"How are you here? I thought you were just introducing and looking over the game?"
Eilyria just floated slightly above Alex's palms as if getting used to using her wings and fluttered around slightly before landing back on his hands. "It was so boring going over the same thing over and over again to people, so I left a copy of the introduction in my place, and knowing that you were so funny and nice, I came over and kinda got sucked into the familiar summoning and here we are."
Still, in shock over the fact that the first NPC he met going into the game ended up being his familiar, Alex was incredibly confused. "That can happen!? . . . I guess that's a good thing for me I suppose. Let's look at your stats then." As soon as Alex began to focus on Eilyria and think about the stats panel, it appeared before him.
Eilyria (Light Fairy, Goddess of Elem)
Rarity: Primordial
Special Ability: 'Purity and Creation' - 50% chance to nullify any debuff and low chance to upgrade one item when a boss is killed.
Rubbing his eyes to make sure they weren't blind, Alex double and triple checked the stats and effect and was blown away about just how such a familiar could be possible.
Unable to wrap his head around it, Alex quickly made his way out of the alter and almost ran into Melody. "Melody! I think there may be an issue."
Tilting her head slightly, Melody looked at Alex. "What could possibly go wrong? I told you that the majority of familiars will be fairly regular, there's nothing wrong with that."
Shaking his head, Alex lifted up Eilyria towards Melody. "Just look for yourself."
Scrunching her brows, Melody looked curiously at Eilyria. "And? She looks like a fairly typical light…what in the world did you do!?" Grabbing onto Alex's shoulders, Melody stared at her brother intensely. "How is this AI your familiar?!"
After explaining what happened and repeating what Eilyria had responded before, Melody thought for a long moment. Looking over at the AI floating happily around her brother, she sighed.
"Well it can't be bad and she herself doesn't seem to mind it and could probably choose to not be your familiar if she really wanted to. Anyway, be glad that you have an incredibly strong familiar. I have never seen anyone start off with a Primordial rarity familiar, and that ability is incredibly useful as well. Let's go."
Following Melody quickly, Alex beckons over Eilyria who ends up flying over to his shoulder after getting tired from flying.
After traveling for a few moments, Melody speaks up. "By the way Alex, from now on let's use our in-game names to refer to one another so in the future it doesn't get confusing for each other or other people we will meet okay? My username is Luna."
"Sure, thing Luna! A great choice for a name by the way. Funnily enough, my username was tough to get since everything I tried to input ended up being taken. I did end up landing on Sol though, so I guess we match!"
Eilyria couldn't help but raise her hand joyfully add. "And you two can call me Elly!"
Rubbing her small head gently, Sol continued to follow Luna deeper into the woods. Despite coming across a couple of low-level monsters roaming around, the group traversed by them and soon came upon a clearing.
Within the middle of the clearing stood a burnt-out husk of what may have looked to be a sizable house. Looking extremely old and as if it had been picked clean of anything valuable ages ago, Sol gave a curious gaze towards Luna but ended up staying quiet as she probably would let him know soon anyway.
As if reading my thoughts Luna spoke up just then. "Search around for an underground cellar, it should be a couple of yards away from the house." Soon after, Luna began to take Aquis to search the ground and make sure to hear for any sounds that could give away a hidden cellar.
Knowing what to look for, it didn't take too long for them to eventually find the hidden cellar. Removing the thick layer of dirt covering the entrance, a large and heavy wooden door with a metal handle attached appeared before them.
It took both Sol and Luna, with emotional support from Elly, to lift the wooden cellar door. With a short hop inside, a small tunnel stretched before them. Thankfully the tunnel despite being underground was lit thanks to small crystals embedded in the walls which gave off a faint glow.
Following along the tunnel, they soon opened into a large room that looked like a lab that hadn't been touched in ages. Across the various tables sat glass vials and containers of various liquids that were still bubbling. While the rest were off exploring the interesting new scenery that the room had to offer, Luna searched diligently and soon found what she was after.
Walking up to a worktable littered with various notes, most of them illegible scribblings, Luna searched through them diligently until she came upon a set of pages that actually had legible writing on it.
~~~
An'Elari are called many things, Children of the Elements, Elemental Chosen, Demons. Many have questioned if they are truly worthy of their influence over the elements and just how they are chosen over other people. History will tell of many who have used their power for the betterment of society and boosting the world of Elem with elemental forging and defending the cities we live in from the terrors of the elemental creatures who threaten our livelihood.
However; there are those that have used their gifts for selfish gains and are threats greater to their own kind than the elemental creatures. While there are many who focus on the An'Elari, I personally am fascinated by their faithful companions, the Familiars.
Why do these elemental beings follow the An'Elari? Their rare forms seem to complement their masters and always help their masters no matter if for good or evil, even help slaughter their elemental brethren. Are they bound and influenced to follow the An'Elari or are they gifts from the world itself to protect the An'Elari?
Why are there no Familiars outside of the six main elements? There are many elements such as freezing Ice, scorching magma, booming thunder, brilliant lightning, and many others.
Setting out to seek the answers to such a riddle, I set up secret labs covered with false houses across the far reaches of the land to study the various elemental creatures outside of the six main elements in the hope to figure out the reason why An'Elari never have received a familiar of the other elements in this world.
If an An'Elari ever stumbles across my labs, then you are free to attempt to bind your familiar with the culmination of my experiments thus far. However; be warned as only those that are like that of the element tested in this lab will have a greater chance at success. Others may have a small chance to succeed but may also very well diminish or outright destroy your familiar.
May the Goddess protect you
Alchemist Gundlach
~~~
As soon as Luna had finished reading the last page, the parchment crumbled and was absorbed into her Special Inventory and hinted at other such labs. Looking around the worktable, Luna spotted a drawer open after she had picked up the notes.
Opening the drawer, the only thing contained within was a fist-sized sphere made from a warm to the touch metal. A seam circled what Luna guessed to be the opening of the sphere. Excited at the feel of being able to open one of the legendary Gundlach spheres, she quickly calmed her nerves and opened the sphere quickly.
A burst of chilling cold air swept throughout the room and caught the attention of Sol and Elly which came over quickly to see what had created such a commotion. Nestled within the sphere was a piercing blue crystal.
Gundlach's Ice Metamorphosis Crystal
Paragon Special Item (Consumable)
100% Chance to change Water Elemental Familiar to Ice element
65% Chance to change Light, Darkness, Earth, and Wind element to Ice element
10% Chance to change Fire element to Ice element
"Wow! That item is amazing, it seems like it is pretty rare considering where we found it. Come on, let's see what it looks like for your Aquis!" Sol was super excited to see such an interesting item and thought it was fairly smart for Radiance to interesting lore tidbits to give players a unique way to customize their familiars.
As Luna picked out the blue crystal, her character started to take low amounts of frost damage. Since they were all only level 1 still, the damage would kill her in a couple of minutes. Not one to die pointlessly, Luna quickly fed the crystal to Aquis who gobbled up the crystal greedily. Everyone waited with bated breath, looking at the small watery ferret. After a couple of seconds passed nothing had happened.
Laying his hand on her shoulder, Sol tried to keep their spirits up. "It's okay Luna we ca…" Suddenly a flash of blue light interrupted what Sol was about to say.
When the light had cleared, in the place of the watery ferret stood a pristine ice sculpture but had a certain presence about it which gave off not only a living feeling but an aura of royalty.
Ice King Aquis (Ice Elemental Ferret) Lv. 1
Rarity: Paragon
Special Ability: Ruler of Ice
(Offensive Abilities) +10% slow decaying over 3 seconds
(Defensive Abilities) +10% Durability
'Just as I remembered, the Frost Lord made himself famous by finding this crystal. Thank you for your contribution.' Nodding her head at the success of the find, Luna ushered them outside since there was nothing else of use in these hidden research bases besides the Metamorphosis Crystals.
Leaving the place behind and making sure to cover up the door so no one else would find the secret facility, Luna led them back towards the forest. Ready to fight the nearby forest creatures, the trio excitedly faced off against a pack of forest sprites.
Forest Sprite (Common Earth Elemental Spirit) Lv. 2
Health: 30
While the sprites individually were fairly harmless, they traveled in packs of 3-5. Thanks to Luna's new slowing ability they were able to kite the sprites while killing them off one by one. While Luna, Aquis, and Eilyria were doing most of the damage, Sol used most of his time gathering the sprites aggro and surviving as best as he could. Continuing to kill the sprites for the next couple hours, Sol and Luna leveled up a couple of times and then begun to make their way back to town.
While Sol wasn't incredibly versed in gaming recently, he knew that most had a leveling system that would increase their stats by some means which was augmented further by gear and skills. "So, Luna. How does leveling work in this game? Despite leveling a couple of times, I can't find where to see how I get stronger."
Let's go, just need to replace our gear and grab some quests before heading out again."