Chapter 2: Progression
A few minutes from the spawning village in level one, Ethan and Mike are sat under the shade of a big oak tree.
"This is insane! Everyone is freaking out over there." Mike says while stabbing his sword in the ground. Ethan remains calm. "I think it's just a publicity stunt. You know? To hype up the game for the launch."
Ethan let's out a nervous laugh. "It's been a few hours now. Let's see what everyone is doing." He says. While opening the leaderboard.
"Wow.." Ethan's eyes widen while he sits up "Someone already made it to level 4" He says.
"Yeah, but look." Ethan scrolled further in the leaderboard. "Dozens of players at level 3. Hundreds at level 2. We can't wait too long to start grinding."
Ethan clenched his jaw. "If this is serious, we'll be in real danger if everyone else gets too strong."
"Yeah." Mike replies. "PVP will be enabled after the first day. That means we only have 20 hours left before people start attack eachother"
"We can assume you get a skillpoint every level right?" Mike says, while picking up his sword from the ground. His eyes focus on a huge light beacon in the distance.
Mike puts his hand up to block the bright sun "So, what do you think that light beam means?"
Ethan followed Mike's gaze. The beacon pulsed like a laser beam into the sky, impossible to ignore.
"I read the tutorial in the starter village." Ethan said, squinting. "It's a beacon zone. If you fight within its radius, your XP is doubled. It's usually in the middle of the level."
They both stand up and look at the enormous distance between them and the beacon in the distance.
Mike holds up his sword "Perfect! If we want to catch up, that's where we start!"
Ethan's confidence is slowly disappearing. "We have to be careful. This is not like any usual MMO game. Our life is on the line here, remember?"
Out of nowhere, a wolf lunged from the tall grass, slamming Mike onto his back
"It's level 2!" Mike shouted, gritting his teeth as his health bar dipped, holding the wolf back with his sword.
Ethan jumps up "What do i use?!!" Quickly, he uses his only magic attack. A lightning strike appears from Ethan's hand and blasts the wolf and Mike's sword away.
Mike grabs his sword, and launches a heavy attack slicing the Wolf's head right off the body.
Ethan and Mike are both sweating. "Are you okay, Mike?" The creature collapsed, dissolving into glowing shards of light before fading away.
[Game: +25 XP]
Mike smirked, wiping sweat from his brow. "Yeah. But that felt way too real."
Green motes floated from the corpse into Mike's chest, adding to his XP level "Okay, 25 XP. We only need 75 more to get to level 2."
To be continued