The girl named Ria
Ria was an introvert girl. She had no friends in real life. Because of the circumstance she lived in, she barely left her house apart from going to school. Even at school, she never had friends because of her status.
She was the sole daughter of one of the top consortium in United Kingdom. She was literally a princess in modern age. Nobody would bother trying to get close to her due to that fact. There was even bodyguards watching over her when she was at school.
Due to loneliness, she spent most of her time reading manga, novels and playing games by herself. She just happened to play HeavensTale and fall in love with the game design. That was also the first time she tried to play an online game, a MMORPG.
She was only fifteen when she started playing HeavensTale. She started as a total noob since the game was already launched almost one year already. Most of the player already geared up and flocked in guilds. Her first encounter with Mays was when she was questing in a certain low level area.
She killed monster for her quest as usual. Just when she wanted to report the quest back to the NPC, she was troubled by the disappearance of the NPC around town. She tried looking for them but to no avail. Even the auto route function seemed to be currently disabled.
This was only her third day of playing HeavensTale. She had never interacted with other players before. Since this was a low level map, there were basically no other players beside one male player who sat in front of the mayor's house.
Without any other option, Ria walked toward that player and stood in front of him for almost an hour without saying anything. That player was obviously Mays. That time, he didn't had his signature look yet. He used whatever good gear he got just for the stat.
"What can I help you with miss?"
Mays already noticed the existence of this girl for quite some time already. He just pretended to be away from keyboard as he was lazy to start a conversation, especially with a stranger. He had two monitor in front of him, one for his work and another one for gaming. He did observed that girl character fidgeting around his character for an hour while he busied himself with his work.
"Help." "Me." "Quest." "NPC." "Gone."
She typed one word after another. Mays was dumbfounded as he realized this person in front of him was a total newbie. She might even not used to typing at all.
"Help." "Please."
"Ahh okay. Gimme a sec."
Mays's avatar in HeavensTale immediately stood and ran toward the center of the city plaza. Apparently, the disappearance of all the NPC in town was caused by an event, bad NPC had conquered the town.
Usually, players would team up and kill them for rewards but since there were no new player nearby, nobody had killed these bad NPC. They were after all just low level NPC. Mays only used one AOE skill to wipe all of them. Rewards from killing those NPC were also totally useless for Mays.
He then walked forward toward Ria and initiate a trade with her. Ria accepted right away.
"Take them. They're of no use to me anyways."
"Thank." "You." "So." "Much."
Ria took the reward box and thanked him.
"Now you can go back to questing. Good luck and have fun playing."
"Okay."
Before Ria walked away from Mays, she sent him a friend request. Mays accepted the request for now since he didn't have any reason to reject it. He could just delete it later if he felt like it.
That encounter was short but it was meaningful for Ria. She who never had friends in real life had finally made a friend for the first time. Someone who she never met actually helped her without asking anything in return.
"People on the internet sure are nice. That guy name is Mays eh, hehe."
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The current level cap for HeavensTale was level fifty. Just one week after Ria started playing, the level cap was raised to seventy five. Every single player of HeavensTale started grinding like crazy to level up their character to the max level. Mays himself was the same.
During these time, Ria did talked to Mays several time, every single one was just inquiry about stuff newbies never knew unless they were told about it. Mays was always away from his keyboard so his reply to Ria often took quite some time. But, he did answer with everything he knew.
Mays also had a good impression on this newbie since she never asked him to help with dungeons nor power leveling. Most low level character had ulterior motives when they approached high level players. Since this girl was a genuine newbie who really wanted to learn about the game, Mays helped her in earnest.
One month later, Mays capped his character level. He had more free time now and started his normal routine. He lazed around in towns doing nothing. That was his hobby. Even back when he played other MMORPG, he always did that when he had free times. And now, that lame hobby of his became a habit.
"Mays... You there?"
"Yeah why?"
Ria asked out of nowhere. She knew around these time, Mays usually was available. She was from the UK while Mays was asian. Their time zone differed a lot.
"Hehe… Congratulation on hitting the cap level."
"Ah thanks. I maxed yesterday."
Ria was able to put up a proper conversation now. She was a fast learner. One month was enough for her to turn into someone good enough with typing. Mays was impressed but he didn't voiced it out loud though.
"So Mays, do you sell runs?"
"I do sometimes when I feel like it. Why?"
Higher level player in MMO often sell runs as a side income. It was more or less hitting two birds with one stone since they needed to grind experience for their spirits to level. Most players did that and so did Mays.
"Then please level me up. I'd pay the usual rate is it okay?"
"Will do. You know my active time, you decide whenever you want."
"Okies."
Currently Ria was level fifty three. She did all the main quest provided by the game meticulously. She loved the story-line of the game. She got that from Mays. Mays taught her his game-play style. He was not the type to skip everything and only did the killing. HeavensTale had quite a number of hidden quest and only those who didn't skim the story-line would be able to unlock them.
Mays was a dedicated person. He did everything smoothly and almost without error. Ria who already gotten used to the mechanic of the game was astonished by Mays's performance. By now, she already knew Mays was actually one of the big shot here in HeavensTale. He always became the main topic whenever people saw him passing by.
Being power leveled by Mays, it took Ria around two weeks to hit cap level. During the time they spent together, Mays and Ria got to know each other more. As it was boring to just sit there doing nothing, Ria always was the first to start a conversation with Mays.
"Do all asian clever like you Mays?"
"Who knows? I'm not doing any questionnaire how would I know."
Ria was overjoyed even when Mays gave her cold reply. She was used to it by now after spending hours with him every day.
"By the way Ria, ain't you bored spending all your time with me?"
Mays did ask Ria something when he felt like it. Ria answered honestly every single time. It was rare for Mays to ask her something after all.
"Nope. You're the best so I like being with you."
"Ehh? Weird."
That time, Mays didn't noticed that Ria already had feeling for him. Prior to this, Ria did try to befriend other people inside HeavensTale. She thought everyone was helpful like Mays. One time, she was deceived by a group of people who just wanted to make a fool for newbies like her. Another time, she got swindled when she tried to buy things.
Not just once or twice. She got deceived and ridiculed multiple times which made her realized the true face of netizen. She even thought of quitting several times. All that happened when Mays was busy leveling himself.
Ria didn't want to trouble Mays with her problem. As long as she could, she would endure. She even came to a conclusion that Mays was the only person who ever thought of her as a friends. Others only pretended so.
In HeavensTale, Ria was a total newbie. She obviously had no status nor power here. The only thing she had abundant of was money in real life. But of course nobody knew that. For someone like Mays who was bathed in glory yet still treated her as a friend, she was totally moved by that.
"Finally I capped my level. Hehehehe thank you so much Mays."
"No problem. Be sure to pay your tab at the normal bank account."
Mays never sugar coat words. Business meant business. He was a man true to his virtue.
"By the way Mays, could you also help me with gearing up my spirits? I had all four of the elemental spirits already but I'm still not good enough with gears of different class."
"Well okay. What class your spirits gonna be anyways?"
"Magic caster. All of them!"
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At level seventy five cap, there were advanced dungeon which player could challenge. Up to previous level, there were only three man dungeon and five man dungeon. Thinking logically, everyone would be able to solo most of the dungeon previously since player could summon up to four spirits.
That was hardly the case in reality though. There were less than fifty people who could do that even back when the level cap was fifty. The main reason was due the fact that players need to level up the spirits from level one. They were harder to level and they could also lose experience when they died. The hardest part was that they need to be fully geared too.
The best way to level spirits was to put them into portable mode and bring them together during leveling and dungeoning. In portable mode, they took the player's experience portion which the player wouldn't need any more after they hit capped level. This was the best and safest way to level spirits.
And now, with the advanced dungeon being released, more and more people will demand good party mate to ensure their raid success. Nobody would pick up newbie nor money warrior as they had no real skills to offer in team play.
"Mays, is ten player dungeons hard?"
Ria wanted to try doing them but it was obvious no party would take someone like her. She was a newbie on top of that, she was also guildless. Nobody would waste their time and trial entry over a fail party.
"You interested? Wanna give it a try?"
"I do want to try... but meh I bet no party would take me in for sure."
"That so? Come let's go do an advanced dungeon. You can choose which one you wants."
"Are you for real?"
Ria asked for confirmation. She was totally shocked by Mays's casual tone.
"Have I ever tell any lies?"
"Nope! You're always the best Mays. I love you!"
Unable to control her bustling emotion, she directly told Mays that. Mays never really minded it since it was the internet. People were free to say whatever they wanted.
Soon enough, a party of five people were made. Aside from Mays and Ria, there were three new faces. Two male and one female. The two male were Sanortep, a berserker and MouseMe, a priest. As for the female, she was a magic caster named Grima.
Five spirits were made to fill in the number. Mays alone used two of his spirits. The other members used one spirits each except Ria. All the spirits summoned were well geared. Even their weakest gear was an epic tier item.
Together with the update on level cap, HeavensTale also added another function which was voice chat. It was easier to run dungeon while talking rather than typing. There was even a saying for gamers, "typing kills" as many player were killed while they were busy typing.
"Hey bro why so sudden?"
Sanortep asked. He was the leader of MisfitSociety. His guild was not placed top ten overall in HeavensTale but when it came to PVP, it surely was within top five. He was actually Mays's younger brother but they never disclosed that fact.
"Don't tell me… You gather us all just because you wanna pick up chick? Who was that by the way?"
MouseMe who saw Ria for the first time said whatever came to his mind. That was just how he was. He was also one of the best battle priest in HeavensTale. He was a member of MisfitSociety.
"I… I… I'm Ria."
Ria stuttered. She was not used to talking with people, especially the domineering type like MouseMe. She even blushed when she thought about being picked up by Mays. This was also her first time talking to other people inside HeavensTale beside Mays.
"Meh, just ignore that bloke. He ain't that important anyways. He's just here to fill in the quota."
Grima was a girl. She acted tomboyish most of the time hence people often thought that she was a guy in real life. Only after she revealed her skype and did some video call that people finally acknowledge her as a girl.
She was the culprit as of why Ria's shy and timid personality turned brash and vulgar later on. She was not in MisfitSociety but she was childhood friends with MouseMe hence they often ran dungeon together. She was a high ranked member of SwordOfLight, one of the top three guild in HeavensTale.
Mays and his brother was actually good enough to finish the dungeon but if there were just the two of them, the dungeon run would took forever to finish. With additional three player, they managed to clear the advanced dungeon easily without being wiped even once.
Mays was the shot caller for the dungeon run. Everyone present acknowledged Mays. With his command, everything went smoothly without any error. His precise commands, good coordination and decisive planning made dungeon runs which normally took around one hour to finish in less than thirty minutes.
"Ria, you sure ain't lying to us? Your mechanic was totally top tier."
MouseMe was totally shocked when he saw Ria's control. He couldn't believe that someone as good as her was a newbie.
"Hey asshole stop doubting our little missy here. She already said so dumbass!"
Grima stood up for Ria.
"Yeh that's true. I groomed her from scratch so I can vouch for it."
Mays even vouched for that fact. MouseMe was totally at loss of word. He couldn't even imagine what would happened to Ria in a few month if her progress thus far was already heaven defying.
"Hehe yeah. Mays did his best in teaching me about everything."
Ria replied approvingly. There was even a hint of joy in her voice.
"Wow Mays since when was you that kind? I thought you just AFK most of the time doing nothing."
Could it be she was a real looker in real life? Nah that cant be right? I aint judging but most gamer girls had those gloomy, friends repellent looks right?
Sanortep and MouseMe retorted.
"Fuk off Mousey! I am a beauty damnit!"
Grima yelled in anger. The others just laughed it off at the comedy of this childhood duo.
"So Ria, any plan on entering a guild?"
Sanortep was quite cunning. He knew that Ria would be a great player with her good mechanic. Good reaction speed and good hand movement. She even listen well to command that Mays gave with almost no error. Not to mention that Ria was a total money warrior. She had a bottomless wallet which she used to get the best gear available in game.
"I… I don't know. I... I'm not good with people."
"It's okay. Take your time enjoying the game. If one day you decided to, MisfitSociety forever opens its door for you."
"Ah thanks a lot."
"Also, just so you know… This guild was actually founded by Mays. He's busy with job these days so he handed it over to me."
"For real?"
Ria accidentally shouted as if she couldn't believe that fact. She had been acquaintance with Mays for more than one month but she never knew Mays was once in a guild. Mays never talked about it either.
"That's a story from long ago. Just ignore it."
Mays was not planning to say anything about it. The others didn't press on that matter either. They soon proceed to clear other advanced dungeon as they still had lots of free time at hand.
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Two years passed by and the level cap of HeavensTale had long ago hit one hundred. Famous names like Red Wargod, Golden Reaper, Green Lightning and many other outstanding figure had long ago been a legend.
All eight secret class had been unlocked by famous players from all over HeavensTale. Secret class was the final patch in HeavensTale. Even the company itself already satisfied with the game progress and announced that there would be no more updates for the game.
Every good thing would come to an end. Mays had spent quite a long time on the game. He had his fair share of good and bad memories about this game. Soon enough, he decided to quit the game. There were more or less nothing for him to do anymore inside the game.
Mays only told a handful of people about this decision of him. He only told seven people about it to be exact. Sanortep and MouseMe were cool about it. Ria cried when she heard about it. She cried even harder than when Grima quitted a few month ago.
Ria never was close to Sanortep and MouseMe, let alone Mays's other friends. She only had two people she really cared in HeavensTale. Mays and Grima. Grima suddenly quitting was already a heavy blow to her. And now, even Mays decided to quit playing the game.
Mays took one whole day trying to cheer up Ria. After several promise he made, she finally accepted the fact and would no longer bother Mays about it.
Never would Mays had thought that around four month later, the tragedy unfolded. Everyone who logged into the game disappeared into thin air. Even his brother Sanortep went missing. And now, Mays finally figured it out. These people were not missing without trace. They were actually teleported to a different world which had quite the perk of its own, a world similar to their favourite game, the HeavensTale.
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