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I gazed at the players around me in bewilderment.
Why am I the only one who remembers anything? Surely if my memories are intact then there must be others like me. That’s right. I’ll try and find them and figure out what’s going on.
I strolled up to the nearest person who was still visibly reeling in wake of what had just transpired. He had a puckered mouth, making his face resemble that of a fish.
“Hey! Um. I was wondering if you know how I can log out of here?”
The player just shook his head and stared at me like I was crazy. Oh I’m the crazy one now, is that it?
“Well, thanks for your amazing help.” I couldn’t help but say sarcastically.
After a couple of more attempts at conversation with other people in the hopes of shining some light on the current situation, I gave up. I sat on the floor and sighed deeply. Looking around I could see everyone in a similar state of confusion so it should have been clear from the start that it would have been pointless to ask. Obviously not.
Tsk. How irritating.
Suddenly, I remembered that announcements were delivered through the in-game notification system. Maybe there was something there. Of course. How could I have been so stupid?
I scrolled through the various categories in my status window. Profile…Inventory…Social….Inbox. Ah there it was.
I opened it to find that all my messages had been erased, leaving nothing but a single red message that was labelled ‘IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT’. I selected it and my eyes widened at the content of such an announcement.
Welcome to Aurora!
In this beautiful world, the only thing you need to do here is live! Simple right?
As you venture more and more, you will discover your class; a profession you will excel in and love. Go forth and explore new dungeons, make new friends and defeat bosses together!
Be warned however, you only have one life in this world. There are no second chances here. After all, this is reality; you die once and you die forever.
Aside from that, make the most out of your life and reach new heights!
[Note: You cannot have more than one class at any time.]
Honestly. It sounds like your typical RPG game. How lame.
But ‘you die once and you die forever’, what does that mean? Surely it can’t mean I’ll die in real life as well. It’s not possible…
I shivered at the possibility of such a prospect. I relied so much on the system letting me respawn over and over again when I attempted at taking down bosses on my own, there was no way I’ll be able to do the same thing again. It’s a shame really, considering it was much more rewarding personally when you defeat a boss on your own after countless attempts. That, and I didn’t like to work with other people. The thought of just working together made me cringe inwardly, and I also didn’t want to share any of my secrets to success. Besides, I’m not a good person. I try not to be anyway, it’s just not in my nature.
Okay. Well, I suppose I should set a plan on what to do, I can’t sit around and do nothing all day.
I gave it some thought. Then I decided my top priority would be getting out of this game. There has to be a way. Even though I hated my life outside of Aurora, I didn’t hate it so much that I’d spend my entire life in a videogame. Oh the irony.
The way I would achieve this would be to make my character the most powerful in the game. I would obtain the strongest class so much so that my enemies would cower at my feet whenever they were graced with my presence. Yes…. That seems like a great idea. I grinned sinisterly at the thought.
First things first, I’ll go get my old class back then I’ll decide on what to do from there.
Revenant, if I could remember, was a unique drop from a hidden boss called Nocturne. The problem wasn’t with the boss itself, that wasn’t very difficult to defeat. Finding it however, was the difficult part.
It resided in the centre of a labyrinth that was filled with darkness. As such it applied a severe amount of debuffs that would turn anyone away just thinking about it, especially considering they had one life. Such debuffs included: Fear, Confusion, Armor and Magic Resistance reduction, Paranoia, Blindness and several more. On top of that, you took constant damage per second so you were on a time limit; there was no way you could be in there for more than 2 hours, even at my level. Coupled with the armor and magic resistance reduction, this was truly a force to be reckoned with. Nocturne was just there to finish any stragglers that actually managed to complete it by luck, by which all of them would be far too weak to fight it.
I would need a lot of preparation before I entered the labyrinth. Hell, I was still level 1, I wouldn’t last a couple of seconds in there let alone fight the damn thing.
It was time to go hunting.
*****
The method I used in beta phase consisted of me farming one species of monsters and its variants for 10 levels, where each species was around 10 levels ahead of me in order to maximise the experience I got from the creeps. This also meant I was more reliant on my technique rather than my raw power so I could hone my fighting prowess better.
If it took an entire week to raise my level by 5, it would mean it would take around 40 weeks to reach the level I first started at. Hopefully by then, people would have some clue as to what was going on and my body would be finally ready to tackle on Nocturne’s maze after some rigorous training.
With each level, I would gain 10 stat points which I could distribute into 6 categories, of which were: Attack, Defense, Agility, Vitality, Intelligence and Dexterity.
These categories had the following effects:
* Attack – Increases base Attack Damage
* Defense – Increases base Armor and Magic Resistance
* Agility – Increases base Movement Speed
* Vitality – Increases Maximum Health
* Intelligence – Increases Maximum Mana
* Dexterity – Increases Maximum Stamina
I decided to revisit the path of the assassin if I were to acquire my original class, which meant that I was essentially a glass cannon. I would put 3 stat points into Attack, 3 stat points into Agility and 1 stat point into everything else. I would be therefore, an assassin who excelled in annihilating my enemies in the shortest time possible.
Without further ado, I began training.
*****
Week 1 – 10 (Location: Elderwood Forest) (Creatures present: Slimes, Dire Wolves, Treeants, Forest Spiders, Grizzly Bears)
At first it took a bit of getting used to moving around in my god awful movement speed. Literally I was just standing there hitting the damn things, moving around like a log and taking a massive load of unnecessary damage as a result. However, once I figured out the patterns of the monsters, I could identify each of their weak points and target them, repeatedly attacking them until they were dead. Efficient and easy. I breezed through these monsters without sustaining any major damage.
Week 11 - 20 (Location: The Mines) (Creatures present: Underground dwellers, Locusts, Albino Bats, Cave Lizards, Skeletons)
Afterwards, I ended up training at the Mines, an underground area consisting of an abandoned gold mine home to various creatures. Most notorious were the skeletons which were the remains of fallen adventurers and the first undead I encountered. I figured the trick to killing these skeletons was to use blunt force as it was the most effective method since their bones were very brittle and could easily be smashed apart. Apart from that, the rest of the monsters were just experience farms, they were way too unintelligent and clumsy.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Week 21 – 40 (Location: Mt. Kappa) (Creatures present: Raks, Hawks, Wyverns and a Dragon)
I proceeded with my training regime by climbing up Mt. Kappa in order to naturally increase my stamina. Along the way, I encountered Raks and Hawks, known as the dominant predators of the skies, usually flocking together in packs to feast on unsuspecting victims.
Perfect. It was a great time to increase my precision with throwing daggers.
Nearer to the top of the mountain, I saw wyverns flying around. There were avians that were related to dragons but significantly smaller and weaker, though still incredibly vicious. Since they were descendants from the dragon species, they gave more experience than I had anticipated and my level had more than doubled battling such creatures. I decided to hunt these for a longer period of time and the experience given at the end was amazing.
As I reached the peak of the mountain, I spotted an alcove in the side. Peering inside, I discovered a snoozing dragon resting upon a nest of eggs. Previously, this was known as the Ages Dragon, a one-of-a-kind deviant from the original species gone reclusive by residing in the mountains. The experience it would provide was mind-boggling; especially considering it was a boss monster. Also the eggs might prove to be somewhat valuable later on.
An assassin had no code of honor, I didn’t care much about the values of honor, not when faced with an enemy of this calibre. I simply went up to the sleeping dragon and stabbed it in the belly a few times with a poison laced dagger I had found wandering around. With such cowardly methods, the dragon bellowed and howled in a mixture of anger and pain, yet unable to move due to the strong paralysis of the poison. I looked on with an air of indifference, the dragon crushing its eggs as it tried in vain to move. I felt a little bit of guilt I suppose, but the feeling soon passed away once I condoned my actions as something necessary. For the future of all the players here, I decided.
As it passed away, I looked over the remaining eggs and to my disappointment; all but one of the eggs had survived. I quickly pocketed the single egg and proceeded down the mountain.
By then, my stamina had vastly improved from being on such a high altitude for a long time. My other stats had also improved as I had returned to the level I started out at, 201. I opened my status window and it displayed all my stats as well as several new skills I had learned over my training regime.
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Status WindowName:CianAlignment:NeutralLevel:201Class:NoneRace:HumanGender:MaleTitlesNoneHealth:4020 / 4020Mana:2010 / 2010Stamina:2010 / 2010Movement Speed:Up to 302-Attack:603Defense:201Agility:603Vitality:201Intelligence:201Dexterity:201
*****
Before I went to battle Nocturne, I travelled back to Nightfall. During the time I spent in my training, the town had vastly changed from when I first visited it. It had quickly transformed into that of a buzzing marketplace, people buying or selling their wares everywhere. I was going to do some serious business here.
I went off and sold the various materials I harvested from farming, amounting to a hefty sum of gold of around 1,000.
At one of the stalls selling a variety of equipment, I recognised a familiar face browsing through the items.
“Yo! Mr. Fish Face!”
He turned around to look at me.
“Remember me? That handsome guy you had the pleasure of talking to from a year ago?”
He stared at me blankly. Does he still think I’m the idiot?
“Yeah, that’s me. I was wondering if you got any clues on how to leave this place.”
Fish-face’s expression brightened. “Ah right! Let me tell you how.”
Now it was my turn to stare at him, the cogs in my mind turning a million miles a minute.
“Use one leg and take a step forward. Now, with the other leg, take two steps forward. Repeat this process until you are out of my face. That help ya?”
“…Thanks.” I muttered under my breath.
“No problem kid. Come by any time and I’ll give you some more life tips.”
I gave him a look of confusion. Fish-face just shrugged and sauntered off jovially. Hmm…why is he so happy? What a strange guy.
“Oh don’t worry about him, he’s always like that.” An old lady, presumably the owner of the stall, came up to me.
“Now, what can I do for you young man?” She grinned a toothless smile at me.
“I’d like two daggers of your finest quality, clothing which has the highest movement speed, 50 throwing knives, vials of poison, smoke bombs…” I went off and listed the vast amount of ingredients I’d need to defeat this boss.
In the end, I was nearly broke, having spent most of my money. 40 weeks’ worth of gold, all spent in a couple of hours, good thing I didn’t have this much money in real life.
Now, with all the correct preparations in place,
It was time.
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The first couple of chapters relate to Lucian getting his original character back, so bear with me for a bit. There will be a little bit of info dump (not a lot I promise) in these chapters so that I can move forward with the story faster. I hope it wasn't that bad of a chapter and I tried to lighten it up with a bit of humor from Lucian and his thoughts.
Thus the gem of this story will lie within its plot and not the combat, though they will go in a much more detailed and exciting fashion than the ones in this chapter. As such, if you enjoyed it be sure to leave a comment below and a follow for more!