I am Sir Loctrace the Great. Or at least that is my character name in Lance and Legends online. A game that has been around for ten long years, meeting many changes and strife. I was there from the beginning, adventuring my way through Elith, conquering dungeons, saving maidens, and befriending NPCs. For the longest while this was my life, I founded a guild, we became number one, we fell, the guild disbanded. I won a few tournaments back in the day, and now.
I stare at the ticking timer. Ten hours left. That is all I have with my wonderful friend. I touch the monitor. There, standing in the screen, is a black knight, downed in max level fenrir plate, on his waist a vampiric sword, and draped across his back is a cape with the logo of my guild, a falling phoenix.
This was my pride, my legacy. Two million players have touched this world, and I managed to stay within the top one hundred the whole time. I don't know rather to feel sad or proud. So many comrades picked up their sword to fight at my side, but even more left, for the next game, for family matters, for no other reason than being sick of it. How can you be sick of it? A massive fantasy world, thousands of characters, hundreds of classes, and an AI so smart it comes up with new lines on the spot. This world was the only real world for me, I'm sure others could say the same. They are probably here, like me, just remembering the good times.
Special quest.
A pop up appears on my screen.
I click on it.
This is the last quest anyone in the server can accept. I am the creator of Lance and Legends, and I am offering you a chance to take part in the evolution of this world.
Accept
Yes/No
A server wide quest? These are rare, must be a final send off. I click on yes, closing my eyes for a quick second. But when I reopened them, my mind began to spin.
"Loctrace?" Olver glances at me with confusion. "You don't look too well, and that's saying something considering you're a vampire." He catches me, as I almost fall to my knees. "Wo bud, are you okay?"
"Olver." My voice quivers with excitement. "Is this a dream?"
"Do vampires dream?" He returns my question with a question.
Did I just get transmigrated into Loctrace the black knight?
I stare at the overly handsome Olver. He is a demon, a mid ranking one at that. Those two long horns were proof. The only way to get him as a companion was completing the second hardest quest in the game, From where we have proof. And you had to be a non human race.
Unlike most games, non-humans weren't just a title, but a completely different system, humans rely on class trainers, and spiritual arts, and non-humans evolved over time. I read the whole wiki on the evolution tree multiple times over. That is why I fell on higher vampire. Other races had better stats, like giants and demons, others even had better abilities. But the vampire regeneration made me the perfect tank. So that's what I am, number one tank in the game. Rank 10 in the world leader board, only one of five people to complete the hardest quest. Where devils lay. And my set of armor was proof of it.
We're in Riverwood, a town on the opposite side of the continent from the starting village, and halfway away from the capital where most high level players gather. There was a reason I was here. I was grinding the Wolf or Man quest, for rare drops. But overall this is the worst place to start. Not only am I in a high level zone, but…
"Loctrace, the lord has summoned you." A soldier stumbles into the tavern, his fine leather armor a proof of his statice.
I am the head knight under this city's lord. Thus I also have a whole knight band under me, each was personally made myself, or by some of my friends.
"Sargent Nick." My voice is so much stronger than I expected. "Lead me to my lord."
He salutes. "Yes sir."
Following behind him, the citizens gaze at me with respect. Yet Oliver just Yawns. "I am on the verge of evolving, so can we make this quick." Why is he being so snappy?
Anyways, as I am max level, there are only a few creators that stand a chance of killing me. Those all being bosses, and a few champions of the empire, but I should be fine if I am careful. This is a world where numbers matter, but only half as much as strength. So two level tens can beat a level twenty, and so on and so forth. At level a hundred, it would mean I would need to encounter multiple mobs higher than fifty, but that is rare at best. This game saves strong encounters for when they matter, pushing you to your limits. But this is also a game you can't play alone. Yes there are a few players who beat most of the game solo, yet team play is recommended. Beating Asmouth the devourer of souls took me and twenty others, and we still struggled, so in that regard me being solo puts me at a disadvantage compared to players in the other cities.
Walking into the castle multiple guards salute me.
To become a head knight, you must complete a unique quest. There can only ever be one head knight per city, so to maintain your title you can't lose in PVP to another player, or be offline for more than thirty days. Last time I checked, all knight slots were filled, and sometimes there would be meetings for us knights to meet up. I only went to two of those, found out the reward was shit, and backed off. I only know one head knight by name. The neighboring city, ballsmasher2. He was online today, so perhaps he also accepted the quest. He isn't max level though, only eighty three. But we used to go on mini raids together, so he is a pretty good player.
Oh well, time to stop worrying about others.
"Loctrace." The old bearded man on the throne speaks. "I have received word from my fortune teller." Fortune tellers are all unique high level NPCs that give some of the hardest quests, but I have never heard another NPC talk about them. "A great calamity is about to befall this world. And…" He takes a deep breath. "It sounds like we might not survive this one. I know you have fell evils beyond my imagination. Demon kings, world serpents, levithans. Yet this might be impossible."
"My lord." I speak with ease, unlike normies, I am an intense hard core roleplayer. "I understand our circumstances, but surely we can unite the empire as one to slay such a beast."
"No beast." He corrects me. "An army, a world. Our world and theirs are about to unite as one. Where there were mountains there could be rivers, where there were goblins, there could be trolls. And their army shall match us in might. If we win, it will be a long and hard battle."
That sounds like an update, but L&L hasn't received an update this big in years. "I understand." I walk up to him, falling to one knee. "Then we shall annihilate all threats, in the name of house Vando."
He may look like a weak old man, but in fact he is the strongest vampire to ever exist. Level 270. Supreme vampire. Drake Bloodrain.
I can still see his name tag, and level, that must mean other functions still work.
He stands shrugging off his disguise. His skin turning pale, and eyes gleaming red. "Well Loctrace, it is time I show myself." He walks by me. "From now on, call me by my real name, and let me do some heavy lifting."
It is like this for all the lords, each are high level, and they all give buffs according to their race. I gained a plus one tick to regeneration. It might not sound like much on its own, but helps a lot with my other regeneration abilities. I go from almost unkillable to unkillable. That is how this game works, stacking buffs and items till you get to the best of your class. My black knight class means I might only be so so at dps, but take only half the damage other tank classes would take, this with my armor's twenty percent negation, plus my plus eleven regeneration ticks, you would have to repeatedly do high damage attacks if you want to kill me. To do that, you would need at least two high level players, and that is how I kept my knight title for six years. Call it cheesy, and I will say give me more, because I am just getting started. Using the rock body potion, and the lycan tears. I can buff my damage negation by ten percent, and my regen by four respectively. That is eighty percent damage negation, and sixteen regen ticks. Not just that, but thanks to my armor's defensive stats, which if you do not have armor piercing, grants effectively ninety nine percent resistance. I am an unkillable god. Is what I wish I could say, but thanks to my shit damage, I am useless on my own. It once took me eight hours slamming my face into a boss before I finally killed it. Talk about boring, I could barely do damage to it, and it couldn't do damage to me, meaning there was no real gameplay. This is why most people avoid the tank class, and I ain't going to lie, I did have an alt account, and it was also super rad. Got it all the way to sixty, haven't played it in awhile though. Wonder if I could find it if I looked? It was in the capital if I remember correctly.
I glance around the now empty throne room. I wonder, the way the game worked was a little weird. Both players and NPCs could be revived if they died, but only if you brought their soul to a church. So one could lose their account forever if they are never able to retrieve their soul. It's not like there was a time limit on doing so, it can just be hard to get back to high level zones. This was what we called a noob trap, they would focus too much on one powerful account, instead of multiple weaker ones. So they had no way of retrieving their soul. Though anyone can retrieve a soul. Places with piles of unretrieved souls are called a graveyard. They weren't too common, but some of the biggest ones can lag your game. We call the laggy ones, greater graveyards. Someone the L&L community used to call mother, would go around cleaning these graveyards. I even had them save my soul when I thought it was lost, mad respect. No idea if this world works the same.
A knife nicks my neck, as I turn to face Leona. She is a shirt girl wearing a maids uniform, my friend's choice. He said it reminded him of his favorite animes.
The wound that would have been fatal on a normal human heals in an instant.
Level fifty six, dragonling, Leona.
Her dragon tail sways with my gaze. "How many times have I told you not to go around attacking people?" I lightly slap her, sending her flying into a nearby wall.
Hmm? Did I miss judge my strength?
She wipes the blood from her lip. "Boss, I think you're too damn strong."
That's right. I glance down at my hand.
Ring of hades.
An item born from the destructive bond of heaven and hell.
For each level difference between you and your opponent gain plus one strength.
This sucker is a legendary item dropped by a very hard raid boss. It took me nineteen attempts to succeed the first time, and two hundred to get this item. I was one of thirty players with the heaven and hell achievement, which means it is quite rare. Beside all that, did my slap just do twenty damage? Like a big old number popped up and everything.
"Leona, kill me." I leave myself wide open.
She raises an eyebrow before smiling. "Well you can't blame me." She executes a skill, sixtuple strike.
All six blows collide with my unguarded neck, and indeed I see little negative ones popping up. I glance around staring at the health bar that is just out of sight on the bottom of my view. Every damage she does instantly gets healed, that means I am still tanky.
Level fifty six is a good level too, she would be able to kill most monsters singlehandedly. Shure it might seem dwarfed by Drake and I, but it is actually higher than most players get. If she wasn't using a joke build, then maybe I wouldn't be seeing ones right now.
-89
Damn she got a crit. I feel my head fall halfway off my neck. It just dangles there as Leona watches with horror.
I can't help but sigh, well my body quickly regenerates, and reattaches my head. "Satisfyed?" I question, but she just slowly nods before making a break for it.
That is why it is a joke build. My friend pumped all her stats and attributes into crit damage. Plus he gave her the backstabber, and sadist behavers. Backstabber means she doesn't care if she hits allies with any kind of attack, sadist, well you can guess. I can't tell you how many times I took her farming, just to have a knife in my back. It kinda pisses me off.
"Wait?" I do a double take. Where is Nick?
"Sir." Mack walks in, his long silver hair blowing in the wind. By his horns you could tell he is an ogre. This man, he is by far my strongest. He has won so many knight fight mini games.
Level 70. Superer ogre. Mack.
Wait, I just realized, this guy has enough dynamite to kill me. And by dynamite, I mean he is a monk class, using the forbidden lacer subclass. His defense is beyond low, but his offence, he could probably two shot me, if I got unlucky. I used him to oneshot all the low to mid level bosses in my powerleveling of my friend.
"Mack, fetch me the rest of the elite three." I stand up.
"It must be important." He jogs off somewhere.
As a knight commander, and as a player, it is my duty to scout the surroundings. But damn if I am doing that alone, I'll just bring a few bodyguards if I would be risking my life.
In the game, you could only have a max one companion at a time, but I don't see why that would matter now.
The big guilds have probably already convened to discuss what to do next, that is just how they act, no matter the difficulty, or the challenge, they will rise to face it with full force.
Ding.
Message from
Jack the Ripped.
I click on it.
Bro, like bro. We totally just got isekied.
If only fast travel was still possible, let's meet at the ravens inn.
It looks like chat is still functioning, but we can't fast travel. That changes everything.
L&L reserved a certain world record for being the largest non procedurally generated game. I mean it is big, about the size of China, which is a lot of traveling. Assuming all my mounts are still functional. It could be possible to cross in ten days. That is a long time. Yet as I am undead I don't need sleep or food. Well not exactly, I still need to eat to recover my mana, but that is besides the point, the key is I could probably get there even faster than that. Four days tops.
Others with legendary pets can travel close to the speed of light, which means they don't even have to worry about travel time, yet I never had the forethought to get myself, what I perceived at the time, gimmick pets.
"Sir." Mack returns with a sleepy eyed vampire, and a slim looking human.
These three dudes make up my elite three, a pain in ass process of getting them…
Level 80, vampire, Arch.
Level 80, human, Lock.
The fabled level eighty companion, it was the highest level they could reach in the game, but even then thanks to some buggy ass companion skills they could become as strong as true one hundreds like myself.
"Father, I am bored, so make it snappy." Arch yawns.
That's right, according to my description, he is considered my son. If only I evolved him one more time, the stat buffs and abilities of a higher vampire would be so useful, but the lazy man I was before just put it off for a later event.
Lock the only human knight I have. His build is something I call the reaper.
By combining the barbarians counter strike, and the bandit subclass's return favor, he does two hundred percent damage he receives. The only issue, he has to survive the first strike, yeah I never worked out the kinks. Expressly with the barbarian class not being allowed to wear anything but light armor. As I am a total scrub when it comes to human classes, I didn't really mess with spirit, so he is weaker than if I just made him a non human.
"Lock, send word to the surrounding villages, we are begging a conscription, they must offer ten able fighters by the end of the week." The silent Lock nods before walking away. "Arch and Mack, you two shall be my escorts as we head to the ruined cove.
Their eyes widened with my words. "But last time we went, both you and I almost died." Mack states the obvious.
"Arch needs to evolve, so we have no choice." I many want to see if boss monsters still exist.
"But." Arch looks at me with questioning eyes. "Can you at least visit mother before we go." Mother?
Damn no, I am twenty six, not husband material. No way did this fantasy world just force a wife onto me. "Um."
"She is worried, you can't just never visit." He gives me puppy dog eyes, causing me to sigh.
"Where is she again?" I ask.
"Too absorbed into work that you forgot?" Arch takes my hand.
If I remember correctly, Arch is sixteen, so, wait what are these implications? I, me, a happy married man of sixteen years? I haven't even played the game that long. No, I am a pure blooded gaming virgin, who hasn't talked to a woman ever. Why would such a curse befall me? Who did I harm in my past life?
Arriving before a nice house we walk past it, and into a back alley. If I didn't know better, I would think he was trying to off me.
His behaviors are kind and aloof. Something like cold blooded murder is out of his ball zone.
Wait, I touch the walls streaked black. There's a portal?
Right as I thought this, a red portal strings open, and Arch walks through dragging me with him.
A black haired vampire girl sits ideally, looking out at her guildhall.
I am bored. All week has been a whole lot of nothing. And my guild has struggled greatly against Bassilick, and New World. Those two guilds kinda stole my limelight, we barely get requests anymore.
I glance up at the opening portal, my heart skipping a beat. There a man I haven't seen in ten years, dawned in black armor made from the skin of a fenrir. His strong face, accentuated by those red eyes. It's like he hasn't aged a day, and as we are both undead types, I guess he hasn't.
"Uh, hello." My voice squeaks, and I hope he didn't notice.
Yet all he does is glance at the many guild members. When did we first meet? A hundred years ago I believe, we were on the same battlefield opposite sides. No matter how much I tried I just couldn't kill him. I would slash and slash and slash for three days straight. The clumsy olf couldn't even hit me, so that stalemate felt like it would never end.
He looks back at me, as arch guides him to the table. He thumps down in a seat.
I sit up straight, but even then I am not at eye level.
"Um." He says nervously. "Hello."
Why does it feel like our first date all over again? The tension is so thick you could cut it with a knife. "Okay." I tap the table with an awkward rhythm.
"Fuck." Arch slides into a seat. "You two are acting like you have never met before." Was all he said before laying his head onto the table and drifting off to sleep.
Loctrace's face looks deep in thought. What could he be thinking about?
Do I have something on my face. I quickly slide out a pocket mirror, but there was nothing.
"Spohia." He speaks my name. But all he does is return to thought.
I'm done with this awkwardness, we have been married for ninety years. I lean over the table, planting a kiss on his lips. Or at least that was what I intended to do, instead Loctrace falls back in his chair, thumping onto the floor. "Are you okay?" I hop over the table, helping him back to his feet.
He rubs the back of his neck. "I should probably leave." Why? Is he leaving because of me?
Well fine.
Falling meteor kick. The moment he turns away from me, I kick the back of his head.
99
His head soars across the room, but I was already there to catch it in my arms.
Luckily he wasn't wearing a helmet, or else my attack would have done zilch. But our level gap is enough for me to do this much. I still couldn't kill him even if I tried though. You would think a body without its head would be dead, but it just walks up to me holding out its hands.
Lifting Loctrace's head up, I plant a kiss straight onto his lips, causing his eyes to widen.
Loctrace arrives before the coast, his head filled with thoughts, none of which relevant to the situation.
She kissed me, I mean she actually kissed me.
I sniff my arm pit, smelling the gross smell of rotten flesh. Is that me, was I smelling this bad the whole time?
"Hey Mack."
The ogre turns to me. "Yes?" His face speaks a thousand words, it is obviously annoyance.
The ruined cove. According to its wiki it is a minimum level fifty zone.
The place where dead men meet, and pirates hide. Plunged within the forgotten coast, this cove carries with it many horrifying sights. Said to be where the horrid pirate Black hid his last treasure.
Spawns.
Lesser pirate ghost, 5, level 40
Undead mob, 30, level 25
Pirate ghost captain, 1, level 60
Boss, the dreaded pirate Black, 1, level 110
Loot drop rate
Pirates gun, 10%
Undead guard, 5%
Fateful pendant, .0005%
The drop rates are quite shit, for the quality of the items. If I had to label them, it would be E C A respectively. If someone at level fifty got them, they might praise three lucky stars, but I am level a hundred. The amount of use I can get out of them is practically zero, maybe the fateful pendant, just maybe.
I believe it is assigned to the Hunting Witches quest. You use it to summon a beast from the bizarre in order to find who the witch is.
Despite being a relatively easy quest, only ten percent of players have the There be witches achievement. I don't even have it, and I have twenty thousand hours in the game. The reason. This boss is really really hard. As Mack so helpful spoke earlier, I had to use a return scroll in order to prevent our deaths. But now we have Arch. A cleric, with the sub class of fencer. If one isn't in the know, a cleric is a type of healer. But the fencer, a fencer trades their own life points for large sums of damage. So basically he attacks, getting himself really low, and then heals himself. Like that he is one of the best cheese builds in the game.
If you are catching on, then yes, my best companions are all DPSs. It is because my damage is super mega bad. Think of being hit with a wet noodle. Yeah my damage is less than that.
Step one in a raid clear within L&L. Buffing, this process during the strongest raids can take upwards of thirty minutes.
Step two is to execute a battle formation.
Tank in front, DPSs takes the sides, and so on and so forth.
Step three, I guess, try your best.
Using the back of my hand I parry the coming halberd. Astral light. My sword glows, shooting a ray of black light into the undead mob.
30, 10, 10, 10.
Even with weakness to holy damage I can't oneshot a level twenty five mob? That is sucky as hell, and I can barely see out of this damn helmet. Why did I not choose one with more eye slits? Right, because I thought it looked cool.
"Howling fist." Mack punches a single time, and the shockwave sends twelve pirate mob collapsing to the floor.
Their bodies get absorbed by soil, leaving behind trash loot.
As I expected, we are way over leveled for this area.
With the mob dead we progress to the second stage. Most raids in L&L are built in three stages, the easy, the hard, and the boss. It is to give weak players a chance to leave before fighting the hardest enemies, dip your toes in and all that.
Though it can be a hassle for a low damage grinder like myself.
Walking into a old wooden boat a group of ghost fly about. Forming into pirates with their swords raised.
All creatures including the player use skills when attacking, depending on the damage out put and effect of the skill the time needed to wait before reuse can stretch from a few seconds to a whole day.
Kinda like this legendary skill I gained for geting to the end of my class. "Return to hell." All the ghosts zip into the ground, leaving the room empty. Any nonboss undead enemies can be despond with this skill, but it has a day-long recharge. That would suck in the game, where you can only have a max five skills assigned at once, but right now, it feels like I could use anyone of my hundreds of skills.
Mack smiles as we continue our walk. "You never fail to surprise."
Is it a surprise? Any max out black knight could do this, it's not like it is some unique skill. "Thanks."
"Dad?" Arch questions. "Wasn't I supposed to get the kills so I can evolve?" Damn I got caught up in the moment, it seems I forgot one of my missions.
"You should be close anyways, just finish off the boss." That is if we can kill it.
Entering the boss arean, a massive health bar appears on the bottom of my vision.
Black the feared looks up at me. "Loctrace old friend." Did the boss just speak? But enemies don't speak; it is one of the limitations of their game engine. And why does he know my name?
"Black." I step forward preparing myself for a fight, but he just remains in his old chair.
"It must be nice not being able to age." He glances down. "I died roting on my own boat."
Unlike gameplay the lore states vampires can not be evolved into, instead are long held bloodlines that berth some of the most powerful beings. Yet that is just lore, in truth I started off as a low level undead monster and worked my way up. Still maybe this world has taken the lore and merged it with my character, thus creating a whole unique background, this wouldn't just affect me, but every player in Lance and Legends online. Hell this means the evolution tree is now meaningless, whatever race you ended the game with, you will have to follow their evolution tree, and be unable to branch out. So us no lifes, just have the pick of some of the best races. Not that the other direct evolutions are bad, but the choice is everything.
"I am sorry." I sheath my sword.
"Tell me old friend, can you kill me, just think of it as returning that favor." He stands up, like his body is being pupited.
In an instant he uses dash arriving before me, and combines that with greater claw.
My feet skid across the floor coming to a halt near the wall. Before I could even draw my sword, he again, now using burst, appears before me, using supreme claw, and smacking straight into my head. Even with the resistances, I hear the horrific sound of my neck snapping.
Stumbling back I get my sword out, just in time to hear the scream of a horse, and Mack punching him really really hard.
180
His health bar drops by a quarter, but he seemed not to care, onsloting me with attack after attack.
My taunt skill ends in thirty seconds, that might be bad, but at least with my sword I can begin to parry his attacks. Me attacking now would only make the situation worse, so I just got to rely on you Arch.
"In the name of the nine heavens, I beseech you, grant me health beyond my dreams." Arch chants, his cleric clothes slaying despite there not being a bit of wind. So he also chose to go all out, it seems I didn't have to worry after all. Night night sweet prince. "Ninty nine percent." The moment his staff makes contact, the air shakes, sending me flying off my feet.
Where there was a ghost, there now is a massive crater in the ground. Waves of wood crack around it, and the air feels physically hot.
1000
The number disappears as Arch slumps to the ground, his body spent.
Even with the vampire's regen, he probably won't be in a fighting state for a while. Still I am holding in laughter. The cheese, so much cheese. I'm drowning in its golden goodness.
"Loctrace." A voice comes from nowhere. "Rember…" What is that supposed to mean?
"What was I supposed to remember, you old fool?" But no voice returned.
Arriving in Morning Cafe, a cafe within Riverwood, I sip at a cup of tea.
There was a lot to think about, and not enough time to do so.
Message from Harry the fairy.
My old guild mate? I didn't even know he still played L&L. I click on it.
Bro, I don't understand what happened. I just hoped on because it was the last day and felt nostalgic, and now I am in my avatar's body. Can we meet, you're still in Riverwood right?
I send him a message.
Sure, I will wait for you in the cafe.
Damn he better not be too far, or else I am going to be sitting here awhile.