Dodging Is a Good Thing
Alan re-entered Royal Road for the second time that day, after having had his brain filled with useful facts by his very annoyed sister.
He ended up back in the empty plaza that he had left before diner.
“Right, according to Sarah if I use different jumps, roles and over all basic moves I should be able to raise my Gymnastics skill, hmm oh well I was planning on training let’s give it a try.”
-T-Ting-
LEVEL UP: Gymnastics Skill [2]
Increases Stamina by 100
Increases Health by 100
Increases Agility by 5
Increases Endurance by 5
It took eight hours of spins, back-flips, rolls and running to unlock level 2 of the Gymnastics Skill “not bad I, guess I’ll try some more. Hmm this bar has been getting smaller? Ha food bar I think that’s what Sarah said.”
“Remember to eat.”
“We just had dinner I’m full.”
“I meant in game, it would be too embarrassing if you died of hunger in game.”
“Does that happen.”
“Not often but i bet some people have died from not eating.”
“Ow”
“Also try not to die, you lose levels, stats and you get locked out of the game for a day.”
“Eh? No one mentioned anything like that.”
“That’s because everyone knows except for you, now you do too.” Sarah said smiling.
Luckily his father had gone through the various system windows with him immediately after dinner, explaining which was which, the stats and skills window, the item window, and the systems support window and how to use them.
****
“System, items window,” Allwind called softly. A huge window opened in front of him, revealing the items he had, ten rye bread and one canteen, the rest of the window was empty space.
He took out one of the rye breads and began eating, slowly the empty bar filled up the other bars were all full as well.
“So, the red one is health, the blue one is Mana, the yellow one is stamina, with the food bar being a pale pink, the only one’s that had been moving so far was the stamina and food bars.” He mused.
It was while he was eating that he noticed a little girl who sat in the corner of the plaza, she seemed to have been there for some time, and all she was doing was just sitting there.
“None of my business. Need to do more training.”
“Ha ha, it only took me, eight hours to level it up to two I wonder when I’ll get to level three?”
“I’ll get some sleep now I think,” Allwind muttered giving up, he logged off for the night. The girl sat in the corner of the plaza, lifted her head, and smiled as she watched him log off, before standing up and moving to the centre of the plaza.
****
It was Sunday morning when Alan logged back into Royal Road; he had slept for nearly nine hours, had eaten breakfast with his sister Sarah, who again bombarded him with lots of questions and tips.
Allwind appeared at the edge of the plaza, there was still five days left in real time until he could leave the city, his sister had been adamant that he try out a few quests, and to find out where he was in Royal Road.
To Allwind’s surprise he noticed a little girl in the plaza. It appeared she was trying to do cartwheels like he had done yesterday. Slowly Allwind approached the girl as she collapsed from mid way through an attempt.
“Are you ok?” He asked, “you nearly did it, want some help?” The young girl looked at him. She had dull red hair, green eyes, and fair skin. She just nodded her head slowly, not saying a word.
It took a lot of practice and failed attempts, before the young girl was able to do a full cartwheel on her own. Allwind had to catch her a number of times to prevent her from hurting herself.
“Thank you, that was fun,” the girl said.
“That’s ok, I had fun teaching you, what’s your name”
“My name is Lillian; I live here what about you?”
“I’m Ala—Allwind,” Sarah would scream at him if she found out he; had nearly used his real name in game.
“Ala-Allwind. That’s a weird name. My granddad says, ‘all foreigners have weird names.’”
“You can call me Allwind, if you want.”
“Ok Allwind,” Lillian said smiling up at him.
“How come you’re here, Lillian? Why are you not playing with the other kids?”
“I don’t like the others. They’re nasty to me, because I don’t have any feathers.”
“Feathers?”
“They all have chicken feathers, but I don’t have any, so they don’t let me play.”
“Where do you get them from, maybe I can get you one?”
“Really? you would?”
“I don’t see why not.”
-T-Ting-
Playing with friends
Lillian wants to play with her friends, help her collect 10 chicken feathers,
so that she can play with all her friends.
Quest Difficulty E
Quest fails if any of the chickens are killed.
Quest rewards ???
Ha, a quest yes, finally! I was wondering where you could get one from.
“Come on, I’ll show you where the chicken’s are.” Lillian said pulling Allwind after her.
****
Lillian eventually stopped pulling Allwind, when they reached their destination: a large worn down shack that was standing next to a grocery store, there were ominous noises coming from inside the shed, luckily there was a window to see through. Inside were five peace full chickens.
“All you have to do is pluck the feathers from their tails” Lillian said smiling as she opened the gate to let Allwind inside.
“I think I have to do this carefully,” Allwind thought. As he approached a chicken from behind he quickly grabbed its tail were the biggest feathers were.
Acquired chicken feather
Suddenly, the chicken screeched at the top of its voice, sending the entire shed into disarray as the chickens ran about in a sudden frenzy. Sighing at the new development Allwind tried to grab another feather from a passing chicken, but missed.
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It took two hours of running around the shed and allot of missed chances, before Allwind had three feathers he eventualy managed to come up with a plan for getting them, he would force a chicken into a corner of the shed and then pick its feather as it tried to escape past him.
On the fifth feather he had cornered a chicken, which he had already acquired two feathers from. As it ran past him, he successfully managed to pick a third feather. The chicken didn’t take too kindly to having another feather removed, and then proceeded to attack Allwind.
You have received damage -10 health
The chicken had scratched Allwind’s leg resulting in a loss of 10 health. Allwind was furious he was going to kill that chicken, only the fact that the quest stated, “no chickens must die,” kept the chicken alive.
From there on the quest got harder, as the chickens, that had more than two feathers removed, would not only attack Allwind but they would try chasing him around as well, making him more and more angry with the loss of yet more health. Unable to reach any other part of him except his legs, there were plenty of scratch marks, when he finally obtained the last feather.
Allwind left quickly, before the mad chickens could attack again. Death by chicken was probably the worst way to die in the game, he thought to himself.
You scratched my legs damn chicken I’ll get you later!! Sighing angrily he went to find Lillian.
“Lillian, here you are. I have got the feathers you asked for,” he said opening the item window and taking the feathers out.
-T-Ting-
Quest complete!
Playing with friends
Thanks to you, Lillian can now play with all her friends.
You have levelled up
“Yeay! Thank you, Allwind! I have to go home now bye, bye!” She said waving to him as she left.
“That was fun in a way, now what do I do? I still have a couple of hours left till dinner”, Allwind thought before turning around to face the shed again, an evil smile spreading across his lips.
Shortly after Allwind exited the shed, he managed to find a player that looked like he wasn’t doing anything, and politely inquired as to where he was, so his sister wouldn’t have a reason to kill him in real life. It turned out he was in Somuren Liberty City on the border between the main and northern continents, he logged off with the feeling of having achieved something.
That day a strange rumour went around the local NCP population regarding the shed and how all the chicken’s inside had become completely bald with not a feather remaining.
****
Logging off Alan met Sarah in the front room. They had to go shopping for dinner, a chore that Alan now hated with a passion. It wasn’t the people who took pity on him, they were irritating that was true, but it was rather the journey, which Alan hated. A twenty five minute walk had now turned into an agonising forty minute ride with Sarah pushing the wheelchair.
Sarah knew this, and so tried to distract him with how her day went at school. She was a first year attending the same school Alan was, so they had a lot in common from subjects to teachers, before she switched the convocation over to Royal Road extremely quick as she realised most of his lessons were now painful for him.
She was extremely happy when Alan reluctantly told her, what he had been up to. She laughed like mad at the strange quest, he had received, but was disappointed that she couldn’t help him as she, and their parents, were adventuring in the southern continent along with some of her classmates.
“I’ll be fine,” her brother said smiling. It had been a long time since she had seen him smile.
After the shopping trip he complained that he was being used as a shopping basket, having the groceries dumped on his lap, “well, I’m pushing, so you’re not working alone.” Sarah said sweetly. “Great. I levelled up to a shopping trolley,” Alan complained sending them both laughing.
Dinner went smoothly with comparisons being made between the family members, about how they had started out. His dad had spent time in the training hall between doing small quests and had gained some skills as a result, whilst his mum had spent time learning to trade.
His sister, Sarah, had frantically being doing quest in order to earn enough silver for a spell book. They had laughed quite hard, when his mother had explained to him that Sarah was so absorbed in doing the quest’s, she hadn’t realised, that she had actually managed to steal one off her dad. “It was,” his mother said, “quite amusing when they were both sat at the dinner table one night, complaining about each other in the game, before they came to realise their true identities.” This happened while he was at a completion, so he had missed the fun.
“So, what you suggest is, that I try to raise my stats, skills and do quests?” Alan asked before leaving the dining room, “just do what you can,” his mother replied. It’s a shame that you are on the other side of the continent than us, or we would help you out.”
“No thanks, I’ll manage. Don’t want any quest’s to get stolen.” He said throwing his sister a mean look, which she ignored, as Alan pushed himself back to his room and then logged back into Royal Road.
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Authors notes
many thanks to Vindrueelsker for checking the spelling and grammar I’ll send you some grapes :)
Vin note: I take no responsibility if I missed anything, or made mistakes! I blame it on the cat who stole my grapes...