by Jackson Gray
“I know more about it than you do” Ferocity spoke as she came up from behind me. “Fire Stryke is an all-female guild, non are perma players though. One of their husbands was caught cheating in real life, to get payback she wants to destroy the stronghold he has been building for so long”.
“I am not a part of this at all” I said as I attempted to walk away.
“She promises the castle is filled with rare and legendary items” Ferocity said as she placed her hand to stop me.
“Still not interested” I said as I attempted to move her hand.
“We will not pass this chance up” Torment said as he also got into my face. “Our position here is precarious, all it takes is one human to see us gathered and blab about it. We would be wiped out before we could even react. The money we would get could allow us to buy skilled crafters to come in here and finish our building before any attack could come”.
I still shook my head, not that any of it mattered as I was picked up by Ferocity and teleported along with her to a forest I had never seen. She asked me to join her party which I accepted and began to kill the local wildlife in the area, each level 20 or higher. Imagine her surprise when they rose again and started fighting other creatures. She looked at me and I shrugged as we went deeper into the forest, until we came across a mountain troll. Unlike Ferocity he was gray and was slightly smaller and a lot thinner than I thought a troll should be but had a huge club that he carried.
“Why you hunt with food, let’s kill food and eat food” the troll said as I looked at his stats.
“This one is not food, are we going to fight or what?” Ferocity shot back as she held a club in her hand also. She was not on this guy’s level though, at least not alone but with the boost I could give her there wasn’t too much doubt that we would eventually win.
“I came down from mountain to look for mate, you look like mate” the troll said in his guttural tone. “Too many food come with weapons, kill mates in mountain, those who come back don’t act like troll no more”.
I listened as the wheels started turning in my head. Back at Menstrual Tavoria had told me that her kind, which I took to be NPC’s had begun gaining some form of sentience. Whenever they died however when they respawned all knowledge would be gone and they would revert to the way the game originally made them. The troll was probably a regular enemy who had gained sentience and went searching for something besides waiting around for someone to come kill him.
“Well then troll I don’t think I want to fight you or get eaten today” I replied as he focused his stare on me.
“You food, food job is to be eaten” the troll replied.
“I see, how about joining us then, if see any other food feel free to kill and eat it” I began before deciding to through Ferocity under the bus. “Besides if you join us you can get to know Ferocity here better”.
“This is good plan food, but me still hungry” the troll replied as a pop up box appeared in my vision.
I accepted the troll as a companion, as soon as I did his status screen popped into view asking for me to give him a name. I chose Leeroy Jenkins after the famous videogame player during the early days of MMO before it virtual and took a look at his stats. Which made me a little jealous if I was being honest with myself, Leeroy outclassed me in every way I could think of as far as attributes went.
I finished looking at his stats and welcomed him into the party. Ferocity for her part looked angry I got a companion but said nothing as we continued on the hunt. A small black bear crossed our path and charged. It was a level twenty and with its first hit, a direct claw strike to Ferocity’s shoulder it took away half of her life points. Ferocity returned the blow as Leeroy charged in club first yelling out his new name and connected solidly. The bear had its attention split between the pair and was soon killed. Leeroy immediately began tearing the carcass apart and stuffing as much of the raw meat into his mouth much to my horror. Ferocity for her part looked disgusted at first but soon joined him in his grisly kill which left me on the outside looking in. I had level up twice in that fight, I now stood at a level twelve but decided not to check anything yet. I would visit a skill trainer first to learn another skill and possibly learn some more spells. Leeroy for his part ripped off a leg and handed it to me, which I declined. It seemed faster than I thought possible that the pair finished the bear, at least what they could get off of it since neither had a knife or some type of blade to skin the beast properly. “I am still hungry” Leeroy said as he stood up, his face covered in gore. “I need more food now!” A status box popped into my vision.
I of course had to accept the damn thing as Leeroy smiled. Ferocity for her part seemed to be in better spirits also and started coming up with different ways to complete the quest. We wandered about until we heard the sounds of fighting, at least that is what I thought I saw. I signaled them to be quiet as we crept closer, in the clearing I could see two characters both male and obviously tank class that had a female elf surrounded.
“What are you doing out here all alone?” One of them teased as they closer to the elf as she struck out with her sword doing no damage since it landed on the warrior’s heavy shield.
I scanned all three of them, the elf was a level 15 and primarily an archer, after looking around closely I could see her broken bow discarded on the ground. The Knight class warriors were both at level 30, they should have moved on to tougher fights instead of trying to start fights with lesser players.
“They are going to try to take advantage of her” Ferocity whispered as she had her club in a death grip, her green knuckles turning white.
“What do you mean take advantage of her?” I replied. “You can’t rape people in a video game, even if it was possible all you have to do is log out”.
“It’s not that simple, the girl is a perma player” Ferocity said as she began to walk forward, I stopped her by pulling on her loincloth.
“This is a game Ferocity, you can’t rape other players”.
“I know all too well what can happen to lone female perma players, why do you think I chose to become a troll instead of a beautiful elf” Ferocity replied as the elven girl screamed. “You need to stop thinking of this as a game Fool. Slavery is real here, rape is real here. Just because you respawn means little if the person who is attacking you does not kill you and keeps you from killing yourself”.
I started my chant and let the corroding rain fall. The warriors didn’t seem to notice as they threw the girl on the ground, their strength obviously outmatching hers. Ferocity waited until they were busy trying to rip her clothes off and charged, I sent Leeroy along with her. The first attack was a direct hit which sent one of the men flying. The second one grabbed his sword and turned around quickly but failed to noticed Leeroy in time as he brought down his club for a smash. The girl’s elven armor disintegrated, obviously not as durable as the other two as I walked into the clearing. The knights formed up together but as tough and durable as they were their armor started to fall to pieces around them, their shield was the first to go, followed by the rest of it. The girl for her part snapped out of her fright and dug an older looking bow out of her pack and spun around and started firing arrows as quickly as she could. She did no real damage but the knights were too busy to notice. They attempted to flee but were cut down. Leeroy immediately went tearing into both bodies before they could disappear, biting into an arm here or a leg there. I got over my fright and checked their loot through the gore and became 3 platinum richer as Ferocity went over to the scared elven girl. I decided it was time to use my duplicate skill and found myself with 4 platinum, 96 gold and 4 coppers. Leeroy once again offered me some meat, it looked like a forearm that he hacked off using one of the knights blades but I once again declined as killing such high level opponents had level me up even more. I would leave the weapons for Ferocity, our guild could probably use them better than I could since there weren’t any mage gear. I walked over where Ferocity was trying to calm the girl down.
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br /> “Stay away from me” Bianca Geofferson said as she had an arrow knocked in her bow.
“How old are you girl?” Ferocity asked.
“Old enough to use this!” Bianca said as she noticed me and trained her weapon on me.
“We are not here to hurt you girl” Ferocity explained. “Why is a perma player out here by herself, where are your parents at?”
It was then I could notice the elf really was a girl instead of a woman. She looked no more than 15, even through her elven looks the game had given her it was apparent.
“My parents are around, they just haven’t showed up yet” Bianca said as she held her arrow ready.
“You should go to them, do you need help getting back to your meeting place?” I said as I kept my hands up.
The girl looked somewhat defeated and lowered her bow. “I don’t know how to get there or how to explain to my parents to come and get me. I joined a party of some kids I knew and they teleported me out here so we could fight and get a soul stone for one of the boys who wanted to be an orc. It got late for them so they had to log off which left me here by myself. I can’t log off and the animals here are too tough to fight. My dad has logged on and sent me messages trying to find me but he had to go and said he would be back tomorrow”.
“Well you are welcome to join our party and we will get you back home” I spoke up.
“You need a guild girl, but you can’t join us as an elf” Ferocity said looking her up and down.
“Why not?” Bianca replied. “He is a human” she said as she pointed at me.
“He is going to change his race soon, to fit in with the rest of our guild” Ferocity said as Leeroy came up chewing on what I thought was a femur.
“Why you talk to food?” Leeroy asked as he looked in my direction.
“Bianca is not food” I replied as he looked puzzled.
“She is good food, sweet meats” Leeroy said as he licked his lips.
“Bianca is a friend Leeroy, I still know you are hungry, there is other food we can find here” I replied as Bianca seemingly forgot we were a threat and hid behind Ferocity.
“Leeroy needs more food. Give me food”.
“What city were you in girl?” Ferocity asked.
“I was in Eldenia, it is where I was turned into an elf” Bianca replied.
“I have never been there so I cannot use a teleportation scroll” Ferocity said as she looked to be in deep thought. “How did you turn into an elf? The dungeon to the Frost Lands is a level 20 dungeon at least and that’s only if you are a part of a party”.
“My father plays this game a lot, he got me a soul stone” Bianca replied.
“Well if you join our party we will get you another one then you can change your race. After that we will take you to either Orcx, Goblinea or Tromp to pick out you a new race. Once you are changed you can join our guild, you family is welcomed to join as well and nothing like what could have happened here today will be repeated”.
The girl nodded and Ferocity pulled out a teleportation scroll and transported us after Bianca accepted our party request. We arrived at an intimidating looking castle one I had seen the outside of only once before. It was here I used to fight alongside of the fire demon Brutale, ensuring that he did not get too strong from the glitch. I could see a party coming back out of the castle, two members had low life points. Leeroy instantly went on the attack, killing one of them quickly.
“What the fuck is a mountain troll doing in this part of the game?” I heard a familiar voice say, it was Big Sally.
“Waiting for dumbasses” I spoke as I let them see me. Big Sally had three other people with him, well two now that Frankie had been killed. Sally was a level 23 now and well outfitted, his companions were two level 60 mages. We should have backed out of the fight as Leeroy then charged Sally as he ordered his party members to kill us. Sally died just as the mages were about to release their magic, the mages pointed at Leeroy and froze him instantly.
“Finally I don’t have to deal with that asshole” one of the mages, a man named FireFly said as he sat down.
“You know we are probably going to get punished for this” his partner named Serenity replied.
“The hell we are, we killed these four” Firefly said gesturing to us.
“Aren’t you two mafia?” I asked I walked closer.
“Hell no, I am an accountant who was forced to play this game and power level those two” the first guy replied.
“Well if you wouldn’t mind can you unfreeze my companion, I am on a quest to feed him humans and if their bodies disappear I have to fight even more people”.
I watched as they unfroze Leeroy who immediately started feeding on the two mobsters.
“These two have powerful friends in the real world who made us take care of them until they get to top level, they are really going to miss their gear though” Serenity said as he stared at Leeroy who was eating happily.
“Well we better make this look good” Firefly said as he pointed to Leeroy and his grisly meal. “You can have all of this stuff but you better move outta here. The story is going to be we killed most of you but one of you escaped after stealing their gear. We will transport back to this spot in four minutes”. I watched as Firefly pulled out a scroll, seconds later he and his teammate departed. I checked the goodie bag left behind when the two were killed and couldn’t believe what I was seeing, I had twenty platinum now, a lot more than was needed and I went up a level.
“We have to move” Ferocity said seriously after she loaded up the rest of the gear. “I used my last teleportation scroll to get here, I have tried contacting the guild but right now they are under surprise attack from Elven guild Natural Born Killers. If your friends come back we are done for, let’s get going”.
We entered the castle and saw skeletons who ignored us as we passed. We were waiting for the fight to happen but it was like we were stealthed or something as they left us alone. This dungeon wasn’t all that hard, it was meant to be a reward for those who leveled at least to twenty and rewarded those who grouped together. Even Brutale despite being visually appealing was not supposed to be that hard until the glitch was found. The mindset behind it all was to make players put in some effort if they wanted to change from being a regular human. Before I knew it we were at the top floor and continued until we had stopped at the room where I used to fight at, the door was wide open. We walked through and onto where the teleport gate was already active which teleported players in to the frost lands after Brutale was killed. I watched Ferocity enter, followed by Bianca and finally Leeroy. When I went to enter a strong hand yanked me back and I could hear the door slam. I turned around and started into the angry face of Brutale.
“WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!?” Brutale screamed as he put his hand around my neck and lifted me off the ground, causing my health to plummet. “I have hidden here feasting on weak players to get stronger while avoiding those with more power. You are my servant and you have been gallivanting with other lesser life forms. And what is this I see? You claim to be a leader of sometype?”
“You can talk?” is the only thing that came to my mind as I was dropped on the ground.
“Yes and I remember everything, like how you abandoned me” Brutale spoke as he turned his back to me. “I cannot die again, I will not go back to being mindless. Here take this”.
Brutale opened up his hand and gave me a soul stone. As soon as I took it I felt a searing pain take hold as I fell to the ground. I could feel my body changing as scales started to replace skin, claws replaced my fingernails and the world took on a reddish hue. I groaned in Agony as Brutale started gloating above me.
“I am now a God!” he screamed as he stood over me. “I can finally leave this place, you belong to me now, I can go where you go. I gave you a piece of me, I can track you anywhere. Consider this castle a gift, but you are no leader, you are my follower!” Brutale disappeared as the my pain faded and new status boxes popped in to my vision.
/> Now I was getting somewhere, through normal means without augments or special armor or clothing the highest possible speed available for a level 100 elven dervish, the fastest possible build in the game was at 110. I was already at 100 and the rest of my stats were insane as well, I didn’t really care for new appearance, especially since I had no wings unlike Brutale but the tradeoff was worth it. My stupid Team Player ability stayed but at least it took off the speed restriction. If I had to add up all the pros and cons I think I made out okay. The Pros were that I was no longer in the guild, I didn’t have that stupid skull staff anymore, where it went who knows. I had better attributes and better spells. The cons were that I had to give up my zombie ring, I was no longer a human and could not equip armor. All in all I think I made out okay. As I was getting ready to leave another pop up came asking me if I wanted to buy a shield for my new stronghold. I accepted and bought the exact same kind Jokesonyou had gotten when he took on the castle of light. I walked through the teleporting flame and saw a worried looking Leeroy eating a leg of some player while Ferocity and Bianca watched. I walked over as Ferocity looked at me and raised her club, Bianca for her part turned bright red and looked away.
“Leeroy stop eating we got company” Ferocity said as she raised her club. Leeroy looked at me then continued eating.