Jester Wildlands VR world

Sam looked around noticing the others spawning in. Dona and Justin were clad in full plate armour from head to toe. They had an iron blade equipped on their hip. Jim who was an archer wore leather armour with a longbow on his back. Maya wore an adorable gown that screamed healer. Her staff was made of wood and had a crystal ball on its head. Astra, who spawned in the last, had a normal villager outfit. She had no weapons visible outside but if one were to look closer, they would notice a dagger hilt peeking outside from her skirt's hem.

"These equipment are all of lower quality. I haven't touched an iron sword in years." Dona complained after checking her outfit.

It was true, like all games, they had to improve the quality of their items through the game. It was possible to obtain better quality items in the game as well. "We should find a town soon," Jim said looking at the dump yard that they spawned in.

The place was a scrap yard used to dump used items. The place had everything from a toothpick to satellite panels all reusable if you had the ability to. Astra looked at the place with a glimmer of excitement in her eyes. To what appears to others as trash was an amazing opportunity for Astra to level up her crafter job.

There were two methods to level up an artificer job. The easiest and most commonly used method was to create new items. This required a tremendous amount of time and consumed a considerable amount of energy from the crafter. The second one was slightly harder. Find artefacts and identify them. Identifying rare and legendary artefacts often gave a humongous amount of experience leading to a faster levelling speed.

"Astra why don't you do your thing while we scout the area?" Sam said, calling the rest to go for a hunt. The major enemies they could face in this wasteland were the undead, zombified animals and a few demonised rare monsters. The immediate area surrounding the region was considerably safer during the daytime. According to the books, at night there was a certain chance of zombie attacks on all settlements across the Jester wildlands.

Sam led the rest outside. Sticking close to the highway, they walked a bit north and found nothing out of the ordinary. Apart from the few other players, the place had no other beings.

"At this rate, we would have to deviate from the highway. Looks like nothing is spawning closer to it." Dona said turning east looking at the dead forest.

"They spawn next to highways but the others might be camping in the spawning area," Maya said, taking out a folding map from her inventory. She marked the spot they were on and put it back in her pouch she had her waist over her healer gown which sucked it in. A fanny pack of a sort. We all had one and Sam had a set of mana potions, a folding paper map, a compass, two health potions and a ten-meter long rope in his pouch. Yes, it's a magically expanded space with a limit of 16 slots. More space could always be purchased at the gold shop which was available only in the major cities.

They moved towards the dead trees with Justin and Dona at the vanguard. Having two tanks could boost the confidence of most parties but our group wasn't confident in the least. Two tanks meant they had a lower damage output. Adding the fact that Justin had no sword training meant it would be harder for the healer to focus on keeping the tanks alive. Sam had some confidence that his damage but Jim's archer job even with the critical boosts had a high chance of missing hits.

It only took them five minutes walking into the forest and they end up facing their first real monster. A zombified stray dog. There was flesh missing from his stomach and hind legs as if soothing nabbed it off of him. It didn't make any noise apart from the crunching of branches under its rotting paws.

The rotting beast looked at the party with its starving eye. The hunger was definitely not from a lack of food. The stupid gamers who ran solo in the wildlands made sure they were well fed. This hunger was from a different need. The need to taste life once again. A want that all undead shared.

Sparring with partners was one thing. Fighting an undead head-on was another. Even though Dona had fought and killed a few wild beasts in her backyards as part of training, fighting on in its own territory had a completely different air to it. She took a quick peek at Justin to see that her hands were resting firmly on her sword hilt. There was no doubt in her eyes as if she was ready to attack the moment she was required to.

In Justin's eyes, the dog was just another beast that she had to fight with. Growing up as a peasant, she had fought countless times most of the time barely walking away alive. She had never used a sword, true but that had never stopped her from a fight. What would you have done if a bunch of stupid wolves or wild dogs came after the goats you rared. You would take up the pitch folks and fight as well knowing full well you would starve to death without them.

Justin was scared. She always fumbled. These were true but only in the eyes of a noble. In front of a fellow peasant, she would hold her head high and fight for what she seeks. After all, only nobles could punish you and they never bothered anyways.

Looking at the resolute eyes of this villager, Dona felt inferior. She too quickly pulled herself together ready to attack the zombie dog.

"Let's attack it before it hits us." Said Jim from behind drawing out an arrow. With Jim's supportive words Dona went ahead and charged toward the dog. Quick charge and a taunt. Two of the basic abilities of a tank to stabilize the aggression(aggro) of a monster. The dog responded jumping back two-foot and stretching forward lunging towards Dona's neck.