A armor laid on the soft ground, rested on a large stone.
It was a set of full plate armor, made from a tough black metal and decorated with ornate gold engravings. An Italian armet made from the same material and decorated in the same style laid above it. Under the armor was a gambeson, made from bluish grey cloths. Covered the left side of the armor was a half cape, made from blue silk and decorated with complex gold threats. The cape beared an insigna: an open book with a burning torch in the middle of the pages.
The armor sat in silent for hours. Until suddenly, a flash of blue light came from the helmet's visor. Two orbs of light formed inside of the helmet.
The pieces of the armor: the helmet, the gauntlets, the boots started to got closer to the armor and settled in places as if it was being worn by a human.
The right gauntlet flinched. Its shoulder twitched.
The orb flickered as the armor slowly rose up. It steadied its hand on the stone.
The helmet turned. Its gaze swept across the landscape.
It was on a hill, next to a tall mountain range and a river.
Vast green forest covered the horizon. Clear sky with a bright shade of blue surrounded the blazing sun. White cloud drifting across the pure sky.
It could hear the sound of bird chirping, the sound of winds on the grass, and the breeze of the wind ran across the armor.
"Open Logout Menu."
The armor whispered. Its voice was hollow, hard and cold as steel.
Nothing happened.
Its frantically tried to find something in the air. But there was nothing.
It grabbed its helmet, tried to remove it. With a strong and quick pull, the helmet came off.
Inside of the armet was a burning flame, a blue flame dancing with the wind.
The gauntlets reached to its neck, and felt nothing above it.
"Woah-What?!"
Its right gauntlet grabbed its left and pulled. The gauntlet came off, revealed a flame inside with the vague shape of a hand. The right gauntlet touched the flame and felt nothing above its wrist.
It started to panic.
Yet, it felt nothing.
The mind was confused, tangled. But its feeling was empty, as if its mind was creating these feeling instead of its emotion.
Even parts of its mind was calm too. As if this was normal.
After the panic died down, the armor sat on the ground, returned to where it once was.
"What is happening?"
It whispered.
Nile Hilt… was its name, right? Or was there another name?
It was… a player?... A living armor… A living armor player?
Its memories slowly returned. Part of it felt muddled, as if something was changing rapidly within it.
"YGGDRASIL…"
It looked at the blue sky… How long had it been since the las time he saw a sky this bright and clear?
"I was playing YGGDRASIL. I was on top of my guild base before the game close…"
His 'eyes' darted around.
"And where the hell am I?"
He walked for hours. Yet, his feet hadn't tired. His body was made of metal and magic, so normal limitation of flesh wasn't applied. It was a feature in YGGDRASIL. But this time, he had the feeling that he wasn't in the game anymore. The armor plates was rigid, and he could even feel the inside of his armor and the magic coursed within him. Like sometime you can feel your blood flowing in your vein.
Another thing was the interface. He couldn't open it, no matter how hard he tried. Not a single menu was usable, they didn't even show up when he called them. It reminded him of the no HUD option of old games. He often use it for a more 'cinematic' experience. Maybe it was because of that? Possibly.
Then there was also this place. It reminded him of Midgard. But clearly this area wasn't discovered by anyone. Everything seemed to be untouched, not a single foot step could be seen. Back in the day, he would observe it with awe and caution. This area clearly was either hidden from the players, or was so far and dangerous to the point no one had ever been able to reach it before. He hoped it wasn't the later.
There were many mysteries in the game hidden from the players, even to the last hours. Maybe somehow he entered a dev room or maybe an area required specific requirement to get to? Maybe a token of appreciation from the developer to those who stayed with the game in its last moment?
Or was it a glitch which soft locked him from getting out of the game?
"Strange… everything is much more real here…"
Or was he in another world? He chuckled at the idea.
"The devs used quite advanced assets here, huh? This looks like a real tree."
He touched a tree, felt the rough bark and even saw a cluster of ants on it.
He could see the sun light reflect on the river's surface, and the small waves created by a fallen leave.
Why were them so real to him?
After a few moment of testing out everything he could think of, he found out some stuff he could still use.
Like his inventory.
As he walked, he took his compass out.
He didn't have any map of the area, so his only hope was heading north. Or find a high hill or mountain side to get a view of the area.
His compass opened, the arrow pointed north.
And his 'waypoint' arrow pointed east.
He looked at the compass, shook it a few time, which he found it weird. Normally, once he set up a waypoint, the compass will point toward it. But if he doesn't it will turn frantically or stay at north.
That meant a waypoint was close to him. And the last time he set a way point…
"The Grand Archive…"
The Grand Archive, his guild base was also in this place.
But how did they get seperated? He was with the Archive not too long ago… Right?
He sat on it, maybe that's why he got seperated from it? What if he was inside of it?
Or could it be that he was simply teleported to an area far from the Archive due a glitch? Like an out of bound secret/cut content or something like that.
But no matter, his priority was set. The Archive was his best bet in finding out what the hell happened. If it was in the same region with him, both of them were teleported to an unknown area either through an event or a glitch, he hope it was the former. If it wasn't there, or he couldn't reach it by convention means, then it was a glitch. In that case, he hoped that his knowledge about glitches in old video games could be applied to YGGDRASIL. His mind felt a sudden chill when he thought of the second possibility, or at least he thought so.
He looked at the estimated distant.
100 kilometers.
The number made him cringed.
While he hadn't felt anything like exhaustion or strain (since he didn't have any muscle), he could try to make it all the way to the Archive within 1 in-game day. But he didn't know what was ahead of him. The area seemed to be quite peaceful, with only small animals like birds or fishes. However, random encounter wasn't rare in YGGDRASIL. He was attacked by a pack of wyverns while he was strolling with his party once.
But the wyvern gave him an idea. He still had his mount, at least he remembered that he did. Opened his inventory, he found his favourite steed.
People often prefer horse class mounts for their speed. Some also use wyvern or raptor, which he approved as he was also a lizard enjoyer. He himself also have a land drake, but he left the poor little guy in the dungeon within the Archive with the rest of his friends. And for some reason, not many players use musk ox. They were resilent, strong and quite fast. One of his theory was the large gap between a normal musk ox and the high level ones.
Gorthor was the name of his steed. An ancient musk ox he won in his first guild war. He considered the ox as one of his greatest trophy and a loyal companion. The rest of the Loreseeker often made fun of him when he treated it like a living thing.
The ox slowly manifested in front of him. Its majestic dark fur emitted a dim teal aura. The large pair of horns made it looked like a living battle ram, which wasn't far from the truth since Gorthor's charge could easily break the defense of a middle to low level player.
"Come here, boy."
Nile beckoned. It was just a command, but he often act like Gorthor was a real thing.
The ox's movement was much more… natural. They way its thich fur swayed with every step, the heavy breathe, the way its tongue licked its lips, the way it move its legs. And when the ox was near, it 'jumped' toward him, pushed the living armor back a step, and started to lick him. The ox licked his chest and his face, like a way to express its feeling.
It was bizarre to Nile. Gorthor was alive. It attacked him with its licks and snuggled, its eyes was filled with the essence of a living thing, the calm and peaceful eyes reminded him of a cow.
After the 'assault', Gorthor lowered its body and sat down. It looked at Nile, then to its surroundings.
"This can't be a game…" Nile whispered. He wanted to deny that fact. But at the same time, he wasn't sure of what he was in.
Gorthor was a good steed. Just after an hour, they had travelled roughly 40 km, and the ox was strolling, rather than running at full speed.
The scene around them might be repetitive, but to Nile, it was paradise. The aspect of this could be another world actually was interesting to him, as much as he feared it. If this was another world, it could also mean he was free from that damned world.
A like one of his favourite quote, this was a chance to begin again.
He could travel around this world, and who knew what was out there? He didn't need to eat, drink, and maybe even sleep, although he missed the taste of fruits and sparkling water. He could study this world's mysteries, biology and even more! He was tempted to discover what kind of lore this world had.
They followed the river. He wasn't as hurry as he was before. The feeling of riding a real ox wasn't something he could experience before, why not savour it while it last? And the compass was still the same. It would only took him least than an hour to get there if they speeded up.
As they travelled to a plain, Nile saw something not too far away. A column of smoke rose from the ground. Smoke often meant civilization. But something was wrong. The smoke was too much if it was for cooking, too little if it was forest fire. The only thing could possibly created it was a somekind of festival which use a large ammount of wood.
Or a burning house.
"Canter, boy!"
Gorthor started to gain speed. They got closer and closer to the source of the smoke.
It was a village next to the river. It was burning.