Chapter 1:
Shadows cast themselves upon the earthy, forest floor. The grunts and growls of beasts echoed eerily throughout the environment.
In the middle of this gloomy place appeared a distortion. The air shook and shivered, before a hole ripped its way through the fabric of the universe. From this hole, emerged a girl.
The girl, Vee, tilted her head as she glanced at her surroundings.
“Where am I?” she wondered, slightly taken aback. Just a few moments ago she had been in the ceremony room. She nervously twisted the ring located on her right index finger. Before she could take any further actions a voice rang out through the forest.
“Greetings ring-bearer.”
Vee turned her head towards the source of the voice. Standing in front of her was a shadow. No, to be more precise, it was a man wrapped in shadows. Other than the gender, Vee couldn’t detect any attributes that might give a clue to the creature’s appearance. It sent a shudder down her spine.
After a moment, the shadow man interrupted Vee from her reverie.
“Give me your ring,” the shadow man said. For some reason his order sent alarm bells through her head.
“What?” Vee asked, confused. She just got the ring, now someone wanted to take it away?
Before she had the chance to reply further, the shadow leaped at her with stunning speed.
Vee immediately panicked and threw herself to the side.
“Wait, stop!” she yelled, scrambling to her feet. She formed a placating gesture with her hands.
“I’ll give you the ring. Okay?”
The shadow ignored her, lunging at her once more. Vee’s eyes went wide, she turned around and started running with all her might. She tugged at the ring on her finger, quickly realizing that it couldn’t be removed.
She ran through the forest, dodging fallen logs and trees.
“Does this forest ever end?” she worried. After running for a dozen minutes she stopped, gasping for breath.
“It’s no use. I can’t escape,” she quickly turned around, coming face to face with the shadow-man.
“Why are you chasing me?” she demanded.
The shadow-man offered no response, it simply closed in on her.
“Don’t get any closer!” Vee yelled. The shadow-man ignored her.
When it was a couple feet away from her, Vee remembered her ring.
“How do I use this thing?” she wondered, quickly growing panicked. She held her hand out in front of her.
“Activate!” she yelled, “Attack! Start! Fire! Shoot!” Her commands were no use, the provided no response.
“Am I going to die?”
It was then that Vee realized something obvious.
“I didn’t choose an offensive pattern!”
Rings could be branded with one of six different patterns: intelligence, strength, dexterity, constitution, willpower, and perception.
They also could hold one of six different elements: fire, water, wind, earth, light, and darkness.
Vee had chosen a wind ring of perception. It was a scouting tool with no real offensive ability.
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Vee grit her teeth. With a last ditch effort, she concentrated and began thinking of words related to perception.
“Detect!” she shouted.
A gust of wind immediately shot from her fingertips sweeping through the air. It gently touched the shadow-man and the surrounding trees before dissipating.
“That’s all?” Vee though, astonished. However, before she had the chance to lament, the shadow-man howled in fear. It snarled at her before turning around, retreating into the forest.
She gaped in astonishment. Such a gentle touch had scared him off?
“What just happened?” she asked, her mouth still open in surprise.
After taking a few moments to calm herself, she let out a sigh.
“This is just too weird.” She grumbled, shaking her head.
She took a moment to stare down at her ring.
“How disappointing,” she sighed.
“Detect!” she yelled again.
The wind picked up once more, it twirled through the air before spreading through the trees. Just as she was about to try again, she felt the presence of someone through her ring.
Vee paused in surprise, “Another person? Where?”
Just as she asked the question, the sound of footsteps rang out.
“Hello?” a voice asked, “Anybody out there?”
As the voice drew closer Vee noticed something on the ground out of the corner of her eye.
“A ring? Did the shadow-man drop it?”
With some slight hesitation, she quickly picked up the ring and slipped it into her pocket. She then turned her attention towards the other person in the forest.
“Who’s there?” Vee asked, on guard. She wasn’t sure where she was. For all she knew, the man would attempt to rob or kill her.
A man walked out from between two trees. On his right hand were three rings that glowed with a red light.
Vee’s eyes went wide when she saw the rings, “A rank 60 ring-bearer?”
A ring-bearer’s rank could be calculated based on the amount of rings they had. A person could get a new ring every 20th rank. No one was sure what the limit was, there had never been a person to exceed rank 200.
The man scanned Vee with his eyes. When his gaze reached her hand, a confused expression appeared on his face.
“How did you get this far in the Forest of Decay? This area is forbidden to anyone under rank 40,” he said with a stern voice.
“I…I teleported here from Halaya,” Vee said, telling the truth. She figured there was no harm in letting the man know.
A taken aback expression appeared on the man’s face, “You teleported here from Halaya?”
Vee nodded.
“How did that happen?”
Vee shook her head, “Something went wrong during the ring ceremony.”
“That’s bizarre,” the man said, his eyebrows creased in thought “Want me to take you there? It’s not too far.”
Vee sighed in relief. It didn’t look like the man was a threat.
“Yes please.”
“Follow me and be careful, it’s dangerous here,” the man said with a smile.
“By the way, my name is Darius. What’s yours?”
“Vee. Nice to meet you,” she replied courteously.
The man grinned before a serious expression appeared on his face. He unsheathed a sword from a scabbard at his side and began walking forward. Vee followed him carefully from behind.
As they were walking in silence a rustle from the bushes quickly grabbed their attention. Without any other warning, a massive creature burst out from cover. It reminded Vee of a tiger, except it was completely covered in metal armor that sported sharp points.
“An Armored-back Reaver,” Darius muttered, “This’ll be tough.”
“Flame ego! Resilience of Ash!” he shouted. His sword and armor immediately burst into flames at his command.
“Two willpower patterns!” Vee internalized. Weapon and armor enchantments were the trademarks of a willpower ring.
The Reaver let out a ferocious roar before leaping towards Darius. Giant claws half a foot long swept forward. Darius stepped to the side, slashing the beast with his sword. Sparks flew off of the Reaver’s armor as the sword made contact.
“Damn,” Darius cursed, quickly dodging backwards as the Reaver’s claws headed towards him.
Darius glanced at the third ring on his finger, a look of determination appeared in his eyes.
“Ember Skyfall!” he roared. At his voice the air began to tremble, the sky turned red and the scent of smoke filled their nostrils.
All of a sudden thousands of sparks of fire filled the air, raining towards the Reaver. Panic immediately filled its eyes. It attempted to retreat but the hail of flames was too fast. It engulfed the Reaver, causing it to emit roars of pain as it was cooked from the inside of its protected covering.
Vee’s eyes went wide in admiration.
“An intelligence pattern! Such a powerful offensive ability!” Intelligence patterns were characterized by powerful spells.
As the air cleared, Darius staggered. It was obvious that his attack had drained him.
“That was tough,” he smiled weakly, “We better get moving before something else appears.”
Vee nodded, quickly catching up with him.
“Actually, wait a second,” Darius said to her, “It would be a waste to leave the beast here without extracting it.” Darius knelt beside the corpse of the Armored-back Reaver. He pulled a metal rod out of his pocket and traced a pentagram in the air over the beast’s body.
“Extract!” he shouted. Immediately, red wisps flew upwards from the beast into the center of the pentagram. They swirled in the air before solidifying into a small disc the size of a fingernail.
“A strength pattern!” Darius said in disappointment, “I can’t upgrade my ring with this!”
He stared at the ring a little longer, it began to shake and then with a ping, it disappeared.
“If it was an intelligence or willpower pattern I would have been able to advance to the next rank,” he said sadly, “Oh well. Let’s get out of here.”
He and Vee then headed towards the exit of the forest.