《The Gravekeeper》


 Prologue

    *beep*


    Mail received from UNCHAINED online


    "We are proud to announce that our first full immersion VR game BlaBlaBla with itsever-expanding world and BlaBlaBla It¡¯s servers will be open at 12 AM 22 July ."


    In the poorly lit room Al couldn''t help but to let out a sigh.Yes,this game might be the only way to escape his boredom filled reality but there still is one big problem....There was only one way for him to get money for the required capsule and he didn''t like it.Letting out another big sight he reaches out for the phone.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    *5 missed calls from Bitch*


    Ignoring the missed calls from his mother he proceeded to call pretty much the only other person in his contacts list, his father.Calming himself he pressed the call button.


    ¡±Hi pops...¡±


    ¡±No matter how much you beg i won¡¯t help you with your deb- ¡±


    Cutting his father off Al didn¡¯t beat around the bush so after 10 mentally draining minutes and some promises that will come to bite him in the ass later he got the money.


    The next day the capsule came. At 12:00 in his room a loud shout could be heard:


    ¡±LOG IN¡±


    Followed shortly by a slightly embarrased:


    ¡±connect...¡±

 Chapter 1 - Dont shout FUUUUUCK unless you want goblins to attack you

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    <td>booting up...</td>


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    Welcome player to the world of UNCHAINED online.


    Choose your username:


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    "Al"


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    <td>Choose your race:</td>


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    "Human"


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    <td>Do you want to alter yourappearance?</td>


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    "No"


    Another panel appeared but before he could read it he got teleported to a dusty room without much furniture and a single door.After a few seconds he regained his senses and could see that near the door was a shady looking old man.


    "You must be another one of those pesky travelers huh?"


    Still a bit confused Al couldn''t help but nod.


    "Well, you are in my innit doesn''t really matter.People only come here when they want details about our world"


    Al had a feeling that this might be a tutorial a while ago but he couldn''t be sure until now.Not wanting to lose time he decided to refuse.


    "I don''t need them"


    The old man raised an eyebrow at his answer and taking another look at Al he murmured something then asked:


    "You sure?"


    "Yes"


    After a long time the old man let out a sigh and while opening the door he said:


    "So be it...Try not to get yourself killed out there"


    To Al''s surprise he got a message.


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    <td>New title gained: Ted''sprot¨¦g¨¦</td>


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    Old man Ted is impressed by your foolish courage so he gives you his blessing.


    Effects


    +1 to all stat(s)


    +10% exp gain


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    Giving Ted one thankful look he steps out the door.At the bottom of a mountain an angry FUUUCK could be heard.The door appeared slightly above the ground so when he stepped out he lost balance and went headfirst into a tree.UNCHAINED online had a whooping 80% pain ratio so the hit felt very real.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


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    <td>-4 hp</td>


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    Because you hit a tree with a maestry that would get even minotaurs envious you gained 2 new skills: Headbutt mastery and charge


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    Headbutt mastery (passive)


    Lvl 1 (0%) novice


    5% increased damage when hitting enemies with your head


    *Bonuses increase with Lvl


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    Charge (active)


    Lvl 1 (0%) novice


    Take a few steps back and then go in a mad sprint to headbutt your enemies


    Cost 0 mana but if you dont have a helmet you will take 50% of the damage you inflict


    *damage dealt increases and damage taken decreases with Lvl


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    "Very funny..."


    You can''t deny Al was mad and in pain but those 2 skills made him a bit happier.After a while the pain and dizinesssignificantly lessened so he stood up ready to check his status window.The second it appeared he felt a surging pain in his rib cage and he fell down.


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    <td>-6 hp</td>


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    Feeling imminent danger hequickly rolled over only to see a small green creature trying to get its club out of the ground,the same place Al stood a second ago.Al''s fear quickly got replaced by anger and he swept his left foot on the ground making the goblin fall too.Since he was easy twice his size once he sat on him the poor goblin couldn''t do anything.After 5 minutes and a really mutilated goblin corpse Al''s bleeding continued taking 1 hp per second and it only stopped when he had 2 hp remaining.Only now after he calmed himself he had time to check the messages that appeared.Ignoring all the 1 damage dealt to goblin ones he finally found some thatinterested him.


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    Enemy killed!


    Since the enemy is one level higher than your level you gain bonus exp.


    Exp points gained +6


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    <td>After seeing your ruthless fight and how you "didn''t" completely destroy your opponents body the God of War has rewarded you with the skill Frenzy</td>


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    Frenzy (Buff,can be toggled ON/OFF)


    Lvl 1 (0%) Novice


    Gain 1% all stat increase


    Costs 1% of your max health per 2 seconds


    *Bonuses increase with Lvl


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    Finally getting to see his status screen he understands after looking at his health 2/22 that only the bonus VIT from Ted helped him survive.

 Chapter 2- Goblins are the best vocation advisers

    No,no this can''t be happening.He is not mentally challenged ,he can''t be.It''s not his fault he got ambushed by fodder monsters twice in 5 minutes and now the only thing that keeps him alive is the goblin swarmed tree he is standing on.That bloody window is the one to blame,the status window.After the bleeding effect wore off he only wanted to check his status, it''s not that weird everyone does that, but the game seems to try to kill him everytime he opens it.


    Even though Al only glanced a bit at it before he got ambushed he might have seen the only thing that could help him in this situation: the fact that he had no vocation.


    "Vocation."


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    <td>No basic vocation chosen yet. Do you wish to choose now?</td>


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    "Yes"


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    There are 2 avaible paths:


    Strength oriented: 50% more STR END and VIT | 50% less INT WIS and CTRL


    Magical oriented: 50% more INT WIS and CTRL | 50% lessSTR END and VIT


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    Even though the facts prove otherwise Al isn''t stupid and is able to completly understand that choosing the first one won''t let him find a way out. Al knows that but he always wanted to be a swordsman so it is quite a though choice.After fighting with his inner self for some minutes he finally chooses the path that gives him some hope.


    "Magical oriented"


    The second he finished saying that Al started feeling warm and cozy.It''s like he finally found and embraced something that was always inside of him and in the air.


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    <td>Since you stopped being ignorant and started paying attention to the world you gained the skill:Mana manipulation Lvl 1</td>


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    Everything became even more real and Al felt like this was just the beginning. The last bit of regret because he couldn''t become a warrior dissapeared,he even felt pity for them since they won''t ever understand theirsurroundings like this.Without bothering to confirm the mana manipulation skill''s effect he started concentrating mana in one point forming a sphere . The mana dispersed in a few seconds but after 2 or 3 tries he got the skill he wanted.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


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    Like all begginer mages the first thing you try is to form a ball... not very interesting or innovative but it does it''s job


    Skill gained : Mana bolt Lvl 1


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    "Smart ass" Wondering who the fuck would program an AI to be like this he checks the new skill.


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    Mana bolt (Active)


    Lvl 1 (0%) novice


    Use mana to create a sphere that you can throw into your enemies.


    Cost:2 mana |Damage: 0.2 per INT stat X 1 + 0.1 per SKILL Lvl X 1+ 0.1 per every Mana manipulation LVL =3.872


    *Cost and DMG increase with LVL


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    Seeing that it doesn''t even do twice it''s mana worth in damage Al gets quickly dissapointed and doesn''t even try the skill before muttering:


    "Well since my vocation doe-" To his delight he gets cut off by another vocation window.


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    The Magical oriented path you chose has derived into 2 other paths:


    Combat magic oriented: 50% more INT and CTRL | Buffs received are 25% more effective |Can''t cast buffs on allies


    Support magic oriented: 50% more WIS and CTRL | Buffs given to melee classes are 50% more effective


    Choose wisely since this is your last basic vocation.


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    Without even thinking about it he chooses the combat magic path and opens the mana bolt window only to see that the Dmg went up by a lot to 5.324.He quickly starts casting a mana bolt and after 4 secs he sees that it does around 5 DMG after the DMG/Armorequation.Pumped up he starts the grind.After 3 or 4 goblins Al gets a notification saying that both mana bolt and mana manipulation are at 99% and that the skills aren''t able to exceed his level.


    After seeing his allies die the last goblin wants to escape but of course Al doesn''t let him.Activating frenzy he catches the goblin and starts giving him a good ol'' beating.Well at least that was his plan but his STR stat is halved and Frenzy is slowly killing him so he finishes the goblin with a mana bolt before sitting to rest.


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    Stat gained frighten:-Has a 0.1% per stat point to inflict Fear upon the enemy at the start of the combat.


    -Fear''s stat reduction is increased by 1% per stat point.


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    You have enough experience (50) to level up to LVL 2


    Do you want to level up?


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    "Yes"

 Chapter 3- First real fight

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    You have leveled up.Remaining exp 3.


    5 free stat points remaining


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    Remaining exp 3...Guess that''s why Al''s experience bar never grew, it seems like exp here is like a curency.And those stat points...


    "Holy fuck! If i put all of them into INT i''ll increase mana bolt''s damage by over 2 points!"


    That ladies and gentlemen is the happiness of a man who spent close to an hour trying to kill 7 goblins.


    "Sta-"


    He won''t do it this time, he won''t be stupid to try to open his status window without climbing in a tree. 2 minutes later and a climbing(passive) skill gained he finally does something that he wanted to do from the start.


    "Status"


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    Name: Al


    Lvl 2


    Class: none


    Health:12/12


    Mana: 36/36


    Stamina 24/24


    <hr>


    Titles:Ted''s protege


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    Basic stats:


    STR 6     INT 24


    END 6    WIS 18


    VIT 6     CTRL 24


    DEX 12


    <hr>


    Special stats:


    Frighten 1


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    <td>


    Active skills:Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.


    Charge Lvl 1(0%)


    Mana Bolt Lvl 1 (100%)L


    Frenzy Lvl 1 (7%)


    <hr>


    Passive skills:


    Mana manipulation Lvl 1 (100%)L


    Headbutt Lvl 1 (2%)


    Climbing Lvl 1 (3%)


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    Vocations:


    Magic oriented,Combat magic oriented


    Exp:3


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    Seeing that Mana bolt and Mana manipulation still haven''t leveled up is something Al didn''t expect but he takes the news like any other gamer would.He curses the way the game works a bit then tries to solve the problem.After some failed talks with the game''s supervisor Ai, Al does something that he wouldn''t have ever expected to work:


    "Level up Mana Bolt"


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    <td>Not enough experience points (47) more needed</td>


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    Well that''s easy were his first thoughts but after the information settled in he couldn''t help but let out a sigh. The difficulty of this game isn''t normal, they spawn you in the middle of nowhere with no items only to get swarmed by mobs. And every skill level up is like another character level up? That''s insane.Such were the thoughts that clouded Al''s mind.


    But he couldn''t let it get to him,it''s not like he is the only one playing with these rules.Giving himself a mental slap he wakes up to reality and starts thinking about what to do.After grinding his gear a few minutes he decides that there isn''t anything he can do until he collects more information about the game so he decides to just go and farm some more.After walking for a bit he sees a goblin in the distance.Even though he fought a decent number of the this is the first time he saw a goblin using a proper weapon, an iron knife.Earning the passive skill ,Stealth, that muffles stepping sound the slower you move Al approaches the mob.At around 10 meters he can finally see his name.


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    <td>Goblin outlaw (Rare) 52/52</td>


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    Now that is going to be interesting , 52 hp.Al quickly checks his skills to see that mana bolt does 8.2 base damage now so he could expect around 6 damage on the goblin. Climbing into a tree without the outlaw noticing that would be impossible so that ideea is out.Fighting it head on would also be suicide with his 12 measly points in hp.So he had no choice but to leave right?,unless... he could kite him.One of the things Al observed about the combat here is that you could place debuffs on your opponents depending where you strike that.


    "Ah,fuck it"


    Without trying to think about it again he starts creating a mana bolt.He aims it at the goblins legs and with an amazing display of plot ar-*Cough* control and precision the bolt hits both knees, the second one even being a crit.


    -5 -13(critical)


    34/52


    It even applied a 20% slow debuff.Standing up the goblin rushes to Al but before he can get to him he gets hit by another 2 bolts, dealing 5 and 7 damage each.By the time he got in attacking range Al was backed up against a tree just finishing casting the fourth bolt.The goblin used a skill that Al clumsly dodged by rolling over getting himself only a scracth that dealt 4 damage.On the ground he finishes the bolt and hits the goblin in the critical-hit knee for 6 damage making him lose his balance.Taking advantage of the situation Al sweeps his right leg on the floor making the goblin fall and with the help of plot arm-*Cough cough* a rock renders the goblin unconscious.The fight was an easy win after.