1 Welcome To DarQ Online

Okay, bear with me for a minute. I want you to imagine a world devoid of adventure and true exploration. A world where the sense of wonder and hope have faded to a dull echo. Where the rich elite rule the world from the shadows. A world where a billionaire playboy can become president. A world where the masses do everything in their power to escape reality. Where every technological advancement has turned towards an artificial escape. This is called a dead world. A world no longer capable of producing hero souls. A world left to its own slow death. It's hard to imagine this I'm sure. A world outside the purview of the world core DarQ. A world abandoned, devoid of heroes. This was the world I was born in. However, as you may have figured out by now, this is not where this story takes place.

__________

Entry Parameters Set...

Seeding Code Accepted...

Login Initiated...

System Handshake Accepted...

Login Confirmed...

DARQ ONLINE!

Okay so maybe squealing like a teenage girl at Comic-Con meeting David Tennant or Jason Momoa wasn't the most historic first words. In Singer's defense though, this was the most epic moment of his entire life! Entire shows, books and a whole genre had been built around this idea. And here he was among the first to try out the very first Full Immersion Virtual Reality MMO. Or FIVR for short. Now if that wasn't enough to make any gamer guy fan-girl, it got better. One of his favorite authors was leading it. He was a gamer himself, and was very stringent on making it the truly greatest of mmo's that gamers dreamed of. He fought viciously against investors and gaming companies alike ensuring it had the best elements of western and eastern mmo's and none of the flaws. He had similarly lead a TV series and movies based off his works in the past, so hopes were high. DarQ Online was based off one of his most popular series about a fantasy world with a mix of traditional epic fantasy adventure and modern story telling flare and intrigue. To say Singer was excited to be one of the early testers was an understatement.

A bright halo filled his vision as his eyes strained to adjust to the sudden daylight. The log in screen had been near complete blackness as his consciousness loaded into the game world. Only the lightly glowing word DarQ had created any light at the time.

Now however, as his eyes adjusted Singer found himself looking upon a beautiful landscape. Currently Singer found himself standing on a ledge partway up a mountainside. He could see off in the distance for miles. This in itself was incredible, as in real life he was practically blind and had trouble even with glasses. Something he had sadly never been able to afford to fix. Singer smiled ear to ear as he looked at the Black Dessert sands in the distance. He had read the books and watched the movies enough to know exactly what he was looking at. It was both far more beautiful and far deadlier than any dessert in the real world.

Turning around to look to the other side of the ledge he found his breath instantly taken away. A strange land in near constant motion, both barren and full of life, colorless and brilliantly colored all at once was laid out before him. Strange plants and rock formations like nothing he ever could have imagined filled the landscape. Further in the distance Singer could nearly make out what appeared to be some titanic creature slowly moving across the alien landscape. There was only one place he knew it could be. That was the Blasted Lands. In the books it was a place where the heroes had taken refuge during the Demon War. The lore said it was one of many places left over from an ancient war between mages that had devastated the continent and shaped the laws of magic here for centuries before the Demon Wars. He realized that put him on the south western face of the Prime Mountain. Or at least, that's what the dwarves called it. Sadly both landscapes had been left out of the movies as production costs hadn't allowed them to be done to the authors standards. Singer was more than ecstatic to see that they made it into the game however.

As much as he wanted to admire the scenery some more Singer knew he needed to figure out how to use the game interface. Thankfully it was fairly simple for the most part. Simply thinking about any part of the interface would bring it up and then supposedly it would respond to any hand gestures directed at it.

Character Sheet

The grin on his face got even bigger if that was possible at this point. Before his face popped a perfectly sized partially transparent 3d rendering of his character as well as a side panel depicting basic info and stats.

Name: Singer Du'Cross

Race: Human

Age: 28

Class: –

Power Rank: 0

Traits: Adaptable, Gambler's Curse

Abilities: –

Skills: –

Languages: Daldamer Common

Most of his sheet was empty since he had just started, so that made sense. The adaptable trait was standard for human characters. As for the Gambler's Curse it was supposedly his unique trait. Everyone got one unique to them based on a questionnaire and personality test that they did at sign up. This one appeared to increase chances of unique events, both good and bad. Seems the real world was already bleeding into the VR world with that one. Singer kinda figured something like that would happen. He had always had an abnormal sort of luck in life. Crazy things had always happened with abnormal frequency making life beyond chaotic for him.

Shaking his thoughts clear again Singer turned to the other panel to look at his 3d image. It honestly looked more similar to his real life appearance than most people took. He had always gone with idealized versions of himself in games. Not out of any kind of narcissism, but rather out of a desire to escape reality. If he could imagine his character as himself it made the immersion that much better. His own face stared back at Singer as he examined the changes. It still had a mix of Asian and Native American features. His nose however was slightly narrower and his jaw line appeared stronger. His black hair had a white streak running through it down the right side slightly off center and he had added a goatee shaped like two U's similar to how he had seen in an anime once. Singer had always hated his lack of being able to grow a beard in the real world. He was enjoying the more advance character creation system this game had without a doubt. At this point he noticed his ears had the slightest point to them along the back edge. It wasn't a change he had made so he'd file a bug report when he logged out. Although, Singer did consider he might add a note asking they leave it on his character. It gave him a sort of rakish look that he liked. The clothing would have to be changed as soon as possible though. Singer was never a fan of the homeless farmer rags look.

Closing his character sheet Singer decided to take a look at the cavern entrance that he had been putting off exploring. Seeing as it was the only safe direction he could go from the ledge he was spawned on it absolutely screamed tutorial. Singer growled as he had always hated forced tutorials and would make his disappointment in that fact clear in his first test report. After all, not everyone wanted to play a tutorial for hours. Some people just wanted to get straight to the game and figure things out the hard way. And if this game was as much about freedom as they claimed then a forced tutorial was the wrong direction.

Singer didn't make it three feet into the cave when a painful burning sensation at his ankle caught his attention. He looked down to see a small white scorpion had stung him just above the top of the basic leather starting shoes he had logged in with. It had cost him one health point which was declining by one point per minute for the next five minutes. Typical damage over time from poison. Singer focused on the scorpion briefly, and details popped up above it.

Frost Stinger

Rank 1

Singer stomped on it with as much force as he could muster and grinned as he got the next notification.

Frost Stinger Defeated!

Rank promotion to Rank 1

1 copper obtained

-Tutorial complete-

You have experienced the briefest example of combat and the pain that comes with it as well as a sample of the treasures and power that awaits you in this world. From this point forward you are free to explore this world as you so choose.

WELCOME TO DARQ ONLINE!

After that was some basic info guiding him towards the various aspects of the user interface to include a tutorial manual if he found himself needing further info. He made a note to be sure to read that before logging out. Despite his initial reaction, the facsimile of a forced tutorial they had given made Singer chuckle a bit as he moved further into the cave. At least the devs had a sense of humor. Additionally that had solved one issue, which was why he had always waited til log out to file reports when testing a new game.

Singer took great pride in ensuring he gave proper feedback on new games. He had watched to many games with amazing potential die due to knee jerk reactions from a fan base related group. On such group had been a guild known as Thug Force. They had been one of those mega zerg guilds that ran from game to game dominating every server they were on. However, this guild had a rather nasty streak compared to other mega zerg guilds. They consistently lied to new members filling their ranks with cannon fodder saying if only they gave enough time to the guild they would be rewarded. Singer had been one of the few who actually stuck around and made their ridiculous goals. It was then he found out they had lied to everyone and only funneled the resources to the rich brat and his friends in the core group who used them to sell gold and rare items for real world money. After leaving he found out they even swarmed new games with the intent to grief new players at the start and shut the games down with bad reviews. It was something of a joke to them. He later had an opportunity to spread some crucial info about them in one of their favorite games they had dominated, allowing for their downfall. Ever since they had hunted him in every game he played. Now his only respite was being a game tester for new games before Thug Force could get their players in game. As such he ensured to always do his best as a game tester in order to get more testing opportunities to game freely. His thoughts darkened for a brief moment as he headed forward.

Much like his thoughts the cave got noticeably dimmer as he got deeper, which was of course no surprise. Moss and mushrooms of various colors glowed slightly giving him enough light to see his way through, thankfully. At the thought of the glowing plant life Singer realized it likely meant there would likely be something that ate said plant life. Crouching down he began moving slowly trying to keep out of the dimly glowing light as much as possible as he strained his hearing to listen for potential enemies.

Congratulations!

Sneak Rank 1 Achieved

You are now able to be quieter than a bull in a china shop.

Singer shook his head slightly as he cautiously moved forward equipping a basic skinning dagger he had found in his inventory. Examining the meager supplies in his inventory he had hoped to find something more combat oriented. The complexity and depth of the game was already impressive, though the starting gear left much to be desired. Singer feared anything bigger than a large raccoon would mean his first death as he stood now. Sneaking through the cave slowly meant Singer spent more time than he would have preferred descending down the long tunnels as they took him deeper and deeper into the mountain. It wasn't long before he received a notification that the damage over time had ended as the poison had finished its course through his body. He felt warmer inside at this leading him to notice that the air was crisp and clean, just how one would expect mountain air to be. Even this deep in the tunnel it still remained crisp and cool telling him how high up the mountain he must be.

Singer stopped abruptly at the sound of soft scratching. Singer strained his eyes trying to peer into the shadows for movement and received a new notification for his efforts as something skittered across the floor.

Moss Crab

Rank 3

Rank 1 Inspect Achieved

Congratulations, you're not blind.

Singer chuckled slightly at the sarcastic description despite starting to feel a little targeted by whoever was writing the messages. They were honestly starting to feel a little personal. Shaking his head in sudden annoyance he examined the moss crab closer seeing it looked much like a large fiddler crab about as big as a house cat. It wore glowing moss atop it like a cap as it wiggled its larger claw angrily in Singer's direction. He raised an eyebrow slightly as the Moss Crab's name suddenly turned red. Pulling up his new inspect ability he found what he was looking for.

Inspect: At rank one this ability will color code enemies and items you inspect. Depending on your crafting capabilities or combat capabilities the item or monster will be color coded to you. Further ranks in this ability will allow inspection of higher ranks and hidden ranks as well as more details. Please do not try to taste the rainbow.

Gray: 3+ Ranks lower

White: 2 Ranks Lower

Green: 1 Rank Lower

Yellow: Same Rank

Orange: 1 Rank Higher

Red: 2 Ranks Higher

Purple: 3+ Ranks Higher

Well that looked handy. With this new knowledge he took a few quick breaths and tightened his grip on the skinning dagger before leaping for the Moss Crab. Bringing his skinning dagger down on the crab caused it to screech loudly as as dagger scratched uselessly across its hard shell. Before Singer could react further it lashed out with its claw striking him painfully on the arm.

Singer recalled a time where he had sat in a bad position for so long his leg fell asleep. Not that slightly fell asleep kind but the kind where he knew if he tried to walk on it it'd hurt, so he had just stood there looking like an idiot for ten minutes hoping the blood would flow back through quickly. In his impatience he had tried to walk anyways but his leg had given out on him due to lack of blood flow. Singer decided right away that, that's exactly what this crab's strike felt like.

"Frack!" Singer swore loudly in one of his favorite science fiction swear words as his now numb arm dropped the skinning knife. Purely out of reactionary anger he punted the Moss Crab across the cave where it smacked against the stone wall with a wet crack.

Moss Crab Defeated!

Rank promotion to Rank 3

1 glow moss obtained

"Oh come on! I just made that one!"