2023-11-07 17:02:57Elena explained the concept of games and their importance, but she couldn't help but feel a growing irritation at the stupid guys in front of her.
She spoke, her tone tinged with annoyance, "So, understanding our characters is essential. You'll know more about yours when we find the Oracle of the Shrouded Sands."
Draven looked puzzled. "The Oracle of the what?"
Elena rolled her eyes, barely concealing her frustration. "The Oracle of the Shrouded Sands, Darwin."
"It's Draven to you"
"Whatever. The Oracle of the Shrouded Sands is a mythical figure in this game world who possesses knowledge about our characters which are associated with the amount of wealth we can acquire. Finding the Oracle is one of the primary objectives in uncovering the full potential of our characters."
"So, how do we find this Oracle?" Leo chimed in.
"There's a map. There's a map leading to it. But the map is long lost. No one knows where it is. Some say the map was torn into two equal halves."
Leo looked at her thoughtfully."And why do you need to find the Oracle?"
She fixed him with a cold gaze. " I don't know if you've been listening to a word I've said. The Oracle of the Shrouded Sands will give us more information about our characters. Or maybe you don't want to know yours, but I sure do want to know mine!"
Giving her a sidelong glance Leo said, "You know you don't have to sound so rude."
She didn't reply.
He continued. "I think I have something related to that. I found a map in a chest during a quest but it's torn in half."
Her eyes immediately lit up. "So it is real. Can I see it?" She sounded excited even though she tried to downplay it.
"On one condition."
Elena sighed, her patience wearing thin. "You can keep your map to yourself. Goodluck finding the other half!" Then she stormed out of the room.
"Damn. What a lady." Draven chuckled.
"I only wanted to make a deal with her. I wanted her to promise not to betray me. She can't be this nice if she doesn't have an agenda."
"She's not even nice."
"She helped us and brought us into her hideout. That's as nice as anyone can be."
"So you said you wanted her to promise not to betray you. What about me? I thought we were together in this?" Draven asked
"All man for himself out here, lad. All man for himself." He stood up from where he had been sitting. "Let's go find our Jane doe."
"Oh, that's how we're gonna be right?" Draven called out after him.
They found Elena sitting on the staircase. She had a dagger with her with an emerald green hilt. She looked up when she heard them approach.
"Ok, fun time's over. Nice to meet you two. Now, you can both leave" she said while giving them a withering look.
"Ok, ok. Wait. You've been accommodating. Sorry my friend here is being such a jerk." Draven said. Leo gave him a cold stare.
"But we want to find this other map with you. You've been nice to us. You know more about this place than we'll ever do. So please we need your help."
She looked at them with a sneer. "I'm done helping. Leave."
"But we'll be helping you too by giving you our map. Out Half-torn map" Leo sighed heavily.
"Of course, it's torn. It can't be that simple, can it? We have your Half-torn map and what next? We'll need to find the other one to make it whole. You need me."
"Alright. You win. You're the boss" Draven said, with a nervous smile. "Now can we stop this banter and get down to business? We need that map to locate the Oracle of Wuthering Heights."
"Oracle of Shrouded Sands" Elena corrected.
Her irritation was slightly appeased by Draven''s optimism. "Right. So, we need to search for clues or any hints about the missing half of the map. We'll need to be thorough and keep an eye out for anything related to the Shrouded Sands."
Leo held up his torn map. "This is all we have to go on for now."
Elena nodded in agreement. "That's a start, but remember, this won't be easy. The Shrouded Sands could be a vast area. We might need to gather information from other players or NPCs to narrow down our search."
Draven grinned, happy that they were all agreeing to something at last. "We've got this, El. We'll find the other half of the map and find the Oracle. And then, we'll all be one step closer to discovering our characters"
"Alright. Let's start by revisiting the locations where you found that torn map and see if any clues point us in the right direction."
"We're going back to the location I found the map? How's that gonna help? Hell, that place is dangerous."
"We need all the clues we can gather."
"But you said the map has been divided for a long time right? That means the other one is lost too."
Elena sighed as she realised he was making sense. "Ok, that makes sense." She looked thoughtful for a moment. "If we're gonna find this map, we need help. We're going to meet someone."
"Oh man. We're meeting someone else? I hope it's a chick. I hope she's gonna be as beautiful as you are." Draven winked and she gave him a disdainful look.
The trio left the underground sanctuary with renewed determination. Elena was still cautious of the two men, but she knew she needed their help. The knowledge that she had Draven and Leo by her side, despite their initial ignorance, gave her assurance.
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The End
Draven couldn’t believe it was over. Three months later he was still thinking if he was making the right decision. Assistant David sat in his living room with a bunch of documents in front of him. He paced up and down, not sure what he would do.“You can just sign here,” the man said for the umpteeth time. “It’s not really that hard. You sign that you’ve taken ownership of the game and you decide what you want to do with it.”“But I don’t want ownership of the game,” Draven said again. He had repeated this exact words countless times but the guy didn’t seem to be hearing him.“You should have known what you were getting yourself into when you challenged late game owner Timothy—” David paused and looked to the heavens. “May his soul not rest in peace. You should have known that killing him would automatically make you the owner of the game. Those were his rules.”Draven rolled his eyes. He was sure that Timothy had made that rule because he didn’t believe anyone would be able to defeat
Darkness
Timothy laughed. His laughter was vivacious and full of life. This was what he wanted, after all. The very end of judgement day where he would punish all those who failed him; those who went against him and those who was party to his torture.Here was Draven, the strongest man to ever grace his game. Timothy knew he was going to be a lot of trouble in the future and so he had specifically looked into him. Now that Draven has waged war with his full chest over a woman, he was ecstatic. This was historic, and he was living a historic time in the present. How many men brought knives to fight for their loves, anyways?Smiling, he snapped his fingers. A single door opened and his assistant ran to him carrying a box.“You’re about to experience an historic moment with me,” He said to Draven. “Diane will be our goddess Diana, and we will be the lowly men who are fighting for her love.”Diane scoffed. “You don’t have to do it, Draven. The guy is nuts. Let’s just get out of here.”“But darling
Sword
Draven panicked for a minute. He thought for sure that the darkness and pressure meant he was losing his consciousness, but that wasn’t the case. One minutes there was stark darkness and the next minute they fell into an extremely white room with hard cardboard. They fell through the sky, hitting directly on the wood and groaning in pain. The stark white color of the room blinded them. It was brighter than a sky or white paint. It was so bright that Draven closed his eyes and tried to regain his or he r senses. He knew there was a betrayal in the group—which wasn’t surprising as their group was made of weird, diverse people, but he needed to see who exactly did it.He won’t even be surprised if to was Lara. She was the one who had led them to the cage, after all. She was the one who offered to test the waters and make sure the portal was okay. Who in their right senses tests water and portal to make a point of the portal not working? Unless he or she was working with Timothy and knew
Statement
No one said anything after Diane’s statement. They were so tired and hungry and unsure of what to do next. Draven’s goods felt heavy to him. His sword even felt heavier than normal. He didn’t believe he came back to this game to be ridiculed and placed in a very unstable condition because of a silly fight that was going on between two lovers. When he looked at Diane, he wondered if she was toying with them again. Was she afraid to meet Timothy or what? He knew that the portal might likely take them to Timothy as the owner can easily manipulate events, but at least he was ready for that stage. He could exactly tell what Diane was thinking when she was looking her nose down on the portal.“We cannot just stay here,” Lara said. “Do you want us to keep waiting for him to keep finding opportunities to kill us? We’re certainly going to die of hunger if we keep waiting!”“She’s right,” Draven concurred. “We can’t keep lying about in wait like lambs to a slaughter. We must make the first move
Awkward
Everyone was super awkward after the kiss. Leo avoided for the rest of the morning. He didn’t want to talk about it but it was too late; Draven had seen them and announced to the whole pack in the morning that the kiss was probably the most hottest he’d seen.“Whoa,” Diane said excitedly. “You two kissed? That’s great. Are you like a couple now or something?”“It’s nothing like that, okay? It was just a kiss, and a mistake at that,” Leo piped up.Even though he didn’t want to talk about the kiss or look at Lara’s face, he was glad that Draven brought it up. At least he’d air his opioid publicly about it so he won’t have to be in an awkward space with Lara.“Ouch, Leo, you’re a player!” Diane said, laughing. “You can’t say those kind of things to someone when you’ve kissed them!”“I didn’t kiss her, okay? She’s the one who kissed me,” Leo defended hotly.“It’s still hurtful that you say it that way. Have some feelings, pal,” Diane said, her laugh increasing.It sounded mocking and cont
Thoughts
Leo could not sleep. Draven had been out for close to an hour, yet he wasn’t back yet. Lots of thoughts assaulted his brain, but the one that stayed the most was Diane.Diane. Diane. Diane.He bet she was here to true their life again, and that bet was true. If Leo was the one to handle this, he’d definitely not want to help her out the way Draven was. It was as if the guy didn’t want to learn any lessons about why it’s dangerous to just not help anyone for too long. Draven was lenient when it came to Diane and he didn’t like it one but.He turned his head to the side and saw her sleeping peacefully.“Yeah, like you didn’t just send someone to their death,” he murmured to himself.He wondered if Draven was still talking to the game creator or if he’s been killed. If he was truly killed, Leo won’t honestly know how to handle that. He tried not to think about it because it was depressing enough. He sat up now, still watching Diane. If she had been careful, they won’t be in this shit hol
