《Dragon's Roar》


 World Building

    AN: Guys this is my first time writing anything and i''m looking for feedback on my work. Critics are most welcome and i will improve my writing as i move forward


    The year is 2250. The world¡¯s technology has grown in leaps and bounds since the genetic revolution in 2080. On the day of 21st September 2080 scientists successfully decoded the DNA of a rat.


    Now this may not seem as a major development but this was the successful first step in actual DNA Engineering.


    Taking the data obtained by the rat¡¯s DNA the scientists kept moving onto higher life forms and decoding their DNA until finally on 12th November 2090 the human DNA was successfully decoded.


    This led to the emergence of DNA computing/bio computing. The generation where ssd and hdd were used to store data and processors made of silicon came to an end. People started using bio memory chips and bio processors, which were the result of combining DNA engineering with electronics and computer science.


    Supercomputers were reduced to the size of a cell phone and communication became almost instantaneous at 1Tb/s.


    Here is a fact that was not fully understood until that point in time. Only 20% of a human¡¯s DNA is unique to humans.


    The rest of 80% has many DNA fragments that are in common with other life forms, like the chimpanzee. In other words keeping the core 20% of DNA intact and altering the remaining 80% will still be in the homo genus. This led to people loosening their morals and start experimenting on humans.


    Sadly it produced more disasters than good results. Thus DNA tampering of more than 30% became illegal.


    So for the next 70~80 years research went on in enhancing humans. Thus every person now had enhanced vision, strength, and mind.


    This became the norm. Some genius figured out the gene that let people interact with electronics like their own limbs. This created a new avenue for military first for exoskeletons and completely integrated prosthetics for the disabled/amputees. Then came augmented reality.


    This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.


    Through years of painful research and experiments, a device that embeds into the spinal cord and connects to the brain via the medulla oblongata was released.


    All the world governments bought the rights to this device and named it ¡°ALTOR¡± Latin for protector since it provided protection from bio-hacking, a danger of the genetic revolution; then released it to the public and made it mandatory.


    Since then came the age of ¡®Advanced¡¯. Every person from the age of 10 had the altor and this made all money paperless.


    No more use of projectors or cinema halls since everything was directly sent to the visual centers of the brain directly and overlaying with what the person was seeing thus making for an effective augmented reality. No more cell phones too since that was also included in the altor.


    As for game systems, well, virtual reality being no more a dream the pro gamers all joined together to form a corporation later known as GENESIS CORP and developed a virtual reality device named HIVE and released it to the public.


    This connected with the altor and had its own bio memory and processors that made it have computing power several times that of a supercomputer of old times. It worked by intercepting all the active brain waves from reaching the body, instead allowing it to interact with the virtual body.


    Thus the person loses control of his body and instead starts controlling his virtual body or ¡®avatar¡¯.


    They used the funds from the HIVE¡¯s sale to create an AI began to develop a game for 10 years. It was a virtual reality massively multiplayer role playing game (VMMORPG).This is the day that the game will be released, ¡°DRAGON¡¯s ROAR¡±.

 Chapter 1 Logan

    It was the 31st of March and the last day of college for the term. Logan Miles and everyone in class were waiting for the teacher to finish up. Everyone¡¯s thoughts were the same at this moment ¡°Damn it! This is the last day and the geezer is still not cutting us slack¡±.


    The teacher was busy giving out assignments to the students to be completed during their holidays. Everyone was very excited to leave and return home so that they could be the first to play the new virtual reality game ¡°DRAGON¡¯S ROAR¡±. The game had been publicized a lot as a new world that gave people experience of a fantasy world with monsters, magic, and dragons! As well as sci-fi technology with plasma rifles etc.


    The notification for the end of class rang and Logan exited the school and ran to the back of his college campus and free ran his way home. Logan was 21 years old and currently in his final year of completing his DNA engineering course. He lived by himself in a rented apartment. He was staying in New York and alone because his parents lived in California. Logan reached his house and went to shower immediately since he still had some time before the game launch. Coming out the shower he looked at himself in the full length mirror beside his bed. He was 6¡¯2¡¯¡¯ and had a lean physique. He was fair and his looks were above average though not enough to have girls flirting with him. He had a tight knit group of 3 friends whom he knew since childhood. They had different interests than him but still were best friends with him. What attracted them to him was his modest attitude and quiet nature. He had a no-nonsense attitude and was very straightforward. His only interests were DNA Engineering and Martial Arts.


    He had been trained in martial arts since 10 years old. A Japanese by the name of Kirito Hakate was a close friend of his father Robert Miles. Apparently they had become close friends when Robert stayed in japan for his research. Robert was a DNA engineer of much renown. He and his wife Lucy Miles were part of GENESIS CORP that was releasing the game today. Kirito had stayed with Logan¡¯s family since he could remember and helped in taking care of Logan since both his parents were busy people. Logan thought of kirito as his uncle.


    Kirito had begun teaching Logan Kung-Fu with the usage of Ki/Chi when he saw Logan taking an interest in his training. Before the genetic revolution humans could not make use of Ki but since then genetic modifications have made it possible for people to make use of this energy with arduous training. But not everyone could use Ki, people must have an aptitude for it and the training for it was very harsh and took too long. So people opted for the easier way that is genetic enhancement. This was expensive as well as had a few side effects like affecting the person¡¯s personality and emotions. Still people opted for this because it was easier and the art of Ki utilization was forgotten by the masses.


    Kirito was one of the handful of people who still trained in Ki and had reached very close to the pinnacle. He was very pleased to see that Logan was a natural in Ki manipulation and proceeded to drill into him whatever he knew.


    Just then his mother called him


    ¡°Hi Mom¡±


    Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.¡°Hello Logan how was your last day of term?¡±


    ¡°It was boring! And the teacher kept going on and on about assignments for the holiday.¡±


    ¡°Well son don¡¯t forget to do your assignments before the last day kay?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll see mom. How¡¯s dad doing? And any news about uncle?¡±


    ¡°Your dad¡¯s doing just fine. As for Kirito we still have no news, wonder where he went off to suddenly¡±


    ¡°Maybe he went off to do secluded training to breakthrough to the last level in his Ki¡±


    ¡°Only he knows where he went. Anyway forget about that are you excited to play DR? (Dragon¡¯s Roar)¡±


    ¡°Eh I don¡¯t know mom, I¡¯ve never played games before so I don¡¯t know how it¡¯ll be¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it, Just relax and play the game, I know that you¡¯ll enjoy it. But don¡¯t forget to stop playing and take care of yourself in real life ok?¡±


    ¡°Sure mom, I¡¯ll do that. I¡¯ll call you after I logout from the first session OK? Love you Mom! And tell dad too that I love him¡±


    ¡°Ok love you too and happy gaming!¡±


    The time was 3 in the afternoon. Logan put on his pajamas since he figured that he wouldn¡¯t be going anywhere soon and laid down on the device that looked like a recliner chair and proceeded to connect his altor with HIVE. He felt like falling asleep and entered the White Room. The White Room was a virtual room created within the VR device that had access to all his programs as well as the internet. It also compressed time in a 1:5 ratio. This means 1 minute in real life was 5 minutes here. This was feasible here since perception of time just depended on the person¡¯s mental speed. Since the HIVE accessed just the mind, it could alter the person¡¯s mental speed and give more time, like overclocking the brain. People came here to either study or enjoy themselves in the myriad of programs already released for the device.


    He selected the icon for DR program that he already installed beforehand and saw the countdown timer still had 1 min left for the start. He felt a gut wrenching feeling as if he was being teleported as the timer reached 0.

 Chapter 2 Character creation

    Logan opened his eyes and found himself floating in space. He was surrounded by stars and planets. He could make out a few constellations here and there.


    ¡°Oh my god! This is freaking awesome! This feeling of weightlessness is exactly similar to the real world! And these rendering of space is so beautiful!¡±


    Just then a grey box appeared in his vision accompanied by a notification sound.


    [Congratulations player for being the 1st person to start the game! Please choose your reward from the list]


    ¡°I didn¡¯t know that there was a reward for entering the game early! Must be why the others were in such a hurry. Wonder how I got the first place? Ah now I remember, last time dad came he said that he upgraded my house¡¯s communication link. That must have affected my login speed. Cool! So let¡¯s check out the rewards¡±


    [


    1:10 extra status points that have to be assigned at the beginning.


    2: A choice of weapon in the beginning. (This can only be used later in the game)


    3: Access to some locked races during character creation


    ]


    ¡°Hmm which one should I choose? I heard that gaining status points during the initial status is easy as compared to later. So choosing the stat points is not wise. As for a weapon, well I plan to use my kung-fu to fight so I doubt that I¡¯ll need a weapon. Might as well go for the locked races. There was no information about this on the internet and mom & dad also didn¡¯t tell me anything about it.¡±


    He clicked the 3rd option on the window.


    [You have chosen to have access to some locked races. Confirm? Y/N]


    Yes


    [You will now proceed to character creation]


    He saw a bright flash of light from the window and was forced to close his eyes. As he opened then he found himself in a white room that seemed to go on forever in all directions. There was a middle aged man in a formal suit standing in front of him.


    ¡°Welcome User Logan. I am James and I will assist you in creating your character¡±


    ¡°Thank you. Why does this guy look like a butler?¡±


    ¡°There are two types of playable characters are unlocked at this point of time. Further types can be unlocked in game through missions. The 2 types available to you are pure human and mutated human¡±


    ¡®But the message before said that locked races would be available to me during character creation¡±


    ¡°Ah yes that option is during choosing your mutation. For that I¡¯ll have to explain the two races. First is the pure human. This is as the name says a pure human who has augmentations. This race does not allow for DNA modifications but only allows augmentations. These augmentations are all available to the people in game shops and can be bought using the game currency.


    You will start out with 3 basic augmentations. There are 3 known tiers of augmentations-basic, intermediate, complex. Further tiers will be unlocked as the game progresses.


    The second race is the mutated human. This is as the name says a human who has undergone DNA modifications. This race cannot apply augmentations. But instead they can tamper with their DNA and mix & match other life forms¡¯ DNA with their own. Caution that the effects of such tampering can be good or bad. There are 3 known tiers of DNA, common, standard and rare. DNA of common and standard life forms will be available in game shops and can be bought. But DNA of rare life forms will not be available but you will have to harvest it yourself and use it. You will start out 2 mutations. Because of your reward you are allowed to choose from a greater number of choices if you choose this race.¡±


    ¡°What happens if I choose the other race?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry but we cannot compensate you for your loss¡±


    ¡°¡­¡­¡­


    Hmm the first race sounds easy to raise because the augmentations are available in shops. But I¡¯m more interested in the second one. Man, DNA modifications can go to extreme but it¡¯s very difficult to do and the dangers of doing it are there too. Meh to hell with it I¡¯ll go with the second one.


    If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    I choose the second race: Mutated human¡±


    [You have chosen the race Mutated Human as your starting race, do you confirm? Y/N]


    Yes


    ¡°Now you can modify your race. You can only have up to a maximum of 80% mutation in the game as long as you stay this race. The amount of mutation will vary with each DNA. You can also change your race later in game through special missions.


    You are currently 100% human. Please choose between the following mutations. Originally only common and standard mutations were to be made available but because of your reward 3 additional rare mutations have been made available.


    You can only choose 2 mutations¡±


    At this the images of various beasts appeared in front of Logan. The description of the beast as well as their effects if he uses their DNA was listed.


    Some that caught his attention were


    [Ant: A commonly found creature. Effects: Gains ability to see certain chemical indicators. Gains ability to lift weights 10 times user¡¯s weight in game. Mutation 10%]


    [Dog: A common creature. Effects: Gains boosts in hearing and smell senses. Mutation 10%]


    [Wolf: A standard creature. Effects: Gains boosts in hearing and smell senses. Gains night vision. Gains 50% increase in reaction time and movement speed. Mutation 20%]


    [Hawk: A standard creature. Effects: Gains far-sight ability. Able to lessen falling damage. Mutation 20%]


    [Humming Bird: Rare creature. Effects: Gains high speed short distance movement skill. Gains high boost in reaction speed. Gains ability to change directions in mid-air. Mutation 30%]


    [Swallow: rare creature. Effects: Gains boost to movement speed. Can travel in a straight line at high speed with low loss of stamina. Mutation 30%]


    [Reticulated Viper: A Rare creature. Effects: Move without making noise. Gains thermal vision. Regenerates energy easily in the sun. Mutation 30%]


    [Take note that mutation of the creatures in the game like goblins and dragons have not been unlocked yet but can be unlocked in the game. The side effects of such mutations are to be discovered by you.]


    ¡°Hmm well, seems like the rare mutations give greater abilities but also cost more mutation space. And a dragon mutation! I can¡¯t even begin to imagine the effects that will have. Well for now I think I¡¯ll go with the wolf and humming bird mutations. Wolf gives a lot of useful bonuses and humming bird is versatile.It''ll help me in the long run. I think¡±


    ¡°I Choose the Humming Bird and Wolf mutations.¡±


    ¡°Are you sure? You are already occupying 50% of your 80% at the beginning.¡±


    ¡°Yes I¡¯m sure. I don¡¯t know when I¡¯ll come across more rare mutations again so better to make use of it¡±


    ¡°If you are sure then so be it. Do you want to change your appearance in the game?¡±


    ¡°No, thank you. I don''t know if i wanna talk to girls here. Imagine picking up girls in game beacuse i can''t in real life! That would be pathetic of me¡±


    ¡°Please choose your character name¡±


    ¡°Might as well stick to Logan. Don¡¯t want to get confused when someone calls me with a different name¡±


    ¡°Very well, your character name has been set to ¡°LOGAN¡±. You will be now teleported to the tutorial section. Do you wish to skip the tutorial?¡±


    ¡°NO! I haven¡¯t played games before so I¡¯ll surely be lost without the tutorial¡±


    ¡°Congratulations for creating your character. Good Luck¡±


    With that Logan felt the familiar feeling of being teleported.


    <hr />


    I was supposed to add windows/tables in this chapter but i couldn''t figure it out. Would appreciate it if someone fills me in

 Chapter 3 Tutorial

    Meanwhile, somewhere else in the real world;


    ¡°Hey You! Did you find out his whereabouts yet?¡±


    ¡°N-not yet sir! He is proving to be very difficult to track sir¡±


    ¡°Goddamnit you incompetent bastards!!! I pay you to find one bloody person and you say he is difficult to track! Isn¡¯t tracking supposed to be your specialty?¡±


    ¡°Y-yes sir I¡¯m doing my best. Bastard cannot catch him himself even being more powerful than me and calls me incompetent, humph¡±


    ¡°I can still remember the day clearly when he murdered my whole family in front of me! We were just celebrating the success of our new experiment when out of nowhere people started dropping dead! That¡¯s when he showed himself that fucker¡­..AARGH!¡±


    ¡°What was your family celebrating sir? And how did you survive?¡±


    ¡°Humph! Even people like you have forgotten about my family. My family was prosperous since the revolution! We created super-soldiers for the underworld of the whole country. Our products were so good that foreign gangs too came to us for their muscle. When the government bastards didn¡¯t dare go beyond 30% we went up to 60%! Ah! Those were the days¡±


    ¡°But wasn¡¯t going beyond 30% dangerous?¡±


    ¡°Dangerous? It was sometimes downright terrifying what those beasts could do! Beasts, yes because they lose all reason at that point. My family modified some genes so that they obey whomever that holds a particular DNA that made for perfectly loyal solders. All was well until THAT guy came. It was a massacre. Our soldiers all seemed so powerless in front of him.¡±


    ¡°How did you survive the massacre sir? I bet he pissed himself and pretended to be dead ¡°


    ¡°That¡¯s none of your business. How can I tell someone else that I had to pretend to be a servant and pretend to be dead? He was double checking that all family members were dead by some methods. Thank god I was near the servant quarters at that time


    If I ever find you, you better have killed your family yourself, because in my hands they will suffer. Heh. I¡¯ll make you suffer KIRITO HAKATE. Even though all I know is your name I will track you down!¡±


    In the game,


    Logan found himself on a hill surrounded by lush greenery.


    ¡°I wonder what¡¯s the tutorial is gonna be about?¡±


    A woman wearing a business suit and a skirt appeared in front of him. He was startled at first and then observed her carefully. She looked to be of Asian descent. She had high angled cheekbones and her complexion was fair. She had pitch black hair that shone under the sunlight. She had curves that he found very appealing. So he was staring at her until she cleared her throat.


    Blushing¡°Cough cough... Welcome Logan to the tutorial phase¡±


    ¡± Yes, thank you. Dude, is this really an AI? how does an AI get embarrassed when i stare at her?¡±


    ¡°Have you ever played games before?¡±


    ¡°Only first person shooters, I haven¡¯t had experience playing such a game before¡±


    ¡°Then I will explain all the necessary details here. First and foremost this type of game is known as a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG).


    You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    Usually in such games a player will have to assume the role of a person and follow missions according to a pre-scripted story line.


    But in this game there will be no such thing as a pre-scripted gameplay. You can be whatever you want and whoever you want. This game has an open world concept where your actions are not restricted by anything. You can be a sniper, an engineer or a magician or a martial art master. You can go killing the monsters that the system generates or even other people.


    But keep in mind that killing other people is not without repercussions.


    Your strength is measured by levels. You gain levels by gaining experience points, which is gained by completing missions, killing monsters and clearing dungeons.


    But levels are not the only representation of your strength. Your skills and proficiency are also responsible for your strength. You gain skills by doing certain actions or completing certain missions. You start off as classless but you can gain class at level 10.


    There are stats that represent various characteristics. You start out with some basic statics. Like:


    Strength: This represents the damage done by your attacks, quantity of stamina and your carrying capacity.


    Agility:  This represents movement speed and reaction speed


    Dexterity: This represents the chance of critical hits and accuracy of ranged attacks


    Defense: This represents damage mitigation to physical attacks.


    Mind: This represents the damage mitigation to magical attacks.


    Intelligence: This improves the speed of learning any new skills and quantity of mana.


    Wisdom: This improves the speed of improving the skill proficiencies and damage of magical attacks.


    Luck: This represents the chance of the best loot dropping from a slain monster.


    Vitality: This represents the health of the player. The damage that you must incur to die.


    Spirit: This represents the ability to resist mental status effects and recover stable state of mind.


    For every rise in level 5 stat points will be given. You will start out with 10 status points each in all stats.


    Your actions in the game can affect the whole world or have no effect at all. Missions of difficulty B and above have some effect on the world.


    In usual games the non-playable characters (NPC) or the people generated by the system would follow a scripted program and respond in definite ways and not possible of varied reactions. But in this game, all the characters are managed by AI¡¯s therefore they behave and react as real people. The monsters in this game learn from your fighting style as real opponents would do so the same tactics may not be effective repeatedly.


    If you have further questions you may refer to the help section.


    You can access your menu and status screens by thinking out loud.


    Now you may proceed to the starting area of the game.


    Good luck¡±


    ¡°That was certainly a lot of information. This game sound like it¡¯ll be a lot of fun. Let¡¯s start now. Thank you¡±


    Logan felt the familiar feeling of teleporting ¡°This game certainly likes to teleport people¡±

 Chapter 4 beginning

    Logan expected to find himself standing on solid ground but instead opened his eyes to the view of earth from space that was approaching him rapidly. It took him a moment to comprehend that he was free falling towards the earth.


    ¡°WOAH! What the hell! The programmer must have a penchant for throwing people in unexpected situations¡±


    He feared that his first death in-game would be from space without him doing anything and let loose a scream. But then he unexpectedly started slowing down as he approached what looked like a small town. He landed on his feet at almost zero speed and let loose a breath that he didn¡¯t realize he had been holding.


    ¡°Ok that was officially THE MOST EXCITING MOMENT OF MY LIFE! I wanna do it again.¡±


    He looked around wide eyed at his surroundings. He was standing in what looked like a town square where people gathered for announcements and such. He took note of the buildings that looked like they were made of wood that reminded him of the medieval times movies that he had watched.


    But he also spotted CCTV cameras between the buildings. It looked like the game was a mix between medieval times and modern technology.


    ¡°Ok this is interesting. Looks like this game made use of swords and daggers of old times with guns and technology of the new times. I wonder how they will balance between the two. Won¡¯t the sword users be disadvantaged? I should ask that to Birdy, he¡¯ll surely know¡±


    Birdy was the nickname of one of his best friend whose name was Bernard. He was best friends with Logan since 8th grade and was a gaming geek.


    It was then that he noticed the people staring at him. They were wearing modern looking armor but held swords in their hands. They were approaching towards him cautiously with their hands on their weapons. They looked like the town guard. The civilians were looking at the scene from afar.


    ¡°What¡¯s the matter? Why are they looking at me like that? Is there something on my face?¡±


    ¡°HEY YOU!¡±


    ¡°Y-yes!


    Why does he yell like that?¡±


    ¡°Are you a foreigner?¡±


    ¡°Foreigner? What¡¯s that?¡±


    ¡°People who were teleported to our world by the gods and who don¡¯t truly die because of their blessings¡±


    ¡°Ah! So he means players who are respawned after death.


    Yes that would certainly be me.¡±


    It was then that the guards let out a collective sigh of relief.


    ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡±


    ¡°We were told that from today there will be foreigners appearing on our land. We were quite excited for that too.


    What we didn¡¯t expect that they would look quite so ¡®different¡¯ ¡±


    ¡°Why do you say that I look different? I think I look like a human¡±


    ¡°Have you looked at yourself lately with a mirror? You look like a hybrid of some kind¡±


    ¡°Hybrid? May I please request a mirror so that I can see myself? It looks like my appearance changed when I came here. And my name is Logan.


    Might as well be polite here. Don¡¯t want any enemies¡±


    ¡°Oh where are my manners. I am Derek and I am the guard captain¡± Just then a voice boomed out behind him.


    Logan turned around and found himself looking at a mountain. Or a person who looked like a mountain.


    ¡°He¡¯s HUGE! He must be taller than 7¡¯5¡±. And look at his face! I¡¯ve never seen anybody with so many scars on their face that their facial features are all mangled up.


    And he¡¯s grinning on top of that. That must be some of terror weapon around here. Definitely. It can make grown men soft in their knees.


    And he¡¯s exuding some kind of pressure that powerful people do. Normal men would have fainted by now. Good thing I¡¯m used to uncle¡¯s pressure. His strength can be attested by those bulking muscles behind that armor¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m Logan, nice to meet you¡±


    ¡°Ho ho ho look at that, kids got the stuff. He¡¯s awake even after meeting me for the first time! That¡¯s new. Anyway


    kid you come with me to the captain¡¯s office. Let¡¯s talk there, you are making a scene here¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m making a scene? Isn¡¯t a walking mountain supposed to do that?!¡±


    Logan followed Derek into a room that looked more like an armory than an office. Its walls were adorned with different kinds of swords and daggers. There was a gun adorned into the wall behind the big-ass chair that looked very valuable. It seems guns were a rarity here.


    ¡°Kid I¡¯ll be straight with you. We expected foreigners yes, but we don¡¯t know anything about them. Just that they don¡¯t die and they are pathetically weak at the beginning but have the capability to get stronger overnight. What we didn¡¯t expect to see was a HYBRID¡±


    ¡°That word HYBRID, You have been calling me that for some time. I don¡¯t understand¡±


    ¡°Ah that¡¯s because it¡¯s a nick name we gave to people like you long ago. People who are not fully human but mixed breed of different beasts. We vary kid, not everyone tolerates a person dares to tamper with nature¡¯s will.¡±


    ¡°Ah yes I¡¯m a mix between human and other beasts but how did you know?


    ¡°You must be new to this. Whatever beast you have merged with will reflect on your appearance. Take a look at


    yourself in that mirror over there. The hybrids I knew of had the ability to hide their changes. Otherwise it¡¯ll be dead giveaway to your capabilities.¡±


    Logan walked in front of the mirror that was in the corner of the room and looked at himself. He looked almost same. Except for the changes in his hair color. It looked like grey fur instead of hair and he could even see his ear¡¯s position shifted to a higher place on his head.


    Stolen novel; please report.


    ¡°Must be the effect of the wolf mutation¡±


    Then he looked at his body. He was wearing a plain looking sleeve-less shirt that was too thin and a black pant. But the most out of place thing was that he was wearing shabby looking shoes but no socks, if you exclude the feathers poking out from his shoulders.


    They were green in color and shined in the light.


    ¡°Ok that¡¯s the effect of the humming bird. It¡¯s too flashy. I wonder how to hide it.¡±


    Tring..


    Congratulations player. You are the first person to discover one of  the side-effects of DNA mutations


    +1 int, +1 wis


    ¡°Oh looks like I got a reward for that. How weird.¡±


    ¡°Now you know why people were making a scene. Here take this, this will help you avoid making a scene wherever you go. But the condition for this is you have to have this on whenever you come out in public."


    Derek held out what looked like a memory card of old times.


    Tring¡­


    Do You want to learn the skill ¡°Cosmetic makeover¡±?


    This skill creates an illusion upon yourself that can hide your appearance. Be aware that this is a low tier technique and can be easily dismissed by external factors.


    ¡°Yes¡±


    Congratulations you have learned the skill cosmetic makeover


    Gains ability to make small changes to your appearance


    Will be dismissed upon entering combat


    Will be dismissed at scan stations


    Usage: 5 energy upon activation and 1energy per minute to maintain.


    ¡°Oh cool this can be very helpful. Speaking of which lets take a look at my status screen¡±


    Name: LOGAN


    Level: 1


    Race: Mutated human( Wolf, Humming bird)


    Class: N/A


    HP: 110     Regen: 1/15 secs out of combat


    Energy: 120    Regen: 1/10 secs out of combat


    Stamina: 110        Regen: 1/5 secs out of combat


    Strength: 10


    Agility: 10


    Intelligence: 11


    Wisdom: 11


    Dexterity: 10


    Spirit: 10


    Vitality: 10


    Defense:10


    Mind: 10


    Luck: 10


    Passive Effects


    Way of the wolf:


    Night vision: Ability to see in the dark


    Enhanced senses: 20% increased hearing and smell senses.


    Enhanced reactions: 50% increase to movement speed and reaction speed


    Way of the humming bird:


    Air step: Step on a platform of air to change directions in mid-air at the cost of 50 energy


    Instant step: Move 5 meters at high speed in any direction at the cost of 50 energy


    Enhanced reflexes: 80% increase to reaction speed.


    ¡°Hmm looks like the bonuses from the mutations are here. But the instant step and air step are very expensive. I cannot use them more than once in my current state. But they are overpowered skills that¡¯s for sure¡±


    ¡°Now kid change your appearance and scram! I have got work to do¡±


    ¡°Cosmetic makeover!¡±


    Logan looked at himself in the mirror and saw his appearance changing to how he thought it should. He made himself look like in real life and left the office after saying a thank you.


    The guard who he met before approached him


    ¡°Ah you look better now. Not everyone are tolerant of your kind¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll keep that in mind. Man the game didn¡¯t say that I would make enemies just by picking a race!¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m Jason. What are your plans now? You cannot leave town till you reach level 10.¡±


    ¡°Is that so? Well then is there a place where I can train?¡±


    ¡°If you are looking for instruction in fighting then proceed to the training hall near the south gate¡±


    ¡°Ah I¡¯m not looking for instruction only a place to train in peace. I already know how to fight from my world.¡±


    ¡°Hmm I dunno if your worlds fighting can be applied here. You better go there and talk to instructor Thren. He can help you.¡±


    ¡°Ok thanks. I¡¯ll look for instructor Thren in the training hall¡±


    With that Logan set off to train.

 Status Table

    Finally figured out how to add a table. Here is the status of Logan


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Name: LOGAN</td><td>Level: 1</td></tr><tr><td>Race: Mutated human( Wolf, Humming bird)</td><td>Class: N/A</td></tr><tr><td>HP: 110     Regen: 1/15 secs out of combat</td><td>Energy: 120    Regen: 1/10 secs out of combat</td></tr><tr><td>Stamina: 110        Regen: 1/5 secs out of combat</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Strength: 10</td><td>Agility: 10</td></tr><tr><td>Intelligence: 11</td><td>Wisdom: 11</td></tr><tr><td>Dexterity: 10</td><td>Spirit: 10</td></tr><tr><td>Vitality: 10</td><td>Defense:10</td></tr><tr><td>Mind: 10</td><td>Luck: 10</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Passive Effects</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Way of the wolf:</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Night vision: Ability to see in the dark


    This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.Enhanced senses: 20% increased hearing and smell senses.


    Enhanced reactions: 50% increase to movement speed and reaction speed</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Way of the humming bird:</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Air step: Step on a platform of air to change directions in mid-air at the cost of 50 energy


    Instant step: Move 5 meters at high speed in any direction at the cost of 50 energy


    Enhanced reflexes: 80% increase to reaction speed.</td></tr></tbody></table>

 Chapter 5 Training Hall

    Logan wandered through the streets towards the south. He could see the occasional flash of light accompanied by the arrival of other players.


    ¡°Looks like this town is not that popular. I think only people who took the tutorial are sent here.¡±


    He could see the townspeople busy with their daily activities. Some were prepping their weapons, presumably to go on a hunt, while others were hauling dead animals on their shoulders and walking towards the butcher¡¯s shop.


    ¡°Hmm I wonder what the money system here is. And I haven¡¯t yet checked my inventory.¡±


    ¡°Open inventory¡±


    Logan glanced at the window that open in his field of view.


    ¡°It says that I have 10 energy capsules and a canteen in the consumables section. Do people get hungry in game? I¡¯ll have to check on that later.


    What¡¯s this? There is a card in here. It says 10 copper credits on it. They have a freaking credit card in-game! This is ridiculous man¡±


    With that Logan opened the help menu to the money section and read it


    ¡°Money in DR is in the form of credits. The lowest form of credits is copper credits. The higher denominations are silver, gold, diamond and platinum credits. Each denomination is 100 times the previous one. Transactions are carried out through the card given to you. The default given cards have the chance of being dropped upon death. It is advisable to procure a soul-bound card that doesn¡¯t drop on death. All the money you have will be stored in the cards.


    Owning multiple cards is possible and the cards do not have an upper limit. You can buy chips that can be used to transfer credits to people without the card. The chips have an upper limit depending on their quality. Expensive ones have higher limits.¡±


    ¡°Hmm so this card can drop on death, that¡¯s troublesome and another reason not to die!¡±


    He had arrived at the south gate without noticing it. He searched for the training hall and found a 3 storied building that had the image of swords and guns hung above its front door.


    He entered the building and found a receptionist desk and a male receptionist who appeared to be day dreaming.


    Approaching him he said


    ¡°Hello my name is Logan. Is this the training hall?¡±


    ¡°Hello Logan, Yes this is indeed the training hall. We provide training in all kinds of weapons and techniques just for the nominal sum of 10 silver credits per month. If you are interested in joining us please fill out the form and return with the money. Thank you¡±


    With that the receptionist pushed a form and a pen on to his hands and resumed day dreaming.


    ¡°Huh, this guy behaves like the sales person at a mall. And what the hell! 10 silvers! This is a rip-off. No newbie can get training here at all¡±


    ¡°Excuse me I¡¯m not here for the training actually I¡¯m ¨C¡°


    ¡°If you are not here for the training then don¡¯t waste my time and get lost!¡±


    ¡°This bastard cut me off! Look here, I¡¯m looking for instructor Thren. Where can I meet him?¡±


    ¡°We don¡¯t have someone named instructor Thren here. Now bug off!¡±


    Just then someone shouted from inside


    ¡°Hey Mario what¡¯s going on? We were supposed to be have an influx of trainees staring from today¡±


    A stout muscular man walked out from the inside.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know nobody has come today¡±


    ¡°So who are you?


    ¡°I¡¯m Logan. I¡¯m here to meet instructor Thren¡±


    ¡°Thren eh? Who told you about him?¡±


    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    ¡°Uh a guard near the captain¡¯s office. Why is something wrong?¡±


    ¡°No no nothing¡¯s wrong. Why don¡¯t you come with me? I¡¯ll take you to Thren¡±


    He started walking towards the door to the right of the desk. Logan hurried and followed him.


    ¡°I¡¯m Darius and I¡¯m an instructor here. Thren is the headmaster of the training hall¡±


    ¡°Nice to meet you. I think I know why you don¡¯t have any customers¡±


    ¡°Do you now? Enlighten me¡±


    ¡°Uh first of all the receptionist Mario kinda pushes everyone to leave so that¡¯s one of the reason. More importantly


    the fees of 10 silvers is preposterous! We barely start out with 10 coppers. We can¡¯t afford 10 silvers.


    I¡¯m not here to train, might as well be honest with him¡±


    ¡°10 silvers! Who the fuck said that the fees was 10 silvers?¡±


    ¡°Uh Mario said that. You mean he¡¯s just raising the fees so that nobody joins? He can do that?


    ¡°He bloody can¡¯t! That bastard is lazy as a sloth and more customers means more work. No wonder nobody joined.


    10 silvers is too much. The actual fees is just 10 coppers! I¡¯ll have to ¡®deal¡¯ with him later then.¡±


    ¡°OK the way he just said ¡®deal¡¯ sent shivers down my spine.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ve arrived. That is Thren¡¯s office. Whatever you do boy, don¡¯t anger him. Consider it a heads up for telling me about Mario¡±


    ¡°That doesn¡¯t sound good."


    With that he entered the office, and saw¡­¡­


    Nothing, There was absolutely nothing there, not even light.


    Logan was starting to get afraid so he turned around and felt for the door so that he can go out, but he couldn¡¯t feel anything too!


    Now he started to panic and tried concentrating his senses.


    ¡°Damnit what the fuck is going on! I¡¯m supposed to have night vision and improved hearing and smell. But I can¡¯t see anything, neither hear anything nor smell anything!


    I can¡¯t even feel anything. Does this place shut-off all my senses?


    If that is so then I¡¯ll have to rely on the method that uncle taught to sense my surroundings when my other senses are of no use. I do hope that that method works in the game¡±


    In a different room within the training hall, two people could be seen watching a mirror.


    But the mirror didn¡¯t show their image, instead it showed Logan in what looked like a room full of traps and contraptions.


    Darius was intently watching Logan and said to the person standing beside him


    ¡°Thren, why do you want to test him this way? I know you don¡¯t like training unworthy people but isn¡¯t this too much?


    A newbie will lose his life in there. I know they say that they don¡¯t actually die but I don¡¯t want to test that¡±


    The tall thin man who looked too frail to hurt anybody looked at his friend and said


    ¡°I¡¯m not testing whether he will die or not. I felt something in him when he first entered the hall. That¡¯s why I¡¯m having him take this graduation exam.


    Besides, he told the guard that he knows how to fight. Let¡¯s see him deal with this exam. It¡¯ll be fun I¡¯m sure¡± with a feral grin.


    This was precisely the headmaster Thren.

 Chapter 6 Ki

    Logan decided to use Ki to get out of his predicament. He reviewed his lessons with his uncle on Ki in his mind.


    ¡°Remember Logan, Ki is your life energy. It is the materialized energy from within your body. Every living thing has Ki and every living thing uses Ki. Do you know why we need Ki?¡±


    ¡°Umm since it¡¯s life energy, to stay alive?¡±


    ¡°Cheeky brat. You are half right. Life energy is still just energy. If someone completely depletes their Ki they don¡¯t necessarily die from that.


    But without Ki you can¡¯t move and that will surely kill you if you are in a hostile environment. But people learn to subconsciously guard certain part their Ki reserves so that such a thing should not happen.


    Take for example a 100 m Olympic athlete. At the end of the race he says that he gave it his all and he thinks he did.


    But if he expended all his energy he should collapse without being able to move. But that¡¯s not the case. He subconsciously guards a large reserve of Ki in case of an emergency.¡±


    ¡°So Ki is energy of the body¡±


    ¡°Not entirely. Now I¡¯m using Ki and energy interchangeably to explain but that is not necessarily true. Energy in the purest form cannot be used by a person by his will.


    When a normal person is running, the pure energy is being depleted. But he is not willing the energy to get used, he is just running without knowing anything about energy.


    So pure energy is used subconsciously and cannot be controlled.


    Ki is derived from melding this pure energy to our needs. By practicing certain body exercises and breathing techniques you can convert this pure energy into usable Ki.


    Ki is a mixture of your pure energy and the outside energy. Only by mixing with the external energy can the pure energy be harnessed.


    Each person¡¯s Ki is unique to him/her. Because pure energy varies from person to person. Also the optimal condition of Ki also varies.


    When you first start cultivating Ki, the Ki you collect will not be usable. It will be full of impurities. You have to refine the collected Ki and clean it of impurities. The degree of cleaning that can be done depends on the person¡¯s talent and hard work.


    Now the Ki that you collected and refined must be stored in your body for later use. This is done in your dantian located behind your navel.


    The amount of Ki that you can store initially will be so miniscule you can barely do anything with it. But with training that can be improved with the quality of Ki¡±


    ¡°What is the use of Ki uncle? It seems awfully troublesome to use¡±


    ¡°Yes training in Ki is very difficult and was deemed inefficient by people so they forgot it. But proper training and latent talent is required if you ever hope to be good in Ki manipulation.


    I tested you and I think you have pretty good latent talent in Ki. All you have to do is train hard.


    As for the uses of Ki, well, it can be used to reinforce your own body. A Ki reinforced fist can punch through steel plates.


    Proper usage of Ki can harm a person through layers of protection. It can ignore armor and do internal damage. Ki can be used to influence the outer world as well as the inner world.


    For example if you are injured, Ki can be used to treat the wound. Also by proper usage of Ki you can create fire from your breath itself!


    But that is very difficult to do. You have to change the external energy in your breath into the form of fire using Ki. Even I can barely do it with so much training. That¡¯s a whole another branch of Ki utilization. First you learn to gather and refine Ki.


    ¡°Yes uncle. So let¡¯s start!¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t be so impatient. First you have to cut-off yourself from the outside world. Go into a meditative trance by sitting cross legged like this.


    Then shut down your 5 senses one by one. Start with your eyes, then your nose, tongue, skin and finally your ears. After that you have to concentrate on feeling inside yourself.


    If done right and hard enough you will be able to feel the pure energy as a speck of light near your heart. Focus on that point of light and slowly let your awareness zoom out.


    Your perception of energy will follow your focus and gradually you will be able to sense the energy over your whole body. Now etch that feeling into your mind.


    Next leave the confines of your body. Let your awareness spread outside your body.


    Now remember you are not using your normal senses to do this but energy. Once you are attuned with the pure energy in your body, sensing the external energy should become easier.


    But it is in no means a simple feat. You have to attune yourself to the external energy now and see beyond your limits. Become one with the energy. Follow the flow of energy.


    Stolen novel; please report.


    Now make a return to your body but keep the awareness of the external energy in your mind as well as awareness of the internal energy. You have to strike a balance between the two energies so that they don¡¯t go out of control.


    Once you have established a balance between the awareness of the two energies, attempt to control the external energy while trying to maintain the stability of the internal energy.


    You will not succeed in the first attempt. But try again. Remember, whatever you do don¡¯t let the internal energy go out of control otherwise you will harm yourself.


    Slowly draw in the external energy and try to direct it behind your navel. That part is the best suited for mixing and saving energy.


    Once you draw in the external energy, let it mix with the internal energy. Your internal energy will resist but you have to persevere. Only by successfully mixing the two energies will you be able to create Ki.


    When you successfully mix the two, a new substance will be created that will look like a gas. This is your Ki. It will stay in your dantian until you call it out.¡±


    ¡°Oh wow that¡¯s a lot of steps. I¡¯ll give it my best shot¡±


    After that Logan had successfully created Ki. He remembered all the steps and proceeded to do it in the game.


    He sat cross-legged on the ground in a meditative pose. Since all his senses were already blocked he concentrated


    on the inside to get ahold of his internal Energy.


    Darius: ¡°What do you think he is doing? Why did he start to meditate?¡±


    Thren: ¡±I knew it! If he is doing what I think he is doing then this is gonna be fabulous. I will have a new disciple!¡±


    Logan successfully sensed his internal energy and proceeded to sense the external energy. When his awareness left his body and followed the flow of energy he saw that he was in a room that had all kinds of traps and contraptions that will attack him.


    But he didn¡¯t understand why they were not doing it. Then he sensed that there was a line in front of him that must be the range of operations of the machines.


    Next he proceeded to mix the external energy with the internal energy. With much difficulty he managed to mix them and create the gaseous Ki.


    With that action the sound of several notifications startled him out of his meditative state.


    ¡°Looks like I can still see the notifications even though my eyesight is blocked. Let¡¯s see what I got¡±


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''2''>[Through previous knowledge you have successfully entered meditation. You gained the skill meditation]</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>[Meditation(Beginner LV1): Enter a trance like state where you are focused on the energies. Energy regen +50%]</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''2''>[Through previous knowledge you have successfully sensed your internal energy. You gained the skill internal energy sense]</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>[Internal energy sense(Beginner LV1): You can instinctively know how much energy you actually have thus able to go beyond the natural amount of energy available to you. Energy + 25%]</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''2''>[Through previous knowledge you have successfully sensed external energy. You have gained skill external energy sense]</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>[External energy sense (Beginner LV1): You can follow the flow of energy outside your body and minimize wastage of energy. Stamina consumption -25%]</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''2''>[By mixing internal and external energies you have unlocked Ki]</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>[Ki: An energy born by the mixture of internal and external energy. its uses are yet to be discovered by you]</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''2''>[By having the skills internal energy sense, external energy sense and the stat Ki, you have unlocked the skill Ki manipulation and Ki sensing]</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>[Ki sensing (Beginner LV1): This is a skill born by merging internal energy sense and external energy sense.


    Allows you to sense all Ki in your surroundings. Range 2 meters]</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>[Ki manipulation (Beginner LV1): By merging Ki sensing with Ki this skill has been unlocked. Allows you to manipulate Ki easily]</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''2''>[Ki sensing replaces the skills external Ki manipulation and internal Ki manipulation. Effects will be included in the Ki sensing skill]</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>[Ki sensing (Beginner LV1): Allows you to sense all the energies in your surroundings and inside yourself.


    Range: 2 meters. Energy+25%. Staminal consumption -25%]</td></tr></tbody></table>


    A/N: I know i have lot of room for improvement but i would appreciate it some of you comment on how i''m doing so that i can improve my writing.

 Chapter 7 Test

    With all of that information flooding his vision, Logan let out a relieved sigh, pleased that his attempt at using Ki in the game was fruitful.


    ¡°As expected of the company dad works for. They even included this in the programming.¡±


    With all that said Logan still had to get out of the room he was in. So he turned on his Ki sensing skill.


    The world appeared in forms of different colors that what he was used to. The radius of 2 meters around him was crystal clear to him and he knew every single detail of what was inside the 2 meter radius 360 degrees  around him.


    All he could make out of the world outside his radius were hazy outlines.


    ¡°The door behind me seems to be sealed shut so the only way out is forward. I don¡¯t like the look of those traps and..are those robots?


    Yes! They look like the training robots back home. Those guys are made to be durable. I hope these guys don¡¯t follow that standard¡±


    Logan mentally prepared himself and crossed the line. As soon as he did that he ¡®felt¡¯ two projectiles approaching his head at high speed.


    Logan used his enhanced reflexes to dodge and saw the two crossbow bolts sail through the space where his head had just been.


    While he had been concentrating on dodging the bolts two robots had snuck around him and attacked his flanks in a pincer attack.


    This forced Logan to roll ahead where he met a sword coming down at his head. He didn¡¯t have time to dodge so he attempted to stop the sword by catching the flat of the blade with his palms.


    He cut himself on the blade but managed to stop the blade from splitting his head in two.


    The robot in front of him pulled back the blade, but before he could relax the two from before again thrust their respective swords at Logan.


    He dodged to the left and attempted to disarm the robot but it seemed that the robot was literally one with the sword! It was attached to the robot where the palm should have been so there was no way that he could disarm it.


    Logan let go of its arm and punched it in the ¡®gut¡¯. But that backfired on him. He felt like his fist was broken. He groaned in pain and dodged back using instant step while cradling his hurt right hand.


    ¡°These guys are tougher than back home! I can¡¯t go on like this. I have to use my Ki¡±


    With that thought Logan fell back and drew on the Ki residing in his dantian. He coated his arms in the Ki and willed his arm to heal. He felt his arm hurting less and saw that whatever that had broken was fixed.


    He figured that now he will be all weak since he used almost all the Ki in his reserves to heal himself. But that feeling never came.


    Before he could wonder why the robots had already reached him and were attacking.


    ¡°I still don¡¯t have enough Ki to attack them. I¡¯ll have to keep dodging their attacks until I gather enough Ki¡±


    Logan started dodging their swings with the least amount of movement and regenerated his Ki whenever he stopped moving in the brief moments between their attacks.


    In ten minutes he was forced to dodge hundreds of sword swings and sudden ambushes by crossbows hidden in the walls. Finally he had completely regained his Ki.


    He proceeded to draw his Ki over his palms but this time he willed it to form into gloves over his hands and gave an open palm punch to the approaching robot.


    The result this time was well over his expectations. The robot¡¯s mid-section where he had hit blew open and the robot flew over to a corner and didn¡¯t get up again.


    The remaining robots as if understanding that his palm strikes were deadly tried dodging but he was too fast for them.


    He decimated the remaining robots and let down his guard. That proved to be a mistake.


    As soon as he dismissed the Ki gloves, He could feel energy fluctuations from all around him. Panicking and not understanding what was going on Logan laid on the ground in a ball to reduce his exposed area and expended all his Ki to cover his whole body with his Ki as a shield.


    And it was a good thing he did that because next moment he felt dozens of impact on his Ki armor that shattered his armor where it hit. It seemed like his good luck that whatever that was fired didn¡¯t point twice in the same point.


    Otherwise he would definitely be hurt. But that didn¡¯t stop from the kinetic energy being transferred to his body so it still hurt like a bitch.


    When everything quietened down Logan got up and observed his surroundings. The things that hit him were still lying beside him. They were bullets!


    ¡°So the energy fluctuations I felt before must be due to firing of the gun outside of my range. Good thing too otherwise I wouldn¡¯t have enough time to put up a guard. I would have become Swiss cheese. I get the feeling that this is not the last of them and they will come again. I better regain my Ki when I can¡±


    Just a minute had passed and he ¡®saw¡¯ the sounds of something moving. He couldn¡¯t hear anything due to losing his senses but he could see the sound energy easily enough if he concentrated. He still hadn¡¯t gained enough Ki to put up a fight so he readied his instant step ability.


    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.


    Instant step proved to be a very nifty ability. When it said that he would gain ability to move a short distance at high speed, he thought that it would speed up his movement speed by, like 200%. But what actually happened shocked him.


    First he had to envision where he wanted to go in his mind. Then activate the ability. When he does that, time slows down to a crawl and he disintegrates into particles and moves like an energy wave to the designated target.


    He can even move through objects! And the range of 5 meters means that he can travel for 5 meters when in the energy wave state. So basically he can change directions of where he wants to go at the end as long as he only has to move 5 meters.


    Then at the destination he reassembles into his whole self and time resumes at a normal pace. Disintegrating, travelling a distance and reintegrating was the definition of teleportation in his world!


    The only drawback with this ability was that it cost too much at this stage.


    Logan had designated the area in front of him as the teleportation destination when a robot sneakily attempted to backstab him. Since he had 360 vision he could react in time and side-step the attack but before he could do anything, the robot instantly disappeared from his field of view, presumably to outside his range.


    The next moment another attack from his left came and he dodged that too but he didn¡¯t anticipate that there would be another robot waiting for his dodge and so ended with a wound on his right flank.


    ¡°These are stealth robots, I don¡¯t know how many of them are there and I¡¯m not good enough to track them if multiple robots enter my range. They move too fast. Without my passive boosts I¡¯d be dead¡±


    He had yet to completely regain his Ki so he moved towards a wall so that he could avoid attacks from his back. Even if he could see behind him, reacting to the attacks was a different matter altogether.


    He fended off dozens more attempts at his life by dodging by small margins so as not to aggravate the wound to his flank. He was bleeding but he couldn¡¯t do anything about it for now.


    Just when another attack was being commenced, he completed regaining his Ki and quickly teleported to behind the robot. Creating his Ki gloves he busted the robots head and quickly moved on the second robot about to attack his wound. He grabbed hold of the dagger and punched a hole in the chest portion of the robot.


    He made no move to heal his wound as it had stopped bleeding and he needed the Ki to attack. He was cautious and monitoring his surroundings carefully. That and his quick reflexes were the only reason why he was able to catch the small knife flying towards his wounded flank.


    But that proved to be a distraction because another two other knives approached his head and heart respectively. He could only catch one so he stopped the one coming to his head and attempted to dodge the one for his heart.


    He couldn¡¯t concentrate enough to use instant step so he shifted his position so that the knife would not pierce his heart but instead hit his sternum (bone running along the middle of the chest).


    It hurt like hell but he managed to stay alive.


    Now he had to face stealth bots that were knife throwers while wounded. He reasoned that these stealth bots wouldn¡¯t be as tough as the first ones so he dismissed his gloves but instead formed a chest armor to protect his core and gauntlets to deflect or catch any knives coming his way. He also closed all the bleeding wounds on his body.


    Now he started moving forward, towards where he thought the door would be. The robots always attacked from out of his range so he couldn¡¯t attack them, only defend himself and move forward.


    He had to defend himself from up to 5 knives at a time. But the knives didn¡¯t possess enough power to penetrate his Ki armor. That was largely why he ignored the ones headed towards his chest and deflected or caught the others. By now he had a stockpile of throwing knives in his inventory.


    When he felt that he had collected enough throwing knives, he decided to attack. He waited for a knife to approach him, deflected it with one arm and threw a knife with the other. He infused the knife with Ki so that it would explode if it hit anything.


    Just after he threw the knife, there was a small explosion and the sounds of metal falling down, most probably the deactivated robot.


    He continued to do this and finally managed to deal with all the robots, but at the expense of a large quantity of Ki.


    Logan felt that each time he completely depleted his Ki reserves, the amount of Ki available to him keeps increasing. What he didn¡¯t realize that because he was constantly using his skills, they were gaining proficiencies extremely quickly and all his skills had risen by quite a few levels and were reaching intermediate levels.


    With the last robot silenced everything fell quiet. He didn¡¯t relax but instead increased his vigilance. But he kept moving forward until ultimately he arrived at a door.


    He pushed open the door and exited the room. He felt his senses returning after what felt like an eternity. He had stayed in the room for almost 8 hours and his hunger and satiety bars were flashing red.


    Because of his concentration on his surroundings he had forgotten all about them. As soon as he regained his eyesight he saw Darius standing with someone.


    Both had shocked expressions on their faces. Instantly relieved of tension on seeing a familiar face, his body relaxed and he fell unconscious.

 Chapter 8 Changes

    At the time when Logan was battling, Darius and Thren were looking at him through the mirror.


    Excerpts of the conversation between Darius and Thren


    D:¡±What the! Holy Hell isn¡¯t that the super-secret art of Ki?¡±


    T:¡±Exactly. This is what I sensed when I first saw him, the talent for Ki. Well he is still awakening his Ki so maybe it¡¯ll be a few days until I can talk to him and take him as my disciple.¡±


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    D:¡±Thren I know you said that it¡¯ll be a few days but he has already finished his awakening!¡±


    T:¡±That¡¯s¡­¡­ok I¡¯ve never seen a person finish their awakening that fast. Maybe because he has already done it before.


    D:¡±But I thought that you can awaken only once?¡±


    T:¡±Oh no you can awaken multiple times but that is different. What I¡¯m saying is the boy mentioned knowing how to fight from his world. Maybe he has already awakened in his world. That would explain his speed since he knows what to look for and what to do. But it also needs considerable talent to do so. Maybe I underestimated his talent.¡±


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    D:¡±Hey did you just see that! One instant he is there and the next he is not! It looks like he teleported but I know for a fact that teleporting requires a lot of energy and preparation time. What he did was instantaneous!¡±


    T:¡±I¡¯m shocked! Even I have never seen anybody use such a technique. It must be his racial ability.


    D:¡±You mean him being a hybrid and all?¡±


    T:¡±Ya that¡¯s the only thing I can imagine having such power¡±


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    D:¡±Hey how do you obliterate that tough robot with a simple palm strike?¡±


    T:¡±You don¡¯t, that was no simple palm strike. That was a skill. You clad you palm in Ki and execute a palm strike. At contact you send a portion of your Ki inside your opponent and have it explode from inside out. Since Ki is basically energy armor does shit to stop it.


    Only internal energy can defend against such a strike. Since the robots didn¡¯t possess internal energy, thus the result. But that skill uses a lot of Ki¡±


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    D:¡±Ok he finished off the robots but he looks too tired and he just let his guard down. Rookie mistake that. I don¡¯t think he¡¯ll survive the surprise barrage¡±


    T:¡±Don¡¯t be so sure, kid has surprised us time and again¡±


    D:¡±Did you just see that! He reacted even before the guns fired! And that looks like armor of some kind!¡±


    T:¡±OK the kid obviously has great senses and also knows multiple techniques of Ki utilization. It¡¯s decided. This kid is gonna be my successor. It¡¯s not every day that I come across talents of such magnitude.¡±


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    D:¡±Ouch that stab is definitely gonna hut. Hey did he give up! He just dismissed his glove thingy¡±


    T:¡±Keep watching. He has a plan, I Think¡±


    D:¡±Armor and gauntlets, going full defensive huh.¡±


    T:¡±Looks like he is concentrating on recovery and moving forward while staying defensive¡±


    .


    .


    .


    .


    D:¡±Hey is it just me or are that knives that hit him keep disappearing instead of falling down¡±


    T:¡±Yes I noticed but even I don¡¯t know what¡¯s happening¡±


    .


    .


    .


    .


    D:¡±Oh look at that, he had been stockpiling the knives. Maybe he has a storage ring?¡±


    T:¡±May be, but I wonder what he is going to do with all those knives¡±


    D:¡±Obvisously go out with a bang! He¡¯ll start throwing all knives in random directions and make a dash for the exit¡±


    T:¡±Don¡¯t project yourself on him. I think he will wait to do a counter. Though I don¡¯t know how he is planning to take them out knives. Robots don¡¯t have vitals where a single stab can kill¡±


    .


    .


    T:¡±Told you he would wait for a counter. But that skill, exploding knife? I¡¯ve never seen that nor heard about it¡±


    D:¡±Meh going with a bang was a good idea too¡±


    T:¡±But now he is all exhausted and I don¡¯t think he will be able to keep moving. Too bad that he will have to fail after coming this far¡±


    D:¡±Yes first time I see someone without training almost complete this test at the highest difficulty¡±


    .


    .


    .


    .


    D:¡±I¡¯m not seeing things am I? How the hell is he moving? He is supposed to be exhausted!¡±


    T:¡±He looks like an undead walking. He is obviously running on fumes though I didn¡¯t expect that too. I don¡¯t think he will last till the door¡±


    .


    .


    .


    .


    Finally they watch him come out the door, smile at them and faint. They honestly didn¡¯t believe he would make it hence were wearing shocked faces.


    After Logan fainted in front of them, they first healed it, forced him to drink some water and laid him on a bed to rest.


    The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.


    After 4 hours,


    Logan starts waking up from his sleep. He groggily opens his eyes and stares at an unfamiliar ceiling. He then looks around and surmises that he was being kept in a medical room.


    Logan slowly tries remembering what happened and it all comes back to him. He feels pleased for completing the test though angry at the instructor for not giving him a heads up.


    He saw some fruits lying in a basket beside him and stated eating a fruit that looked suspiciously like an apple. But it tasted like a banana. Looks like the developer liked to mess around with the players.


    Logan decided to take stock of the situation and opened all the notifications that had piled up during the test. They were mostly stat increases and skill improvements.


    The important ones being


    [Congratulations on having completed the warrior graduation exam at highest difficulty while being at level 1 and no offensive skills.


    You have broken common sense many times during the test thus


    You gain the Title: Broken. People recognize you as someone on whom common sense doesn¡¯t apply


    +10 to all stats]


    "What the hell!!?? The system is making fun of me!"


    [Due to passing the test level up x4]


    [Due to surpassing enemies 30 times stronger than yourself level up x6


    Unlocked trait indomitable will: oppression will have no effect while facing enemies many times stronger than you]


    [Unlocked skill Ki gloves (Beginner lv 9:98%)


    Unlocked skill Ki armor (Beginner lv 9:10%)


    Unlocked skill Ki heal (Beginner lv 5: 20%)


    Unlocked skill inner palm strike (Beginner lv 9:99%)


    Unlocked skill Ki infusion (Beginner lv 3:40%)


    Unlocked skill unarmed combat mastery(Beginner lv 9:99%)


    ]


    [Due to constantly dodging deadly blows by a small margin you have unlocked the trait


    Evasiveness: You will be harder to hit when moving]


    [Str +10, Agility+30, Dexterity +20, Int +10, wis +10, spirit +20]


    Logan was hit by a barrage of such notifications. Clearly, he had greatly benefited from the test. He also reached level 10 just like that! Though it was by no means an easy fight


    Logan¡¯s status screen looked somewhat like this


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Name: LOGAN</td><td>Level: 10</td></tr><tr><td>Race: Mutated human( Wolf, Humming bird)</td><td>Class: N/A</td></tr><tr><td>HP: 800     Regen: 5/15 secs</td><td>Energy: 910+228    Regen: 5/10 secs</td></tr><tr><td>Stamina: 900       Regen: 5/5 secs</td><td>Ki: 1000 Purity 30%</td></tr><tr><td>Strength: 70+10</td><td>Agility: 90+10</td></tr><tr><td>Intelligence: 71+10</td><td>Wisdom: 71+10</td></tr><tr><td>Dexterity: 80+10</td><td>Spirit: 10+10</td></tr><tr><td>Vitality: 60+10</td><td>Defense:60+10</td></tr><tr><td>Mind: 60+10</td><td>Luck: 10+10</td></tr><tr><td>unassigned stat points: 50</td><td>Title : Broken. People recognize you as someone on whom common sense doesn¡¯t apply


    +10 to all stats</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Passive Effects</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Way of the wolf:</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Night vision: Ability to see in the dark


    Enhanced senses: 20% increased hearing and smell senses.


    Enhanced reactions: 50% increase to movement speed and reaction speed</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Way of the humming bird:</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Air step: Step on a platform of air to change directions in mid-air at the cost of 50 energy


    Instant step: Move 5 meters at high speed in any direction at the cost of 50 energy


    Enhanced reflexes: 80% increase to reaction speed.</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Skills</td></tr><tr><td>cosmetic makeover(lv N/A)</td><td>Gains ability to make small changes to your appearance


    Will be dismissed upon entering combat


    Will be dismissed at scan stations


    Usage: 5 energy upon activation and 1energy per minute to maintain.</td></tr><tr><td>Ki gloves (Beginner lv 9:98%)</td><td>Coat Your arms in a glove made up of Ki to make it harder.


    ATK+20, DEF+20.


    Cost: 100 Ki</td></tr><tr><td>Ki armor (Beginner lv 9:10%)</td><td>Cover yourself in armor made of Ki


    Can withstand attacks upto 100 damage


    Cost: Chest armor:200 Ki


    gauntlets:50 Ki each


    Leg armor: 200 Ki</td></tr><tr><td>Ki heal (Beginner lv 5: 20%)</td><td>Heal yourself and others through direct contact with your Ki


    +10 Hp/50 Ki</td></tr><tr><td>inner palm strike (Beginner lv 9:99%)</td><td>Does a damage of 100


    ignores physical defenses


    cost:100 ki per strike</td></tr><tr><td>Ki infusion (Beginner lv 3:40%)</td><td>Infuse your ki to externaloblects for a small burst upon impact


    1 dmg per 5 points of Ki infused</td></tr><tr><td>unarmed combat mastery (Beginner lv 9:99%)</td><td>Increases damage when attacking with bare hands by 20%</td></tr><tr><td>meditation (Beginner lv1)</td><td>Improves Ki and energy regen by 50%</td></tr><tr><td>Ki sensing(Beginner lv 9:99%)</td><td>Allows you to sense all the energies in your surroundings and inside yourself.


    Range: 6.5 meters. Energy+25%. Staminal consumption -25%</td></tr><tr><td>Ki manipulation (Beginner LV 9:99%)</td><td>Allows you to manipulate Ki easily and use skills with Ki more efficiently.


    +10% to speed of improvement to skills involving Ki</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Logan was greatly surprised with the improvements in his skills.


    "Many skills are stuck at lv9. i wonder what i must do to get past that. But before that i better log-out. I''ve been in the game for nearly 15 hours.


    I gotta pee"


    and logged off


    [size=medium


    (5 stat points are added to all stats except spirit and luck for each level till level 20)


    ]====================================================================[/size]


    A/N: Sorry about the short chapter. I was busy

 Chapter 9 Homecoming

    After logging off Logan first went to finish his business in the toilet. Then he placed a call to his mother through the altor.


    "Hi mom, are you busy?" enquired logan in a curious tone.


    "Yes Logan but there is always time for you. We are monitoring the systems and so far everything seems fine!" replied lucy.


    She was one of the head programmers of the game and was monitoring the working of the systems so that there were not any problems on thr release day itself.


    "Forget about me tell me about your expreience in the game!" asked lucy excitedly.


    "It was awesome mom! I cant believe the quality of graphics in-game. It was simply mind blowing. And the mechanics for fighting are totally realistic" replied logan equally excited.


    "You already had a fight? Against what? and what race did u choose? Let me guess, mutated human with the wolf and hawk right?" said lucy implying that she totally knew what her son would do.


    "Yes, yes you know me too well mom, i did choose mutated human with wolf but insted of hawk i chose humming bird" agreed Logan.


    "Humming bird? are you serious? That is a very rare mutation that can be upgraded. How did you get your hands on it so quickly??" asked lucy in a shocked voice.


    "I was the first person to log in to the game so i got a reward to choose between 3 rare races. I went for the humming bird.


    And what''s this about upgrading the mutation? That wasnt mentioned anywhere" enquired logan in a suspicious voice.


    "Umm that''s nothing, you didn''t hear anything from me. And congratulations on getting a rare mutation right off the bat! What''s your level son?" Lucy tried changing the topic.


    Logan felt that his mother blurted out something that he was not supposed to hear. So not wanting her to get in to trouble he kept the topic in the back of his mind and let her change the topic.


    "I know what you are trying to do mom. You owe me one OK. I''m currently level ten"


    "Can you say that again?" asked lucy in a very serious voice"


    "I''m currently level 10. What''s wrong mom, you sound very serious"


    "Reaching level 10 in such a short time is practically not possible. Are you sure that you are level 10?" Lucy continued asking in a very serious tone.


    "Yes mom i double checked my status table. It said level 10 and i also got the stat points from the level ups" answered Logan.


    "Okay Logan, i think there must be some bug that caused this. Can you recount what ever happened after you logged in?"


    "Ok mom i''ll tell you." After that Logan continued to tell his mom everything that happened in game. He didn''t leave out anything realizing that something was wrong.


    "Ok Logan i think i know what the bug is. You see a person who is level 1 has very limited stamina so he can only last for 15 maybe 20 minutes in a prolonged fight.


    But you kept fighting for hours altogether. So there must be a bug in the stamina mechanics. I''ll have someone check it out.


    And i''m sorry Logan but they will have to cut down your levels and skills."


    "What! But mom that''s unfair! I fought that long and got the levels!"


    "I understand that it''s unfair but you have to be reasonable. You couldn''t fight that long as a level 1!


    Usually people who report a bug a given some kind of compensation. I''ll try to get them to keep your skills ok?" Lucy tried reasoning with him.


    "uhh. I understand but that doesn''t mean i''m not upset ok? I''ll not play the game for today. I don''t want to see the loss" said logan sounding upset.


    "Hey cheer up boy. Think of it like this, you get to go against the robots again! and train more too !" Lucy made an attempt to cheer him up.


    "Stop making lousy attempts to cheer me up ok? i''m not a kid!" said Logan indignantly.


    "Fine, fine, i''ll stop. So if you are not going to play what are your plans?" Lucy changed the topic again.


    "Maybe i''ll go for a run now. After that i don''t know. My friends are all playing the game so i doubt they will come to hang out" said Logan sounding thoughtful.


    "Do what you want then. I have a job to do. Love you!"


    "Love you too mom. Cya" said logan and dropped the call.


    He was still a bit upset and decided that a run was just what he needed to take his mind off the game. He noted the time. It was just past 6 in the evening.


    There was still some daylight outside. Logan decided to go to his parkour circuit for his run.


    It was near his apartment and he usually went there for his morning run. He went there and proceeded to run the highest difficulty course a few times.


    By the time he was drenched in sweat, an hour had already passed and darkness was almost completely set.


    Logan decided that he had enough and returned home. He was showering when he got a call from his mother.


    "Did you cool down yet?" she asked concerned.


    "Yes mom it was nothing." said logan nonchalantly.


    "Well what do you say to the idea of returning home?" she asked.


    "Why now mom?"


    "What do you mean why now! i am your mother and i always want to see you! You didn''t come home this term even once! We miss you here.


    Anyway it''s holidays and your friends will all be busy with the game, so why not come here?" she tried to persuade him.


    Logan''s uncle had gone missing from the start of his term. He missed his uncle and going home would remind him of his uncle.


    That is why he was reluctant to return home even though he missed his parents too.


    "Mom, i don''t know" he tried hedging the answer.


    "Well then this ought to convince you, Claire is back. Came by today to meet me. Looking good by the way" said lucy bemusedly.


    "I''M ON MY WAY! AND NEXT TIME YOU BETTER OPEN YOUR ARGUMENT WITH THAT STATEMENT!" shouted Logan as he hurriedly finished his shower and proceeded to throw some basic necessities into a bag.


    "Ha ha ha! It''s such fun teasing you! No worries i knew you would come home when you hear this so i already booked a ticket for you.


    The flight is in 30 minutes. Now chop chop!" said lucy, clearly amused.


    "You are the best mother ever! I''ll see you in 2 hours then" replied Logan in a hurry and dropped the call.


    He locked his apartment, and took the duffel bag with him which contained some clothes and souvenirs for his parents and friends that he had purchased during the term.


    He hailed a taxi and quickly got to an airport. The airport was a truly modern piece of work.


    Check-ins were instantaneous and there were no ques to wait in. Tickets were all purchased before hand or in a case of emergency can be purchased on spot too.


    There were no delays in the flight timings at all. And the most different things about airports of this time as compared to the old ones was the lack of runways.


    There were only landing pads for the various planes as all planes had the capacity to vertically take-off and land.


    The passenger planes looked like stealth jet fighters, all sleek and aerodynamic. Logan boarded one of such planes and sat in his seat comfortably.


    The planes could fly at mach 2 speeds and thus he would reach California in 2 hours.


    Logan was very very excited and looking forward to meeting his friend. Claire had been his first friend.


    Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    Claire and logan were inseparable since their childhood and even now they were the best of friends. Logan even favored claire between his group of best friends.


    The others knew this and didn''t object to it. They were practically siblings from different mothers.


    It had been almost four years since he had seen claire. In their 11th grade,there had been an incident that caused claire to leave town and move elsewhere.


    They had been talking on the altor but it was nowhere near the experience of spending time in each other''s company.


    Logan dozed off to happy memories and was woken up by the announcement of imminent landing.


    Logan got off the plane and boarded a taxi to get home. His mother was doing some work on her work station. She saw him enter the home and gave him a hug. This clearly embarrassed Logan but he didn''t really mind, he missed her.


    "I know that you are anxious to meet claire but at least freshen up! You look like you just got up from sleep!" she reprimanded him


    "I dozed off on the flight thats all. But i still better wash my face and go" Logan relented after he saw his mother''s stern expression.


    Logan washed his face and said "Don''t wait up for me!" and ran off.


    There was no need for them to talk and decide upon a meeting place. They had not seen each other for a long time so he knew that claire would be in their favorite place.


    He ran to the park that was nearby and saw the silhouette of a person standing against the tree in the middle.


    Logan approached the person and now could see clearly the figure of a......lean and.....handsome boy standing there. Hints of muscle were visible under the T-shirt worn by the person.


    "Claire, you are looking good!" That''s right, the boy standing under the tree was claire.


    "Hey i go by Harry now, you know that"replied claire.


    "I know but it''s us here so it''s ok. I''ll call you harry in public ok?" replied Logan with a pleading face.


    "Heh sure, i can only agree after you show me that face" snickered claire.


    Logan just smiled.


    You see claire was a girl before. But she always hung out with Logan and his other guy friends.


    Soon she also started acting like a guy, almost like Logan himself. It was then that they found out that claire actually had the mind of a boy in the body of a girl.


    It was also proved with a psychological test. Upon claire''s request she underwent a sex change operation to be converted into a male.


    This was during their 11th grade. When claire returned as harry, even though his gender was officially male, the hormone therapy has not started acting yet and his body didn''t possess the strength of a male.


    That''s why harry was severely bullied and so he was forced to tranfer schools to a different city altogether so that nobosy knew of his situation.


    That was what everyone knew. But the actual truth was known only to claire and logan.


    When they were 8th grade, claire had overheard her parents arguing about their family situations. They were the primary heads of the family right now and the owners of a large sales corporation.


    But they had several uncles and cousins that were vying for the position. The position of the head only remained with them as long as they had a heir.


    But claire''s mother had damaged her uterus during childbirth due to ''unforeseen circumstances''. It was suspected that a member of the family had paid off the nurse to create the circumstance.


    So claire was the only child. But claire couldn''t be the heir because she was not male. It seems that the other family members were pressurizing them to give up the position of the head and they would lose the company.


    Claire was smart and knew that for her family''s safety there was only one thing that could be done. Get a male son to their parents.


    But an adopted child was not considered a heir, so the only choice was claire to become a male.


    Claire shared her thoughts with her only best friend logan. He was against it and pleaded with her to not do it. But she was stubborn and said that of her sacrifice would help her family she would do it.


    That was when they became sworn ''brothers''.


    Logan taught her all about being a boy. How to act, what to think, what to wear, what to play, how to speak etc.


    That was why they were inseparable and claire acted very similar to Logan. She learned being a man from Logan for 3 years.


    Both of them held each other close and cried the whole night before telling her family that something was wrong.


    She said that her thoughts were all that of a male but she was clearly female. She acted confused and scared. The scared part was real though.


    Her family brought her to a psychologist and he confirmed through some tests that claire''s mind was male.


    Claire and logan had studied up on what the tests would be so that she could pass of as a male. It was made easier with 3 years of ''being male'' training by Logan.


    After that she requested her parents for a sex change operation. They were shocked and ecstatic at the same time!


    Shocked that their only daughter was a son and happy that they finally can have a heir. With the technology of present times, the operation was no hassle and claire officially changed her name to Harry Walker.


    When Harry was claire she was a beauty with an attractive face and athletic, curvy body. Since she spent time doing ''male'' things with Logan she had gained a toned body that warranted a second look wherever she went.


    But that all changed in 11th grade when claire became harry. All her fans became her enemies. She disgusted them and they started jeering and booing ay her when the school announced the change.


    Even though her sex had changed he still looked feminine because the hormone therapy required a couple of weeks to fully take effect.


    Harry was by no means strong before and the operation had left him weak. This gave a great opportunity for the bullies.


    But Harry was successfully beaten up only once, when Logan had left him to get some food. The next day the bullies didn''t come to school due to broken bones.


    After that Logan stuck with Harry wherever he went. Then the bullies switched to psychological bullying. There was nothing Logan could do about it and soon it became too much to bear.


    So harry had to change schools and transfer to a city far away where no one was aware of the situation. This was when Logan became harry''s anchor and sole confidante.


    Logan knew harry inside out and knew that inside harry claire was still alive. So when it was only the two of them Logan called harry as claire and allowed her to act like a girl.


    Harry was very smart and so he had finished his business college a year earlier by skipping a grade and hurried to his hometown to meet his brother Logan.


    Both loved each other more than anyone else, not even their family. But this love cannot be defined as a romantic love, neither as a brotherly love. It was somewhere in between and they really didn''t care.


    They had finally met after a gap of 4 long years, and they jumped into each others arms and hugged each other as they had hugged on that fateful day when claire became harry.

 Chapter 10 Return

    After releasing each other from the embrace they took in each other¡¯s appearance for some time. Logan said ¡°Hey how come you have muscles? Did you start learning martial arts?¡±


    ¡°Surprise! I wanted to become strong like you so even I started to learn Kung-Fu. Sadly I don¡¯t have aptitude for Ki¡± said harry with a sad look.


    ¡°It¡¯s ok harry one of us has Ki so you need not worry!¡± Logan said the embarrassing line with a slight blush.


    ¡°Heh. Anyway practicing Kung-Fu gave me muscles and now I am starting to attract the attention of girls!¡± replied harry with an impish expression.


    ¡°Have you woken up to your lesbian tendencies??¡± voiced Logan sounding incredulous.


    ¡°Hey when you spend all day everyday around beautiful women saying you like women, you start to actually like women. And being a woman myself I am completely aware of how awesome women are!¡± justified harry.


    ¡°Ugh, I can¡¯t deal with this right now. So how do you like having a male body?¡± asked Logan.


    ¡°I like it! Though I like having the extra strength and the hassle free peeing with no monthly troubles, I do miss having breasts and ability to have men drooling whenever I want¡± said harry with a smug look.


    ¡°That is true, but women have it tough generally. I think it¡¯s good you have a male body, in a survival point of view¡± explained Logan.


    ¡°Meh, everything as pluses and minuses. Forget that tell me how is the game? Your mom said that you were playing it!¡± asked harry.


    ¡°The game is simply incredible. I¡¯ve only played for about 15 hours in game in which I was asleep for 4 hours, but I am simply enjoying it! You have to definitely start playing¡± demanded Logan.


    ¡°I will play but it won¡¯t be until after I finish meeting with the various heads of other organizations that I have to work with in the future. Now what¡¯s this about you sleeping for four hours?¡± asked harry.


    ¡°I¡¯ll tell you all about it. But first lets go up!¡± said Logan and started running towards the concrete pillar nearby.


    The cylindrical pillar was originally meant to be a communications tower but then abandoned halfway because the politician who approved the project was corrupt and he got caught. Now all that was remaining was a concrete pillar that was 7 stories high and overlooked the nearby neighborhood.


    ¡°Wait up!¡± shouted harry and took off after Logan. They both climbed the pillar and sat with their backs to each other.


    They started talking about mundane things and spent time till it was 3 in the morning.


    ¡°I have to leave now. If I don¡¯t go to sleep now I fear I¡¯ll sleep during the meeting. I¡¯ll call you later ok¡± said harry.


    ¡°Ok, good luck with your meetings and see you soon!¡± Logan bid him farewell, for now.


    Logan quickly returned home and stealthily entered his house so that his parents wouldn¡¯t wake up. He


    climbed up to his room on the first floor and fell asleep after keeping an alarm at 7. Even if he wouldn¡¯t get much sleep he wanted to catch his father before he went to work.


    Logan slept peacefully until the alarm notifications blared in his mind. He shut it off with a thought and went downstairs after washing up. He found his parents getting ready to have their breakfast.


    Logan went to his father and gave him an awkward, manly, half-hug and said¡± Long time no see dad. How are you?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m good son. It¡¯s good to see you after a long time. I see that it took harry to get you come home¡± said Robert in an accusing tone.


    ¡°Dad you know I¡¯ve been upset about uncle going missing and so I didn¡¯t wanna come home. But it¡¯s been so long since I saw harry so I didn¡¯t even think of not coming¡± said Logan.


    ¡°He knows that Logan, he is just teasing you¡± explained Lucy.


    ¡°Speaking of which how is the game coming along?¡± Logan quickly changed the topic.


    Logan¡¯s parents were very sharp and had already deduced the circumstances of Claire¡¯s conversion. When Claire announced that she was changing her sex, Logan acted shocked, which fooled everyone else but not his parents.


    It looked like he knew beforehand that this was going to happen. They did a little digging and found out about her family¡¯s situation.


    They also recalled that even if Claire acted male, most of her mannerisms were very similar to Logan. People credited this to spending too much time around Logan.


    But his parents knew better. They realized that Logan must have helped her these years to learn to be a man and that¡¯s why he was not truly surprised.


    But they also knew that Logan had started having special feeling towards Claire and feeling bad for him for being stuck in such a situation. They knew that he wanted to bury those feelings now but it was not so easy.


    That is why they let the topic about Harry drop and started talking about the game.


    ¡°This game has gotten an unprecedented level of success not seen in any games before! The number of people logging in was in the number of millions in this country alone!¡± said his father excitedly.


    ¡°There were a few bugs and glitches that were found but they were small and fixed without much issue. Speaking of bugs, I found out what was wrong with your character.¡± Said Lucy.


    ¡°Something wrong? What happened to his character?¡± asked Robert.


    ¡°Did you know that he reached level ten yesterday in below 10 hours? He passed the graduation test in the training centers after unlocking Ki¡± said Lucy.


    ¡°Heh that¡¯s my son for you!¡± exclaimed Robert.


    ¡°That was not your son you idiot that was due to a bug. I don¡¯t think you are supposed to know this yet but you will find out anyway so I¡¯ll tell you.


    When a person unlocks a type of energy that he wants to use the stamina and energy pools along with their regens all combine together to form a single large pool with high regen.


    This is the most common case. For example someone who wants to use magic has to first unlock mana. When he unlocks mana his stamina and energy pools are combined with the mana pool. So he can only use techniques that use mana.


    A pure fighter will unlock another pool of energy and they will get combined. A pure human who unlocked Ki will also have his stamina, energy and Ki combined. But a mutated human has the chance to do this manually.


    It seems that because there was no person in the beta test that used Ki, a certain bug was left out. If a mutated human unlocked Ki, then before merging the pools, the stamina pool will not go below 1. You stop being able to move only after your stamina hits 0.


    Since you still had 1 stamina you could fight for hours together. We already fixed it¡± explained Lucy.


    ¡°Then how do I combine the pools? And you talked as if doing it manually was advantageous.¡± Inquired Logan.


    ¡°I¡¯ll tell you about that. You see for everyone else, it just adds the amount and regens also are calculated using a formula. This is default.


    But for you, you can manually combine the pools in the DNA editor menu. I designed it personally and I know that you will love it. By doing it manually you can optimize the body. And I¡¯m not talking about only the energy pools, if you know what I mean¡± said Robert while winking at Logan.


    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    ¡°Oh that¡¯s cool¡± said Logan while contemplating the uses of this information.


    ¡°Well then we have to go Logan. We will be home by 6 in the evening if nothing comes up.¡± Said Lucy while getting up from the table.


    Logan saw his parents off to work and sat down to eat breakfast himself.


    ¡°If the DNA editor is designed by father it might be similar to the one used in real world and works on the same principle as in DNA engineering.


    It might be a good idea to take a look at the wolf and humming bird DNA in real life before I head into the game¡± said Logan out loud to himself.


    That said Logan started looking through his father¡¯s DNA database that was accessible only to Robert, Logan and Lucy.


    It was Robert¡¯s personal collection of information on various DNAs and was much more detailed than the regular ones found online.


    Logan took note of the DNA information on wolf and humming bird in his mind and went to shower. After which he proceeded to link up with the HIVE in his room and log-in to the game.


    After logging in Logan found himself in the same bed as before. In game almost 3 days had passed since he logged in. Just then he got a notification.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''2''>Attention Player, it has been determined that your previous actions were possible because of a system bug.


    As you were not aware of the bug during the said actions and later reported it, your level has been reset to one and your stats all returned to what they were before the said actions.


    As compensation you are allowed to keep your skills and title but the skills proficiencies have been reset to 1.


    Thank you</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Logan knew this was going to happen but that did not stop him from punching the wall beside him in anger.


    He wanted to beat the shit out of something and before he could go on a property destruction spree, he remembered his father¡¯s words and decided to check out the DNA editor.


    He looked at the menu and the DNA editor was neatly hidden away in the customization tab. He entered the menu and found himself standing in a white room similar to character creation room.


    In front of him he could see the various DNA strands intermingling with each other in a complex web that would confuse anybody.


    But Logan had worked with DNA since he was a kid and knew what to do. Even the device was a technologically more advanced version of what they had in reality.


    That is why he knew what to do.


    He gave the command to separate the DNA strands according to species and he could now see 3 separate columns with the picture of a human, a wolf and a bird above each of them.


    He zoomed in on the DNA strands and saw blocks that represented the various properties that it affected.


    The blocks were interlinked with each other in a complex web. Logan knew that the block that was directly attached to another block would have greater effect than the one that was attached though another. He also knew that not all DNA were compatible with each other.


    The wolf and humming bird DNA were not compatible but were also not incompatible. This gave only average results.


    The Wolf was linked to the human and the humming bird was linked to the wolf.


    Logan separated the humming bird from the wolf and attached it directly to human from the other side.


    This made the order as humming bird-human-wolf. The human DNA had all the energy pools but the animals affected the regen rate.


    The humming bird had highest energy regen so after linking the respective energy pools Logan linked then to the humming bird¡¯s regen block first and then human and wolf through the humming bird. This gave maximum regen rate.


    Then he closely observed the humming bird DNA. It seemed to have some loose ends. This meant that the DNA he had was not complete and that there was something that could be added to this, possibly improving it.


    That¡¯s when he remembered his mom¡¯s slip of tongue about up-gradable mutations. He decided to look into it later. He noticed the part about cosmetic influence and set the value to 0. He did the same to the wolf, so now he would look the same even during combat.


    After reviewing the changes, he hit save and exited the editor. He felt the changes instantly. He felt more in-tune with his body then before. Just then notifications alerted him to the changes.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''2''>Through manual manipulations you have combined your stamina, energy and Ki pools and have achieved maximum regeneration rate possible for the configuration</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Ki+200.


    You can only use Ki techniques hence forth.


    Racial abilities have been changed to use Ki</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''2''>Tinkering with your DNA has given good results. Now you can harness the abilities of your mutations more easily</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Instant step¡¯s range has increased to 8 meters. You gave gained complete vision.


    Able to visualize the sounds and smells in the environment to differentiate between them and find out the source</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Logan as ecstatic after reading this! He got extra Ki and his favorite ability¡¯s range had increased by 3 meters.


    And true vision would be valuable while tracking something/someone.


    He decided to take a look at his status table.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Name: LOGAN</td><td>Level: 1</td></tr><tr><td>Race: Mutated human( Wolf, Humming bird)</td><td>Class: N/A</td></tr><tr><td>HP: 210 Regen: 1/15 secs</td><td>Ki: 1630 Regen  1/sec</td></tr><tr><td>Strength: 20</td><td>Agility: 20</td></tr><tr><td>Intelligence: 21</td><td>Wisdom: 21</td></tr><tr><td>Dexterity: 20</td><td>Spirit: 20</td></tr><tr><td>Vitality: 20</td><td>Defense:20</td></tr><tr><td>Mind: 20</td><td>Luck: 20</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Title: Broken Add +10 to all Stats</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Passive Effects</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Way of the wolf:</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Night vision: Ability to see in the dark


    Complete Vision:Able to visualize the sounds and smells in the environment to differentiate between them and find out the source


    Enhanced reactions: 50% increase to movement speed and reaction speed</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Way of the humming bird:</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Air step: Step on a platform of air to change directions in mid-air at the cost of 50 energy


    Instant step: Move 8 meters at high speed in any direction at the cost of 50 energy


    Enhanced reflexes: 80% increase to reaction speed.</td></tr></tbody></table>

 Chapter 11

    Logan closed the status table and proceeded to get up from the bed. That¡¯s when he heard someone say


    ¡°You are finally here. We have been waiting for you¡±.


    Logan turned around to see Darien and a thin guy standing there. The one who spoke was darien.


    ¡°Ah yes, I have been meaning to ask you but why did you suddenly throw me into the graduation testing room? I almost died many times! And I would really be dead without a certain accident¡± said Logan sounding angry.


    ¡°Uh, about that, let me first introduce you to Thren. He is the headmaster of this training hall and also the one who asked me to put you in the hall¡± said Darien pointing to the man beside him.


    ¡°Are you really the head master? Do you always try to kill people visiting you?¡± said Logan while looking skeptical.


    He found it hard to believe that the thin man could be a head master. But he also knew that muscles are not needed for actual strength.


    ¡°Yes I am the head master. When you first entered the training hall I sensed that you had talent for Ki. I merely wanted to test the extent of your talent. Honestly your talent in ki is beyond what I expected.


    As for you dying there, the training room was modified for you foreigner¡¯s arrival so you dying would not have any effect on you except negate any gains you had during the training.


    What I didn¡¯t expect that you would keep fighting for hours together and pass the training. Though it is not counted as completed because of the accident¡± explained Thren looking apologetic.


    ¡°You know about that? How?¡± asked Logan looking surprised.


    ¡°Yes, we got a message through god¡¯s window that the gods accidentally made it that you would not run out of stamina, and that they have taken the blessing away now. While it may be unfortunate that that happened it still allowed me to understand the full extent of your talent.¡± said Thren.


    ¡°Uh-huh, so what do you think?¡± asked Logan curiously.


    ¡°I think you are well suited for unarmed combat with usage ok Ki and I would like to take you in as my disciple. Will you accept?¡± asked Thren out of the blue.


    ¡°Huh, me become your disciple? But I only asked for a place to train not a teacher! I know how to use Ki I just need to practice them¡± said Logan surprised.


    ¡°I presumed as much. It seems that you are well informed in the normal usage of Ki. But let me ask you, now that you have converted your energy to Ki, how will you deal area damage? How will you deal with mages? Without mana you will not be able to cast magic¡± asked Thren.


    ¡°Uh I don¡¯t know. Maybe I¡¯ll close in with a movement technique and deal with them in close range.¡± Logan


    tried to explain lamely.


    ¡°That¡¯s not going to work. Mages have their own ways of dealing in close range. With your knowledge of Ki you will only be good in close range.


    Maybe mid-range with that racial skill of yours. But you can forget about long range. But if become my apprentice you can do this¡± said Thren and made some hand seals and pointed his right hand at the training dummy visible in the next room through the door way while keeping all his fingers except thumb, index and middle finger closed.


    It looked like he was pointing a gun at the dummy. Suddenly Logan felt a huge flux of energy and lighting appeared at the tip of his fingers and arced to the dummy he was pointing to. The dummy exploded with a loud BANG instantly.


    All this happened before Logan could even blink.


    ¡°Can you do that? You can devastate your opponent from afar or if you have multiple opponents do area attacks.¡± Said Thren with a smug looking face that seemed to say ¡®I¡¯m the best¡¯.


    ¡°Ok that was cool. And you are saying I can do that too?¡± asked Logan eagerly.


    ¡°Yes you can but only if you strictly follow my orders for training. You will have to work very hard and I guarantee that you will wish you were dead¡± said Thren.


    The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°Don¡¯t care, I¡¯m all for hard work. I just need to learn that skill¡± said Logan.


    Logan knew that the skill of using Ki to affect the outside world was lost in the real world. His uncle did not now the skill and he had no other source of knowing the skill.


    Hence he jumped at the chance of learning it in game so that he could apply it in real life.


    ¡°So then, now you are officially my disciple. If you have any work that needs to be completed, do it and then return.


    We will start your training when you return. Remember you cannot leave before you complete the training.¡± Said Thren.


    ¡°Yes master, I will complete any outstanding tasks and return.¡± Said Logan.


    With that Logan left the training hall and went towards the center of the town to complete some basic quests.


    After Logan left Darien asked Thren ¡°You did not tell him about the responsibility that comes with being your disciple.


    You should have informed him about such a dangerous thing before accepting him¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know how he will react to the news. I think it will be good if I tell him after the training, so that way even if he rejects, at least he will know the basic skills even if he doesn¡¯t know the main skills.


    My class comes with untold dangers but also grants unparalleled power. I hope he is as strong hearted as I expected and accepts the class when the time comes.¡± Said Thren sounding hopeful.


    ¡°I still think you should explain it to him before you start so that if he is a coward he can quit before wasting your time or if he is brave he gets more motivation to work hard.


    After all there can only be one DRAGON-SLAYER at a time¡±.


    ===============================================================================


    At the same time, somewhere in the real world,


    ¡°Sir, good news! I have managed to find the tracks of Kirito.¡± Exclaimed a tall guy wearing glasses.


    ¡°Good, good. Tell me¡± said the fat guy sitting on a chair that looked that it would breakdown any moment because of his weight.


    This was the guy that was hunting Kirito after his family was killed by him.


    ¡°We found his name while going through the ODIN database. It seems he works for them as an enforcer.¡± Said the guy wearing glasses.


    ODIN was an organization that was formed by the coalition of all the governments after the revolution. The people abusing DNA tampering and doing illegal activities were becoming impossible to control.


    That is when the governments got together and put up a task force to deal with them.


    After the success of the task force, it was officially made into an organization and given authority to exterminate the products of illegal DNA tampering and prosecute anybody accused of crimes pertaining to DNA without any fear.


    ODIN was deemed to be incorruptible. It had a unit of operatives known as enforcers who were responsible for killing the monsters born from DNA tampering as well as taking care of dangerous criminal organizations.


    ¡°According to ODIN records, the last mission he was assigned to was killing your family.


    It was reported as a success. I couldn¡¯t get any address from the database.


    But we know how he looks now so it¡¯s only a matter of time before his current location is known to us¡± reported the glasses guy.


    ¡°That¡¯s very good work. Keep me posted, I have too much work to do if I have to bring back my family from the dead¡± said the fat guy.

 Suggestions

    Guys whoever read this novel, I need your suggestions cuz I''m stuck.


    I don''t know whether you guys prefer to have harry/Claire continue or not.


    Also should I continue with a villian in real life or end that part quickly.


    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    I am in a dilemma. I can do both but I''m not sure which you guys would like to see. So give me your input so that I can decide

 Chapter 12 First Quest

    After leaving the training hall Logan moved towards the city center where he appeared first.


    ¡°Since starting the game I haven¡¯t yet played it in a traditional sense, I¡¯ve just been spending my time fighting or talking. I¡¯m supposed to do some quests to gain experience I think. I¡¯ll look for some easy quests and then return to train.¡±


    With that Logan arrived at the city center where people were still appearing from starting the game. He looked around and saw an old lady trying to drag a heavy bag somewhere.


    Logan went to her and offered to help. That¡¯s how he ended up at the door step of the old lady who owns the food store.


    ¡°Thanks young man, these old bones could take it easy thanks to you. As a reward you can have these¡± said the old lady and gave him a few fruits that looked like bananas.


    ¡°Thanks, uh miss. Can I ask you a question?¡± said Logan.


    ¡°MISS! OMG did you just call me MISS! Nobody has called me miss in 30 years! Just call me granny, boy. Now what was it that you wanted to ask me?¡± exclaimed granny.


    ¡°Granny, I wanted to know how these energy capsules work. They seem to fill my hunger but they don¡¯t have a taste and they are too small to actually fill my stomach.¡± Asked Logan curiously.


    ¡°Of course it¡¯s too small to fill your stomach. It doesn¡¯t stay in your stomach for more than a minute. As soon as you swallow it, it dissolves and enters your blood stream and directly provides you energy, thus satisfying your hunger.


    Though you are not actually hungry, the feeling of wanting something to eat doesn¡¯t go away so it¡¯s advisable to eat normal food if possible.


    But energy capsules have their advantages too. You see food spoils after some days. But energy capsules don¡¯t.


    They are also small in size and easy to carry. As for how they are made, you can say it¡¯s a branch of alchemy¡± explained granny.


    ¡°Alchemy huh, can you teach me how to make energy capsules?¡± asked Logan.


    ¡°Boy do you know what you are asking? Think that you need 5 fruits to fill your hunger and each fruit costs 3 copper, that¡¯s 15 coppers.


    But a single energy capsule fills your hunger yet costs 25 coppers. You are basically asking me to hand over my money making business to you?¡± scolded granny.


    ¡°Energy capsules are that expensive! I didn¡¯t know, I¡¯m sorry. I thought that since I keep disappearing for days on end it¡¯s advisable to have a few capsules at hand and so better to know how to make capsules if I¡¯m not around any people.¡± Explained Logan while apologizing.


    ¡°That¡¯s ok boy. What I just said was for the high quality capsule with extra added effects. I can teach you the skill for basic capsule making only. But first you have to complete a task of mine. Are you willing?¡±


    asked granny.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''2''>You have received a request for a quest.</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>The granny at the food shop is asking you to complete a request in return for the capsule making skill.


    Difficulty: F.


    Rewards: Capsule making (basic) Skill.


    Do you accept?</td></tr><tr><td>YES</td><td>NO</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ¡°Oh my first quest! Looks like they can generate quests as they want without any prior notice. Might as well accept it, I will get a skill that¡¯s useful¡±


    ¡°Yes¡± Logan accepted the quest.


    ¡°Fine then. First take these, go to the pastures in the east side of town. There you will find creatures called ceva.


    Feed them this and wait for a few hours. Then they will start dropping dung. Your task is to collect 100 dung droppings and bring them to me. It is a very important alchemical ingredient.¡± Said granny and gave him a bag of fruits. The fruits looked like apples but were blue in color.


    ¡°What are these fruits? And how do the ceva look?¡± asked Logan.


    ¡°Those fruits are poisonous to humans boy, don¡¯t try to eat them. If ceva eat them, they produce a particular chemical that gets released in their dung. That¡¯s why I need the dung. Got it? The ceva look like this¡± with that said, granny showed him a picture.


    The ceva looked suspiciously like cows.


    ¡°Oh this is just great. My first quest is to pick up cow dung! Mom will tease me about this for weeks! I don¡¯t have a choice anyway, I need that skill. Might as well get this over with¡±


    This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.


    After that Logan went to the pastures and found the ceva, and proceeded to feed them the fruits. They were surprisingly friendly after he fed them and started grazing the grass around the pasture.


    The granny said it will take a few hours for the dung to drop so Logan decided to improve his skills and proceeded to practice striking the trees and getting used to instant step.


    Logan continued practicing his skills against the trees for 5 hours, resting only to recover his Ki and stamina.


    While resting he checked up on the ceva and found that they dropped a unit of dung every hour. As soon as they dropped the dung Logan would feed them another fruit and collect the dung.


    Fortunately, he didn¡¯t need to touch it, he could directly deposit it in his inventory as quest items and Logan was very thank full for this system.


    There were 20 cevas in the pasture and it took 5 hours to finally collect 100 dung units.


    Logan had emptied his stock of fruits and water while practicing, since working depleted his satiety bars pretty quickly.


    Feeling thank full that it was finally over, he started returning to the granny¡¯s store.


    On the way he checked out his skills and their proficiency had increased by 2 for all the skills.


    ¡°Looks like the proficiency don¡¯t gain that much if I don¡¯t fight live opponents. It¡¯s given that I won¡¯t improve by just fighting stationary targets in real life, looks like that carried over here too.¡±


    Logan reached the granny¡¯s store and he knocked on the door since the store was closed.


    ¡°Who is it?¡± came a shout from inside.


    ¡°It¡¯s me! Logan. I finished collecting the dung¡± shouted Logan.


    ¡°Door¡¯s open, come in¡± said granny.


    Logan pushed open the door and entered the store. The store was empty but there was a door inside that was open and sounds of cutlery could be heard.


    Curious, Logan peeped inside and saw that granny was cooking something.


    ¡°What are doing peeping in like that boy? Come in and give me a hand here.¡± Said granny.


    Intrigued, Logan went in and was about to help granny carry the pot when she hit his hand with a spoon and said ¡°Don¡¯t you know hygiene boy? Wash your hands before you touch the food¡± scolded granny.


    Remembering that he was practicing the whole time and he felt a bit sweaty, he asked directions to the bathroom and washed himself.


    After that he helped granny carry over the pot and other utensils over to the table.


    ¡°Come boy, sit, you must be tired. I doubt you have had your lunch. Care to give this old lady company?¡±


    asked granny.


    ¡°Sure, I¡¯ve been working on my skills while waiting for the ceva to drop the dung and I feel famished even though I ate all the fruits you gave me.¡± Said Logan after sitting down.


    ¡°Then help yourself to the food, eat all you want¡± said granny and both proceeded to eat their lunch.


    Logan felt that the food was very tasty and ate to his heart¡¯s content or in this case his stomach¡¯s content.


    After which they cleaned up and sat down. Logan had dropped the dung in a container.


    ¡°So now that you have completed the task, here, take this. This is your reward¡± saying that granny gave Logan a memory card similar to the one that the guard captain gave.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''2''>You have gained the sill Capsule Making (basic).</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Allows you to convert food items to capsules for storage


    Cost: 200 energy.</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>1:1 effectiveness of food consumables. (Capsule formed recovers the same amount of satiety that would have recovered if individual ingredients were consumed independently)</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Happy after learning the skill, Logan bid granny farewell and went to find other quests. Logan completed to other quests that day of collecting herbs and babysitting, for which he got experience and 20 coppers as reward, he finally leveled up to lv2.

 Chapter 13 Class info

    Hello people, it has been some time since i posted a chapter. I was busy with real life stuff and my finals. It''s finally over and now i have time to resume writing. I''ll try to dish out a chapter everyday


    +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+


    Logan reached the training hall and found instructor Thren.


    ¡°Uh what do I call you? Instructor or master or teacher?¡± asked Logan.


    ¡°Call me master. Are you ready to start your training?¡± asked Thren.


    ¡°Yes master. I¡¯m ready¡± replied Logan.


    ¡°Then let¡¯s begin. You will stay in a different wing of the training hall during the training period and will not have contact with anyone but me.


    You are not allowed to discuss the contents of our training with anybody else. When you completely finish the training you will receive the class and the skills pertaining to the class. The name of the class is confidential till you complete the training. After completion there will be a test for upgrading your legendary hidden class to a unique hidden class. If you pass you will receive the unique class. If you fail you will still have the original rare class. In both cases, you will receive missions pertaining to your class and you will have to complete them to progress further in your class.¡± Explained Thren.


    ¡°What do you mean rare hidden class and unique hidden class? And what does progressing the class mean?¡± asked Logan sounding curious.


    ¡°In this world everyone has a class. But not all classes are well known. Classes such as mage, warrior, assassin etc. are the most popular and well known.


    Their advantages are that they are easy to obtain and progress. But the drawback is that since they are so well known, counter-measures for the classes are also well known.


    That will be a disadvantage in combat. As for the hidden classes, they are not well published and most people don¡¯t know the skills and abilities of the class.


    This makes it harder to obtain and progress but it¡¯s worth is shown in combat since the opponents are not aware of your capabilities. Hidden classes are classified based on the difficulty and rarity.


    Rare hidden class is difficult to obtain but can be obtained by self-training. For example there is a hidden rare class called gunsmith.


    Anybody who fights with guns and swords simultaneously are awarded this class. It¡¯s difficult to obtain because the exact requirements are not known but it¡¯s achievable.


    Legendary hidden class is a class that can only be learned from a master. No matter what you do, you cannot get the class on your own. The class you get upon completion of this training is a legendary class that I will grant you.


    Unique class is as the name says, unique. There can only be one person with that class. For example there can only be one person with the class POPE.


    The only way to get this class is if the current class holder passes it on. If he doesn¡¯t pass it on before death, then it will return to its original position from where the first user got it.


    Progressing the class means unlocking additional abilities of the class. When people first receive the class only the first tier classes are unlocked. You will have to do missions pertaining to your class to unlock the next tier abilities. ¡°Explained Thren.


    Whoa that¡¯s a lot of information. So I¡¯m getting a legendary hidden class on completion? That¡¯s sweet! Wonder what the unique class is gonna be? No use thinking about it. Let¡¯s get this show going then!


    ¡°I¡¯m ready master. What should it do?¡± said Logan eagerly.


    ¡°Come with me¡± said Thren and started moving towards the left wing of the training hall.


    They reached a door that had a bio-metric scanner. Thren placed his hand on the scanner and the door opened. They entered the door and Logan found an open courtyard with a small artificial pond and bamboo plants.


    There was a small detached building that looked like a single room house.


    ¡°You will be living here from now till the end of the training. Only I can go in and come out of that door. I¡¯ll bring the meals with me.


    There is a bathroom and bed in that building. Your training will commence in this courtyard. This environment was made specifically to help in sensing energy.¡± Explained Thren.


    What a beautiful place, makes one feel close to nature. Maybe that¡¯s why it helps to sense energy. Well this place is going to be my residence or the foreseeable future in the game. I have train diligently and gain that skill. I have to understand it¡¯s principles if I wish to replicate it in real world.


    This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    ¡°Since it¡¯s evening right now I¡¯ll leave you be. Mediate and purify your Ki. I¡¯ll have dinner delivered at the door. Then sleep. We will start your training tomorrow.¡± Said Thren, after which he left through the door.


    Well I better start to meditate then


    Logan sat cross legged on the ground near the pond and started to meditate. He repeated the steps that he first followed wile awakening his Ki.


    He gradually shut down his senses and visualized his inner energy. Then he moved his focus t the external energy, took control of it and bought it inside himself and melded it with the inner energy.


    The gaseous Ki was added to his dantian. Now he proceeded to cleanse his Ki of impurities.


    These impurities are formed during the melding of inner and external energy. Not all of it perfectly fused. Some part of it results in failure.


    The external and internal energies seem to negate each other but since they are not equal, some part gets left behind as impurity. This impurity is of no use to the practitioner and only serves to decrease the control over his Ki and reduce the space available to store Ki. Therefore it is necessary to improve the Ki¡¯s quality by removing the impurities.


    Logan used his spirit to form a sieve like structure and proceeded to pass his Ki through the sieve. The largest clumps of impurities were left behind which Logan expelled from his body through his nose as a black gas. He repeated this process again and again until he was mentally fatigued and then stopped.


    He had already been training for 3 hours. Since he was now moving about, his fatigue was not reflected on his status but he felt tired. Logan then went to the door and found a small basket that held rice cakes and some fruits. Taking them as dinner, Logan entered the house.


    The house was furnished with a table and a chair with a simple single bed that had a mattress that felt fluffy. Logan ate his dinner, slept on the bed and logged out while feeling anticipation and excitement over the next day¡¯s training.


    +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=


    In the real world,


    Harry had a good night¡¯s sleep while thinking of Logan after returning from their reunion. The next day he had to attend a conference that his father had arranged with the board of directors of the company so that he may start to learn the working of the company.


    Morning the next day, Harry went to the conference and successfully convinced the board that he had enough talent and ability to learn to run the company.


    It was late in the afternoon and Harry was having his lunch at a restaurant. He heard a commotion at the entrance and looked up to see a group of rowdy looking boys come in to the restaurant.


    The security tried to stop them but they were rich he didn¡¯t have any cause to stop them from entering the restaurant. Harry recognized three people from the group. They were the people who had bullied him in school. Even though harry had gotten stronger and it was very difficult to link his current appearance to his former appearance when he had just had his surgery, Harry was still instinctively afraid. It was due to the emotional trauma of his school days.


    Harry decided he didn¡¯t want to chance an encounter with them and called his bodyguard to escort him out the back door             unnoticed. So Harry and his bodyguard failed to notice that all the people in the boy¡¯s group were following them with their eyes.


    One of the boys said ¡°Boss that¡¯s her. Seems like she is still afraid of us that¡¯s why she ran away after seeing us¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right, even though she looks like a boy that¡¯s definitely the girl that we beat up.¡± Said another boy.


    ¡°That doesn¡¯t matter. She is the target that we were hired to eliminate. We can¡¯t have you three follow her since she knows you.¡±


    Said the guy that was addressed as Boss.


    It seems that one of the uncles of harry had hired these thugs to kill Harry so that his son could take over as head.


    The Boss pointed to one other guy and said¡± Follow that bitch and observe her, find out her regular travel routes and her hangout spots.


    Then we can plot a plan to kidnap her and then we can ask for a ransom from her parents. They are loaded and want her alive if they can keep the company so they will definitely pay the ransom. Then we can give her poison when we hand her over and collect the money for killing her from her uncle¡±.


    One of his minions said¡± That¡¯s a brilliant plan Boss! Killing two birds with one stone! No wonder you are our boss!¡±


    ¡°Shut up and execute the plan. We have struck it rich this time¡± said Boss.

 Chapter 14 Training start

    After logging out Logan felt very hungry, he had missed lunch while being engrossed playing the game. Since his parents were out to work he made his way into the kitchen and ate the lunch that his mom had made before leaving for work.


    Man it¡¯s a good thing I came home. I really missed mom¡¯s cooking, it can¡¯t compare with my measly cooking skills, and if this was a game she definitely has a master level skill in cooking.


    After lunch Logan decided to go for a walk around his hometown and see if anything has changed in the neighborhood, after all it had been years since he last came home.


    So he put on his running shoes and left his house in a brisk walk around the block.


    Well the smiths seem to have won a lottery otherwise they would never spend money on a new coat of paint for that old house. The D¡¯Costa family has another kid? Does Mr. D¡¯Costa not know about condoms? He already had 3 kids before this one!


    Thinking such things Logan walked around the block reacquainting himself with his neighbors and waving his hand to whoever he recognized. 5 mins later he stood in front of his old high school. He was reminiscing about the fun he had in this place when he remembered he had yet to call Bernard.


    Logan started walking back home as he placed a call to Bernard on his altor.


    ¡°Yo birdie, how are you doing?!¡± exclaimed Logan as soon as the call connected.


    ¡°Heh, finally found the time to tear yourself away from Claire?¡± teased birdie.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know what you are talking about. Anyway how did you know harry was in town?¡± asked Logan.


    ¡°Unlike you harry called me as soon as he came back. He plans to have a reunion with all 4 of us.¡± Said Birdie further teasing Logan.


    ¡°Huh, how¡¯s castle doing now? He still doesn¡¯t pick up any calls I make¡± enquired Logan.


    Castle was the nickname of his 3rd best friend. His full name was Jim Castle but he liked to go by Castle. He was a music geek and was studying sound engineering in the same college as Birdie.


    It seems that Castle had gotten into a fight with some people in his college and hurt his ears, which were vital for his sound engineering course.


    The college had expelled the people who injured him but also said that if he wants to continue his studied he had to find some other way of hearing. He could hear through the microphone of altor but the college rejected it, said that the sound won¡¯t be natural.


    What happened was that an uncle of the person who was expelled was on the board of directors and he wanted to expel Castle too.


    In this moment Logan came to the rescue. Since Logan heard his situation, he consulted with his father about the solution for the incident. The damage done was not to the ears directly, instead it was done to the nerve endings in the ear that were responsible for transmitting the signals.


    Replacing them was not difficult but it cost a lot of money and Castle was not from a wealthy family. He even refused to accept his friend¡¯s money.


    So Logan tricked Castle into saying that there was a new invention that fit into the altor that was proven to have natural sounds and asked him to come for the operation to fit the device.


    Castle trusted Logan so he didn¡¯t ask too many questions and went for the exam. What happened was that they did the operation to replace his nerves.


    Castle was enraged and happy/thankful at the same time, he didn¡¯t know what to say so he refused to pick up Logan¡¯s calls.


    ¡°He is doing well. Those nerves seem to be better than his original ones. Don¡¯t worry he is not angry with you anymore, just that he doesn¡¯t know what to say. He¡¯ll definitely talk to you in the reunion¡± consoled Birdie.


    ¡°Well, that¡¯s good. Anyway Birdie, I started to play Dragon¡¯s Roar yesterday and it is unbelievable!¡± exclaimed Logan.


    ¡°You started to play DR? Did the sun rise from south? How? I tried to make you play so many games before you always refused.


    How come you started playing on your own? I had prepared a 2000 word speech to convince you to play the game! This is not fair, I need compensation for this waste of time and effort. You have to treat me to a BBQ next time we meet¡± said Birdie.


    ¡°Well, my parents were involved in its creation and since it was virtual reality I thought it would be a good idea to try it. As for the treat, we¡¯ll see¡± said Logan.


    ¡°So how did you like the game? Where are you right now? Which class did you choose? No wait I know, you definitely chose the mutated human so which race did you choose? What level are you right now? How many skills you have?¡± Birdie raided Logan with questions.


    ¡°Slow down slow down, you always get hyper whenever a game is involved. I liked the game a lot! The graphics feel real and the physics of the system are top notch.


    Combat is awesome, it feels even better than in real life since there is no need to hold back or anything. As for the race, I chose mutated human with wolf and hummingbird mutation¡± said Logan after which they continued to talk about their experiences in the game while Logan made it back home in a leisurely pace.


    Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.After dropping the call, Logan had a shower and proceeded to Login back into the game.


    =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=


    Logan woke up feeling well rested. It had been six hours since he went to sleep and it was almost morning. Logan walked to the courtyard and started his warm up while waiting for his master. Thren came in just as Logan finished stretching.


    ¡°Ho! You are already awake and ready I see. Then we will begin your training. First and foremost you need to maintain the purity of your Ki at all times.


    You regenerate the lost Ki during combat but the purity of Ki will drop since you are not purifying it. Now I will teach you a method through which you can purify your Ki without meditation.


    You will have to practice this technique to such an extent that the next time you absorb Ki it should directly get purified before entering your dantian.¡± Explained Thren.


    ¡°Yes master, I¡¯ll make sure to practice it diligently¡± replied Logan.


    ¡°First you have to stand in this posture, with your knees bent in a 90 degree and your spine perpendicular to the ground.


    Stretch your arms in front of you so that they are parallel to the ground (basically a horse stance).


    This will enable you to feel closer to nature. Then cut-off your senses, feel your inner energy.


    Draw in the energy from outside, meld it with the inner energy to form Ki, but instead of sending it to the dantian have it flow through the spinal cord.


    This is something that most people don¡¯t know, the spinal cord had 5 spots called chakras. First you have to open these chakras.


    These spots form a conduit from your brain to the base of the spinal cord. It helps to better wield your spirit. If you form filters in this spots and then pass your Ki through here, impurities are easily removed.


    So your first step is to feel these chakras. Stand in this stance and keep your back straight, feel the internal energy. These will appear as a congregation of energy.


    You cannot sense all of them at the same time, you will have to sense them one by one. Now start, open your eyes only after you sense the first chakra.¡± Said Thren.


    Logan stood in the indicated posture. Instantly he felt connected to the earth and felt as if he was unmovable.


    Then he cut off himself and felt his internal energy. He made sure to keep his spinal cord erect and tried to sense the chakras.


    He couldn¡¯t sense anything. He kept trying until he felt mentally fatigued and opened his eyes.


    Thren was sitting cross legged in front of him with his eyes open and a smile on his lips.


    ¡°Master, I couldn¡¯t sense anything¡± said Logan sounding disappointed.


    ¡°Don¡¯t be disappointed, it¡¯s not possible to succeed in the first try. I¡¯ll give you a hint, try to follow the flow of your internal energy. Recuperate first and then try again¡± said Thren


    Logan had been trying for 2 hours straight and so he rested for an hour before giving it a try again.


    This time after cutting off his senses he tried to follow the flow of energy through his body.


    He didn¡¯t know whether his energy would flow through or not, so he kept observing it. After some time getting accustomed to it, he saw that the internal energy near his heart was in fact not constant, it was entering at some points and leaving at others.


    It was just that the speed was too slow thus he was not able to see it before. Now that he saw it, he tried to follow the energy in a hurry but he lost track of it.


    So he tried again, but this time slowly. But he still lost track of it. Then what he did was, he followed the energy a little outside the heart area, when he felt that he was losing track, he stopped and tried to get accustomed to the situation.


    Logan discovered that the only way to feel the flow was to move a small distance and get accustomed to the new area, otherwise he would lose track and start anew.


    Thus Logan made progress slowly and followed the energy patiently.


    Outside Thren was observing Logan¡¯s progress and let out a pleased


    smile.


    ¡°It seems I was right to take him in as a disciple, he is really talented to figure it out by himself to not rush but do it patiently¡±

 Chapter 15 Chakra elements

    With Logan patiently following the flow of energy, he finally finished the whole circuit once.


    So the energy has its own pathways to flow through and reach every part of my body while being connected to the vital organs. There are 5 places where the concentration of these energy veins is high and interlinked, these must be the chakras that master was talking about.


    Logan opened his eyes and looked towards Thren who was also meditating. As soon as Logan saw him, Thren also stopped mediating and opened his eyes, and said ¡°Congratulations Logan, for completing the first step successfully.


    I have to say you were very fast in this step, usually people take days together to do this, but you seemed to have done in just one day. Very good Logan¡±


    As he said that Thren got up and gestured Logan to get-up. He went behind Logan and poked his fingers into 5 spots on his back starting from the bottom.


    He said¡± you have just uncovered these, now the next step is to awaken them. This is a very crucial step that cannot be rushed and this can be done only one chakra at a time.¡±


    ¡°For this I¡¯ll have to first explain more about the chakras. The human body has 5 basic elements that it is made up of ¡®Earth¡¯, ¡¯Fire¡¯, ¡¯Wind¡¯, ¡¯Water¡¯& ¡¯Void¡¯. The chakras represent these 5 elements.


    A regular person does not have control over these elements nor can he influence them. In case of mages, they use mana to influence the elements present in the outside world to take shape. But they can¡¯t harness the energy present inside the body itself, which is several times pure than what is in the atmosphere.


    The chakras in a person¡¯s body regulate the presence of these elements and keep them in balance. That does not mean all elements are present in equal amounts. Each person has his own point where his body reaches equilibrium.


    The chakras, in case of an imbalance, increase the presence of the counteracting element to keep the balance. The relationship between the elements is as follows.


    Fire is supported by Wind and limited by Water


    Earth is supported by Water and limited by Wind


    Wind is supported by Fire and limited by Earth


    Water is supported by Earth and limited by Fire


    Void being neutral is neither supported by any elements, neither limited by any elements. That doesn¡¯t mean void is useless. Void means nothingness, it inherently doesn¡¯t possess any characteristics. But it can be melded with other elements and that is the only way for the 4 different elements to co-exist in a body without blowing up, by using void to hold them together.


    People who are hot-headed and hyper usually have more fire element.


    People who are calm and collected usually have more water element.


    People who are care free and aloof usually have more wind element.


    People who are stubborn and decisive have more earth element.


    People who can separate themselves from the world have an increased void element, i.e. some people have a talent for meditation, such people have more void element. They change their temperament according to the situation.


    The nature of your elements will decide the order in which to awaken your chakras. We will start with the weakest chakra and proceed to the strongest one. For that we will have to first determine the nature of your Chakras.


    Start your meditation, I will guide you through this¡± explained Thren.


    Logan noticed the time and saw that he had been meditating for more than 25 hours in game. So he said¡± Master can we resume my training after I return? I need to go back to my world because it¡¯s been too long¡±


    ¡°Hmm yes, I almost forgot that you are a foreigner. Sure go and do whatever you need to do and call me after you return. We¡¯ll resume your training then¡± said Thren.


    Logan logged off after saying his goodbye.


    =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=


    Waking up in the real world, Logan saw that it had been nearly 5 hours since he logged in. The time was 6 in the evening.


    Logan searched the refrigerator for some snacks, ate the pack of chips while watching the news on TV. Just then he got a call from harry asking to meet in the nearby park.


    Happy to oblige, Logan fixed his appearance a little and left towards the park. He found harry on top of the tower and joined him there.


    ¡°Hey what happened? You sounded grumpy on the call¡± asked Logan


    Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    ¡°It¡¯s nothing, just that I get tired really fast of convincing those geezers on the board that I¡¯m capable. And I also happened to come across 3 of the guys that used to bully me. That further dampened my mood. So I called you so you can cheer me up!¡± said Harry.


    ¡°What, I¡¯m your entertainment now?¡± asked Logan while smiling.


    ¡°Yes you are and you better remember it!¡± exclaimed harry with a cheeky grin.


    They chatted for some time before Logan returned home. His parents were already back and his mom was working on dinner, while his dad was watching the news.


    Logan joined his dad on the couch and asked¡± so dad, how is the game doing so far?¡±


    ¡°Well, we have had minimal problems and the customer response is good¡± said Robert.


    ¡°You don¡¯t sound too enthusiastic about the game doing well? What is troubling you dad?¡± inquired Logan.


    ¡°ODIN contacted me today. It seems that someone hacked into their servers and searched information about your uncle in their database.


    Since it was their fault that our information was leaked, ODIN said that they will deploy a security team to shadow us for some time and asked us to be vigilant.


    I just don¡¯t understand why people would come after us? Kirito would never leave any evidence behind on his missions so that it wouldn¡¯t trace back to him and to us through him.


    But this time something happened that caused him to vanish as well as allow his enemy to find out about him. I¡¯m just worried about your uncle¡± explained Robert.


    ¡°So that was the case huh. I hope uncle is safe. As for us no need to worry, ODIN security is known to be the best and you won¡¯t even know they are following you¡± said Logan.


    After which they had lunch and Logan left to the dojo saying that he wanted to practice his forms. Even though Logan said everything would be alright, he still thought that it was better to rely on their own capability to protect themselves. Logan wanted to get stronger and so decided to emulate what he had done in the game.


    Logan sat cross legged and entered meditation. It was harder in the real world to get into meditation than in the game world since the skill was not present to aid him.


    It took a few minutes for Logan to successfully enter meditation after which he proceeded to sense his flow of energy.


    This time he knew to patiently wait instead of hurrying and was able to sense the energy flowing inside him. But something felt different here. It felt more real.


    Logan felt more in-tune with his body, as if he was not only seeing the flow of energy but also feeling them with his body.


    He traced the series of energy veins and finally finished sensing all his chakras. Logan was elated that the method followed in the game was applicable in the real world too.


    He realized that most probably the game developers and gotten their hand on the original method to cultivate Ki and used it in the game, for what purpose he couldn¡¯t guess.


    Logan opened his eyes. He was startled after noticing the time. It was already 1 in the afternoon the next day!


    He looked in his altor and found several calls from his mom and dad and finally a message from his mom. It seems that he was isolated even from the altor when he meditated in this way. Before, when he meditated he could still hear the notifications from altor and feel the passage of time. But this time he seemed to have gone deep and couldn¡¯t feel anything from outside.


    The message from his mom said that they had tried calling him in the morning but he didn¡¯t respond. When they came to the dojo to check on him, they found him meditating so called him on the altor.


    When he didn¡¯t respond even to that, they left him alone after leaving a message and asked him to call them after he woke up.


    Even though it had been so long and he had missed sleep, breakfast and almost his lunch, he didn¡¯t feel even a bit tired, hungry or sleepy. He called his mom and assured her that he was fine, just trying a new form of meditation. He didn¡¯t want to tell her that he had been following the game¡¯s teachings in the real world, because it sounded ridiculous.


    Logan had his bath and ate a light lunch, just to fill his stomach even if he didn¡¯t feel hungry. He was excited to return to the game and find out the next steps so that he can become powerful, both in game and in real world.


    With that thought, Logan logged into the game.