《Ithavoll Saga》 Chapter 1 - Welcome to Ithavoll
Welcome to Ithavoll! The challenges we overcome give us meaning! Fight well! The fate of your species depends on it!
¡®Well, that statement isn¡¯t ominous at all.¡¯ The errant thought came to Daniel as he read the blue box floating in front of him. ¡®Just how did I get here? Where is here? Whose AROs are these?¡¯ ¡°Hey new blood. Grab some gear and move out to join your team. They need to get going and trust me, you don¡¯t want to be known as someone who drags his feet.¡± The voice seemed urgent but not impatient, and it was clear to Daniel that the man was talking to him. Dismissing the box that popped up,the young man focused on his surroundings. He was in a tall tent of some sort, wearing coarse clothing. In front of him was a man organizing equipment. To the right of him were piles of neatly folded leather armor and to the left were racks of weapons. Daniel glanced at the man with a puzzled expression. The man sighed and shook his head, ¡°Young man, you are obviously new here. I don¡¯t have time to explain to you your full situation. Rather you don¡¯t have time for me to do that. So just do what I say. Trust me on this ok?¡± The man¡¯s voice was quite earnest and he had an open and benevolent expression on his face so Daniel nodded his assent. This caused the man to give him a weak smile before thrusting a set of armor into his hand, ¡°Ok, take this set of armor here and put it on. Do not worry about the size. Here in the first zone they will change shape to fit you.¡± Daniel glanced around to find a place to change but stopped when he heard a sigh, ¡°You don¡¯t have time for modesty. Change now. While you are doing that I will get you the basic weapons for the light infantry division.¡± Embarrassed, he began to inexpertly equip the armor. After a while, the other man came along and started helping him. He shifted the pads, and fastened the straps. ¡°Young man, you will want to get used to this as quickly as possible. Equipping your armors efficiently will become an important skill for you in the future. Do not worry about it for now, though, you don¡¯t have time to practice this and you are not likely to in the near future. ¡°There. Done. Here, strap this dagger here, and hold tight to this spear. Now hurry along and join your team. Do your best to survive kid. If you make it through the day come find me in the camp tonight and I will tell you the rest of what you need to know. If you don¡¯t, well, I will see you tomorrow.¡± With that enigmatic statement, the older man pushed him out of the tent. Daniel was incredulous, ¡®What was that all about. If I don¡¯t make it through the day, he¡¯ll see me tomorrow. And why am I in a tent in the middle of an encampment being ordered to join a team of soldiers clearly running off to battle? Is one of my friends screwing with me? Did someone hook me into a Full Dive while I was sleeping in the dorms?¡¯ Daniel checked his peripheral vision for any Head Up Displays that may indicate that he was in a game. He saw none of the ones particular to his own Personal Assistant Artificial Intelligence customization, but he saw something in the bottom right of his vision that when focused on raised some form of in game status screen. More concerned about finding an options menu and more specifically an exit option, he ignored the status and pop ups associated with that. Finding nothing of the sort, he followed his gaming logic and assumed that he may gain access to something like that by hitting a milestone in the game. While he wasn¡¯t as nitpicky about games as some of his friends, he had always hated milestone based save game locations and options menus from before the rise of Virtual Reality, and now experiencing it in what appeared to be a Full Dive game was particularly annoying. Daniel started grumbling to himself, this kind of situation was too vicious for most of his friends, leaving only Jason. But really what fool would design a game like this in the first place? Full Dives were required to have easy to access escape commands by law. This was one of the firmest limitations the Peacekeeping Authority had placed on Virtual Reality makers since the creation of the first Full Dive games. ¡®Knowing Jason, though, he isn¡¯t the type to do something this reckless and not participate in it personally. Let¡¯s just play his game for now and see what happens.¡¯ Coming to that conclusion, Daniel looked around at the camp as he exited the tent with the man that behaved like a quartermaster. To the left and right, the large campaign tents stretched as far as the eye could see, but in front of him were four people dressed in a similar get up to his own.Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. These four were three men and one woman. One of the men had slightly better gear than the rest of them with a decent sword instead of the dagger Daniel had gotten. His armor seemed a grade better as well. Following the ¡®Dead Collector Method of Deduction¡¯ Daniel concluded that this fellow was the leader. The other three''s equipment only varied from Daniel¡¯s in size and degree of wear. The leader looked over at Daniel as he approached and spoke, ¡°Ah, our new blood has arrived. Good that you have come, I am your team lead, Tian Dong, and these are Eric, Chris, and Natalia.¡± The young man nodded to them before speaking, ¡°Daniel Cook.¡± The others introduced themselves, but Daniel noticed a strange, almost standoffish like attitude from them. Smiling politely, Tian Dong ignored the awkwardness, ¡°I am sure you have questions but we don¡¯t have time to answer them. If we survive long enough to talk at our leisure, I will try to do my best to clear up any questions you have at that point. ¡°For now though, I will just give you a few pointers. Just stay close to us and attack what we attack. Try not to get killed and don¡¯t fall behind. Finally, get in the habit of moving with urgency. While it can be excused due to your unfamiliarity with our situation, it will save us all a lot of hardship if you get in the habit of hustling to wherever you need to be. Got it?¡± Daniellistened to the man and nodded. Three out of five of these so called pointers seemed linked so he assumed that in this other man¡¯s eyes, moving with urgency was quite possibly the most important instruction of the bunch. ¡°Yes, stay close, attack who you attack, don¡¯t die, don¡¯t fall behind, and hustle.¡± The man looked him up and down before continuing, ¡°I really do wish we had more time, the first few days are always the worst for the new bloods. Just live through the morning and we will have a real chance to talk then. If not, well, there¡¯s always tomorrow. Natalia, keep an eye on him for me. Let¡¯s go.¡± Tian Dong set off at a brisk pace, not quite running but moving as close to a run you could get while walking. Daniel kept up, while looking around to see more of the encampment as they went through it.After several moments of hustling, they made it to the edge of the camp and exited the gates. A wide valley stretched out in front of them, with small forests dotted around the terrain and a small river cutting through it. Directly in front of them were ranks upon ranks of other soldiers like them, all in the dyed black leather they were wearing. Daniel saw flags standing from every formation but couldn¡¯t read them as they appeared to be in Chinese or some other east asian language. Quickly, their team made their way to one of the light infantry formations in the center left. Seeing the thousands upon thousands of soldiers arrayed in this formation, Daniel was amazed at the scale of this game. He had seen games that looked almost this realistic before, but never with this much scale. He could just imagine the processing power and throughput necessary for this many models to be accurately shown in the simulation. Now in position, he took a moment to survey the field. On this side was the army he was attached to, while he was no master at estimating troop sizes, he guessed from the formations he saw that there were easily a hundred thousand people in this army. The front formations were similar to his own, all light infantry with leather and spears. Behind them were crossbowmen and heavy infantry, with the rear of the army and the far flanks made up of cavalry of different sorts. The enemy force was on the other side of the field. Daniel couldn¡¯t quite make out what their unit composition was and his attempts to estimate their numbers was foiled by how disordered they were, but he could tell easily that the enemy force was smaller than theirs, perhaps only half their force¡¯s size. While he felt that the numbers difference should give him a sense of confidence, the tension he felt coming off of the soldiers around him did the opposite. There was one more thing. After spending a summer on construction crews, he was a good judge of distance and estimating the size of things. Right now if he had to guess, those enemies on the other side of the field were easily eight feet tall and with the sheer mass on them, they would be well over three hundred pounds. ¡°Just what¡­¡± He blurted out as realization dawned on him, but he was quickly answered by Natalia. ¡°Orcs, they are bigger and stronger than us on average, but they aren¡¯t particularly smart and are chaotic by nature. This means they don¡¯t use formations or particularly in depth strategies. A group of five of us using spears can take a normal orc down pretty effectively.¡± She said, pausing a moment before deciding to say a bit more. ¡°Don¡¯t try to block an axe swing, just get out of the way. Noone¡¯s expecting anything much out of you, just do your part and try your best to stay alive, understand?¡± Daniel nodded in confirmation before she dropped a bomb on him. ¡°Also, if I get badly injured during the fighting, finish me off quickly. I don¡¯t want to lie there in pain until someone finally decides to give me that mercy. Do that for any of the other light infantry. We would do the same for you.¡± ¡°Wait, what?¡± Chapter 2 - Mercy Soon Daniel heard the beating of the drums from within the camp. He glanced back to see a flag being waved from a tower at the entrance to the camp. Tian Dong tapped his shoulder and when he had his attention pointed forward. ¡°The flags are instructions for the leaders of the different formations. We don¡¯t need to worry about them. We only need to worry about the instructions we get from our leaders. Until you learn what is important to focus on, focus on what¡¯s in front of you. You¡¯ll live longer. Got it?¡± Daniel nodded. Tian Dong laughed, ¡°Good, just stick with us. We¡¯ll do our best to keep you alive until we can give you the explanation you need.¡± Daniel once again looked out across the valley in front of him to see the Orcs had started to move. In one massive tide they swarmed down towards the river. Shortly after that, their own formation received its orders and along with roughly half of the other light infantry formations began to move forwards themselves. Daniel didn¡¯t understand half of the orders they were given but he knew that he just had to stay with his team so it simplified his actions. At first they moved forward at a brisk walk, but then they increased their pace to a jog. Finally, shortly after they came into the valley itself they increased their pace once again. Daniel heard what seemed like a crashing sound that turned into a series of impacts, howls, screams, and shouts. Coming over a rise, he saw it. Their formation had come in contact with the front of the orcish horde. There was frenzied fighting where the two groups had come together and already there were corpses on the ground. The orcs fought with ferocity, jostling each other to arrive at the front and kill their enemies. On the other side, the humans fought in their five man teams, bringing their spears to bear on one or two orcs at a time, ensuring that through their teamwork they brought their opponents down. When a team looked like it was in a precarious position, they would swap with the team behind them to rest. Like a well oiled machine, the light infantry formation engaged the orcs this way. Even with their teamwork the orc¡¯s strength and ferocity was still not to be underestimated as casualties were inflicted on both sides. To bring down even one orc, the humans had to trade on of their own. Sometimes up to two or three would go down. It wasn¡¯t long before it was Daniel¡¯s turn. His team moved forward to replace a team that had just lost its right forward. The orcs tried to exploit the moment where the two teams were switching out, but Tian Dong stabbed the first orc in the gut with his spear. It was only now that Daniel noticed that these orcs were practically unarmored. It didn¡¯t help him much because the things easily towered over him. Natalia followed Tian Dong in. The orc had been stunned by the power of Tian Dong¡¯s attack, so she quickly stabbed it through its now gaping mouth. Daniel saw the spear go out of the back of its head. On the right side, Eric and Chris both targeted the second orc to push forward. Their attacks were only effective in drawing a little blood but it was still pushed back, stilling the advance of the orcs on that side. Daniel attempted to mimic them, using the skills he had gained in fighting games, he took his stance and stabbed his spear towards an orc coming in from the left of their team. With growing trepidation and horror, he watched as the spear glanced harmlessly across its flank and an axe blade filled his vision.
You have died! Assessing death penalty. Character level 0. Penalty: -0 levels, 1 night.
Welcome Daniel. Your death penalty has been completed. You have lost 0 levels and1 night. It is now morning. Fight hard! Your species depends on it!
Derek looked around and saw that he was in the same tent he had been in the last time he woke in this place. The quartermaster looked at him with a slight frown, ¡°Well young man, it¡¯s to be expected. It will take you a while to get used to being out there. Here, let¡¯s replace your ruined chest piece. Looks like you were cleaved from your shoulder to your navel. That must have been a hell of a sight.¡± The other man helped him take off his ruined chest piece and threw it on a pile of other discarded armors. Derek saw another pile near it of broken weapons. The quartermaster then reached into a shelf and pulled out a replacement for Derek. As he helped him put it on he grumbled, ¡°I have to repair these, you know? So if you won¡¯t keep yourself from getting killed just for the sake of your own well-being then at least do it to save me some work. There, it¡¯s fastened and your other pieces are still in place. Good, head out now. Join your team. This time, don¡¯t die.¡± Daniel nodded numbly as he walked out of the tent. He saw his team waiting for him like they had the day before. They had stiff smiles on their faces as they looked at him. Derek noticed that Chris was now wearing a clean leather chest piece as well now too. ¡®Did that mean he died just like me?¡¯ He didn¡¯t know how he was supposed to feel about that, but a part of him thought that it was slightly less embarrassing now that he knew he wasn¡¯t alone.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Tian Dong looked at him, ¡°Daniel, remember what I said yesterday about attacking what we attack? I mean it. Until you learn how to fight, only attack the enemies that I or Natalia attack. Trust me on this. I am trying to keep you alive here.¡± Daniel hung his head, feeling ashamed, ¡°I am sorry.¡± Tian Dong shook his head at him, ¡°Don¡¯t apologize to me, apologize to yourself. The instructions I gave you were meant to keep you alive. Because you failed to follow them, you died. It was you that suffered because you failed to follow them. I can only do so much for you out there. If you want to live out here, you need to do your part too.¡± ¡°I understand.¡± Daniel said sheepishly. Tian Dong looked at him, ¡°Maybe, maybe not. We will find out. If you get lucky, you will figure it out quickly, if not, it will take years. In the end, it will be you that suffers. Ok, let¡¯s go folks.¡± With that Tian Dong led the team out of the camp and they took their position in the formation. After a short while, the drums began to beat and the flags began to wave. The orcs surged forward on the other side of the valley and shortly afterwards they were ordered to move forward again. Eventually, the two sides collided once again and soon enough it was their turn to start fighting. This time Daniel did everything he could. Because of how effective Tian Dong and Natalia were. He didn¡¯t get very many chances to attack, but every once in a while, the opponent would still be alive but hurt. Daniel would stab forward to try to land a blow, but most often the blow would merely score the tough hide of the orcs he attacked or stop after only a short penetration. Finally, after several times, the spear in his hand managed to strike a place between the orc¡¯s ribs and entered quite deeply into the orc¡¯s upper abdomen. In a rage it spun, yanking the spear out of his hands and Daniel watched once more as an axe closed in on him.
You have died! Assessing death penalty. Character level 0. Penalty: -0 levels, 1 night.
Welcome Daniel. Your death penalty has been completed. You have lost 0 levels and1 night. It is now morning. Fight hard! Your species depends on it!
Daniel stood there in the quartermaster¡¯s tent with a stunned look on his face. The other man looked at him and stood up without saying anything. He removed the ruined leather cap from Daniel¡¯s head and placed another one on his head. He then pushed him out of the tent with a muttered, ¡°Don¡¯t worry boy. You will get the hang of it. Just don¡¯t let it get to you.¡± Daniel stood outside of the tent for a while before he heard his name being called. Tian Dong came over and looked at him, ¡°I know it¡¯s hard, kid, but you need to stay focused. That was bad luck, and you need to get a lot better at using your spear. I don¡¯t know where you learned to use yours like that, but it¡¯s all wrong. Your moves are all flash and no substance. Watch what I do. See this? Push forward from feet to calves, thighs, hips, core, chest, and back muscles, then shoulders, and finally arms. Try that today, and when you stab the enemy, either continue driving through as if you want to knock him down, or twist and pull out so you can back up. Don¡¯t stand and watch him counterattack you. Got it?¡± They had joined the group now. It looked like Tian Dong was the only one that had survived the last fight as the other three all had new armor on. Daniel could no longer feel any better about it. Once they joined up, the five headed back out of the camp to join their formation. The drums beat, the flags waved, the orcs rushed forward, and the humans moved to meet them. Daniel attempted to follow through with what Tian Dong had taught him, but he found focusing on the movements made him slower and his attacks were not timely. Most of the time he missed or ended up stabbing an orc that was already dead, but as the fighting continued he improved. Finally, after TIan Dong and Natalia had both injured an orc in front of them, Daniel stabbed forward with his spear again. This time, the spear caught the orc in its solar plexus and drove up into the lungs and heart. The spear easily penetrated until the metal blade could no longer be seen and as the orc toppled backwards, Daniel was tugged with it. Pulled out of formation, he could only curse his dumb luck as he saw a pair of axes swinging at him. This time, it wasn¡¯t clean. One axe crushed his shoulder and took his arm, while another eviscerated his abdomen causing his intestines to come pouring out.
Congratulations! You have killed a level 1 Orc! Gain 6 experience. Current experience 6/100
Daniel stared at that box blankly as he processed the excruciating pain pouring through his body. He heard the sounds of fighting for a moment, before Natalia grimly stood over him. She shook her head before her spear stabbed into his throat.
You have died! Assessing death penalty. Character level 0. Penalty: -0 levels, 1 night.
Welcome Daniel. Your death penalty has been completed. You have lost 0 levels and1 night. It is now morning. Fight hard! Your species depends on it!
¡®In a way, it really was a mercy, wasn¡¯t it.¡¯ Daniel thought to himself as he found himself in the quartermaster¡¯s tent once again. They changed out his broken armor pieces once again before Daniel once more left the tent. This time, he trudged over to where his team was waiting for him. Daniel looked over at Natalia who wasn¡¯t making eye contact with him. ¡®At least she feels guilty about it.¡¯ ¡°Natalia, thank you,¡± Daniel decided to break the ice. He now knew why they did it. The pain had been real and there was no pain in dying, only the penalties and so far he had lost nothing that he could tell from them. She looked up and nodded, ¡°Just remember to do that for any of the rest of us if the need arises.¡± Chapter 3 - A Bitter Truth Daniel died another four times before something truly new happened. Sometimes he was unlucky, sometimes the opponents were just too strong. In the end, his strength, skill, and experience were just too deficient to keep him alive for long. In fact, he was consistently the first to die. Every morning he would appear in the quartermaster¡¯s tent and within the next few hours he would die once again. It was on the eighth day that something different occurred. They had just entered combat on the front lines when an orc managed to slip in from the left to attack Natalia. Natalia had just lunged in to attack Tian Dong¡¯s target so she was entirely defenseless. Seeing this, Daniel didn¡¯t even think. As the axe came crashing down, he pushed forward with all his might and stabbed the spear deeply into the orc¡¯s gut.
¡®Heroic¡¯ Trait Activated: When attempting a heroic deed greatly increases the effect of the action if action is successful.
Surprised by the notification, Daniel barely noticed that he had successfully stopped the orc¡¯s attack on Natalia. It had been pushed backwards several feet and now she was out of reach of its axe. Unfortunately for him, the axe was still coming down and he was in no position to dodge it. With a sharp pain, his world turned black once again.
You have died! Assessing death penalty. Character level 0. Penalty: -0 levels, 1 night.
Welcome Daniel. Your death penalty has been completed. You have lost 0 levels and one night. It is now morning. Fight hard! Your species depends on it!
Daniel found himself once again in the quartermaster¡¯s tent. The other man just shook his head and traded the replacement pieces Daniel would need. One benefit of dying so frequently is that Daniel had become very talented at doffing and donning the armor. Hustling out of the tent, Daniel ran up to where his team mates had gathered. The three men were looking at him strangely while Natalia kept her head turned away from him. Daniel could tell she was angry so he tried saying something, ¡°Natalia, I oof...¡± With a bunch to the gut, Daniel no longer had anything to say. Natalia looked at him coldly as he curled over his painful stomach, ¡°Don¡¯t do something that stupid again.¡± Daniel waved in surrender while buckled over and trying to catch his breath. Once he had, they made their way once again to their positions in the formation. Within an hour Daniel was once again looking at the same two pop ups.
You have died! Assessing death penalty. Character level 0. Penalty: -0 levels, 1 night.
Welcome Daniel. Your death penalty has been completed. You have lost 0 levels and one night. It is now morning. Fight hard! Your species depends on it!
One week later, Daniel hit another milestone. He had managed to live for a little over three hours The fighting had been brutal but Daniel had managed to hold on. Chris had died just moments prior and the team had become two pairs, each targeting a single orc at a time. While Tian Dong and Eric worked on the right, Daniel followed Natalia¡¯s movements. An orc lunged forward at the two of them and Natalia¡¯s spear threatened it¡¯s face. The thing pulled back slightly, using its axe to block. Seeing the opportunity Daniel stabbed forward, striking its exposed gut. More practiced than before, he twisted the spear then withdrew, leaving the injured orc to flail its axe harmlessly at the location he had just been in. The wild swing left it defenseless and Natalia lunged forward to stab her spear in between two of its ribs. The orc was left struggling, attempting to grab the spear from Natalia¡¯s hands even as frothy blood came from its mouth. Daniel seized this moment to stab forward again, this time targeting its throat.
Congratulations! You have killed a level 2 Orc! Gain 7 experience. You have Leveled up! Current experience 102/200
Congratulations! You are now a level 1 Human. You have gained +1 to Strength and +1 to Agility!This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Daniel quickly dismissed the notifications. The level up was nice. He felt more potency from his muscles while his actions had grown more precise. Having gained a level he hoped that his survival rate would increase. Shortly after killing that orc, their team rotated with the team behind them. As the next team moved into position, Daniel''s team shifted to the back of the formation, passing the other seven teams and taking their new place in the rear. They would then maintain their vigilance while resting up. The entire light infantry formation was supposed to have twenty columns of ten teams. These teams would rotate to allow the ones coming off the front lines time to rest before rejoining the fight. As the fight went on, the fatigue would pile up and the time that a team could stay at the front would decrease, so the rate at which the formation would shift would increase to accommodate that. Eventually, the entire formation would be replaced by another light infantry formation that would continue to contest the location with the enemy while they would rest and the pattern would continue until the fighting for the day had ended or some other major change occurred. This was the strategy with which the human generals preserved their forces throughout the day while consuming as many orc forces as possible. The orcs didn¡¯t rotate their troops, instead their whole force strived to engage at once. Thus the orcs at the front would grow fatigued, allowing the humans to more easily kill them. In individual contests, it looked like the humans were being hard pressed but across the entire line, and throughout the day, the result could be seen. The bulk of the orc forces would slowly be whittled down by the light infantry, leaving them open to be attacked by the stronger forces available to the human generals. By this point Daniel¡¯s team had already been on the front line four separate times. It didn¡¯t take long before the shifted forward once more and the team that had replaced them on the front took the spot behind them down one more man. Before they made it up to the front one more time another change occurred. The formation behind them advanced in an orderly fashion through their ranks and took over the front line. Once that other formation had taken over the front, Daniel joined his team in withdrawing towards the rear. Once they reached a rise not too far behind the other formation, they were given a moment to rest as unarmored people came from teh camp, bringing bread, soup, and water for each of them. Sitting down in their team¡¯s location. Daniel looked around with interest. This had been the first time he had lived this long and for that matter, this was the first time he had eaten since he had come into this strange place. As he ate the bread and lightly seasoned soup he realized that he had grown quite hungry during the day. Tian Dong laughed as he saw Daniel eating so quickly. ¡°When you die and reform, you come back satiated, but those who survive the fighting will naturally grow hungry as they should. Since this is the first time you have survived half the day, of course this would be the first time you grew hungry.¡± Daniel looked at him and in between bites spoke, ¡°You said you had some things to explain to me back when I joined the team. Do we have time to go over them now.¡± Tian Dong nodded, ¡°As long as there is no emergency with the Wild Fire formation or any of the neighboring formations we should have a few hours to rest. So, now is indeed a good time to go over those issues. First you will want to go through all of the notifications you have been ignoring this whole time. Look down at the icon in the bottom right of your screen. ¡°I suggest reading your notifications in order of when you got them, then take a look around the rest of the menu. Most of the people that have joined us in the last few years have had no problem with these but it was incredibly hard for those of us in the older generations to get used to it, so let me know if you have problems navigating it.¡± Daniel followed the Team Lead¡¯s instructions. It seemed like he had gotten through to the actual tutorial now. Focusing on the icon on the right, he chose to check his notifications. Looking at the list, it looked like he was looking at an email page, with many grayed out. Looking at the titles for those, he realized that he recognized them as the ones he had seen before. Manipulating the User Interface was not difficult for him, and he was able to get the oldest of his notifications to appear at the top. Selecting the oldest, he was not prepared for what he saw.
Daniel Cook has died. Cause of death has been determined to be blunt force trauma and internal bleeding following a transport collision. Actions at time of death found to be exemplary. Trait Awarded: Heroic
¡°I have died? What kind of sick¡­¡± Before he could continue a series of images and sensations flashed through his mind. He remembered going to the karaoke bar with April and their friends for her birthday. He had given her a gift, an upgrade to her ¡®Pie¡¯. Of course, the gift was super effective. The party had gone well until Mark and his friends crashed it. After a bit of a scuffle the mood was ruined and everyone left. It was as Daniel was walking April out to her transport that it happened. Another transport came careening around a corner and straight at them. Daniel¡¯s first reaction was to push April to safety, but he wasn¡¯t quick enough to get out of the way. The transport impacted him and he began to lose feeling. He watched in a detached manner as his Personal Assistant Artificial Intelligence showed him his decreasing vitals along with the holographic image of what portions of his body had been affected. Looking at the estimated arrival times of the ambulances and emergency vehicles he knew that they wouldn¡¯t get there in time. Smiling, he tried to comfort his childhood friend as her bodyguard and chauffeur took control of the area. Moments later, his world had gone black. He wanted to deny it, but he had known he was dying when he saw his own state after the accident. It was already too much to ask for that he had gotten the time to attempt to sooth April afterwards. The trauma caused by an impact that strong should have killed him instantly. ¡®I have died.¡¯ It was a bitter truth and a sobering thought. Chapter 4 - Catching up on Information Daniel felt a little bothered by the thought that he was already dead. He also felt a little disconnected from it. Hadn¡¯t he been in this game like world this whole time, dying and fighting? Is this all there is to the afterlife? FIghting and dying only to do it all over again the next day? He didn¡¯t even doubt that he was dead as the message had reminded him of the exact moment it happened. He had watched in a state of fugue as his vitals started to crash. He knew that emergency responders were still too far away to stop it from happening. No, his problem wasn¡¯t accepting death, it was accepting the world he was in right now. He looked around to see all of those people around him, the fields that had been churned to mud under their boots in this ongoing conflict, and the orcs on the other side of the valley. This was death? He just couldn¡¯t wrap his head around it. Focusing back on his notifications, he dismissed that one and looked at the next one.
Assessing starting attributes for human subject Daniel Cook. Human starting range 1 to 10.
  • Strength Assessment: above average, setting initial attribute to 7.
  • Body Assessment: above average, setting initial attribute to 7.
  • Agility Assessment: lower high rank, setting initial attribute to 8.
  • Mind Assessment: middle high rank, setting initial attribute to 9.
If these attributes were based on his physical body back on earth he had something to be proud of there. He had worked a reclamation job scrapping derelict buildings during the summers and worked out during the school year. Along with that, their school club had been involved with virtual reality fighting games and they had exercised and worked to make sure their own physical bodies could approximate their character¡¯s moves. As for his mind, he was an honors student in the university¡¯s computer engineering department. He had even been accepted on a full ride scholarship due to papers he had written in high school about complex issues around emergent artificial intelligences. While he would never call himself a genius, he had accepted long ago that many people considered him intelligent. After a moment of reflecting on these assigned attributes, Daniel dismissed that box and looked at the next.
Trait Awarded: Heroic
  • +2 to all Attributes.
  • High Resistance to Fear and effects that would otherwise cause the user to act against their will.
  • Low Resistance to other harmful status effects.
  • Increased chance to positively influence the attitudes of those around the user when the user¡¯s motivations are in line with theirs.
  • When attempting a heroic deed, greatly increases the effect of the action if action is successful.
Daniel looked at the box in front of him and puzzled through it. This trait did not seem bad. He didn¡¯t know how good two attribute points were but from the improvement he had felt from when he had leveled up, the plus one to two stats was significant for him so far. So far he had felt stronger in this world than back in his own, but previously he had assumed that had been some balancing effort to give him some survivability against the orcs. He thought about it for a moment, ¡®Doesn¡¯t this mean that my intelligence and agility are currently higher than the human starting range? Does that mean there are people around me with superhuman attributes?¡¯ The resistances seemed decent. He had wondered at how quickly he had come to grips with the whole dying thing, but perhaps the resistances even helped to calm his mind at this point. He figured that he would have to look into how effective those resistances were later. The ability to influence others seemed nice, but he had never been a leader and had no idea when he ever would be one. Tian Dong seemed to be doing well enough for their team. Looking at the final ability attached to it, he was reminded of the pop up from a few days ago when he had seen those words before. At that time he had saved Natalia at a risk to his own life. His attack at that time had been way more successful than he had thought, but it still resulted in his own death. He thought about it for a moment. If he was more thoughtful and deliberate, he would be unlikely to trigger the conditions of the trait, but if he was reckless like he had been then, even the use of the trait would lead to unsatisfactory ends. He hoped there was a good middle ground so that he could make better use of this trait. After giving the trait one last look he dismissed this box to look at the next.
Daniel Cook, Level 0 Human, Recently Deceased, Assigning randomly to Terran Human starting regions. Starting Region selected, Daniel Cook has been added to Terran Human Starting Group 1956: Qin RevanchistsThe story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
Daniel glanced at this pop up for a moment before dismissing it. There were some useful things he could gather from this. First, the fact that the pop up had to define his grouping as Terran Human implied that there were other humans than the ones from his planet. Second, the fact that there were at least nineteen hundred and fifty six groups like this one implied that there were over a hundred million terran humans in starting regions similar to the one he was in. Third, the name Qin Revanchists, implied that this faction was tied to the Qin dynasty in China over two thousand years before he was born. Thinking about these points Daniel dismissed that text box as well. After looking for a while he found that the majority of the following text boxes were ones he had already seen. Among those, there were three others that he had not seen. He guessed that he had been dead when they had appeared.
Combat Skill Learned: Basic Spear Technique (Beginner), +1 to Agility.
The first one seemed to be from the night after Tian Dong had showed him how to use the spear more effectively. Daniel was pleased to see that there was an attribute boost that went with it. The next one came a few days later.
Combat Skill Improved: Basic Spear Technique (Novice), +1 to Strength.
Daniel recognized that this occurred after his comprehension of the technique had improved. He had been able to improve his stance and control his center of balance better, which led to far stronger attacks. The next box was much more interesting though.
Congratulations! You have unlocked the Challenger I Trait.
Trait Awarded: Challenger I
  • +1 to all Attributes
  • Awarded for killing an opponent five levels higher than you. 1/10
Daniel looked at these two boxes and thought. It seemed defeating more powerful opponents was very rewarding. He had clearly received this benefit after dying and thinking back it had probably happened in one of the fights where he had stabbed an enemy but he had died before it could. That had happened more often than he would have liked to admit though so he was uncertain as to which occasion that was. Putting that out of his mind, Daniel dismissed these boxes as well. He then focused on the icon in the bottom right again and brought up his status.
Daniel Cook, Level 1 (102/200) Human
  • Condition: Healthy
  • Traits: Heroic, Challenger I (1/10)
  • Attributes: Strength 12, Body 10, Agility 13, Mind 12
  • Skills: Basic Spear Technique (Novice)
The screen showed some useful information, but to Daniel it did little to clear up the problems he was facing. Looking over to where Tian Dong was sitting, Daniel decided to ask a few questions. ¡°Team leader, I just finished looking at my notifications and my status and while I get that I am dead, it doesn¡¯t really clear anything else up does it?¡± Tian Dong shook his head, ¡°No it doesn¡¯t. Here¡¯s the part where I need to give you the rundown of the information. The place we are in now is a starting area. This is a relatively safe place with low stakes where people can grow stronger. Every day new humans join on our side and new orcs join on their side and we fight it out until night. ¡°The worst that will happen to you is that you will die and lose a level or two. But we are low enough level that that doesn¡¯t matter much. A level zero will lose nothing but a night of sleep and anyone else will only lose one tenth of their total levels when they die, but since everyone here is capped at level twenty five the most they will lose is three levels. As you fight you will improve your skills and accrue titles that will make you stronger. Perhaps you will get a chance to learn stronger classes by making a good impression on the leadership. In the end, it is all about growing stronger here.¡± Daniel thought about it for a while, ¡°You say that, but really, what¡¯s the end goal here? If this is the starter region, there has to be more advanced region.¡± Tian Dong nodded his head, ¡°That is true. There is an end game. Both camps have a gate to the next region. Once you go through the appropriate gate, you advance to the next region. Life there is more like real life. People do a variety of jobs, from farmers to craftsmen to merchants. The goal there is still to struggle to survive though, so the kingdoms are constantly at war and there are always beasts that need to be slain. ¡°Even then, it is still quite peaceful there compared to here, but there is much more at stake there. The worst thing that happens here if you die is that you respawn the next day with a lower level, but there, you might lose your belongings, your friends and family might be enslaved, or your town burnt to the ground. You see? The stakes are much higher. That is why you will see people who have already advanced to the next region returning to this one. They feel they were not strong enough there and are trying to strengthen themselves to return with a vengeance. ¡°One day, the generals will decide that we are strong enough and we will attack the orc camp so that they can push through the gates. Those of us that make it with them will enter the next region with them. Those that do not will merely respawn in this camp the next day with much fewer allies than before.¡± Daniel thought about it for a while before speaking, ¡°Team leader, how long have you been here? Have you ever been to the next region?¡± Tian Dong just shook his head, ¡°I have only been here for about a year now. We have not made a push to the gate yet, but we have stopped the orcs three times in their attempts. Those were harsh fights but we still won. I really don¡¯t know what the leadership are waiting for. Most of their core personnel are already as strong as they can get in this place. ¡°Either way, all you need to do is get stronger. Eventually we will get a chance to break through and see the world on the other side.¡±