Tyler approached a set of gates to the city. He had left his cart behind, it had plunged deep into some thick brush after the crash, and without some horses, he was not getting it out. He covered the cart up as best he could and marked the location on his map. Before he moved on to the city, he did some tests and was happy to see that his bag was linked to the storage on the cart as promised.
Not noticing exactly when it happened, but his skin had turned color from the tanned skin he wore in the Tower, to a deep green. He smiled, slowly sliding his tongue across an extend fang replacing his K9 from reality. He raised his hands, gently bringing them to his large ears, he closed his eyes in rapture as he massaged them gently, his knees almost giving out from under him. It was then he realized that if his knees had given out under him, the fall to the ground was a very short one, his height bringing him to a little over three feet. He had entered his official characters avatar, a short goblin, complete with three gold earrings in his large nose. You never know when you need to buy out of a death debuff after all.
He could see a squad of soldiers standing in front of the gate, and as he looked up, he could see a few heads poking over top the wall. With the break of the trees opening from the perimeter of the city walls, Tyler noted that the skies were clear, with what may have been dots on the horizon from the retreating dragons.
"Look at this large adventurer boys, this one may be the answer to the brood out there." The Sargent laughed, looking over his shoulder to catch some laughs from his squad.
"Better watch out sir, he may try and bargain his way into taking your sword!" One soldier called.
"He'll buy his way to victory over that brood!"
As Tyler approached the gates, it was as if the city guard was waiting for him when an announcement came from somewhere inside the city. "The brood has left, and there are no signs of anything lingering around. The Priest Order has performed scans and confirmed that they are moving away at high speed." A voice boomed from behind the wall, carrying across the entire capital. "Open the gates!"
The Sargent, still chuckling, gave orders for the soldiers to open the gates. "I'm sorry son, things are tense and this was a perfect chance to ease the air a bit. Where did you even come from anyway? Did you have to piss so bad you couldn't wait for the Dragons to leave?" Another laugh from the guard, chains grinding from behind the guardhouse as the drawbridge fell to the ground, the doorway still blocked by large steel gates. The horde of players just behind, with a small number able to view the conversation between the guard and the newly arrived adventurer.
"Dragons? What are you even talking about?" Tyler decided to play dumb, taking the advice he was given to heart. "I just finished my tutorial, honestly though, Dragons? This some of sick welcome joke to pull on people logging in for the first time?"
"No, no jo…" The Sargent started.
"I mean, do you know how boring it is to do the Tutorial that I have read about so many times, so many times that I lost count. Is it funny to tell a new player that he JUUUUUUUST missed something never seen before in the game, but they missed it because they're a noob?" He leaned on his memory of the research he did during his preparations for his first dive. "Sure, let's just pick on the noobie, everybody laughs at the noobies right?" Tyler was hoping to rile up the Sargent standing in front of him, with the plan he would be dismissed, or carried by the guard past the crowds, straight to the city jail for half a day. A few hours in jail would probably be better than trying to navigate the army of players looking to exit the city, clearly forgetting he could just ask for an escort.
"Listen here now!" The guard snapped at Tyler. "It wasn't a joke, the sky was just filled with Dragons. Consider yourself lucky that you didn't finish your tutorial a minute ago, otherwise your first experience in the world would have been you getting eaten by a Dragon."
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Tyler just stared at the Sargent, thinking that any kind of response would be the wrong move.
"Since it didn't happen, you don't have anything to worry about." The Sargent sighed, and put his right hand on Tyler's shoulder. "Look the gates are opening, and there are thousands of adventurers wanting to find out what happened. I suggest you try to keep your head down, and don't say anything. I'll watch out and make sure that people know that you just finished your tutorial, that should be enough to keep people away."
Tyler smiled at the soldier. "Thank you sir. If there really were Dragons out there, I would probably stop myself and ask what happened." He was genuinely thankful that the soldier didn't hold his flippant attitude earlier against him. Then again, this whole conversation started off with a joke.
"At least you understand now what is going on around here. From now on though, I want you to call me Sarge, it seems that it's a nickname that people came up for me." Sarge looked down at Tyler, jaw sticking out. "Now move along, come visit me at the Barracks some time though, I'll show you a few things."
-
The gate finally opened, and Tyler was ready to head into the city. When the gate opened, he realized that it may not be that easy entering, as hundreds, thousands even, of players were gathered at the entrance. Obviously they had been waiting to get out and find out as much as possible about what had gone on outside the city walls.
Before he could step past the city limit, a voice called out. "You there, noobie, you can just stay right there." A large ogre was walking straight to Tyler. "You are going to explain what is going on, and you are going to hand over the quest you received from whatever happened."
Tyler recognized the ogre, it was JackAttack from the guild Tippin' Top Hats, one of the top Bezerkers across the Tower. His innovative use of mechanics put his build under speculation for decades, taking advantage of the natural strength of being and ogre and a Bezerker, but keeping a secret of pushing his speed beyond what had been seen in strength build Bezerkers.
"Uh, what?" Tyler called on his outside world charm, hoping he could talk his way out.
"Oh, you know exactly what I'm talking about, it's kind of hard to miss a sky full of dragons." The ogre was looking down at Tyler, pushing his large belly against Tyler's face.
"Yea, I don't know what you are talking about." Tyler tried to push the beast away, successfully taking a step back away from the city. This was not going well, quickly realizing a wink a smile can easily work against him. "I just finished my tutorial. You say there were dragons? Was anybody recording?"
The ogre reached down, grabbing Tyler by the head and lifting him off the ground. "Don't try to lie to me noobie. I know where you will spawn, and I will lock you down until the Guard forces me to stop, then I will hunt you once the protection time is over."
"You will release the Caravanner this instant." Sarge screamed from the guard house next to the gate. "JackAttack, you are under arrest, you will be held in confinement for 24 hours until you have a trial. The attack on newly spawned adventurers is strictly prohibited per section %%section#."
Tyler fell to the ground, JackAttack releasing the death grip around Tyler's neck, slowly being locked down by increasing debuffs. The soldier placed his hand on the ogres arm, and JackAttack dropped to the ground, arms restrained by thick chains. The Sargent turned back to his squad, not even acknowledging Tyler. "Show is over, the Dragons outside of the city have left, and there won't be any camping of newly arrived adventurers. Guards, take this prisoner away, he'll be in front of a judge in the morning." The guard announced, looking at JackAttack's group when he spoke of 'camping newly arrived adventurers'.
Tyler dusted off his pants, and walked towards the entrance. The crowd parted before him, seeing how the City Guard had no tolerance for interfering with new players. With how quickly JackAttack was arrested, they believed that he had just finished his tutorial, and risking getting the attention of the guard, it just wasn't worth bothering Pylioth.
** Congratulations, you have successfully entered Myneria without being discovered. Be careful now, that ownership paper will disappear if you die inside the city. **
As Tyler walked, he felt all the eyes upon him, but he opened his character sheet, giving him something to look at. He heard footsteps, someone had started running, which triggered what sounded like an avalanche. All the players started running out of the city, not wanting to be left out of any potential quests or loot.
"I'm going to find a dragon scale!" A voice cried out.
Tyler shrugged, as he made his way to the city merchant house, knowing his first step had to be was getting the Shop Keeper class. He decided that he would head to the city planner after he trained, and find out if the lot his business partners were interested in were still available.