《The Incipient Path to Demesne》 Volume 1 - Chapter 1 Anxious. That is the word that fits this situation best. It had been a long time, before I could finally touch the machine. I deceived, bluffed, threatened, lied, and manipulated a lot of people to reach this point. It was all for this machine, this small electronic piece of work, that would change the lives of almost everyone. I powered the machine, by putting the plug in electricity socket. All the lights lightened, and the main button showed a green light. All set. I licked my lips, and a grin appeared on my face. I had specifically chosen a time, where I would have a lot of time to embark on this journey. I had spent countless hours, figuring out which direction to choose, and what choices I should make. It felt like this moment, would mark the start of a long, fun, and exciting journey ahead. I removed the little beam, blocking the entrance of the machine, and entered the machine with my lithe body. The beam closed automatically after I entered, and a small screen came down. The screen lightened up, and text began to form.
Do you want to log in to Demesne?
YesNo
This is it. I was finally able to make my dreams come true. I reached out with my hand, and pressed the ¡°Yes¡± button. *** Half a year ago, by coincidence, I met up again with a senior from my karate club. He quit a while ago because he found the love of his life, and because he was quite busy with work. He has always meant a lot to me, so we decided we should meet up, and fill each other in. I hadn¡¯t seen him in a while, and I had no idea what he was working on at the time. Little did I know, that this encounter would change a big part of my life. We decided to meet up in Amsterdam, as he always loved this city, and just recently moved back to the Netherlands. He had been working in Sweden, and because he finished up his project, he took a long holiday in the Netherlands with his wife. I arrived at the train station, where we had decided to meet, about 15 minutes early. I have always disliked coming late to an appointment, so I always try to arrive 15 minutes early. When a new train replaced the one that just left, a man in a suit exited the train. That was him. He was easy to spot, and even easier to recognize. His skin tone had a little dark shade, you could clearly see that he had Asian origins, and his hair was short and spiky. When I noticed him I raised an eyebrow, I had not expected him to wear a suit. Normally I don¡¯t care a lot about clothes, but when I want to dress up for an occasion I wear a simple and plain grey dress shirt. I was glad I dressed up for this occasion, because it seemed, that so was he. I saw him looking around, probably searching for me, so I raised my arm, trying to get his attention. He noticed me, and walked to me in a straight posture. Is it me, or has he really learned how to carry himself? ¡°Hey, Mathijs! It¡¯s been a while!¡± ¡°Heyo Jochem, you¡¯re looking pretty good, last time I saw you, you looked tired as hell.¡± ¡°Haha, yeah¡­ I had a rough time, and I¡¯m not really allowed to talk about it.¡± Oh? That seemed pretty interesting to me. I raised my eyebrows and tried to pry out some more information. He just shrugged and continued walking with me, to the exit of the train station. Oh well, maybe he¡¯ll tell me more later. I let it go, and focused on the conversation again. ¡°It¡¯s been a while¡­ How I¡¯ve missed this country, especially Amsterdam. I always loved this city. Maybe it¡¯s because I have spent most of my life here by studying and teaching on the university, so many memories were created here. I even met my wife here for the first time.¡± ¡°Or so I¡¯ve heard. You came to my mother for love advice a few times didn¡¯t you?¡± I smiled my smile, and raised an eyebrow while I was at it. Jochem smiled and answered: ¡°Hmm, maybe you need to ask some advice from your mother too, because you¡¯re still single right? Or are you looking for a boyfriend?¡± Damn he didn¡¯t bite. Oh well, I shouldn¡¯t have expected an easy target anyway. In the end, he¡¯s the one who sparked my interest in science, and taught me how to argue. Just by having this small exchange, I already knew that this day would be as fun as I expected. ¡°Ugh, not you too, I¡¯m heterosexual! Damn, why does everyone always use the same joke?¡± I sigh out loud, faking how much he hurt me with that remark. Jochem suddenly started laughing out loud, and clapped me on the shoulder. ¡°Ohhh, how I¡¯ve missed you. I¡¯ve only interacted with people who take themselves way too seriously lately. This is really nice change of pace.¡± We continued filling each other in, with everything we had been up to, or what had been on our minds. We also dropped by a few shops we went to before, and even gamed a little on a PS4 in a shop, that was trying to get customers by having them play for free. I won most of the matches we played, which was surprising to me, because I used to always lose to him. It was also a funny coincidence that the exact game we could play there, was a dragonball game. I remembered that he was also a dragonball fan. The last time that we visited Amsterdam, we also played a game for free, which was funnily enough, also a dragonball game. When we noticed the sun was already going down, we started walking to a caf¨¦ I wanted to take him to. After walking for a little while, I noticed Jochem didn¡¯t say a single thing about his work, or what he had been doing work-wise, but I didn¡¯t want to create an awkward mood. He also seemed to enjoy himself very much, and I didn¡¯t want to spoil it, by maybe bringing up a subject he was trying to get out of his mind. ¡°So, how are you doing with karate? Almost ready for black belt yet? ¡°Haha, nah, not yet. I¡¯ve been training a lot lately, around three times a week in a dojo, and furthermore, some additional training at home. But I was screwed over last time I participated in the examinations, and I don¡¯t want to go through such bullshit again. I¡¯ll just keep training in my own pace for a while, and when I deem myself good enough, I¡¯ll just pick up some black belt kata¡¯s. Whether I¡¯m still brown belt, or not. It¡¯s annoying, because I feel like the only thing that keeps me from becoming the ideal karateka in my mind, is my flexibility. Oh well, I already let it go, and right now I¡¯m just training for fun. The previous years have been even more fun, because of all my friends who have joined, and are also diligently training. I think you met a few of them, right?¡± ¡°I see, yeah I think so. I can¡¯t really remember their names, but I think I have a vague idea about who they are. Glad to hear that you¡¯ve been training all this time. I was only able to go to dancing classes with my wife, and I¡¯ve kind of dropped the whole martial arts thing. It just seemed like a lie to me. Even if you practice karate for a lot of years, it probably won¡¯t help you in a real fight.¡± ¡°Hmm, I understand where you¡¯re coming from, but I don¡¯t agree.¡± I knew that he wasn¡¯t the biggest fan of martial arts, but he still trained a lot of years, he even achieved a shodan degree. He was the only person who I looked up to for a while, next to my father ofcourse, educationally-wise and martial art-wise. But I just couldn¡¯t agree with him on this one, maybe it¡¯s just my self-confidence, but I couldn¡¯t really fathom a situation where anyone would beat me in a one-on-one situation. Not after all the years, I spent studying and training in martial arts. We talked about some other random subjects, and entered a cozy little place I learned about from my grandfather. It was a place you could only enter, if you were introduced by 2 members, had been studying something science or arts related, had been enlisted, and were approved by a majority of the current members. I became a member a few weeks ago, because of my grandfather. It was a cozy place, and quite a few interesting people gathered there. So if the conversation would ever become awkward, it was very easy to just stand up, and walk to a person sitting somewhere. This way you could start a random conversation, which were quite intriguing most of the time. We picked out a nice little table at the window, and ordered some drinks. I had a nice cold cola, and Jochem had some wine. After we conversed some more, the food arrived. We had a great meal, and we both seemed to enjoy our conversation a lot. I kept ordering more wine for Jochem, because I wanted to make him slip up. The whole day, he kept making vague remarks about how it was awesome that I kept up my training with swords. Almost as if I would gain a lot by having the experience. It was vague, because he didn¡¯t speak a lot about karate, and only kept talking about iaido, even when he hadn¡¯t trained that for a while. When I noticed that it was way past midnight, and that his speech became a little slurred, I kept badgering him to tell me more about his work. That¡¯s when it finally happened. I saw some sort of evanescent sign of resignation flow across his face for a moment. Then he started talking. ¡°I have actually been participating in one of mankind¡¯s greatest and newest invention. It¡¯s a virtual reality simulator. Because I just got a PHD in AI, a random company suddenly offered me a lot of money, to come work for them in Sweden. They explained to me, that they had figured out how to connect the human brain to a machine, and connect them to a main frame. Everyone connected to the main frame, could communicate together, and the server installed on the mainframe could interact with all the connected people.¡± Holy. Shit. I raised an eyebrow while trying to keep the mockery of my face. This guy can¡¯t handle his alcohol. Shit, I think I pushed him a little too far, he probably lost it, and started spouting bullshit. I sighed and wondered if all the subtle hints he dropped earlier were just my imagination. Oh well, at least I can continue listening to him, he doesn¡¯t look like he¡¯s finished just yet. ¡°When they figured this out a decade ago, they kept it secret for years! They wanted to monopolize this technology, and they were very shrewd about it. They started developing a Virtual Reality game, and changed the technology accordingly to the game. This way the technology can only be used by them, and for the game. Other companies won¡¯t be able to implement it for other uses, such as simulations. Even the army can¡¯t subjugate the project, because the technology won¡¯t do them any good. It¡¯ll be useless in their hands!¡± If he was talking the truth, then it¡¯s pretty damn smart what they had done. This way, they would maintain everything of it, in their own hands. I didn¡¯t really want to interrupt him, because he was talking so enthusiastically, but there was one thing that was still bothering me. ¡°Ehm, Jochem. If they developed this technology a decade ago, and have been developing the game for over 10 years by now, why¡¯d they suddenly contact you to come work for them?¡± He smiled, and happily started explaining. ¡°I was about to get to that part, but whatever. They actually almost finished everything about the game already, but there was a small bit of code which they couldn¡¯t figure out. They hired a lot of scientists who studied AI for this part.¡± ¡°I see, that must¡¯ve been where you came in.¡± ¡°You¡¯re absolutely right, I finished the code with the others a while ago, and now we¡¯re just waiting for the game to reach its final stages. It¡¯s in alpha right now, but it¡¯s nearing its beta phase. Because I finished the code, I took a holiday. I made a lot of money too, so at least I¡¯ve got that going for me now.¡± Hmm, I still have my doubts. But if this really is true, then this opportunity is way too good to miss out upon. I decided I had to get involved with this project, I had read way too many virtual reality novels to miss out upon this project. I used every method in the book to persuade Jochem into introducing me to one of his colleagues or bosses. Eventually he gave in, and said that if I played it smart, that I would probably be allowed to join the alpha and beta as a tester. He said that it would be wise to offer them all of my knowledge on the subject, and that I should volunteer as a guinea pig. Because a lot of the workers there are old, I should have a chance by telling them that they should test the technology on the youth too, before there are any problems. This didn¡¯t sound like a good thing to me, especially if there ARE any problems. But I¡¯m way too smart to let this opportunity pass, and even if something would happen to me, I¡¯d gladly go down that path to experience VR, as one of the first in history. *** That conversation with Jochem changed a lot of my lifestyle so to say. I immediately contacted the person Jochem advised me to contact, and it all went rather smoothly. I still had half a year of school left, so even if I wanted to leave to Sweden for this I couldn¡¯t. But as luck would have it, the people higher up the ladder there, were all extremely pleased with my assertiveness to reach out to them. They said they would gladly receive some input from a student. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. This made me a little suspicious, because it seemed too good to be true. They only gave me two conditions; I would have to keep my mouth shut until they properly released the game, and I had to play the game fulltime when the beta was released. That meant, that I had to take a year off, after passing my exams, and focus fully on playing the game. For half a year I neglected my friends a little, didn¡¯t spend any time with books, or gaming. I focused solely on school. Well, not really. Just a little bit. Only so much, as to not fail my exams. Oh, and I kept training too. I don¡¯t think I¡¯d survive without it¡­ Next to school, I focused solely on figuring out paths, classes and ideas for the game. The higher ups actually implemented a few things I came up with, which had surprised me a lot. I would have never thought that they would even listen to a simple brat who hadn¡¯t even finished his school. Guess I was wrong. I had a lot of meetings with people from other branches, and I met a lot of new people. Shame I had to keep it all a secret from my friends and family. Oh well, small price I had to pay. I was actually able to cut a deal with them too, I would be able to choose a few friends who would be able to accompany me full time after the beta was released. And they would receive full payment for playing too. It was almost too good to be true. I used the idea I came up with as leverage, by swearing that I¡¯d copyright the idea with the help of my grand uncle, and sue them if they¡¯d implement it. They didn¡¯t like that very much, because the idea would probably make them a lot of money, but somehow they liked how I tried to threaten them, even when I was still ¡®a little brat¡¯. Frikkin¡¯ masochists¡­. One thing I did like about the company, was that they would only allow people to inform you with just the necessary things. If you had a meeting with someone from the economy branch, he would only talk about the things you needed to know to achieve the results you were responsible for. This way I was able to learn a lot, but by looking at all the information that could be learned, I only knew relatively little. I was able to manipulate the person, who was responsible for the exact release of the beta, by having him release it exactly when our exams would be over. I told him that this way the company would get a lot more of rich customers, who would all pay for their sons and daughters to participate in this project, because they could make money off the game, and it wouldn¡¯t be in the way of school. I kept all my attention on this for half a year, until I finally passed my exams. *** Finally, I passed my exams! I had to spend a little effort near the end, but I was able to pass them finally. One thing I know for sure, I hate German. That language¡­ Oh my god, how I hate it. But I was able to do it. Finally. Freedom. I actually cut a deal with my dad, Sadi Gul, that if I¡¯d pass my exams, that he¡¯d be okay with everything I¡¯d do in my vacation and if I wouldn¡¯t pass, that I would solely focus on school and drop all unnecessary other hobbies. Well, I¡¯m really glad that I passed, because now I can finally relax. He also told me that he¡¯d pay for a new console, tv, laptop or anything else I¡¯d like as a present for passing. That was a nice surprise. I haven¡¯t figured out yet, as what to buy. But I¡¯ll see. I¡¯m not in a hurry anyway. I still have my ps3, and I don¡¯t really need a new gaming pc. Yesterday, was the day that we received our results. I really couldn¡¯t wait for that harbringer, I was so anxious. All I ever just wanted was a halcyon life. We all received a call that said we had passed. Lanet olsun (damn it), what was I happy, when I heard the words; ¡°Musa Can Gul, you have passed.¡±! Ollie asked Mathijs and me yesterday, to join him today at his sister¡¯s house, because it would be empty, and we¡¯d be able to finally relax. I thought this was a great idea, and was a little surprised that Ollie actually took the initiative for once. I arrived at his sister¡¯s house and saw Mathijs just entering the door. I noticed he was wearing a dress shirt, which was a bit uncommon. It was a special occasion though, so I could totally understand. I rushed a little bit, and raised my voice before he would shut the door in my face. ¡°Yo, Mathijs.¡± ¡°Oh, heyo Musa.¡± He held the door open for me, and smiled at something that I couldn¡¯t figure out at the moment. I thought he was mocking me for some reason, so I just looked at him, while I entered the house. He just shrugged. Whatever. I shouldn¡¯t let him get to me. He¡¯s probably just trying to mess with me. I entered the house, and removed my coat. It was already spring, so it was already starting to get quite warm outside. But nonetheless, I still took a coat with me, you never know, might get cold in the evening. I tried to locate Ollie, but I couldn¡¯t see him yet. As I entered the living room, I saw that it wasn¡¯t a seraglio, as expected of course, but it wasn¡¯t bad at all. It had clean interior, with a nice view on the canal. The furniture looked of high quality, and there were some snacks ready on the table. I also saw a big flat screen TV, so tonight would probably be pretty awesome. I also saw some beds, fully made up, on the floor. This looked good. Knowing that it¡¯s Ollie, I hope the beds won¡¯t leak¡­ I saw Ollie standing in the kitchen, and I walked to him. How funny. Ollie cooking wasn¡¯t something I had ever witnessed up till now. Oh, never mind. He¡¯s just fiddling with the mechatron. Ehm, I mean Microwave. Shit. I started to scowl because I was reminded of how they kept making fun of me, for that little slip up. It finally stopped half a month ago. One day I¡¯ll pay them back for that. Ollie looked up from whatever he was trying to accomplish, and smiled at me. ¡°Heeeeey, Musa!¡± He awkwardly approached me, and tried to hug me. I almost sigh out loud, if this guy does try to hug other people, why does he have to do it so awkwardly? I reach out to hug him back, just when I hear a voice behind me. ¡°Ha, GAY!¡± Ollie and I both had the forbearance necessary not to respond to him, after all, we spent a lot of time with him. I see Ollie approaching Mathijs, to give him a hug too, but Mathijs makes a feint with his left hand to Ollie¡¯s face, and Ollie seemingly expected that to happen. He made a half assed attempt at a block, and went into a craze about: ¡°Ohhhh, that block, oh my god, it was so perfectttttt.¡± Mathijs raised his eyebrows, and I just shrugged. Ollie asked us to come in the evening, so that he wouldn¡¯t waste his whole day or something. Because of this, it was around dinner time that we arrived at his sister¡¯s house. And I hadn¡¯t eaten anything yet. Thus I voiced my opinion: ¡°So¡­ When¡¯s dinner ready?¡± We talked a lot that night, and you could clearly see how stressed out we were before. The exams were tough for all of us, so we all had plethora stress. We spoke about almost everything, from girlfriend related matters, to past experiences, to favorite types of food, to how we would spend our vacation. When we reached this subject, Mathijs started to fiddle a little bit. That was strange, I always thought he was more or less the type who would always act relaxed, or nonchalant at least. He wasn¡¯t even on his phone, which was rare nowadays. Especially the last half year was quite boring, because he probably thought, that his phone was more important than his friends. It was a strange kind of obsession he had. Oh well, maybe he¡¯ll have to visit me, when I become a psychotherapist. That would be quite funny. Because he was the only friend from my direct circle I had in our class, it was quite weird to see him suddenly change, and spend even more time on his phone than he already was. I think it¡¯s probably related to all the shit he went through, and it just hit him recently. It wasn¡¯t that important though, because I was still able to converse with him, had plenty of friends aside from him in our class, and was able to talk to Youri, Quentin, and Ollie in the breaks. Ollie was talking about how he wanted to get a job, but was too lazy to actually sign up. I could relate to that. However, Ollie suddenly made a serious face and spoke up: ¡°Mathijs, is there something you would like to say? You seem kind of distant right now, which is pretty rare. Also, if I may be honest, I think you¡¯ve been way too distant for the past few months. I already didn¡¯t like it when you got a smart phone and started reading like crazy, but at the moment it¡¯s pretty much like you¡¯re nonexistent. I¡¯m not sure if it¡¯s my place to say this, but considering we¡¯re friends, I think you should really get your shit together.¡± Damn, that was harsh. I agreed with Ollie though, although I wasn¡¯t sure why Mathijs was acting like that, but I didn¡¯t want to hurt him, by being so blunt. Mathijs looked at both of us, and when his eyes reached mine I nodded. I could see that what Ollie had said really hurt him, but he just made a fa?ade and tried to smile his way through. ¡°Yeah¡­ I know I¡¯ve been a bad friend to all of you this previous half year. I¡¯ve been really busy. So busy that I had to neglect all of you, but I had a good reason. But what hurts me more than that remark, is that you guys never said anything earlier. I trust you as friends, to tell me something like that way earlier¡­ Oh well, it¡¯s not like I would have changed anything in my way of acting though.¡± He said that with a somber smile on his face and winked. Huh, I¡¯ve never seen him wink before. He was silent for a moment, and then he continued: ¡°But it was certainly worth it. I haven¡¯t been a good friend, I know. But please let me make it up to you two. I have a lot for you guys to take in, so please listen to me carefully.¡± What followed, was something I never would¡¯ve expected. Hell, something I would¡¯ve never even dreamt. Or well, actually I did dream about virtual reality once, but whatever. Mathijs told us everything about what had happened, and all about the game, which was to be called: Demesne. He didn¡¯t want to explain why it was called that way though. We asked a lot of questions and thought he was spouting nonsense at first. But that doubt was evanescent as he was talking way too seriously about this all. He just kept talking about how he met a lot of people and spent a lot of time, communicating with people, and exploring the realm of details from the game. After he finished describing what happened to him, and why he was so obsessed with it, he also told us why he wasn¡¯t able to tell us anything. I¡¯m actually¡­ Starting to believe him. If this really is true, and it seems like it is possible, considering how he had been acting all this time then this would be really awesome. I could really see the weight dropping from Mathijs¡¯ shoulders as he had been concealing it, for all this time. All those details though. He¡¯s either delusional, or he¡¯s pretty deep into it. I didn¡¯t expect him to drop another bomb though: ¡°There¡¯s something else too. I won¡¯t be going to university this year and maybe not even next year. The company forced me to play the game fulltime for a year, under good payment luckily, if I wanted to join the development process. This is already something like a dream come true to me. Just imagine it, playing a virtual reality game fulltime, while getting paid at the same time! And that¡¯s not all, I even managed to convince the upper echelons of the company, how it would benefit them if they would allow some of my friends to participate in the beta too¡­¡± He made the happiest smile I had ever seen from him and continued: ¡°Would you two, be willing, to come play the first VR game in history together with me for a full year, maybe more, under payment?¡± I never thought that this night at Ollie¡¯s sister¡¯s house would have such an impact on my life. I looked at Mathijs, and his eyes were without any hesitation. I looked to my right, at Ollie, and saw him thinking this over very carefully. He was probably thinking about he would convince his mother. I don¡¯t have to think this over. I already made a promise with my dad, that he¡¯d support me in anything I¡¯d choose to do, and my mother had always backed me up until now. I switched my view back to Mathijs and told him: ¡°Where do I sign up?¡± *** Volume 1 - Chapter 2 Volume 1 - Chapter 2 Virtual Reality huh? I never expected that Mathijs would have been busy with that. I knew that he liked reading, even to the extent of solely focusing on it. So it wouldn¡¯t have been strange for him to spend all his time reading. I was sitting on my bed, the day after I sent Musa and Mathijs home, pondering about how to go from here. I was trying to focus on FIFA and forget about the conversation that had to take place. But I was playing like shit, and the game got boring after a few minutes. I turned off my console and started to resolve myself, for the conversation to come. It was a little bit painful to see Musa accept Mathijs¡¯ offer immediately, because I couldn¡¯t afford to. I knew my mother probably wouldn¡¯t like the idea of me, gaming fulltime, and not going to university. Damn. I believed Mathijs almost immediately, because I had never seen him so serious before, aside from karate. And I prided myself a little in that I was able to see when Mathijs was bluffing and when he was serious. Although I wasn¡¯t sure all the time, this time I could tell he was serious quite fast. So of course, I wanted to accept his offer immediately, holy shit, just think about it, Virtual fucking Reality! It¡¯s a shame I¡¯m not in a position where I could¡¯ve just immediately accepted his offer though¡­ I owe my mother a lot, and I can¡¯t suddenly explain everything to her, because she wouldn¡¯t understand the idea probably. Even if I told her that it would make a lot of money, which could help the both of us, she probably wouldn¡¯t believe it anyway. She tunneled way too much on me going to university. I could totally understand that though. But still, I won¡¯t give up this opportunity without at least trying! Having resolved myself, I turned off the TV, and exited my room. Maybe it would be easier to convince her if she would see my ebullience. I wasn¡¯t going to deceive my mother, I wanted to be straight, and honest with her, because I loved her way too much to dissemble her. I called out to my mother, who was preparing dinner already in the kitchen. I almost forgot that I slept until the afternoon, we kept talking so long into the night yesterday¡­ Damn, my whole day is gone. ¡°Anne (mother), do you have some time?¡± My mother looked up from her work, and smiled: ¡°Ogulcan, is there something wrong?¡± Well, at least she has some time. Damn, how I¡¯ve dreaded this conversation. I really want to spend a year or two with my friends in virtual reality, and under payment even! I had to resist sighing out loud, because I was almost sure that my mother wouldn¡¯t accept my reasoning. Lanet olsun (damn it), I¡¯ll just soldier my way through this conversation. ¡°Can you follow me to the living room for a bit? I have something to discuss with you.¡± ¡°Oh, will this conversation concern your future?¡± What the hell, is she a psychic? How¡¯d she know? Normally, I would try to avoid talking about the future, as much as I could. So it¡¯s pretty weird how she would mention my future¡­ I¡¯m not sure if this is a good sign or a bad one. Maybe she already has a fixed path for me in mind. I already know, how hard it¡¯ll be to convince her to change her mind. My mother set aside whatever she was working on, and followed me to the living room. I¡¯m glad my sisters aren¡¯t at home right now, because this conversation might take a while. And I really, really, want this. ¡°Ehm, mom, I¡¯m not sure how to say this¡­. But, ehmm¡­¡± What the hell, I should¡¯ve thought this through. If I start talking about virtual reality right now she¡¯ll just think I¡¯m crazy. What am I even trying to do¡­. My mother smiled, and suddenly interrupted me: ¡°Yes, I have heard a lot about it, you want to take off one or two years and spend some time playing games under payment with your friends right?¡± I opened my eyes wildly, and was almost about to say ¡®what the fuck¡¯ to her. I¡¯m glad I didn¡¯t. ¡°Yes, Mathijs came over 2 days ago, while you were out with Musa. He called me, and said that he would like to talk about something that concerned you. I was pretty worried that something shady was going on, so I invited him over. Then he tried to explain something, but because he was talking in Dutch, there was way too much I didn¡¯t understand. Luckily enough, he knew someone who could speak Turkish fluently, and was working for this so called company he was talking about. The kind sir, told me all about a new project, and about how he insisted on having my son participate. He said it would give them valuable information, and he would reward you greatly, depending on the results. I didn¡¯t believe him at first, but he kept explaining to me, about how you would be able to enroll to a university after spending some time on this project, and how much you would be able to learn from this experience and how it was a one of a kind opportunity for you.¡± This¡­ This is a lot to take in it at once. Is she serious? Did Mathijs actually furtively inform all our parents behind our backs? Damn, that was shrewd of him to use a Turkish colleague. But this means, that I might have chance! This makes everything so much easier, hahaha, I never expected this to happen. But there¡¯s still something wrong. It seems like my mother is letting me do what I do what I want to, but it still feels like she¡¯s up to something. I think she¡¯ll force a certain condition upon me. Hmm, if I can get away with playing VR for a year, then it¡¯ll probably be a small price to pay. I grinned and started talking again, thanks Mathijs, for making this a lot easier than I thought: ¡°Oh, it looks like you¡¯re almost fully informed, mom, does that mean that you¡¯ll allow me to play?¡± She had a smile on her face, whilst talking about her conversation with Mathijs¡¯ colleague, but that smile disappeared as fast as it appeared. ¡°No.¡± ¡°What, are you serious? But anne, this means so much to me, why would you not allow me to take this opportunity? Mathijs worked so hard for this, and I don¡¯t want to let him, and Musa, down.¡± ¡°I still think, that university is way more important than this game or something. Even if you¡¯ll get paid, it¡¯s still not enough.¡± ¡°No, I will still do it. I¡¯m sorry, but this time I won¡¯t let you ge-¡± *Ting* While I was trying to convince my mother, my phone interrupted me. I looked at my mother, and she raised her eyebrows. I think she wants me to check my phone. Damn you, whoever you are! This is an important conversation, how dare you interru- *Ting* Arghh, I sigh out loud, and check my phone.
Two new messages, do you want to open them? Sender : Mathijs Received : 17:48 Sender : Mathijs Received : 17:49
YesNo
What the, this timing. I touch the yes button, and read the messages.
Mathijs : 17:48 Yo, Ollie. I just thought I¡¯d inform you, because I made a deal with the higher ups, next to paying us for playing the game, they¡¯ll also fund all the costs of the study we choose at uni, after playing the game.
Mathijs : 17:49 Oh, and by the way, if you have trouble convincing your mother, just tell her what I told you above, and tell her that you¡¯ll focus solely on university after we finish this.
This guy. That does make things easier, hmm let¡¯s see if it¡¯ll work. I first set my phone back into ¡®silent¡¯ mode, don¡¯t want to get interrupted again, do we? Although, I was a bit lucky, that I forget to set it to silent before that. ¡°Anne, Mathijs just told me, that the company will pay for all the costs of university, if I¡¯d be willing to participate in their program. This means that, I¡¯ll have to game full time, for one or two years. I also promise yo-, no I swear, that I¡¯ll study next to gaming, and that, afterwards, I¡¯ll focus solely on university.¡± Please, let this work. I look at my mother with a very serious look on my face, and I can see her ponder over the information I just provided her with. She raises her head a bit, something she always does when she makes up her mind, and she started talking. Oh shit, here it comes: ¡°Alright, Ziyattin. But only if you solemnly promise me, that you¡¯ll keep up your studies, and afterwards, will go to university. I won¡¯t allow any slacking, or exceptions. Is that clear?¡± ¡°Yes anne, it¡¯s totally clear. I promise you I¡¯ll do my best! And thanks for this, really, it means a lot to me.¡± I-I DID IT! Hahahahaha, I never thought I would actually be able to convince her, oh my god. The glamour of life! Damn, I really have to resist the urge to gambol around! Ahh, screw it, I¡¯ll just do it anyway! Mathijs told me, that the machine would arrive tomorrow, and that it wasn¡¯t a simple helmet like in SAO. So I had to clear up some space in my room for later.. But we arranged that we¡¯d play at Mathijs¡¯ house for a week or so, because his mother went on a vacation for a week. The three machines would also be delivered at his house. Damn, I can¡¯t wait! I think I¡¯ll get some snacks and drinks for tomorrow, pack my bag, and clock off early. I need to be fully rested, because we¡¯ll probably miss a lot of sleep. Demesne, prepare yourself, because Glinc is coming! *** After I let Ollie and Musa in, we stood there, in the living room, in silence for a moment. All three of us admired the three machines lined up there. We already prepared our sleeping arrangements. We had prepared our instant food too. I had already informed that it¡¯d be fine if they would do the tutorial first, before spawning in the town I told them to choose. Anxious. That is the word that fits this situation best. It had been a long time, before I could finally touch the machine. I deceived, bluffed, threatened, lied, and manipulated a lot of people to reach this point. It was all for this machine, this small electronic piece of work, that would change the lives of almost everyone. I powered the machine, by putting the plug in electricity socket. All the lights lightened, and the main button showed a green light. All set. I licked my lips, and a grin appeared on my face. I had specifically chosen a time, where I would have a lot of time to embark on this journey. I had spent countless hours, figuring out which direction to choose, and what choices I should make. It felt like this moment, would mark the start of a long, fun, and exciting journey ahead. I nodded at Musa and Ollie, and I could clearly see they were just as excited as I am. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.¡°Okay guys, it¡¯s alright to enter the machines now. You¡¯ll have to personalize your character first, you can do this by talking to an AI at first. Just pick a race and an appearance you like best. Afterwards select the town I told you about. Don¡¯t forget its name, it¡¯s called: Fellsmarch, and it¡¯s the capital of the biggest human kingdom. Oh, and don¡¯t forget, it¡¯s alright if you take some time to finish the tutorial. It¡¯ll take around 15 minutes, but it¡¯ll make it easier for you guys to get more comfortable in VR.¡± Time to start exploring! Oh, I almost forgot to add something: ¡°By the way, the game is still in the beta phase, but it¡¯s as good as finished. They just want to see if the game¡¯s stable, and if the biggest AI in human history, the one controlling the world, will be able to handle everything. There are a lot of people already playing, especially rich and famous people. Only the ones with hard cash could afford to enter the beta phase, so maybe you guys can even play the white knight, and pick up some hot, and maybe even famous, chicks along the way.¡± I start to chuckle at my attempt to loosen the mood. Luckily enough Ollie and Musa laughed too. Oh well, enough talking, let¡¯s get on with it! I removed the little beam, blocking the entrance of the machine, and entered the machine with my lithe body. The beam closed automatically after I entered, and a small screen came down. The screen lightened up, and text began to form.
Do you want to log in to Demesne?
YesNo
This is it. I was finally able to make my dreams come true. I reached out with my hand, and pressed the ¡°Yes¡± button. *** The world around me, changed from its colorful and rich textures to a bland and boring grey. But that only lasted a short moment, the world started spinning again, and suddenly I saw myself standing in a big room, with a blue lighting. I looked around me, and in every direction I could see a mirror. Nice, I could see every side of me. That¡¯ll make character customization quite easy for me. While I was immersed, in looking at myself, a comely, female voice began to talk. ¡°Welcome to Demesne, the database came up with negative results for your ID. Do you want to register?¡± It was almost as if I was talking to a real person. Just as expected. I grinned and replied: ¡°I¡¯d love to.¡± ¡°The database has come up with the name ¡®Tensaiz¡¯ for you. Is this your desired name for your character?¡± Oh, they do know how to have their AI research huh. Hmm, I like the name Tensai though it¡¯s more because of the irony than the real meaning. Nah, I¡¯ll decide against using it, if I really become famous inside the game, then calling my character by the name ¡®Genius¡¯ won¡¯t do me any good. Humbleness is what everyone likes, not arrogance. ¡°No thanks, I¡¯d like to go with the name ¡®Enza¡¯, do I have to pick a last name too?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not absolutely necessary, but it¡¯s possible to tell me, I¡¯ll add it to the additional info. It probably won¡¯t be of any importance though.¡± ¡°All right, thanks. I¡¯d like my last name to be Entreri.¡± ¡°Please select your gender, the choices consist out of; female, neutral, or male.¡± Neutral? Are you serious¡­ I never knew that they included that in the game. Oh well, that just shows that there¡¯s enough about the game that I still don¡¯t know. That¡¯ll make it more enjoyable anyway. ¡°Male.¡± ¡°Please select your race, there are 7 playable races at the moment, but a lot more will be unlocked by special quests and other ways. If you discover a new race, you can select the option to change to that race as the first player who discovered them. Do you want me to sum up the playable races?¡± ¡°No thanks, that won¡¯t be necessary.¡± I had researched a lot about this game already, if I didn¡¯t know the standard playable races from the beginning, I wouldn¡¯t be fit to call myself a researcher. To sum it up the playable races are: ? Human: Are the most well rounded race and the most popular race in Demesne ? Dwarf: Are proficient in crafts ? Elf: have a higher affinity in magic as well as nature magic ? Half-Elf: Half the positives and penalties from humans, as well as elves ? Barbarian: Able to gain health and mana as they fight ? Dark Elf: Affinity for magic as well as arcane arts Hmm, this was a tough one. I was aiming for a class, which revolves around a dexterity berserker. But this simply wasn¡¯t available through standard means. I resolved myself already to keep leveling without a class, until I¡¯ll find a unique or rare class. This will bring a lot of negatives with it, because a class gives very nice bonuses, playing without a class for a lot of levels, will seriously affect me. Oh well, I¡¯ll make it work anyway. As far as anyone knows there are, the normal classes, which could be gained in guilds or through apprenticeship. Then there were the rare classes, usually gained through difficult quests or special NPCs. Hidden classes were practically unknown, there were only a handful and nobody was really sure how to get them. Only rumors so far, were the unique classes. Nobody knew of a unique class so far and according to the gossip they were seriously strong. It was even possible to change classes, at least to some extent. One could become a warrior through the guild, then join the Knights and then rise to Paladin and then maybe get a rare class, I heard about some kind of Templar class, through a quest. Those classes weren''t necessarily stronger than the other as it was more important to find a class that suited you and the way you played. I focused on which race to pick again. I don¡¯t want to take a dwarf, because it¡¯ll be really annoying to play with a character that will have half the height of me. Elves, Dark elves, or half-elves don¡¯t work out too. They have a lot of penalties to the use of some weapons, and I didn¡¯t want to limit myself. Even if they have a bonus to AGI, I didn¡¯t want to shut out some opportunities. Barbarians, hmmm, well no thanks. I like the idea of a berserker a lot. But I love speed too. So playing a barbarian would mean that I¡¯d have to give up speed. No thanks. Human it is. ¡°I¡¯d like my character to be human, please.¡± ¡°The customization part starts now, please tell me if you would like to alter your appearance.¡± Finally, this is where the fun starts. I grinned, and looked at the mirrors, showing every side of my body, in its undies. ¡°Can you lengthen my hair a bit? No, not that much, halfway to my shoulders. Yes. That¡¯s perfect.¡± Damn, I look good, even if I say so myself. I think I¡¯m a narcist¡­ Oh well, whatever. Hmm, I can see a six pack, but you can only see them really clearly, when I flex them, or lean back a little. ¡°Oh before I forget, can you add a little more definition to my six pack? Also, is it possible to shorten my nose a little bit? Yeah, just like that. Oh add a little blue in my hair too, hmm also give my eyes a little more depth of brown. Yup, that¡¯s exactly it.¡± I looked at myself; yup you could clearly recognize it¡¯s me. I only changed a little bit, so I would fit in more in a fantasy world. ¡°Oh, by the way, is it possible to make me more flexible? Or is that determined by the game and changeable?¡± ¡°Your flexibility will be determined by the system. But if your will to become flexible is high enough, then you¡¯ll probably become it too.¡± Pleased with myself and the answer, I end the customization process: ¡°That¡¯s it, thank you.¡± ¡°Do you have preference for your starting location?¡± ¡°Yes, I¡¯d like to start in Fellsmarch, capital of the human kingdom.¡± "You can gain your skills and a class according to the way you choose to play, do you wish to complete the tutorial? In the tutorial mechanics on how to play are explained as well as the lore and history of your kingdom and starting location?" Let¡¯s see, what did I know about skills again? Skills can be created by either being taught, by acquiring skill books or by performing the skill and gaining it after enough practice. Depending on your real life abilities you could gain skills pretty fast, a great scientist would get the alchemy skill very fast and a skilled swordsman would acquire sword mastery with lightning speed compared to someone without any experience. Raising your skill could be done through gaining experience with it, that means if you would repeat the same move every time or cook only the simplest of dishes your skills would barely rise and after a while you wouldn''t gain any experience by it at all. That made sense to him, a chef who would always cook scrambled eggs would never achieve greatness. So if you fought difficult battles in unknown environments or learn and improve constantly, your skills will rise. Higher stats could be gained through leveling or doing certain activities. One could even do push up training, like in real life, to raise the strength stat. Although training with weapons, or running with weights, could also raise stats and would usually rise others as well and even give experience for skills. So naturally, many posts in a variety of forums, would recommend doing combined activities to raise different stats at the same time. Although the training should fit the person, or the time you invested would just be wasted. As if I didn¡¯t already know everything I could research about on my own, no thanks! ¡°No thanks.¡± ¡°Your avatar has been created; I wish you the best of luck and fun.¡± The room slowly became a blur, and a bright white light blinded me. Eventually the light faded away, and I was able to see my surroundings again. There I was, standing alone, in simple, plain clothes. It was a medieval town, full of life. I was spawned in the center of the village, near a great fountain. People swarmed around everywhere, and I could see a lot of merchants and fighters around. Hmm, Ollie and Musa are probably still playing the tutorial. I should move around a bit to get comfortable. After doing some shadow boxing and random kicking I felt comfortable enough. Oh well, first things first. ¡°Show status window.¡± *** Volume 1 - Chapter 3 Volume 1 - Chapter 3
Name: Enza Entreri
Race: Human
Alignment: Neutral
Profession: N/A
Title: N/A
Level: 1
Fame: 0
__________________________________________________________________________
Health: 100
Mana: 100
Strength: 10
Agility: 10
Vitality: 10
Wisdom: 10
Intelligence: 10
Charisma: 5
Luck: 5
Offense: 0
Defense: 0
__________________________________________________________________________
Magic Resistance: N/A
I''m not sure what I was expecting¡­ This is as normal as it can be. I can¡¯t wait to see this grow; I¡¯m really looking forward to this. Damn, I want to start moving again, but people have been looking at me like I¡¯m some kind of retard. That¡¯s probably, because only newbies start kicking and punching air, to get used to VR. Oh well, I¡¯ll just have to wait a little bit, Musa and Ollie will probably soon be finished with the tutorial. I wonder what kind of avatar they¡¯ll make. I also dropped off a machine at Davut¡¯s house, ?m¨¹r¡¯s, Onur¡¯s and Muhammed¡¯s. I think Mo texted me to say he couldn¡¯t make it today, but Davut should show up any minute by now¡­ Trying not to wait in vain, I take a look around. The city looked pretty good. It was well maintained and there were a lot of people walking about. Hah, it feels exactly like real life. Everyone is walking in a hurry to their own destination, not giving a single fuck about each other. Oh well, wouldn¡¯t want to have it another way. The building that attracted the most attention was definitely the church. It had a lot of priests, who were all busy trying to help people by healing, or curing curses. There was a whole queue lined up to receive help. A few sneaky players even flocked around the church to help; they all probably had priest related classes, and thought they might make a profit if they could lure some customers away from the church, to help them instead of the priests from the church. It doesn¡¯t look like they¡¯ll profit a lot though. The NPC priests from the church, are seemingly working for a very low price, there are also a lot of them, so every customer receives help pretty fast. Suddenly I hear a fetching voice behind me, I turn around quickly to see who called out to me: ¡°Yo, Mathijs.¡± Hmm, now who might this be? I narrow my eyes, because the sun was shining quite brightly from the direction I was trying to look in, and try to get a better look at the person who called out to me. It was definitely an elf. He had long, blonde hair that reached his shoulders, and you could call the face quite handsome. He was a little taller than I am, and you could see that he was amused, at me not knowing who he was. Hmm, I would have expected Ollie to choose an avatar like this, but the way he walks¡­ While the Elf was walking towards me, I could see by the way he walks, that it was more probable for him to be Musa. ¡°Hiya Musa, how¡¯s VR?¡± I smile and try to bluff my way through, I¡¯m still not sure if it¡¯s him. ¡°It¡¯s amazing; I never thought that there would be so many details. And damn, you can even feel the wind and the sun on your skin. Oh and by the way, I¡¯m Ollie.¡± I raise an eyebrow, is he serious? Nah he¡¯s probably just trying to get back at me. Let¡¯s bluff once more, if he¡¯ll insist then I¡¯ll believe him. ¡°No you¡¯re not, I can see your avatar¡¯s name dude, and it certainly isn¡¯t Glinc. Oh and how did you know it was me?¡± He starts smiling even broader and shrugs, probably a sign that he gives up: ¡°Yup you¡¯re right, nice to meet you, I¡¯m Helius. And of course I recognized you, you almost kept your same appearance, the only thing you changed, is that you made yourself look like a shitty anime character some more.¡± So it was Musa. This guy¡­ ¡°Nice to meet you, Helius, you can call me Enza here. We should call each other by our avatar¡¯s names, that¡¯ll add to the immersion. Especially if we¡¯re going to spend quite some time here, then this will make it more fun. I told you about the time conversion right?¡± ¡°Yeah I think so, it was 2 to 1 right?¡± ¡°Almost, it¡¯s 4 to 1. That means that, spending one day in real life, will amount to 4 days here.¡± I can see that Musa understood my explanation, he nods, and while he does, someone appeared out of thin air next to us. ¡°Hello guys.¡± Now who might this be, this time there was an elf, who¡¯s one or two heads taller than I am, he had long black hair that reached his shoulders. The elf with the long black hair, was carrying a book, and moved his left hand to his glasses, to readjust them. ¡°Hah, I¡¯ve always wanted to do that in a fantasy setting.¡± ¡°Ah, Davut! You made it. Good. How do you want us to call you in here? Warrific like always? You can call me Enza by the way, and Musa, can be called Helius.¡± ¡°Ha, those names are for faggots.¡± I sigh out loud, not sure what I expected from him. Oh well, at least he¡¯s smiling, so he isn¡¯t serious. I roll my eyes, and ask him if he knows about the general rules concerning the beginner levels: ¡°Anywayyyy, while we¡¯re waiting for Ollie, we might as well, see how much you two know. Can one of you tell me how long we¡¯ll be stuck in the beginner town, without being able to leave?¡± Warrific¡¯s eyes start to shine, and he immediately answers my question: ¡°One week IRL, and 4 weeks in here.¡± ¡°Yup, that¡¯s correct. That means tha-¡± While I was trying to finish my explanation, a certain flash of light, accompanied by a certain half elf, pops up next to us. While I¡¯m calmly studying the half elf¡¯s face, Musa is the first on to speak up: ¡°I presume you must be Ollie?¡± ¡°You¡¯re totally right! Woah, this is so amazing! Look at this!¡± Ollie starts gamboling around, trying to show us something. I have no idea what he¡¯s doing¡­ Davut didn¡¯t have any idea either, because he spoke up almost immediately after Ollie started making weird movements: ¡°Ollie, Stop! Haven¡¯t you taken a look around? Everyone is looking at us, as if we¡¯re total noobs.¡± Ollie smiles and he stops skipping around. I start to laugh at the remark Davut made: ¡°Well, technically, we are noobs. So who cares what others think about us right now? Although, I do agree with Davut, Ollie, or should I say Glinc, that looked like shit.¡± Glinc looked precisely like a half elf; he had long ears and a little short, black hair. You could see that he had elven features, but they weren¡¯t that noticeable. ¡°Well, sorry for being enthusiastic!¡± I look at the three faces surrounding me, and tell them what I had in mind: ¡°Okay, you guys know the standard commands right? Like; ¡®show status window¡¯, ¡®show skill window¡¯, ¡®show inventory¡¯, and ¡®options¡¯. You won¡¯t need the skill window anytime soon, because we¡¯ll be stuck in the beginner town for a while. So we can¡¯t explore a lot, or change profession for a while. Well, you can, but that would mean you¡¯re willing to settle for one of the standard professions, like a cook, or one of the priests over there.¡± I nod my head in the direction of the priests, and continue my explanation: ¡°So, this is what I recommend; is that we¡¯ll head our own ways for now. Try to soak up as much information as you can, get used to the idea of spending a lot of time here. Try to get comfortable moving around, try to start creating a network in this town. Having NPC¡¯s as allies, is always a good thing. You can start doing some random quests, or just workout. We won¡¯t be able to level up for four weeks in game through normal means, but it¡¯s still possible to raise your stats. For example; by running, fighting, getting hit and other things, will still raise your different stats. Although, it¡¯ll take a really long time, and you might want to invest that time, into other things, that will benefit you more later on. For example: acquiring the cooking skill.¡± I at the three faces surrounding me, and meet there gaze one by one. They all nod. ¡°Good, we can make a party later if we want, we¡¯ll do that when we start fighting together. Right now we¡¯ll just add each other as friends, and you¡¯ll be able to pm each other, and find each other on the map.¡± Having finished my explanation, I open the ¡®contact¡¯ window. ¡°Open contacts window.¡± I selected the window, and added all the contacts I knew.
Contacts:
Avatar name: Known real name: Known location: (city, country) Close friend
Helius * Musa Gole Fellsmarch, Rinola Close friend:
Warrific * Davut Dimar Fellsmarch, Rinola Close friend
Glinc * Ollie Cinur Fellsmarch, Rinola Close friend
Neith * Alisa Fall Malenas, Murhiel Vice pr. development
Xanroar Theodor Stone Bredon, Rinola Development Director
Menzia Felix Lindel?f Zeffari, Rinola Marketing manager
Aliatris Felicia Lindel?f N/A PR management
Contacts marked with ¡®?¡¯ are close friends, location and real name will be available for them.
Looking good. Real names are only known, if you can add them manually, or if people allow others to see them. You can also add manually, who is able to see your real name. The same counts for the location. Let¡¯s say, if you enter a hidden dungeon, and you¡¯re a guild leader. You don¡¯t want the new members to all flock to you, when you¡¯re trying to finish this quest on your own. So you¡¯ll just disable the location designator on your contact list, and only allow a few of your friends to see your location. Furthermore, you weren¡¯t able to see if someone was online or not. You have to pm someone to check if they¡¯re online. Also, the location shows the last location known. So if someone logs off in the Elven capital: ¡®Malenas¡¯, you will see the name Malenas until they log in and travel somewhere else. I also added a few colleagues I knew from work. Most of them are humans; you can see that they are located in Rinola, which is the name of the Human kingdom. The only elf I know, is Neith. At the moment she¡¯s in the capital of the Elven city: Malenas. I added her as close friend; because she was the one I communicated most with and she was the one I brainstormed a lot with. As I turn around and walk away, I can feel the gazes of the three I left behind, on my back. Ollie calls out to me, while I was planning to leave them to themselves. ¡°W-Wait, Enza! What are you going to do first?¡± Ah, he¡¯s probably insecure about how to start. Well, that¡¯s only normal, I would¡¯ve been too probably, if I hadn¡¯t spent all this time figuring out how to start. ¡°Right now I¡¯m heading over to the training hall, or dojo if you will, because you can acquire stats and skills before we¡¯re allowed to leave this city. I¡¯m going to try to gain the karate, or martial arts, skill. I hope to gain some stats before I¡¯ll be able to level up. I¡¯ll benefit from them a lot later on, and I think I have the endurance to keep training for a while. But most of all, I want to try out all the different weapons! As you guys know, I have trained with a lot of weapons at home, but naturally, I could never try them out. I think I¡¯ll benefit more this way, instead of trying to build a network, or doing silly beginner quests. Anyway, if you want help deciding where to begin, you can ask that NPC over there.¡± I nod my head in the direction of an old man, standing a few meters away from us. A lot of new players were flocking around him, and you could see he was almost always busy talking with someone. ¡°He¡¯s the one who helps beginners, by giving some random quests. You don¡¯t get a lot of rewards for completing them, but you¡¯ll get familiar with how this game works. You might also meet someone on a quest, which may lead to other quests. Anyways, after four weeks in-game time, we¡¯ll make a party together. For now, just pm me if something¡¯s up, or if you have any questions. Good luck boys, see ya.¡± This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. Time to start my training. I should be able, to at least acquire the karate or martial arts skill, in a week or two. That¡¯ll be worth it, because that way I can fight with my hands and legs, whilst using a sword. A lot of people entered and left the Training Hall, even high leveled users. You might think that this is strange, but everyone was able to freely enter the Training Hall. Most of the time players wanted to test newly acquired skills, so they headed for the Training Hall, and started testing skills on dummies. You might be surprised when I say high leveled users, as the beta phase was just released yesterday. But most of the staff from the company, participated in the alpha, and leveled their characters quite a bit. They kept their characters even in the beta phase, so that they can still bug test higher leveled weapons and skills. I enter through the door, and enter a narrow corridor. I notice a guard, standing near the entrance of the training room, watching everyone who wanted to enter. ¡°Hello, sir.¡± The guard knitted his eyebrows together at my greeting, and responded curtly: ¡°How may I help you?¡± This is where flattery comes in. NPC¡¯s have very, very, smart AI¡¯s. But most of the time, with some well-placed flattery, you can gain their affection. Which will most of the time help you, in one way or another. ¡°Ah, it just looked like you are very skilled with the sword, and I¡¯m really enthusiastic about picking up the sword. You see, I aim to be a knight one day. And right now it looks like you¡¯re someone who can guide me, if you think I¡¯m worthy enough. Would you mind telling me where I can pick up a training sword, and where I might find a dummy?¡± It worked. I could see how the face of the guard brightened immediately, and he started to respond enthusiastically. ¡°You shall find martial training absolutely necessary, when you come face to face with any opponent. Do you need my guidance? Let me tell you, take any unattended dummy, and strike him in any way you want. A wooden sword is placed in front of a scarecrow, and it is all yours.¡± ¡°Thanks a lot, sir. And thank you for the offer, but I¡¯ll be able to handle myself.¡± ¡°Best of luck.¡± ¡°Open inventory.¡±
Common Bread (10x) Water Canteen (25L) -
- - -
- - -
Nice, that¡¯ll last me a few days. Especially that water canteen is surprising, 25 Liters¡­ That¡¯s a lot. There¡¯s also free water at the fountain. That¡¯s good. The bread will probably taste like shit though. Oh well, when I make some money, I can probably eat something of better quality. I head for an unattended dummy, somewhere in a corner, and leave the sword on the ground. I stretch a little bit, to warm up my muscles. I notice that I¡¯m finally able, to kick at head height, without any effort. The feelings¡­ I¡¯ve waited so long for this moment. I¡¯m lost in ecstasy for a moment, while I¡¯m doing all the kicks I could never do. Backwards round house kick, jumped side kick, Brazilian kicks. After I finally regained my senses, I started by slowly doing some techniques on the dummy. Ahh, it¡¯s been a while since I¡¯ve punched something. The only training I did, for the past 2 months, was without any impact on objects. Left straight, right hook, left side kick, right uppercut. I started to lose myself in the rhythm, it was a pleasant experience. *Thump* *Thump* *Thump* The dummy emitted a dull sound while I was badgering it with techniques. Damn, so much sweat. I think I lost track of time. When I look at the clock in the game menu, it says 5 hours have passed. What the. When I look around me, I can see a lot of people looking at me and whispering Shit, I didn¡¯t know that I would attract this much attention. Oh well, who cares anyway. I pick up the wooden sword lying next to the dummy, and switch to practicing some sword techniques. I¡¯ll combine my martial arts later. For now, I should just focus on using the sword. I feel like¡­ I¡¯m going to puke. No, I have to keep going. I can finally achieve everything I¡¯ve dreamt about. I can finally fight with a real sword. My experiences in real life, all that training, it wasn¡¯t worthless. I will continue! *ting*
Strength has risen by 1 point (+1 STR) Vitality has risen by 1 point (+1 VIT)
*** Hmm, what to do now? I readjust my glasses, and look at Enza walking away from us. Well, time to start exploring too. I have already decided on the class I want to take. I¡¯ll be the best necromancer there is. I¡¯ll start by debuffing and raising simple familiars, it¡¯ll work out because we¡¯ll have a big party. Then, eventually, I¡¯ll raise whole undead legions and start a war or something. I already started to study some tactics and strategies, about how warfare works in this world. I can¡¯t contain my smile, just thinking about what I¡¯ll achieve, and it starts to show on my face. Only problem is, there hasn¡¯t been any clue yet, about how to obtain the necromancer class¡­ Oh well, I¡¯ll be the first one to figure it out then. ¡°Warrific, you¡¯re showing a creepy smile¡­ What are you thinking about anyway?¡± Oh, I forgot all about Helius and Glinc. As if I¡¯d tell them what I¡¯m up to¡­ They¡¯ll probably just want to follow me, and bother me. ¡°Ah, nothing important, just that Enza looks stupid from this angle. Anyway, I¡¯m off too, later boys.¡± I turn around and start walking away, after making a sarcastic goodbye. ¡°Later.¡± ¡°Bye, bye.¡± As I walk away, I can hear one last sentence from them, before their voices are blocked out by all the noise around me: ¡°Hey, Olli-, ehm, Glinc, do you want to explore together for a while?¡± ¡°Sure.¡± Hmm, as I look around me, I can see the church towering over the plaza, and a lot of buildings around me. Well, let¡¯s start off, by walking in the opposite direction of the church. As a necromancer I don¡¯t want to have anything to do with the priests¡­ Hmm, it¡¯s a little annoying that I had to start in the human capital, but I always wanted to try and play a lich necromancer. The regular necromancers are so clich¨¦. Lost in my thoughts, I didn¡¯t notice that I had walked quite some distance already. It was almost at the point where you couldn¡¯t see the church anymore. If you looked around carefully, you can see that more alleys started to appear, and the NPC¡¯s started to look shabbier. There weren¡¯t a lot of players over here, or at least, not where I could see them. I started walking and looked around. I¡¯m not sure what I¡¯m looking for, but I feel like I should find at least something over here. As I keep walking, I suddenly see a player walking in a fast pace. What the. What¡¯s he doing here? He looks like a human player who has quite a high level. At first, you would only notice that he was clutching a book, and that he¡¯s wearing a shabby, black robe. But if you take a better look at it, you can see some highly detailed engravings on the cloak. Is that... A skull? I narrow my eyes, and start to follow him. It¡¯s hard to keep up with him, but I¡¯ll manage. Shit! He suddenly started running! I start running too, and try to follow him through the maze of alleys. Damn, why was I following this guy again? My gut feeling still tells me that I took the right choice, and I always trust it. But I¡¯m not sure what I can expect. I start noticing how the surroundings have changed even more. There aren¡¯t any regular houses in sight either. Woah! I almost crash into a beggar who was lying on the ground. But I managed to regain my balance and keep chasing the robed guy. I was starting to sweat, and my breath was running low. But I ran way too much to give up now. I didn¡¯t have to worry about losing the way either, because the virtual map, was always there by my side. The robed man suddenly made a sharp turn, and took a side alley. Damn, was he on to me? No I don¡¯t think so, the distance between us never shortened than 20 meters. I should be fine. As I keep running and take the same turn he had, I suddenly trip, and fall head first into the wall.
You have received a little damage, by hitting your head. You have received 10 damage.
Is it even possible to take damage from falling? Still a little dazed from the sudden fall, I hear a voice talking: ¡°WHO ARE YOU?!¡± The next thing I know; is that there¡¯s dagger on my throat. Shit, are you serious? How am I supposed to get through this situation? Is it even possible to die in the human capital, when I haven¡¯t even played for a week?! Hmm, maybe my honesty will save me for once, I¡¯d rather lie, but I can¡¯t risk it. Not when he¡¯s probably 50 or more levels higher than I am. ¡°N-No one of importance, I just thought I might benefit from following you.¡± I try to read his face, but the hood he was wearing conceals everything there was to see about him. Initially, I thought he was a human, but now I¡¯m not even sure. He removes the dagger from my throat while speaking: ¡°What the hell, I thought you were dangerous. But you¡¯re only a beginner, hahahaha.¡± He started laughing¡­ What is wrong with this guy? His laughter came to a sudden end, when his voice suddenly became serious: ¡°Now tell me, why shouldn¡¯t I kill you? You can still be killed at level one, and you¡¯ll lose a lot of your stats. The only downside for me would be the increased infamy, but I can sure as hell live with that.¡± Hmm, by the way he acts; I can tell he had a hard time, that¡¯s probably why he acts so paranoid. He looks like he¡¯s into dark arts too. Maybe he¡¯s a necromancer even, the irony. Maybe I can get him to sympathize with me, let¡¯s add some lies, and mix it with honesty: ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but I¡¯m trying to become a necromancer, and I had a really hard time trying to find some clues. Everyone shunned me, and after a while, even the church didn¡¯t help me anymore. I¡¯ve been roaming these shabby, dark, alleys for a long time now. Never did I come even a little bit close, to a clue, as how to obtain some information about a quest or the class. Then I suddenly saw you running, and I thought: ¡®This is it! Here is my chance.¡¯.¡± Now, let¡¯s see how he reacts¡­ He sheathed his dagger, and even removed his hood. I could see that he didn¡¯t spent a lot of time on maintaining his character, because there were stubbles all around his chin. But the most noticeable things were his eyes. Because he didn¡¯t have any. Yes, you heard me right. He didn¡¯t have any eyes. It was impossible to see through his eye sockets, because it felt like a dark abyss would consume me if I kept looking. Furthermore, he had blonde short hair, and he was definitely a human. The scowl he had before totally disappeared as he listened to my story, and he even showed a grin on his face. ¡°Haaaaaaaa, I can totally relate man, I¡¯ve been through all of that too. I would like to tell you that I can¡¯t say anything. But I¡¯m not that evil.¡± He winked and continued: ¡°You did a good job following me. That takes guts, I¡¯ll tell ya. Anyways, I won¡¯t give you my name, but you should enter this building behind me. Maybe you¡¯ll get the thing you¡¯re looking for, but it¡¯s all up to you. Oh, and wait a few minutes before entering, I don¡¯t want you to put your nose in my business. When you see me leave you can enter.¡± W-Wait, was he even a player? Or was he an NPC? Damn, his name only showed some question marks. Huh? *ting*
Quest: A Shop Selling The Abyss A mysterious man has given you information about a shady shop; he told you that you might find something you are looking for, if you¡¯d be willing to enter it. Enter the shop, and figure out the true meaning of his words! Difficulty level: F Quest requirements: -Follow the mysterious man to the shop. -Raise the intimacy with the mysterious man, so that he will provide you with the information.
I lick my lips, and start to form a creepy smile. Haha, I¡¯m so lucky, I knew it was a good idea to follow him. I don¡¯t think it¡¯s a trap¡­ Well, probably not. I¡¯ll just stay cautious. Getting such a quest, with tricky requirements, is not something you encounter very easily, especially if you¡¯re still level one! *Ting*
You have accepted the quest!
*** Volume 1 - Chapter 4 Volume 1 - Chapter 4 A few hours before Warrific accepted his quest: I look at Musa who just asked me to join him, well, not like I¡¯d refuse anyway. All these details though, damn. Hmm, I should start thinking about what direction to go. I have always played archers, but in virtual reality, that wouldn¡¯t really fit me. Oh well, maybe Musa has an idea about what direction he was going to take already. I decide to ask him: ¡°Hey, Helius, do you have any ideas about where to go right now?¡± Helius speaks up, and nods his head to the church behind him: ¡°I¡¯m not one hundred percent sure yet, but, I think I might try to get affiliated with the church¡­¡± The church huh, is he aiming for paladin? Well, it might be fun to see how the church functions. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s go. Maybe they¡¯ll provide us with a quest or something.¡± I nod at Musa¡¯s idea, and walk up to the church. Taking another look at it, it really does seem big. You could see the pillars rising up into the sky, and there were a lot of detailed engravings on the walls. I¡¯m not sure about what they try to convey, but it looks like some like some skull and scythe. I raise my eyebrows, weird emblem for a church. They¡¯re probably trying to scare people into joining the religion. Well, can¡¯t blame them. As we walk past all the other priests and players interacting with each other, before the grand doors, we take a look around at the interior. It¡¯s a very spacious hall, and it looks like there was a fountain located near the end. There were a few paths leading to the interior of the church, but they looked deserted, and I don¡¯t think it¡¯s a good idea to stroll around there. As I scan the interior, I can see one guy, or maybe even a child, sitting near the fountain. He looked like a human boy who is very kind. He had blonde hair reaching his ears, and his eyes were clear blue. He was wearing a long hat, which was fully white, except for a red cross in the middle. The boy was in the middle of a prayer, next to the big fountain. He was sitting right in a spot, where the light was falling precisely on, and around, him. I looked to my left, and saw Helius standing there, just as mesmerized as I was. While I nudged Helius¡¯ shoulder, he totally ignored my attempt at getting his attention. Hmm, I don¡¯t think it¡¯s a good idea to talk with that person right now; he¡¯s probably the son of some higher ranked priest. Although, if you think about it, this is, an important NPC. Well, probably. That might mean, that maybe he¡¯s related to special quest! I follow Helius, who was heading for the boy. ¡°Halt, I won¡¯t allow the two of you to pass, unless you can identify yourself right here!¡± I see Helius¡¯ shoulders jolt, and I almost jumped up. That voice came out of nowhere. I guess I was so occupied with the strange atmosphere surround that boy, that I totally missed that guy standing in near the fountain, in the shadows. He was pretty tall, and had the face, of an average grim guard. Grim. That word is perfect for the description of this guy. It looks like he¡¯s a guard, probably here for the kid. Hmm, I don¡¯t want to get in trouble, right before we have even started. I¡¯ll just act humble and honest. I see Helius starting to move his mouth, but before he can say something, I start talking to the guard. ¡°We were just sightseeing, sir. We suddenly saw that kid over there, and we thought it might be a good idea to join him in his prayers.¡± I try to read the man¡¯s face, but he just kept glaring at us. I don¡¯t think we¡¯ll find anything here¡­ ¡°Bugger off, there¡¯s nothing to see here. You were lucky that there weren¡¯t any priests around at this particular moment, otherwise they would¡¯ve sent you away already.¡± The man waves us away and starts walking back to his initial location, where he had his back, against the wall. You could maybe even call it slumping, but if you looked carefully, you could see that he was still eyeing us, very cautiously. That guy must be protecting someone really important, or he¡¯s just trying to fool us. Maybe he¡¯s actually someone who¡¯s pretty good at his job. I can admire that. As I see Helius turn around, I also start following him, to the exit of the church. But suddenly, we both turn around, because a young voice spoke up: ¡°Torvus, that¡¯s enough. They¡¯re probably, only here to visit this beautiful, small church.¡± Small.. Church¡­? It certainly doesn¡¯t look small¡­ I think this game¡¯s AI, still has some faults. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but I can¡¯t allow tha-¡± The boy takes on a firm posture and starts to speak up, interrupting Torvus: ¡°These two adventurers, will, at least get the opportunity, to make themselves useful. I expect you to think of something useful for them to do. And if you can¡¯t, at least find someone who is.¡± Make ourselves useful¡­? We aren¡¯t random tools to be used. It also looks like the boy, and his, presumed, guard aren¡¯t on best terms¡­ ¡°R-Roger that.¡± His grim face, started to get even grimmer. I didn¡¯t think that would even be possible. Torvus left his spot from the wall, and came over to us again. You could clearly see his scowl, but it seemed like he had no intention of trying to conceal it. I don¡¯t like this guy¡­ And that¡¯s pretty rare, because I don¡¯t dislike people very soon. He came over while muttering something under his breath, looks like he¡¯s spouting curses or something. ¡°Hmmm, something to do ¨¨h... Ahh, yes! There is something that has to be done with urgence!¡± He starts smiling mischievously, and his eyes start to shine. T-This doesn¡¯t look good at all. I don¡¯t like how he¡¯s looking at me like that. This guy can¡¯t be up to any good. I could see Helius holding down a shiver, don¡¯t ask me how. But, a quest is a quest. Maybe it will help us, it probably won¡¯t have any downsides, and if it does, well, then we can just drop it. Torvus continues: ¡°Yes¡­ Yes, this quest is of high importance! The upper part of the church has been infested with mice! If you two, would be willing to help us with that issue, then we¡¯ll award you greatly! You can expect at least a few coppers!¡± *ting*
Quest: All Worship The Mice Torvus, has been tasked with giving you a job. He told you that there was a problem concerning mice, within the upper part of the church. Clear out the mice, and claim your reward! Difficulty level: F+ Quest requirements: -Pique the interest of the young boy -Make Torvus offer you a job -Level one
I think, he got caught up in his roll, and started adding nonsense. It doesn¡¯t matter anyway, what does matter, is that this is my first quest! I can¡¯t wait! I look to my left, and can see that Helius made up his mind too. He probably thought the same things as I had. We look at each other, and nod. ¡°We¡¯ll do it.¡± ¡°Please grant us this task.¡± *Ting*
You have accepted the quest!
The boy flashed a smile and walked back to his place at the fountain: ¡°I¡¯m not sure if I agree completely with this quest, but it¡¯s fine for now.¡± Torvus raised an eyebrow in the direction of the boy, but they boy didn¡¯t see it, because he had turned around already. ¡°Okay, walk back to the entrance you two, and ask a nearby priest, if he¡¯ll guide you to the upper part of the church. I don¡¯t have the time for that. If you¡¯re capable enough, meet me back here, and we¡¯ll see what we¡¯ll do about your reward.¡± As I look at Helius, we decide to walk back, towards the entrance. I see Helius nod his head back to the direction we came from: ¡°I don¡¯t like that Torvus guy. I think he has a problem.¡± I agree with him: ¡°Yeah, I don¡¯t like him either. But this quest, is still a good opportunity to experience something like this.¡± We walk towards a nearby group of priests. They were peacefully discussing something, I couldn¡¯t really discern which words were spoken, but, to be honest, I wasn¡¯t really interested. I was more occupied with my current quest. The three priests stopped talking, and looked at us. They started smiling, and were probably waiting for us to say something. Phew, I¡¯m glad they don¡¯t mind us interrupting them. Helius smiled back at the priests, and directed his attention to one of the three priests, she had short blonde hair, with green eyes. She looks pretty¡­ Then, he spoke up: ¡°Hello, would one of you be so kind, to guide us to the upper part of the church? We were asked to take care of a certain problem there.¡± The female priest, who Helius asked the question to, looked to her right, to a fellow priest. The other priest to her side, a young man with short, brown hair. Also looked at the same priest. Guess they¡¯re asking for his approval. They¡¯re probably his students or something. The priest who was looked at, had a long grey beard, and was bald. Bald people creep me out¡­ The old priest kept his calm and simply said; ¡°But of course.¡± He looked at the younger man, and asked him: ¡°Would you mind guiding them for a bit? If you have finished, come back here. They should be able to find their way back, on their own.¡± The priest with the shorter brown hair, smiled an innocent smile. And pointed in the direction of a deserted corridor. ¡°Come, I¡¯ll show you the way!¡± He¡¯s brimming with enthusiasm, isn¡¯t he? He¡¯s probably happy, to be of use to the older priest. The priest we were supposed to be following, had a fast pace, and walked quickly to the corridor. When I look to my left, I can see that Helius had already started following her. A small part of me was sad to leave the female priest behind, but as I was almost losing sight of the priest and Helius, I soon forgot about her. While we kept walking, both Helius and me, started looking around. The corridor had a lot of paintings hanging on the walls, there were also a lot of other side paths. I have no idea where they would lead me. I hope we can even find the way back, after clearing out the mice. Wait, speaking about mice, how are we even supposed to wipe them out? We don¡¯t have any weapons, and they probably don¡¯t have any to spare for us, because, in the end, we¡¯re still in a church. I don¡¯t think they have any tools for us available too, something like rat poison¡­ But this is still virtual reality, and both me and Helius, have both trained karate for a few years. We should be able to kick them, at least. As I was lost in my thoughts, I could see the young priest arriving at a door. He stopped walking and looked at us expectantly: ¡°Alright, after you open this door, you will find the stairs leading to the upper part of this church. Be careful though, we don¡¯t want any mice heading for the lower part, and infest the whole lower part. Please wipe them all out, and don¡¯t let any slip out! I will leave you two here, the door is unlocked, and to be honest, I hate mice. You two, you know the way back right?¡± Helius nodded a few times, when the priest was talking, and responded: ¡°Yes, we¡¯ll be fine.¡± The priest smiled a last time, and started walking in the direction he came from. I could see Helius, starting to walk towards the door. I think before heading out, we should first make a plan: ¡°W-Wait Helius, before we open that door, we should make a plan before we head out. How are we going to deal with the mice?¡± ¡°Huh? Oh, I hadn¡¯t actually thought about that. Can¡¯t we just¡­ Stomp them, or something?¡± Stomp them? That was his plan? I start laughing out loud, and soon Helius was laughing together with me. This is such a new experience, I have literally no idea about what to do. But ¡®stomping¡¯ them might work. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s kill some mice, Helius!¡± I open the door for Helius, and he walks past me. The first thing we see are some stairs extending, with an undeterminable amount of steps. It was ill lit, but there were some torches on the walls. They made a zigzag pattern, in alternating order left and right, until the end of the stairway. I close the door behind me quickly, before the mice would escape to the lower part. Not that I can see any mice here¡­ Now, on to the mice! The stairs turn out, to be longer than I thought them to be. As I look behind me, I can see Helius is out of breath too. There¡¯s another door at the end of the stairs, but I figure it might be a good idea to catch our breath first. ¡°Helius, let¡¯s wait a bit, before opening that door. We should regain our stamina, before we enter that door.¡± ¡°Yes, you¡¯re right.¡± I rest my hands on my knees, and bend my back a little. In my karate trainings I¡¯ve experienced this situation a lot, I¡¯ll only take a little while, and then I¡¯ll recover. I can see Helius looking at me with a weird face, probably because I¡¯m biting in the collar of my shirt. I don¡¯t know when, but somehow I attained the habit of biting in my shirt when I¡¯m starting to get tired. I think it might be better to analyze the situation inside first: ¡°Helius, I¡¯m willing to go in first, then come back, and with the acquired information, we can work out a plan.¡± Helius raises his elven eyebrows and smiles: ¡°Okay, just don¡¯t die.¡± I¡¯ve regained my breath, and I feel fine. Okay, here goes nothing! I enter the door with full determination, they¡¯re just mice, I can easily just step on them. I shouldn¡¯t try to defeat them on the spot, let¡¯s just look at the interior of the room, and see if it¡¯s safe for us to enter.
A mouse has bitten you. You have lost 1 health.
A mouse has bitten you. You have lost 1 health. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
A mouse has bitten you. You have lost 1 health.
A mouse has bitten you. You have lost 1 health.
A mouse has bitten you. You have lost 1 health.
A mouse has bitten you. You have lost 1 health.
A mouse has bitten you. You have lost 1 health.
A mouse has bitten you. You have lost 1 health.
A mouse has bitten you. You have lost 1 health.
*ting* *ting* *ting* *ting* *ting* *ting* *ting* *ting* *ting* W-W-WHAT?! I immediately retreat back into the stairway. As I close the door hurriedly behind me, I can see Helius staring at me. ¡°What are you even doing¡­¡± That was scary as hell, I couldn¡¯t even see the floor, the only thing I saw, was white. Everything. Was white. The whole floor was covered with mice. Wait?! How much health did I lose? ¡°O-Open status window!¡±
Name:Glinc Aramil
Race:Half-Elf
Alignment:Neutral
Profession:N/A
Title:N/A
Level:1
Fame:0
__________________________________________________________________________
Health:37
Mana:100
Strength:10
Agility:10
Vitality:10
Wisdom:10
Intelligence:10
Charisma:5
Luck:5
Offense:0
Defense:0
__________________________________________________________________________
Magic Resistance:N/A
Did I just lose 63 health?! In that small amount of time, I must have received 63 attacks. Isn¡¯t that way too much! ¡°Helius, give me a few minutes, I need to restore my health!¡± ¡°Restore your health? You¡¯ve only been in that room for a few seconds.¡± ¡°Open inventory!¡± There are 10 pieces of bread in here. I move my hand to the breads in my inventory, and open the stat window.
Common Bread: Durabilty: 10/10 The most common form of bread, this item has been mass produced by cooks, who didn¡¯t pay any attention to the quality. It can be bought in almost every regular bakery. The taste is very bland, but it does help with the regeneration of some health. It was also help filing the satiety meter. Effect: Restores 8 health and raises satiety
That means, I have to eat 8 breads before my health will be fully restored. I ask Helius to wait a few minutes, and I start eating my Common Breads resignedly. This.. It doesn¡¯t taste like anything! Shit, how can we deal with all these mice? Whilst eating the horrible bread, I discussed the situation with Helius: ¡°That whole room, is filled with mice. You can¡¯t set a single step, without being bitten. Mice may look weak, and they only deal one damage a time, but, in the short amount of time I spent there, I was bitten 63 times! I don¡¯t think we can just barge in there and try to start stomping blindly at them. Maybe we can use the door¡­ Do you have any ideas?¡± This must be why Torvus started grinning so evilly. I shouldn¡¯t have trusted him with giving us an easy beginner quest anyway! He didn¡¯t look like someone you could trust at all. Helius looks at me, and starts speaking: ¡°Are you serious? I have a hard time believing that these mice can give us a hard time¡­¡± He didn¡¯t believe me?! This feels like the boy who cried ¡®wolf¡¯. I don¡¯t even lie that much. I look at him, and attempt to convince him again: ¡°Yes, if you¡¯re not careful, and you enter that room, there¡¯s a high chance of you dying.¡± ¡°Why won¡¯t we just drop this quest then? I don¡¯t want to risk losing my stats at level one.. We¡¯ll only get a few coppers out of this too.¡± He does have a point¡­ But this quest should be easy. It¡¯s still an F+ quest. Enza told us F quests are the easiest of the easiest, we should be able to solve this, if it¡¯s us. I can see Helius suddenly staring at the bread, which I was still trying to eat. A smile formed on his lips and he started talking: ¡°Do you think they¡¯re hungry? You might not like the bread, but maybe these mice can appreciate it?¡± ¡°That might lure them to one place. But how are you planning to deal with them when they¡¯re all gathered up?¡± Helius starts laughing and answers my question: ¡°We¡¯ll stomp them!¡± Yeahh, no. That won¡¯t work¡­ Probably. It sucks that we don¡¯t have any weapons available to us right now. Or a powerful magic, to blow them all up at once. Fire magic would have been useful. Wait a second¡­ Fire¡­ I look at the torches to my right and left. We might be able to use this, maybe we can use something burnable. ¡°Hey, Helius, can you undress for me?¡± ¡°What are you saying?¡± Well, that came across a little weird. I can¡¯t repress the sigh leaving my mouth, and start explaining: ¡°Well, we can¡¯t suddenly start kicking or punching the mice. We don¡¯t have any heavy objects to throw at them, nor any weapons to use on them. Then, it hit me; we might be able to use the torches placed on these walls. I need your clothes, we can set them aflame, and throw them at the mice, when they¡¯re all gathered around the bread.¡± Helius looks at me, like I just said something stupid. Huh, didn¡¯t it make a lot of sense? I think it¡¯s a pretty good idea. ¡°Why do you need my clothes for that?¡± Oh, yeah. Why haven¡¯t I thought about my own clothes? I wonder¡­ ¡°No I just meant your shirt, I¡¯ll use my own shirt too. But I don¡¯t really want to undress any more than that. People will start thinking I¡¯m some weirdo. The more clothes we use, the more chance we can wipe them all out.¡± ¡°Won¡¯t it be dangerous though? I mean, we might set the church aflame, right?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think so, the whole interior was made out of stone. I didn¡¯t see any burnable objects. And even if we can¡¯t burn them all, they¡¯ll probably die because of the smoke.¡± Helius starts undressing while he started talking: ¡°Alright, that sounds like a viable plan to me, let¡¯s finish this quest.¡± We take a torch from the wall, and stand ready in front of the door. Here goes nothing. ¡°Oh, can we use your bread to lure them by the way? I¡¯m almost out of bread already, when I was trying to regenerate my health.¡± . ¡°Yeah, sure.¡± I stand near the door, and ready myself to open it. I sign Helius, to start throwing the bread on my mark. As I open the door I give Helius the sign: ¡°Okay, throw it!¡± Helius throws the bread, and immediately picks up the shirts afterwards, because we had dropped them on the ground as preparation. After Helius threw the bread pieces, I closed the door immediately. I hope they¡¯ll bite¡­ We shouldn¡¯t wait too long, because the bread will probably be eaten immediately. ¡°Okay, Helius, start wrapping the shirts, around the torch!¡± This time, Helius opens the door, and I immediately throw the torch in the room. One mouse tries to enter the stairway, and escape from the room, but Helius shut the door at once, and the mouse¡¯s body was split in two. Whoa, that¡¯s really realistic. We start waiting for a new message to appear, or before we deem it safe to enter again. When suddenly: *Ting*
You have come up with a clever plan to clear a quest, which was deemed almost impossible for beginners, by Torvus. Wisdom has risen with 1 point (+1 WIS)
I look at Helius, and he started smiling. Then we both said at once: ¡°Ting!¡± Nice, we both got the increase in the Wisdom stat. Just when I want to discuss, what had just happened, with Helius, I hear another message popping up. *Ting*
Quest Complete! All Worship The Mice You have come up with a plan, to burn and smoke out, all the mice in the upper part of the church. They have all been wiped out, which has completed the quest. Go back to Torvus, and claim your reward! Reward: Unknown.
I start laughing out loud, and can¡¯t contain my voice: ¡°Nice, we did it!¡± Helius is just as happy as I am, and already started descending the stairs again. ¡°Yeah, I really wonder what the reward will be, I hope it¡¯ll be something good!¡± After spending some time trying to find the way back, we finally manage to arrive at the main hall of the church. We approach Torvus while smiling broadly: ¡°We did it, the mice have all been wiped out!¡± You could see a flash of surprise on Torvus¡¯ face, but it soon made place, for his usual expression. ¡°Oh, good job, I knew you two could do it, this was one of the easiest quests I have to offer. You¡¯re probably waiting expectantly on your reward, and rightfully so. Here you two go; 10 common breads for the both of you. You both look like you don¡¯t have any food, so you two can probably appreciate this a lot!¡± While he was handing us the bread, on his face, a sarcastic smile could be seen the whole time. Are you serious? Did we really just spent the whole day for a few pieces of bread?! Damn, this sucks! Why did we trust that guy again?! As we start heading for the exit of the church, right before we leave, we hear the voice of the young boy: ¡°Wait, Torvus, stop them! If they did clear the mice on the upper floor, they might be useful as lackeys. Maybe they¡¯re more useful than I thought initially. I want you to keep providing them with the jobs the others can¡¯t be bothered with. It¡¯ll prove to be some experience to them, and we won¡¯t lose anything.¡± Helius and I, stop walking, and return to Torvus. I can see Torvus doesn¡¯t like this at all, as he was grinding his teeth. ¡°Yes, I may be able to give you two some other chores. That is, if you two are willing to serve us again.¡± As much as I dislike the guy, I¡¯m still inclining to accept his quests. Right now, we¡¯ll have nothing else to do, if we turn this down. We also might get some intimacy, with the church. Even if these quests are bullshit¡­ Torvus raises his eyebrows, and gives us a quest: ¡°There is something, you two can help with. The staff of the church, needs people to clear some rubble in the lower parts of the church. Only his floor is really maintained, because this church is so big, that this floor contains all the necessary things. People never visit the upper or lower parts of the church, but if you two clean it up, it might be used for something good.¡± *Ting*
You have come up with a clever plan to clear a quest, which was deemed almost impossible for beginners, by Torvus. Wisdom has risen with 1 point (+1 WIS)
I look at Helius, and he started smiling. Then we both said at once: ¡°Ting!¡± Nice, we both got the increase in the Wisdom stat. Just when I want to discuss, what had just happened, with Helius, I hear another message popping up. *Ting*
Quest: Unbury The Church This church, has many unexplored, and deserted rooms. The rooms were full of life once, but now these rooms have lost all their function. Especially the lower, and upper floors, aren¡¯t frequented anymore. After the two of you wiped out all the mice in the upper part, clear out and clean up the specified rooms in the lower floor, and make them usable, once again! Difficulty level: F+ Quest requirements: -Complete the first quest given by Torvus Reward: Unknown
I speak up immediately, because I already made up my mind: ¡°I will clean up the rooms.¡± Helius looks at me for a few seconds, while knitting his brows. After a few seconds he starts speaking up to: ¡°I will help too.¡± *Ting*
You have accepted the quest!
*** Volume 1 - Chapter 5 Volume 1 - Chapter 5 After looking at the weird looking guy with the black robes, entering the shop, I start to wait for him. He told me that I shouldn¡¯t enter before he left, and I think I¡¯ll keep my promise. Don¡¯t want to stick my nose in business that has nothing do with me. Especially, if it¡¯ll cost me my life. Hmm, what to do now? I don¡¯t want to spend a few minutes, or even hours maybe, doing nothing. Oh yeah, I almost forgot about the online window function, which will allow you to browse the web while playing. I sit down on the floor, with my back against the wall opposite from the shop. This way I can browse the web while keeping watch on the shop. After doing a bit of research on the quest I¡¯m doing at the moment, I notice the sun had almost gone down already. But it would probably still be a few hours before it¡¯d be completely dark. I haven¡¯t seen the robed guy leave the shop yet, but I think I can enter the shop without any problems. When I looked at the virtual clock, I could see that I had spent 2 and a half hour looking up information on the web. I learned a few things about people becoming a necromancer, but all the search results on my quest turned up negative. I leave my spot from the floor, and start walking to the shop. This quest shouldn¡¯t be too hard¡­ I knock on the door, and open it a few seconds after. As I enter the building, I can see a lot of shelves with all kinds of items on them. They ranged from the weirdest categories; skulls, potions, mouse tails even some jars with eyes floating in some kind of liquid. There was quite some space in the room, and it was quite well maintained. It was easy to walk around in, and the floor looked quite clean. You couldn¡¯t really see the counter, as the shop was ill lit. There was only one source of light, which was located almost immediately after entering the shop, next to the door. ¡°I seeth that new blood hath ent''r''d this humble shopeth, pleaseth maketh yourself comf''rtable and telleth me what ''tis, thou seeketh.¡± As I¡¯m still looking at the interior of the shop, I¡¯m suddenly dragged back from my thoughts, as someone spoke up. I heard the sound come from the counter, but as it was too dark to be able to see something, I completely missed him. I heard some footsteps, and the next thing I saw, was something that I didn¡¯t expect at all. An old looking skeleton holding a staff, stepped into the light. A lich. A powerful wizard or someone of power, who has undergone a transformation in the quest to immortality. Most of the time, they bind their own soul or intellect to a specific amulet or charm, they do this by executing powerful rituals or magical spells. Well, that¡¯s the first thing that comes to mind. He looked like a very old skeleton, but couldn¡¯t be described as a simple undead. There clearly was some sort of power present, around the skeleton. He was also holding a staff which was emitting a deep, crimson light. Only his head could be seen, as he was wearing black robes, depicting a skull and a scythe. ¡°Young one, ''tis malapert to stareth, prithee answer one¡¯s sinc''re question.¡± The lich, paused for a little while, and continued: ¡°Bef''re thou forceth me, to expel thou from one¡¯s shopeth.¡± Who the hell is this guy¡­ Is he the undead version of Shakespeare or something? Focusing my thoughts back on who stood before me, it does seem like a good idea to speak up quickly, before he really will expel me from his shop. That will probably fail me the quest too. ¡°I have come across someone, who thought it might be in my best interests to enter this shop. I have come looking for someone who might grant me power. I¡¯m willing to help you, as long as I receive something in return.¡± I don¡¯t think it will hurt me to be blunt with him. The lich talked like some old humble man, so he probably won¡¯t try to hurt me for no reason. Well, I hope so. He might be faking this attitude, to lure people in, but for now I doesn¡¯t look like it. ¡°Thou hast come to the right place. thou may be of lay-to yet, as I hast enough tasks ready, that ne''d living flesh, to doth the fullfilling. as one is bound to this shop, one cannot leave the boundaries, these walls hast forc''d upon one. But as it keeps one in, it keeps others out. thou can serve as one''s errand sir for anon, and after proving thy worth, thou will be grant''d majestical powers from one''s arsenal.¡± Those are a lot of gibberish words¡­ But I think he¡¯s trying to say that he cannot leave this shop, and seeing as I can, he probably wants me to do some errands for him, while proving him, that he can trust me. I suddenly hear the familiar ring, and 2 windows pop up: *Ting* *Ting*
Quest Complete! A Shop Selling The Abyss You have entered the shop fearlessly, and persuaded the undead shop owner, to offer you a job. He has promised you power, if you complete the tasks at hand. Accept his offer, and win his trust! Rewards: The undead will offer you a job, and power in due time.
Oh, at least I completed the quest. The reward is very meagre for now though, but as it looks like a chain quest, the rewards will probably increase a lot later on.
Quest: The undead are never at peace The undead shop owner, has asked you to help him with a few errands. He told you that this is necessary to win his trust. Eventually, the undead has promised, you will gain great power in return. Complete his errands, and gain his trust! Difficulty level: F+ Quest requirements: -Enter the shop -Persuade the undead to give you a job Reward: The undead¡¯s trust
Why not, if I decline this, all will have been for nothing, and the undead won¡¯t give me this chance again. Also, that great power that he has promised me, will surely be of use. ¡°I accept your quest, I will help you with a few errands.¡± *Ting*
You have accepted the quest!
¡°Thank thou, youngest one. ¡®Tis much appreciat¡¯d. Anon, seek out the augurers, and endue me a fill''d vial of holy water. One will hast moo ingredients, f''r thou to endue afterwards.¡± Augurers¡­ Are wizards right..? I think he means priests¡­ The lich turned his back on me, and began rummaging through a lot of stuff he had stacked in a chest. He took a few minutes before exclaiming something like ¡®The bliss of life¡¯, and coming over to me. He held out his hand and was waiting for me to take the old vial he was holding. I reached out and took the item from him, he walked back to his place at the counter and it was almost like he disappeared again. But this time, if I look closely, I can see something clearly resting there. If I come in next time, I should be able to spot him, even if he¡¯s standing outside of the light. I turn around, and leave the eerie shop behind me. Ha, I¡¯m glad I kept track of my virtual map while chasing that robed guy, otherwise I probably wouldn¡¯t have found my way back. I wonder where he went though, I didn¡¯t see him leave the shop before I entered, and I didn¡¯t see a second exit. Maybe his sneak skill is pretty high or something. Lost in my thoughts, I arrive at the church after I walked for a little while. The church and its surroundings looked exactly the same as before, it was still swarmed by players and priests. The priests, selling their potions and using their healing skills, and the players, being healed, and buying all kinds of potions. As I walk towards a queue, before a priest with a big bucket of what I think is holy water, I catch a small glimpse of an elf with blonde hair who was given a broom. Is that Helius? Nah, probably not. After waiting a few minutes of waiting in the queue, I reach the priest, and hand over the vial given to me by the lich. The priest, who looked to be a little older than the average priest, raised his eyebrows at the quality of the vial. ¡°Sorry, it does look a little old, but my contactor gave this to me. So here I am, giving it to you.¡± The priest chuckled a bit, and received the vial: ¡°Yes, I can see that your contractor is a cheapskate. We¡¯ve all had to deal with people who are like that at least once.¡± When he filled the vial with the water, he handed it back over to me. I receive he vial, and then suddenly start sprinting back towards the shop. Shit! I forgot to bring any money with me, and I didn¡¯t ask the shopkeeper. I hope this won¡¯t gain me any infamy or something. Damn, that was a close one. No windows popped up fortunately, so that means that I haven¡¯t gained any infamy, and I¡¯m not seen as a criminal. Good. I quickly walked back to the shop, and met with the lich yet again. ¡°I have brought you, what you requested for. I would like to receive some money to buy the ingredients you ask for, next time though.¡± I sarcastically said what was on my mind, while I stood in front of the counter and slammed the vial on the wood. I can¡¯t really see what kind of expression the lich was making, but it looked like something similar to surprise. ¡°but esteem''d young one, prithee enlighten this corky one, to wherefore one would ne''d any chinks to buy holy water. ''tis free of charge namely.¡± He¡¯s lying¡­ I already know he¡¯s someone stingy, by the quality of the vial he gave me. He¡¯s probably feigning ignorance, trying to have me pay for all the ingredients. I didn¡¯t think he¡¯d be this crafty, I need to watch out more, before I¡¯m really caught stealing something. ¡°One hath, though, complet''d one of the tasks thou wast grant''d. One will anon betoken thou, as to whence one might find the next ingredient one has use for.¡± So he still has more errands for me huh, well I figured as much. It¡¯s already starting to get dark outside though. Although, it doesn¡¯t really matter. I¡¯ve pulled a lot of all-nighters in the course of my life already, a few more won¡¯t bother me that much. ¡°Alright, please tell me, where I might find these ingredients.¡± *** Four days in real life (16 days in-game), after the 4 friends logged in, later: "Quest status."
Quest: Unbury The Church This church, has many unexplored, and deserted rooms. The rooms were full of life once, but now these rooms have lost all their function. Especially the lower, and upper floors, aren¡¯t frequented anymore. After the two of you wiped out all the mice in the upper part, clear out and clean up the specified rooms in the lower floor, and make them usable, once again! Difficulty level: F+ Quest requirements: -Complete the first quest given by Torvus Number of rooms left: 13/15 cleared
After Glinc and I lifted some huge rocks from the lower part of the church, to the outside, I looked at him and said: ¡°We only, have to clear two more.¡± I could see he was sweating profoundly, but he smiled and looked at me: ¡°I know right! It took us 16 days in-game time, to clear out those 13 rooms, but look how far we¡¯ve come Helius! We only have to do 2 more, and this time, I can just feel it, this time we¡¯ll be granted an awesome reward!¡± I didn¡¯t really share his optimism, but I did agree though. We have done some heavy lifting over the previous 16 days, which has, nicely enough, increased our strength and vitality by quite a few points. Glinc and I, had adjusted our sleeping rhythms to each other, so we could clean the rooms more effectively. After a few days we also drove the machines to our respective homes. It was fun to stay at Mathijs¡¯ house for a while, but because he had an altogether different sleeping rhythm than we had, we didn¡¯t see him much outside of the game, nor in the game. So Glinc and I, both figured that it might be a good idea to just play from our own homes. After we transported the machines, which took us a few hours, we immediately dove back into the game, and started cleaning up the church again. That¡¯s how we arrived at this moment. ¡°I¡¯m not sure how we were able to continue this crazy work though, the only thing that kept me going were all those pop ups, telling me that I had gained strength and vitality stats.¡± Glinc smiled at my remark, and affirmed what I said: ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re totally right! If our stats wouldn¡¯t have gone up with all this hard work, it would¡¯ve felt like it was all for nothing. I¡¯m glad we¡¯re doing this together, though. That makes all this work quite a lot easier!¡± I started walking back to the inside of the church, so that we could get started with the last two rooms. I acquired the habit of looking at the fountain, with the beautiful lighting for some reason. It was a beautiful scene to behold though. The boy and his guard, Torvus, left the church after two days in-game. The boy probably had enough of the surroundings, and took his guard with him. I didn¡¯t like them either way, so you could say I was glad that they left the church. Luckily enough, they told us just before they left, that we could report to the bishop of this church, to claim our reward. That is fine, because I would have expected Torvus to just give us another good for nothing reward. As we maneuver ourselves through the labyrinth of different pathways, leading to different locations, we arrive at the stairs heading to the lower part of the church. We have walked up and down this stairs so many times these previous days, that I have started to develop some kind of hate toward it. One day, when I¡¯m influential or strong enough, I will certainly blow it up! As I let Glinc take the lead, I follow closely behind. We walked through another series of hallways, and rooms we just recently cleaned. There were a lot of different rooms in the lower part of the church, there was something akin to a big eating hall, and there were even the remains of a spa. Shame all the water disappeared, or we could¡¯ve enjoyed ourselves with a nice bath, to wash off the all the sweat from working. Because, even if you don¡¯t get dirty in real life by doing the heavy work, your avatar in game will still get sweaty, and start smelling too. Every time you log in, you start playing while smelling all the sweat from your previous endeavors. We were lucky with the church though, because we didn¡¯t have to sleep outside, but we could use the barracks the church maintained, on the main floor. As we arrive at the unexplored part, we could see one path going to the left, and one going to the right, the path we just took was blocked by a wall. So we only have 2 options, to go right, or to go left. There are still 2 rooms to be cleared, and seeing as there are 2 paths, each one is probably going to a room. I look to my right, where I can see Glinc furrowing his brows. ¡°So, Glinc, what do you want to do? Should we split up, or should we pick a direction, and clean both rooms together?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s split up! That will make it more exciting, won¡¯t it?! We can even make a bet, to see who can clear his room faster.¡± I¡¯m fine with splitting up, but I¡¯m not really one to participate in a bet like that. It¡¯s also quite strange for Glinc to propose one. ¡°We don¡¯t have to make a competition from this, you can pick one room, and then I¡¯ll take the other. Let¡¯s just finish this damn quest already, as I¡¯ve spent enough time clearing rooms underground.¡± ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll take the right.¡± I can see Glinc taking the right path, and I start walking into the left one. When I tried looking at what was at the end of the paths, I could see nothing, because they both made a sharp turn to the same direction. One thing, I had noticed when I was busy cleaning the rooms, is that the deeper we went, the older the walls looked. As I¡¯m busy walking to the point where the path would turn, I touch the walls. They do feel older than the walls in the other rooms. These have way more cracks in them, and they¡¯re in a worse state. When I arrive at the point where the path makes a sharp turn, I can finally see a door at the end of the corridor. Somehow, I start to get a bad feeling while I¡¯m approaching that door. I wonder what¡¯s wrong with me. As I reach the door, I rest my hand on it, and push the door open. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.The interior of the room was emitting a black aura, I¡¯m not sure if it¡¯s just me, or if it¡¯s really there. Creepy¡­ Looking around me, I can see that there are a lot of paintings on the wall, all depicting angels and priests who are fighting with someone wearing a black robe. The black robed figure was holding a scythe and was walking, among a lot of skeletons and fallen warriors in battle. Looks like the warriors of this church once fought against a powerful wizard or something. Next to the paintings in the room, the only object that was present, was a big rock in the middle of the room, that had a scythe stuck in it. You could only see a small part of the scythe, as most of the rock was covering the handle. Next to the scythe and the rock, the only other thing in this room were the paintings. Oh, a weapon! Nice, that will probably be really useful. Is what I did not think of course. I¡¯m not stupid enough, to just walk over to that evil looking scythe and start wielding it. I can¡¯t probably even wear it with my current level. As I start walking to the rock that contained the scythe, I speak up: ¡°Object stat window.¡±
Powerful seal: Durabilty: 132/99999 A rare seal containing something of great power. The seal has been made by one of the most powerful wizards in its time. This seal has been in place for hundreds of years upon which it has lost a lot of durability. What is sealed, cannot be identified. Be careful with breaking the seal. As the results might turn out to be unwanted. Effect: ???
What the hell¡­ They must have built this church around this seal, to keep something locked in. As I reach out my hand toward the scythe¡­. *** I started walking, before Helius had the chance to say anything else. I made a bet just for fun, but he turned it down. Not like it matters a lot to me. I want to get this over quickly, I¡¯ve had enough of all this cleaning and clearing. I¡¯ve raised my strength and vitality stats a bit though, so that makes it worth my while. But still, 16 days is quite a long time to spent dusting off old rooms, walking up and down stairs, and carrying heavy rocks. I¡¯ve had enough! When I was walking towards the door that should¡¯ve been the last room, I come across a few paintings that depicted monkeys. Strange¡­ Monkeys in a church huh, well it¡¯s true that the bald priest and these paintings show some familiarities¡­ I keep walking while looking at the paintings, and as I reach the door at the end of the path, I reach out and try to open it. It won¡¯t budge. I try again a few times, but there door just doesn¡¯t budge. Arghh, this is annoying! Because I want to know what¡¯s at the other side of the door, I try to peek through the keyhole. The only thing I could see were some eastern style looking doors. I think they were called sh¨­ji. Damn, I can¡¯t really see anything else. I¡¯m not going to give up this quest, just because of one door! I will enter that room and clear it. I didn¡¯t just spent these 16 days for nothing. I want that reward, so I¡¯ll figure something out. After some thinking, I didn¡¯t figure anything out¡­ Out of frustration I just start hitting the door, but I quickly stopped, because I was hurting my foot more than I was hurting the door. Wait a second. Hurt the door. ¡°Open object window.¡± started walking, before Helius had the chance to say anything else. I made a bet just for fun, but he turned it down. Not like it matters a lot to me. I want to get this over quickly, I¡¯ve had enough of all this cleaning and clearing. I¡¯ve raised my strength and vitality stats a bit though, so that makes it worth my while. But still, 16 days is quite a long time to spent dusting off old rooms, walking up and down stairs, and carrying heavy rocks. I¡¯ve had enough! When I was walking towards the door that should¡¯ve been the last room, I come across a few paintings that depicted monkeys. Strange¡­ Monkeys in a church huh, well it¡¯s true that the bald priest and these paintings show some familiarities¡­ I keep walking while looking at the paintings, and as I reach the door at the end of the path, I reach out and try to open it. It won¡¯t budge. I try again a few times, but there door just doesn¡¯t budge. Arghh, this is annoying! Because I want to know what¡¯s at the other side of the door, I try to peek through the keyhole. The only thing I could see were some eastern style looking doors. I think they were called sh¨­ji. Damn, I can¡¯t really see anything else. I¡¯m not going to give up this quest, just because of one door! I will enter that room and clear it. I didn¡¯t just spent these 16 days for nothing. I want that reward, so I¡¯ll figure something out. After some thinking, I didn¡¯t figure anything out¡­ Out of frustration I just start hitting the door, but I quickly stopped, because I was hurting my foot more than I was hurting the door. Wait a second. Hurt the door. ¡°Open object window.¡±
Old wooden door: Durabilty: 177/500 This door has stood here for ages. Because of the time that has passed, the door has become stuck. It has also lost a lot of durability. Behind this door, lies an unexplored room, which hasn¡¯t been visited for hundreds of years.
That description tells me nothing. What does tell me something though, is that durability. I think it went down after I kicked it a few times. Or well, I hope so. My strength has also risen quite a bit, so I should be able to destroy it, if I take my time. It¡¯s made from wood, and looks old anyway. I don¡¯t want to hurt my hands, so kicking the door would be by far the best option. I take a few steps back, and enter my familiar fighting stance. It was a position where my feet were a shoulder length apart sideways and lengthwise it was as far as I could stretch my back leg. I then raised the heel of the foot behind me, and lowered my front knee a little. The only martial art, I¡¯ve ever practiced is karate. I¡¯ve trained for 3 years now and the only stances I know for fighting, are from my karate style. Funnily enough, the fighting stance is literally called: ¡®Fighting Stance.¡¯ After I closed my eyes for a few seconds, I open them and make a few steps towards the door, I then raise my right knee and stretch my leg forward, making the most basic forward kick; ¡®mae geri¡¯. I used the momentum of my hip, to stretch the leg I was standing on a bit more so that my kick would have more impact. Receiving the impact from the kick, I stagger a little bit back. That hurt a little bit, but it isn¡¯t something that I can¡¯t handle. I open the status window again, and can see that the durability dropped with 1. Damn. That means I have to kick another 176 kicks. This will take a while. I take a few steps back again, and enter my fighting stance again. Time to start kicking. Having almost given up, the only thing that kept me going for a while, was the constantly dropping durability of the door. There was only one durability remaining, and I could feel that my legs would give up soon. Normally, 100 kicks or less, wouldn¡¯t take a lot of effort. Just a little, but not the point where I would almost drop down. This time, I had to do way more. Because every time, I didn¡¯t put my full weight in my kick, the door wouldn¡¯t lose any durability. Readying myself for the last hit, I make a full blown run towards the door, and try to charge it with the last of my energy. I hit the door with my shoulder, but the door held firmly. THAT HURT. I lie on the ground for a few seconds, to regain my breath. Damn, I just need one more hit. Come on Ollie, you can do it! I guess that didn¡¯t do enough damage. I stand up while enduring the pain, and ready myself for a kick, once more. I make a few steps towards the door, and this time, successfully kick it open. And as the door was splintering and collapsing, I tumbled along with it. I was so tired, that I was about to lose my conscious. While trying to get up, I could see a giant painting portraying a giant white cloud. There was also an old man sitting on a chair while looking bored. He was holding a staff, and looked at me with a bland expression. I was clinging to my conscious, but that last kick took more out of me than I expected. Just when the oppressive, blackness of unconsciousness was surrounding me, I threw a last look at the man sitting there. Is that fur? *** *thump* *thump* *thump* *thump* *thump* I was happily pounding away at the dummy when I suddenly heard a ring. *Ting*
You have learned a new skill: Dual Wielding
Nice, I have been waiting for that skill a long time. After a day or two in-game when I got the martial arts skill, I started pounding away at the dummy with a training sword. When I got the sword skill, I immediately picked up a second sword, and started doing my favourite dual wielding techniques. In real life I had been training with all kinds of weapons too. Sais, nunchakus, Staffs, spears, short sticks, and swords. I especially love wielding the staff, or using two swords. Because I didn¡¯t have a lot of real weapons available to me in the real world, I always trained using a bokken in my right hand, and a shorter sword, in my left. I used a bayonet as offhand weapon, because it¡¯s easy to use for blocking, and making small attacks. It was a bayonet used in the second world war, which I received from a family member once. Its length was longer than most bayonets and could be compared with a wakizashi. Now that I have the dual wielding skill, I can finally move on to the other weapons. It¡¯s been 16 days of non-stop in-game training. I have always wanted to try them out on targets, as I wasn¡¯t going to break anything at home of course. I just need to figure out where I can get the other weapons though. Oh before I forget, I should open my skill window, and see all the things I have acquired. Because, when I was mindlessly hitting the dummy, a lot of pop ups appeared over time, I ignored most of them, because I was in a state of mind where I only cared about hitting something. As a child, I used to have these moments where I¡¯d just blank out, and would start to hit something. I¡¯ve hidden this most of the my life, and eventually it disappeared. But as I got older, I¡¯ve always been able to set my mind on blank, and just focus on a specific task, like hitting something or jogging. ¡°Open skill window.¡±
Skill Window: Combat related skills: ? Weapon Mastery Beginner (Lv. 3 - 42%) (Passive) Increases Attack Power with a weapon (+30% ATK) Increases Attack Speed with a weapon (+9% ATK SPD) ? Dual Wielding Beginner (Lv. 1 - 0%) (Passive) Increases Attack Power with two weapons (+10% ATK) Increases Attack Speed with two weapons (+3% ATK SPD) ? Taijutsu Beginner (Lv. 4 - 21%) (Passive) Increases bare-handed striking power (14% ATK) Increases accuracy while fighting bare-handed (7% DEX) Increases evasive manoeuvres while fighting bare-handed (7% AGI)
The taijutsu had another name before, but I renamed it to something I¡¯m a bit more familiar with. The English translation would be something like ¡®hand-to-hand techniques¡¯. I also gained a new stat, something called fighting spirit. ¡°Fighting Spirit stat, information.¡±
Fighting Spirit You can call on superhuman strength temporarily, or bring weaker monsters to their knees with a force in your eyes alone. You are prohibited from distributing stat bonus points to this stat, and it rises spontaneously, depending on the avatar¡¯s action, especially if you fight monsters for a long time, or often confront monsters stronger than your current level.
Oh, this is actually something that we practise in our karate style. No wonder I got a stat like this. ¡°Rename stat, ¡®Fighting Spirit¡¯, to ¡®Tokon¡¯.¡± That¡¯s what we call it in our dojo¡¯s, so this should make it a little more familiar for me.
Fighting Spirit was renamed to Tokon
Good. All this combined doesn¡¯t amount to much, but it¡¯s certainly something I can work with. Now that I¡¯ve acquired most of the skills I started out for. Alright, time to ask the instructor for some other weapons, I also want to ask him something in particular. I walk towards the guard who still had a stern look on his face. I can hear the familiar training sounds all around me, people grunting, making shouts, or just shouting skill names. As I reach the guard, before I can speak up he starts talking to me: ¡°Ah, Enza, is there something wrong? Or do you finally need my guidance?¡± Because I had been visiting the training grounds for almost 16 days straight, he had memorized my face, and was pretty kind to me. Probably because most users just come and go, and don¡¯t visit so often. ¡°Well, maybe. I was wondering if there are more weapons available for me to use, next to the standard wooden training swords.¡± ¡°More weapons huh? I always thought you fancied the sword. Figured you¡¯d be one of those swordsmen, like myself.¡± I can clearly see that the guard prefers the sword himself, and maybe even disdains other weapons. Hmm, I must admit, I too like the sword. But I love training with all kinds of different weapons even more. You shouldn¡¯t just focus on one weapon, you should try out everything, and master them all. ¡°I do fancy the sword sir, I just thought it might be a good idea to practise with some other weapons too. If you practise with other weapons, and can understand them, then you can beat opponents who wield them too.¡± ¡°Hoh, that¡¯s some solid logic lad, but unfortunately, the training hall only provides swords to novices, like yourself. If you would like to buy other weapons, you should head to the blacksmith, and order something from him. Is there anything else I can help you with?¡± ¡°Thanks, and yes, I was wondering if maybe you¡¯d be willing to spar with me? Under special rules that is, of course. There¡¯s no way that a beginner like myself could win from someone as honourable as you, but maybe, if we had a spar, where the one who would land a clean hit first would be declared winner, it might turn out to be really good experience.¡± The guard starts laughing loudly ¡°HA, it¡¯s been a while since someone challenged me that boldly lad, alright, it takes guts to challenge someone like me, it does! Okay, I accept your conditions, let¡¯s go to the training room, and start duelling!¡± Hmm, that NPC is probably around level 100 or something, and I¡¯m still level one. I would never be able to beat him if I had to bring his health down to 0, because all it¡¯d take is one hit, to instantly kill me probably. But if it¡¯s just landing one hit.. I should be able to do that, especially after all the fighting experiences I¡¯ve had in real life. All my experience with weapons and fighting in real life, should be the biggest advantage I have in here. As we walk towards the area meant for duels, I can hear quite a ruckus around me. They¡¯re murmuring things like how I¡¯m crazy for challenging a guard who¡¯s probably over 75 levels, while I¡¯m probably under 5. Hah, I¡¯ll prove them otherwise, I might not win a real fight for now, but I¡¯ll surely teach them that something like fighting isn¡¯t only determined by stats and levels. Skill. That¡¯s what it comes down to. As we stand in the centre of the arena, we¡¯ve drawn quite the crowd. I ready my two training swords, and the guard got a big two-handed training sword from somewhere. I then receive a message:
Arthur has invited you to a duel.
AcceptDecline
Volume 1 - Chapter 6 "I accept." This is it. I can finally fight my first, real battle. Well, not so real, but still, it¡¯s a duel. I can see a counter starting to count down from 10 to 0. The NPC, Arthur, was starting to ready himself too. He¡¯s holding his two-handed sword in front of him with the blade aiming up. He¡¯s slowly rising his arms so that the blade¡¯s tip is aiming diagonally away from me. He¡¯s probably going to make a standard down slash, as soon as the counter hits 0. I start to ready myself too, I already have an idea as how to attack. I shovel my left foot a bit to the left, so that my feet become a shoulder width apart. Then I turn my right shoulder towards Arthur, and my left away from him. I drop my right sword, so that the tip is aiming down, and my shoulder and arm are totally relaxed. My right sword is aiming at his feet, while my left sword is aiming in the opposite direction. I slowly turn my left wrist, so that at least the sharp side of the blade is aiming at him. This stance is ideal for me, because I¡¯ve always been more of a counter type. I¡¯ve always had good eyes, which are able to see when the opponent is in a position where I would be able to strike, without receiving any retaliation from the opponent. My tactic this time, would be to wait for him to attack, and just when I would be hit by his sword, I would turn sideways dodging his attack, while at the same time striking out with my right sword at his throat. This is a pretty daring attack, because if I dodge too soon, he can just adjust his attack, and hit me with his initial swing. But if I dodge with the right timing, then he won¡¯t have any chance to block or dodge my thrust at him, because he¡¯ll still have the momentum from his swing going. You might wonder what I was going to do with my left sword, but I would just use it as a feint, so that he might get distracted while I¡¯m aiming for his throat with my right sword. I patiently wait, and block out all the unnecessary emotions, that¡¯s something I¡¯ve always been able to do too, I can just maintain complete focus at the task at hand, and block out all the anxiety, fear, rage and other emotions. The counter hit 0, and as I thought, Arthur immediately makes a step forward, trying to hit me as fast as he can. So far, so good. Just when I want to make a step diagonally towards him, so that I can dodge and strike at the same time, I realize my mistake. He¡¯s way too fast! Damn it, I was only thinking about how this game would improve the damage of the hit, and not the speed. Arthur probably used a skill that boosts his attack speed, as he is a knight class. No, I won¡¯t let you make an example of me! Seeing that the sword in my right hand will probably not make it to his throat before he¡¯ll hit me, I quickly raise my left sword to parry his swing. I can barely handle the impact, but I managed to direct the force of the blow from his swing away. After Arthur hit the ground with his sword, I make a few steps, to gain some distance from him. That¡­ was way too close! If I attempted a block there, he would¡¯ve broken my sword probably, and me along with it. I will probably only be able to parry his attacks, instead of blocking them. The difference between the two, is that blocking would mean to stop his sword completely. While parrying is directing the force of his swing in another direction. That way I don¡¯t have to use a lot of power, and will still be able to effectively dodge his attacks. Arthur was still standing in the same position, while I was making a few steps away from him. He slowly raised his sword, and had a mildly surprised look on his face. He probably thought he could win with that first skill of his. Well, I won¡¯t let him. This time, I face him fully from the front. I point both my swords in his direction this time, and instead of pointing one shoulder at him, I aim both of them to the side. This way I can fight more effectively with my two swords. That initial stance was only to make one counter. Both the tips of my swords are pointing diagonally upwards, and were aiming at his throat. Arthur suddenly made a charge at me, and was holding his blade to his side. Alright, I can still see what he¡¯s going to do, it¡¯s going to be a horizontal slash. This time, I won¡¯t make the same mistake. There¡¯s only one way to win, although it will depend on one thing. And that is, the amount of esteem he has for me. Seeing he¡¯s a knight, probably expects me to face all of his attacks head on, just as he will face all of mine. But this will be his downfall. I¡¯ve never been a type to fight in an honourable way, where you declare all your attacks, and never backstab someone. Sorry, but I fight to win, and not to maintain my honour. I gained quite some distance from him, while I retreated after our initial clash, that meant that he has to take a few seconds to run towards me, before he can strike me. This time span will be enough for me, to win. When Arthur is only a few steps away from me, I throw my left sword at him. I¡¯ve never been a sublime thrower, so I didn¡¯t expect it to do any damage, this is only to have him lose his concentration a little bit. Even if I lose my second sword in this clash, it doesn¡¯t really matter because I¡¯m already planning to end the duel in this phase of the battle. He easily dodged my sword, by just making one more step to the right. But this gained me enough time to close in on him. He lost sight of me for a split second, which was enough to suddenly come up in his vision. Arthur was a little bit surprised, but it looks like it doesn¡¯t bother him much, he¡¯s probably just planning to cut through any technique I throw at him. Just when he stopped charging at me, and while he was flexing his shoulders, to make the horizontal strike with his sword, I use the one technique he would never have expected. I spit in his face. I see how his face twists in disgust, and how he lost his concentration for an instant. But, because he¡¯s still a veteran soldier, he still follows through with his destructive sideways swing. The only thing I achieved, was that his blade made an arc that was a little bit higher than his initial idea. That¡¯s because the moment something hits your face, no matter how well you¡¯re trained, you will always have the reflex directing your movements to your face, to protect it. If you¡¯re trained really well, then you can prevent this a little, but your techniques will still rise a little bit. That¡¯s exactly what happened. Arthur was first planning to hit me on my hips, but because I spit in his face, he directed his blow to me around halfway my arm, just a little under my shoulder. I was aiming for this, because the height of his swing will allow me to duck under it, and hit him at the same time. I won¡¯t jump to him, so I¡¯ll just drop myself to the ground, towards him. As I start falling, I turn around in the air by setting of with one foot. I can see his wooden sword pass my face with only a few centimetres of distance. I threw my left sword, instead of my right sword, on purpose. Because I already saw that Arthur was left handed. This meant that he would cut from his right, to his left side. Because of that, I could dodge his strike, in the initial phase of his movement, and he would have less time to adjust his swing to still hit me. Arthur apparently used all his power in that horizontal swing, probably expecting me to try and block his attack. Just before I pass his hips while falling, I reach out with my right sword, and hit his right side, just above the hip, while I¡¯m still in the air. I hit the ground, and the only thing I can hear around me, is silence.
You have won the duel.
Whoa, I¡¯m glad we didn¡¯t decide on what part as the body counts as ¡®a clean hit¡¯. The system decided this was a clean hit, so I¡¯m satisfied. The only thing I¡¯m unsure about, is how Arthur will take the result of this duel¡­ I understand it was a little cowardly to resort to spitting in someone¡¯s face, but it¡¯s still a duel. If this would¡¯ve been a fight for one¡¯s life, then I would¡¯ve done everything to survive. Or well, that¡¯s the mentality I¡¯ve grown up with. The people standing around the arena were suddenly starting to cheer, I think most of them didn¡¯t see me spitting in Arthur¡¯s face. So they must¡¯ve thought I won purely on skill. There were a few who were mumbling about how it was unfair to use the honour of a knight to win, but well, I¡¯ll just ignore them for now. ¡°Lad¡­.¡± Arthur raised his big, two-handed wooden sword, and rested it on his shoulder. He then proceeded to turn around, to face me. At least¡­ He doesn¡¯t look angry. ¡°That was quite a nice fight, I forgot how it was to fight a real battle, and this surely felt like one. I¡¯m a little disappointed that you resorted to an underhanded trick, but I used a lot of these methods while fighting life and death battles, so I can understand. Tell you what, I want to make a deal with you. I haven¡¯t fought in a long time, so I¡¯ve been getting rusty. I can see you have a little experience, but you¡¯re still a shrimp compared to me. Let¡¯s have a few more duels, every time you win, I¡¯ll buy you a simple weapon of your choice. And every time I win, I¡¯ll have you keep me company for a day. And you¡¯ll spar with me, while I guide you without any complaints.¡± Arthur smiled, and raised his eyebrows at me. Probably waiting for my response. That does seem like a nice deal though¡­ I can still afford to miss a few days, for now. I still have 12 days before I promised to party up with the others. And if I can get some free weapons while I¡¯m at it¡­ Then I can finally start practising with sais, nunchakus and a spear. ¡°Sure, I¡¯d be honoured to have more duels, with someone as experienced as yourself.¡± *** Damn it, this lich has lost it, I¡¯m sure of it. He has been speaking gibberish for 16 days, and I¡¯ve been running errands the whole time. I have enough of this shit. I¡¯ve only been working diligently for him, because I was promised great power. But if he keeps this up then I might really attack him out of frustration. Yesterday, after getting different ingredients for him, for 15 days, he finally told me that he only required one more ingredient for a certain ritual. I gave it to him, and he immediately started scrabbling on the walls, and on the floor. He also told me, that he needed me to get this ingredients for him, because he couldn¡¯t leave the shop himself. I had to get these ingredients for him, because they were needed for the ritual, through which he would bestow great powers upon me. But I¡¯m not stupid. That lich, I¡¯ve already figured out his real motives. A few days ago, I started to really become suspicious of him. He was getting happier with the day, and I sure as hell don¡¯t think it was because of my company. I never trusted that guy, to begin with, but I had to get way too many ingredients for a simple ritual. There were quite a few weird ingredients too, things like elven ears and teeth¡­ He directed me to some merchants in dark alleys who sold these kinds of things. I followed him without complaints for a while, it was still a quest of course. No use in getting angry at an NPC. But now he¡¯s really done it¡­ A few days ago, I started researching online for rituals concerning these ingredients. Unfortunately all the results came up negative, but that didn¡¯t stop me at all. I thought it might be a good idea, to ask the people trained to destroy evil things. Yes, the priests. ---A few days ago--- I wasn¡¯t going to sell him out yet, as I still wasn¡¯t really sure if he¡¯s really fooling me. Or if I will really receive his ¡®grandiose¡¯ powers. I don¡¯t trust him, but for now, it might still turn out to be the truth. Lost in my thoughts, I finally arrive at the church. Time to look for someone who has some experience with dark rituals. They might know what is happening. The only thing I should watch out for though, is that they¡¯ll see me as the one participating in the dark acts. I somehow have to fool them in believing that I¡¯m strictly researching about this for the greater good. I walk towards a priest who didn¡¯t look very occupied, he had short brown hair, and looked like your usual boring priest. He directed his attention to me, and asked a question: ¡°Hello friend, how may I be of service.¡± How to go from here¡­ I can¡¯t act too suspicious, or he¡¯ll just call divine retribution on my head. Well, not like he can, but by manner of speaking of course. ¡°I was wondering, is there any chance, that I might access some books about rituals the church has in its ownership.¡± The priest starts thinking deeply before he speaks up: ¡°Any specific rituals in mind or¡­?¡± As if I¡¯ll give him any more information. ¡°Ah, no, I¡¯m sorry, I only know a little bit about the ingredients needed.¡± The priest looked disappointed for a moment, before changing his expression to one filled with enthusiasm. ¡°Well, I might not be able to help you, but I think I know someone who is!¡± The priest turned around and already started walking to some destination I didn¡¯t know about. He¡¯s probably expecting me to follow him like an obedient dog. I can¡¯t repress the urge to sigh behind his back, I don¡¯t like these busy body types. Always assuming things like how people will follow you, just because you know something they don¡¯t. As I follow the priest in the church, we take a few side paths, and arrive in front of a small wooden door. I¡¯ve never been here before, but it looks pretty peaceful. The boy knocked a few times on the door, before opening it, and urging me to enter. I walk through the door and I enter a small, cosy little room with a lot of books. There was a desk present, with an old bald man with a grey beard, sitting behind it. ¡°Hello, young one, how might this one be of service to you?¡± Looks like this guy is your average, humble, old person. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. Let¡¯s try playing the nice, innocent guy. ¡°Hello, I have some questions concerning a ritual, I only know about the ingredients, but not about the purpose of the ritual. I went to ask the priest over there,¡± I nod my head in his direction before continuing: ¡°and he told me that you¡¯re the most knowledgeable around.¡± The older priest starts chuckling a little, seemingly lost in his own thoughts. I wait for him to finish, but he keeps chuckling, and starts staring into space after a while. I make a fake cough to try and get his attention, he suddenly jolts his shoulders, and starts looking at me again. This guy is so weird, I think he¡¯s starting to go senile. ¡°Ahh, yes, you have come to the right place. Back in the day, I have had to deal with quite a few rituals concerning the healing of people. That is what you¡¯ve come here for, isn¡¯t it?¡± Didn¡¯t I just tell him that I only knew about the ingredients¡­ ¡°I have no idea what the purpose may be of this ritual, as I only know about the ingredients. I thought that maybe you would be able to help me, figure out the true purpose of these ingredients combined.¡± It took me a while to finally have him understand about what I asked of him. I showed him a few ingredients and as luck would have it, he did know something about what I was asking him. ¡°Ahhh, yes, these ingredients are a little different than the ones I used back in the day, but they have really strong healing properties. The method was strongly disliked though, because it takes the life essence from one source, to heal another. It was banned after a while, because the priests sometimes couldn¡¯t control it, and lost a lot of power in the process. It took them years to recover.¡± That son of a bitch. A lich doesn¡¯t have any life essence. So anyone can guess what he has in mind for me¡­ The sucker wants to revive himself, and sacrifice me whilst doing it. Giving me great power my ass. I started talking with the older priest some more. ---Back in the present--- ¡°At last, thou hast complet''d the tasks thou wast given, and anon I can finally execute the ritual. great power will be bestow''d upon thou, if thou will just wait fain.¡± It had been a few hours since I gave him the last ingredient he needed, and he was still preparing the things he needed to get done. He had already drawn something like a hexagon on the ground, and urged me to stand in the middle. I did as he said, and waited patiently for the new popup to appear. At last, he finished his preparations. *Ting*
Quest Complete! The undead are never at peace You have brought all the ingredients the undead shop owner required. He has promised, that he¡¯d trust you, if you¡¯d be able to finish fetching all the ingredients. You have done so, and the undead trusts you now. Reward: The undead trusts you now.
*Ting*
Quest: The Role Of the Living The undead has promised you great power, through a ritual. Step in the hexagon, and endure the ritual to come. You will receive the reward the undead has in store for you. Difficulty level: Unkown Quest requirements: -The undead must trust you enough -All necessary items for the ritual must be present Reward: ???
As I step into the middle of the hexagon, the lich suddenly started floating. He was emitting a lot of power, and you could see his eye sockets lighting up. ¡°One will anon initiate the ritual, and endue forth the great powers thou hast been waiting f''r.¡± A magical barrier surrounds me, which makes it impossible for me to leave. I try to touch the walls, but they won¡¯t let anything through. Alright, here we go. I¡¯ve been waiting for this. After a few seconds the lich starts laughing: ¡°One wilt confess, this one hath conjur''d the man thou had follow''d to this shop, all to lure thou inside. One cannot leave the shop, but this one''s conjur''d familiars can, although they can''t interfere with the outside ordinary. This one despises living like this, and hath been yearning f''r the living flesh again. thou will serve this purpose. one will take thy life essence, and walk among the living yet again!¡± The glowing of the lich, reaches its pinnacle when suddenly a flicker of surprise could be seen on the lich¡¯s face. *** As I reach out to the scythe, I decide that it might not be the best idea. For some reason it took a little bit of willpower to force back my hand. Almost like the scythe has mesmerizing powers¡­ Nah, probably not. The question now is: Do I break the seal, or do I leave it and report it. If I report it to the priests, I¡¯ll probably not gain anything out of it. They¡¯ll just say ¡®oh, thank you for your cooperation.¡¯ And when I¡¯ll ask for a reward they¡¯ll simply tell me that having done something benevolent will be a reward upon itself. As if I¡¯d let them. Alright, I have decided. I¡¯ll break this seal. I still remember that pickaxe we used to break some rubble in other floors, so that it was easier to carry. Before I leave the room with the seal, I sent Glinc a pm, telling him that something special has come up, and if he wanted to join me. I received no reply¡­ Why is he ignoring me? I start walking through the maze of narrow paths, leading to that hated stairway. I quickly walk up the stairs, and leave them behind me while walking towards the room we had all our tools in. Luckily enough, the room was quite close to the stairs, we didn¡¯t have to walk a long way with all the tools we used to clean the rooms, on the lower part of the church. We used brooms, pickaxes, and dusters¡­ I open the door, and I see all the tools we used, in exactly the same way as we left them behind. It was quite the rubble, as we always dropped the tools back where we found them, immediately as we were finished with them. I didn¡¯t bring any tools with me this time, because I first wanted to inspect what kind of room the remaining one was. I surely didn¡¯t expect a seal like that¡­ I have to move a few items, to finally reach the pickaxe. There were a few other pickaxes, because we left the ones we used for the 12th room behind. When I started walking to the room again, I can see a familiar, brown haired priest enthusiastically walking. Just when I was about to look away, I can see Warrific following him. What is he doing in the church? Didn¡¯t he say that he was going to become a necromancer? Such a hypocrite. Anyway, he¡¯s probably busy. I soon forget about him as I was occupied with the quest at hand. I rush back to the room, and start doing some work. Damn, how many swings will this even take. I¡¯ll be stuck here for a while, I guess. I start hacking away, and notice that the durability drops with 1 point every 3 swings. It¡¯ll take me around 400 swings to break the seal. Better start working. I keep swinging my pickaxe, and after a short while, I lost track of time. As I got in pleasant rhythm of swinging I could see small bits of the rock slowly breaking off the main part, and just when I got to a part where I was completely focused, it broke. Not the seal, but my pickaxe that is. I didn¡¯t expect that to happen¡­ I forgot to check the durability of the pickaxe. No worries, I¡¯ll just get another one, and start working on the seal again. I rushed back into the room, grabbed a new pickaxe, and returned to the seal. I check the durability of the seal first, and notice how it went down with 100. Good, only 100 swings remaining. I start working on the seal again, and to my surprise, 100 swings went by pretty quickly. I smash the pickaxe for the last time on the rock, and I see how it breaks open. I take a few steps back, and expect the scythe to fall on the ground, as the rock was supporting its handle at first. What I didn¡¯t expect, was that a shadow would materialize in front of me, and would take a hold of the scythe. Damn, I¡¯m not sure what I was expecting when the seal would break. I thought it would just be a high class weapon which I could sell. That way I would profit the most. I feel a shiver going up my spine, and force myself to keep watching the shadow that just appeared. Well, I¡¯m saying shadow now, but it was slowly transforming in something of a skeleton. A robe appeared around the shadow, and soon, there stood a full skeleton before me. His bones weren¡¯t white, but more of a rusty red. He also grew hair on his head, which had a shade of dark, green hair. ¡°Mortal, are you the one who unsealed me?¡± The scythe that was sealed in the rock, was starting to glow in his hand. It was emitting a scarlet sort of power, which made you think that it would wither everything it touched. ¡°Answer. Me.¡± He looks pretty dreadful like that, but I didn¡¯t have the feeling that he would suddenly attack me. I think I may survive this if I¡¯ll be honest with him: ¡°Yes, I was. I found this rock, holding your scythe. I proceeded to get a pickaxe, and break the seal.¡± ¡°Ah yes, it is a marvellous scythe isn¡¯t it?¡± He eyed me with a look of appraisal in his eyes. I feel like he only sees me as a tool. ¡°¡®Lifecutter¡¯ is its name. Fitting don¡¯t you think? Were you also after the scythe, when unsealing it?¡± Of course I was! But not like I¡¯m going to tell you. I won¡¯t fall for that trick¡­ ¡°No I wasn¡¯t, I thought it might be a good idea, to unseal someone, who has been sealed for at least decennia. I had an idea, that it trapped someone who was wrongfully seale-.¡± Before I could continue my explanation, there was resting a scythe on my throat. The skeleton with green hair, had disappeared before I could react, and reappeared right in front of me. ¡°Mortal, I do advice you, not to lie in front of me again. I, however, do have uses for mortals that are willing to lie, in order to survive.¡± How did he know? Is he bluffing? I don¡¯t think he is. It might really be a better idea to stop lying. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, it won¡¯t happen again.¡± ¡°Good. I like mortals that understand the situation they¡¯re in. I¡¯d be fine with leaving you here, and have you collect some dust. I¡¯m even fine with killing you, and be done with it. But, I do appreciate loyal followers. Would you be willing, to become my follower?¡± I have no idea what he exactly means¡­ If he literally means following around him everywhere, I don¡¯t think that¡¯d be worth the hassle. I don¡¯t want to become an errand boy. I¡¯d rather give up this avatar, or just die once. But it might be worth my while to ask him for some more specifics. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but can you explain some more?¡± ¡°Once, I had great strength, but over the time I was sealed, it slowly disappeared. I need followers, and time to regain my strength. For now, I¡¯ll lend you a part of my powers, and in return I will have you obey me when I seek you out. Don¡¯t worry mortal, my business is not solely in this realm, so I won¡¯t summon you a lot. But when I do, you must obey me. I¡¯m still weak, so it won¡¯t be a lot of power, but as you grow stronger, so will I, and so will your powers, in return.¡± The skeleton looks at me expectantly. I think, I might take this deal. If he¡¯ll really grant me powers, then I¡¯ll probably get a unique class that sounds pretty strong. I can already guess that he¡¯s someone of great power, because he¡¯s letting loose a pretty strong energy. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll become your first follower.¡± The skeleton starts laughing at me, and you could see he was clearly mocking me. ¡°First follower? Don¡¯t get ahead of yourself, you¡¯re still a mere mortal. I have acquired many followers over the years, and a lot of them will jump to death at a mere word from me. Don¡¯t flatter yourself thinking you¡¯re the first one to follow me. But mark my words, you will become powerful, in due time, and when you do, I¡¯ll call upon you. Don¡¯t ever think about disobeying me, or I will cut you down, before you¡¯ll ever be able to react. First of all, I want to see if you¡¯re worthy of my power. If you¡¯re able to pass my test, then I¡¯ll grant you a little of my power. Are you ready?¡±
Quest: Every seal can be broken. Nerull has been unsealed, and is willing to give you a reward for performing the act of unsealing him. If you pass his test, you can become his follower, and he¡¯ll grant you a part of his power. Difficulty level: ??? Quest requirements: -Unseal Nerull Reward: A part of Nerull¡¯s power.
*** Notes: Okay, so that''s it for now, this was what I had written already, the upcoming updates will be a bit slower. I''m aiming for one or two chapters a week, but it may be more, or it may be less. It depends on how busy I am with school. If you enjoyed it, please drop a comment, and if you disliked it, also drop a comment, telling me why. I''m open for critics, so just tell me, and I''ll see what I''ll do with it~ (btw - how are the perspectives, are they easy to follow, or is it confusing when the view switches between characters?) -Tensaiz Volume 1 - Chapter 7 What is this feeling; it feels like I¡¯m sleeping on a cold, stone ground. I can¡¯t remember going to sleep though. I¡¯m glad I¡¯ve never had any troubles with waking up though. I slowly wiggle my toes and fingers a little bit subconsciously, to get a feeling of where I might be sleeping. ¡°Has the bald monkey, finally awoken?!¡± Where am I? I can¡¯t remember going to sleep with someone next to me! I quickly open my eyes, and the first thing I see is a black reddish blur, moving at high speed towards my head. I¡¯m able to roll to my left just in the nick of time, because just when I got out of the way, I can hear the floor next to me, making some cracking noises. I¡¯m glad those noises didn¡¯t have to come from my bones. I quickly get up, while looking around me. I remember kicking in the door, and seeing some kind of animal sitting on a big chair, I must¡¯ve fainted from tiredness afterwards. ¡°Hyeeee, not bad ¨¨h. I guess you do know when to wake up, otherwise I would have woken you up with that blow.¡± I look at the man, who had just raised his voice. He¡¯s covered in fur, and has a lean face. He has a small beard, and the fur is a mix between grey and a little bit of black. His eyes indicate a playful character, but this could be faked. He was wearing Japanese armour, which means that it¡¯s consisting out of multiple layers. He had big blocks of armour on his shoulders, thighs and chest. While I was slowly observing him whilst walking back, he was lazily standing there holding a big staff, which I estimated around 2 meters long, on his shoulder with seemingly no effort. ¡°Oi, oi, are ya not gonna speak? Is that an invitation for me to hit ya again?!¡± I quickly start speaking, because I could see he started smiling, and he was already preparing to lash out at me. ¡°Ehmm, don¡¯t hit me. The priests of this church requested of me that I should clear out all the rooms, and this is one of the last rooms remaining. I didn¡¯t expect anyone residing here, though. I¡¯m sorry if I bothered you.¡± Shit, I hope I didn¡¯t bother him too much by kicking through his front door. Literally. The monkey look alike started laughing and replied to me. ¡°Kyahahaha, you have guts barging in here without a care. And this certainly is no church, so ya¡¯d better come up with a better excuse before I¡­¡± I don¡¯t like how he¡¯s menacingly smiling like that, I should not let my guard down, before he¡¯ll come at me with that staff again. I take another pair of steps back, to increase the distance between the monkey and me. ¡°Well, this room is part of a church, you know. I¡¯m sorry to have bothered you. I was just going to clean it up a little.¡± The man stopped smiling, and slowly raised his staff from his shoulder. After he lifted it from his shoulder, he slowly dropped it to the ground. *BANG* I widen my eyes at the sight before me, it looked like he dropped the tip of the staff to the ground without any effort, but a slight moment after his staff hit the ground, a big crater appeared right at that spot. ¡°I have no idea what ya¡¯re talking about when ya keep mentioning these churches. Less apologizing, and more explaining!¡± The monkey began emanating a red swirl of energy, which was slowly moving up, just before dissipating. It almost looked like he was the reincarnation of fury itself. I unconsciously started to sweat a little bit, and my pace backwards fastened. ¡°Kyahahaha, just kidding, but on a serious note, I would like that explanation.¡± What¡¯s wrong with this monkey?! The fighting spirit he was emanating was gone as fast as it appeared, and the monkey was just standing there, laughing without a care in the world. I¡¯d better clear this up fast, before I¡¯ll die for a stupid reason, at level one. ¡°This room, the one you¡¯re residing in, is part of a church with a lot of other rooms. It was requested of my friend and I, to clean up these rooms for the staff of the church. They haven¡¯t been used in a long time, and they might want to use them. But, I can clearly see that they didn¡¯t know what was in these rooms.¡± Especially a monkey¡­ ¡°I highly doubt your story, but I haven¡¯t left this room for a little while, so it might actually be true. Time flows different for me anyway. Kyahahahaha.¡± What is he still going on about? I just want to leave this room, and finish this quest. That guy looks pretty frightening by himself anyway. I don¡¯t think it¡¯s worth the hassle to figure out if he has anything to do with a quest. I¡¯m still too weak at the moment, so I¡¯ll come back later with my friends. I keep smiling at him, as I turn around and try to leave the room silently. ¡°Oi, oi, oi, ya¡¯re not going to just leave now, right?!¡± I could see a grey blur, and before I could react, I bumped into the monkey. He had moved so fast, that I couldn¡¯t even fully see him move. It was almost like he teleported. I looked up, as he was a few centimetres bigger than I am, and tried to smile at him. But the smile was wiped from my face, when I was suddenly blown back, by a gust of wind. ¡°Kyahahaha, you won¡¯t leave, as easily as that! I¡¯m stuck in this room myself, and you might just be the way out for me! It¡¯s all because of this majestic staff, Ruyi Bang, that I cannot leave this room for now. But enough about me, I¡¯m more interested in you, for now! But be careful, I get bored, very easily.¡± I could see from his face that he had mixed emotions towards his staff, I could see a fierce and majestic emotion at first, but later it looked like a little bit of melancholy. He must¡¯ve been through a lot, together with that staff. ¡°I¡¯m very sorry, but I do not have the time to mingle with you at the moment. I would be pleased to help you later, but I have something to do right now.¡± I smile at him, and try to boldly walk past him, as our positions were reversed when he jumped in front of me, when I tried to leave the first time. The only thing I can hope for, is that he¡¯ll just let me walk past him, but I have a bad premonition. Just when I was about to pass him, a staff appeared before me, blocking my way. ¡°I told ya, ya¡¯re not leaving without my permission. I want to see if ya¡¯re suitable first, and if ya¡¯re deemed to be unsuitable, only then, may ya leave immediately.¡± I can¡¯t help but let out a sigh. Might as well resolve myself, and get this over with quickly. Just when I was about to ask the human with fur what this talk of ¡®being suitable¡¯ was all about, I saw the staff coming at me with a very fast velocity. Without having time to think calmly, I immediately raised my arms to protect my face, but the only thing I could hear, wasn¡¯t my face breaking, but a part of the floor, right before me. I quickly opened my eyes, and could see the staff, Ruyi Bang, lying before me, on the ground. ¡°Lift it!¡± I looked at the monkey questioningly, but the only thing he would say, was that. No idea why he wants me to lift it, but it clearly looked like it¡¯s very heavy. Might as well try to lift it, and just leave afterwards, so that I can complete the quest. Helius should have finished ages ago, so he¡¯s probably waiting for me. Although for some reason, it wasn¡¯t possible to contact him within this room. I reach out to the staff, and embrace it with both my hands. Here goes nothing! From my karate lessons, I¡¯ve learned that I should always use the force of my legs, when pulling. This probably saved my back now, because if I had used my back, trying to lift the staff, I probably would¡¯ve injured it. That¡¯s how heavy the staff is. It wasn¡¯t like I couldn¡¯t lift it at all, but the strange thing was, that the staff seemed to go higher a few millimetres, every second I tried lifting it. I see, it¡¯s just a trick! I don¡¯t have to use my full power to lift it, because that would only tire me out quickly. I just have to lift it with a little bit of force for a long period of time, and it¡¯ll rise eventually, seeing how it¡¯s still rising every second. I try to relax a little bit, and use a little less force, but before I could use the bare minimum of strength, the staff increased in weight. WHAT?! Damn, guess I was wrong! I start using my full power again, and instead of the staff increasing its weight again, it got lighter, to the point of reaching its initial weight again. I could also feel the staff slowly rising again. I guess that means that this is a battle of willpower! The longer I can keep using my full force, the higher I can lift this staff. This will be a tough one, because I¡¯ve always been one, to give up a little easier than I¡¯d like. Maybe I can use this situation to prove myself otherwise. All thoughts of just dropping the staff, to leave easily, disappeared from my mind, as I slowly became immersed in just trying to lift the staff a little bit higher, each second. I could hear the monkey chuckle a little, but it didn¡¯t register. For a while, it was only the staff, and me. I had lifted the staff to around my knees, and I could already feel my stamina running out. My hands had started sweating long ago, and my back was about to be fully soaked too. Every time my hands were about to slip, I managed to regain my grip on the staff at the last moment, and was able to lift the staff a little higher. This continued for a while, until I could feel my back and legs giving way. Shit! Just a little longer! I had unconsciously started biting on the collar of my shirt. A habit I had acquired some time ago, which I always seemed to do, when I have difficulties keeping up with something. I realized that the staff was about to slip from my hands, so it was time to give it my all for the last bit, and then just accept how far I could go. As I scream out, or make a kiai as we would call it within Karate, I lift the staff a few centimetres more to reach my hips. I couldn¡¯t hold the staff any longer, as the weight kept increasing, the higher it was lifted, so I dropped the staff to the floor. I could hear the floor crack under its weight again. Following after the staff, I let myself lie down on the floor too. I had been using everything I had for two minutes straight, which felt like an eternity. I was a little frustrated with the final result, but to be honest, I was too tired to care at that moment. Just when I was about to ask the monkey if I had passed, he spoke up: ¡°Willpower has always been something that divides the good people, from the great.¡± The humane monkey smiled, and continued, while being surprisingly serious: ¡°I have been trapped inside this room, just like my previous master. When the heirs of the monkey king have outlived their usefulness, they are magically bound to a room, until they can find a proper disciple. The method of testing, has always been that of having potential heirs lifting the staff, for this is a test of willpower. The staff will automatically adjust itself, to the strength of the one trying to lift it. The first generation monkey king has always used willpower as a manner of testing, because with a high willpower, everything can be achieved.¡± Hmm, I haven¡¯t heard that monkey talk so serious before, does that mean that I have passed? I certainly hope so, because if I can gain a fraction of his power, I wouldn¡¯t even mind, looking a little like a monkey! It does feel a little forced though, I think that monkey just wants a way out, and doesn¡¯t really care who the next ¡®heir¡¯ will be. The heir quietly walked towards his staff, and picked it up, with seemingly no effort at all. ¡°Oi, stand up quickly!¡± Still feeling a little wobbly, I managed to stand up, and face the monkey. He looked at me, and I could see he was about to say something serious, considering his solemn face. ¡°Kyahahahahaha, this must be a fated meeting! I cannot imagine it being anything else! You have come here, for the sole purpose of inheriting my role, as the heir of the monkey king! Now come here! I will grant you this staff, so I can finally leave this place, and embark on a journey again!¡± The monkey lifted his hand, and it looked like he was waiting for me, to shake his hand. This¡­ It doesn¡¯t feel right at all. That monkey couldn¡¯t hide his mischievous nature after that solemn face, even if he practised for years! It feels totally rushed! Is he just pushing his own responsibility on me, so he can leave and have some fun or something?! Not like I can say anything about it though. And if it gives me a special staff as weapon, I can only profit from this. I slowly try to find my balance, as I drag myself to him. My legs are still feeling weak, and I guess I must have literally used all my energy. I think I¡¯m a little stronger in real life, but I guess this must be the influence the stats of my avatar have over me. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. I reached out with my hand, to shake his, but he suddenly rammed his staff into my hand, and my avatar lighted up, before I was blown back again. *Ting!* It looked like the game still has some bugs, concerning pain conversion, because I was almost at the brink of unconsciousness again. I was still a bit hazy, but I could clearly see a message taking up a big part of my view:
Hidden Class! If you accept it, you can use exclusive skills related to the nature of the class. Do you want to convert now?
YesNo
*** The surprised face of the lich, soon turned into one full with fury. Which was very satisfying to see, by the way. ¡°T-Thou! What hast thou done?! Doth thou not knowest what the consequences will be? To go against me, is to invite mine wrath upon thou!¡± From the moment I stepped into the hexagon, I started smiling and couldn¡¯t hide it. The lich must have thought that I was smiling because I was about to receive his power, but it was the complete opposite. I already figured out that he wants to absorb my life essence, while absorbing it himself, so he can restore his original form, while he keeps his power. That way he can leave this damned shop again. But of course, I won¡¯t let him. Before this lich would eat the dust, I couldn¡¯t help but to start explaining what scheme would be the end of him. If it can deliver him a little bit of extra grieve, then it will be totally worth going through the hassle of gathering all the ingredients. ¡°I figured out your plan long ago, lich. You weren¡¯t planning to give me any power at all! You were just trying to obtain my life essence through this ritual, so that you can regain your previous form. At the price of my life!¡± The lich¡¯s face, which was full of anger, suddenly turned into one of hope. What kind of scheme will he come up with now, I can¡¯t wait to see. My small smile, increased a little bit from this thought. ¡°Ahh, but young one, thou hast misunderstood me all along! I was only planning to give thou mine life essence, so that thou would gain great prowess! Thou hast it all backwards, come, i shall release thy cage, so that thou can stop this ritual.¡± Funny, how he even slips up in that last sentence. If he really wanted me to gain his life essence, then he shouldn¡¯t have thought it necessary, to use a cage to trap me. Still, even if he¡¯s really telling the truth, then it¡¯s too late anyway. I might as well toy around with him a little bit, before he disappears. ¡°Ah, I¡¯m sorry undead one, I have misunderstood you. Would you mind releasing me, so that I can stop this ritual, and initiate the right one?¡± I could see the lich weaken every second. Good, he¡¯s starting to get pretty desperate. I made a small tweak to the ingredients, instead of using the Zirnroot, a root which helps transferring life essence from one to another, I used another poisonous plant, which dispels life force slowly. And considering the lich has no life essence, his power is taken instead. A lich has an undead body, with no life essence at all, which can only move because of his inner power. But if that power is slowly dispelled¡­ then he can only, slowly die. The lich raised his right hand, which clearly took a lot of effort, and his hand started glowing brighter than the rest of his body. The lich grimaced for a few seconds, and afterwards I could see the cage slowly disappearing. ¡°A-Anon, young one, stop this ritual betimes, and i can still forgive thy misprision. Afterwards, we can initiate the new ritual, whence i will give thou mine prowess.¡± You¡¯re already too late lich. ¡°So, how does it feel, to feel your power being dispersed into the air every second? It must feel pretty weird, to have your life essence replaced by your power, and to slowly lose it. Oh and sorry, I tricked you. This ritual cannot be reversed any more. I was just afraid that when you died, the cage wouldn¡¯t disappear and keep me trapped. So after you dispelled it, there isn¡¯t anything that binds me here any longer, except for the view of your trip to the nether realm maybe.¡± The ritual had been going on for quite a while, and I could the lich starting to weaken significantly. He was trying to speak up, and probably curse me in his own old language, but he was already too weak to say anything else. I raised my arm, and waved my hand at him, just to anger him some more. He had put me through a lot of strenuous tasks, and all for the sake of stealing my life essence. If I really won¡¯t get anything out of all this time I have invested here, then I might as well get some satisfaction from this sight. It felt pretty good to have tricked a high levelled lich when I was only level one. But I was a little frustrated that I didn¡¯t gain anything else from all the time I have invested here. The lich was still glowing, but his bones were starting to shorten, and the brightness was slowly fading. Guess that this is it. The light suddenly increased again, and seemingly reached its pinnacle. The lich had already changed from his previous form, to an older, way shorter version of himself. The light became so bright, that I almost couldn¡¯t see anything anymore. Just when I was about to increase the distance between me and the lich, before I could react, the lich exploded with a lot of force, and I was blown back. I could feel the air being knocked out of my lungs, and I was still gasping for air, while getting up. I didn¡¯t expect him to suddenly blow up. It was pretty satisfying to see though. The interior of the room endured the shockwave quite well, but all the ingredients and objects were blown up, or fell to the ground. Most of them had a low durability it seems, because almost all of them have broken. *Ting!*
Quest Complete! Quest: The Role Of the Living Just when the lich was about to steal your life essence to help himself, you stopped his scheme. You weren¡¯t tricked by the lich, and used his plans against him. The lich has now been banished from this realm, because his power has run out. Reward: A satisfying feeling, of having beaten the lich by wit. You have leveled up!
Well, that reward certainly sucks. But I have leveled up! Hmm let¡¯s see. I gained 5 stat points from one level, but I¡¯m not sure what class I¡¯m going to play yet. If I can¡¯t become a necromancer because of this, it won¡¯t be a very good idea to immediately spend all my points. But this is certainly surprising though. I thought it was impossible to level up before the time limit of 4 weeks in-game time would have run out. Guess I¡¯m pretty lucky, that will give me an early advantage! I cough a few times, and finally move towards the door. It¡¯s time to leave this place behind me, and figure out how to move from here. Before leaving, I tried to loot some more ingredients, but the final shockwave from the lich really destroyed them all. Damn. I open the door, and light fell upon me, it was so bright that I couldn¡¯t even see clearly. I had already unconsciously raised my hand in front of my face, to block the light from reaching my eyes. Wait¡­ wasn¡¯t it already dark outside?! Right before I could drop my hand, and wait for my eyes to get used to the light, a thundering voice startled me: ¡°You have done well, for a mere brat!¡± What? Who the hell is this again? He must be talking to me. I dropped my hand, and noticed that the bright light had dimmed a little bit. Right in front of me, stood a beardy, old man. He was emitting a warm glow, which had a comfortable temperature, and actually warmed me up. He was holding a staff with the emblem of a sun on top. He was wearing brown robes, and had a solemn face. After he saw that I wasn¡¯t replying to him, he continued speaking: ¡°The lich whom was hiding inside that house, had barricaded himself inside. At first, he could still leave, and only we couldn¡¯t enter. I had been chasing him for a while, to destroy that evil. But as I couldn¡¯t enter that house, the only thing I could do, was place a spell upon that house, so that he could only leave when he dropped his undead body. I certainly didn¡¯t expect a beginning adventurer to make him drop his life along with his body too. You must have been trying to slay evil too.¡± This guy looks pretty strong, just by the looking at him, I can feel his power radiating in the form of warmth. I don¡¯t think it¡¯d be a good idea to tell him that I was aiming for the lich¡¯s power, or to become his apprentice... ¡°Ehm, yes, thank you.¡± ¡°You may call me Pelor, the conqueror of all evil! Normally I accept almost all people to simply follow me, but you, you are quite special. For someone who has just begun to discover the world, and is seemingly powerless, you have still defeated a powerful lich. I will give you a choice. But it will have some conditions and restrictions for you.¡± He looked deeply into my eyes, and I had a feeling that if I started lying now, I would certainly regret it. Then he continued talking: ¡°I can grant you the privileges, to become my divine agent. You will be granted power along with that roll, but only as you grow stronger, will you be able to call upon the stronger spells that come along with it. Furthermore, it can be a double edged sword. You will have three obligations, first of; Alleviate suffering wherever you find it, secondly, to bring my light into places of darkness, showing kindness, mercy, and compassion and last of all, to be watchful against any evil. Do you accept?¡± This must be a hidden class! It wasn¡¯t what I had in mind at first, but if I can already get a hidden class at level 2, then the lower levels will be easy sailing! ¡°Of course! I would be honored to accept it!¡± *Ting!*
You have gained a hidden class: Divine Agent! +100 fame
¡°Good, I will call upon you when you are stronger, I have no use for you now. Go and defeat evil for me, gaining experience along the road. I will have some use for you later!¡± The warmth and light he was emitting suddenly increased tenfold, and he disappeared with a booming laughter. Wow, did that really just happen? I really gained a hidden class! ¡°Status window!¡±
Name:Warrific
Race:Elf
Alignment:Good
Profession:Divine Agent
Title:N/A
Level:2
Fame:100
__________________________________________________________________________
Health:100
Mana:400
Strength:10(+5)
Agility:10(+5)
Vitality:10(+5)
Wisdom:20(+5)
Intelligence:20(+5)
Charisma:5(+5)
Luck:10(+5)
Offense:0(+5)
Defense:0(+5)
__________________________________________________________________________
Magic Resistance:
Darkness:10%
Light:30%
Fire:10%
__________________________________________________________________________
+5 to all stats +Magic resistances increased +Increased fire damage +Increased buffing +Increased intimacy with churches +Hidden skills -Unable to follow deities excluding Pelor -Unable to commit evil acts, or risk losing class
Volume 1 - Chapter 8 Every seal can be broken? I wonder what kind of quest this is, the reward seems ridiculously strong. But I do have some trust issues with him. I¡¯m not sure if he¡¯s going to trick me, but I doubt it. It just a game anyway, I don¡¯t think that they have thought so far ahead. What kind of a test will he give me though? ¡°Sure, I¡¯m ready. What kind of a test will it be?¡± The skeleton¡¯s gaze remained the same the whole time, even while I was speaking. The look in his eyes, or well, eye sockets, gave off a feeling of disdain mixed with indifference. The skeleton remained silent for a while, and just when I was about to rephrase my question, the skeleton spoke while raising his chin: ¡°You¡¯re not the one who will ask the questions, you shall listen, and even more importantly, obey!¡± Damn arrogant skeleton. He has been making these comments the whole time, I would really like to retort, but I never seem to be able to find my words to convey what I want exactly. The skeleton slammed his scythe into the ground, making it stand upright. ¡°Whatever you say. So, what kind of a test is it going to be?¡± The undead doesn¡¯t really look happy with me questioning him again, even so much that he raised his hand towards his face. Wait¡­ Is he going to face palm? While the skeleton was raising his hand, darkness was filling the room. A wave of power was unleashed, his hand filling with some kind of dark energy. A sphere emanating a black aura was slowly being created in his hand and whilst he was doing all this, he spoke up: ¡°Feeble human, stop testing my patience.¡± I guess I¡¯ve been pushing him a little¡­ I looked a bit more carefully at the skeleton¡¯s hand and it almost looked like the light was being sucked out of the room, towards the sphere the skeleton was creating. It looked like a standard orb, right out of a game. Which makes sense, seeing as I¡¯m in a game¡­ The orb was slowly growing bigger and started emitting black strands of power; they were coiling around the skeleton and were giving off a really evil vibe. The skeleton somehow made me feel as if he was laughing, even while it it¡¯s physically impossible. The stone walls around me had all started to become warped and even the rocks that made up the seal for the scythe were deforming. Not only were the physical materials warping, even the light and sounds around the orb were slowly deforming and reforming. It was almost as if everything was on the brink of disappearing. Right at the moment I thought that the sphere was at its epitome of power and growth, a most unexpected thing happened. I heard the wailing of a baby. I was shocked out of the trance I got in when I looked at the growing sphere; I looked around me, but didn¡¯t manage to spot the source of the wailing. When I looked back at the skeleton, he had already raised his other hand, seemingly supporting something in his other hand. The black orb had already disappeared, but something had replaced it: A bundle of clothing, wrapped closely together. The moment the orb disappeared, the sounds that originated from the orb disappeared too, which made it possible for me to spot the source of the baby cries I had heard. Which was, of course, the bundle of clothing. The skeleton snickered, and suddenly threw the bundle at me. I hurriedly tried to catch it, slipped up, but I still managed to catch the baby. The crying continued to break the silence, because the skeleton and I weren¡¯t speaking at all. I started staring at the skeleton, waiting for him to explain himself. Why would he throw a baby at me¡­ The undead raised his right hand towards his left shoulder, and made a direct movement towards his left hip. While moving his hand a flash of dark energy was once again emitted, forcing me to cover my eyes with a hand. When the flash disappeared, and I was able to look at the skeleton once more, I noticed a certain dagger in the skeleton¡¯s hand. It looked like a sacrificial dagger; the blade was slightly curved, while the hilt had two small wing-like decorations attached to it. It was emanating the same sort of aura the skeleton had shown before. I think I know what he¡¯s going to ask me. The undead snickered, and threw the dagger with a slight arc at me. I managed to catch it with my left hand, keeping hold of the baby wrapped in clothes with my right hand. The skeleton, who didn¡¯t even throw a look at me, waved his hand again, this time forming an altar from the rocks that were scattered on the ground. ¡°Kill it. Kill it and show your devotion.¡± I guess he really means it. That¡¯s one of the flaws in this game, although it¡¯s an advantage for me. This world is reality for its inhabitants, so the skeleton will really think that I¡¯m evil if I¡¯m able to kill that baby, but it¡¯s only virtual reality for me. I should be able to get this over with and start to become a powerful character. I carefully put down the baby on the altar; the baby finally stopped crying after it was resting on the cold rocks. The undead had folded his arms, and was indifferently watching me. I grabbed the dagger with both my hands, and raised it slowly above my head. Looking at the target of my upcoming thrust, I couldn¡¯t help but hesitate. The baby had a round face, with little hair. The blue innocent eyes almost felt like arrows piercing through me. If I don¡¯t finish this test now, then I certainly won¡¯t be able to cut through my own hesitation later. Clenching my teeth hard together, I closed my eyes. And thrust the dagger towards the baby. I heard the screeching of metal against rock, and the feedback of the stone numbed my hands. I didn¡¯t hear any cries from the baby nor sounds of impact from its body. When I opened my eyes, the only thing I could see was the dagger and the stone altar, which now had part chipped off. This dagger must be made from really good materials to just almost stab through rock. The baby had just disappeared. *Ting!*
Your alignment has changed to Evil
¡°I¡¯m not sure if you¡¯re evil, smart, or just really stupid. Did you really think I¡¯d be able to teleport a babe out of nowhere mortal? I¡¯m an immortal specialized in illusions, and as you may know, you won¡¯t be able to cut through illusions. They disappear on contact. But whatever you are, you passed this test. I have some use for an evil smart or stupid mortal.¡± Oh, I passed. I wonder what kind of power he¡¯ll grant me. The skeleton raised both his hands in front of himself, and touched his fingers together. In the middle of his hands power was once again gathering, it was almost like he was channeling the power from his body to the point between his hands. He made a small step forward, and threw the bundle of energy at me. For a few seconds I couldn¡¯t register anything, and I was slightly swaying, feeling dazed. My surroundings blurred with a small black glow, the moment that ended, I felt some sort of energy moving towards the center of my chest, bundling there, and immediately after it slowly dispersed through my whole body. *Ting!*
You have gained a hidden class: Divine Blackguard! +100 fame
Whoa, a hidden class! All the conversing with that stupid undead might be worth it! ¡°Alright, I have finished here. Mortal, do your best to grow stronger, because that will increase my power too, and in return, increase your own power as you will gain more of my abilities. Don¡¯t let me down, or I shall let you down in the ground, never to rise again!¡± Arrogant bastard. The undead walked towards his scythe, and upon reaching it, he touched the scythe with his hands and disappeared without a trace. Wait a second, I still have the dagger! Well, first things first! ¡°Weapon status!¡±
Sacrificial Dagger
Weapon Type:DaggerDurability:15 / 20Attack Damage:10~12Weight:5Restriction:Blackguard, level 5Quality:Relic
Damn. So I can¡¯t use it yet. Hmm, what kind of things did I gain with this class gain? ¡°Status window!¡±
Name:Helius
Race:Elf
Alignment:Evil
Profession:Divine Blackguard
Title:N/A
Level:1
Fame:100
__________________________________________________________________________
Health:400
Mana:200
Strength:19(+5)
Agility:10(+5)
Vitality:17(+5)
Wisdom:11(+5)
Intelligence:14(+5)
Charisma:5(+5)
Luck:10(+5)
Offense:0(+5)
Defense:0(+5)
__________________________________________________________________________
Magic Resistance:
Darkness:30%
Light:10%
Fire:10%
__________________________________________________________________________
+5 to all stats +300 Health +100 Mana +Magic resistances increased +Increased debuffing +Increased intimacy with evil aligned NPC +Hidden skills +Increased Scythe damage -Unable to follow deities excluding Nerull -Unable to interact with churches
All my stats actually received a bonus! That¡¯s a nice start, which should give me an advantage over other starting players. I just hope that the evil alignment won¡¯t stab me in the back later. I received some pop ups about new skills too, I wonder what they all do. ¡°Open skill window.¡±
Skill Window: Combat related skills: Passive skills: ? Draining Aura (Lv. 1 - 0%) (Beginner) (Passive) Decreases mana regeneration of enemies in proximity Effect: -2% of total magic regeneration enemies are recovering ? Death¡¯s welcome (Lv. 1 - 0%) (Beginner) (Passive) Grants health upon the death of enemies in proximity Effect: Regenerate +2% of a dying enemy¡¯s maximum Hp in the surroundings ? Immortal wrath (Lv. 1 - 0%) (Beginner) (Passive) Upon death, precious seconds are gained to bestow final wrath upon enemies. Effect: After death, 20 seconds of immortality +All stats temporary raised by 10% Active skills: ? Life drain (Lv. 1 - 0%) (Beginner) (Active) (Channel) Drain the health force of your opponents while empowering yourself Effect: Drain 2 Hp/s Mana consumption: 10/s ? Decay (Lv. 1 - 0%) (Beginner) (Active) Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.Weaken the enemy¡¯s life force, slowing them for a certain amount of time Effect: Reduce movement speed of enemy by 5% for 10 seconds Mana consumption: 20 Non-Combat related skills: Active skills: ? Entropy (Lv. 1 - 0%) (Beginner) (Active) (Channel) Age a non-living object with a specific amount of time (can cause: erosion, rotting, stagnating, etc.) Effect: Age increases with +87,6 hours for every second channeled Mana consumption: 10/s
That¡¯s a lot of skills I just gained in one breath. I¡¯ll put some time apart later to figure out how to use all of them, for now I should escape from here and check up with Glinc. I would¡¯ve sent a pm a while ago, but I have been unable to send messages since I entered the room. I wonder if it¡¯s a special location for that to happen. After picking up the pick axe I used to destroy the seal, I turn around, and leave the altar and room behind me. I backtrack the route I followed to the secret room, and just when I was about to enter the passage leading to the room Glinc had taken, I chance upon the individual I was looking for, Glinc! Wait¡­ what happened to his avatar, is that fur?! *** After being rammed away by that monkey, the pop up asking me to change my class suddenly appeared. And of course, there can only be one answer. I accept! *Ting!*
You have gained a hidden class: Heir of the Monkey King! +100 fame
So I really did it. I was really able to become the heir of that stupid monkey. I know they can be mischievous, but I hope he didn¡¯t trick me into taking a useless class. While I was zoning out, looking at my stats and skills, the monkey snickered and spoke up. ¡°Don¡¯t start dancing around yet, you¡¯ve not yet become a full Monkey King, stupid human. The souls of the heirs exist out of two parts. One is our body, the other is the staff, Ruyi Bang. But I can¡¯t just gift you the staff. In a bit, the staff will disappear, and reappear in a hidden location. It¡¯s up to you whether you¡¯ll find it or not. If you find it, you¡¯ll become a true Monkey King, otherwise, if you can¡¯t find it, you¡¯ll become useless!¡± Wait, what?! I still have to find the staff again before I can realize the true potential of this class? And otherwise I¡¯ll be useless? Damn this monkey, always playing around. ¡°So, where can I find th-¡± Before I could even finish my sentence, the damned monkey dashed out of the room, leaving behind his laughter. And the sound of a pop up. *Ting!*
Quest: Ruyi Bang A true Monkey King is true to his weapon. The weapon that has been used by every Monkey King for ages is a magical staff called Ruyi Bang. Every new Monkey King has to look for the staff by himself to realize his real potential and to gain the acceptance of the staff. Find the staff and acquire your true weapon and class! Difficulty level: ??? Quest requirements: -Heir of the Monkey King Class Reward: The true potential of the class and the staff Ruyi Bang
This sounds like a pain. I don¡¯t have any indication on where the staff will be exactly, except for a small area indicated green on the map. That¡¯s really a long distance from here, damn. That monkey already took off too. After throwing a last look at all the paintings in the room, I turn around and leave the room. My chin had started to become a little itchy a while ago, but I don¡¯t mind it. After I enter the hallway I suddenly understand why there were so many paintings with monkeys on them. Must be some sort of warning. Heh. I wonder where that monkey went; I would¡¯ve liked to see the surprised look of the monks. Two adventurers go in to clean up rooms, and a monkey comes out. I should meet up with Helius and discuss what happened. I feel a little bit down, because he probably didn¡¯t get a good class like me. Isn¡¯t it a little unfair? While leaving the paintings of the monkeys behind me, I scratch at my chin once more and march on. I never would¡¯ve thought that I¡¯d be able to get a class like this, I¡¯ve had tremendous luck. It looks like a fun class, something agility and strength based. I might be able to appear all over a battle field, wreaking havoc all over the place. Among the skills I saw something concerning creating clones too, which will be really fun to use. I just hope I¡¯ll be able to find that staff, because until that happens, I¡¯m only allowed to use unarmed combat. While I was still busy figuring out how my class would play out, I heard a familiar voice. ¡°Yo, Glinc, what happened to your face?¡± Oh, it¡¯s Helius! Damn, I must¡¯ve kept him waiting. I hope he didn¡¯t have to wait for a long time. ¡°Hey Helius, sorry to keep you waiting¡­¡± Helius¡¯s face looked a bit funny when he questioned me, but what is he talking about? I don¡¯t get why he¡¯s smirking like that. But before I could ask him what he meant, he spoke up: ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I just arrived here myself, a lot happened in the room I was supposed to clean.¡± A lot, huh. ¡°Well, same goes for me, I met a Monkey with a mental illness, but he gave me a hidden class! I¡¯m sorry you didn¡¯t get my room.¡± Helius started frowning while he opened his mouth: ¡°Stop apologizing already, I actually got a secret class too! It¡¯s a long story though, but I just became some sort of evil priest.¡± An evil priest? Him? I wonder how he¡¯ll go about preaching for his god, that would look really funny. After checking the quest status, which showed that all 15 rooms were cleared, Helius and I started walking back through the maze of corridors to the main hall. While walking we discussed what happened, and told each other what we had to do to acquire our classes. It¡¯s kind of weird how both of us got a hidden class that easily though, almost like the game is full of them if you just search long enough. Maybe doing such tiresome work like cleaning rooms played a part. While we were just discussing the merits and demerits of having an evil or good alignment, we already reached the main hall. We spotted Torvus and the child, who bossed him around the whole time, in a corner of the main hall, just behind the fountain. They were having an argument it seems, as Torvus was starting to raise his voice. The child with the large white hat was still smiling creepily, without showing any anger. Because he kept his voice low, I was only able to hear Torvus speaking, or maybe even shouting, while I was walking closer. ¡°No, listen to me damnit! Your father gave me very clear instructions on what you¡¯re allowed to do, and where you aren¡¯t allowed to go. I won¡¯t permit you stepping a single foot in that area! I won¡¯t even allow you to come near tha-¡± The boy¡¯s eyes started shining the moment he saw us walking towards him. Torvus noticed that the boy wasn¡¯t paying attention anymore to his rant, so he stopped mid-sentence, turning around to face us. Torvus¡¯s face was always grim already, but I didn¡¯t expect his facial expressions to grow even grimmer when he faced us. For some reason his right hand went to the hilt of his sheathed sword, while he raised his left hand, pointing a finger at me. ¡°You! Are you connected to the guy next to you?!¡± What is he talking about? I started frowning and looked at Helius. Helius must¡¯ve been just as surprised as I was, because he was blankly staring at Torvus. I can¡¯t let this awkward mood continue, I have to say something. ¡°Connected not only by fate, but also by blood. He¡¯s my true brother!¡± I can¡¯t believe I just said that¡­ Torvus¡¯s eyes narrowed and he was slowly bending his knees, assuming a fighting stance. While I was waiting for him to speak up, he was just cautiously staring at us, but specifically at Helius. I have no idea what to say right now, so I just stared at the floor, waiting for something to happen. Helius must have been unable to bear the silence, because he raised his voice, although a little shaky. ¡°We just finished clearing the rooms and are here for our reward.¡± Torvus snickered and drew his sword in a long arc. He was resting his sword right in front of him in a relaxed stance, aiming the tip at us. Only when he assumed this stance, did he speak up. ¡°Hmph, you think you can play the fool? I have already seen through you, you evil scum. There shall be no rewards for either of you. Leave now, and consider yourself lucky that I don¡¯t want to fight right in front of him.¡± *Ting!*
Quest Complete! Unbury The Church The task of cleaning and clearing all the lower floors has been successfully cleared! But due to the evil alignment no reward can be claimed. Rewards: None, due to affiliation with someone of an evil alignment.
Damn, no reward. Although, if you think carefully about it, then we probably would¡¯ve received a useless award from Torvus anyway. We have already been extremely lucky with the secret classes we found, those are the real awards. Now we just have to leave here as quickly as possible. Torvus looks way too strong for us to handle right now. I don¡¯t like him though; after I find my staff I won¡¯t let him bully me around anymore. I step in front of Helius and push him to the exit of the church while apologizing. ¡°Sorry, sorry, we¡¯re already leaving; we don¡¯t want to fight you either.¡± From the corner of my eye, I can see Torvus only relaxing and sheathing his swords as we reach the exit. He must¡¯ve thought that we had become the priests¡¯ problem from that moment on. As we step outside the church, the sounds of adventurers bartering and selling things fill our ears immediately. It¡¯s been a while since we¡¯ve stepped outside, so the explosion of sounds surprised us for a moment. It¡¯s also been a while since we¡¯ve fully seen the sun; the lower floors had very little sunlight. The priests all avoided us for some reason, they just glared at us. It¡¯s almost like they¡¯re all able to sense the alignment of Helius. ¡°Helius, you could¡¯ve told me that churches would hate you with that class of yours. Now we can¡¯t ask for more quests from Torvus, we might¡¯ve been able to get closer to the important looking youth that way.¡± Helius didn¡¯t like me berating him, so he immediately shot into a defensive posture and counter attacked: ¡°Dude, it¡¯s not like I¡¯ll remember those small details, how was I supposed to know that they would be able to sense my alignment?!¡± ¡°Ah, sorry, I didn¡¯t mean it that way. I thought that you would have a notification or pop up reminding you or something.¡± That¡¯s a lie of course, but it¡¯s an easy way out of the argument. I don¡¯t feel like arguing right now, a far more important thing at the moment is to figure out what we shall do. ¡°I really want to see what my class can accomplish in combat, how about we ask Enza to join us and start exploring the surroundings of the town? We can start killing random monsters and start leveling.¡± Helius looked at me like I was crazy: ¡°Good luck hunting monsters outside the town; I wonder how you¡¯ll be able to leave the town. Remember we have to spend 4 weeks inside the town before we can leave. We¡¯ve only been playing the game for 4 days.¡± He tilted his head slightly, and looked at the upper right ¨Cwhich is something he does when he¡¯s thinking about something or calculating. ¡°Which means that we¡¯ve spent 16 days in-game time right now. Another 12 days in-game before we can leave.¡± Hmph, so you can remember something like that, but you forgot about your evil alignment. Sure. ¡°Then, what do you propose we do?¡± Helius looked at me and smirked: ¡°How about we ask the priests for another quest?¡± *** Volume 1 - Chapter 9 Just like that, 11 in-game days had already passed. It went quite fast to be honest. But that¡¯s to be expected when all I¡¯ve done for 11 days is fighting. In these 11 days, I¡¯ve had 11 ¡®official¡¯ duels with Arthur. It shames me to say that I¡¯ve only won 3 times. I¡¯ve had more duels than that, but that was because of the deal we made. The moment I won, he would buy me a weapon of choice. For every loss I had, I would accompany him for a day and receive his guidance. It sounds like a win no matter what right? Well, guess again. ¡®Receiving guidance¡¯ was actually a bit different than even I thought it was. It was mostly helping clean up the training room, and picking up all the wooden swords people would leave lying around. To sum it up, it was doing odd chores, for free. Nevertheless, he did actually coach me a few times when he was bored. Damn, I never thought I¡¯d lose so much anyway, I always figured myself to be sort of unbeatable because of my real life martial art training. The first time was kind of a lucky win, because he underestimated me, and didn¡¯t expect that I would use an underhanded method to win. After the initial duel, he saw it coming, just like most of my moves. But the most irritable thing, is that I feel like I¡¯m better than him at fighting, it¡¯s just that he¡¯s too damn fast and strong with his system assistance. The only way for me to win was to impeccably parry his blows, because if I would try to block his blows, he¡¯d just break my block and hit me. But parrying blows that carry an enormous amount of strength is almost impossible! Every time I didn¡¯t have perfect timing, I¡¯d lose my opportunity to parry, and lose the duel, because a failed parry would result to a blow being dealt against me. It does make sense though, how else can people who have never practiced any martial arts in real life reach high levels in the game? Only if they would slowly build their foundation by using the skills they gained through the system and eventually, when they would reach higher levels, the stats they invested the skills in would take over and start assisting them. This way fights can erupt at higher levels that look just like the fighting scenes in modern action movies, blows dealt so fast that you can¡¯t even see them. It sucks that eleven days went by so fast, I just started winning duels. After I won the first duel, I lost 7 times in a row, after that I won once, lost once, and won once again. The frequency of me winning duels was slowly increasing! A big reason was that I stopped using 2 swords. For now. Because using two swords is insanely difficult. It would carry a lot of advantages though. Normally an enemy can just pay attention to where an enemy¡¯s sword strike would end, and then he¡¯d be able to predict the upcoming blow, just by looking at the end position of the sword. But when you¡¯re fighting against someone who uses two swords, you have to pay attention to the ending position of the strikes by two swords. It¡¯s twice as hard to predict where a strike will be coming from! But if it¡¯s that useful to use two swords, why isn¡¯t just everyone using them? That¡¯s quite simple. Because if your enemy has to pay attention to your two swords, then you of course also have to pay attention to your own swords, not only the timing and using your non-dominant hand, but also choosing when to strike and where, is exceptionally difficult. Especially when there¡¯s an enemy is trying to attack you at the same time. That¡¯s the reason I went back to using my hand to hand combat, combined with one sword after 6 losses. It immediately showed results by winning 2 out of the remaining 4 duels. Immediately after having won a duel, Arthur would accompany me to the blacksmith and order a weapon to be made. Because I didn¡¯t want any ordinary weapons, but exotic weapons, they had to be specially crafted. The look on his face was priceless. When we stood in front of the shop a few days ago, and entered, we walked to the counter. Just when I asked the shopkeeper for a pair of ¡®nun chucks¡¯, he started laughing really loud. I had no idea why, as it should¡¯ve been a known weapon, especially by smiths ¨Cseeing how they specialize in making weapons, unorthodox or not. When he came to, he told me that he didn¡¯t have such a fun request in a long time, and that he doesn¡¯t keep any exotic weapons already prepared but that he has to craft them especially. However, they would cost a lot more than regular weapons of the same quality. The moment I was about to give my approval, I was attacked. Well, in the form of a clap at my shoulder. When I looked to my left I could see Arthur savagely grinning, his hand was located on my shoulder, and it looked like a gesture of good will. But I could feel him pushing me to the ground; I think he was not only trying to push me down, but my will too. The moment I was about to ask him something, I noticed that talking had suddenly become a little more difficult, it seems that the aura of a level hundred knight isn¡¯t just a simple thing. Just when I was wondering how long I¡¯d be able to last before succumbing to his pressure, he spoke up: ¡°I have given you a lot of guidance Enza, asking for too much would not be a wise move.¡± Normally, threats wouldn¡¯t really disturb me. But this time was different, it was the first time someone put a giant hand on my shoulder, trying to push my body, along with my soul, deep into the ground. As if he had decided that the spot I was standing on right then, would become my grave really soon. Forcing myself to speak, I eventually managed to put some words in: ¡°H-Honorable Arthur, please listen to me for a bit!¡± The hand on my shoulder started to press down even more heavily on my shoulder, and Arthur spoke up: ¡°How about you take a few steps back from that smith first, then we¡¯ll be able to talk without any problems.¡± It¡¯s quite disturbing to see someone calmly smiling and telling you everything will be alright, while at the same time it feels like he¡¯s trying to kill you. I managed to take a few steps back, and eventually convinced him to buy me the weapon anyway, as they would not only help me, but also help him guide other people in the future. The final deal we cut was that I would be allowed to train with the weapons when I wanted, but I have to leave them at the training hall every time I leave, so that other people are able to try the weapons too. I was actually trying to scam Arthur in buying me free weapons of course, but being able to train with them for free and gaining the stats can be considered as a win too. That day marked the day I started to see Arthur in a different light. In my head I had already started to nickname him ¡®Greedy Arthur¡¯. When I finished my story at the inn, Warrific and Glinc grinned a little bit, while Helius just looked at me with a poker face. Damn, Glinc and Warrific must¡¯ve just laughed out of politeness too. I should just stop telling jokes already, but I¡¯m never able to stop trying at least. A few days ago we all met up again, and rented a room with the money we scraped together, because it seemed like all three of them gained a hidden class. At level one and two. A HIDDEN CLASS AT LEVEL ONE?! AND REACHING LEVEL TWO WHILE IN THE INITIAL STAGE? Well, that was my first reaction. I¡¯ve researched so much, but I never expected them to actually gain something like a hidden class, especially not so early in the game. To be honest, I really expected them to just throw a look around at the scenery and do some odd jobs, I even hoped for them to get a miscellaneous job, like a cook or blacksmith job or something. Never would I have expected them to already get a class, instead of a job. Even way faster than me! I was still stuck with no class; I only gained some stat rises from the constant dueling with Arthur and the pounding of the wooden dummy. The advantages of having no class, is that you aren¡¯t limited to anything. The moment you get a class you will gain tremendous bonuses on the stats and skills the class specializes in. But all the other skills and stats that you want to use but aren¡¯t part of the class, will be heavily penalized, almost halving the damage and efficiency in combat. That means that if you know what you want to play quite early in the game, would make it easier to just pick a class quite early and start enjoying the advantages. But if you pick a class without knowing what kind of a character you want to become, then it might come to stab you in the back when you realize the skills you want to gain aren¡¯t able to be learned. This is the only reason I could still manage to smile at them and congratulate them on their new classes, while being classless myself. Because Glinc, Warrific, and Helius thought that they¡¯d gained everything they could possibly gain, they grouped up with me. This way we could use the remaining 12 days to figure out what kind of tactics we¡¯d use, and how we¡¯d go about hunting. The last 11 days, while we were discussing and practicing skills, I continued doing my regular duels with Arthur, which leads up to our current situation. The four of us gathered in one room. And of course it¡¯s just one room, because at night we just log off and sleep at home. Glinc and Helius went home some time ago, and Warrific had always stayed home. The reason we rented a room, is that it would be convenient to log in at the same time, and start gathered at the same place. Namely, tomorrow is the day that we¡¯ll finally be allowed to leave the city, and start hunting. *** Today is the day. I had endured a lot of duels and training the previous days, but after going to bed extra early, all the soreness had vanished. That¡¯s one of the miraculous things in Demesne too, if you work out hard enough, you will feel muscle soreness in-game. Even if it isn¡¯t there when you log out, the moment you log in you will feel the muscles aching again ¨Cthat is, only if you haven¡¯t had enough rest. Another amazing subject is sleep. Because of the time conversion, which is 4 to 1, many dedicated gamers would choose to sleep inside the game. If they were to sleep in their own beds, they would lose the amount of sleep times four in-game time. But luckily for most of the gamers, sleeping inside the game works the same as sleeping outside the game; the brain can still fully come to rest. The only thing preventing hard core gamers from sleeping in their machines every day is that they would miss their trusted old beds. And also that eventually they would start to have troubles with their bodies outside the game, because they would constantly keep the same posture in their machines. But anyway, it¡¯s finally time to go hunting! We had made a deal to log in extra early, because the barrier preventing us from leaving the city would disappear only at the brink of dawn. I have had a habit where I would sleep for 12 hours non-stop every day, but the moment I started playing Demesne I broke that habit. I can still function correctly when I only have a little bit of sleep, but I wouldn¡¯t feel optimal. That¡¯s why yesterday was the first day I went to bed early, so that I could feel optimal. I like to arrive early, and hate to arrive late anywhere, but most of the time it just so happens that I¡¯m always a bit late. Unfortunately, or well, maybe fortunately, most of my friends are chronically late. Helius and Glinc always arrive late, it just happens. I already stopped blaming them long ago. Warrific is on-time most of the times we make appointments. So, as expected, the moment I logged in, the one already waiting for me was Warrific. ¡°Mornin¡¯, Enza.¡± ¡°Good morning Warrific. So, how long do you think it¡¯ll take the two noobs to log in?¡± Warrific looked really tired, he isn¡¯t a guy fit for mornings I guess. Neither am I, but when something epic is waiting to happen, I just pump myself up and that helps me wake up really well. I could see Warrific forming a smile; it was a small one, but he knew where I was going with my joke. ¡°Hmm, depends on how fast Glinc can finish eating his Mec Ronald breakfast. And Helius? I have no idea at a-¡± He interrupted his own sentence by yawning, nice move. We¡¯ll probably have to wait at least another 15 minutes for them to log in, so I might as well get something clear again. ¡°What did you have in mind for your own class again?¡± He looked at me with a confused look, probably because I worded that poorly. ¡°As in: what exact roll did you have in mind for yourself again? For when we go hunting in a bit?¡± He raised his eyebrows a little and looked at me with that standard gaze of his. He looked a little bit bored, but it was probably just because he was still tired. ¡°I told you that already, didn¡¯t I?¡± ¡°Yeah, you probably did, I just forgot.¡± Actually, he didn¡¯t. He has been doing really mysterious about the exact skills he gained from his hidden class. He just told me that he¡¯d play something of a supporting role, which gets stronger when more people are actively fighting alongside him. He probably stayed silent about his exact skills, because either he was ashamed of them, or he just wanted to show them when we started battling. That would make sense, because hey, I love to show off too. It wouldn¡¯t be very smart though, if anyone of our party started assuming that he¡¯d have a skill which might help him out in a certain situation, and rely on that assumption, then he might get killed. Dying should be prevented at all costs, it doesn¡¯t really matter at the lower levels, but it gets dangerous when you are repeatedly dying. When your avatar dies, you don¡¯t lose anything at first. But if you die repeatedly, then the game AI starts to use an algorithm that will decide how much and which items you will lose. If you really die a lot, then you might even start to lose some stat points. You are also unable to log back into the game for a certain period of time. That period of time is calculated based upon your level, and the time between your last death and your current one. The only exception is for ¡®unruly¡¯ users. When a player attacks a user who didn¡¯t do anything wrong, the attacker turns ¡®unruly¡¯. The avatar¡¯s name would automatically appear, and can¡¯t be hid. Furthermore, the color of the name would be red, and there is a 100% probability of losing an item upon death. This is to discourage higher leveled players from PKing lower leveled users. Every unruly user can be killed without hesitation and without any risk of your own status turning unruly; furthermore, there is a 100% chance of an item dropping. A higher leveled player would never risk losing a random item, which might very well be his legendary sword, for the sake of killing a noob . Warrific told me exactly the same thing as he told us before. Damn, my plan to pry for more information didn¡¯t really work out. Just when I was about to force him to tell me his exact skills, under the banner of that it would increase our hunting efficiency, a bright golden beam appeared next to me. It vanished just as quick as it appeared, leaving Helius to stand in its place. Warrific greeted Helius with a stiff smile and couldn¡¯t resist making a comment. ¡°I guess Glinc is the last one to appear again.¡± Luckily Helius didn¡¯t look as tired as Warrific did, and he sat down with a smile while speaking up. ¡°At least I didn¡¯t arrive last.¡± That doesn¡¯t excuse you from being late though. I quietly sigh to myself and don¡¯t make that comment out loud. I was late myself anyway, would be hypocritical to blame someone else for being late too. To kill some time waiting for Glinc, I asked Helius and Warrific some boring questions like if they were prepared and hyped for the upcoming hunting days. A bright ray of light appeared again, and just when I was about to greet Glinc, Warrific spoke up, not being able to resist replying to my last question. ¡°I hope monsters won¡¯t be the only thing we hunt.¡± He tried to wink while saying that, but sort of failed at it. Helius and I started laughing, maybe more because of the wink than the remark on its own. Glinc, having heard only that sentence, and seeing Warrific attempt a wink, immediately disconnected and disappeared from where he was just standing a second ago. That made us laugh only harder and Warrific couldn¡¯t resist starting to laugh too. Glinc reconnected after a few seconds again, fully completing our group. Time to start hunting. Leaving the inn, the warmth of the sun was easily felt. The sun wasn¡¯t a high point yet, but it was summer which made every time of the day have a nice and comfortable temperature. The four of us walked to the gate of the town, Fellsmarch, and greeted the guards there. ¡°Looking for a cleric around level 5 with good healing skills!¡± ¡°Need a good tank for a 3 man party! Loot will be evenly shared!¡± ¡°Looking for someone who is able to repair my short sword. Will be well rewarded!¡± Even at this time of the morning, there was already quite a crowd at Fellsmarch¡¯s gate. They were all shouting through each other, trying to find what they were looking for. There were also some users who made stands at the side of the road, just outside the city to sell their products. There was even someone at the gate who was offering to draw people for a price. Quite a nice idea, but I think only couples would request that service. And how many couples go on dates at this time? I shrugged and started moving through the crowd towards the exit of the town. There weren¡¯t that many people compared to how many there were at the day. It wasn¡¯t the capital of the Northern Human Kingdom, Rinola, for a reason! Glinc, Helius, and Warrific don¡¯t really look affected as well, they just moved through the crowd following me quietly, they were probably already used to people shouting everywhere trying to gain attention. Normally we¡¯d have more conversations, with jokes being made everywhere, but the combination of the early morning along with a little bit of tension for the upcoming battles automatically made the mood more serious. Which is logical of course, fighting or hunting inside VR is a lot different from your standard games. If you can see a monster running at you, baring its teeth, and aiming for your throat, it would be weirder for someone not to be affected at all. That¡¯s why the 4 weeks of in-game time without being able to leave the city were needed too. If that restriction wasn¡¯t present, then the total beginners would¡¯ve foolishly rushed onto the hunting grounds without getting used to VR. That way beginners would probably freeze the moment they came into contact with the real killing intent of a wolf for example. They would start losing levels rapidly, trying to overcome their fear each time, and each time failing miserably. This way, when they would finally gather their wits, they would notice that they didn¡¯t have any stats left, because of rapidly dying too many times without enough time in between the deaths. This would of course not be profitable for the company, having them enforce a restriction of not being able to leave the town on a whim when someone just creates his account. This was one of the game rules I actively promoted, and luckily, it was well received. The moment we set out first step outside the gate, we slowly admired the forest stretching out in front of us. It reached as far as you could see. But what amazed us wasn¡¯t the sheer size of the forest. What did, were the details. Believe me; even spending 4 weeks in this nearly identical realistic world as our own reality, couldn¡¯t prepare me for this sight. The first sigh of giant trees, with an uncountable amount of leaves swaying slightly in the wind would set every mouth, of every person agape. Without any communication, Helius, Glinc, and Warrific slowly gathered next to me, until we stood in one line next to each other. With the just upcoming sun in our backs, creating a reddish glow, we stood there silently admiring the sight. If I must be honest, it felt like we looked pretty cool standing there. ¡°Out of the way noobie!¡± The next thing I saw weren¡¯t the big trees anymore; it was the giant chest of a high leveled user trying to exit the town. He just had to try and move through our party, bumping into me in the process. Damn that guy for destroying the mood! I just felt like some sort of hero who had just departed on an adventure. Oh well, it might be a good wake up call, we can¡¯t really relax here. High leveled users and dangerous monsters are as plentiful as the leaves on those trees; we can¡¯t relax when we enter the hunting zone. There was quite some distance from the exit of the town to the start of the forest. In between, there lay a huge green field. It was a huge field full of grass, with a lot of rabbits hopping around. Occasionally, you would be able to see some kobolds running around, trying to catch the rabbits probably. Rabbits were the easiest mobs around. You can compare them to a kind of monster in other games called ¡®slimes¡¯. They are normally the first mobs that appear, and the first mobs to be totally wiped out. They chose Rabbits in Demesne, probably to make it more realistic, but I doubt how many players would be able to hop right into the game and mass slaughter some cute rabbits. There were also kobolds walking around. They were slightly more difficult to handle than the simple rabbits. Kobolds are green looking monsters, with a height reaching up to a grown man¡¯s hip or knee. They possess a little bit of intelligence and carry around very simple improvised weapons, most of the time in the form of simple sharpened rocks. After throwing a look at my stats, I don¡¯t even have to consider actually fighting these lower leveled monsters. They would probably be killed as easily as grabbing a flying mosquito out of the air. They would give me a little bit of EXP I questioningly look at my friends around me, probing them to speak up. I think I made it clear with my body language that we shouldn¡¯t waste our time with those low level mobs, but head to the forest to fight against some wolves. Helius was the first one to speak up after some thinking: ¡°Hmm, I want to test a few of my skills first on these lower leveled monsters, after that, when I¡¯m feeling confident, we can move towards the higher leveled monsters.¡± Glinc had a reply waiting for him, almost as if he had prepared it in advance. ¡°Dude?! Are you seriously going to slaughter those helpless rabbits?¡± We all took a moment to quietly stare at Glinc, of course Helius meant to attack the Kobolds, and everyone understood that. The moment Glinc saw that the attention was fully focused on him; he spoke up again with a smile: ¡°Then of course I¡¯ll help you bro! I¡¯ll help you slaughter those rabbits. Hahahaha.¡± When he still noticed that we were quietly staring at him, even when he started laughing on his own, he just stopped laughing and started trudging towards the nearest kobold. I¡¯m not sure about the others, but I actually thought the comment was quite funny. I just thought it was more fun making Glinc feel bad than to laugh at his joke. The day started well with Glinc trying to make Helius feel awkward, but it backfiring, and in return, making Glinc feel awkward himself. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s go guys.¡± Warrific couldn¡¯t stand us simply standing around anymore, and started following Glinc. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. Glinc stepped in front of a kobold, just when the kobold was about to smash the head of rabbit in. Glinc tried glaring at the kobold, and for some reason, instead of attacking Glinc; the kobold took a few steps back. Hmm that¡¯s strange. Kobolds should be around level 2 and 3, how is it possible for one to retreat when there¡¯s only a level one in front of him? The only thing I can think of is the special class Glinc has. There should be some ability or skill that forces opponents back, maybe something like the fighting spirit stat I acquired. I simply don¡¯t believe that Glinc can make a mob retreat out of sheer pressure at level 1. Helius immediately took those few seconds of time the kobold was retreating, to rush behind him. The moment the kobold hit Helius¡¯s knee when he was still stumbling backwards, Helius started to savagely smile. ¡°Hello, little guy.¡± Truly fitting for his evil alignment! I really wonder if Helius is just roleplaying, or if the evil alignment is more fitting for his character than I initially thought. Helius was the one who wanted to test his skills in the first place, so he immediately activated his Life drain skill. Life drain is a pretty interesting skill, because it scales on the percentages of total health. I selected Helius¡¯s avatar in the party window, and clicked on the window showing active skills. This is a feature for the party leader, and party members if they allow others to look at their skills, so that you can efficiently manage who should what skill when. *Ting!*
? Life drain (Lv. 1 - 0%) (Beginner) (Active) (Channel) Drain the health force of your opponents while empowering yourself Effect: Drain 2% of enemy¡¯s total health per second Mana consumption: 10/s
2% of the enemy¡¯s total health. That means he won¡¯t be able to fully kill someone relying solely on this skill yet. But it might be a very good skill against stronger monsters later, especially because it doesn¡¯t do any flat damage, but scales on the opponent. The stronger the opponent, the more damage, just not relatively. Red blood like particles were torn out of the skin of the kobold, right into the body of Helius, it looked pretty bad ass. The kobold must¡¯ve been shocked awake by all the pain it was feeling, it clenched the stone in his hand even tighter and rushed at Helius. Was there a need for me to interfere and help Helius out? Of course not. Helius took care of the kobold by simply kicking the kobold, keeping him at distance while his Life drain was slowly doing the work for him. The last few days leading up to this point, we had already discussed how we should train our various skills, and what the most efficient way would be. Helius had no trouble keeping the kobold at bay, probably because the kobold didn¡¯t show any real killing intent because of the pain and shock he received before and also partly due to the martial art training Helius had received the previous years. After around 20 seconds, the particles that looked like drops of blood suddenly stopped appearing, Helius appeared flustered for a bit, but when Warrific casually said the word ¡®Mana¡¯, Helius seemed to understand. He had channeled the skill for 20 seconds, which was his limit with his current mana value of 200. Most kobolds would have an HP value of around 50 points. When you think about the 2% of damage for 20 seconds, that should leave the kobold with 30 health points left. Adding in the powerful front kicks Helius used at the kobold, he should have less than 10 points remaining. Should I steal his kill just for the heck of it? I couldn¡¯t help the corner my mouth raising a little bit, but I thought it wouldn¡¯t be worth the argument that would definitely occur. Looking around me I could see Warrific faintly smiling too, it would be funny if we were thinking the same thing. What about Glinc? Never mind, he was simply looking at the kobold dying, admiring the view. Helius kicked once more at the kobold, fully depleting his health. Which makes sense, seeing as Helius¡¯s combined strength value is 24. That is almost the same value as someone at level 3, who would have invested all his stat points into strength every level. The kobold was only level 2, so of course one kick would be able to damage him for 10 health points. *Ting!*
A Kobold has been killed by your party. +5 EXP
I dismiss the message, and put the EXP notifications to mute. I would be able to see the progress in my progress bar anyway. The notifications of killed mobs may come in handy later when big battles are occurring. That way you wouldn¡¯t be able to see every monster that was killed, so you might miss important information without the pop up. But with our 4 man party there is no need for them at all. I raise my thumb at Helius and smile: ¡°Good job, nice front kick!¡± 5 Exp huh? That would mean we¡¯d have to hunt 20 kobolds before we¡¯d level up to 2. Or level 3¡­ I throw a look at Warrific while inwardly cursing: Why don¡¯t I have that kind of luck?! ¡°Alright, these guys are way too easy. You should have gotten the hang of how to use your skills, right Helius?¡± I wait for Helius¡¯s response, who nodded, before continuing; ¡°It would be more effective if we were to head inside the forest, and then just stick to the edge of the forest. We might be able to hunt a few wolves, they are quite dangerous, but I always live by the saying, ¡®high risks yield high rewards!¡¯.¡± I start walking towards the forest full of confidence, while the others seemingly follow behind me. I underestimated the distance quite a bit. The trees were so big, that when you looked at them from a distance they looked pretty close by. It almost took us 15 minutes to reach the edge of the forest. While walking towards the edge of the forest, we took care of 5 more Kobolds, filling our progress bars around 30%. When we got to the edge of the forest, we started to get a little tenser. We could hear the howling of wolves, strong mobs, ranging from a level of 15 to around 20. This time we really had to take care and work together. They were not only highly intelligent, but also extremely ferocious. Our party¡¯s formation would be as follows: Helius and I would play the main attackers as tanks and DpS . Glinc would take up a rogue like role, rushing in and out of the fight, dealing as much damage as he can, taking over the tank role if either of us got too low. Warrific would keep us from dying, by dishing out heals and buffing us however he can. I would be the one to call the final shots, I may be slightly inferior to Warrific tactic-wise, but I can trust on myself to make rational decisions at all times, I also have slightly more experience in fighting, so that might work out to our advantage in these small scale battles. We assumed a simple formation where Helius and I walked up front, with Glinc slightly behind us and Warrific even further behind us. The sun hasn¡¯t reached its highest point yet, it was still quite early in the morning actually. That means that there would be a lot of shadows covering the grounds of the forest. Most of the monsters were empowered at night, or in dark places, which makes them more dangerous. But they would also give out more EXP when they died. This made it worth our whiles to try it out. When we reached the edge of the forest, we started to roam. The forest was thick, but it was still manageable to stick around the edge of the forest. The sun almost couldn¡¯t be seen, and the wind was causing the rustling of leaves and branches to happen everywhere. ¡°Let¡¯s go slightly deeper, I haven¡¯t seen any wolves around here.¡± Warrific¡¯s casual remark might as well have almost been our first downfall. I complied with his suggestion, starting to slowly head inside the forest, Helius closely beside me. I never thought that the moment the size of a forest is increased, the whole atmosphere of a forest would change. It had a sort of mystical mood because of the enormous trees, but because the sun¡¯s light can¡¯t breach through the thick pack of branches and leaves, it leaves us with a sort of twilight scene. It¡¯s hard to see ahead, which makes us pay way more attention on our close surroundings than normal. An enemy could appear any moment. I¡¯m not sure if this is a good idea. I¡¯m pretty confident in my own skills to survive, even if we were to be attacked, but I¡¯m not sure if I can keep the whole party alive in that scenario, especially not with this lack of light. I feel pretty responsible for this party; I eventually created the party, which made me the party leader by some unspoken rule. Not like I would make all the decisions on my own or something, it¡¯s just that after consulting everyone I¡¯d be the one to decide. It sort of turned out that way, because they listened to me. I abruptly held out my hand towards my left, where Helius was walking, to stop him and the other 2 behind me. I heard some rustling and snarling coming from my left, I immediately stepped in front of Helius and turned my whole body towards the left side, assuming a fighting stance. There was one wolf standing in the open in front of us, snarling at us and showing a defensive posture. It looked like it could jump at any moment. Then suddenly, without giving me any time to react, I feel an explosion of pain coming from my back. *Ting!*
Attacked from behind! Critical damage! -250 health points
Shit! Wolves hunt in packs, distracting the prey while sneaking up behind them are standard tactics! *** The moment I heard Enza crying out, I immediately created some distance between me and, apparently two, of the wolves. Shit, they have already sneaked up behind us! How worthless can the frontline be?! They should be glad they have me, without my upcoming heals this party would be wiped within the blink of an eye. I chant 2 sentences of complete gibberish to complete the healing spell I had been ready to cast all morning already. I had practiced those lines so many times, until I could say the lines flawlessly with my eyes closed and my hands on my back. Finishing the chant, I waved my hand towards Enza and recover his health points. *Ting!*
Healed Enza for 100 health points.
The scene exploded the moment the wolf attacked. While I jumped back preparing myself to heal Enza, Enza¡¯s first reaction was to push Helius back while he himself took a few steps back. The moment the wolf, that attacked from behind, ended his attack and was about to make his second attack, Glinc¡¯s leg turned into stone and he kicked towards the wolf with impeccable timing. The wolf¡¯s second attack was interrupted and he was knocked back towards the wolf that had served as a distraction. Hmph, we¡¯re lucky that only one wolf attacked at that time. Also, leave it to Glinc to follow up to save Enza immediately. He should¡¯ve paid more attention to the surroundings and kicked the wolf while he was still attacking Enza, instead of waiting for the wolf to finish his attack first. We all slowly retreated while I cast another heal on Enza. It¡¯s possible to see the health of all the party members, and I could see that his health was almost back to full again. The thing I don¡¯t get though; is how Enza survived that blow with so much health left. Aren¡¯t wolves mobs around level 15? Enza still had more than half of his health. Oh well, he probably managed to dodge a big part of the damage with some silly martial arts or something, if he can keep doing that, then that would make my job easier too. We managed to regroup to our initial formation while slowly backing away, the wolves were slowly walking in our footsteps. Almost as if they are stalking their prey. Wait. They are. Damn it. ¡°So, do you think we can kill those two wolves?¡± Glinc was the first one to break the silence while we were slowly retreating. The moment we show our backs, is the moment we¡¯re all wiped out. ¡°Damn it, 2 wolves are pretty tough, we should¡¯ve stuck to the edges of the forest, lone wolves hunt there, the deeper you go, the more wolves in a pack.¡± Enza said, but he couldn¡¯t help adding; ¡°Shit, we really shouldn¡¯t have listened to Warrific!¡± Well, screw you too Enza. Those two wolves are the only worthy opponents, at least this is super fun! ¡°Don¡¯t worry, you guys have me, I can just heal you guys the moment you run out of health. I don¡¯t get why we¡¯re slowly retreating though, shouldn¡¯t you guys be attacking?¡± Encouraging them won¡¯t hurt anyone. I wasn¡¯t even lying, my healing skill is pretty overpowered, healing 100 health flat is insanely high for a level one skill. Most level one characters only have 100 health, so being able to heal them from 0 to hero is insane. The only downside is that it draws a lot of mana. But we bought a few mana potions earlier as preparations, so it should be fine. Enza was the first to step up, he¡¯s probably pissed that he got attacked without seeing it coming. He didn¡¯t have any special active skills yet, which was pretty logical, but he stepped diagonally to the left, after he had feinted to the right. Then he made 2 punches into the air. Pretty clever, by stepping to the left, both the wolves immediately reacted by turning slightly to follow his figure. Glinc immediately followed up on the opening Enza had created by making a front kick towards the right wolf, and turning his leg into stone at the last moment to greaten the impact. Pretty cool looking skill he got there, I hope it won¡¯t handicap his performance later. While Glinc kicked at the wolf, Helius had not been sitting still; he had already casted Life drain at the right wolf that Glinc had attacked, while simultaneously activating his slowing skill ¡®decay¡¯, at the left wolf, to prevent him from suddenly attacking Enza. Nice, that slow will give Enza some extra breathing space, that way he should be able to react on time. Glinc¡¯s kick had pushed the right wolf quite some distance back, which would leave us a few seconds to deal with the left wolf. The hidden classes are hidden classes for a reason. The slowing skill Helius casted wasn¡¯t great because it would just slow, leaving room for a counter attack. No, the great thing about that skill was that it would only be noticed by the one affected, the moment they would start to move. That should create a big opening! Most of the time the big movements made in a fight are extremely important, but if that movement were to be suddenly slowed down, the mind of the person moving would be also be affected! And, just as expected, the moment the wolf lashed out, baring its fangs and killing intent at Enza¡¯s throat, Enza¡¯s hand was already moving towards the beast¡¯s own throat. The moment the wolf was starting to prepare itself to jump, I already started chanting the chant for the heal skill again, you can better be safe than sorry. Enza might dodge the wolf, but I sure as hell won¡¯t count on it. The wolf¡¯s teeth neared Enza¡¯s throat, but Enza¡¯s fist reached the wolf first, creating a loud ¡®thud¡¯-like sound of impact. The wolf was actually blown back, but it managed to claw viciously at Enza¡¯s arm, which had stretched out. Seeing a chunk of Enza¡¯s health disappear, I immediately filled his health bar up again, by letting loose my heal. Now that the wolf had been blown back, the immediate death threat had lessened a little. The wolves should be more cautious now too. Helius tried to strike at the moment Enza had already struck the wolf, but unfortunately Enza blew the wolf back too fast, resulting in Helius barely missing the wolf. But now that it is a little safer, it¡¯s time to start using this class¡¯s full potential! ¡°I call upon the sun¡¯s power to empower those who need empowerment, channel it through your faithful servant!¡± Slightly pausing at this point, I adjust my glasses and continue chanting to finalize the spell; ¡°Bestow the true might, upon the ones with the most just cause, assisting them in the slaying of evil!¡± Spreading and lowering my arms, I open my hands like some kind of messiah and start to emit a bright light for a split second. In the split second that light was emitted, a warm feeling ¨Cjust liked sunrays, was left behind. *Ting!*
Empowerment was successfully casted! All allies have temporarily gained: +10 STR +10 AGI +5 Def
Ha, successfully casted! This spell is definitely OP ! This spell adds 10 skill points to two stats and 5 to another. That means that one stat has been raised by the full stat points of 2 levels! That means that in total they would have temporarily gained 5 levels! But that¡¯s not all, the more people this skill is cast on at the same time, the stronger the effect! It will excel in larger battles later on in the game. Heh, I can¡¯t wait! I can¡¯t help but grin and go with the flow, shouting: ¡°Go! Attack them; they should be fair game now!¡± Enza and Glinc grinned while rushing towards the left wolf. They probably had the same idea; to finish off the weakened wolf first. After the blow it had received it was barely standing, with only a third of its health left. Helius took a step back to watch; he has probably used up all his mana already. The skills he has can be implemented to be extremely useful, but the downside is the mana drain. Especially using 2 skills at the same time, he would be draining his mana with 10 points per second, while casting the slow would be 20 points. He only had a maximum of 200 mana points too. Casting a slow once, he would only be able to maintain the drain for 18 seconds! But, the wolves should have around 1500 to 2000 health points, using the drain for 18 seconds on one of them would result in 720 damage! Considering Helius is still level one, that¡¯s an awful lot of damage. I wonder how strong he¡¯ll be at the later levels. Glinc used a low side kick upon the left wolf, totally ignoring the other wolf that was just about to attack him. Damn! He probably expects me to immediately heal him. I can¡¯t help but click my tongue; does he even know how annoying it is to chant these bullshit lines?! While I was busy chanting, they managed to kill the weakened wolf, Enza finished the wolf off with a chop after Glinc critically injured it with his kick. After Glinc made his low kick, he covered his face with his hands, turning his arms into stone. While the wolf was still in an arc towards Glinc¡¯s throat, their favorite attacking spot, it changed his direction midway. It chose to claw towards Glinc¡¯s chest instead of attacking his throat. Nice move Glinc, that way you won¡¯t receive a critical hit at least. While I manage to cast my third heal and recover Glinc¡¯s nearly depleted health bar, I immediately reach for a mana potion in my pocket. I can¡¯t maintain these spells without more mana for a very long time. My max right now is 3 heals and 1 empowerment ¨Cwhich cost a lot more mana. I don¡¯t get how Glinc and Enza can have that much health though! These wolfs are almost level 20, they should be able to one shot a level one character. Must be luck. While I was drinking my mana potion and Glinc was knocked back after the attack, Enza immediately reacted by kicking towards the wolf¡¯s throat. He calculated the angle of where the wolf would land on the ground after attacking Glinc and managed to kill the wolf with a clean kick. *Ting!* *Ting!*
You have leveled up!
You have leveled up!
Now that¡¯s more like it! ¡°Whoa, I got 3 levels at once!¡± Glinc couldn¡¯t help but make a weird little jump and shout in excitement. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m proud of you guys. That was a tough fight, but we managed to handle that really cleanly.¡± Sure Enza, but you still got ambushed by that wolf, good job. There¡¯s one thing that has been bothering me though. ¡°That¡¯s all nice and well, but there¡¯s one thing that I don¡¯t understand. Why is no one of you using weapons?!¡± Enza shrugged and spoke up first, ¡°Well, I had to leave all the weapons I was using in the training hall for other people to use¡­ And I¡¯m confident in my hand to hand combat anyway!¡± Well, I guess he did do okay without a weapon. Glinc looked embarrassed and was simply watching the ground, ¡°Well, the main weapon of my class is the Bo Staff, but I still have to acquire that from a quest. In the meantime I forgot all about using other weapons.¡± Helius was the only one raised his head high and spoke up, ¡°Ha, you guys don¡¯t even have a weapon with you, I have an over powered dagger, it¡¯s even a relic item!¡± Then why aren¡¯t you using it¡­ Enza voiced the question I was also contemplating, ¡°Shouldn¡¯t you have used the dagger then and helped us out when your mana ran out¡­?¡± Helius awkwardly laughed and responded, ¡°Well, it¡¯s restricted, I forgot I can only use it when I hit level 5. I took it with me thinking I¡¯d be able to equip it instantly¡­¡± Enza started laughing and waved his hand, ¡°No worries, no worries, with this pace we¡¯ll hit level 5 really soon. I can¡¯t help but laugh when I think about all the EXP we¡¯re gaining by slaying these wolves. Just remember the thrill of fighting against them, hehehehe.¡± Having experienced the thrill of battle, while reaping the rewards of that plentiful EXP at the end, the whole party erupted into a mad laughter, filled with greed for more EXP. ¡°Kekekekeke.¡± ¡°Kukukuku.¡± ¡°Hahahahaha.¡± A few wild wolves that were just about to target the party instantly halted and couldn¡¯t help but to shiver. They slowly retreated the exact way they had drawn closer. Volume 1 - Chapter 10 Looking at the surprised face of the shop keeper, I just laugh awkwardly and wait for the shopkeeper to explain what was so weird about my question. After slaying a lot of wolves, we all managed to reach level 5. But because no one of us had weapons, it took us longer than we expected. The moment the mana of Helius or Warrific ran out, we were forced to wait until they recovered it. That¡¯s why right now; we¡¯re back in the city, trying to buy weapons with the coins we looted from the wolves. ¡°They don¡¯t sell those here¡­. I asked him the same question and he just laughed at me¡­¡± Enza is the one who brought me back to reality with his quick explanation. ¡°Yep, sorry lad, I just didn¡¯t expect that two people would ask me the same question within such a short amount of time. I¡¯m willing to craft it for you though, but it¡¯ll cost you a lot more!¡± Warrific walked up from behind me and patted my shoulder; ¡°Sorry Glinc, we don¡¯t have that kind of money yet, I guess you¡¯re doomed to fight with only your hands until you get more gold.¡± Or when I get the staff from my hidden class¡­ I like the Monkey King class a lot, but it sucks a little right now that I¡¯m only allowed to use staffs. Fighting unarmed isn¡¯t really a problem, but it¡¯s tough to fight up close without the extra range a sword can provide. At least it shouldn¡¯t pose a problem if I just manage to use my ¡®Rock skin¡¯ skill effectively! I actually managed to get it up to beginner level 3 within that short period of time. ¡°Well, I¡¯m sorry for wasting your time then shopkeeper, I hope you don¡¯t mind.¡± A polite man is a wise man; at least, that¡¯s what I always tell myself. Enza walked up from behind and then proceeded to stand in front of me. ¡°Alright, we won¡¯t completely waste your time, we just need a solid mace then, it doesn¡¯t have to be anything too fancy though.¡± ¡°Wait, Enza, you¡¯re going to use a mace?!¡± Warrific couldn¡¯t help but to exclaim that in surprise. He has a point though, I¡¯m wondering why Enza would buy a mace too, hasn¡¯t he been training with swords all this time? ¡°No, you¡¯re going to use the mace¡­¡± ¡°Wait¡­ What?¡± Enza grinned and started explaining to Warrific: ¡°Well, you¡¯re the only one without a weapon actually¡­ Well, Glinc doesn¡¯t have one too, but he¡¯s ¡®special¡¯. Helius has his fancy relic knife, I¡¯m going to pick up a good sword at the training hall, whilst Glinc can¡¯t use any weapons excluding a staff.¡± Warrific started frowning and replied to Enza, he had folded his arms too, probably trying to show his slight discontent. ¡°Yes, I get all that of course, but why the hell would you get me a mace instead of a sword?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t know?¡± Enza raised one eyebrow and gave that familiar ¡®know it all look¡¯. I can¡¯t help but sigh when he follows up with an explanation; it¡¯s kind of annoying when he just thinks that people possess the exact same knowledge as him, and then show confusion when someone doesn¡¯t know something, when there a lot of things they know, while he doesn¡¯t. Here it comes¡­ ¡°You should know that swords are pretty difficult to use correctly. Actually, most people always think that the sword is a superior weapon. But if you haven¡¯t trained a lot with a sword, or aren¡¯t really familiar with sword techniques, then it¡¯s way more efficient to use a mace. You will be able to inflict a lot more damage with maces. The only reason they aren¡¯t more popular than the sword, is that they are a lot more expensive than swords. A mace wielder is going to win every fight with a sword wielder, except when the skill gap is simply too big while the weight isn¡¯t much different. It¡¯s pretty surprising how easy it is to break a sword with a mace, they can also be swung quicker. Which most people don¡¯t expect, even NPCs shouldn¡¯t expect it. So, are you convinced yet?¡± Warrific shrugged his shoulders, while saying, ¡°Yeah, whatever¡­ I¡¯ll use it, I guess.¡± ¡°Can you pay up already? You¡¯re blocking the other customers¡¯ way.¡± Warrific walked up to the smith and silently completed the exchange. Alright, time to pick up Enza¡¯s sword at the training gym and head out to kill some wolves! Helius was the first to leave the smith¡¯s store, with me Enza behind him. Warrific left after he received his mace. I apologized to the customers we delayed and then followed right after the others. After exiting the shop, we just had to cross the plaza to reach the training hall. The capital city was constructed in a way that the most important buildings, like the big shops, the church, guilds and other buildings, were all a part of the big circle that is the plaza. There are a lot of other shops and houses or buildings too of course, but they weren¡¯t a part of the plaza. ¡°Found a new dungeon with skeletons! Looking for a level 7 priest, loot will be shared!¡± ¡°Need a good tank ASAP; we¡¯re looking to speed level with a high DPS team!¡± ¡°Selling a lot of loot! Come to me to buy your fur, bones, or other items!¡± Like always, there were a lot of people trying to sell things or to recruit people. ¡°Damn, it feels like we¡¯re a little behind¡­ There a lot of people with higher levels than us here.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry Warrific; most of the really higher leveled players here are the employees and friends of the employees who have been playing since alpha. They were allowed to keep their avatars so that they could test the higher leveled quests and skills for bugs. I think there were also some low key competitions a while back, where people were able to get an avatar. The company was pretty careful preventing it from being leaked to the media though.¡± Enza was quick to explain the situation, but I can see that he¡¯s a little irritated too. They both don¡¯t like being low leveled probably. But it looks like Helius doesn¡¯t really care. I¡¯m of the same mind actually, why would you be irritated that you¡¯re still a low level. ¡°Why are you guys annoyed by this? Isn¡¯t the most fun thing about this game that we can watch out own avatars grow slowly to become gods?¡± Enza snapped out of it, but he just had to look back and say: ¡°Well, it¡¯s not really annoying that we¡¯re low leveled, it¡¯s just annoying that other people are of a higher level than me¡­¡± ¡°You¡¯re too arrogant.¡± Helius was pretty quick to point out Enza¡¯s place. Although, it did come across a little bit harsh. ¡°Well, sure, maybe I am, but I do know that I¡¯ll surpass them all, h¨¨h¨¨.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t you mean ¡®we¡¯ll surpass them all¡¯?¡± ¡°Yeah, of course I meant that Glinc¡­ of course.¡± Continuing our mindless chatter, we picked up Enza¡¯s sword at the training hall. The sword turned out to be of a slightly superior quality than the average beginner swords you could find in the shops, the lucky guy. The four of us slowly walked back to the exit of the city. We prepared to hunt the whole night, so we packed some extra food, water and we even all got a tent. They were pretty expensive, so we burned all our money. It¡¯s amazing how we even got that much money from all the odd jobs of the previous weeks and the wolves we hunted. We could¡¯ve made the decision to simply stay at the inn too, but in the long run that would¡¯ve cost way more than to just simply buy a tent once. Just when we left the city¡¯s gates, I spot a female walking over. She looked to be an elf, with pointy ears and high eyebrows. She¡¯s extremely pretty, with really defined features. She had a spring in her step, and she looked pretty confident walking over to us like that. ¡°Hey guys, what level are the four of you?¡± Her voice was like music to my ears, so I was the first of us to speak up. ¡°We¡¯re all level 5, but why would that be of interest to something like you?¡± I intended to compliment her, but that came across a little awkward. But all is well; she smiled, showing slight dimples in her cheeks. Then she spoke up again: ¡°I was looking for a team with reliable looking guys. Look, I found a certain dungeon not far from here, but I¡¯m not strong enough to deal with them myself¡­¡± She blinked her eyes at us a few times, awaiting our response. Before answering again I looked at Enza, and surprisingly, he was frowning. But before Enza or I could speak up, Warrific already gave an answer. Adjusting his glasses, it was almost like his eyes were shining. ¡°We¡¯re in. Dungeons sound interesting!¡± The female¡¯s eyes shined for a moment, before she loudly exclaimed ¡®great!¡¯. Helius rested one hand on his hip and just stood by idle, while Enza stopped frowning, shrugged and asked for her name. The girl smiled. ¡°You guys can call me Fenila.¡± She turned around and simply expected us to follow. It can be considered rude, but somehow that movement held a sort of charm where you would just automatically followed. We looked at each other and shrugged, and then we proceeded to follow her. I pass the other three to start a conversation with Fenila. ¡°So, how long is the walk?¡± ¡°We just have to cross a bit of the forest, it shouldn¡¯t take very long. In only an hour or three we¡¯ll probably reach the cave.¡± I took me a few seconds to adjust my thinking. Considering that we¡¯re in a medieval world and have to walk towards our destinations, three hours isn¡¯t really a long time. I¡¯ve heard of journeys consisting out of days of walking, just to cross a forest in those ancient times. Enza¡¯s voice snapped me out of my thinking, ¡°So, the dungeon is a cave at the center of the forest?¡± ¡°Yup!¡± Enza started to walk next to Warrific, I could hear some vague sentences about how the center of the forest had higher leveled monsters like boars and bears. In the meantime, Helius joined Fenila and me. We started talking and asked each other how we got into the game and what our classes were. She was only responding with one word answers, and was mostly asking questions, having us do the talking. She must be quite shy. ¡°Yo, Glinc, you should pay attention! There¡¯s another one over there!¡± I immediately hardened my arm, blocking the incoming attack of the last remaining wolf. While the wolf was trying to tear off my arm, Enza managed to close the distance and cut off its head. *Ting!*
A Wolf has been killed by your party. +50 EXP
¡°You¡¯re getting pretty proficient at that skill of yours, Glinc. The timing of your hardening has really improved, it¡¯s way more efficient this way, good job. But you might get a better effect if you manage to counter their attacks with attacks of your own, instead of just blocking them.¡± Enza gave some advice again, not that I really need it, but whatever. We came across a few parties of wolves, but we managed to fight them off every time. We had been walking for slightly more than three hours, so we should reach our destination pretty soon. Luckily we haven¡¯t encountered any mobs we couldn¡¯t handle yet, the bears or boars haven¡¯t made their appearance yet. That might be a good thing, but I¡¯m still kind of excited by the idea of battling them. Fenila cheered us on when we finished off the last remaining wolf, ¡°Good job guys! You really are the party I was looking for! We¡¯re almost there, after another 15 minutes of walking we should reach the cave.¡± We asked her a few times what her class was, and if she could contribute to the fights in anyway, but she just shrugged it off and stood back every time a fight happened. She must really have a shitty non-combat class if she¡¯s so embarrassed that she doesn¡¯t even talk about her class. Wait a second, I almost forgot about that notification that popped up a few seconds ago! ¡°Show skill: Rock Skin.¡± *Ting!*
? Rock Skin (Lv. 4 - 4.2%) (Beginner) (Active) (Channel) Toughen your skin by changing the outer layer to rock. The Monkey King¡¯s origins lie deep in a magic stone, using these roots you are able to change body parts in rock. Not only hardening the skin, but also increasing the weight. Effect: Increase defense and weight of a certain body part Mana consumption: 5/s
Heh, level 4 already. I have 3 other skills I can use right now, but I have been using Rock Skin for almost every fight. It may seem overpowered, especially with the low mana cost, but it¡¯s pretty much balanced. When I change a limb to rock, it¡¯s extremely heavy, so it¡¯s almost impossible to lift using my current strength stat. And trying to tank doesn¡¯t work either, because mobs will just avoid me when I turn into stone. Luckily, I did figure out a really effective way of using the skill. Right before enemies I can use the skill defensively by turning the attacked parts into rock. Offensively, I can turn my legs or arms right at the last moment into rock, this way the momentum of the kick or punch increases, while I don¡¯t have to actually lift my limbs while their weight has increased. It¡¯s a pretty fun skill to use, because a real down side of unarmed combat in virtual reality is that your feet and hands will hurt quite a lot if you punch monsters with a high defense. If your wrist is slightly bent, then you will also hurt your wrist, etc. But when my attacks are fully supported by my stone limbs, the attacks only hurt the opponent and not me! Suddenly I hear Fenila gleefully exclaiming, ¡°We¡¯re here! We¡¯ve made it, it¡¯s just up ahead, let¡¯s go!¡± *** "We¡¯re here! We¡¯ve made it, it¡¯s just up ahead, let¡¯s go!¡± Fenila yelled that out, while pointing at an intersection within the forest. It was like there was an ¡®X¡¯ shape without trees within the forest, where the side the furthest away from us contained a cave. I wonder what kind of mobs this cave will have. I still have my doubts about this, but whatever. Glinc, Warrific and Helius seemed to be fine with this situation, so I¡¯ll just follow them for once. You know what they say, ¡®nothing ventured, nothing gained.¡¯ ¡°Enza, hurry up, it already took us a long time to arrive here, let¡¯s finally start hunting for real now!¡± Glinc, with his usual enthusiasm, waved at me, encouraging me to hurry up. ¡°Yeah, yeah, I¡¯m coming, I¡¯m coming. Chill dude, it¡¯s not like we¡¯ll be able to clear it immediately or anything.¡± Warrific couldn¡¯t stand it anymore and spoke up too. ¡°Dude, shut up and just hurry up, I also want to enter that cave. It will be our first dungeon for fucks sake!¡± I sigh out loud and follow them to the entrance of the cave. The air suddenly got colder, probably because of the eerie wind coming from inside the cave. The atmosphere was significantly changed from how it was before. This adds a lot more tension to situations in virtual reality. I love it. *Ting!*
You have now entered the dungeon: Cave of the fallen
Figured, guess we aren¡¯t the first to enter this dungeon, otherwise we would¡¯ve gained an increase in EXP for the first x hours we would¡¯ve spent here. Fenila slightly grinned, before fully smiling towards us. ¡°Let¡¯s head in guys, we finally arrived!¡± ¡°Ehmm, shouldn¡¯t we first create some battle tactics or formations? What if we get wiped inside?¡± He certainly has a point. ¡°I agree with Warrific, it wouldn¡¯t be wise to just enter the cave blindly. We don¡¯t even know what kind of mobs are inside, you haven¡¯t told us either, so I assume you don¡¯t know too.¡± ¡°No, no, no, it¡¯s all fine! Really, the mobs at the beginning of the dungeon are all of very low level, so they can be handled without any tactics. The strategy will form itself naturally while we fight. Come on, I have been waiting a long time before I could finally enter this dungeon. Can we just go in¡­ pretty please¡­?¡± Fenila blinked a few times. Her refusal is apparent with that reply. The other three are fidgeting around a little, while I just wave my hand, implying that we should all head inside. Those eyes form a deadly weapon. As we enter the cave, I unsheathe my sword and ready it. You can never be too careful. ¡°Let Glinc and me walk up front, Helius and Warrific can easily cast spells from behind us then. Be careful not to get flanked.¡± ¡°Sure.¡± ¡°Alright.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± I get three replies, while Fenila just grins and moves to our back line. The cave was pretty ill lighted, but there were actually some torches on the walls. I wonder if they belong to the cave, or if someone bothered to place them there. The ground was uneven and the sound of footsteps could be heard for afar. ¡°H-Humans, Kill.¡± ¡°Prepare to die humanssss.¡± Before I knew it, two skeletons were upon our party. They must have approached us from the side, seeing how the cave doesn¡¯t just exist out of one simple linear path. They were walking next to each other, from our right side. ¡°Damn! I told you guys to watch out for flanks! Helius, try to slow one of them so we can deal with the other one. Glinc, back me up so we can finish this skeleton first.¡± Warrific calmly assessed the situation and spoke up, ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll ready my heals for you guys. We don¡¯t know how strong the enemies are, so I¡¯ll conserve my mana for heals, until we know if you guys need my damage.¡± Oh, that¡¯s true isn¡¯t it? If you cast a heal on an undead, they receive damage instead of health. I immediately felt the thrill of the battle again and ran towards the left skeleton. Let¡¯s do this! Seeing how they¡¯re just a pile of bones, I aim a horizontal slash at the base of the skeleton¡¯s neck. Maybe I¡¯ll be able to instantly dismember him, making it an instant victory. Seeing the perfect angle of my sword, I¡¯m already looking at the other skeleton. I should probably use the same attack for this one. Heh, I don¡¯t even need my party like this. But at that moment I suddenly feel the rebound in my arm. It felt like I hit against a wall and my sword couldn¡¯t even slash through the first skeleton¡¯s neck. ¡°Damn, watch out guys, their bodies are probably reinforced with magic!¡± The skeleton was still blown to the side a bit; it couldn¡¯t fully withstand the impact at least. Using the rebound of the previous strike, I make a downwards slash this time, going for the skeletons shoulder. I hit its shoulder with all my strength, and slash across the surface. I don¡¯t want to face the same rebound again. That¡¯s the thing about swords, if you can¡¯t slash or pierce something, it¡¯ll become useless. I can¡¯t pierce at the skeletons naturally. And because of their strong bones, slashing doesn¡¯t really work either; I can only use the sword as if it were a baseball bat to hit the surface of their bones without using any actual sword techniques. Glinc must have figured this out too, because he made a front kick right at the rib cage of the skeleton. He probably didn¡¯t harden his leg this time, because it would¡¯ve dropped immediately from the weight. Wait a second. Drop. Hmm, I might not be as useless as I thought this fight. I close the gap between the skeleton again and use all my strength to slash at both his knees. The skeleton doesn¡¯t receive too much damage, but my strength stat must¡¯ve been enough to forcibly knock the skeleton to the ground. While the skeleton is falling down, I make eye contact with Glinc. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.He nods back at me, so I sprint towards the second skeleton. Helius was waving his dagger at the skeleton, trying to damage him and keep him away from Warrific and Fenila. Making a side kick at the skeleton, I manage to increase its distance to Helius. While I slash at the skeleton¡¯s side, I hear a crushing sound to my left. Glinc must¡¯ve understood what I was hinting at, activating his rock skill to use the weight and crush the skeleton¡¯s rib cage. As they say; what works once, works twice. I created some distance with that slash at its shoulder. I heard Glinc walk up to us again, so we used the same tactic and destroyed the second skeleton with ease. How much XP did that give me? I disabled the notifications a while back, but it¡¯s quite easy to have them show up again. *Ting* *Ting*
A Skeleton has been killed by your party. +400 EXP
A Skeleton has been killed by your party. +400 EXP
Damn, 400 XP?! I forgot to check the skeleton¡¯s level, but that¡¯s some pretty good XP. That rock skill is really OP, to be able to just use the gravity and crush monsters. Isn¡¯t it possible to kill these skeletons at level one that way?! ¡°I wonder how they were able to talk¡­ They¡¯re just bones right?¡± Good point Helius¡­ But it should be the magic that reinforced them, providing them with life force. ¡°Good job guys, that was quite easy, wasn¡¯t it?¡± I look at the faces around me and we were all smiling, except for Fenila. She looks¡­ confused? Hmm, I wonder what¡¯s so confusing; she told us that we were able to hunt here, so why is she so confused? I thought it was fishy at the beginning that she was just sharing the dungeon¡¯s location. Maybe she expected us to die to those skeletons so that she could pick up our dropped items and leave? Nah, never mind, that wouldn¡¯t have worked out, because the skeletons would¡¯ve just killed her too. I voice out my concern, without actually saying anything concrete. ¡°Should we continue heading deeper?¡± ¡°Yeah, this went quite easy, you just have to knock them down, and then I¡¯ll just crush their rib cages. Free XP!¡± Glinc raised his fist enthusiastically, his eyes shining. ¡°I agree. I already reached level 7 because of those skeletons!¡± ¡°I still think it¡¯s unfair that only you gained a level in the beginning stage of the game. Now you¡¯ll stay the highest leveled guy of our party¡­¡± Helius retorted on Warrific¡¯s exclamation. Alright, let¡¯s head in. I rest my sword on my shoulder and take the lead, walking deeper into the cave. Surprisingly, we didn¡¯t encounter any skeletons, or any other mobs, for another 15 minutes of walking. The last few minutes, the path we were following got a lot narrower, until we couldn¡¯t even stand next to each other anymore. But quite soon, we saw some bright light at the end of the tunnel. The path suddenly expanded, and exiting the narrow part, I stepped out into a big section within the cave. There was a lot of space and the surroundings expanded. It looked like a ring with multiple entrances in the walls. The part we had just entered had a shape like an ¡®O¡¯ and there was quite some room. We entered this section and stood in the middle of the area. Just when I was about to ask if anyone had any suggestions on which of the newly found entrances we should enter, Fenila spoke up. ¡°I¡¯m really sorry guys; I¡¯m in a position where I don¡¯t have any choice but to do this.¡± She took out a simple whistle. And she blew on it. A shrill sound came out, resounding through the whole cave. The next thing we heard were multiple pairs of footsteps sounding throughout the cave. ¡°Guys... we should group up.¡± Warrific sounded out his concern, which we all followed. I wanted to grab Fenila to question her on what the hell she just did, but she was moving towards one of the entrances whilst blowing on the whistle. Damn, I thought that something was fishy! What the hell is going to happen?! While we finished our new formation, the footsteps that could be heard reached the intersection, right where we were located. At that moment, Fenila reached the entrance and behind her five guys game out. One had a bow on his shoulder, wearing leather armor. He was pretty small with long hair covering his eyes. Right next to him was someone with short red hair, who was wearing a cloak. He¡¯s probably their magician. In front of them there were two swords men. They were both wearing reinforced leather armor, with protection on their front, but leaving their back open. They looked to be well equipped, but they shouldn¡¯t be higher than level 25. Their names were hidden, and so was their level. That means they aren¡¯t unruly yet, so that might be a good sign. ¡°You dumb fucks! Grayan, you told me you would clear out the cave when I would PM you! But we actually encountered two level 20 skeletons on the way here, we¡¯re lucky they were able to deal with them, but we could¡¯ve been easily wiped! That would¡¯ve cost me my life! But that also means that you have to be careful, they¡¯re pretty good.¡± Fenila started cursing exuberantly the moment she reached her potential allies. What the hell?! Her whole speech pattern suddenly changed! And those skeletons were level 20? So that¡¯s why I had trouble one shotting them. ¡°Don¡¯t curse so much Fenila, you all made it here now. We can kill them without any trouble and pick up their items.¡± One of the swords man walked to the front of their party while speaking up. He looked to be their leader, with a height nearing 2 meters. He was casually resting his broadsword on his shoulder, appraising our armor and weapons. Damn, so it was a trap¡­ We were baited into this quite easily, got to be more careful next time. The archer started to smile evilly, and brushed the hair from his eyes while making a remark: ¡°Yeah, look at the distance they have to cross; we¡¯ll be able to easily destroy them with our magic and my arrows. I wonder if they¡¯ll drop something good!¡± ¡°Hmph.¡± Warrific snorted while whispering to us, ¡°Alright guys, I¡¯ll start with empowerment, buffing you all. Then I¡¯ll provide heals from the back line. Glinc should be able to tank some arrows and spells while hardening himself.¡± Yeah, we should be able to manage¡­ We just have to watch out not to be the first to attack them. The unruly status works with a party system too. So if someone in your party attacks someone innocent, the whole party will become unruly if they don¡¯t leave the party or kick that member within a short period of time. I heard that they sometimes use this to their advantage, by just leaving the party and having one guy become unruly on his own. But I bet that that isn¡¯t the case this time, because if they aren¡¯t in the same party, friendly fire will become very dangerous for them. Seeing how they have an archer and a magician, they should probably all be in the same party. Okay, let¡¯s do this. ¡°Just have someone of them make the first attack, which should make their whole party unruly. Even if we attack them when they still don¡¯t have red names, but after they attacked us, then we should still be fine. The system will probably assess that they were the aggressors. When we get close the archer and magician shouldn¡¯t really pose a problem anymore, it¡¯s just hard to get close to them.¡± Their swords man walked in front of the mage and archer. They readied their swords in front of them in a defensive posture, waiting for us to enter their attack range. Damn, the archer was preparing his arrows and was going to start shooting any moment now. The mage managed to finish his preparation for his fireball and started the fight by throwing it. The ideal situation for them was that we would become unruly, attacking them. But if they waited for us to attack them first, we could¡¯ve just escaped. They would¡¯ve lost a big advantage too, seeing how we first have to close the distance, and they have two long ranged damage classes. ¡°No problem!¡± Glinc stepped in front of me and slammed with his arm at the fireball, deflecting it with his hardened arm. Because of the weight his arm dropped immediately after deflecting the fireball, which rendered him incapable for a split second to dodge the incoming arrow the archer had already shot at us. This will be a close call; I reached out with my sword and managed to hit the arrow while it was still in midair, almost reaching Glinc. But at that moment a hidden arrow entered my left shoulder. Damn, it the second arrow must have been hidden or something, I couldn¡¯t see it coming at all! That must be a special PvP archer skill or something. *Ting!*
You have been hit by a Poisoned Arrow, slowing you down
Damn it, this will give them more time to hit us from their location. ¡°I call upon the sun¡¯s power to empower those who need empowerment, channel it through your faithful servant! Bestow the true might, upon the ones with the most just cause, assisting them in the slaying of evil!¡± *Ting!*
Empowerment was successfully casted! All allies have temporarily gained: +12 STR +12 AGI +7 DEF
Finishing his empowerment spell, Warrific yelled at us; ¡°Be careful guys, they are trying to slow you down so that they can keep harassing you from afar. Then when you guys are finally close, you¡¯ll be low health and their melee roles will be easily able to finish you off.¡± Yeah, he¡¯s right, we have to move quickly if we want to get out of this alive. I keep on moving towards the two swords men, who are blocking the way to the archer and the magician. Their names finally turned red, showing their names. I was hit a few times by the arrows and fireballs, leaving me with only a third of my health, 325 hp. Narrowly dodging the last arrow, it scratched my cheek, leaving a small trace of blood. I finally managed to reach the two swords men, but I¡¯m almost sure that I won¡¯t be able to deal with the both of them at once. Probably. The magician and archer casually moved further away from us, and their front line; they had fulfilled their job. I circled to the left, trying to set both the swords men up in one line, so that only one would be able to attack me. I should be able to deal with this guy at least, and then my friends can deal with the other guy. The swords man in front of me grinned arrogantly, expecting me to become an easy kill. His whole body started to emit light and he readied his sword above him. I¡¯m waiting for him to start to attack me, because when you can counter him while dodging his attack, the chance on a critical strike increases. Suddenly my opponent¡¯s body exploded into a motion, striking insanely fast at my shoulder, leaving me no room to counter at all. After his first slash he made another strike to my hip, chunking away a good portion of my health. Damn, I only have 25 HP left! He used the momentum of his second strike to turn around and aim a piercing attack at my heart. Because of the time it cost him to turn around; I was able to narrowly dodge his third attack. The light around his body started to fade the moment he completed his last attack. Must be some sort of combo skill. I have to be more careful, that almost cost me my life. Well, it¡¯s my turn now! Right when I was going to use the opening the opponent showed after his last attack, I saw a black shadow flying at my shoulder. The shadow hit my shoulder, destroying the form of my attack. Luckily, I lighted up at the same time the arrow hit me, barely having my life saved by Warrific. I owe you one! I got back into my fighting position, while the swords man in front of me did the same. I have to be careful, I thought that the archer and mage would just wait for their companions to finish us off, but it looks like they aren¡¯t underestimating us too much. My enemy snorted ¡°Hmph¡±, while readying his sword again, ¡°I didn¡¯t expect you to live through my combo, but you won¡¯t be that lucky the second time!¡± I couldn¡¯t help but grin and rush at my opponent. Looks like he doesn¡¯t have a lot of experience in fighting, if he just expects me to have him prepare the beginning stance he needs to start his skill, then he¡¯s completely wrong! I lunge at my opponent¡¯s throat, trying to pierce through it. He hastily adjusted his stance, awkwardly breaking the position he wanted to take to set up his skill. He managed to deflect my sword though. At that moment I hear a grunt next to me, which should belong to the other swords man. Looks like Glinc and Helius managed to kill him. My opponent wasn¡¯t able to recover his stance after parrying my sword, leaving me open to use the momentum of my stabbing motion to swing the sword above my head, creating a strong downwards slash. It fully connected, forcing him to step back a few steps. I neatly advanced on him, striking him multiple times while he was only able to deflect a few of my blows. If he had more experience I would¡¯ve died long ago. But it looks like he can only rely on his combo skills. So the moment I don¡¯t give him any chance to activate them, I should be able to beat him. He finally had enough of me advancing on him, so he forcibly stopped his defensive sword position, trying to awkwardly turn it into a slash. My eyes shined at this opportunity, I turned to his right side, dodging his attack while striking at his throat at the same time. *Ting!*
Critical Hit!
He turned grey, leaving some pieces of common bread in his place. Damn, the 100% chance to drop something only caused him to drop some fucking bread! Picking up the bread, I turned to my right side. The scene to my right thoroughly surprised me. Glinc was nowhere to be seen, while it looked like the Helius¡¯s skin had turned fully red. He was emitting some sort of dark aura, while he was frantically stabbing his dagger towards the wizard. The wizard was desperately trying to get out of his attacking range, but no matter what he did, Helius just wouldn¡¯t die from the wizard¡¯s and the archer¡¯s attacks. The archer must¡¯ve joined the wizard in trying to kill Helius the moment that both the swords men died. Helius reached the wizard, probably because of his slow, and managed to stab him a few times. But shortly after that, he randomly turned grey, disappearing from the battlefield. Damn, that must¡¯ve been his passive at work, allowing him 20 seconds of invulnerability after he dies. Oh well, I shall finish up. I received another heal from Warrific and used that opportunity to sprint towards the mage. They were both still in shock from how Helius survived all those attacks, but then suddenly disappeared. They must¡¯ve thought that he teleported or something, because they weren¡¯t paying attention to me. I easily hit the wizard, who must¡¯ve been on low HP already, seeing how he instantly died to my attack. I could see an item being dropped by him, but I don¡¯t have enough time to casually pick it up. The archer was already retreating, trying to increase the distance between us. ¡°I won¡¯t let you get away after all this!¡± I couldn¡¯t help but yell at him in irritation. No way I¡¯m going to have him shoot some more arrows at me from a safe distance again. My agility stat must have been higher than his, because I managed to catch up to him. He wasn¡¯t able to switch from his bow to a dagger or sword yet, leaving me an easy kill. I slashed at him a few times, finishing him off. After a few strikes I suddenly felt some heat coming from my left, but I ignored it, trying to finish the archer as fast as possible. After my last attack, I pointed my sword at the direction I had last seen Fenila in. She was the cause of all of this, and I would make her pay. But the next thing I could see wasn¡¯t only Fenila. It was a fire elemental blocking most of my vision. My health had already dwindled to a under the 100 HP after the last few confrontations. My sword was aimed at the elemental, but it had already readied itself to throw a huge fireball at me. There was no way to retaliate or dodge in anyway, so I could only resign to my fate. But it simply isn¡¯t in my personality to easily give up at fighting; I readied a stance at the last possible moment to slash at the fireball. You never know, I might be able to cut through it! Right before the fireball hit me, I received another heal from Warrific while he shouted that he had no more mana left. He must¡¯ve casted quite some heals at Helius and Glinc too then. Receiving the fireball with my sword, I passed through the fireball cleanly without changing anything at all. For a split second the only thing I could feel was a scorching heat, fully depleting my HP. I couldn¡¯t sit still and die, but it still happened. Right before my avatar would disappear I silently cursed Fenila, ¡°You won¡¯t get away with this, mark my words¡­¡±, and I also cursed myself for falling in their trap. We didn¡¯t go down without a fight, but it wasn¡¯t enough to win. Warrific had a class fully capable of supporting us, but he didn¡¯t have any damage spells against non-undead mobs or players yet. My avatar turned grey and disappeared. But right before I was forcibly respawned at the capital city, there was some time to keep watching the current situation. My senses were slowly dulling; the sounds were getting quieter while the surroundings were fading. I could hear Fenila laugh madly, even while my sound perception was slowly leaving me. She slowly walked to Warrific with her elemental in front of her. She probably wanted to finish off Warrific from up close, the crazy bitch. I managed to throw a look at Warrific, but surprisingly he was grinning instead of frowning. The next thing I saw was someone sprinting up from behind Fenila. I couldn¡¯t hear his footsteps anymore, but Warrific must have heard them. Fenila didn¡¯t hear anything because of her mad laughter, but when she stopped, she noticed Warrific looking at someone behind her. She turned around, and faced the sharp edge of a sword. ¡°This is what you get for finishing off my party a while ago. I waited for quite some time¡­ but to finally exact my revenge feels great! Sleep tight bitch!¡± It pierced right through her body, making her, and her elemental, slowly disappear. It must¡¯ve been a critical hit and combined with the weak armor elemental summoner are wearing, she must¡¯ve been instantly finished off. Warrific smiled and thanked the mysterious savior. ¡°Thanks for saving me man, who are you?¡± The warrior laughed and answered him, ¡°Haha, no problem I wanted to kill those bastards anyways. They did the same thing to my party as they did to yours it seems. Nice to meet you by the way, I¡¯m Khalmog.¡± Those were the last things I heard before my screen faded to black, forcibly respawning me in the capital again. *** Volume 1 - Chapter 11 Whoa, that was a close one. I barely made it through that. But if you think about it, it¡¯s already pretty surprising that I managed to survive that ambush. There were five of them in total; they even had the class advantage because of their long ranged classes. Not only that, but they also had a terrain advantage, which they fully used against us. I think that the only reason we were able to kill an opponent for every ally they killed is that they severely underestimated us. And why wouldn¡¯t they? We¡¯re a group with four users under level 10! Aside from that, the only reason I¡¯m alive is without a shred of doubt the one who introduced himself as ¡®Khalmog¡¯. After his introduction, I take the time to evaluate him. He¡¯s clearly a warrior, he¡¯s wearing full armour, while wielding a two handed sword. He¡¯s a little shorter than me, but he has a completely opposite build; broad shoulders and thick arms and legs. Surprisingly, his waist wasn¡¯t as thick and was pretty narrow, showing that he¡¯s a warrior instead of just someone fat. Looking at his face, which was viewable because he wasn¡¯t wearing a helmet, I could see two eyes brightly staring at me. He had short, blonde hair, nothing out of ordinary. He was smiling at me with an honest look, raising his chin. For a second I¡¯m not really sure what to say to him¡­ He saved my life more or less, but I don¡¯t really have anything to offer in return. I guess he didn¡¯t kill her to save my life, but more because he wanted revenge or something, but that doesn¡¯t change what happened. Probably because he noticed my discomfort, Khalmog shrugged and spoke up: ¡°Well¡­ Yeah¡­ I waited a pretty long time to be able to finish her off. So I feel pretty great at the moment.¡± Ah, he threw me a life line; I guess he doesn¡¯t expect anything in return and just wants to converse. I sent Enza a pm in the meantime, he hasn¡¯t turned grey in my friend list yet, so that means they aren¡¯t restricted in logging in for a short period of time. It¡¯s probably because it¡¯s their first death while being low leveled. Maybe the PKing has something to do with it too. ¡°Sounds like you had a pretty big grudge against her. What happened, did you guys get tricked too?¡± The only thing I can come up with is that they encountered the same situation as us more or less, but he managed to survive somehow, waiting for his opportunity to strike back. ¡°Well¡­ not really, but that¡¯s pretty close. Right now I¡¯m level 13, so I was hunting with my party out here, fighting against higher leveled monsters. This is a dungeon with a recommended level of 20, but because we had a pretty large party, we still took the risk to come and hunt here. We managed to gain mad XP this way! We were able to hunt those skeletons with a lot of trouble, but the rewards were definitely worth the risk!¡± Khalmog grinned while he readjusted his sword ¨Cwhich had been hanging down, resting in his hand. He raised it so that he could rest it on his shoulder, before continuing: ¡°But the down side of this way of hunting was something no one of us expected. When we were hunting the skeletons, we¡­¡± Ah, those cheeky bastards! Before he could continue, I interrupted him; ¡°Let me guess, you guys had fairly low health during each fight because of the level gap, which made it very easy for a certain group of PKers to wipe out your party.¡± Normally I wouldn¡¯t interrupt someone like that, but after I had that sudden realization I couldn¡¯t contain myself. ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s what happened more or less. But there were only five higher leveled users more than us, so with the size of my previous party we probably would¡¯ve been able to handle them. Except, that the PKers only started fighting with us the moment we were still fighting with the skeletons. No one suspected them at first, thinking that they were just some other random players clearing the dungeon.¡± Before he continued his face turned grim. Which makes a lot of sense, considering what happened. ¡°They attacked us from behind, wiping out a lot of our backline allies. The backline consisted out of the squishiest classes we had in our party, so the blow we took by instantly losing our priests and clerics was pretty tough, especially because the skeletons were still fighting with us too. I was at the front line, tanking the skeletons¡¯ attacks, so I couldn¡¯t even help out my allies who were fighting the PKers.¡± He scratched his head with his left hand, while shrugging about what was to come: ¡°But eventually the skeletons managed to safe my life¡­ even while they were trying to kill me. Because I was on the frontlines fighting against the skeletons, I was one of the last they tried to PK. I managed to slip between the skeletons and fled behind them. I have guts, but I won¡¯t allow myself to be stupidly Player Killed by them. They couldn¡¯t be bothered with chasing me through the skeletons after they finished off my thirteen allies.¡± A lot more details than I asked for¡­ but at least I can fully trust him now. He doesn¡¯t really come off as a mastermind liar to me, so I doubt that he could¡¯ve come up with that whole story, just to trick me. Right when I was about to reply to Khalmog, I received a reply from Enza.
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¡°Sorry, one sec, I just got an answer from one of my friends who just died.¡± Khalmog grinned and muttered: ¡°My condolences¡­¡±
Sender: Enza Entreri
Hmm, good thing we didn¡¯t lose anything because it was our first death. We weren¡¯t forcibly logged out too. You should move out of that cave asap; the PKers might come back, they¡¯re probably pissed off right now, LOL.
How about you start walking towards the capital, then we¡¯ll meet you halfway. That way we can continue our hunt in the forest too.
Oh and thank the guy who saved you in my place too, even though he just took advantage of the situation, he still helped you out, I guess. Anyways, I¡¯ll PM you again when we¡¯ve reached the beginning of the forest. Also, invite him if you want, he looked pretty strong.
With a wave of my arm I dismissed the messages from Enza and focused on Khalmog again. He was patiently waiting for me to finish reading my messages, leaving a pretty good impression. ¡®Patience is a virtue¡¯ are words to live by after all. ¡°I¡¯m sorry that most of your party members died¡­ were you in a party for a long time with them?¡± I slowly started walking towards the exit, showing my intent to leave. With the previous sentence I had laid the groundwork for him joining our party too. Khalmog picked up my intent to leave the cave, so he just shrugged and started walking beside me. Looks like a laid back guy. He replied to my question while we were walking towards the cave¡¯s exit: ¡°Nah, not really. It was just a random party I joined; they invited me because they needed a tank. At first I was just going to solo hunt, but I figured VR is more fun if you¡¯re playing with others. The party had some pretty hot girls too.¡± He grinned when he said the last sentence. Laughing at his reply, I started to converse with him about how their party had gone to work, hunting in a higher leveled dungeon. It looked like Khalmog knew a lot of things about the game mechanics and tactics, which made the conversation pretty fun. We reached the exit of the cave quite fast, luckily without encountering any skeletons. After finally setting a step out of the cave I noticed that Khalmog looked at me, apparently waiting for something. I took the hint and answered his gaze: ¡°Well, considering that you don¡¯t have a party anymore, do you want to travel with me to the edge of the forest? I agreed with my friends to meet up there, so that we can continue hunting again. If you don¡¯t mind you can even join the party and hunt alongside us for a while. Honestly speaking, our party¡¯s configuration is lacking a tank¡­¡± Khalmog¡¯s eyes shined while he replied: ¡°Sure! I was waiting for you to invite me already, if you guys could manage to fight those PKers head on, then that must mean that your party is quite strong. I was planning to hunt for a while longer anyways, but going solo here might be a bit too hard.¡± I smiled in return and we started walking towards the edge of the forest. We conversed for a while, but I ran out of subjects to talk about, so we marched on in silence after our conversation. After continuing to walk for a while, an unexpected situation occurred. We encountered a bear. We heard it coming from a fairly large distance, giving us enough time to prepare. I stepped behind Khalmog, putting him and the bear in one line. I started out by buffing Khalmog with Empowerment. After that I chanted the lines to prepare a heal; it¡¯s possible to ready your heal for a period of time, making it possible to immediately heal someone a first time without first having to chant the whole spell. My class can be called a double-edged sword. It isn¡¯t really suited for solo combat, or small parties. One of my passive skills is that the more people there are in my party and direct surroundings, the stronger all my spells become. This means that my Empowerment and heal won¡¯t be as effective as when I casted them before, but the base value is still pretty high. The bear finally reached us, and began to stand on two feet. When it ran towards us, it was using all four of his limbs, but now that the bear is finally standing upright the real might is shown. The bear towered above Khalmog and snarled. Its eyes were blood shot, looking for any weakness that may result in him mowing down his prey. I checked the ID of the mob and it turned out to be a level 17 ¡®Brown forest bear¡¯. When I asked Khalmog for his level, which is normally considered rude, he answered that he was only level 14. The bear is level 17, which means that it should be killable by us. My Empowerment buffed two stats with 8 points and another with 3 points. If you divide that total by 5 ¨Cthe amount of stat points you gain per level, then that would almost result in the stats someone has while being 4 levels higher. Khalmog should be able to deal with the bear this way, because he has the stats of someone of level 18. His health and mana value haven¡¯t changed though, but because of my heals he¡¯ll be able to live as long as he doesn¡¯t get instantly defeated. The bear swiped at Khalmog with his right paw, seemingly trying to end the confrontation as sudden as it had begun. Khalmog managed to dodge the attack by ducking under it at the right time. He proceeded to bash the shield he was wearing in his left hand against the bear to create some space. He must¡¯ve taken the shield out when I was focusing on chanting, because he had replaced his two handed sword with a shorter one too. After bashing the bear away, Khalmog stepped towards the right side of the bear, using the momentum of the dash to power his counter attack at the bear¡¯s knee. Groaning in pain, the bear lost its balance for a moment, but still managed to use its heavy weight to strike with its sharp claws at Khalmog¡¯s shoulder. Khalmog must have expected the strike, because he flawlessly managed to raise the shield in his left hand, shielding himself from most of the impact. His health only dropped by a small margin, so I won¡¯t act for now. If I were to heal him now, then I have to rechant the heal spell again, which could cost him his life if something unexpected were to happen. It kind of sucks though, because I¡¯m 10 levels lower than the bear, I won¡¯t risk coming close to help Khalmog out with my mace. Guess I¡¯m stuck using heals at the moment. Stolen novel; please report. Khalmog was forced to make a few steps backward because of the bear¡¯s impact, which caused the bear to neatly advance upon Khalmog. Khalmog tried to forcibly reestablish himself, exploiting his strength / vitality class build, but the bear¡¯s massive figure was too big, causing Khalmog to receive a blow to his shoulder. Khalmog was just about to retreat some more after looking at the huge amount damage that heavy blow inflicted, but his body lighted up immediately after, healing him almost back to full health. He was able to regain his footing, planting his feet firmly within the ground. I had been waiting for something like that to happen. After sending out that heal I immediately started chanting for another one. My class right now still feels a little boring; I can only empower my party members while healing at the right moment. But if I carefully think about it, I should be able to participate in fighting too, and if they lower my health I can just heal myself back up. The mobs we encountered were just of a level too high for me to fight just yet. Khalmog smiled savagely before once again preparing his shield in front of him, proceeding to dash at the bear and bash at him with the shield. This time, the momentum was reversed, and Khalmog managed to actually force the bear back. If you think about the innate strength stat a bear should have, this shouldn¡¯t be possible. But a heavy strength class, buffed by me, seemingly managed to do it anyway. After the bear was being forced to retreat backwards, a lot of openings were created. The bear was already standing on all four of his limbs again, using only his mouth to sometimes bite at Khalmog. But Khalmog used the shield very efficiently; he started out by showing an opening himself by lowering his sword, showing his right side. The bear would then take that opportunity to lash out with his mouth, probably confident in tearing through armour, trying to bite through Khalmog¡¯s right shoulder. But Khalmog used that opportunity to slam his shield into the bear¡¯s face. Bears in general feel more confident to finish off their prey with their mouths, so the bear was successfully baited a few times to try and attack with its mouth. Every time the bear received a critical hit because his full force bite was returned with a full forced shield. Normally, this wouldn¡¯t result in a critical attack, but the combination of hitting a vulnerable spot and the huge amount of force that backfires from the bear¡¯s biting attempt, made this possible. After a few times, the bear caught on quite quickly so it started to use its front paws more and more. This caused Khalmog to receive damage a few times, especially when he couldn¡¯t block or dodge the blows after trying to bash his shield at the bear. But with the assistance of my heals, he managed to continue his steady advance upon the bear. Every time the bear would try to meet with Khalmog¡¯s shoulder, he was instead forced to become an acquaintance of the shield. This way, the bear¡¯s health was whittled down quite efficiently, while Khalmog was able to keep his health above 50% most of the fight because of my heals. When the bear finally reached his last 10% of health, it went crazy. The bloodshot eyes had fully become red now while they gave off a hint of vicious madness. The bear stopped his retreat entirely and stood back up on his two feet. Then it proceeded to madly swing its paws at Khalmog, trying to end this fight with every blow. Khalmog¡¯s savage grin had already disappeared; making way for a savage battle cry from the depths of Khalmog¡¯s fighting spirit. Khalmog had already stopped using his shield when the bear started attacking like crazy. He dropped his shield on the ground so that he could more carefully evade the bear¡¯s blows. That¡¯s the correct decision. The bear is showing a lot more openings, while his attacks have gotten slower too. But the power behind them could destroy someone at once. Khalmog was successfully using the short sword, using small attacks whenever possible to finish the bear off. After the bear advanced for a few seconds while madly swinging, it abruptly fell to the ground, as Khalmog¡¯s sword entered and left its chest. The fight ended a bit anti-climatically, but the XP is the only climax that was needed for me.
A Brown Forest Bear has been killed by your party. +470 EXP
I walked towards Khalmog, who had finished looting the bear, and patted him on the shoulder. ¡°That was pretty close, you¡¯re not easily scared, aren¡¯t you? It¡¯s a real experience, to have a bear savagely attacking you.¡± Khalmog wiped the sweat from his brow and chuckled before speaking up. ¡°Yeah, I didn¡¯t expect that I¡¯d be able to handle a special mob a few levels higher than me this way. I¡¯m lucky that your wimpy class was able to help me out a little.¡± The hell?! He¡¯s attacking me verbally immediately after I saved his ass?! ¡°Wimpy class?! That certain wimpy class just saved your ass you know? Without me you would¡¯ve died long ago to his attacks. You wouldn¡¯t have been able to damage him effective either.¡± Khalmog stared at me blankly for a second before he noticed that I took him seriously, he then erupted into loud laughter. *** I hold out my hand while seizing up the guy before me. He had introduced himself as Khalmog for the second time, but this was the first time I could return the favor. I quickly evaluated him for a second time, because the first time my senses were already fading because of my death. ¡°Hey Khalmog, nice to meet you. Thank you for saving Warrific back there and for exacting revenge on her. I would¡¯ve done it myself¡­ but she got me first.¡± He shrugged while saying: ¡°You aren¡¯t the best fighter then probably.¡± He immediately flamed me, what the?! ¡°At least I was able to take down a lot of their party with me¡­ instead of appearing at the last moment. Guess that makes me a better fighter than you.¡± He laughed while a dangerous glint appeared in his eyes: ¡°What, want to test me?¡± I sense some nice rivalry coming from this guy, finally someone who doesn¡¯t let others fuck with him. I smile at him and deescalate the situation: ¡°Nah, I¡¯m good. You know what they say, ¡®a fight not fought, is a fight won¡¯. Anyways, welcome to the party Khalmog. You¡¯ll probably fit along well with these other scrubs.¡± The reason I deescalated the situation isn¡¯t because I don¡¯t want to fight him, but because my need for a reliable tank is greater. Friendly bouts can turn into vicious fights very fast, and then you suddenly lose a potential companion, for only some small matter sprouted from one¡¯s ego. Maybe different standards should be used for situations within Virtual Reality but sometimes living by the old ones can¡¯t hurt. ¡°You¡¯re a scrub yourself Enza.¡± I just flash a smile a smile at Helius, the one who made that remark. After Glinc, Helius and I were killed and forcibly respawned in the capital, we started walking towards the forest again. After some walking, we met up with Warrific again, who is now 2 levels higher than us instead of one. Damn him for constantly getting opportunities to increase the gap. Although I know for sure that he isn¡¯t doing it on purpose. The one accompanying Warrific was the one who saved him and brutally finished off Fenila, Khalmog. We introduced ourselves and invited him to our party. He said he was willing to be the tank of our party. The only thing he wanted in return was a small share of the money we would loot and any potential tank items useful for his class. We didn¡¯t have a heavy armor class among our party anyway, so it¡¯s a pretty good deal for us. ¡°So, where should we head first? Now that we have a good tank, finishing off wolves shouldn¡¯t be a problem anymore; except for very large packs maybe. Obviously, we can¡¯t return to that dungeon, I want to settle the debt between us and those PKers, but the level gap is still too high.¡± ¡°Yeah, I hope we¡¯ll meet those bastards when I¡¯m a higher level, then I¡¯ll beat them all on my own.¡± Glinc said with a determined smile. Warrific grinned and replied to Glinc¡¯s remark: ¡°Well, if you don¡¯t improve you¡¯ll just die like the previous fight. You were the one who died first, remember?¡± Glinc didn¡¯t really have anything witty to say in return, so he just faked being sulky and continued walking. ¡°Well, I¡¯m not sure if you guys are interested, but I have the location of a dungeon with level 15 monsters. In my previous party they said that the mobs were pretty difficult to deal with though, but sounds like a nice challenge to me.¡± ¡°Now that we have a good tank, with our skills and party configuration we should be easily able to deal with most dungeons under level 20. So I¡¯d say, let¡¯s go for it.¡± Yeah, he exactly said what I was thinking about. I nod, showing my agreement with Warrific, before speaking up: ¡°I¡¯m game, let¡¯s go clear us a dungeon.¡± Helius had been silent for a while, but he finally spoke up, directing a question at Khalmog: ¡°What did your acquaintance say about how the monsters were weird?¡± Khalmog laughed and spoke up: ¡°Well, he wasn¡¯t one of the most intelligent guys I¡¯ve met, so maybe he himself was the weird element. But he didn¡¯t mention anything concrete.¡± ¡°I see.¡± Helius nodded and continued walking. We continued to walk while conversing, we speculated about what kind of mobs the dungeon would house and how we would deal with the various kinds of mobs. The dungeon was located in another part of the forest than the ¡®Cave of the fallen¡¯ dungeon. Cave of the fallen was located near the center of the upper right side of the forest. This time we had to head left while entering the forest. The sole wolves we encountered were easily dealt with, while the packs were a little harder. It was tough to get the aggro from the mobs all on Khalmog every time, so that we could fluently attack them. That¡¯s the thing with Virtual Reality, they aren¡¯t very simple programs anymore, but they have an AI that causes the mobs and NPCs to act nearly identical to their real life duplicates. After having encountered a few packs of wolves and marching on for 3 hours, we finally reached the location of the dungeon. ¡°Okay guys, we¡¯re here. We¡¯re at the exact coordinates my acquaintance gave me.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t see an entrance at all though¡­ I swear, if we got tricked again, then I¡¯ll really go mad. You should prepare yourself Khalmog; I hope you haven¡¯t lied to us.¡± ¡°Whoa, Helius, calm down! Just because you don¡¯t see an entrance doesn¡¯t mean there isn¡¯t one. Look, over there, there seems to be some kind of fissure in the ground.¡± I look at the location Glinc had pointed, and indeed, there is a fissure there. It¡¯s immensely big too; you almost can¡¯t see the end of the fissure. You have to look closely to spot it though, we were quite some distance away from it. Helius frowned and looked at Glinc dubiously. ¡°Do you really think that¡¯s the entrance to the dungeon?¡± Volume 1 - Chapter 12 I look at Helius and respond to his question, ¡°Well, that¡¯s the only thing that resembles an entrance,¡± I pause a second before continuing, ¡°The only other thing that would make sense, is that Khalmog¡¯s acquaintance has lied to him.¡± Looking at Khalmog together with the other party members, we wait for his response. Let¡¯s see if he thinks this might be a possibility. ¡°Heh,¡± Khalmog shrugged, while he continued walking towards the fissure. Warrific immediately followed Khalmog, while Enza just silently shook his head and also started to follow him. I look back at Helius and say, ¡°Well, I guess he trusts his companion¡­¡± I quickly increase my own pace to catch up to the others, behind me, I can hear Helius doing the same. I was able to see the fissure in the ground because we were standing on a slight hill, while the fissure expanded until far in the distance. The part I could see was pretty narrow though, so it didn¡¯t look like an entrance at all, but if what I think is right, then the part closer to us should get a lot broader. While we are continuing through the forest, Khalmog is quietly speaking with Enza, while Warrific interjects every now and then. Helius and I walked a little bit behind them in silence. We were both admiring the view of the nature around us. The trees were so big that if you looked up, you wouldn¡¯t be able to see the top of the trees. I heard that there are some forests in real life that have such big trees too, but I hadn¡¯t seen those until now. Five minutes later we reached a dense part of the forest; there were a lot of bushes, preventing us from seeing any further. Behind the densely packed plants, we could vaguely hear some commotion. Hmm, sounds like people are yelling to each other. ¡°Yo, what are you guys waiting for? Let¡¯s go.¡± Enza snapped me out of my thoughts, and it seems the others had paused for a second too. We probably blanked out for a split second, debating internally whether to continue through the bushes and confront the commotion. Enza walked towards the bushes while drawing his sword. He slashed at the top side of the bushes ¨Cthey reached till above our heads ¨Ca few times, creating an opening. He made a movement with his head, signing us to follow him, and then he proceeded to jump over the obstacle. Khalmog was the first to follow him over, after him Warrific jumped over. I saw Helius looking at me with a questioning gaze, probably inquiring whether I wanted to go first. I smiled at him and opened my hand, pointing at the bushes, ¡°After you!¡± Helius nodded and slightly increased his pace to set up his jump. I could hear him mumble something resembling ¡®thanks¡¯ while he left towards the bushes. He jumped over, but I could hear him stumble when he landed on the other side. I catch myself grinning subconsciously. Maybe I should¡¯ve gone first. I slowly jog towards the opening, and just like the others, jump over. The scene that greeted me after I left the densely packed area was something I didn¡¯t expect. There were four smug looking people standing before a big opening in the ground. The opening was big enough for people to pass through. That fissure is probably the entrance to the dungeon. In front of the guys blocking the entrance there was a group of six. They consisted out of two females and four males. They¡¯re probably a party; they looked like a well-balanced team. Three of the guys from the party were furiously shouting at the four guys in front of the fissure. Looks like they have some kind of a problem. Our party was around fifty meters away from them, just close enough to hear some vague yells now and then, but too far to be able to discern actual words from their conversation. Or well, more like a fierce discussion. ¡°So, should we just try to pass them?¡± Helius said to no one in particular. Enza quickly replied to him, ¡°Well, I doubt we¡¯ll be able to pass them without their attention,¡± he pointed his free hand at the fissure before continuing, ¡°It looks like the fissure isn¡¯t big enough for more people to pass. They are blocking the only entrance.¡± Warrific nodded in response while speaking up, ¡°Yeah, those four there must be blocking the way for that party.¡± That¡¯s probably why they¡¯re arguing so loudly. We had stopped walking during this conversation, but we continued walking towards the fissure. I took this moment to convey my thoughts, it looked like everyone was thinking about what to do, thus their silence. ¡°Those four in front of the entrance must have some reason to block people from entering the entrance. Or maybe not, let¡¯s hope they¡¯re just blocking that party. They might let us through as an exception,¡± I say, smiling at the last part of my thoughts. Looking at their strong body language, it looks like they¡¯ll let no one pass through there. Although, nothing is just black or white, it might be a good idea to hear them out first. They might have good reasons for blocking the entrance; maybe they¡¯re in trouble or something. ¡°Hmhm,¡± Khalmog hummed in confirmation, ¡°Let¡¯s hope so.¡± I could hear Helius sighing at my left, while Enza chuckled and spoke up, ¡°Looks like you doubt that outcome as much as I do.¡± ¡°It won¡¯t hurt to hear them out at least, we have nothing to lose anyway,¡± Warrific said while grinning. ¡°I agree with him, they might have a good reason,¡± I say, supporting Warrific¡¯s remark. We walk on, while everyone has their own thoughts about the situation. It seems like we reached a consensus, to just walk to them in silence, without directly saying anything to each other. ¡°How many times do you want me to repeat it to you imbeciles?¡± One of the four guys blocking the entrance says, and then he proceeds with a raised volume, seemingly on the verge of exploding, ¡°YOU SHALL NOT PASS!¡± Did he seriously just quote Lord of the Rings in his anger¡­? ¡°B-But, why can¡¯t you just make an exception for us?¡± One of the girls in the party said, blinking her pretty eyes at the guy who just yelled. The guy who almost exploded and had his eyes pop out of his head was about to start yelling at her, but he was stopped by the guy standing next to him. He looked slightly above average with his sharp features; looks like he has some Asian origins. He was wearing some elegant expensive beginners clothing. Wait a second, this situation is pretty strange. Those four guys standing in front of the entrance are looking like lower leveled players. They¡¯re probably not any higher leveled than our own party, which is relatively really low if you want to challenge a dungeon like this. We can only do it because of our special classes and good synergy. The guy who stopped his companion from yelling at the girl directed his attention to her, ¡°Well, if you give me your number you can leave their party and come challenge the dungeon with us,¡± he smirked while saying that, seemingly already convinced that she would agree. ¡°Hmph,¡± the girl just snorted while stamping her food, quickly stepping behind one of the bigger looking guys from her party. Damn, that guy is pretty arrogant; those four look like scum to me. Seeing that he was rejected, the guy¡¯s face contorted in anger, ¡°Scram, all of you can leave now. You don¡¯t want me to call a few high leveled users from our guild right? They don¡¯t care to go unruly, we have ways around that.¡± Normally, people who are angry will start to raise their volume and yell. That¡¯s something that happens naturally, just like animals that make themselves look bigger by raising their arms. But this guy, he unexpectedly started to talk with a really low volume. Somehow this comes across more threatening than yelling. ¡°Let¡¯s just leave, we can¡¯t afford to offend their guild,¡± said the guy, who the offended girl stepped behind. Their other party members agreed with the guy, who looked to be their leader. I could hear them mumble something about ¡®how it sucked that it took them so long to their way to the dungeon, only to be sent away¡¯, when they walked away. Just when they left, we reached the entrance ourselves. The four guys in front of the entrance saw us coming, but they didn¡¯t show any intention of stepping aside. I guess that this won¡¯t be pretty. We don¡¯t really have a party that just submits to others, too many people with egos too big. Let¡¯s see, for now I¡¯ll think I¡¯ll just go with the flow. Warrific was the first to speak up among us, seemingly trying to assess the situation, ¡°Yo guys, is it possible for you guys to step aside a little? We would like to pass through,¡± he smiled, saying that without talking too fast. One of the four guys who hadn¡¯t spoken up yet was the first to respond to Warrific, the two guys from the previous exchange with the party were speaking quietly with each other. ¡°Nah, you guys can just leave, don¡¯t force our hands now, just obediently leave.¡± Damn, guess they won¡¯t allow us to pass through after all. I wonder what their problem is. I heard the guys who just left say something about their guild¡­ maybe that¡¯s of importance. The only one from their small group of four who had not spoken ¨Calso the only one with a bow¨C turned to the one who told us to leave, ¡°Pffft,¡± he scoffed, ¡°Look at them, they¡¯re intent on entering, so many scrubs here today.¡± They even started to insult us now. They probably went too far with that, I wonder how the others will take it. It doesn¡¯t really bother me to be honest, especially because they¡¯re so arrogant. They¡¯ll have to face their own troubles later. The higher one walks without the strength to back it up, the more painful the fall. They¡¯ll probably be forced to swallow their own teeth by then. ¡°There¡¯s only four of you, do you really think you can stop us five ¡®scrubs¡¯ from entering?¡± Khalmog was grimacing while holding himself back. The two, the angry guy and the narcissist, who were quietly talking stopped their conversation. The angry guy, who finally calmed down, started to get red again after hearing what Khalmog said. I guess I¡¯ll just call them angry guy and narcissist for now. ¡°Hahahaha,¡± he boomed, ¡°You want to fight us? Sure go ahead, be my guest, bwahaha,¡± He slightly paused, and regained his breath after that outburst, ¡°Just know, that when you¡¯ll kill us all, you¡¯ll die without doubt too, furthermore, you¡¯ll be slaughtered every time one of our allies sees you!¡± ¡°Whoa, just calm down all of you,¡± Enza intervened, trying to mediate, ¡°Can¡¯t you guys just tell us why we can¡¯t pass? It¡¯s pretty tough to just walk away after coming all this way.¡± The narcissist spoke up, ¡°Shut up pretty boy, just take a step back and turn around.¡± Enza had started to smile, but the look in his eyes was clearly showing an opposite intent. I think this might really turn out to be a fight. At least it¡¯s virtual reality, we can just react on our whims, without having to face real consequences. It might turn out to be pretty exciting! Khalmog and Enza both smiled, while their hands were slowly moving towards the hilts of their swords. ¡°Yo, just tell them, I don¡¯t want to die for no reason, even if they¡¯ll die too,¡± one of them said. ¡°Alright, alright, you wimp,¡± the narcissist mumbled, then he raised his chin and smirked at us, ¡°We belong to the mighty guild ¡®Total Domination¡¯, this dungeon is theirs,¡± he said, believing that that explanation was enough. ¡°Guild my ass, you can¡¯t just claim a dungeon as property! Fuck off and let us through already!¡± Khalmog couldn¡¯t put up with the smug faces of them any longer and raised his volume. ¡°What? You wanna have a go you shit? Our guild is the number one guild around here you know, we can easily find and slaughter you every time we see you,¡± the angry guy arrogantly smiled while exchanging words with Khalmog. Ah, so they¡¯re part of a guild. Must be a pretty harsh guild, they keep lower leveled users watch the entrance of dungeons, instead of letting them level. Maybe they¡¯re even provoking people to attack them, giving the guild a reason to hunt them down. Because if you think about it, this dungeon is a dungeon meant for level 15 or higher, but the ones guarding the entrance are around level 5. That means everyone they¡¯ll sent away will be a higher leveled user than them. They must love seeing the expression on the faces of people being sent away by users lower leveled. Even I want to beat these smug people up, and I don¡¯t get that soon. ¡°Are these so called people from your guild already inside?¡± Helius asked. ¡°Nah, they¡¯ll be arriving tomorrow evening,¡± one of them said. ¡°¡°¡°¡°¡°¡­¡±¡±¡±¡±¡± All of us were quiet for a second. ¡°Are you guys fucking retarded? You want to keep the dungeon empty until your guild members arrive? How arrogant can you be? You guys are treated like shit too; your guild wants you to keep watch here for a whole day? Damn you guys are stupid,¡± Enza lost is completely, starting to rant to them all. Whoa, I¡¯ve never seen him having a fit of anger like that. I¡¯ll just quietly wait for now, I¡¯ll just follow them up if something happens. You can¡¯t argue with people like these, it¡¯s best if I don¡¯t say anything for now. ¡°Hmph,¡± one of the more quiet ones snorted, ¡°We just have to do these tedious tasks for now, later we¡¯ll get the full support of our guild. Also, this place is property of our guild. That means that no one can enter it, unless he¡¯s part of our guild of course.¡± I could almost see a vein throbbing on Khalmog¡¯s head, looks like he¡¯s about to attack them. I don¡¯t think they would snap so easily normally, but walking to here took us quite a while. Also, being met with smug faces like theirs is something that¡¯s not easy to swallow. Especially when everyone fully knows that the guild intentionally sent lower leveled users to send people away. Enza moved closer to the angry guy, while he spat upon the ground next to him. The angry guy ¨Cthe tallest among his party, was so pissed that he immediately punched towards Enza. Enza blocked the blow by raising one arm and supporting it with the other. He quickly took a few steps back, smirking the moment the enemy lashed out at him. ¡°Hahaha,¡± Enza laughed while narrowing the distance between him and the narcissist this time, ¡°Can¡¯t you hear, can¡¯t you hear the thunder,¡± he suddenly sung while walking towards them. What? Why is he suddenly singing that? What is he doing? ¡°What the fuck are you going on about?¡± the angry guy said, ¡°You better stay back, unless you want to fight us!¡± ¡°You better run, you better take cover~ Enza continued singing until he entered their fighting range. ¡°Can¡¯t you hear, can¡¯t yo¨C¡± He suddenly interrupted himself midway his song and smoothly drew his sword. Enza used the time gap created by the confusion to strike at the throat of the guy closest to him, the narcissist. The standstill situation suddenly exploded into motion. Everyone was surprised for a split second, but then everyone suddenly burst into motion. ¡°Shit! Enza you could¡¯ve at least warned us!¡± I yell at Enza, while running towards the guy who was located the most far away from us. I passed Enza to get close to my target; he had a bow on his shoulder so he should have the lowest HP. I¡¯ll probably be able to defeat him quickly if I manage to get close. While passing Enza I could see that the narcissist died to Enza¡¯s second strike, the surprise attack must¡¯ve been a critical hit; taking away a large portion of his health. The archer¡¯s eyes almost popped out of his head because one of his allies died in the first few seconds. They must¡¯ve been extra arrogant towards us because they could see we were almost on the same level as them, instead of the regular higher leveled users who frequent this dungeon. They shouldn¡¯t have underestimated us. ¡°Combat is all about deception!¡± Enza laughed, felling his target and moving on to the next. I used the momentum of my sprint to aim a fist towards his head, trying to badger him before he could draw his bow and attack. My fist reached his face, but his body lighted up a little and he was suddenly thrown back, escaping my reach. Damn, how can he dodge like that?! That moment I suddenly lighted up and received Warrific¡¯s precious buff.
Empowerment was successfully casted! All allies have temporarily gained: +12 STR +12 AGI +7 Def
The archer narrowed his eyes, probably raising his impression of me because of how fast my fist reached him. He managed to draw his bow in the air and notched the first arrow. He must be suspicious because of the buff now too. Well, you might have skills I don¡¯t know about, but the same counts for me! I increased my speed, gaining on the archer who is about to kite me. He smiled; he probably thinks that now that I¡¯m out of his range, he¡¯ll be able to easily kite me. He shoots his first arrow, which is almost like a blur when it explodes into motion. I manage to quickly raise my hand and harden it the moment the arrow is about to hit me, smoothly reducing the damage. I immediately turn my hand back to normal, because of the weight my sprint would be slowed immensely. I can afford to slow down against close combat specialists, but it would be suicide against an archer. The archer frowned, he must¡¯ve been surprised by my unorthodox skill. Good, be surprised, and then let me reach you already! The archer recovered immediately and notched another arrow, he was walking backwards, towards the fissure ¨Cwhich was possible without falling, because the descent was very even with a low angle. But because he was paying attention to shooting and notching arrows, my advance was way faster than his retreat. When I reached him, I circled to his right, leaving him no way to use his backwards jumping skill again. At this moment his name turned red, the algorithm for ¡®unruly¡¯ user detection must¡¯ve kicked in. I forgot all about that, but now that I think about it, that must¡¯ve been why Enza let that guy punch him first. The archer showed a look of arrogance mixed with surprise, his body lighted up again and he was blown backwards a second time. But he must¡¯ve forgot that he had descended downwards the fissure in, because I circled to his right, his natural reaction was to jump in the opposite direction ¨Cthe left. This made him crash directly with the wall; I guess it¡¯s really true that mankind is its own worst enemy. The moment he blanked out because of the collision, I used the opportunity to use my not yet used skill: Clone! I turned invisible for a very short moment, leaving a copy of myself in my place, while I moved towards his right in rapid succession. He came to his senses after his crash, and managed to shoot the arrow he, commendably, kept notched during his encounter with the wall. The arrow penetrated my copy, tumbling it towards the ground. Just when the archer was about to rejoice because of the easy kill, my invisibility was cancelled, letting me face a surprised archer. The hunter has become the hunted in a split second. I land a quick blow with my right hand on his jaw, turning my body fully behind my blow, hoping to increase the impact.
Critical Hit!
The archer tried to stumble back, but his retreat was blocked by the wall. Again. That wall must be his worst enemy by now. I turn my hips after that hook and use a direct straight punch, planting my left fist in his stomach. He was trying to notch another arrow after his jaw was hit, but after taking that blow to his stomach he dropped his bow completely. Sorry man, pain conversion is a bitch. Normally when people are hit they are able to move backwards, denying a little bit of the impact. But he was located against a wall, so all the force was directly absorbed by him. People have died from blows directly against the heart when they were up against a wall, even when the blow wasn¡¯t that hard. So you should be able to imagine why he dropped his bow from the pain. He buckled over my left arm, leaving his back exposed. I¡¯m sorry, I truly am, but I can¡¯t let this opportunity pass. I turn to his right, and slam my knee into his stomach again. When he was curled over my knee, my elbow, which was already raised up high, slammed directly into his spinal cord.
Critical Hit!
That was too much for him, and he disappeared without a trace, leaving only a pair of worn out shoes in his place. Damn, these drops don¡¯t make any sense; I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve had any luck since I started this game with drops at all! I start walking up again, to exit the start of the fissure. The sounds of clashing up above had already stopped too, so we should¡¯ve already emerged victorious probably. ¡°Did you manage to finish him off, Glinc?¡± Helius said while smiling at me. ¡°Yeah, it was very close though, he almost got me,¡± I reply to him. ¡°You sure you didn¡¯t forget your dignity down there in that fissure, Glinc?¡± ¡°You shouldn¡¯t say that to me, Enza! You should say that to Helius, what the hell dude?!¡± ¡°Haha,¡± he laughed, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯m sorry. Good job anyways.¡± I assess the situation, and I could see that Helius still had his dagger in his hands, standing next to Warrific. They were the furthest away from the fissure, probably trying to debuff and buff everyone from a distance. Khalmog stood next to Enza, standing while leaning upon his two handed great sword. Enza just casually rested his sword upon his shoulder. They must¡¯ve managed to clean the other three up easily. ¡°Ehm,¡± I hum before continuing, ¡°Should we leave here? That guild of them sounded pretty big, they might come for us.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I didn¡¯t act without any reason, I never do that, y¡¯know,¡± Enza smirked. Suuuuuure you don¡¯t¡­ ¡°What¡¯s with those looks?! I know that guild of theirs; I came across it when I was researching about the game before we started. They don¡¯t care about lower leveled guild members of theirs at all; they just like to troll their own low leveled users by giving tedious tasks. They can even troll higher leveled users by having the lower leveled users use the influence of the guild¡¯s name. They probably won¡¯t come here until tomorrow¡¯s evening, just like they said. And otherwise we¡¯ll just have to fight them,¡± Enza finishes, with a carefree laugh. ¡°Sounds like a bullshit story to me, didn¡¯t you just want to attack them with only that last bit in mind?¡± Khalmog sharply notices. ¡°Sounds like Enza, lots of reasoning, low amount of content,¡± I speak up, adding fuel to the burn. He¡¯s actually pretty impulsive if you think about it, he probably attacked them without caring what happened after, not caring if he has to fight higher leveled guild members at all. ¡°So, should we finally head in after all that? It has taken us long enough¡­¡± Solid point, Warrific. He paused for a second, before directing his attention to Enza, ¡°You really like to use underhanded methods though, don¡¯t you? I heard about the Training Hall instructor accident a while back too¡­ Also, you didn¡¯t even tell us that we were going to fight; do you know how annoying that is?¡± Enza seemed to sulk a little before speaking up, ¡°Well, to call it underhanded methods is¡­ Didn¡¯t you think that the look on his face when I attacked was priceless? Also, to deceive one¡¯s allies is to deceive the enemy, and combat is all about deception, that¡¯s what the Sun Tzu says himself! It gave me a free critical strike on my enemy, and I trusted that you would all be able to react faster than those noobs! I even gave you all an opportunity to attack when they were surprised, you should thank me instead actually! I had started planning to attack them from the moment I faked being agitated at them,¡± Enza said, satisfied with himself. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. Warrific had already started walking towards the entrance of the dungeon, and had started to descend. I followed behind him, with Khalmog and Enza next to me. Helius lagged slightly behind. ¡°Sounds like another bullshit story to me,¡± Khalmog softly mumbled in response to Enza, while taking the lead towards the dungeon. *** "Heh, believe whatever you want, just don¡¯t die to an easy mob later,¡± I chuckle, waving Khalmog¡¯s remark out of my mind. I¡¯ve always been of a rational kind; the only time I have to actively suppress is when I feel the urge to fight. But well, in virtual reality I can freely fight to my heart¡¯s content. Funny how instinct drives the urge, but intuition takes over when I partake in it. What a perfect world this is, a world driven by a quest reward system, whereas both the process ¨Cmostly fighting, to achieve quests is fun, as well as the receiving of rewards. People can even fuel their desire to improve themselves by working for it and spending stat points. Although desires quickly turn into greed, it doesn¡¯t matter; it¡¯ll just separate the strong from the weak actually. You¡¯re not happy with yourself and want to attract others? Sure go ahead and dump all stats in the attraction stat, but good luck fighting against some player or NPC who didn¡¯t waste a single stat point. ¡°Why are you smirking like that, Enza? It looks sort of creepy, like a Joker smile¡­¡± I hear Glinc say from beside me. I raise an eyebrow at him, removing any traces of a smirk that could¡¯ve ever existed, before directing my attention at Glinc, ¡°Just what are you talking about?¡± ¡°Remember that time where you thought it was a good idea to smile during a kata? At the championship remember? It sort of looked like that for a second.¡± Oh yeah¡­ It might¡¯ve not been the best idea to show the ones judging my kata just how much fun I had while performing. It turned out that if you smile while you simulate a situation where you fight against opponents to the death, that the smile creates an image of a savage madman. Not like I was smiling intentionally like he thinks. ¡°You know, that wasn¡¯t intention¨C,¡± I interrupt myself before finishing my sentence, it¡¯s not like he would believe me anyway. Glinc just smiled to himself, and we kept walking. ¡°Don¡¯t make so much noise; I¡¯m trying to listen if I can hear any mobs around. We should¡¯ve entered the dungeon by now, don¡¯t you guys think?¡± Warrific looked back towards us, probably waiting for our agreement on his assessment. ¡°I guess, we should receive the notification any tim¨C,¡± Khalmog said, before he interrupted himself by laughing out loud.
Note: You are the first people to enter this dungeon You have now entered the dungeon: Rogues¡¯ Playground Advantages: ? +100 Fame ? Monsters will drop more items for 12 hours ? Dungeon Boss has a higher chance of dropping a higher quality item the first time
¡°The first?!¡± ¡°S-Seriously?!¡± ¡°Excellent!¡± I yell, joining the other remarks that were made. ¡°Damn, we¡¯re super lucky! They must¡¯ve kept this dungeon secured until the guild would be able to enter, that¡¯s probably why they kept it secured!¡± Helius beamed, his eyes shining with the loot in mind. ¡°Well, I don¡¯t really think so; this game has been out for a while right? Why would no one enter this dungeon? I doubt that they¡¯ve kept it secured from the beginning of the game, that wouldn¡¯t make any sense,¡± Khalmog said, voicing his thoughts at Helius¡¯s exclamation. Warrific adjusted his glasses with a familiar movement, and spoke up too, ¡°Well, didn¡¯t Enza once say that there was a lot of content added when the beta phase started? Maybe this dungeon is one of them. As for them securing this place, don¡¯t you think that they simply thought that others had already visited it? They probably heard of the location, but they weren¡¯t sure. So they kept lower leveled users at the entrance of the dungeon. ¡°This way, if they would enter, the advantages would be wasted upon them, and they would be slaughtered by the mobs. But they still wanted to make it sure, so the higher leveled users will come to the dungeon tomorrow, checking if it was already found by someone else before them,¡± Warrific said, finishing his explanation. He¡¯s probably right, but I¡¯m not sure why they wouldn¡¯t just immediately check the dungeon. Why would they risk the advantages of being the first to enter the dungeon? It isn¡¯t that weird for people to simply slaughter the four lower leveled users in front of the dungeon and take the rewards for themselves. Are they really that arrogant, to think that their guild¡¯s name would be enough to scare all others away? It¡¯s easy to voice my thoughts, maybe someone would be able to spot a flaw in my logic, but it¡¯s fine. No point in making things any harder to understand. ¡°Now that we entered the dungeon we should proceed with care. You guys are all lower leveled than me, and this dungeon is even for level 15 and higher, so be careful all of you,¡± Khalmog warns us, probably judging our respective strengths by our levels. ¡°I agree, being cautious and careful can never hurt,¡± Glinc says, while carefully looking up ahead. We were still descending while we were talking all this time, but now the descent had finally stopped, and we were quite some distance below the surface level. When you looked up, the fissure would appear to be a lot narrower than the entrance above ground, because we kept moving forward too. But below the ground the opposite happened, the space in front of us was starting to get wider, starting to resemble a cave, instead of a simple break in the ground. ¡°Being careful and cautious won¡¯t hurt, but it can sure suck the fun out of things¡­¡± I say to no one in particular. There were multiple entrances, some small, some big enough for us all to fit through. There were also some holes above our heads in the walls. They were around one meter wide and long, but I doubt any one of us would fit through there. Suddenly we heard some rustling from somewhere right, and the next moment we registered an indistinctive blur shooting from one of the holes in the distance, right into Helius¡¯s chest. I immediately drew my sword and prepared for battle. Silence. After ¨Cwhat appeared to be an arrow, hit Helius¡¯s chest, everyone vigilantly prepared himself for a sudden ambush, but nothing happened. The only thing that could be heard was Warrific faintly mumbling his heal chant again, healing Helius, who narrowly escaped death. I forgot one thing before entering the dungeon; our strength may be able to rival higher leveled monsters around level 15 to 20, but the health stats aren¡¯t boosted at all. A few simple attacks from monsters at our backline and they would fall after only a few hits. Only Khalmog might be able to shrug off a few blows, while I may be able to tank a few hits. It seemed like whoever shot the arrow was intentionally waiting for us to become aware of their existence, because that was the only attack. For now. Suddenly we heard a rustling sound once more, but this time it wasn¡¯t an arrow. It was a small, black bundle of clothing that seemed to fall down from a hole in front of us. I wasn¡¯t able to see which hole the arrow came from, but judging from the angle it entered Helius¡¯s chest, it must be the same as that bundle fell from. The unknown object softly hit the floor, and the bundle turned out to be a robe. Because of the air friction the hood of the robes was blown up. The indistinctive thing, turned out to be a small creature, about one meter high. The now revealed face showed ugly features and a mix between a brown and green colored face. So that¡¯s what it is! It¡¯s a goblin! Just when I thought that the goblin would attack once more, he flashed something that must¡¯ve resembled a smile, before quickly turning around and fleeing. You¡¯re not getting away; I¡¯m going to have you repay the damage you did to Helius in blood! I sped off into the direction the goblin fled to, leaving the others behind me. Glinc and Khalmog were quick to follow, while Warrific was still busy chanting his heal. Helius was impatiently waiting for Warrific to heal him, so that he could follow us. Following the goblin he showed just enough every turn for me to keep following him. The dungeon had started to turn into a maze at this point; the ground above us had fully closed and there were a lot of intersections. The only light present was coming from torches on the walls. After a few turns I managed to almost reach the goblin. It must¡¯ve waited for me a little bit, because the distance between us was closed more rapidly than I had initially thought. Khalmog and Glinc had an easy time following me because of the sound my steps produced, and the map showing my dot. The map would automatically update when you would reach new passages, even when party members reach new parts in a dungeon, it would be visible to everyone in the party. Turning around the, what I expected to be, last corner, we met an unfortunate surprise. Without looking at the interior, I saw the goblin standing in the middle of a room. The room was bigger than all the hallways I had ran through before. Seeing the goblin stand still there in the middle of the room, I rush forward, readying my sword to quickly cleave him in half. ¡°Enza, careful!¡± I heard someone yell behind me, stopping me dead in my tracks, which managed to have me save some health, because the next moment an arrow pierced the ground. The arrow managed to pierce the exact location I would¡¯ve been standing if I had continued running. I took this moment to raise my sword horizontally in front of my chest, taking a defensive posture. I retreated a few steps; stopping halfway the distance I had ran towards the goblin at first. Khalmog and Glinc stood slightly behind me, because I retreated in front of them. ¡°Shit,¡± I heard Khalmog say left from me, ¡°They baited us.¡± In response to his remark, I quickly assessed the room. I had been solely paying attention to the goblin, before he could strike out or flee again. But this wasn¡¯t the right choice it seems. The scene that greeted my eyes was one where a lot of evilly looking pairs of lights beamed at me. They were pairs of goblin eyes; there were at least 5 of them, standing on different raised wooden structures. They all had bows in hand, arrows notched, ready to shoot at any time. ¡°Fight or run?¡± Glinc asked from my right side. ¡°It¡¯s best if we run, Helius and Warrific haven¡¯t reached us yet.¡± I told him. ¡°Hm,¡± Khalmog hummed, ¡°Don¡¯t you think we can take them?¡± He asked. At that moment there turned out to be another goblin we hadn¡¯t spotted yet. He ran towards a weird construction from the cave he must¡¯ve emerged from, where there was a rope under tight friction. Following the direction of the rope, my face must¡¯ve changed color for a split moment as I realized what was about to happen. The rope was holding up a big wooden gate above the entrance of the hall we just entered. If he cut the rope, the gate would come crushing down, blocking our way back. Damn, I can¡¯t let them lock us in! Especially not when they all have their bows ready! I sprinted at the stone that held the rope in desperation; I forsook all my safety for a short moment because we¡¯d probably get slaughtered the moment that gate falls down. I zigzagged towards the stone at full speed, even though I will be a little later in arriving there, if I get punctured by all the arrows at once, I¡¯ll probably die before reaching it anyway. I hear Khalmog shout something at one of the archers while he directed Glinc to stand behind him. I hope knights have a taunt skill or something, which would direct a bit of the aggro on him, leaving me a small chance to live through this. I heard a few ¡®thump¡¯ sounds, sounding like the bow strings¡¯ desire for blood. A few ¡®thud¡¯-like sounds could be heard next to me, or slightly behind me. I must say, I severely underestimated their intelligence. I never would¡¯ve thought that the goblin would be able to bait us. I didn¡¯t expect that it would be working with a team instead of being a single solo mob. I should¡¯ve known though, goblins are known for their evil intelligence and rogue-like behavior. I bit on my lip, trying to force out that little bit of extra energy I needed to reach the stone before the goblin. I shouted trying to force myself to reach it faster. I have the reach advantage over the goblin, so maybe I¡¯ll be able to kill him before he¡¯ll touch the rope. The goblin had almost managed to touch the rope, but it seems like I¡¯ll be faster. The goblin started his slash at the rope with his rusty short sword, while I had initiated my own killing blow only a split second before, trying to kill him. The moment my sword was about to reach his throat, my vision went hazy for a moment. My sword¡¯s arc was diverted and only slashed across his shoulder, leaving a superficial wound. An arrow hit my back the moment that I tried to kill him, resulting in him cutting the rope. It almost felt like that rope represented the thread the three sisters, fates, would cut, ending someone¡¯s life. I heard the rope snap and the gate crashing down. Damn that archer, he must¡¯ve waited for the last moment, until he was sure I wouldn¡¯t move anymore to aim that arrow. Out of irritation of my failure, I used the momentum of my slash at his shoulder to spin and hit the goblin again. The goblin shrieked while it got hit. Goblins may be intelligent, but they¡¯re still not on a human level. It must¡¯ve tunneled on cutting rope, thinking that we would automatically die the moment the gate would crash down or something. I impaled the goblin through his chest, resulting in a critical blow by hitting its heart. The level 10 goblin faded, granting me some XP as a parting gift, along with some coins lying in its place. ¡°One down, six to go guys!¡± I yell at the others. If we have to fight, then we should just fight. We¡¯ll manage somehow! I encourage myself before rushing at the only other goblin that was on the ground. Khalmog had stepped before Glinc and was covered by a silvery aura. Must be some sort of shield. Glinc was trying to use his rock limbs aided by gravity to destroy the wooden door, while Khalmog was shielding him from the front. The wooden platforms were too high for us to jump and try to attack them. Rushing at the other goblin, I had an easy kill in mind; it was actually focusing on Khalmog and Glinc. It was probably desperate to keep us confined in here, and didn¡¯t want Glinc to break the only way out. The goblins seemed to have a simultaneous agreement, because there were three of them shooting constantly at Khalmog and Glinc, while the other two were barraging me with arrows. Losing around three quarters of my health I managed to impale the goblin from behind, before he could reach Khalmog. I tore out my sword through the goblin¡¯s side and sprinted towards the wall on my left. Khalmog had taken out his shield and short sword, trying to block the arrows more effectively, because we probably wouldn¡¯t have any chance to reach them without ranged weapons. Well, that¡¯s what he thinks. I rushed at the wall and tried a wall up. Meaning that I managed to run up the wall for three steps, while setting of dynamically after; trying to reach the platform. Seeing the wooden platform come into vision, I raised both my hands to grab the edge. Gotcha! I managed to grab the edge of the wood, and immediately tried to pull myself up. What came into vision wasn¡¯t the greeting of a surprised face, but rather a leather shoe kicking me in my own surprised face. The next moment I blinked and fell down, tasting some blood. DAMN! That fucking hurt! ¡°I¡¯m gonna slaughter you all,¡± I beam towards no particular goblin, ¡°But I¡¯ll do so later!¡± I heard some cracking noises from the gate the moment I fell the ground. At least, the cracking noises shouldn¡¯t be from my bones. I had only a fifth left of my health at this moment, and it was still quite some distance towards the gate. But if I was going to climb up again, I would leave another big opening. I didn¡¯t want to meet the other shoe either, so I tactically retreated for now. I zigzagged toward the gate, eating one more arrow before almost arriving in front of the gate. I could see another blur coming at me from the corner of my eye, but just before it reached me, I lighted up. The glow faded while the arrow hit me, leaving me with enough health to tank another arrow. Thanks Warrific. There was only a meter or three between me and the gate at this moment. ¡°Fucking gate,¡± I yelled, ¡°I refuse to die these shits!¡± I watched for another of Glinc¡¯s attempts at breaching the gate, and timed my own jumping front kick at the same as Glinc¡¯s regular front kick. Glinc must¡¯ve heard me rushing from behind too, because he shouted at the same time as I did. We hit the gate at the same time, and managed to blast through it! I stumbled through the gate with a pale face, while Warrific had already finished another chant and healed me. Khalmog used his shoulder to bash through a weakened part of the door too, bringing himself to safety. Glinc took the moment we breached the door to step back into the interior of the big room. ¡°Glinc, what the fu¨C,¡± Helius was about to question Glinc¡¯s sanity, but Glinc¡¯s image disappeared for the time it would take a small spark from a campfire to die out. Glinc immediately reappeared, but that moment he was shot through by five arrows at the same time. ¡°RIP,¡± I heard Warrific say. He¡¯s right though, it will be tough for him to live through five arrows with his meager level 6. One second after Glinc¡¯s initial disappearance a second Glinc appeared right in front of us. He dived through the gate, landing face first next to us. A second later the other Glinc ¨Cthe one full of arrows, disappeared, leaving nothing in its trace. We took that moment of confusion to turn and run back the way we came. ¡°What the hell just happened,¡± Helius asked, demanding an answer from us. ¡°Heh,¡± Glinc smirked, ¡°I just directed their attention towards a dummy, leaving you all room to escape.¡± ¡°We already made it through the gate before that¡­¡± Khalmog just had to say, crushing Glinc¡¯s sense of accomplishment. ¡°No, that¡¯s not what I meant,¡± Helius interjected, ¡°I meant why the hell you three chased the lion into its den.¡± ¡°Haha,¡± I shrugged, before casually shifting the blame, ¡°Khalmog was blind for blood. He just had to kill that poor, despicable fellow.¡± We came to a halt and stopped moving when we reached the room where the goblin first appeared. We managed to smoothly follow our map¡¯s directions to go where we initially rushed from. ¡°Don¡¯t you fucking dare Enza, if it wasn¡¯t for me, you would¡¯ve ended like Glinc¡¯s twin in that room.¡± I only shrugged at Khalmog¡¯s response, before facing Glinc. ¡°Talking about twins, what were those stealth plays you were partaking in? How did you suddenly teleport and stuff?¡± ¡°Yeah, how were you able to move so fast?!¡± Helius chimed in, wanting an answer too. Glinc scratched the back of his head, looking embarrassed, ¡°Actually, I really sucked there, I didn¡¯t achieve anything there.¡± He spoke up dejectedly. I just sighed and shook my head at this remark, while Khalmog spoke up, ¡°What are you talking about? If it weren¡¯t for you we wouldn¡¯t have been able to break that gate. Nor would we have managed to gain some extra time running away, having them shoot those 5 arrows at the wrong target.¡± ¡°Ehehe,¡± Glinc happily beamed, but before he managed to speak up I interrupted him, speaking to Khalmog. ¡°Dude, don¡¯t fall for this¡­ He knows fully well that he accomplished something good, he just wants to catch some easy compliments.¡± ¡°What, Enza, are you jealous or something? Don¡¯t worry, no one saw you fall down or anything,¡± Warrific said. I grimaced, while I could feel my ears starting to get hot. Time to smoothly change the subject. ¡°Anyways, I do wonder what skill you used though Glinc,¡± I say, trying to direct the conversation to the previous subject, ¡°Oh wait! I can just use the party leader¡¯s functions. Here guys, look at this.¡± I wave my hand, using the party commander¡¯s option to display the skill to the entire party. ¨CAt that moment, Glinc yelled, ¡°Wait! Enza, that¡¯s for me to show them!¡±
? Clone (Lv. 1 ¨C 5%) (Beginner) (Active) Disappear for a moment, while a clone appears. The clone can¡¯t move or attack and will simply stand still. The clone will react to its surroundings like a ragdoll, but will disappear shortly after. Effect: Invisible for 1 second, creates clone after 0.25 second that disappears after 2 seconds. Mana consumption: 50
¡°Woops, sorry, Glinc, there goes your spotlight,¡± I happily chuckle at him, ¡°That¡¯s one hell of an epic skill though! Just why haven¡¯t you used this way more often?!¡± ¡°Hmph,¡± Glinc snorted, ¡°I wanted to surprise you all at a critical moment, appearing like some kind of hero. Also, look at the mana cost, I can only use it twice at the moment, then all my mana will be gone, I won¡¯t even be able to use the Rock Skin skill by then,¡± Glinc said with discontent. ¡°That¡¯s so like Glinc,¡± Helius simply said. ¡°That skill can actually be used in so many situations, no wonder the mana cost is high,¡± Warrific said, starting his explanation, ¡°Just imagine how versatile it is! You can simply stealth when someone is about to blow your brains out, then he will simply hit the clone and think he has gotten you. But then you reappear out of nowhere and badger him when he¡¯s showing a super big opening.¡± That¡¯s actually a really good tactic to use. I didn¡¯t think he would think like someone who¡¯s used to close combat! ¡°You can also use it to sneak up to people.¡± ¡°Or you can use it to steal stuff from shops!¡± ¡°Instead of thinking about how you can use that skill, you should think of a plan to slaughter those goblins we left behind¡­¡± Khalmog said, shattering everyone¡¯s hyped mood created by that skill. Everyone went quiet, and was seemingly lost in thoughts. They must all be thinking hard to break through that situation. We can actually skip that room, because it was a dead end anyway, but it¡¯s against my morals to leave a job like that undone. I won¡¯t even mention that option. ¡°You know what they say right; if you want to defeat the bandits, kill their leader first. That¡¯s because the leader supports all the other bandits, if they lose their support¡­ then they¡¯re simply cannon fodder,¡± I explain to them, ¡°So, what we have to do, is to just take away their support.¡±