The plot is moving along~ I should probably give a warning now that I plan for this story to be very long. Like, really long.
Anyways, I'm sorry to the people asking about the pairing, but if I tell you now I'm afraid it may spoil some of the plot. Rest assured though, I promise to you now that there will be slash.
Disclaimer: I own nothing but my plot bunnies. Kuroko no Basuke belongs to Fujimaki Tadatoshi.
Chapter 3: Magic & Party
The blue-haired Elf walked toward one of the town's exits, only stopping to buy some items he thought he'd need. He carefully avoided bumping into other players as he read the first passage of the Magician's Guidebook on his way to the outskirts of the town.
How to attack: Mages attack by concentrating their magic power into one point and letting it burst out. In other words, to attack, simply concentrate on materializing energy and the system will assist you.
For all spells, you can use the method above or chant incantations. For longer, more high-level spells, however, it is required to speak chants out loud as opposed to instant spells, which only require thought. Breaking incantation makes the spell fail, so if you have weak concentration, it is recommended to use shorter or lower level spells.
Kuroko wondered how the system could be so advanced. When he was a child, this kind of technology had been unheard of.
Until a certain company rose to power, of course.
When the beginner Mage reached the edge of town, he decided to try testing out magic before getting to the monsters in the area.
His first spell seemed the simplest to him after reading its description. If he did it correctly, a ball of "magic energy" would supposedly shoot out of his palm.
Kuroko raised his right hand, opening his fingers towards a tree nearby.
He closed his eyes at first, then thought of a ball of light forming (His imagination wasn't too creative, especially when given the description). His arm began to tingle a bit, then the strange, warm feeling spread to his hand; it was similar to the static feeling of it falling asleep, though it was far more pleasant than that.
His eyes opened towards his hand as he concentrated. Little-by-little, a spherically-shaped mass appeared. It began to look similar to the image Kuroko had in his mind's eye with only the size being different.
By the time he'd finished casting, the orb had become about the size of an orange.
"How do I release this?", he wondered.
As soon as he did, the mass shot out, nicking the side of the tree he'd aimed for and leaving a small indent.
It didn't look very powerful, though that might have been because he was just a beginner at this. Surely this kind of thing would take practice and patience, just like everything else int he world.
The bluenette raised his arm to try again.
It had taken a half hour before Kuroko was somewhat satisfied by the results of his training. By now, could create an energy ball about the size of a grapefruit in a few short seconds. Instead of missing the tree, he could now control the trajectory well enough to hit where he'd aimed in the majority of his efforts. It had gotten stronger too–by now he'd created a few deep holes in the tree. Because it was a game though, they grew back quickly as if it hadn't happened at all.
Kuroko checked his MP bar. Even though Magic Ball was a low level spell, the repetition he'd done had caused the blue bar to reach nearly zero. Nothing a few potions couldn't fix, of course, though buying them had gotten considerably more expensive after coming to the second island.
Nevertheless, he started to guzzle some down.
A player had to drink certain types of potions manually, though it was mostly the cheap ones common to any store. Most high-level elixirs were instant and automatic, better for use in the middle of a battle.
The Elf walked further into the forest, pouring the replenishing liquid into his mouth as he went; though one couldn't get full or choke in this world, Kuroko just wasn't used to drinking quickly. The way he'd grown up, chugging was just a rather rude and vulgar action.
In a minute, he reached the end of his path. A vast meadow overflowing with pastel flowers and greenery coupled with clear streams of water opened itself up before him. From what he could see, there were two different types of monsters here.
One of them held semblance to a rabbit, though they were slightly elongated and leaner. Its tail's length was about the same as the average house-cats', and its ears shorter and more rounded than what they seemed they should be.
The other was more like a deer, covered with twisted vines and colorful flowers which seemed to sprout all over its body. The ones lying in the luscious fields almost blended in completely, though one could make them out by their unblinking, black eyes and fur that was just a few shade darker than the grass.
Both of these monsters were either grazing or bounding swiftly across the field in a rather nonchalant manner.
Kuroko set his eyes on one of the rabbit-like monsters and cast his first spell towards it, though the creature seemed to sense it and bounded out of range before the attack could connect.
Just then, he heard voices.
"I swear I saw it over there!"
"There's nobody here, spells don't just come out of nowhere, idiot."
"…Do you think it's a ghost?"
"…"
"Well, I guess you could say that it's quite…spirited."
"ALL OF YOU, SHUT UP!"
The Elf watched as a group of six bickered among themselves for a moment before choosing to reveal himself. He approached the one closest to where he stood, a male player nearly as short as he was. Nearly.
"Um, excuse me", he said monotonously.
"HOLY SH—", the man started, though he was cut off by the rest of the groups' yells.
They all turned to look at him, completely fazed by his "sudden" appearance.
"When did you get here?", asked the first to recover–a short, brunette woman. She was the only female member of the group.
"Excuse me, but I have been here the entire time", he replied back under her scrutiny.
"Do you have some kind of high-level illusion spell or something? None of us could see you at all", said a player who looked to be of the Hunter class. His glasses glinted in the faux-sunlight.
The woman from earlier studied him. "He's only a beginner, there's no way he could have a spell powerful enough to trick Izuki's Eagle's Eye."
Should I explain that it is not a spell? Though that might be a bit difficult.
Just then, the tallest member of the group chose that time to speak.
"You're interesting, kid! You should join our party!", he laughed boisterously.
Kuroko felt somewhat offended at being called "kid", even if he did still look like a high schooler. And not even a third-year, either.
"Kiyoshi! Don't just go asking random people to join us!", snapped the man with glasses. He turned to Kuroko, "And you! Why are you even in this monster map? They don't look like it, but these monsters here are actually really strong. A beginner Mage like you would have difficulty killing them alone."
The blue-haired man looked to the creatures and back. "This is my first time playing this game. I do not know which monsters are strong".
The first man he'd approached, the relatively short one, spoke up cheerfully, "You should go join a party or something then. Back in town there's this square where all the beginners gather and form groups. You're a Mage class player right? A lot of people like having Mages since they're good support." His cat-like lips curved upwards.
It's not like the Elf hadn't considered joining a party. He was just terrible at social interactions.
"Like I said, Koganei, he should just join us!", said the one called "Kiyoshi". "He has a pretty good skill there, it could come in handy in PVPs or something."
Again, the group bickered.
It when on for a while until Kuroko interjected:
"Excuse me, the max members a party can have on this island is six." The bluenette decidedly ended their argument.
"Oh yeah", they all said in unison, except one of their members who hadn't talked since the beginning.
The female member faced his direction. "I'm sorry for the trouble we caused you. As an apology, would you like me to teach you how to kill these monsters? Though by the looks of it, they're probably a couple levels above you. I'm actually a Mage myself, so I know a method we can use to kill them."
"That would be very much appreciated", replied Kuroko, slightly bowing. "My name is Kuroko."
"I'm Riko", she replied. She turned to the other party members, "I kinda want him to join the party too. He's actually polite! You don't see many teenagers like that these days. Err... how old are you anyway?"
The blue-haired man's blank face stared at hers for a few quiet moments.
"I am actually already twenty", he finally responded half a minute later, feeling rather resigned to this type of event.
And now the group in his vision all stared back at him.
"That's only a year younger than me, are you sure you're twenty?", the cat-like man from earlier said, pointing at himself. The bespectacled man and "Riko" both gave him a resounding smack on the head for that.
The party's female cleared her throat and spoke to change the subject, feeling Kuroko might be a bit offended. "Um, perhaps I should just go on with teaching you."
She raised her right hand in front of her and watched the field closely for movement. One of the rabbit monsters jumped, and at this moment, a ball of energy instantaneously shot from her hand and struck the creature as it landed. It's Health bar went down until the point it only had a couple more HP, though it was still alive and kicking.
It hissed and charged towards the female player, who then raised her hand straight up into the sky. She brought it down swiftly, and a column of energy struck the monster, killing it.
"These certain monsters can dodge before they're attacked, though they won't attack unless you can actually land a hit. The trick is to attack them after they jump since they have a cool-down time and can't do it again for another few seconds."
"Thank you for the information", the Elf replied politely.
He then raised his hand so that he could try attacking as well. He charged his attack as he waited for one to jump since he couldn't cast it instantaneously like the other Mage could. When one finally leapt into the air seconds later, he aimed and fired. The shot hit it dead-on. Nevertheless, the monster lived with a bit less than half its HP.
It transitioned between running and bounding towards him, and Kuroko didn't have enough experience to fire at a moving target.
A second or two later it was a few feet in front of him. The monster took a powerful flying-leap in his direction, stretching out its front legs and revealing the sharpened claws hidden beneath its downy fur.
In this situation, Kuroko realized he couldn't use Magic Ball or either of his other two skills. Even though one of them was an AOE skill and could probably kill the beast, Kuroko had enough sense to know he wouldn't have enough time to cast the spell, especially since he didn't practice it. Heal probably wouldn't come in handy either.
And so, Kuroko followed the first impulse that came to mind.
He raised his staff and struck the creature.
Taking advantage of the time it needed to regain its footing, he fired another attack towards it. This time, when the spell connected, the monster screeched and exploded into the usual mass of scattered pixels.
{+54 Experience}
{Obtained: Labusa tail, 61 ladomi}*
"Well, that's one way to use a staff."
"Pretty good for a level 10", Kiyoshi whistled.
Somehow, while the Elf was fighting, his information window had been opened and was being read by the party's members.
To view a person's information, one just had to approached them and make a certain motion in front of their person to open it. There are privacy settings so that their RL data couldn't be read, but anything related to the game was free for anyone to see.
Username: Kuroko
Real Name: N/A
Age: 20
Gender: Male
Level: 10
Race: Light Elf
Class: Mage
Element(s): N/A
"Your magic attack is quite high for your level, but your strength is pretty lacking", said Riko, "I'd find some weaker monsters if I were you. On the other side of town there are some that you could one-hit K.O. easily."
Kuroko disliked the prospect of having to hike back across town, even if it was just a half-hour's walk. "I think I will be fine just staying here", he responded, "thank you for your suggestion though, Riko-san."
Kiyoshi let out a hearty chuckle and said, "You sure you don't want to join us? We could always kick Hyuuga out." He pointed his thumb back towards the man with glasses.
"LIKE HELL YOU WOULD!", the man, now identified as "Hyuuga", roared.
Riko pushed them both out of the way. By that, I mean she literally shoved both of the tall, bulky men out of her path. "Well, we were actually leaving this island to get to the next one so that we could all get a class upgrade." She opened up her inventory and pulled out what seemed to be a scroll. "You can take my map since I won't need it anymore", she explained, handing the item to Kuroko. "Ah, thank you." He accepted it graciously, once again bending his back forward.
Ones of the members of the party who hadn't talked much, a sharp-eyed Rogue suddenly spoke. "Kitakore! Well, I hope you don't… lose your way now."
"My god Izuki, you're getting even worse. That one barely made sense", Riko sighed as she covered her face with her hand.
Hyuuga had a similar reaction, though afterwards he turned to Kuroko, placed his hands on both his shoulders, and said coldly, "Change of plans. You can replace him."
"How mean."
At that moment, a small 'ping' sound sounded out.
{Kiyoshi would like to become your friend}
"Accept Friend Request?"
"Yes"*
"No"
.
"Ah! Unfair! I wanted to do that first", said Koganei, the cat-like man from earlier. He set his fingers to work and whipped up a friend request as well.
The others in the group smiled as they opened a window to send him the notification window, though Kuroko wasn't quite sure why since they'd really just met.
He looked at each new pop up in his midst.
Kiyoshi, Koganei, Izuki, Riko, Hyuuga… Mitobe? Ah, that must be their last member.
The blue-haired elf looked towards said member, who returned him a slightly sheepish smile."Well, I guess they all seem like nice people", the former thought as he pressed "yes" on each of the request windows.
After a few short farewells, the party bid Kuroko adieu and went on their merry way.
"If you ever need anything, just PM us!", Kiyoshi said as they walked away. "Or just meet us in the future. We'll all be stronger then, though".
The beginner Mage smiled inwardly as he watched them leave. "I'll definitely be stronger too", he thought as he saw them disappear into the next map area.
Staff in hand, he resumed his training.
Kiseki World Online: Usernames.
The game's usernames are the character's real names. Many people don't find the need to change their name or use a fake one because their appearance doesn't change much anyways. About half of the players in the Japanese server use a fake name and half use a real one. Kiseki World's system allows more than one character to have the same username.
Anyways, I've written up the various scenarios that the GoM will meet Kuroko, though still deciding the order and fixing a few kinks. I hope all you readers will stay with me for the duration of this fic.
For one final side note, is anyone interested in Takao's game experience? I was planning an extra chapter just for him but I'm not sure what the feedback would be.
I hope you enjoyed reading, constructive criticism is always appreciated.
Final Final Note: This is the first chapter i'm not uploading around midnight. lol.