Zombies And RPGs

by locke_jaw

Unconventional Tutorial

Tomes rubbed the back of his head gently with a hoof. He didn’t expect to be dropped several meters off the ground upon entering the world. That surprised him. And as a result, his reflexes didn’t catch up with the situation at hoof and ended up with his head landing first.

Who came up with this? He thought while continuing to rub the bruised part of his head. At least the pain was slowly leaving. But still, he can’t help but be impressed at the game’s eye for detail though. They even added pain receptors to make the experience even more real. Other players would probably hate this feature but he doesn’t. He thought that this would be great at reminding players not to act harshly in this world, with the permadeath and all that.

He got up from the ground and took a look at his surroundings. The area looked like your average starting location in an RPG, a vast field of grass surrounded with mountain ranges. And in the middle, a small and peaceful town or village with citizens that matches the town’s quaint personality.

But something seemed off.

The atmosphere felt thick and heavy, not to mention grim. The sky was red like blood, and the grass that was usually tinted green was now trying to emulate the colors of the surface above. The whole place looked as if it was ravaged by war.

Tomes was tempted to explore the area but he was supposed to meet with Spooky Shades first under some lone tree that’s located around here somewhere. It didn’t take him long to find said tree. From afar, he can see the large towering plant standing alone in the empty field.

As he slowly approached it, he saw a silhouette of a pony standing underneath its shade. From where he was, he can already see the username that was floating above the pony’s head, along its level, health, and mana bars.

“50Shades?” Tomes grinned as he read the pony’s username in a soft whisper. Yeah, that’s Spooky alright. He thought while increasing the speed of his trotting. Spooky saw the approaching stallion and waved at him.

“You’re late.” Spooky jokingly called out.

Tomes was about to respond in kind but went silent when he saw Spooky’s avatar. Her character was clad in full body knight armor, it shimmered a low crimson glow, reflecting the grim color of the blood red sky. The folded wings on her side were covered in armor as well, although the metal protecting them looked lighter and thinner compared to her body. He took a glance at the feathers and saw that each of them had a metallic covering. From afar, they look like closely hung knives around her barrel.

He looked at her level that was located beside her health and mana bars. She already got a cool looking armor at level twenty-five? He must get stronger, and fast. He proceeded to look at her helmet, which was equally fine crafted as the armor she’s wearing. Like the metal it’s made from, the helmet looked cold, hard, and expressionless. You can’t even see the wearer’s eyes, only two dark slits of numb oblivion staring back at you. But what bothered Tomes the most about Spooky’s helmet was the horn on her forehead. Spooky was a pegasus so she has no use for a horn compartment on her helmet. But maybe it’s just for decoration, to make herself look like an alicorn, he thought.

“Tome_Raider76?” Spooky scoffed, pulling Tomes out from his thoughts.

“What? What’s wrong it?”

“It suits you.”

Tomes shook his head rolled his eyes. He thought his name had offended her or something.

“So this is the world you’re talking about, huh?” He said while turning his back to look around the surroundings. “Kinda depressing, don’t you think?”

“No.” Spooky replied, standing beside Tomes. “It’s not usually like this. The skies are much bluer compared to now. And the grass...well, much greener.”

Tomes turned to look at Spooky. “So what sparked this change?”

“I dunno, probably another major event. Let’s head over to town, maybe we’ll find the answers there.”

The two trotted quietly into town. Their hooves created soft ‘smooshing’ sounds with every step they took on the reddening grass. Spooky’s armor clinked as metal hits metal with each and every sway of her body. The grassland breeze would occasionally blow soft howling sounds inside their ears, creating a feeling of unease that complimented well with the eerie atmosphere of the world.

“Do these things usually happen? Sudden events?” Tomes asked, breaking the silence.

“From time to time, yeah.” Spooky said, stroking her armor clad chin. “It’s their way of having the players level up quickly. But they’d announce it on the boards before dropping it on us.”

Spooky swiped a hoof at the air. A large black transparent screen appeared in front of her. One by one, several symbols popped out on the screen such as an image of a sword, a potion, and a scroll. She pressed on the image that looked like a bulletin word with notes attached on it. A small black transparent screen overlapped the first one, above it was the word ‘Announcement’ written in a vibrant gold shade. But other than that, nothing popped out of it.

“Huh.” Spooky said as she continued poking the empty screen. There are no announcements about this event, weird...pretty weird.”

“Whoa!” Tomes cried out in amazement. “How’d you do that? That looks awesome.”

“Oh it’s simple.” Spooky pressed the red ‘X’ that was located on the upper right corner of the screens, closing the windows. She then gestured at Tomes’ right hoof. “All you have to do is to swi-AAH!!!”

Unbeknownst to the two, a zombified pony was already rushing its way behind them. When it’s only a couple of hooves away from the unsuspecting adventurers, it leapt into the air and dove straight into Spooky.

“Spooky!” Tomes screamed in panic. His friend was struggling from an undead attacker and he doesn’t know what to do in his frightened state.

“It’s alright, it’s alright.” Spooky said in between grunts as she fended herself from the rabid zombie. She was using both of her hooves to subdue the monster’s flailing forelegs while using an armoured limb to shield her from its relentless bites.

“I’m just being pounced by a zombie, that’s all.” She said it in the calmest voice she could muster.

“Omigosh! What do I do? What do I do?” Tomes was standing on two hooves now, both his forelegs were gripping tightly on his silver mane.

The zombie’s rapidly biting maw was now inches away from Spooky’s face. She banged a foreleg at its chin in an attempt to keep its salivating orifice away from her, and also to knock the zombie off of her body. Unfortunately, she only succeeded doing the former.

“First, you equip your weapon.” She grunted.

“How do I do that!?” Tomes asked loudly while pulling the zombie away from Spooky.

As the rabid corpse was nearing her face again, Spooky once more banged its face with her armoured limb. “Don’t bother pulling the zombie off of me, it’s not going to work anyway. Just do exactly what I tell you to.”

Tomes immediately let go of the undead. “Okay! Okay! Why am I the only nervous pony here?”

“That’s because I’m already used to this.” Spooky replied firmly.

“Getting pounced on by stallions?”

Spooky turned to look at Tomes. Even with the helmet on, he can tell that she was annoyed by his latest quip. “No, dummy! Mauled by zombies! Now open that inventory of yours and help me with this.”

Tomes let out a long sigh to calm himself. “Okay, okay. How do I do that again?”

Spooky was now kicking her hind legs at the zombie’s barrel. Her new effort to get the rabid beast off of her ended up as another futile attempt. She just stopped kicking and focused all her strength on her forelegs.

“Simply swipe at the air, and think about opening the game menu. It doesn’t matter which direction you’re swiping. It could be up or down, left or right and it’d still open as long as you’re swiping.” Spooky smiled under her helmet. “So, what do you think about that tip? No, what do you think about me?”

“Swiping right.” Tomes said while doing so. A black transparent screen similar to Spooky’s earlier appeared in front of him.

“Okay got it!” After all the symbols popped up, he pressed an image of a sword. Another screen overlapped the other one, this one had the word ‘Equipment’ written above it in the same golden color from before. Aside from a single item named ‘Basic Staff,’ the screen was mostly empty.

“I just opened the inventory...” He pressed on the weapon’s name. “Equipping Basic Staff. After pressing said item, small glowing cubes of light began materializing in front of Tomes, and not a second later, the cubes formed themselves into a simple wooden staff with a red gem lodged at its tip.

What’s this?” After selecting the staff, a short description about the weapon appeared on top of the screen, just below the word ‘Equipment.’

Tomes read the description quickly, as he still needed to save his friend. “An old branch from a dead tree fused with low-tier magic?” He grimaced at what he had read. “This is so demeaning.”

Again, Spooky banged the zombie’s face to a safe distance. “I think they just put that there to motivate novices in getting stronger quicker. So what’s your first skill? Swipe while thinking about skill slots.”

Tomes quickly obliged and swiped at the air with the hoof that’s carrying the staff. After doing so a small black screen that was divided into several square slots appeared just inches away from his hoof. Like the equipment screen, the slots were almost empty save for the one spell that was placed on the upper right corner of the screen.

“Oh there it is.” He took a closer inspection on his single spell. It looked like a sharp piece of ice that was travelling at high speeds on a blue background. Gusts of air surrounded the ice to imply at how fast it was going. Tomes hovered a hoof on the spell, and small black window popped out above it that indicated its name and effect.

“The spell is called ‘Ice Shard’ and it’s supposed to inflict a damage of seventy-five HP on its target and also slowing it for three seconds.” He looked at the struggling Spooky who was now slamming the zombie’s face left and right with her metal elbows. “Will it help?”

Spooky ceased her futile slamming. “Water type huh?” She hummed. ”That’ll do. Okay, so here’s what you’re gonna do next. In order to cast the spell, you have to select your target first. It’s simple, just aim at the zombie and think about targeting it. Once you’ve got a lock on, the target’s body will then be highlighted green. Then press the spell’s icon to activate it. Did you get all of that?”

“Yup.” Tomes said as he aimed his staff at the zombie and thought about targeting it. Spooky was right. There’s a bright green light highlighting the zombie’s body. And in addition, a health bar appeared above its head. He pointed his staff at Spooky and it was her body’s turn to be highlighted green. Tomes giggled at his discovery and shifted his aim back at the pawing undead.

As Tomes pressed the spell, a strong recoil shook the hoof that was carrying his staff. A large ice fragment emerged from the gem of his staff and quickly made its way on the zombie. As the shard hit the monster’s body, it exploded into several tiny pieces, knocking the zombie off the armoured mare.

A large glowing number seventy-five appeared out of the zombie’s reanimated body, and faded as quickly as it appeared. A third of its health bar turned to black. And its body has changed into a chilly shade of blue. The zombie attempted to get up on the ground but seemed to have a hard time doing so as it moved like it was in slow motion.

Tomes took this as an opportunity and helped Spooky get on her hooves. “I can’t believe it Spooky, I did it!”

Once Spooky was standing upright, she quickly opened up her inventory and equipped a weapon called ‘Hot Rods.’ She stared at the zombie who was just recovering from its three-second slow and turned to look at the celebrating Tomes.

“Not bad, not bad.” Spooky said as two sheathed swords materialized on both her sides. The handle of the swords had a polished jet black shade that shone red when reflecting the crimson sky. And the scabbards had several holes poked into it that made them look like exhaust pipes of some sort.

Using her wings, the Knight Mare pulled the swords including scabbards off her body. She swung the two blades sideways, a loud swishing sound accompanied her actions. Once the swords were pointed away from her, her wings pushed a small button that was carefully placed on the tip of the handles. Strong streams of fire blazed through the scabbards’ holes. Tomes has now realized that those weren’t scabbards at all. The flames were acting as the sword’s sharp, sizzling blades. She turned to look at Tomes, a hint of smugness can be felt emanating from that expressionless headgear of hers. “Now it’s my turn.”

Spooky swiped a hoof sideways at the air. A small black screen with at least a dozen of its square slots filled up with skills appeared just inches away from her hoof. She pressed the one that looked like a fiery ring with an infernal background. She then turned to look at the zombie who was once more, charging towards her.

“Ring of Fire!” She cried at the top of her voice while raising her both of her burning swords upwards and swinging them down with heavy force. The fires of the dual swords burned brighter and hotter as they were swung down into the ground. Two large waves of flames blazed their way out of the twin weapons and flew their way into the charging zombie, all the while quickly forming into a fiery ring of infernal damnation.

As the rings of fire made contact with the zombie, they spared no time engulfing every inch of its rotting body in flames of blazing punishment. It only took a matter of seconds for its flesh to turn crisp and black like charcoal. The zombie’s well done body crumbled piece by piece as it continued to struggle its futile attempt to escape its hellish situation.

The zombie let out a long pained howl before completely turning into ash. The health bar above it rapidly turned to black, and a large number seven hundred fifty appeared from the black dust. The spot from where the zombie once stood was now nothing but a pile incinerated remains. And from those remains emerged a stack of golden coins and the line ‘100 Exp.’

As Spooky sheathed both her swords back, the stack of coins lifted their selves up and flew towards the two adventurers. Both Tomes and Spooky opened their game menu and noticed that each of them earned fifty drops.

Spooky turned to look at Tomes and proceeded to let out a relieved giggle. “Not bad for a weapons and skill tutorial, huh?” She giggled once more.

Tomes let go of his staff and sat on his haunches. He looked at his forelegs and saw that they were shivering. He then looked at Spooky who was following his actions and was also sitting on the ground. She realized that her swords caused slight discomfort when she was sitting on her flanks so she opened the equipment window and unequipped the weapons.

“That was terrifying, Spooky!” Tomes cried out, he didn’t know why he was panting like he was out of breath. “You almost scared me to death!”

“Hah. You just used three words related to fear in one line.”

Realizing that sitting alone was not enough to calm him down, Tomes decided to lie on the ground, his body spread wide like five-petaled flower. He was amazed at how the grass made his skin a bit itchy. He placed a hoof at his chest, he can feel his heart beating like a drum.

“I think I need a break.”

“Maybe later.” Spooky said, looking at a distance. She quickly got up, opened her inventory and equipped the Hot Rods once more. Her wings unsheathed the swords and pressed the handles’ buttons to fire them up again. “We still have things to do.”

Tomes got up from his relaxed position. “Like what?”

Using her burning sword, Spooky pointed at the undead horde that was charging hungrily at them.

Tomes let out a deep sigh while rubbing his head with a hoof to emphasize that he’s not really in the mood to deal with things such as this. “This really makes me want to log out.”

“And miss one of Madam Spooky’s very educational tutorials about grinding?” She jokingly dared him. “I promise you. When we’re done with this, you’ll definitely reach up to level one hundred. Did I say definitely? I’m sorry. What I meant was literally. You’ll definitely literally reach the level of one hundred.”

“That’s impossible.” Tomes scoffed. “There’s no wa-”

Spooky ignored Tome’s pessimistic view on their situation and suddenly charged towards the horde before he can finish his sentence.

“LEVEL ONE HUNDRED!!!”