Chapter 1
The Start
Within my first few seconds of life on Biprism, my old 72 year old body was discarded and I was remade into a blind seven-year-old who spontaneously appeared on the grassy noll surrounded by monsters and creatures of all kinds. Don’t worry though, I was safe, if only for the moment.
This was it, my first few minutes in the game world. A world that I had dreamed about experiencing for years. Just taking a deep breath was amazing to me, as my lungs worked properly for the first time in years. Better still, my breaths weren’t filled with the smog and pollution that covered the real world, but fresh air that smelt of sulfur, ozone, and most importantly potential.
Also, it should be pointed out that I wasn’t quite blind, either. While I couldn’t use my eyes to see, as they were little more than plague rotted sacs. I could clearly identify the world around me in a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view of colorful lights, thanks to my oddly broken Merit I took.
As I stood there, experiencing the world around me, I tried to decipher all the new impulses my mind was receiving, thanks to my Angel’s Sight. This was a merit that had up until recently been thought of as not worth the effort, especially as it all but forced you to take a seven-point flaw, the maximum a flaw could be, for free. With the seven point version, it meant that you would never be able to overcome that flaw. At least you couldn’t overcome a seven-point physical flaw. Other flaws could be overcome, given enough time and perseverance.
I loaded up on flaws, I took Broke (7) meaning that for the next seven years of my life I couldn’t expect to have more than 100 gold pieces to my name. Seeing as I was seven and this flaw would last until I was 14, which was still under the legal age for anything, I felt this was a fair trade off. Particularly with the fact that I intended to use my time as a child to improve my Skills, which would then ultimately bolster my Attributes.
If I had to describe myself and my way of play to anyone, it would have to be as a terrible one-shot build. Why terrible? Well I only had one chance to make anything of myself, today, my first twenty-four hours in game would be crucial to my ability to survive in this world.
The idea was simple, go in with a ton of flaws, then do everything within my power to maximize my potential gains. If I succeeded, I would be far better off than my parents were, both of whom already lost their lives to this game, all of them, including the restarts.
I chose Bad Starting Location (7). This meant that for seven additional starting points, I was placed in one of the worst locations of the world of biprism. Normally this meant that people would be placed in a bad location and be forced to run hysterically through the woods while monsters chased after them. The fact that I smelled ozone, and a brief focus on my senses told me that I was not on the ground. In fact, I was far, far from the ground as I was clearly up high.
Skree.
Off in the distance I could hear the call of wild birds cawing out gently on the breeze. The fact that they sounded like they were coming from far below me was a good indication of just how high up I was. Almost as soon as I made this discovery, I was met with a system prompt.
New Skill Gained: Skill Alertness: has risen to level 1. Note: Skill growth thanks to Merit: Precocious. Precocious: All skills learn at twice the normal speed. Note: references to Precocious will not be made again. Attribute Perception has risen to 2. System: Each skill relates to one or more Attributes. By increasing a number of skills equal to the level of an attribute, you will increase the attribute by one point. In this instance, your one skill point in the Perception based skill Alertness has caused your Perception to increase from 1 to 2. Now you will need two more levels in Perception related skills to increase to 3. Note: As an unclassed player, your maximum attribute level is 10. (Restriction removed due to Merit: Unbound) Merit: Unbound (7) has taken away maximum level caps for Skills and Attributes.
New Skill Gained: Skill Magical Awareness: has risen to level 1. Magic Awareness is a Perception and Intelligence based Skill. Attribute Intelligence has risen to 2. Attribute Perception has marginally risen from 2 to 2 (1 of 2).
It was nice that the system told you about itself and showed how it was being applied. That said, I didn’t want to distract myself. So, I turned off the incremental notifications for the moment, as I was focused on improving other skills. I was on a limited timer, as I had on my waist a very time sensitive item of death. I had the basic gear for a little girl, a set of undergarments that could not be removed, a worn canvas dress that more closely resembled a potato bag with a rope cord, two wooden sandals that would click on the loose rocks below my feet, and a legendary dagger on my waist. The legendary dagger was decorated in jewels and gold trim, looking at the item anyone would have assumed I would have stolen the dagger. Well, anyone would, think I stole it if they were around. Again, I was in a terrible starting location. This was good, as it meant I wasn’t likely going to get stopped by anyone when they caught me attempting to use my dagger for its intended purpose.
Legendary Item (7): First Kill dagger. You have in your possession a legendary dagger meant to help you level quickly and gain your first kill bonus quickly. Can only be used once. Can only be used in first 24 hours upon entering server. (2) Two additional charges have been purchased for this item; additional charges are only good for first 24 hours. Note: after first 24 hours, or when charge(s) have been used, dagger will revert to being a normal dagger.
This was the ultimate cheat weapon, designed to get people going out and exploring the world as soon as they arrived. Of course, most people who had this only had the one charge. A few people like myself used all three, this dagger was so powerful that just piercing a monster’s skin would kill them. Of course, everyone who had this item was level 1, or level 0 as was my case. Anyone who took the child flaw automatically started out classless. Which was good, as there were a lot of legendary classes that were still available to be unlocked and chosen by players. I intended to unlock at least 100 classes and get the associated title, of Jack-of-All-trades, a title that would help further improve my skill increases.
Of course, all those would pale in comparison to the true measure of my goal, the real reason why I used nine of my sacred Starting Points to purchase my First Kill dagger. Mainly, I wanted to use my Trait: Personal Teleportation a skill that cost me 50 Starting Points to unlock. The most powerful of Traits.
Traits were something unique to players, they were special abilities that acted similar to magic, but were not magic. Meaning, they could not be blocked, stopped or negated. The only way to technically block a Trait was to create an individual ward that was first attributed to the targeted user, then to focus a linking ward on the form of magic that perfectly harmonized with the user’s soul while they were activating the power. To put it in simpler terms, they were things users paid good money for, to earn. Those 50 starting points that this cost were the equivalent of five of my restarts, or every year of my life I spent slaving away to earn a retirement. To put it more simply, some people buy a nice sports car when they retire. I purchased this one Trait.
I also used 45 of the 70 points I got for selling back all of my restarts (technically there were only supposed to be 60, but if you sold all of them back at once, they gave you a ten point bonus). I used 45 of those points to purchase an Additional slot for a Trait, and then a Random Trait.
Of course, the random trait could be anything from Flying, a trait that would be very useful right about now, especially as I am fairly certain I am on one of the many floating islands of this world. To immunity to fire, something else that might also be useful depending on the types of monsters that exist on this floating island.
My starting trait is Telekinesis. Mentally I almost want to jump for joy with excitement, next to flight, this is arguably one of the best secondary traits I could ask for. Particularly as it doesn’t require me to move from my spot to activate or improve. Why is standing in place so important? Normally it isn’t, but for today and today alone, it is very important.
Traits also had a major draw in the fact that each Trait required their own skill to use and operate. This was perfect, as all skills related to Traits were tied to the Willpower attribute, one of the hardest Attributes to increase normally. With two skills for Personal Teleportation and Telekinesis, I was looking at a way to farm the heck out of my Willpower Attribute. An attribute that was key in most resistances and abilities to push yourself beyond your mortal limits.
I also mentioned for the moment that I was safe, despite being in a Tier 7 starting zone. This was the worst zone that was available to start in. There were of course worse zones, but those would instantly kill you, due to heat or other factors immediately. With the Tier 7 starting zone, you had the illusion of safety. But I was still safe, for until I willingly took my first steps, I was safe.
Standing in the same spot was a rite of passage for the game. As technically nothing bad would happen to you, until you moved. That was something the game developers stated emphatically. You would not be noticed by monsters or other creatures, regardless of the zone you found yourself in, so long as you did not take that first step. Why was this made a thing? Well no one could predict where they would first appear, nor more importantly when. The idea behind this rule was for the player to get into the world, have a moment to connect their mind to the world around them, then move about freely without fearing being stabbed, burnt, or impaled by monsters, invaders, or other natural phenomena. This was my one guaranteed god mode. No one could push me, and I couldn’t even fall over if I lost my balance. So long as I didn’t want to take a step and move my feet, I wouldn’t. Of course, people have comically abused this rite, but that is the part of any game. There was the case of high level players creating towering volcanoes under their children’s feet, once they joined the server. Everything was live streamed, but also done as a way to show the importance of this moment.
As for me, in a terrible starting location, it was all but encouraged that I take these next few moments to work on and improve my skills. Skills that would be used to increase my Attributes. Attributes that I would desperately need to escape this death zone alive. That was the other purpose for this location, while here, I could work on not only getting skills, but improving skills. Skills that would ultimately improve my Attributes.
As a child, or someone playing with the child flaw, it was imperative that you increase your attributes during this time as quickly and efficiently as possible. As a seven year old, my attributes had all been dropped to one, meaning once I took my first step, I would be at the mercy of the world, until I learned to crawl, then walk, both of which were skills that would improve my Strength, Dexterity, and Endurance Attributes. From there I could eventually learn to run and then escape. Again, the developers had a particular penchant for recording would be starters who chose a hard location like mine and watch us all get eaten by monsters that formed all around us.
I knew I was dead the moment I moved my feet, which was why I was going to work on improving my skills.
So that was what I decided to do, I would work on improving my Skills.
Skill Alertness: has risen to level 2. Attribute Perception has risen to 3. Skill Magical Awareness: has risen to level 2.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Good, it was just as the others described in their documentaries. The first few skill levels are increased automatically, particularly while possessing Angel’s Sight. The only thing is, that over time I will need to see new creatures and monsters appear. But with each level my Perception goes up, the range that I am able to view the world around me increases, thus I can see more monsters, which in turn helps me level my skills that much faster. With that, I realize that my Perception is going to be fine. The goal is to get every attribute to the 5-point cap, at which point more powerful skills like Analyze will become available. People could make money in game selling new ways to level up attributes. In fact, that is how I found out about this often-overlooked Merit: Angel’s Sight. Mickael, a famous blind adventurer sold their exploits with this merit. I was able to read about his exploits in the real world, which then gave him a form of royalty back here.
That was another way to make money in the game. If you became famous enough, or discovered something, you could write down your discoveries and sell it like a book to a library. Then if someone in the real world reads your article, you gain a royalty in game. Many high level adventurers make quite the second life living selling stories and insights they gleamed from their first play through. If they are successful enough with their sells, outside companies will often try to recruit the adventurer to their brand of apparel. I of course can’t do this last part, as I have chosen Dark Horse for seven additional points. My rationale was simple, if I become famous enough where a company would want to sponsor me, I could always make money elsewhere doing other tasks. In a way this was just free points used to make sure my start was as advantageous as possible.
Realizing this is exactly as the documentaries spoke, I begin with my plan to exercise and learn new skills while trying to level up.
Pulling out the dagger from my its scabbard at my waist, I begin hacking and slicing away wildly. I have a bit of an idea of what I am doing, try to keep the pointy end away from my eye. It takes me close to twenty slashes, before I get a notification.
New Skill Gained: Skill Daggers: has risen to level 1. Attribute Dexterity has risen to 2.
Nodding to myself, I continue going through my exercises.
Deep knee bends.
By my twentieth deep knee bend, I unlocked yet another skill.
New Skill Gained: Skill Athletics has risen to level 1. Skill Athletics is a Strength, Dexterity, and Endurance based skill. Attribute Endurance has risen to 2. Attribute Strength has risen to 2. Attribute Dexterity has risen to 3.
Nodding to myself I push my tiny body until I cannot swing my dagger or perform more squats. With that done, I begin focusing on using my two Traits.
Focusing first on my Personal Teleportation I begin with the first part of it, creating a ping. In a way this is like sonar for my Trait, and lets me see all open areas available and places I can actually teleport to, once my power gets high enough.
Of course everything is bright red as I haven’t even unlocked the Personal Teleportation skill to use the ability, but that is only a matter of time.
Ping.
Ping.
Ping.
I mentally create a cadence of generating pings, while going back to performing various exercises.
Finally after about twenty pings, I get the message I had been waiting for.
New Skill Gained: Skill Teleportation (Personal) has risen to level 1. Skill: Teleportation (Personal) is a Perception, Intelligence, and Willpower based skill. Attribute Willpower has risen to 2. Attribute Intelligence has risen to 3. Attribute Perception has risen to 3.
Nodding to myself, I continue. Once I hit level two of my Teleportation skill, I decide to switch to teaching myself to use my second Trait Telekinesis. I have to first focus on a tiny pebble, which is a lot harder than one might expect, especially while blind. Bending over at my waist, I lean over and with a grace I haven’t had in years am able to lean down, rub my hand against the ground until I feel a tiny rock. Feeling the rock in my hand, I pick it up, and begin concentrating on using my Attribute to pick up the rock from my hand.
Clatter.
The rock went up, but only for a second. I focus on the rock again, this time lifting it and trying to hold it. This is a process that makes me think I am trying to squeeze a grain of sand in between my fingers. The item is so small, and tiny that if I get distracted for even a second I drop the small pebble. Finally, after what I estimate to be twenty seconds of lift, I am greeted by the system message that I had been hoping for.
New Skill Gained: Skill Telekinesis has risen to level 1. Skill: Telekinesis is an Intelligence and Willpower based skill.
Seeing the quick gains is good, I mentally fist pump that I had the wherewithal to take the merit Precocious (7), which lets me learn Skills Twice as quickly. I also have two other Merits; one is Regeneration which makes it so I can heal from almost any wound. I figured this would be a must as I am likely to get very injured today, and most other days. While Regeneration (7) doesn’t guarantee my success, as it is strictly an after-battle kind of merit, I figure being a poor broke child with no parents would make it hard to find a healer willing to help, thus the merit. I also took one final merit for my long-term benefit Magic Tier VII (7), this wasn’t stating that I had magic already. No one got magic or rather, no one got access to the magic system until they were an adult. If I didn’t have the child flaw, this would have cost as much as my Trait would have, just to be randomly assigned a starting value this high.
Magic was a tier based system that went up exponentially, and while there were stories of people who unlocked magical potential after years of diligent work, they were all people who unlocked from a string of impossible quest chains. As for me, I was more pragmatic, again my goal was to survive until I could become an adult, well an adult in game. I already had memories of one lifetime spent wasting my days as motivation to push this life as hard as possible. This was my retirement, and I was either going to live my best life, or no life, those were the options I placed before myself.
Not wanting to waste this golden opportunity, I did a quick scan of how far I had come in just my first few minutes of being in this world and was pleasantly surprised.
Physical: Social: Mental: Strength: 2 Personality: 1 Perception: 3 Dexterity: 3 Sociability: 1 Intelligence: 3 Endurance: 2 Attractiveness: 5 Willpower: 2
Skills:
Alertness: 2 Athletics: 1 Magical Awareness: 2 Teleportation (Personal): 1 Daggers: 1 Telekinesis: 1
Traits: Personal Teleportation, Telekinesis.
Starting Point Tally: (157) Base 52 (50 years of work, followed by two legacy points for following your parents). Flaws: 0 Restarts (70) Child (7): You are 7 years old, all attributes start at 1 Second Class Citizen (7): Random race and faction based on starting location Bad Starting Location (7): You will begin your new life in a location that will likely mean your death. Dark Horse (7): You can never gain a sponsorship. Orphan (7): This is automatically applied as both your parents have passed away. Blind (7) (Forced for 0)
Merits: (157) Precocious (7): Learn Skills Twice as quickly. (Only available at character creation) Unbound (7): Attributes and Skill levels are not defined by level. (Only available at character creation) Magic Tier VII (Max Tier): Magic Potential (7). When you are old enough to awaken magical potential, your magic tier will be maximum. Currently assigned: None. (Only available at character creation) Regeneration (7): You heal at an exceptional rate. In time even the most grievous of injuries will heal. (Only available at character creation) Legendary Item (7): First Kill dagger. You have in your possession a legendary dagger meant to help you level quickly and gain your first kill bonus quickly. Can only be used once. Can only be used in first 24 hours upon entering server. (2) Two additional charges have been purchased for this item; additional charges are only good for first 24 hours. Note: after first 24 hours, or when charge(s) have been used, dagger will revert to being a normal dagger. (Only available at character creation) Trait: Personal Teleportation (50) (Only available at character creation) Trait: Extra (25) This opens up a second slot that can hold an additional Trait (Only available at character creation) Trait: Random (20)- (Telekinesis) (Only available at character creation) Angel's Sight (5/5) (25): A mysterious blessing that allows the user to see the world in a 360-degree view. Allows user to see through illusions, can see magical enchantments and effects all around the individual. Instantly able to identify monsters, even those hidden via stealth or supernatural means. Range of sight equal rating times Perception. Requirements: user must take the flaw Blind. (Only available at character creation)
Seeing my Attributes, I mentally nodded to myself, and then decided to continue improving myself as much as possible. I only had a day to use the dagger, but that was a long time. Particularly if I was going to spend the entire day running from monsters. I of course had no intentions of running from monsters, as I had Personal Teleportation as a Trait for a reason.
I was determined to get all my Attributes to at least the base ten level before I even attempted to move from this spot. Well maybe all but my social Attributes, to increase those I would have to talk more. Which, at the moment meant, I would be talking to random monsters. While I theoretically couldn’t draw their attention, right now.
Focusing pushing out as many improvements as I could all at once I began, using my sonar like ping. More often, with this last one I was met with a new message.
Skill Alertness: has risen to level 3. Skill Magical Awareness: has risen to level 3.
That was good, as it showed that my pinging sweeps also used my Angel’s Sight, something I had suspected but couldn’t verify until now. Now this meant that my expensive merit had a synergistic effect with multiple skills.
Nodding to myself, I kept pushing. Doing deep knee bends with my palm out as I attempted to mentally hold the floating pebble, while pinging the world around me.
I was going to make something of this life, I just knew it.
Then almost as if the world heard my thoughts, I got a new notification.
New Skill Gained: Multitasking has risen to level 1. Skill: Multitasking is an Intelligence and Willpower based skill. Attribute: Willpower has risen to 3. Attribute: Intelligence has risen to 4.
New Skill Gained: Dual Casting has risen to level 1. Skill: Dual Casting is a Perception, Intelligence, and Willpower based skill. Attribute Perception has risen to 4.
Seeing that, I knew I was on the right track. The game was often encouraging to new players to push themselves and try new things. I knew from reading multiple stories, that these first twenty four hours were the most important, as the skills I unlocked today, would define who I was as a person going forward.
Seeing the Attributes, I realized I was nearing the baseline stats for a 12 year old. Again, at five points was when many of the higher level attributes could be unlocked. I always assumed that Dual Casting and Multitasking were higher attribute skills, but apparently, I was wrong. They might just be a determination factor.
Still, deep knee bends. My next step once these three tasks became too simple, or repetitive add in dagger work. I also knew I could use my sheath in my off hand to eventually unlock the Dual Wielding skill.
Realizing I literally had nowhere else to go, and that my life likely could depend on this very skill in the future, I pulled out my sheath and began practicing stabbing with both hands, while trying to move my floating pebble up and down.
It took me hours to get to this point. Or at least what felt like hours, looking at my timer remaining on my ultimate weapon, I had only been here for a little over an hour, as I still had over 22 hours and 17 minutes remaining to use all three charges of my OP First kill dagger. But finally, after so many ridiculous movements and actions all taken in one place, I was greeted with a new system message.
New Skill Gained: Dual Wielding has risen to level 1. Skill: Dual Wielding is a Dexterity, Endurance, Perception, Intelligence and Willpower based skill. Attribute Dexterity has risen to 4. Attribute Endurance has risen to 3.
“Jackpot!” I shouted excitedly, as I let out a sigh, before continuing to grind my attributes up to 10. I knew it was an ever increasing burn, as these first few levels of attributes were always the easiest. To put it in perspective. To go from 1 to 5 in any Attribute only took 10 skills that utilized the attribute. To further that and go to my goal of 10, I would need a total of 45 skill increases, or 35 more skill level increases. Now assuming I wanted to do that in any meaningful way before this day ended, I needed to hurry, as I still hadn’t met the half way point of 5 points in any attribute, other than my starting appearance score. Appearance was one of those vanity scores that only went up if you took care of yourself daily, and applied makeup. Well makeup wasn’t necessary, but it did increase the rate that the Attribute went up, as it gave you a new skill: Beauty, but that was an entirely different thought process to what I was doing right now. For the moment I was focusing on my core six attributes, in order to make sure I could survive here today, so that is what I did.
Deep knee bends.
Ping.
Dagger strike, Parry with the offhand.
Move rock between dagger strikes.
Repeat.