FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

So it's been a while since I posted anything and this story has been rattling around for a while, I'm rewriting Sentinels so that's taking a while and it's being difficult. Really I just wanted to post something, I'm pulling idea for this from all sorts of things so it's no where near as difficult as Sentinels to write.

Just a warning, or many be a promise this story is going to feature plenty of adult rated material later on, I have a very kinky friend who's kind of directing me on this one haha. So if you're a fan of M/M, lots of M/M then you'll enjoy later chapters of this.

Enjoy and please leave a comment below.

****

World's Grave was originally designed to be a standard fantasy MMORPG game released with the newly redesigned oculus rift interface. That was until the breakthrough for VR, Virtual Reality, gaming was made. Its announcement made gamers all over the world mess themselves just at the thought, finally they wouldn't be restricted to simply tapping controller buttons or keys on a keyboard, they would finally be able to become what they always wanted to be, heroes, villains and monsters. Every dark fantasy, every holy wish, every mundane task they could actually do it with their own two hands.

The announcement that it was actually possible started a proverbial bidding war, companies ranging from household appliances to military defense contracts saw not only the potential applications of such a technology but the astronomical profit that would come with it. Everyone from child to elder would be interested if it was advertised properly. In the end the war ended with Microsoft as an almost clear cut winner staking an entire yearly revenue on the mere possibility that they could make it into the most profitable piece of technology that had existed to date.

That was two years ago, now the technology was ready, it was tested, alphaed, beta'd and had been screened and checked by most health organizations on the planet. No one wanted an accident to occur, not Microsoft who had their entire company riding on the success of this game, and not anyone else. The last thing people wanted was hundreds or possibly thousands of dead people because of a faulty bit of hardware.

World's Grave had been annexed and transformed to be the first game of the newly dubbed ARC net, the first model for the VR console. The game had been reworked and remastered by the best MMO and RPG designers in the world, everyone wanted this game to be a massive success. Gamers were salivating over the prospect, and gaming companies were rubbing their own hands ready for the results of the, what was basically an experiment, no one had any idea what would happen if the ARC net was a success but that didn't mean that they didn't want to witness the results.

****

"IAAAANNNN!" Jak yelled banging on his friend's door, he knew that the bastard was in since his car was out front. "Come on, get your lazy ass out of bed and open thi.... err morning?" Jak chuckled when the door was flung open, Ian looked like he had just gotten out of bed.

"Morning," a rather disheveled Ian replied, stepping aside and beckoning his friend through into his front room; the only light was filtering in through the messy curtains, the sight of an unmade bed lending Jak's theory some credence. "Didn't think you'd be around quite this early."

Jak just grinned manically as he strode into the house pushing Ian to one side and dumping his work bag onto the floor. The redhead dived into his bag, ignoring his friend for a moment as he searched for the envelope, containing the two most epic pieces of paper he had ever had the pleasure of owning.

"Oh, don't tell me," Ian said, eyes widening as he put two and two together and immediately brightened up. "You didn't, did you?"

"No actually, seriously have you seen the price? I could buy a new house," Jak grumbled, he had been very annoyed when the cost of the ARC net had been announced. "But Doctor Williams at work was consulted a few months ago, he had twenty free tickets to hand out as thanks." Jak was practically vibrating on the spot as he found the envelope and brandished it like a sword in Ian's face. His grin threatening to split his face.

"You got us tickets!" Ian's grin was pretty similar, bouncing on the balls of his feet in excitement. "I swear I could kiss you right now."

"No time Ian, we have to register them," Jak looked around the messy hallway and pointed at his friend. "Laptop?"

"Buried here somewhere," Ian nodded, quickly walking over and digging it out from a pile of clothes and unfolding the top. "How do we register, then?"

"Just follow the website, make an account, enter the code and presto we get our ARC net delivered in a week when the game goes live." Jak actually was bouncing now, more than eager to have his email saying that his ARC net was going to be with him in a week. "You know I actually considered selling them. You know how much they're going for?"

"Trust me, I was looking at buying one. I know exactly how much," Ian nodded, focusing on the screen as he reached the website and started registering. "Glad you made the right decision."

"So I take it you've looked at the game, any ideas what you wana be?"

"A drake. You?"

"You have to ask? I am going to be a wolf, all muscular, covering in fur, bushy tail... Oh god I wish we could play it now."

"Only a week," Ian chuckled, finishing his own sign up as he swiveled the screen to Jak. "Can't wait to see you in it."

"Yeah, you looked at the classes?"

"A bit. I was thinking assassin."

"Huh little dark for you isn't it?" Jak asked, typing his details away to sign up. He wondered what it would be like, from their point of view they really would be a wolf and drake. World's Grave had the players personify themselves as various animal races, you could be anything from a mundane cat, wolf, drake, gryphon or even a shark. It was a furry's dream come true in many ways. Jak was certainly looking forward to being a big wolf hero. "Huh, did it say this with you?"

"Assassins aren't all evil. I can use the skills for good," Ian pointed out, as he leaned over the screen. "What's it say?"

"All participants must present themselves for a physical examination at predetermined locations before they can receive their ARC nets. Damn we have to go get checked out." Jak sighed, he wondered why they would bother, did you need to be a certain fitness to play the game?

"That's not really an issue, I'm sure we'll pass," Ian nodded. "Though it's a bit odd. Maybe the ARC causes physical stress?"

"Dr Williams would have said something if that were the case, but you're right I may not be an athlete but I'm sure there won't be a problem." Still the redhead frowned, it was a bit strange, why would they bring it out now if there were still risks?

****

That week was without a doubt the longest week of their lives, details were being released sporadically about the in game features. The developers announced that the initial log in would only give gamers an hour of gameplay before logging them out, this of course was received badly by the gaming community but the developers explained that they wanted to ensure that there would be no initial connection problems. Their test runs had been limited to a thousand people, at current there were 50,000 in the UK alone, with far more around the world. Most were still unhappy but no one wanted there to be gaming problems, they had all been on the receiving end of that crippling disappointment when they realize that a triple A game hasn't lived up to its hype.

Still even with the hour limit, the developers promised that once the trial period was over there would be no limits on the amount of game time and that patches were already being developed to add in game features and it wasn't long before the day arrived. Hundreds of thousands of people around the planet laid in their beds, their ARC net gear comfortably strapped to their heads as they delved into something that they had only ever dreamed of.

****

The actual process for being spawned in game was very strange in Jak's humble opinion, it wasn't just a flash of light and presto you were there, it actually felt like someone was pulling and twisting at him before he appeared in the starting area. That was something he jumped on though, he could feel, for some reason that seemed almost surreal. The giveaway was in the name, but Jak thought that it would be undeniably different, feeling things but he could feel, smell, see and hear just fine. For a moment he almost wished that he couldn't because he could literally smell the dust in the air, damned canine nose. He could also feel his tail, the thought made him giggle as he glanced over his shoulder and watched his tail flick about for a few seconds.

The area where he spawned was without a doubt one of the most disturbing places that Jak had even been before, and he had worked in a mortuary for six months. It was a tomb, a massive underground tomb filled with tombstones, crypts and what looked like a massive cathedral a little ways in the distance.

"So that's the respawn point," Jak mumbled, directly opposite from the Cathedral was a giant set of stairs leading up and out of the crypt, with just a casual glance Jak knew that there were easily a few hundred steps. That was going to be one hell of a climb, not to mention the solo mini boss that stood guard. No one could get past without beating him in a one on one, or so the online forum said. Still he had a drake to find, or so he hoped.

Jak had stuck to his guns with his character and gone for a wolf, despite the truly fantastic number of different races that he could have chosen from, he wondered if Ian had stuck with drake or not. Still he was happiest with a wolf, he stood at six foot tall, something he was jealous of as he had never been able to reach that coveted height, in real life he was the tormenting height of five foot eleven. His fur was a dark red in colour almost crimson with black ears and black socks on his hand and foot paws, he thought they looked cute. Thinking of characters though, Ian should have been done by now as well. The wolf swiped a paw in the air in front of him and pulled up the UI, there was a lot of information to go through but for the time being he just wanted to find Ia... No, wait, Astrai. He knew it was sad but he felt so cool looking at his character, he was called Kelrith here. Kelrith the lycan slayer of... something. Titles could come later, first he had to find a friend to party up with.

"Now how do I open a chat with him?"

****

"How the hell do I chat to Kelrith..." Ian muttered to himself, flicking through the menus as he stood in the tomb. The lithe, five foot eight drake had opted for crimson scales himself, a pair of small, curled horns adorning his head as he glanced around at the rather gloomy environment. "Figured they'd have picked a bit of a nicer spawn point."

They'd both added their characters externally, and it didn't take Ian too long to pick out the friends list amongst the menus and start trying to establish connection to his friend. The whole situation was so weird; he was still having a hard time getting his head around the fact that he was here, in the game. He could feel his tail shifting behind him, feel the ground beneath his feet, and shiver at the cold chill in the air. Weird, however, didn't stop it from being wonderful. Liberating. He couldn't wait to see the world for real.

The drake paused for a second when he heard a small ping and an alert appeared in the menus.

'Kelrith wants to chat.'

"Guess you found it first," he muttered, selecting the option and accepting the invitation.

"Astrai? Hello, is this on?"

"Yep, it's on. Nice to hear you, Kelrith," the drake chuckled. Ian was fine playing along and getting into character; he'd agreed with Jak beforehand it'd complete the immersion, which he rather enjoyed. "You stood in a graveyard as well?"

"Yeah, guess we know why the games called 'The World's Grave' seriously there are hundreds of graves here. Anyway I'm heading towards you... I think. The map only has a few points of interest and I'm fairly sure that this icon means friend... I think." Kelrith chuckled over the chat his voice sounding deeper than it usually was, with a subtle hint of something that sounded almost like a growl/purr coming over the line. "So I'm dressed in torn rags, you? I also have male parts, neat.

"Rags and male parts all in check here," Ian laughed. "I'll just stay here and wait for you."

"Oh I just passed a dolphin... A hot dolphin. Damn this is epic isn't it?"

"Talk to him!"

"It was a her... At least I hope so, no self-respecting male should be walking around with breasts that big." Kelrith laughed. "Anyway I should be pretty close to you now. Keep an ear open I wanna try something."

"Will do."

Kelrith cut the chat off and not a second later a wolf's howl was heard echoing through the air followed shortly by manic laughter.

"Heard that!" Astrai yelled, laughing too. "Nice!"

About a minute later a wolf came jogging around the side of one of the crypts looking up and down the rows of gravestones until his eyes landed on Astrai. His muzzle broke out into a grin so large you could see all his teeth before the wolf barreled into the drake sending them both flying to the floor in heaps of laughter and giggles.

"Oh gods, I don't think I'll ever work again." Kelrith confessed, he wasn't sure he was ever going to do anything other than play on this for the rest of his life. It was so lifelike that you could almost forget that it was a game, luckily there were a few subtle hints that not all was right though. Jak could see himself getting lost in the illusion of Kelrith if he wasn't too careful. "Ah, so you look almost exactly like Kai. That on purpose?"

"No, actually. Must've been subconscious," Astrai grinned, hugging Kelrith close and patting him on the back. "That fur feels amazing, holy shit."

"Hey hey I'm not a pillow... You are really warm though," Kelrith mureed, nuzzling against Astrai's chest for a moment.

"Cold resistance. Drakes have internal fire, which translates across rather well," the drake smiled coyly, nuzzling up against Kelrith too, loving the feeling of him. The tangible, almost real feeling of a wolfman pressed to him. "What was your racial bonus?"

"Five percent extra exp, and a damage bonus when in a party of four or more. Think it was called 'Pack Will' or something."

"Five percent extra exp? Great, you're going to completely overlevel me," Astrai muttered.

'Not if it's just the two of us," Kelrith pointed out, poking Astrai in his snout, the wolf grinned for a moment at how the drake's nose twitched before his ears seemed to swivel. "Can we help you?"

Standing a few meters away was another wolf except this one was jet black and looked to be six foot four and weighing somewhere around half a ton. He had so much muscle it could be seen through his thick fur. The wolf just grinned at the pair of characters sprawled out on the floor though and went on his way.

"They're pretty reactive, aren't they?" Astrai grinned, lifting up a clawed paw to mess around with the wolf's ears, rubbing along the soft fur.

Kelrith yelped at the sudden contact and covered the furry appendages with his paws, looking mortified at the noise that he just made.

"Sensitive, too!" The paws messed around with them some more, a wide grin on the drake's face at finding Kelrith's sensitive spot.

"Alright enough of that," Kelrith barked, standing up to get away from his friends inquisitive fingers. The wolf brushed some dust off of his tail and held out a paw to help Astrai up. "I wonder why there aren't any monsters or why we don't have anything in our inventories."

"Well, it's a meet and greet area. They probably weren't ever going to give us weapons," Astrai mused, taking the paw and standing up, looking around. "Don't need monsters trying to kill us either. Maybe we'll find stuff if we head to the steps."

Kelrith opened his muzzle to say something when a horn echoed throughout the cavern.

"Attention, the ten minute time limit to adjust to your new avatars is about to end. All areas outside and around the cathedral are monster spawn points. Beginner Items are being added to your inventory now. Please enjoy your game."

"Guess that answers that," Kelrith chuckled, opening up his inventory, there was a short short, a bow and a staff, basic warrior, rogue, mage style for people to get used to. Kelrith equipped the sword and blinked when it appeared in the air in front of him and just floated there.

"That's neat."

Going for the bow, Ian nodded as he snagged it out of the air, slinging some arrows over his back too. "It's good of em to kit us out. Hope these monsters aren't too bad though..."

"They're starting area level one monsters we shouldn't have any trouble," Kelrith grinned, winking at Astrai when an alert appeared in the drake's window.

'Kelrith invited you to party up.'

"Guess we may as well make it formal," Astrai smiled, accepting the invitation, partly just from curiosity to see what the effect would be.

"So, I can see your health and mana as well, can I," Kelrith mumbled, nodding his head when Astrai's status bar appeared underneath his own in the upper left corner of his vision. He had barely noticed it until now but his health, amount of mana he had and experience bar were all in the upper left of his vision as well, no matter where he looked.

"And they're persistently in view, that's useful. Might disable that when we're out of combat areas," the drake nodded, glancing around with his bow nervously. "They've gotta be spawning in soon, right?"

"Should be, maybe we're in a bad spot," Felrith mumbled, before a bone hand burst out of the ground and grabbed his ankle. The wolf stared at it for a moment as the world seemed to freeze for him and Astrai. "Of course, crypt and undead... lovely. Why couldn't they start with slimes, everyone loves slimes."

Astrai, on the other hand, had nothing smart to say beyond yelling and stamping down on the wrist of the bone hand, shattering it to let Felrith get free. "Slimes would be better, agreed!" he nodded, notching an arrow and looking back over his shoulder to see if any more creatures were moving in.

"Oh hey, Astrai, look," Kelrith said casually, the wolf was pointing at a row of tombstones that their occupants had suddenly found all too constricting. At least five undead skeletons were clawing their way out of the ground while the wolf and drake watched. "I'd say something clever but nothing's coming to mind."

"Just kill them, then!" the drake shouted, losing an arrow at the first one and already found himself instinctively notching another. It was easier than he expected; everything felt intuitive and normal, like he was practiced with a bow, when that couldn't have been much further from the truth.

"Sure," Kelrith laughed, charging towards the undead with surprising speed, it wasn't much of a difference but he was faster than most humans were at running and covered the gap between Astrai and the undead in a moment. Like his friend the wolf felt like he had been handling a blade all his life and easily brought it down on a skeleton, cleaving it from shoulder to hip with one fell swoop. He was satisfied when the creature's health rapidly fell to zero but was surprised by the angry red and pixilated line that was cut down the undead's body. He glanced to the side, looking to the undead that Astrai had by now loosed four arrows into and saw similar markings on the enemy, where Astrai's arrows were sticking out of its body.

Kelrith blinked when he felt a small twinge come from the back of his paw and looked down to see another line on the back of his paw, clearly put there by the undead that just took a swipe at him. So they were damage lines that could come in handy.

Puzzle solved, Kelrith ended the undead that had the gall to try and kill him, cutting the empty skull from its equally empty body.

Having felled the first one he'd turned into a pincushion, Astrai backed up and moved his attention to one moving towards Kelrith, losing an arrow into its head and sending it down straight away. "Looks like crits are a thing!" he called out.

"Yeah!" Kelrith said, ducking under a slow swing while thrusting up towards the undead's head, again the creature died in one strike. "I think it scales damage depending on where you hit, that first one I killed I cut it almost in half body wise. Which is also awesome, means the game's more realistic now."

With a little grunt, Astrai shot his last arrow into the final skeleton's head; at such close range, it wasn't a difficult shot to hit. "Yep. I'm certainly not complaining."

"Easy criticals," Kelrith was distracted when he saw the exp rewards floating above the dead undead... Yeah that sounds stupid no matter how you look at it. He did take note of how his exp bar was over half full though. "So shall we hunt? There's only an hour for us to play after all before they shut down and run their server checks."

"Sure, sounds good to me," Astrai nodded, notching another arrow with a smirk. "Let's see what we can do."

Kelrith smirked, swinging his sword around in a wild flourish before blinking and pointing behind Astrai. "Look... Zombies."

"Zombies?" Astrai swiveled around before his eyes opened in horror at the creatures lumbering towards them, arms outstretched in a manner that made the nature of the enemy obvious. "Shit. I signed up for Minotaur's, not for this."

"Oh lizard up," Kelrith laughed, charging towards the coming horde with glee, he didn't care if it was undead, zombies, Minotaur's or dragons. He was going to rule this world. With an almost sadistic glee Kelrith let himself go, going off of the instincts that the system was pumping into him and enjoying the ride.

"Lizard up," Astrai muttered, shaking his head as Kelrith ran off, before lifting his bow up again and starting to get some target practice in on the slow moving zombies. "Just wait until we reach the enemies that can actually fight back."

"I can't wait!" Kelrith yelled happily, cutting down another zombie. Somewhere in the midst of slaying the horde both of them leveled up twice, but neither of them had time to celebrate when another wave of zombies came from around another crypt. "Not that I'm complaining but their respawn system seems a little unfair."

"Maybe it's just to let people level up quickly in the spawn area," Astrai suggested, frowning.

"Yeah, be nice if we could spend out skill points though," Kelrith muttered, he was actually breathing a little hard now. He had noticed a stamina stat earlier but he had been more concerned about finding Astrai then looking through the attributes page. He'd have to make sure to invest in that stat. "Well either way. COME ON!"

With that the wolf charged back into the fray, smiling the entire time as he felt blood pump through his veins in a deafening drum beat.

The pair spent most of the next hour fending off waves of zombies, undead, even the occasional giant rat, something Kelrith did not want to repeat. They were close to being level seven when the announcement horn went off again, signaling the end of the session. Kelrith was sat on top of a tombstone, panting for air but still smiling.

"This is... going to... be epic," Kelrith gasped, waving a paw to bring up the menu to log out. "I'll ring you when I get back."

Astrai did the same thing with the menu, though he took care to teasingly pat Kelrith on the chest as he hovered over the logout button. "Sounds good. I'll be waiting eagerly."

Kelrith growled playfully, honestly surprised he could even make the noise before he logged out, his character slowly dissolving into tiny particles of light.

****

The conversation between the two friends was short and mainly full of childish squeals and screams about how cool the game was and how much they were going to play it. Aside from that the two matched up their schedules for the next few weeks and worked out how much gaming time they actually had before ending their phone call. Ian had work to do and Jak wanted to get onto the forums to see what he could find out about the game.

According to this no one was actually able to leave the starting area, there were a few forums with complaints, apparently some people didn't like just how 'real' it felt but Jak dismissed that. The point of VR was for that real experience, most people agreed with his point of view in some form or another as well.

There was quite a bit about the game posted by the developers, the class systems explained but the in game details kept quiet so people would be surprised, the party and guild system was better explained. Being in a party granted you bonus experience, an extra percent for each member with a maximum of six, but being a part of a guild gave you extra exp and damage resistance. Apparently guilds could buy buildings and own property, doing so would give all guild members more bonuses, and even a few extra abilities. Also if you were in a party with guild members then the exp bonus was doubled.

"Damn, big guilds are going to be so OP," Jak muttered, he wondered if he could convince Ian to help him make a big time guild, that was something he always wanted to try after all. They should have enough time to managed one. 'God this game is going to be so epic."

It was a few hours later when Jak finally went to bed, his mind spinning with the possibilities of what was possible.

****

Jak's second experience at being spawned was far less pleasant than his first time, so much so that it left the wolf throwing up bile once he was fully spawned. The foul reek of his own stomach acid almost had he make it a double act. The nauseating feeling from the spawn was not quite so easily suppressed however and Jak quickly collapsed, curling into a small ball to make the world stop spinning.

He was so distressed that he didn't have time to think about where exactly he was, or why he was covered in the fur of Jak, his World's Grave character, before an agony cut through his thoughts and repelled even the nausea. The wolf snarled out of instinct and glared down at the axe that was now embedded into his thigh courtesy of one undead skeleton that was in the process of pulling said axe out of his thigh to put in him somewhere else.

Running on the pain, Jak lashed out with his good leg, knocking the undead down and struggling to get up himself. He may be temporarily free from nausea but he was by no means stable, especially when the feeling of hot blood running down his leg brought the world to a grinding halt. Blood? Where was the damage line?

Jak had connected a few dots and now knew where he was thanks to the upbeat decor but he still didn't know how or why there was blood running down his leg. The last thing he remembered was reading up on the forums for World's Grave before hitting the rack. He was certain that he hadn't even touched the ARC net. Even if he had, why was there blood?

Was it a dream? No, there was too much, too much pain, too much feeling for it to be a dream, no dream could be like this. Jak was brought staggering back to reality when he felt something stab into his lower back. A panicked glance showed it to be another undead with a small dagger, the bastard had silently slipped up behind him. Without having to look Jak could see his health draining, he had to do something.

The wolf snarled, he wasn't going to just die quietly. That thought was derailed when an arrow embedded itself into his right shoulder, making his drop his sword out of pure shock and pain. His health drained a little more, but by now Jak was too busy trying to get his pain under control to notice the undead with the axe had by now got back up and was swinging towards him. The end was quick for him.

****

Jak gasped when he finally came back around and jerked up and off of the altar he was on top of. The wolf felt nowhere near as sick as he did the first time he spawned but some of the disorientation was still there.

"What the hell!" Jak screamed, running his paw over his legs. They were gone, the wounds were gone. The wolf took a deep calming breath, there had to be an explanation for this, there had to be one. He was in World's Grave, that much was obvious, he didn't remember putting the ARC net gear back on but then again it was right next to his bed so it wasn't too far out of the question. As for the pain, there had been a little before it could just be a glitch, in any case he had had enough, a good strong drink and something nonviolent was in order right now. Jak brought up the menu and went to logout when he saw it, or rather it was he didn't see that scared him. "Where are they?|

They were gone, the settings, preferences and most importantly the logout button was gone, just gone. Jak looked around the room he was in, this had to be a mistake, this had to be...

"Oh shit."

****

So let me know what you guys think, it's been a while since I posted anything.

Comments are love :)