---------LEGEND---------
PLAYER/USERNAME
Xia/Genevieve
-------------------------------
“Maybe not, maybe this time is the right time,” another female voice replied, but this one had youthful notes in her voice.
The room of the hut Xia entered was spacious, it had a large stone fireplace in which the fire was burning and bringing - she presumed - heat inside the house, there were two windows whose curtains were drawn, and in addition to some furniture that had to contain the necessary things for cooking and eating, there was a table whose three chairs were occupied by figures dressed in worn clothes, with their heads slightly bent forward and covered in cowls which allowed Xia to see only part of their faces.
Above their heads were floating names and data:
[Anais – (NPC)]
[Elanor – (NPC)]
[Claire – (NPC)]
Xia looked at them, Claire was the one who seemed the youngest of all and from the little she could see of her grey skin and white hair she must have been a Nightstalker, Elanor seemed more mature and from the color of her skin and hair - white with blue streaks - she concluded that she must have been a Frostbinder, while the last and older she had long, wavy blue hair that identified her as a Seafolk.
“Come stranger, come closer!” Claire encouraged Xia, beaming at her.
“We're not going to eat you!” Elanor added, covering her mouth with an elegant gesture to hide her giggle.
Xia approached the table, the trio raised their heads to observe her and after a while they nodded among themselves exchanging a few glances.
“Well, I guess it's time to give you what you need for your adventure,” Anais murmured, “come on, go get her. My bones are too old, you know,” she said without specifying who she was talking to, Claire snorted and stood up annoyed and walked away at a brisk pace to enter an adjacent room.
“You have a long journey ahead of you,” Elanor told to Xia, “while we wait for Claire to return, let your past and future be revealed to you,” she placed her manicured hands on her legs and bowed her head slightly, “you may already know of the events that led to the fall of the kingdoms of the world and the birth of the monstrous creatures produced by the effects of the Secret Magic, of the hero who defeated the darkness, sacrificing themselves in the process.”
Xia nodded.
“That hero was no ordinary elvreth, they were the physical manifestation of the desire of all kind-hearted elvreths to save the world, the realization of every dream and hope. Such souls are generated spontaneously, and you are one of them, the potential return of the ancient hero.”
It was clear that this was the in-game excuse to have each player in the position of being the chosen one and therefore justify armies of adventurers far stronger than any non-monstrous NPC in the game without taking away the role of 'protagonist' from anyone.
“Many have come to our door, wandering souls like you,” Anais said. She rubbed her chin with her wrinkled right hand, "our role as prophetesses is to give you what you need to prove that you're indeed the one who carries the soul of the ancient hero within you..." the elderly Seafolk giggled like a witch, “...know that many have already presented themselves to us, and none of them have succeeded in the task.”
Xia wasn't playing with the idea of becoming a famous champion or the strongest of all LotA players, and she had read in the reviews that although there was a primary quest to follow, the game itself didn't force anyone to do it and left extensive sandbox gameplay somewhat similar to MineBuild. Xia was more interested in the second option than the first, as she first logged in just to find a mild distraction from reality.
There was also a way to build a full fledged mansion! Xia was absolutely interested in that!
“I can see greatness in front of you, stranger,” Elanor spoke again, “but how you achieve it is something you and your actions decide, and remember: the people you help will remember you as well as those which one will you turn your back on or make suffer.”
Xia had read something about the AI system used in Legacy of the Ancestors, apparently they had developed a semi-conscious artificial intelligence with an algorithm capable of remembering the people they had interacted with and based on this players could receive discounts in specific shops, receive certain quests if treated well or complete full fledged side quests, or suffer price increases or become the targets of NPC bounty hunters if treated badly.
"Here I am!" Claire returned from the other room holding in her hands a small fairy creature that gave off a dim green light, no brighter than a candle. The little creature – no taller than fifteen centimeters – had a frilly dress with a V-neck, no sleeves and a skirt that opened in a flower-like manner halfway up the shins. She had emerald eyes and long green hair that went almost to her buttocks, decorated with tiny flowers. “This is your fairy guide, she will accompany you on your adventure. With her you will not only be able to manage your belongings but also see the map of the world you have explored, keep in touch with the adventurers you will meet during your journey, pray to the Ancient Gods for a miracle and many other things!”
“Oh, ah, I see,” yes, the fairy was basically the player's game menu, but how the hell do you make it appear?
“Claire…” Elanor murmured looking at the youngest of the prophetesses, tilting her head slightly towards her left shoulder.
“Mh?” Claire exchanged a look between Elanor and Xia, then gasped, “oh! Right!" She exclaimed, patting her forehead with her free hand, “to call back the fairy guide you must raise your right hand as I am doing, with the palm facing upwards, then you must focus your thoughts on her and on what you want to do. Once you have finished you just have to wish her to go away and close your hand again,” the young prophetess approached, holding out her hand as if she wanted to hand over the fairy to Xia, “here, turn the palm of your right hand upwards and bring it up to mine."
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Xia obeyed and extended her hand, turning the palm. The fairy clasped her hands behind her back and jumped from Claire's hand to Xia's.
[Fairy guide obtained. The game menu has been unlocked.]
Xia didn't know if the fairy weighed or not since her NexNet didn't have the ability to make her perceive the weight of objects, in any case, Xia didn't pondered too long about the question since in any case she wouldn't have been able to answer it immediately. Xia wished the fairy away and she responded by circling her with her little wings before vanishing into thin air.
[Primary mission completed. Rewards added to your inventory]
Oh! And here's the equipment!
“Good luck, adventurer,” Claire said with a smile.
“Have a great journey,” said Elanor.
Anais simply nodded at Xia.
Xia didn't blame the old prophetess for being rude just because she responded in kind. She left their hut and once Xia closed the door behind her she took a deep breath and raised the palm of her right hand as if she was about to look at something on her smartphone, then, Xia thought insistently about her fairy guide... and the little creature responded to the mental call by appearing in a half circle flying around her before landing in the palm of her hand.
Xia equipped the set of armor she had obtained and focused on the last of the items, 'Old Wayfarer's Rusty Weapon Chest'. That object was actually a chest to be opened and contained a weapon of your choice between a sword, a rapier, a claymore, a spear, a naginata, a katana, a scimitar, a dagger and a bow. Of all the weapons, obviously the one that tickled her the most was the katana, the weapon of every dark edgelord who, instead of meeting up with the rest of the party and introduce themselves, would go and sit in silence in the tavern in any first session of Labyrinths&Wyverns Xia had ever played.
Let's NOT be a straight forward edgelord, uh?
[You obtained the Wayfarer's Rusty Sword (x1)]
Unlike the rest of the equipment – which didn't appear on Xia's body, as all cosmetic options except weapons and four outfits and armor were locked behind a paywall – the sword materialized on the left side of her hip. Once this was done she opened the map and discovered that when the NPC said it would show her the map Xia had explored she meant it literally: the map was a black screen indicating two points, one made in the shape of a blue diamond and the other looked like an arrow pointing downward that Xia assumed indicated her position. She selected the first point as a destination and started walking towards it, maybe to discover the map she had to do like in Assassin's Belief and climb somewhere? Even in a game where she wouldn’t risk anything, climbing didn’t exactly inspired her… you don’t experience death or anything like that if something goes wrong, but the view of the ground quickly approaching you while you’re freefaling towards it yeah, you totally experience that.
It didn't take long for Xia to arrive in sight of her destination, the dirt road she was treading divided the grass like a solid brown river that passed right where Xia was going. From a distance of about sixty-five feet she saw that there was a column that remembered her of something from ancient Greece, surmounted by a large blue diamond that was floating and slowly turning on itself. Around the column there were some monsters with a vaguely spherical shape that when they moved reminded her of jelly, yellow in color with red polka dots and large white eyes that almost aroused sympathy in her, almost.
“The time has finally come!” Xia exclaimed eager to test herself. She drew out the sword and ran towards the trio of little monsters no bigger than a basketball, they turned towards her ready to react to her assault but the one Xia had targeted was still too slow: with her weapon brandished like a baseball bat, she delivered a violent blow from top to bottom.
[Minor Slima (Inferior)]
[Level 1 – HP: 78%]
Uh, it didn’t die.
And now she was also surrounded on three sides by the little monsters, who didn't seem to have overly appreciated Xia's entrance on the scene and the decision to accumulate a bit of EXP on their virtual existences.
Maybe an apology would suffice...?
The slimas decided to attack her all together, probably programmed for attacking in mass like in games such as Obscure Souls and Elden Bracelet. Xia hated those games, too frenetic and punishing for her.
[Genevieve]
[Level 1 – HP: 94%]
Ok, she had been hit but she was still largely in the game. Instead of trying to fight all the opponents at the same time, Xia focused on taking down one at a time: she swung the sword a bit like someone would swing a broom to chase away a hornet and somehow she managed to hit the slima again after the fourth attempt, mowing it down from side to side even though the game mechanic was to defeat the enemy after having consumed all its HP regardless of which hitbox were struck, even when the same type of damage would have been lethal to anyone in the real world.
[Minor Slima (Inferior)]
[Level 1 – HP: 65%]
It woud have been a long, long battle…
- - -
When she finally managed to deal the final blow to the third and final of the three slimas, Xia's health had dropped to 38% and she hadn't gained even a thousandth of the EXP she needed to reach the second level. Where the slimas had died was the loot of their bodies, and she was playing with a F2P account, so, as the seagulls in a classic film from the beginning of the millennium would have said... mine! Mine! Mine!
[Loot collected]
Yes, u-uh, perfect... she had no idea what she could have used those things for, at least Xia had an inventory capable of containing a thousand units of every item and it didn't have any kind of negative effect on filling it with anything that came to her grabby hand, so the incentive to be careful not to fill her pockets with useless stuff that would have lowered her agility or movement speed was absent.
Battered and mentally exhausted from the concentration of combat, Xia sheathed her sword and approached the column; about five feet away, the blue diamond began to glow.
[Map synchronization in progress. Don't walk away.]
…
[Sync completed]
Xia immediately summoned her fairy and opened the map: the shape of a peninsula was now available for consultation. “Mmh… let's see what the closest destination is…” she muttered to herself. Looking carefully she noticed the hut of the prophetesses and then further south a large city called 'Lavyella', it was difficult not to notice it since inside the map the location was indicated with a golden exclamation mark and two purple question marks, probably the primary and secondary missions.
Xia selected the golden exclamation mark as her destination, dismissed the fairy, and set off.