To Kill Gods or Die Trying

Lore Files-The Game

Right on! Last info-dump before plot and drama and whatnot. This is where stuff gets... interesting. We were all Wood-rank players, as with the other 100,000 players, but we began leveling up quickly and honing in our class skills and fighting ability. A guild called God Killers was formed in our wake.

The best part about the game is the fact that everyone can come together from all around the world. The guilds that we've all created are amazing.

The combat guilds include the conquest guilds (who play the main campaign quests aka continental quests and raids, hoping to get to the rumored demigods) and the adventurer guilds (who explore dungeons from NPCs quests.)

The non-combat guilds have the most people. They divide into two groups: the exploration guilds journey the land, air, and seas, automatically adding the territories they discover to the global map, shared by every player. The hunting guilds hunt wildlife and plants to sell to the logistics guilds: production guilds craft and sell supplies, weapons, magic, potions, armor, and clothes. Service guilds serve food, play music, put on plays, throw parties and festivals, and play competitive sports.

NPCs contribute to the world alongside the players. The Hunting guilds have NPCs who hunt for their families. NPCs also do most of the agriculture and farming in their villages. The construction relies completely on them as well.

Anyways, we coordinated what quests we would take, all the way to the raids. Nine normal quests lead to a raid quest which is a really powerful boss. Every normal quest has a boss at the end but they're not as hard as the raid. We did 25 raids a year. A total of 250 quests a year. That's what I call efficiently. We had to replay raids though because we wouldn't be able to do higher-rank raids.

The structure of these continental quests is simple yet complicated. You start at as Wood-rank. There are five entries for each of the six regions or continents. Every entry has a road that will allegedly lead to a Gem-rank demigod. Can't wait to actually try this so I can stop using the word "allegedly". You complete your nine quests, complete your raid, and then it goes nine Silver-rank missions and a Silver-rank raid, then Gold, Turquoise, Obsidian, and finally... and allegedly—new favorite word—Gem demigods. If you have the level and the skill, you can progress onto the next rank.

For better or for worse, progress belongs to everyone. Once a quest is beaten, anyone in the game can move on to the next one. The thing is, there are rank restrictions. That's why Silver-ranks aren't clearing Wood-rank quests. They can do so, but it will give them zero XP and will not unlock the next quest for all the Wood-rank players. Lower- ranks are also restricted in participating in higher-rank raids, but once they get to that rank, they can have easy access if another party has already cleared those.

The six regions are: The Sea of Monsters, the Lavalands, the Monsterland Forest, the Deadlands, the Desert Region, and the Frost Region. You're looking at 60 quests to one demigod quest, 61 in total, and 305 quests per continent. That makes a grand total of 1,830 quests in the entire game. Allegedly. Confirmed, it's 1,800 quests. That's still a big number.

By the end of the year, our team reached Copper-rank. Year two, we reached Silver-rank. Year three, we reached Gold and completed our 25th raid leading us to half of the XP needed for the next.

By the end of year four, we reached Turquoise-rank and it was awesome. People started recognizing us, but quests got harder and harder. We had to train harder and more frequently to keep up with the rigor of the quests, so we became really skilled in-game. We had saved up all our gold, spending minimally, and Sess got us a giant polar bear to aid our quests with his new level of beast mastery, carrying all of our loot and gear, and the occasional attack support.

Also, I took Allysson's hand in marriage.

By year five, we got to ¼ of the rank to Obsidian. Year six, ½. Year seven, ¾.

End of year eight. December 25th, 2298. We slashed, blasted, cut, incanted, and killed a Grim Reaper's Disciple. An excruciatingly hard raid boss. Mack was going crazy on mana potions to restore his magic- power since he was going crazy helping us with crowd control. It was a grueling fight. The ten of us fought for 10 minutes straight! Rachel delivered the final blow as I blocked it primary attack. The undead warrior fell with a thud then dissipated. As we collected its loot worth thousands of gold, the battle completion screen popped up. It was the time to finish the mission. We returned to the Capital and turned in the loot to the NPC that assigned us the mission.

All eyes on the street turned to us as we ranked up, our turquoise dog tags turning jet-black and glossy. The excitement we had was unreal as we cheered loudly, equipping our new legendary gear and weapons. All ten of us. We were the first players in the game to achieve Obsidian-rank. It took nine fun, grueling years of our lives, but it was time well spent. And word spread the game like a 15th century plague.

We went into the local bar to celebrate. We calculated that at the pace we were at, it would take more than 20 years to reach Gem-rank! Considering the fact that it was not worth the wait, we decided to play casually. I opened up the guild and applications exploded but decided that it'd be best to only take Gold and Turquoise-rank players.

Celebrating at the bar didn't feel like enough. We all took a vacation from the game and I invited everyone over to my home to attend my wedding. We saw each other most days in the year for nine years and kicked ass so these guys were practically my second family. Everyone was able to make it and they looked exactly the same as they did in the game—I mean how else would they have looked? It was really heartwarming to hang out with them and have some drinks.

After we met, we really felt like family.

We spent the year training and raiding with our guild of 500 skilled members. But it wasn't for them. It was for us. They swore their loyalty to us to help us get to Gem-rank. We were looking at seven years for 75 raids a year instead of 25. It was awesome. We found some loopholes in the game rules which got the Gold-rank players who were scared out of their minds fighting Obsidian-rank monsters, so when they went back to their normal gold missions, they de-stroyed. The Gold players were getting to Turquoise-rank faster, and Turquoise-rank players were leveling up faster to Obsidian.

Nearing the 10-year anniversary of the game, the guild reached over 1,000 members. Its popularity was known throughout the game—soon to be officially released. The new century crept up on us and December came around fast. We were making progress. Life was great.

But January 1st, 2300—it happened. After that day my life and who I was changed forever.