Timed Event!!!
*Tap* *Tap* *Tap*
Sitting on his chair, Norne's fingers rapidly moved across the keyboard, pressing every key with precision while simultaneously keeping an eye on the watch.
"Ho, looks like, someone is in quite a hurry today? Taking a girl out for dinner, huh? You lucky bastard." A colleague of his stood behind him and looked over his shoulder to check his computer and commented while thumping his back.
"No, no. Nothing of the sort. I need to clean my apartment, too much junk cluttered up." Norne slowly turned around and replied to his '40 something year old' team leader who would occasionally make such jokes around the office. Or maybe because he made such jokes, he was liked by all the people in the office. Among all the team leaders that Norne had worked under, this man was the only one with a weird and quirky humor, but his intentions weren't bad.
"Haha, look at you all flustered. No need to hide it from me. You young ones are always so shy when it comes to relationship. In my times...." With that his team leader went on to ramble about his sunshine days adorned with rainbows and stars.
After a 15 odd minutes of reminiscing, his leader suddenly stopped talking and sneakily looked around before putting his arm around Norne's neck and whispered "There is a small restaurant around the 5th street. Not too flashy, not too shabby, has great food and wine." After saying this, he once more looked around, making sure nobody was present, "and right across it is the Heaven's Angels, a perfect place for new couples to spend the night." *wink* *wink*
Looking at the smug smile on his boss face, Norne's mind blanked out.
'Why the fuck do you know that? On second thought, i don't want to know.' Norne stared at his team leader with a stupefied expression. He always thought that his simple looking team leader was an honest, down to earth person. Only now he realised how wrong he was 'Never judge a book by it's cover... Guess they were right, after all.'
"Haha, don't thank me right now. Thank me tomorrow over drinks and don't forget to tell me all the steamy details. Alright?" The supposed leader merrily went to his office, leaving a completely frozen Norne on his seat.
"What in the blazes was that? Wait, doesn't he have a daughter studying in high school?" Norned facepalmed and threw the just happened conversation in a new folder called Team Leader's Amorous Adventures and sealed it with a random password.
"Oh shit, only 30mins left." As Norne peeked at the clock on the wall, his face left all color and his fingers quickly flashed across the keyboard.
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After 15 minutes of typing, he mailed the documents to his team leader and ran for the lift. Outside, he took a taxy to his apartment. Through the tinted glass of the cab, he could see the rapidly changing scenery, a number of people entering and leaving his vision at an astounding pace.
*sigh* a small sigh left his mouth, his eyes growing heavy by the minute.
...
...
"Sir, we have arrived at the address." The cab stopped outside a 5 floor tall building. When Norne didn't leave the cab, the driver looked at the mirror and called out to the dozing Norne.
"Thank you." Norne swiftly picked up his bag and bolted out of the cab, to his apartment.
After taking a shower and eating a few snacks and protein bars, he switched on his pc and logged in the game 'The Weltershine Chronicles'.
*Event Entry Permitted*
*Event Begins in 5 minutes*
*Enter the event* *Yes* *No*
A number of brief messages hovered on the screen when the login credentials matched.
"Yes. I can participate in the event." Norne joyfully punched the air and clicked 'yes' on the screen.
The time event was a new concept of 'Weltershine Chronicles', this was the very first timed event after the launch of the game 3 years ago. What made this event special?
First, it was a solo event and no teams were allowed to join, making it perfect for people like Norne who mostly played solo.
Second, the event wasn't hard and focused primarily on clearing a dungeon within a time limit and whoever finishes first will get a hidden bonus reward while others will get different rewards based on time ladder.
Thirdly, there was no level, gear or any other limit, meaning you can use any ability or item, so long as it doesn't break game ethics. Obviously, hacking or any other similar activity would lead to an IP ban, therefore, nobody ever tried that after an hacker was banned and jailed for it.
The last and most important part was the entry number and only a selected people could participate in the event. Interested participants could partake in the raffle and randomly selected participants will be informed by a message. Thanks to the company's reputation, nobody doubted them for unfair entries or fixing.
Just when Norne was worried about getting rejected, he received the joining message, bringing a smile to his face. Like every other player, he was also looking forward to that no.1 reward, the allure of a bonus reward was a tad bit too enticing, to say the least.
After clicking on 'Yes', a loading screen flashed for a seconds before a completely new zone was presented before his eyes.
Norne's character, Verte, stood in a massive cathedral styled room where 40 or so other toons were, similarly, waiting for further instructions. While he was busy checking out the new area, a character standing near Norne's noticed him and starting typing in area chat bringing attention to him.
"Huh? This paladin guy is also participating in the event! WTF!! How am i supposed to win against a top 10 cheater player. He can literally solo raid bosses without even hitting them once. How is this allowed. GM! GM!! Where is GM?"
"Isn't he that famous paladin known for his aura build that can kill everything within it's range."
"You mean that walking fortress guy!!"
"Just my luck. Competing against a guy like him."
"Maybe i should forfeit now that he is participating."
"Ahh, there goes my dream for 1st position."
What started with one guy soon become a matter of discussion among others. Some gave him a look of indifference while others openly cursed him. Almost everyone present was unhappy with his attendance in the selected few.
"..." Norne sat rooted in his chair. He had no idea what to say or do in the situation, so he did what was best. Staying silent. If he tried to dissuade them, it would only fuel the fire and lead to a disaster. Since, he was permitted by the game, his character must have already gone through the basic checks. If GM's had no problem, what did player's unreasonable remarks mattered?
Among the hubbub, a priest slowly descended on the altar in the front of the room, immediately silencing everyone. Everybody knew what the entry of an unknown character at this point signified 'The event was starting.'
*Welcome to Marian's Church*
*An heinous monster has taken over our sanctuary*
*I hope you can defeat it and free our sanctuary of its accursed presence*
*I wish you all good luck*
*Return safely, my childs*
Entering Raid Zone in
3..
2..
1..
Good Luck!!!
Once the loading screen disappeared, Norne found his toon standing at the entry junction of a massive cave. The mouth of the passage was around 50ft high and 20ft wide. From this alone, one could tell how ginormous the main battle zone was going to be.
As he progressed deeper into the zone, he noticed the rocks getting darker and darker until it reached a point where every single rock was charred black and upon further inspection, he noticed a slight hue oozing from the rocks before vanishing.
"They have definitely worked on the aesthetics of the area. This looks really eerie."
"Time to get ready for battle." Usually the end of the entry pathway meant the end of safe zone and because he was almost at the end, he wanted to activate his skills before taking the first step inside the dungeon.
*Crown of the Etherian King* *Status: Active Mana Reserved: 200*
Area Damage: 500 Fire Dmg/sec, 500 Ice Dmg/sec, 500 Wind Dmg/sec, 500 Lightning Dmg/sec, 500 Dark Dmg/sec, 500 Aether Dmg/sec, 500 Miasma Dmg/sec (similar to poison).
*Shield of the Unburdened King* *Status: Active Mana Reserved: 100*
Area Damage: 1000 Fire Dmg/sec, Thorn Damage: 1500, Thorn Effect: 500 Miasma Dmg/sec.
*Shield Dual-Weld: Active*, Status Effects Doubled
*Ring of BloodThirst* *Status: Active Mana Reserved: 100*
Dmg Dealt converted to HP: 40%
Skill: Ring of Hellbringer, Status: Activate, Mana Usage: 5/sec
Skill: Devil's Circle
Skill: ...
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...
...
After activating several items, aura and zone skills, Norne took the first step in the dungeon and before he could process any of surroundings, 8 armored behemoth jumped him.
*Sentinel's Tank* Increases aggro, decreases damage taken by 90% for 5 seconds. CD: 4.5 sec
He shield shined brightly as the attacks landed on it's top but even with the weight of 8 giant monsters behind it, Verte stood in it's place. The right end of his HP bar decreasing by 5% and in the very next second replenishing on its own.
The monsters continued rampaging and attacking the shield with all their might but were unable to deal any serious damage. After a few seconds, they started falling down as the damage from the aoe, zone and thorn skills slowly overwhelmed them, leading to their demise.
The similar scene occurred as Verte progressed further in the area. A number of monsters would surround and attack him but would ultimately fall as his skills, slowly but surely, chip away their health while healing him in the process.
Repeating the tedious and arduous process for god knows how long, he finally managed to defeat the mobs scattered around the last zone, the raid boss area. Expectedly, the last zone definitely didn't disappoint him and what greeted him was a spectacular sight of giant 80ft tall double doors.
"Holy... The developers should chill a little. Who in their right mind can open this door." Norne rubbed his sore temples, as he mocked the game designer for going ham on the design. Sure, the door looked cool with two snake-like golden dragons coiling around a round silver gem and several small monsters encircling them, but the size was definitely an overkill.
Like the developers could hear his monologue, the doors made a dull thud noise and slowly opened.
"Unless it's automatic..."
*Gulp* Looking at the scenery, Norne held his breath. Even on a flat static screen, it was definitely a breathtaking sight.
The semblance of a dark room glittering with shiny rocks and gems was a sight to behold. If this was any other zone in the game, he would have already ran in to take check its wonders.
Unfortunately, this was not just any zone. This was the resting place of the last boss, in the scenario, a raid boss. Without exerting any effort, his eyes soon fell upon the creature that he would never unsee for his life.
Among the treasure filled utopia of gems and valuables, laid a creature as large as the cave itself. Its dark wings slowly rose and fell sending a small gust of dust around. The long tail filled with pointy glittering scales, would occasionally jerk left and right, showing its amusement. And finally, the head adorned with a pair of two long thin horns. What was worse were those two shiny green eyes that were curiously peering at him through the gaps of the door.
*Gulp*
"I'm so dead." Norne said as he placed as finger on the 'w' key and pushed Verte in the unforgiving den.
*whoosh*