"Eww!" ,Leafa complained as the heel of her boot sunk into the sickly mud beneath three players had been traversing through the swamp mines for only a few minutes, and already the trek was starting to take a toll on her."How much further do we have to go?"
"Heh heh sorry,"Furo apologized looking back sheepishly,"The quest is just up ahead, this would be alot easier to do if we could fly, too bad this particular area doesn't have enough sunlight to fuel our wings."
"Yeah I noticed," Kirtio claimed through all players were given the ability of unlimited flight, they still needed sunlight or moonlight to power their wings enough to take 's this little detail that makes dungeons and boss rooms much harder than normal quest and missions."Hey,is that your guild up ahead?"
"Eh? Oh! You're right, that's them!"Furo broke into a huge smile and began calling out to a group of four players up ahead,"Hey guys! It's me!", He yelled excitedly.
"Yeah! Ya made it!" ,a salamander player greeted. He was taller than Furo by about two or three inches, he had blazing red hair with five black streaks blazing across it. His attire consisted of moderate, black and orange armor across his torso, blak and red gloves, black pants with yellow and red stripes running down them, and orange and brown combat boots. He was the only player with his sword currently drawn, due to the fact he was cleaning it, this gave Leefa and Kirito a glance at weapon was massive,similars to Kirtio's first weapon in ALO, only this one was thinner, curved more at the end, and was covered in with reds, yellows, and oranges with a gold first he had a smile on his face, but then he appeared confused when he saw the approaching party."Wait a minute, where are Lance and Lloyd? We can't do this without them."
"I know,I know," Furo assured him,"They both had to go fulfill some promises they made, but we don't need my brothers I found a Sylph willing to help us, plus a spriggan for to make up the now we have the same amount of players we were supposed to."
"Oh, well I guess it balances out, I guess…" This player was from the Pooka race, and had long blond had light purple armor around her chest. She had emerald pants that stopped at her ankles, and a black mini carried a silver shield with what appeared to be a bright yellow and orange flower on it. She was standing next to the salamander, leaning on his shoulder."Oh well, welcome aboard!," she greeted happily.
"Uh, Hi" Leafa greeted,"My name is Leefa, and this is my brother Kirtio."
"Hi everyone," Kirtio politely greeted.
"Alright," Furo spoke up,"So let me introduce everyone,the salamander is Ander, the pooka next to him is Pharis, the gnome over there is Ezio, and the leprechaun player is Marieck."
"Good job finding replacements for your brothers," the gnome apparently called Ezio complimented Furo. Having the signature qualities of gnome players, he was tall somewhere around six foot ten or eleven. He was clothed in silver, green, and white heavy armored from head to toe, and had a head full of green Leafa and Kirito he said,"And thank you two for braving this swamp to come help us, I know this is not a desirable place to explore" as he stuck out his hand as if to be shook.
"It was no trouble," Kirtio assured him, shaking his hand and being a little surprised by the formalness of the rather large player."we were really bored anyway so this was something fun for us to do."
"Excuse me," Marieck was the shortest member of the party somewhere four foot six or seven and his praying mantis posture didn't help matters. He had no armor on and wore a very basic outfit consisting of a black short sleeve shirt, some green pants, and a small brown cape that stopped at his elbows."But you wouldn't happen to be the dual wielding Kirito would you? Like...the real one?"
"Oh, yeah, I guess that's me," Kirto replied, slightly surprised we was still recognized after all this to him Leafa just rolled her eyes and smirked.
"Heh leave it to good ol reliable Furo to find one of the best players in the game to help on a litte quest like this,"Ander mused humorly,"Now we might actually have a chance to get this done."
"Ha! Speak for yourself,"Pharis joked, leaning closer to him,"I just increased my stats so now they are higher than they ever were, or do I need to kick your ass again to show you what I mean?"
Most of the other players just awkwardly watched their playful banter in especially, Leafa noted, slightly annoyed and just rolled his eyes."Uh let's get started on the quest!" she suggested trying to break the tension.
"Right! sorry,"Ander and Pharis apologized at the same time, then proceeded to giggle.
"So anyway,'Furo interrupted,"The quest we are going to be taking today is a bit of a longer is broken up into three different main acts, with what I assume is a boss fight in a fourth act."
"The different acts will have different objectives and require different skills from different races,"Ezio continued, "We can choose any of the three quest to take on in any order and they all take place in a different part of the swamp."
"The swamp gemstone bonus for this mission is through the roof!" Marieck exclaimed excitedly."I found this quest while flying over head and crashing into this swamp."
"Ah I was wondering how you guys found this place",Kirito joked,"and here I thought you heard about it through a cycle of players,"
"Nope it was all luck!" Mareick assured"all luck."
"To take the quest we need to talk to that npc over there." Pharis explained pointing to what appeared to be an old man clothed in rags with colors that matched the swamp around appeared to just sit there leaning slightly forward but doing nothing.
"Then what are we waiting for?!" Leafa exclaimed excitedly, her previous discomfort completely forgotten being replaced with raw enthusiasm."let's clear this quest!" The other party members hooted and cheered in excitement and began to make their way over to begin the before Leafa could join them, Kirito grabbed her arm and made a face like he wanted to talk."What is it?" Leafa asked suddenly concerned," Is something wrong?"
"Um,no it's nothing like that," Kirito assured her sheepishly,"It's just…...I was just wondering…...when those two players were,um,flirting….is it always that awkward when Asuna and I do it?"
"Oh that…" Leafa sighed with relief it was nothing serious and honestly a little surprised it took him this long to ask a question like this,especially with the way his other female companions reacted to it. I suppose love makes some people oblivious."I'll tell you when you're older." She replied made a face,then began to snicker once he understood the was about to respond with a witty retort of his own when Furo motioned them the duo reach the rest of the party, Ander had already triggered the mission start which was the old npc's que to begin his monologue.
"The legend of these swampy mines is short and full of wars.A long time ago, the inhabitants of this kingdom lived here happily mining the caves, fishing in the swamps, and exploring the lived so care-free because they had three elemental guardians protecting , dark wizard placed a blood lust spell on the guardians, causing them to become more powerful and destructive to anyone they come the surviving inhabitants abandoned this place and it became a kingdom ruled by monster in-turn, cause the swamp to become hostile and wretched to anyone not of origin from order to reverse the damage done, the three guardians have to be defeated, and their elemental souls need to be returned into their pedestals. Finally, the castle would then have to be cleared of all evil monsters living that is done, this kingdom would be saved any the warriors who saved used would be rewarded with our secret supply of treasures and riches we have amassed over the years.."He paused as if he was catching his breath,"Now, who wishes to help our fallen kingdom?'
With huge grins on their faces the group yelled out,"WE ARE!" in unison and selected the begin mission prompt.