Chapter 2: Duo Queue
The day Amaron Online will release it's servers...
So much fuss for just a game...
Thinking this, I let out a yawn and look at the classroom.
Seeing my classmates listening attentively, I spot a select few who check they're watches every two or three minutes.
Still looking around, I find one empty seat.
To think she'd even break her perfect attendance record for a game... well that's one less problem for me today.
Hearing the bell ring, the class disperses to go to our next classroom...
After taking notes and sleeping through a few classes, the bell giving off the the final ring, I pack up my stuff.
At the end of the day, still feeling incredibly sleepy, I take my time walking home.
Arriving at my apartment on the third floor of the building, I turn on the lights...
...which are already on.
“Hey, what took you so long?”
Looking at the girl in my apartment, I don't think I can be surprised at this point anymore...
Considering she does this every two or three weeks...
Her name is Sarah. 19 years old, black straight hair, and shorter than me by a few inches.
Surveying my apartment, I asked...
“So you skip class just to clean my apartment?”
“Not only that but I also installed a VR machine together with Amaron Online for you~”
Hearing that, now I really am surprised. Seeing me silent, she called my name.
“Malcolm?”
“...... (sigh) How much do you want from me?”
“What?”
“I mean, isn't a VR machine really expensive? And Amaron Online too?”
“Look. Just play the game and you don't have to pay. Alright?”
“...” Saying nothing, I sighed while walking into my apartment.
Just as I walked in, she walked out.
“Dinner's on the table, so you better eat it before it gets any colder. See ya in the game!” Sarah said just as she was closing the door and flashed a smile before she left.
Now that she said it, I finally notice the aroma and my stomach grumbles as I look towards the table.
Finding a plate with an assortment of food prepared, I sat myself down.
...
Eating my meal in silence, and finishing up, I brought the dishes to the sink and left it there.
Going to my room, I find a visor like machine on my bed.
Looking at it, it seems to be turned on already.
Having inspected the visor, I put it aside for now.
Looking around my room once more, I find my laptop on a desk beside my bed together with a console-like machine. I'm guessing it's part of the VR machine.
Turning around, I head for my closet and changed into a new set of clothes, dumping the old ones somewhere in the room.
Walking back towards my laptop, I turned it on.
Seeing as it is still early, I decided to look into the game more as I'm a bit curious.
Looking through a few guides, I found out that there is only one starting point and only one race.
Which is obviously human.
I also found out that there are a lot of stats, a lot of abilities, a lot of skills, and a lot of everything else.
It also seems that the players have levels, classes have levels, and abilities have levels, whilst skills have levels AND ranks.
Same goes for weapons. They have a ranking system but not a level system.
There are three ranks, which are Clumsy, Adept, and Mastered.
Every weapon starts of as Clumsy, and upon ranking up, it becomes stronger.
Another thing that caught my eye is that time inside virtual reality is three-times faster than in real life.
A paradise for college students... but it seems you can't access internet there.
Trying to absorb what's on my screen about the game, I gave up.
(sigh) I guess I'll just improvise...
Checking the time again and find that it is still early, I continue to look at some more guides.
After a while, I check the time and saw that it was already passed 10:00. And so, I closed my laptop. I got to my bed and lied down, picking up the visor-like machine, and put it on.
Remembering what I read online to play it, I muttered the key-word.
“Play.”
Saying this, a new sensation washed over me and everything around me turned dark.
Looking at my body, I find myself wearing some leather clothing.
Moving in this body feels very different than in real life. Well, whatever.
Looking around my surroundings all I see is darkness.
Waiting for a while, I quickly became bored.
“...”
“...”
“Geez! You're no fun at all!”
“...?” I turned to the voice behind me. “...And you are?”
“Amy.” She pointed at me. “I'm in charge of looking over the character creations of the players.”
The girl in front of me puffed her cheeks while saying that. Looking at her, she was wearing a white dress and donning a set of twin-tails. Out of curiosity, I asked...
“So are you an NPC or something?”
“What?! Of course not!”
“How old are you?”
“18.”
“So you are an NPC...”
“What makes you say that?!”
“I mean, look at your height...”
Looking at the girl once more, she looks like she's no more than two heads shorter than me. I heard that you could change your appearance in virtual reality but...
“This is revolutionary...”
“Stop joking around! I just made this character this way!”
“Yeah, yeah. So, you're the one facilitating the character creations right?” I said quickly changing topics.
“Hm? Oh, yeah. I am.” She said becoming a bit serious. Seriously?
“What do I do now?”
“We start off with your name.”
“Malcolm.”
“Alright. Next up is whether or not you want to change your appearance. Do you want to make a few changes?”
“Hmm... sure.”
Quickly after saying that, a mirror appeared in front of me.
Taking a look at myself, I see a guy with black hair with a height of six and a half feet. Dark coloured, slanted eyes, and average features. Thinking for a while, I decided not to.
“You know what, nevermind.” The mirror in front of me disappeared just as fast as it came.
“Okay. You may now use this time to get used to your body, allocate stat points and get some skills.”
Opening my status window, I started with my stats.
50 points... After deciding, I put 10 into damage, 10 into armor penetration, 5 into crit. damage, 10 into attack speed, 10 into movement speed, and 5 into crit. strike chance.
Next up are my skills. With 5 points, I can get 5 skills. I chose what I thought is appropriate.
[great-sword lvl.1] [AttackBoost lvl.1] [ArmorPenetrationBoost lvl.1] [AttackSpeedBoost lvl.1]
[MovementSpeedBoost lvl.1]
Meh... That's good enough.
“Hey. I'm done.”
“Alright, with this you're ready to walk the lands of Amaron! You will now be given 1000 copper coins and a backpack for your inventory.”
Appearing before me is a backpack and a notification that I obtained 1000 copper coins.
“Hey, how does currency work in this game?”
“Simple. 100 copper coins equal 1 silver coin, and 100 silver coins equal 1 gold coin.”
“Hm... does currency automatically convert?”
“Yup. So once you get in-game, you'll have 10 silver. Anyways, good luck!”
Immediately, everything turned white and took on color just as fast.
Now I find myself surrounded by thousands of other players.
Walking around for a while, the huge group quickly disperses until a few dozen players are left behind.
“Malcoolm!” I heard a voice calling my name.
Trying to ignore the voice, I walk away.
“Malcolm! Haa... finally found you.” A female voice said, quickly catching up to me.
“...” I turned to her while sighing inside.
“Now come on. I bet you don't know what do so I'll show you around.”
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Ignoring her comment, I followed. After a short walk, we enter a shop.
Looking inside, I find weapons of all shapes and sizes.
“So what weapon did you equip?” She asked.
“You're only asking that now? What if I chose some magic instead?”
“Then we go to the Mage Guild in the other side of town.” She said so as if it was common-sense.
“(sigh)... [great-sword]...”
“Okay. All beginner weapons cost 100 copper coins.”
“Hmm... anything better?”
“There are better ones but I don't recommend them 'cause drops from weapons and crafted ones are always better than buying them from NPCs.”
“So no choice I guess... What are your skills by the way?” I asked a bit curious.
Thinking for a while she enumerates them.
[Spear lvl.1] [HP Regen lvl.1] [ArmourBoost lvl.1] [MagicResistanceBoost lvl.1] [LightMagic lvl.1]
“So... a tank build?”
“Not exactly. It's actually for PVP.”
PVP. Player versus player. A system where players can fight eachother.
Places where you can PVP is anywhere outside of a town and during tournaments.
When a player gets killed by another player, that player is immediately respawned in the last town that player has been. This is to prevent spawn camping.
“I told you my skills, you tell me yours.”
Being told this, I sighed then told her my skills
“Hmm... you sure you don't want any crafting skills?”
“Yeah I'm sure. I don't think I can use them properly ayway.”
“Okay. Oh! Before I forget...” She fiddled with her menu.
The player Sarah has invited you to a party. Yes/No.
Popping up in front of me, an invitation has been sent to me. I gave the obvious answer.
“No.”
“Why not?!”
“I'll go solo for now.”
“At least add me on your friends list.”
“Fine...”
After that, Sarah pouted and after a while she pointed at me and said...
“But you better team up with me later okay?!”
“Yeah, yeah.”
After this exchange, we finally bought our weapons, a great-sword and a spear respectively.
And we bought some armor and potions leaving us with a few hundred copper coins left.
“Say... how do you get a class? You know, the basic ones?”
“Oh, you can get one once your level 10. Just do a quest corresponding to the class of your liking.”
“Can you get as many classes as you like?”
“Yeah, just do multiple class quests then you'll obtain them. But take note, you can only equip one of them.”
“Can you unequip them?”
“Yeah. Here's an example. Say you have the [Warrior] class equipped and it's level 5. When you unequip it, it will retain it's level. When you equip another class, that class starts at level 1.”
“So the level 5 [Warrior] stays?”
“Yup. Also, the skills they give go with them. Since [Warrior] gives you some Abilities, unequipping it will take those away.”
“I see...”
After saying that, Sarah just looked at me and smiled.
“What?” I asked.
“Nothing... It's just that you seem more talkative now.” She said then turned around.
“...”
Saying nothing, I followed her up until the main gate and from there, parted ways.
“...”
Remembering what she just said, I shrugged it off for now and decided to get some levels.
Going towards the plains, I spot my first monster.
A slime.
Walking towards it I brandished my sword. The sword I have right now looks very rusted but otherwise kind of heavy.
Rusted Great-Sword (common)
A sword used by it's
previous owner.
Clumsy
Attack+5
Quite the description.
Looking at the slime again, I noticed something.
You can't see they're HP?
...
I can see mine just fine. At least I can see it's name and level.
Thinking this, I quickly bring my sword down.
With a splat, the slime transforms into light particles.
Looking around I saw that it has dropped something and so I put it in my inventory.
Thinking back, I've never used a sword before.
And the way I swung the blade a while ago felt natural...
Must be the system assist.
Not minding and killing around two dozen slimes, I received a notification that I leveled up.
This seems inefficient... I'll try going further.
Leveling up gave 10 stat points so I put 2 into attack, 2 into armor penetration, 1 into crit.damage, 2 into attack speed, 2 into movement speed and 1 into crit. chance. I'll allocate my points like this from now on.
Hm? Looking at my stats there seems to be an increase to attack, armor penetration, attack speed, and movement speed. My skills maybe?
Thinking this, I moved from the plains towards the forest not far from the town.
Entering, I walk for a while without encountering any monster.
After a while longer, I heard some rustling in the bush beside me. While trying to bring out my sword, the entity jumped and bit me.
Tch!
Throwing it to the side while confirming the damage I have taken, I charge toward it and brought down my sword. Looking at it now it seems to be a really big dog.
Noticing my attack, it dodges and lunges at me.
Fast!
Using my sword as a shield, the dog tackled me and I fell down. Lunging at me again, I panicked and tried to stab it. Since the dog can't dodge mid-air, the sword clumsily slides itself into the neck of the dog and blood spilled from it. It fell down with my sword, and so I let go of it.
“Haa, haa...” Breathing a bit heavily and pulled the sword out. The corps stayed there a while before turning into light particles.
Seeing the drops, I put it in my inventory and took out a small HP potion. Drinking it my HP climbs back up to full.
Standing up I decided to go back...
But...how?
Quickly understanding that I don't know where I am, I panicked a bit.
...(sigh) nevermind...
After resting for a while, I began walking again, only this time more vigilant.
Encountering another dog, I quickly slash at it's back.
With the blade still sinking into the back of the dog, it tries to shake it off and bite me.
Putting more force into it to pin it down, the dog continues to lose blood until it finally died and turned into light particles.
From there, I continued to walk while paying attention to my surroundings.
Encountering a few more dogs and disposing of them, I received a notification telling me I leveled up again. Allocating my stat points, I continue walking.
… They're not so tough after all...
Killing more dogs along the way and leveling up again, I finally see something other than trees. A cave.
Entering it, I walk in mindlessly.
Getting deeper, It becomes darker and my eyes begin to adjust.
Having a good distance away from the entrance, a sudden pain assaulted me from the side.
Jumping the opposite direction, I brought out my sword.
Aah... What am I doing?
Looking at my HP, more than half has been cut down.
Clicking my tongue, I look at the culprit. The culprit was as tall as me and also has a sword. The only difference is that this guy has bones making up it's body. A skeleton.
I charged and tried to slash it with my sword, only to get parried.
Unable to react, the skeleton mercilessly stabbs me with it's sword quickly bringing my HP down to zero.
As my consciousness darkened, a notification appeared in front of me.
You have died.