In all of the books that I’ve read, the movies, and shows that I’ve watched, a person starts out as just an average person, and then one day, once they come of age, or find an underground cave with a spaceship or whatever, they get mystical magical powers that are utter amazement and wonder. Then they save the world.
Well, real life is not like that. Not one bit. And now that forty, or, “the middle of my monotony,” as I like to call it, is creeping up fast, this is becoming more and more apparent. Life is just… Living, huh?
It may have just been my mid life crisis talking, but I really wanted to do something cool, fun, and adrenaline inducing. Something that had no greater meaning than my enjoyment. I wanted to finally feel alive.
“Are you sick of the boredom of everyday life?” Asked the advert on my holotelly.
‘Yes, I most certainly am.’ I thought, straightening up slightly in my bed, paying closer attention to my holotelly.
“Do you dream of slaying beasts, travelling foreign lands full of surprise and adventure, and gaining infamy the world over?” It teased me further, showing high definition pictures and video clips of warriors battling, their armour shining, swords clinging; images of horned beasts the size of trucks, adorned with scales and wings, and eyes filled with hatred.
“Yes..” I answered, my eyes locked onto the holotelly, which now floated a little closer to me as it could tell that I was paying closer attention to it.
“Then you may have found what you have been searching for! Continental Chaos is the #1 MMORPG of 2035! It is rich in adventure, as well as fantasy and lore! It has dozens of classes, as well as a few incredibly rare unique classes! You can become a mage or a warrior, a chef or a blacksmith! The world is yours in Continental Chaos!”
I was sold.
#
I hastily opened the box to my new LinkStart headgear, the plastic crinkled as I tore it away, and the cardboard folded open with ease, then I started it up and placed the black motorcycle helmet looking headgear on my head. I then plugged the helmet into my brand new Continental Chaos console. It was a black cube, about the size of a small box, and that pretty much sums it up. The developers wanted something stylish, but simple and sleek as well.
I lied on my bed and took a moment to prepare myself.
“Connection, Initiate.”
Suddenly, I was weightless in a world of white, I couldn’t breathe, but I didn’t need to, at first I was alarmed, but once you get used to it, it’s not so bad. Then, out of nowhere, blue text began to scroll down in front of me, I couldn’t make any of it out because it was moving too fast and I couldn’t move my head. And as soon as it had arrived, it left.
Whiteness turned to blackness, and blackness it remained.
“Hello, and welcome to Continental Chaos!” Came a masculine voice from the void. “What race do you wish to play?” It asked.
As soon as the voice had stopped speaking, a list of options appeared in front of me.
A. Human B. Elf
C. Dwarf D. Orc
I thought long and hard, and managed to settle on a simple choice.
“Human.” I spoke aloud.
“What class would you like to play as?”
A. Warrior B. Mage
C. Rogue D. Beast Tamer
Again, I thought long and hard. A rogue could be fun, I could run around assassinating folk and such, and I played heaps of pokemon as a kid so beast tamer sounds like it could be interesting, but, magick has my heart.
“Mage.”
“And what would you like as your sub-class?”
A. Wizard B. Necromancer
C. Cleric D. Conjuror
E. Elementalist F. Battle Mage
G. Shaman
This time, thinking wasn’t necessary.
“Elementalist.”
“And lastly, what is your username?”
“Markl.”
“Thank you, please enjoy Continental Chaos, and remember to play responsibly.”
The blackness that surrounded me began to blur and blend into simple yellows, greens, blues, browns, and just about every other colour, and then they began to swirl and bend and blend into a large courtyard. People walked this way and that, some were laughing loudly at a joke from their companion, some are haggling passionately with a merchant, some were simply standing there as they looked through their inventory for any and all of the junk that they wanted to sell.
I was blown away, it was…. Massive, and this is just the courtyard for the first kingdom, I still had the rest of the world to explore yet. I opened up my menu, and went to my quest log, there was only one entry, “Make Some Magick,” I clicked it, and exited my menu. A gold arrow started to bleep
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
just above my health bar on my heads up display, so I turned around until the arrow was pointing forward, and walked.
I made my way through the maze of stalls and sales people, and kept going until I’d reached the place that the golden arrow was leading me. It appeared to be a small book store, its walls were built from simple clay bricks, and its door from planks of cheap wood, there was a single window, adorned with thick wrought iron bars. I pushed the wooden door, and made my way inside.
Books lined the hundreds of rows of the two to three dozen cases, of all different colours, thicknesses, bindings and content. This tiny shop was a true marvel, the fact that a place this small could house so many books was incredible.
I had five hundred gold to spend, so I was going to get myself a spell. I looked around the store, scanning the shelves for anything of interest, and had found two books that seemed interesting, and for two hundred gold a piece, I still had change.
Passed the rows of bookcases, in a candle lit area of the shop, was a large oak desk, and behind it, the owner. I walked over to the owner of the book shop, and started a conversation.
“Hello.” I said, the old man looked up from his book and stroked his long white beard.
“Hello, what can I do for you?” He asked in that laboured elderly voice.
“Buy?”
“Sure thing.”
I handed over the two spellbooks that I’d just picked.
“Mana Charge, and Leech, will that be all?” Asked the elderly storekeeper.
“Quests?”
“Ahh, yes, I could use some help! I need you to get me fifty leather, my latest shipment just fell through and I have books to bind! I’ll give you gold if you complete this quest for me.”
“I accept.”
Tttring! A blue window with white text popped up, telling me that the quest has been added to my log.
I turned around and made my way to the door, returning to the bustling courtyard.
#
There sure were a lot of beginners outside the castles gates, from the looks of it, getting leather for their quests too.
‘Oh well, gotta start small.’ I told myself, looking for my first target.
And there it was, just on the edge of the tree line that connected the forest to the castle fields, was a small wolf, it could only be level one, and it was miiiine! I ran towards it, my beginner shoes making a small clomf sound on the soft green grass beneath my feet, in a few seconds, I was within attacking distance.
I’d already learnt the spells from the books I’d purchased earlier, and I’d also taken a look at my current skills, I have Water Mastery (Basic) level 1, Fire Mastery (Basic) level 1, Earth Mastery (Basic) level 1, and Wind Mastery (Basic) level 1; time to see what I could do.
“Leech.” I said, focusing on the wolf, a red thread shot from my chest, and attached itself to the wolf, it then began to pulsate, drawing the wolfs life force to me through the thread.
The wolf was now aware of me, it snarled, baring its white fangs at me, the silver hairs on the back of its neck shot up, and its tail stiffened. Angry, the wolf lunged at me, missing by a centimetre, and it then began to circle.
Alert, I too began to circle. The wolf and I did this for 3 turns, before I quickly stepped forward and sharply kicked the wolf in the snout.
-3 hp
The wolf was sent rolling with my kick, it got back on its feet, shook its head and sniffled, before growling again, a deep and guttural growl that sent shivers up my spine, it was pissed.
-3 hp
Leech just took its hp!
It shot forward before I had time to react, leapt at me, its mouth wide open, grabbing my right leg with its sharp teeth, and bringing itself around like a whip, sending me to the ground.
-3 hp
‘You little...’ I thought as I got up from the ground, my leg killing me. Now I was pissed.
-3 hp
Leech had just sucked out another 3hp from the wolf, it exploded into pixels, dropping a small sack.
‘Lucky, but anti-climactic.’ I thought to myself, walking over to the small sack.
It contained 1 leather, and 10 gold. A little more of this, and I’ll be done in no time.
#
It had been about three hours since I’d defeated my first wolf, and I’d only killed 7 more. This was harder than I’d thought it would be, now that I’m level 2, using Leech and kicking them isn’t working that well, I need to learn how to use my magick. And after this break, I will.
Markl was sprawled on the nice soft grass, bathing in the suns rays in the fields outside the castles walls, and he was enjoying it, too. His eyes closed, mind open, and body relaxed, heaven.
Suddenly, he could no longer feel the warmth of the sun on his face, and the back of his lids were black instead of red. Someone was blocking his sun.
“Excuse you.” Markl said flatly, hoping to easily rid himself of this annoyance.
“Do you want to hunt together?” Asked a young male voice, breaking slightly.
I sighed, “sure, I need to learn how to use magick anyway.” I replied, break time was over.
I sat up from the soft grass, dusted myself off, and looked at the stranger. He was short, about 5 foot 5, he had shoulder length blonde hair, a wiry build, and acne so bad his avatar contracted it.
“I’m Miles,” he said, stretching out his right hand, adorned with a dirty black beginner glove, “what’s yours?” He asked.
I took his hand in mine, “Markl.” I replied, giving his hand a firm shake before releasing.
“It’s good to meet you, Markl,” he replied, his voice breaking again with the same high pitched interlude, “and did you say that you don’t know how to do magick?” He asked.
“Yes,” I replied, “I was just about to figure it out.”
“It’s easy, dude,” he told me casually, waving the issue aside, “I’ll show you when we fight, come on, the forest is better, well, that’s what my brother tells me.” And with that, he lead the way to the forest.
As it turned out, the forest WAS better, it only took us a few minutes to find our first enemy, and there weren’t a million beginners trying to poach your leather. We’d managed to find a Forest Rat, level 3, and it was fast.
“Ok, as for magick,” started Miles, “just focus on your opponent, and think about the skill you want to use.” He told me, he then focused on the Forest Rat, which was scurrying around like crazy, taking refuge in the knee high shrubbery and behind the thick tree trunks. Miles then drew back his right hand and brought it forward quickly, a dark bolt of energy shot from his hand, a trail of shadow left in its wake. The shot hurdled towards the Forest Rat, which was currently trying to dart in between 2 pieces of cover, and landed, smacking it in the side of the head, sending it into a storm of pixels, dropping a little sack.
“That was one of my magick attacks, Shadow Shuriken, I’m an Assassin,” he told me, his voice breaking a little, “it’s as easy as thinking of the target, and what you want to do to them.”
“Ok, now it’s my turn.” I replied.
We started to walk through the woods to look for our next target.
“What’s your class?” Asked Miles.
“I’m an Elemental Mage.” I replied.
“Ahh yep, that’s not bad, an Assassin and an Elementalist, should be interesting.”
We continued to walk through the forest, chatting about our classes and stats, and taking in the beautiful scenery of the forest around us.
Once we came across an enemy, it was my time to shine. This time, it was a Sloth Beast, which was pretty much a sloth in a turtle shell… With spikes.
“Ok Markl, remember what I said?”
“Yep, time to fight!” I replied.
‘Ok, let’s give fire a go.’ I thought to myself as I raised my hand, I focused on the Sloth Beast, and I focused on my fire ability.
Nothing happened.
‘Ok, earth.’
I raised my hand, and focused on the Sloth Beast, and I focused on my Earth ability.
Nothing.
“Miles, what’s happening?!” I asked, frustrated.
“You can control the elements, you don’t really have ‘moves’ and stuff, just think of what you want the fire or water or something to do.” He replied.
‘Ok then, lets try this again.’ I thought, stretching out my arm, I focused on the Sloth Beast, and I focused on what I wanted my fire ability to do. Then, it happened, fire! It started out as a small spark in my palm, then it was a lick of flame, then it started to spin, taking the shape of a ball, it got hotter and hotter, and bigger and bigger, and then smaller as I condensed it into a denser ball, then it got hotter and hotter again, and I continued this until I was happy with it.
This took a fair bit of time, so I’m sure glad that I’m fighting a Sloth Beast!
Once I was happy with the fire ball, I concentrated really hard, and sent it reeling towards the Sloth Beast, charring the plants and trees as it flew by, before hitting with a whooosh and blasting into a flaming inferno.
The Sloth Beast flew into a cloud of pixels, leaving behind nothing but a small sack. The forest around it was still a flaming mess, the trees were far from healthy, mostly black instead of their previous light brown, and the shrubs were near non existent. I couldn’t really speak for the state of anything else, the dense smoke fogged us out.
I grinned, I really liked this game so far.