Helplessness? Fear? Riu was dwelling over the feeling, barely listening to the teacher, not listening to the kids whispering to each other for answers. Was it nothing?
"Riu. Riu!"
Riu was rudely snapped out of his daydreaming at his teacher's shout.
"Yes?"
"Come answer this question." She pointed to the board behind her, showing a complicated equation. He could hear the snickers of the other kids. Of course, Riu didn't know the answer for he wasn't listening, but he mine as well give it a shot.
He walked up and stared hard at the problem. It looked easy enough. He did the best he could, trying to remember what the last lessons were.
"wrong. please pay more attention next time." Mrs. Tom said
Riu bowed his head while the other kids laughed. He was used to this anyways. He took his seat and stared out the window. He'd just copy notes and study later. He closed his eyes and fell asleep.
* * *
Riu woke to screaming and crying.
"What happened?" He frantically grabbed a girl's arm as she tried racing past. Did zombies finally come to life?
"Look!" a girl shoved her phone at him. It read:
{Welcome players, -}
There was no time to read the rest, since she pulled away. Grabbing his own phone, he looked for the same text. Sure enough it was there.
{Welcome players, it has become time for you to realize the truth. Please look for your status window and go into the tower. _DragonTale.}
Riu stared long and hard at such a text. What does this mean? Suddenly there was an even louder scream. The same girl was pointing outside. Half the class raced to see what she was screaming at.
A large mideval looking tower loomed over the city. It looked just like the one in the game. Riu tried to text Ember, though she didn't respond.
"This looks like a game!" Who shouted that?
Riu stood, confused. Did DragonTale come to life? Didn't that only happen in manga? What were they supposed to do now?
No, staying calm is the best thing to do right now. He breathed in and out to calm his beating heart, if this was DragonTale then there was no time to hesitate. As far as he knew, there was one other person playing DragonTale with him, someone whom he could never beat. Were they the cause of this? Was something like this even possible? Was it a dream? It felt real. Riu pinched himself, confirming that it was indeed not a dream.
He knew how it went, he paid close attention to the story line of DragonTale. Soon everything would fall to chaos as monsters broke out of dungeons. He couldn't allow that to happen. What about Ember and his foster brother? He would need skills and stats and would have to fight. But was he that kind of person? This wasn't a manga or a novel.Suddenly a thought came to his head, what if he still had his skills from the game? And what of the 'gift' it said that morning? Was that so-called gift this?
Suddenly his phone chimes. Taking it out quickly, he saw that Ember texted him back. She wanted to meet in the hall near the girls bathroom. Riu immediately left the room and ran for the bathroom. Ember was safe. Thank goodness.
Ember was already there, biting her nail nervously.
"There you are!"
"Did you see what was happening?" He knew the answer but he had to make sure he wasn't dreaming.
"Of course I did! What is this?" She was starting to sound frantic
"It DragonTale."
"DragonTale? You mean that game you played for years? How is that possible?" She stared at the floor, probably trying to figure out what was happening.
"I'm being serious. I had a message that literally said it was from DragonTale. The tower outside is from DragonTale as well."
"Then what do we do?" She looked at Riu with hopeless eyes
"Let's check out our status window. We need to know what our skills and stats are." He answered, hoping he sounded confident
Before either of them had a chance to say anything, a large earthquake seemed to shake the school. It was coming from above. With a single glance at Ember, Riu dashes for the stairs, Ember right behind him.
Not pausing for even a second, the pair went to the third year's floor and into the origin of the sound. The class was spread out staring at a student in the middle. She was holding her chest as she stared into something nonexistent.
"s class? What does that mean?" she whispers
Ember looked at Riu, hoping to get some answers but he doesn't even glance at her. He keeps staring at the girl.
It was impossible to start at s class. In the game you started at f class and ranked up. That was how it worked. Was it different now that it's in real life? He has to know for sure.
"status window."
A large blue panel appeared in front of him.
{dear player Riu,
We have decided to give you a gift as a thank you for playing our game. You will be given half of your stats from the game to each of your current stats. You will also keep your skill (Spear mastery) and you can keep your spear (Ghost). Have a wonder time leveling and ranking up!}
Spear mastery? He never has that skill though.
His status window finally opened and it read the following; [Riu Micgrove _male_level 1_F rank_skils:spear mastery] All of his stats were in the 30s as well. as far as he knew, his stats in the game was in their 70s. That must be what they meant by half of his skills in the game would be given to him.
In his inventory there were two items. Ghost and some book. Tapping the book, the definition read: Beginners guide. Looks like it was to explain things. Glad to know they weren't completely abandoned
Flipping through the pages, there was nothing he didn't know already. But one thing did catch his eye. There was nothing about ranking up, unlike that previous message. Was he the only one able to rank up? For everyone else, was it just up to luck on there ranks?
Ranks are pretty impossible for good skills and higher stats. The higher the rank the better the skills, but If your stuck at a low rank like D or F than your doomed. Suddenly he was grateful that he was able to rank up from his F rank status.
"open your status window."
"What?" Ember looks at him, shock evident in her eyes.
"it's important to open it." Riu insisted
She hesitated but eventually did so.
"It says s class." she said with wide eyes
" And your skills?"
She tapped the air before answering"it's all fire based skills. Oh, it says something about a special skill?"
Riu nodded "You get one of those at S rank. Sometimes A."
"It says 'flame empress'"
So she's a fire type mage. She would be the first and maybe the strongest. Riu looked at the other girl, who has begun talking excitedly with her friends and trying to get them to look as well. He wondered what she got.
"What do we do now?" Ember whispers
"We wait and see." What else was there to do?
There was a loud sound from outside the school. Everyone rushing to the window, they all saw the tower grow.
Riu took a deep breath. This was it. DragonTale was finally starting.