Written by Revna Ulfhild
Location: Glacis Keep, Jörmungandr
Revna[i] stood by the northern fountain in Glacis Keep. The city was the last one in the starting area and over the past weeks she had been playing Jörmungandr with a professional trainer, today she was alone, mainly because she had to be up for the collaboration at four A.M. Central Standard Time as the interview and play along with Towa started at seven P.M. in Japan Standard Time. She Yawned both in real life and in the game, as she felt the cold wind blowing against her body, the feeing simulated in her senses making her think it was real. In the real world she was laying on the gaming mat and wearing her pajamas with the game helmet and gloves, in the game however she wore a more traditional Nordic garb, and leather armor, along her forearms. She also did not have her horns in the game, at least not yet. Jörmungandr allowed any streamer to request a change to their avatar but they had to meet specific conditions, the first was reaching level 25, which she would do in another month or so, the second was having a subscriber count high enough, which was a thousand followers on any streaming platform, and the third was a fee based on what you wanted. At least this is how her trainer Tetsu explained it to her. Revna Yawned again this time grabbing her elbows above her head and stretching loudly.
“Hey Revna, I hope I didn’t keep you waiting we had a party malfunction.” Towa’s[ii] familiar voice cut through the cold wind and she looked over to see Towa in a navy-blue priest-like robe and metal breastplate, her blonde hair was in a bun and she had her signature blue and pink stripes on her avatar. Behind her were two other players they were easy to see, Revna had noticed that not many people were on, even though the game was global and decided to ask about it. “Not at all, you could say I’m early.” She smirked as she cracked the pun, it was something she had learned about this centuries way of speaking that she thought was unique, all three of the other players groaned. “Nice pun Mastah.” Spoke the girl in the group. “It is ice to meet you, you seem pretty chill.” she said, her words having emphasis on an ‘H’ sound rather than a ‘R’ sound on master. Revna noted that the girl who was barely up to her chest had not only a witch like hat, but also ears that seemed to have a cut out in the hat and a tail.
“Not you too Macaron’ said a male dressed in a cloak, under it Revna noticed a multi layered belt with knives and corked potion bottles, the cloak had a hood that was down revealing a younger looking mage and gold chains on the shoulders help the cloak from frolicking in the wind. He stepped over to the cat eared girl and took her hat off revealing her Pink fur ears and long straight hair that flowed over her own purple cloak. As she jumped and tried to take her hat back, this happened a few times until Towa coughed. “Guys we don’t have long the match will be over soon.” She reminded them as they each apologized to Towa and each other. “Match, is that why no one is online?” Revna asked smiling and looking at the two additions Towa had brought. “Will we be able to fight what you want with only mages?”
“Yes, currently Pearl Oriental Productions[iii] is taking on CreativeTech[iv] in the final match for the Philippines Nationals tournament, whoever wins will go to worlds, though the current favorites to win are Team Holo, and The Jade Rabbits.” Towa explained revealing her deep knowledge of the competitive side of the game. “what class are you Revna I thought for sure you would be a Blade Master, wait hold on!” Towa said realizing she was not recording yet and moved her hand and navigating her menu to turn on streaming mode. “Hey everyone, good morning I’m here with Revna, I know many of you don’t know who my guest is today so let us do our interview as we head to the field boss. Why don’t you say hello?” “Uh...” Revna’s face blanked as she looked at Towa, she wasn’t used to everything in the game yet. “Hello, I’m Revna I know you can’t see it but I’m a Sheep Virtual from another world.” She explained her cheeks turning pink as she raised her hands to her head touching where her horns would be. “I recently started playing the game Jörmungandr, after competing in a tournament, and I guess I did something while playing to gain popularity.”
“Not just something you killed a field boss and a new one all by yourself, its not something that has not been done before but you did it on your first day, so its rather amazing. I actually feel bad for you because you didn’t get loot.”
“Towa?” the male mage spoke up as he was sitting on a nearby bench petting the cat ears of his fellow mage who was purring.
“Oh, right before we head out, we are joined today by Vincent Faust[v] and Macaron[vi], who will be acting as our escorts for today’s interview.” Towa explained as Vincent raised his hand and gave a slight wave and smile as macaron laid over his lap being petted by the mage. Before they both got up and walked towards Revna and Towa.
“Come now Ladies I’ll be sure to keep you all safe.” Vincent boasted as he walked in front of them to the main street and led the girls through the near empty road of the Nordic inspired fort. Glacis Keep was one of four cities in the beginner’s area, and the only one in a snow region. Revna and Towa followed behind and the Cat Virtual, Macaron forming a diamond formation. As they walked Towa would continue her interview.
“So, you were saying your class, Revna?”
“Right, so because of the weapon I received at the singles tournament here in America I have decided for now to be a supporter.” She said as they exited the gates the call of a Nordic horn let the area know the gate was being opened. “Though I call it a weapon, but you guys might not think of it as so.” As the four players stepped out of the gate their weapons spawned, Vincent’s grimoire began to float in front of him as if on a pedestal, Macaron and Towa had their staff and cane spawn in their hands, and for Revna she had a rectangular shield spawn on her left arm, and a small axe appeared on her back.
“That can’t be the weapon you received for killing Typhon.” Towa commented as she used her detect magic skill on the shield peeking at its underwhelming stats.
“Well, I was using a rental account when I beat Typhon, so the admins of the game gave me a downgraded iron rank weapon.”
“Makes sense, you wouldn’t be able to hold a gold rank item at level 15, plus if you level it up with your player level all the way to Mithril than it will be better suited for your play style.” Towa’s explained mainly to the viewers of the interview, but also to Revna as she had only been in the game for two weeks or so.
Revna looked at Towa. “That is similar to what my trainer told me. I got a few items from one of the bosses but need twenty-five wolf teeth.”
“You said you have a trainer, am I correct in assuming you have signed with a team?”
“Yes,” Revna paused and looked around for a moment before opening her menu and added a cloak to her character, the others followed suit as the cold and wind began to get worse. “Unfortunately, I have also signed a contract swearing my secrecy, so I cannot tell you what team Towa.”
“That is understandable, I think that concludes the interview for now so we should be fine to do some battles, the three of us will stay back to get some shots, if you need help just call.”
“Right, so I’ll just go kill a few of the snow goblins over here and then we can go somewhere else?” Revna asked receiving a nod from Towa, the ground had been coated in about an inch of snow from the occasional storm, and it crunched under her feet with each step the sound carrying along with it until it reached the back of goblins and alerted them to her presence of course that was fine by her as Revna did not believe in sneaking around unless necessary. But for now, she wanted to treat the four goblins as equals and rushed in shield at the ready. Revna being steps from the Goblin lowered herself and braced for the impact, the front goblin collided and Revna lift herself and shoved sending the small creature flying backwards and into a tree, between the two hits the goblin was stunned, and face down in the snow causing the three surrounding her to scream in unintelligent gibberish.
“You should have raised your weapon instead of your voice.” Revna shouted at the nearest of them as she shoved the bottom of her shield into it causing it to die and turn to digitalized red cubes and vanish granting her with some experience points. The two remaining goblins took Revna’s advice as they attacked her, both their clubs would impact with her shield, and in a swift motion she swung her arm and slashed through the remaining goblins, before walking over to the one by the tree, the goblins were not high level, so they were basically an appetizer, still it had not stopped Revna from using one of her skills. She stood above the last of the goblins now, snow had begun to fall again, and the wind made her cloak whip and bellow around her. “You had bravery little goblin, rest well.” She said showing the creature respect before lifting and slamming the shield down onto it turning it back into data before she headed back to her allies.
As she approached Towa, she could hear her explaining some of the stats of her shield to her viewers. “The shield Revna has equipped has both the Finesse and Versatile perk on it, this means she can wield it with one or two hands to hold it and use either her Strength, or Dexterity Stat as the damage and hit multiplier.”
“I use dexterity, Towa” Revna added to the end of her sentence looking at her. “The speed stat also aids me in moving the shield, I still have a decent Strength score but Dex is a bit higher. Plus, I used the ‘speed up’ skill, to increase that more.”
“That’s why the battle didn’t take long, I know that the goblins are level ten, and you are fifteen, but I was hoping for a longer battle.” Towa explained.
“Sorry about that I am up for fighting something else.” Revna said with a smirk. Which got a chuckle out of Towa, and macaron who was facing away. In the opposite direction of Vincent. The four of them ventured farther into the Glimmering Flatlands, keeping the diamond formation in case Towa had any other questions for Revna, but mostly the four of them chatted and shared experiences about life as a Virtual in the real world and in more stuff about the game. As the marched they soon spotted another group.
Vincent spoke interrupting the chatter, his voice changing from his previous friendly demeanor to a more serious tone. “Towa, we have Rabbits approaching.”
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