Chapter 1
Ok. So, this was bad.
Vennia had killed me again. I mean, at least Sellia had killed her, but still. It was kind of frustrating. Especially with this update that just popped up saying there's a time limit on how long a player can take to revive someone.
Three in-game days! How was Sellia supposed to figure this out? Especially when I couldn't help her find them.
At least I'd told her where we were going. We were going to Faladara. Easy. Except, how was she supposed to get there and back here before the three days were up?
I tried to follow her as she continued to walk but I was stopped by some kind of barrier.
"Sorry, Matt," a voice said. "We can't get far from our bodies."
I recognized the voice. "Vennia? I'm stuck here with you?"
"It shouldn't be that bad," Vennia said innocently.
"Fuck you," I replied. "I seriously hate you now."
"Great! I do, too."
"Sellia's the one thst killed you."
"I know. But I never liked you. You know that by now."
I sighed. "I do not want to be stuck here with you."
"Too bad."
Vennia smiled at me and I glared at her. She was seriously rude.
Obviously, she hated me. She'd killed me twice and tried to kill me once. I mean, really. What kind of friend was she?
No, she was never my friend. I just put my trust in the wrong person.
But being stuck here with her was going to be the worst. At this point, I didn't like her anymore at all.
Not even a little?
Katy, shut up. It's my turn to talk now.
Both of you need to stop this.
You're interrupting, too, so I don't want to hear it.
Sellia bit her lip. "Well, shit."
"Yeah! I just fucking died and you're standing there with only three days left!" I yelled at her.
"She can't hear you," Vennia said, shaking her head.
"Shut up."
"How about no?"
"How about yes?"
"How about you shut up and stop being annoying?"
I sighed and sat down. What was I supposed to do? I guess I just had to wait for Sellia.
Sellia raced away, muttering to herself. Something about needing to find Zelia.
*** Sellia POV ***
Welp, this sucked.
I somehow had to find a bunch of players I didn't know. I couldn't find only Zelia because, unless she was in Gateway, she'd be with the group.
And, Censes and Gateway don't get along too well.
So...
I raced off in the direction of Faladara. Honestly, Faladara wasn't a great place for me to be either but that's where the group was bound to be.
I walked through the desert, spraying sand everywhere as I walked.
I began to see the Faladara Tundra ahead. I stopped at the border. Did I really have to cross the border? It's not like I wanted to get put in another castle dungeon.
First, it was Safety. Then Gateway. I'd been stuck in Safety for around five-hundred in-game days. And then I was in Gateway for another six hundred ninety-five.
That's somewhere around one thousand one hundred ninety-five days.
Which is around three years. Maybe almost four.
Yeah, I didn't need to get put in another dungeon.
I took a deep breath and crossed the border with my eyes closed.
Therefore, I slipped on the ice.
Ok, embarrassing. But at least there wasn't anyone really around to see.
I was hit with a sudden wave of cold as I stood back up. I shivered at the sudden change of temperature.
Wow, the tundra was cold.
So... What happened next...?
I forgot...
Wait! I remembered!
Suddenly, a dragon flew down from the sky, landing gracefully in front of me. It was a whiteish-blue color with sky blue wings. The dragon seemed confident and the air got colder as it landed.
The dragon roared before nodded as though it had remembered something. "Excuse me," it said. "I'm looking for something. Would you happen to know where it is?"
I lowered my weapon, which I'd raised as the dragon had spoken. "Well, not unless you tell me what it is."
I had a pretty severe problem. Well, not too severe, but slightly severe. Ok, not severe at all but-
Just get to the point!
Ok, ok!
I was too trusting. It was a bad thing but I guess it wasn't that bad.
"Right, of course," the dragon replied. "I'm looking for a key. I'm supposed to guard it but I wasn't told where it was..."
"Which key?" I asked. "There's six and I don't know the location of any of them."
"Oh, I guess you can't help me then."
"Depending on which key it is I might know someone who can. If you could help me find them, I believe they can help you find the Faladara Key."
"That would be great! Where are they?"
"They're heading to Faladara. I don't know exactly where they are but I know that's where they're going."
"Then let's go to Faladara!"
The dragon took off into the sky.
"Hello?" I said. "No wings over here!"
"Oh, right."
The dragon landed again before dipping her wing down to the ground. "It'll be faster for us to fly."
I got on its wing carefully, trying not to slip. In case no one noticed, dragons are pretty big. Falling wouldn't be good.
I was probably about as big as its leg. And that was standing up. So, yeah, dragons were huge.
I climbed onto its back and it took off, forcing me to grab on to its neck.
So, riding a dragon. It's actually not that bad once you get used to it. Honestly, it's kind of cool when the dragon's not trying to kill me.
Anyways, it wasn't long before we reached Faladara and the dragon landed nearby it.
*** Zelia POV ***
I lead the group through the cold of the tundra as we walked to Faladara. Derec slipped on the ice a few times but was otherwise fine. I felt the ice turn to snow and back to ice off and on as we walked. Once, I saw a dragon fly overhead. It didn't attack us though, so we were fine.
Eventually, I saw Faladara up ahead. Turns out, it was only a day away from the border. The Ice walls were half-destroyed from the battle with Censes. A dragon landed near it and a player jumped off of it.
I prepared to attack as the player walked up to us, the dragon following close behind.
"Who are you?" I demanded.
"Sellia," the player said. "The dragon's friendly."
Evra snorted. "No one here is friendly."
"I'm friendly!"
"Ok, no one who doesn't want to get killed is friendly."
"Hey!"
I glared at Evra. "Anyways, what do you want?"
"This dragon is supposed to guard the third key. And I need you to help PurrBox."
I sighed. "What happened to him now?"
"Some random player named Vennia killed him."
Shit. "Again?"
"What do you mean 'again'?"
"Nothing."
"Do we really need him though?" Evra asked.
"Yes!" I said, glaring at her.
Just because I'd been a little rude to him earlier didn't mean we didn't need him.
Obviously the group thought otherwise.
"Oh, and we only have two and a half days left to save him or he'll be dead forever."
"Ok, let's go." I turned around and walked away.
That night was pretty crazy.
We had to fight a bunch of ice phoenixes along with skeletons and even a wolf.
Which I didn't like. I liked wolves.
Cats weren't as good.
PurrBox loved cats though.
Like, more than dogs.
Weird, right?
It's not weird!
Matt, shut up.
I sat down in the snow, the cold whirling around me.
The group started kind of wishing PurrBox was here.
Not because they liked him, but because fire would've been really nice.
I sighed. These people would never get it.
The cold air made the whole group shiver. I heard a wolf howl in the distance, along with a few more howls that joined in.
It wasn't a good sign, seeing as all the wolves were horrible and evil around here but I didn't care.
It was just so cold.
I did learn a little about the dragon and Srllia though.
Sellia had been in dungeons as a prisoner for most of her time here and met PurrBox in the Gateway castle dungeon.
The dragon's name was Frost. She was looking for the key somewhere in the Faladara Tundra. Apparently, she had to guard it and the last guardian had retired. Therefore, she was left as the new guardian.
Yeah, not much. But the whole guarding-the-key thing was interesting. I asked her more about it.
"The key is somewhere in the Faladara Tundra," Frost said. "As you may know. I have to guard it, protecting it from anyone who may want to use it for bad evil things. Basically, the rest of the keys you must find have guardians that you have to fight to prove you can have the key. The keys lead to a dungeon in Divine that will save the world from all evil. However, all you get is a cool cut scene since it's a multiplayer game. Oh, and the ability to leave the game whenever you want or come back to it whenever you want. It's pretty cool honestly."
"Wow," I said. "That sounds nice. Being able to leave the game like a normal RPG?"
"Yup!"
"Yeah, we definitely need to beat the game."
The only question was, would we get past all the guardians?
