《Dream's of Auore》 Plugged in 1 Otherworld Invasion Force - Plugged in Start of part 1______________________________________________________________ I broke something important. Yeah, I broke my neck. Unfortunately I¡¯m not so lucky as getting hit by a truck and dying instantly. Then going on fantastical adventures in a fantasy world with op abilities and people throwing themselves at me to make babies with me. Fortunately I¡¯m not unlucky enough to have something completely ridiculous happen to me. Such as being summoned to another world and forced to be a hero against my will with no way of ever returning home. Only to be betrayed in the end and for it all to have been pointless anyway. Instead of that I jumped off a two story building into a pool after going out drinking with my friends. I hit the bottom and snapped my neck along with a few other things. I might have been able to make a full recovery if it hadn''t been for my friends who were too intoxicated to realize they shouldn¡¯t be letting my head move around. The cold truth in the end is that I became paralysed from the neck down. Now I was laying in a hospital bed a few months later with no idea what happened. I opened my eyes to the white of the hospital. A Nurse noticed me awake and told me about what¡¯d happened. Was I really that much of an idiot? I wondered but realize that, yes, I was that much of an idiot. Thankfully due to modern medical care I can live a long and full life even like this. I won¡¯t be doing any walking or moving around. But I can use a VR headset at least. I was going to become one of the fabled ¡°Plugged in¡± or ¡°Bedridden cyborgs¡± or the so called ¡°No life hero¡±. While I was Comatose my parents went through the liberty of getting a camera with a view of the entire room and a monitor mounted on the wall behind my bed. It feels like I¡¯m already wearing the heavy duty VR headset that¡¯s required for this kind of long term discarding of the material world. They¡¯re all ready and raring to send me off to the world VR it seems. I just have to wait for my parents to show up. Mostly because the hospital requires for either the patient''s family or friend¡¯s to be present and awake before they can plug me in for the next 60 odd years. Don¡¯t get me wrong I¡¯m 19. I¡¯m legally independent and an adult. I can speak for myself, though maybe not intelligently, I just can¡¯t actually move my mouth and speak at the moment. Then again... if they give me a few years to learn how to type with my eyes using the motion recognition thing! Nope, not going to happen. I wouldn¡¯t have the patience for it. I¡¯d learn just enough to tell them to pull out my life support. I don¡¯t know how much time passed. My parents arrived and I was plugged in. Now I will admit that this wasn¡¯t the only option that my parents could''ve gone with. However, although there are stemcell treatments and cybernetics I could get to fix my spinal cord. My parents don¡¯t have half a billion that they can throw around unless they sell their business and their house and all their belongings. Then even if you did fork out 500 million for the treatments or cybernetics there are complications that show up later on that cost even more money to treat. My parents were pretty sad. Obviously my mother had been crying and to my surprise the emotionless mask of my father had very clearly cracked and began to crumble. Come on guys. It¡¯s not like I can¡¯t carry on the business in a few years like you planned... Is what I wanted to say. But I get why they¡¯re sad. There are still so many things I had to do in real life. I¡¯d like to think I¡¯ll be dreaming. But no, it¡¯s all my reality. I just won¡¯t be able to interact with real life that easily. They both promised to talk with me and message me regularly and then they turned on my VR headset and the real world fell away. Like the ground was taken out from underneath me. I was standing in endless darkness. A window opened in front of me asking if I wanted to allow permission for a third party application to run. It was the software for the set up they had going in my hospital room. I pressed allow and what seemed like the darkness opening up, giving way into a world of light that unfolded in front of me. ¡°How¡¯re you doing?¡± My mother asked while looking worried. ¡°I¡¯m doing fine. It¡¯s a bit empty in here at the moment... But I¡¯ll browse the internet latter and make it some place nice to sit around in.¡± I smiled as I jokingly looked around at the blank empty nothingness. My parents and I spoke for the longest time we¡¯d ever spoken to one another in years. It was actually pretty fun. Funny how I took a lot of things for granted and only now realize how much of an idiot I am. They both left after a few hours and I was left alone. I stared out at the hospital room after they left. They¡¯d turned the screen off for me and I disable the display. I floated there as I thought about what to do first. Then with a shrug I decided ¡°why the hell not?¡± and with a chuckle I updated my status on all the social media site I was signed up to with ¡°Just joined the Plugged in Club! Got a life long membership.¡±. I had a few thousand that I was saving up for a house. I went and bought a life simulation attachment for my virtual interface. Which is what this black void place was. The Life sim attachment came with various foods and drinks that I could just pick at random as well as simulated bodily functions and such. I turned off the need to go to the toilet, because screw that. I don¡¯t like doing it in real-life why would voluntarily do it here? Next I looked through the real-life category. First I picked out a sky with a simulated day and night as well as a weather system that I set to match the area I¡¯m logged in from. Then I added a dirt ground, then grass and on top of that a modern style house. Time to go interior decorator on this shit! Is what I¡¯d like to say. But it came with a default setting for each room that filled it with furniture. I¡¯ll probably move things about latter. If I find something I like I can just add it in. I changed the fridges settings and pantry so that it linked up with the life sim attachment and while I was at it I did the same for all the taps in and around the house. While I was doing that I realize there weren''t any clocks in the house. So I added one in the kitchen, the living room and an alarm clock in my bedroom. Now the VR headset remains active even while I¡¯m asleep in real. In fact the heavy duty headset induces sleep. So in here I actually don¡¯t need to sleep because in real life I¡¯m already asleep. But I left the sleep cycle on in the life sim attachment¡¯s settings so I will need sleep. It¡¯s auto-disabled for games that don¡¯t support sleeping though. You might find me weird for wanting to sleep. But I enjoy staying up late and feeling horrible before going to sleep and waking up the next day feeling great. Also it¡¯ll help me keep my sanity. No sun, no sleep, nothing familiar around and no daily needs, it¡¯d be weird if I didn¡¯t go insane after a while. Nine or so hours after my parents left I finally had everything done. Feeling satisfied for now I went to the fridge and took out some fast food. I chucked to myself as I realized that despite all the options the first thing I go to grab is some fast food. Sitting on the couch in my living room I added channels for the massive TV. Not that I have anything against doing nothing but playing games. But there¡¯s so much more to the internet than just games and porn. After the 200th channel I stopped. This is a good amount of variety. I think? I started feeling tired so I went to bed and slept. That was the first day of my virtual life. Honestly it was pretty interesting. I was woken by the beeping of a new email notification¡­ W0UV9erboud53 to me Dear, KillerMEGA18 We of O.W.I.F. would like to extend our condolences in regard to your situation and we would like to invite you. To join in the BETA testing of a VRMMORPG that we are currently in the process of making. The game mentioned is Dreams of Auore. With Dreams of Auore we at O.W.I.F. strive to bring to life the VR Survival RPG in ways never before seen. Our main goal is to make Dream of Auore seem almost like a completely new world. Never before touched by the hands of humanity. Making use of thought acceleration technology. We intend to maximize the play time of our players, while making the smallest impact possible on their daily lives. Make no mistake this is in fact a job offer. We would like you to play our game and give us your opinion as well as report any bugs you notice. We would also like for you to be involved in our streaming team and to write on our forums about your experiences while playing the game. This is to promote the game so that we might had a successful launch. Estimated time of employment is for 2 years. Guaranteed employment for 11 months. If you deem to accept our offer we will pay you $19 an hour. Work on your own schedule. If you are interested in our offer please follow the attached link and you can begin registration. We will be in contact. Sincerely, W0UV9erboud53 of Other World Invasion Force. Is Other World Invasion Force a new game company? This seems kind of sketchy¡­ Feeling skeptical I look up Dreams of Auore and found the web page. On the site front page was a video that went for 14 minutes. The video auto ran and a first person view of a young man in his mid teens and wearing a brown leather rag around his waist came into view. He was fiddling with stick and string and, though it took a minute or two, eventually made what looked like a bow. It then quickly went through a cameo of the boy picking up dried sticks and whittling them down with a flint knife to make arrows. With bow and arrows in hand the boy ran through the woods until he found a boar. He skidded to a stop, readied his bow and let loose an arrow. It struck the boy cheered and the scene washed over with another scene. The Archer boy had gotten older and was wearing leather armor over cotton clothing. On his waist was a leather belt with a knife sheathed in it. Over his shoulder was a bow of much higher quality craftsmanship. He was walking through a shanty town made out of poorly made wooden huts. As the archer walked he walked by an old man with particles of light weaving between his fingers as he worked some kind of arcane magics. The archer noticed the old man and spoke some inaudible words, the two smiled, joined hands and the scene changed. This time the boy let loose an arrow into the air and the camera followed it as it flew. A beast three times the archers size came into view and the arrow struck it¡¯s hide. The Beast howled and panicked and from the bushes ran seven other people to join in the battle. An old wizard in a long robe with a staff. Two warriors wearing heavy metal armor, one was a man and the other a woman, both used swords and shields. A man in leather armor wielding a giant two-handed sword. A woman with a strange glowing glove on each hand, wearing very light armor that seemed to be made mostly of cloth and reinforced in places with leather and iron. Lastly was another man who held in his hands potions, on his back was a very large backpack. The potion man threw one of his potions onto the ground by the beasts feet and it exploded into a foul purple mist that killed all the plants it touched. The beast moved away from it as fast as it could and the battle continued. A vicious battle ensued. The party came out victorious, but the archer was crushed and killed midway through the fight. The video ended zooming out from the forehead of a sleeping child with a makeshift bow laying nearby. That was kind of cool. But what game doesn¡¯t have some cool CG videos to promote their game¡­ Not convinced I looked around on the Official site. I had to put in my date of birth, which I guess made sense. I looked around the Official site but I couldn¡¯t really find any gameplay videos. I managed to find some screenshots and there was a big glaring R18+ in the top right hand corner which made me narrow my eyes. I ended up checking out forums and sites that were either talking about or jumping on the dreaded hype train over Dreams of Auore. From what I gathered Other World Invasion Force are known for making top quality VR games. This is apparently their first MMO and their biggest project and people are going crazy wanting to get into the closed BETA. I went back to my email. This still seems sketchy even if there is an actual site and stuff. This could still be some kind of grand scam¡­ then again I could say that same about most things if I¡¯m that untrusting. Also I kind of wanted to play this game now. At the very least to see what it¡¯s like¡­. so screw it! I clicked the link and it took me to the official site. I checked and rechecked the web address multiple times until I was satisfied and then filled in my information. Everything was there including where they should end money to me. It didn¡¯t seem any sketchier than buying a game from a site and I was done. I submitted it and left it all in the hands of luck. I crossed my fingers and hopped I wasn¡¯t being scammed. Just to be sure I set up my VR interface to notify me if there is activity in my bank account. The next day I got another email from W0UV9erboud53. I¡¯m just going to call them Wouver from now on¡­ The email said my application had been accepted and that they were happy I accepted their invitation. The email said that the link at the bottom would send me to download the launcher from their site. I followed the link and it sent me to their site like Wouver said. The page was mostly empty except for a picture in the background from the main page and a button in the middle that said download launcher with BETA underneath in green. I clicked it, the launcher downloaded in a few seconds. I executed the launcher and the game started downloading. Good, seems like this is actually legit. I was actually pretty happy that I quickly got a job for my new life on the net. Even if it did pretty much fall into my lap. The pays $19 an hour which is crazy good considering that not only do I just have to play the game and be around while they¡¯re streaming, but I also don¡¯t need to sleep. I can play 24 hours a day, 7 days a week if I want! The email said that the Closed BETA starts in 9 days and that there would be a stream everyday until the closed BETA ends. I would be streaming on the second day after the Closed BETA starts and every second week after that. The streams will apparently be viewable only on their Official site and through a special app for VR. ¡°Because, reasons¡± was their only explanation¡­ Now I say streaming, but that¡¯s not entirely true. people watching up in VR will be able to watch us as we¡¯re doing things. But for everyone else it will just be edited and processed compilations of our gameplay. This is because While playing the game, due to the thought acceleration hardware, 1 hour in real life is equivalent to 12 days in game. So in game we experience 12 days in only 1 hour of real life time and 1 year real time is a little under 300 years in game. There have been debates about using this technology in schooling. However many people are still worried about it¡¯s effects on young children and so it unfortunately hasn¡¯t been implemented yet. In fact your not even allowed to use VR equipment unless your over a certain age. The age restrictions change with each country. This is because VR has a lot or pornagraphic games on it the let you experience things you can¡¯t in real life. Like having the body of someone of the opposite gender and experiencing sex as that gender. I haven¡¯t delved into that part of VR yet. However I have played a few VR games in the past and it was quite the experience. I spent the next 9 days working with Wouver to get in contact with the other streamers and members of Other World Invasion Force. We set up our schedules in greater detail. I join in with the stream before me at 11pm my time, we will play together until they have to go offline at 4am the next day my time. I would then stream until 10am the next day and stop streaming. The stream when then change to the streamer after me and I would play with them if they need help with something. Essentially since I can always be online I¡¯ve been made into the helper. Anyone needs help? Then they message me and I come running. Is essentially the set up we decided with since I don¡¯t need to sleep. I kind of feel taken advantage of, haha. But more money for me and I¡¯d be playing anyway. Now today is the day. The start day of the Closed BETA. I launched the game and signed in. Presented with the character select screen I selected create character. A message popped up saying that I didn¡¯t have a gene pool and so I would be given the default gene pool. I didn¡¯t really get what it meant. but my guess is that you can get extra option for character creation latter on. I pressed OK, the window closed and another opened. ¡°You can only make one character until you unlock more character slots. Unlock more character options by progressing your bloodline.¡± I pressed OK, bloodline must be the progression line or something. This window closed. The screen changed to a third person view of a girl in her late teens to early twenties in what looked like a potato sack with holes cut in it for the head and arms. Off to the side were customisations options in various tabs. I found that when I tried moving the girl moved as I had wanted to. It was strange looking watching myself through a mirror. The customization options were various things like gender, eye colour, hair color all the colours were pretty standard. The options to change the shape of body parts and such were numerous and covered everything I could imagine. Even some things that I felt a bit weird changing the size and shape of. There was also a clothes on, clothes off option. I had at first thought was just going to show me the underwear my character was wearing. Apparently you don¡¯t get underwear... Mutations, there were only two options in this tab which were different colored eyes or purple eyes. The only species I could select in the species tab was Primordial Human. It¡¯s discription read, ¡°A Species representing the first of humanity in Grethusis. One day the sun descended to the earth and granted the power of magic to what is now the holy land of the elves. This new found power gave birth to many races. Elves, Oru, Gerit, Pheldehi, Jeat and many more all came into existence on the day the sun descended. It was from that day forth that the sun continued to descend behind the horizon into the great sea¡¯s of the south and rise again, it¡¯s fire extinguished. Only to descend again into the south great sea and be relit by the flame of Orphila and rise again in the sky. Human¡¯s were not born during this time. The humans came into being when the hand of Utla, God of Darkness, covered the sun with his hand as it hung in the midday sky. It was in this god brought darkness that the first of humanity came into being and so they carry with them darkness wherever they go. Needless to say it seemed that at the start you only got the bare bones of the character creation. Even the starting race wasn¡¯t very good¡­ Though the lore was appreciated. I knuckled down and started making my character how I wanted her to look. I took different poses and mostly just wasted a lot of time playing around with the options available. The options for hair only changed the length and how curly it was. I thought about playing as a guy but decided against it after playing with the male option for a bit. It just didn¡¯t feel right. The first thing I did was edit the overall shape and tone of my characters body. I went for a toned and slightly curvy look. I always found those girls that had bodies like stick figures to be repulsive. Next I moved onto the face. I could spend the next few hours making myself look stunningly beautiful if I wanted. I didn¡¯t really see the point though. I was happy with being average and maybe even slightly below average in looks. So I spent a few moments making my character look slightly similar to myself in real life. Then I shrunk the characters breasts because the default breasts were ginormous. Lastly I did some more in depth edits to the arms, legs, shoulders, neck, waist and hips. Over all I ended up with a character that gave off a sleek and toned, almost with an athletic feeling. Her hair was brown and curled slightly in spirals. Her eyes were green like jade. She looked like a normal person with an average face. Her teeth were a bit crooked but nothing glaring. Looking at here I could confidently say there was nothing unattractive and yet also nothing uniquely attractive. My character just looked like a average girl you could meet anywhere. Finished with appearances I pressed next. The view changed to me looking through my characters eyes. It was a bit disorientating because suddenly I felt everything. The feeling of the rough fibers of the potato sack clothing I was wearing. The creaking of the muscles in my legs and lower back that felt like I was moving for the first time after a long time. I stretched my limbs and back feeling my muscles protest and bones crack and pop as I moved. It felt really good to move around, like I hadn''t gotten out and moved for years. It¡¯s really incredible that they¡¯re able to put this kind of sensation into the game. After stretching and getting all the kinks out it was a lot easier to move. Just the tactile response alone already made this game far better than it¡¯s competitors. Not to mention the graphics, the textures and lighting looked real. If I didn¡¯t know better I wouldn¡¯t of thought I was playing a game. After I finished stretching a soothing voice, that I couldn¡¯t really pin as either male or female, spoke. ¡°Please try speaking.¡± Was what it said. ¡°Okay.¡± I said in a high pitched feminine voice that sounded like I was singing. It felt strange to hear someone else''s voice come out of my mouth. My voice echoed a few times off in the distance. That was also kind of eeri. ¡°Your voice is currently set to it¡¯s default settings. Default voice settings have be decided on by your appearance options. If you would like to change your voice settings please say ¡°Open Vocal Options¡±. If you would like to move on please say ¡°Move on¡±.¡± The voice said without any real emotion. If the vocal option default is decided by appearance then it¡¯d probably be fine to keep it like this. ¡°Move on.¡± I said after taking a moment to think about it. I¡¯d already spent 4 hours on making my appearance so let''s just move along. ¡°Then we will move on. In this next section I will ask you questions. Please answer them honestly.¡± There was a pause. ¡°You hear a battle in the distance. I prey to Orphila for her to give favor to the just and continue on my way. What do you do?¡± The voice asked me. ¡°I¡¯d go see how things are. If it¡¯s someone that needs help, then I¡¯d help them.¡± I answered after a short moment''s thought. ¡°I see... ¡°If¡±... Very well. Then you arrive and find that there are 4 Elven warriors fighting a losing battle against 9 Oru Axemen. I have left and gone on my way. What do you do?¡± The voice asked. ¡°Do I have any weapons, tools or armor?¡± I asked. ¡°No.¡± The voice answered. ¡°What''s the situations of the battle? Are any of the Elves or Oru unable to fight?¡± I asked further. ¡°In addition to the 4 Elves and 9 Oru there are 5 Elf corpses and 2 Oru Corpses. The 9 Oru are all relatively injured. However they have strong vitality and thick hides. A normal weapon with your current strength behind it would not be able to pierce its green hide. The Elves all seem relatively unharmed except one that¡¯s missing an arm, blood pours from the wound. They appear tired. All the dead Elves appeared to of been killed with a single blow. The Elves are all using long swords and have bows over their shoulders. However the Oru are too close for them to make use of their specialty, the bow.¡± The voice said. ¡°Are there any weapons on the ground?¡± I asked, crossing and arms and frowning. The Elves in this scenario are kind of useless. ¡°Yes.¡± The voice answered. ¡°What are my choices?¡± I asked after the voice failed to elaborate. ¡°Before you lays a shield, a sword, a staff, a axe, a bow and a spear. Which do you choose?¡± ¡°I pick up the spear and join the battle.¡± My reasoning being that the Oru can kill in one hit so it¡¯s better to keep my distance and stay mobile. I didn¡¯t go with the bow because they require precise aim that I don¡¯t have in order to be effective. At least that¡¯s my reasoning. ¡°You take in your hands the spear and join the battle. The battle turns in the Elves favor with your assistance and the battle is won. However the Elves then turn their blades on you. You are captured and bound. They speak words you do not understand and bring you with them back to their village. Be careful child of the other skies. Do not throw your life away without resolve.¡± Everything went black and I realize I was laying down with my eyes closed. I sat up and opened my eyes. I found myself laying on a bed in a room made of wood that looked like it grew in such a way that floor was flat and smooth, while the walls were chaotic and bulbous in places. A hole in the wood by the bed I sat in let the air and sunlight in. I looked around in a slight daze when a window suddenly opened in front of me. ¡°You have received the Elven Village Savior background story. I closed the window and opened my Status Screen. We received very limited information about the games systems before hand. Honestly it was kind of a bother. What we were informed of was how to open all the different menus and to bring up the help screen if we forget. That was about it, haha. KillerMEGA17 Unamed 18y 7m 21d Primordial Human Unclassified PF 13.26 MF 7.69 Pwr 1.1 Spd 1.2 Flx 0.9 Lng 1.3 Cap 0.8 Ptl 1.2 Mag 0.7 Mnd 1.2 Lck 0.7 Skl 0.9 Level 1 AP 1.3 SP 4 Looking over my stats there were 10 categories I could spend Ability Points on. Power, Speed, Flexibility, Longevity, Capacity, Potential, Magic, Mind, Luck and Skill. I decided to put off spending the points and just read over the explanations. They were all self explanatory enough. Though it seems you character has a limited lifespan which is interesting. While I was looking at my status screen I heard a knocking from the door. Startled I looked up, ¡°Who is it?¡± I asked on reflex and silently regretted it instantly. ¡°It¡¯s me, Neipht. Open the door I have food.¡± Boomed a gruff voice from the other side of the door. A voice that demanded to be listened to. I scrambled out of the bed and opened the door. There stood a man much taller than me. His voice didn¡¯t match his youthful clean shaven face at all. He had pointed ears and wore a heavy cloth garb that seemed to be treated with some kind of waterproofing substance. He nudged me with a plate of food as I stared at him. ¡°Honestly little shade, it¡¯s been 2 years. You need to learn to recognize someone when you see them. Come on. Take the damn plate I¡¯m not going to hold it as you eat.¡± He smiled as I took the plate in one hand and accepted a fork like utensil with the other. ¡°Eat quickly. You''re going with the scouts at sun rise today as well. None of them Know the Shade language.¡± A notice window opened. Assist the Elven Scouts in making contact with the Shade group. Of course I have to accept. I pressed accept and the window closed. I bobbed my head in acknowledgment, ¡°I¡¯ll get dressed after I eat. Do you have any clothes for me to wear?¡± I started eating as soon as I finished talking. I had to hurry after all. Of course I was already wearing cloths, but they seem more like pajamas than going outside or work clothes. Neipht stared at me for a moment before sighing and pointing to a wardrobe in the corner of the room. ¡°Your clothes are all there. You should know this by now. I don¡¯t know why I have to keep telling you. I swear if I ever met an Elf that was as forgetful as you I¡¯d send them to Grand Heildath to get taken care of until they return to the soil.¡± ¡°Maybe it¡¯s just a property of my species?¡± I smiled. Then realizing I had food on my mouth I wiped it on my sleeve and handed the plate back to Neipht. ¡°Why do I live in your house anyway?¡± I asked as I moved toward my wardrobe Neipht had pointed out earlier. ¡°My house? No this is your house. Though I suppose I practically live here, hahahah!¡± He chucked to himself for a time before settling down. Neipht exited the room, ¡°But of course let me remind you since you seem to of forgotten again. I live next door and you work with my son, we''re practically family. Have a nice day Little Shade.¡± WIth the he closed the door and I heard his footsteps thump away from the door. I sighed took a look at my interface. The area I¡¯m currently in is called My Room. It¡¯s pretty bare other than a wardrobe in the corner, a few draws and a bed right next to a glassless circle shaped window. All the furniture had depictions of leaves and flowers carved into the wood. It made them look very expensive. Opening the wardrobe I found a large number of clothes made from fine and brightly colored fabrics. I quickly found what looked like underwear and put them on my bed. Since I was going out with the scouts I¡¯d have to wear something I could walk in for a few days if I had to. I found some leggings, A darkly colored shirt made of thin fabric and a overshirt made of a thick pale green fabric. It seemed to of been treated with the same water proofing as Neipht¡¯s clothes had. Lastly I found some worn leather pants that looked like they¡¯d been worn a lot and some sturdy looking leather boots. I changed out of my pajamas and into the layers of clothing I¡¯d prepared. It seemed relatively cool outside from what Neipht was wearing. After I finished changing and put my pajamas in a basket with other dirt clothes I left my room. The area name changed to Little Shade¡¯s House. I opened my stats to check if that had actually become my name and well¡­ yeah, apparently my name is Little Shade now. On another note I thought about spending my Ability and Skill points before I left. However I wasn¡¯t sure what to put my Ability Points into and I didn¡¯t even have anything to put my Skill points into yet. So I decided to leave it for now, though it seems most likely I¡¯ll be putting my points into Potential and Skill. Because they seem like they¡¯ll give the most result later on. I stepped out my front door and the crisp chill of the morning air brushed against my face, giving me goosebumps. I was instantly glad I wore layers. ¡°Hey.¡± A calm male voice said off to the side. I jumped slightly. ¡°Sorry, didn¡¯t mean to surprise you.¡± He held his hands up when I turned to scowl at him. He smirked and lowered his hands. ¡°Who are you?¡± I asked since he seemed to know me as well. Geez I me feel I¡¯m suffering from amnesia. ¡°It¡¯s me, Neipht¡¯s son, Lephtal. I wanted to come wake you up. But father said it wasn¡¯t right for an unmarried man to enter an unmarried woman''s house without being invited.¡± he smirked when he said women. Brat! Though he¡¯s probably more than twice my age¡­ ¡°I¡¯m going along with you and the scouts to talk with the other Shades today it seems. Please take care of me.¡± I said deciding to be respectful to my elders. Even if he looks like he¡¯s 16. ¡°Yep. Follow me, we¡¯re meeting up at the armory. We have some equipment ready for you there. We might run into monster on the way after all. Also the Oru that are still running around. We need to be careful to avoid them.¡± The Elven village was amazing. The entire village was on top of the trees. Bridges spanned from tree to tree. Wooden platforms were suspended between multiple trees. The village stretched as far as the eye could see with the rippling wooden platforms each connected to one another. Looking through a gap in the platform it looked like we were at least 800 meters up. Not to even mention the platforms even higher up in the giants trees the Elves called their homes. The tallest tree had a diameter of at least 1 kilometer or more, I couldn¡¯t tell to was quite far away, but it towered above all the other trees and had countless Elves living in it. They almost looked like termites with all the hole in the wood and people entering and leaving. The sun was still down so the entire tree was lit up. It was mesmerizing. ¡°When are you going to get used to the Chiefs tree? Every time you see it you look at it like it¡¯s the most beautiful thing you¡¯ve ever looked at.¡± Lephtal shook his head and started walking. Honestly I think it was the most beautiful thing I¡¯d ever looked at that wasn¡¯t a painting¡­ I stared at it for while long and ran to catch up to Lephtal. Arriving at the Armory which turned out to be a building built onto a platform only 2 or 3 platform from my house. Waiting for us outside were 3 men and 2 women, all of them elves of course. ¡°Little Shade, I¡¯d like you to meet the other scouts. This is Jut.¡± Lephtal walked up and slapped the shoulder of a male Elf that looked even younger than him. ¡°It¡¯s to meet you Little Shade. This is my first time meeting a Shade.¡± Jut gave me a slight bow. Not a japanese bow, but one of those old timey gentleman bows. ¡°It¡¯s nice to meet you, as you know I¡¯m Little Shade.¡± I replied with a smile. Lephtal when through each of them and introduced them to me from there. Next was Neyh another male and the only elf I¡¯ve seen so far whose hair isn¡¯t brown like mine. His hair was a pale green. The Ulfali a female elf with the same eye color as me. Hue who was a male elf with scars all over each of his arms. Lastly was a female elf called Freya who was the tallest and most muscular of the group. ¡°We¡¯re all ready already. Hurry up Little shade. we need to be back by the day after tomorrow¡± Said Ulfali as she began pushing me toward to armory door. I went in and they all waited outside. A grizzled elf with a face full of scars and only one eyes looked at me critically from behind a desk. ¡°Vambraces, one for each arm. A chest plate, shin guards, a bow, a quiver with 15 arrows, a sword belt and a longsword.¡± As he said them he reached below the desk and thumped them down on top of it. ¡°Did I miss anything missy?¡± he smiled, I think? ¡°No¡­ But I wouldn¡¯t know even if you did.¡± I walked over fiddled with each of them until I worked out how to put them on. I kind of wish there was just a equip button I could press and then it was equipped. After I finished putting it on a window opened up. Apparently this counts as crafting? I mused as I did up the last clasp on my vambraces. I glanced at the Elf at the front desk who gave off the feeling of being a grizzled old man. ¡°You need me to return these when I get back I assume?¡± I asked with a raised eyebrow. The Grizzled Elf simply waved his hand and said, ¡°Nah, they¡¯re yours. They didn¡¯t tell you this yet because it¡¯s still a secret. But the chiefs council has decided you¡¯ll be in charge of keeping order in the growing Shade presence for the area in and around Elven territory.¡± I scrunched my nose at that. What are these NPC¡¯s arbitrarily deciding for me? ¡°Do I get any say in this?¡± I asked, not trying the hide the displeasure the new brought me. The Grizzled Elf chuckled, ¡°Nope.¡± and I left while remembering to kick something on the way out. Which only made him laugh harder. I met up with the others and we set off. On the way to the village they filled me in on the details. The Human settlement is by a Lake the Elves considered sacred. In Elven legends the Lake of Dawn as it¡¯s called was the site of a tremendous event. There was a battle with a monster as large as a mountain and an Elf called Dawn gave their life to seal it. The seal took the form of a lake and so was the Lake of Dawn. I am to persuade the humans to leave and move to another area in the forest that the Elves have no issue with them claiming. When we¡¯d arrived we found that the Human settlement only had 17 occupants. They noticed us as we approached and grabbed various stones and heavy looking sticks. ¡°Stop right there!¡± Yelled a woman that stood at the front of the group. She was the only one with an actual weapon. It was an axe that seemed like it should be too large for her to even lift. Nevertheless she seemed to have no trouble lifting it with both hands despite her lack of muscles. She must have put all her points in Strength. Needless to say we stopped in our tracks immediately. Neither I nor the Elves wanted this to be a hostile encounter. Though we were ready for if it turned out to be. The axe lady narrowed her eyes at us and looked us over. ¡°What are you? Elves?¡± She seemed to become slightly more vigilant. ¡°Get the fuck outta here!¡± I looked at Ulfali who was at my left with a questioning glance. She seemed confused. ¡°I don¡¯t know what she¡¯s saying. You''re the shade here. Speak with your people.¡± Well that''s just not helpful¡­ I stepped forward. When I did the axe lady became vigilant again and seemed ready to fight. ¡°Get the fuck back! We ain¡¯t afraid to kill you if you cause us trouble!¡± The axe lady screamed hysterically. I sighed and opened my mouth to speak, thought better of speaking my mind, close it, waited until I¡¯d worked out what to say and then spoke. I don¡¯t know how I¡¯d be viewed if they knew I was a player. It¡¯s fine if they know I¡¯m human though. ¡°Okay. I won¡¯t get any closer. We just want to speak to you for a bit and then we¡¯ll leave.¡± I said as calmly and slowly as possible without slurring my words. ¡°Fine! Say what you want and leave!¡± Axe lady shouted back at me. ¡°My name E¡¯al(Little Shade). I¡¯m a human(shade) like you. I¡¯m representing the Elven Village nearby in regards to an issue with the location of your settlement. The Elves would very much like you to move to a more suitabl-¡± ¡°SHU¡¯UP! SHUT! THE! FUCK! UP!¡± I¡¯d noticed her getting more irritated with my every word as I¡¯d spoken and seems she finally exploded. ¡°I-I¡¯m sorry if I offende-¡± ¡°NO! This is our land!¡± As the axe lady said this she raised her weapon high and all the other human stepped forwards with their improvised weapons ready. When they stepped forward the Elves all unslung their bows and readied arrows. I did the same, though much more clumsily. ¡°I¡¯m sorry I tried.¡± I sighed. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it Little Shade. These Shades are just to used to being little better than animals. We¡¯ve had Elves that ended up like this in the past. We call it Monsterfication. It¡¯s common for people to start turning into monsters in high stress environments and on land with a high mana concentration. This is why we didn¡¯t want them here. Seems like we¡¯re too late.¡± Jut explained to me with a pained expression. AUTHOR Notes: Locations: Rehl, village of the Elves. Suspended high in the trees above the forest floor resides the elven village of Rehl. Made of four quarters, the merchants quarter, the military quarter, the magic quarter and the education quarter. Each quarter is further separated into districts. Lake of Dawn, the elven hero Dawn sacrificed her life to seal a great beast. This seal took the form of a lake and to this very day the seal remains. Large amounts of magic gather around the lake which make it dangerous for the untrained to remain in the area for long. Monsterfication will occur in those that are too weak to resist the residual mana in the air. Characters: Little Shade(E¡¯al), Primordial human(Shade), 18yo. Toned and slightly curvey. Her hair was brown and curled slightly in spirals. Her eyes were green like jade. She looked like a normal person with an average face. Her teeth were a bit crooked but nothing glaring. Neipht(Friend from the next tree), Elf, 179yo. Well built with a clear cut chin. His hair was black and flowed in the air like silk string. His eyes were an icy blue that seemed to glow like neon lights. He looked like a heroic man that very well just might have achieved a great many heroic deeds if he¡¯d had the drive to. Lephtal(Like a Brother), Elf, 32yo. Tall and lanky with well toned muscles. His hair was a dark brown and unkempt. His eyes were blue like Neipht¡¯s but with flecks of green around the irises edges. He looked like an unruly teen that spends most of his time at the movies with friends or doing something stupid. Even though he looked to be 16 he have a kind of confidence to him that made it obvious he was much older. Jut(Stupid youth), Elf, 27yo. He was slightly shorter than Lephtal and had a lack of any obvious muscles. His hair was a light brown, almost blonde. His eyes were a deep blue like sapphire. Since he looked like he was 13 he looked like a young teen hanging out with the big kids. The way he was being treated gave that feeling as well. Neyh(Pale hair), Elf, 65yo. A man with a slender build. He looked like he¡¯s probably really flexible more than possessing any kind of physical strength. His Hair was a pale green. Making him one of the very few elves I saw with hair any colour other than black or brown. He also had purple eyes which made him stand out from the rest as well. Ulfali(Clean Fawn), Elf, 48yo. A short woman with large breasts and although well proportioned she has the equivalent of twig arms and legs. How she can even wield a weapon without hurting herself can only be explained through game logic. She had pale blond hair. Her eyes were the same jade green as my own. When the game comes out there will probably be pornagraphic drawings and such of her within the week. Heu(Calm and experienced), Elf, 83yo. He was absolutely covered in scars. How he survived any one of them I have no clue. He had unremarkable brown hair and brown eyes. He had a hardness to him. Like he¡¯d been through many battles and seen many friends die. Maybe even had to kill a few who¡¯d turned against him. My imaginations just running away with me from all those scars. Freya(Tall & muscular), Elf, 120yo. She looked the oldest of the six. She was taller than all of us by a foot. She had muscles like Arnold Schwarzenegger during his bodybuilding days. Her hair was white and seemed to clump together like she hadn¡¯t washed it for a few days. Her eyes had a ferocity to them, but also a kindness. They were yellow and glowed faintly in the same way Neipht¡¯s had. She was the only elf I¡¯d seen with white hair and yellow eyes so far. Status info: PF, Physical Fortitude. It represents my overall physical health and stamina. It¡¯s restored through sleeping, eating and hydrating myself, like by drinking water as one example. When depleted completely you die. MF, Mental Fortitude. It represents of overall mental health and concentration. It¡¯s used not only for magic but also to protect myself from bad status effect like sleep, charm and confusion. It¡¯s restored through resting and avoiding physical activity for a time. Sleeping will restore it completely. When depleted completely you become unable to move and collapse. If conscious you remain conscious but are is a state similar to paralysis. Power, Speed and Flexibility are all self explanatory. Though they all have effects on physical attack and defence they do so to different degrees. They each also have unique bonus effect.Power lets you lift heavier things. Speed allows you to perceive things and move at a faster speed. Flexibility lets you move your body beyond its natural limits with greater ease. Longevity is the stat with the greatest effect on Physical Fortitude and Physical Defense. It extends how long you can run for without becoming exhausted and extends how long your character can live for by 1 year per point allocated to the stat. Capacity affects how much you can eat at once... It also has the greatest effect on Mental Fortitude and cast speed. Potential effects how quickly you can increase stats outside of leveling. Things like exercising, reading books or creating things grants bonus stat increases. It also increases the number of Ability points you receive to allocate per level. Magic and Mind both increase Magical Attack and Mental Fortitude. Magic has the greatest effect on Magical Attack while Mind has the greatest effect on Magical defence. Luck affects a large number of stats. It also increases drop rates and critical damage. Skill effects how quickly you can increase your skills levels outside of leveling and allocating Skill Points. The more you use a skill the stronger it will become. It also increased how many Skill Points you receive to allocate per level. Level increases by gathering 100 EXP, or Experience points. You gain 1 EXP if you defeat an enemy of equal or greater strength. You can also gain EXP by crafting something you haven¡¯t made before or by making more of that item at a time. You can¡¯t gain EXP by killing enemies without first gaining a Classification which represents your way of life. End of Part 1_______________________________________________________________ Plugged in 2 Start of Part 2 _____________________________________________________________ I gripped tighter on the bow and drew an arrow from the quiver on my back. The monsters wearing the guise of humans raised their weapon and roared before each charging towards me and the other 6. Just as they¡¯d all began charging time seemed to slow down to a crawl and suddenly I heard a voice. ¡°Welcome to the combat tutorial.¡± Said a smarmy man''s voice. ¡°We at OWIF strive to create only the most realistic of combat systems. As we strive to make combat feel as real and dangerous as possible pain feedback is increased to the games specification of 80%. Please remember that although the pain might feel real it is not.¡± explained the voice. ¡°Injuries received during battle persist after the battle has been completed. Injuries take time to heal. The worse the injury the longer it takes to heal and you may sustain a disability. Severe injury can result in death during the healing process unless absolute care is taken during the recovery process.¡± The voice continued. By now the monsters had taken two bounding steps towards us. Lephtal and the others had already let loose an arrow and they were slowly floating away from us. I let go of my arrow which I¡¯d had aimed for a bit now. Though I felt like I was cheating. ¡°You have just commenced attack with the bow.¡± The voice said abruptly. ¡°The bow is a piercing class weapon. The bone arrow is an arrow that induces a bleed status effect on a direct hit. The bone arrow also acts as a magic focus which boosts the power of magical attacks. Different arrow types have different effects and are advantageous against their intended targets.¡± When the voice finished speaking time suddenly sped up and my arrow struck the woman with the axe in the waist. The others arrows struck the chests of each of their targets and they dropped immediately to the ground. Time slowed again as the voice spoke once more, ¡°You have just inflicted a flesh wound against the Savage Camp Leader. Inflicting 10.72 points of damage instead of your weapons full 21.54 points of damage. Full damage can only be attained through striking internal organs. Full damage inflicts the severe wounds affliction. Critical damage is attained through striking vital organs and deals double damage to the target. Critical damage inflicts the Vital wounds affliction and usually results in death shortly after if not immediately.¡± Time sped up again. Lephtal, Heu and Freya threw their bows to the side and drew their swords. I followed suit and threw my bow to the side before drawing my sword. By the time I¡¯d done this the monsters, savage''s if I go by what the voice said, where right within attacking range of their clubs and sticks. I slashed with my sword at the first one that ran at me. The blade cut deep into the flesh of his arm and stopped at the bone. However I couldn¡¯t stop the savage¡¯s momentum. He barreled straight into me and knocked me over. I felt the heavy thud and pain as his body smashed against mine and we both fell to the ground. I let out a short shout in pain and as we fell time slowed again. ¡°A sword inflicts bleed on a successful flesh wound. Swords have the trait of sever. Which means that when you inflict a flesh wound with the sword, if the damage inflicted is more than half of the target''s remaining PF and you are attacking a limb. Then that limb is severed and cannot be recovered. You have also just suffered from stun. Stun occurs when the head sustains a sudden trauma. The length of the stun is determined by the amount of force used. Too much force will result in the head trauma affliction.¡± The voice explained to me. Again time spend up and I immediately impacted with the ground. ¡°-0.3PF(Deflected impact)¡± appeared in my system log. ¡°Little shade!¡± Heu shouted after pushing a savage back and running him through with his sword. I shook my head as the stun made me dizzy and like I was floating. The savage recovered faster than me and with his club held in both hands he heaved the club high above his head and brought it down towards my head. I raised my arms on reflex to shield myself. The club made contact with my forearm. My vambrace deformed and compacted from the force and I felt pain shoot through it like a thousand fire ants had decided to burrow into my skin and bite at my flesh. ¡°-6.95(Shatter)¡± I screamed in pain and gripped my arm before time slowed again. The pain dulled to a slight throbbing and I was able to regain my sense. I saw the savage raising the club again to swing at my head. ¡°Blunt weapon bypass the defense of normal metal armors. Dealing damage as if there was no armor present. You have inflicted with the Shatter affliction. Blunt weapons such as clubs posses the Shatter trait. When attacking, if the damage inflicted surpasses half the target''s remaining PF then the Shatter affliction will be inflicted. This shatters the target''s bones and gives a disability. With proper care this disability will disappear. With improper care this disability will become permanent.¡± The voice explain dispassionately before ruthlessly speeding up time again. Bringing back the crippling pain with it. ¡°¡°AHH!!¡±¡± The savage screamed at me and I screamed to match it. Though for entirely different reasons. The club was swung down at my head again and I shielded myself but this time with the sword. The club broke and the stone mallet struck my mouth. I felt my teeth break and shatter and tasted the blood as it flooded the inside of my mouth. I was horrified and had never felt this much pain in my life. ¡°-4.13PF (Shrapnel Impact)¡± Appeared, which snapped me out of the shock and horror of feeling my teeth and inside of my mouth being destroyed. He savage went for a swing with his fist after discarding his stone clubs handle. My head felt like was was stuffed full of cotton and the world spun. But I felt my adrenalin and the drive to survive kick me in the chest. I rammed my sword into his gut and up through his chest as easily as cutting butter. The fact that I couldn¡¯t feel anything other than pain at the time probably had something to do with my sudden strength. I rolled over with the savages corpse before pushing myself up to a kneel. I heard a screaming voice running closer and looked to see another savage running at me. I pulled my sword out of the savage by my knees and held the hilt of my sword to my chest. I aimed point of my blade towards them. It was the best I could do at the moment. My breath was heavy and I felt like I would faint if I relaxed or exerted myself even a little bit. They skewered themselves on my sword and knocked me over again. Inflicted another 0.3 damage to my already battered body. I heard the savage gurgling, their face right before mine. They spat their blood at me in an attempt to breath before their eyes became empty and lifeless. I rolled them off of me. My sword had pierced their collar bone, gone up through their neck and out the back. Blood poured out all over everything and pooled on the ground. I started in a confused horror at how realistic it was. The only thing that kept me together was the event log that told me of the end of combat. I didn¡¯t get any experience because I didn¡¯t have a classification. It felt funny that I even cared about getting experience from that. ¡°Little Shade!¡± Lephtal ran up to me. He was covered in blood but none of it seemed to be his own. He was slightly paler than usual and looked over me with a worried expression. Ulfali came over and handed me a damp white cloth. I looked at her didn¡¯t know what to do for a moment for I realized and tried wiping my face. First I spat out my shattered teeth which seemed to make Lephtal pale further. I wiped my mouth carefully and tried not to agitate the numerous cuts inside my mouth. This really sucked. At least I hadn¡¯t made myself pretty to begin with. Fuck. This is pretty horrible how far they¡¯ve gone with the realism. This is also kind of exciting. Ah, not that I like pain. But with the realism so high it really feels like I¡¯ve come to a fantasy world. Though I really wish my teeth weren''t smashed in. Eating and breathing is gonna suck so much until this heals. ¡°We¡¯ll need to her her back quickly so the healers can set her arm properly.¡± Freya said bluntly. ¡°I knew we should have got a spear.¡± Jut muttered. ¡°That spear belonged to the previous Elder. She isn¡¯t old enough to carry that responsibility yet.¡± Heu scolded Jut for even mentioning it. ¡°We should have still gotten her a spear. She has more experience with the spear.¡± Jut said unhappily. I think I would have died if I didn¡¯t have a sword. Not to even mention that I only know how to swing a sword from when I was a kid. I¡¯d swing around a stick and play sword fights with the other kids. Then when they got bored of it I still kept playing sword fight and swinging around a stick, hitting trees, hitting leaves. I had a lot of fun fighting imaginary enemies with my trusty magic sword as a kid. I¡¯d find bigger and heavier sticks to swing when the previous one got to light. I remember when I finally stopped was when I¡¯d gotten to swinging sticks that were more than two meters long and only slightly slimmer than my forearm. That was when I started college. I finally grew out of playing imaginary. It just took me a bit longer than everyone else. It did make me ripped compared to normal people my age though. So I guess it was worth it. Now I was in a fantasy world and essentially living out my imaginary world where I fought monsters and knights for valor and honor. And I¡¯d fucked it up immediately. ¡°No. I would have probably made the same mistake. It was my first time fighting someone focusing on me.¡± I managed to moan out through my now swelling mouth. ¡°Don¡¯t talk Little shade. You¡¯ll irritate you injuries more.¡± Ulfali chided. I nodded and drooped my head before standing. Cradling my broken arm I and the rest of the party made the 3 day trip back to the elven village of Rehl. When we got back I was taken to the Chiefs tree to receive medical attention from the healer, Elder Magdalen. Elder Magdalen was very beautiful. Her skin glowed with a faint but noticeable white light. She was skinny with a small chest but had thick thighs. Her hair was apple red and also glowed but it was a red glow that lit up the shadows. Her eyes as well glowed a vibrant red that seemed to bore into whatever she looked upon. Lephtal had taken it upon himself to take me to her and when we¡¯d knocked on the door it had opened as if she¡¯d been waiting there for us. ¡°Please lay down on the bed E¡¯al. you will need to stay here for the next few days so I can be sure you¡¯re healing correctly.¡± Elder Magdalen smiled gently and waved her hand to hurry me in. I obediently laid in one of the many beds in the healer ward. There were a few other people here, all were elves as expected. One man had lost an arm, a woman had lost an ear and seemed to have been stabbed multiple times in the stomach and another man had a long cut down the side of his face and was now missing an eye on that same side. ¡°I¡¯ll tell Neipht what happened Little Shade.¡± Lephtal looked a little helpless as it seemed like he wanted to stay but had things he needed to do. I nodded my head because moving my mouth to talk hurts a whole lot now that the adrenaline had well and truly worked itself out of my system. Lephtal nodded back and left. Elder Magdalen waved Lephtal goodbye and turned to me. She looked crossly at me but none the less set my arm, set a splint and bandaged it. She then began looking over the numerous cuts in my mouth and my ruined front teeth. ¡°E¡¯al. You shouldn¡¯t worry him like that. He¡¯s still too young and naive. To have fallen for a thing of darkness like you.¡± She scolded with not a little bit prejudice. I did say anything because I didn¡¯t care enough about this characters scripted dialogue to reply. I wish there was a skip button though. The elder took her fingers out of my mouth and went off to a cabinet. From it she took out a porcelain jar and came back over to me. In it was a greenish gel that smelled horrible. Scooping a glob of it out with a finger she set to rubbing it on the cuts inside my mouth. It tasted bitter and salty and if it was just that I wouldn¡¯t have minded. However it also had an indescribable grassy taste that made me gag. ¡°Don¡¯t do it. You¡¯ll just regret it later.¡± The elder tutted me when I started to gag. She finished smearing the gel inside my mouth before long and returned the porcelain jar. She returned with another and had me open my mouth again. In this jar was a blue gel that didn¡¯t smell like anything. The elder took out a stick and using the stick began smearing the gel on the remains of my front teeth. When she was done she look at me for a bit before shaking her head. ¡°Don¡¯t swallow it and just leave it in your mouth. I don¡¯t want to have to reapply it. It probably better if you just leave your mouth open. If not it¡¯ll get infected.¡± With that she went off and checked on the other patients and didn¡¯t bother checking with me again. I layed in bed with my mouth open and my saliva pooling in the back of my throat for three days. The Elder came to my twice a day to feed me and give me water. I was visited once by Neipht and Lephtal and once by Jut, Freya, Ulfali, Neyh and Heu. The came by just to make sure I was okay. By the third day the cuts in my mouth had mostly healed. What was left of my front teeth fell out on it¡¯s own and somehow new teeth started coming through. Apparently this was what the gels were for and why Elder Magdalen had said I¡¯d regret it if I swallowed it instead of leaving it. ¡°Everything''s healing as it should. Now get out of my ward E¡¯al. I don¡¯t want to see your kind in here again.¡± Elder Magdalen said to me after she¡¯d checked my mouth and arm on the third day. This got a few looks from the other patients but I¡¯d realized over the last 2 days that she talks like this to everyone. ¡°I¡¯ll do my best not to get injured again. But if I do please take care of me again and thank you Elder.¡± I said politely. The Elder was rude and crass at a glance. But she was actually very kind and got angry at people for getting injured, being stupid or for pretty much any reason that ticked her off. I wasn¡¯t really sure sometimes. It was still morning. The location indicator said I was at the base of the Chiefs tree. My house was in the southeastern outer district and inside the merchants quarter. I knew this because Lephtal had taken me this was after we dropped off my armor at my house. So I passed back through the produce district where most of the local crops and cattle are grown and raised. The streets were covered with vines and leafy plants the bore fruit. Strange 4 horned deer with feathered pelts walked about in pens and birds with rainbow coloured feathers that glittered in the sun flew between the fruit vines. As I walked I could see people climbing the vines and cutting the fruit stems before throwing them down to people below. When a bird flew close to one of them they suddenly struck out with a dagger and squared the bird. A few people below cheered and hugged one another like they¡¯d won the lottery. The man on the vine raised the corpse of the bird above his head in triumph. I watched another person attempt to do that same. The bird dexterously dodged the dagger and knocked them off the vine with a strike of their claws. They fell and were caught by the people below. Then the next person climbed the vine to pick fruits and the previous kicked up a fuss about almost having it. It was really weird. But it seems kind of like a contest between friends. To see who can get the most fruits before getting knocked off by the bird. If you manage to kill the bird then you can pick the entire vine without getting attacked. Not to mention you get a bird to eat and those glittering multicolored feathers looked like they could be used for decorations and such. I kind of wanted to have a try. I¡¯ll have to ask Lephtal about it latter. When I got home and close the front door a notice popped up. ¡°Quest Completed. Assist the Elven Scouts in annihilating the Shade Savage Village. I closed the window. Then I heard a tinkling sound before a bunch of golden sparkles and vines spreading out from the new stylized window that opened. ¡°Fang of Rehl Classification gained. Rehl Village relationship +40, Reputation +20. This was great news. Even though I thought I¡¯d failed the quest. It seemed it changed to match the increased difficulty. I also gained a Classification and skills. As well as the ability to allocated ability and skill points. Though I didn¡¯t know I couldn¡¯t do it before so I guess things worked out. I opened my stat points to pour my points into skill and potential but I couldn¡¯t see a way to do it. I agonized over it for an hour and even got annoyed that it said I could do it but couldn¡¯t. Maybe it was bugged? I¡¯ll have to file a bug report. Enough of that. I turned to the spear that had been leaning against the wall next to where I¡¯d put my armor. My armor had been repaired and cleaned. It was probably Neipht or Lephtal who had it fixed. I picked up the spear with my okay hand. Fortunately it was my right arm that was broken. Since I was left handed it would have been annoying if my dominant arm had been broken. I wouldn¡¯t be able to wield the spear until my arm heals but just looking at the spear I wanted to try using it. Unfortunately it was to heavy for me to use in one hand so I put it back against the wall. I couldn¡¯t see myself on the spear heads polished that just reflected a dull white. The metal was patterned like damascus steel. However instead of patterns made up of gradients of grey. It was made up of an almost white metal that seemed to have streaks of rainbows going across it in the light and a pale green metal. The green metal spread out from the center and made the spearhead look like a decorative feather made of metal. The spearhead was joined to the spears wooden pole by more white metal marbled with the pale green metal. The spear was surprisingly heavy but balanced. I would need to build my muscle strength before I could use it properly. One thing I knew was that, for sure, this was a strong weapon. At least for a beginner like me. I think I won out on my starting location. No one came around so I started practicing swing with my sword in one hand. It was kind of tough and I had to take a few breaks. It felt great to be swinging a real sword though. I tried swinging it the way I swung the sticks when I was a kid. It took a while but I managed to work out the wrong feeling from my technique. I was never trained but when I swung sticks in the past it I could always feel when I was doing something that didn¡¯t work. The stick would feel clunky, the sound it¡¯s make while ripping through the air would sound off and my muscles would feel like they could do better. It was a feeling like I could swing faster, swing with more strength, with more control and I always could. It was actually the funnest part of playing make believe. The feeling like I could be better, stronger, faster and more in control. It was addictive and this game rekindled that overwhelming need to be greater than I was. It was dark by the time I¡¯d stopped and I realized I hadn¡¯t eaten all day. I felt tired, hungry and thirsty. But more than that I felt satisfied. Like I¡¯d scratched an itch that had been eating at me. This was fun. I smiled and went back inside. When I did I heard a knock on the door. So I answered it. It was Lephtal. ¡°Little shade.¡± He said awkwardly when he was me. ¡°That¡¯s me.¡± I said cheerily. ¡°It¡¯s me Lephtal. I live next door with my dad, Neipht. You know him, though you probably don¡¯t remember anymore.¡± I explained and I nodded. ¡°I remember Lephtal.¡± I finally said when it seemed like he¡¯d continue. ¡°Oh good.¡± He smiled broadly. ¡°I wanted to ask you if you¡¯d like to have dinner with us? Uh, at my parents house. Not mine. I¡¯m a terrible cook.¡± He stumbled out. ¡°Sure. Just let me get changed. I¡¯ve been wearing these clothes for three days.¡± I smiled. I closed the door and went into my room. I took off my dirty clothes that now smelled a bit and threw them into my washing basket. Or at least what I¡¯d decided was going to be my washing basket. I noticed a small bucket with clean water and a cloth in it. So I took the time to wipe myself clean. The water was cold which sucked. But being clean for the first time in a week was worth it. I found some more underwear in my wardrobe and put it on. It seemed to be made of silk? It was a smooth fabric that was dyed red. I¡¯m kind of grateful that this fantasy setting has proper underwear. I don¡¯t know how I¡¯d feel about it if I had to wear nothing or some weird elaborate underwear like they used to in some countries in the past. Over that I put a light green tunic and some brown long pants. The were both made of same kind of fine fabric as my underwear. Is wearing a lot of silk an elven thing? I wondered before discarding the tough and putting on some socks. I wore the sturdy leather boots from before because they were the only shoes I had. I guess that was fine. I joined up with Lephtal who was still waiting at the front door and we went to Neipht¡¯s house for dinner. Dinner was mostly an assortment of leafy greens and fruits with some lightly seasoned meat on the side. It tasted pretty good and although I didn¡¯t know what any of it was I didn¡¯t find anything I disliked. It was a pleasant dinner. I stayed for a bit and we spoke about the quest. Though they called it a missions because I suppose it was. Same thing I guess. ¡°What is a Fang of Rehl?¡± I asked at one point during dinner. ¡°They¡¯re a kind of warrior of Rehl. Lephtal and the group you went with are scouts. The scouts are also called the Wings of Rehl. You going with them was actually part of a test to see if you were qualified to join them.¡± Neipht admitted. ¡°I didn¡¯t qualify... did I?¡± I messed up and got injured so of course I didn¡¯t. ¡°No, you passed with flying colors. Just as we thought you would.¡± Neipht chuckled when he said this. ¡°To suffer those kind of injuries and keep fighting. Only a Fang could do that!¡± Lephtal said proudly like it was his own achievement. Neipht nodded in agreement. ¡°The Fang¡¯s of Rehl are the villages toughest warriors. Warriors who fight to the death regardless of injury. They¡¯re the villages strongest frontline fighters. They wear little armor to show they aren¡¯t afraid of injury and that regardless of how broken their bodies they will keep fighting. Of course they aren¡¯t stupid so they still wear armor. They just don¡¯t shy away from getting hurt because they aren¡¯t afraid.¡± Neipht explained to me. So they¡¯re essentially DPS-tanks that wear light armor? Ugh I¡¯d rather not get hurt like that again. I seriously thought I¡¯d have no front teeth until I switched characters. My new front teeth are still growing in and eating really sucks at the moment. ¡°I couldn¡¯t keep fighting if I took an injury like that. Even Freya said she doesn¡¯t think she could keep fighting when injured like that.¡± Lephtal said this while smiling. Happy I could out do your expectations¡­ Fighting regardless of injury isn¡¯t the kind of thing I¡¯d feel happy about though. Getting hurt sucks and what they¡¯re describing sound like a viking berserker that fights to the death while wearing nothing but a pelt. It really sounds like a shitty job. I went home shortly after that conversation. I changed out of my clothes because I planned to wear them tomorrow and changed into the pajamas I hadn¡¯t cleaned yet. I¡¯m gonna have to figure out how to clean my clothes tomorrow. I thought to myself. I quickly drifted off to sleep. The fatigue of my practice today finally catching up with me. I found myself standing in endless blackness. A window opened before my eyes before I could start to wonder if this was some weird dream the game made for me, a bug or something else. ¡°Welcome to the inner-mind space.¡± The window switched over. ¡°Here you can allocate ability and skill points. You can also send private messages, access the internet and logout from this space. Thought acceleration is still in progress so you will not miss anything happening in game while in this space.¡± The window switched over again once I¡¯d finished reading. ¡°This space can only be accessed from your homebase. Your homebase is currently set to your residence. If you have rented a room in an inn or set up a camp, then you may also temporarily set that as your home base.¡± The window closed this time after I finished reading and I was left to myself in the endless darkness. Here I wasn¡¯t injured or tired. I didn¡¯t feel bloated from just having eaten a full me. I didn¡¯t feel anything from my body other than that it was there actually. I opened my status and saw little plus and minus icons next to each of my stats. I found to my pleasure that I¡¯d gained ability points. I not had 1.9AP instead of 1.3. I¡¯d gained 0.6AP from training and probably also the fight. I¡¯d also gained 1 skill point. I put 0.8AP into potential and 1.1 AP into Skill. Making them both an even 2.
KillerMEGA17
Little Shade(E''al)18y 7m 27d
Primordial Human
Fang of Rehl
PF15.58Drop Chance Increase0.7%
MF10.84C.Physical Attack16.27S.Physical Attack22.67
Pwr1.1C.Magical Attack9.24S.Magical Attack20.84
Spd1.2C.Phy Atk Speed2.41S.Phy Atk Speed7.7
Flx0.9C.Mag Atk Speed18.91S.Mag Atk Speed27.41
Lng1.3Physical Defense22.97
Cap0.8Magical Defense17.17
Ptl2Equipment
Mag0.7HeadNone
Mnd1.2ChestR.Waterproof Outer Clothing
Lck0.7ArmsElven Vanbrace
Skl2HandsNone
Level1WaistLeather Belt
EXP2LegsR.Worn Leather Pants
AP0FeetSturdy Boots
SP0Currently Equip WeaponSecondary Equip Weapon
Rehl Relationship154Left HandElven LongswordLeft HandElven Bow
Reputation22Right HandNoneRight HandBone Tipped Arrow
Next I opened my skills menu which had been empty until now. Now there were 4 skills and there was also a tab for purchasing skills I qualified for. I opened the tab and the list of purchasable skill revealed itself. ¡°Purchasable Skills Axe Bow Shield Sword Throw Unarmed Improvism Movement Blacksmith Herbalism Runic Magic Music Guts Comradery Leadership Acting Faith¡± There were a lot and these were only the ones I qualified for the moment. There¡¯s probably many times more than this that I can unlock latter. I don¡¯t know what the qualifications are that I need to unlock them are though. I decided it would be best to spend at least 1 skill point on each of the skills I had. Armor(Light) gave me more defence and decreased armor penetration by 5%. Spear increased my damage and speed while wielding a spear. Harden was actually really good. It increases my defence and applies 10% of my total defence against flesh wounds which normally bypass armor completely. Perception was a strange one. It increases sensory input. So it improved my vision, hearing and sense of smell. It could be useful so I increased it despite any misgiving I might have. With my last skill point I purchased the Movement skill. It cost a skill point to purchase it so I didn¡¯t have a point to put into it. But now I could improve it the next time I got a skill point. I had a hard time picking it over the sword skill. I already had a weapon skill however so I decided to put it off until later. I closed the skill window and checked if there were any messages from the others. There was none so I spent this time catching up on some shows until my character woke up. AUTHOR notes: Skills: Armor(Light), increases the defence granted by light armor. Decreases armor penetration by 5% Spear, increases damage and speed while wielding a spear. Harden, Increases defence and applies 10% of defence against flesh wounds. Perception, increases sensory input. Improving vision, hearing and the sense of smell. Locations: Rehl - Merchants quarter, made up of a residence district, a forgers district, a commerce district, a free trade district and the produce district which take up most of the merchants quarter. Rehl - Military quarter, made up of the Logistics district, the standing army district, the armoury district and the military residence district. Rehl - Magic quarter, made up of the research district, the magical items district and a alchemy district which also doubles as a marketplace that focuses mostly on magical potions as well as magical materials and items. Rehl - Education quarter, separated into different schools instead of districts. The village of Rehl is know as the education centre for the elves and elves from forests across the elven kingdom come to Rehl for it¡¯s education facilities. AUTHOR complains: Too lazy to do any work on making the table look better. It''s kind of a pointless effort in the end. End of Part 2_______________________________________________________________ Plugged in 3 Start of Part 3_______________________________________________________________ I took this time to catch up on the few episodes of my favorite drama¡¯s that I hadn¡¯t gotten around to watching the latest episode of yet. A few episodes of I am Zombie and a rewatch of Dawn of the Dead(because it seemed fitting somehow), I emailed Maz3ing who was the streamer in charge of the 5 hours of the stream today. KillerMEGA18 to Maz3ing Hey just emailing to gen in-game contact details, location and to swap details. I gotta say though this is already way different than I¡¯d thought it was gonna be. Was I this out of touch with what high end VR games were capable of? I mean if it wasn¡¯t for all the blatant fantasy stuff everywhere I doubt I¡¯d be able to tell the difference between in-game and out of game. That¡¯s kind of scary and also really awesome. I¡¯m called E¡¯al in game. It was weird though because I only heard it as little shade at first until I spoke with some humans. When you learn languages it must auto translate depending on what language you¡¯re speaking or something? It was a little disorientating not knowing exactly what language I was speaking for a while. I did eventually notice that I had a slight accent depending on what language I was speaking though so with practice I¡¯ll probably be able to tell the difference and switch between them at will. At least I hope I can. I¡¯m in the Elven city of Rehl by the way. Elves seem to be the classic tree dwelling stereotype which is fun. Anyway when you can add me in game. I sent the message after writing that last sentence. I¡¯d have to wait until Maz3ings character was asleep before they could read the message and reply. Happily it wasn¡¯t three minutes before I received a reply. Maz3ing To me Good to hear from you KillerMEGA18. If we¡¯re asleep around the same time then it means we¡¯re probably close to each other. I¡¯ve already messaged the others and it seemed the game world has time zones. Junction_Administrative_Unit029394 sent me a message complaining that it was night time as soon as she spawned and that she was in a desert. So she¡¯s probably in the same time zone but pretty far away since she said that there were no forest or mountains as far as the eye can see. Life is gonna suck for you in regards to getting to her when it¡¯s time for her to stream on thursday. Though I suppose in game time that would mean you have a little under a year to get to her from Serina''s stream. I hate to admit it though but after chatting with Junction_Administrative_Unit029394 and the other Luudesi... I¡¯d never thought I¡¯d ever live to see a Luudesi complaining and how she spent pages upon pages complaining about game design and mechanics. It wasn¡¯t just her but the other two Luudesi that I could get in contact with had also sent me equally long and colourfully worded emails. I guess learning these kinds of things about hated enemies is just what you get when the Galaxy Wide network is neutral territory. It¡¯s kind of a shame that we¡¯re at war with them. I¡¯ve added you and most of the other streamers that have gone to sleep in the last few hours. I¡¯m only waiting on Conversion_Operations_Scientist923405 and The_Watcher so that means that we were all mostly clustered together it seems. I¡¯m called Thud in-game. Weird name, I know. I was named Thud by a pack of goblins. I even gained the goblin language as a bonus. From how I see it my standing is about that of a slaves and they don¡¯t let me wield any weapons. It¡¯d really help if you showed up and slaughtered them all for me. Come help as soon as you can, I¡¯d really appreciate it. The streams pretty boring at the moment and people are complaining in the chat. One Facility_Repairs_Officer0006113 in particular telling me to submit myself for reconditioning and reassignment at the nearest conversion center. Which is essentially telling someone they should commit suicide by Luudesi standards. Seems like he¡¯s having issues. I added him immediately and felt a slight tug when I did. From there I messaged and added everyone I could. As expected I didn¡¯t get a reply from Conversion_Operations_Scientist923405 or The_Watcher. The must have spawned in somewhere far. It¡¯s not going to be fun getting to them. After some time a box opened that asked if I wanted to wake up yet. I mentally pressed confirm and the black void faded away. With it I felt my body again and that I was laying down all snuggled up in the bed sheets. I opened my eyes and stretched before getting dressed in much the same clothing as I¡¯d worn during my mission the other day. This time however my over coat was a light brown and my pants were a dark camo of mottled green splotches. Just as I finished putting my shoes on I heard something rustling in my clothes basket and when to investigate. I opened the clothes basket to find a tiny person with dragonfly wings coming out of their back grabbing at my clothes. ¡°Do you need something?¡± I asked quizzically. I wasn¡¯t sure if it spoke elven or even spoke at all. I asked on the off chance it did however and some part of my mind seems to naturally refuse the belief that something with a human face wouldn¡¯t be able to talk. ¡°Julie Denovan Wright at your service miss! Sorry for the noise I was just getting this mornings washing.¡± The naked little fairy said. ¡°Oh, don¡¯t let me bother you then.¡± I said and put the lid back on the basket. That was weird if nothing else. I guess I should be glad I don¡¯t have to clean my own clothes. When I stepped out of my room I came out into a tiny living space that was vastly dwarfed by my bedroom. I didn¡¯t have time to look around before because of the disorientation of being waking up somewhere I¡¯ve never seen before. Neipht didn¡¯t help much either with how he was rushing me. There was a small table with three seats. It was a little dusty but other than that it was mostly clean. Off to the side of the front door was a little kitchen area with a window above the kitchen sink that let light into the house. All in all it gave off a very cozy family house for a couple and a single child. Looking around the house I even found a smaller room that had a bed frame in it but no mattress. There was also a bathroom with a shower, a bathroom sink and a mirror. The floor was tiled with some sort of grey stone while the walls and ceiling were tiled with a mosaic of sorts that seemed to depict people taking a shower. Which was fairly novel considering that this was where you go to take a shower. Below the show was a drain and the floor of the bathroom slanted downwards towards it ever so slightly. I wouldn¡¯t have noticed if I hadn¡¯t been an engineering student before unfortunately breaking my neck. I could probably continue my course from my VR environment but it just didn¡¯t seem important anymore. I looked at myself in the mirror and found that there was black dried blood crusting my hair line. I also had dirt scuffs on my face and some twigs and leaves tangles in my hair. I looked like a wild woman that had been walking through the woods for weeks. That was half true I suppose and compared to how I look in real like this can¡¯t compare. My muscles aren¡¯t anything you could scoff at. Though they¡¯re going to waste away now that I can¡¯t use them anymore. Which is kind of heart breaking now that I think of it. I spend decades building up a fit and well muscled body and now it¡¯ll all just atrophy. I took my mind off it by cleaning the house. Before you make a woman should clean and go make me a sandwich joke I will say that cleaning is a good hobby to have for any intelligent individual. It is an activity that men and women alike can enjoy and helps focus the mind to take care of your, taking care of your mind, body and material possessions. Though I suppose in this case they¡¯re virtual possessions and not material. The house was small so it didn¡¯t even take me an hour to clean the house. I took a much needed shower and was happy to find that there was soap readily available in a draw beneath the sink. To my surprise instead of water, a greenish fluid that had a sweet scent came out of the metal shower head. Tasting it I found that it had a sweet but grassy taste to it. I even received a positive status effect. ¡°Giant Balam Tree Sap. -Consumed- 4seconds 10% Restoration effect per minute. Recover Physical and Mental Fortitude Faster while bathing in or consuming the sap of the Giant Balam Tree. ¡± The sap was also warm and released steam as it cascaded from the shower head. The steam raised and went out a tiny window above head height that I hadn¡¯t realized was there previously. If that window was a monster or space alien I¡¯d be dead right now and have no one to blame but myself for the fuck up. Fortunately it wasn¡¯t either of those things and was just a window. Having wasted enough time I took my much needed shower and thoroughly cleaned myself. Making sure to continuously run my fingers through my hair and get all the leaves and twigs out of my hair along with whatever might have decided to make my mess of hair into it¡¯s home while I was being negligent. I made doubly sure there was nothing living in my hair while pushing back memories of an afroed dark skinned man that had a little chick that lived in his hair. I shook my head and reminded myself that the thirteenth game of the series never happened and that I¡¯d simply had an extended nightmare that repeated itself three times and never seemed to get any better. I shivered and ended my warm shower that felt strangely chilly despite the apparent warmth of the sap. Patting myself off with a towel that was also in the cabinet beneath the bathroom sink I got dressed in my clothes from the day before that seemed to be clean now. I took out all my clothes from the day before and replaced them with the clothes I¡¯d been wearing while I cleaned the house. I¡¯d been somewhat over dressed for house cleaning but when you need to take your mind off something it¡¯s better not to waste time. My clothes now amounted to a cream tunic with pale brown leggings and my sturdy boots which seem to be the only shoes I own. I was never really a shoes person so I don¡¯t actually have any complaints about having one pair of good quality leather boots for everything. None of it actually counted as armour except for the boots so I wouldn¡¯t be doing any adventuring today. I wanted to get the sword skill before leaving the village and trying to rescue Thud. The smart thing to do would be to stay in town for a few years and train myself before going out to adventure. I don¡¯t think the viewers would be willing to wait a few real life days before something interesting happens however. By the front door by spear, sword and bow leaned against the wall. I took my sword and wrapped my swords holster belt around my waist before tightening it. The weight of my sword hanging from my waist feeling just as alien as it had walking days through the woods. With a sigh a pushed open the door and walked out into the orange morning sunlight. The forest seemed to be slowly coming to life as the days sun came up. Vines that coiled around the edges of the platform unfurled their leaves to catch the rays and flowers that grew in the cracks between the wood began to bloom. I breathed deep taking in the crisp morning air that felt comfortable in my virtual lungs before letting go of the breath. Oh, I could get used to living in a world like this. I smiled with the thought and unsheathed my sword. I practiced imagined forms that in my imagination as a kid were the forms of a powerful and skilled knight. My legs wide and knees bent and the hilt of my sword low with the point of the blade at eye level. I imagined blocking a blow with my shield and thrusting my blade into my imagined enemies exposed armpit. A clean kill, the blade entering the ribcage and penetrating the heart and lung of my imaginary foe. I smirked and went through various shield bashes and sword swings. This wasn¡¯t training. This was me having fun. So I continued without stopping to catch my breath for almost an entire minute until my body felt like a huge weight was suddenly placed on my shoulders and it became hard to breath. ¡°Mental Fortitude depleted. Status effect Tired inflicted.¡± ¡°Tired Stats halved until you regain 10% of your mental fortitude. Mental fortitude regenerates at 20% normal rate. Normal MFR:1.5/min - Tired MFR:0.3/min Option: Can induce Exhaustion status effect and use Physical Fortitude in place of Mental Fortitude¡± I ignored the notification and continue training. I¡¯d found it strange yesterday when I¡¯d found out during my training that moving, swinging a weapon and firing a bow all ate up Mental Fortitude. After your Mental Fortitude reaches 1 you gain the tired debuff which halves your stats. You can then ignore the tired debuff and use up to three times your Maximum Mental Fortitude before collapsing and receiving the Extreme Exhaustion debuff and receiving damage equal to 90% of your max Physical Fortitude. Swinging a weapon, or at least my sword eats up 0.5 MF. Depending on the weight of the weapon or maybe the type of weapon I¡¯m not really sure, you use more MF. For example my spear used up 0.6 MF per attack while my bow uses up 0.93 MF per attack. I can only assume the bow requires so my MF because I¡¯m pulling against the weight of the draw to notch and fire an arrow. Quick or powerful movements also seems to eat up MF but by varying degrees. For example running a hundred meters might take up 0.1 MF, leaping a metre might take around 0.3 MF while pushing against a stationary wall with all my might will eat up around 1 MF per second I keep trying and not achieve a darn thing. Inducing the Exhaustion debuff makes your attacks and movements eat at your PF instead of your MF and removes the stat penalty. Instead however you stop regenerating MF all together until you take a an hour or so to sit and rest. At which point exhaustion reverts to the tired debuff and you begin recovering MF again. Then after a few more minutes of resting you lose the tired debuff. Pretty simple right? I can see just from this that extended battles in the future are going to be won or lost on how well you can manage your MF and PF, as well as juggle with the Tired and Exhausted debuffs. In terms of training however it means taking a break and pacing yourself so that your don¡¯t tire yourself out too badly. Panting I trained for most of the day again. Only stopping to take breaks and to eat the food Neipht so graciously handed to me during meal times. Unlike what I¡¯m used to it seems that people here only eat breakfast and dinner. Which to a lover of lunch like myself in preposterous and absurd. That will have to be remedied at some point in the future, if for no one but myself. I¡¯ve never been confident in my ability to cook so I¡¯ll have to learn or find someone that¡¯s willing to do it for me. I stopped practicing around about when the sun started to go down and a window opened up. ¡°A Day of Training - Mild Efficiency 47% Training for two consecutive days has increased your body''s capabilities and your determination. Due to your Potential being above 2 you now gain a minimum of 0.2 to stats during training. Due to a training regime that relies more on endurance, determination and mindset rather than building muscle, testing speed or expanding your flexibility. You have gained these stats: +0.1 Longevity +0.2 Mind¡± Well that''s kind of crumby but at least it¡¯s some kind of result. With this my Longevity and mind increase to 1.4. This brings my Mental fortitude up to 11 and almost brings my Physical Fortitude up to 16. Already my PF and MF have increased a lot from how they started out. The stat increases feel fairly low and normally with even this kind of training I would gain a fairly good amount of stats in another VRMMORPG. I frowned and opened my stats screen.
KillerMEGA17
Little Shade(E''al)18y 7m 28d
Primordial Human
Fang of Rehl
PF15.78Drop Chance Increase0.7%
MF11.19C.Physical Attack19.87S.Physical Attack16.27
Pwr1.1C.Magical Attack18.04S.Magical Attack9.54
Spd1.2C.Phy Atk Speed2.61S.Phy Atk Speed2.41
Flx0.9C.Mag Atk Speed5.87S.Mag Atk Speed18.47
Lng1.4Physical Defense23.17
Cap0.8Magical Defense17.57
Ptl2Equipment
Mag0.7HeadNone
Mnd1.4ChestR.Waterproof Outer Clothing
Lck0.7ArmsElven Vanbrace
Skl2HandsNone
Level1WaistLeather Belt
EXP2LegsR.Worn Leather Pants
AP0FeetSturdy Boots
SP0Currently Equip WeaponSecondary Equip Weapon
Rehl Relationship154Left HandFahan''s FangLeft HandElven Longsword
Reputation22Right HandNoneRight HandNone
Skill ListPurchasable Skills
Armor(light)1AxeBowImprovismHerbalism
Spear1ShieldSwordFaithRunic Magic
Harden1ThrowUnarmedBlacksmithMusic
Perception1GutsComraderyLeadershipActing
Movement0JumpSprintEndurance
I shrugged. It¡¯ll be a slow build up but I¡¯ll gain strength and over time I¡¯ll become strong. For now however a goblin could probably rip me apart so long as it had help from a friend or two. The thought of going into a nest of them is absurd at the moment without at least increasing my stats a bit. So I¡¯ll give myself 6 days to increase my stats and then I¡¯ll go do what I can. Hopefully I¡¯m manage to gain the sword skill at some point during those 6 days as well. With that decided I went and had dinner of Neipht¡¯s house with his wife and Lephtal before heading home. I took a long shower and threw all my dirty clothes into the basket. I felt so tired I didn¡¯t even bother to put on my pajamas before laying my head on my pillow and falling asleep. I received a reply email from Conversion_Operations_Scientist923405 and The_Watcher. They seemed to be doing fine, The_Watcher was in an underground cavern and didn¡¯t even know what time it was. Apparently he¡¯d somehow ended up living with a clan of dwarves. They made him craft a hammer to prove he was a true clansman of Doomhammer. Apparently it¡¯s something like an initiation into the clan. If you can make passable hammer than you''re enough of a dwarf for them. Conversion_Operations_Scientist923405 or 923405COS as her Luudesi identification code reads, complained in a fairly long email that I won¡¯t go into. However from what I managed to gather it seems she somehow end up on a floating island with winged people that call themselves the Anglers. Funnily they also apparently eat nothing but fish and seaweed as well. I checked in with the others via email to see how they were going and they seemed to be doing fine. Though Maz3ing made sure to complain about hearing goblins making babies from outside their nest. The next day I started training again and spoke with Lephtal a few times. It seems Neipht has decided to delegate the task of delivering my meals to his lanky and unkempt looking son. He asked me what I was doing and i told him I was training so I wouldn¡¯t be so useless next time I¡¯m in a fight. He seemed to accept that answer and left without saying anything about it. My training was different from yesterday. I tried moving slowly, as slowly as I could possibly move without locking up. While doing this I went through various sword swings and forms. All of which were made up and would probably never work in reality. But this was a game so I could probably make anything work well enough so long as I had the right skills and put in the effort. The reason I was trying such a drastically different form of training was because I wanted to see how stat gains varied depending on how I trained. Yesterday I was at least hoping to gain some power but only ended up getting longevity and mind. Both of which were very welcome but not exactly what I was looking for. By the time the sun had set I was completely drenched in sweat. Concentration for hours on end is surprisingly exhausting. None of my MF was consumed but I feel like I¡¯d spent the entire day suffering from the tired debuff. When I finally broke stance and sat down with the intention of finishing up my training for the day. A window popped up. ¡°A Day of Training - High Efficiency 81% Training for three consecutive days has increased your body''s capabilities and your determination. Due to your Potential being above 2 you now gain a minimum of 0.2 to stats during training. Due to a training regime that focuses on slow and controlled movements, exercising both control and flexibility but also all requiring strict concentration above all else. You have gained these stats: +0.2 Speed +0.1 Flexibility +0.1 Longevity +0.2 Mind¡± That¡¯s far more satisfying than just swinging my sword around all day and get almost nothing for my troubles. Over the next five days I continued to train in this manner because of the greater rewards I received each day. It was on the 4th day that I finally gained the Sword skill. ¡°+0.3 Power +0.9 Speed +0.7 Flexibility +0.6 Longevity +1.2 Mind +0.2 Skill¡± Where the stats I gained through those 6 days of training. ¡°Gained Skill
  • Sword 0¡±
I also gained the untrained sword skill. I¡¯d have to either spend a skill point to level it up or spend a whole lot more time training. The streams believe that skills are gained and improved on an experience point based system similar to levels. Conversion_Operations_Scientist923405 or The_Watcher apparently spent most of their time doing tests on skill training. According to them by training a skill you gain skill experience equal to your skill stat. So by improving your skill stat you¡¯re exponentially improving your skill training speed. Apparently to learn a skill you need to accumulate a total of 200 points of skill experience before gaining the untrained skill. After which it takes 1000 points of skill experience to improve it to the next level. Also to improve a skill from 1 to 2 takes 2 skill points or 2000 points of skill experience. By this we can deduce that 1 skill point is equal to 1000 point of skill experience. It¡¯s actually a really interesting system in my opinion. Though no one would ever stand for it in another VRMMORPG¡¯s because it simply takes too long. Let say for example that I train 12 hours every day with my sword. It would take me 42 days to level up my skill to 2. And that¡¯s with me gaining skill experience at twice the normal speed. In this regard it would take me exactly 420 days of training to get my sword skill from 9 to 10. 10 being what we believe to be the highest a skill can go. If this game didn¡¯t use thought acceleration that the time it took in increase skill levels would be utterly ridiculous. Taking around 7-9 years of constant daily training to reach the peak of swordsmanship. I woke up just as the sun began to rise. Today it was time I started on meeting up with Maz3ing and starting the real fun. I jumped out of bed. End of Part 3_______________________________________________________________ AUTHOR note: All the notes- Also there are a number of errors with the Stat screen that I''m to lazy to fix. They will be fixed by the time I put in another Stats screen for whatever reason. TIME notes: 1 hour out of game is 12 days in game. 1 day out of game is 288 days in game. 1 week out of game is 5.6 years in game. 1 year out of game is 2.912 centuries in game. WORLD Notes: Locations: Rehl, village of the Elves. Suspended high in the trees above the forest floor resides the elven village of Rehl. Made of four quarters, the merchants quarter, the military quarter, the magic quarter and the education quarter. Each quarter is further separated into districts. Rehl - Merchants quarter, made up of a residence district, a forgers district, a commerce district, a free trade district and the produce district which take up most of the merchants quarter. Rehl - Military quarter, made up of the Logistics district, the standing army district, the armoury district and the military residence district. Rehl - Magic quarter, made up of the research district, the magical items district and a alchemy district which also doubles as a marketplace that focuses mostly on magical potions as well as magical materials and items. Rehl - Education quarter, separated into different schools instead of districts. The village of Rehl is know as the education centre for the elves and elves from forests across the elven kingdom come to Rehl for it¡¯s education facilities. Lake of Dawn, the elven hero Dawn sacrificed her life to seal a great beast. This seal took the form of a lake and to this very day the seal remains. Large amounts of magic gather around the lake which make it dangerous for the untrained to remain in the area for long. Monsterfication will occur in those that are too weak to resist the residual mana in the air. Skills: Armor(Light), increases the defence granted by light armor. Decreases armor penetration by 5% Spear, increases damage and speed while wielding a spear. Grants weapon ability: Prepare, deal damage*2 to a charging enemy. Costs 1MF. Axe, increases damage and speed while wielding an axe. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.Grants weapon ability: Rend, deal a single attack that ignores 60% of armour. Costs 1MF. Bow, increases draw speed, accuracy and distance while wielding a bow. Grants weapon ability: Pierce, deal damage*1.1 with the currently notched arrow. Costs 1MF. Shield, increases damage reduction and decreases knockback while wielding a shield. Grants weapon ability: Shield Bludgeon, for the next 3 seconds shield bashing costs no physical fortitude.Costs 1MF. Sword, increases damage and speed while wielding a sword. Grants weapon ability: Swipe, swing your sword at twice the speed for a sudden blow that deals damage*1.2. Costs 1MF. Throw, increases accuracy, throw speed and throw distance of thrown weapons. Grants weapon ability: Course correct, grants thrown weapon a minor homing ability that course corrects mid flight to a certain degree in order to hit the intended target. Costs 4MF. Unarmed, your body is now a weapon. Increases damage and speed while not wielding a weapon. Grants weapon ability: Heavy Strike, deal damage*1.5 and knockback increases by 15%. Costs 1MF. Improvism, increases damage and speed of improvised weapons. Grants weapon ability: Mighty Blow, deal damage*2 with a 20% stun chance increase. Costs 2MF Movement, Decreases MF consumption from general movement by 2%. Blacksmith, increased system assist while forging weapons. Increases quality of created trash quality items to common quality. Herbalism, common grade herbs glow visibly in visible range. Able to learn the properties of common grade herbs after tasting them. Runic Magic, Learn two random basic runes of the runic language required for runic magic. Carved runes more readily hold power. Music, Effects of music increased by 5%. Able to infuse magic into musical notes to achieve unknown effects. Guts, Enemies respect your guts 5% of the time and fight you to the best of their ability. Comradery, Allies with this skill receive a 0.5% increase to stats. Leadership, When commanding allies they have their stats increase by 1%. Acting, your disguises, costumes and illusions are 4% harder for others to see through. Faith, your faith causes the Gods to take pity on you. 0.5% chance of a miracle occurring. Harden, increases defence and applies 10% of defence against flesh wounds. Perception, increases sensory input. Improving vision, hearing and the sense of smell. Jump, Increases jump height by 10%. Decreases MF consumption when jumping by 5%. Sprint, Increases run speed by 2%. Gain ability to exchange PF for a 1 minute speed boost at a rate of 2% per point of MF. Endurance, Decreases MF consumption from physical activity by 9%. Increases PF by 2. Characters: Little Shade(E¡¯al), Primordial human(Shade), 18yo. Toned and slightly curvey. Her hair was brown and curled slightly in spirals. Her eyes were green like jade. She looked like a normal person with an average face. Her teeth were a bit crooked but nothing glaring. Neipht(Friend from the next tree), Elf, 179yo. Well built with a clear cut chin. His hair was black and flowed in the air like silk string. His eyes were an icy blue that seemed to glow like neon lights. He looked like a heroic man that very well just might have achieved a great many heroic deeds if he¡¯d had the drive to. Lephtal(Like a Brother), Elf, 32yo. Tall and lanky with well toned muscles. His hair was a dark brown and unkempt. His eyes were blue like Neipht¡¯s but with flecks of green around the irises edges. He looked like an unruly teen that spends most of his time at the movies with friends or doing something stupid. Even though he looked to be 16 he has a kind of confidence to him that made it obvious he is much older. Jut(Stupid youth), Elf, 27yo. He was slightly shorter than Lephtal and had a lack of any obvious muscles. His hair was a light brown, almost blonde. His eyes were a deep blue like sapphire. Since he looked like he was 13 he looked like a young teen hanging out with the big kids. The way he was being treated gave that feeling as well. Neyh(Pale hair), Elf, 65yo. A man with a slender build. He looked like he¡¯s probably really flexible more than possessing any kind of physical strength. His Hair was a pale green. Making him one of the very few elves I saw with hair any colour other than black or brown. He also had purple eyes which made him stand out from the rest as well. Ulfali(Clean Fawn), Elf, 48yo. A short woman with large breasts and although well proportioned she has the equivalent of twig arms and legs. How she can even wield a weapon without hurting herself can only be explained through game logic. She had pale blond hair. Her eyes were the same jade green as my own. When the game comes out there will probably be pornagraphic drawings and such of her within the week. Heu(Calm and experienced), Elf, 83yo. He was absolutely covered in scars. How he survived any one of them I have no clue. He had unremarkable brown hair and brown eyes. He had a hardness to him. Like he¡¯d been through many battles and seen many friends die. Maybe even had to kill a few who¡¯d turned against him. My imaginations just running away with me from all those scars. Freya(Tall & muscular), Elf, 120yo. She looked the oldest of the six. She was taller than all of us by a foot. She had muscles like Arnold Schwarzenegger during his bodybuilding days. Her hair was white and seemed to clump together like she hadn¡¯t washed it for a few days. Her eyes had a ferocity to them, but also a kindness. They were yellow and glowed faintly in the same way Neipht¡¯s had. She was the only elf I¡¯d seen with white hair and yellow eyes so far. Maz3ing(Alphonse Denovan Remming aka Thud), Primordial human and Human player, 18yo(in-game), 39yo(out of game). Will forever be remember as a slave to goblin kind and avid pervert. The likes of which would do all residents of the GWN proud. Junction_Administrative_Unit029394(Also known as Olpepa.), a Luudesi player, 4.2 centuries old(out of game). Complains about everything as all Luudesi do. Serina Jefferson(Better known as Devilious Cindy.), a Human player, 23yo(out of game). Devilious Cindy is actually the name of a popular GWN pornstar. Who knows why she named her character as that... Maybe she¡¯s funny in the head? Conversion_Operations_Scientist923405(Prefers to be known as Pleaos.), a Luudesi player, 6.9 centuries old(out of game). Complains about everything as all Luudesi do. Is also super lazy. The_Watcher(Dislikes being watched. Claims to be a Gulkagsra called Fertis Almatisra Em Uldantes.), a Gulkagsra player, 75yo(out of game). The Gulkagsra are a neutral merchant species that are widely known across the galaxy. The_Watcher doesn¡¯t act like anything I¡¯d ever expected a Gulkagsra to act. The Gulkagsra are known for being very snooty and condescending. The_Watcher however is very respectful and set in his(or her) ways. Administrative_Neural_Network983529(Claims her name is actually Pierce Beslp.), a Luudesi player, 4.3 centuries old(out of game). Complains about everything as all Luudesi do. Claims to have been one of the first humans ever converted. Senior_Engineering_Expert153045(Someone the other Luudesi claim is a genius. Likes to be called Iseoas.), a Luudesi player, 4.7 centuries old(out of game). Complains about everything as all Luudesi do. Apparently invented the ESOC which is a hand held cannon intended to be used with Luudesi battle mech suits. The ESOC is apparently a big deal because it¡¯s a hand held mass accelerator cannon(or a giant freakin railgun as we humans call them) capable of piercing the outer hull of most combat worthy space vessels. Julie Denovan Wright(The Cleaning Fairy), House Fairy, 7yo. No larger than my hand and standing at a little under 4 inches in height. From her back prout 4 dragonfly things that are almost as long as she is tall. Her hair is a blue that shimmers various shades of asure in sunlight and her red eyes reflect a capable and determined woman. Her face and body is mature despite her seemingly young age and she never seems to wear any clothes. Apparently House fairies only live for 20 years so Julie is almost middle aged for her species. She has 7 children and a loving husband that all live under the floorboards. I was wondering what those noises were... Debuffs: Tired, Stats halved until you regain 10% of your mental fortitude. Mental fortitude regenerates at 20% normal rate. Option: Can induce Exhaustion status effect and use Physical Fortitude in place of Mental Fortitude. After your Mental Fortitude reaches 1 you gain the tired debuff which halves your stats. You can then ignore the tired debuff and use up to three times your Maximum Mental Fortitude before collapsing and receiving the Extreme Exhaustion debuff and receiving damage equal to 90% of your max Physical Fortitude. Swinging a weapon, or at least my sword eats up 0.5 MF. Depending on the weight of the weapon or maybe the type of weapon I¡¯m not really sure, you use more MF. For example my spear used up 0.6 MF per attack while my bow uses up 0.93 MF per attack. I can only assume the bow requires so my MF because I¡¯m pulling against the weight of the draw to notch and fire an arrow. Quick or powerful movements also seems to eat up MF but by varying degrees. For example running a hundred meters might take up 0.1 MF, leaping a metre might take around 0.3 MF while pushing against a stationary wall with all my might will eat up around 1 MF per second I keep trying and not achieve a darn thing. Inducing the Exhaustion debuff makes your attacks and movements eat at your PF instead of your MF and removes the stat penalty. Instead however you stop regenerating MF all together until you take a an hour or so to sit and rest. At which point exhaustion reverts to the tired debuff and you begin recovering MF again. Then after a few more minutes of resting you lose the tired debuff. Pretty simple right? Damage types: Slashing, bladed weapons and claws. 20% more damage against flesh. Piercing, pointed stabbing weapons and peaks. 40% more damage to mounted foes. Impact, Explosives, fists and other blunt objects. Ignore 50% of armour. 30% knockback and 10% stun chance. Shrapnel, numerous fragments and other things. Inflicts bleed that deals 0.5 damage per minute for an hour or until medical attention is received. Psi, The minds will over the world around it. 70% knockback. Fire, High temperatures and flames. 20% of damage is dealt directly towards damaging armour. Ignores 60% of armour. Lighting, Power of the heavens. Ignores 90% of armour. Wind, The mighty winds. Knockback 70%. Steam, Water and fire combine to create a scolding mist. Knockback 20%. Ignore 20% of armor. Water, Power of the depths. Knockback 70%. Ice, Cold temperatures and frost. 40% slow. Earth, Dirt, mud, the power of earth. Knockback 50%. Stun 20% chance. Life, The healing touch of life. Damages the unholy. Death, The withering touch of death. Heals the unholy. Void, The empty void. Ignores armor. Gravity, The power of the universe. Creation, The will of the Gods made reality. Destruction, The all consuming power of destruction. Time, A power even Gods cannot escape from. Wound Types: Negligible wound, damage received is less than 0.1. Generally tiny scrapes from general activity. Doesn¡¯t show up on combat log but is visible in the damage log. Diminutive wound, damage received is less than 1. Generally received from scratches and scrapes that draw little blood. Doesn¡¯t show up in the combat log but is visible in the damage log. Light wound, any wound received through armor that dealt less than 5 damage. Medium wound, any wound received through armor that dealt less than 10 but more than 5 damage. Heavy wound, any wound received through armor that dealt more than 10 damage. 10% chance of inflicting instant death. Flesh wound, any wound that strikes naked flesh. Inflict half damage and a bleed that deals 1 damage per minute for ten minutes or until it receives medical attention. Severe wound, any wound that strikes an internal organ. Inflicts full damage and a bleed that deals 2 damage per minute until it receives medical attention. 20% chance of dying while receiving healing. Critical wound, and wound that strikes a vital organ. Inflicts four times damage with a 20% of inflicting instant death. Inflicts a bleed that deals 1 damage per second until it receives medical attention. 40% chance of dying while receiving healing. Head wound, and attack that solidly strikes the head. Inflicts full damage and has a 60% stun chance. Cripple, lowers the functionality of a limb until it receives healing. Shatter, disables a limb until it receives healing. Inflicts Full damage and has a 20% chance of permanently crippling the limb. Severe, removes a limb permanently from the body. Inflicts full damage and a bleed that deals 1 damage per seconds until it receives medical attention. Alien species: Luudesi, a species of all females with oriental facial features and genetic markers. Effectively immortal so long as they aren¡¯t killed. Immune to poisons and illnesses. The Most advanced species in the entire Galaxy and a well known warrior species. They respect humanity for being wroth opponents and think of humans as distance cousins and share with them the respect of family members. Humanity however seems incapable of understanding most of the Luudesi¡¯s strange customs and so see them as hated enemies. The war between the two species has continued for nearly 100 years and shows no sign of ending with in the next few centuries. The Luudesi while capable of reproducing in the same was as humans prefer to convert other species into their own through conversion center. These Conversion centers strip away everything none Luudesi from a creature''s body and replaces it with a Luudesi ¡°cookie cutter¡± clone body. This body can be altered later on by the converted individual through the use of a nanite filled slurry called Veil. Luudesi converted in this way are regarded as Luudes until they have served in the Luudesi empire''s colonial military forces for 4 centuries. Only then are they granted full citizenship and allowed on Luudesi colonies and space stations. Veil is awarded to Luudesi for things such as military, civilian, scientific and production achievements. Stelkatah, an insectoid space faring species. Known for their close diplomatic relation to the Luudesi. They are also known for their respect for the Luudesi¡¯s biomechanical technology that outclasses even their own. Gulkagsra, the Gulkagsra are a neutral merchant species that are widely known across the galaxy. The Gulkagsra are known for being very snooty and condescending. Status info: PF, Physical Fortitude. It represents overall physical health and stamina. It¡¯s restored through resting, sleeping, eating and hydrating yourself. When depleted completely you die. Physical Fortitude Calculation: (Longevity*2)+(Potential/2)+(Power/2)+(Speed/2.5)+(Flexibility/1.5)+(Luck/2)+(Skill/4)+10 MF, Mental Fortitude. It represents overall mental health and concentration. It¡¯s used not only for magic but also to protect yourself from bad status effect like sleep, charm and confusion. It¡¯s restored through resting and avoiding physical activity for a time. Sleeping will restore it completely. When depleted completely you become unable to move and collapse. If conscious you remain conscious but are in a state similar to paralysis. Mental Fortitude Calculation: (Capacity*4)+(Magic*1.2)+(Mind*1.5)+Potential+Skill+(Longevity/2)+(Luck/2) Power, Speed and Flexibility are all self explanatory. Though they all have effects on physical attack and defence they do so to different degrees. They each also have unique bonus effect.Power lets you lift heavier things. Speed allows you to perceive things and move at a faster speed. Flexibility lets you move your body beyond its natural limits with greater ease. Longevity is the stat with the greatest effect on Physical Fortitude and Physical Defense. It extends how long you can run for without becoming exhausted and extends how long your character can live for by 1 year per point allocated to the stat. Capacity affects how much you can eat at once... It also has the greatest effect on Mental Fortitude and cast speed. Potential effects how quickly you can increase stats outside of leveling. Things like exercising, reading books or creating things grants bonus stat increases. It also increases the number of Ability points you receive to allocate per level. Magic and Mind both increase Magical Attack and Mental Fortitude. Magic has the greatest effect on Magical Attack while Mind has the greatest effect on Magical defence. Luck affects a large number of stats. It also increases drop rates and critical damage. Skill effects how quickly you can increase your skills levels outside of leveling and allocating Skill Points. The more you use a skill the stronger it will become. It also increased how many Skill Points you receive to allocate per level. Level increases by gathering 100 EXP, or Experience points. You gain 1 EXP if you defeat an enemy of equal or greater strength. You can also gain EXP by crafting something you haven¡¯t made before or by making more of that item at a time. You can¡¯t gain EXP by killing enemies without first gaining a Classification which represents your way of life.