Un-Bep’ee - Alpha Zone #193 Level 1 - 20
Un-Bep’ee calmly waited for his eyes to adjust yet again, from the unwelcome flash of blue white light. Once they had finished, what met them was a verdant green jungle of gigantic proportions with dappled light casting eerie shadows and a musky smell of tropical undergrowth. He seemed to be on a path that was on a slope, but other than that he could not find any landmarks he was familiar with.
Off in the distance he heard a loud roar that gave him a few moments pause from his inspection of the unfamiliar and alien environment. Once he found nothing further came of the sound, he decided to head up the path to see what he could see and as he made his first footfall on his new journey a blue box gave him pause:
Quest: Sanctuary
Description: Successfully make your way to the nearest outpost and cross it’s threshold
Rewards: Manamotes (quantities will vary based on your party’s size).
Tip: Follow the guidance arrow superimposed upon your HUD.
With the box dismissed another took its place:
HUD Initialized.
Following which, he noticed the addition of two red and blue colored bars to the bottom right and left of his vision. Raising his eyebrows in surprise at not seeing the mentioned arrow, he rotated on the spot only to find the arrow pointing the complete opposite way he was attempting to travel. ‘I guess I really do not have a choice seeing as if the thing that is telling me these things wished me harm then I would probably have already done so’ he thought.
So Chuckling at his own unwitting mistake, he proceeded to follow the transparent green arrow the ‘correct’ direction, leading down the incline.
A cautious 30 minute walk later he heard someone frantically call from further up the path behind him.
“H-HELP!”
Turning quickly to look, what met Un-Bep’ee’s eyes was a portly middle age man of Caucasian appearance with thin brown hair and a bald spot carrying a short sword and shield. There were many scratches on his face and arms, some deep and leaving a trail of blood. Seeing this Un-Bep’ee’s face began to cloud in concern.
Running frantically towards him some 300 meters and closing he seemed to be being chased by another humanoid figure on all fours. This pursuing figure had a sickly white complexion with dark raised veins and almost glowing short white hair. When he met the pursuing humanoids gaze was when the alarm really suffused Un-Bep’ee’s mind, as the figure had no delineation between its irises or sclera and was sporting two pitch black ovoids instead.
Running to meet the fleeing man, he didn’t spare a thought for his own safety as he called out.
“Just hold on sir! I think I have a healing ability that can help you, then maybe together we can hold the monster off!”
“O-Ok I’ll do my best!” The man replied in a English sounding accent.
When the two men met, the portly man turned whilst breathing raggedly to face his assailant with his shield and sword readied and Un-Bep’ee gripped his mace standing at his side:
You have formed a party with Terrance, all experience will be shared equally.
Ignoring the new blue box he said while focusing on the balding man.
“Cure light wounds”
Although he was expecting some effect, he was still awed at the results of his spell, whilst he watched Terrance’s wounds begin to close before his very eyes.
As he was busy marveling at the spells effects, he almost forgot about their cause and barely turned in time to see their architect 10 meters from the almost healed Terrance and himself. Now the being was closer he also noticed that is was sporting claws instead of nails, and fangs instead of teeth. Mind whirring of how the two would deal with the creature, he got another surprise in this day full of them, when Terrance called out.
“S-SHIELD BASH!”
What followed was the man lunging a couple of feet into the beast and slamming his shield into its unprepared head.
Having grown up in a rural village in Botswana and being no stranger to having to defend his person from all manner of natural or otherwise threats, Un-Bep’ee instantly pounced on the predator, bringing his mace down on the prone forms back, with a *crack*.
Seeing his newfound companion undaunted, Terrance also struck the figure’s head but this time with his short sword causing a *thwak* sound to be released. This led to them being rewarded with yet another blue box:
Your party has slain Mana Craven level 1, experience distributed equally.
Signifying the cessation of their impending doom by the Mana Craven, they both visibly relaxed and looked to the other, leading to an awkward few moments which was broken by Terrence.
“T-thanks for the help! also whatever the hell you did to me was amazing! Since when could you do that?”
Smiling sheepishly he replied.
“I could be mistaken but I would hazard a guess and say about as long as you have had your shield and sword.”
Looking at each other for a moment they both began to laugh only to catch themselves, then laugh again. Yet as relieved as Un-Bep’ee felt, he had no desire to stay stationary in a monster inhabited jungle, so he informed his new ally of his thoughts.
“Terrance as I’m sure you are aware we are fortunate to find each other when we did, and as fun as it was dealing with the monster, I have no desire to meet any more of them. I’m making an assumption but I believe we both have received information telling us where to go to find safety?”
Stolen novel; please report.
Terrance’s face lit up in recognition as he responded.
“Your talking about the ‘quest’ that gave me a bloody green arrow I can’t get rid of? Thank Christ, I thought I were ruddy losing it big time mate!”
Both now smiled in relief at their shared insanity and Un-Bep’ee furthered enthusiastically.
“Ok ok. This is a good thing that we have the same problems my friend! So I propose that we don’t wait about and make our way to see if it is in fact saftey that we have been offered, for I fear if we stay here longer we might meet more of these ‘Mana Craven’ that the blue box mentioned.”
Letting out a relieved sigh Terrance seemed more than happy to join him on the proposed journey as he replied.
“No complaints here my friend”
With that settled, they both made a hasty departure from the freshly made corpse and continued to follow the arrow and path doggedly, to a hopeful salvation.
Michelle - Alpha Zone #193 Level 1 - 20
Michelle was not best pleased with her current situation. For one thing, her hangover had graduated from irritant to excruciating. And if that wasn’t bad enough, she had been plucked from her arduous day of scheduled movie promo interviews, only to be flashed repeatedly with lights, zapped into unconsciousness then subjected to strangely articulate blue boxes.
Fermenting in her anger she pushed down her frustration and fear, stemming from the lack of control over her life, and blinked her eyes to try to regain her sight.
Gradually, her dappled green surroundings came into focus and she noticed she was standing on a caquita de la vaquita path, whilst still clutching her new wooden staff, in the middle of a gigantic fucking jungle.
Moving a hand to clutch her aching skull as she heard a monstrous roar in the distance, she took a moment’s pause, to recover her composure. Gingerly, she took a step on the path in the direction that seemed to lead down, because where ever it led, there was no way she was going up a pinche puta hill, if she had a choice in it!
No sooner had she set her foot down was she greeted by another blue box:
Quest: Sanctuary
Description: Successfully make your way to the nearest outpost and cross its threshold
Rewards: Manamotes (quantities will vary based on your party’s size).
Tip: Follow the guidance arrow superimposed upon your HUD.
Jumping in surprise at its appearance, she willed it away, only to find herself facing the back of a transparent green arrow:
HUD Initialized.
Further to her disbelief, were two bars in the bottom corners of her vision, one red and slightly empty, the other one blue and completely full.
Groaning at some newfound task that was expected of her addled mind, she slowly trudged after the arrow down the path, because if GPS had taught her anything it’s that it is totally safe to follow wherever the arrow leads you…
So using her staff as a walking aide she meandered begrudging, through the super-sized jungle for what seemed like a good half hour, until she came upon what appeared to be a child on the path up ahead. As she drew closer she could make out more details of the small figure and tired as she was, she thought that its green skin must be a trick of the light as she called out to it.
“Hey little guy, do you know where we are? Also like, where are your parents?”
Upon hearing Michelle’s query, the figure turned to face her and she jumped back in alarm. What met her gaze was not the standard face of a human child that she had been expecting, but that of a Halloween mask. The thing she was looking at now was a being with green skin, hooked nose, pointy ears, clawed hands and which she could only describe as a ‘Triple-hijueputa goblin’!
Behaving in agreement with her fearful assessment the ‘Triple-hijueputa goblin’ opened its mouth to present her with its sharp and pointy teeth, while it hissed at her as it grabbed a dagger from its grubby loin cloth. Gripping the dagger in its clawed green hand, it charged at her with a childlike battle cry and bestial ferocity not previously present in its small form.
“S-Stay back! You hear me you little creep!”
She stammered, but despite her protestations, it did nothing of the sort when it closed the distance even further. Left with no other option her mind seemed suffused with unnatural clarity as it focused on her newly acquired ability and she surprised not only herself but her assailant, by calling out.
“MAGIC MISSILE!”
Following her desperate cry, a bolt of purple energy flew from her tightly gripped wooden staff straight at her pint sized enemy, causing it to cartwheel backwards when it was struck. It’s arms and legs flailed akimbo before it’s childlike head came into contact with a tree further down the path, and with a sickly *crack* it collapsed into a green bundle of un-moving limbs:
You have slain Goblin Scout level 1, experience awarded.
Michelle’s hand went to her mouth in horror at what had just taken place. She stared in shock for close to a full two minutes before she began to shake uncontrollably. Refusing to surrender to a wave of oncoming nausea, she gripped her staff tightly with both hands and began a desperate attempt to convince herself of the voracity of her actions.
‘It was me or him, he had a knife’ she repeated to herself like a pious mantra that would ward off the horror of what she had just experienced. However as she was in the middle of her fifth such recitation, she heard an accusation in the jungle from her left in a grating almost guttural voice.
“BRING HUMAN FEMALE TO ME!”
Following the demand was a bolt of fire that originated near where the voice had come from, as it shot straight at her. Mind completely blank, she had no clue what to do and could not even see something to shoot back at.
Like a deer in the headlights, she stood transfixed by the incoming fireball, only managing to come to her senses at the last second and desperately trying to dive out of the way. Unfortunately it was too little too late for the right side of Michelle’s twatter adored visage, as it received the glancing blow and splash of molten fire from the projectile.
Rolling away and shrieking in an even mix of abject terror and skin melting pain, she smothered her face in the damp and loamy jungle floor. Sobbing and trembling on the ground, she was so overcome by the smell of her own roasted skin and hair, that she barely registered the approaching footsteps of her assailant.
Only when a clawed foot came into her peripheral vision did she look up and see the culprit of her now destroyed face. The owner of the clawed foot was larger than her previous assailant by a good two feet. Its head adorned with a feather and tusk festooned headdress, woven together with some form of rope at the end of which had beads attached, framing its white bearded yet grizzled face.
Clutched in its right clawed green hand was a primitive looking staff with what appeared to be a dull glowing red rock at its top. Tears streamed out of her remaining good eye as she gripped her own wooden staff while begging.
“P-Please! I’ll do whatever you want, j-just…just please don’t kill me!”
Laughing at her prone form on the jungle floor, her tormentor dismissed her offer out right.
“Stupid human! Too weak for breeding! Only useful for foods!”
Screaming in rage and pain she used her remaining strength to swing her staff in a tight arc towards its left ankle in an effort to make him feel just the slightest bit of her suffering. In part she was successful causing the headdress adorned goblin to stagger and cry out in pain clutching its foot whilst balancing on one foot and staff.
“SNEAKY HUMAN! I COOK YOU SLOW FOR THIS!”
Her last energy spent and out of any obvious courses of action, she dropped her head back to the jungle floor and with ragged breaths began to sob once more. The goblin having regained some of it’s previous composure, hobbled back towards her and with a cruel gleam in its eye and vicious grin on its mouth it raised its staff high before brought it swiftly down towards her unresisting form.
Just when she thought it was the end of the road for her, there was a swishing sound and to her exhausted surprise, she saw the goblin halt halfway through its downwards swing. Her fatigued mind also registered the appearance of a pointed silver object on the left side of its chest.
Numbly she wondered why it would suddenly grow a piece of metal out of its chest that would cause it to lose so much of its precious, vital fluids as they escaped in rhythmic spurts:
You and Svetlana have defeated Goblin Shaman level 3, experience awarded based on contribution.
You have leveled up.
Her brain belatedly began to piece together what had happened and her vision drifted lazily out of focus as blissfully painless dark embraced her weary mind.