Achronum

✧ Talrae ✧ (LOOKING FOR CO-GM)

"I... Um. I don't have any other clothing, just these and the quality shoes. I figured there had to be some benefit to using nicer items, so I... may have used all of my Renn. If you'd be willing to make me some armor of some kind, I'd be very grateful, but I don't have any cloth or sewing tools. I don't really have any practical skills to pay you back with, either. I put my points towards health, combat, and… And dancing."

Kajin nodded his assent. He’d figured she fell into the “noob trap” of pretty clothes and although her skill choice was a tad odd, he was fairly confident they’d find a need or use for it. Perhaps she could use it to define her fighting style. That was an interesting possibility. But we’d have to discover that later. Priority was equipping Aster then finding a few quests to take on.

"But the armor issue... Well, just avoid drawing too much attention. I got a spell that draws aggro, so you just have to make sure to deal some damage, and stop for a bit when the enemy starts to get angry at you. Besides, you're a tough gal - You got 1000 HP! I doubt many monsters could 1-shot you on this floor, and I'll be able to draw aggro while you get healed up by Kajin. Hell, if you're worried, take him up on his offer to make you armor - he probably has a crafting skill in something."

His eye twitched. Yes she had high HP but the point was to mitigate incoming damage as much as possible to reduce the amount of healing required. Healing magic wasn’t cheap. At 200 MP, he could cast healing beam six times before his mana hit zero. And that’s if he didn’t cast anything else. Mana payback couldn’t be relied on to generate mana consistently so healing spells had to be spaced out appropriately. Kajin turned to Dirk, intent on reminding him that death was very much a possibility and high HP shouldn’t be the only resource we depended on to get through encounters, when Aster spoke up.

"I think that I agree with Dirk. The best thing to do for now would probably be to get some experience and, with help from you two, figure out how this game works. You're right, I do have quite a bit of health. If you're willing to try it, I'd like to attempt a basic quest, and maybe see about getting ahead of the other players."

Kajin’s jaw dropped. What? Not one but both of his party members decided to hold off on armor for her, a basic necessity of any game even when the imminent threat of perma death didn’t hang over their heads as a very real consequence. He took a deep breath and relaxed a little. It’d be okay. He’d just have to make sure he kept an eye on his mana and communicated when they needed to turn back to restore it at town.

“Okay. That’s not a bad idea either. I still think it’d be best to equip you with even cloth armor but if we are confident we will be okay without it, we can hunt down a quest.” Kajin sounded anything but confident, “However, if I run out of mana we need to back out. Healing spells at this level are expensive and I can only cast six before I’m out of mana, seven if my passive triggers on four of the six casts. Dirk is right, I doubt anything outside of dungeons will be excessively challenging but we should keep a high safety margin until we get a better understanding of the game. And since I can’t afford a first aid kit yet, we don’t have any secondary resources in the event things get hairy.” Saying he was nervous was an understatement. If he couldn’t get a heal out at the right time or they made a poor judgment call and tried something too high, they ran the very real risk of dying and he didn’t know if he could handle being responsible for that. But they had to start sometime and no better time than the present. Right?

“So this is what I recommend we do then. Let’s hunt down a few quests. The first thing Aster spends her Renn on is armor then we keep questing until level 3. After that, depending on how we feel, we could try poking our noses in one of the dungeons on this floor. If the first pull is too much, we run like hell.” Kajin looked at his two party members and then a light bulb went off. He opened his menu and sent the pair friend requests. “If we get separated or have to leave party, we can always find each other through this. Just in case you know? Not sure what we’re going to run into after all! And once we do this, I think our brave and daring tank can lead the way to our first quest, yeah?”

_{Interacting with:
@Tybalt Capulet@Duoya}

✧ Talrae ✧ (LOOKING FOR CO-GM)

“Thanks for the party invite. What’s the point of having me around if I don’t keep you alive? So I’ll do my best as well! Absolutely call me Kajin! I just expect everyone to call me that anyways, no need to use my last name if you don’t need to. I-I'll be honest with you both. As much as I'd love to be in a party with you, I'm not actually very experienced with games like this. I plan to improve, so that I can survive, but as it stands now, I've never even fought a monster or player before."”

@Duoya

Hey, not sure if it matters too much to your post but the part of the quote that is struck through is Aster's line from her post before mine. Its just in the same color so I wasn't sure if it was intentional since you have the same quote earlier in your post.

✧ Talrae ✧ (LOOKING FOR CO-GM)

Oops, posted in the wrong tab.

✧ Talrae ✧ (LOOKING FOR CO-GM)

@Project Oh that'd be funny! I imagine us letting you guys do all the work the sniping the monster at the end just to end up cowering behind our Paladin for protection XD

✧ Talrae ✧ (LOOKING FOR CO-GM)

Kajin Najin

His smile faltered as he stared at the sudden party request. The abruptness of it all threw him off balance, stalling him. Kajin cast a critical eye over the man. About five inches taller than himself, broad shouldered, in decent shape, and a confident stance to top it off – Kajin grinned. Dirk looked like he could take a beating and that’s just what he needed. He happily slammed the Accept button. The quicker he latched onto a tank, the better, and the universe dropped one right in his lap. ‘Step one is coming together splendidly.’ he thought to himself. With a healer and a tank, filling the rest of the party roster was a cake walk.

“Thanks for the party invite. What’s the point of having me around if I don’t keep you alive? So I’ll do my best as well!” Kajin chuckled and turned his attention back to the woman. “Absolutely call me Kajin! I just expect everyone to call me that anyways, no need to use my last name if you don’t need to.” Aster’s next comment gave him reason to pause however.

"I-I'll be honest with you both. As much as I'd love to be in a party with you, I'm not actually very experienced with games like this. I plan to improve, so that I can survive, but as it stands now, I've never even fought a monster or player before." Kajin took a moment to consider the implications of that. Normally, that wouldn’t be a problem but this was life and death at this point. Did he want an inexperienced player in a sticky situation? On one hand, it was incredibly reckless. Respawning didn’t happen. There were no second chances, no retries. Once you were done, it was over and an inexperienced player easily added to the difficulty of it all. On the other hand though, they were level one and grinding was a given. With a good tank and a ready healer, teaching her as they leveled the early levels would still leave them with a decent safety margin. They just had to choose their hunting grounds well and know their limits. Plus, who else would teach her the ropes if they didn’t? As long as she was willing to try, and it seemed she was, it was entirely possible. He nodded once before a sudden realization hit him.

She was new. Oh no. He looked Aster over and noted the standard quality clothes she equipped. Not the cheap ones. Not armor. No, the regular clothes. He knew the saying “Glamour is true end game!” and even agreed with it but they were far from end game. They were as starting game as you could get and armor could make the difference between waking up and never seeing the light of day again. He glanced over at Dirk as well. Leather armor, perfect. He wouldn’t have to worry about him too much then.

“So Aster, the game can be taught. We all have to level anyway so we’ll do some grinding to get you in shape! However, there is a minor issue that occurred to me. Really it’s trivial but its best to cover all our bases.” Kajin opened the party list and selected “Examine Equipment” on Dirk and started pointing out stats. “Now see this here? We call this armor. When you take damage, it reduces the amount taken depending on several variables. Useful in a death game, I’m sure you could imagine. I can’t help but notice you aren’t wearing any but you are wearing nicer clothes than most. You wouldn’t happen to have some floating around in your inventory no? Maybe some Renn to purchase some? Because if not, I’ll need to make some for you because I’m not taking anyone out that doesn’t have some form of protection.”

“Oh Dirk, have you played around with the actions command yet? I’m not sure if they trigger the same as spells since I don’t have any actions yet.” Kajin looked a bit sheepish, “Probably should have taken staff block but Mana Payback was too nice to pass up!”

_{Interacting with:
@Tybalt Capulet@Duoya}

✧ Talrae ✧ (LOOKING FOR CO-GM)

@Duoya I resent your wee- nah you're right XD

✧ Talrae ✧ (LOOKING FOR CO-GM)

@Leaves Imagine that happened. How upset and angry he would be. Then not able to rage quit either man, bad day.

✧ Talrae ✧ (LOOKING FOR CO-GM)

Right? It'll be great! Can't wait!

✧ Talrae ✧ (LOOKING FOR CO-GM)

Okay! I'll switch to this instead of just @mention so we are all using the same format :D

✧ Talrae ✧ (LOOKING FOR CO-GM)

Kajin Najin

Lucas examined the wave gear nervously. A fervent gamer, his excitement for Talrae was palpable. His siblings didn’t overlook it either, teasing him about it anytime a commercial played or he started rambling about it. They said his eyes turned to stars and the room would glow like he was in love. As soon as the release date was announced, his best friend and Lucas set up everything they needed to camp out in front of a retailer a week in advance for a chance at the system. But he bailed. That whole week, he barely even saw his siblings much less the only one that could drive the hour away the retailer was. Livid only scratched the surface of his mood that week. It was the game of the millennia really and the beginning of real VR, a full VR interface. He stopped talking to anyone in the house four days before launch.

He almost refused to speak to his siblings when they did finally show up. But he did, begrudgingly. He was a burden enough; he couldn’t expect them to cater to him all the time. They wheeled him into the dining room. He broke down sobbing. A full wave gear system was on the table. His family had taken turns waiting at the store for him to get it since he wouldn’t have anyone to camp out with him if he had done it alone.

The wave gear offered Lucas more than just entertainment. Sure it was good enough at that but it could give him something modern medicine never could. Ten years ago, his father picked him up from a friend’s house drunk. No one in the other car survived when he t-boned them at a red light. Lucas broke his back and lost the use of his lower body for life. Doctors reassured him that his brain wasn’t damaged, just the nervous system down his spine. Talrae offered him a chance to escape the wheelchair, even if it was just for a bit. Talrae could make him feel useful in some regards.

Hesitation stilled his hand. What if the doctors were wrong? What if it was his brain? What if the game wouldn’t load because he was damaged or worse, he still couldn’t walk? The familiar tightness gripped his chest and nausea started boiling in his stomach. He slammed the wave gear on and lay back, taking deep breaths. “Link… start!”

Welcome to Talrae.

The world stole his breath away. Every cobblestone, every blade of grass, every drop of water shone in the sunlight, seemingly more real than reality. He bit into a sandwich and the flavor burst across his tongue. A breeze wound its way through Genesis City, as crisp and refreshing as the morning air at home. NPCs and player intermingled, nearly indistinguishable in mannerism. Lucas- now Kajin Najin, the game name he used every time- had to double check everyone, looking for the NPC tag, before approaching them they were so realistic. But these things pale in comparison to one fact: he could walk again.

The first thirty minutes of his gaming experience consisted of running around town, jumping and laughing. He had never let himself dream of escaping his wheelchair, of feeling a slight burn in his legs and the force of a step. Though just for a moment, he forgot he couldn’t.

His competitive side reared its head. A mile wide, it reminded him this was a game and games had an objective to complete. To beat. A smirk settled on his face and he zipped round, picking up armor and a staff, a sewing kit and a few other bits and pieces he thought would be useful. Teaming up with a rather friendly marauder, they set out to explore the surrounding areas. He felt a tinge of regret watching his partner dance around the fight but magic was his first true love. Plus, it was much easier to find parties as a healer. Who didn’t want a pocket healer after all?

Hand outstretched a weird jolt as everything moved in and out of focus interrupted his cast. The game went blank. All sensation vanished. Just a constant white light everywhere his eyes could see. Then it populated. Genesis City surrounded him as other players appeared in previously empty spaces. At least the likelihood of forced logs was low. Sporadic screen changes often indicated server errors and Kajin wasn’t ready to leave just yet. The relief was short lived as the final boss, Malgoth, announced their own apocalypse.

---

All Kajin remembered from the event was the absolute depravity echoing through the booming voice and the much quieter backdrop of shattering glass. "Or die trying." The statement- no, death sentence- pounded in his ears. He stood, muscles frozen. A girl’s body shattering into pixels replayed over and over again in his mind. He shook violently. His staff slipped unnoticed to the ground. "Or die trying." He slammed his hands over his ears. Blood roared in his ears. This couldn’t be happening. His chest tightened. This was supposed to be fun.His breath came out in shaky gasps. This must be an error. His stomach churned. It’s just a glitch. Bile pooled in the back of his throat. Someone help me. His vision faded away…

“Identify the problem.” Kajin choked out. His autopilot kicked in, catching him just before he fell into madness. That’s right. What’s the problem? Being stuck inside a death game was the problem. “What is the solution?” Beat the game. Other means result in death. “So what are the challenges?” Too low level, under geared, no party, don’t know the starting point, don’t have- “Prioritize two and finish them. Then, two more and two more after that.” Right. Focus on parts of the problem to solve it as a whole. His chest loosened and his vision slowly returned. Step one, find a party. Low health and attack power makes me vulnerable. Next step in to figure out where to start. Hopefully step one brings in others with some thoughts on the subject. New people brought new information so it would be killing two birds with one stones.

His breath steadied, vision returned, and his stomach settled, Kajin picked up his staff and shook his head slightly. This was still a game, as lethal as it was. This was still his territory. With a plan in mind, Kajin felt like the situation was at least manageable. He still trembled slightly but nothing unbearable. He looked across the main plaza. Many players still jammed angrily at the Log Out screen, other wandered aimlessly, and other wept and screamed. No one seemed stable enough to consider- Kajin’s eyes landed on a female player observing the others from a stone bench. There’s a possibility. At least she didn’t seem to be freaking out. Kajin made a beeline for her, weaving and dodging through the crowd and giving wide birth to a man shouting and flailing around. He plopped down next to her.

“Sorry for the forwardness but I figured the whole trapped in a death match thing trumps manners in this situation.” Kajin beamed and extended his hand, “Kajin Najin, mage and healer at you service! And for the low low cost of making sure I don’t get cut too badly, I can be your pocket healer and patch us up! What do you say, party up?”

_{Interacting with:
@Tybalt Capulet}