Chapter 6
Sophie felt the rush of excitement as she felt the power of the FORDhelmet surge through her brain as she logged on. The bright light consumed her once more and she entered the world of LOW.
She landed in the main city as her elf. She relaxed realising where she was and smiled. The city was quieter today without many people. She wasn't sure why.
Nevertheless, she was meeting Charlie near the gates so she set off in a steady jog to get there. Again, she felt the light feeling her elf character gave and felt like jumping with happiness.
Earlier that day, when she had left the house, Sophie decided skip school. Her mind was racing from what her mother had been like and she hid out in town until her parents had left. Then she ran back inside and messaged Charlie to come online. He agreed and here she was.
Charlie didn't know about her parents. In fact, no one did. Danny, Fiona or Jenny didn't know. They had never asked her so she had never felt the need to bring it up. But then perhaps it was better this way. This way she doesn't have to have them feeling sorry for her. She doesn't need any sympathy.
It was her personality to never tell people. She usually keeps thing bottled up. It hasn't done her any harm. In fact, it's been better for her. You don't survive in the world from being weak. You don't reach the top charts in games for being weak and it applies to real life as well.
She shook her head trying to get the thoughts out of her head. This was LOW. Legends of Warlords. This wasn't the real world. Here she was strong and powerful and a completely new character. This was the one true place she could go to forget about the real world.
Shaking her head to get the thoughts of her parents out of it, she ran a bit longer until she started to see the town walls growing. Once reaching the gate, she looked out for Charlie. Of course, he wasn't there. He must be late logging on. Sophie leaned against the city wall to wait for him. She watched the people walk in and out while she waited.
The diversity of characters amazed her. The game had so many to chose from and to design your character from. So many people walked past and she couldn't find a any that looked alike.
"Hey!" A voice called out. Sophie turned her head to see a large Kec Elf thundering towards her. And here he was... "Sorry I'm late. I had to make sure the cat was ok." he gave her a sheepish grin. Sophie smiled back. Of course he had to let the cat out.. After all cats always come first.
"It's ok," she grinned, "so where to today?" she asked.
"You mentioned a dungeon you would like to do? Are you up for it?" he asked.
"Sure," she replied, "which one is it?"
"It's the field dungeon quest. We just need to find a witch in a forest and kill her." he answered. Seems easy enough.
"You lead then because I don't know where to go at all."
"Hah, that's cause you're useless." he shot at her.
"I have a higher level than you!" Sophie replied giving him on of her I-am-right faces. Charlie pulled a face back.
"You're the one asking for help," he muttered quietly to himself, "Charlie, please do help me! I fell from the sky and have no idea how to play because I'm useless!" he mocked in a falsetto as he set off running.
"I don't talk like that!" Sophie complained following behind him.
"Yes you do. You just don't want to admit it."
"Well at least I sound like my gender."
"What's that suppose to mean?" he frowned turning around to look at her. Sophie snorted rather unattractively.
"Stupid as well," she muttered to herself, "it means you sound like a girl."
"No I don't!" he complained
"Yes you do."
"Pft," he gave up. Sophie grinned at his back in victory. 1 to Sophie, 0 to Charlie.
"Anyway, how have you levelled up so much?" Charlie asked her.
"To be honest, I don't know," she replied honestly to him, "I've down similar quests to you but the XP I get is much higher as well as the drop loots. Maybe it's my character?" she suggested to Charlie. He shook his head.
"No, the creators made sure that characters don't get any bonus form XP or drops." he answered. Sophie frowned at his back. Charlie had a knack for doing things like this. He would often start talking about the game as if he was the creator. He seemed to know everything about the game and how it was designed. She didn't want to press him for details though because she had just met him. She'll find out some day.
"Oh." Something was odd about her character. So far, everything she had been getting had been lucky and better than most people.
"Maybe you're just a special character?" he suggested.
"What's that suppose to mean?" Sophie shot back with a scowl on her face.
"That you're stupid." he ginned. Oh no he didn't.
"Yeah well, if stupid was measured in trees, you'd be the amazon rain forest." she told him pulling a poker face. Charlie froze for a minute not expecting that.
"What the hell? Where did you get that insult?" he complained. It was an insult she had made up one night. It was one of those random things people do at night. For her, it was looking up insults and brainstorming them.
"Your mum?" she replied with a wonky face. She felt like cringing when she said it. Ugh, her mouth felt violated...
Suddenly, she heard a crying noise and she turned to face Charlie. He had tears running down his face and was ferociously wiping around his eyes. "Are you crying?" Sophie asked him with concern.
"I can't help it." he said to her giving her a smile. Tears were still coming out of his eyes and he was still wiping them like mad. "There is just so much beauty in the world."
Sophie gave him a glare but shrugged it off. They carried on running for a while until they reached the woods.
Ahead of them was more of a gathering of trees than a wood with a perimeter running in a perfect circle. It was filled densely with a mixture of trees, not just oak but ash and sycamores making the wood look more scary. The inside looked dark with little to see.
"Is this it?" she gulped. It looked creepy and she didn't really want to go in there.
"Yup." he replied. While he didn't show it, Charlie was just as afraid as Sophie. But of course he wouldn't show it. He was a Kec Elf! Proud and handsome. He wouldn't be scared by the wood.
Just before the entrance was a sign written into a fallen tree. The writing looked old, weathered and barely readable. She paused and looked at it. It read
Beware thee who come seeking riches. For that is not what thou shall find. Inside is horror not fit for weak. And read well and remember this, that all things strong will fall.
The words gave Sophie a chill as she read into the writing. They felt ominous and gave a warning that she didn't know what.
With a deep breath, she faced Charlie, "Ready?"
"Yup." he said again with a gulp. Sophie equipped her weapons and leather armour. She usually took it off when she wasn't fighting. Although it didn't effect her anymore due to her strength levels rising, she still didn't like the feel of it and would rather wear comfortable t-shirts and jeans.
Charlie already had his armour on so bother changed with him. He just unsheathed his weapon and walked forward. Sophie put her Dark Elf into crouch and followed after. Seeming as her character specialised in speed, one of the many perks she had was that she can easily run at the same speed crouching as any other character did running full on.
They both walked ahead into the woods. Once they took a step in, the outside changed into a dark sky and created a even more spooky atmosphere.
"Is this really necessary?" Charlie moaned to no one in particular as he looked around. If the wood was creepy before, it was like a horror movie now. However, it was perfect for Sophie to go full out assassin.
Her natural Dark Elf skin blended in with the blue hue of the night sky. Her characters special ability was this. Once he crouched in the night time, she was able to become invisible. Her dark blue skin and black hair blends in with the background and she soon becomes lien a chameleon in the night. So soon she became invisible to everyone including Charlie.
"Uh, Sophie? Where are you?" Charlie started panicking. A sly smile came onto Sophie's face once she realised that he couldn't see her. She came out of the sneak mode. Charlie saw her and looked shocked
"How did you do that skill?" he questioned her looking confused.
"It's special to my Dark Elf character." she replied to him. It was true, she had found it out when she was grinding for XP on her own. She was on a farm with bandits running around and she was crouching looking for easy kills. She saw the sun go down and then a little white screen came up saying 'invisibility discovered'. She then looked down and she saw that she was invisible. Later, when she had logged off she looked it up and saw that it was a skill only possible for Dark Elves.
"Does this mean that I have any good skills?" Charlie asked her.
"Probably. I don't really know." Sophie replied, "You should look it up. It might be useful." Charlie nodded in reply.
"Should we find the witch then?" Charlie asked her.
"Yup." Sophie went into a crouch position and she became invisible. She re-equipped her daggers and followed Charlie who had set off. They walked at a fairly fast pace through the woods communicating in only small words on what they were about to do. Seeming as most of the time Charlie couldn't see her, Sophie had the fun of talking to him while he was looking in the complete opposite direction. Fun.
Only low level monsters came out at them. Each time, they went straight to Charlie who took the hits while Sophie went behind them and killed them from behind. It wasn't very hard seeming as both of them were higher level than the monsters.
However, the deeper they went, the more higher level monsters they encountered. Charlie was quickly using up his health potions and Sophie was starting to need hers from the high level monsters who were able to see through her invisibility.
"How are you doing with health?" Sophie asked Charlie as she used up another. Her health which was beeping from being in the low zone suddenly rushed into a healthy green colour. She took a glance at Charlies face who looked beyond exhaustion.
"I'm on my last potion." he muttered looking glum. Sophie noticed that his health was on the amber zone meaning that if he had one more attack, he would be struggling. Luckily for him, his health went down quiet slow from his high defence and heavy armour he had equipped. The only problem was that he was taking the majority of the hits. Sighing, Sophie opened up her inventory and took out half her health potions.
"Here." she said handing them to him. He gladly accepted them with a thanks. She now had 5 health potions left and Charlie had 6. The problem was that they hadn't even got half way yet.
"I don't think we'll do this Soph." Charlie said to her giving her a look. Sophie looked down. He was right. Health was becoming an issue and this quest now seems like it was now 5 levels above them. Still, they had gone this far.
"We can't go back now though. Even if we can't, we'll just fight until we die. That way at least we will be getting the most amount of XP possible." she stated. It was true, if they go back now, it would feel like they had lost. At least if they died then they would die with honour. He sighed and nodded defeated.
"Ready?" she asked. He only nodded again. Sophie went into a crouch and they both went into the next area.
They both braced themselves for the monsters. But much to their surprise, there weren't any attacking them. There were monsters, but their main focus wasn't Charlie and Sophie but someone in the corner of the room bashing a stick. Getting a closer look, Sophie noticed that the person didn't have any weapons only a long wooden staff. They also didn't have any armour equipped except for a cloth or robe used by mages. The only difference was that this Mage wasn't casting any spells. Just beating the monsters with their stick. Sophie blinked once in confusion.
Sophie turned to look at Charlie in confusion, he gave her a look back which she read to say what the hell and they both crept forward to investigate. Seeming as the monsters were too interested in the mage, they had no problem not being detected.
"Play Legends of Warlords why don't you!" A voice called out from the mage in anger. Sophie frowned at it recognising it slightly. "You can be anything you like! You can become a monsters and bash people out the way!" The odd person cried out with his voice dripping with venom.
"Fuck you Tim. Fuck you Dan. I spent two fucking hundred pounds on this device. Fuck you too stupid monster. I hope you die in a hole." the mage growled giving the monster one last hit with its stick. Sophie heard an anguish cry echo through the room as the last monster fell down. Ah ha, now she could see him.
She doubled back when she saw who it was. It was the last person in the whole world who she expected to see. Especially after this morning.
"Adam?" Sophie cried out in surprise. Charlie turned to her looking at her like she was just as mad as Adam who was standing in front of her.
"Da' fuck." Adam looked at Sophie in surprise. "How the fuck do you know my name you fucking stalker?" he cried out looking at her like she had just turned into a majestic platypus who just pooped out a rainbow then flown into the sunset. Great, now two people think she's weird. But of course he didn't recognise her, she had made her character resemble her in the slightest.
"Adam, it's me, Sophie." she said to him hoping he would at least remember her name.
"Sophia?" he asked her as if he didn't believe it him self. Feeling like face palming, Sophie tried to ignore him and continued hoping to jog his memory.
"Yes, Sophie, the girl who let you stay at her house last night." she told him hoping that this would work.
"You let him stay in your house last night? What were you doing?" Charlie butted in the conversation in disgust, "Sophie, you have some explaining to do. Firstly, who is he? And secondly, why did you let him stay in your house?" Sophie gulped in the chaos that was slowly emerging.
"No!" she exclaimed hoping Charlie would listen, "It's not like that! He needed a place to stay so I said yes!"
"What are you doing on this game?" Adam now asked her. Pft, that's a stupid question.
"What do you think I'm doing dip shit? Surveying how many stupid people I can find online like you? I could eat a bowl of alphabet soup and then shit out a smarter statement than that Adam." Sophie said to him with a dead straight face.
"Ouch, good one Soph." Charlie told her raising his hand up for a high five. Sophie gladly high fived him. Squad goals.
"You're a gamer?" Adam exclaimed now looking like a puppy who had just found a toy. Sophie rolled her eyes and nodded her head. "Sweet. Does this mean that we can play games together?"
"If you want." she muttered back to him unsure what to say. Adams eyes lit up excitedly. "If you tell me what you're doing on here." she insisted.
Adam groaned at her but started, "Some people told me to join because of what you can do and be on it. They were describing it like it was the best thing ever and saying how you can kill as many monsters as you like. But when I joined they put me in some dark room then made me choose a bunch of things. So, I was scared and was choosing random things and when I came into the world, " he looked as though he was holding back tears, "I was a healer. Not some hero who can kill as people as far as the eye can see. No, I was a bloody healer." he cried in anguish. Sophie suppressed a chuckle. No wonder he was pissed.
"Ok, I see." she said holding back a snigger. No wonder he was mad. She couldn't imagine Adam being anything but some monstrosity to mankind who wanted to kill anything in his site but then here he was as a kind healing mage. If you thought about it, it was kinda comical.
"So how come you two know each other?" Charlie asked impatiently. Sophie couldn't blame him. He had been waiting long enough for an answer.
"We go to school together, he was robbing my house of my snacks but he ended up sleeping over." Sophie stated matter of fact like.
"How did he end up staying over when he was robbing your house?" Charlie asked her in disbelief.
"I don't really know." she said frowning. To be honest, she didn't know. Adam just some how stayed over even when she protested.
"It's because her speech level is 1 while mine is 100." Adam called out. Somehow, Adam now thinks it is ok to make cringey gamer jokes.
"Shut it." Sophie said to him with a glare. He just raised his hands in response showing how he was backing down.
"You really are an idiot aren't you." Charlie muttered to Sophie. Sophie gave him a glare in return.
"No I'm not." she scowled.
"This thing," Charlie gestures to Adam, "begs to differ."
"My level begs to differ." she countered.
"You're not going to let that go are you?" he asked her with a sad face.
"Nope."
"Well then you just wait and soon I'll have a much higher level then you." Sophie snickered. It was unlikely that he would. Poor Charlie is leveling at a snails pace compared to Sophie. For some reason Sophie and already gained a level whir fighting the monsters and much better loot while Charlie was only on level 4 and hadn't leveled as well as collecting a significantly less amount.
"Good luck." was all she said. With a now calm head, Sophie was now thinking about what to do for the dungeon ahead.
Her self and Charlie were low on health potions and there was no way that they would complete it whilst they were Thai level. Not only that, they had a healer who wanted to be some person who could bash skulls. What would they do with Adam? Then it dawned on her.
"Hey Adam," she called to him, "would you like to party with us to complete the dungeon?" she asked him. Adams interest that was on the loot the monsters had dropped was now on her.
"Uh, sure." he replied confused.
"Great!" Sophie exclaimed sending him a request. Charlie pulled her aside.
"What are you doing?" he hissed in her ear.
"It's ok, I have a plan." she replied to him hoping he would listen.
"And what exactly is this amazing plan?" he asked her.
"Adam will be able to heal us." she replied with a smug face. What else would he be good for? No offence to him, but he is pretty useless.
"Him?" Charlie exclaimed with a sneer on his face, "I hate to break it to you Sophie, but I doubt that guy even knows how to use his healing powers." he said giving her a sympathetic face.
"Oi!" Sophie called over to Adam, "Do you know how to use your healing abilities?" she asked him. Adams head raised up and he nodded.
"Yeah, they're just awful for fighting." Sophie turned to face Charlie and gave him a smug look.
"See, I told you so." Charlie just gave her a look back.
"So then Adam, can you help us get through the dungeon with your healing abilities?" Sophie asked Adam. He looked up with an excited face.
"Do I get to fight?" he asked. Sophie cringed hoping he will help even if he doesn't get to fight.
"Not exactly. Me and Charlie will do the fighting and you'll be behind healing." she told him. No offence to him, but he wasn't much of a fighter.
"What's the point in that?" he scowled at them. Sophie turned to look at Charlie and he gave her a look saying told you so. Well she'll show him.
"Please Adam." she groaned, "How about this? We'll give you half the drops from the boss at the end? And then you can go and fight." she pleaded with him. She knew that with out Adam they will only get through about 2 more rooms at the most before they died. With him they would get much further and maybe even get to the boss room. Completing the dungeon was now only something that she hoped will happen. She knew that fighting about four level 6 monsters at once when they were level 6 and 4 was unlikely.
"Make it two thirds." he challenged. Sophie groaned. She did have enough money and she really couldn't be bothered to stay in this dungeon for any longer. The dark sky was getting to her and giving her the creeps. If you could, she would be out of this dungeon in a single second.
"Deal." she agreed. Charlie turned to look at her in surprise.
"What?" he cried, "Sophie." he whined.
"Please Charlie, I think we have enough money from drops. If you want, you can have all of my drops. I'm sick of this dungeon and just want to get out of it." she pleaded him. She saw Charlie inwardly groan but gave up and nodded his head. Sophie did a little dance in happiness.
"So, Charlie will go in first and tank then I'll attack from behind. Adam, you stay behind and heal us when our health gets to low." Sophie directed them both. They nodded their heads simutaniously. "Good. Lets go." she stated excitedly.
Charlie led the way through the small archway marking the next room. Of course there were monsters waiting. He raised his great sword and started swinging. Sophie crouched behind him and went into invisibility mode and came up behind the monster. She activated a skill and with 4 rapid hits, the monster was down to half health.
Another monster saw her activate the skill and saw through her invisibility. He roared loudly and came charging up at her. Sophie looked at it in surprise and braced herself for an attack. Looks like Charlie will have to deal with the other one. Preparing herself for an attack, the monster swiped its claws at her. In a split second she managed to dodged the brute force of it but was still grazed slightly. With a scowl on her face, she activated another skill and jabbed at the monster. This was a stronger skill and she saw the health bar go down significantly.
The monster howled in pain and came in for another attack. This time Sophie was ready and sidestepped out the way. She ducked under the arm swiping at her and grabbed hold of it and twisted it around to its back. She then started madly slicing at the monster as she got it's health down. Soon she head the painful groan as the monster was killed.
She turned around to see Charlie dealing with the other monster fine. She tried to look for Adam but to her surprise he wasn't at the back where she told him to be. She looked around trying to find him.
"Ah!" A voice called out in the corner and she saw Adam attacking a monster with his staff in his hand. He was bashing it like a berserker.
"Adam!" Sophie exclaimed to him. His head glanced up in interest but quickly went back to attacking the monster. Sophie glanced at the monsters health to see it lowering incredibly slowly. How did he get so far in the dungeon? She wondered in amusement.
Rolling her eyes, Sophie ran over the monster and jumped up to his head and sliced his throat. A 'critical hit' came up but the monster was only down a bit. She quickly activated a skill and started attacking the monster. With Adams help, the monster was killed quickly.
"Adam." Sophie warned, "You're supposed to be behind healing us incase we need it. Not attacking monsters."
"Fuck you! You can't tell me what to do, you stalker!" he replied giving her the middle finger. Sophie rubbed her temples.
"Adam. Please." she tried. He snorted.
"I do what I wish." This might be more frustrating than she thought.
"Just pay attention to our health please." she pleaded. Adam nodded. Sophie looked over to Charlie to see him just finishing off his monster.
"Ready for the next room?" Charlie asked them with a bit of blood splatter on his mouth from the monster.
"Yep." Sophie replied. Charlie started walking onto the next room. She glanced over at Adam who appeared to be casting a spell. She felt a refreshing feeling come over her and saw the small amount of health she had lost come back. So he was healing us.
The next couple of rooms were cleared pretty quickly. Surprisingly, Adam was healing them and they managed to get through with no casualties. Until the came to the final boss.
Charlie entered the room first. Then it was Sophie who was followed by Adam brandishing his staff with a mad glint in his eyes.
At first everything seemed normal once they entered the next part of the dungeon. They were attacked again by monsters of course. This time though, the monsters were a lot more aggressive. Everyone of their attacks seemed to have more power than usual and Sophie was struggling to keep up dodging their attacks.
Then the witch entered the room. What was dark before became even darker and was only lit up by dark green lights. A cackle filled the room until Sophie felt shivers running down her spine. She glanced at Adam and Charlie and they both gave her a look back. This was it, the final boss.
"Ready?" she asked them. They both nodded in return. It was unlikely that they would survive but that was ok. She knew about Adam now and had a way to blackmail him. She had also gotten a lot of XP from this.
In front of her a mirage of a witch appeared who slowly formed into a solid in front of her eyes. The witch looked to say in the least, an old hag. Unsurprisingly, she reminded Sophie of Mad Mandy from the school cafeteria. She had the rat tails in replace of hair and her skin. Ugh, it looked like beef jerky. This was the boss battle then.
Sophie readied her daggers and prepared to attack. She saw Charlie and Adam do the same as the witch started to cackle one more time.
They either die here or survive.
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So chapter 6 is up... Yay?
Bejesus! Adam plays LoW! And I had to cut it short cause I love you....