《Age of Champions》 Tutorial part 1 Age of Champions, the game for which He waited so long is finally here. It came out two months ago and turned upside down whole gaming world. Age of champions wasn¡¯t first virtual reality game but it had something which other didn¡¯t, the most advanced AI on earth. AI created the game from scratch, made everything from maps to monsters designs, quests and managed everything within the game . This allowed to create the biggest world ever presented in game, it size was forty times bigger than Earth. What made greatest impression was the level of NPC intelligence and system of unique quests. It meant that some quests were impossible to repeat. At first people though that only firsts players will benefit from that system but it soon turn out they were wrong. AI generated quests all the time and thanks to ever changing world game was much more exiting. All this made Age of champions the most popular game ever. In three months it had 4 million players and number of users rose faster with each passing day. Today Bart¡¯s capsule finally arrived. To him it looked as the most incredible futuristic sculpture. Everything except lid and setup panel was matte black. While technician were installing capsule His father walked to him. ¡°Bart I hope that you are happy for your present¡± ¡°Yes, thank you father ¡° ¡°Only remember what you promised me¡± ¡°Of course I remember¡± The promise had two parts one he would pass his middle school exams with at least 90% of points secondly he had to find part time job during summer and return half of the sum his father paid for the capsule and 3 year subscription. This was not small sum roughly 3000$. Bart still thought that Age of Champions was worth it and what more he already fulfilled the first part of his promise and had 3 years to return money to his dad before graduation from high school. Soon after the technicians setup whole capsule he jumped inside and closed the lid. Inside was quiet comfy and after closing the glassy cover started to darken till it didn¡¯t let even ray of light. ¡°Do you won¡¯t to connect to Age of Champions¡± Female voice came from darkness ¡°Of course¡± He didn¡¯t asked his father for 3 months to buy capsule to say now no ¡°Scan of your body detected you are new player would you like to create new account.¡± ¡°Yes¡± ¡°Select the name of your champion.¡± ¡°Hetman¡± ¡°Select your gender from male or female.¡± ¡°Male¡± ¡°Currently are available three races. You can chose from human race, elven race or dwarf race.¡± ¡°I want to be half elf¡± ¡°Sorry this option isn¡¯t available, you can chose only one of three ¡­¡± ¡°Alright I chose human¡± Bart didn¡¯t want to risk and choose elf or dwarf. It was risky because he didn¡¯t have any information about races. Users who chose other races didn¡¯t share information about pros and cons of each race. So human was the safest choice as in most games it had well balanced stats and could become master in any field. "Please alter your appearance." Before him appeared young boy around sixteen years old with average appearance. He exceeded little over 170 cm, not fat but you couldn¡¯t say he was especially sporty, had brown hair and grey eyes. ¡°I want to be older around twenty, have white hair, red radiating eyes also bigger mussels.¡±
Warning!
To have white hair and red eyes you will get feature ¡°albinism¡± it will decrease your fire resistance and longer activities under sun whiteout proper protection will decrees your health. Do you want to continue anyway?
?no¡± ¡°do you wish to continue changing your appearance¡± ¡°no it¡¯s ok¡± ¡°Human race starting city is Windport capital of Aerian empire you will appear there after tutorial.¡± "Welcome to Age of champions" *Flash* He appeared in the middle of small camp. Camp was enclosed by palisade. It didn¡¯t look like big structure, no more than 50 meters in radius. Inside were some tents, small chapel and training ground you could also see some players in their beginners clothing while they were treated by priests or appearing inside the camp.
Tutorial
Welcome on the ¡°Plains¡± where you will be introduced to the basic of control system and fights. To start proper game you need to either complete tutorial or resign from it. Please take in notice that after executing task given to you on the plains you will be granted with small bonus. If you wish to cancel tutorial despite that please say ¡°skip tutorial¡±. This option is available during entire time. To pass tutorial you need to end quest ¡°baptism of fire¡±. Deaths on the ¡°Plains¡± don¡¯t give any negative or positive effects so killing other players don¡¯t give any EXP or PK mark. Only place where you aren¡¯t allowed to attack players is camp. Satiety bar is turned down also you won¡¯t be able to acquire any skills or stats points for entire tutorial. You also will be given two pieces of basic equipment or spell books of your choice. To state what item do you want say it loudly and chosen items will appear in your inventory.
¡°Baptism of fire¡±
The ¡°Plains¡± is dimension outside of world, it¡¯s place which gods created to punish the ones which didn¡¯t respect them. After appearance of adventures is also used to test them at the beginning of their adventure. To show you are worth to be given a chance to rule over the Northeilm continent defeat ten others players. Be aware that if you die while executing this quest your defeated players counter will be reset. Reward: Title
Hetman knew from the beginning what items he wanted. His thoughts were simple. He wanted to be cool, be half elf with white hair, red eyes and fight using two Katana . Because he couldn¡¯t become half elf and withe hair and red eyes gave negative effect, he need to abandon this part of his plans. So all he had left was fighting using two swords and didn¡¯t plan to abandon this part of his plan. ¡°Two swords¡± After that he picked up two medieval like iron swords from his inventory and went to the nearest exit from the camp ignoring popping out window. Hetman was rather mesmerized by the view he seen just before camp gate. Scenery outside the camp was rather monotonous but it was vast. Tremendous empty green space without even one hill wherever you would look. In the distance could be seen small battles and closer some groups of players but nowhere could be seen animals. Hetman came to conclusion that on plains didn¡¯t live any animals or were very rare. It didn¡¯t bother him too much, bigger problem were players waiting near the gates. They probably waited for someone who would leave the camp alone and kill him. It was logically thinking the easiest way to complete tutorial. After thinking what to do next hetman decided that he firstly need to know his own capabilities. He was quiet sure that he will be able to take one or two other players and if situation became dangerous he would be fast enough to run to the city. With that thoughts he started to run in direction of the four player waiting near the gate. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. Seeing someone was running in their direction they quickly got up and prepare theirs weapons. Even before Hetman was able to get near to them archer already fired arrow. Hetman heard whistling sound and missile hit ground one meter from him then he spotted that in his direction flew fireball. It¡¯s speed wasn¡¯t great but still fear of getting hurt paralyzed him. Only thanks to awful aiming of the mage spell didn¡¯t roasted him only grazing his arm. But there is where his luck ended the next arrow hit his leg and he fell on the ground. Before he could get up two melees were few steps away from him . From the look you could guess they didn¡¯t have peaceful intentions. One carried bastard sword other two handed axe. As soon as Hetman was in their reach axeman attacked taking big swing. It was quiet easy to read where the blow would land and Hetman decided to block first attack with the sword in left hand while to pierce enemy with the one in right. Unfortunately it not exactly went as expected. The block was easily blown away by axe and only by luck Hetman wasn¡¯t decapitated but it only postponed his death as the axe hit his shoulder, crumbled bone, made bleed and left him with only with fourth Hp left. What¡¯s more his movements felled unnatural while fighting and his body reacted slower and clumsier then he imagined. Despite that he was still able to execute thrust with second sword. It seemed that at least one of aggressors will die with him. His hopes shattered when the sword hit corpus of the axeman giving the metallic sound, it looked like he wore some kind of chainmail under his clothes. This gave swordman chance to end fight which he did by decapitating Bart. ¡°sh*t¡± Hetman almost at the same time appeared again in the middle of the camp. His first death made him mad. He hoped that at least one of his enemies would die but he wasn¡¯t even able to make threat to one of them. After a while he calmed down a little and though what went wrong. Even if he wasn''t too old his gaming experience was quiet big. He learned few thing while playing other MMO games. One of them was, It didn''t matter how many time you died but what you learned from deaths and Hetman was fast learner. The first problem ware ranged attacks. Even if his enemies shot awfully one arrow was enough to make him immobile and not able to dodge any attack like the one he received in his leg. Secondly blocks, it seemed that his left hand is too weak and guard will simply flew with any little bit stronger strike. But the most important is number advantage. His abilities didn¡¯t allowed him to fight more than one person at the time without a plan. Hetman started plotting his next actions. His plan to prevent ranged attacks was simple. During night mages and archers will not see him and the cannot attack what they don¡¯t see. Secondly his fighting style was horribly ineffective and he needed to do something about it. He decided to visit training ground and at least use this few hours before sunset to get used to swordfighting and make controlling the swords more natural to him. Lastly to deal with number advantage he needed to either join other team or separate enemies and deal with one at time. Training ground was big space with around fifty dummies. Hetman chose one and started hitting it with his swords. It looked pitiful. Each hit seamed without any strength behind it, speed was also terribly slow but the worst was coordination between two swords. Left sword didn¡¯t keep up with the right and while concentrating on hands he didn¡¯t controlled his legs and stood in place like log which made him easy target. After fifteen minutes passed Hetman was depressed. His form didn¡¯t looked like he imaged it would. He wanted to almost dance with the blades but he had problems even with controlling his swords not to mention smooth foot work. While he was sitting sulking behind his back appeared big bear like man and without any ceremony clapped his back and laugh with laud voice. ¡°It not so easy young one HAHAha¡­ sword fighting I mean HAHAHa¡± Giant without sweet lifted Bart from the ground and put him on feet. ¡°You looked like dancing chicken young one HAHAha, this even didn¡¯t resembled sword fighting. I seen many adventures trying fight with two swords most gave up but none looked so hilarious. So why did you choose two swords when you don¡¯t look like you can even fight with one lad HAHAHa?¡± ¡°I wanted to fight double wielding swords because that looked cool and allows to attack with both hands ¡° ¡°HAHAHA That answer is so irrational, If you think that what you did was cool you should check your head HAHAHA. Beside from what I have seen your right hand is dominant and to dual wield you should be able to use left as easily as right, or at your case as bad as right HAHAHA¡± ¡° If you are only going to laugh then please don¡¯t bother me while I¡¯m training ¡° Hetman was quiet angry. This bear man came to him and is making fun of him. ¡°HAHAHA I see you are hot heeded lad it¡¯s not bad but it¡¯s hard to call training what you were doing. From my point of view you were only swinging swords without reason.¡± ¡°If you don¡¯t have anything constructive to say please leave me alone¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be so grumpy lad, if You want some advice for now leave one sword and learn to use one sword in each hand then try dual wielding. It won¡¯t be fast and will take few months but still will be more effective training method than your chicken dance HAHAHa¡± ¡°I don¡¯t have time to let the things go slowly, I want to leave this place as fast as I can¡± He didn¡¯t want to spend months in place where he couldn¡¯t achieve anything except completing tutorial. Bear man suddenly got more serious, it seemed that last answer made him little irritated. ¡°Everyone of you, young ones is so hot headed. Why do you think gods sent you all adventures here not straight to Northeilm. Right now most of you are worse at fighting than 10 years old kid. Despite that no more than 20 of you came here to train. Most chose to gang up on lone adventures. I don¡¯t say it ineffective, but that way they won¡¯t become any better and that is the main reason why you are here in first place. So lad I think you should use time you will spend here to find your way of fighting and not go easy way.¡± Hetman was surprised by sudden change in bear man but understood that if he have hard time against players, where most of them barely knew how to take the swing not talking about techniques and stances, he didn¡¯t stand a chance against well programmed NPC¡¯s and monsters. What¡¯s more here deaths didn¡¯t have any negative effects but when he will start real game it won¡¯t be so nice. E.N.E.C. company which made age of champions made death repercussions quiet serve. You didn''t lose only experience and some items but also was banned from game for 2 RR days and with 1 to 3 time ratio it keep you out of the game for almost week in game time. So if he wanted to experiment with different strategies and tactics Plains where the best place. Tutorial part 2 Next VR week Hetman spend on training and executing different strategies. Most of them turned out to be failures, he died at least two hundred times and soon on Plains spread information about suicide player. He didn¡¯t join any team and even didn¡¯t attack greenhorns witch was the easiest way to collect ten points and pass tutorial. Instead he keep attacking groups of players in strange ways. At first he tried to make himself some armor. Because on plains he couldn¡¯t find anything, he had to use rope from scarecrows and few planks he found in camp, this allowed him only to tie planks to himself. Of course this armor turned out horribly. Not only it restricted movements but also wood shattered with first hit and didn¡¯t block any damage. This didn¡¯t let him down as he next time tied his unused sword to forearm. It also didn¡¯t work . When he started blocking hits with this improvised armguard everything seemed to work, swords attacks were easily neutralized without receiving much damage, he even got two kills in one group, but third enemy attacked using hammer. Blow was so powerful that despite he blocked it, he still broke bones in his arm and the fight ended quickly with Hetman death. This made him wonder what difference was between sword and hammer attacks. With some experiments (witch mostly resulted in his deaths) Hetman came to conclusion that there are three main types of damage: smashing, slashing and piercing. Each had its own pros and cons. Smashing damage weapons were heavy and slow like hammers or maces but could inflict big damage even to heavily armored enemies. They had high chance to inflict bone crush effect and had huge durability. Slashing damage weapons were usual lighter and faster than smashing . Their damage against heavily armored enemies was low, if they didn¡¯t attack weak points in armor, but ignored light armor defense and had high chance to inflict bleeding effect on hit. Their durability was sufficient but with each drop in durability attack power became worse. Piercing damage weapons like arrows or spears were similar to slashing. The biggest difference was they didn¡¯t have higher chance to inflict bleeding effect but had high critical hit chance. They were also usually faster and with lower durability than other weapons. Most of the arms had mixed damage. Swords had biggest damage in slashing but could also do piercing and smashing damage. Axes were balanced in slashing and smashing but couldn¡¯t make pierce damage. General rule was heavier the weapon bigger smashing damage, sharper weapon had bigger slashing damage and more pointy weapon had better piercing damage. With this knowledge Hetman chose his enemies more carefully taking notice of their equipment to have the biggest advantage. This increased his survival chances and soon he could kill at least one player in group before he died. It was still far from perfect but with each passing day his knowledge and fighting experience rose. The next encounter witch gave him idea to test was with some swordsman. Fight with him was strange, Hetman couldn¡¯t properly read distance and right timing to block and attack. His few moves which were well trained were all in mess and he didn¡¯t know the reason behind it. Firstly he thought that he was simply tired and needed rest but next fights with different players went mostly like he thought it would, even slightly better. Interested by this Hetman once again fought with strange swordsman and his group and situation repeat itself. Feeling something fishy Hetman started observing swordsman fights from afar. His skills didn¡¯t looked too be better then average players but his efficiency was much better. Most players couldn¡¯t hit him or were easily blocked. This couldn¡¯t be by chance as similar situation repeated itselfall the time. Then Hetman finally seen it, strange swordsman was left handed and had different hand upfront . This made players who were fighting against him confused as they mostly battle right handed enemies. It was similar to box fights were boxers using southpaw stance were usually much harder rivals then right handed. The reason behind it was simple they weren¡¯t used to fighting against leftie. For Hetman who were training to been able to use both hands as good this seemed as great method. If he could exploit this like this strange swordsman his survival chance would rise. Only question was if he was good enough to use this method. Swordsman seemed to be leftie from the birth while he was still getting used to using his left hand. To check it Hetman started experiment in which he counted how many enemies he could defeated while fighting with sword in left hand and sword in right hand. After attacking fifty groups using each hand, slightly better was right hand 71 to 68 kills, but left handed fighting was quickly becoming better with each encounter to the point he was able to defeat three players in his last fight using left hand. Hetman decided to try fighting using sword in left hand. Thanks to that at the end of the week he was able to kill at least two players while fighting against group of four before he died. At his seventh day of the tutorial he logged in like usually. Plains had always sunny weather so the first thing he saw was beautiful sunrise. Grass on the plains where covered with morning dew and every drop shone like gem. In such scenery Hetman saw this massacre. In the place where usually groups of players were waiting to ambush greenhorns, lone player was dancing with blades in his hands annihilating everything which stood in the way of his swords. He was tall at least 185 cm and had short black hair with and expressionless look in his eyes. Each move looked like part of complicated choreography. His fighting style was what Hetman dreamed about when he choose two swords at the beginning of his tutorial. He wanted to fight just like that guy and it seemed luck has at least smiled to him. He quickly run toward at the battle place. It looked seemed that encounter has quickly drawing to the end. The lone player in less than two minutes killed group of five players and was already running toward next one 1 kilometer further. ¡°Please wait, can you teach me?¡± Hetman afraid to lose him out of sight shouted Player turned around and seeing only one person decided to ignore him and resumed his run. Because on the Plains you couldn¡¯t get any skills or stat points Hetman and unknown player chase keep fixed distance. As soon as dual wielding swordsman was spotted by group of players fight has started. It looked similar to the first encounter of Hetman except the result. Toward black haired guy was shot arrow and icebolt but he swiftly avoided both attacks and with great accuracy slashed running in his direction two melee fighters. They died without even knowing what happened before they started turn grey. Seeing this archer shot only one more arrow and tried to escape but his reaction was too slow and he shared the fate of his two companions. Mage during that time was chanting some huge spell but as his group couldn¡¯t protect him anymore he also was killed. Hetman was mesmerized by this fight. One player run straight at the group of four and without losing speed defeated them all. It was something which he tried achieve since he came here and there was someone who did it like it was nothing. Chance to learn from someone with such skills could not appear anymore in game. ¡°Please stop¡± Black haired guy looked back once again but this time he turned around and started running in Hetman direction. At the beginning Hetman thought that he at least will be able to learn something about sword fighting but outstretched blade and determined look in the eyes of the player quickly brought back him to reality. It was most likely that to sword master he was only the next point to complete tutorial. Before Hetman was able to do anything, one of the swords started motion. Slash wasn¡¯t fast due to lack of in game skills and stats points but one could see that it wasn¡¯t clumsy swing of most players. It was move which was repeated countless times till it was step from perfection. Without slightest doubt, hand shake or unnecessary movements. Hetman was sure the attack would kill him like others but it didn¡¯t happened. Thanks to switched stance he in the last moment evade sword. It didn¡¯t made his situation much better, he still didn¡¯t had bigger chance to win this fight. His only hope was to talk himself out of this situation. ¡°Hey, take it easy I don¡¯t want to fight. Let¡¯s talk it out.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t have time to waste here so let me kill you quickly.¡± Answer was cold and soon after next slashes came. This time it wasn¡¯t simple swing but combination of few. Both blades rose vertically starting their move from bottom right and quickly rose to the chest of Hetman. Despite that first sword was blocked and it seemed the same would happened with the second one but it only grazed Hetman defense slipped through guard and left red mark on his chest leaving him with only half Hp left and bleeding status. Enemy fluidly went from one stance to another and started next phase of attack. This time swords were aimed at head and body. Hetman on instinct tried to protect his head and didn¡¯t notice the second slash witch struck in the stomach. Hit didn¡¯t have the force to split him in two but still easily took away rest of his Hp. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Hetman appeared in the camp his encounter with unknown blade master didn¡¯t took more than 2 minutes. Around him previously killed players promised to avenge theirs today loss against black haired guy. Hetman on the other hand right away went to training ground and started repeating moves made by his adversary. He was clumsy like always but at least he had at least clear goal. He wanted to be at least as good as his today foe. ¡°HAHAHA You are full of vigor today lad, something good happened?¡± Bear man like always appeared out of nowhere while he was training. For Hetman he became regular part of training. At first He was only annoyed by biting comments Bear man was making but soon he got used to them and even started pay greater notice in them. It was Bear man who helped him to understand how different weapons inflicted different kinds of damage. ¡°I was defeated today again but this time by skilled dual wielding sword master, I want to repeat his moves before I forget them¡± ¡°HAHAHA It¡¯s true that today your chicken dance look slightly better, maybe soon will get ambidextrous trait.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t get any skills or stats points while I¡¯m on plains Bear man¡± ¡°So what, I wasn¡¯t talking about skill but about trait, even on plains you can still gain traits and knowledge¡± Hetman knew about stats and skills, he already checked theme but knowledge and traits where new to him. ¡°What are these traits and knowledge¡± ¡°You know that blacksmithing is skill but there is also knowledge on blacksmithing. If you have vast knowledge about blacksmithing you can see stats of metal weapons and armours even without identification. Of course identification will give you little bit different information then blacksmith knowledge, with skill you would also know about magic effects weapon or armour has but knowledge would give you more information about how the item was made and how it can be upgraded. Knowledge about blacksmithing also make gaining proficiency in skill easier, you don¡¯t have to repeat made by somebody and know right method to make good steal or how to handle mithril. Of course knowledge alone won¡¯t be enough to become master in subject but will make it easier. Obviously if you learn how to make good steal in forge not by reading books or learning from other smiths your knowledge will also raise with skill proficiency¡± ¡°What about traits?¡± ¡°Each race have theirs racial traits for example dwarfs have Hand to metal trait which gives them better results while forging, also being right handed or left handed is trait. Usually some traits you have from birth, some you can achieve with hard work and some appear due to some big life event.¡± Hetman recalled his account creation when game asked him if he want to get albinism trait. Maybe he got some other. Show status, skills, knowledge and trait windows [quart=Name,Alignment]Hetman,Neutral[/quart] [quart=Fame,Infamy]0,0[/quart] [quart=Level,Class]1,N/A[/quart] [quart=Race,Gender]Human,Male[/quart][quart=Health, Health Regeneration]100,1/min[/quart] [quart=Mana Pool, Mana Absorption]100,1/min[/quart] [quart=Stamina, Stamina Regeneration]100,1/minute[/quart] [quart=Strenght,Agility]10,10[/quart] [quart=Vitality,Physical Fitness]10,10[/quart] [quart=Inteligence,Wisdom]10,10[/quart] [quart=Leadership,Luck]0,10[/quart] [quart=Atack,Defense]10,0[/quart]
Status Window
TitleN/A
Magical Resistance Fire: 0% Water: 0% Wind: 0% Earth: 0% Holly: 0% Darkness: 0%
[quart=Skill Name,Skill Level]Skill Rank,Skill Expirience[/quart] [quart=N/A,N/A]N/A,N/A[/quart]
Skill Window
N/A
[quart=Knowledge Name,Knowledge Level]Knowledge Rank,Knowledge Progress[/quart] [quart=Human Language,C1]1,12%[/quart]
Knowledge Window
Ability to speak and read in human language. You are able to understand 99% words in human language
Trait Window
Trait NameTrait Description
Humans VersatilityYou are able to learn any skill and don¡¯t have pros and cons in any
Right HandedYour right side of body is stronger and faster than left Offhand weapon -30% in attack, -15% in speed
Hetman quickly came to conclusion there must be other languages like elf¡¯s or dwarf¡¯s language. His status looked normal and didn¡¯t have anything special so all he could do was to simply, steadily work to make himself stronger. *few days later* On Plains during night could be seen countless fires. Even if players didn¡¯t have any wood to keep fire there where people with fire spells. Toward one of such camps was slowly approaching small hill. It was strange not only because it was moving but also because plains where completely flat. Players at the camp seemed to didn¡¯t notice hill and soon it came to the boundaries of light their small flame made. Hill stopped there and suddenly from it jumped out player with outstretched sword. Group of four wasn¡¯t prepared for sudden ambush but still tried to fight off aggressor. Melee fighters wanted to take theirs weapon out but before they were able to storm of slashes came on them. They were given no chance and soon they were killed. Sacrifice of his companions let archer to take his weapon out but distance was too small to effectively use bow and with three blows he also turned grey and disappeared. Mage wanted to use fireball but he couldn¡¯t use two spells at the same time so with active fireball he didn¡¯t seen his enemy but while making camp fire couldn¡¯t use fireball. Before he made decision aggressor was already near him and with wide swing took all Hp player had. This was the third camp visited by Hetman this night and also the last as with mage death He collected ten point needed to pass tutorial. To Hetman Plains were not bad place, He spend 10 RR days there and learn few things which will hopefully let him have advantage against other players. Hewas able to get some fighting experience,and try out some of his ideas. He also learned a few things about game mechanics. Probably if he stayed there a longer he could discover more but plains had also negative side. Spending 30 VR days in game and being level one without any skill or bonus points was rather miserable achievement so he decided this was last moment if he wanted catch up to other players, get to the top and try his skills against this dual wielding sword master. Tring
Quest "Baptism of Fire" Completed
Dont trust players
Quest ¡°Baptism of Fire¡± Completed
Because of your desire to gain knowledge and learn from your mistakes you received title ¡°scholar¡± +2% to the speed of gaining skill proficiency, time goes little bit slower when progressing knowledge
Tutorial passed
You have satisfied tutorial requirements. You will be transferred to the Windport starting city of the human race. From your inventory will be removed all items you poses. Also check your inventory after transferring to Windport as you will be given small reward for completing tutorial and beginner equipment. Satiety bar is turned on. Dead penalty is turned on
3¡­2¡­1¡­0 As soon as countdown reached 0 Hetman disappeared from the plains and appeared on the main plaza of Windport. City looked like typical medieval town from Europe, except some details which made living within it bearable. First thing and one of the most important were sewers, thanks to them it didn¡¯t reek in the city and the streets were clean. Second infidelity was size, biggest medieval towns had 20-30 thousand citizens but Windport had 3 million and could accommodate 2 times more. Hetman disappeared from plains during night and also at night appeared in Windport. At the streets he could only see guards and everything else from shops to stalls have been closed. To sunrise was still more than 4 VR hours so he decided to log out and eat something. Bart went out of the capsule in the same moment his father came into his room. ¡°We have to talk¡± his father seemed serious. ¡°What happened I hadn¡¯t done anything wrong.¡± ¡°I bought you this capsule and 3 year subscription but you promised me to start part time job. It is almost 2 weeks since the beginning of vacation and you didn¡¯t even started looking. It worries me. If you won¡¯t get part time job in one week I will turn off this machine. You will be banned from playing this game for entire summer break.¡± ¡°Ok dad¡± Bart¡¯s father came to what he have right now with the work of his own hands, but this year he understood that because of his upbringing methods his kids didn¡¯t know value of money. His kids always had newest clothes and received a lot of pocket money. As long as they had good grades their father bought them everything they wanted. This year his son ended middle school and he planned to give him some special present. As he said to his son about this he heard about game which cost only 6000$. This made him quiet angry, his son thought that 6000$ was small sum. This was monthly salary of the buildres in his company. That was the reason behind his promise with his son. He thought that after working for some time Bart would understand money don¡¯t grow on trees. ¡°If you want I can help you write CV or cover letter.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have to. I will use internet if I would have any problems.¡± Bart wet to the kitchen made himself some sandwiches and got to work on his CV. It took him 1 hour to write it. At first writing CV went smoothly but when he got to working experience he had nothing to write. It left half of A4 sized paper empty which didn¡¯t looked good. To mask that his working experience is lacking Bart wrote everything what came to his mind in the skills paragraph, from that he passed health and safety training to knowing how to use MS Office. After He wrote his CV, Bart looked through work offers on the internet. Soon he chose three companies who looked for low skilled workers and send them his CV together with his job application. Bart log out from his email account and prepared himself for few hours gaming sesion inside capsule. Soon he was ready and connected to ¡°Age of Champions¡±. Hetman appeared in the exact same spot from which he logged out. During the day main Plaza was bathed in sunlight. In the middle of the square was fountain and at the outskirts were merchants stalls and shops. Right now they were closed because working hours started from at 8 am and it was still at least half hour before 8 am. The first thought which crossed Hetman mind was to go hunt monster but he learned from his mistakes at the plains. He knew that preparation and collection of information was crucial. Firstly he checked his inventory. It had quiet basic things which one would expect to get at the beginning of the game. Beginner clothes with 0 defense, 50 copper coins, some hardtacks, and water canteen. But he had one quiet good item.
Army Knife
Well made long iron knife. It was ordered by army and is designed to be used in offhand. Durability: 45/45 Damage: 3-7 When used in offhand neutralize Right Handed or Left Handed traits Requirement none
This knife had worse damage then his previously used iron sword but its durability was higher by 20 points and thanks to its ability fit perfectly to his fighting method. Hetman was going to fountain to file canteen when forty players came to plaza. They carried some kind of mobile platform and briskly made their way near fountain and there stopped. Soon platform was surrounded from every side by curious players. On platform stood four people talking about something. Three of them carried weapons so one could easily judge their class by it. One was probably archer or ranger as he carried bow, the next two had some kind of melee class as they were caring huge two handed hammers. Fourth wore leather amour and next to the other three looked like shrimp. While they were almost 2 meters tall he probably had less than 165 cm. Nonetheless his green eyes had something from tiger look in them and from body language Hetman could easily say he was the person in charge . From his look it was hard to guess if he was archer, thief or if he had different class. After the while when crowd surrounding platform settled down and the noise died away, three players talking with green eyed guy stepped down and he started talking. ¡°Hello everybody. My name is Remir, I¡¯m the leader of Silent Owl guild. Currently we were given with the quest to clear the catacombs of Ferion family. We are looking for more players to complete this task. We still need forty people to help us. We can pay each one of them 1 gold coin but only if the quest is completed. There is no minimal level restriction so everybody can take part even level one beginner.¡± To beginners sum of one gold coin was fortune. It allowed to buy some basic amour and weapon and there would be still some left so it wasn¡¯t strange that everyone wanted to join raid. Soon queue was formed and group of players going to catacombs rose. There didn¡¯t passed fifteen minutes before Silent Owl guild with hired players started their journey. Hetman had also joined. This hunt seemed perfect opportunity to earn some gold and gain level also with such number of players it looked more like there was any danger. After three hours they finally got out of the city. When they walked through gate they seen huge filed filled with some wild chickens, rabbits and foxes. Players in similar clothes to them hunted these creatures. For Hetman it looked just like fights on plains. Group of four of five killing one thanks to number advantage but without any real skill. ¡°Ok, I know that we had long march but we still made only one third of the rode. Now it will be little faster as we are outside the city but it will still take at least 4 hours before we get to catacombs. I plan one break in 1 hour from now to eat something and get a little bit of rest. So everybody let¡¯s go the faster we will get there the faster you can get your reward.¡± Ramir looked to be in high spirets. The group resumed their march but soon appeared some problems as some beginners didn¡¯t have any weapons. They either didn¡¯t complete tutorial or got some armor parts from it and only became aware of that now. However crisis was quickly defused. Players who hadn¡¯t any weapons were instructed to pick stick and for now use it as the weapon. This made Hetman little surprised as the players with the sticks couldn¡¯t present any support in battle their damage were simply too small. Someone with 1-2 attack couldn¡¯t be used at anything except meat shield. on the Place of Ramir he would either made the unarmed players from the group and hired some beginners fighting animals, or made unarmed buy weapons for themselves. Around 3 pm they finally reached their goal. Catacombs of Ferion family were huge mound. It was seventeen meter high and had thirty meter in radius. As entrance was used huge stone arch closed by bronze door on which were sculpted battles. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. ¡°Everybody we will now went inside. Every beginner has to pair up with one person from my guild to have the biggest chance to survive. If you have some buffs spells or other things like that use it now before we enter. Also check if your satiety bar is full because inside we won¡¯t have to much time. Is everybody ready?¡± ¡°Yes!!¡± ¡°Ok let''s go inside¡± Inside of the catacombs started with small steps leading down. They weren¡¯t too wide and no more than four people could use them at once. Hetman with his companion from guild were in leading four. It was strange but guild leader and players with the best equipment were going at the end. To Hetman mind came only two reasons for such action. First they wanted to use the rest like meat shield but in that situation why would they mix beginners with guild member. Second they were expecting ambush from behind and decided that the best player would deal with danger the most efficiently but then why hadn¡¯t they said about this before going inside. Stairs soon ended and Hetman went inside to big underground catacombs. They had shape of 15 meter high dome. From floor level to almost the top in walls were made holes in which were lying coffins made out of stone. Each coffin had carved on top of it lying person with hands on chest. Walls were also full of some kind magic stones which produced light so previously used torches were unnecessary. Hetman didn¡¯t seen any monsters inside dome so he decided to get the better look at the coffins. From the sculptures of people hetman concluded that most of them were mages as they were dressed in robes and in hands squeezed stone wands. One of the casket caught Hetman attention. It was made from darker kind of stone and sculpted person didn¡¯t resemble mage. It more looked like some kind barbarian, it chest was exposed showing impressive muscles. It face had little bit oriental features. While being bald, had impressive beard which was neatly bound but the strangest thing was it didn¡¯t have legs. From it wrist came stone representation of smoke. This smoke was connecting upper half of the body of man with oil lamp. Simply speaking sculpture showed Djinn. While Hetman was admired the casket everybody in the group group made it to dome. Leader of Silent Owl guild came to canter of the dome. ¡°Okay everybody You can start¡± Beginners seemed confused by the speech of Remir but his own guild mates quickly drawn theirs weapons and the battel started. Guild attacked unprepared greenhorns not leaving them any chance to prepare. Because every beginner was paired with member of Silent Owl fights ended almost instantly. Few players who had enough luck too not die from first attack started to run away in the direction of stairs. This wasn¡¯t good choice as stairs were guarded by strongest players from Silent Owl. In the middle of chaos that was created no one seen how Hetman by hair evaded slash which was supposed to kill him. The situation for Hetman was hopeless. His opponent wasn¡¯t high level player maximally 14-15 but it still gave him advantage of 70 stat points plus class bonuses. Even if Hetman was little better than his enemy in pure swordsmanship, he didn¡¯t have in game skills. How to cope in such situation? Retrospection **** ¡°Just a little more and I will be undefeated.¡± Hetman said in joy while repeating combination of attacks. ¡±I can already defeat three players from four people group in half of the fights. When I will leave this cursed plains I will easily overpower even 10 or 15 higher lever people and monsters.¡± ¡°HAHAHA You once again something hilarious lad, You have great future as a clown ahead of you. I tell you with your chicken dance and your jokes you could get fortune.¡± Bear man as always made fun of Hetman when he was training ¡°Laugh as long as you want but soon I will leave this place and enemies with so small level advantage won¡¯t stood chance against me¡± ¡°HAHAHA If you are so sure of your abilities young one let¡¯s make a bet. I am level 24 so its little more than you said but I will only use my weaker hand and won¡¯t have any weapon or armour piece. If you will defeat me I will never again make fun of you but if you lose you will give me foot massage. HAHAHA¡± ¡°Of course I accept. You are too full of yourself if you think that you can win against me with such conditions. You keep calling my moves chicken dance but they are deadly and soon you will know it on your own skin¡± Bear man took his chest and armguards off and next to them he put his axe. ¡°HAHAHA You can start anytime you want.¡± Bear man said putting right hand behind back Hetman started with quick horizontal slash, but his opponent simple stepped back evading attack. Hetman already anticipated this and with swift motion changed slash into stab. This also didn¡¯t work as bear man with speed unexpected in such huge body sidestepped. In this position NPC caught Hetman outstretched arm and simply brought him down. From there fight ended quickly and sorely for player. After two hours Hetman regained consciousness. ¡°HAHAHA It seems someone owe me foot massage HAHAHA¡± ¡°How you were so fast your level isn¡¯t much higher than mine and you also were disarmed¡± ¡°HAHAHA Difference of ten levels isn¡¯t big it¡¯s true but higher levels, at the beginning it¡®s like heaven and earth." ¡°So I will stood no chance against 11 level opponent even if I would train here all eternity?¡± ¡°HAHAHA Well said but it¡¯s not exactly true. If your swordsmanship was truly well and not trained only for 2 weeks, if your enemy was paralyzed or was immobile and could not attack you or if you prepared some traps beforehand than you would had some chances¡± **** This didn¡¯t looked good he had no skills or poison to paralyze his enemy and obviously he didn¡¯t put any traps beforehand. There was only one way he could win this fight. By immobilizing his enemy. There was only one move he came up with which could work. It wasn¡¯t well trained but he didn¡¯t have time waste battle chaos was already ending as running away greenhorns were massacred by stairs guards. Hetman seen how his opponent started his trust and knew this was now or never. He made small sidestep to evade upcoming sword but was slightly too slow and blade grazed his right forearm. The next move was straight like from judo. He caught enemy hand and in the same time pulled enemy hand and tripped him. While his opponent was lying face to the ground Hetman sat on his back and started stabbing him without mercy till his enemy didn¡¯t turned grey and disappeared. Tring
Level up
Level up
Skill learned [quart=Skill Name,Skill Level]Skill Rank,Skill Expirience[/quart] [quart=Trip-Pasive skill,1]Beginer,2%[/quart]
Increase chance for trips to leave enemy without balance +1%
Skill learned [quart=Skill Name,Skill Level]Skill Rank,Skill Expirience[/quart] [quart=Stab-Active,1]Beginer,4%[/quart]
Increase pierce type damage +30% stamina cost 80
You have been marked as PK
He took advantage of him being steal unspotted and quickly hide behind casket with Djinn sculpture as it was the nearest one. Soon battle ended. Beginners were mercilessly massacred. ¡°Great job boys we just defended catacombs of Ferion family against 40 dangerous bandits. I¡¯m sure that grateful Ferion family will pay us a lot for such feat. Ok get the loot you want and let¡¯s get out of here¡± Silent Owl guild used them. Hetman couldn¡¯t believe it. He now seen how na?ve they were going out of city and completely trusting Remir and his guild. When the sound of steeps faded away, light from stones also started to dim soon Hetman was alone in the dark dome. He was lucky as in his pair it was him who carried the torch. Now thanks to that he had at least a little bit of light. When he was getting up from behind of casket He spotted there small switch. Hetman pushed by curiosity decided to see what will happened when he will flip it. From the coffin came horrible noise as stone lid started to open. From the casket came cloud of dust and for second Hetman couldn¡¯t see anything. When the dust finally steeled inside where only small book. How to survive in forest Hetman decided to get out of the mound as fast as he can. From actions of Silent Owl guild it was obvious their ¡°catacombs cleaning quest¡± was taking place quiet often. It was good idea to be far away from here before they come back. Of course before getting out he checked every coffin for hidden switches but none except the one with djinn sculpture seemed to have one. He was also little bit scared if he will be able to get outside mound, but fortunately the copper doors weren¡¯t designed to keep people inside. Locking mechanism was hard to open from outside but from inside there wasn¡¯t even need of special tools to do so. ¡°Ok I¡¯m outside, but how I will get to the Windport¡± he wondered The road to catacombs was easy. Animals were afraid to attack group of 80 players also then he was guided there. Now Hetman had to find way back to the city himself. The worst thing was that he was alone. Only one player in forest full of wolfs packs, bears, boars and who knows what else. The weakest creature here were foxes level 5-8 which was two times bigger than his 3 levels. Wondering what to do Hetman remembered he still hadn¡¯t checked the book he found inside catacombs.
Incomprehensible book
Small book written in language you don¡¯t know ( description can change depending on knowledge)
It looked like he didn¡¯t know right language to read the book. ¡°I will have to visit library to get more information, but for now I should concentrate on how to get outside of this forest. If I remember correct this way should lead to the Windport¡± Talking to himself Hetman entered the bushes. Forest looked like maze and after while he in his mind appeared doubts ¡°Haven¡¯t I pass this tree 15 minutes ago¡±. To Hetman, kid who was brought up inside city where the nearest thing to forest were parks trees didn¡¯t different from each other too much. Of course he knew that there are many kinds of them like oak or pine but to distinguish between two similar in size and structure was impossible for him. Also it didn¡¯t help that treetops blocked most of the light and visibility. Without proper constant points in sight Hetman couldn¡¯t keep walking straight and started making circles. This kind of aimless wandering lasted for two hours. It was stopped by window informing Hetman about his satiety bar was dangerously low. Wanting to check how long he could last without the food he decided to look at this more closely. From information he deduced that his food supply will probably last for 6 days more. However this information almost instantly lost its importance after he seen that his status window went from blue to red and next to his name appeared words Player Killer. ¡°Ah, I got this after killing this guy inside the dome¡± he recalled This complicated case. In most case people with PK marks were treated like players worst enemies. They were killed on spot and what worse killing them not only didn¡¯t gave negative effects but even gave special bonuses. ¡°Information about PK mark¡±
Player Killer mark
Player Killer mark is given to players who killed another gamer. It will last from two weeks up depending on number of killed players and infamy. This time can be reduced or increased depending on player actions. Good deeds can shorten it while bad will make it longer. There are few exceptions in which player after killing other gamer will not receive PK mark. At war, in arena and defending quests. Players with PK marks will receive less EXP from fights with creatures, will be attacked in cities and get two times bigger death penalty. They will also get More EXP from PK and get higher chances to get good loot from players.
The repercussions for PK were serve but didn¡¯t differed too much from other games. For high level players it could be even more effective to PK then do quests and clear dugongs. To Hetman the most important information was about how long the mark will last. Two weeks wasn¡¯t too long but for greenhorn to survive outside the city for two full weeks wasn¡¯t easy. He didn¡¯t have decent equipment, not enough food and didn¡¯t know how to fight with monsters inside forest. The worst thing was he didn¡¯t have any safe point to rest. Simply speaking Hetman chances to survive were slim. I cannot panic now. I need to stay calm. There must be a way. Thoughts like that were flying through Hetman had but they didn¡¯t have much effect. Even the opposite he was so concerned about staying calm that he didn¡¯t notice wolf that appeared before him. Hetman saw the wolf when it was almost too late. Wolfs as animals hunting in groups didn¡¯t attack alone. They attack in packs from 3 to even 20. This was small pack made from only 3 wolfs. Their attack formation was simple and effective. While one was distracting pray from the front two other were attacking from blind points on sides. Hetman wasn¡¯t surprised by the enemy in the front as he didn¡¯t even notice him. What surprised him was growl from behind. Hearing it he dashed to the front like mad man and tackled the one at front. Wolfs didn¡¯t except such possibility for them prey just a second ago was so scared that it couldn¡¯t even move and now without any kind of warning it attacked one of them. Even if it wasn¡¯t planned Hetman tackled down front wolf. Before enemy could get up Hetman glimpsed his surrounding and at least understood situation he was into. Sudden felling of terror for millisecond took control of his body but this made his adrenal brands to relies huge dose of adrenaline. Time suddenly slowed down and his body felt light and unrealistic. Hetman took knife and priced lying wolf, then he started to run away from two who were behind him. Wolfs are animal designed to long distant runs. So it isn¡¯t strange that game which prided itself in making game 99% realistic programed animals in consultation with specialist. This ensured that they will resemble original ones not only from look but also in actions. Wolfs started chasing their pray. Their run wasn¡¯t too long as Hetman almost in place turned around and once again attacked wolfs from surprise. This time his attack was intentional and much quicker. Tackled wolf was in second pierced at neck and two times and chest. Hetman once again didn¡¯t gave chance for the last wolf to counterattack and started running away planning to repeat whole tactic. However this time not everything went as he planned. When he turned around to tackle down the last wolf, it jumped at him ready to bite. Hetman didn¡¯t know that monsters and NPCs in ¡°Age of Champions could learn. This wolf two times seen how his packs members were killed and didn¡¯t want to repeat their mistakes. Hetman seeing wolf charging at him ready to bite him managed in last moment stop his own tackle. This didn¡¯t protect him from collision but saved his life as fangs missed him. Unfortunately this time situation was reversed. It was hetman who was lying on earth and wolf was ready to deliver finishing blow. This what was going in Hetman head couldn¡¯t be described with words. Thousand memories were going through his head. Some could say that all life flew before his eyes but it was only his brain who didn¡¯t different between VR and RL danger looking for the way to survive. Their it was the memory that could save him. It was from some old nature film where they were talking about wolfs. Lector with monotonous voice was talking about pack chasing lone dear. How wolfs could run after it for days without rest, how they circled prey and attack from blind spots and finally how they in 90% of situation wolfs ended their prey life crushing tracheas with their fangs. Knowing where wolf will probably attack Hetman thrust place were wolf head will probably be during attack. It was critical hit and wolf motionless body fell to the ground.
Level up
Level up
Tackle down skill learned
Passive-Skill that increase success chance of tackling down enemy. The rate of success depends on the weight of enemy and yours (heavier you are easier it is to make enemy fell)
Beginner level 1 7%
Dangerously low level of satiety. Stamina regeneration stopped, health regeneration stopped. If satiety bar will reach 0 you will start lose health
Hetman quickly took some hardtacks from his back pack and started eating. Next he checked if wolfs left some loot. Their bodies didn¡¯t disappear right away like bodies of players, so hetman decided to try skinning and dressing killed animals. This didn¡¯t went well as most of leather was full of the holes but at least he had more food to eat. After doing this hetman started thinking about some kind of shelter. It was almost 7 pm and soon it will get dark. During night monsters are stronger and more aggressive. The first idea which came to Hetman mind was typical hut, but this project wouldn¡¯t secure him from attack of wildlife. He decided to make kind of burrow and mask it. Using his hands and knife hetman dug a hole in the small hill. It was big enough for grown up man. Next using sticks and wolf leather he made lid which he masked to look like the rest of the forest. When he ended building his shelter it was already dark so Hetman quickly hide himself inside burrow and log out. Bart got out of capsule and headed straight to the kitchen. After few hours of playing he was terribly hungry. On the freezer he found small note from his mom that diner is inside and that she with his father will come back around 8 pm. It was already past 4 pm so he decided to wait for his parents to return home. After he ate diner Bart started writing with friend. John was his best friend since kindergarten. They decided to play the game together. John67 ¡°How¡¯s the game¡± Bart15 ¡°fine but I need little bit rest and how is yours¡± John67 ¡°I have level30 shadowmonk¡± Bart15 ¡°secret class¡± Bart15 ¡° ? ¡° John67 ¡° yes found it by accident. Low defence but attacks bypass defence and have a lot of debuffs¡± John67 ¡°how¡¯s your character¡± Bart15 ¡° I¡¯m level 5 and still classless¡± John67 ¡°You s*ck in this game¡± Bart15 ¡° I spend a lot of time on the plains that¡¯s why¡± A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. John67 ¡°Don¡¯t try to make excuses for your second-rate game skills¡± Bart15 ¡°I defeated you in every MMO we played and you still say this nonsense¡± John67 ¡°But this game is different you use body and your level shows you simply suck¡± Bart15 ¡° I will kick your ass again as soon we will met in game. Do you have same nick as always¡± John67 ¡°Yes I do and you won¡¯t stand a chance¡± John67 ¡°Ok I have to go, later¡± Around 9 pm Bart once again logged to ¡°Age of Champions¡±. In mean time he looked for useful information. Most of the things he found on forums about game didn¡¯t gave him any chance of survival. But this wasn¡¯t only source of information source he looked in. After encounter with wolfs he understood that in game animals actions are based on this in real life so if he will know how to take care of them RL it will be easier in VR. He looked in few survival sites and found some useful tips how to run away from animals, how to avoid encountering them, or how humans hunted them. Hetman was still inside burrow he made earlier. It looked like he could at least make himself small safe point where animals wouldn¡¯t attack his motionless body when he was offline. When he got out from his hideout the sun had already past the highest point but to nightfall were still 5 -6 hours. After Hetman ate to refill satiety bar, he decided to use this remaining time to explore the nearest surrounding. To not get lost again he marked trees. It was simple arrow symbol with each arrow pointing the way he came from but it served its purpose of not getting lost. This time Hetman tried to make as little noise as he could. From survival books he knew that wolfs rarely attack humans. They do so only when they are extremely hungry or feel endangered. This could mean that he had simply bad luck encountering pack fulfilling such conditions or in game animals were much more ferocious and aggressive then real life one. After 5 hours of such exploration Hetman got back to his starting point earth mound. It was already getting dark so he once again dug small burrow and hide in it. The next day Hetman waited hidden near the tomb and wait to check if Silent Owl guild would appear there. After wandering inside forest for so long, he knew that getting outside without help will be impossible. Around 3 pm the same day Silent Owl guild appeared once again. Like previously they brought with them some greenhorns. After small speech from leader whole group entered inside and after fifteen minutes only half returned. ¡°Ok check if everybody is present I don¡¯t want to be informed that somebody is missing before town gate like previously.¡± From afar Hetman heard Remir voice. ¡°Yep everybody is present¡± someone answered ¡°Ok let¡¯s go¡± Hetman waited till whole group will disappeared in forest and started to follow them keeping at least 30 meters gap between them. After two hours of following them He got new skill
Stealth
Active - Ability that allows to be unnoticed and hide in shadows 5 stamina points per second
Beginner level 1 23%
Before nightfall he was already at the edge of the forest. City gates where only 2 kilometres before him but because of PK mark he couldn¡¯t get inside yet. ***12 days later*** Hetman didn¡¯t waste last few days he got few new abilities and learned how to fight with different kind of animals. The most effective tactic was to simply get on the tree and from there attack enemies with ranged weapons. Other was to lure animals into earlier prepared pits. One time he even killed bear. He simply gathered a lot of wood before bear liar and lit it. Fire blocked way outside and smoke suffocated the bear inside cave. Now after two weeks of this survival camp where he fought against much stronger then himself enemies, where he couldn¡¯t get help from others. Hetman abilities rose once again. ¡°Show status window, skill window, knowledge window and traits window¡± [quart=Name,Alignment]Hetman,Neutral[/quart] [quart=Fame,Infamy]0,100[/quart] [quart=Level,Class]23,N/A[/quart] [quart=Race,Gender]Human,Male[/quart] [quart=Title, Stats Points]Scholar,110[/half0] [quart=Health, Health Regeneration]100,1/min[/quart] [quart=Mana Pool, Mana Absorption]100,1/min[/quart] [quart=Stamina, Stamina Regeneration]100,1/minute[/quart] [quart=Strenght,Agility]10,10[/quart] [quart=Vitality,Physical Fitness]10,10[/quart] [quart=Inteligence,Wisdom]10,10[/quart] [quart=Leadership,Luck]0,10[/quart] [quart=Atack,Defense]10,0[/quart]
Status Window
Magical Resistance Fire: 0% Water: 0% Wind: 0% Earth: 1% Holly: 0% Darkness: 0%
[quart=Skill Name,Skill Level]Skill Rank,Skill Expirience[/quart][quart=Trip-Pasive,1]Beginer,2%[/quart][quart=Tackle Down-Pasive,3]Beginer,43%[/quart][quart=Stealth-Active,6]Beginer,12%[/quart][quart=Stab-Active,3]Beginer,27%[/quart][quart=Sear Throw-Active,5]Beginer,71%[/quart][quart=Polearm Weapons Mastery-Pasive,4]Beginer,2%[/quart][quart= knife Mastery -Pasive,1]Beginer,54%[/quart][quart= Thrown Weapons Mastery -Pasive,4]Beginer,83%[/quart][quart= Dig-Pasive,6]Beginer,37%[/quart][quart=Trapping -Pasive,3]Beginer,95%[/quart][quart= Skinning and Dressing -Pasive,2]Beginer,98%[/quart]
Skill Window
Trip
Increase chance for trips to leave enemy without balance(+0,5% for every beginner level)
Tackle Down
Skill that increase success chance of tackling down enemy(+0,5% for every beginner level). The rate of success depends on the weight of enemy and yours (heavier you are easier it is to make enemy fell)
Stealth
Ability that allows to be unnoticed and hide in shadows(+1% for being unnoticed in shadow) 1 stamina points per second
Stab
Increase pierce type damage +35% Stamina cost 70
Spear Throw
Increase pierce type damage of thrown spear weapons +42,5% Stamina cost 60
Polearm Weapons Mastery
Increase damage and speed of polearms weapons +8% damage, +4% speed
Knife Mastery
Increase damage and speed of knifes +1% damage, +2% speed
Thrown Weapons Mastery
Increase damage and speed of thrown weapons +8% damage, +4% speed
Dig
Increase speed and reduce stamina cost of digging +12% speed, -6% stamina cost
Trapping
Increase damage of made traps and decrees chances of spotting them +6% damage, -3% spotting chance
Skinning and Dressing
Increase quality of skinning leather and quantity of dressing meat from killed monsters +4% to skinning good leather, +4% to quantity of meat
[quart=Knowledge Name,Knowledge Level]Knowledge Rank,Knowledge Progress[/quart] [quart=Animal Anatomy,2]beginner,98%[/quart][quart=Human Language,1]C1,12%[/quart][quart=Polearm fighting tactics,4]Beginner, 83%[/quart][quart=knife fighting tactics,4]Beginner, 83%[/quart]
Knowledge Window
Knowledge how animal body is build. The more you know about animal anatomy the easier it is to spot their week points and better are you in skinning and dressing animal. You know anatomy of: wolfs, boars, bears, snake, dear, rabbit, fox
Ability to speak and read in human language. You are able to understand 99% words in human language
The more tactics you know the easier it is to adapt to situation Known tactics: ¡±Advantage of reach¡±
The more tactics you know the easier it is to adapt to situation Known tactics: ¡±Dash and stab¡±
Trait Window
Trait NameTrait Description
Humans VersatilityYou are able to learn any skill and don¡¯t have pros and cons in any
Right HandedYour right side of body is stronger and faster than left Offhand weapon -30% in attack, -15% in speed
DiggerDue to constant digging you have more magical resistance toward earth +1% earth magic resistance
I want a class Hetman went inside Windport. At first was worried of guards. He didn¡¯t have PK mark any longer, but still didn¡¯t feel comfortable. Guards didn¡¯t stop him and he headed city marked. He had a lot of loot. Most of it were poor quality leather and some meet which hadn¡¯t rotten yet. He didn¡¯t get fortune but got little bit over 50 silver. Hetman wanted to spend them right now on new equipment. His old one was not only without any defence or benefits but also after two weeks in forest was completely worn out. What stopped him was his classless status. Without proper class he couldn¡¯t knew on where to put status points and what kind of armour buy. Hetman went straight to the information guild. When he started playing his class aim was clear but now his decision wasn¡¯t so simple. His playing style was different than he imaged it would. His swordplay wasn¡¯t bad but his abilities weren¡¯t enough to fight whit many players or stronger monsters. Most of times he used tricks or traps. That¡¯s why he didn¡¯t go straight to warrior guild and get swordsman or weapons master class. The class system in ¡°Age of Champions¡± was little different from most RPG games. At the beginning one had to choose guild which suited one the most. Then pass their beginner training on which one would get fundamental skills of that guild and stats points. Then they would be granted basic class of that guild. To advance theirs class they had to have proper level, skills and guild contribution. If they fulfilled this criteria, they had to pass another more specialized training on which they would again get some stat points and skills. For example let take mage guild. If one passed their beginner training they would get Mage class, some Int and Wis points and one or two spells. After that if he would get at least five fire based spells, fire affinity over 10% and over 100 points in Wis and Int one was allowed to participate in Fire Mage training. If he passed this training one would get Fire Mage class another stats points and fire manipulation skill. Then if he would fulfilled another requirements one could get different classes like Hellfire Mage, Fire Sage or Frozen Flame Mage. The number of class advancements one person could go through was not known. To choose proper Hetman decided to head to the information guild. Information guild building was near main plaza. After Hetman went inside he saw few boxes. Each was separated from another by wooden wall and next to it sat consulting NPC. Hetman walked to free box. ¡°Hello could you help me with my class choice?¡± He asked the women. ¡°Of course please touch this crystal and say analyse¡± After Hetman done that crystal colour changed. Before it was transparent and now it was dark green. ¡°Green colour means you are most suited to classes from explorers guild. It is guild which concentrate on classes that allows to survive in wildlife and discover new places no matter how hard environments one has to overcome to get there. You can get there many different classes from hunter and beast master which concentrate on fights to many kinds of gatherer classes. Those this guild suit you or do you want to make some future examinations ?¡± Hetman was little surprised by what the women told him. He knew he probably wouldn¡¯t get warrior class but he suspected some kind of rough one like thief or assassin. What he was proposed with was something he didn¡¯t even consider before. ¡°I wanted some close combat class¡± Hetman said ¡°Explorer guild have big variety of classes. It¡¯s true that most of them aren¡¯t concentrated on close combat but they have their own advantages maybe even more suitable for your fighting style.¡± ¡°Are there some trap based classes in explorer guild?¡± He asked ¡°There are quiet few who use traps. Trapper use them even as main weapons, while many classes like hunters or nomads use them to weaken enemies or as wide range attacks against weaker monsters.¡± ¡°So where can I find explorer guild headquarter¡± After Hetman walked outside he headed to market again to buy equipment more suitable for his level.
Warm leather breaches
Defence: 2 Durability: 40/40 Cold resistance increased: 2% In this breaches you wont get cold easy. It have plenty of pockets.
Warm leather shirt
Defence: 2 Durability: 40/40 If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.Cold resistance increased: 2% In this shirt you wont get cold easy. It have plenty of pockets.
Warm leather gloves
Defence: 1 Durability: 20/20 Cold resistance increased: 1% In this gloves you wont get cold easy.
Wide collar leather cloak
Defence: 1 Durability: 20/20 Cold resistance increased: 1% In this cloak you wont get cold easy. It have plenty of pockets.
Sturdy leather boots
Defence: 2 Durability: 40/40 Cold resistance increased: 1% In this boots you wont get cold easy.
leather belt
Defence: 0 Durability: 20/20 It keep your pants on your butt.
Warm leather hat
Defence: 1 Durability: 20/20 Cold resistance increased: 1% In this hat you wont get cold easy.
You wore warm traveller clothes
+2% Cold Resistance +1 Defence +1 Physical Fitness
It wasn¡¯t the best equipment for his level but he couldn¡¯t afford better one also it had the highest cold resistance and cold gave him biggest discomfort in forest. After Hetman equipped items he had bought, he headed to outskirts of the city. ¡°Man your equipment rock¡± he heard someone talk ¡°You know I¡¯m in Silent Owl¡­¡± Hearing it Hetman turned around. ¡°¡­and with guild leader plans we earn tons of gold with minimal efforts. Thanks to ours last week actions we were able to earn true fortune. We made a deal with some rich family to protect their catacombs. For every killed thief we got 10 gold. Normally no one would attack catacombs but we were bringing there greenhorns. When they entered without permission or quest they were marked as thieves and from killing them we didn¡¯t even get PK mark.¡± ¡°You tell me you earned 70 gold last week for killing noobs, why did you stop¡± ¡°Unfortunately not 70 but 35 because we give half to our guild and we stopped to not to make bad fame. Also more and more players knew of our little trick and warned greenhorns.¡± After Hetman overheard this conversation he resumed his walk towards explorer guild headquarter. It was situated at the other side of Windport then the gate he entered to the city this morning so walk was long. It took him 4 hours but he finally got there. ¡°Hello I would like to join the guild¡± Hetman said to the man at the lobby. ¡°Hello. To join our guild you have at first to pass our beginner training after which you will be fully fledged explorer. Participating fee is 10 silver the nearest training session will begin in three days and will last a month. Do you want to sign up now ?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry I don¡¯t have right now 10 silver with me ¡° Hetman thanked the man and walked outside. He spend 46 silver on his new equipment and had left only 6. He needed to find job. Its time to work Windport was magnificent city. It was built on hexagon plan. Each of six triangles building the pentagram had different inhabitants and purpose. Most southerly one was designed for royal family and royal court members. There were placed the most luxurious residences royal palace. More on west from royal triangle was placed the shopping district. There one could buy the highest grade items from all around the world. Also there lived and worked the best craftsman and artist in city. At the east from royal triangle were placed guild and culture buildings. Each human guild had there its own headquarter and library. There were also restaurants, expensive hotels, museums, temples, theatres and operas. At the tree north triangles were placed less representative buildings. Most of them were used as accommodation for poorer citizens. There was also some inns and less renowned workshops. Most of people living there worked inside the city as servants inside households or low-skilled workers. There were also many thieves and scammers. It middle of hexagon was main plaza. Whole city was surrounded by walls and royal palace had its own walls. Hetman job hunting started by going back to information guild headquarter. Windport was too big for people to look for work going from shop to shop. That¡¯s why most of the NPC looking for employs post their job offers inside information guild. The board was filled with lot of different adverts, announcements and of course job offers. Hetman couldn¡¯t decide which to choose. He not only wanted to gain money he needed to enrol for training, he also wanted to gain at least one useful ability like cooking or tailoring. Offers as such were hard to find. Most craftsmen looked for workers with at least beginner skill level in their field. It was stalemate. Even though situation looked miserable Hetman after some searching found the offer which matched his needs. He simply had to supply inn with meat. What made Hetman be interested in this offer was reward. It wasn¡¯t money but ¡°possibility to learn cooking skills¡±. This kind of deal may look like scam but it wasn¡¯t bad. This was because in Age of Champions one couldn¡¯t learn skills by skill book. One had either to train by yourself which could take week or more to get skill or by training under someone who could give you tips which decrease time in which one gain skill to half week. It was huge difference in time. The inn to which Hetman went was known for its bad reputation. It was not that one never know what will happen. Simply putting one always knew what will happened there. Brawls and thievery were the most common. Town guards didn¡¯t even bother to stop fights in the pub as it was too dangerous and hadn¡¯t brought any effects. Unfortunately Hetman didn¡¯t know about it. The inn was in poor state. Furniture didn¡¯t look good and few people that were inside had severe atmosphere. ¡°Hello, I came in relation with job offer¡± Hetman said to the inn keeper. ¡°What job offer¡± ¡°From information guild¡± ¡°Oh I completely forgot about it. I need at least 30 kilograms of meat every day, then if you bring it you can learn cooking from me. For how many days can you work?¡± ¡°Only for three days, by the way my name is Bart¡± ¡°I don¡¯t care what your name is¡± keeper said giving Hetman some papers ¡°here sign contract and bring me my meat¡± For what are contracts one could ask. Explanation is quiet simple in Age of Champions there are two kinds of missions: normal quests which are ranked from H to SSS and jobs which are not ranked. Quests are secured by in games measures but jobs aren¡¯t and for that are contracts. If one break contract he have to pay compensation or he will be treated as a criminal. The contract that inn keeper gave Hetman to sign was typical. It stated that Hetman will provide inn with 30 kilograms of meat for 3 days and have to learn from inn keeper cooking. He quickly sign up contract and went out of the city to hunt. He had a lot of experience in hunting but he hadn¡¯t too much time to fulfil today quota. Hunting went fast but the preparations before took 2 hours. To get needed meat Hetman used his old tactic of luring wolfs to earlier prepared area. Like before he dug some pits, masked them and lured wolfs there. This way he got not only meat but also some furs which he planned to sold. The bad thing was it took him too much time. When he was getting back it was already 10 p.m. and he hopped that bringing meat so late won¡¯t bring any troubles. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°Where have you been lad, I¡¯ve been waiting whole day for this meat and you are still supposed to do your work in kitchen.¡± Keeper said when Hetman entered the inn. ¡°I took some time but still I kept the deal¡± ¡°Not completely you still have to work in kitchen for me¡± ¡°Not work but learn¡± ¡°But as my apprentice and as my apprentice you will start from pealing potatoes in my kitchen. So get to the work.¡± ¡°What?!¡± ¡°You signed the contract and I assume you can read so it shouldn¡¯t be so shocking for you. There is clearly said you have to learn from me for three days.¡± Hetman took out his copy of contract and once again read it. For his bad luck inn keeper was telling the truth. He didn¡¯t have choice if he didn¡¯t work he would had to pay repercussions. ¡°And now if you could simply go to the kitchen and start your learning I would be delighted. Eh you where do you think you are taking out this sword.¡± inn keeper said taking out bat and walking toward some commotion inside the inn. Hetman without the choice went to the kitchen. It was small room with one window from witch one could see small upkeep garden. Near the window was chair and bucket with potatoes. Hetman took some knife which and started pealing vegetables. Of course he was doing it left-handed. He was training his left hand for almost 2 month in game time and his abilities with it rose. In that kind of manner Hetman spend the next 3 days. At first he was furious at inn keeper for tricking him but after some thoughts he didn¡¯t see it as the worst thing that could happened to him. Even if Hetman didn¡¯t have too much free will to act he still was doing what he planned to do. He was learning some skill from inn keeper and earned money by sealing furs. He didn¡¯t earn fortune but 2,5 silver per day was enough for him to gather 13,5 silver before the day of training starts. Hetman was guessing that innkeeper was retired soldier. This assumption came from innkeeper fighting skills which were often put to test by fights inside bar and stories of grand battles which he often was telling but hetman wasn¡¯t 100% sure as inn keeper never confirmed this. Finally when Hetman contract ended he had enough money to pay for training at explorer guild. Unfortunately it turned out he didn¡¯t spend enough time inside the kitchen to earn cooking skill. ¡°So you are going to join explorer guild¡± Inn keeper said ¡°Yes it seems they are most suitable for me. At least according to information guild.¡± Answered Hetman. He after work in inn had more respect toward inn keeper. ¡°Information guild rarely makes mistakes and from the way you were hunting I see their advice is good. I will for free give you my own advice, during war if you fight against stronger enemy the most efficient strategy is guerrilla warfare. As you will get explorer class your close combat skills won¡¯t be as good as people with combat classes. You should use every advantage you have and your biggest advantage for you as explorer will be the terrain so learn to use it as well as you can. Now get out of my inn if don¡¯t won¡¯t anything¡± ¡°Ok thank you sir¡± Hetman went to the main plaza to refiled his canteen and bought some hardtacks. He also bought few meters of rope. After this shopping he had 11 silver and went straight to the explorer guild. ¡°Hello I would like to sign up to the guild¡± Hetman said as he entered explorer guild ¡°Of course. You have to pay 10 silver training fee and go through that door.¡± The man said pointing the doors at the end of hallway Hetman quickly put the money at the desk and took receipt which confirms that he paid the fee. He was just about to enter through the door when he heard similar conversation to the one he had just a second ago. He turned around and saw somebody else was also signing up to the explorer guild. The man he saw carried small axe and except that wore only the beginner cloths. Only after he had finished formalities with receptionist and come closer Hetman realized that the men was easily exceeded 2 meters and 10 centimetres and what Hetman took as small axe turned out to be huge two handed one. ¡°Hello. You also sign up for training?¡± the giant asked ¡°Yes my name is Hetman¡± ¡°I am Metar, so are we walking in or are you so shocked about my height¡± ¡°Yes let¡¯s enter¡± Theoretical knowledge Hetman and Metar entered to library. Library was not small room. It had at least 500 m2 and everywhere one looked were bookshelves except small space with tables. At the table were sitting group of 9 people. Half of them wore beginners clothes so it was easy to guess they were players. The other half wore commoner clothes or leather armors so they probably were either NPC or players who bought some basic equipment. ¡°Please sit down¡± said man in leather armor. ¡°Ok since we have 10 people we can begin your training¡± He was talking while Hetman and Metar walked to the tables. ¡°My name is Wilhelm Sung and I¡¯m the person in charge of your training for Explorers¡± he introduced himself ¡°Before you start asking questions I will give you some basic information about class you will receive after this training and can later receive in our guild. Let¡¯s begin with Explorer class, it¡¯s basic class whose main purpose is discovery of new territories. It is well balanced class with basic advantages. Firstly you will receive double advantages from discovering new dungeon and territories, secondly you will get ten stat points in vitality, physical fitness and agility each. As Explorers you will be able to learn combat skills up to advanced level, crafting skills up to intermediate, magic to basic and material gathering skills up to master. Of course universal skills still will be able to be mastered. You will gain proficiency two times faster in gathering and universal skills, two times slower for magic skills and normal speed for rest. Special skills are not defined as each is different. For each point invested in vitality, physical fitness and intelligence you will respectively get 20 in health 20 in stamina and 10 in mana.¡± Information provided by Wilhelm needed basic understanding of skills in Age of Champions. Skills were divided in 6 different categories: combat, magic, crafting, gathering, normal and special. Combat group are skills like sword mastery or rapid strikes. Magic skills are like fireball or fire manipulation. Crafting skills are skills that allows to produce new items from raw materials like blacksmiths. Gathering skills are skills which help to gather resources like mining. Normal skills increase capabilities of bodies and mind like jumping or fast reading. Special skills are the hardest to define as they can be put into many different categories. Example of such skill is sonic slash. This skill allow swordsman to generate ultrasonic wave that will cut enemies in distance by waving his sword. As this skill combine magic and combat skill qualities (consume mana and stamina) it can¡¯t be put in either category. Also each class group get little bit different bonuses from 3 basic: stats vitality, physical fitness and intelligence. For example mage with 100 points in Vitality have less health then warrior with 34 point in Vitality. ¡°About equipment you will be able to carry¡­¡± Wilhelm continued ¡°¡­ heavy amours are out of your reach but except that you can use anything you like. I think that this cover everything about you class I had to say so now I will continue with your class perspectives in our guild. Our guild can give you gathering classes like miner, more battle oriented like hunter, even class that allow you to tame wild animals like beast master or tamer. If you would like fight on horse you can become messenger and of course you can also further advance in path of explorer. Each of these classes keep bonuses you will receive from previous one and add new ones. Ok so are there any questions about classes?¡± He ended asking After Wilhelm ended explaining in library regained dead silence but soon one of players asked the question. ¡°What criteria do I have to fulfill to become beast master?¡± ¡°This is question I cannot answer right now but most of class criteria are listed and can be accessible right here in library.¡± ¡°What do you mean by most of classes are listed. Are there some hidden ones?¡± one of players quickly asked. ¡°Yes there are few secret classes that can be given only by specific teachers.¡± ¡°So how will I know that I fulfilled requirements for hidden class?¡± player continued asking ¡°It is quite simple. In every guild building is orb similar to the ones in information guild. If you pay small fee you can use it and it will show you classes available to you in this moment. Even if class is hidden it will be listed if you will fulfill requirements but you should be careful with hidden classes. They are not only harder to get because of hidden requirements but also because they are not given simply after passing training. Some are given after you will do quests for gods or devils other after you will find teacher and pass his trials. Ok any more questions?¡± This time no one had any questions. ¡°I don¡¯t hear any questions so I will proceeded with training. The first part is about theoretical knowledge. What you need to do is in week time read books I had prepared for you on this table and pass the test. See you in week time and good luck¡± Wilhelm said and left. Hetman immediately picked up his pile of books and went to quieter part of library. He sit down and scanned books he had to read. There were 10 in total but they were rather thin. What draw his attention was topic books had. There were 3 books which concentrated on flora, fauna and geography of Aerian Empire. They were the thicker. One book about cartography. One about survival techniques. Next was about how to take care of minor injuries. One was map of the sky. There were also two books about basics of dwarven and elven language. Lastly there was a journal of some explorer about how he got to the peak of the nearest mountain. The books had from 100 to 150 pages except the ones about Aerien Empire which had 300 and in prologue were mentioned that they will only mention the most common creatures and animals. To The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.Hetman who liked reading it was amount he would be able to read in 30-35 hours but to learn it would take two times more time so he started right now. As Hetman started reading Metar walked to his table. ¡°Can I join?¡± He asked ¡°Sure¡± ¡°They gave us a lot to read¡± ¡°Yes, but it is only some basic information needed to survive in wild and find way back to civilization¡± ¡°Really, I see here only some useless academical knowledge and one adventure book¡± Metar complained ¡°I would suggest you to start with adventurer book but don¡¯t simply read it but also answer what you would do in each situation he came across on his way¡± Hetman said from his experience. As he spend two week in forest he quickly saw how useful was the information in those books and on what aspects he should concentrate to memorize. After 3 hours of reading Metar had ended reading journal and sighed. ¡°Ok I wouldn¡¯t get lost in the forest as I spend in forests half of my life but still I would die either from animals attacks or because I ate some poisonous plant.¡± After this short sentence both Hetman and Metar resumed reading. After next 5 hours Hetman logged out. Bart went out of the capsule and looked at the watch he was inside the game for three hours and his body was stiff. He went to the kitchen and took out frozen pizza from freezer. He put it into microwave and went back to his room. Waiting for the computer to turn on he eat already half of the pizza. As usual he scaned for some new information about the game on forums and checked his email. He go new mail. It was from one of the places he send his CV. They invited him for job interview in the Monday and asked confirmation. It was small shop so he didn¡¯t had to prepare himself a lot for this interview. Bart wrote short mail confirming he will go for interview and logged back. The next few in game days Hetman was reading and repeating material for the test. When the day of test finally come, Wilhelm appeared once more in library. The test was bit different from what hetman was expecting. He was guessing he will either be answering some questions or write the test but it was much simpler. He was only asked to show his knowledge window. Without Hetman noticing he gained new knowledge. [quart=Knowledge Name,Knowledge Level]Knowledge Rank,Knowledge Progress[/quart] [quart=Monsterology,9]Beginner,99%[/quart][quart=Botany,9]beginner, 99%[/quart][quart=Elven Language,3]A1,76%[/quart][quart=Dvarven Language,3]A1,83%[/quart][quart=Human Language,1]C1,12%[/quart][quart=Geography,1]Beginner,89%[/quart][quart=First Aid Knowledge,7]Advanced,32%[/quart][quart=Survival Knowledge,7]Beginner,45%[/quart][quart=Polearm fighting tactics,4]Beginner, 83%[/quart][quart=knife fighting tactics,4]Beginner, 83%[/quart]
Knowledge Window
Knowledge how creature body is build and its behavior. The more you know about Monsterology the easier it is to spot their week points and better are you in skinning and dressing creature. You know anatomy of: 84 creatures You know behavior of: 84 creatures
Knowledge about use and occurrence of plants You know use of: 67 plants You know occurrence of :67 plants
Ability to speak and read in human language. You are able to understand numbers and basic words in elven language
Ability to speak and read in human language. You are able to understand numbers and basic words in dwarven language
Ability to speak and read in human language. You are able to understand 99% words in human language
Geography allows you to know where you currently are. Better orientation in the field. You know basic geography of Aerian Empire, how to find a way using stars.
Knowledge how to take care of minor injuries.
Knowledge about how to survive in adverse condition.
The more tactics you know the easier it is to adapt to situation Known tactics: ¡±Advantage of reach¡±
The more tactics you know the easier it is to adapt to situation Known tactics: ¡±Dash and stab¡±
Hetman gained new knowledge and his animal anatomy transformed to monsterolgy. He of course passed the test, as Metar did but except from them only 2 more players could advance further. The reason for this was simple they didn¡¯t study at all as they don¡¯t play this game to read books. ¡°Congratulations to everyone that passed the first test. 3 more and you will officially be part of Explorer guild and get explorer class. Now lets go to the training grounds.¡± Race starts Those who passed the test where quickly brought to the training ground of adventure guild. Training grounds where located on the back courtyard. Against the wall was long table and there where lying down different kinds of medieval weapons starting from bows and ending on pickaxes. ¡°Hello everyone.¡± It was once again Wilhelm who brought theme to training grounds and was in charge of their second exam. ¡°I see some of your colleagues didn¡¯t pass previous test and aren¡¯t with us right now. I hope everyone of you understand importance of preparations. It¡¯s important to have skills and equipment but even more important is to have knowledge. What you gained in the previous week is precisely knowledge. This week you will be gaining skills which will allow you to survive in the harsh environment outside of the gates. As explorers you will go to most dangerous parts of the world to gather resources or simply explore new places. To do so you will need to have abilities to defend yourself against any threat. In the next week I expect you to gain two different weapon masteries on level beginner 1 or one at level beginner 3. The weapons you see at the table are at your disposal for the next week, I would also advice checking guild library for guides. Do you have any questions?¡± ¡°I already have two weapon masteries¡± Hetman said ¡°If you already have needed skills you are free to do anything you want. All you have to do is to come at the day of the test and your skill window will be checked with everybody else.¡± Wilhelm answered It turned out that except Hetman three other candidates already had needed skills. One player and two NPC. Hetman said good bye to Metar and went outside. He had to decide how to spend his unexpected free time. The most logical way to do so was to get cooking skill which he hoped to get week ago. To do so he once again visited market. This time to check price of cooking utensils. The new ones depending on material they were made from cost from 50 silver to 10 gold coins. The used ones where cheaper but still to buy the cheapest you had to have 20 silver. To gather such a sum Hetman once again had to go hunting. Although gain numbering 3 to 4 silver a day barely made him earn needed sum inside the forest he was gathered many plants which allowed his botany knowledge to reach level intermediate 1. [quart=Botany,1]intermediate, 1%[/quart]
Knowledge about use and occurrence of plants. Known plants are easier to spot. You know use of: 67 plants You know occurrence of :67 plants
His skills also rose significantly but non went to intermediate and his level went up to 27. [quart=Name,Alignment]Hetman,Neutral[/quart] [quart=Fame,Infamy]0,100[/quart] [quart=Level,Class]27,N/A[/quart] [quart=Race,Gender]Human,Male[/quart] [quart=Title, Stats Points]Scholar,130[/half0] [quart=Health, Health Regeneration]100,1/min[/quart] [quart=Mana Pool, Mana Absorption]100,1/min[/quart] [quart=Stamina, Stamina Regeneration]100,1/minute[/quart] [quart=Strength,Agility]10,10[/quart] [quart=Vitality,Physical Fitness]10,10[/quart] [quart=Intelligence,Wisdom]10,10[/quart] [quart=Leadership,Luck]0,10[/quart] [quart=Attack,Defense]10,0[/quart]
Status Window
Magical Resistance Fire: 0% Water: 0% Wind: 0% Earth: 1% Holly: 0% Darkness: 0%
[quart=Skill Name,Skill Level]Skill Rank,Skill Experience[/quart][quart=Trip-Passive,1]Beginner,2%[/quart][quart=Tackle Down-Passive,4]Beginner,23%[/quart][quart=Stealth-Active,7]Beginner,56%[/quart][quart=Stab-Active,3]Beginner,78%[/quart][quart=Sear Throw-Active,8]Beginner,12%[/quart][quart=Polearm Weapons Mastery-Passive,6]Beginner,54%[/quart][quart= knife Mastery -Passive,2]Beginner,54%[/quart][quart= Thrown Weapons Mastery -Passive,7]Beginner,83%[/quart][quart= Dig-Passive,9]Beginner,7%[/quart][quart=Trapping -Passive,6]Beginner,67%[/quart][quart= Skinning and Dressing -Passive,6]Beginner,87%[/quart]
Skill Window
Trip
Increase chance for trips to leave enemy without balance(+0,5% for every beginner level)
Tackle Down
Skill that increase success chance of tackling down enemy(+0,5% for every beginner level). The rate of success depends on the weight of enemy and yours (heavier you are easier it is to make enemy fell)
Stealth
Ability that allows to be unnoticed and hide in shadows(+1% for being unnoticed in shadow) This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.1 stamina points per second
Stab
Increase pierce type damage +37,5% Stamina cost 20
Spear Throw
Increase pierce type damage of thrown spear weapons +50% Stamina cost 15
Polearm Weapons Mastery
Increase damage and speed of polearms weapons +12% damage, +6% speed
Knife Mastery
Increase damage and speed of knifes +2% damage, +4% speed
Thrown Weapons Mastery
Increase damage and speed of thrown weapons +14% damage, +7% speed
Dig
Increase speed and reduce stamina cost of digging +18% speed, -9% stamina cost
Trapping
Increase damage of made traps and decrees chances of spotting them by enemy +12% damage, -6% enemy spotting chance
Skinning and Dressing
Increase quality of skinning leather and quantity of dressing meat from killed monsters +12% to skinning good leather, +12% to quantity of meat
Soon in game week came to the end and Hetman went to the adventures guild to end second phase of training. Everyone formed a line before Wilhelm and where showing him their skill logs. It soon was Hetman turn and without problem he passed second test. This time everybody fulfilled requirements and where qualified to the third and the last part of test. ¡°I¡¯m glad that you all passed second test.¡± Wilhelm said ¡°For the next week you can to do as you want but I would advise you to not venture far from the city as all of you have to be present here to start a race.¡± At this words candidates became more excited ¡°Race will start here at adventure guild and end at the peak of the Forlet mountain. As you probably know from the books we gave you to read it¡¯s little bit over 4000 meter high mountain. The first to top will be given reward and everybody who will make it to the top in week time will be given the class. I hope everyone here will get class.¡± He ended his speech Hetman wanted this special reward and didn¡¯t want leave anything to the chance. So he went to the library to plan way he will take to get to the peak as fast as possible. Shortest way went through forest, it was dangerous road and one could easily get lost in there but it wasn¡¯t anything new to him as he got used to it during his game-play. What¡¯s more soon he wouldn¡¯t get so much time to play as his job was starting soon. Luckily he had quiet flexible working hours. He planned it in such manner that when he would be working in game was night time so he would get as much time in game as he could. Bart first day in work was filled with moving things from one place to other, and helping customers. As he was underage he could work only for 4 hours a day but still he wasn¡¯t used to it and after the first day he was completely worn out. He also talked with his boss to change a little bit his working ours for the next three days. After Bart made needed preparations he entered capsule. He appeared before adventure guild few minutes before the start of the race. Everybody was already there waiting for the race to begin. Soon the announcer came toward Hetman and asked him to write his name in the list of participants. As soon as Hetman signed the announcer started to speak. ¡°As everybody is present before the appointed time I see nothing in the way to start the race earlier so let¡¯s the race begin!¡±