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**Lord Pouchlaw** · November 21, 2022, 03:14:01 AM

Chapter Two.

After a boat ride on their private ship, the hero group soon arrived at a port on the largest island of Watertopia. Renting docking space was done as before and then the group proceeded to the Heroes Rest Tavern in the city.

Mycallos said, "This is the last day where I'll be able to be online during my daylight hours here in Tokyo. I have school tomorrow. But I'll be able to stay online today until 10 AM Shane's time. Then I have to go bathe and then go to bed. I could return by 5 AM Shane's time for a three to four hour session. That will be for five days. I am sorry that my absence will make you guys bored." Shane said, "Education in Japan is important since you are your school's math whiz."

Samwise remarked, "Then we will do our best in your absence or we could make a second character like you did, Mycallos."

Marian asked, "Since you know our names in real life, may we learn your real name?"

Shane grinned. "Here we go... My real name is Shane in Spanish and Portuguese. Sorry if you were expecting more. I guess I got lucky."

Mycallos replied, "My name of Myca is pronounced like Mike with the -a sound at the end. But my second character's name is Rava Du Lunar. He's a Swashbuckler. Shall we work on some quests before the Water Elves drag us away to do solo quests?" Everyone agreed with that since the Solo quests usually occurred within a few hours of arriving on the continent. So they quickly took some quests to get a feel for the island. As Myca was returning from his quest, the Water Elves caught him and presented him with the Solo Quest. "They caught me guys! I'm off on my Solo Quest! It involves swimming, they said!"

Not only was this a swimming quest but it was also a thinking quest. He couldn't find any secret quests in the solo quest and he soon returned early to the Heroes Rest where he switched characters so he could work on Rava's levels. Not long into working on another Starting Zone city quest for Rava, He got a friend request from a rabbit-dragon named Himcules Andez, a Zoomer like him. He sent a message to the rabbit which read, "Give me a one-word or one-name clue to explain why I should accept your friend request." And the reply he got back was, "Shane."

Rava clicked accept and soon he had Himcules on his friend tracker. "Since you play a wolf in your main character, I never expected you to play a rabbit. Welcome to Zoomland. How has it been so far?"

Himcules replied, "Harder than fuck! I try not to curse in games, but this zone is insane! A little back story would be helpful!"

Rava carefully explained the sorry tale the Zoomers had escaped from, former slaves of Darkheart, and how one of their goals was reclaiming the light to purge the darkness out of their own hearts. Zoomers were Humans, Midgets and Elves whom got changed into animal humanoids, like Beast Men. They were stuck in their new species for life, but once they reclaimed the light, common folk would trust that character from then on in game. But at the beginning only other Zoomers trust your character.

Every good deed added 0.01 percent to your Light meter. If you backslid by performing an evil act, you lost a full 1.00 percent from the Light meter. Honesty and good deeds were a must for Zoomers at the beginning. Removing the [Show Me The Light] quest from your log gave you 2 weeks to get it back or at the end, your character was lost as they got teleported back to their master Darkheart where an NPC looking like your lost character and even having the old name joined the evil forces army.

Himcules shuddered. "Thanks for that warning. How can I find you? I'm out of the tutorial and the locals keep telling me not to venture out of the zone. Also Samwise asked me to let him know how bad this new place was. Marian is waiting to see what I tell Samwise. I almost told them that if they wanted an easier game to stay in the normal zones. So how can I find you, Rava? Be a pal... please? You know I'm worth it. This zone scares me."

Rava asked, "Is there a lake near your starting town?"

Himcules replied, "It's a good ways East of here, I've caught glimpses of it from the hill tops."

Rava said, "Travel to the lake shore, avoid the open paths when possible or you will have fights galore. I have a house along the North Shore. Look for a porch with what looks like a sock hanging over the front rail. I should have the only house with that feature. Remember, avoid being seen as much as possible. The sea rat villagers are fisherman primarily. You won't find farms around the lake. Once you are here, I'll let you in and we can compare notes. Zoomers are allowed to own their own homes. They are usually cheap and considered fixer uppers. You should acquire one in your starting zone before coming here to tag up with me. Your home is like the Heroes Rest Tavern except you own and maintain it. I've been working on mine slowly. I can currently house up to three guests. Accommodations are not the best, but it is better than the inns and taverns in the towns. You can get robbed as you sleep there; that cannot happen in my home. To gain lodgings in my home, you have to be on my friend's list."

Himcules replied, "Going to do as you suggest; see you in a few hours, I hope."

Rava worked on some improvement projects until he heard a barely audible knock on his front door. Checking the local map and the friend finder, he saw that it was Himcules on his front porch looking beat. Opening door and dragging the rabbit inside, he closed the door and re-latched it securely. "Man, you are a mess! How many encounters?" He started treating the rabbit's injuries. Himcules replied, "Twenty some odd bounty hunters of the human variety. You don't know tempted I was to go dragon and destroy them." Rava stated, "There are time frames when they are out and about. But you made it."

Himcules said, "You weren't kidding about the cheap homes thing. I got a small one built into an old mining tunnel. I opened the home menu and saw the improvement prices. Affordable but some require weeks with a suggestion to not wait around for the results."

Rava smirked. "You looked at the Lordly Manor cost, didn't you?"

Himcules remarked, "Curious rabbits do curious things. When you accepted my friend request, my Light meter increased by 0.01 percent. And every time I resisted the urge to use my dragon to kill the bounty hunters, I got Light points. With the dangers in Zoomland, how will we ever earn the right to work on Trail of Destiny?"

End of Chapter Two.

**Lord Pouchlaw** · November 21, 2022, 03:19:56 AM

Chapter Three.

Rava said, "It's a harder path, but those whom love fighting should get their fix in Zoomland. Just don't lose yourself to the dark side. Do you think Samwise and Marian would want to be part of this mess of dangers? Or do you think they would pass on this shit?"

Himcules replied, "Samwise would be inclined to try it, but Marian has trouble trusting people. She might have issues with Zoomland."

Rava then explained, "While you are dark, monsters will speak like merchants do for other species in game. As long as you don't mention their goods as being magical, you can get some great gear - CHEAP."

Himcules said, "Your outfit looks pretty snazzy. Where did you get it? I'm nearly naked after getting robbed twice."

Rava smiled. "I have the haggling skill. What profession did you take? I might have something."

Himcules replied, "Explorer."

Rava went into the back and he opened a trunk and said, "Now lets see what kind of gear I have in storage." Rava began pulling out a decent outfit, with gloves and boots. and some appropriate weapons. "You're healed enough, Himcules. Try this stuff on. It's going to be better protection than what you had when you arrived. Which was nothing at all." After a while of helping the rabbit in adjusting the worn gear, Rava asked, "What was the word from the others? Zoomland isn't a place you want to do solo."

Himcules replied as he posed in his new gear, "Both are doing their tutorials right now. I warned them both that if they slept in the open, they would likely get robbed. Samwise chose to play a Clerical Skunk-Dragon Healer named Pepe Le Feelgood, while Marian chose to play a Fighting Monk like Flying Squirrel-Dragon Illusionist named Palma Du Floofy-Tail. So we could be getting contacted by Pepe and Palma sooner or later."

Eventually, Rava heard Palma message him with the words, "Which house is yours, Rava? I've been flying around for awhile and I don't see the feature you told Shane about."

Rava replied, "North shore, black or brown sock hanging over porch rail. To the left of my place, a fisherman sea rat is repairing his boat. I hope he didn't take the dirty sock. Since you're flying around, I'll step outside and look for you in the sky. To get into my house, you have to be on my friend list." And that's when he got two friend requests at the same time. Palma and Pepe. He accepted both and then he shared the sea rat zone map with the two. He then received a map of the skunk zone map from Pepe. There was a delay before he received a map of the squirrel zone map.

The rat zone map included sea rats, sewer rats, swamp rats and lab rats.

Rava saw the Flying Squirrel over the South shore. "Opposite end of the lake, Palma; you're at the South end." And before she could fly up there, a male skunk came around the corner of the building. "Rava? I'm Pepe Le Feelgood. I cleaned myself up after I sprayed some bounty hunters. That's the most NPC puke I've ever seen." Rava laughed. "Come on inside, Healer. Himcules is waiting inside." And then he greeted Palma as she landed. "I don't know how I got so mixed up." Rava replied, "Come on inside. We're all together now."

Inside the rat's home, Pepe checked Rava's patch-up work on Himcules. Palma said, "Your place looks pretty decent, Rava."

Rava grinned. "This is result of occasional repairs. Your acquired home has a home menu that lists repairs you can make and what they cost and how long the repair takes. Himcules looked at the Lordly Manor repair and nearly freaked out. Now let me explain some important things about Zoomland. Bounty Hunters whom are usually human are your enemies until you complete the [Show Me The Light] quest. Until you complete that quest, normal monsters act as traveling merchants. As long as you don't mention that things are magical, you can get some great gear, super CHEAP."

He then said, "Once you do complete that quest, Monsters won't talk to you anymore and Bounty Hunters stop bothering you." He then explained the Light reward system.

Pepe grinned. "Since I didn't kill the Bounty Hunters with my spray, how many light points did I get?"

Rava giggled. "Look at the Light quest and just read the percent number."

Pepe soon said, "3.59 percent. At least it's not in the negative."

Rava said, "No, but it just sounds funny."

Palma asked, "How come you are still in the starting area, Rava?"

Rava replied, "You remember how quickly we left the starting areas in our primary characters and how we likely missed a lot of important rewards? So I am doing my quests and building my Light points."

He then mentioned. "I came over to Rava to wait for you guys to finish your solo quests. Swimming and thinking wasn't fun, in my opinion. And no secret quests. I checked. I was done rather quickly."

Himcules said, "I kept drowning and being returned to the start. That frustrated me so much, I chose to make another character when I remembered that you had Rava."

Rava said, "I better file a difficulty report with the boss lady. Reaching that point and quitting would net bad reviews for the game. I barely made it as Mycallos."

Pepe said, "I barely made it as Samwise. I had to use my dragon form." Palma said, "Like Shane, I kept drowning. I thought I was being punished again."

End of Chapter Three.

**Lord Pouchlaw** · January 19, 2023, 02:46:37 AM

Chapter Four.

After the report was made, the reply was, "Use your dragon forms as much as possible. They have bigger lungs." Rava said, "And there you have it, my friends." Then a follow up message was given. "The rotten programmers were trying to dissuade human players from wanting to do quests and just return to PVP. I am going to have to see what other nasty surprises they put into the game."

Himcules said, "So our quest problems were the fault of the juvenile PVP programmers. No wonder everything seemed so hard."

Pepe said, "Being together is all well and good; but I feel that we should be working on succeeding in our light points so we can enter normal parts of the game."

Palma suggested, "Then what say we about returning to our home areas and work on our starting area quests and get our home bases as improved as possible. And use our dragon forms to travel between the starting zones to reduce the amount of dumb encounters. I mean, despite Rava's patch-up work on you, Himcules, you are still bruised. to a major degree. I suppose a few transformations should clear that right up. The flying squirrel town is up in the canopy of the forest."

Rava nodded his head. "I think Palma's suggestion is a good one. Plus, I'd like to get the other three rat areas on my map for future reference."

After his friends went back to their own starting areas, Myca logged out and contacted Grey Falcon to inquire about getting a copy of the earliest version of Dragons Honor before the programmers got in and went crazy with all the changes. Myca explained that he wanted to try his hand at programming a sandbox mode of the game to make it as close to what Grey Falcon intended the game to be from the beginning. Surprisingly she was game to let Myca try his hand at cleaning up an Alpha version of the game.

She delivered an Alpha server to his gaming room and set up a programmer's desk with two monitors. One for the code, the other for seeing a visual of how the finished scenery ended up after programming. This gave Myca a real feel for how programming was done.

Aside from him and her, no one else would be able to log into the Alpha Server.

Myca no sooner began working on this server when the Grey Falcon noticed about sixty attempts to log into the Alpha Server from blacklisted IP locations. She activated an auto-bounce protocol to protect the clean Alpha Server. The first thing Myca programmed in was the Tiddlywinks punishment to all blacklisted IP locations. This meant that before an auto-bounce could occur, the security would install Tiddlywinks PVP on to their home computers and be stuck that way until the user won one hundred sessions. He could remove this later when he would get more of the game set up. He did a scan for anything with the letters PVP attached to it and he removed it from the programming entirely. This removed nearly ninety thousand references that had been programmed into the starting zone alone.

Reporting these instances to Grey Falcon by submitting a list to her to compare to the main game server, Myca went back into to working the rest of the Alpha Server. It had never dawned on her to look for PVP in that particular way. On the main server, she found nearly a million references to PVP on every continent. Any chance the dick programmers had to lure a player back into PVP was programmed in to make players give up quests and return to the main starting zone. This angered Grey Falcon greatly. Now not only was she working to undo the latest travesty, but Myca was working to make the Alpha Server work better than the Main Server. He also noted nearly one hundred thousand dead player accounts that had been wiped off of the Alpha Server all because they had PVP-Tester attached to them.

This new note was sent to Grey Falcon and she tackled the search for that on the Main Server. She was fuming immensely as she located these cheat accounts. Every time Myca located another PVP breach, she nearly exploded like Mount Vesuvius.

Myca finally had enough as he took a clean never before used server and he formatted a new gaming interface into it and then he carefully copied the gaming world directly into the new server. If any reference to PVP tried to transfer, it was prevented from making the trip. Once the clean gaming world was on the new server, he began to program in the playability functions starting with character stats. Character code was rewritten from scratch rather than to transfer anything over from the corrupted server. Myca added a new stat called Honesty. If Honesty was ever lower than half of your Wisdom, the soldiers of the zone you were in would come and give your character the third degree. Honesty gave bonuses for dealing with Authority figures and members of Royalty. Everything else was as it was before.

Quests were cleanly coded using the ideas of the existing quests with the same rewards. Starting races were listed as Human, Nature Elf, Soldier Elf, Midget and Hybron. A Hybron was a humanoid cross between any two animals from the expanded list. The hybrid animals list included Canine, Feline, Rodent, Lagomorph, Mephit, Equine, Marsupial, Avian and Insect. If you played a Hybron, your race was listed as Hybron-ANIMAL, where ANIMAL was replaced by the one chosen. Dragon choices now involved the color or metallic selection of the dragon. The first two levels were played in your home land starting zone. At level three, you gained your hybrid dragon. Flight was now accessible at level six. Breath Weapons were gained at level nine. The game functioned as it was designed when Myca first played it.

He had labeled the new server as DH-Gamma-00000001. Now all there was to do was to let the Grey Falcon finalize the new server to see if she would approve this version of Dragons Honor. He backed up his work and then he sent the completed reprogrammed game server to the Grey Falcon for her evaluation along with instructions to not transfer any of the old code into the new server or risk corruption of the new clean code. He figured she would completely ignore his advice and prove that she was as dumb as the former dick coders. Myca then renamed his at-home version of Dragons Honor as Honest Scales. If Dragons Honor had issues after his recode fix, then he could host his own Honest Scales for his friends and to Hell with Grey Falcon.

Grey Falcon sadly did as predicted. The first thing she did was to remove the Honesty stat and remove the extra hybrid and race choices and reset the dragon abilities to what she had them set to before the fix. Then she flash copied the fix over the top of the existing server minus the Gamma reference label. She performed the eleven P.M. server save as per normal and then she went to bed for the night. Myca had school in the morning, but he had saved his two characters on a save disc and he had asked his friends to do the same before the flash fix in case Grey Falcon fucked up the server as selfish people often do. Early the next morning, Myca got up and utilizing the DONK.OS conversion tool, he converted Honest Scales into a DONK.OS playable adventure MMO game with himself as the prime Admin.

Then he went about his morning schedule and he took his morning shower, got dressed and he had breakfast before heading off for school. He wasn't even thinking about Dragons Honor currently.

Grey Falcon had not even checked to see if the IP Blacklist was still on the fix server before she flash copied the repaired coding over the top of the old server. So by morning, every prick coder was right back in the old server doing everything in their power to revert the game back into their beloved pile of shit. Grey Falcon was none the wiser since Myca had been the only one reporting game issues; no one else ever bothered to report anything. The prick coders even found a way to block the boss lady herself from logging into her own game. Again, she was none the wiser since she knew Myca had to attend school today and she would wait for him to get home and log into the game before she waited for his reports. But waiting would be her undoing.

While at school, Myca's pager went off during lunch hour and when he looked at the incoming message, he noted it was from Shane in Argentina. The message read as: "Prick Coders invaded main server. Only starting Continent is available with a huge PVP arena in the center of town. I know you are in school, but the rest of us cannot get back to Watercrest. It's like the ass wipes deleted the main questing server. Grey Falcon does not answer error reports. I need your advice."

Myca typed in the reply as: "Log out and delete Dragons Honor from your main computer as it is likely corrupted now. I hope you guys made that save disc like I asked you to. Acquire a copy of DONK.OS Security Edition and install it on a spare computer you own. Then go into the games list for MMOs and look for [Honest Scales by TygerMyca]. Install that on your new DONK.OS computer and after you log in, insert the save disc and click on upload saved characters to account. When I get home from school, I'll join you."

He had no sooner sent the message to Shane when he saw Ms. Grey Falcon walk into the school cafeteria and come straight over to his table. "Myca? I got a report that the game server was crashing and then I couldn't log into my admin account. Tell me what you did."

Myca arched an eye. "Before you hooked up the fixed game server, did you wipe the old server entirely or did you do what any other too proud to obey instructions person would do by flash copying the fix over the old server?"

End of Chapter Four.

Announcement

[DECK-02] MD-02 Watertopia

[DECK-02] MD-02 Watertopia

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