“The Ranger class has two primary build paths: strength-based high damage on hit and dexterity-based high attack speed. Both can further be augmented by high critical strike damage/chance or stacking enchanted on-hit effects of different damage types. The Ranger excels at sieging objectives with consistent, sustained damage.”— Annwyn Online Player's Guide.
The Ruined City of Araedi. Day 01.
Fall was only just beginning to settle in on Araedi, yet it was still far warmer than it had been in Colorado. Ashley—Sinnamon Roll, she corrected herself—guessed it was somewhere in the low fifties; t-shirt weather compared to the single digit mornings she was getting used to.
Still, the nights would become freezing and her current outfit wouldn’t cut it for long. Sinnamon added clothes shopping to the ever growing mental list of things she and Weaver would have to take care of if this place was going to be their home for the foreseeable future.
Weaver started to make a beeline straight for the cart when they neared the guildhall, but Sinnamon lightly tugged his arm toward the tower’s doors. He nodded at the reminder that they still had to attune their caer fragments.
The guildhall’s doors looked astonishingly solid and heavy, being made of stone and bronze. However, they seemed eager to leap open as they easily responded to Sinnamon’s pull.
If the exterior of the building had been an over the top embellishment of the Empire State Building, the inside took that and cranked it up. The walls inside continued the black and gold granite found on the outside, reminding Sinnamon of the brownies marbled with chocolate chip cookie dough her father used to make in a soft flex, letting everyone know he was the superior baker in the house.
A large chandelier hung from the ceiling in the central atrium with several balls of light. When she squinted, Sinnamon saw they were actually each a collection of dozens of tiny crystals just slightly bluer than the warm light of candlefire.
Beneath the chandelier stood the lobby’s main centerpiece: a massive violet crystal with a light in its center that pulsed in the thump-thump rhythm of a heartbeat. The area immediately surrounding the crystal monolith was packed with more people in one area than Sinnamon had ever seen. Their attention wasn’t on the Caer fragment, however, but instead on two players whom Sinnamon recognized.
She tried to push her way through the wall of people, but she couldn’t make an opening. Without even needing a word, Weaver used his bulk to split the crowd for her. Sparrow recognized Sinnamon almost immediately and though she didn’t stand up, she waved them over.
Both Sparrow and the boy beside her were in rough shape. Dried blood covered her armor and his robes in patterns that suggested gunshot, or rather, arrow shot wounds. The boy, “JonJon32110” the text box above his head read, cradled his limp left arm.
“Can I look at that? I was an EMT and I’m studying to become a doctor.”
“It’s not as bad as it looks. It got healed up pretty good and I got a message saying I’ll be fine,” JonJon said.
“That may be so, but you should still have someone look you over, just to be sure.”
After a moment of consideration, JonJon offered his arm.
Sinnamon pushed it aside and gestured to the holes dotting his robes. “I should probably look at those first.”
JonJon gave a nod and pulled off his robes and lifted his tunic. His body was pocked with scars, pink with the early stages of healing. He winced when Sinnamon palpated one of his ribs, but it didn’t seem dislocated or broken, likely only bruised at worst.
“Looks like your worst injury is your sprained wrist. I think I might have something for it.” Sinnamon reached into her bag of holding and took out a red bottle. She gave it to JonJon and he took several gulps from the large bottle.
Sinnamon watched his health bar while he drank, but nothing happened. It stayed at about a quarter of the way full. Sinnamon looked at the potion she’d given him. It definitely wasn’t a dud according to its stats.
Item: Vox’s Elixir of Healing
Type: Potion - Healing
Quality: Exquisite
Strength: Potent
Description: A healing potion crafted by the Vanguard Alchemist, Vox Allure. This potion will instantly restore 45% of missing health and improve health regeneration by up to 370% for 120 seconds.
JonJon watched Sinnamon looking at the bottle before saying, “Oh, yeah. That message I got said I won’t regenerate any health until my injuries are healed.”
“Ah. Guess we’ll have to do it the old fashioned way.” Sinnamon reached into her bag and pulled out a piece of cloth.
Sparrow passed Sinnamon one of her arrows and she used it as a rough knife to cut the cloth into shape. She slipped JonJon’s arm through the rudimentary sling.
After double checking the fit, Ashley said, “That should keep things in place until it heals on its own. Try not to use that arm much until then.”
With JonJon squared away, Sinnamon moved on to Sparrow next. Her armor was a little banged up, but she was otherwise fine and her full health bar was proof of that.
“What exactly happened to you two?”
“My idiot brother stole aggro from me while we were fighting goblins. He couldn’t kite them and Anna couldn’t put out enough healing to save him and he died.”
Sinnamon caught her breath. Now she understood why everyone was crowding around these two. JonJon had made everyone aware of the answer to perhaps the most important question no one wanted to find out for themselves: death was not the end for any of them. Just like in Annwyn Online, they would respawn and be sent back to Caer Siddi when their health bars hit zero.
They could be injured, but they couldn't die.
Sinnamon looked at Sparrow again. The girl looked tired in a way that Sinnamon had overlooked earlier and she was constantly looking at her brother when he wasn’t looking. Sinnamon revised her assessment of the girl, Sparrow might have escaped from the goblins without any physical injuries, but that hadn't meant the girl hadn't gone unharmed. She would probably need just as much watching as her brother’s arm would.
Weaver broke the awkward silence that had descended on their group. “Do you guys have a proper tank? They should have been the ones keeping aggro.”
“No, it’s just us three. I’ve been wearing medium armor and trying to tank since Anna’s a support and I have the highest health,” Sparrow answered.
“That sorta works at the lower levels where stats don’t really matter, but once you break level thirty or so, the game gets much harder. Medium armor’ll give you a penalty since you’re a Ranger. If you guys need a tank, I’m a Berserker. I’ll be more than capable of keeping the mobs off you two.”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“You’re both way higher levels than us, won’t we be wasting your time?” Sparrow asked.
“Nah, I feel like a newb all over again. Fighting with these—” Weaver raised his hands, showing off a pair of massive stone gauntlets. “— has got to feel a lot different in person than behind a mouse and keyboard. No better way to learn than with some friends to help. And I can solve the level difference easy.”
Weaver’s eyes grew distant for a moment. Suddenly his stats changed. He was no longer level seventy-four, but twenty-four. “Level suppression still works, which means you guys’ll keep your loot bonuses if we party together. You guys want to meet here at the guildhall tomorrow?”
“That’d be awesome!” JonJon shouted.
“Do you two have a place to stay tonight?” Sinnamon asked.
“Yeah. Anna’s got a room on the second floor,” Sparrow answered. She gave a glance at her brother and added, “Maybe her healing magic can fix Jon’s arm.”
“If not, send me a message and I’ll get some supplies to wrap it properly.”
The group settled on a midmorning meeting at the guildhall. They said their goodbyes and Sinnamon and Weaver took out their Caer fragments.
Sinnamon held her Caer fragment up to the crystal monolith and was greeted by a message.
It appears you are attempting to attune yourself to the Ruins of Araedi Caer fragment. You have not yet attuned your personal Caer fragment to your soul. Would you like to attune both now? Yes/No
Another prompt appeared in front of that one.
You have been invited to join a party by W3aver. Would you like to accept the request? Yes/No
Sinnamon glanced at Weaver and he nodded back at her. Though everyone else had so far survived the trip to and from Caer Siddi, she was still glad she had him by her side. She accepted the party invitation and then tapped yes to attune her Caer fragment.
A portal did not appear like she had seen when she saw some other players hold up their Caer fragments. Instead, Sinnamon’s whole body began to glow bright purple as she felt herself being pulled towards the crystal monolith before her.
She couldn’t resist its pull. She couldn’t even scream or cry out. Panic and fear clawed at the edges of Sinnamon’s mind, but she forced herself to think back to what her instructor had said about keeping calm in an emergency. She might not be in control, but perhaps thousands had gone through this and they had survived.
The crystal pulled her in faster and faster until she was inside the Caer fragment. A second later, she was flying upward, through the roof of the guildhall, accelerating through the sky.
The ground rushed away from her at blinding speeds and she could see the entirety of Navorinelle surrounded by ocean and a small part of Navoradreus to the south.
Her direction changed, following Gaea’s curve and Sinnamon saw the planet’s two moons, Lunara and Nocturne, approaching her. The latter moon blended in with the sea of black behind it, its shadow grey just faintly reflecting Solaire’s light. In contrast, Lunara shone brightly, one half crater-pocked like earth’s moon, while the other was covered in the same violet crystals that made up the Caer fragments.
Sinnamon slowed and she flipped, her feet pointing towards Lunara as its surface became the new down. Massive crystal mountains and spires that stretched for hundreds or even thousands of feet into the air passed by in the blink of an eye. She floated through the ground and went down until she stopped inside a large chamber filled with a dull purple glow that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
Feet touching the floor of the cavern, Sinnamon felt solid again. Weaver descended next to her with a big smile and a thumbs up.
The cavern was about half the size of a football field and the walls were smooth like a finely cut gemstone. The room was empty except for nine large, dark crystal pillars twice the size of the one in Araedi spaced equally apart in a semicircle.
But perhaps the most important fact was the room’s complete lack of air. Sinnamon became aware of that fact the first time she’d tried to gasp in awe. Her lungs didn’t seem to want to work, but she forced herself to not panic. The best she could come up with to describe the sensation of empty lungs was… uncomfortable.
Weaver apparently didn’t seem to notice the lack of air. He was jumping around the cavern, enjoying Lunara’s reduced gravity. His superhuman strength propelled him into the ceiling hard and he bounced off with an inaudible thud that Sinnamon felt through her feet. He had a grin that stretched from ear to ear and not even a second after he hit the ground, they were both running around the chamber in a game of low-G tag.
The inability of either of them to cool down by panting put an end to their game rather quickly. Sinnamon pulled out her Caer fragment and selected Navorinelle, the only continent not greyed out. The second crystal from her left flared to life and upon selecting Araedi’s guildhall, the light inside it was replaced with an image of the guildhall’s main lobby.
Sinnamon walked towards the crystal and felt the same pulling sensation, though it was far weaker than it had been her first time through. She didn’t travel again across space and time, but simply stepped through a portal.
The sudden shift in gravity made her trip as her foot hit the ground, its drop slightly faster than she’d expected. Weaver tried to catch her, but he tripped, too, and the both of them landed on the ground laughing at each other.
Judging by the many faces she recognized, they hadn’t been on Lunara long. The scientist in Sinnamon wondered just what fraction of c they had travelled at.
Sinnamon offered to help Weaver push the cart back to the bakery, but he brushed her off. He lifted the entire cart easily and let it rest on his shoulder.
“Show off!”
Weaver responded only by flexing his free arm and flashing a suggestive smile.
Weaver rounded a corner a block away from the guildhall and bumped into a man carrying a stack of papers. He landed on his butt in a shower of papers, yet Weaver and his cart remained upright.
“I’m sorry, I should have been watching where I was going…” The main trailed off as he gave Weaver an appraising glance. “I’m honestly not sure how I didn’t see you.”
“I’m the one who should be sorry.” Weaver gave a friendly smile and held out his free hand. He lifted the man easily to his feet.
Sinnamon bent down to pick up the papers. They were flyers, advertising some meeting being held tonight. Something about trying to find a way home.
The man noticed Sinnamon staring and took one off the stack and passed it to her. “You two are more than welcome to come. It’s a small group, but we’re going to keep meeting until we figure something out.”
Weaver took a copy. “We’ve got plans tonight, but we’ll check it out tomorrow. I’m glad someone is trying to figure all this out.”
“Some of us had plans tonight, too.” The man looked stricken. “I only wanted to collect my login rewards. I’m supposed to be at a tabletop game. I don’t think I can do anything else until I get home.”
With that, the man turned and continued handing out flyers to anyone who would take them.
Sinnamon turned to Weaver. “Do you think they’ll do it? Find a way home?”
Weaver paused, shuffling the cart to his other shoulder. “I think they’re taking the right first steps. I hope they can.”
He reached out and held Sinnamon’s hand and the two walked the rest of the way to the bakery, Sinnamon deep in silent thought.
At the bakery, Yentel led Sinnamon and Weaver through the kitchen and down a flight of stairs. The short stairwell ended with a wall and a door on either side of the small landing. One was labeled “Gavriel’s Lab” and the other “Storage.”
Inside the storage room was a large bed with a comforter with a checkered blue and green pattern. Boxes and crates had been stacked up against two walls and there was a single candle lit on each night stand on either side of the bed. It gave the room the dark coziness of a cottage tucked away in the woods.
“We don’t use this room much, sorry if it’s a little tight. Please make yourselves at home.”
“No, it’s perfect! Thank you!”
Weaver face-planted onto the bed, landing with a loud poof of the mattress and a creak from the bed’s frame that was a little worrying.
“We’ll be having pancakes for breakfast. Good night, you two!” Yentel and Gavriel stepped out of the room.
Their muffled footsteps faded quickly, though no sooner had the door shut, had Weaver undressed and lay in nothing but a pair of underpants. He looked up at Sinnamon and laughed when she blushed. She wondered how long she’d been staring at him like a schoolgirl admiring her first crush.
“I didn’t forget about earlier,” Weaver said, his expression going playful. “What was that you said? Something about me looking… ‘delicious’?”
“I am never living that down, am I?”
Weaver shook his head. “Nope. Never.”
Sinnamon took her capelet off and threw it at him. Weaver caught it and dropped it on the bed.
“Screw the artists who made this outfit! I swear I’m going to invent zippers or… no, hoodies and sweatpants! Something besides these awful laces all the way down my back. Wanna help me out?”
“You know you can just unequip your clothes in the menus, right?”
Of course that was how he had managed to undress so quickly. Sinnamon groaned, more at the grin Weaver was giving her than at her own ignorance of the equipped list’s existence. A few menu swipes later and she was undressed and sliding into bed beside Weaver.
Weaver licked his fingers and put out the candle’s flame on his side of the bed, then reached over Sinnamon and put hers out as well. The room went dark and he let out a playful snarl and Sinnamon yelped.