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The Battle World, Chapter 3 |
| Written by felix | |
| Thursday, 03 July 2008 | |
Where to begin on a quest to find a monster that you knew nothing about? Where I first saw it of course; the cave on the beach. It had been two months since I last went to the cave, I entered the mouth and walked to the point where Cerberus was attacked, and from there walked to the point where I saw Alexis cowering, from there towards the mouth where Amber stood, screaming. There was nothing there left, it had been two months of course, so the terrain would have re-fitted it's graphics to the way it was before any effects of the monster were added. As I was leaving the cave I met another player, Barak was his character name, his graphic was of a tall man, probably designed on a 30 year old, he had a thick winter jacket on and his character's choice of weapon was a musket, attached at an angle on his back. "Are you here for the gold warp gate monster as well?" He said to my surprise. "You know of it?" "Yes, there has been a rumour that it originated from this cave." "Where have you heard of it?" I rushed at him, "There have been sightings of it on the Dawn Break Plains, I am Barak by the way" The Dawn Break Plain is usually an unpopulated area of the game, players will only visit it for in game quests. "Barak is it? Can you tell me more about this monster?" "First, what is your name so I may call you by it?" Barak ask me. Proudly I began; "I am administrator Xilef, I saw the monster about two months ago, I have come here to - " Before I could finish Barak said; "You have actually seen it?" He was not interested with my administrator status "What did it do? Is it part of your game's design? Is it cheat monster? You must tell me, please!" "Slow down" I requested "I am the administrator here, first you tell me what you know" "Oh, I just over heard some newbies discussing a sighting of a monster not in the game's database on the Dawn Break Plains, I was interested so I asked around and someone told me it originated here" "Who told you?" "A player named Cerberus" Of course, Cerberus was the only other player who knew about the monster and would be willing to tell others about it. "Yes, thank you - Barak was it? Yes, thanks" I said out of my politeness. I was about to leave when Barak said; "Wait, why don't we exchange buddy addresses, so we could keep in contact and share our information about the monster often and as we get it" Buddy addresses are used to keep track of players you'd like to meet up with again in the future, Amber was in my buddy address book and now Barak was too. "We should work together as a team" Barak said. I thought about this, ridiculous suggestion and said; "I'm not too great in a team." "Okay, well, I'm about to meet up with some players that are also on track of this monster and search around with them. If you want to join then you know how to contact me, of course, you designed the system." I smirked at this flattery and then warped out of the cave, back to the administration building where I saw Cerberus. "What were you doing, Xilef?" Cerberus said to me. "Playing the game I suppose. Playing the Battle World." I smiled at him as I pulled out the blue tablet of the administration panel from thin air and made a note on it to contact Barak in future. Just a few days later I did contact Barak, we arranged a meeting point on the Forgotten Fields, a zone that is just a grassy plain that stretches for miles with hills and dips, a very simple place, it was easy to design too, but it was popular for it's amount of monsters, Barak was here already before I arrived, we said our greetings and then he led me to the one building in the entire zone, a tavern that I coded into the zone for a resting area, it was day time in the Battle World and the tavern was full of players, it was difficult to follow Barak but he led me to a dark corner of the building where there sat about 11 other players around a circular table chatting to each other. "This is the team I assembled for the search for the monster" Barak explained to me, he then turned to the team and introduced me to them, "This is administrator Xilef, he is interested in joining the team" once Barak said this there was a great uproar of players saying things like; "Wow the administrator himself" or "I can't believe I am in a team with the game administrator", I thought it best to ignore these comments and act as a player, so without saying anything I sat down at the last empty seat around the table, once I sat down the 11 went completely silent to listen to what their leader, Barak was about to announce. "Nothing today, no sightings, nothing at all" Barak first said, this caused a slight mumble, "We will travel across this field searching" Barak next said, this caused mumbles of complaint, "I know this zone is large but it would be worth it, I'm sure." This was a weak argument I could see, but the other players bought it. Barak had finished what he said and appeared to have nothing else to say. That's when I stood up to speak, "I've seen what this monster can do, so I believe we need to find it and stop it before it causes anymore problems to this game, I say that as a player and not an administrator, but as an administrator I say this, I need you all to help me look for this - this thing, so can I rely on you all to help me with this?" There was silence, I broke it with this "Of course, if you do help me I'm sure you will become famous amongst your internet communities." One player stood up, a male player with a short, stout graphic, then a female player with an elegant, thin graphic and then another player, then another, Barak turned and said simply, "Shall we begin our hunt?" I chuckled at this and nodded then led the group out of the tavern. Walking across and entire zone takes up a lot of time, especially when there's monsters around the zone, and the Forgotten Fields had plenty, so we needed a plan to follow rather than to run across a zone expecting to find some sort of monster that hospitalised a player and no one can seem to find. Once leaving the tavern and walking a short distance I turned to face the line of 12 players, Barak and his eleven. They all stopped. "Does anyone have any information on the monster?" I said to the group. Barak looked at me, I didn't expect an answer from him, then one player, right at the back of the group came forward, he was young, he graphic was a child that held just a wooden stick in hand. Everyone looked at him and expected him to begin to speak, he eventually began, "I saw it once, it killed a beast I was fighting and took my experience, I ran away because it was so powerful." The player stopped talking, the rest of the group started asking questions, I settled them all by asking one question; "Where did you see it?" "It was on this zone, by the beginners section, about 2 days ago I saw it, but I didn't tell anyone until now, I wanted to find it myself and defeat it." This was all we had to go on, so I ignored everything else the player started telling the group and moved towards the beginners section, which was right at the corner of the zone, it took some time for the group to realise I was moving then they caught up. The pace of our walk was constant, until we encountered a monster that was blocking the group from proceeding. I was marching at the front of the line of players and then a warp gate opened in front of me and spat out a giant insect monster, a hornet. The group bumped into the back of me, and saw the giant wasp. "High level hornets should not be in this area" Barak said to me. "No. So let's remove it." At this command the entire group drew out their character's weapons, an axe, a bow, Barak's musket, the young player's stick, and my long dark blade shivered into position in my hands, the hornet waited for our first move. I started issuing commands, the magicians at the back to heal and improve the abilities of the melee players and the ranged players to be attacking the sides of the hornet, I was with the melee group readying myself. My throat sank and the voice bubbled up to my mouth and I frothed out a "Charge!" the players frantically took their roles and started the fight against the hornet. Axes, swords, a stick were swishing along side me at the hornet, the weapons sank through it and passed through the other side of the insect's shell, arrow and bullets from the sides passed right through the hornet and into the player on the opposite side, the magicians were having a hard time healing because the wasp dealt a lot of damage quickly to each group member, it stabbed with it's sting at the players, I had to run behind it to protect my character from the fierce attack. The first player fell, the short stout man, his graphic was pierced by the sting and it fell to the ground, where it became stone. "We can't take this!" Barak shouted past the hornet, I came to terms with the wasp's power and ordered the group to run from it, leaving myself and Barak behind, with the hornet in between us. There was a pause, then I took full grip of the handle and force my character towards the monster, it turned to face me when Barak shot at it's back, it turned to face Barak and I sunk the tip of my sword in between the hornet's wings, it passed through and I tumbled forward onto the ground, below the hornet. Barak was shooting and loading his musket a fast as he could, it did no damage to the hornet, which looked down at my character on the floor, I crawled backwards to get away, my sword dissolved into the air when I left it behind, once I got away from the hornet I moved next to Barak and once again my blade formed into my grip from nothingness. "Need help?" A voice said as it came over a hill in the distance. Amber stood there with another player, Alexis by her side. The two came running down the hill side to our assistance. I explained to Barak who these people were as fast as I could and once he understood he aimed his musket at the hornet once again. He did not shoot, because Barak did not need to shoot, Alexis had already spun a magic staff in the air and summoned a small warp gate, through the warp gate came a golden pole that stretched over to the hornet and dug through it's head. The was a pause of about two seconds before the hornet released a screech and the pole glowed white with the wasp's energy flowing through it into the warp gate. The wasp was completely drained and fell to the ground as a stone statue, there it crumbled into pieces that slid into the ground. "So this is the beast!" Barak said in admiration to Alexis' guardian "I never knew something like this existed in the game's programming" "It doesn't" I stepped in to say "It is not of the game, it is something operating outside of it" "Like a player?" asked Alexis, surprisingly as it was his guardian. "No, not as a player" began Amber with her newest theory "I think it is something operating above the level of our play, far beyond what we are capable of, well, that's my idea anyway" Alexis looked at Amber and then back to his beast. With a swift movement of his staff the beast was called away, the pole slid back into it's warp gate and the warp gate folded into itself, or the airspace it was in. "Then that must be what I am" The boy said "I must be something operating outside of this game, along side you, but not with you, not as you, the way I see it, I'm not even meant to be here" "Alexis..." said Amber in sympathy of his mental state. The boy was clearly becoming distressed over the time he has been trapped in the game, trapped in the Battle World. "I should leave you, I am not part of this new trouble" Barak said. "You had interest in the monster" I said as a way to keep Barak there. "And I have now seen it. I have no purpose to be here now." A warp gate appeared above Barak's character graphic and it slid downwards over his body until Barak was completely into the warp gate and no longer with Amber, Alexis and myself, this was what it looked like when players logged out of the game. Alexis watched him go. "So, boy, will you go back to your quiet life with Amber or stay out in the open?" I asked Alexis "If you want we could all work out what is wrong with you and try to help, or you could go and do as you wish with that cheat monster you lug around with you." "So you believe me now? You can see my situation, the problems I have been forced into, the corner your world has pushed me back into?" I looked at Alexis, then to Amber, who was just staring at me with a rather plain expression. She began, "Alexis, I know this might not be what you want, but you should talk to Xilef, him being the administrator and all could help you get out of this and help you log out." There was a silence. "I'll think about it" Alexis said untruthfully as he turned away from us. I looked onto his walking character graphic and shouted across; "Where do you go?" He stopped quite suddenly and let out a quick breath. Alexis slowly turned to face me and said simply, "I go home. I go to my home." I with that he jumped down the side of a small hill and out of sight. "I should go, it is getting late" said Amber, "Amber, please talk to me again, it's hard to cope knowing that you are no longer on my side in co-operation." Amber flinched when I said this and let out a quiet grunt. She logged out. Copyright 2008 felix |
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| Last Updated ( Thursday, 14 August 2008 ) |
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