Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Lea, or as he is now called in-game, Sonic, opened his eyes to see that he was currently in a small town. Sonic new of this place since every player that gets this game starts off in this location, looking around he saw a whole bunch of people, though only a few of them are recognizable while the rest look like they were brand new. Some of them, like himself, were wearing the starter gear.

Ever since the fourth event of the game came and went, there had been an upsurge in new players. People that were already playing the game got more of their friends to play it as well, and with the highlight reels from the event popping up on the internet showing how fascinating it was, many people were quick to grab a copy of their own. Sonic was one of the people that started playing the game after the event, for a couple reasons, one of which he just wanted to watch the event before playing.

One reason he wanted to watch the event before playing was so he could watch his favorite guild in the game, Maple Tree, compete for the top prize, and now he had learned more things about them, especially their leader, Maple. However, in the game there is an unspoken rule that every player knows; when it comes to Maple, expect the unexpected.

The thing that Sonic should have expected when he took his first few steps to wander around was that he ended up moving much faster than a simple walk. “Woah.” He said as he stopped. Sonic then took a small step, one foot after the other, and made a simple walk. “That was strange, I thought I was walking right there.” Suddenly remembering something he opened his menu.

Sonic

Lv1                  HP 40/40                     MP 12/12

[STR 0 { 9 x2}]         [VIT 0]

[AGI 100]       [DEX 0]

[INT 0]

Equipment

Head        [None]                     Body       [None]

1. Hand [Starter Right Gauntlet] L. Hand   [Starter Left Gauntlet]

Legs        [None]                     Feet         [None]

Accessories             [None]

                                [None]

                                [None]

Skills

None

“Hmm…guess I should’ve known I would move that fast with 100 AGI.” Sonic said while looking through his stats. “Not a lot of STR though, the gauntlets do give me 9 each. Was this a good build?” Sonic asked himself before putting away his menu. “It’s my first day, I’ll just level up and figure the other stuff out later. Now though, I would like to try my speed out.” He then started looking around the surrounding area. “But where?”

He was about to move when he remembered that he needed to control his movements. Doing that while looking around should seem easy to do, like moving around in real life, you must watch your speed while going somewhere. Sonic kept wandering around looking for a place to run to, meanwhile he was catching the attention of some of the other new players, some of them were drawn in by his blue hair. Suddenly Sonic stopped and looked in front of him. In front was a large clearing, grassy fields, with a mountain front in center.

“Huh, not a bad view.” Sonic said with his destination in mind. “Probably some monsters around there too.” Sonic crouched down in a running stance, with his right leg bent in front and his left leg stretched back, his hands on the ground and head looking down. Many players kept watching him, wondering what he was doing when he raised his head and looked straight ahead at the clearing. “Here we go!” Sonic said as he took off running much faster than he ever did.

Only a few seconds did he leave all players view, leaving them all stunned with how fast he went, some of them staring wide eyed with open mouths.

A few seconds of running and Sonic was already far away from the town and further out in the grassy field, but he did still have a way to go to get to the mountain. That, however, was not his concern now, the only thing on his mind was how fast he was going. “This is amazing, I’ve always been fast, but this is unbelievable.” He said to himself while running. He kept a close eye out for any monsters but so far has come up empty. “There has to be something out here.”

Sonic decided to make a detour from the path to the mountain and travel all around the field to search for monster to destroy so he could level up. Soon though, while he was running, he got a glimpse of something small and colored bright yellow, screeching himself to a stop, he headed toward the yellow thing. Reaching his destination, Sonic took a closer look and saw that it was just a flower. Reaching out for it, Sonic plucked the flower from the field only for it to disappear into light particles.

“What the?” Sonic questioned what when he got a message. Tapping his finger on the message board he read it.

Grass Field Flower

Used to craft Healing Potions and Antidotes.

“This could come in handy.” Sonic said before he started to hear a sound. It sounded something like buzzing. Sonic turned around and five large bees. “Hey, was that flower yours?” He said slightly terrified of the giant bees, the biggest thing he saw next to a real-life hornet, but even that was small compared to these things.

One of them prepared its stinger and charged at Sonic. Sonic quickly stepped off to the side, avoiding the attack, to him it probably would not have done much but with zero VIT he could not afford to be reckless. Just the first one missed the attack the other four prepared their stingers and charged for Sonic as well. Sonic first ducked, then jumped, and a sidestep to each side to avoid the attacks.

“Hey, don’t you know that if you sting me then you’ll die?” Sonic said to the bees but that did nothing as they went on to the attack again. “Guess not.” Sonic then took off running, with his speed he was sure to outrun them, but then a thought came to him. “If I want to level up then I need to fight.” Looking back, he sighed and ran back toward the bees. Stopping in front of them he said, “Hey guys, your mom’s a yellowjacket.”

He was not sure if that got to them, but they did go for another attack. The first one charged, but Sonic dodged again, except this time as he dodged, he also threw his right arm back and launched it toward the bee, causing damage. Sadly, though it was not enough damage to destroy it, but that was not going to stop him. Looking back at the other bees he motioned them with his hand to come and get some. The bees launched themselves again only for Sonic to keep dodging them and repeatedly attacking them. Dodge, then attack, and old but effective method.

Soon Sonic’s attacks started working as three of the bees have soon disappeared into light particles, signaling their defeat. The fourth one flew up and then came crashing down, hoping to get Sonic from up above. He saw the attack coming but this time decided not to dodge it, instead he jumped and with his gauntlet covered hand in the air he met the bee in the air and attacked it before the bee could attack him. Safely landing on the ground Sonic looked around and spotted the fifth bee, the last one. The bee, however, did what Sonic did not expect and started flying away in terror.

“Hey, you’re the one who wanted to fight, get back here.” Sonic said before he took off for the bee. With his speed Sonic was able to catch up to it in a few seconds, but then he jumped and punched the bee from behind, making him bounce off the attack and the bee to disappear into light particles as well. He gave himself a thumbs up and said, “That’s all she wrote.” Just as he said that he got another message.

“You are now Level 3.”

“Sweet, went up two levels.” Sonic cheered for himself then saw something else. “And I got some more points, I’ll just put those in AGI and…” Sonic then stopped and thought of something. But then thought of something else. “No don't try to over think it, you won and that's all that matter, who cares how you did. They all go into AGI.” He put all 10 points into AGI giving him 110 altogether.

“Skill: Dodging I acquired. Skill: Close Combat I acquired.”

“Huh, not bad.” Sonic closed the message board after seeing that there were no other messages for him. Not knowing what else to do he stood there to think. “You know, let’s just run.” He always did love to run, especially during school events so why not now. Getting in a running stance Sonic launched himself forward into a run. “Woooohoooo!”

[NWO] I saw a blue speedster!

1. Name: Anonymous Archer

Yo! I saw some blue thing running past me.

2. Name: Anonymous Mage

Same

3. Name: Anonymous Merchant

Same

4. Name: Anonymous Spear Master

Same

5. Name: Anonymous Greatsworder

What was that?

6. Name: Anonymous Merchant

It was probably a monster.

7. Name Anonymous Spear Master

lol

8. Name: Anonymous Greatsworder

Monsters don’t appear in safe zones

9. Name: Anonymous Merchant

I didn’t know ;(

10. Name: Anonymous Mage

Is it a new a new event going on?

11. Name: Anonymous Greatsworder

C’mon Anonymous Archer, give us the deets

12. Name: Anonymous Archer

idk all I saw was that it was fast, and it was blue

13. Name: Anonymous Spear Master

Mystery solved, NOT!!!

14. Name: Anonymous Mage

Guess we have something new to look for

15. Name: Anonymous Merchant

Indeed

16. Name: Anonymous Greatsworder

Indeed

17. Name: Anonymous Spear Master

Indeed

18. Name: Anonymous Archer

Wait! What about Maple?

19. Name: Anonymous Mage

Later. Right now, we have a mystery to solve.

20. Name: Anonymous Archer

Alright count me in too.