The Kingdom of Eonis

[Bloodedge]

[Apollymi]

Consciousness would soon return to the once black haired young woman, but when it did she was no longer in the comfort of her her own bed. No, she was now standing on the outskirts of something which looked a great deal like the hub world of the game she'd just been playing. "Ugh... did I get kicked back to the lobby right when I got my loot?" she asked herself aloud, but soon there was something else rather strange. She when to type on her keyboard and found her high tech gloves removed from her fingertips. She was frowning intently now, "What did I fall asleep waiting on the reload?" she asked herself but by looking in the corner of her eye, she was able to pull up her stats sheet as normal only to be more surprised than she'd ever been. "Oh no!" she chimed aloud. "NO!!!! I WAS LEVEL FIFTY!! WHY AM I LEVEL ONE!?" she questioned aloud to the universe at large. The townsfolk moved around her as if un-bothered by her outburst, but she was seriously distressed. As she leaned her face forward into her hands, she was even more startled. Her hands didn't make contact with the VR Glasses she'd been wearing. Her face was bare, and over her shoulders fell a ponytail, blonde in color, instead of the usual raven color she maintained. "REALLY?!"

[Bloodedge]

A certain male player of the game known as Age of Eternity would also be having a rather surreal experience at the same time. He awoke in a tavern in Eonis Kingdom, not quite conscious of himself right away. When the haze wore off, he came to realize that he was no longer by his computer, or... anything he recognized in first-person view. He did recognize the setting, though. This very tavern was where he'd taken many quests in Age of Eternity during his earlier levels, but... why was he seeing it with his naked eye? What reason did he even have to be here? 'What the hell... is this?' he wondered while trying to overcome his groggy state. In the corner of his eye, he saw what he normally did on his game screen: the drop bar for his stat sheet. Merely focusing on this allowed him to see his level and other such information. "Level 1? The fuck!? Wait, but... why am I even..." He rattled his own brain in various attempts to make sense of the things happening here, but with the amount of anime and manga he consumed on a regular basis, he eventually had a very solid idea. "Holy shit! I'm an Isekai protagonist!" he said aloud, accidentally drawing the attention of other tavern-goers nearby. Quickly, the male had to cup his hands over his mouth and silence himself, though this came with the realization that he was now sporting a strange set of arm-wear. Just the same, his hair was now white and a bit shorter than he was used to. This was familiar. Not only had he been transported to another world, but he'd also been given the guise of the character he'd spent days upon days playing as. 'Is this awesome? I feel like this is awesome...'

[Apollymi]

The young woman outside in the hub world, she'd known as the Kingdom of Eonis was now pacing, a hand still clamped over her mouth as she began processing random reasons for her current state. 'I could be dreaming...' she thought initially. 'No, not possible, all the shock would have woken me by now,' she said clearing that idea. The more she paced around back and forth, the more stern her expression became. 'It could be some weird glitch with the glasses that put my consciousness into the game. I could just be data. No... that's a Kingdom Hearts fan-theory gone away too far...' she said thinking about it a bit more. She'd recently started reading and watching several series in her own life that had similar makings to such a moment. 'Did I just wake up in another world as my avatar? Did I just get reincarnated into a video game with no one controlling me? I'm a protagonist in a... what's it called.. i...is...isek.... Isekai!!!' she clapped her hands together against her cheeks. Her face reddened but the stern outlook remained. Of course, in doing this, she expected to wake up, but given that she didn't and nothing happened, she could only sigh. 'I didn't think those had female protagonists... well unless you count that one about the girl who fell backwards in history...' she thought to herself. 'I hated that one.' she frowned deeply, using this moment as one to help out her general disposition. 'Ah I guess there isn't much to do but... live this out. I'll be an awesome leading female character! I wasn't doing much else anyways,' she though resigning herself to the world she was now part of. "Welp, first things first. I need to make some money, get food, and shelter. If it's really like the game... some early missions shouldn't be that hard..." she mumbled aloud to herself as she walked in this familiar yet unfamiliar land looking for a notice board to take a low level quest from.

[Bloodedge]

The female brought into this world wasn't the only one having thoughts of money. After coming to the conclusion that this wasn't just some sort of imaginary happening, the young man in the tavern also thought of how he'd approach currency. There was a small pouch attached to his waist, and upon inspecting it closely, he discovered something very... very distressing. 'A hundred copper!? I can barely afford a night at an inn!' he thought. A heavy sigh escaped him, but he realized that in being only Level 1, he was destined to only have so much money. "Oi, you!" he said to the barkeep. "What's the news? I need a quest." The barkeep acknowledged the male as an adventurer, and while cleaning a single mug, he inspected the lad and wondered if he'd be capable of taking care of a very specific problem. "Well lad, there's a warthog problem in a town on the outskirts to the West. If you can clear that out, the farm owner there is willing to pay a few silvers," said the older, bald male with a well-trimmed goatee. The boy who'd been brought here by unknown means had his head sink, but he got up nonetheless. 'Fuuuuck! Of course he'd give me the recommended Level 1 quest. Fine, whatever. It's the best pay of the starter quests anyway,' he thought as he made his way to the tavern's exit, heading west toward a large farm past the kingdom's edge.

[Apollymi]

There was a large board outside of one of the buildings in this area, which contained news of open jobs which needed completing. These ranged greatly but one which stood out to the now blonde-haired girl described a very simple problem. "Warthogs on a farm," read the paper, a roll of this lass' eyes came as she pulled her hood up onto the crown of her head. 'Of course, first things first. Pig killing.' she sighed but she still pulled down the flier immediately turning until she was facing the opposite direction of the recently risen sun. She headed west on soft foot steps finding strangely on the road leading outside of town another traveler who seemed like an adventurer. The lad before her walked with purpose and she supposed he might have been heading in the same direction that she was going. With the hood still up on her head she swiftly closed the distance between them trying her best to soften her expression, still given her inability to properly interact with people she easily let herself fall back again. 'Oh shoot. I don't know what to say to anyone. What if they don't speak the same language as me? What if me being in this body makes my face look upset again? What if this world is full of online gamer guys who will help until you make it clear you aren't interested in them then will hunt you down and kill you in pvp because they feel rejected?' suddenly real world problems flooded this girl's mind, and even while consciously trying to change her facial expression she couldn't. Still she headed straight for the farm because it was the quest she was most likely to be able to complete while she got used to the weapons and fighting with her actual body.

[Bloodedge]

'Alright, killing Warthogs. This is pretty standard, should be about twenty or so after the first few are taken out. How's this gonna be if I'm doing it for real though?' the male wondered as he continued on his path toward the farm. After minutes of travel, he was at the edge of the kingdom without any knowledge of the young woman walking behind him. His pace slowed as the farm came into view. He could see it and the warthog infestation, and it was far worse than he remembered from the game. He couldn't even count the number of beasts infesting this large farm, but it was certainly not functioning on the wave-by-wave system of the video game. Suddenly, he stopped dead in his tracks. This was just like the game 'Age of Eternity' if it had been touched by realism. In realizing that, and further comparing it to the isekai genre of media, the male thought this might become something ridiculous rather quickly. "No way..."

[Apollymi]

Upon reaching the farm, the young woman crouched down. She'd seen this kind of thing in her own playthrough and knew the sorts of numbers to expect. Even so, she was more than surprised by how many there were. 'Well, I suppose this world is real enough... I shouldn't be making the assumption that we'll get to face them wave by wave...' she thought. The number was massive and she didn't think any straightforward manner of fighting would be good for the type of character she had currently. She also wasn't sure if she'd find it easier or harder to use her own weapons and skills in this way. 'Hm... I need a plan,' she said looking to her right she saw some rocks and she picked up a small pile of them. Doing this in early levels was a rogue tactic for being able to move around in hordes of enemies while shifting their attention around. 'Alright, if I throw rocks in randomly while hiding and moving around pretty swiftly... I should be able to kill a few before they realize I'm there,' she thought to herself. A single rock in her right hand, she held the naginata she used tightly in her hand, and light footsteps led her into the tall grasses surrounding the farm.

'I can't depend on that guy I saw. Maybe if he sees me working at it myself, he'll just do whatever he needs to do without making too much of a problem. If the worst becomes worse... I could use him as bait. I'd rather not do that, though. If this is the real world now, or to us we could just be killed. I don't want to purposefully get anyone killed who hasn't done anything to me,' the girl thought. Steeling her nerve, and deciding that this route was the only one to take, she threw a small rock. It bounced off the ground in front of a stray warthog and ricocheted making a bit of noise. The beast looked up at it the direction the rock had gone in, giving this girl the chance to strike. She moved forward as quickly as she possibly could, and aimed a swift strike of the naginata at the neck of the creature from behind. It would happen quickly enough that it wouldn't have time to react and she pushed forward with enough strength to actually kill the creature. But unlike in the game she now had to pull back enough to free her weapon. 'Ugh... this is too much. It requires just as much strength to pull out as it did to push in,' she thought as she freed her weapon and crouched hoping she hadn't attracted any extra attention.

[Bloodedge]

'This might not actually be something I can take at level one. I'm Kou now, but I don't even have his Alpha Skill to deal with these things.' As he thought through his approach, the male under the guise of his avatar 'Kou' saw something strange. This sound was unmistakably someone making use of stealth tactics the way he'd seen when playing Age of Eternity cooperatively. When he looked around, he saw nothing but a warthog moving toward a location filled with tall grass, only to fall within moments of approaching. 'I didn't see what took it down. Maybe a Rogue in the grass, or... maybe a Ranger? No, I think I would have seen an arrow or something. They wouldn't have needed the rock either, but... if there's someone else here...' Without thinking further, he lunged toward the horde of warthogs as they consumed the farmer's crops, purposefully making as much noise as possible to draw their attention. He succeeded in grabbing the eye of the horde at large, but his approach was not without tact. The angle he chose in this approach was one which singled out one warthog from the others, enough so that he was able to interact with it before fearing an attack from either side. 'I hope the Rider Skill works like this!' he thought as he met the first warthog head-on, hopping up while grabbing it by the tusk to spin himself onto its back. Once there, he held it by each tusk and used all his strength not just to hang on, but to try and control the beast's movements. In managing this to some extent, he kept it wildly flailing about in an attempt to throw or impale him whilst the other members of the horde swarmed inward, all eyes on this sudden intruder to their grazing session.

[Apollymi]

Finally freeing her blade, the young woman looked down at it and remembered something important. The tactic she'd chosen was a strange one considering the shape of her weapon. 'Right, early game I need to use swe...' she didn't get to finish that thought because something amazing was happening before her eyes. The lad she'd been scared to approach was now taking up the attention of most of the warthogs around the farm. He'd even taken to riding one of them while attracting the attention of the others. 'NANI?! That's a crazy thing to do. It's so risky, I guess he doesn't assume I'm someone bad...' she thought quietly. She'd rather not have gotten involved directly knowing the kinds of people who normally played cooperatively without knowing each other in life, but perhaps this was the best possible way. 'I can't turn down an opportunity like this...' she mused as she swung the large weapon around behind her, and gave it a few practice swings. 'Yep, sweeps for the naginata. I am going to need a better weapon though... I hated that it starts off like this. It's really limiting,' she thought having done this, she began to approach the outer edges of this particular group. Wide sweeps would see multiple warthogs beheaded at a time and she would be seen moving quickly enough to disappear from the line of sight of those who'd noticed their fallen comrades. 'If he makes a distraction like this for a while, I can thin the numbers a bit. I am sure he understands this,' she thought and with that she disappeared from sight once more into the tall grass.

[Bloodedge]

'Woah! I didn't expect to be doing this kind of thing when I logged in today!' the male thought as the warthog thrashed about in every attempt to launch him from its back. When he had a chance to see the group around him, he did take note of the fact that some had been slain recently. His random gamble was paying off, it seemed. Nevertheless, he couldn't just sit around and be a distraction; he had to do something as well. 'Alright, calm down you little fatty! I've got work to do,' he thought further, having a readout appear in his vision noting the Class Ability: Riding. He now understood how it worked, and made use of this knowledge by placing his left hand upon the beast's head. A magical rune emerged from his palm and set itself on the warthog, putting it under his control and calming it enough to be used as a proper mount. "Osu! Now you're in trouble," he said to none other than the rest of the warthog group. Now that he didn't need his right hand to hold onto his mount, he used it to unsheathe the iron jian-style sword at his hip. It was then that he was able to ride his tamed warthog around at the center of the horde while slashing and stabbing at every beast which grew too close, steadily thinning their numbers from within.

[Apollymi]

It seemed her partner in this particular endeavor had a bit more to do. She looked around to note that he'd begun properly riding the beast he'd hopped atop, and beyond this he'd drawn a weapon and was now properly thinning the number of beasts inside as well. 'Ah. Good.' she thought. "YOSH!" she whispered excitedly to herself. Another movement was made by this young woman and she lowered the weapon in a downward slash which took off the heads of several more beasts. What was more, as she moved again she got a new readout for her abilities. Class Ability: Shadow Step. She played this class before, and as such fully understood how this worked out, and knew that her body was invisible during the activation of this ability. Her movements were abused immediately after, as she was charged more directly by one who'd been watching her behead its comrades. Instead of running she slipped to the left of it, taking up space behind it, to lift her weapon upward and cut the beast from beneath its body in a single deft sweep. 'Finally...' she mused, now she was prepared for being in combat with a group. Though admittedly she preferred only to strike when she had the means to disappear again. 'I guess, I am a bit too much like this Miki avatar anyways.' she thought, as she continued to use her new skills to help thin the numbers quite a bit more from the outside working her way towards the lad atop his warthog.

[Bloodedge]

One by one, two by two, warthogs were falling by the combined yet separate efforts of the adventurers from another world. While the girl slayed warthogs from the outside of the horde using her Class Ability, the male took to using one of his as well. After running his blade through the head of the warthog he rode on, he used its body as a stepping stone to hop onto another and ride it around the pile of corpses before repeating the process anew. During his warthog-hopping, he finally got a look at the other person participating in this battle. The sight of her made him wonder what sort of individual this might be. 'Huh, that's weird. I've never seen an NPC look like that before. I wonder how much it'll be for whatever her romance quest-line needs.'

[Apollymi]

Yet another differing technique was used by this lad, as he began hopping from warthog to warthog while riding them between the masses. The bodies were piling up pretty nicely by their combined efforts, and this particular young woman had no problem with working with this lad as they were. While visible between constant killing she got a proper look at the lad from the front. 'Whoa! I'd say he was too pretty to be an NPC. I wonder if he's one of the options for a romance. It'd be pretty useful if he was... at least until I can get my Winged Dire Wolf back,' she thought to herself. It was a bit of a pragmatic view to have, but as a Rogue type she needed some extra bodies around to help her. To be fair, she'd rather have an animal companion but she knew it'd be a while off, if she could instead form a bit of a party... it might make her life a little easier. 'In the game, I was scared of parties because how crazy loner guys online can be when they find out a 'real' girl is in the place. But here, it should be a bit closer to real life right?' she thought to herself a bit of a stern look coming to her face as she swung on the last of the warthogs in her area killing it swiftly. The next, was a good distance away from her, but she decided to test the limits of her avatars form and flexibility. She planted the end of her weapon into the ground, and pole-vaulted over a mass of corpses to bring her weapon up after and slam it vertically down into the head of the last beast near her. Such an action took a bit more dexterity than most had at first, but she'd chosen a rather dexterous class to begin with so it was within her limits. 'Hm, I wonder if doing this sort of thing will make me tired?' she questioned as she scouted her surroundings to make sure she was indeed clear of any immediate danger.

[Bloodedge]

The other adventurer may have been wondering if she would become tired, but from so much hopping and warthog riding, the Saber Class male could feel the alteration to his breathing. There was no arguing how real this world was now, but he could at least take solace in the fact that the warthogs were cleared out. Well... all but one were gone by the time the blonde lass ended her last target, leaving the male to ride the final living one toward her before stabbing it in the head and descending. 'Is she one of those followers? I heard the game is different every playthrough, but I didn't expect an NPC to pop up like this. All of the ones I've seen had dialogue to go through before their companion quest happened,' he thought, still wondering what his options with this character were going to be. In the end, he decided to initiate the conversation. "Yo!" he said. "Thanks for the support back there. I couldn't have hoped to take those things on by myself. Are you here for the reward?"