Colours of Fate

Colours of hope

I wake with a new determination and energy I have never felt before, my body rearing to go explore the new world, as if the boss tower had been moved, several other things may be different now. I walk out of the inn and see several other people sitting and crying on the streets, the rest buying items from the NPCs, probably preparing to head out and level themselves up. The crying indicates that the news of the boss tower has been announced by someone, not a smart move on their part in my opinion, this early on, morale is a major thing we need desperately. I look around for anyone who might group up with me, as my plan is to push onto the next town, opening up better items for everyone to use, and more homes for people to sleep in for free. I pull up my menu, and check the help section, and search for ways to obtain a house, I don't care about what floor, because town portals will keep me up with the floors. Apparently they didn't change the system of unblocking the area when a player pays, upon doing so they receive a key , allowing them access, and access for whomever they choose. The key is now a tradable item, which means you can in theory sell your house to other players. I decide I should save for the first house I can get my hands on, the inn is being a constant drain on my money, and sleeping on the streets is out of the question, as the supposedly 'safe' zones where you cannot die, also mean that duels are terrifying, and players have figured out how to force a duel on a sleeping player.

Seeing nobody that I would work with, I walk onto the path towards the next town, the dirt track is packed with monsters, some that I am unsure on my ability to fight at this point, though there were rumors somebody had made it there already, though I doubted them stories myself. The enemies I fight are evidently not designed for me at this point, and as I get closer to the town, I begin to question the sanity of my decision to make this town switch, I'm already running low on potions and life, but in the last hour or so of progression, I had leveled up another 7 times, so if I make this, I will be much better off for it.

After another half hour of sneaking past enemies, and sprinting away from them when I get noticed, I probably should improve my stealth skill. I reach the town wall, follow it round until I see an opening, and stand in amazement of what confronted me. The gate's lock had already been taken off, somebody had been here already, but are they still here? I slump to the ground, panting and sweating considering how powerful they must have been to already reach this place, or was it a group? No, they would have been known to be here if that was the case. My life regeneration eventually restores me to maximum life.

I decide to scout out the town, see what vendors have available, what workstations are available for people to use, and other such things, also, I hope to find out who exactly it was who beat me here. I discover a forge, a woodwork's, and several items of a higher quality for sale. It is quickly becoming apparent to me that the game has been modified so that the beta testers have have no advantage over everyone else after their first day of activity, their armor values and weapon values dropping to that of a medium end equivalent in the first town. I unequip and sell these now useless items, and buy myself the very best from this town, knowing that I would be needing all of this to survive. I am now glad I killed so many monsters on the way here, taking on quests at the same time, as I now have a substantial amount of money from killing so many monsters.

After equipping my newly acquired gear, I continue looking for the person who reached this town , or just some tips towards where they may have headed. After a few hours of searching, I'm still not able to find any clues on who it might be, but after a few chats with other beta testers to report the availability of the town, an obvious trend seems to appear, that nobody had seen Kirito, nobody we knew had him on their friend lists, so I'm unsure on whether he is already dead, or the more likely scenario where he is heading between all the towns, solo or in a group, once again unlikely knowing his attitude, getting an advantage before all the areas are farmed out, definitely interesting how off the radar he is though....

I manage to push the thought out of my mind, either way, there's nothing that I can do about it now. I decide that my best course of action is to find a place to rest, and to begin the allocation of my skill points from levelling up so much. I know that only 2 stats are available for me to increase through skill points and not through preforming the action. Strength and agility. Strength will increase my damage output, whereas agility will increase my maximum movement speed. In a serious fight, both of these stats will be essential, being able to hit hard will be good so the kill will be made quicker, but if I have no agility investment, my ability to dodge attacks myself will be reduced drastically, and over-investment in agility will mean they won't hit me often, but I won't hit hard. I decide to invest every third point into strength and the rest into agility, as long as I have a group, surely the lower strength won't matter.

I get myself set up in an inn and go over in my head the events of the day. It had certainly been fun, the adrenaline rush, the mystery, the adventure of it all. The ecstasy doesn't last long. The very thought of how many people could have died today sickens me. Then I think of how many times I could of died myself. I've been being way too careless with my life, especially considering how one small slip up would have been my last breath. I promise myself to be more careful from now on, and slowly let myself drift off to sleep...