Grand Quest Offline

Renose

Renose

Balancer of Chaos
Original poster
LURKER MEMBER
FOLKLORE MEMBER
Invitation Status
Prologue: Welcome to Grand Quest Online​

Grand Quest Online, or GQO, is a recently released VRMMORPG that came out only a few months ago, but despite that is already one of the most popular and hardest to get games in the entire world. On this day, five people managed to get a copy of this very hard to acquire, and rather expensive, game. Going home soon after they got it, these five newest players of GQO would soon get home and log in, or set up their Real Game Gear, or RGG, if they had just got one and hadn't played any other VRMMORPG's before. After putting on the gear, one simply closed their eyes and said "Link Start" to turn on the system.

They would feel themselves falling asleep, their eyes closing as it would feel as though their consciousness was separated from their body. The new players would appear first in the Character Creation room, which was just a black room with various displays for assigning Stats, Attributes, and performing other aspects of Character Creation. After clicking the 'accept' button their temporary virtual body would become the body of their newly created character and their consciousness would fade once again. When they each next awoke, they would all be lying in a peaceful green field.

The sensations would all be real. The green, smooth grass beneath them; the gentle wind that blew through the area. Sounds of birds could be heard in the distance and it was incredibly calm. This sensation was much different than other VRMMORPGs. It all felt so... real. It was hard to even fathom that you all were inside of a game. Even your bodies felt like your own instead of just a virtual body. It was all both incredible and strangely surreal.

There were several other new players in the field, this probably being a starting area of sorts. Unlike other games, there were no ID tags or anything else above the heads of other players, a part of the enhanced realism of this game most likely that had several factors, including having to actually get to know people.

Each player had one somewhat poor looking weapon made of bronze or wood, some average medieval fantasy clothes, and a sack tied upon their backs. If the players checked their Sacks, as there was no Inventory Window as instead they had to reach in and pull things out, they would find a pouch filled with what was most likely money and a strange leather-bound journal. Just touching the pouch revealed how much money was inside of it via a small window popping up in front of the pouch.

After maybe half a minute of getting their bearings, a voice could be heard. It was a powerful, yet far off voice that seemed to resound everywhere throughout the field. It sounded as such.

"Welcome travelers. So you wish to enter my world?"​

Suddenly on the other side of the field a door would appear. It was a rather simple, yet very large, round framed oaken door with runic symbols carved on the outer edge of the door.

"If so, you must prove that you are worthy enough to enter. Either with others or by yourselves, step through the door before you. If you are able to prove yourself, a world of wonder awaits you. If you fail, then only death awaits you. Feel free to turn back from whence you came, if you are not willing to take this test". The voice began to grow more far off now. "Well then, young travelers. I wish you all good luck..." With that, the voice faded into nothing, and the door on the other side slowly began to open.

All five players would be greeted with a window, each player only able to see their own windows that appeared for them and not the windows of others.

The Quest 'The Trial of Beginnings' has been added to your Adventure Journal. Do you accept?​

Yes [Y] No [N]

The window was azure in color, and at the bottom were two buttons. One could probably say Yes or No as well, but otherwise they would have the option of actually declining the beginning quest, which probably meant that they wouldn't be able to progress from this beginning area. For those who did press Yes, the window would vanish and a new one would take its place.

The Trial of Beginnings

--Issued By--
???

Objectives
Clear the Trial of Beginnings either by yourself or with the aid of others.

--Reward--
10 XP
5,000 Sens
Special Gear

--Failure Penalty--
Death
​

---
For those that, for whatever reason, hit 'No' would fall unconscious once again with the message 'You are Dead' flashing before their eyes before they would be greeted with two options. The first was a button that said 'Create New Character' and the other was the 'Logout' button.
---

For those that were taking on this quest though, the entrance to this 'trial' awaited them and they could either try and form a Party or simply progress into the Trial on their own.
 
Jason looked at the notification, giving a short laugh at the no option, Who the hell would decline the first quest they got. Idiots, that's who. He clicked the Yes button with a smirk, already feeling himself become emerged in the game. He loved this feeling, it was greater than anything other game he had been in before. He began to do a light jog around the field, testing out the body for any imperfections or flaws. Finding none, he smiled before turning to the others that were their as well.

"Oi, Anyone up to form a quick party to get through this tutorial?" He said with a smile, not that they could see it through his mask, which he quickly took off after he realized that. He could probably do it by himself, but he wanted to see if these guys would be any fun to hang out with.
 
The light flooded his eyes as James awoke. He was blinded for a second. The RGG, even though it was 5 years old, never ceased to amaze him. It was like he was actually outside on a grassy field. The gentle breeze, the birds in the distance, and the warmth radiating from the sun. At first, James was a bit unnerved. The fact that humans could recreate everything perfectly in a virtual space... James thought that mankind had transcended with the invention of the RGG. People had become indubitable gods, able to create entire worlds and universes with a single computer. Yet, people, always looking over the horizon, had the implicit desire to explore and learn of exotic, new lands. Thus, the gaming community represented the pioneers of the virtual world. The ones to challenge and explore each world created for the RGG. James was one of these pioneers.

James looked around him as he got up from the ground. It appeared that several other new players had just woken up as well. James took the time to test out the interface of the game. It was pretty minimalist, but for the purposes of this game it worked pretty well. It helped promote the realism of the game, and James could never criticize realism in games. He then came across the Quest Log. He quickly read the prompt and obviously pressed "Yes". One of the others who had just awoken loudly asked if anyone wanted to form a party. James walked up to the guy. He was a bit taller than James' avatar and had taken quite a few liberties with the character creator unlike James, who just used a default setting to play a character that looked like him. James offered his hand and said "Hey there, my name is Caelis. Nice to meet you. I'm down to get a party up and running." James then took a time to take a good look at the guy as he stared at the guy directly in his eyes.
 
He supposed it had been put off long enough. The urge to play Grand Quest Online had been with Hideo since he set aside a copy from the first shipment, but it had been pushed aside for more important matters. No more though! Today, he'd finally delve into what was pretty much the most hyped game in a while and experience it for himself. The click of lock, a flick of a switch, and with soft steps Hideo ascended from the darkened shop to his home above the store. There would be no disappointed customers either, or at least hopefully. He'd been smart enough to update his blog and post a notice a few weeks in advance, notifying of possibly closures from this day forward. There had been some backlash from the customers, but he'd managed to ward off the worst of them with promises of still being open at least twice a week during this time.

Slipping his shoes off at the stairs, he stepped into the small upper floor he called home. Ignoring everything for now he made a beeline for the bedroom, closing the door behind him. Setting up the RGG took only a moment and before long he was laid out comfortably on his bed, slipping the headpiece on. With a, "Link start," Hideo felt reality slip away as the Gear lulled him asleep.
________________________________

Drowsiness didn't accompany his "awakening" in the virtual world as this was hardly his first time using the RGG. He took a moment to take in the Character Creation room before getting to work. As usual, he ignored any sort of visual customization and went straight for the things that actually mattered. Figuring out what he actually wanted from his character took a while, but eventually after his final tap on the interface Hideo was satisfied. Again, he felt himself losing grip on this "reality" as character creation took place, his vision fading to black.

When he opened his eyes again, it was to a rich world that didn't disappoint and Hideo instantly understood how people could forget it was just a game. There was a sense of fullness to the experience simply sitting on the plain had that other VRs lacked, something essential. While amazed at what the development team had managed to achieve, his mind as a gamer quickly assumed direct control. He had only managed to examine his character details before a voice broke the silence. While, thankfully, not long-winded, the mysterious voice was also rather vague and cliche if he had to be honest. He supposed that this would be the equivalent of the game's tutorial, and with GQO's system being apparently revolutionary, Hideo felt no urge to cluelessly dive in. Having accepted the quest, he figured introducing himself to the others also participating would be apt. "Hey, you can all call me Mushi."
 
Red (RedEyedHunter) woke up lying in the grass with a few others he looked at the group and thought what type of people they may be, a quest window opened in front of him, after hitting the [y] button he heard one guy ask if anyone wanted to join a party, "I'll join safer in numbers and all that and I'll need someone in front of me to block off the on coming enemies." He listened to the other say their name, but he did really want to say anything about his name.
 
Xavier was overjoyed to start GQO and set it up right away. He gave his character a once over before logging into the game, answered yes to the question and was amazed at how amazing the game looked...and felt, a gentle breeze rolling across the field felt just like it did in the real world. Caim raised his arms, one reaching for the handle of his starting weapon, a simple bronze bastard sword, and he hefted it off his back easily enough. His red and blue eyes surveying the blade as well as the other people, he quickly sheathes the weapon and looks to the other players "Count me in as well." He says smiling to the others "I'm...Caim." He says quickly almost saying his real name in the process, the faact that he's seeing this all through his eyes was tripping him up, he was a vet at other MMOs and video games after-all. "It would do us good to get the reward, guessing it'll be some starting armor or a beginners set of healing items." He says still basking in his first dive, the smile from it less noticeable than when he first started playing.
 
Although James had bought Grand Quest Online, or GQO, a few days ago; tonight would be his first time playing it. James played video games whenever he had free time, so James was no noob when it came to VRMMORPG. He rushed to his dorm room after his college classes were over. Walking into his dorm room, he threw his book bag near his bed and "ripped" his shoes off his feet. He walked over to his RGG, and James turned it on and set up GQO. Then he laid down on his bed and put on his RGG. Smiling James said, "Link Start." He started to himself falling asleep, something James had grown accustom to.

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James opened his eyes to the Character Creation room; which was very simple, just a black room with the displays for the various aspects of character creation. He spent barely anytime in that room, since he had already thought out how he was going to make his character. James clicked [Accept], and he felt himself losing consciousness again.

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When James opened his eyes this time, he looked around and saw a field of green grass all around him. He also felt a gentle breeze, and he could hear the sounds of birds that might have been somewhere in the distance, or the sound was just being played from somewhere. This area was a big change from the previous room. He smiled; opening and closing his right hand, and thought, 'In this world I shall be known as Zan.' Zan finally took notice of the fellow players. There was no IDs or anything else above the heads of other players. 'That's different.'

"Welcome travelers. So you wish to enter my world?"

'No, we want to leave it,' thought Zan as he listened to the random voice. A very large, but simple door with symbols carved on the outer edge of the door appeared on the other side of the grassy field.

"If so, you must prove that you are worthy enough to enter. Either with others or by yourselves, step through the door before you. If you are able to prove yourself, a world of wonder awaits you. If you fail, then only death awaits you. Feel free to turn back from whence you came, if you are not willing to take this test". The voice began to grow more far off now. "Well then, young travelers. I wish you all good luck..." The door slowly started to open.

'That was ...' thought Zan as a window popped up interrupting his thinking. The window was a Quest Alert, nothing new for him.

The Quest 'The Trial of Beginnings' has been added to your Adventure Journal. Do you accept?​

Yes [Y] No [N]

Zan pressed [Y] and watched as the Quest Alert disappeared and a new window took it's place.

The Trial of Beginnings

--Issued By--
???

Objectives
Clear the Trial of Beginnings either by yourself or with the aid of others.

--Reward--
10 XP
5,000 Sens
Special Gear

--Failure Penalty--
Death​

Zan read the Quest Window. 'Beginning Quest you got to love them,' thought Zan as he smiled. He grabbed his starting weapon, some type of Great Axe, off his back. He held the weapon in his hands and swung it a bit, thinking 'This will do for a while.' Zan heard the other players talking about starting a temporary party. He simply ignored them and charged towards the door, carrying his weapon in hands. He was ready and hoping for a battle.
 
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Raijin nodded at everyone before turning towards the door and kicking it open, He turned back, another smile on his face as he proclaimed himself to them all. "A pleasure to meet you all, my tag is Raijinslayer, but you can all call me Raijin. I hope we all get along." He grasped Caelis' hand in a sturdy hand shake, marveling at how realistic it all felt to him. releasing the guy's hand before looking at everyone, sizing them up in his head. Satisfied with what he saw, he looked over to the guy who seemed to be goin' it solo, shrugging his shoulders. Whatever floats you boat.

"Okay, since it seems like everyone who's going to party has partied up, lets get a move on. We don't want the loner to get all the good loot now do we?"

With that. he made his way towards the door, moving at a more sedate pace as he was in no real rush to be the first through the door.
 
While five of the six players began to speak of putting together a party, one decided to forgo the party, most likely considering the beginning quest to be easy. Great Axe in hand, he charged forward to the door as his footfalls became one of the more prominent sounds in the meadow where they all were, quickly going inside to begin a solo quest. The door closed behind him and its symbols shone for a moment before they went dark. Something happened, but it would be impossible to tell what. Either way, he didn't want to be in a party with the rest of them and for possible good reason.

After he had left, and as there were questions on how to form a party, an alert suddenly appeared.

SYSTEM NOTICE: In order to form a Party, the leader must say 'Create Party'. Other forms of control in this game, such as using Skills, are all operated through voice control.

This was a more common control in recent games. While at first, many games used windows that could be made to appear using one's finger. More games had opted for voice control nowadays. It made using Skills and accessing things like the System Help or Options much, much easier. Games that used voice control didn't accept mumbling or incoherent babbling either. One had to clearly say what they wanted, with the intent to get that thing so that they wouldn't accidentally invoke a Skill unless they wanted to.

If anyone opted to make the Party, upon saying Create Party they would see the following window appear. Like in most games, one could only see their own windows, and not windows of others, which was a problem in one of the first VR games to come out and many games learned from that one.

What would you like to name the Party?

The first thing they said, regardless of what it was, would become the Party Name as a Window would appear.

Create the first thing said here Party?

[Y] Yes [N] No

If they hit no, they would get the previous window asking them what they would like to name it.

After that the Party was created by whoever, there would be nothing left to do but to go through the door.

---

When visibility would return to Zan, he would be in a small room that looked like some old ruins judging from the cracked stonework of the walls and the large amounts of dust and cobwebs. It truly seemed like an underground place of ruins. There was a sense mustiness that got to one's nose and a chill that was just all present. Luckily there was light in the room in the form of four blazing torches on the walls, each of them capable of being removed from their holsters.

Of course, with his current weapon Zan had no way of carrying both a torch and wielding his weapon at the same time. In this scenario a lantern would be more useful, since one could just hang that from their waist, but Zan had no such thing. Since it was the first dungeon, there were no secret passages most likely so Zan either had the choice of taking a torch with him or leaving it so that he could hold a weapon.

The hallway out of this room, just being a straight corridor, wasn't lit at all. Would the game really include traps down a dark and somewhat cool, dry hallway in a beginning quest? Or would it be generous and let Zan progress safely in the dark hallway. He would have to take a gamble and choose, this game truly being somewhat difficult right from the get go.

---

The Party would arrive in a similar room to what Zan was in with a similar hallway ahead, but there was no Zan at all. It seemed like either Zan had already forged on ahead, or the Party had their own instance of the dungeon. Of course, unlike Zan the Party had more hands to hold torches with.
 
An alert popped up, and without a doubt all the others who remained got the same as well as they all stared at something in front of them. Still, James was excited to get the party started so that they could get a move on and experience the game. He clearly said "Create Party." Only to be prompted by another pop-up. What to name the party? James wasn't too creative with naming things. So, he went with a simple, practical one. "First". Then he finally pressed [Y], and the party was formed. He then said a few encouraging words to the others in the party. "Well, gentlemen. The first dungeon awaits us. I don't know about you guys, but I'm pretty excited. Let's go explore the world of GQO. I've been waiting months for this." He then went ahead and went into the door.

James found himself in the ruins of some building. It actually smelled musty in the hallway. He could help but whistle quietly in admiration. The creators had the details down to the smallest pebble. He then looked at one of the torches that hung from the wall. He began to reach for the torch so that he could carry it, but before he touched it. A thought crossed his mind. "What if this is a trap? It's awfully convenient to have 4 torches just lying around by the beginning of a dark dungeon. Yes, it was the beginner's mission, but... that said there were games that were known for their difficulties and having very steep learning curves by not being Newbie friendly. In fact, these games expected players to die numerous times to beat a single dungeon with each life meant to be a learning lesson for the very dangerous environment that the game provided. So, before James would take the torch, he took the time to carefully inspect the torch and its holder for any evidence of a trap such as a pressure plate.
 
Raijin was a little upset at Caelis' for stealing the party leader position, it had been his idea. But he quickly got over it and followed the guy into the dungeon. Once inside, he took to doing what he always did in games, he looked around the room, leaving not a stone unturned. He didn't care if it was a tutorial level, that just meant that their could be a lot of helpful loot for those who are willing to look. As he looked around, he couldn't help but marvel at the amount of detail but into this game. If he didn't know any better, heid think it was real.

"Man, I wouldn't care if this game was completely crap in every other way, the detail and realism of this place is amazing! Jeez man, I would want to live here if I could, it would be fucking awesome." He noticed Caelis' close inspection of the torches, giving a nod of approval. Most people would just take one of the torches and not think twice, very few would check it for traps. And while he doubted that their were any, the fact that he took the time to check was a plus in Raijin's book. 'Maybe him being the party leader won't be so bad.'
 
Caim nodded "It'll be fun." He says and pulls his bastard sword off of his back, he takes a two handed stance rather than the one handed one to not incur the penalty and walks through the door with the others. "I'll leave checking stuff out to you two then, I have my TP in other areas right now." He says and looks around, yeah he wouldn't exactly be a major help till battle started, afterall he was definitely the tank of this group...maybe even a bigger damage dealer too by the look of his teammates as well. "Either of you find anything useful anyway?" He asks looking around as well, more for just his own visual stimuli than to actually help. Raijin was right, this world was amazing visually, what he couldn't wait for was the combat and system and just the purity of exploring a vast new MMO.
 
Zan lost his visibility for a little while, then it returned. Zan smiled and said, "Looks like I'm in a dungeon and that means there must be some mobs here." He looked around the room for a minute at most, and he noticed that the room was in a state of major disrepair. Zan observed the torches on the wall and the darkened corridor. He shrugged his shoulders and charged down the hallway, ready for a fight. That is if he didn't get injured or killed by some kind of trap.

(OoC Sorry, about the small post, not much to write about at the moment.)
 
Zan simply ignored the possibility of their being traps in the hallway. And if there were and they killed him, it wasn't like he had done much anyway. It was a beginning quest, he could just make a new character and try again. Fortunately, as his charging form tramped through the hallway, there were no death traps that tried to kill him. Either that, or he had miraculously evaded them all in the dark with his blind charge. The first idea was much more probable, but no one was around to say that the second one wasn't plausible.

Soon enough he made it through that first hallway with no problems, tromping through a door into a larger room, torches on the walls lighting up right upon his arrival. This room was a bit larger than the first one, more of a square than that rectangular room he was previously in. Just like the last room, this one also seemed to be in a state of ruin, but had a bit less dust and cob webs than the previous room. There wasn't as much of that musty smell either. All in all, a much better room in comparison despite it being empty.

Suddenly though, as if on cliche cue, the walls rumbled for a moment before a 'door' made of solid rock slid down from the top of the doorway, cutting Zan off from the previous hallway. Suddenly though two slabs of the wall on each side of the room slid up, two large, goblinesque creatures leaping out of them, landing on the ground and immediately turning to face Zan. They were both wielding what appeared to be small, wooden shields and rusty, jagged looking short-swords. While they both looked rather deadly, their weapons definitely weren't better than the large axe that Zan currently held in his hands.

The creatures had their shields raised and swords slightly behind them, as if Guarding and waiting for Zan to come and attack. It seemed this would be Zan's first battle in this world, and should play out interestingly enough, this likely being the 'Combat' part of the trial.


In the meantime, the First Party would be inspecting the sconces for traps, and there were none. There were no secret levers to pull either. It was just an ordinary, empty room that lead into a dark hallway. No amount of looking around would find them anything whatsoever and was just a waste of time, so the best idea would be to advance forward with someone holding a torch, ideally someone who could still use their weapon one-handed would be the best person to hold the torch and lead the way in case enemies showed up.

The next hallway had no traps either, progressing slow or fast. Sure this game was unforgiving or so reviews called it, but it didn't seem like it would throw them into a lion's den right from the get go. People claimed that this game was hard, which was one of its selling points. It by no means held your hand and every combat was considered dangerous. Plus, the fact that one lost their character when they died also made every challenge in the game much more intense and made players much more attached to their characters, which would cause them to spend more and more time customizing and creating very unique builds for them.

When they arrived in the next room, entering through a wooden door, the door would shut right behind the last player to enter, nearly hitting them in the back even. Metal bars slid down from the top of the doorway as well, effectively trapping them in the room as torches suddenly burned to life along the walls in their sconces. Within this room was not enemies though, as one would expect, but a series of four pedestals, a stone button atop each.

"A trial of your wits" called that same voice from before, the one who gave them this quest.

"These buttons in one way or another can lead you ahead. They may also lead you to death, battle, or possibly riches untold. Depending upon how you press them though, they may lead you anywhere. Choose wisely, and choose carefully". With that, the voice, distant, omnipresent, and powerful vanished, leaving them in a silent room with some form of puzzle based trial before them, this definitely being different from your other average MMO.
 
Raijin frowned, before shrugging and walking ahead of the others. He would have grabbed a torch, except he knew it would interfere with his fighting style. As he walked he turned around to give his opinion to the rest of the group, "Hey Mushi, I think it would be best if you hold the torch, seeing as how you seem to be the mage of the team, it would have the least affect on you combat-wise." With his two cents added, he walked forward through the corridor into the room.

When the voice had finished speaking, he immediately began looking around the room for any clues that could help them figure out which combination of button presses would lead them to where they wanted to go, which was any where but death for him.
 
Caelis was perhaps a bit too cautious. Of course, this was the beginning dungeon, so having a deadly trap in the first room would be a bit too much. Still, at the end of the day, Caelis believed that it was much better to be safe than sorry. He took one of the torches from the first room. His character stats weren't exactly built towards being a melee fighter, so the others were more useful right now since all the equipment that they had so far were simple melee weapons. Caelis didn't mind passing on the small bonus from using two hands to wield his sword. Considering a min/max build, Caelis was currently far from being the ideal melee fighter.

The group came upon the next room, and rather than having their first encounter. The group came across some sort of puzzle. The voice from before returned and gave an ominous word of advice. "Choose wisely and choose carefully". Unfortunately, no one knew what the choices were. Raijin went ahead and began looking around, and Caelis followed suit. Puzzles had to give some sort of clue, otherwise it wasn't a puzzle. Rather this would be a game of chance, and having a substantial chance of dying in the first room didn't comfort Caelis. So, he was convinced that something had to be in the room. Thus, he went off to inspect the most obvious thing in the world, the pedestals themselves.
 
Caim looked around wondering what next they'd be dealing with when they were trapped in the room. He started looking around as well, not really noticing anything. "Damn should've put more TP into observation, than maybe I'd see something to aid us." He says and looks to Caelis "Is there any indication of what the buttons will do over there? Or are we going to be flying blind?" He asks looking towards Raijin as well and shrugging his broad shoulders, he turned his gaze to the walls, hoping to maybe see etchings or any other type of clue, in the Elder Scrolls (yeah cause we all know they would still be making games don't kid yourselves lol) they either make the clues extremely obvious, or dauntingly small like a book anywhere in the room. "Maybe look for a book with a poem or phrase in it that would tell us which one to press." He raises his voice so the otehrs would hear him.
 
He briefly contemplated taking on the Quest by itself like the other player had despite having introduced himself already, but nonetheless he pressed the [Yes] button when the notification appeared. With no visible change despite having successfully joined, Mushi shrugged and followed the others into the mysterious doorway. Drawing his wand free as his vision whited out, when he reopened them it was to a vastly different sight.

While the others inspected the room he only bothered with checking out the torch he planned to take before pulling it off its holder. Nodding towards Raijin, he followed the others out of the room with the occasional backwards glance to make sure nothing was sneaking up on them. The walk through the hallway was rather quiet with little conversation in the party, and the only real noise being their footsteps against the floor.

Spinning after they'd entered the next room to the sound of the door slamming shut behind him. He stumbled backwards towards the others in surprise as metal bars slammed down, essentially barring the four of them in. As the voice spoke, he tried to catch anything that might have been a hint, though Mushi didn't really catch anything that stood out. Glancing at the others who were already looking around, he held out the torch he had. "Someone take this, I have another light source." Pointing his wand to the floor, looking away, and shielding the others from the spell's effect with his body, Mushi muttered, "Flash." As the spell activated illuminating the area around him far better than the flickering flame of the torch, he began to search and examine everything for any clues. The walls, the floor, the ceiling, everything. Now if someone would only take the torch...
 
As Mushi uttered his incantation he would feel a small spark of power and thought flicker through his body. That power and thought were both gathered and focused by the wand in his hand before being converted into the phenomenon known as Magic. A flash of magical light first illuminated from his wand, before dimming just a bit. Now the stream of power was very slow, almost like a tiny trickle to keep that magic alive as Mushi used the spell as a continuous light source rather than a one time enemy blinder.

With this improved lighting, Mushi would indeed have a much better time searching the room than the others did as he focused on the surrounding room instead of the actual pedestals themselves. It certainly was a neat way to use this Spell as in most games they were only combat oriented. This game, as players of it had said, had alot of unique puzzles and tricks to dungeons as well aside from just traps. Of course, this was just the beginning of the game, so the puzzle shouldn't be too hard, but one couldn't also forget that this game was said to be like virtual Dark Souls only character death was permanent.

As Mushi searched around the room with his attention focused on the walls, ceiling, and floor, able to see much better than the others did with his mystical light, he actually managed to find a small indent in one of the walls that blended in very well, only the indent appeared more man made than natural. Pushing his thumb into it, the brick would suddenly open up as if it were a box of some sort, spitting out a scroll before closing. If he were to read it, what appeared to be gibberish would be registered as Japanese to him, and he would be able to read it. This was most likely to give the world's text its own fantasy appearance while still allowing people to read it.

The scroll was a hint and it read 'People blindly follow lucky numbers to full coffers'. It was a riddle of sorts, obviously relating to the buttons in some way.

--

Caelis knew where to start immediately, the pedestals. Figured that a good place to start would be the objects they had to pay attention to. Unlike Mushi, who was aided with both torchlight and mystical light, Caelis did not have either benefits, so things were a bit dim since he just had the torches in their sconces on the walls, there only being four of them. They were a bit better carved than the rest of the stonework in the room, but also seemed to look older as well because of it.

The buttons were made of stone as well, looking like they would be hard to press down, but that probably was not the case. The pedestals were all around three and a half feet high, give or take. While nothing obvious would appear from a casual look, Caelis was focusing more on them and had both a good head on his shoulders and a somewhat keen eye thanks to his INT and Observation. On the base of the fourth pedestal he would find something. While it looked like a random fantasy language symbol, he would register it as the Japanese kanji for death. This could mean a number of things, the obvious one being that the fourth pedestal was no good, but regardless it was a clue to consider.

--

Two clues found so far. Caim, instead of looking at the 'where' was looking at the 'what'. Obvious symbols, writings, or other such things that gave hints. So he was sort of aimlessly looking nonetheless, but at least he was looking for some form of symbols or writing, not that would help give his search focus since that could be anywhere. Despite that, and his mediocre INT and Observation Score, he did manage to find something just out of the corner of his eye, barely having missed it.

On a brick close to the floor in the wall there were symbols etched. Just like the others, they would register to him as Japanese. They read 'While one may lead you down one path, more than one may lead you down the same path, or different paths'. An oddly cryptic, but maybe specific, riddle to solve. But it was another clue found through both chance and a somewhat keen gaze.

--

Raijin was a bit more aimless in his search than Caim, but was searching nonetheless. Unfortunately for him his search was fruitless. There was nothing that stuck out in plain sight, and he had neither the keen perception nor the lighting to make his search easier, so search as he may, Raijin found nothing of use in the room other than a chance to examine its architecture, which there was nothing special about other than this place could probably use some maintenance.
 
Caelis looked at the hint that he found. The kanji for to die. Shi. However, that in itself was interesting. Since shi also meant 4 in Japanese. Thus, the number four was considered to be an unlucky number in Japanese culture since 4 was associated with death. But, Caelis found the fact that the last pedestal had "Shi" on it to be a bit interesting. Perhaps all the pedestals were actually numbered? Not in the kanji for the numbers, but in other kanji that can be pronounced as that number. Caelis then said out loud what he had just discovered and what he was thinking. He then took another look at the pedestals to see if he could find other kanji on the pedestals. If not, then he decided that he would take a look at the torches once again. The fact that they seemed to standout quite a bit compared to the other stone objects in the room interested him since they were more detailed and looked older than the other things in the room.
 
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