Proofread by: Daylius and Vikingstad

Year 2040

Feb 19, Sunday, 6 am

Ryu was having his morning jog through the nearby park, he had been jogging for an hour continuous now. The jog was not to work out his body but to ease his mind. Ever since the Draklake village disappeared in front of his eyes Ryu had been haunted by the memories of the place and his three masters. Every time he tried to hop on to the capsule he felt a fear in his heart, like it was chained. Whenever he closed his eyes the faces of Borin, Amber and Serin would seep into his eyes. Their disappearance reminded him of his father’s death, which too happened in front of him. Sometimes he cried, sometimes he got angry and sometimes he became emotionless.

His brain knew that those were not real men, but his heart had formed strong bonds with them. They had spent days together, like master and disciple, had often eaten together, laughed together, cried together. And before he could even tell how much he cherished them ,they disappeared. Ryu was now silently weeping in a park, his eyes shut, his heart broken. Ryu slipped into sleep without even him knowing.

---***---

Year 2028

May 13, Saturday, 12pm

Royal Palace of Khatri’s

“Dadi(Hindi word for Grandmother) why is everybody crying?” Ajay questioned his grandmother. He did not know what was going on. Their normally empty palace was now crowded by men and women in white. He saw most of them crying, some consoling the ones crying, even his mother and father were crying. It was the first time little Ajay had seen his parents in such a stage. His young mind could not grasp the idea. In order to satisfy his curious mind, the young boy had searched for his ‘all knowing Dada’ (Dada is Hindi word for grandfather) but got upset when he could not find his grandfather anywhere. The next person who came to his mind was his Dadi, and thus his search began. It did not take him long to get to the person he had been looking for.

His Dadi was sitting on his Dada’s chair with rudraksha beads (holy beads similar to rosary, used by Hindus) in her right hand, chanting a prayer as always. He had ran to her at top speed and then grabbed on her hand to get her attention.

“What is it Ajay bete?” the old woman asked with a smile on her face.

“Dadi why is everybody crying? “asked Ajay with an innocent face.

“Have you seen your Dada anywhere?”

“No” replied the boy nodding his head side ways, ”Where did Dada go?”

“Dada has went to meet Lord Shiva, Ajay bete. He will be staying with the lord. ”

“So I won't see him again?” his eyes became watery, the concept of not meeting his grandfather beginning to take its toll

in the little boy’s pure heart.

“No no bete, you must not cry. Your grandfather will be sad if you cry.”

“But but Dada” tears now rolling out the boy tried to speak. The old woman lifted the boy with both her hands and placed him on her lap, then hugging him from behind spoke.

“Ajay bete, some day you will understand. Crying over those who passed away is not a tribute but an insult to their

memories. Live. Live like they wanted you to. Live and bring them joy”

The boy could not understand what the woman was saying, his heart could no longer bear the pain of not seeing his

Dada again. And with a loud scream his pain flowed out with a cry.

---***---

Year 2040

Feb 19, Sunday, 6:30 am

Ryu woke up due to the sudden pat on his shoulder. Opening his eyes he saw an old man looking at him intently. Ryu had

tears flowing, which made the old man concerned. Wiping his tears Ryu smiled at the old man, getting up he then bowed

at the old man and apologized for sleeping to the old man. “Joesonghamnida”(Korean for sorry) and walked past the old

man. The dream of his Grandmother had given him strength to move forward. He now perfectly understood what his

grandmother had said then.

‘. Live. Live like they wanted you to. Live and bring them joy’ repeating the phrase in his mind he ran and ran with a smile

as bright as the morning sun.

After a good 15 minutes Ryu was at his house, he finished his bath and breakfast in 30 minutes and without wasting any

more time he jumped into the capsule “Here I come DL, dive in!”

---***---

Shiv returned to the same spot that he logged out from, at the place which had a huge gate before, gate to Draklake. Now there was nothing but a vast valley .

‘Farewell my friends’ with a silent prayer, Shiv turned back and walked. He had walked for 10 minutes when he felt the

space around him distort slightly. ‘Some kind of barrier? Teleportation?’ he kept walking and walking. One hour passed

and the land around him felt somewhat different, there were trees around him suddenly. It was like the valley changed into forest in an instant.

‘Maybe I should check out the map to see where I am’

“Map” and a huge panel opened up in front of him. Just as the forums had said there were 11 kingdoms and he was now in

Bredon country ruled by the Bredon Kingdom. Right now he was to the east of the country, in the forest of the Fairy, his

position being shown by a small black triangle.

‘So the map does not show much. Guess unless I find a village or town myself nothing will be shown in the map. This

game is tough, they want us to explore without any prior knowledge huh. I should have checked the forums for more

info. Ah never mind’

With a sigh the boy walked forward with unwavering will. The walk was tiring but Shiv had no other choice so he

continued walking. Walking through the forest is a dangerous thing, Shiv knew this so he tried jumping from trees to

trees sometimes swinging to another tree. This action later earned him a new quirk.

‘Trrrng’

New quirk unlocked: AcrobaticsAcrobatics is the performance of extraordinary feats of balance, agility and motor coordination.

Your continuous jumping from tree to tree and similar activities have unlocked a new quirk

+1 AGI

Your balance has improved

Your evasion has improved

Your flexibility has improved

You are now ambidextrous

Quirks, unlike skills which either consumed mana or had a time limit, were free of restraints. Once a quirk is earned it remains active till the user deletes it or wants to switch it off. Another difference is that quirks took much more time to unlock. A skill might take a matter of hours to unlock, while quirks required days. So in the world of Dragon Lore, quirk was more desired than skills. Another reason being that quirks were limited in number, while there's millions of skills, only hundreds of quirks could be earned.

‘Ambidextrous eh. This is going to be fun’

It took two days of jumping from tree to tree for him to get the quirk but the quirk itself was impressive. Shiv continued

his tree jumping and swinging only stopping for hunting food and resting to regain stamina. Half a day passed since he

acquired his first quirk and he finally heard voices of people. Shiv slowed down and hid himself in a nearby bush.

“Human girl.. we get… King happy” said a grumpy voice

“Me… human… girl want…too” another replied

“Come… we go..human village ”

Shiv heard some footsteps, the sound kept decreasing. He then got out of the bush and looked at the direction where the voice had come from. There to his front was a hole big enough for a man to enter. ‘Must be some monster nest, for now I will follow those two’

“Kaze” activating his skill Shiv jumped from tree to tree. It did not take him too long to see two purple creatures walking

with clubs in their hands. ‘Must be some sort of goblin variant ’

Normally goblins were always depicted as green. In the forum too that Shiv had looked into had said the goblins were

green and their king had a much darker shade of green. Silently Shiv followed them. The two ugly goblins were marching, talking gibberish, laughing and drooling over the idea of getting a human girl. Shiv followed them patiently, suppressing

his rage at the goblins that wanted to harm a girl. After a couple of hours Shiv saw a village, but it could no longer be

called so. There were no walls, half of the houses were in ruins, the remaining half seemed deserted, in total the village was like life had withered away from it a long time ago.

‘Why are they searching for women in a deserted village?’ Shiv was deep in thoughts when,

“Kyyyyyaaaaa, leave me you monster” hearing the scream Shiv rushed to the spot to find a young girl being dragged out

from one of the deserted houses, the purple goblins laughing all the time. An enraged Shiv jumped down from the tree,

landing in front of the two purple goblins. The startled goblins took a step back.

“Grrr… puny human…die” saying so the two rushed towards Shiv.

The first goblin swayed its club at Shiv’s head which he evaded by rolling on the ground towards the goblin, his hand which had equipped his small dagger was now being thrust towards the goblins stomach. The rolling to the front, the thrust and the running goblins momentum all acted as a catalyst to increase the damage dealt by the small dagger. The goblin shuddered and fell into the ground due to pain, it health was now less than 30%. Seeing his buddy down the second goblin too rushed forward swinging the club towards Shiv’s hips. Shiv took out his Black Dragon, equipping it in his right hand and parried the attack. Then stepping to his left with Kaze, he then used the dagger in his left to pierce its right eye. The second goblin too dropped, by then the first one had got up. The wound to its stomach had caused the goblin to stagger and weakened. Judging the distance Shiv brought out his bow. Him sheathing the weapons and equipping the bow was so fast that the girl lying on the floor blinked with surprise. Drawing the bow Shiv aimed it on the goblins forehead. Even though he had not attained any archer mastery skills, he was confident that at this distance he would not miss.

‘Shoom’ went the arrow which struck its target blowing the head. Shiv did not waste any more time, he dropped the bow and ran towards the second goblin, he did not even try to equip any weapons. He jumped on the back of the goblin which was trying to get up. Now using his left eye he gouged out of the goblins left eye too, rendering it blind. Blood flowed out profusely from both its empty eye sockets. The pain and the loss of blood made the monster unable to stand, with unimaginable pain it fell on its knees, then it slumped to the ground, lifeless.

Shiv leapt away from the dead goblins back, he did not bother with the japtem. He just looted any money that the goblin’s dropped then turned to the girl who was still crying. He approached her, covered with blue goblin blood. He himself looked like a monster now.

“Are you ok lady?” Shiv asked wiping away the blood from his face.

The girl was too terrified to answer. She nodded. The man in front was her savior but the way he looked made him look really scary.

“Tell me lady, what is your name?”

“Bella” the answer was a whisper.

“Are you alone Bella? Where are the others?” Shiv’s voice was calm, he did not want to startle the already scared girl.

“The monsters took the men and women . Only children like me were left behind and now they have started taking small

girls like me too.” The girl began sobbing, the memories of the past incidents bringing pain to her.

“It’s ok, it’s ok. I will bring them back Bella, you saw how strong I am” Shiv tried consoling her.

“You cant. There are hundreds of them”

“Do not worry, I will free them. But I need you to help me. I know it is wrong to ask this of you but this is the only way”

“What do you want me to do?” She reluctantly asked.

Shiv explained to her what he wanted her to do so that he could save the villagers. She refused the moment the plan was

told, scared she began to run away from him.

“If you run now you will never see them again. Are you going to abandon them, your family?”

At this, she stopped. Her village had been a beautiful village which prospered greatly. The village was self-sufficient and hence never had to do trade with other villages. The goblin attack was sudden. In the silence of the night hundreds of goblins raided their village, imprisoning everybody. She had lost all hope and decided to end her life without being saved. But now she had hope returned to her, but with a huge risk.

“I accept. I will help you”

“Good. When were they taken?”

“Two days before. They were talking about a sacrifice on full moon”

“When is the next fool moon?”

“Two weeks from today”

“Do you know how to wield a weapon”

“No. sorry”

“You don’t have to apologize. We are short on time. Let us move.”

QUEST: HELP THE LITTLE GIRLThe little girl, Bella has requested you to rescue her family and friends from the blood goblins. The blood goblins had kidnapped the villagers and plans to sacrifice them on the next full moon Stop the sacrifice and rescue the villagers

Days left to attack: 2 Weeks

Difficulty : +E

Requirements: Save Bella

Rewards

Unknown?????

Failure

The quest will fail

Villagers die

Failure will have no effects

You have accepted the quest

‘So a quest got triggered because I offered to help her. Interesting. Now, in order to solve this situation, I must do a recon and then come up with a plan. For now the cave entrance’

Shiv lifted the young girl in his arms, a princess carry and began rushing towards the cave he had seen before. Since he was running, he reached the place in minutes. The two hid in a bush to check the surroundings. The cave mouth was now guarded by another group of goblins.

“Bella you are up”

The young girl then got out of the bush and stood in open space making sure the goblins could see her. The goblins

noticed her the moment she came out of the bush.

“Human girl.. we get” and the four started approaching the girl. Seeing the goblins the girl began running. The goblins

sped up trying to catch her. The four of them passed the bush Shiv was hiding, unaware of him. The moment the goblins passed by, Shiv exited the bush and with Kaze activated he approached the goblin who was last. His hands had equipped two arrows in each, his left hand pierced the goblins throat from behind. Before the goblin could make any sound his right hand thrust the arrow from below its mouth, vertically, rendering it unable to shout. The goblin fell with the critical hit to its throat and brain. The three in the front did not notice, their lust clouded them.

Shiv did not waste time looting, he extracted the arrows from the goblins corpse and rushed forward. Instead of using the arrows, this time he took out his sword. Activating Hono together with Kaze, Shiv cut down the 3rd goblins legs. The goblin screamed with pain alerting the two in front. Sensing their friends agonizing cry they stopped their pursuit of the girl. The two monsters now targeted the man who had hurt their brothers. Roaring they rushed towards the man unable to sense the strength the man wielded.

Shiv too rushed forward. He knew that the one he cut now will not be able to move and he need not worry about it. With the sword in his right and the dagger in his left he ran towards the monsters. Just like the goblins he had fought first, these two also began swaying their clubs without any thought. The two monsters attacked him together, their clubs aimed at his torso. Shiv shifted to his left thus evading one of the attacks and using the sword he parried the second attack at the same time bending to stab the goblin’s right leg. The one who got stabbed lost balance and fell onto the other causing them to fall on to the ground. Wasting no time he dashed towards the goblins. Before the goblins could move Shiv started slashing at them with all his might and with 10 slashes the two died. Leaving the dead behind, Shiv walked towards the remaining goblin. The goblin had seen his comrades die in an instant and like all living things fear crept into its mind.

Its body shivering, hands trembling, throat drying up. It looked at the thing approaching him. Covered in blood, holding a sword and a dagger, death was approaching it slowly. The goblin looked into the eyes of the one walking towards him, golden brown eyes which said,

‘I am death’

---***---

MAIN PAGE