Every seems to be getting comfortable with how they move, their actions becoming more precise, confident, and faster. The casters seem to be getting the hang of their spells, Nabe still hasn't had a whole lot to do as they aren't really aiming to hit each other yet, as that could go really wrong if they accidentally hit a vital. I have been messing around with the nova light for a while, I have found out that I can control the size, shape, and position pretty easily, but the weird thing is, I can cast multiple at once.
This surprises me because you couldn't cast more than one of this spell in the game. It made sense for the game though, as you controlled it separately from your character. With how it is now though, I have figured out how to make them dance around each other, which is kind of amusing. The only thing I am wondering about, is how my offensive spells will look. I haven't tried any of them yet, and I am curious as to how different they are from the game.
"Camaella?" Inglis asks.
"What's up?"
"Have you tried any attack spells yet?"
"Oh, no I haven't, I was just thinking about that actually."
"Oh..."
"Why do you ask?"
"I am... a little scared to try..." He looks to the grass.
"Ah." Hmm, maybe I should try one real quick... but which one...
I look out in the field, the trees from the swamp about 20 feet away drawing my focus as a good target. Now, the spell, I think I should use one of my favorite looking spells that I have. The only issue with it, is it sucks if there is more than one enemy... I focus on the tree, imagining the spell, Void Slice.
A dark purple line forms at a diagonal in front of me, flashing forward the instant it forms, leaving an long, trailing afterimage of itself through the air. The space it goes through hold for a moment, before falling in on itself with a small crack. The tree I was aiming at, and the one closest to it shatter and collide with each other. I am left speechless at what the spell just did, the original from the game couldn't hit more than one target, I don't think it was that powerful in-game, and it didn't look like that.
I am pulled out of my daze from Inglis, "That, was... so fucking cool!"
I look over to him, he quickly blushes and looks away. Uh... I don't think I did anything that time...
"Well, it seems the attack spells work..." I say, I am honestly confused on why that was so powerful... And that's not how I remember the spell looking... Is there more to it than just remembering the look and name? Well, I did teleport earlier without really thinking about it...
"Yeah..." Inglis says.
"Well... your turn." I smile at him.
"Huh!? Oh, um, okay..."
Did... Did I just do it again?
He focuses on a tree near my attack, a spike of ice forming in front of him. The ice starts to shake, vibrating violently for a moment before shattering. He lets out a sigh, and then tries again. The spike forming, hanging in the air for a moment, slowly spinning. It shakes again, cracking and splitting in multiple places before crumbling to the floor. He lets out a grunt and looks and the floor where the moisture is gathering.
"You okay?" I ask him.
"Yeah... It's just, frustrating."
"I understand."
"I just... wish it was as easy as you make it look..." Oh... I... can't really say anything that's not going to sound condescending... can I?
"Hey! Nabe! We need you over here!" Leo calls, causing all of us to look over. Roana is on the floor and clutching her shoulder. I try to stand up and walk over to see closer, but quickly realize that was a mistake and fall onto my knees. Shit... I crawl back onto the chair and sit back down, disappointed that I can't at least go help out, though there is not much for me to do because I don't have any healing spells.
Nabe and Inglis rush over to see what is going on. I can't really hear what they are saying, but it seems like her shoulder got clipped in the sparring and needs healing. I take a quick glance around, the swamp seemingly the same from the game, but something about being in the character changes the feel of it. After a few minutes the group walks over to me.
"We are thinking of calling it for today, are you fine with that?" Leo asks me.
"Yeah."
"Alright." He walks over to me and helps me up, Melina grabs the chair and we all start to walk back.
We get a few odd looks while we make our way back up the stairs, making me feel a little uncomfortable. Leo helps me over to the couch, setting me down on it. I get comfortable as my wolves law down below me, I have nothing else to do so I just start scrolling through my spell menu. It looks roughly the same, the blocky menus with big lists of spells. The only thing different is that it doesn't show anything but a description of them. No damage numbers, range, radius, cooldown, or mana usage. There isn't even the splash art they used...
I go over to my inventory, and from what I can tell, I still have everything. I go to my status screen, and all of my stats are still the same... It makes me question how this world works, as everything about us... or our characters... seems to be the same. The world around us though, seems to be mostly the same, but I can't help but feel this whole place is just, different. I have questions that I know won't be answered, like how did we get here? Why are we here? Why are some things different? Why are we the same?
"Camaella?"
"Huh!? wha?" I jump as Inglis says my name, inches from me.
"Oh, sorry! Are you okay?"
"Um, yeah. What's up?"
"I wanted to ask you a few questions..."
I really don't feel like talking anymore, but I don't want to be rude... "Sure." I adjust slightly, and he excitedly hops onto the couch next to me.
"I wanted to ask why you didn't join parties and do raids and stuff."
"Oh um... I just... I kind of didn't really care to play with others..."
"Wait, really?"
"Yeah, it wasn't more fun with other people, except for watching people just talk, that was interesting." Like that doesn't sound creepy at all...
"Wasn't that lonely?"
Uh... huh... I guess? I never really felt lonely... "I didn't really feel that way, but I guess you could say it was."
"Did you ever play with people other than Leo?"
"No, not really. People didn't seem to like interacting with me, can't say I blame them though..."
"Why? I like interacting with you..." He blushes a little.
"Well, uh, I kind of act different when I am talking in person rather than when I am just playing online... I never really responded with more than a yes or a no to questions..." I scratch my cheek. "And... I never really helped out strategy wise, I would just see what people were saying to do and follow along..."
"Is... Is that all?"
"Um... Yeah? That's all the interaction that I had with other people..."
"I don't see why that would make people not like interacting with you though..."
"I think people saw it as antisocial, can't blame them for that though."
"They should have been happy just playing with you..."
"Huh? Why?"
"Because, not many people saw you walking around, and less even played with you..."
"I don't see why that matters..."
"You... You don't know how popular you were... do you..."
"No? I didn't even know people cared, I wasn't even that high on the leaderboard, I think I was top 100 in solo clears of most dungeons though. I don't see why that would make me popular."
"You um, didn't look at your ranking much, did you?" He tilts his head.
"Not really, I didn't really care... I think the last time I checked it was... actually I don't remember."
"You were um, first in dungeon clears... total."
"Huh!? Since when!?"
"Um... for like, 2 years?
"How the hell did that happen?!"
"I was hoping you were going to be able to tell me..."
"That... I... I have no idea... I just went to the dungeons I needed to for crafting materials..."
"Why did you need crafting materials?"
"I um... I liked creating nice looking armor and clothes for my character..." I can feel my face heat up a little.
"Oh, that's nice..." He blushes a little after giving me a once over... I definitely don't feel odd about that... not at all.
"So... uh, is that all that people thought was interesting? Or was there something else?"
"Um... I think you need to know that there were probably around 10,000 players actively looking for more information on you..."
"That's... a little creepy... but um, why so many? It's not like I'm an interesting person, quite the opposite actually."
"What are you talking about?!" he says, startling me. Woah, where did that energy come from?
"The only thing we could ever find was your dungeon clear placement!"
So you participated in this!? "Why were people even looking for more information?!"
"It was interesting to speculate who you were..."
"It's um... It's a little creepy, not going to lie, plus, there is nothing special about me."
"What are you talking about?! People wanted to know your build, it seemed like you had stuff that was so much better than everyone else. Anytime you did participate in raids, you never died unless a wipe was called. It also seemed like you just made everything easier when you were there!"
"Huh? What are you talking about? I never really helped out in those raids..."
His mouth drops open, "What are YOU talking about?!" He gets closer to me. "Someone who recorded the Bastions Deep raid showed you clearing out so many adds that it made the hoard encounter trivial!"
"What do you mean!? That encounter wasn't hard because of everyone else!"
"Then what about the bossfight?!"
"What about it!?" Why is this even a conversation I am having right now!?!?
"You don't remember pretty much soloing the boss?!"
"Huh?! I never did that!"
"Yes you did! Pretty much everyone died, and you just kept the damage up on it for 15 minutes while everyone just watched! The last people who were alive were barely able to do any damage because of the need for ranged attacks!"
"I really feel like you are just lying to me..."
"He's not."
I snap my head over, getting scared by Melina this time. "Jesus christ could you two not scare me like that!?" I am too drained for this!
"Well, he is telling the truth, I saw the video too, you realize it was a world first clear, right?"
"No..." I pull my legs close and rest my head on my knees, this is really starting to take a toll on my energy...
"You... *sigh*..." Melina sits down behind me, putting a hand on my shoulder. "You didn't participate in the party after, so I guess you wouldn't know, but people really wanted to celebrate that clear with you, and they were really surprised with how well you worked with others."
"I... I'm not good with parties..."
"That's fine, but I am just letting you know, more people saw that video than you think, you really did practically solo about two thirds of the health bar."
"It wasn't that much... there's no way it was..."
"It was... you realize the people alive at the end of the fight was, you, a tank, and a healer right? The healer didn't even need to heal you either, as they were focused on the tank and themselves, your healthbar didn't even drop below half."
"Why didn't they call for a wipe then..." If I knew they were just watching, I wouldn't have continued the fight... Now I feel bad...
"They didn't call it, because they wanted to see you fight it, they were all in a voice call amazed with the dance you were doing with the boss."
"I know they were in a voice chat... they invited me to it, but I didn't like being in voice chats..."
"I understand, calls like that can be overwhelming, but that's where your popularity really spiked." She rubs my back, "Look, they speculated that you didn't have a good time with groups, that's why they didn't force you to join a call like most world first groups would have. It did help that you were already somewhat known for being a little overpowered."
"I was never overpowered..."
"I beg to differ."
"No, really, I was never overpowered... I died so many times, countless times, trying to figure out stuff. How my character worked, what spells worked against what enemies, how far the dodge goes... So again, I was never overpowered, I was just lucky..." I look to the side, leaning into the back rest of the couch.
"So you are telling me, that you did all of that with skill?"
"No, luck, there is a difference..."
"Fighting non-stop for 15 minutes against a new boss isn't just luck..."
"It was, really."
She sighs, taking her hand off my back and places on top of my head between my horns, scratching slowly. I close my eyes, surprised that the touch actually feels nice as I never really cared for people to touch me before.