Still lying on the ground, my fears were happily silenced by the respawn timer appearing in my sight. It slowly made its way to zero, and before I realized what was happening, the dizzying spin and flashing colors almost swept me off my feet again. That spawn animation has to die! If I had a stomach, I would probably vomit right now.
Speaking of stomachs: KGO didn’t have a food/hunger system. I suspected that that meant I wouldn’t have to eat during my stay in the game. Heck, I would need a mirror to see if I even had a mouth. Without a sense of touch, such a thing is actually hard to determine. But to my best recollection, there never were any mirrors in the game. Just great. Well, we’ll see.
After coming to my senses, I realized that I was staring at the exact same bush I spawned in front of before. I blinked at it. Checking the game interface, I found that dying had cost me some experience points and a bit of money. Death wasn’t a big deal on low levels, the cost of it could be earned back in seconds or minutes. At higher levels, however, it takes a lot longer to grind back the experience lost. If I wanted to reach level 120, I would have to avoid death like the plague. Not that disease existed in KGO, but you get the idea.
The pathetic amount of gold coins I had earned so far wouldn’t get me any equipment, but it was enough to buy me a single minor health potion. I looked a bit sheepishly at the NPC lady selling it to me. I doubt people often bought a single health potion from her; potions are so cheap and so commonly used in the game that players usually buy at least twenty of them in one transaction. Lucky for me that NPCs didn’t appear to be intelligent. And at least I would now have a potion if another Lesser Wolf attacked me.
Returning to the area outside the city (very creatively called the Rolling Plains), I started killing Rabbits again. Occasionally, a Caterpillar would spawn, a light green oversized bug consisting of four spheroid segments. True to the game’s style, it looked rather cute, with large eyes and boots on all its feet. Its bump attack was just as bad as the Rabbit’s, though.
Fighting with my hand-like appendages quickly got old, but until I earned enough gold to buy a wand, all I could do was pray to whatever entities governed the distribution of loot to favor me with one. Despite my pious character choice, they seemed to disregard my pleas. Aside from gold and some potions, I found a bow, a shield, two pieces of armor I couldn’t wear, two light axes, a ring with no effects, a sword, a mace, a steel claw, a pair of boots that required too much dexterity for my current stats, and a pair of gloves.
Well, at least I could wear the gloves. I put them on to receive an amazing 1 extra defense. Yay! Now the next Lesser Wolf would have 1.3% less chance to hit me. Considering my luck so far, I wasn’t holding my breath. Also, despite having the gloves equipped, my hand were still bare when I looked at them. I knew they would receive gloves once I equipped my first armor, which would also change the appearance of my dress in a way not necessarily related to the look of the armor. Old game logic.
After smacking another Caterpillar into oblivion, a pillar of light rose up from my character and the words “LEVEL UP!” appeared above my head. Finally! I mashed the button to invest my five newly acquired stat points into Intelligence (INT), the reasonable choice for my class. INT increases a priestess’ attack damage, spell efficacy, mana pool and mana regeneration. Considering that casting spells is pretty much the only thing this class does well, other stats should be raised exclusively to allow wearing good equipment.
Since I could only learn my first spell after reaching level 10, and I still didn’t have enough gold for a decent weapon, more grinding was in order. As I slapped another Rabbit approaching me, I noticed a new window popping up in the game interface. “Tori: Hey, sister!” it said. I realized that it was the chat window, and looked at it while I considered my reply (and continued beating the Rabbit to a pulp, of course). To my surprise, the text field filled with my thoughts, and I sent them off with a mental nod: “Laila: Hey, cool, another player! Where are you?”
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
“Right behind you!” she replied. I finished off the Rabbit and turned around. Standing in front of me was an archer character, though I only recognized her as such from game knowledge, as she wasn’t carrying a bow. She was clothed in a red shirt and a short red skirt, with pins in her brown hair and two watchful-looking green eyes. “Can I join in the fun?” appeared above her head and in my chat window. “Sure thing!” I replied, and sent her a party* invite. She accepted, and the interface told me she was level 1.
“I found some equipment you can use, I’ll drop it for you to take,” I chatted. I took the bow, one of the armors and the boots and put them on the ground. She quickly picked them up and equipped them. “Thanks! Haven’t found anything for yourself yet?” she asked. “Nope. Well, some basic gloves, but they don’t do much,” was my reply. “Guess I’ll have to do the damage then,” she said.
And she did. With a ranged weapon, she didn’t have to wait for monsters to get close, killing most of them before they could even reach her. I admired her attacks for a moment. In another display of game logic, she did not have a quiver, nor did she have arrows in her inventory. An arrow simply appeared in her hand every time she pulled the bow, only to dissolve into thin air after hitting its target. The repeating attack animation flowed into itself, and she looked like she had been doing this forever and could keep it up indefinitely. I knew the latter to be true, as long as monsters presented themselves to be attacked.
The armor had changed her outfit when she equipped it. There now was some padding on her clothes, and she wore boots, though not ones matching the boots I had given her. More game logic. “Wand, over there!” she said. I rushed to pick it up. It was the most basic type of wand, with a class bonus for the mage class. The bonus would not benefit me, but neither would it prevent me from using the weapon. I equipped it and swung at a Caterpillar. The wand made a satisfying fiery sound, and a small flaming projectile sped toward my target. Upon being hit, the monster flinched and started briskly walking in my direction as I threw the next bit of fire at it. In the end, the creature only managed to attack me once before it perished.
I sunk back into the trance. Standing next to each other, we slew monster after monster. Tori reached level 2 in less than two minutes, and it wasn’t long before the column of light announced I had reached level 3. Fighting in a party divides experience and gold over the participants, but also adds a bit of bonus experience. With two ranged killers attacking almost non-stop, we gained EXP at a pretty decent pace.
Suddenly, another Lesser Wolf appeared. Before it could reach us, Tori stepped in front of me and sent an arrow in its direction. “I’ll tank**, I have the armor,” she chatted. “Do you have enough potions?” I asked, starting to attack the monster as well. “I have two. Should be enough if we don’t miss too many attacks,” she replied, taking the first bite without flinching. “Ok, just step back if things get hot, I have four potions,” I said, and walked up next to her so the wolf would attack me if she retreated even a single pace. Monsters always attack the closest target in KGO, which can be a blessing as well as a curse.
Tori ended up drinking both potions, but we took down the Lesser Wolf before her HP got below 50% again. Both of us immediately leveled up, taking us to levels 3 and 4, and I turned to my new ally. “I would high five you if the game supported the animation!” I chatted. She replied with a smiley face. We quickly did away with the monsters that had spawned during our fight with the Lesser Wolf, and Tori picked up the large pile of gold that the big monster had dropped. She turned to me and chatted, “Let’s go to town and get you a decent robe”. “Sounds like a plan!” I replied, running off in the direction of the city gates. She followed a few steps behind me.
I was in a good mood. Tori seemed to be the right kind of player, we worked well together. If we could keep this up, we would reach level 10 in no time at all, allowing me to get my first spell and her to get her first ability. This is great! Monsters of KGO, beware! Team LaiTo is coming for you!
----------------------------------------
Footnotes:
*: In an MMORPG like KGO, a “party” refers to a group of players who have agreed to team up and share the experience points and money they gain. Parties may consist of two to six players and can be formed and disbanded at any moment.
**: A tank is a character who, in the context of a group, takes the brunt of the attacks of monsters, and/or a character who is well equipped to do so. To tank (as a verb) means to fulfill the role of a tank in a certain situation.