Complete Dunnstads Finally, a Tutorial

[Yugam]

130 / 130

Explorer's League - Red Whistle

The most frustrating part about Terrasphere so far (well, you know, aside from possibly getting locked out of your UI) was the fact that the game just kinda...dropped you off...with no gear...and said 'fuck you'. No clothes (well, he was supposed to have gotten clothes, but, again, the game said 'fuck you'), no weapons, and in the middle of nowhere with no clue how to fight or use magic in this game, the devs really did not believe in any kind of hand holding it seemed.

But, at least now, there were no heavily armed and armor men accosting him (okay, they'd actually been really nice and gave him some clothes and weapons), no giant undead demons, no giant insects. Just him and a whole lot of low level thieves and bandits to farm. Thankfully, the man had somehow managed to gain enough experience between Red Fever and simply existing that he'd accrued enough levels that even if he royally screwed up, he wouldn't be incurring another death any time soon. Good thing too, as Yu tried and failed, yet again, to form a sword with his blood. "Oh goddamn it," the man complained as he sidestepped a rather lazily looking attack from a bandit. "I almost had it that time."

@Vashti

Rolls

Play Sheet

 

[Vashti]

Res nullius

The people she met in this world were, at least so far, easy to talk to. It was the quests that made her life a living hell. In the real world, things like work were transactional. You followed directions, sure, but there was rarely ever an inherent danger. And in her own case, the work she did was never dangerous. On its own, anyway. Anything could prove dangerous with enough degrees of separation.

Vashti followed the path until the forest broke and the path split northward and curved south ahead of her. The highroad, she had learned, led toward Stokbon on the coast while the lowroad crests Norfova to the South and deposited Travelers in Southern Astorea. It was out of the way for most low leveled Players, but in terms of trade routes and various businesses that took them close to danger, it served a purpose.

She had no intention of going that way, though. The thieves along this road proved to be enough of a nuisance. While sticking close to the path kept her out of extremely perilous encounters, it was hardly a failproof method of warding. When she heard another person cursing in the nearby chat, Vash glanced up, ears twitching.

"Oh goddamn it,"

"What was that?" she blinked, eyes skimming the horizon for any sign of the distressed speaker.

"I almost had it that time."

Even if he hadn't, the enemy was in her sights now, and she wasn't going to pass up the chance for target practice. She just hoped that she had figured her skills out well enough. Curling her fingers nearly into a fist, pixelated cubes began to manifest in her palm, and like blossoms on a tree branch, they took the form of a rifle. Lifting it to her shoulder and dropping to one knee, she took a breath, slowly exhaled, and lined up her shot.

Center mass. She remembered the self-defense training she learned. You're not special ops. You're not a sniper. You don't do headshots. You shoot where you're guaranteed a hit.

So, maybe it only marginally applied. Maybe she would have to learn to hit headshots. This wasn't the right time to argue semantics in her mind with a trainer she took lessons from four years ago.

The trigger pulled, a burst of energy tore through the air with a high pitched wail and took the bandit in the side.

"Are you alright?" she called out on instinct to the other Traveler.

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

130 / 130

Explorer's League - Red Whistle

Trying to form the sword again, Yu envisioned the weapon's shape with as much clarity as he could muster. Simple, he needed to start simple. A long straight, single edged blade. A square hand guard. A simple hilt. None of the intricacies of a katana. Bare, simple, made with singular purpose.

Yu swore again as the half-formed weapon began to melt again, the blood withdrawing back into his body at his bidding. "Jesus Christ, this is so much harder than it should be," the man muttered to himself, right before the sound of a gun firing tore through the air. In the same instant, something struck the bandit in front of Yu, sending him off to the side. Yu didn't even need to glance at the bandit's health bar to know it was dead.

A voice called out to him from the direction that the shot had range out from.

"Uh, I'm fine, but the hell are you doing stealing other people kills?" Yu asked, looking at the distant beastfolk incredulously.

@Vashti

 

[Vashti]

Res nullius

Her target was dead before it hit the ground. Certainly, it was a weaker enemy because she still had precious little in the way of training. She was less preoccupied with that detail and more with the man, who she observed moments before in a struggle, and by the words he was speaking, she made the executive decision to intervene. The contrast between those words and the ones that came next was jarring.

Uh, I'm fine, but the hell are you doing stealing other people kills?

"Ummmm, excuse me?" Vash strode closer quickly, not breaking even a second as she closed the distance between them and snapped her fingers in his face. Her index finger thrust toward his nose as she spoke. "I don't know what rock you were living under before you crawled out to fight that thing, but when someone does you a favor, the only thing you should be saying is thank you," she jabbed the finger toward him again, knowing exactly what happened next if he was given room to respond with some witty comment, or deflect in that classic E-boy fashion every poor, teenage girl seemed to swoon over these days, before they grew up and understood the concept of toxicity.

It didn't matter that she didn't understand how MMOs worked, or that he was probably some kind of avid pro-gamer. What mattered was the principle of the thing. She snapped to make sure he was paying attention. "Are you hearing me, Fabio?" she inquired, firing off the first male celebrity name that came to mind. "I don't care which horse you rode in on that made you think you had the right to cop an attitude with me, but you better trade it in for a new one real quick."

She pointed toward the corpse that lay sprawled across the ground, bleeding rather than dissipating into data. Always an unnerving site in games like these, but honestly, go off dev team~

"I saw you getting attacked by that," she explained, "...and I heard you struggling," she continued as she pointed at him, the rifle in her other hand resting with its muzzle pointed toward the ground. "So, I made the rational decision, and I took the shot. Now, if you don't want my help, that's fine by me, but you can say so in a more civilized way, okay Boy George?" The sugar sweet smile that she always wore seemed almost potent enough to turn him diabetic as she stared intently up at the man.

After a moment passed and the heat of her disgust and anger cooled off, she thought that she recognized him from their meeting some hours before. "...hey, wait a sec, do I know you?"

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

130 / 130

Explorer's League - Red Whistle

It wasn't necessarily surprising that the woman approached him. What did surprise him was how fast and furiously she did. Stomping her way towards him shouting god only knew what at him (did she just call him fucking 'Fabio'?), shoving her finger so close to his face, he had to lean back to avoid getting stabbed in the eye by her nails.

"...hey, wait a sec, do I know you?"

Yu narrowed his eyes at the girl, tryign to figure out if he recognized her from somewhere. "Yeah, actually I do think I've see you before," the man said, a look of recognition dawning on his face. "On the cover of 'I've never played an MMO weekly'!" Yu's face deadpanned as he finished.

"I'd be thanking you if you actually did me a favor," the man said, clearly annoyed. "That," he said, pointing at the dead bandit on the ground, "is the last bandit in this zone. Which means, now I have to wait around for the next twenty to thirty minutes for them to respawn, twiddling my thumbs, before I can go back to practicing, and farming."

Yu sighed and ran a hand through his hair, closing his eyes as he inhaled and exhaled slowly. "Ya know what, it's fine. You didn't know. You're clearly new around here. Just, forget I said anything."

@Vashti

 

[Vashti]

Res nullius

Ugh.

The worst things in the world, after a broken nail, a cheating boyfriend, and insufferable "alpha males" who thought she owed them the time of day were ungrateful people and assholes, and this guy was managing to be both. He started to get on her case about her inexperience, and she could feel the aneurism coming on. Her gaze was fire and brimstone. When he inferred that she had done nothing to help him, she let out a hmpf! of indignation.

"Maybe that'll give you some time to think about how to talk to people!" she huffed. Even if he was right, at this point, it didn't matter. It was a matter of principle! Principle! "Next time try complaining less loudly!"

Vashti unsummoned her rifle and threw up her hands, shook her head, and let out a loud huff.

She knew that they both could have handled that situation better, but there was just something about a communicative breakdown from the very start that irked her. Instead of calmly explaining why he had a problem, he yowled like a tomcat trying his luck with the ladies past midnight. Honestly, these gamer boys are all the same.

If there was nothing else to fight around here, and the man was right about the respawn timer, it was best that she get back on her way. She still thought she recognized him, but at that point, she was past trying to piece it together. "We can try this again some other time," she called over her shoulder toward him. "I don't think its fair to base your first impression of someone off of something petty. I'll see you around, edgelord~"

@Yugam