Synopsis: you continue your journey towards the city of freedom, adjusting to the new mechanics which you discover painstakingly.
Authors note: Hello! Since the prologue received a decent amount of response, I’ve decided to upload the first chapter. hope you enjoy it! Suggestions are welcome.
Masterlist
<Prologue/ 1 />
Optimism is a lie. That’s the cheapest trick in the book, and it doesn’t help. Trudging half an hour on the banks of the Dandelion sea didn’t get you to Mond and only led you to Starfell lake. The game might show the map to be tiny, and walking 200 metres in the map may take less than a minute. This is not the same when the game turned into reality.
The scorching sun was killing you and your stomach growled. How long was it since you had anything in your stomach? Twelve hours? Now that it was turning noon in the game, maybe over a day? Well, you skipped bloody dinner to just do Katheryne’s damned commissions.
After a miserable forty minutes of dragging your feet and climbing a slope, you reached the viewpoint.
Your breath hitched, Your eyes started watering, brain spinning as a flood of emotions came crashing in, and you could feel your muscles relax. Mondstadt never fails to impress you and the view reminded you how much you loved this place when the cutscene came rolling in introducing you to the city of freedom. The traveller’s expression mimicked yours, and Paimon floated by his side.
Where was the Traveller now? You wondered. Would he recognize you? Well as the person who makes the worst decisions and kills the character in every boss battle, he should recognize you.
Chuckling and with renewed vigour, you sprinted down to the statue of the seven, knowing what would happen next. You will get the power of Anemo. You knew you will. That’s how the game proceeds, right?
Soaking from head to do from trying to wade through the water, you climb up to the statue of the seven. No problem, you would dry your clothes with Anemo. Easy. You stood in front of the Statue of the seven. Its grandeur left you speechless. Taking a deep breath, you raised your hand to touch it.
What if it goes wrong? Would something even go wrong? This is a game, for god’s sake. Shaking your thoughts aside like an etch a sketch, you touched the statue.
Huh.
Nothing.
This was like a kick to the gut. You didn’t get why you couldn’t access the power of Anemo. You hopped from leg to leg. This wasn’t going well. You took a step back and observed the Statue. Wait a minute. The statue wasn’t broken as it appears to be in the beginning of the game. Instead, it was levelled up. Gold decked and shiny and new. That means that the traveller had already arrived Mondstadt and you weren’t the traveller.
“So no need to find for a random lost sibling, thank archons. Archons? When did I start saying archons.” This caught you off guard, guess you will have to adapt with the changes you might go through in the game before going back home.
That’s right home. How would you go home? Will you be able to leave this place? Your work… It was supposed to be a five-minute nap, and now how long has it been, a Day and a half or something?
“No nonononononono.. This cant be happening!!” you grunted as you pulled your hair. You became so invested in the game now that you are in the game, the thought of you escaping reality where you were supposed to be doesn’t sound too exciting. All that daydreaming and now that the dream has become reality, it's turning into a nightmare.
You swung your leg as hard as you could and hit the Statue, only to meet solid pain and a chance of a broken toe. Screaming and jumping holding your feet, you fell into the lake. Dripping once again.
SHWOOP.DING DING DING. Sounds similar to the map and inventory options started ringing in your ears. A floating screen. White and strikingly similar to the one in game popped up. You wiped your face with your palm, thinking it was the water that was messing with your sight. It was the inventory. And of course the message in the oh-so-dreaded-font said ‘there is nothing in the inventory’.
Well, obviously. You thought of artifacts, but seems that artifacts options doesn’t exist. Not for you, at least. You might have to verify with other vision bearers. Making a mental note, you expanded the screen to the size of a Gaming PC and explored the options available to you. You had food, quest items, clothing (to your surprise) and another option that you had never seen before, ‘Relics’.
Shrugging and shoving the inventory aside, you dragged open the map. It was more realistic. Like the fan art map which circulated the fandom at the beginning of the game. It did in fact show teleport waypoints. And the teleport waypoint were lit up. Crying a sigh of relief, you got up from the muddy pool of water in which you were shamelessly sitting the whole while, ogling the screen which may not be visible to anyone, like the complete fool of a person you are.
Squeezing and drying your clothes, you tapped on the teleport waypoint only to hear an unpleasant sound of error. TELEPORT WAYPOINT INACCESSIBLE. That’s all it said. Of course, you would have checked the Wi-Fi if you were at home but this is a damned reality, and you were starving and tired and all you wanted to do was eat something and get some rest. COME ON!! Guess you have to walk to Mondstadt. The very thought killed you inside. How do the locals do this?
“ Master Diluc, How the hell do you walk to the winery?, seriously, can't the inventory not have even a wind glider?” whining and groaning you stagger towards the tiny view of the gates of Mondstadt in the distance.
2 Hours later.
{MONDSTADT}
You passed out twice and had to wake up due to the grumbling in your stomach. Sunsettias decked the trees you passed but unlike a normal person, who would eat them to quench their thirst and fill their stomachs, you decided to head straight to Sara for sweet madames. How delightful.
“ Sweet Madame’s ….. Please Archons.. Sweet Madame’s” chanting under your breath, you walked on the bridge, chasing Timmie’s pigeons of course. “Hey, Odd Grown-up! You are scaring my pigeon. I AM GONNA TE…” “SHUT UP TIMMY” of course you didn’t mean to come off as rude, but the situation made you mad.
The Gates of Mondstadt were huge. You never remembered them being huge. Keeping a car as a scale, you could say that it was at-least 10 cars high, toss a John Cena on the car, and it might be perfect. Your neck started stiffening from the five minutes of ridiculous staring at the gates for an even more ridiculous assumption of scaling. The guards weren’t present at the gate. Of course, it's noon. They might have gone for a quick break or two.
As soon as you stepped in, the theme song of the city of freedom started playing. The mellow tunes drifted, and the noon crowd added to the environment, and you could feel your spine straighten as goose bumps shot up your arms.
With yet again another burst of renewed vigour, you skipped steps to meet the most adorable yet annoying character of all time. Your best friend and your worst enemy. The most-probably-a-robot Katheryne.
Her hair framed her face perfectly and her skin was abnormally pale. Her eyes were so pretty you wondered why she was an NPC. A pleasant smile plastered on her face, she turned to look at your …sloppy movements.
You fixed your hair and clothes, making yourself presentable. Of course, you had to look good in the game. I mean, have you looked at the characters. You probably looked like shit in front of them, and that was a fact.
“Hello! I presume you are Katheryne?” You had to act as though you were a traveller who knew nothing because it might be suspicious if you knew everything about everyone even before you were entering the city gates.
“Yes. Indeed, How may I help you?” She replied with the most customer-servicey voice anyone could muster. She is a robot, you could feel it in your gut.
“Um…as you can see.. I am kinda new here and actually have no Mora on hand and might need a place to stay…so can you help me out” you replied shyly. What were you doing? Portraying your self as homeless. Why? It helped Mona, it might help you.
Taken aback with an unexpected response, Katheryne eyes you with a professional look and without faltering responds, “Oh! Welcome to Mondstadt Outlander!, I do know a place to stay but since you have no Mora on hand now and since you are an outsider, credit may not be used” Wait. Did she say Outlander?. After a brief moment of silence, she added, “You could join the adventurers' guild, that can provide you with lodging. Though there is some paperwork, I will hold it off for a day or two, this is the city of freedom after all.”
She ducked and took out a package from under the desk. “ This is a starter package for beginners in the adventurers' guild, I slipped in a coupon for a meal in Good hunter, and after you are done with it, you may approach me. I will arrange for your stay in the guild quarters. How does it sound?” She said with a smile that made her human for once.
You nodded with tears in your eyes, “Sounds perfect, thank you!”.
“Well then, all you need to do is sign your name in this document, and you are good to go!” saying with professional grace, she slid a document. It was gibberish. Out of instinct, you tapped it twice and all the letters turned into English. Convenient. Signing without hesitation, you slid back the document and the quill back to Katheryne. Out of gratitude, you shook her hand.
The world around you froze. Katheryne started to pixelate, your ears started to buzz, and the background noises turned into static noises. You jumped, dropping her hand and the world returned to normal. The evening theme started to play and people started to chatter again.
Sliding the care package towards you, Katheryne grinned with a warm smile.
“ Ad Astra Abyssosque. Welcome to the Adventurer’s Guild.”
