Biography - Legend

[Legend]

I started to play 9Dragons at the Open Beta. My very first character was a Wu-Tang, warrior if memory serves. I was a totally noob back then, and I had absolutely no idea what the attributes were for, so I thought it would be good enough if I would put my Chi Points at everything, so that all my attributes had the same amount. Naturally, it was very difficult to grind and to level up, nonetheless I made it to level Raising Light 5. This level was pretty high back then, when the level cap was at Sun and Moon (if memory serves).

I played 9Dragons with a real life friend of mine, and I've noticed that he was able to survive better than me. When I asked him about it, he asked me how I've skilled my character. After showing him my attributes, he lol'd. He explained me what each attribute stands for, and how I should skill my warrior.

The vagabond character "Legend" was created in 2007 and was my second character ever. The character was supposed to become a high level vagabond which I would play when I would be bored with my clan characters, since there was no level cap for a vagabond which would force the player to join a clan. Furthermore, it was supposed to stay vagabond forever - after all, if I would want a clan character, I still had two other character slots. However; When I started to play the game as a clanless, I enjoyed it. I was the weakest of all, I was ks'ed all the time, and people loved to pk me in Bloody Plain and The Cave of The Conqueror, but when I was grinding, I loved it. And so, this clanless character became fast my main character.

Before starting a vagabond character I did read the story pieces which were on Acclaim's websites. And indeed, The Vagabond was the most awesome. The Hero who was credited with ending the war of the nine dragons. The clanless Dragon who was skilled in strange ways of Chi Kung and Kung Fu. Some day I thought to myself "How cool would it be if he would be somewhere in-game?" So I suggested this idea at Acclaim's Suggestion forum.

Legend began his travel in the white clan's maps. But there, the most people disliked me for playing a vagabond and laughed about it; Only few had respect for it and wished me luck. One day, I had enough of other people's judgement and wanted to give it a try in the black clan's maps. Black clans had a bad reputation (because they were and still are today considered as "bad" clans by noobs), but I wanted to give it a try anyway. When I started to grind there, I was fast surprised. There, it was quite the opposite: The most people had respect for me for playing a vagabond, and only few laughed about it. Since then, I only grinded in Black Clan's maps.

When I became level Raising Light, what was still a high level at this time, many people were amazed. Nice, how the most of them were, the people said kind things to me. Some said "You're really a legend" (I thanked them for their kindness, but in fact I disagreed - I did not consider myself as a legend yet). Others were so amazed that they even said "You're the son of The Vagabond!" I was very amazed by these kind words I rarely heard in White Clan's maps, and I began to think "It would be cool if I would write a story about this character... But he needs a purpose... Hm... Son of The Vagabond... No, not the son, but Legend shall indeed be looking for him."

I indeed began to search and to look everywhere I was able to go without to die. The higher level I became, the more I was able to investigate. I became very ambitious, because I wanted to find The Vagabond very badly. It would indeed be a honor to finally find this person in-game, for me as a true vagabond (I say "true" because it was my main character).

For those of you who think now "This guy is sick, this is all just fictional!", then think about it: You're right. Everything in this game is fictional. Every character, yours as well. So you might as well just go with it, create your own story and have fun with it. It's nothing bad, and it doesn't harm anyone.

After a long time of searching and being so ambitiously, and after realizing that I was the only vagabond around who actually cared enough for the game story and especially for the legendary nameless warrior who ended the war of the nine dragons, I began to think about what some of the people called me... "Son of The Vagabond". After a few days I liked the idea more and more, and after a few weeks I've decided to take this title. This was the moment when I've decided to be a respectful person as Legend, and to help people who deserve help.

Many months passed, and the vagabond journey became harder. Back then, there were no defense clothes, no ornaments from the Cave Hawker, and especially no leech parties. All what vagabonds had was the vagabond clothes from the Choice of Fate, Valley of Hell and luckily the Silver Mansion/Wild Tower dungeons. I say "luckily" because these were the dungeons where the so-called vagabond HP hat dropped, what helped of course. The Beast Tower and Golden Coins Mansion dungeons did not exist yet at this time. The most crappy thing about the clothes was that the vagabond jackets and pants did only have 3 pockets, so vagabonds were only able to equip max. 6 relics.

One day, when I was at my real life friend's place to play together, when he took a break and did something else on the PC, he suddenly said to me: "Hey, do you know who this is?" If memory serves, I was in a cof or voh dungeon run at this moment, looked at his screen and saw some forum or website with a screenshot of an NPC who looked exactly like The Vagabond from the story. I asked "Is this The Vagabond?!" and he answered grinning "Yes." I've never wanted to end a dungeon run as fast as at this time. But I was there to help, so I stayed patient and hoped that the dungeon run would go as fast as possible, with as little problems as possible. When we were done with the dungeon run, I was finally able to take a look at The Vagabond NPC. I asked my friend "Where is he?!" and he answered "In CC4." I said "I have to go there!", and my friend explained "But the mobs there are very strong. You won't survive the trip there." I asked "How strong?" and he replied "Hm... CC4, EC~CS"

"Damn..." I thought. I would not survive it - But at least I finally knew where he was. I wanted to level up to go down there, but I lost my patience pretty fast. In the evening I've decided to screw the idea of becoming high enough for CC4 first and went down there. I remember that I was in a party with my friend and a few others, and we were all grinding in The Cave. My friend gave me the idea of leveling up first and to go then down, since one can lose experience but not lose a level by dying. I grinded as fast as I was able to, and after leveling up I began to run down. I asked my friend where to go, but he told me that he was never farther than CC2, furthermore The Cave of The Conqueror did not have any map yet. My friend took my keyboard over and ran through the maze. Inside of it, he saw some people, held there and asked where to go. A Chi Kung Artist aka Nuker began to attack my character - classic behaviour - but luckily my friend knew a Loss of Sign spot right there, where the nuker was not able to attack my character. My friend kept talking to another person who was there, short time after he ran again. After he found the entrance of CC3, he gave me the keyboard back and said "Now it's up to you".

I ran through CC3, and of course I died a lot. Luckily one is able to choose "revive here", so I just stood up and kept searching. I was the first time there, and I admit I was lost, but after a while I found the entrance to CC4. When I was there, I just began to run. I did not even have to search for long - I saw an NPC far away and ran there, soon I've noticed it was, at last, The Vagabond himself. Everything was just like the pictures of The Vagabond - The cape, the hat, the sword, the bow, the bottle, the dress... Yes, it was indeed THE Vagabond. I said to my friend "I FOUND HIM!!!" and wrote in the party the same. The people there asked "Found who?" and I said "The Vagabond!" I've explained shortly that I was looking for him and that this was the reason why I kept my vagabond character up, and I even remember the nice feedback of one of the party, "What a noble purpose for starting a vagabond"

It might be childrish, but I had to enjoy this moment. I sat down in front of this NPC and began to write to him. Yes, I had fun, and I even laughed about myself doing so. I can even remember when I wrote "Father, I finally found you!" another player nearby replying "?" I made some screenshots, then I was happy and went back to Bloody Plain.

Soon, I began to meet other vagabonds. They were rare, but existed. The first vagabond I've met was ---V---. I've always heard about him, but was never able to meet him. One day, I was playing at my friends place, my friend was with his character in The Cave of The Conqueror and saw ---V--- running around. He told me "Hey, that V vagabond guy is in CC". I whispered him, but he didn't reply me. So I ran with my vagabond to The Cave (from Datong with my basic lightfoot). My friend checked the level with "Brief Info" - He was Five Dragons something. I thought to myself "Oh hell yes! Another vagabond, and even around my level!"

While I was running, my friend tried to keep looking where ---V--- was, but in the maze of The Cave, he lost him. I went through Bloody Plain into The Cave and looked for him, but we could not find him anymore. After some searching, my friend gave up and went back up to Bloody Plain. I stayed in The Cave and kept trying to find him.

Some minutes later, my friend said: "He's in BP! Black Clan side!" I ran back up to Bloody Plain to the Black Clans side, and there he was standing. At the front, in the save zone of the Black Clan entrance. I went into the save zone as well and stood some steps away from him. He was a vagabond, but he wore a Beggar's Swallow Garment. I whispered him again, told him I am a vagabond too. After a while, he responded very friendly: "Hey, nice to meet you" We started to share our experience and opinions and talked about being a vagabond, about our level, our clothes, our weapon, our hats & shoes (if slotted or not), our chi points, and so on. But one thing fascinated me: His Beggars Deco. The Swallow Garment looks a lot like The Vagabond's dress, and I would love to wear it as well. So I asked: "How did you do that? How can I do that too?" He answered me: "This was a bug, but I think Acclaim fixed it already" (sure, why not... let Indy21 fix deco bugs instead of more important ones...). He told me anyway how it used to work, and I went to Tianjin and bought the right Beggar Deco at the Peddler. I tried, and tried, and tried, but it just didn't want to work. I hoped that I could really look similar to The Vagabond himself, but it just didn't work. Disappointed, I went back to BP to V and told him. After talking a bit more, I offered him to grind together, but he told me that he would not really grind his vagabond anymore, just very rarely. However, we added each other on the friendslist.

Some time later, after the North Sea map was implemented, I heard rumors about a "very strong" vagabond. Rumors said, he would be level Crimson Snake. I tried to find out his nickname, to try to whisper him or at least to send him a Pigeongram, but I just could find out nothing. I just hoped that he would not be arrogant because he achieved such a big level as vagabond.

My friend was a demon and was in a black clan league which I will not name here. However, they had their own forum where they talked and chatted about 9Dragons, and so it happened that they talked in their forum about Vagrant, the "CS level vagabond". My friend told me his nickname, and I tried from time to time to whisper him. Days passed, and I was never able to whisper him - either he was offline or did not exist. So I started to think "Nah, that guy isn't real. Must be a joke from those clan members..." but I kept trying to whisper Vagrant anyway, in the hope that he would be real. I remember, when I wanted to try to whisper him again, how I was thinking to myself "I will stop soon to try it, if he keeps being unable to whisper". But exactly then - no error message. I sat up and looked at the chat window - still no error message. I was like "Yes! He's online!"

Vagrant didn't respond. I was unpatient and wanted to keep asking if he's there, but I thought I could be a bit calmer. I didn't want to spam him, that would just lower my chances to get a reply. After a while I wrote "I heard you are a vagabond. Is that true? I am a vagabond too". But still no reply. I waited a long while again, and I was like "wtf why is he ignoring me?" and whispered him: "Hey are you there?" Short time later he replied: "Hello". I was glad to see him answering at last. So I said again: "I heard you are a vagabond. Is that true?" He replied: "Yes ^^" I wrote: "Cool, I'm a vagabond too " He was surprised and nice: "Wow that's cool ^^" I asked for his level, and it turned out that he was ALMOST CS. He was Floral Crown 8 or something. But still - I was only Five Dragons, and I considered this as "high" for a vagabond. I was very glad to see somebody who made it almost to level Crimson Snake. We had a very long talk. I asked him my questions, about being a vagabond, and asked for tips. He answered me how he did it, and asked me some questions too. We even talked about the clan members. It was as if being a Vagabond was an own group, no, role in this game. At the end, I asked him if I could add him as friend, and he just said: "Sure thing ^^" From then on, I considered Vagrant as something like a Master of Legend. I was very impressed about how neutral Vagrant was.

We kept writing to each other and to share our experience and opinions, but I wanted to meet him in-game. I asked him if we could meet sometime. He answered: "Then I have to run a long while" I asked why, and he told me he was grinding in North Sea. I was very amazed that he was already able to grind in North Sea. However, we were able to set a meeting place at the Hangzhou entrance in Liaodong - I barely made it there. I waited some time, then a yellow name with epithet appeared! But then I saw: Vagrant was a female character. I was first very surprised because I expected a male character, because "Vagrant" sounds like a male name. I was asking myself, if "he" was actually a she, and for the record, the player was indeed a guy. However, he said: "Nice epi. I didn't get that one." I had my Killer of Shen Mo epithet on, and I felt honored that such a high level vagabond gives me compliments. I wanted to help him to get the epithet as well, since I've also helped already a few clan members to get it, But it turned out that Vagrant was already too high level to be able to attack him.

We started to talk and had again a long chat. He showed me his clothes: His jacket and pants had each 4 pockets, without attributes. The CoF & VOH dungeon clothes did only have 3 pockets each, and some attributes. So, with 2 more pockets to use, I could get much more than with the attributes the CoF and VoH clothes could give me. I asked him where he got these clothes from, and he told me it was a drop from the Wild Tower and Silver Mansion dungeons, but that they didn't drop anymore since a long time, he said. I started to use roars and to ask for them, but all the people gave me comments like "4 pocket vagabond clothes don't exist" - But I SAW them! Others gave me the 3 pocket vagabond clothes from Wild Tower/Silver Mansion. I still don't have any idea if they really were once a drop from these dungeons, but I couldn't find them.

I liked the idea of vagabonds being something like an own group. In the meantime I had met already a few other vagabonds, even if they were all lower than me. During the talk with Vagrant at the entrance to Hangzhou in Liaodong, he told me about an idea he had, to do one day. He wanted to clear the whole Bloody Plain with an entire vagabond army. At this time, I was lately thinking about creating a vagabond guild. We could not have an own Band in-game, but we could have a forum. And if we would get enough members, we would even be able to successfully request Acclaim to have our own Band/League. I liked the name "Brotherhood of Vagabonds" a lot, because I wanted to have people in the guild who help each other, but I didn't want to use it because there was a similar named clan, the Brotherhood of Thieves.

Vagrant was rarely online. The last time I saw him online before creating the vagabond guild I asked him what he thought about this idea - He liked it a lot. Sadly, I was not really able to ask Vagrant about a name for the guild, because I've forgot to do so when I've told him about the idea. I thought about our conversation, and then I remembered Vagrant's words and chose the name "Vagabond Army". I set up a new forum, created the sub-forums and categories for the very first 9Dragons vagabond guild ever, also being a community forum for all vagabond players, no matter if they were members or not.

More will follow soon...