Gray watched the sun come in through his window. He needed to clean his room. Dust was piling up in the corners and there were a couple of soda cans left overnight. One of them was empty and the other was half-empty (or half-full) and was now flat. There was a pile of clothes that he told himself over and over that he would wash. He hadn't had breakfast. He didn't even remember if he ate dinner the night before. He didn't have much of an appetite. The cleanest thing was the GECKO II.
He picked the thing up and placed it over the head. He pushed the wires, so they fell to the floor. He pressed the power button and watched the visor light up. In a moment, he was transported to a place called the personal room. A room specifically for Link users to navigate what platform they wanted to go to.
Link was a software where many companies could host a variety of virtual reality software labeled as platforms.
The room, however, was the quietest place. It was devoid of anything, but the person with the headset. The room was empty and untextured. Gray chuckled for a moment. He realized that even though it didn't even look like a real room, it was still cleaner than his real place.
Gray opened a window to see what platforms were available. He had been gone for a year. He searched and searched until he chanced upon an article.
After what feels like a drought for MMORPGs, we can say that Erlin Online is the greatest up and comers out there. The overworld is filled with objectives and quests. There are world monsters. The dungeons feel expansive and challenging. The game's four role system of tank, dps, support, and healer provide a wide arrange of classes.
The game presents a fountain of lore...
Gray remembered group calls with screaming friends. Late night sessions and there was even that time that they spent doing a raid together on New Year's Eve. The young man downloaded the launcher for Erlin Online and began the installation process.
He thought back to the dusty corner, the cans of soda, and the pile of clothes at his bedside. He sighed.. No, if he was gonna play then he needed to clean up. He took a deep breath. A fresh start in the game and a fresh start now. He needed to be better. A phrase that he told himself often, but maybe this time it would actually happen.
He removed the headset and opened the window of his bedroom. A crisp summer air met him.
***
Character name: Gray Esprit
Class: Seer
A support spellcaster whose primary weapon is enchanted gloves. This class has spells and abilities that can provide powerful buffs to allies and potent debuffs to enemies. Out of all the spellcasters, the seer has the most diverse number of spells and can support every other role including other support classes.
Bloodline: Human
Humans in Elrin are known for being a hearty bloodline that are the descendants of giants. Originally from the Chamberlain Islands, all humans were one of the first races that began to interact with others and soon formed the Holy Kingdom of Atia with the Elves.
Are you okay with this character?
Yes...
***
The starter town of Elrin Online was a village called Willowtown. Placed in the middle of long-stretching plains. The spawning for new players was a tower that was surrounded by patches of verdant flowers. There was a wizard that spoke directly to your character and the other million characters that were created, but she wasn't really heeded. Most new players finished the basic movement and combat tutorial and booked it towards the quest markers.
The village's theme was a soothing song that was composed of gentle strings and piano. The NPCs in the village were kind and encouraged the new adventurers that had just materialized within their world moments ago.
Stolen novel; please report.
It was the quintessential starter town.
There was also a giant demon outside the village bounds that was being attacked by about forty players. The three headed stone demons named Jinobo would carry a lance of fire and call down bolts of lightning from dark clouds that would only appear if one got close to the boss' area.
Many of the chat messages related to this boss would refer to him as 'Jimbo' or simply 'Jim' rather than Jinobo. To be fair Jinobo, the 576th demon of the underworld and amalgam of flame and bolt, would be very hard to type in a world chat every time it popped.
Gray ignored the battle of epic proportions that was happening just outside the village and focused on his quest. He picked some carrots, rescued a dog that was stuck in a tree, and killed a giant rat in someone's basement.
These quests would take him westward to a forest known as the Marlus Woods. There Gray would need to hunt a few avian creatures known as Kazus. These red-haired birds paraded all over the woods and for some reason could also breathe fire.
Gray sidestepped the periodic waves of flames and counterattacked with the lightning bolt spell. The lightning bolt spell was a simple spell that would deal lightning damage to a single enemy.
This is going well.
Gray would gain two new spells while fighting. One was a spell called Ward. Ward granted a target an increase to their resistance. A stat that helped defend against magical attacks. The second was a spell called Meadow. It placed a small area on the ground that would heal allies if they stood on it.
Gray would catch a glimpse of other players. Many were in parties of threes and fours. They waited to farm specific creatures along paths and rivers. Through hunting the Kazus, Gray reached a pond in the center of the Marlus Woods.
The pond was covered by rays of sunlight that pierced through the dense trees. The entire pond was a clear blue and sparkles of the same color seemed to fly out into the sky. A butterfly appeared in the center of the pond. Gray received a buff to his mana regeneration from being close to the pond and decided to stay in the area while he sorted out the items in his bag. Mostly throwing out junk that the Kazus dropped.
Then the light of the pond darkened, and the butterfly's wings snapped. A red hand came up from the pond and snatched the falling butterfly. The water of the pond turned green. There was a growl and a creature rose from unseen depths.
Its name was Molavot. A tusked demon that bore a necklace of skulls. The ground rumbled as he walked. He ripped out one of the trees from the environment and raised it like a club.
"Woah!" Gray ran away from the attack and started to cast lightning bolt. Being the only in the close vicinity, Gray was the one with aggro and was already taking damage from auto-attacks. His health was draining fast even as he successfully dodged the large, telegraphed attacks.
He was down to a quarter of his health. He tried casting meadow a few times but could never stand still long enough due to Molavot chasing after him. The demon growled and dragged his tree weapon on the ground. Molavot's damage was physical, so the ward spell wasn't helping. He was certain that he was going to end up back in Willowtown when a flash of gold smashed right into the demon's stomach.
"I'll take the aggro," An elven paladin charged forward with their shield and was able to stun the creature. The stun lasted for five seconds and allowed Gray to make some distance between him and the demon. He fired his lightning as the paladin stood stalwart against Molavot. Her name was Melody Lightsong, and her sword left a trail of holy light as she swung at their enemy/
Even though the paladin was a tank, she was still taking damage.
"Here stay underneath the green field I put down," Gray cast Meadow below the paladin's feet.
"Thanks!"
As Molavot's health lowered, his attacks became faster, but Melody was able to dodge and used her shield to block the weaker blows. Once the demon was at half, they were able to sever his arm. This lowered the speed of his attacks. Together, they whittled down Molavot's health and then with one final joint attack, Molavot fell to Gray's lightning and Melody's radiant blade.
Molavot sank into the earth with a growl. Black ash was all that remained of the demon. The pond was cleansed. It returned to its original blue appearance. The butterfly circled around both Melody and Gray. It dropped a reward for the event and then returned to its pond. The rays of light seemed to shine brighter on the pond.
Gray retrieved the reward. One was a piece of equipment called the Butterfly Cloak. Not only did it have better stats, but he thought it looked cooler than the base seer gear. The cloak had crescent moons stitched along the sides and the back. These moons would glow with the same gentle blue. The second item was a pet butterfly that would follow the player around on their journey.
"Thanks for helping me," Gray said. "I wasn't expecting for there to just be events like that, but the rewards seem cool."
"Yeah, the map just seems brimming with stuff. I got a sword," Melody showed off a purple sword that sparkled when she unsheathed it. "Did you see that world boss earlier?"
"Yeah. I just started, so I mostly focused on the starter quest."
"Same, actually. I was doing one the uh, Kazus was it?"
"The chickens."
"Yeah! The chickens."
"I was just doing that quest."
"Really?" Melody said. "Then want to party up?"
"Sure, why not."
The Kazus felt their joint wrath, as paladin and seer joined the same party.