James wanted to tell Rin his in game name but suddenly felt too embarrassed to tell him for some reason.
" I'll just send him my friend request" James muttered under his breath as he also walked home albeit in the opposite direction.
Rin got home but nobody was there, he was usualy the first one to get back. Just as he was about to dive in Twilight for the first time since the week began, he suddenly remembered how the guards acted strangely when he arrived at Blackmoor citadel.
With that thought in mind, Rin decided to first browse the online forums to find clues about the citadel he was at and maybe he might find out about the permit the guards were talking about.
" Wow these sand worms are really tuff to deal with, I died three times to it"
" If you go to the blacksmith in stonefist citadel you will trigger a secret quest"
" It's been three months and I'm still stuck at level twenty"
On the forums, people mainly shared their experiences in quests and hunting. And apart from the beginning level citadels nothing much was mentioned. Something like this was to be expected. Just like any other competitive games,players tend to withhold information from each other.
And to make it worse, the developers didn't release much information on Twilight and everything else was supposed to be experienced by the players themselves as they progressed in the game.
So apart from how to join the game via the VR set, nothing much was disclosed by the developers.
After going back and forth in the forums, apart from some rumors saying the first player was already at level 40 nothing else was noteworthy.
Rin decided to just log into the game. After a brief moment of darkness when his vision was obscured, Rin found himself in the same dimly lit room he was in before he logged off.
After a short while, the thick metallic door opened and a scruffy bearded man walked in. He was surrounded by a menecing aura that made him naturally scary.
Name: ??
Level:??
Just like with what happend with the other guard, Rin was unable to perceive the bearded man's level but he clearly felt that this man was strong, more dangerous.
The man sat unwaryly in the opposite chair and released a long sigh before asking
" What are you and why did you come here?"
Rin was puzzled with this kind of question
"I don't know what you mean by what's I'm I"
the bearded man's face slightly changed clearly showing surprise.
'another one that's capable of speech?..no he's clearly weaker compared to the other one'
"Let him go" the bearded man suddenly said before turning his head back to Rin before continuing "I don't know how you ended outside the wall but it's dangerous out there"
The bearded man released another deep sigh before leaving. Unlike what Rin had expected, their was no interrogation infact the whole interaction was really weird.
From the way the bearded man was behaving, Rin concluded that their was something inhuman that was trying to or had already gotten inside the citadel.
But whatever it was, was not that much of a threat towards the bearded man with how lax he had been acting around him.
Shortly after a different guard came over and guided him outside before turning aroung and going back in.
"I guess I'm free" Rin muttered.
Rin knew that compared to other players he was way behind and needed to level up real quick. But first he had to familirize himself with the new surroundings.
The number of buildings in the citadel increased both in hight and number as one moved towards the interior. The buildings also became nicer and nicer.
Rin realized that the citadel was structured in a way that it had three rings, not literal rings but with how the buildings were set up it could as well be refered to as rings.
Rin assumed their was some type of hirachy in this place.
The outermost buildings were in shabby condition compared to others; these buildings were mostly residential and hardly no businesses could be seen around.
I wouldn't say that their living conditions were terrible but it was not exactly lavish either.
As Rin moved more to the interior, more massive buildings started appearing in his line of sight but soon realized that most of them were business oriented.
If people had set up residence here, Rin would have no way of telling due to the fact that he was only moving in a straight line towards the tallest building in the center that acted as his land mark while navigating Blackmoor citadel.
In Twilight players had to manually explore areas in order to expand their system maps which was originally covered in a thick layer of misty fog.
But sadly this map didn't update once he was in the citadel but rather it showed the citadel as a large encampment amidst all the desert sand.
So Rin not only had to manually explore the citadels but also retain the knowledge on his own.
Some players like this aspect of the game. The fact that they can enjoy and unravel various mysteries in the game.
This was understandable since not everyone was obsessed with being a top ranking pro player.
Many of the NPCs occasionally threw curious glances towards the passing Rin, mostly becauseof his different clothing, that made him stand out.
This world originally had a developed civilization in which humans stood at the top of the food chain. Unlike Earth, they had not progressed to the point that they could explore space but they did have diverse clothing.
Unfortunately when the war began, many things that humans thought to have meaning ended up being washed away with the passage of time. Destined to be forgotten.
After a few hundred years, humanity had once again regressed to the point where the clothes they wore looked like clothing from mideval times.
Suddenly a young boy who seemed to be around eleven years bumped- no more like crashed into Rin and since Rin didn't expect it, he ended up falling backwards into the dark Alley behind him.
-10Hp
The fall was so hard and painful that he ended up losing a tenth of his Hp. Just then a bunch of patrol officers rushed past the alley.
Rin quickly connected what was going on and realized that this kid was most likely the one being chased.
He looked down to the kid who had used his body to soften his landing and at that moment their eyes met.The kid had this pleading look in his eyes, which amused Rin, as if telling him not to sell him out.
Rin stood up but he was blocking the only exit to the alley since the other side was a dead end. The boy also stood up, hugging tightly the three loafs of bread in his arms with a wary look in his eyes, scared that Rin might actually take them.
This behavior amused Rin even more. " What's your name kid?"
" Noon and I'm not a kid " Noon answered stubbornly with a slightly raised tone.
' what a weird name to give a child' Rin thought.
" Such a fiesty kid, shouldn't you be in school of something, where is your mother"
Almost immediately repressed anger flashed across Noon's face but he still managed to keep himself under check.
Of course this minute detail didn't escape Rin's keen eyes.
' it looks like I've struck a sensitive nerve' Rin thought and decided not to say anything else that would come out as insensitive.
"Tell you what if you show me around, I'll let you go. You see I'm new in town" Rin proposed.
Noon had his doubts, because no one new has ever arrived in Blackmoor from outside the walls for a long time but since he had the chance of not facing the patrol officers he accepted nevertheless.