《Book of Monsters》 Prologue - discovery Bored, I¡¯m so bored. I put down the handheld game console DGS and look at my shelves of games to play. Ah, DGS stands for Digital Gaming System. It was really popular a year ago but mainly because it¡¯s the only system that runs the series of games called capsule monsters. A game where you catch creatures in the wild then make them fight other creatures. These games always interested me. It¡¯s something about collecting every single one of something that I like. Enough about that for now, as I said at the start, I¡¯m bored. I¡¯ve collected game for the DGS and completed all of them to completion. This makes the last console in my collection complete. Every single game on every single console has been 100% completed. With this, I now have nothing else to do, hence the boredom. oh? you¡¯re wondering how I managed to find the time to complete all these games? It¡¯s simple, I don¡¯t work. Two year ago I won the lottery and used my winnings to buy shares in the Niston and now I never have to worry about money ever again. Niston is the company that made the DGS and the only game company that actually makes real games. All the other companies have moved to the shitty mobile clicker games that everyone seems to love for some reason. Though Niston hasn¡¯t released a game in a while. It¡¯s a good thing Niston does more than just games, otherwise I¡¯d be broke. Looking through my shelves of games, none of them look appealing to me anymore. I move from the shelves and decide to go out for a walk. That¡¯s something I haven¡¯t done for a while. Probably a year ago maybe? All I¡¯ve been doing is playing games. I walk down the busy snow covered street. It must be winter. What? I¡¯ve been inside all this time so how am I supposed to know what season it is? Even when I mentioned two years ago earlier, that was a guess. Soon I get to the shopping district which is packed with people rushing around, in and out of shops. What a pain, I was hoping it would be a little bit calmer. With the big Christmas tree in the centre and flashing lights everywhere, I can only assume it¡¯s close to Christmas which explains why everyone is in a mad rush. There¡¯s even one guy shouting at the top of his lungs. ¡°VGS! someone sell me a VGS! I don¡¯t care about the price, just someone sell me a VGS!¡± Hah, what an idiot, it¡¯s called a DGS. He hasn''t even got the name right. I walk straight past the screaming guy, hoping to find a less crowded space. I could give him one, I mean I got the normal version and all the special edition versions but I''m not that nice of a person. If he wants one so bad then he should at least learn the name, then I might¡¯ve given him one. As I walk through the shopping centre, there are more people shouting about a VGS. This has two possible explanations. One, everyone except me is an idiot, or two, there¡¯s something going on and I¡¯m missing out on it. Both explanations are equally as possible so I go into the closest game shop to find out. When I enter the shop, it¡¯s so packed that I can¡¯t see the counter. What a pain, I look at the shelves and there doesn¡¯t seem to be any new games out. Of course, I only look at games made by Niston but any games they make should be sent to me anyway. After a while, the counter starts to clear as people leave with disappointed looks on their faces. I walk up to the counter and ask if they have any DGS in stock. The cashier looks at me a bit oddly before telling me there¡¯s plenty in stock and asking me if I would like to buy one. This proves two things, everyone except me is an idiot and I¡¯m missing out on something. Now to find out about this VGS. ¡°what about a VGS? Got any those in stock?¡± The cashier gives me a wry smile before apologizing. ¡°I¡¯m terribly sorry but we have none in stock but we do have a DGS if you still want one. There are plenty of popular games such as Capsule Monsters and Mega Mary Sisters¡± the sly bastard, still an idiot though. This sly idiot is trying to change the conversation to the DGS in hopes I buy something. If he had a bit of brains he would have noticed that I had no interest in buying a DGS to start with. ¡°No, that¡¯s fine. The VGS¡¯ are selling fast aren¡¯t they? everyone is running around like headless chickens for them¡± How do you like that you sly idiot? Bluntness completely knocks sly people off their rhythm, and once it¡¯s gone it¡¯s difficult to get back as long as I continue to be blunt. ¡°o-oh yeah, they are the first virtual reality gaming system after all. But they are quite expensive and only have one game for it that comes with the console and even has a subscription, so it¡¯s probably better to get a DGS. You can get twenty games along with the console itself for the same price as the VGS¡± Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. w-what did he say!? virtual reality! it¡¯s actually virtual reality! But there¡¯s one problem with this. It isn¡¯t made by Niston. If it was then I would¡¯ve got delivered to me. This means that another company made it so it¡¯s will hurt the value of my shares a bit. What a pain. It¡¯s probably a crappy game and the virtual reality probably isn¡¯t very good. It isn¡¯t made by Niston after all. Guess I¡¯ll buy it online, it¡¯ll cost a bit more but money¡¯s not a problem. ¡°I see, I guess I¡¯ll look around before deciding¡± I quickly leave the shop and head home. As I leave the shop I hear the cashier sigh. Ha! serves you right for being a sly idiot. Passing through the door of my house, there¡¯s something that catches my eye. Turning towards it, I see my letter system. I had the letterbox in door removed as it looked ugly and it was a pain to go to the door every time I get a letter so I set up a box and a conveyor belt inside to take the letter into another box inside. This way I can go to the box whenever I want. Though I have been neglecting it for a while. I look at the screen by the door. It¡¯s a number of scanned items that¡¯s passed through the letter system. Let¡¯s just say that it¡¯s a big number¡­ With a sigh, I go to my letter box to sort through all the letters i got. What a pain, they¡¯re just gonna be people asking for money anyway, goddam vultures. I start opening letters and as I expected, most of them are asking for money. There were some that wasn¡¯t asking for money but they were still about money one way or another. At the bottom of the pile, there¡¯s a box. That¡¯s a bit unexpected, normally I won¡¯t get packages unless Niston released a game. I pick up the box and look at the date and the sender. Yep, it¡¯s sent by Niston but that was four months ago¡­ or five¡­ not really sure what the date is... I really neglected my letters¡­ I start to open the package but stop as something seems odd. Ah, I know there¡¯s a letter sellotaped onto the top. I take off the letter and read it. To sum it up, Niston want me to be a beta tester for their new console and game that comes out in December. Well¡­ it¡¯s a bit too late for that but there¡¯s no problem with me still playing the game. It does say that the console and game are mine to keep and the game has a lifetime subscription anyway. I finally get around to opening the actual parcel. On the box there are three big letters. VGS. Oh? Niston made the VGS? Well, this is good. It will actually be good and will give me another game to 100%. First, let¡¯s find out what type of game it is. I boot up my gaming computer and search for VGS. Turns out the name of the game is called Neverend Online, or NEO for short. There were some people on the forums trying to get NO to be the abbreviation but it got denied with a no. It was amusing watching people troll with that abbreviation. I clicked on a post titled ¡®NEO for noobs¡¯ and it gave me some basic information about the game. It¡¯s an MMORPG with a lot of freedom. It seems there are classes and subclasses but they don¡¯t limit you in other areas, instead they give boosts related to that class. The AI is so advanced that it¡¯s impossible to tell player from NPC unless you ask certain questions and quest are made according to the players actions instead of being scripted. It seems the slogan for NEO is a game with so much freedom that never ends. Hmm¡­ that make this difficult. How can I 100% a game that has no end? Guess I¡¯ll have to set up my own completion goals. I look over to my shelves of games while thinking of my completion goals. I look at one game in particular. Capsule Monsters¡­ Maybe I should tame every monster in the game? That¡¯s it! got my completion goal, now I should set some rules for this as well. First rule: Only monsters are allowed to fight, I¡¯m only allowed to heal/buff them with items or whatever. Second rule: Every monster must be leveled to max level, If there is no max level then at least what¡¯s highest level player at the moment Third rule: I¡¯m not allowed to party with other players. Only monsters I¡¯ve tamed. Yep, those rules seem quite good for my first character. Now to get into the game. chapter 1 - virtual dive After shutting off the computer, I quickly open the box to reveal what seems to be a metal helmet. So they used a helmet design. I was expecting some sort of sci-fi glasses or something but a helmet works too I guess. I pick up the helmet and inspect it for a while. Where the eyes would be, there¡¯s a visor. It make me think this is actually an augmented reality console, but whatever. There¡¯s a switch on the right side of it. This must be the power switch, pretty simple. The insides of the helmet is padded which helps a lot. I don¡¯t want to get a sore neck from playing all day. On the top of the helmet is a socket, probably used for charging There¡¯s a cord in the box, it probably goes in here.. It probably has a battery but since I won¡¯t be moving it anywhere, I may as well always keep it charging. I don¡¯t want it running out of battery after all. I put down the helmet and pick up the manual. What? of course I¡¯m gonna read the manual. I¡¯m not some sort of idiot who jumps into a game that involves the manipulation of the brain without at least reading the manual. The manual gave a pretty easy explanation of how to set it up. Just put it on, turn it on and the helmet will help you through the rest. ah, it actually had the put it on part in the manual. People are idiots after all. Though it did mention something very interesting. There¡¯s a time difference between virtual reality and reality. It seems that every five days spent in virtual reality is equivalent to one day in reality. That is some impressive technology, guess not every person is an idiot after all. After finishing the manual, I took the helmet along with the charging cord, over to my bed, plugged it in and turned it on. Before you ask, I put it on and laid down on my bed before turning it on unlike some idiot. After turning it on, the visor in front of my eyes lit up, but not bright enough to hurt my eyes but more of a blue hue over everything. In big white letters, The letters VGS appeared on the screen. Niston was always a fan of big white letters. The letters soon faded only to be replaced with a some text.
No account detected. starting tutorial system.
After a few seconds, the text vanished. I felt a slight prick in my neck. Probably the system hooking up to my brain somehow. More text appeared on the visor.
scanning, please stay still
I patiently wait for the scanning to finish which takes about five minutes. It was a long, boring five minutes but it probably only has to be done once so it¡¯s fine. The scanning text fades away to be replaced by more text but this time, it¡¯s giving me instructions.
to access virtual reality say the keywords ¡®virtual dive¡¯
Finally! into the virtual world I go! ¡°virtual dive¡± A small white spot appears in my the center of my vision. What this supposed to be? no flashy fireworks? no grassy fields? just a dot? The dot starts to expand until it covers my entire vision. As it does, I realize I no longer feel the fluffy softness of my bed and there¡¯s a solid feeling on my feet. This must be virtual reality.
You are now in virtual reality. please proceed to create your account To create your account, please say ¡®create account¡¯
¡°w-wha¡± fuck! it didn¡¯t scare me and I didn¡¯t yelp. In front of is a flat semi-transparent screen with black words written on it. I try to touch but my hand just goes through it. There wasn¡¯t any feeling to it. strange, it¡¯s like a hologram. no, it is a hologram. I wasted enough time here already. ¡°create account¡± the words on the screen start to move as if they are alive, it¡¯s kinda creepy. The words move into the center of the screen to form a black dot. before reforming into a completely new sentence.
please state your name* this is your real name, not username
This must be for the subscription. ¡°Marcus Joles¡± The word once again form into a black dot before reforming into a sentence. It¡¯s gonna do that every time...
your name is ¡®Marcus Joles¡¯ correct?
It didn¡¯t give me a keyword this time so I¡¯ll just assume it¡¯s a yes or no answer. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. ¡°yes¡±
You now have a free account. You will be able to access your own virtual space and use the free decorations. More decorations can be bought at the shop. To do this say the keywords ¡®open shop¡¯. You will not be able to access Neverend Online with a free account Would you like to subscribe for a premium account?
As money-grubbing as usual. But some of the money comes back to me so I guess it¡¯s fine. ¡°yes¡±
please state your Niston bank details. If you have a voucher then please state ¡®enter voucher¡¯
The lifetime subscription came as a voucher so naturally I will enter the voucher. ¡°enter voucher¡±
please state voucher code
¡°VXY68U4G83RB¡± How I managed to remember the voucher code you ask? It¡¯s simple, only an idiot can¡¯t remember a twelve character long code.
voucher code accepted. You now have an unlimited subscription. Restrictions on the size of your virtual space has been lifted Neverend Online can now be accessed
Good, it¡¯s about time I get around to actually playing the game. As the screen in front of me disappears a wooden door appears in front of me. On the door, written in golden letters is Neverend Online. Before I go into the game, I open the shop interface and buy a pre-set theme along with some clothes. The white background was getting annoying and It was getting a bit uncomfortable to be naked all the time. The virtual space starts to glow before warping into a well furnished living room. The room isn¡¯t that big but that¡¯s because I don¡¯t really care for this room. I guess it¡¯s good to rest or do work in due to the time difference but that¡¯s it. I go to the wardrobe in the corner and take out a basic t-shirt and jeans. I dress myself as quickly as I can and head towards the door with golden letters. I open the door and step through into¡­ a white room¡­ I¡¯m sick of white rooms! As I was about to yell my disgust of white rooms, a girl falls from the sky, if you could call it that, and gently lands in front of me. The girl in question has long blonde hair, blue eyes and a HUGE rack. Not bad I guess. Her face is pretty average, more on the beautiful side than the ugly side of average which is a plus. I¡¯ll give her a six. She picks up her head, looks me in the eyes as if judging and begins to speak. ¡°welcome traveller, I am your guide in transitioning your soul onto the other side¡± So that¡¯s the roleplay reason for character creation. I guess it had to be something but that¡¯s quite a bit of roleplay for so early in the game. ¡°traveller, what gender would you like?¡± She said this with a bland voice as if reading from a script while looking away and scratching her head. that tone of voice¡­ She¡¯s not very interested in this, is she? That¡¯s a big change from her first sentence. What a pain, well, I don¡¯t really care, let¡¯s just get this over with. ¡°male¡± ¡°name?¡± ¡°Noah¡± The reasoning behind my naming choice is quite simple. So simple in fact, I think even an idiot would be able pick up on the fact that what Noah from the bible achieved and what I will achieve is the same thing. Though I guess the only difference is that I only need to collect one of every animal while he had to collect two. ¡°race?¡± This bugged me for a while, there were many races to choose from but for what I want, there wasn¡¯t a race that gave a good advantage. For example, an elf would naturally be able to tame forest creatures easier due to their affinity with nature. This would be good normally, but I am aiming to tame every monster. That includes the undead and demons. Thus I decided to go for the most neutral race possible. ¡°human¡± ¡°any changes?¡± ¡°no¡± There¡¯s no point, I already wasted a lot of time, I just want to play already! ¡°starting town?¡± ¡°Restal¡± According to the forums, there isn¡¯t any difference in the starting towns so I just randomly chose. ¡°get going¡± as she said this, light start to envelop me and my vision goes white. Just before I am transferred I hear a small whisper. It¡¯s hard to work out but it sounds like it¡¯s saying something about not only a six. God knows what that means. chapter 2 - first monster When my vision came back, the first thing I do is open my menu. I first look at my inventory. All that¡¯s there is two gold. The money system is quite simple. The lowest coin is copper, a 100 copper makes one silver, 100 silver makes one gold and 1,000 gold makes one platinum. So right now, I have the equivalent of 200 silver or 2,000 copper. This may seem like much to start with but the fact that you start with no equipment except for a few rags, it makes sense. Next I open my character stats
NameNoahFame0
RaceHumanLevel1
ClassnoneSubclassnone
Titlenone
Health100/100Stamina100/100
Mana100/100
Strength10Agility10
Intelligence10Wisdom10
Dexterity10Vitality10
Luck10
Everything seems pretty basic and self-explanatory. Now onto the skills.
Skills
Absolutely nothing, great. Guess I¡¯ll first have to learn how to tame monsters. Also I need to pick up a monster encyclopedia. That way I¡¯ll be able to see my progress. I close the skill list and see properly look at the town for the first time. It¡¯s a proper bustling medieval city. In front of me is a giant stone statue of some guy. Upon reading the plaque, it seems he was a hero that rescued the princess after slaying a dragon. God that¡¯s clique. I decide to walk up to the nearest guard and ask for directions. ¡°do you know the way to the library? The guard looks at me oddly before replying. ¡°behind you¡± I turn around, and past the statue is a large white building with a giant sign saying library on it. How did I manage to miss that?... the statue¡­ yep, definitely the status fault for being in the way. I turn back to the guard and say with the most serious face I got. ¡°good, I wanted to make sure you wasn¡¯t shirking your duties and you passed with flying colours. Until next time¡± I quickly turn around and walk towards the library before the confused guard realises what just happened. I enter the library and walk straight to the small old woman sitting at the counter. ¡°excuse me, do you have any books on taming and support magic? oh, and a monster encyclopedia¡± I mentioned the taming and monster encyclopedia before but the support magic is something I thought of on the spot. Think about it, any monster I tame will be extremely weak and will probably need me to fight alongside it just so that it can win. So if I can buff it then it would at least be able to win a one on one fight without much difficulty. the old lady looks up at me with dull eyes and replies with a croaky voice. ¡°We do have books about taming but I won¡¯t recommend it, young soul traveller¡± won¡¯t recommend taming? has taming been nerfed or something? ¡°may I ask why?¡± ¡°it¡¯s quite simple. As you soul travellers tend to vanish from this world for unknown times, it is possible that anything you tame would die of hunger while you are away¡± what a bullshit gimmick. well, it doesn¡¯t really concern me that much since I¡¯m gonna be on here except for sleeping and eating. ¡°I still wish to learn taming¡± The old lady¡¯s eyes glisten a bit when she heard me say that but that could be my imagination. ¡°very well, but there is one more problem¡± another one!? how nerfed is this god damn skill! Even though i¡¯m raging inside, I keep my poker face on. ¡°and that is?¡± ¡°there¡¯s no such thing as a monster encyclopedia. There are encyclopedias for herbs and ores, but not for monsters¡± w-wait¡­ what did she say? there¡¯s no monster encyclopedia? ¡°w-what! what do you mean there¡¯s no such thing as a monster encyclopedia!? how the hell do people survive against monsters if there¡¯s no information on them!? And even if they do have knowledge on them, there¡¯s no point unless that knowledge is passed down! ya¡¯know what! I¡¯m gonna make my own monster encyclopedia! if the idiots of this world are too stupid to learn about the monsters they could die to then I¡¯ll make it for them! haa, haa¡± The blood finally stops rushing to my head and I finally realised what I¡¯ve done. Oh god, Not only did I yell in a library but I yelled at the librarian herself! I¡¯m so doomed. I¡¯m definitely gonna get banned. I look at the librarian in front of me clearing her throat and gulp. ¡°first things first, NO YELLING IN THE LIBRARY¡± ¡°I¡¯M SORRY!¡± ¡°well, as long as you¡¯re sorry. Now on to the second thing. Once you finished that monster encyclopedia, will you bring it here to be published in this library? I¡¯ll even supply you with a notebook and writing equipment for free¡±
Quest: A librarian''s request
You have impressed the librarian with you proclamation to make a monster encyclopedia. She wants you to bring her the finished encyclopedia to get published Difficulty:SSS+ Rewards: writing equipment(upon accepting) publishment of your encyclopedia ??? Failure: Banned from library
Holy shit! a triple S rank difficulty! There¡¯s even a plus! So far, the highest difficulty someone has got was C! But this quest is way too difficult for a level one who just joined the game so my choice is obvious. ¡°I accept!¡± The old woman¡¯s eyes start glittering intently. ¡°good, very good. AND NO SHOUTING IN MY LIBRARY!¡± ¡°I¡¯M SORRY!¡± After talking to the Librarian I go read books on taming and support magic. Taming is a bit easier than I thought it would be though I even learned the skill from reading the book. I even gained a point in wisdom from it. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
Taming[lvl1]
You have learnt the way of bending a monster to your will 1% chance of taming a level 1 monster cost:50 mana
I thought I would have to spend a lot of time getting monster used to me and the monster will naturally be tamed over time but you only have to pass your magic thought the monster and it will have a chance to tame. The only problem is that the chance is stupidly low and you have to be touching the monster in order to tame so taming strong monsters such as dragons i will probably die¡­ a lot. After learning the taming skill I move onto the support magic. Support magic works as you would expect. It boosts a certain stat for a certain amount of time. there is a range limit though so I can¡¯t stay far away from my monsters. For now I only learned the magic for increasing defence as the book are big¡­ really big. They are interesting to read but not enough to sit here all day reading them.
Support magic:defence[lvl1]
You have learnt the way of imbuing your mana into someone to increase their defence 1% increase to defense for 10 seconds on one target within 2 metres cost:5 mana
The cost is low but the increase is almost nonexistent. i will have to spam this skill like mad if i want it to be useful. I get up to leave but something catches my eye, it¡¯s a book. A book about summoning to be precise. I don¡¯t plan to be a summoner as the type and level of the summon is directly related to the skill so it¡¯s technically not tamed, but if I want to get an elemental then I¡¯ll have to summon it. With this mindset, I pick up the summoning book and start reading through it. From what I understand from this book is that when summoning an elemental, a temporary contract is created between you and the elemental, and the contract is canceled when the elemental is unsummoned. This is how you can get a stronger summon as your skill level increases. I managed to get the summoning magic: fire elemental skill from this is useless to me the way it is now. I need to summon an uncontracted elemental so that I can tame it. What a pain, though it shouldn¡¯t be too much of a problem for a genius for me. I look down at the book and get ready to discover the secret of manually summoning¡­ screw it, I¡¯ll do it later. I put down the book and leave to tame some monsters. Outside the city there are many player slaughtering innocent rabbits. How dare they do such despicable thing! These monsters are all candidates to become my first monster. How dare they kill my candidates! I walk over to a rabbit. As soon as the rabbit sees me, it legs it. In a panic, I jump at the rabbit and activate my taming skill. I go flying through the air towards the rabbit only to crash, I mean gracefully land on the ground¡­ face first¡­. ¡°damn rabbit!¡± I leap after the rabbit again and again to no end. I just can¡¯t seem to catch the fast little fucks. I hear an irritating laughter coming from behind me. When I look, some players are pointing and laughing at my attempt to tame a rabbit. ¡°hahahaha, that¡¯s hilarious! he¡¯s still trying to kill a rabbit on his own¡± ¡°hahaha, come on, give him a break. We were the same haha¡± ¡°true hahaha, but we gave up after the first time and teamed up on them. And even then, we at east had some weapons, hahaha. This guy just doesn¡¯t learn, hahahaha. Is he an idiot or something? hahahaha¡± How dare they insult the genius that is me! Idiots like them can¡¯t even grasp that I¡¯m trying to tame the rabbit, not kill it. idiots like them are gonna end up in this field hunting rabbits for the rest of their lives. I get up off the ground and once again jump at the rabbit. ¡°ahhhhh!¡±
You have successfully tamed a ¡®fly¡¯
¡°Yes! I finally did it I finally managed to tame a ra- fly?!¡±
please name your fly
Ok? my first monster is a fly¡­ I guess this could work? ¡°hahaha! first monster of mine! I shall call thee ¡®Buzz¡¯!¡± Buzz starts flying around me happily, seems he likes his new name I wave out my hand towards a rabbit and command Buzz ¡°Now go my tiny minion! Bring terror down upon this rabbit!¡± Buzz gets serious and charges towards the fierce battle between him and the rabbit. Buzz gets in the first attack and bombs at the rabbit. But! the rabbit easily deflects the blow! Buzz gets ready for another dive bomb at the rabbit! he¡¯s gaining speed! this is gonna be a perilous attack! But the rabbit deflects the blow again! it¡¯s like the rabbit isn¡¯t even feeling it. But Buzz isn¡¯t giving up yet! He send dive bomb after dive bomb after dive¡­ bomb¡­ ok¡­ this if going nowhere¡­ let¡¯s check Buzz¡¯s stats.
NameBuzzFame0
RaceFlyLevel1
TitlenoneGenderMale
Health1/1Stamina1/1
Mana1/1Age30 days
Strength0.1Agility0.1
Intelligence0.1Wisdom0.1
Dexterity0.1Vitality0.1
Luck0.1
¡°Oh god! those stats are terrible!¡± I quickly close the menu and call for a retreat. ¡°Buzz! come back, you¡¯re no match for him yet!¡± Buzz leaves the rabbit alone and lands on my shoulder. I sprint from the field back to the city but not before giving the last word to the rabbit. ¡°Damn rabbit! You haven¡¯t seen the last of the great Noah and his minion Buzz!¡± chapter 3 - buzzing around Back in town I sit down on a bench and get out the notebook and the ink and quill. I got to document my find even if it¡¯s just a shitty fly. I write down a basic description of the fly along with what it¡¯s stats are at level one. I open the skills tab to see what kind of skills a fly has got, if any.
Skills
¡°as expected. No skills¡± After jolting that down, I pull out a pencil from my inventory and start sketching the fly. I¡¯m quite a good drawer if I do say so myself, especially since I was an artist before I became filthy rich. The finishing product is quite good. With this, the fear of death by flies will definitely decrease!
you have learnt illustration[lvl1]
+1 dexterity
that¡¯s useful. The skill is shit since I can already draw but the dexterity is worth it. Now I have two options. First option, try to tame something else and let the exp share level Buzz up. Second option, somehow stick out with buzz somehow maybe attack other flies or something. "let''s go. Buzz" Buzz starts flapping his wings and flies over to me. Hmm? he''s dropping every now and then. Ah, he fell. *Ding*
Buzz has died of old age
what? Buzz died? I fall to my knees and yell to the heavens. ¡°nooooooo! Buuuuuuuuuzzzzz! You were so young!¡± Oh, well, I¡¯ll just tame another one. I quickly get up and head into the alleyways of the city. If flies can die of old age then it would be better to find a maggot. That way, there¡¯s more time for them to live and maybe actually level up. Soon I find rat rotting in the corner with a load of flies around it. Inside the decomposing corpse of the rat, there are maggots wriggling around. It¡¯s a bit disgusting but there¡¯s only one way to tame a maggot. I stick my hand into the rat and grabbed hold of a maggot and tamed it.
You have successfully tamed a ¡®maggot¡¯
please name your maggot
It worked the first time. Probably because i¡¯m taming a maggot of all things ¡°In honour of Buzz, I shall name thee Buzz-B!¡± I look at it¡¯s stats and I¡¯m not surprised but I¡¯m still disappointed
NameBuzz-BFame0
RaceMaggotLevel1
TitlenoneGenderMale
Health0.1/0.1Stamina0.1/0.1
Mana0.1/0.1Age0 days
Strength0.01Agility0.01
Intelligence0.01Wisdom0.01
Dexterity0.01Vitality0.01
Luck0.01
All of it¡¯s stats are low beyond low! and I thought you couldn¡¯t get any worse that Buzz. Looking at these stats, Buzz might¡¯ve been the mightiest warrior among the flies. I set the exp share so that Buzz-B gets all the exp. Now to actually get some exp. ¡°Now Buzz-B! devour your fellow brethren and let them become your strength!¡± Buzz-B wriggles its way towards a maggot and chomp! He devours the other maggot. ¡°hahaha! Well done Buzz-B, now keep going! Don¡¯t let a single maggot escape your grasp!¡± After the tenth maggot Buzz-B finally leveled up! Now, let¡¯s check those stats!
NameBuzz-BFame0
RaceMaggotLevel2
TitlenoneGenderMale
Health0.2/0.2Stamina0.2/0.2
Mana0.2/0.2Age0 days
Strength0.02Agility0.02
Intelligence0.02Wisdom0.02
Dexterity0.02Vitality0.02
Luck0.02
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.Well¡­ this is gonna take a while, what a pain¡­ No matter! I shall make Buzz-B the strongest maggot in the world even if it takes years! ¡°Buzz-B! you have become twice as strong as you was before! now show those lowly maggots the extent of your power!¡± Buzz-B kept devouring maggot after maggot until there wasn¡¯t a maggot left in this corpse. It took around half an hour and Buzz-B is level 10 now. I discovered one thing, for each level, Buzz-B gains 0.01 in each stat point. Right now, his stats are equal to Buzz. Oh! I forgot to document Buzz-B. I get out my tool and give a basic description along with an illustration and the stats thing¡­ This stat thing is a pain, it¡¯s gonna take till level 100 just for Buzz-B to have 1 stat point¡­ More grinding it is! I pick up Buzz-B and search for another corpse which I find very easily. there seems to be quite a few dead rats and birds in these alleyways, along with beggars who are looking at me oddly for some reason. I bet they¡¯re just admiring my genius and don¡¯t know how to approach me, that¡¯s definitely it. Anyway, after moving to the next corpse, I get Buzz-B to devour all of them but he only managed to level up once.This is gonna take longer than I thought, what a pain. I spend the next few game days hunting down maggots and now Buzz-B is level 27 so all its stats are 0.27. I pick Buzz-B out of the what used to be a maggot infested corpse and start heading towards our next victims. *ding*
Buzz-B has begun metamorphosis
I look down at Buzz-B in my hand and he has turned completely black and his skin? has hardened. I call out to him and even poke him but there¡¯s no response. What a pain, what am I supposed to until he finishes? Guess I¡¯ll tame a rat or something. I search the alleyways and soon find a rat that is neither rotting or being eaten by a beggar. I lower myself in hopes the rat doesn¡¯t see me, which it doesn¡¯t with my epic sneaking skills. I slowly start moving towards the rat. I get closer and closer until all I have to do is stretch out my arm and I¡¯ll be touching it. I shoot out my hand and activate taming. The rat sidesteps and my hand hits the air. Damn rat! how dare you dodge my hand! To think you would refuse to receive my mana. You should be begging to be my minion. I dive after the rat again but only for the rat to dodge again¡­ Damn, I¡¯m out of mana now, You win today rat, but there will be a time when I¡¯ll tame you! I walk out of the alleyway and head to the library. If I have to wait then I¡¯ll just spend the time trying working on my summoning. I could tame another maggot but I only need one maggot. I go into the library and grab any and every book about summoning. I spend the rest of the day reading through the books and gain the skills for summoning water elementals and earth elementals but still nothing about how to summon without a contract. Guess I¡¯ll log off for the no and get some food I log off and make some food. I¡¯m starving, I must have been in the game for the whole day. As I¡¯m eating, I look out the window and the sun is coming up. Yep, I spent all day and night in the game¡­ God i¡¯m tired. the fatigue of playing games nonstop always hit only when I realise how long I¡¯ve been playing. An odd thing isn¡¯t it? I finish my meal and log back into the VGS. In the virtual space, I pull up the shop and buy a bed. It may sound unsafe to sleep in-game but it turns out it¡¯s fine as long as you¡¯re not only using it for sleep. If so then the body won¡¯t have enough rest and break down. But because I¡¯m playing the game all day, my body is in a state of rest nearly all day so I only need to rest my mind. With this, I¡¯m gonna sleep. chapter 4 - the summoned one After waking up, I go through the Neverend Online door and huh? it¡¯s white, it¡¯s the white room again. Did my character get deleted? but I didn¡¯t do anything against the rules so there must be a reason for this. From above, the woman from before falls down and once again gracefully lands as if she was a feather. And as before, she starts speaking. ¡°Welcome back, traveller oh? it¡¯s you¡± That last part was spoken very bland. does she hate me or something? She must be jealous of my genius. ¡°so?¡± ¡°what?¡± what does she want from me? I can¡¯t give you my genius if that¡¯s what you¡¯re asking. ¡°Haa, what do you want?¡± Hey! what¡¯s with that sigh? No matter how much of a genius I am, I can¡¯t read minds¡­ yet. ¡°I want to play the game¡± She takes another heavy sigh. God, this woman¡¯s annoying. ¡°I know that, I¡¯m asking if you want to make a new character, play as an existing character or delete a character¡± Then why didn¡¯t she say that from the start! ¡°I¡¯m gonna delete my character after spending an entire day, whaddya think? I want to play as Noah¡± Oh? She¡¯s gone red. Hah, that¡¯s what happens when you make an idiot out of me. ¡°How am I supposed to know what a level 1 noob who spends all his time killing maggots is thinking!¡± ah, she got angry. Her angry face is quite cute, I think I¡¯m gonna do this more often. ¡°Hey, Buzz-B is level 27 after my efforts and is even going through metamorphosis¡± Hmm? Her face turns into that of a condescending one. ¡°You mean that maggot? hahahaha! it¡¯s a maggot! a maggot ya¡¯know?¡± She¡¯s actually laughing at all my hard work! ¡°For starters, he¡¯s gonna be a fly soon, and he¡¯s the strongest maggot to ever exist! No maggot is a match for my Buzz-B!¡± How¡¯s that? Nothing can match Buzz-B when it comes to maggots, he could probably take on a fly if ya know, they couldn¡¯t fly. ¡°Hahahaha, that¡¯s true, no one has been stupid enough to try and raise a maggot! Hahahaha¡± It seems she truly doesn¡¯t understand. ¡°You got something wrong there, no one has been genius enough to try and raise a maggot¡± If she still doesn¡¯t understand it then there¡¯s no hope for her. ¡°Hahahaha, that¡¯s enough! no more! you¡¯re killing me! Hahaha¡± so it was too complicated for her. ¡°few, finally. ha, calmed down. You wanted to play as Noah right?¡± Oh? I¡¯m surprised she remembered. ¡°yeah, gotta make the strongest maggot into the strongest fly after all¡± ¡°Hahahaha, I said no more! Hahahaha, just go! hahaha!¡± As before, a light envelops me and I¡¯m back in the library. Wait a minute, how did she know what I¡¯ve been doing? Guess I¡¯ll tease her about that next time. I check up on Buzz-B and yep, still in metamorphosis. He doesn¡¯t need to eat in metamorphosis so that¡¯s one good thing about this. I go back to the summoning books and start reading the ones I haven¡¯t read yet. A lot of them is about theory which is what I really need so I pay extra attention to them. A few hours later and I manage to get the air element summoning skill as well. I now have all four elemental summoning skills. I¡¯m never actually gonna use them but they have bumped my wisdom up to 16. Now I can use taming three times and have mana left for a support spell or two. Now back to the books. Most of them are theories about the reason why the elementals answer the summonings in the first place. I have learnt a few things that help though. Elementals only exist as long as you are supplying mana to them as they have no real body within the physical realm so use the summoner''s mana to create it. This creates the sustained effect seen in some games where your max mana is reduced until they are unsummoned. If so then I need something as a catalyst for their body other than my mana. Turns out that I need to alter the contract instead of removing it. I continue reading through the books and the book I¡¯m currently reading is interesting. It¡¯s called ¡®the history of summoning¡¯. It seems in the past, summoners used to have to go through summoning rituals. A circle with the contract written in ancient magic language was drawn based on what you would want to summon. Over the years, the ritual was made simpler and simpler till it wasn¡¯t needed at all. Which is the type of summoning magic I have learned. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. I know what I need to do now. I have to learn magic language and modify the contract on the ritual circle. I got up and ask the old librarian for books on magic language in which she happily gives me a mountain of books¡­ great, more books. After a few days I finally manage to finish the last book!
You have gained the title ¡®Magically fluent¡¯
Oh? a title? let¡¯s check it out.
Magically fluent
Through your dedication, you have learned the language of magic to the point that you are fluent in it. +2 intelligence +2 wisdom
hahaha, I only had to read every book once and I¡¯m already fluent in the language! if this doesn¡¯t prove my genius then I don¡¯t know what will. Now I need to modify the ritual and I¡¯m good to go. I leave the library and head towards the alleyways once again. I grab one of the rotting rat corpses and put it in my inventory. If they can manifest a body with mana then flesh will be even better right? I pull out a sheet of paper which was provided to me by the librarian and start drawing a ritual circle with the contract to summon a fire elemental changed to take the flesh on top of the circle while leaving out the part about it being bound to me. In short, the summoned elemental will completely free to do what it wants. I lay the paper down on the floor and put the rotting corpse on top. I touch the edge of the paper as so not to sacrifice my own fingers to the elemental and start pushing mana into the paper to activate the magic circle. The magic circle starts to glow light blue and the corpse starts to glow as well. Soon the glow is so intense that the corpse can¡¯t even be seen. A few seconds pass and the glowing dies down and all that¡¯s left is a small candle flame in its place. Not even the paper remained.
you have learnt ritual magic[lvl1]
+ 1 wisdom
you have successfully summoned a ¡®minor flame spirit¡¯
Ritual ¡®summon flame spirit¡¯ has been registered
It worked! it actually worked! I knew a genius like myself won¡¯t fail at something so simple as this. I look at my newly summoned flame spirit with joy. I starts flying around as if inspecting its surroundings. I better go and tame it. I go up to it and touch it. -1hp ¡°ah, it burnt me¡± Now¡¯s not the time, tame it now!
you don¡¯t have enough mana
eh? not enough mana? but I had full mana. How much did that ritual take? I take a look at the bar in the corner of my vision and it¡¯s empty¡­ ¡°It took all of it! you greedy little bastard! wait a minute while I get my mana back and then I¡¯ll tame you¡± I sit down and watch the small fire spirit floating around and inspect everything. The fire spirit starts to calm down before floating upwards. ¡°ah¡± I stand up and try to catch it. -1hp The fire spirit continues to float up until it vanishes into the distance¡­ It got away¡­ ¡°Nooooooooooo!¡±