Kirsarnia

by Urimas Ebonheart

Arc 1 - Chapter 3: Daring Do

Kirsarnia
Arc 1 - Chapter 3: Daring Do

The group has learnt a lot from the guidebook over the last two hours about what they can and can't do; for example, they can store furniture and items in their inventory -like their tents- and place them down like one would a block in Minecraft, Terraria, or other various sandbox games. Kirsarnia even had this feature when it came to decorating a player-owned house.

Their inventories also preserve materials, food, and drinks in a stasis-like state; they'll be fresh as long as they stay in their inventory and not out in the open, this also works with their personal vaults and a guild vault.

The maximum size of a party in Equestria is six compared to the game Kirsarnia which is five, but the group knew they could handle a level two Dungeon with just the five of them.

They also learnt they cannot sustain any visual wounds or be dismembered, but once their HP drops to zero, they'll be slain... Slain is the key word here: they won't die, but will respawn at either the Dungeon's entrance or at the anchor crystal they're bound to. They will lose a level with two stat points from that level and their gear will be damaged or even destroyed if it is already damaged. They'll also lose half of any of the bits they are carrying, which they found out is this world's currency.

Samantha looks up through the damaged ceiling of the ruins and notices it’s now late evening, an observation made in co-operation with her growling stomach.

"Erm, maybe we should find something to eat and wait until tomorrow before we try dealing with the dungeon," Samantha suggests to her friends, tentatively pointing at the sky above to indicate the time of night.

Everyone peels their eyes away from the book or their menus to glance up at Samantha curiously, before following the direction of her finger to check the time of day for themselves. "Well hot damn, didn't realise it was night already..." Jack remarks as he starts settling down on the floor once his weapon was stowed away in his inventory. Stretching out in the cardinal directions, Jack lets out a long yawn before folding his hands across his stomach. .

"Agreed. Let’s set up camp for the night, get rested and we’ll see what we can do with the dungeon in the morning,” Frank agrees while checking his inventory for stored rations. “We’ve got enough for about a week, provided Jack doesn’t eat everything himself again,” he then adds out of jest, giving the aforementioned player a glance while searching for a suitable place to set up.

He spots a clearing and walks over to it. Following the directions in the guidebook to the letter, everyone sets their various camping gear into their hotbars, before selecting the slot to summon a faint, ghostlike outline of their buildings in their vision. A snap of the fingers and the camp was set.

Having made a quick run out into the nearby wood with Satoshi as support, everyone settles down at Laura’s magically lit campfire. “It’s so strange being able to cast real magic. Don’t get me wrong, it’s exciting and all but it would be even better if we weren't kidnapped to become the pawn of some estranged creature.” Laura sighs while she navigates her inventory to spawn up a provision into her hand. Friends around her all agreed as they too dug through their inventories for sustenance.

"Well that freak could have at least let us keep our character’s levels and gear... How are we supposed to stop these dungeons from appearing if it took us seven months to get where we were? We're back to being nothing but newbies now," Jack demands with a slight scowl adorning his face as he poked at the fire with a random stick.

Frank takes a bite out of his salted beef and shrugs. "Like we've always done, work together and go forward. At least we know what we're doing now; I still remember our first ever Dungeon together..." he says and sighs. "Wiped out ten minutes in and not even halfway to the boss."

"Oh yeah, I even remember the guild we were with laughed at us, called us weak and went so far as to boot us out..." Satoshi remarks, joining in on the reminiscing going on as he too chews on his own meal for the night.

Jack sits up straight and gets a large grin on his face. "Why don't we make our own guild? The book said we could right?"

"I'd like that," Samantha says quietly and is quite quickly agreed with by the others.

"Sweet, I vote myself as guild master!" Jack announces proudly, a fist on his chest while the others all burst into a fit of mild laughter.

"Sorry macho man, but I vote Frank as the leader. He's always been the one to guide us through the Dungeons and told us what to do in them," Laura tells Jack once she’s calmed down enough to do so.

"I agree, Frank is much better suited to the task," Satoshi agrees as he lays back down again to get comfortable.

"I agree with everyone else... Sorry, Jack," Samantha chirps in, cowering into herself from Jack for fear of any kind of repercussions for speaking her mind.

With a mock hurt expression, Jack lifts his arm over his head dramatically. "Oh woe is me, my own friends have turned on me! What cruel fate is this that has befallen me!" he demands dramatically and falls onto his back with a heavy thud. The group takes the thud as a reminder that they we're all still armed and armoured and begins to remove their armour for the night and are soon back in their basic clothing.

"So what shall we call ourselves?" Frank inquires of everyone while opening a guild creation menu; his fingers hovering over a floating holographic screen that only he can see.

"The Five Friends?" Samantha suggests with a hopeful smile.

Laura giggles lightly to herself. "Cute, but I don't think it sounds right."

Satoshi just raises an eyebrow. "What about ‘The Dungeoneers’?" he suggests with a shrug as he crawls into his tent to prepare for sleep. Sam and Laura all do the same in their own respective tents and soon only their heads are poking out of the flaps as Sam’s tail lazily swings in the air behind her.

Jack suddenly sits up with a grin. "I like it," he announces with both of his hands posting behind him on the ground, holding him up.

Samantha and Laura agree as well.

"The Dungeoneers it is then." Frank finalizes and types the name in. The guild is created and he then sends invites to the others and makes them all officers as well. Now under their names and levels above their heads is the name of their newly formed guild.

"Awesome!" Jack announces and yawns, stretching out as much as he can with the result of popping a few limbs quite comfortably. "Well then, I'm gonna hit the sack guys. See ya in the morning," he wishes everyone and crawls into his tent.

The others say their goodnights and go to sleep as well.

---

Morning arrives and everyone gradually wakes up, Jack having to be prodded with the business end of Frank’s sword to get his hulking mass out of the tent, and eats a quick breakfast.

"I need to use the bathroom, I'll be over there and if you peek I will fry you till you’re golden!" Laura threatens the guys, pointing a magically charged finger at the three.

“Very well, guys’ area is on the other side of the ruin then." Frank remarks, tossing a thumb backwards over his shoulder as he equips his gear.

After an hour of packing up and preparation the party is ready to take on their first Dungeon.

"Who the hay are you guys!?" a tomboyish female voice demands of the group from behind them, startling everyone. Samantha shrieks and scampers behind Jack who readies his weapon for a fight. The group turns to face the newcomer with weapons at the ready, but go wide eyed at who and what they see.

She's a tan, furred woman with a startling horse-like appearance originating in a pair of wings on her back as well as a pair of hooves for feet, her rose coloured eyes are large, her hair has three tones of black and grey as included in her tail. She's also wearing a green shirt with short sleeves and pockets on the front and dark brown khakis to save modesty.

"You must be the monsters of this Dungeon then, you don't look very tough." The newcomer sighs to herself and takes a whip off her hip with her right hand in disappointment.

"Monsters? Say that again, I dare ya!" Jack demands in anger while tossing the head of his hammer up and down on his right palm.

The woman goes wide eyed and drops her jaw. "Wha-? I've never heard of monsters talking before..." she mumbles astoundedly.

"That does it!" Jack says and raises his hammer, ready to charge at her with a skill already in the process of casting.

"Wait!" Frank orders him and holds his sword out in front of Jack’s chest to block his path and interrupt the cast. He then looks back at the tan woman, "We're not monsters, and I'll ask you to refrain from calling us that again," Frank warns her.

"Ooookay, so what are you then?" she asks Frank but keeps her whip out, eyeing Jack warily.

"I'm a human, same for Laura," Frank replies for himself and the mage in particular.

"I'm an elf," Satoshi tells her, giving a simple, single-handed wave with a free hand.

"I-I'm a Leoness..." Samantha says in nearly a whisper, still scared from earlier as she found herself left without a meat shield when Jack took off.

"And I'm a Jorgan," Jack spits and glares at her. "What are you?" he asks her back.

"I'm a pony, a pegasus to be precise," she replies, looking quite confused at all the information she’d just been given; she had never even heard of these… humans, elves, Leonesses or Jorgans.

"Alright, now who are you," Frank asks her as he visually inspected her for any potentially throwable weapons.

The woman poses heroically. "I am Daring Do, world famous treasure hunter and novel writer," she replies with a proud grin. "What about you guys? Who are you?" Daring Do then returns their question upon themselves.

"I'm Frank, the Guardian of our party," Frank replies, giving his sword a light flourish before letting the point rest on the ground. The display would've been much more impressive if he’d still had his old gear, but the motion was still a valiant effort.

"I'm Laura the Mage." Laura gives a slight bow of the head in welcoming, keeping her weapons at hand but no longer at guard.

"I am Satoshi the Archer." The Japanese elf gives a more noticeable bow, as dictated by his culture’s requirements.

"I-I'm Samantha t-t-the Cleric," Sam manages to squeak out, cowering in herself looking about ready to soil herself in the process. Only through some semblance of self control did she refrain from doing so.

"And I'm Jack the Warrior!" Jack finishes the introductions and drops his hammer's head on the stone floor while resting his right hand on the pommel.

Daring Do just stares at them for a few seconds in silent incredulity. "And why are you here?" she asks the group in general disbelief. They honestly looked and sounded like something from a novel she might have written some time ago.

"We're going to clear this Dungeon and destroy it," Frank states matter-of-factly, now fully sheathing his weapon on his hip.

"Destroy it!?" Daring Do bursts into a fit of laughter. "Nopony has ever destroyed a Dungeon before! This may be one of the weaker ones but no pony has even managed to defeat the monster at the end of it! Not even the Princesses!" she tells us through dying chuckles, wiping a tear from her eyes.

"Yeah, well we're different; we know how to kill it," Jack taunts and turns to Frank. "Let's just forget her and get going, she's wasting our time!"

"Wait!" Daring Do shouts out, holding a hand out to reach towards the motley crew. "You're really going in there?" she asks with a mote of genuine concern in her voice.

"Duh." Jack rolls his eyes and shoulders his hammer, already aiming towards the dungeon entrance.

"Then I'm coming to, I came here to find out where these monsters are coming from and if I can find a way to stop them," she tells the group, quite sternly as denoted by crossing her arms over her chest.

"No thanks, you'll just get in our way!" Jack shouts back as he’s already crossed half the distance to the instance before him.

"What can you do? Do you have any skills or spells? Your clothes don't look very protective and your weapon doesn't look like it'll do more than irritate the monsters," Frank requests, having already evaluated her chances of survival as… less than minimal.

Daring Do puffs her cheeks out in insulted anger. "I've gone into three Dungeons before this one and lived to tell the tale, I'm no amateur!" she huffs, her hands on her tilted hips.

"And how many monsters have you killed?" Satoshi calmly inquires as he visually inspects his bow for damages.

The anger on her face is gone and only a frown remains. "None... No pony can kill them, they don't take any wounds and weapons just seem to phase through them or bounce right off," Daring Do replies both verbally and with her hands flying about.

"As it turns out, our weapons will hurt them; these monsters don't act like you or wild animals. You have to be like us or them to even inflict damage," Frank explains as his methodical mind races back to a couple pages in the instruction manual now resting in his inventory as a locked item -an item that doesn’t get removed or destroyed upon death.

The book mentioned that the monsters are just like in the game Kirsarnia and the inhabitants of this world's weapons and magic just can't affect them.

"Like you?" she asks suspiciously, raising an eyebrow.

"Argh... can we just go? She's wasting our time!" Jack demands in irritation already standing by at the portal entrance.

Frank looks at Daring Do for a few seconds. "Fine, you can come with us, but any loot we find is ours. You're just here to find out how to stop the monsters right?" he offers with a hand out as a friendly gesture.

Daring Do frowns at Frank but sighs after a minute of consideration. "Fine," she agrees and stows her whip on her belt within reach.

"Alright then, we still have an empty spot in the party so let's get going," Frank nods to her, still waiting with an open hand. "Welcome to the party," he says with a warm and friendly smile.

Daring Do shakes his hand but immediately collapses in pain while clutching her head. Samantha tries to cast a healing spell on her but it doesn't seem to affect Daring Do.

After about a minute of pain, she recovers and sits up. "Ow, what the buck was that?" she asks.

The group just stare above her head.

Daring Do: Level 1
Class: Adventurer

Daring Do now has a name, level, and class tag as well as an HP bar above her head.

"Errr... What just happened?" Jack asks in confusion as he re-joins the party.

"It would seem inviting others not like us into the party makes them like us," Satoshi speculates in thought.

Daring Do just looks confused until she then looks up and notices the tags and HP bars above the others as well.

"That's new..." she remarks incredulously.

"I think we should explain what's going on before we go in," Frank announces and offers a hand to Daring to help her up, getting a groan of annoyance from Jack.

---

One Hour and Twelve Minutes Later

---

Frank explains the menu system and skill tree system to Daring Do; she inadvertently took the rogue tree which specialises in hit and run tactics with daggers, lockpicking, trap detection, and poisons. She didn't like the idea of being an assassin using the shadows to ambush and backstab people but wanted a class that was quick and agile.

"This is amazing! This system...thing will make my adventuring so much easier! And I don't even need bags anymore!" Daring Do announces giddily as she inspects her inventory system.

"So, are we good to go now?" Jack demands through boredom, seated at a small fire that Laura had revived from the embers of the blaze from last night.

"Yes," Frank announces and looks to Daring Do. "Stay behind us and just watch how we work, once you feel like you understand then you can join in. If you do decide to join in then you follow my orders and do as I say, am I clear?" Frank orders, already delving into his party-tactician mind.

With a grimace but recognizing that she was overwhelmingly under-equipped to lead, she stood to join the group.

"Alright, let's go before someone else decides to show up and joins in on the fun," Frank announces, getting a cheer from Jack.

They all walk over to the dungeon portal and step through.

Comments

[Topaz Moon]

So if Daring left the party, would she go back to being just a regular pony? Then if re-added go back to how she was before she left, equipment and skills included?
Edit: Never mind

--
Oh and I like the story so far.
Big fan of Sword Art Online and Log Horizon... someday I hope we have technology like that. Glad you went the Log Horizon way where death was not permanent like SAO (well the first 1/2 of the first season)

[Chris Russell]

7306433
you are not the only one who like Sword Art Online and Log Horizon but Log Horizon little more hehehe

[Gizmo Gear]

7306433
8684963
Sucks that there hasn't been a third season of log horizon yet though.

[JOEBLACK]

"Alright, let's go before someone else decides to show up and joins in on the fun," Frank announces, getting a cheer from Jack.

Me: *walking by into the dungeon nonchalantly glancing at the party* "Pfft, amateurs."