Disclaimer: I do not own Log Horizon.
Chapter 1: Log In
There were four monsters left, which was quickly reduced to three when a ball of fire came roaring past and crashed in to one of them, killing it instantly. Alice could feel the heat radiating from the sphere of flame as it passed by, followed by the smell of smouldering flesh and fur. The eruption of light from the explosion almost made it seem like it was daytime.
Two of the remaining beasts were focused on Lily, the dark-skinned redhead having drawn their aggro at the beginning of the fight. The last one was paying all its attention to her. The monster looked like some sort of mutated fox, still recognisable but twisted in a way that made it look far more vicious. The things weren’t very strong but they had high agility, which wouldn’t be a problem for players of their level usually, but presented something of an extra difficulty under the current circumstances.
Alice grunted as the creature’s claw struck her shoulder; not in pain, because the difference in their levels was such that it was barely doing scratch damage, but in frustration. The only reason it had managed to land a hit on her in the first place was because she had misjudged her swing. Suddenly there was the glint of moonlight on steel as a second sword came swinging in and struck it on the head, killing it in a spray of blood.
“Thanks,” she said, turning to face her teammate.
“No problem.” Lily replied, with a cheeky grin. She was clad in thick, plate armour, as befit an adventurer of the guardian class.
“Everyone else?” Alice called, turning to face the rest of the party.
“We’re okay,” replied a boy with dark hair and wearing black and red robes, this was their sorcerer Alex. He looked younger than he actually was and was almost always smiling, making him look even less intimidating. Next to him stood a blond man in sky-blue robes, carrying a short sword and an east Asian-looking woman with purple hair, wearing leather armour and with a longbow clasped tightly in her hands; John and Morrigan, their Templar and Skald respectively.
“Well that was fun!” a deep, jovial voice spoke up.
Alice turned and saw the final member of their party standing not far away, a huge, muscular man with a bushy beard who called himself Pigeon. At first glance he seemed intimidating, but in actuality he was the kind of guy who was always quick to laugh. He was dressed only in a cotton tunic and a pair of breeches, with a pair of claw-like weapons strapped to the back of his hands, a monk.
Alice herself was a Paladin, which was why she had been on the front line, it was her job to meet the enemy head-on.
“I don’t know what you’re worrying about anyway,” Pigeon continued. “It’s not like we were going to go down to a bunch of level twenty shadow foxes.”
That was true, she guessed she had just been thrown off by the fact that the things had ambushed them; shadow foxes were one of the few creatures willing to attack players of a higher level. Not to mention that no matter how high her level was, or how many times she had fought them before, fighting in person was a lot different than watching your avatar whack monsters on a monitor. Still there was one thing left to be concerned about, the reason the foxes were always willing to start a fight.
“Let’s check our inventories, make sure we’ve still everything.”
There was the rustling of cloth and the clinking of armour as the rest of the party followed her advice. While they were busy with that she took a moment to check everyone’s status, they had been weak enemies but better safe than sorry. Then there came a series of affirmative noises as everyone confirmed they still had everything.
“Alright let’s get going,” she said. “It shouldn’t take us much longer to reach the village.”
She could have them scavenge for loot but decided against it. Before players would receive the loot automatically at the end of a battle, now you had to actually cut the fur and fangs and whatever else from the corpses and that would take too long, they had enough pelts to keep going for now. Frankly she was relieved she had an excuse to pass it up, she done it twice already and both times it had made her feel ill.
They set off again, Alice and Lily taking the lead, Pigeon taking up the rear and the other three in the centre. As they walked she could taste the moisture on the air and feel the cool, night breeze brush against her skin, it sent a shiver through her; not because it was overly cold but because it felt more real than it should. On the previous three days of their journey they’d set up camp with ample time left before darkness fell, tonight however they pressed on and it wasn’t long before they saw the lights of the village coming closer. It was completely open, no walls, no gate, they were simply able to walk straight up the road and to the front door of the inn. That was the reason they had picked this village, because it was the closest settlement to the city of Westminster that had an inn.
The bottom floor, of the building was almost completely empty, except for an older looking man sitting behind the counter directly opposite the door. His back straightened as the party entered.
“We’re looking for a couple of rooms for the night?” Alice asked placing the necessary money down on the counter, she was not quite sure how this was meant to work given the unusual circumstances.
“Oh my,” the man replied. “Are you adventurers?”
“We are,” Alice answered.
“Coming in from a hard day’s work?”
“Uh, yeah,” she said. “I’m sorry but we’re all exhausted, we could talk more in the morning if you like,” she added, wondering why she was bothering being polite to an NPC.
“Sure, that’d be nice,” he said. “Two rooms right? Here you go, up the stairs end of the hall,” he said, handing her two keys.
“Thank you,” she said, and then motioned for the others to follow her. At the top of the stairs she turned and addressed them, passing one of the keys to Alex.
“Everyone, get some rest for the night, we’ll talk things through in the morning.”
They all inclined there heads, sombre looks on their faces. She guessed they all felt like she did, it wasn’t something they wanted to talk about, but it would be impossible to put it off for much longer. There was a chorus of “goodnight” before they all went to their rooms.
There were four beds inside the room Morrigan flopped down on one of them without even bothering to remove her robes. Alice concentrated and brought up the menu in front of her, then selected the option to unequip her armour. Suddenly the heavy plate mail was lying in a pile at her feet and she was dressed only in the simple tunic and breeches she wore underneath it. She moved the armour up against the wall and placed her sword beside it before clambering in to bed. She didn’t feel all that tired as she lay her head down on the pillow, and she imagined that it was going to take her some time to nod off. Two minutes later she was sound asleep.
She woke the next morning to something poking her in the side, she swatted at it but if persisted so she swatted at it again, mumbling for whomever it was to leave her alone.
“Come on,” said a woman’s voice. “Rise and shine princess.”
Alice groggily prised her eyes open and found Lily staring down at her. The sight of her friends face reminded her of where she was and what was happening, and she felt her stomach sink. She’d been dreaming she’d been back at home, listening as the cars passed by her flat window. With a groan she forced herself to sit-up. She could the sun against her skin as it slipped in through the gap in the curtains, it felt … uncomfortable.
“What time is it?” she asked, stifling a yawn. Lily shrugged.
“Not that long after dawn, to tell the truth. But everyone else is already up and I think it’s probably best to have our talk before anyone sets out to do anything.”
Alice almost groaned at the time, but forced herself to focus on what her friend had just said instead.
“You’re probably right,” she replied, swinging her legs over the edge of the bed and rising to her feet, stretching her arms once she was fully upright.
“’Course I am,” Lily responded, with a roguish grin. “And here,” she added, holding out a piece of toast. Alice grimaced at the sight of the cooked bread but took it anyway, resigning herself to the cardboard-tasting food. That was one thing they’d learned very quickly after arriving in this world, all the food was utterly tasteless, making mealtimes a chore. Unfortunately they’d also retained the need to eat during … whatever had happened to them, so there was no way around it.
“There’s a bathroom down the hall, if you need it.”
“Thanks,” she said. Then she was struck by a sudden thought.
“Hey Lils, could you do me a favour? Get in touch with some of the people off your friends list, see what’s happening in all the player cities?”
“No problem.”
“But stick to Britain, with the transport gates out the continent’s out of reach for the moment anyway.”
“Alright.”
Half and hour later, after being washed and fed, she entered her room to find the others all waiting for her inside. John and Alex were sitting together on one bed, with Morrigan and Lily sitting on another, Pigeon was sitting crossed-legged on the floor. Alice strode over to her own empty bed, sat on the edge and took a quick glance round at the others before she began.
“So,” she started, then she hesitated not quite sure how to continue, before she decided she simply had to press on. “We’re … in Elder Tale, apparently.” It sounded absurd even to her own ears.
“That sounds so ridiculous,” John interrupted, echoing her own sentiment.
“Ridiculous or not, the last few days prove it,” she responded. “The question is, what do we do now? Opinions?”
“Opinions on what?” John said. “I mean, what can we do? It’s not like we know how to get home, or even if we can.”
That was true; she conceded mentally, it wasn’t like they had been presented with any sort of end condition.
“Well, we can’t just sit around doing nothing forever,” Lily interjected.
“Why not, it’s seems like as good an option as anything else from where I’m sitting,” he answered back. Lily simply sighed in response.
“Y’know,” Pigeon spoke up, cutting John off as he opened his mouth again. “In stories like this usually you go free once you die in the game … or you die for real,” he finished with a small laugh.
“Want to test it and see?” Alex asked, jokingly.
“Nah, you’re alright.”
Alice held up her hand and whistled, shutting them up and drawing their attention.
“The first thing we need to discuss I think, is where we’re going to go. Lily?”
“Yeah, I talked to some of my friends and it’s pretty bad in all the player cities; just a lot of people sitting around waiting for someone to save them, the mood’s pretty damn awful everywhere.”
Alice nodded, feeling her spirits sink a little, even though she had been sort of expecting it. Back when they had first arrived in this world she had talked Morrigan and agreed that they should leave Westminster, for a couple of reasons. First was atmosphere, with so many people about wallowing in despair and self-pity, it made the air itself feel heavy. Worse, it seemed such an attitude was contagious, making the six of them more and more depressed as time went on; it had made it hard to muster the motivation to even think, never mind plan anything. The second reason was because the journey and the inevitable battles along the way would give them something to do, something to take their minds off of the situation, if only for a little while. Of course, she had underestimated just how terrifying actually experiencing battle could be; her legs had almost turned to jelly the first time.
“I think we dodged a bullet though,” Lily continued.
“Why?” Alice asked.
“Because there’s apparently started to be a lot of PKing in the areas around Westminster. People dealing with their situation by taking it out on others. Although, I did get an answers to Pidge’s question.”
“Oh?”
“Yep,” Lily responded with a smirk. “Turns out it’s neither a nor b but secret option c.” Her grin widened at the confused looks she received. “The cathedrals are still working; when you die you just revive again. Although you still have to live with the memory of a horrible death.”
Alice breathed a sigh of relief, death wasn’t a way out but at least it wasn’t the end either. Still, the news of the player killers caused an icy feeling to start developing in the pit of her stomach.
“Which one sounds best to you?” she asked.
Lily shrugged and sighed heavily.
“Take your pick, with the exception of Westminster they all sound as bad as each other,”
Alice almost sighed herself, that was just great. Well then, if she couldn’t pick the best she might as well pick the closest.
“I guess we’re heading for Chester then.”
“Ugh, that’s gonna be a hell of a walk,” John said.
“Such a pessimist,” Pigeon chuckled, shaking his head.
“There are horses,” Morrigan broke in. “I took a look around town this morning, there’s a stable that rents out horses and we have enough money for all of us.”
“Well, that’ll cut down on the travelling time dramatically at least,” Alice mused. “Anything else?” she asked the group at large.
“Yes,” Morrigan said. “It’s about the NPCs, I don’t think they’re actually NPCs anymore, not exactly.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I got suspicious after your conversation with the innkeeper last night, so I tried talking to some this morning. They didn’t just spout off the same lines over and over, I was actually able to hold proper conversations with all the one I spoke to.”
There was complete silence in the room as everyone contemplated what that might me.
“You think the Landers are real people now?” Alice asked, consciously using the in-game term for the various NPCs.
“It would seem that way,” Morrigan answered.
Alice took a deep breath and thought this over for a second, before deciding that it was better safe than sorry.
“Okay, from now on I guess we treat these people like anyone else. Anything else?”
“I say we join a guild.” This comment came from Alex.
“A guild,” Alice asked. “Why.”
“Well it was great doing the whole “wandering adventurers drifting from one quest to the next” while it was just a game, but now it’s real and there’s safety in numbers, y’know?”
As Alice was considering that argument she noticed Lily looking rather sheepish out of the corner of her eye.
“What is it Lils?” she asked.
“Ah, it’s just something I forgot to mention. The guilds have been actively trying to recruit people lately…”
“I’m sensing a “but” here.”
“But some of them have been doing it kinda forcefully, not taking no for an answer. And, they all seem to be developing a “with us or against us” type of mentality, like they’re all preparing for war with each other. Might makes right seems to be the way it’s going at the moment.”
Once again a heavy silence fell over the group and that icy sensation in Alice’s gut grew worse. After a few seconds Morrigan spoke:
“Maybe we could form our own guild?”
“With just the six of us?”
“Well, the rules stated you only needed two people to officially start a guild. If we’re going to get caught up in this anyway, I’d rather we try and forge our own path than be forced to listen to some arse on a power trip.”
“You do realise most guilds are a lot bigger than six people, right?” John asked.
“So what? We’re just supposed to let them push us around?” Morrigan retorted.
“Yeah,” Lily added. “We just supposed to fall in line and follow orders like good little soldiers?”
“Look,” John replied. “I’m just trying to be practical here.”
“And what if they ask you to work over a kid?” Lily asked. “Will your sense of practicality help you get to sleep then?”
Once again Alice raised her hand and let out a shrill whistle, drawing the group’s attention back to herself and stopping the argument before it could get any further.
“You both raise good points,” she said. “Joining a larger guild might provide us with extra security, but at the same time we very well might be asked to do something we don’t agree with. Personally, I’d be inclined to start our own guild just so we can get a guild hall and have our own space. Not to mention a guild bank account. But there’s no need to decide that right now, it’ll take a while before we reach Chester, so there’s plenty of time.” She rose to her feet, opened the menu and equipped her armour.
“John, Pidge, can you guys take half our loot and go and stock up on items? Morrigan and Lily can take the other half and go replenish our supply of … food,” she finished with a shudder. “Alex and I’ll split up and take a walk around town, see if there’s anything we can learn from the Landers now that they can apparently talk normally.”
When everyone else had left she headed downstairs to take a look at the main tavern. Immediately she was struck by just how lively it was, this was far different than just hearing the jaunty music coming from her speakers. There were people standing around talking to each other, a man at the bar laughing uproariously, even a couple of little kids scurrying around the room. She also noticed that the tavern also had serving girls, at least she assumed that’s what the two girls carrying the trays were, and it made her wonder whether Lily had tried flirting with any of the NPCs yet. If she had, Alice hoped it wouldn’t cause too much of a fuss.
A few heads turned towards her as she hit the last step, and even more turned to face her as she walked further in to the room; each one with held the same mixture of wonder and apprehension. She tried to strike up a conversation with some of them but had little success, most of them seemed like they were trying to keep their distance. She wondered at this, if this really was Elder Tale then surely the Landers should be used to seeing adventurers around. Despite their wariness however, she did manage to confirm for herself Morrigan’s observation that these people were no longer stuck repeating the same lines over and over again. More than that, it seemed like each now had their own personality, that they were fully-realised people. However, none of them seemed to have any useful information to give her.
She cast her gaze around the room; behind the counter now was a stout, middle-aged woman but she saw him in the corner, the old man who had given them their rooms last night, nursing what appeared to be a cup of tea. Grinning a little she walked over.
“Hello sir,” she said, and the old man looked up at her.
“Huh, oh, you’re that adventurer from last night, um…?”
“Alice.”
“Ah and there’s no need to call me “sir”, the name’s Owen,” he said, then sipped his tea.
“Okay, hello Owen. May I?” she asked, indicating an empty seat at the table
“Hello Alice,” he replied with a chuckle. “And please do.”
“You seem to get quite a bit of business around here,” she said making show of looking around, encouraged by the fact that he seemed to be willing to have a conversation with her.
“We do okay for ourselves,” he allowed modestly, taking another sip. “Although the real lively time’s in the evening, when the rest of the village finishes work.”
“I see.”
“Will you be staying another night?” he asked.
“I’m afraid not,” she answered. “My friends and I will be moving on later today. Although I do have a couple of hours to spare, and I do recall promising something about telling some stories.”
Perhaps it was just her imagination, but she thought that the old man’s eyes lit up just a little.
“Are you sure you’ve nothing better to do than sit chatting to an old man?”
“No,” she replied with a laugh. “I’ve got the next couple of hours completely free.”
Shortly after that she began telling her stories, and the old man listened while continuing to drink his tea. She started with the small ones at first, like taking on packs of goblins in the beginner dungeons before moving on to tales of raiding ruins filled with undead. As she continued to talk she got so in to it that she almost missed how the other Landers began to gather around their table, including the children she’d noticed earlier. Eventually she found herself talking about fighting the Beast King with the entire tavern listening raptly and the kids staring up at her with wide eyes from their seat on the floor. She lost track of the time as she lost herself in telling the tales of her past adventures, from back when this was all just a game.
When she finished she heard a small spattering of applause, and when she looked up she found rest of the group standing there clapping their hands, all of them wearing smirks.
She could feel the blood immediately rush to her face.
“That was beautiful Alice,” Pigeon said, pretending to choke back tears. “The tale of the mighty Wandering Knights.”
“And here I thought I was supposed to be the poet,” Morrigan quipped.
“Are we ready to go?” she asked, doing her best to ignore her own embarrassment.
“Yep!” Lily answered. “We’re all stocked up, just need the horses. We should probably get going soon though, even with the rides it’s still gonna take a few days to reach Chester.
“Alright,” she said, rising to her feet and placing the two room keys down on the table. “Thanks for the rooms Owen.”
“Not at all,” he chuckled. “You’re welcome back any time.”
She nodded at him and smiled, then she left.
As they were walking down the street outside of the inn, she heard Lily whisper in her ear:
“Don’t look now, but I think you made some fans.”
Turning back to face the inn Alice saw the children standing in the doorway watching her. She raised her hand and waved to them, grinning as they hesitantly waved back.
A short time later they were all sitting astride their rented beasts and heading up the dirt road that lead away from the village; she was in the lead, the others grouped loosely behind her. She was actually enjoying the warmth of the sun as it shone down on them. It turned out riding the horses wasn’t all that hard, it was almost as though their bodies acted on instinct. For some reason she was a lot more excited about the situation than she had been that morning, she felt lighter.
“So,” Lily asked. “What do we do when we reach the city?”
“Not sure,” Alice replied. “I think that first we’ll take a look around, see how things are for ourselves and then… Then I guess we’ll see.”
On impulse she spurred her horse in to a canter and then a gallop, smiling as she felt the breeze whip against her skin.
Character Sheet
- - -
Name: Alice
Race: Human
Hair: Red Eyes: Green
Height: 183cm
Class: Paladin (Created on Western European server)
Subclass: Knight
Level: 90
HP: 13350
MP: 6450
Equipment:
Andraste – Artifact-class great-sword gained from clearing “The Old Gods” questline said to be made by worshippers of the Old Goddess of Victory; raises chances of a critical hit in direct proportion to the amount of aggro.
Shield Plate – High-quality, production-class armour, has an eight percent chance of completely negating an enemy attack.
Second Wind – Artifact-class amulet that allows the player to survive a killing blow; only functions once per battle.
Reply With Quote