by Randy Thao
That night, they planned to move out of Apple Green Village and over to the west where the other three players came from. By now, many of the players would be finding out that they are unable to log out of the game as well, not that Dee had anything waiting back at home to return to. Still, he didn't want to be stuck in this game forever. As for Bu, he had family who were waiting for him to return.
The blue planet Earth, gigantic in size, filled their view. On the other side of them a wall of darkness sprinkled with glittering lights. It was beautiful. The stars hugged the earth and glistened as they floated dancing around it. Dee wondered if it was best that he didn't return to the real world, for his world was nothing more than a tragic story and wishful dreaming. He kind of liked it here. He had everything, but for how long? Like Bu said, it was still a game after all. They paid for a room with two beds located on the second floor of the tavern. Dee laid his head on the feather filled pillow. It felt so soft and comfortable beneath his weary head, thus ending their first day in RTU.
Early the next morning, invited the sounds of black birds crowing and children's laughter. It was a warm slightly breezy day. The fresh air blew the scent of fall leaves and ripe crisp apples into the room they were staying. Dee took in a deep yawn having probably one of the best sleeps he has ever had. He didn't have to go to work for one, or cover for Jerry like he always does. He lay there staring at the ceiling browsing through the menus once again. His met-coins count had gone up to twenty-one. Looking down at his suit, it was now slightly dim once again.
"Give me back my rib..." Bu swung his left arm into the air, and in return, it fell on his face. "What? Huh!? Oh, man I just had this crazy dream. One of those Pa-Zongs took my ribs, and I was chasing after it all over the orchard." He rubbed his face and cracked his neck.
"I suppose we should get going. I tried to log out this morning and same thing," said Dee putting on his leather armor and equipping his sword.
"Hey, nineteen met-coins! Wonder what I can get with that?" wondered Bu.
Dee looked out the window and suggested, "We should probably buy some items for the trip west. Healing potions and rations to last until our next stop."
"The ribs will have to wait til next time," sighed Bu.
From downstairs a crowd could be heard. A man was speaking hysterically, and others responding to him. Bu got up and went into the hallway as Dee followed behind. He leaned on the wooden rail running along the second floor with both elbows.
"You see," explained the man speaking hysterically. "It took my daughter. It was no ordinary Pa-Zong. It was bigger and stronger. You have to believe me!"
"Old man, we all know those things don't get any bigger than about two to three feet tops. They are pretty weak in terms of threat. Heck even my dog could take one or even two by itself," teased a man with four broken teeth and on top of his head a faded straw hat. The crowd agreed and chatter rose again in the room.
"No, please believe me. Get my daughter back, someone please!" The crowd grumbled and started to disperse.
"We'll do it," Dee said confidently. Bu and Dee made their way down the steps. The man had the engraved lotus marking on his neck, which meant that there were options available. Dee set focus on the engraving. The options came flying in front of him. The reward would be forty met-coins and some new leather boots. "Accept."
"Thank you sirs. My name is Gregory Odell. My daughter Janel was out picking apples the other day. She was taking rather long, so I decided to go look for her. As I got closer to where she was, I heard yelling and ran as fast as I could. I have never seen anything like it in all my years. A Pa-Zong standing ten feet tall, massive in size, had my daughter over his shoulder. He jumped behind the Golden Delicious apple tree and disappeared. I hit the tree over and over again, but it never came out like they usually do," continued Gregory. His eyes were red from lack of sleep.
"Our first real quest. This will be fun! Accept!" shouted Bu.
Just outside of the tavern, there was a small shop. There they stocked up on supplies before heading out for the quest. According to the directions, the Golden Delicious apple tree was located in the middle of the orchard. Along the way, Dee and Bu tried to take down as many monsters possible. Bu tapped every tree he could get close to with his wooden shield, and the Pa-Zongs came jumping out. Once in a while, he would aggravate some wild wolves and long tail crows. When he got them all in a group, Dee came in and would do double and even triple the damage, because they were so stacked. Dee almost had to retreat back to the village, because Bu had aggravated too many at once. That scenario occurs too often in MMOs causing whole groups and raids to perish.
"Bu, you'll have to slow down a bit. Doesn't matter how much higher level you are to these monsters. It's the numbers that'll kill you. You're sitting at 30% health," Dee insisted.
"I know, I know. I can handle this. I've been spending my talents on health and stamina." Out of Breath Bu dropped to the ground. "It feels like I just got done running a marathon. Something I would never have been able to do back home. You on the other hand have an advantage, Mr. Wide Receiver."
Stretching, Dee replied, "That was many years ago. It's like baby steps all over again. I don't feel 100%. Just a few more levels and I should have enough talents to get to level 5 Agility, plus with all the exercise I'm getting, it's only a matter of time."
Eating some of the rations they bought earlier, they were restored back to health from a near death smothering of Pa-Zongs. Death in a game meant that a player would have to start from the last place their game was saved. Since there weren't any save points within the village, he assumed that they would just return to the last safe zone area they were in if they had failed. This was totally different, because now they were the ones physically playing the game. As Dee got up, he wondered if Bu was scared to die in-game and if they were to, what would that feel like. Death was nothing new to him. He was pretty much a hovering corps for two years after his accident. Now, he felt more alive than ever before. He took a deep breath and smiled giving Bu a hand.
"Help! Is someone there!?" shouted a voice from high above.
They quickly got up and ran towards it. It brought them to a large tree with big round golden apples hanging from every branch.
"Up here!" A girl about 14 years of age was sitting on a branch high up in the tree. She held tightly onto the trunk for dear life. She had on a white long sleeve blouse torn on one side and a brown dress. Her face smeared with dirt and dried tears.
"Are you Janel?" asked Dee.
"Yes, did my father send you?" exclaimed Janel. "Be careful it's around here somewhere. It's much stronger than the others."
Dee took his sword and tapped the tree. Nothing. He turned around to analyze the landscape. For all he knew, it could be anywhere. Suddenly from behind him, two red eyes standing ten feet tall above him appeared like two floating balls of fire. It had blended in so well into the thick barks of the tree that they hadn't noticed it before.
"Dee!" shouted Bu as he jolted in front of him holding his wooden shield above his head. He took a full on over hand attack. It sent him down on one knee. Crack! Particles of wood flew in the air from the impact. A split in the wood had made its way down to the middle of his shield. "Move buddy. This thing is way strong."
Dee instantly side stepped and went behind the massive beast and cross slashed its back. It roared in pain swinging a back hand rotating 180 degrees. Dee ducked and tumbled out of the way. Bu came back in with a shield slap to its face aggravating it again. The other monsters in the area would have perished by now, but there was something different about this one. Dee set focus on the towering lump of brown fur and above it read "Pa-Zong : Damned" with a little flashing exclamation next to it. He set focus on the exclamation, and it opened up a description. It read:
Damned monsters do not follow normal behavior of others like it, therefore are usually stronger and different in appearance. These monsters usually require a small party or a group of two to th
ree and a few levels higher to defeat.
"Dee give me a hand here would you!" struggled Bu.
"Sorry!" Dee ran behind it again and attacked it a few more times. It didn't seem to faze it a bit, and Bu could feel it getting stronger by the minute as he jumped back in.
"I don't know if this is going to work Dee," stressed Bu trying to back it off.
Suddenly the wooden shield could hold no longer. It snapped in two. Bu's face dropped as the Pa-Zong's huge glove paws slammed against his chest sending him soaring back. This was Bu's first major blow from a monster of this level. He wouldn't have expected anything less, but it may have been more than what they could handle.
From Dee's focus point, he could see that Bu was down to half health as his suit started to dim. Bu had nothing to defend himself and could possibly only take another one or two direct hits before he would perish. He started to run towards the Pa-Zong knowing he just had to do something. The Pa-Zong suddenly twitched its ear as it heard the ruffling of the leaves from below Dee's feet and let out a loud howl. Just then, a rumbling sound of smaller Pa-Zongs came out from behind every tree in a ten yard radius.
Bosses or special monsters always had a perk, and for this one, this was it. Yet, Dee would not go down without a fight. Though there were many, they were still low level monsters.
"Bu, I can't say we will make it, but can you keep him away for a bit?" asked Dee backing away.
"What do you mean!? I have no shield," shouted Bu. "You take care of the smaller ones then. I'll take big boy here for a walk in the orchard." He took a rotten apple on the ground and chucked the brown half apple and half apple sauce at it. It turned around in rage and continued to pursue Bu.
Dee started to hack away at as many Pa-Zongs as he could. Since he was much faster than them, he could escape right before the Pa-Zongs started to gather enough to trap him. His suit started to glow brighter after every kill, and it signaled him that he was near his next level and full of energy. He kept this up, and the mobs of Pa-Zongs started to dwindle down to just a few, which they eventually ran away into the trees. Out of breath, he could see that Bu was not going to out run it for long.
"Are you done!?" Bu was huffing and puffing. His talent points were placed in stamina alright, but more on defense. Unlike Dee, which was focused on agility and endurance. Out of nowhere, it rushed with incredible speed and head butt Bu in the gut; his suit now close to dim. "I can't take another blow."
As if the first perk for this damned monster was not enough, it had one more. It randomly continues to purse one player regardless if anyone else tried to aggravate it. Sure enough Dee was now its new target after cross slashing it from the side removing chunks of flesh and fur.
"Be...careful, huff, huff," Bu leaned on a tree with one arm as he watched the Damned Pa-Zong leave his sight.
Observing the Damned Pa-Zong, he could only hit it once and run without a tank. Since it was already showing its second perk, that meant it must be close to being defeated. It was its last resort to try to survive. He just needed to keep this up for a while longer, if he could. Dee got stunned once from the sudden burst of speed it used against Bu. This was going to be a lot harder than he thought. If they had to wipe out here, there would be no shame in it. They would just return and try again after resurrecting to life. Dee finally came to one knee trying to catch his breath.
"An MMO that uses your physical body to play in a world entirely made up by RT2 bots, amazing," Dee said to himself. As he set focus on the Damned Pa-Zong, something else was flashing out of his focus. He turned to it, and it was a golden fairy.
"Must be dreaming, huff, huff," whispered Dee as he made one more attempt. He waited for it to come at him. Dashing out of the way, he ran as fast as he could to get to the golden fairy. It waved her little hand signaling for him to come to her in a slow motion matter. The Damned Pa-Zong knowing that it had missed, rushed with its sudden burst of speed and gained on Dee. He got closer to the fairy and stretched his arm out with all that he had. With all his strength, he made this last strive to win the battle.
Level up.
Dee's focus zoomed in on the level up options and quickly acquired his special move. At that moment, he turned and only a few feet away was the Damned Pa-Zong coming at him full speed.
"Unlock! Sword Meteor Dance!!!" announced Dee.
Chapter 11 - PVP Encounter
In that moment, all movement slowed down, and a beautiful show of sword flipping, spinning, stances and finally posing as if ending a dance recital, emerged from Dee's special move. Next thing he knew, the Pa-Zong had fallen onto both knees.
"You did it Dee!" shouted Bu. He limped his way over to where Dee was standing.
"It's not done yet," they both stared at the giant beast breathing its last breaths.
"Do it," Bu nodded, but before Dee could lift his sword, some familiar faces appeared about eight yards from them. They tossed their half-eaten apples to the ground. The one that appeared to be the leader from the day before, stepped forward and dropped his apple core in front of him and stomped on it.
"Isn't this world great? The apples are artificially tasty. Would you look at that? Great job!" chuckled the leader of the three-man group. The other two stood applauding behind him. They then laughed like a couple of hyenas. "You manage to take down that Damned Pa-Zong. We've been looking for it for a few days now. If you don't mind, we will take it from here thank you very much."
"Bastards! Who do you think you are?!" Bu snapped back limping as he straightened up in pain.
Dee knew exactly what was happening. They were going to steal their kill. Player vs player is a huge part of MMOs. In most cases, players of opposite fractions or teams can attack each other. It wouldn't be a complete MMO without this feature of the game. For situations like these, having a team or group of up to five is recommended. Different types of groups also exist for different purposes as well.
They were not in the condition to be able to defend their kill. Dee had to decide if he wanted to die trying or let it be. It wouldn't matter either way. If they perished, they would return to the village. If they lived to tell about it, they would be at their last bit of health and out of rations for the way back and then perish, but at least they would get their kill.
"You see, we don't have a tank in our group, so we couldn't approach it even if we wanted to. We just thought it was easier for someone else to do it instead," smirked the leader.
"If that is the case," started Dee as he turned to look at Bu, who also nodded in agreement, "let's see what you got!"
The other three players darted towards them. From the way they were moving, they were definitely DPSers, fast and quick with heavy damage, but low in health.
"You'll regret not giving in noobs!" shouted the leader hysterically.
As a tank, Bu stepped forward whether he had a shield or not. A tank always takes the first blow to protect his members. His health was sitting at orange. These guys will surely take him down pretty quick. As for Dee, he could strike back, but three versus one is a losing battle. They both stood firm ready to engage.
"Heal! Shield of Divine Protection!"
Dee and Bu could feel their health regaining restoring their energy. The other three players stopped in their tracks with a look of frustration.
Confused, the leader of the group choked, "What the hell is going on?"
"They have a healer! We need to find the healer!" spoke one of the other players taking his attention off of Dee and Bu.
"Shouldn't take your eyes off of your enemies," said Dee swiftly sneaking in for an attack striking him. The other two gasp in frustration and started to give everything they had striking Dee and Bu, but from a distance all they could hear was the casting voice of a woman readily healing them.
"You tricked us! You stupid noobs. Retreat guys retreat!" The three of them ran off like dogs with their tails between their legs.
Though they were healed back to health, it was still physically impacting o
n their bodies. The adrenaline still very fresh in their system. They looked around for the mysterious healer. Then Dee saw it. The silver stripe appeared along the side of her cloak. She stepped out from behind the shadow of the apple tree.
"Hey, thanks for the healing. My name is Bu and yours is?" Bu asked politely.
Before he could receive a reply, Dee had already answered for her, "Mara."
Chapter 12 - Going West
She came from behind the tree and set her eyes on Dee. Then, she observed his legs and back again. Dee set her in focus and invited her to their group. She accepted. Then he landed the last blow. They got old Gregory Odell's daughter out of the tree, and Bu carried her back on their return to the tavern. Bu acquired a new move jumping up and down celebrating. The Damned Pa-Zong dropped some decent loot. He got a new steel shield and Dee acquired another sword. Still pretty basic, but compared to what they had before, it was an upgrade. The money and the experience was split among the three. Their suits pulsed to a new luminosity. As for Mara, hers was hidden beneath a tan cloak that came down to her waist. A mask cloth also covered the bottom half of her face, yet what gave her identity away was the silver stripe on the sides of her cloak.
"Thanks again," murmured Dee trying to see her face from under the cloak. "You saved our butts back there."
"How do you know my name?" questioned Mara.
"I just do," replied Dee feeling pretty sneaky. He could tell she was blushing from her posture, and the fact that her head dropped low towards her feet.
"Wait, but before we go Dee we have to talk," said Bu as he gripped Dee's shoulder and pulled him to the side. "Hey I was just thinking. To make our group complete, we need....you know," Bu turned and peeked at Mara.
