke and Nevaeh. This game was giving him some serious issues. He quickly shook his head, trying to rid himself of the naughty thoughts. These people were his friends, not to mention guys.
Nymphe tells you, 'Greetings.'
He quickly came out of his trance and typed a personal message back, saying, "Hey! It's only eight! I'm glad you came on earlier." He hit the enter key, and immediately regretted sending the message. It almost sounded as if he was hitting on her, and he knew that too many losers and perverts already did enough of that.
Nymphe tells you, 'You're…glad?'
"Well," he scanned his brain for a way out, "We really work good together."
Nymphe tells you, 'You don't have to explain. You are in the Blue Crystal Caves? I'll come meet you, I can get a teleport with ease.'
"Awesome!" he replied. She didn't send anything back. He got involved in the group conversation again, and asked in the middle of it, "Um, do we have enough room to invite a Dragon Cleric?"
Yugi sighed again, disappointed in his friend. However, it was Jounouchi. He placed a hand on his hip and responded, "Yes, we can have up to ten people in a hunting group!"
"Who is it?" Honda asked.
"Just a friend…" Jou replied, knowing that his old pal would tease him if he said anything else.
Honda bonked him over the head. It was too late, he had sensed him! He winked, remarking, "Just a friend, huh? Yeah right! You dog! You met someone already?"
"I'm not a dog!" Jou snapped. Only Kaiba called him that, and it hurt every time.
"Eer, sorry dude," the other warrior apologized.
"Good evening," a divine voice addressed them. It was Nymphe, looking as beautiful as ever to Jou.
"Hi, Nymphe!" Joukatsu exclaimed. He nearly tackled the other character to the ground with his running friendly embrace. She was swiftly introduced to the other players.
Nymphe tells you, 'You never said that there would be a group…'
"Does that bother you?" he messaged back. He blushed a bit, and also felt a tad guilty. They did seem to have a strong connection, after all.
Nymphe tells you, 'No, it's fine."
Jounouchi wasn't sure if she was lying, or not. After a few moments, she joined the group, so at least it wasn't a complete disappointment. Soon after, they all zoned back in to the Frozen Plains to wait for Anzu.
Duke tells you, "Whoa, she is fricken hot.'
Renga tells you,"DUDE!!!!!'
"Anzu just sent me a private message, saying that she doesn't think she is going to like this girl, Jounouchi," Yugi said, standing in the doorway.
"She gets too jealous," the blonde replied, not taking his eyes off of the screen. Yugi returned to the other room.
"I can revive her," Nymphe announced, staring at the lifeless corpse of Teani, "It is a level ten spell. It won't bring back the experience that she has lost, but she will be transported right to the corpse." She began chanting something, closing her eyes. Her perfect hair actually began to move, due to the force of the spell. Blue sparkles emanated from her hands, looking like tiny waterfalls that spilled onto the corpse. Moments later, Teani appeared on top of her body.
"Wow! That was so neat!" Yugi bounced.
"I have to sit and regenerate some of my magic energy back. According to the spell details, it takes one hundred fifty points to cast Revive."
"It's all right, while we hunt, I can protect you two as you regain everything!" Jou informed them. Both ladies smiled at him.
The hunt went on until a little after midnight. The statistics of the night were simple; everyone except Bakura had gained three levels. He had only gained one, because he didn't receive as much experience as everyone else did due to his higher level. Otogi had insisted on flirting with everyone the entire night, so much so, that it was embarrassing to claim to know him. No one died, or even came close to it, though, because Nymphe was such an excellent player.
It became obvious that she was going to become a part of their regular group. Everyone worked so well with her. However, the connection between she and Jou was the strongest. After a fairly large battle, everyone had to rest, and no one could stand to fight. An ogre ran by and trained them, and the two of them single-handedly defended the group.
Jounouchi stirred in bed. His sleeping schedule was off now, and he couldn't help but wonder if Nymphe was still online, or if she was being harassed by perverts again. He carefully climbed over Yugi, and went back to the computer.
"I'm sorry about earlier," the warrior told him, "O..Duke can be a real idiot sometimes."
"Don't worry about it," Seto typed, "We are almost level fourteen because of that group."
"Are you sure? It seemed like you didn't want to group with them at first," Joukatsu said. He put a finishing blow on the ghost, and looted the body.
"Yes, your friends are…" Seto exhaled, wondering how on Earth he was ever demented enough to compliment people, "They are okay. We would not be this deep in the Undead Caverns if we had not hunted with them earlier." There, putting a logical spin on it made it sort of all right to say.
"So, is it late for you? It's almost one in the morning for me," he stated. The brunette sighed. His partner was so naïve, but it made him adorable.
"This game has only been released in Japan so far," Seto told him.
"Oh, so it's late for you too!" the human laughed. He spun around and stared at his resting cleric, "Hey, stand up for a sec! I just found a whole list of cool emotes we can do. These things always look so cool!"
Why the hell not? Might as well be nice and let his friend play around. They did several various things to each other. Their characters burped, flicked each other the finger, stuck their tongue out, hugged, flexed…it was almost endless, and they never did get to all of them. Seto found himself cackling out of happiness, instead of his usual boastful laughter.
"What's this one?" the blonde said. Suddenly, he had put an arm around Nymphe's waist.
Congrats! Your screenshot has been saved in your Virei folder!
"Let's kill a few more ghosts," he said, trying to avert the situation. After just two days, he had just found himself wishing that it was actually him in the game, receiving the slight embrace. He had to get these thoughts out of his head; Joukatsu was a male character. There was a very small chance that he was a female in disguise.
"Ever wonder how you can kill a ghost?" Joukatsu said as he brought the next monster back for them to fight.
Seto grinned. It was yet another pointless conversation that the two of them were going to have, and he enjoyed it. He hit his spell hotkey, and Nymphe was casting the most powerful undead damage spell she had. The ghost was dead. He smiled, and typed, "That's how."
"That's not what I meant!"
"I know," he laughed to himself.
"So, will you play tomorrow?" he asked 'her'.
After going through his schedule tomorrow, he replied, "Yes. I have an important meeting at noon, which should end at about one."
"Okay, I will probably wake up around then…Oh, you work at a company?" he inquired.
Kaiba swallowed at the question. He really didn't want to lie to his friend, but he didn't want to give away his identity. He lied, "Occasionally I have to do presentations, but nothing too important."
"Ah, you must be much older than me then…Eer! WaitaminuteIdidn'tmeanthat…"
"Hmm?" Seto typed, unable to audibly understand the last sentence that the warrior babbled.
"Eer, I know you aren't supposed to ask a lady her age, or call her..older. I guess what I meant was that I am still in high school."
He felt relieved, a little bit. Even though he had just lied, it was nice knowing that it wasn't an old guy that he was nearly flirting with. He replied, "Do not worry. I'm not that much older."
"I guess that's a relief," Jou remarked, beating up another ghost monster. Seto used his heal spell, then finished it with a damage spell. He picked the corpse, only to find more gold.
"Yes, I know, we have a good connection," Kaiba commented absent-mindedly.
"Ya read my mind there!" he beamed her a smile.
"Have we cleared far enough to move ahead?" Seto asked. He was twirling a pencil with his fingers, starting to daydream. Or maybe he was tired. He wasn't quite sure what was going on. As he waited for a reply, he stared at the bookcases along the wall that he was facing. Was he really gay? How could he think such thoughts after such a small amount of time? Is this why many people claimed online games were so dangerous? He checked his screen, and noticed that his friend had finally replied.
"I wish I could answer you, but I have to go now," he looked down, "See you tomorrow, okay?"
"Alright," Seto replied. He was hoping to stay online a bit longer, but maybe it was best to go to bed now, since he had that meeting tomorrow.
"You have that meeting tomorrow, so maybe you should hit the sack too, huh?" Jou chuckled, as did Seto.
They said their good-byes, and logged out simultaneously. Before shutting his laptop closed, he checked his Virei game folder, and set the screenshot that he took as his desktop wallpaper.
Thanks to Dan, Amarin Rose, Cherry-Wolf, Drakemar, Kioee Manioso, Glen, and Kumori Sakusho formerly Saelbu for all your awesome reviews.
This is one of my favorite experiments, so I am glad that everyone is enjoying it!