Pilseta City

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Sighing softly at the reply she has received, Soojung decides to head where Jongin is going with his 'friend', the name Nave sounding foreign but mystic, so it perks her curiosity. Maybe those two have chosen that location as there are weaker monsters, more suitable for weaponless novices to start? Believing in Jongin's gaming experience (though her feelings tell her she should not), she starts on her own journey through the vast lands of Dhana Zamina after some consultation with the map. She remembers that Tidrea is where all the strong boss monsters are waiting for their preys so she will have to cross Esia Forest and head North until she reaches the border between Zapad and Ipar where Shen River will lead her to the capital of Ipar and even farther north she would find the Jungle Jongin has spoken about. Hopefully, the five bottles of potions would suffice in keeping her alive throughout her journey, until she could join Jongin's group at least.

( >> Esia Forest )

Jongin's words that he's already on his way somewhere else instead of waiting for her is a bit enfuriating, though she supposed she should have told him beforehand that she had bought both the game and the gear so they could start the game together. After all, Jongin has only announced he would start the game on youtube recently, but he hadn't done so, only stating that, as always, he would use the ID "monggus_dad", a thing that his subscribers are familiar with, just as well much as the fact who monggu is. Soojung gave up counting how often she heard Jongin mentioning his pet dogs or how often their little barking would interrupt the videos Jongin forced her to watch and critique on. Not that he ever listened to her complaints and the flaws she pointed out, so why he did so was a mystery to her.

It's not long after that a notice pops up, telling her that she has a new unread message and shortly after that, the words "monggus_dad has been added to your friend list" appears on screen. It irks her a bit to have text messages floating around in her vision, even if they are set to the top. Why didn't they place them below to make them more like subtitles? Is there even a way to turn them off? She tries wiping the offensive lines of text away and finds out that all this time she could have relocated the chat room messages to the bottom of her vision if she wishes to do so. Maybe she should have spent more time studying the game's introduction pages and the guidelines and tips for beginners before she actually started the game.

She remembers faintly that all the commands have to be made verbally, but she can't conjure the exact command, so she looks it up in the guide. Thankfully, there was a small FAQ added to the game play's menu and after a quick consultation she finds herself sending Jongin a request. She's glad that Jongin's username is so lame that she's memorized it.

"Sending friend request to m-o-n-g-g-u-s-underscore-d-a-d," she says, feeling rather dumb for doing that. At least no one can hear it. Apparently, game commands like those are not transmitted and communicated to other players. Now all that is left t do was to wait for Jongin to accept. But did he know that she has started the game already? Just to make sure that he would definitely accept the friend request, she adds a PM.

"Jongin, here's Soojung. You better accept that friend request and then come here to me if you want me to save your later by healing and supporting you."

She remembers skimming through the part of the game guide saying how to add friends on a friend list and how to private message them. It's a bit weird for her to have different channels of communication to use, but she supposes that is how video games work. After all, Dhana Zamina is not just a virtual reality, but also a video game and thus it has kept elements of other RPGs in general. Not that she is an expert, she actually has no idea because she never fancied video games before, except for an occasional match of candy crush or any of those puzzle games she'd play to kill boredom while waiting for a friend being late or for a new class to start.

Soojung has two options now. She could either try to fight all on her own, or she could try to find a companion to fight alongside with. While she knows that priests are seeked out here for they are rare in the game but make the best supporters and team mates as they heal and boost STATS, but a priest without a staff is a useless priest. And right now she belongs to that category of useless priest.

She would need a staff, but to get one, she would have to earn money by killing monsters first. In the end, what seemed like actually two options, are narrowed down to one option - unless she goes to ask Jongin. Should she log out of the game and call Jongin, asking to meet up in the game? Or was Jongin online right now?

She hasn't really thought it through. Surely, Soojung's gone through all options in her head, but to decide to not rely on any help is almost suicidal - not that she could really die here, in the game. Death in the game just means some kind of reset, so it's not as grave as actual death in the real world. It's still bitter though, because one would lose EXP later, but also because N ranks like her wouldn't want to waste any potions. She would have to wait until her HP bar fills up before she continues to fight. Not that she's already fighting. Just a few steps out of Pilseta city she finds herself in a forest. Esia Forest, as her maps provides. And although the city being a safe place, just outside of the city she can spot a few monsters, not too high in rank, yet other players have some difficulties killing them, too, the ones without armor at least.

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Having decided on what to do next, all that is left is to act upon her decision. She briefly considers to log out of the came and tall Jongin, text him that she's finally bought both the game as well as the equipment - it was through some luck that she had gotten the complete gear for half of its actual market price because one of her friends had wanted to sell his for an upgraded version of the hardware, despite the one he was selling was a rather new model, too, only having been in use two or three times. Soojung could only shake her head at such a behavior, but since she made a good deal, she didn't comment on it.

She knows that if she calls Jongin now to ask him for assistance, her pride would have to take a blow. She's always been independent and enough for herself and certainly, she doesn't want to boost Jongin's ego too much Though he's never shown any macho tendencies that doesn't mean he wouldn't develop some. And so, instead of asking for help, she's heading to the city borders all by herself to find the weakest monsters there are to kill.

No, Soojung, she tells herself then, refusing to give up so quickly. She's headstrong, has always been and will always be. A stupid video game can't break her pride nor decrease her ambition. She might be a priest here without any damage making skills, but she will still gain experience and level up and kick once she's gotten her first set of elemental skills.

The question is, what to do now. Without a weapon, she's not too sure if her character, a dwarf, would be able to take down monsters all on her own. It would take a long time without the spells she could use to enhance her physical strength, but eat least she has chosen a race with high stamina and thus a higher rate to survive a fist fight with a monster of the same rank. So what she needs now is to find monsters to kill and collect gold on the way to buy a weapon, even if it is one of the cheap and rather weak staffs. At least she can make use of her magic abilities then.

What Jongin fails to mention though - and Soojung realizes belatedly - is that by choosing the class priest, she is rather weak. She's weaker than she has expected, and more so, because she can't even use her spells now. While she's glad to wear armor and shoes above her pristine white priest robes, the starter item pack does not provide her with a weapon, a well needed staff to execute her spells. She doesn't even have money to buy herself one and now that she is walking around and checking out all the shops, she doesn't hope to buy a staff soon. The prices are horrendously high for a beginner in this game and not knowing where to earn the gold, except for killing monsters, she feels a bit hopeless.

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Soojung is definitely not the gamer type. But as she's getting bored of being scooped up at home - going outside was a hassle because of all the male suitors and the stares she receives. Can't a girl wear y clothing to feel like a goddess without being ogled? Shopping gets boring soon because stores don't get new, fresh items to stock up with so soon. Coffee shops are a nice place, but she can't spend hours lounging there, not to mention that sitting there all on her own seemed to look inviting to guys to hit on her. And so she's spending most of her time reading and watching TV, both things she liked doing, but for a person who liked to be active, who wanted to move, it became more like a chore soon, too. That is why she has decided to try out this video game that Jongin's been talking about lately, knowing fairly well that her friend slash fake boyfriend has only been doing so to coerce her into joining him. After all, he needs a priest to assist him very, very badly.

Swaying his body around he goes from the NPCs lurking around the city and eyes the edge of where the city folds out to the mountain range. He’s unsure how far his teleportation stone can take him but he needs to get to Ipar safely and without dying. There are decent leveled monsters in the mountains according to the guide so it may not be bad to venture by foot and then eventually use the stone. At least so he can kill a few monsters to gain some money, items, and points. Jongin is already too ambitious and he’s just begun. Of course, he’s recording himself play so he can upload it to youtube later so he is more precise about his movements and ideas than he normally would be. Though most know he’s the type of gamer who enjoys the game than stressing over how good he is - he takes a heavy step outside the city and ventures towards the mountain wondering what type of monsters lurked there and if he was going to die. But he had heard a rumor about a lot of valuable minerals being found in the mountains so maybe he wouldn’t be broke after all.

The truth is he doesn’t have the slightest idea of what he’s doing. He’s been over the tutorials many time as he logs in for the first time and letting the game settings take him to Pilseta. But truth he only knows he’s suppose to meet up with Princess. Albeit unsure if he’s going to die on his way there. The dwarf is miniature, somewhat stout, but pliable to Jongin’s movements. He’s fascinated at how easy it is to control the character as he holds the dwarven fingers out in front of him in awe. “Cool.” He murmurs and the voice comes out gruffer than his own. He knows there is a few things he needs to do before he can get entranced with the game. Meet Princess, come up with a game plan, and find his weapons and decent armor. (Though in between that level up as quickly as he can.) He’s not sure if he’s being overly ambitious yet but he’ll find out.