[Beginning Tutorial - Survive the initial invasion.]
Theodore Hunt was staring blankly at the sky, where instead of the beautiful yet easily forgotten clouds floated, there was a massive tear. Seeming to rip space apart, and out of which poured winged beasts.
Theodore was standing on top of a large hill sitting on his bike looking at the city below. Around the city he could see dozens of portals being opened, and from them poured out more monsters.
'This is just like Dungeon of Veritas, where the players would always start in a village being overrun by monsters, and they would have to defend the village.'
In the game, there was a special event when the game launched, where the 'first' invasion took place. Depending on the performance of the players as a collective, there would be permanent detriments and benefits alike.
'One of the biggest priorities is to defend the blacksmiths and the different artisans... However since this is real life I don't know if that means players or if there were NPCs scattered about...'
[Existing Character Detected!]
[Name: Pestilence]
[Class has been automatically changed to Rogue.]
[Throwing (Common) has been learned.]
[Backstab (Common) has been learned.]
[Dagger Mastery (Common) has been learned.]
[One free Skill Tome (Common) available for use.]
[Would you like to use Skill Tome (Common)?]
[Yes?][No?]
I stared blankly at the familiar, yet unexpected panel before me. It was exactly like in the game, and these were also the messages you would received when you loaded into the beginner village.
The Skill Tome allowed you to choose a Common skill for your class. Skills has ranks, ranging from Common, Uncommon, Rare, Ultra Rare (UR), Super Rare (SR), Super Super Rare (SSR), Legendary (L), Mythical (M), Divine (D), and Exalted (EX). There was another Unique (U) category, however these skills were just that. Unique. There would only be one player with a specific Unique skill, and no one else was able to get these.
The acquisition of a Unique skill was unknown, and many believed them to be randomly given out, however without information the players couldn't know for sure. Just that it would require some elements of luck.
Confirming my use of the common skill tome, I began to look through a catalogue of skills. I didn't have to search long, because although this was real life I already knew what path I would take.
[Apply Weak Poison (Common) has been learned.]
I wasn't sure how the skill worked in real life, but I needed to find a weapon first to test it out. Thankfully I was doing a delivery order from a local grocery store, and one of the items they ordered was a kitchen knife.
'Sorry 'Rueben' but I need this right now.'
Holding the knife, I focused on the sensation of the knife in my hand, and then thought of using the skill I wanted to.
Then, I felt an inexplicable sense of drainage, from the center of my chest. It flowed from my chest to my hand, and eventually left my body. I looked at the knife, and saw a weak green hue that hinted to the poison having been applied.
Weak Poison, was just that, weak. In the game the skill's description said that the poison was not enough to kill with a single dose, but with a potent enough dosage it could cause death.
In the game you couldn't apply the skill multiple times, whenever you applied it the skill would simply refresh a debuff on the enemy, that dealt very little damage over time.
I would have to find out how the skill would translate to real life. I hopped back on my bike, and decided that I should prioritize the safety of my only loved one.
I had a best friend, Michael, who I had met through Dungeon of Veritas (DoV). He was a very out going, high energy guy, and was very popular. The exact opposite of me, but oddly we got along really well. He lived not far from my apartment, so I would head there first.
As for family... My parents never had any other children, and they both passed away a few years ago in a car collision. During that time, Michael was a pillar for me, and since then we have been like brothers.
In DoV Michael was a Paladin, a subclass of Priest, and an unpopular class as well. Paladins were a fairly self sufficient tanking class, however they were terrible at sustaining their mana pools. Since they used mana for all their skills, along with the healing spells, they required either someone who could help with their mana regeneration or someone who could provide the buffs they needed to mitigate damage.
Oddly, him and I had good synergy together. There was a poison called Mana Overload, which when used on spell casters with long cool downs but high damage, would cause them to produce an extreme amount of mana. This would then deal a lot of damage, if the person poisoned was unable to use enough mana, because when they were at max mana while suffering from the poison it would kill them within a minute.
Paladins, with their short cool downs and high mana costs, was able to benefit from the increased mana while negating the negatives by spamming all of their spells.
Certain mage subclasses would be dead if you were able to use this poison on them, and they were alone. Clerics were able to dispel the poison, so it wasn't practical in a team fighting environment.
Anyways, Priests had a really rough early game, so I hurried on my bike to Michael's house. As I biked across town, there were fights already taking place. DoV was not an unpopular game, it was actually one of the most played games of the past decade. This meant a lot of people must have awakened like me, and they were already partially adapted.
I saw parties roaming the streets, some people even already had weapons. These must have dropped from monsters, which was how it was in the game too, so I would have to defeat monsters if I wanted to ensure my survival.
For now though, I quickly approached a cluster of dilapidated houses and stopped in front of one. This was where Michael lived, and I leaned my bike against the side of the building before knocking quietly on the door.
"Michael... Michael are you in there?"
I called out quietly. There had been monsters along the way here, and without any skills to get information, who knew if they were hiding nearby.
Thankfully a response came out.
"Theo? Is that you?"
The door opened just a crack, and I could see Michael through it. He opened the door wider and quickly embraced me in a hug.
"Michael, my brother, I am so relieved you're alright... Did you see the game panels?"
"Yes... It seems that DoV is real. I even got the Priest class again. I was worried I would have to struggle alone, but then you showed up! Now we can suffer together."
"I don't want to suffer..."
Then we both broke out in laughter, and we quickly headed inside the small house. Michael brought me a cup of water, and we began to talk about a plan.
"You remember the first event right? Where depending on what we did during the first event, would determine what kind of resources we would have access to?"
Michael asked me.
"Yeah, I think we need to get out there, and look for profession classes to save. I don't know if they'll be players or NPCs though, and I don't know how to start looking."
Michael nodded along with me, as we both contemplated the problem. We couldn't very well start wandering around aimlessly, it was not a game anymore. If we died, we might die for real. It was while we were sitting and thinking, that I remembered two things.
"Michael, do you think the DoV forums are being updated right now? Maybe people are posting information."
Michael quickly got up and went over to his computer. He opened up the browser, and went to the DoV public forums. It was really helpful during the peak of DoV, and was where you could find everything about the game that had been discovered.
We both subconsciously held our breaths as the page loaded. Slowly the page began to fill up.
"It's here! People are posting!"
Michael shouted. He began to go through all of the top posts. We discovered that this was a world wide phenomenon, and that the death counts were reaching the BILLIONS. People had began to organize, and they shared information freely. The reason for this was because DoV was a game that required large scale co-operation, which meant that you needed teammates much more than other games.
There were people who had already hit level two, and it was confirmed that by killing creatures gave EXP. The post, by a well known top player back in the day, spoke clearly about the benefits of leveling. In the game, you gained five stat points every time you leveled up, which could be used for whatever stats you chose.
The post also documented what kind of effects increasing certain stats did.
[PunchFirstAskLater: I am part of a large party, who all had hit level 2. As everyone knows, in the game stat points had clear effects, but in reality it is a little different. I am a Brawler, and when I added points into strength it wasn't just a simple increase in damage. I am stronger in EVERY aspect. I added three points into strength, and two into agility. With just three points added, I am able to crush bricks with my punches, although it hurts my fists to do.]
[BehindYouLOL: What about Agility? I'm a rogue, and I don't know if I should increase Dexterity or Agility.]
[PunchFirstAskLater: Right! Sorry, yeah I added two points to agility, and I am definitely faster. Not just at running, but I felt like my sense of balance was improved. I can punch faster too. As for Dexterity, my party member who is also a rogue invested into it, and they said their control over their body was better. They also felt as though they were faster at reacting to things too.]
Michael and I both read through all the posts. He read about the real life effects of Intelligence and Constitution. Two stats very important for Paladins. Intelligence actually made people smarter, improving critical thinking skills and problem solving skills. Constitution made people more durable. PunchFirstAskLater said that once their tank reached 10 Constitution, that knives would have a harder time cutting them.
After reading through all the information, we decided to head out. The other thing I remembered, besides the existence of the forums, was that we had our friend Riley. She was an Alchemist player, and she would probably be struggling in this stage of the tutorial. She also lived in the city, but it was further away.
However even in the face of potential death, neither Michael or me even considered leaving her to fend for herself. She was our friend, and while we met through the game, we were close enough to be family. Also, all three of us were alone in life. Michael never knew his parents, and Riley ran away from home when she turned 18. Her parents were abusive and she decided to be on her own than to be with them.
As we left the house, Michael explained his starting skills, and the plan for our fighting.
He had [Aura Of Resolve (Common)], [Lesser Heal (Common)], [Smite (Common)] and [Attraction of Light (Common)].
Aura of Resolve was a passive skill that made Michael take 10% less damage, and his allies within five meters to take 5% less damage. Less Heal was a very minimal heal, in the game it was only able to fully heal small cuts and injuries, but unable to heal large or serious injuries.
Smite was a skill that dealt Holy damage to a target within 12 meters, but wasn't very effective. More importantly than damage, it concussed enemies. In real life, this was the same as hitting someone in the chin with a jab. Not enough to knock someone down, but it was perfect for discombobulating someone.
Finally Attraction of Light was a toggle skill, that created a light radiating from Michael, that drew the attention of all creatures within 10 meters.
Equipped with a baseball bat, he didn't look like what you would want your tank to look like.
"You look like a Brawler."
"Shut up, I don't have any gear. You look like you're about to cook me a meal, don't talk to me."
We laughed lightly, and we began to bike towards the more affluent part of the city, where Riley lived.
****
"Grrr..."
*Slurp*
*Slurp*
*Munch**Munch**Munch*
*Panting*
There was a small green creature digging out the insides of a grown man, and shoveling his intestines into it's mouth. Slowly devouring the man.
Nearby, behind a closet door, a short woman was covering her mouth with her back to the door. Trying her best to silence her scared breathing.
'Please, please finish eating and leave! PLEASE!'
She silently pleaded in her mind. The woman had been trying to get back into her apartment building when monsters suddenly poured out from a portal. The man on the ground had tried to fight the creature, but he panicked when he got scratched, leading to him dying.
She had then ran into this closet and hid. Unsure whether the creature knew she was in here or not. It had already been over thirty minutes and the creature still hadn't left.
While she was thinking of how to get out, a loud bang threatened to open the door.
"AH!"
Then there was a small silence...
Before a low laughter came from the other side.
"Isk ka guth thero."
A strange language came from the creature's lips, and then the creature began to rain it's fists onto the door.
"KYA! STOP JUST GO AWAY! SOMEONE, HELLLP!"
The woman began to scream out desperately. She was trying to put her weight behind the door, but she didn't weigh more than 110 pounds. She was the definition of petite, and now it might lead to her death.
She pushed against the door, and cried. She still tried screaming, but it took too much energy so she was pushing against the door while tears silently streamed down her face.
'I'm going to die... Someone save me... Michael... Theodore... Anyone.'
The center of the door had a hole broken through it, and a hand slowly pulled itself back. Through the hole, an eye appeared, and low laughter rang out again.
"Gana guth thero myank."
It then pushed both hands into the hole, and began to rip the hole wider.
The woman fell to the ground, and watched with resignation as the creature tore the flimsy door apart with its hands. Disgusting yellow teeth appeared between the parted lips, and she swore the creature was smiling.
She was about to just let the creature through the door, when she heard a familiar voice.
"SMITE!"
Followed by another.
"Idiot! You don't need to call out the skill to use it!"
The creature was bathed in a low light, and as it was dazed a baseball bat slammed into it's head.
"HOMERUN!"
Through the hole in the door, her saviors' faces appeared. Smiling like idiots, two surprisingly reliable people had appeared.
"What are you doing down there, Riley?"
An arm reached down to help her up.
Riley smiled as she grabbed Theodore's hand.