Chapter 00110111

Priscilla went back to the water and reached in. She pulled out a chalkboard sized stand. She set it on the beach and letters with numbers next to them began to appear. I looked closer and noticed that it was everyones battleform names with their real full names in brackets. I looked in horror at the screen and attempted to hide my face. Leroy thumped my back. "That's not a bad name man. I had an uncle by the name of Socrates. He always told us how much he was bullied in school."

I glared at him a little and he held up his hands as his 6' foot tall buff frame retreated. "First in line is... Edgar G. Blackwood. We'll use you as an example." Priscilla shouted as she read the name off the top of the list. I flushed extremely red as I hid my face. The Bellona girl giggled a little as it was read off which only made my face redden more.

Priscilla read it again and suddenly the names changed to something else. " Ah... Sorry. Sometimes this takes a while to filter into the preferred names. Sorry about that Sil. Or is it Silence? Whatever. Perhaps we'll use Melissa Ackerton instead if you don't feel up for it." Immediately Bellona's figure shrank and she hid behind Gebs new figure.

I chuckled a little. Turns out that karma is a b!+€#.

"Im just kidding people! Loosen up a little!" Priscilla called out cheerily. I sighed. Since Melissa and I were at the top of the list she had to pick on us so we didn't feel high and mighty. I never realized we were at the top of the leaderboard.

I was at 400 points from all the snakes, spider, and worms I had managed to kill. Melissa/Bellona was at 350 points followed closely by Matthew/Geb at 340 points. Then Leroy/Ymir was 4th place at 320 points.

"Moving on. The point and material information system goes like this. Each individual has 100 pieces to their character. These pieces are of the lowest quality right now. In order to upgrade ourselves we need to purchase new pieces of better quality. And as commerce has it. The higher you go the more points required to purchase it.The grade qualities being from lowest to highest are as follows. This includes pricing.

E- NOTHING

D- 200 POINTS full set increases stats by 10%

C- 300 POINTS full set increases stats by 20%

B- 400 POINTS full set increases stats by 30%

A- 500 POINTS full set increases stats by 40%

S- 600 POINTS full set increases stats by 50%

My mind was blown by the amount of points required to increase levels that high. If you threw all the points needed to get to rank C together it would be 20'000 points. That requires a ridiculous amount of battle. Either that or taking out multiple huge opponents. I had originally felt like all the points accumulated up to now were great. Now I realize how much of a frog in a well I was. I slowly paced around nervous about what I needed to do to get better. Then Priscilla spoke up.

"Very few people have made it to Level S components. I am one of them. And I will tell you right now that just because people have these components does not make them invincible. A level E will have a hell of a hard time against a level C but that doesn't mean you can't beat them. Work hard and you will see the fruit of your labors."

I felt a little hope as I listened. But I still understood it took alot of work. We moved on from that subject. "We hold weekly tournaments as well. This is held in what we call the Dark Dome." Priscilla said as the screen changed to a view of an orb floating in the sky with pillars leading to it.

"This place is constantly being filled with viruses that we can kill for points. The longer they are left in there the stronger they get. So be warned. The ones you've been fighting in here... Are pushovers. But the combat experience you've gained here will be useful to you there so don't fret." She said boldly.

We watched as suddenly the dome folded outwards to reveal the inside of it. It showed a city scape covered in fire on one half and ice on the other. "The dome changes the internal environment weekly. This effects the players constantly and will teach you survival skills on a completely different level than here. And yes. There are Ice based instances here as well. Those of you who don't have resistances to those will have to find parts to resist them."

The screen once again changed to a different type of scape. A flat hexagon shaped landscape. It had buildings on one side with the dome we just saw to the north and tall thick circular towers covered in hexagons to the east. Each part glowed with a strange electric light. It was oddly alluring. I almost stepped toward it without thinking before the screen changed.

" What you just saw was one of 200 known servers used for Materiasta. This is one of the smaller servers and is ranked 130th on the server leaderboards. The thing about this is that no one can move between the servers till we rank up. Some servers absorb each other at their rank up. Not the people that they hold so don't panic. Just the land mass and capacity grows further. " We watched as one server combined with another one. They melded together. The two hexagons becoming one big one twice the size with twice the buildings.

I'll be honest. All this information was starting to make my head feel like it was stuffed full of cotton. "Seeing as a few of you are starting to drift off I'll give you the best information last. The shops are based here close to the living quarters. Other players with building abilities, or production skills are normally able to open shops to refine equipment, repair equipment, or even sell items for usage. This includes materials for upgrading. If you want materials they might fall off of viruses you fight once in a while or you can buy them from vendors for the point amount I just told you. Any questions?" None of us said anything.

" Good then we'll let you absorb the information I gave you and you'll meet Ares by the gate you came through. Btw. I almost forgot. Transforming into your battleforms is the same as how to turn into you civilian forms. So I hope you memorized your characters other forms. Tata!" Priscilla said as she dove into the water and dissapeared.

Some people started cussing and swearing. I didn't. I had memorized Anubis's face and body to its maximum.

What? I wasn't gonna be stuck in some form that I didn't feel comfortable in! I learned it. I pictured the thing I wanted. Anubis's form to the T.

I felt the sensation of being stretched as energy began to fill my frame. My senses sharpened again to their high definition that I had come accustomed to. After stretching a bit I went and sat down by the big fire again.

I began to contemplate what I would do. 400 points would be sure to get me two D rank pieces. That would put me two parts closer to a full build and help my chances for survival. I looked to my left as I heard shuffling and saw my blue friend Leroy still in his tiny form.

I smiled a little. "Choosing to stay small my man or can't grasp the change." Leroy shrugged. "I spent enough time as Ymir as anyone. I know him inside out. I just enjoy having something of a normal appearance." I held out a fist. "I got you." He fist bumped me with his small hand. "Brothers of Hardship huh." He rumbled out. I nodded as he sat down.

I looked once again at the water. It had turned blue once more and not a single bubble was on the surface. It was still and calm once more.

I looked back at the fire and suddenly heard trudging feet. I turned to the right and found Bellona looking at me with a slightly blushing face. Geb was behind her. He gave her a pat on the back. "Alright, alright I got it." She said. Her voice was like ice in a flowing stream of water soothing and beautiful at the same time.

She came forward and bowed her head a little. "I wanted to say I'm sorry for all the trouble I've caused over the past couple weeks. It wasn't fair to you and I owe you an apology for that." She said quietly.

I nodded in response. I gestured to the sand next to me. "You can sit if you want. At least your not calling me by that horrible name." I said with a wave of my hand toward the water. Melissa/ Bellona giggled a little at that.

"Well considering I don't like my name much either I think we can agree on that." She said. Leroy raised an eyebrow at her comment and I waved him off. He shrugged and looked into the fire.

Geb moved around Bellona's figure to examine Leroy. "And who's this fellow." He said as he poked at Leroy. "My friend I'm gonna be the one kicking your @$$ if you don't stop that!" Leroy said as his form expanded and Ymir was standing before us. He had about 10 feet of height on Geb. Geb immediately backed off. "Now now let's not get frustrated just yet my good man." Geb said.

I looked at Bellona as Geb and Ymir were having their conversation. "So... Why are you and stonewall there together?" I asked tentatively. She shrugged. "I apparently was what he viewed as a maiden in need of being kept out of trouble while always finding it. So he's been stuck to me since the beggining."

She sighed in frustration like she had been wronged in some way. I felt thumping as Ymir and Geb started getting physical. I turned around. "Oy! If your fighting take it that bloody way ey!" I shouted at them. Ymir was holding Geb in the final stance of the German Suplex which just shut me up right away cause I knew it was already over.

Bellona burst out laughing at the scene before her. "I've been waiting for someone to do that to him this whole time!" She roared with laughter. We were both roaring like the best of friends telling stories at a bar.

When we finally settled down and we got our wind back in our lungs I looked at her. She had long dark hair with copper plates in it. Her helmet sat beside her in the sand where she had put it. Her face was just like the pictures depicted. A beautiful round face with a small nose and large eyes with hazel irises. Who knew a Goddess of war would be so beautiful. That was all I could think for a second or two before my main question appeared in my mind again.

" Cough, cough... So... ahh... I was wondering something..." I said as the little blush I had going dissapeared from my face. Bellona seemed to know my answer before I could ask it. "You seemed strong. And muscle wise isn't what I mean. You were smarter than the rest of us at the beggining. You ran into the woods to fend for yourself rather than face a horde of snakes. But because of lugnut here I had to stay behind. I saw 10 people killed by those wretched snakes. So I ended up getting angry at you too. I just went about it wrong." She said without so much as looking at me.