{Since this story is an x reader, (F/n)'s Monsters and Mana character can be whatever you wish but for me, (F/n) is going to be a knight. But you guys still get to choose your name. (MM/n) means (Monsters & Mana/Name)}
Your P.O.V. -
"Hey, (F/n)," Pidge walked into my room.
"What is it?"
"Coran found this old Altean board game. Hunk and I are gonna play, you wanna join us?"
"Sure," I smiled as I followed Pidge to the lounge.
"Hey," Hunk greeted from the couch. "Ready to play?"
"Almost," Pidge said as she and I joined Hunk on the couch. "(F/n) still needs to choose her character."
"Character?" I questioned. "I make my own character?"
Coran nodded, "You choose your character type, name, and origin if desired."
Coran handed me a list of characters I could be. I started to quickly scan through the list of characters.
"You could be a--"
"Knight!" I interrupted Coran. "I wanna be a knight."
"All right!" said Coran. "Here."
He handed me a little screen.
"Create your character on there and it will help track of your stats."
"Thanks," I said.
"I'm Meklavar," said Pidge. "A dwarven miner, and one of the best ax-fighters in three lands. And my precious family heirloom was stolen, so I'm trying to get it back."
"And I'm Block," said Hunk. "A sorcerer who's gotten a curse set on his town which causes all of the villagers to be turned to stone."
"Cool," I said. "I'll be (MM/n). A knight who's king had a spell casted on him to cause a 'mental illness.' And now, I hunt for the wizard who did this."
"All right! Are we ready?" Coran asked.
"Wait, what will you be doing?" I asked Coran.
"Why, I'm the Lore Master," Coran said as he showed me a book.
"Okay, let's go!" Hunk yelled.
In the beginning of the game, the three of us met up and tried to help Hunk's case, but we ended up getting chased by an ogre.
"Get behind me!" said Block. "Shield of protection!"
"Hit it with your lightning bolt!" Meklavar yelled.
"Lightning bolt!"
Block waved his staff in front of the ogre to send an itty-bitty little lightning bolt into its hair. The three of us nervously laughed before running down a hill.
"You call that a lightning bolt?" I yelled at Block.
"If you're the remaining hope for your village, they're doomed!" Meklavar yelled.
"I'm a healer, not a fighter!" said Block. "Soaring staff!"
Block hopped on his staff which started to fly. He flew up to me and Meklavar and allowed to climb on the back. It was a very tight squeeze. The ogre then began to play a soft melody.
"Oh, no," said Meklavar. "That's the song of eternal slumber. Cast protection from sleep on yourself."
"Song of eternal slumber, Pidge?" said Block. "That's the-- [yawn] How come you guys don't need it?"
"We're not sorcerers. Come on!" Meklavar yelled.
"So sleepy," Block collapsed on his staff.
"Wake up!" I started to yelled as we turned around. "We're going to wrong way!"
As we came closer to the ogre cocked back to strike.
"(MM/n), I've got a plan!" said Meklavar. "Throw me into the air then dodge the ogre!"
"On it!"
I threw Meklavar straight up into the air then had Block swing upside down to avoid the ogre's swing. Block and I crashed on the ground as Meklavar struck the ogre's whistle, breaking the spell of slumber. Block soon woke up. Meklavar landed on the ground and went to get away but the ogre caught her hair and pinned her to the ground. The ogre went to strike her but I swooped in and used my shield to hold it back.
"Thanks (MM/n)!" said Meklavar.
"Of course!" I said. "Now move!"
Meklavar ran out of the way as I continued to hold the ogre back. Then, Block casted a spell to tie the ogre's hand to its face.
"Now!" Block yelled.
"Got it!" Meklavar yelled back.
Meklavar flew into the air and used her ax to hit the ogre's fist which hit its face to finish it off. All that was left of it was a small, green crystal.
"Oh, look, it's a crystal," said Block.
"Weird," said Meklavar. "I've never seen an ogre drop a crystal like this."
"Let's take it back to the innkeeper," I said. "Find out where this ogre got it."
Meklavar grabbed the crystal and put it in her pocket.
"Oh, man," said Block. "Come on. That's way on the other side of the Wiebian Swamps. You know how scary and gross those are? Very, very scary and gross."
"Come on, you big baby," said Meklavar. "Your village got turned into stone. Do you want to save them or not."
"I mean, they're not, like, going anywhere," said Block. "All right. Fine. Fine. But I'm not fighting ghosts this time. I'm just running."
The three of us soon made it to the swamps, and in the middle of crossing them, Shiro walked in.
"What're you guys doing?" he asked.
"Playing Monsters and Mana," said Coran. "Would you like to play?"
Coran explained everything to Shiro and he ended up playing. But Coran told him that he was going to have to wait a little bit for his character to be introduced, so he gets to watch for now.
Near the end of the swamps, Block wasn't watching where he was going and stepped in swamp goo.
"Yuck. Yuck!" Block whined. "Oh, so scary and gross. What did I tell you? I cannot believe how sticky this Wiebian Swamp goo is. It's, like, crazy."
Block soon spotted the Inn.
"Hey, you guys hungry?"
"We don't have any money," I said. "We're gonna meet the innkeeper and leave."
"Oh man," Block whined. "I would not have run so hard if I didn't think there might be food."
"Fine."
The three of us enter the inn and were immediately stared at by the intimidating bar folk.
"This is not the atmosphere I remember from last time," said Block.
We walked around all of the tables and to the back of the inn where there were large, teal pots. Meklavar started to destroy them.
"Whoa, what're you doing?" Block asked.
"Looking for coins," said Meklavar.
Meklavar struck the second to last pot and found one silver coin. Meklavar grabbed the coin and slammed it on the counter.
"A greasy meat pile for my friend, please," Meklavar requested for Block.
"One health plate coming up," said the 'woman' behind the counter.
The woman slowly stood up to reveal her large, muscular body. She turned around to reveal her fabulous mustache and the plate she was holding, along with two mugs of liquid. Turns out, the woman is the innkeeper and she looked down to spot us.
"Oh, it's you three again," she said. "Did you find any clues?"
The innkeeper set down the plate in front of Block and the two mugs in front of me and Meklavar.
"We found a crystal, just like you thought we might," I explained.
Meklavar pulled the green crystal out of her pocket.
"Just as I feared," said the innkeeper. "Those ogres are mercenaries. They'll fight for anyone that has crystals. The only person that uses this type is the evil wizard, Dakin."
"Evil wizard?" Block questioned. "That doesn't sound good."
"It isn't, though I admit I should've have suspected him," said the innkeeper. "There aren't many wizards powerful enough to turn a whole village to stone."
"So how do we save them?" Meklavar asked.
"You'll have to defeat Dakin," said the innkeeper. "He's inside Carthian's Lair... a tomb of horrors so filled with monsters, traps, and terrors that most heroes would be driven insane at the mere thought of entering."
"Uh, maybe those villagers like being turned into stone?" said Block.
Meklavar gave Block a punch to the side.
"Okay, all right," said Block. "So where do we find this tomb of horrors?"
The innkeeper lowered to our eye level.
"Just inside the Feldakor Mountains."
"The Feldakor Mountains, you say?" someone said in the back of the inn.
The three of us turn to look at that someone, his face covered by his hood.
"You three think you have what it takes to smite evil?" he asked.
"...Who are you?" Meklavar asked.
"Me? My name is Takashi Shirogane. I'm a paladin. And you?"
The three of us walk up to Takashi Shirogane and sit at his table.
"Me? I'm Block, the sorcerer."
"I'm (MM/n), a knight in one of the best kingdoms known in these lands."
"The name's Meklavar. Best ax-fighter in three lands. We're on our way to break the curse put on Block's town. The villagers were turned to stone by Dakin. What's your story?"
"I'm on my own adventure," Takashi removed his hood to show his face. "From a young age, I was chosen to be a paladin because of my bright internal light. My master, D'Jahno, taught me the seven pillars of knighthood. He forged, not only my mind, but also my body. I became a shield for good and a weapon against evil. Before I could complete my training, a leviathan demon attacked our monastery, it destroyed all we had, including my master. D'Jahno's last words to me were, 'You no longer need my guidance to complete your training... Defeating the Leviathan will teach you all there is to know."
Without a word, the three of us left his table because, well... we were bored.
"Hey, where are you guys going?" he asked.
"Sounds like you're too busy to help with this wizard," said Block we walked out of the inn.
"Good luck with the Leviathan," I waved.
"Bye!" Meklavar yelled as she closed the door.
"...Man, that guy was so boring," Block said.
"Wait!" Takashi yelled as he ran towards us.
He bent over and started panting because of how fast he had to run after us. He took a while so we went to walk away again, but he stopped us,
"Wait. As a paladin, I swore an oath to vanquish evil. I cannot deny the righteousness of your quest. I will help you defeat the wizard, and then return to my hunt for the demon that destroyed my master."
There was a large thud.
"Ohh, what's that?" Block asked, referring to the large mouse creature atop the inn.
"Oh, no!" Meklavar cried.
The three of us started to run away while the mouse-thing ate Takashi.
"No! Shiro's dead," Meklavar cried.
In reality, an Altean mouse had happened to climb onto the board and started to eat Shiro's character.
"Shoo, shoo!" Coran pushed it away.
"Did I really die in the game?" Shiro asked.
"Yes," Coran answered.
"But that doesn't make sense," said Shiro. "The mice aren't playing the game."
"Don't worry. You can just make a new character," said Coran.
"I'm going to be a paladin again," Shiro placed his character back on the board.
"Oh, come on now," said Coran. "Do you really want to play a paladin? I mean, you could be something completely different: a Maven, a Mage, a Cleric, a Klazgool, a Bard."
"I don't know what's more fulfilling than being a paladin," Shiro pouted.
"But you're already a paladin in real life!" Coran snapped.
We were all silent as Coran sat down and groaned at Shiro's lack of change. Allura and Lance then entered.
"Is everything all right? We heard yelling," said Allura.
"We're all good," I said.
"What's going on?" Lance asked.
"We're playing Monsters and Mana," said Coran.
"'Monsters and' huh?"
"It's a game," Coran held up the book.
"It's fun," Pidge added.
Lance stared at the book, "I dunno. How can a game that needs a book be fun?"
"You ought to read it and find out," said Coran.
"Nah."
"I've been playing Monsters and Mana since I was a boy," Coran explained. "My bandmates and I, the Pirate Polychoral used to play it all the time. I was always the Lore Master."
"So, how do you play?" Allura asked as she and Lance took a seat on the couch.
"Okay, so each person creates a fantastical character. The character is represented by a figurine on the holo-map to help them track their actions. But the real fun happens in the mind. Each player gets a turn, and every turn they say what they want to do. The Lore Master, me, knows the difficulty of the task. The person must roll a 20-sided die to see if they can accomplish their action."
"A 20-sided dice?" Lance gasped. "How big is that thing?"
Pidge, Hunk, and I all looked at Lance with slight impatience.
"It's normal sized," Pidge said as she adjusted her glasses. "It just has 20 sides."
"No. No, no, no. It's got 20 sides? It's gotta be the size of a Yalexian pearl."
Coran pulls out the die and holds it in front of Lance's face.
"Oh."
"Do you want to play?" Coran asked.
"Don't you guys have something better to do, right now?" Lance asked. "Like, I don't know, universe-defending stuff?"
"Hunk and I ran into a snag upgrading the castle's shields," said Pidge. "We're running a diagnostic, but all we can do is wait."
"I'm trying to take a mental break," said Shiro. "We've been going really hard lately."
"Me too," I said. "This is distracting my mind from things that I've been worrying about."
"I'll play," Allura smiled. "Lotor's busy handling his imperial responsibilities, and I'm at an impasse with the comet ship. Plus, it sounds fun."
"Yeah," said Lance. "I already worked out today, so I guess I don't have anything going on. Might as well play your little nerd game."
"Here you go," Coran handed Allura and Lance a little screen. "Create your characters with the interface loaded onto these. It'll keep track of your stats. Now it's time to begin the heroes' journey."
Focused back into the game, Meklavar, Block, Takashi and I were all walking in the forest on our way to the Feldakor Mountains. Walking along the road we heard movement to our right and stopped in case it was dangerous. Suddenly, an arrow was shot from the trees.
"Look out!" Meklavar yelled as we all dodged the arrow.
When we turned around to look at the projectile, it turned out that was seemingly aimed for the flower-monster behind us. The monster was quickly killed and poofed into a sack of coins. We looked to the source of the arrow. An archer in the trees. She jumped down to meet us, but damaged her health in the process.
"Ow," she said. "I'm the mystical archer Valayun, searching for the runestone of Lapham. What quest are you on?"
"Block's town was turned to stone by an evil wizard," Meklavar explained. "We tracked him down through his special crystals."
A smoke bomb went off behind us and we turned to see a thief grabbing onto the sack of coins.
"Whoa! Where'd you come from?" Block asked.
"The name's Pike," said the thief. "I was going to rob you clodhoppers of your junk, but it sounds like the bigger score is helping you jack this wizard with the crystals."
"...So you chose a thief, huh?" I asked, unamused.
"I'm not a thief!" Pike protested. "I'm a ninja assassin, the silent killer."
Pike gave a sly smirk before smoke-bombing behind us.
"My victims never know I'm coming 'cause I don't say a word," he explained. "They look around, don't see anything, so they drop their guard, but what they don't realize..."
Pike smoke-bombed away.
"Is that I'm lurking in the shadows, silently watching!"
He gave an evil laugh before juggling the sack of coins he stole. We turned to him, all of us unamused.
"Yeah, you're very quiet," said Takashi.
"But I do steal things," Pike added. "In fact, that's a lot of what my character does."
Pike smoke-bombed behind Meklavar.
"You're a dwarf, huh?"
"Oh, yeah," Meklavar smiled. "I'm Meklavar, a dwarven miner whose precious family heirloom, the Jewel of Jitan, was stolen. I'm on a quest to retrieve it."
"'Precious family heirloom.' Hmm..."
"Well, it's very fortunate that I arrived here," said Valayun. "I can aid you on your quest. I'll summon a mount."
Valayun shot an arrow into the sky creating a portal for some random flying animal to come through. The animal swooped down and had all of us ride on its back. Meklavar laughed from excitement as the animal flew us to the Feldakor Mountains. The entrance was incredibly dark.
"...Did anyone remember to bring torches?" Block asked.
"I really think my character would have remembered to bring a torch," Shiro complained in the real world.
"Oh, yeah?" said Coran. "Why don't you check your little inventory there? Oh, no torches, eh? Then I guess you forgot to bring them."
All of us groaned.
"Oh, I have something!" said Allura.
In the game, Valayun used a glowing arrow to light our path. Everything seemed to be going fine until we reached a dead end.
"It's just a wall," said Block. "But this is where we're supposed to go, right?"
"Maybe there's a secret here," Meklavar said as she searched the wall.
"Maybe you just have to knock," Pike said as he approached the wall.
Pike gave two clean knocks to the wall and, what do ya know, a door appeared.
"What can I say?" Pike scoffed. "I'm good at puzzles and junk."
Pike reached for the handles of the door but Meklavar stopped him.
"There could be traps," she said. "You have to check for them."
"Why do I have to check for 'em?" Pike whined.
"Because you're the thief," I said. "You're the only one in the group with that skill."
"How do I even check for traps?" he asked.
"You roll the 20-sided die, adding your check for traps skill to the roll," Coran explained. "If it's high enough, you'll remove the trap."
"And what if it's too low?" Lance asked.
Coran giggled, "You activate the trap."
Lance gave a few looks around the table before throwing the die onto the table. It was too low.
"Aw man!" Pike yelled.
Pike's hands were trapped inside the door and the door crashed onto the ground. The door hit the ground hard enough for the floor under us to crumble under our feet. We all fell through the floor and began to fall towards a sandpit full of spears.
"Levitation!" Block casted.
All of us were now holding chickens in one of our hands allowing us to somewhat fly over the spears.
"Great work there, Block," said Takashi. "Let's keep going."
One room after another, and we were able to defeat each challenge that was thrown at us. Yes, there were hard and tired us out, but we were alive. We all walked down a flight of stairs and made it to a large golden door.
"Okay. What's next?" Pike asked tiredly.
We all looked up to see piles and piles of gold!
"Oh, mamma mia," said Block. "Look at all this treasure."
"It's our reward for getting past all those traps," said Meklavar.
"This is more like it!" said Pike. "We fall for traps all the time in real life and we never get treasure."
"Wow!" said Valayun. "A quick draw quiver with a magical creature-summoning arrow."
"Oh, sweet!" Meklavar exclaimed. "Gloves of transmutation. These bad boys can transmogrify the elemental matter of any inanimate object."
"Look!" I said. "I found an unpierceable, metal chest plate. And it's lighter than a feather!"
"Awesome!" Pike cheered. "And I got an invisibility cloak!"
"A bowl that is never empty of food," Block drooled. "Our days of vandalizing innkeepers' vases are over."
Takashi pulled a large sword out of a pile. The blade burst into flames.
"Wow, a blazing sword," he awed. "Hey, guys. Check it--"
Takashi was interrupted by a dark lightning bolt striking and killing him.
"Ahh!" Meklavar whimpered. "Ohh! He dropped a rare item."
There was a booming evil laugh and we turned to see the innkeeper.
"Fools!" she cried.
"Hey, innkeeper. What're you doing here?" Block asked.
She cackled evilly,
"You dumb-dumbs! I only run the inn to trick foolish adventurers into gathering valuable crystals for me. Thank you for bringing them directly to my lair."
"Who is this guy?" Pike asked.
"So you're Dakin?" Block asked.
"You were behind this all along!" I yelled.
"This is where your adventure ends!" Dakin yelled as he turned into his true form.
All of the gold vanished and there was a yellow lightning bolt that struck behind us. We turned to see Shiro's character be reborn.
"I'm Shiro's twin brother, Gyro," he raised his sword. "Here to complete Shiro's quest!"
"A paladin, again?" said Meklavar.
"Only fools would enter my tomb of horrors," said Dakin. "I am the most powerful wizard in all of Aurita."
"Oh, yeah? Well, we don't care," said Block. "We're here to turn my village back from stone, man."
"Your quest is in vain," said Dakin. "I've already siphoned off their life force. You would have to permanently defeat me in order to restore it. But instead, I will become the most powerful being in all of the planes!"
Dakin charged up an attack and struck Gyro.
"I'm going to evaporate you, just like I did with your twin brother!"
Dakin struck Gyro again.
"Let's get him!" Valayun yelled.
Valayun struck Dakin with multiple arrows doing a small bit of damage. To counter, Dakin released multiple lightning strikes, one hitting Meklavar, almost instantly killing her.
"Healing arrow," Valayun struck Meklavar, restoring her health.
Gyro randomly grunted as he swung at nothing in the air.
"I will avenge my twin brother!" he yelled before charging at Dakin.
Gyro dodged two of three attacks before Block struck Dakin with a water attack. Dakin went to counter, but Pike grabbed Block and helped him dodge. When he was distracted, I parkoured my way up a pillar and swung my sword at him. I barely caught his arm.
"Embiggen!" Block casted.
Meklavar grew to the height of a giant and struck Dakin down with one strong swing of her ax.
"We did it!" she cheered in a deep voice.
All of us cheered.
"We defeated the bad guy!" Block cheered as he returned Meklavar to her normal state.
"Yeah!" said Pike. "I hope those stone villagers have a little cold hard cash for us."
"Wow. This is game is so amazing," said Gyro. "It requires problem-solving, teamwork, creativity. All the skills you'd want to imbue when doing team-building exercises."
"Stop trying to ruin our fun with learning!" Pike yelled.
There was a large gust of wind followed by Dakin's laugh.
"Oh, no."
Through the dust, we could see that Dakin was now a large animal.
"Fools," he cried. "You did exactly as I planned. Only by being slain by six pure of heart on this evil altar could I become the all-powerful Coranic Dragon!"
"We aren't powerful enough to defeat a dragon, much less a Coranic one!" Meklavar cried.
The dragon fired a blast and hit Block's leg. Valayun used her arrows to climb the pillars and shot a healing arrow at Block. It restored his health. But the Coranic Dragon was quick and struck Valayun down. He went to finish her off but I pushed her out of the way and took the blow.
"I'm low on mana!" Block cried. "I can't cast any of my big spells."
"I only have one summoning arrow left," said Valayun.
"Get back! I'll draw its attacks," said Gyro.
He ran up and began to slice at its leg. He did no damage and the dragon merely slapped him away.
"We'll never defeat it without a plan," said Block. "...Secret!"
In the real world, we all huddled away from Coran to talk in secret. We advised a foolproof plan. At one point, Coran tried to listen in.
"Hey," Hunk caught him. "I cast 'secret.' You can't listen to us."
Hunk turned back to us, "Got it?"
We all smirked at Hunk before returning to the game.
"Secret received!"
"Let's do this!" said Valayun.
First, Pike caused a distraction so the dragon would follow him. While the beast was distracted, Block used his bowl to throw pastries onto the ground. Meklavar used her gloves to turn the pastries into oil. Pike led the dragon closer and closer to the oil, and so he wouldn't notice, I threw my chest plate at his eye so he was momentarily blinded. While he couldn't see, Valayun used a summoning arrow to summon a different flying animal into the mountain. Gyro hopped onto the animal, flew over the oil, and used his sword to set the oil on fire; killing the dragon.
In the real world, we all cheered.
"So much fun!" said Allura.
"Like, too much fun," said Hunk. "Great idea to transmute that food into oil," he said to Pidge.
"Yeah," said Pidge. "If only we could transmute the particle barrier's polarity."
"Yeah," Hunk laughed. "To do that you'd need some kind of quantum shift network to simulate a collapse of the wave pocket into a darkening perplexity."
"Yeah, and that would be impossible without..."
The two thought for a second before yelling, "Changing the Planck Constant!"
Then, they raced out of the lounge.
"Somehow I understand the fantasy words better than the science ones," said Lance.
"I can't get over how great that game was," said Shiro. "And my head feels so much better. Thank you, Coran."
"The game isn't over yet," said Coran. "Wait until you find out who Dakin was working for. Maybe you'll finally be able to avenge your master."
"How can you have an adventure ready to avenge my master?" Shiro asked. "I just made that story up."
"I also made it all up, Shiro," Coran winked. "That's the real magic of Monsters and Mana."
"That, and coming up with more creative characters, Gyro," I stated.
"That was incredible!" said Allura. "It's crazy how long we've been playing. It seemed like no time at all."
"Yeah," said Lance. "We have a pretty good time together, don't we?"
"We sure do."
A screen popped up in front of Allura. She pressed it and a transmission from Lotor was shown.
"Allura," he smiled. "I have grand news. The ship is ready to begin testing."
"Fabulous. Let's try it," Allura said before leaving the lounge.
"So, who wants to play another round?" Coran asked.
"Sure, count me in," Lance slouched.
"I wanna be a paladin, again," Shiro said as he placed his figurine back on the table.
Lance and I groaned while Coran tipped over in his seat.
"What?"