Avilien: Tutorial islands

Guild in shambles

In the capital of Zalanga, where the seven races of humanity gathered and what also happened to be the capital of The Dawn was a run-down building with a wooden sign half hanging off the stonework. Windows were smashed, stone pillars by the door had begun to crumble, and the door itself looked ready to fall if someone so much as blew on it. Tiles on the two-story building were missing and the place looked ready to collapse in on itself. Yet with all that said, this was the new base for the guild of Daggers — ranked somewhere near dead last in the rankings way below thousands of other solo established guilds.

Two years of completing any quest or hunts they could Lance, Cissy, and Nagori had it rough. Anna, no longer a member of the guild, had left the others weakened and struggling to feed themselves. Zalanga was the biggest capital in Silver Shire and was a place other leaders gathered. The city had towers that stretched to the heavens in golds and white. Dead centre was the grand castle that towered above all others. Surrounding it in a ring and by walls were eight districts.

The closer districts to the castle were where nobles, or the wealthiest lived. Besides that, the harder quests were there, gated behind insane requirements to unlock. Crime may have been lower in the top districts, but the first two districts were practically lawless and where the great majority of players ended up.

A couple of top tier guilds like Dragons Advance had made it further into the city districts but to get to the seventh district required over a thousand completed quests, dozens of dungeon completions, a vast amount of gold and a lot of monster hunts. Dragons Advance had made it to tier six. There was also a city beneath the city that some called Adanla, the dark side of the city, and no king, prince, or royal would dare enter.

"I'm hungry, Lance! So Hungry!" cried Nagori as she slumped forward on a dusty wooden bar.

Inside the guild of Daggers, there was a musty bar area and several floors with torn wooden balconies. Parts of the floor were missing, and some of the wooden panels had even lifted away. The stairs to the higher levels were gone altogether. Lance, Cissy, and Nagori had to sleep downstairs in the bar area. None of them had a single crafting profession or the means to gather crafting materials to fix the guild up. Their vault room lay bare as did the kitchen with its cracked worktop, run-down stove and barely functioning fridge.

"Well we are broke, not a single one of us has the skills to go out and slay beasts to get cooking materials, and other players are charging a fortune at the market for food. Even one copper items are expensive from NPC traders and barely fill the food bar," said Lance.

Looking younger than he used to Lance had set his age to thirteen as had Cissy and Nagori. It Was a feature Avilien implemented since age was irrelevant. Now level three, it had taken Lance a great deal of effort to get there, even harder than back in the real world. Dressed in thin tin armour, he was hardly a worthy paladin. Even the rankings of paladins in global put him near dead last. Another feature of Avilien was to hide armour or to use an effect called Mirror. Lance enjoyed these features as he kept in blue shorts, red trainers, and a white tank-top.

Nagori sulking on the barstool had a pretty red fairy dress that had some intellect points on it to increase healing or magic spells. It also had a smidgen of armour for her class. She had also managed to snag a Pigul hat, which looked like a mini baby penguin hat. It offered no stats and functioned as a cosmetic piece. Cissy was in the same position as Lance with tin armour. It looked ghastly and covered in rust, so she made it so that her old world clothes were on show: jeans and a nice black hoody. The skill used to do this was called Mirror. Any armour could look like a different piece with the skill. Lance and Cissy also had their double-sided swords on their backs in holsters much like Brit.

"We should have stayed in that shack, at least they had giant rats we could kill and harvest meat from," said Cissy as her tummy growled.

Lance couldn't say or do anything other than sit at the bar. He stroked Targoon, his gecko with wings game guide. Lance also had to endure the hunger pains; all three were barely surviving with the hunger bar as were the game guides. Trinity, Granite, and Targoon hadn't eaten in nearly a week. All their savings had gone into the run-down building, all twenty pieces of gold. The shack had cost two gold and Lance thought having this building would better the guild, and in time it would.

"I miss Anna," Nagori mopped and kicked her feet.

"She did what she did Nagori, there is no going back for her," spat Cissy.

"Okay, I am going to teleport over to Vanrella and see if any new players have arrived. After that, I will head on over to Tutorial Islands and check on our parents. I'm hoping they were able to sell some stuff or have a little food for us." Lance stood up; today was the day he told himself.

"You know Luke isn't going to be there. He's already level one hundred and blocked all coms," explained Cissy as she lent on the bar.

"And like I said before, that isn't Luke. It's someone else, I swear it," spoke a defiant Lance.

Every day around midday Lance would teleport over to Vanrella and wait an hour or so by the beginner's gateway portal for any sign of Luke or Brit. For two years he had kept this up and so far, nothing. Determined to find Luke at the very least, Lance vowed to keep doing this routine.

"If you say so. Say hi to my mum and dad, tell them I will swing by in a couple of days," said Cissy as she used a bottle of water from her inventory.

"Say hi to dad from me too," said a moody Nagori as her tummy did summersaults. She dreamed of eating cakes, biscuits, or even bread crumbs at that point.

Lance giving a wave left through the door as Targoon hopped onto his shoulder and turned invisible. Shutting the door of the guild, the sign gave way and came crashing down in front of Lance. The guild emblem and name now in an even sorrier state. Lance could only sigh as he stepped over it and pressed on. He lacked the strength stats to pick it up.

The eighth district was impoverished, yet closer to the main city gates it grew grander. Players went about their business in the city, some managing to own run down dumps, and others pouring what little wealth they had into tatty stalls to peddle items and materials. There were two god statues in the eighth district, and one was close to the guild, the reason Lance wanted the building.

Through crowds of players and people, there were a few quest givers with yellow exclamations hovering above them. Lance, Cissy, and Nagori had attempted a few of them, but with no joy they failed, they were too tough to complete. Making his way to the god statue Leviathan, it was a giant stone serpent with the head of a dragon. Levithan existed somewhere in Avilien as people would recall tales and no doubt he was a world or raid boss. Engraved to look like the serpent was wearing armour, the statues had cracked from head to tail. Each god statue was like this. Stood centre in a mysterious fountain filled with lilypads and stone benches encompassing it the eighth district main shopping centre was also surrounding it with the red road running through.

God statues, when touched acted as a teleportation device to players to travel the vast landscape of Avilien but only to other statues you as a player had touched and only players could use these. Lance placed his hand on the circular round wall surrounding Leviathan, and a holo-gram menu appeared with information on other statues he had linked with and their location.

Lance had a total of fourteen statues available to him and the one in Vanrella was a town called New Road, the official town name for new players starting in that area. Upon selecting the god statue Achilles a message appeared that Lance had not seen in over a year. Not since the great entry war had this message appeared. New Road was under attack, a battle was being waged there, or had been waged.

Hopes rose, then plummeted. Luke wouldn't attack a defenceless town or any of the quest givers in that area and neither would Brit. Thinking on that, New Road had been void of players for at least seven months. Someone new had to have come through the portal. The question was who? Not liking this Lance prepared for the worst as he clicked continue on the holo-gram menu.