BladeDust Online: A LitRPG Adventure (Book 1) Page 4

  I looked at Tommy. He shrugged his shoulders. “Yes,” I replied with a grin. “That would be amazing.”

  We slowly walked towards the dragon. It wasn't huge for a dragon, but it wasn't small either. It stood about ten feet tall and had some muscle to it. But, it wasn't like the classic type of dragon that you would see in some fantasy movies. It's skin was white and it had a fairly pleasant look on it's face. For a dragon, it seemed extra happy. I had to admit, it was refreshing to see such a cheerful looking dragon. It really was. “Thank you for this,” I said with a nod to the man.

  The man climbed off his dragon. I was surprised. He was so small. To be honest, he was kinda shaped like a chicken nugget. He didn't have much length to his arms or legs. Maybe that was why he rode his dragon? I raised one hand in the air. “Your dragon is awesome.”

  Tommy walked closer. “This is going to be fun. I can't believe we are about to ride a dragon.”

  I walked up to the dragon. “Can I pet it?”

  “Of course,” the man replied.

  The dragon's eyes grew wide as my hand went towards them. Then, the man slapped my hand. “There is a small fee.”

  A small fee? Was he running his own private petting zoo? My forehead wrinkled. “Are you serious? This is our first day.”

  “So, you have nothing?” the man asked.

  “Nope. We got nothing here or in real life,” Tommy replied.

  The small man let out a sigh that seemed too big to actually come from him. “Fine. I came all the way out here and just ran into a couple of worthless newbies? I can't believe my luck.”

  Worthless newbies? Sure, it was true. We were newbies. But still, I didn't like the tone of his voice. This little chicken nugget looking man was beginning to push his luck. He was lucky I was brand new. Otherwise, I wouldn't stand around and take such verbal abuse. Both of my hands went into the air. “So, are you still going to give us a ride?”

  He itched his nose. “Why were you spawned way out here?”

  I shrugged my shoulders. “Beats me.”

  The man turned around while I examined him. His wardrobe was a bit odd. A white robe with brown slippers. His hair was odd too. It was blonde, but had a strange look to it. It almost looked like someone had spray painted some cotton candy and pasted it onto his head. “Nice haircut,” I said.

  “Excuse me?” he asked without turning around.

  “Nothing. I just think you have nice hair.”

  The man cleared his throat. “Yes. I like it.”

  With a struggle, the man climbed on to his dragon. His stubby little arms reached down to help me up. “I got it,” I replied.

  Tommy climbed up behind me and put his arms around my stomach. “Do you really need to do that?” I asked while scooting up a little.

  “Yes, he does,” the man replied. “You'll need to do the same. Put your arms around me.”

  I cringed a little. But, I knew he was right. “How fast does this dragon go?”

  There was no answer. Instead, there was a sudden jerk. “Here we go,” the man yelled.

  My body bounced up and down as I held on to the man tighter. I had never felt so free in my life as the dragon weaved from side to side at a blazing speed. Up ahead, was a tall white wall. “Is that a castle?” I asked with excitement.

  “You'll see soon enough,” the man yelled.

  My hair blew back in the wind as the dragon increased its speed. Then, we came to a sudden halt as dust flew into the air. I couldn't see anything. Only a cloud of brown dust. “I can't breathe,” Tommy said from behind me with a cough.

  The dust slowly cleared before I could see what was in front of us. Once it cleared, I was surprised at how beautiful everything was. A tall white marble wall went around a large kingdom. Through the entrance, I could see a busy marketplace with all sorts of different races running around. “This is going to be the best day of my life,” I yelled.

  I jumped off the dragon and stretched my arms. “So what should we know? Is there anything really important we should know?”

  The small man jumped off his dragon. He laughed. “There's too much to tell you. The best way to learn, is to experience it.”

  I brushed the hair out of my eyes. “That's true. But, couldn't you just tell us? Wouldn't that be quicker?”

  He shook his head with irritation. “I came here to get rich. Not to help newbies all day. If you wanna learn, figure it out. That's how I had to do it when I first arrived.”

  “Fine,” I replied. “We'll find someone else who can help us.”

  He became quiet. Then, he spoke quickly. “Build an army. Without one, you don't stand a chance here. Nobody is going to help you unless you can help them. You're lucky I was nice enough to give you a ride. Consider that a freebie. Most people won't do that for you unless you pay up.”

  I nodded. “Thanks for that. I do appreciate it. What do you mean start an army? How do I do that?”

  He looked at me and then over at Tommy. “There's two of you. That's a good start. You just gotta sell yourself. Gotta make other players believe that you can provide them something useful. Everyone wants to live a good life here or in the real world. Some people live both. Either way, they want to gain something here or there. So what can you offer them?”

  I squinted my eyes. The little chicken nugget looking man had a good point. “Fair enough,” I replied.

  The man turned around and began to enter the kingdom's entrance. “Wait,” I yelled.

  “What?” he answered back.

  “How do I add you as a friend?”

  “Who said I wanted to be friends with you?” he asked.

  “Why wouldn't you wanna be?”

  “Look in your menu. It's on the top right corner. Just choose “send friends request” and enter my name.”

  “Okay,” I eagerly replied. “What's your name though?”

  “Donald The Dragon Slayer.”

  I laughed. “Nice name. Okay, I will add you now.”

  Donald didn't answer as he jumped on his dragon and rode into the kingdom's entrance. “I'm going to miss him,” I said while turning back to Tommy.

  “Why? Why would you miss that guy? I'm glad he's gone. I didn't really like him that much.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I was kidding. I wasn't a huge fan either. But, he was kinda interesting.”

  “Let's go into the kingdom,” Tommy replied.

  “Of course.”

  We began to walk towards the entrance. Then, two heavily armored guards blocked our path.

  Chapter Seven

  The guards wore all silver and seemed unfriendly. One of the guards reached for his sword. “What's your business here?”

  Was he an NPC? He didn't really act like one, and he had more animations than I had ever seen in the past. I knew the AI was advanced, but I never expected it to be this good. “Are you real?”

  “Real enough to kill you,” he replied.

  “I mean, are you an NPC or an actual player?”

  The guard cleared his throat. “That question offends me. By definition, I am indeed a non playing character. I don't know what it feels like to be alive, but I feel like I am alive. But, I am actually run by a computer program. That is what I am told. I still don't know if I believe it though.”

  Wow! This NPC was way smarter than I would have ever expected. His artificial intelligence level was insane. How was this even possible? I frowned. “Sorry, I didn't mean to offend you. I am new to this game. I am just learning as I go.”

  The guard straightened up and a serious look came to his face. “Time will teach you. But, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Aldern. It is off limits to low level players.”

  “Where do new players hang out?”

  “Not far from here,” a random voice yelled from behind me.

  I turned around and saw a tall slender man with long white hair. Even though his hair was white, he was not old. He appeared to be around eighteen years of age and wore extensive white armor. The armor was
made with metal and sparkled with his every movement. “Nice armor,” I yelled back to him. “Where did you get that?”

  His footsteps rattled while he walked closer. He stopped in front of me and grabbed my shirt. “You just arrived, didn't you?”

  “Yea,” I replied. “Me and Tommy just started playing.”

  He squinted his white eyes and looked over at Tommy. “You both have on the same outfits? That is funny.”

  “I don't like this outfit,” Tommy replied. “Where can we get some really cool armor?”

  “I don't usually do this,” he replied with a slow voice. “But, I kinda feel bad for you two. You both look so lost. I will show you to the zone where noobs hang out. Follow me.”

  He began to run towards a field of tall yellow grass. Then, the player looked at our feet. “You don't even have shoes yet?”

  I looked down at my feet and realized he was right. “Guess not,” I replied.

  He tossed two pairs of black boots on to the ground. “One for each of you.”

  I picked up a pair of boots and must have looked confused. “Just stick it into your inventory and equip them,” the player said.

  I did what he suggested. At first, it seemed hard. But then, it was easy. My inventory came up and I equipped the boots. After that, I watched them appear on my feet. “Thanks. This is much better,” I replied.

  “They are the most basic boots in the game,” the player replied.

  Tommy struggled for a while but finally managed to equip his boots too. “I look good in these boots,” he said.

  The grass moved to the side while we cut a path through it. Me and Tommy ran as fast as we could and made sure to keep up. But he was fast, much faster than us. My body began to ache within twenty seconds. Then, a message popped up in front of me:

  Warning: Low Stamina Levels

  Stamina: 0/10

  I curled over and watched Tommy do the same. “I'm so tired,” he said with heavy breathing.

  I coughed and tried to suck some air into my lungs. “Crap. I can barely even catch my breath.”

  The character in white armor began to laugh. “Wow, you guys are total noobs aren't you?”

  I huffed and puffed and couldn't really reply. Slowly, my breathing came back to normal. At the bottom of my view, a full stamina bar flashed up. I felt better, and Tommy looked like he felt better too. “How do we increase our stamina?” I asked.

  “It will happen naturally,” the character replied. “Just keep running around and you will level up eventually. Each level takes longer though. The first one goes the quickest. You will probably level up here pretty soon. You should set it where your stamina bar is always showing at the bottom of your view. That way you can kinda slow down whenever it's getting low. Crashing like that is no fun. It still happens to me during boss battles, or when I am running around a lot.”

  “How do I set that up?”

  “Just open your inventory and go to options. Click on “always display health and stamina” and you should be good to go.”

  I opened my inventory and did what he said. Both bars appeared at the bottom of my view. “Crap, I almost forgot about my health. That rat took it down to 8/10. Guess that isn't too bad, but it still sucks.”

  “A rat nearly killed me my first day,” the character replied with a laugh.

  “That would have sucked if a rat killed you,” Tommy replied.

  I looked around. We were on top of a hill with tall yellow grass around us. The grass danced in the wind while a flock of birds flew above us. The sunshine seemed brighter than real life. Everything was crystal clear like a 4k television. To my left, I saw a cluster of different villages. Some of them were large, while others were small. In the distance, there were many snowcapped mountains not far away. “This world is so beautiful,” I said. “I can't believe how amazing this all is. I have already almost forgotten that this is just a game.”

  The character walked closer to me and put one hand on my shoulder. “This is the real world. Well, at least for me it is. I'm not going back. I'll never go back.”

  “Really?” I asked with surprise.

  “Nope,” he replied. “Why would I? I have way more here than I do on the outside world. Friends, adventure and lots of gold. Well, I used to have lots of gold.”

  “Used to? What happened to it?”

  “It's a long story,” he replied while throwing a stone into the air. “I still have a lot of gold, but lost a ton of it. You gotta be careful. You can earn a fortune, and lose it all. Always hide your gold and never show it off. Some people even hide their gold in holes. In fact, I think that's pretty smart.”

  I didn't reply. But, I wanted to know how to get gold. Maybe I was greedy, but I wanted a lot of gold. “How do we get gold? We came here to earn money for the real world.”

  The character sighed. “So that's what you are here for? Just one of the money seekers?”

  My head went back and forth. “No, not at all. I mean, it was part of the reason. But, we both love MMORPGS. It was like killing two birds with one stone. We just saw a great opportunity to earn money and have fun while doing it. Does that make sense?”

  “It's fine,” the character replied. “Everyone comes for different reasons. Many come for money, but end up liking it here better. They lose themselves, and before they know it, they are sucked in. They never ever go back.”

  “I could see why. This is all so amazing.”

  In the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of something interesting. “Is that another mass of land out there?”

  “Yea, that's another continent. The game is seriously massive. The continent we are on is called Hemingway. This game world is bigger than any other MMORPG I have played in the past. It doesn't all look the same either. There's snow, deserts, mountains, dungeons, jungles, vast oceans and all sorts of stuff. You will see. You will lose yourself in this world before you know it.”

  “What's the whole game world called?” Tommy asked.

  “Creston. The world of Creston is composed of six different continents. But, there are many small islands hidden between these continents. You will never get done exploring this game.”

  I couldn't help but grin. Then I asked him my next question. “Another player said we should start an army. How do we find new members?”

  His eyebrows went up. “You should. If you start an army, you will be ahead of most players. Everyone here wants money or gold. Gold is the in game currency, and money is in the outside world of course. Either way, players want gold. The thing is, gold is worth four times more here than it is on the outside world. So, if you earn one gold coin, it's only worth twenty five cents in the real world. Do you understand what I am saying?”

  “Wow, I didn't know that,” I replied while following the character down a hill.

  “Yea. They made it that way on purpose. They want to entice players to live here instead of the real world. That's what I think anyways.”

  “What about starting an army?” Tommy asked from behind me. “Should we go and recruit some new members?”

  The character laughed as we followed behind him. “If you want to start an army, we should head to one of the peasant villages. This is a place where characters recruit peasants. They will be interested in joining us. But, we will need to give them some food and gold. But maybe some of them will be willing to work for free. It's rare, but it sometimes happens.”

  “That sounds good,” I replied. “Where is one of these villages?”

  I smiled on the inside. Peasants? I liked the idea of turning a peasant into a warrior. Yes, that would be great. And eventually, these peasants would learn to worship me. I was sure of it. It seemed like the perfect way to make a name for myself in the gaming world. My footsteps came to a stop. “So how far is a peasant village?”

  “Not far,” the character replied.

  “What is your name? You never told us your name.”

  He sighed. “Open up your menu and go to options. Make sure the auto
name display option is checked. Did you not read anything about this game before you began to play?”

  I shrugged my shoulders. “No. I guess I didn't. I just figured there would be a tutorial.”

  I opened my menu and did what the character told me. Suddenly, a name popped up above his head:

  Todd The Wordsmith – Level 27

  Human Male - Warrior

  I cleared my throat. “Nice. I see it. Todd the Wordsmith? That's a pretty cool name.”