《<< Lucid Dream >>》 Prologue - End of ones life and the creation of a new world ¡°Ah finally after more than 30 years, my dream finally bears fruit¡± one man sitting on a wheelchair staring at a huge spherical mechanism that is suspended in the air with several huge wires as large as an adults leg connected to it. The man is so thin and seems weak that might disappear any time now. Another man who is holding the wheelchair behind him is also staring at the mechanism, wearing a seemingly expensive suit with a strict air around him. ¡°Hahahaha yes my old friend finally¡± ¡°We have been in this for years and the long wait is over, sadly it¡¯s also the end of the line for me *cough* *cough* *cough *¡± a tear can be seen falling from the man¡¯s eyes reminiscing the past hardships and experience throughout the years. ¡°Please don¡¯t say some depressing things; we made it through a lot of hardships and finally achieved our dreams¡± ¡°I know *cough * but you should also know that I only have a little left before I die¡± *sigh* looking at his friend with deep concern in his eyes ¡°My friend, I also know that today is your birth day that¡¯s why I prepared a gift¡± ¡°What¡¯s the point? *cough *you know I¡¯m dying and this is my last, the *cough * only good thing is I manage to finish it before I die. It¡¯s my greatest *cough * creation and I¡¯ve put my entire life in it. But there are a lot of sacrifices that I¡¯ve made. My family *cough * abandoned me and even now I do not know their whereabouts¡± ¡°Don¡¯t say that, you also know that I lost my only son and his wife, still I¡¯m fortunate that my granddaughter manage to survive the ordeal¡± Having a very sad expression on his face. You can tell just by looking at him how much pain he felt while thinking about his family. ¡°Well let¡¯s cut to the chase *cough* as part of my final wish I want to be the first to try the full beta version *cough*¡± ¡°Of course it¡¯s already prepared along with my gift for you¡± ¡°You¡¯re still talking about that? *cough*¡± the frail man paused for a moment and think for some time and said. ¡°My friend you know how I love my family *cough* but I¡± *sigh* staring at the spherical mechanism, tears began to blur his vision as it poured down more and more. ¡°I just hope*cough*, at least make my grandson whom I never seen in my life became happy with this *cough*¡± ¡°Do not worry about it, I promise that before I die I will give your entire inheritance to him and if I did not make it I will write it on my last will, for my descendants to fulfil this promise on my behalf¡± Wiping his own tears while giving a faint smile after he heard those word from his friend ¡°you¡¯re just exaggerating it *cough* for me to feel much better, but with those words even if it did not happen I feel at ease *cough*since it¡¯s you saying it¡± ¡°Please have faith in me, besides it¡¯s my fault that you were unable to walk and¡­¡± he stop his words and tears began to fall from his eyes that is filled with regret. ¡°I ¡­.. If I only listened to you at that time, I ¡­ me and my beloved family would never fall from those bastards schemes¡± the man moves to the side of the frail man, he kneeled down and continued ¡°you sacrificed you¡¯re wellbeing for my sake, even though I almost betrayed you, even though you only manage to save my granddaughter, I never blamed you and there is only me to blame, even now deep in my heart I still cannot forgive myself¡± ¡°Raise your head idiot *cough*, that time my family already abandoned me and I cannot sit idly and let the person whom I thought as my second family to suffer as I do *cough* *cough*. Do not bow down to me because I still failed¡± Still on kneeling position the man became silent but his emotions are still rushing out and want to let it all out. ¡°No it¡¯s enough, I think of it as punishment for my sins, to you and to my family. In the end this is the only final gift I can give you, this might come as a negative thing for you but for me it¡¯s a way that I won¡¯t permanently loose a good friend¡± ¡°¡­¡± He then stand up and push the wheel chair out of the room towards a certain area where several people are already there waiting for their arrival. Several people lift the frail man off his wheel chair then put him on the bed and attached several mechanisms on him. During the whole process no one said a word. Every single person on the room has deep emotional attachment to the frail man. Some of them have feelings of gratitude¡¯s that cannot be paid for a lifetime, yet their benefactor is dying before them. Some were people whom he spent his years and shared some laughter, tears, accomplishments, they were together most of the time completing this project, yet they cannot do so anymore. The feeling of saying goodbye is so sad, so heart breaking, especially when you know you cannot meet anymore. After assembling the mechanism one approach the man who the frail man considered his most trusted friend and gave him a remote with nothing but a single button. ¡°Is everything ready¡± he asked the people on the area. Everyone gave a nod and move beside him. ¡°My friend, you will always remain in our hearts¡­¡­¡­¡­ Have a pleasant dream¡± and so he push the button and a mechanical voice can be heard.
[Commencing boot up sequence¡­]
[1%......10%.......34%.....58%......70%......90% ¡­¡­. 100%]
[Boot up sequence complete ¡­.. Checking for any errors and anomalies¡­.]
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
[1%......10%.......24%.....48%......66%......93% ¡­¡­. 100%]
[No error or anomalies detected¡­ Initiating DREAM WORLD¡­]
[1%......10%.......36%.....53%......69%......95% ¡­¡­. 100%]
¡°Thank you my friend¡±
[¡°Welcome to Lucid Dream¡±]
-=+||+=- In the year 20XX, the race to create the best virtual reality boomed and different companies began to compete fiercely. These types of virtual reality games though not what most people imagined are still considered one. These types include a screen wide and big enough to cover ones vision, inserted to a pair of googles and several attachments included. Consumers began to play these expensive yet exciting games, not until in 2XXX. To everyone¡¯s surprise a certain company named Game Platform Technologies (GPT), announced a full dive virtual reality game and at that time they were looking for one thousand beta testers who will play the game. << Lucid Dream >> this game shattered the gaming industry which caused a lot of companies go bankrupt. On its BETA state, all the chosen testers were given a virtual reality set (VR set). The result?....... ITS MIND BLOWING! Those testers uploaded their videos and experiences on the game, fighting large dragons, exploring different dungeons, and creating their own legend. Different ¡®out of this world¡¯ scenes like underground crystal palace, islands from the sky, different views atop of a gigantic tree, enchanting forest, and many more. With just these are enough for the consumers to grow exited and even before the half year period of beta test ended, lots of topics regarding the game flooded different blogs, forums, and video sites. Different reviews and speculations surfaced but the greatest question is ¡®how much will it be?¡¯ Since this is a very high end game, most discussions were focused on how much each VR set will cost. Many people began to worry and some even said that there will be a high monthly subscription since most probably the maintenance cost will be high. One month before the beta test end GPT announced a two month server maintenance and updates along with the most awaited answer ¡®The price of each VR set¡¯. The price is lower than most expected and what made all people around the world celebrate is that the game is a ¡®FREE TO PLAY¡¯. This announcement made the world go insane and this gave hope to those people who gave up the idea of playing because of its cost. The VR set of the most awaited game hit the stores one month before its launch and in just 3 days hundreds of millions sets released were sold out. These forced GPT to produce even more sets and promised to deliver at least a week before the launch. Talking about the VR set, it has three devices on a set one is the Pbox or the processor unit, Red bracelet which monitor the user¡¯s health, and lastly the Head Gear or the VR sensory helmet. The Pbox is the main component or in other terms the ¡®BRAIN¡±. It has a power cord to be connected to an electric outlet and in case of electric shortages each Pbox is equipped with an emergency power supply which will last for more or less than eight hours. There is also a warning to be sent to the user in case this happened. For those who worry that their network connection is slow or does not have one at all, Pbox is equipped with a mysterious personal network line which is not mention on how it really works. The only explanation is that with this personal network GPT promises that there will be 99.9% no time lag even if the users are at each end of the globe. This also prevents any harmful attacks to the main server. Red bracelet is what has been said earlier is a device worn on either left or right wrist which sole purpose is to monitor the user¡¯s health. Lastly the Head Gear, it has a lot of sensors that allows the user to navigate inside the game. This device allows the user to enter a lucid dream state which deceives all the senses of the human body and making it possible to actually feel the game more lifelike. It also has an iris scanner for log in authentication and other features. Everybody eagerly waits for the launching date when at exactly five days before, a case has been filed and its contents, it is not safe to use. Different claims towards the game by different individuals surfaced and it caused a huge uproar. Most people thought of refunds but on the third day before the release it surfaced that these individuals are paid by different big companies in order to cause some chaos. These companies knew that with the launch of << Lucid Dream>> will be the start of their decline. On the day of its launch, the most awaited event of the whole wide world is about to begin. More than hundreds of establishments and schools petitioned for a holiday and since it¡¯s the making of another history, some countries announced that it will be a non-working holiday. Well some did not get what they want but nonetheless it caused a world record of the most people online on a game¡¯s first day of launch. Chapter 1: Too much for a single day <> It has been almost a year now after its launch or ten months to be exact and lots of people play this game, well except for me. My name is Stanley Crux currently in second year of high school and I¡¯m somewhat an orphan. It¡¯s been three years since my parents died and without any relatives I decided to live by myself. Luckily were quite well off and my parents left me some inheritance, enough until I finished college. So ever since I entered high school, I ask my school to permit me on working part time. Since the principal knew about my circumstances he readily agreed and helped me (while crying) and promised me that if ever I got into a tight spot just ask him. Though relying on him never crossed my mind. Without any leeway on spending, I had a very tight budget and always taking advantage of market sales. People on my neighborhood always praise me on how I handle myself but I know deep inside they are just using me as an example to scare others. Things like ¡°Look at him do you want to be like him a cursed child?¡± or ¡°He¡¯s living on his own and become retarded, do you want to be like him?¡± there are also other things said but it does not matter anyway. Some may think how can I manage such life? Well I do have a great secret that no one knew. I¡¯m a reincarnated person and I¡¯m not proud of it, in fact I think it¡¯s so stupid. ¡®WHY? IF I¡¯M GETTING REBORN WITH MEMORIES IN TACT AT LEAST MAKE IT INTO A FANTASY WORLD¡¯. These are the thoughts I had when I realized that I¡¯m reborn on the same world after thirty years, well at least on a different country. My previous life is a monotonous one; I¡¯m an ordinary salary man without a family then died after being infected by a virus. Come to think of it, many people died before me and it¡¯s said that when you got infected you only have 24hrs to live. Well in the end they manage to create a vaccine but it¡¯s too late for me so I just accepted it and on my last will. Whoever hosts a proper burial will get all my wealth, though it¡¯s just a measly hundreds of thousands that I earned until I died. Enough of that depressing past so right now its six thirty in the morning and I¡¯m walking towards my school. You can hear the voices of other people greeting each other and chatting about stuffs I don¡¯t care about while I¡¯m heading towards my class. I opened the door and there are already quite a few people waiting, chatting, and doing some assignments while others copying it. Nothing had really changed to what people do in class. I go to my seat and placed my bag under my seat. I don¡¯t have any friends if you wanted to ask. The main reason is I cannot hangout with them after class because of work and people began to distance themselves before I knew it. It does not matter anyway since it¡¯s better to keep a low profile than being on a spotlight. Kids are immature and will tease you if you have flaws. Good thing they leave me alone since they think I¡¯m a creepy kid. Bell rang at exactly seven and the first subject teacher entered the class. There isn¡¯t anything noteworthy in class so let¡¯s just skip it. After school we have this thing called activity hours from Three o¡¯clock in the afternoon on-wards. It¡¯s dedicated for clubs especially sports oriented ones. You can tell that I belong to go home club, though in this case go to work club. It will take about an hour from school to my workplace and since my shift starts at six pm I make a little detour and go to an old arcade center. Places like this are quite rare now a day since <> came to be. At first this arcade had a lot of people every time I came but it started to decline and now people who visit this place can be counted in one hand. As I enter an old man who manages this place greet me. ¡°Hey Stan came to play again?¡± ¡°Yup as always¡± you can say that those who are close to me call me Stan and you can tell that they are almost non-existent ha ha ha but I¡¯m not sad, definitely not sad *snif. ¡°Come here I have some snacks prepared¡± ¡°Ooh quite prepared but, did I got here too early it seems you¡¯re not open yet¡± I noticed as I look around, all machines are left closed and none seem to be functioning The old man let out a deep breath and you can see the sadness in his eyes. ¡°Actually I¡¯m waiting for you kid¡± ¡°Me? Why?¡± getting closer to the old man in approach a chair near him and sit. ¡°Well, you see starting today I¡¯m closing the place and I¡¯m moving out of the city to my old house in the country side. Since you¡¯re the only customer who plays here every day I feel that I should tell you personally¡± ¡°I¡¯m, really sorry to hear that¡± right now I don¡¯t really know what to say, I mean this place is the only place where I go to play. More like the place I can afford to play so it¡¯s sad to hear that it¡¯s closing now. ¡°Don¡¯t be, that¡¯s part of business. Sometimes you¡¯re hit the top but the next day you might get bankrupt¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Hey let¡¯s not talk about those depressing stuff, accompany this old man to his last feast on this place¡± ¡°Y- yeah, thanks old man¡± ¡°Hahahaha now that¡¯s more like it, come on cheers¡± ¡°ha..haha..ha, Cheers¡± though it¡¯s kind of awkward we shared some glass of orange juice and some homemade snacks. Time passed by as we talk about the things I experienced on this place as well as the old man¡¯s. Things about when this business starts, the things happened on its long run. Like the fights that occurred, tournaments, young people often make this place a dating spot, excessive flirting of couples, Etc. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. I looked at my watch and see that it¡¯s almost time for my shift at work. ¡°Old man I¡¯m sorry to end our conversations but I still have a part time job¡± I stand up and bow to the old man. ¡°Well it can¡¯t be helped¡­¡­¡­.ah yeah before you leave I¡¯m giving you something you might want¡± He then stand up and walk towards a room and before I can say anything he¡¯s gone. He comes back with quite a big box wrapped in some cloth. ¡°Here it is, quite bulky but I think you can manage¡± with a smile he gave me a box wrapped in cloth. It¡¯s not that big, but still not that small. ¡°I don¡¯t think I deserve this old man¡± facing the old man who is offering the box, I raise my right hand and made a gesture for refusal. ¡°Just take it, I don¡¯t have a use for it anyway, since it¡¯s supposed to be a gift to be given to my grandson but unfortunately I recently heard that they migrated to another country a year ago. So it¡¯s too late and I don¡¯t really have anyone to give this to. I hope you won¡¯t refuse my good will, just consider this as thanks for staying with this old man and as a farewell gift.¡± I¡¯m still hesitating for a while before I reach out my hand and accept the box. I¡¯m quite curious about what is inside but it¡¯s getting late and I need to rush to my part time job. ¡°Then, all I can say to you sir is thank you for all these years and thank you very much for this gift I really appreciate it.¡± ¡°Ha ha ha ha, don¡¯t be bothered by it¡± I give my final thanks to the old man and head towards my part time job. I work as a cook on a family restaurant, at first they were doubtful about my cooking skills and just let me wash the dishes. My work only revolves around that routine until one of the cooks did not show up and when the manager reached his phone, he said he¡¯s running away with his pregnant girlfriend. At that time I thought ¡®WOW what a man, tsk¡­ tsk¡­ tsk kids this days¡¯ while shaking my head left and right. That time the manager is really angry, he look at each and every one of us and when his gaze fell upon me he asked ¡°you live alone right? Can you cook?¡± I just gave him a nod and he sent me to the kitchen to cook. The dishes came out better that the previous cook and from then on I got promoted from a dishwasher to a cook, but it does not make any sense since the salary is still the same. I arrived at the family restaurant and I noticed the sign on the door ¡®Closed¡¯. ¡°HUH?¡± I close my eyes and look at it again but there it is the sign did not change. Cold sweat runs through my body as I look around. ¡°Is this some kind of reality show pranking me?¡± I walk around towards the back where the employee entrance should be. I let out a deep breath and twist the door knob ¡°it¡¯s open¡±. Quite happy I entered and head towards the employee lockers. ¡°Oh you¡¯re here; great I have some things to talk about so come to the office for now¡± The one who greet me is the acting manager of the restaurant. I followed him and entered the room. ¡®This is making me nervous¡¯ I thought and it seems that I have a feeling on how this situation might end. There are already people inside and all of them seem to have a sad expression. ¡°Since Stan is here I guess it¡¯s time to for some explanation. First as you might have guessed the restaurant will be closing starting today, but before you react let me finish first. The owner died from an accident while enjoying their vacation and so the relatives decided to close the establishment despite the fact that were doing fine in terms of sales. Now their reason for closing is they plan to build a commercial building here which they think will generate more income. I¡¯m really sorry guys but all I can do is convince them to give you guys a two month salary. I don¡¯t have any more say in this and it¡¯s the only thing I can do, they were quite nice and approved your salaries but the down side is still we lost our job.¡± Everybody is quiet and did not say anything then one by one the manager called our names and gave us an envelope containing our last salary. After that we go on our separate ways, some went and plan to have a somewhat farewell gathering but some just went home thinking on where should they go to find another job. Of course I¡¯m the later. With everything goes down the drain I did not even bother changing clothes and dive into the bed off to dream land and hoping everything will be alright. ¡°Such luck for a rebirth in the future¡±. ~~~~~~~~~~~ Now this is the first chapter, The speed of the story is slow and i know it actually i have been thinking of wring a VR novel for quite some time now but i cant get ny idea on how to start. I resumed my other novel ''Years after war'' along with writing this one. I do not know if it will become as popular as the first one i wrote (sorry for axing it) but I do hope that at least a single person would wait every week for an update on this one BTW i Already have the 2nd chapter finished but not sure if i should post it or not since That''s all and see you on the next chapter Chapter 2: Emotional ups and downs *Alarm clock sounds* ¡°U¡­ ugh¡± Still sluggish after waking up from the alarm sound, I forced my body to move and turn it off. I made some light stretch and get off my bed. I opened my refrigerator and prepared from what¡¯s left inside. *yawn* Still feeling a bit sleepy after preparing my breakfast, I decided to eat first then take a nice bath. I still have some bad after effects on what happened yesterday so I decided to skip my daily routine. Such bad luck on a single day and all I can do is let flow do its stuff. Thinking ahead, what I need is to find another job later after school. Since it will be the week ends tomorrow I will have a lot of time to find one. After preparing for school I left the house while saying I¡¯m off. Everything is normal and same as usual, People greeting each other which all in all has nothing to do with me. I reach the classroom as usual and wait for the class to start. There is nothing worth mentioning for today aside from the usual lectures and boring teachers and so on. After the afternoon classes have finished, since I do not have anything to do so I decided to look around the school. There are only a few noteworthy places in this school and places that you can visit without annoying anyone. First is the library, some might think that this is some kind of place for encounter but reality is quite cruel. The librarian is an old lady and her assistants are more or less male. Female assistants are rare in the library, they rather watch their favourite varsity player and go ¡®kyaaa¡­. kyaaa¡¯ on the side-lines than to do a boring and never ending job like arranging the books in the shelves. Second are those sports club. If you ask me which one I would like to watch it¡¯s the women¡¯s volleyball or tennis practices. Why those? Well those places where you can watch in silence or rather it¡¯s quieter than those in other places. Basketball, table tennis, badminton, etc. each have their respective poster girl or boy which attract too much noise and aside from those two sports I like to watch, the other coaches let the crowd do whatever they want so I hate them. Third is the open clubs. These clubs have open performances that other people are allowed to watch silently. Those are the drama club, mini orchestra, light music club, art and crafts, etc. The last ones are the hobby clubs. They are also open to other non-members but once you enter they will pester you to join their club. I accidentally entered one before and it took a lot of will to convince them I can¡¯t join. I chose to head towards the tennis club because for some reason today, the club will have a practice match against other schools. When I arrived the match already started. A lot of people can be seen silently watching the game because if you are too loud the scary coach will put his eyes on you and it won¡¯t end well. ¡°Whoa as expected of our ace she really beat her opponents without mercy¡± ¡°Well she isn¡¯t called the executioner in our school for no reason¡± ¡°I heard she¡¯s playing <> and she is also quite famous as a sword user¡± ¡°Yeah I saw her once slaughtering her way inside a dungeon and no one stopped her for doing so¡± ¡°Who would? After she wasted a couple of men trying to woo her, then forced to re-create their characters to avoid being killed on sight (KOS) by her fans. It made quite an uproar back then¡± ¡°ooh I remember that one¡± The person whom they are talking about is ¡®Cely Go¡¯. She is a model student which has both ¡®beauty and the brains¡¯ she is also quite famous in our school after winning the last year ¡®miss campus crush¡¯ while as a freshmen. She then joined the tennis club and won the regional meet last year. Though its news to me that she plays that game. It¡¯s actually something that I should have expected since her family is rich. Her father is the owner of a five star hotel which is famous for their services and hospitality. Honestly I could care less since in my eyes she is still too young, more like a daughter to me that is if you compare my mental age or should I call soul age to her. But I must admit that she leans on the high class beauty side. It feels somewhat odd whenever I see her; I mean is there such thing as a perfect person in the world? In my opinion there isn¡¯t one. The game ended up in favour of our school and people started to disperse. I don¡¯t have anything to do here so I decided to leave. When I turn around all of a sudden I felt some sharp gaze on me and it made me felt somewhat alert. I quickly turn around and tried to find that gaze but as soon as I made my move the feeling fade away. ¡®Was it only my imagination?¡¯ I thought for a sec but in the end I decided to let it be and move on. Dusk came and I was preparing to leave after loitering around the school killing some time. I check my bags content to be sure I did not miss anything. ¡°Huh?¡± I am quite amazed by the fact that there is an item inside my bag that is definitely not mine. I look around and saw nothing since I¡¯m the only one on the room; my classmates bring their stuff when they head towards their clubs so the only bag left in the room was mine. ¡°Is this supposed to be a prank?¡± You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. That¡¯s the first thing that came to mind after pulling out that thing inside my bag. It is a thin rectangular object, with quite a girly design and enclosed with a cute sticker. Yep it¡¯s a letter. I opened it and read the content it says as follows: ¡°Dear Stanley, I¡¯ve been quite fascinated by you for quite a while now and if possible I would like for us to meet today at the back of the gym and have a little chat with me. PS: I will be waiting Cel¡± ¡°uuugh, huh? Seriously?¡± My brain froze for a moment and read it all over again. Still the contents are clear and I think I did not miss-interpret this letter. ¡°To think that there will be a time when I will receive such thing¡± My heart began to pound heavier to the point of going crazy. Both now and even in the previous one, I never receive such letter. ¡®aaah, I¡¯m in heaven¡¯ or so I thought. It took quite a while before I calm down and think it over. ¡°This must be a prank¡± ¡®DO NOT UNDER ESTIMATE THE MIND OF AN ADULT¡¯ Cel? Who in the right mind would use that name. You could easily get the wrong conclusion that this letter came from her. If you think about it more carefully why would she send a letter to an unknown man in school? I can even proudly say that i never talked to her once, not even a simple ¡®good morning¡¯ greeting. Therefore I conclude this letter is a trap, so let¡¯s ignore it and head home. It¡¯s dangerous if other people read this so to be safe I brought it back home. ¡°I¡¯m back¡± not that someone will answer me back. I placed my bag on my bed and prepare some dinner. It¡¯s really lonely living alone but what can I do? Thinking back on the things I¡¯ve done, I never really change much. Aside from my daily routine which is also became a habit of mine, every morning I will jog towards the nearest park and since there aren¡¯t any people around I do some parkour. At first my sense of balance is so bad that doing so will only cause some unfortunate accidents. So I first train my stamina, then my flexibility, and lastly my reflex. After that I do some self-thought martial arts that came from the net. Some forms are easy to understand and with a little courage of mine I tried doing parkour little by little. I know I¡¯m quite stupid but I don¡¯t have anyone to teach me in the first place and looking for a proper teacher or enlisting in a dojo cost allot of money thus with the little courage I had I don¡¯t really know what to do. It came to me slowly that my confidence starts to build up upon being capable to do the things I saw from videos on the net. It made me happy and became thrilled, in the end it became a habit. Though I don¡¯t want other people to see me doing so that¡¯s why I always do it early in the morning where people are busy preparing themselves, going to work or school. ¡°Ah! There is still that!¡± Suddenly remembering something I forgot since yesterday I immediately went to the place I stored it and see its contents. After I removed the cloth, what I saw is something that made me surprised. The box is wrapped using a very feminine paper with details and decors that indicates this gift is intended to be given to a girl. ¡®WHAT THE! OOOOOLD MAAAAN¡¯ I screamed loudly in my thoughts. Isn¡¯t this too cruel? A gift to your grandson? Did your grandson lost his junior that¡¯s why you want to give him this type of gift? Damn I was deceived give me back my feelings! ¡°...¡± I pause for a moment before regaining my senses. ¡°Since you already gave this to me might as well unbox it. I just hope it¡¯s not something I cannot use. Well if I can¡¯t use it might as well sell it. It might sound cruel but it¡¯s payback for what the old man did¡± With a lot of hesitation I decided to un-wrap the box. ¡°¡­¡± Speechless, I cannot think of anything after I remove the wrapper. This type of gift is not something you buy then give it away to a stranger just because you cannot give it to the intended person. I mean ¡®WHO THE HELL WILL GIVE A PRESENT SUCH AS A BOX OF STRAWBERRY JAMS THAT IS WAY PAST ITS EXPIRATION DATE¡¯. Does the old man intended to troll his grandson so much then it just so happens that I¡¯m the one suffering? I let out a mouth full of air then decided to open the box. ¡°At least I can re-use the jars and recycle the box¡±. While thinking of using the jars as condiments containers I remove the tape seal and open the box. ¡°...¡± Again I¡¯m speechless, does the old man really likes to troll people? And why am I the one suffering from this? What I saw inside the box is the most anticipated and well known item in the world today. It¡¯s the Game Platform Technologies virtual reality set for the game <>. *sigh* ¡°Damn old man¡± I said with a soft voice resigning myself. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Here is the second chapter on the series. for those people who are reading this work, Thank you very much for your patience Anyway hope yo enjoy this chapter. Next chapter should be posted within 4 days Thanks Chapter 3: Avatar Creation Right now I¡¯m trembling with excitement; I never thought that I would ever have a chance to play the game of my dreams. Even in my previous life, all I ever wished is to play a full dive virtual reality game which never happened since technology never advanced fast enough before I die. In this life I also thought that even if it came true I will be too old to play it and busy with work. But now I hold in my hands the thing I want the most ¡®FINALLY¡¯ Ok let¡¯s stop being over dramatic and look for the manual for using this stuff. I found a folded sheet of paper inside which turned out to be the manual so I just followed it. ¡°Ok now I have properly installed it, next will be. Right let¡¯s take a bath first then secure the house as they say safety first and lastly lets dive in, uhe he he he¡± If other people were to see me right now laughing they might be, no they definitely feel disgusted. After the preparation is complete it¡¯s now time to enjoy myself. I plug the main the Pbox and press the power button, wear the bracelet, put on the VR Gear and lay down my bed. ¡°Connect to <>¡± [Commencing boot up sequence¡­] [Boot up sequence complete ¡­.. Checking for any errors and anomalies¡­.] [No error or anomalies detected¡­] [Iris scan initiating¡­. [New user detected, you will now be guided to new account creation. Would you like to continue?] ¡°Yes¡± [Brain waves registration starts... Your Account has been created¡­. You will now be transferred to Avatar creation room and an A.I. will guide you during the creation. Thank you for playing, have a great day] A heavy feeling of wanting to sleep suddenly hit me and after I regain my senses I¡¯m inside or should I say where is this place?. I look around and see nothing but an infinite space no matter where I look, well aside from the floor and the ceiling I cannot see any walls it just go on and on and ooon. [¡°Welcome to avatar creation room for Lucid Dream. I will be the one to guide you and also the one to summarize the game functionality, rules and what you must do after you enter the world¡±] What appeared before me is a woman hovering in mid-air. From the tone of her voice and manner of speaking you can¡¯t really tell she is only an A.I. ¡®As expected they use a high class beauty for a guide huh¡¯ While examining the woman in front of me I can¡¯t help but let out a deep breath of dis-appointment. Don¡¯t misunderstand me I¡¯m definitely and absolutely straight. What I¡¯m dis-appointed is that, she is wearing a plain fiction type Villager (A) outfit. ¡®Goodness if you¡¯re sending in a beauty at least let her wear something sexy or at least eye-catching blood boiling clothes¡¯ is what I thought. Then I suddenly realize something really important and if my fears are on the spot it makes me feel like digging a hole and then burying myself. So I have to ask to clear this question on my mind. I look at her and ask ¡°Um can you ¡­ possibly ¡­ hear or read¡­ my thoughts?¡± [Quite a weird thing to say first, but No I cannot. Mind reading is not possible since humans will unconsciously guard their minds and thoughts will remain thoughts unless you convert it into words in this world.] ¡°ooh so basically no one will know what I¡¯m thinking unless I said it out loud?¡± [Yes] ¡°Does it also apply to body movement?¡± [If you are referring to the difference between actual and thought actions then yes] If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. ¡°I see, then can I proceed to Avatar creation?¡± [Yes] A figure of me suddenly appeared and good thing I had some boxers on *laughs*. [Then please select your Race] ¡°May I know what the playable races are?¡± [For now there are only Human, Elf, Dwarves, and Halflings] Suddenly there were four of me floating and each represents the four said race. ¡°Can you give me more detail about the said races?¡± [Certainly, Humans have the highest amount of population and scattered in every part of the inhabitable lands. They are said to be the weakest race but they rely on their numbers and strategies to defeat the enemies. They are the race which has more capabilities in learning different fields and to excel in their chosen field will depend on ones capabilities. Elf¡¯s are people with the lowest population and their strength lies on their keen senses and huge mana pool. They also rely on their relations with spirits to strengthen their battle potentials. Dwarves despite having short physique, they have huge amount of strength and stamina. Even if they did not possess the ability to use magic, they were born with high resistances towards a certain element. They also excel in terms of crafting metal arts. Halflings, even though their physical strength is a little bit lower than humans they cover this weakness by having a swift and nimble bodies. They were shorter than humans and slightly taller than dwarves. Because of high dexterity most Halfling would choose to be scouts and assassins. Some use their uniqueness in Tailoring and compounding items.] ¡°I will choose human then¡± All three figures vanish with the human me remaining. [For now, is there anything you want to change?] ¡°None I guess, Wait please make my hair silver, the eyes will be deep blue, hair is ¡­ make it long just a little bit below shoulder level¡± I¡¯m just average in looks anyway and I don¡¯t bother changing it specially my physique. It will only be troublesome in moving so I let it be. [Next will be the introduction about the things you must do and take note of after leaving this room] It¡¯s quite long so let¡¯s skip some parts and outline the important details as she said in the game. So the game does not have a story line, just a history of every kingdom or empire you enter. Once you entered the game you have to find the nearest ¡®Adventurer¡¯s Association¡¯ and apply for an identification card. The card will serve as your pass in every town or city. Without the card one can¡¯t leave the starting area. People of this world or NPC have their own cards and are issued the moment they were born. Every player will be subjected to stay on the city they were spawned for a period of time, depending on the player¡¯s movements and deeds. You also need to reach a certain rank on the ¡®Adventurer¡¯s Association¡¯. Ranks are divided from J-S, J being the lowest that represent as common citizen like a housewife or children and S being the highest. People with the rank [I] are those who have jobs like blacksmith apprentice, Alchemist apprentice, and so on. Those who have [H]are usually people with their respective professions; Combat professions like soldier, hunter, warrior, mage, and so on. There are also crafting professions, support, etc. If players reach at least [H] rank, they are already allowed to venture out in the world. This means that they already have a solid foundation of their chosen profession. Players can get quests from the Association¡¯s board and earn your way towards each rank by accumulating points until you reach [H] rank. Another option is by introduction of a high ranking adventurer from [B]-rank above. They still need to pass a certain test depending on the player¡¯s expertise. If the player manages to pass they will automatically gain [H] rank. If you want to increase your rank above [H], you have to reach a certain level and pass a ranking test. The difficulty will depend on each rank the player wants to advance. For the sake of realism, the game does not have any fixed quest or daily quest. Just like in real life, players will be rewarded according to an NPC¡¯s judgement based on how you helped them or based on what they asked you to do also depending on what that NPC can give you. In other words if a small girl asks a player to slay an ancient dragon don¡¯t expect a grand reward because in reality she does not possess anything to give except if she is from a noble family. So before accepting quest/errands negotiating for rewards is a must. This is also the reason why the ¡®Adventurer¡¯s Association¡¯ exist. They regulate request and give rewards after completion. Personal quest or request that did not go through the ¡®Adventurer¡¯s Association¡¯ are outside of the Association¡¯s judgement. If you got tricked you can only blame yourself. [So do you have any question regarding the game?] ¡°None I think. Anyway I just have to figure it out if I got stuck on something¡± [Well then as for the final procedure. What would your avatar name be?] ¡°Fang¡± [Name is available¡­ Sending the user to the world¡­] ¡°Wait what about my starting area?¡± [That is always set to random... Good luck] Chapter 4: City of Ruins My vision suddenly became pure white then it slowly return to normal. I look around and survey my surroundings. Right now I''m in a really large place and I''m standing on a circular platform that has some kind of writings on its outer ring. I can see some round pillars, perfectly aligned towards a huge door. I decided to leave the room and open the huge door. *creek*(door opens) "Just like I thought this place is a cathedral or a temple" After entering the door what I saw is a huge hall, on the right is a huge altar with a huge statue of a woman that is holding a cornucopia. ''Must be a goddess of this world'' And on the left is another huge door that seems to be the exit since it¡¯s a lot bigger than the door I first came. Seeing these I decided to approach the altar. While walking I began to notice some odd things in this place. First the whole place is too quiet; second there were no one else besides me here. The game started for several months now but not a single person can be seen or at least an NPC to greet the players that entered the place. And lastly I can¡¯t help but have this eerie feel about this place. I arrived at the altar and stared at the statue which is three times bigger than me. Then I examine every corner of the pace but found nothing. With nothing to amuse me I decided to just kneel and pray while facing the statue. "I do not know anything about this place aside from thinking that this is a church. I do not know neither your name nor the faith you represent. I just got here in this world for not too long but since this is the place I was sent maybe this is also called fate. I wish not for strength nor power and wealth. I have suffered for as far I can remember so what i want to wish is for you to bless me with luck that I will carry throughout my journey and help me to overcome things that the strong and the wealthy cannot pass through. That''s all, thank you" I stand up and made a final bow then turning around and decided to walk away but a blinding light began to glow. I quickly turn around but the light is too bright for me to see. As the intensity of the light slowly decreases I saw the silhouette of the huge statue that is still wrapped around by the fading light. *DING* System Message: You received the blessings of Fortuna the goddess of Luck thus increasing you¡¯re luck by 200 ¡°Huh?¡± I rub my eyes then look again but the small blue window is still showing me the same message. Wait how can I check my stats? ¡°What is the command again¡± ¡°Status!¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Character¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Character Status¡± ¡°...¡± What! I should have look into it first. No point in regretting it so let¡¯s just make an educated guess. After thinking hard for a while I added some gestures while shouting the words.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! I raised my right hand at shoulder level palms open wide facing upwards, tilt my head to the right for a little bit the Shout ¡°Status¡± and a wink added at the end. ¡°...¡± A----nd nothing happens. ¡°Pu- puha ha ha ha¡± I laugh so hard while holding my stomach. Good thing no one can see me now or else it will be a huge embarrassing moment for me. When I recovered from my laughter while having some tears in my eyes I look around just to make sure no one saw me. When I make sure the surrounding were clear I think of another method. *DING* System Message: The goddess of luck saw you¡¯re performance thus became quite fond of you and increasing your luck by 300 ¡°...¡± Right now I feel like I want to dig a really deep hole and bury myself in. -=+||+=- After spending quite some time encouraging myself and deciding that this matter did not really happen, I resumed my guessing game, without the gestures of course. ¡°Show Status¡± -Status - Name: Fang Level: 1 Race: Human Fame:0 Health: 100/100 ????: 0/0 Stamina: 100/100 Wealth: 0g 0s 20c Strength: 10 Dexterity: 10 Vitality: 10 Intelligence: 10 Wisdom: 10 Luck: 310 Skills: Active: None Passive: None Others: Fortuna¡¯s Blessings (Medium) I felt really glad that I was able to finally open my status window after so many attempts. Looking at my status there are some things displayed that I¡¯m quite confused. Well there is also that blessing but it¡¯s been already explained. Let¡¯s look at the stats description first. I tap on the stats one by one. Strength: Greatly increase player¡¯s physical damage, and physical capabilities. It also increase Ki (for Ki based classes) limit by a small amount Dexterity: Increase hit rate(for ranged weapons), Crafting success, and a small amount of physical damage it also increases the possibility of dealing special status to the enemy (Ex. Stun, Bleed, etc.) Note: only possible if the player have the skill. Vitality: Increase player¡¯s stamina, health points and physical defense. Also affects Ki for Ki based classes Intelligence: Increase the damage of magic based attacks and greatly affects the amount of mana for mana based classes Wisdom: Increase mana/Ki for mana/Ki based classes it also increase magical defense. It is also a requirement for some skills to be learned for both types of classes. Luck: Increase both luck, and drop rate of the player. It also increases the probability of success in crafting items. Cannot allocate points on this stat Fortuna¡¯s Blessings (Medium): You are blessed by the goddess of luck. Increase luck by a total of 300. After viewing my status I look at the statue of Fortuna and made a slight bow while saying ¡°Thank you¡± I walk towards the exit and opened the door. *creek*(door opens) ¡°..¡± I stop for a moment before I regain my senses. What lay in front of me is a city, a big city that is completely in ruins. I can see buildings that are completely destroyed, houses which some are lucky to have half of it still standing, pavements with lots of small craters that destroyed it, the city walls which more than half of it is destroyed. ¡°Such luck my a**, did I got sent here after an invasion?¡± I look the ruins in front of me again and I find out that it¡¯s quite old. Mosses are already moving their way on the walls and stones of the ruined buildings. Grass is already dominant on the area and there are some trees growing in some parts. ¡°Why am I sent here? It can actually pass as a ghost town¡± I walk further from the cathedral¡¯s gate and I noticed that I hit something invisible but did not do anything to me as I walk pass it. I walk back and stretch my hand. ¡°Is this a barrier? So that¡¯s why this place is not destroyed¡± Looking at the cathedral I saw some parts of it are already starting to crumble. Large cracks on the walls can be seen and two are already destroyed. There are also skeletons that seem to be from humanoid creatures that are already half buried on the ground. ¡°What should I do?¡± I look up and saw that it is still far before it gets dark so I decided to look around to see what I can salvage from this ruins. ¡°The dead can¡¯t use it anyway, so let this poor man take what he might need¡± Five hours passed and it¡¯s almost dawn after looking at different buildings which has a bigger area. I took what seems usable and head towards the cathedral. There are a lot of rusty items like knives, swords, shields, and armours. There are also books that seem too old but can still be read. Some places have locked boxes from hidden passages that I tore open and found some gold coins, jewelleries and weapons that are still in good condition. Of course I gave a simple prayer to those skeletons that I see, they might be part of the game but it feels bad if I don¡¯t do it since I¡¯m taking their stuff. There is a place that is too hard to find and I think because of my luck I manage to find a storage room hidden under the basement of the building. The storage room is not that big but you can tell at a glance that it is a very important room. The door is tightly shut and cannot be opened. There are three slots deeply engraved on the door forming a triangular pattern and a key hole at the center. I take note of the size and shape of the slots and since two of it is already filled I only have to find the third and the key. Then I search the building, even though the door is quite old given my current strength I don¡¯t think I can forcefully open it. It took some time before I noticed a skeleton not far away from the house which is under a pillar and only half of its skeleton remains. On its neck is a rusty key while holding some kind of gem that is almost completely buried. Obtaining both items I decided to make a proper burial. It took some time but since all I do is cover the remains with soil and the pillar serves as its grave marker the I say a small prayer then leave the place. After inserting the last gem and hoping that the key will hold on I manage to open the door. The room is well lit by using some glowing stones on the wall. It has a lot of cobwebs and papers littering the floor. At the end of the room there are three items floating on three circular platforms, a book and a sword I approach the items and carefully prepared my heart for traps. Since it looks like precious items then obviously there are trap mechanisms prepared on an occasion that someone steals it. ¡°There¡¯s nothing¡± Yeah there are no traps that activated which make me more curious. The items go directly to my item bag and nothing really happened. I look around to make sure I did not miss anything but I only find a letter that is sealed and a name is written on one corner it says ¡®Marcus Faith¡¯. I took the letter then leave the place and head towards the cathedral. Chapter 5: Exploring the cathedral (1) Inside the barrier on the vicinity of the cathedral I sat down and wait for the sunset and observe the surroundings. As the place got darker you can actually see a very faint light coming out from the barrier. Illuminated by the moonlight different monsters began to appear but cold sweat began to pour down because the supposed to be beginner¡¯s area is now surrounded by different aggressive and high level monsters. In the game normally you won¡¯t see the level of a certain monster unless you already kill a similar monster but it also depends if the monster you fought is within 10 levels above you. You can see the difference in level by looking at its name, even though it only display ¡®????¡® the level difference is indicated by the color of the ¡®???¡¯. The color or level difference between the monster and the player is divided into. White > grey > Green > Blue > Yellow > Red > Purple. White: Monster level = Player¡¯s lvl +5 (or more but less than Grey and also below players level) Grey: Monster level = Player¡¯s lvl +15 (or more but less than Green) Green: Monster level = Player¡¯s lvl +30 (or more but less than Blue) Blue: Monster level = Player¡¯s lvl +50 (or more but less than Yellow) Yellow: Monster level = Player¡¯s lvl +70 (or more but less than Red) Red: Monster level = Player¡¯s lvl +90 (or more but less than Purple) Purple: Monster level = Player¡¯s lvl +100 (or more) All the monsters I see are all either yellow or red names. Meaning if I try to fight them, it¡¯s like charging against a lion¡¯s pack with only a toothpick in hand. ¡°Does the game want me to stay here forever?¡± Usually the level of monsters increase the further you go from the starting area meaning I¡¯m way way too far from the novice area and have no means to level up or increase my stats since the game does not allow increase in stats by training your avatar like running, push-ups, lifting, etc. these things only apply to those NPC. The only training that will help the players to improve their avatars is to accumulate actual combat experience. Not the experience you normally get by killing monsters but the experience in fighting one. The player will get accustomed to fighting monsters and handle the timing of releasing their skills during combat. It is really helpful to train aspects like team work and skill usage of each player to defeat their enemies. This method will not increase the player¡¯s stats but their efficiency in combat. ¡°What should I do?¡± The monsters that are roaming around are all ghost type category. No wonder there isn¡¯t any monster¡¯s lurking nearby, this area is a hunted ruins and monsters only appear at night. ¡°It¡¯s a good thing I stick to the idea that monsters became more frequent when it gets dark ¡° I would become a human shawarma if I continued my search earlier, it¡¯s a good thing that this cathedral is considered as a safe spot or else I will be killed every time I revived. Observing the monsters and most of them are zombies and ghouls in the form of different animals or should I call different carnivore monsters before they became what they are ¡®undead¡¯.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. I decided to enter and explore the cathedral since I don¡¯t really know what to do. I can¡¯t go levelling outside and in the morning all I can do is search the places I haven¡¯t checked. The whole city is big and I only manage to search the nearby areas. The outer area is not a good place to search and if my intuition is correct then the exit of this city might have some valuables left that those who tried to flee, but what I really need to do is to find a secret path leading to a safe place. How did I come up with such idea? If this game is using a realistic point of view then Nobles or much like the ruler of this city must have some means of escape for emergency purposes. But I can¡¯t also rule out that this secret passage is already invaded by some monsters and maybe different from this undead. Inside the cathedral, aside from the door I came from there are a lot of rooms. Most are empty rooms with a podium at the end of the room; I guess these rooms are used to worship the goddess of this place. There are also some rooms which have office like feel but the book shelves are empty, at some rooms I can still find some ink bottles and quills but all of it is useless to me. As I explore I manage to enter a room where several items are still placed on the shelves like books and some boxes that contains tightly sealed ink bottles and some quills that still survives. I took five bottles of ink and three quills since you will never know when you might need one. I did not take them all since this is a holy place, having the wrath of a god is not a good thing. Moving to the near book I noticed that they are some that looks really old and written in a language I cannot understand but luckily there is also a dictionary. If my train of thought is correct I should gain something here. I flip the pages of the dictionary and to my surprise it is written in the old English form. There are also some explanations regarding the different runes. It piques my interest and read it page by page. You can¡¯t blame me since it felt like I¡¯m a child that found a new toy *laughs*. *Ding* System message: Ancient language comprehension acquired (50%) After reading the whole book this message appeared ¡°Only 50% huh¡± I¡¯m quite disappointed because after reading the whole book I did not gain the complete mastery. I tried to think for a moment but abandoned the thought and instead I take one of the old books then open it. *Ding* System message: Ancient language comprehension increased by 10% ¡°¡­¡± After barely reading the next book my language comprehension only increased by a small margin. ¡°Reality is really cruel, if this is a scenario in those novels that I have read. I should obtain a full language comprehension once I finish a book¡± *sigh* I put down the book I¡¯m currently holding which took a lot of time while it slowly being translated by the system. Since the comprehension is only at 50% some text are not properly translated. Luckily the book is only about some random old priest experiences during his life which did not include any valuable information so I can discard it. Changing to the next book I began to read. This time a significant change in the translation speed and quality have increased and its contents are not that valuable since it¡¯s a book compilation of children¡¯s bed time stories. ¡°¡­¡± I really mean it. The story goes from knights slaying dragons to witches tricking bad kids and then eating them after. *Ding* System message: You have read a book containing basic writings that is easier to understand therefore your Ancient language comprehension increased by 20% *grin* It felt good. That¡¯s right, when learning how to read it¡¯s better to familiarize one¡¯s self to basic sentences rather than complex ones but in this situation, how would I know which one is which huh! I moved to the next book one after another while slowly increasing my comprehension. ¡­.. ¡­ .. . *Ding* System message: Your Ancient language comprehension is now at 100%. After reading more than half of the books in the room I finally got what I wanted. But the strange part is I did not gain any stat while reading. Circumstances like this should earn me some Intelligence or Wisdom stat but it did not earn me anything other than language comprehension. ¡°There is something wrong here, did I forget something?¡± Thinking back when the A.I. explained the basic things that I need to know. I kept thinking that it is mentioned in one of those boring explanation. ¡­. ¡­ .. . *Flash back* ¡°Eeeh? Why?¡± [The purpose of this limitation is to balance the power of each player and so there will be no one who can take advantage of the stats. Like having too much stat in strength for a low level avatar. The conclusion of not allowing players to train their stat which is not in line with their class has been an argument before the game has been created. In the end a player can train every stat but if the stat is not the main stat of their class the work will be doubled. If a player wants to train their main stat then every single step or requirements for that stat will increase. For example, a mage want to train their Intelligence and wisdom stat. by reading a single book the player will gain additional stat(+1 depending on the books content) but if the player wants to gain more, then a single book wont suffice and repeatedly reading a book won¡¯t help. On the other hand if a mage want to train the strength stat, if a swordsman can increase the stat by swinging his sword one hundred times then the mage need to swing two hundred times. Then the rule will also apply that you need to double that effort to gain another stat increase and so on. In conclusion if you want to train stats then you need to have a Class first.] ¡°Then it¡¯s better to achieve your desired Class as early as possible huh¡± [Yes. The other players also post this information on the BBs and it became the second goal after getting your I.D.] ¡°I see Isee¡± *Flash back ends* . .. ¡­ ¡­. ¡°I¡¯m doomed¡± Chapter 6: Exploring the cathedral (2) I¡¯m really doomed as in literally doomed, how am I supposed to get a Class in this ruined city? Unless there is a Class scroll hidden in this place. Walking along the corridor I chanced to find a locked room. I tried to open it but to no avail. In the end I gave up and move along. ¡°This place is?¡± Upon opening a door there was a well-furnished room with book shelves filled with old books that started to rot away. I scan the area and did not find any good ones to read since most of it are bibles and old records. It might be interesting but I¡¯m not here to be a historian or the likes. And most of all it is not related to any quest I have which in reality a single mission or quest does not even exist. I open the drawers on the sides which contain different paper works but on the last drawer there exist a bunch of keys covered in rust. ¡°Do I have to try all of these? There¡¯s about more than a hundred of them¡± (Y.Y)b Returning to the lock door after I grabbed the key then tried to open the door. One by one, each key that does not fit or failed to open the door were separated from the bundle and after the 389th try only one key remains. *Click* The door finally opened. ¡°Did my luck go negative instead, why am I so unlucky¡± *cries* -=+||+=- If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°Analyse¡± 3 Carat Diamond A rare and precious stone that can be sold for a high price based on its quality and size. The stone is old but since it has been properly stored its quality did not drop. Item Grade: Rare ¡°Analyse¡± Old Sword It¡¯s a commonly used weapon among warriors because of its flexibility in combat. Due to poor maintenance and the passage of time it became rusted so its durability and capabilities dropped a lot. Physical Damage: +3 Durability: 3/10 Item Grade: Common Required level: 1 I began using the skill I found in that room to level it up. It seems that this skill can go from level one to ten and right now I manage to raise it up to level four which allows me to Identify ¡®Rare¡¯ grade items which still fails from time to time. There are still a some small pile of items I wanted to use the skill ¡®Analyse¡¯ but it seems that it won¡¯t go up if I don¡¯t use it on higher grade items. Analyse is a special skill that I got after tearing a skill scroll which I found in that locked room. The skill is an upgraded version of the commonly used ¡®Identify¡¯ by artificers and crafting class professions. The skill ¡®Identify¡¯ is not a closed skill which can be learned by any class. Closed skills are skills that are specific in every class and cannot be learned unless the class you have is related to the class that the skill is meant to be learned. For example, A Fire Mage can learn the spell fireball which is a closed skill then a Warrior cannot learn the fireball spell since the Warrior class it not related to the Fire Mage class. On the other hand, a Fire Sage can use this skill since they are both fire oriented spell casters. It is mentioned that ¡®Analyse¡¯ is the upgraded version of ¡®Identify¡¯. The only difference is that ¡®Identify¡¯ Can only be used in items or inanimate objects while ¡®Analyse¡¯ can be used to view not only objects but monsters as well as ¡®Players¡¯ and NPC¡¯s. Both of the skills require the user to level it up to view the descriptions or status of the higher grade. Though there is a brief explanation on the status window about the skill. Now for the item grade it is divided into Common > Unique > Rare > Legendary > Ancient > Godly which Common is the lowest grade and Godly is the highest. I tried to use ¡®Analyse¡¯ on the three items I found earlier but every time I did it always fails. It¡¯s grade must be higher than rare, is what I thought. After I reach the point where I got bored and finished exploring the whole area I now need to find a way to leave this cursed land. Looking outside it seems that I spend too much time exploring the cathedral. The sun is starting to rise unto the skies and the monsters began to disappear slowly. When the sun completely illuminates the surroundings it¡¯s now safe to venture outside and explore once more. My aim now is to look for huge buildings and look for some clues about this place and to find some hints where I can escape this place. A map is also a good thing to have for me to know where to go next. I decided to find a place with the highest elevation where I can view the whole place. I found a huge tree on a small hill near the city walls. I climb to the highest spot I can go and eventually the whole city came into view. I¡¯m not worried about some stray monsters since this area feels like it wards off anything that is not an un-dead. So exploring the city is relatively safe where you can take a stroll worry free. I took out a pen and a paper to make a rough sketch of the city and point out the places where I think I might found something; I also take note of the places where I have already been. It took some time before I finish everything and double check the crude sketch I made so that I did not miss anything. ¡°Alright time for some thieving, I mean recycling *laughs*¡± Chapter 7: Passage way *drip* *drip* *squeak* *Ding*
System message
You killed an underground rat. Exp gained + 10
*Ding*
System message
Level up. Stat points +3
After several long hours of walking along the path on these old sewers, while killing those rats. I finally reach level four. No wonder that after almost a year the rank 1 in the player rakings is only at level thirty nine. The experience gained is so bad and the experience needed to level up is enormous. *sigh* ¡­. ¡­ .. . ~Few hours ago~ After I finish my exploration I end up storming a grand building which I think is used to be the house of the noble which govern this city. I found some valuable items which is literally scattered on the floor. Gold coins, golden wares, silver candle holders, and other expensive looking stuff, too bad the paintings already at a decaying state. If you think about it I¡¯m literally rich but since my wealth meter states that I have an enormous ZERO gold. Well if you look at my storage box you will see a lot of chest boxes and bags. With only 150 item slots, where would I place all of my loot? First it made my head ache and made me quite dizzy by thinking of a solution. Then I remember seeing a huge empty chest box in one of the rooms in the cathedral so I place all rusted items there until its full then tried to place it in my storage. And what do you expect? Of course it is a success *laughs* The item label even changed from ¡®empty chest¡¯ to ¡®Chest full of rusting items¡¯. So I sorted the items I currently own and find something that can hold these items separately. At first I only throw everything in my storage but when I look at it at some point, I noticed that the maximum stack of items is different from each other. The gems can stack up to fifty while the rusted weapons which cannot be used (durability is at 2 or 1) are stack up at the maximum of thirty per slot while the usable ones occupies one slot for each of them. The gold and silver coins are different which is at 300 in maximum. But after I placed them in different chest or bag my storage which is almost full, now have a lot of space to spare. I think the only reason why gold and silver coins do not appear on my wealth stat is because of difference in currency. So when I get into a good place to change them let us see how much I really have. Going back to the part where I¡¯m ¡®recycling¡¯ the items I found in the mansion, I make sure I¡¯m diligent enough not to miss anything and help them ¡®recycle¡¯ those good stuff. At some point I found a scroll in one of the rooms and when I opened it, an illustration of the whole city before it was destroyed can be seen and part of the map indicates some sort of a passage way that is supposed to lead me out of the city and lead me towards a temple just outside of some sort of a forest. . I decided to head there since it¡¯s located just below the building, like an underground passage. The path is quite long and wide but if you ask me this path is wide enough to fit a carriage of some sort. This might be a path where you¡¯re supposed to ride something because of its distance Arming myself with a decent sword I carefully walk through the passage while avoiding to make any sounds so that I would notice if ever there is something here that can harm me. Looking at the walls of the passage, there are some sort of glowing crystals lined up on both sides. I tried to use ¡®Analyse¡¯ on it and it turns out to be some kind of ward to prevent powerful monsters from entering the passage way. This made me quite happy but since it¡¯s been a very long time since this passage is used, there might be some sort of danger lurking around. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. *squeak* I heard a faint sound quickly that is approaching me, I immediately form a stance and grip my sword. A blur suddenly launch aimed at my face, I quickly move to the side and used my sword like a baseball bat and hit whatever it is. *tonk* ¡°Home ru~~n¡± The sound is quite not right, but I definitely hit it and based from the sound it might be the head look at the thing that flew and suddenly the thing glowed and it burst out like a shattered glass. *Ding*
System message
You killed an underground rat. Exp gained + 10
It turns out to be a rat, but it moves too fast and I only manage to hit that one because its moving on a straight path while in mid-air and lastly its only one, If that was a group then I might really die. No ill definitely die. I check my Exp bar and I only gained 0.5% over my total Exp. At that time I really wanted to cry since normally a single rat even if it¡¯s a level 1 I should gain a decent amount of Exp since I¡¯m only level one. But I discovered something good. ¡°So this place has mobs that I can kill and level up¡± While thinking about it I decided to hunt some rats. . .. ¡­ ¡­. ~Current time~ While hunting rats at some point I found a safe spot that is surrounded by bigger glowing crystals. The area is quite large and there are several chests at the corner with some dried woods. I looked at each chest and found some dried meat and fresh water. It¡¯s quite strange since based on the appearance of the chests, all of them are quite old but the dried meat and water inside when I used ¡®Analyse¡¯ on them as if it¡¯s been placed here just yesterday. It¡¯s still edible and the water is clean without any funny smell. I¡¯m quite thankful for this since the bread and water given to newbies after they start playing is already used up and my stamina is on the danger side. Looking at the chest again I used ¡®Analyse¡¯ on them.
Storage Chest
A chest imbued with time magic; though the storage space cannot be increased it is still a good item to store perishable goods such as meat and vegetables.
¡°Well this solves my food problems¡± Since it¡¯s such a good place to rest I decided to log out. Normally player¡¯s avatar will vanish once a person log out but it¡¯s only true to safe areas. If a player logs out on a field or dungeon their avatars will remain for an hour. They will be prone to robbery or getting killed by mobs or plunderers. Thus with this situation created by the company, they added some items to let the players camp on fields and on dungeons. Items sold in the ¡®Item Shop¡¯ will only lose its effect depending on what you bought while items created by artesian will vanish two hours after use. The item ¡®Safety Wards¡¯ is the item that can be bought in bulk (ten pieces) or single purchase. The wards are not permanent, one the magic stones become exhausted it needs to be replaced. Magic stones can be bought in the ¡®Item Shop¡¯ or looted by killing mini boss or main boss type mobs. ¡®Safety Wards¡¯ are like small poles that you pierced on the ground with two meters maximum range and if used as a barricade, the space inside will became a safe area or zone. After logging out I noticed that its already way past dinner time so I just eat whatever is edible on the refrigerator until I¡¯m satisfied then check if there are any problems in the house after that I decided to sleep. Chapter 8: Forest Temple, A great ROAR, and then a villain? I opened my eyes and it¡¯s still dark, looking at the time and its only 4:30am. Dragging my sluggish body to the bathroom, I gargled and brush my teeth. Changing my clothes into my track suit, I took my house keys and head outside to do my early morning routine. Jogging on the quiet road where there are only a few vehicles that pass by, cold and gentle breeze in the morning I jog my way towards the empty park. ¡°As usual no one¡¯s here at this time¡± I started my ¡®parkour¡¯ activity by jumping on a branch of an old but low tree. The distance between trees are short and you can move from tree to tree by a simple jump. There are some cemented bench, statues and some activity areas that have a swing, see saw, slides, monkey bars, and other stuff you usually see in a park. Jumping of a tree then roll my body on the ground to remove the impact I head towards the activity area to do something else. All in all I finished my daily routine with a lot of sweat on my body so I left the park jogging back to my house to cool down. -=+||+=- ¡°Connect to <>¡± I decided to play again after I took a bath, change my clothes and check that everything is in place. Recovering from the effect after logging in I saw a dimly lit corner and observe my surroundings, everything is still the same except that there are more of those rats loitering near the safe area. It seems that the wards on this part are much stronger since these rats cannot enter. Fixing myself up, after checking that I did not miss anything I continued my ¡®Journey towards the ends of the Tunnel¡¯. Everything became monotonous as I proceed. Killing rats on the way while making sure not to get mobbed by them to avoid getting killed, I sometimes glace at the snail movement of my experience bar which I can¡¯t help but let out a big sigh. After several hours of long and boring journey I ended up in front of a huge door way or more like a gate since it¡¯s as wide as this passage. Since its kind of rusted I struggled quite a bit opening it; I¡¯m thinking of placing my stat points towards STR but I hesitated since I still haven¡¯t made up my mind to which class I¡¯m taking. There are some flights of stairs made of stone going up and at the end of that spiral stairs a simple wooden door. Opening the door revealed another passage way but this time it¡¯s narrower than the one before and at the end of this path, something is blocking the way. Examining it further I tried to find some kind of a switch but nothing can be found so I tried to push it and it moved. Little by little I pushed the stone until the hole became big enough for me to go through.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Moving along after exiting the passage way I look back and saw a stone statue that is blocking the path. ¡°It seems to be a hidden passage¡± well obviously it is. Looking around the place, you can see that the word ¡®ancient ruins¡¯ fit the bill. Vines and moss covered the walls, broken pillars, rotting doors and more than half of the roof is gone which is the cause of some small pools of water where some water lilies are growing. There are also some murals carved and some painted along the broken walls. Finding nothing of value I walk out of this place and a dense forest greeted me. There is a small but broken pieces of stones lined up which might be an old path that leads to somewhere. I observe my surroundings to ascertain my safety against monsters that might appear. Looking for any signs of danger, I noticed something odd. The forest is too quiet, this might be a game but I still keep in mind that a great game pays attention to details. By the way, the game does not have an area map and if you really need it you have to buy one at the ¡®Item Shop¡¯. Of course there is an alternative way which is to buy one from other players which has the class of a Cartographer or a scout but these two classes can only make a map on places they visit and the map a Cartographer make is far more detailed than that of a scout. *ROOOAR* *WOOOSH* A very loud roar and a sudden strong gust of wind came at me and it seems it came from the opposite direction where the ¡®Ancient Ruins¡¯ like place is facing. Staring as if I can see where it came from a sudden question hit me. ¡°To look or not to look¡± I said while debating which should I choose. *poof* The dare devil (DD) in me awakened and said ¡°You should go at worst you will only loose a level and won¡¯t be playing for one day in real life¡± *poof* The cautious type (Cur) in me also awakened and said ¡°You should not go, that loud sound surely make the other monsters frightened and ran towards this direction¡± ¡°Are you an idiot, if something like that exist here other monsters end up in its belly. Look around you; can you even see a single monster around?¡±(DD) ¡°You¡¯re the idiot one, this is a game and the common sense is where a boss monster is its minions also roam around. Have you ever played a game where there are no monsters near a boss monster huh? Were probably inside a safe area where monsters avoid going but if a wave of monsters came I don¡¯t think that shabby antique of a place can hold us safe¡± (Cur) ¡°Coward *glare*¡± (DD) ¡°Reckless *glare*¡± (Cur) *sparks* I wave my hands to dispel my thoughts and in the end I decided to take a good look. This is a game so why not, it¡¯s not like I¡¯m going to die again in real life *laughs*. And so I take my first step towards the sound. ¡°Hey where do you think you¡¯re going boy¡± But I stop before I make my second mighty step. I look around to see who it is but there is nothing but trees and grass. Unless it¡¯s a Trent but something like that does not have any capabilities of speaking. Pausing for a moment while holding my chin, the only place I haven¡¯t looked yet is the -------- yes the ground. *whack* ¡°O~~~~W, that hurts¡± crunching down while holding my head and a small tear in my eyes I looked at my Health bar which is only at one third of its full capacity. "What was that all about?" i turn around and saw an old man wearing a gray robe. It does not look expensive, just a common Asian robe that is worn during old warring period. For reference you can just think of it like those Chinese heroic drama characters or Korean warring state drama costumes. "Hmp, hateful kid" the old man''s arrogant expression while looking down at me is really annoying. I thought of hitting him back but i remember that just a casual hit from me reduced my health to a third makes all my hostile thoughts disappear. Thinking that I''m currently at level five, this old man is really powerful. "...?..! ...What the!" "What are you looking at kid huh? Is this the first time you see a man as handsome as me?" Talk about a narcissist. Arrogant old man that is also a narcissist, there is still something missing. "Sir what type of girls do you like?" i asked "And that¡¯s the first thing you ask huh? what an odd thing" He looked at me from head to toe then said "from what I can see you¡¯re definitely a man but asking my preference is.... fine whatever, I like women that has seductive curves." the old man then close his eyes and narrate everything while making perverted gestures " Big chest, plump butt, slim waist, porcelain like skin, and a beautiful face that has those pinkish lips that you will want to kiss every time you glace at it." The old man nod several times after his narration and look at me again. "...!. Hey kid what¡¯s with that look you¡¯re giving me as if you see something disgusting do you want to die?" ¡°I just confirmed something" "What? Did you already notice my charms? hahahaha" "Arrogant, narcissist and most of all a pervert now I can definitely say YOU ARE DEFINITELY A VILLAIN *thunder effects*" pointing at the old man confident at my deduction and a satisfied look on my face. Chapter 9: Who鈥檚 the better one? ¡°What beautiful scenery¡± The blue sky with clouds slowly moving across the horizon, tree branches full of healthy leaves swaying along the wind. Such scene is perfect to lie down on the grass and lean on a tree casting its shadow upon my body and slowly drift towards dream land or it¡¯s supposed to be like that except everything I see is upside down. With a durable rope tied around my body from shoulders down to my ankles and hung upside down on a tree branch and three feet above the ground, actually I don¡¯t get it either. In front of me is the villain old man who did this to me, with an evil grin on his face and arms crossed with an imposing and mocking aura. ¡°So now brat, will you admit your mistake eh?¡± ¡°I definitely and absolutely did not made any mistake in my judgement¡± ¡°I¡¯m not what you think I am brat¡± ¡°Says the one who wants to kill me earlier and hung me upside down¡± ¡°You really have a sharp tongue brat¡± ¡°Now I know you also have a sadistic side to you, pervert, arrogant, and narcissist old baggage¡± ¡°You¡­ you STINKING BRAT¡± ¡°Ah sorry haven¡¯t taken a bath for days *laughs*¡± ¡°tch* Hateful thing¡± The old villain approaches me slowly and takes out a knife. ¡°So you are killing me now?¡± ¡°Do you think I did not notice?¡± He then raises it and made a vertical slash *swish* *bam* ¡°O~~~W¡± The rope that binds me was cut that caused me to fall down head first. My health was now too low but still high enough for me to stay alive. ¡°What was that for you old villain¡± ¡°You¡¯re one of those ba*t*rd immortals who only know how to plunder and keep asking for rewards¡± ¡°What are you talking about?¡± ¡°Heh, you can play dumb but I know what you are. You might be weak right now but in time you will be one of those hateful beings¡± ¡°Like I said¡­. huh?... wait.. is that how this worlds inhabitants call us?¡± ¡°So you¡¯re already admitting that you are one of them.¡±You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. ¡°Yeah yeah whatever may that be, but I want to know the details please old villain¡± ¡°tch* I bet that is you¡¯re personality, hmp anyway it¡¯s still better than those who acts righteous but hiding a demon behind their fa?ade¡± ¡°Then?¡± The old villain stares at me seriously and we had a staring match for about several minutes. *blink* ¡°bwa ha ha ha ha. I won old villain you blink first¡± ¡°huh? You brat I wasn¡¯t playing a staring match at you¡± ¡°Whatever a win is still a win so where¡¯s my prize?¡± *sigh* ¡°alright I give up, as you¡¯re prize you will be my disciple¡± ¡°No thanks, try another one¡± ¡°What! There are hundreds and thousands of people pleading while kneeling in front of me even some were crying tears of blood to become my disciple and yet you refuse?¡± ¡°Then select one of them please¡± ¡°Do you even know what you¡¯re saying? I¡¯m an Immortal cultivator for about thousands of years and reach the pinnacle close to a god and with just a swing of my hand you can die without knowing what hit you. Just being able to converse with the great me is already a grand privilege that a lot of people are willing to die just to have the opportunity¡± ¡°Wow I never knew¡± ¡°So you finally get what I¡¯m implying *sigh*¡± ¡°Yeah, now I know. You¡¯re not just old, YOURE FREAKING SO D*MN OLD¡± The old villain then splashes some liquid at me and I notice that my health points recovered fully. *WHACK* Now he hit me harder than before and I noticed my health points plummet down to 10%. ¡°You really have the talent to get into other peoples nerves¡± *laughs* ¡°don¡¯t suddenly complement me, you¡¯re making me shy¡± ¡°I¡¯M NOT COMPLEMETING YOU¡± ¡°Um¡­. Ok?¡± *sigh* the old villain release a huge breath and took out something from his bag, It¡¯s a book and an old one at that. He then grabs my right hand and places it on top of the book. *ding* ¡°Kid do you want to leave this place?¡± ¡°Yes of course who doesn¡¯t?¡± Then I realize a notification window pop out. System message Do you want to change you¡¯re class into ¡°Demon Slayer¡±? System message WARNING: Changing into this permanent class prevents you to change into a different class System message Congratulations you are now a Demon Slayer System message Due to your chosen class you will not receive any stat points and you will also not level up. System message Due to your ¡®Mind¡¯s Eye¡¯ skill ¡®Analyse¡¯ has been replaced and merge with the said skill. Looking at the old villains grinning face the only thing I can say is ¡°I¡¯ve been had¡± -=+||+=- While the old cheating villain is laughing hysterically at the sides saying ¡°You think you¡¯re smart enough? You¡¯re thousands of years too early¡±. I view my current status to see the changes ¡°Show Status¡± -Status - Name:Fang Level:N/A Race: Human? Class: Demon Slayer Health: 100/300 World Essence: 0/500 Stamina: 50/100 Wealth: 0g 0s 20c Strength: 20 Dexterity: 20 Vitality: 20 Intelligence: 20 Wisdom: 20 Luck: 310 Fame: 0 Skills: World Essence manipulation (passiveLvl.1) Mind¡¯s Eye (active lvl.1) Higher Alchemy (passive Lvl.1) Ancient Smith (passive Lvl.1) Rune Mastery (passive Lvl.1) Others: Fortuna¡¯s Blessings (Medium) Ancient language comprehension (100%) Demon Slayer (human Lvl.1) There are additional things under skills so I view their descriptions aside from ¡®Fortuna¡¯s Blessings¡¯. World Essence manipulation (Active lvl.1) Enable to sense and manipulate the essence of the world to strengthen one¡¯s body or use in one¡¯s attack and defence. It also has many forms and uses depending on how deep one¡¯s understanding. Mind¡¯s Eye (Active lvl.1) By using the essence of the world, one is capable of increasing one¡¯s awareness within a certain distance and uncovers unique traits of certain things. Effects:
  1. Detect hidden objects and enemy within a certain distance (current distance: 10m)
  2. Identify the properties and status of different things including players and monsters with greater detail depending on the skills level.
  3. Obtain night vision
Higher Alchemy (Active Lvl.1) Since ancient time¡¯s alchemy keeps improving and being sought to its ultimate form thus a greater understanding was discovered by using the world¡¯s essence to improve the effects of their products. Effect: Allows the user to perform alchemy and increase the effectiveness of crafted items depending on the skills level (+10%) Ancient Smith (Active Lvl.1) It is said that in ancient times the production of equipment¡¯s has reached its pinnacle and brought great destruction in the land. The God¡¯s saw how devastating the technology has become; they decided to seal all the knowledge and the equipment¡¯s to be never seen again. Effect: Allows the user to craft equipment¡¯s, by using the knowledge of the ancients. Rune Mastery (Active Lvl.1) Enable the user to understand the power of different runes that gives special effects or enhancements to certain objects. Demon Slayer (human Lvl.1) A power that is born to oppose everything and dash towards a path created by one¡¯s self. Special Effects: - Removes penalty during death except down time (for players). - +10 to Strength, Dexterity, Vitality, Intelligence, Wisdom ¡°I want to cry¡± (Y^Y) All those hard work to level up, gone in an instant and what¡¯s up with this setting I never heard anything like this. Plus I won¡¯t be able to level up isn¡¯t this the same as saying that I will never get strong. Not a single attack or defensive skill what kind of joke is this. I look at the old man still having his fit acting like a child. Just what is it that he wants from me? Is this revenge or something? Nah for get it lets just quietly sneak out of here. Chapter 10: Training and rumors filled with death鈥檚 aura ¡°Did I tell you to rest? Come on move that body. Do it a couple more times after that we move to meditation to work your mind and rest your body¡± (Old B) *Glare*¡°¡­¡±(Me) ¡°Go on, go on and move that lazy butt of yours¡±(Old B) I¡¯ve been doing a training menu straight from hell and almost three days past inside the game since then, when I tried to sneak out and run I got caught easily. The stupid me never thought that this old b*ast*rd also have a Mind¡¯s Eye skill. He then cast a spell on me so I won¡¯t be able to talk. I thought that it will wear off as time passes but the old b*ast*rd told me that it won¡¯t come off unless he undo the spell. The only good part is that I can still summon the game menu and log off. At first I tried to delete my avatar and create a new one but the system prompt me that it is impossible to do so. I also tried to send a complaint ticket but a message immediately sent back saying it¡¯s impossible because I triggered a hidden profession that should not be triggered this early in the game. Creating a new account is also impossible since only a single account and a single character is allowed per person to prevent unwanted incidents like scams using alternative account so their main account won¡¯t be affected by in game penalties. It is also a way to teach people about being more responsible and cautious inside the game. In the end all I can do is endure. ¡°That¡¯s it time for meditation. Sit in lotus position and meditate. Try to absorb the world¡¯s essence as much as you can to increase your level¡± (Old B) And thus I manage to breakthrough twice and reach a lvl 3 human Demon Slayer. By the way the Demon Slayer Class is divided into six categories which is Human, Warrior, King, Emperor, Saint, and God. Each category has nine levels and every time you reach the maximum level in a category, you will have a chance to break the wall and jump to the next category.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. Another day passed by in game time and it¡¯s time for me to go back to the real world. The old b*ast*rd sensed it and told me that he will be waiting for my return because he knew that my kind (the players) cannot stay in this world for too long. -=+||+=- Monday After I finish my daily routine I take a quick shower and prepared for school. It¡¯s the usual morning for me where old wives in my neighbourhood gossip as they see me walk past them. It¡¯s the usual thing, like those reporters in the media confusing the masses with wrong information and sometimes makes it worse. Even in my previous life same things happen, they always have some things to gossip about. No matter what era it is, it¡¯s still the same. I reach my classroom and place my stuff on my desk then stare outside the window and wait for the class to start. Or it should be like that, a certain topic is being talk about of almost everyone in the classroom. I don¡¯t have any intention to listen since it¡¯s not my business but when I heard it I began to pay attention. ¡°Hey have you heard¡±(Gossiper 1) ¡°Of course I did, I mean everyone in the school knew about it¡± (Gossiper 2) ¡°Yeah it never came to me that the day our campus idol will confess to someone¡± (Gossiper 3) *nods* ¡°But they say guy never showed up and she waited until night came, if her best friend did not urge her to go home she will still be waiting for the guy¡± (Gossiper 1) ¡°Such a stupid guy exists? If it¡¯s me I will rush to the meeting place immediately like my life is on the line¡± (Gossiper 3) *laughs* ¡°I¡¯ll bet you will be spending your Monday in a hospital nearby if that happens, just think about those fans of hers that will go on rampage when they see you¡± (Gossiper 2) ¡°Still no one knows who is the lucky b*ast*rd¡± (Gossiper 4) ¡°Yeah, but I doubt he won¡¯t show up unless he knows what¡¯s good for him¡± (Gossiper 1) While listening to this conversation I began to panic inside. I really thought that it¡¯s only a prank who knew it¡¯s the real deal? ¡®My god!¡¯ Thinking about it for a second I realize something. If I look at it at a different angle, there is a possibility that this is really a prank and spreading rumours were meant to get back at me since their prank did not succeed. In a normal scenario people from her friend group will openly approach me as if announcing that it was me then the bullying will start. ¡®Are this people really that bored to bully me who¡¯s in the background and did not stand out?¡¯ With this line of thinking, a flame of anger lit up inside of me. ¡®I tried to stay low and prevent myself to get involved in anything that will destroy my quiet life. If that is the case, I your father won¡¯t back down and destroy you all¡¯ The class started soon and everyone became quiet. Time passed by and every tic of the clock makes me worried and anxious as if there is a C4 under my chair and every sec counts closer to explosion. Lunch came and end without a problem and my classmates still talks about the idol¡¯s confession. That means there is a possibility that they will come at me afterschool but in the end nothing happened. Mentally exhausted I returned home do some homework, eat dinner and entered the game which I face the hellish training and emptied my mind during meditation. Chapter 11: Tension and Confrontation ¡°While playing <> the body enters in a state where the body rest while the mind is inside the game, so technically every time you play the game you also sleep. That¡¯s why as a student it¡¯s more convenient to play <> when it¡¯s time to sleep.¡± Tuesday Still anxious about what happened yesterday, I go to school silently while pretending to be innocent that knows nothing about what happened like it has nothing to do with me. Still I did not let my guard down since there is a possibility that the whole school knows the truth already and people began to play pranks on me and my whole silent and peace full life will end. Facing the door to my classroom filled with noise I took a deep breath and open it. ¡°¡±¡±¡±¡°¡­¡±¡±¡±¡±¡± Silence filled the whole room the moment they noticed that the door opened. ¡°What?¡± I asked them, which I fear that they already know about it. My classmates stare at me for a few seconds before they resume to their own conversations. ¡®Is it already out? Do I really have to say good bye to my nice and quiet life?¡¯ I entered the classroom and keep my senses up. Reaching my designated seat, I examine it carefully. No adhesives on the chair, No sharp objects under the desk, nothing at all. ¡®It seems I¡¯m still safe¡¯ I take my seat and observe my surroundings, looking for anything unusual. Few groups are still discussing about what happened that day and still cursing the lucky guy (me?). ¡®It¡¯s driving me crazy¡¯ A few minutes later the teacher came in and the first class starts. A whole day passed by and classes went smoothly, in the end not a single bad thing happened to me. ¡®Am I just being paranoid? Worrying about something that will never come? ¡­¡­¡­ A----H whatever let¡¯s stop thinking about it¡¯ By now the classroom is empty and my classmates are either attending their clubs or going home. I¡¯m currently sitting in my seat and staring outside the windows with empty thoughts. Feeling drowsy upon being released from my mental stress I placed my bag on my desk which served as my pillow then as time goes by my eyes slowly began to close as I start to enter my own dream land. *Zzzzzzzz* *Zzzzzzzz* *Zzzzzzzz* *Pulls* *BAM* ¡°OOOOOOW THAT HURTS!¡± (Me) Rubbing my face which slammed on my desk I look at my surroundings. When my eyes adjusted I saw two girls in front of me. One of them is wearing a pair of glasses with the hair length just past her shoulders while the other one had her long hair tied into a braid. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. The first one seems to be calm with a small hint of worry while the later have this haughty personality and seem quite annoyed looking at me. If I were to describe them in detail, the first one is somewhat on the slim and small side with around five feet and three inches in height. Not too thin but just right for a girl at her height but her chest is on the later B side still if you look at her you will certainly say that she is a beauty without a doubt with a face that can attract any men who see her. The second one Is definitely on the BIG side (if you know what I mean) she is about five feet and seven inches in height, a little chubby but cannot be considered fat since her womanly figure is somewhat firm which probably caused by doing heavy exercises. If you look at her the first thing you will notice is her twin peaks of about later in D or earlier in F? I cannot really tell since I only made some rough estimation. Well my first impression of her is that she is somewhat a muscle head. Even though her facial features can pass as a model (and body too?) I silently stare at them for a while then said ¡°What?¡± (Me) ¡®Now what did I land myself into?¡¯ ¡°Stanley Crux¡± the braided girl asked me ¡°Nope you got the wrong person, since you woke me up, the wrong person please return my bag so I can go home¡± (Me) ¡°Nice try, it is Cleary written on the student I.D. you¡¯re wearing that you are indeed the person I¡¯m looking for¡±(Braided Girl) ¡°WHOA! That surprised me I thought you would not notice¡± I said in an exaggerated manner *Twitch* I can see on her expression that her anger towards me increased but who cares right? Who told her to just pull out my pillow (bag) while I¡¯m sleeping? Let blood flow like a river in this room. I laugh out loud inside my head while maintaining a poker face. *SLAM* ¡°What do you take me for?!¡± ¡±(Braided Girl) She slammed my bag on my desk and asked me with anger filled words. ¡°A muscle head?¡± (Me) ¡°Wha ¡­.. YOU!¡± (Braided Girl) *Giggle* The braided girl looks at her companion who let out a small laugh. ¡°Why are you laughing?! You know how serious this matter is!¡± (Braided Girl) ¡°OK.. Stop ¡­ Stop¡­ I guess that¡¯s enough¡± (Glasses Girl) The glasses girl looks at me and then said ¡°I¡¯m sorry for the behaviour of my companion but we came here for a certain thing regarding on what you did on our dear friend¡± (Glasses Girl) ¡°I don¡¯t remember offending anyone nor doing something to someone¡± (Me) ¡°YOU DON¡¯T EVEN KNOW ABOUT WHAT YOU DID!¡± (Braided Girl) ¡°Calm down first ok, we cannot proceed if you always blow your fuse¡± (Glasses girl) ¡°But I¡­.¡± (Braided girl) ¡°I know you¡¯re only concerned about her, I am too but nothing will be solved if you do it your way so let me handle the rest¡± (Glasses girl) The braided girl stayed silent for a while then replied ¡°Fine but let me punch him later if he really harmed her, no let me punch him later since he is an annoying guy¡± (Braided girl) she then take a seat nearby while observing us. ¡°Now then let¡¯s start with the issue at hand¡± (Glasses girl) ¡°Before that why don¡¯t you introduce your selves first?¡± (Me) ¡°¡­.. You do not know who we are?¡± (Glasses girl) ¡°¡­. Are you some kind of a famous celebrity or something? Sorry but I don¡¯t watch entertainment news¡±(Me) ¡°¡­¡­¡±(Glasses girl) ¡°Seriously?¡± (Glasses girl) ¡°Is this some kind of charade? If so I do not have any interest in playing¡±(Me) She let out a huge *sigh* and shake her head a little she is still cute though. ¡°My name is Lalaine Clover and the girl earlier is Abby Cortes¡±(Lalaine) ¡°I won¡¯t introduce myself since you know already who I am but what did I do to confront me like this?¡±(Me) ¡°Our dear friend is Cely Go, Now do you understand?¡±(Lalaine) ¡°It¡¯s more like what I did not do rather than I did something though¡±(Me) ¡°Why did you not go to the meeting place?¡± (Lalaine) ¡°Why should I?¡±(Me) ¡°WHAT DID YOU SAY YOU B*ST*RD¡±(Abby) Abby stand up again, glaring at me as if she wants to pulverise me on the spot. Lalaine raised her arm to stop her so we can continue to talk. ¡°What do you mean by that? If someone from this school received that letter I¡¯m absolutely sure that they will go no matter what right?¡± (Lalaine) ¡°Well that does not include me¡± (Me) ¡°That¡¯s why I¡¯m curious about the guy who can resist the temptation, so why?¡± (Lalaine) ¡°It¡¯s nothing really, if you analyse the situation more carefully you would do the same as I did¡± (Me) ¡°like?¡± (Lalaine) ¡°It¡¯s nothing but a prank¡± (Me) ¡°¡°¡­¡­¡±¡± both of them stay silent while looking at me. Abby with two rounded eyes and an open round mouth while Lalaine having a big frown on her brows. ¡°I see well it does makes sense, If an average and unpopular guy with no whatsoever redeeming features suddenly receive such letter the possibility that it¡¯s a just a prank is high, but ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­ Still I¡¯m sure that a person like that will gamble even if he only has a miniscule probability that it¡¯s real¡± (Lalaine) ¡°¡­¡­¡­Umm except from me?¡±(Me) Such harsh words coming from a cute girl while saying it straight to your face, but I can¡¯t deny anything of what she have said which hurts even more. Lalaine faced down and placed her right hand on her forehead and leak out a deep sigh then asked me. ¡°What do you intend to do now that you know it¡¯s the real deal¡±( Lalaine) ¡°Isn¡¯t obvious?....... I do nothing¡±(Me) ¡°WHAT DID YOU SAY¡±(Abby) ¡°Abby!¡±( Lalaine) ¡°But El¡±(Abby) ¡°I know, for now calm down¡±( Lalaine) *tch*(abby) ¡®Such a crazy woman¡¯(Me) ¡°Why? What is your reason? Is she not to your liking?¡±( Lalaine) ¡°I admit that she is beautiful, athletic, kind, and smart. Many guys will go crazy just to get her, but I don¡¯t. First of all I don¡¯t really know her apart from the rumours. Second I know I don¡¯t deserve it, I mean I know my own worth. Third I don¡¯t have any time for such things and lastly I want to maintain my peace.¡±(Me) Lalaine looked at me for a while then said ¡°Alright I understand¡­..Let¡¯s go Abby¡±( Lalaine) Both girls left the room and me on the other hand checked my bag then go straight home since I don¡¯t have any mood to do anything for the rest of the day aside from playing the game. I wonder if I can find a new part time job before this week ends. Chapter 12: New Update and a breakthrough ¡°What a tough day¡± On my way home I heard some students discussing something about << Lucid Dream >> having an announcement so I opened their website and there are some interesting things that caught my eye. << Lucid Dream >> will be having an update and will shut their servers down for six hours and they will suspend some accounts that violated the game¡¯s rules. The most severe case is being banned for a month because of RMT (real money trading) and those people suspected of using RMT whether the buyer or the seller side had been investigated and during the update they will start suspending those guilty of the deed. If the people still continue this type of transactions after their suspension is over then they will be permanently banned. This means that the person will never be able to play the game in his/her life since the game scans an individual¡¯s iris or retina to log in. Since RMT is a way where people earn to pay for bills they inserted a game market where players can sell off their items or buy using in game or real money. It¡¯s kind of annoying since it is like they suspend accounts using RMT because GPT don¡¯t earn from them. But this will lessen the cases of being scammed and since GPT will only take 1% of the item price it can be considered as cheap advertisement to sell your items. This triggered my money making curiosity, since this is a good thing. Playing a game while earning a lot would be a great deal. Now the greatest question is ¡®How can I earn lots of money in the game?¡¯ I looked at the time and I noticed that I still have two hours before the game update ends. I used that time to think of methods on how to earn money so I made a list
  • Sell gold
  • Craft consumable items like potions, food items, scrolls, etc. then sell it to obtain more gold
  • Craft weapons, armours, etc. need to be good ones to be converted directly into money or sell in gold
  • Hunt rare items or equips then sell it directly or sell in gold
  • Act as a mercenary and help other people in their quest or raids then be paid either by real money or gold
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. But the greatest problem is my situation where I can¡¯t even roam around. Any monster can kill me in one hit, forget about hunting or crafting I can¡¯t even escape that Old B. In the end the only thing I can do right now is to become strong, strong enough to hit that Old B into black and blue meat paste. -=+||+=- Time passed by, the updates finished and allowed us to log back in. the person I hate the most in this game is waiting for me with a mocking smile. ¡°Ok time to start your training¡± ¡°¡­.¡± Of course I still can¡¯t talk. Ever since he used some weird spell on me I wasn¡¯t able to. ¡°Ke ke ke ¡­ those eyes symbolizes that you¡¯re ready¡± That¡¯s right, because of some intense rough training which is doubled by several times that I forgot how much it actually is, I raised my level to Human lvl 9 before I log out last time. The training was so inhuman and every time I¡¯m at my limit and about to die, the Old B make me drink some weird stuff which removes my fatigue and replenishes my health. And now is the moment when I try to make a breakthrough and emerge as a warrior level cultivator. ¡°Now come on sit down in lotus position so we can begin¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°To break the wall between a human to a warrior Demon Slayer is quite easy. During my younger days¡­¡­¡­¡­..¡± The boastful and narcissist Old B began his history lecture and made me sleepy. In the end only a few things from those he had said are quite useful. So to break the wall all I need to do is absorb the world essence in my body and convert it into a more pure essence for my body to absorb. It will be quite a painful process since every impure essence in my body will be forced out, from my skin, organs, and bones. When I think of ¡®why not absorb a more pure essence in the beginning?¡¯ but Old B might have read my mind and told me that a pure essence is not something a human body can handle and worst case is the body might explode. So for my body to become more accustomed to the world essence I need to absorb it slowly while increasing my body¡¯s strength, and every breakthrough I need to increase the essence purity. The first thing to do is to identify the impurities from the essence of the world. I need to focus on my body as I absorb more essence. "Remember the pure essence is as mild as flowing water, the more muddy it gets the more impurities it has" (Old B) The goal is to decrease its muddy properties and by doing so the quality of the essence in the body will also increase, leading to the breakthrough for the next realm and increasing ones limit of absorption. If the person successfully breakthrough, the body will increase the quality it normally absorbs. This process is needed in every breakthrough until one reach the Emperor level. My body starts to emit a foul odour and black sweat starts to drop all over my body. This is the side effect of increasing the essence purity within one¡¯s body, as it cleanse and strengthen both the inner and outer part of the body. Immense pain began to surge all over my body as if I¡¯m being stabbed by thousands of needles. I wanted to shout but my voice is sealed by this Old B. Time passed by but i do not know how much, it felt like eternity to me. Now I¡¯m lying down and looking at the clear blue skies. ''Such a peaceful life is really the best'' *SPLASH* A huge amount of cold water has been dumped on my body. i got startled and tried to get up in reflex. "......." Pain began to surge all over my body and i noticed that Old B is holding a huge bucket with a huge grin on his face. ''This B*sta*rd one day i will punch that silly face of yours, this i vow to myself''. "It seems you are successful, now comes the part where you stabilize your current strength while recovering from the after effects" "....." "Try to calm down and relaxed your whole body, then use the essence to slowly heal your body" ~Few hours later~ "Good, now I will teach you a set of martial arts that is suitable for you, but before that we need to determine your element" "..!???.." Chapter 13: Element and the path I take "Every human has their own element compatibility since the moment they were born. Humans can use all types of elements but training the element which is not compatible to the body will result in a slower and harsher training. Training on the element that is not compatible with your body it will reach a certain limit and would not advance further no matter what."(Old B) This makes me feel quite excited and makes me look forward to it. I raised my hand trying to gesture that I want to ask something but that Old B ignored it. "We have four major elements which is Water, Wind, Earth, and Fire with additional three special element that is Lightning, Light, and dark. Every element has a sub element or sub attributes with them. For water it is Ice and healing. Wind is Sound and Speed. Earth is wood and metal. Fire is Destruction and Type of fire. Lightning is Speed and Destruction. Light Is Healing and Purification, lastly for darkness is Shadow and Madness. You can say that each element has at least two sub elements or attributes." (Old B) So basically I can use all of those elements but its best to train the element you are compatible with? "The strength of your element will also depend on the level of your power as a Demon Slayer. If both of us use the same fire spell or technique, the difference in power can be clearly seen. Of course I can adjust the power to be equal to yours but that means i have to reduce its normal power by supressing it"(Old B) It¡¯s quite confusing but i got some of it like it has the same principle in physics. Imagine there are two water tanks with the same amount of water and at the same size. One is placed three meters above sea level and the other one is placed ten meters above sea level. If you place a pipe with the same size on both tanks for the water to flow, the moment you release the water then you will notice the difference on how strong the water flows at the end of each pipe. "Now get up and we shall start the test"(Old B) Old B took out several crystals like stones and asked me to pour some essence into them. There are a total of seven stones which two of them lit up. After the process, I look into Old b just to see a smiling face while nodding. "Brat, you are compatible with two elements. I do not know how these elements will help you. Honestly I do not know if this elements will take you to the peak but as the saying goes ¡®There are no useless things, just useless people¡¯ so it¡¯s up to you on how you will use it.¡± (Old B) ¡°¡­.¡±(Me) The heck, what is with this Old B? Is the result really that bad? In my opinion every element is powerful enough for me to use. Is it because of the combination? He did say two elements and now I¡¯m getting nervous. ¡°Being a dual element is actually a good thing. That is if both elements complement each other but if both element opposes each other then that¡¯s a bad thing. This means that each element will not mix well and eventually weaken each other. As for your element, I¡¯m afraid to say¡­¡±(Old B) *Heart Beats* Come on spit it out will you. Geez making me nervous, what is with the suspense anyway. ¡°It¡¯s¡­¡± he turns around and took a deep breath then shake his head. *Tonk* This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. ¡°Ooooooow, that hurts what the hell is wrong with you brat. That will definitely leave a bump on my ever perfect head¡± (Old B) ¡°¡­.¡± I rolled my eyes. Earlier I found a small rock and toss it straight at his head with my full force. It¡¯s just a small rock I tell you, it¡¯s about as big as a bowling ball and I assure you it¡¯s as heavy too. So I¡¯m confident that it won¡¯t kill him, in fact you can look at his head there are no signs of blood flowing right? ¡°You,¡­ YOU, it¡¯s supposed to be my moment and you ruined it PERFECTLY¡± (Old B) I stare at him with a smirk on my face. ¡°Fine fine, it¡¯s no big deal anyway. Your element is Lightning and Water. Lightning is the best element against demons which is only second to Light. Water is both offensive and support element. Both elements can support each other so even though it¡¯s not a perfect couple like Fire and Earth, wind and water, wind and fire, it won¡¯t hinder each other so all in all you¡¯re still lucky. ¡± (Old B) Oh what a nice combination of skill. Still I prefer having the light element over water because if I combined the two, I¡¯ll be able to create a divine or holy lightning? That would be awesome right? ¡°Ah! by the way which path are you going to take? There are several paths you can choose and since you have the three elite production skills I guess you have more to choose from.¡± (Old B) ¡°¡­..¡±(Me) ¡°Oh right you can¡¯t talk¡­.. hmm let¡¯s fix that first¡± (Old B) Old B wave his hand and a gentle light covered me. *Ding* System: You¡¯re mute status has been lifted. ¡°There you go, now let¡¯s discuss about it¡± (Old B) ¡°¡­¡­ Path?¡± ¡®Aaah finally I can talk, ooh how I miss this freedom of speech¡¯. But that¡¯s not important right now so let¡¯s hear more about the so called paths. ¡°Yeah, you can be either a combat type or a production type¡± (Old B) ¡°I want to know more about it¡±(Me) ¡°ke ke ke. Now that you ask let this great, Handsome, Smart, benevolent, blah, blah . . . . . . . . Me will enlighten you. Now back then when I first ¡­¡­¡­¡­.¡±(Old B) Such a narcissistic B** just get straight to the point already. ~Few hours later ~ ¡° And ¡­. Where was I again?¡± (Old B) ¡°About the path I should choose¡±(Me) *Sigh* I really want to destroy that narcissistic face. ¡°Oh right. Well each type help each other like production type create weapons, armours, pills, etc. while combat type collect hard to get materials for them. Especially those materials where you need to kill strong monsters to obtain. That¡¯s what it should be until the calamity happened. To make the long story short the Demon Slayer linage is down to eight persons and they are forced to be self-sufficient but for now let¡¯s not discuss them and focus on what is in front of us. Both types can is self-explanatory and there is no ¡®one is better than the other¡¯ it always depends on ones capabilities, talents, and wits. So what do you want to do? ¡± (Old B) ¡°Any suggestions¡±(Me) ¡°You have a lot of skills but training all of them takes too much time and money so I recommend on focusing on one first then if you want you can train the rest¡± (Old B) Now it¡¯s kind of hard to decide, since my goal is earning money to support my daily expenses those production skills will be of great help. If I choose to abandon combat type, then I will also miss out the chance of getting rare loots. ¡°It seems you are having a hard time deciding. If you want both then it¡¯s no problem but you have to work extra hard to meet your goals. For now I suggest you became a Combat type as a main path and production path as your sub. While you are training, you can also use the materials form the monsters you killed for your production path¡± (Old B) I see that is a good idea, it¡¯s possible if I divide my time properly and gather every material I might find during my adventures. ¡°Now let¡¯s proceed with your martial arts¡± (Old B) Old B retrieved something and tosses it to me. *Ding* System message: Do you want to learn the Movement Skill ¨C Lightning Ghost? (Y/N) ¡°Learn that skill then burn it after wards¡± (Old B) I pressed yes then the book began to glow the disappeared. Old B firmly stared at the process but cannot think of what happened ¡°I guess I don¡¯t need to burn it¡±(Me) ¡°¡­.¡±(Old B) ¡°What¡¯s next?¡±(Me) ¡°How? What happened?¡± (Old B) ¡°I already learned it¡±(Me) ¡°That fast?¡± (Old B) ¡°Yeah¡±(Me) Old B stared at me not believing what I just said. ¡°Try to use it, quickly show me. Walk toward that tree¡± (Old B) Old B urges me to walk towards a tree that is about several meters away from us I activated the skill and tried to walk towards then. ¡°¡­¡±(me) Speechless, wow it¡¯s really incredible. Even though I¡¯m the one who did it it¡¯s still amazing. I quickly looked at the skill description. Movement Skill ¨C Lightning Ghost (active lvl 1) An active buff movement skill that allows the user to move as fast as lightning, people will only think they saw a ghost when you move past them. Effects:
  • Body movement speed increase by 20%
  • Eliminate sound of footsteps and air resistance while moving
  • Can be used in combat at level 10
Oh nice, such a godly skill. This means a lot and a very useful skill which other people wanted so badly because in <> there are no such thing as agility stat. the only way to increase movement speed is riding a mount and increasing attack speed is through skills and equipment¡¯s. The skill not only gives me boost in movement but also it increases my whole body movement speed. This means that I can dodge, attack, and move faster once this skill is activated. But I still need to grind this skill up to the max level to be used in combat; still it¡¯s an awesome skill. Chapter 14: This game is more complex than I imagine ¡°So how is it?¡± Old B was looking at me, deep in thought and seems like he is trying to understand something. ¡°I don¡¯t get it. You were able to perform the skill properly but it severely lacks the essence¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°Just now you were able to immediately learn the skill just by holding it. Maybe it¡¯s one of your fake immortal traits but you only know how to execute the skill but not its essence.¡± ¡°Maybe my skill level is quite low?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not that even with a mediocre talent. If one person from this world manages to comprehend just a small amount of that skill, it will show the same result you did but much more flawless and harder to predict.¡± ¡°The point is?¡± *sigh*¡±Let me show you first before I explain in more detail. I will also move in the same manner using the skill so watch closely.¡± ¡°¡­.¡± The heck was that, the difference is like heaven and earth. All I see is the old man who is about to take a single step then as if teleporting he already arrived at the tree. ¡°See the difference? I did not even use the highest level of skill, yet you can see what I¡¯m telling you. Now I will let you see the skill at its full potential¡± Huh? Where did he go? I look around but I cannot see him. ¡°Did you manage comprehend something?¡± I turn around and saw Old B standing three steps away from me. That moment even though it¡¯s only a game I felt a cold sweat all over my body. What happened just now? Did he just vanish and hide somewhere to confuse me? ¡°From your expression I guess you did not¡± Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. ¡°The heck you just vanished under my nose. Did you hide somewhere just to make fun of me?¡± *sigh* I knew you were an idiot but who knew you¡¯re more idiotic than I thought¡± ¡°WHAT are you picking a fight? You narcissistic B*st*rd¡± ¡°BRAT you want me to explain or do you want me to hang you again? You¡¯re choice¡± ¡°¡­¡­. Please explain more oh great one¡± ¡°¡­¡­. Ah¡­ well whatever. Ok now the skill I just gave you, even though you manage to learn it you did not comprehend it. It¡¯s like using a knife to slice but not knowing that you can also use it to stab. Using the skills is not just moving, it¡¯s more like how your opponent¡¯s see you move than how you move. This movement skill just like its name, you are moving in a high speed but not letting your opponent perceive your movements or tracking you by using the sound of your movement, your presence, etc. the skill has three components and its speed, illusion, and stealth. When you execute the skill you only manage to do the speed and a little bit of stealth by concealing the sound but people can still see you move, heck even an ordinary farmer can tell how you moved it¡¯s just that in their eyes you can only walk faster. As for the illusion it¡¯s more use full in combat when fighting at a high speed, creating after images and fake presence to confuse the enemy. Now sit down and meditate, try to comprehend and focus on finding the skills essence¡± ¡°¡­.¡± Does that mean, every skill in lucid dream has more capabilities than we players thought? If that is the case then just learning a skill from a skill book or from quest rewards are not enough, you also need to know what other capabilities it holds. Such skills, you can learn it if you have enough interaction with an NPC that will teach you not only the skill itself but the essence behind the skill. Probably some players might be able to learn this secret but I doubt many can improve the skills they have or gained. I started mediating to understand more about what the skill has to offer. ~Few hours passed~ *Ding* System message: By understanding more about the Movement Skill ¨C Lightning Ghost additional effects has been added I quickly open my status window and view the skill description Movement Skill ¨C Lightning Ghost (active lvl 2) An active buff movement skill that allows the user to move as fast as lightning, people will only think they saw a ghost when you move past them. Effects:
  • Body movement speed increase by 20%
  • Eliminate sound of footsteps, traces of movements, and air resistance while moving
  • Adding stealth effect when using this skill (40% chance for the skill to be neutralized by other players skills)
  • Create an illusion and deceive enemies while using this skill in combat (can be used in combat at level 10)
This is awesome and just by improving the skill¡¯s effects, the skill also levelled up. I quickly got up and tried the skill. Calm, everything is calm like I was one with the world. Even if I stepped into a thin branch of a tree it only swayed as if a gentle wind passed by, like a ghost passing through anything without a hint in the surroundings. I stop while thinking about what just happened, absorbing everything and soothing myself. ¡°Looks like you manage to master its essence¡± I looked at Old B and smiled. ¡°Yes¡± ¡°how is it?¡± ¡°Felt great, as if I¡¯m finally free from the chains that bind me. Moving freely as I can be¡± ¡°He he he. Brat the higher level you are the better the effects especially when you can finally use it in combat. For now train this skill unto its maximum potential then I will teach you another skill.¡± Then Old B left me and disappeared to who knows where. Well who cares, I will train this skill until it reached its maximum level so I can use it in combat. Just thinking about the things I can do with this skill makes me so excited. By the time I manage to increase its level up to eight it¡¯s already six in the morning. Good thing is while playing the game you are also sleeping so I got out of the game without any problems. I did my daily routine and head off to school. On my way to school I just realize something important. During the night monsters in < became more aggressive and they increase in number but until now I never seen any monsters after I met that old man not even a shadow. Maybe we are in a safe area but still, anyway let¡¯s cross the bridge when we get there. Chapter 15: Unexpected meeting, Confession? And the other useful skill Nothing unusual happen today, as the classes went as usual and nothing noteworthy can be said. I went to a 24/7 grocery store to buy some daily necessities. Most of the time I buy my stuff at a nearby wet market but it¡¯s on the opposite direction from my way home so if I¡¯m feeling too lazy I just buy small things that I need from that store. Entering the store you can already see the counter a few steps away from the door and a cute girl in the cashier saying ¡®Welcome to *****¡¯ with a business simile on her face. I went straight to the spot where I can buy the ingredients I need for dinner. After taking the stuff I need I went to the cashier and pay for the goods. ¡°Oooh fancy meeting you here¡± A familiar voice came from behind, a gentle yet cold voice coming from a girl near my age. I turn around and saw a girl still wearing her school uniform holding a shopping basket, it¡¯s the glasses girl Lalaine . Good thing I already picked the things I need so I turn around and leave her be. *Grab* ¡°I think it¡¯s quite rude to suddenly leave after being greeted by a cute girl right?¡± Grabbing my arm which holds the goods I bought, she said with a hint of irritation on her voice. ¡°Sorry I think you got the wrong person¡± ¡°That excuse again?.... Can¡¯t you think of other excuses except that?¡± I turn around and look at her. She released my arm then stare at me. ¡°Well is there anything else?¡±The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. What should I do? It¡¯s the type of person I won¡¯t get along even in my previous life. Even though she is really a beauty if I compare her to a flower it would be a rose, flower full of thorns. Out of the blue I thought of a silly thing to say and in order for this type of attack to be effective I have to put everything into it and convey the words properly. I stepped closer to her, put up a very serious face and looked at her straight to the eyes with a little bit of mischief in my mind. ¡°I Love you, ever since the first time I saw you¡± I said in my most serious and calm tone. ¡°¡­.¡± (0.0) Seeing her shocked expression, it seems the plan is a success. I smiled at her then put a distance between us ¡°Well then. Bye¡± I dash off at full speed not turning back while I hear her scream ¡°WHA!? WHAT WAS THAT ALL ABOUT¡± I laugh out loud inside my mind imagining her expression while saying that. Of course not knowing the consequences I had to endure next time I go to school -=+||+=- ~Back in the game~ When I log in, I continued to grind my movement skill. From what I learned, the skill level up faster the more you understand the proper usage of the skill. So not only using it repeatedly I also try to comprehend more about it. *Ding* System Message: Movement Skill ¨C Lightning Ghost is now at maximum level It took me a whole day (game time) just to maximize its level. Looking at the skill description I realize that it now consume some essence compared to before. Movement Skill ¨C Lightning Ghost (active lvl 10) An active buff movement skill that allows the user to move as fast as lightning, people will only think they saw a ghost when you move past them. Effects:
  • Body movement speed increase by 200%
  • Eliminate sound of footsteps, traces of movements, and air resistance while moving
  • Adding stealth effect when using this skill (5% chance for the skill to be neutralized by other players skills)
  • Create an illusion and deceive enemies while using this skill in combat
  • Consumes 10 essence per second every time the skill is active
I used the skill to experience the skill at its maximum potential and it¡¯s amazing. So great, this skill is freaking godly. Everything around me moves so slowly, I move around unhindered and unnoticeable. With this skill I can go anywhere I want without being noticed. *LAUGHS* ¡°It seems you are enjoying yourself¡± with a smirk on his face he appeared behind me but the problem is I cannot see him. By the way the movement skill is still active; my whole body is completely in stealth and constantly moving so the possibility that Old B to see me is close to none. The only thing I can think of is, the Mind¡¯s Eye skill is capable of seeing through this godly movement skill. ¡°Really an idiot, use your mind¡¯s eye skill you retard¡± Just when I¡¯m thinking Old B shout out the answer so I activate the skill but I can only feel where he is but still cannot see him. Maybe because the skill level is still too low, I mean its only level four after I re-appraise the items I have and it got stuck there half way through all the stuff then never earned a single experience. I squint my eye¡¯s looking at the direction which I feel Old B¡¯s presence. Hah! I give up I can¡¯t see a thing; ok lesson learned lets grind all the lifesaving skill I get before I roam the world. Chapter 16: Skill, skills and suicide? Chapter 16: Skill, skills and suicide? I stopped the movement skill and my surrounding returned to normal. I keep my Mind¡¯s Eye skill active just in case Old B does some nasty things to me. Even if I cannot see him at least I can sense him. Like they say it¡¯s better than nothing at all. I can feel Old B moved towards me in a blink of an eye. With his speed I can feel the gap between us is too wide currently my Mind¡¯s Eye skill¡¯s range is about forty meters in radius. But that speed is really something, even though I already maxed out the skill it¡¯s still a far cry compared to his. ¡°It seems like you already achieved the highest level of the skill. Good ¡­ good ¡° Before I could say anything Old B throw something to me. It¡¯s another book or more like another skill book. I immediately learned the skill book and see what is it. *Ding* System message: Do you want to learn the skill Golden Body? (Y/N) I picked yes then look at the skill description Golden Body (passive lvl 1) During the ancient times, the greatest weakness of humans is their frail bodies. No matter how strong a human is, they are still cursed by their physical limitations against their sturdy enemies which can ignore magical attacks. That is why the ancients developed a skill to counter those types of monsters. Effects: -Increase physical and magical defence by 5% -increase vitality and strength by 5% *laughs* it¡¯s like I¡¯m cheating here and it felt so great to have such skill. ¡°Being happy by learning a second rate skill, you sure are a carefree brat. Here learn this skill and prepare your self were going to train in a different place¡± Old B tosses another book to me. *Ding* System message: Do you want to learn the skill Basic Sword Arts? (Y/N) Sword arts? Why sword arts, from its skill name it is not an offensive skill or rather what is this all about. I immediately look at its skill description with a worried look Basic Sword Arts (passive lvl 1) A swordsman must know how to use its sword effectively at all time and increase ones understanding to gain more power in the said arts. Effects: - learn basic sword moves to attack and defend against your enemies - Increase all damage while using a sword by 1% - 5% chance to ignore enemies defences - +5% chance to deliver a critical attack Note:
  • only works in battle while holding a sword
  • effects will disappear when the sword is unequipped
At least it¡¯s a good skill and something that is very useful to me in combat. Now event though it¡¯s still weak you can still consider this as a decent skill. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. *grab* ¡°Now Off we go¡±(old B) Without noticing Old B grabs my collar and flew away. -=+||+=- *Vomits* ¡°Can¡¯t you be more gentle!? D*mn *vomits*¡±(me) *snicker* ¡°What? Man up, can¡¯t even endure a little bit of height?¡± *Glare* Height? You call that height? You simply flew? If it¡¯s only like that then I won¡¯t be in this state. Who asked you to move worse than a roller coaster? Moving at high speed, going up and down, there are even sharp curves that are impossible even for a professional drifter without losing some speed. ¡°We are already here at your new training ground. Now the purpose of this training is for you to get accustomed in fighting monsters in different size. Then next will be humanoid beasts and corrupted ones.¡± I look around me and indeed I saw a lot of monsters roaming around in different directions. It¡¯s all good and all but the main problem is WHY, WHY DID THIS OLD B BROUGHT ME TO SUCH A DEADLY PLACE!!! All monsters name is as usual in??? But that¡¯s not all of them are in deep green colour. This means that all of these monsters are thirty levels above me or at least more than three times stronger than the current me. Instead of earning experience won¡¯t it decrease instead? ¡°¡­¡±(me) ¡°Scared?¡±(Old B) ¡°Who me? No way, I¡¯m just thinking since I became different from my kind. I won¡¯t get stronger even if I kill monsters; you know that once we kill a monster we received a part of its strength but it¡¯s not the case for me now¡± (me) That¡¯s right even though I said it without thinking; this matter still leaves a shadow in my heart. *laughs*(old B) ¡°You really are an idiot, have you forgotten that the world essence made up everything in this world? That includes even monsters and even corrupted ones. Though there are differences between the three, all of their essence can be refined and absorb by each other. Here take this¡± (Old B) Old b gave me something that looks like a circular token. Demon Slayer Token (Gray): A token made with unknown materials, imbued with several runes to contain essence of the world and serves as a proof of being a Demon Slayer. Essence content: 0/10000 ¡°Every time you kill a monster, its essence will be directly absorbed and refined by that token. Then you can absorb the essence from the token. Just be reminded that the purity it refines has the same purity as your body so that token needs to be upgraded every time you made a breakthrough to the next stage to match your body¡¯s essence. It can also serve as a container to recover the essences you lost during a fight. More or less it¡¯s a really helpful tool for us Demon Slayers.¡±(Old B) It really is a great item to have as a compensation for not earning experience points from monsters. This token can also serve as an alternative item for mana/ki potions which I cannot use. "Now off you go, I won¡¯t tell you to be careful since you will just revive if you die anyway" (Old B) I looked around and find a lone monster nearby. Gripping my old sword with some rust on it, I use my movement skill and disappeared from the spot. *slash* -100 *roar* I thought that with my 157 points of STR I would do a lot of damage to this monster but seeing that floating numbers, I guess I over estimated my strength. As I would expect from a monster which is several times stronger than me. When I looked at its health bar I noticed that it did not move much, I mean it¡¯s not even noticeable and it makes me wonder if I really did some damage. The monster became confused since it cannot find its enemy and the hate value I gained vanished which then reset the monsters Health points. The monster then exit from battle mode then returned to its normal state and roam around.. This proves that when im using the movement skill monsters won¡¯t notice me even if I accidentally bump into them. Now for me to keep them into battle mode all I have to do is keep hitting them until they die. I only hope that I can keep my concentration until the end since killing this monster will really take a lot of time. *woosh* -113 -110 -210 -98 -115 .. .. .. I keep attacking the monster and it took me about five minutes before it collapse and die. If you think about it this normal monster''s health points is already on par with a final boss in the low level dungeons. The corpse glowed and the token absorbed that light. I looked at the token and its values changed from zero to fifty Some might think that I only need to kill 200 monsters to increase my strength but killing monsters till my token become full won¡¯t mean that I will have my breakthrough. The token is like a water bottle not my exp bar that once it¡¯s full I will advance to another level, I still need to slowly absorb the essence from the token and enhance my body till I manage to breakthrough to another level. As for the drops or loot it still drops the same as before I became a Demon Slayer. This time I got some meat and fur, as well as its fangs and some bones. In <> the item drop rate gets higher if the gap in level of the monster is higher against the average level of the player''s party and how many players are there in a party. If there are less people in a party then the drop rate will also increase by a little, so in hunting items it is recommended to have the minimum numbers and higher level of monsters as an opponent. The down side of doing so is of course getting the whole party wipe out since the monsters in this game is a lot stronger with better Artificial intelligence than the other games. Monsters in <> respond to the situation and execute appropriate action. Especially Elite and Boss class monsters as they are close to human in terms of responding against attacks. They also use high level strategy against raid parties in dungeons and field raids. This is why players up until now have slow progress in the game because there are no perfect strategies or sure win methods when hunting Elite and boss class monsters. Experience is also hard to earn since monsters gives low experience points especially with people that rely on parties. This is also the reason why there are a lot of solo players in this game since there are more benefits playing solo than in a party. From this situation a lot of solo players became famous for their strengths and solo fights against strong monsters. Moving on with my monster hunting, I always attacked monsters that are moving alone and kill them as fast as possible. And every defeated monster I need to change my sword since the swords I use have low durability I have a lot of them anyway so I won¡¯t have to worry about it. I now have a lot of monster parts and meat which I can cook to refill my stamina. If only monsters drop money then I would have some decent amount by now. One thing about this game is that monsters do not drop money except for humanoid monsters like un-dead soldier, thieves, bandits, etc. and the only way to earn money is to sell the drop items to the ¡®Adventurer¡¯s Association¡¯ or directly deal with NPC''s who need them. Just be careful because even NPC''s can scam players. After seeing my token Full I stopped killing and go to a safe area where there are no monsters roaming around. I also noticed that Old B cannot be seen anywhere and even I used my Mind''s Eye skill I cannot find his presence. Oh well who cares about that perverted and narcissistic old man he will come back later anyways. I choose a huge tree and rest on one of its branches after confirming that there are no threats nearby I held my token on my right hand and slowly absorb the collected essence. This time let¡¯s focus on increasing my skills and my strength. Chapter 17: A friend? A meat loving Friend? Demon Slayer (Warrior Lvl.3) A power that is born to oppose everything and dash towards a path created by one¡¯s self. . Special Effects: - Removes penalty during death except down time (for players). - +180 to Strength, Dexterity, Vitality, Intelligence, Wisdom - increase skills effects by 30% . Looking at my new power as a Demon Slayer, I can¡¯t help but smile while thinking that with just my job even if I do not have any skills I would be able to defeat any players in the top ten ranking. I mean I¡¯m so freaking strong against normal players. But when I think about the things I must endure to get to this level I can¡¯t help but to cry, those hardships straight from hell that I endured, those times when I want to kill the old man and the times that I desperately trying to escape to only end up increasing my torture. . Well since I now have the ability to even rush towards a nearby city without dying. I''m already thinking about the possibility and where should I go first. The problem is, I do not have a copy or should I say I do not have a world map. . This is also one of the annoying features of this game. You need to buy maps from a player or an npc to gain a map of a certain place like dungeons and cities. Of course, what you can buy are only maps of the areas that are already explored. So, it¡¯s impossible to have a detailed map of the whole world. Since I¡¯m most likely far behind enemy lines the chance of getting a detailed map of the surrounding areas is close to none. . Without any concrete ideas on what step I should make I decided to log out and rest my brain since tomorrow is Thursday and Friday is a national holiday so I would get a three-day playing time. . . . . Next day ~: Thursday :~ . . As usual I did my daily routine and go to school. The skies are bright the pleasant morning breeze can be felt through my skin and the birds chirping merrily in the morning. It¡¯s a very normal day for me, if I don¡¯t get this feeling being of being stared at. . I quickly look at my left side and I noticed that the people look away from me. I did the same on my right side but same thing happened. . There might be something sticking on my back so I tried to reach it but there was nothing there. Looking around at my body thinking that there might be something wrong and in the end, everything is normal so it¡¯s only my imagination, right? RIGHT? . Walking towards the classroom, I never felt like this before even in my previous life. It¡¯s embarrassing and made me anxious. . I do not know what''s going on and I do not remember doing anything illegal. I grab my head and think hard, what in the world did I do to make a scene for myself.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. . When I reach my classroom I opened the door like always and everybody is looking at me but their stares are different from the usual and even though they knew I¡¯m not the teacher they are still looking at me as if confirming something. . Walking towards my seat I can still feel their stares as if I¡¯m some new student or a stranger that invaded the room. . "It''s him right?" . "Definitely, the one who testifies knew his name" . "He''s so brave not any one can do that" . "But what about her fans, will he get beaten up?" . .. .. .. . Do they really think I can¡¯t hear them whispering to each other? But what about me doing something brave? . Thinking hard about it, the only thing I can remember is that letter from Cely. Did I get exposed? If that''s the case then I¡¯m going to die soon. . Suddenly my anxiety shot towards the maximum limit and cold sweat began to appear on my back. Now the greatest question off all is ''what should I do now?¡¯ . Let¡¯s see our options: . Option A: Be brave you¡¯re a man so be a man and just ignore it. . Option B: Pretend to be sick and go to home . Option C: Find Cely and ask for forgiveness . Option D: Prepare for the worst . Looking at my options I really want to use my life line which is call a friend. Wait I forgot I DONT HAVE FRIENDS!. . Time passed and I still do not know which options to choose. The teacher already entered the class room and the class starts. . . . ~Lunch Break~ . . It¡¯s already lunch break but I still do not have any good idea on what should I do. Moving towards the cafeteria I still feel those sharp gazes of the crowd. I ordered my food then find an empty table and start eating. . "Is this seat free?"(???) . I look at the guy that is asking me. He has a normal face, not handsome, and not ugly. The guy has a slightly buff build and a head taller than me so he''s probably an athlete or a body builder. . "Yeah, go ahead feel free"(Me) . "Thanks"(???) . He sits at the opposite side of the table and put down his tray of food which made my eyes almost pop out. It feels like an all you can eat meat buffet when you look at it. . "Is there something wrong?"(???) . He asked me when he noticed that I¡¯m staring at his food. . "ah .. no ... nothing at all... its just that I¡¯m surprised by the amount" (Me) . "Well I need a lot of protein to further increase my muscles. My aim is to become the national champion in judo" (???) . "You have a nice goal in life .... I hope you succeeded" (Me) . He smiled and nods repeatedly then he starts eating. . "By the way I''m James....... James Freeman ... year ** class ** judo club"(James) . Extending his right hand he introduced himself. . "I''m Stanley .... Stanley crux...... same year class ** go home club (Me) . James stares at me with a hint of surprise. It made me curious but I notice that he does not have any malicious intent coming from him and with all that happening around me I might know something from him. . ¡°Oh you¡¯re Stanley that legendary Stanley from class ** WOW I did not expect to meet the man from the rumors.¡± (James) . ¡°Rumor what rumor?¡±(Me) . It¡¯s something that I really want to know. The reason for those peoples stares towards me. . ¡°You do not know?¡± (James) . ¡°Would I ask if I know?¡±(Me) . ¡°Oh! .... Sorry.... it¡¯s just that .... It¡¯s the hottest topic in our schools social media page.¡±(James) . ¡°I never seen that site and I do not have an account for any particular social media site.¡±(Me) . ¡°No wonder you would not know ..... It¡¯s like this ....¡±(James) . He took his phone out and looks something with it then when he finds it, he showed it to me. . I saw a video clip being played and slowly my eyes become bigger with my mouth wide open. . Sorry, can¡¯t help it because Never in my wildest dreams that this thing of all things will be caught on cam. . It¡¯s a scene where you can see a boy suddenly confess his love to the girl he likes then ran away leaving the girl shocked. By the way it also includes the girl¡¯s reaction in the end of the video as if it is a bonus. . ¡°Shocking right?¡±(James) . ¡°...¡±(Me) . ¡°It¡¯s going viral now. It appears that this video has been viewed by more than two hundred thousand times and counting. The whole school knows about it and the girls can¡¯t help but gossip.¡± (James) . ¡°What do you mean? Is it really that big of a deal?¡±(Me) . ¡°NO SH*T bro! It¡¯s like a scene straight out of a movie. The only difference is that this one is the real deal in a real life, it¡¯s even in HD. That¡¯s not all; even the person involved is even more amazing. It¡¯s one of the school¡¯s top beauties, the untouchable queen. . If Cely is the Ice-cold beauty which is also known as the ¡®Executioner¡¯; she is good at almost everything and slays thousands of men by rejecting their confessions then Lalaine is the unapproachable beauty. No one is brave enough to confess and just one look from her and you will feel as if you are in the deepest layer of hell. She is scary, everyone knows about it but a beauty is still a beauty and a lot of guys fall for her. . ¡°By the way she also has a lot of diehard fans so be careful.¡±(James) . ¡°....¡± (Me) . James keeps talking in an exited tone, as for me? My mind is now at the end of Milky Way galaxy not knowing what just happened. My random bull became so famous and now it is being treated as a reality. Chapter 18: Her Fans? They are just a bunch of idiots Chapter 18: Her Fans? They are just a bunch of idiots . ¡°So what are your plans?¡±(James) . James asked me while stuffing his mouth with lots of meat. . ¡°Plans for what?¡± (Me) . ¡°You know. What is your next move after this? Everyone in this school is eager to know¡± (James) . ¡°.... Why should I have one?¡±(Me) . ¡°You mean that¡¯s it?¡±(James) . ¡°¡­..¡±(Me) . I just stare at him innocently making an impression that I do not know anything. . ¡°Seriously? ¡­.. DUDE .. I¡­¡­.... aaaaargh ¡­ whatever it¡¯s not my problem anyway¡± (James) . In the end, he just gave up on acquiring some information from me which I laugh out loud inside my head. We continue eating our meals while chatting about random stuff since he knows that he won¡¯t get anything from me if he continues to pester me about Lalaine. . ¡°By the way dude do you play << Lucid Dream >>?¡± (James) . I suddenly stopped eating while giving him a reply filled with sadness ¡°¡­Yeah I do¡± (Me) . I think he noticed and so he asked me if there is something going on. I just told him some parts of my circumstances like I¡¯s stuck in the middle of nowhere, I can¡¯t delete my avatar for a new one, I¡¯m surrounded by high level mobs that could kill me in one hit, and so on. Of course, I leave some details which I did not tell him especially the part where I¡¯m being trained by a big old narcissistic pervert. . ¡°You got the worst luck?¡± (James) . ¡°Kind of but I can manage somehow or another¡± (Me) . James the lean forward for a bit then asked me while whispering . ¡°So, did you get a special class?¡± (James) . ¡°¡­.¡± . Me with a shocked face like asking him ¡®How did you know¡¯ he smiled. . ¡°so, you did huh¡± (James)If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. . D*mn it I got caught off guard with that sudden question. I made my brain run as fast as possible to somewhat alleviate the situation. . ¡°It¡¯s not as grand as you think it is. It¡¯s a crappy class where you cannot level-up and only rely on your acquired skills plus equipment to make yourself stronger.¡± (Me) . James stared at me while staying silent for a while then he asked me. ¡°Does your skills increase your stats?¡± . ¡°Yes it does¡± (Me) . After hearing my response, his eyes began to shine but before he can ask another question I continued. . ¡°It does increase my stats. The passive ones do but it¡¯s in percentage so it¡¯s almost useless especially at my current state¡± (Me) . His face changed from an exited state to a shocked one. I can understand why, it¡¯s because a skill that increase one¡¯s stats is rare and only few people have those. In my case its practically useless If I do not have my class main characteristic as a Demon Slayer. . *bell rings* . Lunch time finished and a few hours more to go before I can go home. . . . ~: After Class :~ . . There isn¡¯t any noteworthy to mention aside from the stares I got every time I walk around the hallways. So, I packed my belongings to go straight home. If you ask me if I¡¯m excited, HELL YEAH! I am it¡¯s a three-day vacation without any home works to do *Laughs*. . While I¡¯m still lost into my delusions several guys entered the classroom. They all have this poker face expressions which at one glace you can tell that they are a bunch of weirdoes. They lined up in the front of the class and a guy with glasses step forward. . All of us who were left in the classroom are staring at them and thinking of what are they doing here? I believe they are in different year level since the star badge on their clothes differ in color and number. In this school you must wear a certain badge that indicates your grade and year level. Red ones indicate that you are in elementary, Green indicates junior high and lastly Blue is for senior high. The numbers then indicate on what year you are, in a specific grade. . ¡°We are looking for a certain person¡± (Guy in glasses) . . The guy then looks around the room then continued. . ¡°We are a peace-loving group that¡¯s sole purpose is to support our goddess Lalaine Clover¡± (Guy in glasses) . . When we hear those words, I knew that every single one of us who belong in this class were thinking ¡®What the h*ck these weirdoes came from¡¯ . ¡°But¡­. A certain news came to be and as faithful supporters¡­. We cannot ignore this! ¡­.. so¡­ tell us! ¡­ who is STANLEY?¡± (Guy is glasses) . ¡°¡±¡±¡±¡±¡± TELL US! ¡°¡±¡±¡±¡±¡± (other guys) . And because of that every pair of eyes were looking at me. I¡¯m really an idiot, I should have known why they came and flee as fast as I could. But here I am spectating like it does not concern me. . ¡°So you¡¯re Stanley?¡± (Guy with glasses) . ¡°Yeah?¡± (Me) . All of them head towards me and immediately surround me. I keep my cool since I know they cannot act violently in-front of my class. The school gave heavy punishments for bullies and does not discriminate no matter what your background is. That reminds me about a certain incident where the son of a senator bullied a girl because she rejected him. The senator¡¯s son and his group cornered the girl and took her at the storage room. Nobody tried to stop them and the senator¡¯s son threaten those people who saw them. Fortunately, the school immediately too action and several guards pin those guys on the floor. The senator¡¯s son keeps shouting and using his status to intimidate the guards. The girl was released with only minor bruise and a slight bump on her head. She was taken to the infirmary and let her rest for the day. . Everyone thought that nothing will happen and everything will just be swept under the rug. To our surprise, on the next day, the group was expelled and rumors has it that the group was sent to a special prison for juvenile people who committed crimes and when they reached a certain age they will be tested, if they fail they will be sent to a normal prison where different convicts are held. . Clearly, the girl did not have enough background to send a Senator¡¯s son to prison but everyone knew that the school¡¯s background is not that simple. . This incident served as a warning to all students and discrimination that leads to bullying lessened. Back to the situation at hand, every one of these guys were keenly staring at me. . *drops* . ¡°Huh?¡± (Me) . I was dumbfounded for a second, who would have thought that these guys would suddenly kneel. Is this a punishment game of some sort? What is the purpose of such speech earlier? . ¡°Oh, benevolent master please help us¡± (Guy in glasses) . ¡°Yes, please help us¡± (other guys) . The remaining people in the class began to burst in activity as they were also surprised. They were probably thinking that I¡¯m screwed or something but, what they were expecting did not happen. . ¡°OMG I thought they will do something to him¡± (classmate 1) . ¡° I also thought about the same thing¡± (classmate 2) . ¡°idiots even if they come at him what can they do? remember that bullying is a crime in this school¡± (Classmate 3) ¡­. ¡­¡­ ¡­¡­¡­ These guys really run their mouth¡¯s as they pleased. I still do not understand the purpose of these idiots whose kneeling while surrounding me. Chapter 19: The advice, Lost in the forest Chapter 19: The advice, Lost in the forest Me and the idiots changed our location and moved to a more quiet place to talk. . ¡°So, what¡¯s the deal?¡± I ask them since they were almost crying back there. . ¡°We want you to teach us on how to talk to the goddess¡± (Glasses Idiot) . ¡°Huh? What do you mean talk? Just approach her and speak like what we are doing right now¡± (Me) . ¡°We tried all of us did but...*cries*¡± (Idiot member 1) . And all of them starts to cry. What a bunch of ¡­¡­. I¡¯m speechless myself. . ¡°Each and every one of us tried to confess *sniff* but before we can even say a single word were already on our knees¡± (Idiot member 2) . ¡°Yeah just a single straight eye to eye contact makes our legs weak¡± (Idiot member 3) . ¡°And you call your selves a MAN?¡± (Me) . ¡°We can¡¯t help it.. right guys?¡±(Idiot member 4) . ¡®¡¯¡¯¡¯¡°Yes We can¡¯t¡±¡¯¡¯¡¯¡¯ (all idiots) . ¡°Being stared by those seductive eyes as if she is looking at you bare. Eyes that can see through to your very soul. It makes you shiver with fear and excitement¡± (glasses idiot) . And there you have it, a group of weird, idiots and worst of all perverts. Suddenly entering their own world and imagining something I do not want to know. All the hair in my body began to stand and my instinct is screaming telling me to run as far as possible. . ¡°Thus, we want you to teach us on how to be come closer to her¡± (Glasses idiot) . ¡°¡±¡±¡±¡±PLEASE TEACH US¡°¡±¡±¡±¡±(The idiotic perverts Club)(note: thou shall be called TIP Club¡±) . . . .This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. . . . . Classes are now over and I¡¯m currently leaving the school premises then head straight home to play. If you are wondering what happened to those TIP Club then all I can say is all is well. . I can¡¯t really tell them the real reason for what happened at the store and what advise can I say? Even I do not have any experience in both lives that¡¯s how pitiful my life is. Those guys keep asking me until I gave them an answer which is ¡°YOLO¡± you only live once, brace your selves¡¯ youth and don¡¯t leave any regrets. Kind of ironic because here I am in my second life. At the same time an evil thought came to mind, it made me laugh madly inside my mind. I told them that whenever they see her, gather courage and yell out all your feelings then run. That way they will be able to say what they want before she could react. . So case closed and everybody happy, well everybody except *laughs* you know who. . . . . . . ~:Back in the game:~ . . . . . Opening my eyes, I observed my surroundings. Everything is peaceful and Old B cannot be found. . ¡°Looks like its self-training this time too¡± (Me) . It does not matter anyway since now, the most important thing to do is to increase my experience in combat. At first all I can do is to fight against one enemy but as time passed I manage to increase my combat capability and fight against multiple enemies. . As I kill my way towards different monsters, the essence that I earn is slowly accumulating and by the time I realize it already reached its maximum capacity. I look around and it seems that I became a lost child, right now I¡¯m inside a dense forest which gives me an eerie feeling. Everything is so quiet that it feels abnormal, no sound of the wind blowing against the leaves, no sound of birds chirping, nothing at all. . I pick up a slightly big branch and hit the nearest tree trunk but the sound I¡¯m expecting did not came out. I hit the tree again and again, each time I hit harder than before until the branch¡¯s durability fell to zero and disappeared. . ¡°¡­.¡± I tried to speak but still nothing. . ¡®Just where in the world am I?¡¯ all I can do is voice it out in my mind. Observing my surrounding one more time as I look at different directions then I also tried to look at the system map, but nothing came out. Without panicking which most people will do now, I decided the most advance method available for me right now. I took out a straight rusty sword from my inventory and hold the sword while the tip pointing at the ground. I let the sword go and let the will of the heavens decide my path. . *drops* . And it points towards the right. Let¡¯s head there then but before that I carved some arrow markings on a nearby tree, so I would know if I¡¯m walking in circles which is something that always happen in novels of old. My sight is limited because of the trees which is too close to each other and tall enough to only let the sun¡¯s rays to dim. The only solution I could think of is to constantly use my ¡®Mind¡¯s Eye¡¯ skill. Even though it can only reach a maximum of 52 meters right now. It¡¯s still better than using my own eyes. . Everything in a 52meter radius is being displayed inside my head, the trees just trees everywhere. No animals, no insects just trees. . ¡®¡­¡­ le-let¡¯s just move forward¡¯ . . ~:2hours later:~ . . I think I¡¯m going insane, I¡¯ve been walking for some time now and walking pass these endless trees, but nothing sorts of change happening. At first, I thought that Old B is playing a prank on me but at this point he should be in front of me and mocking me already. . *stomach growl* . Even though I cannot hear it, I can still feel my stomach asking me to fill it with some food. My satiety bar which is below my essence bar only have 30% left. I started a fire and took some meat that I got from the monsters I kill then started to cook some grilled meat. The Alchemy skill includes almost everything related to alchemy, so it allows me to properly harvest herbs and other materials for alchemy. These herbs then serve as the seasoning for my food. . A low fire is dancing under the meat which slowly secrete some of its oil. The fragrance is top notch, with just a whiff and your mouth will produce some water fall. I slowly turn the meat, flipping it from time to time as it slowly cooks. . *bite* . The meat juices slowly burst out of the tender meat and with the help of the herbs and spices it gives a heavenly taste. It¡¯s really a delicious meal. . ¡®It¡¯s so goo-¡® then I noticed something. . *Bite* . *munch* . *Bite* . *Bite* . *Bite* . I look at the meat in my hand and the only thing I can see is the skewer I used. I clearly felt the sensation of eating it but. the taste is gone. . Yes, gone.