The First Legacies Of Zion: Omaye

Druid

NATHANIEL

Nathaniel used to be a whole lot different. He was rowdy, stubborn, a deviant and a miscreant. But even then that was never who he truly was. He changed too many times that he had lost count of which face he wore and for which situation or occasion he wore that face for.

He had no idea who he really was, and at the moment he was just so exhausted to no longer put the effort to find out. Nathaniel had no idea who he was or what his path would be. The easiest way to explain his life right now, was that he was just existing with a purpose.

He had his family, so he had to live for them. At least that was what he felt was right. Because when you think about, what kind of achievement could he ever gain in a game. He did not have the drive or motivation to care about anything other than making amends for past mistakes and taking care of his family which ever way he could. He was at the end of his rope, but he still had to keep climbing.

As far as classes go, Nathaniel was not really happy with being asked to be a druid. He would much rather have preferred if he was given a lifestyle class, and not a class that would most definitely put him in a fight sooner or later. Besides if it had to be a combat class why not have made it a warrior, rogue or a mage. Why did it have to be a druid?

Druids are the most balanced class in the game. They were both healers, and damage dealers. And in some rare games druids are allowed to wield weapons. Nathaniel had an inkling that Zion was just the same. Druids were a complicated class because they had too many areas of expertise and without focusing on a particular one. You might end up too weak in magic, and strong in healing and buffs. Or it could be the other way around, or the alternative of going for a balanced build and ending up being nothing more than a decoration without sufficient attack or healing.

Druid was a magic class that emphasized the connection to nature and all of its inhabitants. As such druids were tamers of beasts, and they had the ability to take on the form of beasts just as well. They had spells and skills that improved and protected every facet of nature, from things as mundane as the plants, to as complicated as the living beings that roamed the wilds of Zion.

But why the hell was the house of the druid class trainer so hard to get to. The man was a recluse, but Nathaniel could not understand the need to go and live right at the top of a hill that was to much of a pain to climb. Halfway up the hill Nathaniel was already breathing hard and drenched in sweat. The realism of Zion was so cutting edge that there was no difference between it and earth. But he would never have been this weak in real life. While the stats he had now was derived straight from his physical body, it was not enough to reach the standard for Zion, considering this world was governed by a whole other set of natural laws.

This world was extremely reliant on its statistics and the strength of every person was also governed by their stats. Quite frankly his stats sucked, but that was no fault of his, he was after all still level zero.

With every step he took, Nathaniel drew closer to the hut that housed the druid. From a distance this hut looked rather peculiar, most people might not recognize its architecture, but Nathaniel could fully comprehend the manner in which that hut was built.

That was African architecture, the hut was built from mud, and the roof was made of palm fronds from coconut and palm kernel trees, If Nathaniel had to hazard a guess he would say this house looks like the home of native witch doctors from old Nigerian movies. It was quite a surprise seeing something like this here, he knew that Zion was made on a template of Earth and all it’s histories, and the continent they were currently on, shared a name with an ancient Nigerian kingdom.

So it was quite obvious this was a place where people from the west African side of the world spawn when they began the game. So far most of the things he had seen was more western like, than African. This was the first time he came across something distinctively African, and it also had to be something so connected to the ancient traditions of the Nigerian people. Nathaniel felt proud, but he also felt extremely tired.

The hut had symbols of animals drawn and painted on its walls with white chalk. It was eerie, but familiar. In the stories told about African witch doctors, they were always depicted as people who drew their power from the land, the spirits, and the Gods. So in gaming terms they were basically a combination of clerics, druids, and summoner. But more often than not, they were also viewed as evil malevolent beings who derived great pleasure in causing pain and destruction. They were quite complicated.

When Nathaniel finally got to the front of the druid’s hut he bent over gasping for breath. But when he looked at the display screen that showed his stamina, he was shocked to notice that not one bit of his stamina bar had dropped. He turned back to look down the hill he spent the better part of an hour trying to climb, his jaw almost got dislocated from his face when he saw a three-meter incline rather than the three hundred he just finished climbing.

“what the hell?” he asked out in shock. But the answer he received was in the form of a rattle.