"Wakey Wakey." Dom heard a sweet voice say from beside him, a pleasant smell of fruit on the breath that spoke to him.
Dom opened his eyes and saw that Meritamen was sat beside him on his bed, he realised he must have fallen asleep whilst he had been thinking about his upcoming plans. How long he had been asleep he did not know, but it must have been a while as darkness had started to fall on Riverside.
"So the mighty Lord has awoken." Meritamen laughed teasingly, "I thought I heard some snoring and decided to investigate. You will be late, everyone has already headed to the Tavern. Gan Ning was very excited about trying some of the rice wine that had been brought back!"
"Is it that time already?" Dom asked with a loud yawn, as Meritamen stroked his hair gently.
"It is." She replied, "You have been asleep for a few hours, you must have been exhausted from all of that complicated thinking with that big brain of yours. The new Town Centre is looking incredible, you have done well, Riverside is growing in to something to be proud of."
"Ok, stop teasing me." Dom grumbled as he sat up, "Help me get ready and we can head there."
"Such a spoiler of fun." She laughed as she climbed from the bed and headed towards the side where Dom's non military clothes were stored. With a slight teasing bow she asked, "What would the Lord like to wear?"
Dom rolled his eyes as he climbed off the bed and began to take his armour off, aware that he didn't have much time left before he needed to log out for the day. Meritamen quickly helped him change as he donned his clothes and strapped his sword to his waist. He was quickly dressed and they headed out of the Town Centre towards the now bustling Tavern.
Dom awoke with a sore head in his dorm room bed, he had drank heavily with his fellow Heroes at the Tavern, even giving Meritamen a drunken kiss at some point during the evening, which had caused an eruption of cheers from those that had been in the Tavern on the night. Dom was impressed by the way the new management had taken over the Tavern from the Xun Family mission and was excited to see how much more he could develop Riverside.
They had originally began discussing the next few days and then after a short while Lucius demanded that they relaxed and enjoyed themselves over a few glasses of Rice Wine or Beer. The large group used this time to learn a lot about each other and their own individual backgrounds. Tomyris had let loose and had been pushing for the newer members to drink more and more.
Gan Ning had been playing throwing knives with Liao Hua, it had been competitive until Subutai who was sat drinking with the three Xun Cousins, threw one from across the room and hit the bullseye. This had caused another eruption in laughter within the group and Tomyris made everyone drink more in celebration, whilst Gan Ning and Liao Hua rolled their eyes and laughed.
Tomoe had offered to do a celebratory sword dance once she had drank several drinks, but was persuaded against it by a fearful Abubakar and Uriah, which lead to further eruptions of laughter and more drinks. Dom had sat back with Meritamen, Shang Yang and Lucius and laughed along with the group as they enjoyed themselves. He wished that Crassus and his expedition could be there with them, but knew that they could do this again soon. There was a lot of hope of success on Crassus's part, and even though the mood was good, Dom could see some seriousness in some of the conversations.
Some of the key members of the town had also been there, away from their usual places of work and families and enjoying the celebrations. The key commanders were sat at a table nearby, discussing tactics of their different unit types. Surprisingly Banas was the centre of the group, directing how she could defeat all of the others with her horse archers. This had caused some serious conversation between the Roman's of Octavian, Pullo and Septimius, who argued that the terrain was the key to defeating her. Alexander and Philip meanwhile were discussing ways to evolve the Hoplite type warriors in to a more versatile force with Chen Lu, who was enjoying the variety around him.
The most uncomfortable table was where the Doctor Hua Tou was sat, with Gu Kaizhi the Artist talking to him about the three kingdoms period and trying to get some gossip to create some more artwork. Sostratus the Architect and Aristarchus the Astrologer were sat at the same table and laughing at Hua Tou as he politely dispatched Gu Kaizhi's barrage of questions.
Others were around the room, alone or in groups. Peruda the brewer was behind the bar with the Tavern owners, supporting where she could. Where as Himilco the shipbuilder was near Helena the leader of the Docks, flirting and discussing the building of the Trireme's. Wang Shu the Builder was inspecting the Tavern woodwork with Lars the Lumberjack, where as Zanug the Shepherd was chatting with Benjamin the Farmer about some of the new seeds that had arrived from the recent mission. The Teacher siblings Kento and Minato were discussing the influx of new villagers with Phoebe the Doctor and many others were doing many other things.
Dom was happy with the bonds that were being formed and drank happily with his Heroes and Lead Villagers and soon lost the rest of his memory of the night, just knowing that he had been helped to his room at some point and undressed by a pair of soft hands and had been logged out with the noise of frustrated grumbles in his ears.
He climbed out of bed and headed in to the shower, trying to wash away the sore head that had followed his in game drinking and then brushed his teeth to clear away the dirty taste in his mouth. He knew these feelings couldn't be real and must be his subconsciousness, but regardless he didn't appreciate it. At his age, he had very few experiences of hangovers, and wondered if the realness setting of the game should be turned down.
Soon he was out of the shower and dressed, sat drinking a glass of water in the living room of the apartment. He grabbed his device and opened up the most recent GoldenSun VI's blog to see what the responses were to the rankings that had recently been released.
[GoldenSun VI here with my daily blog on World Conquest Online!
An exciting update today, as we discuss the release of the game rankings. There were some surprising shocks and entries, which in my humble opinion, have turned the gaming world on it's head. As you would say with World Conquest Online, expect the unexpected.
Let's start with the Warrior Rankings, with the unknown Golden Lion taking first place. I have reached out to there gamer profile on here to see if we can get an interview with them, but with a name like Golden Lion, I have high hopes. Maybe we can set up a Golden club. I had expected a player such as DragonKnight123 to be high in the Warrior Rankings, but after his unfortunate start that seems to not be the case. There were also some other key figures missing from the Top 10, but some of the usuals such as BiscuitLover212 appeared.]
Dom laughed at the thought of all gamers with the name Golden joining a guild together, all wearing golden armour and riding on golden horses. He hadn't looked in to the other Ranking boards thoroughly and was impressed to see it was topped by an unknown player like himself.
[I was proud to see that our recently reported on RisingMoonQueen was the top of the officials ranking, and also breaking in to the global Top10 which we will discuss later in the blog. This shows the versatility of the game, and gives hopes for other lifestyle players such as myself to reach high peaks.
One of the rankings that really caught me off guard was the Lord's Rankings. Prince Li Shang, an excellent player and friend to the GoldenSun VI Blog, came in tenth place. Tenth place! I expected much more, and I suspect so did himself and many of his fans. I am sure that he will be frustrated that Prince Dong Cheng was much higher than him, but even more so that there was a lot of unknowns in the Top 10 in the Lords class. I expect more of these will come to light of who they are from other games over the coming days. It is also exceptional that three players from the Lord's Ranking got in to the Top 10 Global Ranking. With the Leader of the Lord's Rankings being the unknown Lazarus. They must be the scion of some large family to have reached this peak so early on.
Now I was looking through the comments on our last post, and saw that a LordLazarus had commented back to a player in need, I am wondering if these are one and the same. If so LordLazarus, please comment and get in touch!]
Dom wished he was the scion of some large family, but it did remind him of the comments made by Lady Annabelle Howard from Isle of Brittany's 100 Sword Peak, about his father and how his and his eldest child's educations had been paid for at the sect. Maybe he wasn't the scion from a large family, but there were definitely things he had to find out about his families history.
He also realised that he had been called out, and lamented at commenting back to the player. He had a big decision now on if he should be honest and declare he was the top Lord player currently, or hide in the shadows a bit longer.
[There were other Ranking's but I think these three are the most exciting and have the most members in the Global Rankings. So with that, on to the Global Rankings. In number one we had the unknown Warrior Golden Lion, In number two the unknown Warrior Dawn Destroyer and in third the Unknown Lazarus. With our first known player being RisingMoonQueen in fifth place. Of the Top10, only four are known players, with RisingMoonQueen, Prince Dong Cheng, BiscuitLover212 and TheRoyalHand being the only ones. As for the other six, let's see what happens over the coming weeks.
I have successfully received an invitation as a guest to the Auction that the top figures have been invited to by Prince Li Shang, and hopefully will be able to report on any exciting developments as the top figures meet in the coming days. I would write more, but the excitement of the Rankings has taken over and I have many people to message and reach out to!
Golden Sun VI out!]
As Dom finished reading, Kai and Andrew had arrived from their rooms and were heading over towards him. They both looked tired, but neither looked as rough as Dom felt from the imaginary hangover that he was feeling.
"Are you ok Dom?" Kai asked concerned, his hair unkept as he hadn't yet brushed it, "You look exhausted."
"I am." Dom replied, "I drank in the game, a lot, and I feel so rough."
"The realism is hard to distinguish between what is real and not." Kai agreed as he nodded his head. "I'll find you some pain killers."
"Thanks Kai!" Dom said seriously.
"I was disappointed to see that none of us made the top 1000." Kai said as he headed towards the small kitchen area.
"Yes, I feel the same." Andrew agreed as he sat next to Dom with questioning eyes. He leant in to Dom and added quietly. "I was surprised to see a player with the name Lazarus making the top 10."
"It's a common enough name for gamers to include." Dom replied, not meeting Andrew's eye. "I'm jealous that a Lazarus has been so successful."
"First for everything." Andrew replied with a laugh and a smile.