Now that I have my life situated, I decided to return, and amend mistakes to my quest. I shall be much more active from now on.
*How Atrimis first discovered the world, and what lead to the following*

The image before his eyes swam, disorienting him for several moments. As things slowly regained focus, he looked around at his new settings. He was in a town made up of several bridges, and many canals. There were other people running around, carrying staves, swords, axes, and a nearly endless amount of other weapons and items as they moved from what he could only presume were merchants; each had a variety of wares lined up in front of them on counters and behind them on shelves. He walked around slowly, taking in everything that he could see. He realized that he had a pack with him, and in one pouch was what he assumed was the currency for 'The World.' Slowly, he strolled along a bridge, watching the other people run back and forth, many of them were running to the back of the town, where a large ring was spinning around. Some of them were hitting a list of commands, others were selecting several pre-arranged ones. He walked to the panel, and looked at the controls. There was a large list of random commands he could use. Picking several that started with S, the first letter of his real name, he ended with Soft Solitary Sea of Sand. Checking over the status of this land, the results were that it was a level two earth setting. Well, he presumed that all new characters were level one, and hoped that one level higher than he was resulted in just a slight challenge, and that it was not just impossible. Double-checking everything, he called out the level's name, and before he knew what was happening, the image swam before him again. When everything cleared up, he was standing in the middle of a large, desert-like area.

He took in his new surroundings, following the lay of the land, and the different objects in the horizon. The first thing he noticed, was obviously, the swirling sand as it crossed in front of him. The sun beamed down on him, the sand glared, and the area was covered with strange statue-looking ruins that made him appreciate the detail the creators put into the game. Whipping several drops if sweat off his brow, both surprised at the heat, and the fact that it was causing him to perspire, he checked everything again with more detail. Several feet in front of him, there was a large, golden-yellow looking portal. Not really sure of what to do, he drew his Basic Sword, and walked towards the portal. Suddenly several creatures sprang from the portal as it dissolved. They growled and stalked towards him menacingly.

Atrimis charged towards the one in the lead, his blade aimed at the creature, arms close to his body to help his speed. The creature squirmed as he neared, and then threw its arm back, preparing an overhead sweep of its claws. A sparkle of light gleamed on the claw, and Atrimis knew the realistic threat that loomed ahead of him. With a quick change in his running, he shifted his weight down, and then up, with a quick motion, and leapt over the abomination, flipping his sword around, and scoring his target. Enraged, the beast turned around, his clawed hands whipping back and forth, trying to dice this threat to his well-being. A small grin appeared on Atrimis's face as he ducked the claw swipe, and lunged forward, impaling the beast on his blade. Blood oozed on it for a moment, before the creature disappeared. Pain seared through his body as the second half-sized creature tore into his skin, gouging out bits of flesh from his side and back. The adrenaline pumped through Atrimis's veins as he wheeled around on his attacker, and turned the preverbal tables, swinging his basic sword in a quick double slash, first left to right, and then back, flipping the blade as it turned, so the neatly-sharpened side slide through the creature, like lightening though a tree. A small cry, more of surprise than pain, escaped the mouth of the green pile of lumps, before it too disappeared into a flash of light. The third saw what happened to its fellow creatures, and rethought its battle plan. Or maybe it just thought of one on the spot, as it started to run from Atrimis, heading for another swirl of light.

"You're not getting reenforcements on my watch!" Atrimis cried, and took a quick step towards the creature. Suddenly, pain shot through his body, as he had forgotten about the attack he recently received. He closed his eyes for a moment, listening in the game world, and looking at his stats and skills in the real world. He noticed that his bandana gave him the ability "Repth" which from his research previously had told him was a spell to restore ones health. Concentrating in the game gave him the knowledge he needed, and he called out softly.

"Repth." A soft green glow surrounded his body, and he in hailed deeply. Within moments the cut had stopped bleeding, and healed over. Though healing himself helped his movements, it left him a bit drained as he charged back after the goblin.

His target was quickly nearing the next portal, and he hopped that whatever was inside that one was something that he could handle. But he knew that this fight was a bit much, and thought that perhaps he should retreat for the time being. First, he wanted to kill the last creature from the portal. With a burst of speed unbeknownst to him, he raced to the creature, and with a cry that blended into a scream, he jumped onto the green creature in front of him. With a downward slice, he cleaved the creature in half. His blade dug into the sand, as the goblin-looking creature disappeared into a flash of light. Momentum had built up inside him, making him want to continue forward, but his legs did not ; Atrimis fell head-first into the sand, and lay there, panting, and grinning to himself, careful not to eat the sand as he did.

The fight was over, but that was just the first of many. He knew that he had much to do to be known in the world. No one started known, and every journey began with the smallest of steps. With those three down, he knew that he had just tread the beginning of a much longer journey, to and end which no one knew.

((Note: I started my story against goblins. But goblins aren't found in this area. I hope that we can just look past that small discretion, and continue with the story?)).

Heaving a sigh, Atrimis pushed himself up off the sand, and started to walk to the next portal. His short rest on the ground helps recharge him and he was eager to take out more of the interesting creatures that this place seamed to create. Looking around, he spotted the glowing rings that the last creature was running towards. Dusting himself off, he closed his eyes, focusing himself for the coming moments. With a nod to the "Gods" of The World, he set off at a jog to the portal. With a swirl of light, several humanoid creatures moved towards him. Quickly, Atrimis looked them over. There were two of them, both protected with a purple armor, and wielding a sword much broader than his own Basic Sword. Making a mental comparison of speed versus strength, he watched them draw closer; checking for weak points. Though seemingly programmed to be identical, he noticed that one favored his left side, and the other did not run as fast. Wondering to himself if this was caused by programming or maybe just his imagination, he rushed forward, his blade held parallel to his body.

The one-that-favored-his-side reached Atrimis first, taking a wild over-head swing at Atrimis. With a small kick-up of sand, Atrimis jumped to the left, rolling to his feet and turning around. A flick of his wrist sent his sword arching around and scored home on the creature's side. A howl showed that Atrimis had only really enraged his target. A quick jump backwards saved Atrimis from losing his head. A bead of sweat trickled down his cheek. Gritting his teeth, Atrimis ran to the right, moving passed the creatures frontal view, and around behind the purple humanoid. A thrust from behind pierced his target, cutting deeply into the creature's body. It was as if time froze, the creature standing there, paralyzed in pain and fear, Atrimis, digging the blade deep into its back, and the other monster, mid-step, watching his friend, or possibly team-mate fall before his eyes. As the blade comes free, and the creature dissolved into the nothingness it was created from, and Atrimis turned to face the other.

Shifting his stance, Atrimis braced himself for the charge. Humanoid enemy number two indeed charged at Atrimis, its sword trailing behind it as if it's a tail. Sliding his right leg back, Atrimis readied himself for a quick parry-and-stab motion; intending to knock the larger blade aside with a double-handed swing. To his shock the sword wielder leaped into the air, intending to cleave Atrimis in two with its broad sword. A maneuver he himself had done recently, he was thrown off that the game would use the same tactic, and he had to roll quickly forward to avoid the damage. As his feet moved from over his head back to the earth, he launched himself up and forward, running from the threat to give himself a moment to think of a counter attack. His memory traced over his equipment, and the skills he gained through them. Glancing back, he saw that he had given himself a sizeable lead, and turned to face the sword-carrying-humanoid. Raising his left hand he called out "Juk Rom!" and a tornado of leaves appeared around his target. A shriek came from inside the tornado, and Atrimis rushed in with a quick diagonal slash, cutting through the tornado, and meeting with an another shriek, before his blade buried itself into the sand. Looking up, neither tornado nor creature could be found. Tugging his blade from the dirt, Atrimis looked around, surveying the land again, seeking something else for him to focus his attention on.

There were not any portals neat-by, but there was several trees in the distance. They were palm-styled, and looked as if they would provide some shade from the glaring heat. Flipping his wrist around, the blade shining in the sun, Atrimis slipped the weapon into the sheath at his side. A short jog brought him to the trunk of the digital tree. He reached a hand out, feeling the structure of the fibers that made up the palm tree. Once, years ago, his family went to visit Florida, and saw palm trees up close. Strangely, or maybe creatively enough, these trees felt just like they did in real life. The game creators spared no expense in the design of "The World" which only added to its over all value. Every minute he discovered something new in the game made him appreciate the price he paid. With a heavy sigh, he sat down, his back to the tree, and closed his eyes, relaxing a moment against the firm palm. With his eyes closed, his ears gathered more information, and he herd the sound of the wind, the rustle of the leaves and the creek of the palm tree as it swayed gradually. So much detail was involved in the area, he hardly doubted that anyone could get lost in the world and never want to return to the real realm.

He opened his eyes, and stood slowly, feeling rested and ready to take on more challenges. He scanned the horizon, searching for one of those golden-yellow portals. Seeing none, he stood up and began to walk, continuing in the direction he started, when he went to the trees. There were some sand-dunes and several sporadic clouds, but nothing on the ground except for rocks. Soon he saw a sort of shell sticking up from the sand, pointing skywards. Atrimis began to walk in the direction of one of the larger shell-looking structures.

Movement to the... west? Atrimis wasn't sure if geographical points like that counted in this world. Either way, the creature was large. Atrimis smiled, thinking that this would be a challenge. Turning in the direction of the shape, he started at a light jog, his Basic Sword rattling in the sheath at his side. Gradually he neared the creature; it was an insectoid being, very large and moth-like. As he neared, it turned to him, and spread its wings wider. Atrimis took this as an attempt to threaten him and drew his blade. He dug his feet into the sand, and waved to the creature with his free hand. "Come and get me." The creature took that as its cue, screeching as it flew towards him. Waving its antenna-like-feelers around, the whip like apparatus scored on the bladesman's shoulder, the sudden pain surprising the spell-sword. Scowling, Atrimis leapt backwards, and ducked another attack; he knew the antenna was the creature's weapon, now. The beast moved in on him, and lashed out with its feelers once more, causing Atrimis to duck, and dive to the right. Quickly getting to his feet, Atrimis studied the attack pattern of his enemy. After few more attacks with Atrimis avoiding them and dodging from side to side, the adventurer learned his foe's attack pattern. Expectantly, the moth-beast came on for another onslaught; Atrimis ducked just enough to the right to reveal the opening he needed. The blademaster stabbed his sword forward, and the weapon pierced the skin of the creature. A screech told him that he had done damage, but the feeler to his shoulder told him it wasn't enough. The attack was stronger than before, and carried him over, his feet flipping above his head. He paused when he got back to his feet, and leapt forward, rolling around until the earth was under his feet again, and stabbed at the creature another time. This time, he didn't wait to see if this one harmed it, but instead sliced again, and again.

His blade was a flurry of movement, even after the creature fell to the sand. Finally his momentum wore down, and he let the tip of his blade fall to the sand. He looked at the almost mutilated corpse of the creature in front of him, and sighed heavily. Anger was an emotion he did not like to feel very often, and having let the creature get the better of him had driven him to the extreme measure he had gone to. Flicking his blade around, more as a subconscious motion, to clean off any residue on the blade, and then slide it into his sheath. He thought for a moment, and clenched his fist, calling out "Repth!" A blue-green glow warmed over his body. "That feels better. Now, what else is there around this sandy-wasteland?"

Atrimis started to scan the horizon taking in the surrounding sights. Like the standard desert, there was sand, glaring sun, and cacti. He sighed, and started off in pretty much a random direction. As the landscape changed slowly without much incident, he began to wonder if there was an end to each of these little play-scapes. Suddenly another portal appeared, this one was a chest. He tilted his head to the side, a pondering over-coming his mind. So that was how they distributed loot within this game. He moved to stand in front of the chest, looking it over. Roughly a foot and a half tall, two foot wide, and a foot deep, it had the standard curved top, and wooden make. He stood at the front of the box, looking it over. There was a golden latch with a lock in the front, that seamed to keep the chest closed. Atrimis gently touched the locking mechanism, and noticed it didn't give easily. Something about the chest with blue wood did not set right with him. He turned and walked away, leaving the chest in the desert sand.

Atrimis noticed, a little farther from where the chest was, a second portal stood, rotating slowly as it hovered above the desert sand. He quickened to a jog, as the portal broke and the creatures within formed into the world. This was an interesting combination, a giant moth creature, and one of the purple sword-wielders. He'd definitely have to change his attack pattern to handle this new threat. The moth was slower, took more hits to bring down, and hit harder, while the purple-knight relied on speed. Much as expected, the sword-wielder rushed at him, distancing himself from the moth, and bridging the gap between Atrimis and itself. Atrimis was quick to respond, drawing his sword as his foe struck downwards with an over-head strike. With a quick parry, Atrimis turned the blade aside with his own, and shifted to gain his balance and center himself. He felt the power of his arms, and the sword in his hands, flow through himself, the human playing the game. With a clench of certain muscles, and a twisting of tendons, the blade master's arm twisted, the sword swung, and sliced into his enemy. A howl ripped through the air, the purple-knight reeled back away from Atrimis. This gave way to a short chase, where Atrimis caught-up with his enemy. The chasehad brung them both closer to the giant moth creature, which had slowly made it way towards the blade master and his prey.

Atrimis took a quick jump backwards, narrowly avoiding both a sword strike and a series of whip attacks from the paired threat. With a quick calculation, Atrimis smiled, and flipped his blade to his left hand, as the right pointed palm forward. "Gan Zot" he whispers with a smirk across his lips. The spell starts with a small shake of the earth, the swordmanoid stumbling as the moth continues to move in, un affected by the slight movement of the earth. But as the second part of the spell takes effect, jagged shards of the earth erupt from below, the first of which slice through the moth, impaling the creature on their many spires. From the central pillar, others around the first, appear and catch the sword-knight in their attack. Bellows of fury fill Atrimis's ears as the creatures feel their life slipping away. The spell ends, as the rock spires return to the sand, and the creatures are freed. With a scowl, the enemy-blade-wielder falls to the sand, and dissolves into its digital mainframe. But the moth, enraged but still alive, moves towards Atrimis, given speed by its adrenaline-filed-rage.

Atrimis smirks, flipping the sword back to his right hand, and leaps forward, moving underneath the moth's antenna, avoiding yet another attack from this enemy. As he moves to his feet, he stabs forward with his swimpalingiling the creature on its blade. With a cry of glory, Atrimis leaps up, ripping the creature asunder, as another scream escapes it's lip. The digital foe dissolves into nothing. Atrimis smiles, flipping his sword around a few times, feeling the weight as he flourished his weapon. Carefully, he slid the blade into its sheath at his hip, and he turned around, looking for his footprints. Once he found them, he continued to follow the direction they were headed, walking further into the vast desert.

He continued walking without any guide, unsure of where exactly he untilntill he noticed it; to the north-west of where he was, a strange mound seamed to rise up from the sand. Quickening his pace brought the structure closer to him. With a round mound on the top, a wide opening in the front, and a lit candle on either side, that lead to a pathway leading down; it had to be a sort of dungeon. He stood in front of the first slant in the slope, and readied himself for whatever might be within. With-drawing his blade from its sheath, he walked down into the void caused by the low lighting.

The light diminished slowly, as Atrimis took the steps one after another. At the base of the stairs, the adventurer paused to let his eyes fully adjust, before proceeding through the opening. Inside he was greeted by a visual surprise; the dungeon was well designed, and had a very nice flow to it. There were torches aligning the walls, the floors were a sort of packed earth, or layered stone. His eyes scanned the flooring slowly, noticing the varying patterns and complexity of each section. His eyes crossed one of the pillars running from floor to ceiling along the wall, and he took a few steps to it. It looked like wood, with what he assumed were sturdy stone caps on the bottom and top. The caps were decorated with a sort of swirl/spiral design, that had a Celtic or Greek feel to them, or at least in Atrimis's mind they did. He reached up to test one of the torches, though they were secure in the scones. Scattered around the level were little jars and boxes, but upon searching the jars, he did not notice anything inside of them. He tried the boxes, but they were locked, or nailed shut, or just there for design. This particular room spread out into a plus design, but there was a void-like hole in the middle, shaped like a plus as well. He looked down the hole, but there was nothing below, and he felt it was safer to stay on this level, and if there was a way down, he'd find it on his own. The pathways to the left and straight across from the entrance were dead ends, but the one to his right was a dark opening.

He unsheathed his blade, and proceeded through the right door. The light seamed to flick on as he entered this room, and shut off behind him, as he left the last. Marveling, and wondering at this interesting effect, Atrimis turned back to the room. There front of him, waiting gleefully, were a collection of floating knives, and another of the giant moth creatures. He heaved a sigh, and quickly ran around the creatures, preferring to fight them in the opened area of the room, instead of the limited corridor that lead from the doorway. Both the knives and the moth followed him, the moth whipping at him with its antenna-feelers. Atrimis, having faced this thing many times before, knew how to avoid its attack, and he ducked low. But the knives were a new threat, as they hovered close, and moved in to attack. Atrimis stood as the knives moved closer, studying them as they hovered in the air. The moth whipped out with its feelers, and Atrimis dodged back, avoiding the attack again. The knives reeled back, and each took a swipe, as if it was held by an invisible hand. Atrimis watched trying to study their attack pattern, but the order that each knife attacked was random. He turned his attention back to the moth, knowing this massive creature needed several attacks to bring down. He moved in slowly, edging into the creature's attack range, waiting for it to strike. As the first whip-like feeler struck out, Atrimis tumbled to the side, rolling around, and flipping over to his feet, now behind the moth-being. He sliced with his sword, a powerful overhead strike, which he followed up with a side to side strike, first left to right, then reverse.

A screech told him he was damaging the creature, as he leapt back, waiting for the moth to turn, and sprang forward, stabbing the creature with his blade, burring it deep within the month's thorax. Atrimis twisted the blade as it was buried within his foe, and received a slash from floating weapons. With a grunt, the blademaster tore the sword from his previous victim, and turned to face the other foe. The digital being dissolved as the last of its heath was worn away and Atrimis raised his sword, vertically, in front of him, a sort of ready position. The blades reacted as he expected, each taking a slash at him. Atrimis knocked the first away, dodged the second and clashed blades with the third, grinning as the first blade made a return slash. Atrimis jumped back, avoiding the cross-slash to his midsection, as the second sword reeled back. Atrimis knocked the second into the third, as it was rising up to strike. In the confusion the two blades began to strike at each other for a moment, as Atrimis took the opportunity to bring a sideways slash at the first sword, shattering the blade. He chuckled lightly, as he took a small step back, marveling once more at CC corp's design of the enemies of the game, and how this monster lost weapons as its health dwindled. With the loss of a brother, the remaining two weapons returned to Atrimis, taking aggressive slashes at the blademaster. A couple of careful counter-attacks lead to more damage to his spectral foe, and Atrimis grinned as another of the blades dissolved into the digital data is was made from.

Atrimis stood up, and shook himself off, looking around at his surroundings. This new room also had only one exit; across from the way he entered. He paused for a moment, inhaled deeply, and then proceeded into the next room. The familiar glowing portal awaited him in this room, the gentle hum greeting him as he moved in and prepared for battle. Edging near the portal, the blademaster was greeted with a trio of foes; two of the purple sword men, and the set of knives. He stood back, looking around the room, judging the distance of the enemies’ attacks, from his memory, and the space within the room. With a tightening grip on his blade, Atrimis dashed into the room, veering close to one of the sword men, drawing its ire, causing it to strike at the space behind him. This lag from the attack motion, created a gap between the enemies. Atrimis smiled, as he turned to face the two enemies that continued to advance, and waved his blade at his foes. He knew he only had a few seconds before the errant enemy joined up with its allies, and he planned to reduce their squad. Drawing upon the power deep within his weapon, Atrimis leapt forward, towards the sword man, and executed the Cross Slash special attack of the blade. Twin perpendicular slashes appeared on the enemy, a red, almost bloody, aura surrounded the gashes. Digital data bits appeared where the enemy had been. Atrimis leapt back, landing against the wall, in order to avoid the tri-blades attacks. He took a quick backhand slash at the weapons, before spinning to the right in effort to avoid a strike from the remaining sword man Back stepping, Atrimis distanced himself from his foes; formulating a new plan of attack.

His enemies neared, and Atrimis shifted his body lower, bringing his center of gravity closer to the earth, nearly crouching. He felt as if his legs were coils, compressed, awaiting their signal to release, and allowing him to spring into action. The moment arrived none too soon; the blademaster attacked, swinging his weapon downward against the trio of blades. This strike disrupted their flight, giving Atrimis the chance to lash out again, bringing the blade in a cleaving arch from the side. His weapon met with little resistance, until he hear a nearly human-like howl; The tri-blades extinguished, and the sword man hit with the end of the cleave. In retaliation, the purple knight struck back, its blade glancing mostly harmlessly off of the blademaster. Quickly pulling his blade back, the player leapt to the right, underneath his enemy's weapon, and slashed out with his blade. Continuing his movement, Atrimis allowed the momentum to carry him over, and around, rolling sideways, until he was on his feet again, where he slammed his blade downwards in an overhand slash. The digital scream and pixilation of his enemy told him that he was victorious.

He was weary; not used to this much action. As a gamer, his body was used to sitting, coordinating his hands with what his eyes saw on the screen. This was different though, as Atrimis's body felt the exertion of his actions. The sword felt heavy in his hands, and the musty, humid feel of the room caused his body temperature to increase. By his estimation; he decided not to install the clock add on; it had to be three or four hours at least since he began. He had traveled through a scorching desert, and then entered a subterranean cavern, buried underneath the baked sand. He decided that a break was in order, and he sat down, resting his back against the wall. His sword he kept resting in his hands, the blade braced along his leg. Several deep breaths later, Atrimis closed his eyes, resting and relaxing just a short while. When he felt ready to face the rest of this dungeon, he stood, and walked into the next room.

Inside this room was a large statue, several rings rotating around it. The statue seamed to float over a bottomless pit, surrounded by a waist-high railing. In front of the rail, directly in front of Atrimis, was an elaborate, elegant chest. Atrimis sheathed his blade, and moved to stand next to the chest. He knew that this was the end of this dungeon. Inside was his reward for clearing out the enemies within this playscape realm. He opened the chest to inspect the contents within.

(This was going to end the last post, but since I added this post previously to keep my thread active, I moved this ending into its own space.)

Atrimis: +2 Levels, +1 Rondo, x1 Lightning Bolt

Notes: Be careful with the length of your paragraphs in the future, it might intimidate those who want to read your quests. Walls of text are kind of hard to wade through. =) It's okay though, you'll get better and better as time goes on!

An enjoyable read, makes me want to relive my first trek through a field and dungeon! There were two instances where it seems you accidentally deleted half of a word and continued writing, making an entirely new word up in the process. Just give it a quick proofread before posting next time and that should be taken care of!

Good work and hope to see more from you!