Overall, even with the Wisdom exp buff, the group took 2 days of grinding to reach level 20. Over that time, the group got much closer together and freely chatted amongst each other even outside of the game. Aside from running into a group of 5 players who tried to kill the group whilst they fought a pack of rock elementals and sprites, the rest of the time was pretty boring.
As they all finally hit level 20, Alex brushed off his equipment and asked Melody. "Hey Luna, so why do we need to be level 20 before going to a new area? Are there no elementals we can kill on the way to wherever we're going?"
Seeing both the two sisters echo Sol's question, Melody responded. "Well the area I plan to go next is fairly far away, at least to walk, and it is somewhat sparse as far as elementals go. Secondly, every 20 levels the An'Elari Temples will offer a signature ability for players which will help a lot and there is no Temple in the town we're going to."
At the beginning of the third day, they all gathered near the An'Elari temple and were all very excited to choose their new signature abilities. Greeted by a Senior Priest who ushered them into a deeper section of the temple.
The group eventually got separated into different rooms with Sol being led by a priestess with a heavy cloak that covered her entire body and a hood that covered her facial features. While he was a bit unnerved by the silent priestess, Sol just shrugged.
As soon as the priestess bowed and left the room, a notification popped up.
'Welcome An'Elari! You have grown in strength and have met the requirements to receive your first blessing. Please choose from a list below for your blessing of choice.'
*Warning* - Blessings cannot be changed after chosen
1) An'Elari Warrior Ability - Aegis of Protection: Call forth your element to protect you from harm, increase defense by 10% for 5 seconds, additional effect based on your element
2) An'Elari Warrior Ability - Roar of the Elements: Your rage explodes around you, damaging and applying a debuff to enemies in a 5yard radius based on your element
3) Familiar Ability - Soothing Song: Your familiar gains the ability to calm the elements, temporarily puts to sleep a creature of equal or lesser level. Damage has a high chance to wake the element. The chance to affect enemies of higher level or bosses is reduced.
'Hmmm, I guess fairly typical choices between defensive, offensive, and utility. No need for extra damage as playing with others seems to be fairly common due to the overall difficulty of the game so far. While the CC could be useful, the defensive ability seems pretty universally good and could help us take on more difficult fights.'
Slightly bored, Eilyria sat on Sol's shoulders humming a random tune to herself. "Eilyria! Which one do you think we should choose?"
Rubbing her tiny chin in thought, Eilyria looked over the choices. "While my voice is indeed magical, I think that Aegis of Protection is the best choice since it will always be useful while Soothing Song might be useful but situational at times."
Nodding in agreement, Sol smiled and lifted up his palm towards Eilyria which she happily high-fived cutely despite the disparity of their hand size.
'You have selected Aegis of Protection, due to your Light element, the ability also heals yourself for 5% of your maximum health over the duration.'
Metting back up with the rest of the team, Sol shared his own choice to the girls while they showed their own choices.
Luna received a CC ability for Aquis.
Familiar Ability: Ice King's Prison - Harness the power of the Ice King and root a single enemy for 5 seconds. If the enemy is 3 or more levels below the caster, freeze for 5 seconds.
Diana went for a damage ability.
An'Elari Ranger Ability: Triple Shot - With incredible skill and accuracy, fire three shots at up to three different enemies for 90% damage or a single target for 60% damage each arrow. When hit, the enemies take Fire damage over 3 seconds.
And lastly, Minerva went for a strong party-wide heal.
An'Elari Cleric Ability: Breath of Rejuvenation - While many use the power of the elements for harm and damage, you can harness that power to nurture and heal instead. Heal up to 5 friendly party members in a cone in front of you, with the element of light your heal also applies a barrier for a portion of the healing done.
Seeing everyone's pretty fantastic new abilities, Sol exclaimed. "Oh did you all get three options too?"
Minerva hopped over to Sol happily. "Yeah! It was pretty difficult for me to choose between the three since they were all pretty useful. But being the healer I noticed it was pretty hard for me to keep us all up when we fought the Corruption Wraith so the Breath was my choice in the end. Just look how cool it is too!"
Just then, a ball of light rose from Minerva and quickly formed a massive head. Covered with golden scales, the draconic looking head opened its eyes to show a pair of gleaming golden eyes. Its lower jaw opened up to show a ferocious maw of teeth and despite having no throat, the whole head made a backward motion and then leaned forwards to blast a huge cone of light forward.
The entire action took no more than 2 seconds to complete but the lifelike look and motions of the dragon head, as well as the light dragon breath, amazed the entire group. With all of them much more excited to try out their new abilities.
Unfortunately, before Sol got to show off, Luna got everyone's attention. "Alright alright, you all will have plenty of time to use your shiny new abilities in the future. We should get moving to the next area before we waste too much game time today."
Bummed out that he wasn't able to show off, Sol grumbled and followed behind Luna who led them to the south entrance of the town. While there were still a large number of players, most of them had gravitated towards the large forest since most of the properly leveled elementals were in that direction.
Word had soon gotten out that a party had stumbled upon the Boulder Elemental and ran away from it towards The Dryad's Abode which sparked a flurry of activity and the area had become a hotspot for all the players vying for their first chance to enter the dungeon.
Most of the player base are hovering around level 13 and despite their best attempts, more than half of the parties died to the Adept sprites and all were stonewalled at the Grove Guardian. Many had yet to fully grasp teamwork on top of the new combat controls against more difficult elementals.
As they were traveling towards the next location, Sol was extremely bored since most of the way was going to be devoid of any creatures. Of course, he resorted to looking over what the players were posting on various forum sites about The Dryad's Abode and chuckled as many cursed out the Radiance developers for creating such an impossible boss on the very first dungeon.
While Sol was somewhat sympathetic with the players who voiced their discontent, there was also a decent chunk of players who found the challenge and overall new lifelike gaming controls exciting. Not surprised that such a sea of players had found the dungeon, Sol was more shocked that no one had seemed to stumble across the Hidden Wisdom Spring. But then remembered the incredibly random and arduous journey they had made to get there despite Luna knowing where it was.
Knowing better than to give any advice to players having trouble with the boss, Sol closed the forums and focused back on what was in front of them. Thankful that at the moment another town had just come into focus but this one is almost twice the size of the previous town.
Unlike the town previously which had been situated just outside a large forest, this town was nestled right next to the sea. With a line of ships at the large and bustling port, the whole town seemed much more lively with NPCs roaming around busy with their activities.
With their destination in sight, the group became reinvigorated and sped up to get to the town quickly.
Curious as to their next destination, Diana questioned Luna. "So is this the only next town people can go to?"
Responding as if she expected the question a long time ago, Luna shook her head. "There are actually three different towns that players can stumble across at various lengths. One is deeper in the forest but requires players to be at least level 25 to do anything there. Another town is to the west of the previous town but is suited to those around level 15. And lastly, the more hidden route to the town we're going to is for level 20.
Wondering how she had gotten such detailed information but unable to get answers from Luna from previous attempts, Diana questioned further. "So why are we going to this town over the others?"
Thinking slightly as to best answer the question that would make sense but not go too deep into her future plans, Luna continued. "This town is a port town, thus getting to other parts of the world should be easier if we are able to get a boat early on. A good side benefit comes from players being least likely to come to this location due to the lack of elementals to fight along the way and thus won't stumble upon it very easily."
Minerva perked up. "Oh, so we are the first ones to get any special quests or resources that won't be contested by others for some time then."
"Exactly! Anyway, we're almost there. We need to stop by the inn and then head out to the docks. Hopefully, we can be lucky enough to meet with anything special since we should build up our reputation first and foremost."
Arriving at the town gates, two large guards came forth. "Halt An'Elari, this area has been under attacks from the local sea elementals. We need to be sure that you would be strong enough to fend for yourselves, the aspects would not like for their favored to fall unnecessarily." Checking over each of us, the guard let us pass through after verifying our levels had reached appropriate levels.
Inquisitive as always, Sol followed Luna as she led them straight to the inn where they set as their resting spot then walked towards the pier. "So if we weren't level 20 the guards wouldn't let us enter the town I'm guessing? Could someone just sneak into the city or something?"
Agreeing with Sol, Minerva also questioned the same. "I was thinking the same thing, also who are the aspects that they were talking about?"
"Ahh, that's right. Most players don't end up reading more about the lore surrounding the world or the power structure. You all most likely have seen that there are different tiers to both the creatures we fought as well as the items that drop."
Everyone agreed while Luna continued. "Well aside from the apparent gameplay standpoint, there are plenty of tiers that govern all of the creatures and gear that drops from them. Well at the top of those tiers are what the denizens of the world call Aspects.
They are the pinnacle power that governs each of the 6 major elements. While there are of course other elements like ice and lava, for example, they are more akin to byproducts or combinations of the aforementioned 6. They are considered as the original creators of the world and all the various elemental creatures that populate the world.
An'Elari are beings who are gifted with the power of a certain element and are gifted with a familiar of their own. While all players are An'Elari, there are NPCs that are also An'Elari but they are very rare.
Lastly, while players certain can try to sneak into towns higher than their level, it is not really worth the trouble. If they are found they are booted out of the town anyway and it is almost impossible for them to find any quests or monsters anyway."
Arriving at the pier after the long tale, Luna paused. "Since we have arrived, we need to spread out and talk to the people at the pier. Try and find any quests or notifications that may pop up about sea factions but DO NOT accept any just yet. Everyone let me know when you find something and hopefully we can find a strong crew to join."