Hey guy's, time for another chapter of Alpha Gear.
Also good news, while I was away from this story I figured out a good way to implement all the characters you guys send in.
Now with that said I'd like to jump into the story right away.
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After a bit of turbulence issues and crashes I finally found myself flying over a small village that my World Map called 'Village of Beginnings', "Welp, time to land, hopefully on my feet this time." I said.
I took a deep breath and-
"Look ooouuuuttt!" A female voice shouted.
I turned around just in time to see something red and feathery tackle into me and caused us both to start falling out of the sky.
I couldn't tell how close we were to the ground because my vision was completely covered by feathers, I soon felt arms and clawed feet latch on to me out of fear. "Spread your wings! It'll help create drag to slow us down!" I shouted over the wind as I spread my wings.
She apparently heard be as her arms came off of my body, but unfortunately for my hips her clawed feet gripped me tighter.
It only took us seconds to hit the ground at the center of the village, making players and NPC's jump in surprise.
Unfortunately the impact left me with only 175 LP, that really hurts.
"Ooooowwww..." The woman groaned as she sat up on me.
"You're on my wing." I groaned, and it's really uncomfortable.
Fortunately for my wing my passenger realized this and fluttered off my wing and onto the ground in front of me, "Oh I'm so sorry! I'm really, really, really sorry! I got so caught up in actually being able to fly I kinda forgot I didn't really know how to fly." She said quickly.
I stood up and got a better look at my passenger, she had mid-length straight black hair with bright blue eye's, her outfit was identical to mine save for it being red, sleeveless, and with a skirt instead of pants. Her arms were covered in feathers and she had longer than human length fingers with clawed tips, and instead of feet she had a pair of five toed talons, four in the front and one in the back.
"That's fine." I said, "Trust me I probably could have picked a better place to practice flying myself seeing as learning to fly in a forest means I extensively learned the taste of bark and leaves."
The woman giggled at that, "Well, I'm Mia Sparrow, I run a Harpie Lady deck... well I used to at least before I came here."
"David Drakon, dragon duelist." I said holding out my hands, which Mia shook.
"It's nice to meet you David, I just wish that it wasn't because of aerial impact... and if I wasn't left at 50 LP." Mia said.
"How'd you take so much damage?" I asked, she was Lvl 2 just like me so it's a good question.
"Well you see..." Mia started, "When I started up I summoned my Harpie Lady immediately and she accidentally irritated a Petit Dragon, so when she took it out I used the upgrade point to get myself some wings. Turn's out sticking around to fight some more with out an actual weapon or offensive ability is really tough and I ended up getting really hurt before I managed to level up."
"Yeah, it can be tough without a good way to protect yourself." I admitted pulling up my bracer and drawing Headhuntress's card.
"Oh I should probably bring my friend out too." Mia said pulling out her Harpie Lady card and placing it on her bracer.
When our monsters were summoned I learned something I wasn't exactly anticipating, turn out the Harpie Lady card Mia has was one of the really old ones, the ones that were depicted with barely covered breasts.
"You look terrible." Headhuntress said.
"Oh like you'd look any better after a crash course in flying." I said with false irritation.
"I guess I'm not the only on who can hear monsters talk." Mia said, "Well, we should head to a shop, I'd like to buy a few Red Medicine cards."
"Good idea, I got a Silver Fang to sell anyway." I said.
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During our search for an shop of some sort I opened up the 'Help' section of my Bracer's menu and looked up some of the newly available information.
First off Bracer's can send out a short range signal to register others as friends so long as theirs is sending out a signal as well and we both accept the friend request. Plus Friends can hear the monsters of their Friends speak.
Second was that the moment a Player enters a village, town, or city they are allowed to go to their standard issued home, which comes with wardrobe, Weapon chest, bed, and card case.
And sleeping in a bed automatically raises a players HP back to full, so we just need to sleep our injuries off.
"There's one!" Mia called out dragging my attention from my Bracer.
It was a simple looking house that had the back side of three cards positioned like they were held in a hand on a sign hanging in front of the door.
"Well, at least we know what sign we need to keep an eye out for." Headhuntress said.
"Yep, now let's head in!" Harpie Lady said.
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"Welcome to Starter Card shop!" The shopkeeper said, a short man with a massive red beard. Dude was a dwarf, not what I expected to be honest, "This is probably your first time here right?"
"Yep." I said.
"Well let me tell you how things work around a shop okay?" The Shopkeeper said, "First of all if you look over to those walls over there you will see our stock on full display." The shop keeper pointed to an open room with three walls that had cards behind a glass case on the wall with cards positioned in a 10 by 6 way, ten in a row with 6 in a column.
"Now then, notice there is a price and a button below and to the right of each card respectively, just push the button to receive the card, but unless you pay for them before you leave they will vanish so keep that in mind before you try to rob me." The Shopkeeper said, "And if you want to sell any cards just hand them to me."
"Thank's for the info." I said.
Mia and her Harpie Lady fluttered around to the Red medicine cards (1 Coin each) and picked up three of them, I picked up two for myself.
"David, over here!" Headhuntress called waving me over.
I walked over to her and saw what she was looking at.
The oh so fun to use three hit wall, Troop Dragon, sold for 3 Coins.
"Troop Dragon, that made sure I had at least one monster for sacrifice after I placed it so he's a good friend." I said to myself taking one of his cards.
I walked up to the shopkeep and paid him five coins for my purchase, Mia paid three for her purchase
"How much can I get for this?" I asked holding up a Silver Fang.
"Three coins." The Shopkeep said without hesitation, I nodded and handed him the card and got three coins back.
"You get a lot of Silver Fangs or something?" Mia asked.
"You don't know the half of it." The Shopkeeper said, "By the way, do you guys know about 'Open Market' days?"
"Nnnnnnno." I said.
"Okay so every Sunday the Open Market is, well open, there Players can set up stalls and sell the cards they've collected to other players, hoping to get cards cheaper or something rarer. Now Open Market does have limits, in a Village you're only allowed to sell monsters up to level 4, in a Town you are allowed to sell monsters of any level, and in a City you can even sell Fusion, Ritual, Synchro, a XYZ monsters. Of course you can sell spell and trap cards in any location." The shopkeeper said.
"That's pretty good to know actually." Mia said.
"Yeah, thanks pal." I said.
"Any time kid, come back soon, we got Field Spells if you want 'em." The Shopkeeper said.
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We entered a Weapon/Armor shop next, identified by a sign with a Sword going through an empty hauberk.
"Hey there kids!" The Shopkeeper said, he looked exactly like the dwarf, only the size of a regular person, "Would you like to know how armor shops work?" He asked
"We kinda already stopped by the Card Shop-" Mia started.
"Oh then this should be easy, we have the same set up as the Card shop, but instead of getting the actual armor slash weapon from pushing the button you just get an invoice card, bring it here and pay me and it will be sent to your inventory." The shop keeper said, "By the way, you Dragon boy, you've probably notice that your arms and hands are considered 'Armorer' right?"
"Yeah." I said, "What's the deal with that?"
"Basically kid, not only do you get that Defense Boost, but your Defense points are technically doubled in the spot you are armored, so I'd recommend letting your arms get hit if you can't dodge." The Shopkeeper said.
"Thanks for the info." I said walking over to grab a couple invoices.
I grabbed a card for a simple Rapier and a Leather Hauberk, which cost a total of 8 coins.
Mia grabbed herself a Leather suit and a whip. Thing is that the suit, despite being tailored to have no sleeves and short pant legs for her wings and talon, it made her look a bit like a dominatrix.
Putting on the armor and equipping my weapon I saw my stats rise.
[ATK: 150 - 170]
[DEF: 70 - 90]
'Fair enough a boost for low level equipment.' I thought.
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Later that day we pooled the rest of our money into something to eat, which really only ended up being a plate of Nachos.
Hey, this may be virtual reality, one accurate enough for pregnancy and childbirth, but we're still humans in here so we still need to eat.
"Can I see your Troop Dragon please?" Mia asked.
"Sure, the guy needs a proper introduction anyway." I said slapping his card on the Bracer, causing a Spear wielding Troop Dragon to appear and stand at attention.
"Greetings Commander. Permission to speak freely?" Troop Dragon asked, getting a chuckle from Mia and Headhuntress.
"Permission granted, and loosen up will you?" I replied.
The Troop Dragon relaxed his body, "It's good to see you again commander, same to you Headhuntress." He said.
"It'll be nice to fight alongside you again." Headhuntress said.
"Hm, these Nachos aren't half bad." Mia said, only for Harpie Lady to swipe one, "Hey!"
"To slow to stop me slow-poke." Harpie Lady said.
Headhuntress and Troop Dragon took a nacho as well and tasted them, "Not you two as well." I joked.
"Apologies Commander, I just wished to know how they taste" Troop Dragon said.
"So did I David." Headhuntress said.
"Fine, I'll let you two off the hook." I said, "So Mia, how about some co-op Training tomorrow?"
"Sounds like a great idea, I need some combat practice and numbers equal safety." Mia said.
"Looks like we have a plan." I said.
"AWWW! I got cheese in my feathers!" Mia suddenly cried.
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After our 'meal' I went over to the town warp gate, basically the system of fast travel in this world, and went to my home (Which I could actually access VIA my Bracer, but I wanted to know where the thing was.)
It was... blank to say the least, it was a fairly large room with a double bed, a Chest for Weapon storage, A wardrobe for Armor storage, a table with a large metal card case on it for storing cards, and a black sheeted bed.
"Note to self, go shopping for furniture when I can afford it." I said, "Headhuntress, Troop Dragon, I'll see you two in the morning." I said removing their cards and taking my Bracer off (Which is only possible in the home, and I can't leave without it)
I then jumped back first onto my bed, which ended up being a bad idea.
"GAW! Right on my wing!" I shouted shooting back out of my bed.
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Well people, that's this Chapter of Alpha Gear.
And now you know how the shopping system works, well at least for shop's.
Open Market will happen in later chapters so we'll see how they work later on.
Anyway I'll see you all next chapter.