Iruna | The Virtual Escape

Chapter 2: My Own World

I got home safely and went back into my room. My phone was charged back to full. I head to my bed and continued playing the game I was playing earlier. I logged back online, my character was at the place where I last left it. I was currently at Fort Baily, the place seemed a bit depressed as if a whole city has burned down. There were many tents set up around the camp. Seems as if people were taking refuge in this area for some cause. I made my way out of camp but then a young girl walked up close to me to stop me.

"Hey adventurer, where do you think you're going?"

I looked at her and her appearance is a bit off from my character. She seems to be a civilian or an NPC in this game. I pointed right behind her telling her that I wanted to go outside of camp.

"Oh I'm very rude, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Tahlia. I'm technically also an adventurer but I'm not quite right ready yet to set venture."

I felt a bit annoyed that this person kind of relates to Blaire in a way. Like some way or another, she was following me everywhere regardless. I was preparing to head out of camp but Tahlia had something to say.

"Since you're going out of camp, can you help me with patrol? I have to keep watch around the area since there has been a storage shortage here at camp. We feel like there are thieves among us."

I nodded my head like I didn't have a choice, to begin with. Then I went out of camp, there was a huge pathway to the next area. The atmosphere felt a bit uneasy. There was something in particular that brought shivers down my spine. There was smoke in the air ahead in the area that Tahlia and I were heading to.

"Oh no," said Tahlia. Tahlia ran to the smoke while I went chasing after her.

We got to where the smoke was and as I was recovering my stamina from all the running, I gazed up and the area was being burned down and was being infested by Chaks.

"Where did all these monsters come from?" Tahlia said.

I took out my short sword and started to fight back the Chaks. However, I wasn't really doing much due to how weak I was. Tahlia and I was getting surrounded by the Chaks and then suddenly, a white mist hovered around us. The Chaks was acting like it was getting weaker due to the mist. A black shadow was approaching me and Tahlia. Their appearance looked so mesmerizing. It took my attention off of the Chaks. It got closer and I could tell it was a very tall figure, with wolf-like glowing eyes, and silver fur ears with a tail attached. They raised their arms and chanted a spell.

"Blizzard!"

An ice storm gusted down through the burnt down city managing to scare away and defeat most of the Chaks. I fell down onto my knees. Snowflakes started to cover the area. The burning violence of the Chaks had suddenly disappeared and turned into a snowy, frosty day.

*You got a mail.*

I got another pop-up saying I received mail from someone. I thought it was quite mysterious getting mail from someone I didn't even know. I opened up the mail saying "You have received a party request, accept or decline?" I accepted the request and the strange figure had confronted right in front of me. They seemed to be holding many bottles on them. While being mesmerized by their appearance, they spoke.

"Hey, you two doing good? I saw the smoke coming from this area and saw you two were in trouble and figured I would help. Oh, and the name's Joey by the way."

He reached out his arm to me to pick me up. I gripped his hands and got myself up. I was examining Joey intrigued by his skills and abilities. Bit by bit this game surprises me on how fascinating it is. Even the tiniest features of this game still get to me every time. I was thinking of a name on the spot to introduce myself.

"I'm Alluria."

"Not to brag or anything but that storm was nothing compared to my other skills." as Joey continued.

"Right. Anyways I have some duties to attend to. Thanks for the help, Joey."

"No problem Alluria, see you around. Good luck with your duties." Joey said sincerely.

As I departed from Joey, I went to look for Tahlia but assumed she had made an escape from the huge massacre. I continued out of the burnt city and headed out on a huge, green meadow. Looking at the silky long grass in the horizon felt relaxing. The first thing that caught my eye was a cottage on top of a hill. It looks like someone had settled in that cottage. As I walked onto the hill, there was a couple of shadows on the side of the cottage. I approached them by sneaking a bit closer to see what they were up to. The shadows were startled by me then they summoned a hound to attack me. However, the hound was no match for me as I confidently struck it with my sword. The beast was slain by my short sword as blood started to drip from the tip of its blade. I was successful in capturing a group of thieves. They had a bag in their possession and seem to be the stolen goods Tahlia was talking about. Tahlia had arrived and found me.

"Oh, there you are adventurer."

I handed the stolen goods over to Tahlia. Then the thieves sat there on the grass sulking on their legs.

"Good job adventurer, nicely done. Now, which one of you is in charge?"

"I am." one of the female thieves replied.

"Alright, then what is your name thief?"

"It's Gill and we weren't trying to steal it was just lying around on the ground."

"Now that I realize it, you thieves are apart of the Dale Village. Also, I'm not taking any false excuses. I wonder why you guys here to scavenge our camp and steal equipment from us? But now that we have caught you. I suppose I'll let my friend here find a punishment for all of you." as Tahlia lectured.

"Oh! I am sorry, leave the other girls out of this. This was my plan, not theirs." as Gill confessed. The other girls were left frightened when looking at me.

While Tahlia had called on me to pick a punishment, I didn't think of doing anything merciless against this group of children. I made sure that anything like this will not happen again or else there'll be bigger consequences.

"Guess it's your lucky day girls. Now go we will hope to not see your faces in front of us again."

As we let them go, they quickly vanished from our sights. A voice from above had alarmed and me and Tahlia's ears. We both drew our swords.

"No, no. That's not necessary. I wanted to give you some words of advice about that. Even if you add sugar to a bitter drink, the eternalness of the bitterness will never truly go away. That would mean your sweetness is futile here. Now with that farewell."

The elf had evaporated into the thin air.

"That was awfully weird, don't you think? Anyways I should award you from all this assistance you have been giving me. I appreciate all the help, adventurer. But now I can give you my words of gratitude." said Tahlia.

I realized it was getting late and I decided I should log off and head to sleep. This game, I thought, is very interesting. It's something where you can be someone new and profound. The sensation of excitement and love built up of playing this game started to overwhelm me that I wanted to play more. The one thing I haven't really noticed about the game was its name. I was so entitled to play the game but not recognize the title itself. It was named Irusen Online.

The mysteriousness to the name of Irusen and its wonders gave it a significant meaning. After all this thinking, I fell asleep due to all that unneeded drama that had already happened.

"If only."