Fantasy Valkyom In Character (IC) Posting Section

[JustifiedRoles]

Haruki
[The Tank]

Letting out a breath as the cheater vanished, Haruki sheathed his weaponry, turning back to the tree. He shakily climbed back up to his perch, ignoring the others. His grip slipped a few times making him curse quietly before calming his pounding heart enough to grasp the next branch. Once he was high enough off the ground to feel like the others couldn't see him, he leaned back against the trunk with a shaky sigh. The things that guy had said to Saya. Imagining what he was like in real life was a bit scary. He acted like the kind of asshole who'd get drunk and make moves onto the young bartender girl who was obviously just working there to get by. Closing his eyes, he focused on his breathing. He'd come down when the others needed him or when they were ready to move. For now though, he needed to calm down. For fuck's sake his hands were still shaking. He felt so helpless. Sure he could be a human shield for all of five seconds, but the asshole wouldn't leave due to that. Thank god the admins were quick to intervene...Not only had he been cheating, he'd been trying to sexually harass someone.
​

ChoShadow

 

[Thawne]

Nicholas Wilson/Jäger​

Nick was about to give his retort in the form of an arrow in this guy's eye socket when he steeled his nerve. His attitude just seeped with pretentious bullshit and idiotic rambling that just deserved something to shut him up. Then he started going after Haruki, which made Nick even angrier. But when he started making advances towards Saya, that's what sealed the deal. He brought his bow uo and drew back his arrow, the sharp end pointed directly at the intruder's head.

"You are utter garbage. I'm about to stop caring about the difference in levels just so I can put an arrow in your eye. Why? Because you have failed this game," he said aggressively. However, his threat would go without completion as a small sprite signaling an admin permanantly banned him from the game. He gently removed tension from the bow and placed the arrow back in its quiver.

"Good riddance to bad trash," he said in response to the ban.

ChoShadow JustifiedRoles takki GrieveWriter animegirl20

 

[takki]

Hiroto "Kimura" Matsugi

People may not have noticed it, but his sword, unsheathed, were glowing the whole time the cheater appeared to intervene with their party. Anytime, he was ready to attack the guy regardless of their skill gap. Despite his threat, the cheater still didn't look intimidating. He only looked disgusting and ugly. His face shows rage that time the cheater suddenly moved on to Saya and sexually harassed her. He didn't say anything, but he knew to himself that he moved a little closer to the cheater to strike his face with his noob sword. His sword glowed brighter, signaling that he's ready to activate his third and ultimate skill that he's yet to discover, until a screen popped in front of the cheater. He was finally caught by the admins, and as far as he knew, they were safe.

Hiroto sighed in relief, "I was this close to ripping that guy's eye. Thank goodness the admins detected him." The glow on his sword vanished and he sheathed it again. "Well, we're fine and all. All of us are level three now, except for Haruki. Maybe we should buy gear and get rid of our noob stuff?" He suggested to them. And just like that, he forgot about the cheater. All he knew that time was they were safe.

ChoShadow JustifiedRoles takki GrieveWriter animegirl20

 

[animegirl20]

Twilight could not believe what she was he was hearing. "Shut up you pervert!" Before she could do anything else the admin was taking care of it and he got kicked out. She sighed happy that guy was gone. She glanced at the others and noticed Haruki was back in the tree. Twilight walked over to the tree and climbed up sitting next to him. She wasn't sure if he even saw her coming up. "You ok?" She noticed his hands shaking but decided not to bring it up. Her attention switched over Hiroto seemed to be wondering if everyone was up to buying more gear. "I'm up for that!" she said yelling out towards him. She then glanced back Haruki.
JustifiedRoles
takki
Thawne
ChoShadow
GrieveWriter

 

[ChoShadow]

Saya sighed, looking around to make sure everyone else was all right.

Since the final Sprite went down they all got a notification which more or less went unnoticed thanks to the cheater's appearance. The notification read "Your Party's Led earnings will now be deduced by 50% to accommodate for the EXP boost."

Saya checked her math real quick in her head. 35 EXP times fourteen Sprites was 490. Add 25% of that on top of it and it came to 612 EXP rounded down. That was enough for all of them to have made it to Level 5 straight away.

Saya checked, and sure enough she had missed the notification earlier that she'd reached Level 5 thanks to the cheater showing up and sucking the fun out of the moment.

"We should all be Level 5 by now. I recommend checking your status real quick and confirm everyone." She said.

She then opened her Player Menu to check her Led earnings. And true to her expectation, the 5200 Led they'd normal earn was cut to 2,600. Just one kill shy of the full 3,000 Led thanks to the cheater's interference.

Still, 2,600 Led on top of what she'd earned before was nothing to scoff at. Her total came out to roughly 2,636 since she slayed three Wasps earlier which each gave 12 Led.

Not a bad way to start the game.

"Does everyone have their 2,600 Led and are at Level 5? According to an article I read a few days before launch online the Developer said there was a roughly 0.03% chance that a Player may not properly receive either Led or EXP rewards after a battle. If that's the case for you there is a way to report the issue and verify your participation so the system rewards you once the message has been reviewed by an admin."

It was a minuscule chance, but a chance was a chance. She didn't want anyone not getting their just rewards for participating in this battle...

But that brought something back into her mind as she looked up into the tree.

"Haruki, could you come down here please? I need to speak to you about something." She called up to him.

JustifiedRoles Thawne animegirl20 GrieveWriter Blitzkrieg Bob takki

 

[GrieveWriter]

Erika waited for the Cheater to do something, anything... but in the end it seemed e wouldn't go farther than harassing the Beta Girl... at least until the Admins got involved. As long as he wasn't going to set them back in work by being a nuisance, she could care less. Honestly, her worries were aimed at something far more hazardous to her mission: Exploits

How could she have expected anything less? Even if she were to train up to a high level and grind out as much gear as she possibly could, then there'd still be some tiny trick that someone could use to negate that. The saving grace of the equation being that the Game Makers seemed vigilant enough to hunt down those suspected of using exploits, but there'd no doubt be others that slip under their radar.

She needed more levels, more gear, and she needed them fast.

While internally fuming at the greater challenge her quest was providing, Erika glanced to the side once Saya explained a potential chance that she may lose the battle reward. Her eyes opened wide and she practically tore open her menu only to find her recently acquired goodies. Just how many bugs were in this game?!?

Seething at this point, the Avenger closed her menu once more and was once again distracted from her anger by Saya talking to a tree. Her fury abated in confusion at first until she realized the beta girl was talking to something in the tree.

She had been focused on those battling the Sprites, focused on killing as many as she could after she felt knowledgeable of their movements. She hadn't noticed Haruki's absence then. And now, when she followed Saya's gaze up into the tree, the last thing she expected to find up there was their team leader.

"The hell is he in a tree for?" she quickly questioned nobody in particular, more voicing her own irritated confusion than anything else

ChoShadow animegirl20 JustifiedRoles Thawne Blitzkrieg Bob takki

 

[takki]

Hiroto "Kimura" Matsugi

Hiroto opened his menu screen to check his status, Led, and EXP.

"Huh?" He confusingly stared at the screen. It said he was level three, while Saya said they should be like, level 5 by now. He has way less Led than Saya had said, and lesser EXP. He checked all the other menu options, except the logout button. His skills, with the last skill empty, were there. Loot reward history was also there. "Damn." was all he could say.

"Hey, Saya." He gestured his hand to hers signaling to come to him. "I think my three last kills didn't register to the system. Does that mean I should report?"

Their conversation wouldn't be long, though. She'd still have time to get Haruki some sermon. "Oi, Jager. Twilight. Avenger." He looked at them one by one, and he said to all of them, "Can you do me a favor? Check your Led, EXP, and loot history."

Anyway, he can't believe that he was calm. Normally, in the real world, he wouldn't speak up and get people to do things. Maybe his mind was set up for him to have a different personality in the game. Though, it's not totally different from the real world.

JustifiedRoles animegirl20 Thawne ChoShadow GrieveWriter

 

[ChoShadow]

While waiting for Haruki to answer her and come down from his tree, Saya heard the Kimura ask others to check their LED and EXP. Evidently he was one of the few who would experience the game's first real patch-needing glitch which was to be denied some of his earnings while in a Party.

"Hey, Kimura," she called.

"Open your Player Menu and press the Options tab. You'll find the option Report An Issue at the bottom. Click it and record a voice over to the Support Team describing what happened. You should have received a total of 2,600 Led and 612 EXP. You should receive a reply from the Support Team within the hour granting you what the game failed to give you the first time." She said.

She then looked back up at the tree, waiting for Haruki to come down.

JustifiedRoles Thawne GrieveWriter takki Blitzkrieg Bob animegirl20

 

[JustifiedRoles]

Haruki eventually climbed down from the tree. he was mumbling under his breath. Something about how stupid he was for not having heard him coming.

"Yeah what do you need." He crossed his arms, hiding his hands.

In all honesty, he viewed Saya as more of the leader than himself. Creation of a party did not do much more than give a social status. Saya was more equipped to give orders.

ChoShadow

 

[ChoShadow]

Saya observed Haruki get down from the tree and let out a soft sigh.

"Haruki, listen. I don't know your gaming history, so I won't pretend to be in a position to lecture you as if you've never done this before. But if you're going to be Party Lead, you need to participate in what goes on." She said quietly.

Her tone was soft and gentle, and the words spoken were heartfelt.

"You are our tank. That means that you're our vanguard and the first into battle. Some of us rely on range to take down our enemies, so we need you there to keep them occupied. But if they're allowed to run free that puts everyone who relies on range at risk. Does that make sense?" She asked.

"Your role as Party Lead and as the Tank makes you an invaluable member of the team, Haruki. We need you where the Tank belongs: in the middle of the fight drawing aggro. Sure these Sprites were passive, but that's a tremendous rarity and a luxury we're almost never going to be able to afford." She said.

She walked a bit closer, putting a hand on his cheek.

"You need to promise me, and everyone else, that you're not going to sit in a tree while the rest of us work to kill the enemies during a grind again Haruki, okay? It's not fair to us to do all the work and let you passively reap the rewards, and it's also not fair to us because it leaves us without one of our most important members in conflict... So promise me, and all the others. Promise us that you won't sit out any more battles like you did today." She asked.

Again her voice was calm and the words heartfelt. She didn't want Haruki to give up his position as Party Lead, but she also couldn't let him think he was in the right for sitting it out as he had.

animegirl20 JustifiedRoles Thawne GrieveWriter Blitzkrieg Bob takki

 

[takki]

Hiroto "Kimura" Matsugi

Hiroto did what Saya had told him. He opened his menu, hovered his finger on the option button and hovered on the report issue button. Since this was still a game, he had to specify what issue he's in. As he hovered his finger to that button, a sound detector appeared, and it was already recording. He started to speak, "Okay. So um, I battled with my partymembers, and there were atleast three of us in the battle. I killed a total of five sprites, in which my last three kills didn't register. I was sure that I killed them. And then, a cheater showed up, the one..." He tried to find the right word, a formal one. "... the one the administrators banned a while ago. So yeah, I don't think he interfered with my kills. So, again. I didn't receive the loot to the last three kills that I got. Please fix it and I need my loot back. Thanks. Kimura out." He hovered his hand to the send issue button, then it displayed 'Issue sent! The administrators would review your issue.' And that's all done.

Still, a thought came in his mind that Saya was more of an icon of a leader than Haruki. But, all of them were still people in real life. Nothing special about it when you look at it on another perspective. While Saya was speaking to Haruki, Hiroto leaned in a tree and tried to recover some energy. He felt the cool presence of the trees around him, the sunlight passing through the open spaces of the overlapping leaves. He got to admit, this feeling would be better in real life.


JustifiedRoles animegirl20 Thawne ChoShadow GrieveWriter

 

[Thawne]

Nicholas Wilson/Jäger
​

Nick leaned up against a nearby tree and removed one of the arrows from his quiver, spinning it around with the fingers on his right hand to give him something to occupy his muscle movement with. He began wondering what time it was back on the outside, as he hadn't been keeping track of how long he had been in the game and he had forgotten the difference in the passage of time between this world and the outside. He had made plans to call his mother for her birthday later in the day, so he most likely would have to log off in the near future to do so. He zoned back in to catch the 'lecture' Saya was giving their resident tank, who spent that engagement in the tree. Nick heard her say that Haruki couldn't be sitting up in the trees when he was their tank and that he needed to be on the ground in the fight to keep the enemies busy.

"I wouldn't have any issues fighting up close. I can just use the bow as a melee weapon," Nick offered in defense of himself and Haruki.

ChoShadow JustifiedRoles takki animegirl20 GrieveWriter

 

[ChoShadow]

As Saya waited for Haruki to give her an answer, she heard Jager say he could use his bow as a melee weapon. Sound in theory, however...

She looked to Jager with a rather empty expression.

"True. However if you do so then the game system will do something I doubt you'll enjoy..." She began.

"While the game devs wanted to make this game as realistic as possible, they realized that they had to make sacrifices in some areas to make sure the game was played "properly" according to their standards. Using a bow as a melee weapon, for example, is not what they consider "proper" use of the weapon and thus the bow will be registered as an object instead of a weapon when it's used in melee range. And that means it will do zero damage when it strikes an enemy." She said.

"Furthermore... When a weapon is used improperly according to how the devs want the game played, they will lose 2.5x their normal durability. If I were to throw my sword, for example, which is physically possible and an option to consider as a last resort in real life, in this game the sword would lose 2.5x durability upon impacting its target and it would have its damage nullified. The physics of it having struck a target will still work, but it won't register as a weapon if thrown. Does that make sense?" She asked.

She shook her head.

"Almost every weapon has real-world uses outside of what is considered "normal" for them, but the game devs really want to push players to take and maintain their proper roles in this game. If you're ranged, you fight from range. If you're melee, you fight up close. If you're a Tank, you draw aggro and use your shield to block incoming damage to open up enemies for your allies. While not incredibly realistic given how versatile real weapons and human ingenuity are, this is still a game first and the game devs want to encourage and enforce a balance among players so nobody can "do it all"." She concluded.

She then looked back to Haruki.

"That's another reason we need you on the field Haruki. If you aren't our Tank, nobody else can be. We're not armored like you are with that shield of yours so we can't function as a proper Tank. We need you in that role because it's part of the game and player balancing." She said.

JustifiedRoles animegirl20 Thawne takki Blitzkrieg Bob GrieveWriter

 

[Thawne]

Nicholas Wilson/Jager​

Nick stopped spinning the arrow and caught it between his index and middle fingers. He looked over to Saya and attempted to think of something else.

"What about just melee? I have the bow equipped and I kick and punch something without using it?"

ChoShadow

 

[ChoShadow]

Saya nodded slowly, but her expression remained blank.

"You can kick and punch and fight like anyone would without a weapon, but unless you chose empty hands as your default "weapon" you won't register any damage... Again, the devs want us all sticking to our chosen weapon roles. Evidently they felt that allowing too much realism would break the balance between players and defeat the purpose of having chosen a starting weapon at all. If you can use a bow at melee and at range, use your empty hands in close combat, and know how to draw aggro without getting hit, then what's the use of other players and forming a Party?... At least that's the logic the devs used when designing the game's mechanics. I can't say I'm a fan of it either, but it is what it is."

Thawne JustifiedRoles animegirl20 takki GrieveWriter Blitzkrieg Bob

 

[animegirl20]

She watched as Haruki jumped down from the tree. Either she was completely ignored or he was so lost in thought he didn't even noticed her sitting next to him talking. A little irritated she came down from the tree and watched the others. She noticed the conversation Saya and Haruki were having and she rolled eyes. "Seriously it's only a game does she really need to get that serious and the guy did fight everyone did." She looked around again hoping the group she joined wouldn't turn into a big bore. She noticed some were kind really serious about this. A little to serious for her. She came to have fun and escape. Sighing she decided to check to see if she got her led, points or whatever they were talking about. Once she was done she decided she would try to make conversation. She looked around and noticed Hiroto leaning against a tree and decided to talk to him. She walked up to him with her hands behind her back. "Hey." She smiled, "Whatcha doing?"
JustifiedRoles
ChoShadow
takki

 

[takki]

Hiroto "Kimura" Matsugi

Hiroto relaxed on the tree he was leaning at. He removed his sheathed sword from his back so he'd be more comfortable. The cool wind flew beside his face, his hair was waving in a particular direction. After that, he put both of hands on his pockets. His sheathed sword leaned on the tree, too, as if it was relaxing. He closed his eyes for a few seconds so he could focus on the feeling of his surroundings, until the Avenger started to make a conversation with him.

Well, this couldn't be bad. He thought.

"Hey." Hiroto smiled back. "I'm just chilling in here after that fight. I'm also waiting for my loot to get returned." He opened his menu and checked for any messages. No new messages yet, except for the automated 'Thank you for playing Valkyom!' message. He closed his menu and sat on the ground. That way, he wouldn't get tired from standing. "Also..." He gazed into her eyes. "Can you tell me why did you play Valkyom?" He leaned his head on the tree.

JustifiedRoles

 

[Thawne]

Nicholas Sherman/Jager​

As much as he'd been dreaming about reenacting his favorite DC show in a video game, this news from Saya hit him and disappointed him a bit. He just nodded with a slightly disappointed look on his face as he continued spinning the arrow between his fingers, thinking about just wanted he wanted to accomplish in this game before he decided to put it to rest for other things in his life.

"That's a bit lackluster, but I guess it makes sense from a technical standpoint. Oh well, I could always just hood up in real life," he joked.

ChoShadow JustifiedRoles GrieveWriter takki animegirl20

 

[ChoShadow]

Saya regarded Jager.

"That, or you could petition the devs to make it part of the game. I know there is an online forum dedicated to doing so putting out blogs and user reviews basically spamming that the fisticuffs "weapon" should be removed and basic melee combat be made a thing no matter your weapon choice. That way if your weapon breaks you won't be useless or defenseless." She said with a smile.

"I can't say for sure if the devs will add it anytime soon, but if enough people are screaming at them for it them I'm sure it will make it into the game at some point. Maybe during one of the next few updates. But you should wait to hear from them about that before getting your hopes up too much."

Thawne JustifiedRoles animegirl20 GrieveWriter Blitzkrieg Bob takki

 

[Thawne]

Nicholas Sherman/Jager​

He smirked a bit. This was something that probably should've been reported on and subsequently fixed during the game's beta, but he wouldn't shift the blame for this to the beta testers. The company did what they thought would keep the game balanced as well as emphasize a need for teamwork in Parties.

"Maybe I will give that forum a look when I get off. In the mean time, I vote we head into town and invest in some non-beginner gear. I'm sorry, but if I have to keep using this bow I'm going to shove an arrow up my own nose," Jager said pushing off of the tree. He stopped spinning the arrow in his hand and made a jabbing motion at his nose with the tip of the arrowhead to emphasize the need for this.

ChoShadow

 

[JustifiedRoles]

Haruki nodded.

"This was a one time thing. I had nothing to take down the sprites with enough speed. I would have hit one, and it would have fled. I opted to let you take care of it.. I didn't want to bring it up, but I have the ten level pack. I haven't used it yet, because I wanted to get a feel for the controls first. But I can now. You're more of a leader than I am, so while I can handle accepting quests and confirmations with the systems, you'd be better suited to lead us in a tactical manner."

He smiled softly.
"You're a really good player. Sorry. I haven't been in since I got done working on the beta. Deep-diving is.....unnerving when you've been away for too long."

ChoShadow

 

[ChoShadow]

Saya regarded Haruki with a smile.

"Don't worry about leadership, Haruki. That's not what this is about." She said softly.

"What got to me is that you left us alone to fight. Sure these are just sprites and we handled well enough without them, but in doing so I witnessed what I feel is a lack of interest in your role as a member of this team. If you're going to be in a party, whether in a lead position or not, that's not okay." She continued.

She sighed.

"So long as you don't do it again everything will be fine. We don't need to get too wrapped up in it. Let's just make sure that from now on you always participate even if you think everyone is okay without you. Okay?" She asked.

JustifiedRoles animegirl20 Thawne Blitzkrieg Bob takki GrieveWriter

 

[JustifiedRoles]

"Okay. I just didn't want to get in the way." He nodded, not fighting her or anything.

"So where to now?"

ChoShadow