Game Over!

Chapter 1: The Quest Begins

It was a wet, rainy evening. Destry was standing in front of the microwave, watching a popcorn bag expand. His 3 best friends were coming over for their weekly game night, a tradition since 5th grade. He poured the now-finished popcorn into a bowl, and set it on the coffee table in his basement. Then the doorbell rang, and he answered. Standing there were his 3 best friends, the energetic Lilia, the shy Evren, and the relaxed Echo. Destry greeted his friends and led them to the basement.

As his friends sat down on the couch and helped themselves to popcorn, Destry turned on the game console and put in the cartridge for the latest multiplayer RPG, Quest for Dosnatia. Everyone grabbed a controller, and the game began. They each picked a class for their character. Lilia excitedly chose the Mage class, Echo went for the Rogue class, Destry picked the Warrior class, and Evren chose the Healer class.

A dialogue box popped up that read "Are you happy with your choices? Once you begin the game, there's no going back." They all selected the Yes option. Suddenly, a clap of thunder sounded, and everything went black.

Slowly, Destry opened his eyes. He was lying on a grassy area under the sun. His house and friends were nowhere to be seen. He looked down at his body, only to see that his T-shirt and jeans were gone and had been replaced by a suit of armor! He shouted for his friends, and they all ran over! Lilia's dress and leggings had been replaced by a mage's robes, Evren's button-down and trousers were replaced by a less elaborate set of robes, and Echo's hoodie and jeans had been replaced by a fitted tunic and leggings.

They had somehow been transported into the game! "But how do we get back home?" asked Lilia. Evren looked like he was about to cry. "I think we'll have to beat the game..." answered Echo. "Look! LOOK! There's a village over there!" exclaimed Lilia. Cautiously, they walked over to it together. As they began to walk in, a strange old man began to talk to Destry. "You're back, finally! I have terrible news!" he shouted.

"What happened?" asked Destry, confused. "T-the D-D-Demon King has returned!" stammered the old man. "The king sent a messenger to our village that you and your friends here are to be sent on a quest to defeat it." the old man continued. "She is waiting by the pond." the old man finished. The four friends walked over to the pond, where a young woman was waiting.

"Thank goodness you four showed up! The king also ordered me to give you these items." she said. She opened her bag and pulled out one sword, one bow, one dagger, and two wands. She gave the swords to Echo and Destry, and the wands to Lilia and Evren. She then gave the bow to Echo along with a quiver of arrows. "Safe journeys!" she called after them as they began to leave. But as they reached the exit, they were stopped by the old man! "Waaaaiiiit! Take this!" he shouted after them. He dropped a red potion in a bottle and several strange coins into Destry's hands. "Good luck! We'll never forget you!" the old man shouted.

They waved goodbye to the old man, and headed off to begin their quest. Their first destination was the next village over, because according to Lilia, "There just has to be a dungeon near there!". As the party walked down the path, a loud scream from Evren made everyone jump! They looked towards him, and saw that a slime was trying to suffocate him! Lilia drew her wand, and shouted the first words that came to mind. "SUNFIRE BEAM!" she exclaimed.

A bright yellow beam shot out of Lilia's wand and went right through the slime, popping it immediately! Evren got up, and wiped the slime off of his robes. A brief feeling of power flowed through the party. They walked down the path for what felt like hours. "LOOK!" Lilia shouted excitedly while pointing at a man sitting at a wooden stand. They walked over, and discovered that the man was running his own store. "SWORD SHOP" was sloppily painted on the large sign in black paint. The R was backwards.

The shop's owner was ecstatic to see four potential customers. "WELCOME TO THE SWORD SHOP!" he shouted. As the party looked at the various things on the table, they quickly realized that nothing on that table was an actual sword. There were shields, knives, bows, and even forks and spoons! "This guy probably doesn't know the difference between a sword and a cheese sandwich." Echo whispered to the party. There in fact was a cheese sandwich on the table, with a little piece of paper in front of it, proclaiming it an "EDIBLE SWORD".

Destry ended up buying a shield out of pity for the shopkeeper. The party went on their way. Finally, they spotted a village in the distance. But just as they had almost reached the entrance, some monsters jumped out at them from the bushes! They were horrible, scaly creatures with large fangs. Each one had a differently colored eyeball on the tip of its tail. Echo drew her bow and shot one of the eyeballs with her arrows. It popped, and the monster disappeared, leaving some of the coins, which were called Quills.

After all of the monsters had been defeated, that same feeling of power coursed through them again, but it was stronger this time. They entered the village, which was called Stathmore Village. Nobody was outside. The party walked up to a house and Lilia loudly knocked on the door. A young woman shyly opened the door and invited them in. "What's going on here? Why isn't anyone outside?" asked Destry. All she said was "The monsters. They're here." As they left, the woman slipped a wrinkled piece of paper stained with ink into Destry's hands. Unfolding the paper revealed that it was actually a map. They learned that they were in the region of Arkku. A few inches away from the dot marking Stathmore Village, the woman had drawn an X. Next to it, in shaky handwriting, she had written "THEY ARE HERE. THEY ARE HERE." Destry, Echo, and Lilia all agreed to go there. Evren reluctantly went along.