He entered his capsule to log into the new game that was taking the world by storm; Aethr. He entered the log in screen and was greeted with a small floating window displaying the options for games, including his recently played list and a list of the most popular games worldwide.
The only game on his recently played list sat in second place on the worldwide ranking, having recently been surpassed by Aethr. Without any hesitation he clicked on Aethr, causing another window to pop up in front of him:
To play Aethr a monthly subscription of $100 is needed.Confirm your purchaseYesNo
He clicked yes.
He was greeted by a character creation screen similar to every other VR game he’d ever played. A disembodied female voice resounded throughout an empty white space, “Welcome, David, to begin the character creation process please select a character name- The name for your Imagine Industries account has been reserved for your use, would you like to use the name ‘Leech’?”
Imagine Industries was the company that manufactured VR capsules, and as a result most games reserved in game names for the Imagine Industries account with the same name to reward those who had been early to get their account.
“I would like to use the name Leech” David confirmed. “Please select a race” the bodiless voice prompted, displaying a window that showed every possible race that was currently available. Without looking at the options David said, “Dark Elf”. Although Aethr had only been out for a couple weeks there was already plenty of information on the early stages of the game; David knew that being a Dark Elf would fit his new play style nicely.
According to the forums the Dark Elves were a particularly challenging race to play in the beginning of the game for a number of reasons. First and foremost was the fact that the NPC Dark Elves were rude and unhelpful, making it difficult to receive quests and experience. Coming in a close second was the fact that all the monsters in the Dark Elves’ starting forest were at least level 75; many more were closer to level 150. As if the first two reasons weren’t enough, the dark elves had no safe area; unlike the other races whose towns were free of monsters, the dark elves lived in trees and could be attacked at any time.
The consensus on the forums was that playing as a Dark Elf was a very bad choice that would end up in character deletion. David, however, felt that the Dark Elves would be a perfect fit for a chaotic player; due to the violent nature of Dark Elves he would be able to kill many others without society inflicting penalties on him. If he was ever targeted by another Dark Elf the surrounding monsters would make it hard to catch him.
David’s thoughts were interrupted as the voice said, “Dark Elves have only one starting area, Twilight Forest, however you may pick the general area of the forest you wish to spawn in.” A map segregated into four quadrants (north, east, south, west) appeared before him. David picked east, as the general consensus was that Twilight Forest’s west side faced human kingdoms (though separated by uncharted lands), and David didn’t want to run into some human expedition in his beginning days.
“For the final step of your character creation, please edit any physical features of your avatar. Your choices for design will be limited based on your race and starting area.” As the voice finished a virtual copy of David materialized, the differences being that the body was pitch black, the eyes were a luminescent green, and the hair was white.
David never edited anything besides purely aesthetic features; he was content with his well-muscled body and average facial features. Scrolling through the color choices for eyes he found that they were very limited; green, yellow, or blue. As all of them glowed neon he decided to use yellow, as he thought it made his character more intimidating.
The skin tone options were…interesting, ranging from pitch black to snow white- and every shade of grey between. After a little experimentation David settled on a grey one step away from black, he seemed to like the darker shades on himself but felt that pitch black was too…strange. The final step was to edit his hair color; white or black. He selected white to contrast his dark skin.
“I’m finished” David stated after he was satisfied with his appearance. The voice was quick to respond, “Please confirm that you wish to play as ‘Leech’, a Dark Elf, and spawn in the eastern section of Twilight Forest.” “Correct”, David eagerly stated, now wanting to jump into the game. “Please confirm that you are satisfied with your avatar, which you see before you.” “I am satisfied” David said, irritation creeping into his voice.
“We hope you enjoy Aethr, your game will begin in 5…4…3…2…1…” David raised his hands as his vision was blurred by a bright light. When the light faded he found himself standing on a raised platform in a tree. The only comparable place that he’d ever been to on Earth that looked similar to his surroundings was a forest for zip-lining.
He stood on a platform (which was at least 40 meters off the ground) that surrounded a tree and connected to other similar platforms via a system of wooden bridges. The platforms weren’t all at the same level, which caused many of the bridges to rest at an angle. In various trees scattered around the area there were dark…‘burrows’ that seemed to house the Dark Elf population of this tribe.
Leech admired the sight around him briefly before making his way towards the nearest NPC, “Excuse me, sir, where could I find water?” the NPC’s response was…rude, to say the least, “What kind of idiot are you? You could find water in a lake, a river, a stream, or, if you’re patient, you could wait until it rains.” Before Leech would have thanked the NPC and been on his way…however Leech wasn’t like he used to be.
Leech kicked the man’s legs out from under him and thrust his hand to catch the man’s neck. Without wasting a second Leech moved until the NPC was dangling over the 40 meter drop to the forest floor. “If you were thirsty and wanted a drink where would you get your water?” Leech asked with an out of place smile on his face. The NPC chocked the words out, “The taps…if I was…thirsty…I would…drink…from a…tap…” he pointed towards the tree behind Leech where a tap protruded from the tree.
Throwing the NPC against the tree, Leech approached the tap and turned the lever. As sap slowly poured out of the tap Leech took a handful and drank it; it was sweet yet filling at the same time. His satiety was now resting at 100; however since he didn’t check before he drank he had no idea how much satiety it restored.
The NPC on the ground mumbled something about Leech being a ‘bloody idiot’ and promptly received a kick to the stomach before Leech left the scene. Leech decided to go look for some work around his new tribe, however the results were…less than satisfying-
“Get lost”
“Leave me alone”
“I don’t need an idiot like you to help me with anything”
“Go fuck yourself”
It seemed that the forums hadn’t been lying, in fact much of what he read seemed to be an understatement. ‘Well I guess that I’ll go hunting then…but first I’ll need to find a weapon’ Leech had no idea where to find a weapon, but he had a guess as to how he could find out. It wouldn’t be pleasant, but he could ask the children.
The forums had said that the best way to get information as a Dark Elf was to ask the children; they were rude and disrespectful, but they usually told you what you needed to know. Spotting a group of nearby children he approached and asked, “Hey brat, where could I find a weapon?” All the children looked at him with that same look, disgust, before one said, “You can’t find a weapon, idiot, you have to make one!”
Ignoring the provocation Leech prompted, “How exactly does one ‘make’ a weapon?” Another child yelled out, “You sing it out of wood, obviously! Have you even passed your trials?” Leech wasn’t known for his patience and decided that he couldn’t take their attitude anymore; he wanted answers and he would get them. He grabbed the necks of two of the silent children, one in each hand, and held them over the edge before smiling and saying, “If you want your friends to live it would be best to answer my questions, without the disrespect.”
The first child seemed to pale, although it was hard to tell because he was practically white already, and asked, “What would you like to know…sir?”
***
After various threats and some light punishment, Leech had managed to get a surprising amount of information out of the obnoxious children. As one of the brats had said, you couldn’t ‘find’ a weapon; every Dark Elf had to create their own bow & arrows by singing them out of a tree. However unlike their Elven counterparts Dark Elves did it a bit differently. Instead of having the tree expend some of its life force to create a bow (as an Elf would), he had to drain the tree’s energy and force it into the shape of a bow.
The major similarity with the Elven way of creating a weapon was that he would have to sing, or chant as he had found out, while imbuing his voice with magic to force the wood to bend to his will. Every Dark Elven child had to make their own bow to pass into adulthood, which was part of the reason that the brats had acted so rude towards him.
Although Leech had spent around two hours wandering around the tribal settlement and obtaining information the lighting hadn’t changed at all. Leech concluded that it was a possibility that the forest’s lighting never changed, hence the name Twilight Forest; a forest stuck in perpetual twilight. As Leech contemplated the nature of the strange forest he made his way to the edge of the village.
Forging a bow would require two things; the sacrifice of a tree and a song. The ritual that young elves undertook to become adults always took place a small distance away from the village, the reason being that if the village needed to expand there needed to be trees nearby to build to. The only reason that Leech decided to ‘honor’ the tradition was because he didn’t want to sing in the presence of others; he didn’t care about the village at all.
Standing on one of the platforms at the edge of the village Leech gazed into the forest ahead of him. The trees seemed to be denser, as did the monsters strolling below. Most monsters that wondered under the village would be shot and cooked, though not all, and for that reason many monsters kept their distance. While the village wasn’t exactly a ‘safe’ zone it was safer than the surrounding forest.
At Leech’s feet there was a small square cut out of the platform, creating an opening for the ladder that lead to the ground below. Without hesitation Leech climbed through the opening and began his decent towards the ground below. Leech had never been afraid of heights, in fact he had never really been afraid of anything; he liked to call his ‘condition’ fear deficiency.
Leech was lucky that with his self-proclaimed condition he also had a keen sense of logic to guide him through many dangerous positions. As he neared the bottom of the ladder his logic told him that he was in one of those dangerous positions, so he stopped. Beneath him monsters eyed him as their next potential meal. Leech re-considered whether singing in the presence of others would be so bad, however he knew that if he sung down a tree near the village the other Dark Elves would kick him out and he would have to face the monsters then.
Taking a deep breath to prepare himself, Leech jumped the remaining distance to the ground and, after rolling, took off in a full sprint. Behind him he could hear monsters giving chase, and to the sides he could see monsters joining the line to get their next meal. Fortunately for Leech after sprinting for a couple minutes one of the smarter monsters realized something, and pounced.
Pounced not on Leech, but on one of the other, slightly smaller, monsters giving chase. That smart monster, that somewhat resembled a bear, seemed to have figured out that it was right next to a meal; it didn’t have to chase a rabbit when there was a deer right next to it. Other monsters followed the bear-creature’s example and soon there was a massive feeding frenzy behind Leech.
When Leech could no longer see the mess of monster bodies he decided that he was far enough away from the village and climbed up one of the massive trees that towered him at a height of at least 90 meters. As Leech reached a large branch and lay down to catch his breath a small window nearly sent him falling off the branch in surprise:
Show hidden windows?YesNo
Although it took Leech a minute to discern what a ‘hidden window’ was due to his fatigue, once he remembered that the system hid messages from players during combat (and other stressful situations) he tapped the ‘Yes’ button. ‘I wonder what I got…? Probably some stat bonuses for running non-stop’, Leech thought to himself. Yet as the windows opened before him a gasp escaped his mouth, followed by, “What the hell…?”
Right before Leech’s eyes were dozens of windows containing similar messages, most were along the lines of: ‘_ has been slain by _. For helping _ kill _ you have been awarded _ experience (increased by _% due to level difference.’ That wasn’t all either, besides the fact that the messages were still coming, he also had messages of stat gains and level ups.
After staring blankly at the windows before him for around a minute he regained his composure, “System- summarize all messages received in the last 30 minutes” Although the rate at which new windows had calmed down he was still receiving them, even after having left the brawl for more than 10 minutes. There was no way that so many monsters had been chasing him, ‘…had there actually been so many?’ he thought to himself.
.
Summary of All Messages Within the Past Thirty MinutesFor running for an extended period of time at maximum speed you have gained:+2 strength
+3 agility
+6 stamina
+2 enduranceFor tricking monsters into slaughtering each other you have gained+6 intelligence
+2 wisdom
+1 luckIn addition to the stat gains you have also gained the title ‘Agent of Carnage'The title 'Agent of Carnage' gives you +5 to all statsYour actions have upset the balance of nature by causing a massacre of various monsters that reside in the forest. Not only were monsters that were chasing you killed, as the fight drew the attention of nearby monsters those monsters were drawn in to slay weakened monsters. The vicious cycle you caused was only stopped when there were no more monsters to attractBy luring monsters that would normally be enemies into one area and causing the deaths of many involved you have gained experience. Due to the level difference between you and the monsters you have gained an average +13.7% more experienceIn total you have gained 165,629 experience pointsYou have gained 57 levelsYou have 570 stat points to distribute
As he read the message the experience points slowly came to a halt at 166,749. Leech could barely keep his eyes inside of his head, ‘57 levels?!’ it was unheard of in any game he’d ever known to gain 57 levels in less than an hour- in fact it was more than unheard of; it was insane. However as Leech thought about the situation it actually made sense; he had (inadvertently) caused the death of almost every monster following him (and many more). He would only receive partial experience…but considering the amount of monsters and their levels it wasn’t actually surprising.
As Leech reread the message he paused at the final paragraph, the fight was over…and that meant that there would be loot ‘a plenty back there. Of course there would probably be stragglers left over from the fight, but they would be weakened- weak enough to kill with a bow and some arrows. Leech quickly focused all of his attention, along with his newly developed (yet still tiny) Mana pool, towards the trunk of the tree he stood on.
Leech focused his Mana into his voice and quickly started his chant,
“From a faraway land I have come,
There I experienced the true nature of all those who live,
However even as my nature was revealed I did not succumb,
To the lies that all would give,
I am born anew in this world that is not my own,
I know what I am and who I have become,
To cause death and destruction I am prone,
The carnage I cause is my only rum,
Now let the blood run free,
From my enemies veins,
I will be,
The only one who remains!”
As Leech finished his chant he opened his eyes-which he didn’t realized that he’d closed- to find himself standing on forest floor with a bow and ~20 arrows lying on his outstretched hands. The bow was a grey one shade lighter than his own skin, an ominous grey that reminded him of death. The bow was a similar to a recurve from his own world and was covered in some very…grizzly ‘designs’ that depicted scenes of death and slaughter.
The arrows were long and relatively thin, their tips were similarly thin, made for piercing, yet there were no feathers to speak of. Fearful that the loot he desired would be lost or unrecoverable, Leech quickly took stock of his surroundings, ‘tree-no, tree-no, tree-no, !-leaf (shit), tree-bird, tree-wait a minute’ Leech looked back to the previous tree and, to his relief, there was a bird.
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
Leech picked up one of the shafts without any feathers and looked at the bird, then looked back at his unfinished arrow. The bird watched him with caution as it seemed to have discerned his intentions very quickly, ‘It isn’t really that hard to figure out but…now how am I supposed to get the feathers…?’ As Leech thought about ways to try and obtain the feathers a slightly larger bird dived straight at the soon-to-be-his feathers from behind.
“Move away from that branch you stupid bird!” He called out, and-to his relief- the bird glided towards Leech at an angle, causing the predatory bird to quickly pull up and disappear from vision. “See, Mr. Bird, I’m not a bad guy…come over here and I’ll give you a gift. Why are you looking at me like that…? Look, I swear I don’t want to hurt you, so come here…” As he finished the bird flapped its way over to him and perched on his outstretched arm.
He held his left arm, which held the bird, up to his face and started rambling about how happy he was that the bird survived. All the while his right hand, which held an arrow, slowly rose behind the bird until the point rested in a ready-to-strike position. Without stopping his ramblings he stabbed the bird with the arrow, “…and that is why you are the most beautiful bird I’ve ever met- I need your feathers.” Leech finished and started preparing the feathers.
Leech quickly threw together some flu-flu fletching and attached them to his arrows. The arrows wouldn’t travel very far with flu-flu fletching-~30 meters at most- but the situation called for quick action. He hoped that the monsters would be weak enough that he could safely get that close to them, he also hoped that no monster would take many arrows to kill. Most of all he hoped that creating flu-flu fletching worked the same way as it did in his previous VR game.
After making fletching for each of his 23 arrows he headed back towards the area where he’d left the monsters behind. He ran with his bow in his left hand while he carried his arrows in his right hand; he decided that if he needed to shoot arrows he’d have to store his arrows in his pockets and just watch that they didn’t fall out. After running for a couple minutes the distinct sent of blood filled the air, just a few minutes later he was surrounded by the corpses of various monsters.
As a Dark Elf his inventory was 50% larger than the default inventory; as a hunter race it was ideal to be able to store large amounts of meat and pelts. That brought his inventory’s capacity up to 75…as he looked around he doubted that he would have enough room. Before examining the monsters he walked around and picked off any stragglers that hadn’t left the area yet.
Once that was out of the way he made a mental list of all the types of monsters that were scattered around the forest floor: vicious looking squirrel-like creatures, wolf-like creatures, bear-like creatures, deer-like creatures with sharp teeth, various birds of prey, along with various creatures that seemed to be the only of their kind involved in the slaughter.
Leech pulled out a tooth from one of the bear-like creatures and went about skinning the monsters that littered the ground around him. Although he didn’t have experience skinning animals in real life he had done so in other VR games before, which seemed to help him skin the monsters properly. As he skinned the monsters he also cut apart their meat and stored the parts that he thought were edible.
Leech prioritized materials from the monsters that he thought were the highest level before he moved on to the seemingly lower leveled monsters. After he had filled his inventory with food and pelts he decided to cook some of the meat he could not carry and eat it on the spot. Leech quickly put a fire together and cooked some wolf-creature meat.
Although the meat had no seasoning, and Leech had little experience cooking, the meat tasted delicious. A window popped up informing Leech that he had received +1 strength and +2 wisdom for eating meat from a powerful monster. After he finished the meat Leech finally calmed down a little. ‘Guess I should really invest my stat points; otherwise being level 57 will mean nothing.
“Open stat menu” Leech commanded. He examined his window to find that he had:
Stats60 (+10) strength60 (+10) agility63 (+10) intelligence61 (+10) wisdom63 (+10) stamina59 (+10) endurance58 (+10) luck57 (+10) dexterity57 (+10) vitality-
He had read that the game would automatically raise each stat by 1 each level but he wasn’t sure if it was true or not (until now). The reasoning was simple; the game developers didn’t want players who focused on one stat to be extremely bad in other stats. (Examples: A level 100 warrior with the intelligence of a toddler/a level 100 mage with the strength of a child)
‘This is a crossroads for me, I guess…what kind of character do I want to build…?’ Leech contemplated the different builds that might fit his play style, ‘I definitely want to be a warrior type class so that I can be in the middle of the battle, which probably means I’ll have to invest in strength, agility, stamina, endurance, or luck…’ Leech decided to look at the benefits and disadvantages for each stat and then make his decision.
‘I don’t think that I want to focus on luck, it’s too based on the system and I couldn’t really do anything if it fails’ Focusing luck was an actual strategy that many players used to cause unexpected phenomenon during their battle to win, however that didn’t seem very logical to Leech; after all his luck could get him killed if it didn’t kick in. ‘Endurance makes pain less noticeable…but I want to fell that pain, so I’ll eliminate endurance from my choices’ Leech felt that numbing pain was wrong for him, that it took him out of the battle.
‘With three stats to focus on and 10 stat points each level I guess I can do a 3 way split and invest 1 point into something else every level…yah, that sounds good’ Having decided his build Leech put 171 points into strength, then agility, and finally into stamina. He decided to invest his final 57 stat points into vitality to boost his health and regeneration powers.
“Open stat menu” Leech commanded. He re-examined his window to make sure everything had gone as he wanted:
Stats231 (+10) strength213 (+10) agility63 (+10) intelligence61 (+10) wisdom234 (+10) stamina59 (+10) endurance58 (+10) luck57 (+10) dexterity114 (+10) vitality-
Now that Leech’s head was clear of distractions he realized that he hadn’t checked the stats of his bow. He held his bow up and the corresponding window opened:
Leech’s Bow of CarnageA bow belonging to Leech, an Agent of Carnage. This bow was formed with a bloodlust that surpasses even monsters cravings and is therefore feared by all those who see it. It is engraved with scenes of death and destruction to illustrate the future it will bring. It will grow with its master.When equipped-+5 to all statsPeople will fear you for being the weilder of this weaponLower level monsters will flee in terror and higher level monsters will challenge youRank: ASoulbound to Leech
Leech was stunned into silence. In Aethr weapons were not based on level; instead they were given a ranking from F-SSS which gave a general idea of how powerful they were. Although a weapons ranking was affected by multiple factors, having an A ranked weapon was rare; even the best weapons he had heard of on the forums were only ranked C. The bonus effects of the bow were interesting, if not a bit strange, but he liked them; it also explained the extra +5 on his stats.
Feeling content with the way that his day ending up, Leech started running back to the ladder where he descended. This time Leech moved quickly on the forest floor, due to his new stats, and was soon at the base of the tree that marked the entrance to the village. Curious about his strength, Leech decided to jump as high as he could. He crouched and jumped, launching himself up about halfway up the ladder; from there he climbed up normally.
When he reached the top of the ladder he was surprised to find numerous arrows aimed at his head. “What is the meaning of this?” Leech asked in a cold voice, “You are a disturbance to the village!” one of the Dark Elves shouted. Another chimed in, “You hold villagers, even children, by the neck and threaten to throw them to the forest floor if they do not do what you say! You are a criminal and must be punished!”
‘I admit- I did go a little bit overboard…maybe a lot overboard. What can I say; I guess I just got too caught up in my new role as a villain. However just because I was a bit of a douche doesn’t mean they can just kill me, no, I won’t stand for weapons being pointed at me with open hostility…’ As his thoughts reached their conclusion he shot up from the gap in the wood, simultaneously sliding his bow from his back into his left hand as he spun to face the Dark Elves.
Continuing in a fluid motion Leech knocked an arrow and let it fly, straight through the eye of
the first Dark Elf he ever met. The Dark Elves had obviously not expected such resistance from someone who they thought was weak and were taken by surprise; in fact they all froze in shock, which led to the deaths of several more before they realized their situation. However the Dark Elves quickly got over their shock and started moving- fast.
The Dark Elves, although strong, were not used to close combat and instead opted to scatter and shoot at Leech from all sides. From then on it turned into a dance of death, led by Leech. Leech spun and twisted through the air, dodging arrows by bending his body and never standing still for more than a millisecond. Each arrow led back to an archer, and with each passing second Leech would close the distance between himself and one of the offenders- until he was upon them and their life ended with an arrow.
Leech was not invincible, however, and took serious amounts of damage. Though he dodged almost every arrow, about one in a hundred would hit him; and while that may seem like a tiny amount, it added up when thousands of arrows were sent his way. As Leech closed the distance between himself and the 43rd Dark Elf he noticed that there was a lack of arrows flying in his direction.
In an impossible feat Leech caught the arrow shot at him by a seemingly panicked Dark Elf and flipped it around. As he flipped the arrow he side-stepped the archer and spun around to stand behind his opponent with his newly acquired arrow at the throat of his adversary. Leech had intended to use this Dark Elf as a hostage, or at least a meat shield, to survive whatever strategy had been implemented during the lack of arrows, but he was surprised.
Leech saw no more Dark Elves, well, no more living Dark Elves; corpses littered the area. Without any hesitation Leech slit the throat of the cowering hostage before he took in his surroundings. Throughout the village lay the bodies of the defeated, in this case men, women, and even children. Dark Elves were an aggressive race, and therefore every member of a tribe would hunt and, if the need arose, defend the village.
Many people might have felt guilt for murdering an entire village; however Leech was not one of those people. Instead Leech was ecstatic; he had single-handedly massacred 43 Dark Elves! Leech was confident that such a feat was impossible for a normal player; even high level players would probably have difficulty pulling it off. Leech tried to smile before he realized that he already had the devil’s own grin adorning his face.
Leech was covered in blood, blood, something that he had always been surrounded by but never had the luxury of enjoying. The metallic taste hung like a cloud in the air and soaked into every pore of Leech’s being. Leech stood with his arms outstretched, enjoying the scent, for a long time before he was pulled back to reality. The villagers had been hard to take down; he estimated that their levels had ranged from 100 to 150- that meant he would receive many bonuses.
“Summarize all messages received during the duration of the fight”, Leech whispered to himself; eager to see the bonuses reaped by his brutality, “Ah, leave out the total amount of experience; only give me the gain in levels.” Although in some cases it was helpful to know the precise amount of experience, Leech did not care much and only needed to know how many levels he’d gained from his battle.
A large window appeared to inform Leech of the messages he had missed while in combat:
Summary of All Messages Received During CombatFor pushing yourself to your limits you have received:+7 strength
+8 agility
+2 luck
+11 stamina
+6 vitalityor your one minded devotion towards the slaughter of your enemies you have received the stat Focus (+10)For your amazing movements and superior control over your body you have received the stat Flexibility (+10)For slaughtering 43 Dark Elves you have gained +25 infamy and the title ‘Rampaging Demon’, as no one will learn about this incident you gain no reputationThe title ‘Rampaging Demon’ makes your killing intent so strong that those around you can feel it, in addition it has unlocked the stat Ferocity (+10)You have gained 2 levelsYou have 20 stat points to spendYou have gained the favor of the ancestors
Everything made sense to Leech, that is, everything except the last line. ‘What is the favor of the ancestors?’ Leech wondered. He didn’t have to ponder the meaning long because his thoughts were broken by a deep voice, “You are very strong, much stronger than any other I have seen at your age.” Leech jumped up and drew an arrow, aiming at the direction the voice came from. However he did not release the arrow because the voice seemed to belong to a translucent being.
“Who-no…What are you?” Leech asked in a voice that betray the curiosity inside of him. “I am one of the ancestral spirits of the Dark Elves. You see, when a Dark Elf dies their spirit is set free to live with their ancestors in The Hall of Exultation. Normally we spend our time separated from the physical world, however we communicate with our descendants from time to time. You are very powerful, and as a result you caught our attention. We believe that you will be able to end the eternal war that our people find themselves in. For this reason we have decided to bestow a gift upon you.”
‘You have been offered the unique class ‘Ancestral Berserker’. The Ancestral Berserker is a class that builds on the abilities of a basic berserker by allowing the user to use the moves of their ancestors in battle. The Ancestral Berserker is a very versatile class and has few weaknesses. Further information unavailable. Would you like to accept this class? Yes/No’
A silence developed as Leech considered the implications of accepting such a class. As a berserker he would be in the middle of every battle, always fighting. That part was great; it was the ‘Ancestral’ part that he had to think about. He figured that the Dark Elves had a couple heroes in their history and he would be able to get some good skills, however the real question was how many ‘heroes’ did the Dark Elves have? How many skills could he get before there were no more left to obtain? ‘There will be enough’ he finally decided, even if there weren’t he could simply train other Dark Elves before sending them to their deaths. With his decision made he clicked ‘Yes’.
Having finished his business with the ancestral spirit that stood before him Leech knelt down over one of the numerous bodies to loot it. However before he could touch it the same voice interrupted him, “Stop!” Leech looked up at the spirit and asked, “What?” The spirit seemed furious as it screamed at Leech, “Cannibalism is forbidden! If you consume the body of a Dark Elf their spirit is destroyed! It is an act that is forbidden in every Dark Elven tribe to have ever existed!” That hadn’t been Leech’s intention, but Leech didn’t like the spirit’s attitude, “I don’t take orders from anyone” he said, and proceeded to dig his sharp teeth into the corpse before him.
End of Chapter 1
***
Authors Note: Feedback is really appreciated as I'm hoping to improve my writing abilities.