The Cursed RPG Book 1: The Curse
Chapter 2

I didn't recognize Evra or Derec, obviously, seeing as I'd never seen them before. Derec had short blonde hair and slightly thin white-silver armor. Evra looked like me but with pink robes instead of purple and dark brown hair that flowed gently over her shoulders. I looked around at our surrondings. The whole kingdom was made of white rock with flowering vines growing over every pillar and every wall.

Evra looked at me. "Finally, you're here," she said. "Now, can you explain why I'm not sitting in my computer chair right now?"

I shook my head. "Like I know."

Another player walked up to us. He was a warrior who looked similar to Derec but his armor was thicker that Derec's. "You're in the game," he explained. "The only way to get out is to beat it."

"Simple," I stated.

"Except," he continued. "There aren't many quests to guide you and you have only one life, remember? Or did you not read the case?"

"I did." I narrowed my eyes. I would lool up his stats. If I could remember how...

The case had specifically said the "P" button would bring up the player's info. Uh, but how do I press the "P" button when I'm in the game?

I looked down at my weapon. There were several buttons. One happened to have the letter "P".

I looked at the player, trying my best not to look suspicious or whatever and pressed the button.

The player's stats showed in front of me. Hopefully, no one else could see.

Character Stats

Name: Jac

Level: 30

Experience: 50/3000

Health: 400

Damage: 10-25

Speed: 5

Mana: N/A

Kingdom: Gateway

Class: Warrior

Wow. Normal names turned weird 101.

I mean really.

His other stats weren't bad but in a normal RPG his stats would be higher than that surely.

Right?

His gear didn't seem the best either but I didn't let myself be fooled.

I pressed the "M" button, looking at my own stats.

Character Stats

Name: Zelia

Level: 1

Experience: 0/100

Health: 50

Damage: 1

Speed: 1

Mana: 50/50

Kingdom: Gateway

Class: Wizard

Wow. My stats sucked, too. But, that was expected from a level one character. I looked at Jac and bit my lip. I knew he was in my Kingdom and therefore on my side but still.

"I forgot to introduce myself," Jac said. "I'm Jac."

I already knew that but I was nice anyway. "Zelia," I introduced myself. I turned to each of my companions. "Evra. Derec."

Jac nodded in greeting before beginning to explain the game. "So, basically, our stats are really low compared to the monsters and enemies if we just level but if we get runes then we can further upgrade our stats," he explained.

"Basically, the runes are found all throughout the world and you can upgrade you stats whenever as long as you have the rune for it. There is a rune for each seperate stat. Four runes. Four upgradable stats. Also, named are players that have died in the game. So there's not a lot. Yet."

My only question was how this guy was level thirty.

I mean, the game had just come out. Like, yesterday.

But already, multiple people had played it and, apparently, gotten to level thirty.

"Uh, thanks for the information?" I said, not quite knowing if I said the right thing.

"You're welcome." He turned and walked away.

Just then, someone yelled, "We're under attack!"

Someone else came up to us. "Wizards, on the tower, paladins behind the warriors."

"We're level one!" Evra exclaimed.

"We need everyone!"

"Which kingdom is it?" I asked.

"Flared. They always attack us."

I looked at the player's stats.

Character Stats

Name: Felina

Level: 5

Experience: 50/500

Health: 100

Damage: 1-3

Speed: 1

Mana: N/A

Kingdom: Flared

Class: Archer

I narrowed my eyes. "Oh, really?"

"Yeah," Felina responded.

"You would know seeing as you are part of Flared," I backed up, almost into Evra.

She hissed. Not literally, of course. She shot an arrow at me almost immediately but I dodged it. "They're inside!" I cried.

Derec shot torwards her, his sword in hand. She jumped back and shot another arrow that almost peirced through his armor. I shot a fireball, literally the only skill I had. It caught on her cloak, burning her slightly.

Felina shot an arrow at me that hit my arm.

-1 health

49 health remaining

I took the arrow out of my arm and shot another fireball. At the same time, Derec slashed Felina's arm. Felina staggered back befor shooting three arrows at once. Each arrow hit one of us.

-3 health

46 health remaining

Felina still had ninety-six HP.

Wow.

"Uh... Help?" I said quietly.

Evra rolled her eyes. The sounds of battle were all around us. "Help!" she yelled.

Almost instantly, Jac came over to us. He helped us with Felina, getting her down to ten HP before she ran off.

"Thanks," Evra said.

"You're welcome," Jac replied before running off to help other players.

"Should we try to help?" Evra asked.

"Yeah," Derec answered. "If we can replace a level one."

I searched through the players' stats until I found a level one healer.

Character Stats

Name: Cenis

Level: 1

Experience: 0/100

Health: 50

Damage: 1

Speed: 1

Mana: 30/50

Kingdom: Flared

Class: Healer

I told my siblings and cast Fireball. It shot torwards her with unreasonable speed and set her cloak on fire. She screamed in alarm and pain before casting some sort of spell on herself.

Freaking stupid healing powers.

She called for help and a level two player responeded to her call.

Character Stats

Name: Jenik

Level: 2

Experience: 20/200

Health: 47/55

Damage: 1

Speed: 1

Mana: N/A

Kingdom: Flared

Class: Warrior

I cast Fireball at her companion and he charged for me, slicing my arm through my robe.

-1 health

45 health remaining

Derec was bad at blocking things from me.

Don't worry. I'm a great dodger.

I rolled beneath his sword as he swung it torwards me. I threw a fireball at the same time as Evra and Derec swung his sword at Jenik. Jenik twisted and met Derec's sword with his own. Soarks flew as the metal collided.

Jenik only had 45 HP left.

Surely, we could win this right?

It took a while and a lot of dodging to defeat Jenik and Cenis. We did it anyway, though.

+120 Exp

Level 2: New Skill Unlocked

Lightning Ray

20/200 Exp

180 Exp left until next level

Ok?

I kinda wanted to try out my Lightning Ray but I couldn't just test it on nothing. I checked my stats.

Character Stats

Name: Zelia

Level: 2

Experience: 20/200

Health: 55

Damage: 1-2

Speed: 1

Mana: 30/50

Kingdom: Gateway

Class: Wizard

Cool! My damage went up.

I just realized, maybe I shouldn't have been so happy about killing someone's character...

Oh well.

I'm weird.

And I don't give a-

Anyways...

Me and Evra stayed with Derec as we fought players close to our level. Thankfully, together our party was much better than any of us would be individually.

My Lightning Ray was absolutely amazing. I shot lightning from my hands basically and it shot mainly my target but also nearby targets as well. Evra had it, too.

Expected seeing as she was the same ckass as me...

Anyways, the fight went on fir basically the whe day before Flared retreated.

The sounds of the kingdom cheering as Flared retreated made my ears ring. I walked up to a ramdom tree and sat next to it. I sighed as I collapsed with exhaustion. As I laid my head against it I heard all the life flowing within the tree. The leaves rustled as the branches seemed to vlise around me in a protective sheild. My siblings were next to me. But they weren't sitting against the tree. I heard water rush through the tree's trunk, deep within the bark. The grass beliw me felt sifter than ever and I felt the leaves fall around me. Being in a game, the tree had pretty much infinite leaves. I felt the bark close around my body... Wait say what?

I opened my eyes to see myself incased inside a sheild of branches and bark. I could see my siblings and the world in front of me but nothing beside or behind me. There was nothing but branches and leaves.

"Uh, what just happened?" I asked.

Jac walked up to us. "Ah, the tree likes you."

"What the- say what?"

"The tree likes you," he repeated, as if that was the most normal thing in the world which, seeing as they were in a video game, it probably was.

I sighed. "So what do I do?"

"Uh, no clue, you're the one who discovered your element," Jac replied simply. "Oh yeah, forgot to say that wizards have different elements and until you discover which one is yours you have the default skills."

"Would've been helpful to know that earlier," I muttered.

"Well, you know it now," he paused. "Hey, you want me to show you the shack? There's a few players that work there and you all need rest if you're gonna try to beat the game."

I didn't agree I wanted out of there before one of us got hurt. Or worse...

Anyways.

We all agreed to that. We just came into the game and we'd already had to fight?

We followed Jac to what was apparently called "The Shack" but it looked like more of an inn to me. We went in and looked around. The wood was covered in vines all around us and everything saw soft because of them. We walked to a counter and sat down.

A player came up to us. "Hello," she said kindly. "What can I do for ya?"

Jac spoke as soon as I opened my mouth so I closed it. "For now they might just need a few health potions and some rest."

She nodded. "I'll go get some and then get you all a room."

"Thanks."

I looked around the room. There were mostly low levels but a few high levels. I would consider high to be like eighty since the max is a hundred. The vines covered chairs and tables. They were literally everywhere. Or, uh, more or less. They weren't all over the dishes and such. I felt life flow through them. The water rushe inside them and the flowers bloomed. The player came back with six health potions.

I looked up at her. She had blond hair and purple eyes. I looked at her stats.

Character Stats

Name: Serina

Level: 10

Experience: 10/1000

Health: 70

Damage: 1-10

Speed: 3

Mana: 70/70

Kingdom: Gateway

Class: Healer

Huh. About as bad as mine.

I took a couple of the health potions while Jac paid. Seeing as we didn't have any gold, he probably should.

"So, who are you?" Evra asked.

"Just a random player trying to get out of this game except not doing much trying."

"No, I meant your name."

"Oh," Serina bit her lip nervously. "Serina."

"Serina's always here," Jac said. "She's one of our only healers. She comes out sometimes but so far she hasn't found anything about beating the game. There's no storyline."

"Which sucks," I add.

"Do you think she might come with us?" Derec asked, as if Serina wasn't there.

"Sure," Serina said. "There's plenty of workers and I practically live here."

"Yeah," Jac agreed. "She never leaves."

I put the health potions in my robe that seemed to have infinite room. Whenever I put my hand in I never touched the bottom.

"You need to rest first though," Serina said. "You all fought in the battle with Flared today."

I sighed. I was tired. I wasn't used to fighting. I followed Serina to the room she'd given us. It had four beds which was odd but I'm not complaining. I laid down in a bed and closed my eyes, immediately falling asleep.