Hello! Chrit here. School's ramping up again, which might mean less chapters. But, I wanted to post something today. So some changes:
Added levels to my stat windows (Seriously! Tell me these things!)
Changed the rate of the rate of growth (1% per stat point, 0.1% per skill level)
Fixed some annoying table mistakes in Chapter 5 (Verdict: I cannot make tables)
Also, many thanks to Chiisutofupuru for telling me about filter words. I didn't get time to edit this chapter, but I'll be removing them as much as possible in future chapters. For those of you who don't know what filter words are: http://writeitsideways.com/are-these-filter-words-weakening-your-fiction/
I didn't get as far in with this chapter as planned, but I reached a pretty good stopping point. I'll fill in the new stats next chapter where we test once again if I can make tables. So without further ado...
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Chapter 6:
Right after school, I ran home and logged onto my favorite game, Sacred Sword. It has been two months since the game was released, and I’ve been fiercely training the entire time.
“Hey Hermia!” I say as I log in.
Hermia turns to me and greets me as usual, “Hello, Chris. How was the real world.”
“Excellent as usual. I’m making progress,” I say as I walk over to my favorite wooden sword.
Over the last two months, I’ve always used this sword. Already its surface is scarred from all the battles it's been through. I walk over to the usual training dummy and star my thousand swings.
“You making any progress?” Hermia teases.
“Shut up,” I grunt in between my swings.
Yeah, Hermia found out about my crush on Maria. It's hard not to notice since I usually use god’s eye to watch her play Sacred Sword. Now, every time I log in, Hermia asks me about my relationship. Honestly, it's becoming a pain. But I put up with all the abuse. It’s the least I can do since Hermia always lets me use the tutorial area.
Besides, it’s always fun talking to a friend. Especially when that friend is an all powerful goddess who controls the best virtual reality game in the world. To say it in latin, Hermia is a dea in machina.
But she’s certainty done a fair share of favors for me. When Maria first started the game, she kept getting thrown into areas with a bunch of PKs. Since there are almost no rules in Sacred Sword, PKing has become very popular. This has made Sacred Sword very unpopular to new and inexperienced players. Seriously, I’m glad I chose to stay in this training area. I wouldn’t last a minute outside the city walls with my current stats.
Luckily, there are a lot of ways around this. After players started to realize they couldn’t leave the city without getting an arrow in their knee, chest and throat, they started looking for another way to level. Hermia decided to create a bunch of dungeons inside every city in the continent. I decided to take advantage of the opportunity and asked to control where Maria’s new character would spawn. Surprisingly, Hermia agreed. She also let me create the dungeon for the city where Maria would spawn.
So, I went a little crazy. Using god’s hand, I created a new city in the middle of the ocean. Since I’m very unoriginal, I decided to call the city Atlantis. I put Atlantis’ dungeon in a very obvious place within the city, since Maria was the only player in the entire city. I don’t know if she found the experience strange or not, but it certainly was a cool experience for me. I filled the dungeon with easy mobs worth a ton of exp. Now, a month later, she’s finally ready to leave her city.
“Ready Hermia?” I ask.
Currently my hand is on a button labeled: DO NOT PRESS UNTIL MARIA IS LEVEL 20. Explicit right? :) I love clearly labeled buttons.
“Ready!” replies Hermia cheerfully. She always get excited at my crazy ideas.
Hermia’s had a lot of fun after letting me stay in the tutorial area. Apparently it’s really fun to see a character’s actions, and hear about the circumstances of that character in real life.
Holding my breath, I hit the button, and look into god’s eye. All is calm in Atlantis for a while. Then the chaos starts.
Maria was walking through the city before the chaos started. She would greet the mermaids, mermen, and other underwater races living in Atlantis.
“Hello Mr. Button,” she says as she walks into a store.
“Evening Maria,” Mr. Button replies.
Mr. Button runs the local general store. After a lot of experiments, Maria found that Mr. Button would buy her material that she grinded from the local dungeon, the Temple of Poseidon, for the highest price. Apparently, Mr. Button was using for his research into creating better potions. Only I knew their true purpose.
After making her sale, Maria walks outside, stretching her arms to the sky. “Guess I’ll grind a little more before I go to sleep.”
Then, there's a rumbling in the city. “What that?” Maria exclaims turning toward the the pounding slowly approaching Atlantis.
Atlantis is a city that exists underwater. The city walls consist of a translucent membrane that keeps all the water out so races that normally can’t live underwater, like Sirens, Dwarves, and Elves can breathe.
Yet outside of the membrane, Maria can see a gigantic creature approaching. The creature looks like a gigantic squid, with gigantic teeth and humongous tentacles. Surprisingly, the head of the creature towered over the city. Slowly it opened its gigantic maw. Maria could see every one of its teeth.
“ROAR!” the monstrosity bellowed.
“KRAKEN!” screamed the people.
Immediately, the people in the city sprung to action. People began packing their valuables and fleeing the city. From above, I could see a cloud surrounding the Kraken. Using god’s eye, I zoomed in on the tiny figures. Each one was either a guard of Atlantis or a monster.
When I look back at Maria, I see her helping people evacuate the city. Unfortunately, if Atlantis falls, there’s not enough escape boats for every person. Every race who can’t breathe underwater will die.
“Maria!” calls a voice.
“Mr. Button!” Maria says as she whips around.
Behind her, Mr. Button is gasping for breathe. “I need your help,” he says.
“Over the last couple years, I’ve been researching the creatures around Atlantis. That’s a Kraken, the strongest monster around. The only reason it hasn’t attacked Atlantis before was because of the sacred protection of the god Poseidon.” he explains.
“But, over the last couple years, Poseidon’s protection has been failing. Something happened to the god. That’s why, I need you to help me. Around the city are sacred points. Using these offering I made from researching the monsters spawned from Poseidon’s powers, we should be able to reactivate Poseidon’s protection!”
As if on cue, I activate the next button.
New Quest!Save Atlantis!With the death of the god Poseidon a couple years ago, the sacred protection of Atlantis has failed. Now, a Kraken is attacking the city! Luckily, Mr. Button has a plan to utilize the monsters spawned from Poseidon’s remaining power. By placing the offerings at the sacred points around the city, you will be able to restore Poseidon’s barrier and save Atlantis.This quest must be accepted.
“Alright Mr. Button,” Maria says while nodding her head. “I’ll do it.”
Immediately, Maria grabs the three offering and runs for the different points surrounding the city. When she reaches the first point, she stops. “I knew it wouldn’t be that easy,” she says.
The sacred point is conveniently surrounded by the numerous spawns of the Kraken. Maria gets into her stance. “Strengthen!” she shouts.
Holy magic is a very powerful skill. It contains all sorts of buffs and gives it user powerful attack spells. After Maria learned holy magic, I was so impressed that I asked Hermia to let me gain the Holy Magic skill as well. Though learning magic straight from a goddess is slightly overpowered.
Sacred MagicThe sacred magic of the godsNovice: 7 26%
Yeah… Hermia gave me a skill I shouldn’t have gotten. Though apparently to keep the skill I can’t descend to the continent for a year or so. Well, it’s been pretty useful to help me control god’s hand and god’s eye. Besides, I can’t get any skills in this tutorial area since their are no class trainers up here. So, apparently, I’m going to have to train my current skills to the limit before growth levels up.
Anyway, enough tangents! As I watch the fight below, Maria makes the first move. Running toward the Kraken spawn, she starts to attack using her sword. With a resounding crash her sword makes contact with the nearest spawn’s head, knocking it the ground.
Behind her, another spawn raises it arm. As it swings down, Maria’s sword moves behind her head. “Parry!” she shouts.
Instantly the spawn in thrown to the ground. Putting rotational force behind her strike, Maria whirls around shouting my personal favorite skill, “Slash!”
Why is slash my favorite? Maybe because I didn’t have to ask Hermia for it nor do I have to get beaten up by ruthless training dummies to train it. Really, all I have to do is hit a dummy, and the skill proficiency goes up. So convenient!
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Anyway, after caving in the spawn’s head with the slash, Maria spins in a circle, smashing back the spawns surrounding her. The she jumps towards the closest spawn again. Coincidentally, it's the spawn she already hit. This time, Maria strikes three times with her sword in the torso, arm, and head.
Under the strengthen buff, it's does the job, killing spawn. But now she's surrounded by the remaining ten spawn. But, luckily, help is on the way.
“Miss, we’re here to help!” Shouts the guards as they charge at the spawn. With the guards assistance, Maria will be able to hold her ground with the remaining spawn.
“I'm going to activate the sacred pint. Cover me!” Shouts Maria as she lets out another slash. Once again, an unfortunate spawn has its head smashed in. With the encirclement broken and help on the way, Maria is able to run to the sacred point and place the offering on the ground. As the offering starts shining, the spawn begin to scream. “Boom!”
The spawn explode, spraying blood and guts everywhere. “Gross,” says Maria as she wipes guts off her clothes and equipment.
“Miss, Mr. Button sent us to help you. The other guards are at the sacred points already. We just need the offerings,” explains the guards.
“Got it,” says Maria. “Follow me.”
As she walks away, she gazes at the Kraken with anger. Although Sacred Sword is a video game, it's hard not to see the NPCs as real people. So, to Maria, this is a tragedy as so many people are dying. With resolute eyes, Maria starts to run to the next sacred point, with the guards following behind her. When they arrive at the scene they are created by the sight of more guards battling spawn. “Crusade,” Maria growls.
Crusade is another holy speed meant to buff your party. With the assistance of the group buff, Maria and the guards quickly turn the tides on the spawn. Of course, the mission isn't impossible. After all, I designed it!
This time the guards have to kill every spawn before Maria can get to the sacred point. But after she place the second offering, the offering starts to give out a giant light beacon. Looking around the city, the other offering also gives off a light beacon. Then a gigantic grumbling sound is heard right below the Kraken’s feet. “That's where the last sacred point is,” says Maria as she narrows her eyes.
Quickly, Maria heads over to the last sacred point with the guards. I smile to myself. “Hermia! Time for the boss fight!” I say.
“Already?” Asks Hermia. “Oh! I want to watch!”
“Alright, alright,” I say as I chuckle and walk over to a table. I spread out god’s eye before me, letting Hermia see the action. “Wow, you really destroyed the city. The Kraken is supposed to be a boss for level 300 players. This is supposed to be one of the final quests in the game,” she remarks with raised eyebrows.
“Details, details,” I say. “This is fine. I just made the quest a little easier, added a couple convenient plot points, and increased the strength of the guards. We can still have the players fight the Kraken.”
“Alright!” Says Hermia. She looks unnaturally happy. Was it something I said?
When Maria finally arrives at the Kraken’s feet, we both lean in, trying to get a closer view of the action. Once again, Maria arrives on the scene to see the guards battling spawn. Except, this time, there’s a new enemy.
Spawn AgglomerationA fusion of spawn. The strongest monster produced from the KrakenLevel: 35
“Fuck! Crusade!” screams Maria. Instantly the surrounding are filled with the holy light from her buff.
“Strengthen!” shouts Maria as she charges forward with her sword in her hands.
She runs straight at the mega-spawn (yes I’ve nicknamed it mega-spawn. You got a problem with that?) before letting loose a slash. Unfortunately, the blow that used to be able to cave in a spawns head harmlessly slips off the side of the mega-spawn.
Undeterred, Maria whips around, striking the mega-spawn in the side of the head. This time, the spawns head sinks a little. Then it turns at Maria, grins, and pushes out. *Smash!* “Aah!” Screams Maria as she flies backwards.
The impact from the blow actually causes Maria to fly backwards before she smashes into another spawn, killing it instantly. As Maria struggles to rise from the ground, the mega-spawn walks over and start eating it’s dead comrade. As it eats, the mega-spawn begins to heal from the little damage Maria has done. It walks over to Maria, grins, and opens up its maw, ready to take a bite.
“Archers! Fire!” screams the guard captain.
At once arrows fly over and smash into the mega-spawn. It turns to the guards and roars, only to be greeted by another barrage. “Mages! Fire!”
The fireballs fly into the mega-spawn’s mouth. *Kaboom!* The mega-spawn explodes into a thousand pieces. The guards jump for joy as Maria staggers to her feet, visibly shaken by her close encounter with death.
Really, it’s quite a smart idea. Since most of the monsters around Atlantis live in the water under high pressure, they’re pretty much impervious to water magic. Having a mage corps train in other elements really helps.
Unfortunately, water trumps fire. Although the fireballs caused the mega-spawn to explode, the pieces begin to reform. I’m not surprised. The mega-spawn is 15 levels higher than the highest level guard inside the city. All the powerful guards are outside the city, fighting the level 300+ Kraken. If the guards could so easily defeat the mega-spawn, well, there’d be no need for a hero right?
As the mega-spawn reforms, Maria turns to the guards. “You guys distract it,” she says. “While it’s occupied, I’ll run to the sacred point.”
“Alright,” says the guard captain. “Are you sure you can do this?”
“Yes. Please allow me.” Maria nods her head confidently.
The guard captain bows his head for a second, nods, and says, “We can buy you thirty seconds.”
“Thirty seconds is plenty,” replies Maria.
By this time, the mega-spawn has reformed. It stares at the guards with its eyes full of hate. It lets out an earth shaking roar. Hermia starts the timer next to me.
30 seconds:
Maria sprints forward with the guards towards the mega-spawn. The archers and the mages prepare their projectiles.
25 seconds:
The guards meet the mega-spawn head on. Maria yells out, “Sprint!” raising her base speed as she dashes to the right towards the sacred point.
20 seconds:
The mega-spawn realizes that Maria is heading towards the sacred point. As it turns to attack her, it is hit by arrows from behind.
15 seconds:
Maria is safely past the mega-spawn. The fireballs are about to hit the mega-spawn when it jumps into the air and splits into multiple tiny spawn.
10 seconds:
The new spawn fall on the helpless archers and mages. The rest of the guards turn towards their comrades not noticing the rest of the mega-spawn charging for Maria.
7 seconds:
The mega-spawn lands in front of Maria and attacks. Maria sword begins to shine.
4 seconds:
“GET OUT OF MY WAY” shouts Maria as she swing towards the mega-spawn.
2 seconds:
Maria’s sword meet the mega-spawns arm. Her sword continues forward, unhindered, before cleaving the mega-spawn in two.
0 seconds:
Maria reaches the sacred point. Above her, the Kraken roars.
Maria slams the offering down. As the Kraken finally shakes off the guards and moves to attack the city, he is repelled by the three golden beams from the offering on the sacred points. The golden beams coalesce into a single form. “Poseidon,” someone whispers.
With a roar, the Kraken smashes into the figure of Poseidon. Yet, the power of the fallen god repels the Kraken. The golden figure summons his trident and throws it at the Kraken. *Boom!*
The trident pierces through the Kraken’s skin, ripping a large hole in its side. With a roar, the Kraken begins to retreat. Then Poseidon turns towards his city and releases a holy light. From above, I can see all the spawn in the city melt away and all the injured citizens have their wounds healed. Then, with the threat gone, Poseidon descends.
When he arrives at the sacred point he stops in front of Maria. “Hello child,” he says.
Maria looks up and down at Poseidon. He is exactly what you would imagine from a character based off the Greek god of the sea, complete with a long white beard and a little badge that says “My son went to summer camp and he loved it!”
I smile. The badge was my touch. :)
“Child, you have done well in protecting my city. I would like to reward you,” says Poseidon as he holds out a glowing orb to Maria.
When Maria reaches out and touches the orb, a screen flashes in front of her. Of course, I know exactly what that screen says, since I made it.
You have been offered a class:Holy SwordsmanA swordsman chosen by a god to be his or her champion. Replies on a fusion of holy magic and sword skills.Accept?YesNo