So, you see your classmates play 4X games while
awaiting the teacher to arrive, these classmates
of yours with pallid, pale skin and suffer from being
nasal, socially-awkward virgins writing terrible
stories about nuclear weapons and Shadowmen.

Enter the hot Goth chick who walks in with her
cherry red laptop and her confident stride, above
the lowly peons where she sits and broods out of
the window as she awaits her laptop to boot up.

The teacher calls in sick, and it has become a free
period of relaxation. Your nerdy classmates revel
in their hollow victory. The girl simply groans.
Everyone is seen on Steam on their laptops, playing
Civilization V and Civilization: Beyond Earth.

You wade through the list of classmates online when
something catches your eye. _Summer-Rain_ is now
logged in, playing a strange game that you've never
even heard of before this day.

Endless Legend.

You glance at your Gothic princess, whom you catch
looking at you from behind her cherry red laptop.
She averts her eyes, _Summer-Rain_ having been
exposed stealing glances at you. Your heart flutters,
and you gulp down, thinking this may be your chance
for _Summer-Rain_...

You are soon $35.00 poorer as you hope and pray
to whatever dark deity your Gothic princess worships
that the school's pathetic internet connection will
download the game in time before class ends, and it
is as if the demonic forces grant you a full installation.

You enter Endless Legend and quickly scan through
the factions, eight in total:

Wild Walkers (Elves)
Broken Lords (Cool-looking ghost-mummies)
Necrophages (Undead insects)
Ardent Mages (Goths obsessed with self-harm)
Drakken (Dragons)
Cultists (Overzealous, religious cyborgs)
Roving Clans (Arab-Jew Hybrids)
and the Vaulters (The only sane-looking people)

You play it safe and pick the Vaulters.
Even the game tells you they're the best faction
to learn. You have your faction and you join the
open game that _Summer-Rain_ is currently in.

The hexagon tiles rise up and the world loads
before your eyes. You are bombarded with a
never-ending series of information windows and
funny-looking symbols which denote what you
will learn later are the resources of the game,
which are:

Dust (Gold or money of Endless Legend)
Science (Used for research purposes)
Industry (To make your units and upgrade cities)
Food (pretty self-explanatory)
along with a slew of Luxury Resources which are
used for advanced weapons and technologies.

Endless Legend is turn-based, meaning everything
done on a player's turn is crucial. Researching the
wrong technology over a period of turns and not
paying attention to the one you needed would be
disastrous, in addition to not being able to manage
one's economy effectively would lead to the player's
empire to implode upon itself.

After the first 10 turns _Summer-Rain_ appears,
using the Ardent Mages, to no one's surprise.
She hammers upon your fledgling city with an army
using combined-arms tactics, but you are wise to
have fielded a smaller second army and crush her
would-be invasion force.

As you divide and conquer your forces to have one
army go after _Summer-Rain_'s Capital and another
army complete the randomly-generated, scripted
quests which inhabit the world to pursue your Quest
Victory condition, _Summer-Rain_ was hard at work
throwing everything she had into research and began
the construction of a Wonder.

The tides turned with her on the defensive but having
an advantage in building a Wonder this early, you howl
and wail with a succession of armies you continue to
field, even diverting your Questing army to break
through _Summer-Rain_'s territory and assail the city
where her Wonder is being built.

But you are unsure of the exact location and which
city the Wonder is being built at, and before long your
defeat is heralded when your screen is replaced with
the beautifully-illustrated image of an Ardent Mage
standing proudly with the Wonder in the distance.

You slam your fist into your table and your nerdy
classmates glance worriedly before going back to
their futile game of colonizing a small moon as you
hang your head down in shame.

The free period over, everyone packs up and wants
to leave for the next class. You are about to fold
away your laptop when _Summer-Rain_ approaches
you, looking radiant and beautiful.

She smiles and tells you that for a beginner you
weren’t all that bad and that she was going easy on
you. You manage a smile in response, fighting back
your nerves as you tell her that you were intrigued by
Endless Legend and that you swear you didn't read
the on-the-fly descriptions of how to play the game.

_Summer-Rain_ walks past you toward the door
and tells you that she would love to talk to you
all about Endless Legend and the newly-released
Guardians expansion for the game over lunch after
school. Her scent interrupts your logic, her eyes
tease you and her lips smile sincerely.

"You coming?" _Summer-Rain_ calls out.

You nearly stumble over your own words.
"Only if I get to play Endless Legend with you."

She smiles again, nodding.

"I was hoping you'd say that.
It's a date then."

You would go on to date her,
and ultimately, marry her.
The girl of your dreams.
The love of your life.
username _Summer-Rain_

Indeed, love is truly endless.

Endless Legend.