《Imperator》


 Chapter One

    <table><tbody><tr><td>Before you read:


    This is my first fanfic which was loosely used as a rough draft for my FF Reaper which is already submited and has 6 chapters. (or more depending on how long it has been since I uploaded this) This FF, Imperator, has 6 chapters and I will not be making any more. My reasons for uploading this is so I could get feedback on my writing to further improve. It would be great if I could get input as to whether or not there is an improvement between the two FFs. The biggest aspect of my writing I was trying to improve was characterization, which I beleive I have improved on to some degree, although I¡¯m still not happy with it.


    If you have read my FF Reaper then the begining of the first chapter will be very familiar, however, the story line changes dramatically from there on. This FF also has the character Nile which did not appear in Reaper, but will likely be getting his own FF called the Holy Archer. I already have half of the first chapter written. Any input on how to improve the storyline of The Holy Archer would be apprecieated, I plan to keep the plot similar to this FF, but with many changes to improve.


    Side note: I did not know how to make table as of writing this, however, my current FFs do have tables in them.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    -Do you want to connect to Royal Road?-


    "Sure."


    -Welcome to Royal Road. Please select an avatar name.-


    "Baron."


    -What gender would you like: Male, Female, or neutral?-


    "Male"


    -Royal Road has 49 different races. You may choose from the 29 currently available.-


    "What? There are other races?" There was a moment of silence until he realized the AI didn''t have a response. "Show me the other races."


    Seconds later he could see a mirror image of himself standing a few feet away. It represented humans. To the right there were figures representing each race, all resembling himself. Behind each main race were subspecies. Human subspecies included barbarians and giants. To the right was a common elf, and behind it were high elves, wood elves, and dark elves.  The line went on to include all 29 species. Most of the species distorted the users image to the point where they were unrecognizable.


    "Barbarian." The idea of looking anything other than human didn''t appeal to him. However, the barbarian looked identical to himself, only with a bigger build. The giant also looked similar, but the height of 7''6'''' was questionable. The giant also had a much larger gut than the barbarian.


    -Would you like to alter your appearance?-


    "no"


    -Which city would you like to start in? You may choose any major city or capital.-


    "Random city." He didn''t know the name of a city. He didn''t even know this game would be so detailed as to have different races or cities.


    -Randomly chosen city is The Citadel of Sai, Gradian Kingdom. Is that acceptable?-


    "Sure."


    -Your avatar has been created. Welcome to Royal Road.-


    In a flash of white light Baron appeared in the heart of a busy city. Thousands of people could be seen shopping at stands or filling canteens in the fountain. They paid no attention to him as he began stretching and testing out the VR system. It was a common sight.


    ''Is this really virtual reality? I had no idea it would be so realistic.'' As he stretched he could feel his muscles burn like they would in real life. ''Holy shit!''


    The experience of VR left him stricken. For the next 3 hours he just wondered around the market. People could be seen doing everything from forming parties to making and selling weapons. The market was full of people at stands trying to earn a few coppers. Users and NPCs both were shouting out product names and stating they had the best prices.


    "No restriction swords! cheapest you''ll find! 30 coppers!"


    "Custom made leather boots! 3 defense, 17 coppers! You wont find boots so cheap in all of Versailles!


    " I repair weapons and armor cheap!"


    "beginner copper sword! 29 coppers!"


    After sitting there awhile it was easy to tell who was getting ripped off, and who were the best con artists even for someone like him who had never played video games before. Merchants would sell the same item as the person next to them at double the price and still had buyers thinking they were getting a deal. The scams around him further strengthened Baron''s belief that people were naturally stupid. At first he thought the stands around him selling food were scams because what use was food in a game, but After a few hours of walking his satiety had dropped and he came to a realization about the food stands. ''They can''t just make you hungry without giving you food or money for it. Can they?'' Now that he was thinking about it he had overheard some people talking about selling their starter bread. After a minute of experiments he found out how to open his inventory. He had 10 pieces of barley bread and a small canteen. He quickly took out the bread and began eating to quell his hunger. The first bite revealed the flavor of the bread: old, stale, and tasteless. He quickly spat out the bite and emptied his inventory of bread onto the ground. ''Like I would ever eat tasteless shit like that.''  The canteen was useful in rinsing the stale taste from his mouth. He put it back into his inventory and started to walk away. The people around him started laughing and whispering to each other.


    "The fuck you looking at?" At the threat people stopped laughing and seemed slightly taken aback. They could all tell he was a beginner, his actions proved that, however his presence as a barbarian coupled with his menacing attitude gave him the image of someone not to be messed with. All of the higher level users put their hands on their weapons in anticipation. There were a few combat profession users around level 10 in the crowd. Royal Road or RR had just came out less than 2 weeks ago in real life so this was a decent level. The highest leveled players at the time were all tied at 17. Baron decided to ignore them and just walk away. In the process he glanced back at the pile of bread he had dumped. Several beginners were fighting over it. ''Pathetic.''


    The sky began to turn dark as night was getting close. The market was still as loud as ever with thousands of people doing business. He had spent the entire day doing nothing and never bothered to talk to anyone. Even the NPCs that reached out to him offering quests were just ignored. Every couple of hours a system message would pop up saying his satiety levels were dropping. He couldn''t care less about his stats that were falling, but his hunger was becoming unbearable. Without anything to do he had found a spot to sit by the fountain in the heart of the market. He had been sitting there for over an hour just watching the people around him. At what must have been 10 or 11 pm a man in line for one of the nearby food stalls caught his attention. The man in line looked to be in his early teens, a boy really. What caught Barons attention was the bag of coins in the boys back pocket. Unlike most sensible users the boy didn''t leave his money in his inventory. It was a noob mistake that most users would pay dearly for. Baron hurried and got in line behind the boy. In the process he tripped and stumbled into the unsuspecting user. After a quick apology he quietly stood his place in line and waited for his food. The aroma was intoxicating, especially for someone who hadn''t eaten in a day. After 3 minutes it was the boys turn to order.


    "I''ll take a half loaf of barley bread and bowl of that stew." The boy was clearly excited by the tone of his voice. He went to grab his money only to find an empty pocket.


    "That''ll be 5 coppers: 1 for the bread, 2 for the stew, and 2 for the bowl." The stall worker began pouring the stew into a fresh bowl. If he tried to wash the bowls after customers ate then he wouldn''t get the bowls back, so instead he sold a bowl to each new customer. Users that frequented his stall would reuse the bowls and save the 2 coppers. This wasn''t only practical but it gave customers a reason to come back if his cooking skills didn''t. After pouring the stew and cutting the bread he looked up only to find his customer in tears. The boy frantically searched every pocket for the missing money. ''Typical.'' The man thought.


    "Look kid if you don''t have any money you don''t'' get any food. This isn''t some pity service." It may have been cruel but that''s what it takes to stay in business. The boy went through and rechecked each pocket for the missing money. He had just sold all of the loot he got from hunting low level wolves. The hunt had taken nearly 6 hours and his profit from all the loot earned him over 200 coppers. He had planned to use the money to buy decent leather armor for his level. All of his efforts were fruitless and on top of that he was starving and had no money for food.


    "Here''s 5 coppers." Baron took a step forward. He opened his inventory and took out the money. There was 217 coppers in his inventory, so he thought the least he could do is buy the kid some food. The boy surprisingly had manners and referred to his savior as sir when he thanked him, all with tears in his eyes. The stall worker grabbed the 5 coppers and handed the boy his food.


    "That''s a nice thing you did."  Said the cook as the boy walked away with his food.


    "It was nothing. Can I get 2 bowls of that stew?"


    For the next 4 weeks Baron did nothing but sleep, pickpocket and eat. It wasn''t the most exciting lifestyle but it worked. The profits from pick-pocketing were decent. Since he usually targeted beginners it wasn''t always the best payout. Most of the time it was around 20 coppers. 3 of those a day and food was paid for, however he usually stole from upwards of 20. Sometimes he would get people who only had a copper or 2. The most he was able to get was from a merchant. The middle aged man had just spent the day selling goods and was on his way to buy his next stock. He had over 500 coppers in his purse. The money could have been exchanged for silvers, but since the game was new most trades didn''t surpass 100 coppers, so there was no need to switch. The third day after he arrived the amount of guards increased. Pick-pocketing was always a problem, however the amount of incidents had tripled. Most users didn''t have high pick-pocketing skill so they would never risk it in a major city. Because of this crime was low even in the ghettos. The increase in guards didn''t matter. Compared to cops in real life they were much less vigilant and not nearly as intelligent. Pick-pocketing became easier once he got.the skill.


    _______________________________________________________


    Pick-Pocketing: Beginner Level 7 (33%)


    Stealing coppers is now nearly a guarantee. Large or valuable items are now easier to steal.  Beware, users will be hostile if stolen from. Guards may attempt to arrest you. Guards may look the other way if you have increased familiarity or fame.                                                                          _______________________________________________________


    By the end of the 4 weeks Baron had gotten to pick-pocketing beginner level 7. Unknown to him it was the highest in the game. He had gotten the skill after a week and had been leveling it up ever since. Raising his skill level gave him something to relieve the boredom of doing nothing but pick-pocketing for 4 weeks. Every so often he would get a notification saying his dexterity or fame had increased. In the end he gained 42 points of dexterity and 104 points of fame. ''Fame? More like infamy.'' He thought as he checked his stat window. Due to his rising skill in pick-pocketing he also managed to reach level 4. After several hundred people had their money stolen users began to put up their guard. It became much harder when users stopped being careless and started protecting their goods. Baron would often hear people discussing the recent pick-pocketing epidemic. Much to his dismay they would encourage each other to hold their coins close, often times including bystanders in the conversation. The result was an area that was unworkable for several hours. Even still he was able to make 8300 copper (83 silver) by the end of the 4 weeks. By the standards of someone who only then could leave the city he was rich.


    Baron was contemplating whether or not to leave the city. He had no desire to hunt and get stronger, so he figured there was no need. He was sitting near the fountain at the heart of the market. A man walked up and sat next to Baron. The man was very shady looking. He was wearing light leather armor all died black. A black hood covered his face. Several knives and daggers of all sizes were sheathed in various places around his body. On his chest was a small crest of the thieves guild. The crest consisted of two crossed daggers behind a coin purse. The man spoke soft so that only Baron could hear him.


    "To your right, 50 feet away there is a guy in light knights armor and a red shirt. He''s talking to 5 others close to the alley."


    Baron could find the guy easy enough. The guy was a user that looked to be around level 45. He had a decent broad sword on his back, that combined with the fact that he was in a group meant he was the worst possible mark.


    "Fuck off!" Unlike the guy from the thieves guild Baron made no attempt to speak softly.


    "That guy has a document I want. None of my men have the skill to pull of an advanced pickpocket like this. That''s why I came here looking for a little outside help."


    _______________________________________________________


    STEAL THE DOCUMENT


    A representative of the thieves guild has approached you asking for your help stealing a document.


    Difficulty: D


    Rewards: 2 Gold, increased familiarity with the thieves guild


    Requirements: Recognized by the thieves guild as a good pickpocket. The quest fails if you fail to steal the document in 1 hour, are caught stealing it, or die in the process. If the quest fails you will lose reputation as a good thief. The thieves guild will be less likely to hire your services in the future.


    _______________________________________________________


    After reading the quest window Baron started to consider it. The reward was huge. 2 gold was 2 1/2 times what he had earned in 4 weeks of pick-pocketing regular users. In the end his greed clouded his better judgement.


    The mark was the leader of a decent sized guild. The guild had 25 members and had earned a reputation in the local hunting grounds. At the moment the guild leaders were having a meeting. The had just finished hunting and had come back to the market to sell their loot and enjoy coffee while they discussed the guild financials. Baron had very little knowledge of video games. Royal Road was the first one he had ever played. Because of this he didn''t know the the quest difficulty D was too much for him. No D level quests had been completed since the games release. The difficulty level was suited for users around level 100. Being only level 4 he had no chance.


    Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    "Give me 10 minutes."  Baron got up from where he was sitting and blended in with the crowds. 2 minutes later he started sprinting towards the mark. He wore an expression of fear as he ran at full speed. To onlookers he appeared to be just another user late for something. He brushed past several people shouting back apologies as he continued to run. As he approached the group of users he continued to keep up the act. Running at full speed he brushed past the mark. The impact was enough to send the man to the ground. Baron shouted back an apology and continued running. However, after 2 steps a hand grabbed his shoulder throwing him onto his back.


    "Show some manors punk!" One of the marks friends had stopped him.


    Being thrown to the ground hurt a lot. It also dropped his HP by 25%.Baron slowly got up off his back. When he was close to his feet the user he had knocked over came and punched him in the stomach. After that the 6 users took turns hitting him. None of the blows did as much as the initial impact, but his HP was dropping fast. After about 5 minutes the group got bored and decided leave. They had only gotten a few steps when the guild leader stopped everyone.


    "Wait! The guild verification papers are missing!" The group turned around and looked at Baron with renewed hatred.


    _______________________________________________________


    Quest Failed


    Reputation as a thief has declined. Reputation with the thieves guild has declined _______________________________________________________


    The 6 guild member took back the document and started the beating again. This time they hit harder and at a faster pace. Baron cursed his luck as his HP hit 0. A message popped up alerting him to the negative affects of dying. He didn''t care about the skill progress or level lost, however, the 24 hour ban made him angry. As he was logged out he cursed the world, promising to get revenge on the users who killed him as well as the guy who gave him the quest.


    Baron lifted the capsule lid with difficulty. It was a hard task to accomplish with his hands cuffed. A guard quickly ran over, surprised by his sudden log out. The guard quickly escorted him back to his cell.


    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


    -Do you want to connect to Royal Road?


    "Yes."


    -Welcome to Royal Road. Please select an avatar name.-


    "Nile." This was hid name in real life. For the purpose of the TV show, his boss had advised him to use his real name so as not to confuse his fans.


    -What gender would you like: Male, Female, or neuter?-


    "Male"


    -Royal Road has 49 different races. You may choose from the 29 currently available.-


    "Human." Due to the foreign appearance of the other races it would be hard for audiences to relate, leading to a decline in viewership for the show.


    -Would you like to alter your appearance?-


    "No." This was for the same reason as his name. People already knew his face and it would hurt viewership if the avatar playing wasn''t him.


    -Which city would you like to start in? You may choose any major city or capital.-


    "Citadel of Sai, Gradian Kingdom."  He had actually given this a lot of thought. Although viewers need to be able to relate to the story, there also has to be a sense of wonder. Not many players chose the Gradian kingdom which leads to some intrigue. Also the players that do chose this kingdom won''t have many choices when it comes to shows on their city. As for why this small kingdom and not another, Gradian shares borders with the Kallamore, Haven, and Thor kingdoms. If his previous theory were to fail he could always just switch to a major kingdom easily.


    -Your avatar has been created. Welcome to Royal Road.-


    In a flash of white light Nile appeared in the heart of the city. It was surprising how many people were in the market considering the lack of popularity of this kingdom. Thousands of people could be seen in every direction conducting business. He was not new to VR so the experience didn''t shock him as much as most. However, Royal Road did have a new level of realism that other VR titles didn''t come close to. Other games had a slight delay in movement. It wouldn''t have been noticeable in regular games, but VR simulated normal movements and so a little lag was hard to cope with. However, RR was advanced to the point of having no lag making it hard to distinguish it from reality. RR also had hyper-realistic textures and graphics perfectly formatted for 3 dimensions.


    Unlike most new players Nile already had a plan of what he was going to do. He quickly closed the window telling him about the his restriction to the city and quickly headed to his first destination, the church of Lu. Him and his coworkers had already come up with a loosely scripted story line for the first month in game. Nile worked for an internet show company called FOX. The company had originally produced shows on TV but with the increase in popularity of the internet started producing content there. Most entertainment companies did this to keep with the times. As a generation of internet and gaming addicts became the target audience it became a logical switch. In recent years video games have been increasing in popularity due to Virtual Reality. Many video game related shows had become extremely popular and so most networks had preexisting plans to do shows featuring RR. FOX already had 3 weekly shows on the game. 2 of those shows were based around the idea of recording popular commentators during the game. Similar to a lets play series, these show were set to document the week by week expierences of a knight class and mage class commentators. The first episodes that were released had such great ratings that the company decided to add another. Nile had been waiting for his big break in the company and this was it. He was a small time MMORPG commentator for FOX who had a decent sized fan base. A show like this that would be advertised on the company''s homepage was a big deal. After he was contacted and offered this series he immediately set up a discussion with his new staff of producers, editors, writers, etc. They were already nearly 2 weeks behind the other commentators so they had to hurry. Later that day they released the news of a new show called The Holy archer, and Nile logged into RR for the first time. Because they came up with a loose script and plot for the first episode Nile already knew what to do once he logged in.


    Shortly after logging in Nile started heading to the church. His first choice of church was the church of Freya, however the church of Lu was the only church in Sai. The inconvenience wasn''t much of a problem though. The churches of both Freya and Lu were the largest on the versailles continent where the game was set. They dominated the population claiming 83% of people as members of either church. The chapel was easy enough to find. It was the second largest building in the city. As he was walking there he got several stares from other users. It was strange to see someone talking to themselves in the middle of a street.  Recording intros and such outside of the game would take to long, so as he was walking he was also speaking to the audience that would soon be watching.


    "Whats up guys! Your favorite video game host Nile here, and guess what. WE''RE PLAYING ROYAL ROAD!!!!" He screamed the last part causing several people to start laughing around him. "Hahaha I hope you guys are as excited as I am here. There was so much hype for this game and so far I''d say that unicorn has delivered. This series is going to be amazing and I can''t wait to see where it takes us. New episodes will be up every Monday at 7 so be sure to check back each week. If you miss an episode you should be able to find links to every episode in the description. Ok, so as you probably already know my fellow commentators James wright and Blare have started their series as a knight and mage, but I was thinking of doing something a little more unique. RR was advertised as a game with unlimited freedom right? So I decided to test this by coming up with my own class. Ya, you heard me, I''m going to make my own class. If their is unlimited freedom it should work so why not. My idea is to merge the two classes of archer and cleric. I know it sounds crazy but hear me out. This class, which I''ve dubbed Holy Archer, will be the best support class. Imagine a cleric not only healing but also dealing damage through arrows. Sounds pretty bad ass if you ask me. I''ve already figured out how I''m going to work towards this class. I can always gain the archery skill by going to the firing range, but the hard part will be the healing spells. Which is why we''re on our way to the church right now to get the cleric profession."


    After about 30 min of walking he finally arrived at the church of Lu. It was a large very expensive looking building which was more of a cathedral than a chapel. Outside the front arch way was a statue depicting Lu. The face was sculpted in such a way to make it impossible to discern the gender of the figure. In one had the statue had a coin purse and in the other was a dagger. These represented the churches ideals of wealth, power, and faith, the statue itself representing faith. ''What corrupt ideals for a church'' Nile thought. ''Although I''d say it fits my ideals perfectly.'' The church was full of users. Paladin was a class that many people wanted although no one had yet to achieve it in RR. After walking around for 5 minutes Nile was stopped by a priest in extravagant ropes with signs of aging on his face.


    "Hello traveler is there anything I can help you with today?"


    "I have recently converted to the church of Lu  and was wondering if it was possible to become a cleric. Before I found god I was a lost soul but with the help of the church I was able to straighten up my life. Now I would like to try helping others through Gods gift of healing." It was an obvious lie but the priest ate it up. ''I''m lying to a priest. What has the world come to?''


    "It is so wonderful to hear stories like yours. That to is why I became a priest. If only more people thought like you every church would prosper."


    _______________________________________________________


    Cleric


    You have become a cleric for the church of Lu. Use your powers to help those in need and spread the Lu faith. Clerics are a support type class that focuses on divine magic to heal and buff allies, or weaken monster.


    With the cleric class you have become vulnerable to dark magic.                                                                 _______________________________________________________


    _______________________________________________________


    New stat has been created: Faith


    An increase in the Faith stat makes divine magic stronger as well as increasing reputation among all churches.                                                                                                                                                           _______________________________________________________


    _______________________________________________________


    +25 Wisdom


    +100 Faith                                                                                                                                                                 _______________________________________________________


    _______________________________________________________


    2 New Skills have been unlocked for your class.


    Divine Healing


    Use your divine magic to heal allies in combat.


    Divine Protection


    Use your divine magic to raise you allies defense in combat.                                                                       _______________________________________________________


    After closing the windows Nile thanked the priest and left the church. He was surprised at how easy it was to get the profession. He had thought that there would be a quest involved or some training but he was wrong. He commented to his viewers a couple times and set out to learn the archery skill. As he was leaving the church he took another look at the statue of Lu only to find that this time it gave him buffs. For viewing a statue of his own faith he got a buff of 50 faith and an increase in divine magic by 5% for a day. The idea of statue being anything more than just decorations was something he believed, but RR was unlike any game he had played so far. He made a mental note to change the way he thought about this game.


    The next four weeks were fairly uneventful. The show was only scheduled to be 1 hour long and the scene with the church took up at least half of it. The last 30 min were mainly comprised of archery lessons. It took a week but Nile was finally able to get the archery skill. Since it wasn''t part of his class it took longer to get. He completed the basic archery course after a lot of practice. You completed the course after putting 1,000 arrows into the bulls eye at a minimum of 50 ft.  At first only about 1 in 25 arrows hit the target, but by the end 9 out of 10 would hit with at least 1 in the center.  He didn''t do much besides that. Thanks to his grinding he was able to get his archery skill to beginner level 4 (32%) by the time the month was over.  He also spent sometime in the market and doing random low level quests to add to the variety of content. He even used his money to buy some items just to show the experience to the people. He bought mostly useless stuff such as a two handed copper long sword and a red shirt. The sword was severely worn down and had almost no attack or durability but it didn''t matter because he didn''t plan on using it. The shirt had holes in it and could be considered a down grade from the shirt he started with. In the end a month in game had gone by and Nile was counting the hours till he could get out and start hunting monsters.


    Nile opened the timer counting down to the end of his restriction on leaving the city. He had a little less than 7 in game hours left before it reached zero.  Because of the games 4 to 1 time ratio he decided to log off for 2 hours IRL and be back shortly after the ban was lifted. He was in desperate need of a shower and wanted to see how the editing was coming along for the first episode.  It was set to air on the FOX homepage tomorrow at 7 and he couldn''t wait for the feedback.  The shows success could either make or break his career as a commentator.

 Chapter Two

    Baron logged back into RR shortly after he died. He was standing in the middle of the city where he had logged in on the first day. Behind him you could see the alley where he had died. Baron walked over to it to find there was no trace anyone had died there. No blood stain on the cobblestone walkway, no evidence it was a crime scene. It was as if the whole event had never happened. A look of disgust appeared on his face. Not at the people who killed him, but at himself for being pathetically weak. He punched the wooden side of the building to his left. Surprisingly it didn''t hurt nearly as bad as it would have in reality. Infact, he had noticed this when he got killed the first time. In real life he had more than his share of beatings and the pain didn''t come close.  That beating Would have killed him in half the time if it had been real. As he sat in the alley he vowed to repay the beating back two fold. Although it would have to be in the game. It''s not that he had any qualms about confronting them in real life, it was just that he would never get the opportunity. Baron left the alley with a new found purpose. Realizing he was weak there was no other choice but to get stronger.


    He quickly went to the market and bought a cheap copper sword. He had learned a lot about the game by listening to people in the market. It was basic information like to get stronger you need a higher level, and to get that you need to hunt rabbits. However, he hadn''t learned enough to know that a short sword wasn''t a good fit for a barbarian. Because of his strength he could have easily used a two-handed long sword or larger broad sword. With naturally low agility it wasn''t practical to dodge and so a large weapon was necessary for blocking. He also didn''t buy armor because he was under the assumption that all it did was reduce pain. He viewed armor as something only bitches and little kids needed. With his copper short sword, that he didn''t check the stats on, he headed towards the northern entrance of the city to hunt rabbits.


    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


    Nile finished watching the first episode of his show that his editor had sent over. He was the last person to give it the seal of approval before it aired later that day. After sending his editor an email thanking him, Nile got back into the capsule to start hunting in RR for the first time


    When he arrived back in the Citedale of Sai he immediately headed for the North exit of the city. The north had the largest plains for hunting rabbits around Sai, and although there were more people there the extra space made it seem like less. Rabbits may be the weakest monster in the game but at level 3 Nile was still nervous about weather he could take one by himself. He received a basic bow with 50 arrows after completing the basic archery course. Also he wasn''t a combat type profession so it would be a good idea to get a tank to party up with.


    "Whats up guys? Nile here bringing you some more RR." Like always he still had to talk to the future audience of the show and explain what he was doing."My one month confinement to the city is finally over so I thought it would be a good idea to level up on some bunnies. Because I am the ultimate support class I''m going to need to find some party members to play with. When I do find someone to play with I''ll have to stop talking like this. It''ll be a better experience if the other people, or person, doesn''t know there being filmed. You get more real game play that way, plus it''s a hassle to explain it to everyone. We''re entering the northern hunting grounds right now. Lets see who we can find to party with us."


    Nile scanned the people in the area. There were about 50 people. He was looking for groups of 2 or solo players to party with. Anymore than 2 and the audience may get confused. Unfortunately there were several groups of 5 or more. A couple people were looking for parties, but they seemed to be support classes like himself. Finally he spotted a solo player with a sword hunting rabbits by himself. He had found Baron. As he began to approach his mark he made a side comment to his audience reminding them that he would have to stop talking to them. When he got within 50 feet of Baron he noticed something he couldn''t at a distance. The man was a barbarian. ''Perfect! Barbarians are the perfect tanks, I really need to party with this guy.'' His Luck quickly ran out as he got a glimpse of the mans face. He didn''t have a scary face. There were no scars or deformities, but Nile stopped as soon as he saw the face. He had never been so intimidated in his life.


    Baron stopped fighting the rabbit and turned to look at the man standing 10 feet away from him. The rabbit he was fighting simply hopped away as it realized his opponent wasn''t going to fight anymore. So far all of his experiences with users inside the game had been of them killing him, so he decided to stay alert in case anything similar happened. The man who approached him, Nile, didn''t seem dangerous, however in a game with levels appearances were deceiving. Nile wasn''t very tall, probably a foot and a half shorter than himself, and had a slim figure with a slightly muscular build. He wasn''t the kind of guy you go out of your way to avoid.


    "Hey hows it going?" Nile was the first to say anything.


    "What do you want?" Baron wasn''t in the mood for people. He was having difficulty hunting rabbits and it put him in a bad mood.


    "I just wanted to know if you''d like to party up. I''m only a cleric so I can''t hunt by myself."


    "Whats a cleric?"


    "I use magic to heal teammates?" The question confused Nile. The were very few people playing that had zero experience in MMORPG''s, so it was weird for someone to not know what a cleric was.


    Baron didn''t plan to play with anyone, but the rabbits were frustrating to hunt. He started considering the offer after the guy said he was a healer. Most of the time he had to run from the rabbits because his health got too low. Being healed in the middle of battle would surely be helpful, plus the guy looked like he just started and wouldn''t put up much of a fight if the need arose.


    "So you can heal me in the fight?"


    "Ya, that''s what I do. My names Nile." He extended his hand for Baron to shake, who reluctantly shook  his hand.


    "Baron."


    The two decided to hunt together and started looking for a rabbit to kill. There was an abundance in the plains for beginners to hunt. Once they found one Baron charged at it. Before he could swing his sword the rabbit jumped and hit him in the chest. The hit did 5 points of damage out of Barons 120. Barbarians have naturally higher health then humans who start with 100. He quickly went in for another swing but received a blow to the knee before he realized it. He lost 10 health and was forced to take a knee. With a quick slash he was able to get a hit on the rabbit. Dealing enough damage to bring the rabbit''s health down 20%. The rabbit seemed unfazed and continued to attack. After exchanging blows for another minute both fighters were down to 30% health.


    Nile quickly cast his healing spell on Baron. He would have done it earlier but was too busy hiding his laughter. It was very comical watching the huge barbarian get beat up by a little rabbit. His heal spell was still beginner level 1 so it only healed Baron by 45 points. It was however, enough to let him get in 2 more hits and finish off the rabbit. The exp was split between them but it was still enough for Nile to level up to level 4. At such low levels 25 - 30 rabbits should be enough per level. The problem was Baron. He had struggled so much just to kill one, but to be efficient they would need to hunt at least groups of 3. Nile contemplated finding a new teammate, but there wasn''t much of a selection so it may just be easier to teach him how to play. Judging by Barons sword he didn''t have a lot of money. His sword was the cheapest you could possible find. It was even cheaper than the sword Nile bought to show his audience the process. He also figured Baron was still at level 1 or 2 because of the damage he dealt and his inability to dodge. Even with that horrible sword if he was a couple levels higher he would deal more than twice the damage. The thing about the beginning of games is that the skill difference between levels is high. A level 3 may have twice the strength of a level 1, whereas once levels got higher the difference would be nearly negligible. Deciding to teach Baron instead of finding a replacement meant getting to know him better.


    "Hey Baron, What level are you?"


    "Level 7." He was hesitant at first to tell him, but figured it didn''t matter.


    Baron''s response left Nile shocked. At level 7 most people can at least take a rabbit in 2 hits if not 1. The only explanation would be that Baron put all of his stat points into something useless. ''Maybe barbarians have an intimidation stat that he put his points into. It definitely seems like it.''


    "What stats did you increase then?"


    "My only stat that has increased is my dexterity by 42 and my fame by 104."


    "You put all you stat points into dexterity?" That would certainly explain why he can''t kill the rabbits, but he should only have had 30 points to add, 5 for every level increase from 1. Plus the 104 fame didn''t make sense. It was incredibly hard to get fame.


    "I didn''t do anything to it. My dexterity just randomly increased by 1 several times in the past month."


    Nile knew it was possible to raise stats independent of levels however it was extremely difficult and most people thought it was more efficient to just level up. If Baron did raise his dexterity that way it would mean he still has 30 unused skill points.''Surely there isn''t someone so ignorant of games that they wouldn''t even know that right?''


    "Open your status window. What does it say at the bottom?"


    Baron did as Nile asked and found the 30 unused skill points. With Nile''s advice Baron put 20 points into strength, and 10 into stamina. Nile wanted to ask how Baron got the +42 to dexterity as well as level 7 and the fame, but he wasn''t the most talkative person so he didn''t.


    "Why did you but that sword?" Now that Nile realized how much of a beginner Baron was he now questioned everything about him.


    "It was the cheapest for sale at the market."


    "Still even if you didn''t have that much money, you could''ve went for a broad sword for a few coppers more. That sword looks like a dagger compared to your size. Here try this sword I bought." Nile took the two-handed long sword from his inventory and handed it hilt first to Baron.


    "This one''s a lot heavier."


    "Ya, you should be able to do much more damage with that. The added weight gives it more momentum when you swing."


    Now that Baron got a better weapon and better stats they decided to continue their hunt. When they found the next target they engaged in the same way as before. The rabbit got in 2 hits before Baron could strike back. However, this time Baron''s first swing hit. The rabbit stood no chance against a sword 5 times its size and Faded into nothing with a single slash. Barons strength had doubled and his weapon was several times better making him significantly more deadly. His new weapon was classed as a heavy weapon and so he got a 10% increase in damage because of his race. Barbarians were naturally adept at handling larger weapons, such as two-handed swords, war hammers, and battle axes. What surprised Nile though was that Baron used the long sword in the same way as the short. Where most people would have trouble swinging a sword that big, Baron only used one hand. His sword play didn''t suffer either. He swung the sword with the same grace and fluid motions, a feat Nile could only contribute to Barons insane level of dexterity.


    After that Baron and Nile started farming the rabbits. With Nile''s healing capabilities and Baron''s one shot kills they could easily take on 10 rabbits at a time. Unfortunately the largest packs they found had 6. The exp was decent until Nile hit level 10. At this point Baron was level 11, very close to 12. The rabbits gave such small amount of exp that it would take upwards of 100 to reach the next level. At this point they decided to switch to foxes instead. They gave 5 times the exp but had a lot greater speed and agility. There first attempt started with Nile using his bow to get the foxes attention. The arrows damage was negligible, but it served its purpose. Nile''s archery skill was already high so he decided to just train his holy magic instead. By making Baron go from fight to fight without resting he was able to use the skill more. It was already beginner level 2 after only 8 hours of training. He decided to use his bow only after they were having difficult attracting foxes.


    The fox with an arrow in its back came running at the two of them. When the fox got into striking distance Baron attempted to kill it like he did the rabbits, however the fox was faster and none of his swings came close. He took 11 hits in the process before finally hitting the fox and making it fade away. Compared to the rabbits the fox was harder to hit and Baron ended up losing 10 times the health he would''ve had it been a rabbit. He had good control of his sword but it was large and very slow to swing.


    Baron and Nile fought 3 more foxes with the same luck. One of the foxes even managed to get Baron down to 10% health even after Nile''s healing spell. Baron started cursing himself loudly at his own weakness. He had gained some confidence after the massacre of rabbits but now he was losing to a fox. He was back in the same position as before he met Nile. It was in this desperation that he thought of a solution. As a child he had seen an old TV show where one of the characters with green hair used multiple swords to make himself stronger. Baron quickly equipped his copper short sword to his left hand as the next fox was running towards them. This time the arrow was in the head causing a critical hit and working the fox into a rage. Once in range he swung his long sword at the fox, just like before the fox quickly dodged. This time the fox was dealt a blow from Baron''s short sword before it culd counter attack. It wasn''t enough to one shot it, but the fox was left stunned by the pain for a second. Baron quickly capitalized on that moment and finished the rabbit with another slash. Even in the fights with rabbits he would still get hit at least once, but with a second sword Baron didn''t get hit by the fox once.


    Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!


    They only had time to hunt foxes for a couple more hours before Nile had to log out. It was getting close to 5 pm and he had stuff to do. His shows premiere was at seven and after the show he had to appear on a talk show discussing RR. The talk show was hosted by another fox commentator and solely focused on royal road content. The show ran 5 days a week and each episode featured a quest star. They were often professional gamers or developers who started playing RR after its launch.


    After Nile left Baron continued hunting. He had a while before he had to log out and was still determined to get stronger. At first it was hard to attract the foxes without Nile''s arrows but soon he figured it out. For the next 20 hours in game, 5 in real life, he hunted as many foxes as he could find. Even with the amount of time he hunted he was only able to reach level 15 before logging out.


    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


    Baron logged out at the scheduled time. Two prison guards quickly ran over to help him out of the capsule, and remove the IV from his arm. He was so tired he could barely walk. The two guards reluctantly helped him walk as they headed towards the showers. When they were almost there Baron fell asleep and put all his weight onto the guards. They slapped him awake and kept walking. One of the guards even stayed with him in the shower to make sure he didn''t fall asleep. It was the first shower he had in over a week and it was hell. He could barely stand and had to hold onto the shower head for support. Every time his head would drift towards the wall for support the guard would jab his side with a baton. He didn''t have the energy to wash and just stood under the water. The shower hitting him seemed to make it 10 times harder to stand. He hadn''t slept in 8 days and it was clearly evident. Aside from when he died yesterday, he hadn''t been allowed to log out of royal road. He was allowed to log out once a week to maintain his hygiene with a shower. He felt so dead already that he didn''t think a shower would make much of a difference.


    10 years ago 18 year old baron had been convicted of killing 3 of his friends after a long night of partying. They were all drunk and on several different kinds of drugs. When He woke up the next day he was in a jail cell with no recollection of the night. He was charged with 3 counts of first degree murder and after a 10 year trial he was executed for his crimes. During the trial a video tape from a security camera was found clearly showing baron killing his friends.  The evidence was so strong that his attorney urged him to confess to try to get out of the death penalty. Baron didn''t confess on the hope the evidence would be proven false. He truly believed he would never kill his friends, even if he was high and drunk. Baron was by no means a model citizen. His rap sheet was extremely long for everything from gang affiliation to petty theft, but he wasn''t a murderer. On the day of his execution he was smuggled out of his cell and brought to another prison. Here there were no windows and it was a lot smaller than the maximum security prison he came from. All of the guards had assault rifles and pistols on the hip. They would never talk aside from giving him commands. Baron had been in this new place for 8 days but he had only spent a few hours outside of RR. Shortly after he arrived one of the guards explained that he was going to be a test subject in an experiment to determine the effects of virtual reality on the body. The man said he would be playing a game called Royal Road and that they had a deal with the game company so that he couldn''t raise suspicion. They also had a deal so that even when he died he could just log back in right away. It was then that he adopted his nickname ''Baron'' as his real name and started playing RR.


    Baron really had no idea what was going on. His mental state had deteriorated and his whole body hurt from lack of sleep. While finishing his shower the only thing he could think about was ''How much longer till I get back into royal road?'' Inside the game both his mental fatigue and physical exhaustion went away. He could get away from his hell for another week. Inside the game all physical problems disappeared as wall as some mental ones. Things like psychological disorders wouldn''t go away, but other less permanent conditions would. The two guards escorted him back to his capsule, still half carrying him. They put him inside the capsule and reconnected the IV. In the past week Baron didn''t get anything to eat so he assumed that was what the IV was for. The guard shut the capsule and Baron logged back into RR.


    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


    Nile arrived at FOX studios shortly before the broadcast. The head of FOX''s Royal Road department greeted him and gave his congratulations. This was the first time Nile had been to the studio. He was hired over the internet and all interactions with his employers stayed there. He finally had a reason for coming, further proof that this would be his big break. As he walked through the studio he got to meet a lot of people who he actively followed online. FOX is the largest name in online entertainment so they had many famous employees. A secretary  eventually found him and took him to a room for viewing the release of his show, The Holy Archer. Inside there was a huge TV scree hanging on the wall and a small conference like table with five chairs around it. One of the walls adjacent to the TV was one giant window. Outside was the Chicago skyline. It was the perfect view being of the 47th floor of FOX''s studio. 5 minutes before the show was set to play a legend walked into the room. The man''s name was Matt Gnade, and he was Nile''s idol. For the last 5 years Matt had been FOX''s most popular video game commentator. He was legend to many people not just Nile.


    "Hello, I''m Matt Gnade."


    "Nile, It''s a pleasure sir."


    "Sir? I''m not more than 5 years older than you. It''s pretty impressive to get your own show. The Holy Archer is an interesting name. I can''t wait to see what its about."


    "Thanks sir. I can barely wait too."


    They talked a little about RR and what was going to happen that night. After the show Matt''s talkshow starts and today Nile was to be the guest star. The talkshow was extremely popular and would likely get more views than Nile play through show. To be a guest on the show was a huge accomplishment and would help to further Nile''s career. Shortly before the show started the director that Nile spoke with earlier as well as two other people who introduced themselves as advertisement and public relations experts came into the room. They all sat down and the show started. The show played on the big screen that was covering nearly all of the wall. The show however didn''t take up all of the screen. There was a spot of the screen that was used to show comments. The show started playing and the group didn''t say much. The PR expert kept bringing up comments quietly discussing them with the director. For the most part the comments were positive. About 20 min into the show Matt turned to him and said he thought the concept behind the show was interesting. The complement excited Nile. One of his idols had just complemented him.


    As the show continued the comments started getting more and more negative. After the scene with the church the pace of the show slowed down. Nile was going to the archery range and completing the basic course. The process took most of the time and wasn''t very interesting. The few small quests he put into the show were things that the viewers had seen many times already. Matt didn''t talk again for the rest of the show. The director even started to look disappointed. When the show was finally over they all went one floor down to where the talkshow was going to be held. Nile sat on the set a few feet from Matt. He was extremely nervous as he watched the director count down from 10. When the director said 0 a red light flicked on showing they were live and Matt began addressing the audience.


    "Welcome back to Royal Road Talk. Your talkshow that discusses everything Royal Road, I''m your host Matt Gnade and we have an interesting guest with us today. If you watched the show that just ended than you know him. Everyone give a warm welcome to Nile!"


    Nile nervously waved to the camera when he was introduced. He was right when he thought this show would have more viewers than his. At the start of the show there were already twice the number of views. He got excited again when he thought of how much popularity his show would gain after this. For the next 15 minuets they talked about RR and Nile''s plans for the future in the game. The mood was really good until Matt asked one question.


    "So Nile, I''ve seen your show along with the shows of the other FOX commentators James and Blare. I was wondering what you think is the reason that The Holy Archer got half the views that the shows of the other commentators got? In my opinion your show was a little lacking. Unlike the others you focused more on raising you character than making an interesting show. I understand you have to do that to try to get your made up class, but I have to say your show was somewhat lacking. Wouldn''t you agree?


    "Ummm......" The question took Nile by surprise. For a second he just stammered trying to find a response. Even the camera crew and those watching in the studio had expressions of shock at what had just been asked. It took a second but Nile finally responded. "No I completely disagree with you. If my show was lacking it was only because it was setting up for greatness later on."


    The Director gave the signal after a little bit more high tension conversation. The interview was cut short 10 min before it was scheduled to end. Nile left the stage and was taken to a waiting room that had food and a TV with Royal Road Talk playing on it. On the screen Nile could see the next person coming on stage for an interview. His name was James Wright and this wasn''t his first time appearing on the show. Matt continued the show as if nothing had ever happened with Nile. Him and James talked about the game for a while. Matt was constantly praising James on his skill and play style. At several points Matt tried getting James to reveal details about the second episode of his show that was scheduled to air the next day. James''s show was called the Iron Knight James and was similar to Nile''s show only he was on the path to becoming a Knight. The mood of the show was a lot more lively than when Nile was out there. The two commentators were constantly laughing and appeared to be having a good time. When the interview was almost over Matt asked a question that made Nile grit his teeth for a second time that night.


    "So James, what is your opinion of Nile and his new show The Holy Archer?"


    "In my opinion the kid doesn''t deserve his own show. Like you said it was severely lacking. It''s a disgrace to the quality of FOX and should just be cancelled. There are many amateurs tying to be famous now a days, and most of them have little or no talent."


    For the next 10 min James and Matt did nothing but talk about how horrible Nile''s show was in front of hundreds of thousands of people. At several points the director gave them orders to change subjects but they ignored him. Eventually the show abruptly went to a commercial.  The director needed to stop them at all costs. The Holy Archer was a FOX show and the negative publicity would hurt their ratings.


    Before the show cut to commercial Nile had already left. He was in a horrible mood and just felt like killing things in RR. It truly was the best stress release.


    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


    The topic of the two FOX commentators trash talking another spread throughout the internet. The topic was discussed on several shows not affiliated with FOX. Commentators with a large following tended to take the side of Nile. They would discuss how it was wrong for Matt to say what he said. Lesser known commentators would side with Matt, trying not to go against the popular opinion. Although they weren''t as popular, there were significantly more of them. The general opinion of viewers was that somehow Nile was in the wrong.


    2 days after the original talkshow the topic was brought up in an interview with Royal Roads strongest player. The interview took place in Korea at a popular broadcast studio called KMC media. The talkshow that the strongest player appeared on was the most popular in all of Korea. KMC media had spent a large sum of money to get this player to appear in hopes it would increase their ratings. The players name was Bad Ray and he was currently the only player to reach level 24. On the show he was asked his opinion of what had happened.


    "If you ask me, it was completely wrong what Matt and James said about Nile. I''ve seen all of the shows mentioned and Nile''s wasn''t lacking. If people didn''t like it then the reason would be that it was too close to reality. Any professional gamer will tell you they''ve done nothing but grind since the game came out. Nile''s approach to the game is very professional and he has an interesting premise behind the show. As for why Matt and James felt the need to bash Nile publicly, they''re probably just scared. Its not everyday there positions as 2 of the top FOX commentators is threatened. As a professional gamer I watch a lot of programs in an attempt to gain more knowledge about Royal Road. The Holy Archer had some useful information as well as ideas I hadn''t thought about before. I would highly recommend it as a show for people looking for something interesting while still looking for information about the game. If Nile''s plan to create his own class works, it will revolutionize the way the game is played."


    Bad Ray was an idol in Korea. After he praised The Holy Archer many people who hadn''t seen it decided to. Even people who had seen it decided to rewatch it in an attempt to find the information Bad Ray had mentioned. Overnight Nile became a celebrity in Korea. The first episode of his show made it to number 5 on Korea''s most watched broadcasts of the month. The show with Bad Ray made number 1 and James''s show, The Iron Knight James, barely made it past 100 due to his low overseas popularity. As the interview with Bad Ray was translated into other languages, Nile began to gain popularity all over the world as well.

 Chapter Three

    Nile logged back into RR in a horrible mood. In the last few hours he had gone from having the best day to the shittiest ever. Thankfully RR was perfect for stress release and in the concentration of killing rabbits he could forget his worries for a while. Nile had reached the point with his archery that it only took 5 arrows to kill a rabbit. Thanks to this even though he was a support class he was still able to solo hunt rabbits for a couple of hours. After he reached level 12 he was in a slightly better mood. He decided to send a whisper to Baron and the two of them met up and planned to resume hunting after a trip to the market.


    Nile and baron had hunted thousands of rabbits and hundreds of foxes without ever selling off their loot. Aside from easily stackable items like money or arrows, pelts and meat could only be stacked up to 100 in each inventory slot. They each have several full stacks of different items and were close to filling up their inventories. Nile had extensively researched RR and had found that the best way to sell loot was to hire a merchant. Usually they would get between 5-10% increase in sales price. After they took a commission of several percents you were left with a couple more percents worth of money. Usually this amount would be negligible, however, with the amount they were selling it would amount to a significant sum.


    It wasn''t very hard to find a merchant. They were selling their services like every other vendor in the market. Baron and Nile hired the merchant who was shouting he could raise profit by 7% while only taking 2% as a fee. Even with such low profit it was beneficial to the merchants because they could get experience in various skills and raise intimacy with shop keepers. When the merchant was done selling off the loot he reported he sold the loot for 9% above market price. Even with the increase he still only took 2% commission. They had handed him 1,247 rabbit pelts, 73 rabbit legs, 174 fox pelts, and 12 fox meats in exchange for 7, 820 coppers. Baron contributed the most loot and so he took 4,000 coppers while Nile took the remaining 3,820. Combined with Baron''s money from pick-pocketing he now had an astronomical sum of 1 gold and 23 silvers or 12,300 coppers.


    They spent a small amount of money on food and decided to go back hunting. When they arrived at the hunting grounds it was overwhelmed with players. In the couple hours they had been gone an extra hundred or so people had arrived. Fortunately they were mainly hunting rabbits, so although there was a scarcity of bunnies, there was still plenty of foxes left. Still the increase in people made it harder to hunt and they kept getting interrupting by players asking to join their party. In a sea a beginners, joining a slightly higher level party to leech off of was the goal of many.


    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


    Baron and Nile continued hunting foxes until Nile hit level 20. Unlike Baron, Nile had to log off a minimum of 2 hours a day allowing Baron to maintain a 3 level gap between the two of them. Nile assumed Baron logged off when he did, however, several times he had come back and Baron had leveled up. It was suspicious, but he didn''t have a reason to suspect anything and just let it slide. Baron had reached level 23. His level was on par with most professional gamers. The highest leveled player, Bad Ray, had only reached 27. Even while grinding as much as possible, once a player gets into the 20''s it starts getting increasingly hard and tedious to raise even 1 level.


    Now that they were into the 20''s Nile decided they could start hunting lower level wolves. About an hours walk outside the north exit of Sai, there is a great forest stretching 100 miles north and west. According to rumors from the locals the innermost parts are home to high level monsters. There have been many cases of merchants tying to take a shortcut through the woods only to never be seen again. Because this rumor there were players who theorized that the innermost parts of the forest would have tons of loot from the merchants.  Even still, no one has ventured far enough into the forest to confirm or deny this. Players who have tried to go deeper always end up dead. Its not that there are high leveled monsters, it''s that wolves start coming in packs of up to 30, and each one is between level 20-30. Fortunately the outskirts of the forest is home to lone wolves which are much easier to kill. The wolves are often regarded as the next step in hunting after foxes


    When they finally arrived at the forest it was overwhelming. They were standing on top of a hill overlooking it. The vantage point provided an amazing view of the forest along with the Saigorn mountains. The mountain range was a natural border between the kingdoms of Gradian, Thor, and Nest.  The main body of Mountains was towards the south, but the way the Citedale of Sai was positioned it had mountains on the north, east and south borders. The mountains could be seen in the distance on three sides of Sai. From Sai they were far enough away that you could easily mistake them for hills.


    After taking in the sight they proceeded into the forest. There were few people in the game at a high enough level to hunt wolves and so there wasn''t any other users in sight. Along with wolves there was also rabbits and foxes in the forest.  When they finally found a wolf it was still 100 feet away when they noticed each other. The wolf was about to flee until Nile hit it with an arrow. Nile was able to shoot 2 more arrows while the beast charged towards them. The wolf was much faster than anticipated and both of Nile''s shots missed their mark by a few feet. The first person in the wolves path was Baron. It went straight for a bite to the throat. Baron was prepared and raised his long sword to block.


    After days of fighting he had developed a rudimentary fighting style. The increase in combat experience gave him more confidence while fighting and made it so he wasn''t just swinging the sword trying to hit something. Baron was also able to acquire a few combat related skills.


    _____________________________________________________


    Sword Mastery: Beginner Level 2 (25%) Passive


    Allows for more skilled sword play. Increase the level further for better benefits. Certain professions raise effectiveness of the skill


    5% increase in damage while using swords


    2% increase in attack speed while using swords


    _____________________________________________________


    _____________________________________________________


    Fighters Stance: Beginner level 1: (7%) Active


    Fighting with a correct stance separates those with and without skill. Correct stance allows for many advantages in battle and it the core of any fighting style.


    Combat related skills increase in experience 1% faster.


    25% increase in defense while blocking


    Opponent is 5% less likely to get a critical hit


    5% increase in attack damage while striking


    All status effects related to physical actions are reduced by 10%


    _____________________________________________________


    _____________________________________________________


    Unexpected Reach: Beginner level 3 (13%) Active


    By switching between weapons with different reaches it is possible to catch the enemy off guard and land a critical hit. Using Unexpected Reach multiple times in the same fight will cause the enemy to suspect it.


    10% increase in critical hit chance against an unsuspecting enemy


    2% chance of putting your opponent into a confused state after hitting an unsuspecting enemy


    _____________________________________________________


    Sword Mastery and Unexpected Reach were easy to raise. He used both of them in almost every fight and so the level was continuously rising. Baron didn''t have any idea how to raise Fighters Stance. It only gained experience while being in the fighters stance, and he had no idea what that was. It had gained experience when he wasn''t paying attention and all of his attempts to replicate past stances led to nothing.


    When Baron blocked the wolves bite he used the edge causing slight damage to himself and the wolf. He had used this tactic before against a fox, however they never had the force to push the blade back into himself. He still only had the crappy copper long-sword so it didn''t do much damage to either of them. Unfazed by a small flesh wound the wolf lept the 10 feet to where Nile was preparing a heal spell. To evade the wolf he was forced to roll out of the way. By the time the wolf change its attack direction Baron was once again standing between the two.  He parried and countered with his short sword several times. Once the wolf and himself had both recieved some damage he suddenly swung the long sword and landed a heavy slash on the wolf. Thanks to his Unexpected Reach skill he was able to land a critical hit. The wolf''s HP shot down past 50%, and Baron used its confusion to land 3 consecutive hits. Each one hit with perfect accuracy. It proved too much for the wolf which soon faded into grey smoke. The wolf dropped a poor quality grey wolf pelt, along with 2 of the 3 arrows Nile had manage to make stick during the fight. The loot was poor but that was expected.


    Monsters in RR Usually only drop items they have and it the same quality. For example, the pelt a wolf drops with be the same color as the wolf. The quality of the pelt will be determined by the animals health, previous battle wounds, and cuts made while killing it. The only way to get a pristine pelt is either by using poison, a blunt weapon, or killing it in one stab to the throat. Doing it with a sword is tricky because you have be careful not to puncture the pelt in any other places. Towards the end of hunting foxes, Baron had been able to get a perfect pelt out of nearly every one. It required concentration and often made fights last longer, but there was a huge payout and so it was worth it.


    Since Baron hadn''t even lost a fourth of his health fighting the wolf, they figured it would be possible to fight 2 or 3 with similar results. Nile used his bow to pick the wolves they felt they could fight. For the next 17 hours in game, they farmed the wolves for exp and loot. compared to the rabbits and foxes, wolves were a jackpot. They gave so much more exp that in the same span of time they would have gained 10% of a level fighting foxes, they were able to level up completely hunting wolves. The appearance of a few decent quality pelts was also promising. When hunting foxes and rabbits the pelts were small, so even if they were high quality you needed multiple pelts to make anything useful. Wolf pelts were several times larger, making the price larger as well. While they hunted, there loot was likely worth more than 10 silver. They highest leveled wolf they fought was only level 25. It wasn''t anything special compared to the others, however it was the alpha of a pack of 4 wolves. If it wasn''t for Nile''s healing spell Baron wouldn''t have been able to kill even one of them. Even though the wolves were the same level as Baron, the fact that they had a leader made a huge difference. Instead of just blindly attacking they used tactics and worked as a team. Many times Baron would land a hit, only to receive a bite to the back of the neck or ankle. Nile was so busy healing him, that he could''t provide any support arrows. The wolves were unrestricted in movement and it was nearly fatal for Baron. The exp for defeating a pack of wolves was much greater than if they had hunted each wolf individually.  At the end of the fight Nile made it to level 21. Baron had leveled up a couple hours earlier and so he still had a while to go before the next level.


    As night was beginning to fall Nile decided to log out. It was about noon in real life, and he had things to do. After he left Baron ate some food and continued grinding. He still hadn''t forgotten his need for revenge against the guild who had killed him almost a month ago. For that reason he needed to kill as many monsters as possible to get stronger. Even without Nile''s healing spells, Baron could take on 2 wolves at a time without worry. He had become fairly good using a sword and the buffs he received from Sword Mastery and Unexpected Reach helped a lot. Due to being a barbarian his health was extremely high, so it took a lot to kill him. Every time he leveled up he put most of his points into strength. He also put points into endurance and vitality. His agility was pitiful but he wasn''t the type to dodge, so it didn''t come into play that often. Baron''s character could be described as a tank with higher than average damage output.


    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


    When Nile logged out of RR he immediately sent his editor the last of the video for his next episode. The episode mainly covered hunting tactics, with the high points being his interaction with the merchant and the final fight against the wolf pack. At there level, winning the fight was a huge accomplishment, so he was excited he had gotten the footage before the next episodes release.


    It had been a week since Nile appeared on Royal Road Talk with Matt Gnade. Even though he didn''t agree with the criticism, he sill took it to heart and strived to make the best episode this past week. He got on average 2 hours of sleep a night and was neglecting his health. He was determined to put the past behind him and never even checked the ratings of his last episode. Although there was still a high disapproval rating, it had received several times more views than expected. The comments section was full of people debating weather the show was lacking as Matt had said, or was interesting and informational as Bad Ray had said. But no matter what anyone said, the video still did what it was meant to do. It provided entertainment and even if the people watching hit the dislike button, they were still watching it. FOX was making so much money off of it that people began speculating whether the drama between Matt and Nile was all a ploy for more views. Of course they never could have planned on Bad Ray saying what he did, and without that none of it would have been possible.


    Nile took a shower for the first time that week, and ate some pizza he had ordered. once his stomach was full he went to sleep. Even his alarm that went off 5 hours later wasn''t enough to wake him. Nile spent the next 11 hours getting long awaited sleep.


    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


    Baron was surprised when Nile didn''t log back in right away. It had already been a day and there was no sign of him. Once Baron hit level 25 he had already figured out all of the wolves attack patterns. Even if they came at him 3 on 1 he was confident in his victory. He had hunted so many wolves that he was being forced to travel farther into the forest to find them. He had even met a level 27 wolf. It was a lone wolf and was no threat to Baron, but it was proving the theory that the monsters got stronger the further in you went. He had to be careful. If he was attacked by a small pack of 4 or 5, he would never stand a chance. It would likely be possible with Nile, however he was strangely absent at the moment.


    Baron''s inventory was getting close to being full, and so he planned on making a trip back to town soon. He hunted till it was dark before heading back to the city. On the way back he would be forced to fight wolves weaker than he was used to. The darkness would make them 30% stronger. It should be enough to make it somewhat challenging. The walk back would take a couple hours and he didn''t want to be bored.


    An hour after he left Baron suddenly stopped. Straight in front of him about 200 feet away was a light.  He was still at least an hours walk away from the edge of the forest so there was no way it was the users hunting rabbits in the plains. His swords were already drawn from fighting wolves. Baron attempted to approach the light stealthily. Once he got close he realized it was a campfire with 3 men standing around it. His attempt at being stealthy was in vain as one of them stood up and stared directly at him. Baron was a barbarian so even though he was crouching he was clearly visible. The three men grabbed weapons and started running towards him. The one who had spotted him had an ax that looked useful in chopping wood. The other two had short swords. They all had practically no armor and there weapons weren''t very high quality. As they got closer a name and level appeared above each of there heads. ''At least they aren''t players.'' Baron thought. They were bandits around level 20.


    The bandits had no coordination or tactics as they attacked Baron. It was the first time he had fought against another person, and he was disappointed. The bandits had practically no skill when using there weapons. Baron wasn''t necessarily skilled in swordplay, but he was able to parry and block with ease. The first hit that made contact was with Unexpected Reach. Baron had been using his long sword to block and suddenly stepped forward to thrust with his short sword. The Bandit was caught completely off guard and the thrust landed a critical hit to the chest. He didn''t miss the opportunity and quickly landed his long sword on the neck of the bandit. At such close range the sword lost most of its power, however it was strong enough to drop the bandits health to zero. The bandits had no sense of teamwork and the other two just watched as there companion turned to smoke. It had taken only two hits to kill him and their attacker was still at full health. It wouldn''t be an exageration to say the bandits were trembling. Even so, they still charged at bandit. Even though they just saw Unexpected Reach being used, they both fell for it. Like the first, the last two turned to smoke after 2-3 hits. The bandit with an ax was able to land a hit, but the damage wasn''t even on par with a wolf.


    The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    The whole battled lasted about 45 seconds. When it was over Baron just stood there. Even though the bodies disappeared, the blood remained and it completely covered the area.  For Baron it was a common scene whenever he slew 3 or so wolves at a time. The scene made Baron''s blood boil. He just stood there for several minuets hoping more bandits would come, but they never did. Eventually he left the area and made his way to where the campfire was. There were 3 make-shift shelters along with a few bags and a chest. The shelters were made using wolf pelts so he took them. The bags had some food and tattered, old clothes. He took the food and threw the clothes into the fire. Then he turned his attention to the chest. It was more of a case then a chest. It was about 6 foot long, 1 foot wide, and 6 inches deep. There was a latch in the shape of a wolf''s head holding it shut. In order to open it you had to open wolf''s mouth and unhook it. On the inside was a rolled up pelt of a cinder wolf. Cinder wolves were some of the rarest types of wolves. Their orange fur was an abnormality in nature that wasn''t often seen. Aside from their rarity, there was nothing special about them.


    _____________________________________________________


    Cinder Wolf Pelt (Pristine)


    Tailoring Material Grade: S


    Cinder wolves were extremely rare. There has been 5 sighted in the forests of the Gradian and Kallamore kingdoms in history. There hasn''t been a sighting in over 1,000 years, leading people to believe they are extinct. Their beautiful orange pelts are sought after by nobles and skilled tailors alike, however the pelt is similar to a common wolf pelt in terms of defense making fighters uninterested in it. Only 3 cinder wolf pelts are known to exist. 2 of which belong to the king of Kallamore and have been made into a cloak that is iconic with the Kallamore royal family.  The other belongs to a wealthy noble of the Gradian kingdom.


    _____________________________________________________


    Baron unwrapped the pelt with care. After reading the description he knew it was valuable and didn''t want to damage it. The orange pelt was truly stunning. The pelt had no signs that the wolf was harmed when killed, but also showed no signs the wolf had died of old age. It was in pristine condition with no signs of damage. After putting the pelt into his inventory Baron turned his attention to what was wrapped inside the pelt. There was a ring along with a long sword.


    _____________________________________________________


    Imperator Ring (Unidentified)


    Durability: 20/20


    The ring is plain with no discernible features aside from the word ''Imperator'' written on the inside.


    Restriction: level 65, Combat Related Profession


    Effects:


    +10 leadership


    _____________________________________________________


    _____________________________________________________


    Steel Long Sword (Unidentified)


    Damage:75  Durability: 50/50


    The sword was made by a smith of great skill.


    Restriction:


    level 65


    150 Strength


    Combat Related class


    Effects:


    +15 leadership


    _____________________________________________________


    A trait of the barbarian race is that they can use items restricted to any combat related class. Even though he didn''t have a combat related class, or any class, it wouldn''t have mattered. The only thing stopping him from equipping the items was the level restriction. The items seemed very plain though. Even if they were unidentified there shouldn''t be that high of a restriction on a ring that only gives 10 leadership. The sword was considerably average. The damage for the level restriction was fitting and there was only one effect. The sword about the same length as Baron''s long sword. The width of the blade about 4 1/2 inches making it extremely heavy. Barons current sword was only 3 inches wide and still was heavier than most people could use. The edges of the blade didn''t taper inwards like most swords, instead it started coming to a point 6 inches from the end. About a 1/2 inch from the edge the steel turned black, but other than that it was completely bare with no marking or design elements. The hilt on the new sword was surprisingly short. It was closer to that of a hand and a half sword rather than a two-handed long sword like the size of the blade suggests. The hilt was covered in black leather up to the blade where there was no guard. Even with the swords strange appearance, compared to the cinder wolf pelt they weren''t very appealing items.


    Baron left the bandit camp satisfied with the loot he got. He headed out towards the city again. He was forced to drop some of the wolf meat he had in order to take all the items from the bandits. He had so many wolf pelts and meat he was doubtful he could find someone to buy them all. It took another 2 hours but he finally arrived at the city''s entrance. The morning was just starting and there was a crowd of people already in the markets buying and selling items. After about a half hour of wandering around, Baron found the merchant him and Nile did business with last time. Since Baron already met him, he was more trustworthy than any other merchant.


    When Baron walked up the merchant was working with another user. After seeing Baron approach he told the customer to leave and then greeted the barbarian. The last time he did business with Baron and Nile was able to gain a level and increase his skill by a lot. It had been the biggest sale he had ever had, and he even got the shopkeeper to raise the price 2% more than average. Even now he considered that sale to be his greatest accomplishment as a merchant. When he realized Baron had even more loot this time he was about ready to faint. 232 grey wolf pelts, 7 black wolf pelts, 17 wolf meat,  and 3 weapons.  The profit from selling all of this would make him rich.


    Baron planned to sell everything he had except the cinder wolf pelt and the unidentified items.  He kept one of the short swords the bandits dropped and his copper long sword as well because he needed weapons he could use. The merchant left and to scout stores. The trade would likely take him a couple hours because he needed to find the right shop before he starts the haggling and selling process. After he was out of sight Baron went in search of another person. Nile had changed his opinion of armor and he had decided to get some made. While still in the one month restriction he had overhead many people talking about useful information. One conversation he overheard was about a skilled blacksmith player who was supposedly the best in the game at the time. Baron wanted the best armor he could get and so it was only logical to find the best smith.


    He searched all over the market but couldn''t find the smith. Eventually he was forced to ask another player who directed him to a shop with a blacksmith sign on the outside. Most player smiths had stands outside in the market, while the shops are run by NPCs. Baron opened the door and walked into the small shop. The walls were lined with weapons of all shapes and sizes. One of the walls had nothing but armor. There was a display case with ornate daggers and various metal jewelry. Standing behind the case was a dwarf with an unpleasant expression.


    "Get out of here! We have nothing here the likes of you could afford." The dwarf could see that Baron was still using the starting clothes and the two swords he had were of the lowest quality. Nothing about him suggested he even had a few coppers.


    "I''m looking for the smith Fabio. Is he here?"


    "You deaf? I already said to just leave."


    "I''m looking to get some armor made. I heard some people talking about the best smith being Fabio."


    "You must be stupid and deaf! I already sai" The dwarf was cut off by Baron.


    "I''ve got two gold is that enough?" Actually Baron only had 1 gold and 2 silvers, but once he got the money from the merchant it would likely be over 2 gold.


    "And I''m the fucking emperor. Now leave before I" The dwarf was cut off again, only this time it was by another dwarf walking out from the back of the shop. The other dwarf was much older and was wearing gloves and a jacket for black smithing.


    "Aww shut up Fabio. If the kid says he has two gold atleast hear him out. Who knows maybe he really does." When the older dwarf spoke Fabio was forced to be quiet.


    At the dwarfs gesture Baron walked over to the counter and pulled out 1 gold from his inventory. He held in front of Fabio''s face for a second before returning it to his inventory.


    "To think he really did have the gold. Hell and I''m not even the emperor. What shitty luck. Sorry about how I greeted you. We get a lot a noobs in here with only a few coppers. This shop isn''t were you get some shitty copper swords. Really pisses me off. I swear if anymo" Fabio was cut off again by the older dwarf. It seemed to be a trend.


    "You said you were looking for armor right? Well with 2 gold you don''t want anything on the wall here. We''ll have to forge something new for you." Baron looked towards the wall of armor. They all look really high quality and most of them looked to be worth more than two gold. Why the dwarf didn''t want him to buy any of them was a mystery. "Do you have any idea what type of armor you''re looking to get?"


    "For the style I was thinking something like this steel sword." Baron pulled out the unidentified sword and handed it to Fabio. As soon as Fabio took it the other dwarf grabbed it out of his hands. He put the blade close to his face and examined the whole thing carefully.


    "Kid you don''t even know what you have here do you." When he said that Baron got a notification.


    _____________________________________________________


    Steel Long Sword (Unidentified) has been partially identified:


    Dwarven Steel and Mithril Long Sword (Unidentified)


    Damage:92  Durability: 200/200


    The sword was made by a Dwarven blacksmith of great skill. Small amounts of mithril have been mixed into the steel. The mithril is concentrated towards the center of the blade with the intention of increasing the durability. Because of the abnormal size and the mithril content the sword is extremely heavy. The sword was designed to be used one-handed rather than two making it unusable by all professions without natural strength. Great strength is required to lift this sword


    Restriction:


    Level 75


    250 Strength


    Combat Related profession


    Must not be a race penalized in strength.


    Effects:


    +50 leadership


    Increased reputation with Dwarves


    -20% Attack Speed


    _____________________________________________________


    Baron and Fabio both looked at the sword in amazement.  The sword was likely the best weapon anyone had yet to acquire in RR.  The damage was only slightly above average for the level restriction, but the durability and effects were great. Especially the durability. The restriction were pretty severe and there was also a negative effect, but still it was an overall above average sword. Since the dwarf was able to identify the sword, Baron thought he may be able to identify the ring as well.  He handed the ring over and another window popped up.


    _____________________________________________________


    Imperator Ring (Unidentified) has been partially identified:


    Imperator Ring (Unidentified)


    Durability: 120/120


    A seemingly plain ring made out of pure mithril. The mithril purity level is almost perfect. The inside is inscribed with the word ''Imperator'' suggesting there is more to learn about this ring


    Restriction:


    Level 80


    Effect:


    +200 leadership


    _____________________________________________________


    Once again Baron and Fabio were amazed. The ring that previously gave 10 leadership now gave 200.  Even with the high level restriction this ring would sell for an extremely high price.


    "I''ll buy that sword off you if you want? It''ll give you some money for the armor and you can''t even use the sword anyway. How does 50 silvers sound?" The dwarf seemed to really want the sword, but 50 silvers seemed kind of low to Baron. It was then that he realised he didn''t know what the worth of money was in this game. Aside from the price of food he never really bought anything. ''Maybe 2 gold is a lot more money than I thought?''


    "No. The swords not for sale. I''ll end up using it later on. I should still be able to get some decent armor for the 2 though right?" Baron didn''t want to sell the sword even if the 50 silvers was a good price.


    "I understand. It is a piece of steel and mithril. We can make your armor with black leather to fit with this sword. Tell me kid, what type of fighting style do you use? I need to know to make the best armor for you."


    Baron responded by explaining the tactics he had used in combat so far. He even went so far as to explain the skills he had gotten. The even laughed at the point where he explained of he came up with the idea of using two swords instead of one. The dwarf was nearly on the ground after thinking about the giant barbarian getting beat up by a cute little fox.


    "You''ve got an unique fighting style but we should be able to forge some armor that fits you. I''m assuming you want this made of steel right? If you have any materials we could use it may bring down the cost a little."


    Baron was about to say he didn''t have anything but then he remembered the cinder wolf pelt. ''In the description it had said it was a good material. Maybe they can use it.''


    "Can you use this?" Baron took the cinder wolf pelt out of his inventory and handed it to Fabio. Just like before the dwarf took it out of his hands right away.  Just like with the ring and sword he closely inspected it. He handed it back to Baron.


    "Quick put that back in your inventory. Who knows who is watching right now. I''ll tell you, I''ve seen people kill for items a fraction as valuable as that. You shouldn''t go around showing everyone what you got there."


    "Can you use it though?"


    "I could try. I''ve had to learn tailoring to complement my smithing, but with my skill level I would probably just ruin it. "


    "Do you know anyone who could?" The dwarf thought for a moment after this question. Occasionally he would mumble to himself.


    "There''s a tailor up in the Kallamore Kingdom who could do it. They say she is the descendant of the tailor who made the Kallamore King''s cape out of the same material. I''ve seen a few pieces of her work and they live up to the rumors. That would be your best option I''d say. Her name is Carla and she works in the capital as a tailor for the nobles there. She shouldn''t be too hard to find."


    "Thank you for the information. I''ll try to see if I can find her."


    "Come back in two days and I''ll have your armor made. I''m not going to guarantee you''ll be able to use it right away though. I''m not some scam artist. I''m going to make the best armor I can."


    Baron thanked the two and left. He noticed that the way the dwarf talked went from ''we'' to ''I'' after he showed the pelt. ''It''s probably a good thing. I would rather have the master make my armor then the apprentice.'' Based on their relationship Baron assumed Fabio had taken an apprenticeship under the dwarf. Either way he was having an expert craftsman make his armor.


    Baron started searching for the merchant in the market. He found him back at his stand where he was originally. The merchant gave him the money which amounted to an amazing 1 gold 11 silvers. The merchant said he had already taken 2 silver as his 2 % payment. Baron had actually gotten more than he expected. Since it was such a long walk back to the forest he decided to stay in the city until the armor was ready.

 Chapter Four

    Baron had an entire day to wait before Fabio and the dwarf would be done making his armor. He really didn''t know what to do. Last time he had this much free time in the city was during the 1 month ban. During that time he kept himself busy pick-pocketing unsuspecting users.  He tried doing this again but there wasn''t as much satisfaction in it. The money he got was meager compared to hunting. He did manage to Pickpocket a ring with a small strength increase, but it was only worth about a silver.  The guards were in greater number because of the increase in players, however they were still unaware of the crimes happening right in front of them. All the users who were higher leveled and had money, were smart enough to keep it in their inventory. Every user Baron pick-pocketed only had 10 or so coppers on them.


    Baron spent a couple hours walking around the market. He knew every inch of it like the back of his hand. There were a few new features that hadn''t been there before. There were building with added floors, and areas which were once rundown that now looked new. With the influx of players coming to the city, the economy was booming. The NPCs that benefited the most were the unskilled artisans. Blacksmiths and tailors who made cheap, low quality products were a huge success with new players. Often times RR was the first MMORPG game people played. They had no idea the difference between high and low quality products. They would simply find the best product they could afford and buy it.  NPC merchants also got an increase in business. With all the new players bringing in mass amounts of rabbit pelts, they had plenty of jobs selling items. Surprisingly though, merchants in the fur trading business were starting to suffer. The price rabbit pelts had decreased from 10 coppers to 1. With so many pelt flooding the market there was 10 times the supply than the demand. Users hadn''t gotten to hunting wolf, deer, or bear pelts/hides so those markets were still stable, but it wouldn''t be long before the same thing happened to them. Because of RR surprising similarities to real word economy, economists were already using RR to conduct experiments and collect data on economic systems. The hope was that RR would be the key to stabilizing every economy in the real world.


    NPC nobility were the ones that benefited the most. In many kingdoms across Versailles Kings raised taxes. Every city where players could start was at the beginning of substantial growth. About 3 months had passed in game, and many cities were already starting plans to extend their walls to accommodate all the people. Certain users who chose the architect profession were capitalizing on this. Because of the large demand for their services there were architects among the highest ranked players in the game. They often had the highest familiarity with nobility as well due to directly getting jobs from them. It had made news about one week after the game came out that the first player to receive an audience with a king was an architect. He was hired to expand the city walls to encompass the slums. After that he had to build various buildings in the slums to help raise the standard of living.  The video game community was in an uproar due to an architect having gotten the best quest so far. People who didn''t understand the advantages of craftsman professions were dumbfounded.


    Baron was walking around the market when he received a whisper from the merchant. They had registered each other as friends at the merchants request. Baron was surprised to find the merchants name was Jim after he saw the name in his friends list. They had done business together in the past but never exchanged names for some reason. Jim was contacting him with a job offer. Several merchants were hiring players to escort them to the city of Gorn. It was a city equal in size to Sai only about a 10 hour walk north. The city really wasn''t that far away, but they had to follow the road that wrapped around part of the forest. The pay was 5 silver upfront and 10 more after they were successful. Baron thought about it, but since he didn''t have anything to do for the next day he agreed.


    Baron met up with the group by the north exit. There were 7 merchants and 12 warriors standing around 3 carts full of items. Everyone there appeared to be players by the way they talked to each other.  4 of the warriors had plate armor while the rest were wearing light leather armor. There was one female in the group who was wearing priestess ropes. She was very pretty and was having a conversation with several of the other guys.


    "Don''t worry Julia, even if we come across a wolf I wont let it hurt you. I''ve already made it to level 17 and last time me and my party went to hunt we managed to kill a wolf. It was pretty strong and a couple of my teammates died, but I was able to kill it in the end." One of the guys in plate armor was trying to brag to the female cleric. He had a long sword on his back similar in size to Baron''s copper one, although his appeared to be made out of iron.


    "WHAT!!???!?! Nick, you actually managed to kill a wolf. That''s so amazing!" Baron thought it was odd but the cleric seemed genuinely amazed this guy had managed to kill a wolf, and only one at that. All the other guys standing around shot hateful glances at the wolf slayer. None of them liked the guy getting all the attention from the girl. Everyone''s gaze shifted towards Baron as Jim stood up in one of the carts and greeted him. One of the other merchants announced they were ready to leave and everyone started getting ready.


    "What? Did we actually spend 20 minutes waiting on a beginner like  this? It''s not like he''ll even be any help. Why didn''t we just leave?" Nick who had just been bragging decided to call Baron out. Every other player, including Baron, decided to ignore him. Except Julia who appeared concerned about the whole situation for some reason. Truthfully, the guy would have been justified in assuming Baron was a beginner. Everyone was thinking the same thing, they just weren''t going to say anything. Even the other merchants who knew about the wolf pelts Jim sold were having trouble believing it. Baron was still wearing the beginner clothes and one of his weapons looked to be falling apart.


    The merchants rode on the carts while their escorts had to walk. There was barely any room in the wagons because of the amount of goods they were bringing to sell. There were piles of pelts, leather, silk, and some produce. All 3 carts together was likely worth 10 gold. More than enough value to justify the protection.


    There was some small talk as they walked. Mainly it was Nick bragging about his accomplishments in RR. He was starting to annoy Baron. Some of the other guys felt the same and started their own conversation. They were also talking about RR but none of them were bragging. Baron found out a lot about the group. The lowest leveled warrior was called Thayn and he was only level 8. He had just gotten out of the 1 month restriction and had been grinding rabbits ever since. When he revealed his plan to use the payment to buy knights armor Nick openly laughed at him.


    "If you''re only level 8 there''s no point in even getting the armor because you''ll never be a knight. You have to do something like I did and get to know a real knight before you even start leveling. It''s the only way." After he said that the kid looked like he was almost in tears. You can''t tell peoples age in RR but the way he talked was close to that of a pre-teen. One of the other warriors told Nick to shut the fuck up. It didn''t go over well. Another one of the users in plate armor had to break up the fight.


    After that ordeal no one really talked. A couple hours in everyone stopped for some lunch. They had about 6 more hours of walking and wouldn''t get to eat again till they got to Gorn. Baron sat a couple feet from the group while a couple people talked. There were a few people like him that didn''t associate with the others. One of them called Raiden caught Baron''s attention. He was tall for a human and was well muscled. The man had plate and leather hybrid armor. It was more mobile than plate armor, but still maintained much of the defense. On his back was a giant one sided battle ax. The handle portion of the weapon was 6 feet long, and the blade covered two feet at the top. If you turned it upside down it would look similar to the letter J. The ax was huge and put Baron''s long sword to shame. If he had to Baron didn''t think he could block a swing from it.


    They planned to stop for 1 hour but most of them finished their food after 10 min. Bored from all the walking Baron decided to go hunt for a little while. He stood up and addressed everyone when he said he would be leaving. It was common courtesy in case anyone had objections of thinning their ranks for an hour.  To his surprise Raiden and Thyn asked to go with. No one had any objections so they prepared to set out. Right before they were about to leave Nick stood up and started walking with them.


    "It''s pretty boring here, I think I''ll go with to kill the time." Nick started walking the direction as them but Raiden turned around and blocked his path.


    "I don''t think that''s a good idea. The group needs a big, strong knight like you here to protect everyone in case something happens." Raiden said it in such a sarcastic tone that a couple people started laughing. Nick was about to start another fight but didn''t get the chance. Raiden turned around and started walking, completely ignore Nick who had started to say something. ''I like this guy already.'' Baron thought.


    It didn''t take the group long to find a wolf. It was still quite a ways away so only Baron noticed it.


    "Hey kid, when the fight starts just sit back and let us take care of the fighting. I don''t want you dying on us." Baron knew Thyn would never be able to compete with a wolf.


    "Don''t worry I''ve even hunted foxes before. I know how to not die."


    "Ya but have you ever hunted a wolf?" It was Raiden who broke the news to the kid. After he said this Thyn''s face went pale. He had assumed they were just hunting rabbits. Baron never said his level but he didn''t look like he could handle a fox, not to mention a wolf. The kid half expected Baron to show the same shock as him, but Baron''s face was the same as ever. Thyn came to the conclusion he was in a party with people who completely out classed him in the game.


    Once they got close to the wolf they realized there was two of them. The fight would have been easy for Baron by himself, but with Raiden it wasn''t even a fight. His giant ax finished one of the wolves in 3 hits. Baron''s weapons didn''t have nearly as much damage, but it still took him 7 strikes to kill his wolf. Baron had guessed they were at similar level, but after seeing him fight he thought there may be at least a couple levels between them. Raiden was certainly not someone he wanted as an enemy.


    Thyn benefited the most from the fight. Even though he didn''t participate he still got enough exp to level up twice. This was the reason people always wanted to party with higher level people. Some people considered the tactic on par with cheating.


    The three hunted 11 wolves until their time was up and they had to return to the group. Thyn was the only one to level up, and he leveled up to 15. In terms of levels he went from the weakest in the group to average. Raiden asked Thyn not to say anything to the rest of the group to avoid having to answer any questions. It wasn''t a bad thing they were strong, but it wasn''t anything they wanted everyone to know.


    As they were about to arrive at where the group had been resting they noticed there were a lot more people there than before. The three were careful not to be noticed as they approached the end of the tree line. Although Baron had some difficulty fitting they were able to hide by some bushes about 40 feet from the road. There were in fact more people gathered around the carts. There was 7 bandits searching through the supplies while 16 more were on lookout. The rest of the group was likely dead because they were no where to be seen. Thyn started to say something but Baron gestured for him to be quiet. The bandits were the same level as the ones Baron had fought earlier, but there was so many that they wouldn''t have a chance in a fight. The bandits ranged in level from 15 to 28. The ones Baron had fought had been level 20 and were really weak, but a level 28 would make it a different fight. Apparently Raiden had the same thought because he didn''t suggest to try to fight. They sat there for 10 minutes until the bandits finished going through the loot. Once they were out of earshot Baron started talking.


    "We should follow them. If the chance comes that we can get them to split up we may be able to take them and get the loot back. If there isn''t a chance we can still find their hideout and come back later at a higher level." Baron also explained how he had fought some before. After he explained how weak the level 20s were Raiden decided it would be good to follow. Thankfully the bandits didn''t have as many lookouts while moving through the forest. If all 16 kept watch like they did on the road they would have noticed Baron at some point.


    It took the bandits 7 hours to reach their base. The carts made it hard to traverse the forest. Their base was built into a mountain. All along the side of the mountain you could see see houses built on cliffs. There were various cave opening all around the mountain side that connected the various levels. For bandits the houses looked very technologically built. There were pulley systems made that could be used as elevators carrying food or people up to different levels. There were watch towers built at the base of the mountain guarding the entrance to a large cave. Some bandits in the tower greeted the ones bringing the carts and opened the gates for them. It was uncertain whether their was also houses inside the cave, but there was around two hundred of them visible. It was much more than the 3 of them would be able to take on even if they were twice their level.


    The 3 of them waited outside the bandit hideout for 2 more hours before anything happened. A group of 11 bandits came out of the gate. The highest leveled one in the group was 24 and a couple were still in the teens. Baron and Raiden wanted to see how strong they were and decided to follow the group. Once they were far enough away from the hideout they attacked. Baron approached from the right and Raiden from the left. The bandits were caught off guard and didn''t even have their weapons drawn yet. Most of the bandits had spears and clubs. Compared to Raiden''s giant ax they snapped in half without any effort. The first bandit Raiden hit was only level 19. His ax buried itself into the bandits neck causing a critical hit. The bandit faded into a puff of smoke after only one strike. Baron had similar luck. After he used Unexpected Reach, the level 23 bandit he was fighting was left on the ground in critical condition. Baron turned his attention to another opponent while Thyn finished off the wounded bandit. The bandits were no match for them and the fight only lasted 5 minutes. Even the level 24 bandit fell after three hits from Raidens ax. Thyn managed to kill 3 of them. 2 were already wounded by Baron and the third was only level 16.  They all took minimal damage. Baron had lost about 35% health and Raiden lost 40%. Thyn was lucky. His health didn''t even drop by 10%. Every one in the party leveled up once, except Thyn who level up twice. Baron reached level 26 and Thyn made it to 17. Raiden revealed his level for the first time. He was level 24 before the fight and now was 25. This surprised Baron. He had expected Raiden to be around level 29. Baron didn''t know but the highest leveled player was only at 29. The reason Raiden seemed stronger was because of his weapon. The ax had 26 damage and was above average for its level restriction of 20. Baron''s long sword only had 8. Although baron was a higher level he was still fighting with a weapon suited for beginners. Baron also wasn''t wearing armor so he took the full damage from every hit. Raiden and Thyn had been surprised at Baron''s level. They both assumed his level was similar to Raidens. There were fewer than 1,000 players that had managed to reach level 27. compared to the 10''s of millions that were already playing RR it was an amazing accomplishment. Players at Baron''s level were 1 in 10,000.


    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


    Nile woke up after sleeping for 11 hours. When he noticed how long it had been he skipped breakfast and quickly logged back in


    In RR it had been 44 hours, nearly two days. When he logged in he was in the market of Sai. He was eager to get back to hunting and sent a whisper to Baron right away. ''Hopefully he didn''t level up too far past me. Agghhh I''m going to have to play catch up now.''


    Since Baron hadn''t answered his whisper after 10 minutes he decided to go to the church. As a cleric he hadn''t spent nearly as much time there as he should have. Raising familiarity with the clergy was important to get quests and raise the faith stat. It was dark but it was still easy to find the massive cathedral of the church of Lu. He dropped a copper into a donation box on the way in and received a blessing along with +1 faith. Faith was one of the easier stats to raise but you needed more than average. Simply visiting the church could lead to a rise in the stat. Doing odd jobs asked of by priests usually only reward you with faith. Because of this the stat is usually around 50 by level 20. Nile was already at level 21 but only had 27. The faith stat could be viewed as an Affinity with holy magic as well as reputation within the church. Increased faith leads to stronger holy magic. It also raises the effects of holy magic used on you. This is extremely valuable to classes like paladins that fight with clerics as support. The higher the paladins faith stat the more a heal spell with effect them or they will receive better blessings.


    Nile went to the main hall and took a seat in one of the pews. The place was relatively crowded and so the only spot devoid of players was towards the front in one of the pews running along the side. Straight in front of him was the left side of the main alter where a priest had just finished his sermon. Along the wall to his back were several doors leading to various other places. The entire place was ornately designed with statues, murals, works of art, and architecture.  The ceiling was over 50 feet up and was covered in sculptures. It almost resembled the Sistine chapel only with sculptures instead of paintings. It was amazingly detailed and large. It depicted the formation of the church of Lu along with important parts of its history.


    Nile sat in the pew for 15 minutes pretending to pray. Suddenly the Door a couple feet to his left opened and out came the head priest and another man. Nile had met the head priest a couple of times while praying at the church. He was a very godly man who was the perfect embodiment of the churches values. The man that was with him was in full armor. It wasn''t surprising seeing a man in armor at the church. What was surprising was that he was a knight rather than a paladin. His armor looked to be made of steel with gold trim and designs. The seal of Gradian was on his chest in the same gold color. Based on his armor alone you could tell he was a high ranking knight in the kingdom. Since Sai was the capital of Gradian there were a lot of knights like that.


    The high priest exited first and started looking around the chapel. He appeared in a hurry as he scanned all the faces in the room. When his eyes finally met Nile''s an expression of relief swept over his face.


    "Ahh! Brother Nile, There is something I need you to do for me if it''s not too much trouble." The head priest covered the two stops between them with the knight right behind. Nile quickly stood up and bowed in confusion. The priest did a half bow in a hurry and continued talking.


    "Sir Hollis here, has come to request the presence of a priest. The king has decided on a sudden hunting trip and it is customary to receive the church''s blessing first. I would usually go, but like I said it is sudden and I already have a prior engagement. All you have to do is bless the hunting party. It shouldn''t take more than an hour. If you could please go it would help a lot."


    ___________________________________________________


    Bless The Kings Hunting Party


    King Drake of Gradian has decided on a sudden hunting trip to commemorate his sons recent marriage proposal. It is tradition for the Church of Lu to bless the royal family before they leave the city walls for any reason. The high priest usually does this, however because of the short notice he already has a prior engagement and can''t attend. Go in his stead and bless the King and his son before they leave.


    Requirements:


    Cleric of the Church of Lu


    Know the blessing spell


    Be the closest to meet the high priests gaze


    Difficulty: F


    Reward:


    +50 faith


    Favor with the high priest


    Favor with the royal family depending of secondary requirements.


    ___________________________________________________


    Nile quickly accepted the quest in fear that it would disappear. The quest was extremely easy but the rewards were on another level. His faith would more than double, and that was the worst reward. Favor with the high priest could lead to multiple quests and raise his overall reputation in the church. The part about favor with the royal family was the most intriguing. NPC nobles often gave the best quests and favor with them could lead to everything from titles and ranks to fame and fortune. The only problem was that it was impossible to know what the other requirements were. It would be like playing the lottery on whether or not you met them. The requirements for the initial rewards were specific. It''s hard to believe there could be anything more.


    "This here is Sir Hollis, Commander of the Kings guard. If you just follow him he will take you to his majesty and the hunting party."


    Nile followed the knight as they went through the city towards the castle. Sir Hollis was very talkative and gave Nile an explanation and history of everything they saw on their path. Most of which would likely have links to a few quests. All of the guards they saw would stop and bow. Sir Hollis would greet them all by name and keep walking past. Nile gave each an awkward bowing gesture. While walking with the knight he was expected to be bowed to and not to bow to others. If he wasn''t with the knight none of the guards would have even acknowledged him let alone bowed. It was a weird feeling for him.


    When they arrived at the castle''s entrance several guards greeted them and opened the gate. Usually you would have to wait in a line and get your identity checked before being permitted inside. Despite the guards not knowing Nile they still let him in without question. The castle was huge. Even though it was in the heart of a city it was still large enough to hold thousands of people. The courtyard area was also extensive. When the market moved to the outer city, high end shops had been built in the courtyard. The shops had the best artisans in every field. It was expensive to own a shop in the castle, but it promised wealthier customers and better working condition.


    There was a group of about 150 soldiers doing drills in one of the clearings. As they walked by the instructor turned and bowed to Sir Hollis. Shortly after all 150 soldiers turned and bowed. The instructor was the first person Nile had seen the knight bow to. They stopped and talked for a few seconds. The instructor was an older gentleman who had long since retired from service. Now he was tasked with training the newest recruits. After they finished talking they started heading closer to the main tower. It was the only structure in the whole city that was larger than the churches cathedral. Their pace was forced to slow because every person they passed in the halls bowed. Sir Hollis even stopped a few times to bow. Every time he bowed Nile did too. They would only exchange short greetings before continuing on their path.


    Nile was surprised when he realized their destination was the throne room. He was expecting the stables or someplace near an exit of the castle. When they arrived Sir Hollis was immediately greeted by a hug. The man who had hugged him was older, probably in his later 30''s. He was heavier set, and had the most illustrious armor that Nile had ever seen. It put Sir Hollis'' gold trimmed armor to complete shame. The knight was also greeted by a hug from another gentleman around the same age as Nile. Both his armor and face had a striking resemblance to the other mans. Several ladies came forward and Sir Hollis kissed there hands. Each of the ladies were wearing elegant gowns and varied in age from about 8 to 60. There were 5 other men present in armor similar to Sir Hollis. They all appeared to be Knights of the King''s guard. They all acknowledged Sir Hollis with a simple nod.


    "Is this the priest who will be doing the blessing? Why isn''t the high priest here to do it?" The heavier gentleman asked.


    "He had a prior engagement your majesty. This is Nile. He has come in his stead. The high priest sends his congratulations on your engagement my Prince. He says he is looking forward to the wedding." Sir Hollis switched and started talking to the other man in impressive armor.


    "I''ll be sure to thank him. Now shall we begin have breakfast now that Sir Hollis and the priest are here." Prince Drake II spoke and everyone started heading out a door.


    Nile was surprised they were eating. Having meals with nobility was a major honor. It wasn''t something you got to do as part of an F rank quest. The dining table was in the gardens. It had a beautiful view to be expected with nobility. Nile was amazed when he was offered a seat next to the king. Usually it would have been the high priest visiting, and he would have had the highest political rank after the king and prince. At the end of the table was the king and queen. Opposite Nile was the prince and his fiance. Next to Nile was Sir Hollis with the rest of the royal ladies sitting at the end of the table. The other king''s guards didn''t sit down and instead stood watch by the doors.


    As was courtesy Nile was included in every conversation. Mainly they just talked about the hunting trip and princes'' engagement. Everyone was overly nice obviously putting on an act like you''d expect nobility to, except the king. He was constantly speaking his mind and on several occasions insulted people who were in earshot. He had a very kingly attitude. The prince almost seemed annoyed by his father''s actions. At one point the king noticed the bow on Nile''s back. He had forgotten to un-equip it in all the excitement.


    "So Nile I see you''ve got a bow there. You any good?"


    "Not at all." Nile said that half jokingly. Everyone at the table let out a small giggle at the remark except the king. He started dying laughing. At one point he even started pounding his fist into the table to help control himself. The joke wasn''t even that funny but the king was at the point of crying.


    "Not a good archer I see. HAHAHAHAHA well I guess you just need more practice is all. Why don''t you come with us on the hunt. You can practice using that bow and its always good to have a priest with you in case something goes wrong. What do you say?" By this point Nile had already been surprised so many times that it should have been expected, but he was still socked silent. The king had to repeat himself before Nile answered.


    "I''d be an honor to accompany you your majesty."


    ___________________________________________________


    Quest Update: Escort The King On The Hunting Trip


    The King has taken a liking to you and offered you a spot on the hunting trip with him and the prince. Keep the King company on the trip and show him your archery skills.


    Requirements:


    The Kings interest


    Difficulty: E


    Rewards:


    +75 Faith


    +200 Fame


    Increased favor with the high priest


    Favor with the royal family (Amount depending on performance)


    ___________________________________________________


    Nile accepted immediately.


    Sir Hollis was watching with amusement. It was a greater honor than Nile could ever have imagined. There hadn''t been anyone else invited to go on the hunt. Even Sir Hollis who was the head of the kings guard and highest ranking knight in the kingdom hadn''t gotten an invite. The king was prone to whims so it wasn''t that surprising, however it was still a honor. Most hunting trips would involve 30 or so men along with guards and such. The event would be planned for months and the hunting grounds would often be a few days ride away. This however had been a spur of the moment decision. Since they were staying in the local forest the King had insisted on not having a guard. They had planned to only take a servant boy to carry their catch.


    When dinner was finished they proceeded to the stables. The ladies who had been with them stayed in the gardens for dessert and tea. Once at the stables the king and prince got their horses. Each were stallions that appeared to be champion breeds. A stable boy brought out a horse for Nile, it wasn''t a stallion but more like a barrel horse. Its legs were shorter and thicker than the stallions. Its coat was an even tan color with its mane and tail slightly whiter. It also didn''t have the menacing appearance the other horses did. ''How is this horse ever going to compete with those beasts.'' They had decided not to bring a servant boy since Nile was coming and he would be enough extra help. They did bring another horse to carry supplies. It looked to be a similar breed to Nile''s horse. The stable boy told Nile his horses name was arrow. When he asked why such a small horse would get a name like that the boy only laughed.


    Once they all had their horses Nile was asked to bless the group. To his surprise he wasn''t asked to bless Sir Hollis of the other kings guard knights. Once Nile was finished they all started heading for the North exit of the city. As they rode through the city many NPCs stopped to bow. All of the users they saw were either starring in awe at the king or in jealousy at Nile. One user even tried to stop them and talk to the king. He was shouting asking to come with until one of the King''s guards took him away.


    When they arrived at the north gate all the guards knelled until the king told them to rise. They opened the gates and the three of them and the four horses rode away. Nile turned around once and saw that Sir Hollis, the King''s guards, and the exits guards were all watching them leave. Eventually they shut the gate to the city and the hunt officially began.


    All Nile Could think the whole time was how many more viewers he would get after this quest aired.

 Chapter Five

    Baron, Raiden, and Thyn continued to camp outside the bandits hideout. Whenever a party of less than 15 would leave they would set an ambush. The bandits gave huge amounts of exp compared to wolves. They also dropped weapons or money instead of pelts and meat. By the end of the night they had killed over 70 bandits. All three of them hit their weight limit in their inventory from all the weapons. The bandits had also stopped sending out as many parties. Those that were being sent out were groups of 30+. It was kind of odd. Baron had made sure to ambush the bandits where they wouldn¡¯t be noticed, and it hadn¡¯t been long enough for them to worry about their comrades not returning. He also noticed that there were never any groups returning. Even if they did kill all the small groups that left, there should still be some bandits that were already out returning.


    Even if it was odd it wasn¡¯t suspicious enough to worry. The habits of bandits wasn¡¯t something most people had knowledge of so the facts could easily have been misinterpreted. The three of them decided to head back to the city. It would take several hours to reach the city. If they were lucky they could get there by noon as the sun could already been seen beginning  to rise.


    During the trip back they let Thyn handle all the wolves. He had managed to raise 3 levels from killing the bandits. On top of that his skill proficiency had increased drastically making him several times stronger. Baron was the only one who hadn¡¯t gone up a level. Raiden had managed to reach level 26 in their last fight with the bandits. Baron and Thyn also managed to get better weapons. Baron managed to replace both his weapons with decent steel swords looted from bandits.  He was lucky and got a long sword with a level 25 restriction. It had 4 times the damage of the copper long sword he was previously using, and was slightly heavier. His short sword that he had gotten from his first encounter with bandits was replaced with one with slightly more damage. Despite wanting to be a knight, Thyn had put most of his stat points into agility and thus used a steel short sword they had looted. His character¡¯s fighting style was based around dodging and a large sword would end up slowing him down.  Raiden couldn¡¯t find a good weapon in their pile of loot. His ax was already above average and there wasn¡¯t anything that could compete among the ax¡¯s looted.


    They once to eat. Thyn had worked in a kitchen during part of his 1 month. He had learned the cooking skill, but it was still beginner level 1. The wolf meat he cooked tasted worse than if it was raw, and it even gave baron food poisoning. The poisoning wasn¡¯t very severe and ended  after 5 min. Raiden tried to talk him into letting them just eat the meat raw, but Thyn insisted he wanted to raise his skill progression.


    6 hours later they were arriving at the fields outside Sai. It was close to noon in game, and so it was peak time for player activity. Since monsters got a power boost at night users would ofter log out at night and come back around noon to hunt. The average level in RR was still under 10 and so there wasn¡¯t more than 200 players in Sai who could come into the forest and hunt. With the vastness of the forest it was almost impossible to run into other players


    The 3 of them were walking in the outskirts of the forest almost to the plains when something made them all find cover. A couple hundred feet to their right was a group of 25 bandits. Once they had gotten this close to the city they had given up on looking out for bandits. It defied common sense that the bandits would be this close to the city. If a player saw and notified the guards they could have calvary there within 20 min.


    They decided to get closer. If the bandits were lower level they could possible take the group. However, once they got closer another group of bandits, this time 30 of them, arrived. Now with a total of 55 bandits there was no chance of victory. They were now close enough to see their levels. Some of the bandits were even past level 30. The bandits were still moving through the forest as they were watching them. After 10 min of following them the bandits spread out and started converging on a place in the forest. The 3 of them couldn¡¯t see what, but the bandits had something completely surrounded.


    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


    Nile, King Drake, and Prince Drake II and headed out of the north gate of Sai around 9 am. The King and prince both appeared to be anxious about getting out of the city.


    ¡°Father, how long has it been since we left the city?¡±


    ¡°Far too long if you ask me. Too much damn politics in the city. People need to learn how to relax and enjoy a good hunt. What about you Nile. How long has it been since you left the city to hunt?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s been about 3 days. Far too long if you ask me aswell.¡± Both the King and Prince laughed. They had gone months without hunting, but for Nile it had only been 3 days and he was complaining as much as them.


    ¡°A man who belongs on the hunt I see. HAHAHAHA Tell me Nile, hunt anything good last time you were out?¡± It was almost weird the king was talking to him so normally. Fairy tales and fantasy adventures had never portrayed Kings as such normal people.


    ¡°It was nothing too exciting. I was hunting wolves a little ways into the forest.¡±


    ¡°A cleric hunting wolves? You must be much better with that bow than you said earlier.¡± It was the Prince that responded that time.


    ¡°No, unfortunately I wasn¡¯t lying about my poor marksmanship. I was hunting with a friend of mine. He did all the killing while I healed him. I doubt he really needed me to heal him though.¡±


    ¡°Your friend must be quite the warrior. The wolves around here aren¡¯t weak.¡±


    ¡°He is. I¡¯m surprised the wolves don¡¯t just run away when they see him. I would if I saw a barbarion running at me swinging a long sword with one hand.¡±


    ¡°He sounds like a monster to me. Is he on the path to Knighthood? Gradian can always use good men.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think he has chosen a profession yet. To be honest I have no clue what he plans to do.¡±


    ¡°Well if you can convince him, I¡¯m sure Sir Hollis can find a place in his ranks for a strong warrior.¡±


    It didn¡¯t take long for them to find deer. Within an hour the King and Prince had managed to kill 3. Their archery skills were amazing. Each deer fell after only one arrow, and they never missed. When they found the 4th deer the King told Nile to try. By some stroke of luck the arrow he shot hit the deer. Unlike the Kings arrows which hit the head and chest. Nile¡¯s arrow lodged itself in the deers hip. The shot was far from fatal and the deer ran away. Before it got too far the Prince but an arrow into the back of its head.


    ¡°Might have been able to kill it if you had a better bow. Let me see that thing.¡± The King grabbed the bow out of Nile¡¯s hand. After looking at it up and down he used his foot to step on the bow and crack it in half. The bow that Nile had worked so hard to get was destroyed. He had put countless hours into the beginning archery course to get that bow and it was all for nothing. The bow may not have been amazing but it was the best he could get at this point.


    The King went over to the supply horse and took a bow out of the inventory. He walked back over and handed it to Nile.


    ______________________________________


    Royal Training Bow


    Damage: Variable


    Range: Variable


    Durability: 250/250


    A bow made for the royal family of Gradian. The bow was crafted in such a way that the draw weight is variable. The higher the draw weight the better the damage and range of the bow. This bow is the secret behind the royal family¡¯s skill in archery. Those who can use the full draw strength of this bow will have completed the Royal Archery Course.


    Minimum Draw Weight: 75 lbs.


    Maximum Draw Weight: 350 lbs.


    Effects:


    +25 Strength


    +25 Leadership


    ______________________________________


    ______________________________________


    New Skill:


    Royal Archery Mastery: Beginner Level 1(0%)


    Royal Archery Mastery effects do stack with Archery Mastery.


    Those trained in Royal Archery are considered better archers and are recognized across the continent for their skills and leadership qualities.


    5% damage increase


    5% accuracy increase


    Bows are 5% easier to draw


    10% more damage with critical hits.


    1% increase in the Charisma stat


    1% increase in the Leadership stat


    2% increase in the Fame stat


    ______________________________________


    ______________________________________


    New Profession Available:


    Royal Archer


    The royal family of Gradian are renown for their incredible skill in Archery.  Although it is rare, the royal family has been known to pass their skills onto those that aren¡¯t family. Archers trained in their style have become legends in the history of Versailles. The most famous outsider trained in their style was a descendant of the current king of the Nest Kingdom. Legend has it that 500 years ago, what is now Nest was once a lawless land home to warring tribes. These tribes threatened the borders of Gradian. So a childhood friend of the King of Gradian decided to help and subjugate the land. Using his leadership skills as a Royal Archer he was able to unite the tribes and create the Nest Kingdom. To this day the two kingdoms continue to enjoy a strong alliance.


    Class Traits:


    Your social status changes to that of a knight or minor nobility.


    You adopt all allies and enemies of the Gradian Kingdom.


    +100 Accuracy


    +100 Leadership


    +100 Charisma


    +100 Fame


    +100 Honor


    ______________________________________


    The new profession took Nile by surprise. Even in his shock he still accepted. After he got the cleric profession along with the heal spell, he had tried to get the profession of archer. So far in the game no one was able to change their profession. Unicorn gave out a list of rules for RR. In it it said that after you switch professions, all the skills and stat points you received stay the same. If you could just change your profession whenever, you could just farm the stat points given and become insanely strong.


    The stat points given where much larger than what most professions are given. Nile had found online that the regular archer profession only gave +50 to Accuracy and +50 Intelligence. Compared to that, the Royal Archer was a jack pot. Aside from the increase in Accuracy, the other stats would be useless in battle unless he was commanding troops. The increase in stats will mostly contribute to receiving quests.


    The bow and skill were interesting. The draw weight of his previous bow had only been 24 lbs. He had no clue if he would be able to even draw a bow at 3 times that weight. The skill was very useful. It was similar to having a second Archery Mastery stat to increase his stat buffs. It also helped to increase stats associated with leadership. That seemed to be a theme of the Royal Archer.


    They found another deer and the King told Nile to try again. Nile was forced to use all his strength to draw the bow. His hands were far from steady as he tried to aim while barely keeping the bow drawn. When he shot, the arrow buried itself into a tree 10 feet from the deer. The King and Prince were both laughing to hard to care as the deer ran away.


    ¡°HAHAHA Don¡¯t worry kid. The bow takes some getting used to. HAHAHAHAHAHA!¡± The King was barely able to get the words out as he was recovering from a fit of laughter.


    They hunted deer for another 2 hours. The king let Nile attempt to shoot everyone of the deer. He missed every time, but the Prince or King would kill it as it ran away. Their accuracy was truly frightening. Even shooting at a deer running at full speed, they were able to draw and release without even aiming. Every shot was a kill shot as the deer dropped like flies. Eventually they had hunted 10 deer.


    The plan for the hunting trip was to return the next day early in the morning. Since it was noon they decided to stop and have lunch. They found the spot where they had tethered the horses and took out the pre-made lunches. Even during a hunt they still planned to eat like kings. While eating they were suddenly ambushed.


    It started with a couple arrows followed by over 50 bandits surrounding them. Before Nile realised what was happening the King and Prince already had their swords drawn. The first couple bandits to initiate the fight were the unlucky ones. They had blindly rushed in without any knowledge of their opponents skill. Heads began to fly as the two archers swung their swords. The initial wave of bandits were only around level 20 and didn¡¯t pose much of a threat. The King and Prince weren¡¯t fighters or swordsman. They were politicians and archers. They were both well over level 100 but their character types weren¡¯t meant for close combat. Even for masters of archery, bows were made useless in close quarters. The bandits alone wouldn¡¯t have been much of a threat, but their numbers were the problem. No matter what level an archer is at, they can¡¯t kill a horde of 50 bandits in close combat.


    Once Nile got to his feet he started pouring arrows into the bandits. The 2 royals gave him enough room to shoot. At less than 10 feet, he didn¡¯t even have to aim. Even the unsteadiness of his arms from the high draw weight was negligible. Nearly all of his arrows managed to hit its mark.  Nile tried healing the King when he dropped past 50% health. Even after Nile poured half of his mana into the heal spell he was only able to raise the Kings health by 5%. The Spell that would heal Baron completely barely did anything. It was hard for Nile to imagine how much health the King had. What was even harder to imagine was how his health had gotten to 50% to begin with. Once Nile began watching he realized the King made no attempt to dodge or block. He had almost no skill with the sword and just swung trying to get a hit. Nile tried watching the Prince and it was the same. They hadn¡¯t even killed 20 bandits and both of them were at half health.


    The Prince was fighting one of the higher level bandits. The bandit was level 34 and dropped the Prince¡¯s health by 10% before falling. As the bandit faded into smoke the new enemy behind him sent a chill down the Prince¡¯s spine. Unlike the other bandits that were human, this was a huge barbarian. Standing at over 7 foot the Prince didn¡¯t even come to the chin of the new enemy. The barbarian had a more threatening image than anyone he had ever seen before. The foe was so large it almost looked natural as he one handed a long sword. In his fear the Prince attempted to strike the monster. The strike was easily parried and a counter stab started coming. It was too fast for the Prince to react. Right before the stab hit all he could think was ¡®What is this monster?¡¯ He shut his eyes and waited for death.


    This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    After a second without dying the Prince opened eyes to find the stab had missed. As he looked behind him he saw that the monsters long sword had skewered a bandit trying to stab him in the back. As the bandit turned to smoke the long sword swung and killed another low leveled bandit.


    ¡°Nice of you to join us!¡± Nile shouted from 10 feet away. Baron didn¡¯t respond but it was clearly directed towards him. The Prince had a moment of recollection as he remembered Nile¡¯s description of his friend. A barbarian who one hands a long sword. A monster indeed.


    When Baron saw Nile amidst the bandits ambush he had rushed in. Shortly behind him was Raiden and Thyn. They all began slaughtering bandits together. The 3 newcomers had no idea they were fighting alongside  King Drake and Prince Drake II.  As far as they could tell they were just horrible swordsman. The royals had taken their illustrious armor off before the hunt. Instead they were just wearing good quality leather armor that allows for mobility when hunting.  Baron got an idea of their level of swordsmanship when he parried the Princes strike. He wasn¡¯t impressed. He had no idea about their archery skill or high level.


    As the fight progressed Nile was forced to use all of him mana healing the prince. Even though he used the spell every time his mana regenerated he still couldn¡¯t keep the King or Prince¡¯s health from dropping. Baron and Nile were able to thin the numbers a little but their was too many enemies. When the Kings health reached 5% Nile tried getting him to retreat. The horses were within sprinting distance and would make an easy escape. The King however, was in a fit of rage. He had entered into the ecstasy of battle and similar to a berserker he seemed to get more focused with every kill. Nile¡¯s voice was drowned out by the Kings concentration. Baron was in a similar state. Ever since his first fight with the bandits he had craved more. Even though he arrived at the fight late he had the most kills.


    The last wave of 20 bandits was filled with all of the higher levels. The bandits new they were fighting the King and Prince, so they started concentrating their attacks. They started ignoring Nile and Thyn who were faring the worst in the melee. Within seconds of rushing in their were 3 bandits over level 30 surrounding the King. The bandits were able to effectively isolate the King from the rest of them. They tried doing the same thing to the Prince but both Baron and Thane were conveniently close by.


    Everyone was struggling with the higher leveled bandits. They were so focused on the enemies in front of them that no one noticed when the King faded into grey smoke.


    The King was able to kill 2 of the 3 bandits that were surrounding him. The King¡¯s health had been in critical condition for a while. It was surprising he managed to last as long as hit did with only 5% health.


    Nile was the first to realize the King had died. He had been regenerating his mana to use the heal spell again, but was too late. He looked over at the Prince and realised he was also in critical condition. He used the heal spell hoping to prolong the Prince¡¯s life if at all possible.


    When the Prince received the heal spell he was surprised. Nile had been alternating between him and his father when he could use the heal spell. The Prince had just been healed and it was too soon. He scanned the battle ground for the King but couldn¡¯t find him. When he looked back at Nile his worst thoughts were confirmed. The Prince dropped to his knees and began to mourn his father. The battle continued as he just knelt there.


    The last bandit to fall was the one who killed King Drake. The bandit had lost half of its health and was no match for the end of Baron¡¯s battle frenzy. When the fight ended Nile just stood there trying to comprehend the situation. Baron, Raiden, and Thyn didn¡¯t know if it was a player or NPC who had just died. Either way they had no clue about the implications of his death until the message window popped up.


    ______________________________________


    New Event Quest:


    REVENGE FOR THE LATE KING


    All players in Sai and surrounding cities are eligible for this quest. The quest will be automatically accepted once in range. Event Quests cannot be declined. Not participating will not result in any consequences.


    King Drake of Gradian has died in combat. Him and his party were outnumbered 10 to 1. Only after killing 20 enemies did his majesty fall in battle. The rest of his party survived and has taken revenge on the enemy who killed him, but that isn¡¯t enough. The entire population of Sai and the surrounding cities is asked to participate in getting revenge for the late King.


    The bandits of the Saigorn mountain range have been gathering an army and waiting for an opportunity to take the city of Sai. Now that they have killed King Drake that opportunity has come. In 2 days they will attack. Help fortify the cities defenses and prepare for battle.


    As subjects of the late King it is your obligation to contribute in avenging him. All players will be rewarded based on their contribution in defending the city and exterminating the bandits. For every 1 contribution point the royal family will compensate you with 1 copper. The 10 users with the highest contribution will receive greater rewards.


    Current Contribution Rankings:


    1st: Baron, Level 28 - 5,600


    2nd: Raiden, Level 26 - 3,950


    3rd: Thyn, Level 20- 2,300


    4th: Nile, Level 21 - 2,175


    5th: Julia, Level 15 - 136


    6th: Nick, Level 16 - 15


    7th: N/A


    8th: N/A


    9th: N/A


    10th: N/A


    Time Remaining Till Battle: 47 hours 57 min 24 sec


    ______________________________________


    Everyone present accept the Prince got the quest notification. It was a shock to them that they had been fighting with the King. Usually nobility don¡¯t associate with commoners so something like this was unheard of.


    The quest seemed to include the bandits killed before the quests start as contribution. Baron had already killed 56 bandits giving him the most contribution. Nile hadn¡¯t been with them when they were ambushing bandits so he was lacking behind the rest of them. It seemed that the quest also counted things like healing allies as contribution. Nile had only killed 3 bandits during the fight and his contribution points didn¡¯t match that. Raiden pointed out that Julia and Nick were 2 of the players who got ambushed the day before.


    The Prince stood up and addressed the group.


    ¡°I swear by my father¡¯s name and my honor as prince I will avenge his death. I thank you all for how you fought today despite it not being enough. Now if you will excuse me I must go inform my mother of what happened and ready our army.¡± There was a slight pause before he turned and spoke to Nile. ¡°If you would, could you please make sure the horses get back to the stable. I¡¯ll be taking mine but there¡¯s still my fathers and the supply horse.  Arrow seems to like you, so please keep him as a reward for your effort.¡± The prince got onto his horse and rode away at full gallop.


    The four players were still a bit shocked by the whole situation. An event quest was huge. It was the first war type scenario to play out in all of versailles since the launch of RR. The battle was sure to be covered by many show and will likely be the favored topic of every RR talk show host. Thankfully for Nile he was at the heart of it. His next episode of the Holy Archer would likely be a huge hit. Nile was teeming with excitement.


    Nile decided the first thing they should do is bring the horses back to the stables. It didn¡¯t seem like a good idea to disappoint the Prince in this situation. Since there was only 3 horses and 4 people Thyn and Raiden decided to just walk back. Nile sat on arrow and held the supply horses reins while Baron rode the King¡¯s battle horse. They had tried to have Baron ride the supply horse but it wasn¡¯t able to hold his weight. Since it was the King¡¯s horse it wasn¡¯t something just anyone should ride. The giant stallion seemed to have slight difficulty carrying the giant barbarian, but it was a champion breed and somehow managed to hold him.  As they rode back at full gallop Nile was able to realize why they called his horse Arrow. The King¡¯s horse still kept an above average speed even while carrying Baron, but Arrow left him in the dust. Even though he had to slow down for the supply horse, the two barrel horses were running circles around the stallion. They were able to reach the city in only 15 min. Most horses would have taken 20 for the same trip.


    When they got to the gate the guards were alarmed to see the King¡¯s horse being ridden by someone other than the King. They had just seen the Prince go through the gate at full gallop and were wondering what had happened. When Nile told them what happened to the King half of them started crying while the others started spewing cuss words. The guards showed more loyalty than expected. The sight of a grown man weeping for his king was an unforgettable sight. The tears stopped though once Baron mentioned the bandit invasion.  After one sentence the guards got renewed vigor. They immediately set out to inform the rest of the guard and start preparations. Baron and Nile had a similar experience when trying to enter the castle. The castle guards were horrified by the news. They decided to send half of their men at that moment to the city guard to help prepare.


    Once the horses were back in their pens Baron and Nile decided to split up again. Baron needed to get back to the smith and get his armor, while Nile had business with the church and in real life.


    Nile quickly logged off once they split.


    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


    The event quest was a huge ordeal and was already making an appearance in many online forums. When the quest was sent there was a wave of excitement and anger. It seemed rigged that someone already had over 5,000 contribution points before it started. One top of that the player was level 28, only 1 level behind the best player in the world. The players that started in Gradian were fans of the Holy Archer because of its proximity to them. The fact that the names Baron and Nile both appeared on the rankings couldn¡¯t have been a coincidence. Many fans were eager to see if the next episode would explain the quest and the reason for people with early contribution.


    People also wanted to know how Baron and Nile both got 250 contribution after the quest began. People didn¡¯t know it but they had readied  the guards and helped prepare the city. Eventually people realised they could get points by helping prepare. There was a frenzy with all the people trying to help. Things like getting food stores from farms and bringing them into the city were odd tasks that gave little contribution but where abundant. People started forming parties to efficiently finish these tasks and within a couple of hours both Julia and Nick were passed on the contribution rankings. Since they had been killed the day before they wouldn¡¯t be able to log in for another days. It was fitting that someone like Nick who bragged about being amazing would have to miss out on his chance to prove it.


    As soon as Nile logged out he contacted his superior at FOX. He immediately agreed with Nile¡¯s plan and said he would have everything ready. Once he hung up Nile called his editor. He was asking for a lot but the editor promised to have everything ready. Nile planned to release an early episode of his show. With all that had happened he had more than enough footage. If he could get the footage out early he could possible be the first to cover the topic in detail. He was sure that he was the only person with any of the major details, but it was always good to be sure. He asked his boss if he could clear space on the website for the show at its normal time. Rather than that he promised to have a spot available in primetime. This quest would be one of the biggest RR shows the company had broadcasted and they planned to capitalize on it as much as possible. The task of editing an entire hour long episode in 1 day was a huge task. Thankfully Nile¡¯s editor knew the importance of it and promised to deliver.


    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


    When Nile logged back in he immediately headed for the church. He wanted to see if he lost his position as a cleric when switching his class to Royal Archer. If he did it would be a major setback. He couldn¡¯t hold both professions at the same time, but he may be able to remain active with the church. The Royal Archer was likely a 2nd tier profession of Archer.


    The way professions work in RR is that when the opportunity comes you can upgrade your class to something more specific. Similar to a warrior becoming a Knight or a Magician becoming a Necromancer. Some people theorized that there would be 3rd and above professions but that wasn¡¯t confirmed. They would be something like a Knight becoming a paladin. Certain professions could simply upgrade themselves. If you didn¡¯t want to become a different type of magician you could just become a 2nd tier magician. All you would gain is extra stat points. This was built into the game to make people who didn¡¯t want to get a 2nd tier profession able to compete with others. Since the Royal Archer was likely tier 2 Nile was hoping he could get a 3rd tier class of Holy Archer or something similar, although he would likely have to be a much higher level to get it.

 Chapter Six

    When Nile arrived at the church he was greeted by a priest. Apparently the head priest was eager to know how the blessing went and had the priests keeping watch for Nile to return.. The high priest was expecting him the day before, but better late than never.


    The high priest was mingling among the users in the church when Nile arrived. After a short greeting the priest escorted him back to his chambers. The high priests chambers were surprisingly grand. It more so resembled a king¡¯s chamber than a priest¡¯s. In the center of the room was a table and chairs. The priest set a kettle of water to boil as he instructed Nile to have a seat. When asked Nile recounted the events of what had happened. At the news of Nile being invited on the hunt the priest was amazed and delighted. It was a far better result than he had hoped for. When Nile mentioned the King¡¯s demise his expression suddenly changed. Unlike the guards it wasn¡¯t an expression of mourning or anger. It was more of acceptance and contempt. Nile had imagined him to weep as the guards did. Most citezens were loyal and had great reverence to their king. However the priest seemed like he was expecting it. He kept this expression until Nile changed the topic to the bandits invasion. At the mention of this he reacted with concern.


    ¡°If that is so, we must prepare immediately. The priests and paladins of the church of Lu will be more than willing to help defend this city. It is our home as well, and King Drake was our king.¡±


    ¡°That is good to hear, but there was also something else I wanted to discuss with you, if you don¡¯t mind.¡±


    ¡°Speak away brother. As the high priest it is my duty to hear all that those of the church want to say.¡± Once the priest said that Nile became a little more hopeful. If the priest still considered him a brother than he may have retained his position in the church.


    ¡°I have recently chosen to persue a profession along my interests of archery. I¡¯m afraid I¡¯m not a cleric anymore.¡±


    ¡°Is that all? Brother Nile once you are a brother of this order you will always be one. Here at the church we encourage the pursuit of individual interests along with strong faith. As the churches ideals are Faith, Wealth, and Power. Archery fits into the category of power and it thus furthering the ideals of the church. If your worry was whether or not you were still considered a cleric of this church than don¡¯t fret. You are and always will be, brother.¡±


    __________________________________________________________________________


    New Title:


    Cleric Of The Church Of Lu


    Even though you have changed your profession, clerics of the church hold their positions for life. This title allows you to be regarded as a cleric despite not being one by profession. Without having the profession you will not be able to gain cleric related skills, however the skills you have already gotten will remain and level up without being hindered.


    __________________________________________________________________________


    This was more than Nile was expecting. Even if it didn¡¯t allow him to learn new cleric spells he already had the heal spell which was all that he wanted. The title would allow him to keep the benefits of being a cleric in terms of the way people treated him. Clerics were often more easily accepted by NPCs because of their religious nature.


    Once Nile left the church he headed for the blacksmiths shop Baron had mentioned. He was still wearing the basic cleric robes and was in desperate need of an upgrade.


    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


    It hadn¡¯t been a full two days since Baron commissioned his armor, however he went to the blacksmiths anyways incase they were already finished. Since the shop was inside the castle it wasn¡¯t too far of a walk from the stables. When he arrived the older dwarf was at the counter talking to an older gentleman. There was a a few pieces of armor on the counter that the dwarf was looking at.  When Baron walked in the dwarf¡¯s attention changed and he greeted the barbarian.


    ¡°Baron, I wasn¡¯t expecting you for a while.¡±


    ¡°I was walking by and thought I¡¯d check and see if the armor was ready.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re in luck. I just finished an hour ago. FABIO!!! Get Baron¡¯s armor, would ya.¡± The dwarf shouted into the back where Fabio was working. He then turned back towards the man at the counter and addressed him. ¡°Come back tomorrow evening and I should have the armor ready. You could¡¯ve done worse. Those dents should come right out.¡±


    ¡°As confident as ever I see. Say, I thought you stopped doing commissions yourself and just pawned them off on that apprentice of yours?¡±


    ¡°I did, however this guy here¡¯s got a particular fighting style. The armor sounded like a challenge and I was bored. Plus it¡¯s not everyday you get to make armor for someone of his size.¡± The dwarf switched and started talking to Baron.¡± This is Sir Redric. He¡¯s in charge of training the kingdom¡¯s knights. You¡¯d be surprised what it takes to get into his school.¡±


    ¡°Sir.¡± Baron took a step forward and shook the knight¡¯s hand.


    ¡°Well then, where is this interesting armor you speak of?¡± Sir Redric questioned the dwarf.


    ¡°FABI-¡± The dwarf turned around to call for Fabio again, but he was already walking through the doorway. He was holding various parts of armor. He came and set it down next to the old man¡¯s armor.


    ¡°Well what are you waiting for. Put it on.¡± The dwarf demanded.


    __________________________________________________________________________


    Custom Steel And Leather Armor Set -


    Total Defense: 135


    Durability: 450/450


    Restriction:


    Level 27


    Strength 75


    Knight class or similar


    Barbarian Race


    The armor was crafted by the master smith and tailor Leather Hand. The skill Forced Imperfections was used to reduce the level restriction at the cost of Defense and Durability. The armor is made out of steel and leather. Because the skill of the craftsman greatly surpases the stats of the armor, people will perceive the armor as better than it actually is. The armor was made to be used by barbarians, however tall humans or short giants may also use it. The steel has been mixed with an unknown mineral to turn it white. The leather has been dyed black.


    The armor is mainly composed of steel with leather used in the joints and to reduce the effects of chaffing. Extra armor has been added to the right arm and right shoulder to aid in a particular fighting style. The contrast in white metal and black leather makes the armor stand out and gives it an artistic appearance.


    Effects:


    -25 Agility


    +75% Defense when blocking with the right arm


    +25% Dexterity with the right arm


    -25% movement speed in the right arm


    Stamina depletes 20% faster


    __________________________________________________________________________


    As Baron read the description he couldn¡¯t help but notice the dwarf¡¯s name and description. ¡®If he was a master tailor, going so far as to call himself Leather Hand, why did he say he wasn¡¯t skilled enough to use the cinder wolf pelt? He even said at his level he would only ruin it.¡¯


    The armor fit Baron surprisingly well, even with his insane height of 7¡¯2.  Aside from his face and neck there was no part of his body exposed. The armor was composed of a leather tunic and pants. The leather was more flexible than most leather armor. Its main putpose was to stop the steel armor from rubbing on the skin. Because of that the strength of it wasn¡¯t an issue. The workmanship in the build and dye of the leather was outstanding. Usually when beginners try to dye leather it turns out spotty or gives the leather an oily feel, but this armor was solid black and dry. The steel portion of the armor wasn¡¯t too heavy. If Baron had been anything but a barbarian who wouldn¡¯t have been able to stand with it on. The steel reached a half inch thick near the chest and back. The steel itself was of 100% purity. After reaching that level of purity it was mixed with another mineral to change its color to white. It wasn¡¯t solid white, but more of cloud color white, almost a white blue with imperceivable amounts of blue. The most distinguishing feature of the armor was its lack of symmetry.  The armor was designed to aid in Baron¡¯s fighting style. The dwarf did this by increasing the amount of armor on the right arm and shoulder. His right arm held the long sword in battle and was naturally slower than his left. Even though the extra armor added more weight it wouldn¡¯t make that much of a difference. Since he blocked usually with his long sword it would help reduce accidental damage. If the enemy decided to hit his arm instead of the sword it wouldn¡¯t make much of a difference. He could also use that arm as a shield. Since he used two swords there was no room for a shield. When in a pinch he could now use his right arm, although it wasn¡¯t made for that so the loss of durability would be considerable. The extra weight would allow for more precise movements as well. That was likely the reason for the +25 dexterity effect.


    ¡°I see what you meant by interesting.¡± It was the old knight to comment first.


    ¡°Well I¡¯d say I did a good job, wouldn¡¯t you agree?¡±


    ¡°It fits perfectly.¡± Baron didn¡¯t seem too excited when he talked. He was thankful that the armor met what he was looking for, but he didn¡¯t feel like this was anything to be excited about. The armor was a means to an end, and that end was getting stronger for revenge. He still hadn¡¯t forgiven that clan for killing him. Respect had been a huge aspect of his life since childhood and killing someone wasn¡¯t respectful. Baron also didn¡¯t realise the average defense for a set of armor with level 25 restriction was 100. Some of the best armor sets available at the time only had 125 at the most. The fact that he armor also had effects and an interesting appearance would make it sell for big on any auction site. Even if he sold it to an NPC in game he would still likely get 3 gold.


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


    ¡°It¡¯ll do more than that. Jeez just give me the 2 gold already. I ain¡¯t giving you this armor for free ya know.¡± Leather Hand was a little disappointed by Baron¡¯s reaction. He had just given him a gold mine and didn¡¯t really get a reaction


    Baron went into his inventory and took out the money. He handed it to the dwarf who quickly pocketed it.


    ¡°Her, I felt bad I couldn¡¯t help you with the other thing so I decided to through this in free of charge.¡± The dwarf reached under the counter and pulled out what appeared to be a jet black wolf¡¯s pelt.


    __________________________________________________________________________


    Wolf¡¯s pelt Half Cloak


    Durability: 55/55


    Restriction:


    Level 27


    This half cloak was made by the master tailor Leather Hand. The skill Forced Imperfections was used to reduce the level requirement at the cost of durability. The cloak is made of a black wolf¡¯s pelt of the highest quality. Because of the fur it provides excellent warmth in the cold. The cloak has an elegant appearance that attracts people¡¯s attention.


    Effects:


    +20% Cold Resistance


    +50 Leadership


    __________________________________________________________________________


    The half cload hooked onto his left shoulder and covered half of his body in black. It had an amazing effect to draw the eyes when placed on top of the white armor. The black leather accents in the armor helped give it a sense of unity, as if the cloak was made for the armor. It likely was knowing Leather Hand made both of them. The cloak effects were amazing. The fact that wearing this had no adverse effects was amazing. Items with no down sides are often considered the best. Baron couldn¡¯t tell but the best part of this cloak was not what it did, but what it didn¡¯t. The cloak was purposefully designed not to cover the armored right arm and the long sword on his back. While wearing this cloak anyone who saw him would automatically assume he was just a knight with heavy armor and a long sword. If it came to combat they would be taken off guard by his style of fighting. It was an effective metagame.


    Right as Baron was about to thank the dwarf another man entered the shop. By his uniform you could tell he was a guard. He was a clean shaven guy who looked to be in his early 20s. Since his guard uniform had only minimal leather armor he was either an archer, which was unlikely, or a royal guard who were often of low nobility. Because of their families status they would be given cushy positions guarding royal family members. Most of their time was spent in the castle where there was no need for armor. Most attacks wouldn¡¯t happen in the castle, but rather once they left the city or went walking in the streets.


    When the guard entered he stopped a few feet from the door and didn¡¯t say anything. He was staring at Baron with a mix of fear, amazement, and jealousy. After 5 long seconds he finally said something but all that came out was gibberish.


    ¡°I-I I-I- I¡¯m¡±


    ¡°Well spit it out Richard.¡± Sir Redric spoke to the man. As a veteran knight it was reasonable that he would know most of the guards names.


    ¡°I¡¯ve come with a summons from Prince Drake II for Sir Baron.¡± Richard gave a bow and ended up looking at Baron¡¯s feet as he spoke.


    As soon as he mention Sir Baron both Sir Redric and Leather Hand both burst into laughter. The man addressing Baron was so scared shitless that he added an honorific. To address someone who wasn¡¯t a knight as Sir was considered embarrassing and disrespectful. Certain knights would take offense to someone who isn¡¯t a knight being considered an equal of theirs. Thankfully Sir Redric wasn¡¯t that type, although he did laugh a little too much causing the embarassment to worsen.


    ¡°He ain¡¯t no knight. There¡¯s no need for titles boy.¡± The dwarf finally stopped laughing enough to say something.


    ¡°Uhh-h Sorry!¡± Richard bowed again and started talking to Leather Hands feet that were hidden behind the counter.


    ¡°Are you sure it was for me?¡± Even though Baron had just met the Prince earlier that day he still couldn¡¯t understand why he would be summoned.


    ¡°The Prince told me directly to find Baron, and... that you would be the scariest person I¡¯ve ever seen.¡± He was still looking at Baron¡¯s feet. Baron had an intimidating image before, but now with the armor and cloak he looked like someone to avoid. The Prince had also seen this for the moment in the battle when he thought Baron was an enemy.


    Even though it didn¡¯t make any sense why the Prince would summon him, Baron still left with the guard. If it was him the Prince summoned there would be consequences if he refused. The guard led Baron to the throne room. It was laveshly decorated. Down the long hall was a grand throne that looked like it could seat a giant.


    When they entered Baron noticed they were the only ones in the room.  Still his escort kept walking along towards the throne. When they got close Baron realised there was a door behind the throne. From inside it fait voices could be heard. When they entered 13 heads turned in their direction to see the barbarian and guard entering. The room was fairly large and had a huge table in the center with everyone around it. One the table was a map of the city and its surrounding areas. It was a war room with an active war council discussing the upcoming battle. Almost every person was clad in extravagant armor. There were a couple people who didn¡¯t, but they were past their prime. At the far end of the table was the prince. His light leather armor he used for hunting was replaced with armor fit for a king. The rest of the men present Baron assumed to be knights. Since they were at the war council they were likely of high military rank.


    ¡°Ah! Baron thank you for coming on such short notice. I also sent a summons for Nile however he hasn¡¯t arrived yet. Please take a seat.¡± With the wave of a hand the prince motioned for Baron to sit. The knights in the room seemed quite shocked. The Prince hadn¡¯t mentioned anyone was coming, and the person who showed up was a barbarian. Baron was still wearing his new armor and appeared much more dignified than he actually was. Still it was unusual for the someone to be offered a seat on the council.


    ¡°Thank you my Prince.¡± Baron didn¡¯t know what to say. Dealing with nobility wasn¡¯t something he had ever done. His seat was opposite of the prince where there were a few open chairs.


    ¡°Baron, Please tell me. Was it you and Nile who told the guards of the upcoming bandit raid?¡± The Prince along with everyone else present suddenly got tense. The question was asked with a sort of force about it.


    ¡°Yes.¡± Baron answered immediately with no hesitation. He also answered with the same force the Prince had asked with. It wasn¡¯t like him to back down from a fight, even if it was against a Prince.


    ¡°Then I am truly grateful to the two of you. If it wasn¡¯t for that we never would have realised what was coming. Our scouts have determined there are at least 1,500 bandits in the forests surrounding us. I was planning to avenge my father as soon as possible, however I wasn¡¯t aware they were coming to me. To think these scum think they can take Sai. It makes me sick we were so easily underestimated.¡±


    ¡°When they get here it will be slaughter. FOR KING DRAKE!!!¡± One of the knights spoke out. After he finished everyone else in the room repeated ¡°FOR KING DRAKE.¡±


    ¡°That it will be. Baron, that brings me to the second reason I¡¯ve summoned you. Currently the majority of our military is aiding our ally Kallamore in protecting their borders from Heaven. Because of this we have fewer than 1,000 soldiers in Sai. Including the guards and knights we have around 1,200 personnel ready for battle. If we are to even the odds we need to ask for the help of you foreigners. Although we are the authority over them we still know next to nothing about these foreigners. That is why I felt it would be better for you and Nile to lead them in the upcoming battle.¡± The Princes plan shocked everyone in the room. They had already talked about recruiting the foreigners, but there was no talk about a foreigner leading them. ¡°Our plan was to recruit the strongest foreigners in the city and have them defend the west wall. It is the only side of the city not surrounded by forest so it is unlikely the enemy will attack there. Still we can¡¯t neglect it. If the scum did manage to flank us the city would be plundered until we could exterminate them. From what I¡¯ve seen of you in battle I can trust you with this.¡±


    <table><tbody><tr><td>This is as far as I got in the story. I hope you enjoyed it. Any feedback on how to improve my writing, or what aspects of it are lacking would be greatly appreciated.


    My other FF Reaper is similar, but it only follows the character Reaper. The story is drastically different past the first chapter, so in my opinion it is worth the read if you enjoyed this FF.


    Thanks for reading.</td></tr></tbody></table>