“Place bets? A chance to get rich?” Melly asked. Her eyes glimmered eagerly as she read the Grand tournament notification. “I wonder why now?”
Clemiticus who’d been depressed only seconds before, did a complete 180 as he stared at the notification with golden coins glimmering in his eyes.
Desmond, on the other hand, wasn't too keen on the idea of the grand arena event. He had his sights set on something far more important. Grinning from ear to ear, his attention was fixated on the gift box, ornately labelled 'Skill Book'.
Chat:
Garbles500: Awesome, I got my first book yesterday, and I got a charge ability.
FluffyDinos: Oh exciting! open it!
Viewers online: 3
Desmond pulled the old covers from the yellow gift, causing the yellow box to glow for a heartbeat, then vanish in a cloud of sparks.
Gained item: Skill book.
With trembling fingers, he gripped the covers of the book and pried it open.
Gained new skill: Create ordinary Portal – rank F
Create ordinary Portal – rank F
Cost: 30 mana, lasts 30 seconds.
Cooldown: 30 minutes
Cast: Create an ordinary entry portal at a distance of 10M with the diameter of 1M
Cast: Create an ordinary exit portal at a distance of 10M with the diameter of 1M
Requirements: You can only create portals within locations you can physically see.
This Skill Book vanished as he consumed the ability. “Another portal?” he asked. “But this one’s bigger.”
Chat:
Garbles500: Another? What so different?
Viewers online: 3
“This one doesn’t drain my mana, but has a long cool down and…” he continued to read aloud excitedly, “it's one meter wide.”
Chat:
FluffyDinos: Nice! More Portal mayhem plox…
Garbles500: So, you’ll need to crouch through?
Viewers online: 3
“Seems that way, although if it is anything like the other portal, when I level it up it will get bigger.”
Melly and Clemiticus glanced toward Desmond who to them seemed to be talking to himself again. Then recognition hit the adventurer.
“Buddy boy you streaming again?” Clemiticus asked.
Desmond nodded. “Yeah why?”
Clemiticus shot a quick glance to Melly who stood still and confused. “You came up with something, didn’t you?” she asked.
He nodded. “Okay so I take it none of us can search through the net to look up anything about the game, correct?” he asked with a grin.
Desmond nodded knowingly. He had opted for the streamers' full body replacement package, which meant he couldn't use the typical pod log-in method and had no way to log off and access the internet on a computer.
As he glanced at his two Elven friends, he suddenly realised they faced a similar predicament – unable to breach the outside world. However, in their case, it didn’t seem to be a matter of choice but rather a different set of circumstance altogether.
“Yeah and?” Desmond asked.
Clemiticus chuckled, then began to speak into the air in the wrong direction but clearly still trying to engage with Desmond's chat.
“Hello viewers of Ph0en1x, the portal jockey! May I ask you a brief question?”
Chat:
FluffyDinos: Um hello… strange man?
Garbles500: Seriously this guy is fucked in the head…
Viewers online: 3
“They say hello,” Desmond said quickly.
Clemiticus grinned then continued, “May I ask If you had read anything in the forums or news regarding any interesting characters popping up?”
Chat:
FluffyDinos: Um, not really.
Garbles500: nope…
Sammyggg: yeah.
Viewers online: 3
Desmond paused at the new name in chat. “Um, hello Sammy and welcome to the stream!”
Melly scratched her head, looking totally puzzled, as Clemiticus playfully nudged her side while explaining how the system works. But no matter how hard he tried to make it clear, Melly just couldn't seem to get it.
Chat:
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
FluffyDinos: Hi Sammy!
Garbles500: Hey mate XD
Sammyggg: There’s currently a few characters causing a bunch of complaining on the forums. One guy who everyone thinks is cheating has hit level five already…
Viewers online: 3
Desmond stared at the chat, feeling a bead of sweat rolling down his back. He had hit level five. Was this certain notorious individual in fact himself? He needed to find out more.
“Um, this guy, the level five,” he said carefully. “How many people have hit that level?”
Chat:
Sammyggg: He’s the only one. And people are trying to find out who this guy is… And what his class is.
Viewers online: 3
Desmond froze in place, realising just how complicated the situation was. “Shit.”
Clemiticus looked up at him and tilted his head like a puppy. “What now?”
“Ah, nothing,” he quickly said, trying to keep himself calm.
Chat:
Sammyggg: Apparently his name is all garbled on the leader boards. And now with the Grand arena thingy around the corner he’s on the list to fight? But no one knows anything about him…
Viewers online: 3
“What?” Desmond asked in a panic. “Since when?” He quickly ripped through his menu and found the list of notification he waved away haphazardly in his pursuit of the Bandit incursion event.
“Come on, man, give me some news,” Clemiticus whined.
Desmond's mind raced, trying to think of any options to get himself out of his current predicament, but nothing came to mind. Somehow, He’d accepted the arena invitation and there didn’t seem to be any way out of it. Desmond fought to contain his composure as his anxiety rippled and coursed through his veins. He wasn’t fit to be pitted against anyone let alone fight in a tournament.
He just knew that as soon as he cast a portal, any player in their right mind would just walk around it and stab him in the face with any kind of pointed stick and he’d be dead.
Chat:
Sammyggg: Apparently there's another player dressed funny, causing a bunch of mischief up in the northern Elf city. Apparently, she's trying to redecorate the entire place or something.
Viewers online: 3
Desmond too absorbed in his own misery, relayed the new bit of information. Instantly, Clemiticus' expression brightened as he glanced towards Melly. “Thea?” he asked.
Melly broke out in a grin, “you really think it's her?”
“Sounds like her?” he replied.
“Who?” Desmond asked in a daze.
Clemiticus chuckled, “an old friend of ours. Young, likes to dress up and has a fondness for the colour pink.”
“What does that mean?” Desmond asked.
Melly sighed. “That means we’re travelling north,” she said with confidence.
Chat:
FluffyDinos: Ooh Elf city… ask if you can go too?
Garbles500: Yeah, we started out in the human lands, haven't seen much of the Elves yet.
Viewers online: 3
Desmond knew originally. He didn’t plan to power level, he mainly just wanted to see the sights and gain money through the stream. But the idea of walking through a real elvish city was seriously tantalising and wherever these two went chaos also ensued. And within that chaos, loots seemed to undoubtable follow.
“I’ll go but not quite yet. Only after I gain some player power,” he said to the chat. He wanted to go visit but if he’s forced to fight in this grand tournament thing, he will need to gain some sort of strength. Opening portals in front of fully armed players with skills like charge wouldn’t cut it.
Clemiticus eyed Desmond then said, “Well, Mel and I are off to find our mate. If we see you up there in the city, don’t be a stranger.”
Melly nodded sincerely and waved goodbye as they wandered off towards the town's northern gate.
Chat:
FluffyDinos: Awww… Why can’t you go now?
Viewers online: 3
He read the chat and thought quickly. “I promise I’ll go, but not today. Remember, I only just got here.”
Chat:
Garbles500: Fair enough… get some quest done and I’ll jump on later.
FluffyDinos: Yeah, I’m going to go back to grinding goblins in this dumb forest. I’ll be on tomorrow.
Viewers online: 3
User has left the channel.
User has left the channel.
Desmond chuckled. “Well, I guess it’s just you and me, Sammy.”
User has left the channel.
Chat:
Viewers online: 0
“Wow, nice to meet you too…” Desmond sighed.
Suddenly, he went from being surrounded to being left very much alone. The sudden absence brought a sense of loneliness that he didn’t expect. “Well, at least it's quiet,” he said as he moved around the destroyed marketplace.
Soiled fruit and odd goods lay discarded on the ground, while the villagers were still hiding away out of sight. With not a single eye cast in his direction, he chuckled to himself and quickly pulled out his portal box and began to clean up the area out of the kindness of his heart.
As he worked, he wondered how much his portal box could suck up. The fact that he was technically stealing only to feed his curiosity was beside the point.
He picked up such trash as a perfectly fine working hammer, loads of nails and piles of wood that were scattered about slightly untidy. Not to mention the vast food that had long past the five second rule and the many interesting ornaments and trinkets on the floor.
Just as he was about to shove the final remnants of rough stones and bricks into his portal box, a voice echoed out from behind him. “You, there!”
Desmond spun around while shouting, “I swear I’m helping not stealing!” He found himself face to face with an old man under an old, dusty cloak. “Um, hi?”
“Can you help me with something young man?”
“Um, I’m a bit busy at the moment,” Desmon said then started to move away from the scene of the crime.
“You, there!” the old man repeated.
Desmond paused. What?
“Can you help me with something young man?”
Desmond sighed. It was none other than a computer-generated character, probably trying to offer him a quest.
“Sure, what is it?” he asked.
The old man’s eyes widened, then spoke as if he was reading from a script. “I once owned a farm not far from here, but alas my poor farm has been overrun by vermin! I wish to feed my family and go back to my farm, but a hero we need your help! You must first go to my farm and rid us of them! Will you be our hero?”
“Hero?” Desmond paused. “I like the sound of that.” This was a quest to gain player power. He couldn’t let this chance slip through his fingers.
“Sure! I will be your hero!” he said confidently.
The old man smiled, and a flashing yellow text appeared before him.
Quest Accepted: Old man’s farm
An old man has come to you for aid.
His farm is full of yucky vermin that need to be ripped apart piece by piece.
Maybe if you help the man tear the creatures apart into bloody meat piles, he will reward you with something nice. Maybe a meat cleaver or bone saw. Either way, it’s time to get your murder on!
Potential Rewards: Exp – Item - Quest
Desmond spoke the text aloud, feeling a mixture of apprehension and worry creep within him as he read the morbid description. Either the quest was more than meets the eye or the one who wrote it has some serious issues.
As soon as the text box faded, a light beam flashed momentarily in the distance, showing him the direction of the farm. With a grin, he knew that this was his first real solo quest and since he was completely alone, there was no better time to go.
With a spring in his heels, he strode not towards the north where the town's gate was but to the south to the high walls that loomed around the town. Quickly finding the stairs he stood high above the forest with a superb view of the land beyond. The farm was in this direction but was far off hidden from sight by the dense cover of the forest. Excited to test out his new ability, he held one hand, pointing towards the ground below and another to his side on the top of the wall.
“Open Ordinary Portal!”
A pink glimmer radiated from his side as a portal opened one meter round beside him and another portal glowed ten meters below him on the forest floor. In his peripheral vison he spotted a tiny box.
OOP CD: 29:58
He smirked. It was a cool down tracker. “Perfect.”
Desmond then crouched as he approached his portal and clambered through, instantly popping through the other side. The feeling was exhilarating yet confusing, as the odd weight distribution and instant balance change threated to topple him for a second.
“I will have to get used to that,” he said as he looked around. He was again in the forest, away from the sights, sounds and smells of the town within the towering walls.
As he stepped forth toward his quest, he could clearly make out the crinkling of leaves underfoot and the soft sensation of the breeze on his face. Desmond couldn’t help but feel a sense of adventure as he moved with his wand by his side and a grin on his face.