Unbreakable Fate

Kritsy yawned as she fell out of bed, blindly feeling for anything that could tell her the time. She found a watch, and it told her that it was somewhere around 2PM. Her stomach grumbled, and she dragged herself out of her bedroom.

Twenty minutes later, she came back, finishing her breakfast. She put the plate on her desk and pulled the large, grey helmet over her head. After a few seconds of tapping through menues, she was launched into the Unbreakable Fate title screen.

Kritsy blinked twice as the bright world came into focus. Trees, trees and more trees. She'd logged off exploring Deepwood. Sighing, she opened her journal to check what quest she'd been doing.

Nine PM, the sun is settling down for Arthur Shryer, but rising elsewhere for someone else. He had spent his day cleaning his home and doing any laundry that needed doing. Having just one day off is a godsend and some days he wishes he could go back to the way things used to be. Days of no real worries, leeching off of the world while hiding away from the light. Simple days filled with mostly sleeping and playing this new game called Unbreakable Fate released for VR systems. It was only two years, but that span of time can make such a difference. He had rolled many characters, but found no pleasure in them. As the years went on, demand for him to go out and become an "adult" began to weigh him down, so he complied. He recently requested a week off, mostly to continue building a character he had rolled not too long ago. He sits on his bed and brings the hulking headset over and onto his own head and turns it on.

After going through menus, the world loads in and he is placed into the body of his avatar. A female Drider he dubbed Artemis.

Artemis looks around quickly to see where she is and finds nothing but trees. Most likely, she is in Deepwood, but she has no recollection of what she was doing there. She grabs for her journal to see what she had been doing last and it appears as though she had been chased by hositle NPCs out to this spot. She had evaded them and then "went to sleep". She had been on a quest to recover a few items for an old woman no doubt practicing some kind of alchemy.

"Bloody humans. Chasing me out here in the middle of gods know where." She sighs.

Put down the herd of Bloody Unicorns 2/10

Kritsy sighed, Bloody Unicorns could range from level 65 to level 80, and had some very damaging abilities. If she got surrounded by the higher level ones, there was a possibility she could die. Unicorns couldn't fly, though, so worst case scenario, she'd still be able to escape pretty easily. Ahead of her, through the dark trees, she could see one, it's white coat stained red with the blood of the goblin it was feating on. She drew her axe and walked forward.

Bloody Unicorn - Level 76. Level 76 meant she was deeper into their spawn zone than she'd thought, but that wasn't a problem, seeing as it looked alone. Kritsy broke into a run, swinging her axe as soon as the unicorn came into range.

Retrieve 2x Gryphon talons
Retrieve 1x Bloody Unicorn Horn
Retrieve 10x Darkshade Flowers

Artemis reads off the list given to her by the quest giver and looks around. "I guess it's good that they chased me out here. Darkshade has a chance to grow here and Bloody Unicorns are around here too." She nods happily and her many legs begin to move as she begins her search for a Bloody Unicorn.

The Unicorn saw Kritsy first, and charged, head down to gore her. She stopped moving towards it and planted her feet. The horn struck her square in the chest, dropping her Health by about 15%. She was knocked back, but one of her passive skills kept Kritsy on her feet. She raised her axe and swung it down in an arc, a red line following the edge. The Unicorn staggered beneath the blow. Three seconds to recover. She raised the axe above her head and swung it down, forcing as much weight behind it as she could. Crushing Blow could only be used on a vulnerable target and temporarily lowered the users defences, but it did high damage and made the target more susecptable to damage. As the Unicorn recovered, Kritsy raised her hand, a bolt of bright yellow lightning hitting the mob, again paralysing it.

Kritsy hit it twice more, each strike raising her own health, before she violently kicked it to the ground, and swung her axe down into it.

Artemis can hear a commotion happening not too far from her and decides to check it out. As she grows closer, she takes her bow out and places an arrow into it. She pulls it back as she approaches a scene of a seemingly human "player" dispatching a Bloody Unicorn. She keeps her distance lest this "player" turns out to be a hostile "PvP" focused build.

Kritsy crouched, looting the Unicorns corpse, a few pieces of currency, the horn, and the heart. Crafting components were easy to sell, so she kept the items. She stood back up, looking around for any more Unicorns.

She just plucked the beast clean. I don't have anything on me to trade for that horn and I'd prefer to not engage in combat here. These things look too powerful. Artemis thinks to herself, taking in everything around her as she plans her next course of action. Suddenly, she hears a stamping sound behind her and soon after that, the sound of hooves pounding the ground in a rhythmic pattern. Her legs go down and she jumps into the air just as a Bloody Unicorn is about to gore her. She quickly pulls the string back on her bow and looses an arrow into the interfering horse.

Kritsy saw a Unicorn charge into her vision, but it turned around before it came into range of her. She looked, seeing an arrow strike the beast in the front. Kritsy stops and looks over, looking for the Unicorn's target.

Artemis lands a distance away from the Unicorn. She looks the Unicorn over as it stamps once more.

The visual display on Arthur's headset gives him the details of the Unicorn. Level 65, the arrow didn't do much damage, but it had caused the bleed status effect. That'll help only a little bit. I'll have to play this slow.

The Unicorn charges once more and Artemis lays a sticky trap on the ground for it. As the beast nears, she does a short hop to the left. The animal's course doesn't change fast enough and its attack is brought to a quick end as it gets stuck in the web. She performs a Quick Shot attack, taking an arrow from her quiver, putting it to the string and looses it into the beast. She does this a total of 3 times in quick succession.

Kritsy saw the Drider dodging, and selected its avatar. If it was level 76 or higher, it'd be a threat.
Artemis - Level 50 Ranger Kritsy sighed, she'd almost been hoping for a decent PvP fight, but she wasn't going to gank some random midbie who was probably going to be killed by this unicorn anyway.

The health gradually ticks away as the bleed damage continues. Artemis' own arrows did slight damage, one arrows even hit a very critical area of the body. The beast is still ensnared by the sticky trap, but to make sure she has a way out, she lays a second trap where she is, and then looses another barrage of arrows. She doesn't bother with the other person. They would have attacked by now.

She's going to lose five levels, Kritsy thought, watching as the Unicorn's health barely dropped from her attacks. Kritsy raised her hand, the same bolt of lightning from her own fight striking and halting the Unicorn just as the web trap expired.

A sudden flash and the sound of lightning cracks the sky. It's target? The Unicorn. Artemis is caught off guard by this and looks around. Was it that person? She shakes her head and takes one more arrow out, this one she doesn't fire right away. This arrow is allowed to cook for a bit and the response is a brilliant white light emanating from the arrow's head. This attack, White Hot Shot, is a skill she just recently learned. It sets the target ablaze and does gradual damage over time. Once the arrow is set, she fires it. This effect is added just as the beast looks as if it had healed its own blood loss.

"I'm going to get your horn, beast. Whether you like it or not!" She calls out.

With a flourish of typing and the rapid spamming of the enter key, Olyx zapped back into the world where she spent so much of her free time. She walked forward, hopped onto the fence and sat down. It was likely she wouldn't move from here for the rest of the day.

A quick opening of the guild tab shows no-one online, but there is a nice '1' showing on the friends tab. She pops it and rapidly typed a message in to Artemis.

"Still not 80? I thought you were going to stay up all night grinding"

A notification appears on the left hand side of Arthur's screen and he opens it quickly. Olyx had come online and asked about Artemis' level. With the fight still raging on in game, his fingers go to the keyboard and type quickly. "I was gonna do it last night, but things came up. Hopefully I can get up to 70 before I log off. " It's an extremely high goal, but he feels he can accomplish it. Meanwhile, in game.

Artemis seemed to have paused for a bit for some unknown reason, and just as she was snapping out of her unwanted daze, the unicorn's paralysis had subsided and it charged at her. She didn't have enough time to dodge, so she had to take the hit. She cries out in pain and is stunned. She feels unable to do much at the current time, but with the burning effect still present, the unicorn is still being harmed without her action.

"What are you doing now?"

Olyx typed back, watching the antics going on at the Inn across from her. This place was a reputable spot for most players to 'Role play'. Olyx mostly came for the entertainment of watching them.

Kritsy sighed, watching the Ranger's health diminish by quite a large amount from the Unicorns attack.
"Probably shouldn't be questing around here at level 50," She said to Artemis as she pointed her axe at the Unicorn. Challenge, a skill that immediately raised your aggro level against the target, and forced them to attack you for three seconds. The Unicorn turned almost immediately, lowering its head for another charge at Kritsy. Again, she didn't try to dodge it. Once the Unicorn was in range, she swung her axe, and in the same move, swung it back, hitting the Unicorn twice.

Another notification and another reply, "Fighting a Bloody Unicorn. Trying to get its horn." Arthur quickly types back. As the Unicorn seems to aggro to the second player in the area. Apparently they had used Challenge. A sense of anger bubbles into him. This was his fight. No one else's. Why someone would go through the trouble of helping doesn't click with him. His sense of pride is a thing he has lost many characters to. He should feel grateful, but doesn't.

Artemis' eyes follow the Unicorn as the other person had drawn aggro and made quick work of the creature. She sighs and grabs a potion from her satchel and uses it. The damage she sustained seems to melt away and she feels refreshed. "I was forced out here. Comes with the way I look, I assume." Artemis replies.

"Exciting~~" Olyx clacked in response, the sarcasm dripping through the text.
"Why don't you just do some dungeons. They're like the best EXP."

"They're all scrubs," Kritsy said, sheathing her axe on her back. "It's your loot." She added, kicking the Unicorn's corpse. "I only need the kills."

"I'll probably run a dungeon after I complete this quest." Arthur types back. As he looks over the other player. A level 80 demon by the name of Kritsy. "You wanna run them with me? I got another high level in front of me, I can probably convince them to come too."

Artemis nods reluctantly, she hates the thought of taking after someone else's kill. However, this one is offering the loot. She also doesn't want to try to face off against another unicorn like that again, not to mention the chance of having an even higher level one coming after her. She walks up to the corpse and begins taking the loot. One unicorn horn and some meat. "Now I just need two Gryphon Talons and a couple more Darkshade."

"You know my rules. I'm not getting to 80 until the next expac comes out, then I'll level to 99 but never 100"

Olyx watched a human dance up and down in front of her, making obscene gestures and carried on ignoring them

"Gryphon's are that way," Kritsy said, pointing to the west, "Just keep going that way 'till you reach the mountain."

"It's such a shame. Wasting your talents by just sitting around and waiting, but that's you. You do you." Arthur replies back.

Artemis nods once more, finishing cleaning out the fresh kill. "I know that." She looks up to Kritsy. "I suppose you're just going to flounder around here for a bit killing these things? She says pointing at the Unicorn. "It'd get boring quick just killing the same thing over and over. Spice things up a bit."

"By killing Gryphons?" Kritsy replied, "There's no point, it's like clubbing baby seals. Raids and PvP are more fun and rewarding."

A look of disappointment appears on both Arthur and Artemis' faces. Apparently Kritsy isn't one to properly roleplay. Arthur decides to stop the act and Artmeis replies. "Well, this build isn't really suited for PvP right now. I've been thinking about getting into it, but that's as far as I go. Only thoughts."

"Well, if you do start PvPing, I can recommend you a spot in my guild." Kritsy said. "We have a Sniper spec'd Ranger who could probably help you out."

"Depends on the guild." Artemis replies. "I don't know much about any of the guilds that are set up here." It's a simple ploy, Arthur has logged in many hours on Unbreakable Fate, so he has had some time to know about some of the larger guilds. He just wants to figure out which guild this one belongs to without giving too much information on himself.

"Well, the two biggest are Iron Champions and Blacklist, but I think they're both pro-human." Kritsy said, remembering how a group from Iron Champions had tried to gank her while she was levelling her current character, "RP, PvE, or PvP?" She asked.

"RP and PvE mostly. Like I said, only thoughts of PvP." Artemis answers. He'd had run ins with Blacklist before on previous characters. Scouters, mostly. Taking "no" for an answer isn't something they do. One of the other characters he had, Pious, had been killed by them. This was when he was first getting into PvP and it turned him away ever since.

Kritsy shrugged,
"My guild does all three," She said, "We raided Blacklist's guild hall last night and stole a bunch of rares out of their treasury. And I think we were all roleplay. It's hard to tell with some of them."

Olyx watched a group near her, mildly interested. It seemed as though they had a bit of a story going on. One of them was infected and the others were trying to keep him alive whilst they figured out how to heal him.

She hopped down off the fence and strolled over.
"Can I help?"

"Sounds like a fun time." Artemis replies. "Nothing like putting a bunch of hotshots in their place."

"They're actually really bad at PvP, only around twenty of them are any good," Kritsy said, "The rest just ambush low levels in groups."

They looked up at her, explaining what had happened so far in RP. Olyx smiled and took out a medicine kit from her bag. She had 400 levels in First Aid, so she was easily able to identify the disease.

"Oh no." Olyx proclaimed, starting into her kit.
"What?" The Human in the group asked her.
" I haven't got the herb I need here to heal him. It's the Gsol Plant, but that only grows in Shadowmoon Valley."
She saw the group look around apprehensively, for Shadowmoon was a level 85 zone and the highest of these was only level 70.

"Well then" Artemis says with energy in her voice and a daring look in her eyes. "They sound like the perfect targets. I'll riddle them with my arrows and teach them to not be cowards."

"Most of them are powerleveled to eighty by the higher level players," Kritsy said, "They could probably still kill you."

Artemis shrugs. "I enjoy a good challenge. Not to mention they'd have to actually know the proper way to use their skills."

"Don't get ganked at the mountain," Kritsy said, waving as she walked away.

Artemis waves her hand dismissively and begins a trek towards the mountains. Along the way picking up the necessary flowers to complete the quest. Soon she would gather well over the amount of needed flowers. She makes sure to dodge any Unicorns that she passes by. Aggro-ing them could spell her death and Arthur would not like to lose a character to a mob.

Kritsy activated her fly skill, black wings erupting out of her back. She took off, heading upwards until she'd be out of range for anyone on the ground and opened the guild window, sending a message to one of the online members, Veydavin.
"Have the mages found Exudar yet?" She asked him.
"He was heading towards the mine with Vik and Krell, through Drakes Pass. They must know about the attack." Kritsy frowned, Exudar was Iron Champions' leader, a half-giant Berserker. Vik and Krell were a pair of Orc Blademasters, and the three of them were their best PvPers.
"How many of ours are ready?" Kritsy asked.
"We've got thirty, they've got twenty-five, twenty eight if we're counting Exudar's group."
"Tell Davro and Villena to move to my position. Everyone else should attack the mine." She ordered.
"Got it." Veydavin replied, ending the conversation. Kritsy opened her map and set a way point on the path through Drake's Pass and flew towards it. If she was lucky, she'd arrive their at the same time as the other two, and wouldn't have to fight three enemies at once.

The mountain tops eclipse the sky as Artemis bounces from one tree to another, occasionally popping up to the top to check where her location is. This is where she currently is, sitting on the top of a tree and looking around. She hears something whiz passed her head and her eyes widen. She looks behind her and sees nothing. She looks under her and can vaguely see a figure dart from its position under the tree.

Unfortunately, Kritsy was not lucky and arrived at the path leading out of Drake's Pass first, with the three figures riding horses not too far away. She sighed and drew her axe, waiting for them to reach her.

"I guess this is a good time to at least try PvP out on this character." Arthur muses to himself.

Artemis drops down from her position and looks around. Checking for anything that had moved. Things that shouldn't be where they were when she had first climbed the Ash. She brings an arrow to her bow, just in case the attacker fires one of their own so she can retaliate. This foe already knows her position and they were quick to run away, so she couldn't get a bead on where exactly they had gone. If they were to fire, they'd have to be quick to get away. Instead of the sound of an arrow cutting the air, however, she hears the sound of something else behind her.

The three figures arrived, and as Kritsy suspected, they were the members of Blacklist.
"Oh? Has the great demon Naluheth come to stop us?" Laughed Exudar, looking down from his mount. The other two stopped slightly behind him, like bodyguards. Their mounts were regular mounts, meaning that combat would kick them off of their horses. Kritsy swung her axe in a wide, horizontal arc, hitting the three of them.

Arthur's screen goes black abruptly. All in game sound ends as well. The only sound that follows are the repetition of a single word. "Fuck... Fuck... Fuck!" Growing louder with each repetition and followed with an equally as loud, "God Dammit!" As the main screen returns to him. He quickly goes into the log book to check the situation. He scrolls through before seeing something that gave him pause. "Nine thousand... nine hundred... and ninety-nine damage!?" He slams his fists down onto his table. "Hacker!" He goes to check the adversary's name. "xXxDarkxWraithxXx? Well, I hope you enjoy your report." As he says this he hits the report player button and fills out the forms that appear after.

He heaves a great sigh and sits back in his chair. "I kinda liked that one."

The three of them were immediately thrown from their horses, landing on their backs. Their horses fled about forty paces before vanishing, and now Kritsy was fighting the three of them. While they recovered, Kritsy stunned Exudar with her lightning attack, and swung her axe in an overhead at the nearest of the orcs.

"Level forty-five. All that time lost." Arthur clenches his hand into a fist. "Fuck it, I'm buying a level pack." He navigates through the menus on the headset and purchases a level booster for up to fifteen levels. He finds it somewhat reasonable. He gets his five levels back, plus gets up to level sixty. It just costed him about thirty dollars which he can easily make back.

The orc managed to block the attack, while the other one circled around. Kritsy spread her wings and flew a short distance backwards, in a movement similar to a hop, to keep them in front of her. She raised her hand for another ranged magic attack, but a dull impact in her back stopped her. She turned, seeing an Assassin armed with a shortbow some distance away, taking aim for another shot. A glance at her status bar confirmed her fear; the Assassin had marked her for death; which meant the next shot would do incredibly high damage if it hit.