《Era Online》 Chapter 0-Prologue ( An Introduction to the world) Prologue The story takes place in a world where virtual reality has been achieved. Matrix technologies became the first company ever to create a device capable of rendering a photorealistic virtual world where a user can actually feel his surrounding. The technology manipulated the brain waved and the senses of a person making him feel that he was in a different place, sort of a new dimension. In this artificial space the company was able to make a person feel all of his 5 senses working at optimum level with his body working at optimum as well. The tech was touted as a new world a new era where a person lacking a sense or a physical ability could feel and do what a normal person could. From the blind to handicapped to people in a coma everybody was able to do and perform activities a normal person could. The technology was brought in the market as a form of a wearable helmet which when turned on put the user in a deep sleep tricking his senses and brain where his dream is converted to the dimensional space where his mind was awake, he was awake. The helmet was priced a bit high due to its high production cost but the price was not unreasonable considering what it was offering. Matrix technologies actually didn''t earn at all by selling these helmets. Their main purpose was to reduce the price as much as they can so that it could be made available to a larger consumer base. They aimed at earning through the use of the various applications by its customers. Initially a few governments were a bit skeptical and there were some religious riots against it as well but by 4 months of its launch the whole world agreed to the benefits it brought to the table. The technology was a huge success bringing a new era to mankind. In this dimensional space time flowed 4 times faster than the normal world but the feel feel of the flow was the same hence, 8 hours spent there felt like 8 hours spent in the real world though only 2 hours had actually passed. This technology became widely used in various sectors of the industry such as sports, films even business and education due to the change in time factor as more work could be done more goals could be achieved in this extraordinary dream space. However the most popular use of this technology was in gaming. Matrix technologies had already predicted such a future which is why they were quick to act by bringing the first ever virtual reality based game Era Online 7 months after the techs launch. Touted as a game where you could do anything and be anyone and live a life you have always dreamt of. The game had a fantasy medieval setting in a place known as Skyla. A huge continent with many small countries with many of them being separated by large water bodies. The continent had many kingdoms, dungeons and a vast ocean flowing through in and around the continent. The main objective of the game was to be the ruler of the continent and hunt the world boss Dratharious an unmatched existence which nobody knew what it looked like. The game sold over 170mil copies in the first month alone with another 120mil copies sold by the second month. Players started in various small kingdoms near the middle of the continent. There were 7 main classes available namely knight, mage, assassin, healer, archer, warrior and tanker. Each player was allowed to have only 1 account and could choose to play maximum of 3 classes. The classes where further divided into common rare and divine sub classes. The game had a special sub class quest system which did not require any level requirement. All players had to take the Test of Skyla which took place in the Hall of Heroes situated in every city in the game. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. The maximum level that could be gained without a sub class was 20 after which a player couldn''t advance without a subclass. The subclass was mainly the profession the player was most interested in specializing. The game offered various subclasses from protectors to dancers to chefs to architect. The sub class allowed the player to advance in that specific area of discipline. There were many subclasses available to choose from and each subclass was graded. According to the performance of the player in the Test of Skyla the player was bestowed a graded class ranging from common tier to rare tier. The third and strongest tier divine class was a special tier. The class could not be obtained through the test of Skyla instead by performing a special quest will trigger the class''s quest. Each class had only 1 divine sub class and only one player could obtain it, which meant there could only be 7 divine sub class players in the entire game. Moreover there was also a trade off as a divine class player could only play 1 class that is his divine class and he didn''t have the luxury of enjoying 3 classes like other players. The higher the grade of the sub class the better the stat values and growth potential. Monsters were also divided in 4 categories common, rare, legendary and exotic. There was a 5th class as well which was occupied by just 1 being- Dratharious a transcendent class monster. Higher grade monsters were tougher than their common tier counterparts and also dropped more valuable loot. The same tier system went for artifacts and equipment as well from common tier to exotic tier. Buying and selling of equipment artifacts and in game currency was allowed. The game had its official merchant website for trading with players around the world. Due to the game''s large adoption rate even real world firms started accepting the in game currency gold silver and copper. 1 gold=100 silver=100 copper. In game currency could be bought and sold according to international exchange value rates. To prevent inflation of in game prices and deflation in the value of the currency the company didn''t engage in selling gold(game currency) for real world currency. This prevented excessive money supply in the market which led to controlled prices. Currency could only be obtained through in game activities such as questing,trading etc and this currency obtained could be exchanged for real world currency online and vice versa. That will be it for now as the story progresses I''ll be providing the necessary information about the world Chapter-1 He was standing in a dark area and there was a door in front of him "Do you wish to log in?" "Yes" "Affirmative. Place your hand on the panel in front of you" said the female mechanical voice. "Prints matched. Welcome back Fray!" The dark place illuminated as bright light seeped in through the door in front of him. Gently pushing it, he closed his eyes to prevent himself from being blinded by the light and as he opened his eyes again the virtual reality world surrounded him. He was standing near the center of a medieval looking city and suddenly a messaged popped in front of him, "Central Plaza, Hawthorne City". As he looked around he could see a fountain behind him, other players walking around with some riding on their " Pets", some merchant shops beside the pedestrians and some birds soaring in the deep blue sky. Hawthorne City was a popular place amongst players of Era Online. It was a bustling city with many NPC run and player run shops selling various items for various disciplines available to practice in the game. Quests and jobs were available for players and the city also had a training arena for beginners to get acquainted with the game. Medieval styles buildings such as castles homes and a cathedral filled the city. Suddenly a sweet called out," Hey Fray hun! There you are !". A girl stood in front of him, she had a green robe covering her body with a staff in her hand, beautiful face with a voluptuous figure winking at him. She was Kayla, a healer class player who apart from being exceptionally beautiful was also devilishly mischievous. " Cmon Fray let''s get going we got a dungeon to raid, remember?" Called out a guy standing beside her. He wore a blue robe with a pointy hat on top of his head, 2 red rings on his left hand could be seen. He was a mage and had a good built then again most players in this game had a good built, nobody would choose to be fat during character creation. His name was BroImCool a name he regrets of choosing to this day. "Well then let''s go" said Fray. They left through the city gates walking into the dense forest situated outside the city. Fray was a pretty popular gamer. He had his own utube channel and his own stream channel both widely viewed by gamers. He rose to fame when he became one of the few lucky players to receive a rare class while pursuing their class quest. His class "Twin blade master" was a high dps class which made him a popular pick amongst players for Boss battles. His raid team became the first to beat the Dungeon of Darkness and he once even defeated the sole divine class owner WhiteKnight who had the class of Divine Knight an amazingly tanky dps dealing class. Fray had even taken down a small notorious PK group known as the WrathBringers all by himself. It had just been 4 months since the launch of era online and he was amongst the top 3 players in the game. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. He wasn''t a complete solo player, always ready to team up for raids and bosses but he liked adventuring alone with his pet Wisk, a cute white Squolf which had the ability to change its shape into a squirrel and a wolf. In its squirrel form it had big black eyes white fur making it immensely cute and it always rested on Fray''s shoulder but during battle the cuteness disappears taking form of a large ferocious looking wolf. It was a legendary class pet highly sought after by players as it could be a cute companion and could also serve as a mount plus a fighter in battles. A rare pet which could only be found in the forests and even if it was seen catching it was an even bigger headache as if the adventurer was a higher level than itself it use to escape using its squirrel form which was known to be extremely fast and nimble and if they were lower it would directly attack the player in its wolf form. He chanced upon his squolf while adventuring in the DarkMarsh forest located near his starting city, Mystik city. The squolf was being targeted by a Bearpard a bear variant animal with tremendous speed and agility. The squolf at that time was on the losing end but some quick thinking by our protagonist had saved its life. Ray had thrown stones at the bearpard and had climbed a tree. Bearpards being heavy and having a huge frame are unable to climb trees. After spending 2 hours trying to bring down the pitiful, weak player from the tree the bearpard left to search for a prey. As he got down, the squolf which was in hiding came out and accepted him as his master and initiated the Bond by Blood contract, a contract which binds the monster and the player in a master-pet relationship. Today Fray was going to raid a dungeon. He teamed up with these other 2 players because 1)Kayla was beautiful, which guy wasn''t attracted to her? He couldn''t say no when she came up to him to ask his help 2) he has been playing with these two for the past week and the teamwork was fairly good so he didn''t mind accepting the proposal. The DenofDeath was a lvl 56 dungeon recently discovered about 3 days ago. The boss still hasn''t been beaten and it was rumored that the dungeon might drop Blue class items as the boss was rumored to be a Blue class monster. Fray and his group of 3 silently marched through the forest towards the dungeon hoping to conquer it, little did Fray know the ominous fate waiting for him ahead. ------------------------------------------ I hope the readers like my story. I am a new writer who is a big fan of this site which has some of my favorite fictions. Any and every help and suggestion is appreciated. Awaiting your feedback thank you. Couldn''t get a name for chapter 1 title suggestions are welcome:) also can anybody guide me as to what to tick in post options and subscription method options while posting a chapter? Again thank you.