Complete Eastern Brisshal Enter, wolf of Eternal Darkness!

[Lucille Fer]

《 The Wolf of Eternal Darkness cometh! 》

Once again, a star would fly over the Eastern Brisshal as a new player logged in for the first time. Somewhat amusing that such a brilliant light would illuminate the sky as the individual who spawned in the forest was sculpted to be about as dark as they could get for the sole purpose of departing from the player's real self as much as possible.

"WHAAAAAAA~~"

The girl's exclamation of amazement carried itself between the trees before the tall figure started running all around. "Oooooh!" As she examined one of the trees. "Oooooooooh!" As she felt the dirt and mud against her shabby boots. "Ooooooooooooooooh!!" As she grabbed her simple tunic and sneaked a peek down her own cleavage. "I really look like I set it up! Ahahaha, this is amazing!"

Her excitement did not end there. Looking behind herself, she would practice wagging her new tail, then twitching the two large wolf-like ears. It was a strange sensation, especially as she tried to touch all of the extra animal features. "Haha, ticklish… and soft! And these..!" It all ended with her going to another tree and swiping at it with her hand, the claws of her fingers digging into the bark and leaving behind a long mark. "AWESOME!"

@Cleo Looker

 

[Cleo Looker]

The sight of another star falling told Cleo that yet another new player had logged in for the first time, causing the agent to stop moving in the direction that she'd been moving in and take off in a sprint towards where she figured the player would have landed, though it would take a minute or two to reach the player. She just hoped that somehow, whoever it was didn't manage to stumble into any trouble within their first few moments of playing. Hopefully she wasn't going to be dealing with another Quincy situation.

When she did arrive, it was to the sight of a dark skinned wolf-girl (what was with her and meeting beastfolk?) clawing at a tree and swiping at it with her claws, after having touched all of her animal parts and apparently finding it to be quite pleasing. Cleo could agree with that, beastfolk animal features were always interesting and the ones she'd felt were always soft to the touch.

Hey there! You're new to this world, right?

She called out to get the girl's attention, waving over once the girl turned to look at her, if she even did.

My name's Cleo Looker. I typically look after newbies and give them some advice. Welcome to the world.

@Lucille Fer

 

[Lucille Fer]

《 The Wolf of Eternal Darkness cometh! 》

Quite pleased with everything so far, Lucille failed to notice that someone was quite close and watching her for a little while now. Although when the voice rang out and alerted the beastfolk, there was no embarrassment to be found. "OH?!" Jump in place and landing in a more alert position, the wolf girl was certainly quite energetic and not hiding it in the least. "A person!" Her large ears twitched a few times as she listened to Cleo explain who she was.

While a smirk did spread across her face, her head would shake to show that she disagreed. "A guide? I don't need one! You gaze upon the mighty Lucille Fer, a wolf of darkness! I'm here to have fun, not follow a guide like I'm a child being led through a gallery!" With that, her dual-colored eyes started darting from spot to spot, wondering if perhaps she could dash in a random direction and hopefully run into some fun along the way.

@Cleo Looker

 

[Cleo Looker]

Wow, this really was quite the animated person, wasn't it? Whoever this girl was really was quite energetic, bouncing in place and landing in an alert position, like she was some kind of cartoon character, her ears twitching as she listened. Something about the girl put Cleo on edge, she got the same feeling that she had gotten back in the day, when she was trying to question or arrest somebody that just refused to listen to her or even hear out any of her demands or questions. And lo and behold, her feeling once again turned out to be as close to accurate as possible.

Wolf of darkness, huh? Great, she was dealing with some kind of edgy kid.

So I guess this fantastic wolf of darkness must know how to open her menu? Or send a friend or trade request? Maybe how to cast a spell or use a combat skill?

Cleo rolled her eyes, listing things off sarcastically as she noticed the girl's eyes darting around. This girl was planning on making a break for it, wasn't she?

@Lucille Fer

 

[Lucille Fer]

《 The Wolf of Eternal Darkness cometh! 》

Hearing Cleo list off things that were clearly essential to play the game, Lucille would briefly pause her planning of an escape route. Instead, she would stand tall and plant her hands at her hips as if she was to announce something she was extraordinarily proud of. "Nope, don't know none of that!" A giant grin followed. "Can't be that hard to figure out if I managed to turn on this infernal VR set!" That probably gave enough of an idea of just how technically skilled the girl was. At least she followed it with boisterous laughter to indicate that one of the two was having a good time.

And now that she had proven her proficiency with the game, it was time to have some fun. "That direction should be fine, right? I wanna do something FUN now that I finally can!" Just like that, she would pick a random direction and start jogging. She wanted to take in the sights, so there was no way she could just sprint away!

@Cleo Looker

 

[Cleo Looker]

Ah, well that definitely didn't fill her with confidence, if she was calling the VR headset infernal. The thing only had a few buttons and wasn't all that difficult to figure out once it was plugged in and set up properly. The boisterous laughter only made things worse, as she realized instantly that this Lucille person wasn't taking any of this seriously in the slightest. Cleo raised her hand, about to tell Lucille a few things that she might want to know before the girl could make any big mistakes.

Only to find that Lucille was already jogging away.

H-Hey!

She took off in a jog after the wolf girl, finding it decently easy to keep pace with her, given the disparity in their power and the fact that Lucille was taking more of a leisurely pace. The problem was that Lucille was running in the direction of a small bear family, last that Cleo had checked anyway.

You're gonna run into trouble if you head in this direction!

@Lucille Fer

 

[Lucille Fer]

《 The Wolf of Eternal Darkness cometh! 》

"Trouble? Sounds more fun than standing around!" She simply responded and kept going. Unless she was stopped by force, she was unlikely to stop on her own until she found something that would catch her attention. Which, granted, might not have been too difficult. Lucille was simply far too excited to stop now, after such a long time of getting to this point and now finally getting to be someone other than herself. Not to mention, she had another person running right by her. "If the trouble really were that bad, you wouldn't be running along with me, now would you?"

With that utterly flawless logic, she felt like whatever they were about to run into couldn't have possibly been that bad. The girl wasn't exactly someone who had played video games before, but even she figured that a game was unlikely to kill its new players instantly. There was no way she would ever hear anything about TerraSphere online if that were the case, right? Especially anything positive.

@Cleo Looker

 

[Cleo Looker]

Cleo couldn't help but groan out loud, but it because clear basically instantly that this girl wasn't about to let anything except force stop her, which meant that Cleo would have to be the one to use that force. And she wasn't about to go and strongarm a new player into obeying her just because she was trying to keep the troublemaker safe. Though somehow Lucille managed to twist the fact that she was running alongside the wolf girl to somehow be a sign that things were okay. Did she not understand that Cleo was much stronger than her?

I'm telling you, there are wild animals in this area that can be really dangerous for new players.

Cleo groaned, but she would keep following. If worst came to pass, she'd still be around to actually help the wolf girl survive whatever horrific trouble she was about to get into, maybe teach the girl a thing or two to keep her alive.

@Lucille Fer

 

[Lucille Fer]

《 The Wolf of Eternal Darkness cometh! 》

This whole conversation while running was a bit awkward, but Lucille hardly minded that. In fact, she was just happy that she could run around like this! It was so much different from her everyday life. It was simply exhilarating! Having this kind of body, she could definitely get used to that! And despite the warnings, the lupine would simply flex her claws as if she was getting them ready. She might not have had any masteries selected, but she sure had the spirit!

"Isn't that a good thing? Games are all about beating strong enemies to grow stronger yourself! That's what I read on the internet, anyway." Frankly, the girl was looking forward to a fight. Everything in her life has been frustrating her so much as of late, and she just couldn't help but have unpleasant thoughts of hurting others! Seriously, what went wrong to make her imagine slapping a family member? Scratch that, it was their behavior that caused it all. "This body feels like it can do anything, hahaha!"

@Cleo Looker

 

[Cleo Looker]

Oh god, the girl was getting overrun by the sensation of having a much more powerful body than her real one likely was. It had taken Cleo some time to learn to control the strength and speed of this avatar body, even if it looked identical to her real life body. Now she was going to have to deal with a hyperactive newbie that thought she was, for some reason, invincible. And thing were only getting worse as they approached a small grove, one that Cleo KNEW contained a family of bears that wouldn't take kindly to a wolf girl showing up.

You have to slow down at least a little bit! You've not even gone through your options and selected anything yet! Do you even have any weapons or armor yet!?

She tried once again to reason with the girl, before it was too late and they emerged into the grove and would be forced to fight the bears that lived there.

@Lucille Fer

 

[Lucille Fer]

《 The Wolf of Eternal Darkness cometh! 》

"Tsk, fine! Since you're insisting so much…" Honestly, what was this woman's deal. No matter what was said, all she could come back with was 'stop, slow down, don't do anything!' Was she anti-fun or something? Well, since Lucille didn't want to be pestered her whole first journey into this game, she did as the other wished and at least slowed down a bit. "Weapons? You mean these, right?" She once again showed her claws. Admittedly, they did seem like they could tear through flesh pretty easily. But as for armor, the girl clearly only had the starter tunic and nothing else.

"I thought games were something people would play to have fun, not to yell at each other about… options or whatever. Why do you even care?" The wolf girl certainly did not know this 'Cleo Looker', as she introduced herself before, so she didn't want to be lectured by some stranger. She already had her parents for that, and she played this game specifically to get away from all of that.

@Cleo Looker

 

[Cleo Looker]

Well at the very least she got the girl to slow down, though she still didn't feel like it was going to do them much good, since this Lucille girl seemed intent on not being stopped. She also seemed to be certain that her claws were enough to deal with whatever she would come across. It would be cruel, but Cleo would have to allow the girl to discover that wasn't the case and that she was nowhere near as invincible as she seemed to feel like she was, as easy as it was to get lost in that sort of deception.

And she didn't even seem to know about the consequences of dying, which was worrying.

You do know that dying in this game feels exactly like dying in reality? Excrutiating pain as you get cut into ribbons or torn apart by something.

And she hadn't even reached the kicker yet. Really, she was surprised that there were somehow still people out there that didn't know about the whole murder death game thing. That had been headline news for months when it had been revealed! How had people managed to miss that?

And if you die three times in this game, you die in real life. You can't just get into combat before you've even finished character creation!

@Lucille Fer

 

[Lucille Fer]

《 The Wolf of Eternal Darkness cometh! 》

Finally, the girl would stop. Turning her body sharply to the side, she would dig her boots into the dirt as she slid a couple of centimeters until the friction halted her movement completely. She was now facing Cleo directly, her dual-colored eyes sharply glaring at the woman. "You're trying to lie to get me to stop playing this game, aren't you?" The assumption was correct, but not entirely. "There is no way any of what you just said is true."

Bringing her hand up, she'd clench it as if she was trying to be dramatic. "I just used this hand to cut apart a tree and barely felt a thing! If I tried to do that in real life, my hand would be in agony!" And the arguments continued. "And there is no way a game would be able to kill a person in real life. How would that even work? The VR set couldn't prepare me a toast if it tried!" Crossing her arms atop her chest, she would nod to herself.

"Mmm, are you maybe jealous? Did you make a mistake while making your character, and now you regret it, so you're trying to make others stop playing?" Putting her hands back at her hips, the girl laughed heartily. "Ahahaha, no need to worry! You might have nothing on my looks, but if you hang around me, then maybe you'll get cooler over time!"

@Cleo Looker

 

[Cleo Looker]

Well, nobody could say she hadn't tried now. Cleo felt her mind nearly grind to a halt at the herculean leap in logic that the girl made to decide that she had lied to make Lucille stop playing the game. The logic that Lucille was using was almost physically hurting Cleo's brain, as she listened to the girl trying to be dramatic and talking about how she'd scratched a tree. It did confirm that the girl had no idea about the deaths that had been caused by this game and, for that matter, wouldn't believe her if she said anything.

Lucille, it seemed, was determined to not believe her.

I don't need I think to catch any of whatever you have, thanks. But fine, lead the way then, if you're so cool and strong already.

It was time to let natural selection take its course, it seemed. She'd step in if it seemed like Lucille was going to be killed, of course.

But the girl could learn a think or two and losing a hand might be just the warning she needed.

@Lucille Fer

 

[Lucille Fer]

《 The Wolf of Eternal Darkness cometh! 》

Telling Lucille to lead the way might have been a bit of a mistake, as it only boosted her confidence further. With a massive grin, she would raise one hand to the skies as if victorious after a hard-fought battle. And indeed, she defeated the mighty Cleo Looker with the blade of FACTS and LOGIC! Anyhow, now that there were no more pressing issues to resolve, the wolf girl would turn her back toward Cleo and start marching forward, straight away from the bear den. The thing was, while stopping, the girl turned to the side to face the crimson lancer. So now that she turned around again, she was heading in a completely different direction, 90 degrees to the side, without even realizing it.

"ALRIGHT! Full speed ahead, team!" Assuming the command she was rightfully given, she started sprinting again. Not at full speed, of course - had to provide Cleo with a chance to keep up! Though the sprint was somewhat short-lived as they found themselves going through a bit of a clearing when something suddenly fell onto Lucille's face. "Bwh—" Stopping on the spot, she would grab and pull the object away. "Ooooh!" It was a tree slime, leaving the girl's face and hands covered in green goo. Quite a few of them started falling down from branches around the duo. Clearly, they managed to stumble into some kind of a nest.

"Hey, is this the danger you were talking about? Okaaaay, time to show you what I can do!!" Just like that, she would rip the poor smiling slime in her hands apart, goo flying everywhere. This was actually quite cathartic! It didn't take long before the black wolf started running all over the place, using her claws to quite literally slaughtering the lowly mobs, no matter how hard they tried to fight back. But hey, it was still experience points!

@Cleo Looker

 

[Cleo Looker]

And now they were headed away from the danger that she'd expected, much to Cleo's dismay, the woman slapping her palm to her face and groaning out loud, her eyes fixing on the bear den as they moved away from it, watching it vanish into the distance as Lucille seemed keen to go for a full sprint. And it was pretty easy to keep up with the newbie, considering the difference in their abilities.

The slime that fell on Lucille's face wasn't something she'd expected, but it would be interesting to see how the girl deal with the slimes. Of course, they were incredibly weak, so Lucille was going to be given the most annoying ego boost that the world had ever seen.

And then Lucille began to rip the slime that she was holding apart, before she began to tear through all of them with her claws, whilst Cleo stood there and watched. One slime tried to approach her, before a spear manifested and impaled it without the lancer having moved an inch.

This is not the danger I was talking about, by the way. These things are basically free XP, assuming you can outlast them.

@Lucille Fer

 

[Lucille Fer]

《 The Wolf of Eternal Darkness cometh! 》

The slimes really were quite numerous, so Lucille stopped for a moment and turned around to look at Cleo. "They're not? Well, whatever. What does What's XP?" That said, before she could return to fighting, the girl noticed something. Her head would tilt up as if there was something written up in the skies, and she was trying to look at it. Perhaps she didn't quite comprehend that the UI was part of her vision rather than something projected onto her eyes. "You have empty mastery slots available… hey, what does that mean? The words are flashing mid-air in red when these things get close!"

A she specified 'these things', she stomped and squished one of the slimes that tried to nibble at her boots. Her eyes also fixated on the spear. "And what's that. It looks cool!" Red and looking like it was made out of solid darkness, of course, it managed to capture the girl's attention. It'd be odd if it didn't.

@Cleo Looker

 

[Cleo Looker]

XP means experience points. They're what help you get stronger and level up when you play a game.

There was something ridiculous about the fact that she was explaining basic gaming terms to this girl, but here she was, doing exactly that, though she could tell for a fact that Lucille was having her first interaction with the UI infringing on her vision, though more worrying was the fact that the girl had no masteries yet. Cleo groaned and shook her head, palming her face again.

Masteries are the skills and styles of magic and fighting that you can use in this game. You combine them to form whatever your specific fighting style is.

She gestured to the spear that she had created, where it began to break apart and disintegrate into arcane energy particles, carried off by the wind.

I made that spear using my Arcanamancy mastery. You REALLY should pick some masteries before you try getting in combat or you'll definitely regret it.

@Lucille Fer

 

[Lucille Fer]

《 The Wolf of Eternal Darkness cometh! 》

XP was an experience point; masteries were important and cool, noted! The girl nodded along with the explanation from Cleo. TerraSphere might have hardly been the best choice for a person's first video game, but at least she had a good teacher by her side. At least until the frustration would boil over and the wolf puppy would get abandoned in the woods.

"I see, masteries good. Alright… MASTERIES OPEN!" As she shouted, she would move her hand in front of her face as if she was trying to hit something. Few moments elapsed, and nothing happened. "MASTERIES OPEN!!" Moving her hand back and forth, it was as if she was trying to paw at something. Or maybe it wasn't that hard to figure out that she was trying to 'push' the warning box she was seeing to open up the mastery menu.

She was also quite determined, repeating the phrase and gesture quite a few times before her body language would finally show some more obvious signs of frustration and anger at her approach not precisely working as she'd hoped.

@Cleo Looker

 

[Cleo Looker]

Oh no. The girl was now standing there shouting like a moron, as if the menues in this game were voice activated, or hitting the air like she had to punch into submission or something. It was pretty funny to watch, all things considered, but she was really starting to get secondhand frustration just from watching the girl trying and failing to get her menu to open and be able to be interacted with.

You need to turn your hand with your palm facing towards you, then act like your hand is a touch screen phone or tablet or something. That's how you open your menu and see your mastery options and stuff.

She hummed and shrugged, watching the girl. She had to wonder what masteries that Lucille would be picking, probably Martial Arts to make good use of her claws and stuff like that. She just hoped that this wolf didn't pick anything Cleo herself had. She did NOT want to take on this particular student.

@Lucille Fer