“Fine. I'll have the information for you in an hour,” B4hamutt grumbled, she could almost hear him rolling his eyes. “For now here's the kid's friend card.” A menu popped up in front of the angel and she reached out to click it, downloading the information.
“Really? His name is... 5-t-4-r 8-r-3-4-k-3-r?” she said with an annoyed sigh. “There, he's added. I'm not calling him that though.”
“Okay. Thanks, I'll see you later.” The call ended and the sounds from the town began again. She clicked on the menu a few more times as her new friend was contacted and invited to form a group, termed a party, with her. It didn't take him long to answer so she quickly switched to party chat, not muting the outside noises this time. “Hey.”
“Ummm... hi,” the voice responded softly.
“Meet me at the market, I'll be the winged dragon character.” She began to head towards a large market. Most of the shops were held in one large courtyard in the center of the town. All the NPCs, or non-player characters, were angels. There were a few non-angel characters and even a demon, though those were PCs, or player characters. She walked through the crowds, grinning every time she caught someone staring at her wings.
After a few minutes of waiting, a young angel character ran towards her. The character had blue hair, green eyes and no wings. His nonsensical name floated above his head. Her friend hadn't been kidding when he said the kid was 'new.'
“So you must be Star. You haven't even unlocked your wings yet?”
“I've been busy. The town is huge and I've been looking over every inch of it,” the boy said, his voice filled with excitement. She couldn't recognize which of the pre-set voices he was using, and wondered if he was using a filter instead.
“Since it's your first day, let me help gear you up. Think of it as a kind of 'welcome to the world' gift. I assume your base, angel, armor and weapon levels are all one?” Asura asked softly.
“Yeah. I wanna get a bow though. I practiced archery so it would be best for me.”
She froze in place. “You want to use archery as an angel?”
“Yeah! With flying and all it should be easy. I could just rain destruction down on people and they couldn't do anything about it.”
Asura sighed as she shook her head. “I tell you what. I'll get you a sword and a bow, you can level them each. Once you get your base level higher you might want to switch to the fae class to use the bow. As an angel, it's not easy. The wind your wings makes throws the arrow off,” she said before she glanced around for the nearby shops. “You can level your weapon skills no matter which class you are, so long as you use the weapon. But you won't get the spells and racial buffs except by leveling up the fae class.”
“Oh. I didn't know that,” the boy mumbled. “I thought you could level your armor and weapon skills no matter what class they were. Why would I only get bow skills as a fae? Why shouldn't I just switch now?”
“Because you can't do the quest until your first class is high enough. Don't worry, any spells you learn from your angel class will be accessible in your other classes so you'll still have some low level healing, sword and light magics. You just won't have your wings any more. Your armor and weapon skills level independently through use, but all they determine is what kinds of weapon and armor you can wear. So which kind do you want, light, medium, or heavy?”
“What's the difference?”
“Weight, speed and armor value mostly. I'd stick to at least medium for now,” Asura said before she jogged away. She quickly returned with an iron sword, wooden bow, wooden strap buckler and an assortment of studded leather armor. Within moments the boy had equipped them and they were walking through the town again. She led him to a floor under the city. As opposed to the polished marble stones above, beneath the town the lower floor was a dank dungeon, filled with the sounds of chains rattling and moans of despair.
“W-what is this place?”
“Newbie area. The Dungeons of Sanctuary. You'll earn your wings down here.” The stairs they took twisted down. Soon the light from above was completely gone and only torches lit their way. They came to a hall lined with cells, most of which were empty, but a few housed dragons, fae and demons.
“Are those players?” 5t4r asked.
“No. They're for atmosphere. It's part of the angel's lore,” Asura said before motioning to the prisoners. “The angels, holy beasts and leviathans passed judgment on the other races, stripping the fae of their wings, dragons of their raw power, and demons of their mighty magic. If you go to any of the cities you'll see prisoners of their opposing factions in the cells. Don't worry though, we aren't considered full angels, since it's just a class to us, so we can head to any of the cities without being attacked by the NPCs.”
“That's interesting, I guess,” the boy said as he crossed his arms and shuffled his feet. “I was just asking if they were NPCs or not.”
“Oh sorry. Here,” Asura said before she stopped and motioned towards an angel down the hall. “Talk to him and tell him 'quest'. You can tell he's a quest giver since his name is written in red.”
“Gotcha,” he said before running off. He returned a few moments later. “He said there is a riot going on down stairs and I need to help clear it. That normal?”
“Yep. Don't worry, I'll be helping you,” she said as the two walked down another flight of stairs. Dragons, fae and demons were fighting with a number of angels, most of whom were using swords and shields. Asura held out her hand and a large axe materialized. “Make sure you hit the dragons straight on, their ability is they ignore damage from glancing blows. Fortunately the fae and demons won't use their ability here.”
“What if I hit another player?” 5t4r asked nervously as he cocked the bow and an arrow materialized in it.
“If you hit another player a menu option pops up. Just make sure not to click accept and the hit will just jar them if they're in your party and won't have any effect if they're out of it,” Asura said before she charged forward. Almost instantly one of the fae ran at her, flailing a metal bar broken off from one of the cells. The motions were slow and predictable, designed for a newbie or beginner, so she was easily able to parry the attacks with her axe haft. “Try to hit the ones attacking me!”
“Okay!” 5t4r said as he nervously took aim and let the arrow go. It went wide, embedding itself in the wall behind the attacker.
“I thought you said you were used to bows and arrows?” she asked as she kept smacking the weapon away.
“I-I am! But I don't shoot them at people in real life. I shoot them at targets and stuff,” he said nervously before he looked away from her.
“I see. Switch to the sword, it's easier since you get right up in there. These enemies are slow enough you shouldn't get hit often.”
“Okay,” he said in a slightly depressed tone. A moment later the bow was replaced with the iron sword and he ran forward. It took a few seconds of swinging before the fae disappeared in a shower of red sparkles. “Hey, I did it! That was actually kind of fun!”
“Get any items? If you did a menu should pop up and you just have to--”
“I know how to loot a corpse. This isn't my first game you know,” he said snappily.
“Fine, fine. Go on,” Asura said as she motioned to the next enemy.
The boy swung the weapon around wildly and it took her a few moments to realize what he was trying to do. “Are you trying to activate... you used to play another VRMMO, didn't you?”
He froze for a few moments before nodding. “Y-yeah. Once or twice.”
“No wonder you can't hit with the arrows. Spigot Entertainment developed the game with actual hit detection based on your movements, not on a random dice roll,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “There isn't any auto hitting here aside from a few select spells. If you wanna use a spell you need to call out the name and then make the gesture for it. Depending on how you gesture will determine where it hits. So it can take a bit getting used to for each spell. The only spell you should
have at this level is ray, so yell out ray and point your finger like so.” Asura held out her point finger towards one of the demons. “Ray!” A small white light shot from her finger and zapped the demon, making him explode into red sparkles.
“Whoa! I though you said that was an angel spell? How can you do it as a dragon?”
“I told you, any spell you learn in one class transfers to all your others. It's why most people tend to level a variety in the early levels. Now you try.”
“R-right. Ray!” 5t4r called out as he aimed his finger at one of the dragon NPCs. It hit the dragon square in the chest, drawing her attention. Sadly, it wasn't defeated in the single attack.
“Ready your sword!”
“Right!” He held the sword up as the dragon charged at him. The dragon was unarmed and slashed with her hands, cutting across 5t4r's chest. He howled and jumped back, holding his chest. “T-that hurt!”
“Of course it hurt. You have the physical sensations turned on, don't you?” Asura said as she charged forward, cleaving the dragon in two with her axe.
The kid stumbled about as he held his chest. “I-I didn't realize it would hurt like that.”
“It wasn't that bad, was it? The pain feedback is supposed to be set at a low level. Wait, how high do you have it set?”
“Physical feedback? Ummmm.... sixty percent,” the angel said nervously. “That's close to the limit for this game.”
“... I'd set it to about ten to twenty percent,” the dragon said as she patted his chest. “That way it's low enough you'll feel it and know where the attack hit, but not high enough it'll hurt enough to distract you. Unless you get hit over and over,” she said with a smirk. “The only reason you should have it above fifty percent is if you're playing non-combat games. Unless you're a masochist and want to feel the full effect of an attack, then go ahead and put it on a hundred percent, but I think pros are the only ones who do that.”
“Okay, hold on.” The boy's hands moved around, tapping at invisible menus for a few moments before nodding. “Okay, I'm ready. Let's do this!” He charged towards the nearest fae and began his strikes. After a few minutes of killing the rioters he was barely managing to parry a few of the strikes. The rooms were soon cleared of NPCs.
“Okay. You get the rewards automatically when you finish the quest as well as the next part. We'll be going in deeper to eliminate the boss of the riot.” Asura said as they walked through the halls. “The prisoners will respawn in a few minutes so we'd best move fast, unless you want to fight them over again.”
“Gotcha,” 5t4r said before they started walking down a winding chamber. It led to a wide open chamber, filled with an assortment of torture devices, such as the rack and an iron maiden. “W-what's with all this stuff? I thought the angels were the good guys?”
“Only from a certain points of view. These aren't biblical angels if that's what you're thinking. You'll find that a lot of them can be quite evil.” Asura walked to the back of the room. A single dragon was inside a small cage suspended in the air over a massive bonfire. “When we get closer, a bunch of fire elementals will spawn and he'll blow himself out of the cage. I'll take care of the elementals, you deal with the boss, okay?”
“Sure, anything I need to watch out for?” The angel asked. He clutched his sword and brought out his shield, swinging the arm as he tried to balance it.
“Yeah, he's a caster. Stay close and try to keep low. If he says fireball drop onto your stomach. That spell hits hard,” Asura said before she stopped in front of the cage. The dragon-man inside raised his hands into the air and four creatures shaped like humans formed from the bonfire. The cage exploded before the dragon-man fell into the flaming pit. “Okay, get to it!” Asura yelled before she ran towards the fire elemental nearest her and cut through it with her axe.
5t4r charged forward and slashed down at the dragon-man's shoulder. The blade was wildly off target and barely nicked the man's shoulder scales. The dragon-man raised his right hand and held it out, palm open. “Fireblast!” In the palm of his hand a ball of flame formed and shot off, striking the angel in the chest. 5t4r was thrown back across the room and landed hard, groaning softly. He glanced at his health in the top left of his vision, his health bar already a quarter of the way down.
“Time to give this a shot. Lesser heal!” White light enveloped him as his health bar filled up partially, removing half the damage he'd taken. He charged forward and slashed the sword down across the caster's chest. He then swung his left arm out, clocking the boss in the face with the edge of the shield and making the dragon stumble back. 5t4r held out his finger again. “Ray!” A ray of light shot out and struck the NPC.
The dragon-man stood there, dazed, allowing the angel multiple free slashes across the scaled hide. Finally the man held up both hands. “Fireball!”
5t4r dropped to his stomach as flames shot everywhere, turning the area above his head into an inferno and destroying most of the torture equipment in the room. The heat made sweat pour down his body. He looked around, but couldn't see his ally anywhere, though all the elementals were gone.
Once the flames died down he jumped to his feet and stabbed. The blade glanced across the scales, throwing the aim off slightly, but the blade still struck deep into the person's side. The dragon-man howled and reached down with one hand to grab the blade while the other hand formed a fist and began punching the angel. 5t4r tried deflecting the strikes with his shield while he tugged at his sword, but his health was steadily decreasing point by point as his inexperienced blocking failed him over and over.
With a mighty tear he finally managed to pull the blade free, right as the dragon-man slammed a flaming fist into his stomach. 5t4r's HP plummeted as flames covered his body and he fell backwards. He struggled to deflect the man's kicks and punches, but his HP continued to fall. It was little more than a sliver when a white light covered him and brought his HP back up to full. A ray of light then shot over his head, turning the dragon-man to red sparkles. He let out a sigh of relief as he relaxed on the ground.
“You okay?” Asura asked. She stood over him and offered a hand.
“I feel like... hey I leveled up again, sweet. I feel like gravel, yourself?” he asked with a pained smile. He took her hand and she pulled him to his feet.
“I'm really high level for this place, so I'm fine. Did you get the next line in the quest?”
“Yeah,” 5t4r said before he flipped through the menus. “I'm supposed to go talk to the general and tell him the riot has been suppressed. How do I get there?”
“Follow me.” Within a few minutes they were walking out of the dungeons and back out into the marble city. The sunlight and fresh breeze was in stark contrast to the dark and muggy dungeons. They headed for a large building with four massive pillars in the front and two massive stone angels standing opposite each other, holding swords that came together directly over the entrance. A near constant stream of players headed in and out of the building. “This is one of the main quest hubs for the early levels for angels, so you see a lot of people who just started the quest here. Come on.” The two slowly navigated through the hordes before coming to another large chamber, this one made of marble with a large map of the world laid over a round table. There was a moment of lag before the room filled with angels pouring over the map, but no players.
“What was that?” 5t4r asked as he looked back.
“Just the game loading. Lots of people come into here so each party has their own personal instance of the room.” She motioned to an angel wearing armor similar to hers and lined with a number of red and blue jewels “It helps since the general tends to make large, boisterous movements. It would be difficult for everyone to see the full scene if there were a dozen or more players in here.”
“Ah. I see.” 5t4r walked up the angel and coughed before speaking, “Quest.”
The general turned to glare at the boy, making him cringe. “Another snot nosed little brat come to help us wage war on those lower b
eings, eh?” the man said as he stormed over to glare 5t4r in the eyes. “High command needs to learn to send me real warriors, not wingless children!” the man shouted as he waved both hands wildly in the air. “Well since I've got you I might as well help train you. We'll start with basic flying and magic lessons. Go see Lieutenant Mickel and learn from him.” He turned away and stomped back towards the map.
“Okay, you got that then?” Asura asked as she walked up behind the kid, patting him on the back.
“Ummm, yeah. Just supposed to head towards the quest location, right?”
“Right, just follow the instructions and you'll be fine, since there isn't much more combat. I'll see you around,” Asura said before she turned to walk off.
“W-what? But I thought you were going to help? I mean, what if I don't do it right?”
She sighed and turned back around. “Don't worry, you'll be fine. You have a grasp on the basics, so there really isn't a lot more I can teach you. Besides, I really need to get working on some things. If you need any more help just send me a message. Until then, tah tah!”
“Oh, well, ummm, bye!”
Asura ran towards the edge of the city. Once there she leaped off, her wings folded against her back as she dove straight down at breakneck speeds. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the feeling of air whipping through her feathers. The world was coming up at her fast, an unbreakable wall of scorched earth and shattered trees. The lands under the city had been long destroyed, a result of endless war between the races. Even the massive elevator that non-angels used to get to Sanctuary was constructed of dented, charred steel and lacked any decorations. It was just a gargantuan tunnel that led straight up towards the majestic floating city.
Once the ground was only a dozen yards away, she opened her eyes. With a quick flap of her wings she started to glide over the wreckage. She flew around before landing on a flat rock, which was covered in old soot and ash, and brought up her friends list. Soon she had a direct line to B4hamutt.
Landasy Reality: Angel's Escape Page 4