In Foria’s square, there was a small flash of light. When the light disappeared, it revealed Q who was looking at her surroundings. Wow, they sure finished repairing the square fast. The square looked exactly the same as it did before the event battle, and NPCs and players were moving about their business. Q heard a *ding* and then a large window appeared in front of her.
[System Update] - True World Online has been updated to version 1.5
* List of changes:
* A new stat has been added: [Resistance - Reduces the amount of damage taken from a magic attack.] Due to the new stat, all points players previously had in Defense will be removed, and players may freely distribute them between defense and resistance.
* Health and Mana scaling has been changed. Health will now start at a base of 50, and add on 5 health for each point in Vitality. Mana will now start at a base of 25 and add on 5 mana for each point in Wisdom. Damage values have been adjusted accordingly.
* Players now have a fatigue and satiety meter. Performing any action consumes fatigue, and once a player’s fatigue has been lowered enough they will be unable to take any further actions and must rest to restore fatigue. Satiety measures the hunger of a player, and can be increased through eating any consumable items (yes, even poison).
* Character Windows have become more simplified.
* The environment has become more dynamic. Creatures will no longer spawn within fixed time intervals, but will instead follow the area’s ecosystem and natural growth of the creatures themselves. Excessive hunting of creatures will now cause them to go extinct.
* Changes to looting have been made:
When an enemy has been defeated by a player, only that player may loot the body. If travelling in a party, money will be split equally between all members, and loot drops can be gambled on in various ways.
Players will now have to approach the body of defeated enemies and obtain loot by selecting to do so.
After 30 minutes the body will be able to be looted by any player, and the body will fade by itself after an hour if its loot is not collected.
An option has been added to allow players to manually receive items by carving them off creatures bodies. Must talk to hunters to obtain this ability.
* NPCs have been updated to have more variety in their speech and actions.
* Different spawn points can be selected by talking to certain NPCs in an area.
* A new item is available at all general goods shops: Cube of Companionship (Unique, Indestructible/Non-flammable) - A party leader who has this item can set it at any place they desire, allowing players within the party to spawn within the cube’s vicinity. Players logging in will appear beside the cube, but if the cube is inside a city, the player will spawn inside the main square of that area.
* Minor bugfixes have been made.
Time lag between players completing the tutorial and entering the world has been solved.
A glitch where players could constantly obtain profession experience from repeating the exact same action has been fixed (Try a bit of variety if you want to get good at something).
That’s quite an update… Though honestly, they should have implemented these things before they released the game. I wonder what the game designers were thinking when they made this world… Q decided to open up her friend list to send messages to those who were online, but was suddenly interrupted by a random player.
“Um… are you Scarlet Spark?” A pretty girl with mage robes asked.
“...Yeah.” Q answered slowly. I’m getting a bad feeling about this…
“Ohmygosh! It’s really you! Ever since I saw the video I became a fan!” The girl suddenly took Q’s hands and began shaking them. “What was the spell you used at the end? Can I meet White Flash and Violet Snack? What’s your real name?”
The girl began rapid-firing questions, and before Q could even think of answering one of them another player noticed her. “Hey look, isn’t that Scarlet Spark over there?”
“Where?”
“Whoa, it is her! Let’s go talk to her!”
Uh-oh. Q was about to leave the area but the girl holding her hand wouldn’t let go. “Um… could you please let go of my hand?” Q asked politely.
“Could you please answer my questions?” The girl smiled, but for some reason Q felt a terrible sense of danger. I need backup! Q went into her friends list and managed to send a message to everyone just before she was mobbed by a crowd of players. The message had only two words:
*****
The first ones to arrive at the square was Verne and Fortis, who were quickly followed by Neira and Baldur. “Excuse me, trying to get through here!” Verne yelled out as he shoved his way through the crowd. Fortis followed right on his heels and didn’t shove anyone, but instead created a magical barrier which kept the crowd from closing in. Neira caught up with Verne and began shoving people alongside him, while Baldur flat out began picking up people and throwing them. The four of them made their way over to the center of the crowd, where they spotted Q being touched all over by various players.
“S-stop! Don’t be so rough with my fur!”
“Whoooaaa… is it even possible for something to be this soft?”
“Hey, your time is up on the tail! Switch with me!”
“Um, could you possibly tell me which spells you used during the battle?”
Q’s cries of protest were ignored as the players continued to toy with her body. She was mostly surrounded by female players who were all fighting for a turn to stroke her fur, while the males stood back as it seemed that they were intimidated by the girls feverish gazes. A few players seemed to only want to know what Q did during the battle, but their questions went unanswered as Q continued to be mobbed by players.
“Leave her alone!” Verne yelled as he reached into the crowd. Reaching around a bit, he felt an incredibly soft sensation, and instantly realized he was grabbing Q’s tail. He didn’t have time to think though, as another arm grabbed onto his and he looked up to find Q looking at him with pleading eyes. Verne nodded and grabbed onto her arm, pulling Q out of the crowd and then shielded her body with his.
“Hey! You can’t steal her!”
“That’s no fair. Wait for your own turn.”
Many protests came out from the crowd of players as they thought that Verne was hogging (and saw him hugging) Q to himself, but Fortis came in and pacified the crowd. “Everyone please back up for a minute. Don’t you see you’re scaring her?”
The crowd of players looked over at Q, who froze in place as she had no idea what to do. Fortunately Fortis was able to follow up on that anyway as he said “Look! She’s so scared that she can’t move at all! Please give her some space so she can calm down.”
With Fortis’ soothing voice the crowd slowly began to calm down as they took a few steps away from Q. Some of the people in the crowd were still unsatisfied as they began muttering in low voices.
“...I didn’t even get to ask her what spells she used.”
“Who does that guy think he is? Her boyfriend?”
“Unforgivable. For such a good-looking guy to hold our idol!”
“Death to handsome boys!” Someone in the crowd said.
“““Yeaaaaah!!!”””
Suddenly the crowd’s frenzy picked up again as the players (mostly males this time) surged forward. Sensing danger, Fortis quickly expanded his shield and kept the crowd away from them for the meanwhile. It was at this moment that they all heard a cough and looked back to find Neira and Baldur standing behind them.
“Hello again Q.” Neira smiled.
“Hey there lil’ lass, it seems you’re in a bit of trouble aren’t ya’?” Baldur wore a wide grin on his face as he looked at the surroundings.
“Hi Neira. Hi Baldur. I sure am in trouble right now. I didn’t think that having fans could be this crazy.” Q said with a wry smile. Now I know how Reid feels… she thought as she looked around her. Feeling a bit of resistance, she realized she was still being held by Verne. “Uh, can you let go of me now Verne?”
“O-oh right!” Verne instantly retracted his hands and blushed deeply. Q also scratched her cheek in slight embarrassment, which caused the crowd to get even crazier.
“Don’t flirt in front of us damn it!!!”
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“You dare sully our idol’s body with your filthy touch?! Death penalty!!!”
“Aaaah~, Q, your embarrassed expression is wonderful.”
“That’s super scary…” Q said while looking at the player’s expressions.
“What’s even scarier is that my shield won’t hold out for much longer!” Fortis said, which instantly caused everyone inside the shield to feel panic.
“Quick lass, come over here!” Baldur said as he gestured towards Q.
“Hm?” Q tilted her head, not understanding what Baldur wanted to do.
“I’m gonna throw ya’ over their heads! After that it’s up to you to get away, alright?”
“Are you sure you can do that?” Q asked as she raised her eyebrow in doubt.
“Don’t underestimate a dwarf’s strength lass. Now hurry up!”
“Okay. Thanks for this by the way.”
“Don’t mind it lass. It’s the least I could do for a fellow D&D member!” Baldur grinned as he lifted Q off the ground and prepared to throw her.
“Shield’s going down in 3… 2… 1… 0!” The instant Fortis finished his countdown, Baldur’s body glowed red as Q was suddenly thrown with extreme force over the heads of the crowd! Q was launched unbelievably high, and was headed straight for the roof of a building! She narrowed her eyes and tensed her body, as she cast [Gust] from her hand just as she was about to hit the building. The slight force shot out from underneath her body, giving her enough lift so she could put her hand on the roof, and her momentum continued as she made a handstand and was able to successfully land on the roof.
Once Q successfully stabilised herself she heard a *ding* and found that she had actually gained a stat in dexterity for doing that. She didn’t pay much attention to that though as she redirected her sight to the square, just in time to see Verne get swallowed up by the crowd of angry players. Strangely enough the players didn’t attack Fortis or the others, and instead all of their hate was directed towards Verne.
Your sacrifice will not be in vain, my good friend. Q saluted Verne in her heart as she watched him being torn to shreds (not literally) by the crowd. Neira noticed Q’s gaze, and responded with a look of her own that seemed to say ‘we’ll take care of him, so go ahead.’ Q nodded and ran away from the square, leaping across the rooftops of the town in an effort to get away from the crowd.
Once Q had gotten far enough, she sent a message to all her friends saying that she was fine, and was hiding near the Prim Roses hideout. Within a few minutes some familiar faces approached the area and greeted Q. Brie and Kukis were at the front of the group, followed by Sir Albert and the priestess in his party, as well as Melun.
“See Brie? I told you she’d be fine.” Kukis said.
“Yes, it is good to see you are well.” Brie smiled at Q. “Though I must say, your message worried me quite a bit, as you have never asked for help before this.”
“Haha, even I’d need help from a pack of rabid fans.”
“I suppose so. Hm? What do you mean by fans?”
“I mean that I somehow became famous because of a video Melun uploaded to the internet.” Q looked over at Melun to see she was twiddling her thumbs.
Melun rubbed the back of her neck as she let out a small laugh. “Haha, yeah. I didn’t think that my video would cause a reaction like this. But hey, last time I checked it had at least 4.5 million views.”
“4.5 MILLION!?” Sir Albert shouted. “How… when did you last check?”
“Mmm… I’d say about an hour ago in real time? People are going crazy to watch any video about TWO, and mine just happened to be super awesome. Especially with how spectacularly you three ended the fight.” Melun smiled as she remembered the ridiculous earth-shaking explosion at the end of the battle.
“I see… well anyway, thanks for worrying about me everyone. I got super nervous once the crowd cut off all routes of escape.” Q wore a distant look on her face as she tried to forget what happened after she was surrounded.
Suddenly the priestess snapped her fingers as it seemed she remembered something. “Oh yeah, where’s Baldur and the others? Everyone got your message didn’t they?”
Upon hearing this, Q went silent as she stared up into the sky and saluted. “Everyone stayed behind to let me escape, but the real hero was Verne. He sacrificed himself so that I could escape the clutches of the rabid fans.”
“Could you please not kill me off so suddenly?” A voice came from behind the group, and everyone turned around to find a roughed up Verne, followed by Fortis, Neira and Baldur.
“Hey, you survived!” Q wore a slightly apologetic look on her face. “Sorry about leaving you there though.”
“Haha… don’t worry. I didn’t take any damage from their hits, but we still got scolded by the guards for ‘disturbing the peace’. So… now what?”
“Hm?” Q tilted her head, not understanding his question.
“I mean you’ve got some fans looking for you at all times now. Are you going to lay low for a while or what?”
“Well… I do have plans to make my way to the Capital City Hales. In the meanwhile, I guess I’ll lay low, do a few quests… Actually…” Q opened up her inventory and began reading the note she obtained back in the Gemstone Caverns.
The Forest of Fog.
A road with no path.
The way is unseen.
[New Quest] - The Mysterious Note
[Objective] - Head to the Forest of Fog and investigate the area
“That’s… incredibly cryptic. Not to mention there isn’t even a failure condition or rewards for this…”
“What does the note say, Q?” Brie moved closer to read the note.
“Just some confusing lines. I also got a quest from it, so here.” Q shared her quest with Brie and Kukis, then turned to address the rest of the players. “So, it seems my next quest will bring me to the Forest of Fog. Do you guys know which direction that is?”
“As a matter of fact, I do happen to know which direction the forest is!” Sir Albert spoke up. “My companions and I are actually headed in that direction for our next quest!”
“Ahh, our next objective is in a different direction. Well, I guess we really will part ways here then huh?” Verne looked down and let out a sigh, as if coming to terms with separating with Q. The rest of the Crios blades also wore similar expressions, each of them looking mildly depressed.
“Don’t look so sad guys!” Q patted Verne on the shoulder. “Even if we separate now, we can always meet up again sometime! After all, our bonds aren’t so weak that they would be broken from splitting up for a while.”
“Well said Miss Q. Well said indeed.” Sir Albert nodded in satisfaction.
“I… Well, I guess you’re right. It’s just that I basically consider you three as part of our party, so if you ever feel like joining up with us again, you’re welcome anytime!” Verne smiled at the three girls who had made his team far more lively.
“That goes without saying, doesn’t it?” Q replied with a grin.
Verne nodded, and then began heading back with the rest of his party. A quick farewell ensued, then the Crios Blades set off to make their preparations for their next quest.
“Alright, so where’s the Forest of Fog anyway?” Q asked Sir Albert.
“It is to the east of the town, about 3 days walk. Or at least, that’s how far it is according to the townsfolk. We should all prepare supplies before heading out. Will you ladies be requiring any assistance?”
“Nah, we got it covered. So we’ll meet you guys back in the square in about an hour?”
“Of course. Fantasy Fighters, move out!” Sir Albert walked off with his team in order to prepare their own supplies for their travel.
“Well then, let’s get our preparations underway!” Q turned to her friends and began making plans for their next quest.
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A/N: If only this story could get as popular as Q does overnight...
Hah, just joking. Anyway, I'm finally back everyone! I wish I had multiple chapters to release for you guys, but I didn't really find the time to do so. At least I'm going back to my regular uploading schedule, although I might upload chapters on Sundays at times because I got a job. Funny, how after I finish school my schedule somehow gets busier.
Well, I digress. Hope you enjoyed the chapter, and anticipate more to come!
P.S: Verne's name change was one of the updates I made... not that it really matters that I changed that, but w/e.
Fun-fact: Teddy-bears are the most popular type of stuffed animals.