Chapter 2:

Quest 1: It Always Starts with a Fight

Souls of Legends: Online


   2020, After the worldwide release of the Dream Caster, the first Virtual Reality headset with the new implemented Full Dive System, bringing the new era of VRMMORPGs bringing on top the online game called S.o.L. Online (short for Souls of Legends) holding his top spot for its hardcore system and hard bosses. Adventurers with the given quest “Heroes of the Soul” are given the task to fight hundreds of the final bosses. There would be many reasons why many of the gamers that played it, would love it. For example, its large number of challenging bosses it has, or its large list of items you can use on this game, or its location-based world that if the Dream Caster didn’t exist, it would turn into a great ARMMORPG.

   "Hi, this is L!SA and welcome to a new episode of TokyoGamerNews and today we will be talking about everyone can't stop playing. Yes, the game that holds it's first place spot for two years. Here we have the lead producer Akira Hamamoto"

"Thanks you for having me here"

"You're welcome, since this week you guys will be releasing a Third big update, I have a few questions about the game if that's ok."

"that’s ok"

"Ok, first question, what would be the concept of S.o.L. Online"

   "Well, on this game, we are just trying to give the players a challenge to see if they could still stand. We raised the game difficulty on this game because we wanted our players on this game to work together against the ton of mobs this game will provide against them. The people plays this can know that they are not alone, they got friends who count on, even strangers they don't know. All they need to know is that they got someone with the same goals who can count on it. From this game, all I want is for many players to work together."

"Wow, that's really cool to say"

   "Thank you, we were working on this concept for five years and with the release of the Dream Caster and other the release of great applications like for example FaceJournalVR and Game-ART’s GameRoom, we decided to step up our game, and this is what we brought."
"I guess that would be an upgrade, Second question. Is about the game's upcoming tournament the <Summer Japanese Region Tournament>. I know that each year after the release of the game, you guys started doing this, and now this will be the fourth tournament. Is there anything new about?"

"For the moment no, but we will be seeing this year new faces and a new champion."

    "Thank you, and for the last question, at the beginning of the game you added the following questions -Are you ready to win the fight? Would you dare to leave even if the one in front of you is ten times stronger? Would you fight along others or alone? Good, then don’t give up and beat the quest. - what it would mean”

“That’s right, it would be to give some motivation for them. So, for viewers out there, are you ready to win and become the strongest?”

   As the phone screen turned dark, Kazuma Tachibana, a 16 year old and a second-year student from Gushiken Senior High School found south of the Shibuya district in Tokyo Japan, has he gets a console that goes by the name the Dream Caster, a Virtual reality console that revolutionized video games that sent gamers inside the most popular video games.

   "All right, Game On" After saying the command code and he closed his eyes and opened them again, He appeared inside a room of an inn. His look was different than it would normally look. Normally he would wear his school uniform, a white shirt, a gray blazer with the school logo on the left side, and a pair of black pants. But, on this game, he looks different, he had on casual clothes with silver light armor.

Game Tag: Kazuma
Level: 5
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Class: Warrior
Subclass: Swordsman
Facts: he stopped playing for two years

   Just as he got ready, he receives a notification box. When he opened it, a letter popped off:
Welcome back, Kazuma. Its nice to see that you can log back on. I’m sorry that you were kicked out of the game like that. We know that you didn’t do anything anger other players. To notify you, the way you were suspended was by the use of the skill named “Exile” who is only own in the entire game by the player named Grym. Since he is a bounty hunter on this game, it would be best for you to find who was behind it. Since you back now, I’m sorry that what happened might lower your chance of saving her. Maybe this will help you to rescue your sister.
Sincerely,
Hamamoto

   After he finished reading the letter, he saw an item attached to it. Curious what it was, he touched a button at the bottom which it said Add and Equip. just as touched it, a giant sword started to materialize out of nothings but pixels upon falling into his hands. He was amazed of it since he played this game before and he never saw it. After he grabbed it, it felt like it almost fell out of his due to its weight. Getting ready, he placed the sword on his back and darted outside to explore the place. The world he is now may look the same as the real world, but it may be different in different ways like there would be places like hub parts of a city. in some parts, there can be found hidden portals that leads to dungeons. "Good Morning and hello for our new adventurers joining us on this game, today's date is March 20, 2030. Today's temperature is 15 degrees Celsius. Today will be last the day for the winter event quest, so you better hurry and claim your event items before is too late; bye" This was heard in the morning. This was the announcer in the game notifying players about date, time temperature, and information about upcoming quest.

   While Kazuma running around the neighborhood, he tripped that he fell on top of a girl. When Kazuma saw that she had her face red by the embarrassment, he noticed that his left hand was on her chest.

"Eh? I'm so-orry, please forgive me, I’m sorry"

"You......YOU PERVERT!!!"

{Slap}

   From the hit, he was sent away from her a little to her left. "Wow, so much for first impressions" One of the players among the crow started saying this. As he recovered from the slap, he started bowing to her and saying, "I sorry, I sorry, I sorry, please forgive me, please don't start reporting, I sorry, I didn't mean to fall on you."

"Fine, I'll let you go if you beat me on a duel" she responded with a smirk on her face.

"Eh? Fine, I guess I have to beat you"

As they both stood you, a white rectangle appears in front of Kazuma saying: Eiko wants to battle you. Are you going to accept -Yes- or –No-

Many of the players were amazed about Kazuma fighting Eiko that one player said "Wow, is this guy really going to fight Eiko? He must be really brave to fight her."

Game Tag: Eiko
Level: 3
Gender: female
Race: Human
Class: Warrior
Subclass: Blade Dancer
Facts: she is one of the most noted players of the gaming world, sometimes she is called the “princess of blades”

   Eiko, a well noted player of the gaming world in the northern region of Japan. She is sometimes known as the twin-bladed dancer because of her usage of characters with swords equipped on. Her appearance was mostly of dark colors; on top, she has a grey shirt with long sleeves with parts of silver armor on top with purple outlines in the armor. On the bottom, she had a miniskirt, a pair of over knee socks and pair of boots. On her shirt, it an extra cloth that would covers her neck and her mouth and nose; while on her bottom, she had a combination called absolute territory.

   Her subclass, the blade dancer is mostly known for high speed, high stamina, and high strength. She was two times winner in the MLG Tournament but lost last year to a thirteen-year-old kid taking the name of Grym. Others might like her thanks to her appearance of a teenager girl that might be 16, and her long purple hair that looks like a river flowing.

"So, you are not going to run away, eh?"

"What makes you think that?"

"Well, many players that fought me thought twice before going against me"

   As they got ready to fight, a transparent blue force field started to appear between them so could get in or out until the battle ended. As the battle was starting, they both took out their swords as they were heated for battle. Eiko had dual katana blades (one being smaller than the other), while Kazuma had a great sword a look that it was from the industrial time. 

[READY?]
[3]
[2]
[1]
[START]

   As the battle started, they both sprinted to each other clashing swords. From the great impact from the blades, they were pushed back from each other. While both were clashing swords, many players were amazed of Kazuma since lots of the players that fought against Eiko didn’t lasted more than five minutes in a pvp battle. 

   “Enhance: Strength” as the battle grew on, Eiko activated a special ability that would increase some attributes on the weapon or armor of the user depending on the command. As she attacked him with one of the blades, Kazuma blocked her and counter-attacked her that she was pushed back from the hit.

“You are a good player, I like that” Eiko said

“Thanks, you too”

“Ok, let’s see who will win”

“Ok, that’s fine with me”

   As they both got ready, they started to call out their special abilities [Binding Slash] for Kazuma and [Lunar Strike] for Eiko. As they get ready to strike, their blades to light up. As they start running to each other that Kazuma give a great swing shooting a blast shaped like a crescent.

{Boom}

As he sees that the smoke is clearing up, he realizes that he misses on her and that a second lunar strike was in from of him.

{Bam}

-Winner-

-Eiko-

   As the battle ended, the blue shield covering both Kazuma and Eiko started to disappear. Many of the players watching started to leave. Some of them had an expression on their faces like if they knew that she was going win. “As of expected of her” some said leaving to places like inns, stores, or dungeons to do their quest they had ready. With everyone leaving, Eiko started to open a screen saying Are you sure you want to report this player? 

"Yes"

   With Eiko having a face with excitement, Kazuma started to wake up from the hit saying with a small laugh "wow, you sure are strong; wait, you actually going to report me?"

-report failed-

"Eh? What happened?"

"Oh, yeah maybe I forgot to mention that reporting someone without knowing what happened could be harder"

"Eh?"

   "Let me explain this game have a security team that checks on us what we do, our accident that we had today, maybe they saw it just as an accident and not for sexual harassment, so I off the hook today. I guess from the lot of guys you reported, fifty percent failed"

"Wow, so much for a guy that stopped playing for two years."

"EH!?; How do you know that?"

"What? It’s on your character info. You didn't know that?"

   Embarrassed of what she said to him, he responded saying “At least I’m not someone that lost last year”. After what he said, she started showing anger while her face was red. After a bit, she took a breath and said with a ton of pride on herself, "well since I won, and I can't report you, then why don't you show me around the district?"

Hearing her, he sighted and responded "Ok, since to it work as a way of saying sorry."

With a smile, she said "Great”