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Chapter 4: The Marine City

Strength:

A basic stat that increases damage for melee, slightly increases health points and allows for superhuman strength ingame if pushed over a certain limit.

Agility:

A basic stat that increases Damage for ranged as well as accuracy, slightly increases movement speed, attack speed and critical hit chance, allows for superhuman speed if pushed beyond a certain limit.

Vitality:

A basic stat that increases overall health tremendously, slightly increases armor rating and overall regeneration, makes potions more effective if pushed over a certain point.

Wisdom:

A basic stat that increases overall mana tremendously, slightly increases mana regeneration and if pushed beyond a certain limit resistance to curses, taunts, hexes and illusions increases.

Intelligence:

A basic stat that increases damage for magic, slightly increases mana and if pushed beyond a certain point allows for superhuman intuition and perception.

That was all Makoto was able to dig up about the stats in Azalon.

Surprisingly there was no mention of the Fame stat.

Truth be told what else did he expect, the game's servers had only been online since this morning, that was a little more than 12 hours.

Many players in the online forums even vowed to spend 99% of the weekend ingame so not many posts had been made yet.

Sighing and rubbing his eyes he stood up from his chair and stretched.

If he didn’t have to get up early tomorrow morning to go on the promised shopping spree with his mum he would also not log out till Monday, but that was one of the requirements for getting the game and the Capsule in the first place.

After getting a drink Makoto went back to the forums, the excitement of actually being inside Azalon didn’t let go of him so he decided to maybe find a few more pieces of valuable information.

His search continued for a while until he noticed a video that was posted a few minutes ago.

Interested he clicked play and waited for the thing to load while putting it on full-screen.

The actual footage was from a player's own perspective, it was possible to record ingame footage and transfer the video to a computer or hard-drive, Makoto knew that much as well.

The video showed a party of players storm inside a large room with sparkling stones all over the wall, in the middle of the room was a gigantic lizard, the thing must have been at least 10 feet tall when standing, right now it was supposedly asleep.

Letters appeared above its head after the player from the footage got closer with his party.

Gemstone Lizard: Boss Monster lvl 10

"Oh wow.."

Makoto watched as an epic battle unfolded before his eyes.

Somehow one of the players in the video had already changed his class to a Mage, shooting flames from both hands again and again.

Another player was showering the Giant Lizard with arrow after arrow and the rest used a common hit and run tactic as to not get under any sharp talons.

The video lasted nearly 10 minutes with a few players dying but overall the party managed to slay the Lizard, with a fade away black screen, sudden letters appeared at the end of the video.

-Join now! Yggdrasil, the one guild to conquer Azalon!-

Not interested at all, Makoto closed his browser and sat back in his chair.

The guild might not have piqued his interest but the fight sure did.

Again his heart began racing thinking about going back inside, the urge to fight even scarier monsters than the Goblin Chief blossomed inside Makoto's mind while he went to bed.

The Urge to fight and slaughter.

Smiling while thinking about blood, guts and glory, Makoto fell asleep.

.....

"What do you think of this one?"

His mother held in her hands a yellow dress, short in length and cut deep at the front to show cleavage.

"I'm sure it would suit you well mum."

Makoto said, she didn’t notice the lie within what he said so with a little smile she folded the piece of clothing over her arm and went to the front to pay for it.

Bored out of his mind he stared out of the display window, watching a few girls pass by and grading them in his mind, face and body both taken into account naturally.

"Are you coming honey?"

His Mother asked and after a short "Coming!" while keeping an especially attractive girl in the corner of his eye, he left the shop.

"We haven't done something like this in ages, I barely even see you these days, how are your studies going at the

moment?"

She asked looking at him with a smile, Makoto didn’t say he had not touched any of the books yet, instead he lied again as to not worry her and the bigger reason behind it, to not be nagged at.

"Everything is going great, we had a little test the other day and I nearly had full marks."

"That’s good, it would be terrible if this new game was affecting your future College work."

A menacing glare from her made him swallow but he smiled reassuringly while a little sweat ran down his back.

It seems his mother could still read him like an open book from time to time, even though keeping the everyday facade intact dampened it, beneath the mask, his mother was a very scary woman.

Her 3 ex-husbands could only agree while having to pay her living expenses every month.

"Oh look at that one, come, I have to try it on, it just screams late night party and you know how I have to attend my sisters birthday next week, this would be great for the after-party."

Giggling she dragged Makoto into another shop with dresses and extremely skimpy clothes on display.

Sighing deeply he pretended to look at some overpriced jeans while secretly staring outside the display window again.

His city, close to the west coast had many young girls, most of them freshly burned and crispy brown from visiting tanning beds.

Either that or they had a natural tan from heritage because no one could tell him that sunbathing was a thing at January, when it was freezing cold outside.

"I think this one really fits me well, what do you think?"

Presenting herself, his mum turned around once and then showed a beaming smile again.

Not wanting to tell his own mother she looked like a teenage girl with too much make-up, asking to be dragged into an Alley he just nodded.

"Maybe a bit much if you ask me but it looks good"

Makoto said in the end.

He really didn’t want his mother to go out like that, for her safety and his own reputation.

No one wants a Sugar Mama as their mother...

Feeling a shiver down his spine just thinking about it he shook his head slightly and went back to his important business, which was staring at the behind of moderately attractive girls.

Ignoring his mothers antics about her current boyfriend a girl caught Makoto's eye.

Face 10/10, Body 10/10, Smile 10/10. Holy mother...

A blond beauty with green eyes was walking with another girl at her side past the shop, stopping just opposite of where he was standing.

He was not the only one that noticed her as many eyes followed this blond girl, the majority were men but not all of them.

With a half opened mouth he watched this goddess outside the shop talk with her friend, then something funny must have been said because she broke out into a crystal clear laughter that reached his ears, it was like the angels of heaven were singing an otherworldly hymn to him.

Makoto, for the first time in his life felt something strange, a sudden throb in his chest, then a warmth spreading out from it.

While watching this goddess walk away, a smile, maybe the first heartfelt and honest smile in many years, appeared on his face.

"She is way out of your league honey, forget about that right now before you get your little heart broken."

Shaken up by these harsh words he noticed his mother, standing right in front of him and giving him a knowing look before turning around to find another outfit.

Still stunned and confused a quick glance confirmed that the girl was gone.

Again a throb went through his chest.

.....

Back inside Azalon Makoto continued in his slaughter of rock crabs, his Penetration skill also gained 2 levels until the rate at which he gained experience for it slowed down only to completely stop after the 100th crab or so.

"Maybe it has something to do with its armor being too low at this point? Hell if I know."

Unsure he continued killing the big critters, his experience bar crawled at a snails pace at this point but it only took him a few seconds per crab after getting used to their pattern so it was worth it in his eyes.

The sandy beach was hot under his feet after having traveled on it for many miles at this point, a sudden thirst and hunger took a hold of Makoto.

Surprised about those familiar sensations he took out a loaf of bread and practically shoved it down his throat, for the thirst he couldn’t really do much, drinking sea water would only dehydrate him more... or would it?

Curious, Makoto went near the rolling tide and scooped a bit of water into his hands, it definitely smelled like salty water.

Gulping it down slowly his thirst felt quenched for a moment until it returned even worse.

"Thought so, damn."

Wiping away the excessive water on his face his eyes went north, alongside the beach.

Talis was still not clearly visible, only a dark spot could be seen at the horizon if one looked carefully.

"Just how far away is that place..."

Growling angrily and with a dry throat Makoto decided to ignore the rock crabs for now, it was time to enter the city before he dropped dead from thirst and boredom.

.....

The Marine city of Talis was a metropolis of travel and commerce.

A giant aquatic place with the statues and fountains all over the city producing crystal clear water, streams of said water were running down every street and extremely beautiful structures, built by some of the most talented sculptors and architects, gave the city an enchanting aura.

The whole city gave the illusion of practically being built on the water, only a few strong pillars beneath enforced by magic and runes held the complicated structure afloat.

A single big bridge connecting to the mainland was the traditional way of entering Talis.

Merchants mostly used the docks, hiring ships to send their goods and other unusual cargo.

Sometimes a few Travelers from faraway also arrived in Talis with the Merchant ships but the numbers were few.

This fine and sunny day a rather peculiar sight could be seen for those who entered and left Talis using the giant stone bridge.

A young man with ragged clothes, dust and sand stuck to him, like make-up to a busy whore was running on the beach as if the hounds of hell were on his heels.

A few small-time Merchants that had erected their stands on the bridge to attract newcomers could only grin seeing the running and weary figure.

Soon enough the man was on the stone bridge, his naked feet drumming a fast beat.

Breathing heavily his eyes lit up after seeing the giant fountain and before anyone could stop or do anything he jumped right into it.

"Oh man did you see that?!"

"That guy is crazy I tell you."

A few people exclaimed while laughing.

This truly strange man was just lying inside the fountain for a while, water splashing on top of him until he stood up and greedily drank the water coming out of the statues.

After a satisfied "Puh!" the man stepped out of the fountain, completely drenched head to toe but smiling from one ear to the other.

"So this is Talis huh?"

Makoto said, looking at the big aqueducts bringing fresh water into the city and the many statues and structures spilling the precious liquid quite literally on the streets.

Grinning, the man entered the city, leaving wet footprints behind with many onlookers and their whispered words following him.

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Back to Main Page

As Promised, the Chapter for today.

Hope you enjoyed the bit of real-life, hinting at more to come and cya all tomorrow :drinkT:

Don't forget to comment or voice your opinon btw, love reading comments from you guys :D

Note to self: never again use Quick edit lol, messes up spacing bad...