game or life

ooc:Ohhhh, sweet

bic: Maybe in the later days she can work with trying to figure something else out while humming sweetly to think about it. She wanted to do better in her upgrading but maybe she will learn later on during that time.

as she leveled it up she noticed that there was a bloske indicator for some sort of item to be added to it. maybe it was an upgrade or something but she couldnt even read it. it was blocked and sh didnt meet the requirements yet. in the game it looed like a slot for a gem or something like that.

she got back to th town and saw that he wasnt back yet. she messaged him and he took a long time to answer. he apologizsed and said he was stuck in a battle and was okay but he was working on his quest still. she knew it would take him a while but this long was hard to believe. the more she thought about it the more she beleived it because he had almost no offensive power his attack was more like a sheld bash and weak and his only offensive ability was a sheils slam and it was only as strong as a mage phisicl offense... so not good at all.

he typed tha this quests were more about protecting than fighting and he had to hold an enemy attention while the npc took the monsters out. or he had to stay alive for a set ammount of time or he had to keep someone alive for a set ammount of time. as he typed all theis she relaized that his role was possibly the most difficult next to healing but al least a healer could heal themself. he couldnt and relied on itewms and his auto ho recover skill.

it was hard not to worry about how long he was taking and he finally returned to the town with an upbraded sheild. his hp incrreased alot and he leanred a skill that threw his sheild to hit a group of enemies forcing them to attack him for their next turn. the damage was weak but the "taunt" as he called it was guranteed on any enemy so he could keep any party member safefrom any single group of enemies. she also noticd he had a slot like her weapon had and he explained it as a enhancvement not an upgrade since upgrades were already explained. he couldnt read his same as her but he did seem to know about it form the npcs chatter.

She saw he was really busy during the silence but that's fine. He was doing his thing just as much as she was. That or leveling up their characters in ways they knew how after more studying on the game they were playing.

he did his best to mesage her but she noticed tyhat he was really itching to go out and explore so when he returned they grouped up and went off to the next town. he told her he planned to do the same thing in that town get all the gear he could then do the main hero quests. she didnt seem to see anything wrong with that and the nearest town was only 6 battles away. her attack was higher and he noticed she was using a weapon in either hand. she told him she could pick if she wanted one or two weapons in use and her skills and damamge reflect the diference by doubling in strength. she was easily taking out any single target with her ppower shot and her volly was more than enough to weaken most monsters so much that he could attack and finish them off.

she could also move first almost every single time now unless the monsters attack before the party was ready. she was making the game easy for him and he enjoyed it and thanked ehr fore it. she was feeling very good for herself to be so good at this game.

They just felt happier knowing the game was going through just fine. Maybe this could be really something else to get better later on. That would be good for them where she can increase her power and the same for him too.

the next town was not a village and a walled town like before. it was a bustling hub between 3 different towns where people from all 3 come together to do business. the perminant residents were all very wealthy and full of themselves. the quests here were petty when she read them and mostly the owners of the property needed things prepared for the next fair.

the fair was described to her as a tiem where the 3 villages came together to do business expose projects they were workingon and even arrange marrages of the leaders children. the idea of marrage hit them both and they saw that it was an option for players to try. they could marry players or npcs and the bonuses werent that bad. mostly incraeased rewards when grouped up.

that was to be put on hold till later since their characters werent old enough yet to so such things. they collect the quests mostly hunting monsters and clearing property for the fair. this fair was talked about but many of the towns people felt that it might not even happen.

the demon lord was a present threat and his forces were gathering at the borders of the underworld ready to attack tresspassers and invade at a moments notice. the townsfolk were terrified of an attack fearing it would happen on the day of the fair wich was 3 months away. according to their caracter log their characters came of age on the same day of the fair.

tghe 10 quests were divided into 3 hunting quests 3 preperation quests 3 materials gatheirng quests (from monsters or theives) and one a bounty set up by the local lord of this area. the bounty cyuaght his attention and he read it out.

"wanted dead or alive, the bandit leader calling himself Foxloxly has been cuasing mass mayhem and highway robbery with his 15 bandits. the rogue has been seen with his band in the caves to the north west. be prepard to die. reward ???"

"wait... that sounds like it could be a boss." she typed to him and he thought before replying.

" it does but its not a boss its a bounty. bosses are different. i think this is a mechanic where you fight special monsters and collect the extra rewards upon completion. like it has more experience and rewards than just fighting the leader and winning." he typed back and she thought about that.

" soo. we wait? and watch?" she asks


"good girl. yes we do. we wait and gather as much gear as this place has to offer then we tackle this band." he was so excited he mispelled alot of words

"what are these marks it mentions?" she asks and he typed back quickly.

" seems to be some sort of bounty rank. this is a 1 star bounty and i bet they go up to 5 stars 5 being the hardest." he replies and she thought it made sense. their quests take them to the corners of the local area filling in their maps and revealing landmarks earning them more experience as their map fills out.

"So I'm guessing we start with level one to see just how these missions carry out?" she types seeing him reply back. "Fair. I know most of the mission in this game are pretty intense so it will lead to something. Pretty cool."

"I know right? With this, we can get stronger at a good pace as long as we are careful when doing it. Same with gaining Xp and gear while we adventure. For now, lets be sure we take it one step at a time." he sees her reply alright and they continue.

she started to notice that the main story had levels attatche dot it as well and it was sitll rediculously low the side quests and even the bounties were seperate and apart form the min quests and she soon realized that eh was going after the side quests to make the main story easier to deal with by overpowering them.

in the long run that made the game easier and soon they were flagged down by the spear hero. looking at him she noted he was much higher leveled and better geared than they were and he stopped by to check on his rival the shield hero. his words not the games.

it seemed that the two had been competing in another game and by chance found their way here. his attack was the strongest physical attack there was and could in theory hurt him easy. but the skills they gathered showed that he was more focused on defensive power than anything else specifically to counter the spear hero. she started to think he couldnt win without offense and wanted to get stronger faster to keep up.

spear: im definitly moving on to the next continent.

shield: good

spear: those leveling tips you gave me helped i cleaned out the whole continent on basic side quests.

shield: it works dont it?

spear: yes exhausted everything this continent has to offer. im told that the ship to get to the next one needs to be built by the players and you even have to build a navy in time.

shield: thanks for letting us know are they based on the factions?

spear: yes. i recommend you two join separate factions and make them allies. that way you can use more of the game resources to help each other.

shield: ooh good iw as hoping that owuld be the case. this one here just wants to follow me around so im sure she will join the bow faction knowing this.

spear: get married to her then lol im off cya and thanks for the tips.

shield: you too bye

and the spear hero went off looking like a real hero. she pouted a bit but she didn note that while they are rivals they helped eachother out and apparently he told the spear hero how he planned to get strong and it worked. so goind super slow through the came and finishing all the quests was actually worth it even if it took longer to do the story.

"That was rare." She types from the thought while he was thinking the same thing.

"maybe it was. and maybe he will challenge me to a deul to test out his and my skills. if it works right then we should either be egual o there will be a winner. the only thing im worried about is his drain life skill..."

"there is a skill like that?" she asks him and he nods.

"yes there is. it part of the weapon he is using. lets hope he cant transfer weapon skills in this game or he would keep it..."

"can we do that?" she asks and he didnt know.

"i doubt it. i only ever saw it in one game but i admit i never playded much of the genre that game was." he was overthinking it and she noticed because he wasnt walking anymore.

"hey cmon lets go do quests." she suggested and he agreed.

as they left town they found new monsters. living armor evil spirits and living gas clouds that looked like smoke. her elemental attacks were very effective against eh spirits and gas but his attacks didnt seem to do anything. he resirted to defending her and letting her take out the monsters with her power shot or one of her fire arrows. he always made his character cheer when rhey won and they used their herbs to maintain high health numbers after a long fight to limit how many times they stopped back in the town to heal. it was much the same as the first town except things were faster now. they gained more exp and coin from the monsters thnan before and the pacing of the levels was stable

they could even stay out at night now and fight. this doubled their grinding time and made it faster. since more monsters appeard at night. the armors even dropped a chest peice and a new sheild for him and she soon dicovered that monsters had their own skill list in her hero weapon skills.

"hmmm it must have been unlocked after we put 10 different types of monster parts into it." he typed out and she thought of something.

"can we use other items too? like our herbs?" he thought about it then tried it. it worked and that made him laugh uncontrollably for several minutes.

"we can not only that but they seem to unlock skills too."

" sooo anything can be used to power up out hero weapons... that seems a bit... over powered."

"im not complaining this was a brilliant game before now its pure genius. almost like an anime."

"Maybe we should have gotten a cheat sheet just in case." she types but he blinks to laugh typing back.

"That's the case. Either way, lets keep going with the missions."

behind his screen he started to write down things to email to her so she would have a cheet sheet to keep track of the different things inside the game. there were alot ad the ammount of weapon skills they could get with their hero arms seemed to be perminant. she remembere dhow she maxed out her hero arms and she put on a regular crossbow and found that her abilities she gained from powering up weapons stayed with her. withher test complete she re-equiped her hero crossbow.

"so we have character skills and weapon skills... does tha tmean you have sheild skills since you dont have a weapon?" she asks him and he had to test a few things out. he used some mosnter abilites with his sheild and those came form monster parts used to upgrade. he smiles

"seems so. i bet if i got a bunch of cheap sheilds and leveled them with a single item i could get specialized skills and retain them..."

"too much but woudl it help you?" she asks him

"yes.. it might close the gap between me and you other heros... maybe my support skills could also speed things up too..."

"did you get a new oen then?" she asks

"i think so. it was something like damage reflection. a portion of the damage i take is reflected on my attacker. right not its 10% but i think it can go muchhigher."

"tht with your hp recovery makes you dangerous... really dangerous..." she commented and she decided he was definitly able to survive andmaybe overcome the seeming limitations on his character.

"No worries; I'm sure it should be fine." He types but she was thinking about what he said. That's possible but what if something goes wrong? The game was still tricky even if they were getting some what of a hang to it. Better to know then not.

as they work on the side quests they begin to get more of a picture of the state of this world. many different factions and guilds were competing for supremacy but all were locked in a more or less equal level of power. and influence. they came across their first faction quest as a part of the main story line where there was abreif history of the world.

Long ago the world was at peace. then the evil came. monsters brought forth plague evil and suffering. the people cried out to their gods for aid and the first heroes were summons to the world. each hero formed ana rmy and worked together to challenge and defeat the leader of the monsters the evil king. the evil king vowed that his power would return and the land would forever be plagued with monsters. the factions were established after the heroes died to up hold the beliefs of their founders.
the factions over time grew dark form the constant battles against evil and without their leaders the factions were indeed fighting a losing battle of attrition. the recruitment began around that tiem and so did the rivarly.

the competition grew as advertising and economy developed and soon the people were defending themselves against monsters forming many of the major cities of the present day and the villages and towns were 100 years old or less showing recent expantion. now the evil king has returned and is cuasing havoc everywhere in the hopes of sowing discord and meyhem throughou the world to soften it up for his eventual take over.

the heroes are needed to lead their factons agaisnt the king of evil and his demons that spawned the monsters using humans as the incubators.

there came up an option to join any of the factions at any time. the cutscene ended and they both returned to the main game.

"..that was something huh? It looked really interesting." she types checking the main menu from the pause screen seeing her friend typing quickly.

"I know right? Their was a pretty big mission cut scene showing up what was going on with the first one. Or to the main story. I wonder what that would lead to. More adventures? More items? More bosses and fights?" he hits enter seeing his friend typing.

"Yeah. Maybe we can give it a look later on and see which fractions we could join. We might be able to learn something from who we join." she suggested.

"Not a bad idea. Sure, we can do that anytime." he replies.

"are you going to join the archer hero faction?" he types to her and watied for her reply. the game was paused on her turn because she hadnt taken it yet and the monster battle for their quest was going very well like most of them have been so far.

She was thinking about it then types to respond to him. "I don't know. I see if I do, I might learn and gain new things during that time. I mean, the missions could be new too for an archer." she finishes typing to send it to him.

" well im more of a traditionalist ingames so im going to join the sheild hero faction." he said and he waited for her to make her move. this game was very similar to a table top game he played as a kid on this quest and he was certain these characters these...heroes were going to change the layout as time went on. she finished the fight and their quest giver who followed them was ready to complete the quest and statt he next one in the chain. it was fairly simple and theyw ere getting parts to build a seige engine at the end and offer it as a gift to the faction they wished to join.

they both had their own engine and quest giver leaving it open for them to make any pick they wished. for their faction. there was a bit more story about how the factions were divided in history shortly before the current era and their rivalry began to pick at eachother until all of them were shadows of their former selves. it wasnt bloody like most games but an economic assault.

with the rising of monsters the factions have temporarily set aside their differences to build up and defend their people from the uprising evil army.

With some thought in some point, they were thinking and knew of which one they would go with.

the rewards form the monster battles and the monster parts they absorbed onto their weapons really gave them a boost to their base power. he was mining sheild skills the way he said and so far there was no limit to how powerful his passive abilities could get. he maxed out his recovery allowing healing items or spells and even abilites to restore a larger ammount of hp than normal. his vitality was reducing his damage taken by half but the tamage reduced was now returning to the enemy as damage.

every time he got hit half of the attack would hit him in damage and that number was refelcted on the attacker. he had no resitances and was currenly working on a poison resistance skill by pouring antidote hearbs into his current sheild. it seemed that they didnt give much weapon exp so it was taking longer than other skills. it seemed that this was intentional becuase these resitances were potentiollay very powerful. getting strong enough to absorb the type of damage and resotre hp once maxed out.

she quickly saw the danger in this making him almost unkillable when he was finished.

Seems even he was getting stronger and stronger by the minute. This was good because it told her their characters were becoming more powerful. She can only hope they keep this momentum up so later down the road things are not as bad.

after the regular quests were completed there was an event bounty arriving into the town. it was a timed monster hunt where you had to kill as many as you could in the timeframe set by the server. he got excited because he and she had spent the last week building up their secondary weapon skills. she now had an arrow of any type to augment her attacks and skills and their level was beyond anything in this are and they still had quests.

this bounty introduced undead and the graveyard would spawn undead once a week to raid the town. the objective is to killl as many as you could and group kills counted for every member of the group. there was no end to the horde as long as the timer was active and the monsters were stronger than normal. the were zombies and each battle held the maximum number of creatures the game could handle in one fight. 16 split into 2 groups a front and a back. they hadnt gotten to the point in the game that explained front and back lines yet but he told her that she didnt have to worry that one of the perks of being the archer hero was she could hit the back line as if it was the front.

she used fire bolts knowing that fire was a traditional undead weakness and he fpcused on covering her so if she was attacked he would take damage instead. he wasnt growing stronger by the minute but by the hour. these grinds were taxing on them both and the weapons he maxed out had to be sold. it was a long tedious grind.

the bounty was an exp and coin event offering more exp per killl than normal and more coin than normal. she was careful to spread her damage out attacking the groups in one attack with their weakness to maximize her damage and he made sure not to go ont he offensive because if he dropped his cover he knew she would be swamed before ehr next turn.

it worked because he was the target half the time and she could use her turn to heal him with an item keeping his hp above 75%. her attacks nearly killd the zombies and after 3 waves skeletons started gettign mixed in. the timer was a 10 minute timer so she rushed her attacks following his advice until she thought he needed to heal then she would heal him. he thanked her every time and told her he didnt know his hp was so low. against mobs like this he did alot more damamge every time he was hit and the groups she hit with ehr volley die attackign him or hitting him when they attack her.

he had a pattern that he more or less sticks to and it got to the point where every minute was a new wave. their levels increased 3 times after the bounty was talllied and they unlocked a cosmetic item that changed their appearance but didnt offfer any status boosts. his looked like a skeleton hers was a zombie in a swimsuit.

He looked a little disturbed while she was holding back a snicker seeing that. Seems these prizes were rather interesting but she didn't say too much about it.

their next teir of skills was reveald and he saw air sheild as an ability and put all his remaining skill points into it to max it out. it summoned a sheild of force to gaurd any one he chose in cluding himself it had 10% of their hp as its durability as he maxed it out it went up to 50% and it could be detonated to damage an attacker for the remaining hp. that gave him a viable offense as well and she noticed he would usually sheild himself then detonate it on his next turn when he was wurrounded.

"Seems you got something that should help you a lot more right?" She types out when he responds back.

"Yeah, with this I should be pretty good for now. That or till the next upgrade." he replies looking at the effects to this but he was knowing she was reading on her own thinking about it.