Alright, guess it’s time to find out what all the fuss is about in this new VR-MMORPG everyone’s been talking about, I thought to myself. With a sigh, I slid the helmet onto my head and laid down. The helmet then activated and I entered the world of the game, TowerQuest Online.
As soon as I was in the game, I appeared in a strange room. I didn’t see a floor, yet I was standing on something. However, I couldn’t focus too much on that, because I noticed a mirror in front of me. Looking into the mirror, I saw my reflection, and a prompt to customize my character.
“Hmm, well, since I can have my character look however I want, let’s try this,” I thought aloud. Messing with some of the customization features, I finally settled on my appearance. I was pretty much the same, except I changed my hair color from brown to white and my eye color from brown to red. Satisfied, I finished character customization.
A strange glowing circle appeared under my feet, and I was transported into another room. It had the same weird floating aesthetic of the previous room, except instead of a mirror, it had several stone pedestals that each had a weapon sitting on top of them. Glancing around, what caught my attention was a large sword with a blade as long as I am tall and a width about half of my body.
Walking over, I checked out the weapon.
[Iron Greatsword]
[Rarity: Common]
[Type: Sword]
[Subtype: Two-Handed, Melee]
[Restrictions: 30+ Str, -10 Attack Speed]
[Damage: 30 + Physical Attack Power]
[Durability: 50/50]
[Options:
1. none]
[A heavy but sturdy weapon capable of dealing large amounts of damage, but is hard to use due to its size and weight and attacks slowly.]
“I like the sound of this Iron Greatsword. But I guess that means I’ll have to focus on building up my Strength in order to use it,” I said to myself. Selecting the weapon, it vanished from the pedestal it had been sitting on and reappeared on my back. It felt quite heavy, like it was too much for me to carry. Luckily, since I had chosen my weapon, and thus my Job, I could now move on.
The next room was the one where I got to assign my stat points. Looking at my starting stats, I noticed that all of my stats were at 10. However, I was given 100 stat points to assign as I wanted to the five main stats, which were Strength, Vitality, Agility, Dexterity, and Intelligence. Looking over the description of what each stat did and how they affected gameplay, I decided to assign 70 stat points to Strength and 30 stat points to Agility. I could feel the greatsword on my back getting lighter as I became stronger, and my body also becoming lighter as I became stronger.
“Alright, I’ll admit, this is pretty cool. I can see why people play this game,” I quietly muttered. Hopping in place a couple times, I could feel just how much I had improved physically. But before I could experiment too much with my new virtual body, I was transported out of the character building space.
When I appeared again, I saw that I was standing in the middle of a busy village square. There were plenty of people walking around, both Players and NPCs alike. I admired the fancy armor and weapons of the higher leveled Players, which made me excited to hunt monsters and level up. Taking a few steps forward, I began looking around for any indication of where monsters might be.
Eventually, I noticed an NPC with an exclamation mark next to his name. Approaching the NPC, I began interacting with him.
“Hello! My name is Cain! Is there anyway I can help you?” I asked politely.
“Oh, thank you for asking, Adventurer! I’m a farmer named James, and my wheat field was recently overrun by [Green Slimes]! Could you please kill them for me?” He explained. A message popped up in front of me.
[Will you help Farmer James clear his wheat field of [Green Slimes]?]
[Hunt 0/10 [Green Slimes]]
[Reward: 30 gold and 100 XP]
[Failure Penalty: none]
[Accept? Y/N]
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
I clicked the accept button, and immediately Farmer James started thanking me. When I finally got him to stop thanking me, I got directions to his field. Heading there as fast as I could, I made it in a matter of minutes despite being on the edge of the town.
Looking around, I saw several green globs sitting in the wheat field. Every so often, one of them would jiggle or bounce, but otherwise they didn’t do much. Believing them to be easy to fight, I charged towards the field, my Iron Greatsword in hand. However, when I actually tried to hit one of the Green Slimes, it shrunk down to avoid my attack.
It then sprung forward explosively. Its gelatinous body impacted my face, covering me in goo. However, other than that, nothing much else happened. Even though I had yet to increase my Vit stat, it was already high enough to protect me from the Green Slime. Grinning, I swung my sword downwards, cleaving the slime in two. Its body fizzled and turned into a cloud of red particles. I then received a notification that I had received 10 XP from killing the monster, as well as a vial of goo.
“I wonder if the [Vial of Goo] is good for anything?” I wondered aloud. Not wanting to waste time on it, though, I decided to go back to hunting slimes. But now, I saw that all of the Green Slimes had gathered together. “Uh, what’s going on here?”
Before I could do or say anything else, all of the slimes began jumping at each other. However, instead of bouncing off one another, they instead began squishing together into one giant slime. I swung at it with my greatsword, but I didn’t deal much damage. I also received another notification.
[Iron Greatsword has come into contact with [Giant Green Slime’s] [Acidic Goo]]
[Iron Greatsword has lost 5 durability]
My eyes widened in shock at the message I was looking at. Backing up, I was trying to quickly think of a way to escape from the monster before me. However, before I could do anything, it bounced into the air, landing on top of me. This time, I took 30 points of damage and was now trapped inside the Giant Green Slime’s gelatinous mass.
Before my very eyes, I watched the durability on my greatsword go down. Soon, it fizzled and turned into a cloud of white particles. Staring to panic, I tried clawing and thrashing, hoping to escape from inside the creature. Unfortunately, my efforts didn’t work and I was instead met with worrying system messages.
[You are trapped inside the [Giant Giant Slime]]
[Every second you are trapped inside, you will receive 5 points of acid damage]
[You are suffocating]
[You will pass out within 5 minutes if you cannot escape or do not die before then]
Guess I really do need to find a way to escape, I thought. I then punched the outer layer of the giant slime’s body. It shook and jiggled, but nothing really happened. Gritting my teeth, I tried punching again and again until my fist finally burst out of the monster’s side. Pulling myself free, I gasped for breath. I also received yet another system notification.
[You have obtained Passive Skill [Acid Resist - Lesser]]
[Acid Resist - Lesser]
[Type: Passive]
[Effects:
1. Reduces acid damage received by 25%]
[Can be evolved into a stronger Skill]
“Heh. This’ll be perfect for fighting this thing,” I said with a chuckle. Looking around, I saw an old, worn-out wooden hoe laying on the ground. Running over to it, I quickly picked up and hoe, since it would be better than nothing. Swinging the makeshift weapon, I struck the side of the Giant Green Slime as hard as I could.
While my attack didn’t do a lot of damage, it still did something. The monster’s large body quivered before shooting directly at me. Rolling out of the way, I barely avoided its sudden attack. It sat in the spot where I had just been standing, its gelatinous form jiggling back and forth.
“How on Earth do I kill this stupid thing?” I muttered. Tightening my grip on the hoe, I struck the Giant Green Slime yet again. Except this time, while I did inflict damage, its acidic body also destroyed the hoe. The tool turned into particles and floated away, once again leaving me without a weapon.
Glancing around, I couldn’t see anything remotely useful. Gulping, I prepared myself to die either by being crushed or melted. But right as the Giant Green Slime was about to jump onto me again, I heard a gunshot ring out. Then, the monster in midair above me popped like a water balloon, spraying green goo everywhere.
“Hey there. You’re definitely a newbie Player. You doing alright?” A voice asked from behind me. Turning around, I saw a beautiful young woman wearing black and red body armor standing behind me. She had long blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and a large rifle held in her hands.
“Uh, yeah, I’m alright. I just wasn’t expecting those slimes to turn into that thing,” I explained.
“I get it. Most people know of slimes as being the weakest, easiest to kill mobs in most games,” she replied. “And while that’s true in TowerQuest Online for the most part, they become real dangerous when they merge together like that. That’s why you don’t want to hunt them in large groups unless you can wipe ‘em all out at once.”
“I see. Thanks for the help and the advice,” I said. She nodded, then walked away. Surprised that she just left without saying anything else, I couldn’t help but watch and wonder as she walked farther and farther away. Eventually, I remembered my Quest and my destroyed greatsword. Unsure of what to do now, I picked up a rock and tried throwing it as hard as I could. While it wasn’t anything too impressive, I did manage to hit a tree near the wheat field with enough force to damage the bark. “Hmm, maybe I can try killing [Green Slimes] by throwing rocks at them.”
Picking up a handful of rocks, I started searching for a Green Slime on its own. And after a few minutes of looking, I found one. Tossing a rock at it, the stone shook the monster’s whole body, but didn’t kill it. I tried throwing another rock, and this time the feeble creature popped and turned into a cloud of red particles. I then received a system message.
[You have obtained Active Skill [Throw I]]
[Throw I]
[Type: Active]
[Effects:
1. Throws an object at high speed, dealing damage equal to Physical Attack Power x1.5]
[Costs 5 MP to use, no cooldown]
Excited that my method was working, I continued in this fashion until I had hunted 10 Green Slimes, completing my Quest. However, I didn’t use my new Skill since I could kill the slimes easily anyway and that also meant I didn’t have to use up any MP. I also had leveled up twice, putting me at Level 2. Cheerfully whistling a tune, I walked back into the village. Approaching Farmer James, I turned my completed Quest into him.
“Thank you so much, Cain, for killing those [Green Slimes] fit me! Here’s your reward,” Farmer James said. I received a notification saying that I had received 30 gold and 100 XP. However, that was enough XP to make me level up again, so I became Level 3 right there on the spot. “Since you’re such a skilled Adventurer, could you help me with another problem? There are some even stronger monsters hiding in my fields.”
[Farmer James would like you to kill the [Giant Green Slimes] hiding in his wheat field]
[Hunt 0/5 [Giant Green Slimes]]
[Reward: 150 gold and +Relationship with Farmer James]
[Failure Penalty: -Relationship with Farmer James]
[Accept? Y/N]