《MARKIS》
Prologue
¡®A wild wind blows through the forest hitting your face as you walk past it, oceans stretching as far as eyes could see, watch as the towers and castles pierce the heavens themselves! Experience the world of Mechana in this new installment of the best-selling series Araenia II: Mechana!¡¯ I read. This sounded garbage enough to know that it was indeed garbage.
¡°Eh, boring.¡± I can¡¯t find anything good...
¡°Bro just buy it.¡± said Hen.
¡°Nah, these aren¡¯t that good.¡±
¡°Then just buy Markis already!¡±
¡°You KNOW I can¡¯t buy that game, my dad would kill me if he saw that price tag man.¡±
¡°Bro it¡¯s just seventy bucks!¡±
¡°Just seventy bucks for you, sure, for me man that¡¯s legit a fortune.¡±
¡°Ugh.. Fine, I¡¯ll buy it. It¡¯s on me, but you better play this one.¡±
¡°Sure, Sure, I¡¯ll play it, I¡¯ll play it.¡±
The machine¡¯s audible cha-ching signalled that Hen had officially paid for my game. Ah man... Now I actually have to play this. I didn¡¯t think he¡¯d buy it. I mean it is NEAR-REALITY, so I guess it could be fun.
Although I don¡¯t know how good NR-Games would even look, it¡¯s supposed to be like VR but it connects through neural transmission or something, they spouted a bunch of BS, but it was enough to convince me to buy it, and watching movies in it was pretty nice. Although Hen was the one who told me to buy it because of Markis, I bought it for watching por- I mean, movies.
Well it was exclusively developed for Markis, and the tech itself was done a few years ago, but they only started to release it because the game had so many delays. Apparently Miyamoto didn¡¯t want the game to be released unless everything was perfect, and by perfect, he means PERFECT.
Even though I didn¡¯t play any of his other games, I did watch a lot of his movies, and I can definitely see why he wants to do that. He¡¯s received so many awards at this point, I don¡¯t even know.
Once I was back home, I set up my NR again and slept. This was how the NR intercepted your brain, apparently doing it while you¡¯re conscious can be fatal, which is why the NR headset doesn¡¯t activate while you¡¯re awake.
¡°Welcome to your PHANTOM world.¡±
¡°Please enter your Log-In credentials to continue.¡±
Username: DeepBluu97
Password: ********
¡°Successfully connected to PHANTOM servers.¡±
Alright let¡¯s start the game!
¡°Downloading... 15%¡±
SERIOUSLY?! Man... They really HAD to download a game when I HAVE the physical COPY?! This is BS, I call BS. Ugh... Whatever, I guess I¡¯ll chat for a bit, I bet he¡¯s suffering too. I mean he does have the slowest wifi.
DeepBluu97: playing the game yet??
Neh320: broo... it¡¯s downloading mann... this shit boring af...
DeepBluu97: lololol imagine having slow wifi
DeepBluu97: couldn¡¯t be me
Neh320: man fck off dickhead
DeepBluu97: aight aight, calm down bro
Neh320: ima whoop yo ass dawg
DeepBluu97: sus shit lemme tell ya
Neh320: hell nah, i aint gay for your ugly ass lmao
DeepBluu97: wow thanks man, appreciate it :¡¯(
Neh320: lol cry
DeepBluu97: aight bro I think the game installed
DeepBluu97: youll be there ye?
Neh320: ye for sure, ill join your world once it installs
DeepBluu97: cool cya
¡°Loading MARKIS...¡±
¡°MARKIS server authentication: Success!¡±
¡°Logged in as: DeepBluu97¡±
¡°Choose a nickname: ---¡±
I guess I¡¯ll go with just Bluu.
¡°Game profile [Bluu] has now been created.¡±
¡°Due to launch-day privileges you will be given a special class.¡±
Oh ho~ I¡¯ll have to thank Hen for this one. Let¡¯s see what this class is about...
[CLASS: (¡Þ)]
Strength: 0/10
Agility: 0/10
Mana: 0/10
Intelligence: 0/10
Health: 15/100
CLASS SPECIALTY: A special class only given to those who bought the game on launch-day. This class is only for those who want a hardcore game experience, only meant for advanced users. However, this class has potential.
CLASS INCLUDED ITEMS: Old Robe, Broken Thief''s Knife, Wraith¡¯s Helmet, Old Shirt, Old Pants, Torn Leather Boots.
Well, the class looks like crap even I know that... But I really wanna know what this is about... ¡®potential¡¯ huh? I don¡¯t think I¡¯m gonna choose it, yeah no, I am NOT gonna grind in this game.
...
I ended up choosing it. Ah man, I¡¯m an idiot, I have to be stupid, I just HAVE to be.
Alright I loaded in, let¡¯s see...
Woah... That¡¯s so wild what the hell... How is my computer even handling this... It looks so real, it¡¯s actually like I¡¯m here, I even feel the cold leather boots... I¡¯ve never felt this before, even my hands feel like they¡¯re freezing from the cold... I guess I didn¡¯t get gloves with the uh- class, that¡¯s gonna be a pain... Oh yeah! I can just turn down how it feels.
Wait.. How do I open the main menu? Uhh let¡¯s see... ¡°Mainmenu open!¡±
Woah! It¡¯s the main me... Wait no, it¡¯s a panel, and it has instructions for... OPENING A MAIN MENU?! REALLY?! You just had to make the main menu function open something that ISN¡¯T the main menu.
[How to use the MAIN MENU.]If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Put your hand out, make a fist and pull back. This will open the main menu, once open you can then use the different submenus by tapping on them with your finger. Be careful: Opening the main menu will not pause the game.
Alright... Makes sense, I guess? I then made a fist and pulled back, and magically in front of me was a menu.
Wow.. I can feel my finger pressing up against it... This is nothing compared to VR, this actually feels real.
Hmm.. That¡¯s weird, where¡¯s the inventory? Oh well, let¡¯s see.. Settings! Okay, now what do I gotta change? Uh... I think it was sensitivity? Right yeah, ¡®Adjusts the sensitivity of the STIMULI you receive,¡¯ that¡¯s the right one, I¡¯m sure.
Okay, let¡¯s decrease that... Wow, now I feel absolutely nothing, it adds that much of a difference huh? I guess I¡¯ll set it up to 75% for now.
Alright let¡¯s see... I haven¡¯t seen where I¡¯m even at...
Bluu exited out of his menu to look at the world around him. It was a dark desolate pathway leading to light, he was in a cave it seemed.
Walking out he felt the wind sweeping past him, ¡°Woah,¡± rubbing his hands together, he walked a bit forward, and noticed that this was a cliff leading right down to the depths of the water.
Although he couldn¡¯t help but be fazed by the view he saw, it was a beautiful sunset. Turning around he saw a path leading down with broken stairs. Slowly walking down, he looked around to see great ranges and mountains that seemed to endlessly rise into the skies.
He tripped on a rock which sent him spiraling down the stairs, ¡°Ah... My back.. My back..¡± he said once he got up. It was surreal to him, even the pain of falling down the stairs was simulated.
Continuing to walk down another set of stairs, he could finally see some houses... Or rather houses that were broken down, he could see barely any people walking over there, all he could see were a few NPCs walking, although they eerily looked real. Some of them were even having conversations.
Walking up to one of the men that were having a conversation, he asked ¡°Uhm.. What should I do?¡±
He had absolutely no idea about what to do, after all this was the first time he had played one of Miyamoto¡¯s games, which were said to be notoriously hard to play. They¡¯d barely explain anything and throw the player into the world.
The man clicking his tongue in anger said, ¡°One of you Infected... Go to the priestess over there, and don¡¯t ask me shit.¡±
¡°O-oh okay...¡± Bluu for the first time in life had felt bad for talking to a NPC.
¡®I feel bad man...¡¯ is the only thought that appeared in his mind.
Bluu, feeling a bit down, walked up to a woman in a white dress. He guessed that she must be the priestess that the NPC must have mentioned.
Once he showed up in front of him, she said ¡°My child... You¡¯ve come here without a speck of knowing what this world was. But I shall grant you the strength to live through this hell.¡±
A panel showed up in front of me, ¡®The priestess is someone who will help you borrow strength in this world. To borrow strength you will have to earn MARKIS by fighting through hell. MARKIS is used as currency for power. Note: You must pray to the priestess to borrow strength.¡¯
Is that why they named it markis? Hm... Makes sense I guess. But I have to pray? Okay...
I kneeled down, clasped my hands, and closed my eyes, and suddenly I felt a hand on top of my head... is this her hand? It feels so real but also so comforting unlike a real hand... And suddenly her voice echoed in my head. ¡°Oh you poor soul...¡±
And when I opened my eyes, I saw a panel with different stats on it.
[STATUS UPGRADE]
[Current]
Strength: 0/10
Agility: 0/10
Mana: 0/10
Intelligence: 0/10
Health: 15/100
[UPGRADE]
Vitality: Lvl. 0 ¡ú Lvl. 1
Health: 2 ¡ü
Strength: 1 ¡ü
Versatility: Lvl. 0 ¡ú Lvl. 1
Agility: 2 ¡ü
Intelligence: 1 ¡ü
Capacity: Lvl. 0 ¡ú Lvl. 1
Mana: 1 ¡ü
Intelligence: 1 ¡ü
Reputation: Lvl. 0 ¡ú Lvl. 1
Stance: Infected ¡ú Infected (+2 rep)
¡°You currently have [0] MARKIS. Earn more MARKIS to UPGRADE.¡±
Oh, I guess I didn¡¯t do anything in the game yet. Wait, how do I exit?
Ah. There¡¯s a cross-button right there, who would¡¯ve thought. Dammit Miyamoto, you just had to over complicate everything but then make this simple?!
Once I tapped on the cross, it was as though I immediately came back from a dream.
I stood up and noticed a main road leading away from where I stood, which seemed like a run down church. There were people inside praying but it was clear to see that this town was on its last legs, then the priestess spoke, ¡°My child, I bid you farewell. I shall wait for your return.¡±
I walked through the main road of the town, as I walked I could only see the broken buildings, smoke drifted into the sky from nearby campfires, where the NPCs were cooking.
It almost felt like I was walking through a broken town, even the clothes I wore weren¡¯t ideal, the cold air slipped through the old robe, it almost felt like I was freezing.
Once I saw a board saying, ¡®Stonegate of Revenge.¡¯ I realised that this was most probably the place I¡¯d have to go through, right as I was about to walk through a panel popped up on my screen.
It said, ¡°[Nei] would like to join your game.¡± I tapped on okay, since I knew it was Hen, since he was the only one who I added. Once he loaded in, I could see his player model, it had the same face as him in real life, looking as average as ever, he had the suit of a knight on, he had a long sword and a shield on his back. Did he choose the knight class?
¡°Eyy bro, look who¡¯s back, back, back... back again, again, again... Shady¡¯s-¡±
¡°Stop the eminem reference bro, you sound so stupid.¡±
¡°Fine... Anyway, you¡¯re only at Stonegate?¡±
¡°Yeah..?¡±
¡°Bro... You realise there¡¯s already a few people that have started to challenge the first secret boss, right?¡±
¡°The what?¡±
¡°The secret boss that¡¯s in- You know what, nevermind, also what class did you choose.. WAIT. No way, you chose the special launch day class, LOL.¡±
¡°Uh... because I wanted to...¡±
¡°Well it¡¯s fine, we can deal with it, so let¡¯s go hunting, yeah?¡±
¡°Sure, so like what do we gotta do?¡±
¡°So, if I remember correctly, this place is supposed to be like where the last knight of this kingdom is supposed to live, basically he was like a badass knight and shit right? But then shit went down and he was the only one left, but supposedly he was so sad that he became a demon or some shit I don¡¯t know.¡±
¡°Damn, that¡¯s wild, so like that''s why it¡¯s called Stonegate of Revenge?¡±
¡°Yeah, yeah. But I haven''t checked the forums yet, but they should have it... Huh...¡±
¡°Wassup?¡±
¡°Nah bro, it¡¯s just I¡¯m not able to log in to my accou-¡± Suddenly Hen disappeared.
¡°Hen, wha-!¡±
And suddenly everything became dark. By the time I opened my eyes, the light was so bright that I just had to close them again.
When I opened them yet again, what I saw before me was a white room, filled with 1000s of people. And in front of me was a projection of a man, his eyes stared down at us from a great height. It was like he was seeing into our souls.
Hen stood next to me, yet he was just as shocked as me, only staring at what was in front of us. No one seemed to have any idea of what happened.
And suddenly he said, ¡°Welcome my players! Welcome to the embodiment of hell! Welcome to a world where there lies no limitations! A world with infinite possibilities!¡±
¡°Wait.. isn¡¯t that Miyamoto¡¯s voice...?¡± a nearby person said.
¡°Ah yes, I am Miyamoto Takezo, the creator of MARKIS. However, that detail is quite a bit irrelevant, seeing as you all have no choice but to listen to me, and so I shall be muting all of you.¡±
¡°And. There. We. Go.¡±
I tried talking, but I couldn¡¯t talk, it felt like my mouth was stitched together, it was an unpleasant feeling.
He then continued to speak, ¡°Regardless, there are no mincing words for this one, you lot are trapped in this game for the foreseeable future, some of you may have already noticed that there isn¡¯t a menu anymore,¡± he paused for a moment, he smiled and said, ¡°Afterall reality doesn¡¯t have a menu, does it?¡±
¡°You may think ¡®Oh, my family will most definitely remove me from NR, will they not?¡¯ How pitiful, if they do, and I mean, if at all they do, remove you, I¡¯m sorry to say, your consciousness has now been linked to the NR headset, removing it essentially means that your consciousness will be deleted, that is to say, it is death. Without the mind, the vessel is merely a corpse. Without purpose. Without life. Without you.¡±
¡°But if you want to get back to your once happy and loved life, then you will need to finish this game. Every single crevice of this world must be explored by all of you. To win, you will face pain, sadness, happiness, rage, lust, greed, and betrayal. You who surpass these will be the ones to free the rest. For this world is harsher than the world you have all lived in. For that is the mission that I have given you. Survive, survive and reach newer heights, reached by no one else.¡±
¡°And... this is the number of you all who are still alive.¡± Suddenly the number started increasing from zero, it went on and on, until it reached twenty-five-thousand.
He then continued, ¡°Dying here will result in the deletion of your consciousness.¡± And right from where we were standing, the world slowly came to be, forming from the ground, the trees, the mountains, the skies, everything coming to being right in front of us, it was the creation of a world. And then we could talk, ¡°H-hen... What just happened..?¡±
¡°I don¡¯t know bro... What did he mean that we¡¯ll die for real..?¡±
¡°I don¡¯t know either...¡±
Chapter 1: Ghoul
¡®What had just happened?¡¯ No one knew what happened, everyone had the same question. But only a few seconds later, 1000s of people disappeared, only to leave what seemed like a few thousand people left.
¡°Oh don¡¯t worry. They aren¡¯t dead.¡± He then disappeared into thin air.
In less than a few minutes, it was chaos. People were shouting at each other trying to understand what had happened. Few people already started walking towards the broken town I saw before, although it was now quite a bit far away. It seemed like we were standing on what seemed to be a shrine. Hen and I just stood there confused, unable to even think.
¡°Hen.. What do we do..?¡±
¡°Uhh- Les¡¯ think, yeah? It has to be a joke right? I mean, why would Miyamoto even do this, right? Right?¡±
¡°U-uh yeah, yeah, of course, it has to be something like that..¡±
¡°L-lets first logout... Let''s do that..¡±
Hen pulled his fist back again and again trying to open the menu... ¡°What happened... hen..?¡±
¡°Bro... it¡¯s not opening...¡±
¡°The menu..?¡±
¡°Yeah...¡±
¡°T-then... we¡¯re actually...¡±
¡°Stuck...¡±
Hen kneeled down onto the floor, he seemed to be confused, he didn¡¯t say a word, yet I understood.
¡°Hen.. get up... we have to figure this out.. Together, right?¡±
¡°Right... You¡¯re right... Lemme get off my ass.¡±
¡°Okay first... Hen.. If we want to survive, we have to know about the world...¡±
¡°Yeah.. I can help there.. I¡¯ve been following this project for six years.¡±
¡°Okay... First let¡¯s get to someplace where we can talk alone.¡±
¡°Alright.¡±
The two of us then walked towards that cave that I initially came through. Thankfully no one was there yet, and the two of us sat down at the stairs. But in the time it took us to get here, the afternoon had passed and it already became night. It had been a few hours.
¡°Hen.. What was this game¡¯s initial purpose?¡±
¡°It was made as because of Araenia being popular back then..¡±
¡°You mean that game we saw yesterday... Araenia II?¡±
¡°Well, the first one in the series was a hit... But after a while shit happened and the studio was bought out.¡±
¡°Oh...¡±
¡°Anyway.. Markis was made to be a revolutionary game using neural links.¡±
¡°Then... How do the systems work..?¡±
¡°Well, I don¡¯t know about now, but the original systems were divided into two, passive and active. Under passive, you got things like stamina, health, all that. Active is where it gets fun, they made a combat system that apparently felt ¡®real¡¯. Then you got the basics like magic, archery, swords, what made this game special was its enemy AI.¡±
¡°Because it felt like actually fighting those things..?¡±
¡°Yeah.. Shit¡¯s wild. By the way... One feature where people didn¡¯t know if to hate or love it was the inventory system. Instead of a UI, you actually had to have bags and carry them around.¡±
¡°If there¡¯s this much detail... then there are some other features too right..?¡±
¡°Yeah... It¡¯s food.¡±
¡°Huh?¡±
¡°We have to eat food to live... And the only way to get food is to either buy it or grow it...¡±
¡°The food it¡¯s...¡±
¡°Expensive. Ah man...¡±
¡°Can¡¯t we use MARKIS to buy stuff..?¡±
¡°Well, that¡¯s only for upgrading our stats... For the money we need.. We have to loot enemies...¡±
¡°And I have the shit class... Why did I have to choose this class...¡±
¡°Don¡¯t... Neither of us knew this was gon¡¯ happen.¡±
¡°By the way bro... You¡¯re hungry aren¡¯t you..?¡± said Hen.
¡°Wha- How- No I¡¯m not. I¡¯m fine.¡±
¡°Well, we might as well see what we can buy.¡±
¡°Don¡¯t we not have money..?¡±
¡°Well yeah, but I have a hundred coins from the knight class... LOOK! IT¡¯S FINE THAT YOU CHOSE THAT CLASS, DON¡¯T MAKE THAT FACE.¡±
¡°Ugh.. fine.¡±
Soon we walked through the broken town again. But I noticed that there weren''t as many players as expected, and when I looked to my side and saw the sky, I could see that the number had reduced. It became 24,890. Even though a hundred people had died... It only seemed like a rudimentary number.
Hen then answered me, ¡°There are other locations too, so only a few of them are here. I¡¯m guessing they¡¯re trying for the kingdom...¡± he sighed and didn¡¯t say anymore.
The two of us walked through town in search of a restaurant, but we couldn¡¯t find anything that we could seem to afford. In the end, we just stopped at a food stand to eat.
¡°Bro... what do you think..? Should we eat here..?¡±
¡°I guess so man...¡±
I then asked the stand-keeper, ¡°What do you have..?¡±
He then said, ¡°Tsk. We don¡¯t serve Infected, get out of here.¡±
I then walked a bit away from it. But for some reason when Hen tried buying it, he didn¡¯t talk back. Hen brought back two kebabs. The two of us sat on the pavements and started eating.
¡°Hen.. How did you buy it?¡±
¡°I asked about what he was talking about, turns out your class is the problem.¡±
¡°I really do have the shit class.¡±
¡°Nah man, it¡¯s alright. We¡¯ll do it bro. We¡¯ll make it.¡±If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Even though those were just words without any assurance behind them, for some reason, I felt better. Maybe, we could make it in this world.
¡°Anyway.. What do we do about accommodation?¡±
¡°I don¡¯t know bro...¡±
¡°We need more money don¡¯t we...¡±
¡°Yeah bro...¡±
¡°Why don¡¯t we try farming some loot?¡±
¡°B-But well...¡±
¡°We might die.. How about we cheese it..?¡±
¡°You don¡¯t mean...¡±
¡°Mm.¡± The strategy that I thought of was familiar with most players. It was where you¡¯d bait one enemy out of few, so that you can attack them solo. This works especially well in multiplayer, where you can have one person act as bait, and the others are attackers.
¡°But we need a ranged-attacker bro...¡±
¡°How ¡®bout I help?¡± It seemed to be another player, she seemed to have a bow on the back and she approached us out of nowhere.
¡°You want to party with us?¡± Hen took the initiative to talk to her. I just kept quiet.
¡°Yeah.¡±
¡°You don¡¯t mind that we¡¯re noobies?¡±
¡°Aren¡¯t we all level one right now?¡± she said with a smug face.
¡°Right...¡±
¡°Your class is knight, right? Mine¡¯s archer. What about this guy?¡±
¡°It¡¯s the launch day class, it¡¯s called infinite...¡± I said disappointedly.
¡°Well, I don¡¯t really mind, but you better not drag us down.¡±
Hen got angry on my behalf, I pulled him back and whispered to him, ¡°Let¡¯s go with this. We don¡¯t have another option.¡±
Hen agreed reluctantly and said, ¡°Alright. We¡¯ll party. How does a thirty-percent cut sound?¡±
¡°Well, since we are partying, I don¡¯t mind leaving the finance in your hands.¡±
¡°Alright then.¡±
The two of them shook hands, but oddly enough, a circle formed around the two of them and glowed.
The two of them were confused but she said, ¡°The party system huh..¡±
I then asked her, ¡°Anyway, what¡¯s your name?¡±
¡°Call me Ana.¡±
¡°Alright Ana. My name is Bluu, and this is Hen.¡±
Ana said, ¡°Anyway, Hen, I have about 50 coins, what about you?¡±
¡°I¡¯ve got just about 70 coins.¡±
I said, ¡°Together we¡¯ve got about 120 coins, assuming that we can bargain with the stand-keeper, we can get the price for one kebab to about 10 coins, which means we¡¯d need 30 coins per meal. Limiting ourselves to two meals a day, we¡¯d need 60 coins a day. Which means we can have meals for two days, and that¡¯s without considering accommodation.¡±
¡°Damn, maybe we should leave the finance in your hands,¡± said Ana.
¡°Yeah, my bro is a math-wizard like that.¡±
Ana said, ¡°Anyway, we¡¯ll go to Stonegate, any objections, the two of you?¡±
¡°No,¡± I said.
¡°None at all,¡± said Hen.
The three of us then walked towards the gate again, this was where me and Hen initially disappeared. For some reason, this same gate looked more terrifying than before. Even Ana seemed to be stressed.
Slowly the three of us passed through to see that it was a graveyard. Passing through the fog-filled graveyard, we arrived at a church. While Hen was the vanguard, I was in the middle just in case Ana needed support.
Hen holding his shield, pushed on the huge door into the broken church. And what we saw inside was a terrifying monster. It had horns growing out of it¡¯s head, and the blood of what it had been eating was flowing down onto the floor, dripping drop by drop. As I looked to the side, I noticed what it was eating were severed arms and legs.
I wanted to barf, but holding it in, I took a breath.
Hen held his arm out, indicating to us that we shouldn¡¯t charge yet.
Ana took a step back and incidentally stepped on a branch. The sound alerted the monster and it looked at us. With its eyes wide open and an expression indicating that it was not going to let us go anymore. Its mouth split in four and it screeched as it ran towards us on its four legs.
Hen took a step forward and parried its charge, immediately Ana shot her arrows into one of its eyes. In the time it took her to reload for the next shot, it started to charge at her. It was smart, it knew that she was a threat.
¡°Shit!¡±
I unsheathed my knife and immediately stabbed it in its chest, and right as it was about to devour my head, Hen charged at it with his shield, pushing it onto the floor, where Ana then shot an arrow into its throat.
Letting out a whimper, it tried to get back up, and before it could, I ran at it and stabbed it in the chest continuously until I was gasping for breaths.
Even though it was dead, we couldn¡¯t shake off the feeling that we were about to die. We killed it easily, but wouldn¡¯t that be the same for it as well..? Aren¡¯t we just as weak..?
¡°Well.. thanks for the save there Bluu. I would¡¯ve died.¡±
¡°Damn... What the hell... Does AI really aim for the archer..?¡± asked Hen.
Ana then replied, ¡°No.. not really.. This game..¡±
She took a pause and completed her sentence, ¡°It¡¯s like it¡¯s real.¡±
Soon we walked into the church, but what we could find were a lot of dead bodies. No one was alive. The NPCs all died horrible deaths, being eaten alive.
But I¡¯d noticed that all these NPCs had a bit of money, although it was so disgusting, we¡¯d need this money. In the end I found about 45 coins out of nine NPCs.
Ana said, ¡°We have barely enough for another meal...¡±
¡°Hen... How did you do that..?¡± When he was fighting, it seemed like he was previously trained before, almost like he inherently knew how to fight. But I knew that Hen didn¡¯t know any of that sort.
¡°I don¡¯t know... Now that you say it... How did I even fight..?¡±
¡°It¡¯s the same with me. I¡¯ve never touched a bow in my life, but for some reason I can use it.¡±
The two of them looked at me, ¡°I didn¡¯t.. Feel anything like that...¡±
I continued, ¡°I think it¡¯s because of my class... Both of you had a class specific to your weapons..¡±
Hen said, ¡°I don¡¯t get it..¡±
Ana then said, ¡°Hen think about it, we¡¯ve never used these weapons before, so how were we able to use it here?¡±
¡°It¡¯s because of the game...¡± answered Hen. He rubbed his temples.
Ana seemed to remember something, she then asked, ¡°Do we have any MARKIS?¡±
Hen asked, ¡°How do I check...¡±
Suddenly Hen made a surprised face and said, ¡°I-I don¡¯t know how... but when I thought about it, the number just came to me.. You two try it too.¡±
When I thought about how much markis I had suddenly a flash inside my head, telling me how much markis I had. I had 10 and a half markis.
Ana said, ¡°I¡¯ve got nine...¡±
¡°And I¡¯ve got 10 and a half,¡± said Hen.
¡°Same here. In total, it seems that Ana got her 30% cut. While the remaining was split between me and Hen. That¡¯s about a 35% split. One of those things gives us 30 markis.¡±
I then asked, ¡°Does anyone have a notebook?¡±
Ana said, ¡°I do. But why?¡±
¡°We need to note down everything we know.¡±
¡°Ah yeah, here¡¯s a pen too,¡± she then passed me the pen and notebook.
I made a new entry. For some reason, when I thought about that thing on the ground, a name suddenly flashed into my mind, it was like before.
[Horned Ghoul]
It is the 2nd of october of 2034. It¡¯s been just about a day since we were trapped in MARKIS. The horned ghoul seems to feed on bodies, it is smart enough to aim for our archer, Ana, however its eyes and mouth are weak spots where a well-aimed arrow can kill it. It drops about 30 markis. It is very violent, and the only reason we survived is due to Hen¡¯s parries.
Once I was done writing, I had a thought in my head.
¡°Ana, what¡¯s your maximum range?¡±
¡°I have no idea,¡± she said.
¡°Okay, no problem.¡± I then walked inside the church and saw a wooden cross broken on the ground.
¡°Hen! Need your help!¡±
¡°I¡¯ll be there!¡±
The two of us carried it outside and let it rest on the wall. Using my knife I marked an X on the top of the cross. I then looked at Ana, and said ¡°Ana, stand here, here, and here and shoot at the X.¡± I pointed at different points on the ground each 2 meters, 5 meters, and 10 meters away from the cross.
¡°And finally here.¡± I then pointed to a place just about roughly 20 meters away.
¡°Also you should probably pull the arrows out of that Ghoul.¡±
¡°Ah right, also, ghoul?¡±
¡°It flashed into my mind just like how the markis count did.¡±
¡°Okay...¡± She pulled the arrows while looking away.
She then stood at the points and shot from each one. Her accuracy seemed to drop once she was 5-10 meters away.
Impressed at herself she said, ¡°Woah..¡±
¡°I knew it. If you really do have these abilities because of the game, then we¡¯ll be able to do things that we don¡¯t know.¡± I then noted it down in the notebook.
Hen said, ¡°We should use that range...¡±
¡°My thoughts exactly Hen,¡± I said.
Ana said, ¡°So should we continue?¡±
I said, ¡°Yeah.. We need to.¡±
Chapter 2: Bitten
We continued on, we killed another ghoul, and we continued walking on the path, it seemed to go into a now abandoned village, the homes were desolate, and it was lifeless. The smell of the decaying bodies penetrated my nose, it made me want to vomit.
And slowly the three of us walked, we were cautious, we didn¡¯t know what would appear in front of us. We wanted to clear out the village of any ghouls so that we could loot the place. I took Ana¡¯s bag since I didn¡¯t have one, and she didn¡¯t want to carry it anyway.
Once we reached the other side of the village, we noticed that it split into a few different roads, one leading to what seemed like a castle, and another went into a mine, while the other went into a forest.
Confirming that we cleared everything, we walked back and we looted the houses individually. Ana and Hen stayed close together in case anything happened while I was looting.
In the first house that I looted, there seemed to be a necklace lying under the bed, and a bit of money was in the drawer. To be exact, it was 5 coins. In total we now had 170 coins. I didn¡¯t know how much the necklace was worth, but I think it might be profitable.
And while I continued to search the room, I heard ¡°help... me..¡±
When I looked behind me, it was a ghoul... No, it was something in between... Half its body disproportionately morphed into the ghoul, while the other half was human. It approached me saying the same thing. I shouted, ¡°Guys! Ghoul!¡± The two of them were stationed outside, Hen came running in, while Ana stayed outside to finish it.
Since the ghoul was in front of the entrance, Hen charged at it and pushed it onto a wall, he then stood in front of me and put his shield up.
Hen tried shouting for Ana to shoot it, and realised he couldn¡¯t. This was the worst situation. Ana couldn¡¯t do anything if it came charging at her, so the both of us had to stand still while it hissed at us. It seemed like the ghoul was controlling itself from attacking us, it said, ¡°Raaahr... Raa- run... a.. away!¡±
And suddenly an arrow flew into its head, it penetrated into its eyes, blood sprayed as it screamed in pain. Looking at Ana, it charged at her. Hen ran his best trying to catch up to it and stab it with his sword. And before he could, it jumped at Ana. Hen then charged and sliced it with his long sword, it screeched and opened its mouth to devour Hen, without his shield, he was a sitting duck. I unsheathed my knife and stabbed it straight into its mouth. It tried to bite me, but I held its mouth open with my other hand. Its disgusting saliva dropped down from my hand.
Like a mad dog, it screeched and tried to bite me, but due to it being a half-ghoul, it couldn¡¯t open its mouth fully. But I couldn¡¯t keep my balance.
It threw me onto the house¡¯s wall, I lost my breath. Hen then drove his sword into its heart, while Ana shot into its other eye. As it slowly bled out, it said ¡°Thank... You...¡±
Ana said, ¡°W-we should probably get back...¡±
¡°Right... Let¡¯s get going, Bluu.¡±
¡°Alright. Right now we should have about 31.5 Markis for you and me, while Ana has 27. And we have about 170 coins plus this necklace.¡±
Hen replied, ¡°We have enough for about 3 days now, at least for food.¡±
I said, ¡°Now all that¡¯s left is a place to stay...¡±
¡°Right...¡±
Now that we had some more money, the three of us decided we''d get some rest after eating at the stand again. Seems like the stand offered some cheap rice-cakes. They were about 5 coins each but they were small, after sharing some food, the total cost for this meal came out to be 20 coins. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
However there was something interesting at the foodstand, it was a lamp, there didn¡¯t seem to be a fire in it and it seemed to be a crystal. I wanted to know what it was, and so I asked Hen to look about.
Apparently that¡¯s a crystal lamp, one of those can light up continuously for a few weeks if you use it on a minimum. They cost 40 coins, but we were able to bargain with the shopkeeper that sold it and got it for 25 coins, although this one was a bit used. And we got a big cloth for 8 coins. We thought we could split the cloth between us and use it for when we sleep.
Since I decided that right now we couldn¡¯t afford any of the Inns and could only sleep at that cave, since it wasn¡¯t the worst place to sleep in.
In total now we had about 117 coins left. We went back to the cave, divided the cloth into two since it couldn¡¯t be divided into 3. We¡¯d also sleep on a schedule, with one of us awake.
We decided that we¡¯d go to the priestess once we¡¯ve slept. So after a long day, we finally closed our eyes, and went to sleep.
I woke up and took a moment to let my eyes adjust, the three of us were tired yesterday, and honestly we couldn¡¯t do much... That was when I noticed that Ana was asleep. I tried waking her up only to notice that her right arm had a bite mark.
¡°Oy hen!¡±
He got up startled and asked me, ¡°wha- What happened?¡±
¡°Look at this...¡±
¡°What the hell... No way... It¡¯s that ghoul!¡±
¡°What?¡±
¡°Remember when we fought a ghoul yesterday? I think she got bitten by that thing... Wha- what do we do bro?¡±
¡°Uh-.. I don¡¯t know.. Let¡¯s uh-...¡±
¡°Alright calm down Bluu, we have to think this through.¡±
¡°Alright.. In that case do we know of any way to fix this?¡±
¡°We have to get medicines.. Or... I don¡¯t know if it¡¯ll work..¡±
¡°Tell me, what is it?¡±
¡°Well, in most RPGs you can go to the church to get healed up, right? So I was thinking that... But the church here is- well, broken.¡±
¡°Ah shit... Well, let¡¯s try it anyway, I¡¯ll go to the stores... No, you go to the stores.. I¡¯m an infected. I¡¯ll carry her to the church.¡±
¡°Are you sure man..?¡±
¡°Well, no choice really.¡±
I tried my best to carry her on my back, I wasn¡¯t very strong here either, and she was pretty heavy for me. Regardless I carried her as fast as I could to the church.
My back hurt, my knees felt like they¡¯d collapse at any moment now. The sweat got into my eyes... Ah shit.. It burns.. Once I saw the church, I rushed in to see the priestess praying.
¡°Pr- Priestess! Please help us!¡±
Slowly she got up and came towards us, her silvery pupils looked at me and then looked at Ana and said, ¡°Oh you poor soul. She has been infected. She cannot be saved not unless the goddess herself showed mercy on this child.¡±
¡°W- What?¡±
Closing her eyes she slowly placed her hand on Ana¡¯s forehead, and suddenly I could see something flashing into my mind. It was my Markis, it was being reduced to nothing. It seemed Ana¡¯s Markis was also being used, it was as though I could see a stream of information flowing.
Steadily the bite marks that had started decaying her skin disappeared and it was healing, her hand was healing. But©` I had already run out of Markis. And it stopped healing.
¡°I have done all that I can, my child.¡±
¡°Wh- What about Hen¡¯s Markis?!¡±
¡°I have already told you, I have done everything I can. Forgive me.¡±
N- no way... All our Markis is gone.. And Ana¡¯s bite marks haven¡¯t gone yet. Ana slightly opened her eyes, ¡°Ah... Our Markis... It¡¯s not there...¡±
I didn¡¯t say anything.
¡°It¡¯s my fault... mine...¡± she said with tears in her eyes. ¡°Just... let me die... I¡¯m not gonna make it...¡±
¡°No. We won¡¯t let you die like that. Not to a friend.¡±
¡°Tha- thank yo..¡± she trailed off and closed her eyes, it seemed that she was sleeping.
Chapter 3: Strength.
We can¡¯t give up. There isn¡¯t another option. There was no choice but to never give up.
¡°Bro, we need to get back there,¡± I said.
¡°Look hen, we... I don¡¯t think we can make it...¡± I know he¡¯s only trying to make sure that we survive. But then.. What would be the point if we let her die?
¡°We won¡¯t give up on her,¡± I said.
¡°Ah... Alright, we¡¯ll move then.¡±
This time we weren¡¯t looting houses. We were hunting for ghouls. We were bound to get hurt or worse, even so we will do it.
¡°Let¡¯s get going bro.¡±
¡°Aight. You lead.¡±
We then stood at a crossroad, this is where we would have to decide how we went.
Choosing one meant that we¡¯d have to stay in that path, at least until we get enough Markis.
¡°We¡¯ll go through the mine.¡±
¡°You sure Bluu?¡±
¡°Yeah.¡±
I took out my sword. For some reason it felt so nerve-wracking. But, seeing Bluu¡¯s face, I calmed down. We¡¯ll do it. We¡¯ll make it. We¡¯ll live. I slid my shield back onto my back.
¡°Hen, I¡¯ve got the crystal lamp.¡±
The two of us walked closer to the desolate mine, it was a distance between here and the village, but we made it, and now we had to go inside.
I took a breath and walked inside.
¡°I¡¯ll light the lamp, hold on,¡± said Bluu.
Suddenly came light.
Spiders roamed the stone roof that was barely held by the wooden supports that I saw. Pickaxes lie about, it had been years since anyone had been inside. There was no life here. All that remained was the broken remnants of the past that had now become the future.Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.
There wasn¡¯t room for mistakes anymore. If we screw up, we die. If we choke up, we die. If we don¡¯t try, we die. It was like everything was out to kill us, I was scared.
¡°Hen!!¡±
¡°What?!¡±
¡°In front of you!¡±
I couldn¡¯t see anything, but suddenly a ball of blackness jumped at me, it was a spider, a meter long, I immediately blocked it with my shield. It opened its mouth and hissed at us. It observed the both of us carefully.
Bluu charged at it with his knife, and stabbed into one of its legs, it screamed and bit his hand.
¡°Ahhhh!¡±
I raised my shield and crushed the spider with it. But it wasn¡¯t enough. It started jumping up onto the walls, jumping from here to there, dodging every one of our attacks, it was fast. Annoyingly fast.
¡°Bluu! You good?!¡± On his left hand was a bite, swelling into a balloon. Not again, I won¡¯t lose another person. I will never let that happen.
I put the shield on my back and took out my sword, I took a breath, and suddenly it was as though something took me over, I could charge at it with no fear, no hesitation. I took a stance, my left foot forward, and my right foot back, and then a slice to the left. One of the spider''s legs was caught in it. The sword sliced through it like there was nothing there.
The leg fell to the floor and so did the spider, screeching in pain.
And suddenly Bluu came charging at it and stabbed it, in its abdomen, blood flowed out of it and it stopped screaming.
¡°Bluu, stop... Are you okay..?¡±
¡°Yeah, I¡¯m fine. Anyway... We should go, we just got 15 Markis, and it was gone immediately, I¡¯m guessing it¡¯s being used for Ana.¡±
¡°Alright. I wasn¡¯t just high right? I saw this damn thing move so fast..¡±
¡°Yeah nah, it¡¯s quick.¡±
Soon the two of us continued on, the mine branched off into a fork, and to make sure we didn¡¯t get lost Bluu left a trail of rocks to follow back to get out.
We went into the first path, only to see that there were more spiders. Baiting one and running back to the fork we started attacking it. It was just like the other one, but we started noticing something. These spiders and ghouls, though they looked similar they weren¡¯t the same. Rather they had completely different attack patterns even though they used the same moves.
I remember watching Miyamoto talk about this, he called it a DAS-AI. Dynamic Attack System - Artificial Intelligence. I completely forgot about it.
¡°In front of you!¡±
¡°Shit! Thanks for the save Bluu!¡±
¡°Watch your front! I¡¯ll attack it!¡±
While I kept it distracted, Bluu came in from the back and stabbed it. I don¡¯t know how many hours it had been, but eventually we had killed two more spiders and then Bluu said, ¡°Hen! We did it! We friggin¡¯ did it!!¡± He started hugging me, ¡°We did?¡±
¡°We did!¡±
The reason for why we were so excited was well, the Markis had stopped being transferred, which means that she was saved!
Chapter 4: AИNA
In a country unknown to all, and in it a girl known to none, who lived with her sister within their tiny tiny home. It was Anna. Her father had left when they were young and their mother left the world too early. With no one to depend on, the sisters could only help each other. Even so, the big sister carried the brunt of the weight, though she never complained, it was easy to see she took all the burden herself.
However, Anna did her best and got into a university with a scholarship, she wanted to take at least a bit of the weight on her sister¡¯s shoulders. And she did, of course anna still had to live off of her sister¡¯s sweat and tears. However, it made her sister happy.
Until a fateful day. Anna¡¯s sister couldn¡¯t understand. She had switched channels again and again, but it didn¡¯t make any sense, the news said the same thing over and over.
¡°Publisher and entrepreneur Miyamoto- *switch* have effectively been trapped- *switch* 25,000 confirmed- *switch* Dying in game will result in death in real life.¡±
The little sister was trapped inside a game with no one to help her.
¡°Ugh...¡±
¡°Hey Ana.¡± Bluu..?
¡°You¡¯re awake, thank god!¡±
¡°Hen..?¡±
¡°Welcome back from the dead. We almost lost you there.¡±
¡°Hahaha... Thanks guys... This means a lot... Honestly...¡± Ah crap.. There¡¯s tears now...
¡°No problem!¡±
¡°Hen... you realize we had to kill spiders for this yes? So not exactly a no- You know what, forget it. All that matters is that you¡¯re okay Ana. But you better not leave this party! We risked our lives afterall.¡±
¡°Sure... Sure...¡±
I can¡¯t believe it... Why did they save me? Wouldn¡¯t have it been easier to just leave me? I don¡¯t understand... I don¡¯t understand at all.
¡°Alright Bluu, do you wanna try to see if we can loot the mine?¡±
¡°I guess..? I mean we have to wait for Ana to feel better.¡±
¡°Oh right.¡±
I¡¯m just gonna sleep... these two idiots would keep talking.
By the time I woke up, I felt a lot better and I could actually get up now. It had only been a few hours, so we decided we¡¯d eat something and then go to the mine they told me about. Apparently there¡¯s spiders there that are speedy, so we¡¯d have to be careful.
Either way though, I was thankful to these two. I heard that Bluu almost got bitten.
We walked through the town again, and decided we¡¯d loot the remaining houses. We have 87 coins left after eating. We took a bit more than usual since we were all pretty hungry.
There were two more houses to go through, and in one of the we found a gold cup. Bluu thought it¡¯d be worth something, so he put it into the bag.
In the second house we found about 10 coins. It wasn''t much money, but it was enough for us. Although... This house isn¡¯t that broken, and it has two rooms. We''d have to fix a few holes here and there, but it¡¯s in pretty good condition considering it. Not to mention it¡¯s near the town.
¡°Guys, do you think we could repurpose this house?¡±
¡°To live in it?¡± said Hen.
¡°Well.. It¡¯s possible, but can we even repurpose it? I know this game¡¯s realistic, but it can¡¯t be that realistic. And even if it was, we don¡¯t know what sorts of things live nearby, so it¡¯d be pretty dangerous.¡±
¡°Hmmm...¡± He wasn¡¯t wrong.
Hen then said ¡°I guess we could try, couldn¡¯t we Bluu?¡±
¡°I guess we could.¡±
We saw another group of four people on the path, but they were arguing.
¡°Huh?! What do you mean I¡¯m dead weight!¡±
¡°Yeah no way Owen, we can¡¯t keep saving you.¡±
¡°Well screw you guys!¡±
The other three walked past us and went back on the way to the town. As we walked past the guy called Owen, he talked to Hen.
¡°Hey, can I join your party? I¡¯m a mage.¡±Stolen story; please report.
¡°Well, you should talk to Bluu, he¡¯s the one leading the party.¡±
¡°What? A ¡®classless¡¯ is the one leading the party?¡±
I said ¡°Mind your damn words, asshole.¡±
I know these types of guys, they just make you carry them, they¡¯re useless.
¡°It¡¯s okay Ana. Anyway we¡¯re fine with partying but how much of a share do you want?¡±
¡°50%.¡± This damn scumbag?!
¡°No. I¡¯m only gonna do 20%.¡±
¡°Fine. I¡¯ll do 20%.¡±
Once the two of them shook hands, the contract circle showed up on the floor. Shit... He¡¯s part of the party now. Whatever. I¡¯ll just have to make sure he knows his place. For some reason instead of walking in the back, he was walking in the vanguard.
I whispered ¡°Bluu, why¡¯d you let him into the party..?¡±
¡°I knew he was a scumbag, but we needed another ranged shooter.. Honestly I don¡¯t know how this is gonna go.¡±
Hen said ¡°You aren¡¯t wrong there...¡±
We¡¯d reached the mine, I became alert.
¡°Relax Ana. It¡¯s cleared out for a fair bit, so we don¡¯t need to worry.¡±
Owen then said, ¡°Ah it is! Heh!¡±
He started running through the mine.
¡°We only cleared a bit, hey stop running!¡±
But he kept running, we ran after him.
Hen said, ¡°Shit! He¡¯s at the fork!¡±
¡°Why?!¡±
Bluu replied, ¡°It¡¯s not cleared out!¡±
By the time we reached him, he was on his ass with five spiders walking towards him.
¡°Dumbass, get off your ass!¡±
¡°U-uh right..¡±
He then ran behind me.
¡°Alright. Ana take mine and Hen¡¯s six o''clock. Hen focus on keeping distance between them and us by charging, I¡¯ll take your back.¡±
Owen then shouted ¡°Should I use my fire spell?¡±
¡°No! We¡¯re in a mine right now! Don¡¯t use any magic!¡±
One of the spiders jumped towards Bluu. Hen then charged at it. But behind him was another spider, Bluu used his broken knife to defend against the spider.
¡°Ana aim for their abdomen!¡±
¡°Understood!¡±
I then shot at the two spiders¡¯ abdomen, they didn¡¯t die, but they¡¯d become considerably slower. Two other spiders then charged at me and Owen, I used the edge of my bow to defend against it and threw it towards the wall. Bluu came running and stabbed it in the abdomen. But he was bitten in his elbow by the spider trying to escape.
¡°Bluu are you okay?!¡±
¡°Hen focus on the vanguard!¡±
¡°Ana shoot the one aiming for Hen¡¯s back!¡±
Shit! If I miss I might hit Hen! I... I¡¯ll do it. I have to. I took a breath. The arrow flew through the air and hit the abdomen of the spider. And soon Hen took care of the one more remaining spider in front of him.
Finally the three of us took a breath.
Owen said ¡°Wh-what the hell were you two doing in the front?! I could¡¯ve died, you know?! You guys are u-useless!¡±
I¡¯m fucking done.
¡°Hey asshole.¡± I put him against the wall and carried him by the collar.
¡°Ana-¡±
¡°Not right now Bluu.¡±
¡°You wanna talk like that? You think you¡¯re worth jack shit? We¡¯re useless? Talk like that again and I¡¯ll put you in a fucking coffin. I¡¯m so done with your bullshit. You¡¯re the real useless one here.¡±
I let him go, and he just fell down onto the floor.
¡°Anyway Bluu, what¡¯s the info on the spider?¡±
He then gave me his notebook.
[ThunderFall Spider]
It is the 3rd of october of 2034. It¡¯s been just about a few days since we were trapped in MARKIS. Its eyes are numerous and the abdomen is its weak spot where a well-aimed arrow can slow it down enough to where we can kill it. It drops about 15 markis. It is very fast, and the only reason we can fight against it is because we could take each other¡¯s backs. It doesn¡¯t have the strength to throw us down like the ghoul does, but it¡¯s stealthy and extremely light body allows it to bite us easily.
¡°Hold on... Bluu you got bitten by this didn¡¯t you..?¡±
Then Hen said, ¡°Wait, I completely forgot, show us your hand quickly, we might have to go to the priestess before it¡¯s too late.¡±
Bluu then showed us his hand, but there was nothing.
¡°Guys... I, uhm... I don¡¯t need to go to the priestess... Because I can¡¯t be infected.¡±
¡°What? How?¡±
¡°I asked the priestess about when I was bitten, she told me that I can never be infected because I already am.¡±
¡°How¡¯re you already infected..?¡± I asked.
He then said, ¡°I¡¯m weak because I was infected. And those who are infected are half-monsters... That¡¯s why the people don¡¯t want to associate with me...¡±
Hen replied, ¡°Ah man... At least on the brightside, you can¡¯t get infected from their bites, but you can¡¯t trade or talk with NPCs either.¡±
Owen then said under his breath, ¡°I¡¯m sorry...¡±
¡°What?¡±
¡°I¡¯m sorry, okay! I¡¯m scared man, I don¡¯t want to die, I never thought all this would happen from getting into a game?! I don¡¯t even play games man... Please I¡¯ll listen to you... just help me man, I don¡¯t wanna die.. Please.¡±
Bluu then knelt down in front of him and said, ¡°Your name¡¯s Owen right? Look, I know what you feel like, I don¡¯t want to die either. But we¡¯ll make it, okay? We¡¯ll do it together, let¡¯s put the past behind us, what do you say?¡±
¡°Yeah, my name is Owen... Okay Bluu. I¡¯ll trust you.¡± I could see Owen tearing up while hugging Bluu.
Well, I really didn¡¯t think this¡¯d happen. But all¡¯s well that ends well.
Chapter 5: Motherload.
Owen was a bit problematic in the beginning when we met him, but now he trusts me and follows my orders. He did the tests I asked of him.
In all honesty, I don¡¯t blame him. I was much luckier than, well those who got trapped within the game at least, in that I had someone who was my friend. Owen told me that he didn¡¯t have any friends who were with him. Which is why he partied with others but it didn¡¯t work out. He also had 50 coins. Which he didn¡¯t use it at all.
Owen chose the class called Mage, and it seems to include a staff, a robe, basic light armor, and leather boots. The spells he can use are basic and use up a lot of mana, but the mana will regenerate, and he also has heal spells, but they can¡¯t be leveled up he tells me.
The basic spells he can use are Fire Arrow, Water Slash, Air Shield, and Rock Crush.
To my testing his accuracy was similar to Ana. It¡¯d drop after 5-10 meters. So then most ranged attackers¡¯ basic range is the same. However what intrigued me most were the attacks. Although he could only do maybe 8 per hour, they were devastating.
Fire Arrow was good because the fire was constant and didn¡¯t seem to go out even with water, however it went out due to a time limit. The fire could spread, but its power output would divide between the different targets. The fire lasts about 1 minute.
Water Slash was able to cut through rocks and was high pressure water.
Air Shield although seems stupid, it seems to form a wall of air with a radius of 1 meter and lasts about 10 minutes.
Rock Crush takes a piece of rock and launches at where Owen aims. However with increased distance the speed reduces a lot.
I then talked with all of them about how he''d play into our team.
¡°Okay guys, as long as Owen uses his attacks properly, we should have a huge advantage, but keeping him at the front is impossible, his attack delay is too big but his output is proportionally big too.¡±
Then Ana said, ¡°So Owen stays with me?¡±
¡°Pretty much.¡±
Then Owen asked, ¡°Uh.. I don¡¯t get what you mean by using attacks properly, can you tell me, Bluu?¡±
¡°Well, for a Fire Arrow, you should only use it on enemies that are between the ranges of 5-10m, don¡¯t go above or below that. This is to both be efficient and make sure that the fire doesn¡¯t affect us. Water slashes are odd because they can be used at low and high range, so I leave it to your discretion, but don¡¯t use it if you risk hitting us in the vanguard. Regarding Air Shield, you should use it whenever you feel that one of us is in danger, that includes you too. Rock Crush can be used in low range, essentially when you have to attack back at an enemy.¡±
¡°O-Okay. I¡¯ll do my best.¡±
Then Ana said, ¡°Owen, I know we may have had our differences, but I was only trying to keep my friends safe. Of course now you¡¯re also a friend, don¡¯t forget that.¡±
Hen and I said, ¡°Same here.¡±
¡°I understand guys, I¡¯m sorry for that too.¡±
¡°Bluu, we should go get some food.¡±
¡°Nah, you and Ana go, we¡¯ll be sitting here on the sidewalk. I¡¯ll have a kebab.¡±
¡°Alright. What about you Owen?¡±
¡°U-uh, 2 rice cakes.¡±
¡°Owen, I wanted to talk to you alone when they weren¡¯t there... Because... I can¡¯t say this with them here.¡±
¡°Wh-what did you want to say..?¡±
¡°In case any of us are in need of healing from you, then... Choose hen as a first priority and Ana as second. At any cost, do not save me unless only I need it. Those two won¡¯t accept this, but please don''t say this to them. This is my request to you.¡±
¡°I... understand Bluu. I¡¯ll do as you say. But please remember that I will not abandon you, just as you have done for me.¡±
¡°Thanks Owen.¡± The truth is, I don¡¯t want to die. But even so, the priority is to keep the others alive. I am useless and always will be in this game. The others need to be alive. Especially Hen, Ana, and now Owen. Soon the others came back and then we ate, and soon we went to sleep in the cave.
Since there are four of us, it¡¯s easier for us to have shifts. We decided we¡¯d redo the party contract. We thought it would be more fair to have an even share since we¡¯re all teammates now.
¡°So, all of us agree to a 25% share rate, right?¡±
All of us nodded and fistbumped. And then a green circle formed below us and rearranged our already pre-existing markis. Since we had 75 Markis from the five spiders we killed yesterday. I could see that we now each had roughly 18 Markis.
Once we were done, we decided we¡¯d go back to the mine through Stonegate. But as we were passing we saw this guy who was shouting within the town, there were a few players gathering around him, filling forms.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
¡°I invite all players to our guild! We¡¯ll provide food and a bed!¡±
For some reason I didn¡¯t feel like trusting them, so I walked on my own way and didn¡¯t bother with them. We need all the freedom we can get, after all it¡¯s our lives on the line. We can¡¯t afford to be limited.
Anyway, we continued onto the mine and got in there. We decided if we were to explore, we should do so in the same place instead of changing every time.
Once we got inside, we cautiously walked through and we were at the fork again. I told Owen to standby while we would clear out these enemies, since it¡¯d be easier to defeat them now without worrying about them ganging up.
Except something felt wrong. The spiders weren¡¯t there. While me and Hen tried to figure out what was going on, suddenly Ana shouted, ¡°Bluu dodge to the right!¡±
It was by instinct, but it saved me. What jumped at me was a 7 meter long worm, its face was disgusting with its saliva dripping down onto the ground, its teeth grinding upon itself, and its body slithering around. It was defensive.
Hen tried to charge at it, but the worm spat at him, and right as it was about to hit, Owen shouted ¡°Air Shield!¡±
The acid flowed down the wall and hit the ground, it melted the soil and rocks. I shouted, ¡°Hen, back! Owen, fire!¡±
Hen then jumped back and then Owen fired a fire arrow into its mouth, the fire arrow pierced through the mouth and started a flame from the inside of its body, while it was twitching and rolling due to the pain, I said, ¡°Ana, fire!¡±
She then fired two of her arrows pinning the worm, from head to tail, to the floor. It stopped twitching and tried to move, but before it could, Hen sliced its body down from the head towards the tail, he couldn¡¯t do the entire thing, but this would ensure it would die.
However, it smelled like a ditch due to burning from the inside-out with the acid that was leaking out. It was a disgusting image, Owen started vomiting to the side. I stopped myself, but I can¡¯t lie, it was disturbing.
Ana said, ¡°What in the hell was that...?¡±
Hen answered, ¡°We don¡¯t know... We didn¡¯t see this last time.¡±
Owen then said, ¡°G-guys..? L-Look here...¡±
He was pointing towards the mine¡¯s wall... Except it was open..? It¡¯s a hidden door..?
¡°How did you open it?¡±
¡°I-I just sat here and suddenly it opened!¡± Well he wouldn¡¯t lie, but should we go inside here?
Hen said, ¡°We¡¯ll go inside.¡±
I was gonna argue back, but I just can¡¯t. Afterall it¡¯s just an assumption that it¡¯d be dangerous. If we were to go away, we might miss important stuff.
¡°Alright Hen. But we have to be cautious.¡±
Hen said, ¡°Cool.¡±
Ana said, ¡°Understood.¡±
While Owen just nodded.
We went inside and then lit the lamp. But what awaited us was...
¡°A library..?¡±
Ana asked, ¡°Why are books here?¡±
Hen said, ¡°I don¡¯t even know what we¡¯re supposed to do with this...¡±
Being careful, I took one of the books on the table in front of me within this room filled with bookshelves on each wall.
I dusted it off and read the front page, ¡°Journal of NeiR Erik.¡±
Owen said, ¡°A journal?¡±
¡°Yeah, it seems to be filled with this guy called Erik.¡± I should read this, for some reason my gut tells me that this¡¯ll be important.
I then said, ¡°Guys! Ana and Hen immediately get outside and guard. Owen, you¡¯re with me for looting this place, since you¡¯ve got a bag.¡±
Owen said, ¡°Okay bluu.¡±
Hen said, ¡°Aight dude.¡±
While we were looting, we found a short sword, though it was rusty, it was good enough, I mounted the scabbard and the sword onto my hip. We also found a bag of gold coins. With some blankets and clothes. The bag had about 120 coins.
Owen shouted, ¡°HOLY CRAP! We found the motherload!!¡±
I said to Hen, ¡°Bro we just found so many coins!¡±
¡°YO that¡¯s sweet!¡±
Ana replied, ¡°Cool.¡±
Together we had about 232 coins, a necklace, and a golden cup. And the clothes and blankets we got are perfect because now we have everything to sleep without freezing in the night. Although the shirts and pants we have are for males, I think we should be fine.
¡°Bluu, I just found a book on magic, and it seems useful. Can I take it?¡±
¡°Hm, take it. It seems useful, and it¡¯s okay if you make your own calls.¡±
¡°Okay, thanks Bluu.¡±
¡°Ah also, if there¡¯s any info about the ¡®infinite¡¯ or ¡®infected¡¯, take that too.¡±
¡°Mkay.¡±
¡°Uh.. Bluu, I think I may have figured out how to open the door.¡±
¡°You did?¡±
¡°Yeah, I just needed to get a look at it.¡±
Just a look? How the hell did he...
¡°Okay so Bluu, just come out with me and let''s close the door behind us.¡±
¡°Hm, okay.¡±
It was as though the door never existed with only the wall of the cave remaining.
¡°To open this door, we¡¯ll have to...¡± He felt his hand down the wall and once he felt a bump on it, he pressed against it.
¡°Now we hold this and then...¡± He then moved his other hand a few centimeters to the left-side and then pressed the button, the door then swung open.
¡°There we go!¡±
¡°Owen, how did you figure it out?¡±
¡°Well, the door seemed to be unnecessarily thick and I thought that it must have a mechanism inside. So then I looked behind the door and saw that the corrosion of metal was less at two specific parts, this most likely meant that it had been changed or opened, meaning that it must be where the buttons must be.¡±
¡°You figured all that out with just that?¡±
¡°Oh and the fact that me sitting activated it, means that the buttons had to be low. So I felt the bumps and roughly pressed where the buttons would be.¡±
Owen has a talent for observation and his memory is good. I¡¯d be lying if I said I wasn¡¯t envious.
¡°Good work Owen, you did well. Honestly.¡±
I asked them, ¡°Also guys, we¡¯re keeping this a secret from the other players, yes?¡±
Hen said, ¡°Yeah, not to mention it can be used as a stash.¡±
Although the room was a bit too small for all of us to sleep in, it could fit one person and it had enough room for stashing stuff here. But I wonder why this Erik guy went through all this trouble to hide these books...
Chapter 6: May god...
4th March, 202
Erik, NeiR
To the one reading this,
This would mean that you have found my hidden room. Perhaps by fate. Even so, everything I say is the truth, and nothing but the truth. I¡¯ve not been able to say this to anyone so far. But, I¡¯ve come to discover that the prince may have sold the kingdom out to the barbarians. We have no choice but to surrender. I fear my brother may have to fight on the frontlines of the war. Yet he doesn¡¯t seem to heed my warnings, only considering them as the mumbles of a madman!
13th March, 202
Erik, NeiR
To the one reading this,
It¡¯s been a few days since I last made an entry. I fear the worst may have happened. The furthest outpost in the south has just been attacked by the barbarians. The tensions between our kingdom and the dwarves is quite frankly, disordered. My brother was assigned to lead the attack against the barbarians in the south. Being the captain of the 6th squad, I have no doubt that he¡¯ll win. However... I fear for his wellbeing. May the god almighty protect him.
27th March, 202
Erik, NeiR
To the one reading this,
God has saved my brother! I¡¯d almost thought I had lost him. The 6th squad seemingly had a difficult time holding the outpost. But my brother returned victorious. Even if he considers me a mere madman, I cannot help but be worried for him. A reckless boy, even since childhood, charging head-first into a problem without thought for his well-being. And his loyalty need not be mentioned in words, for I cannot express it.
10th April, 202
Erik, NeiRA case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
To the one reading this,
The capital was attacked. The dwarves seemed to use, what seemed to be a flying craft. The casualty count has come to a thousand. And it hasn¡¯t stopped. Most have died, and those who hadn¡¯t, ended their own life, may god protect their soul. The limbs of children and elderly with no distinction, gone. The innocents¡¯ blood was spilled onto the hard road all because of the prince¡¯s greed.
24th April, 202
Erik, NeiR
To the one reading this,
The casualty has reached five-thousand. Nearly all those who resided within the Equitus area have died. All that remains is the black soot paved onto the soil that was once used to farm. The city¡¯s structures are no more. My brother lead the rescuing efforts along with the captain and vice captain of the knight order. The 3rd, 4th, and 5th squads are launching the counter attack upon the dwarves. However I know that the dragon riders will not be enough against the dwarves¡¯ floater as they called it. O¡¯ Lord, protect those who believe you, and punish those who sin.
7th May, 202
Erik, NeiR
To the one reading this,
The 3rd squad and half of the 4th squad have died on duty. Why is it that we fight? What is it that we fight for? If all we¡¯re fighting for is to gain more control over another, then is there no point in that? For thousands of people to die, it is simply saddening.
9th May, 202
Erik, NeiR
To the one reading this,
My brother believes me, but at what cost? He¡¯s lost all hope in himself and the kingdom. I must not allow this to happen, even if the prince has no shame in doing such deeds, I must help my brother understand that he has done his best within this kingdom and that will never be a waste, for god will not forget the deeds of a good man.
1st Jan, 203
Erik, NeiR
To the one reading this,
Forgive me my lord. I have failed at guiding my brother. He has slaughtered all those because of me, please forgive him, oh lord.
¡°Owen... More than half the book¡¯s missing.¡±
Owen replied, ¡°I¡¯ll check again, but I¡¯m pretty sure that¡¯s all there is.¡±
From the state of the mine and the village nearby, it probably happened way long ago too.
Chapter 7: Vampires.
After we¡¯d discovered Erik¡¯s room, we decided we¡¯d go through the three paths of the mine. All we could see were the dismembered spiders, it seemed that the worm had killed all the spiders, fortunate for us, not so much for these guys.
The other path was a dead end. And only one remained.
¡°Guys, formation like usual.¡±
Hen stayed at the vanguard, I took mid, and the two of them took the back. We moved into the path... But there weren¡¯t any enemies. And we reached a wall. However this wall wasn¡¯t like normal. It seemed to have inscriptions on it. I didn¡¯t understand what they meant. But something told me that this wasn¡¯t an ordinary wall.
On the wall was something written, ¡°The world does not accept what it does not approve. Realize and act such that you are not ridiculed.¡±
Below the text was a cutout in the shape of a box. Around it were symbols, each seeming to be on a disc.
Owen said, ¡°B-bluu, g-give me the journal.¡±
¡°Uh, alright.¡±
He then put the book into the cutout, and then tried to rotate the disc.
Owen then gave up, ¡°Dang... Hen can you do it instead?¡±
Hen could easily rotate it. But Owen was very specific about how he wanted Hen to rotate it, so he told him to do it slowly and arranged the first disc.
The disc that he rotated had a picture of what seemed to be the moon.
Owen mumbled, ¡°The moon goes there... then..¡±
And slowly he and Hen arranged all the discs, and now there was a figure. However it seemed similar to something I¡¯ve seen before...
Hen shouted, ¡°isn¡¯t this that logo?!¡±
I asked, ¡°What do you mean?¡±
¡°Bluu, when Markis was still in development, there was a leak, that image... The top of it had a moon, the middle had a book, and at the sides were symbols, no one could really decode it since the photo was low-res!¡±Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
Hen then asked, ¡°Wait, did you also follow the leaks?¡±
¡°No, I could only do this because I saw this in the sky.¡±
I said, ¡°What?¡±
¡°Y-yeah, when I was lying down, I saw this formation of stars in the sky... w-well at least somewhat s-similar formation, not e-exact. But before that...¡±
Owen then put the journal into the cutout, and then we came a bang, the winding of cogs and gears filled our ears.
After the sounds stopped, Owen took the book out and then the door opened by itself. However, this wasn¡¯t part of the mine, the hallway seemed cold.
It was old. I could tell that no one had been here in years. The four of us continued walking down cautiously. And once we had reached the bottom, we saw what it was.
¡°The... Sewers..?¡±
It seemed to be a sewer system, of course we only made that guess because it seemed like one. There wasn¡¯t any water and naturally no smell as well.
Owen then said, ¡°No, it could also be a waterway.¡±
Hen embarrassed, answered, ¡°Ah.. I see.¡±
We went to the right, as the left was a dead end. And we slowly followed the sidewalks. We¡¯d then reached what seemed to be a gate. A small stairway led up onto a platform with a lever.
Owen shouted ¡°Hen pull it!¡±
Hen then pulled the lever and the gate opened by itself. Though the waterway was still there, this time it led outside. However, what was surprising was the sky.
Outside the cave, it was night. But here, it was in the morning. We know for a fact that not much time had passed, but it was the morning.
As we slowly walked out, we could see the world before us, it was a bare open field, the orange light shone upon the trees, and wind passed us by. A castle far in front of us, and towns that seemed to be intact. Were we finally in another place where things could work..?
In front of us, there was a kid NPC playing. All of us walked slowly, we felt strangely calm. The NPC came in front of us, and then, It came up to me. It said, ¡°Are you four here alone?¡±
Suddenly he hugged me. Not knowing what to do, I looked to the others, only to notice that... They were looking terrified and looked at me... No, rather... They were looking down... At the NPC..?
When I looked down, I could see this NPC¡¯s face, twisted and contorted with a smile, opening his mouth, I could see his fangs, deep into my thighs, it was as though the pain hit so late. An excruciating pain, I didn¡¯t even realize I was shouting, my entire body felt paralyzed.
Owen shouted, ¡°Fire Arrow!¡±
As soon as the arrow hit, the kid burned, but he only laughed, he held my head with his hands, with claws on them. Hen charged with his shield, pushing the kid off of me. Ana fired two arrows into his hand, pinning him into the ground. And that¡¯s when it all made sense to me. There was no morning, there was no bare open field, there were no villages. The others only followed me because I went forward. This thing was using some sort of magic.
I was on the floor, and I lost consciousness.
Chapter 8: Leader.
After Bluu lost consciousness, we didn¡¯t know what to do. We lost our minds, we didn¡¯t know what to do. Afterall he was our leader. Even as he was attacked, I had to think. I had to think how Bluu would think! Because he¡¯s the greatest of us when it comes to strategies.
I had to be like him, who was Bluu? Why was he as he was? Why did he think as he did? That¡¯s what I had to understand.
In a moment, it almost felt like time stopped. My mind working beyond what I ever thought was possible, and I looked to the front. I could perfectly see what Bluu would do. It was as though he was right behind me guiding my entire body.
The vampire jumped and attacked Owen.
¡°Owen, behind me! Ana, its eyes!¡±
Ana shot its eyes, and as it screamed of pain, I bashed into it with my shield. I then shouted, ¡°Owen! WS!¡±
¡°Water Slash!¡± The water slash he used cut its left arm, the thing suddenly changed into a bat and came at me, Ana then shot one of its wings. I then shouted, ¡°FA!¡±
¡°Fire Arrow!¡± Owen shot a fire arrow, and this time it actually burned and screeched in pain. I took my sword and drove it into the 1 meter long bat. Blood spleeched out its body and the bat stopped moving. Slowly it fell off of my sword and dropped onto the floor. When I looked at the dead body, my head was filled with its name.
Disillusioning Vampire, that¡¯s what it was called.
I turned to Bluu, to see his face turning to a dark purple, veins popping out of his body looking disgusting. His eyes were turned back. We didn¡¯t know what to do, we panicked. And suddenly, Bluu himself spit out purple liquid. Coughing he turned to the side, and then he breathed. I ran to him and held him up. He then vomited out more of the liquid. And then he said, ¡°I-... I¡¯m... immune.¡±
I was immune. The spider bite, the vampire, everything I had taken into my body should¡¯ve killed me a while back. However I wasn¡¯t dead. It was because of this ¡®immunity¡¯.
I couldn¡¯t be poisoned by the monsters, however I was as weak as a bug, I could die at any moment and I didn¡¯t have much of a choice. The only way I could get this far is because of my teammates. I have no doubt I¡¯d die if any of my body parts were ripped apart. I¡¯m only immune to the venom.
Even though I couldn¡¯t speak well, ¡°H-.. Hen, I¡¯m-... immune to the venom!¡±If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
The others didn¡¯t understand properly. Hen then took out his water pouch and gave me water. I drank the water and I could finally breathe properly. I then looked at them and explained, ¡°I seem to have immunity against monster venom... And it¡¯s most likely because of my class.¡±
Owen then said, ¡°Isn¡¯t that really broken?¡±
I explained, ¡°No... Even though I have this immunity, I¡¯m as weak as a cockroach... I wouldn¡¯t be able to survive this long. And... I...¡±
I struggled to say it. How would I tell them that I most likely will grow 10x slower than the others because of my class? After all this class is the only reason I haven¡¯t been able to get stronger. While the others got better and better, and they had skills. I didn¡¯t have that. I had to use swords like I really was using them.
Hen said, ¡°It¡¯s okay Bluu.¡±
Owen said, ¡°Yeah, don¡¯t be sad or anything. We really do need you...¡±
Ana then commented, ¡°Yeah, cuz¡¯ Hen sucks at leading us!¡±
¡°Hey! I wasn¡¯t that bad, okay!¡±
¡°Hen... I would have died...¡± Owen added.
¡°Okay maybe I¡¯m a bit bad.¡±
A bitter-sweet feeling. I knew that I wouldn¡¯t ever get a team like this, but I also knew that I, one day, will not be able to fight along with them. Even now, I¡¯m having trouble. And that¡¯s when I noticed...
¡°Guys... We have a total of 375 markis now... And about 93 markis individually...¡±
Hen asked, ¡°What..? How¡¯s that...¡±
I answered, ¡°That vampire gave 300 markis...¡±
Hen said, ¡°The amount of markis we get is equal to the difficulty of the enemy for one person... Which means what we fought was the most dangerous thing we¡¯ve seen...¡±
Owen said, ¡°If so... Then we should-¡±
¡°Get out. We have to go now. Owen¡¯s running low on mana, Ana¡¯s arrows are getting dull. I¡¯m not able to fight right now, and your shield is breaking apart,¡± I told Hen.
¡°Alright.. Understood. And I¡¯ll just carry you.¡±
¡°Thanks bro.¡±
Then all of us went out of the sewer like system and made it to the surface. We quickly ran back to the cave we slept at. And that was the end of today. However before going to sleep, I wrote in my notebook after asking Hen.
[Disillusioning Vampire]
It is the 4th of October, 2034. The vampire seems to use illusion magic. First luring in the victim and then sucking their blood. It also seems to release a venom, effect is unknown. The human form¡¯s weakness is its eyes, targeting its eyes first and then the arms seems to work. In its bat form, it seems to be quick and so the vanguard of the attack must be good. The vampire seems to give 300 markis and is one of the hardest opponents we¡¯ve faced.