Her Elysium

Chapter 3

3

Fleur

Dungeon = An instanced zone inside a game where you defeat monsters and bosses with a group of people. You can play this with specific players or choose to use a group finder and get assigned random party mates based on their class. Some people prefer one over the other. I like playing with just random people. Though, if I could find a group of people to play with who understood my style... Maybe I could change?

I was late for dinner... Which, of course, made my mum angry. Well, I can’t help that the last Titan run took a little longer than I’d expected. Not all runs always go according to plan...

But now I’m stuck putting away the dishes and refilling the dishwasher while I promised the guys in the game that I’d be back at seven. I check the clock, it’s already a quarter past seven. I hurry up and put the last plates away.

I don’t want to make them wait any longer, even though, during dinner I realised I hadn’t actually friended any of them... We were too wrapped up in actually playing and since we were a group already, I guess we kind of forgot... And since I left the party before I shut down the game... I can’t just join them again.

I’m a little stupid for someone who is supposedly smart. According to my mum that is, the smart bit, I mean.

“Fleur?” Mum is standing in the doorway again. “Can you be a little more careful? You don’t need to break anything.”

“Just trying to do this fast.” I also try to flash her my best smile.

“Why? Are you going out?” Suddenly she’s interested again.

“There’s people waiting for me in Destruction of Elysium.” I say it before I can stop myself and when I look back up at her, I wish I hadn’t because Mum’s face falls and she looks very not-amused by my reply. Why doesn’t she get that I don’t just have a social life offline, but also online?

“The game?” She sighs. “Don’t you pay a little too much attention to that game? There are actual people out in the world, you know? Actual people who would like to spend time with you.”

“And they can. Six nights out of every week. Friday evenings I play videogames.” I put the last plates away and turn the dishwasher on.

“I think that you maybe...” She starts following me out of the kitchen but I turn around to her.

“Mum. It’s one evening. I play online with people living all over the country and all over the world and we all like playing the same thing. We all like doing this. I’m not fighting, I’m not drinking, I’m not doing drugs. I’m not getting into trouble. What more do you want me to do?” I look at her for a moment longer and then run up the stairs to my room, taking them two at a time. It’s not like we’ll ever agree on this.

“Don’t make it too late. You have work tomorrow,” Mum calls after me.

“I know.” I close my door behind me, making sure not to slam it, and start DoE again, logging on and looking around. I hope I’m not too late and that they haven’t already started without me, with a different healer. That would suck, all that chat with my mother for nothing.

A private message appears in the chat box, the text purple instead of green like the party chat from before.

AlexTheDestroyer: You there?

BelleFleur: I’m here!

AlexTheDestroyer: Yes!

AlexTheDestroyer: Been sending your account a message every couple of minutes.

BelleFleur: Yeah, sorry, Mum kept me busy for being late for dinner.

AlexTheDestroyer: Yeah, sorry about that. Hope she didn’t give you too much trouble.

BelleFleur: Nothing I’m not used to.

Mum is always on me for things, she just can’t seem to accept that I’m not like her. That I’m not into always going to social events and showing up everywhere. I like my dresses and cute clothes well enough, but I also like to just veg out in front of my computer and play videogames. I can do both, but they will have to happen at different times.

AlexTheDestroyer: Okay. Are you ready for another run?

BelleFleur: Yep.

I accept the friend request from AlexTheDestroyer and then the group invite, and suddenly I’m in with the same guys as before.

PathTroying: Welcome back.

BelleFleur: Thanks.

OwenLeFay: We doing more Titans?

BelleFleur: Sure, if that’s okay?

AlexTheDestroyer: Should be fine. Just gotta leave a little time for BelleFleur to check out a video about the raid later and get her gear in place.

BelleFleur: You can just call me Fleur.

AlexTheDestroyer: Good. I’m Alex.

OwenLeFay: Owen.

PathTroying: Troy.

BloodyBAaron: Baron would be nice, but just Aaron for me.

I laugh. Right... Whatever.

A screen pops up and we’re transported to one of the Titans, Hyperion. His arena is bright, with the sun high in the sky and we’re standing in a sort of golden field. Hyperion uses a lot of fire attacks in the first half of the battle.

I want to do this well, if I can get my gear up to the right level today then I can actually do raids, even in just regular group finder settings. Although, I’m pretty sure that these guys are a little more hardcore than me. They seem to be one of those groups that actually run raids according to schedules, and I’m not sure I’m really that type of player...

I throw some buffs on the party and Alex pulls the Titan, forcing us all into action, and I do my best to not let anyone die. At first, it’s going very well and I’m on top of everything, always doing the right move at the right time, but then I get distracted by my bottle of fizzy drink standing a little too close to the edge of the desk and I get us all killed.

Crap!

BelleFleur: Sorry.

PathTroying: LOL.

PathTroying: No problem. Happens to us all.

AlexTheDestroyer: Happens all the time. Let’s go again.

They don’t seem to mind, they really don’t seem to mind that I just got us wiped.

When we’re all back at the starting point and we’ve all put up our buffs, Alex pulls the Titan again. This time the battle is a lot smoother.

The second half of the battle, the field changes and goes dark, Hyperion’s night mode. This is a little more tricky as you can’t see all the area of effect spells that well in this light.

Luckily, I don’t make another stupid move and we finish Hyperion off easily.

A private message shows up in my chat again.

AlexTheDestroyer: Where are you with your quests?

BelleFleur: Literally ready to do the first raid when I get my gear up far enough.

AlexTheDestroyer: Good.

AlexTheDestroyer: Do you have a headset and a voice chat program?

I have, but the headset is crap and old, and I don’t really like doing voice chat, especially with people I barely know...

BelleFleur: No, sorry.

AlexTheDestroyer: No problem, just checking. How is your dungeon currency?

I check my currency on the character screen and realise that I really need to repair my gear, all the parts are showing with an orange or almost red overlay. I close the screen before I remember I was supposed to be checking my currency, not my gear, and open it again.

BelleFleur: Two more Titans and I should be good to go.

BelleFleur: Gotta repair first though.

AlexTheDestroyer: Okay.

I transport out of the Titan arena and find a gear-repair shop nearest to my location. When I reach it, there is a player standing nearby with their name in green, which tells me that they’re in my party, and it’s Alex. I make my character wave at Alex before I repair my gear.

BelleFleur: I’m ready to go again.

AlexTheDestroyer: Two more, right?

BelleFleur: Yep.

The Titan screen comes up again and we battle another Titan, Oceanus. I need to focus, I really need to focus this time.

It’s different when you’re playing with people for a longer length of time. When you’re not just playing one round or maybe accidentally a few times after another, but to really keep playing with the same players, over and over again. I don’t want to let them down after the good runs we’ve had this afternoon, especially since I still feel like it’s a fluke. That these guys have just really mistaken me for someone else. That, I don’t know, that it’s just some weird prank and I’ll wake up tomorrow morning and none of this has happened or something.

But what would be their goal? They’re really helping me in the game, no matter whether they actually take me on the raid with them this evening or not. It doesn’t really matter right now. So, why would they take on a noobie healer like me?

AlexTheDestroyer: Final one!

It’s Rhea again, she wiped us right before I had to go downstairs for dinner. Not going to let that happen this time! Nope! I stay focused, even when Owen missteps and nearly gets killed before one of the huge room-wide attacks and I have to use one of my best healing spells with the longest cooldown timer.

But I’m able to heal us through it, frantically hitting the keys on my mouse and keyboard. Rhea has a couple of insanely high damage attacks, some of which I really have to heal through when they hit Alex, and on top of that she has an attack that creates lava puddles on the floor that we need to stay out of.

I have to look all over the place, making sure I’m not in the wrong spots, making sure everyone’s health is up high enough, all of that.

Then the screen changes and we’ve defeated her.

I sit back, taking a deep breath. Wow. That wasn’t easy. Let’s hope the raids aren’t as insane as this, although... we’ll also have six times as big a group to play with. More attacks, more lights, more of everything and above all, more to keep track of.

AlexTheDestroyer: You okay?

BelleFleur: Yeah.

I leave the Titan area and, after repairing my gear at the repair shop again, I go in search of the endgame gear shop for the gear that I need.

I look at the gear I’m wearing in my gear screen... It’s a cute outfit, but I know that it’s not going to last, not if I want to play raids. I buy a chest piece, well, a shirt really, and then boots, my final two pieces of gear that I’ve needed to upgrade to allow me to go queue for raids.

An envelope blinks in the top of my screen, pulling my attention to it, but I need to find a mailbox to read it. So I hunt one down. It’s not too far off from the gear seller, luckily.

It’s a letter from AlexTheDestroyer, with an item attached to it. ‘Thanks for running with us. I thought you’d enjoy this.’

The attached item is a costume item that my race and gender can wear and it will show up instead of my gear. It’s a pale yellow dress with a sort of flower petal shaped skirt that changes from yellow into red at the ends. It’s really cute, I’ve been trying to get my hands on this dress for a while. It’s a rare drop from one of the earlier dungeons in the game, but even after running it for fifteen or so times, I’ve only ever seen it once, and I didn’t win the loot roll for it and in the market place they sell it for way too much. Wow.

I send a private message to Alex.

BelleFleur: Thanks for the dress!

AlexTheDestroyer: Yeah, no problem. Had it anyway and I can’t wear it.

I can’t imagine what a tank class like him would look like if he’d be allowed to wear an item like this. It would be... interesting. A character wearing this dress and then standing in front of one of those huge bosses, taking all the hits. Though... I guess it could be fun.

AlexTheDestroyer: Do you want to go watch a walkthrough of the raid? It’s early, but you can ask questions if you need to.

AlexTheDestroyer: Also, would you like to join our guild? We’re a raiding guild, and it would be nice if you could join us for raids as often as possible, but... You know...

I don’t reply yet. It’s a sweet offer, and maybe actually meeting some more people in-game would be good. Especially if we all work together as well as the small group I’ve been playing with.

AlexTheDestroyer: Our main healer had to drop out because of finals and then immediately started her internship afterwards, so she hasn’t been around, and our secondary healer isn’t always around either. Like today.

BelleFleur: So, I’d be what... your tertiary healer?

AlexTheDestroyer: Back-up Primary?

That makes me laugh out loud. Right.

Well, if he makes it sound so attractive… The idea that he may prefer me over the other healer is a little blush-inducing and I feel like he may just be flattering me. But at the same time, having a steady group to quickly do dungeons and maybe even raids with is a nice thing to look forward to.

BelleFleur: Sure. I just can’t run late during the week and not at all on Saturdays, day or evening.

AlexTheDestroyer: We can work with that.

He sends me an invite and when I click on accept to join the guild, I’m suddenly surrounded by more people. The chat screen fills up with orange text from people talking about the upcoming raid and just general goofing off.

AlexTheDestroyer: Guys, we’ve picked up a really awesome healer today, BelleFleur. She’ll be running the raid with us this evening. It’s gonna be her first, so be nice!

BelleFleur: Hi all.

I don’t know what else to type and people start to ask me all sorts of questions, one faster than the next and some of the guys from the party that I ran the Titans with also join in. I try to answer all the questions, which isn’t easy. They range from the simple questions like how long I’ve been playing, to my favourite dungeons, and my favourite soundtrack from a dungeon, which I’m all perfectly fine answering, to the more personal, all of which I don’t answer, because I don’t like giving out personal information. I thought they may not like that, but it seems they’re fine with it, luckily.

BelleFleur: I’m going to watch the raid walkthrough, I’ll be back in a bit.

I minimise the game, and start the walkthrough video from someone whose walkthroughs I’ve used in the past.

Within seconds of it starting, I know that I’m going to be in for a very rough evening. Not just the bosses, but the positioning, the extra members, the mechanics. It’s all not just one step harder than the dungeons or a Titan, it’s almost three times as hard.

I thought this was going to be fun and interesting, but this seems more like it’ll be a lot of me getting my butt kicked... And I kinda feel bad for the guys after all they’ve done for me this afternoon… They’ve helped me all day and I’m going to get them killed over and over again…

How was this a good idea?