Hello, ladies and gentlemen, Spiceracksargent001 here, with Chapter 3 of Yu-Gi-Oh Virtual: Enter the Element Reavers. This is mostly the introduction to the Village of Beginnings, with Cloud and Diana getting their gear upgraded, and Cloud picking up a very special friend who will be getting a lot of scene time further down the road.
Props go to Phoenix Champion's Yu-Gi-Oh Virtual: Alpha Gear Chronicles, for inspiring me to make this story. Check it out, it's in the early stages, like mine, but it's still a very good read. Love your work, Phoenix, keep up the good work.
So, without further ado, on to the story!
After a bit of walking, our little group of two players and two Monsters reached the small village that Harpie's Brother found, which, according to my world map, was called 'Village of Beginnings'. It was a nice place, all things considered. Pretty simple looking, but it has a rather welcoming feel to it all.
"Finally," Diana sighs while stretching. "So glad to be out of that forest."
"At least we know where this place is now so we can rest up after any future excursions," I reply distractedly while looking at a tutorial notification that had appeared in my Help menu after we entered the village. I went silent for a bit to read it before relaying the information to Diana. "Okay, so, according to the tutorial we just got, Villages, Towns, and Cities are classified as safe areas, meaning that we can unwind, shop, grab a bite to eat, and quick travel to any other settlements we've been to previously, and all players get their own Room which we can quick travel to, either from the Warp Gates in each settlement, or from our Bracers while in a settlement of any size, after reaching this very Village."
"Cool," Diana says as she suddenly grabs me by the arm and starts pulling me along. "Now come on, let's find the card shop so you can sell those Silver Fangs!"
"Woah!" I yelp in surprise as the vampiress starts dragging me, causing me to stumble as I try to regain my footing as we walk. "I can walk fine on my own, Diana!"
A snicker and giggle from behind us made me glare at Harpie's Brother and Dance Princess of the Ice Barrier from over my shoulder as I struggled to regain my balance. "Not helping, you two."
~5 minutes later~
After finally convincing Diana to stop dragging me by the arm after about 3 minutes, we spent the following 2 minutes walking around town, just looking for the Card Shop.
"I think that's it up ahead," Harpie's Brother says, making us all stop and look as he pointed to a sign hanging from the roof of a nearby building. Said sign was of three cards being in the same manner as a hand from the card game.
"Looks like it," Dance Princess comments. "Now let's head inside!"
~inside the store~
"Welcome to the Starter Card Shop!" the shopkeeper said as our little group entered. Dude was an actual dwarf with this huge, red beard. Not exactly what I was expecting, but damn that is a nice beard. "This is probably your first time here, right?"
"Yes, sir," I reply with a nod.
"Well, let me tell you how things work around a shop, okay?" he says before motioning to an open room with three walls that had various cards stored behind glass cases in a 10x6 grid on each wall. "Now then, if you'll direct your attention to those walls over there, you can see our stock on full display. When you're looking at a card, you'll see a price and a button to the just below and to right the card's display. Just press the button to receive the card, but unless you pay for the card, it'll vanish if you try to leave, so keep that in mind if you try to rob me. Also, if you're looking to sell any cards, just hand them to me."
Well, if it's that easy, might as well sell those Silver Fangs now before I go shopping. "How much for these?" I ask, holding up the two cards.
"Three coins each," he answers immediately. I nodded and gave the shopkeep the two Silver Fangs, getting six coins in return.
"You get a lot of Silver Fangs or something?" Diana asks.
"Lady, you don't know the half of it," he replies with a chuckle as the four of us then head into the storeroom to look over the merchandise. One thing all four of us immediately noted was that Spells were to our right, Traps to our left, and Monsters right in front of us.
"Hey, is that…?" Harpie's brother muses out loud, earning a look of confusion from me before he flies over to the Monster cards, right in front of whatever it was that caught his eye. "Hey Cloud! Check out who I just found!"
Curiosity taking over, I walked over to see what Harpie's Brother was talking about, and who he was pointing to made my jaw drop.
Wynn the Wind Charmer sold for 3 coins.
"No way, it's Wynn," I say, pleasantly surprised. "She always made a nice trap against fellow Wind duelists with her decently high Defense and flip effect, and her Familiar Possessed form helped me out a fair bit back when I played, so she's a good friend."
I couldn't have pushed the button for one of her cards any faster if I'd tried. Smiling at the card, I then looked to Dianna and Dance Princess. "Well, I've found who I'm buying. See anything you want?"
"Well, I would've bought some health cards," Dianna starts, shrugging, "but I'm a Vampire now, and you've got healing magic, so…"
She didn't finish, and I honestly didn't need her to to know that she didn't see anything that really caught her interest, and I nodded before giving back three of the six coins I'd gotten from the Silver Fangs before showing the shopkeeper Wynn's card.
"Buyin' a Charmer, eh?" the shopkeeper said with a smile. "Those have unique properties in this world, lad. Charmers can help you communicate with Monsters of any type so long as their Attribute matches the Charmer's, and they can Merge with other Monsters of their Attribute to enter their Familiar Possessed state, which gives a large boost to their power. The overwhelming majority of Fiends don't take too kindly to the Charmers, though, so even if you have one out, you're still gonna have to fight a Fiend of matching Attributes before a Charmer's diplomacy has any prayer of working."
"Good to know," I reply while sliding Wynn into my Bracer's deck holder. After that, Diana waved me along, but the shopkeeper spoke up as I turned to follow her out.
"By the way, do either of you know about 'Open Market' days?" he asks, prompting Diana and I to look at each other and shrug before turning back to the dwarf.
"Can't say that we do," I reply.
"Okay, so, every Sunday the Open Market is, well, open," he explains. "The Open Market allows Players to set up stalls and sell the cards they've collected to other players, who do so looking for a discount. Now, this is not without limits, but it's only with regards to the sale of Monster Cards. At a village like this place, you can only sell Monsters up to and including Level 4, a Town lets you sell Standard Monsters of any level, and in a City, you're also able to sell Fusion Monsters, Ritual Monsters, Synchro Monsters, and other such Monster Cards. Spells and Traps you can buy and sell anywhere"
"Huh, neat," I reply before thanking the shopkeeper as I leave with Diana. Dance Princess is in front of me almost immediately after we'd left the shop..
"So, can we meet your new friend?" she asks with a warm smile on her face and her head tilted in a way that could only be described as cute.
I blink at how fast she moved considering that Harpie's Brother and I are supposed to be the fast ones given our Attribute before smiling and pulling out Wynn's card. "Sure, may as well let her get acquainted with my new travelling companions," I reply while placing her in my Bracer's second Monster Slot, causing a ball of wind to form next to me before it disperses to reveal my favorite Charmer. I smile at the Wind Charmer fondly and pet her head. "Hey there, Wynn."
Wynn smiled brightly and hugged me not even a second later. I laugh a bit and pet her hair again as the former Gusto just about purrs in joy.
"Aww, she's so precious~" Diana coos as she watches this. Harpie's Brother watches on in amusement as the vampiress and even Dance Princess start fawning over the Wind Charmer. Unfortunately, it seems that Wynn's the shy type, as suddenly having Diana and Dance Princess fawning over her made the Wind Charmer turn as red as Hiita's hair before hiding behind me in embarrassment. I chuckle a little and rub the young Spellcaster's hair to try and calm her down, which works, a little.
"Alright, you two, I think you should ease up a bit," I chide gently as I push Diana and Dance Princess back a little. "You're making Wynn nervous."
Diana and Dance Princess pout, but nod with a unison sigh as they rein themselves in as I continue trying to coax Wynn out from behind me, which I do by the time we reach a shop with a sign hanging outside, the image on it being of a sword going through an empty hauberk, which told us that it was the Weapon/Armor shop.
"Welcome!" The shopkeeper, who looked like the earlier dwarf's nearly identical twin, the main difference being that he was the height of a regular person, said as our little group entered the shop. "Would you like to know how armor shops work?"
I look to Diana, who shrugs before I turn back to the shopkeeper. "Sure."
"Alright, I'm guessing by how the lad has two Monsters with him you lot've already been to the Card Shop, yeah?" he asks, getting a nod from Diana and I. "Then that makes my explanation easier. We use the same setup as the Card Shop, but you get an invoice card for the weapons and armor of your choice when you press the button. Bring the card, or cards, to me with the appropriate payment, and the items will be sent straight to your inventory."
With that, Diana and I nod our heads and head into the main area, our Monsters following us. After a bit of looking around, Diana and I found what we wanted. I ended up picking some Iron Armor - nothing too heavy, mind, just a shirt made of chainmail, and a Longbow made of Oak wood. Diana grabbed invoice cards for an Iron Scythe and a Leather Bodysuit that, when I looked at it, seemed like it was made for female Winged-Beast players, as it had a very Harpie Lady vibe to its design: complete with skintight snugness, no sleeves, and short pant legs.
The two of us then went up to the counter and made our purchases. I ended up ten coins poorer since I went for the Chainmail with my longbow, while Diana's armor and weapon cost her nine coins.
"Hey, Spellcaster boy," the Shopkeeper says after Diana and I complete our purchases, getting our attention. "Since you bought a Bow, I suppose it's only right to tell you now that arrows are free, so you don't ever have to worry about running out of ammo."
"Well, that'll definitely be helpful," I mutter, already going over the possibilities of what I could do with my bow. Wonder if I could use my magic to empower the arrows with different properties based on the element. With that, I give him a wave as we head out of the store and equip our new gear. Almost immediately I noted that Chainmail apparently goes under clothing, if the fact I saw my chainmail shirt's sleeves extending past the short sleeves of my linen shirt was any indication, and saw a status screen as my Attack and Defense went up from the new equipment, and saw my list of spells.
[ATK: 60-80]
[DEF: 60-100]
[Spells: Gust (Wind) - 70-90 Power, Mend (Healing) - 50 Power]
"Nice," I muse quietly before looking to Diana, and saw that I was definitely right about the overall look of the bodysuit - it took a lot of willpower to keep my eyes from wandering, and the vibe it gave off on Diana made her look more than a little frightening with that scythe resting on her back.
If I had to describe how she looked, I'd have so say she looked like… an alluring "Angel of Death", I guess is what I'm looking for. That, or a Succubus, anyway. She's missing the wings, and the spade-tipped tail in the case of that second option, but she could honestly pass for either in that bodysuit.
Unfortunately for me, Diana noted that I was having a hard time not staring and decided to be a troll by striking a pose that, thanks to the bodysuit, really brought attention to her figure. "Like what you see, Mr. Red Mage?" She asks with a flirty tone and wink.
That got me blushing up a storm before I turn away in embarrassment, which wasn't helped by the way that Dance Princess and Harpie's Brother were laughing up a storm while Wynn tilted her head with a confused expression on her face.
"Big brother?" Wynn asks, hitting me right in the feels, both from her adorably shy tone and confused look, as she got my attention. "Why is the vampire lady posing like that? And why are you blushing?"
"I'll tell you when you're older," I reply almost immediately, prompting Wynn to hit me in the feels again by pouting a bit before nodding in acceptance, giving me room to sigh in relief before taking a deep breath to calm myself down.
~one hour later~
After we all calmed ourselves down, we just wandered around until we, eventually, reached a cafe for some food. This may be a VR world accurate to the point of allowing for pregnancy and childbirth, but we're still humans in here, so we need to eat. Although, I guess Diana would probably be classified as a Vampire while in here now that she took that transformative upgrade. Does that mean everything except blood tastes terrible to her now, or is that just something made up by various storyworlds across media? Something I'll have to ask after we start eating, just to be safe.
After pooling our money together for a bite to eat, the only thing within our price range was a plate of nachos, and even that took up the last of our money. Apparently Diana had the same question I did about how her transformative may have affected her taste buds as she was quick to grab a chip, dip it in the liquid cheese dip, and take a bite out of it after we sat down at a table.
"Verdict?" I ask.
Diana held up the index finger of her free hand, indicating she was still eating, before looking to me with a smile after she swallowed. "Tastes fine to me, so it looks like I can still eat people food." With that I nodded and started eat as well.
Looking around a bit as we ate, Dance Princess, Harpie's Brother, and Wynn also stealing a couple chips each because they wanted to try them, I idly noticed another, larger, group of people sitting not too far from us sharing a pizza and chatting, something about the Spellcaster in the group (at least, I assume she's a fellow Spellcaster, she has a Cloth Robe on, and that's typically spellcaster attire) wanting to do a night run to spend some time with her cousin from what I was able to hear.
"So, Cloud, wanna head out tonight for a night run?" Diana asks, catching my attention. I think about it a bit before nodding.
"Sure, it'll be interesting to see what the night holds," I reply with a smile before our entire table's attention is drawn back to the group I'd spotted earlier. Why?
"Awww man! Cheese on the wings again!"
Apparently the Winged-Beast girl in the group had pizza cheese droop onto her wings, and if her wording was to be believed, this isn't the first time she's gotten cheese in her wings.
"They should probably look into non-cheesey foods," Harpie's Brother quips as he watches the girl fuss over her wings, which were also her arms in a similar manner to a Harpie Lady.
"Agreed," Diana, Dance Princess, and I reply in unison while Wynn nods silently, wondering why the bird lady was eating pizza in the first place if she didn't want cheese in her wings.
And there we have it, Chapter 3 complete. Man, it's been a long time since I've updated a story. Sorry for that, by the way, people, writing takes time, and my attention span is all kinds of random.
Also, yes, the end of this chapter has the future Alpha Gear Guild make a cameo appearance. This is partly my way of giving another shout-out to Phoenix's story, but it's mostly my way of helping people get a sense of when Enter the Element Reavers happens in comparison to Alpha Gear Chronicles. Next time, I'll be doing things from Diana's perspective as she introduces people who have read my story and not Phoenix's yet to the Warp Gates and Player Rooms before skipping ahead to that night for her and Cloud to do their first Night Run.
ELFI: As always, constructive criticism is welcomed and highly appreciated, and flamers will experience ECM attacks aimed at their comments.
Spice: Until next time, this is Spiceracksargent001, signing out!