"Speaking/speaking"
'thinking/thinking'
"Skills/skills"
items/items•
*tick*~ *tock*~ *tick*~ *tock*~
The rhythmic ticking of the grandfather clock broke the silence that is permeating all throughout the house. The closed curtains paired with the turned off lights made the ambiance almost suffocating. Only one source of light could be seen from the outside and it's coming from his monitor.
It showed a timer that was counting down which said "4:54:42".
The person that was sitting in front of the running computer then sighed before leaning forward. He would immerse himself in the game for the last time. The game which became his life.
With one last blank look around his barren room, he put on the VRhelmet and leaned back on his chair.
-Izlude - The swordsman town-
Logging on to the game, I couldn't help but feel melancholic. If I could, I would dedicate my whole day mourning the end of the game as the server shuts down if I could, but sadly I don't have that luxury of time.
Instead of wallowing in my sadness, I would spend the remaining time I have on the game to savor it to its fullest.
I opened my friends tab to see if one of my friends is online.
Online °3 | offline °78
*Sigh* " Of course almost none of them are online. They have a life and family to focus on… how envious."
Opening the guild tab, it displayed the same number. 3.
Out of 81 friends and guildmates, only 3 of them could make it.
Margaretha Sorin Seyren Windsor Katrinn Keyron
I opened a private message tab with Katrinn and sent her a short message. " Are you free? Can you accompany me with Dungeons and Instances?" and waited for a few minutes for her reply. But nothing came. 'I guess she's just AFK'
I did the same with Seyren and Margaretha but no reply came. I would've liked to spend the remaining time dungeon and Instance hunting with them. But I guess I'll try being solo once again.
I took out a teleport scroll from my inventory and selected Prontera – The capital, to teleport to. The scroll burned brightly in front of my character before I was warped in the middle of the marketplace at the southwest part of the city.
It was empty, with only local NPCs manning their stalls and a handful of Player Vendor Characters remaining on the once bustling hub of player merchants.
The streets that were once filled to the brim with vendor Characters now laid empty and barren.
As I began my walk towards the central part of the city, I couldn't help but reminisce about the once bustling trading hub of the game.
Various players would come to Prontera no matter how packed the City was just to sell their precious drop items. The rarest of which were the monster cards which had a 0.01 percent drop rate, and the +20 refine equipment and MVP Boss cards. The latter two were just available to view as they go for much more in Real world money.
Weapons that are +20 could go for thousands of dollars while Boss cards fetch for more.
Bosses only spawn once every 4 to 8 hours depending on their level and difficulty.
Pair that with the drop rate of 0.01 percent and getting a card would be nothing short of a miracle.
In the time I spent playing Ragnarok Online Renewal, the amount of times I've gotten an MVP boss card could be counted in the fingers of one hand.
The MVP Boss cards I'm currently using, I traded for them with the +20 refine weapons I made. It took a bit of time with me being an F2P player, but I managed.
I cut my thoughts when I arrived in the center of The city.
There, an NPC that looks quite plain, stood by the center isle. This was the NPC that they added yesterday.
"what can I do for you, Eremes?" the NPC asked as the options window popped up.
*Buy* *sell* *cancel*
This was the NPC that made all my grind obsolete during the last day.
"Buy"
On top of the list, the most important Item. The one That took me 2 days of grinding to earn a single one.
Blacksmith's Blessing Z-10
He's selling it for only 10 zennies.
Blacksmith's Blessing• – "The hope from all the blacksmiths around the world is contained within this bottle. Used to refine an equipment without reducing the refining level or breaking if the attempt failed."
Reading the item description I could only laugh.
Instead of feeling empty that my efforts were now for nothing as the item that I've grinded for months on end is now selling for literally cheaper than a potion, I felt happy.
Blacksmith's Blessing is an item in Ragnarok Online that prevents equipment from breaking or downgrading when refining beyond the safe limit. Due to how scarce and how difficult it is to get, I basically coin tossed every time I would decide which of my countless equipment and weapons I should upgrade to the max level to efficiently use the item.
Now that that restriction is gone… I could upgrade Every! Single! One! Of! Them!
9,999!
*Buy 9,999 Blacksmith's Blessing for 99,990 Zennies?*
"YES!" I shouted my choice before I broke into creepy laughter. 'he he he he he he he'
My amusement soon died though when another window popped up.
*Unable to buy "9,999" amount of Blacksmith's Blessing Due to Weight Carry Limit. Only 559 Blacksmith's Blessing were bought*
*You're now carrying maximum of your Weight Limit, Status "Overweight" would be in effect until sufficient weight is reached.*
"Oh, okay" I said plainly as I began to walk towards the storage NPC. But my walking became affected with the Overweight status too, making me as slow as snail.
*Due to Overweight status, Walking is now slowed Until the Sufficient weight is reached*
"You gotta be kidding me!" I complained with a groan.
- 40 minutes later-
I successfully bought 99,999 of each item from the NPC for the hell of it since it's the last day of the game anyways and deposited them in the storage, the NPC is even selling Cash Items for the same prize as others. It cost me 999,990 zennies for each item and considering the fact that there's 380 items in total for sale, I spent just about 379,996,200 zennies.
Which might sound a lot but to me who played this game for more that 30,000 hours, that's basically spare change.
I switched to my Smith Character and then realized that I could've hastened the process of buying the items with my smith's Cart and Increased weight Carry Limit
But there's no use crying over spilled milk.
With a slight bounce to my step, I made my way to the refine Building. I don't really need anything in this building since I already have my Refine skill but I still come here when I'm about to refine something for luck.
There's 999 Blacksmith's Blessing in my cart along with Countless weapons and Armors for Various classes.
I want to at least try each of my classes on their best level before the server shuts down for good.
- A short while later-
The sound of a hammer hitting an anvil became the background noise as I continued refining the last weapon I want to max out.
*Clink* *Clink* *Clink*
*Weapon " •Death Guidance• " has successfully been refined to +20*
*Haaaah~* I released a breath I didn't know I was holding and fell to my ass in exhaustion.
Well, not really exhaustion. I glanced to my side, where the timer should be and the timer now says "02:50,37"
I have a little under 3 hours to enjoy the game to its fullest.
I opened my inventory and browsed through the items to make sure I didn't forget to upgrade anything before I switched characters.
All the armors and wearables have been upgraded to +20.
And out of all the swords, only 3 remained. My old weapons.
A stiletto dagger that has 2 soldier skeleton cards giving it the suffix of " Double critical" on its name.
A +5 ring pommel saber, and a plain Tsurugi.
Double critical stiletto•+4 ring pommel saber•tsurugi•
'Should I max them out as well?' I asked myself. But in reality, I have to reason not to. I got all the Blacksmith's Blessing I could ask for so there's no reason for me to hesitate.
I started with the Tsurugi, in a minute, the weapon is at max level, with the help of Blacksmith's blessing the refining took less than it should've and I was able to also quickly finish the Ring pommel saber just as fast.
That leaves me with the stiletto. It was my very first weapon, the one I used when I was just a lowly thief. I bought it using the zennies I got from selling cheap monster drops as I don't have anyone to help me with grinding on higher level monsters.
It's quite nostalgic thinking about it now.
It has some sentimental value to me now so leaving it as it was when I last used it would be much better.
I deposited everything into the storage except for my first 3 weapons. Before I changed my class once more.
I have completed all 14 main job classes, but not all of them are equipped with necessary cards and equipment. They could still deal about hundred of thousands of damage but it's nothing compared to billions they would've been capable of dishing out when fully geared.
There were even times when the damage couldn't be processed by the game, causing the number that should appear to be "miss" instead of the actual amount.
My current geared characters were only the dragon knight(the final class of swordsman), Arch Mage(the final class of Magician), Shadow Cross(the final class of thief and assassin) and finally, Windhawk ( the Final class of archer)
But even then, only the Dragon Knight and the Shadow Cross are guild war ready, meaning they're the only ones that could survive the literal world ending spells thrown around during a guild war.
This time I chose the Arch Mage as I'm just preparing for a boss hunt, not a guild war.
I casted a warp portal in front of my character, the destination? Einbroch – the city of Machinery.
Einbroch – The City of Machinery. -
The moment I stepped out of my portal, my face was wafted by the heavy air and the smell of smoke assaulted my lungs. It's a familiar sensation every time I go here.
Without a mask, an accessory you could buy in Juno – The capital of Arunafeltz, you would only have a few minutes before the polluted debuff which slows your mana regeneration, affects you
Seriously, this city should be called Einbroch – The City of Pollution, with how much pollutants are in the air. But thankfully I won't have to stay here for long. I only needed to teleport here because Margaretha is AFK and she's the only one with a warp marker on the entrance of Thor Volcano.
The city of Einbroch was weird because as I was power walking through the city, not a single NPC was on sight. It's always felt eerie and quiet but there's always a sharp feeling on the back of my neck as if telling me that I'm being watched.
'no matter, I'll be out of here in no time.'
Thor volcano – Entrance -
The entrance to the volcano dungeon he was heading wasn't anywhere near Einbroch, but the nearest the teleport service could bring him was in here so he just has to make some sacrifice and walk all the way to the dungeon.
Where he's going is one of the most difficult dungeons back on the classic days. The flaming alligators called the Salamanders, the guardian Bowman and swordsman – tall mechanical suit of armors, and the Kasa- a flaming bird, called the place their lair. Not only were their damage high, they also have the ability to disarm and strip you of your armor with precise strikes.
Back then going solo in this dungeon meant lost XP and frustration. Now, it has become nothing more than a breeze.
Not to mistake the dungeon for being stagnant during the transition from classic to renewal, it's quite the contrary, in fact. The level of the monsters increased as the transition took place.
But it's not just them that changed.
The job classes got expanded which caused a power spike in players, meaning the dungeon became easier even though the levels of the monsters increased.
In the early days of the Renewal when the players were still getting their hang on the new mechanics and skills, the dungeon still posed a threat to players that got overconfident with the new damage system in place.
He was one of such players.
When he was just starting out on the renewal server, he felt confident after seeing how much more damage he was dealing compared to classic, he quickly realized his folly when a group of 3 salamanders spawned literally on top of him and he perished within the next second.
Safe to say he learned his lesson the hard way that day.
Now though, he's more than prepared. The reason he was visiting this dungeon first during the last hours of the game was for sentiment.
The boss that resides in the dungeon was one that claimed many newbies that thought themselves strong enough to conquer dungeons.
He was also one of them.
When he was going solo on boss raids, Ifrit always gave him trouble. His skill set was a hard counter for every melee class he played. His inexperience also played a huge part in those early raids.
But it's different now. Now he has experience and knowledge not even mentioning his completed gears. Through hard work and efforts he became one of the most respected players due to him being able to go against whales (people who spent a lot of money on gears and paid items) head on and even come out on top.
He sighed as he reached the entrance of the volcano. The place brought back memories, but it isn't time to reminisce. As if muscle memory, he sent a message to the guild although only three of his guildmates are online.
" I'll go boss hunting, anyone wanna tag in?"
He stood still as his message was sent, he could only sigh before he walked through the entrance into the Volcano Dungeon.
The inside of the volcano dungeon was hot, as expected of a volcano. The heat just by itself should've been able to scorch him to death, but the physiology of characters on Ragnarok online was made to endure the most extreme conditions.
The interior itself was a sight to behold. The walls were lined with glowing crystals that absorbed the supernatural energy coming from the deepest part of Midgard that seeped out alongside the magma from the planet's mantle, causing them to emit a light with a similar wavelength to natural sunlight.
Although the sight was beautiful, he's running on borrowed time so to speak.
With a final glance
He opened his inventory and took out a Fly Wing.
Fly Wing• – "An enchanted fly's wing that instantly sends its user to a random spot when waved in the air.
Instant teleport. "*
Without Fly Wing, it would take him almost half an hour to get to the entrance leading to the lower floor of the volcano dungeon.
He waved it in the air and he vanished from his spot, reappearing in a different part of the dungeon, but still not close to the second floor entrance.
He waved it again, and appeared right at the entrance of the dungeon. He could see the sunlight coming from outside.
The downside of being in a dungeon is you're not allowed to use precise teleportation, a game limitation put by developers in place to prevent the exploration part of the Game from becoming irrelevant.
It took him a few minutes of random teleportation to appear near the entrance to the lower floor, and a few more to reach the deepest known part of the volcano where the boss of the dungeon resides.
Ifrit, The Flame Lord.
Ifrit doesn't stay in a fixed location in his dungeon. Instead he roams, looking for players that wander too far from the entrance.
Ifrit may be considered as one of the weakest bosses in renewal now due to all the updates since the change from classic, but he still poses a decent threat to players and character without the proper gear.
Exactly how his Archmage is. His fight with Ifrit isn't going to be an easy one, but he already knew that. If he wanted an easy fight, a complete floor mop, then he would've chosen his shadow cross since it has the most damage burst.
He would hunt bosses with all his characters, from weakest to strongest. Savoring every last second of the game even without his friends.
It didn't take him long to find where Ifrit was and he began preparing for the fight.
First, he casted mystical amplification which amplifies his magic by 50 percent at skill level 10, followed by Energy Coat which reduces the damage he takes by 30 percent, and finally Climax
He might not have the best equipment but he has an innovative mind when it comes to fighting bosses creatively.
He started walking while silently casting a Jack frost without releasing it. There are two ways a spell could be utilized by the player, 1 – they could launch it towards their target once the cast time is finished, or 2 – they could hold it in and delay the attack. The other one might seem useless because on paper it really is. It drains on mana every second a player holds it in, it has another, longer cast time once it was formed to stabilize it, and it doesn't have any practical use in Guild wars. But that's just how it appears on paper.
He began to walk, slowly as if his very steps might shatter the world. Because It might as well should. Each step has to be delicate as to not disrupt the spell's casting.
The moment he made his fifth step was when Ifrit suddenly faced his direction, immediately getting aggroed.
Ifrit was fast, faster than his characters fastest run while buffed with Increase Agility, he tried to use a •fly wing• but it didn't work, the aggro from a boss restricts the use of •fly Wing• and •Butterfly wing• specifically for a few seconds he doesn't have a chance to get away by foot since. Running meant dying since he couldn't outrun Ifrit's pace.
Ifrit swung his massive fist made of flames towards Eremes, but missed.
"Shiiiii!" Eremes half cursed as he barely avoided being charred. He can't afford to take damage lest the spell gets disrupted and explodes in his face. It's crazy that the moment he forgoes his equipment with •phen – card• , he suddenly has use for it. He shook his head. No time to panic. Panicking means a higher chance of death, and death means he can't use the dead character for 3 hours. He only has two and a half hours of game time left, give or take.
Thinking quickly, he took out a scroll engraved with a spell from his inventory •(E) teleport scroll• and used it just as Ifrit's fist was about to come into contact with his body.
Teleport worked like •fly wing• but without the restriction of not being usable in a fight. Outside a dungeon, it gives you a choice whether you want to teleport to a specific marker or just teleport randomly somewhere in the map. But inside, you don't get a choice. You only teleport randomly, or outside the dungeon. Teleport bypassed the restriction since it's originally a spell. Even a skill on a scroll still counts as normal skill, allowing him to get to safety.
With a sudden jolt, his body vanished from where he was standing, and appeared a few hundreds of meters away from Ifrit from what he could see based on his surroundings.
"Good, I managed to get away in time…" He could only sigh in relief before he glanced at the scroll that was still in his left hand.
02:21:16
Normally, scrolls would crumble after a single use, but the one he just used was quite special; the letter E suffix that was in its name meant Eternal, meaning it would never crumble no matter how many times it is used. It was one of the many scrolls that Margaretha gave him as a present when she succeeded in changing her class to cardinal. Katrinn also gave him some with Archmage skills but he has no use for it now since he's also using an Archmage. Besides, with the power behind katrinn's spells, he's pretty sure Ifrit would be nothing but an ember on the ground with a single one of her spells.
Shaking his thoughts off, he began to run towards where Ifrit might still be. While he was walking, his eyes kept going over the timer on the upper right part of his vision, and then towards the Guild chat. Of the two, only the timer shows change as the numbers go down. His guildmates are still AFK.
"No matter, I'm sure they'll turn up."
It didn't take long for him to get back to where he was and there, Ifrit still scours for him, looking in every nook and cranny of that part of the dungeon to see where he was hiding. Eremes notices that Ifrit's movements looked too natural, too conscious that it unnerved him.
He paid it no mind. He clutched his right hand and felt a resistance stop him from fully balling his fist. The Jack Frost spell has finally finished casting. With a thought, the Jack Frost appeared. The spell looked perfectly contained in a spherical shape, On outside that is. In truth, delaying a spell drains a lot of mana from the Caster. But it has the advantage of being unpredictable. Bosses normally anticipate the player's next spell and counters with the appropriate spell they have. By having a skill already casted, it completely bypasses their skill anticipation and takes them off guard so it's not as unusable in Guild wars and boss hunt like how the majority of players make it out to be, it just takes a lot of preparation to utilize.
With his spell finished, he began preparing once more. He applied the buffs he previously used, and applied another one on top. Full Throttle, a skill that fully restores HP and places a temporary buff on the user that increases all base stats by 20% and doubles Movement Speed, while consuming a certain amount of mana every second for the skill duration which is 30 seconds at max level. But it has a severe downside.
He ignored it and casted a level one cold bolt to Ifrit to get its aggro. The two monsters following the boss moved first, the Salamander galloped towards him with such force that it cracked the floor with each stomp. The Kasa meanwhile flew towards him with its sharp flaming talons aimed towards his neck.
" safety wall " he muttered the name of the spell and a pink cylindrical barrier that blocks any and all physical damage from Monsters manifested around his body.
The Salamander went first as it used a skill to try and take him out, •sonic blow•
"Right, dealing with you guys first!" since they're fire element this should be enough even though I'm not geared.
With a whisper, he casts a spell,
"Storm Gust!"
Ominous dark clouds appeared along the high ceiling of the cave before a harsh snowstorm barraged the boss and his summons. The first two waves of the snowstorm managed to push the summons away and kill them, but Ifrit remained steadfast, only flinching as the water element attack dealt damage to him.
*179,780*
"That much damage from only the basic equipment I bought for less than one hundred Million zenny? Decent, but not enough."
Opening his inventory, he pulled out a •special kafra storage voucher• which allowed him to open his kafra storage, that is basically a bank but for items, whenever – wherever.
"Ice wall" x6
He summoned thick walls of ice as he ran away from Ifrit while he withdrew everything he needed.
But the ice walls only stopped Ifrit for a moment before he walked through them with ease.
"Tch" Eremes clicked his tongue in frustration. " This is what I get for dumping everything into Kafra Storage without sorting them."
He can't teleport away as that would only give Ifrit a chance to teleport away too, he also can't tank a hit from the giant, his current subpar build wouldn't allow for that, he needs to improvise; something he's quite good at .
Within a few short seconds, ifrit managed to catch up to him and almost hit him too as his flaming hands swiped at Eremes, intending to grab him so he couldn't escape. Eremes only managed to evade thanks to a *safety wall* he preemptively placed a few meters in front of him as he started running earlier.
The Safety wall would only last for a few seconds so he decided to use those precious few seconds to set his stage, so to speak.
If only *safety wall* could be spammed he would've done so. But alas, the skill is now on a 1 minute cooldown.
The Boss continued to relentlessly bash against his safety wall, but it was for naught. One by one, he removed his shoddy equipment and replaced them with ones that have decent stats and effects.
When he finished changing, he looked towards the boss and saw an expression of pure frustration and anger. Something that shouldn't be possible.
He chalked it up as a bug and continued with a spell.
!!!!!
The effects of full throttle ran out, the side effects immediately hit him; as a wave of exhaustion and fatigue came crashing down and weighed on him.
"Tch"
He just clicked his tongue. The side effects and cooldown of the skill would be over in time anyways if his plan works out so he doesn't mind it all that much.
"Quagmire!!" The ground beneath Ifrit began to liquify until everything within a 10 meter radius around him became a puddle of liquefied rocks. Thanks to the mechanics of the game, as the caster, he is unaffected by the environmental changes caused by his skill, his character's feet doesn't sink for even a millimeter as he stands on top of his quagmire.
He began running away. With Ifrit slowed and hindered, he manages to gain some distance.
But it wasn't enough and Eremes knew it. So he continued, stacking another spell with Quagmire to slow Ifrit's movements to a crawl.
"Ice wall!"
"Ice wall!"
"Ice wall!"
"Ice wall!"
"Ice wall!"
"Ice wall!"
"Ice wall!"
"Ice wall!"
"Ice wall!"
"Ice wall!"
Ice walls appeared in front of Ifrit to slow his movement even more, now is his chance.
His staff appeared in his hand and he pointed in directly towards Ifrit.
In his mind a countdown has begun.
The spell he's about to use would've been an instant cast had he just had a more suitable set of cards and equipment, but he's limited with the mage class. He has the materials to craft the items, he just doesn't have time. Literally.
So he just has to make do.
A purple sphere began to swirl in front of his staff ominously.
Slowly, it would gain more and more size. Each second that passed increased not only Eremes' tension, but also the atmosphere around him.
The air became heavy, almost as if it's trying to pin him down. But he resisted, thanks to him being the caster.
The spell isn't even finished casting and yet, everything around them seemed to get affected by the spell's influence.
Ifrit's struggle to move towards him only increased.
He managed to break all of the ice walls in front of him, but he's still within the Quagmire's radius.
As he was about to step out of it, Eremes' skill finally finished the cast.
"GRAVITATION FIELD!!!!" The purple orb dispersed before a transparent, almost purple cube encased Ifrit's surroundings.
From his position he could see the spell doing some damage to the boss while also slowing him down
His movement became even more desperate but with him slowed, there's nothing he could do but struggle.
A deeper look of hatred is visible to Ifrit's face. At this point it's starting to unnerve Eremes.
"Storm Gust" he gently waved his staff.
Dark clouds appeared above Ifrit and showered him with a vicious snowstorm.
When the cooldown ended, Eremes immediately followed it up with another.
"Storm Gust"
And another
"Storm Gust"
And another
"Storm Gust"
And another
"Storm Gust"
…
It took him quite a while to get Ifrit's health on the red. Finally, he could unleash his strongest spell as an Archmage. Well~ Not really the strongest, but it has the most damage at the moment due to his current set of equipment.
Normally, to kill an enemy, you just have to keep dealing damage when the health finally reaches red. With boss monsters it's different. When a certain threshold of damage is received, the boss would begin to heal to half their maximum health. Meaning you can't spam spells with subpar damage against them.
The reason why Eremes held the Jack Frost earlier instead of immediately sending it to Ifrit was because he needed it to finish the boss.
Jack Frost deals a lot of damage in a single burst. Enough to kill a boss that is on red health in one hit.
But it has a long cooldown due to his current equipment, so he can't just use it willy nilly.
By the looks of it, the effects of the Gravitation field have worn off and Ifrit is once again marching towards him with anger clearly visible in his eyes.
"Full Throttle"
He raised his right hand. From his palms he could feel the swirling, contained, yet almost untameable spell, waiting to burst free.
Ifrit is approaching fast. But Eremes didn't show a hint of panic.
A single hit from Ifrit and it would be over.
But it appears as if he didn't care.
Didn't care that he's using subpar equipment.
Didn't care that he's a s fragile as a poring against a swordsman.
No.
His expression is calm, almost blank that it's eerie. His actions at that moment would've spooked an observer just by how tranquil he is given his current predicament.
He aimed his palm towards Ifrit, the Spell manifesting in all its glory. with a voice as cold as his spell, he released it "Jack Frost."
It exploded forward in a magnificent show of brilliant white rush. There's an almost blinding white glow the instant it happened that lasted for but a brief moment.
His final spell created a harsh snowstorm that made seeing anything almost impossible.
When the snowstorm finally cleared, he saw the devastation caused inside the volcano. Ifrit stood in front of him, frozen and dead. The cold from Jack Frost froze his body that was made of flames.
A fanfare rang out and a massive MVP sign with bright colors appeared above Ifrit for a second, signaling his demise.
With a sigh, Eremes relaxed.
His eyes strayed passed the frozen, Flame giant, and he saw the devastation his Jack Frost had caused.
Everything that was behind Ifrit, it doesn't matter what. Be it monsters, pillars of stone, or even flames… everything got frozen.
Only the silence and stillness of cold remained.
Denial Of The End -
They said that time passes by quicker when you're having fun, to Eremes that couldn't be anymore untrue.
There's nothing fun about waiting for the end of your world via a timer.
The ticking of the timer, no matter how much he watches it, doesn't slow down.
He can't do anything other than watch as it slowly ticked down with that infuriating sound that seemed to mock him.
"Hahhh~"
He sighed. No use getting riled up by something that doesn't even have a consciousness.
With a lean back, he fell down to the grassy ground of Prontera field. He began recalling everything he did the last few hours.
the unnecessary shopping spree of materials he wouldn't be able to use, upgrading all his equipment to max, killing Ifrit (the one that tormented him as a newbie) one last time and hunting various bosses with his other characters.
His friends even replied and told him they'd be with him as the server closes.
He wanted to smile, but the feeling bubbling inside him wouldn't allow him to.
"The different skies of the game always looked wonderful." was his melancholic remark.
He closed his eyes.
Many players already quit, not staying until the shutdown. He couldn't blame them, unlike him, they have other business to attend to, families to spend time with, and a life to return to. He doesn't.
His job? He doesn't need one. He makes money by selling in game items.
Family? He doesn't want to talk about it.
Life? The game is his life.
His friends are there with him so he doesn't need anything else.
*Clank* *Clank* *Clank*
Metallic footsteps rang from up ahead, followed by two other lighter sets.
A sound of someone sitting beside him was heard, when he opened his eyes, Katrinn was there, smiling at him softly.
Standing a little behind were Seyren and Margaretha.
" I told you we'd make it" was Seyren's greeting, his lips pulled into a wide smile.
Margaretha then stepped forward and patted him on the head, making him sit up to avoid her hands.
" Were you sad?" Margaretha teased. She was the oldest of the group so she took the mantle of the teaser for the younger members including him.
Eremes just turned away from her, refusing to fuel her teasing even more with his reactions
"Awww~ little Eremes was sad~" she continued her relentless trading and ruffled his hair even more.
"I'm not a kid you know? I'm 19 and I didn't feel sad" Eremes tried to refute but the reddening of his face said the opposite of what his mouth was spewing.
Meanwhile Katrinn was beside him, laughing at their interaction. Katrinn was turning the same age as him this year, therefore she wasn't free from Margaretha's teasing yet but she wasn't the target right now.
"Now now, you can tease Eremes later, let's go to the guild hall one last time."
Eremes, sighed in relief at Seyren's intervention. ' You're a hero, Seyren!'
"Fine~ fine~ but only because you asked~" Margaretha sent Seyren a wink, causing the poor knight to turn beet red. 'Honestly, even though they've been together for almost a year now, Seyren still acts like an innocent high schooler sometimes.'
"Ahem" Seyren coughed. " Let's go now" before he pulled out a •giant butterfly wing• from his inventory and waved it in the air.
Denial Of The End -
They appeared inside their guild hall, the lower part of the Geffen tower.
The sides were lined with various NPC, from merchants to crafting NPCs and a class changer NPC. He walked towards the class changer and changed his class to his Shadow Cross, his stats also changed alongside his class.
00:09:24
Eremes looked towards the timer.
'thinking about it would only make me sadder. It's better if I just spend the last remaining time I have here with them.'
Without saying anything, he sat down on the long table where the other three were sitting.
They all turned towards him, smiles plastered on their faces.
" It's a shame that the game didn't last until your birthday, Eremes. I have a present for you already prepared, I guess I could still give it to you now." Seyren stood from his seat and walked to him.
*Trade offer from player *Seyren Windsor*
[Y] [N]?
Clicking yes, Seyren gave him a box through the trade window.
He set the box on the table before he opened it.
Inside was a full set of equipment for swordsman class, all the way to its final class, the dragon Knight, all of them were upgraded to max too.
"I would've given it to you on your birthday since you always complained about your dragon knight character dealing the least damage, so I bought the best set for you. It's even better than mine, and I'm ranked 6th as Dragon Knight you know?" Seyren patted him on the back. " It's just a shame that you will not be able to use i-"
Eremes cut him off before he could get depressed. Seyren was like that, when he thinks he's done something that upsets others, he always gets all depressed
So Eremes cut him off before he could berate himself. "I like it. It doesn't matter if I'm not gonna be able to use it, you still gave it to me. Thank you"
He didn't notice Katrinn standing from her seat and got behind him. He only became aware of her absence beside him when he felt a weight press against him from behind as she jumped on his back, her arms wrapped around his neck.
"C'mon, let's sing Eremes an early happy birthday!" Katrinn urged. "Happy birthday to you!~
Eremes began flailing aimlessly, trying to shake her off but it seemed as if her strength was comparable to that of a knight because Eremes wasn't able to escape her grasp.
The other two smiled at their antics before they joined Katrinn in her song.
"Thank you guys" Eremes could only mutter quietly as his friends sang him a happy birthday.
Denial Of The End -
00:01:00
Seconds began to tick by as the four of them sat on top of the Geffen tower. Fireworks that they set up began going off just as the time hit under a minute .
Memories, happy, sad, and something in between. A lot of those came from this game for Eremes. It has become his life, afterall. Lots of friends came and went, only a handful remained active.
People he laughed, cried and messed together with.
When no one else was there for him, he found solace in knowing that his friends in the game would always be with him.
That's impossible now. The game only has less than half a minute left. And only now is he coming to terms with its end.
He doesn't like it.
00:00:33
He hates that it has to end.
When he finally found a place where he belonged, it's taken away from him.
'Just how cruel is this reality?'
Unshed tears remained in his eyes.
Cecil Damon• has logged in!
A notification popped up on his peripheral but he barely paid it any attention.
"Cecil made it too!" Seyren exclaimed.
"It's in the last few seconds but at least she's here, right Eremes."
Someone walked up behind them, they didn't need to look to know who it was.
"Hello everyone" Cecil greeted
"Glad you could make it!" Katrinn chortled.
Eremes only gave an over the shoulder wave.
"Don't be upset, Eremes, it's not like we'll never see each other again." Katrinn tried to cheer him up.
"Besides, we can always find a new server or even a new game to bond over. " she followed up
He wants to accept that this is the end for the game. For his world.
But his heart refused to accept it.
00:00:05
"It's been fun guys, see you around!" Seyren said and the others including Cecil nodded.
Eremes looked up to the sky as a bright flash blinded them for a second.
00:00:00
Eremes closed his eyes as the flash enveloped him completely.
*Denial*
A/N: Hello everyone! This is my new fanfiction. I was reading the danmachi LN when I suddenly had an idea pop into my head. Initially it was just a harmless little plot bunny but it bugged me since there's this manhwa I was reading and I was also playing Ragnarok Online ( the main inspiration for this fanfic) so I decided to give this one a go.
I got too into it. I want to release more chapters for this but I haven't written up other chapters yet so this one will be put into the plot bunnies folder until I write more chapters. I might post it on Wattpad or webnovel, who knows. Anyways, if you want me to write more of this one, just let me know in the comments!
Also just for clarification he wasn't going to be transmigrated with his strength, he would have to build everything from the ground up, so don't get disappointed and rant about me nerfing him. The fight you read wasn't nearly the peak of strength for a Ragnarok character. Player characters could literally summon lightning storms, blizzards and other natural disasters. Let's not even talk about how one spell pulls literal world ending meteors from space.
That's all for now!
Be patient with me please! Buhbye!