Open - Greener Than Spring Grass

Brisshal. The haven of new Terrasphere players, a rolling expanse of green; forests, hills, plains and burbling streams. A typical little starting area, where just about everything was peaceful and idyllic. Well, not for long. The blessed silence of morning in Brisshal was soon to be shattered rudely by a faint scream from the sky, slowly growing louder as whoever was falling got closer to the ground.

"aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaH!"

If one happened to look up at the sky (for whatever reason) at that exact moment, they would clearly see a khaki-colored dot hurtling down like a meteor, disappearing beyond the treeline after a while of falling. The constantly loudening screaming ceased as whoever this newly spawned player was fell through the canopy of the Maithe Woodlands.

Meanwhile…

“Oh, bloody wonderful!”

If you so happened to be wandering around in the woods near where the khaki blur landed, you’d hear the squeaky voice of a winded Faerin, somewhere above you in the leaves. Looking up would reveal the source of the voice; Daedalus, the newest addition to the Terrasphere player list, was hanging very ungracefully by the scruff of his neck on one of the lower boughs of a gnarled pine tree.

After twisting and writhing about while trying to dislodge himself from the branch, Daedalus gave up, grunted in acknowledgement of defeat (and his very short in-game limbs), resigning himself to hanging there like a grossly oversized Christmas decoration.

“Help…? Someone…? Anyone…?”

Though his squeaky little voice wouldn’t carry far in the foliage-muffled depths of the woods, it did attract some attention...though not the kind he expected. Or wanted, for that matter. Daedalus immediately shut his mouth when he saw the little audience he’d attracted with his calls for assistance.

“Oh, okay, oh no. This isn’t good.”

A small pack of five wolves had been drawn to the commotion he was causing, and now circled the base of the pine tree inquisitively, waiting for their next light snack to fall right into their waiting mouths. The biggest wolf, which seemed to be the alpha, actually lifted itself onto its hind legs and tried to paw at Daedalus’ feet. Despite what it looked like, the thing’s intention was anything but playful.

“Good wolfie...st-stay down, no, staaaay...uhm...oh no...”

This was a great start.

 

The sun was shining oh so beautiful today. Noah laid on the soft, green, virtual grass just basking away. His eyes had remained close, though he was not asleep. In fact he was aware of most of the things going on around him. Thanks to his hunter mastery and the low levels of creatures in this forest, Noah was able to relax like this without a worry or care in the world. He’s only been in the game for a short while but had already got a decent amount of skills, lucky for him he had a decent combo of a skill set lined up. At least that is how he saw it in his eyes. In fact his combo was decent at this level since most enemies were weak to some form of elemental damage and range attacks. Coupled with his hunter’s ability to sense what’s going on around him and track these low level beasts with ease. Perhaps in more dangerous areas where creatures would swarm or try and flank you might be a dangerous zone for him.


While he listened to the music of the creatures around him, the bird’s peaceful chirping was interrupted by the sound of what appeared to be a scream? His eye lazily opened to try and see where the sound was originating. Based on the sound of it, it was coming from up above? Noah sat up and looked to the sky to see if anything would possibly capable to make such a sound. From a distance he saw something odd free falling from the sky. “Oh...is that a new player? I’ve heard they can spawn in random areas like that…”



Noah stood up from his resting spot and started to casually jog towards the area that the falling player would have likely landed. While he did not have any healing skills or anything like that, he was familiar with the woods, sort of. He could at least help the kid make his way to a town or city and get some supplies to heal up. A fall like that would likely hurt quite a bit Noah imagined. The person did not land too far from the grassy area that Noah was resting at, so it would take no time to get there, thankfully. Noah kept his eyes and ears open to hear the sounds of an injured player or broken branches that might have cushioned his impact with the ground. It was rather cruel of the developers of Terrasphere to just drop players into the world like this. Noah had even heard of people being dropped into a river and drown within the first few moments of being in the game. He was lucky to have started in a more peaceful way.


As he made his way through the forest, he’s ears would perk up. It seemed to be the sound of a low growl, but he felt no killing intent nor sensed the glare of a beast on him. The creatures around here should have triggered this sensations thanks to the program’s hostility detection ability. His head swiveled about until he noticed a small pack of wolves with their back to him. Instead their focus was on a small little player that looked worse for ware. This must have been the new player. Since the creatures did not seem to take notice of Noah, he would use this to his advantage and try and clear this threat for the kid in front of him. He outstretched his hand and started to mumble some words for a spell. Lightning started to form in the palm area of his hand. Within a few seconds the lightning became an unstable looking ball. He would launch the ball directly at the lead wolf causing it to let out a loud wince of pain and collapse to the ground.

Thunder Ball

The other wolves, being startled by the surprise attack and the collapse of their leader, scurried off into the woods. Noah walked over to the player and outstretched his hand. “Can you move? The other four will regroup and come back, it’s best we change the venue. Unless, perhaps you want to taste action right out the gate?”

 

Trying to hike his legs up as far as they would go (which was really not that far, his height considered), Daedalus put every ounce of his strength into keeping out of reach of the alpha’s scrabbling claws, grunting with suppressed effort as only a tiny four-foot-short Faerin character could.

“No, no, bad wolfie, down…!”

Looking around, desperate for help now, Daedalu scanned the endless expanse of trees for a splash of color that wasn’t mottled green or bark brown. And then he saw it; a spark of bright yellowy-blue lightning, flaring into existence rapidly at the edge of his vision! Someone had come to his aid, against the impossible odds!

“HERE! HERE! I’M OVER HERE!”

And, even as he waved his arms about and shouted, the ball of condensed lightning had already streaked across the forest, colliding squarely with the alpha wolf. It gave a pathetic little whimper and pretty much just rolled over, presumably dead or knocked out. Its cronies, witnessing their leader’s demise, scattered to the winds and bounded out of sight.

Daedalus’ mouth was wide open, slack with awe at this stunning first display of magical prowess within the first few seconds of him entering the game. When his savior turned to regard him, he shook himself back to composure and closed his mouth before things got awkward.

“Well, uh technically yes, I can move just fine. But I kinda...have a bit of a problem...well, yeah.”

He pointed behind him, gesturing vaguely at the branch he was hooked to. Seeing the other player reach out for him, Daedalus tried to take it in his own, but was suspended just a little too high up to reach his fingertips. But he had another idea…

“Hey, hey, you can reach my legs, right? Put your hands under my feet then stand up, I’ll try to...kinda…’walk’ off the branch. You get what I’m saying? Of course you do! Come on, help!”

Swinging his legs a little impatiently in mid-air, Daedalus waited to feel something solid beneath his heels. He was already missing the feeling of solid ground, virtual or real, and he intended to do something about that problem.

 

Noah started to inspect the nice little pickle that the man seemed to have found himself currently placed in. He took a step back and looked at the large tree the man had been caught up in. It seemed that he was simply hung on a thick branch. Noah was half tempted to try and use his aeromancy skill once more to break the branch, but there was a high chance he might miss and possibly cause a death on the newbie. “Well, you’ve got some rotten luck starting out like this huh? Guess its better than landing in a briar patch though. We’ll getcha out easy peasy.”


Noah placed the man’s feet on his shoulders as he crouched down slightly. “Okay bud, on the count of three I’ll stand up and you try your best to use my shoulders as a platform to stand on okay? Just wait till my count, don’t want to rush this and we both come crashing down.”


Noah readied himself and waited for the man to do the same. “Alright here we go...One...Two...and Three…” He stood up and expected the man to do the same. Hopefully the guy was able to wiggle himself free, if not well then they might have to resort to using the aeromancy idea and pray for the best. At least the wolves had scattered, it would have been a major pain in the ass to fight them off while trying to avoid aiming at this guy, especially with how his aeromancy skills were set. So there was that silver lining in this whole crappy situation.

 

If it weren’t for the clear fact that he was still stuck on a branch, the sight of Daedalus swinging his legs impatiently could be compared to a playful child fooling around, climbing a tree. That, and the fact that he was neither a child, nor in the most playful mood right now.

“Yeah, I didn’t know that dropping from the sky at spawn was a thing...I think I’ve pulled something too, my arms hurt something fierce...”

Waiting for the tall man to finally get into position, Daedalus shivered at the prospect of being spawned into a prickly briar bush and having to crawl out of there with no help and hostile wildlife all around. Maybe he had actually gotten off comparative lightly…? Speaking of getting off, he felt his feet find support on the broad shoulders of his rescuer. Freedom at last!

“Yeah, sure, let’s do it! Three, alright, I’ll be ready...”

Steadying himself for the man to move out, Daedalus kept his ears sharp for the countdown and braced himself to lift off the tree. If nothing went wrong, hopefully this maneuver would lift him off of the branch like a coat off a coathanger.

“Okay, here we go, here we go...”

Feeling the other man’s shoulder lift upwards, Daedalus focused on staying balanced while the branch slowly lowered and he came free.

“Yes, yes! It’s working! Nice going! Just a little further now...”

And of course, fate decided that now was a great time to throw in a curveball.

Both adventurers would be alerted to a sudden disturbance in the forest’s usual peaceful silence, a violent maelstrom of growling and snuffling noises approaching rapidly from their left, where the four lesser wolves had fled off to. Daedalus, with his higher vantage point, caught sight of the next danger first.

“Oh, oh no. Uh…down there, you might wanna move it; they’re back, and they’ve brought a friend...”

The four wolves from earlier were indeed back, and they had called reinforcements. A hulking Dire Wolf was standing in place of the previous ‘alpha’ wolf; apparently the one that they had presumed was the alpha was in fact just a very intimidating beta. This was the real alpha, and it was pissed off.

“Looks like we’ve got company…*gulp*”

 

“Oh lordy…” Noah’s attention broke away from the man on his shoulders and towards the bloodlust that he had started to detect. A small pop up emerged right in front of his face. BLOODLUST DETECTED At least he was somewhat alerted and not just left to be pounced on blissfully unaware. “Alright bud, I might have to leave you up there for a second… I’ll try to make this as quick as I can.” His voice was not as upbeat as it was just a moment ago but held a slight bit of a quiver. Noah had some skills for this sort of situation but really he had never taken on a pack of wolves with his aeromancy skills before. His bow and items were piss poor on top of that. It wouldn’t do him too much good in a outright fight. Moral of this story was Noah was screwed.


The creatures let out a low growl as their leader made its way to the front. Unfortunately for Noah and Daedalus this beast was a Dire Wolf, one of the apex predators of this region. Noah’s screen cycled through each of his skill sets rather quickly until he settled on one that he had used the least, Beast Taming Mastery. “Hmm this might do… He clicked on one of the buttons and saw a small little icon hover near the top right of the corner of his eye.

Besst Soothing

Noah outstretched his hands and started to talk in a calm and clear voice. “Hey there fellas... what are y’all up to? Looking for a little snack? You want a snack? Here have some of this, its really yummy.” A small stick of meat formed in his hand from his inventory. He tossed the meat in front of the Dire Wolf and watched as it and the pack stopped for a moment to sniff. One of the smaller wolfs gave the meat a lick and seemed to be about to take a nibble when the Dire Wolf snapped its maw causing the regular wolf to let out a small yelp and back off.


“Don’t be rude, there’s plenty here. Come here.” He made some whistles and clicking noises with his tongue while another chunk of meat formed in his hand. This time he kept the meat gripped in his hand but held it out towards the dire wolf. “Come on over here and get some. Come on boy.” He kept making the noises to attract the wolf.


It seemed to be working as the wolf’s hair seemed to stand down and it moved cautiously towards Noah trying to sniff the meat from a distance. “I’ not gonna hurt ya, come on over here bud.” The wolf made its way over to Noah and started to lick the meat before carefully removing it from Noah’s hands and eating it on the forest’s floor. During this time the other wolves also stopped with their growls and seemed to dawn an inquisitive look.


Slowly, Noah turned his head back towards the stuck man, giving him a wink. Noah carefully placed his hand on the creature’s main and started to rub it. “See, we’re all friends here right?” The wolf looked up and licked Noah’s hand showing signs of affection. That’s when another popup appeared before Noah. You’ve gained the creature [DIRE WOLF] trust. Would you like to use the skill [BOND FORMATION]? [Y] [N] Noah clicked the yes button and a new icon appeared.

Bond Formation

The wolf seemed to instantly have its eyes dilate and its whole demeanor change within a matter of seconds. It sat down on its hind legs and started to wag its tail. “Awe see we’re all friends here right? Good boy.” Noah turned back to the man stuck in the tree. “I think its safe to come down now if you want to.” A giant grin filled his face and he was lightly chuckling. This was a first for Noah but he was glad it was a success. He had only really used this mastery for its ability to pick up on agitation in creatures, he had never actually attempted to tame one. It would be interesting to see what sort of skills the wolf would unlock.

 

“W-what?! No, don’t just leave me up here! I’m too young to d-eep!”

Daedalus was almost about to hop down from the man’s shoulders and make a break for it when the wolves formed an arrowhead formation and advanced menacingly. The sheer aura of primal bloodlust surrounding them caused Daedalus to yelp in alarm and all thought of getting down there vanished.

“On second thoughts, yeah, you can handle them full well, right? Right?”

Though he could hear the man’s voice quiver ever so slightly, Daedalus sincerely hoped that it was simply from nervousness, not fear; if someone as strong as this couldn’t take down an overgrown wolf, what chance did he have? Of course, being so new, Daedalus naturally didn’t understand that neither Noah nor the Dire Wolf were the biggest fish in this pond. All the same though, his healthy paranoia wasn’t entirely unfounded; any of the three weaker wolves would still probably be able to rip him limb from limb easily.

“Oi, what are you doing? You’re supposed to kill them, not feed them…!”

Whispering urgently from atop Noah’s shoulders, Daedalus thought his black-haired savior had taken leave of his senses before seeing the reactions the pack gave upon the presentation of the meat. Evidently, seeing as this was easier food than something that would put up a fight, the wolves’ attentions all turned away from them, and a little dispute even occurred, with the larger and stronger Dire Wolf putting its subordinate in place and taking the meat for itself. Yeah, that one was the alpha here, alright…

“Okay, I take it back. Keep going...I think it’s working...”

Though his eyebrow cocked a bit at Noah’s comment about not hurting it (the wolf was infinitely likelier to hurt them), Daedalus kept quiet and observed with silent awe as Noah beckoned the wolf over, gave him a wink and...tamed the thing, just like that.

“Oh...so that’s a beast tamer’s skill...”

The rest of the pack seemed to be confused and rather befuddled by their leader’s sudden change of heart, and snuffled around awkwardly among themselves for a while before slinking away into the shadows of the woods, no doubt realising that being rid of their once-oppressive alpha would open up a spot for a new leader. Daedalus let out a sigh of relief and hopped down from the man’s shoulders. After examining the tamed wolf for a second, he turned to Noah, beaming a wide smile.

“Oh, wow, that was just...amazing. Wonder if I’ll ever get to do things like that one day...oh, yeah, thanks so much for saving me! I don’t know how I’ll ever repay you! I’m Daedalus, what’s your name?”

Holding out a hand, Daedalus grinned and waited for the shake. He could already tell that this game was going to be a blast...

 

“Daedalus huh? Odd name to choose, you must have a thing for invention or enjoy those old myths. I’m Noah, nice to meet ya.” He shook the man’s hand. As he lowered his back towards his side, the wolf’s cold nose pressed against his skin. It seemed to be sniffing his hand for some more scraps. Noah gae the beast’s hair a light tussle and scratched behind its ear. “Funny how affectionate it become after I tamed it. We got lucky, seeing how my Beast Mastery is rather lousy and this is the first chance I’ve gotten to really tame a beast. Oh well, you know what they say right? Evolution was built on failures or something like that.”


Noah noticed that the rest of the pack seemed to depart into the thicket of the forest leaving just the three of them remaining at the scene of the crime so to speak. “So Daedalus, besides having crappy luck with where you spawn how are you liking the game? I’m sure you’ve got lots of questions on how everything works around here right?” Noah said in an eager tone, it was clear that he was more than willing to help the new comer out with whatever they might want or need, so long it was within his realm of ability to do so.

 

"Ehe, I'm pretty sure I'm a mostly Tinkerer-class, support-character kinda guy, so...y'know, I'm kinda hoping to become the spiritual successor to the actual Daedalus, heh!"

As Noah leaned over to pet the dire wolf he had just tamed, Daedalus listened intently to Noah explaining how the taming had, in fact, actually been his first. Crouching down, he debated whether or not to reach out and boop the wolf on the nose whimsically, but his common sense reeled him in, telling him that this thing was a dire wolf, for goodness sakes, and he stayed put.

"Oooh, I see...so skills work like that in this game...and I'm pretty sure the quote you're looking for here is 'a failure is just a success in progress'!"

Watching the rest of the pack return to the murky green depths of the forest, Daedalus involuntarily shivered as he considered the possibility of more dangerous things lurking in the dark woods, ready to make his newbie flesh their next meal. @Noah Krane's words shook him out of his paranoid daze and he looked back, wondering what to ask first.

"Er...well, I guess what'd be nice to know...hmmm...where's the nearest town? Where have I even spawned in at?"

 

“Hmm a nearby town...hmm hmm hmm... “ The man placed his hand on his chin as he thought. Though he had decent hunting skills, his ability to navigate within the game was still hindering. “Well I guess I can pull up my palm’s map. That might give us a better idea, if not I’d just be pointing us in some rando direction.”


Noah raised his hand and the image of his screen appeared once more. He cycled through the screens until he found a small map icon that he was able to access. “The nearest town is probably a thirty to hour long walk depending on how fast you moved not to mention what you stumble across between here and there…” He zoomed in and out in random areas on the map until he saw a small little cluster of dots. “Oh! There’s a small little hunting camp not too far from here, probably twenty minutes or so away. That’s not too bad is it?” He asked the man in an inquisitive tone.


The wolf stood there rather content with its new master. Its eyes stayed fixed on the new player, who just moments before was his next meal. It was obvious that this beast had never had any form of a bath, its hair was matted in some areas and it would occasionally scratch itself, a sign of fleas. Noah would need to find a creek or something and try to work some magic on it before he strolled through a city’s streets.

 

"Oh, wow, cool!"

Mirroring @Noah Krane as he clenched and unclenched his fist quickly, Daedalus' eyes widened in amazement as a floating menu about the size of a smartphone screen popped up before him. He could identify several meters and reckoned he could deduce what each meant, at least roughly; thirst, hunger, sleep, health, energy and warmth, all standard VRMMORPG fare. Still, he was impressed by the level of sophistication and thought put into the interface.

Once again mimicking his rescuer's movements, Daedalus cycled to the map screen and studied it alongside the raven-haired hunter, nodding along as his companion detailed to him the specifics of the local geographical layout. Though a worried frown edged onto his face at the mention of running into yet more trouble, it was quickly dispelled by a hopeful grin as the mention of a much closer campsite was brought up.

"Hunting camp? Cool, sure, that'll do! Maybe they'll be able to keep us safe for a while, eh?"

Nodding appreciatively and closing his menu after ascertaining their bearings from the camp, Daedalus rubbed his hands together and looked back to Noah, then at the dire wolf, raising an eyebrow as it scratched itself arduously. He could practically see the fleas hopping around on it.

"And maybe they'll also give this fella a bath. He stinks little, to be frank, and I'm pretty sure he's got fleas. You got a name in mind yet?"