-Archie-

After leaving Dale in the kitchen I wandered back up to my room to log back into the game. He never said what his intentions were in RoI, but knowing that guy it was bound to be entertaining. I had always enjoyed both teaming up with and squaring off against him in the past. We always meshed so well when cooperating, Kayla and Alex fitting into their roles perfectly as well.

I had always been the analyst of the group, breaking down stats for min-maxing as well as ability ratings and gear. Kayla’s forte was skill technique and timing, her ability to use the exact item or skill at just the right time was beyond average. Alex was our support, both in game and out, and tended to stick to the role of healer or buffer when in game. Our strategist and point man was, of course, Dale.

Always he had a plan, but he always stuck to the rule of no plan survives first contact. That didn’t stop him from improvising on the fly, but it worked out every time in the end with our top tier group. The prospect of running with him again, and maybe even having Kayla join us, was thrilling.

The last few years had been good to me, paid advertising and tournament prizes have kept me well off till now and I enjoyed the aspect of pro gaming. Having Kayla along for most of that was great too, the woman being the closest thing to a sister as I had ever known. Even Dale may as well have been my brother from all the time we have spent together. Right down to the stupid fights we had all the time when younger, which only ever lasted until we slept on the issue.

I sighed and lay down on the table to my immersion device, cap attached to my head and making my scalp itch with the press of the material and prodding of sensors and diodes. There were things to do, and I still had to make another level according to Dale to fit into the plans. My caravan had a way to go yet, and one stop was in the city of Fairfield. Hopefully Kayla will have made up her mind by then and I could just add her into my party for the caravan.

Dismissing my thoughts, I heard Jensen’s countdown to log in, and found myself in the ready room. I smiled at the homey feel of the place, having decorated the room to look like the inside of a comfortable log cabin, fireplace and relaxing armchair before it included. The settings were easy enough to figure out, and while here I could access the internet through AR screens which made that chair so much better.

No time for relaxing at the moment, however, and I walked over to the doorway leading into the game world. Pushing the oaken door with the game emblem on it open, I stepped through to welcome the feeling of vertigo that lasted but a moment until I could open my eyes once more within Grendor, my home away from home. At least, that is how it felt to me. Everything seemed so much more vibrant here than in the real world, the sights and feelings seeming even more real than outside of the game.

I supposed that was my mind making sense of the situation, but I didn’t really mind at all. The game world was so intoxicating in its enjoyment factor that I really didn’t think I would be able to downgrade to basic VR games without a feeling of severe disappointment. No matter, there was a lot to do here with this game before I would ever think about picking up a different one.

As I took in my surroundings, I noticed that the carriage I had logged out in was moving steadily along now. It was still when I had logged out, still getting ready to leave, but the wagon train seemed to have gotten under way already. That worked out for me well enough.

The inside of the coach I had hired was small and cramped, barely room enough for four people to sit within, but the bright side was that I had the thing to myself during the travels. According to the caravan master, the trip was supposed to take about two full days of travel in order to make it to the city of Tyrith, with a stop for four hours in Fairfield.

RoI had an increased travel speed for caravans that somehow worked so they could cover distances in less time, while not seeming to go any faster. How it worked, I had no idea… But one could walk right alongside of the caravan the entire time, and still it would cover the ground just as quickly with the landscape passing by at what looked like a normal speed. If I had tried to walk the distance to Tyrith, it would have taken me two weeks to get there, and that wasn’t counting on all the mobs between me and my destination that would be looking to hinder me.

Fallon floated around slowly inside the carriage, apparently bored out of his mind with the monotony of the ride, even though I had just logged in. He really had a short attention span, although I had to admit he was by far more patient than I ever could be. Short -even by Fairy standards- at six inches tall, he had bright silver eyes and a shock of pure white hair on his head with a face that seemed pulled right out of some male model catalogue. His wings were like a butterfly’s, broad and translucent with veins of silver streaked throughout the white color of the membranes. All in all, he was quite an interesting creature.

“Come, Fallon. I think we should walk along outside and see if we can drop a few creatures while we travel. I need more experience and you look bored.” I smiled at the diminutive Fairy and popped open the side door of the carriage to hop out. It was a task to not stumble and fall when getting out of the moving vehicle, but the speeds were slow enough that I managed without eating the dirt of the road.

“Finally! Something to do. I was worried that you would sit there lost in thought the entire trip.” He flew out behind me and stretched his arms and wings out wide with a groan. “Zexceed, there is a rather large bear looking on curiously off the road there if you want a go at him.”

I raised a brow at the Fairy, then looked over to where he indicated. At first I didn’t notice anything, so I activated the skill Twilight Sight. It gave me the ability to see any living creatures around me in a thirty yard radius by outlining them in a faint silver glow that only I or Fallon could see. Having a Fairy with command over all the moons was really fun, if limited in these early levels. The possibilities were really quite high in the higher scale of things, but that was the joy of having a Divine or Unique Fairy.

“There it is. I got it. Shall we go and collect ourselves some loot?” At Fallon’s nod, I waved at the guards walking along with the caravan. “I am heading over there to take care of a bear. Will catch up in a moment.”

“Right, sir. Need a hand or do you want to have some fun with it?” The closest guard was one I had talked with before departing, and he knew I was going to try and get some hunting in while we traveled. Really a decent fellow for a basic NPC, and his level was 25 so I could reasonably just run back and let him or his buddies handle the bear if it was too much trouble.

“Nope, I will take care of it. May bring it back to you if it turns out to be too much for me though.” I grinned at him while he laughed and shook his head at my antics. Without waiting for any more, I motioned to Fallon to follow me and headed over to the large silver outline I could make out in the woods ahead of me. As I walked over, I called up Fallon’s sheet again to check up on his skills.

Fallon of the Six Moons

Level: 8

Type: Combat Utility

Born in the Well of Prayers, Fallon of the Six Moons is the Contracted bond partner of Zexceed. Upon entering the world, he has chosen dominion over the power of moonlight itself and can grant enhancing effects to others with his abilities.

Skills:

Lunar Weaponry: Spiked Knuckles

Twilight Sight

Moonlight Blades

Wrap in Night

Lesser Celestial Armor

All of the skills Fallon had learned so far had been quite good. The Spiked Knuckles skill gathered moonlight around my fists, condensing and solidifying them into weapons for me to fight hand to hand to quite good effect for fairly cheap mana cost.

Moonlight Blades was a much higher casting cost at 80 mana per blade, but it was my only ranged attack at the moment. The skill created an arc of moonlight that sliced through the air in a straight line however I wished to place it and dealt decent damage.

Wrap in Night was a pretty basic stealth skill that allowed me to get up close to an enemy so long as I wasn’t standing in direct sunlight, while Lesser Celestial Armor gave me just that, armor. The defense bonus from the skill wasn’t great at 20 points, but it was still in addition to my gear so it was a worthwhile skill to have.

Fallon was still working on his last tier three skill, but it was one that I really didn’t see a great use for as it only called down a pillar of moonlight to brighten a dark area. The one good thing to that skill was that I could still use it indoors or underground. It may be useful in the right situation, but so far I had been mostly above ground and in well-lit areas so I put it off to learn after the armor skill.

More than anything, I was curious as to his name. According to everything I read in real life and what I learned within the game said there were only five moons. Where the sixth one came in, even Fallon himself didn’t know. Fallon said he had a connection to the five moons in the sky, as well as another distant one that he couldn’t understand just yet. Perhaps at a higher level it would become clearer, but for now it was just downright frustrating.

My thoughts only lasted as long as it took me to close in on the bear which had turned towards me and chuffed out an annoyed sound. As I got within twenty paces of the animal, it growled savagely at me and stood up on its hind legs to tower over me. Really, it was quite large and my inspect skill showed me it was level 10. Not much of a challenge, but experience is experience.

Activating my Armor and Spiked Knuckles, I grinned and leapt in at the roaring brown bear. I focused my stats on strength, dexterity, and agility, planning on making myself a heavy and quick hitter with the skills I had at my disposal. My fortitude was a little low, having only 300 HP at level 9, but with my extra armor it wasn’t that bad. Since I wasn’t using an actual weapon, my energy levels actually lasted when in combat which added in to my needing less Fort.

When I got within five paces of the bear, I dove into a tumbling roll to avoid the first swipe of the animal’s paws and made my feet at the creature’s side. Putting my whole body into the strikes as my real life martial arts instructor taught me, I delivered three rapid blows to the exposed ribcage. My own skills added a huge boost to my damage, and with those three blows the bear was down to 30% HP already.

This had been my path so far. Hit hard, move, hit again, victory. My Unarmed Combat Mastery added to my attack speed and damage, and at level 5 had given me a higher Str stat calculation to each blow. I had experimented with the logs and weapons earlier on, and figured out that unarmed and one handed weapons each added in 25% of a player’s strength to the damage, while two handed weapons added 50% of the Str stat. Some exotic weapons added a bit more, but that was the general breakdown of the base bonus that I had seen thus far.

The bear roared in pain at my attacks, and swung his paw around to try and strike me on the back swing. My speed was pretty high at this point, and I countered his attack by punching at the incoming arm, the resulting snap and bellow of pain informing me the strike broke bones as it stopped the swing cold, as well as dropping another 20% of its HP.

I chuckled and finished the bear off, collecting the loot mechanically. If I had to put a finger on what I was building here, I would have to admit I took the idea from an old pen and paper RPG and pretty much built a Monk class. Fist weapons, lighter armor with skills to back it up, fast and strong. In a setting where I was actually doing the combat, this suited me just fine.

Despite being a bean pole in real life, I had trained in a few different forms of martial arts throughout the years in order to understand combat in games and excel at it. Most games had done their research on hand to hand combat, and as a pro level gamer I had to know what was going into the game I was playing in order to read my opponents as well as I could. In all, it translated perfectly into this game here where I was able to use all of what I had learned to top efficiency as my Str stat directly related to how much damage I was doing and not my physical real world body.

Heading back to the caravan, I fist bumped the guard I had talked to when I stepped up to him. “No worries, bear is gone. Thing was a push over really.”

“Hah! Poor dead bastard. Well, you are more than welcome to march along with us for a while and have some fun with the local wildlife.” He reached up and scratched his beard, eyes traveling along the roadside. “Also wouldn’t say no to you lending a hand in the case of a bandit attack. Not that many along this road, but rather be safe than sorry, if you know what I mean.”

I nodded to him and agreed, walking along and shooting the breeze with the NPC between breaking off to take out a few more bears. They seemed to be the local mob flavor here, mixed in with a large predatory cat I saw up in a tree but couldn’t reach.

The time passed quickly, and soon enough it was dark with three bright moons in the sky to light the way. Fallon relished in the feeling of the moonlight without the hindering rays of the sun to drown them out and I stayed logged in for a bit longer than I wanted to give him some time to enjoy it. Despite the Fairy being an AI, I wanted to make the little guy happy with the small things. Never knew when something would come up where he wouldn’t be able to enjoy the night sky for a time.

As the five hour warning began to flash on my UI to indicate the end of my session, I waved Fallon back over and we both headed into my coach in order to log out. I had gained a good bit of exp, and by my calculations I would hit level 10 on the road after leaving Fairfield at this rate. So long as the progression rate didn’t change as I broke into the double digits at least.

* * * * *

-Kayla-

I had woken up early to see a message on my pers-com from Archie. Seemed he was heading to my city and would be there some time in the late morning, his caravan traveling along through the night while he was logged out. That brought a small smile to my face but also caused me a bit of uncertainty. I knew what he was going to ask of me, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to travel to meet up with Dale in his providence.

It was a stupid thing, but I couldn’t deny the fact that my presence would probably cause Dale some distress. He had just gone through a horrible situation with his old girlfriend, and my own naturally flirty personality was sure to grate against the raw nerves of the bad break. Not that I didn’t enjoy the thought of going back to the old days of the two of us with our playful word games and casual flirtation… But that was back when I had a relationship and he was emotionally stable.

The thought of creating an endless stream of awkward situations was almost as bad as trying to change my base personality in order to avoid those situations. I bit my lower lip in thought as I went about my morning routine of working out in the gym, showering, eating and then logging back into the game. I would have to settle on a decision sooner rather than later, as Archie was going to arrive in short order.

Logging back in was a familiar experience at this point, and I welcomed opening my eyes to the virtual world of RoI. A flash of light to my left told me Celeste had popped back into this plane and I smiled at the Fairy.

She wore her long blonde hair loose about her shoulders, a tiny pink flower worked into the locks just above her right ear with those bright golden eyes set in a lovely face. Celeste was only a Rare grade Fairy, but the AI running her had just as much personality as Archie said his Unique Fairy had.

“What do you think about traveling to another province and meeting up with some friends from my world, Celeste? I am a bit on the fence with it at the moment, but your opinion will add to the scales of my pros and cons list.”

The Fairy flapped her white feathered wings to position herself in front of me, one arm wrapped across her middle while her other hand supported her chin in a pose of consideration. “Hmmm… Well, as you are asking for my opinion, I would say go for it. You are bored here, even I can see that. You finished all the tasks assigned to you easily, none of it giving you a challenge even though you are going solo.” The tiny face took on a hint of mischief as she winked at me. “Plus, you have been talking about your two friends a lot since we met. Lots of history there I would think.”

I bit my lip in the typical nervous habit of mine and shrugged. “Yeah, lots of history alright. At the same time, I see one all the time while I only saw the other once in a while over the past several years. Plus I told you he had just gone through what he had…” I broke off, feeling wrong inside for bringing it up yet again.

Celeste waved her hand through the air in dismissal. “So what? You trying to say he can’t use a friend now above all other times? I highly doubt he would spurn your friendship, and would probably be glad to have things go back to the way they were before he even met that other woman.” One slim finger was held up to stop me from saying anything. “But! I am also not saying that you should join up with them without leaving yourself an excuse to back out of it should you feel the need. Pick up a quest here that isn’t important and use that as a reason to drop out of their group and return if you are too uncomfortable.” She shrugged her shoulder as if it made perfect sense.

“Hmmm… I suppose that would work well enough then. Thanks for the advice Celeste. Even if you are just a puny little thing.” I smiled at her, the teasing tone in my voice carrying on the running joke we had going between us.

“Uh-huh. Let’s get moving, my giantess master.” I received a mocking curtsey from the Fairy which made me laugh. I adjusted my heavy plate armor so that it fit a bit more comfortably, then headed out of the inn room I had rented to make my way out into the streets of Fairfield.

The sun was shining brightly down on the city, the air pure and clean. Turning towards the main city gates, I reminisced on my game play so far. I had found Celeste really early on, and she fit my preferred playstyle perfectly. I always enjoyed playing a tank type role, the feeling of being indestructible always gave me a thrill in battle.

Strength, fortitude, and a small mix of intelligence and willpower for using my Fairy skills made me a wall of armor and strong enough to dish out a fairly impressive amount of damage. My armor was all high quality that I got from doing a chain of quests for the merchants of the city and gave me a damn impressive 70 armor, with my shield adding in another 5 plus a flat damage reduction of 15%.

Celeste gave me a decent healing skill to start off with. Then with second tier skills I got a Fort stat buff that lasted for one hour, a flat regeneration skill and finally skill that let me blind my opponents with a flash of light. Third tier only gave me one skill, but it was pretty damn useful even if it was the only skill on that level. Holy Smite added extra damage to my attacks at the expense of mana, at a ratio of 5 mana to one point of damage. The best part was that it was before my multiplier bonuses!

In all, the Celestial Fairy gave me just what I needed to be an indomitable force among the starting area. I was actually in the process of deciding how to get a quest to move on from here, as I had hit level 10 already with Celeste right behind me at level 9. Archie’s message and my Fairy’s advice had me wanting to collect the quest, but going on to Tyrith all the same and leaving my acquired quest to simmer on a back burner.

Before me, the gates of the city were bustling with activity with people milling about everywhere. There were no buildings within five hundred feet of the gates, making it a natural square for people to gather and set up little mats to vend their wares. This was the closest thing to a market in the city, Fairfield being more of a laid back setting where NPCs set up their shops in the open, hand carts behind each area which the owners used to move their goods back and forth.

It was a nice set up, honestly. All the vendors gathered in one location to make it easier for the players and other NPCs to do their business and get back to their tasks. Fairfield had the largest player population it seemed, the players here having gone through all two hours of the Glade of Trials to do every stupid and annoying task the old man had for them.

No extra bonuses were given, but this was the zone for the people who liked to follow all the rules to the letter, as well as the noobs to gaming who had no idea that most players skipped tutorial zones. Personally, I had used the tutorial to get used to the game itself, and when I logged into the main world I had flown through all of the tasks that were assigned to me.

I heard that those who didn’t stay for the whole tutorial were gaining stat bonuses by figuring things out for themselves, but I hadn’t been able to confirm that yet. I wasn’t complaining in any case, my hard mode starting stats more than making up for the couple points of stats I missed by getting taught everything.

Fairfield had a few other hard mode players, although none of them were part of Dumadine Technology’s team where I was now living. I had met several players over the last couple days and enjoyed chatting with them and joining on some quests when I met a group struggling in the woods.

Over all I was quite impressed with RoI and the feel of realism the game had to offer. Going solo was a bit boring, as I was used to always having someone to talk to even if it was my opponent. Trash talk during one on one gaming could never be looked down upon and that wasn’t even counting the friendly banter when my opponent was a friend.

A line of wagons entering the large main gates drew my eye, and I noticed Archie walking along and chatting with one of the guards. I had to laugh a little at that. Archie was normally an introvert, but when he found someone he liked he would talk their ear off for hours on end, and he was personable enough that they enjoyed it too!

Walking over to greet my friend, I noticed his character name and smiled. Zexceed. The same name he had used for almost every game he had played in the past. I was at least creative enough with my naming that I rarely ever used the same name twice, but the guys I knew always stuck to their favorite. I had to admit, it did give their fans a link between their characters and them easily enough, but being female my fans followed me no matter what character name I used. It was a bit on the disturbing side, but I dealt with it.

“Hey there Zexceed. Have a good trip so far?” I waved at him and smiled at the guard who did a double take at my appearance. I had to admit, it was rather odd. I wasn’t super model beautiful, but I was definitely well above normal in my looks and when you added that to a massive set of steel armor I was quite the sight. Plus, the armor did a lot to hide my figure so that when I had my helmet on I didn’t draw undue attention.

“Hey there Kay… I mean, Serena.” His cheeks flushed slightly in embarrassment at the slip up, lips quirking in a smile of apology. It was bad form to call people by real names in the game world, at least out loud. In text it was never an issue, but other people could overhear spoken greetings. “Yeah, trip is going good. Have you decided to join up then?”

I eyed his Fairy with a small smile, catching the red color of the name and shook my head at his luck. “Yeah, I have some stuff going on here, but I can set it aside for a time and go with you. I have to admit, it will be nice to get most of the gang back together for a time.”

“Good, good! Here, let me send you a couple requests now that we are face to face. Hate how I have to be in line of sight to do all of this…” He seemed to freeze up for a moment as he went through his windows, then finally a couple boxes opened up in my view.

Player Zexceed has sent you a friend request.

Accepting this will allow you to private message the player, and them you. In addition, you may see each other’s location on the mini map.

Accept?

Yes / No

Player Zexceed has invited you to his party.

Accepting this will give you access to the party chat as well as giving access to see any markers a party member has created.

Accept?

Yes / No

I quickly accepted both requests and gave Archie a high five as soon as I saw his name and bars just under mine on the top left of my UI. “Perfect. Now, let’s go get a drink while the caravan gets set up. I can’t see this trip being horribly entertaining, but the end result should be enjoyable hopefully.”

Archie smiled and nodded at me, slipping his arm around my shoulders in a friendly way, hamming up the RP portion of the game. “A grand plan my dear! Let us be off for ale and wine with a dash of food to round our lunch out!”

I couldn’t hold back a laugh as we went on, chatting over stupid stuff and just enjoying the company of a longtime friend. It wouldn’t be long before we got on the road, and I wanted to enjoy the relaxation for as long as possible. The trip would only take a day apparently, but that was a day I could have spent leveling up instead. Time would tell if this would be a waste or not, but I was certainly hopeful.