Grand Quest Offline

Again Caelis would feel some familiar changes as he put those points into his Stats. He felt a tiny bit stronger as he put a point into STR and then felt like both his performance skills and ability to focus himself went up after he had hit the [Accept] button to accept the allocation of both Talent and Stat Points. Naturally one needed to speak to open up the windows, so Redd wondered if Caelis and the others who were doing so during the walk, if there were any others, were sort of confused on their Stats as he had no idea they were allocating level ups.

Sure Redd could probably easily use the Observe Skill, if he had it which he most likely did, on them to figure it out, but wasn't doing so for whatever reason. "Yea go ahead and add me. There is a Friend's List, which you can open by saying [Social Window], but there isn't a built in PM system in this game. There is one, but you either need to be able to cast the [Send] Cantrip or have a an item called a [Sending Stone]. Luckily Sending Stones are incredibly cheap, they only cost around 500 Sens in any General Store, but they only have about 10 Uses unless you get an [Unlimited Sending Stone], which are a bit more expensive. There are also certain places in Towns where you can send PMs from without any of those things, but you have to be in that place to do so".

He looked at each of them for a moment, before speaking again. "I hate to sound like a guild advertisement, but the Adventurers Guild gives them out for free either to members or those who do several Quests for us. They're useful to have if you're willing to keep them in a single Inventory slot. Since ours is an Original Guild, we already have several important functions that are useful to the game that we can do since they were there at the start of the game. This includes giving out Quests to players and members of the guild alike".

After saying his spiel he looked back at them, the forest having started to thin out a small bit as they were getting a bit closer to the exit. "Anymore questions? It'll take about half an hour to get to town once we leave the forest, so I have plenty of time to answer. If not, I can always just explain important game mechanics for you to know later. Your [Adventure Journals] automatically records and logs any useful information you hear or read, but you can also set them to automatically record everything you hear, useful or not".
 
Haruko, or rather, Vero, kept a friendly expression as more newbies joined them at the clearing. They must have just completed the beginner's dungeon too. She crossed her arms and allowed the veteran to call them over. The first player's avatar had the appearance of a video game protagonist- striking silver hair and unusual eye color, with a menacing mask covering his lower jaw. Contrary to his first impression, he started babbling like a machine-gun. Vero continued to smile through Raijin's introduction and rapid fire questions, amused at his antics. At the end, she gladly grabbed his outstretched arm to give him a strong handshake.

"The pleasure is mine, too. I'm glad I'm not alone in this game!" Vero said cheerfully. Her voice and personality was a little too upbeat for the gruff, muscular character appearance. Haruko wasn't much of a solo player in MMORPGs.

The second player, Caelis, immediately started talking shop with Red. Faced with both of the new player's questions, Red went on a long monologue explaining the game's details. The last member of the group, Caim, was a bit more reserved. Vero listened intently, not wanting to miss anything. She didn't have the time to speak to Red before another newbie joined their conversation and fired off more questions.

"You've helped us a lot already. I think this Adventurer's Guild sounds good. Certainly an easy way to get going in this world. We would probably have spent the next few hours beating up animals if you hadn't come along." Vero said when Red finally stopped spewing game information out of his mouth. He seemed really knowledgeable about the world. She couldn't wait to reach the town and see what the guild was like. Everything was so fresh and exciting.

"Oh, and Raijin, these gauntlets are my weapons. I decided to go for a more... straightforward and simple character." she said while making a punching motion, remembering his comment about her "strange gauntlets".
 
Caim nodded "Alright well then I think I'll do that with my next level up then, I felt the same way Vero hence why I jumped at the chance to be the two handing warrior kind of guy." He then opened his own status menu and checked what he could level up, noticing the drop in agility he shrugged not worried about it, his AR and attack power will keep him good without high agility for now. He sighed and put 2 in agi anyway just to be safe, he and one in int."Was that a formal invitation to your guild or just telling us a few more useful tidbits to help us get started?" Caim asked smiling towards the veteran player. "Oh for skills like appraisal would I be able to do that while moving, would it just pop up witha quick window whether it succeeded or failed?" Caim asked
 
"Nah, don't mention it. Its actually part of my job, plus... its nice to see new players entering and enjoying the game. I just help give them a push in the right direction since this game doesn't mind letting you walk off cliffs". Red just chuckled at this after his response to what could have been properly assumed to be a thanks. He did know that what he said about cliffs was true. The game was great, but it did very little hand holding. Which was also great and bad.

"I guess though there was another question I could answer. Someone did ask what sort of things you could do in town, and there is one thing that I need to elaborate on, something that is an often asked question". Red began to speak once again. It seemed like he was going to give them more knowledge, and thankfully the Adventure Journal recorded down anything useful automatically, which was very nice as it made the need for memorizing everything not necessary.

"I don't know what sort of characters you plan to make, but its best to know how to get some powers. First is magic, pretty obvious. Its the easiest to learn and has the most functions. Unfortunately its cons are that it is hard to use at higher levels, as it can get complicated, and also has many more countermeasures against it. That's not to say that mages aren't powerful, all powers are useful as its just how you build your character. Even I know a bit of magic and my primary fighting style is sword fighting". Red grinned, and grabbed the small, gold and red metal rod off of his belt.

It looked very intricate in design, with a red gem on one end. "[Ignite Armor!]" he chanted, voice filled with power. Suddenly the rod shone and flames instantly licked to life around and over the surface of his armor before beginning to move and spread over the surface. In just a matter of seconds, his armor had a cloak of flame over it, radiating off heat and flame. He let that remain for a few moments before saying "[Dismiss Ignite Armor]", the flames fading very quickly after that.

"That's a bit of basic fire magic. You can start learning magic with an INT of 10 and Knowledge Rank 5, but you only get to use Cantrip Spells, which are great for beginners but really isn't anything special. At Knowledge Rank 10 and INT 20, however; that's when you can start learning real magic". He put the rod back upon his belt before giving a few moments for the info to sink in. "Before anyone has questions, lemme just quickly state the requirements for the other two forms of powers in this game".

He took out his Adventure Journal from his pouch and flipped it open, touching its pages as he was accessing its windows to find the information he needed. "Ah, here it is" he remarked when he found it. "The second are Spiritual Powers. These are sort of in the middle on complexity, ease of learning, and ability to be countered. I don't know much about them, but in order to start learning them you need at least Focus Rank 5, SPI 20, and WIS 10. The third form of power..." he flipped a few pages.

"Are Ki or Energy based abilities. These are not really diverse at all and are usually incredibly simple. They are also a bit harder to learn, but don't have too many countermeasures are able to be prepared against them other than just resistance against mystical attacks. They require WIS 20, SPI 10, and Focus Rank 10. Might seem like simple requirements, but finding a way to learn them is a bit difficult". After that though he stopped to listen to Caim's questions after he had checked his Status Window for whatever.

"Well you could call it an invitation" he replied, giving a small grin. "But its mainly just some helpful information as well. I have to try and get more members somehow. Of course, since this game is more realism based you can join as many guilds as you want really, although some guilds don't necessarily like one another". Then came Caim's next question about Appraisal. "Well Appraisal is a Talent, so there's no activation command or anything, you just do it. You could do it while moving and something will appear when you succeed, but sine it involves you carefully examining and looking over an item in various ways it will be a bit difficult to do while moving, so its better to stay still while doing it".

After that Red paused, but still kept walking. They had just left the forest now and he pointed ahead. "Clearwater Village is that way. It'll take about half an hour to get there, so does anyone have anymore questions or things to discuss while we walk?"
 
Caelis immediately opened up the social window by saying it. He sent a friend request to Red and another two to the guys that he went through the dungeon with. He closed the window and that was when Vero finally spoke. Caelis said to Vero "Hello, I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself earlier. My name is Caelis." Then Red showed his fire magic and gained Caelis' interest immediately. Caelis said "10 INT and 5 Knowledge, huh. That's perfect! I just got my points to get to that. Sorry, I have quite a bit of questions, but what kind of cantrips are there and how do I learn some? That ignite spell seemed pretty handy to me, but I'm going to guess that it's a higher level spell?"
 
He noticed a window appear in front of him. Other people couldn't see each others windows, a person could only see their own. He pressed the air before him, Caelis getting a window in front of him that read the following.

ReddKnight has accepted your Friend Request
​
​

When he sent one to the others he sent them to they would see the following window with an Accept or Ignore button upon the bottom of it.
​
Caelis has sent you a Friend Request
[Accept] [Ignore]

"Well Cantrips are just really elementary spells. There's no Talent for them, and they are pretty weak. They are great for beginners, but if you want to start using real magic like what I used then you need 20 INT and Rank 10 Knowledge as I mentioned before to begin learning the basic Magic Talents. As for how to learn it..." he thought for a few moments, looking in his Adventure Journal which he still had out.

"I think the magic shop in town is a good place, but the NPC there may have you go on a Quest first before she gives you anything. Either that or you can just try to buy some cantrip scrolls from her so that you can learn a few, but you'll need a Wand or a Tome as well, which you will also need to buy". He finally closed the journal and put it back in his belt pouch.

"There are many forms of magic, each one having its own Talent that you will need to acquire. In this game, the Talents you currently have now are not the only ones out there. You can unlock new ones and magic is very notorious for having many different Talents for many forms of magic. It is one of the reasons why INT is so great for Mages or those who use magic in general".
 
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Raijin nodded at Vero, glad that he was able to make a new friend already. He was also a little disappointed that Redd hadn't caught on to his little joke, oh well, maybe next time. He made sure to pay close attention to everything the vet played said, making a note to look into the other types of powers before making a decision on what to specialize in.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, he turned his attention back to Vero, very intrigued in her choice of armament.

[BCOLOR=#808080]"I see, interesting. I'm going for an agile swordsman build, hit hard, hit fast, and don't get hit yourself. I planned on adding magic in later, so I could add some range and flare to my arsenal, but know I'm curious about these other two types of power. I'm going to look into them when we get to town before I make a concrete decision. What about you Vero, you going to use any magic or powers, or are you going to be all like 'Outta the way milk drinker, a real warrior doesn't need to use magic' then beat the crap out of your enemies with a flurry of punches that can crack mountains. Okay that was an exaggeration, but you get the idea." [/BCOLOR]Hearing Redd describe magic he couldn't help but get excited. [BCOLOR=#808080]"Anyway. lets talk as we move, we stood around talking for long enough. Let's go, go ,go!"[/BCOLOR] With that said he grabbed on to Vero and began to pull her in one direction, but quickly stopping to face Redd.

[BCOLOR=#808080]"I have absolutely no idea where I'm going, so you should lead the way Redd. We have a pace that needs to be picked up, immediately."[/BCOLOR] Raijin was literally bouncing up and down in excitement, thinking about all of the types of magic he might get to use, though he'd have to level his intelligence first. He was definitely going to do that shopkeeper's quest, with out a doubt. He was so excited he had yet to notice the notification that had popped up.
 
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While walking with the group, Vero had the time to open her status menu and assign her new status points. After some deliberation, she punched all three points into VIT. It was probably a good idea to be difficult to kill off. As for her talent points, she put one into herbalism and the other into observation. She felt the giddy, addicting feeling of gaining power. Such was the charm of RPGs. Caelis introduced himself, so Vero returned the greeting.

"I'm Vero," she said, already getting used to the name. It wasn't her usual online handle. Her self-introduction was aimed at the remaining two players as well. When Raijin replied with a summary of his planned character build, she said, "I didn't know about magic or special powers. I thought I would just rely on these fists, and be really beefy to survive fights. We'll see how that works out. I suppose it's never too late to dip into one of the choices."

Raijin pulled on Vero to make her move faster. She could see that he was even more excited than she was about the game. With a chuckle, she picked up the pace, although they still required Red to lead the way. As they were walking through the grasslands, Vero recalled she had put points into the herbalism talent. She kept an eye out for any greens that might have special properties, assuming the talent allowed her to forage for basic medical supplies.
 
Zan continued walking with the group of players to the town. Zan half listened and half ignored what was being said. He paid attention when Red was talking about how friends and pming work in GQO. The group kept talking and Zan focused more on his surroundings, hoping something would come out of the woods and attack. Then Red talked about the three powers you can get in the game. First Magic, then Spiritual Powers, and lastly Ki or Energy based powers. Zan watched as Red used a spell that made fire spread across his armor. "Magic is a waste of stat points and talent points," said Zan with no reasoning of why. Zan was waiting to use his stat points, in-case some armor or a weapon he wanted had a requirement that his stats were below. Zan continued walking.
 
Haruko would feel herself become a fair bit tougher as her VIT was raised by three points, which also raised her HP Regen, HP, and Constitution. Not only that, but a new, yet also familiar, window appeared before her with another two after that one.

Through practice with and the raising of your powers of observation; two new abilities to better employ them, Observe and Search, have been created.

Observe (Lv 1: 0%) (Active): You know how to observe others to garner basic information on them. When using this Skill on a target basic information on them will appear. The amount of information you can scan from a target depends upon what they are doing and a number equal to 1 + Observation Score. To Level: Use, Gain information, Use your own natural powers of observation.

Search (Lv 1: 0%) (Active): You know how to carefully examine your surroundings in order to find their hidden secrets. When you use this Skill, your Observation Score for searching the area around you will go up by 1. However; you move more slowly as to better examine your surroundings, reducing Movement Speed 50% and Dodge Defense by 50% against things that would catch you unaware. This Skill will automatically deactivate if you enter combat. To Level: Use, Find things, Find very well hidden things

This was most likely due to the increase in her Observation Talent's rank. After all, Red did mention at one point that by raising the Observation Talent to Rank 5 that those two Skills would be gained upon doing so. After that Haruko would spend the time looking and searching for herbs and plants to utilize. Unfortunately she just didn't see any that she could use. Perhaps it was due to moving at the pace of the group instead of spending time down a bit closer. That probably would have let her spot more during the trip, but would made her lose pace with the group.

In response to Zan's comment, Red looked at him, then looked ahead and spoke. "Well there are some who probably agree, and others who don't. You and Vero aren't the only ones who probably aren't going to get any special powers. There are plenty of ways to fight with just ability and technique rather than special skills and powers. Forms of martial arts or weapon styles do exist that rely on pure ability and technique rather than special powers. Of course, this majorly limits what you can do as you will be relying on only the Physical, but it means you can focus your Talent and Stat Points on other things".

Red smiled a little as he placed his arms behind his head. "There are many ways to enjoy this game and many different ways to play. So find a way to make a character that you will enjoy the most, as your character is you in this game after all". After that, Red was relatively much less talkative during the rest of the trip. Not that he didn't talk, but he wasn't talking as nearly as much as he did when he was explaining things. The rest of the trip, other than Vero's failure to find any herbs during the walk, didn't have any problems.

Eventually the group came upon the town. It was a small looking town from the distance, but still seemed decent in size. The air was nice and the streets were filled with the chatter of people. It was as Red said. It truly was hard to tell who was an NPC and who as a PC. It looked like just a street filled with people going about their various tasks of the day, both players and NPCs alike. Of course, the streets weren't packed, but they were bustling. It truly was a wonderful and pleasant sight. To see so much life rather than just how other MMOs were with NPCs that were just NPCs. It was hard to tell whether or not the people here were PCs and NPCs, and there were probably both here.

"Welcome to the town of Clearwater. So where would you guys like to go first? The Adventurers' Guild? Magic Shop? Blacksmith? Name it and ill either point you in that direction or show you the way". They were finally there and could finally start on the game. Of course, there were probably more things to learn from Red, so perhaps sticking with him for now was a good idea.
 
"I'll admit that I want to check out the adventurer's guild first." Haruko told Red when they arrived at Clearwater. She couldn't help but gawk at the peaceful fantasy village scenery. The NPCs were so well designed that they played the part of local residents perfectly. Listening in on a conversation between a merchant and a prospective customer, Haruko couldn't believe how realistic they were.

"Why don't we all visit the guild first? We have the right numbers for a party, in case there are any assignments that need the manpower." Vero suggested to the other newbie players.
 
Caelis nodded in agreement and said "Sounds good to me. If we can get quests from them, then it makes sense to go there first to know what kind of quest we may get. That way after we get the quest we can buy whatever it is we need for the quest." Caelis then remembered about his recent reward. He looked through his sack and pulled out his new boots. They looked mundane, but apparently they had decent stat boosts. So, there was no point in not using them. He put them on and to his amazement his feet simply felt a bit lighter. This game was simply amazing. It wouldn't surprise Caelis if some people became a bit power hungry in this game from receiving all these physical benefits of leveling up and having good equipment.
 
"Ah, I see, you want to help us out huh" said Red with a grin as he rubbed his chin, but before he continued speaking he saw Caelis slipping on a new pair of boots, tilting his head. "You guys must have found something really nice back in that area..." he surmised, curiosity present in his voice. He couldn't tell the boots were enchanted, but they looked a small bit better than the standard ones they had. Plus people usually didn't start with boots. "Regardless, I will take you to see the Adventure Guild Officer who presides over this branch... but I do need to give you a small warning about him". He scratched his head for a moments, trying to find the appropriate words.

"Due to this games incredible sense of realism, this game is home to alot more Roleplayers than most. That's not a bad thing, as they are usually people who do it for acting practice and such, or just people who do it for fun and they are cool". He sighed a bit, scratching the back of his head in a perplexed manner. "Well, when that guy is in the officer's seat doing guild desk work and whatnot he likes to RP his character. He's pretty cool and acts normally the other times, I just thought that it was something you should know. Just go along with it. You don't have to act out a role yourselves, but just bare with his". With that warning out of the way he began to lead the way towards the Adventurers' Guild headquarters.

It was a somewhat typical building. It had a basic brown brick building design that looked more like a town office from the outside like what one would see in RPG games. Its door looked like one made of oak and on the roof of the building was a red flag with a golden crest on it, that being the same crest that was on Red's signet ring that he showed them. The building itself looked to be a single story building that was more rectangular than anything. "We don't have a fancy barracks or things like that in this Clearwater headquarters, but its great for getting things done and for guild storage. We have offices all over the game world, many bigger than this". Red walked to the door and opened it, gesturing for the others to follow him.

There were a few people in the building, the group passing by both people, it hard to tell who was NPC or not, and rooms as they went through a hallway after having left a more foyer like area. Eventually they arrived in the back of the building, where an oak door larger than the others they had passed waited. "Alright ill go in ahead, see if there is anything that we can use some rookies for. You guys wait here for now" spoke the veteran red knight as he entered through the large door and closed it behind him, leaving the players alone for a few moments, the five players now actually alone with each other for the first time since they had gotten into this game.
 
Red said something in response to Zan's comment. Zan didn't say anything back, because he felt there was no reason to. Two of the others new players decided they wanted to go to the Adventurer's Guild, which Red was a member of. But that wasn't for Zan at all. "Guilds aren't for me, I'm more of a solo player," said Zan as he started walking in a different direction as the group. Zan turned away from the group, so his back was towards the group and he did a slight wave. "Maybe I'll see you guys again later on," said Zan as he was walking away. While walking, Zan checked what he had in his inventory. He put on the Ring of Basic Protection. He noticed that the Silver Ring, and the strange amulet he had that he didn't know anything about them. Zan decided to first go looking for a Blacksmith's shop or a Merchant's Shop to try and get the objects appraised. Next, he would try to get some better equipment and a better weapon.
 
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Raijin was itching to try and get go to the magic shop, but he figured it would be better to stay with the group for now. If their was a quest, then he could use it to level. He was planning on saving his next couple levels or so if possible, so that he could go go immediately into any power he wanted.

When Redd started leading them to the Guild, He followed, giving a small wave to the solo player he had seen at the beginning of the game.

"Okay, well, hope you have fun. Good Luck."

When Redd told them about the officer and the amount of Roleplayers in the game, it took everything Jason had not to break his own role at the moment. But he quickly snapped out of it, immersing himself back into the world of the game. He wasn't Jason right now, he was Raijin, the joker, the excitable game nut, the guy who died on the tutorial dungeon. Okay maybe he would forget that last part, like, for a long time. Turning to look at every body els, he took a seat and pulled out his boots, putting them on while he broke the Ice.

"Okay, since I think we all know each other's names, how about we talk about the awesome thinks that happened in the beginner dungeon. For example, I created a Special Skill by jumping on are Goblin boss mob's back, what about you Vero, your the only one we didn't see at our starting point, so you must have logged in later than us. What did you find in your dungeon."

As he finished putting on the boots, he found himself feeling noticeably lighter. God, this game was going to turn him into an addict, he was almost positive.
 
While Raijin attempted to start a conversation, Caelis was busy messing around with the menu. He had heard from discussions about the game that it was possible to rename active skills so that it would be harder to guess what the skill was. So, he decided that now was a decent time to figure it out since it was awkward having people know what it was doing especially if Caelis was trying to examine them. After a little bit, he finally came around to figuring out how that feature works. So, he first began by renaming his "Observe" skill. He named it to a relatively innocuous phrase "Hello there". His reasoning for doing this was that he would most likely use this skill on others, so while he buys time by talking to things he could be trying to gather information about them the entire time without them knowing. This was particularly useful against enemies that understood what Caelis was saying, so this was mostly intended for other players, but Caelis knew that there were probably some enemy NPCs/mobs that may be able to speak and understand as well.

With that done, Caelis spoke as well "Yea, I must say that so far this game is pretty awesome. I used a torch and a sword in the fight and got a dual wielding skill. Although, I'm not sure if I'm going to go ahead and focus on dual-wielding that first dungeon was a great learning experience."
 
Caim decided to take of the armor and appraise it, he sat down on a bench near the others and looked over his new chest armor. He would look up when Raijn said something about the noob dungeon and said "Well if my damn cats hadn't played around near my router I would've been able to actually be useful compared to what happened, you may not have died in there because of it. luckily while I was in flux and was able to shut the door and keep them out of there, must have left it open while I was working on something for my job on my desktop." He goes back to looking over the armor, it was nice to sit and wait for a bit, his day maybe full of sitting but it could hardly be called any sort of wait and relax time unfortunately.
 
Raijin frowned as he brought up his death in the dungeon, giving a low grunt at the pleasant memory. "Don't beat yourself up about it, stuff happens,and i twas kinda my fault, I should've just done a regular attack. Besides, you pulled through in the end and that's what matters. I look forward to playing with you." Raijin gave Caim and eye smile, before noticing that he had a notification. Clicking on it, he saw that Caim had sent him a friend request. 'Nice', Raijin thought as he quickly pressed yes, glad that the other player wanted to make the friendship offcial. Now if only Redd would show up with a quest, as he was getting and bad case of restless keg syndrome, this game was to awesome t waste time just sitting around doing nothing. He wanted his epic, immersive experience, dammit!
 
Vero cocked her head, puzzled at their conversation.

"You died? I'm sorry, I don't quite understand. The dungeon was pretty uneventful for me... after a couple of puzzles, I found the boss, which turned out to be a shadow clone of myself. It was a pretty close fight." Vero told them, recalling the brawl she had with herself. She could have handled that better in retrospect. Next time, she wouldn't just throw punches like a robot.

Vero sat down on a nearby stool, and went through the menus and inventory. She saw the black cestus still sitting in her sack. With her new Observe ability, Vero tried discerning its stats.

"By the way, I'm a little worried. Are all of us melee fighters?"
 
Raijin nodded, giving a sigh of disappointment. "Yeah, we had a magic guy, but he logged off or something. As for the dungeon, we just did one puzzle before we faced of against the boss mob and his two minions, who were some sort of pig like goblin things. The minions were easy enough to kill, but the boss was hard, had this big spear mace thing that took half my health, then when we got him down to ow enough health, switched to fisticuffs and hit me for the rest of it. Let me tell you, those hits hurt like a mother fucker, and when I lost conscious ness, I found myself in some weird black room with some notification telling me that I was bleeding out or something. But luckly, Caim and Caelis here finished off the boss and gave me a level up, so all my health went to max levels. So I don't think I died, more like I fainted and began dying. I'll tell you, that was by far the weirdest sensation I've ever felt, and I am not eager to experience it again." Raijin looked at Caelis, who was busy looking at nothing, so probably looking at his status menu or something.

"Anyway, I don't plan on being purely melee for long, as I want to get some projectile magics or powers of some sort, so as to make up for that. Plus, I'm a more social player anyway, so I planned on being in a party anyways, which are usually rather balanced. By the way, cool character, like how it really fits the image of 'badass martial artist', but I hope I fond someone else who decided to go more fantastical with their character, but oh well."
 
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