First Login (The World Book 1)

by Jason Cheek

  Even though I was taking the brunt of the attack, the girl didn’t lay helpless in the snow like a schmo. Climbing to her feet, she fought right alongside me lashing out at any of the wolves that latched onto my legs. Using a fist-sized rock she’d scooped up from the ground, we worked as a team to take the pack down.

  During the worst of the fighting, I saw a new male Light Elf appear behind the wolves. While I didn’t recognize the man’s face, I immediately recognized his name, Yun Dazd. The Elf was only at a quarter health. All that he wore was a Patched Robe, but without hesitation, he threw himself into the melee slashing at the wolves’ backs with a familiar looking short sword. Luckily, I stayed at the top of the aggro list since my bleed effect was still ticking on all the wolves, so they didn’t turn on the wounded man and kill him again. A minute later the last wolf fell unmoving to the ground.

  Although we took the wolves down within two minutes, I knew the battle was far over. Stepping away from the Elf girl, I sat down in the snow and began pulling out smoked wolf jerky from my bag as both Yun and Sarka eyed me nervously. I threw them both some of the meat and nodded to the ground in front of me as I spoke.

  “Listen up guys; those Syndicate PKers will be back any moment. The food will help you heal up quicker.” I threw Sarka one of my water bags. “Get moving!”

  “Why should we trust you?” Yun spat angrily as he gripped the hilt of his short sword in a white-knuckled fist, looking fit to be tied. While I couldn’t blame him for being pissed off, we didn’t have time for this shit. Luckily, before I could say anything to piss the man off more, his wife smacked him hard in the arm snapping at him harshly.

  “Because it just makes sense and he just saved us from dying a bunch more times to a group of assholes.” Sitting down with a plop, Sarka tore into the meat without hesitation. “We wouldn’t have been in that mess if you would’ve listened to me in the first place,” Sarka muttered angrily around a mouthful of food.

  “How was I supposed to know they were a bunch of PKing assholes?” Yun snapped back angrily as he sat down next to his wife and began eating. “You weren’t the one being killed over and over again.”

  “No, I was the one that was just being stabbed and beaten to an inch of my life and then being felt up by a bunch of perverts as they waited for you to come back again and again.” Sarka spat back. Taking a deep pull on the water bag, the Elf woman gave me an embarrassed smile. “Thank you for coming to our rescue.”

  “It’s no problem,” I said, blushing slightly at the compliment. Offering the Elf woman my hand, I introduced myself. “Startum Ironwolf.”

  “You know I can read, right?” Sarka sarcastically replied with a laugh at my embarrassed look as she shook my hand. “I’m Wendy,” nodding to the man next to her. “This is my husband, Chris.”

  “Jason,” I said, shaking her husband’s hand with a grin as I turned back to Sarka. “I can read too. That’s why I figured you two had to be married or be at least brother and sister."

  “Inconceivable!” Yun said laughing out loud as his wife’s face turned a bright shade of red.

  “Dude, did you just quote The Princess Bride?” I asked in surprise.

  “As you wish.” This time it was Yun who laughed.

  “No more movie quotes!” Sarka mockingly snapped, rolling her eyes at her husband. “I mean it.”

  “Anybody want a peanut?” I chimed in as we all laughed together.

  “Why bother helping us?” Yun asked turning suddenly serious.

  “It probably would have made more sense just to pass by and not get involved, but-“ I paused looking at them both in the eyes. “I really hate spawn-camping asshats.” As we all laughed again, I stood up and cinched my gear in place. “And I figured, who knows. Maybe the people I help might turn out to be pretty cool.” Offering a hand out to Yun, I helped him to his feet.

  “So you’re saying you think we’re pretty cool?” Sarka asked as I helped her up.

  “I don’t know. The jury is still out on that. I guess that means we’ll just have to spend some more time hanging out together.” I said with a grin. Pulling the Rockjaw Chopper from my belt, I held the hand-axe out to Yun. “Those guys are going to be back any second. Think you can put this to good use?”

  “Not really.” Yun said with a frown, “but Sarka can.”

  “What? You think a girl can’t be a tank?” Sarka snapped at the surprised look on my face. Swiping the hand-axe out of my hand, she tipped her head towards her husband. “Yun’s the healer.” Taking a closer look at the weapon’s stats, the woman squealed in excitement.

  “Oh my god, this does double the amount of damage as my sword!” Sarka was looking back up at me when her face suddenly scrunched up in panic as intense pain shot through my lower back. Without hesitation, my eyes scanned the damage meter window.

  Eowan Syndicate backstabs you for 72 points of damage.

  Glaildor Syndicate backstabs you for 94 points of damage.

  Unsurprised, my body was already moving as I read the messages. Thankfully, Sarka seeing the attackers must have somehow broken their Sneak Attack damage bonus when they’d popped out of stealth. There was never any doubts that The Syndicate players would be back, the only question had been when. Healthwise, I wasn’t too worried. I had almost as many Hit Points as the PKers’ entire team. What I wanted was to do was take a second to get to know their victims, Yun and Sarka better. Also, it gave me a good means to take their measure.

  Yanking my Bonesplitter hand-axe and Vile Blade out, I spun around swinging. The solid thunks let me know that both blades had found their mark. Yanking the blades free I spun around again as a split-second later both blades sank deep into the fleshy chest of my second attacker. I felt alive as the blood raced through my veins as the thrill of PvPing filled me completely. A quick look showed both attackers’ health bars had only slivers of life left as I grinned nastily.

  They’d chosen to spawn in behind us without waiting to heal from their rez sickness debuff, which meant they only came back to life with about 80 of their Hit Points and Mana. My attacks had hit them both for around 71 points of damage. One tick of the bleed debuff from my Bonesplitter and that would be another 15 points of damage and if that wasn’t enough in another four seconds and they’d be minus another 60 points of health.

  I saw Sarka charge past me as a golden glow surrounded the warrior who’d attacked me first. Immediately, his health popped up a 100 Hit Points as the rogue keeled over dead. Intense pain shot through my body as a Frost Blast and Flame Blast slammed into my back in quick succession. My health dropping another 140 points. Hammering both blades into the warrior again, I saw Glaildor’s Hit Points suddenly drop to 5 points of health as I sliced through his shield arm, while his sword weakly flailed at my back. Head-butting the panicked man away, I turned around to face the Fire Mage as the warrior crumpled to the ground already dead.

  Another double blast of fire and ice rocked me back a step as my eyes locked onto the Fire mage ten feet away. The mage looked like he was shitting his drawers as he saw the rage in my eyes and my nearly full Hit Point. As soon as I lunged for him, the man let out a high pitched scream and turned around running away. I caught up to the punk in five steps as another two Frost Blasts slammed into me. Ignoring the 50% slowdown, I backstabbed the Fire mage for 282 points of damage dropping the PKer’s lifeless body face-down into the snow.

  Spinning around for the Frost mage, I came to a sudden stop seeing Sarka already hacking the Light Elf to a bloody pulp. Looking quickly around the clearing, I sheathed my blades once I saw that the rest of the PKers were down as a golden light surrounded me from Yun’s heal, nearly bringing me back to full health. Giving him a nod of thanks, I began searching the three players I’d killed as Yun started casting a heal spell for his wife.

  Hmmm … the Fire mage’s corpse gave up one silver and fifty coppers. Grinning happily, I pocketed the money as the mage’s body turned into a black gravestone. Walking over to the last
two bodies, I was reaching for the rogue’s corpse when Yun’s healing spell hit his wife as she finished off the shrieking mage. As the golden glow brought her back to full health, she whipped around searching for a new target with her hand-axe held high in a two-handed grip. Seeing that all of our enemies were down, Sarka dropped her new hand-axe to her side in wonder.

  “Wow, that was surprisingly easy!”

  “I know, right,” I answered back with an easy laugh. “Since you’re doing nothing, why not check those bodies for loot.”

  I heard the sound of coins being picked up as I checked the Rogue’s corpse. Two silvers and thirty coppers richer, woohoo. I could see why people would want to take up PKing. The last body was the warrior. Besides the one silver and sixty coppers, the body also gave up a slightly used Iron-braced Wooden Shield. Hefting up the slightly used shield, I called out to Sarka.

  “Need a shield?”

  “Yea, those bastards took mine.” Sarka spat sourly. Catching the shield I tossed over, she checked out the properties giving me a lopsided grin. “Thanks, this is twice as good as the one they ganked from me.”

  “No problem,” I said, giving her a two-fingered salute as I scanned the area while re-equipping my shield and hand-axe. “Hey Yun, how far away could you trigger your re-spawn?”

  “I’d say twenty feet out was the maximum range if I didn’t respawn at the graveyard,” Yun said quickly before going back to whispering back and forth with his wife. I was just wondering if we should go our separate ways when a system window popped up before my eyes.

  Sarka has invited you to join her group.

  Accept: Yes / No

  Yun and Sarka stepped up to me smiling. “We wanted to thank you for helping us with those creeps,” Sarka said offering me her hand. “If you’re open to teaming up together, we’d be happy to have you in our group.” Yun seconded as I shook his wife’s hand.

  “I’d love to.” I said, giving Yun’s hand a firm shake as I selected ‘Yes’ to join their group. “You think those guys will try attacking us again?” Before either one of them could answer, I saw the five Syndicate players shimmer to life not twenty feet away. As one they sat down and began eating and drinking.

  “They’re back!” I called out hurriedly over my shoulder as I charged after the group.

  “I’ll take the healer!” Sarka called out a step behind me as she yanked her new hand-axe out of her belt and brought up her shield.

  “I’m on the Warrior and Rogue. We can split the mages.” I shot back, preparing for a Shield Bash.

  “Not if I get to them first.” Sarka cackled excitedly.

  The PKers Hit Points were nearly half-full when we crashed into them. The entire team waited until the last second to get as much accelerated healing in as possible before leaping to their feet, not that it changed the outcome of the fight. We still took them down like gangbusters. Later on, during one of our breaks, Sarka told me she hadn’t known about Shield Bash but had just been following my lead. That had worked like a charm and Sarka learned a new ability.

  Now that we were both geared up and prepared, The Syndicate players didn’t last even half as long as their first respawn attack. I also learned that Fire Blast and Frost Blast could both be blocked by a shield, although it took a good chunk of durability off the shield in the process. We all shared the coins that dropped, and Yun picked up a new sword from the rogue, which was much better than his starter short sword.

  We ended up hanging out for another half an hour and got a chance to spawn-camp the PKers for another three rounds. I ended up getting another three silvers and a two-handed staff that gave a +2 to intelligence since we were now sharing the loot together. Yun didn’t want it since he’d picked up a staff earlier that gave an additional +5 points to all heal spells, so I just threw the extra loot into my inventory and moved on.

  Some people might consider us a bunch of hypocrites for repeatedly killing the PKers over and over again, but it was their choice to attack us repeatedly. If we’d had tried to leave the area, the fuckers would’ve just attacked us again after regaining their full health and remaining gear. In truth, the asshats deserved a little payback for everything they’d been up to.

  From what Yun and Sarka had explained. They’d met Lamor, Eowan, and Lamaraidor on their way to fight the Goblins that had taken over the local mine just outside of Delonshire. Forming a group to take on the mini-instance sounded like a good idea, so Yun and Sarka had joined the team without a second thought. Everything seemed to be going well until Lamor led the group through the forest on what he said was a shortcut. As soon as they were off the beaten path that the other players were using, Glaildor and Mebrin popped out of hiding, and The Syndicate players attacked. When Yun and Sarka had come back to their body, they were slaughtered again. The next time they respawned, they both took off running through the woods instead of trying to recover their bodies.

  Instead of just letting them go, The Syndicate players chased after them relentlessly. Their endurance ran out about five minutes later, but by then they were deep in the woods. The Syndicate players caught up to them shortly after and killed them again just as the wolf packs started to attack. This time when Yun and Sarka spawned in at their bodies, they attacked their tormentors and took down Lamor. Unfortunately, they’d died immediately afterward since their Hit Points were so low from respawning and basically fighting with only their starter items.

  They’d taken off again once they respawned, but after killing the wolves The Syndicate players had just kept hunting them down. The PKers were pissed that their query had dared to kill one of their own, but this time when they caught up to their prey, they kept Sarka alive with a sliver of health demanding all of her inventory. Eowan had even tried to molest her but stopped when the wolf packs started attacking again.

  Yun had tried to help, but The Syndicate players were able to keep killing him off as they fought against the wolves attacking them from all around the forest. That was when I’d found them. Yun was still upset that he hadn’t been able to protect his wife from the PKers, but as I saw it, he wasn’t giving himself enough credit. I’d seen just how many times he’d repeatedly died trying to save her. The man had nothing to be ashamed of.

  After hearing about their ordeal, I was more than happy to offer a little payback. After killing them for the fourth time, Lamor appeared by himself and began yelling threats. He said that his entire clan would blacklist our group and hunt us all down for the life of our characters. Yun laughed in his face as Sarka told him that he and his guild could go suck a bag of dicks.

  Instead of arguing with the punk, I just blasted him to death with two Frost Blasts. After that, The Syndicate players’ gravestones suddenly changed to solid stone. A quick in-game Wiki explained this occurred when a player decided to respawn at the graveyard. Respawning at the graveyard gave players a rez-sickness that gave a 25% debuff to all stats for up to an hour. Once the hour was up the players’ stats would return to normal. Players then had the option of collect their gear or waiting a day before for their items to reappear at the nearest graveyard next to their respawn point.

  “I guess that’s it then,” I said with a grin, swinging my shield onto my back and sliding the hand-axe into my belt. Taking out my dagger, I got to work skinning the wolves and gathering up their meat. I heard the couple talking in low whispers as Yun looted the money from Lamor’s corpse. A second later, they both joined me in my work.

  “Startum, if you’re interested, we’d still like to hit the Goblin mines, but we need to pick up our equipment from our gravestones and return to Delonshire for repairs before we can do the mini-instance,” Sarka said with a smile.

  “Sounds good to me.” I replied sitting on my haunches. “I’d like to skin the dead wolves on the way if you don’t mind. I just can’t leave money like this lying around.”

  “Let’s get her done then,” Yun said, rolling up the sleeves to his robe.

  Overall, skinning wolves in-game was a
process. Although, not as bloody as it would have been in real life. Within minutes of finishing the blood simply disappeared from our bodies and clothes. Still, it was kind of disgusting if you’d never hunted before. Neither of them had picked up skinning as a crafting skill but learned from doing as I showed them how to learn the skill on their own. Their training ground had been battling Goblin invaders. Looting their corpses had been relatively easy once they’d gotten past the Goblins’ humanoid appearance.

  I was impressed how Sarka just dove right into the work without complaint. Interesting enough as we worked I was able to get a good look at the Light Elf’s features to get the answer that had been floating around in my head since I’d met my people. There were obvious differences between the House of Kayden and the Light Elves, which made me think the entire house was made of up Half-Elves. Both Sarka and Yun were thinner than I was with slight builds and long anime elf-like ears that were almost six inches long. Notoriously, full-blooded Elves disliked Half-Elves in most Dungeon and Dragon style of stories, although Humans typically got along with Half-Elves well. Still, it made me wonder what kind of reception I’d receive once we hit Delonshire.

  Although Yun and Sarka had both played some first-person shooters in the past, they were relatively new to the MMORPGs genre. Neither one of them had fully understood my comment about not being able to pass up good money like this lying around, but once I explained that vendors would pay money for the pelts and meat, they really got into the work.

  New players in MMORPGs didn’t usually turn down free money. You never have enough to cover the basics and training, let alone have enough extra to even buy vendor gear. As we worked, I explained the general stuff I knew from playing so far and what I’d read on the forums. The first generally being that if you can loot it, you can get some money for it. We also discuss class builds and gameplay.