VR adventures

[JadeKnight]

He continued to smile seeing her laugh a little. He chuckled for a moment when she nudged him gently in his side for a moment.

"My bad."

He was about to say something else when they heard the rustling of the bushes and the old man emerged. Nightblade pegged him for a NPC since none of the player models were old. He sat there for a few moments as he listened to the man's quest and raised an eyebrow.

"It looks like the quest is level 6, just a little higher than you right now. Are you sure you want to take it? Well, you could take it and do it later. You still need to visit the trainers. I won't push, but it's your choice."

He knew if she did take it, he would probably be the lead if she went straight to it. It all depended on where in the area it was located if he could follow or not.

 

[Poprockz]

She listened to Nightblade's advice and thought for a moment. Turning to the old man, she said: "That's a pretty gnarly story, mister. What kind of adventurers would we be if we didn't save a damsel in distress. I accept!" she looked pleased with herself as a "Quest Accepted Verbally" notification popped up on their screens. "Just how powerful is this (she raised her hands to do finger quotes) 'lord of the castle?'"

"He is a level 10 vampire," the NPC stuttered. Twinkletoes sucked in some air in surprise and choked on her own spit, coughing for a couple minutes. How this was possible in VR, she wasn't sure. When she recovered, she turned to the NPC. "How is that a level 6 quest?"

He looked confused. "The lord of the castle is formidable, yes, but.." The NPC held up two shining tickets. "I have these tickets that will get you into the ball they're throwing soon. Once you're inside, you just have to find her and safely smuggle her out."

Twinkletoes mulled this over and looked at her elf companion. "If it's a stealth quest... technically we don't have to fight them. If we can sneak in and out successfully, it would be a low-risk way to get a decent amount of XP. What do you think?"

 

[JadeKnight]

Nightblade sighed for a moment, hearing the details of the quest. It was a simple stealth quest for a player of the same level, but lower levels were going to have agrro range problems.

"Even a stealth quest of that level will be hard for you. You are going to have a much greater area to have to avoid the mobs as you sneak around. There is nothing wrong with accepting the quest and waiting a little longer before doing it. It is up to you if you want to take it and try doing it now."

He took a moment to check out the quest rewards, a set of fairy only armor that she would have to wait till level 6 to wear. It did have life drain on it, which allowed her to absorb a portion of an enemy's health with each successful hit.

"You have the lead since we have to get you leveled up."

As he spoke, a soft ding was heard from both of their inventories. A mail labeled "To all players" had been sent from Admin, sent to all players in the realm. A second ding was heard from his inventory, a second mail labeled "Private". He didn't bother to open either yet, more focused on her.

 

[Poprockz]

The NPC shook his wizened head. "No, son. This is a time-sensitive quest. You must rescue her within seven days or she'll be lost to me." He sighed, "I miss her. Trixie Longlegs is her name..."

Twinkletoes looked at him incredulously. "You can't be serious. That sounds like a stripper's name. Someone was being lazy when they named her character." She heard the ding of her mail, but ignored it also. The second ding confused her though, as she only had one piece of mail.

She consulted Nightblade once more. "Let's level up for 6 days and stock up on stealth gear to help. Then we can try our hand at the rescue. I think that's the best course of action. Speaking of which, I didn't much take stock of my stealth items before, so it'll be good to see what I have in my inventory already."

"Bless you both!" The old man shook both of their hands and gave them the tickets. A timer started counting down at the corner of their menu screens.

She nodded and started off in the direction of BellSprout. She was tired from her afternoon of crying and wanted quickly get to the town so that she could sleep after checking her mail. Nightblade's presence could be felt walking behind her.

 

[JadeKnight]

NIghtblade could almost laugh when he learned about the six day time limit in which to do such a low level quest. Having such a long time limit on any quest was a laughable situation. He wasn't sure who put the quest in, but he thought it was more a programming error than anything.

He hung back for a few moments, rchecking the map of the area before moving to catch up to her.

"I think the six day time limit on the quest was a programming error. I think that is was actually supposed to be six hours, though even that would be pushing it for this area. I will have to send a report to get that fixed."

Bellsprout was basically one massive Tree house spanning around three gigantic ancient redwoods. It wasn't too crowded, but still busy as other players ran around doing quests, shopping, or just hanging out.

"It looks like all the trainers are located on the bottom floor. The vendors and inn are on the second floor."

He pointed out which fairy was supposed to be her class trainer as they walked along the wooden plank pathway.

"I think that fairy is your class trainer. She'll be able to give you tutorials on the basics you need to know. After you gain level five, you get a skill point for your skill tree to invest once every level. She'll also have quests for you to do."

 

[Poprockz]

"I guess that's a lucky bug for us, then. I'd much rather attempt it after gaining some levels." She walked with him among the redwood-sprawled town. The twinkling lanterns gave a dim glow, some pink, blue, or yellow. Little mushroom benches and chairs were found every now and then, as well as spiderwebs of sap on the trunks of the old trees. It was really cute, as one would expect of a fairy settlement.

"I suppose I could see what she's all about before we go rest," she mumbled to Nightblade. "Don't let me forget to check my mail before we sleep, though." She really wanted to go to sleep, but she figured she should at least introduce herself to the trainer first. Twinkletoes sleepily walked over to the trainer. "Hey... I missed my tutorial, and I was told to see you about training and quests. My name is Twinkletoes, by the way, nice to meet you."

 

[JadeKnight]

"Sure thing. The inn is located on the second level. We can rest there if you like."

He gave a quick smile and nod before she turned her attetion to the trainer. The trainer gave a her a smile back.

"Hello Twinkletoes. My name is Brandywine and I will be your guide. Please choose a topic to learn about."

A window opened between them. The text at the top of the window read Please choose a topic to read. Beneath was a list of choices to choose from: Combat, Flying, Mounts, Quests, Skills, Trainers and Items.

 

[Poprockz]

Twinkletoes groaned, "man... I am way too tired to learn any of this right now. I guess I'll check in on you in the morning, Brandywine. Goodnight!" She hadn't been expecting for the lesson to start right then and there. It was far too dark to try flying right now, and she was too exhausted to retain any of the information if she tried.

Returning to Nightblade, she looked at him with drooping eyes, "she has WAY too much information for me to take in right now. Can we go to the inn? I just... " she yawned and her eyes watered. "I just really need to rest after everything today."

They walked up to the inn, opening the door and going to the counter. She walked a couple steps away to take in the room for a moment. The bottom floor of the inn doubled as a tavern and several groups of adventurers could be seen eating and drinking. A couple sullen lone players were sprinkled here and there. In the area, it seemed that people had either accepted the news with Twinkletoes' reaction, drinking themselves into a stupor, or getting lively and rambunctious.

One of the players drunkenly sauntered over and grabbed her waist, pulling her close to him. "Hey babe. Wanna join me upstairs? Your boyfriend in the real world will forget you after a month anyway, so why not have some fun. It's not like I could get you pregnant anyway." She recoiled from the smell of alcohol on his breath and put her hands on his chest as a buffer. Leaning backward, she politely replied, "Um, no thank you."

The guy’s face frowned, “What, are you saying that I’m not up to your standards? Sounds to me like you’ve got a stick up your ass. Although...” His hands migrated to her butt and he gave her a squeeze with both hands, causing her to yelp in surprise. “I’d be happy to replace that stick with something that might loosen you up.”

 

[JadeKnight]

He was busy with the innkeeper, trying to get at least a bed for her to sleep in. He really wasn't sleepy himself, and did find that paying for an bed at the inn was a bit of a waste since he had his own place. However, he didn't want to frighten her or the like by dragging her to his place yet.

"15 silver per night sir."

The fairy behind the counter smiled sweetly for a moment as Nightblade counted out the required amount, handing it over to her. He turned to say something to Twinkletoes when he noticed the drunken player trying to hit on her. He frowned for a moment, a hand on his sword hilt.

Stepping behind the player, he whispered a few words in the guy's ear as the sword hilt was pressed into the guy's back. His words were a few veiled threats, mostly at the point of telling the guy he was going to die in the real world if he followed through with killing him here. He also mentioned he was an admin, so he wouldn't get into trouble for it. It was pretty much a bunch of lies since no one knew the real way of how things worked yet, but the drunk didn't know that.

"Whoa, whoa, no need to get mad dude."

The guy scooted sideways from between them, his hands drunkenly waving in the air. Nightblade chuckled and nodded towards the stairs to the second story.

"Come on. You can rest for a bit. I'll make sure no one meeses with you."

The second floor was one large open room. Eight beds were the only real furniture, four lining the walls across from each other. There was a single chair on the far end of the room beneath a large picture window.

 

[Poprockz]

She made a sigh of relief and nodded. "Thank you for giving a girl a hand," she said, somewhat apologetically. "I know we're all adults here, but I didn't expect to meet anyone that would just grab me without warning like that." The guy had been making her extremely uncomfortable, and when it happened she had been wracking her brain with how to handle the situation. Needless to say, the fairy was so glad to see her companion slip behind the guy and whisper into his ear. She hadn't heard what had been said due to the buzz of the inn, but she imagined he had told the guy off.

Twinkletoes followed him to the room and scanned it, taking note of the shared sleeping situation. Picking the bed closest to the chair, she unequipped her shoes and hairclip and wiggled under the covers until only the upper half of her dainty face was poking out from under them. Her eyes closed and she rested for a moment; his presence made her feel safe. "You don't seem all that tired. How long are you going to stay up?"

 

[JadeKnight]

He gave a little shrug for a moment as he sat down in the chair, pulling it forward a little. He shifted his wieght a bit so that he could lean back at an angle with the head of the chair against the wall.

"I am just too hyped up right now to sleep. I'll just sleep later. Feel free to sleep as long as you like. I promise not to go anywhere."

He smiled to her for a moment, crossing his arms over his chest. He knew if things were done right, he could have her leveled up enough to be able to tackle the next area in a few hours. Leveling through quests was quick, but even that would need to be suplimented by some grinding.

 

[Poprockz]

"Mm," she grunted softly in acknowledgement, shifting in the bed until she was facing away from him on her side.

"Goodnight, Nightblade." There was silence for a minute, and then he heard her speak in an earnest voice, "I'm all by myself here; I won't be able to see any of the people I care about for an entire year. That's a long time and anything could happen to them. When I heard the news, I felt absolutely devastated. I couldn't help feeling small and incredibly alone. But you were there. You were a shoulder to cry on, and for that I'm super grateful. So... thank you. Thanks for staying with me."

He saw her shift in her bed for a moment, pulling the covers up over her head. "Sorry if that was super corny. I can get a little sentimental sometimes. I don't want to put any expectations on you as far as staying with me for the entire year, but I wanted you to know that you helped me when I was at a really low point. And... I want you to know that if you need to talk, I'm here for you too."

"Anyway, sorry. I'll see you in the morning." She shifted in her bed yet again and faced in his direction under the covers. Twinkletoes felt a little awkward about spouting out soppy stuff like that, especially since she didn't really know him that well. He seemed like the kind and understanding sort, though, so she hoped her little speech wouldn't weird him out or make him think that she was getting too clingy. It was hot and muggy under the covers like the shop in which she had repaired her armor, but she felt a little too shy to come out after all that.

 

[JadeKnight]

He just smiled as he listened to her talk, not speaking himself yet. He was in the same situation himself, but that was something he could talk about later.

"Don't worry about that right now. Just get some sleep and we can talk a bit after you wake up. Sweet dreams."

He smiled, waiting till she feel asleep. He didn't remain seated, but got up and wandered around from time to time. There was a bit of a commontion downstairs at one point. It turned out to be a drunken brawl between some of the players. Some encourged them on, while others tried to stop them.

Once it was over, he went back to the chair and sat down. He smiled watching her sleep before looking out the window till she woke up.

 

[Poprockz]

She slept soundly. At some point, she had rolled off the bed and cocooned herself in covers from her waist-down. Since she was still wearing the same dress, her cleavage was on full display, her dress had even shifted a little so that more of her chest was visible than before. Her arms were resting above her head, drawing attention to her breasts. Her hair was a little messy, but her red lipstick was still as vibrant as ever, her lips parted slightly as she softly breathed.

Twinkletoes stirred and sat up, groggily looking around through the tussled hair in her face. Escaping from the blankets that were wrapped around her legs, she stood and picked them up. The bed was made and she headed off to the bathroom to freshen up, coming back looking good as new. Her shoes and hair-pin were re-equipped.

They exited the inn and went back to the courtyard where the trainer was waiting. She smiled as Twinkletoes approached her yet again and selected that she wanted to engage in a flying lesson. The sun was rising at this point, the air chilly and the birds chirping. She was about to leave with the trainer when she spoke, "Shoot! I forgot to check my mail again. Remind me when I get back!" she called over her shoulder as she buzzed off after Brandywine.

 

[JadeKnight]

He had closed his eyes for a bit, but was awake shortly before her. Still sitting in the chair, he gave a little smirk watching how she strecthed. He had to admit the model rendering was very well done and wondered just how well everything was supposed to work. He scooted the chair back, standing up as she got out of bed.

He gave a little chuckle as she told him to remind her about checking her mail. It reminded him to do that as well.

"That's what you said last night."

Watching the trainer led her off to another area, he decided to just wait for her in the little area set aside for the trainers. After all, she was probably going to learn better on her own as he didn't need to know the stuff she was going to be taught.

 

[Poprockz]

He could hear her laugh as she traveled out of sight.

It was a while before she returned, but when she came into his vision he could see that she was beaming ear to ear. She flew over to him, her wings a blur and hovered. "I can finally fly!" she grinned and slowly lowered herself to the ground. "My training is officially over, and I accepted several quests that will help level us up."

"Also, I was thinking. What if we bought some rope? I could fly to a higher level, secure the rope, and have you climb up. The trainer also said that there are also pills you can take to make your body light so I can carry you up. Those pills are really expensive, though. What do you think?"

She sat beside him and looked up at him, her long eyelashes framing her brown eyes. Her shoes tapped the floor as she sat; she was clearly wide awake and energized.

 

[JadeKnight]

While she was off training, he spent his time looking at the mail marked for him only. He smirked a little as he skimmed the contents of the letter. It basically said they had been surprised he was in the system at the time of the test launch, but thought it was lucky for him. He was elvated to admin status, so he was going to be in charge of trying to keep players in order, as well as continuing to do his job at debugging. He was still going to get paid in gold equal to his monthly salary every month. Anything he still had at the end of the trial was going to be converted to real money once he was pulled out. Nothing was really said on using his programming skill for getting ahead, just to be careful and not go overboard with things. Attached to the letter was the amount of 6750g, equal to his monthly salary.

He deleted the letter as she was coming back to him. He chuckling softly seeing how happy she was.

"That's great to hear. Now you'll be able to get around much faster."

He hmmed for a moment as he thought of her suggestions, giving a soft shrug.

"Why not? Those pills better be able to make me light as a feather. You don't look strong enough to really hold me up."

He gave a playful wink before pulling out a few gold and handing the coins to her.

"Go and buy a couple of potions then. And share the quests when you get back. Not sure if I can do them as well, but it will help me level up if you can."

 

[Poprockz]

Her face scrunched up in a playful pout as she got to her feet and stood in front of him, "Is that so? I'll have you know that what I lack in strength, I make up for in stamina." She leaned over and flicked his forehead gently with her index finger. "Try saying that to me again when I'm holding you up in the air like a princess, 100 feet off the ground." Twinkletoes leaned a little closer to him and whispered, almost seductively, "Who knows what could happen?" She gave him a smirk and winked back at him, taking the gold from his hand. Turning from him, she then buzzed away to the shop.

She went and bought some potions as well as a bottle of the feather pills. When she was waiting for the lady at the counter to fill the feather pill bottle, she remembered that she had mail to read. After getting everything and stepping out of the shop, she opened her inbox. There was a general email that looked like the type everybody would get. She took a few moments to read it.

Meanwhile, a red-headed fairy approached Nightblade. She was wearing a blue tube top with a matching short skirt. White thigh-high stockings went up her curvy legs, with little blue shoes with small feathered wings at the sides. The redhead smiled and opened her menu, sending him a friend request.

"Hey, I saw you over here and I thought I might like to get to know you. Wanna have dinner with me sometime, my treat? I've been feeling a bit lonely, so I thought maybe a date would be some fun. What do you say?" She tossed her long hair over her shoulders, her pretty blue eyes blinking as she waited. Her demeanor seemed calm and confident, yet not arrogant.

 

[JadeKnight]

The email was basically just a rehash of the welcome that the creator had given them earlier. There was also additional information about a community board that was being setup to handle the internal needs of the gaming community, with a link to it. Further information was to be given about the rule system to be followed, a three strike punishment system that could get users kicked or banned, and information about the admins. Strangely enough, Nightblade wasn't listed among the very long list of admin names and how to contact them.

He smirked a little when she flicked his forehead playfully before leaning into whisper in his ear. A grin replaced the smirk, chuckling.

"I can't wait to see what's next."

He watched her buzz off for the feather pills before glancing at the welcome email for a few moments. He had barely opened it when he had gotten the friend request from the redhead fairy. He raised an eyebrow as he looked her over slowly, finding her easy on the eyes. It was a little surprising to him for her to approach him out of the blue like that. Though her words did make him understand a bit. He did wonder for a moment if she had some sort of hidden agenda, but he decided to go ahead anyway.

"Sure, that sounds like a pretty good idea to me. I think I could find a date with a beautiful fairy quite pleasing and enjoyable."

He smiled for a moment as he accepted the friendship request and gave a little bow.

"I can understand how you could be lonely, after just getting shut in like we have been. Did you volunteer for this or happen to get trapped by mistake?"

He leaned back against the wall, crossing his arms as he kept his attention between the two fairies that had decided to grace his company.

 

[Poprockz]

"Huh..." Twinkletoes muttered to herself, sucking on a tube of honey she got from Brandywine. They had some nerve emailing everyone as if the news was just another bulletin. She found it odd that his name wasn't listed.

Closing her menu, she made her way back to the training area to find Nightblade. He was sitting right where she left him. However, there was a pretty red-headed fairy chatting him up. With a mighty surge of social awkwardness, she pretended to walk in a different direction, ducking into a nearby shop. Upon looking around, she discovered that this shop sold necromancy items.


The new girl looked amused at his comment about her appearance. "I'm glad we're on the same page. You're not bad looking yourself. I might even say that you're devilishly handsome."

She sat next to him and leaned back, crossing her legs gracefully. Opening her menu, she retrieved a pair of what looked to be sunglasses, only they were completely clear. "Like most of the people here, I was trapped. Hazard of the job, I suppose. I work for a company that produces documentaries. This being the first VR MMO RPG game, we simply had to get footage of the gameplay. Not to mention we needed to interview players, find easter eggs, and get a feel for the culture it would create between players themselves as they became more immersed in the world."

The redhead gestured the glasses at him, "these were created by the admins of this game via special permission from the higher-ups. My company requested them specially, and they only work if I'm wearing them. I suppose the makers of Starry Night didn't want to turn down a chance for a little publicity. It's a shame that this footage won't get out until we're released, though."

"My name is Anna-of-Action, by the way." She shrugged and rolled her eyes. "Creative, right? HR sure knows how to make names. Anyway, please call me Anna. What's your story?" The glasses were stored back into her inventory.

 

[JadeKnight]

He gave a little chuckle as he watched Twinkletoes go past them and into the wrong shop. He did smile as he looked over at Anna, listening to her story.

"Ah, that's pretty cool to meet a reporter. Or more of a documenter I guess? I wouldn't count on not being able to record and send out any footage you can get. If everything is on the up and up, then your company has probably secured a way for you to get that footage out."

He paused for a moment to send a little friend request to Twinkletoes since he hadn't gotten around to doing that yet. Turning his attention back to Anna, he smiled.

"Sounds like someone was trying to be a little too creative with your name. It's a pleasure to meet you Anna. I'm Nightblade."

He offered his hand out to her for a moment before continuing.

"I am one of the many programmers who work on the game. I am in charge of the instances and making sure they are working properly. I was actually just in here trying to chase down a couple of bugs when they decided to switch everything into full experimentation mode."

He motioned towards Twinkletoes for a moment with a little smile.

"That's Twinkletoes, a newbie player I met earlier. We were about to go and do some powerleveling for a bit. WHy don't you come and join us as well? I know you probably didn't have any plans, but getting levels will probably the best way to obtain footage in the higher level instances."

 

[Poprockz]

Anna shrugged. "If they've made a deal with the game admins, they haven't informed me about it just yet. But it's entirely possible considering how long it takes HR to do anything."

She took his hand in a firm, business-like shake, her eyes lighting up a little as she heard him mention that he himself was an admin. "A programmer? Wow, I'm going to have to get an interview from you at some point. Perhaps later tonight when we have dinner."

Twinkletoes could be seen in the window pretending to browse the wears, barely able to hold back a disgusted look as she picked up a jar of worms. He got a notification that she accepted his request.

"I noticed her passing by while acting oddly, so I thought she might have been either a stalker or a little puppy following you around." Anna laughed merrily. "Well, I'm currently at level 6, so I'm slowly working my way up. I would be excited to get some footage of the two of you and myself questing a little bit."

 

[JadeKnight]

He laughed for a moment at her reaction to his job.

"I think I could find a bit of time for that interview. As long as the questions aren't too tough."

He gave a playful wink for a moment before looking towards Twinkletoes, watching her browsing for a moment.

"I met her earlier when she got sidetracked by a particular bug I was trying to track down. I don't think she will mind if you join us, I don't believe. Well, if you are ready, I'll just make sure she is as well."

He moved from the wall where he was to move up behind Twinkletoes. He reached up and laid his hands gently on her shoulders, leaning close to talk to her.

"Ready to go? You can meet Anna as well. She's a documentary reporter, so I hope you don't mind getting to be a star for a little while."

 

[Poprockz]

"Oh, don't worry. I only go as tough as you're comfortable with," the blue fairy smirked.

Twinkletoes had been so focused on not focusing on them that she didn't notice him until his hands were on her shoulders, thus she jumped a little. She felt his breath on her ear and shivered. Adjusting the tube of honey in her mouth (that was about halfway finished), she looked up over her shoulder at him. "Geeze! Don't creep up on me like that!"

Her gaze drifted to the other fairy and her eyebrows knitted in concern for a moment. "I suppose that's okay," she mumbled.

Twinkletoes approached her awkwardly. Anna introduced herself to Twinkletoes with another firm handshake. "I hear you're like Nightblade's padawan." She joked in a good-natured way.

"Heh, yeah." twinkletoes replied, feeling a little bit more comfortable. She felt a little weird standing next to this new woman. While she herself was a little clumsy and corny, this lady seemed confident, graceful, and intelligent. She couldn't help but wonder why a reporter had decided to approach Nightblade of all people. "Oh! Here are the pills." she handed them off to the elf and gave back the remaining coins she had of his.

 

[JadeKnight]

He smiled for a moment, watching the two of them greet each other. He took the bottle of pills from her, but placed the remander of the coins back in her hands.

"You keep the change. It'll be fine."

He smiled for a moment before looking at the bottle. Reading the description, he chuckled for a moment before pulling one out and eating it.

"Tasty. Each pill lasts for an hour and makes me light as a feather it seems. You'll get to see a fairy carry a elf into the sky today Anna. So where's the rope at and how do you plan on carrying me? You do realize I probably won't be much help in the sky like you two."