[Life has evolved into multicellular organisms, this revolutionary change is a momentous step in the progress of the world.]
[+1 Achievement]
...
[First signs of photosynthesis have appeared.]
[+1 Achievement]
...
...
[Life has spread out onto land. This marks a new revolution unto the world.]
[+1 Achievement]
...
...
Prompts appeared every second, recording important moments in history and occasionally, achievement would be rewarded. The notifications were rapid and the two only read the first few before dismissing them.
"It's practically being handed to us." Bon remarked at the easy supply. By now the two of them had acquired 13 points after just a few minutes.
Still, though, hundreds of millions of years had passed and Siul was curious as to what progress the life on the world had evolved.
"I'm slowing down the world." The land was now a blurred light green with different shadows mixed all around the world. Its blur began to slow down until the changes were clear.
"About... 3 billion years have passed?" Siul looked at the world. His eyes widened to see a few large creatures. They resembled much of what dinosaurs are speculated to have looked like.
"Would it also similarly follow the path of evolution on Earth or is this just a coincidence?" He looked at a large dinosaur-like creature lazily lying down near a nest of eggs.
The creature was rough and had sharp spines along its whole body. It had furred skin and seemed to be herbivorous judging from its mouth and behavior. There was a large axe-like tail that looked hard and rough.
Siul continued to watch the creature as it got up and ate a few bushes and leaves. It would sometimes use its tail to demolish a few trees to clear a path. It continued on about its day without a care in the world like it had done the same thing every day. It walked around, protected its eggs, and basked in the sunlight. Every now and then, it gave a short growling roar, as if mumbling thoughts incomprehensible to him.
Just then, in the distance, he saw a short pack of vicious quadrupedal reptilian creatures approach the large axe-tailed dinosaur silently. They were small relative to the dinosaur's size and covered in black scales. Their eyes were sharp and their bodies streamlined. Sharp claws and a ferocious, scaly snarl made them a fearful sight to behold.
They hid near the axe-tailed dinosaur, preparing for an ambush. They swiftly got into positions and a large one that looked to be the alpha of the pack roared with a high pitched shriek. The pack of thirteen began their attack.
The axe-tailed dinosaur gave a large roar in the face of its attackers, violently swinging its tail to one of the ambushes and barely missed its body. The dinosaur's eyes were vigilant and it didn't move far from its nest.
The two sides entered into the desperate battle. Just then, a daring reptile rushed past the axe-tailed dinosaur's defenses and snatched an egg. the dinosaur roared with a deep fury and despair. Scratches and bite marks littered its body.
The minutes continued to pass as the high stakes battle continued. The axe-tailed dinosaur swung its tail and hit one of the snarling reptiles solidly, crushing a few of its bones on the spot and incapacitating it. Another tried to rush past, but it stomped down on its tail just in time and snapped its neck with just a bite.
11 were left, and they only attacked harder for each second passed. The axe-tailed dinosaur caught and crushed another with its tail before another reptile snatched another egg. The dinosaur snapped its head to the side and caught another reptile's tail in its mouth and dragged it under its feet to crush it, but another reptile took this time to steal an egg.
The axe-tailed dinosaur's face only grew more furious as it bunkered down near its eggs to protect the remaining two. It viciously protected its next and refused to move like an immovable fortress. The reptiles moved in all but the places the axe-tailed dinosaur could reach, though, and if it didn't act, then its eggs would be their dinner.
It stood up and just then, another reptile slid under it and grabbed an egg. It roared with anger and swiped its tail at it just in time to incapacitate it. 8 were left. The alpha let out a loud shriek before they all began to retreat. They had lost five in this battle for eggs, with what they had obtained, it was not worth it. They had sustained too many casualties and others were injured. If they continued, it would only be putting themselves at a debilitating disadvantage in the wild kill or be killed world.
The axe-tailed dinosaur looked at its retreating attackers with regretful eyes. It did not give chase as it knew that it would never be fast enough to catch up. It looked at its body, there were too many scratches and some would join the scars from its previous battles.
The dinosaur gave a quaint roar of sorrow as it looked down at its nest. It fought long and hard, but there were just too many. It snuggled up besides its last remaining egg, at least she had saved one.
"Look at this!" Bon's voice broke Siul off the scene. As sad as it was, it was a part of the world. It was survival of the fittest in the forest and nothing could change that among the beasts and dinosaurs.
Bon's voice echoed throughout the world, but it was only Siul that could hear it. In the next second, he saw Bon fly toward him before leading him somewhere into the world.
As Siul looked around, he noticed that it really was large. Although he could not tell exactly how large it was, it was about two fifths the size of his current planet, or half the size of Earth. Siul noticed it earlier, but the world and window seemed to refer to Earth a lot.
As he approached a small forest region, he noticed a few creatures that were starting to transition from quadrupedal to bipedal creatures. Taking a closer look, he found that they were very similar to chimpanzees!
"Huh? Chimps shouldn't even exist in this time period..." Siul was not a foreigner to the history of his species origin and even took a class in college that specifically went over the history of Earth.
"Actually, going off of how accurately this world follows Earth, mammals should only be in the beginning stages of evolution. If I am correct, it could be a few ten million years after the extinction of most dinosaurs before humans would even have a chance to emerge in the line of evolution." Siul never knew that his knowledge of Earth might come in handy.
The class for the "Study of Earth History" was often met with scorn, with many stating that it was useless. Still, it didn't stop the history fanatics from keeping it secured within the curriculum as an option. The only reason Siul took the class was because he needed credits.
"Siul, the parasitic voice inside me said humans will evolve in accordance with Earth. Actual humans might not appear until much later." Bon did not know exactly what earth was like. It only knew how Siul's civilization was structured along with some basic knowledge. It would have to do some research on that later, but it did know that the species of humans weren't going to emerge anytime soon.
"I'm wondering if these dinosaurs are going to go extinct. If they can't it might be very different from Earth or probably any planet currently occupied by humans. Also, this world's oxygen levels should be incredibly high right now. The more oxygen there is, the larger the creatures can be..." Siul was wondering how the humans would even be able to survive in a world like this. He remembered that they had an anti-extinction protection on them, but once they were close enough to current real world humans, it would be up to them to survive.
"I guess their only way of actually being able to survive in this world is to learn magic?" Bon murmured from the side.
Humans in this world would not be able to realistically survive without magic and so, this lessened the pressure on the plan by a few levels. Even if technology did develop to some extent, until they developed guns and bombs, it wouldn't be able to affect most of the more dangerous dinosaurs at all.
However, once magic is discovered and used by a human, the benefits will outweigh exploring technology until humans sit at the top of the food chain and start to explore deeper into the workings of the world.
"It might not actually be that hard?" Siul thought that the plant would be way harder to realize, but the path to a magical civilization was practically laid out for them.
A hard and unforgiving world with a weak, but smart species such as humans that, no matter what, wouldn't be stronger than the creatures of the world without magic was like a cheat to push the humans towards it.
Siul watched the chimpanzees swing along the trees and scavenge for edible fruits. Siul noticed that there was an unusually low amount of dinosaurs in the area.
"The anti-extinction protection?" The protection seemed to take many forms. He guessed that, if it came to it, the world might even resort to drastic measures like famine or disease among the dinosaurs.
Looking over the world for a few more hours, Siul and Bon resolved themselves to accelerate the world. In the grand scheme of things, this specific point in history would never be relevant in the future. it would be forgotten along with the other millions of years. Only referred to vaguely as a time period in history books.
They were not in the world to track the path of evolution or record the history. They needed the humans to learn how to use mana and magic. In the future, many creatures would be entirely different or extinct, there was no point in getting to know the exact details of the current world creatures.
Slowly accelerating the world, Siul did not increase the acceleration as much as the first time. Humans in the form of chimpanzees had already started to appear and so it would only take a "little" more time for them to evolve close enough to modern humans.
"A thousand years a second is good." The world turned into a blur of colors once again. The colors were less violent to change and smoother than before. A single area would, for the most part, remain green unless something drastic happened.
Every 10 seconds, they would stop the acceleration and investigate the world to track the progress of humans to see if they had begun utilizing magic. Every minute, the chimpanzees evolved closer to a human and could no longer be called a chimpanzee, they were hominids. A dozen minutes later and the similarity between a hairy human and the hominids were almost identical. They were getting less hair and becoming completely bipedal.
It was at this time that Siul decided to experiment, but he was only met with disappointment.
"The [Interaction Mode] cannot be used while time is accelerated?" A frown appeared on Siul's face. The possibilities of being able to do such a thing were promising, but his fantasies were put to a quick end. He looked at the prompt in front of him and his eyes fell on a trail of words.
[Interaction mode is unable to be used due to the rate of time acceleration and the lack of a method to ensure the safety and longevity of the owner.]
"Does this mean that if I find a way to enter the world while time is accelerated safely, it will then let me enter interaction mode?" Siul pondered the possible and fantastical methods that could fit the conditions of the prompt. He excluded the technological possibilities as a magical civilization wouldn't be able to provide him his answer. "Bodily possession, reincarnation, clones, transmigration... Is that it?" All of the possibilities that he could think of mostly consisted of forgoing his body. This method would allow his "main" body to be safe while he could do things in the subspace world without worry.
Siul decided to put the thought away, though. He wasn't sure if he could achieve those possibilities in the first place. each of the methods mentioned seemed way too advanced to think of at the moment.
A few hours passed and Siul could no longer tell the difference between a human of this world and himself. It was like seeing a person from a different region or planet. The humans of the sandbox world were much more muscular and held a serious expression. Their skin was tanned and hands rough.
Still, though, there were no signs of any human learning a way to use magic.
"Bon, are you sure every organism has a little mana inside of them? By now, the world should be filled with mana!" Siul was wondering how dense the mana in the world was. Despite their searches, they had yet to see any creature utilize mana in any way.
"When I said that they had only a little mana inside of them, I meant that they were only singular, infinitesimal motes of mana. Too small for the both of us to even comprehend! there has to be an astronomical amount of deaths just for a creature to even begin to sense mana." Bon was also getting impatient. He knew that there were only miniscule amounts, but he, too, had underestimated just how small the quantity was.
Suddenly, the monotonous voice rang out from Bon as it barely kept itself conscious.
"Humans have reached the threshold to deactivate the anti-extinction protection. All humans will be altered with a grace period of accelerated evolution and greater chance of enlightenment over the next few years within the subspace world." The voice was like a ghost in the wind with how fast it came and went. It appeared out of nowhere and before they could even understand what it had said, the voice did not linger and went into its slumber once again.
"Ok, this might be so easy after all. BUT! As long as we can somehow find a species in this world that clearly uses magic, we can secretly make the humans 'discover' it. They might then get enlightened and try to learn how to use the strange force called magic!" Bon quickly formulated a plan.
It would be hard to find a species that clearly used magic, but the grace period was probably their last chance before the humans truly went extinct. The world would not go easy on them and they would easily go extinct within a few months.
Siul nodded as he scoured over the forest floor. It would be no easy feat. They could no longer accelerate the time or the humans would be gone before they could blink.
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They first searched for anything that looked out of the ordinary, but they quickly found that magic creatures may look more normal than some of the stuff they would find. Siul looked towards a small insect with five tentacle-like appendages that it would use to capture bugs. There was also a tiny dinosaur-like creature that had six legs and only one gender...
His eyes then gazed over a creature in the ocean that looked like a disc and propelled itself like a squid through the waters. The biological wonders may be more fantastical than what magic may achieve.
They had wasted just a week on this objective alone and it only made their hopes lessen and their opinion on the creatures of the world degrade.
Sitting down on the ground, Siul pondered in his ethereal form. The world, although small compared to Siul's planet, Haflon, and Earth, was still a region too big to thoroughly explore in even a year. There was too much to see, too much to explore. Not counting the oceans or skies, just the land was enough and any one of the three mediums, land, water, or sky, was enough to waste a month just for a chance for them to find something interesting.
He yawned as he ran through countless thoughts, none of which seemed to have any hope or make sense. They still had a few months to spare, but it was cutting it close. Standing up, there was no other choice. There was no tool or device they could use to make the process any easier and he did not trust anyone enough to bring them in on what he and Bon had.
Siul was in charge of the land while Bon worked overtime on the lands and skies. The small box had nothing else to do and it couldn't sleep. Plus, it seemed that Bon liked just the act of exploring the world itself as well.
It was like trying to find a glass needle in a haystack. Even if they took it apart strand by strand, there was still a chance that they would miss it due to its transparency. Of course, it didn't have to be glass depending on what type of things have evolved to use mana. But right now, that was the best way to describe it.
He took a short nap and ate a short meal before resuming his search. Through plains and forests. Mountain ranges and lakes dominated by dinosaurs that touched the skies, there was still no sight of what they needed. He came upon a desert and it was barren with only the most efficient of dinosaurs being able to live. Still, nothing.
A lumbering giant passed through his form as he nearly passed out. Many sleepless nights had been spent scavenging for any useful organism. Large or small, grotesque or pretty, it did not matter, but the world did not answer his wishes. Leaving the subspace world, he made a straight walk to his bed and collapsed on it. Even in his dreams, he was constantly rummaging through the earth, looking for any pinch of something that might reveal a magical organism.
He woke up with a stupor. The world was spinning and he tried to stand, but he fell back on the bed in a daze.
"What are we doing?" Siul couldn't help but question. As long as they wait, magic will appear according to Bon... He thought of giving up and just waiting for some other intelligent species to evolve and take hold of magic. But then he thought of Bon. The small, cheerful box didn't give up. Thinking of the last time that he saw Bon just simply existing, he suddenly felt like he couldn't crush the small box’s hopes. His was already long gone, but Bon's was still fiery and full of flame.
With a toss, he decided to get some extra rest.
He didn't know when he woke up, but for the first time in a month, he finally felt fully rested. Grabbing a snack, he immediately went to the subspace crystal orbiting Bon's boxy shape. Due to the box essentially being the catalyst for the crystal, its body was not sucked into it each time and could access the world at any time.
Looking at the crystal's exterior, it was no longer completely black like before, but now it was decorated with shades of green and blue with spots of red. He touched the crystal and he was sucked into it.
For as long as humans were alive, he knew that Bon would continue searching even if it meant going through four haystacks.
The world entered into his view and he was fully inside. He did not dare to enter interaction mode, as not even dinosaurs were a bigger threat than the high amounts of oxygen in the atmosphere. A human like him, who was used to a modest atmosphere would be unable to survive for more than a month just existing in the world.
Flying over a few mountain ranges that had become too familiar, he moved in a different direction. The trees swayed and the sun was bright. No storms or air frying hot days would disrupt his search. It was particularly hard during those times when the organisms would hide in shady places or in caves.
Soon enough, he came upon a new area that was a mix between a sahara and a forest. Not too many trees, but not enough to be a sahara. The grass was healthy, but not too much so. The place seemed to be a hotspot for moderately sized dinosaurs. Occasionally, a large dinosaur would come rampaging through, taking whatever smaller dinosaur it saw near its path in its maw.
He saw promise with its albeit calm mood compared to the scarier forests. Just about anything with any amount of coverage was deadly in the world, even more so if it was covered in dense trees that could hide the body of behemoth-like dinosaurs easily. On more than one occasion he looked to the side in the forest and almost passed out in a panic at seeing a pair of malevolent eyes accompanied by a body larger than house gazing around the area.
The was out and he watched a pair of six legged chubby looking feathered dinosaur cubs play underneath a tree. Nearby, a herd of what looked to be more than 20 of the more mature, grown up dinosaurs were resting with a third keeping watch in rotation.
Just then, he watched one the cubs adventure too close to a white, bulbous plant and bumped into it. In an instant, it was tangled in sticky vines. Siul stared at the sudden vicious surprise in the peaceful sight.
"Is it a carnivorous plant?" Unable to watch the sight any longer, Siul got out of his shock and exited the subspace crystal. He fetched his saw and entered into the world. Pulling out a compartment that extended the length, he held his breath and entered into the world. The heat pelted him and he broke out in a sweat almost instantly.
Holding up the extended saw, he stayed out of the plant's range and cut the vines holding the dinosaur before immediately entering back into observation mode. The cool feeling of his ghostlike form dissipated the heat as he watched five of the older dinosaurs come over in alarm before pulling the cubs away and into the center of the herd. A few of them seemed to growl at the two, reprimanding them for their lack of awareness.
He continued to search around the sahara, but there was no luck. It was the same as everywhere else he had been. The sun was on its horizon and he leaned against a tree, trying to think of how a magical organism might manifest mana.
Night began to sink its embraces on the world and Siul drifted his eyes back towards the same plant as earlier. His eyes widened.
A bulbous light was being emitted from it. Each second it got stronger and countless insects began to swarm to it. All around the area, the same thing was going on with many of its species. The light bulb on top of it glowed dim, but it was enough to be practically a beacon in the world.
Siul walked towards it and looked at it closer. The light was certainly not fluorescent and on closer look, it did not glow like phosphorus either. No, it was more like a true light bulb, there was something inside of it, reacting.
"... Mana?" Siul's heart beat faster as the bulbous plant became more and more promising.
"Bon, get over here!" Over time, they had found that as long as they yelled, the other could hear it no matter the distance. To find each other's location, all they had to do was head in the direction of where they heard the other yell.
After a minute, Bon landed next to him.
"Is this it? Really?" The box orbited the plant, inspecting it with discerning... vision? Come to think of it, Siul never questioned how the box saw things or even felt stuff either.
"It's the closest thing we have found other than that... Rat?" Siul remembered the rat. It was large with its body being three feet high on all four legs. Its head was of some abominable combination between an anteater and a fox. Its furless tail was divided into four different parts at the end.
"It gives off light to attract bugs and other species, it may even use magic to strengthen itself too! Its unique way of using magic also makes it an obvious object to study instead of kill." Siul thought of the way it caught the baby dinosaur in an instant. Not only was it way too fast for a thing such as the plant, its vines were strong enough to contain the dinosaur too.
"Well... Now that we finally have our magical savior, all we've got to do is move them!" Bon exclaimed.
Siul left the subspace world and sourced a few old tools. His parents liked to take care of... Heavy duty plants and so, he had more than enough spare tools to use. As long as they were touching Siul or Bon, the tools would be able to be taken in and out of the subspace world. However, if they remained inside of it too long, then they would become stuck in the world. It was the same for anything originally from the subspace world too, they couldn't bring any of it out into the real world.
Entering into interaction mode, Siul made sure his light exosuit, stick proof clothing, and replanter were all working properly before moving closer. He felt a vine smack against his side, but it slid off in the next second.
Sticking the circular planter around the plant he turned it on and the ground below was cleared away rapidly, revealing the plant's roots. It then cuts off the roots heading out of its area before packaging it inside a resilient clear bag filled with nutrient rich liquid.
Picking up the bag, Siul took the replanter and headed to an area not far from a human village and set down the replanter again. He put the light magic plant still packaged and put it in the middle. Turning on with the "replant" mode on, he watched it cut away the bag, spilling the liquid on the ground, and part the ground underneath it before repacking it around the plant. Afterwards, it poured more nutrient rich fluid all around the plant and let it soak into the ground.
The light magic plants never took the process calmly and even just holding the bag was a struggle. Within three days, he was able to replant 35 plants; each near a different tribe of humans. Bon assisted in the effort such as locating the plants and finding good places to replant them, but there was only so much it could do.
"Now all we have to do is wait..."
Siul looked at his hand and thought that, for a moment, he had a green thumb until he realized it was the sticky residue from the plants.
With not much else to do but wait, they accelerated the world a week at a time before stopping it and monitoring each of the tribes thoroughly. The process was immensely boring, but the promise of magic was just too good of a motivator for a man like Siul.
By the third week of accelerated time, roughly three quarters had killed the plant directly out of fear while the others remained. For the weeks afterward, though, only a few plants were killed and by the second month, they had determined that six of the tribes were trying to study the plant and not kill it.
Tension in the tribes had noticeably raised in the three months that passed in their world as the appearance of more dangerous dinosaurs and animals became more frequent in their areas. Intervals conflicts would often break out in tribes that did not have strong leadership while other tribes sent out valuable scouts to try and find a new home, but it was to no avail.
Bon and Siul noticed that in each of the tribes studying the plant, there was a certain talent in each of them. They were not talented in fighting nor leadership, but instead in discovery and research. As the two observed the talented individuals, they were always at the center of new discoveries whether it be technical advancements, insights, or teaching the members of the tribe.
"It seems that they have convinced the tribes not to kill the plants?" Siul and Bon didn't really care about the individual reasons and were just happy that a few of the tribes were actually studying it. It meant that the two were at least doing some things right.
However, a new worry was at the forefront of their minds. The increasingly dangerous environment around their valuable researching tribes. The two no longer paid any attention to the tribes that had killed off the plants. They had no value in their eyes and were not worth looking over.
Siul and Bon located a safe cave near three of the promising tribes, but the other three tribes were in the middle of nowhere with no caves or protection. They could only rely on the trees and their own ability to survive.
"We'll just have to leave them to luck and hope they survive..." The two of them did not have any tools at the moment to save those tribes. They did not want to bring anything foreign into the world lest they might start some sort of strange religion or whatever consequence that could halt the development of their goals.
With the tribes that had safe caves near them, they were able to mimic the footprints of small creatures that were often hunted as food as well as planting lush berry bushes to lure the tribe scouts to explore the area.
It was nearly guaranteed that the scouts would find the tribe given enough time, they were just accelerating the process.
The caves themselves were only a little more safe than the outside world, but the tribes needed whatever protection they could get in this vulnerable stage.
Looking at their work, Siul felt that he needed a break. He had been entirely focusing on the subspace world for a couple months and many necessities in the real world were ignored.
The tired man slowly left the crystal. His movements were clumsy. He stumbled around as it took him a few moments to remember how to use his legs. Having spent most of his time observing the subspace world as a ghost, his only mode of transportation, for the most part, was flying like a ghost. It didn't require much of any movement and only thought.
Walking around the house, his stomach growled and rumbled, but the house was fully depleted of food. He needed to buy some more from the nearby city about twenty minutes away.
Entering into his run down car, he drove towards the city. Reminiscing on the last few months, Siul found that it had been much too long since had so much enthusiasm. His days went by fast as he worked hard on the subspace world and talked with Bon. Before he realized it, the box had already become a friend.
He had never considered Bon a tool in his mind. They both relied on each. Siul wanted to learn magic while Bon needed to get its memories back. Besides, they were essentially bound to each other too. It is hard to continue his laid back way of life thinking of Bon as a tool when he conversed with Bon and shared the world with it.
Reaching the city, he drove to the nearest market and entered. His eyes were tired, but his face was more energetic as he stacked food in a hover cart. From instant foods to vegetables, he stacked enough to last him another few months. Latest generation fridges could preserve even the most perishable food for years.
"Oh, hey Siul! I haven't seen you in ages. How have you been?" A familiar voice greeted him from behind as he walked through the market. He turned to find an old friend walking up to greet him.
"Is that you Grane?" Man, the last we met was about... Five years ago?" Siul was surprised to see the man. The Last time they met was in the nearest capital city where they shared a room on the college campus.
"Yeah, I didn't know you lived in Tyulin too!" The man was joyful at their reunion. The two practically relied on each other for everything and if it weren't for the fact that their paths in life were slightly different, he would still be friends with him. Now was a good chance to reignite this past connection.
"I live outside the city, sort of in the country. About a twenty minute drive. I just came here for groceries and other necessities." Siul did not want any misunderstandings. He did not live in Tyulin, but he was close enough to be considered a part of it. After all, unless it was something special or important, he went to Tyulin for everything.
"Oh, well, you're still close. Anyways, want to hang out? It's been forever! Besides, I'm not much of a busy man any more." Grane was youthful and energetic. Siul could hardly tell the difference between Grane of the past and Grane of the present.
"Sure!" They both weren't that busy and Siul hadn't even worked in the last three years. It could be considered both lucky and unfortunate, but he had a large inheritance from his parents that had passed away. They had a notorious name as children of fate because they seemed to have the best luck in the world.
From frequently winning lotteries, they often made a living off of just abusing their luck. Therefore, when they eventually died at the nearly record breaking age of 124, the both of them passed on the same day, within the same hour and only a few minutes apart. In fact, Siul was surprised at how healthy he himself was considering that they had given birth to him as a 100 years of living celebration party... He did not like to think about it.
Even the house he inherited from them was built on top of a powerful alien relic.
Of course, Siul made sure his education was excellent, but after graduating college, the job life was just not for him. He grew recluse and with the inheritance, he could live comfortably for even 200 years if he needed to. Without Bon, he would have probably continued to live life as a hermit for another decade or more.
Finishing the rest of his shopping, he made a quick stop at his house before meeting up with Grane at a popular and energetic place called the "ARG Battle Center." An entertainment giant specializing in holographically assisted AR battles of all kinds to achieve the highest degree of realism and even more realistic battle entertainment.
The large building was decorated with countless floating holographic billboards that listed off many events inside of the ARG Battle Center and advertised all kinds of products. From the latest VR and AR tech to all kinds of stylish holo bands and clothing.
The building itself was donned with a colosseum-like exterior that was too large for him to even see the edge of in the distance. It polluted the area with sounds of battle, war cries, gun shots, and the sharp binding of swords colliding.
"It's been so long since I've been here... I'm finally starting to feel old. Haha." Grane murmured. The two had not been in an ARG Battle Center in a few years and the unchanging lively battles from within induced nostalgia.
"Let's see how rusty we are." Siul's heart was pumping. He could still remember the last tournament he had entered in an ARG Battle Center. Although he was not the best, out of millions from the local space network, both of them were in the top 50 of multiple categories in his prime.
It had been a long time since had moved his body like he did before. They walked through a door that decayed when they approached and towards a wall filled with kiosks. The receptionist greeted them as they filled out a few forms.
"Welcome to the ARG Battle Center! Please fill out a few forms. The content includes safety agreements, payments fees, and all of that stuff. You can sign on the holotab. We have multiple deals going on right, but I would personally recommend the yearly subscription!" The energetic clerk rapidly shot off her words in a cutesy manner as the two signed the forms and paid a fee.
"No, we are fine. We'll just get the normal Battle Ticket." The two were not sure if they were going to enter the place often. It would be safer to just get a normal ticket that would let them fight anywhere in the Battle Center for the day.
"Here are your battle bracelets and have an adrenaline filled day!" The clerk sent them off with an energetic pose before moving on to address a few other people that had just arrived.
The clerk handed them a silver bracelet. Once it was put on, though, it seemed to weigh nothing. A holoscreen popped out of the bracelet showing their states.
Their ranks had been reduced to rock bottom through the years of inactivity, but at least they still had their collection of digital trophies and achievements.
Entering into the battle center, sounds of war echoed constantly in Siul and Grane's ears.
"What should we do first?" Grane was full of energy as he looked towards a sparring ring.
"Let's test what we know." Siul wanted to test his skills once more and see how much he had to relearn. Sparring against Grane, who's skills have also degenerated, was the natural decision.
Walking into the sparring ring, a holographic screen floated out of the battle bracelets.
[Confirm that player "Grane" and player "Siul" are conducting a match in the medieval sparring ring.]
They confirmed and weapons seemingly materialized out of thin air.
[Select your weapons.]
A ring of countless cold weapons orbited around the two as they picked a weapon they were familiar with. Siul reached out and grabbed a simple double edged sword while Grane grabbed a shortsword along with a few daggers.
[Battle starting in 3... 2... 1... Start!]
A short alarm rang before the outline of the ring glowed before forming high transparent walls, locking the two in the circular room. A few onlookers gathered around to watch the spar.
With a heavy foot, Siul stepped forward to a moderate distance towards Grane ashe prepared a heavy swing. Grane was quick and made swift movements to try and stab Siul's waist.
Siul interrupted his movements and stepped back into a defensive position. Not losing his eye on Grane. He could not let Grane get too close or he could have numerous cuts with his quick moving daggers and shortsword. He had to keep his distance, but if he played too defensively, then he was just a sitting turtle waiting to be killed
They circled around each other, trying to find any weak spots. Suddenly, Siul stepped forward and swung his sword. Grane reacted quickly, however he fell for the trap as Siul fainted the attack and slashed Grane's left hip.
Grane froze for a moment as the shock from the injury momentarily surprised him. Along the cut, a bright solid red visual had appeared. When injured in the battle center, pain was substituted with shock and the intensity would be different depending on the seriousness of the wound. The shock would also be continuous in some battles if bleeding was enabled.
Siul continued to step forward as he pressured Grane. In a few moments, his sword was already swinging towards Grane's neck. With quick thinking, Grane ducked down before putting all of his muscle into his spring body at Siul. He held his shortsword toward Siul as he rocketed towards him.
Siul could not dodge Grane and the shortsword plunged into him, sending a vicious shock throughout his chest. He knew that he didn't lock before he would "die." Taking a deep breath, Siul gripped his sword tight. Grane could not pull out the sword and was too late to let go. Siul slashed at Grane who could not retreat in time. This time, it was Grane who could not dodge as he recovered from his previous lunge.
A shock was sent throughout Grane's neck, he was "decapitated."
With panting breaths, the two of them looked at eachother with approval in their eyes. They had made way too many mistakes for either of them to be proud of, but they could feel their old traces of experience coming back. They would recover many of their old instincts with a little more practice.
[Player "Siul" Winner!]
The two looked at the rest of the massive center. There were countless battles to fight and they would have all the fun they could.