Zenith Affinity

“Alright, Sky, spill it. What really happened?” Kesa asked as they finished eating dinner in their room in Osten.

Sky nodded, “What did you all write for your character backgrounds?”

Silence went around the group for a moment, but Zedra spoke up first, “I wrote that I was a lost prince of the Al’Trezdin Empire and that they were desperately searching for me…”

“Alright, that is pretty cool!” Sky said. Zedra smiled back and nodded.

Kesa spoke up, “I wrote that I was the strongest healer to be a part of the Myrim race for a long time, and that I would be respected as a sage of sorts amongst those people….I also wrote that Dark was known as my personal bodyguard as well as my husband.”

Sky, Atticus, and Zedra burst out laughing as Dark’s jaw dropped at his wife. It was clear that he wasn’t actually mad, and he shook his head.

“You know I will always protect you,” Dark said.

“D'awww," Sky said sarcastically, drawing more laughs.

Kesa smiled with blushing cheeks.

“Anyways, my background is that I took Kesa from the Myrim as deserved loot for my conquest and claimed her as my concubine!” Dark said, casually.

He then got up and ran.

“Kesa! Wait! I was just kidding!”

She didn’t let him go without splashing a good amount of water on him.

After they settled back down, Dark spoke again, “Really, though, I just said that I was transported via some dark ritual that I overcame, barely escaping with my life. Kesa found me and healed me, and we fell in love. It might be more sappy than that, but it’s what I wrote…”

Kesa approved and leaned over to kiss him on the cheek, “That is much better.”

“I also wrote that I could eat seemingly endless amounts of food if prompted.”

Zedra burst out laughing, Sky and Atticus following after. Even Kesa chuckled as she shook her head.

“What about you, Atticus? Did you write anything in your character bio?” Sky asked.

The kainen nodded, “I did. I wrote that I would be the best chef in the land someday. It is kind of lame, I guess, but I do love cooking, and I heard it’s important to come up with a backstory for the role-play server.”

“It’s not lame at all. There have to be cooking competitions and stuff here. If there isn't, then we will start one!” Zedra said.

“I agree!” Sky said, “Dark and I will be judges!”

“Okay, Sky, you put it off long enough,” Kesa said. "Tell us what happened."

Sky nodded, “It seems that everything we wrote in our backstories is more or less true.”

“More or less?” Kesa asked.

Sky looked sheepish, “More or less, yeah. I wrote something interesting and it sort of…turned out to be true.”

Everyone exchanged confused glances at Sky's antics.

“What did you do, Sky?” Kesa asked with a sigh.

Sky nodded, accepting her fate, “I wrote that I was the daughter of Solaria and Neri, Goddesses of the Sun and Valor. Some of the Celestial Pantheon. I didn’t think much of it at the time, like I also wrote things about how I am fantastic at combat and can rise to meet the power of my opponent and stuff.”

There was silence as the rest of her party looked at her.

Sky gulped and continued, “When the ascension ritual started, Solaria pulled me up to her realm. I was gone for what felt like hours as I got to meet…my new parents.”

“Aren’t they both lady gods?” Dark asked.

“Dark…just call them goddesses, the gender is already in the name,” Zedra said.

"But how did they..." Dark let his sentence fall off as Kesa gave him a flat look.

Zedra focused back on Sky, “So wait, you met a couple of gods already? Did they give you that ring?”

“Oh, you noticed?” Sky asked, holding up the intricate ring to show it off.

“Sky, your hand is literally glowing. It would be weirder if we didn’t notice,” Kesa said.

“I am sorry, but I have to know. If they were both goddesses, then how did they make you?” Dark asked for clarification.

“Dark, they are gods, they can do whatever they want,” Zedra said.

“There is a bit more, like they said that I was taken shortly after my birth and have been missing for 24 years, which is my age as of the day before we came here. I spent quite a while talking with them, it was all a bit surreal to be honest.”

“You couldn’t have been gone for longer than 5 minutes,” Kesa said.

Sky nodded, “They said something about the time being weird or whatever. The point I am trying to make, though, is that our back stories are real, this world is real, and we won't be sent home anytime soon. I tried to ask them about the storyline, and stuff like that, but they refused to let me speak on anything that might happen in the future.”

Zedra laughed at that, “I can’t wait to head back to Ostbury tomorrow, it has to be crazy right now.”

“You think that evil king is still there?” Atticus asked, as the rest of the party had continuously called him that when they first arrived in the huge city.

“Oh, that's a good question,” Dark answered. “I will point out that his quest line is something that is supposed to happen at max level. It was the first expansion in the game, so if something did happen, the players won’t be high enough level to deal with everything just yet.”

“Unless it changed because we are all low level and it’s like 2 years before it was supposed to come out, if everything follows the timeline correctly,” Zedra replied.

“That is still up in the air. There are plenty of strong people in Ostbury, including most of the royal guard as well as the Queen and her retinue. There will be hundreds of people in Tier 4 outside of the players, so if whatever group of them gets the right people on board…it’s hard to say what will happen,” Sky said.

Kesa nodded, “If this is truly a real world, then anything is possible, including an expansion event being triggered early by players. That is something we are just going to have to get used to.”

"I bet us knowing parts of the possible future is a provable thing to some degree. I have to imagine there are a few people in Ostbury who can do more than just see the consequences of changing the timeline. Hopefully they will be able to work with the Queen to save as many as possible," Dark thought out loud.

"There are definitely competent and smart people here. We just need to stick to our plan and get strong," Zedra replied.

≪ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ≫

After breakfast, before they left for Ostbury, Sky wanted to speak to everyone regarding something she had been thinking about. The three parties all gathered outside the Oaken Shed in the morning sun.

“Alright! I wanted to talk a bit about auras and aura abilities, and also how we should be focusing on a more rounded and less focused version of our normal builds. So to start, let me just give a quick rundown of what auras are, the normal reason we used to need them, and how I think they will be different now that we are actually here.”

This was a strange thing for all of [Pink Lotus], as they were getting glimpses at the sort of ‘meta’ information that only players have parsed through thousands of hours of gameplay. So when she brought up the difference between what they ‘used to know’ versus how things are in this world, it was slightly confusing. The idea that they had knowledge of the future and how the world worked was a strange yet welcoming thing.

“So, auras are a specialized way of projecting your attunement, a manifestation of your power and connection to that element, which usually is taken as your first or second attuned element. Having your aura active will automatically give you a 10% affinity bonus to your main attunement, and that increases all abilities, skills, spells, or whatever that corresponds to that element. The problem there will mostly come for you, physical types, as you don’t have a true element just yet.”

Helga raised her hand, and Sky nodded at her.

“So…did I mess up by taking a physical attunement to start?”

“Not at all, and that sort of brings me to the main reason we used to use attunements. It projects your affinity out there for…well, anyone to feel and see it. This is mostly important as a means of binding an elementally attuned mount, as they will not bind with you if you do not share an affinity with them. You didn’t mess up by choosing physical; it just means you will have to take a non-attuned mount until level 50 when you grab a true elemental affinity. There are beasts with the physical attunement, but there is no aura ability with one, so it won't be able to sense a kindred spirit in their element.”

Zedra added his thoughts, “To be clear, though, the blood affinity is the most common affinity for beasts, as it often manifests instead of the physical affinity. There are blood auras, but it isn’t quite as effective for melee fighters as the physical attunement, so it's rarer to see people using it.”

“That’s right. As far as the differences between this world and how it was before, it's something that both Zed and I have been talking about for a while now, and I think since choosing an aura ability, I have come to a realization,” Sky said.

She held her hand out, and a small bright sphere of starlight appeared, floating just above her palm. It wasn’t just the small light of the sun, but it held divine golden radiance associated with the [Ring of the Golden Sun]. The affinity was not something any player had seen, and the effect was still unknown to Sky, as she hadn’t fought since her ascension to tier 2.

“My affinity didn't just go up, but my external control has vastly improved. I can both silently and mentally cast my [Sun Bringer] spell, but not only that, I can manipulate it quite easily,” Sky said. "Easier than I could before."

With just a thought, the small star lifted from her hand and flew around her as if caught in her orbit. It spiraled up and up, growing in size and luminosity as it did so. By the time it was above her head, it was the size of a basketball, and it continued growing as it lifted up further into the air. She made a small gesture, holding her hand out once again, and the star shrank down and returned to her hand.

“I can personally tell you that after I took my aura ability at level 25, I have way more control of my external magic, even if I don’t have it activated.”

“What is your aura ability called?” Kesa asked.

“[Luminous Corona], and before you ask, yes, there are two parts to it,” Sky said.

“I don’t think anyone was going to ask that,” Dark said flatly.

“Of course you were,” Sky smiled. She activated her aura, and it started out very difficult to see as they were all standing in direct sunlight. The more they looked, however, the easier it was to tell that the light of the sun almost seemed to gather around her, turning more golden than yellow. It shone down in beautiful golden rays, keeping her illuminated and almost removing all shadow around her.

“This is the more…luminous side of the aura, which is more peaceful, and maybe even passive.”

“It’s a passive ability, Sky…” Dark said. His sarcastic comment drew laughs, even from Zedra.

“Yes, thank you, Dark, very helpful as always. Anyways, if I were to push my…I don’t know…Intent into it? I think you could feel it as it changes.”

Sky’s stance shifted from casual to ready, as if she were prepared to fight. The aura around her changed, pulling in close and all around her, as if looking at the corona of the sun around an eclipsed moon, flaming golden light pushed out all around her. She had a more intense gaze, and her fellow guildmates felt the air and presence around her shift. They had become the target of her will and force, a mental change that manifested because of her aura.

“That is the difference. I am using my intent to change my demeanor and presence. I am ready for combat, and I have more power, control, and potential for destruction because of it. I recommend everyone who can, take their aura abilities sooner, and start using them in combat.”

For the first time that day, no one had a snarky comment, even Dark.

Sky had changed the game.

≪ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ≫

Running, in this new world at least, was now a fun activity for everyone, not just the insane people who get addicted to it back on Earth. Just like in the game, Players had what felt like infinite stamina. Something that was designed for them not to have to deal with a stamina bar while traversing the world. It translated to the feeling of pure freedom as they felt they could go anywhere without feeling exhausted.

Players could run endlessly and be just as energized as if they hadn’t been running for hours on end. With increased vitality, toughness, and regeneration, players were immune to most of the problems that plagued humanity back on Earth.

As [Reality Check], [Flamesouls], and [Pink Lotus] left Osten on the road back to Ostbury, they realized how much faster everyone was because of the ascension to Tier 2. It was even more relevant for classes that used Dexterity as a main stat.

Zedra, Mia, and Tia could go anywhere as they pleased, flitting around with ease. It was a playground of physically empowered people who were running, jumping, flipping, and flying through the air as they walked.

And while true flight wasn’t available yet, Sky had learned a great technique using her [Flare Step] ability to launch herself off of the many hills, only for her golden wings to catch the air and glide down with speed.

Zaria had more difficulty with it, as her movement ability, [Flame Dash], made it so she rushed forward with obscene speeds, but she remained firmly planted on the ground. The difference was that Sky’s ability blasted her forward in the direction she cast it, something that used to only work horizontally before the arrival in Zenith World.

While they ran, Sky would launch herself to about 30 feet straight up into the air with [Flare Step], a line of burning golden light remaining in her path, and she was able to glide for a few seconds. As they traveled, Sky learned that if she used it at an angle and while at the crest of a hill, she could open her wings and glide for a much further distance, enjoying the feeling of floating around as they ran.

It took a while, but Zaria learned that while she had to be in contact with the ground for most of the [Flame Dash], she could also manifest her racial wings to use them in combination with the obscene momentum from the ability to launch herself into the air as well. It didn’t have as much distance or height as Sky did, but it was extremely impressive when launched from a similar hill.

“Are you going to join them, Ash?” Alisha Caldwell asked. [Pink Lotus] had been watching the players get used to their new abilities like they were children having fun at a playground. And yet, the more they watched, the more endearing the sights became.

Ashariel looked almost sheepish, “I haven’t actually acquired a movement ability just yet.”

“What? I thought you were going to get one when you upgraded?”

“I was, but Sky made a really good point for Aura’s, and I grabbed the [Luminous Aura]...”

“You have? Why haven’t you activated it?” Alisha said, purposefully not commenting on her strangely hostile relationship with Sky.

“It’s…a bit much,” Ashariel said.

"Do it! I want to see!"

Ashariel activated [Luminous Aura] and her body nearly ignited with bright white light. Because she was a valkyrie, which was a gender and racially locked class, the effects of the Light Attunement changed her abilities to include the beautiful white light.

It burned enemies and supported allies. Everyone looked at her as she glowed, feeling the compassion and strength the aura pushed outward as well.

“Ooh, it’s very pretty, Ash! I love it!” Alisha said.

“Lookin’ good, Ash!” Helga said.

Sera rarely put out compliments, but even she nodded at the white light that surrounded Ashariel. What was surprising was Amara Goldtree, the elven cleric who chose Holy as her first attunement. The normally silent and introverted elf ran up and hugged the celestial, “It’s very beautiful, and it reveals your true emotions. I know you care deeply about us, Ash, but it is great to feel it in person.”

Ashariel’s cheeks ignited in the same fuchsia color that their party was named after, “S-stop it, ‘Mara!"

The usually stoic cleric laughed and released the valkyrie.

All of them were interrupted by the two floating celestials at the front of their 15-person group of sprinting adventurers.

“We have a crashed caravan ahead! Let’s book it!” Sky yelled down as she released her wings. She landed like a superhero and sprinted off after the two ninjas and a rogue.

≪ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ≫

Raze Iver thought he had it all figured out. Not just in this new life, but at the prospect of leveling up as a party. His party was a group of friends that played Dungeons and Dragons together before deciding to do a playthrough of Zenith Affinity as they were resetting the servers.

He was the Dungeon Master of the group, and they had all spent hours the night before creating characters for the next day.

He was a dark elf who took inspiration from the legendary Drizzt Do’Urden in the Forgotten Realms series by R.A. Salvatore. He wanted to be a ranger that focused on melee combat, one day hoping to dual-wield scimitars alongside a loyal beast companion. His girlfriend had also decided to be an elf ranger, though she chose a moon elf under the name Sherafane Moonstar.

She was unsurprisingly amazing at the class, focusing on the racially-locked affinity of moonlight archery spells and abilities. Sherafane had just started to unlock some amazing AoE attacks, and with the help of their two Druid companions, Sarah and Kira Maple, they were quickly leveling up.

Sarah and Kira were a brother and sister duo that had been twins on earth, but had made two female dryads, which were beautiful nature spirits, often having features similar to trees. With leaves or vines for hair, brown or green skin, and a huge racial bonus to the nature affinity, choosing dryad was a no-brainer for the duo.

Sarah had decided to become a nature-based healer while Kira went with a more utility-based role. She specialized in crowd control, enhancement magic, and provided a bit of damage on top of that. They made for a great combination for the two rangers in their party.

The party had chosen the name [Nature Green] since they were all nature-based classes or races, though they had yet to find a 5th who matched their aesthetic.

They hadn’t found any dungeons just yet, but at level 13, they did find an extended transportation quest that had them head out to Osten, a small town a ways west of Ostbury. It was taking a while to get there at caravan speeds, and they had been attacked several times already, but they were still making progress.

Sherafane was the first to take advantage of the Ranger abilities and had selected the [Bonded Companion] ability. She had taken a strong boar they had defeated, using the drop that looked like a sphere around the size of a small plum. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a legendary companion, but as plain as it gets: [Earthen Boar Companion Stone]. Still, it was a perfect addition to the party, while they still lacked a solid front-line fighter or tank.

The boar was huge, maybe just a bit smaller than a hippo from Earth, but it did have the advantage of drawing plenty of aggro whenever it used its singular [Charge] ability. They had been hoping that the boar would help mitigate some of the aggro, but dealing with threat assessment was still a learning curve.

It was the second day of travel since the merchant caravan had left Ostbury at less than a walking speed when the attack finally hit them.

“Raze!” Sherafane called as she pulled her recurve bow. Her tone left no other option besides imminent attack.

“Weapons! Let’s go!” Raze answered. He pulled his sword and dagger from his belt and moved to defend Sherafane as she started launching arrows. Her recurve bow sent arrow after arrow at the incoming goblin raiding party, but they were coming in from both sides of the road.

There were way too many goblins for just one party to handle, like the event had scaled up to 15-20 people, something that should have only happened if more players were nearby. It was all wrong.

To the right side, Kira and Sarah were casting [Root Entanglement] and [Poison Spore Cloud] spells, trying to force the goblins together for simple and easy AoE attacks to be more effective. Raze could engage much more easily if they couldn’t move. Unfortunately, there were too many for him not to get swarmed the moment he moved too far away from Sherafane.

The boar, which Sherafane had affectionately named ‘Razor’ to definitely not make fun of her boyfriend, drew the attention of nearly a dozen goblins as it used [Charge] to barrel into their midst. The huge boar was a huge target, and it didn’t last more than a few seconds under the combined attacks of the goblin swarm.

It would be possible to revive the boar, but not during combat.

Raze dodged a few arrows from the distant shortbow-wielding enemies, but what really scared him was the goblin shaman who began to channel something after dropping a totem. The dozen fighter goblins would be tough, but he could easily kite them while Sherafane and the twins went to work on them.

“Shera! Get that shaman!”

Sherafane didn’t argue, just adjusted her priorities. The first arrow struck the shaman, but it didn’t interrupt its casting. The shaman growled and launched the [Fireball] that it had been channeling.

It impacted the first huge cart of the caravan, causing it to billow up in flames. A huge plume of smoke and fire went up into the sky with that.

Then three shadows entered the battle.

One appeared behind the shaman, daggers cleaving through the goblin as if there was no resistance at all. Another shadow vaulted over a cart and landed behind the goblins engaging Raze, subsequently tearing apart the flanked enemies. She had red skin and was wearing a face-covering mask like a ninja.

The final shadow moved to help the dryads, taking out any goblins that had dodged their AoE’s and were closing in on them. She easily dispatched them like they were nowhere near the same level of power.

Raze felt a bit of relief as he realized that other players had joined them in the fight. All attention was drawn away from the battle as a second golden sun appeared in the sky. The burning star crashed through the CC'd goblins, igniting and searing them in horrifying light.

With that, more than 10 people came rushing down the hill in the direction the caravan was heading. The group easily split up and rushed into battle like they had been doing it for years. The tags above their heads indicated they were mostly players, but the members of [Nature Green] didn’t have time to read them.

In front of Raze, a huge dark goliath smashed into the ranks of fighters he had been kiting, a literal train of a man had come at impossible speeds. As soon as he stopped, he spread his arms with a roar, and the many goblins were pulled into their death around him.

Raze quickly joined a few other fighters, several with white hair and angelic appearances. Enhancement magic and spells began to increase his fighting speed. He felt water begin to fall from the sky and watched the poison that had inflicted him disappear.

With the help of several parties' worth of people, the goblin raiding party was quickly wiped out. As the fight came to a standstill, the workers and wagon drivers put out the flames on the first cart, but some things were damaged, while the oxen survived with minor burns.

A dwarven man in cleric robes began to heal the beasts of burden, and they seemed to calm as the golden light engulfed them.

The celestial woman with blue hair who had thrown what looked like miniature suns at their enemies made eye contact with Raze and walked over to him.

“Hello, fellow adventurers! Sorry to increase that event size, did we not come fast enough to save your 5th?”

Above her head was ‘Solara Sky, Mage,’ and it was in blue, signifying that she was a tier above him in power.

“Uh, we don’t actually have a fifth yet. Couldn’t find someone that fit well enough,” Raze said.

“I see. I am Sky, and this is [Reality Check], the [Flamesouls], and [Pink Lotus],” She introduced.

“[Nature Green], good to meetcha.”

“Interesting name,” someone else said, another dark elf like himself. ‘Zedra Stone, Rogue’ was above his head.

Sherafane approached and smiled, “We enjoy the whole nature theme, obviously.”

“So, you are the famous [Reality Check], huh?” Kira Maple asked.

“Famous? We haven’t even been here a month. I doubt famous is the right word,” Sky replied.

“How long has it been since you were in Ostbury?” Sherafane asked.

“Pretty much since the first day,” Zedra replied.

“That makes a lot of sense, actually,” Kira said.

“Yeah, when you cleared the Zaphid Caverns, things kind of hit the fan in the city. People were freaking out until they got a notification that this is sort of a gameworld," Raze said.

"It definitely has elements from the game, but this is definitely real," Sky said.

“Dying in dungeons just respawns you to the outside of the instance,” Zedra said.

“And if you die outside of a dungeon?” Sarah Maple asked.

“None of us has actually died outside of one yet,” Sky shrugged.

“Yeah, I guess it does,” Raze said.

“I have an idea!” Sky suddenly said, refusing to let the conversation slow down.

Raze and his party looked at the bubbly woman with raised eyebrows.

“We are starting a guild and-” Sky was interrupted by another celestial with the name ‘Zaria Flamesoul, Valkyrie’ hovering above her head.

She whispered something into Sky’s ear, who looked thoughtful. Sky nodded and looked to Raze and then to Shera before speaking.

“You’re both Rangers…do you both plan on taking companions?”

Raze looked over to Sherafane, who hadn’t processed losing her boar so fast, “Shera has the ability. I was going to grab it soon, but I haven’t yet.”

“Great! I have an offer then, do you guys want to join our guild?”

“You have a guild?”

“Not yet, but we are headed back to Ostbury to start one. It will be the three parties here so far, and we will be recruiting and stuff once we get there,” Sky said.

“What’s the guild called?” Sherafane asked.

“Zenith Star!”