Jantiva- It's all but a game

[DB.]

The bell rang and every student began packing up; the teacher slumped in his chair, loosened his tie, and yelled over the noise. “Don't forget your homework, page seventy three, numbers one through twenty.” Dante picked his back pack and quickly walked out of the room.

The hallways were packed with students, and some teachers, anxious to get out of class. Dante didn't have much friends at school, probably a consequence of keeping to himself, so he didn't have much a reason to stay in the hallways. He headed straight for the doors and walked out.

Dante's car was at the repair shop so he had to take the school bus. The bus arrived as soon as he walked out of the school. He sighed and boarded it. He sat four rows back. People then shortly began pouring in and the bus quickly left the school.

Dante reached his house in about thirty minutes. He jumped out of the bus, wanting to get out of it as soon as he could, and stood looking at his house. Sighing he walked into his house, threw his back pack to the side.

It was a long, boring day at school that seemed even longer after being anxious to come back home and play. He headed straight for his room and shut the door as he entered. Pulling up a chair he sat down next to the console unit. He pushed the power button and picked up two small pads. “Please put the pads on both sides of your head,” It said in a slow, monotone voice. Dante moved his hands towards the sides of his head and placed the pads in-front of his ears. He slowly began to lose feeling in his body, his sight began to go dark, until everything faded away.

His senses slowly started to come back; first came the feeling of a breeze brushing across his face, slow and cold; then came smell, he could smell the scents that the breeze had brought, the scent of grass, plants, and various other smells from the city; next came sound, the sound of animals and other players moving around him, some talking, others shouting; lastly came sight, he was on the outskirts of Lorinth looking out into the city.

The streets were paved, there were small stalls along the side of the roads where players had set up shops selling their unwanted equipment. There things like weapon cards, potions, armor, and tools of the trade for several classes to chooses from. Beside them, in the buildings were larger shops run by NPC's, those sold more generic weapons, but cheaper than stalls.

Dante started to browse through the wares, not really looking to buy anything. He started sorting through the weapon cards, then the armor before turning back towards the outskirts. Dante brought up the PDA on his wrist, seeing who, from his few list of contacts, was online. No one it appeared. Sighing, he looked towards the forest, time to start.

[Insanity]

Seth didn't notice it at first, he thought the sound was part of his dream, it took him a almost a minute to figure out that it was the phone. He moved his hand across the bedside table and soon found the vibrating cellphone "Yes?" he answered "Good morning, sleepy head! Or should I say good afternoon? I'm just calling to wake you up, thought it might be a good time seeing as it's long past noon" the voice on the other side of the phone was fast and out of breath "Oh, ok... Sounds like you're having a stressful day again... I guess you won't be coming home for dinner?" as he spoke he climbed out of bed and in to the wheelchair "Yeah, you can order some takeout, there should still be some money on the microwave, right? Anyways, I have to get ready for an operation. I'll see you when I get back... Whenever that is, haha!" with that she hung up.

Seth rolled out of his room and in to the kitchen, on the microwave was some money "22 dollars and 38 cents... I guess thats enough for now" he said out loud. He rolled back to his room "I guess I can play a while before I eat" he turned on the console and placed the pads in their correct places, everything faded away and left him in darkness. As he regained his senses inside the game he stretched his body and looked around, he was standing just outside just outside the gates of Lorinth on the road to Jorouy. He ignored the people around him pulled up the book he had hanging from his belt, it grew in size and he opened it. Inside was a bunch of notes -monster names, locations and weaknesses. Areas and item locations- he flipped through the pages until he came to the last notes 'Quest - The Thief: Find the man who stole the old lady Laara's necklace, last seen outside Lorinth on the path to Jorouy' he closed the book and looked around again before he started walking along the road.

[RainbowBrigade]

Myra skipped out of the classroom, happily dodging through the crowds of people that cluttered the hallway and grounds. She walked along the wall near the pavement, getting a few odd looks and giggles from nearby students and shouted at from the teacher. This had become a regular routine, and safely managing to evade a detention, she followed the wall down and jumped off. My debated about getting the bus, standing in front of the door for a few moments as she thought. This upset quite a few of the other students, who desperately wanted to get away from the prison they had been contained in during the day, but all their agitated comments seemed to be lost on her. Eventually she decided to walk, taking the shorter way home and admiring the sights on the way there.

It wasn't long before she was home, starting the console up. she picked up the pads (she'd paid extra for the custom muffs, although there was no difference in quality) before propping herself up on some pillows and allowing her senses to leave her.

Mirim stretched, rolling her neck and taking a big gulp of breath. How Myra had forgotten how realistic this world was, how exciting she found it. There was a good reason why it had sold so many copies. Grinning, Mirim gave a big, happy woop, attracting the nearby attention of some players. "Today's gonna be a good day!" she decided, waving to an NPC. It didn't wave back, but Mirim didn't seem to mind.

She followed the cobbled streets, the world of Jantiva fascinating to her. Eventually she came to a tavern on the very outskirts of the city, just before the forest. It was very strategically placed - people could get their quests here before venturing into wilderness, where the majority of the quests were set. Mirim grinned, throwing open the doors and strutting into her favourite place.

"Good day, everybody!" she greeted as she pulled back a stool by the wall rather haphazardly, perching on it and throwing her feet up to rest on the table. Mirim leaned back and looked about contentedly, surprised at the lack of players today. "Guess the rush hasn't started yet." she said grinning to the poor player next to her, who seemed to try to be intently focusing on a private conversation he was having with someone elsewhere.

Mirim looked towards the board on the wall, running her eyes down the lists of quests. There was some simple forest quests, easy experience. Stretching to reach, she snagged a quest parchment and pocketed it.

[Volkov]

Before the last class Caitlin mentioned to Suzume that she would stay behind and clean the classroom. So when the classroom was empty she began to dust the floors and when she finished she propped the broom up at the back of the classroom like usual and bowed her head to the Teacher before she left which gained him holding a hand to his forehead “Miss Ueda. Have you taken any consideration into what you would like to do as a full time occupation?”

Caitlin stared at the man awkwardly for a moment then shrugged her shoulders a bit “It doesn’t really matter does it?” she replied holding her hands together, another respectful stance the teacher just sighed and waved her off so that she could leave with an audible mumble “Just want to make sure there isn’t another great dip in your results again like last month.” Caitlin bowed her head again and picked up her bag and headed out into the hallway slouching and not looking anyone in the eye as she walked through the school. There were still a few students left meandering the halls. And when she put on her outside shoes and put away her school shoes she could see she took too long. A pale tall man in a white dress shirt and black dress pants was waiting for her outside. His short silk-like chestnut hair made the other girls around the shoe lockers giggle. They were wondering if he had a girlfriend. But Caitlin just held her head down for a moment feeling like her face was being drawn down to her feet….but then she heard something in the back of her head. Suzume berating her on how she stood. Saying if she herself stood that way her enemies would be able to break her back.

Caitlin held herself up straight and began walking out the doors yet still scowling at the sight of the man. She went towards the bike racks but a dress sleeved arm stopped her “Caitlin we’re supposed to go straight home today so that mom and dad can-“

“Don’t touch me!”

Caitlin yanked and shrugged her arm away from the man who was now confirmed to be her step-brother and ran to her bike unlocking it quickly and storing the chain in her blouse pocket. her wrist was about to be grabbed she turned around and tried to slap her brother in the face with staggering failure “Will you listen to me for a second?” he backed up a few steps so his step-sister wouldn’t punch or kick him. Instead she bowed the lowest she could gritting her teeth and just pulled her bicycle away from the rack and swung a leg over and began biking away from her brother who just stood and sighed before walking back to his car to tail after his sister. Since she was heading home either way.

Caitlin only stopped to get a bag full of energy drinks but after that she biked five minutes to get to her home. She ran in the door nearly closing the door on her brother. But she ran as fast as she could to her room her mother tried to interrupt her “Caitlin; tomorrow we’re going out to get bridesmaids outfits fitted we need to get yours fitted as well and then we’re going to have dinner as a family.”

“I have homework.”

“Well finish it before then. Don’t spend all night playing that game-“

“-a…and classroom duties…sometime..”

Caitlin stared at the ground until her mother threw up her hands angrily. Caitlin just bowed and ran under her mother’s arm to her room. Her brother was hot on her tail but she slammed the door in his face and locked it. Throwing her stuff on her bed as he was banging on the door “Caitlin we need to talk!” but her mother’s voice chimed in “Oh let her do what she wants. She gets good enough grades to be left alone.” Her brother sighed again “I know! .... but her attitude towards me….”

The voices drowned out as Caitlin sighed heavily dropping her textbooks open to reference back and do her homework later. She opened an energy drink and took a sip before pulling out her cell phone and texting to Suzume

“Just got home. Hope everything’s alright with you at your place. I’ll be wandering around in Lorinth if you’d like to party up for a tough dungeon …. Whenever you have time …..sorry I fell asleep last time…I promise I won’t this time.”

She turned on the console and put the pads in front of her ears leaning back in her chair as everything faded into black losing everything then slowly gaining her senses back. Being welcomed by the sight of where she left off the last time on the outskirts of Lorinth. There was a NPC farmer taking his fluffy adorable animals from the city traveling down the road.

Quartz smiled watching the NPC farmer for a few moments then began to run into the great city. The only person on her contacts list was Obsidian. So she would be patient and wait to hear word from her friend not even checking to see if she was online since she didn't want to annoy her. Quartz’s hair rings would jingle as she made her way down to the marketplace to check through things. A few herbs and status and experience boosting items caught her eye but she thought better than to spend without figuring out what her and Obsidian’s game plan was.

She then moved to a fountain nearby the marketplace watching two guys start shouting and doing static default emotive animations and dancing around she snickered watching them until she noticed a familiar ding radiating in her ears, then she shook her head. Rejecting another random party invite. Just because she was a healer there were plenty who wanted to do incredibly tough dungeon runs with a healing mage at their back. But Quartz didn’t want to blow off Obsidian for some loser that would probably just yell at her for being slow. So she took a seat down by the fountain and began checking her active and completed quests while she waited to hear from Obsidian before doing anything too ambitious.

[Mr.Natas]

David smiled when the bell rang. Today was the day, today he was going to start his crew. He already had in mind what he was going to attack first. The essence quest ship. The quest was for newbies but rarely done because it took you across the map, so the valuable would be only semi-protected. Being need to enchant essence could only be normally opinionated in two ways dropped, which wasn't very likely, or mined in high monster areas but, David checked it out from him-self and there was essence on the ship and it was going to make him rich.

Leaving the school, David rode the bus in anticipation. 'This is it' He thought getting off at his stop. 'The first thing I'll do is get a bigger ship.' He unlocked the door to his empty house and quickly went to his room. His Jantiva console was the limited edition, had to preorder, special kind. He flicked it on and put on the pads to start playing. "Here we go." He said out loud.

Entering the would was always an experience with in it self. The feeling of being alive and slowly waking up was awesome. Rulik, David's character, was already notorious without this scheme. Being part of the Redd Handed crew he had his fill of sea raids. He already asked Redd if he could create his own crew and being Redd's first mate he couldn't refuse. Waking up in Lorinth he quickly went to work. Going to each of the three player boards he posted 'Looking for two or three higher level players for raid and possibly guild. Will be payed generously after, PM if interested.' Rulik then went to the city center and waited for the PMs.

[Insanity]

Seth liked this world a lot, since not only was he able to walk again, but he could actually accomplish something. His character, Hawk, wasn't one of the highest leveled characters, but he was strong enough to do what he wanted. And he didn't really feel like rushing to the top either, since he enjoyed the gathering of information a lot more than the constant nagging of guilds who just wants to "finish" the game. He felt like the ones rushing through the game missed the whole point of Jantiva, the fact that it was an entire world to experience.

He had been walking along the road for a few minutes when a voice came from the woods "You der, hand o'er ya money an' valuables!" a masked man came out from behind a tree and pointed a sword him "Are you the one who stole the necklace belonging to old lady Laara?" the man looked at him a bit confused "Well, I stole a necklace from an old lady 'few days ago... Wha's it to ya?" as the thief spoke he cautiously circled around Hawk, the whole time keeping the sword fixed at him "Very well then" he quickly drew his weapons and attacked the thief who parried the first two blows and jumped back. Hawk made a low sweeping kick and tripped the thief, then finished it of with two attacks to the head. He looted the body and found the necklace and a few pieces of silver. Not much, but it was what would be expected from a low level quest. He had taken it to get the information, nothing else. He picked up his book, opened it, and wrote down the location where he met the thief and the loot he got. After he got back to Lorinth and had taken the Necklace to the old lady he also wrote down the quest reward.

Now that the quest was finished he would have to find something new, perhaps join a group for a dungeon he didn't have much information about, or see if he could find a new quest. He walked over to the quest board and looked over the quests, he found two that he hadn't completed yet, one lower-level and one mid-level. He took the quests and wrote down the basic information for both of them in his book.

[Cheshire]

Suzume had already logged in, having had a lovely exchange with her mother.

-20 minutes earlier-

"SUZUME, LISTEN TO ME!"
"Can't."
"... and why NOT!?"
"You're fat."
"WHAT!?"
"And I don't like you."
"..."

Suzume had just walked in the door and promptly walked past her mother without a glance, heading up to her room.

"Going to play that game of yours again!?"
"Can't do much else, now can I?"
"And who's fault is that?"
"Yours, I believe."

Her mother groaned loudly.

"Going to keep blaming things on me?"
"Yup."
"Why, what did I do to deserve all this, Suzume?"
"If you need to ask..."
"You can't always blame me for your father's fau-"

There was the sound of shattering glass.

"Did... did you just throw one of my wine glasses at me!?"
"Yup."
"... fine, go play that game of yours, ungrateful brat."
"Kay."

With that Suzume walked up to her room and closed the door, locking it.

-Present Time-

Obsidian cleaved through another player, laughing maniacally, throwing his spear and downing their friend as they tried to flee. "Sorry, kids, if you can't handle the heat, stay outa the kitchen, aye?"

He laughed as his spear reappeared in his hand, walking away from the fading bodies of the dead player characters. He sighed a bit, after they had faded, though, these two were pretty new, hardly any fun to take down. He was just wondering where Quartz was, when he got a text from her. A few moments later, she logged in.

He started hurrying to Quartz's stated position, while sending a tell her way:
To Quartz: Hey, take it you got home alright? Well, I'll be heading your way now, be there shortly!

Before long, he arrived at Lorinth, and began looking around for Quartz.

[Volkov]

"Hey cutie why don't you party with us? you'll surely gain a few levels if you catch my drift..."

In her time waiting for Obsidian there was someone who kept asking her while she was sitting to join his party.
A couple of his friends around him were commenting and goading on

"Your probably just idling just to annoy people!" one guy commented
Quartz's brow furrowed
"Right right! what would a healer be doing just sitting and waiting!?"
another guy groaned and rolled his eyes.

The one in question who had been bugging her waved his arms around
"Come on what do you say?"

"The-Same-Thing-I've-Been-Saying-For-The- LAST TWENTY MINUTES!"

Quartz stood up and walked over to a NPC chicken and picked it up tossing it at the male warrior who had been harassing him. it was a flimsy dainty toss but still managed to nail him in the head.

Quartz was going to start chicken tossing at the annoying one's friends but they all managed to run away exclaiming that Quartz was possesed or some insane chick. she fumed and plopped back down on the edge the fountian near the market letting the chicken go. watching it float around in the fountian. bawking occasionally, when she got Obsidian's tell.
Replying back instantly

To Obsidian: "..Yes. But I had to bike home faster because something annoying was driving after me. I might not be able to play tomorrow...I might have to go down to the hardware store and get a lesson on how to put steel locks on my door...Okay! I'll be at the fountian near the marketplace."

Quartz took a deep breath then looked back and up and saw a dashing manly muscley warrior stareing at her then she looked over at the chickens. Caitlin all the while thinking to herself "Suzu~...Please hurry...."

[Cheshire]

(Edit: not trying to jump ahead of everyone, just came in a tad late and wanted to catch up XD)

Obsidian soon spotted his friend, groaning as his spear was removed upon entering the town. He walked over to her just as some idiot walked up to her and tried... either recruiting her or hitting on her, Obsidian wasn't sure, and didn't really care. He grinned, preparing for the show.

"HEY! I know you're not flirting with my girl!' Obsidian exclaimed loudly, walking up to the two. The man, startled, turned to look at Obsidian, he was a warrior... a berserker. A big axe in hand, he was in the middle of speaking...

"Who do you think you are, talking to me li-"

... when he realized who Obsidian was...

"... ah.... ah... ah... I didn't mean anything by it, I swear, I was just seeing if she wanted to go party, that's all... don't... don't pk me... I worked hard on this character... I can't afford all the penalties from all that dying... and... I... ah... I... um... I'm just going to go now!" And with that, he ran off.

Obsidian burst into laughter, smiling at Quartz, "Hehe, am I good or what?"

[Honey]

Shawnty DeVay tossed a wave to the guys she’d been walking with and darted the rest of the way to her house. Shoving open the door her greeting died on her lips as it did every time she came home to the empty house. It was so odd not to hear the TV being blasted over the radio and someone’s argument or smell something odd or burning from the kitchen. She sighed wishing four of her brothers hadn’t headed off for collage and toeing off her shoes, slammed the door for old times’ sake. The house was eerily silent, meaning both her parents were still at work and she stopped up the stairs to dispel the odd gloom.

The blond entered her room and tossed her hat onto her dresser causing her long hair to tumble down her back as she dropped her book bag on the floor and threw herself into her computer chair. A message was waiting on her monitor. Jantiva. Now, short stuff. She grinned, recognizing her oldest brother’s nickname for her if not the address it came from. Without a second thought she powered up the game and snagged the headset before plopping herself across her bed.

Shawnty wasn’t sure she’d ever truly get to those few moments of absolute detachment and vulnerability. Once in the body of her avatar Starshine, she shuddered and did a quick series of movements to orient herself. Figures he wouldn’t be on yet. She thought after a quick glance at her PDA told her that no one else was online.

“Oh well, I’ve still got to get to town anyway.” She murmured looking at the desert that surrounded her, just on the horizon she could make out the town of Jorouy and moving steadily began to make her way there.

[mcstringer]

Alexander smelled the freshness of the savanah through his avatar, Excalibur,. It still boggled his mind how the creator's of Jantiva could do such a thing. He was taking classes in computer this and thats, but he was no where near this level. He mentally decided that he had to apply for a job in this company when he graduates from college.

Returning to game reality, Excalibur checked the resent completed quest; he maked double sure that all he needed to do was turn the quest in to complete it. It was amazing to him that the low level quests he was on never bored him. He found a alchemy shop in Lorinth that would make potions out of the materials he gathered from dead Faolan in Tapelle.

Excalibur heard the whistle of the train.

"Welp, the only way to find out is to try and try again."

Excalibur did not have a Travel Pass for the train, but did not want to run all the way to Lorinth either. Therefore, he wanted to test the freedom of Jantiva by jumping onto a moving train. When the time was nearer, Excalibur ran to a nearby outcrop of rock and waited for the train to pass under him.

"It's now our never."

He jumped on top of the, and landec onto the train, but nearly slid right off of it. Excalibur latched onto a hand for his dear life and pulled himself up to safety.

"Sweet, it works, Lornith hear I come."

[Lacey]

Lisa leaned her head into her hands, elbows propped up on the hard desk. The window is one of the most horrible things to put in a school. It reminds the students that they’re in a cage and they can’t be out there in the sun or wind. The clock went ever slower throughout the day, seconds taking something closer to years than the small amount of time they boasted. Her index finger tapped to the beat of a song that had been stuck in her head recently. It was an absolutely horrendous song, but there it was. In her head until it faded or something better came along.

The bell rang and Lisa sprang out of her seat, grabbing her books and heading out of the school once she’d put them in her locker. She wasn’t hurrying home because there was anyone waiting for her, in fact that wasn’t true at all. Her parents were both at work and she had no siblings. It was the game that was making her walk so quickly, one earbud in her ear as she tried desperately to get the song out of her head. No matter what song she listened to, that wretched tune was always in the back of her head.

Why would someone let that out on the market? Lisa shook her head and pulled apart the trick welcome mat. Inside was a key and she quickly took it and opened the door, then putting the key back in it’s place. The house was quiet as she kicked off her shoes and closed the door behind her.

She went to her room, throwing her two notebooks on her bed. The teachers had been extra kind today and only given homework that she could finish before class had ended. So she could play right away.

Lisa sunk down into a chair and placed the pads on their correct places at the monotone command. Everything faded into darkness. She smiled as everything came back in a way that she adored. There was the sound of a rattling train and she opened her eyes.

She was now Alek, a her avatar. His legs were longer than hers and she quickly adjusted to his senses. Looking down at her right wrist, she silently admired the slave bracelet. She could feel the power from it ebbing through Alek’s veins. At a word, or if he was really concentrating, a thought, she could do things that no one could do in her world.

In Alek’s left hand, a bag hung from a strong leather string. She knew the contents by heart and thought about them now with fondness. Inside was a flute that she played when she wasn’t particularly doing anything, just living in this world that she loved so much. Beside that was a small leather book she’d acquired. In it were lists and sketches of animals she’d see and their strengths and weaknesses along with random notes she felt would be useful if she wanted Alek to shift for a particular purpose. A few parchments telling her of quests were between the pages simply because if they weren’t, they would get lost. Then of course was a pouch full of Alek’s money.

Without looking around, Lisa knew were Alek was. They’d just gotten off a train in Lornith when she’d been forced to sign off. Three bags, one empty, of different colors hung from Alek’s belt. The two with something in them were dark blue and crimson. The blue held her shifting bracelet. It was by far her favorite because, with time and concentration, Alek could become whatever she wanted. The red held the elemental bracelet. It was the most powerful that Alek possessed and she only brought it out when she was practicing or if her situation was dire.

The one Alek wore now was usually enough to take care of most problems but sometimes the problem arose that it could not handle.

Lisa didn’t want to start on the quests in her pack at the moment, though they were fresh in her mind because she though of little else, so she started wandering throughout Lorinth.

The cloak swirled around Alek’s ankles and she was glad for its constant protection. Then she heard yelling.

Curious, she moved stood at the wall of a building and watched a girl throw a chicken and covered Alek’s mouth before she started laughing. She was about to step in when some guy showed up and settled things quite easily.

Shrugging, she continued, enjoying Alek’s long strides. It was so much faster when one had long legs.

Hmm…maybe I should get going on those quests. The ones I picked were rather easy though, and now that I’m in Lorinth, it’ll only take me a few minutes to get that one trinket someone was too lazy to come and get themselves. Lifting up Alek’s left arm, she looked at the PDA, wondering if any of her contacts were online.

[Volkov]

Quartz held her arms around her sides laughing with Obsidian as the Berserker ran away tail between his legs. then she stood up clapping her hands with a big smile "Your so cool Obsidian~!"

Her little giggles landing her a NPC chicken flying and sitting on top of her head which made her furrow her brow again.

Even in the game Quartz admired her friend's Avatar, an over the top gorgeous and strong willed long blonde haired warrior specialized in being a lancer...even if Obsidian had some bad rumors circulating about him and hurting other players...she absolutely ignored those rumors. as much as she knew they were true and she had witnessed them in occasion. every time he was accused of it unless the person ran in fear. when they turned eye to Quartz she just denied it had happened....and then casually just told Obsidian to maybe tone it down a little. but she believes he never listened since the rumors of a powerful player-killer never seemed to stall.

Of course....
Quartz questions the "Powerful" part of the rumors just as much as anything else.

She swayed side to side for a moment checking her quest logs then looked back at Obsidion
"Anything you had in mind for today? a majority of my quests are finished since we plowed through them yesterday... though I didn't see anything interesting on the quest boards before I had to log-out last night...lots of stuff about robberies. bandits. ...something about wild animals and...um...."

She looked tilted her head to try and remember rolling her staff in her hands
"Oh! right...Xexilia's stealing Non player character children...kinda weird...
If you can't think of anything we could always just clear out a random dungeon and....grind for experience and items..."

[roan]

The bell finally rang and Odette let out a small prayer for the school day was finally over. She hated school, hated being here surrounded by ugly people. Not of feature but of character. Maybe she just did care to take the time to get to know anyone… or maybe no one took the time to know her? Odette had always distanced herself from the general populous, because she felt she belong their.

Before all the other students flooded the halls Odette slipped out easily into the student parking lot, walking fast to her rust covered Chevy pick-up. With a hard twist of the key she opened the door with a loud groan and hopped in. The engine took a good minute to turn over but when it did she was one of the first to drive away from Humika High.

Once home Odette parked and walked up the few steps to her tiny trailer, unlocking the door. She was greeted by a large brindle pit bull, its tail banging hard against the ugly paneling of the living room wall. “Hey, Roux.” Giving him a rub on his wide head Odette tossed her tattered back pack next to the TV and plopped into her father’s old recliner, bringing her cordless headset with her. After kicking off her shoes she turned on the game console with a big toe before bringing her feet under her bottom, leaning back comfortable while she transported into the game.

- - -

“Would I like to buy or trade? Hmm.” Stone blue eyes that followed her from the real world gazed at the displayed bracers. She had enough money to purchase either the ones that would increase her stamina or charisma. Decisions, decisions. Finally the girl with green and blue hair picked the charisma set, changing the color to match her purple outfit, covered in pink stones. After exchanging money she donned them on her forearms, expecting them thoroughly before moving along within the city of Lorinth. This was a game, why not dress in such a fashion she would never wear in the real world. No one from school would recognize her with her short leather skirt, revealing long slender legs. No one would understand it was Odette Winchester with her formfitting vest that held her amble bosom in an almost raunchy display of flesh. She could be whoever she wanted to be here. Anyone, and it was this freedom that she played the game so ceremonially. Escaping the real world and all its ugliness was the best feeling.

[Honey]

Shawnty swore viciously and flipped backwards in an effort to avoid being surrounded by the swarm of Xexilia. Pausing in her retreat she gathered a palm sized ball of yellow energy in her hand and tossed it into the cloud of bat like creatures, before tossing her hands up to create a wall of purple energy.

“HA!” The shout came quickly after the loud explosion that took out most of her foe. Creating a few smaller white balls in her hand she sent them winging after the remaining creatures before plopping down on her butt to regain some lost energy. Taking a few relaxing breaths she dug a potion out of her pouch to help speed her recovery, the creatures had come up on her quickly and quietly, surprising her enough that she’d had to fight for sometime before being able to get off a good magic attack.

With a soft sigh Shawnty checked her PDA again, muttering when she saw no one had logged on. She pushed to her feet, the potion having done its job and once more started towards the town. She was more interested in restocking her potion supply and looking for a new quest than anything else, though she’d probably browse the shops for a bit. Her mind continued to wander as she moved, though she was more aware of her surroundings this time around.

[DB.]

Dante was already way out of the city limits. The calming feeling he had when his swords were by his side was back, and that feeling was something that freaked him out. Right now he was supposed to clear out an abandoned mine which had just been purchased but was overrun by Faolan or something.

"The entrance to the mine should be around here somewhere, shouldn't there be a road or something leading here? At least a half-assed one," he thought while looking at the marker he put on his map.

Dante slowly scanned the area around him but saw nothing other than trees. He started walking forward when his foot got snagged in something, making him lose his balance and fall over. It quickly pulled him up until he was hanging upside down.

"Fuck," he whispered in an angry tone. Unsheathing both of his swords he was just as he was going to cut himself loose a fire ball came from behind one of the trees, barely missing him.

Dante swung both of his swords at the rope, cutting himself loose. He rolled as soon as he hit the ground and was quickly on his feet again. "Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap," his mind kept repeating while sprinted towards the source of the magic, trying to dodge anything coming towards him.

Another two magic balls came towards him. He jumped to the side, dodging both, and now able see the caster in-front of him. He kept running towards him and the mage casted a lightning blast at him. Seeing that Dante closed his eyes and brought his arms in-front of him. The lighting hit him, losing most of his HP but he was already close enough to the mage to use his tornado slash. Bringing up both of his swords he slashed them both outwards. Wind quickly started to build up and a small tornado formed. It quickly moved towards the mage, fully enveloping him.

The wind was fast enough to slice like blades across the target. It died down n a few seconds and before the mage could do anything Dante slashed the mage a few more times and "killed" him. His body laying on the floor for a few seconds before disappearing to see if any items would be taken.

Dante sheathed his swords and was about to walk away when his PDA rang. He brought it up and opened a new message he received from the Jantiva staff, It read:

"To all Players

We are starting a world wide event featuring our new continent that is in it's final developing stages.

The event consists of many smaller parts which will narrow down our pool of candidates and reveal our winners.

The winners will receive special legendary weapons, a permanent x4 increase to all Exp earned, a mount, fame, and last but not least unrestricted access to the beta of the new continent.

To sign up or for more information, go to the bar in Auxville port. Any trains leading to or from the harbor are temporally free."

"Eh, why not," he thought while heading back towards Lorinth.