Forge of Heroes and Legends (FHaL Online)
Volume 1 Advent of a Hero
Chapter 1 The Refregeration Capsule
After he's done with his assignments, the boy browsed the channels on their tv.
A news program caught his attention, there was a horrible car accident which took the lives of 16 people.
The boy started crying as he saw familiar names on the list of the casualties, John A. Caesar and Etsuko S. Caesar.
His parents were in that accident. They were on an anniversary date that night, when a bus collided with their car.
Along with his parents, 14 others from the bus also died that night. Including the drunk bus driver.
Romulus Caesar, at the age of 14 was orphaned. And forced to make a decision to live with his relatives on his fathers side.
But because none of his relatives from his father's side wanted extra mouths to feed.
So his mother's parents took him back to Japan to live there with them.
Before the accident.
His mother was Japanese, and a teacher. And is teaching a the local school in Canada.
So it became easier for him to learn the Japanese language and its writting system.
His father was a French-Canadian, and a chef at a restaurant. So he learned how to cook.
Every year, they would go to Japan and visit his grandparents. His granpa had a dojo, there are 30 students there the last time they visited.
And every time they go to visit his grandparents, he would emmerse himself on the way of the sword.
His granpa became very fond of him. He then became close friends with his cousins and the kids his age training at the dojo.
So when the accident happened, Romulus is on their home, studying and doing his assignments. He's a studios kid.
When he opened the tv and searched the channels, he stumbled upon the news which brought him to extreme shock and tears.
He does not know what to do.
- Romlus? Are you there? Why did you call?
He came to his senses, and noticed he was holding the phone. On the other end of the line was his granma.
It was night time in America while in Japan is daytime.
"They're gone..." he broke down on the phone and started crying all over again. "They were on an accident obaa..."
- Where are you right now?
His granma understands. His granma's voice is also quaking after hearing the dreadful news. Then he hears her broke down and started crying.
In the background he heard his granpa asking what happened.
- Romulus? We're coming there as soon as we can.
He heard his granpa. He was composed but he can still feel the sadness on his granpa's voice.
"What do i do jii?"
- Go to the hospital where they took them. We'll come right away.
His grandparents arrived and headed straight to the hospital.
They saw Romulus all quiet and shocked outside sitting on a bench just outside the hospital.
They went and hugged him and he broke down once again. They then asked him to come live with them in Japan.
He agreed, but he said he still wanted to complete the school year before he transfer to Japan. And asked if his grandparents would agree
to the cremation of the remains of his parents, so they could bring them to Japan. The place where they felt most happy as a family.
His grandparents then stayed with him for the remainder of the school year. After that they finally moved to Japan.
He manage to get over and move on that accident. He then started new student life as a Japanese high school student.
He finished high school and decided to take a break from all the stress of studying. His grandparents first disagrees, but then lets him.
********
2 months into his year long vacation, his cousin invited him to play a game to change pace.
"Hey Rom! Wanna check out the game I'm hooked on to?" asked Kiisu.
"Sure, wouldn't hurt to see it."
"Great! You can watch at the built-in monitor." Kiisu then lied down on a coffin like capsule.
After only about 30 minutes, the built-in monitor turned off. The capsule opened and Kiisu came out.
"So? What do you think? Isn't it awesome?"
"Yeah, it's cool. So that is what VR is..." Romulus said.
"Your jaws will drop and your eyes will grow big if you get inside the game, really! You should start playing now.
Even though it's already been 2 years since the game released. You have a year of break anyway.
You could catch up to my level pretty fast. I think? If you really play 24/7. hahahaha" Kiisu encourages Romulus to start playing the game while boasting.
"I'm not as free as you think I am. This 2 months were all spent traing more and harder, you know?
And since granpa is personally training me, it's more strict training than other students! Granpa is so cruel!" Romulus grumbled.
"Hahahaha. Yeah, right. Well, I'll help you with that. I'll convince granpa." promised Kiisu.
"You can try, but it might be futile."
"Don't worry about it. Leave it to me."
A week had passed...
One morning, he saw Kiisu and other guys dressed in a delivery uniform with a logo he doesn't recognize, were carrying something.
Then Kiisu noticed and called him.
"Hey! Rom come here!"
Romulus went so as to fill his curiousity.
"What's that?"
"That's your unit! You're gonna be playing FHaL Online from now on!" Kiisu is excited for him. They were closest among cousins.
"Wow! So you really got the OK from granpa? Really?"
"Yeah! hahahaha. Though it took me almost a week to convince him."
"But where did you get the money to buy this?" Romulus asked.
"Well granpa gave me the money, said it was supposed to be your expenses for this year if you have attended college."
"Well isn't that just great? That's my money... huhuhu."
While the unit is being installed their granpa approached them both.
"So this is the capsule thing you had me ordered? More like a fridge or a coffin. Or both."
"Yes ojii-chan. Would you also like to play the game?" Kiisu offered.
"No. You still have to do daily training Romulus." as he turned his attention to Romulus.
"Yes jii-chan."
After the delivery guys finished installing the new unit.
Kiisu started his information relay to Romulus.
"So let's start with the basic info of the game:
First! Creating your character.
1) Races, for you, you are a bit lucky there have be unlocked of a new race,
the Orks. Adding to that are the first 3 basic races: Dwarf, Elf and Human.
Further more these races have branches, which some are still undiscovered.
The dwarves for now only has 1 branch, the main branch.
The Elven branched to many: High Elves, Forest Elves and Dark Elves, then
Blood Elves. A connected branch to the human race.
The human race have the Barbarians and the civilized, the City Dwellers.
Blood Elves is can also be chosen as a part of human race.
The Orks have just only been discovered. So further branch/es has still yet
to be rediscovered.
2) Gender and Looks: of course, isn't it obvious? You cannot pose as an
opposite of what you are for your avatar. But for looks, you can alter
it on how you want your avatar to look like. However you can just choose
"As is" option.
3) Starting location, it has to do with what race you choose. If you choose
dwarf, then obviously you'll be starting under the mountains. In the realm
of the dwarves. Since dwarves are known great miners and metal crafters.
The elven starting locations depends on what branch you choose. Elven city
for a high elf, forest village for a forest elf and a dark citadel for a
dark elf. The humans so far are found in the cities, the city dwellers,
and the barbarians are found in the mountains. The orks are as much like
as humans. They also have cities but not that developed.
4) Stats, you'll gain 5 stat points every time you level up. The basic stats
are: Strenght, Agility, Intellegence, Vitality, Stamina, Dexterity and
Wisdom. Then there are the misc stats: Luck, Charm, Charisma, and Leadership.
Then there's also the Reputation stats. Which determines your fame.
5) Profession, whatever you wanted to be, you can strive for. You can change
completely to other classes if you feel like your current class is not
suitable for you. But you will have to start over again from the basic
training. There are hidden professions of the related main branch of the
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
profession. For example, a warrior became a knight. A knight may discover
a hidden branch to the Holy Knight.
Second! The most important for a beginner after character creation, FOOD! There are 10 plain braid given by default.
But many beginners died of hunger the first week after the game was released. Because they consumed all their bread and got hungry.
And there are still many dying of hunger even now. So treasure your bread.
Third! Interaction, there is no "whisper" or "party", "guild", "world" chat. You can only talk to those you see and are near enough.
Of course if the one you're talking to is far, you can shout. But there's no guarantee he/she is gonna understand clearly.
And since there is no whisper chat, then there's no "ADD FRIEND" button. You make friends as how you do in real life. You can still
talk to persons from other cities through letters via couriers or messengers. Or signal, like signal fire on the movie LOTR: RotK.
Distinguishing an NPC to a User will be hard. Unless you have "Investigate" skill, which theives and assassins and spies have.
NPCs and Users names/nicknames are hidden from other users.
Fourth! Gameplay!
Leveling isn't just all about going out there and killing mobs. You can level up depending on you profession. Those that are of crafting and production
professions can level up by crafting and producing products of their trade. Merchant is considered a production profession, though a merchant doesn't craft
anything, they do produce money by trade! They gain exp just by traveling from city to city, these is because of their specialized skill "Trade Route".
Creating a trade route to an undiscovered cities and regions yield 5x the normal exp and fame the merchant would gain. And a merchant could also gain
exps by selling items to fellow users. But being a merchant is a perilous profession. Always on constant threat from Theives and Bandits and Marauders.
Now PvPs and PvEs.
For PvPs, there's no need to click something to activate PK mode. Here in FHaLO, it is an open PvP. You can get attacked in the instances without notice.
And also inside the cities! You can be killed inside the cities! There're no "safe" zones, only guarded zones. And as it says, it only offers "guarded"
status not "safe" status. If you're logging out, you will be noticed by the system if you're in a guarded zone. Because your avatar does not disappear.
Your avatar will only be resting in the place where you logged out. It will be placed under AI control. If attacked by mobs or players it will retaliate
any attackers and also loot their items. If ever you are killed inside the city, the guards will close the gates and hunt down the murderer. Once the murderer
is caught, all his items and money will be confiscated and give some to his victim/s. There're those who tried it when they found out they could kill others
even inside the city. But were caught and got stripped down. But arrests will only happen if the guards know what the murderer looked like or if they caught
a glimpse of the act aof murder, or if there are witnesses to point out who's the murderer. There are no "red" color or green in the name so murderers can get
away with the crime. But as of now, all murderers inside a city has all been caught and stripped down.
For PvEs, there are 4 instances:
1) Wilderness: this is basically the fields outside. The mobs you see out in the fields are called wilderness mobs.
You also might chance on a cavern, but it does not mean you're in a dungeon or a lair. There are caves
that are still part of wilderness.
2) Dungeons: the second instance. This instance contains many levels going downwards. X4 level difficulty than that of
the wilderness. You can solo a dungeon, that is if you're really strong or your level is 5x higher than the
level required for a dungeon. But it is mostly recommended you party with others if you're Dungoen Crawling.
And most mobs on dungeon instances are agressive, they are also mostly of "Evil Affinity".
3) Towers: Are just like dungeons, but instead of going down, it's going up as the name Tower suggest. But there was a
discovery of a tower going down. It is called tower even though going down is because of the entrance,
while dungeon entrances and the dungeon walls are mostly cavern styles, the towers are structures. Which
distinguishes the two apart. The level difficulty is higher than a dungeon.
4) Lairs: Lairs are the most difficult. So far, only 2 have been discovered. The ones who discovered the Lairs thought it
was only a simple cavern from the wilderness. But when they got in deeper, they were swarmed by monsters. Thousands
of monsters of the same kind, and that's why they said it was a Lair. The VGUmbrella Corp. has yet to disclose the
information regarding this.
As for looting, it is a full looting if you killed a mob. Whatever the mob has to offer can be looted. Let's say a wolf, a wolf will not "drop" coins or
equipments. It will not "drop" anything. You have to get it yourself. You have to skin it to get the pelts or take its teeth for a "Wolf Fang".
Only humanoid mobs can give you equipments and money, if they even carry money with them. So earning money via hunting is extremely hard.
And not only players could loot, but the humanoid mobs can also loot items from dead players. And they also gain levels. That's what frightening about boss mobs.
If they level up, it will be much more harder than before. And the items the bosses looted from you will only be stored at his treasure room.
For PvP looting, it is "Drop" chances only. Not full looting. That's the basic mechanics of the game.
But for a beginner, it is advised that you stay inside the city for 4 in-game weeks, 1 week here in the real world. That is so you could better
find out for yourself of what you wanted to be on the game. And earn in-game money for your expenses in the future by doing jobs.
Oh yeah! Jobs, or should i say tasks. Tasks are classified by 3
Jobs: the basic way to earn money. Mostly repeatitive tasks and boring. The only exciting jobs, are jobs on the battlefield, the being a
field messenger.
Commissions: are authorized task given to individuals or groups to do. Like, clearing a dungeon once, or surveying the surrounding areas
or gathering materials on the wilderness or dungeons or towers or lairs. Like that.
Quest: the backbone of adventure. Task with series of plots leading to an adventure! The rewards for adventuring are the greatest.
I guess that's all I can provide for information. There's still many mysteries, you might get to uncover one or two, you know?"
Kiisu finished explaining the basics to Romulus.
"You can step in your unit now, and start playing. I still have something to do, then I'll head home and play too."
"Ohhhhhhhh-kay. But first I'll have dinner first."
Romulus said as he was about to go upstairs. They were at the basement of his grandparents house.
"Okay. Guess I'll just have dinner here. hahaha"
"Well let's go."
After dinner Kiisu left and headed home and Romulus headed downstair on the basement after he washed the dishes.
"I forgot to ask what race he is. Guess I'll be "blind gaming" even with all those info he said."
He played games before so he knows some gaming terminologies. He stepped in and lied inside the capsule.
"Feels like I'm on a coffin --creepy, futuristic coffin-- that will be able to preserve my remains because of this airconditionin system in this unit.
Can I sleep in here without playing? Here feels comfortable. hahahah" he then closed the capsule and a green light scanned his iris.
Unregistered data detected.
Would you like to register?
Yes
No
to be continued...
Next Chapter