As I was strolling along the grassy hills that surrounded Blaine, I was reminded me of the fact that I wasn’t armed, at all. Every item I had was on my inventory, and I no longer had access to it.

“What to do..?”

I asked myself when I finally realized it. It made me feel inadequate that it took me that long to realize.

The very first quest item you get as a new player was the Bastroll’s Bag of Wonders. An item that could take in any number of items and store them.

It was an item granted during the tutorial mission to access an underground labyrinth as a quest from the city folk.

Before the quest was finished, players had no method to store or take anything from their inventory, they could only wear something or hold it with their digital hands.

Obviously, as my character had already finished the game, I had Bastroll’s Bag of Wonders. Although, calling it a bag was too much. It was just a small pouch that’s fitted into the avatar’s belt.

Immediately, I looked down and saw it dangling from my clothes. I heaved a sigh of relief and opened the pouch, from there, a slimy yet dry feeling surrounded my fingers, as if I had just came in contact with jelly.

Using it... felt instinctual. I wonder, is it because this ‘body’ of mine came from the same world, or rather, a replication of it? Whichever the case, I knew how to operate the bag of wonders.

From there, I took out a comically a large spear from the very small opening of the pouch. It was the Spear of Immersed.

It was a spear designed for two-handed use. Its length was approximately two heads taller than me, and had three spear prongs similar to a trident. Two of those prongs extended from the base of the spear head and made it look like a cross.

Players could create their own items in the world of Adonis Online depending on their respective skills. A skilled blacksmith would create powerful weapons, likewise, a powerful wordsmith created powerful scrolls. There were many crafting skills, all of which we’ve balanced in way that everything was useful, especially in the end-game where everything was essential.

I also created the Spear of Immersed, but without the limitations imposed by the system. Indeed, I had coded it on my own as a simple boredom-alleviation project. I even created the flavor text for each of them.

The Spear of Immersed was created under the blood-moon. Its shaft was made of Soulbark that was extracted from an Elder Eldritch Treant. The spearhead was created from Starmic ore bathed in the blood of virgins.

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Its origin was... pretty horrible. What was I thinking?

Still, I guess it made sense to me at the time since the effect I wanted to give it was a power from the grave. Quite literally, the Spear of Immersed created spears from deceased soldiers from beyond the veil of the departed to strike down its foes. Once it was met with its owner, it was soul-bond, chained forever until its owner’s death.

I looked at the spear in my hand, its dull, dark sheen reflecting the light from the sun far above me. I flinched from it and rested it on my shoulders.

I’m not sure if it’s effect still holds even in this ‘new’ world, but it would be great if it did.

I pulled out one more item from the pouch. It was my original armor from before I stopped playing. It was a longcoat called ‘Forevermore’ made by my raiding team. It wasn’t anything powerful, just a few resistances here and there, it acted like our uniform of sorts.

The white longcoat was slightly larger than me, but by the time I had donned it, it magically fit me, just like how the Mexxiah Crown did with Nis.

“Aw, is that a cat on your back?” Nis swooned at the design of our motif.

I grinned and nodded my head.

“We were known as the Winter Cats. We all wore this whenever we raided.” I said, flourishin the cape with a pose by arching my back to prominently display the white kitten emblazoned on the longcoat.

Nis clapped.

“Thank you, thank you. Let’s move, we want to get there by sundown.” I took a brisk space as soon as I said so, looking at the sky that was slightly tinged in yellow.

It didn’t take long for us to get to the city of Blaine.

It wasn’t anything grandeur as we basically modeled it as an ancient ruin that was turned into a camp, a few hundreds years ago, until it developed into a village, then to a town, and then to a city. Now, it was a city-state.

The walls were made of sturdy, white stone. The gates were guarded by a sizable amount of soldiers, all wearing various piecemeal. Similarly, their weapons were non-uniform. They all had one thing in common though, and it was the helmet that was the identity of Blaine. We referenced early greek helmets for them.

Along the gate was a large banner with their symbol. It was a large hammer overlayed by a helmet of Blaine. It flapped to the tunes of the wind.

We finally reached the entrace, and there was a line long enough to stretch several hundred meters, mostly due to the wagons that wanted to gain entry.

This wasn’t a scenery in the game. If this world really is a manifestation of Adonis made reality, then it made sense that many wagons would be wanting to get inside.

After all, Blaine was a large trading hub set dead-center across many nations. It was a neutral city-state and so, players couldn’t farm ‘faction reputation’ with Blaine since they never had any involvement with war.

Still, it provided a very relaxed area for new players. There were many quests littered around the city, and depending on their choices in those quests, they could be sent on a quest chain to a different country and faction.

It took us a while from waiting in line, but we finally managed to get in. Dissimilar to the game, the roads were full of busy wagons going to-and-fro. It was a jarring sight compared to what I was used to.

“Well, this is where we start, Nis. Better remember this, you’ll be looking back to this point many times in our adventures.”