Chapter 11 (far from finished)
Have you ever been so invested in something, that you actually took the time to learn about it? Read up on all sorts of information, formulate strategies, go through the whole thing so many times that you essentially know all the details by heart? That through knowing every little strategy and every little exploit, there wasn’t a lot left that could challenge you anymore? That was the relationship I thought I shared with Briarwood Rebirth.
Turns out I was sorely mistaken.
“I think you need to head to the right first,” Trix shook his head. “There are more on the right.”
“But it’s a vertical climb and there’s water to slow me down on the right… Going left will let me drop down to get the kills without stepping in the water.”
“That depends entirely on whether you can get the kills on the way down. The Spirit’s ATK is low and your equipment isn’t that good right now, remember?”
“We won’t know until we’ve tried.”
“You’ve tried three times, Luck.”
“There was just a little hiccup on each of those times. I’ll get it this time.”
In case you were wondering, yes, Trix was now accompanying me and the blob on our little mission to complete the taming quest. Turns the Level gap between me and the LV 30 mobs in the Deep Forest were honestly too much to handle and I ran an impressive record of dying five times within thirty minutes of first setting my spawn at the entrance town. Dying was less scary than I’d expected it to be. One moment I’d be stumbling around choking on my own blood as popups screamed warnings at me, and the next I’d be staring up at the ceiling of the nearest spawn point, perfectly fine. Just like waking up from a bad dream, like how I’d ended up coming into this world. I mean, it did hurt, getting your HP punched out of you, but hey, at least I didn’t take a detour to hell on my way back.
And apparently, Marge was watching my death counter in Guild Chat and discovered that even a veteran couldn’t handle a whole area twice his Level, and so grumpily notified me that she was sending someone over to help. Turns out that someone was Trix, who had volunteered to party up and help escort the blob to the taming quest. Also lent me some of the Guild’s iron equipment, which, unfortunately didn’t go past UC rarity and were pretty shit, considering that nobody in the COA actually wanted to stay Human after Class Change, and Marge didn’t see the point of collecting good quality double-edged-swords nobody would use when they could sell it for something more useful. I mean, when you have the options of conjuring ice, lifting boulders three times your size, or running faster than the wind, who would want to stay an average old human swinging around a medieval sword? The OP effects of iron equipment were a pretty attractive incentive when it was just a video game, but being able to perform actual magic made a nicer silver lining when it came to the “stranded in an RPG unable to go home” situation.
Basically, they're trying to do the taming quest. Consists of two interconnected paths. It involves the owner going down one path and destroying some flowers, while guiding the pet down the other path destroying the flowers there. They start at the bottom and meet at the top, and they have to destroy a set amount within a time limit. Luck's having trouble because he's underlevelled so he can't one hit the flowers and won't be able to get the set amount in time, and blob is a low level mob and won't even have high enough ATK to destroy one.
Notes (Idk the chapter was short af)
Faerie court
Seelie
Ainsel
Puck
Cobweb
Mustard seed
Peaseblossom
Moth
Ariel
Ghillie Du
Unseelie
Dullahan
Pooka
Morrigan
Cu Sith
The Boogeyman
Ly erg
The Red Cap
What happened to Michael (Spoilers I guess? But does it matter at this point?)
Here have some context. Michael is a Chosen One that got reported and therefore deleted by the Creator. He's the reason why nearly all the Chosen Ones see Rue as nothing more than a villain
Kid has a hero complex. He thought that Rue was evil, he kept coming back to fight Rue even tho Rue wasn't interested. He’s convinced that Rue is the one that put them all here. Clearly Rue kicks his ass because Michael was low level. All while fighting he keeps yelling insults at Rue that test his patience. And then Rue tells him where he can find the secret to this world, which he knows will get Michael erased for knowing too much. And so Michael goes to that place. And is never seen again. But before going he told Trix he was gonna go, and so Trix knows that Rue did it. At first the Chosen Ones were divided on whether Rue was actually evil. Michael disappearing after talking to Rue was proof enough for them that he was malicious. Michael was just a kid in hospital with a chronic illness. Trix was his caretaker. They played Briarwood Rebirth together so Michael wouldn't be lonely. When he got transported, he was actually really happy, since he got a healthy body through the other world, and felt like he could do anything.
The first document I made when I went into a drunken stupor and brainstormed this thing
Premise
Mc finds himself inside this game. He goes through all stages of grief
He then goes beyond to explore the game, get stronk, find the reason for their immersion and adopt NPCs
Game lore:
Set in the elven/faerie kingdom. Players play as humans kidnapped and brought into the faerie realm. They've been gifted with faerie gifts so they can survive in the faerie kingdom but without faerie weaknesses (eg immune to cold iron). In the faerie kingdom there's a faerie king, a princess and a prince. The prince has been exiled for being evil and is the main villain of the story. He basically kidnaps the human children and leaves changelings in their place. The changelings kinda just die not long after they get put there. The players are the human children who've been rescued but can't go back to the human realm because compatibility issues. There's also a Sealie and Unsealie Court one that's very anti human and the other that's very pro human. They both hate the prince and shine the princess' shoes.
The prince used to be called the Thorn Prince until he started doing black magic for unknown reasons which involved animating dead bodies at the expense of the life of others (basically hp drain to enemies in his attacks). Then he was called The Decay and was exiled out of the kingdom. Then outside the kingdom he built up his own fortress of dead stuff and kidnapped human children to be his hp source and replaced them with changelings already exhausted of their hp. Final boss fight takes place in an environment of constantly draining hp. He sends dead bosses to kill you the moment you enter his fortress (they got lower hp than the living stuff and have less attacks) and then once you get close enough in the same room he starts firing lifedrain attacks that insta ko the health bar of anyone under lv 90. Lots of attacks, prevent you from getting close. He can dodge your attacks. Honestly he's very weak you just gotta walk up to his face and point blank him then he one hit dies. But the final boss fight to seal him is very needy ppl usually don't do it they just stop at the second last one where you get the option of just fending him off and marrying the princess instead of sealing him away and resetting your character (your hero dies while sealing the shithead and then reincarnates as another kidnapped boyo. Ofc they get "op buffs" like higher rare item drop rate and higher exp grind rate and more "emotes" and a cool badge saying you're the chosen one but it ain't worth losing all your grind time). It's almost as if the devs don't want you to do the final boss hmm. People usually only do this boss fight if they plan to quit the game and want to end things nicely or if that is their smurf account and they want to try it. He's always waging war against the kingdom and trying to fuck up their stuff for no reason evil villain style. Main story quests are stopping his plans. Side quests are half stopping his plans and the other half running errands for the princess. Event quests are sometimes him fucking stuff up. There's a guild raid similar to the final boss battle but it's not solo, he doesn't one hit ko, and he runs away at the end leaving all his loot. Since it's so rare that ppl actually get the true ending, game hosts an event for a week. Decay doesn't show up, his fortress becomes a low level dungeon with op and limited loot. People criticise the true ending because "if he's sealed away why tf does he keep coming back"
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
The story mode is defeating the prince and marrying the princess
Stats (Yeah. Luck was gonna team up with them separately at one point)
"Briar Princess" Rosa - she was set to be very attached to the hero, kinda naiive, and very sincere, determined and honest. But then in the game world she was a whore who sucked up to all the players regardless of gender and age , still very naiive, pushy, stubborn and blunt. She's tall and pretty and basically every fantasy hime sama.
Lv: 100
HP: 8000
MP: 10000
Stamina: 5000
Atk: 1000
Speed: 5
Defence: 2
Intelligence: 10
Crafting: 8
The Decay (Thorn Prince) Rue - his backstory was that he used to be a very kind, and gentle person but then for unknown reasons he turned evil and was very manipulative, stubborn and hates his own kind. In the game world, since him becoming evil was never explained, he's still very nice and gentle but also manipulative and just as stubborn as Rosa. He doesn't know how tf he got the idea of kidnapping human children but he knows that he has to keep up appearances of being evil otherwise all the players will start seeing Rosa as evil (because she keeps flirting with everyone and making them do things for her. Some like it but some think that she might be trying to use them and if Rue weren't the greater of the two evils they'd suspect she was the real villain or some shit)
Lv: 100
HP: 100
MP: 10000
Stamina: 10000
Atk: 8000
Speed: 8
Defence: 0
Intelligence: 10
Crafting: 0
Mc (Bad_Luck)
Cynical. Makes sarcastic jokes all the time. Only redeeming quality is that he's hardworking. Has shit luck. Isn't particularly smart but hardworking makes up for it. Efficiency who. Despite his cynicism is very patient. Memorised Rue's attack patterns because he wanted to end it on a good note. Patient when he actually wants to be, likes to be prepared. Completionist. Grinds money to buy high rarity drop items because his luck is too shit. Likes collecting gear sets. He started trying incorporating efficiency and personalised moves in battle without using skills after entering the game world because he realised that he had no goal in life anymore (Job offer? Isekai goodbye) and so he wanted resolved to try taking over the world because haha fuck you game. His completionist nature makes him want to learn the skills of all the classes but ingame skill points don't let him do that. His ultimate dream is to fill his house with all collectables and admire them.
Mc task list:
* Write complaint letter to devs asking for edible food
* Join guild
* Clear all dungeons
* Clear all side quests
* Clear all main quests
* Collect all armour sets
* Collect all weapons
* Collect all collectables
* Reach max level
* Master all skills
* Become a billionaire
* Become number 1 on the leaderboard
* Divorce Rosa
* Make an orphanage full of disowned NPCs that he adopted
* Go home
Game mechanics: (Look these stats probs don't work. I was just going all ladeedoodeeda when I wrote this part. But the classes are canon. And the general descriptions are right. Just the stats are probs inaccurate)
At the start everyone is the same class: human
You can invest your skill points in whatever you want but there is a base stat for stats as well as a level cap for different classes. You learn lots of different skills as you level up but you can only equip some to your hotkeys. The chosen ones can use all the skills in the class as they learn it with verbal command but if they bind a shortcut they can only use some
Level cap all stats were S:
Lv: 100
HP: 10000 (health)
MP: 10000 (mana for magic skills)
Stamina: 10000 (for physical skills)
Atk: 2000 (how much damage)
Speed: 100 (character movement)
Defence: 100 (by what % is damage reduced. 5% for 1 and 50% for 10)
Intelligence: 10 (what tier skills you can use)
Crafting: 10 (what lv items you can craft. Based on rarity)
9 classes, based on what you pick at lv 15 (is a story mode thing. the faerie gifts you are given)
Magic dps. Physical dps. Speed dps. Crafting tank. Physical tank. Magic support. Crafting support. Healer.
Crafting support (Brownie)
Support class. Casts buffs and debuffs.
HP: B
MP: B
Stamina: B
Strength: A
Speed: B
Defence: B
Intelligence: A
Crafting: S (magic items and accessories)
Most skills are buff and debuffs and spell neutralising not a lot of attack skills, and those attack skills have a much longer cooldown than the buffing. Basically just basic attack whaling with immense buffs. Also has highest non weapon crafting speed and least materials needed for it, highest potency.
Speed dps (Kobold)
Short range Dps. Basically an assassin class. Can turn invisible, can make clones.
HP: C
MP: B
Stamina: A
Strength: S
Speed: S
Defence: D
Intelligence: B
Crafting: D
Skills consist of cloning, invisibility, short range teleport and throwing/jumping/dodging. The most agile type. Also attacks very fast, good for pk and beating the final boss but has a low max hp and low max defence so bad for long drawn out battles unless the player can keep dodging for long enough. Fire themed magic skills.
Crafting tank (Dwarf)
Tank
HP: S
MP: C
Stamina: A
Strength: A
Speed: B
Defence: A
Intelligence: C
Crafting: S (weapons and armour)
High atk high defence. Short range. However they can't use a lot of magic skills. Can craft weapons instead of waiting for rng drops.
Briar Elf
Magic Dps (Mage)
HP: D
MP: S
Stamina: B
Strength: A
Speed: B
Defence: D
Intelligence: S
Crafting: D
Magic user. Lots of aoe and high damage skills. Range. Hp is shit tho.
Fae
Magic Support
Casts buff and debuff, also has an aoe healing skill.
HP: B
MP: A
Stamina: B
Strength: B
Speed: A
Defence: D
Intelligence: A
Crafting: B
Skills mainly consist of area of effect buffing/debuffing. Can be melee or range. Can neutralise enemy skills in a certain area of effect. Has a form that allows for highest speed in game with flight but you're tiny and hp drops to D.
Druid
Healer
HP: B
MP: A
Stamina: B
Strength: D
Speed: B
Defence: C
Intelligence: A
Crafting: A (healing potions)
Skills consist mainly of heal, mp and stamina recovery. Also has shielding skills. Weak as fuck tho. Can melee or range. But being the only healer class in the game it's usually used by people in guilds.
Pixie
Physical Dps
HP: A
MP: B
Stamina: A
Strength: S
Speed: B
Defence: B
Intelligence: C
Crafting: D
Archers basically. Have skills to cast low level negative effects like burning or poison.
Troll
Physical Tank
HP: S
MP: S
Stamina: A
Strength: D
Speed: D
Defence: S
Intelligence: C
Crafting: D
Just a walking fortress. Skills involve aggro and shield and counter and stun. Base attack is low as fuck but counter lets you hit the attacker for as much damage dealt to you. Essentially counters dpses.
Human
Jack of all trades
HP: A
MP: D
Stamina: A
Strength: A
Speed: A
Defence: A
Intelligence: D
Crafting: A (low rarity everything)
You can craft all the low level stuff you need but you can't use magic.
Mc's old class was Kobold because he liked the speed and the atk.
Ch 10 Notes
Background behind the boss is Lugh, the Celtic deity of oaths, warriors and craftsmanship. The oath is a weakened image of a member of the Tuatha de Danann, Lugh, from the times before the humans, where the fairies and the old deities reigned the earth. Oberon had previously made a pact with the Tuatha de Danaan, to do… something that Luck doesn’t remember and I don’t bother to write.
This is only an image of Lugh, he only drops a replica of Lugh’s spear. You get a much stronger Lugh’s spear from a different dungeon.
Almost all SSR weapons and unique armour are named after the Tuatha de Danaan
There's more to the planning but I kept most of that in my head. Plot included. And I can't be bothered to write them down right now, so there we have it.