Code Heart

[Mahou-Shoujo]

Senna Yakuo, or Minima as anyone who checked her tag would see, grunted as she swung the massive branch she had as a starter weapon, even being what it was, as a half giant berserker she had more than enough force to swat away the Lorica that was attempting to hit her, the small, furry creature came up to the knee of an average person, and fought with it's admittedly sharp claws while leaping towards foes with strong legs, they were a normal low level enemy in Code Heart fantasy games, and the perfect opponent for a fetch quest at the beginning of the game.

"Lunar Wolf! Can you grab the thing we came here for?... Whatever it was again?"
Minima called out to her party member on this quest, a friend she had met online a while back.

 

[CieloAzul]

He heard his party member shout something to him but he was a bit busy blocking attacks from a few Lorica's , this was the problem with always playing the tank you got use to being swarmed by enemies. He blocked each of their attacks with his wooden broken down starter shield , and then proceeded to kill them for some exp and gold. He then took a quick look at the chat log and saw what it is she wanted him to do. Him and Minima have been playing together for a while now having met in a previous game. "All right you slave driver but you get the next one" he said as he ran to the middle of this small forest area and collected the roses that only grew in this part of the game.

"All right Minima I got the roses we can head back to town now or if you want" he said hitting an enemy with his wooden sword and blocking another with his shield " or we can stay here and grind out a few more enemies it's all up to you" he said with a smirk.

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

As her friend and party member ran towards the rose patch Minima took it upon herself to attract the rest of the Lorica in the area, jumping in between them and Lunar wolf as she gathered the flowers, using the superior reach of her weapon to keep them at bay, she had lost a decent bit of HP but her class naturally had the ability to recover quickly.

Minima actually considered sticking around for a while, though if her calculations were correct, the quest and the experience from that battle would easily be enough to send them both up a level.
"Nahh! Lorica are way too easy to fight! Lets head back and turn this quest in already!"

 

[CieloAzul]

He just smiled as they left the area, " I can't wait to leave the area we get to go up a level , but do you see this " he said while opening a menu to show her "Our first quest reward is a weapon to choose from , I think i will go with the steel sword or maybe the steel short axe " he said with an excited tone "And what about you short stuff" he like to tease her quite a bit about her actual size besides her playing the tallest and biggest race in the game.

As soon as they made it to the starter town , they were swamped this was probably the biggest game this company ever launched their were so many players in this game, and since it is a merged server it is even bigger with the amount of players that are here at one time. They made it to the old lady who was the quest giver , he submitted the quest , got the reward of a steel sword and enough xp to go up a level "So now what , so many missions to choose from"

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

"Yeah! Code Heart are great and their games are amazing... But I wish they didn't lock my berserk ability behind so many levels... On level two I can take fury... But that's not a proper berserk..."
Minima said as she navigated through a menu with one hand.
Her eyes lit up at the mention of a new weapon though and she closed the menu.
"Yes! I'm gonna take the biggest one there!"
No matter what it was, the reward weapons had to be better than the zero gold, trash class weapons they started with.

Minima chose a battleaxe as her weapon and after applying her level up she equipped the massive axe, it was larger than many of the game's races, and though it normally had a massive speed penalty, races with the large size perk could ignore it.
"Hmm... There's a critical class mission here... Head to the arena and listen to an announcement? All other quests are locked until we do and the reward is a free mythic class item called... The glimpse of truth?..."

 

[CieloAzul]

He looked at her "I bet you it is a mythic class item worth actually nothing , I mean who get's a mythic class reward for like nothing" he said with a sigh as they both headed to the arena it was flooded all the players every single one of them were in here or hanging outside the arena , he has never seen so many players in one game before , but it was probably going to die down after a few weeks since some people never stick with MMO'S to long. He was standing next to his friend while messing around with his menus and setting up hot bars and menus while waiting for what ever to happen to happen. And suddenly his menu disappeared and he let out a swear word.

A read image was flashing in the sky with just coding numbers in it , and it seemed to get bigger and bigger everyone in the arena going quiet and watching , some yelling that the game was broken and needed to get fixed. It suddenly stopped and the red was starting to subside into one area and it formed a few sentences. "This game has now become your prison , your real world exists here , and now . The other one is dead and no longer matters to you , it is time you all learned the truth and to start with that you will loose the false images that you chose for yourself" as soon as he did that everyone's avatars changed to look like their real world selves while keeping some attributes from their in game characters "And do not try to leave this world for it is not possible until you learn the truth" and then the words suddenly appeared.

Some players were freaked out , a few opening their menus and looking for the log out button but it was not their and no matter where they looked in the menus there was noting except a new quest which simply said Welcome to your new Home. Everyone was shocked and some even screaming.

Lunar opined his menu and looked through his menu and even his inventory but there was only one thing there an orange item the was coated black he read the description and it just said Learn the Truth , he looked to his friend seeing she changed as well to her small looking self from the real world "What is happening"

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

Minima rolled her eyes before answering.
"Yes but it's a mythic item that everyone will have, we don't want to fall behind even if it's by a tiny margin!"
The giant girl declared, showcasing her usual competitive streak, while she didn't really compete with friends as much... The general populace were fair game.
"Then again, it is a critical quest... So it might just be some cruddy quest item we will have to lug around for a few hours".
She said after a minute, her exasperated sigh showing she believed that theory.

Minima seemed unphased by the announcement at first, assuming it to be some weird event or super meta quest line.
That is until she suddenly found herself far closer to the ground.
"What the hell?! Is this some kinda stupid bug or... Something?..."
She began to ask, looking for the complaints button, only to discover it missing, but that wasn't all...
"T..The exit button... It isn't here?!..."
She shouted before hearing her friend.
"I... I dunno! But we should get away from here... quickly!"
Minima shouted. Many of the players were starting to get hysterical, and the situation was quickly developing into a full blown, magically powered riot.

 

[CieloAzul]

He opined up his eyes and let out a huge sigh , it has all ready been a week since the incident happened, and people were still freaking out, but some players all ready formed groups and guilds to be safer in numbers and to find a way out , of this game so they could return home. Half of the gaming population while being scared continued to play while the other half remained in the towns beings scared.

Lunar and Minima decided to get away from the town as far away as possible only going back to hand in quests or buy some supplies they might need. But they would soon move on to the next town anyways, since they are the maximum level for the beginning area all they needed to do was finish their first dungeon quest and beat the boss but that was difficult for them to do since it was just the two of them.

"This sucks , why could this not be a two man dungeon , I mean come on I do not want to rely on those crazy people in the town or on one of the guilds then them forcing us to join them" he said looking at his friend "I blame you, you just had to drag me into playing this game" he said in a frustrated tone.

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

Minima was resting against a tree as she heard her friend sigh, dragging her out of her own thoughts.
She too had been thinking over recent events, honestly though she was the first one to suggest getting away from town she wasn't happy about the decision, like in the real world their characters needed sleep, it was a feature added to stop people playing too long, yet it felt as realistic as in real life... Which meant Minima missed comfortable beds!

"It was originally a ONE man dungeon... At least it was classed as such in the Manuel... And you would have played this bloody game whether I was or not, and I dunno if you got it through preorder like me but you still bought the thing..."
Minima countered before seeming to fall into deeper thought.
"Maybe... We could try and form a temporary party?... There have got to be some other players in the same situation as us, maybe we could offer them a mutually beneficial alliance?".

 

[CieloAzul]

"Fine let's go back into town and post an opening hopefully we won't get any weirdos and if we do , i am going to let you deal with them short stuff" it was a week since it happened and it was a very serious matter but he still found it hilarious whenever they fought something and he saw this tiny person swing around a huge weapon , it was almost like something out of a cartoon. As they made it into town they looked around and it was like it always has been dreary and full of depressed people not knowing what they wanted to do.

They went to the town square and he looked for the notice board and went up to it and paid the NPC 10 silver to put up their notice, and it read the following "Looking for two people who are not completely crazy or have lost their minds to come out and help us out with this dungeon, and if things go well we will look to you for future runs as well, Ohh and loot will be dealt out fairly.". He smirked and waived to his small friend "What do you think good enough right?"

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

"Hey, I wouldn't even mind a certain amount of weirdness at this point... As long as they aren't gross or some kinda weeb I dont care, it's gotta be better than getting stuck here".
Minima declare semi seriously, and it was true, they had ground all the area's quests and minor dungeons into dust, and were not even gaining exp from most of them anymore.
Minima growled growled under her breath at the short stuff mentioned, she was very annoyed by her true height... On the plus side, she seemed to be the only character with the tiny size that could wield large two handed weapons... At least that she had seen.

Minima read over the request and nodded.
"It should work, I mean, it says exactly what we need".

 

[CieloAzul]

"Its been a hour and the only people that has applied were those obvious pkers and complete nooblets, I think we should just go and try our luck who knows with some skill and determination we might be able to get through this " he said in an annoyed voice , he was tired of waiting he just wanted to get out of this town and leave, it got extremely boring for him here. As soon as he turned around he saw guy stand there by their sign notice reading the request. He looked at the stats of the guy and saw that his class was a priest "Please dear god be normal and ask to join us" he said in a hushed tone so only his friend could hear.

Jack was looking for something to help him out and help him get stronger, he advanced enough to get to the next town, but only after completing the next dungeon , so he came to town looking for anyone that might want him , and that was when he found the notice. He turned around and looked for the two who put up the notice and saw them. "Sorry to bother you but I saw your notice and was wondering if you still need help with the dungeon, I am a priest class and I can be very helpful with my healing".

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

"Well obviously we won't find anyone in one day... It might take days to find someone actually competent, and even then they might demand some outrageous payment..."
Minima sighed pessimistically, before making a suggestion.
"Maybe we could just take on a massive amount of noobs and throw them at the enemy? If we throw enough numbers it might be enough".
Even as she suggested Minima knew the plan sucked, with that many noobs the battle would get too confused, and besides, it wasn't fair on the players they would screw over.

"You know we won't make it through by ourselves... We already tried and got crushed so we are stuck here until we at the very least get our hands on a healer..."
Just as she was saying that, a priest appeared almost by magic, and after a few moments of checking his stats, Minima decided to speak for both of them.
You're hired! Glad to have a priest on board!"
She shouted, practically jumping.
Meanwhile a young woman in the garb of a mage was standing a little back, looking somewhat nervously at the three people talking, she had seen the request, but had never joined a party before, and was not sure exactly what to do.

 

[CieloAzul]

The paladin stood there with a smile and put his arm around the priest "You know we have been waiting for so long. Why did you make us wait " he said as if they will old friends , he then removed his arms and looked at his little friend it was hilarious when she jumped around like that because she was so small. He let out a little snicker.

The priest simple smiled he was happy it looked like he found a good group to party with but he was confused , didn't they have to have four people for this dungeon they wanted to do work. So they must still be waiting for the next person. It might be the add they put up it was quite eliminating.

Lunar simply smiled they had a healer now for that dps. He looked around for anyone who might be interested or someone they could simply take along with them it did not really matter at this point they just got a healer. He then saw the girl , he looked at her stats and saw she was a mage on their level. He walked over to her with this stupid smile on his face "Hey there mage girl wanna join the party it will be a lot of fun I promise you" he said with his hand on his head.

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

Minima noticed the snickering, having trained herself to notice any joke that might be at her expense and proceeded to throw a rock hard enough to actually deal HP damage as it hit her friend, sure a small rock wouldn't actually do anyhting to a tank like Lunar but it certainly made her feel a little happier.
"Honestly a healer alone might be enough to tip the balance in our favor... But there are some pretty high defense enemies in that dungeon.. So another DPS or an offensive mage would be pretty helpful"
Minima seemed to think aloud, a small habit of hers which people had called cute... And recieved a punch for their trouble.
Eclair was stunned for a minute as the large man, a paladin according to his stats, approached her and asked if she wanted to join his party, she defintely wanted to, that was kinda her whole reason for approaching in the first place, but she had expected some sort of test, maybe a grand speech or oath, not just a simple invite.
Eventually she snapped out of it and smiled widely, her doll like limbs moving into what could almost be called a salute.
"Y.yes! I would be honored to join your party!"
She declared, looking them over.
A cleric, a beastman paladin and... A gnome berserker?...
"Excuse me... Umm, miss berserker? I'm not saying you picked badly but wouldn't gnomes normally be a mage or rogue?..."
She asked, causing Minima to freeze up.
Normally she would shout, rant and maybe throw a punch at having her species mixed up, but she did have a slight weakness for cute girls... Not that she was attracted to her or anything, it was just hard to get angry at someone who looked like a doll.

 

[CieloAzul]

Lunar simply laughed at Minima and then looked at all three of them "Now we have your party sorted , I am so ready to kill that bastard boss and move to the next town." The paladin said laughing , he then looked at Eclair "Well you see she was born small and the game decided to make her that small." he said looking at his smaller friend. "But no she was a giant but when the game went all crazy she went to her real size" the man said.

The priest looked at all of them and simply smiled "I just want to say thank you all for inviting me . My name is Jack , and I have only been playing games like these for about a month " he said holding his staff tightly "I know what to do but I hope you will all still teach me things to learn" the human priest said. Lunar simply smiled and hit the back of the priest "All good bro , stick with me and shorty and you will learn quite a lot, the two of us have been playing for years" he said with a huge smile on his face and then looked at the little one again "And what about you our tiny little mage"

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

Minima grinned as her friend explained what her race really was, and was even willing to ignore the laughter.
"Yep! I am a half giant! Just check this out!"
She made the motion to 'draw' her weapon, and the massive two handed axe appeared, weapons did scale to size... But Minima was registered as half giant so the weapon was almost comically large, especially with her ability to hold it in one hand.

"Wow! I've only seen two other half giants and they were huuuge! And not nearly as adorable!"
Eclair stated, dropping a blush inducing compliment seemingly without thinking.
The mage girl seemed to calm down as she answered the question, though it was a forced calm.
"Well... I mostly played strategy games and when everyone got trapped I had about... Twenty seconds or so of playtime? I've been figuring everything out slowly but I promise not to be a burden!"

 

[CieloAzul]

Lunar smiled and put his hand on the little mages head "Don't worry about it we will be just fine , I got us covered and hey you can always learn a long the way." he said while giving her a simple smile..

-----
Time had past and they made their way through the first area of the dungeon Lunar banging on his shield and using his taunting ability drawing all the aggro from the monsters using his high defense and tanking the damage from the front. A few of the monsters tried to slip past him but he was to experienced of a player to allow that to happen. He used his newly learned stomp ability that would stun normal monsters in the area for five seconds.

"Now Minima while I got them on lock" he yelled out to his friend his eyes looking to their new mage "And you use a area damage spell so that we can wipe them out in one go" said the beast man paladin he said as the stun took it's effect and the most of the creatures in the room were stunned.

Jack stood behind all three of them and activated his defence and attack boost spells and boosted his party members placing more defence on the paladin and more attack on the two damage dealers. He looked forward and saw Lunar's health going down and raised his staff and activated he's singular healing ability filling up the paladin's health bar once more "Ok i boosted your attack's " he said to the half giant and the little mage.

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

The dungeon had been extremely easy so far, when it was just Minima and Lunar they had managed to get all the way to the boss, now they had a healer and another damage dealer, so the monsters were no real issue.
She was dueling, or rather hammering the shield of an enemy as Luna got the other creature's attention, and as he called her she kicked the terrified Lorica to the ground and moved at the enemy, activating her whirlwind attack and dashing through the group, dealing heavy damage and even killing a couple, but she was stunned for three seconds after using it and joped their new mage knew what to do.

Eclair had spent the entire dungeon craw alternating between terrified and pumped, while it was scary fighting all the monsters that had killed her on the last four attempts she had made, it was amazing to cut through them so effectively... Speaking of which it was her turn now to finish off the enemy, as their berserker left the enemy all on low health she activated a chain lighting spell, useful in close quarters since it only targeted enemies.
The small bolt hit an enemy and rapidly spread to the rest, finishing off the near dead enemies.

 

[CieloAzul]

Lunar sighed as all the monsters died in front of and smiled "A piece of cake even more now that we have you two. " he said to the new party members. Giving them a smiled and he decided to move on , the next to floors of the dungeon went about just the same as the first two did, easy and efficient the group doing well . They then finally made it to the boos door. He looked back "All right you two, just a word of warning , when the boss get's to phase two boss drops his normal great weapon and picks up two smaller swords. His speed increases and he becomes a lot faster." the paladin said .

"Not a lot of people have made it to phase two but don't worry me and Minima will get you through it" he said with a smile as he opined a window to check the boss stats and what it drops. "Looks like it drops a great sword, or a axe and a staff for healing and dps. Well looks like it is your lucky day short stuff" he said tapping Minima on her head.

He opined the door and the boss room lit up and the boss stood there with a few mobs. "All right I will pull and Minima you know what to do, Eclair , I need you to stand with Jack in the back line and keep your dps going" the paladin said with a smile as he walked in and used his taunt ability while smacking on his shield.

Jack simply nodded and followed taking in all the advice the two veteran players had to offer him. Once they made it to the boss room he kept silent as the paladin explaiend what was going to happened. The priest raised his staff and applied boosts to the whole party "All right I will stay by the back and keep my healing up, i do have my revive spell if we need it" he said hoping not to used it and he doubted that he would have to because of the veterans.