Dying In Real Life Is Another Way To Play

"STOP!!!" shouted Ye Qian

*whoosh*

The sword stopped roughly an inch from Zhang Shan's head. If you examine this frozen scene closely, you could immediately tell how much control Ye Qing has when it comes to handling the sword even with the speed of his draw and the sudden stop.

Zhang Shan slowly looked up to the blade sword with sweat beads starting to form on his forehead.

"Now that I have taken a good look at him, he does seem to be different than the person I saw back then..." Ye Qian said as she placed her index finger near her chin.

"...."

",,,,,,,,,"

"I think his skin tone was more reddish than what it is now..." she added.

*rrrriiiippp*

*swish* *swish*

long white slender legs appeared in succesion front of Zhang Shan, swapping with the sight of the sword.

* crash* ... *boom*

"Retard! you almost killed the bait!" shouted Lan Ranyan.

Two successive kicks release by Lan Ranyan was more than enough to send Ye Qing flying to the left side of the pub.

*....,.*

Zhang Shan was oogling at Lan Ranyan's exposed legs. Given that she wore a robe, to perform the kick, Lan Ranyan had to rip the bottom side of her robes for manuevering. Noticing that there was no response from Zhang Shan, Lan Ranyan saw Zhang shan staring at her legs.

"Oops.. Sorry you had to see my ugly temper, this nut job usually gets springy when it involves her sister." said Lanranyan as she quickly tried to cover her sides.

"N-no, that's okay, I'm kind of used to violence,i just didn't expect you as a mage to be able to perform powerful kicks" Zhang Shan stuttered.

"Well, enough of the chatter, I'm Ye Qian, you can call me Qian-er or Qian-qian. I'm these group's Archer, though most of my skills tend to immobilize monsters. I'm guessing that since you came with my idiot brother and Ranyan, you're going to help us out in our quest?" Ye Qian asked after introducing herself.

The surrounding people stopped what their doing after the commotion but resumed their drinking and business when they saw that everything seems to be fine. The Pub's bartender approached Ye Qing to seek compensation for the damaged bottles and tables after he stood up looking fine as if he wasn't involved at all.

Afterwards, the four chose an inconspicuous spot to proceed with their discussion. Sitting down at a circular table made of wood, Lan Ranyan started to inform Ye Qian about what had been agreed upon earlier regarding the quest.

"When do we depart?" Zhang Shan asked.

"Right away of course, you don't have to worry about potions and stuff, I'll make sure that you're safe until we reach the monsters spawn point." Ye Qing said.

"Besides, you'll only be useful once we get there. And if you're lucky, you might even learn skills along the way." Ye Qian added.

Most games in the market would allow you to learn skills with skill points or learning through pre-defined skill trees. In Alternate Realms Chronicles, its more of an open skill acquisition, there are different methods of gaining skills, and most of the time the chances of getting them are fairly slim. Some known ways on learning skills is through arduous learning from the knowledge of the local NPC's which takes time, while the more famous method used by players is through eating monsters although chances of getting them are lower, it does allow one to gain it faster.

This method has been called "Gene Devouring", the game company developers mentioned that 95% of known skills were acquired through Gene Devouring. Once you get a skill, it would appear on the interface, for newly discovered ones, a complete test through blood extraction in any one of the Discovery Testing Facilities of Main Cities would help identify the characteristics and methods on triggering the skill.

After the test is complete, the User can name the skill in accordance to the theme of the game. This usually goes through a series of approvals. It takes time but being the one who discovers such skills would allow one to credited through game lore interface. This test would also allow the system AI to rank it in accordance to the other known skills on the database.

"As much as possible please avoid trying to kill any monsters, we wouldn't want you leveling up prem.a.t.u.r.ely over level five, by then, the system would recognize you as a seasoned player." Lan Ranyan cautioned a reminder.

Although the game would indicate a certain level for players, these are basically a rough estimation in regards to the average stat points one would have on their seven major attributes, mainly Strength, Vitality, Dexterity, Agility, Intelligence, Wisdom and Constitution. This also doesn't indicate their over-all combat levels and skills. A level 10 player may not necessarily be able to defeat a level 5 player just because they have higher stat points. Death is technically hanging around everyone's head. A mere miscalculation could very well result into a sudden demise.

"How long does it take to get there?" Zhang Shan asked.

"It may take us around half a day to get there." Ye Qing answered.

"That close? isn't it supposed to be a place that newbies couldn't possibly reach during the beginners phase?" Zhang Shan was surprised

Lan Ranyan further explained that a just outside the Kingdom of Sylvannas, they stumbled upon a well that has a hidden tunnel underneath. They have never reported this discovery before as the place itself was abundant with new monsters which had been continuously giving them new discoveries. They found it six months ago and when Ye Qing's younger sister tagged along, that's when they encountered the mysterious monsters.

The four immediately took off after paying for their drinks, one could say that aside from the game play, new flavours and taste that are notavailable on Earth could be experienced by players. There are even players that are actually filthy-rich in real life, that would only play to savor these flavours.

As an example, The wine sold in the Kingdom of Rashasa is considered to be the best wine ever tasted by humans. Although this has not been officially recognized by the The International Wine Community due to it being a virtual experience.

After equipping and readying their packs with all the necessities for an adventure, they journeyed toward their destination. Zhang Shan marvelled at how easily Ye Qing crushed the life out of each monster with one swing to finish them off. The sword which resembled that of a dao sword, cut through every monsters as if they were made of tofu. This was done with out any special skills involved. Albeit Lan Ranyan mentioned that each of these monsters are more than enough to kill Zhang Shan many times over

Being a desert biome, most monsters that they encountered were either scaled or armored but still they dropped dead like flies facing the onslaught of Ye Qing's sword play. Mobbing was almost impossible as it has been identified that desert type monsters move about individually rather than in packs.

The four travelled for almost half a day until they reached their destination. During their journey by foot, the two girls kept pestering Zhang Shan, one kept on chattering like a tour guide while the other kept on asking personal questions. Ye Qing on the other hand kept to his words and killed any monsters.

"Finally were here." Ye Qian said.

The four stopped just beside the dried-up well. Lan Ranyan passed her water pouch to Zhang Shan to drink. Although one wouldn't really be thirsty, but their in-game avatars would feel hunger and thirst which in turn could weaken and slow their movements, this is also another way to die, a stupid one at that.

"Okay! from here on, the show is about to start, we'll rest for a bit before we make our way down." Ye Qing excitedly said.

"I would like to ask, if it isn't much, what are your levels?" Zhang Shan asked politely.

"Ye Qing there is level 84, Lan Ranyan is level 81 and I'm currently level 63!" Ye Qian answered with pride in her voice.

"How about the monsters, underneath, what do you think are their levels at?" Zhang Shan followed up.

"I'm guessing they range at about level 30-40, though I'm not sure about those monsters we originally came here to hunt. They seem to be sturdier than level 85 or so, but the way they move and attack are somewhere at level 1" Lan Ranyan answered with a bothered face.

"Yeah that's very puzzling, considering that this is the first time we encountered a very mismatched Monster" added Ye Qing.

"Could it be a mythical monster?" asked Zhang Shan

*pak*

Zhang Shan felt a sharp pain at the back of his head. It was Ye Qian eho slapped him.

"Stupid, are you an idiot like Ye Qian, if it's a Mythical monster, we wouldn't be bringing a newbie like you along" she quipped.

Although not registered by the system, players had tried to classify monsters into different ranks. These are Dregs, Normal, Rare, Boss, Unique, Legendary and Mythical. The latter two ranks have yet to be discovered but were added due to the research made by players who read through in game lore via NPC libraries, scrolls or written doc.u.mentation.

Dregs are mostly trash monsters that hold no value to both players and NPC. Normal monsters are ones that are commonly found all around the game world and are fairly easy to kill in accordance to the average recommended level of players. Rare monsters are monsters that require a specific skill set in order to slay, Boss monsters would require a group of players and a bit of strategy and planning. Unique monsters can alsi be called variants, they range from Dregs to Boss monsters. They are usually harder to deal with.

Legendary monsters are identified through ancient doc.u.ments and are usually found as part of stories passed from generation to generation of NPC communities. Mythic ones are monsters that are also part of legends but at the same time are considered to be sources of calamities, usually stories thatcan be considered that are too far fetched.

Once everyone seemed to have gotten enough rest, Ye Qing stood up.

"That's enough rest, let's get moving" Ye Qing ordered.

Slowly and surely,the four climed down the dried-up well and entered the hidden passageway underneath which was covered by dried out leaves.

"We simply covered the entrance with these as a cover, we didn't put too much effort in hiding it since no one would really bother going down a dried-up well." Lan Ranyan stated in a matter of fact manner.

Taking out a torch from their packs, Lan Ranyan started lighting them up with one of her fire spells.

"Are your fire spells as strong as your ice spells?" Zhang Shan asked.

"Not really, my fire spells are more on just lighting up stuff and cooking for emergency." Lan Ranyan answered.

Everyone started to descend, with Ye Qing in front to act as a vanguard, followed by Ye Qian, Zhang Shan and Lan Ranyan. After a few steps inside, they were met with a gigantic undergound cavern. The group cautiously ventured forward illuminating the dark path.

For Zhang Shan, this experience started giving him goosebumps. The feeling of fear, excitement and danger are mixing up his emotions. The feeling of death just around the corner pumped his blood with adrenaline.

"Don't move..." Ye Qing said in a hushed tone, he stopped and signaled the others to stay silent with his index fingers in front if his lips.

The three did as told while Ye Qian mouthed the words silently "What's up?"

Ye Qing whispered

"I smell blood..."