Open - The Scouter | Page 2

Out of the corner of her eye, she spied the strangers' features in search for the answers to her question, and when they came, it was from a man who stood tall and proud, offering curtsies and advice to those who needed it. Herself included. So the ginger was the veteran serving as the group's guide... Judging by the mere looks of him, he certainly seemed more experienced than any of the people surrounding him combined, and while he provided very much needed insight into Terrasphere's possibilities for beginners, she noticed a certain word amidst his speech which quickly took hold of her attention. ''... Stare?''

The white-haired girl arched an eyebrow at this particular choice of words, folding her hands over her chest. What a curious way to call something that might as well be known as stalking in other, less friendly, circumstances. As she soon realized, thanks to a girl standing next to them, the experienced fellow was called Emerath. She remained silent as the girl opened her mouth to request another answer from him, and only turned her head in simple curiosity as an interruption forced her to set her inquiries aside. For now, at least.

Hearing the voice of an unfamiliar guest behind her, Portia stepped aside and watched as a man much older than the rest of them strolled over to their little gathering, bearing questions and strange comments on his lips. His approach brought a different range of reactions from everyone within the group, and when he finally settled his gaze upon them, a couple of words were enough to wreck the semi-peaceful conversation they had been engaging in. ''N-no, we aren't! Of course we aren't...'' The remark was quick to get out of her mouth, yet the words failed to pick up the pace before a bare-chested man suddenly took it upon himself to dismiss the elder's accusations.

With the corners of her mouth tight in silent laughter at the senior's blunt comment, she pushed her hand against her lips, as if trying to hide the tiny chuckles and giggles that left her. Emerath spoke once again, voicing both his opinions regarding the cave and its mysteries and the particular person who called himself King. She gave an earnest nod in silent response, signaling he would follow his advice and avoid him at all possible times.

Afterwards, Portia didn't answer. Not immediately, anyways, and for a brief moment, she allowed the hush to stretch out before all the different choices laid bare before her. ''My name's Portia, and I agree we should at least try to explore the cave but if Emerath is not going to accompany us, then we truly have no one to rely on other than... him,'' she announced as she pointed a finger at the shameless flirt, rolling her eyes at the failed attempt at chivalry that was certainly not making anyone present to fall for him.

''I, for one, would like a demonstration of your abilities. Of course you wouldn't mind, would you?'' It would appear that she had found it in herself to try and mock this person as well. The unfaltering smile upon her features was the only evidence needed of this.

 

_____Not once, but twice the young people seemed to have zero respect for their elders. His veins in his head popping up as he began rushing towards the boy who had the guts to call him ‘old man’ His walking branch tossed aside early in his rush forward and fist ready at his sides. Like the last child he would see to it to discipline the youth for his disrespect and made sure to do it roughly the same way as he did the last kid.

”I’m not ‘old man’! I... AM… AGED WITH EXPERIENCE!”

_____His back pain residing for the moment as he swung his first attack at this so called ‘king’ fellow. Fist moving from his side upward towards King’s chin with full steam behind it. The flourish and triumphant linger as he kept the fist up should it hit the boy was his signature unless he felt they needed more than one lesson. Just as quickly as he got angry though, he returned to a hunched over old man as he walked back to get his branch and tapped it against the ground a few times.

”First some spiky red hair fella calls me old now this wanna be player does! When I was half your age I had girls all around me boy! You should respect your elders. And if you wanna know what is in the cave go into it, explore while you got your better years! If you don’t you end up old senile and OLD having only ‘what if’ thoughts...” - ”Great grandfather! There you are! I thought we said head north from where you spawned at.”

_____Morpheus’ ranting was cut short at the familiar voice, Turning to see a girl in white armor some distance away he smiled and began walking towards her as she did the same for him. his stick tapping the ground as she almost tackle hugged him before she moved towards the group roughly assuming what happen so far. Moving to bow only to have her sword fall from the sheath and her frantically try to catch the blade before it hit the ground, with her attempt failed she simply sighed and spoke up while retrieving it off the ground.

”Forgive my great grandfather, he forgot his medicine and seems to have caused you all some trouble. Come on, say your sorry.” - ”I Ain’t gotta say I’m sorry to nobody, much less that boy who called me old man!” - ”If you don’t say it now should I let my mother know you are teaching me not to say sorry for my actions?” - ”Fine, I’m sorry… to everyone but fakey shirtless boy!”

 

At this point, Zaen was in a near fit of laughter. This was going to be much more interesting than he expected! With the way everyone looked when he spawned in, he expected the usual social awkwardness that usually accompanied a group of gamers, even in a virtual reality experience. While some were certainly fitting that bill -- particularly the soft-spoken Portia and the downright quiet Madison -- there was enough amusing conversation to take in that the green-haired "woman" was thoroughly amused.

Also this goggled fellow literally fit the bill for every anime protagonist this side of Digimon. Zaen was glad, since it made him easy to pick out of the growing crowd, and a little direction for the new players was a good thing. Kingoda seemed pretty thoroughly in-character, too. Maybe Louis had accidentally picked the RP server? Or maybe some of these people were just naturally invested in their online personas at this point. Regardless, he seemed like the flighty type, easily distracted by whatever was happening in the moment. A shame. Perhaps they'd talk more later.

And then an "older gentleman" enters the scene! This is comedy gold. He half expected to see a small red blob run up, full courtesy of his first VR experience, and ask if he knew the way. Just as Zaen was going to move into his role and apologize to the old man for everyone's "lack of respect" and help the hilarity continue, a young clumsy girl ran in and made her great-grandfather apologize to them. Zaen couldn't help but give a hearty laugh. By this point, King would probably notice the fair amount of bass in his voice in his chortle.

"Ha halright," he flowed the word into his chuckles, "is there a friend list? I wanna add all of you, this has been the greatest first day in a VR game I've ever had." He clenched his fist to pull up his menu and poke around in it as he walked toward the cave. "As a tank main," he started, unable to separate himself from his usual terminology, "I'm fine taking the lead from the experienced players or leading the group myself, but let's get moving. I wanna see what combat feels like!"

Goggles had what looked like potions that he was okay handing out, so if King hesitated for even a moment, Zaen would walk past him and take the lead of the crowd. Otherwise, he would follow behind him. Not a bad place to be; the flirt's character was pretty good looking.

 

So many people, Madison thought to herself as she opened her palm menu once more. The woman had no idea what she was looking for, but it served as enough of a distraction from all the noise that was going on around her.

And here I thought this game was banned, only traded between a select few. Looks more like the worst kept secret on the Internet, now.

She was casually scrolling through the list of spells available and considering logging out when the guy who called himself Zaendal stepped forward and declared an interest in partying up and tackling whatever might be inside the cave.

"Finally," she grumbled to herself as she closed her menu.

Madison took a step closer to the guy with the oddly-colored hair and raised a finger in the air. "I'll come with you, I guess. Beats the hell out standing around and waiting for more freaks to show up."

Reaching into her inventory, she produced a very plain-looking deck of cards. "I spec'd into Black and Nature Magic. So I guess I can trap and debuff? And I can punch things too, if that helps."

 

As King marched off, Freja gave a wave and a cheery “Oh, thank you, hero! Good luck~” before turning her attention again to Emerath. “Anyway, where was I?—Right, when we get over to Honeyhome we should celebrate taking our first step into the game the good old fashioned way at a tavern. Sooo, I want your opinion on what the good, strongest drinks are around these parts, assuming you indulge.” Normally, it would have been rude to ask that kind of question to what amounted still to a stranger, but again, Freja gave a wicked glance and expression in King’s direction. If whatever awaited the poor fellow in the caves wasn’t going to ruin his day, perhaps Freja introducing spirits of another sort would.

After Emerath, Freja looked to Portia, still by far the newest member of their merry band, and one who had the misfortune of spawning after everyone introduced themselves. Freja gave a friendly nod, noting Portia's stiffness, and she thought better of maintaining her usual loud voice and laughter towards her, lest she risk coming off as overbearing. “Nice to meet you, Portia. I’m Freja, and this guy’s Emerath,” she said, motioning towards the man in question. “The green-haired dreamboat (and future heartbreaker) is Zaendal, and the other girl’s Madison. And the old man . . .”

Oops. She’d forgotten he’d apparently hated being called that. He was aged with experience. Like half of the other ornery old cusses she knew. She mentally braced herself for a tongue lashing. Instead, another woman appeared, introducing herself as the old man's great granddaughter, and the two swiftly apologized. “It’s uh, it’s fine,” Freja said, awkwardly giggling. Just how many people were in on this charade?

Freja tried to dismiss it, which was easy, seeing how convincing the group to entertain the cave proved an easy task. Impressive, considering who was endorsing it the most. Perhaps everyone was secretly eager to see King’s bravado, the sort usually only seen in stunt shows like Jackass, be his undoing, as Portia hinted at. Admittedly, Freja found some amusement in his antics as well, and was all too eager to set up more when - or if - the party ever found its way to Honeyhome, like Emerath suggested they do in the first place. “As for me. . . ”

She decided to follow Madison’s example by producing a weapon from her own inventory. In her case, it was a large bearded axe, best held with both hands; however, perhaps expectedly, the weapon itself was incredibly shabby with a scratched and rusted iron blade, and a shoddily-carved wooden shafted bound with cracked leather grips. Even the menu was telling her its intrinsic value was a big, fat, 0g. Still, for her, it was better than nothing.

“I opted for Cleave, as you can see, but I also went for Heroic Shouts and Berserk, so if you need all-out physical frontline DPS, I’ll be your girl. Plus it’ll be easy to hook the other guy and pull him away to keep him out of trouble. But yeah, let’s have some fun, shall we?”

With that, Freja turned towards the cave and chose to follow Zaen.

 

Emerath watched each of the group converse in turn. As expected, King took the bait, hook, line, and sinker, and off he went to get rid of the man who was here to help him, clearly not in need of the help. Emerath could only chuckle, as he shared with Portia, Zaendal, Madison, and Freja separately, when he was sure King wouldn't hear him if he kept his voice low and spoke before everyone else wandered off, "Don't worry. There's no such thing as invisible walls in this game. I'll be following along to make sure we keep out of trouble. Don't tell good ol' King over there."

With that said, and a smug smile on his face, Emerath watched as the remainder readied themselves for the cave and explained their masteries. "For the sake of argument, I suppose I should explain my masteries," he said, back to his normal speaking tone that even King would be able to hear. "I have Tinkering, thus the potions and such. I have Martial Arts, so I'm a fist fighter. Aeromancy for some wind and lightning magic enhancements, and finally Heroic Might for some extra strength."

With that out of the way, it seemed that the old man was reigned in by a girl who joined up with them, and Emerath gave a light bow to the both of them, explaining, "Really, it's fine. Perhaps we are just as at fault by calling our elders by a name that they don't appreciate. But why don't you two join us in our little expedition? The more the merrier, right?"

Emerath then watched as everyone walked off, headed off into the cave. Emerath lagged behind a bit, but kept by Freja, who actually seemed interested in conversing with him for the little trip. "To be honest," he explained in response to her earlier question, "I have had yet to have an alcoholic drink in this game. But from what I've heard, thanks to its namesake, Honeyhome has some amazing honey bourbon. So I'd recommend that, should we part ways before making it to a tavern. But I'll tell you what, we'll set the date, and if nothing else the two of us, and anyone else interested, can celebrate our successful spelunking trip with a round of drinks together. Sound good?"

Emerath was interested both in this cave and what everyone here had to offer. For a bunch of newbies, he didn't doubt that they could still pull their own if they worked together. This trip would prove more fun than he could have imagined.

 

There was an interesting note as our jade-maned hero(ine?) listened intently to the only one who knew what he was doing around here. He couldn't help but pause for a moment, and ask. "Did... you just name four masteries? Can you expand beyond the three?" There was about to be an annoyed player behind the guise of Zaendal when he learned the three days he spent picking out his three masteries would eventually expand to a maximum of five. Regardless, he would march on, leading the group as he materialized a shield, morningstar, and a rather flimsy looking set of heavy armor from his inventory.

"I'd be happy to join on the trip to Honeyhome afterward, if all goes well."

 

_____Morpheus would blink a few times watching everyone gear up for the cave dive. Turning to face his great granddaughter who waved him to go forward before she followed. Tapping his branch against the ground before allowing it to drop and rolling his shoulders. Looking at the group again before he started to walk the other way yawning lightly and ending with a flourished sigh before he spoke up to his descendant and the children.

”As much as that sounds fun I would not enjoy getting twice the amount of lectures from my granddaughter, I’m likely already in the dog house for getting lost, no need to add adventuring without her onto the list. Maybe another time, should fate see to it we will meet again.” - ”It was a pleasure meeting you all! Have a safe adventure, if your ever in Stokbon I’d love to give you all a tour, I’m mostly around the south side of the city!”

_____And just like that as quickly as Morpheus had arrived he was leaving while calmly waving his hand. There was little he had to say or honestly provide to the group at his current state anyways. The caves would likely be close quarters and another person fighting close combat would only hinder them. White Kimono and armor fading into the treeline as they left the new players to their first adventure.

~Morpheus Exit~

 

King preened as the beautiful, esteemed Portia practically begged to see an amazing show of his skill. His hand went to his waist, fingers firmly wrapped around the handle of his sword. He would have unsheathed and displayed his prowess right there and then were it not for the crazy old man taking a swing at him.

Instinct demanded he dodge or deflect but reality found King standing stock still as fist met jaw. Newton's law dictates that an object in motion stays in motion, but the limb froze on impact against King's chiseled jaw, unable to go any further but not moving the opposition even the slightest. He smirked. What a thrill! The old man retreated and King coughed, scratching at his jaw as he realized it hadn't even hurt. He hadn't budged an inch. That knowledge brought a bigger grin to his face as it finally sunk in.

He sucked in a breath as the old man's gorgeous granddaughter appeared, working to reign the crazy in. How could they even be related?! Alas, the pair soon wandered off with friendly waves and farewells, which King nodded in return to.

And then they were gone.

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, brows raising as well as Goggles named four masteries like a pompous asshat. So he was a slight veteran then. King clicked his tongue and crossed his arms, refusing to pout as he answered Zaendal with a helpful, "Yeah, get good enough and more slots unlock. Not sure when, where, or how, but you can hit five according to my source."

He definitely didn't pout as all the others named their skills and he had to pipe in with his pitiful three. "I personally dabble in slash," he started as he finally got to unsheathe his sword and show it off, "heroic might and a little bit of aeromancy." The wind picked up slightly, ruffling his hair and gently rustling his cloak, carrying it behind him.

He stopped everybody just before the cave opening, looking morosely into the darkness that awaited them.

Now would be the perfect time to show them what he's made of! "Now, the moment you all were waiting for," he said with a wink at @Portia Ahrens. If only he had his fedora, he'd tip it at her. Alas, he'd settle for bowing his head with a soft, "M'lady."

The longsword cut through the air in front of him, motions intricate and swift. "H'yaah!" he cried out as brought the sword down in one final, heavy strike. The grass parted just beneath the tip of the blade, wind forcing them apart. He smiled and re-sheathed. A moment of silence (at least on King's side) passed, and then his head rose, eyes a-twinkling. He looked like a particularly eager puppy, waiting to be told he'd done a great job, missing only the wagging tail behind him.

 

The amount of gratitude Portia felt towards the one person who went out of their way so she wouldn't feel lost amidst all the conversation was immense. ''Nice to meet you as well,'' she responded, matching names with faces as the girl named Freja pointed to each one of them, stopping at the elder's turn. Seein how there was someone else whom he was talking to, her focus went back to the rest, waiting. Patiently waiting for a name that never came.

As entertaining as his first arrival had been, the elder's presence was required someplace else, and as such, he wouldn't be joining the group of green adventurers into the cave. For better or worse, their numbers were reduced by one but there would be more experience points awaiting inside to make up for it. Albeit with a tinge of silent disappointment coating her motions, the white-haired youth raised her hand and offered a wave to the pair, making it a mental note to visit Stokbon should the opportunity ever arise.

She followed where Zaendal and King led them to, only for the latter to stop them five or ten paces away from the entrance. However unlikely had she thought about being surprised by King's display of his skills, she found it all the more amusing when he did as he was told. A chuckle escaped her just as a smile appeared on his face, eyes gleaming with excitement. She stepped into close proximity, pressing her index and middle fingers against King's temple, eyes of a piercing grey hue trained on the male's features to scan any signals of her touch being unwanted. If he didn't move, Portia would then proceed to slide her fingers into his hair, scratching at the skin a couple times before shifting away with the very same blank expression on her face. ''There you go. Good boy.'' That should make him calm a little.

Unlike others before her, who deemed their little excursion into the cave the perfect time to talk about their masteries and equip their respective items, the answer she gave to their words and movements was with attentive glances thrown their way. ''It would seem we are quite similar,'' she began, showcasing her admiration of her companions' choices with a nod of approval, ''my primal choice was Martial Arts for the physical combat, but took Arcanamancy and Acrobat as my other two. I plan on becoming a full damage dealer with both physical and magical capabilities, so this should suffice for now.''

With those words, she eased into a more comfortable position that left her arms at her sides, only to bring her right hand up and repeat the motion that prompted the menu to appear. If she recalled the information read online correctly, there should be a certain section on the Skills list that should be checked twice before engaging in combat for the first time... Ah, there! The option she was looking for was already checked, and so did she switch to its alternative: Assist Mode.

The thrill of feeling the heat of combat in its full glory was tempting enough for her to reconsider her choice, but she was no hand-to-hand expert, and her journey on Terrasphere had just begun. It was best not to tempt fate and decide to make a fool of herself. A couple of pokes more around the menu and she procured a set of bandages from her inventory that wrapped themselves around her hands once materialized into the world, their sole purpose to cushion any damage her hands might suffer.

''Shall we?''

 

Madison glanced sideways at Creepy Abs Guy and clicked her tongue. A quick demonstration of his sword technique--pitiful to the point where even the grass dodged it.

Great, she bitterly thought. I didn't think Hubris was a trackable stat. If we run into anything in the cave, our only hope is sheer numbers.

And even then, she hoped the game was kind enough to spare her. And maybe the new girl, Portia. She had to respect anyone else who took a look at all these physical and magical combat methods and said, "nah, I'll punch things instead".

The witch absentmindedly started playing with her deck, performing one-handed spin cuts to calm her nerves as she stepped into the cave. It was strange, she mused. Terrasphere wasn't her first VR game, let alone her first MMO. She'd dabbled in a list of others in the past, but this one was different. The stakes seemed a lot more real, with the fact that the game provided more than a visual and aural experience. Isn't that why it had been condemned worldwide in the first place?

She could still back out. Log off, delete the game off her hard drive, nuke the e-mail it came on.

With a flick of her wrist, she flipped the top card of the deck.

"Just my luck," Madison whispered flatly as she shuffled The Fool back in and began cutting again.

Turning on her heels, she glanced at everyone who was still milling about the entrance to the cave. "So are we doing this, or what?"

Madison swung back around and drew herself further into the darkness, pushed on by an odd sense of curiosity and wonder at what could be in store for her. She didn't bother to check if any others followed, instead taking in the sheer size of the cave. It lacked the long, winding passageways of games that she was used to play--made sense, really. This was a starting area. A lot of new blood spawns here. The last thing you want to do is alienate your player base by getting them lost in their first couple hours of exploration. This wasn't No Man's Sky, after all.

Cracks in the earth above allowed enough of the afternoon sun in to illuminate the path. Try as she might, the only thing she could hear were her soft footfalls echoing further underground. How deep did this go? And more importantly, when was this going to get exciting?

Perhaps the game was waiting for the others to catch up with her before it spawned some mobs.

 

Emerath had watched as everyone milled about, with Zaendal being the only one to take a keen interest in the fact that Emerath had listed four masteries. He was impressed by the man's perception. But rather than have to clarify, it turned out King proved useful after all, by answering the question about how to extend your mastery capabilities. But he was one who understood, and didn't yet achieve. Emerath took solace in this knowledge.

Emerath was a bit sad to see that the elderly gentleman wouldn't be joining them, as his, presumably, great granddaughter convinced him to head down a different path. So Emerath simply waved to the man as he watched them disappear into the trees. It was a loss to lose someone who had no seeming issue with punching the muscular man who was proving to be an annoyance to a good number of the others present. But Emerath supposed he should move on from this and focus instead on the task at hand. Finally going into the cave.

This seemed to be taking some time, however, as Emerath watched King display his prowess with his weapon. It appeared based on the idea that he didn't even seem to be fighting an object, but instead was just trying to show off, that he didn't quite grasp the concept of showing his prowess. Not to mention it didn't look all that great to begin with. Though in all fairness, Emerath was not one to be flashy. He was more of a "get the job done" sort of individual.

On a better day, he might've asked King to spar with him, just to see how he actually fared against an opponent rather than the air, but other members of the group had other plans as everyone finally started to head in the direction of the mouth of the cave for exploration.

It took everyone standing around for Madison to finally seem to grow tired and begin the exploration into the cave. Emerath watched her break off, before following her, unsure if everyone else would finally do the same, but wanting to make sure someone had her back in the event of something horrible coming.

But nothing seemed to come, and Emerath wasn't sure if that was a relief or a bad sign. As he walked behind Madison, he mentioned out loud so her and any other group members could hear, "This game isn't like others. It isn't one to just put challenges in predetermined spots. Everything here happens naturally, as it would in real life. So that means that either nothing is in this cave... or we're about to disturb something potentially dangerous in its natural habitat..."

 

As the "party" ventured forth, the sound of looming chaos echoed over them. Zaen knew it had been too quiet, but if anything, the tension in the air was exciting him. With nothing reliable to his name other than his knowledge of game mechanics that were unlikely to be relevant, the poorly armored man pivoted, turning toward the entrance that had just been sealed. The rumble of the ground, the sound of individual falling rocks, and the feeling of the dust tickling its way into his nostrils... this game was unreal. Or maybe too real, which was the point.

"It's on now!" The man took a firm stance, he wasn't about to go anywhere except straight toward the problem. At worst, this was too much for the group and he would (try to) hold it off until they get out. Life of a tank. That said, he didn't know what they were facing yet, and he could barely see an inch in front of him. He looked toward the group over his shoulder, interested in finding the excitement. "Anyone got an eye on a mob, or maybe have a match so we can find it?" Zaen was nearly shouting at this point, trying to draw its attention. Metal rattling as he turned and shifted, the darkness was just making this scenario as a whole that much more exciting.

Either way, he would be ready. He would be their front line. He would be... almost completely blind.

 

Emerath had expected a lot of things as the veteran of this group, but a cave in was not one of them. Emerath spun as the entrance closed off behind them, and he wasn’t sure if any of them would be able to get back out again. They were trapped, at least for the moment.

It was pitch black, and all Emerath could hear was the breathing of his companions, at least until Zaendal spoke up. He was eager, Emerath would give him that much. He didn’t hear fear, but pure excitement. It was a sentiment Emerath could get behind. But first, they needed a light.

Luckily, Emerath had a solution. He was relieved to see that as he pulled up his palm menu, he could still see all the glowing dials and doodads that made it up. And so he started pulling things out of his inventory. While he dodn’t have a good stick, as a base for a torch, he did have tools. And so taking a large wrench and kneeling down, he pulled out some bandage cloth and some of the vegetable oil he carried around for his balloon bombs. He wrapped the wrench head in the bandage cloth, and the doused it with a liberal dose of vegetable oil, and let the cloth soak.

And then the final piece, the flint and steel used to light it up. The blaze was sudden and instant, momentarily stinging Emerath’s eyes as everyone in the party was lit up by the glow the makeshift torch created. He held it aloft to light up the area around them, hoping to get a glimpse of what might have trapped them here.

Action: Light up the Cave
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