In my kingdom Frebaf we are surrounded by The Wildes. I never think much about it but the adults always act weird when you ask about them. From the stories my parents told when they were alive The Wildes weren't always so big.
It happened in my grandfathers generation, the kingdom was expanding so the king sent out expeditions to explore and secure
more land. Hundreds of adventurers armed to the tooth set out searching for glory, fame, or Land. The expedition set out down south at Iyan's Gate where monsters were scarce after the great hero Iyan set out to rid the world of monsters so humans could finally start a kingdom. The Order of Iyan was commonly seen at border towns protecting them and preventing monster invasions.
The expedition started and a system was set up to communicate with the kingdom. A runner would be sent out every six hours and every encounter with monsters. After seven days, a week since setting out the communication stopped. No response came and after three runners left and none came back the expedition was declared a failure. After three days the towns all around the edge of the kingdom were heavily attacked by monsters. Mere iron spears and shields could not stop the hoards of monsters. The monsters devoured village after village but after 6 months they suddenly let up leaving behind new walls with new gates, caging the kingdom in. The walls stood six feet high acting only as a symbol to stay in. Four new gates were created each with an element representing them. In the north the Gate of Air, the south the Gate of fire, the west the Gate of earth, and east the Gate of water. The monsters yielded to 4 demons who appeared at each and claimed to have created the gates as a test for humans. They gave a speech at every gate beckoning and demanding that all who are brave to test their skills beyond the gate.
My hometown Neviy lays between the Earth and fire gate. It is a simple mining village and relies on the more fertile towns just to the north for food. My grandfather tested the fire gate after his 20th birthday and came back out after two hours vowing never to set food past the walls again. When my parents turned 20 the kingdom still lived in fear of the walls. They decided to live a safe life to raise their son unlike most of their friends who searched for adventures. As if to spite them when I was eleven a mining incident trapped my father under a rock killing him. My mother tried to stay strong for me did her best to earn money for food. After doing laundry, field work, and household chores for everyone in the village my mother soon collapsed from a disease. She became unable to provide for us and I started working under one of the local blacksmith for a few pieces of bread a day. At first I was barely able to satisfy Jeph, the blacksmith I work for, but soon after my determination to not let my mother starve I got quicker and more efficient at moving his supplies and setting things up around his forge. Luckily I had no competition like the farmers sons training to take over his business. Jeph had the unfortunate luck of his child hearing the call to adventure. Luckily his son had joined a guild and was being forced trough training for his safety. Guilds were formed after people like my grandfather got scared and lost their adventuring spirit, they aimed to help everyone be capable of protecting themselves and control the trade of items from outside the walls. My job was that of just an assistant while the farmer sons were apprentices. Because of the new assistant lower than them they decided to take every advantage to make my job harder. After a week of tripping over left out tools and nearly burning myself from their constant waving of red iron rods, I became wise to their tricks. To a normal person I looked graceful avoiding their attacks but to them I was a servant who needed more discipline. Soon it was clear to me just how much Jeph hated the time wasted by their tricks. Surprisingly he didn't blame me, he disciplined them thoroughly by making them help me and made it clear it was their responsibility, not mine. The tricks stopped and i grew to respect Jeph like a father. One day he pulled me aside and to my surprise offered to teach me smithing."You have lots of potential Leak, much more than the others, how about being one of my apprentices? I'll drop the charge to 30 silver"
I stare at him unsure what to say, normally it costs 3 gold to start and apprenticeship. Most farmers could work their whole lives for that much, and once someone was recognized as a master of a craft they could start their own business and live a much easier life than farmers. Sadly I only have a few copper to spare and i only make a silver a day. Seeing my look of sadness Jeph asks whats wrong.
"...money.." I mumble
"What?"
"... Don't have... Enough... Money..." I mumble the words almost at a whisper. Jeph seems to realize his mistake, the only reason I was employed here was he was an old friend of my father. He knew what happened and about my mother. He must have assumed I had been saving money. in truth I tried at least once a week to cure my mother. I bought many different remedies but they never worked ending up a waste of money. A healer would probably be able to diagnose my mother but just a visit cost a five gold coins and a cure usually cost at least fifteen. Concluding that saving silvers for myself hadn't been the case he changed his offer.
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"OK then how about we switch the money with a test. If I am right it training you for free will at least give me a worthy heir." He pulls out 3 iron ingots and a hammer smaller than his normal one but the same shape head. He explains that I must properly combine the ingots into a smooth flat blade. I think of what i have seen and place all three of the ingots in the furnace using tongs until they are burning red. i remove two and i hammer one slightly over the other to combine them. I repeatedly put them back In the furnace to heat and take them back out to hammer. when the three ingots are connected i start hammering them all together and slowly flatten it out. My arms are quickly tired but i don't dare give up on this chance of apprenticeship. In the end the blade is formed making my heart plummet from its deformed shape. Thinking over what to do I don't give up and end up hammering it into an almost desirable shape. Proud of my creation i finish and present it to Jeph who was looking on with an amused look.
"Haha this is good! Great even, this is much better than what the farm sons could do at first. You still have a long road ahead but as i thought training you will be worth it. I walk home with a full pocket of five silvers and a fresh loaf of bread i bought with the last of my coppers. As I walk through the woods to my small shack of a house I see a large black smoke over the trees. Worried, i run through the rest of the forest to see the horrible scene. Fire lizards swarmed around the old shack which was lit up in flames. Human mages from the Order of Iyan scurried about trying to capture them, all ignoring the burning house. My worst fear seems to be happening.
Unable to contain myself I reach into my family pouch and pull out our most prized possession, a water stone Given to us by the Order to counter fire elementals. I rush towards the fire and mentally activate the stone like my grandfather told me when I was a kid.
"These types of stones are very precious Leak. They can only be used once so be very careful." My grandfather firmly stated. He had been helped by the Order often in his lifetime and wanted to make sure the precious stone gift from them would be taken care of if he didn't have a use for it. A bubble of water surrounds me as I enter the flames and run to my mothers room. Against the wall i saw her on the floor coughs wracking her body from the smoke. "Mom!" I yell and rush to make sure she is alright. Seeing me through the haze of smoke my mother grabs onto me and her lungs pull in a huge breath of fresh air created by the bubble. Still her body is wracked with coughing fits. Unsure what to do I carry her out of the house narrowly avoiding the collapse. A mage in a white robe notices me exit the house and rushes over. "Halt! You are interfering with Order work and have saved this traitorous woman. Begone!" Confused I burst out in my moms defense and demand answers from the mage. Hearing me call the traitor mother the mage starts to chant as I yell. Suddenly a strong magic chain is wrapped around my torso and my legs immobilizing me. Everything goes black as a large object slams into the back of my skull.
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I silent cry as the system creates my backstory from a few choices. This new virtual reality Frebaf's Redemption was really amazing with its story. Each and every player has a background incorporated and is constantly changing the overall story to fit in more players. The game can only fit around five hundred people into a server at a time and the queue to get into one has over five million players. After the break through to create immersion technology thousands of game competed to gain a monopoly over the business. Prime Entertainment front runner was Frebaf's Creation which was an amazing hit amongst beta testers but instead of releasing Creation they released Redemption which sold like a wild fire after the reviews of Creation from beta testers. Being the first onto a server is a prize worth millions of dollars since each server has only 575 possible backstories which can affect how you play the game and chances of quests happening. Being the major gamer I was I got on a list for one of the first servers but towards the end of the 500 players. Being one of the last to join was seen as worthless and many servers had open spaces because the possibility of all the good backstories being taken. I was not a normal major gamer at least. I almost never asked for help and usually just played my own way. When I heard of a game where I not only can play how I like but I can choose my situation I was determined to play my heart out.
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can not figure out a good way to write the smiting scene*