Write to Rank Submissions

Round 5 - It's Just a Game...Right?

"I need a heal!" Morgan shouted as he slinked back behind a large overcropping rock.

His party faced off against an army of mid-level skeletons as he paused to catch his breath. In the Virtual RPG Akimo, users were able to completely immerse themselves in a world by entering a capsule that stimulated their senses, making it appear that they were in the game themselves. The pain was advertised as significantly lesser than the real world's but it sure as hell still hurt being stabbed as much as Morgan had been already.

He peeked over the rock just in time to see their tank player, Marco, pull the skeleton mob's attention, allowing their Paladin to use an attack spell that caused his glowing spear to slice through their ranks like a surfboard gliding on a wave.

Helen, the mage, ended the few low-health survivors' struggle with a well-placed fireball.

"Goddamit, Morgan, I thought that armor was supposed to be OP?" Zena whined as she pointed her staff at him and a pleasantly exhilarating feeling washed over him as his HP went back to almost full.

"I thought so too," Morgan grumbled, "This damn dungeon is harder than I thought though."

A figure appeared directly in front of them, grinning as Morgan jumped slightly. "Tell me about it, we've been at it for three hours," Zion remarked. He was a rogue who acted as the party's scout and especially went out of his way to scare Morgan when he materialized out of nowhere.

"I oughta wake up early in the morning man, is this shit almost over?" Marco asked, plopping down with a heavy thud on the rocky terrain. They were inside a cave-like structure with a staircase leading out of it nearby.

The rest mumbled in agreement. It was a Sunday which meant school tomorrow and a glance at the game interface showed it was already 1 AM.

"Just one more level guys," Morgan said, trying to sound as convincing as possible. This was a new dungeon that had spawned in the Dark Forest and if they were the first people to complete it were guaranteed great drops.

"Nah, I'm out. My mom's probably about to throw a fit." Zeke, the paladin said, before logging out with a flash of blue.

"I'm going to call it a night too," Helen said with regret evident in her eyes. "We can always complete it tomorrow after school, Morgan."

Morgan didn't bother pointing out some tryhards would've found and finished it by then. Helen had already stayed up way longer than she normally did for the raid.

"Alright, goodnight," He said, trying to keep the annoyance out of his voice.

Helen smiled. "You should probably get some rest soon, too. If you want to end up looking like this character IRL, you're going to need plenty."

"And the gym too," Zion added with a chuckle.

Morgan rolled his eyes. Of course, given the option of complete customization of his in-game character, Morgan had gone for an incredibly handsome and muscular six-foot, curly-haired man with green eyes to boot. 

Who wouldn't?

It wasn't that much of a stretch from his 5'8, scrawny self anyway...or at least that's what he tried to convince himself.

Zena followed Helen's lead, saying goodnight before vanishing behind the log-out blue flash.

Morgan eyed the remainder of his party which consisted of Marco and Zion. Morgan could see through Marco's rare helmet that he wanted to leave but his loyalty to Morgan was keeping him from pressing that log-out button. On the other hand, Zion was just as much of a dungeon enthusiast as Morgan was. He understood the importance of finishing the dungeon in a timely manner.

Morgan cleared his throat. "Looks like it's up to us to finish this."

Marco sighed loudly. "Are you out of your mind, Morgan? We have no healer, there's no way a tank, rogue and monk are finishing this raid without one."

Morgan smiled, nodding at Zion who returned his smile. Zion's eyes went out of focus as he dug into his mental inventory. A moment later two dark blue potions materialized in his hands.

Marco leaned forward, studying the canisters before his eyes widened. "Are those...health elixirs?" Morgan and Zion nodded simultaneously. "Dude, how the fuck did you get them?"

Health elixirs were the most recent cheat code of Akimo. Instead of them just having one use, players realized that they could sip the potion until it boosted their health back to full, making it a multi-use heal per canister. It was bound to be patched in the next update though, thanks to a big-mouthed player talking about it on a forum.

Morgan wagged his finger. "A magician never tells out his secrets."

It sounded much cooler than saying he had blown three paychecks on it.

With their plan in motion, the short-handed crew ascended the stairs and faced the next level.

The stairs led them to a clearing where they could see a group of goblins in the middle. Statues were all around of various goblins wearing armor, one carrying a staff and even one in made attire.

Morgan had never seen anything like it and judging by the reaction of the others, they hadn't either.

"If history class was more like this I would do much better," Zion said with a low whistle.

Just as Zion finished talking, one of the goblins reacted and pointed a staff in our direction, causing a stream of fire to fly in our direction.

Zion disappeared as he activated a cloaking spell and I jumped off the platform and down into the platform with Marco close behind. Morgan had never heard of a goblin capable of an attack spell but he wasn't about to let that scare him away from the loot calling his name.

The goblins closest to Margon aggroed toward him and he drew his trusty staff, whirling in a circle of dark goblin blood. Usually, goblins would go down easily but these were especially tough, taking a few concentrated hits each until they succumbed to their injuries.

Eventually, the trio settled into their strategy. Zion would attack the closest line of goblins with some critical cloaked hits then Marco would draw the attention of the goblins back to him with a roar skill while I did as much carnage with my melee attacks as possible while Zion's stamina regenerated.

Ten minutes later, Marco bit the dust under the onslaught of some warrior goblins.

Without the tank, Zion couldn't risk drawing their aggro since his class didn't have much health. Which left Morgan fending for himself, parrying sword, bow and arrow in a mad frenzy. Some people had called the monk class broken and anyone who saw a level 90 Morgan flowing like water would certainly agree, however, there was a limit to his stamina and it was fast approaching.

Just as Morgan's stamina started to blink orange, Zion appeared behind the four remaining goblins, dealing damage and drawing their attention. He didn't last even five seconds withstanding their attacks but his sacrifice was not in vain as Morgan easily finished them off with a burst skill.

Morgan grinned at the jingle of gold and a rare purple quest scroll dropping into his inventory.

He didn't bother to look at their details, hurrying to log out before his mother realized he was still up.

He mentally clicked log out.

Access Denied.

Huh?