It was a mistake to use the name Melody. This was her decision, right? To don the shining armor and wield the radiant blade? She ran her thumb against the visor of her headset. The sleek aluminum frame was cold to the touch. She didn’t regret playing the game. In fact, she found it a comfort.
She should have played these games sooner. They were fun and comforting. She pushed a lock of black hair away from her eyes and placed the headset over her head.
She smiled as the guild house came into view. She was Melody for now. She was Melody to Akira, Kelsy, and Madame Cheddar. She was Melody to Gray. She was going to the paladin. The hero that always shows up to save the day. The hero that never stopped smiling
***
Today was going to be fruitful and exciting. Among all the issues that prevailed in the Daybreak Guild, one thing among most was lacking. After all these levels and recruiting three new members.
The guild still didn’t have a mount. No horses, no flaming flamingos, no floating UFO like some of strange players got. Elrin was a game with an awesome amount of choice, and they were sitting around walking to new places or teleporting around. But even with fast travel, they still had to do a lot of walking. Thankfully she had a plan, as was her duty as the guild co-founder. Melody had done plenty of external research to research the coolest mount.
She smacked her hand on the dining table. Such a thing was now more of an actual meeting table since they couldn’t actually eat in-game.
“I have called all of you today for one specific reason. A mission,” Melody cleared her throat. “We are going to the get Regulus mount.”
“The what?” Kelsy asked. “What’s a Regulus?”
“It’s a dragon mount that we can use and fly around in. The best thing about it is that it’s a mount that can hold eight players.”
“Ooh, so that means we can just fly around the entire map looking down on everyone.”
“Looking down on the peasants…” Madame Cheddar smirked.
“It would make future traveling much more convenient,” Akira said.
“Can all of us get the mount?” Gray asked. “Even if one of us gets it, then the others won’t really be able to use it unless everyone is online.”
“That’s the thing,” Melody winked. “It’s a mount for specifically for guilds, so if one of us gets it then we can all use it.”
After everyone agreed to get the Regulus mount, the Daybreak headed to one of the mountains in Severed Crag. The mountain was one of the largest in the area. Rivaled only by the unused one Sax’zo and second mountain that housed Leran’s Temple. The bottom of the mountain had a perfectly cared for stone path. Occasionally, one would pass through chromatic gates every hundred steps.
“So, I gotta ask,” Kelsy started as they walked along the mountain’s stone path. “Why is your name Madame Cheddar?”
“Oh,” Madame Cheddar chuckled. “I wasn’t the one that decided it. It was just a silly decision made by someone else. I might change it soon.”
“That cost money, right?” Akira asked.
“No, the first one’s free.”
“I once knew someone that went by the name Serendipitous Marsupial,” Gray mentioned.
Melody wondered why Gray was a solo player. He clearly had friends that used to play MMOs with him. She always assumed that guilds stayed together whenever they jumped ship to another game. They could have had a falling out, but Melody couldn’t see someone like Gray doing such a thing.
“I think you should keep it,” Kelsy added. “I mean most of us got like lore accurate names, right? I just clicked auto-generate. There should be someone with a silly name.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Madame Cheddar responded.
They were reaching the top of the mountain at this point and saw a few other players with draining health points bopping down the mountain trail with dragon eggs in their hands. The reason for their lowering health was that they were on fire. These players were nonchalantly engulfed in flames as they took their giant eggs down the mountain.
“So, what can we expect, Melody?” Akira asked.
“Well,” Melody stopped before the last gate. This one was the color of gold. Perhaps a remnant of some older age that only Akira would know about. Then again, Melody knew that Gray would tag along with Akira on some of his codex getting forays. “At the top of the mountain there’s going to be a giant dragon’s nest. We just gotta grab one of the eggs and then just run.”
“Sounds kinda simple,” Kelsy shook her head. “No combat?”
“Well, the combat is against the other players. Everyone is trying to snatch up the dragon eggs, so we gotta deal with them.”
“I suppose that means that this place is like Sax’zo and PVP is enabled.”
“Yup, once we pass the final gate. If we get an egg passed the gate, then it will be ours and we can place it in our inventory. The color of the egg decides the color of the dragon.”
“Then let’s get going,” Gray said. The Daybreak guild passed through the gate and saw a party of four players run past them with a green dragon’s egg. Another party was chasing after them while throwing out spells, arrows, and lasers.
“Those eggs look expensive,” Kelsy said. “Can we sell them?”
“Yes.”
The rest of the mountaintop did not fair any better. It was less of a mountaintop and more of a caldera. There was an outer ring that was safe except for Geysers spewed out jets of lava that fell on players who were fighting each other. Then there was a crater in which Magma would flood the area intermittently and players had to jump from raised rock to raised rock. Those caught in it would get the burning debuff and not last long in the fight.
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“Let’s start this off well,” Madame Cheddar raised her gauntlet and granted the party with a barrier to absorb some of the damage. They weren’t caught in the madness of the hunt for dragon eggs, but it was good to do some prep.
“Where to do the eggs spawn?” Akira raised his bow.
“Right on the lava geysers.”
“All right let’s stick together. I see a lot of solo players too….” Gray trailed off as he saw just how many players were running around.
“Any suggestions?” Melody asked.
“How about we go to one of the geysers in the back,” Madame Cheddar pointed down the northernmost region of the caldera. There was a geyser there that was left unguarded. It seemed like everyone was clashing blades in the center. “Then grab it when it spawns.”
“Let’s go.”
The Daybreak guild rushed towards the empty geysers. The rest of the parties seemed to ignore them until the flash of steel seemed to knock Gray off his feet and into the caldera. Melody took a moment to realize that the attacker had gone down with him. Melody saw a rapier glistening against the light of the magma.
Jericho stood before Gray.
“Asshole,” Gray picked himself of the black stone.
“Ya’ll are supposed to be leveling,” Jericho shook his head. “Raids remember?”
“Yeah, yeah. You got a second 9 – 5. Guys, go on without me.”
“He’ll be fine, Jericho and he are friends. Let’s get to the geyser!” Melody led the charge towards the geyser at the end, but a fireball headed straight towards Madame Cheddar. Melody raised her shield and guarded the augur from the brunt of the damage.
Melody lowered her shield as the smoke subsided. A pair of level 50s appeared before them. A warrior and an elementalist.
“You sure about this?” The warrior named WetPaperBag, no spaces of course, held his axe on his shoulder.
“Jericho said that they’re friends. Look at him fighting over there in the center of the magma,” The elementalist named Cosmic Lemon replied. He tapped his staff on the floor.
“Y’all are jerks for ganging on people 12 levels lower than you,” Kelsy pointed at them.
“Yeah. Jerks!” Madame Cheddar shook a fist and then smiled. Melody could tell she was just playing along with the video game rivalry. She did carry herself like she was a little older than the rest of the guild members.
“You guys do realize that dragons’ are endgame mounts.”
“Do you need to be level 50 to use them?” Melody crossed her arms. A level 15 seer ran up between the two groups and cast lightning bolt at WetPaperBag. WetPaperBag blinked as the attack did zero damage.
The seer quickly turned around and attacked Melody. The seer did a total of 12 damage. The level 15 seer whispered a sorry before walking off.
“So?” Melody continued.
“No, you can use it at any level, but there’s no scaling in this area. As you just saw.”
“Levels don’t matter! Right guys!” Melody raised her sword and imbued with Talik’s radiance. “We’re gonna get a dragon today.”
***
Everyone respawned at the base of the mountain. The day cycle was ending soon, and the sky was darkening.
“I suppose then maybe we can wait,” Akira said. “We could be grinding mobs or doing dungeons or…anything else”
“We’re getting a dragon!” Melody shouted.
“Melody…” Gray started.
“Dragon,”
“Dragon,” Madame Cheddar agreed with a smile.
The Daybreak Guild dragged themselves back up the mountains. They passed the burning players that carried their dragon eggs like trophies. Smiles on their faces. While on fire. Melody was determined to be victorious.
“I’m just saying we can also sell the egg and completely refurnish our guild home,” Kelsy suggested. “Make the most stylish guild house on the server.”
“We’ll see. Let’s think before we run in,” Gray stopped at the entrance. Before he could construct a plan, Melody and Madame Cheddar ran into the battlefield to grab a blue egg that had just spawned.
Melody’s fingers touched the shell. Madame Cheddar rushed to the other side and the two of them pulled the egg out of the ground. It was almost like removing a cork from a bottle. There was a sizzling sound, and both were blasted by the flames and steam of the geysers.
Thankfully, they survived the attack. They waddled over with their giant egg. Carried it like they were lifting a couch. The burning status effect slowly drained their health, but now most players were going off to scout some other egg.
The level 15 seer appeared once again. Hot and ready to deal 12 damage.
“I’ll rip your head off if you attack me,” Melody said.
“My bad,” The level 15 raised his hands and walked off.
“Wow,” Gray said.
“Sometimes you just gotta go in,” Melody said. Their health was slowly draining, but it didn’t matter. They got the egg, and it seemed like most of the players were content to chase after some other eggs that were spawning.
Soon they would be flying on a dragon. The geyser in front of Melody erupted and nearly killed her. Madame Cheddar dropped the egg and healed her.
There was a murmur among the players as all the geysers in the area seemed to be active in succession. Melody was cut off by a gold-scaled dragon flying in the air and breathing fire upon the players. Everyone was scrambling with their eggs and heading towards the exit. A world event was commencing.
But they weren’t seeing what Melody was seeing. There was a golden egg at the top of the mountain’s spire. An egg that was not there before.
She could already see players that were starting their run to the top. Madame Cheddar braced her knee against the egg, so she could get a proper grip on the treasure.
“What the hell? Where are you going, Melody?” Kelsy called out.
“Take the egg to the bottom of the mountain!”
“Huh?”
“You got it,” Akira drew his bow and headshot a level 27 paladin that tried to grab their egg.
“Watch out for the dragon! It’s circling around.” Gray said.
Melody looked up to see the dragon and rolled to the side. She almost fell into the pit that Jericho threw Gray into. When she stood back up, she saw the dragon spray a quarter of the mountain. The dragon’s breath left wisps of flames on the ground that made the ground sparkle
She had time. She picked herself off the smoke-colored crags and went towards the golden egg. She didn’t bother strafing. She was headed in a straight line. The dragon circled back around to her quarter and flapped its great wings before her.
Melody raised her shield. All knights had to deal with dragons after all. The fire came down like a wave.
Bathed in dragon fire, Melody finally saw success in the shape of a golden egg at the pinnacle of the mountain. She climbed the rock face.
“I’m sorry Melody,” A voice came up from behind her. WetPaperBag, no spaces of course, was there to ruin the fun. He raised his axe above his head and would have killed Melody if Kelsy didn’t sweep his leg with a kick. His face met the ground.
“GO!” Kelsy yelled. Her health points reduced to zero as WetPaperBag felled her in three attacks.
Melody gave Kelsy a thumbs up as Kelsy started to respawn and climbed the rock face. WetPaperBag was still trying to make up for lost time, but Melody was the one with the lead. She touched the golden egg with her palm and heard the roar of dragons.
The egg hatched before eyes and a beam of light shot into the sky. When Melody’s vision returned, she was in the sky on the back of a golden dragon. Blue and then orange as her eyes reached the tip of the horizon. The land beyond the boundary of the game’s map was blurry and distant. She fields of empty grass and castles never to be entered. At least it wasn’t hidden behind some oddly placed fog.
Melody spread out her arms and for a moment could just imagine the wind on her face.
Seeing the sun on the horizon as the day was turning into night. Among no one, she found tranquility in the sunset. Seeing her fake blonde hair sway before her eyes. Why did she feel so at ease in that moment? Why did she find the digital dusk so beautiful?
Melody would have loved to see this.
“Let’s touch down on the ground, Ok?” Melody petted their new dragon and guided it down the ground where the rest of the Daybreak Guild was waiting. The blue dragon egg was perfectly safe in Madame Cheddar’s inventory. She no longer had to lug it around.
“Holy shit, that’s a dragon dragon,” Kelsy said.
“A golden dragon. They are said to be the rarest and most benevolent,” Akira said. “I’m not usually a fan of gold, but I can’t deny the appeal this time.”
“We can name mounts, right?” Gray said. “It’s a male dragon as well.”
“Josh,” Kelsy jumped on the dragon’s back.
“Josh? That’s a lame name for a dragon. It should be Da’kavar. It’s a lore accurate dragon name,” Akira pushed Kelsy aside.
“Perhaps, Melody should decide,” Madame Cheddar said. “She was the one that got it for us.”
“True. Got any names in mind, Melody?” Gray asked.
The scales were gold like the sun.
“His name will be Dusk,” Melody whispered. She petted their new friend. To her shock, the dragon replied by leaning into her hand and sighing out a ring of smoke.