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A Dark Road
Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The scan on your iris and vein has determined that you are an unregistered user. Do you want to create a new account?

A disembodied voice reached a man’s ears. He looked around for the voice, but saw nothing, although he felt disturbed by the fact that there was no floor.

“I will register a new account. User Name Ellifain D’aerth”

Select your gender from male, female, or neuter.

An unmistakably male voice rang out “female!”

Royal Road has forty-nine races. You may select your race from the primary twenty-nine races. These races include human, dwarf, grey elf, high elf, half elf, wood elf, shadow elf, night elf, dark elf-

The man’s impatient voice barked “dark elf.”

As you have chosen to change your gender your appearance will be heavily altered. You may also change your appearance to an extent.

“Create 3-D model for inspection.”

Generating Character Model

A life size character came on appeared with the man. It was five foot eight, with dark brown hair, and dark brown eyes. The character was slightly curvy, with a c-cup bra, and a slightly wider waist than the man. It had brown eyes, and dark brown hair, cropped close to the head. It’s skin was a medium shade of gray, and it’s face was more feminine than the man’s, with slanted cheekbones and thin eyebrows, a picture of Elven beauty. The figure was in general slimmer and more elegant than the man

“Eye and hair color change to black. Change cup size to b. Extend hair length to shoulders. Style with a ponytail on top of hair. (like this |U| where the U is the ponytail)”

Applying… Is this appearance satisfactory?

“The appearance is satisfactory”

Your account has been activated. Your stats and class shall be determined while playing Royal Road. You will spawn with ten barley bread and a canteen. As a dark elf, you must start in a dark elf forest citadel.

Select Forest citadel in which you wish to start.

“Great Forest of Darkness”

Welcome to Royal Road

***

In Royal Road, there are over a hundred major cities and thousands of towns. A new player begins his adventure in a capital or a major city of comparable size. As a dark elf, there are no real cities to start in, however, there are forest habitats.

*Flash*

Ellifain appeared in a flash of light, and stares wide-eyed at the city. There were NPCs and user’s all around, but the city was hard to see. At first Ellifain could not see any houses or buildings, just a few stalls, and players hawking their wares in a clearing, but then she looked up. She noticed how the trees were shaped unnaturally, inconspicuous enough to pass over if you were in a hurry, but when you looked closely, you could see stairs on the trunks, the outlines of doors in some exceptionally large ones, but mostly there were tree-houses and sometimes walkways connecting them, naturally grown from the tree, the wood in the homes obviously still alive.

An ancient dark elf approached Ellifain, and introduced himself.

“Hello, youngling, it is always good to see new blood here. I am the eldest chief of this forest, Jarlaxle. As a young dark elf, you need to hear our history, and then you will be free to learn what you can do in order to benefit our race, while you explore your new home. Youngling what is your name?”

The girl spoke softly but firmly, “my name is Ellifain D’aerth.”

The elder beckoned to an elf nearby. “Bregan, come and teach the youngling Ellifain our history, and show her the way around the forest.”

A blonde dark elf approached the couple, he was 6 foot tall, and dressed in wooden armor, covered by a cloak, with an ebony wood bow on his back.

“Greetings young Ellifain, follow me and I will speak about the history of our spurned race.”

Ellifain began to follow Bregan, into a nearby great Oak, where there were practice bows and arrows as a shooting range stocked with straw dummies, and a few of them moved!

Bregan continued speaking once they were inside. “The dark elven race was not always colored as we are today. Once, we were as light skinned and as reverent of nature as our brighter cousin’s, the high elves, but, long ago, we committed what our cousins considered an unforgivable act in order to preserve all the elves. We destroyed many tree’s, and polluted rivers, even building a few fortresses using our elemental magic. Perhaps one day, you will become recognized as being worthy of knowing more, but the rest of our history is beyond what you need to know. All that is important for you to know right now is this; for preserving our race, through any means, we were cursed. All elves gathered to create a curse so powerful it would mark our species forever, down through family line, and tainting even the family of those who fought valiantly, struggling against a seemingly unbeatable foe, and daring to use the underhanded and destructive acts needed for our race to survive. Our ancestors were devastated at the strike to their beauty, and a rift formed between dark elves and the rest of the elven race, a hostility that is still around even today. Other elves will not be hostile to us, but every elf looks down upon us. We have, overtime, found our current appearance beautiful in its own way, equal if not superior to the elves of lighter skins, and we have retained through the curse our abilities with the bow, and because we were cursed with darkness, we have also gained abilities related to it. We are gifted in elemental summoning magic, in bringing out fire and ice into the world, and unlike our brethren, we are willing to do what is necessary, even working with desecrators and criminals in order to attain goals that benefit our race. We will even make use of one evil, to destroy another, as long as we can destroy both. This is our history, our pride, and our grudge.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Ellifain blinked rapidly, surprised, she asked “but what could possibly threaten the might of the elves, that would require such courage and desperation?”

Bregan laughed, a musical laugh that sounded like a sad bass violin, and said “It is good that you have such pride, however, I say this as the instructor for this shooting range, as an elf, it is important to recognize that, as great as we are, it is possible to be overcome. Numbers, a knife in the dark, a spell cast by an unseen hand, while in a fair fight there are few who can overcome our skill, anyone can be killed by such trickery, and anyone can fall afoul of chance. It is necessary to always be wary of such things, and never to underestimate or overestimate an enemy, and train yourself so you cannot be overwhelmed. It is also important not to pry into things you are told you aren’t ready for, because, even though there aren’t any consequences this time, that may not always be the case.”

Ellifain bowed, and said, “Thank you for the sound advice esteemed instructor, I will do my best to follow it. In fact, if that was the end of the history, I would love to learn and train in archery, because I have never held a bow, and do not know how to shoot, but I love the sight of bows and the sleek arrows they fire.”

The instructor smiled, and responded, “It is good to see someone taking my advice to heart humbly like that, most of my pupils either refuse to believe or run off ignoring my advice to go look for a class or do quests, after saying that they appreciated my advice in a haughty manner. Though it is a shame you have never shot, your enthusiasm is wonderful. Come over and pick a practice bow and some arrows, and I will teach you how to shoot.”

Ellifain walked over to the rack of bows, and picked them up, one by one. She finally picked one that was about half her height and felt comfortable to use. She grabbed a quiver and some arrows and approached the instructor once more.

“I have chosen my bow”

The instructor pulled his ebony bow off his back and said, “This is how you shoot, watch me carefully and try to reproduce the motion. I will correct anything wrong with your stance and shot.” The instructor took a stance, brought his bow up, nocked an arrow, and fired. The arrow hit the center of a dummies forehead 300 meters away. “Now you try, from over here,” said the instructor, turning to her and pointing towards the 50 meter target range.

The girl approached the shooting range, spread her feet slightly, took aim, pulled back as hard as she could and fired. The arrow flew 60 meters, above and to the right of the target. The instructor said “stand still” and proceeded to poke and prod her, adjusting her position. While he was doing that, he was telling her where she went wrong.

“Your feet should be shoulder width apart, so that both feet are facing the target. When you were shooting, your stance was tense and uncomfortable. You need to relax. When shooting, you use your back muscles to pull the arrow, not just your arm. When you nock your bow, you place your arrow on the arrow rest, and keep your arrow straight. If you don’t have an arrow rest, use the thumb of the hand that is holding the bow. When you are aiming, your elbow should be parallel to the ground, and you should be looking straight down the spine of the arrow. Choose a reference point on your face, and always pull your arrow towards that point. This will make your shots more consistent. Practice this a million times, until you can do it on instinct, and you will become a fine archer. I will check your progress in a few days if you continue.”

New Skill Learned: Bow mastery.

Increases Attack Power with a bow (+10% ATK)

Increases Attack Speed with a bow (+3% ATK SPD)

“I thank you esteemed Instructor may your arrows fly true, and may I learn from your teachings.”

The instructor walked off with a hint of a smile on his face, as he heard the first of many twangs from the practice bow.

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