4
The first thing I’ll say is that the level of detail is exquisite. I mean, if I were to walk around a thick forest in real life and find a decent-sized clearing with bright sunlight streaming down, it would look exactly the same to me.
I even feel the wisp of a nice cool breeze caressing my skin and flowing between my reddish claws sprouting from the ends of my fingertips. In contrast, the claws on my bare feet flex and dig into the soft grass beneath them.
Looking down at myself, I see that I have muscular reddish-tinged legs, and my feet are slightly larger than I’m used to, especially with the claws sprouting from my toes. Thankfully my package is what I’m used to in real life.
Running my hands along my smooth, chiselled abs and chest, I mentally whoop at being able to keep my basic humanoid form. My hands move up to my face over my forehead, feeling two small horns protruding forward from my skull.
Well, I am a Dragonkin, so what can I expect? No wings or tail, but they will probably come when I transform with my Heritage racial ability.
The next thing I’ll say is why the hell am I naked? On second thought, why am I in a circle with three naked males and one naked female all facing each other? This is just downright fucking weird. I’ll bet the admin guys are rolling on the floor, laughing so hard they are giving themselves asthma attacks.
If my reaction is anything to go by, I believe the expressions on the other four faces look like stunned mullets too. Trying to get over my shock at the most man flesh I’ve ever seen at the same time, I notice that there are semitransparent name tags above each of the different humanoids around me.
The tall female Elf with a striking figure, fair skin and long blonde hair has ‘Ifalna’ above her head. She raises a hand, pointing at the male Saurian, and says incredulously, “What on gods earth possessed you to choose that character, Dosan?”
Dosan shrugs his scaly shoulders before looking downstairs at himself with a tilt of his head. “Why do you think? I wanted to know what it felt like to have two.”
“Greeaaaat, I’m partied with a double dongasaur.” Ifalna sighs in exasperation while massaging her temples. She isn’t shy about her own naked self at all and, around us, never really has been. On multiple occasions she has gone around topless when it has been too hot and even just up and went skinny-dipping in the ocean late at night. She’s of the opinion that if guys can walk around topless, so can she.
That being the case, she beat the pervy looks we had given her out of us long ago, using a whole lotta force. Kinda helps when she is the tallest of us all and looks like an Amazonian Wonder Woman. None of us are her cup of tea anyways, as she likes the fairer, more fragile ladies.
Dosan laughs and thrusts his hips. “Yeah! Get some!”
“You can’t be serious? That’s the whole reason you chose that character?” the finely feathered humanoid crow says while covering his eyes with his hand and shaking his beaked head. He has two black wings folded up neatly behind him and is only two-thirds as tall as Ifalna.
“Holy shit!” Ifalna then exclaims after looking at everyone else. “The dwarf’s a tripod! I swear this feels like I’m back at Girl Scout camp and watching all the boys from the other camp skinny-dipping. On second thought, it’s more like when we all played with strap-ons.”
Kazzrak, the five-foot dwarf in question, puts his hands on his hips and glowers at Ifalna while thrusting his hips out. “What of it?”
“Can we quit it with the dick jokes? Obviously, the admins wanted to get a kick out of us all staring at each other’s junk,” I say, rolling my eyes.
“Yeah, guess they wanted to see how everyone measures up on the totem pole,” quips Dosan.
“Ha! Phrasing!” Ifalna laughs as she slaps her toned leg.
“Too right they did! And I’m the biggest bastard of the lot of ya!” Kazzrak proclaims loudly.
Sighing, I open my interface and start fiddling around with it. The new game has reset all my settings, so I adjust a few of them the way I like it. I set the whole interface to semitransparent, turn off notifications in battle, which are what the windows are called now. Next, I turn off running battle damage and healing numbers so that they are only displayed in the log, not in front of my face during battle.
I set all my abilities that I can activate on a small bar at the bottom of my vision. It definitely pays to know how long till you can use an ability with a cool down. Finally, I set all health, mana and stamina bars to display as percentages.
When I first started playing DSR1, I died in my very first battle because I couldn’t figure out how to close all the notifications that kept popping up, so I literally couldn’t see anything. Yes, I was a noob.
I frown as I try to open my inventory and a notification pops up.
You must equip a Bag of Holding to access your inventory.
Seriously? So we start in the middle of a forest, butt naked, and don’t even have an inventory? This version of the game is starting to get exasperating.
“Well, I think it would have been interesting to be in one of the beta parties that had females who were shy about their bodies. ’Cause I reckon that’s a lawsuit waiting to happen if it is,” Ezekial says.
I shake my head in disagreement. “Naw. More than likely they have written it into the user agreement and they already have the counter suits written up. Also, has anyone tried to open their inventory?”
Each of their eyes start to flicker back and forth, as if they are reading something I can’t see.
“Well, that’s bollocks,” growls Kazzrak.
“Where are we going to get a Bag of Holding out here in the great wide wilderness?” ponders Ifalna, looking around herself at the edges of the clearing.
I look up at the sky and then check the time on my interface. “Well, it’s noon, so we might as well pick a direction and start hiking.”
“Before we do, I want to see if we can do the same actions as in the previous game,” Dosan says thoughtfully before moving over to the edge of the clearing and standing next to a tree. There is a splashing sound followed by a breathless squeal.
I look over to see a moss-covered wooden leg nestled right up against the insides of Dosan’s thighs before it disappears. Dosan’s head is flung backwards and he lands on his ass, which lets the rest of us see a cute, almost five-foot-tall wood nymph with her fist outstretched. I can plainly see a wet patch of moss on her leg and a murderous expression on her face.
Dosan’s health bar is down to a quarter full as he just sits there on the ground, stunned. The wood nymph makes to move forward, but she stops, and a slow, menacing smile grows on her face. She disappears back into the trees with a musical chuckle.
“Did everyone else just see that?” asks Ezekial.
“Yep, I sure did. Dosan got dumped by a tree,” Ifalna says as her hands start glowing white and Dosan’s health bar jumps up to full. Ifalna looks down at her hands. “Damn, I’ll have to hide my hands if I want to cast without notice.”
“Did anyone see what level she was?” I ask, looking around.
Dosan slowly gets up and makes his way back over to us before replying, “Yeah, I saw that she was a level 10 wood nymph. Can’t a guy relieve himself in peace in this game without the trees getting all uppity?”
“Dude, you got her all wet, and not in the good way. At least she didn’t hit you a third time. Your heart wouldn’t have been able to take it and you would have died,” Kazzrak says with a deadpan expression.
“Next creature of the forest I see is going down,” Dosan boasts menacingly.
“Quick! Smack yourself in the head,” I say with a smile. “Got to knock on wood or karma will be a bitch to you.”
“It’s a game, Sybaal,” Dosan says while looking at me like I’m nuts. “There is no such thing as karma in a game.”
I stiffen and my head twists in the direction the wood nymph went as a furious roar erupts from the forest and slowly gets louder. It sounds something like a couple of massive tr
ees slamming together repeatedly. It also seems like it’s getting closer, due to the ground starting to shake and rumble as the noise gets louder.
“Aw, hell,” I grumble. “Next time you want to piss off karma, wait till I’m as far as possible away from you, okay?”
Ifalna stretches while yawning and snapping out orders. “Alright, ladies, I realise we don’t have any gear, but chuck all your abilities on your hot bar and let’s get this party started. Usual single-target formation until extra adds appear. If you have something useful to add to the fight, yell out unless you want it to be a surprise, which is when you use party chat. Stay away from the forest edge if you can help it in case there are any more wood nymphs. We clear?”
We all nod affirmatives to Ifalna, as she is our usual raid leader, then move to our respective area within the formation. Kazzrak is out in the middle of the clearing while I’m standing off to his side and behind him.
Dosan and Ifalna are standing together further back behind me, close to the edge of the clearing, but not too close, as we don’t know if there are any more creatures hiding in there.
Ezekial has stealthed and I can see his semitransparent form off to the far side of us, ready to jump in and attack from behind. At least I can see him the same as if we were in DSR1. It gives me hope about our current abilities, even without gear.
Ifalna’s hands start glowing white again as she starts to cast what looks to be Holy Barrier, as everyone now is outlined in a transparent white oval of light. “Everyone is getting a Holy Barrier. It protects you from physical and magical attacks but only for a certain amount of damage. It has a ten-second cool down after it pops off per person. If I say zerg, the boss will be taking an extra twenty-five percent damage from all sources, so pop your cool downs.”
Looking over my abilities, I grin as I cast Spell Sword: Frost in my left hand, which creates a double-edged straight sword made from ice. Then I cast Spell Sword: Fire in my right, which creates a long tongue of red flames that vaguely looks like a sword.
The frost sword will be doing a little more damage straight away with a possible slowing effect proc, while the fire sword will be hitting for slightly less damage with a possible damage over time proc to even out the damage. I will probably be able to do the most damage out of the party due to no one else having a proper weapon. Although I don’t know what new abilities they have, so I could be wrong.
“Woah, dude! Elemental swords? Sweet!” exclaims Dosan excitedly. “Until I get some minions, all I can throw out is a Shadow Bolt.”
I look back at Dosan with a grin. “Yeah, these are pretty sweet. It’s a combo spell from choosing the warrior and mage classes.”
The roaring cuts off abruptly and the ground stops shaking, so I look back towards the treeline. Standing at over eleven feet tall, looking down at us, is a massive humanoid-shaped tree with literal tree trunks as its body. The name tag above its head reads ‘Treant, Guardian of the Glade. Level 30’.
“We’re so screwed,” Dosan mutters, a bit wide eyed and pale.
“It’s no different to the other bosses we’ve beaten before,” argues Ifalna, with only the slightest twinge of uncertainty.
The Guardian surprises the shit out of me when it starts speaking, albeit sounding like breaking branches. “Who dares trespass in my glade? Who defiles and causes offence to a beauty of the forest and, in doing so, challenges me directly? Speak up! I have more pests to deal with elsewhere.”
The glowing green eyes flash with hate at us, almost hidden by the leaves and branches covering its head. It takes a single, ground-shuddering step forward.
Seeing as though he looks like he is actually waiting for a response, I figure it may be part of a game event.
“We all unknowingly trespass here,” I reply calmly as I flick a thumb behind me as I continue, “Our idiot friend unwittingly desecrated that lovely wood nymph, and he is deeply saddened at the misunderstanding. However, any issue you have with him, or physical violence you may wish to meet with him, you will have to go through my friends and me. I do not wish to fight you, but my honour demands I must protect my comrade.”
The Guardian’s eyes seem to pierce me for a moment before flashing again. “I hear truth in your words, but the challenge has been made and cannot be unmade. The challenge has been given a second time, this time by all who stand before me, and must be answered.”
Hidden Quest: Challenge of Authority.
Rarity: Unique.
Details: You and your party have challenged the Guardian of the Glade to combat over a matter of honour.
Conditions: Defeat the Guardian.
Failure: Death.
Refuse quest: Death.
Reward: Unknown.
Accept quest?
Yes/No
“Huh,” is my eloquent response to the quest notification as it pops up. I don’t really see the point in refusing the quest, so I click ‘Yes’.
Due to the protection placed upon you for the first hour of the game, the Guardian of the Glade has been restricted to melee attacks only. Also, you have been buffed with a temporary Attribute increase for the duration of this fight to the level of 15. This only affects your stats and doesn’t count towards your actual level.
A new buff appears on my HUD. Damn skippy, I feel great!
“The challenge has been accepted,” growls out the Guardian. It snaps forward like a bowstring, launching itself into the air to land right on top of Kazzrak.
Or where he would have been had he not leapt to the side and rolled out of the way. Picking up a huge rock in each hand, Kazzrak screams out a war cry while launching himself at the Guardian’s leg, smacking it as hard as he can a few times before dodging the kick aimed at him.
Somehow, Kazzrak is actually able to dodge the attack, so it seems this game utilises a person’s prior skills or something.
As soon as the Guardian landed, I ran in a wide arc around him in the opposite way Kazzrak rolled, so that the Guardian’s back is to me. This should give Kazzrak enough time to gain enough aggro from the Guardian so it won’t just turn and attack me with my high DPS.
I rush in behind the Guardian, jumping forward and slamming both blades together into the back of its left knee, while at the same time activating Sweeping Strike and Furious Strike. A small chunk of bark chips away from the spot where I struck, and the Guardian’s health drops, so it’s now sitting at 99%. 1% damage or less per both cool downs, eh? Gah, this is going to take forever.
A rush of chilled air escapes the edge of the frost blade’s wound, causing the surrounding bark to turn a light bluish colour, which continues to spread. Twisting the blades out, I roll away, scoring a couple of long slices along the back of its left knee as it roars in pain.
The Guardian turns and knocks me for six with a fist the size of my torso slamming like a freight train into my back. Pain explodes from where his sledge of a fist hit me, and my vision darkens around the edges as I’m sent sprawling a dozen feet away. My health has dwindled down to 5%.
Shit, I had better not let him hit me again or my ass is heading to the respawn point. My body is suddenly drenched in light, and a swift chill replaces the throbbing pain from the blow. I feel it a second time and now I’m back to full health. Ugh, much better.
I type into raid chat:
Sybaal: Cheers, Ifalna.
When I feel like I can stand, I slowly get to my feet. The lingering shadow of pain is still in my back, even though I know the injury has fully healed. If this is what it’s like to get hit every time, it’s going to suck hardcore for Kazzrak in this version of the game.
I watch as a Shadow Bolt slams into the side of the Guardian’s head at the same time as what seems like a bucket of white light is dumped on its head. Rocks start hitting the back of the Guardian’s head, and one covered in black shadows packs a little more punch, causing his head to move forward a little.
Before the Guardian can launch another attack at me, Kazzrak smacks into it with his rocks ag
ain, making it pay attention to him again. The Guardian kicks out his leg, this time scoring a glancing blow against Kazzrak’s hastily raised forearm, which sends him sprawling backwards to do yet another roll and spring back to his feet.
The glancing blow has brought Kazzrak down to half health, even with the Holy Barrier. Although his health is almost immediately replenished again due to Ifalna’s quick healing, he still took the damage. Meaning that a full-powered blow from this walking tree will one-shot our tank without a Holy Barrier for mitigation.
The next ten seconds are going to suck for him.
Sybaal: Treant’s full attack will one-shot Kazzrak without Holy Barrier. Smack it with a Rock ’n’ Roll, buddy. ;)
Ezekial: That was terrible. You can do better than that.
Ifalna: Dude, bad pun. But seriously, Kazzrak, during the ten seconds after each shield dissipates, don’t get hit.
Kazzrak: You think I’m trying to get hit? Like seriously? I’m a naked level 1 smacking a level 30 with a rock, dodging trees with a 14 in Dex. Grr.
Dosan: Did he just Grr in chat? >.> lol
Sybaal: Yup, lol. However, focus on the back of the Guardian’s left knee. I noticed that I struck some bark from it before, and it hasn’t replenished. We might have something to exploit here.
I start firing Fire Balls and Frost Spears at the Guardian while I rush in again from its rear, aiming all of my attacks at its left knee. Slicing my way past, I slide under a fist and land a couple of blows on it as it flies over my head before I back off again, letting the aggro I’m getting be overtaken by Kazzrak. Glancing up at the health bar, I see it at 97% and slowly decreasing.
Dream Stream Reality: Publisher's Pack Books 1-2: (A LitRPG Adventure) Page 7
