Zan smiled as he was luckily not killed or injured, while rushing down the corridor. Zan charged through a doorway into a room larger than the last. The larger room had torches for a light source on the walls, which light up right when he came into the room. "Got to love not having to light torches," announced Zan to no one at all. Zan observed the room which was more square shaped than rectangular shaped then the previous room.
The room just like the previous was in a state of disrepair, but it appeared to be "cleaner". It also didn't smell as musty here. The all of a sudden the walls rumbled for just a bit before a slab of solid rock slid down the top of the doorway, effectively making it so Zan could not turn back if he wanted to. Then, two door ways were made as two slabs of solid rocks slid up on each side of the room. Two large mobs jumped out of the two newly created doorways. The goblin looking mobs turned towards Zan. Both of them were wielding small, wooden shields and what looked to be damaged short-swords. The mobs raised shields and had their swords held behind the shields. Zan relaxed his right hands grip on the Great Axe, then tightened it. "I'm guessing you want to fight,"said Zan, looking at the two goblins. "Well so do I." Zan charged at the mob that was towards Zan's right. He swung the Great Axe above his head and roared, "Fierce Strike." Zan was smiling as wide as possible; he was doing his favorite part of any game, Combat.
Caelis looked for other numbers or symbols on the other pedestal, seeing if they were indeed numbered or if one just had to assume it was just the simple one two three four lineup. Look as he may, there were no other fantasy-esque language symbols, which Caelis would read as his chosen language of Japanese, on the pedestals and he looked very carefully and keenly. It wasn't simply them being hidden, they just weren't there and there seemed to be nothing else of note around or near the pedestals.
With Caelis certain that there were no longer any clues of value around or near the pedestals, Caelis turned his attention towards the torches and began searching around them. With a bit more light directly around the torches, it would be a bit easier to search each of their sconces and the wall around them. Two of them held nothing of note around them, but as he searched the third one, as there was one on each wall except for the wall containing the door that they came in from, he would spot something.
It was a bit strange, but as he spotted it and examined it, he accidentally (or perhaps intentionally) pushed the torch in its sconce sideways with a small bit of force. A loud 'click' could be heard before stone sliding on stone could be heard. A small, rectangular slab of stone above the torch parted like a double door, revealing a line of symbols that appeared fantasy text, but Caelis would read it as though it were Japanese. The symbols read 'One opens many doors until they find death on the other side'.
---
Zan was doing something different. He was fighting, fighting two large goblinesque creatures. He decided to act first after the creatures had taken their stances. He charged forward, gripping his large bronze axe and invoked a Skill. As he said it and swung down, he felt the power of the swing be slightly amplified with both ferocity and brute might. If this hit, it would probably deal alot of damage, but that was if it hit, and the creatures had time to get ready since he was running towards them, bearing his axe in the process.
Zan barely got past the "Goblin's" shield. In fact, his axe grazed the side of it as he broke through the enemy's guard to strike, lowering the momentum of his axe as it sunk into the creature. The blade sunk in somewhat deeply, but the creature had been readying itself for that. It had been readying itself for the incoming attack so it braced itself for the impact. Zan felt like the attack dealt less damage than it normally should have, but it dealt a pretty decent amount of damage, leaving a nice slightly bright red mark on the creature, representing a somewhat deep wound.
---
Around the time the RGG first came out, several companies had made games for it. One of them was a game known simply as Blood Blade. It was known as both a single-player and multi-player RPG without magic. It involved intense, bloody battles using various forms of weapons. The game was well known for its realism on the combat front. When you cut someone in half, you saw everything you would see when cutting a real human in half. The intense blood and gore from killing humans, animals, or monsters had a negative affect on many people.
Some were traumatized, others had heart attacks. Luckily the RGG's medical monitoring and emergency alert system saved those who had medical emergencies while playing this intense, highly bloody game. Not only that, but even a serial killer appeared from all of this, one who was so obsessed with the bloody deaths in the game that he had to replicate them in real life. Needless to say, many lawsuits were filed against this company, many that won, some that didn't. All of the lawsuits, plus having to buy back this now recalled game drove the company into bankruptcy.
Not only that, but new rules were passed preventing extreme violence from being in VR games. This included not only blood and gore, but any forms of gruesome acts including amputation or decapitation, which was why nowadays they just had visuals in VR games representing wounds or affects representing those two acts of amputation and decapitation to keep combat still intense, without having to resort on blood and gore.
---
After Zan's strike, which still did a fair blow to the creature as it let out a loud snarl of pain, the creatures now prepared their own counterattack. He managed to parry the blow from the enemy he struck, just barely, but another one was on his side, effectively flanking him. Metal on metal clashed for the first one, but the creature was taking advantage of this. Zan would suddenly feel a blade digging into his side. White hot pain searing through his entire body as the creature managed to stab him with immense power and speed.
The pain was increased as after slashing its blade into his body, with a twisting motion the creature tore it out. This all occurred in not but a moment. In the corner of his vision he would see his health bar. He had taken a total of 28 Damage, which was just beneath half of his total HP. It was a pretty nasty, and very painful blow. After the exchange of blows was over though, Zan was rewarded with something as a few windows appeared in the corner of his vision.
A Skill has been created through a Special Action. Through fighting skillfully with a Great Axe, the ability to fight better with a Great Axe, Great Axe Adept, has been created.
Great Axe Adept (Lv 1: 0%) (Passive): You are somewhat skilled with Great Axes. You have +1 Accuracy and deal 10% more damage with Great Axes. To Level: Fight with Great Axes, Defend, Get Critical Strikes.
A Skill has been created through a Special Action. Through enduring physical damage, the ability to better endure physical harm, Physical Endurance, has been created.
Physical Endurance (Lv 1: 0%) (Passive): You are able to tough out physical damage and in doing so have a stronger body. You get +1 Resistance, +5% HP, and +1 HP Regen. To Level: Take Damage, Take Massive Damage, Endure a Fatal Blow, Endure a Critical Strike.
Zan would feel a bit tougher now and a bit more skilled with his Great Axe after gaining these two Passives. This fight was probably going to be tough, very tough, so perhaps with these things unlocked he would gain a better edge against these two foes. Still, with only 16 MP left, he could only use Fierce Strike two more times, so he would have to be careful.
Caelis sighed. There weren't enough clues to help them figure out exactly what each pedestal led to. However, there were enough clues to help them figure out which ones to avoid. He turned to the group and said "Guys, I think that at this rate we should just go ahead and pick. As long as we don't end up dying, then I'm fine with treasure, or fighting some mobs. Maybe even both. Anyways, I know which ones we should probably avoid. The fourth one that has death on it and the one on the polar side. I think the second and third are pretty safe choices since the thing that I just found says "One opens many doors until they find death on the other side. So, that's why I want to avoid the first and fourth one. They're on the other side of each other. That being said, we also have to decide if we want to open one or both. I personally would like to press both buttons."
Zan felt the swing of his Great Axe become slightly more powerful from the skill [Fierce Strike]. Sadly the attack with the Great Axe did not do what Zan had hoped for, but the attack was slowed down by the "Goblin's" shield. Zan figured that his first attack had a high chance of being blocked, but it luckily broke through the mob's defense. The swing of his Great Axe left a bright red wound on the mob.
The mob snarled loudly in pain, because of Zan's attack, which smiled about. The "Goblins" counterattacked, he parried the mob he had wounded strike. The other mob attacked him from the side and stabbed him. He grunted in pain, then the creature twist its blade and removed it. Zan watched as his health bar, in the corner of his sight, and watched as it dropped down to less then half his total health. "Dammit," cursed Zan. Then a few windows appeared in the opposite corner of his health bar.
A Skill has been created through a Special Action. Through fighting skillfully with a Great Axe, the ability to fight better with a Great Axe, Great Axe Adept, has been created.
Great Axe Adept (Lv 1: 0%) (Passive): You are somewhat skilled with Great Axes. You have +1 Accuracy and deal 10% more damage with Great Axes. To Level: Fight with Great Axes, Defend, Get Critical Strikes.
"Great Axe Adept," said Zan, "This will come in handy."
A Skill has been created through a Special Action. Through enduring physical damage, the ability to better endure physical harm, Physical Endurance, has been created.
Physical Endurance (Lv 1: 0%) (Passive): You are able to tough out physical damage and in doing so have a stronger body. You get +1 Resistance, +5% HP, and +1 HP Regen. To Level: Take Damage, Take Massive Damage, Endure a Fatal Blow, Endure a Critical Strike.
"Thanks for the new skills," said Zan to the "Goblins." Zan swung his Great Axe from the right to left attempting to attack both of the mobs, the injured one first, by spinning with his weapon. If the attack was able to make it to the "Goblin" he hadn't attacked, then he would proceed to try and get behind it and attack its legs, to try to disable it.
Rajin was finding jack shit, so he turned around when Caelis' started talking about pushing the buttons. Seeing as how he hadn't found anything, and everyone else was still busy looking, he figured that what ever could be found has been found, so spending any more time here was pretty much pointless.
"I agree, we're kinda wasting are time if we just keep looking for stuff. What you said also makes since, so you got one in favor."
Zan decided to mix things up this time. Instead of just going for one enemy, he would use an advantage of larger, bulkier weapons like Great Axes. The ability to slash multiple opponents with a single swing. So gripping his axe, he would swing it in an arc-like motion in an attempt to strike at both creatures. It would be a little difficult, but would be devastating to both foes if successful since this time the creatures hadn't any time to raise their guard like they had done at the beginning of the fight to make his [Fierce Strike] less powerful.
The Skill [Great Axe Adept] gave Zan that tiny bit of extra proficiency with the weapon that he needed to catch the first enemy with the spinning strike. If it wasn't for that, then it would have been blocked most likely by that shield of his. The Skill also gave him that extra bit of damage that he needed as well as the creature howled out when the axe slashed into him, causing it to fall backwards from the strike, a gigantic glowing red gash across its chest. The beast was most likely dead as it did not move, but there was no time to tell in this pitch of intense combat as the axe swing continued, uninterrupted.
The momentum of the spin, added in with his strength and the might of the hefty weapon, for their level, and one would have a powerful strike. With the way he was moving, Zan in that moment managed to angle the moving axe blade just right to slash right across the creature's torso in a weak spot in its armor with incredible skill and force. What should have been a blow that cut the beast in half was not thanks to the VR Realism Laws, but regardless a red line was present through the creature's body. The creature fell backwards, dead as it ceased movement. Zan felt extra power from that last strike, and was greeted with several new windows in his vision after the combat was over.
A Skill has been unlocked through a Special Action. Through using a large weapon to target multiple foes in an arc, the Skill to better do so, Wide Strike, has been created.
Wide Strike (Lv 1: 0%) (Active: 5 MP): You swing a large or long reach bladed weapon in a wide arc to strike multiple foes. If the strike hits the first foe and either is a Full Hit or defeats the foe then you will be able to strike the next foe in line. This maneuver has only a -24 Accuracy Penalty and deals 5% additional damage to each additional foe you strike. Can currently only strike 2 foes. To Level: Execute Successfully, Get a Critical Strike.
You managed to execute a difficult strike even beyond flawlessly to do something beyond expected and fell a foe in one blow with it. This has made you slightly better with melee weapons, +1 Melee Weaponry.
A Skill has been created through a special action. Through performing a rare and tricky strike to deal extra damage, the Skill to better do so, Critical Strike, has been created.
Critical Strike (Lv 1: 0%) (Passive): You have some experience in dishing out powerful Critical Strikes. Your Critical Strikes deal 100% Extra Damage and ignore the Damage Reduction of most enemies. Also +1 to your Critical Range for striking. To Level: Get a Critical Strike.
Great Axe Adept has gone up in Level by 1.
For now though the battle was over, and it remained over, as a part of the northern wall slid upward into the ceiling, revealing another hallway and the way onward. But first came the prospect of loot, and since Zan was alone he didn't have to share what he found even if he probably would find a small bit less, most likely. On each of the Goblinesque enemies was a set of worn leather armor which probably wouldn't fit him, a rusty shortsword, and a beaten up looking wooden buckler. Things that were probably useless to him.
What was more useful were the two small coin purses that Zan found. Each had 2,000 Sens in them. Not only that, but on each of their belts were two horns, both of them full of some strange, somewhat bad smelling liquid. Zan could try to appraise it, or just straight up drink it. Either that or he could just ignore it for now and progress into the next room. Or he could rest for a little while to let his HP Regenerate since he had taken a nasty blow and hadn't leveled up yet, those creatures having only given him 4 XP Each. Either way, he had a small bit of time to plan things.
Caim saw the riddle..." While one may lead you down one path, more than one may lead you down the same path, or different paths." He mused to himself, well nothing was going to happen if he kept the clue to himself. "Hey guys, I found something." He then recites the riddle back to the others, "So if we're taking this at face value the first button will take us down a singular path, while the others start becoming more paths, button two would have two paths, etc, etc.. At least that's what I'm getting with this. Or I am completely wrong and we'll end up dying." He says with a chuckle problem solving was fun, especially when the problem was a beginning quest with a decently intricate puzzle. "You guys find anything as well?"
Taking a moment to glance at the others, Mushi sighed quietly and shook his head slowly before continuing his search. Apparently either none had heard him or they simply didn't care for the light source, who knew what they were thinking. Scanning his area slowly, he tilted his head in curiosity as something on the wall seemed to stand out amongst the rest. Shifting so he could hold both torch and wand in one hand, he pressed the brick slowly, stepping back when it jutted out from the wall in caution. Catching the scroll as it tumbled through the air, there was a click and when he looked back at the wall it was impossible to tell where the clue might have came from. Unperturbed, he unfurled it with a flick of his hand and scanned the message.
As it seemed the others had scoured the room and found their own clues, Mushi rejoined them to share what he'd found."Got a scroll with the message, "People blindly follow lucky numbers to full coffers." As far as I know, one, two, three, or four don't have any cultural significance in relation to being lucky. I know there's something about lucky numbers in number theory, not sure if there are any of them among the four though. I do think we should press the one pedestal though. As long as we leave four alone we should be fine."
Thankfully, Zan's attack hadn't been blocked by the "Goblin's" shield. He felt his Great Axe tear through the injured mob's chest; the mob let out a howl as it fell backwards. His Great Axe kept its arc going like it hadn't hit the "Goblin". The Great Axe ripped through a weak spot in the mob's armor; the "Goblin" would have been cut in half, if there wasn't laws against it. He killed the creature with one blow, Zan felt extra power from the last strike. After the combat was over, more windows popped up in his vision. Zan put his Great Axe back on his back.
A Skill has been unlocked through a Special Action. Through using a large weapon to target multiple foes in an arc, the Skill to better do so, Wide Strike, has been created.
Wide Strike (Lv 1: 0%) (Active: 5 MP): You swing a large or long reach bladed weapon in a wide arc to strike multiple foes. If the strike hits the first foe and either is a Full Hit or defeats the foe then you will be able to strike the next foe in line. This maneuver has only a -24 Accuracy Penalty and deals 5% additional damage to each additional foe you strike. Can currently only strike 2 foes. To Level: Execute Successfully, Get a Critical Strike.
"Wide Strike huh," said Zan, "This is nice." Zan closed the two windows and more replaced them. "This was a good battle."
You managed to execute a difficult strike even beyond flawlessly to do something beyond expected and fell a foe in one blow with it. This has made you slightly better with melee weapons, +1 Melee Weaponry.
"This is a nice surprise," Zan thought aloud, closing the window after reading it.
A Skill has been created through a special action. Through performing a rare and tricky strike to deal extra damage, the Skill to better do so, Critical Strike, has been created.
Critical Strike (Lv 1: 0%) (Passive): You have some experience in dishing out powerful Critical Strikes. Your Critical Strikes deal 100% Extra Damage and ignore the Damage Reduction of most enemies. Also +1 to your Critical Range for striking. To Level: Get a Critical Strike.
Zan read all of the windows and closed them, then another window opened.
Great Axe Adept has gone up in Level by 1.
After reading the alert, Zan checked the mobs for loot. He found two set of worn leather armor, two rusty short-swords, and two beaten up looking wooden buckler. These items were useless to him, but he might be able to sell them. He also got two small coin purses holding 2,000 Sens, and two horns, both of them full of some strange, somewhat bad smelling liquid from the "Goblins'" belts. Zan decided to wait in the room for his Health to regenerate, before heading down the hallway. "Status Window," said Zan wanting to check out what changed. After that, Zan decided to use the Talent [Appraisal] on the filled horns. Next, he decide to use the Talent [Observation] to try and check out the alcoves the mobs came out of.
Caelis replied "I want to avoid the first one just to be safe. The 'find death on the other side' part makes me want to avoid it since it could mean that the button on the other side of the fourth one will lead to death. So, I just want to cover our bases and just press the middle two. But, that being said. We need to get this done, so let's just get a vote going on here. I for one am willing to press both the second and third buttons." as he held on to the torch that he took from the first room. (Just realized that GM doesn't think that I have a torch.)
Zan would use the time that it took to both check out the area and appraise the strange horns of liquid to hopefully be able to regenerate all of his HP since he had lost 36 before from that enemy's powerful attack. First was the appraisal. The first horn turned up nothing, Zan had no idea what was in it. Still, with multiple targets to appraise, perhaps he had a better shot. Somehow or another, Zan had a bit more luck with a second attempt from the other enemy's two horns. With that attmept, he was able to tell that the same liquid was in fact in both horns and that, despite their acrid odor, had a slight healing property.
Somehow or another Zan just knew this, it was a very strange feeling. Even during the fight. Unlike most VR Games, where one just controlled a character, Zan felt like this character's body was his own. Every skill or piece of knowledge the character had belonged to him. It was almost as if coming into this game was like assuming another identity entirely.
Upon the successful attempt, a window appeared in front of him, followed by one more.
Appraisal Successful. Info added to Adventure Journal.
Weak Teglins Healing Potion: A horn filled with a weak potion that is capable of restoring wounds on a person's body. However, due to its unique makeup, it is best consumed by Teglins. When consumed by any other creature all of their Scores are reduced by 5 for 10 minutes. Heals 10 - 20 HP upon consumption.
Possible Value: About 5,000 Sens
Next came the searching of the two alcoves the Teglins, as that was what they were called assuming those potions were meant for them, came out of. The first one held nothing in it of note. The second one, however; was a different story. Perhaps it had been out of the corner of his eye, a small blip for only a moment of something off. Regardless, when he stepped into that second alcove, Zan would somehow step on tiny button at the last moment of his step that one would have had to scour the floor with a comb to find.
Upon doing this, the floor beneath him suddenly slid out from beneath him. Unfortunately he was able to get away in time, and fell down into a pit. Luckily there was nothing below but some hard floor, the likes of which dealt 10 Damage in fall damage to Zan due to a poor landing, but Zan had already a good bit healed by that point since the appraisal took around ten minutes or so. For a moment he was enshrouded in total darkness, before some torches lit up in the room.
It was a bit more of a rectangular room with less width and more length. In the center of the room was a somewhat worn looking treasure chest and further behind that was a doorway with some stairs leading upwards. The chest could be a trap, but it could also hold a very nice reward in it as well. Still, Zan already had his sack mostly filled with the goblin's useless equipment so depending upon what he found he would have to dump some of it to make room (if he took it with him of course). Luckily the horns of liquid, if he decided to take them, would fit on his belt, which was indeed very convenient.
So he would have two choices. Risk opening the chest, or ignore it and move on. Still, one would have to consider that stepping on that button was more of a lucky break than a bad fluke.
Zan first attempt at using [Appraisal] on the liquid filled horns failed. On the second try, Zan had better luck. He suddenly gained knowledge on the item, a very strange feeling. This game was much realistic than the other VRs he had played, as impossible as that sounds. Every skill or piece of knowledge the character had belonged to him. Playing GQO was like becoming another person. Then a window appeared in Zan's field of vision.
Appraisal Successful. Info added to Adventure Journal.
Zan closed the alert window and another one took its place.
Weak Teglins Healing Potion: A horn filled with a weak potion that is capable of restoring wounds on a person's body. However, due to its unique makeup, it is best consumed by Teglins. When consumed by any other creature all of their Scores are reduced by 5 for 10 minutes. Heals 10 - 20 HP upon consumption.
Possible Value: About 5,000 Sens
"These a worthless to me, except for selling," said Zan shrugging his shoulders, "I'm guess those enemies were called Teglings, that's a different name." Zan closed the window, and started searching the alcoves the Teglings came out of. The first one had nothing of note in it. Zan seen a small blip for a faction of second in the second alcove. Zan stepped in the alcove unknowingly stepping on a tiny button. Then the floor suddenly slid out beneath him. "Shit," said Zan as he tried to grab onto an edge, but sadly he was unable to and fell down into a pit. Luckily and unluckily, he land on a hard ground and received 10 damage from the fall. Zan got back up to his when the floor above him slid back into place. "Dammit," cursed Zan as he was enshrouded in total darkness, he pulled out his Great Axe and held it in his hands. Then some torches lit up in the room. The room wasn't very wide, but it was long. There was a old and worn looking chest in the center of the room and a doorway with some stairs going upwards behind it. Zan walked up towards the chest and used [Observation] hoping this time he would notice a trap, if there was one.
Raijin nodded, taking out his weapon and prepping himself in case anything came out to to attack them.
"Yeah, you do that man, and i'll keep watch of anything that tries to rip us to pieces if you pick the battle button. Also, I kinda would prefer the battle button, as I really want to test out the games battle system." As he spoke he began to pace around the room, keeping his eyes peeled for any signs of movement, his body feeling tense like a spring, ready for anything that could happen. He held his sword in two hands near his side, and keeping his weight on the balls of his feet. Man, he couldn't believe how real this felt, it was exactly like it was his own body, instead of a digital replication. "When ever your ready Caelis, we've spent enough time in hear as it is. The other guy has probably beaten us out of the dungeon by now." Raijin mock-complained, making sure he kept his tone nice and frivolus so the other knew he was only joking. Well, maybe only half joking anyway.
Haruko's eyes blinked open slowly. A picturesque blue sky greeted her. She got off the ground, and found herself standing in the middle of a endless field of greens. A gentle breeze swept around her, rustling the stalks of grass in waves.
"So this is the real deal, huh." Haruko said to herself, for there was no one else in sight. It's gorgeous.
Haruko certainly didn't have the money to buy the RGG set. By a stroke of sheer luck, she had won it online filling out a survey. Only when the package arrived at her house did she actually believe the prize was real. Selling the RGG and the accompanying game should net her a hefty sum, but there was no harm in trying it out first. GQO had rave reviews. Haruko was curious whether the game lived up to the reputation.
So far, so good. The graphics and realism of the feedback was far beyond any other video game she had ever played. Haruko jumped up and down in her new body, reveling in the power she felt. She had gone with a brawler-type character. The arms connected to her shoulders were thickly muscled, a stark contrast to her twig-like body in the real world. A voice boomed suddenly, drawing her attention towards a specific point.
"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.
There wasn't much else to do, so Haruko accepted the quest and entered the door. She was engulfed in blinding white light once she passed the threshold. When she could see again, Haruko was inside a small chamber lit by torches. The cracking and moss-covered walls suggested that this place was some kind of old ruins. The only exit was a straight corridor, but it was unlit.
Since she used her fists to fight, Haruko's avatar had her hands free to grab one of the torches before exploring the corridor.
The group would come to somewhat of a consensus to press the two middle buttons. There wasn't really much else to do anyway in terms of clue searching anymore and they had solved the puzzle as much as they could. Well, if they died they died. They just had Level 1 Characters after all, things that could be easily remade. Still, it was a wonder how death felt in this game, as people claimed that the death in this game... felt very real without being painful. They always said it was a hard to place feeling, one that would need to be experienced in order to be better understood since it wasn't one that could be explained.
Caelis would be the one to press the buttons while Raijin readied his weapon. Pressing both buttons one right after another, with the second one first, as it was decided to just press both, had an interesting result. Instead of death or a door opening on one of the walls, a section of the floor not too far from them parted, revealing a staircase below. The way forward. Fortunately, with Mushi's Magic and a torch, it would be easy to go onward if the party decided to do so, not that they had much of a choice.
The pedestals disappeared back into the floor after the two buttons were pressed, leaving them with only the option to proceed. Still, it seemed that they solved the puzzle for the most part, as a window appeared in front of each of them displaying the following.
You solved the puzzle and managed to find a way forward, having grown a bit from this riddle solving. 3 XP earned.
It seemed like a small amount, but probably wasn't considering that this game used smaller numerals for all character statistics rather than thousands or hundreds for anything.
Still, with this they had solved the first puzzle and found a way forward, down some stairs this time. It seemed a bit different from the other straight forward progression hallway, but it was the only option they had. So with that, the party began to go down the stairs.
These stairs lead into another hallway, the likes of which was a bit longer than the last hallway they were in. A good bit longer to be exact. Still, after not too much walking which could either be done in silence or with conversation, the group would find itself at another door, instead of perhaps another set of stairs to go back up to the previous floor.
An inscription on the door read as such.
"Though thou hast found a faster way forward, a new final challenge awaits thee. Step in travelers to face the end of thine trial, an end that shall be harder, but more rewarding, than thy previous end".
It was clear that this was the final area. The buttons they had pressed allowed them to probably skip a room or two, which was nice, but they were going into what was probably going to be a somewhat tough fight with no training in the game's combat already. After the group had whatever time they needed to rest, recover MP, and just prepare themselves mentally, it was time to face the final challenge.
The metal door before them opened easily into a dark room, the door once again closing behind them when all of the players had entered. The room was dark, except for the torchlight from the torch Caelis was carrying, as Mushi had suddenly just logged off. This room, when the torches lit up, was much bigger than the other rooms they had been in, at least two times bigger than the button room. It was round to, instead of square or rectangular.
At the back of a room above a large, stone pedestal was a very large, cerulean crystal at least five feet in height. It gave off a powerful bit of energy and glow as it floated there. Then suddenly, as if on cue, three creatures dropped from the ceiling. Two of them were smaller creatures of blue skin with pig-like faces, probably around 5 feet tall or so and carrying rusty swords that were large for their size. The much larger one, which landed with a loud thud, was probably around eight to ten feet tall, give or take. It had more tanned/brownish skin and was carrying a very large weapon that looked like an iron ball on a spear haft. Regardless, its body looked incredibly powerful, meaning this was probably the boss of this dungeon.
They were all glaring at the party now as they stood there in front of that crystal, almost a bit protective of it. Regardless, the final 'trial' had begun, and it was going to be tough indeed.
---
Zan, in the meantime, was searching the chest for any forms of traps. As he searched though he would discover no traps whatsoever that he could discern, or probably none at all. It seemed perfectly safe even, which was a good thing as upon closer inspection he would discover that the chest was actually partially opened by a tiny hair. If he decided to open the chest after that, he would find some better looking stuff inside.
Inside was what appeared to be a suit of chainmail, a bag containing 10,000 Sens, and a pouch that could go on one's belt, inside of that being a small glass vial containing some pale red liquid. This was definitely a much better loot find than the crap he discovered from the Teglins and seemed to be stuff he could actually use. With either appraising the potion he found or just progressing on as his options, at least Zan had found some good stuff now instead of vendor trash filling up his inventory, especially since if he wanted to wear the belt pouch, he would have to take two of the horns of liquid and put them into his sack, filling it up even more if he did so.
---
Haruko would find no traps or anything awaiting her down the first corridor. Instead, if she explored further, she would find another room awaiting her. As per classic dungeon fashion, the door closed right behind her and then vanished into nothing, leaving her trapped in the room. Torches along the walls sparked to life, there being two in total on the northern, southern, and eastern walls all equal distance from one another.
Suddenly three doors appeared between each of the sets of two torches, and on the wall where the door she entered once was fantasy-esque symbols appeared, ones that Haruko would strangely be able to read as though they were Japanese. The text said the following.
"We are given many choices in life, many paths to take. Here are three paths, all with their own outcomes. Of course, even the paths we are presented, are not the only ones available. Choose your path wisely, as it could be the last choice you make".
It was either a riddle or luck based puzzle of some kind, but seemed to be a not very cryptic one. Regardless, Haruko had a choice. Choose one of these three paths, or try to find something else.
"We are given many choices in life, many paths to take. Here are three paths, all with their own outcomes. Of course, even the paths we are presented, are not the only ones available. Choose your path wisely, as it could be the last choice you make".
The inscription's message was far too cryptic to discern its true meaning. It provided no real information whatsoever about the destinations of the different doors. Haruko shrugged, and went about flipping every stone in the room, searching for any other clues. From the rumors she's heard about GQO, rushing things wasn't a good idea.
"I'm terrible at life decisions though," she began to mutter to herself while searching the room. "Look where it got me. Maybe I'm better off not going anywhere."
The stones were a bit heavy, and were definitely a good bit in the ground, some of them impossible to flip. However, there were a few that were loose enough for Haruko to flip up with her strength, and while most of these few loose ones didn't provide anything, there were a few that did. The first was near the eastern door. When she managed to pull up a certain stone, beneath it was a skull symbol. This most likely meant that the eastern door was a death trap and it was probably best not to go forward.
The second one she found actually had a circle on the underside of the stone rather than just beneath it, something Haruko would have missed if her keen eye hadn't noticed it in that single moment. This probably meant that this door was ok to go downward. The western door seemed to have something of the same idea, meaning she had two paths to go into that were probably ok.
Her keen, observant eye would detect one other loose stone a bit off near one of the corners of the rooms though, and upon pulling that one out, a button beneath it was depressed. Suddenly in the center of the room a square section of the floor parted like a trap door of sorts, revealing now instead a way downward with a small check mark right in front of it. Now she had three paths once again to choose from. Two circles and a check.
She could also try the path with the skull as well, but that probably was not a good idea.
Caelis drew his sword. This was it. His first really taste at fighting in GQO. Even though he was excited, he still had enough self-restraint from running right into the 3 enemies right ahead. He knew that during the character creation phase, James didn't put a lot of points into strength, so James was no means a melee striker. But, what he did have was the ability to make a group stronger, and he had a team with him at that moment, so there was no point in not using his full potential. "Inspiring Speech...hmm" Caelis muttered. He then said out loud "Well guys, it wasn't much of an adventure, but I think we finally came to what we really wanted to do in GQO. I know you especially, Rai, have been itching for this. So, let's give it our all and conquer our first dungeon."
Caelis, however, did not charge forward just yet. He scanned his eyes over the enemies ahead of them, trying to see if GQO would give him some sort of information on the enemies. Perhaps what their names were or if they had any weaknesses, buffs, or anything that would be helpful to know. As he observed the enemy Caelis said "I'm going to trust you guys to deal with them for now. My build isn't exactly meant for melee, so I'll do my best to support you two. I'm going to hang back for a few seconds and see if I can learn anything about these guys. I'll let you guys know if I see or find anything."
Somehow or another, as Caelis went through his inspiring speech, it seemed to be a pretty good one. Perhaps it was heightened by the tension and excitement of their first real combat in this game, or perhaps Caelis just had some hidden charisma within him that he didn't know about. Regardless, after he said his spiel a window would first appear in front of Caelis stating the following.
Inspiring Speech Successful. +5 Buff granted to all ally Ability Scores.
Followed by another.
Inspiring Speech has gone up in Level by 1.
Raijin and Caim would suddenly feel a rush of inspiration and energy move through their body after the speech. While it wasn't much, they felt a good bit stronger than they already were, the buff having successfully bolstered their abilities as a window appeared in the corner of their vision stating as such, these windows appearing for just the two of them.
+5 Buff to all Ability Scores granted by Caelis
Perhaps with this buff, a small, square +5 icon next to their HP and MP bars representing it with a countdown from 30 in the icon, they would have a bit of an edge for at least thirty seconds in this boss fight, which looked quite tough especially for their poorly equipped selves. This was going to be their first fight and probably hardest fight that they had had in any MMO yet.
Her seemingly futile search ended in a huge success. There were marks underneath the stone tiles, and even under the stone tiles themselves. With a quick assumption, the door marked with a skull was a bad choice. That left the two exits marked with a circle, and the new trapdoor with a check.
Haruko didn't even hesitate. In any RPG, the player would want to find the real exit last. Any other path meant possible treasures. There was a chance that the logic didn't apply in this game, but Haruko was trained by habit to be curious about alternative routes. Still holding the torch, she descended down the trapdoor ladder. The game is turning out to be a lot more focused on exploration and puzzles than she imagined.
