[Other FULL] CLOUD v2.0 [T] [IC]

antemortem · Jul 22, 2014

Andrew; Corona
level one
inventory: none
class: none

"So, which has become more important to you? Your online or offline self? Do you protect what you have or rebuild your identity from scratch?"

The words reverberated in my head for a long time, longer than I would have liked because while they were, I was standing motionless staring at my feet while the commotion around me nearly knocked me over multiple times. I was an ant in the crowd of roaches, barely visible over the crowd. At the same time it was a comforting feeling because I knew that only those I was companions with in my guild would recognize me. Well, them and the people I'd backstabbed dozens of times before. This might be the only chance the universe has to deal me my comeuppance. It'd be just in doing so; I'm a terrible person.

It was only then that I realized I was holding the key, the one ICARUS claimed was our lifeline, our whole lives in that five inch piece of medal. I clutched it tight in my glove. Someone bumped into my mask and shifted it slightly. Their elbow didn't feel good but I wasn't rattled by one elbow hitting me a little harder than the other sixteen million I'd experienced in two minutes' time. I was still in my seat and yet I was being battered to a pulp. Why hadn't I moved yet? What was I doing? I swear I wasn't shaken by what was going on, I just... Get the hell up, for Christ's sake!

I tucked my key inside my hood, where I'd learned thieves tend not to check when patting you down for your belongings, and stood on my chair where I was finally at even height with the rest of the crowd. So many heads, so many pairs of eyes all seeing red and lusting for blood - were we all really out for the same goal now? Were we all on equal terms at that point, and are we working together or is everyone an individual unit working toward a singular goal? That was annoying, trying to justify everyone's rationalization when I hadn't even really processed the situation yet or made a decision other than to stand on the chair so I could see.

In an attempt to be productive I activated my Lens and scrolled through my contacts searching for anyone from my guild. Hopefully one of them would be near me - aha! ringmaster's online!

> Corona: heyheyhey are you there please answer
< ringmaster: huh kind of in the midlde of somehtin can utx later pLEaSE
> no i need to find you where are you
< giv me like five mins s i dnt die

Evidently he wasn't free, and I figured that most other people would be in similar situations. For now, I had to take matters into my own hands until I could meet up with someone. I reached for my scarf, for a moment forgetting that weapons had been stripped from us, but I still loosened it from my neck and let it lie limp in my hands. My once precious scarf, the weapon that brought me many wins and fame within ACID... Oh well. Maybe I can use it to strangle someone. I learned quickly that I would have to use whatever necessary to just survive.

Before I could wink an eyelash, someone was on top of me, and one end of the scarf was lost in the crowd of people. My hand shot up to my hood to make sure the key was still there; it was, but it wouldn't stay in its current location for long so I dropped it in my coat and turned my attention to the large form crushing my body. The DAEMON on top of me was actually a rather innocent looking... puppy? Maybe a fox of some sort. It was trying to stare me down, threatening me with a pair of gleaming claws. Instead of showing fear I tugged at the scarf until the other end was free to grab, and tossed it around the paw of the DAEMON, knotting it and bringing the DAEMON's arm to the ground.

At the same second, I received a text message.

< ringmaster: kk you there?

I rolled my eyes and fought off the fox-bear-dog-thing's attempts at batting me with a peculiarly declawed opposite paw. I witnessed someone before violently ramming a piece of metal that I assume was their key into the face of another animal I couldn't begin to identify earlier so I took it upon myself to consider this a plan of action. I removed the key from my pocket and eyed the DAEMON.

He - I'm also terrible with genders so it could be female, sue me - attempted to strike up some sort of deal with me in his last moments. "Come on, we all want the same thing, huh?" I couldn't help but return to my previous inner monologue as well as consider the fact that this very same creature who was begging me to spare him had just bounded from the middle of a billions of people to threaten me with its pathetic claws. In the end, I was of course torn, but so was his face by my key. His silver key was almost swept up in a blur of boots, but I swiped it in the end. Along with it came a neat little treat.

received items (1): 7tork's Key
Rank Up! Level 1 -> Level 2

Of course, that was just a silly DAEMON trying to nab himself a key or two. The poor fool. I definitely should have had a few more drinks before getting on, though, because I was feeling incredibly shaky and not at all up to par. It would be the one night that actually being alert would be of utmost performance, too! And just as the words articulate in my mind, someone's already bumrushing me again. I don't get it, what's so appealing about attacking others that don't obviously have a colored key? I felt that I wouldn't have very many allies whatsoever in the end. Then again, there's millions of people here; someone must have an inkling of comprehension of what's going on and willing to not attack me for more than five seconds, yeah? Yeah.

So after ducking into the crowd, dodging multiple airborne assailants, I make a beeline for the Mobs guarding the gate. That's where all the cool kids seemed to be heading anyway.

> Corona: meet me at the gate, bring a beer

Quest · Jul 23, 2014

FLOOR 1: PLAINS ♪♫

03:06, 25th May 2025 (JST)
As you jump through the blue portal, that familiar feeling of teleporting overwhelms you and you find yourself… outside. It's still dark but you can see the orange glow on the horizon -- the digital sun will rise soon.

Despite the darkness, you can see the world around you quite clearly. It's a field and a rather large one too. You don't recognise it exactly, but it seems like the kind of field that might spawn in a low-levelled STORM dungeon. The words "FLOOR 1: PLAINS" hover over your HUD for a second before disappearing, alerting you of the name of this place. Wow. How original.

It seems you and whoever you teleported with have appeared in a random place in this field and you can see yourself on the ingame map. It looks like there are key places on your map, but they haven't been discovered yet, and only their names are seen when you interact with them. To the north is something called 'DEEP FOREST', to the south the point reads 'FOYER DUNGEON', to the east 'LITTLE TOWN', and to the west 'GREEN HILL'.

It seems fairly stock standard, but you won't find out anything if you stay here. You can see other members appearing in the distance around you so you better get a move on if you want to discover these places first! Or, if you're not close to an enemy, you can teleport back to CLOUDLAND in CIRRUS.

current quests

None so far.

Currently Unknown Quests

Spoiler:

NOTE: These are not the only quest that your characters can complete! Be creative and detail your own quests (as long as we determine the rewards)! Whenever, a new quest is created, it will be added to this post as well as the OOC thread, so stay tuned!

antemortem · Jul 23, 2014

Corona & Terrigan
LEVEL 2 / LEVEL 2

There were groups here, people having teamed up to get to the portal. Terrigan had a history of being overly confident in her own abilities within CLOUD, but this time even she knew to be careful. She didn't have any gear except for three weird, large keys, and she didn't have any spells or skills raised. Only her own reflexes and luck.

A large rat creature came towards her with rabid eyes and sharp teeth. Terrigan slashed with her key and hit the head of the monster. It's health bar dropped but not to zero. It came in for another attack and managed to scratch her leg. The trousers conveyed the damage visually by getting torn near the knee where the claws had struck. Her health bar dropped a bit. She was weak, so weak now.

Getting pumped up, she knew that she wouldn't give up just from that scary realization. She made a leap and swung her key down from above. Much like with the Daemon before, it went through the monster's face and made it shatter into pieces of data as the creature's health dropped completely. As she slowly realized that she wasn't useless despite being at Level 2, she saw in a blur the message that appeared in her HUD.

Received items (1): Red Mage Starter Pack
Rank Up! Level 2 -> Level 3

Red Mage? As she backed away from the monsters behind a group who seemed more eager to battle them at the moment, she hastily clicked the pack from her inventory and felt her appearance change. It contained a pair of simple, red robes, a staff and a white scarf with a minor evasion bonus attached. Okay... She had always been a fighter; mages weren't her way within CLOUD. But she'd work with what she had for now. At least her white beanie hat was still on her head, for now.

She equipped the staff and the "armor" and ran back in towards the portal. She couldn't run straight through it, the monsters were too perceptive of her at this level. She needed to fight at least some more monsters on her way. Maybe she should have called up the guild channel again.

But she didn't. Instead, she stormed in and lunged with her staff for the first goblin-like creature that stepped in her way, failing to notice the player's name above its head.

Unfortunately, the player paid little attention to the upraised staff, as he was searching through the crowd of oddly colored and shaped faces in search of ringmaster, another player from the SENATE. ringmaster was popular among new guild members and was one of Corona's best friends within the game. While he'd just texted him minutes ago, ringmaster didn't seem to be at the gate yet.

Corona scratched his head, ducking low to avoid airborne spars betwixt DAEMON and Mob aplenty. Speaking of Mob, he would probably have to fight some soon. All he's had to face were some squirrely DAEMON and those weren't satisfying since the only thing yielded were keys and experience - what good is experience without a rank for it to apply? And God knows what Corona would find useful to do with the keys. He was terrible at bargaining. He'd probably offer his foot before the keys on accident. Attentiveness was another thing that Corona could work on because while he was pondering which Mob to attack, the blunt staff lunging through the air practically split his skull.

Terrigan enjoyed the feeling of attacking properly rather than swinging a valuable key around, but something felt wrong when she hit her target. The 'goblin' didn't crumble as it should as a level 1 monster. Instead, she watched a health bar drop the slightest... And a name hovering over the head she had just nearly split in two. It was a player.

"Oh no, I'm sorry!" she immediately exclaimed and backed off. Then she realized how bad this might really be. If it was someone bent on getting through this with his identity safe and sound, he might think that Terri just tried to take his away from him. And that was the last thing she thought of going around doing now.

A twitch and a quick hand covered the injured area following the assault. "Agh, what the hell!" Corona screeched, jerking around to face Terrigan. He wasn't at all surprised to see the girl's catlike features, though the beanie threw him. This girl - whom had questionable fashion choices - had just tried to flatten him with a staff. He made several disgusted faces from behind his mask.

Terrigan, of course, didn't see these grimaces and just thought he was staring numbly at her.

"Listen, I don't mean you any harm," she said. "I just want to get to that portal, I don't care about anybody else's keys, okay? I hit you by mistake."

Just then, a particularly nasty goblin that indeed didn't look too different from Corona - apart from the nasty face and lack of scarf - lunged at the black Daemon from behind.

"Look out!" Terrigan shouted.

"Whatever you say," Coronoa muttered, but Terrigan's words weren't very interesting to him - though she was lucky he didn't choke her with his scarf - given the second preemptive strike emerging from behind him. He reached quickly for his scarf, turning on his heels and throwing it in the goblin's face. A nasty pale yellow claw slit Corona's coat, revealing his key, but also creating a quick access point to it.

Corona grabbed the key before it could fall out and jammed it into the goblin's neck. It felt like the consistency of lard, the key entering the goblin's neck fat. What does ICARUS feed these things, anyway? He tugged at the key, eventually freeing it from the goblin's neck but also releasing a foul smelling odor into the air.

Regardless, the goblin evaporated, leaving behind a reward for Corona's efforts.

received items (1): Fighter Starter Pack
Rank Up! Level 2 -> Level 3

What exactly... Corona scratched his head, slowly processing the items in his hand: two metal wristplates and a short sword, just a couple inches longer than the standard kitchen knife. "Am I seriously supposed to fight with these? Jesus, I'd forgotten how camp low class weapons are." Corona smirked, lacing one of his wristplates onto his right wrist. "But I guess you're not any better off, Dumbledore."

Terrigan winced at the nickname and was about to retort, but then she looked down at her strange red garments and just sighed instead.

"Low level gear. Yeah," she muttered, but then noticed that they suddenly had an as good as clear path up to the portal. "Look, you're going there too, right? It's now or never."

Corona turned his wrist over, grunting in disappointment. Why didn't the cat-otter with no fashion sense respond to his top tier insult? He shrugged. The duo turned to face the open path and, with Terrigan in tow, leapt toward and through the portal.

Dragon · Jul 23, 2014

☠ Pirate Log 1 ~ LGDClaw
LEVEL 1 // no class

Boom there, clobber there, and a few fistfights there. It was like a birthday cake turning upside it's head, spun around, and filled with everything bad like explosions, explosions, and even more explosions. The world was in turmoil ever since that big announcement came. A full reset? Keys? Why? That was what LGDClaw, the small but passionate pirate cat thought to herself as she laid there on her chair with her small legs crossed, as she peered upon her purple key held by her little blue paws.

"You STOLE that key from me!" one of the players shouted nearby, meanwhile. "Even though I didn't key one in the first place, that one you're holding belongs to ME! Hand it over before I your next lunch is a nice case of death!"

"I'm afraid that's where you're mistaken!" the other player who was facing him replied. "It's too early for lunch!"

"Then death will be your breakfast!"

"It's.. slightly too late for breakfast too!"

"Then what should we call this time?" both the players stood in thought. "Br...unch? Brunch? No, that's completely idiotic. Anyways! Hand that over right now!"

Idiots, the lot of them, LGDClaw could only think. Then again, perhaps her arrogance was only justified because she had only gotten lucky. Oh well, keep a man down was a motto of hers! Still, I do wonder how the other Pirates are holding up. The Pirates would plummet if word came up that we were suddenly, ugh, weak? But then again, this might be the chance for our Guild to rise to the top! I suppose the possibility is there as well. But first, let's see if any of em' turned up alive.

She finally had risen from her seat, and quickly went down towards the ground floor. Left and right she saw countless Daemons destroyed, and perished over the way of brutality. Sounds fun, right? Yup, if you were drunk, and just lost your date. Otherwise, this turned out to be pretty awful. Unfortunately, LGDClaw hadn't seen a friendly face as yet. Did most of them lose already? Even her shipmates? Quite the dozy situation here.

But still, she knew that she couldn't stay here for long. She needed to fend for herself for a while. So instead, she went on her own to leave a global message for her clanmates:

> Rachel here. Bring me a soda, and don't die. In that order. Meet me in monster zones or something if you're alive!

CourageHound · Jul 25, 2014

Samuel "Sam" Green // Alfie Happer // RENU0xu

Samuel looked around as the three finally materialized into the green plains. He immediately walked several paces in front of the others, relishing the availability of open space once more. It was then he realized that he hadn't opened the starter pack from the slime monster he defeated. He takes a deep breath and slowly retrieves the item from his inventory.

You Have Received: 1x item(s): Berseker Starter Set

Sam made a somewhat perplexed face. On the bright side he was not unfamiliar to the warrior or mage-like classes. The former was his faction before the reset; having been a Paladin previously as he did prefer supportive classes. It would be quite the change having to settle on such a tanky attacker, though he'd give it a shot. Sam accessed his 'Settings' and the 'Daemon Appearance' directory. He figured he change his daemon as well along with the class. Plus he had revealed himself to have a colored key in the dome so it was beneficial to avoid being recognized.

It took a few minutes to configure, but eventually Sam did change his appearance to that of a large Brown Bear.

"Isn't the air out here simply splendid! C'est merveilleux!" Renu took a deep breath of digital air and exhaled loudly. Part of the DREAMSCAPE was to replicate the five senses and Renu could definitely tell that the atmosphere out here was far more clear and far less stale than the air inside the foyer. He turned to his companions, noticing the obvious change in Gallo Leo. "Mon ami, you look just as terrifying as before. What a wonderful change in appearance. But why change? You looked just as stunning as a lion!"

Sam nodded with a sheepish smile. "Thank you. Well, I figured I might as well given I have a new class. I helps to adjust better." He wasn't used to such an enthusiastic companion, though he appreciated the positive air Renu provided. Renu bowed in reply "While going through my menu I noticed we have a few quests I haven't seen before." Pulling up a digital scroll of the quests from his menu he read them off:

???: Find Genevieve in the DEEP FOREST!

???: How to begin: Talk to Sari in LITTLE TOWN!

???: How to begin: Near the village of GREEN HILL!

Sam turned to Renu and Kuoto. "Not exactly inclined to one or the other. What do you guys think? Deep Forest may have mobs which could yield more EXP. Little Town is sure to have helpful NPCs, shops, and possibly more quests. Green Hill might more peaceful than Deep Forest but less opportunistic than Little Town."

"There's always the option to go back to Cloudlands if you are in need of rest." Renu added.

Alfie scanned the three options, mulling over each one. At first glance, the easiest one seemed to be going to Little Town and talking to Sari, but there probably wouldn't be much chance of experience on that route. The final quest seemed a bit cryptic in its wording, and the first one was straightforward and a great chance to begin gaining strength.

"If we want to become stronger, I think our best bet is Deep Forest, but I agree that there's a lot that could be accomplished in Little Town... Green Hill too, come to think of it... Ugh," Alfie exclaimed. He hadn't realized how stressed he was about the whole situation, and without thinking plopped onto the ground. Scratching his head, he muttered,

"I honestly don't know, you guys. I'm just having a hard time with all this; I don't think I'm the guy that should be making decisions around here. It's up to you two."

Samuel put the quest log away. "Well Deep Forest does sound appealing. The more exp the better. That's what The Senate always used to say." He pulled up his world map and searched 'Deep Forest'. Conveniently, it was also the closest location relative to them. With a paw, he gestured in the south-easterly direction. "Over that way. It should be about a five minute walk I suppose. Everyone agree?" Sam turned to Renu and Kuoto once more.

"Sounds good to me! Renu, you up for it?" Alfie asked.

"Sounds delightful!" Renu added with another bow. "I'll be sure to light up all monsters with my," he quickly checked his abilities, "fire magic! Je suis surexcité!" He held his staff up and let off a bit of magic, setting some sparks off in the air. "Spectacular!"

***

Sam decided to take the lead heading towards the forest. There weren't exactly any mobs to be seen and neither were there any hostile players. Though he was grateful for the momentary ceasefire, he could only assume they would run into other players at least. That was assuming that their quest list was not exclusive to their group alone.

Along the course of the walk, the silence became somewhat awkward to Sam decided to strike up some conversation. Or attempt to at least. Falling back a few paces and turning to his right, he addresses Renu. "So...what was life like before this nightmarish update?"

"Moi? Well! Before all of this mess, I played a lot of storm with my guild. The Fire Foxes, we called ourselves! Of course, I was the leader. Renu, the fantastic Ranger! Bon! Paix! Et courage!" With each word, he stuck another pose. The robe around him swallowed his body and didn't portray his enthusiasm as his usual gear did, which upset him only slightly, but he worked with what he had "What about you, mes amis?"

"Well, I was a part of The Senate guild. I was somewhat adverse to the idea of joining a guild but a friend talk me into it. It turned out to be quite fun and quite profitable for business." At this, Sam's head rose higher and spoke proudly. "Yup, I was the the go-to guy for your standard and rare equipment and items alike. My level was slightly above average by their standards and I did greatly enjoy the raids and frequent Storm grinding. But my specialty was in the works of trade. You demand, I supply." Samuel's smile slowly faded and gave a small sigh. "But it looks like I gotta start from scratch now."

"Hey, don't worry about it, you have us!" Alfie gave a slight pat on the back. After a brief moment of silence, he cleared his throat. "Before all of this, I was just... another guy on the server, I guess. Somehow, I had a pretty good result in this new member tournament earlier on, and that's kind what kept me on here since then. Also, I was a member of this guild Cloud Nine, and we'd always hunt for rare items and whatnot. Those were some good times... But hey, we can't spend too long looking in the past!" Alfie chuckled shakily, scratching his head. There wasn't much to be positive about, at this point.

"Ah yes." Renu nodded. "Cloud Nine. I've had a few brushes with them for items during STORM raids."

"Haha, yeah, raids were always a blast...!" Sam stopped abruptly as he noticed that they were almost upon the entrance to the forest. He stood up on his two hind legs to peer through the trees. Nothing immediately caught his attention, but the vegetation was somewhat thick anyway, even from the edge of the forest. Falling back down to all-fours, he promptly equipped his clawed knuckles. They felt quite good, especially with his daemon change. "Alright, no turning back now."

moon · Jul 25, 2014

Corona (Lv.3) / Andrew
Terrigan (Lv.3) / Tegan

NEW LOCATION DETECTED... ENTERING FLOOR 1: PLAINS

A wave of nausea rolled over Corona as the HUD notification resounded in his head. The visual display quickly flashed the world map to the PLAINS area, showing a mass of red dots collected near the center. That's all the people that've joined us so far, huh... Corona thought between dry heaves.

Despite any of Terrigan's concerned looks - or were those grimaces? She couldn't possibly still be upset over the Dumbledore comment - Corona let his nausea pass before his Lens lit up once more, reminding him of a text message sitting in his inbox. "Oh, I completely forgot to respond to ringmaster. He's gonna kill- damn it, he was supposed to bring me a beer!"

Terrigan looked out over the first floor in silence for a moment. The DREAMSCAPE's realistic rendering of physical strain made her pant after having dashed for the portal. But now they were safe, it seemed. This looked like a low level dungeon in STORM. After a glance at the troubled DAEMON beside her, taking note of the name that was hovering above him, Terri brought up her map and checked it with a wrinkle on her furry forehead. There seemed to be four main locations here. A town, a forest, a hill and a... FOYER DUNGEON? Foyer... That sounded awfully lot like a word to describe the place they had just escaped from with. Maybe that really was the physical path back to the starting point. And this would be the first floor of the hundred floor castle ICARUS talked about. Well. This announcement sure had turned out to be dramatic.

And she played a Red Mage for now. Either, she'd try to learn to use a few spells skillfully, or she tried to get her hands on a sword as fast as she could. Maybe she could buy one in that town. But for what money? She probably had to find some monsters to loot first. And there might be other dangers lurking about... Those crazy players who had let their DAEMONS kill others in the foyer, they would be here too somewhere, most likely. She'd better be on her guard.

For that matter, she still didn't know what kind of person this Corona really was. She had just been feeling guilty over attacking him and made sure that he got through the portal with her to clear her conscience. He had called her 'Dumbledore'. Because of her attire? She blushed at the thought and once again cursed the starter pack she had gotten. But she wasn't the person to bite back unnecessarily. In real life, Tegan might be docile and aloof, but in CLOUD, Terrigan was calculating, cunning and agile. She knew when to step forward and when to wait things out. She had won both dungeons and deals in CIRRUS by not getting fired up like many other players did in this artificial world. To Terrigan, this wasn't just an artificial world, after all. This was her world. And you didn't just act rashly if you wanted to get somewhere in your world.

The two of them were standing on a smooth hilltop, looking down at the landscape. The floor seemed to be huge; she could hardly see the edge of the map with her own eyes. Maybe that was because it was the base floor. The hundredth floor ought to be smaller. Unless physical laws didn't quite apply here, of course. Her world or not, it was still digital.

"So," she said calmly to the seemingly troubled DAEMON beside her. "What's your plan?" She didn't ask for his story, who he was or anything, because she didn't really want to have to answer those questions herself. She never really did. "Do you need to find ICARUS to get your life back or are you going to try and steal whatever keys I might have on me?"

After a series of grunts and groans over not waiting to receive his beer - he would yet realize that there was no physical way for ringmaster to have been able to have a beverage with him, but he could still dream - Corona surveyed his surroundings for the first time. The rolling green pasture was rather dull in darkness. There was a strange lightness of the floor, though, despite the lack of a moon.

ICARUS seems to have changed some of the mechanics of CLOUD in all of a few minutes... Corona continued fussing with his wrist guard, upset at how itchy they were becoming. He'd chafe in hours. Small annoyances like that were his primary concern, because they couldn't be shaken and they would occupy his mind, causing him to become scatterbrained. It'd have been no problem if he was drunk but god damn it ringmaster.

Corona was freed of his thoughts momentarily when Terrigan finally spoke.

"If I was going to steal your keys," he began through clenched teeth as he cinched the lace to the wrist guard, "I probably would have already gouged your eyes out with my own key, don't you think?" The words came out rather flatly, as his attention then fell to another DAEMON's glowing iris; he was surveying the open quests.

"I mean, I have my own life to worry about. I can't possibly concern myself with others'. I've only taken what I have now because those damn idiots were attacking me. Then again, they have the potential to be excellent bargaining points! Can't miss out on that now can I?" Corona's eyes shifted back to the other DAEMON. We should probably not waste much more time...

Tegan felt more relieved than annoyed with that reply, but did her best to not let that reflect in Terrigan's posture through the DREAMSCAPE interface. "Right. Well, I'm going to clear this floor as quickly as I can. Can't linger about."

She glanced at him again. Ever since she had joined CLOUD and found friends here, she had been very caring about them. She did not want to make anybody feel like she was feeling in real life, and as such she could never really exclude someone or leave someone behind on purpose. Sometimes, that had been her fall in dungeons. But she had indeed gotten some good friends from her stance. At least she wanted to believe that they were good friends.

"Are you in a guild or something? Or are you going off alone?"

That was a good question; did guilds still exist in this new world ICARUS created? It didn't seem likely, given everything was completely turned on its head. People wouldn't have the time or resources to start guilds. At most, DAEMON would be teaming up with each other or forming local coalitions to make it easier to loot colored keys from unsuspecting individuals. In fact, he was an unsuspecting individual, and he didn't want to be on that side of the fight.

"I'm not really sure yet." Corona checked his phone for a reply, only to find he still hadn't replied to ringmaster. Then again, ringmaster hadn't said anything to note that he was waiting at the gate, either. Was he already through the portal and off on a quest? He would have waited for Corona, wouldn't he?

> Corona: hey are you still alive or did you fall in a hole

"I don't even know if my former guild is still intact and to be honest with you, with millions of other players around, there's strength in numbers." Was this really the partner that he wanted, though? Surely he could find someone more confident of their abilities. But right now this is what he had, so he'd better make the best of it.

"Huh, now that you mention it. I should probably check on my guild. They were all shouting in the channel before, so I muted it," Terrigan said and pulled up the channel in question again. The first message that popped up was one from another cat-like DAEMON who Terrigan didn't know well in person but certainly knew of.

> LGDClaw : Rachel here. Bring me a soda, and don't die. In that order. Meet me in monster zones or something if you're alive!
> 28397Firespite : every. man. for. himself. i have five keys already come ooon!!!!!!!!
> Terrigan : Claw! are you still in the dungeon? im through the portal
> Terrigan : oh, we never did many dungeons together, i suppose, but still
> Jankooosd : ALL IS LOST! HELP!!
> Terrigan : ... it would be nice with a friendly face who hasnt gone mad

She sighed as she turned her attention back to Corona and considered her options. She didn't know when or if LGDClaw would reach her and Karista and her other friends seemed to be out of the game already. Maybe in CLOUDLAND.

"Would you... Since the two of us seem to not want to kill each other for the time being, what do you say to teaming up on this floor and doing a quest or two? Just to get our levels up. I hate feeling this weak."

Corona was pretty sure he'd been jokingly banned from the SENATE's channel before the revolution and wasn't unbanned, therefore he was unable to mass contact his guild. For all he knew, they could have rendezvoused somewhere and were building their ranks again. Corona couldn't help but repeat "strength in numbers."

Turning back to Terrigan, he sighed and said, yet again flatly, "I guess that's what we need to do, huh? I wouldn't mind doing a couple of quests. Being low-leveled is rather intimidating, given the circumstances."

This time, Terrigan did let a little relieved smile show at his reply.

Corona pulled up a list of quests on his HUD, considering each one carefully. The direction that each was in would probably have some sort of gravity on reaching the next floor, depending on the location of the portal. Or portals. Everything was probably changed around from the game they formerly knew, but there are basic elements to an RPG that ICARUS was likely forced to follow.

"It's very unlikely that there will be a portal in the town, but that's where we'll be able to buy supplies and perhaps low level weapon packs. However, that'll cost Spheres and we need to complete quests for that. There's probably limited resources in a hilly area so the quests in the Deep Forest will be the most challenging... but also the most rewarding."

Terrigan considered that for a moment. She did have control over her own key, so she was not desperate. Normally, she might have wanted to play it safe and go for the hill, but she was really eager to get her hands on some better gear. Especially if it could mean an advantage against people who were slower than them.

"Life's a challenge, right?" she therefore muttered. "I'm not afraid." And truly: she wasn't. At least not yet. "If we get a move on, we might get our hands on a good quest before these people who seem to stand around trying to choose a leader in their group or something."

Corona nodded. "Yeah, I imagine if guilds have disbanded new ones will start forming and some real superpowers. Maybe we could be one of those..." Corona's voice trailed off in a grunt. He checked the direction of the forest once more and started off in that general way, Terrigan following in his wake like before.

Nakuzami · Jul 25, 2014

Lady Raptor // Master Spark
May 25th, 2025 :: New York, New York, USA // Baltimore, Maryland, USA :: 2:06 pm EST
Level 2 :: Fencer Class // Level 2 :: Animist Class
Forever Alone, Surrounded By Wolves

FLOOR 1: PLAINS

Colette glanced at the words that appeared on her HUD, looking around the area a moment later. Plains. The place was aptly named. She could think of no name more creative than "Plains" for this vast expanse of plains. No, wait, she could think of a thousand names more creative. Oh well, she had bigger problems to deal with.

It was nearing dawn in-game, though for her the sun had risen hours ago in real life. That meant that it was dark out and visibility was slightly restricted. Still, she could see other players appearing all across the plains as they too stepped through the portal.

She opened up her friends list and sent a message.

Group Chat Lady Raptor, Killer Ivy, Necrolord, Shadow Panther, Wargrár

[Lady Raptor] I'm on the plains now. You guys around?
[Killer Ivy] Yeah. We just headed north to the Deep Forest.
[Lady Raptor] Okay, I'm on my way there now.

Colette turned back to the man that tagged along with her. "I'm heading north now. You can either come with or run off into the sunrise. So long as you don't get in my way, I don't really care what you choose."

"Well I can't say that I worry about your safety, heh..." Spark let out a wry, weak laugh. "You seem to be able to take care of yourself, but at the same time it wouldn't hurt. After all, I wouldn't really feel good about letting you go out alone after you helped me out back there. It wouldn't be right." He twirled his bell around in his hand, causing it to ring lightly and chaotically. "Besides, even if this thing isn't a sword or the like, I can manage. And my guildmaster seems to have things under control with the other members." He looked away. "Probably has more experience at this point than most players, I'd imagine."

Spark checked his messages almost frantically with the tapping of his feet anxiously in time. He'd received a few messages from his guild mates, most of them assuring safety, advising that they get to the guild, and so on and so forth. Guildmaster Yukari only sent the one from earlier, but this was likely because she knew that the guild could handle itself. That might have even been her own way of ensuring his safety. But he didn't see a message from Kainz, which meant he was still having his Blue Screen of Death, was pissed off, or he was dead. None of those situations were really ideal, but he could handle being peeved at.

"So be it," Colette stated after a brief moment of silence. She turned north and began walking. "I'm meeting back up with my friends. They're headed towards the Deep Forest area." With that, they both began walking in relative silence.

♫ϟ☮ϟ♫

As the two progressed, Spark felt a growing feeling of irritation. His weapon constantly tapped against his leg, creating a brief chime that quickly waned with each step. He considered unequipping it, but he didn't feel particularly safe walking into a place called the "Deep Forest" unarmed, especially since his class didn't have the best defensive stats. He also considered playing some light music, but it seemed like the best thing to do at that point in time was make conversation.

"So, what's..." Spark hesitated, realizing that the woman might have responded abrasively, and even give him the cold shoulder. Considering the circumstances, however, it would have
been justified. "...I'm Master Spark. Spark for short."

Colette pushed a low tree branch out of her way, moving ever deeper into the forest. "As far as usernames go," Colette said, "mine's Lady Raptor." She made her way past a few more trees and into a small clearing.

She looked around, taking in the environment. By now she should be nearing her friends, but she couldn't sense anything. Her detection skills sucked now that she had been reduced to factory settings. That also meant that she could sense enemies.

Well, until they made a rustling in the bushes and leaped out at her. Colette ducked as the creature jumped past her, growling. "Oh, nice. Guess it's wolf time."

As they stood there, the rest of the pack of wolves began to fill into the clearing from the surrounding forest. The circled the two players, looking prepared to pounce and, with them being only level two players, deadly.

"Get ready to protect your arse," Colette muttered to Spark. She readied her sword and eyed the canines in front of her. From her count, there were six wolves around them. Quite the fair number.

"I'm as ready as I'll ever be." He took his bell in hand and checked his Skills Menu.

Skills:

Buffs/Debuffs:

100% Cotton

"Eh...well, better than nothing, I guess. Certainly beats the overly cautious route." Spark said in a bit of a huff. In truth, it was better than he was expecting. He cast 100% Cotton on himself, keeping a careful watch of the wolves. 100% Cotton was a beginner Buff move that increased the target's defense a fair bit. It had a rather short casting time, so he was in no danger of being interrupted, especially since the wolves didn't seem to register the move as a threat.

Promptly after casting the spell, Spark leapt towards one of the wolves. It probably wasn't the smartest move, considering the number of them, but he did owe that much to Lady Raptor. And more, he needed a new class kit.

He quickly found that the bell was far more like a small mace than anything else, mostly efficient in overhead strikes and general smashing. It wasn't ideal as he wasn't much of a blunt weapons user, but it was light enough that it betrayed the idea of being compared to one.

He cracked down on the skull of a single wolf, with two others not missing a beat and pouncing at him. Unlike before, however, he was capable of handling the situation. Immediately after dealing his small bit of damage on the wolf, he duck rolled forward, keeping his focus on the same wolf, and attacking it from behind. He knew his damage output was low, so he his strategy was to deal several swift strikes to the wolf before dodging the others, which worked great for close combat.

As Spark was occupied with his oh so deadly bell, Colette moved into the group of the remaining three wolves. They continued to circle her as they had the moment before, but three was a far more manageable number than six. Her eyes darted between the beasts, her sword held out in front of her and her shield kept in close. She felt she would have more maneuverability without the shield, but she could use the defense at this low level.

The first wolf lunged at her, and she leaned back and slashed at it with her sword. It caught the creature on its side and sent it sprawling into a tree, but it was still alive. Its health bar had gone down to almost half, though, which was a good sign.

She regained her balance and took the next strike, leaping forward and stabbing at one of the other wolves. It quickly moved to avoid the jab, taking a small hit to its backside that did very little damage. Before she could recover, the third wolf pounced on her, forcing her to the ground and causing her to lose her grip on her rapier. She was trapped beneath the wolf, her shield the only thing preventing it from clawing her open.

It bit at her face, but she managed to keep it far enough away to prevent contact. As she watched its fangs gnash at her, the first thing she thought about would be how, if this weren't a virtual world, she'd probably have a face full of nasty dog breath right about now. That was the best thing for one to think about in a life or death situation against a pack of hungry wolves, obviously.

"You know, wolves in real life aren't usually as feral as they're made out to be in these games!" Colette grunted, putting all of her strength into pushing her shield forward. She managed to throw the wolf off of her, quickly rolling to the side and grabbing her sword as she got back to her feet. In the time it took to do that, the three wolves had surrounded her again.

"So that's how it's gonna be, huh?" She taunted, glaring back at the wolves. They growled at her, so she growled back. She had no dignity.

She slashed at the wolves again, spinning on her heels to slice at all three of them at once. They attacked her, clawing and biting at her as she thrust at them. She couldn't keep track of all of the movements visually, but she kept up with them physically. A moment later, after having become a flurry of limbs, blade and teeth, two of the wolves had perished and Colette had sustained massive damage. The third wolf was on its last leg, but so was she, it seemed.

She heaved, staring at the final wolf. It was bloodied and was panting heavily. It made one final lunge at her and she thrust her sword at it while it was air born, skewering it and finishing it off. When all was said and done, three items lay on the ground in front of her. She picked them up and added them to her inventory.

2x Item(s): Potion!
1x Item(s): Antidote!
Level Up! You are now level 4!

"Wow, two levels from those things. Nice."

In the meantime, Spark was finishing up his own difficulties. Though his Dodge-and-Smash tactics worked, Spark found it jarring just how much time it took to deal a considerable amount of damage. It was too risky, and he had to register the mere prospect of getting hit as instant death. It probably wasn't the case, they were just wolves, but he was just an Animist. In fact, it was only because of the fact that his class wasn't ideal when it came to defense that he didn't sport hand-to-hand.

Regardless, the first wolf went down. In most scenarios, this would have worked out for the better, but dealing with two wolves rather than three meant he would have to change his tactics. It wasn't all bad, though. Less wolves meant less potential damage, so he could get more creative and less defensive. He jumped back, held the bell behind him and placed his hand out in front of him.

The remaining wolves didn't attack right away. Instead, they began to circle Spark, and he kept steady watch of both of them, rotating sporadically to keep an eye on one without losing focus on the other. Egal, at his PC, licked his lips as the tension mounted, his fingers tensed.

Then, suddenly, they attacked. In what seemed like an excellently coordinated show, the first wolf jumped at Spark. He quickly side-stepped and swung at the wolf while it was still in mid-air. He missed, and just as one landed the other jumped, barely giving Spark time to catch his breath. He side-stepped, but only barely, with the wolf's fang grazing his cheek and his HP taking a small hit. Then the first one jumped again. A swing and a miss. Then the second. Miss. The first again, this time grazing his arm.

The bell didn't have the length nor the power to make his methods work, and he was being slowly torn apart. Thus, Spark went old school, taking the bell's handle in both hands with his arms stretched outwards, similar to the way one would hold their weapon in Kendo. Man...who'd of thought that I'd be going back to basics after all this time, he thought to himself. Admittedly, he was having quite a bit of fun, even if he was struggling against two average enemies.

Egal took a deep breath- or half of one, he was interrupted by the wolf's strike. Just as before, he side-stepped. This time, however, sent down the bell on the wolf's back, causing its jump to be slightly harried and its landing less than graceful. Without missing a beat, he stepped to the side, having kept a mental note of where the other wolf was going to be, and did the same. However, Spark knew that he would not be able to keep it up for long, as the two would soon adapt. Instead, rather than waiting for the first wolf to strike, he swung the bell behind him, causing the wolf that was attempting to hit him to fly backwards. Spark took this opportunity to run towards it and stomp on the underside of the fallen wolf's cranium.

There was only one left, and even with a musical instrument as a weapon, Spark had an upper hand. The wolf ran towards him and bit into his leg. This actually made things easier, he'd always considered stationary targets to be the most ideal. He first kicked it in the head, following up with several blows to the body with the bell, and finally jumping and landing on the leg that the wolf was biting, ending the fight.

2x Item(s): Wolf Fang
Level Up! You are now level 4!

"Ye-heah!" Spark shouted gleefully and raising his fist in the air and jutting downward. "Whew, man that was fun." He turned back to Lady Raptor and said, "You okay? Sorry about not casting 100% Cotton on you. I barely had time myself." He put his bell away. "But you seem more than handy with a sword and shield." He looked down for a moment before saying. "...It's not really my business, but why are you headed to the Deep Forest?"

"I'm meeting back up with my friends. I mentioned that back on the plains. Once we meet up, we'll probably grab a few quests and do whatever we can to level up and get some good loot to survive." Colette sheathed her sword and walked over to Spark, producing her two potions. She took one, restoring her health to full. It was disturbing that her health was low enough that a simple potion could replenish it fully.

"Here, I'll trade you this potion for one of those wolf fangs. I have a feeling components will come in handy later on."

Spark rubbed the back of his neck. "Did you? At the time, my mind was on..." He sighed. "...On other things. But yeah, we can trade. Personally, I don't need a potion, but I'm not sure how much good a wolf's fang would do me as this class. Unless it turned out to be some kinda hot commodity or something. Selling to NPCs would just get me chump change with as few as I have."

Colette nodded, finalizing the exchange through her HUD. "Well, you'll need a potion at some point. Keep it 'til then."

She placed the wolf fang into her inventory and turned back to the forest. It was quiet now, so she opened up her messages again.

Group Chat Lady Raptor, Killer Ivy, Necrolord, Shadow Panther, Wargrár

[Lady Raptor] I'm in the forest, somewhere. Where are you guys?
[Necrolord] We just got done battling some Treants. Here, I'll send you our coordinates.

A second later, a marker appeared on her minimap.

[Lady Raptor] Okay, I'll be there in a second.

She closed her menu while keeping an eye on the minimap. "Follow me, they're not too far."

Dragon · Jul 28, 2014

☠ Pirate Log 1 ~ LGDClaw
LEVEL 2 // Warrior Class

LGDClaw managed to come in contact with her fellow mates. Or shipmates; whatever she called it, they were there, lost as a puppy in a tin can. Well, at least to her, stuff like that made sense. In any case, left and right, she saw daemon after daemon smacking each other and even down right beating them to death, and for what? A key that Claw happened to own as well. Perhaps no one had confronted her because of her size? Well, whatever the case may be, she passed on everyone around her like water off a duck.

Pretty soon she was eyeing face-to-face against a goblin who seemed to be interested in the flies that surrounded it. Ick, if she didn't kill this thing fast enough, she'd die of the horrid stench. However, despite that, it was time for action.

She prepared her claws and her resounding base speed, and jumped. A mere moment later, she smacked the foe, right on the top of it's soft head, as the goblin staggered a bit, to regain it's balance. The monster retaliated by attempting to use it's main weapon - a club, to wound the cat before she got a chance to combo attack; but fortunately, LGDClaw evaded by the skin of her wiskers by simply rolling out of the way by doing a air-summer salt. Her next attack was sure to hit home, as all she had to do was run up to attack. The monster became more prepared this time, as it prepared it's attack. Soon, one can see that it appeared that the cat and the goblin attacked each other at the same time - which they ended up standing face to face. Shortly after though, the Goblin fell in defeat, as it was now destroyed. She then check her messages. Her guild was even more crazy.

> LGDClaw: You guys still alive or did goblins get ya
> Terrigan : im alive.
> Terrigan : im through the portal and i found an ally.
> Terrigan : or at least someone who doesnt want to kill me presently.
> LGDClaw: please tell me that they are not turtles
> Terrigan : i can confirm
> Terrigan : that they are not turtles.
> Terrigan : or wait who?
> LGDClaw: kk, you had me when you said they weren't turtles
> LGDClaw: good enough
> LGDClaw: god darn turtles scammed me before
> LGDClaw: i'll give you a gold star or something later
> Terrigan : success.
> Terrigan : are you through the portal yet? there seem to be many who have made it through and theyre all teaming up in various ways now.
> Terrigan : not sure theyre even sticking to guild mates.
> Terrigan : the guy whos with me sure isnt a pirate.
> LGDClaw: k, as long as they're not turtles
> LGDClaw: we're good
> LGDClaw: anywho, I'm coming, just lemme wait for this starter pack
> LGDClaw: i wanna be a mage this time
> LGDClaw: plz mage
> LGDClaw: plz mage
> LGDClaw: plz mage
> LGDClaw: WARRIOR?! Auuuuuuugh
> LGDClaw: alright, alright I'm.. coming... look for someone who looks like
> LGDClaw: they have they're head down in shame idk
> Terrigan : i became a red mage.
> Terrigan : we seem to have switched classes.
> Terrigan : in any case, were on our way to the forest on the map
> Terrigan : meet me and my mysterious companion there? throw me a message when youre in the forest and well make sure to find you Claw!
> LGDClaw: yeah, yeah, just lemme get this stupid armor on
> LGDClaw: gods, I look like a jumped up blueberry elephant

She slowly got on her warrior's starter armor, and as always, she disliked it highly. It also came with a starter sword, which honestly wasn't too bad, albit a bit weak for her taste. At least if she was a mage, she could of blew stuff up. But no, stuck with a sword. In any case, she sheathed her newly acquired sword away, and soon, she encountered the nearby portal.

Her next stop: the forest.

Skymin · Jul 29, 2014

Rosalee Bennett // PumpkinXO
>> Level 2, White Mage, Cloud Nine
>> 25th May, 2025
>> Floor 1: Plains & Manchester, England

Rosie had teleported before in CLOUD -- from Alto to Cirrus, but she had never really grown used to the feeling it brought. It was like that sickly feeling that washes over you as the elevator goes up and all you want to do is get off. The teleported was instantaneous though and the feeling was there and gone before Rosie could talk about it.

Despite this she stumbled forward as the blue light disappeared from her eyes, falling to her knees onto the soft grass below her. She looked up, taking in the view around her. As a CLOUD city-goer, Rosie wasn't too familiar with the more dungeon-like landscape. The sights were wonderful, coupled with the cool breeze and the orange glow on the horizon, lightly touching the flowing grass around her. It was as if she was looking at a photo of somewhere foreign, like the Netherlands or New Zealand.

The words "FLOOR 1: PLAINS" hovered in front of her for a moment before it faded away, alerting her where she was.

"Floor one?" She made a face. ICARUS had said there was a hundred floors. How long would it take to get through the first floor? A day? A week? A month?

She stumbled to her feet, remembering her new items that she had picked up on the way out. White Mage was what she could remember before she jumped through the teleporter. She held the staff up and with a swipe of her hand brought up the words 'Basic Wooden Staff'. There was nothing special about it, really.

A box appeared on her HUD however, something she could only describe as an 'ability menu', her only option was a spell called 'Cure'. She waved the staff, hoping something would happen. She waited a moment, but nothing changed. She tried again, this time calling the word mentally. A white light emitted from the staff, falling over her own body, her fatigue from earlier disappearing and the green bar representing her health replenishing.

"Oh! White magic must be healing abilities," she said to herself, smiling. Maybe she would use them on her new companions. Speaking of which, she turned to face them, her eyes meeting with no one. She was all alone... again. Where had JJ and Atreyu gone?

Spiede · Aug 1, 2014

Korori Hitomi >> Cosmic Ether
25th May, 2025 // baltimore city, maryland, usa
o level 1, classless >> level 3, conjurer
o unknown foyer >> floor 1; plains

Loud, repetitive beeps echoed throughout the semi-empty, studio apartment. The irritating noise went on for a few minutes as it's owner struggled to rouse herself out of bed, but after those few moments a dainty hand came down on the alarm clock, finally silencing it. A small frame rose from underneath a galaxy-print blanket, dark brown eyes glanced over at the numbers appearing on the device, 11:45pm. A loud groan erupted from the woman's mouth as her body plopped back down onto the queen sized mattress, space blanket flying back over her head. A welcoming meow rang out into the open room, causing the girl to poke her face out from her blanket hide-out, a fluffy white face greeting her. "Good evening, Lulu." She said in a groggy voice as a thin arm extended out to pat the cat on the head. The small cat purred furiously and closed her eyes upon being pet, then jumped down off of the mattress and trotted off towards her food bowl, meowing continuously as she circled the empty bowl. "I know, I' know." The girl muttered as she rolled out of bed, her space blanket wrapped around her thin frame. She slowly trudged into the kitchen area of her apartment, which was only a few feet away from her mattress, grabbed the bag of cat food from inside a cabinet and took a scoop out for the hungry feline. "There, happy now?" She questioned the cat as the animal hurriedly scarfed down the food, not even minding the fact that she was being pet on her back.

After taking care of the hungry beast, Korori turned her attention to her own stomach, which erupted in growls like a starved monster. The noises it made were no surprise to the girl, along with the sickening feel of acid eating away at her stomach lining. That's what happened to the digestive system when someone neglected to feed it, the organ found it's own food, that being the organ itself. The girl tossed back a few tums and began to rummage through her mostly bare cabinets, bagged rice and canned vegetables being one of the few things within them. With no luck in finding something easy and quick to make, the young woman turned to the fridge next. Inside it contained a few apples, mangos and kiwis that she swiped from the grocery store, some rice and vegetables she had prepared a few days ago and a pitcher of Koolaid with no sugar. With the limited choices, Korori opted for an apple, her nose turned up at the rice bowl that she was sick of eating. She bite into the sweet fruit and held it with her teeth while using her now free hand to fill a glass with water from her sink, her other hand clutched firmly around the blanket to make sure it didn't fall off.

Once food and drink were taken care of, the woman slowly made her way over to her gaming center. Which was a computer monitor set on top of a nightstand with the tower underneath, a box full of books set next to each side of said stand with a mouse on one and a keyboard on top another. Korori plopped down onto a ripped up beanbag chair that sat in front of the setup, she sunk in slightly and once settled booted up the computer. As she waited for the machine to turn on she began to eat her apple that was still being held between her teeth. It was a pleasant experience to say the least as opposed to eating the same rice bowl that she had been for the past few months. Her previous diet of ramen noodles had betrayed her by sending her stomach into bouts of nausea and chest pains. By order of her doctor, Korori was to switch to a less processed grain, hold the salt, and include vegetables as well as fruits into her diet. However, being dirt poor didn't exactly lead to a very healthy palette of food. Her measly pay check was a little over enough to pay her rent, electricity/water and internet bills. What was left was to buy enough food to keep her alive, barely.

With a flick of her wrist, Korori opened up her HUD, scrolling through the CLOUD fourms. They were all flooded with conversations about the new announcement that would be given today, in less than five minutes now. As the gamer sat there, she too began to feel the excitement that she had been pushing aside the past seven days. The day of the pre-announcement she was there, of course she was, CLOUD had become her second life. She spent more time in the digital world than the real one. Reality held nothing for her except bills, high expectations and misery. CLOUD held an endless amount of possibilities and enjoyment, the woman spent every available hour in the fantasy realm. So when she received the news of a new patch and a strange silver key appeared in her inventory, the girl couldn't contain her energy, instead she pushed the entire event out of her mind until today or else she wouldn't have gotten anything done that week. Now though, she could fully indulge in her digital world as much as she pleased. Korori had made sure to work overtime all this week at her waitress job so that she could take off the next three days, so to be able to enjoy whatever this ICARUS had in store for the community of CLOUD. Before beginning her digital experience, Korori opened up her message center.

To: Aaron
Re: Korori
<<it's almost time! are you by your lappy???
>>duh of course i am. called in sick. deff not missing this :)
<<good, i didn't want to be alone this time ;)
>>lol i'll be there

A smile tugged at the corners of the girl's lips, Korori didn't have many friends, but she was glad for the one she was able to snag.

Brown eyes now stared at the clock across the room, "One more minute..." The girl whispered, her breath caught within her throat as she counted down the seconds in her head. Once she hit five her head shifted back over to the computer screen, hands hovering over her keyboard. "Four, three, two, on-"

COSMIC ETHER IS NOW LOGGED IN.

The digital world appeared on the monitor within a few seconds without Korori even having to login, a giant foyer on screen with millions of players in seats, the lights dim. "What the..." Korori stared at the unknown castle room with confusion, it seemed as though almost every CLOUD player in the world was there. Why were they all seated? What area were they in? The gamer liked to think that she explored just about every inch of CLOUD, but the foyer was not familiar to her in the least. She tried to move her DAEMON, but something had Cosmic locked in place. Korori quickly brought up a private chat channel.

PRIVATE CHAT
[Cosmic Ether] dude are you here?
[TheVexedMan] yea what the hell is this place? is your daemon locked too?
[Cosmic Ether] i was just about to ask you the same thing...
[Cosmic Ether] damn, i'm excited about this update and all, but i don't like not being able to move
[TheVexedMan] it'll be ok. maybe it's to prevent players from messing around while the update is being announced?
[Cosmic Ether] yea, maybe...
[Cosmic Ether] as soon as we're mobile, come find me.
[TheVexedMan] sure thing :)

Korori minimized the chat and focused on the scene before her, waiting for this ICARUS to show and within minutes of her arrival in CLOUD, he appeared. The lights flickered on and an enormous demonic DAEMON entered the area, center stage.

"Greetings, CLOUD members! I am your host, ICARUS, and I officially welcome you to your new home! Today marks the day of revolution, the day that CLOUD truly changes the world. To celebrate this wondrous occasion, we have prepared something special for you, our members who have supported us for every single second that CLOUD has existed. CLOUD has always worked to meld the line between our online selves and reality and now, what we do behind a screen will have so much more of an impact on our lives than ever before."

The fur on Cosmic's body began to raise, an uneasy feeling beginning to fester deep within her.

PRIVATE CHAT
[Cosmic Ether] aaron, i don't like the sound of this icarus guy...
[TheVexedMan] oh thats just your un-trusting side showing. everything will be fine
[Cosmic Ether] were you automatically logged in?
[TheVexedMan] yea. i did think that was a little odd but with all this happening so fast i didnt really have time to think about it
[Cosmic Ether] ...
[TheVexedMan] really korori. i think everything will be alright

After the last message was received, Korori was about to response, but ICARUS continued with his speech. She once again minimized the chat, but kept the cursor over top it for quick access.

"You may recall receiving a special item last week; a silver key which is individual to your DAEMON. Your KEY is no longer just an item. It is your identity. Embedded within the coding of your KEY are your details, and not just your name and birth date. Passwords, bank accounts, social security numbers, credit card details... everything you have ever done is now recorded in one location. Just by equipping and using the KEY as a regular item, you can access all of this. And not just your own. By equipping and using another member's KEY, you are able to access their details just as easily as your own. As they are non-trading items, the only way to obtain another member's key is by killing their DAEMON."

Cosmic hissed at the great beast before her, she knew this ICARUS was not to be trusted. The automatic login was the first tip of something being fishy, along with the locked DAEMONS. Swiftly her little paw-hands grabbed the unique key from the pouch fastened to her waist. The item was a thin, antique skeleton key, her username neatly engraved on it. She held it delicately within her paws, everything that she had owned, bought, created, all of it was now accessible through this small key.

Korori stared at the screen, struck by an array of emotions that crashed into her like a tidal wave. What did this mean? Why would ICARUS do this and how was he able to? Was this even legal? The girl didn't have much to her name, but no matter what it was hers to own. She would let no one take what little she had. After this upsetting news it seemed as though the rest of the gaming world erupted in protest, but could do nothing about it.

"Other important changes have happened in CLOUD. All levels have been reset to zero and all items aside from your KEY have been removed and deleted from all accounts. Your DAEMON has been reset to factory settings. All restrictions have been removed from all locations which means PvP is allowed in all areas aside from the CLOUDLANDS lounge, which will boot you out after an hour after entering. Also, it is now impossible to log out your DAEMON. However, if you are killed and your key is taken from you, you will respawn in CLOUDLANDS and you are free to try and win your key back."

With this bit of information, Korori frantically opened up her inventory and character tab. The demonic DAEMON wasn't joking, everything was gone. The girl jumped up from her seat, keyboard dropping to the floor. "What the hell! All my time wasted! What the- arrrggghhh, damm!t, damm!t!" Korori raged in a circle for a few moments, ranting and screaming obscenities before settling back down in her beanbag, ICARUS' voice forcing her back to the screen.

"Are you unhappy with your new world that I have so graciously given you? Fine! Come face me then! CLOUD has been converted into a new domain, a hundred story castle! Right now, the CLOUD you know resides on the first floor. Once you defeat the boss which rests within the new STORM dungeon, the stairs to the next floor will reveal, granting you new opportunities to protect yourself, or to make yourself stronger to defeat and take from others. I will be waiting for you in the hundredth-floor dungeon. Defeat me, and take back what you held so dearly, what you took for granted."

"Yes I'm fricken unhappy!" Korori shouted at her computer screen, wishing so badly that she had a DREAMSCAPE or at least a mic. Her small hands balled up into tight fists, wanting so badly to lash out at the massive DAEMON. All she could do was watch and listen with the millions of disgruntled players. "A hundred stories and no logging out. How the hell are you suppose to get anything done in the real worl-" At that moment Korori's mind caught up with the real life crisis this event just created. Everyone's passwords, bank accounts, credit cards, social security numbers, their identity, their life was now ingrained into a single small key. Said key was able to be taken by any other user that defeated the item's owner. That meant that anyone could say, swipe the key of a multimillionaire and become one themselves, just by playing a game. "B-but that would be messed up..." The gamer pondered on the idea for a few moments, would it really be? That's kinda how the real world worked anyway, stepping on the toes of the weak and unlucky to make it to the top. This really wasn't all that different and on CLOUD, with every DAEMON back to factory settings, all players had a fair chance. Would it really be that wrong? Korori battled with the choice that this new epidemic presented her with.

As the girl struggled with how she would proceed through the game, she noticed that the small key within her paws was changing color. It went from a plain silver tone to a beautiful dark, slate grey hue that emitted a slight glow. "What the..." Korori gazed at the computer screen, just inches from her face. ICARUS' eyes seemed to stare right back at her, or rather right at Cosmics'.

"There is however, a catch. I have spread out amongst yourselves unique, coloured keys. These have been given out to several random, but now special players. These coloured keys are important for unlocking the doors to bosses and all of these coloured keys will be required to open the final door. To you players who have my special keys, I have given you no choice." ICARUS grinned, showing the audience a set of silver keys, one of which looks extremely similar to your own. If you look closely, even your name is etched onto the side! "I have your key. Your identity is mine. Come and claim it back."

Korori's jaw dropped, "That bastard..." She really didn't know what else to say, the gamer was so strung out from all this craziness and from the decisions she would soon have to make. Quickly she brought the chat back up.

PRIVATE CHAT
[Cosmic Ether] aaron! are you listening to all this???
[TheVexedMan] yea...
[Cosmic Ether] do you have a colored key???
[TheVexedMan]no. you?
[Cosmic Ether] yea
[TheVexedMan] damn
[TheVexedMan] whats the plan? i cant lose my key. all my college funds...
[Cosmic Ether] don't worry, i won't let that happen. we have to meet up asap.
[TheVexedMan] wait your key is colored? that means
[TheVexedMan] he has your identity...
[Cosmic Ether] yea, i know. it's not like he got much anyway
[TheVexedMan] yea but...
[TheVexedMan] what are you gonna do without money?
[Cosmic Ether] come on aaron, like i had any to begin with. don't worry about me, it's your key we gotta protect. you're the one with sh!t to lose. i'll be coming into some new cash flow as soon as cosmic can move.
[TheVexedMan] korori
[TheVexedMan] be careful
[Cosmic Ether] aren't i always?

With that the chat was exited out of, Korori's full attention on ICARUS, her hands readily hovering over mouse and keyboard.

"So, which has become more important to you? Your online or offline self? Do you protect what you have or rebuild your identity from scratch? Thank-you for your time and enjoy yourselves at our new update celebrations. Have a nice morning, day, night and evening."

The demonic DAEMON disappeared and in his place, a glowing beam of light. Korori immediately recognized the beam as a portal, just before being unlocked a message popped up on her HUD.

PRIVATE CHAT
[TheVexedMan] destination portal?
[Cosmic Ether] you got it.
[TheVexedMan] see you there cos

A smirk tugged at her mouth, she loved when Aaron went along with the roleplay aspect of CLOUD, after all when Korori was in game she was no longer herself, she was Cosmic Ether.

The gamer had just enough time to read the message before every DAEMON in the foyer erupted in panic. They all began running, raging and pillaging each other. Some clustered together, no idea how to react to the situation. Cosmic turned her attention away from those types of players and instead focused on the brutes attacking the unprepared. With a quick whip of her slender body, the dragon began to maneuver her way around seats and players, running on all fours. Normally she would fly, but upon seeing her empty inventory she knew that wasn't possible. Within just a few minutes the DAEMON had made her way over to a group of three, two medium fox inspired players that had ganged up on a panda cub. Though she was outnumbered, the players were too focused on the panda DAEMON they intended to attack. Cosmic slithered behind the two and attacked swiftly, biting and slashing at the back of one until his health dropped to zero. The now dematerialized player's partner jerked around quickly, attempting an attack of his own by swinging a silver key around. Cosmic was caught off guard by the weapon, just barely ducking in enough time to dodge it. With some swift key strokes, Korori equipped her own key and lashed out at the player. The glow from her colored key made the DAEMON stop in his tracks, a little awestruck. That was all the dragon needed, she lashed out at the two-legged fox with a few combos before striking down on his head. Pixels scattered everywhere and now that the threat was taken care of, Cosmic turned to gather the keys.

You defeated XxJadeFoxX & PeachDrizzlexx
2x Item(s): XxJadeFoxX's key, PeachDrizzlexx's key
Level Up! You are now level 2!

Korori forcefully let out her breath, which she had been unintentionally holding the entire battle. Having your whole life ride on whether or not your digital self died made playing this game quite intense, even with everyone at level 1. The panda DAEMON that she had saved, shot up off the ground and began to express how grateful they were to be rescued, but Cosmic was already on the move, slate grey key in hand. She had thought about unequipping it, but the danger of being attacked with no weapon was too high. The dragon would just have to stay unnoticed to avoid others realizing that she had a colored key, but that wasn't too much of a problem, after all, Cosmic was only about three feet tall while standing. The odds of someone spotting her were slim, however, her speed was not what it used to be, so caution was extremely necessary.

It wasn't long before someone noticed a slender figure wielding a special key, unfortunately for Cosmic, the player was quite large. The tiger DAEMON called her out and immediately began peddling after the dragon on all fours. Korori spotted the player chasing after her, abruptly stopping and turning to face the challenger. While Cosmic waited for the player to catch up, she equipped one of the silver keys that she had just picked up. Now the dragon DAEMON wielded two keys, causing the gamer to laugh as old memories from one of her favorite childhood games came to mind.

The tiger stampeded towards the readied dragon and lunged once close enough. Cosmic side stepped, but her challenger was quicker than she expected. As soon as the feline landed back on all fours, a large back paw kicked out at her, catching the side of her cheek. Korori watched as her health went down the slightest, but reacted immediately, slashing at the DAEMON on screen with a flurry of blows. She was able to land a few good hits, but the tiger would not go down as easily as the fox players, landing a few of their own. The beast swung at the keys, blocking some of her attacks. Cosmic jumped back a few feet from her opponent, sticking out a pink tongue. The tiger growled in annoyance and rashly lunged again, this time the dragon slide under the big cat, cutting it's underbelly as she did so. It rained pixels for a few seconds before the player disappeared entirely. Cosmic smirked as she picked up yet another key, but it soon faded as she noticed that a quarter of her health bar had disappeared through the course of battle.

You defeated Circus_Freak33
Item(s): Circus_Freak33's key

"Ok, time to get the hell out of here." Korori turned her DAEMON's view to the glowing portal at the center of the foyer. She had enough keys for now, chances were that the players she had defeated had some money, some where. The gamer would live off of that until she could get her own identity back and if she needed more resources, well, there were millions of players that weren't able to log out. Plus, the panic in the room was escalating at a high rate, she could already see the bigger players grouping up and attacking the small ones, her being one of them. Dying was not on her agenda today and now she would play it safe.

Cosmic unequipped both of her weapons and resumed her run on all fours, she weaved around legs and tails, hiding in the shadows and cracks when needed. It took some time, but finally she could see the portal. Of course, it was guarded by an array of low leveled monsters, maybe she could find some weapons or a class. The dragon decided that charging in was the best course of action, her sneak level was pretty much none existent so trying to... sneak was useless. She reequipped her keys and focused on a large, mutated, fiery red salamander monster. Cosmic charged at the beast, smacked it on the side of the face with one key and on top the head with another. The monster lashed out with it's tail, but Cosmic front flipped over top it's body, swinging down with both keys as she was about to land. Luckily the salamander dropped an item. "Sweet!" Korori shouted at the screen, hoping that it would be the Assassin Class so she could start rebuilding her character.

You defeated fire salamander
Item(s): Conjurer Class, 5 Spheres
Level Up! You are now level 3!

The gamer face palmed with both hands, "Oh no..." she mumbled. Korori had never had much luck with magical classes, not to mention she didn't really enjoy them. Being an Assassin was kinda her thing, not to mention went with Cosmic's character. How could she regain her master mercenary status while being a Conjurer? What did they even do? It was something the girl would have to figure out later. Right now wasn't the time to be discouraged about a class. Korori regained her composure, hands quickly settling back into their positions. Cosmic equipped her new class with haste. Now the dragon wore a typical witch hat, a double layered tunic and a simple leather belt with a pouch attached. Equipped to both her hands was a Weathered Cane. Korori knew that the cane wasn't going to be much help if used as a physical weapon, so she quickly checked her abilities and assigned a number to the one that she had, Stone.

"Ok, let's see what you can do as a Conjurer, Cosmic." Korori focused her DAEMON onto the monsters around her, which seemed to have noticed her before she noticed them. Thankfully, it was only two monsters as many of them were already attacking other players. With a tap of the '1' key, Cosmic began to cast her only spell. As soon as she started casting, one of the monsters, a feral dog, registered her action, attacking her with it's mouth wide open. The beast got within a foot of the dragon before getting pelted with stones, it's health bar depleting considerably. However, that did not stop it's attack and it quickly bit down into Cosmic's shoulder. The DAEMON was pushed back some, but now the dog was within her little arms reach. She smacked the dog a few times with her cane, taking the rest of it's life. The monster shattered into pixels and through it's desecrated body leaped a zombified... cat. Cosmic didn't have enough time to dodge the small creature entirely, but was able to side step out of a direct hit. Instead the cat caught her arm with it's sharp claws. "Oh this is ridiculous! Damn, I want my speed back!" Korori shouted, her volume spooking the white cat that had settled beside her. "Sorry, Lulu!" She didn't have enough time to see where the cat scattered off to, but felt better verbally apologizing.

The zombie cat was now right beside Cosmic, hissing through a decaying jaw. The dragon took the opportunity to smack it in the side with her cane, like a golf ball, flinging the monster into the air and causing it to land a few feet away. The beast took some falling damage and now Cosmic was able to use her Stone spell once more. It took only a few seconds to complete the action, the cat unable to make it back to it's target before being bombarded with stones. In seconds the monster busted into pixels. Korori let out a heavy sigh as she gazed at her less than half of a health bar.

You defeated feral dog & zombie cat
Item(s): x1 fang, x1 eyeball, 2 Spheres

Now that she had a few moments to breath, Korori quickly opened up the private chat channel.

PRIVATE CHAT
[Cosmic Ether] vex, where are you??? i'm at the portal.
[Cosmic Ether] please don't tell me you died...

Nervously, Korori swirled her DAEMON's view in a full circle, looking for her friend in the hoards of players and monsters. A group of mutated rats in the distance was quickly making their way over to her.

PRIVATE CHAT
[TheVexedMan] hey sorry i was fighting off some players. this is really tough
[Cosmic Ether] vex! thank goodness, i can't sit around this portal, i have a damn conjurers class, i'll meet you on the other side. be careful!
[TheVexedMan] a conjurer? lol that will be interesting to see but yea go ahead i'll meet you there
[Cosmic Ether] you better!

Korori minimized the chat and Cosmic jumped through the glowing blue beam, within seconds she was transported to an outside area. Her HUD popped up with a message:

'Welcome to Floor 1: Plains.'

"How original." Korori smirked at the lack of creativeness this ICARUS had, but was happy to be out of that overcrowded foyer. The gamer motioned her DAEMON to glance around at her surroundings, finding no safe place to hide other than the tall grasses that littered the entirety of the plains. Being so small, Cosmic was able to hide amongst the grass while sitting, bringing up her spell tab once seated. "Oh nice, Cure." She moved the spell over to the number '2' slot on her quicktab bar and proceeded to heal herself, health bar filling completely. "Well, at least this class won't be too useless." Korori muttered, thinking about what to do next, her right index finger pressing against her template while her left hand held an elbow. "I need to find a fighter type. Some brute strength would definitely be helpful." With that thought she quickly pulled the chat back up.

PRIVATE CHAT
[Cosmic Ether] hey did you get a class?

No response. "Hmmm, he must still be in the foyer..." Korori felt terrible for leaving Aaron, but she knew that there was nothing she could have done. It would have taken some time to look for him with all those players, like trying to find a needle in a haystack, but still she wished that there was someway to help him. All she could do now was wait, which wasn't really one of her strong points. The dragon pulled up a quest tab, which had three new ones highlighted. Korori pondered on which one would be the safest, yet most fulfilling for Cosmic. She was alone, so entering a place titled 'Deep Forest' didn't seem like a smart idea. Little Town didn't seem very appearing either, considering the player only had 7 Spheres to her name, no where close to what an item would cost. "Maybe the village will have more quests and some low leveled monsters roaming around." Korori clicked the quest and made it her main objective.

PRIVATE CHAT
[Cosmic Ether] hey, when you come through the portal meet me at the village near Green Hill.
[TheVexedMan] k

That simple letter made the girl's eyes light up, it meant Aaron was still alive, he just must be very busy with staying that way. As long as he still had his key, Korori felt better about the situation, they had split before and did well on their own, she was confident in the boy's abilities to go solo. After all, before the update they were skilled mercenaries.

Cosmic waited for a few minutes for her mana pool to regenerate and once filled, got up from her relaxed position and looked at the map. Coincidentally, Green Hill was the closet place from her location. "Sweet." The dragon DAEMON began walking toward her destination, cane leaning against her small shoulder.

Ozymandias · Aug 2, 2014

Kiernan & Korori / Rorschach & Cosmic Ether

Floor 1: Plains

The dizzying sensation that came from teleporting via dreamscape was something that Kiernan certainly wouldn't mind ICARUS taking from her. However for each second of discomfort it gave off a feeling of familiarity, unlike the unknown terrain that appeared around her.

"Floor 1: Plains" the text hovering over her HUD read for a moment before fading away. "Cute name." She murmured to herself before examining her surroundings. The digital fields certainly were beautiful, but that wasn't what the thief was looking for. "A-ha!" Kiernan whispered in excitement under her breath. A tiny daemon was walking alone, back towards her, and from her apparel, part of a magic based class. It was the perfect storm. She could have gone without a useless mage starting kit, but their key would look nice in her inventory

Starting a light sprint to catch up to the lone player, she quickly made her way to about twenty yards behind the stranger before opening her mouth to get their attention before immediately regretting it. Kiernan dove down at once trying her hardest to conceal herself in the deep grass. Damn it! She didn't hear me did she?! Rorschach's thoughts raced through her mind as she lay belly down in the pasture.

The dragon daemon slowly made her way toward the Green Hill, cane bouncing lightly against her shoulder as she walked. She was becoming quite irritated by the lengthy grass that brushed up against her, some rebel strands managed to reach her face, tickling it slightly. It was at these times that Korori was happy to not have a DREAMSCAPE. She couldn't image having to deal with all these little nuances in game as well as real life, but she did wish to feel more apart of the game. That was the point of her obsessive playing, to lose herself within the fantasy world. The girl pondered on the idea of purchasing one of the helmets with the new funds she had acquired. Maybe once she reached the village she would find a safe place to hide while she shopped for one.

The gamer's thoughts were soon interrupted by the sound of a voice, off in the distance. Unfortunately, Korori also did not have a mic, so her only means of communication were through typing. Cosmic turned around to where the voice seemed to come from, pink orbs searched intensely for it's owner. "I know I heard something..." The girl's dainty fingers whipped across her keyboard at lightening speed.

PUBLIC CHAT
Cosmic Ether: who's there?! i heard you, so there's no use in hiding. show yourself, before i start pelting this whole area with spells!

The text popped up in Kiernan's HUD which confirmed what she had been fearing. She slowly picked herself up from her hiding with her hands up as if she were surrendering. Using the speech to chat technology that was implemented in the dreamcast.

Rorschach: eheheh... hey there cosmic, how are you?

As the player emerged from the tall grasses, a scowl began to form on Cosmic's furry face. Dramatically she pointed her cane toward the girl as if it were a gun.

Cosmic Ether: you!!

Korori stared at her screen in astonishment, she couldn't believe who she was staring at, Rorschach, the girl who Cosmic had lent a considerable amount of money to before the update. The gamer had honestly thought that she would never look upon the DAEMON again and had written the loan off as a loss. Not to say that she hadn't previously tried to hunt the girl down to collect, but she was a very hard player to find. Cosmic took a step forward, adjusting her cane against the earth.

Cosmic Ether: i'd be a lot happier with that debt of yours paid, but i assume you have no spheres to your name as well.

The dragon DAEMON crossed her arms, annoyance plain as day on her face. Even though she was finally face to face with the one that got away, she knew the loan would not be paid. How could it? ICARUS had taken everything, from everyone. Instead of focusing on what would never happened, Korori redirected her thoughts to the now.

Cosmic Ether: what are you doing here rorschach?

A sheepish grin spread across Kiernan's face. There were only a couple of options that she had at this point. A) stay and see what cosmic wants. B) make a break for it and risk getting followed/hunter. C) try and take out cosmic and risk getting tracked down and taken out herself. Letting out a sigh she decided that option A was the most sensible of the three.

Rorschach: nothing much... just trying to make my way to the Green Hill

The dragon eyed her with suspicious orbs, foot taping against the ground. It seemed as though the two were heading in the same direction. Korori though for a few moments, I still haven't heard anything from Aaron... it's too dangerous to be out and about on my own, but can I trust her? The gamer didn't really have much of a choice at this point. Running around on her own with a colored key could become very bad, very quickly. She was going to seek out party members anyway at some point. The more people she had on her side, the higher her survival rate would be.

Cosmic Ether: it seems that we are headed the same way.

The DAEMON unfolded her arms and relaxed her stance.

Cosmic Ether: i have a proposition for you. since you are unable to pay off that debt of yours with spheres, i will allow you to pay it off with time. from this point on you can be my new personal bodyguard. your debt is paid once we reach the 100th floor and defeat that bastard icarus. sound fair?

Korori hoped that the girl would accept the offer, otherwise, she was really unsure of how to handle her. Now that she was right in front of the dragon, she couldn't let her get away with not paying her if the girl refused the deal.

Damn it... Kiernan tapped her foot as she contemplated the deal cosmic had proposed. On one hand she could accept and be stuck with her potentially for the full 100 floors, she could try her luck and go for the kill, or she could... A grin spread across her face as she thought up of an idea.

Rorschach: sounds good to me. whatever you want to do is fine by me.

A smirk tugged at Korori's mouth, loving the fact that she got what she wanted and although the gamer was still very wary of the girl's true intentions, she was glad to not be roaming around in CLOUD alone in such a dangerous time. She had hoped that Aaron would have come through the portal by now, his company would have been much more preferred, but she would have to work with what she was given.

Cosmic Ether: excellent.

With a swift motion of her hands, Korori brought up the party tab and sent Rorschach an invite. While messing with tabs, she decided to open her private chat as well.

PRIVATE CHAT
[Cosmic Ether]: omg, vex, you wouldn't believe who i bumped into. remember the one who got away?
[TheVexedMan]: ya
[Cosmic Ether]: well i'm staring right at her!
[TheVexedMan]: no sh!t!
[Cosmic Ether]: right! all that searching and now, after this crazy sh!t, that's when i find her. what the hell are the odds of that?
[TheVexedMan]: damn. wish i could have seen her face
[Cosmic Ether]: lol. it was priceless. anyway, i found out a way for her to pay that damn debt of hers, so she'll be teaming up with us. when you get through that damn portal let me know!
[TheVexedMan]: yea sorry dude. dealing with some sh!t while im here
[Cosmic Ether]: just be careful
[TheVexedMan]: always ;)

The conversation only lasted about half a second, both players possessing very fast hands. Korori minimized the chat and focused back on the girl in front of her DAEMON.

Cosmic Ether: so are you ready to move forward? i can heal you if your health is low.

Rorschach: nah i'm fine.

Kiernan moved forward past the dragon, but not before giving her a playful slap on the back of the tiny daemon's head.

Rorschach: shouldn't be too much further until Green Hill... by the way you need to get yourself a freaking mic ;D

Korori expelled an odd growling-like noise as she watched the girl smack Cosmic on her small, furry head, titling her hat forward. The dragon adjusted herself and ignored the assault, not wanting to give Rorschach the pleasure of knowing how pissed that made her. This was going to be one hell of an adventure.

Cosmic Ether: yea, you don't gotta tell me. i'm thinking about making some investments once we get into town.

The duo walked onward, the Thief leading as the Conjurer followed close behind. As they neared their destination, the blades that shot up from the earth shrunk in stature, a slight breeze rolling through them.

joint post by Spiede & Ozymandias

Skymin · Aug 2, 2014

??? // RENU0xu

>> Level 2, Black Mage, ???
>> 25th May, 2025
>> ??? & ???, ???

Renu led the way into DEEP FOREST, wielding his magic staff defensively in front of him. He would have felt more comfortable with a sword or shield or even bow in his hands but luck had given him a magic item. Of course, he was adaptable and would use this staff to its highest potential but it just wasn't the same as the cool metals and leathers of the physical weapons. Even though his luck seemed off, it gave Renu an excellent excuse to try the dark magics. He'd never given them much thought until finding teammates for raids or that one moment he tried being a magic archer. If he had a full understanding of them, maybe he would appreciate magic users more. Or even grow fond of the class! Who knew the possibilities that lay in store!

Though his detection skills were abysmal, it wasn't hard to feel the eeriness of the forest and that it was full to the brim with monsters. Dark trees flooded the edges of the skinny path that lead them through the forest, their vision even darker than it was in the early morning dim light of the Plains. Flora around them rustled, a early warning that monsters were nearby, but nothing had ambushed them yet. Perhaps a great place to grind, but if the levels here were too high, they might lose their keys sooner than they thought.

"Hold, mes amis." Renu held an arm out in front of his comrades, stopping and listening. His fox ears twitched and with a crunch and a snarl, six goblins came out of the bushes and surrounded them, brandishing crude looking weapons like axes and maces made from rusted metals. Like most low levelled mobs, their snarls were an indicator of low intelligence. Unfortunately for them, they were outnumbered.

"Two each sounds fair, no?" Renu grinned, twirling his staff then raising it above his head, the ground underneath the two goblins in front of him erupting into flames. They squealed and targeted him, as Renu predicting, running at him with weapons raised and ready. He smirked, ducking underneath the first attack and receiving a mace to the shoulder from the second. "Comment osez-vous! Taking advantage of under equipped players by ambushing them! You should be ashamed of yourselves!"

They paid no attention to his words, snarling and growling like the mindless beasts they were. Renu shrugged, thrusting his staff forward again to let loose another barrage of flames. They rushed at him again, this time Renu holding the staff offensively. He deflected the first attack, smashing his staff into the first goblin's face, giving himself enough time to dodge the second one, counter-attacking by setting the bottom end of his staff alight and thrusting it into the goblin's stomach. It screamed, receiving a 'burnt' debuff and its health slowly ticking down as it rolled around on the ground, attempting to put the fire out.

"Meet your maker, fiend!" Renu rolled out of unburnt goblin's way, focusing the other by setting the ground underneath it alight, the goblin now attempting to put fire out with fire. A quick glance at his stats on his HUD told Renu he was running low on mana, one of the more obvious downsides of the Mage classes. He only had enough for another spell before he would have to start physically fighting in order to wait for his mana to regenerate.

Renu jumped at the burnt goblin, brining his staff down as if it was a sword into the goblins head. The remaining health of the goblin disappeared, causing the goblin to shatter into pieces. Renu stood proudly, letting out a laugh.

"I said I would best you, vous chose lai- urp!" Renu felt a weight at his legs, the goblin behind him sweeping him to the ground, temporarily winding him. Damn his low detection skills! He silently cursed how he had relied on them so much before, but now was not the right time to mourn them! The goblin lifted his mace, ready to unleash a devastating attack. Renu yelled loudly, pushing the staff upwards into the goblins face, pushing it up into the roof of its mouth. "Taste my fire, fiend!" At the end of his sentence, the end of the rod bursting into flames and into the goblin's mouth. It let out a wail before it burst into pixels.

2x item(s): Goblin Horn, Potion
LEVEL UP! You are now level 3!

"Excellent!" He laughed, picking up his spoils. "I will be back to my original level in no time!"

CourageHound · Aug 3, 2014

Samuel "Sam" Green // Gallo Leo
>> Level 2, Berserker, The Senate
>> 25th May, 2025
>> Deep Forest Entry

"Alright, no turning back now," Samuel said as the three faced down the Deep Forest. He followed Renu as the fox led them into the wood. The air immediately became thick and humid. Nothing suffocating, but it definitely was a sudden shift from the fresh breeze of the Green Plains. Scanning the area from his position, the vegetation seemed to provide good cover from shelter or hiding in all directions with a few clearings here and there. He was sure mobs gravitated around those clearings. There could possibly be even a river nearby and those are always hot spots for mobs. A sudden rustle in the thicket several meters away made Sam tense up, ready to counter an attempted ambush. After a few moments however, nothing actually sprung out at him. He fall onto his backside with a thud and a deep sigh. It stung somewhat, having to be cautious of low level creatures again. Within a few moments he collected himself, stood up, and caught up to his friends who were now several paces ahead.

"Hold, mes amis," Renu said as he sullenly halted their movement. It took Sam a moment, be sure enough he could sense the imminent danger too. Six goblins equipped with weak, rusted weapons sprang from the bushes. Although they were outnumbered, he couldn't imagine the goblins posing too serious of a threat if they split evenly. Sure enough, that's exactly what Renu suggested.

The goblins approached slowly and clanged their ragged weapons in a taunting manner. It wouldn't be long before they decided to spring at him. This should definitely bring me up another level., he thought as he eyed the two humanoids. He began to veer off toward the left, his large bear shoulders rose and fell with each step. With a combination of speed, great power, and a thunderous roar, he launched himself at the closest goblin, his clawed gauntlets outstretched to overpower his target. The tremendous attack left his victim in near half HP. An immediate howl of pain erupted from the beast. A frantic attempt at struggling and retaliation ensued after. The second goblin hesitated for only a moment, but it began to bash their attacker in the side repeatedly.

"Back off!" Samuel raised a paw and stroke back at the second goblin, pushing it away. The one under his paws took this opportunity to slip away from underneath the large bear. The two goblins then charged in unison, the teamwork betrayed their unintelligent nature. Sam attempted to dodge their charge altogether, but didn't anticipate them to be as fast as they were. He raised his arms in defense in order block a series of strikes and slashes from a spiked club and axe. He was taking the punishment surprising well, but needed to counter-attack quickly. With the might of a Berserker, he outstretched his arms and swung them in an outward sweeping motion in both directions; raking both goblins. The first goblin disintegrated into pixels the moment it was hit and the other was sent sprawling into the dirt.

The remaining beast stumbled to its feat and scrambled for its weapon that was knocked away from it. Once re-armed, it gave a wail and charged wildly once more. Sam reared up on his back and roared once more, putting its dash to a halt and afflicted the goblin with the 'Slowed' and 'Disable' debuffs. Now an easy target, Samuel rushed the monster, running it through with both paws and tearing it in two. The pixelated remains of the creature now dissolved into the air.

2x item(s): Goblin Horn, Elixir
LEVEL UP! You are now level 3!

Samuel nodded to himself while picking up the drops. "Eazy-peezy."

Arsenic · Aug 5, 2014

Adrian Mason
Level 2 Warrior

Kazuki Utada
Level 2 Defender

Floor 1: Plains
"Onward to Discovery!"

Vision was flooded with a baby blue color as Equinox entered the portal, following his new companion. It was dizzying, teleporting. Different people seemed to have different reactions to it, some none at all! Adrian always became light headed from it, not as bad as when he first got a dreamscape, but it was still noticeable to him.

Suddenly, ground was coming up at him! He landed in a combat roll, sword still grasped firmly. He stood up in the soft grass with the wind gently flowing in his face. He glanced around the field as more and more players made there journey through the portal. He snapped back to reality that people were soon going to attempt to murder him again (most likely, at least) He needed to find ATLAS, link back up! He scanned the surrounding area. He could have spawned anywhere in this open space!

Behind him he saw what looked like a bull's head. He headed towards it, luckily turning out to be his partner.

"Hey! ATLAS! We should probably bolt before the more angry people spawn... Where do you want to go? I figure we should stick together until things at least calm down a little, we'll stand a better chance..."

Kazu took a deep waft of his new cup of coffee. For one who had just lost his livelihood, he was acting relatively calm. The café he resided in was relatively empty, and those who were there had their noses buried in either a book or a partner's face. None of them knew that he had a colored key, and he would keep it that way.

The Japanese man sighed and returned to his seat at the table in the corner. He resumed watching his laptop's screen right as ATLAS tumbled out of the blue portal, landing in a crouched position with a loud thud. The Minotaur drew his two-handed sword and held it in both hands. Considering that it was proportional to his character, it was rather large. He looked at his new shiny armor and grinned in approval. "I like this. More of a threat." He gave his sword a practice swing or to and sheathed it across his back.

Soon enough Equinox had found him and approached him. ATLAS went over his new map and studied the locations. "I think you're right...Let's head to the FOYER DUNGEON. It sounds dangerous, meaning less players. Hopefully we won't meet with very much resistance. In the meantime, see if you can scrounge up any help. I didn't really have time to have a friends' list." With that, he began to march towards the southern dungeon.

"Wait! Equinox shouted going after him "The foyer dungeon sounds like where we just came from! I've been thinking maybe we should go to the hills instead? Sounds more challenging to rough it in the wild!"

He caught up and walked with him awaiting a response.

ATLAS began to ponder the idea. Hills...Much less enemies, I'm sure. Sounds too dangerous for most. He began to think of all of the Silent Hill movies, or the terrible, but scary, American horror films The Hills Have Eyes. "Sounds good to me. I could use a good challenge...I might need a change of avatar. Something not to obvious. I don't know about you, but I think we both stick out like sore thumbs." He gestured to himself. "I mean, look at me. I'm a Minotaur," and he looked to his scaly companion. "And you're you!" He laughed. "No offense, of course. I say we need to blend in a bit more."

"Blending in is good but I've never been good at that... I'm just gonna try to look different. That way I won't look like the known key-holder I know I now am..." Equinox paused and stopped walking... "Maybe we should go somewhere different first though... with... less people watching..." He opened his map and set a marker in the hilled area. "Let's get going, I'll lead... DISCOVERY HO!!!!!"

ATLAS grinned at his companion's excitement. "Good point." He began to march after Equinox, a laugh escaping his lips. "Adventure waits for nobody!"

Kazu, on the Earth side, put in his ear buds and began to play travel music. Lots of instrumental orchestra, some folk instrumental from around the world, and of course the Proclaimer's 500 Miles. He began to hum the tune to the old song, paying very little attention to the world outside of CLOUD. As the pair of avatars got closer and closer to the hills, he realized that monsters were spawning around them. They were lucky that they hadn't been attacked yet. ATLAS leaned over to Equinox and whispered, "We've got company." He pointed ahead to a couple of cows. There was nothing out of the ordinary, with the exception that they had two heads, lacked skin, and looked angry as well. "Let's take these guys down quickly."

moon · Aug 6, 2014

Terrigan / Tegan
Red Mage :: Lv. 3

As her DAEMON moved over the plains, watchful for any other teams of DAEMONS who might lie in ambush and avoiding any stray low level monsters, Tegan never even thought once about the real world. Her mother and father and brothers all had their own CLOUD accounts, their own DAEMONS in here somewhere. Had she been running CLOUD on her desktop, phone, tablet or smart tv, she would have noticed her brothers running around the house. But the DREAMSCAPE completely cut her mind off from the outside world. She had gone digital. She was Terrigan.

And Terrigan put her staff over her shoulder as she glanced up at the big, dark trees that were now towering above the duo.

"So you think there might be a quest hiding in here? It won't be as easy to avoid monsters now," she said to Corona, not able to hide an excited undertone. "Quests probably still give more experience and loot than simple monster slaying, but we'd better be prepared."

Nathan · Aug 6, 2014

Mathieu Blanc // Slay
>> From Hell to Hell again
>> 25th May, 2025
>> Paris, France

He was sooo tired, the thing he wanted the most right now was a soft, comfy bed along with a huge meal waiting for him. But he was a creature of bad luck plus there wouldn't be anyone home anyway. His sister would come home late and he wouldn't dare to ask her for a good meal. She'd just get angry about how he had no compassion for others, was selfish and blah blah blah. And he didn't feel like listening to a lot of rambling, the girls were already too much for him. They always needed to comment on the latest gossip and their boyfriends. He felt like throwing them out of his car but he was just too kind. That's why he couldn't decline their invitations, girls had a knack for making you feel all miserable inside. But the time to part had finally came and he was so thankful for that.

"That's the place Mathieu! Thanks a lot, you're a real sweetie!" Suddenly the girls became kind towards him, showering him in compliments and praising his patience with them. The same girls were absolute tyrants an hour ago, dragging him from shop to shop without any compassion for his poor self. He waved at them as they entered some house. As soon as they were out of the way, he turned the radio on and switched to his favorite channel. Finally, he could listen to metal without being constantly pestered. Feeling the wind blow against his face felt refreshing and that's why he rarely used the AC when he was driving alone. Noticing that the sun was starting to set, he looked at his watch. 5:49PM. He cursed, the time for the update was close. At this rate, he would miss the event entirely. And if he missed the event, Aisha would go berserk. The fact that the road was mainly empty helped him speed through rather easily. In a few minutes, he was at the feet of his apartment complex. He usually hated elevators but he took one because he had neither the time nor the power to climb the stairs. After some seconds that felt like hours, he was finally at his front door. He unlocked quickly and got directly to the computer. While waiting for the machine to turn, he went to grab some snacks. When he returned, it was completely booted up.

Stuffing as much as he could in his mouth, he picked up his DREAMSCAPE and launched CLOUD. Deep inside, he was kinda excited for the update as well. Oddly enough, the game automatically logged him in. Maybe that was one of the new features they were adding? His DAEMON materialized on the screen, but not in the normal lobby. He was in a huge castle full of other DAEMONs listening to a huge one making a speech. Maybe he was late? Looking around, it seemed that everyone seemed uneasy and angry. This didn't look good at all. Opening up the HUD, he got Slay ready to perform one of his skills. Lion's Roar should do the trick. But, everything had disappeared! That was impossible! He had also gone back to level 1. He spent all this time mastering his skills just to lose them right now. That was just cruel from whomever did it. Even his items were gone, except from a random colored key. Come to think of it, he did hear the speaker talk about some colored keys. At the same moment, he heard a huge ruckus. Everyone had started to fight between themselves and he was completely oblivious to whatever was happening around him. Then he had a good idea, why not ask people around? "Yo guys! Anyone tell me what to do about my colored key?" Bad idea, very bad idea Matt.

"HE HAS A COLORED KEY! TAKE HIM DOWN!!!" Suddenly, countless DAEMONs started charging on him. Those things only happen to me. He immediately got into fighting stance. He was no stranger to close combat and that actually put him at advantage since most users had swords or axes and the like. But he had no armor, some hits and he'd be done for. It sucked so much to not be really resistant. That's why he put all his money on armor usually. He jumped in the air, avoiding a DAEMON in the form of a beautiful witch and thus resulting in her hitting someone else. Then he noticed a blue portal. Thank god, it was used to teleport. He could get away from this place. Jumping high in the hair, he ran on the heads of multiple DAEMONs that were fighting. But two of them managed to corner him. He gritted his teeth. One of them had a dragon-like structure but the other one was just a human-sized cat. They both charged at him with their punches in the air. Typical beginner error, he used to do them. Spinning around, he kicked the cat in the face, instantly defeating him. Then he lunged at the dragon and hit him with the back of his left fist. However this one was way more resistant. A quick swing of his tail hit Slay and managed to get his health bar reduced by 40%.

"God dammit." He was in a bad spot, his opponent's health was around the same as his. At times like those, his skills were pretty useful. At least he was still fast. He just had to make sure the dragon wouldn't resist to his next attack because his defense wasn't that great. The dragon, however, was quite impatient and lunged at him. He quickly avoided the impact and found an opening in his opponent's defense. "Take that, noob!" He launched a flurry of punches at his stomach and concluded with a spinning jump kick.

You defeated ohmegass and fluffyfuff!
Received : 1x Fighter Starter Pack
Level Up! Level 1 -> 2

Without even waiting or equipping his things, he ran to the blue portal. Jumping inside, he let the dizzying sensation flowing through as he teleported to who knows where. A few seconds later, the words "FLOOR 1 : PLAINS" displayed on his HUD. He opened his inventory : Worn Gloves, Old Cloth and Rusty Dagger. Geez low-leveled items were the worst. He equipped his gear and started to look around. Not many people were around his spot. Good, he could use with a little rest right now. Other things could wait.

CSS provided by Skymin

DeathofShadows · Aug 8, 2014

Kai Song//Arathor
Plains

It was midnight again. It made Kai wonder exactly what it was he was getting into. If it involved him having to stay up this late so often, he didn't know how it would end up. Yet here he was, once again sliding the DREAMSCAPE onto his head and preparing to turn it on as the new day came.

What happened next was indeed mystifying. Even as the system was booting up, he was logged on to CLOUD. Automatically. And what came next was the most mystifying of all. He appeared not in the CLOUDLAND lobby, as expected, but instead in what looked like a castle foyer turned stadium. It was HUGE. Even as he watched, quite similar to the pre-release event, hundreds, thousands, maybe even millions of members appeared with him. Then, also similar to the pre-release, none other than ICARUS appeared in the center of the foyer.

Excitement was welling up within Kai as he watched the events unfold. The members present might number somewhat in the early billions by now. He would not be at all surprised if the number included every CLOUD member. However, his attention was quickly stolen back to ICARUS as he began speaking.

"Greetings, CLOUD members! I am your host, ICARUS, and I officially welcome you to your new home! Today marks the day of revolution, the day that CLOUD truly changes the world. To celebrate this wondrous occasion, we have prepared something special for you, our members who have supported us for every single second that CLOUD has existed.

"CLOUD has always worked to meld the line between our online selves and reality and now, what we do behind a screen will have so much more of an impact on our lives than ever before.

"You may recall receiving a special item last week; a silver key which is individual to your DAEMON. Your KEY is no longer just an item. It is your identity. Embedded within the coding of your KEY are your details, and not just your name and birth date. Passwords, bank accounts, social security numbers, credit card details... everything you have ever done is now recorded in one location. Just by equipping and using the KEY as a regular item, you can access all of this. And not just your own. By equipping and using another member's KEY, you are able to access their details just as easily as your own. As they are non-trading items, the only way to obtain another member's key is by killing their DAEMON.

"Other important changes have happened in CLOUD. All levels have been reset to zero and all items aside from your KEY have been removed and deleted from all accounts. Your DAEMON has been reset to factory settings. All restrictions have been removed from all locations which means PvP is allowed in all areas aside from the CLOUDLANDS lounge, which will boot you out after an hour after entering. Also, it is now impossible to log out your DAEMON. However, if you are killed and your key is taken from you, you will respawn in CLOUDLANDS and you are free to try and win your key back."

Kai stood up abruptly. Or at least attempted to. With a roar, he realized that his DAEMON had been area locked. All of that work, gone! How dare he reset Arathor back to the level one noob he had been!! As much as he may want to tear ICARUS limb from limb at the moment, nothig could stop him from speaking, so the speech went on.

"Are you unhappy with your new world that I have so graciously given you? Fine! Come face me then! CLOUD has been converted into a new domain, a hundred story castle! Right now, the CLOUD you know resides on the first floor. Once you defeat the boss which rests within the new STORM dungeon, the stairs to the next floor will reveal, granting you new opportunities to protect yourself, or to make yourself stronger to defeat and take from others. I will be waiting for you in the hundredth-floor dungeon. Defeat me, and take back what you held so dearly, what you took for granted.

"There is however, a catch. I have spread out amongst yourselves unique, coloured keys. These have been given out to several random but now special players. These coloured keys are important for unlocking the doors to bosses and all of these coloured keys will be required to open the final door. To you players who have my special keys, I have given you no choice. I have your key. Your identity is mine. Come and claim it back."

With a double take, Kai noticed something. One of those keys... Were his! With quick movements, he opened his menu, and his stomach hit the floor. For sitting right at the top of his inventory was a nameless item, a key of a bright orange hue. The color almost made him sick, and probably would have had it been possible within CLOUD.

With a jerk, Kai closed his menu. He was just a nameless face... He was quite sure that even his birth certificate was on that key now. There was nothing that he himself actually owned now save his laptop, bed, desk, and DREAMSCAPE system. When he wasn't Arathor, he was nobody. The realization was shockingly easy to accept, though. He felt firm resolution form in his belly as ICARUS snatched away his life. He would get revenge. He HAD been one of CLOUD's best players! And he now had the experience needed to know what to do!

"So, which has become more important to you? Your online or offline self? Do you protect what you have or rebuild your identity from scratch?

"Thank-you for your time and enjoy yourselves at our new update celebrations. Have a nice morning, day, night and evening."

As ICARUS vanished and the area lock was released, Kai—no, Arathor—was up in an instant. Looking around at the chaos ensuing, he knew he had to get the heck out of dodge. He was about to start running when he remembered his wings. Despite the fact that his flight would be extremely limited, to the point where it was only really useful for large bounds, he leapt off of the stadium, and down to the floor of the foyer.

The goblin that he landed on never saw him coming. Nor did the player that had initially engaged it. With a quick grin, Arathor was off, sprinting towards the familiar blue light of a Teleporter. He'd be relatively safer once through there. In a flash, he was through, accompanied by the brief sensation of falling that always accompanied a warp.

When the warp had left him, Arathor found himself in a wide open area, which according to his HUD was called The Plains. He chuckled a bit at that. Here he was, back to square one. ICARUS had no idea what was coming for him. With a quick look at his map, selecting LITTLE TOWN as his destination, Arathor began the long walk to equip himself for the many trials ahead.

CSS by DeathofShadows

Nate · Aug 9, 2014

Luke Clifford - THE CLOUD

Hemmo - Traveller - Level 1

It's a strange thing to think that one persons identity can be held in such a small item. Like an animal is born from an egg, our identities are crafted from our birth and are ever forming and ever changing. But if you trap that frog, slowly but surely, it will die. And if you contain that identity, slowly but surely, it too will die. I didn't have much to live for anyways. My identity was never a thing that bothered me much, yet I had some reason to want it back. No it wasn't that I wanted my identity, it was the idea of someone having control over my identity I didn't like. I'm sure many people on the outside have noticed by now but I was almost certain they weren't going to help. There was some big forces at work here.

I sit up and open up the menu quickly, gazing over the many tabs and options there was available, before equipping this dark black key I had been presented with earlier on today. Little flashbacks of what happened replayed in my mind over and over but I chose to ignore them. My goal was to get back my identity, not to sit here and complain about it.

I jump off the rock I was sitting on after equipping the black key. It was a lot larger than I had expected once the pixels had formed in my hand - perhaps it could be used as a weapon? For now I gaze across the landscape, taking note of the earth beneath my feet. It was just grass and rocks, but the rocks could be useful regardless. I pick one up and store it away.

'What's the point of an identity anyways.'
'Why go to all this trouble.'
'Just let us control you. You'll be fine.'

Anything you can find at the beginning of a game is useful. You can always set traps for people as well. if you felt the need to. also using the rock as a weapon will be much better than using my fists. I lack strength in these games usually but I make up for it in agility and intelligence.

On the horizon I see two rather small imps who circle each other as they fly around. Imp's were weak but they could still use fire and I had no defence against magic right now. Still it could hardly kill me could it? I equip the rock in my hand and walk over to where the two imps are. I'm unnoticed right now but they would soon see me.

The one on the left spotted me first and stopped it's spiraling motion and began to charge straight at me. It shot a single fire ball at me which was puny and about the size of my finger tip but I still dodged it incase. As it tried to fly past after it had shot the ball my fist flew upwards, hitting the Imp in the stomach and sending it upwards. It vanished with a slight poof and the next one began to charge at me. It sent two fireballs this time but I again managed to dodge them. This one didn't get close to me so I assumed it had a little bit of AI unlike the last. It shot another fireball but I blocked it with the rock I was holding before hurling it at the imp. It directly landed on it and it flew back before disapearing again with another poof. I had battled imp's before but these ones intrigued me. They weren't the general red hue and instead had a very orange tint to them, and they came in a pair this time with alternating horns. One had straight horns and the other had stubby horns.

With another poof a new creature emerged that sent me stumbling back in shock. The creature had a rather large stomach like a balloon with a black spiral imprinted on it, and it's arms and legs were short and stubby but of the same orange hue the two imps before were of. The head looked like someone had badly sewn the two imps together to make something completely new and slightly creepy. The creature was named a 'Nimp,' but still it didn't seem too strong.

The Nimp laughs maniacally before it's belly begins to exhale a large breath of fire that was sent in a vertical direction. I quicly roll to the side and open my menu, equipping the spare rock I picked up earlier before charging into the side of the Nimp. It's stomach had now been transformed into a bony structure with the orange skin hanging over it like wet paper. As I hit it in the sound I hear a clink between the rock and the bone and the creature yells on pain before I spin around and kick it in the stomach. The thing then vanishes and I see a message appear which informs me I have leveled up already. Well that's great I guess. I recieve a small fire orb which reads as a single use item to inflict weak fire damage on an opponent and I receive the class 'Traveller.' I smirk triumphantly even though I miss being level 90. I could of killed that thing with a flick of my fingers.

'You're weak just join us, we will give you more power.'

Ignorance is bliss. I look upon the plains once more only to see 1 other Daemon running off in a Western direction. I open my map after being reminded that I too should head somewhere. Little Town was to the East, and my class benefits more or less from being in NPC populated areas. I'll be able to get some equipment there hopefully with the money I received from the Nimp I battled. It isn't much but on the road there I am sure to find other creatures. I just have to kill all of them.

Inventory:

Spoiler:

antemortem · Aug 13, 2014

Andrew; Corona
llevel: THREE
inventory: 7tork's Key
class: FIGHTER

I grudgingly agreed to continue our march into the Deep Forest. I was already tired of battling and, wel, moving in general. Around this time on a normal day free of ICARUS trolling, I'd be logging off CLOUD and settling into the newest episode of Hell's Kitchen with a beer in hand and another at arm's reach. Just another leisurely Saturday night. Of course I still have a project to finish... but that's for another less lazy day.

Of course if I keep that mentality around, how can I know where I'll find myself in life? Constantly putting things to that backburner so I can drink and laugh at people getting their heads torn off by Ramsay does sound like a trip, but is that what I want out of life? How hard could it be to make sure the chicken isn't pink before you take it to the pass? I'd think every time someone screwed up the chicken, which happens surprisingly often. These were supposed to be professional cooks to some degree, Jesus. Yeah, that's how I'll spend my life.

Satisfying.

"I'm not really sure where we're going, you know," I admitted out loud, breaking from my thoughts as I cut down a thick vine hanging in front of mine and Terrigan's path.

The Deep Forest resembled that of a real world rainforest, with an extremely dense underbrush with thickets my shamefully dull blade couldn't make a dent in, that gradually rose to a more spacious canopy up high. I previously suggested that Terrigan perform some sort of spell to float them up to the canopy so we could simply swing through trees, but her grave expression told me she was either afraid of heights or incapable of this magic.

I assumed the former.

Just before I was ready to run a fox out of a hole so I could retire for the night, I cut away another hanging vine that revealed a small clearing. I didn't think there would be any free space in this damn forest. Contrary to my feeling, I stepped over an enormous tree root and into the clearing.

There didn't seem to be anyone else around, yet, but the center of the clearing was very obviously landscaped. The sod-covered soil circled around a small, quaint house that was as far out of the ordinary as could be, given the surroundings. I cocked my head, taking in the disgustingly cute purple house with pink trimming accenting a white roof.

The main thing we both noticed - besides the colors that made me want to vomit - is that the house was rather small, shorter than even Terrigan.

"I can't even begin to explain what could live there." I shook my head and gave a hollow chuckle.

I stepped closer, careful not to ruin the meticulously-placed flowers that defined the path through the sod to the door. My "light rap" wasn't as light as I would have liked it to be as the house practically fell apart, but the door opened anyway and in its place was a small, pink nose attached to the long white snout of a rat dressed in a yellow skirt.

"Oh, dear me! Adventurers have arrived!" The rat rushed back into the house, leading me to peer down and into the house. Before I could see more than a tea kettle on a stove smaller than my foot, the rat pushed an odd-shaped bird out the door - and by odd-shaped I mean it was FAR too big to be inside that house - letting it fall flat on its chest in front me. The bird held a rolled up piece of paper at the end of its royal blue wing. It peer up at me through a pair of ill-fitting goggles.

I looked back at Terrigan and bit my lip.

The rat stepped out of the house and cleared its throat.

"Welcome, adventurers! This bird - his name is irrelevant - has been abandoned in the forest and can't find its way out. It's your mission to make sure he makes it safely back to the plains. You may not touch the bird, and he is defenseless so try your hardest to defend him."

With that, the rat turned around and slammed the door in my face, leaving the bird to gather itself and stand.

moon · Aug 17, 2014

Terrigan / Tegan
Red Mage :: Lv. 3

Terrigan just stared at the strange scene in front of them. The bird blinked up at them with a sort of skeptical look through its glasses, and held out the scroll again.

After a few seconds, during which neither of Corona or Terrigan said a thing, the latter decided to step forward and take the paper out of the bird's... Wing. Without touching him, of course. Whatever the reason for that might be.

Instantly, a holographic quest menu popped up in front of her face, and an identical one before Corona's. They could either decline or accept the quest, as a team since they had partied up, but they could not see what rewards they would receive if they did finish it. Without thinking much or asking Corona, Terrigan pushed the accept button. She was used to roaming dungeons and picking off quests in an almost casual manner. Now, the CLOUD situation was of course different. But they could still use the experience, and possible rewards, they would get for completing quests.

"I guess a lot of NPC monsters will be thrown at us as we try to make our way back to the plains now, eh?" Terrigan said.

[Other FULL] CLOUD v2.0 [T] [IC]

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