by L. R. Wolf
She squealed just like her daughter did when she found something new and shiny to play with. Her husband’s voice once again appeared in her ear, “For the love of all that’s holy what the hell did you find now?!” He was well aware of what her tone meant. He’d heard it many times in the past when she had found something she thought was pretty.
“I found a Stone of Secrets,” she was purely overjoyed at her luck at this moment she could hardly keep from giggling like a child. “It will lead me towards loot!!”
“Greeaaaaaaat that’s absolutely all we need….” He trailed off with a sigh. Her quest for loot had gotten them into trouble in the past and may have caused more than a few deaths for the two of them. He couldn’t keep himself from grinning from ear to ear even while he was rolling his eyes and shaking his head at his wife’s childlike behavior.
“Pft it’s not like this won’t help YOU out too you know! Besides, what could possibly go wrong being able to detect loot AND traps hmmm?!?!” As she spoke she carefully put the small stone in her bag. As soon as it was safely inside the bag she noticed a new icon on the right side of her vision. It was shaped like a gem and was a deep blue color right now indicating there were no more secrets to be had in the area.
“Yes because THAT’S never gone poorly…I’ll see you here soon, dear.” He chuckled. He couldn’t wait to see what she had done with her avatar. In other games she had chosen to be the shorter races as she was rather short in the real world. Here however, he really hoped she had chosen something a bit taller, especially considering how immersive this particular game was in letting people feel both pain and pleasure. A grin appeared on his face as he thought about the possibilities.
Knowing there was nothing left to see in the first room, Aya decided to move to the next room. She opened the door and looked through into a long corridor. As soon as she stepped through the door closed behind her with a barely audible click and then it was gone as if it had never been there.
She suddenly remembered the map she had found in the second compartment of the chest and removed it from her inventory. She focused on it, a window appearing in the center of her vision.
You have found a map of the tutorial dungeon! Would you like to remove this map from your inventory and add it to your main map?
With a mental facepalm at having completely forgotten about her map she thought about her map which brought it up to the forefront of her vision. She mentally flicked it up to the upper right of her vision so that she could see where she was and what was around her at all times. “I’ll just keep that oopsie to myself…” She meant to think it to herself, but as she was still connected to her husband via the private chat he heard her.
“Forget about your map again dear?” She could almost see the grin on his face.
“Oh just shut it!” This time she actually slapped her palm to her forehead. She decided to change the subject in the hopes her mistake would be forgotten, but deep down she knew better. Her husband would definitely not let her forget this. “Have you actually run into anything to kill yet in here?”
“A few small things. They were actually pretty easy and didn’t really do much damage. They’re probably just trying to get us used to the weapons actually having real weight to them. I had to use a one handed sword and a crappy buckler though. The two handed weapon I was going to use was incredibly unwieldy. I’ll have to try it again when I get some stats up.” When he had played Voksil in WotW he had always used the massive two handed weapons to deal out tremendous amounts of damage, but here they would actually have to be careful with what they used as the feel and weight of the weapons and presumably, the armor as well, felt more real than anything previously.
She glanced at the map of the tutorial area. There were a few long corridors, but most of the rooms appeared to be small, too small for her to really make use of the bow should she encounter any enemies within. With a slight frown she placed the longbow back into her bag and opened up the weapons crate within that held all of the weapons. She examined them once more. She wanted something that was relatively light, but something she could use to keep her enemies at bay while she tore into them. She dismissed most weapons as being either too heavy for her liking or putting her closer to the action than she wanted to be. She finally focused on a wooden stave.
Wooden Staff Damage 2-4. A staff made of wood. Good for bonking things on the head! As with all weapons of the wooden variety, beware splinters! Wgt 3 lbs.
With a thought she equipped the staff which automatically appeared in her hand. It was an odd feeling to suddenly have something appear out of thin air. She used the staff like a walking stick until she could get used to the weight. With another look at her map she could see the big red X in one of the further rooms. She proceeded down the corridor and came to an intersection. She quickly checked the map, the tutorial area didn’t appear to be all that big. Now that she had added the tutorial map to her overall map, it appeared that the X was moving through later rooms towards her. “That’s odd.” She mentally shrugged to herself before taking the path to the right. She followed the corridor about ten feet before the path made another right turn.
“How’s it coming along for you, dear?” Voksil’s voice startled her a bit as it had been a few minutes since they’d talked. Aya’s eyes were darting back and forth looking for anything that might be hiding in the shadows, but nothing jumped out at her.
“Just following a hallway. Haven’t run into anything to kill yet though.” She gripped her staff tighter. She just knew there had to be something in here. Her husband had already run into a few monsters and he was almost through the tutorial dungeon already. She opened the map again, the X had moved again and actually looked like it was parallel to her now on the other side of the wall, but according to the map there was nothing there. She placed a hand on the cold stone then placed her ear to the stone to see if she could hear anything. After a minute of silence she removed her ear from the stone. “What the hell is going on?” The X now appeared ahead of her in an unexplored section of the map. She kept following the hall as it made another right turn.
“Lovely, I appear to be going in circles trying to follow this X.” She was starting to get a bit annoyed as it seemed like someone or something was toying with her. Her husband’s voice once again broke the silence surrounding her.
“What’s wrong? Have you made it through yet? I just finished up here and am back in Vespa. I managed to find a hidden chest in the last room and got my perception skill as well as a new weapon.” Voksil’s deep voice comforted her and took the edge off her growing temper.
“No I’m still chasing this X. I think a gamemaster is screwing with me now after I found that chest.” A quick glance at the map showed the X had finally stopped and was in a room just ahead of her. “OK, seriously now I know someone is messing with me, I’m pretty sure the X is in the room I started off again.” She approached a new door set in the stone, she practically kicked the door open. Her suspicions were confirmed when she saw the already open chest that she had left in the first room. “Oh come ON!! This isn’t funny!!” She saw something move in the shadows of one of the more dimly lit corners. She whirled around to face whatever it was bringing her staff up in front of her in what she hoped was an intimidating manner. She took a deep breath to try and prepare herself for battle.
Chapter 5: Back to the Beginning
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“Who’s there?!” Aya could feel her heart beating wildly in her chest. As much as she loved surprises, she hated feeling afraid and right now she was terrified. Sweat started to make her hands clammy. With a thought, she made her new light orb get brighter. The shadows melted away to reveal a cloaked figure. With the shadows dispelled, the figure stepped forward, two dark purple hands appeared from within the cloak, rising up to to lower the hood, revealing a startling beautiful woman. Two light violet eyes peered out from a perfectly symmetrical face, her hair was white and pulled back into a braid hidden beneath the cloak. The ear
s were tipped in a point betraying her elven heritage
“Who are you stranger? How is it that you found me?” Her voice was soft with a slight accent of some sort, there was also a dangerous tone to it as well.
“Umm, I followed the X on the map I found in the chest…”Aya trailed off as she tilted her head in the direction of the chest. A notification icon appeared to the side of her vision when she focused in on the woman, Aya gulped when the stranger's information came into view.
???
Skill Level ??
Shadow Elf
The woman didn’t appear to be armed, but she was definitely armored. Aya caught sight of what appeared to be leather armor of some sort through the opening at the front of the woman’s cloak. Considering Aya was wearing what amounted to a green cloth shirt, brown cloth pants and a pair of tattered leather shoes she knew there was very little chance of being able to do much if any damage to the woman. The woman was staring back at Aya curiously.
“Your name, stranger?” The edge originally in the woman’s voice had disappeared, replaced with an almost musical tone.
“I’m Aya, a Dreamer. And you?” Aya was still gripping the staff in front of her with both of her hands. She relaxed and removed one hand letting it fall to her side as she shifted the staff from in front of her to her side. The woman tilted her head to the side slightly as if listening to something.
“I am….a prisoner here…” The woman looked sad and worn down. “I have watched many of your kind come through here trying to learn how to survive in this world. The first few attacked me without thought, so I took to the shadows and hid myself away, always making my way back behind them so as not to be found. Yet here you are, back at the beginning.” The woman moved away from the corner she had been hiding in and turned her back to Aya. She started to run her hands along the wall.
“The other Dreamers, did they have guild tags?” Aya was suddenly curious as to how long this woman had been trapped here. She had mentioned other Dreamers coming through, but tonight was opening night and Aya had arrived shortly after the official release of the game.
The woman glanced back, white eyebrows raised in question. “They were called Alpha Guild and later on it changed to Beta Guild. Why? Do you know them?” The woman twitched a bit, her hands going to her waist where her weapons would be.
“No, I was just curious. You’ve been here a while then.” Aya realized the woman had been here at least five years, if not longer if what she had said was true about the Alpha and Beta guilds. According to the CTO, the game had been in testing for way more than five years. The woman tilted her head slightly before turning back towards the wall, her fingers once again moving across the surface of the cold stone.
Aya watched her for a minute before she suddenly realized where there was originally a door when she had first entered here was now nothing but stone. Aya’s eyes widened as she turned sharply to face the wall behind her, no door. With a quick look around she realized they were both trapped in the room, no door was visible anywhere. Panic started to set in as she glanced up at the ceiling and even down at the floor hoping there might be a hidden hatch somewhere to allow them to escape. She even checked the gem in her interface as perhaps the exit might be hidden, but the gem remained a dark blue indicating there were no secrets in the area.
“There has to be a way out...there has to be!!” Aya tried desperately to calm her breathing, but she didn’t like feeling trapped. She wondered what would happen if she were to wake up while in this area. Would it kick her out since you could only enter the tutorial once? Or would it put her right back here with no escape the next time she entered the[1] world.
“Could you put out your light please?” The woman’s voice was now calm and soothing. Aya had grown used to having the orb hovering above and behind her head. The light it gave had served to calm her fears of what may lay in the dark and she was hesitant to extinguish it. “Please, trust me, if only for a minute.” The woman’s voice now seemed almost pleading. With a sigh, Aya willed the orb to go dark. Shadows reappeared in the corners of the room only held back by the lone torch flickering on the wall. With a gesture, the woman extinguished the flame, plunging the room into complete darkness. Aya’s breathing got faster as panic threatened to overwhelm her, her heart felt like it was about ready to explode. She was seconds away from willing the light back to life when a faint silvery light seemed to leak through the stone wall. She gasped as silvery tendrils seeped through the stone and started to etch something into the wall.
“What is that?” The writing was flowing and beautiful, but not one that Aya recognized.
“It is written in shadow speak.” The elf frowned as she read the writing on the wall. “It says... the way forward is sometimes the way back. To escape these walls, one must sacrifice.”
“OK, so what exactly does that mean?!” Aya was afraid she already knew the answer. A notification appeared at the side of her vision blinking furiously. With a thought she opened it up to see what was so urgent.
You have discovered the Unique quest- The end of the beginning. You have come across a prisoner within the tutorial dungeon and unveiled a cryptic message. It would appear the only way to leave is for one of you to die, but keep in mind Dreamer, upon death you will be unable to return to this place. Any gear not bound to your body will be lost. Reward 100 sxp token and ??? Do you wish to accept this Unique quest?
Her first quest and she was bound to fail it, but she accepted the quest anyhow as it was a unique quest and, according to the CTO in the pre launch video, unique quests only ever happened one single time throughout the entire life cycle of the game. The reward had to be worth it regardless. With a sigh Aya reached into her bag and willed open the crate of weapons. She quickly chose a dagger which then appeared in her free hand. The elven woman sighed, but before she could do or say anything Aya dropped her staff to the ground and then turned the dagger around so that she was holding it by the blade, she extended the handle of the blade to the Elf. “Do me a huge favor and make it quick and painless please?” The elven woman looked at Aya, her jaw working open and shut.
“You...you would sacrifice yourself?!” The elf looked at her, shock clouding her features. “Why?! Why would you do that? You do not even know me!” Her disbelief was evident in the tone of her voice.
Aya shrugged, “If I’m being honest, I’m pretty sure there’s no way I’d be able to beat you considering you have armor and I don’t even know how to fight in this world yet. Also, I don’t relish the thought of beating on someone who has been a prisoner here for who knows how long. It just wouldn’t be right. I’m only level one, it’s not like I’m going to lose much anyhow.” Deep down she knew what she said was true. Even if she knew how to fight, the woman’s leather armor would blunt most if not all of her attacks. She was willing to make the sacrifice as long as it got both of them out of this dungeon. The elf just stared at Aya with those piercing violet eyes looking conflicted before finally wrapping her fingers around the handle of the blade. After a moment of hesitation she walked around behind Aya. Placing one arm around her neck, the hand with the dagger she placed at the base of Aya’s skull. Aya closed her eyes, waiting for the strike that would end her life.
“My name is Elohwa.” The elven woman plunged the dagger up into the base of Aya’s skull, severing her brain from her spine. A red notification opened up in her vision.
You have died. You have been killed by the Shadow Elf Elohwa! You will be returned to the graveyard in your home village in 10...9...8
Aya suddenly found herself looking down at the scene from above. She saw the woman called Elohwa pull the dagger from her body. 7…6…5...
“Through your sacrifice we will forever be bound to one another.” Elohwa whispered into Aya’s ear before she gently lowered Aya’s body to the ground.
2...1...Respawning
Chapter 6: New friends
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Aya opened her eyes and was nearly blinded by sunli
ght. Her eyes had become accustomed to the dark of the tutorial area. She covered her eyes with a hand as she looked around. She was standing on dirt in the middle of a clearing. A wooden fence encompassed the small five foot by five foot area in which she stood. Small wooden crosses and a few stone slabs dotted the ground in front of her. She looked down and realized that she was still wearing her clothes. At least it appeared she wouldn’t have to do any naked corpse runs. A voice suddenly screamed into her mind “NOEL ANSWER ME!!” Her husband's deep voice echoed in her mind, fear tinging the normally calm tone. She had completely forgotten they were still in chat together.
“I’m here, what’s going on?” She could hear the stress in his voice.
“Thank god! Where have you been? I’ve been trying to talk to you for the last 20 minutes, but I kept getting a message saying you were currently unavailable!” That would explain why she hadn’t heard much out of him during that time.
“I was stuck in a tutorial room. I had to die to get out. I’m in a graveyard now in my home village.” She still had no idea what the name of it was. She looked around looking for some kind of sign when she suddenly felt someone tap her on the shoulder. Aya jumped and spun around her eyes widening as she found Elohwa standing behind her smiling softly. “Where did you come from?!”
“A door appeared for me after you died. It brought me to you. Here,” She held up a bag, “I brought your things.” Aya took the bag from her slowly as if expecting the woman to suddenly yank it back and dump the contents into her own bag.
“Thank you for making it quick and painless, appreciate it!” Aya never liked dying in games, but this death hadn’t been too bad. She’d suffered much worse in other games.
“It was the very least I could do.” Elohwa smiled again. Her gaze seemed to unfocus for a moment.