Equestria Legends Online: Brothers

by 4428Gamer

Broke Adventurers

Alex/E1ectric_B1itz's POV

History Rank Up: Rank 4!

That was the text box that got in my face as I tried finishing this book. It was the third in the series called Equestrian Landmarks. It was boring but it added location names to my map. It didn't fill any of it in but, hey, it was something.

By the time the message finally vanished I tried picking up the book to finish the last page only for another pop up to get in my way.

Level Up!

Lv. 2 → Lv. 3

I watched my HP raise ever so slightly and saw a notification telling me to check my new stats in the menu.

"Huh," I huh'd. "Didn't realize it was that close."

I let that pop up fade away and finally finished up the book before tossing it into my inventory. Ever since I fell from the sky I forced myself to lay around at this scorch mark that was the library.

To make matters worse, have you ever had a moment where you pulled a muscle and you to stop and wait for the pain to pass? Well imagine that across your entire body for...How many days has it been again? Oh right. Six days.

The game had this system where any damage you took was weakened. So being stabbed with a sword felt like a friend poking you with a sharp pencil. Hurts, but whatever, right?

However, if you take so much unimaginable pain, the game can't nullify all of it. I don't know how it works but I assumed what the game was doing was taking all the pain of smashing into hard rock from 5000ft and giving it to me in bursts.

So for now I couldn't go out to fight mobs or go into town without seizing in pain. It took real effort to walk into the marketplace and turn in that quest while I fought the urge to collapse every five minutes.

Thankfully, Rachelle had stayed with us. Since I was the only one she knew that could sort of understand her, she was running errands so we would all stay fed.

In fact, that's what Rachelle and Joey were doing right now. I had Joey go with her this time since he always looked guilty whenever he saw me. I figured it would be good for Joey to be distracted. A grocery run seemed like the safest way.

Not to mention it let me deal with something else.

I stood up and stretched for a moment. Even in the game your muscles could get a little sore. Bonus points for realism I guess. And at the same time I did, I spotted a lone blue friend crystal walking towards me without a player underneath it.

The moment that the crystal passed over the wooden floor that was the library site, a gray mare with a dark gray cloak appeared under the gem and stopped in place as she did, glancing at me awkwardly.

"..." From under the cloak she locked eyes with me. "...You can see me, can't you?"

"Uh-huh." I nodded, holding back a smile. "You don't have that ability thing down yet, do you?"

She took a moment to mourn her pride and sat down in place. "Not exactly. I keep forgetting there's a timer that pops up on my HUD."

"Hmm," I hummed. "You should probably use that."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm aware." She tried her best to ignore the embarrassment as her attention was drawn to something else. "You're level 3 now?"

"Just happened. I noticed a couple days back that ranking up your skills gives experience. Doesn't boost your stats much though."

On top of these 'geology' books I read, there were books with tips on weapons skills, recipes for crafting and even tips on fighting monsters which brought up weak points. Each of those books helped raise my skills.

Add to the fact that the first 7 levels need barely any experience and these skill ranks were the safest way to climb. But since everyone that went training was already level 7 or higher, it was slower.

"Speaking of those skills, can I buy those books from you now?" She pressed. "I need to start selling those before the players realize there's a bigger library in that capital city."

"Canterlot," I informed her. It was in one of the geology books. "And you do realize that I could just as easily sell them, right?"

"You said you wouldn't, Alex." She frowned. "And I said I'd buy them from you first."

"Relax Gwen," I sighed, letting myself smirk. "I was kidding. Here, I'll start a trade."

We opened up our menus and eventually a trading tab opened up. It was something only players who were friends could do since it meant that we could see each other's inventory. Cash count included.

Gwen was one of a few players who came by the ruined library. After the initial explosion and me falling from the sky, most everyone left us alone the first day. Then a few of them tried asking questions.

Once people found out it was Discord's handy work, beta testers and admins were pretty quick to point out almost every side quest led to meeting him here. That's when everyone assumed we were the idiots that set off a trap. So they took pity and kept their distance.

Gwen was one of the few players that tried to reach out. She sent me a friend request and once she learned that we had over fifty books that survived the explosion, she wanted to buy them to resell in this bizarre black market startup.

I call it scummy but if she was trying to be nice about it then I guess there was a silver lining.

Gwen glanced up at me. "So did any of those books mention where those artifact things might be?"

"The Elements," I corrected. Like me, Gwen didn't watch the show either. "And no. Not anything obvious at least. But it did mention some secret locations."

"Oh?" I could hear exactly how much she wanted to hide her excitement. "And which books are those?"

I dragged the two books into the trading tab which Gwen traded with 60 bits. "Pretty sure they're not gonna help. A few of them talk about some dungeons though. Even a secret level for the Ruined Castle."

"Wait. Ruined Castle?" She blinked. "Even the beta-testers admitted said there's only three floors."

"Books say there's a fourth." I shrugged. "One book talked about a lost vault. Written as if it was a thief's journal."

Gwen didn't hide the smile on her face anymore as I watched the cogs turn in her head. "You're telling me that the Ruined Castle, Baby's First Dungeon, has an entire level devoted to stuffing gold in it? That no one knows about yet?"

"Something tells me the admins know about it." I frowned. "And if they're not telling the players than that means it's not important enough to bring it up."

"Maybe for them." She rolled her eyes. "They're admins. Word is they own that giant castle looming over us." She pointed up towards the mountain where, indeed, there was a castle big enough to see from here. "Of course they're not gonna care about getting money!"

"Do you hear yourself right now? You sound like every money-grubbing asshole that's ever graced a cartoon."

"Can ya blame me?" She asked. "I don't want to risk my life fighting monsters for artifacts that, let's face it, I'll never be strong or lucky enough to help get. I would much rather get to the capital, save money for a shop or something, and stay out of the way of the players who can actually win."

"And, what, you just wanna stay in the game?"

"Of course not." she diffused my glare with an eye roll. "But I know I'm not a fighter. I want to live. Don't you?"

I groaned. "Don't rope me into your get-rich schemes."

"Why not?" She shrugged. "You told me you have a brother, right? You can't just live in this crater the whole time. And the more you train and fight, the more danger you're in. If we get this treasure vault, we can all settle in inside Canterlot nice and safe."

"Why do you want my help to get in a vault you just now heard about?"

"I can't solo a dungeon," she laid out for me. "And I don't have a party."

"Don't you have 'clients?'" I asked with air quotes from my hooves.

"Sure, I have 'clients,'" she mimicked me. "But I don't know there whole parties. And whose to say they don't backstab me and take it all?"

"Whose to say I won't do that?"

"Your brother." She smirked. "Just from meeting you two I know you won't do it. You're easy to trust."

"It's getting harder to say the same for you," I lamented.

"Come on," She pleaded. "You. Me. French girl. Maybe one other person," she danced around saying his name. "We'd have a balanced team, not too many hands in the pie, and you and I both play video games constantly. Said so yourself. And it's a secret treasure floor in the first dungeon of the game. This is our lane."

"Uh. Alex?"

Both Gwen and I, who only now realized how much we looked ready to bust out our weapons, broke out and looked over to see Joey and Rachelle standing there with small bags of groceries.

"Salut," Rachelle spoke to Gwen. "S'est-on déjà rencontrés?"

"Uh..." Gwen turned to me. "Translation?"

"Déjà is already," I worked. "And recontrés...Reconter. Recont...She's asking if you met," I figured out.

"Oh. Um." She cleared her throat. "Yes. We met...Days ago," she tried to mime out the last part.

"Ah." Rachelle proceeded to walk over and set the bags on the makeshift table, giving a nod to Gwen as she past.

"Um...Hi," Joey said weakly. "We got apples. And, um." Joey looked miserable. "I found a quest in the town that had us go from tent to tent. I didn't leave the town though."

I tried to put on a smile. "That's great Joey! Did you get anything out of it?"

"Uh, yeah." He nodded. "It was a food pony. He gave us a discount and some chocolate bars."

"Chocolate bars?" She blinked. "Do they actually taste like chocolate?"

"Yeah. It's pretty good actua..." He paused when he looked back at me then instantly got guilty. "I-I only wanted to eat a piece of it but then the food was going to go away if I didn't finish it. I'm sorry."

"Joey, it's fine." I told him. "It was your reward from your quest. Besides, we can buy more food."

"Euh." Rachelle caught my attention. "Nous...n'avons pas de Bits."

"No more Bits," Joey translated. The one time I didn't want him to.

"No more Bits?" Gwen echoed in mock surprise. "That's terrible~. Alex, what do you want to say about that?"

I tried to melt her face with my glare. It didn't work. But since Rachelle still understood Gwen's tone, she looked wary.

I sighed. "We don't have to worry about the money for now. I bought some stuff from this pony." I turned to Rachelle and, in a few words tried to repeat what I said.

"Please don't call me pony," Gwen asked with no enthusiasm.

"Really? Th-Thank you." Joey smiled softly.

"No problem." She took a second to return the smile only to pause. "Say, look at you kid. You're the same level I am."

"What?" Joey froze for a second. "Oh. Uh. Well. I-I don't really have much to do so I kinda look at the books we have. Alex said they help level us up so I guess I just read a lot of them. Or something."

I watched as Joey debated between watching for my reaction or watching the floor. When he realized how awkward he looked, Joey instead summoned three chocolate bars with his magic.

Without his menu.

"Chocolate bars?" He offered.

I watched him for a moment as a chill ran down his spine.

"Joey," I started. "How did you just do—" "Do what?" He cut in quickly.

"You just summoned chocolate bars." "No I didn't," he spoke fast again.

Unlike Mom or myself, Joey got his lying skills from Dad. That meant he had none. But with Dad, he knew he was a terrible liar so he tried to work on it. Joey had no such experience.

"I heard about Summoning," Gwen told me. "Apparently, Unicorns with a Magic skill at 10 or higher can summon items from their inventory."

"No-we-can't." Joey just kept digging himself deeper.

I took a breath. I read about skills in those books. Unicorns got unique skills but the Magic skill was not one of them. In fact, everyone had a magic skill. Joey's levitation boosted his Telepathy Skill.

"Hey Gwen?" I started, knowing that Joey would just deny everything I asked. "Humor me for a second. How does one boost their Magic skill?"

"Why, by using magical weapons like staves and wands," She explained, spotting the wand stowed against his leg. Joey then used his magic to stow the wand in his inventory.

"Really?" I clicked my tongue. "But weapons don't do anything inside of town."

"Not inside of town, no." Gwen shook her head. "Joey? Where have you been?"

"Nowhere." He was looking between both of us. "I go nowhere. I'm always here."

"...Send me your map." I told him.

"What?" He blinked.

"Send me your map as a gift," I repeated, still completely calm. "When I ran to the library, I got your updated map. So if you've been out of town since then, I'll see it. Send me your map."

Joey looked between me and Gwen and even to Rachelle who was walking up beside us. She didn't know what exactly was happening but the words magic and Unicorn she knew in English. Rachelle was probably connecting the dots.

With all three of us waiting for Joey to tell us the truth, he slumped his shoulders. "I'm really sorry Alex."

I took a breath and gathered my thoughts. "Joey. When and why were you going out of town?"

"I...I go out at night." He squeaked, making the three of us have varying levels of worry on our faces. "I don't go into the forest or anything. I just go outside and practice shooting magic with my staff. I don't go into the forest or anything though. And when I shoot at monsters, I run back into town before they get too close."

"You're fighting monsters on your own?" I felt my eye twitch.

"O-Only when they're by themselves," he defended. "And there's usually other people shooting at them too."

"You should not be near them," Gwen cut in, catching me off guard. "You shouldn't hang around those people."

"What? Why?" Joey asked.

"Yeah. Why?" I parroted.

"Just..." She tried to choose her words very carefully. "Some players are starting to get a little...too into this game. Know what I mean?" That last part she directed to me.

It didn't take me long to figure what she meant. So in a quite voice I asked, "Player killers?"

"Rumors."

"Well, they don't seem too bad," Joey argued. "And, this is supposed to be a game. "We can't stay level one forever, right?"

"We..." I didn't know what to say to that. "Well. That's...Not the problem," I struggled to say. It's going to be later though. "You can't go out on your own like that."

"W-Well...Rachelle comes too!" He pointed directly at her with his hoof.

"Non!" She flinched. "Non je ne! Alex. I. Do. Not."

"She even taught me how to aim far away." Joey said that and much more as Rachelle struggled to deny any of it thanks to the language barrier. It eventually broke down to her trying to say sorry and no louder than Joey could accuse her.

I put up with it for another ten seconds before I flew into the air by a few feet.

"Alright, that's enough!" I shouted, demanding everyone's attention.

"Rachelle. Tu ne...M'as pas parlé de Joey." I didn't know what the story was but I knew she was with Joey and didn't tell me. And when I pointed that out, she deflated. She knew it was on her at that point.

"Joey, the monsters are worse at night. If you wanted target practice, you could've asked and we would've gone in the day."

"You wouldn't have let me go," he accused.

"I would if I came with you," I told him which made him go back to looking guilty.

"Even with that pain problem you've been having?" Gwen challenged.

"Have you seen it since you got here?" I asked her, still flying in place. "It's only come up twice today and I can fight through them. By tomorrow I'll be fine. I think."

"And what do we do then?" Joey asked. "Even if this pony lady—" "Stop calling me a pony. Either Gwen or Gray," Gwen cut in.

Joey built his courage back up. "Even if Gray gave us money, it's not enough. Those apples cost 5 bits each. We'll run out again. And...I don't wanna be stuck here. There's no walls and whenever Rachelle and me come back, there's people watching you sleep."

"I know this place isn't..." My eyes went wide. "People are watching me sleep?"

"Yeah." Joey nodded. "The last two nights there were people watching. The pony guards keep passing by the library though so they don't come too close."

I suddenly felt very paranoid. It took me a minute to realize that looking around us would only make Joey more concerned. "Alright. I wish you told me this morning. Or yesterday."

"If I did you might've asked why I was up at night."

"That." I paused. "Is very true. You're right. Still, I wish ya told me."

"If I had to guess," Gwen started. "Those are probably players who are eyeballing the library. Even if all the quests that lead here are gone, the NPCs still give out rumors. Some of them say that the library has books to help adventurers. Another reason why I want to sell these books."

We can't stay here anymore, I thought. But the inns are expensive. We'd have to go hunting for mobs everyday to afford it.

I mulled over the options before finally turning to Joey. "Joey, you have inventory space, right?" When he nodded, I went on. "Start packing up all the books and anything else in this library. We're moving."

"O-Okay." He nodded. "Where are we going?"

"I'll get to that. Just take everything, alright?"

When Joey went off, I turned to Rachelle and asked the same, sending her off as well. This library had some supplies survive the blast too. It's about time we used them.

"Gwen?" I turned to her last. "I want an advance."

"Advance?" She rose an eyebrow. "I'm an info dealer, not a loan shark."

"I mean I want to be paid in advance," I clarified. "You said you needed a party, right?"

She blinked. "Wait. You're serious?"

"Yep." I nodded. "Ruined Castle is the first dungeon of the game. The four of us make a full team and there's some story quests that lead to the Ruined Castle. We use those as a leaping point for the early levels, then stock up on supplies and head out afterwards."

"And the treasure vault?" She pressed.

"I still have the journal," I told her. "And I have more MMO knowledge than you. We only look for it after we clear the dungeon."

"Deal." She held out her hoof.

I didn't do the same. "One more condition."

She winced but kept focus. "What?"

"The advance," I brought it up again. "You need to pay for room, board and supplies. That money and ours are pulled together. Deal?"

This time I held up my hoof as she pulled back a little.

"That's more than one condition."

"And the treasure floor has more than one room," I fired back.

She bit her lip, running all these imaginary numbers in her head. Then, with a reluctant nod, she shook hooves. "Fine. But I choose the inn."

"I choose the supplies," I told her. "And I need your stats. If we're taking on an MMO dungeon with four players all level 6 and under, I need everything."

She watched my expression for a moment. "How many MMO's do you play?"

I grinned. "My family plays a lot of them."

Author's Note:

And so the first Arc begins!

The Ruined Castle is, like the characters said, the first dungeon in the game. It's the Castle of the Two Sisters from the center of Everfree Forest. The forest itself is surrounded by Timberwolves and other monsters but the castle is a safe haven with some players actually camping inside of it so they can farm the dungeon underneath it.

---

Also, every now and them I'm going to post the characters' levels in the notes. I won't have full stats or skill ranks but I will post whatever updates there are.
...
E1ectric_B1itz (A.K.A. Alex)
-Level 3
-Pegasus
-Ability: N/A
...
Light_Chill (A.K.A. Joey)
-Level 5
-Unicorn
-Ability: ???
...
F1eur_de_7is (A.K.A. Rachelle)
-Level 6
-Unicorn
-Ability ???
...
GrayMatt3rsxxx (A.K.A. Gwen)
-Level 5
-Earth Pony
-Ability Dark Blend: Allows player to turn blend into their surroundings. It is stronger at night or in dark areas.