Virtual Rift: Anchorage

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sincere_and_silent

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"Begin, Virtual Rift!"

The log-in screen prompted him after the initial introduction screen. After logging in, he opened his eyes. He was lying in a bed with a single blanket, the sun shining in through the small window in the barren room. Standing, Trent equipped his armor and sword. It was morning in Anchorage – the world where the game was centered. It was primarily a fantasy-based world, and Trent was thoroughly enjoying the last week experiencing it.

He walked from the inn, greeting the NPC innkeeper as he did. Outside was bustling with many players and non-player-characters. Trent had chosen an inn near the center of the city. Though he was a solo player, it was hard to deny that he enjoyed company.

Despite it being morning, he headed for the pub. Virtual Rift Gear allowed users to experience all senses while in game. Anything they experience is felt, though to a lesser degree than in person. Alcohol caused drunkiness, though it didn't affect your body. A sword through your heart will cause agony, but your body will not feel a thing. Once the VRG comes off, all affects from inside the game are over.

Sitting down at the bar, Trent ordered a shot of whiskey.
 
After getting past everything, login screen, bah bah bah, he awoke in his house, wearing his armor, his sword beside him. Eph sighed, stretched, and set out to Anchorage, went to an inn and sat by Trent. He ordered whiskey as the person next to him did, and greeted Trent. ''Name's Eph, yours?'', he asked.
 
Markor finished logging in nearby as well, entered the pub and ordered a cup of tea. (Because he's English.)
 
Requiem The Gambler, darkred
It was dark when Requiem logged in. He waited a few moments for the machine to buffer the world around him. He didn't have the highest quality technology, so things took a bit longer to boot up for him. Once he started playing though, it seemed to smooth out though, which was a godsend.

A few moments later, shapes started to pervade his vision, then colour, and finally his surroundings filled in completely. He smiled before cracking his neck and stretching out. It was the start of another day, and he had things that he intended to do. The gambler grabbed his equipment and headed out of the room, and through the building, giving the woman at the counter a polite nod as he walked by. He had forged some documents that declared that he was free to occupy the suite room for as long as he liked without charge, which all things considered, was a rather nice room.

He was glad he'd invested his skills as he had. Granted, he lacked the physical presence of most of the players, but he knew how to get by in the cities well enough, and the fact that he used firearms in combat made people more likely to assist him facing the bosses. Because of them, he'd managed to make his way to the sixth floor without too much difficulty. He was somewhat disappointed in that there hadn't been much in the way of gambling establishments thus far, excluding the handful of card tables in the bars, despite gambling being one of the skills players could specialise in. He expected it was something that wasn't meant to be used until the later levels though.

Upon stepping outside the inn, he took a moment to reorient himself. To the west he remembered was a small general shop, a pub, and a number of houses. To the north was the way out of the town, the hospital, the contest hall, the guild assignment hall, and a junk shop. The east held the town's courthouse, town hall, and a few other things that weren't particularly important to him. Requiem's goal was however, the guild assignment hall.

Despite not being in a guild he liked to pick up jobs with guilds. He was allowed to loot his own stuff, gained his own experience, and the guilds themselves paid him for his assistance. All things considered, it was a pretty good deal. The only thing it didn't provide, was the security of having a group medic. He was more or less on his own.

When he arrived at the guild assignment hall, he noted that there still weren't many people that had reached the sixth floor yet. The place was barely busy at all. Requiem let out a heavy sigh before checking the help wanted board. It looked like there was a quest that people were taking on requiring them to get into a cave out on the north-east side of the floor, heavily guarded. Pay offer was fifteen hundred gold, plus salvage, which was pretty decent. Requiem decided to take the job and marked as much in the internal ledger.

His next stop was the bounty board. That was his primary source of income outside of his guild assistance. Towns would pay good money for players to kill dangerous monsters or raiders. So long as the enemy could be kept at range, Requiem could normally take them out. There were a handful of bounties on the board, two of which he'd already agreed to take, and just hadn't found yet. The other was for a Mo-Lai, which was a giant tiger looking thing with wings. They were dangerous in close quarters, but solo enemies. The perfect thing for Requiem. Once again he marked the job as taken, and headed off to find the group that he'd signed up to assist.
 
She fit the snug helmet over her head and input her login credentials; within seconds she found herself being pulled through a swirling colorful portal and when she opened her eyes again, she was in a room not like her own yet it was still familiar.

Now as Elizia, she sat up and stretched, the blanket around her falling into a pile on her lap. The first thing she did was open her game menu and selected her quest log, automatically seeing the completed quest. The memories of the quest quickly played through her mind as she jumped out of bed. She had almost lost her sword in that quest. It was very difficult and many times she had to stop the quest in order to recover before moving on, but it was a very exciting one too.

Her heart fell a little when she saw where had to go to collect the reward: All the way in Foundersville in the first floor. She didn't hate the town, she just wasn't fond of how inconvenient it was, having to travel back and forth between this floor and the first one. Though she supposed she shouldn't just pass it up. Not only was the money reward good, but there were also a few handy teleportation crystals with and an achievement badge too.

Grudgingly, Elizia donned on her armor and walked out of the inn, heading straight for the town Warp Portal. Elizia stepped into the brilliant, swirling glow and in an instant found herself in Foundersville. A lot of beginning players walked around here, hanging out in groups and talking to NPCs as they watched tutorials on how the game works. Elizia walked past them and towards the rewarding NPC. She received his reward then picked up his new quest which takes place on level 6, much to her chagrin. Elizia decided to skip the pub here in Foundersville since a lot of new players were already there. Way too crowded for her liking. She marched back into the Warp Portal and to the pub in New Paltz. There were three people already there making idle chat with each other. Elizia wasn't in the mood to join them but she still approached the counter.

"Ten potions please: 7 for health an 3 for energy," she said. Elizia had not mastered her potion making skill yet so she still needed to shell out her money if she wanted to survive the next quest. The bartender nodded, disappearing under his counter, leaving Elizia to sit. She pulled up her menu, scrolling through her quest list, deciding which one she should take next.
 
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Eph, having his usual short-term memory, completely forgot about his greeting to Trent. He finished his whiskey, got up, and exited the inn. He glanced around to see if there were more places worth looking at. He looked at the potion shop... He was full on the stuff. He looked at the restaurant... He was good on food at the moment, and.. Ah! The blacksmith. He walked towards the place and in hopes of finding upgrades for his sword or armor.
 
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Celir had been in game for the past hour. She had planned to hang out on the first floor for a while and so found herself in a field just out of Foundersville. The artificial wind blew back her pale strands and made her dress move just slightly as she watched the level one boar face off with her dragon hatchling. This was how she liked to level up her new beasts. She felt comfortable facing them off against the first level boars because she was at a high enough level that she could kill them in one or two smacks of Nidhug now if the battle took a turn for the worse. The pale dragonling tilted its head to the side and stared at the boar like a bird would stare at something shiny.

The battle music began to play as the boar turned to face her and the tiny dragon. It pawed at the ground and lowered its head before starting its charge attack. Celir, altered her stance a little bit, ready to dodge out of the way of the oncoming creature. In a few more seconds, she sidestepped, feeling the air from the creatures rush move her skirt a bit as it barreled past her. Celir turned with the flow of the wind out of habit. She didn't like taking her eyes off of enemy targets, even low leveled ones. Celir pointed at the boar,

"Go, Pyry! It's food! Take a bite of its butt!" She ordered, feeling a bit like a Pokémon trainer as she did so. The baby dragon made a happy gurgly growl sound before it took off waddling towards the boar, all but cooing. The boar, a bit more agile than the still clumsy hatchling was able to dodge Pyry's attempts for two minutes, even inflicting ten points of damage on the 20 HP critter. Finally, however, Pyry managed to clamp down on the boar's tail. What happened next, was straight out of a cartoon in Celir's opinion. Pyry got a good bite on the boar's tail, the boar yelped then started to try and escape the hatchlings grasp, running around frantically. However, the small dragonling held tight, being drug, swung and yanked around by the frantic boar. Celir's giggles followed after the pair as she jogged to keep the boar inside the combat range. Even if it was amusing, this was progress! Pyry had finally managed to actually latch onto one of the boars without getting his health dropped below five! Celir felt a bloom of pride swell up in her chest. That was her baby dragon!
 
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((Do we just post...?))

Arabella~

Humming a tune under her breath, the young woman splashed a touch of half and half into her black tinted coffee. Hearing the familiar noises of the spoon colliding with the ceramic mug as she mixed the sugar in. Sipping the hot, caffeinated liquid Ara walked back to her room, her bare feet padding on the cold tiles on her kitchen floor. It had been a long day after school and work and she was ready to get some rest. Slipping on a pair of shorts and a large, oversized t-shirt, she sat down onto the worn, wooden navy blue chair parked next to an old yellow desk. It would be a while before her mother returned, so the teen would have a few hours to spare. Taking another gulp of coffee, she felt the liquid warm her up and slipped on the helmet, switching on her computer.

Logging in, she typed in all her personal information before waking up, her dark sapphire blue orbs adjusting to the sudden bright, computer generated sunlight. Smiling, she looked down at her avatar's white blouse and dark, pastel green flowing skirt. She felt the other players rushing by her in the small busy game town. A cool wind rustled by, performing a waltz with the golden and red hued leaves and knotting Ara's chocolate brown hair.

Looking around at the old fashioned town, she walked forward, entering a weapon shop. She had the starting amount of gold and managed to bribe the NPC to give her one of the better one handed straight swords for half the price. Satisfied with her purchase, she nearly skipped out of the store, almost hitting a poor player.

Stepping into the local inn, she took a seat at the far end of the bar, ordering a glass of beer, though the girl wasn't much of a drinker. Thanking the man, she held onto the cold mug with both of her fair hands, raising the glass to her small lips and taking a long drink of the cold, slightly bitter, and airy liquid, feeling a slight burn as it went down her throat. Putting down the glass, she let her sapphire blue orbs scan her surroundings, looking for anyone to talk to.
 
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Unfortunately, Trent had temporarily lost connection. Though his avatar sat staring at his drink, he wasn't actually there. As his connection returned, he saw a man stand from beside him and walk away. Oh well. Perhaps he would find another soul to speak to at another time. He sighed. This game was one-of-a-kind. Groundbreaking. Yet, all he could think was how bored he was. It wasn't like he was anti-social on purpose. He just had a terrible habit of making himself look like a jerk. It was his straight-forward way of talking.

He gulped down the whiskey and slammed the glass onto the bar, earning a glare from the barkeep. He muttered an apology before standing to leave. That's when he saw her at the other end of the bar. He slid into a seat next her, then smiled.

"Hi, I'm Trent. Can I buy you a drink?" Wait. Was that actually a charming thing to say? Or did it seem conceited? Well, he would soon find out.
 
Requiem The Gambler, darkred
Roughly fifteen minutes later, Requiem was where he was supposed to be. The Guild Headquarters for a group calling themselves The White Knights. The building looked as pretentious as the guild name suggested. Pure white stone, golden wall trimmings and doors. Pretentious indeed. Still, pay was pay, and they clearly had the money to burn. As such, though he was not happy about it, he opened the front door to the place and headed on in.

"Hey!" He called over to the people gathered together around a lounge space. "I'm here for a job. Something about the cave up north." It wasn't his most diplomatic greeting, but he wasn't too terribly worried about coming off as diplomatic. If they needed help, they'd accept it.

The group looked at eachother and it became very clear to him that they were using the guild chat. Finally, after a couple of minutes, one of them approached him. "You sure you're up for this?" She asked. Requiem gave a silent affirmative and she smiled "Alright, I'm Cassandra, the others are Neo, Rogar, and Desna." She told him indicating each of them in turn. "I'm sure you're aware, but I have to inform you of all guild assist rules. You are by all accounts, not part of our guild. Your job is just to take out as many enemies as you can alongside us. You can loot any kills you make, and get one third of all treasures found in the cave. Assuming you survive, you will be paid an additional 1500 gold upon our success which will be transferred to you automatically."

Requiem nodded, having heard the same spiel from every guild he'd ever worked with. Some part of guild charter he assumed. "Yeah, I've heard it all before. How long before you're all ready to go?" He asked, ready to get the job over with.

She looked him over carefully and nodded to the others, who instantly shifted into their armour. Sterling white plate mail. Requiem shook his head, but said nothing on the matter. He had little faith in those who chose heavy armour. Why blunt the hits of an enemy when you can dodge them entirely? Nonetheless, the group was off. All things considered, they covered the distance mostly unhindered. Requiem sniped a couple of enemies that looked like they were on their course, but none of them were really worth the trouble.

When they arrived at the cave in question, Requiem, being the help, was expected to go in first, and so he did, Harmonica pistol prepared. He'd been jumped at the entrance to a dungeon before, and he didn't intend to make the same mistake ever again. Once he was sure the main area was clear, he called the rest of the group in. "Alright y'all. Let's get this done and over with. What's the goal?" He asked, leading them deeper into the cave.

It was the one named Neo who spoke up. "Intelligence dictates that there's a treasure at the bottom of the cave system that regens every couple of days. Figured we should check it out." He explained calmly.

"Ah, a treasure hunt. Not the sort of business I'd expect out of an outfit such as yourselves. Whatever works though I suppose." He responded with a shrug.
 
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Eph walked over to the blacksmith and greeted the NPC. He brought up the shop screen and looked around. Hm. The armor upgrades are weak, but... Aha! The defense upgrade I was looking for... Selecting the upgrade titled ''Def. Upgrade Tier III'', he looked at the weapons portion of the screen and saw nothing of his interest. He tapped the X on the screen, equipped the new upgrade and decided to walk off to listen to conversations. There were talks here and there about questing and hunting, and such. He didn't want to buy new armor, no. His armor and weapon were custom made, very efficient and well rounded out in stats. He stopped to hear of something about a huge war between a guild and another. Walking closer to the conversation, he blended into the crowd and started to mouth random words silently while listening to the conversation.

He picked up something about it being in a wood near this city sometime today in the afternoon GMT time. He brought up his map and looked around Anchorage for a wood. He found and put a waypoint on it and burned the memory into his brain. What else to do... He looked at his hands. In this game, there were no avatars. You were you in SwordLife. Shaking his head, he focused on the ''war'' that was to happen.
 
The bartender approached and deposited the requested amount of potions on the counter. Elizia paid for them, depositing the potions in her storage before pulling out her map, dragging the quest log beside it as she scrutinized which quest to take on next.

"Hi, I'm Trent. Can I buy you a drink?"

Elizia jumped a little in her seat and turned at the voice of who was speaking to her. The voice belonged to a young man who was taking the seat next to her, smiling. A little miffed at being startled, Elizia turned back to her map and quest log, and said curtly, "No thank you."

She knew taking a seat in the bar always carried the possibility of a cocky flirt coming on to her, even if she had tried to take the seat in the farthest corner so no one would disturb her. She had quests to do, achievements to unlock, bosses to defeat! Socializing in this world made of polygons and data was the last thing on her mind.

Speaking of bosses, Elizia tapped on her log and popped open a quest taking place on the fifth floor. Immediately her map switched over to the fifth floor, a small blinking dot on the map showing her the whereabouts of the quest location. It looked like a boss quest too. Elizia sighed, noting the item rewards and achievements one can get if the boss is defeated: a choice of either a potion skill or a cooking skill and a fame badge for defeating the fifth level boss. She really wanted that potion skill, although it'll have to wait until she can level up to be strong enough for the floor's boss.
 
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Celir stretched her arms over her head as she meandered her way back towards the first level town. She had picked up a bunch of, to her, useless drops that she was going to go sell. Glancing over her shoulder at the trailing dragonling, she smiled. Little Pyry had done well in his training today. The Lunarian began to hum under her breath a little as she continued to walk up the grassy incline. She'd unsummon the little beast and let him rest awhile after she got into town.

The two made it the gates without any further incident, ad true to ehr plan, the pale haired woman sent the little beast to rest and walked around petless. Her footfalls tapped against the pave stone as she began to set a route towards a general merchant NPC. Silence stretched for a bit, sometimes it was boring playing this game alone. She'd played in MMO's before, but she had always had friends in game, this go around was not like normal however. Her friends where either uninterested, or unable to play with her this time. Celir made a small face, it wasn't near as fun without Calli's yaoi inclined hijink pranks she liked to pull on other players.

"there's noone to harass..." She unconsciously grumbled aloud. Perhaps that was why she was putting so many points into beast taming, to give the illusion of a party.
 
Mizz had been hunting on the 5th floor for the past few hours. He liked it here more than the other floors because there wasn't a city. The only players that came here were the ones that were either geared up to kill each other, the monsters in the forest, or to find the boss to move to the 6th floor. This meant players came loaded with gear that had to be decent. Kyle was built for killing others, without them knowing he was there till the last second.

At the moment Mizz was heading back to the center of there forest, where the warp portal was, to head to the first floor. He had just taken out 2 players that were hunting monsters throughout the forest, and had some pretty decent gear to sell when he got back. He whistled at hi hawk Huntress, and she circled around the forest. He slowly closed his eyes, and could see everything that came from Huntress' eyes. 'Coasts clear' he thought as he opened his eyes again, jumping out of the tree. He made the small walk towards the portal and jumped through.

Walking around with this much stuff made him always feel nervous. Thieves liked to hang around on the first floor because of all the new players and he didn't feel like being stolen from. Just to be sure he activated his invisibility for the short walk to the NPC merchant. While walking he ran into a girl, falling on the ground, while his invisibility slowly faded away. "Sorry, wasn't paying attention. Are you ok?" he said to the girl who had seemed to be muttering to herself just a moment before.
 

Mood; Bored
Floor-Current; 1
Action;Searching for party.
Cool Downs; None


​
The dream world I once saw is shutting down,
it's so dark with no light to be seen.
Along this crumbled beaten path
I felt I saw something that shouldn't be here,
a ray of hope.
BlackStarRocket, deepskyblue
Logging in....
​
BlackStarRocket, deepskyblue
Shooter had just entered the game. A empty dungeon where her past party was. She let out a heavy sigh. Looking in her inventory seeing as she was too tired last night to sell her items she had gotten. Oh well. Time to go find another party. Out the dungeon she went resetting it. Not as many players seem to be on floor 4 town. She decided to head up to floor 1. A decent amount of players on this floor. Well time to look for a party she could join. Hell, having a party of two was better then just her. "Looking for party to level with",she shouted as she wandered into town selling old gear and useless crap to NPC shop clerks. Then on her map she noticed what seemed to be a party. Too far to hear comment, she went over to check it out, it was just a single Lunarian. "Hey, you looking for someone to level up with?", she asked. Normally in this situation, she would just leave player and find a actually party she was getting tired of walking around finding nobody with a party. Upon closer examination of this "moon child", she concluded she was most likely a beast master. Well better then nothing. Though she would have preferred some heavy armed knights she could be a healer for, this would have to work.​
​
I knew it from the very beginning,
I knew the reason I'm here.
All of the courage within me
burn like a flame!
I won't run away anymore!​

@Silver - Celir
Click to expand...
 
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Celir swallowed a squeak, barely, when a guy bumped into her.

"Sorry, wasn't paying attention. Are you ok?" She had parted her lips to reply that, yea, she was fine. When a girl popped out of seemingly nowhere, this wasn't the actual case, she just hadnt been paying attention to the surrounding chat, and asked about joining a party to level with. and cue people She blinked, then offered them both a smile.

"Sure, forming a party sounds like fun, did you have a specific goal in mind?" She asked the girl while offering the guy a hand up. Her eyes darted to him. "And yes, I'm fine, are you?" She inquired. Online, she was a lot more fluid of a conversationalist, at least, she thought so. In real time she was just an overly shy lit major.
 
Mizz got up, brushing the dirt off his clothes. "Yea I'm fine. Thanks" he said after accepting her help up. He looked next to the girl and saw another guy that looked almost robotic. "Did I hear you guys were going leveling?" This could be the perfect chance for Mizz to get some extra wealth. He started making out a plan on how he was going to attempt to assassinate the two. Slowly he whistled for huntress, who came flying down and landed on his fore arm. "I'm Mizz, beast tamer extraordinaire. Who are you guys?"
 
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Mood; Interested
Floor-Current; 1
Action;Searching for party.
Cool Downs; None


​
The dream world I once saw is shutting down,
it's so dark with no light to be seen.
Along this crumbled beaten path
I felt I saw something that shouldn't be here,
a ray of hope.
BlackStarRocket, deepskyblue
Shooter was examining the silver haired Lunarian armor at this time. Everything seemed to be right fore her talent. " No specifics... just the usual leveling up and maybe trying to get some rare items", she said casually. The girl seemed to be multitasking with chatting her and helping a boy get back on his feet. Is that guy in her party? She took a look and they weren't. Then again he might be about to accept her party invitation. He was no tank, but he looked like he could play support. "Are you gonna party with him?", she asked curiously. Not that it mattered much whether he was or was not. Since she summed up the Lunarian, she turned her attention to the fallen male examining him.
​
I knew it from the very beginning,
I knew the reason I'm here.
All of the courage within me
burn like a flame!
I won't run away anymore!​
((O.C.C: Oh gosh, sorry I didn't mean to ignore you, Vex i started typing after her first postand i forgot too check for new posts before i posted :cold:))​
@Silver - Celir @Vex -Mizz
Click to expand...
 
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Trent just nodded in reply to the girl's rejection. As he started to lean away, he saw her open the quest log. Hm. She still needed to pass the 5th floor. Not that surprising considering nobody on the North American server had passed the 6th floor, yet. There was rumored to be a hydra boss who could shoot a different element from each mouth. It was also rumored to be level 30 while most everyone on the server were under level 10. It would most likely take a large raiding party to defeat it at this moment.

Feeling inspired to continue leveling up, Trent paid his fee and turned to walk out. Before doing so, he looked back to the girl at the bar, "Have a great day". He continued out the bar and toward the warp portal. He needed to party up with one of the larger guilds soon. That way he could fight the boss with them. Guilds were generally a good idea, unless you were real keen on getting all the XP or loot for yourself. Of course, that was a good goal. However, if you're a low-level, it's best to team up with someone so you aren't killed. Once killed during a battle, you lose all XP from the current battle. Thankfully, you don't lose your loot.

It was time to search for a party to temporarily partner up with. If it lucked out, he would then go to one of the large guilds. He decided to try Floor 1. Many people chose to reside here due to the city's size. It was likely he would be able to find other party members who were his own level. If not, there was always the option of looking to The Army Guild which headquarters were on Floor 1.

He warped into the town center. It was basic. One story houses, with the rare two-story homes. You had a blacksmith, bakery, armory, and a few other basics. Most only had starter weapons. As of the moment, there were only a couple PC (player character) based shops on Floor 1. Considering it was only a week into the release, there wasn't a whole lot of development. He passed one of three Inns on this floor as he looked around for one of the common meeting spots. Often there were meeting spots for those who were seeking party members, or members for hire.

Upon checking three common meeting spots, Trent was ready to give up. Finally, he decided to head to the 6th floor. He would just travel around the forests and fields fighting the randomly spawned enemies. For now he would just train himself. It took him almost 20 minutes to make it outside Orrum, the city for the 6th floor. Crossing a bridge over a river, he found himself face-to-face with a troll. Of course. Bridge. Troll. SwordLife loved to do small 'jokes' like that.

Readying his stance, Trent waited for the troll, level 18, to attack first.
 
The_Hood walked out of his rented house and breathed the simulated air."Like regular air...except...not..."
He readied his shortbow and set out for floor 4. Unfortunately, his first foray into mmovr games was not going well. He had struggled to clear the first three floors over the last week. On the bright side, he finally obtained some explosive arrows from an enemy player. Had run right past him without noticing him. He had been at a higher level, but he must have been badly wounded in a failed party raid. Killed the poor sap right in his tracks.
 
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