***
“Don’t give me shit yet!” (Kohaku)
*Click*
The town’s population is diverse from the elf that ran the blacksmith-
-BZZT-
***
Hotaru flicks her hand towards the table and drags out a mountainous pile of chips from the aether.
“Thank you, lovelies.”
Kohaku’s eyes fixed on a certain location looked back to his companions, even whilst being phlegmatic, they were unable to conceal the waves of their concern crashing into him. The smile on his face only leads those waves to become comparable to a tsunami.
“I-I’m fine!” He waved his hand across his face, seeming to bring a sense of relief to them.
“I’m glad.” Makoto pulls out a bag of chips from the pile before tapping on his cosmic throne and a prismatic tablet made of crystal slides onto his lap.
“Look, I get the need to feel like you must rush things but, that destroyed the whole point of us having the orb project what’s happened. We can’t just watch you zip from place to place with no context.” (Hibiki)
“…” (Kohaku)
“You’re doing fine as is. Just take your time with it and please be in the moment with us. I’d rather you not get to the part you want than feel like you need to speed up to get there. It’s a lot we have to go through anyways. Relax a little.” (Hibiki)
“...Right…” (Kohaku)
*Crunch, Crunch*
“Mm-...Hey, you never mentioned what we’d do for this portion, do you have any ideas?” Happily munching the crispy thin slices of goodness upon their entrance to her mouth.
“What do you mean?” (Hibiki)
“Time.” (Makoto)
“...” (Hibiki)
“... Give me a moment please.” Hibiki promptly stood up from his chair, walked further back and the door appears out of nowhere, gently closed the door on his way out.
We all watch as the door visibly quakes, the sounds of its dense, sturdy material beginning to crack under the force along with the occasional muffled-
“FUCK! FUCK! AHHHH!”
Cracks grew like foam capsule animals in the water. Contorting and bending at odd angles before the rumbling came to a halt.
“Pfft! I think you could keep going, Ha-ha!” (Hotaru)
“I don’t want to imagine what the other end looks like…” (Kohaku)
“You and me both,” Makoto replies before biting into a potato chip.
*Click*
I could get to the job board pretty quickly, I saw a few other players Elves, Humans, and Beastkin. It wasn’t really helping though; I didn’t know what everyone else chose.
‘Oh, wait… If I’m going to be playing again, I better be familiar with what I could do now.’
“Status”
A light blue panel appeared before my eyes.
Player | Traits | Skills | ???
Name: Hiro
Pronouns: He/Him
Race: Hobgoblin
Class: Monk (Lvl.1)
HP: 100/100
Str: 12 (2)
Dex: 6 (4 + Racial)
Int: 1
Wis: 3 (1+ Racial)
Cha: 2
Stm: 6
End: 4
Stamina: 60
Attribute Points: 0
Status: [Normal]
—
Traits
[Athletic]
With a conditioned body, you’ll have an easier time maneuvering.
-10% Stamina Use
—
The two additional points we get from our racials are able to go in one of the four randomly selected stats the game assigns to us, so it was difficult to have your character build match someone, to the tee.
I chose to boost my Dexterity to be light on my feet and gave the other to my Wisdom since it was better than Charisma or Strength, besides if I wanted to be a monk, Wisdom was going to play an important role.
It was fun remembering just how many players were vexed about it on the forums.
From the 5-7 vessels I saw around, there wasn’t anyone of note. Not to mention that the classification didn’t become much clearer aside from the weapon someone was carrying.
‘Weapon… AH!’
I clicked one of the small tabs to the right with an icon in the shape of a bag to get a good look at my inventory.
1x Beginner’s Armor Pack (Monk Lv 5)
1x Beginner’s Weapon Pack (Monk)
1x [ Unidentified]
Traits were a game-changing factor that made copying a build nearly impossible. You could have an affectionate rogue have a better connection to wildlife than a irritable summoner.
Skills
—
[Darkvision (Passive)]
Punch [Lv 1] [-]
Kick [Lvl 1] [-]
Dash [Lvl 1] [-]
—
I was glad to see things we just as nostalgic, I couldn’t wait for the forums to open up to see how many people were pissed about only getting access to the armor at level 5. For now, I opened the Weapon pack and pulled out a set of gloves and a long wooden stick.
Worn-out Wrist Wrappings (Gauntlet)
+1 End
I just shoved the stick back into my inventory because now I could PUNCH STUFF! It was a bit of a problem that we couldn’t get any boost to our starting gear, but it just emphasizes how much our assignment to our Total Attribute points, TAP for short, played a role early on.
Afterward, I clicked on the tab above my inventory with an icon in the shape of a gear for User Settings to ensure I’d be all right, Pain Sensitivity was set at 20% as usual, then there were the Gore settings.
All Ages
—
No content objectionable to most parents may go beyond polite language but no swearing. Scenes of gore or blood will be presented as pixels. Any scenes of nudity are natural and non-sexual.
(May restrict players from entering high gore and nude areas unless a Guardian or parental figure is present.)
13+
—
May include references to such actions of nudity or gore, humor may be crude/ suggestive and lean into mature themes. It’s optional for gore to be presented as pixels whiles scenes of intense violence are skippable by the user, Guardian,or parental figure.
18+
—
Mature themes. No restriction on graphic violence and gore. Any element of nudity, gore, and explicit language will be present. Obscenity is optional and varies from the player’s preference.
(Provide warning and restricts the player from areas involving any element they’re uncomfortable with.)
All my memories were hazy, but I could make out a few details here and there, even trying to remember my age was giving me a headache. It’s somewhere in my 20s… I think. Luckily enough, nothing was grayed out.
I confirm with it being 18+ and clicking a certain…checkbox. After which, I closed the panel and started on my way with 20 minutes to spare.
Walking past the wooden building on the northern outskirts that looked worse for ware, I wandered off the wooden dirt trail into the dense forest. One of the taglines I could remember for Avril was “Wake your own path.”
It was so funny, their partnership with Somnia… Hahaha… ha…
*Click*
***
“C’mon…” (Kohaku)
“A loss is a loss.” (Makoto)
“Should’ve thought about it before betting.” (Hotaru)
“Ugh, fine…” (Kohaku)
*Click*
***
Ahem, I didn’t just do so randomly. It was like a chill at the back of my spine, I felt like I was fading in and out of consciousness. I managed to hobble and lean against a tree before my senses returned to me.
The sun in the sky only kept the shadows looming over the forest, and birds squawk. I made sure to keep a watchful eye on my surroundings. Like I said Livra only stayed this way for 30 minutes, what people may not realize is that a lot of things weren’t active. The environment is stagnant with the sun and a halt in the sky. It was an interval of creatures who are nocturnal going to rest while those diurnals would have just begun to stir to start their day.
Meaning that it was the perfect time to survey the land without provoking either. I made my way towards one of the older trees of the forest marked with a black ribbon on its lowest branch. It took a while to find out, but in each direction around a starting village, there would always be one of these deep in the woods.
I wasn’t too sure of why, but I knew that there would be a couple of hidden items within them…. Emergency trees! That’s what it was!
Whenever a resident who’s done their part in the forest would be harmed, the forest would try to send aid in any way they could. I slowly moved my arm around the rugged bark until I reached the cavity below its center.
Not so far, I froze once hear a low snarl. I couldn’t note how much time had passed but the same wooziness came over me, my sight wasn’t my own anymore.
Staring at the sun overhead the figure moved an arm over to an amulet around their neck. A picture of a young girl with black hair.
“I- I’m going… to get… back to you…” The figure’s voice began to drift off.
I didn’t know if there was where, I didn’t know what the situation was, all I knew was-
‘There’s gotta be something I can do!’
*Click*
