Legends of Orlea

Chapter 1

Zirem walked from school, jubilating. He'd gotten a good grade, and had no homework. He was eager to test out the new virtual reality headset he'd bought, along with the game called Legends Of Orlea. 

He entered his house, and wolfed down a little snack of bread with butter and honey. Then he went to his room, and flipped the switch for the gaming headset. He put it on, and heard an expressionless female voice saying, "System start." Zirem felt his heart rate go up, and he appeared in a town, with random people walking around. The graphics were amazing.

As he walked, he became aware of the people staring at him suspiciously, and with a bit of resentment. They backed away when he came close. As he strolled through the town, he became aware of a little white sword in a black circle. As he motioned to touch it, a little menu popped up. No doubt his inventory. In it, there was a sword, and he was already wearing some flimsy looking leather armour. 

Zirem dragged his finger across the inventory, and put his sword in the slot for his right hand next to his options. He watched in fascination as a blue light flashed, and the sword formed in his previously empty right hand. It was heavy, but not so much that he couldn't wield it. His armour also came with a strap on the back, so he put it there, not wanting to have to drag the weapon out of his inventory every time he wanted to fight.

Now equipped with a plain iron blade, he went in search for monsters around the town. This was an MMORPG game, so there was bound to have monsters around the spawn point. Zirem soon found a giant arch, after having passed many restaurants, shops and houses. He looked around, and exited the village. Outside, a man waited with his arms crossed. He looked a bit angry. "Can you get rid of these gorillas scaring away all the cattle? I'll give you eighty Vomjrin." Zirem nodded, saying, "Sure. Where are the gorillas?" The man pointed, and a target popped up where the gorillas should supposedly be.

When he got there, he drew his sword, and in a flash, took a battered wooden shield out of his inventory. He hadn't noticed it before. Snarling, a gorilla started running towards him on all fours, but Zirem dodged before he was hurt. Grimacing, he swung his sword, and struck the gorilla, making a health bar appear in front of him. The still green bar was at about a quarter down.

Zirem struck again, opening a bright red squared light instead of a cut. The health bar went lower, to yellow. Numbers were on it saying: 35/80. Zirem guessed that was the health. Distracted, he'd let the gorilla approach him, and he felt a crushing blow as the beast barged into him. Gasping, he managed to get a sliver of air in. He lay stunned on the ground, and the gorilla raised a fist, then brought it down. Just in time, Zirem got his shield in front of him, and the gorilla's blow was blocked. Struggling to get up, Zirem kept his shield in front of him. A health bar in front of him indicated his current state: 27/45. He didn't have much maximum health. 

Gasping, he got a full breath in, and swung before the gorilla attacked. The beast took extra damage, leaving it at 11/80 health. It charged, barreling into the battered shield, dealing 2 damage to Zirem. He stabbed, and managed to pierce the gorilla's fur enough to deal 15 damage. The animal disappeared in a puff of smoke. Next to his green health bar, a blue XP bar had appeared. Out of 50, he now had 25. 

Grinning, he attacked another gorilla. Then he noticed a tag above the wild beast. "Gorilla level 7" Zirem frowned. That level was a bit high. Was this not the first quest? Forgetting the question, he stabbed the gorilla from behind his shield. The animal turned, but not before another wound had been opened. Only 53 health remained. He dodged a wild fist, and leaped out of the way of a charge. The gorilla reared up, but was caught off guard, and another critical hit did 23 damage.  30/80 health. That was going to be easy. His thoughts turned away from the game for a second, but the gorilla took advantage of the delay, barreling into the shield, still dealing 16 damage. Wincing, his vision slightly rimmed in red, he watched as his health went down to 11/45. If he didn't finish this quick, he would die. That would be useless. He slashed, dealing 7 damage and then created a combo strike after a second blow dealing 8 damage. He grinned, and spun, ending the life of the gorilla before him with a whopping 29 damage. XP flowed from the dead body to his bar, half filling it.