BING!

“Clemiticus and his splendiferous party have completed the quest chain! Congratulations!”

“Each party member will be awarded with one million gold pieces!”

“Hell YEAH!” Clemiticus shouted, as he jumped into the air.

A light flickered in the sky as gold coins rained down. Their shiny surfaces caught flashes of light from the new day sun as Dawn crept over the horizon. Melly’s jaw dropped as a literal sea of wealth fell all around them. Even the recent addition to the party, Helen, was showered with glittering prizes.

Clemiticus looked far happier than Melly had ever seen him. He finally got his loot. He jumped for joy, skipping through the falling treasure like it was rain.

“Doesn’t that hurt?” she asked.

He ignored her singing the words, “I’m singing in the loot! I’m singing in the LOOT!”

She stood back with the others and watched the simpleton get pelted by metal. They comfortably waited for the possibly deadly projectiles to stop before they approached. Melly caught the image of her defeated mother creep towards the gold with a greedy expression plastered over her face.

“Mother? What are you doing?”

Tanwen dived for the treasure.

“Hey that’s ours!” Clemiticus said.

Bing!

“Error! Unknown character has been reported for stealing. Any cheating will not be tolerated. Implementing ban,” Fairy said in a mechanical voice.

Tanwen ignored the fairy and continued to grope towards the gold. Her eyes caught a glimpse of a shower of pixels surround her. Each time a pixel touched her skin, a section of her body disappeared. And then she was gone.

“Character: Tanwen has been banned,” Fairy sang.

Dog shook his head disapprovingly. “Naughty crazy lady!”

“Well, anyway,” Derrick said, ignoring the disposal of his ex. “One question, I appreciated the gold but how are we going to transport all of it?”

“I hadn’t thought of that,” Melly admitted.

“Oh, that’s easy!” the Queen looked confident. She gathered some of the fallen gold and flipped it up, opening a slit in her black dress and held out a small leather pouch to catch it. The pouch looked no bigger than her palm but as she swept up more of the gold, it was apparent that it could fit much more.

“Oh, that’s right,” Melly said. “Clem's pockets are special. I take it all players have that lucky perk.”

The Queen nodded. “Well, in this current game, it seems so. I think between the two of us we can carry it all.”

“So Melly what you going to buy with your gold?” asked Clemiticus.

“A new house!” she said. “A big mansion with a pool. Maybe I’ll get Thea to design one for me?”

At those words, a magical crack opened in the sky and a giant ship flew from in between time and space. The ship, for some reason, was on its side and quickly righted itself. A few people yelled some unintelligible words, and the boat floated down beside them. Thea was first to jump off and join the others slowly followed by the Thaumaturge. They both looked ecstatic.

“Holy shit, you missed a crazy undead fight!” Thea said. “We used the plant dudes and head butted the boat into a god! What you guys do?”

“Melly shot the lava guy in the eye,” Clemiticus answered.

“Nice!” Thea said, punching Melly in the shoulder.

Melly rubbed her arm and asked, “How’s the King?”

Thea’s face went red. “He’s ah, he’s good!”

“Good at a lot of kissy things!” Nuecus confirmed.

“Shush you!”

The old thaumaturge grinned.

“Nice job Thea!” Clemiticus said.

An odd wail tore their attention. “Your Majesty!”

They all turned to see the servant Nugget hobble his way towards them. Under his arm was a large, ornate chest. “I got the box Mistress!”

“Good,” Helen replied. “Set it down there.”

The servant plonked it down and Helen gathered her skirts.

“AH, here it is.”

She produced a key and opened the chest. Inside were dozens of large glowing spheres. Gods captured in orbs of every flavour. Thea handed her death god over cheerfully while Helen quickly scooped up the other two orbs and threw them into the chest.

Click!

“That should do it!” Helen said.

“Um, guys?”

“What is it now?” Melly asked turning to Clemiticus.

He was pointing to something in the air. “What’s that?”

Far above them, past the clouds in semi-transparent grey letters, was a timer:

13 days 23 Hours 55 minutes 12 seconds.

“Is that what I think it is?” asked Thea. “I mean, didn’t the developer guy say a bunch of people are going to enter the world?”

Clemiticus nodded. “New areas are also going to be unlocked with them.”

Bing!

They all turned towards the fairy. Its expression, for the first time looked sad.

“Heroes! It has been an absolute pleasure to work with you!”

“Wait buddy! You’re leaving me?”

It shook its head.

“No master, my fine friend. It is you who are leaving us.”

Yellow text flashed above their heads that read:

Thank you to all who have helped test the Fanswald Online system!

Your help in securing the optimal rates of balance has contributed to creating a memorable experience. New players will enjoy this land full of fun fantasy all because of your efforts.

“Um, you’re welcome I guess?” Clemiticus said.

“Uh oh! What’s that?” Melly pointed to a timer that floated above her father’s head. Her eyes darted and noticed more numbers above all the others including non-party members.

“You got one too,” her father said, pointing.

She looked up. It was counting down from twenty.

Oh shit, not again.

“Goodbye heroes! Nice to meet you all! I hope I will see you again soon.”

Nugget held the chest of gods tightly, looking concerned. “Your majesty? What do I do with this?”

“Leave it to me! I will give this to the great tree for protection!” Fairy replied.

“Are my friends leaving?” Dog asked.

Another countdown appeared above the floating whale. The fairy saw Melly’s puzzled expression.

“Don’t worry Melly the furious Dog is a companion, and he’s connected with you.”

The floating whale smiled. “See you soon buddies. Good morning!”

9. 8.

“Where are we going Fairy!” Clemiticus asked.

6.

“I don’t know master, sorry!”

5.4.3…

“Goodbye heroes!”

1.

Melly’s vision went dark.

She was floating in a sea of nothingness. It was if her entire body had been shifted into the void and her mind had been separated from the physical plane.

A giant box floated before her. It was blue with bevelled edges. Gold text flashed with cursive overly dramatic writing.

Welcome to World of Fanswald!

She did a double take. The flashing lights were accompanied by a string of music. A fantastical theme song.

“Welcome, please enter, character name!”

On instinct, she wrote out her actual name.

Melly.

“Checking name availability. 3. 2. 1. Name available. Confirm?”

“Yes!”

“Thank you, M. E. L. L. Y.”

Bing!

“Please select a class!”

A range of options flooded her vision such as pirate, warrior, bard and tinkerer. Her eyes fell on the one she had grown to love.

“You have selected Ranger, are you sure?”

“Yes!”

“Ranger selected. Now please select race.”

Select race? But I’m human!

“Viewpoint selected: Third person.”

The system ignored her mental protest and overwhelmed her with options. Each time she hovered over a race; an avatar appeared before her. Each option modified a model of her original body and face with a new flavour. The orc option turned her body green and gave her enough muscles to use Clemiticus as a baseball bat. The dwarf option made her short and shout with a beard, while the ogre one looked so grotesque it made her feel ill.

Each option looked more bizarre than the last. She cycled through the Mermaid, Merkin, Stone warrior, undead warrior, and wood servant options without lingering. She finally found the human option but noticed there was one more.

Curiosity made her go just a little further.

Sleek and elegant. Beautiful, powerful, and bold.

Her body and face had transformed into perfection. With pointed ears and blonde, gorgeous hair, she selected ‘Elf’ and pressed accept.

“Melly has selected race: Elf.”

The avatar disappeared and Melly blinked once to find that she had become an Elf. Her eyes drifted over her perfectly painted nails and flawless skin. Another timer appeared before her and a giant wall of text that read: Terms of service. She read the first three sentences and paused.

Boring!

She scrolled through the lengthy document without reading and quickly pressed accept.

Bing!

“Thank you, new player, Melly. Early access to Fanswald Online begins in 3. 2. 1.”

The darkness fell away and sunlight flooded the space. When her eyes opened, she found she was in a large open field with vibrant green grass. In the distance were trees and what looked like strange, round creatures. They were semi transparent and bounced randomly in random directions.

Pop!

Melly turned to see a remarkably handsome and tall blonde elf materialise beside her. Large green letters floated above him.

“Clem!” she shouted. “What the hell is going on?”

“Hey! Don’t look at me! I don’t make the rules. And BTW, you look great!” He whistled.

She looked down at herself. She couldn’t disagree. Melly looked as perfect as a picture.

“Where do you think the others are?” she asked.

Clemiticus stared, admiring her. Distracted, he put his hand into his pockets and shrugged. His face turned ashen. He fell to his knees and raised his fists into the air, pleading.

“NOOOOOOO!”

“What’s wrong?”

“Melly!” he sobbed. “The gold. My loot! It’s all gone!”

She sighed and turned to gaze at the horizon. Whatever this world was about to throw at her she knew she would be just fine. Even with her idiot companion and his insatiable lust for loot nothing would stand in their way.

Melly heard scratching behind her as her loot incensed friend clawed at the dirt mumbling.

“Where is it? It’s got to be around here!”

Why am I still following this crazy fucker?

Melly sighed.

>END OF PART ONE<