The Linked Adventures

-Silver Octave,Presents-

The Linked Adventures

"Alright, we're here." said Lance with a sigh. He swiped down with his hand and opened up his inventory.

"How're you doing on pots?" asked the team healer, Keyla. She had a staff in her hands with a green orb sitting on top. It looked like a long branch that grew the orb like an apple to a tree. "I have enough mana pots and team restores."

Galvirous  nodded and smiled. He started to check his own inventory. He had plenty of potions and still had his two maximum revives. "I'm fine, barely touched on the way here." He looked to Keyla and winked. "And an awesome healer."

Keyla blushed and looked the other way. "W-well...I-I'm just doing my job."

Gardin chuckled, shaking his head. "Tank's doin' his job well too. Good going on that second mini-boss on the way up here Galv. I nearly died if it wasn't for you two."

"Deeps need their cheers too." Complained Lance with a whine. He brushed back his silver hair and adjusted his sword. "I got kicked in the balls six times on the way here...." Just mentioning it, Lance started to rub his crotch and groaned.

Keyla giggled. "Thanks Lance, Gardin." She nodded to each of them as she mentioned their names. "Without your high attack stats, we might've lost to Galgadour." The boss in question had four arms and a very high physical and defense stats. It carried two swords and two shields, and it was one of the few bosses in the game that could heal itself over time. "Ready for the buffs?" The team nodded with cheers, raising the swords high. "Askterik-Divi-Nort-Balay-Navi-Sokta!" She slammed her staff onto the ground and in a giant ring, all four of them were given buffs to increase defense, agility, health, mana, and critical change.

Galvirous pulled a stone with a rune etched in it. "This is the last resort. We don't know what we're up against here so I'm going to use the stone."

Keyla and the others' eyes widened at the sight of the glowing green stone. "What is it? My Item Checker isn't reading anything."

"It's an item I won from the duel with the admins remember? The Seven Deadly Sins guild created a tournament, offering a stone that could give the user invincibility for ten minutes?"

"You have the Shard of Helios!? AMAZING!" Lance shouted, smiling like he belonged in a mad house. "How many uses does it have?"

That question had made Galvirous smile evily. "Five." He replied.

Keyla's eyes looked like they were about to let her avatar's eyes fall out. "FIVE?! That's way over powered!"

Gardin scratched his chin slowly, humming in thought. Everyone looked to him as he shook his head. "Not when you have a full party."

Galvirous nodded. "Exactly, but like I said, it's a last resort only. Understand?" They all nodded at him, still had surprised looks on their faces. "If Keyla can't heal us anymore because we're stupid fucks, I use it."

Keyla smiled at the idea. "Sounds fair, at least you're giving me a chance to help."

Galvirous shook his head while laughing. "No, I want you to work." His words dripped is sarcasm. He stepped over to Keyla and set his hand on her shoulder. She had an awful blush on her face while he looked down on the healer. "You try to stay calm okay? Your race can only recover mana if you remain calm. Don't push yourself, time the heals, and you'll do great." The others nodded in agreement. He smiled gently at her and planted a kiss on her cheek.

Keyla pressed her hand to the spot he kissed, trying her hardest not to fall over and unlink her connection - which would be bad for all of them. However, she was frozen for some few seconds as she tried to regain control over her emotions. Galvirous was right, she was a Fairy Elf, and if she didn't keep her heart rate steady, they would fail. She steeled herself up, and nodded sternly. "Okay! Let's kick some boss ass!"

"That's the spirit!" Lance laughed.

Slowly, they all faced the door and pointed their swords at it. "All for one! And one for all!" They shouted before running through the door and ready to face the boss known as the name the game gave it, Exivos. Nothing else was known about the creature because no one else had fought it before. Exivos and the Land of Elviem was the newest update to the game they played called Guardians of Galdia.

The room was dark at first with a shadowy form looming in a purple mist. They applied their class buffs, and readied their swords. Gardin looked to Keyla and made a motion to turn create a light. There weren't any sort of light sources around them like other boss rooms had. Keyla whispered the night vision spell and tapped the floor with her staff.

"Oh my god..." Lance and Gardin muttered at the sight of the monstrous demon. It's level was just over their own levels, and had two glowing red eyes.

It roared loudly at them, nearly blowing them back from it's screams. A ring of fire surrounded them, starting the battle sequence. Five bars of HP showed up on their monitors. It's body looked like it had a crystal in the center, but two of the six arms were guarding it. Examining the arena around them, looking for possible ways to distract the demon.

However before he got the chance to make the first strike to agro the boss, Galvirous was thrown back into the barrier. It made a twisted sound as it bounced him back onto the ground just in front of the barrier. He groaned as he tried to regain his bearings. The attack had made his vision blur, but the shield he had on still had nine tenths of it's charge before he would need to recharge it in a town. Lance took the chance for an attack,  but the boss was too quick and swiped him from the air.

"Agh! Dammit!" Lance struggled to get free, and he was just quick enough to evade the demon's next attack. Exivos roared in rage at his failure.

"Lance get back and recover!" Gardin shouted, throwing up a temporary barrier to help protect his ally. It wouldn't last long and the cool down almost made the ability not worth its use. Although it was helpful in times of need and he should of used it on the healer, but the attack had done a number on him already. Lance, while high in attack and speed being the assassin class, had very low health and defense. However, he was still very helpful with his agility buffs.

Keyla jumped on the chance to aid Lance while Galivrous threw himself at Exivos. Finally able to land the first hit, and agro him, Galivrous landed more combos. He jumped around and side stepped into the boss's back with his imperious sword before kicking off and throwing a flash bomb at his head. Galivrous smiled at his successful strikes and turned it over to Gardin.

Gardin used the stun debuff Exivos had and charged up his lance attack. The tip of the massive lance began to glow with Gerdin's orange energy. He watched as his mana drained and his charge meter go up. With only six seconds before the debuff wore off on Exivos, he thrusted forward with a fully charged lance attack. He shouted as he thrusted into the demon's eye. At last it moved it's hands to cover the eye, leaving the gem exposed.

Lance was finally healed by Keyla. He gave her a thankful nod and pulled his daggers out. He readied his class move by locking on to the gem. He counted down in his head the time it took to lock onto the weakest point on it's body. Soon, he realized that his targeting ability was moving to it's head and not the gem.

"It's weak point is his head!" Lance informed them. "Keyla, Stepping Stones!"

Keyla nodded with a evil grin. "RIGHT!" Almost in an instant, her mana dropped half way from six thousand to three. "Terra, Kii, Locit, Lusis!" Three sets of stairs for her team.

Almost as one, Galivrous, Lance, and Gardin had ran up the stairs. Just as Exivos recovered its eye, Lance stabbed his daggers into its right eye. Next Gardin jumped up and shoved his lance through its head. Lastly Galivrous swung and cut through its neck, causing a dark purple sludge to ooze out. Exivos roared once more in pain.

Keyla noticed unlike the others, before they had the time to recover from their own attacks, that while it had low health now, the gem began to glow with a powerful dark magic. It grabbed her friends, causing them to yell in panic. The gem threw her friends into the air and then slammed them onto the ground, creating three deep impact craters.

The party hud showed that only Galivrous was the only survivor of the attack, and he was only saved by his shield which was now fully depleted. Galivrous only had half of his health remaining.

"D-dammit..." Lance said before his character turned into a dim red pylon. "Get'em..." Gardin said before he too turned into a pylon of his energy color.

"NO!" Keyla screamed in rage. She downed her mana potions and activated her own class ability. "Ni, Tine, Bovus, Shine, Khes, Joves, Dova, Lokt, Jees, Ubrine,-" All she thought about was avenging her friends. The ones who aided in her recovery in the real world after getting hit by a car, and nearly getting crushed by a sixteen wheeler. Those were the friends who helped her, now, she need to help them. Game or not, she still felt like she had to help them in every way possible. "Gila, Vassa, *USROGA!***"

Keyla's body grew six times her normal height. Her mana completely drained, and now the effects of her ability started to set in. Her health began to slowly drain, ten each second while in use. Her skin had turned black and her eyes glowed bright yellow. She was only six feet shorter than the boss, but that didn't matter, she was just as powerful, if not more so than Exivos. There was a hole in her chest in the shape of a heart, and her once blue hair was as black as her skin and waving randomly around. All she saw was red, everything now was just another bug to her that needed to be smashed into dust and burned, then the ashes should be used to wipe her ass after she takes a fulfilling dump. After that, she would flush the tainted liquid and let it get evaporated in the nearest super volcano.

Galivrous had only seen Keyla use her class ability once before on a player killer who was trying to hurt him while they were still lower levels. It was known as Heartless Fairy. All of her stats would be multiplied by ten while in use, but at the cost of all her mana and her health would drain. "You're fucked now dude!" Galivrous only laughed at Exivos looked down at him while he still recovered. "I'd run!"

Before Exivos could attack with the gem again, Heartless Fairy Keyla shoved her hand into his chest, pulling the gem out. While he roared in pain, Keyla smashed the gem to dust with one hand and devoured it. Her mana filled up a quarter of the way, but soon it was drain as she held Exivos close to her face and fired a massive purple lazer from her mouth.

Exivos's health dropped to zero almost instantly from the blast. Keyla let go of him and let the headless body fall over backwards. She started to stomp on the body over and over until the ability started to wear off. In a bright flash as the light returned to her, Keyla was back to her regular self.

Galivrous started to laugh his ass off while Keyla started to fix her dress. "That was wicked!" He yelled in joy while using his revives on his fallen team members.

"I'm feel ALIVE!!!!" Lance cheered.

"Bein' dead just made me mad!" Gardin groaned as his body started to regenerate from the pylon powered by the revive crystal.

"You guys see that shit!" Galivrous asked with a smile that seemed to be stuck to his face. "Keyla, you were totally badass!"

Keyla blushed at the attention and looked away. "You guys got hurt...." She said as her team began to tightly hug her. "C-can't breath! Pl-please l-let go!"

And so they did. Just as the body of Exivos faded into dust the battle had finally ended. "Woo! Loot baby! Keyla got the last hit, she she gets first dibs!"

The others nodded in agreement. "Keyla go ahead." Lance bowed and stepped away. The other's followed in suit.

A large chest appeared out of thin air. She opened it up and saw four items inside along with enough gold to expand their guild hall by a lot. Of the items there was a golden staff with a purple orb on the top that looked just like the gem that was inside of Exivos. The item identifier named it as "[Legendary] Divine Staff of Gaia" As she picked it up, it read as bound to her and only her. This item cannot be traded or sold for currency. With a happy sigh she equipped it.

Galivrous whistled as he peeked at the item in her inventory. "Increases mana by three hundred percent, increases mana generation by three hundred percent for each member of the party that is under eighty percent health-" The others whistled in surprise while Keyla just  with her mouth wide open. "But wait, there's more! Aaaaannnndddd it adds a regenerative shield for each team member." Galivrous looked at his own shield. It was increased by two hundred and was rising up quickly. "I can finally stop buying shield stones! Sweet!"

Lance and Gardin checked their shields and saw their health bars were covered by a yellow bar that was slowly rising over them. "Wicked!" They cheered.

"That item is ssssoooooo overpowered." Gardin chuckled. Next he picked an item from the chest, dealing the second most damage to Exivos. It was "[Legendary] Divine Spear of Destiny." Soon they all realized they got legendary items as well, all increasing their stats by a fuck ton while equipped. "[Legendary] Divine Excalibur" for Galivrous and "[Legendary] Divine Daggers of Hephaestus " for Lance.

The room lit up suddenly while they were cheering over their victory and loot. A orb of light descended from the top of the room towards them.

"Greetings heroes...You have saved this land from a darkness that could have destroyed the entire world." It said with the voice of a woman. "My name is Luidia, Goddess of Light. I have gifted these items to you over your victory and the defeat of Lord of Darkness, Exivos. Use these tools of justice and vanquish the remaining darkness from the world."

[New Quest] : Trails of Luidia - Defeat one billion creatures of darkness.

Again, they felt like whistling at the idea of killing that much. "Well, at least it won't be that hard to get it done." Gardin sighed, sounding only slightly annoyed at the prospect.

"Just time consuming..." Lance added, Gardin nodded.

The orb glowed brighter, regaining their attention. "Tread lightly heroes, evil knows now that you have the tools to their true destruction."

"I bet it's one of those system AI's." Lance dryly commented. "Aren't you?" He asked the orb of light.

"I am apart of the system, yes users. However, this doesn't mean the gravity of the situation is negated. This world will be destroyed if evil is not kept at bay."

They knelt down on one knee. Galivrous smiled and said, "Of course, we will take these weapons and use them to defeat evil."

"That's good, now I will send you back to the last town you were in."

Sometime later... In the real world...

Yawning as he opened his eyes. Coal heard the familiar sounds of hospital equipment. He sat up in the bed as his nurse walked in, and took of his Cyberlink Gear.

"Welcome back!" She said with a cheerful smile. "What'd you do this time?"

"Beat a new boss that was just added a few days ago and got really overpowered gear." Coal replied as he helped Hera take off the IV tubes and probes that fed him and monitored his vitals. "What's for dinner?"

Hera pulled a box from her bag and gave it to Coal. "Something from Wendy's. That new spicy chicken sandwich with jalapeno sauce."

Just the sound of it made his stomach cry for the food and his mouth began to water. "So you do love me!" Hera only laughed in response.

"As much as my other patients." Ouch, friendzoned... Coal thought with a wince, even though he knew she was married to a doctor that worked there. "How are your friends doing?"

"Katie's fine, Lucas is still getting used to walking again, and Gavin is just happy to be out of that mental institution." As am I... Coal looked down at the box that protected his meal.

Hera almost sensed his attitude changing. Being with the young man for quite some time now, she grew to know him much more personally than she thought she had liked, but it helped her understand him more. "I forgot about him...."

"No one should be on that side anyways... I'm just glad he's out of it and back to realizing that there's a difference between the two realities." Coal said, then took a bite of his sandwich. "Mmmhhhfff....Dish ish gwood!"

Hera giggled and turned off the machines. "You act like a child."

Coal winked. "Bush dat's were ye luv meh."

Hera smacked him upside the head. "Don't speak with your mouth full moron, you might choke..."

"That's why I'm in the center of a hosptial isn't it?" He asked right before he took another bite, nearly a quarter of the sandwich remained. Swallowing before speaking this time, Coal checked the clock. "About a day and a half I was in this time."

"You were enjoying yourself with that new update for your game. Of course you were in there for a long time." Hera said, making some final checks around the room. "Looks like everything's good!" She said before sitting down and messing with her own phone.

Coal picked up his phone and looked at his e-mails and other shit. As he scrolled through the different pages, there was one e-mail that was highlighted and marked important. It had an unknown sender, or perhaps that was the name of who sent it. To him it didn't matter, although he checked it anyways.

~Chosen Individual~

You have been selected to be the soul tester for a new game that is currently in working Beta. It has been a long time in the making and we are proud to present EQ-Hero. It is a heavy open world magical adventure filled with endless quests, and the state of the art AI systems. You can play as over twenty different races, and you can also choose a morality system which will effect how the AI's view you. This game is unlike any other before or perhaps even after it's full release.

You start in a random area, but we assure you that you will remain safe until you reach the end of the tutorial region. Before you start however you must pick a race, class, and later on after you complete the tutorial you can select which subclass you wish to be. The land you will be starting in is one of the Twelve Kingdoms of the planet Terra. You will see many mythological creatures that can think and speak as you or I. They will act just like a normal user would, and have even complex actions that put most AI's to shame. It's current rating is AO+, with heavy sexual content. If you wish to take part in sexual acts we assure you that it is most realistic.

Once again, we hope you enjoy this new game. We chose you out of the eight billion other users around the world because your rather strange situation revolving around difficulties. The passcode for the game is [13462345627574571345714562581343049857103945613094857203495613045610356130459135019650134958710345610378456013495634965103945613456013456130478561034561034956013465018345130945603475050234028374602835720346028592345285293875203847]

And as always, Game On!

"Mhmmm...." Coal rubbed his scruff in deep thought. "Take a look at this will ya? Tell me what you think of it." He tossed Hera the phone.

She studied the e-mail for a little over ten minutes, seemly in just as deep thought as Coal was. She gave it back to him and stood up. "If you wish, I can set the equipment up again."

"What? Not even, 'Hey I think this is a little weird?' from you?"

Hera shrugged. "I don't really know what to say. I mean, from the looks of it, it sounds like a pretty huge game." Suddenly she had the most devilish smile across her face. "Sounds fun eh?"

Coal scoffed. "Like I would do that!"

Hera returned the look she received from Coal. "You haven't even tried it out yet! Who knows what you'll find there!?"

He went silent for a few minutes. Hera was indeed right, who knew what he'd find there. From the the sound of it, it did seem pretty big. An entire world to explore, not just a limited map like most other games. Coal picked up his Cyberlink Gear and had this far off look at it.

"Something wrong, Coal?"

He snapped out of it and shook his head. "Nah....It's just it's a lot to take it, ya know?" Hera shrugged.

"Well?" She asked, motioning to the equipment.

Coal nodded and place the gear around his head. "I guess it's back to cyberspace."

"You sound like it's a bad thing." She chuckled, plugging the machines back in and turning them on. Coal helped Hera place the probes over his vitals an on the back of his neck.

"Li-"

"Wait!" Hera shouted suddenly. "I hope it's a good game. Have fun okay? And remember, don't stay too long, you haven't done your stretches yet. One day, max, then unlink."

"Yes mother..."

"Oh, and happy twenty-fourth."

Coal smiled. "Thanks Hera, I'm glad you remembered."

"See ya!" She winked and jumped a little so her boobs made a slight bounce.

With that imprinted in his memory forever, Coal turned on his Cyberlink. "As the great doctor had said, Onwards and Upwards!" Hera laughed, remembering the words of her husband. "LINK-START!"