《Eden - Farewell Forever》 A New World It was a cold and chilly night. Jax spent three hours waiting in line for the newest game, Eden. This game was the pinnacle of virtual reality gaming, boasting that if there was no menu, you could confuse it for reality. VR has been around for quite some time now. The military used it for combat training, and corporations used it for product simulations. Eventually it was released to the public around 20 years ago. Ever since then, the competition between gaming companies became fierce. That was until ROYAL Gaming took the spotlight. With some of the worlds top scientist and developers ROYAL Gaming created Starfire, an incredibly successful space exploration vr game. The income per year was far into the billions. This gave them absolute dominance in the Vr market. With even more world-renowned programmers, developers, and creators joining, ROYAL Gaming continued to grow. And now it was Eden¡¯s time to shine, what the creators called the most innovative and expansive fantasy experience to date. It claimed that every experience would be unique and that no person would play through the same story. Of course, this meant the game balance was flexible, some thought it was a promising idea, others would rather play it safe. The most impressive aspect of Eden was its AI. There were two types of AI the npc Ai which was top of the line in every regard, and the system AI, which acted like a GM to Eden, fixing what needed to be fixed and breaking what need to be broken. Eden would be the first VR game to have an AI GM. OF course it had numerous restriction and can only act within the power given to it, but unless something went terribly wrong ROYAL Gaming would not interfere. And thus, Eden would be a game to go down in history. Jax took the gear and placed it on his head, anticipating what this new world would bring. Unable to contain his excitement he turned on the device. An angelic voice rung in his ear. ¡°Welcome to Eden¡±, as soon as this voice spoke an intro started showing various scenes of the in-game world. ¡°We hope you have a pleasant experience, please create your character. The character created will be permanent!¡± Jax thought for a moment, and another moment and another¡­. ¡°Crap I¡¯ve been thinking about this game for months and haven¡¯t even decided what to be! Jax grumbled. ¡°What are the options for Race¡± ¡°In Eden all players must start as a human, although chances to switch race are possible in the future¡± the voice explained. Jax would have facepalmed if he could, how could he forget something so simple. ¡°what are the classes¡± he asked, completely blanking out on the hours of studying he put into this game. ¡°The starting classes are the following: Warrior, Guardian, Rogue, Mage, Priest, Archer, Paladin (Light), Warlock (Dark), Bard, Dancer, Merchant, Tradesman, and Engineer. Jax thought for a long while. ¡°should I be one of the Faction exclusive classes, no probably a lot of others are going to play them, hmm,¡± The game will begin in 20 minutes. Jax thought harder and harder, warriors and mages were usually the easiest classes, but that being the case they were also quite popular, leading to their items and quest being tightly pursued. Of course, he could pick a bard, but who in their right mind would want to do that, and a merchant was way out of the question. That left the rogue, guardian, archer, and engineer, after all the priest was nearly as bad as the bard. Engineers were probably the most unique and versatile class. They had various bombs, gadgets and traps for the enemy, the only down side was that they spent more time on a workbench then actually fighting, either that or they were filthy rich and could buy the items outright. ¡°The game will start it ten minutes¡± ¡°Give me a break¡± he yelled at the system. ¡°I choose the rogue class¡± ¡°Analyzing player, adjusting into game¡± Eden used a body scanner to determine how your character appeared, long gone were the days of every character looking the same, attempting to look the ¡°coolest¡±. Jax was 5¡¯11¡± and was fairly built, a rather average face and the only eye-catching thing was that he had Snow white hair. Jax had a rough childhood, his parents passed away over 4 years ago when he was 15. Being the only child, he stayed with his older cousin Rose. She is 25, 6 years older than Jax. She was his lifeline, having nowhere to go, she was the one who took him in. She saw him as her brother and did everything she could to support him, including nagging him relentlessly. Even during the nagging, Jax felt nothing but respect for her and would try his best in every occasion trying to pay back her generosity. Jax had a hard time fitting in at school, especially after his parent¡¯s accident, so he spent most of his time alone playing games. His favorite was Chance. It was another fantasy VR that will be the outshined precursor to Eden. Both he and Rose were good at gaming, Rose always had a large group around her as she was one of the better female players and more importantly very beautiful. Jax however only joined a party when it was necessary, even then he would usually decline which led him to miss many events. Still he was a skilled player and some guilds tried to invite him but they would be declined. Instead he created his own guild called One Man Army. Naturally this guild only had one member. He thought it was cool, and refused to let others convince him otherwise. This was the aspect he looked forward to most in Eden, complete freedom. The creators said that Solo players would have just as much opportunity as guilds and parties. Of course, there would always be disadvantages to both but they were considerably decreased for the solo players. This is why he chose to be a rogue.Stolen novel; please report. ¡°Please choose your faction¡± The options were Light, Neutral, and Dark They all had their advantages, each one had exclusive buffs, abilities and class advancements. The light and dark factions gave more and an exclusive class, but they also were targeted by the other side, whereas neutral would be given less, but wouldn¡¯t have to worry about being specifically targeted by one side or the other. Of course, there would be ways to change one¡¯s faction, but it would be difficult and probably not until later in the game. Jax chose neutral, he figured the less people trying to kill him the better. ¡°Please create a name for your character¡± This was it¡­ the moment he dreaded, the cursed name creation. Millions if not hundreds of millions of names would have already been taken. In previous games he would spend hours trying to find one that works. At least he arrived somewhat early so it shouldn¡¯t be to bad. ¡°Jax¡± ¨C Taken ¡°jax is back¡± ¨C taken ¡°One Man Army¡± ¨C taken ¡°Jaxx, jaxxx, jaxxxx, Jax is great, Jax the great, Jax the theif, noob, newbie, I hate this game, Jax, destroyer of nations, Conqueror of the world, The living incarnation of all that is evil, bob, I hate this Game 2 rfanmdslkfkar, - taken AHHHHH! Jax yelled in rage. ¡°The game will start in 5 minutes¡± ¡°How many people could possibly have the name Jax¡±. He said. ¡°There are approximately 6783 players that have the Name ¡°Jax¡± in their character name so far.¡± the voice replied in a know-it-all tone. At this moment Jax was getting desperate, he wanted to experience this game from the beginning. ¡°3 minutes remaining¡± ¡°Vale Aeternum¡± ( Farewell Forever) ¡°Are you sure¡± ¡°yes¡± Jax said, eager he remembered a Latin phrase from a previous game. ¡°would you like to translate the name to English¡± the voice prompted ¡°no¡± Character Created ¡°please assign 5 attribute points¡± Jax choose to put 4 in agility and 1 in endurance. Each class has a certain distribution of 63 attribute points, giving more to the effective points for the starting class. Everyone began with 5 luck, charisma, and willpower. Vale Aeternum Health: 135 Mana: 80 Stamina: 110 Class: Rogue LvL 1 Faction: Neutral Title: None Fame: 0 Strength ¨C 8 Physical Attack: 32 Agility ¨C 16 Magic Attack: 14 Intelligence ¨C 8 Defense: 25 Wisdom ¨C 8 Endurance ¨C 11 Vitality ¨C 7 Perception- 10 Luck: 5 Charisma: 5 Willpower: 5 Jax was satisfied with his character and started to watch the countdown 5,4,3,2,1¡­ Jax closed his eyes and awaited the beginning of a new life, a life in Eden. Lets Begin Jax felt a cold breeze across his face, along with various smells and fragrances entering his nose. Slowly he opened his eyes. The view was incredible, snow covered houses, long icicles hanging down with the appearance of beauty. Jax looked behind him and saw a dense forest crowded with snow covered trees and the feeling of adventure and danger. Soon the voices of more and more people disturbed the peaceful scenery. ¡°The snow, it feels so real¡± ¡°Reggie, are you here, Reggie, where are you¡± ¡°Idiot he probably began at a different village¡± ¡°Why is it so cold¡­¡± ¡°Anyone looking for a party¡± And so the onslaught of useless and annoying chatter began, at least Jax thought so anyway. The tutorial lasted for 7 days, and was separated from the rest of the in-game word known as Dawn. This gave everyone the opportunity to adjust to the game and learn how to progress, or in many cases survive. The level system was split into for major groups being separated each 25 levels. At level 25 one would acquire his first class advancement and at 50 his next advancement and so on. After 100 no player knew. With 7 days the system calculated that the average player would be LVL 10, a few higher, but none should be past 13. Once the seven days were up the game truly began. Jax opened his inventory to see what the starting items were. Long rough spun tunic (Common) Defense +1 Short rough spun tunic (Common) Defense +1 Rough spun pants (Common) Defense +1 Rough spun boots (Common) 10 apples ¨C Restores 10 health over duration eating 5 loaves of bread ¨C restores 20 healthy over duration eating, can be interrupted, must be sitting down. Rusty Iron Dagger (Common) Damage 4-8 -A rusty dagger, only use it if you must¡­ ¡°Well that¡¯s pretty basic¡±, Jax said. Wondering why he¡¯d been hoping for something more. Maybe the game glitched and gave him the all-smiting sword, or the cloak of invisibility, but alas, to his disappointment he got bread and a piece of rusted metal just like everyone else. Soon a large grin appeared on his face, it finally started, his new world, his new beginning. He quickly checked his skills wanting to start his adventure as quickly as he could. Element of surprise (Passive) ¨C The first attack on an unaware target will increase the damage dealt by 30%. 45 second cooldown for each target. Camouflage (Active) ¨C Blend into the environment making it difficult for others to find you, effectiveness depends on their perception. Affect is lost after attacking or receiving damage. 20 second cooldown. Backstab (Active) LVL 1 ¨C Attack your opponent from behind to deal 120% damage. 12 second cooldown.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Small blade proficiency (Passive) ¨C Proficiency with small blades cannot drop below 100% Deadly Precision Passive LVL 1 ¨C While observing or fighting an enemy, occasionally a weak spot will be identified for a short duration. If attacked, bonus damage will be applied. Occurrence ¨C Very Low Damage boost 5% Duration 3 seconds Deadly Lunge (Active) LVL 1 ¨C Lunge forward with your weapon up to 2 meters. Enemies hit will take 110% damage. 5 second cooldown Stunning bash (Active) ¨C Use the non-lethal part of your weapon to bash your opponents head, target will be stunned for 1 second. Effect is doubled if target is hit from behind. Cooldown 20 sec In Eden, there are very little restrictions on what weapons a player can use, to balance this freedom the method of proficiency was used. A player with 100% proficiency would be able to bring out the weapons potential, dealing the weapons expected damage, whereas a player with only 50% proficiency will only deal 50% weapon damage. So a Warhammer wielding priest and a warrior using a wand is possible, but in most cases impractical. In order to raise ones proficiency obviously he must use that weapon, of course there are other ways, but those tend to be difficult or outrageously expensive. All players start with 50% proficiency on all weapons except the ones that naturally belong with their class, Also if one doesn¡¯t train with a weapon type the proficiency will decrease. Similarly, many magic spells can be used by other classes but proficiency is still in effect and in many cases harsher than with weapons in both increasing and decreasing its proficiency. As soon as Jax finished looking at the skills he bolted into the forest looking for anything he can us his dagger on. Sure, there were quest and what not, but he didn¡¯t care, in fact if it wasn¡¯t for quest rewards being good, he¡¯d probably wouldn¡¯t do a quest until his class advancement. After all what he loved most was to explore. He quickly ran through the forest looking for something, anything he could kill. Soon enough he found it. He gripped the cold rusted blade in is hands feeling its texture and weight trying to adjust to it. He turned on his camouflage and slowly crept up behind the boar that was soon to be his pray. Once he reached a 2 meter distance from the boar he activated deadly lunge using the effect of Element of surprise to deal bonus damage. He then quickly used stunning bash on the boar causing it to be stunned for two seconds. Afterwards he used Backstab causing the blade to sink into the boars back, which was a little awkward considering the back of the boar was on top but none the less the desired damage was done. He quickly attacked twice normally and withdrew. -28 -24 -17 -18 Wild Boar LvL 2 Hp 113/200 The boar wildly turned around and began charging at Jax, who barely was able to avoid the charge with a roll to the side. Jax felt the freezing snow as he rolled away, once again in awe of the games reality. He quickly got up and attacked the boar with two more normal attacks. -16 -19 Jax once again attempted to roll away but was to slow as the boar rammed into his side causing him to fly 5 meters into the snow. -39 Jax quickly looked at his hp bar which read 96 ¡°Whew, this is harder than I thought¡±, he murmured to himself focusing once again on his target. Boars were tough adversaries, especially early in the game. They had high health and defense and a nasty attack, the only withdrawal was that they had very simple attack patterns, usually they would only know to smash their tusk into the enemy. Jax quickly adjusted his tempo and began to walk towards the boar who was about to charge. ¡°These cooldowns are truly too long¡± Jax complained. He still had to wait 4 more seconds for his backstab. After some adjustments and loss of hp he was able to determine that attack pattern and speed of the charge. He quickly dodged the oncoming boar and attacked normally twice followed by a deadly lunge, he continued this until the boar gave a chilling yet realistic cry as it fell to the ground never to move again. Jax sighed in relief, turns out this game wouldn¡¯t be that easy. A level 2 boar pushed him to this extent, he looked at his hp bar 13/135 5% experience earned Jax went over to the boar and picked up the items it dropped He obtained a boar¡¯s tusk and fur with 4 copper coins The money system was the usual multiple of 100, Silver was 100 copper and gold was 100 silver Jax grabbed his side as it was still a bit sore from the boar''s charge. Pain was reduced to 5%, that being said a boars tusked ramming into your side still left a bit of discomfort. Jax chuckled as he remembered a game where the pain setting was at 0%, of course, there were still messages that tells players when they were attacked or when something was wrong, but in that game one item was left out of those messages. That item was the fork. Soon enough players walked around with a varying amount of forks stuck in their back, it was a sight to see. Nothing was better than some of the top ranked players with their legendary equipment walking around showing off when they were oblivious to multiple forks sticking out of their back, unfortunately due to complaints it was patched. Jax remembered those days like it was yesterday, after all, he¡¯s forked quite a few people himself. ¡°Let¡¯s begin¡± he said, as he grabbed the cold yet deadly dagger in his hands as he started searching for his next target.