Better With Friends

Marcus continued killing time by poking his nose into other people’s business, perking up every time a player approached the statue but quickly deflating again as they jump spammed away. Eventually though, someone coming off of the docks turned and made their way directly towards him. The character in many ways resembled a lizardfolk, much like Elena from before, but was definitely not of the same race. The person before Marcus was much larger, not as large as the Goliaths Marcus had seen, but close. His build was also burlier with regal frills coming out of the sides of its head and long, white, backwards facing horns. They were clad in tough looking green scales with a large set of wings jutting from their back. This was a Green Dragon Soul no doubt. Despite their regal appearance, their outfit was simple, a brown leather bigap trimmed with grey wolf fur and missing a sleeve to expose their left arm. On their left hip, they wore an iron sword, and on their right was an unadorned cerulean tome. Above their head in blue was the name Thordon Metrikar.

“Yo, there ya are. Sam come by yet?” sounded the jarringly deep, gruff voice of the newcomer.

“Woah, Will!? The heck you do to your voice!?” Marcus asked, astounded as he finally rose back to his feet.

The Dragon Soul immediately began cracking up as Marcus looked on, completely puzzled. “Haha, your voice, you sound like such a freaking gremlin!”

“What? The hell are you talking about?” Marcus asked, dumbfounded.

“Haha, our characters are voice modified dude. You can mess around with it in the options menu. It’s on by default though.” Will replied with a chuckle.

“Options?” Marcus asked before pulling out his codex.

Looking at it closely, there was indeed a tab with that classic gear shaped icon, something he seemed to have overlooked before. He opened it to voice options, finding ways to increase, decrease, or even mute the ambient chatter of other players as well as modify some of the details of the voice modifier his character used.

“Oh good, you're both here.” affirmed another voice, this one not nearly as deep or gruff as Will’s. No, this one was completely feminine and sweet.

Looking up from the codex, Marcus was met with another face looking at him. This one belonged to what Marcus recalled to be a Feliccan, or more accurately, their humanoid subspecies of Hexblood. They resembled a human in most features, if a bit on the shorter side of average. What set them apart were their feline elements; green slitted eyes, white cat ears, and a fluffy white cat tail. Their long hair was on display to match their fur colors, extending from beneath a wide, purple, pointed hat and matching tattered robe. Their weapon sat upon their back much as Marcus’s did, albeit the long stick they carried ended in a thick gnarled head instead of a hefty iron bludgeon. Like Will, they also wore a tome at their side, this one black and much more weathered. Above their head read their name in blue Clarissa Threadspinner.

Both Will and Sam could see as even Marcus’s character raised their hand to their forehead, and smirked. “Pff, the freak’n cat girl.”

Sam huffed incredulously as he glowered at Marcus. “Don’t act surprised, you already knew what I was picking!”

“Haha, yea, but hearing and seeing are two different things you freak’n nerd.” Marcus chuckled.

“Look, I think they’re cute, okay! Besides, they have really cool lore!” Sam protested.

“Yea? A wizard cast a spell to create their ultimate waifu and they appeared, right?” Marcus teased.

“No! They were actually created by witches, though not intentionally. The theory is that a coven of witches were conducting a ritual when one of their familiars, a cat in this case, jumped into the cauldron. The magic went haywire and all of the familiars switched bodies with their witch. As a result, their bodies, now replaced with the cat’s soul, took on features like cat ears and tails. The witches meanwhile still retained their minds, but were now in the bodies of their cats. Looking for a way to restore their former bodies, they conducted experiments on a bunch of different humans in the towns nearby, resulting in many of them taking on cat-like traits as well or becoming cats themselves. Eventually, their experiments worked out, to some extent. They regained a humanoid form but still kept most of their features as cats, eventually resulting in the creation of the Feliccan species as a whole. The witches that had been turned into the cats would be known as Cursebloods, and their former familiars were now Hexbloods which had gained the witch’s powers as well. Then there’s the Warpbloods which are more or less the witches who weren’t satisfied with their partial return to form and power. In their pursuit of a complete restoration however, they mutated into a larger, bulkier form and lost most of their innate magic.” Sam gleefully explained, his eyes practically alight with every word he uttered.

Marcus just nodded along, only half paying attention but smiling nonetheless. There was always a certain charm watching Sam ramble on and on about something he enjoyed. Unable to stop himself from prodding this along, he glanced at Will and his Dragon Soul avatar.

“And what’s the story with this one? Marcus asked, to which Will spoke up.

“Well, I’m sure there’s more to it that I aint privy to, but I guess Dragon Souls are parts of small groups all over the place. They live in isolated monasteries and worship some dragons from long ago. Apparently when they respond, it’s a big deal as their followers take on these dragon bodies. Apparently it can happen to anyone though, as long as one of these souls finds them and considers them a suitable vessel. The form you get pretty much depends on what dragon you worship, or finds you. I think they’re supposed to lean towards the Monk class, but I decided on Battle Scholar. Magic and swords sounded pretty dope to me.” Will explained, patting the sword at his hip only for his eyes to go wide in surprise when he accidentally drew it.

“Yea, I went with the Witch class, and yes, it’s because it’s lore accurate.” Sam admitted.

“Ah, I see. Guess I’m gonna be front line then.” Marcus declared, puffing out his chest.

“Well, that more or less depends on what build you go with, but yea, you’d definitely be better than us for tanking. I could take on a support role, though none of us make for the best healers.” Sam noted.

“Yea, it’s fine, I’ve got this. Anyway, where we headed?” Marcus asked, turning and looking around at the town ahead.

“I think all we have now is the main one so, might as well start there.” Will suggested, looking over his codex.

“Yea, we could… or we could just go smack stuff.” Marcus countered.

“Nope, not yet. One of the basic MMO rules, collect as many side quests as you can before heading out. They’re usually some sort of extermination, gathering, or hunting quest, so you end up completing them while also getting a feel for the combat.” Sam insisted.

“Yea, that too. Besides, you already rushed ahead, now you’re a level behind us.” Will observed, shooting a smirk to Marcus.

Marcus froze for a minute as his gaze immediately returned to their names. Indeed, the level was right beside it, not something he really bothered noting down before now, and their level was one higher than his at level 3.

“Damnit, yea, you are.” Marcus groaned.

Resigning his fate to remain in town until further notice, Marcus began to tag along behind his friends. He didn’t quite notice it at first, but gradually, the conversation his friends were having was becoming increasingly quiet. It was then that he realized that he had fallen far enough behind that the proximity chat was out of range. Holding down the sprint button, he dashed after them and shouted for them to wait, which they did before turning around to see him attempting to catch up.

“Oh right, the proximity chat. That reminds me, we still need to party up. Proximity chat should work normally in a party.” Sam suggested.

“Oh yea, let’s see, how do we do that?” Will asked before flipping the codex open.

Marcus noted that Will’s codex was much different than his. Instead of a scorched up old book, his resembled a scroll. After giving it a brief onceover, Will closed it back up and looked to Sam. “Okay, I think I have it figured out. You need to hold the selection button while looking at a player and it opens an examination screen. You should get the option to send a friend request too them from there.”

Marcus experimented by doing as Will suggested, setting his sights on his friend’s avatar before holding in the selection button. Indeed, Marcus was greeted in moment’s with the character profile of one Thordon Metrikar. It was an image of his character model which Marcus could apparently rotate and manipulate in different ways if he felt compelled to do so. It also contained information on his class, level, and statuses not unlike Marcus’s own character profile. A handful of options appeared beside the window allowing him to select various invites such as a guild or friend invite. Well, he was certainly not part of any guild yet, but he could still send friend and party requests, and he did just that. A few seconds after doing that however, he heard the chime that indicated that his codex had a notification for him. Pulling it out, he found his Social tab glowing. Touching it, the book opened to his friend’s list, allowing him to catch the very moment that Will had accepted his request. Meanwhile, he had received one from Sam that he could either accept or reject. Tempting though it was to reject for fun, he pressed accept. Before he could close the book however, he watched as his party tab lit up. Flipping over to it, it was confirmed that the three of them had successfully formed their party and Marcus was finally able to close the book.

“There, how do I sound?” Will asked

“Louder, but a good louder.” Marcus replied.

“Yea, much better. Your voice stands out way more. I think it should work the same way though outside of a party as long as we’re on each other's friends lists.” Will noted.

“Ah, good.” Sam acknowledged.

With that, the three once more continued on their way, reaching the pinnacle of the fenced in path from the docks and up to the town proper. Looking Back, Marcus noted how high up they were, even overlooking the tops of the trees that were towering over them from below. It appeared the town was built against a cliff with the docks only easily accessible via the path they traveled up by.

The town proper was absolutely bustling, not only with players, but with NPCs as well, each and every one of them seemingly going about some sort of business. Marcus could see horse drawn wagons pulling their cargo through the streets, citizens coming and going from one establishment to another, and street vendors hailing to passers by who would even opt to pay them mind. Observing them, Marcus could only pick a scant few who remained static, and even those that did appeared as though they were only taking a break. Did the devs give all of them schedules to follow throughout the day? Seemed awfully taxing given the number of individual characters to code, but Marcus was in the process of gradually becoming less and less surprised by the convincing attention to detail.

That said, there was at least one thing that stood out about it. One character sitting on a bench beside the smithy with a blue name. They simply sat there, elbows on their knees, hands folded, and head down, staring at the ground. They were of the axolti race. They had a pink body, long finned tail, and elegant gills along the back of their jaw. Beside them, pawing at their leg like a pet trying to comfort its owner was a vibrant yellow and white creature. It resembled a cartoonish little lion cub with big eyes, a tiny snout, and a small mane around its neck and chest. It looked on to the player and mewed. It was a sad sight for sure, but Marcus couldn’t help but feel whoever this was was being overdramatic. If they were this sad, then why were they going through the effort to emulate it virtually. Some sort of cry for attention? Nobody seemed to be near them regardless, they looked to be all alone. Even as he focused on them, they didn’t seem to be saying anything at all. Marcus might have thought them asleep if their feet didn’t occasionally fidget. Knowing now how to scan other players however, Marcus decided to do just that with this person.

Their name was Lian Subaki, an Axolti of the Clear River subrace and a Hunter class. Their pet was apparently something called a sun lion named Koumei. Other than that, there was nothing particularly notable to say about this person aside from that they were level four, only one level above Marcus’s friends and they weren’t wearing anything particularly fancy, just the leather armor and shortbow they likely started with. There was nothing about her stats to suggest anything further either until Marcus took a look at her status conditions. It sat in a subsection of permanent effects and there was only one of them, an orange icon that resembled a greatsword that had been broken in half. Taking a look at it, there was nothing to glean from it aside from its name, Chosen.

Marcus stared quizzically. What did ‘Chosen’ mean? What did it do? Was it a buff or a debuff? It offered no other information, just seemed to be taking up space on her character profile. It wasn’t until Marcus suddenly realized the person was now looking at him as well that he suddenly exited the examination screen before hurrying back over towards his friends who had sunk into the sea of players a bit by this point.

Intent to scrub his mind of the embarrassment he felt from being caught staring at a stranger, he decided to look around again and take in the scenery. Looking at it now, this whole plaza was probably a town center. It was a wide area paved entirely of cobblestone with small flower beds breaking it up with some color on occasion. Four different roads seemed to connect to this place lending credence to the sheer volume of people around here. In its center was an elaborately engraved stone dias surrounded by tree bearing island planters and a single raised wooden platform on the side facing the Town Hall. Something about it looked important, but Marcus hadn’t a clue as to what it could be. At least it made for a fine centerpiece to the area. Meanwhile the large buildings around the plaza seemed to consist mostly of shops of varying wares. Rawthchild’s Armaments sat closest to where players were meant to arrive into town from the docks, followed by Auntie Eunice’s Baked Treats. A wide roadway then split them off from the Town Hall which was flanked by yet another roadway sporting a bank and yet more shops after that. As Marcus turned his head, trying to peer around the many sets of legs that crossed his vision almost constantly, his eyes eventually caught a glimpse of a gradually forming crowd to the right of the Town Hall. Something had clearly caught the attention of many players, including Will and Sam who also turned their heads out of intrigue.

“Umm, any idea what that is?” Marcus asked.

“Nope, but people sound hyped about somethin over there.” Will acknowledged.

Will led the way as the other two followed behind, Marcus squeezing through the crowd as the others looked on behind them. In the center appeared to be a human player character, clad in a shoddy set of starter plate armor and a stylish black and red bandana. There didn’t appear to be much of anything notable about them, that was, until Marcus noticed the name above their head, Moze Lionheardt. From what he could pick up from the chatter around him, each of these people were players watching the man in control of Moze streaming the game live, many of them not hesitating to get right up next to him. Unfortunately, with all the noise, it was hard to focus on what this guy was supposedly saying over there to get all of these fans of his hyped up. Marcus alleviated this by focusing on him and activating the inspection feature, making his voice suddenly come in loud and clear.

“Yea, no, this has been really good so far! Then again, after six years of waiting, it’d better be haha. Seriously though, feels kinda surreal that I finally got my hands on it and I’m getting to play it for you all. I’m just excited to walk around this world! Who’da thought Birthright’s first VR game would be an MMO, seriously! Anyway, I’ma go take a look around town, you can hang around if you want, but I’m sure we’ll see each other pretty frequently. Also, don’t expect any raids for a while, I know you’re pumped to see the guild take em’ on, but seriously, I don’t wanna speedrun this one, I wanna play it legit. Anyway, hope to see yas around, now go on, have some fun.” Was the most of what Marcus managed to catch before Moze turned to leave, taking much of the crowd with him in the process while others split off to go do their own thing.

Marcus meanwhile stared ahead for a minute, watching the crowd disappear down the side street. His eyes weren’t playing tricks on him, right? He only caught a glimpse of it as he peeked at his profile, but he could have sworn he saw it again. He was a Human of the Eastern Nomad subrace, and a Paladin of Alanesta, but that wasn’t what really caught his eye. On Moze’s character profile, though it was blue this time, he definitely noticed in his Permanent Effects list. It was another broken greatsword icon, the Chosen icon.

“Hey Marcus, you there? Did you pass out?” Will suddenly asked.

“H-huh, what? Sorry, was just, look’n at something.” Marcus stammered as he was snapped back out of his own head. “Hey, umm, so, who is that guy? I heard people talking about him while I was waiting for you.”

“Sounded like SpaceSamurai.TV. I’ve watched some of his stuff. He’s streamed a lot of Birthright and MMO stuff, so, not surprised to see him. Kinda cool we picked the same server though.” Sam explained.

“I see. He any good?” Marcus asked.

“Yea, at least from what I’ve seen. He’s done a lot of challenge runs for games like Birthright and some MMOs. I’m pretty sure he’s gotten world first records for raids before. Definitely a skill streamer at the very least. You catch his headband by the way? Apparently that was a Virtuacon exclusive. Only a hundred of them were given out when they announced this game” Sam noted.

“Huh, so kind of a big deal I guess? Well, let’s hope we don’t have to deal with swarming while we’re trying to kill mobs.” Marcus grunted, picturing that hotshot’s horde of attention seeking fans sweeping across the wilderness and obliterating all of the enemies.

“Well, we’ll find out soon enough. C’mon, I actually wanna see what this story’s all about.” Sam urged, and with no objections, the crew moved onward and made their way through the red double doors of Town Hall.