《NAAO: Serpent》


 Prologue: New Age Adventure Online

    Prologue


    The Year is 2038 and the world has changed quite abit from the one we knew in the past. There were many advances in technology from new medicines to new forms of travel, but the most exciting technology was fully immersive virtual reality. This allowed people not just play games but actually experience them.


    The VR game that was the king of the hill was New Age Adventure Online also known as NAAO. NAAO was a VRMMORPG that had captivated customers worldwide. This VR was special be cause of the way it was created.


    The creators of this game did something no one could ever think of. They took scans from an exo planet that was similar to Earth but was three times larger. They took these scans and used them to program their new world. Then they created a true AI. This AI was given full reign over the world that the programmers had created. Making the world of NAAO unique.


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    Tony walked away from the advertisement screen. He had become very interested in this new game. For the last few month he had been saving his money to buy a capsule. In the beginning he really didn¡¯t have a reason for buying it but now it was his only lifeline.


    You see just a few weeks ago Tony was like any other normal college student. Well besides the fact that he was almost unable to talk due to an old childhood injury, and the fact that he  had absolutely no friends.


    Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    Then out of the blue his father had called him and told him that his mother had died. Tony didn¡¯t know these but his mother was the only reason that his father still payed for his tuition. So at the same time of hearing his mother''s death he also found out his Father had disowned him.


    You see his father was an old Army commander and had never agreed with Tony¡¯s decision to study Botany considering it something only weaklings would learn. This thought is what lead to him disowning Tony.


    So now Tony needed to get himself a pod. The reason why is pretty simple. In NAAO you can sell gold from the game for an exchange rate of 100 gold = 1.00 US dollar.This meant that Tony could play the game for a few hours and earn the  money he needed for tuition.


    ___________________________________________________________________________


    When Tony got to his apartment his pod had already been installed. He filled his fridge with the food he bought and made himself a quick meal of ramen.


    He turned the pod on and started it up without even reading the manual. When the system booted up all the way Tony heard a voice


    [Would You like to enter the world of NEW AGE ADVENTURE ONLINE?]


    ¡°...Y...es¡± Tony spoke haltingly feeling the burning pain in his throat. His vision was suddenly filled with a white light¡­..

 Chapter 1: Creation

    Chapter 1:Creation


    Tony¡¯s eyes adjusted to the light and he found himself in a small white room. It was completely barren except for the black screen attached to the wall next to him. ¡°Hello¡±a woman wearing an all black dress floated in front of Tony. She seemed to be around the same age as him. She had hair that was darker than the night and her eyes were as black as the dress she wore. Tony was taken aback by her presence she seemed more suited for going to high class parties then the starting AI for a VR game.


    ¡°Welcome to New Age Adventure Online¡±She spoke with an almost noble like air.¡±My name is Kuq¡¯seenae, and I will be assisting you in the creation of your character.¡±


    ¡°..........¡± Tony just sat there and stared at her. His mind had gone completely blank. For his whole life Tony had trouble talking to people he didn¡¯t know this problem was only compounded by the fact that the women in front of him was a beautiful women.


    ¡°A Quiet one hmm¡­. This might be interesting.¡±Kuq¡¯Seenae said smiling as she took more interest into the human standing in front of her.


    ¡°What would you like to known as in the world of NAAO?¡±she asked tony.


    ¡°...uhm¡­..ah¡­..¡±Tony still couldn¡¯t bring himself to answer the women in front of him. He worried that he might choose a terrible name and get laughed at.`why am I so worried she''s just an AI¡¯ he thought to himself. Nevertheless he still couldn¡¯t answer her.


    ¡°Hahahaha you really are interesting did you know that.¡±Kuq¡¯Seenae started to laugh uncontrollably holding onto her sides to support herself. ¡°Since you seem to be unable to think of a name for yourself why don¡¯t I think pg one for you.¡±


    Tony thinks it over for a while and shrugs his shoulders `not like she could have a worse naming sense than me¡¯


    ¡°Ok give me a second¡­¡­¡­...Oh I¡¯ve got it how about¡­.Xvaris Serpentus.¡±Kuq¡¯Seenae smiled crazily as she waited for Tony¡¯s response


    `what is this she''s worse than me at naming.¡¯ Tony thought but he still nodded his head and consented to it.


    ¡°That''s great Xvaris, now let''s move on to choosing your race. There are currently there are five different races making up this world. There are the Elves, good in bows and magic. Then there are the Orcs, brute force is their forte. Then you have the Fairies friends to nature and animals. Then you have the Dwarfs expert craftsmen and brave warriors. Finally you have the humans weakest of all the races but also the most adaptable. So which one shall it be?¡±


    Tony thought it over for a while. `well I know I don¡¯t want to be a fairy that would suck. I also don¡¯t want to be a ugly old brute with no way of learning magic so orcs are out, and there is no possible way that I would become a tree hugging sunflower so the elves are out as well. I also don''t want to be a short hairy drunk with an over sized hammer.'' As Tony was about to answer her question she interrupted him ¡°Why don¡¯t you choose humans it would probably suit you.¡±


    `well that''s convenient¡¯ Tony thought as he nodded his head to confirm it.


    ¡°That¡¯s Great no we can move on to finding out what your stats are!¡± Kuq¡¯Seenae almost shouted before catching herself and grinning evilly.


    Tony was a bet worried about how happy Kuq¡¯Seenae seemed to be at this prospect. So Tony finally decided to man up and speak ¡°How¡­.do...you¡­.figure...out ¡­.someone''s stats?¡± His voice was raw and sounded gruff. When he was younger he had injured his throat which made him sound like batman after he had inhaled razor blades.The effect seemed to have carried over when he entered the game.


    Kuq¡¯Seenae seemed a bit taken aback at his voice but soon recovered and started to explain ¡°You will have to go through a series of tests. These tests will then tell us what your stats should be. The average human will have stats of 10 just so you know.¡±


    ¡°Well are you ready to start Xvairs?¡±She asked as she pulled a clipboard out of thin air.


    Xvairs nods and follows behind her as she walks into another room connected to the white room that they had been standing in. This room was much bigger than the one they had just left. It was about the size of a gymnasium. It had a track circling the circumference of the room. In the center sat a large pillar made out of crystal. The crystal had this carved into it [00 miles]


    ¡°For the first test you are going to run around this track until I say stop or you keel over from exhaustion, do you understand.¡± Kuq¡¯Seenae asked.


    Xvaris confirmed this with a nod. ¡®I wonder if i can run for longer than in real life¡± He thought as he walked up to the track and prepared to start the test.


    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    ¡°Ready, Set, Go¡± Shouted kuq¡¯Seenae as Xvaris started to run around the track. He jogged around the track slowly at first trying to maintain a moderate pace, but pretty soon Kuq¡¯Seenae got bored and decided to goad him to run faster.


    After sprinting for a few more laps the crystal in the middle of the arena changed to display the one mile mark. Thinking it was over Xvaris was about to stop running because he felt so tired but Kuq¡¯seenae had other ideas.


    ¡°What are you doing keep going I didn''t say you could only stop when I said so¡±She shouted at the extremely tired Xvaris. She created a whip from thin air and started to chase Xvaris around


    Xvaris was chased around the track for the next four hours. When he finally collapsed from exhaustion a small window popped up.


    [New Stat Unlocked]


    [Endurance: for going beyond your own limits and then going further you have unlocked the stat]


    [endurance,it will affect how much stamina you have.]


    ¡®Well that is quiet interesting to know, so if I do something extreme I¡¯ll unlock the stat that deals with that action.¡¯ Xvaris thought to himself.


    As he was standing up Kuq¡¯Seenae floated over to him with a small green vial in her hand. ¡°Here drink this.¡± Xvaris just stared at her. ¡°Don¡¯t worry it''s just a potion to bring up your stamina.¡±


    Xvaris took the potion and chugged it down. It had an unpleasant bitter herbal taste to it that almost made him gag. He looked towards Kuq¡¯Seenae to see what torture she had for him now.


    ¡°The next test will be for strength, are you ready?¡± She asked sounding actually concerned but the mischievous glint in her eyes overshadowed any good will she tried to emit.  Xvaris shuddered a little bit thinking of what they would do to test this.


    3 hours later


    Xvaris felt like he made the wrong decision in agreeing to these tests. The strength test was pretty simple. All he had to do was hold a weight over his head. He had never been that strong but this test was easy until Kuq¡¯Seenae decided he needed more weight. In the end He was barely stopping the weight from crushing his head.


    The Dexterity test was just as bad. Actually this test seemed to be something Kuq¡¯Seenae just made up to be sadistic. The test was to see how well he could doge. To do this Kuq¡¯Seenae shot arrows at him again and again. She said he had to dodge one hundred but every time he didn¡¯t dodge an arrow Kuq¡¯Seenae set the number of arrows dodged back to zero. So he ended up dodging more arrows than he could count.


    The intelligence test was pretty simple just answering a SAT like test. The Wisdom test was similar but it asked you to evaluate different situations. They completely skipped the Charisma test since he had a hard time talking.


    He was sitting across from Kuq¡¯Seenae completely exhausted from the last few tests.


    ¡°So are you ready fro the last test?¡± Kuq¡¯Seenae asked. He looked over and slowly nodded his head. ¡°Ok but before you do please drink this.¡±She handed him a vial similar to the stamina potions that he had been using except for the fact that the liquid in it was black.


    When Xvaris drank it he noticed that it had a kind of sickly sweet taste to it. Once he downed the whole vial he looked towards Kuq¡¯Seenae to see what was going to happen next. When he looked at her she had a kind of sad smile on her face.


    ¡°Xvaris I¡¯m truly sorry for what you''re about to experience.¡±


    After she said that he felt like the blood in his veins were on fire. The pain was extremely intense, he felt as if his whole body was being ripped apart on the molecular level. Xvaris was trying to understand how this could happen. Yes, the game had real pain added in to make it more realistic but that pain was extremely limited and couldn¡¯t exceed a certain limit, but this pain was the worst head ever felt. As he blacked out he could hear Kuq¡¯Seenae say


    ¡°I really am sorry for this but this is important. Good Luck.¡±


    Then everything faded to black¡­¡­.


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    Hello, thanks for reading. If you guys have any comments or criticisms I''d love to hear them since this is the first story I''ve every wrote.

 Chapter 2: Starting out

    Chapter 2: Starting Out


    When Xvaris woke up he found himself in the middle of a town square. All around him players were bustling about along with npcs. A few people in the crowd were staring at him with curious looks on their faces. Xvaris felt uncomfortable with them staring at him not knowing why.


    Finally he heard why they were staring. Apparently instead of him appearing in the town square standing up looking confident like all the other new players. He appeared lying down rolling on the floor holding his head, and even foaming at the mouth while screaming. Then he just stopped and lay there for an hour.This had caused many people to be concerned for his mental stability. All around him he could hear people commenting on this situation.


    ¡°Hey did you see that weirdo that was screaming¡±{player 1}


    ¡°Yeah something must be wrong with him.¡±{player 2}


    ¡°He''s probably retarded or something¡±{player 3}


    Not being able to stand all the attention Xvaris quickly ran off into one of the side alleys. When he finally calmed himself down he noticed he could see a tiny screen saying announcements floating in his sight. Just by thinking about it a bunch of system announcements popped up


    [New Adventure]


    [Welcome to the world of New Age Adventure Online]


    [You received the Starter pack]


    [x10 bread added]


    [X1 old rusty dagger added]


    [x1 water jug added]


    [x5 copper coins added]


    [Blessings of Kuq¡¯Seenae Lv. 1]


    [You have been blessed by the Goddess of serpents and poison]


    [Received +5 Dex +5 poison affinity]


    [these blessing can become more powerful depending on your actions]


    [Curse of the Light Gods]


    [For receiving a blessing from a dark god the gods of light have cursed you]


    [Due to this curse holy magic will not work on you nor can you use it]


    [-10 reputation from Light temples]


    [-2 charisma]


    [This curse can become more powerful depending on your actions]


    These messages startled Xvaris a little. ¡®Since when was Kuq¡¯Seenae a goddess, and when did he receive her blessing. Wait was that what that vial was. So now I won¡¯t be able to be healed just great.¡¯


    Xvaris might be antisocial but that didn¡¯t mean he never played a video game before which means he know how important healing magic is to surviving in a game. ¡®Well I can¡¯t do much about that now I guess¡¯ he thought as he tried to figure out a way to open up his stats.


    First he tried saying stats out loud. After a few more failed attempts he remembered how he was able to open up the announcements just because he thought of it so he decided to try that method.


    ¡®Open Stats¡¯ he thought loudly in his head.


    A small window popped up


    [Stats Window]


    Name: Xvaris Serpentus


    Race: Human


    Class: N/A


    Level: 1 Exp: 0


    Hp: 100   Mp:180 Stamina: 190


    Strength: 10


    Dexterity: 14(5)


    Constitution:10


    Intelligence: 18


    Wisdom:     14


    Charisma:  10(-2)


    Endurance:   16


    Affinities


    Fire: 0


    The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.Water: 0


    Air:   0


    Earth: 0


    Holy: N/A


    Darkness:0


    Poison: 5


    Plant: 5


    When Xvaris saw his stats he thought they looked pretty good considering the fact that in  most games he played 10 was the average stat, but seriously charisma was 8 because of that damn curse.


    ¡®Who ever these Light Gods are they will pay. An eye for an eye and a Tooth for a tooth.¡¯ thought Xvaris as he walked out of the alley and started looking for a training hall or something similar to that.


    When he read his affinities he wondered when he gained the plant affinity and what it does.


    As He thought that a system announcement popped up.


    [Affinities]


    [The more affinity you have for certain elements the more powerful magic for that element is.]


    [Also you gain a % of resistance equal to your level of affinity for that element]


    As he walked around he observed the crowd of people around him trying to absorb any useful information. Even though most people were giving him a wide berth he still overheard a few useful bits of conversation.


    He found out that the town''s name is Kavar. The town is a small port on the northern shore of the Kingdom of Ravana.


    When Xvaris arrived at what seemed to be the training hall. He tried to go into the the hall without too much attention. It seemed that there was only on trainer in the town. Xvaris walked over to him.


    ¡°What do ya want.¡±asked the Trainer the with a loud drill instructors voice.


    ¡°I..have¡­...come...to ¡­.train...sir.¡±


    ¡°Oh really you want to train, even from not seeing you move I know you are a weakling. What weapon have the gods granted you?¡±


    Xvaris pulled out the old rust dagger that had appeared in his inventory. When he did the Trainer started to laugh at him.


    ¡°Hahahaha..That¡¯s your weapon, get out of my sight before I kick you out of it!¡± The Trainer had lost all pretense of friendliness when Xvaris pulled out a dagger. Not only was he a weakling but he also wielded one of the most dishonorable weapons.


    ¡®What''s his problem all¡¯ Thought Xvaris as he walked away feeling like everyone was staring at him.


    ¡°Hey did you see that guy just now?¡±{player 1}


    ¡°Yeah what do you think he did to get the instructor that mad?¡±{player 2}


    ¡°I don¡¯t know but isn¡¯t that the same guy from the town square.¡±{player 1}


    ¡°Hey you stop right there.¡± a man dressed in full plate armor walked out of the crowd of people that had been standing there watching the trainer berate a new player.


    Xvaris just looked at him. It was extremely painful for him to talk so he just kept walking ignoring the man completely.


    ¡°Hey are you a coward, to scared to even speak to me running away from me with your tail tucked between your legs.¡± The man in armor grinned when Xvaris stopped.


    ¡°So are you really brave enough to fight me or are you just foolish.¡± He smirked ¡°I Lord Froskas squire challenge you to a duel.¡±  After he spoke a window popped up.


    [Duel]


    [Justin Felight Lv. 3 has challenged you to a duel]


    [Yes/No]


    Xvaris was angry very, very angry. Call him anything you want, call him dumb, ugly, evil, or even dishonorable, but never call him a coward. He pulled out his dagger and immediately thought ¡®Yes¡¯.


    [Duel Rules]


    [You will not be punished for dying in a duel]


    [Any money on your person will be given to the winner of the duel]


    [time limit: 10:00 min]


    [5]


    [4]


    [3]


    [2]


    [1]


    When the countdown hit zero Justin charged at Xvaris¡­¡­.


    <hr />


    Thanks for reading. I will probably put out a world map with the next chapter.


    Please leave comments/Criticisms so I may improve my writing and your enjoyment of the stories. Thanks