《Nirvana》 Dojo Fight *ring*--- *ring* ---*ring* They can hear the sound of an alarm clock ringing in a young man''s apartment. His name was Emile Reeder. "Stop" he exclaimed in a weak voice. The year was 2155. As time moves forward, human advancement follows shortly behind. The alarm clock could now detect a human awakening from their slumber. It can also detect if the individual falls asleep again. If it discovers that an individual fell asleep again, it will ring once more, which causes it to be the bane of all non-morning people. This didn''t affect Emile as he was familiar with waking up early in the morning. The time showed 5:30 a.m which was a normal time for him to wake up. He never dared to be late for his morning training. He once woke up late, which caused his father to give challenging tasks for an entire week. This caused his body to ache for a few days. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise since he improved faster than he would. His father noticed him improving and kept the same way of training for all of his training sessions. This taught Emile a valuable lesson. Emile got up from his bed. After leaving his bed he says, "clean," in which his mini robot named Azure wakes up from a resting position and organizes his bed. His room was spotless. He had a computer which would turn on if he willed it. He had a small closet filled with clothes. Emile''s blood family was only him and his father but he considered Azure to be a part of his family. His father would always ramble about their family being powerful and prominent. Emile never believed his words since wealth was something they didn''t have much of. Emile entered his bathroom to freshen himself. He checked himself in the mirror. He had a sharp face with dark brown eyes like the color of oak. Emile was wearing a blue t-shirt with navy-colored pants. His short hair was as black as the night. His eyes were immeasurably deep like the ocean. This was a side effect of his ability to see other people''s weak points. He gained this ability after learning an eye-technique from his father. They called the eye-technique: Pinpoint. His ability only worked on people that were weaker than him, which he thought was useless. He never understood why he needed to learn this. After washing himself, he changed his clothes and left to go eat breakfast. He went to his favorite breakfast booth to order his breakfast. After enjoying a nice and refreshing meal he walked towards his father''s dojo. After entering the dojo he noticed that his father was polishing his sword. They created it out of steel and his father kept it as his most prized possession.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. The name of his father is Lucifer Reeder. Lucifer noticed Emile entering the dojo and took out some wooden swords from a nearby rack. He threw a sword towards Emile and said "En garde". Emile caught the sword and got into a semi horse stance while firmly holding the sword with both hands. His father put away his steel sword and used a wooden sword. Lucifer fought while holding his sword with one hand and his other hand in a snake-like pose. He beckoned for Emile to attack first. Emile charged at him. Emile used a movement technique which made his feet seem to move sporadically. Lucifer analyzed Emile''s path. Emile went for a straight vertical attack in which Lucifer counter-attacked with a horizontal sweep pushing Emile back by 2 meters. Emile charged forward once again but this time he went for a jab aimed at Lucifer''s left shoulder. Lucifer moved towards the right, using the same movement technique as Emile. Lucifer dodged the blow and went for a counter-jab. Emile noticed this and tried to dodge by moving to the left. He dodged the attack in the nick of time. He could feel the wind of the sword missing his arm. Emile regained his bearings and went for a horizontal sweep. Lucifer used his open hand to grab the sword and hold it in place. Lucifer''s sword was propelling towards Emile. Emile couldn''t regain his sword from Lucifer which caused him to get directly hit on his left shoulder. This put Emile on the ground with his knees holding him up. Lucifer said, " You have to learn to let go of your sword, sometimes it''s better to let go of your weapon, as it can give better opportunities to attack or defend." Lucifer let go of Emile''s sword and walked away. But before he walked far enough, Emile grabbed his wooden sword and went for an attack on Lucifer''s calf. Lucifer sensed this sneaky blow and jumped straight up into the air. He turned around in the air like a ballerina. After landing back on the ground he charged straightforward at Emile and hit him on his right shoulder with the wooden sword. Emile''s knees gave out as he fell forward onto the soft floor. Lucifer then rested his sword on Emile''s neck. "This can be considered my win," said Lucifer. "If you were in a real-life situation, in which that occurred you might have been able to defeat the opponent. But that won''t work on me." He continued. Emile got up from the floor and patted himself. "You didn''t have to hit me that hard," he said as he pushed his shoulders back into place. "Pain is gain, and life won''t always be easy, you will have to face future hardships," Lucifer exclaimed as he took the swords and put them back on the rack. The dojo didn''t have many people in the early morning hours. Lucifer''s income came from teaching a class. His class didn''t start until 8:00 a.m. He taught 9 students. He taught them how to defend themselves and how to fight back. The dojo had old equipment since they could not afford better equipment. The equipment they had was in good shape and was cleaned thoroughly. They operated an obstacle course to train their movement techniques. Lucifer knew the movement technique that Emile used during the battle, they called it Void-Steps. Void-Steps made the users feet seem to be moving in a direction that they weren''t moving in. They use this to confuse the enemy, and it allows the user to dodge more effectively. The Void-Steps had different proficiencies in which a user could be in. There was the Beginner, Intermediate, Expert, Master, and Grandmaster. Lucifer was in the Expert proficiency which allowed him to have an advantage while dodging. Emile was still learning which put him at the Intermediate stage. This stage is used to trick the opponent and had limited dodging skills. Emile started his daily training by going towards the obstacle course. The obstacle course had different machines which threw an assortment of attacks at him. He had to avoid all the attacks and reach the end of the course. This course was helpful towards people below the Expert proficiency. If the person reached the end without getting hit, they would be in the Expert stage. If they get hit 10 or fewer times, they would be in the Intermediate stage. Any over 10 hits would be in the Beginner stage or have no stage. Emile''s best trial, for now, was when he got hit 4 times and his average trial was when he gets hit 7 times. Getting hit by the machines was painful. He had a high pain tolerance due to this. Today was the same as all his previous attempts. His best try for today was getting hit 5 times. He stopped his training early since he heard Lucifer calling for him. "Hey Emile, I''ve got something to show you," shouted Lucifer. Nirvana Emile was confused as to why Lucifer would interrupt his training routine. Even though he was confused, he still listened to Lucifers words. "What happened, do you need help with something," he said as he approached Lucifer who was stroking his gray beard. "Do you know what Virtual Reality is?" Asked Lucifer as he ignored Emile''s comment. "Yeah, why?" Emile replied. "I ordered a gaming cabin for you," Lucifer said. "You know how in VR games, people fight sword to sword and magic to magic and well etc." He continued. "Yeah," said Emile feeling even more confused than before. "Well, virtual reality will be a practical tool to fight opponents who could potentially be stronger than you, and you will be able to fight to the death since you can respawn in the game," Said Lucifer excitedly. "Don''t gaming cabins cost, like a lot of money?" Emile asked. "I saw this game a few years ago, and it was set to be released this year. So I have been saving up money for the game. The game is called Nirvana. I''m pretty sure you''ve heard of it." Said Lucifer proudly. "Nirvana!?! Isn''t that the game which was set to redefine the VR experience." Said Emile in a shocked tone. Emile knew that governments around the world worked together to create the game. This made the game have extremely high quality almost life-like. "It''s the very popular one, I''ve sent your gaming cabin to your apartment. It should have arrived by now," said Lucifer. "Also one last thing, I better not hear that you''ve been chickening out of fights or..." Lucifer cut off his words and gave a menacing look towards Emile. Emile felt shivers run up his spine. "Yup, I will never cower out" replied Emile in a fast tone. "Well, that''s my boy, I expect big things, so don''t disappoint me. Now leave and get your set up ready." Said Lucifer as he walked away to prepare for his class. Emile left the dojo at a fast pace, not forgetting to give a farewell. He left at a time that was much earlier than he would normally leave since he didn''t have any classes today. He chose to take a bus home. Buses have all transferred to using solar-powered energy which helped out the atmosphere. The atmosphere has been damaged for a long time and it grew worse as time moved forward. This caused many problems on Earth. Scientists and Governments throughout the world have worked together to remove many things that were harming the atmosphere. These include factories that release greenhouse gases, cars that use oil and other commodities. The atmosphere has been slowly recovering to what it used to be like. There were many more technologic advancements throughout the world. Phones must be solar powered. This made people''s lives a lot easier since the phone can charge during the day and it stores that charge for usage in the night. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Emile didn''t have one of these phones since he couldn''t afford it. The bus wasn''t very crowded since buses came at 3-minute intervals. The buses were this common since many people live in his city. As he went into the elevator to go up to his floor he noticed his neighbor running towards the elevator. She was beautiful young-adult with a pretty white face. She had black hair that went down her shoulder. "Hold the door" Lily yelled at him as her boobs bounced up and down. He could see her charging at the elevator door while holding a purse in her left hand, so he decided to be a nice person, and press the button to keep the door open. She entered the elevator. Thanks...I owe you...something" Lily said as she was gasping for air. "You owe me a lot of things but you never give anything back." Said Emile with a hint of annoyance. After the polite talk, he pressed the button to go to the 4th floor. The elevator moved up extremely quickly. The doors opened and Emile and Lily both walked out. Emile used fingerprint scanning to enter his home and gave a farewell towards Lily. She entered her home using the same method and didn''t forget to respond to his farewell. When Emile stepped in, he immediately noticed the gaming cabin which took about a quarter of the room''s total space. The wires weren''t connected. Ever since teleportation was invented, delivering anything was extremely easy and efficient. Teleporting humans costs a lot of money since they would need to create a stable wormhole. Most normal people will never be able to teleport anywhere and only the rich had access to human teleportation. The average person would only experience teleportation when an object is delivered to their home. Emile asked Azure to set up the wire since doing it manually would be very time-consuming. Azure took 15 minutes for it to completely set it up. To enter the virtual world he would have to lie down on the inside of the cabin. He said "start". He thought nothing happened but it took some time for the cabin to respond. [Voice recognition activated] [Please say your name] "uhh... E-Emile" he stuttered with some shock as he realized that it sounds like an actual person. It wasn''t normal for an object to have a voice, usually, it would be a robotic voice but this a genuine human voice. [Emily? Will you confirm this name] "no... it''s not Emily, its e-me-el, Emile" He quickly corrected the common mistake. [Emile? Will you confirm this name] "Yes," he responded back. [Welcome, Emile, the game server is disconnected. It will reconnect for the first time in 12 hours, 12 minutes and 14 seconds. Please wait patiently] It was 7:48 am when this announcement was made meaning that the game would go online at 8:00 pm sharp. At this moment, Azure his robot said with a robotic tone, "There is someone standing in front of your door." Robots were in wide circulation as they could do basically anything with ease. Emile was 20 years old, with Azure living with him for more than half his life. Azure was a gift for his 7th birthday and it stayed with him ever since then. Robots usually didn''t cost much but Azure was a robot with voice recognition which costs a lot of money. Emile walks to his door and checked the peephole to see who it was. It turned out to be his neighbor Lily. He opened the door and asked "What do you need?" confused as to why she was here. "Can''t I just come over, do I really need something to come to you?" said Lily as she pushed him out of the door''s way and entered his room. She quickly noticed the gaming cabin. "You play games? I never knew about this" said Lily with a hint of shock. "Not really, m-my dad wanted me to gain fighting experience in the game and wanted me to defeat strong opponents," said Emile. "That does sound like him," said Lily while nodding her head. "I have one as well so don''t forget to add me as a friend" continued Lily. "Since when did you play games?" Emile said realizing that they barely knew each other. "I''ve been playing games for a long time, I''m also kinda famous for being good at games, so I bought the Nirvana gaming cabin as well," She said proudly. "Hey you want to help me write an essay," asked Emile as he ignored her remarks of being famous. She sighed knowing that he thought that she was only good at doing school related things. "Fine" she replied. _________________ A few hours later... Lily finally left Emile''s home after helping him write an essay for an English class. Emile wasn''t very good at writing. It was the complete different for his math knowledge since he is widely acknowledged as a math genius. He went out to have a meal for lunch and returned with some lunch to give to Lily. He knocked on her door until she opened it, and gave her the lunch. "You still have a heart, thank you," she said in a happy tone. "Your welcome" Emile replied back and left as soon as he arrived. Emile entered his home after that exchange. He wanted to try out the gaming cabin. He said open, in which the thick glass moved out the way leaving an entrance to enter the cabin. He entered and the cabin closed on him. [There is 6 hours 23 minutes and 16 seconds before the server is reconnected. Please wait patiently] It said the same thing as the first time so he left the cabin as there was nothing left to do. He went on his computer to go research the game known as Nirvana. The google searches showed only the hype surrounding the game and had no other information. There was a website for the game which only showed the countdown timer and how it would be a completely free roam game. This would be the first true free-roam virtual reality game. All the previous VR games had set storylines with PVP arenas being the only multiplayer feature. Creating a game where everyone attempted the same story was extremely preposterous but Nirvana had managed to do it. The website also mentioned how all player could create their own unique skills. All these claims were unheard of in previous games since it would take an enormous computer to compute different skills and also add skills that were never seen before. Over 2 billion people bought the gaming cabin meaning that there will be a lot of competition. All this research took a few hours to find and it was almost time for the server to be reconnected. He entered the gaming cabin with a hint of excitement. [There is 0 hours 14 minutes and 31 seconds before the server is reconnected. Please wait patiently] Character and Skill Creation Emile waited patiently. While waiting for the server to connect, he started to think of a name that he would decide on. "Should I use my real name? No, then people would be able to know who I am." He thought. Emile started to think of things that he found pleasing and wanted to create a name out of that thing. Emile has an abnormal love for anything fire related. He never knew why he enjoyed fire so much. As he continued to think, the timer went into the last 10 seconds. [There are 0 hours 0 minutes and 10 seconds before the server is reconnected. Please wait patiently] [There are 0 hours 0 minutes and 9 seconds before the server is reconnected. Please wait patiently] ... [There are 0 hours 0 minutes and 01 seconds before the server is reconnected. Please wait patiently] [The servers have been connected, would you like to join the server?] "Yes," Emile responded in his mind. The cabin was connected to his mind so it could understand his responses and react promptly. [Please create a character name] "Flame Lord" he responded. [That name has been taken. Please choose another name] "Uhh... Mystical Flame" he quickly responded. [Mystical Flame has not been chosen, would you like to confirm this name] "Yes," he responded. [Would you like to use your real life appearance?] "No, but can I modify it," he asked. [Yes you may modify your real life appearance] At this moment a lifelike figure of himself rose up in front of him. Emile felt shocked as he looked at himself. He has never played a VR game before, which caused him to not know about a character using the same looks as the actual person. He made his eye color a lighter shade of brown. He made his hair into a different style than what it normally looks like. He had a look of approving on his face as he stared at himself. The system sensed his approval and asked if he wanted to confirm his looks. [Would you like to use this character] "Yes," he responded. [What village would you like to start in] A list of many villages popped up. The villages didn''t have any description. The only information available was the names of the villages. Looking at the sheer number of villages made him feel overwhelmed. He didn''t want to read the villages names, so he chose to pick randomly. [The Village of the Songs has been selected] [Teleporting... Creating Stats... set up complete] As those words were spoken he was teleported away and arrived at the village which was crowded with many people.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. [Welcome to the Village of the Songs.] [Please enjoy your stay] Emile looked around and all he could see was other players chatting and walking around. Emile didn''t like crowded locations so he decided to leave the town as fast as he could. Emile maneuvered around the people and managed to leave the town. [You have arrived at the Song Forest] There were many people killing the wild chickens which were level 0. They were located at a place with extremely tall oak trees. He didn''t want to be with the players so he chose to continue walking. After a decent amount of walking, he made it far into the woods. There was no longer any people in his vicinity. He decided the check out his stats. ______________________________________________ Personal Stats Name: Mystical Flame (no title) Level: 0 Class: (no class) Exp: 0/50 HP: 60/60 MP:30/30 Strength: 10 Agility: 9(8+1) Vitality: 8(6+2) Intelligence: 5 Spirit: 3 Luck: 10 Attack: 8-12 Magic Attack: 3-7 Equipment: Common Tunic: The average tunic all adventurers are given. Vitality +1 Common Leggings: The average legging all adventurers are given. Vitality +1 Common Boots: The average boots all adventurers are given. Agility +1 ______________________________________________ Emile thought he got lucky with a decent amount of high stats. He also noticed that he had a lucky box in his inventory. He examined the lucky box. Common Lucky Box You think you have good luck? Let''s find out. Use: It can drop nothing to Rare equipment. Emile felt shocked since he knew that rare equipment would definitely break the balance of the game. He was hoping for a rare equipment since he had 10 points in the luck stat. He opened the box. A wheel popped up with many items. He chooses to spin the wheel and it started to spin at a fast pace. He only saw 1 rare item on the wheel and the majority was either nothing or some common to uncommon items. It scrolled past the uncommon and common items. The wheel started to slow down. It was extremely close to the rare item. Emile was screaming in his mind for it to go a bit farther and land on the rare item. As if the system was listening to Emile it skidded onto the rare item slot. "Yes!!!" Emile screamed in his mind with excitement. [You have acquired Rare Ring: Fighter''s Will] He understood why people enjoyed gambling so much. It was addicting to win something. It also made him aware of the dangers of gambling. He examined the ring. Fighter''s Will The ring of an ancient warrior. You feel that this ring has immeasurable potential. Equipable: Level 0 Strength +19 Vitality +16 Agility +7 Skill: 5 Hit Slash- Hits the opponent with 5 hits that each deal 75% of max attack value Cooldown: 30 minutes Upgradeable As expected of a rare item. The ring was extremely strong since it nearly tripled his strength stat. He equipped the ring. His strength shot up to 29 points which means a normal attack from him dealt 27-31 damage. As he was standing there, a wild Boar charged at him. Standing in the middle of the forest made him seem like an easy target for the Boar. Emile noticed this and decided to identify the Boar''s weaknesses. He identified the boar''s stat. Boar Level: 2 Hp: 185/185 ??? Other than seeing the level and the HP of the boar he couldn''t see anything else. He didn''t have any weapons on him so he could only punch the boar. He punched the boar. -28 Emile dodged out of the way of the boar''s attack using Void-Steps. He wanted to try out the skill he got from the ring so he used it on the boar. 5 Hit Slash -23 -23 -46 critical damage -23 -23 Out of the 5 hits, 1 of them was a critical hit which dealt double damage. The boar was only one hit away from death. The boar got mad but it didn''t matter since all it took was 1 hit to fall down and die. He gave one more punch. -31 [The boar has been slain] [You have gained Boar meat x2] [You have gained Boar hide x1] [You have gained 3 copper coins] [You have gained 10 exp (5x2 level gap)] Emile didn''t know the prices of any items so he couldn''t figure out how much he earned. He also noticed that defeating an enemy that was stronger than him in levels would give him an exp multiplier. He decided to hunt boars until he leveled up. ______________________________________________ He found a boar grazing near a small creek. He started to crouch behind a dark oak tree analyzing the boar''s movement. He waited for the Boar to take a sip of water from the creek. He wanted to test out Pinpoint which was the ability to notice the weak points of enemies that were weaker than him. He noticed some weak points on the side of the Boar. He ran forward and used two fingers to jab one of the weak points. -62 true damage He noticed that he did double damage by attacking a weak point. He continued to strike at the same point. -60 true damage -120 true damage+critical damage He got a critical hit on top of the true damage which caused the Boar to die extremely quickly. After the Boar died a new system notification popped up. [You have successfully created a skill] [What would you like to name it] "Pinpoint" he replied excitedly. [New skill Pinpoint has been successfully created] Emile quickly examined his stats to see what the skill. ______________________________________________ Pinpoint Usage: Can see the weaknesses and debuffs of any enemies that are weaker than the user and up to 5 levels above the user. Passive Skill Original Skill ______________________________________________ Emile realized that the skill would become very useful for him. Emile had the bright idea to attempt to create a skill by using Void-Steps. He decided to camp for Boars by staying near the creek. A Boar showed up after 2 minutes of waiting. He walked up to the Boar and stood still. The Boar was provoked into charging at him. He used Void-Steps to move towards the left, which successfully allowed him to dodge the attack. The Boar continued to charge at him. Emile continued to dodge the attacks which slowly increased his proficiency in Void-Steps. After 10 minutes of dodging attacks, Emile felt slightly tired. The Boar would always end up missing Emile and never even touched his clothes. At this moment Emile had an urge to do something different. He started to use Void-Steps before the Boar could get very close to him. He stood still and started to move his feet sporadically. The Boar seemed to notice that Emile would charge towards the left so it charged towards the left as well. But Emile never moved from his position. This caused the Boar to be tricked by his feet and miss him completely. This provoked a system notification to appear. [You have successfully created a movement skill] [What would you like to name it] "Void-Steps" Emile felt excited since he managed to create another skill. [New skill Void-Steps has been successfully created] After learning the skill he checked his stats to see what the skill did. ______________________________________________ Void-Steps Usage: The user can activate this skill to increase their Agility by 50% for 30 seconds. The user can give the debuff which tricks the enemy into missing their attacks. Occurs 30% of the time. Cooldown: 30 minutes Active Original ______________________________________________ The skill was extremely strong and could be used as a life saver. Emile realized that he probably entered the next stage of the Void-Steps. He probably was in the Expert proficiency but he needed to test it out at his father''s dojo. Emile quickly killed the Boar and started to camp once more. Cave While camping for more Boars to appear he noticed that they arrived from the same general direction. He wanted to investigate why this occurred. But his urge to level up made him kill the next few boars. After about 15 minutes he managed to kill 2 boars which gave him the last bit of experience to induce a level up. [You have leveled up to level 1] [You have 5 free attribute boosts available] Leveling up allowed him to grow stronger. He thought about what stats he could put his attribute points. He didn''t want to put it on Spirit since he was more of a swordsman. Although he still didn''t have a sword to use. He also didn''t want to put it in the Vitality or the Intelligence stat. He had enough Vitality for level 1 and he didn''t have any magic spells to make use of the intelligence stat. Emile decided to put 3 points into his Strength stat and 2 points into his Agility stat. His Strength became 32. His Agility became 18. Emile chose to follow his original thought process of finding out where the Boars came from. He waited for a Boar to appear. After 3 minutes of waiting for a Boar, it finally decided to show up. Emile started to watch the Boar secretly. The Boar drank water from the creek. It then decided to walk around hunting for small animals such as mice. Emily waited patiently as he continued to crawl through the shrubs and bushes. He noticed that the Boar was slowly moving towards a specific direction. After 30 minutes of secretly following the Boar, the Boar arrived in front of a cave. Emile decided to wait until the Boar entered the cave and was out of sight. The cave was on the side of a hill which was plentiful in the forest. This place was inconspicuous and would have taken a lot of luck to find if the player didn''t choose to follow a Boar. He then entered the cave. [You have discovered a new location] [You have discovered The Boar''s Cave] [You have gained 100 fame] [You will have the opportunity to earn more fame if you clear the cave] Emile decided to analyze the system''s words. He didn''t know what the fame did. He noticed that there would most likely be many mobs, Boars to be specific. Emile wanted to scout the location to see if it was possible for him to complete the Cave at this moment. Emile encountered a problem as soon as he entered. He couldn''t see in the dark. The entrance was the only place with a bit of light. Emile felt disappointed about not being able to see in the dark. He realized that he would have to get an equipment that allowed night vision or find a torch.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Emile left the cave and entered Song Forest once again. Emile decided to go back to the village to find something that could fix his problems. After about 20 minutes of walking in the direction of the village, he noticed that there were players farming the Level 0 chickens. He ignored them and continued to walk forward. Other player noticing that he came from deeper in the woods started to gossip about him. "How did he leave the deeper part of the woods," said one bystander. "Aren''t there like strong mobs in there" replied another bystander. "I heard that the boar can kill you in 2 hits," said, another bystander. Emile didn''t know that other players were making a big deal about him leaving the woods. Even if he did know he would ignore it. Emile went towards the Market Square which had many NPC''s selling different commodities and services. It also had players selling the beginner equipment. He looked around and found out that no one was selling any equipment that had Night Vision. Emile didn''t know that any items with helpful PvE effects would sell for a lot of money. He wouldn''t be able to afford the item even if the item was being sold. Emile arrived next to a Tailor which created items using different types of materials. Before he got to say anything the Tailor started o yell at him. "How many times do I have to tell you people that I will not craft anything out of feathers," He bellowed. Emile tried to appease the misunderstanding. "I''m not here to ask for an item made out feathers, I''m here to ask if you can make something out Boar hide." He quickly replied. "What?!? You have Boar hide!?!" He yelled in shock. The people nearby heard the Tailor yell and looked to see what was wrong. They didn''t notice anything and went back to doing their own business. "Come inside," He beckoned for Emile to enter his home. Emile took the offer and went inside. Inside the Tailor''s home was many different types of hid hung up on the wall. There was snake hide, deer hide, and even a boar''s hide. "Didn''t you start adventuring about 2 hours ago, If you did then how did you manage to get Boar hide so quickly." He said in a quick tone filled with surprise. Emile told him how he managed to obtain a ring which gave him lots of power and he used that power to kill some Boars. "Show me the ring," he said. Emile showed him the ring and the Tailor had a look of shock. "Is that ring called the Fighter''s Will?" He asked excitedly. "Yes," he responded. The Tailor had another look of shock on his face and said: "Follow me, I''m taking you to see the Village Chief." The Tailor started to walk away in the direction of the biggest home in the village. Emile followed quickly. After arriving in front of the Village Chief''s home the Tailor decided to knock on the door and yell loudly. The house was made out of wood that came from the deepest part of the forest. It was a very beautiful, fitting for a Chief. Many players were surrounding the Village Chief''s home since he would give the best quests. They noticed that another player stood in front of the door with an NPC. "Here comes another person, who''s trying to enter the Chief''s home," said River Bull mockingly. His fellow guildmates laughed at Emile for trying. "Hey kid, you should give up, if we couldn''t enter then you won''t be able to enter either," he continued with even more confidence. Emile ignored his words and silently waited for the door to open. The door opened and the Village Chief angrily yelled out: "Could you adventurers stop bothering me." After saying this he noticed that the Tailor was standing in front of his door and asked: "Why are you here?" "I found an adventurer who has the Fighter''s Will," the Tailor replied excitedly. "Who?" The Village Chief started to look around the crowd to see if anyone stood out. He ignored Emile who was standing next to the Tailor since he didn''t stand out that much. "The adventurer next to me." He replied. At this moment the Chief moved out of the door''s way and allowed the Tailor and Emile to enter his home. The players who witnessed this were shocked and some even started to record this. No one had managed to enter Chief''s home before. Many have tried and all of them had failed since the Chief would yell at them to leave or he would slam the door on their face. River Bull felt gobsmacked. He could feel an invisible hand hitting his face. "I will have my revenge," he thought and left the location while holding his grievances in his heart. There were many decorations inside the Chief''s home. He had a chandelier and a fireplace, a beautifully designed sofa, and some paintings hung up on a wall. It gave off a very cozy feeling. The Chief sat on his sofa and told Emile and the Tailor to sit on the chairs. After they all sat down the Chief immediately asked: "Can you show me the ring?" Emile promptly put his hand out and allowed the Chief to take a deep look at it. The Chief had a look of uncertainty. Emile recalled some things from a guide about video games. He remembered that whenever a character had a look of uncertainty the player should ask the question ''Do you need any help?'' This question was the easiest way for an NPC to give the player a quest. Emile decided to try it out. "Do you need any help?" he asked. "No I don''t need help but I''m debating on whether I should tell you about something or leave you in the dark." He replied. "Don''t leave me in the dark, I want to know what I can do," Emile quickly responded. "Alright, let me tell you some more things about that ring. That ring is apart of a duo of rings which have been lost since the ancient times," He paused. "The other half of that duo is known as the Mage''s Will which is located in a cave somewhere in the Song Forest. There were documents of someone writing about the location of the ring, alas the documents were destroyed in a fire." He paused again. "When the two rings are combined with a few other rare items it will form a legendary ring known as the Ring of the Awakened." He ended his speech. Requesting Help Emile''s heart felt very turbulent. He knew that a legendary ring would cause mass riots. If people found out that he had a chance to obtain a legendary item, they would flip out. Hunting him till the ends of the world would become normal amongst players. Emile vowed to keep this a secret from any player including his close friends. Emile remembered finding the Boar''s cave and told the Chief about it. "While camp- *cough* hunting boars, I discovered their home by following one of them, which turned out to be a cave, I didn''t get far into the cave since it was too dark for me." He said. "You can go explore that cave to see if it has the ring, but it will most likely not have it." he quickly said. "Since you can find that cave, how about you look for other caves as well, the more caves you look for the more likely you will find the correct cave with the ring in," He said. At this moment a system notification appeared. [Unique Quest: Seeking a Cave] [Objective: Find five caves] [Difficulty: C] [Comment: If you can find one you can find five] [Progress: 1/5] [Reward: Uncommon Helmet of the Overseer, 250 experience points and Skill Book: Night Vision] "Alright, I will look for a few more caves," He accepted the quest. The Chief promptly kicked them out his home in a polite manner. Emile asked the Tailor who was also kicked out to create some gloves for him. The Tailor agreed to create a pair of gloves. Emile handed him his Boar hide and 10 copper coins. He didn''t know that he received a bargain since the Tailor accepted his offer of 10 copper coins. A normal player would have to pay 100 copper which is 10 times his offer. The Tailor said it would require 30 minutes to make a pair of gloves. Emile was in the market and had nothing to do so he decided to log out and order some dinner for himself. The time was 10:18 PM when he came out of the game. The gaming cabin which he was lying could transfer nutrients and other necessities. He could even sleep in the cabin if he wanted to since it was decently comfortable. He went online using his phone and ordered food to be delivered to his home. The food arrived a few seconds after he ordered it. He finished eating his food quickly and started to go back to the Nirvana website. When he went on the website he noticed that there was now a forum page. He decided to visit the forum.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. He noticed that the players were talking about the name of the village correlating with the main quest of the village. Players from the guild Chaos had discovered the main quest in 3 different villages. The main quest of for the Village of the Great lake was related to water nymphs attacking the village at night. They stated that the players who received the quest have not been able to complete the quest. Emile wanted to find out what his village''s main quest would be. If he wanted to figure this out, he would have to ask the Village Chief why the village was named as the Village of the Songs. Emile also noticed how everyone received a lucky box. They made a pie chart which showed the odds of getting certain rarities. The chart revealed how most players would gain nothing. 60% of the people received nothing. 25% of people received a common item. 14.94% received an uncommon item. And 0.06% of people received a rare item. There were many complaints about giving low odds in the lucky boxes. Emile continued to look through the forums. He couldn''t find any other interesting topics. Emile remembered the quest which involved finding caves. He wanted to ask Lily to help him look for a cave. He knocked on her apartment door. After a dozen or so seconds she opened the door and asked: What do you want? He shamelessly asked for her help. "Hey, uhh do you want to help me with a quest?" "What kind of quest?" She asked back. Emile felt embarrassed about asking her to go out of her way and look for caves. So he decided to do it by himself. "Nevermind, sorry for bothering you." He started to turn around when Lily grabbed his hand stopping him from turning. "At least tell me what your quest is?"At this moment Lily felt very bold. "I have to look for caves" he felt embarrassed when mentioning this and thought that she would make fun of him. "Alright I''ll help you, add me as a friend, my IGN is Flower Queen." she quickly let go of Emile''s hand and slammed the door in his face. Her thoughts were running wild. She felt adrenaline rush into her when he asked for her help and this caused her to momentarily feel bold. The adrenaline left her system as quickly as it arrived which made her feel embarrassed. Emile had no clue about any of Lily thoughts. He was satisfied that he got someone to help him finish his quest. He saw that is was 10:50 PM and entered the gaming cabin to log back on. After he entered the game he looked in his settings. He found his friend list which didn''t have anyone on it. He went to invite and chose for Flower Queen to be added. [Friend request has been sent] [Flower Queen has accepted your friend request] Lily had accepted the request extremely quickly. "Hey where are you," she wrote with a thinking emoji. "I''m in the Village of the Songs" he replied. Emile realized that traveling from village to village would be challenging. He didn''t know how to go to another village. "I''ll be there soon" she replied before closing the chat. Emile felt slightly guilty about making her come to his village. Emile decided to wait for her to appear. While waiting he decided to look at the leaderboards. The first leaderboard was the Level leaderboard. He examined the leaderboard and noticed that it went up to the top 100 people. There were various types of the Level leaderboard. There was the local leaderboard, which includes only the players of his village. On the local leaderboard rankings, he was ranked at 15. The highest level at his village was level 1 with 384 out of the 500 experience. Then it moves up to the Regional leaderboard which includes everyone in his country. Emile lived in the U.S. meaning that only the people of the U.S. would be on this leaderboard. In the Regional leaderboard rankings, the highest leveled player was level 2 with 80/1500 experience. It finally moves up to the Global leaderboard rankings which includes everyone in the world. The highest leveled person in the world was level 2 with 210/1500 experience. There were many people who were much stronger him. This made Emile feel pumped since he loved to fight. A message from Flower Queen quickly cut off his excitement. "I''m here, where are you?" Flower Queen asked. "I''m next to the merchant selling the health potions." He replied. Emile waited about 30 seconds before he saw someone who looked near-identical to Lily. The only thing different about Lily was her having long hair. Her boobs moving in rhythm with her walking pace. Many people started to stare at her. Her beauty captivated many people. She looked around and saw someone who looked closely like Emile. She questioned: "Emile?" He responded by saying: "Yeah, that''s me." Lily started to analyze how Emile looked. She noticed the changes he made to his appearance. She didn''t comment about it. "Are you ready, we''re going cave hunting." She said excitedly and dragged Emile into the forest. At this moment she had crushed many people''s hearts and many wished to be in Emile''s position. Bunny Hideout "I already found my first cave about an hour ago," Emile said as they continued to walk deeper into the woods. "How did you find it?" She asked feeling peaceful on the inside. "I followed a Boar until it arrived at its home." He replied confused as to where she as taking him. "How about we split up? I''ll follow a mob, and you will follow one as well." She said something that she didn''t want to do. She wanted to stay with him but having better efficiency was more important. "Alright, I''ll go towards the left and you should go towards the right." Emile started to walk in the direction he mentioned. They split up. After 10 minutes of walking, he noticed that trees turned into a different shade of brown. In the distance, he saw a white bunny hopping around and eating grass. He identified the bunny using Pinpoint. Albino Bunny Normal Monster Level 3 Hp: 80/80 Atk: 25-38 Agility: 24 A glass cannon with high attack and high speed but low vitality. Weakness: Attacking the leg will deal the cripple stat making its Agility much lower. He didn''t want to provoke the bunny since he needed to follow it. He got closer to the bunny. The bunnies ear perked up and it started to look around. It had heard his movement. The bunny managed to sense where he was hiding and started to charge at him. It was moving extremely quickly and managed to cover the distance between them in about 3 seconds. He tried to dodge but was too slow. -32 The bunny did over about 1/8 of his health. Having 24 Vitality allowed him to have 240 hp. Emile reacted quickly and throw out two fingers aimed at the leg of the bunny. -62 true damage The Bunny charged at him again. He used Void-steps which increased his agility to 27 allowing him to dodge the bunny easily. He then hit it one more time before it died. [The Albino Bunny has been slain] ... He gained 15 exp from killing the bunny and some meat. He needed to look for another mob. He began to walk around, hoping to find another bunny. After a few minutes of looking around, he noticed a bunny eating some grass. He decided to stay at this distance and wait for the bunny to move out of the way. Emile was a very patient individual. Emile would wait for the bunny to move somewhere and then he would quickly follow. This back and forth movement created a cycle. This cycle lasted for 45 minutes. During the 45 minutes, Flower Queen messaged him about finding a cave. She was able to follow a green snake back into its cave. As Emile observed the bunny he noticed some peculiar things that didn''t occur in the past 45 minutes. He saw that the bunny became very shifty. It would perk its ear every few seconds as if it was afraid of being followed.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. This caused Emile to feel excited. He didn''t show any of his excitement on the outside or else the bunny might notice. After a few minutes, the bunny went into a full sprint towards a specific direction which was north. He quickly got up and pursued the bunny. The bunny was moving faster than him which caused him to lag behind. The bunny hadn''t noticed that there was someone chasing behind him. The bunny did zigzags and entered a small cave. The entrance to the cave was extremely narrow. He would have to crawl in to enter the cave. He crawled through the hole and entered a big spacious area which had some lighting. [You have discovered a new location] [You have found the Albino Bunnies hideout] [You have gained 100 fame] [You will have the opportunity to earn more fame if you clear the location] This was the same system notification as the previous notification about entering the Boar''s cave. Emile noticed that there were many small holes in the ceiling of this cave. These holes allowed light to travel into the lair. He could actually see what was going on in the cave. In the cave, there were about 25 different bunnies lying around. They were lounging in all sorts of positions. There was also a big stack of food to the very left of the cave. At the very center of the cave was a much bigger bunny. It was about triple the size of the of the other bunnies. He examined the stats of the bunny. Albino Bunny King Chief Ranked Monster Level 5 Hp: 1586/1586 Atk: 78-101 Agility: 25 Skills: {Berserker} {Hind Leg Kick} Weakness: Attacking the hind leg will deal the cripple stat making its Agility 30% lower and stops any movement attacks. The bunny was bigger than other bunnies which caused it to be prone to cripple. Emile knew that he couldn''t kill all the enemies at the same time so he decided to lure out the rabbits one by one. He went outside of the cave to look for a rock. He wanted a projectile to throw at a Bunny. He quickly found one and went back to the cave. When he entered the cave he chose to focus his attention on remaining undetected. He stood near the entrance and throw the rock straight at an Albino Bunny. He hit the bunny. -9 Other bunnies noticed this and started to charge at him. He quickly escaped the cave. Since the entrance was narrow he could easily kill one bunny at a time. He started to punch the bunnies as they exited the cave. Each punch knocking back the bunnies a tiny bit causing them to be trapped in a loop of death. The first rock successfully attracted 8 bunnies which were easily killed by standing in front of the entrance and continuously punching them. He went to look for another rock and repeat the same process. He continued to kill the bunnies as they came out. He killed all the bunnies in the cave except the Albino King. He needed 110 experience to level up. Emile entered the cave once more and decided to fight the Albino Bunny King. Emile threw another rock aimed at the Albino Bunny King which did little damage but managed to grab its attention. -10 The Bunny moved extremely quickly and was going to ram straight into Emile but he used the Skill: Void-Steps. He avoided the attack and throw a punch aimed at the leg of the Bunny. -62 true damage [The Albino Bunny King has been crippled for 5 seconds] The speed of the Bunny dropped drastically. He was able to deal out two more punches aimed at the leg. -64 true damage -60 true damage The cripple stat didn''t stack meaning that it was about to regain its speed. After it regained its speed, Emile had about 15 seconds left of Void steps effect. He needed to do as much as damage as he could now. He chose to once again attack its hind leg by moving behind it. He needed to take advantage of his speed being temporarily faster than the bunny. -64 true damage [The Albino Bunny King has been crippled for 5 seconds] -68 true damage -66 true damage The Albino Bunny had more than 1000 hp left which was a problem. He could only do the cycle one more time. It regained its speed and he threw out more punches at its hind leg. -66 true damage [The Albino Bunny King has been crippled for 5 seconds] -64 true damage -62 true damage He lost the speed buff from Void-Steps and the Albino Bunny gained its speed again. It charged at him, turned around and kicked him using its hind legs. -86 He had 156 hp left. After he got hit, he was knocked back 5 meters. While in the state of being knocked back he threw one of his rocks aimed at the leg of the Albino Bunny King. He didn''t know if it would deal the crippled state. The system notification gave him a sense of relief. -10 [The Albino Bunny King has been crippled for 3 seconds] The time it was crippled for was less than when he threw his punches. He understood that the rock was weaker than his punch which caused for a shorter time of being crippled. He quickly got up and ran forward to deal as much damage as he could. The bunny tried to move out of the way but it was too slow. It was hit by one of his punches at the weak point. -62 true damage The cripple stat ended. Emile got lucky because he threw out his punch before the cripple stat ended. He landed the punch after the cripple stat ended causing the cripple debuff to reappear. The Bunny didn''t have time to dodge the attack at such a close range. -64 true damage [The Albino Bunny King has been crippled for 5 seconds] -132 true damage+critical damage Emile realized that he could exploit this. He waited for the Cripple debuff to be nearly finished. He threw out his punch at the last few milliseconds before the debuff disappeared. This caused the cripple stat to appear again. -64 true damage [The Albino Bunny King has been crippled for 5 seconds] ... Emile continued to do this until the Albino Bunny had around 20% of his hp left. The Albino Bunny used {Berserker} and gained higher stats. Its attack went up to 98-124 and its Agility went to 31. Even if Emile put the bunny into the cripple debuff it would still be faster than him. So it was useless to put into cripple debuff. But Emile had been saving up a trump card. He allowed himself to get hit dealing him 118 damage. He threw a rock to cripple the bunny and slow it down as much as possible. He gained as much distance as he could before using his skill. 5 hit slash! -51 true damage -51 true damage -51 true damage -51 true damage -51 true damage This was enough to finish off the Albino Bunny King. Many system notifications appeared. And lots of loot appeared in front of his eyes. Loot and Friends [You have slain the Albino Bunny King] [You are the first person to slay a Chief Rank solo] [You can gain one book from the book collection] [You have cleared the bunny hideout and have gained 250 fame] [You have gained 350 experience points] [You have leveled up to level 2] [You have 5 free attributes available] He quickly became first on the Local leaderboards which caused many players in his village to feel shocked. ''Where did this dark horse come from?'' Mystical Flame quickly became a popular name in the village. Emile was as ignorant as always about the thoughts of other players. Emile only cared about the multiple announcements which appeared in front of him. After noticing that he leveled up he wanted to put his free attributes into a stat that he would need. He chose to put all of his free attribute points into Agility. He understood what low Agility felt like after the fight with the Bunny. He also noted the importance of having skills. Emile didn''t understand that players would have a certain build they would always follow. He put stats into whatever he thought needed it. He felt ready to check his loot. He started by picking up 2 silver coins and 432 copper coins. He was happy that there was a setting which picked up similar items like multiple copper coins. He would waste a lot of time if he picked up the coins individually. He also gained some Albino Bunny King hide which can be used to create decent items, Speaking of crafting, he forgot to get his gloves from the Tailor. The Albino Bunny King dropped an uncommon sword since it had a green glow. He examined the sword. Uncommon Sword of The Nimble Level Requirement: 5 Attack:18-24 Magic Attack: 3-5 Skill: Nimble Attack Usage: An extremely fast attack that deals 125% of normal damage. 5-minute cooldown He wanted to equip the sword but he couldn''t since his level was too low. There also was another pair of uncommon boots. He examined the boots. Boots of the Nimble Level Requirement: 5 Attack: 4-6 Magic Attack: 4-6 Skill: Speed UpLove this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! Usage: Allows the user to have 200% speed for 10 seconds. 30-minute cooldown Emile couldn''t equip any of these which made him feel dejected. The only thing that was left was selecting a book from the book collection. He didn''t know what that was since he never heard about it. He chose to test out what it was. [Would you like to gain a book from the book collection] "Yes," he replied. [You have gained Volume IV of the book of Fire] He quickly checked the stats of the book. Book of Fire Volume IV This is 1 volume out of a total of 6 different volumes. Witness its fiery destruction. Level requirement: 50 Passive in Inventory: Fire Resistance +30% Heat Resistance +30% Skill: Firestorm: AOE attack that affects up to 10-meter surrounding the user. Does 500 damage per second for 15 seconds. Cooldown: 3 days Bound Undroppable Emile felt waves going through his heart. He knew that he had gained a treasure. Using this skill could decimate many players. This would become extremely useful. The only problem was that it required an extremely high level which wouldn''t appear for a few more months. The game probably didn''t expect for a solo player to kill a chief ranked monster so early. They must have thought that it would take much longer than expected. There were no more loot to be seen Emile messaged Flower Queen about logging out for the day. Emile logged out and fell asleep. _______ In a control center. This was the control center of the game Nirvana. One of the developers received a notification saying that a player managed to kill a chief ranked monster so quickly. "This is interesting, I''ll keep an eye out for him," thought the developer. Emile didn''t know that someone was watching over for him. Even if he did, he wouldn''t care if they watched him play. _______ Monday, 7:30 am He woke up. Emile had classes on this day. He freshened himself in the bathroom and left for his university. Emile went to Riverdale University which wasn''t very far away from him. It was a 10-minute bus ride before he arrived. Emile wanted to look for some of his friends and find out if they played Nirvana. He texted them in his group chat to meet up in front of the university. They quickly arrived. There were 3 people that showed up. The first one was known as Billy. He had short brown hair with brown eyes. He was about 1.72 meters tall. He had an average-looking face with a skinny stature. He is known to joke around about anything. The second was Mahmud. He was tall and had light brown skin. He was the tallest of all of them with 1.84 meters to his name. He was the quietest of them all. The third and final one was Steve. Despite his ordinary sounding name, he had the wealthiest background in their group. Even though he was rich, he never flaunted his status. "Hey Emile, why did you call us here, I have better things to do like finding a girlfriend," Said Billy with some worry. "Billy... I think we have to talk, You should become gay, no girl would want to date you," said Steve while sympathetically patting Billy''s shoulder. "That''s not true," Billy said with conviction. "Alright, we''ll discuss his problems later," Emile said, "Have you guys started to play Nirvana." They all gave him a strange look. "What''s wrong," Emile asked while feeling confused. "I didn''t know you knew about games?" Billy asked suspiciously. All three of his friends were avid game fans. Emile was the only one that didn''t play games in his spare time. He was known to always be training, "I know about games, its just that I don''t play them, but that''s beside the point, my dad wanted me to play Nirvana," He quickly said. "Wait... that means we''re all playing Nirvana, what''s your name in the game," Steve said while realizing the magnitude of Emile''s words. "It''s Mystical Flame, what about yours?" He questioned. "I''m the Handsomest Crab," Billy quickly answered the question. "My name is Time Walker," Steve said "I''m Flowing Dreams," said Mahmud quietly. "When you guys get on the game, add me to your friend''s list," Said Emile. "Alright," they said in unison. They walked into the university and talked about random shenanigans. Afterward, they left to do their own tasks. After having an uneventful day of class he went back to his apartment. He arrived at his home at 2:30 am. He called his dad. Emile asked if he should go to the dojo like normal. Lucifer said no since all his training would now come from the game. The only time he would go to the dojo would be when he wanted to test out his skills. After exchanging pleasantries and ending the call he orders lunch. After eating he went into his gaming cabin to browse the forums and see what was occurring in the game. The gaming cabin was connected to the internet. He noticed that players were discussing how no one had completed the main quest of any village. He also found out that the quest was very challenging as there was a level 10 chief ranked mob which they would have to fight. The only reason he won against the bunny was that he found an easy exploit which put the bunny into a loop. The bunny also had low hp which made it easier to kill. Emile kept looking through the forums and found a new section called Lore. He wanted to find out what this section was bout so clicked on it. As Emile started to read the forum he noticed lots of information about the game. The world was called Sonada. It was an enormous world with over 1 million villages. This was calculated to be around 2000 players per village. The game had an enormous scale. He also discovered that a player would gain a class at level 10. Each class had 10 tiers to it. Everyone would start at tier 1 and they could upgrade their tier by doing class quests. Emile continued to read and learned that each village has a library that contains information about that village. Emile wanted to test this out. He didn''t see anything else that was useful. So decided to log back into the game. Progress Emile logged back into the game. He decided to look around in the bunnies cave to see if he could spot anything that he might have missed. He checked around and didn''t see anything other than the big pile of food to the very left of the cave. He wanted to be extra careful in case he missed out on something. He decided to scavenge through the food to see if there was anything that was valuable. Near the bottom of the food stack, he found coins which were scattered around. He started to grab the coins and put them into his inventory. He gained 125 more copper coins. The game hasn''t released the money transfer option which would allow players to use real-life money and convert it to in-game money. The beginning of the game put everyone on an equal footing. He crawled out of the bunnies cave and checked his friend''s lists. He gave a friend request to all 3 of his friends. [Friend request has been sent] [Friend request has been sent] [Friend request has been sent] He also noticed that Flower Queen was online. He chose to message her. "Hey, I found a cave and cleared it," Emile typed. "Oh, there you are, I found another cave, now all you have to do is enter the caves to increase the progress of your quest." She responded quickly. "Here are the snake cave''s coordinates," She gave him coordinates to a location. "Thanks," Emile said before closing the chat. Emile started to walk in the direction of the coordinates. After about 10-minutes of walking straight past trees and other animals. He saw Flower Queen hunting green snakes. What level are you," he asked, "I''m level 2 right now." She replied, "I''m also level 2, you do realize that you can check it if you open the friend''s list, that''s what the number next to the name means." Emile was embarrassed as he didn''t know what the number meant. Emile was not number 1 on the Local leaderboard anymore. Other players were playing throughout the night causing some to be very close to level 3. "Can you lead me towards the cave," he asked. "Sure," she replied and started to walk in a direction. The trees surrounding this area were much greener than other areas. The green snakes had a natural advantage at this location since they could camouflage with the tree leaves. He followed her until they arrived at a small cliff. The cliff went up to 35 meters in the air. Emile was confused as to why she brought him next to a barren cliff.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. She started to walk around the cliff and stepped into an area with a lot of bushes. "Ta-da, the cave is behind the bush. I haven''t entered it yet," She quickly said hoping for praise. "Thanks, you didn''t have to do that," He said feeling warm on the inside. At this moment he received a system notification. [Flowing Dreams has accepted your friend request] [Handsomest Crab has accepted your friend request] [Time Walker has accepted your friend request] The three of them chose to accept his friend request at the same time. Emile didn''t know if this was coincidence or that they were together in the same village. He put all of them into one group chat so they could discuss things easily. "Could you guys come to Song Village and help me look for caves, it''s for a quest that I got from the Village Chief," Emile quickly asked. They replied by saying that they would help him out. Emile wanted to finish the quest today. "Follow an animal, since that''s how I found a few caves," He gave them some advice. After chatting with them, he finally entered the cave. [You have discovered a new location] [You have found the Snake''s Den] [You have gained 100 fame] [You will have the opportunity to earn fame if you clear the location] Immediately after entering the cave he noticed that it was extremely dark like the Boar''s cave. He felt disappointed that he couldn''t clear the cave. Flower Queen noticing his sadness attempted to comfort him. "Don''t worry, didn''t I say that I found another cave, maybe that cave will have what you''re looking for," she said sympathetically. He felt slightly better after her reassurance and checked his quest log. [Unique Quest: Seeking a Cave] [Objective: Find five caves] [Difficulty: C] [Comment: You''re almost there, just two more to find] [Progress: 3/5] [Reward: Uncommon Helmet of the Overseer, 250 experience points, and Skill Book: Night Vision] He had to look for two more caves before he could complete the quest and earn some items. "Follow me." She said as she started to walk away. Emile started to follow her again. After about 20 minutes of walking and the forest changing its look one more time. The forest had an assortment of colored-leaves. He noticed that the only animals walking around were mice, which were level 1 and wolves which were level 5. They had to be cautious since the wolves were strong. They continued to walk around when Flower Queen started to message him in his chat. She didn''t want to alert the wolves. Her cautious nature allowed her to have high survivability. "The cave is about 20 meters in front of us, but there''s a wolve blocking the entrance," she typed. "I''ll distract the wolves" she typed. He felt warm knowing that he wasn''t alone for this adventure. He remembered how he used a rock to lure enemies over. He gave her a rock and told her the strategy to lure away the wolf. He hid in a bush. She hid in a separate bush and threw a rock at the wolf. The wolf was started and started to growl in the direction of where the rock came from. She stood up and began taunting the wolf. The wolf wasn''t smart enough to realize that this was a trap. The wolf ran after her. Emile took the opportunity to charge into the cave. [[You have discovered a new location] [You have found the Wolves Den] [You have gained 100 fame] [You will have the opportunity to earn fame if you clear the location] After he got the system notifications he left the cave to go help out Flower Queen. He noticed that she was running away and messaged her to run towards him. Her Agility wasn''t faster than the wolf which caused the wolf to ram into her. She received knockback which propelled her towards Emile. "How much health do you have?" Emile asked quickly. "I''ll die in more hit," she responded. Emile took the chance to identify the stats of the wolf. Gray Wolf Normal Monster Level 5 Hp: 149/158 Atk: 26-42 Agility: 23 An all-rounder. Has decent stats across the board. Weakness: Attacking the neck will give the stun effect. "Attack the neck." he quickly ordered. Emile charged forward and threw out a punch. Before the punch landed he got bit by the wolf. -28 [You are bleeding, you will lose 2% of your health per second] -62 true damage The wolf got stunned for half-a-second which allowed Flower Queen to slash her sword at the wolf''s neck. -36 true damage The stun effect got removed and the wolf attacked Emile once more. -27 [You are bleeding, you will lose 3% of your health per second] The bleeding effect stacked. He didn''t want to find out how much it stacked by. He went for another punch at the neck which killed the wolf. -60 true damage [The Wolf has been slain] [You have gained Wolf meat x1] [You have gained Wolfhide x2] [You have gained 5 copper coins] [You have gained 36 experience points (12x3 level gap)] Emile bleeding effect ended after a few seconds. Emile just noticed that he wasn''t in a party with Flower Queen which meant that she received no experience. He sent her a party invite. She accepted. She didn''t have any sour feelings since she also forgot about the party function. They would receive exp depending on how much they contributed towards a fight. "We need to find one more cave before the quest is completed," he said. At this moment he received a message from Flowing Dream. Quest Complete Emile didn''t know why Flowing Dream would want to message him. "Hey, I found a cave by following a mouse," He typed. Emile felt surprised since he expected Billy or Steve to report these things. Mahmud was usually quiet which made him think that this scenario was strange. Even though he had these thoughts, he didn''t mention it to Flowing Dream. Emile typed something in the group chat. "Where are you?" Flowing Dream responded by saying "I''ll send you coordinates to my location." At this moment Handsomest Crab said, "F***, I wasn''t the first to find a cave." He felt depressed. Time Walker wasn''t online at the moment. "I''m coming as well," Handsomest Crab quickly typed shamelessly. Emile closed the chat. "My friend found a cave, he sent me the coordinates, so we should start moving," He said while moving. "Wait, I have to log out, I didn''t sleep last night so... I want to gain some sleep and lay later tonight," She said with embarrassment. She hasn''t slept for 30 hours causing her to feel tired. She waited until mid-day to sleep because she didn''t want to waste Emile''s time. Emile understood her plight. "Have a good sleep, see you later," he said before seeing her disappear. After she logged out, he continued to walk towards the coordinates. He started to notice a trend among the trees. The color of the leaves would determine what type of mob existed in that location. It was a unique detail which he only recently noticed. [Familiarity with Song Forest has increased] [10% increase in Vitality and 5% increase in Strength while in Song Forest] [Note: Telling people about the unique details of a location will destroy the opportunity for them to gain the buff, this will include forums] Emile felt shocked since he didn''t expect for this to occur. He didn''t read about this in the forums. He felt his strength increase after figuring this out. The last line of the system notifications warned him not to tell the layers about any unique details. This meant that he couldn''t mention how different colored leaves corresponded to different mobs.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. Emile continued to walk towards the destination and made sure to look at his surroundings more carefully. He didn''t get any more system notifications about improving his familiarity with the forest. In the distance, he saw Handsomest Crab and Flowing Dream. "How are you going to compensate our leveling time," Handsomest Crab asked with a look of annoyance. "Uhh... You di-" Emile was cut off. "I''m kidding, this is what brothers do for each other, I don''t need you to compensate me for anything." He quickly said in a joking manner. Flowing Dream started to speak. Mahmud was very serious about any task that he received. "The cave is behind that bush," he said stoically. "I didn''t enter the cave yet," said Flowing Dream. Emile entered the cave by crawling through it and received a few notifications, [You have discovered a new location] [You have found the Mice''s Cavern] [You have gained 100 fame] [You will have the opportunity to earn fame if you clear the location] [You have completed Unique Quest Seeking a Cave] [You will receive your rewards from the Village Chief] It was completely dark so he couldn''t clear it. He couldn''t see what was occurring so he backed out wisely. He crawled outside and saw them waiting for him. He started to speak to them. "My quest is complete, do you guys want to come with me and see what I got," he quickly asked. "Were you thinking of abandoning us," Handsomest Crab replied jokingly. "Of course we''re going, right Flowing Dream," he asked Flowing Dream for his approval. "Yeah," he responded, Emile started to walk towards the Village. Emile decided to tell them about gaining familiarity with a location. "By the way, If you ever understand how an area works, you can gain some buffs." He tried to word his sentence without revealing any discoveries he made. "What does that mean," Asked Handsomest Crab. "Basically, if you ever realize anything unique about a place and what effects those unique places have, you gain a buff," he explained. He didn''t know how to word it correctly. "What he''s trying to say is to look for abnormalities in a location," Flowing Dream said. "Yeah, what he said," Mystical Flame replied. After the conversation ended, they continued to walk while talking about miscellaneous things like what they have done so far in the game. They arrived at the village and Emile decided to go to the Tailor to pick up his pair of gloves. The Tailor greeted him enthusiastically which surprised some of the players. The Tailor now took orders from anyone that brought in hides. Chicken feathers were still denied. He received his gloves which turned out to be Common ranked. He examined his gloves. Common Might Gloves: A strong pair of gloves made from Boarhide. Level Requirement: 2 Strength +3 He had to equip this pair of gloves since he didn''t have any other pair. He equipped it. He went to the market to go buy a sword since he now had the money to buy one. He found a common sword which sold for 10 copper coins. The stats were. Dull Sword: A sword that can be mass-produced. Level Requirement: 0 Strength +4 He decided to check his stats out. _________________________________________ Personal Stats Name: Mystical Flame (no title) Level: 2 Exp: 276/1500 HP:240/240 MP:30/30 Strength: 39(13+26) Agility: 23(15+8) Vitality: 24(6+18) Intelligence: 5 Spirit: 3 Luck: 10 Attack: 33-37 Magic Attack: 3-7 Fame: 750 _________________________________________ He had gained a new stat called fame. He didn''t know what that stat did or what repercussions it had. He finally decided to go visit the Village Chief and get his rewards. He walked up to his door, with Flowing Dream and Handsomest Crab following shortly behind. He knocked on his door. There were fewer people surrounding the Chief''s home since no one wanted to waste their time. The players who waited were desperate for a miracle to occur. They hoped for the Chief to randomly let them in and give them freebies. This would never occur but he didn''t want to be the person to tell them this. The Chief opened the door and allowed them to enter his home. The players surrounding his door felt an invisible punch to their gut. They walked up to his door and asked to enter. The Village Chief yelled at them. Emile felt sympathetic but didn''t stop this since he didn''t know who they were. After Emile entered he told the Chief about all five of the caves he found. The Chief gave him the reward that he earned. [You have gained Uncommon Helmet of the Overseer, 250 experience points, and Skill Book: Night Vision] Emile had filled up 35% of his experience bar. The Chief started talking once again. "Since you managed to find the caves, how about you go clear them?" He asked. A system notification appeared. [Unique Quest: Clearing the Caves] [Objective: Clear the 5 caves] [Difficulty: A] [Comment: If you can clear one you can clear five] [Progress: 1/5] [Can be shared with at most 4 different players] [Reward: 2500 experience, Rare Chestplate of the Fallen, Skill Book: Fire Ball] The rewards were as abundant as always. The quest would be challenging. The only good thing was that he could share the quest with his friends. He decided to examine the Uncommon helmet of the Overseer. Preparations Uncommon Helmet of the Overseer: A helmet that was once worn by a strategist. Level Requirement: 0 Vitality +4 Skills: Bubble Shield: Summons a shield that surrounds the user, blocking damage up to 25% of total health. Cooldown: 6 hours This helmet had low stats but the skill made up for that deficit. Emile was happy that he could equip the item. The item''s cooldown seemed fair since it was only an uncommon item. Emile decided to use the night vision skill book. [Would you like to learn Night Vision] "Yes," he replied. [You have learned Night Vision] Emile checked to see what Night Vision did. Night Vision: Allows the user to see in the dark] Emile noticed a party function earlier on. The party function allowed for a player to set a skill that can be shared with all the members of the party. He decided to set the Night Vision skill as the party skill. Emile decided to share the quest with Handsomest Crab and Flowing Dream. [You have shared the quest with Handsomest Crab and Flowing Dream] [Player Flowing Dream has accepted the quest] [Player Handsomest Crab has accepted the quest] They immediately accepted the quest. Emile could share his quest with two more players, so he decided to wait until Flower Queen or Time Walker logged in. After they left the Chief''s house, Emile decided to go grinding with Handsomest Crab and Flowing Dream. They were both level 1 since they were only playing casually. Before he went grinding, he went to the market and bought some bandages to increase health regeneration. He bought 50 of them for 250 copper coins. Potions that instantly heal a player has not been yet manufactured by the NPC''s or a Lifestyle player. Bandage: A common necessity. Usage: Apply to wound to stop bleeding effect, also increase health regeneration by 30%. The bandages didn''t give high health instantly. The bandages allowed for faster regeneration of health which suited it nicely. Emile chose to grind against wolves since he noticed that it would give the greatest exp yield. He would have to be careful when grinding against wolves since they could kill his friends easily. "Are you insane!?! You want to grind against level 5 mobs," Handsomest Crab yelled out after seeing that their grinding location only had level 5 wolves. This managed to alarm a nearby wolf. "Great, now we''re dead," said Handsomest Crab while slowly losing hope. Flowing Dream stayed quiet but deep in his heart he thought Emile got them killed.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. They didn''t have any faith in Emile. Emile didn''t say anything about his outburst but chose to take action instead. He ran up to the wolf and stabbed it in the neck. -84 true damage(1) The wolf bit him. -32 He stabbed it again without wincing at the pain from the bite. -82 true damage The wolf fell giving out loot which Emile picked up. Emile got 60% of the experience while Flowing Dream and Handsomest Crab shared the 40%. Experience is given out based on how much a player contributed to a fight. Since Flowing Dream and Handsomest Crab didn''t do anything they only received 20% of the experience. Handsomest Crab and Flowing Dream were both shocked since they watched Emile 2-hit a mob that was much stronger than them. They checked the party to see what level he was. They felt even more shocked after seeing that Emile was only level 2. "See, you don''t have to worry when I''m here," Mystical Flame quickly said. "I''m going getting carried! I''ve never got carried before," Handsomest Crab quickly said excitedly. Flowing Dream also felt shocked but managed to quickly analyze how he pulled it off. Emile rolled his eyes at his words and continued to look for wolves. _______ 2 hours later... They killed about 20 wolves in 2 hours. Emile had to use 4 bandages since he was the one who always took damage. They didn''t gain a lot of party experience which was a different type of experience. Every time they killed a mob that was considered stronger than them they would gain party exp. One mob was considered as one party exp. They had 21 party experience in total. (2) The experience'' function was to level up the party level. Their party level was level 1. They required 1000 party experience to level up their party. Leveling up the party had many benefits. A level 1 party only allowed for a maximum of 5 members to be in a party. A Level 2 party supported 10 members. The number of members would increase with the parties level. This wasn''t the only benefit. Parties can also buff their stats. As long as they were in that specific party they could have a permanent stat boost. At this moment Time Walker logged in and asked for their location. Handsomest Crab replied by saying that they were in Song Forest which was next to Song Village. He also mentioned how they arrived at Song Village which Emile chose to pay attention to. "To get to Song VIllage you must go to the market and look for the teleporter. The teleporter can bring you to any village for 50 copper coins. The teleporter is located in the middle of the market," Handsomest Crab quickly typed. At this stage in the game, the teleporter didn''t have much use since no one needed to travel to another village. Cities will be blocked for any player that hasn''t reached level 10. As they walked back to Song Village they noticed that there were players who were hunting boars. After they arrived at the teleporter''s location they waited for Time Walker to appear. The teleporter looked very metallic and it was very shiny due to the sun. The teleporter was 15 meters wide and 15 meters long. The reason for a big teleporter was due to the sheer number of players who would have to travel to a city. Time Walker popped up and they exchanged some pleasantries with each other. "Where were you," Handsomest Crab asked. They were supposed to play together but Time Walker didn''t show up. "My family made me start taking piano classes, they said that it was ''to look classy''," He answered feeling dejected that he had to start taking more classes. "Ignore my problems, uhh... so what you guys been up to?" He asked in a curious tone. "Emile is carrying us until we reach level 2. You should join us," Handsomest Crab quickly said proudly. "Isn''t it slower to grind together?" Time Walker asked confusedly. "Not with Emile, he can kill level 5 mobs easily which give us more experience than the level 1 mice," Handsomest Crab answered. "Let''s go, you''ll see what he can do," Handsomest Crab quickly said. They added him to their party. Emile also told him about his quest. Emile shared the quest with Time Walker and he accepted. After that exchange, they walked back to the location with wolves. Time Walker got to witness Emile''s prowess as he would two-shot each and every wolf. At some point during their grind, Emile allowed the other''s to participate in the fights. They would lure 2 or 3 wolves and Emile would have to face their onslaught of bites. HIs friends would attack the wolf whenever they could. This increased their efficiency in fighting. In 2 hours they managed to kill 35 wolves which were more than the first 2 hours. They gained 35 party experience. During this grind, Flowing Dream, Time Walker, and Handsomest Crab all leveled up to level 2. Mystical Flame leveled up to level 3. Emile decided to put his free attribute points on Strength and Agility. He put 3 points onto Strength and 2 points onto Agility. Flowing Dream was attempting to be a Main-Tank so he put most of his stats into Vitality and some into strength. Time Walker wanted to be a spellcaster so he put his stats into Intelligence and Spirit. Anyone who wanted to be a spellcaster or a wizard was very weak at the beginning of the game. Most average players wouldn''t have any spells at the beginning of the game. Spellcasters would become very useful in grinding when they learned AOE effects. Handsomest Crab wanted to be a warrior so he put all his stats into strength or agility. Emile was an oddball since his stat distribution was equivalent to an assassin but he also had stats to be a tank or a warrior. He was nearly a jack-of-all-trades. He couldn''t become a successful spellcaster since he didn''t have the correct stats for it. At this moment Flower Queen logged back in. "Did you finish your quest," She typed curiously. "Yeah," Emile replied while standing around and doing nothing. Emile then told her about the sequential quest which was given. He shared the quest with her. She accepted the quest. He asked her if she wanted to join their party and go clear a cave. "Sure," she replied. He told her to meet up in front of the Boars'' Cave. He told her the coordinates fo the cave. He told Handsomest Crab and the others to start walking towards the Boar''s cave. He chose to lead them there. When they arrived at the cave they noticed a beautiful girl standing there. "Who is she," asked Handsomest Crab while being stunned by her beauty. "She is Flower Queen," Emile pointed at the guys and started to name them, "this is Flowing Dream, Time Walker, and Handsomest Crab." "Hi guys," she said. "Hi," they all said in unison. "I shared the quest with them as well, they are my friends in real-life," he quickly said to Flower Queen. "Also guys, she''s my neighbor, her apartment is next to mine," He turned to spoke towards his friends. "Is she your girlfriend," asked Handsomest Crab curiously. "No," Emile felt startled by the randomness of Handsomest Crab. Flower Queen pouted slightly but quickly resumed smiling again. Handsomest Crab sent Emile a private message a few moments later. "I understand, your chasing after her right, don''t worry we won''t snatch her away," He typed in an attempt to reassure him. Emile chose the wise decision and ignored his comment. "Alright I think we should go clear our first cave," He quickly said aloud. Emile walked into the cave. Clearing the Boars Cave Emile looked around the cave. There were stalactites on the ceiling. Water was slowly dripping down them. The cave had a lot of moisture. He could not see all the mobs that were in the cave since the cave was much bigger than the bunnies hideout. He noticed some Boars'' patrolling the area. He told his party in the party chat to not speak. They would type out everything from now on to keep themselves hidden. "There are 2 Boar''s to the Northwest and 4 to the Northeast." Flower Queen said. "Let''s lure the 2 Boars here and kill them off," Emile quickly said. Emile thought about how he should go about this problem. He then remembered his method with the bunnies. "I got this, wait for me," said Emile as he walked out of the cave. Flower Queen knew what he was planning since she saw his method of luring enemies. The others felt confused by Emile''s actions and decided to wait for him. Emile came back. "I''m ready," Emile said. "Ready for what," Time Walker replied. "Watch," Emile replied not bothering to explain. Emile threw a rock at the Boar''s group with two members. He hit one of them square in the eye. -24 true damage Emile now understood that hitting any vitals would always result in double damage. His skill Pinpoint would point out a specific weakness that a mob. It isn''t usually a common weak point and it would give the enemy a debuff. [Your understanding of Skill: Pinpoint has increased] Emile felt shocked since his skills could improve as well. He quickly checked the Pinpoint skill out. Pinpoint Level 2 Usage: Can see the weaknesses and debuffs of any enemies that are weaker than the user and up to 10 levels above the user. Passive Skill Upgraded Skill Original Skill If he ever gained new insights about a skill he might be able to make it stronger. Emile decided to tell his party about this revelation. He made them aware that if they ever understood how a skill functions they would gain a stronger version of that skill. He told them about how he managed to upgrade one as well. He showed them his skill in the party chat and told them about the differences between the past version and the present version. As he was showing them the skill the Boar charged into him. -13 The boar wasn''t very strong. He remembered how the Boar''s had extremely high hp. He took out his sword and stabbed the Boar in the eye. -88 true damage He then stabbed the other eye. -82 true damage He told his party to finish the boar off. He charged at the other Boar and chose to pierce the Boar in the eye with his sword. -84 true damage He took out his sword from the eye socket and pierced it into the Boar''s head.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. -164 true damage + critical damage He got a critical hit which finished off the Boar. When Emile turned around he noticed that the other Boar was dead. After collecting the items which were some meat and some hides they decided to do the same thing with the other Boar group. They lured them 2 at a time to make the fighting more efficient. They killed all the boars gaining some experience and more materials which Emile took. They continued to move deeper into the caves. They noticed three more groups of Boars. They did the exact same thing as before. They would throw a rock at a Boar luring it towards them and then kill it off. The Boars were a bit stronger than before. They were a level higher. Emile identified the stats of the Boar. Elite Boar Normal Monster Level 3 Hp: 212/212 Atk: 19-24 Agility: 8 Skill: {Charge} Weakness: No unique weakness The Boar''s now had a skill. They still were extremely weak in comparison to Emile. The Boar didn''t have any unique weakness which was a slight problem since they couldn''t inflict any debuff on them. The elite boars were considered a normal monster since they were only a stronger version of a normal boar. They went back to luring one mob at a time. Killing the mobs took a bit longer but it didn''t matter since it was still quite fast. There were 11 Elites in total. Killing the elites took 15 minutes. They continued to move deeper into the cave where they discovered a giant Red-Colored Boar roaming. The party quickly realized that the Red boar was the strongest opponent that they would face in the cave. Emile took the most damage while transversing the cave. Emiel took the opportunity to use a bandage. After 10 minutes of waiting he was at full health. Emile identified the stats of the boar and shared it with his party. Bloody Boar Chief Ranked Monster Level 5 Hp: 4223/4223 Atk: 40-59 Agility: 13 Skills: {Berserk}, {Bloody Roar} Weakness: It can''t feel anything The weakness was unique. He hadn''t seen a weakness where it mentions how sensitive an animal was. He didn''t know if this would be useful in killing the boar. Emile knew that Flowing Dream had put some of his free attribute points into Vitality. "How much health do you have?" Emile asked Flowing Dream. "200," he replied stoically. Emile only had 240 health. Emile told him about his health and said that they should both tank the hits. They would switch places when the other person was low on hp. Flowing Dream would tank first. Emile and the others were damage dealers. "How should we go about this," asked Handsomest Crab. "Flowing Dream will begin by tanking attacks from the boss, we will be damage dealers," replied Emile. Emile used a classic strategy of one person tanking a boss and the others attacking the boss. Since the boss couldn''t feel anything this would work. "When Flowing Dream has low Hp he will retreat and let me take his position," He continued. "He will start to heal himself by using bandages and join back, this should create a cycle," said Emile. "What about the bosses skill," asked Flower Queen. "Hopefully it doesn''t stun us, or that would create problems for us," replied Emile. They agreed to try their best no matter how desperate it seems. Flowing Dream walked up to the boss causing the boss to aggro to him. His agility was near-identical to the boss. The boss charged at him but since his reaction time was slow he got hit. -46 Flowing Dream got knocked back and quickly stood up. He charged forward and attacked the boss dealing negligible damage. The other came from behind and started to whack the boss. Flowing Dream continued to lose Hp, at the same time, the boss also lost Hp. The boss never noticed the people who surrounded him and attacking him. The only person in his peripherals was Flowing Dream. "I''m retreating now," Flowing Dream said as he started to run back. The boss had 85% of its health left. Emile quickly took the opportunity to throw a rock in front of the boss. He missed purposefully because if he threw it at the boss, it wouldn''t be able to feel the blow. This caught the attention of the boss. It turned around an started to charge at Emile. Emile dodged the attack and stabbed it on its side. After turning around the boss noticed that other humans were attacking him as well. Its pride took a blow. It charged at the closest person which turned out to be Flower Queen. Flower Queen''s face turned pale. She got hit. -48 She was sent flying back. The boss charged at her again. She landed on her feet and barely dodged the attack. Emile ran to be next to her. Emile took control of the bosses aggro. Emile decided to not dodge any more attacks. He would risk a party wipe if he dodged often. They continued to attack the boss and Emile got hit 5 times. At this moment Flowing Dream came back with about 160 Hp. He took over for Emile. Emile put on a bandage and joined the fight to continue to deal damage. This loop went on until the boss had 33% of its health left. The Boar gave a loud shriek. [You have been affected by Bloody Roar] [You can''t move for 3 seconds] The Boar took the opportunity to charge at Time Walker who was the closest. Time Walker didn''t know it was luck or him being too weak. He got sent flying back far enough for everyone to recover from Bloody Roar. Th Boar charged at him again. Flowing Dream was the one who was tanking at this moment. He quickly ran in front of Time Walker to tank the attack. This was a problem since if the boss did Bloody Roar again it would be able to kill Time Walker easily. Flower Queen would also die if she got hit by a strong attack. They had to end the battle as quick as they could. They temporarily had an increased efficiency since everyone was putting more effort than before. Before long the boss had 15% of its health left. The boss started to exude fumes from its nose. Emile quickly assumed that the boss was entering berserk mode. He checked the stats to make sure. Bloody Boar (Berserk) Chief Ranked Monster Level 5 Hp: 633/4223 Atk: 57-72 Agility: 15 Skills: {Berserk}, {Bloody Roar} Weakness: It can''t feel anything Emile couldn''t kill the boss quickly with just his skills. Flowing Dream was tanking at this moment. The boss gave out another shriek. [You have been affected by Bloody Roar] [You can''t move for 5 seconds] The effect of the skill grew stronger since the boss became stronger. This was the worst situation they have been in. The Boar charged at Emile. -60 It charged again. Emile activated his skill that he got from the Uncommon helmet of the Overseer. Bubble Shield! He thought he would be able to take a few hits from the boss. -0 [Bubble shield has broken] He was incorrect in his thinking process but the benefit of this exchange was that Bloody Roar''s effect ran out and he was right in front of the Boar''s face. He stabbed the Boar in the eye. -172 true damage + critical damage Before the boar could do anything he used one of his skills on the eye. 5 hit slash! -66 true damage -66 true damage -66 true damage -132 true damage + critical damage -132 true damage + critical damage The boar fell to the floor slowly. A thud could be heard. The cave became eerily silent before sounds of laughter and excitement burst out. "We did it, we did it," said Time Walker excitedly. Flowing Dream had a smile on his face. "Let''s check the loot," Handsomest Crab said. The only thing that excited him was the loot. "Hey, good job." Flower Queen said. She was always bold about her decisions, "Uhh... thanks," he said while feeling warm that she seemed to care. He clenched his fist since his decision to dodge the attack caused for her to be hit. "Sorry about dodging the attack earlier and causing you to get hit," He said while putting his head slightly down. "Everyone makes mistakes," she said while patting his head, "now lift your head and give me a smile." Emile showed her a bright smile. "Hey, stop being lovey-dovey, just pick up the loot," said Handsomest Crab. He felt impatient that they were taking so long. Emile walked up to the loot and started to pick them up. Loot and Player Kills They received a few system notifications before the celebrations began. [You have slain the Red Boar] [You have gained 300 experience] [You have cleared the Boar''s Cave and have gained 250 fame] He didn''t receive a book. He asked his party members about the amount of fame they got. They each got 100 fame. Since he was the one who discovered the cave he would receive the most fame. The first thing that Emile picked up from the pile of loot was the coins. They got a total of 4 silver and 194 copper coins. There weren''t enough silver coins to give to everyone in the party. So they decided by checking out the contribution rankings. The contribution ranking would give a percentage of how much the player has helped out during the fight. Emile was in first with 55%. He got 25% of the percentage by getting the last hit of the fight. The other 30% was from tanking and dealing damage. Second place was Flowing Dream who had 15%. He was the tank for a lot of the fight. Third place was Flower Queen with 13% who did the highest amount of damage excluding Emile. Fourth place was Handsomest Crab with 11%. He was average. Fifth place was Time Walker who had 6%. It made sense for him to be in last place since he was spellcaster which made his physical attacks very weak. All of them received a silver coin except Time Walker who received 194 copper coins. Then they checked out the loot. Emile picked up a chest plate that was lying on the floor. He identified it and shared the stats of it with his party. Uncommon Chestplate of The Boar: A mighty chestplate made from Boarhide. Level Requirement: 5 Vitality +14 Strenght +8 Atk: 12-18 Skill: Charge Usage: The user can activate this skill to increase attack strength by 40% for the next attack. Cooldown: 10 minutes Flowing Dream and Emile were the only players that wanted the chestplate. They rolled a die for the item. Emile managed to get a 76. Flowing Dream got the item with an 86. Flowing Dream wasn''t able to equip the item because he was not yet level 5. Emile picked up another item that was on the ground. The item was a pair of swords. Uncommon Dual-Wielded Swords: A pair of swords that work well together.* Level Requirement: 5 Strength +9 Atk: 14-19 Skill:Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. Dual Slash The next attack will deal double damage. *Note: The swords; when separated are both Common ranked. The stats were considerably lower than the sword that Emile had in his inventory. The skill allowed the swords to be onsidered good. The skill was excellent at dishing out burst damage. With a bit of luck and precision, Emile could deal out 8x his attack value. (1) Flower Queen and Handsomest Crab wanted the item. Emile didn''t need the sword because of two reasons. The first reason was that he had a sword which he prefers over this sword. The second reason, the more important reason, was that he didn''t know how to dual-wield. Dual-wielding required good hand-coordination and, most importantly, control. Emile didn''t have good hand-coordination, instead, his control of the sword was top-notch. Flower Queen rolled the die and received a 38. It was a very low roll since it was below average. Handsomest Crab rolled a 14. He felt dejected about his bad luck. Flower Queen successfully got the item and placed it in her inventory. Emile picked up the last item and identified it. Ancient Mages Legacy A legacy from a Powerful Mage that lived during the Ancient times. Usage: Allows the user to become the hidden class: {Ancient Mage} Requirements: 30 Spirit 25 Intelligence 15 Strength "I want it," Time Walker yelled out excitedly. "None of you want to be a Mage, so give it to me, please," If they rejected his offer he might even resort begging. Emile didn''t need this since he was planning to be a swordsman. Flower Queen was also using swords. Handsomest Crab would use heavy weapons to deal high amounts of damage. Flowing Dream would use a sword and shield to defend and attack the enemy. They all allowed Time Walker to gain the legacy. He would become very powerful in the future due to this legacy. Emile didn''t gain any loot from the boss. He used some bandages to heal his health up to full. Emile asked them to walk around the cave to see if they missed anything. They found a place where the Boar slept. They searched the Boar''s sleeping place and found a chest. Handsomest Crab ran up to the chest and tried to open it. "The chest requires lockpicking," he said after attempting to open several times. "Looks like we have to leave the chest for now," Emile paused and thought about something. "I''ll ask the Village Chief if he has a method to open the chest. That''s the only thing I can think of," He continued. "Let''s leave the cave for now," Flower Queen said as she started to walk towards the entrance. As they approached the entrance they started to hear people talking. "This is the cave, that I found," said River Bull. River Bull was speaking to his fellow guildmates who were part of the guild known as Frosted Light. Emile and his party walked out of the cave and saw some players standing in front of the cave. "You think they''ll let us go," asked Time Walker with uncertainty. "Hey he''s the guy that managed to enter the Village Chief''s home, he might have good items," said River Bull to his guildmates as he pointed to Mystical Flame. "Yeah, I remember him," said Water Spinach. She was one of the players who was with River Bull hoping to enter the Chief''s home. "Let''s kill them, and see if we get any loot," said River Bull. "He should have decent loot," he continued. They had 7 players with them. "Prepare for battle," Emile quickly said as he pulled out a sword from his inventory. River Bull ran up to Emile and slashed at him. Emile ducked around the sword and slashed out against River Bull. -44 At this moment two of River Bull''s guildmates charged at him from his left and right. Emile used Void-Steps and dodged the attacks. His speed became much faster than them. They couldn''t track his movement so they went into a defensive position. He quickly arrived behind Rivel Bull who was trying to analyze his movement path. River Bull didn''t notice anything about where he went. Emile quickly stabbed Rivel Bull in the back of the neck. -172 Hidden strike + Critical Hit (2) River Bull died. He dropped a piece of equipment which Emile picked up. As this fight was going on. Flower Queen and the others were each dealing with one person. Flower Queen outmaneuvered her opponent which dealt some damage. Afterward, she used a skill which did burst damage. She managed to kill her opponent quickly. She ran towards Time Walker since he needed the most help due to his low stats. She started to fight with another player. Time Walker felt useless since he couldn''t contribute much to the fight. Handsomest Crab was doing decent since he had high values of Hp and attack. At this moment, one of the players who attacked Emile with River Bull charged at Flowing Dream who was dealing with an assassin. The assassin didn''t have stealth yet since they needed to get the class first. They had high agility instead. They started to clash with their swords. Flowing Dream had to focus on fighting with 2 players at the same time. He couldn''t handle this so he yelled out to Emile. "Need some help here." Emile ran towards Flowing Dream. Before he managed to make it to him, the other player who attacked him with River Bull blocked his path. "You''re not getting past me," He said. The other player started to attack Emile. Emile quickly raised his sword to block the first attack. He moved to the left of the person dodging the person''s next attack. He did a horizontal slash aimed at the person''s waist. The person couldn''t dodge since they were in the position of attacking. -43 Emile attacked one more time. The person was affected by the pain of getting hit so they stood there with a grimaced face. -42 -86 Critical Hit Another slash finished him off. Emile''s Void-Steps ran out. The person died dropping some coins a piece of equipment which Emile ignored. He ran to Flowing Dream and attacked one of the players who was attacking him. Flowing Dream was defending against the strikes so he didn''t deal out much damage. "Thanks," he said. Emile quickly took care of the person and finished him off. Flower Queen and Time Walker finished off Water Spinach. Emile and Flowing Dream took care of the assassin. The only person left was the player who Handsomest Crab had to deal with. The player noticed that everyone in his party died. "Don''t kill me, I''m part of the guild Frosted Light," He quickly said as he started to run away. Sadly his Agility was lower than Emile''s which allowed Emile to catch up to him. Emile didn''t take the threat seriously. Emile didn''t know much about guilds which lead to this bold decision. He finished off the guy. "Hey, have you guys heard of the guild called Frosted Light," Emile quickly asked his party as he started to walk towards them. "They''re a small guild with a few thousand players," Flower Queen replied. "What?!?! You call that small," Emile quickly freaked out about the numbers and about how she described them. "Well, there are much bigger guilds out there, like Dark Knight who has about 200,000 guild members." She said. "Aren''t you worried they''ll hunt you down," She asked him with a calm tone. "Why should I care, I can just kill all of them," He said arrogantly. "What if they send out 1000 members to come after you," she asked. "I''ll just log out," he replied innocently. "I picked up all the loot they dropped," said Handsomest Crab, "I''ll identify them for you guys." Nirvanic "They were a poor bunch of players, they only dropped 230 copper coins," He quickly said. They split the amount based on how many people they killed. Emile killed 4 of the players. So he received 131 copper coins. Flower Queen killed two players. She received a decent amount of coins. They dropped three pieces of equipment. The first was a pair of boots. Common Boots of the Wicked A pair of boots made for the wicked. Level Requirement: 2 Agility +5 Spirit +2 The boots didn''t have any skills. Emile wanted the item since he didn''t have a good pair of boots yet. They allowed Emile to have the boots since he killed the most players. He equipped it. They got leggings as well. Uncommon Mountain Leggings A pair of leggings made for stability. Level Requirement: 3 Strength +3 Vitality +3 Atk: 6-14 Skill: Unmoveable The user doesn''t receive knockback damage for 5 seconds Cooldown: 1 hour The leggings were very useful. Everyone wanted the leggings for the skill. The only downside of the leggings was the stats. They all rolled. Emile rolled a 94 and won the leggings. He equipped the item which increased his stats a small amount. "I''m going to log out now," Emile quickly said. It was approaching midnight when he logged out. Emile ordered some dinner and then fell asleep. The next morning he went to his university to have classes. It was an uneventful day for him. After university, he didn''t go back home. He chose to go to his father''s dojo to test out his abilities. He took the bus and arrived at his father''s dojo. His father, Lucifer, was practicing on one of the practice dummies. Lucifer noticed Emile and challenged him to a spar. Emile accepted.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. They took out the wooden swords from the rack. Emile decided to charge at Lucifer. He went for a jab, Emile gave himself some leeway because he needed to dodge the counter-attack. Lucifer jumped to the left and went for a horizontal slash aimed at Emile''s arm. Emile moved his arm out of the way by maneuvering his body. His body was very flexible which allowed him to do this. Emile ended his jab mid-strike and started to go for a horizontal attack. He did this while dodging the attack. He wouldn''t be able to do this if he didn''t fight the bunny king which tested his reaction time to the extremes. Lucifer felt surprised that Emile could improve this much in a short amount of time. Lucifer didn''t show the surprise on his face. He calmly used Void-Steps to move out of the path of the attack. He arrived behind Emile. Lucifer jabbed his sword at Emile''s back. Emile noticed this and chose to run forward. He managed to avoid the attack. Emile turned around and faced Lucifer. Lucifer charged at him while using Void-Steps. He wanted to confuse Emile since he knew that Emile was only in the intermediate stage of Void-Steps. Emile had a calm-front. Lucifer thought that he was bluffing. Emile wasn''t bluffing. He attacked Emile aiming at this chest. Emile side-stepped out of the way and did a vertical slash aimed at the sword. Lucifer''s sword got hit by his sword. His sword started to point towards the floor. Lucifer tried to lift his sword up. But Emile quickly went for an attack aimed at Lucifer''s shoulder. Lucifer released his sword decisively. He did this to have a chance at dodging the attack. He dodged the attack successfully. Emile lunged at him and attacked him. Lucifer attempted to use Void-Steps to evade the attack. Emile also used Void-Steps to catch up to Lucifer and attacked him in the shoulder. Lucifer got hit. "I think we should end the spar here, I''m surprised that you grew so strong so quickly, have you played Nirvana yet," He asked Emile as he sighed. "Yeah," he didn''t let go of his guard. "You can let go of your guard now, I think your strong enough to learn some information," He said while admiring his son. "Why do you think Martial Arts still exists in this day and age," he asked. Emile started to think about his words. He didn''t know why it existed. It was a niche subject to learn about. Martial Artists seemed useless in this day and age. "The goal of a Martial Artist is to become stronger, right," he asked. "Yeah," Emile replied. "At some point, people couldn''t break past a certain barrier whilst improving themselves," he said. "The entire Martial World came to a halt until a certain ancestor realized a different type of potential that humans had in them," he continued. "The ability to use powers," He dropped a bombshell. "Uhh... What does that mean," Emile asked unsure of what that meant. "Let me show you," he said. He opened his palm. The temperature started to rise irrationally. Emile felt a sense of warmth. A small silver-colored flame appeared in Lucifer''s hand. "When did you have time to learn magic tricks," Emile asked after looking at the flame. "It''s not a magic trick," Lucifer replied dejectedly, he thought he would be able to amaze Emile. He released his flame towards the floor. The floor started to burn up. Before a hole in the ground appeared the flame quickly dissipated. "That was a bloodline skill," Lucifer said. "Can I do that as well," Emile said excitedly. "Yeah, I was going to teach you after you became stronger than me with just your mortal body," He said. "Bloodline means from a family heritage right," Emile asked curiously. "Yeah," he said with a hint of sorrow in his voice. "What happened to our family," Emile had asked this question many times before, but the answer never came out of Lucifer''s mouth. He kept the secret sealed. "They were... annihilated," Lucifer said while clenching his fists tightly. "By who..." Emile asked sensing the pain that Lucifer felt. "By... I won''t tell you," He nearly said who they were but he regained his composure and stopped himself. "Why are you so secretive, I''ll just learn how to do that and annihilate them," Emile quickly said. "I''ll continue, our family used to be one of the top-ranked families in the world, we had power, wealth, everything we could imagine," Lucifer replied. "There are 4 other extremely powerful families as well, 2 of them allied up to annihilate us, those families all had a unique bloodline skill like our family. Our family controlled fire." continued Lucifer. "Why did they annihilate us," Emile asked. "We were growing too strong, they wanted our territory, I think," said Lucifer in an unsure tone. He moved his hands around to show a massive territory. Lucifer changed the subject to Nirvana. "Why do you think governments around the world worked together to create this game," asked Lucifer. (1) Emile still felt confused, but some pieces of the puzzle started to fall into place. "They are using Nirvana as a training ground to train people with powers. Any class that has Ancient in it can be learned in the real world. They are very rare though," he continued. "Uhh, one of my friends got a legacy called the Ancient Mage," Emile said. "That should be an allrounder class, if he tries out the skills in real-life he will become a power wielder. We call the people who are power wielders as the Nirvanic," he paused. "Nirvanic people can grow very powerful, strong enough to survive an atomic bomb. The government noticed this and wanted to have their own set of Nirvanic people. So they all worked together to create a training ground to train and create more Nirvanic''s," he continued. "This is a lot of information to take in, " he ended his long speech. A System inside a System "How do people train in Nirvana?" Emile asked Lucifer about this. "There is a system inside of the actual Nirvana gaming system, you have to activate it to start training," he said. "So you''re saying that there is a system inside of another system," Emile asked questioningly. "How do you activate it," Emile said. "Just yell out Nirvanic System activate," He continued. "Nirvanic System Activate!" He quickly yelled out. "In the game not in real-life," Lucifer said as he face-palmed himself. "Oh, I got excited about it, sorry," Emile felt slightly embarrassed that he tried it out in real-life. Emile never questioned why Lucifer knew this information. Emile was too busy thinking about gaining the ability that he forgot about asking. Lucifer never explained why he knew this. Emile would ask about this later after he calmed down his emotions. "Now shoo and leave my dojo, You already made me ruin my floor," Lucifer felt annoyed that Emile didn''t trust his demonstration before testing out the effects of his flame. Emile got kicked out. Emile scratched his head wondering why Lucifer was so annoyed. "It was just some floor," He thought. Lucifer would probably spurt out some blood if could read Emile''s thoughts. (1) Emile went back home to try this out. It was 3:00 PM. He logged back into the game. [Welcome back Mystical Flame] He was greeted by the system. He realized he was still in front of the Boar''s cave since he logged out there. He glanced around making sure no one was near his location. His senses were very useful in detecting people. He didn''t sense anyone nearby. "Nirvanic System Activate!" he yelled out. Nothing happened. Emile thought he got pranked by his dad.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. After waiting some time a system notification appeared. [Would you like to activate the Nirvanic Training System] Emiel felt excited since the training system existed. "Yes," He said in a swiftly. [Creating skill proficiencies for the user] [Creating User data] [Creating...] Many system notifications popped out. Emile felt dizzy by the number of system notifications that appeared. [The user has unique bloodline properties, would you like to activate the skill system] Emile knew that he had a bloodline from his father so he chose to activate the skill system for it. [You have activated the Skill System of Fire] [You have activated the Skill System of Water] Emile felt confused about these system notifications. He knew he had the power of fire in his body because of his dad. He didn''t know why he had bloodline qualities of water. He would have to ask his dad the next time they meet. He opened the skill system of fire and noticed a giant skill tree. There were dozens of branches of ways he could go. They all required fire skill points which he didn''t have yet. He didn''t know how to earn fire skill points. The water system was the exact same thing except that it required water skill points instead. Emile started to look through the system notification he received. He saw that there was a tutorial which the system gave out. The tutorial was a manual on the basics of Nirvanic training. The skills in the skill tree could be utilized in real-life. To gain skill points he needed to come in contact with objects that relate to his skill tree. He needed to come in contact with fire, lava or water to gain skill points. He hadn''t seen anything fire-related yet. He had a book of fire which was the only thing he had come in contact with. [Would you like to integrate the Book Of Fire Volume IV into the Skill System] Emile didn''t know if this was a good idea. But he wouldn''t be able to use the book until he became level 50 which seemed miles away from him. Emile chose to integrate the book into the system. The book started to disappear from his hands. The residue of the book floated towards his body. His body absorbed the residue and he received a few system notifications. [You have gained 100 fire skill points] [Fire Storm cost decreased to 500 skill points] He received skill points extremely quickly. Much faster than any average Nirvanic person after awakening the system. With 100 skills points, he could upgrade his flame resistance to 20%. Or he could learn the fireball skill. He chose to learn the fireball skill with 100 skill points. He now had 0 skills points. Information on how to cast it started to flow out. Emile quickly realized that he couldn''t just yell out the name of the skill to activate it. He needs to understand how the fireball is formed and how to control its path. The information that he received was about how he should cast, environments that would boost the effect of the skill. Emile went back into the Boar''s cave to learn in secret. He started to follow the instructions on how to learn the skill. Sometimes he would waste all his mana before he managed to finish the spell. Every time this occurred he had to wait for his mana to regen. He had to cast the spell faster. But if he went faster he would lose control of the spell which did damage to his health. He needed to find a balance. -15 He didn''t lose a lot of health because his intelligence stat was low. Intelligence represented the amount of magic damage he could do. As he was training his friends started to contact him. He told them he was busy doing something so he couldn''t go cave diving. Emile practiced for multiple hours. He gets very close to launching his spell but something kept blocking him. Emile''s bandage supply was running low since he had to keep using them. At around 8:10 PM he managed to launch his first fireball. [Fireball proficiency rating 40%] [You have used your first fire spell] [You have gained 10 fire skill points] [Your Spirit has increased by 3] [Your Intelligence has increased by 5] Any proficiency rating below 40% wouldn''t create a spell. Emile barely succeeded in creating the spell. Creating the spell for the first time was the hardest part of learning the spell. He managed to create another fireball after 3 more attempts. [Fireball proficiency rating 48%] He didn''t gain any fire skill points this time. His proficiency increased from his first time. He continues to launch fireballs at the walls. He improved his proficiency all the way to 59% by doing this. The walls start to slowly crumble and being hit so many times by Emile. Emile felt the cave start to shake. He could feel that the cave was about to collapse. He quickly ran and also used Void-Steps to increase his agility. The stalagmites started to fall down and the walls started to cave in. Emile barely escaped the cave and saw that the entrance got sealed off by the rocks. A system notification occurred. [You have destroyed the Boar''s Cave] [You gained the title Novice Destroyer] Emile didn''t want to destroy the cave. "I didn''t do it intentionally, I swear," he thought in his mind. Emile examined the title to see what it did. Mouse King Novice Destroyer Destruction isn''t always a good thing but this time; it is Explosion Damage increased by 30% Strength +10 Emile received his first title. He didn''t want it, but he couldn''t deny the system about giving him the title. The stats were useful. Emile felt that this was a sign to stop training for now. He wanted to get actual battle experience now. Emile noticed that the time was late. He decided to go to sleep and enter the game next morning. ____ The Next Morning Emile got ready to go to class. He wanted to try out the skill in the real world. Even though the incantations were correct, the fireball wouldn''t come out. After another uneventful day of class, he arrived back home. He saw Azure being busy cleaning his room once more. He didn''t stop her; he entered his Gaming Cabin to log into Nirvana. [Welcome user of the Nirvanic System] [You have made lots of progress in one day, nutrients are being delivered into your Gaming Cabin to allow you to be more compatible with fire] This message was a message that he had never seen before. [User is suggested to not log out for 12 hours] He would gain nutrients depending on how much progress he made. He wondered how other people progressed compared to him. He cared about the messages because it would determine many factors in his experience. He checked out the friend''s list to see his friend''s activities. He noticed that they had been grinding as a party. He could see the amount of party experience they gained. The party experience reached 132 experience out of 1000. Emile noticed that all of them were level 3 which should have put them on an equal footing but he had the nirvanic system which could create skills and learn new abilities. He decided to contact them about clearing the rest of the caves. They accepted and went to the mice''s cave. The insides of the cave weren''t as dark as it used to be. The mice''s cave was very narrow. Emile wanted to see if he could collapse the cave and kill all the mobs within. He started to cast a fireball. His casting time was considered slow. "What are you doing," Asked Handsomest Crab as he watched Emile hold his hand up.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. Emile didn''t respond since he was concentrating on the spell. He released the spell at the wall. Nothing happened. " *cough* I just wanted to show off my spell to you guys," He quickly changed the subject and acted in a suave manner. They all gave him strange looks. "What are you guys looking at, let''s go clear the caves," Emile said as he started to walk deeper into the cave. They all looked at each other and felt that something was different about Emile. They followed. The cave was simple to clear since all the mice were level 1. They didn''t give much experience. It was 120 experience after clearing all the mice. They also gained around 50 party experience since there was a lot of mice in the cave. The only mob left in the cave was the mouse king. Mouse King Chief Ranked Monster Level 5 Hp: 2445/2445 Atk: 60-78 Agility: 19 Skills: {Berserk}, {Dig} Weakness: Its sense of smell is extremely high Emile didn''t have any ways to exploit the weakness. They had to take the brute force method. "Flowing Dream will tank and I''ll come in when he needs help," Emile said. Classes didn''t exist at this point in the game. Classes would be given at level 10. No one knew how they would receive their classes. Information about the game was limited. People found out about these pieces of information by talking to villagers. Emile wanted to test out his fireball on the boss. Flowing Dream walked towards the boss and before he could get to close the boss dug straight underground. He disappeared; The party quickly had their shoulders tense. They had to listen to the surroundings to figure out where he was. Flower Queen noticed that the ground was shaking near Time Walker. "Run," She quickly yelled out in while running towards Time Walker. Time Walker started to run in a random direction. The boss sprung up and charged at Time Walker with its sharp claws. Flower Queen quickly appeared behind the boss and started to attack the boss. -32 -34 The boss went underground again and started to lurk. It would come out randomly. In the beginning, only Emile and Flower Queen figured out where the boss went. The party quickly noticed that the boss was using its skill known as Dig. The same scenario kept happening over and over again, the other''s slowly understood certain cues in the surroundings that lead to the boss appearing. As the ground tremored, tiny dust particles fell from the ceilings. These cues allowed them to know when the boss appeared. One by one everyone could sense when the boss would pop up. A game of whack-a-mole ensued. The boss had 15% of its health. The boss quickly activated the skill Berserk which gained it some intelligence. The boss learned to hide much better. When it popped up, no one expected it. None of the cues occurred. This attack was quite lucky since it targeted Flowing Dream who had high values of Hp. The attack stat of the boss went into the 90''s after entering berserk mode. Emile thought this was the perfect time to cast Fireball since the boss would pop up in the distance. Melee wasn''t an option anymore. He launched the skill with a proficiency of 52% at the location where the ground was shaking. The Mouse King quickly sprung up and got hit by the fireball. It didn''t notice that there was a projectile heading its way. -24 [Burn Inflicted; Inflicts 10 damage per second for 10 seconds] The burn effect was extremely powerful. The boss realized that the most dangerous person out of this group was Emile. The boss dug into the ground and headed for Emile''s direction. Emile couldn''t sense the boss so he waited patiently. The other''s were worried about Emile. They didn''t have anything that could help him out. They weren''t aware of when the boss would arrive. Emile activated Bubble Shield to lose less health from the boss. At this moment Emile sensed fire energy coming from a few meters ahead of him. It was coming towards him at a fast pace. He never experienced this before. Throughout the fight, he had never sensed fire. He quickly predicted that this was the boss. He was smart enough to realize that the Burn Effect also came with its own set of benefits. Not only did it do damage per second it also told him the location of the enemy. Emile started to chant fireball. The boss quickly appeared in front of him and went for a slash. Its claw was sharp to the extremes and would definitely deal lots of damage. The eyes were red-colored like it had a grudge against Emile. As the slash was about to hit Emile he activated the skill Unmoveable. -14 Bubble Shield has been broken The Bubble Shield didn''t block all the damage. He didn''t get sent flying back due to Unmoveable. His fireball activated. -40 [Burn damage extended; deals 15 hp for 20 seconds] The boss slowly burned to death. This could be considered another weakness that he had never learned of. The fur of the boss was flammable. The boss became desperate and started to attack at a faster pace. Emile activated Void-Steps to dodge the attacks. The boss missed. The only person in the bosses eye''s was Emile. The boss didn''t attack anyone else. Emile kept dodging and the bosses health kept also kept ticking down. 7% 6% 5% 4% 3% The burn effect ended. Emile wanted to finish the boss off with a fireball. He started preparing a chant and asked Flowing Dream to stall for some time. The others were unable to stall for time because they would die instantly from a single hit. They could only watch helplessly as they didn''t have any long-range attacks Flowing Dream tanked 2 hits before having to back off. He was 75% of the way to completing the spell. The boss charged at him. He had to increase the casting time. He risked his life to finish the spell. He increased his casting speed by 50%. He knew that he would take a lot of damage if he failed to cast it so it put pressure into breaking through. Just as the boss was inches away from him he successfully cast it. Fireball! [Fireball Proficiency 68%] You have gained 5 fire skill points] -162 critical hit The boss collapsed as loot appeared in front of their eyes. Finishing the Quest and Story Update The loot wasn''t as exciting as the previous times. There were a helmet and a few other things. His fireball could now reach 65% proficiency if he focused and he shortened his casting time to 0.8 seconds. Emile gained 250 fame with 325 experience. There was a mace which Handsomest Crab got. Emile didn''t require anything else other than the helmet. He got helmet after they decided to give it to him. Uncommon Horned Helmet A Helmet that has long spikes on it; heavier than it looks Level Requirement: 5 Vitality +8 Strength +4 Skill: Thorny Spikes Summons spikes made from thorns that deal spike damage; 5 per second The spikes would shoot up from the ground and deal damage as long as the opponent continues to stand in the terrain. It was a good control skill. Emile would grow very strong once he reached level 5. After they left the cave, a system notification appeared. [Player Mad Grind is the first person to reach level 5] [Releasing story patch] [Song Village''s Invasion Story has begun] [Learn more from the Village Chief] Someone had reached level 5 which created the first worldwide announcement. Emile wanted to discover what the invasion story had to offer. Emile gave his party some options. "Do you guys want to find out what the story thing is about, Or go finish off the cave quest," He asked. "I don''t think the story thing will be in effect since it just got released, let''s wait till tomorrow," Flower Queen replied. They trusted her words since she had the most gaming experience. They went cave hunting once more.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. The caves became rather simple after experiencing them a few times. They entered the wolf cave which was challenging at first since all the mobs were level 5. They gave a lot of experience. By the time they killed all the wolves they had gained 2300 experience points. Flower Queen reached level 4. After all these kills. The Wolf King was challenging. It was an all-rounder boss. They used the same tactics as before. This time the tactic worked since the wolf could not go underground. The wolf started to die. Emile''s use of fireball became more practical since he could cast it pretty quickly. He didn''t make a breakthrough in his fireball skils. He became more consistent at using the spell. The wolf king died after some lucky hits and good timing of 5-hit slash. There were a few moments when they nearly died. When the boss entered berserk mode at 15% health it charged towards Flower Queen with an agility that was considerably higher than it''s previous value. As soon as Emile activated Void-Steps he arrived in front of her in mere seconds, he managed to leap farther into her heart. Flowing Dream had a hard time while tanking after Berserk mode activated. Although this didn''t become much of a problem since the boss was close to death. They gained about 800 experience from the wolf. It was the most they got from a Chief Ranked monster. Flowing Dream leveled up to level 4 which increased his vitality even more. Emile got a lucky haul this time. He received an uncommon necklace. Uncommon Star Pendant A pendant made from the shards of a star Level Requirement: 5 Spirit +10 Intelligence +11 Comet Assist You can gain one uncommon random wish from the stars (One-time use) He needed to become level 5 to use Comet Assist. Emile couldn''t log out yet since he only stayed in the game for about 6 hours. They continued to head toward''s the next cave. The last cave was the cave filled with snakes. They killed all of the snakes earning 900 experience. The Snake Queen was weak to fire. This became one of the easiest Chief-Ranked bosses they faced. Tanking the boss was left to Emile and Flowing Dream. Flowing Dream improved at gaining aggro. Whenever the boss came close to Emile; Emile would switch to melee. And deal damage with his swords. The boss couldn''t descend into the ground like the Mouse. It was a normal boss with high attack values. They had to dodge a lot of the attacks that were given out. The snake couldn''t reach them because they were too slow. Emile or someone else would attack and the snake would start to follow them. They quickly finished off the snake which dropped more loot. Emile didn''t need the loot since he already the equipment that got dropped. They gained 400 experience from the boss. Emile and Handsomest Crab increased in their levels after the fight. Nearly all of them were level 4 now. Time Walker as the only one who was still at level 3. Emile decided to put his stats in Strength and Agility. Spirit and Intelligence would grow as he became more proficient at using Fireball. All in all, he put 3 free attribute points into strength and 2 into agility. His Spirit and Intelligence went up by 4 points each. Emile also got 250 fame, while the others received 100. He received a system notification. [You have completed Unique Quest Clearing the Caves] [You will receive your rewards from the Village Chief] Emiel never found the Mages Will in any of the caves. (1) Flower Queen rolled for a helmet and won the roll. The helmet allowed for Ice Bullets to be shot out. There were now 2 people in their party who had long-range skills. Emile''s proficiency in the usage of Fireball peaked at 71%. His casting time went down to 0.65 seconds. He was slowly becoming a master at using the fireball. After clearing the caves they decided to go see the Village Chief the next day since they wanted to grind for the rest of the day. Emile couldn''t log out for 3 more hours. It was turning late and Flower Queen and Handsomest Crab left to go to sleep. They went to the location which contained wolve''s and started to grind. "Hey Emile, where did you get the fireball skill," Time Walker asked while grinding. "Uhh... I found it while looking through the forest," Emile made a white lie since he didn''t want to reveal the NIrvanic system yet. He didn''t know if there were any consequences about revealing the Nirvanic system. "The skill was hidden in a small hole near the creek," Emile quickly continued his lie. Time Walker seemed to believe the lie and they continued to grind. The only other noteworthy thing that occurred was that Time Walker finally leveled up to level 4. After 3 hours of grinding wolves, Emile''s exp bar was at 14%. It was approaching 2 in the morning. [Thank you for your patience, your body is now able to handle the Fire Element] Emile logged out after he heard that message. He said his goodbyes before he left. He quickly fell asleep as he was too tired to do anything else. ____ The next morning He started to test out his fireball skill in real-life. School Forums and Quest Rewards The nutrients entered his body through small tubes. These tubes were attached to the Gaming Cabin. Emile started to recite the chant. As he went through the chant; his room became hotter and hotter. A small red-colored fireball appeared in his hand. It glowed brightly before slowly dissipating away. Creating the fireball required a lot of mental strength. He felt exhausted after creating one. He decided to create a routine of activating his fireball at different times of the day. Doing this would allow him to become better at using the fireball and improve his mental strength. He would do it once in the morning and once before sleeping. Emile went to his classes and slept through them due to being too tired. He slept at 2 in the morning and woke up at 7. His health would deteriorate if he slept this much each day. Sleeping during lectures was a method to make up for his lack of sleep. After his classes finished, some of his classmates created a Nirvana forum that was exclusive to their college. They were going around and asking people if they played Nirvana. Like a door-to-door salesman if they still existed. One of them came up to him. "Hey Emile, sorry for bothering you, but do you play Nirvana," Gerard asked. "Uhh... yeah," Emile responded. Gerard took out his phone and sent Emile a link to their forums. "You can talk about stuff, and compete about different things," he said. "Josh is number in the level rankings, for our school, he''s level 3 with 58% of his experience bar filled, Nicole is number one on the fame rankings with 520 fame, these are the main rankings. Everyone competes for these rankings." He was a very talkative person. He mentioned a few more rankings. "There''s the party experience ranking with the number one party having 344 experience. And also there are the PK leaderboards which show how many people you managed to kill without dying; right now it''s Nathan," He continued.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it "Nathan got eight kills. The unfortunate thing is that he died after he got the kills so lost his streak. The record stays up there even if they died, so he''s kinda famous now," He wouldn''t stop talking. Emile was becoming impatient. "Let me contin-" "I got to go, sorry we can talk later," Emile interrupted his words and walked away. Emile realized how talkative Gerard was and swore in his mind to never initiate a conversation with him. Emile went back home and browsed the Nirvana forums to see if anyone made any progress on the story. Every village had a different story. Emile decided to dig deeper to see if there were any connections. He noticed that all the titles of the story mainly focused on three paths that were closely related. The invasion route, which his village got, was the route where players would have to defend against mobs. Then there was the natural disaster pathway which made the players protect their village from tsunamis, volcanoes, etc. They had to create forts, walls, etc. They gained experience for every natural disaster averted. The third path was the path of attack. The village wanted to take over new territories so they would launch attacks on other places. Even though there were clear paths, each path had many subsiding pathways depending on location and other factors. Emile decided to sign into his school''s forum. He set up his sign in to show his in-game account instead of who he was. He didn''t want to be annoyed when he revealed that he was level 4. It also auto-connected him to the leaderboards. The leaderboards had a dramatic change. He became number 1 in the level and fame leaderboards. "What the fu*k, who the hell is Mystical Flame. Fu*k, he''s hidden his identity. God damn it," Josh was mortified after finding out he was ranked number 2. "How the hell did he get to level 4 with 14% of his experience bar filled, what the fu*k, where the hell is he grinding," He cried out indignantly. Emile was unaware of what occurred since he was busy logging into Nirvana. No special system notification occurred. After logging in he decided to contact his party to see if they wanted to go find out what the story was about. "Hey, do you guys want to know what the story is about," He asked. "There you are, what took you so long to get online, I wanted to enter as soon as I logged in but the Chief wouldn''t open the door to us," Time Walker responded annoyedly. "I did some minor quests around the village in the meantime." He continued. "Let''s go," Emile walked back to the village. When he arrived he noticed that they were already waiting in front of the Village Chief''s home. This was the most crowded his front door area had been. It was packed with people attempting to enter the Village Chief''s home. No one was allowed inside. Emile strength value was much higher than an average player so he could push them aside to forcefully go towards the front of the Chief''s home. The players were annoyed but couldn''t do anything about it. He quickly made his way to the welcome mat in front of the door. "Hey Village Chief, I cleared all the caves for you," He quickly yelled from outside of his home. He waited a few seconds and the players were mumbling about him. The door opened with the Village Chief inviting him to enter. "I have a few friends who want to enter as well, can they," He asked the Village Chief. "Alright, not too many people, right, I don''t want all these people entering my home," He said as he looked around. The players felt insulted. Some of the players noticed that the Village Chief was allowing some people to enter his home. They decided to report to their respective guilds. His party quickly entered the home and sat down on his couch. Emile quickly told him about the details of clearing the caves and promptly received his rewards. [2500 experience, Rare Chestplate of the Fallen, Skill Book: Fire Ball has been received] His experience shot up to 39% and the other''s experiences also went up. They didn''t receive any of the items. They only got the experience. "Recently the animals nearby have been getting rowdy, something must be causing this. I hope you can go find out what''s causing this. Don''t worry I''ll give you this cape which should help you find out what happened," He said. [Story Quest: Discover the Truth] [Objective: Find out what happened to arouse all the animals] [Difficulty: C] [Comment: The animals are rowdy you have to discover why] [Progress: Not Discovered] [Can be shared] [Reward: Rare Cloak of Shadows] The Village Chief gave them the cloaks. Cloak of the Shadows (Quest Item) Any mob beyond 5 meters cannot see the player unless the player intentionally makes noise The item was useful for sneaking around but after the quest is finished it would be taken back. They had to discover what had occurred to the Forest to make all the animals seem to be in chaos. Emile decided to see what the items were. [The Fireball skill can be absorbed to gain 50 fire skill points] Emile felt bad about telling Time Walker a lie about the skill Fireball. So he decided to be a good friend and give him the skill. "Hey Time Walker here''s the fireball skill," Emile said as he initiated a trade with Time Walker. "Thanks," he said with an excited tone. He immediately chose to learn the skill. He accepted the trade. Emile then decided to check out the chest plate and see what it was. Scouting Rare Chest Plate of the Fallen A chest plate that was once worn by a fallen hero Level Requirement: 5 Vitality +22 Strength +16 Intelligence +8 Atk- 20-26 Skill: Berserk Doubles user''s Strength, Vitality, and Agility for 15 minutes After usage, the user''s stats go down to 60% of max stats (Weakened state lasts for 1 hour) Cooldown: 2 hours The Chest plate had high stats, and it had a skill like the Chief-ranked monsters. Emile didn''t know if the bosses would enter a weakened state if the Berserk state lasted long enough. His party received the quest. They didn''t know where to begin. "Mr. Chief do you have any tips on where we should go," asked Time Walker in a polite tone. He stroked as he thought. "It''s in the center of the forest; you should investigate it to make sure it''s normal. It''s located to the southwest of this village." He said after this thinking. "Those cloaks will become useful. I suggest that you guys split up and try to investigate the heart of the forest," He said. "Thank you for your help," The party gave out their farewells as they left the Chief''s home. "Hey, why don''t you share the quest with us. We know you got a quest since the Village Chief allowed you to enter his home. If you don''t... well, we will kill you all," said Pulsating Sword like he owned the world. "Ignore him and head towards the southwest," he said in the party chat. He didn''t say it out loud because there were players nearby. He didn''t want the other player to know about their movements. "Don''t ignore me," He took out his swords and charged at Time Walker who was the closest to him. Time Walker activated his Fireball and aimed it at Pulsating Sword. The fireball exploded on his chest dealing 60 damage. After the first fireball from Time Walker, Emile used his own. Emile prepared the fireball as soon as he saw that Pulsating Sword was charging at them. Handsomest Crab also ran forward to deal damage to Pulsating Sword. The other''s in his party charged forward.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. The fireball hit Pulsating Sword and dealt 82 damage. Pulsating Sword noticed that he only had around 40 health left. He yelled at his guild. "Stop standing there, help me out!" He moved backward, but at this moment Handsomest Crab appeared in front of Pulsating Sword and slashed out. He killed him off by dealing 44 damage. Every action that happened transpired in less than 5 seconds. The guildmates were running towards Pulsating Sword when he called out for help. They didn''t make it and watched him die. They wanted to take revenge. Pulsating Sword''s death was embarrassing for them. Emile saw eleven players charge towards them. He got into a fighting stance and charged at a player. He attacked them by using his swords. His strikes dealt a lot of damage for this stage of the game. He could one-shot a player if he used 5-hit slash. The only way to stop this would be to have high vitality and a skill like Bubble Shield. -67 -69 -72 Emile overwhelmed the player and struck them three times before they managed hit him. The player disappeared. [You have obtained a red name] Killing five players caused him to gain a light-red name. The players could see the red name floating above Emile. His name was visible. The players recognized that his name was Mystical Flame. Players recalled when he held first place on the leaderboards. (1) Emile ran towards the other players. One of them activated a skill which caused long thorny spikes to appear on the ground. Emile jumped over the spikes. He crossed the spikes. The real-life skill, Void-Steps, was useful for dodging blows or traps. He cast a fireball as he crossed the spikes. When he landed on the other side of the spikes the fireball spell activated. The fireball connected with the player. -67 Emile charged forward to attack the person who was weakened by him. The person tried running away but Emile''s Agility had higher values than the player. -68 -71 The player vanished. His party had killed off four members. Emile killed two more players before the entire group of eleven disappeared. "Let''s leave before reinforcements arrive," Emile said as he ran out of the village. His party followed suit. The players opened a path for Emile''s party. The players allowed them to run past them since they didn''t want to offend their party. They felt shocked after their demonstration. They ran towards the southwest. Strangely, none of the players followed them. "Put the cloak of shadows on," Emile said after they entered the forest. The put on the cloak of shadows and headed towards the core. They walked at a brisk pace. "You think they''ll surround us when we get back to the village," Handsomest Crab asked. "How am I supposed to know. We''ll just have to be more cautious." Emile paused, he forgot to get bandages. "I didn''t get bandages..." He said as he scratched his head. "Don''t worry, I bought bandages while you were not online," Flower Queen said in a reassuring tone. ___ The forest glowed with green as they continued to head deeper into the forest. The levels of the mobs grew higher as they headed towards the center. There are Killer bees which were level 6 monsters. The level 7 monsters were thorny bushes which could poison the user. A small dinosaur named Compsognathus. They varied from level 8-9. All the monsters were in a berserk state. They did not get any increase in their stats but they were prone to attacking anything or anyone they saw. Something agitated the mobs. They had vacant eyes and would ram into trees or attack their fellow species. Emile was alone right now. They split up to enter the center from different directions. It would be challenging to sneak around the forest since the mobs were running around. Emile saw a Compsognathus charge towards him. He moved out of the way in a swift manner and the mob ran right past him. They couldn''t detect him. Emile used this to advance deeper into the forest. Every time a mob charged at his general vicinity he would move out of the way. He was vigilant; mobs that came close to him would identify the existence of Emile. This lasted for 30 minutes. He arrived a clearing where there were no trees. This place had verdant grass and gave off a sense of peace. The sun could be seen shining brightly. In the very middle of the forest lied a giant tower. [Familiarity of Song Forest increased] [15% increase in Vitality, 10% increase in Strength and 5% increase in Agility while in Song Forest] [Permanent buff: All stats increase by 3 points] Emile grew in all aspects of his stats. The luck stat never changed. He couldn''t increase his luck stat using free attribute points. The familiarity buff got rid of the previous familiarity bonus. The giant tower was the only man-made object in the clearing. Everything else was formed from nature. He noticed that none of his party members were here yet. Emile wanted to see what the tower offered. He walked around the tower to look for an entrance. He found the entrance on the side of the tower. At this moment he noticed that mobs were being escorted into the tower. A person captured them and brought inside the tower. They got dragged inside in large cages. Emile waited and contemplated what would occur to the mobs. After 5 minutes, the mobs left the tower. The mobs were no longer in a cage. The mobs had the same vacant eyes as the others. Emile concluded that the tower had affected the mobs. [Story Quest: Discovering the Truth has been completed] [Head back to the Chief to receive your rewards] Emile wanted to investigate the tower, but he needed to get the quest before he could come back. Emile didn''t worry about other player''s making it this far since they were in level 8 and 9 territories. Emile headed back after giving the tower a look of longing. Enlightenment Emile''s party received a system notification. The announcement told them that someone had completed the quest. The party walked back. They had to be cautious since they were still in the middle of the deep end of the forest. They met up at the section with wolves. "The center of the forest was a beautiful place. There was this long metallic tower, and this guy was bringing mobs into the tower. When the mobs came back out they were all in the berserk state; though they didn''t have any buffs," he explained everything in one go with some hand gestures sprinkled in. "How did you get to the center so quickly," Flower Queen asked. "I think it''s because my agility is high and I have training in martial arts," He said as he scratched his head. They took off their cloaks. "I didn''t even get to use the cloak that much," Time Walker said. They arrived at the village. Emile noticed that the players still stared at him. He recalled that he had a red name. "Hey, how do you get rid of a red name," He asked his party. There are two ways, one is when you die and the other is when you kill 10 mobs for every kill that you got," Flower Queen said. "What happens when you die," Emile asked wondering about what penalties you get. "You can''t log back into the game for 24 hours. You also lose 50% of your experience." She said. "Oh... that''s bad," he said as he thought of all the stupid things he did that could have lead to death. "We''re getting kinda famous now," Handsomest Crab said as they walked towards the Chief''s home. They entered the Chief''s home once again. They didn''t know the guild Frosted Light and Dawn Breaker was waiting for them outside the Chief''s door. Pulsating Sword was from Dawn Breaker and River Bull was from Frosted Light. They wanted to have revenge. The guilds waited for Emile''s party to appear. They each brought 30 members and created a temporary truce. They circled the Chief''s home so there was no escape.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. Emile sat on the chair. He explained to the Chief, the discoveries he made. "Hm... could you describe this tower more," he asked with a sour feeling in his gut. "It''s a black metallic tower with some runes circulating the surface," He thought about what the tower looked like. "That''s a wizard''s lair, seeing how the wizard is harming the animal''s, I can say that it''s definitely an evil wizard," He said with some worry. "Could you slay the wizard and bring peace to the forest?" [Story Quest: Peace to the Forest] [Objective: Slay the Wizard] [Difficulty: A] [Comment: Help the environment for a change] [Progress: Not Slain] [Can be shared] [Reward: +1 level, Uncommon Loot Box] Even though this was the same level of difficulty as clearing the caves, it gave much better rewards. "All right, bye Chief," Emile walked out as soon as he got the quest. It worried him that someone would clear the lair. "Is Emile like this," Flowing Dream asked wondering if this was his friend of 3 years. "No, I think he''s going crazy, gaming seems to have taken control of him," Handsomest Crab responded with a hint of sarcasm. They gave a farewell to the Village Chief before leaving his home. When they walked outside, they noticed that Emile was fighting against a lot of opponents. "A little help here," Emile said as he dodged the attacks. Emile could dodge all the attacks but he couldn''t find an opportunity to attack the people. If he tried to attack skills would barrage him. This situation occurred when he stepped outside. "He''s the guy that killed me," River Bull screamed as he pointed at Emile. "Let''s charge at him," River Bull didn''t want to charge by himself. They knew that he was strong enough to kill a few of the players so they got out 30 players. The other guild also found out who Emile was from a video online of him killing their members. The also brought out 30 members to attempt to kill Emile. Emile could dodge the attacks fairly easily. He didn''t struggle at all. "Cobweb manipulation," One player from Frosted Light yelled. Emile''s Agility got reduced to 60% of his total agility which severely restricted him. Emile now had to strain a lot to dodge the same amount of attacks. He kept retreating as he evaded. "Don''t help me, I wanna improve my martial arts," he said as he realized an opportunity to grow stronger. It was challenging to dodge the attacks of over 30 players. His eyes always darted around and analyzing the players. He calculated the time it would take for each player to land a blow on him. Emile would instinctively dodge the attacks as they came close to him. He entered a state of enlightenment. His dodging kept becoming increasingly refined. He wasted less and less energy for each dodge. The players activated skills to shoot out projectiles at Emile but nothing worked. Some attacks were a hair away from hitting him. His proficiency of Void-Steps exploded. Peak Expert stage! Beginner Master stage! Mid Master Stage! Peak Master Stage! Beginner Grandmaster Stage! He broke through five consecutive stages of Void-Steps. After breaking into the Grandmaster stage of Void-Steps he felt different. The enlightenment had other effects on his body. His mind could function at faster rates without feeling tired. He would have to test out other effects of the enlightenment. Emile attacked using his sword. He started to kill all the players. Every time he slashed he would always dodge the ineffective attacks from the players. The players became desperate and used as many skills as they could. For a moment, 10''s of skills were flying towards Emile''s face. Emile expected this. He waited... and jumped. He avoided the ground-based attacks. The air-born attacks would be challenging. The player saw that their skills were about to contact Emile. They felt relieved since they thought no one could dodge in mid-air. Emile proved them all wrong. He twisted his body and maneuvered it into a blind spot. The spells were not coordinated so there were blind spots. Emile took advantage of one of the blind spots. He evaded everything. He continued to kill. The players couldn''t do anything about it. They couldn''t hit him. He avoided every skill they used. The Cobweb Manipulation spell wore off which increased his speed. They became even more hopeless. Emile killed everyone that that attacked him. His name was dark red since he killed over 60 players. Someone recorded the entire incident and uploaded it to the forums. "Godly player does Epic 1v60 and never gets hit," was the title of the video. "What... just... happened," Handsomest Crab said with shock. ''Did he..." His voice was breaking as he witnessed Emile take out a group of 60 players. Emile had left the average player group and became an expert. At this moment as Emile was basking in the fame, the ground started to shake. He looked around and in the distance, he saw hordes of mobs marching towards the village. [Your Quest is changing] Growing Stronger [Your Quest is changing] [Story Quest: Defend the Village] [Objective: Protect the Village] [Comment: What are you reading this for, go kill the mobs] [Reward: Will be based on contribution] [Penalty: All player''s of the village will lose 2 levels and their best equipment] This quest was a shared quest. Players who were in Song Village also received the quest. This increased the morale of the players. They were ecstatic about getting a quest. The people who didn''t want to take part in the quest were forced to after finding out the penalties of failing the quest. This was the first time Emile witnessed a penalty. The player from Frosted Light and Dawn Breaker''s would cry when they find out they missed the quest. They missed an opportunity to gain experience and items. The quest to slay the wizard had transformed into defending the village. There was a high chance that the wizard would appear during this onslaught. "Let''s go, we need to get as many kills as we can," Emile yelled at his stunned group to awaken them. They regained their composure and chased Emile. [Agility has increased by 3] [Agility has increased by 2] [Agility has increased by 2] [Agility has increased by 1] [Agility has increased by 1] [Agility has increased by 1] System notifications blasted his eardrum. After reaching the Grandmaster stage of Void-Steps, his techniques allowed him to increase his speed. While running towards the outskirts of the village he checked the notifications he got during his state of enlightenment. [User is in a state of enlightenment, notification sounds will not appear] [Your understanding of Skill: Void-Steps has increased] [Spirit has increased by 1] [Intelligence has increased by 1] [Your understanding of Skill: Void-Steps has increased] [Spirit has increased by 2]If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. [Intelligence has increased by 2] [Your understanding of Skill: Void-Steps has increased] [Spirit has increased by 3] [Intelligence has increased by 3] The game had blocked off the sounds of a notification. If the system didn''t block the sound, then his enlightenment would have prematurely ended. He made it into the forest where he saw hundreds of people attacking swarms of mobs. People got into conflict, they fought over who got the kill; it was chaotic. Emile ran towards the front of the pack. He began to slay the mobs. His party caught up to him and joined in. Their efficiency was much higher than before. Instead of them looking for the mobs, the mob now charged at them. They began grinding the mobs. There were waves of different mobs. It started with chickens which everyone could easily kill. It progressed to mice, then to boars. Then didn''t have trouble until the level 6 killer bees came. Other players were forced to team up with anyone to have a chance at gaining experience and items. Emile''s party had an easy time. The Killer bees were easily taken down by their coordinated attacks. Emile''s experience bar was getting closer to level 5. Flower Queen had leveled up to level 5. She was always ahead in experience. The next mobs that showed up were the Compsognathus. The Thorny Bushes couldn''t move so they never showed up. The level 8 dinosaurs came first. The players grouped up even more. There were groups of 15 fighting one Compsognathus. (1) There were fewer players to deal with the amount of Compsognathus. Some were getting killed off. Emile''s party didn''t have much trouble since they were much stronger than the average party. Emile felt lively. He could dodge everything efficiently. He had never experienced this before. He enjoyed fighting. This didn''t stop him from noticing that other players were struggling. He needed to kill the mastermind behind all of this. If they didn''t kill the mastermind then they would get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of mobs. He killed one last Compsognathus which was the last bit of experience he needed before it induced a level up. [You have leveled up to level 5] [You have five free attribute points] He wore equipped all of his level 5 equipment. His strength nearly broke through 80. Agility was at 60. He decided to put 2 points into Vitality. He also decided to put the remaining 3 points into Spirit. His HP was at an even 600. The familiarity buff increased his health up to 690. Emile was a tank. Spirit allowed him to deal more damage when using his fireball. He could easily kill all five chief-ranked monsters if they appeared in front of him. Emile felt that he was ready to go for the big boss. "Do you guys want to fight the wizard dude," Emile asked his party. "We can''t; look around you, do you see how people are struggling with these mobs, if we leave them they will be annihilated, we are the ones killing the most mobs. You can go take down the boss. You can probably kill the boss easily. I believe in you," Flower Queen said as she pointed towards the other players. The other players were struggling to defend themselves. If not for a lucky player who somehow had a healing spell, there would be a lot more people dying. Their party was in a crucial position. If they left this position things might go dire. Thye didn''t want to risk a wipeout and gain the ire of other players. "Also, you''re the only one that could pass all the mobs without breaking a sweat," She continued as she killed off a Compsognathus. "Alright, I can do this," Emile was feeling slightly nervous since he didn''t know how strong the wizard would be. He used his Void-Steps to avoid all of the mobs. The Compsognathus would rush towards him. Emile effortlessly avoided all of the attacks. He continued to get closer to the back of the army. As he kept moving through the forest he saw someone giving out orders. They were commanding the mobs to attack the village. The person noticed Emile. "Kill him," He pointed at Emile as he gave out an order. Instantly all of the dinosaurs in a small area turned towards Emile and attacked him. Emile couldn''t continue to move forward. He could dodge everything but he couldn''t move forward. He used Speed Up which was a skill he got from one of his level 5 equipment. It increased his speed by 200% for 10 seconds. Emile used this speed to flank all of the mobs. He ran around the enemies and went behind their line. He ran towards the person and identified them. Wizard of Control Great Chief Ranked Monster Level 10 Hp: 15086/15086 Atk: 23-45 MAtk: 161-252 Agility: 43 Skills: {Beast Manipulation} {White Star} {Flash} {Berserk} Weakness: He can''t cast another spell after the first spell for 5 seconds This was the first enemy that was of Great Chief rank. The attack was much lower than even chief-ranked monsters. But it''s magic attack was exceptionally high. Its Agility was also high. This was the first time Emile saw a mob have over 2 skills. Beast Manipulation was obvious as to what it did. It would control beasts to attack him. White Star and Blink were unknown skills. He had seen Berserk before. This fight would be challenging. Fight with the Wizard The wizard started off by shotting mana balls. Each mana ball dealt at least 150 damage. Emile could dodge these mana balls easily. He avoided them and went into close range. The wizard used {Beast Manipulation}. Compsognathus started to run towards Emile. They would screech every time they received an order. Emile attacks the wizard twice before retreating to avoid the beasts. -142 -152 He went into a safe distance and the wizard began to shot more man balls. It could release 5 mana balls at the same time. Emile grabbed one of the beasts and used it as a meat shield. The beast died after 2 hits from the mana balls. He evaded the other three. The wizard knew about his weakness so it started to retreat. It knew that it couldn''t launch anymore spells for 5 seconds. This was an intelligent mob. Emile had much higher speed meaning that it could run to the wizard and deal damage. The wizard didn''t want to get hit for no reason so it chose to go for a melee attack. Emile blocked it with his sword and went for another attack. -142 He used the skill Nimble Attack which allowed him to gain another hit. -178 Emile retreated since he saw that the wizard started to cast five more mana balls. The Compsognathus was attacking from his back. He jumped over one and used the head of another one to successfully pass the group. The wizard stopped casting the spell since it didn''t want to injure its own allies. "Surround him," The wizard ordered. The Compsognathus started to surround him when Emile charged forward and broke out of the encirclement. He used Thorny Spikes which was the skill he got from his helmet. Spikes appeared below the Compsognathus'' feet. They started to take damage.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. Emile wouldn''t take damage from the spikes since he released it. The spikes greatly startled the dinosaurs and they started to run wildly. The wizard used more force to regain control. Emile used this opportunity to run towards the wizard and deal damage. The wizard attempted to dodge but wasn''t fast enough. -151 -148 -133 Emile got three hits on the wizard before the dinosaurs ran towards him again. The wizard had 92% of his health. Emile repeated this process until the boss had 75% of its health left. The boss started to cast a spell. {White Star} The spell buffed all of the Compsognathus. They all gained a 30% increase in their Agility and a 20% increase in their Strength. Emile was caught off-guard by this. He got hit by a dinosaur. -72 The dinosaur took off 1/10 of his health. He couldn''t afford to get hit many more times. He dodged the rest of the dinosaurs attacks. He couldn''t find an opening to get close to the wizard. He had to use a skill to increase his speed even more. He used the skill version of Void-Steps. Void-Steps V4 Usage: The user can activate this skill to increase their Agility by 200% for 30 seconds. The user can give the debuff which tricks the enemy into missing their attacks. Occurs 50% of the time. Cooldown: 20 minutes Upgraded Skill Active Skill Original Skill The Void-Steps skill was level 4. It upgraded a lot after his enlightenment. His agility tripled which allowed him to dodge everything and run towards the wizard in seconds. He attacked the wizard as much as he could in 30 seconds. -153 -161 -142 ... He would circle around the wizard and deal damage to him. The wizard shot mana balls but Emile could evade them at a close distance due to the skill. Half of the Compsognathus were walking randomly since the confused debuff occurred. When Void-Steps ended the health of the wizard went down to 52% of its total health. Emile continued to attack but he couldn''t dodge the mana balls at a close distance. He tried to dodge the mana spheres but got hit by one of them. -202 [Mana is sealed for 2 minutes] It took off nearly a third of his total health. He decided to not go for risky moves unless he had a certainty of succeeding. He retreated. The dinosaurs buff wore off so they didn''t have high health. After one more round of dealing damage to the boss using the same method as before the boss had 50% of its health left. The boss used the skill {Flash}. [You are blinded for 30 seconds] Everything in Emile''s sight disappeared. He panicked for a brief moment before calming down. He took a deep breath and started to listen carefully. The ground was thumping from different directions. Being a martial artist improved his senses to be much greater than an average person. He attempted to dodge. He dodged some of the attacks. Some managed to hit him. -67 -65 His sense of hearing grew more refined. The sounds that were being produced by the dinosaurs, became distinct in his ear. He knew that if he couldn''t adapt to the darkness he would die. This was a life and death situation for him. Dodging in the darkness became easier for him. He still got hit two more times though. -67 -71 The blindness wore off. Emile had low health. He had to end the fight. He activated his skill {Berserk}. His Agility, Strength, and Vitality doubled. A normal attack dealt over 250 damage. He could easily dodge everything and deal damage to the wizard. -267 -278 -254 ... His Agility was high enough for him evade all the mana spheres at a close distance. He kept doing this until the boss had 20% of its health left. It also activated {Berserk}. It casted {Flash} and {White Star}. This was the most dangerous position Emile was ever in. Emile calmed himself and started to retreat. He paid close attention to the vibrations in the ground. If he didn''t have experience dealing with Blindness he would have died. Every time heard any mobs running at him, he would run in the opposite direction. He played a game of cat and mouse until the blindness wore off. The increased Agility allowed him to get away from the mobs every time. After the blindness ran out he wanted to attack the wizard. The wizard could now cast 10 mana balls at the same time. He could barely evade all the attacks. He got into close range and used his skills. Comet Assist! [All attacks for next 15 seconds will deal true damage and a critical hit] 5 hit slash! -906 true damage+critical hit -906 true damage+critical hit -906 true damage+critical hit -906 true damage+critical hit -906 true damage+critical hit (1) He did over 4000 damage in one attack. This got rid of all of the bosses health. The wizard collapsed. If he didn''t use comet assist, the damage he could deal with 5 hit slash would not have been able to kill the wizard. Loot appeared before his eyes and system notification sounded in his ear. Emile didn''t waste any time and began killing the dinosaurs using the remaining time of {Berserk} and {Comet Assist}. He killed around 30 dinosaurs in his vicinity. He decided to see what loot he got and what the system notifications were about. Red Silver Item [You have slain the Wizard of Control] [You are the first person to slay a Great Chief Rank monster solo] [You may receive one book from the book collection] [You have gained 5000 experience points] [World Announcement: Player Mystical Flame has successfully soloed a Great Chief ranked monster] [Fame had increased by 2500] This was the first world announcement about him. The World announcement mentioned Emile''s name which caused him to be the second player to be worldwide. First being Mad Grind who reached level 5 and released the story update. Killing the boss brought his experience bar to 33% full. The quest wasn''t complete yet since mobs still attacked the village. Emile got the option to gain another book from the book collection. He unhesitantly gained a random book from the collection. [You have gained the Book of Water Volume II] Book of Water Volume II This is one volume out of six different volumes. Witness its torrential rain. Level Requirement: 50 Passive in Inventory: Swim +50% Dive +20% Skill: Torrential Rain Summons a harsh rain, all attacks gain the water type, weakens Fire-based attacks during rain. Environment changes when used. Lasts for 1 hour. Cooldown: 3 days [Would you like to integrate the Book of Water Volume II into the Skill System?] "Yes," Emile said. [You have gained 100 water skill points] [Torrential Rain cost decreased to 500 skill points] The book of water vanished as soon as he gained it. It had the same effects as the Book of Fire. Emile learned the water sphere skill which was the first skill of the skill system. It was the same thing as the fireball skill except that he made it from the water. Emile would practice the water sphere skill later. He picked up the loot that was dropped by the wizard.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. Mage''s Will The ring of an ancient mage. You feel that this ring has immeasurable potential. Rank: Rare Level Requirement: Level 0 Spirit +22 Intelligence +20 Skill: Magic Infusion: Next five magic attacks will use attack stat for given damage. Usable for 5 attacks. Upgradeable Emile thought it was funny that he looked in all the caves and never found it. He found it by killing something that had nothing to do with caves. [Would you like to combine the Mage''s Will and the Fighter''s Will] "Yes, Emile quickly said. [Absolute Ring of the Ancient has been acquired] Absolute Ring of the Ancient (Unawakened) A ring formed by the wills of the ancient. It is lying dormant. Upgrade it to awaken it. Rank: Red Silver Level Requirement: Level 0 Strength +22 Vitality +19 Agility +15 Spirit +24 Intelligence +23 Skill: Magic Infusion V2 Next seven magic attacks will use attack stat for given damage. 7 Hit Slash Hits the opponent with seven hits that each deal 90% of max attack value Upgrading to level 5 requires 100 silver and 10 ancient gears This was the strongest item Emile had ever gotten. It wasn''t legendary rank like what the Village Chief said. Emile could upgrade the ring using money and ancient gears. He only had around 10 silver coins and about 600 copper coins on him. This wasn''t enough to fulfill the requirements for the item. Emile had not picked up the coins from the boss. He picked them up and received 24 silver coin from the boss. He also got 800 copper coins. 1000 copper coins were equivalent to 1 silver coin. 1000 silver coins were equivalent to 1 gold coin. There might more tiers but Emile didn''t know about it. The copper coins in his inventory and the ones he picked up from the boss added up to be more than 1000 copper coins. The game auto converts 1000 copper coins for 1 silver coin. In the end, he had 35 silver coins and 400 copper coins. [Your item Absolute Ring of the Ancient has appeared on the item leaderboard] [Fame has increased by 2500] The item leaderboard opened up when the first person received a Red Silver item. Emile was the first player with a Red Silver item so he was the only one of the item leaderboard. The item leaderboard only showed the item, not the person who owned the item. Players throughout the world wanted to find out who was Mystical Flame with the first announcement. Now they wanted to find the person who had the Red Silver item. They didn''t know that Mystical Flame was the person with the Red-Silver item. There were a few who were smart and assumed that the Great Chief dropped Red Silver items. They predicted that Mystical Flame had the item and was ready to either recruit him or kill him until he dropped the item. Emile didn''t know the about the thoughts of others. He was feeling excited about gaining a Red Silver item. He equipped it instantly. His fame became 6750 after the two announcements. He didn''t know what the function of fame was. He hadn''t figured out a use for fame yet so it was useless for him. The only thing noteworthy was that he had the highest amount of fame throughout the world. His name was at the very top of the Global Fame Leaderboards. The closest player was Mad Grind with 2500 fame. He received that amount from the world announcement just like how Emile got it. Clearing five caves was not even equal to one world announcement. World announcements were much better. This further demonstrated to others that Emile had the Red-Silver item. His fame increased by 2500 and then 2500 again. It was obvious he had that item. Emile picked up another piece of loot off the body of the Wizard. Lightning Wand A wand forged to cast lightning. Rank: Rare Level Requirement: 10 Spirit +22 Intelligence +12 MAtk: 22-31 Effect: Lightning spells that are cast through the wand are 50% faster. Skill: Lightning Bolt Casts a bolt of lightning that the user can launch at a player that deals 150% magic damage. Emile decided to give this to Time Walker since he had no use for this item. The final item was a pendant. Pendant of the Assassin A pendant that gives magical properties of an assassin Rank: Rare Level Requirement: 10 Strength +15 Agility +24 Effect: Movement during stealth is 50% faster; When attacking from behind deal 4x damage instead Skill: Back Chop A chop dealing 150% of the attack stat These items were all of the Rare ranks. Emile realized that Great Chief ranked mobs don''t drop Red Silver items. The rest of the world assumed that Great Chief monsters dropped Red Silver after analyzing Mystical Flame. They would be sorely disappointed when they find out the truth. Emile quickly went back to grinding the mobs. He wanted to have the highest contribution out of everyone. He killed all of the level 9 Compsognathus before he noticed that everyone was about to finish killing the mobs. He gained 1300 experience from killing all of the Compsognathus. He received a system notification. Rewards [Story Quest: Defend the Village has been completed] [Calculating Rewards...] [They have released the Contribution Rankings] There were a few categories in the contribution rankings. There was the individual ranking which gave percentages to players. Most players had less than 1% on the individual rankings since there were 1000''s of players. Then there were the party rankings which showed parties and what percent of the contributions they had. The party rankings added up the individual percentages of each player. It would show decent percentages. Emile checked his standing on the individual rankings. He was easily in first. He had 26% of all the contributions. 20% came directly from the boss since it would take a lot of effort to kill the boss using average players. The boss was worth a lot of the contributions. The 6% came from killing all the level 9 Compsognathus since they are the strongest normal monsters of the waves. [Rewards have been given out] [You have gained 2 levels] [You have gained a Lucky Box] [You have gained the Glory Badge] [You have reached first of Global Level Leaderboard] [You have gained 2500 fame] This put him at the top of the global leaderboards. He knew this would be temporary since he didn''t play Nirvana throughout the night. When people complete the story quest, they will gain levels. He gained one level for having the highest contribution on the individual rankings. He gained the second level for being part of the party with the most contribution. His contribution alone allowed them to be first place. The others had decent contributions. The highest contribution from his party was 1.2% and the lowest was 0.42% of the contributions. Out of thousands of players getting over 0.1% was superb. The 1.2% came from killing lots of killer bees and dinosaurs. It turned out to be Flower Queen. She also showcased a new spell that the others haven''t seen before. It was a ball of mud. It gave decent debuffs to the enemies. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. Players throughout the world felt shocked once again when they saw the same player had grown to level 7. The second place reached level 6 which was still a level lower than him. He had more than a level''s lead over every single player in the world. Emile knew of the effects of a lucky box. Everything he had started off from gaining that rare item. He wouldn''t have received the quests to find and clear the caves if he didn''t have the lucky box. He identified the lucky box. Lucky Box You think you have good luck? Let''s find out. Rank: Uncommon Use it to drop items between Common and Red Silver. The very least he could get was common and the highest was Red Silver. Having 10 luck always helped him get lucky. He was hoping to get another Red Silver item. He opened the box and a small wheel popped up in front of him. There were no more empty slots on the wheels. They were all filled with an item. At the very worst he would gain some common materials like chicken feathers or boarhide. He could also gain a Red Silver item. The wheel didn''t stop on the Red Silver item. It stopped at an item that didn''t have a rank. It was a small medallion with a faded letter M on it. It was rusty and seemed useless. He didn''t think he got a useful item. He decided to check its stats out. ??? Medallion An old medal with the letter M engraved on it Rank: ??? No effects It was like he thought; completely useless. It had no effects. The only interesting about it was that it had no name and it had no rank. He hadn''t seen an have no rank. He dumped the medallion into his inventory. The last item was the Glory Medal. Glory Medal A medal is given to a player who had earned more than 20% contribution on a contribution ranking that has more than 1000 players. Rank: Red Silver All effects are passive in inventory Fame +1000 Show this medal to people to gain benefits and support Cannot be dropped Cannot be traded The Glory Medal appeared in the item leaderboards. After he picked it up and put it into his inventory. Emile had passed 10000 fame. He knew having high amounts of fame would do good things for him. Fame was a hard stat to grind for. Discovering new locations gave 100 fame. Clearing a new location gave 250 fame. Every time a player find a new location the most fame they can earn from that location is 350. Unless there are special properties to the new location, the player will not receive any extra fame. Leveling up to level 8 required 25000 experience. All of his party members were level 6. They all received one level from getting first on the party contributions. They took up 5 of the places on the Global Level Leaderboards. People didn''t know how they leveled up so quickly. This was the first time someone had completed a story quest so people didn''t know the rewards of the quest. Other''s still dealt with the quest. Emile regrouped with his party. They discussed what they received. Flower Queen got an uncommon lucky box. She received a rare dagger. She could equip it at her level since the Lucky Box equipment were all at the user''s level. If not then players would have useless items such as a level 90 common helmet. What was the use of a level 90 common helmet when the highest leveled player was level 7? Emile didn''t know what class Flower Queen was aiming for. He thought she wanted to be a warrior since she used the sword. "I''m trying to be an assassin, I got your Cloak of Shadows which you left behind at the Chief''s home," Flower Queen said. "Can I have it, it increases stealth capabilities," She asked. "Yeah, sure," Emile said since he had no use for stealth. Her face brightened up and she equipped it. "Our quest is done, do you guys want to go see the Village Chief to see if he has more items for us," Handsomest Crab said. "Don''t we have to explore the wizards tower, their might spells in the tower. There could also be his notes about magic. We could get rich by selling the research material," Handsomest Crab said as he thought about all the money they could receive. ''Let''s head towards The Village Chief''s home," Flower Queen said with a gentle smile. The villagers were celebrating. They also thanked the players. It was a harmonious scene. "Thank you for protecting our Village," said the Tailor. "You can come to my shop, I''ll give you all a 30% discount for any item," He continued. Everyone was in festive mood. Emile felt joyous as he looked around himself. He felt warm being surrounded by friends. They entered the Chief''s home. "I don''t know how to thank you, no one in our village has fighting capabilities. Our ancestors created a safe haven for us. The mobs never came into our village. This was the first time in centuries where mobs started to attack out humble abode." He said with some sorrow. "You should go and find out what items the wizard tower had," The Village Chief said. A quest wasn''t given, meaning that there would be no serious danger in the tower. Wizard Tower and Special Points "Thank you for your guidance," Emile said politely. "Have a good day," They all said before leaving the Chief''s home. "The tower is at the very center of the forest. If the tall trees didn''t exist, we could probably see the tower from here," Emile said. They walked out of the village. The villagers still celebrated their victory. The players were gaining lots of benefits from the villagers. They continued to walk deeper into the forest until they reached the Compsognathus territory. The Thorny Bush territory was easy to pass since the plants couldn''t move. Thet would attack the player from a distance. Passing the Compsognathus territory would be challenging since they didn''t have the cloak that hid them. The beasts were no longer berserk. They went back to hunting other animals and players. They killed any dinosaurs that ran up to them. Flowing Dream did the tanking. "Hey, Emile what did you put your free attribute points into," the Handsomest Crab asked. "I forgot to put my free attribute points into anything," Emile remembered about the free attribute points. As he was thinking about free attribute points, a system notification appeared. [You may convert ten free attribute points into one special point] Emile had never heard of special points. [Special points are a unique entity of the Nirvanic System] [Special points can buy many things in the Nirvanic System] Emile talked in his mind since he didn''t want his party to assume that he was crazy. "How do you earn special points," Emile asked. [There are 4 ways] [Conversion where you convert attribute points] [Special items can give special points] [Quests] [World Announcements] "Don''t I have three special points since three world announcements," Emile asked. [Yes] If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. After gaining the Nirvanic System the game system was friendlier and gave valuable information. Emile didn''t choose to convert his free attribute points yet. He needed to figure out the use of special points before he made any impulsive decisions. [Special points upgrades all stats] "Isn''t that kinda useless? Why would you convert 10 free attribute points for a special point? You could use the free attribute points to increase all the stats." Emile said as he assumed that Special points were useless. [It also increases luck stat] "It still isn''t worth it," Emile said after thinking about it. Luck was intangible. They couldn''t control it. [You can convert Special points into 50 skill points] Emile knew this was a good trade. He didn''t earn a lot of fire or water skill points so this was a good way to gain them. [Special points are also a currency in the Nirvanic Market] "What is the Nirvanic Market," Emile had never heard of this term before which lead to this questioning. [Nirvanic Market is where Nirvanic''s can sell items, buy nutrients for their body, buy items using coins or Special points] [These are the main functions] As he grew stronger, he would require more nutrients. The quality of the nutrients was also vital to his growth. Having the Nirvana Market would help him out a lot. [You will teleport to the Nirvana Market if you wish to shop] He didn''t need to head there yet so he chose to ignore the teleport option. They continued to slay the dinosaurs as they moved forward. After 1 hour of advancing slowly, they made it into the clearing. "Wow, this really is a beautiful place," Flower Queen said as she looked around. "The tower is like a sore thumb," She continued after seeing the tower. "Let head in," Emile said after listening to her. [You have discovered a new location: Wizards Tower] [You have gained 100 fame] Everyone that was in the party received 100 fame. They didn''t receive the second notification about clearing the location meaning that there were no mobs in the tower. The first floor was filled with open cages. There were runes nearby. They continued to the second floor. They saw chambers of mobs. The wizard was experimenting on different mobs. He identified one of the Compsognathus that were in the chambers. Compsognathus Hp: 10/232 Atk: 0 MAtk: 129-143 They were near death and had no attack stat. All the dinosaur they met on the outside had around 80-92 damage per attack. The dinosaurs on the outside had no magic attack stat. These ones had a magic stat. They all looked deformed. They were tortured a lot before they got those stats. "I think we should kill them off, to make their suffering end," Time Walker said. They chose to end the suffering of the mobs that were in the chambers. The mobs only gave them 1 experience. This situation continued up until the 5th floor. There were over one-hundred mobs in that condition. On the 6th floor, there was only one chamber. The mob inside this chamber differed from the previous chambers, It was a normal-looking Compsognathus. When they got close to the monster, it opened its eyes. The monster broke out of the chamber and attacked Flowing Dream. -220 It dealt an enormous amount of damage. Emile identified the stats. Perfect Compsognathus Mutant Monster Level 10 Hp: 586/586 Atk: 205-380 Agility: 45 Weakness: A perfect creature has no weakness. This was the first time they had seen a mutant monster. A mutant monster had higher stats than the normal monster. This was the first time any monster had no weakness. This might have caused a problem if the opponent was stronger. In Emile''s eye, the mutant was weak. He could kill the mutant anytime he wanted. He felt that fighting against the mutant wouldn''t give him anything of value so he allowed his party to try out a stronger enemy. Emile wouldn''t attack the mutant, he would tank the hits. His party attacked the mutant. The mutant seemed to have a bit of intelligence which caused it to run towards the Handsomest Crab. He had the least health. The Handsomest Crab used his sword to block the attack and Flower Queen shot a ball of mud at the mutant. It slowed down the mutant and dealt damage. Time Walker activated his fireball which did a lot of damage to the mutant and burned it. Other than the enormous amount of damage it dealt out, everything else was weak. After a few more hits, the mutant fell down. Mobs could mutate to become stronger versions of themselves. That was the first mutant mob that Emile met. The only other thing on the sixth floor was a desk with lots of paper strewn about. They searched through the desk and found one item. Control Wizard''s Notes (Quest Item) The notes of a crazy wizard Emile was the one who kept the notes because he was the one who killed the Great Chief. They allowed him to have it since the game didn''t tell them what quest it was a part of. Emile kept it in his inventory. He asked them to look around the tower to see if they missed anything. After 10 minutes of searching Flowing Dream messaged them saying he found something. "Come to the staircase leading to the fourth floor." Flowing Dream said as he stood on the stairs. Everyone arrived at the staircase. Flowing Dream said nothing and pulled out a brick from the wall of the staircase. They could hear something opening. Emile''s party walked up to the third floor which had broken chambers. They broke the chambers when they were killing the mobs in the tower. On the third floor, there was now an opening on one wall. Emile walked in and saw piles of coins and other goodies. Fellow Nirvanic [You have discovered the Secret Room in the Wizard''s Tower] They didn''t gain anything from finding the secret room. There were coins and some wands in the room. Handsomest Crab picked up 45 silver coins and 720 copper coins. They decided for each person to receive 9 silver coins and 144 copper coins. Emile now had 44 silver coins and 544 copper coins. He needs 56 more silver coins to have the minimum requirement to upgrade his ring. Handsomest Crab identified the wands. Flame Wand A wand forged to cast flames. Rank: Rare Level Requirement: 10 Spirit +21 Intelligence +13 MAtk: 24-28 Effect: Fire spells that are cast through the wand deal 50% more damage. Skill: Flame Strike Casts a flame shaped like a sword which deals 125% magic damage and burns the opponent Earth Wand A wand forged to create the earth. Rank: Rare Level Requirement: 10 Spirit +20 Intelligence +14 MAtk: 23-30 Effect: Earth spells that are cast through the wand deal have a bigger range of 50% Skill: Earth Wall Casts a Wall made of mud, blocks opponent and deals 125% magic damage. These wands were the exact same as the wand dropped by the wizard boss. The only difference was that it was a different element for each wand. It''s as if the creator just copy-and-pasted the item. They decided to give the items to Time Walker. "Don''t give me all of them, I don''t need this many wands," he said while feeling flustered. "Too late," Handsomest Crab said as threw the wands to TIme Walker. Time Walker caught the wand and put them into their inventory. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. "We need more mages in our party," TIme Walker said while feeling lonely in his occupation. "We need to upgrade our party level before we can do that. We need 360 more experience before we level up." Flower Queen said. "You''ll be our only mage with stats in spirit and intelligence for now. We have two fake mages," Handsomest Crab said with some jealousy as he looked at Emile and Lily. "I randomly found a skill book," They both said at the same time. "Alright, there''s nothing left in his secret room," Handsomest Crab said after scouring around. "We should leave and report this to the Chief," Time Walker said. "About the mutant monster," Handsomest Crab asked. "Yeah," Time Walker responded. "You guys can report back to the Chief. I want to go check something out," Emile said. "Me too," Flower Queen said. Before this exchange but after their simultaneous yell, Flower Queen messaged Emile. "I want to ask you something. Privately." Flower Queen said. "Uhh... sure," Emile replied. "Make an excuse to split up," She replied. "Okay," Emile said. His friends went to the Village Chief''s home. They stayed at the Wizard''s Tower. "Is she going to ask me out. I''m not ready for this. Wasn''t it supposed to be me who asked her out? There goes my dignity as a man. How embarrassing is it to be asked out by a girl," Emile started to have wild thoughts. Flower Queen started to speak. "Do you have the Nirvanic System," She asked curiously. "Uhh.. no," He was expecting this type of question. "It''s okay, you can tell me, I have the system as well. I can use the Earth skill system." She said. "Yeah I have it as well, I have the Fire skill system and the Water skill system," Emile said after understanding that Lily had the same system. "Wait... repeat what systems you have," she asked. She wondered if she heard wrong. "I have the fire skill system and the water skill system," He repeated. "You have two skill systems!!" Waves of shock shrouded her mind. She knew what it meant to have two skill systems. "That''s impossible," She said after regaining her composure. "It''s impossible to have two skill systems. That means that you have both elements as your bloodline. Even if your mother had the water bloodline and your father had the fire bloodline or vice versa, then the bloodline that is stronger will eliminate the other bloodline. It''s impossible to have more than one bloodline in one body," she continued. "Well, I already learned how to create a fireball in real life and a few hours ago I got enough skill points to get a skill from the water skill system. I don''t know how to cast anything from the water skill system. I have the skill but haven''t practiced it," He said. "If you trust me, then you will believe in me. I''ll show you proof soon," Emile said. "*sigh* Fine I''ll break my worldview for you," she said. "Have you been to the Nirvanic Market yet," she asked. "No," he said. "Let me show you around the Market. Hold my hand I''ll teleport us there," she said. Emile held her tender hands. She used the Nirvanic System to teleport them to the market. Her heart was beating rapidly when he held her hand. After a few seconds, their vision warped and they arrived at a new place. The Nirvanic Market was unexpectedly bustling. There were lots of people walking around, talking, haggling, etc. If Emile didn''t know that this was the Nirvanic Market then he would have assumed that it was a normal market. No one could tell that all these players could cast magic in real life. "Not all players can cast a skill at this point in the game. Some players don''t even have a skill system yet. They need to gain enough resources to buy a skill system. Average people can gain the powers of an awakened if they have enough resources," she said as she walked into the Market. "How did you gain your fireball skill," She knew that it cost 100 skill points to gain the Fireball skill. "I never knew about skill or magic before Nirvana. I killed a Chief Rank monster by myself which gave me an option to gain a book. I got the book of fire," he said. The book could convert into 100 skill points which allowed me to gain the first skill. The same thing happened with the water skill system. I got the book of water which could convert into 100 skill points," He continued. "Wow you got lucky, other players who have never learned skills before would have to use resources to gain a skill system. Then they would have to be near their specific element for a certain amount of time before they gain skill points. They can use the skill points to learn a skill," she said as she admired his luck. "I was born with the Earth bloodline. My family has the bloodline of Earth and they told me to play Nirvana to improve my strength. I''ve been forced by my family to practice Earth related techniques since I was 8 years old. I brought my Earth related skills into the game which gave me 200 earth skill points," She explained her situation. "Did your family ever partake in the killing of another family," He asked hoping for a certain answer. Emile knew that her "No, my family has always been lying dormant, they''ve always been neutral in everything they do. They might do some illegal things but it''s not as bad as annihilation, why do you want to know" she asked. "My dad told me that our family was obliterated by two other extremely powerful families, I wanted to make sure you weren''t apart of that family. I feel relieved now," Emile said. "Let''s go explore the Market," Emile said hoping to get out of this depressing zone. "Alright, let me show you around," she said feeling distressed after learning about his families condition. New World "Over there we have the market for equipment," She pointed at a location with many shops. "Those shops are owned by players, the only NPC''s are farther ahead. These types of equipment usually range from common to uncommon rank. There''s an auction which sells better items. The Common items go for 100 copper coins or less. Uncommon items go for up to 3 silver. It doesn''t get bigger than that for uncommon items." She said. "You can sometimes find rare equipment in the Auction but that only happened twice. There''s a monthly auction which showcases rare items. The first monthly auction is in 3 weeks. We haven''t had the monthly auction yet. And don''t even get me started on the yearly auction which won''t happen for a long time." She said. They walked away from the equipment section. "This seems like a normal marketplace, what''s so unique about the Nirvana Market," Emile said. "Wait, we''re almost there," she said. "Almost where," Emile questioned. She ignored his comment and continued to walk. Emile followed her until they reached a giant courtyard. The courtyard had no one inside. Emile felt confused about why she brought him here. The court had five different sections with a picture of an element hanging on the top. The picture was glowing brightly. It glowed then dimmed. It was a mesmerizing pattern. "This courtyard is the Elemental Courtyard, this is where people go to gain skill points. They enter the specific courtyard and there are challenges and other things they can do to gain skill points. Inside the thing, you can get simulation missions. You get placed in a world with a mission. You get skill points based on how well you do on the mission," she said. "I think you should test it out, it doesn''t take that long," She said as she pointed at the fire elemental corridor. "They accelerate time in there so if it gives a time limit of like 1 year, it usually means 1 full day of time. That''s the ratio of time in the simulation. You''ll find out more information when you enter the world," she continued. "Alright, thanks," He ran into the fire elemental corridor after giving a farewell. Lily gave a farewell before entering the Earth element corridor. In front of him was a large screen showing lots of data. He didn''t know what the data meant, so he ignored it. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. There was a room called the simulation room. He would enter the room and it would teleport him into a fake world. [Would you like to enter the simulation?] "Yes," as soon as he replied, he was teleported out. [Quest has been given] [World has been created] World of Swords Description: A world focused on the sword. All actions have influences from the sword. Aim: Find the Fire Element Reward: Based on time, actions, etc Time Limit: 3 months Penalty: Lose 1 skill Emile panicked since he spawned in an inn. He checked around and saw that the currency was the same. His inventory didn''t exist in this world. Memories of the world appeared in his mind. Afte digesting the memories he found out that the world is a wuxia world. It had its own cultivation method. Muscle Refining Stage Skeletal Refining Stage Nerve Refining Stage Earth Stage Sky Stage Emperor Stage Emperor stage was the very last stage. Emile didn''t want to get too caught up in this world''s path. His body was in the 5th stage of Skeletal Refining. His bones were slowly going stronger. He was considered decently strong in a rural area. There were many people who were stronger than him in the cities. He wanted to leave the world as soon as possible so he asked the innkeeper about the fire element. He also wanted to gain as much Fire skill points as he could. "The Fire Element? I''ve never heard of that. Sorry man you can look through the library to figure out any information about it." The innkeeper said as he cleaned the dishes. "Where is the library," Emile threw a copper coin for the information. The innkeeper accepted and wrote down directions to the library. This was the city of Riverdale. It was a backwater location without many technological advancements. The world was taking place in the past. It didn''t have many convenient things. Emile followed the directions and arrived at a shabby looking place. ''Is this really a library,'' Emile thought. The stair leading to the door had moss growing on it. It shook when he stepped on the stairs. Emile knocked on the door which caused some dust to fall down. An old man opened the door. "Who are you, why are you here," The old man asked suspiciously. "I''m Emile, can I enter and read some of your books," He introduced himself and asked a question. "Why," The old man asked. "I want to find out something and need to look for information about its location," Emile didn''t state the object since he didn''t trust the old man. "What''s in it for me," he laughed and asked. "I have some coins in my bag," Emile said. "It''s rare for a youngster like you to seek knowledge. I''ll let you in," The old man said. Emile entered through the doorway. In front of his eyes lied columns and columns of books. He knew searching through all the books would take a long time. "Do you have a filtering system to filter out books," Emile asked the old man. "What''s a filtering system," The old man asked. "Nevermind, do you have any books about the fire element," He asked after remembering that this world wasn''t technologically up to date. "The Fire element is a rare element that appears every 100 years. When it appears a bloodbath occurs. People fight over the fire element. I don''t suggest you go for it unless you are in the peak stage of Nerve refining," He cautioned Emile about the fire element. "I need to get it. It''s important to my growth." Emile said with conviction. "It''s important for many people''s growths. If a nerve refining can absorb the fire element into their body, then they can break into the earth stage." He said with a tone of convincing. "I still need to try," Emile said. He wasn''t being reckless by saying this. He asked the system about what happens when he dies. [When the user dies, the penalties will be given and it will kick the user out of this world] He wouldn''t die which gave him the courage to try. "Alright, enter the Scarlet Mountain and stay near Scarlet City. The fire element will appear in half-a-month so I suggest you grow as strong as you can during this time period." The old man said after a sigh. "Don''t send yourself to death," He said. The old man gave him directions to Scarlet City. Emile thanked the man and left Riverdale City. "Youngsters, these days, always acting recklessly without a care about their lives," The old man said as he closed the door of his library. To grow stronger, he could do the obvious thing and cultivate. He could also head to the market and look for any treasures. The only thing he had on him was his equipment from the game. The equipment all added up to him being in Skeletal Refining Stage 5. If he had better types of equipment, he would be a higher stage cultivator. The game automatically transferred his stats into a stage. Cultivators in the Nerve Refining stage would have their stats in the 100''s. Cultivators at the Earth stage had their stats near the thousands. They were strong. Emile walked towards Scarlet City as he thought about this development. Golden Spoon In a small room on the second floor of an inn was Emile lying on a bed. After a long trek that lasted for 2 days, he made it to Scarlet City. Emile was using his coins to sleep a night at the inn. Emile was running out of coins. His bag didn''t have many coins when he started out in the world. The world blocked Emile''s inventory so he could not use his game coins. He would head to the market on the next day to earn coins. Emile had to sleep in an inn because he couldn''t log out. If he wanted to, he could log out anytime but that would mean a mission failure. When he tried to log out, he got a system announcement. [If you log out, you will fail the mission] [Would you like to log out?] Emile blew out a warm breath and said, "no." He wouldn''t log out until the mission was completed or until he failed. He fell asleep on his bed. __________ The Next Morning He woke up early. Emile didn''t know what time he woke up since alarm clocks didn''t exist. He looked outside and guessed a time. ''Probably 8 a.m.'' He tidied his clothes and walked out of the inn to the market. His goal for this day was to earn coins. He was going to the market and see if there were any opportunities to exploit. Emile walked around and heard pitchers yelling out prices. "Sword made of Mythril here! Buy for 10 gold coins!" "Leather Armor for 100 copper coins! It can protect you from arrows and other projectiles!" Cultivators crowded the marketplace. Peak Muscle Refining was the average stage of the Cultivators in this marketplace. They could consider Emile as an expert. He knew he was stronger than most people here.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. ''I could be a bodyguard for someone,'' Emile thought as he looked around. He could get a decent amount of coins by guarding people. At this moment a chariot drove towards Emile. ''Is he not going to stop,'' Emile thought and watched the Chariot run into him. Emile had a gut feeling that the chariot couldn''t injure him. He was right as the chariot stopped. He felt nothing. "What the hell, stop standing in the way, move," A chubby man with gold adorned clothes on said arrogantly. "Move around me," Emile said like a civil person. Emile didn''t want to create any conflicts, so he asked him nicely. "You''re telling ME to move around you, a peasant, think of your status before talking to me, now move," The man said with even more arrogance. ''This is a good way to earn some money,'' Emile thought about his circumstances. "Pay me 3 gold coins," Emile asked for a toll fee. "I''ll ignore what you just said... If you don''t move, I will kill you," The man said while clenching his fists. "The toll fee is now 5 gold coins," Emile was stubborn in his offer. "I understand, bodyguards cut him into pieces." The man said with an angry tone. Five bodyguards appeared out of nowhere and attacked Emile. Emile didn''t have a sword on him which would weaken his strikes. The bodyguards were all at the peak level of Skeletal Refining Stage. Emile wouldn''t risk his life for no reason. He believed in his Void-Steps. Even though the bodyguards were faster than him he could use his skills to dodge their blows and land attacks on them. The bodyguards never landed a single hit on them and Emile kept attacking them. After five minutes of fighting the bodyguards were all lying on the floor unconscious. He defeated them easily. "Do you know what movement skill he''s using." One bystander whispered to another. "I''ve never seen it before," they replied to the comment. They had never seen the movement skill before which lead to the whispering. Cultivators who were at the Skeletal Refining could see that the cultivation of the bodyguards was at the peak of the Skeletal Refining stage. They also noticed Emile who was in the 5th stage of skeletal refining which shocked them. Someone at lower tier could defeat five people at a higher stage. "The toll fee is now 10 gold coins," Emile said as he brushed off the dust from his clothes. ''I''ll call the guards," The chubby man used his last threat. "Let me beat you up first, then you can go call the guards," Emile said with a sadistic smile on his face. The chubby man felt terrified after seeing Emile''s expression. "I''ll pay 10 g-gold coins now, p-please don''t h-hurt me," He said with a shaky voice. He started to take out his purse. "No, the toll fee is now 100 gold coins," Emile said as his smile grew wider. "This is daylight robbery," The chubby man yelled out. "Yeah, it is," Emile replied. "Should I make the price higher," Emile said out loud. "No, don''t I''ll pay 100 gold coins," the man fumbled for his purse. He took out 85 gold coins from his purse. "I-I don''t have e-enough," The chubby man said with terror in his voice. "What can you exchange for 15 gold coins," Emile asked. "Hey guys could you give me 15 gold coins," The man asked the bystanders. The bystanders looked around and no one stepped forward to pay 15 gold coins. "Look''s like you are not a very good person," Emile said. "P-Please spare me some money," The chubby man started to beg. "I''ll do the world a good thing," Emile said as he walked towards the chubby man. Emile started to beat the chubby man up. After a series of whining and wailing the man stopped. He fell unconscious. Emile picked up the 85 gold coins and walked away. "Should we report-" The person was cut off before he could say anything. Another person held his mouth with his arm. "Are you stupid, did he seem to care about the guards, no right, he''ll beat you up if he heard that," someone else said hoping for Emile to not have heard his words. Most of the pedestrians became scared of Emile since he had a higher cultivation than them. He was also a genius since he could fight people stronger than him. Emile walked away as fast as he could. He couldn''t keep up the act anymore. He felt terrified of the guards since they all were in the Nerve Refining Stage. "I need to buy a mask," Emile thought in his mind. Emile walked into a store selling masks. Luckily the person didn''t know who Emile was. Pictures of him haven''t beeen passed out yet. Emile quickly bought a fox mask which cost him 2 silver. He gave one of his gold coins. The shop owner felt shocked by the value. The shopkeeper gave him 98 silver coins. The shop had to scrounge around looking for silver coins. Emile gave thanks and walked out of the store while wearing the mask he bought. Emile wanted to buy equipment so he asked around for places that sold equipment. There was the weapon dealer who had the highest quality swords. Emile went there first to get himself a good sword. He would head to the armor dealer afterward to get high-quality pieces of armor. Fox Thief Emile stood in front of the weapon dealer''s shop. It was a large opening that leads to the inside of the store. The outside had a logo with a sword and shield. Underneath the sword and shield were the sign stating the name of the location. Emile saw many people walking in and out. He walked in after observing the crowd. The weapon dealer''s shop wasn''t one person shop. It was a combination of many people working together and selling goods. It was a dazzling sight, seeing the enormous amount of weapons. Even though the world was called the World of Swords, the shop sold other categories of weapons. There were subsections inside the shop for each different category of weapons. Emile went to the sword section since he needed a good sword. Emile had a slight edge over the other cultivators. He had the game system which allowed him to identify the items and what stats it gave. Emile looked through all the swords that were on display. None of the swords caught Emile''s attention. He wanted a better sword. He asked one of the managers about the swords. "Do you have any better swords," Emile asked. "No, If we did have ''better'' swords then we would display it," The manager said. The manager thought that this person was a country bumpkin. He didn''t discriminate against people. He knew that people could be a hidden expert. If he offended one, he would get killed off. "Do you know of any location that might have better swords," Emile asked. "Uhh... If you would like to buy a better sword, then please visit the auction that is coming up in 1 week." The manager said as nicely as he could without freaking out. He was worthy of the job. Emile thanked the man and left the weapon dealer''s shop. Emile didn''t know how close he was to getting kicked out of the shop. He walked to the armor dealer shop. The front of the shop was a full body suit of armor. It had the name of the shop below the armor set. Emile entered the store and saw different sections once again.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. He walked around the different sections. He found some decent pieces of armor. Warrior Gloves Warriors love to wear this pair of gloves. Rank: Uncommon Level Requirement: 5 Strength +10 Vitality +7 Can Bring Out of World: No Items of this world didn''t have any skills. Emile had items equipped on him before he entered the world. Most of these items had skills. Emile didn''t know if the skills were usable in this world. He would have to test it out in his room. Emile saw a new type of text at the bottom of the identification. There was an option to bring the item out of the world. This item couldn''t be brought out. Emile could deduce that there had to be some items that could be brought out of the world. If there weren''t, then that text wouldn''t be there. Emile didn''t see a single item with a skill. He bought the pair of gloves for 30 silver coins. The gloves originally cost 45 silver coins. But with a bit of haggling and demeriting the item he lowered the price to 30 silver coins. After Emile left the Armor Dealer''s shop, he looked for rich people since he noticed that they had the most money. Emile decided to judge them. If the person satisfied him, he wouldn''t steal from them. He would judge based on their actions, personality and what relationships they have with other people. Arrogant young master was on the very top of his hit list. A king of thieves emerged for a short time frame. For a few days, news came out of people being robbed one by one. It was always the same fox mask. The person robbed for an entire week straight. The lives of the rich had been severely affected. They had gotten close to capturing the person when a nerve refining stage attacked the person. The person avoided the attacks from the Nerve Refining Stage and escaped. The defenders of the attack felt proud. They became even more arrogant and started to insult the mask-wearing person. The person checked their pockets and noticed that their wallet had disappeared. Their face went pale as they realized that the mask-wearing person had pickpocketed them. During the fight, the mask-wearing person had gotten close to the young master and stolen the wallet while they were distracted. They ran away after stealing the wallet. A few hours before the auction Emile was lying in his bed resting. He worked hard for the past week. Whenever he noticed someone rich, he would pass judgment like a death reaper. Emile became very rich after this week. He had over 4000 gold coins which he stole from people. The most he got from one person was 400 gold coins. The person was delivering something to a company. He never stole any valuables like jewels. Selling off the valuables would take lots of time. He could get traced back. Then he would get captured by the guards if they successfully trace him. This became a legend in Scarlet City. They called him the Fox Thief. The commoners were happy about the rich losing a lot of their money. Emile didn''t know about this. He knew he had a bad reputation among the rich but had the reputation of a saint among the poor. Emile woke up from his bed and walked to the auction house. He asked for directions the previous. He didn''t wear his fox mask. There was a citywide ban on fox masks because of him. The auction house was huge. It was like a stadium. There was an entrance with hundreds of people lined up to enter. Emile got on the line and waited. After a few hours, he managed to enter the auction house. They made him pay one silver coin to gain entry. On the inside, there was an array of seats that went from the very bottom to the top. There were also multiple sections to the auction house. The very top was private rooms for rich and powerful people. Emile wanted a room up there since he would be using lots of money. He would be considered a target if he was in the general crowd. "What are the requirements to get a room up there," Emile asked a manager. "Have 500 gold coins, or have significant power," THe manager replied indifferently. "Alright then I want a room up there," Emile showed 500 gold coins from his bag. The manager looked at Emile from top to bottom. The only thing that the manager noticed was that Emile was wearing worn-out clothes. He didn''t seem to be a rich person. The manager thought Emile was an average person. After seeing the gold coins his mind changed. The manager promptly took him into his own private room. "You may ask a maid for any food or drink that you desire. They will bring your desires to you," The manager explained. Emile asked for some water and grapes. He ate as he waited. The other private rooms were quickly filled up. There were 30 private rooms. This meant that there were quite a few rich people at this auction. Emile had the urge to take their money from them. Emile stole money for two reasons. One, it was the fastest way to earn money, and two, he would disappear from the world in three months meaning that he doesn''t have any consequences. Emile suppressed his urge to steal from them. After two more hours of waiting, the auction officially began. Auction "Welcome ladies and gentlemen to our auction. Today we have an assortment of rare items. I''m your host, Robert, and now let''s get this show on the road." A man wearing a suit appeared on the stage. He gave an intro before the first item appeared. "The first item is a sword made by a new blacksmith named Conor. It''s a weapon made of tungsten steel. It''s sharp enough to break the defenses of a Skeletal Refining Stage 2. The sword is perfect for people in the peak of Muscle Refining and stage 1 of Skeletal Refining. The starting price is 20 silver coins. Bidding may begin now." The host said as he brought out a sword for display. "25 silver coins." "30 silver coins!" The price kept rising. People continued to bid for the item. Emile didn''t need the sword. It ranked the sword Uncommon. The sword he owned was also Uncommon. He wanted a better sword than his current sword. He waited for a rare ranked sword. The bidding stopped at one gold coin and 40 silver coins. Someone got the item after an intense session of bidding. The next few items were pieces of equipment. The equipment up for bidding were all ranked Uncommon. Emile didn''t have a use for Uncommon items. He required rare ranked items. After ten uncommon items, the first rare item appeared in the auction. None of the people in the private rooms bought anything. "We have an item someone found in an ancient ruin. These ruins were when the Fire Element appeared last. We uncovered more treasures from these ruins. This item was the chest plate found on the body of a Nerve Refining Stage. Protecting yourself from Nerve Refining cultivators will become easier with this chest plate. We added designs to it, to make it look good. The starting bid is 50 gold coins. The bidding may begin now." Robert described the origins of the item and the effects of the item. Emile didn''t think the item was as good as his chest plate so he didn''t bid for it. Emile experienced the tense atmosphere that was created by this item. Two private rooms to the left of him made a bid. Emile continued to eat grapes. "100 gold coins!" They doubled the price of the item. "110 gold coins," Someone else from a different private room shouted. The commoner and the public didn''t have enough gold coins to join in on the bidding. The only bidders were the two private rooms. One was the leader of the Moon Sect and the other was the Leader of the Sun Sect. They both hated the other person and their sect. Competition between them was a normal occurrence. Bloodshed was also normal. Their fights were always balanced. if they gained an item that could stop attacks from Nerve Refining stage it could tilt this balance a tiny bit. The leader of the Moon Sect won the bidding war with 800 gold coins. They felt aggrieved since they wasted enormous amounts of coins. They couldn''t afford to bid for many more items.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. The next item was the first item that caught Emile''s attention. It was a pendant. Wallace''s Pendant A pendant that belonged to a cultivator at the Earth Stage. Rank: Red Silver Level Requirement: 5 Spirit +14 Intelligence +16 Skill: Flight The user gains the ability to fly for 30 minutes Cooldown: 1 day Can bring out of World: No This item was the first Red Silver item of the auction. The stats weren''t up to par, but the skill was legendary. The only reason this item was Red Silver was due to the skill. "This is a pendant. It has no properties on it. The reason it appears in such a high-class auction is that this pendant once belonged to an Earth Stage cultivator. There might even be hidden applications about this item. The starting bid is ten gold coins. You may begin." The host ended his speech. He flattered the item a great amount. They didn''t discover the flight skill. The price of the pendant would have risen to the thousands if they had known the pendant gave flight. They considered it a souvenir. Emile had to get the item, but he didn''t want to make a big scene about it. "11 gold coins." He shouted. Someone from the private boxes bid for the item. "20 gold coins." "What insane people. They are willing to buy a useless item for 20 gold coins. That''s more money than I would earn in ten years wasted on a pendant," said one of the public. "The world of the rich are far from us," another sighed before responding. "30 gold coins," Emile raised the amount again. "Why is someone else collecting antiques, go find out who they are," The person in the private room felt confused why others were collecting items. He didn''t stop bidding yet. "40 gold coins," he said calmly. "50 gold coins," Emile responded instantly. "60 gold coins," The man said. His butler came back with information. "We don''t know who that is. The person showed up with 500 gold coins and asked for a private room. They have no background as far as I''m aware." The butler said. "I''ll let him get the item for now. I''ll take it back from him after the auction ends." The man said coldly. "70 gold coins," Emile responded. No one else bid. "70 gold coins going once." "70 gold coins going twice." "The gentlemen in the private room has won the pendant for 70 gold coins." The maid received the item and gave it to Emile. Emile paid the 70 gold coins and continued to watch the auction. The next few items were items he didn''t require. He added one or two bids to increase the total. The Sun Sect leader bought a few items to match up to the Moon Sect leader. "The next item is the final item. This item is a sword forged by a Grandmaster Blacksmith. The quality of the sword is unquestionable. They made the sword out of adamantium and spirit lines. It''s an awakened sword meaning it has its own spirit. They bathed it in lightning before it awakened. The starting bid is 500 gold coins. You may bid." Emile identified the sword. Thundering Sword (Awakened) An awakened sword made from Thunder and high-quality materials. Rank: Red Silver Level Requirement: 7 Strength +32 Vitality +28 Skill: Thunder Chop A chop that releases thunder dealing 200% damage. It has a 30% chance of stunning the opponent. Cooldown: 10 minutes Awakened Skill: Lightning Release Affects the environment and cause the cloud to release a bolt of lightning. Can Bring Out of World: No Emile needed this item. He would become powerful if he equipped the sword. Emile waited for the price to go high before he would put in a bid. "600 gold coins." "700 gold coins." It approached 1000 gold coins. "1000 gold coins," shouted someone from the middle of the private rooms. It had broken the 1000 barrier. The price was still rising. It had slowed down when it reached 1800 gold coins. "2000 gold coins," Emile shouted after noticing the price slowing down. "2200 gold coins." "2300 gold coins," Emile responded. "2400 gold coins," someone said with gritted teeth. "2500 gold coins," Emile said calmly without flinching by the high prices. The auction went quiet as no one else placed a bid. "2500 gold coins going once." "2500 gold coins going twice." "The gentlemen in the private room has won the sword for 2500 gold coins." The host said the same sentence structure throughout the auction. "That concludes our auction. Thank you for showing up. If you couldn''t gain anything, then come back next time to have a chance at gaining an even better time." The host said everything with a small smile on his face. "The auction is now closing, you may leave through one exit." He continued. Emile got his sword from one maid and left his private room. The butler was watching Emile. "Master the person has left their room, would you like me to follow them and gain the items," The butler said calmly. "Yes, get me the sword and the pendant," The man said with hatred in his tone. Emile left the auction not knowing someone was following him. Up the Mountain Emile walked away from the auction as a satisfied man. He equipped the items he got. His cultivation stage increments with his stats. He became a peak stage of Skeletal Refining stage due to equipping the items. The Butler, the person who followed Emile was shocked. He witnessed someone breakthrough four small tiers in less than a second. The butler got worried for a second but didn''t give up. He followed Emile. Emile had an urge in the back of his mind. He predicted that someone followed him from the auction. He trusted his sharp senses. Emile wanted to confront this urge. He walked into the next alleyway and continued to walk casually. The butler suspected nothing since he believed his sneaking skills were top-notch. He faith in his stealth was like Emile''s faith in his senses. The butler went for a sneak attack aimed at the back of the neck. Emile turned around and caught the hand. He twisted it breaking the hand. His strength from the sword also worked with his hands since he equipped the sword to himself. Emile noticed a few differences between this world and the game world. No matter how much damage he did, no notification would put up saying he dealt damage. This didn''t bother Emile since knowing when someone would die appeared easy for him. "Who sent you," Emile tried to create a cold voice. Even though the person happened to be in the peak stage of Skeletal Refining, Emile easily defeated him. "My master," The butler said with gritted teeth. "And who might this master be," Emile tried to sound sophisticated. "Won''t say," The butler replied. The butler was faithful to his master. Emile believed that he would be able to force the answer out of him. He twisted his arm even more. "Agh..." The butler yelled out. "So are you willing to tell me yet," Emile asked again. "Kill me," I will never reveal the truth. Emile tried all the torturing techniques he recalled from his mind. Nothing cracked the butler. He stayed quiet and revealed nothing. Emile didn''t have a clue at what to do in this situation. He didn''t want someone to find his information, so he killed the butler and ran away. The technology of this world was outdated. They didn''t have good ways to figure out who killed who.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. There was a near zero chance of him being caught. Emile cleaned himself before going back to bed. Emile spent the next few days looking through the market for items, he wanted to equip more items. He saw nothing useful. As the days passed by, an increasing amount of people showed up at Scarlet City. These people had arrived for the Fire element. The master of the butler never showed up. The master had been seeking Emile. They never found Emile. He used all his connections to find Emile but never discovered him. Emile had wanted to rest until the Fire Element appeared. He mostly slept in the inn when he wasn''t looking through the market. He also read a few books and understood more about this world. The Muscle Refining stage did as the name stated. It made their muscles grow and compact to deal stronger punches or use more force. The Skeletal Refining stage made the bones fortified and stronger. The Nerve Refining stage increased reaction speed and how fast the mind functioned. This involved a dangerous process since one mistake would cause people to go insane or even die. Earth stage is when people begin to gain control of nature. That''s why most people arrived to gain the Fire element. If they absorbed the Fire element, they would instantly break into the Earth stage. This would only work for people in the Nerve Refining stage. The only reason people at the Skeletal Refining stage showed up was that they could have a smooth sailing ride up to the Earth stage. The Nerve Refining stage would hold almost no challenges for people with the Fire element. Sky stage is the stage that allowed the person to fly. These people had control of the environment and had long lives. Emperor stage didn''t have much information about it since not many cultivators had reached this state of cultivation. An Emperor stages expert would be able to annihilate 100''s of Sky stage experts if they wanted to. __ Two days before the element appeared Emile walked up Scarlet Mountain. The mountain was like a volcano. It never exploded in its history but they could see lava when looking from the top. There was a long winding road that leads to the top. On an average day, it was rare to find anyone on this road. But these days were special. The fire element caused hundreds of cultivator to climb the mountain and hope to get the fire element. They could only pray for it. Cultivators at the peak of the Nerve Refining stage were present. They had the highest chance of getting the element. Emile walked up the mountain with the other cultivators. No one had the ability to fly, Emile didn''t want to be a unique entity by flying so he walked. The trek up the mountain took 8 hours. When they arrived at the top, there was a large flat area with a hole in the middle. People had built settlements on the flat area. Emile didn''t buy a tent. He brought food and water with him. He felt slightly stupid. Luckily there were others who didn''t bring tents either. They found logs and created their own homes. Emile followed one person and also found numerous logs. He broke the trees and brought the logs back up the mountain. Having high strength allowed him to have an easy time carrying the logs. He created his own home after asking around for help. Some kind cultivators taught him how to make a home. He created his lodging after a few hours. Emile didn''t know how to spend time since he didn''t need to cultivate. He walked around and started socializing with people. Emile also sparred with other people. He made a decent amount of friends. Most of them were in the Skeletal Refining stage and some were in the early tiers of Nerve Refining. Emile needed to gain the Fire Element without dying. He thought of ways to do it. His mind was leaning towards the method of force. He knew he was too weak to use force. He couldn''t avoid someone who was near the peak stage of Nerve Refining. Emile thought of different applications of his skills. At this moment he had an epiphany. He knew how he would get the Fire Element. All he needed was something to hide his face. He found his fox mask in his bag. Emile fell asleep with a plan to gain the Fire Element. World Completion The next morning was the last day before the storm would occur. It was the calm before the storm. Everyone was still friendly with each other. They laughed, sparred and trained with each other. As soon as the Fire Element appears, they would break all formality. Emile continued to build relationships with others. An increasing amount of people showed up. There were at least a few thousand cultivators up on the mountain. They ranged from beginning Skeletal Refining up to peak Nerve Refining stage. Strong cultivators created factions to support themselves. Cultivators joined these factions to gain benefits. But there''s always a catch. If the person gets the Fire Element, they must hand it over to the leader of the faction. Emile didn''t join a faction. He wanted to keep the element for himself. Emile wasn''t strong enough to create his own faction. If he used his gold coins to hire the cultivators to give him the element, he wouldn''t be able to trust them. If they got the element, they would keep it for themselves. They would only give it to the faction leader if the leader was stronger than them. Or had high amounts of fame. Strength was the determining factor. Emile stayed hidden from any faction members. He hung out with individual cultivators learned many things about this world. Emile went back to his lodge and fell asleep after a long day of socializing. Many cultivators were nervous for the next day. ______ The next day The volcano was showing weird signs. Bubbles would float up and pop near the top. The temperature was rising. It was getting close to 1000 degrees Celsius. Most cultivators could survive this temperature as long as they were in the peak stage of Skeletal Refining. Anything below this would have a hard time lasting against the heat unless they had a constitution of fire. Emile would have been able to survive this temperature even if he had no cultivation. He was born with the constitution of fire and water. This meant he could survive at high temperatures and low temperatures. The water constitution allowed him to survive in below zero degrees temperatures. Emile was an expert in surviving since he was born. The only cultivators at the top of the mountain were at least Skeletal Refining. It was rare for a cultivator to have the fire constitution. Slowly something that shined brightly rose up from the middle of the lava. It was an essence spirit. These essence spirits could boost cultivation by a small amount. Those who were on the mountain would all fight to gain these essence spirits. The essence spirits were like appetizers before the main meal. Hundreds of them appeared from the lava. Many people got them. The Nerve Refining stage experts would catch these essence spirits and give them to their faction members. Emile also gained a few but didn''t know what to do with it. He passed them onto to some of the cultivators. "Hey bro, why do you not want these essence spirits?" One of his new friends asked.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. "I... don''t need these for my cultivation," Emile spoke the truth. "You''re really weird," He said as he laughed. "Yeah," Emile said shyly. There were a few more people who knew about Emile giving out essence spirits. They considered him weird. The main course was appearing. The fire element rose up into the sky. The temperature around it was near 10000 degrees Celsius. The Nerve Refining stage experts made their move. They had brought treasures to lower the temperature. They used the tools to lower the temperature to a state where they could grab them. The Nerve Refining experts started to rush madly to get the item. When one person got it they would start to run away. "I got it!" A Nerve Refining stage got the element and wanted to escape. "You''re not leaving," Someone else shouted as they used a treasure that summoned a large net. The person caught the person who got the element. The other experts attacked them together. "Give me the treasure and I''ll let you live," One expert said. The person who had the element was terrified since they were surrounded by a lot of Nerve Refining stage experts. He threw the fire element into the air and started to run away. "Oh... look at that, it seems to be a Fire Element. Don''t mind if I take it," Someone arrived from the sky with a fox mask on. The man was floating in the sky looking down at all the cultivators. They watched the Fire Element go towards the man. "Oh... my mask can''t withstand the heat. This is interesting," The floating man''s mask melted and revealed Emile. The Fire Element burned his mask off. The individual cultivators who saw the floating Emile were shocked. "Remember how you called him weird," Someone said to the person who called Emile weird. "No wonder he didn''t want the essence spirits... he was in the Sky stage all along and didn''t need it." The man responded with a hint of fear in his voice. "Are you willing to give me the Fire Element," Emile asked casually as if he wasn''t interested in their opinions. The Nerve Refining experts started to talk amongst themselves. They weren''t willing to give up the element. They wanted to know the truth before giving it up. "Wasn''t he in the Skeletal Refining Stage... he might be lying," Someone said with assurance. "Yeah his cultivation is still in the Skeletal Refining Stage," Someone else said after observing Emile''s cultivation state. "Let''s confront him." They agreed upon this statement. "You have to show us proof that you are a Sky Stage expert," a Nerve Refining stage said loudly. "Proof.... hahaha," Emile started laughing. "You''re making me laugh... you think I need to show you proof," Emile quickly became angry. Clouds appeared above him. As if the sky was as angry as Emile. Lightning started to strike the ground. It was a lightning storm that appeared out of nowhere. "I forget that my anger summons lightning..." Emile said with a smile on his face. The clouds started to clear up. The Nerve Refining experts quickly understood that this was a true Sky stage expert. No Skeletal Refining expert could summon lightning with just their emotions. It was impossible. "We''re sorry... please don''t kill us," They started to kneel after figuring out the truth. "All right... I''ll take this for my disciple," Emile said a white lie and grabbed the Fire Element. "Peace, I''m a generous man so I won''t take offense to your judgment," Emile said before teleporting out. "He has control over space as well. He could have easily killed us all if he wanted to." A Nerve Refining cultivator said with fear in his voice. Let''s rewind and view how Emile accomplished this. Emile watched the Nerve Refining cultivators fight. He went to a hidden location and put on his fox mask. He activated the skill Flight from his pendant. He took about 5 minutes to get used to flying. He appeared in front of the cultivators and asked for the element. When they questioned him, he activated his sword''s awakened skill. It could summon lightning. He used a bit of acting to show that his emotions could control nature. He managed to convince everyone with his acting. He grabbed the Fire Element and system notifications appeared in front of his eyes. [You have found the Fire Element] [Mission has been completed] [Calculating Rewards] World of Swords Time: 17 days 14 hours 18 minutes 32 seconds F --> D Participation in Fights: Active D --> C Reputation: Sky stage expert C --> A Mission Completion: Completed A--> S [You have gained 1000 fire skill points] He was judged by different actions. If he wanted to be faster then he would have to find ways to make the Fire Element spawn faster. Or he would have to look for another one somewhere in the world. He received the most fire skill points from this mission. He would have to do more missions in the future. [Teleporting out of the World of Swords] Emile inadvertently gained more reputation by teleporting out. He didn''t know this. Back in the Real World Emile appeared in the simulation room. He walked out. Emile checked his system clock and noticed that it was late at night. He felt tired; he had experienced a hectic day. In one day he scouted a dungeon, gotten enlightenment, killed 60 players, stopped an invasion, cleared the dungeon he scouted earlier on, visited the Nirvana Market, visited another world and became an overpowered expert in the eyes of others. He logged out of Nirvana and fell asleep. He woke up early in the morning to go to his classes. Most of his classmates had been discussing Mystical Flame who was increasing the gap between the first and second place in the Fame ranking and Level ranking. They were proud of being in the same school as the number one player in the Level ranking and the Fame ranking. They also were discussing his other party members who made it onto the leaderboard. Emile wanted to keep a low profile; he didn''t want others to learn about his game account. Emile''s class day passed by without a hitch. He walked to his father''s dojo. He wanted to keep his body, so he walked the distance. Emile arrived at the dojo and entered it. His father, Lucifer, wanted to have a spar with Emile. Emile wanted to mischievous and used only his Void-Steps to see if he could trick his father. His Void-Steps allowed him to trick his opponents with confusing movements. Lucifer suspected nothing. The expert stage was what Lucifer assumed Emile to be in. The spar started out with no one maintaining a lead. Lucifer attacked for weak points in Emile''s movement. ''He''s attacking from the left again,'' Lucifer predicted. Lucifer did a jab aimed towards the left. At this moment, Emile moved passed his jab like flowing water. ''How did he get to the right?'' Lucifer had a shocked frame of mind at this development. His father got hit on his right shoulder. The force from the blow knocked him back three meters. ''I need to be aggressive,'' Lucifer thought. His father dashed towards Emile. Emile observed. When they were a meter away from each other, Emile evaded the sword and gave a poke at the wrist. Lucifer dropped his sword. "How did you get so strong," Lucifer said after realizing that there was no point in continuing. "I reached the grandmaster stage of Void-Steps," Emile said while scratching his head. "You-you were only Intermediate stage last week, how did you improve so quickly," His father had experienced how long it took to enter the next tier. He has been in the expert stage of Void-Steps for two years. He took three years to leave the Intermediate stage.Stolen story; please report. "I received an enlightenment," Emile said. "I had been fighting against sixty players. For most of the fight, I was on the losing end since they used skills to lower my mobility. I entered a trance. I broke out of this trance and all my opponent around me fallen," Emile said as he recalled his experience. "See, fighting against people in Nirvana helps you. This was the smartest financial decision I''ve made." Lucifer said while grinning. "Huh... yeah," Emile said not knowing how to respond to his comment. "Did you activate the Nirvanic System," His father asked. "Yeah, I got the Fire Skill system and the Water Skill system," Emile said. "Repeat what you said," Lucifer wondered if his heard wrong. "I got the fire skill system and water skill system," Emile said. "That''s not normal... It should be impossible... one bloodline should consume the other bloodline," He said. "Well, it exists in my body now, so I want to learn about where the bloodline of water came from," Emile asked. "Your mother... she was a part of the family that had the bloodline of water. Our families were close for many years. They helped us when the other two families attacked us. The other two families threatened them. So they backed off which turned out a smart decision on their part." Lucifer said with some sorrow. "What happened to my mom," Emile thought it was weird to mention someone close to him. "She got separated from us. Her family took her back when they retreated. You were only 2 years old so you shouldn''t remember much from that time." Lucifer said. Emile tried to recall the past. A hazy figure of a woman appeared. She laughed lightly as she picked him up. She cradled him in her arms before the image vanished. He barely had any recollection of her. Emile had a negative impression of her. She abandoned them when they need her the most. He changed the topic. "I have a friend who has the Earth bloodline, is her family one of the culprits," Emile asked. "Earth bloodline? I have never heard of a family having the Earth bloodline. The only bloodline families I know of are the fire, water, light, and dark. It was weird how light and dark worked together to destroy fire. They were enemies for a long time." Lucifer experienced Emile''s strength and spilled the beans. "I must ask her about her situation," Emile said. "You no longer need to come to my dojo anymore... you have surpassed me," Lucifer seemed to age a few years after saying this. Emile would always come to his dojo whenever he had free time. "I''ll come around sometimes to help your students out," Emile said with a tone of sadness. He also felt excited that he had graduated from his father''s tutelage. Emile left his father''s dojo. He took the bus back to his home. When he was opening his door Lily popped out of her room. "Ah, there you are. You disappeared on me last night. I left my simulation and saw you had logged out of Nirvana." She said with a pout. "Sorry about that. The simulation made me tired." Emile said "Can you tell me all the powerful families," Emile asked. "Oh.. sure. There are the three original families which are the light, dark and water families. New families appeared about a decade ago. They are the earth family, the air family, space family, and the time family. They each have control over an element. Not full control or they would become the strongest family." Lily said. "I''m confused; why do you have the fire bloodline? The fire family was destroyed about 20 years ago. After some researching I found out that there shouldn''t be any survivors after the wipeout," she said. "I don''t know why I''m alive. I need to ask my father about this." Emile said. "If anyone ever asks about what family you''re a part of, tell them it''s the water one. Their surname is Waner. So your name would be Emile Waner. If anyone finds out about your fire bloodline, tell them you''re an average person who got enough resources to buy the fire skill system. Hide the water skill system from these people." She said with guidance. She wanted to protect Emile from harm so he had to hide the truth. "More importantly, I want to check your pulse for something," Lily asked in a serious tone. She changed her face rapidly. "Sure," Emile thought it was a weird request but accepted. Lily put her fingers on his wrist and closed her eyes. Emiel thought this was awkward. He admired her face. His heart was beating as he examined her serious face. Lily opened her eyes and saw that Emile was staring at her face. She blushed. She let go of his wrist and maintained her serious face. "I knew it. Your body is unstable." Gathering Players "What do you mean by my body being unstable," Emile asked. "Your body has the bloodline of water and fire. Maintain an equilibrium between the two. If you can''t then one will consume the other." She said. "So I''ll lose my dual-wielding capabilities," Emile said. "That''s the best-case scenario. Death is the worst-case." She said with a heavy heart. "How did you figure this out," Emile asked. "Human bodies are objects created from the earth element. So I can examine it using my elemental prowess. I looked for abnormalities in your body. The fire bloodline is stronger than your water bloodline. You need to practice your water skills. Put your fire skills on hold for now." She said. "Thanks," Emile didn''t know what else to say. "Do we still need to keep formalities? I think we''re close enough to remove formalities." She said. "I understand," Emile said. "Bye, I''m going out to buy things," Lily walked away with a smile on her face. Emile waved her off. He entered his room and logged into Nirvana. Emile was back in the simulation room. He explored the market to see if there were any useful rare items. The system had taken away the pendant that gave him flight and the sword that summoned lightning. The items got deleted or were still in the World of Swords. Emile found uncommon and common equipment. He needed no uncommon or common equipment at this stage of the game. He didn''t want to explore the rest of the Nirvanic Market without Flower Queen. Emile teleported out of the Nirvanic Market. Emile met up with his party and hunted mobs. They killed the Compsognathus since they were strong enough to do so. ___ In a control center Scientists, developers, and many professions were maintaining control of Nirvana. "How many players are in the game?" A developer asked while taking a sip of coffee. "At the moment there are 3,459,878,612 players." A statistician responded. "We''re approaching 3.5 billion players. What''s the percentage of players compared to everyone on Earth?" The developer asked. "There are 10,296,178,885 people in the world. Over 1/3 of the world plays Nirvana. To be precise, it is 33.604% of the world plays the game." The statistician said while pushing up his glasses. "Are we ready to reveal the Nirvanic System to the world?" The developer asked. "No. We need at least 40% of the world before they allow us to release it." The statistician left after saying this. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.___ Emile was grinding like normal. He had reached 62% of his experience bar. Emile didn''t want to continue grinding; he wanted to go look for a quest or task he could do. He went back to the Village Chief and asked if he needed help. "Thanks to you, I don''t need any help. If you want to help someone you can go towards the south." The Chief said. "What''s in the south?" Emile asked. "Dwarves. They love to drink wine and are lazy. They require lots of help. I also need you to hand a certain dwarf a letter. His name is Igneus." The Village Chief said. [Quest: Deliver the Letter] [Objective: Deliver the letter to Igneus] [Difficulty: E] [Comment: Just deliver the letter] [Progress: Not Delivered] [Shareable] [Reward: 100 experience] It was a simple quest that leads to a new location. Emile headed out to go complete the quest. As he walked towards the south, he saw an unnatural amount of players. They were walking towards Song Village. Emile walked up to one of them and asked what they were doing. "We''re doing our village quest. We have to take over Song Village. The Village Chief asked us to take over Song Village." The player said with excitement. He revealed information to an enemy. He didn''t understand the effects of his words. Their words alarmed Emile; he showed no emotions on his face. He gave thanks and left. Emile ran back to Song Village as fast as he could. He needed to inform the Chief about this turn of events. Emile arrived back at the Village and headed towards the Chief''s home. Emile rushed to the Chief''s home and knocked on his door. "Why are you back? Didn''t you go towards the south?" The Chief asked after opening the door. "I saw people from another village coming towards our village. I walked over to them and asked them why they were heading here. They said that their Chief wanted to take over our village. We need to defend ourselves. They should be half-an-hour away from us." Emile said in one breath. "Are you sure they''re coming towards us?" He asked in a serious, deadpan manner. "Yes." Emile also replied seriously. "Ask the people to stay in the village and defend our land." The Chief said. [Story Quest: Gather Players] [Objective: Speak to the players and make them stay in the village] [Difficulty: E] [Comment: If you''re good at socializing then this will be easy] [Progress: Undeterminable] [Reward: One experience point for each player in the village] The rewards seemed lackluster. But after some thought, he realized that he could get thousands of experience from it. Emile asked people in the village to stay there. He messaged his party to look around the grinding locations and ask the players to head to the village. He headed to the market which had the most players. "Hey! Hey! Players who are in the market, listen to what I have to say. I received a quest from the Village Chief." Emile shouted. Emile''s words grabbed the player''s attention. Quests were always an easy way to grab any players attention. Everyone wanted to be the next person to receive an easy quest with lots of rewards. "The quest told me to ask the players to stay in the village because players from a different village will attack us," Emile said in a loud voice. "Stay in the village and get ready for an attack," Emile yelled out. "I will ask other''s to stay in the village. Don''t leave you only have to wait a max of 45 minutes. You guys will also get a quest when the battle starts." Emile said. He walked towards the Teleporter and asked everyone on his way there. Emile headed off to other popular locations of the town. There was a large fountain that played music. Song Village was famous for this fountain. They named it because of the fountain. No one knows how music comes out of the fountain. This location had no purpose for Emile. He wouldn''t grow stronger by admiring locations. It was an ordinary tourist location. Nothing too special about it. These were Emile''s thoughts. In the eyes of other players, it was a location to hang out, relax with friends and significant others. People interacted with each other at this location. Emile made the speech about the quest at this location. He didn''t know if the players would believe his words. The players trusted him because he was strong and it was likely for him to receive a quest. They also didn''t want to miss the chance to get a quest. Quests allowed for lots of loot and easy experience. Most of them stayed and waited for the attack. The players that didn''t stay in the village had real-life activities to attend to. "We got a good number of players to head back to the village," Time Walker wrote in their party chat. ___ Players of the attacking village could see Song Village in the distance. Defending the Village The players of the opposing village were all from the Village of the Canyon. They all lived in a small canyon gorge with a warm climate. The rain had been a rare sight in the canyon. Song Village was the opposite. Cool climates and forests were plentiful near Song Village. The rain fell almost every week. Fertile lands that crops could grow on also existed in the village. Canyon Village players advanced forward. The players who attacked Song Village assumed that they would catch Song Village off-guard. They would gain an advantage during the fight due to this advantage. Guilds were leading the walk. They would gain contributions based on the number of players killed and if the Village Chief surrendered. The Guilds were aiming for the Village Chief since he would most likely give the most contributions. A system notification appeared in front of the players of the attacking village. [Start an attack] All the players who arrived to attack Song Village said ''yes'' to start the attack. At this moment, starting the fight completed Emile''s quest which involved gathering players. [You have completed Story Quest: Gather Players] [Calculating Rewards...] [You have received 2811 experience points] Emile gained another quest. [Story Quest: Defend the Village] [Objective: Protect the Village] [Comment: Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill and kill] [Reward: Will be based on contribution] [Penalty: All players of the village will lose 2 levels] This quest was another defense quest. Their goal was to kill the players of the opposing village. The players of Song Village became excited since they also received a quest. They had received good rewards from completing the quest for defending the village from mobs. The opposing players ran towards the Song Village players. "How did they figure out we were attacking," Tilted Rainbow of Canyon Village said. "Don''t know... looks like someone revealed information to the enemy. What useless players. They can''t do anything and they mess up the plan." Starry Wail said with a blank face. They ran the distance between each of the player groups in the time it took for the conversation to reach an end. Fights happened on all fronts. Emile didn''t want to be a support character, so he ran to the front-lines. Emile had an easy time, evading attacks and counter-attacking. His high stats allowed him to kill people without breaking a sweat. Emile moved like flowing water. No one could land a hit on Emile. They released spells from both sides. Most of the spells were single target spells meaning they only targeted one person from the opposing side. They cast a lot of spells at Emile since they considered him a huge threat. Emile avoided a few of them but they cast some of them onto his body meaning he wouldn''t be able to avoid them. These spells they cast that on the body were spells that gave debuffs to the enemy. [Someone has weakened you] [Someone has poisoned you] His attacks only dealt 20% less damage. This didn''t slow down his killing spree. The poison became a hassle. He took damage every few seconds. The damage also slowed down his thinking process. Emile continued killing. After 2 minutes his poison wore off which lead to him having faster thinking. His party had come back and also joined in on the killings. Players from Song Village were on average stronger than the player from Canyon Village. Song Village had already completed a quest which gave them lots of common and uncommon types of equipment. The lucky ones got rare equipment.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. They were better geared, and they had high-level players. The players had an overall easy time. "Hey Whispy release Firestorm," Tilted Rainbow yelled out after noticing that they are on the losing end. Whispy chanted the spell. Emile had heard this and wanted to stop it from activating. He ran towards Whispy and didn''t make it. Players from Song Village were having fun killing the enemies of Canyon Village. They didn''t have a care in the world. The opponents weren''t challenging for them since they had better equipment. Whispy cast Firestorm. This was the first AOE spell cast in this battle. It was a much weaker version of the Firestorm they could cast that at level 50. A giant tornado of fire appeared. This incinerated many players from both sides. They aimed it at Song Village which caused them to have the most casualties. "Ah... It''s coming towards me..." A player screamed as they fumble out of the way. They didn''t make it. The firestorm disappeared after 15 seconds. Over 1500 players perished from this attack. Emile wasn''t in the firestorm since he was in the middle of enemy territory. He knew if that if they had another spell of that scale then they would lose. Song Village had fewer players alive after the spell. It was 1000 players vs 1400 players. They would have a harder time-fighting. Emile increased his efficiency when killing. He would deal with the minimum amount of damage to kill them before moving away from the players. The players in Song Village didn''t have a lax feeling anymore, they had become serious. The players from both sides kept dying. Emile had a weak AOE spell which he used. Thorny Spikes. It weakened the enemy since they lost 5 health per second. The longer they stood on the thorn the more the damage would accumulate. This caused many players from the opposing team to retreat. This created a breathing space for the players of Song Village. It lasted for 30 seconds before the thorns disappeared. The player charged at each other once more. Emile wanted to take out the person who used the AOE spell since the cooldown might not be the same as his firestorm. He didn''t want another accident to happen. He evaded all the opponents and dodged their blows. Emile ran to the back-line. He looked for the player named Whispy. After looking around he saw Whispy relaxing next to a tree. "He doesn''t seem to care about the fighting," Emile thought. Emile went around him and wanted to attack from behind. He attacked while pointing his sword out at Whispy. Whispy suspected nothing. Emile stabbed him from the back which took of a giant chunk of health. It startled Whispy which caused him to cast another spell. Emile didn''t give him the chance. He stabbed out once again which finished Whispy. Emile thought he was lucky since Whispy seemed to have more spells. He might even be a Nirvanic which allowed him to learn Firestorm. Emile killed the players with support skills. He attacked from the back while his allies attacked from the front. Their players decreased at a faster pace than players from Song Village. After killing all the players with support skills Emile wanted to take out any leader figures. He looked around for players that were giving out commands. "What the hell are you doing. Group up in groups of 5 and attack any party that has less than 5 players," Tilted Rainbow was yelling out. His orders allowed Emile to identify him. Emile ran towards Tilted Rainbow. Tilted Rainbow saw Emile and cast a spell that teleported him farther away from Emile. He mocked Emile from the distance. Emile felt shocked since someone had a spell that allowed teleportation. He didn''t take the mocking into his heart; he ran towards Tilted Rainbow once more. Tilted Rainbow ordered the players to defend him and attack Emile. Over 50 players blocked Emile''s path. Emile didn''t think too much of this setup. He could just evade everyone. Players slashed at him, shot spells at him and even attacked together. Emile looked through all the blind spots and calculated the best route towards Tilted Rainbow who still had the mocking look as he stared at Emile. Emile gave a slight smile aimed towards Tilted Rainbow and ran towards the 50 players. "Is he stupid... I thought he was a good player for a second," Tilted Rainbow said to one of the players. They assumed that charging towards 50 players was irrational. Emile kept his smile as he approached the first few players. They blocked his front. Emile didn''t have to worry too much about what to do since his jumping capabilities could be used to clear the people. He leaped. The players attacked him while he flew through the air. Emile used the blade of one player to do the second jump. He cleared the first set of enemies. Emile ran in a zigzag pattern towards Tilted Rainbow. He kept moving in different angles which confused the players. They tried to attack but he would evade them. Their agility had been much lower than Emile''s. Another blockade of enemies showed up in front of him. He leaped once again. The players had seen what happened when other players attacked Emile while he was in the air. The players didn''t attack him. They saw that his jump wasn''t high enough to cross everyone. They waited for Emile to fall down. Emile also expected this. He used 7 hit slash and aimed at the players from a downward angle. The attacks killed one player. It also gave a slight bit of upward knockback. This was Newton''s third law. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. The upward knockback allowed him to leap over all the players. Emile had only used 3 of the attacks from 7 hit slash. He used the remaining attacks at Tilted Rainbow. -136 -136 -136 -272 Critical Hit Tilted Rainbow disappeared and dropped loot. Emile picked it up with a grab of his hand. While picking up the items he ran away. ___ After 30 minutes They killed all the players from Canyon Village. No one was giving orders which lead them to collapse. They killed a good number of players from Song Village. Out of the 2811 people who were fighting for Song Village only 485 of them survived. The casualty rate was 83%. 4 out of 5 players would die. The reason the casualty was so high was due to the Firestorm spell and how they didn''t have much leadership and control. System notifications appeared. Tour of the Nirvanic Market [Story Quest Defend the Village: Complete] [Calculating Rewards...] [Contribution Rankings are viewable] [You have gained two levels] [You have 20 free attribute points] [You have gained a lucky box] [You have gained Glory Medal] Emile hadn''t used his free attribute points from leveling up to level 7. He was now level 9. Emile regained first place on the Level leaderboard. This lead to a world announcement. He also received his fourth special point. Someone else had completed a story quest which put them at level 7. The top players were all around level 7. His entire party became level 7 while he became level 9. He had a huge lead over second place and an even bigger lead over everyone else. His party gained one level since they didn''t get first place on the individual ranking. Emile had gotten first place on the individual ranking both times which out him two levels above his party. This experience allowed Flower Queen and Time Walker to level up to level 8. They were 2nd and 3rd place on the global leaderboards. Flower Queen had logged on at some point. Emile didn''t have an idea about when she logged on. She logged on at a good time since a quest appeared. It startled her; she complied with the quest''s orders and headed towards the battlefield. Emile planned on saving his free attribute points. He would use them when in dire situations or when he needs more special points. While exploring the Nirvanic Market he hadn''t seen a place to exchange his special points, so he assumed that they would use them for the expensive items. Emile wanted to get at least two more Red Silver items from the auction. "Hey, I''m going to the south for a quest," Emile said. Emile thought it was time to move on to a different location. As he was walking away, Flower Queen messaged him. "Wait, there are still a few places I want to show you in the Nirvanic Market." She wrote. Emile complied and teleported to the market. He chose to teleport at a location hidden from view since it was uncommon for a person to teleport. Tilted Rainbow was an exception. Emile arrived back at the Nirvanic Market. Emile saw Lily in the distance, brushing past other Nirvanic''s as she headed towards him. He walked in her direction after spotting her in the crowd. "There''s one more location I should show you," she said. Emile had heard her voice. Many people were in the market. They had almost drowned her voice out by the chattering that surrounded them.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. "Speak in the chat," Emile messaged her. "Okay, follow me," she wrote as she turned around. Emile matched her pace and followed her. The number of players near the location diminished from the market area. She arrived in front of a giant arena. There was mosaic tile floor at the center of the arena. It was a 30x30 floor raised up by 2 meters. She spoke again. "Sign up for the Nirvanic Tournament. It''s a competition between Nirvanic''s as the title suggests." She said. "What do you do? Do you fight?" Emile asked. "You fight. But there are special restrictions in each match. Everyone will have the same number of stats. They won''t allow players to use any item skills. The only skills allowed are from the skill system. So people can compare their control, accuracy and more." She said. "It''s good practice to improve your skills. If you win you get 500 skill points for your skill system. I don''t have a clue at what they would do about you. They might give 500 skill points for both your skill trees or you can decide where it goes." She continued while putting her hand on her chin. "Where do you sign up," Emile asked. "That guy. Don''t annoy him or get on his bad side. He''s... eccentric. If he doesn''t like you, he won''t let you sign up. It barred many people from entering." She whispered. She pointed at an old man who was lying in the shade. He was staring at the ceiling. "Okay," Emile responded and walked towards the old man. "Excuse me, sir, I would like to ask you something," Emile mustered up the politest tone he could. "You already asked." The old man responded. "Ah... I would like to ask you 3 questions," Emile caught onto his trick and evaded it. "Go ahead." The old man said without thinking too much about his response. "Can I sign up for the Nirvanic tournament," Emile asked. After Emile said this the old man looked straight into his eyes. He continued staring and Emile didn''t break eye contact. It confused Lily. She didn''t understand what they were doing. It looked like they were having a staring contest. "Interesting... you''re the first dual-wielder I''ve ever seen," The old man said after a long look into his eyes. "You recognize what a dual-wielder is..." Emile thought it was weird for an NPC to know what that term meant. NPC stood for a non-playable character. This meant that they shouldn''t know words that a player would use. "Yeah, someone who uses two swords to fight." The old man said. "Not that kind of dual-wield-oh never mind. Can I sign up for the Nirvanic Tournament now?" Emile asked after giving up the act of learning information from the old man. "I would have kicked you out for your behavior. But I''m in a good mood. Here''s the paper. Sign your IGN here." The old man said. IGN was the name that a player would choose for their game character. Emile didn''t notice certain words that the old man said. How would an NPC know what IGN stands for? Emile walked up to the paper and wrote Mystical Flame with heavy strokes. "You can leave now," The old man kicked him out as soon as their conversation ended. "What were you doing?" Lily questioned. "What do you mean?" Emile asked back. Lily walked and Emile followed. They continued their conversation as they walked. "You and the old man was staring at each other. It was weird. Did you get into a staring contest with him? Who won?" She asked. "I don''t understand why he stared at me. We didn''t have a staring contest. I blinked a few times when he was staring at me. He didn''t blink a single time. He would be fantastic at staring contests." Emile said. "Oh, a weird thing about him was that he said I''m a dual-wielder. I wish I could figure out how he figured this out. When I asked he said it was people who used two swords. I moved on from that topic since it seemed like he wouldn''t reveal anything." Emile recalled. "How would he know? Maybe the old man has a special ability which allows him to see what type of skill system a player has. Yeah, he noticed I had the earth skill system when I went to sign up." It confused Lily at first but she thought of a hypothesis. "Let''s move on from this topic," Emile said. "This is the auction house. This is where the auction will take place." They were in front of the auction place by the time their conversation reached an end. "Alright... that''s all the facilities of the Nirvanic Market that I know of." Lily said. "My tour is over." She continued. Sparring with Lily "All right now that tour is over, I want to have a spar with you," Lily said. "Spar? Where do we fight?" Emile asked. "Have you opened your Nirvanic System? Go to your friend''s list through the Nirvanic System. You''ll notice I''m already your friend. Anyone who you make with friends within the game world might be a Nirvanic or might not. If they''re a Nirvanic, then you can find them in the Nirvanic System''s Friends List." She said. "Oh... is that how you figured out I was a Nirvanic player. Why did you ask me if you already knew?" Emile put the pieces together and counteracted. "To test how much you trust me," she said. "Uh... well it looks like I trust you a lot," Emile said while scratching his head. "Yeah. All right, if you click on my name from the Friends List you''ll notice a few options. One of those options is to have a friendly fight. You lose nothing if you take part in these fights. You can customize a lot of things about the fight." She said. [Flower Queen challenged you to a friendly spar] [Do you accept?] Emile got a notification after he found the sparring option. He accepted. They teleported them to an arena. It was arena made of marble. Everything outside of the arena didn''t exist. It was void. If they fell off, they would lose. "Are you done admiring? If you are, let''s get started." Flower Queen yelled out from the distance. She was across the arena. Emile ran forward. Lily stood in place and cast a spell. A wall of mud rose from the ground blocking Emile''s path. Emile wanted to move out of the way but more mud walls arose blocking him. Every time Emile wanted to get closer to Lily she would summon mud balls and stop him from moving anywhere. A stalemate occurred. At some point, her mud walls blocked Lily''s sight. That''s what Emile assumed. Emile wanted to cast fireball to break through the wall. At this moment one wall moved at a rapid pace towards Emile. Emile tried to end his casting which dealt damage to him. -87 Emile evaded the walls coming towards him. He couldn''t advance or stand still. He was in a precarious position. Emile didn''t know what to do other than using his skills. In the arena, all skill cooldowns get reset so everyone is in perfect condition. Emile used 7 hit slash at one of the mud walls. It broke past the wall. Emile saw Lily in the distance; she was casting more spells.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. More mud walls appeared in front of him. In front of his were rows of mud walls and behind were rows of mud walls. She covered up the hole he broke through. Emile could only move to the left or to the right. At this moment a moving wall appeared on his left. It moved towards Emile. Emile realized, either he moved with the wall towards the void or used skills to stop the wall. Emile used berserk to strengthen himself. He lashed out against the moving wall. He destroyed the wall with just his strength. Emile continued to attack the walls were in front of him. He saw how Lily wasn''t casting another spell. She had her sword out. Emile attacked her. She blocked a few strikes. Emile''s speed was fast enough to attack multiples times in a few seconds. He landed a few hits on her before she succumbed. Emile breathed out a sigh of relief; he had won. She was the strongest opponent had faced. If he didn''t have much higher stats than her or berserk, then he would have lost to the moving wall. He appeared back in the Nirvanic Market. "You''re strong, I almost lost. If I didn''t have berserk, then I would lose," Emile said. "I was so close," Lily said as she stomped her feet on the ground. She took her anger out on the ground. "If this was during a tournament, then you would win against me. Why did you stop casting spells?" Emile asked. "Two reasons. The first was that you would break the walls as I created them. I wasn''t aware of how long your Berserk lasts for; I''ll assume it''s for a while. The second reason is that I ran out of mana. Using that many spells required my focus and lots of manas." She said. "Oh... so that moving wall was the last spell you could cast," Emile said. If he knew of this information during the fight, he could have planned out a better usage of his skills. "Next time we fight, It will be in the tournament," Lily said. "All right, It''s a promise," Emile said. "I''ll do quests now, bye," Lily said before teleporting out of the Nirvanic Market. Emile checked out his fire skill system. He had 1010 fire skill points which he couldn''t use since that would strengthen the fire bloodline. He had to maintain an equilibrium. Emile wanted to visit another world; this time for water skill points. Emile wanted to finish the delivery quest first before he visited another world. He teleported out of the Nirvanic Market and headed towards the south. He noticed no giant groups of players coming towards Song Village. The coast was clear. As Emile walked, he checked out more of the loot he got from the quest. He didn''t open his lucky box. Lucky Box You think you have good luck? Let''s find out. Rank: Uncommon Use it to drop items between Common and Red Silver. His last lucky box gave him a useless medallion. He wanted a better item. A wheel popped up, and he spun it. He stared at the wheel. The item stopped on another medallion. ??? Medallion An old medal with the letter R engraved on it. Rank?? No effects ''Twice. You''ve got to be kidding me. They don''t even tell me what to do with these medals.'' Emile thought. It would be weird if the medallions didn''t have a use. He won two of them now. He stuffed the medallion into his inventory. Glory Medal They give a medal to a player who had earned over 15% contribution on a contribution ranking that has over 1000 players. Rank: Rare All effects are passive in inventory Fame +500 Show this medal to people to gain benefits and support. Cannot trade Cannot drop Emile received another glory medal which gave him more fame. Emile''s fame stats was well above 10,000 now. He had 12,250 fame. By the time he finished examining his loot, he saw an encampment in the distance. Smoke was flowing from the homes and there were creatures walking around. There was a mine to the left of the encampment. Emile walked into the camp. "Halt, speak your name? And recite why you are here?" A guard who lazing around spoke up. He stopped Emile from walking in. "My name is Mystical Flame. I''m here to deliver a letter to Igneus." Emile brought out a letter from his inventory. "Show me the letter." The guard said with some interest. Emile handed him the letter. "Oh... from the Song Village Chief. You can enter." The guard said after returning the letter to Emile. He continued to lie in his chair. Emile walked into the camp without being blocked by someone else. Arena Fighting He noticed that there were many people and dwarves. There weren''t any players here. Blacksmiths run rampant in this camp. Every few stores would be a blacksmith. They would create tools and armor. Emile didn''t know where Igneus was at. He asked one person. "Igneus? If you keep walking in that direction you''ll notice lots of blacksmiths. After the fourth blacksmith, there should be an alleyway on the left. The third door in that alleyway is Igneus'' home." The man said as he pointed at a direction. (1) Emile walked in the direction that the man stated. "One, two, three and four, There should be an alleyway somewhere up ahead. Ah, there it is. One, two and three. This should be his door." Emile counted his way to not make any mistakes. He knocked on the door. Nothing happened. Emile knocked again. Nothing happened. Emile wanted to knock again before the door blew open. A short skinny looking dwarf appeared. The height of the dwarf was up to Emile''s waist. "What do you want," The dwarf said with irritation. Emile put his hand down. "Sorry for disturbing you. Are you Igneus?" Emile asked. "You knock on my door without even knowing who I am. How annoying. Yeah, I''m Igneus." The dwarf said. "I have a letter for you," Emile said. Emile took out the letter from his inventory and handed it to Igneus. Igneus opened and read the letter. There was one gold coin in the envelope. The highest amount of money he had ever seen. "He wants a sword, how interesting. Your Village Chief wants a high-quality sword. I want you to find me the materials for his sword. Don''t worry I''ll give you something as well." Igneus said. [Quest: Seeking for Materials] [Objective: 30 pieces of Mythril, 15 Pieces of Alligator Scales, and 1 gram of meteorite dust] [Difficulty: A] [Comment: Getting Mythril and Alligator Scales will be easy; Meteorite Dust will be hard] [Progress: No materials] [Shareable] [Reward: Blade of Corruption] [Time Limit: 1 month] [Penalty: Hated by Song Village and Igneus; lose 1 level] The quest didn''t seem to be a challenge. He didn''t know what the blade would be like. It had to be a good weapon since it''s the reward of an A rank difficulty quest. The penalties were insane. He would lose a level and he would face hate. He accepted the quest. "You can find Mythril in the mine. Though it''s rare. The other things you can ask around; you might get lucky with someone knowing where they''re located." He said. He shut the door after saying this.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Emile listened to his advice and went towards the mine. He watched people walk in and out of the mine. "Hey, how much does one piece of a Mythril cost?" Emile pulled someone over and asked them a question. "Mythril? They cost between 30 silver coins to 60 silver coins." The man said before moving on. Emile nearly collapsed after hearing the price. The system considered Mythril easy. He wondered how hard it would be to find meteorite dust. "Looks like I need to earn money." Emile thought. If Emile wanted to buy 30 pieces of Mythril he would need at least 900 silver coins. If he bought them at full price, he would require 1 gold coin and 800 silver coins. "Hey Lily, do you know any fast ways to earn money?" Emile messaged Lily for support since she played the most video games. "Money... I haven''t heard of any exploits in Nirvana. Oh, you could take part in the arena. You can bet on people and if they win, you earn money. You can also take part since you can get fame and money from battling in the arena." Lily said. "There''s an arena option in your menu. You can teleport there by using that." Lily said. "Thanks," Emile said before teleporting to the arena. The arena had a fair share of players. These players fit into two categories. The audience and the participants. The audience members can bet on participants. If the participant wins, then the audience who bet on them also win money. Those who bet on the other party loses their money. If you had sharp eyes, then you could win lots of money. This place was a favorite for gamblers. They either struck it rich or lose all their money. Emile didn''t want to put his money on other people so he was a participant. He asked around and found out that where players signed up. Emile used Mystical Flame as his arena name. He also signed up for a match. After 15 minutes of waiting, they told him to enter the stage. As he walked into the dark corridor, he could see light in the distance. They told him to continue walking towards the light. Emile walked out, the light made him squint. He heard shouts and screaming coming from the outside. He looked around. People were standing around, sitting, talking and doing many actions as they watched the center stage. They were loud and deafening. Emile wasn''t used to this level of attention. He felt nervous. Emile took a deep breath before regaining his composure. "On this corner, we have another newcomer who has joined us. Give it up for Mystical Flaaaameeee." The man shouted out. Roaring and cheers erupted. "Two newcomers are fighting. Let''s see their skills." The man said. "You may begin your fight in 3...2....1.... go," The man shouted after introducing them. Emile realized that the distance between him and the player was far enough for him to cast fireball a few times. Emile cast fireball at the player. He shot three of them back to back. The player succumbed and died. "Wow, that was a fast battle. Looks like we have a mage in our arena. Give a round of applause for Mystical Flame." The man shouted. Emile breezed through the first few fights. He bet all of his coins each time. He got over 145 silver coins from about 7 fights. Emile has over 180 silver coins. The opponents were getting more powerful. He had a harder time fighting some people who could dodge some of his fireballs. Emile also tested out his water sphere skill. He got 20 water skill points from trying out the skill. Chanting the spell was much easier since he had experience with chanting things. He failed once but got it correct on the second try. The proficiency of Water Sphere increased to 60% from two battles. His fireball proficiency hung around high 70''s and low 80''s. He never got higher than an 84%. Emile could stay in the arena and have consecutive battles. He was doing this since he didn''t want to waste time by waiting and resting. He was on his tenth consecutive battle. The crowd cheered for him. He killed everyone, and he had a high amount of flashy skills. During one battle, Emile thought to use both fireball and water sphere together. He would shoot one after the other. It created a double helix where the skills rotated between each other. He did this by slowing down the speed of the first skill by a small amount. He would then speed up his second skill to catch up to the first skill. When they were next to each other, he would make them maintain an equal speed. When they landed on the opponent, they did much more damage than a single fireball and water sphere. They suited each other well. This created a new skill. [You have created a new skill] [What would you like to name it?] Emile didn''t know what to name the spell. He thought about the name. More Arena Fighting He named his skill Yin-Yang Blast. Emile reached his tenth battle in a row. His opponent was also in their tenth battle. He suspected that this would be a challenging fight. He bet all his coins again. Emile took the same measures as before. He launched fireballs and water spheres. The man dodged all the attack as he charged forward. He even threw out a few Yin-Yang Blasts, but the man evaded everything. Emile didn''t lose his composure after seeing the man gain distance on him. Emile took out his sword for the first time. He never had to use a sword before. The players couldn''t gain enough distance since he could kill them before they got close to him. The crowd hadn''t seen him use a sword either. His supporters yelled at him. "What the hell is he doing?!? Just keep shooting spells at the man, don''t use your sword!!" One person who bet on him said. They thought Emile was throwing the match. Even though Emile took out his sword, he still cast fireballs. He wanted the opponent to be in a bad position when they came close to him. The enemy got into an arm''s length away from Emile. Supporters for Emile lost hope. "Run and shoot spells. Don''t stand still." Some were facepalming themselves as they imagined their money going away. Supporters for his foe were ecstatic since no one had landed a hit on their player. Emile also never got hit, but he always killed from the distance which made them think he wasn''t capable of fighting in close combat. The man smiled at Emile before attacking him. Emile engaged. *Clang* They interlocked their sword, and no one had an advantage. The man moved his sword towards himself before striking from a different angle. *Clang* Emile blocked again. It riled Emile supporters up. They had the most morale they''ve ever had. Emile began to cast a fireball. The man moved back and went for another strike. Emile cast fireball. The fireball hit the man''s sword which caused an explosion. Smoke clouded their vision. The man tried to retreat. Emile ran through the smoke while casting fireball. He cast fireball.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. This was the first he cast a fireball while moving. Emile ran behind his fireball with his sword out. He followed close to the fireball. The man couldn''t avoid the fireball. -104 Emile attacked him with his sword after the fireball struck him. He created a combo from his attacks. The man blocked the strike. Emile used Void-Steps to confuse the opponent. He attacked. The opponent couldn''t block. -128 The man survived the attack. Emile felt startled but didn''t show it. He attacked a few more times. The man used a skill which surrounded him with mud walls. Emile felt slightly nostalgic. He attacked the walls by using 7 hit slash. He destroyed the walls. Emile ran forward while chanting a fireball. He did another mobile fireball. The man evaded the spell; he was wide open. Emile struck at him since his defenses were wide open. The man couldn''t block and watched himself get struck by the attack. -151 The man disappeared signaling Emile''s win. The crowded burst with enthusiasm. "Give it up for Mystical Flame''s tenth win in a row. Give your best wishes to Mystical Flame. Let''s hope to see more from this participant." The host said. Emile won more coins. He was over 300 silver coins now. He continued to stay in the arena. His proficiency of fireball broke past 90%. His mobile fireball broke through the 90% barrier. He gained insight into how to gather fire elements while moving. Before he would wait for the fire element to come to him. Now he charged at the elements which not only made them active, it also sped up the process of gathering energy. The active fireball did more damage and created an explosion. This was the first time an explosion occurred from his fireball. The explosion could create a wall of smoke which could he could use to hinder the opponent''s vision. Emile did a few more battles which somewhat challenged him. His fifteenth battle up to his twentieth battle were players close to the skill level of his tenth opponent. His 20th opponent was the first NPC to battle him. It was a chief ranked mob. Emile''s coin count had reached 1 gold and 200 silver coins. The arena wanted him to solo a Chief Ranked mob. Even though he had slain Chief ranked mobs in the past he didn''t let his guard down. This was a golem. The arena blocked him from identifying the golem''s stats. Emile had to wing the fight with no information about the opponent. He looked for weaknesses. He noticed that there was something poking out of the head. The system considered this a weakness. Emile charged forward and attacked the golem. The golem had high agility for a huge-looking body. He evaded the attacks easily. Emile used his sword to deal damage. He didn''t have a benchmark on when to retreat or when to attack more. He also didn''t know the skills of the golem. The golem smashed at the ground. This cracked the ground and caused shards to fly out towards Emile. Emile had his guard up the entire time. He evaded a few of the shards and used his sword to defend against the shards. This got the approval of the audience as they roared. Emile ran towards the Golem. He attacked more. The Golem couldn''t land a hit on him. "Get ready the golem will do his special technique," One spectator who visited the arena many times said. Emile continued to attack. He also attacked at the crystal that was poking off the head of the golem. This dealt true damage. The Golem activated Berserk which increased its speed by a large margin. A red glow surrounded the Golem. This showed to Emile that the Golem had activated Berserk. it also told Emile that the Golem was close to death. "You think he''ll kill the golem," Some of his supporters doubted. The Golem took the initiative and ran towards Emile. Emile retreated as he cast fireball. The fireball which dealt loads of damage hit the golem. Emile cast another fireball at the charging Golem. This did more damage to the Golem. "The golem always one shot the opponent when it attacked the participant. Not even tanks survived one blow from the berserk Golem. This is the end of Mystical Flame." One of the spectators said in a wise tone. "I believe he can survive this. He''s survived when people entered close combat. Everyone doubted him when he entered close combat but he won. I think he''ll win this." One of the more fanatic fans of Emile said. The golem came at a close distance. Emile activated bubble shield. This blocked some damage from the golem''s strike. -581 This attack was strong enough to one shot 99% of players. Only people with rare equipment and had points in their vitality could survive this blow. If Emile didn''t activate Bubble Shield he would have died. Emile activated his Berserk and used 7 hit slash aimed at the crystal. -544 true damage -544 true damage ... Emile dealt over 3800 damage from these attacks. This made the golem fall and succumb to its wounds. Emile won the battle. Entering the Swamp "Give a round of applause for Mystical Flame. He is the 7th person to defeat the Golem. You all are witnessing history being made." The host shouted. The enthusiasm of the crowd was sky high. It had never reached this high for the previous battles. The betting ratio was 1.1:2. He was the 2 since they expected the golem to have a higher chance at winning. Emile''s coin count doubled. He now had 2 gold coins and 400 silver coins. Emile thought this was enough to buy all the Mythril he would need. Now he had to seek a location that would sell the Mythril. Emile stopped at 20 wins a row. He received a few rewards from the arena. [You have received 1000 fame] [You have received Arena Badge II] He identified the badge. Arena Badge II A badge awarded to a player with a win streak of 20. Rank: Rare Level Requirement: 0 Strength +10 Players take 20% more damage from all attacks. Passive in Inventory The badge strengthened him. The minimum damage Emile could do a player was 166. He could kill 90% of players in two hits. He left the arena which disappointed many fans. They would wait for Mystical Flame to once again dominate the fights. Emile was still in the encampment. He didn''t know what the people called this encampment. He asked a nearby passerby. "What do you call this place?" Emile asked. "Kantaro Mines." The man replied while holding onto a batch of minerals. "Where can I buy Mythril?" Emile questioned the man before he could leave. "Mythril? Um... you can look around the market, sometimes people sell Mythril but, most of the time you won''t find it in the market." The man said. "Thank you for your help," Emile said. Emile walked around the marketplace for Mythril. He only found three pieces of Mythril by scouring the entire marketplace. The man was correct when he stated that it was rare. Emile asked a few more people, but they also didn''t know a specific location for Mythril. He even went back to Igneus to ask about a location that sells Mythril. Igneus didn''t know much about a location that sold Mythril. He said to look around the market. This didn''t give him any valubale information. Emile bought the three pieces of Mythril he found in the market and moved on. He didn''t want to waste time by searching. He would come back each day to scour for Mythril. Emile used 138 silver coins to buy the three Mythril pieces. They were expensive. Emile placed them into his inventory. Emile wanted to complete another requirement of the quest. He asked around about the remaining items he needed to look for.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. "Hey, do you know where to find alligator scales and/or meteorite dust?" Emile asked someone. "Alligator scales are from the alligators in the swamp. You can find the swamp to the south-east of the entrance. I''ve never heard of Meteorite dust so I''m sorry for not knowing." The women said. "It''s okay. Thank you for your help." Emile said. Emile asked around for meteorite dust. Not a single person knew where to find meteorite dust. Emile gave up looking for meteorite dust and walked out of the encampment. He went to the south-east like the women had said. After 30 minutes of walking, he found a place where the ground was damp. He walked in this place. His steps left a footprint. He looked around. The trees were dark green and were abundant. Water covered the ground. Though it only rose to his boots. The water went deeper the farther he went into the swamp. He saw many animals. There was a toad which was level 15. They hung around the dry parts of the swamp. Flies also flew around. They ate other small insects. These insects didn''t do much damage by themselves but when they were together, it would be a whole other story. Emile avoided these insects. He wanted to test out his strength against the frog. All of his skills were active. The frog was a normal monster; its stats were higher than the level 5 chief ranked monsters. Emile didn''t have a challenging time when facing the frog. Killing the frog came his loads of experience. He received around 400 experience points from the frog. Emile needed 100,000 experience points to level up to level 10. He had around 19,000 experience points. He was far away from leveling up. Emile hunted any frogs he saw. His experience went up to 25% before he saw the first alligator. Alligator of the Aqua Normal Monster Level 15 Hp: 1260/1260 Atk: 90-110 MAtk: 65-78 Agility: 34 High health and high attack Weakness: Hates dry locations and anything that isn''t related to water. The alligator was floating through the swamp. It didn''t suspect the random fireball coming towards it. -82 -91 -87 Two more fireballs were following the first fireball. The enraged alligator summoned multiple water balls and aimed it at Emile. Emile took this as an opportunity to study the water balls. He wanted to learn how to summon multiple spells at the same time. He watched the alligator cast the spell. Emile wanted to learn how animals could cast spells without chanting. If he figured this out, he could summon spells instantly instead of a small gathering time period. He got no clues from the just watching the spell fly towards him. He realized that he had to do more to understand the spell. In the settings of the game, there was a pain limiter. An average player would keep the limiter low. Sometimes zero. They consider this to be a dumb idea since most experts learn from pain. They also understand more of the environment from pain. If an assassin attacked from the back, the player wouldn''t notice anything. They might feel someone touch them but since no pain occurred; they won''t care too much about it. And before they could continue to do their own thing; they would fall down and vanish showing their death. Players weren''t stupid. They learned these tips from past game experience. They learned to put their pain option at 20%. Experts put it around 50% to get more of a realistic experience. Emile''s pain stat was also at 50% since he felt odd when he got hit for the first time. He realized that there was less pain inflicted from the damage which caused his brain to think the attack was weaker than it truly was. This could have caused serious problems if he was in a serious fight. He changed his settings in a moment''s notice to better suit him. Emile checked his pain limiter and increased the pain to 100%. He wanted the most realistic version of the water ball to hit him. -72 Even though the attack didn''t deal much damage, it made Emile wince from the pain. He didn''t scream out since he was familiar with pain. Fighting and pain coexisted. He had to go through lots of pain before he reached his level of strength. Emile continued to get hit and understood the force behind the water ball. Emile retreated to a safe distance. He wanted to test out his water sphere on himself. He wanted to compare the two spheres. Emile threw a water sphere straight up in the air. He watched the sphere go up hundreds of feet before descending straight down. The wind didn''t affect the sphere since he made the sphere from an element. Unless something concentrated the wind element to be much purer than the water sphere, then it will disperse the sphere. The water sphere landed on him and did loads of damage. -89 He understood that his water sphere wasn''t as pure as the alligators. He needed to figure out how to make it purer. Increasing Proficiency Emile took a few more hits from the alligator to make him aware of how the alligator formed the sphere. It made little sense. The water was dirty. It shouldn''t be able to make such pure water from the dirty water. It had to have a method of filtration to filtrate the earth. Since it created the sphere on the outside, it had to have a way to remove the dirt and grime. Emile squinted his eyes to see the creation process of the water ball better. Emile couldn''t see anything. He needed to slow down the alligator''s casting speed. He didn''t have a clue as to how to slow down the alligator. Emile recalled videos. He wanted to learn about creating videos in Nirvana. He didn''t know if it was possible to record things in Nirvana. Emile asked Lily about ways to record things in Nirvana. "Is there a way to record things and slow them down," Emile asked. "Record? Yeah, there is. Go to your settings, there should be a camera option. Click on it to take pictures or videos." Lily replied. "I see it, thanks," Emile said. "Sigh... do you think of me as a walking encyclopedia," Lily said. "If I don''t go to you, then who would I go to. So you''re my walking encyclopedia." Emile said with a proud tone. "Uh... yeah," Lily didn''t know what to say. She didn''t deny being his walking encyclopedia. They stopped exchanging conversation and Emile turned back to being serious. He continued to learn about the water balls. Emile waited for the alligator to summon some water balls. He recorded the process of the water balls forming. The alligator cast water balls once again and aimed it at Emile. Emile continued to wait for the water balls to come towards him. He let the water balls hit him. He stopped recording when all the water balls hit him or missed him. Emile moved to a different angle before gauging the alligator once again. He waited until the water balls hit him. He did these set of steps a few times. Whenever he was low on health, he would retreat and use a few bandages. He took 30 minutes to heal up to full. Emile needed potions which restored health without waiting for health regeneration to kick in. The market didn''t sell health potions or mana potions. He didn''t have to worry about mana too much since he was more of a physical attacker. After getting a few recordings Emile left the area with the alligators. Emile climbed a tree. He sat on one branch of the three before checking out the recordings.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. Emile slowed down the process of the alligator summoning the water ball. He watched the video multiples times. Since the game was so advanced all the videos were of high quality. When the alligator picks up the water for the first time it''s full of dirt and grime. In a few moments, all the dirt and grime fall down leaving only the pure water. Emile rewound his video. He studied the water ball, without blinking, to see how the dirt and grime fell. He noticed that the water ball was always rotating. The rotation would push away all the non-pure water to the outside of the sphere causing it to fall down. Emile viewed the videos a few more times. He discerned that the alligator would rotate the water ball as soon as he cast the spell. As the ball rose from the swamp grounds, the dirt and grime would fall down. When the ball reached a satisfactory height, the alligator would launch it. Even when there was no ball of water, the water that rose from the swamp was rotating as they came together to form a complete cycle. Emile understood that he couldn''t do that yet. He wasn''t capable enough to do that. Emile watched multiple times to make sure if it was the correct way. He wanted to test it out. He tried to rotate the water sphere. It was much harder than it looked. When he tried to rotate the sphere, the ball broke apart. He wanted to rotate the sphere without it breaking apart. When the ball broke, it made his clothes wet which displeased Emile. He created another water ball and rotated at the speed of a turtle''s crawl. He rotated the sphere clockwise. Even though the casting speed was horrendous, he had created a pure water ball. When he finished rotating the sphere he looked at the system; the system rated the sphere as a 92%. He received 30 water skills points from his demonstration. Emile tried to create the water sphere at the same speed. He wanted to familiar with rotating the sphere. He didn''t want to rush his learning. He completed the spell a few more times before speeding up the process. Instead of it taking one minute for the spell to be complete it only took 30 seconds. HE cut the time by half. It was a big success for Emile. He continued to slow down the speed of the water sphere. His proficiency rating of the water sphere became 94%. After around 2 hours of creating the spell multiple times, he created the spell in less than 3 seconds. If he wanted to get faster, he would have to rotate the spell as the ball was forming. Right now he would wait for the sphere to finish forming which took 0.7 seconds. He would use 2 seconds to clean out the water sphere. Emile knew that he would only improve if he fought while using his spells. Fighting was the fastest way to grow stronger without using drugs. Emile lowered his pain setting to 75%. Emile noticed that he received more information from the pain they dealt him. He didn''t want to leave the pain setting on 100% since the pain setting also was detrimental to him. It would cause him to blank out for a small moment. In a battle against an expert, even the smallest mistake could cost a life. Fighting against the alligator wasn''t too challenging. He shot out a few Yin-Yang Blasts which dealt lots of damage to the alligator. Emile hadn''t checked out what the stats of the Yin-Yang Blast was. Yin-Yang Blast Usage: The user shoots out both a fireball and water sphere in the shape of a double helix. The user deals 150% of the combined version of fireball and water sphere. Cooldown: 1 minute Active Skill Original Skill The skill did loads of damage. He could do over 300 damage with a Yin-Yang Blast. He shot out a few fireballs. The alligator died after a long time. Emile went to check the loot it dropped. He frowned after looking through the loot. The alligator dropped 0 scales. The alligator dropped its skin and tooth. Nothing else dropped. "Thank you for your help," Emile said to the corpse of the alligator. If the alligator hadn''t used so many water balls then he wouldn''t have been able to improve his water sphere. Yin-Yang Blast did more damage the stronger his fireball or water sphere became. Emile killed about 10 more alligators and none of them dropped a single alligator scale. Either the drops were abysmally low or he would have to kill a different alligator. Emile felt tired. He gave a farewell to his friends before logging out of Nirvana. Discovering a Dungeon The next morning was a Saturday. He had no classes on this day. Emile wanted to use the entire day to gain alligator scales. This was the original plan. He logged onto Nirvana after ordering and eating breakfast. "Hey, there you are. We found a dungeon. It''s a dungeon that refreshes every 24 hours. There are a lot of guilds here. Do you want to go clear the dungeon?" Time Walker messaged him as soon as he logged on. Messages bombarded Emile. It surprised Emile. He had heard of dungeons in previous VR games. It took almost an entire week before they found the first dungeon. In most MMO''s, dungeons were available since the first day. Emile thought dungeons didn''t exist in Nirvana since the forums never talked about dungeons. "Is it like other dungeons? Where they have difficulty settings?" Emile asked. "Yeah, It''s a party based dungeon meaning 5 players can go in. I saw guilds bring ten players meaning they are level 2 guilds." Time Walker said. Where is it?" Emile asked. He wanted to try out a dungeon for the first time. Dungeons give good lot and experience. It was the main source of great items. Other than the bosses on the main map. "Go to the teleporter and teleport to Nile Village. You''ll see a river to the left of the teleporter. Follow the river toward the rock that''s green. It''s the only rock there so just go towards the rock and continue walking. You''ll see more players the farther you go." Time Walker said. Emile didn''t know if his directions were trustworthy. He wasn''t great at describing the environment. Emile walked towards the teleporter of Kantaro Mines. He didn''t know if the mines had a teleporter. All the places he had visited had a teleporter, so he assumed that Kantaro Mines also had one. "The teleporter is over there," Emile asked someone and they pointed at a direction. Emile activated the teleporter for the first time. An array of options appeared. It was like choosing his own village. This time, there was a search option. He searched for Nile Village. He found the village and selected it. [Would you like to teleport to Nile Village?] "Yes," Emile replied and time-space moved around in unusual ways. After a few seconds of having blurry vision, he appeared in Nile Village. He looked around. There was a river to the left of him. Player and NPC''s were on the right minding their own business. There were more players in Nile Village than in Song Village. It was most likely due to the dungeon that emerged next to it. Emile walked on the sand next to the river. He searched for the rock. There was only one rock that was protruding from the ground. It had green on like Time Walker stated.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Emile walked towards the rock and passed it. He continued walking on the bank of the river. He felt peaceful hearing the river waves hit the riverbank. Emile''s life became more chaotic after he played Nirvana. He didn''t have to fight as often. He would only fight around 3 or 4 times with his father. Emile hadn''t fought with any other opponents. He enjoyed fighting against people who were strong. Improving himself was the number one goal. All other goals are secondary. After walking down the riverbank he saw an increasing amount of people. At first, it was one or two he would pass. Then he saw entire parties and, at last, an entire marketplace full of people. No one could create a guild yet. There was no option in the settings to create a guild. Guilds were on in name. There was no logo to differentiate between guilds. Spying was much easier since people could say they are a part of the guild and get away with it. Due to this, guilds have their own passcodes which changed daily. Only certified guild members received a message which stated the password. The guilds would recruit members secretly. They didn''t want their opponents to figure out when they were recruiting. Even though they took so many measures, spies still existed. As long as the benefits were high enough even the guild leader could betray their guild. There were also a few individual parties mixed in. Their appearances were the same as the guilds. They couldn''t be differentiated. Guilds members yelled out their guild name for players off their guild to come towards them. If a player came towards them, they would have to state the password for the day before the guild accepted them. The dungeon was a hole in the middle of the river. The river moved out of the hole''s way. It flowed around it which looked strange. Players always entered the hole. They would disappear after they passed through the hole. They teleported them to the dimension of the dungeon. "Where are you guys," Emile asked after looking around. He couldn''t spot them in the player groups. "Wait, I''m about to pick up Time Walker. You should see him stand above the entire crowd soon." The Handsomest Crab said. This was a rather unique way of approaching this problem. After a few moments, he heard yelling from his right. "Hey, over here," Time Walker yelled out. Emile looked around and saw Time Walker standing above everyone. Other guilds were judging him. He didn''t seem to care about the opinions of others which was a good trait to have. Emile walked over in their general direction. As he was walking, Time Walker got down from the shoulders of the Handsomest Crab. Emile walked over and noticed his entire party relaxing and talking. "Why do you sleep so late," Time Walker asked. "It''s only 9 AM," Emile said. "I was on Nirvana from 6 in the morning, So I expected better from you." Handsomest Crab said jokingly. "What happens when you enter the hole," Emile asked after ignoring his friend''s response. "You get teleported to a location. After you get teleported, there are 5 entrances. Each entrance has a sign next to it." Flower Queen said after staying quiet and listening to their exchanges. "There is the first entrance which says easy. Then it''s normal. It moves onto hard and insane. They call the final entrance Extreme." Flower Queen continued. "Where did you learn about this," Emile asked. "The forums. As soon as people discovered this dungeon, guilds rushed here. So far, the highest a party has gone is completing the easy version of the dungeon. The dungeon has level 10 mobs which makes it much harder for players who are at a lower level." Flower Queen said in one breath. "More guilds will come soon. Right now I heard they are gathering members." She continued after taking a breath. "All right, let''s enter. We should be able to complete the easy version of the dungeon since we have uncommon pieces of equipment." Emile said. His party was They considered his party strong for an independent party and even equal to some parties that were a part of guilds. The best parties had full sets of uncommon equipment with some rare pieces of equipment. Emile''s party stood on the line to enter the hole. After 25 minutes of waiting on the line, it became their turn to enter the hole. They leaped into the hole. Inside a Dungeon They teleported to a small room. It was unexpected. There was no one else in the room other than them. The game auto sorted through parties. If someone wasn''t in a party, then they would get sent to an empty room. The system will send other players who aren''t in a party into the room. It will force them to group up. It was a good way to make friends and work together with other players. You couldn''t solo the dungeon even if you wanted to. Since the game makes you wait for the minimum amount of players. Since this was a 5 man dungeon they got no new players. After the system teleported them into the room, they saw the five entrances that Flower Queen talked about. They didn''t want to overestimate themselves so they challenged the easy difficulty. His party wanted to be familiar with the dungeon before they took on any harder difficulties. They all agreed to do it once on the easy mode. The system teleported them once more. This time they appeared next to a creek. [Riverbed Dungeon] [A dungeon on the riverbed. It crawls with monsters and bosses. Move with caution.] [Easy Difficulty] [All monsters are 10% weaker] The easy difficulty made the enemies weaker by a small margin. This was useful in learning the enemy''s attack patterns and DPS. (1) There was a clear path forward. The path seemed to be calm and peaceful. The path was next to the river which made them assume that some monsters would rise out of the water. They walked with caution. They trusted the game''s warnings. A monster jumped up from the river. Emile identified the monster. Fishman Normal Monster Level 10 Hp: 378/378 Atk: 53-65 MAtk: 32-43 Agility: 32 High Agility and average in everything else Weakness: Electricity/Lightning The Fishman was weaker than the alligator. It made sense since the alligator had a higher level than it. "Flowing Dream can you tank the attacks," Emile asked. "Yeah, I can survive 7-8 hits," Flowing Dream responded. His HP was high due to putting most of his stat points into Vitality. He also had a decent amount of uncommon pieces of equipment. Flowing Dream grabbed the Fishman''s attention by provoking it. Emile''s party quickly went next to the Fishman and attacked it. They killed the Fishman without a challenge. They moved forward on the path. More Fishman blocked his path as they continued. They continued to kill the Fishman which gave a lot of experience. Emile experience bar rose to 33% full. They noticed that the path became wider and in the distance was a giant Fishman with more Fishman surrounding it. "Let me use a fireball to grab the attention of the Fishman," Time Walker said. His party agreed on this. Time Walker had a decent amount of skill when he played. They didn''t consider him a top-notch player or an expert; all he was that he better than an average player. He cast the fireball about 10 meters in front of another Fishman. The Fishman noticed the fireball.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it A few Fishman''s ran towards their party as they shrieked. Not too many appeared ran after them. Emile and his party made the Fishman group split up even more. The Handsomest Crab''s job was to run around and avoid the Fishman. Everyone else had to kill the Fishman that was chasing him. This worked out since the Fishman died one by one. After they killed the first group of Fishmen they went to look for more Fishmen to kill. They lured more Fishmen using the same method. They weren''t very intelligent since they fell for the same tactic multiple times. They can consider this a flaw that Nirvana had. Intelligent mobs were rare. Only mobs that were of Chief-Rank or Great-Chief rank had intelligence. After killing off all the Fishman''s that surrounded the boss, they identified the boss. His party couldn''t identify the boss due to the boss being a higher level. Emile didn''t have this problem since he had Pinpoint. He could see the stats of opponents that were up to 10 levels above him. That''s how he viewed the stats of the Aqua Alligator. He identified the boss. King of the Fishman Chief Ranked Monster Level 10 Hp: 7654/7654 Atk: 90-95 MAtk: 32-45 Agility: 36 Skills: {Waterfall} {Berserk} Weakness: Lighting/ Electricity The stats were underwhelming. The skills were the same as a normal Chief Ranked monster. There was nothing special about its stats. Flowing Dream became the tank. He could survive a decent amount of hits before Emile would take over. The fight started out normally with no problems. They switched out when one person was low on health. If they could use the lightning wand that they got from the wizard then the boss would have lost health faster. Alas, they weren''t level 10 so they couldn''t equip the wand. The boss would attack them with their sharp looking claws. Sometimes they avoided their attacks and other time they got hit by the boss. If they dodged too much, then the boss would switch its focus. It would attack the other party players. The health of the boss went down to 75%. The unique thing about Nirvana was that it had different indicators when the health of the boss reached a certain point. When it reached 75% they could smell the blood of the Fishman showing that their attacks damaged the boss. It was a small detail but gave the game more realism. The boss used {Waterfall}. Water rose from the river and made a blanket of water above them. The water flowed downwards. Doing this dealt loads of damage to them since the water was pure. It was like poison for them. They ran out of the range. They took damage from the attack. The slower ones took more damage. Flowing Dream had low health from this and had to switch out with Emile earlier than they intended. Emile wasn''t at full health which caused problems. He could tank fewer hits from the boss before having to switch. It was a continuous cycle. They would never return to full health unless the other''s also tanked. They wouldn''t be able to tank as satisfactory as Emile or Flowing Dream. Waterfall ended a few seconds later. They ran back in and resumed their earlier positions. The boss didn''t change much from before. They used the same method to attack the boss. The boss went down to 50% of its health before using waterfall again. They ran out as soon as the water rose into the air. They ran 30 meters away from the boss. The boss cast the waterfall on nothing. Emile''s party continued to attack the boss. Everything seemed normal. At 32% of its health, something unique happened. There were voices in the distance. "There''s the boss. Wait, there are players attacking the boss." Stereo Boost said. "Let''s kill steal," Night Shadows said with a cold grin. "Yeah, the boss is at 32%. That party is strong." Stereo Boost said. "Not as strong as us," Night Shadows said before laughing. "Stop wasting time, let''s go. I''ll kill the one named Mystical Flame. You guys take your own person." Nestle Milk said. Their party of 5 were from the same guild. They were close to each other. They ran and attacked Emile''s party who suspected nothing. "Let go of the boss; kill the players first," Emile shouted after hearing rustling behind his back. He had turned around and saw a few players. Emile took control of the bosses attention. He directed the attacks on one player. The boss attacked one enemy. Emile attacked the opponent once. -148 The enemy didn''t fall. "You''re my opponent," Nestle Milk shouted as he attacked Emile. Emile evaded his attack. While retreating he cast fireball. He released it at Nestle Milk who dodged the attack. He didn''t dodge the second fireball. He didn''t expect Emile to summon two fireballs in quick succession. It hid the second fireball from view. The fireball did high damage to Nestle Milk. Nestle Milk became cautious towards Emile. They activated berserk. It boosted their stats a lot. It was almost the same thing as Emile''s berserk. Emile also activated Berserk. Emile wanted to shoot out a few fireballs and water spheres at the opponent. The water sphere was much faster than the fireballs which made Nestle Milk even more cautious. Emile ran towards him. He cast Yin-Yang Blast secretly. He pointed his sword towards Nestle Milk. Even though he finished casting Yin-Yang Blast; he didn''t launch the attack. He did a few physical attacks. He used Magic Infusion V2 since his attack stat was much higher than his magic stat. He exchanged sword clashes with Nestle Milk. As he was aiming to attack again with his sword he released Yin-Yang Blast. Since they were close together, he couldn''t dodge the attack. -582 This killed him. He didn''t have much health from the first fireball. This was complete domination. His party was having a hard time so Emile went to help. Clearing Easy Mode The Handsomest Crab was facing off against a player who specialized in agility. The player evaded a lot of hits. Some still hit him. The other''s also had a hard time. Time Walker was using his fireballs repeatedly while retreating. He was having a challenging time. His agility was lower than his opponents meaning he couldn''t run away. His fireballs kept him alive. The opponent had to dodge the fireballs which put the enemy offtrack. Time Walker created a wider gap using his fireballs. Emile noticed that Time Walker had the hardest time since he was a spell caster. Emile''s berserk was still active. Magic Infusion V2 was also active. He cast a few fireballs at the enemy. The enemy was facing the opposite direction which caused them to not be able to see the enemy. Emile''s fireballs hit the enemy. -154 -149 -142 The fireballs finished the enemy. "Thanks for your help," Time Walker shouted before running towards the Handsomest Crab to help. Emile ran to Flower Queen to help. She didn''t need his help; being there gave the opponent pressure. The enemy made mistakes. These mistakes caused Lily to gain an edge. She created mud walls and surrounded the opponent. She crushed him to death. A shiver ran up Emile''s spine. This could have happened during their fight. Suffocation was a horrible feeling especially if someone was claustrophobic. The others noticed that their party was dying and wanted to quit the dungeon. Quitting the dungeon requires thirty 30 seconds. If they attacked them during that time periods then the time would be reset. They understood that they couldn''t leave, so they started to spam skills. One of them had a skill that created a smokescreen. This smokescreen allowed them to escape to somewhere. Emile''s party couldn''t stop them from leaving. "Great, now we have another enemy," Handsomest Crab said. "We need to defend against those guilds. Emile can''t always annihilate them." TIme Walker said. "Then let''s create a guild," Time Walker said without beating around the bush. "Yeah, then we can show those other guilds who''s the boss," Handsomest Crab said. "Guilds don''t work like that. There are no guilds the system recognizes. They call themselves guilds. They are all fake guilds." Time Walker said. "We can''t be a guild since that requires lots of players to function. We only have 5 players." Emile said. "Let''s kill the boss." Flower Queen said.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. The boss was still rampaging in random directions. The boss was currently charging towards their group. They quickly went back into position and continued to fight the boss. The boss attacked them once more. Their health was low from fighting the players. The bosses health went down to 20% before it activated {Berserk}. It boosted its stats which caused it to be faster and deal more damage. They had rotated the tank position frequently. Their health was also dropping at a faster rate. They had to end the battle. Time Walker continued to spam out spells and the others continued to attack. They used a few spells. Flower Quen also summoned mud walls to block the attacks. This gave them some space and leeway. Emile also used 7 hit slash which nearly killed the boss. He used Yin-Yang Blast. The system gave him a proficiency rating for Yin-Yang Blast. His proficiency rating never went above 60%. Even though the individual fireballs and water spheres were at 90%. The system wanted him to learn how to fuse the attacks together which would take him insights into the similarities. He didn''t know when the proficiency of his attacks would increase. After a few more hits the boss dissolved dropping a few items. Handsomest Crab identified the items. Fish Scale Helmet A helmet made from the scales of fish Level Requirement: 10 Rank: Rare Vitality +21 Strength +18 Atk: 12-18 MAtk: 11-21 Skills: {Waterfall} {Torrent} {Waterfall} The user creates a blanket of water that falls continuously. Deals 200% magic damage. AOE spell. Range: 15 meters Cooldown: 1 day Active Skill {Torrent} All water related attacks deal 25% more damage Passive Skill Set Equipment Piece (1/5) 3/5 Set Piece Items: User gains 20% more health and 10% more strength. 5/5 Set Piece Items: User gain 30% more health and 20% more strength. Swim speed increases by 100%. Torrent skill upgraded to level 2. Emile wanted this item since he was the only player that had water-related attacks. They gave him the helmet. This was also the very first equipment piece that was a part of a set. Set equipment gave great stat boosts to the player. They would become much stronger than an opponent on the same level. They could challenge people above their level with just stats alone. The player''s skill level can also allow them to face off against players above their level. Skill was hard to determine and there could be a variety of skill levels. Most players had an average skill level. That''s why it was called average. Unless someone was a part of a guild which required a minimum amount of skill then they wouldn''t be better than average. Most guilds had a skill requirement. Though passing the skill test wasn''t too challenging. Most average players could do it as long as they understood the rules and controls of the game. They wouldn''t accept complete noobs. If Emile was recruited on the first day he wouldn''t pass the skill test unless they saw him fight. The next few items were uncommon items. It was just a one-time thing where a chief-ranked monster dropped rare items. These drops went to Handsomest Crab and Flowing Dream. They had a full set of uncommon pieces of equipment. They looked very mismatched. [You have completed the Riverbed Dungeon {Easy}] [You have gained 15000 experience] [10 Small Water Orbs has been given] The water orb went to Emile since he was the party leader and had the highest level. They gained a few benefits from completing the dungeon. Emile identified the orb. Small Water Orb An orb used for creating equipment It was a simple item which could be used to create an item. Blacksmiths didn''t exist yet. Those were lifestyle professions. They would be activated when players reach level 10 and enter the first city. Emile wanted to take up a lifestyle profession but didn''t have a choice in his mind. They were back in the white room. The room that had nothing in it. They could see their dungeon records in this room now. It showed one attempt on the easy difficulty. A lot of players had completed the easy difficulty of the dungeon. They weren''t unique. "What are the penalties of dying in a dungeon," Emile asked his party. He didn''t want to risk anything so he asked about the penalties. "I found out that nothing happens when you die for the first three times. After the third death, the normal penalty applies. When you die you return to this room. You can watch your remaining party move on." Lily said. "That means we can try Nightmare difficulty right," Emile said boldly. Challenging a Nightmare "That means we can try Nightmare difficulty right," Emile said boldly. "What!?! Are you insane! You want to try Nightmare difficulty!" Time Walker freaked out over his proposition. "There won''t be any players there. They''re all trying out easy or normal mode. We should try out Nightmare mode. If we fail twice, we can do normal mode." Emile tried to persuade them with his words. "If we never try, then how are we going to beat all the guilds," Emile continued. "This will also give us fame. Didn''t you guys want to be famous?" He continued. His words were persuasive. It couldn''t be denied. Before these words, they were looking for excuses to not try it out. They didn''t want to try something they thought was impossible. Emile''s word had persuaded them to have an open mind and try out new things. Having this mindset was superb since these sorts of people gain the most and lose the least. They would pick themselves up from a loss and continue moving. "Fine, let''s go," Time Walker changed his opinion. The others agreed to try Nightmare difficulty. They were a bit reluctant at first. They changed their mindsets after people started agreeing one by one. They entered the entrance stating the Nightmare difficulty. [Riverbed Dungeon] [A dungeon on the riverbed. It crawls with monsters and bosses. Move with caution.] [Nightmare Difficulty] [All monsters are 100% stronger] Every monster was twice as strong. They walked with slow steps. The river seemed calm, but they knew it was crawling with Fishman. Since the monsters were stronger than before they wanted to use safer strategies that involved getting hit less. A Fishman leaped out of the water towards the group. Its speed was on the levels of insane. It was much faster than the boss which they battled on the Easy mode. Emile identified the stats before sharing it with the group. Fishman {Buffed} Normal Monster Level 10 Hp: 840/840 Atk: 106-130 MAtk: 64-86 Agility: 64 High Agility and average in everything else Weakness: Electricity/Lightning They almost lost all hope after seeing the state of the mob. They couldn''t think too much about it since the mob was coming towards them. Emile shot out a fireball at the mob. The mob dodged the attack. It was moving too quickly to aim at it. Emile had to predict the movements of the mob if he wanted to hit it. Predicting wasn''t something out of Emile''s league. He predicted a few shots, and it hit the Fishman. -41 It didn''t deal as much damage as Emile would have hoped. The Fishman nearly attacked Handsomest Crab when a mud wall appeared in front. This blocked the monster''s path. Emile shot a Yin-Yang Blast at the mob. Turning around required any creature to stop their speed and speed up in a different direction. This created a brief frame where the mob stood still. Emile controlled his Yin-Yang Blast during this turning period which caused the mob to get hit by it. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.-128 The monster took a decent amount of damage but it wasn''t enough. Emile ran forward and attacked using his swords. -152 His sword did more damage than Yin-Yang Blast. The skill only did high damage when it was based on his attack stat. Magic Infusion V2 allowed Yin-Yang Blast to deal loads of damage. The skill was being held back by his proficiency, his Intelligence, and his Spirit stat. These stats caused the skill to deal less damage than normal. Fireball and Water Sphere each dealt damage in the 90''s due to his proficiency being high. Yin-Yang Blast didn''t have a special buff to it. It did as the skill stated. 150% of fireball and water sphere. The mob wasn''t dead yet. It attacked Emile. Emile evaded the attacks without a problem. Emile attacked a few more times which each dealt with around 150 damage. The Fishman died. "We were useless during that fight. The enemy had higher agility than me. We need to stall the enemy somehow." The Handsomest Crab said. "I have a piece of equipment which slows down the enemy. It''s only for 15 minutes though." Flowing Dream said. "That should give us time during the boss," Emile said. "I can create Mud Walls which can block the boss," Flower Queen spoke. "I think we can do this," Emile said. "Let''s practice against the Fishman that pop up. Our teamwork will improve if we continue to kill the mobs." Emile continued. They continued to walk down the riverbed. More Fishman jumped out. Emile took the job to slow down the mobs. He would attack the mobs while evading. His teammates would attack from the left or to the right. If the mob tried to attack someone else Flower Queen would summon a mud wall blocking the enemy. This made their time a lot easier since they didn''t have to worry too much about defending or dodging. They killed the Fishman one by one. They didn''t dare aggro over one mob. Killing all the Fishman allowed them to all be at least level 8. Emile was the only player at level 9. Other players had also reached level 8 from the story quests or completing the dungeon multiple times. They saw the boss in the distance like the previous time. Fishman''s surrounded the boss. There were much more than the first time. This would take much longer than the previous time. Emile lured the mobs since he had a higher skill level than Time Walker. While moving through the dungeon Emile tested out the distance the Fishman could hear or see. It was 15 meters around them. Emile looked for the best spot to launch a fireball. After circling around the group of mobs, they didn''t notice a single blind-spot. They would always lure at least 3 Fishman with his fireballs. Emile told his party this information. They agreed to try out three Fishman. Emile fired his fireball in the correct direction and angle. He had lured three Fishman. They followed him. Emile''s agility was higher than theirs which caused him to have an easy time when running away. Flower Queen summoned Mud Walls to block the path of two of the Fishman. She had them completed trapped. She summoned three more walls around them which cause it to trap them. Emile hadn''t thought of this usage of Mud Wall. They killed each Fishman alone. They continued to kill out the Fishman. At some point, Flower Queen ran out of mana which caused her mud walls to disappear. This released three Fishman at the group. This was a slight problem which got fixed after a few moments. Emile used a few fireballs to knock back the two Fishman. They dealt with one of the Fishman during this time. Emile shot out a few more Fireballs to distract one of the Fishman. His group had to kill the Fishman swiftly. If they didn''t, then two Fishman would attack them at once which would cause a party wipeout. Emile also attacked the Fishman while shotting out Fireballs to slow down the Fishman. They killed the first Fishman before the second Fishman caught up. They were back to having an easy time. After killing the Fishman, they didn''t blame Flower Queen for her mistake. "I didn''t check my stats to see how much mana I had left. I was concentrating on maintaining the spell," She said while having her head down. "It''s all right. Everyone makes mistakes." Emile blurted out after listening to her. "Yeah, we don''t blame you. We made dumber mistakes than you," Handsomest Crab said. "Don''t group me up with you. You made the dumb mistakes. I just followed you," Flowing Dream spoke. His words caused the party to laugh together. After this short intermission, they sat down near a tree and rested. They healed up their health and mana up to full. There were only a few Fishman left. They killed off the Fishman before taking another break. This was the last break before they had to fight the boss. They wanted to be at their peak. All of their cooldowns were reset at this point. During this rest, Emile looked around the map to see if there were any other players. There weren''t. No one wanted to try out a Nightmare Difficulty dungeon without a guaranteed success. After making sure that there were no players, Emile continued resting with his party. Party Separation Their party rested. "Is everyone rested," Emile asked. "Yeah," They replied. They were ready to go to challenge the boss. They stood up from the ground and walked towards the boss. Emile identified the boss. King of Fishman {Buffed} Chief Ranked Monster Level 10 Hp: 17,010/17,010 Atk: 200-210 MAtk: 72-100 Agility: 72 Skills: {Waterfall} {Berserk} Weakness: Lighting/ Electricity The boss had loads of health. They didn''t know if they could survive his onslaught. The boss almost had the same amount of damage as the Great Chief ranked monster. Everyone''s agility was lower than the bosses meaning that the boss could catch up to them without breaking a sweat. Time Walker started off the fight by shooting out a fireball. His skill level at aiming at things was high. He''s played FPS games which made his aim much better than an average person''s. The fireball landed on the boss which grabbed its attention. They noticed the monstrous speed that the boss had. It was moving in their direction. Flowing Dream activated his skill. {Web Manipulation} He got this skill from clearing one cave. They didn''t use the skill since few mobs had a higher agility than them. Someone used the skill against Emile once before. The bosses speed went down to 60% of its total speed. The boss now had 43 agility. This skill lasted for 15 minutes. They used this opportunity to attack the boss multiple times. They dodged the attacks more often since they couldn''t get hit. Flowing Dream also dodged more attacks. If he didn''t dodge, then he would die. They need as many players to attack the boss. The Handsomest Crab also used a few attacking skills. They wanted to deal as much damage as they could. The boss arrived at 76% of its health in about 8 minutes. They knew the boss had the skill waterfall so most of them retreated when the boss had 76%. Emily retreated while casting fireball. He cast a few fireballs. His fireballs dealt enough damage to the boss to lower its health to 75%. The boss summoned Waterfall as expected. The range had increased which caused them to run even farther out. They took no damage from the waterfall. After 30 seconds the waterfall disappeared which caused them to run back to the boss. The boss had health regeneration which didn''t occur during the easy mode. During those 30 seconds, it healed back to 77% of its health. They continued to attack the boss. After 7 minutes, Web Manipulation ended which caused the boss to go back to having 72 agility. The boss had 58% of its health left. Flower Queen had to use her Mud Walls to block the boss from hitting anyone. Her attacking frequency decreased which caused them to deal less damage. Whenever the boss charged at them, Flower Queen summoned a Mud Wall stopping the boss in its place. Since the boss was moving so quickly, it took damage from slamming into the wall. It was a small amount of damage.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. They continued to attack the boss. The boss went down to 51% of its health. They retreated. Emile and Time Walker shot out fireballs. They wanted to clear the health faster. Time Walker did more damage with his fireballs which was surprising. His level up allowed him to put more attribute points into Spirit and Intelligence. He dealt more damage with his attacks due to the increase in Spirit. The boss went down to 50% of its health. It cast Waterfall again. They were at a safe distance so the skill didn''t do much to them. After 30 seconds, the skill ended, and the boss recovered a small amount of its health. They continued attacking the boss. They didn''t have many problems. Flower Queen protected everyone from the attacks by using her Mud Walls. Everything was smooth until the boss had less than 20% of its health left. It used {Berserk}. Emile identified the stats. King of Fishman {Buffed} {Berserk} Chief Ranked Monster Level 10 Hp: 3308/17,010 Atk: 300-321 MAtk: 122-144 Agility: 88 Skills: {Waterfall} {Berserk} Weakness: Lighting/ Electricity The boss had even more agility and attack. If they got hit by the boss, then they would die or survive with low health. Flower Queen also warned them that her mana wouldn''t last long. She used a lot of Mud Walls throughout the fight. Emile also activated {Berserk}. Emile became stronger. His speed, strength, and health doubled. Emile''s agility surpassed the boss which would allow him to get a lot of hits on the boss. The boss was smart enough to understand that it shouldn''t attack Emile and attack the others. It ran towards the others. Flower Queen continued to block his path. The boss went down 16% of its health when Flower Queen had no mana left. This would cause a few problems. The boss attacked at Flowing Dream who tanked a few hits. He had to retreat since he was close to death. The Handsomest Crab arrived in front of the boss to distract it. The boss swiped at him which caused him to die. He got one-shot by the boss. They lost a player who could deal high amounts of damage. They were down to 4 players. The boss ran towards Flowing Dream again. Emile attacked the boss to change its direction. The boss didn''t budge. It ran towards Flowing Dream. Emile used his 7 hit slash to deal as much damage as he could. His 7 hit slash dealt 2066 damage. This left the boss with 4% of its health. This couldn''t stop the boss from charging towards Flowing Dream. The boss attacked him. He died. The boss attacked Flower Queen who was attacking him. Emile blocked this strike since he was next to her. Emile attacked the boss a few times. The others also activated a few skills. These skills dealt damage to the boss. The boss fell while swiping at Flower Queen. He couldn''t connect the last hit. The boss dropped lots of loot. They picked up the loot without identifying it. [World Announcement: The party of Mystical Flame, Flower Queen, Handsomest Crab, Time Walker and Flowing Dream have completed Riverbed Dungeon on Nightmare Difficulty] [World Announcement: The party of Mystical Flame, Flower Queen, Handsomest Crab, Time Walker and Flowing Dream have completed Riverbed Dungeon on Nightmare Difficulty] ... The announcement repeated five times to show its significance. Players who had tried out the dungeon knew how challenging it was. The only reason their party had won was due to them being level 8 and 9. They also had the correct amount of skills to have an easy time against the boss. They teleported them back into the white room. Flowing Dream and Handsomest Crab were sitting on the floor watching the screen. "I think we need to talk about something," Handsomest Crab said after seeing the screen disappear. "About what?" Emile asked. "You guys are way more skilled than us. We''re only better than the average player. You guys are skilled at what you do. You should look for better players to add to your party." The Handsomest Crab said. Flowing Dream nodded. His words stumped Emile. "Your martial background makes you a lot stronger in VR game. We are only normal people who got caught up in your wind. If you want to be a good party, then you need better teammates. Don''t forget about us when you create your guild." Handsomest Crab continued. Emile noticed that they weren''t as helpful as they could be. Time Walker was the only person who could do decent amounts of damage and take up a few roles during fights. Handsomest Crab and Flowing Dream were average players. They didn''t have much skill. "We''ll go back to doing our own things." The Handsomest Crab said. "Are you sure you want to do this," Emile said knowing he couldn''t refute their words. "Yeah," Flowing Dream and Handsomest Crab said. "You guys can keep the loot. If we get it, then it becomes useless on us." Handsomest Crab said. Emile didn''t even get to refute his statements before the left the white room. They didn''t want to make his life challenging, so they left his party. "Don''t forget about us," Handsomest Crab said from his friend''s list. After these interactions, they were silent for a few moments. "Hey, they won''t disappear. Don''t mope around. Let''s check the loot out." Flower Queen reassured him. She didn''t want to be embroiled in their struggles. Emile sighed before checking the loot. Leaving the Dungeon Emile looked through his inventory with a heavy heart. By completing Nightmare mode, they received 100 Giant Water Orbs. They also received one Perfect Water Orb. These were all materials. Each material was better than the last. The giant water orbs are useful for creating Rare items. They could use the Perfect Water Orb for Red Silver items. They would use small Orbs for Common and Uncommon items. Emile stated these items to his party of three. He moved onto the equipment that they received. He identified the first item. Fish Scale Gloves A pair of gloves made from fish scales. Level Requirement: 10 Rank: Rare Vitality +18 Strength +20 Atk: 16-20 MAtk: 11-15 Skills: {Power-up Punch} {Torrent} {Power-up Punch} The user charges up an attack that deals damage depending on the charge up time. 5 seconds: 3x damage 10 seconds: 5x damage 30 seconds: 15x damage Cooldown: Depends on the charge up time. 5 seconds: 2-minute cooldown 10 seconds: 10-minute cooldown 30 seconds: 30-minute cooldown Active Skill {Torrent} All water related attacks deal 25% more damage Passive Skill Set Equipment Piece (1/5) 3/5 Set Piece Items: User gains 20% more health and 10% more strength. 5/5 Set Piece Items: User gain 30% more health and 20% more strength. Swim speed increases by 100%. Torrent skill upgraded to level 2. The skill Power-up punch didn''t seem useful. The minimum amount of waiting time was 5 seconds which was too long during an expert''s fight. This skill was only used for people to show off. It didn''t have a lot of practical use, other than to see who could deal the highest damage. They agreed for Emile to take the item. He already had one piece of this set equipment so having to would be helpful. The next item was a pair of daggers. Goliath''s Daggers A dagger used by a Goliath Level Requirement: 10 Rank: Rare Strength +21 Agility +16 Skills: {Backstab} {Sneaky} {Backstab} The user does a chop towards an enemy that deals 150% damage. If the user directs the attack at the back of an enemy then the attack deals double damage. {Sneaky} Stealth increases by 50%. Walking during Stealth increases by 25%. This item went to Flower Queen. She was the only player in their party aiming to be an assassin. An assassin used this item since stealth was the main feature of an assassin. The daggers were gigantic. It would be impractical to use. A system notification occurred after questioning the size. [Would you like to resize it?] Emile told them about this option. This would be useful since it decreased the size of the object to a usable size.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. Emile handed her the weapon and told her to resize the item to her standards. The system resized it without having her create her own settings. This made her life easier. The next item was a skill book. Skill Book: {Bloody Awakening} The user''s health increases by 100% and the strength stat increase by 100%. The user enters a weakened state after using this skill. The user stats go down to 80% of max stats. This skill reminded Emile of his berserk. It was weaker than his berserk but the weakened state was better. This was a skill that would last forever while his chest plate was only an item he would use until he got a newer chest plate. Emile wanted the skill book. Flower Queen also wanted the book. They rolled for it. Emile rolled an 87. Flower Queen rolled a 92. They got high rolls. Emile thought he won when he got an 87. She shut him down. She won the book and learned the skill. Time Walker didn''t need the item since he used the magic related stats more often. Strength was something he didn''t need. Health was useful to have. He didn''t need the health since others would always protect him. "If you find another skill book like that, then tell me about it," Emile asked. "Okay," they replied. The boss dropped 4 silver coins and 424 copper coins. They split the coins between them. There were all the items that the boss had dropped. The experience they got allowed Flower Queen to level up to level 9. She caught up to Emile''s level. Emile was getting close to level 10. His experience bar was 86% full. "How do you hide your names," Emile asked. "They''ll recognize us if we leave the dungeon," He continued. "You need to use an item," Time Walker said. "There is no setting to hide the name. If someone wanted to see your name then he or she could," Flower Queen added on. "So how are we going to leave," Emile asked with worry. "We can walk on my Mud Walls," Flower Queen said with a laugh. They could use her Mud Walls to get over all the players. "What if they attack your Mud Walls," Emile asked. "I can create lots of support for our path," she replied. "I need to get to full mana before I can do that," she continued. They waited in the white room. During this wait, Emile wanted to practice his Water Sphere. He needed to get his nutrients to unlock his Water Sphere in real-life. He cast the attacks at the wall. "Why are you using your skill at the wall," Time Walker asked while questioning his motive. "Uh... testing the durability of the wall," Emile said while scratching his head. He remembered that Time Walker didn''t have the Nirvanic System. Time Walker didn''t know there was a proficiency rating. Time Walker didn''t believe him. It was a terrible lie. He didn''t continue the questioning. If Emile didn''t want to speak, then he understood this. After some time of sitting in silence, Flower Queen broke the silence. "I have full mana. Let''s leave." She said. On the outside, players were discussing their party. They were checking each party that left to see if it was the party who cleared the dungeon. The players saw Handsomest Crab and Flowing Dream who walked out. They wanted to stop them, but they logged out without giving them a chance. They continued checking the players. Emile and the others appeared in front of the dungeon. Lily summoned a Mud Wall in front of her. She created a diagonal Mud Wall aimed towards the sky to run over it. Emile and Time Walker followed. She created a few more Mud Walls, well, mud floors. These Mud Floors appeared in the sky. She used support underneath the floors to allow them to stand straight. After they climbed the ramp made of earth, she destroyed it. She didn''t want others to climb the ramp. They crossed to the other side of the river with the walls. The players identified them since they were doing a few things out of the ordinary. They noticed that they were the players who completed the Nightmare mode. They wanted to get their attention. The players yelled out at them. Some tried to cross the river, but they all failed. She allowed them a successful escape. "That felt so cool," Emile said. Time Walker agreed with him. After they escaped the players, they walked back to the village. They used Mud Walls to cross the river once more to get to the village. Time Walkers Skill System "Your Mud Walls are useful," Emile said. "Yeah, it''s versatile. I haven''t thought of ways to attack using these Mud Walls other than crushing them. I could cause fall damage. Allow them to climb up high and then destroy the platform that''s underneath them." Flower Queen said as they walked into Nile Village. "How did you guys find so many skills," Time Walker asked after thinking about the number of skills they had. "Should we tell him about the Nirvanic System," Emile messaged Flower Queen. Emile knew Time Walker could get a class that opened the Nirvanic System. "Yeah, it''s better to tell him earlier on. You tell him," Flower Queen said after some hesitation. "Okay," Emile messaged her. "We have something special that allows us to learn many skills. It''s called the Nirvanic System. It''s a system that''s inside the game system." Emile said. "What?" Time Walker looked at Emile as if he sprouted another head. "Say activate Nirvanic System," He didn''t explain too much. "Activate Nirvanic System," Time Walker listened to him. After a few moments, Time Walker spoke. "What is this," he asked. "Do you have any skill systems," Emile asked. "No. It''s telling me to give it one gold coin to purchase a skill system," Time Walker said. Time Walker did not have a bloodline. Time Walker had to purchase the resources to get the system. An average person wouldn''t have this many coins at this point. "I''ll give you 1 gold coin," Emile said as he pulled out 1 gold coin from his inventory. "Where did you get so much money from," Time Walker said with a look of shock. Flower Queen wasn''t shocked since she was the one who told him about the arena. She expected him to have an easy time in the arena. "I won it in the arena," Emile said. Time Walker didn''t put too much thought into taking the money. He purchased a skill system. The system did compatibility checks. It passed through the elements and tested his body with the elements. They needed to test how well his body could use the element. The process wasn''t painful. It was tedious. Completing the compatibility check for any single element took an entire minute of waiting. The system would choose the element that he was the most compatible with after going through everything. Time Walker told them about the time. Emile didn''t have much to do since Berserk weakened him. He had 42 minutes left of his weakened state. He waited in the village with Flower Queen. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.____ Time Walkers POV The elements were in front of him. He watched each element glow for a minute before the next element glowed. Each element tested him out twice. This took 16 minutes of waiting. After the initial sixteen minutes of waiting, there was another wait of four minutes to check for hidden elements. He learned that there were many elements in the world. After this check passed he gained a skill system. This waiting left him in suspense. [You have received the Time Skill System] ____ Emile and Lily waited without doing much. They both watched Time Walker with interest since he was the first normal person they had seen activate the Nirvanic System. "I got a skill system," Time Walker said. "What is it," Emile asked. "It''s the Time Skill System," He replied. "Whoa, that''s a coincidence. Your name is Time Walker and you have the skill system of Time. What luck." Emile said. "Hey, how would someone gain Time skill points," Emile asked Lily. "It''s one of the easier skill points to get. You get some the more you play the game. Since time is always moving. The more he practices the more he will get points." She said. "Slow down. What do you mean by skill points?" Time Walker asked. "You use skill points to unlock new skills and buffs. You can check the different things you can purchase through your time skill system." Flower Queen said. "Whoa, stopping time costs 1 million skill points! How long would that take to get?" Time Walker asked. "That''s one of the final skills, so it will take a long time." Flower Queen said. "How many skill points do you have," she asked. "I have zero," Time Walker said. "Why have they kept this skill system hidden? Wouldn''t it be better if everyone started with a skill system?" Time Walker asked after realizing how odd this scenario was. Emile answered this question. "You can use these skills in real-life," Emile said with conviction. "That''s a good joke, but I''m not laughing. Could you tell me the real reason?" He asked. "He''s right, you can use these skills in real-life." Flower Queen added on. "Why would they keep this hidden if it had no complications," she continued. "The world would be chaotic if the public knew about this. That''s why only a select number of people know about it. Emile learned from his dad. I learned from my family. And now, you learned from us." Flower Queen said. "How can I believe you," He asked not sure if he should trust their words. "Next time I see you, I''ll use my fireball in real-life," Emile said. He understood that seeing was believing. No matter how many words they said, they wouldn''t be able to convince about a preposterous idea. "Okay, I''m going to go log out now since I haven''t eaten breakfast yet," Time Walker said. "Alright, see you later," Emile said. "Bye," Flower Queen also gave a farewell. They saw Time Walker wave a goodbye before disappearing. "Do you want to grind together?" Emile asked in an attempt to keep the conversation going. "Where," she asked. "It''s a level 15 location with mobs that are level 15," Emile said. "Let''s go, then," she said. They teleported to Kantaro Mines. Emiel told her about his quest. She helped him look for Mythril and buy it. They found 4 more pieces of Mythril. Emile now had 7 Mythril pieces. They walked to the swamp. At first, Lily didn''t want to get dirty from the swamp water, but she gave in to his urgings. She was from a rich family so she wasn''t used to being dirty. Emile told her about the mobs he found in the swamp. He told her about the flies which were annoying to deal with, the frogs and alligators. After 20 minutes of walking, they found the alligators. They hunted the alligators. ___ "How come this dojo is so dirty," Lucifer thought as he cleaned the dojo. He didn''t like robots cleaning his dojo since he didn''t trust them with the equipment. He liked the more hands-on way. He cleaned the floors, the walls, and the equipment. Lucifer went to throw out the trash. He walked into a back alley with a sack of trash. He whistled as walked. A hand was moving; aimed at the back of Lucifer''s neck. Lucifer''s keen senses allowed him to sense the attack and dodge it. Four people wearing dark clothes to cover their face. They also wore completely black which allowed them to camouflage in the dark. They all ran towards Lucifer and attacked him in various ways. Lucifer defended two of the attacks. He couldn''t dodge the other attacks. These people had created a sort of formation. This formation gave Lucifer no room to escape. He would have to get hit by the people to escape their formation. They all aimed at vital points. They weren''t aiming to kill Lucifer. The attacks landed on Lucifer''s vital points which caused it to incapacitate him. He fell when one person caught him. They put him in a duffle bag before leaping into the darkness. His trashbag was the last thing left at the scene. An Improvement on all Levels After an hour of grinding, Time Walker logged on. Emile told him about their grinding location. Time Walker showed up at their location after a few directions from Emile. They began grinding together. Their efficiency increased. Time Walker did a lot of damage with these fireballs. His stat distribution is coming in handy since he was even with their damage. After killing their 25th alligator it dropped its first scale. This was a surprise to Emile since he didn''t know if these alligators dropped the scales. Dropping these scales gave Emile a sense of relief. It worried him he would have to look for another alligator type. He would have to look in far away locations to find another alligator. Emile felt like jumping around after the first alligator scale dropped. He told his party that these items were quest items he needed. If they picked the quest item up, then they would transfer it to Emile. They would support him while he completes the quest. Emile asked them to look for Mythril and Meteorite Dust. If they heard of the item, then it would make Emile''s life easier since he wouldn''t have to look for it. They continued grinding when Emile reached level 10. He received another system notification. [World Announcement: Mystical Flame is the first person to reach level 10] [World Announcement: Mystical Flame is the first person to reach level 10] ... This announcement repeated five times. This showed the severity of this monumental occasion. Emile''s name became even more famous. People on the other side of the planet knew about him. He became worldwide after the many announcements were about him. Emile received his 5th special point and five free attribute points. He didn''t know if he should use his free attribute points. Emile was now eligible to enter a city. He had to ask the Village Chief to find out how to enter a village. There were more benefits that Emile could receive, but he wasn''t aware of them yet. "I reached level 10," Emile said to his party. "We know. We can hear and see the world announcement," Time Walker said. Emile scratched his head. He forgot that everyone in the world received this announcement. They continued grinding after congratulating Emile. Time Walker reached level 9 and became stronger. They went deeper into the swamp since there weren''t enough alligators. They continued killing. His party level went up after a long time. They had to kill 1000 mobs before the party level went up. This showed how tedious it was to make the party level higher. They wanted to set another skill for the party skill. They had forgotten about this specialty that parties shared. Emile asked Lily to put her Mud Walls as the party skill since this was the most versatile attack they had.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. The system stopped her from putting Mud Walls as the party skill since it was a skill from the Nirvanic System. They learned that the Nirvanic System''s skills weren''t allowed to be in the slot. Thye tried putting Bloody Awakening, and it worked. Since the skill was an active skill, only one person from the party could have the Bloody Awakening active. This meant that Time Walker could activate Bloody Awakening. If he did that then, Emile wouldn''t be able to activate the skill. The only other person who could activate the skill is the person whom the skill belonged to. This meant that Time Walker and Flower Queen could activate Bloody Awakening but Emile couldn''t. Emile and Flower Queen could but Time Walker couldn''t. This also meant that Time Walker and Emile could never activate Bloody Awakening at the same time. She set that skill as the party skill after gaining the parties approval. They also gained a buff from being in the party. The system gave them a choice. [Would you like to set a 5% increase in Strength as the party buff?] [Would you like to set a 5% increase in Agility as the party buff?] [Would you like to set a 5% increase in Vitality as the party buff?] [Would you like to set a 5% increase in Spirit as the party buff?] [Would you like to set a 5% increase in Intelligence as the party buff?] An almost identical message appeared. The party buff could increase a certain aspect of their stats. They all looked for something common between them. They couldn''t put it into strength since Time Walker didn''t need strength. Agility was also something that Time Walker didn''t need. Vitality was something that none of them needed. The two stats they all need were Spirit and Intelligence. They all had the Nirvanic System which required mana to use. All spells required mana, so they needed to decide for more Intelligence of Spirit. Intelligence was how much mana their total mana was. Increasing Intelligence could allow them to use more spells. Spirit was how much damage their spells did. They would pack stronger attacks with more Spirit. Their total mana wasn''t useful to them. They run out of mana on rare occasions. Most of the time, they don''t need the full mana. They agreed to put the party buff onto Spirit. Their party now did more damage with their spells. They grew even stronger. They continued to grind. After another hour had passed, Emile received a message from the Handsomest Crab. "Hey, a little help here. These people want information about you; they wanted to figure out your trick to beating Nightmare difficulty. They surrounded Song Village causing it to trap us in it," The Handsomest Crab said. "A group of friends and I wanted to hunt the mobs in the forest, so could you help us out," He asked. "I''ll be there soon," Emile told his party about the situation which caused them to stop what they were doing. Even if they had bad blood, they wouldn''t ditch one of their friends. They headed to Kantaro Mines and teleport to Song Village. They appeared in Song Village and messaged the Handsomest Crab about their location. "Where are you," Emile asked. "In the market. I''m just stalling and wasting time," The Handsomest Crab replied. Emile''s party walked towards the market. They found Handsomest Crab And Flowing Dream in the market. They were with 3 other people. "So, what''s the situation," Emile asked. Emile went straight to the point. "There are players surrounding the village. They were allowing people to pass them but whenever we go, they question us. They wanted to know about your party and how you guys passed the Nightmare difficulty. Those players wanted to know the trick to passing Nightmare Difficulty." The Handsomest Crab said. "Did you tell them anything," Emile asked. "No. We wouldn''t betray you for no reason." He replied. "All right, try to walk out of Song Village now. I want to see if they can stop us." Emile said coldly. They headed towards the outskirts of the town. They could see players scattered outside of the town. These players checked each person name. The players wouldn''t care if it was a normal person. They would only do something if they recognized the player. The goal was to force the players to reveal their secrets. They wanted to find out how they completed Nightmare Difficulty. These players believed there was a trick, an exploit, that Emile''s party used. Some of them tried out Nightmare Difficulty; they couldn''t complete it. They couldn''t use force on the inside of the village so they did it on the outside. Handsomest Crab and his party walked out. Emile followed from a distance. ____ "Where am I?" Lucifer thought as he woke up. Everything was pitch black. He couldn''t see anything. They tied his hands and feet. The person who tied him did it well; he could have broken free from his shackles if they couldn''t tie him. At this moment, giant lights went on. They all aimed at Lucifer. Lucifer squinted a few times. "It''s been a while, hasn''t it, Lucifer," A man sat in a chair in front of him and gave a slight smile to Lucifer. The First Setback The Handsomest Crab walked out with Flowing Dream. He had three more people inside his party. They were Gyro Sand, Withering Willow, and Beta Flight. They were friends of the Handsomest Crab. Their party felt nervous when walking out of the village. They didn''t know if they should trust Mystical Flame. They had doubts about what would happen to them if they left the village. Although, they trusted Handsomest Crab and Flowing Dream who walked out with confidence. So, they gave themselves some confidence and walked out together. They expected the next few things that occurred. "Hey, your back again. Tell us your tricks and we won''t block you anymore," one player said with arrogance. There were around 220 people surrounding the village. He felt lucky that he was the one that encountered the people. Carrying out this operation cost a lot of money. No one wanted to wait for people. They wanted to fight and travel. The people who surrounded the village were all from the same guild. This guild was fast in creating an operation. They took a few hours to discover where they were. No other guild had gathered up their guild members and made them wait in front of the village. Their guild gave them a quest. If they found out how Emile''s party completed nightmare difficulty, then they could receive one rare equipment and 50 silver coins. These rewards were valuable to any player. The guild gave compensation to the people who waited. Waiting was always boring no matter what type of person they were. They would receive 100 copper coins for every hour they waited. It was a quick way to earn money, so many people did it. It took around 220 people to surround the village. The person contacted no one since he wanted to get the rewards for himself. He imagined being an important figure in the guild after this discovery. He was hoping for them to reveal the secrets without having him do anything. They wouldn''t give up the information. "No," Handsomest Crab replied. Emile walked forwards and exclaimed with arrogance, "So you''re the people stopping my friends from leaving the village." "Yeah, and what are you going to do about it," The man exclaimed with even more arrogance than Emile. "Kill you," Emile said with a deadpan tone. Emile charged forward and attacked. The person fell. Their greed and stupidity caused them their death. The looked for another player to kill. They continued killing. After killing four more people who had the same mindset of not informing their guild, they found a player who told everyone in his guild he had found them. Emile and the others didn''t know about this. They wanted to kill everyone off as a warning.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. "You shouldn''t continue," Flower Queen said, "they will send more players and we''ll get surrounded soon. I think that''s enough of a warning." "They''ll come back another day if we don''t stop them," Emile said. The person gave his coordinates before his death. There were 200 players coming towards them. They could see players in the distance. They were waiting for other players from their guild to arrive. Emile''s party didn''t know how many there were. They shot a few fireballs and water spheres. This damaged a lot of the players. Those players spread out and ran towards their party. Emile and his party killed. They had better equipment and higher levels which allowed them to have an easy time. Some shot out spells at them. At first, there were only about 30 players which allowed them to have an easy time. Emile could have killed them all if he wanted to. They were slaying the opponents with ease. Their level allowed them to dominate any lower leveled players. Even Handsomest Crab''s party had an easy time. The new players were challenged, but with the support of everyone, they also killed a few players. This scenario was slowly changing. An increasing amount of players arrived. The spells they cast also increased which caused even Emile to have a hard time dodging. His party members were in even worse states. They got hit a few times; most of them retreated. There were only three people left. Flower Queen and Time Walker stayed with Emile. "Emile retreat," Time Walker was having a hard time. HE advised Emile "We can''t face this many players," he continued. Emile wanted to challenge them but he knew how hopeless the scenario was. The players seemed to be endless. He couldn''t see the end of the players. He sighed and said, "retreat." They used many skills to retreat. Emile activated the skill version of Void-Steps to increase his speed. They ran. They shot spells at them which zoomed through the sky towards them. They dodged a few. Emile and Flower Queen got out of the range of the spells. Time Walker had no points of Agility which caused him to have low amounts of Agility. Flower Queen summoned Mud Walls behind Time Walker to stop the spells from hitting him. This saved his life as he ran out of the range. "Now, run to the village," Emile said as he continued running. They followed. The players from the guild also ran forward to stop them and kill them. Their main goal was to kill them one or two times before interrogating them. They knew that players wouldn''t give up anything for the first time unless they were scared of them. Flower Queen summoned more Mud Walls behind them to stop any players and to stop the spells. They continued running. In the distance, they say the other players walking with leisure. These players were the people who retreated earlier than them. They were Handsomest Crab''s party. Emile messaged Handsomest Crab and told him to run to the village. He mentioned how they escaped from the battle. Handsomest Crab complied and told his party to run. From an aerial perspective, they could see a small group of players running in the forest towards Song Village. Behind them were less than 200 players chasing after them. It was a sight to behold. Emile''s party could see the village and gave a final sprint before making it inside the village. The village had a teleporter which could teleport them to a different location. The village wasn''t safe for them. Emile could get away with killing 60 players meant that those players could get away with killing them. The system only gave a small amount of protection to players inside a village. That''s why the players from the guild didn''t enter the village. If they tried to harass someone inside a village they would get in trouble. That was the only protection players had. Everything else was fair game. Emile told everyone to head to the teleporter and teleport to Nile Village. The players from the guild wouldn''t know where they teleported. The players from the guild had no restrictions when entering the Village since they would not harass anyone, they were aiming to kill. The village was lawless. After more running, they teleported away to Nile Village. The players from the guild cursed underneath their breath. They failed in their mission. Emile''s party was safe. ___ "Oh, It''s you," Lucifer said with no expression on his face. "I thought you died in that explosion. I was wrong. You know me, I hate being wrong," The man said after taking a sip of wine which was resting on the table next to him. "How did you find me," Lucifer asked. "You went to the Nirvanic Conference. Even if you hid your identity and used a fake pass you couldn''t hide your fingerprint. I scanned all the people''s fingerprints. And my computer recognized your fingerprint which I thought was rather strange. I pulled up the matches and saw your picture from 20 years ago. It surprised me when I saw you," The man said. "I knew I shouldn''t have gone." Lucifer sighed before asking coldly, "Why did you kill my family?" Learning from Mistakes "We''re safe now," Time Walker said while panting for breath. It was exhausting when someone ran that distance. This was to increase the realism. The game would match the body that the players weren''t aware. The others were tired. Emile was the only one fit, so he didn''t feel anything from this run. At most, he broke a few sweats. "Sorry," Emile didn''t know what else to say. His arrogance nearly caused the guild to kill them. Ever since the start of the game, Emile had an easy time going through everything. He was like flowing water. Originally, he didn''t have much arrogance since he knew what it felt to lose. But after he played the game, he was always on a streak of winning. He won against his father and all the players he had encountered. He became bolder and arrogant. This boldness appeared when he challenged 60 players by himself. This boldness was useful to have. He improved his skills from this boldness. But after winning, he continued to win. He received fame from the world announcements which caused him to think he was above others. This arrogance continued growing until today where he thought he could annihilate all 200 players with his party. He thought he was strong enough to do that. But his brain awakened from his fantasies and made him realize the truth of the situation. He promptly made the correct decision to retreat. He apologized to his party for his arrogance. "Why," Flower Queen asked. She wanted to lecture Emile. She liked the more humble Emile. "I was too arrogant for my good... and nearly killed us all," Emile mumbled. "Will you listen to our advice when we give them," She continued with her serious tone. "Yes..." Emile said like a child who was being scolded by her mother. Lily reassured him after her scolding, "All right, don''t be so downhearted, as long as you go back to being your old self, everything will be back to normal." "All right," Her words brightened up Emile. "That was so exciting. I can''t believe I killed 2 people." Beta Flight said while waving his fist around. "I can''t believe I killed 2 people," Withering Willow said with Beta Flight. It excited them they killed these many players. This was like a dream for them. They didn''t know about the amount of kills Emile and his part had. The party all had red names other than the Handsomest Crab''s party who still had the white names. They didn''t kill 5 players which were the minimum to get the red name.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. 42 players were the total amount of kills. Emile with 12. Flower Queen and Time Walker with 9. The new players had killed a combined total of 5 people. The Handsomest Crab killed 4 and Flowing Dream killed 3. They picked up all the loot which gave them a decent amount of coins. "Sorry, I couldn''t allow you guys to grind in Song Village," Emile said. "You guys should look for another village, or clear the easy mode of Riverbed dungeon." Emile gave them advice on how to proceed. They understood that winning against a guild with only 8 players was impossible. "We need to create a guild," Time Walker said. A guild would be a good opportunity to gain better players and earn coins to support other functions. Lifestyle players would come into the game soon. To get a lifestyle class, the player needs to be at least level 10. They could get a lifestyle as the sub-class. Lifestyle players could get loads of money. If their proficiency was high enough, then they could theoretically create the highest tier items. Though this would take a long time to reach. Top level players were still level 8. They slowly increased their experience bar and were getting closer to level 9. A lot of players reached level 8 due to their village having two story quests. The story quests could give two levels if the person had enough skill. This allowed intense competition to occur. They wanted to get higher in the ranking by leveling up. Emile was still dominating the leaderboard by being level 10. Players thought it was from the Nightmare Difficulty dungeon. They gained a few thousand experiences from completing the Nightmare Difficulty. They also gained lots of experience from the alligators. Players tried to go to other villages to complete their story quest and earn more levels but the system denied them. If they took part in a story quest, then they could only take part in that villages story quests. No other village would allow them to partake in it. They would teleport back to the player''s original village if they were in a village that had their story quest activated. It was rare to hear of any guild that failed their story quest. Usually, it was the players that had the attacking role that failed. "Guild. Even if we want to create a guild, we can''t. We need like a guild creation item," Emile said. He didn''t know what item it was since no one had discovered something like this. They split up after exchanging a few greetings. Handsomest Crab''s party went to do the dungeon. They could get easy experience even if they died to the boss. Emile was left with his two party members. "What do you guys want to do," Emile asked. He didn''t know what to do since his life was relatively peaceful. "I don''t feel like hunting alligators right now. Do you guys want to recruit a few members to our party?" Emile asked. He only had three players in his party. He could recruit seven more players if he wanted to. "Let''s check the Nirvanic Market out. We can find players there?" Flower Queen suggested. They listened to her suggestion. Emile told Time Walker about the Nirvanic Market. They visited the Market and went to a popular place. Emile bought a sign. He wrote: Recruiting People to Join our Party. Flower Queen told him that this wouldn''t work. Players wouldn''t join a random party for no reason. Emile had to buy another sign since she wasn''t satisfied with it. This sign said: Recruiting Player''s to Join Mystical Flame''s Level 2 Party with a Buff in Spirit. We will judge the player. Flower Queen took the sign and told them to go do their own thing. When Emile questioned her she replied with, "Players like people who are pretty. It''s a natural cycle. They''ll think I''m pretty and try out our test." She showed her name; visible to all players. This would make them realize that she was a part of the party that completed Nightmare Difficulty. This gave more credibility to her sign. Emile knew this would work so he left with Time Walker and explored the Market. ___ "Your ancestor was becoming too powerful. He would surpass the other ancestors. So we grouped up and killed him. We lost a lot of resources because of him." The man said. "You''re here to kill me, right," Lucifer said "No, I wanted to have a chat with you. If I wanted to kill you I could have killed you in the alley," The man said. "I have no desire to hunt down the Fire family. I know of some people who would love to kill you." The man said. So, I will make a proposal to you," The man continued. Making a Deal "So I will make a proposal to you," The man said. "What kind of proposal," Lucifer was still skeptical about him. This man named Nick was not an ordinary man. He liked to do things that others would think are useless. Tracking fingerprints were one thing. It was a strange hobby that rarely paid off. "You don''t have to be so skeptical. Killing you and your son is as easy as a snap of a finger." Nick said with a smile. Lucifer felt alarmed. He didn''t know how Nick found out about Emile. He denied it. "Son? What son? My son died in the explosion 20 years ago." Lucifer said while trembling. Lucifer was superb in acting. "Don''t play dumb. Don''t think I didn''t see your son enter your dojo multiple times. You also gave him the Nirvanic System which showed that you trusted him. I know you won''t trust a random person so they must be your son. Also, the hidden camera in his room showed him creating a flame. I don''t think a random person would know how to create a flame unless they were from the fire family," Nick pointed out the many flaws he had. "And if you still don''t believe me. Then let me tell you something, I took his DNA and your DNA and matched them. You have similar DNA which shows you have a blood relationship." He continued. These words showed how meticulous the man was. He wouldn''t do anything without a guarantee. If he doesn''t have a 100% chance, then he won''t believe in it. "So what''s your proposal?" Lucifer said as he realized that he couldn''t continue denying his son''s existence. "You should know how I''m from the Dark family. My brother is the candidate to become the next head of the family. He has to prove himself in Nirvana. He can improve his own skills and win the head position. It''s a win-win situation for him." Nick said. "And what does that have to do with anything," Lucifer questioned. "I want you to ask your son to disrupt his plans. I want him to fail." Nick said. "Isn''t he your family? Why would you want him to fail?" Lucifer asked. "I want to be the family head. If he fails, I''m the second person they will pick." He said calmly. "What happens if I refuse?" Lucifer asked. "Both you and your son will die," He said. "You bring death into everything." Lucifer sighed before saying, "I accept your offer." "That''s good," Nick said. Nick waited as he expected another question to come his way. "Why did you select me out of all the people?" Lucifer asked. "You''re not the only person I asked. There are many people trying to take him down. You''re just another person. It doesn''t matter if you fail, but if you reveal my identity... I swear I will torture you before your inevitable demise." Nick''s tone became cold.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. "But as long as you keep trying, I won''t do anything to you. How does that sound?" Nick asked with a gentle smile. His face transformed. In one moment he went from a frosty tone to a gentle, warm tone. Lucifer felt shivers at his words. "That sounds good. Who is your brother in the game?" Lucifer asked. "He''s Furious Striker. A childish name." The man scoffed at his name. "All right, I''ll tell my son to disrupt some of his plans. Could you remove the cameras in his room? I don''t feel safe when he''s being watched at every moment." Lucifer gave a request. "Sure." He replied. Lucifer felt numb from being tied up. "Could you let me go home now," Lucifer asked. He didn''t know if Nick would release him this easily. "Sure. Untie him." He asked. At this moment, a few people wearing black revealed themselves and untied his ropes. "You''re free now. Don''t forget to do what I asked." Nick said. They escorted Lucifer out. The people wearing black didn''t trust him to be close to their master. Their master being Nick. They blindfolded him when he was leaving since they didn''t want him to know about their location. They brought him back to his dojo. Lucifer didn''t have a sense of time so he didn''t know how long it took for him to come back. They took off his blindfold when he was inside his dojo. Afterward, they disappeared revealing Lucifer standing in the middle of his dojo with a worried look on his face. He didn''t want to listen to Nick, but the circumstances forced him to. Nick did his side of the deal. He asked his people to remove the cameras from Emile''s room. Emile was unaware of everything. He was playing Nirvana. Azure, his mini robot, took notice of these people and took a picture. She looked deactivated when she wasn''t doing anything, so these people suspected nothing of her. She took multiple pictures before the people vanished through his window. They closed his window to not put anything out of place. There was no difference in his room other than the small spy cameras that used to live with him. ___ Emile was showing Time Walker the market. He told him about the features of the Nirvana Market. Emile also brought him to sign up for the Nirvanic Tournament. He mentioned how the person was eccentric. Emile asked Time Walker to be nice and not be rude. Time Walker talked to the old man. It hadn''t been long since they left Flower Queen to gather potential party members. Emile waited. After five minutes, Time Walker walked out and spoke. "That guy was mentioning how I''m the first average to awaken a skill system. He was weird. What does he mean by I''m the first person? You got your skills system before me and Flower Queen got her skill system before me, so how can I be the first?" Time Walker felt confused. "You fit into a special category," Emile didn''t know how to word it. "You weren''t born with any special abilities. That means you''re the first who gained the skill system by buying it. We got the system for free." Emile said. "Everyone in the Nirvanic Market got the skill system for free except you," Emile continued. "That''s not fair," Time Walker said. "Life isn''t fair. Some are born above others while some have more intelligence than us." Emile said. "Stop spouting philosophical things," Time Walker said. "Yeah, sure," Emile said with a laugh. "I''ll show you the Elemental Courtyard," Emile said. Emile walked to the Elemental Courtyard and Time Walker followed. He told him the function of the Elemental Courtyard and how he could gain Time Skill points. He let him try out one mission. Emile didn''t want to try one now. After Time Walker entered the courtyard, Emile received a message from Lily. "Uhm... a lot more people want to be a part of our party than I would have thought," Flower Queen said. "I need help, come here quick," She continued. Emile walked towards the location they set their sign up. He noticed many people standing in a long line. He didn''t know what this line was for. Emile walked passed this line to Flower Queen. He noticed this line was in front of Flower Queen who was yelling out orders. This surprised Emile. "I want a single file line in front of me! If anyone fights, skips or does anything to get ahead in the line then they won''t be accepted into the party. No matter how skillful you are, If you can''t listen to orders, then I won''t accept you into our party." She was a good leader figure. Emile walked to her. The Recruitment Process "Don''t skip. Get to the back of the line." Someone from the line noticed Emile walking towards the front. Others heard this person''s voice and yelled out at Emile. "Get to the back." "If you want to be a part of the party, listen to rules." "Miss Flower Queen someone is disturbing the line." Flower Queen looked at the person who was disturbing the line. Some players thought he would get yelled at by Flower Queen. The others figured out his name out by identifying him. They noticed he was Mystical Flame, so they said nothing. They were hoping for Mystical Flame to kick out the people who yelled at him. This would make the line shorter and allow them to have a higher chance of being chosen. Flower Queen said nothing to the man which made some players assume that by breaking the rules they would get chosen. They became bold and also walked to Flower Queen. They put these players into the category of people that wouldn''t be a part of their party. They were bandwagoners and couldn''t listen to orders. These were bad qualities to have. Flower Queen said nothing to them until they appeared in front of her. Some say how Flower Queen said nothing and also walked up to her. They disregarded her rules. "We will select no one who is right now not in the line. That means everyone who walked towards me has disregarded the rules and will not be accepted into the party." Flower Queen said with no care in the world. The players who walked to her felt shocked. They apologized. Flower Queen ignored them. "All right, he''s Mystical Flame the party leader." Flower Queen said while pointing at Emile. "Hey," Emile wasn''t good at talking to many people so he felt nervous. The players who followed Emile when walking to the front realized why he could break the rules. He was the party leader, so he didn''t have to wait in the line. "Here''s what I will do. I will put multiple signs for each element. I want you to stand in front of the sign that has your element written on it." She said. "I will get signs so wait here and watch the players. Enforce my rules." Flower Queen said to Emile. "Yep, I understand," Emile listened to her words. She walked away to buy signs. "So does anyone know how many players there are on the line?" Emile didn''t want to make them wait in silence. "At least 70 players." One player responded to his words. "That''s interesting. That means one in ten players would get selected to join my party." Emile said. "I''ll give you some information about this party. I''m the party leader. Flower Queen is a member of this party. And Time Walker is the last member of this party. Time Walker is currently attempting the Elemental Courtyard." Emile said. "We are a level 2 party that has a cap at 10 players. Our buff increases Spirit by 5% which makes us do more damage." Emile said.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. The players listened to the benefits of joining his party. At this moment, Flower Queen walked back and placed the signs down. "I want each person to get off the line and stand in front of your element," she said. They listened to her words. They feared her shooing them away, so they scurried to their respective elements. In 30 seconds everyone was in place. More players appeared and stood on the lines. The only element without a single person was the fire element. Since the players that were in front of her were all players from the different families. The fire family didn''t exist so there were only seven-player categories to chose from. She walked to the water section and asked to show their Water Spheres. She brought out a device from her inventory. This device showed the proficiency rating of the player''s skills. There were 10 people in the water category. Only 2 people passed 70% in their proficiency. These two could stay on the line while the others had to leave. She moved onto Earth. She continued judging people based on their proficiencies. By the time she finished judging the proficiencies, there were only 22 players left. Any new player that joined the line would get tested by Emile. He would use the device to measure their proficiency before they entered the next step. Flower Queen wanted to find out their personalities to see what sort of person they were. She gave them a test about different scenarios and what they would do in those scenarios. She messaged each player with a link to the test. Scientists created these questions after analyzing the brain for a long time. This wasn''t a multiple-choice exam meaning that the players could write whatever they wanted for each question. Depending on how they answered each question, they would put them into certain personalities. The test didn''t just check their answers, it also checks their handwriting, how long they took for each question and more. They tracked everything they could to get the best results. This lead to the results being scarily accurate. The quiz had 84 questions. She gave them as much time as possible. Emile and Flower Queen waited for them to finish. The first person finished in 1 hour 12 minutes. They sent the results to her messages. She shared them with Emile. An impatient person. He enjoys rushing things. Heart rate increased when answering questions about the reasons to join the party. Wants to look like a nice, carefree person. Conclusion: Has ulterior motives. They wouldn''t accept this person. Having ulterior motives wasn''t a good thing. They continued waiting. Players completed the test. He saw a lot of candidates that had good personalities to have in their party. There also were a few bad apples in this bunch. Lily kicked them out. Some players still took the test. She moved onto the last step of the recruitment process. A conversation. Emile and Lily would talk to the person and ask some questions. if they like them they would allow them to enter into their party. The only reason they did this was that they didn''t want an annoying player to be in their party. If the player was to their liking, they would get accepted. The first player was a female named Scarlet Sunset. Lily set up a desk and chair she bought from the market. The market had lots of random items they could buy. "Nice to meet you," Emile said after sitting in his chair. "Ah... nice to meet you Mr. Flame." She was formal when speaking. She also sat down. "You don''t have to be formal. If you''re in our party, then you''ll speak casually without worry. None of us speak formally." Flower Queen said. She was trying to ease the tension. This was like a job interview except much more informal. "Why do you want to join our party," she asked. "It''s because I''m a big fan of Mystical Flame. I admire him a lot." She gave a coquettish look towards Emile. "Uh... thanks," Emile didn''t know how to respond. Lily felt a sense of danger coming from her. She gave a cold look towards her. Scarlet Sunset responded by sticking out her tongue. They were staring at each other which made Emile feel awkward. Their staring was intense, they were trying to scrutinize each other. They soon broke their deadlock. Lily laughed before speaking: "She''s a good person. Should we add her?" Their staring session allowed Lily to understand Scarlet Sunset. She was a trustworthy person. "What skill system do you have?" Emile asked her. He didn''t accept her. "I have the air skill system," she said. She didn''t seem to be annoying and had a decent personality. She became the first person they added to their party. "Wow, thank you. You guys weren''t lying when you said you gain a 5% Spirit boost. Why are you such high levels?" She exclaimed with shock. Scarlet Sunset knew that Mystical Flame was level 10 due to the system announcement, but she didn''t know about the others. She didn''t look at the level leaderboard that often. Their party had recruited their first new member. They continued to hold conversations with the other players. Working Together They rejected some players since Emile or the other members of the party didn''t like them. If everyone liked the person, then they would be accepted into the party. Scarlet Sunset also stuck around and watched the recruitment process. She gave her opinion on the people. In Emile''s eyes, she was almost as pretty as Lily. She had dark red hair that went past her shoulders. Her eyes were dark green. She had a pale, white face. Another person came up. This person was equipped with common equipment. Nothing stood out from him. The only thing that Emile felt was a strong fighting will. He was always ready to fight. "Hi... my name is Nimble Rob. Like my name suggests I use a rod as my main weapon." He was nervous at first, but this went away after he spoke. "I have the water skill system. I created an original skill using water." He said. He mentioned his strong points, "You''re the person who got a 98% proficiency on your water sphere," Emile said. When he saw the proficiency, he felt surprised since most players had their proficiency in the 50''s or 60''s. This person caught Emile''s attention. "Can you show me the skill you created?" Emile said with interest. "Okay," Nimble Rod said. He took out a rod and attacked the sky with it. Water particles surrounded his rod. It was visible to the naked eye. He told them it did water damage alongside his physical attack. This was a passive skill that used a set amount of mana for each attack. He surrounded the rod with particles of water. It required a lot of concentration to maintain it as a passive skill. Most people would keep it as an active skill since it required lots of manas to keep up. "How does your mana keep up to your usage of this skill?" Emile asked. "I got an item from the lucky box that gives mana regeneration." Nimble Rob replied. He revealed everything without a second thought. He was an innocent person who didn''t know much about the world. This was why Emile felt a sense of fighting will. He had a passive skill that made him always ready for a fight. Emile messaged Flower Queen and Scarlet Sunset. Emile added Scarlet Sunset to his friend''s list after she joined his party. "I like this guy. I think we should add him to the party. He''s also a genius for having such high proficiency." Emile persuaded his party. Flower Queen and Scarlet Sunset stared at him. Nimble Rod felt nervous. He knew this was the deciding choice.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. "Yeah. let''s add him." Scarlet Sunset said. "I agree," Flower Queen agreed with Scarlet Sunset. "Welcome to the party," Emile said. Emile added him into the party. "Thanks, I feel so excited," His joy couldn''t be hidden. If he could he would jump around. But he didn''t want to embarrass himself. "That''s enough for today. If you would like to join our party, then come back tomorrow. Tell your Nirvanic friends about us and we might accept you. Thank you for your time and efforts. I''ll check the rest of the results today." Flower Queen said. They were waiting here for 3 hours. They had done little other than recruit two players. Time Walker finished his quest and logged out to eat. Emile and Lily logged out to eat. They ate together after Emile asked her. They went to a nearby restaurant and ate dinner. It was turning late, so they skipped lunch and ate dinner. It was 8 pm. They returned home. Their first date was complete with nothing interesting happening. When Emile entered his home, he noticed that Azure was moving around more than normal. Emile memorized Azure''s movement since she lived with him for over 10 years. Emile thought there was something wrong with her. "Is there anything wrong," Emile asked. He hoped for a certain response. "No. Check pictures." Azure replied. She repeated the same phrase. He felt relieved when it said there was nothing wrong. Emile checked the pictures. Azure opened to a mini screen which showed different pictures. Emile was alarmed. He saw a few people in his room. There were three people who removed a few things. He zoomed in on the picture and saw it was a small camera. Someone was watching his movements. He didn''t know the implications of this. The only thought he had was: when and how did they get the cameras in his room? Azure was always active. How did they insert the cameras into the room? This was a mystery to Emile. He didn''t know who the people that entered his room were. Emile calmed down Azure and thought about ways to deal with this. He couldn''t figure out a way to learn more information. They covered their entire head with black so he couldn''t see their faces. Emile didn''t worry too much about this. He couldn''t do anything about it so he logged onto Nirvana. "Do you guys want to go level up?" Emile asked. The new party members were both level 6. They were weaker than all the other players. Emile wanted them to reach a level 7 or 8. They agreed to go grind. Emile showed them the location they were grinding at. He teleported to Kantaro Mines with them. Emile looked for more Mythril before heading off. He found 2 pieces of Mythril in the market. He now had 9 pieces of Mythril. Emile''s party headed towards the swamp with everyone in his party. He wanted to see how the new members would do against stronger opponents. They let them try a fight with an alligator. They damaged the alligator a decent amount. Nimble Rob was nimble. He could dodge the attacks of the alligator with ease. Scarlet shot Air blasts at the alligator. She did loads of damage to the alligator. Even though they had never fought together, they were adapting to the other''s person''s movement. After the first alligator died, Emile, Flower Queen, and Time Walker joined in the fights. They wanted to improve their teamwork become stronger. Emile, Nimble Rob, and Flower Queen attacked in close range while Scarlet Sunset and Time Walker attacked from the distance. Their efficiency skyrocketed. They could kill the alligators in about fifteen seconds which was a mind blowing pace. There weren''t enough alligators on the outskirts of the swamp so they went deeper into the swamp. The party was getting better at killing the alligators. They were even faster at killing. Since the level of the alligators was higher than his party members, they would get more experience than normal. After killing 30 alligators, Scarlet Sunset became level 7. She was aiming to become a strong DPS dealer. She put her free attribute points into Spirit. "Wow, this is the fastest I''ve ever leveled up," Scarlet Sunset said with surprise. "I''m about to level up," Nimble Rod said. For the first time, Emile felt a sense of competition that arose in him. He wanted to improve his skills and fight against his party. They headed to the center of the swamp. They noticed a giant alligator resting in the center of the swamp. It was an alligator king. Emile felt that this fight wouldn''t be a problem for them. He believed in their skills. Slaying the Alligator King Alligator King Chief Ranked Monster Level 15 Hp: 42,086/42,086 Atk: 200-252 MAtk: 40-72 Agility: 61 Skills: {Aqua Blast} {Neurotoxicity} {Berserk} Weakness: Lightning/ Electricity Emile identified the stats for the party. He had pinpoint which allowed him to identify the level of monsters above his level. "I''ll grab its attention and avoid a lot of his attacks. If the boss charges in your direction then dodge each attack. I know you guys can do this." Emile gave a short inspirational speech. If there was a morale stat, then it would have increased. Emile hadn''t shown his party what skill system he had. He had no use for it when fighting against the normal alligators. The other''s did enough damage to kill the alligators with ease. Emile shot out a water sphere. "You''re related to me?" Nimble Rod said with a look of shock. "Yeah," Emile said. He had the water bloodline meaning half of his family is from the water family. So, he was related to all the individuals of the water family. Emile didn''t show his fire skill since no one should know he was from the fire family. He couldn''t show his fire skills. He wanted to trust the new individuals before he showed them any secrets. This water sphere that Emile shot angered the alligator. The fight began. Emile ran forward. His agility was the highest in the party. He attacked the alligator while dodging each blow. The other''s got into place and attacked at their own pace. The fight started off smooth. Emile never got hit by the boss since his agility was higher than it. Whenever the boss charged at another party member, they would run away and Emile would take a hit in their place. He lost health from doing this. Emile didn''t have to do this for Nimble Rod since he put stat points into Agility. He could dodge the attacks without breaking a sweat. Emile used bandages to heal the health he lost during the attacks. His health went up. He attacked the boss a few times while his health went up. The bosses health went down to 80%. It used one of his skills. The system told them it used {Neurotoxicity} but nothing seemed to have happened. Emile and the other''s continued attacking. Emile received a system notification. [Neurotoxicity will control your brain and destroy your nerves causing instant death. The time until it activates is 49 minutes 56 seconds. Kill the alligator to stop this effect] The boss had an instant kill skill. If the skill activated; they would all die. They had to increase their efficiency even more. The other''s in his party had also received this message. They had to deal around 33,000 damage in 50 minutes. This meant 660 damage every minute. It didn''t seem to be too challenging. Since they could deal loads of damage. Emile could do about 1/4 of the damage in one strike. The other''s could deal the rest of the damage. They continued dealing damage. The bosses health went down to 75% when it used another skill.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. It used {Aqua Blast}. The boss summoned dozens of water spheres and combined them into one giant sphere. This sphere shot out towards their party. It moved at incredible speeds. If it wasn''t so big, then Emile wouldn''t have been able to see the attack. Emile used his own water sphere to slow down the attack. Nimble Rod did the same thing. They slowed the attack down. They could dodge the attacks with ease. The Aqua Blast exploded behind them which dealt damage. This explosion shot out fast water spikes which did around 40 damage to them. They continued attacking. Their damage did more than enough damage to survive the Neurotoxicity effect. The bosses health went down with no problems. They were having an easy time against the boss. The boss was only Chief rank which wasn''t too challenging to defeat even if it was above their level. The bosses health went down to 20% after 25 minutes. It used Aqua Blast at 50% and 25% so they used the same method to stop the attack. They had an easy time. It used Berserk like every other boss. Alligator King {Berserk} Chief Ranked Monster Level 15 Hp: 8417/42,086 Atk: 312-357 MAtk: 60-92 Agility: 70 Skills: {Aqua Blast} {Neurotoxicity} {Berserk} The agility of the boss was higher than Emile''s so he had a harder time dodging each attack. His attacking efficiency went down. The other''s didn''t have to avoid the attacks often so their attacking efficiency was higher than Emile''s. He continued to dodge and attack the boss. Emile also used 7 hit slash. This did 1033 damage to the boss. They continued using spells since this was the final stretch. Scarlet Sunset used a spell that decreased the attack of the boss which was useful. The boss did less damage which caused them to have an easier time. They continued attacking the boss until it died. [You have slain the Alligator King] ... Lots of system notifications appeared in his eyes. Emile checked the contribution rankings to see how the party did. Everyone was relatively even. Emile and Scarlet Sunset tied in the overall contributions. While Emile got first in damage. His stats were on another level when compared with his party members. Scarlet was second in the support contributions. She lowered the bosses attack and helped the party in different ways. Emile was 4th in support since all he did was get hit by the boss to stop the attacks from reaching his party. Nimble Rod was number 1 in support since he could take the tanks position while Emile bandaged himself. He took control of the fight when Emile was healing himself. Nimble Rod was 2nd on the overall contribution rankings. Time Walker and Flower Queen shared 3rd place. Everyone except Nimble Rod shared a position on the rankings. Mystical Flame and Scarlet Sunset had 21% on the contribution rankings. Nimble Rob had 20%. Time Walker and Flower Queen had 19%. These were close to each other. Emile identified the loot. He received 19 alligator scales from the boss; enough to clear one portion of the quest. He received 10,000 experience from the boss. The others got around that much experience. Nimble Rod leveled up to level 7. That was the only level up that occurred from the boss. Emile checked the items. The drops scaled according to the size of the party. The boss dropped 4 items. Alligator Scale Gloves A pair of gloves that are made of alligator scales. Rank: Rare Level Requirement: 15 Vitality +23 Strength +19 Spirit +12 Atk: 22-28 MAtk: 12-14 Skills: {Water Wheel} {Scale Protection} {Water Wheel} The user summons a wheel of water that moves at rapid speeds. 200% magic damage. Cast time: 1.1 seconds Cooldown: 5 minutes {Scale Protection} The user summons scales from the body. All attacks for 10 minutes deal 75% of the damage. This includes magic attacks. Cooldown: 1 hours Nimble Rod and Emile wanted this item. They both needed this item. They rolled for it. Emile rolled a 77. Nimble Rod rolled a 34. They identified the next few items. One of them was another alligator scale item. This item went to Nimble Rod since Emile got the first one. It had the same skills. The other two items were a pair of boots that Scarlet Sunset won. It gave another debuff to the enemies. It lowered the attack of the boss. She had two skills that did the same thing. They could stack which would make her a good support class. The skill book is for {Water Blast}. Emile and Nimble Rod wanted the item, so they rolled for it. Nimble Rod won the roll and used the item to lower the cost of Water Blast. Skills enemies dropped couldn''t be used in real-life. In real-life, they could only use skills that were found in the Nirvanic Skill system. He used the skill book to lower the cost of the skill in the Nirvanic System. He learned the skill by spending his water skill points. He now had Water Blast. At this moment Lily spoke. "Hey, Emile have you equipped the items you got from the dungeon." Flower Queen asked. "The Fishman items?" Emile remembered the items he got. He had forgotten about them. "Yeah," she replied. "No," Emile equipped the items after saying this. He checked his stats. Discovering the Medallions Use Personal Stats Name: Mystical Flame (Novice Destroyer) Level: 10 Exp: 19,323/150,000 Class: (No class) HP:940/940 MP:650/650 Strength: 133(22+91+20) Agility:68(32+36) Vitality: 94(11+83) Intelligence:65(23+42) Spirit: 56 (22+34) Luck: 10 Attack: 207-243 Attack against players: 248-292 Magic Attack: 83-105 Magic Attack against players: 100-126 Fame: 15,750 ______________________________________________ Emile received a system notification after his strength surpassed 100. [Please set a Strength Skill buff] He saw a list of different things he could set. Whenever a stat reached 100, the player would get a buff from that stat. Emile could increase his overall strength stat by 3% or increase his attack against players by 5%. He could also increase the amount of damage he did to a mob. There were even specifics for boss mobs. [Deal 10% extra damage to Great Chief ranked monsters] Emile asked his party about which buff to choose. "I got a system notification that told me to pick a buff. It gave me a long list which I''ll send to you guys. What do you think is the best buff?" Emile asked. The others looked through the buff and used a methodical process to look for the best option. "You don''t fight players all the time. We fight bosses at random times, so having a specific buff for them wouldn''t be helpful. The mob buff would be a good choice. The overall is also good." Scarlet Sunset analyzed the information and eliminated a few options. She was smarter than she looked. Nimble Rod felt the same amount of confusion when looking at the list so he wasn''t helpful. He stood there listening to the other''s insights. "I think you should get the overall buff, the PvE is the most useful to you but sometimes you have to battle lots of players like that one time you fought against 60 players." Scarlet Sunset said with looks of admiration. "How do you know about that?" Emile asked. "Someone recorded it and posted it on the forums. That''s when I saw you for the first time." Scarlet Sunset said. Emile didn''t know if anyone recorded him trying to challenge 200 players. No one recorded him. He was outside of the village which didn''t have many random players. The guild also stopped people from sticking around in the location, so it was less likely for someone to record him. "I agree with her. You should get the overall buff." Flower Queen said. She didn''t want to agree with her, but her reasoning was logical. "All right," Emile selected the overall buff. "You guys can continue grinding here," Emile said. "I want to enter the city and see if I get any rewards for being first," Emile continued.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. Emile let them do their own thing before heading to Song Village. He had to be sneaky since Emile assumed that those players from the guild might be there. Emile thought about the best course of actions. He would head to the Chief''s home to find out how to teleport to a city. The teleporter didn''t give him the option to teleport to a city. He had to do something first. Emile assumed that the Chief would give him something to activate the teleporter''s function. Emile sneaked around. He tried to be calm when players walked passed him. He didn''t want them to recognize him. Emile should have worn a cloak, but he didn''t think of this. Emile walked straight towards the Chief''s home. Some players recognized him. They weren''t from the guild. The guild seemed to have left. They discerned that it would waste resources if they continued waiting. They only waited for a few more hours until they gave up. Wasting of resources would cause the guild to fall behind other guilds. They had one chance to kill Emile and get information out of him but they failed. Emile didn''t know the guild''s name, so he couldn''t get revenge on them. Emile knocked on the Chief''s door. "Oh, it''s you. Come in." The Chief invited into his home. Emile entered his home and requested to teach him about entering a city. "How do you enter a city," Emile asked after sitting on his sofa. "A city? You''ve become strong enough?" The Chief questioned with shock. He sat on his chair. "Yes," Emile said. "Hmm... let me identify you first." The Chief didn''t believe his words since it seems too quick to get so strong. He took out an item and used it on Emile. "Wow, I''m genuinely surprised. It''s only been a week and you''re already this strong," The Chief complimented Emile after identifying him. "Thanks," Emile said. "Use this to enter a city. If you have this item, the City option in the teleporter will appear. This means you can go to a city now." The Chief said as he brought out another item. It was a small ticket. City Pass A ticket given to worthy adventures. Usage: Allows the player to teleport to a random city. As Emile was reaching his hand out to take the item, the Chief took the item back. "Wait, since you''re the first person in my village to head to a city, I''ll give you another type of ticket." The Chief said as he took back the ticket. He took out another ticket that was golden. Emile took the item from his hand and identified it. Golden City Pass Only the first adventurer to leave the village get this ticket of glory. Usage: Allows the user to pick a city. Increases fame by 250. The only difference was that he gets 250 fame and he could pick the city to start in. "Thank you for all your help," The Chief said to Emile. "I''ll give you this medallion for being so helpful," The Chief gave him a gift for all his help. ??? Medallion Rank?? It was a small medallion with a faded letter A on it. "Could you tell me what to do with these medallions," Emile asked after seeing it was identical to his other two medallions. "The Adventure Guild hid 6 medallions throughout the world. Luck can find two of them. They gave all the Village Chief''s one medallion. As soon as I give you this item, the other Village Chief''s lose the medallion. They entrusted us to give this medallion to a worthy person." The Chief explained. "You can hand the six medallions to the adventure guild to get a strong class." He continued. "Would these medallions be accepted," Emile asked. He showed him the other two medallions he had. The Chief''s eyes dilated. He was wide-eyed. He knew how challenging it was to get these items were. "Where did you get these," he asked. "I got them from some Lucky Boxes," Emile said. "Those are the two they inserted into the lucky boxes. This means that the only ones left are from the Adventure Guild quests." The Chief said after thinking. "Adventure Guild quests?" Emile asked. "Yes. The Adventure guild gave out challenging quests for adventurers to complete. The rewards for these quests were those medallions. Two of them are from luck. One from being a good helper. And three from completing challenging missions. They used these medallions to find a strong, capable, and helpful person to gain a good class." The Chief said. "Thank you for the information," Emile thanked him after receiving the information. He knew this was a good opportunity to get a hidden class. The First Update Emile left the Chief''s home with swift steps. He wanted to see what challenges the Adventure Guild would give. First, he had to select the city that seemed the best. He wanted to have a good start to his journey. This was a pivotal point to any future adventures. Emile walked to the teleporter. He informed his party about the choice of the city. He told them how to move on to a city. "So you''re saying we get to decide which city you can go to?" Lily said. "Yeah," Emile replied. "Will there be any description about the city? The villages didn''t have it." Nimble Rod asked. "I don''t know. It''s unlikely for there to be any description." Emile said. "Give us the list of cities and we could decide the best city to go into." Scarlet Sunset said. "Okay," Emile realized that Scarlet Sunset was much smarter than them. She thought about everything logically and methodically. Emile entered the teleporter and activated it by using his golden ticket. He saw an array of options he could choose from. Emile scrolled through the list. Emile shared the list with his party and waited for their inputs. He didn''t want to click on any city since he didn''t know if it was an automatic teleportation. Or that it gave a choice to select or not to select. The cities didn''t seem to have any description. Emile continued scrolling when he saw a unique city. It had a star next to its name. "Hey guys, White Star City has a star next to it," Emile told them about his discovery. "That''s most likely a capital city." Scarlet Sunset said after noticing that no other city had a star. She scrolled farther in the list and saw a few more cities with a star next to it. There was more than one city. "We should head to a capital city if it is a capital," Emile said. "Yeah, The capital cities have the best loot and items," Nimble Rod said. "If you guys get the chance come to White Star City. I''ll be heading there." Emile said before closing the communication window. He chose the first capital city he saw. He clicked on the city. [Would you like to teleport to White Star City?] The game gave him a choice. Emile clicked on yes. He teleported and arrived in the middle of a teleporter. [Welcome to the Capital City of the Stellar Kingdom known as White Star City] This was the benefit of having the golden ticket. He teleported to a capital which was bound to have good items. Emile saw no one around him. He was the first to head into a city.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. [You have gained the title: Pioneer: Tier 1] Emile identified the title. He didn''t know what the tier system represented. Pioneer: Tier 1 Awarded to the first person to enter a Tier 1 city. NPC''s are more likely to like you and hold conversations with you. Fame +1000 [World Announcement: Due to Mystical Flame being the first person to enter a city; we will now start the first update] [You will be forcefully logged out in 5 minutes] [Please make your preparations] Emile didn''t have much time to do anything. He ran around to see if he could get anything useful. Nothing caught his eyes, and they logged him out. Emile''s consciousness appeared in the Gaming Cabin. Emile tried logging in. [Please wait 15 hours, 59 minutes, and 53 seconds before the update is finished] Emile didn''t know what to do. It was 9:30 pm. It was dark outside so he chose to fall asleep. ___ "How many players do we have?" A developer said as he watched everyone log out. "4.2 billion." A statistician said. "All right, initiate Project: Nirvanic World." The man put down his coffee before turning towards the statistician. "Release the video about the Nirvanic''s when the update is complete. Tell the governments to calm down any riots or problems that occur. Give as many demonstrations as needed." The man said. He knew the repercussions that would occur in the initial stages of this project. He will go through as many obstacles as needed. They did this to increase the overall strength of the world in case any threats appear. They set the preparations. Now all they need was to make the world understand which would take a long time. There were many benefits to being a Nirvanic. Increased lifespan, new ways of entertainment, better protection, etc. Even if there were downsides. These downsides were people going crazy with these powers. Using them without a care in the world is one major problem they would face. Economic issues would also show up since people would want to gain strength and not care about having a job. They could steal items to gain any commodities they needed. A Nirvanic was powerful enough to do that. That''s why they set a certain amount of gold a person needed to get the abilities. They didn''t want too many people to have the Nirvanic System at the start of the project. When everything calms down, they wouldn''t care about how many people had the system. ___ Emile woke up to his phone ringing. His father was calling him. "Hey, Emile, I got kidnapped," Lucifer blurted it out without beating around the bush. "What?" This confused Emile. "I''m serious. I got kidnapped yesterday. They wanted something from me." Lucifer continued. Emile didn''t know if he should trust him since his words were something out of the ordinary. He also was a martial artist with fire skills, so Emile didn''t know how he could''ve gotten kidnapped. "How did you get kidnapped?" Emile asked. "That''s not important," Lucifer felt embarrassed. Whenever he fought with Emile, he only used his sword. He forgot about summoning fire to attack them. He hadn''t used fire to fight in 20 years so he was rusty. "The people who kidnapped me have a powerful background," Lucifer said. "They want you to slow down the person''s younger brother in Nirvana. He wants to become the head of his family so he needs people to make his brother fail." Lucifer continued. "Why did you accept?" Emile asked after getting up from his bed. He watched Azure clean his room. "They forced me to accept," Lucifer said. "How strong are they," Emile asked. "Much stronger than you. They have many ways of using their abilities." Lucifer said. "Oh... what if I don''t do anything to his younger brother?" Emile asked. "They said they''ll kill us both since they know we''re from the fire family," Lucifer said. "How do they know," Emile asked while freshening himself up. "They were one of the two families that killed the fire family. They don''t care about our existence anymore so they didn''t kill us." Lucifer said. "Oh..." Emile said. Emile didn''t feel much hatred towards the people who killed his family since he never met his family. "Okay, I''ll try to stop his younger brother," Emile said. Emile listened to his father''s word. Lucifer sighed and said, "Well, that''s good... I guess. His name in the game is Furious Striker." "All right that''s all I have to say to you," Lucifer said before hanging up. Today was a Sunday. It has been one week since Nirvana launched. Emile scoured the forums to see if there was anything interesting going on. He noticed that everyone was talking about the update. They mentioned him a few times. They created theories on how Emile reached level 10 so swiftly. Mystical Flame being a developer was a popular theory. Hackers seemed to no longer exist. As technology progressed, they were fewer loopholes to exploit. No one has managed to data mine Nirvana and figured out future information about the game. This caused the game to have a veil of mystery surrounding it. Emile stopped scouring the forums. World Revelation Emile wanted to train his body more. He was too busy with Nirvana, so he didn''t train his body. His instincts sharpened, but his body had stayed the same. Emile used his old methods of training and quickly realized that it wouldn''t work as well as before. He needed to use more intense training routines. Emile used his original training routine. Even if it was inefficient, it still worked wonders in keeping the body fit. After an hour, he finished training which left his body in sweat. He took a shower and went to his father''s dojo to see him train his students. He didn''t have many important things to attend to. Emile spent his day at the dojo showing fights to the students and helping around. Emile also asked about the kidnapping and his father showed him where they attacked him. He checked if his father had any injuries. His father didn''t get injured during that fight. Emile felt relieved. They continued spending time together. When it reached night, Emile left to his home. Lucifer lived in his dojo so he didn''t have to go anywhere. Emile used the bus to head home. When he entered his home, he searched the internet. Emile scoured the forums once more. The main account posted an update log. Even though the game hadn''t finished updating, they told the people the changes. ¡ª The NPC''s will be more lifelike. ¡ª Due to complaints, the boots will no longer have an attack stat. ¡ª Fixed an exploit where players could continuously switch between the first and second place on the level leaderboard to gain an enormous amount of fame. ... There were a few more minor things they changed. The game removed the attack stat from boots which weakened Emile. Emile continued to scroll through the update log. His heart beat faster when he saw one change. ¡ª The cost to gain a skill system from the Nirvanic System has been decreased to 100 silver coins This was the only announcement that had a relationship with Nirvanic''s. Emile didn''t know why the game would reveal the Nirvanic System. The only good thing about this was that they didn''t mention how to activate the Nirvanic System. He searched the forums and saw posts about the Nirvanic System. No one mentioned what the system was about. The families didn''t want average people to learn about the Nirvanic System so they never talked about it. Time Walker was the only normal person who had the Nirvanic System. Emile called him. "Hey, what''s up." Emile could hear metal hitting each other in the background. "I''m eating. Speak." Steve said as he chewed his food. "Don''t reveal the activation of the Nirvanic System," Emile said with a serious tone. "Okay, I won''t reveal anything. I won''t speak a word." Steve replied. "All right, I''ll let you finish eating. Sorry for disturbing you." Emile said. He ended the call since he didn''t want to bother him. Emile went online to look for anything interesting. The news seemed calm. Not too many problems had occurred in the recent times. Emile went to sleep. This day was the calm before the storm. ___ This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.Emile woke up the next morning. The game should have finished updating by now. Emile went online and saw the many complaints. He freshened himself before digging around to see what the ruckus was about. "It''s been 16 hours! Why can''t we enter the game!" "It''s telling us to watch the forums. I''ve been watching the forums for 30 minutes and nothing happened!" Emile noticed that the players couldn''t log into the game. HE tried to log in to see what message appeared. [The server is down. Please watch the forums for more information] Emile ordered a coffee and continued to scour the forums. All he saw were complaints about the game. The game should have finished updating a few hours earlier. Updates didn''t take longer than 15 minutes. It was unique for the game to have a long update time. Emile didn''t complain. Emile waited. It soon became noon. A live video was released on the forums. This video was released on all the technologies at the same time. They had to infiltrate all the devices in the world, which took longer than expected. This was the first time such a huge plan was put into motion. Emile started watching the video. Emile wasn''t aware of the video being worldwide. "I''m sure you''re all wondering why this live stream is occurring." A man sitting in a chair said. He faced the viewer. "We are here to talk about a certain feature about Nirvana and our world." The man continued. "I''ll give a demonstration." The man said with a smile. The man''s surrounding started changing. The ground started to rise up. He created a few figurines to show off. He also created holes in the floor. "In case anyone thinks that''s editing or CGI, then let me show you, other people." The man said. Two people walked in and summoned their own respective elements. One summoned water and launched an attack on the other person. The other person summoned shadows that blocked the attacks. They continued to attack. Since it was a live video, people could respond to it and give their reactions. "What the hell! Stop showing fake stuff, we saw that in a movie." "To everyone saying that it''s fake. We can give real-life demonstrations outside. Let me show you." The man walked outside and started creating a staircase of mud. He climbed to the top of a building. The cameraman followed in his footsteps. The other people who fought came outside and watched. People who lived near the area saw everything happen from their window. They were shocked when they saw the ground forming a staircase. They knew that this had to be real. These people took their own live videos. People were still unbelieving of everything. Trust was hard to form. This was an enormous information dump so they scrutinized everything about the live stream. "All right. I want one of the viewers who live near this place to come outside." The man said. This worked since everyone in the world was forced to watch this demonstration. A few people came out of their homes. The cameraman zoomed in on these people. The man who could summon the earth yelled out someone''s name. "I want everyone who is on the ground to watch the sky." The man said as he stared into the sky. The cameraman pointed to the sky. The people who watched the live stream were skeptical and thought that they were trying to hide something. Why would they point towards the sky if this wasn''t true? They were proven wrong when a person flew down from the sky. She floated gently in the air with her robes flying in the wind. The people who were outside were shocked and the first thought that arrived was that they used strings to pull this stunt off. The person flew around at many different altitudes to show that strings couldn''t exist. Most were still skeptical. The person even flew in an apartment building. The cameraman closed the door behind her to show that strings couldn''t exist. This person took control of the live stream inside the building. People who lived in this apartment viewed them. "If you want to learn how to gain superpowers then listen to what I have to say. You people can test out my words, even if you don''t believe in it. No matter how many techniques we show you, you people wouldn''t believe it so easily." A melodious voice began speaking. She knew that teaching the world about something would take more than one demonstration. The person talked while floating in the air. They wore a mask to hide their identity. The people inside the building waved their hand above the person and below the person to look for strings. They wanted to show that this was a hoax. Sadly, no strings were found. "Nirvana will give everyone the opportunity to become a person with superpowers. And the people who succeed can try out their skills in the real world." She continued without bothering about the people surrounding her. "All you have to do is say ''Activate Nirvanic System'' while in the game. You can try it out yourself and see how it goes. We are giving average people the opportunity to become a person of power and strength." She paused before continuing, "There are already players who have the Nirvanic System activated. These players include..." She started to list popular names. She mentioned Mystical Flame as one of those players. "So far, you have seen the element of air, water, earth, and dark. There are more elements that you can use. I have the air element. Air allows you to fly around if you''re strong enough. Water allows for lots of manipulation. You can control blood if you''re strong enough. Earth also allows manipulation of the body. You can create objects from the ground with the earth element." She spoke of the usage of elements. "There''s also the fire element. This element is powerful when used, but there aren''t people in the real world with the fire element meaning that you could become the first person to cast fire. " She mentioned the fire element. She mentioned a few more elements and their usage. "I''ll leave you with one final question. Why did we infiltrate all the devices in the world if we wanted to tell a joke? Does that make sense to do all this for a simple joke? We are not forcing you to activate the Nirvanic System. You have your own free will." The live stream ended after her last sentence. Visiting the Adventure Guild Not too many people believed in her words. Most of the world was still skeptical. Emile had his coffee dripping onto the floor. He spilled his coffee while watching the live stream. He knew the consequences of this and had no way to stop it. If the world learned to use skills in real-life, then many problems will occur. The government needed to stop them. Emile didn''t know the government had agreed to allow this decision. They wanted more people to become a Nirvanic since it had many benefits. The government understood that few people would believe their words. But they would believe other people who post stuff about using elements. They need the public to test out what they said. These people would gain the Nirvanic System and purchase a skill system. They would gain the nutrients for that element after they get the system. Then those people would try the skills in real-life to prove that the people were wrong. When they use the designated skill they learned from the game in real-life, then they will believe in the words of the video. When one person gets an ability, another person would want to get it. This would continue until there was a frenzy for these abilities. This became a waiting period for the governments. They couldn''t speed up the process unless they did more live shows about using abilities. No one trusted other people''s words unless that person was close to them. They opened the game servers once more. Emile logged on with a stifling feeling. Emile appeared in the city. He saw his friends log in. "Hey, Emile you have the Nirvanic System," Handsomest Crab said. He heard Emile''s name when the person was speaking about people having the Nirvanic System. "Yes," Emile didn''t want to lie about it. When the Handsomest Crab figures out the Nirvanic System''s function, then he would realize that Emile had lied to him. Emile had shown off his skills to them so he could connect the dots. "So can you use the skills in real-life," He continued the questioning. "... Yes." Emile paused and spoke the truth. "Why did you never... oh I know why? The more people that know, the more likely it is for a person to spill the truth." The Handsomest Crab wanted to question Emile about this but understood why he never told him about it. "I activated the system and need 100 silver coins. So I will go get money. Peace." The Handsomest Crab replied before leaving. Emile thought he would ask for money. He didn''t, which surprised Emile. Players throughout the game world were activating the Nirvanic System with caution. They couldn''t disprove their claims. Not too many players had 100 silver coins. Only a few bought the skill system. Some were just gullible and others didn''t care about their wealth so they bought the skill system.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. The time it required for people to get the nutrients were 6 hours. They had to wait 6 hours before they could learn anything. During this time they could try to get skill points for their element. Some got the skill points to learn a skill. Even if all the information they mentioned was fake, they could get a skill system that had many skills. They would have an edge over other players. Emile worried about this. He didn''t know how to stop this from occurring. He calmed himself down before exploring the city. As he started walking a system notification occurred. [The Water Skill system has been discovered inside the user''s body. Sending nutrients to the body] Emile hadn''t activated the nutrient sending function for water. The game now had an automatic feature to give nutrients to the body. Emile didn''t stop this since he wanted the nutrients to cast water abilities in the real world. He wanted to protect himself against people who used their powers with no care. [There are 6 hours left before all the nutrients enter the body] They sped up the process of gaining nutrients. They couldn''t make it instantaneous because people could die from the intake of too many nutrients. The government made it 6 hours for a smooth slow process in which the nutrients could enter the body with ease. Only newborns and old people would have problems when taking this amount of nutrients. They banned any person under the age of 8 to play Nirvana. The age limit was set at 102. Most of the world could play the game. Emile walked to a stranger. "Hello, do you know where to find the Adventure Guild," Emile asked a nearby stranger. Emile wanted to test out how good his pioneer title was. Emile noticed that only three titles could be equipped at a time. He had two titles now. "Let''s see... If you head that way and take a left on the second street, you''ll see a giant sign saying adventure guild. That''s where you can find the guild," The man said. He was kind. Emile thanked him before walking past the many lamposts that were not lit up. It was the morning of Monday. His university was closed on this day for unknown reasons. It was most likely for the announcement that was made earlier on. All the schools were closed due to this. Even the online ones which were a recent trend that was catching on. They were all forced to close which didn''t cause too many problems throughout the world. Emile walked on the solid concrete floor until he reached the first crossroad. He could continue going forward or take a left or right. Emile followed the man''s instructions and walked forward. After more walking, he saw the second crossroad and took a left. The adventure guild''s sign was gigantic. It was plastered onto the side of a building with a lot of windows. He entered the building a saw many people sitting around in the lounge. Emile also saw a reception desk. There was a lady wearing glasses who sat inside the desk. She seemed busy typing stuff onto a computer. Emile didn''t want to bother her and asked one of the people who was sitting in the lounge. "Where can I find some quests," Emile asked. "Quests... what''s that?" One person asked. "I''m guessing you''re referring to missions." The man continued without making fun of his word usage. "The missions are on the menu of your id." The man said with patience. "What id?" Emile asked not sure about what that was. "You haven''t registered yet?" The man understood why he didn''t know many things. "My name is William. I''ll help you register." He said after understanding Emile''s circumstances. "Thank you, William," Emile said. William walked to the lady who was busy on her computer. "Hey, someone else wants to join your guild. Give him his ID." William spoke rudely. "You know If you keep showing me that attitude, I''ll kick you out of my guild," she said without batting an eye at him. "You always say that but never actually kick me out," William said. "Now help this guy." He continued. "All right," she switched to another tab before typing more. She opened up a page to store other people''s data in. "Tell me what you would like to register by?" She started asking questions. "Mystical Flame," Emile responded. She typed his name into an empty spot. "What class do you have?" "I don''t have a class, yet," Emile said while feeling embarrassed. "I''ll give you a tip. No party would want you if you don''t have a class. They''ll think you''re useless since you couldn''t even get a class." The lady gave him some advice. "Woah, I''ve never seen you help out a newbie before," William spoke. "The kid''s a bit special." She peered into his eyes and smiled. "All right, all you need is a picture of yourself." She continued after turning back to her computer. She took a picture of him with an old-fashioned camera. "You''re ID will be printing soon," she said. "Why do you have so much technology? The villages don''t seem to have any types of technology," Emile asked after noticing the major changes from the village to the city.