My vision was still blurry an after effect of the sudden flash... Red spots appeared as I moved my eyes to wander. Then I look down... My feet seemed much closer than it was earlier... Ahh! That's right I have now a different body. It didn't feel weird at all, maybe it's because of the calibration of muscle and body movements it didn't feel like it was a different body.
I held my head high and saw countless amount of players stretching their bodies... "Did they really have to do that?" I wondered as I let my eyes roam in different directions... If I remember correctly there were about 15,000 players that was accepted by the company to participate in the beta testing right? In my vision a gauge similar to that of K***dom H***ts recorded our HP [Health Points] and MP [Magic Points] in a red and blue colors. On the other side of the HP and MP gauge was the EXP gauge, how do I know this? I've played too many RPG's that I can determine that the yellow colored one is the EXP [Experience Points] gauge. In the middle surrounded by the gauges were my Level... Number 1 was inside it. I'll be leveling up later so it doesn't really matter right now...
"Status"
The Status Screen appeared in my vision...
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Name: Ryo Shikigami
Age : 14
Sex : Male
Race: Ylka
Level: 1
Job : None
Title: None
Affiliations: None
___________________________________________________
[Equipment]
Weapon: None
Headgear: None
Upper Armor: Civilian Shirt
Lower Armor: Civilian Pants
Cloak/Mantle: Black Hooded Cloak
Shoes: Poor Man's Slippers
Accessory 1: Ylka Rosary
Accessory 2: Wooden Ring
__________________________________________________
[Status]
HP [Heath Point] 50
MP [Mana Point] 70
STR: 5
AGI: 7
VIT: 3
CON: 5
INT: 9
LUK: 13
DEX: 5
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[Skills]
___________________________________________________
No skills, mediocre stats, below normal equips... This is truly the worst... But I have to strive! As I clenched my fist as I gazed up high in the heavens.
The beta test seems to start later after 45 minutes if the others still couldn't pick character the system will randomly give them a character instead...
"There is still some time... I'll go walk around the town... No one was allowed to go out of the town but everyone's allowed to loiter inside it. I'll try to find some good spots in here... That I could chill if I didn't want to farm monsters."
But still for a first VRMMORPG to be created it's already at the state that could be called perfect. You can even talk to NPC's like they're normal people already. I knew of this since I've asked directions as I go around the town. Of course NPC's know much more about the roads and alleyways to walk to' inside the city since they were programmed to do it. I caught a glimpse of shops some of it were the armors, weapons, potions, spellbooks, and even antique shops too... I don't' know about the last one but the others are the ones I've marked in my map. Having to know where to go and buy stuff gives me less burden later on in the game...
There is also the training grounds outside the town... I still don't know what effects it will have if you train there but it's a safe bet that it can be used to at least grow at a decent level before going out to the field and fight monsters. But since I couln't go outside the town were practically stuck in here for a long while.
There is also some NPC stalls... Pseudo-shops that move every 5 minutes to a different location... They have items that could be bought at the most cheap of prices... But since it's a bother following their route it's much better to stick on the general store where you could buy almost anything though at a much higher price than the stalls...
The only thing missing was the sense of temperature, smell and taste... It didn't felt hot nor did it felt cold... I guess they still couldn't reproduce how people feel this things or how to let the system transmit that to the brain... and I couldn't smell the flowers that I encountered as I roamed around the town. I wonder what'll happen if we got slashed or something? Will it hurt? I want to know! I'm not an M! I just wanted to experience things you wouldn't experience in real life. I don't know how things taste like here... So I wish the sense of taste implemented in-game.
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The buildings that seemed like they were built by some British architect gave off an elegant feel to it. Almost like they were made for royalty.
Seeing as the time was only about more than 23 minutes left. I went back to the place where every player was waiting for the announcement of the start of the beta phase. I arrived before the expected time with only 1 minute remaining... I could already hear some players yelling to start the game...
3... 2... 1...
Someone appeared beneath the Enormous sakura tree and started shouting... Well, it wasn't really just random shout it was an announcement from the game staff...
"All of you here today are the first players of [Arkandia Online] though I'm terribly sorry to say this but some of you will be eliminated. We will now give an advancement quest to everyone who wants to be a full-fledged beta tester. You will enter this city's Dungeon... Learning where, or how to get there is up to you to find out... I wish you all good luck..."
After his speech he disappeared without a trace and a quest prompted in front of my vision. It seems it wasn't just me who got the quest since all other players were kind of surprised by the sudden appearance of the quest box.
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Event Quest: Beta Player Advancement Test
You will be given three whole days (1-Whole Day in Real-Time) (In-Game Time) to complete the quest. You may log out and re-login and continue the quest. Keep in mind that 1-Hour Real-Time is about the same as 3-Hour in-game time.
____________________________________________________________________
Quest Information:
Find the city's dungeon [Cruel Heart's Labyrinth] and retrieve the guarded artifact from the [Kobold King] and present it to the NPC by the name of [Aurum].
Rewards: 100 Ardelan Copper Coins, Mantle of Darkness, Cyan's Weapon Stash
____________________________________________________________________
I mostly roamed around the town the only thing I didn't map was the northeastern region and the southern region of the map. It must be somewhere within those parts. It seems being in this small body has also made me into an invisible character... Or maybe because I looked weak I wasn't even asked to join other people's parties. They all walked passed like I wasn't there. No matter I'll just finish the quest myself... Though I don't think that I can do it but I still want to do it.
I marked the map with an X like marker where I'm hoping to see the Labyrinth Dungeon. Even mapping the town is a big burden on this little body... Having small legs that of a junior-highschool student can be a bit tiring even though it's not my physical body...
I walked at a faster pace making it possible to arrive at the location much faster... Gathering info, talking to NPC's... It's tedious work but it gives me a lot of hints to where the labyrinth was... As I walked around the town with my hood hanging on my head I saw bunch of players stuck together with each other. "They must be in a party together" I thought as I moved passed them... Roaming, and roaming, and more roaming... I've been gathering info for 2 hours now... It's still not even an hour IRL.
"The quest info says that it is possible to log-out then re-login, right?"
I thought of logging out but I would be wasting my time in doing that... I marked another place at the map from the info I got from the guard NPC. I also started asking roaming NPC's like the stall vendor in hope for a much reliable info but he asks me to pay up, I didn't have the money so I went somewhere else.
Then a female's voice once again echoed...
|Implementing System... Stamina and Satisfaction Meter... Adding Interface...|
Two lengthy bars that stood upright appeared below my HP and MP bars... The one that was colored green was the Satisfaction and the other was colored indigo for Stamina.
"Why didn't they introduce it earlier!"
|Players will be given limited provisions... Adding items into storage... Adding items complete...|
I checked my inventory and there was a bundle of food in here... Sandwich, Box Lunch, Water and other kinds of portable foods. After checking the amount of food inside my inventory, I looked back at my stamina and saw that the satisfaction meter was decreased by a small amount.
"So we'll have to be thrifty about the food or we'll die of starvation, huh?"
Water replenishes more stamina than the satisfaction meter while eating food replenishes satisfaction meter more than the stamina meter... There were others who chomped on their food like there was not tomorrow and in the end they couldn't move until their HP became 0 due to [Starvation] status. They were eliminated in the process of being chosen as a beta player as the result.
After learning the facts about this two new system... I moved onwards to the place I've marked... I hope this time it's the real deal....