“Alright, let’s get this started. The sooner we finish planning, the sooner we can get to the dungeon.”
As soon as she signed in, Kiera took control of the room to start the meeting. I decided not to point out we were waiting on her. Jayren looked like he was about to say it, but with a glare and a shake of my head, I communicated to him to keep quiet.
“I assume everyone got their classes with no troubles?”
“Well, maybe not ‘no troubles’, but I got it in the end, so we’re good.”
Kiera raised an eyebrow at my response, but I didn’t bother to elaborate. I can’t say being locked in a room and interrogated wasn’t a bit troublesome, and my encounter afterward with Samantha was not exactly smooth either. Still, everything worked out in the end.
This time, it was Jayren’s turn to interrupt.
“I was thinking, before we plan our dungeon outing, we should all go over our classes. I’ll go first. I got the knight class. It wears heavy armor and specializes in using a one handed weapon and a large shield to protect allies and fight enemies. I’ve decided to focus on swords for my weapon. With the class, I got a taunting skill that lets me draw enemies attention easier, so I suppose my role will still be the tank.”
“Good, since we had all already agreed you would be tanking. Still, well done getting an appropriate class this time. I was honestly a bit worried you would do something silly like become a ninja.”
Kiera’s pretty relentless when it comes to insulting and making fun of Jayren. Although judging by his guilty look, he may have prior offenses that lead to her harshness.
“I suppose I’ll go next. I took the Elementalist class. It allows me to use spells of all of the elements to some degree, but I get bonuses when using my chosen specialization. As I mentioned this morning, I specialized in lightning spells. I can even use some energy when casting to boost my lightning spells even further. At present I have two lighting spells to choose from, and one fire spell incase I encounter something immune to my lightning damage.”
Kiera went for a typical mage class it sounds like. Still, I imagine she’ll be outputting a tremendous amount of damage when she’s using lightning spells. That’s how mages usually are, after all. I’m just an outlier.
At this point Celeste, who had been shaking a bit in her seat, couldn’t stand it anymore.
“Oh, me next! My class is called a Dragoon. It focuses on using a spear and high mobility to hit enemies and avoid attacks. I gained an ability called Charge that causes more damage the further I start from my target, and the dodge skill that makes it easier for me to avoid attacks. Let’s hurry up and go, I want to try it out!”
“... Celeste, calm down.”
She’s been excited about that since we met up in town, but I think if Aurora didn’t stop her she was going to go running out there right now. Hopefully this strategy meeting won’t last long, because I don’t know how much patience she has.
While Aurora was busy with Celeste, I decided to go ahead.
“I suppose I’ll go next. My class is called the Enchantress. It focuses on mind magic, which doesn’t do much damage but can disrupt the enemy. With the class, I gained a new spell for attacking enemies, and one that buffs allies. I also got an ability that lets me use energy to turn my Mind Magic spells into AoEs. To help my offensive ability some, I picked up a magical whip that can use the Flame Slash spell to add fire damage to my next attack.”
I considered telling them about my race here, but honestly I’m not sure how to bring up that subject and before I knew it I was finished talking. It was actually a little difficult to just pop up with “oh, and by the way I’ve been deceiving you all this whole time. I’m actually a demon! MUAHAHA!” Alright, so I probably won’t say it like that, but still. I’ll have to find some other point in the discussion to bring it up without derailing things too much.
As I was mulling that over, Richter spoke up.
“Assassin. Uses stealth and sneak attacks to take down enemies.”
Really, that was all. I’m not sure if it’s just his role play or if that’s how he usually is, but he’s incredibly taciturn. He’s not shy like Aurora, he just doesn’t talk much. The assassin class actually fits that personality well, though.
Finally, it was Aurora’s turn. We had been together for a bit so she was able to speak with us, though she still didn’t like being the center of attention. She stared at her feet as she told us about her class.
“Um, I’m a priestess. I focus on light magic and can heal with magic, or with an aura that uses energy. I also have a weak attack spell.”
Hmm, light magic, rather than holy magic. That makes me wonder if there is a holy element. Maybe angels use it, assuming they exist. Well, since I’m a demon, I’m pretty sure my heavenly counterparts are out there too.
“Alright, so it sounds like our basic formation is about the same. Jayren will tank, while Celeste, Richter and I will be our main damage dealers. Lilith, I think we’ll have enough damage so you can focus more on support and disrupting the enemies. I’ll leave it to you to attack if you think we need it. Aurora, you just keep healing like you have been.”
Wow, I’ve been in some meetings at work that could really have benefited from a person like Kiera. She took full control of the discussion from the instant she appeared in the room, and was driving our discussion forward without letting it get off the rails at all. I almost felt like I should apologize to her, as I planned to derail things before we’re done, if only temporarily. But first, a more relevant question.
“Do you guys know anything about this dungeon? I hadn’t even heard of it until you guys invited us to join you.”
Jayren nodded to me.
“Yeah. I heard a bit about it while talking to some NPCs in my starting scenario. It’s apparently about a half a day’s walk from the city into the woods nearby. The dungeon itself is a goblin cave, and should take about a day to clear.”
“And do you know exactly where it is? I doubt we’ll just wander into the woods and find the cave, after all.”
Jayren waved his hand. “Not a problem. They sell maps in the central district. I already bought one, so we’re good to go there. We just need to get food for everyone and we’ll be ready to go.”
Hmm, food.
“Ah, about that, I actually have something I need to tell you all. First though, I want to confirm. Is this room set to not allow anyone else to come in or hear what we’re saying?”
Kiera, who had actually rented the room, opened the control panel and checked.
“Yep, it’s set so we won’t be disturbed or overheard. Why?”
“Because what I have to say is something I really don’t want spread, particularly to the NPCs.”
At that, five pairs of questioning eyes were directed my way.
“Well, to be brief, I’ve been hiding something from you all. I am not actually an Astoennian like the rest of you, but a rare race that allows me to disguise myself as something else.”
Jayren was the first to respond.
“Why would you want to hide your race?”
“Well, there’s two reasons. I’m hiding it from other players because I suspect people will pester me about it if it spreads too much. I’ve seen players do really silly things in the name of jealousy in other games.”
Everyone except Aurora and Celeste nodded. They had all played online games before too, so they likely had seen things like that as well.
“As for hiding from the NPCs, well it’s because there’s actually a standing policy of execute on sight for my race. If the NPC doesn’t think they can take me themselves, they’ll alert the guards. So if I get found out, I will most likely have to leave that town and go into hiding for a while. Of course, I could probably change my disguise and come back, but it’s still a lot of trouble to go through.”
“... What race is it?”
“Ah, right. I suppose it’ll be easiest if I just show you all.”
With that, I dropped my disguise. As my wings materialized behind me again, I spread them dramatically.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“I’m actually a succubus.”
There was a short pause as everyone in the room processed what I had said. Then Kiera spoke up.
“You’re… a succubus. Well, I guess your name makes sense then. But how does that even work? This game doesn’t let you… do things succubi are know for, does it?”
Kiera’s first question was the same one I asked in character creation. Also, she is apparently also somewhat knowledgeable about the mythology I took the name from.
“Well, they’ve had to alter it some to fit the race into the game. I still drain life from my ‘victims’, but I can do it with any physical contact. Actually, I have to do that to fill my satiety bar. I can still eat normal foods, but it doesn’t actually do anything for me.”
“... Um, what are you talking about? What is a succubus known for doing that you can’t do in the game?”
Everyone looked at Aurora in surprise. I knew she was shy, but I didn’t realize she was also that innocent. I looked questioningly at the others. Jayren and Richter looked away, while Kiera looked confused and shrugged.
Finally Celeste leaned over and whispered something in Aurora’s ear. As she did so, Aurora’s face went bright red. She let out an odd noise, then covered her face with her hands. Her blushing was still evident though, as it reached all the way to the tips of her ears, and I couldn’t help but notice her occasionally glancing at me from between her fingers before covering them again and refreshing her blush.
“Alright, let’s leave Aurora alone to calm down for now.”
Another muffled squeal came out from beneath the hands.
“First off, I should apologize for lying, both in general about the race, but also when you asked me how I had a magic skill already. The truth is, I started with the Mind Magic skill.”
“That’s not a problem. It makes sense that you would want to hide a race like that. Especially since you could be killed if people find out. But what abilities do you get? I imagine if you’ve got a disadvantage like that, you must get some decent bonuses as well. Could you tell us about them?” Kiera was back in logical leader mode by now.
“Sure. First off, I can alter my appearance to disguise to look like any race I have met. This lets me enter cities, but while I’m disguised, many of my other abilities are sealed. I can drain life for food as I mentioned before, I have passive night vision, and I have an ability that allows me to hypnotize someone, like a stronger version of the charm spell. The target can only perform simple tasks, and they will forget ever encountering me when it wears off. Those are the only ones I can use while disguised. Aside from those, when in this form I can take the hypnotism further and even command the target to fight for me. I’m also able to use my wings to fly, and I can turn my fingernails into a claw type weapon to defend myself.”
“Wow, so it seems like the abilities you have when disguised are mostly to help you safely feed, then. Have you been feeding on people in town for food so far?”
“That’s right. I managed to get a good meal in during my starting scenario that held me pretty well through most of the first day. Then shortly before I met Celeste and Aurora, I met a drunk and consumed about half of his health. Finally, I got found out when I went to the Mage’s Association earlier, but they chose to trust me as long as I didn’t kill people in town. One of the apprentices was very excited to meet a real demon and allowed me to feed off her, so I’m still almost full right now.
“So that’s why you chose now to reveal your race?”
“Yes and no. It did become a necessity, but I had already planned to tell you all about this during this discussion. Actually, I would have told you all earlier, but this is the first time we’ve been somewhere where no one would see or hear the conversation. That said, I understand if you don’t want me to come with you. After all, I will literally consume someone’s health every time I eat, and while in the dungeon, it’s going to need to be one of you.”
The others looked at each other for a second before Kiera spoke up.
“I don’t think that’s a particularly big problem. We trust you won’t drain us to death, after all. And feeding off us also reduces the risk to you as well.”
Jayren nodded and shrugged. “Yeah, besides now we only need to buy enough food for five people, so this saves us some money, too.”
After that we waited for Aurora, who was still quite embarrassed over whatever Celeste had said to her, to calm down and continued our planning. I also went ahead and restored my disguise once my energy had replenished. I considered changing my hair color, but decided to leave it as it was for now. Someone outside might notice if it changed while we were here, after all.
“Alright, so we got a little derailed there, but let’s get back on track. We need to get at least two days worth of food each. I recommend getting some extra as well, just in case. It might be cheaper to get raw ingredients and cook them ourselves, but I doubt any of us have the cooking skill so for this outing at least we’ll want to stick to things that are already prepared. We should also get a few torches or lanterns. Since we want to leave immediately, we’ll be travelling at night, and since the dungeon itself is a cave, it will probably be dark inside. Should we pool funds and everything as a group, or have everyone be responsible for their own supplies?”
After some discussion, we decided to have everyone be responsible for themselves. There were two main reasons. The first was that we don’t know each other well enough to be able to meet everyone’s preferences if one person did the shopping. However, this was a minor issue compared to the fact that after the dungeon, we intended to split up and go our own separate ways. Richter, Jayren, and Kiera had other people they intended to party with in the future, while I am planning to meet up with Horvath in a few days. Because of that, it will be easier to split up the party if we don’t have any communal property.
With that decision made, we headed off to get our various supplies. I decided to go with Celeste and Aurora, since I don’t need anything anyway and they were going to go around together, while the others were all going individually.
“So, what do you two plan to do once we get back from the dungeon? Do you have any plans?”
The two looked at each other for a moment before Celeste spoke up. I couldn’t help but notice they both looked a bit melancholy about that subject. It’s not surprising, as they only know the four of us, and we’ve all already stated our intent to move out of the city soon.
“We don’t really have any plans. We don’t know anyone else playing the game, and since we’ve never played something like this we really don’t know what to do at all. It’s actually a little overwhelming to think about.”
I see, I hadn’t thought about that. Even if I didn’t have people I knew to play with, I’ve played enough games like this that I have a basic idea of what type of things to do to enjoy the game. These two are practically clueless about what to do with themselves. They’ve basically been dropped into the world with no direction at all. At least in older MMOs there was a clearly defined questline to follow. As far as anyone knows, nothing like that exists in SWO. Sure, there’s some possibilities in the background story, but even if they are aware of it, I doubt these two would be willing to jump into that on their own. However, them not having plans was actually the best for me.
“Well, if you two don’t have any other plans, do you want to come along with me? I don’t know where we’ll end up, but it should be fun if nothing else.”
“I thought you were meeting up with some of your other friends.” Celeste tilted her head and looked up at me.
“I am, but that’s no reason you can’t come. There’s only four of us, so we don’t even make a full party. If you want to come, you two are absolutely welcome. Give it some thought, we’ve got a few days before you need to make a decision.”
Celeste nodded, but didn’t say more. In a surprising show of restraint, she clearly wanted to consider the options before making a choice. However, Aurora suddenly grabbed Celeste’s elbow.
“... I want to go.”
I think both Celeste and I figured Aurora would just go along with Celeste’s decision. She hadn’t showed much assertiveness when the two needed to make a choice before, and usually just followed Celeste’s lead.
“Huh.”
“I want to go with Lilith. I think it would be fun. And we don’t have any reason not to.”
Celeste stared at Aurora for a few seconds, then nodded and turned to me.
“Alright, it looks like we’ll take you up on that offer. Although we don’t even know where you’re going.”
I shrugged. “Neither do I, really. I know we’re going to make a stop in a city near the Great Central Desert and eventually head up north to find a gnome, but beyond that we don’t have any set plans. We’ll just roam around seeing what this world has to offer.”
“Find a gnome? I knew you were going to the desert, but I don’t think you mentioned that before.”
“Ah, yeah. My sister’s character. She just contacted me right before we started our strategy meeting.”
We continued our casual chat as they purchased their food and provisions for our trip, then headed back to the main gate to meet up with the others and head out.
---
Lilith has created a chat.
Horvath has entered the chat.
Amber has entered the chat.
Simona has entered the chat.
Lilith: Healer and offtank (sort of) secured.
Amber: Yay?
Horvath: Sort of offtank, or sort of secured?
Simona: who are they?
Lilith: Yes, Yay. She’s only sort of an offtank. Her focus is more on evasion and mobility, but should do the job alright. And they’re a couple of new players I’ve been playing with. They just agreed to come along with us when we leave town.
Amber: Add them to the chat!
Horvath: An evasion tank. That should work.
Lilith: I’ll add them to a chat later. We’re actually about to head out of town and do a dungeon dive for a couple days.
Amber: You mentioned that earlier. But how did you find a dungeon that easily?
Lilith: One of the people I’m going with heard about it. Apparently it’s well known, as they were selling maps to it in town.
Amber: Seriously? I need to check the stores around here better, then.
Lilith: Looks like everyone’s here. I’m out for now. Oh and Horvath, you’ll be excited to know I picked up a fire spell today.
Lilith has left the chat
Horvath: What?!? No, you’re not allowed to have fire anymore! We banned that after last time!
Simona: Too late. And do I want to know?
Horvath: He managed to burn down half a village once. They had requested we clear out a rat infestation. I’m still not exactly sure how it happened, but we all got the “public menace” title that time. NPCs weren’t very friendly towards us afterward.
Amber: In his defense, the spell would only ignite targets. He just didn’t expect the burning rats to run into any building they could find to get away. And I don’t think that incident alone would result in the title. That was probably just the final straw.
Simona: Oh. I’m starting to worry about this. Although from what you’ve told me, those things seem to happen no matter what, so banning one type of spell probably won’t do anything.
Horvath: Unfortunately, you’re probably right.