1.13 Quest Part 6

“So this is what I think it is?” asks Nicola as she and Legacy walk towards the restaurant, their arms locked together.

“Yes, this will be our first date,” replies Legacy.

Her gown is green and purple whilst Nicola’s is in black and gold. Using the virtual reality settings, Legacy has grown her hair out long again at Nicola’s request while Nicola is wearing hers up in a fancy hairdo of her own choosing.

“It’ll be my first date as well,” replies Nicola, “You know, I always thought my first significant other would be the opposite gender to mine.”

“I understand such things are generally the case for humans,” says Legacy, “Those that date the same gender as their own are in the minority.”

“Yeah,” mutters Nicola before perking up as she looks over at Legacy, “But I don’t mind because you are wonderful person Legacy, even if you are rather weird. Plus you are so powerful and dangerous. And cute. We can’t forget that last one now.”

“May I ask you a question?” asks Legacy as they enter the restaurant together.

“Sure,” replies Nicola as she pulls Legacy slightly closer.

“What is cute?” asks Legacy, “You describe my body that way, but I don’t understand it. I am aware it relates to attraction to one’s physical form, but as I have told you, I don’t feel that and there is no clear definition for what is ‘cute’.”

“Now how to explain that….” mutters Nicola as a waitress shows them to their table.

“You don’t explain the term in general, just what you mean when you say I’m cute to you,” clarifies Legacy.

“Oh, that is much easier,” says Nicola as they sit down at the round wooden table, Nicola on one side with Legacy on the other, “You see, you look attractive to me because you have a pretty face, a good figure, a nice butt and big breasts. So for a non-Aphrodite, you pretty good looking. Normally I would consider someone who looks like you to be hot, but your actions make you seem cute rather than sexy. And it doesn’t help that Aphrodites are giving unrealistic examples of hotness and sexiness so someone such as yourself who is conventionally hot or sexy, seems less so by comparison.”

“Oh,” says Legacy as before passing the menu to Nicola, “I will be going with the streak and roasted potatoes with a salad on the side. For my drink, I’m having a bottle of apple and peach cordial. Those are my favourites.”

“You know the menu well,” says Nicola in an amused voice as she looks at the menu.

“I was the one who programmed the menu and all the food,” explains Legacy, “Well, Ceta and I did anyway.”

“So what have you been doing?” asks Nicola.

“I’ve been making this world in addition aiding my team by shifting through data,” replies Legacy, “Due to how much faster time goes in the cyber world, Gears and Sentinel just sent me large amounts of data and I just go through it all since I can do it much faster than they can. I find out the important bits and then every now and again, they pop in to find out what I have found out.”

“It sounds boring,” says Nicola before calling the waitress over.

“Not for me,” replies Legacy, “I enjoy going through the data. It is both productive and helpful to my teammates.”

“And that is one of the things I like about you,” says Nicola as the waitress comes over, “I’ll have a lamb shank with dumplings. I liked it when my mother used to make them.”

Used to?

Legacy gives her order as well before turning back to Nicola, “You don’t mind that I’m not physically attracted to you?”

“I’m a bit annoyed by it since I have such an awesome body,” admits Nicola begrudgingly, “But I’m glad I don’t have to worry about dating someone who is only into my body and not me as a person.”

“May I ask you a personal question?” inquires Legacy.

“Shoot,” replies Nicola.

“Since you have only had an Aphrodite body since you got your powers and we only met after you got your powers, what did you look like before?” asks Legacy.

“Oh, well, very different actually,” replies Nicola, “I was short, a bit overweight and a tad ugly. Which is one of the reasons I like my current body so much. My sister Emily was and still is jealous since she was the fit, athletic one out of us and worked hard to end up looking only a quarter as good as I do.”

“Do still get on with each other?” inquires Legacy.

“We get on great,” replies Nicola with a smile before it fades from her face as she continues, “It is the rest of my family that can’t stand my body and powers. My father refused to speak with me or even just look at me while my mother and I argue whenever we talk these days. And of my extended family, the only one I talk with is my Uncle Conrad. I’m honestly considering moving out from my mother and father.”

“I don’t have those problems,” says Legacy.

“Only because you chose your family,” retorts Nicola sharply before calming down, “Ah, sorry for snapping like that. Talking about my family is a touchy subject for me.”

“I understand,” says Legacy soothingly, “When I get my physical body back, I would like to meet your sister.”

“Emily would love that,” says Nicola and her smile returns to her face before vanishing once again just as quickly, “She has been wanting to meet my girlfriend for a while now. Unfortunately our mother refuses to let her get a virtual reality helmet as it was invented by a Gadgeteer. She is a True Humanity supporter while Father actually is a member of True Humanity.”

“True Humanity?” inquires Legacy, knowing she won’t like the answer.

“Bigots who hate parahumans, claiming we aren’t proper humans anymore,” explains Nicola, her face distorting in disgust, “Some are pretty mild and somewhat reasonable while others are violent extremists. Most are just loudmouthed bigots mind you. I can’t believe some people think that me and you aren’t human just because we got superpowers.”

“Let’s us move onto a different subject,” suggests Legacy, deciding not to bring up the fact that her powers are the result of advanced technology nor the fact that she isn’t actually human.

“Yeah, let’s,” agrees Nicola as their food arrives. 

1.13 Quest Part 5

“So this dungeon won’t be too hard?” asks Alexandria as she, Legacy and Nicola approach a set of goblin infested caves.

“No,” replies Legacy, “While it is slightly above your level, I easily outmatch anything in there.”

With Legacy giving them pointers, Alexandria and Nicola have been training their stats and levels against some local wolves and thugs. Now, she feels they are ready to take on a local dungeon.

“How long is it?” asks Nicola.

“Only four or five caves,” answers Legacy, “Roughly half a dozen goblins in each one.”

“Sweet,” replies Nicola, “Will it be challenging?”

“For you two, yes,” replies Legacy, “I will find it very easy.”

“So what is the plan?” asks Alexandria, “You’re the expert at this game.”

“I’ll hang back and provide support while the two of you lead,” says Legacy, “I would recommend that Alexandria takes point while Nicola provides ranged support. As in normal reality.”

“Sounds like a plan,” says Alexandria, “So how does this light spell work?”

“Just say Light and it will work if you have the Mana for it,” explains Legacy as the trio of them head into the cave.

“Light!” says Alexandria, but nothing happens, “Wait, I don’t have that spell. I can only use heal.”

“I have the light spell,” says Nicola, “Light!”

A glowing orb of white light appears over Nicola’s head, illuminating the cave tunnel.

“Man, that took out three of my mana,” complains Nicola, “A whole tenth of my total.”

“It will only last for a minute since your spell level is only at one,” warns Legacy, “I can provide future lights if you wish.”

“Sounds great girlfriend,” replies Nicola, “What about healing? Can you do that to?”

“Sure,” replies Legacy, “I have over five hundred mana stored.”

“Whoa, that is a lot of mana,” says Nicola, “And you’re not even a mage!”

“I am Level 40 while you are only Level 5,” points out Legacy, “There are three goblin scouts ahead.”

“I see them,” replies Alexandria as she charges forward.

While she is only Level 5, Alexandria has a major advantage against these Level 7 foes as Legacy has given her high quality and enchanted steel plate and mail armour, steel sword and steel shield. As a result, her Protection and Damage stats are far beyond what they should be at her level.

As Alexandria duels the closest goblin sloppily by Legacy’s standards, Nicola fires some electricity at the furthest. It staggers back and Legacy watches its health drop by about a tenth, just dipping into the yellow. The third goblin scout fires off an arrow at Nicola in return.

It glances her, cutting her upper right arm and leaving a red line behind in addition to reducing Nicola’s health by about a sixth.

“Heal,” says Legacy and Nicola glows yellow as her health is restored back to full. Alexandria lets out a battle cry before getting a critical hit in on her opponent. With almost all of its health gone, the goblin stumbles backwards and Alexandria finishes it off with an upward slash of her sword.

Sloppy.

She got the job done.

Still sloppy.

It was sloppy.

“Good work Charlotte!” says Nicola encouragingly as the goblin scout disintegrates.

“Still two left!” points out Legacy.

“You continue with one at the back while I deal with this one,” says Alexandria as she moves up to attack the goblin with its short bow drawn.

Nicola fires off more electricity at the rearmost goblin scout, bringing it down to about two thirds of its total health as Alexandria duels her new opponent.

Alexandria slashes at the goblin before slamming her shield into it, knocking both of their shield arms to the side. With her opponent exposed, Alexandria lets out as a wordless battle cry as she pulls her sword back for another strike.

As her sword strikes forward, the blade glows blue as Alexandria activates her skill Prepared Strike. The blade goes through the goblin scout and out the other side, but the goblin’s health bar only drops to a third.

Grinning like a feral animal, the goblin scout stabs at Alexandria’s chest, activating a Skill of its own as its crude copper sword glows green. The blade glances inwards off of large mounds in the breastplate and slashes towards the centre of Alexandria’s chest.

Guardian curses. If it were up to her, no all breastplates would be flat to avoid this sort of thing. But when they are designing the character models, they had to account for the large and supernaturally perky breasts of the Aphrodite Enhanced.

That is what happens when you have a body that is customised for form over function. Being a Bellator is definitely superior to being an Aphrodite or Adonis.

Despite taking a direct hit, Alexandria’s character is still built as a heavy frontline combatant and is wearing extremely advanced armour for her level. As a result, while she does lose health, Alexandria’s health bar still remains over ninety percent full, keeping it firmly in the green.

As Nicola finishes off the third goblin with her lightning magic, Alexandria drops her sword and grabs the goblin scout’s head. She snarls as she shakes the goblin. With her super strength, Alexandria easily breaks its neck.

Alexandria lets a satisfied grunt as the goblin scout’s health bar drains to zero and it disintegrates.

“That was fun,” says Nicola.

“Yes, it was,” agrees Alexandria as she smiles her teammate, “Now onward to the next room.”

1.13 Quest Part 4

Legacy strolls down towards the spawning point two days after Eldrim went online for the public to use, a mere day after Koizumi’s virtual reality helmets went on sale. So far, there have been over twenty thousand players as Eldrim is free-to-play and can be access by every virtual reality helmet.

Plus it helps that it is the only proper virtual reality game to play at the moment.

At the moment, Legacy has reached Level 40 over the course of the eighty four days in-game, only leaving the game for short periods to check on Joan.

Now, she has arranged to meet Alexandria and Nicola as they log in for the first time. While there is a significant difference in their levels, Legacy still hopes they can do stuff together. All she needs to do is help them raise their levels by a few and the difference in level won’t matter as much.

I deliberately designed the game like that.

After all, that is how it works in true reality. Sometimes power alone is enough to crush a weaker enemy, but close that gap enough and skill will trump raw power.

Legacy halts at the end of the street as it leads into the town square and waits as she leans against a shop wall.

Due to the fact that she is in Snowfall, the capital of Mirgard, there are only a few other players here as the game as working temperature system that causes the north to very rather cold to the warmer climates of Highrim and Augustia.

She gets a few inquiring looks, but everybody leaves her alone as soon as they get a good look at her level and name. Nobody wants to mess with her.

Legacy only has to wait a few minutes before Alexandria and Nicola log in. She recognises them instantly not only due to their blond Aphrodite bodies, but also due to their usernames. Alexandria as gone with Alexandria while Nic is calling herself Nicola Glowbug.

She takes a moment to check out their characters, using her reasonably new ability - Analyse. Legacy has had it for almost a month in-game and has yet to regret getting it. It has proven exceptionally useful as it allows her to find things out the easy way rather than the hard way.

Alexandria is playing a Warrior class as can be told by her leather breastplate on top of her blue tunic and has gone for a combat heavy build. Her chosen weaponry is a medium length sword and a round wooden shield.

Glowbug on the other hand has picked the Mage class and is wearing purple robes with leather belt around her middle. Her character build is a mobile magic-user and she has a short sword for her starter weapon.

“Greetings,” says Legacy as she approaches them.

Her own equipment hasn’t changed as she is sticking to Gord’Ang and leather armour, having gotten herself a superior copy to what Leo gave her. Admitively, the new piece is also from Leo.

“Hello Legacy!” replies Nicola as she rushes towards Legacy and embraces her, “So this is what you were working on?”

“Gears, Sentinel and Ceta helped,” points out Legacy as she hugs Nicola back, “I hope you will like it.”

“Good to see you too Legacy,” says Alexandria as she shivers, “You don’t mind me calling you that right? Boy is it cold here.”

“I know,” says Legacy as she pulls away from Nicola, “I was prepared for that. Frost Protection. Frost Protection.”

Using one of her newer spells that protects against cold effects, Legacy grants both of her friends temporary immunity from the local chilly weather. She doesn’t use it much due to being able to easily weather the cold herself, but has been specifically training it so she can use it on others.

“There you go,” says Legacy, “You are unaffected by cold weather for the next twenty one minutes.”

“Thanks Legacy,” replies Alexandria, “So where should we go now?”

“I got a house here,” says Legacy, “We can go there.”

“Cool,” says Nicola with a grin on her face.

Legacy leads them through the city. Like with all settlements in Mirgard, Snowfall has a Nordic feel to it just as Highrim has a medieval feel to it and Augustia has an Ancient Roman-Greek feel to it. Or an Ancient Grome feel as Leo told her.

“Here we are,” says Legacy as they reach a large house, “This is my current home.”

“Is that in-game or-” asks Alexandria, her voice trailing off.

“My actual home until I get another physical form,” answers Legacy as she opens the door.

The interior has a snug and comfy feel to it, but also appears to be very function and practical.

“Fire,” says Legacy and a flames fly from her hand to the fireplace, lighting the logs.

“Wow,” mutters Nicola.

“Please take your seats,” says Legacy, “I’ll get some food and drink from the kitchen. Any requests?”

“Something nice,” replies Nicola.

“Something meaty,” says Alexandria.

Legacy goes into the kitchen and selects some Apple and Peach Cordial, Roast Pork and Roast Potatoes from the kitchen inventory before bring them into the main room on the platter.

“Those look good,” says Alexandria as Legacy places the platter down on a table.

“Thank you,” replies Legacy, “I cooked them all myself.”

“Does it taste real?” asks Nicola, “I mean, everything else feels real, but…”

“Everything here is real,” Legacy reassures her girlfriend. “In fact, effectively all of this world is based off of things past Guardians have experienced.”

“Oh,” says Nicola.

“Speaking of realism,” says Alexandria nervously, “Can I ask something awkward?”

“Sure,” replies Legacy.

“Well, this game is PG and, well, I don’t feel my...err privates,” says Alexandria, her voice lowing into a whisper at the end.

“Oh, that,” replies Legacy, “Gears gave the bodies what he called ‘barbie doll anatomies’ to make the game kid-friendly. See?”

With that last word, Legacy removes her leather armour and returns it to her inventory, leaving her not wearing anything. Both Alexandria and Nicola yelp and go red as they look away.

“What?” asks Legacy, “I’m not naked. You only see my skin, not nipples, genitials or body hair.”

“It just isn’t proper!” yells Alexandria as she blushes furiously.

1.13 Quest Part 3

Legacy ignores the jolt of light pain as the blade leaves a line of red light across her side. Her own health bar drops from 123 to just 120 in the corner of her vision and Legacy snarls.

This is just a game, but I should be so sloppy. If it were real, I would have been seriously injured.

Legacy uses her superior mobility to jump backwards and readies one of her Skills. Using Sun Strike, one of her more power Skills, Legacy swipes at the goblin who struck her. Gord’Ang glows yellow and it tears through the goblin.

The goblin screeches as its health drops to just a third as it hits the red. Legacy grins as she follows up quickly with a stab to the heart and finishes off the goblin.

Her Stamina drops from 252 to 232, but Legacy ignores that. Stamina doesn’t matter to her as much as it would to other players. The other main use of Stamina is allowing players to commit actions that they couldn’t normal commit outside.

Things such as sprinting beyond their normal endurance or carrying heavier weights then they can in real life, but also things such as parkour or other physical feats if they have the right abilities.

But if you can do such things outside of the game, you don’t use Stamina when you do them. Which gives Legacy an innate edge with her Bellator equivalent body and inherited skills. Now the only thing she has to worry about conserving Stamina for is her Skills.

As she hears a twang of a bow, Legacy ducks to the side. The arrow still glances her shoulder, but her armour protects her from suffering any damage.

Legacy sprints forward at the remaining goblin scout before it can another shot off. She slashes it with Gord’Ang, cutting the bow in two and reducing the goblin’s health to about ten percent. Not giving the goblin a chance to recover, she swipes Gord’Ang downwards and the goblin shatters into the shards of digital light.

With her opponents defeated and no other imminent foes, Legacy takes a quick moment to loot her fallen enemies. While their bodies are gone, there is still a floating marker in a shape of a bag where each goblin scout died.

She presses the closest marker and an inventory screen appears in front of Legacy. This goblin has seven crude copper arrows, four copper coins and two crude copper short swords on it.

Legacy only selects coins and arrows, the latter due to their very light weight. She moves onto the other goblin’s loot. This one has no coins, but all eight arrows, its crude short bow and both short swords. Not only that, but it also has a half-eaten apple pie and a Springfall Brewery beer bottle.

Of its weaponry, only the arrows are worth taking and both food items are valuable, the beer in particularly. Even if she can’t drink it, it can be useful in either selling it or gifting it to an NPC.

Legacy closes the inventory screen to see an axe armed goblin warrior approaching her. Legacy grins at this next foe and charges forward. The goblin also charges and Legacy activates her Skill Power Stab, causing Gord’Ang to glow blue.

Gord’Ang pierces both the shield and armour of the goblin warrior as she smashes past it. Legacy spins around and slashes the goblin with Gord’Ang before taking a moment to observe the damage she has inflicted.

The goblin as a large red hole in it and a red line slash across its back. The shield is gone, disintegrated as its durability hits zero and the goblin warrior’s health bar is reduced to one quarter.

Due to using another Skill, Legacy’s Stamina is reduced by 12, but she ignores that as she gets a minor pop-up. Her Power Stab Level has increased to 10, further increase the damage it inflicts in addition to reducing the Stamina is requires as it does every ten levels.

The goblin warrior sways on its feet before unleashing a howl and charging Legacy. It doesn’t stand a chance of survival, but Legacy doesn’t want to give it a chance to reduce her health. She sidesteps its desperate attack before slashing it across the back again.

With a cry of pain, the goblin warrior stumbles before shattering and Legacy eagerly loots it. This goblin warrior is more impressive than the scouts with a crude iron war axe, crude copper chainmail, a crude copper helmet and six copper coins.

Legacy takes the coins before looking around for her next foe. None of the goblins are near her with over half of them dead and the rest engaging her teammates.

Then Legacy spots the prize, the goblin spellcaster. With a grin on her face, she charges forward at the spellcaster.

It spots her coming and fires at fireball at her. Legacy laughs as she aims Gord’Ang at it. One of Gord’Ang’s special effects within Eldrim is that it is completely immune to all magical effects, something that is general true throughout the multiverse even if there are some exceptions. The fireball dies as it hits Gord’Ang and Legacy comes within melee range of the spellcaster.

With the battle almost over, Legacy decides she doesn’t have to worry about her Stamina anymore and activates Power Stab. Gord’Ang glows blue again and she runs the spellcaster through. Despite having magic, the spellcaster has no armour and slightly lower health than the goblin warrior, causing it to lose over two thirds of its health.

With its health bar firmly in the red, Legacy’s next attack will surely finish the spellcaster off so she decides to go for something cool looking. Activating her Skill Sun Slash, Legacy beheads the goblin spellcaster as Gord’Ang glows yellow.

As the goblin spellcaster’s body disintegrates, Legacy turns to see her teammates watching her with smiles on their faces, the rest of the goblins slain.

1.13 Quest Part 2

Legacy walks Leo with Allison and Cain behind her as their group follows the goblin scouts back to their camp.

The camp is in the middle of a local forest and Legacy grins as the sun rays break through the tree coverage. Jaylyn made the world a very beautiful one, a testimony to the skill of her niece.

“We’re almost there,” says Leo as he draws his steel halberd.

Despite initial using a sword, Leo has grown to favour the halberd, gaining a fondness for the weapon. Allison has been using a long sword while Cain is using a battle axe. Legacy on the other hand, is sticking to Gord’Ang as she is able to summon it within the game.

Which means I have a ridiculously overpowered weapon that can take on even the strongest enemies in the game.

“How large is this camp?” asks Cain, “We have half-a-dozen scouts here so it must be pretty large.”

“I’ll tell you once we get in sight of it,” replies Leo.

“I’ll go ahead,” says Legacy as she parkours up into a tree.

One of the good things about being able to access the skills and memories of the past Guardians is that Legacy has picked up plenty of hard to learn, but very useful skills. Now not only can she free-run through urban environment like most practitioners of the art, but also natural ones as well.

She gracefully leaps across the tree tops before coming to a halt in one of the trees overlooking a clearing. The goblin raiding party has made camp within the clearing.

There are the six goblin scouts they have been tracking in addition to the five others that Legacy can see. There are is also the more troublesome problem of ten goblin warriors.

While the goblin scouts have light leather armour, short bows and short swords, the goblin warriors are both better fighters and better equipped. They have crude copper chainmail armour and plate helmets in addition to wielding bronze shields and assorted iron weaponry.

Not only that, but the goblin warriors have better stats with significantly higher health. Legacy would trouble dealing with five goblin warriors on her own let alone ten.

Good thing I’m not on my own.

She makes her way back to the others and drops down from the leafy branches in front of her teammates.

“I found the goblin camp ahead,” says Legacy, “It is in a clearing.”

“How many enemies are there?” asks Leo.

“I spotted eleven scouts and ten warrior,” answers Legacy.

Both Cain and Allison cringe while Leo snorts.

“That isn’t so bad,” says Leo.

“Says the guy who has more levels than the rest of us combined,” retorts Allison.

“Okay, you got a point there,” admits Leo, “So how do we do this?”

“You take point of course,” says Cain.

“That is a given,” replies Leo, “So I take point with you and Allison supporting me?”

“Sounds good,” says Allison.

“I’ll take the rear and try and get around the flanks,” says Legacy.

“Good idea Legacy,” replies Leo, “So we all know the plan? Good.”

Legacy lets the others take the lead before following as the rearguard.

“Just remember, there may be more than just what I spotted,” says Legacy.

“We know,” replies Cain.

“A group this large should have more scouts and at least one spellcaster,” says Leo, “Trust me, Jaylyn and I were the ones to program encounters like this.”

“They’ll have a mage?” says Allison, “Crap.”

“I can take their spellcaster,” replies Leo, “Plus with our weapons and armour forged by yours truly, we should be near impossible to be killed by the goblins even if they have ten warriors and a spellcaster.”

“Good point,” says Allison, “We shouldn’t get sloppy though.”

“Yeah, always expect the enemy to have something capable of taking you down,” agrees Leo, “That applies to the real world as well.”

“We’re almost there,” says Legacy, “Just past these trees.”

As they get past the trees, the four Guardsmen reach the clearing full of tents, equipment and goblins.

“Charge!” yells Leo as he breaks into a charge, his shield in his right hand while his halberd is in his left.

Allison and Cain both follow him as he slashes the closest goblin scout with his halberd. The single attack inflicts significant damage with the scout’s floating health bar drops by almost two thirds from the green into the orange.

As Leo finishes off his opponent with a swipe of his halberd, Cain swings his halberd at another goblin scout. It dodges out of the way and Cain’s battle axe slams into the ground, but Allison follows up with an attack of her own.

She uses a ‘Skill’, special martial attacks that deal extra damage, but have to be done in a certain way to work. They also use up Stamina, which matters little in short battles, but can be very important in prolonged engagements.

Her Skill Prepared Stab is already at Level 6 and the goblin scout’s health bar drains to zero as Allison runs it through with her long sword. The scout screams before shattering into shards of red digital light.

As her three companions engage the bulk of the goblin forces, Legacy heads around the right side to take on two goblin scouts that are apart from the main group.

She stabs at the closest, Gord’Ang going past the scout’s own crude metal blade and into the shoulder. Its health bar drops by about a third into the mix between the orange and yellow and the goblin scout staggers backwards.

The other goblin scout as darted around Legacy and she realises her mistake too late as it slashes her with its short sword.

1.13 Quest Part 1

“So how have you guys been enjoying Eldrim?” asks Legacy as she, Leo, Cain and Allison meet at one of the in-game taverns of the virtual reality game that she, Leo, Jaylyn and Ceta have invented.

The virtual game is a Fantasy MMORPG as requested by Joan and runs off of a mixture of servers in the Guardsmen base and Ceta’s cyber world. She and Ceta mainly handled the physics and gameplay while Leo and Jaylyn did the setting and plots.

Overall, Legacy feels they have done a good job as the game feels real. It isn’t completely real as three days in-game is only one hour out of game and the damage suffered are marked by a red lines rather than realistic effects to make it kid-friendly according to Leo.

The name of the game is Eldrim and is set on a continent containing three different civilisations. The Clans of Mirgard inhabit the chilly north while the Empire of Augustia dominates the sunny plains of the east. At the moment, they are gathered within the Kingdom of Highrim, the nation that rules the hills and rivers of the west.

“I like this place,” says Allison as she leans back in her wooden chair, “It feels very realistic.”

Legacy notes that Allison isn’t using her real name as her username, but rather has chosen username Defender after her superhero name. Both Leo and Cain have done the same while Legacy has called herself Guardian Legacy.

The other three also have inbuilt masks to their virtual characters that protect their identities. These masks are purely cosmetic and have no impact on gameplay to the point that those with them can’t see them, even the one they are wearing.

Legacy has declined one of her own as she has no problem displaying her real face. She hasn’t exactly got a secret identity like her fellow Guardsmen.

“It is a fun world to play in,” agrees Cain as the NPC waitress brings them their drinks, “I have spent my time boosting my skills and stats against local thugs.”

“And yet you are a lower level than me,” says Allison, “I have spent my time completely quests.”

“I have better stats,” points out Cain.

“I have better abilities and skills,” counters Allison.

“Leo has the best character out of all of us,” cuts in Legacy, “He could take us all on.”

“I have spent the most time playing the game with all my play testing,” says Leo with a grin on his face, “Be thankful because you wouldn’t have all that gear I made for you otherwise.”

“He has a point,” mutters Cain and Legacy internally agrees.

While they have all got equipment from creature drops and quest rewards, Leo, with his level 27 Blacksmithing and his level 24 Enchanting, has provided all of them with relatively high level equipment of high quality.

“So why are you playing as a Rogue?” asks Allison, “I thought you told me you were playing as a Warrior the other day.”

“I was, but then you all chose to be Warriors as well and since my character was extremely powerful, I decided to start a new one,” answers Legacy.

“I suppose variety is good,” says Allison, “So what are we going to do next?”

“Well,” says Leo, “I have told by the local guards that there is a camp of goblin raiders nearby. I was thinking that we could work together to take them out.”

“Sounds good,” replies Allison with a grin, “So when do we head off?”

“Since we all have my latest equipment,” replies Leo, “I feel we should set out once we’re done with our drinks. Unless any of you have anything you want to do in town beforehand?”

“No,” says Legacy.

“Nah,” says Allison.

“I’m waiting until I get more kills to my record, then I’m going to join the local warrior’s guild,” says Cain, “So I’m fine with heading out once we’re done with our drinks.”

“Should I pay or should we split the cost between us?” inquires Leo.

“I only have a single gold coin plus twenty three coppers,” answers Cain.

“I have five gold plus some silvers and coppers,” says Allison.

“I have two gold coins, fifty six silver coins and thirty four copper coins,” states Legacy.

“Well, since I have over a hundred gold coins, I’ll pay the bill,” says Leo with a smug grin.

“How on Earth did you get that many coins?” demands Allison.

“I’m Level 27,” replies Leo, “And I have been selling some of my crafts off as well.”

“Well, the rest of us should share your share of the loot between us,” says Allison.

“I won’t contest that,” replies Leo with a slight chuckle.

“So are we all done with our drinks yet?” asks Cain.

“Yeah,” replies Leo as he looks around, “I’ll go and pay the bartender now.”

As he gets up and goes, Legacy looks at Leo. He, along with Cain and Allison, is wearing a set of chainmail armour with some plate armour helmets, arm pieces, gauntlets and breastplates on top. As with all of their equipment, it has been forged and enchanted by Leo.

Legacy is wearing leather armour. It lacks the Protection of the plate and mail armour that the others use, but it is lighter and more flexible, giving her increased mobility over them. And with her abilities, its Protection level is increased by half of its original value, putting on par with any normal plate and mail.