ROTD online

chapter 2 Instructions

"I hope this is better than the console version" I said as I attached all the equipment to start the game. I was one of the few who had played the console version. I finished setting up the equipment and started putting on the headset.

My name is kane.

I often use games ,rpgs in particular, to escape reality.

Having an RPG that is supposedly this realistic is like a dream come true.

I had saved up everything to buy a game like this ,thats why I was one of the first to purchase it.

I put on the headset and turned on the game.

A bright light shined and faded. After it faded I was in a white room. I looked around and saw a mirror.

I walked up to it and saw myself. I had black hair and was wearing all black. I had boots, gloves, black leather armor, and a black cape. I smiled a little because this is more or less what my avatar normally looks like in games. A old man appeared beside me. He was hunched over with a cane and we wore all white. He looked at me and asked "is this an ok look?"

I laughed a little and asked "can I lose the cape?"

He looked at it and said "is that all that all you wish to change?"

"Yes" I said back to him

He nodded and the cape vanished.

"My name is Enjo and ill help you through out the game" be said with a goofy smile.

"How did you know what I wanted for an avatar?" I asked.

"Good question! The headset you put on scans your mind and equips what it detects would be your personal preference, however you can change appearance at any time you'd like. You've also been given very basic armor and you can change color and put designs on it as you wish."

"Ok anything else I should know?" I asked back.

"Yes there is!" He said with another goofy smile.

"Armor you purchase in the game will add protection to you ,but it won't affect your appearance if you wish to keep your appearance the same."

"Oh ok thanks" I said.

"No problem now we move into game play" he said.

"We'll start with your overall stats that affect you both outside and inside battle. Strength, speed, and intelligence! Strength dictates how much you can carry, as well as many other general things such as how hard you can swing a weapon. Speed dictates how fast you can move and how long you can sprint without stopping. Intelligence is especially useful for solving puzzles and learning things like crafting skills. It is the hardest to increase ,but has almost no direct affect in battle."

"What effect does intelligence have then?" I asked

"Well here is an example" he said as a picture appeared.

There were strange symbols with 3 rows under it.

One row converted symbols to letters and one converted them to numbers.

"Here is what a puzzle may look like to a person with low intelligence" he smiled and the picture changed. "This is what it would look like to someone with high intelligence."

It looked the same except for words at the top saying solve the problem and only one row at the bottom that changed symbols to numbers. "However there may be puzzles or riddles in which intelligence dosen't help you" he said.

"Ok I get it" I said.

"You get a few points to use to get your base stats for strength, speed, and intelligence arrange them as you want!" He said with another goofy smile. I arranged them with intelligence as the highest with speed and strength with an even amount of points.

"Well now onto combat skills" he said. "You get a small amount of skill with each weapon and it increases with use or assigning skill points from leveling up!"

I looked at the list and saw many blacked out weapon choices.

"What are these?" I asked.

"Many weapons have to be built or discovered and so they are locked until that time" he responded.

"Ok I understand" I said and looked at the available weaponry. The current list had swords, axes, spears, daggers, bows, war hammers, and bare handed. I split the points between sword and bare handed.

"Next onto special skills!" He said with another goofy smile.

"These are special attacks that can be used in combat alongside your main attacks. Some can be used repeatedly while others have to be used sparingly." I looked through the list, like the weapons a lot of them were locked. I saw one that caught my attention called smoke blade. It allowed you to launch a wave of smoke or blades from your sleeves. It can be used one after the other to make the blades hard to see or deflect. I used the rest of the skill points I get for this category to upgrade them so that I have 6 blades and blades replace themselves over a short time and, are poisonous.

The old man smiled and said "now to game options."

"There are 4 different signs you can choose, each gives you different boost, side quest, rewards and abilities"

"First is the sign of the beast it gives transformation abilities such as turning into a wolf and other abilities based on instincts like hearing enemies. It specializes in weapons like hammers, axes, and hand to hand."

I looked at the symbol it was of a helmet with a horn.

"The next is the symbol of Zen it gives abilities like telekinesis and meditation that regains health it specializes in weapons like staffs, spears, clubs and non bladed weapons. "

It looked at the symbol and it was a ying Yang symbol but with a third symbol in it.

"Third is the symbol of light, it gives abilities like purifying curses , protection barrier, healing, and illumination and specializes in weapons like swords and shields ."

The fourth and last symbol caught my attention, it was a gauntlet holding a red orb.

"Last is the sign for the reaver. It grants abilities like reaper which gives the user more power the closer he is to death and like leach which absorbs small amounts of health for critical hits. It specializes in unconventional weapons that are made or discovered."

I looked through the ability list and the things that have to be done to unlock them.

"I select the reaver" I said.

"Next is the story objective!" He said with another goofy smile.

"The main objective is to stop the rising darkness by killing its leader. The forces of the darkness will attempt to take cities and kill players. To permanently stop them you must kill their leader tarken."

A picture appeared of a huge creature. He had blueish purplish armor with spikes on his back and he held a sword with flames on it. The figure had a skull instead of a head.

"When he dies the game will be beaten!"

"Ok" I said

"That's it for your set up! If you need more information just call my name and I shall appear. Most other things in the game will be self explained by the people who have them like inns or blacksmith forges. Do you have any other questions?"

"No " I said.

"Then farewell for now!" He waved and faded away. The surrounding around me morphed into a small village.

"Now the game starts."