《The Combat Crafter》 Prologue — Checkin out that New Game! Vance absentmindedly flipped through the channels on his TV. He had just gotten off of work for the day and was relaxing on his couch. Of course his work, like everything else these days, was inside a VR sim, expanding the hour in real life to 60 hours of work. He sighed as he continued to search through the boring channels on his television. Click ¡°New colonies are now being founded o-¡± Click ¡°-can cut this hair! I can wash this hair! I can-¡± Click ¡°-ome to you today with disturbing news. The relatable hardc-¡± Click ¡°The new hit game with critics everywhere, Eternal Legend Online!¡± Now this was something interesting. ¡°With a class system that encourages exploration, innovation, and discovery; there''s something for everyone! Create your own guild and rise to prominence! Or become a wealthy merchant who travels the land! Whatever you decide you want to do you¡¯ll find it here! So come join us in Eternal Legends Online! ¡± This was a game that Vance had, surprisingly, never heard of. The majority of his free time that wasn''t spent keeping in shape was usually spent playing VR games. He pulled out his phone and looked up the game while the TV continued to blare out advertisements for less interesting things.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it He quickly looked up the time dilation settings and the character customization that the game had, what he considered to be the 2 of the most important facets of VR gaming. Surprisingly the game boasted a corporate level time dilation, 10 to 1, which was usually only allowed for business and not recreation. After being suitably impressed by the time settings he looked up the character customization and class settings. Surprisingly and most welcomingly you could play as non-human races and as the opposite gender, which most games did not allow out of fear of possible complications when out of VR. The class system also seemed to be the core of the gameplay, with classes having their own level instead of player level. Vance read on, slightly impressed by the width of this game that had seemed to come out of the blue. Classes, both main and sub, were limited to 10 each with an in game fee to remove a class from your character. Then Vance got to the most interesting part. When multiple classes reached level 100 there was a possibility that they could be synthesized in a special class advancement quest that would eliminate those classes and replace them with a new advanced class at level 1. This sealed the deal for Vance. He quickly got up off his couch and walked over to his VR pod. The little screen attached to it showed both a library of programs and a store to buy more. He navigated the store until he found ¡®ELO¡¯ as the website had called it. He put in his credit card and bought the game then went through the downloading process, which the screen showed, would take 10 minutes. He sighed as his entertainment was delayed and went back to sit down on his couch and pursue the forums to see what classes people had found in the game. While navigating the forums he saw many interesting thread topics like ¡®Dragon Knight¡¯, ¡®Paladin¡¯, ¡®Illusionist¡¯, and more. However he almost completely ignored the crafting threads. None of them really called out to him, he had almost no interest in crafting, and was looking for a class that was almost entirely unique. Something that could stand on the front lines of any situation and be a power on it''s own. And like that 10 minutes passed and a beeping noise interrupted his thoughts on class progression. He quickly got up and loaded ELO as the selected program for his VR pod before opening it up and strapping himself in, excitedly pressing the power button. Suddenly Vance¡¯s vision went dark and he was greeted with a bright blue glowing message box which read:
?????????????????Welcome to the world of Eternal Legend Online!
Chapter 1 — Character Creation Vance suddenly found himself in a great white space that seemed to continue on forever. In front of him however, the game¡¯s system messages continued to appear.
Welcome to the Character Creator of Eternal Legend Online! Unfortunately due to a rapid increase in new players we have had to set a time limit on the amount of time you when creating your character. After 30 minutes all unchosen features for your character will be chosen at random. We sincerely apologize for this inconvenience and hope that you will continue to enjoy the world of ELO!
At that moment, Vance new he had to hurry with his character creation, but he also knew he couldn''t rush it. If he rushed the creation of his avatar it would most likely come out ugly and unappealing looking. With that in mind he looked through the list of playable races.
Race:
HumansHomunculi ElvesDark Elves DwarvesGnomes BeastkinDemons Several options immediately attracted his attention while he lost his interest in several more. He could almost immediately opt out of choosing humans, elves, dwarves, and gnomes for his character for several reasons. Elves and Humans were so overdone and boring that there wasn''t any point in choosing them, while the height disadvantage from dwarves and gnomes would make things annoying and make transitioning from real life to VR more difficult. On the other hand, Homunculi, Dark Elves, and Demons caught his eyes. These were races that you usually saw as opposing factions or as enemies in games and not as playable races. Meanwhile Beastkin were left as a maybe because everyone loved a good catgirl! For the now though, Vance brought up the system displays for the races he was interested in playing.
Homunculi Homunculi are an artificially created race that resemble humans. Their most distinctive feature is their varying hair and eye colors, which most people consider strange. Homunculi were originally used as slave labor for humans, however after a revolt of the Homunculi they were deemed their own race; currently they have the protection of the elves. Homunculi have drifted out to all regions of the world and often adapt to the culture and customs of the area that they are living in. Racial Skills: Artificial Eyes (Passive)Enhanced sight and better night vision. Analytical Mind (Passive)Faster thinking and casting speed. Synthesized Body (Active)Enhanced strength and speed for 15 minutes. Can be used once a day. Former Slave (Passive)Treated poorly in human populated territories.
Dark Elves Dark Elves are the less popular cousins of forest dwelling Elves. After being banished from the Elven forests, they were forced to flee to the Abazu Great Desert where they have since adapted to desert life and formed large caravans that roam the sands. Their survivalist nature and ability to adapt to harsh environments has caused them to be able to live in areas most would consider inhospitable. Racial Skills: Desert Dweller (Passive)Improved Heat and Cold Resistance. Conservative Nature (Passive)Able to go extended periods with little Food, Water, or Sleep.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. Desert Teachings (Passive)Improved efficiency with dual wielded weapons and Dark type Magic. Outcast (Passive)Automatically distrusted by forest elves because of your ancestry.
Demons The most warlike of all the races, Demons believe that only the strong have the right to rule. In their land to the East, they live in a feudalistic system which is constantly at war, with each individual Demon Lord trying to defeat the other Demon clans to gain control over the throne. The Demon who does rule is pronounced the Demon King, however their reign never lasts long. The longest a single Demon King has ever ruled was 5 years. Racial Skills: Born Soldier (Passive)Improved EXP gain for all bladed weapon based classes. Bloodlust (Passive)Improved chance to frighten enemies. Ancestor¡¯s Anguish (Passive)Increased Strength and Endurance the closer you get to death. Noble Savage (Passive)Moderately feared by all other races. Vance took some time to consider his options. As a result of their former slave status, Homunculi would most likely start in human territories which would make the beginning of the game hard for Homunculus players. For Dark Elves the distrust from forest elves could be handled but starting in a giant desert would be such a pain. You would have to take great care to conserve food and water and balance out your meals to stay alive, in other words, way too much of a hassle for Vance to put up with. Finally there were Demons. Vance came here for an interesting and exciting time, and to him, combat sounded like one of the most enjoyable things you do in this game. The only downside was being moderately feared by all other races, but this could be turned into a plus side. If you were in combat with a human or an elf or what have you, and you scared them, you would have a much easier time fighting them then you would when they weren''t afraid of you. With that in mind, Vance clicked on the Demon race and was brought to the character customization screen. In front of him was himself. Well, a version of himself that had red skin and reptile-like eyes, but still definitely Vance. Vance began to slowly but surely change parts of the character in front of him until he became the ideal character. First he put a pair of slightly small but noticeable horns on his forehead. They were like the classic oni horns that you would see in a lot of ancient eastern culture. Then he changed his hair to be a rough scraggly mess that rested on top of his head, reaching down to his eyebrows, he had always prefered his hair long. Then he removed the 5 o''clock shadow that was already on the character and made all of the body hair a deep auburn color. Next he moved onto the eyes, he kept the same reptilian slit irises but changed the color from a sparkly gold to a blood red. Then he changed the skin color from light red to a pale white, greatly contrasting his hair and eyes. Vance left most of the facial features unaltered except for very minute fixes of small problems like puffy lips or long eyelashes. In the end Vance was looking at a more idealized and demonic version of himself. Bright red eyes and hair, contrasted on a pale white body with just enough muscle to appear muscular without losing his skinny look. Finally it was time to move onto one of the best parts of Character Creation in Vance¡¯s opinion, class selection. He excitedly brought up the class prompt and began to look at the classes.
Classes
Warrior: SwordsmanAxeman PikemanBrawler Berserker Light: ArcherAssassin BardScout Tamer Magic: MageSummoner ElementalistHealer Shaman Crafting: ChemistBlacksmith TailorCook Carpenter Just as Vance was about to go in depth on the specs of each class, another System Message appeared in front of him over the class selection.
We sincerely apologize, but you have exceeded your 30 minutes time to create your character. Your class will be selected for you and your spawn will be a randomized point within Demon Territory. We again sincerely apologize for this and hope you will continue to enjoy ELO despite this!
¡°shit¡­¡± was the last word out of Vance¡¯s mouth before he was dragged out of the Character Creation area into the Great Unknown. Chapter 2 — You’ve met with a terrible fate, haven’t you? Vance found himself standing on a hard packed dirt road in between several poorly built wooden houses. In the distance he could see a grand castle built in the style of an eastern island nation that once existed in the distant past. Seeing no one else around, Vance quickly got out of the middle of the street and opened his status screen, every second feeling like an eternity as he waited to see what class the game had given him.
Status
Name: VanceRace: Demon
Title(s): None
HP: 100MP: 100
Main Class: Chemist(1)Subclass: None
STR7DEX15
END5INT15
WIS10PER10
¡°This is it. It''s over.¡± Vance thought as he slumped onto the dirt by the roadside. Then, hope dawned on Vance as he realized that he had not yet checked his inventory. Quickly pulling it up revealed it''s sum contents to be the clothes he was wearing (a beginner¡¯s set of potion maker¡¯s robes), a beginners potion making set, a small knife meant for chopping ingredients, and 5 gold coins. To Vance, without a doubt the most promising thing in his inventory were the 5 shiny golden coins. Picking himself up and dusting himself off he took another look at his surroundings. In the opposite direction of the castle was a large wall, circling the city made of stones with guard posts dotting its length. The area that he was in was obviously the poorer district in a rather large Demon city, maybe even the capital. Vance needed to get out of there fast, for one thing his only means of defense was essentially a kitchen knife, and for another, he was laid down with 5 golden coins. Vance sped off towards the castle in the distance, the area where he hoped there was more people around and actual businesses, instead of a shanty town. Dodging through side streets and narrow paths, Vance ignored anyone he saw, instead focusing on getting to the main streets of the city. Finally after about 5 minutes of speedy walking Vance squeezed through a tight alleyway, and emerged onto one of the larger and more populated streets. There were Demons everywhere of varying size, shape, and color. Some had horns, some didn''t, some had strangely pigmented skin tones, or just see-through skin in general. Some had more than 2 eyes and some didn''t have any, the only thing they had in common were their humanoid shape and the style of clothing they wore. Kimonos and yukatas decorated the street¡¯s residents and passers by. Only players were spared from this style of dress, primarily equipping themselves in varying types of armor or robes which still had various designs that marked them as Demon made products. Various vendors crowded the street¡¯s wayside, trying to sell their wares in loud encouraging voices. Vance walked up to the closest one of them to ask for directions. (Street Vendor) ¡°You wana buy some jewelry young sir?¡± (Vance) ¡°No, I was hop-¡± (Street Vendor) ¡°Well fuck off then, don''t need some snot nosed kid loitering around my stall. Beat it!¡± Vance was taken back by the sudden change in attitude and was about to talk back but noticed the rather large and imposing shirtless demon with tusks sticking out of his mouth standing directly behind the Vendor. Sighing, Vance turned away and asked at several more stalls, being handled in much the same way until someone finally decided to do their good deed for the day and asked him where he was trying to go to. (Vance) ¡°Ah, well I was hoping someone could point me to the nearest Adventurers guild.¡± (Passer by) ¡°Well you see it''s actually on this street right down that road, just keep walking in that direction and you should get there in 5-6 minutes. You can''t miss it, it has a large sign on it of a sword and shield.¡± (Vance) ¡°Thank you very much, bye!¡± As he shouted that, Vance ran off in the direction that the stranger had been pointing in. After jogging through the crowded street, dodging various people and avoiding street vendors after what happened last time; Vance finally saw the large sign of 2 swords crossed behind a shield over the door of one of the buildings.Stolen novel; please report. Making his way through the crowd, he walked into the building and looked around. At one side of the room there was a rowdy bar selling drinks and food. Mess hall tables were filled with merrymaking Demons seated who were either returning from or about to go out on a commission. Meanwhile the other half of the guild hall was occupied by a series of reception desks with people waiting in line to talk to the receptionists not to unlike a DMV. Seeing this, Vance went to go stand in one of the shorter lines and patiently waited for several minutes until he was at the front of the line and went to talk to the female receptionist. (Vance) ¡°Hello, I would like to register myself as an adventurer.¡± (Receptionist) ¡°Oh, a newby. Well just put your hand on top of this crystal and a guild card will be made for you.¡± She said while taking out a crystal ball and putting it on top of the reception desk. When Vance placed his hand over the crystal the receptionist frowned and gave him a sad look. (Receptionist) ¡°I''m sorry sir, but you can¡¯t register at the adventurer''s guild with only a crafting class.¡± (Vance) ¡°W-w-What!?! Well is there any way to change my class?!¡± (Receptionist) ¡°There is, the guild will provide you with one of the starting classes for a fee of 5 gold, however you must have your current class at level 100. Alternatively you could pay the guild a fee of 10 gold to remove your current class, but you would need to have at least two classes to do that.¡± At these words Vance fell to the ground in an orz position on the guild hall floor. As the Receptionist tried to snap him out of his stupor and various other players shouted at him to move the line along he heard another similar ¡®thunk¡¯ to the one he had just made. Turning his head revealed a pretty Demon girl in the exact same position as him, tears streaming out of her eyes. Her hair was a light pink color and extended down to her shoulders and had the fluffy kind of look that made you instinctively know it was incredibly soft. At her temples two small sheep¡¯s horns wrapped around her small head. She was a small thing, not possibly more than 5¡¯4 and could be easily mistaken for a child.The only thing that differentiated her was the clothing she wore and her equipment, a workman uniform and a woodcutting axe nearly as tall as she was. Her face was soft and doughy, still holding some of her baby fat, with a button nose and pale white skin like Vance¡¯s. Looking over to the girl Vance only muttered one thing; (Vance) ¡°Stuck as a crafter?¡± The girl turned to him, slightly shocked but still crying and noded. Suddenly she leaped onto him and started violently crying, making more than a few irritated eyes turn their way. Sensing the mood, Vance quickly brought the girl to the bar side of the adventurer¡¯s guild and bought them both food for 35 copper coins, the change was a hassle. (Vance) ¡°So what happened to you?¡± He asked nervously as she tore into a steak while her tears began to run dry. (???) ¡°I had stayed up all night planning out my character in my VR pod while I downloaded the game. I was looking at guides and forums, but at some point I must have fallen asleep because when I woke up I was already in game with a system message telling me about how the time limit on my Character Creation had expired so my character had been randomized for me. I had wanted to make a human manly man, the embodiment of a true hero! I didn''t want to have to be stuck as a little Demon girl!¡± Vance nearly choked on his food with the last line. (Vance) ¡°You¡¯re a guy IRL?!¡± (Unfortunate Soul) ¡°Thats right! Who would ever want to look like this! I don''t even look threatening at all! Though it may be true it''s closer to what I look IRL.¡± (Vance) ¡°Wait you actually look similar to that IRL?!?¡± Vance didn''t know what was worse for the poor guy, being forced to be a cute little girl or being an unintentional trap. (Godly Trap) ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s why I wanted to be a manly man! People would finally look up to me instead of treating me like a little girl!!¡± (Vance) ¡°Dude I feel sorry for you. You have it way worse than me¡­¡± (Perpetual Loli) ¡°What happened to you?¡± (Vance) ¡°I spent too much time deciding my race and designing my character to actually pick a class. Then I found out I have to max out the crafting class that the randomization gave me to actually get a new combat class.¡± (King of Crossplay) ¡°Yeah you have it way better than me. At least you¡¯re not a little girl, but we are in the same class selection situation. What crafting class did you get?¡± (Vance) ¡°Chemist. The only thing remotely close to a weapon I have is basically a kitchen knife.¡± (Doomed Trap) ¡°Ha! I at least won in that regard. I got Carpenter, it comes with this big ass woodcutting axe!¡± (Vance) ¡°Ah! I never caught your name.¡± (Ripperino in Gender Benderoni) ¡°*cough* Well the name the randomization gave me is ¡®Kou¡¯ so you can just call me that.¡± She said while blushing slightly. (Vance) ¡°Well, it''s nice to meet you Kou, my name¡¯s Vance.¡± After that, Vance and Kou hit it off, ordering drinks late into the night until only the time of night when only shady and disreputable people were hanging out at the guild. Yet there they stayed complaining about life, both in game and outside of VR, to each other and getting hammered all night. However their merrymaking and wallowing in self pity was interrupted as one of those said disreputable groups sat themselves down around the two, their metal armor and blood stained weapons glowing slightly in the dim guild hall lights. (Unreputable Leader) ¡°Well, well, welllll¡­. What do we have here? A couple a¡¯ crafters out of a late night drinking session, though I suppose it''s early morning at this point. You two look awfully under equipped to be workin¡¯ in an adventurer¡¯s guild.¡± (Vance) ¡°hOw bOUT yOU FUCK OfF!¡± (Kou) ¡°hehehehehe, you tell mmmmmm Vase! Lez get outta heeeree befre theze bitches get in the way of our drinks...¡± (Vance) ¡°Suuure thing buud¡­.¡± Vance said as he attempted to give the wobbling Kou a hand in getting out of her chair. The duo stood up shakily and stumbled out of the guild hall into the crisp night air. The moon was sitting low in the sky as a testament to nights end drawing near. Very few businesses besides the adventurer¡¯s guild were actually open at this time of night for Vance and Kou to get drinks, but their alcohol addled minds simply ignored that fact. Unseen to the two as the wandered off the main street and into the back alleys, the pseudo bandits were hot on their trail. As soon as they had gone far enough into the alleyway, the leader hit them both over the head with a wooden club, effectively knocking them out. In ELO, if you killed players you could take some items that dropped from their inventory, but if you knocked them out you could gain access to their entire inventory via their coin pouch or bag. Thus the pseudo bandits took the only thing of value Vance and Kou had on them, the 8 gold coins they had left after buying drinks, and fled into the night with their booty as Vance and Kou slept soundly, their heads each bearing a noticeable lump.