Chapter 2: Hero’s legacy
As tears rolled down Kira’s cheeks she lifted up the box.
“Brother what kind of prank are you playing on me now?”
Kira carried the box to the kitchen and pulled open the flaps. With shaking hands she pulled out two smaller boxes. The first box had an image of a silver colored, transparent visor. The visor vaguely resembled a pair of silver sunglasses. Kira recognized it right away. Her brother hadn’t just bought her any virtual reality visors. He had bought her the most expensive edition.
“Kian what have you done!” gasped Kira
Kira glanced at the other box, which had an image of a young man. The man was standing on a mountain range watching the sunrise. It wasn’t a normal looking man. The man carried a large sword on his back and was wearing obsidian black armor.
Kira recognized the man’s face. Then as fast as a bullet she swiped the box of the table and looked at the cover more carefully. There was no mistake about it.
“Kian what are you doing on the front cover of a virtual reality game?”
Kira didn’t waste another second. As she carried the two boxes to her room she thought
“My brother wouldn’t have bought me all this, to have forgotten about the internet fee.”
“I still have no idea what’s going on but he told me to find him and find him I shall.”
Kira scanned through the instructions. After having gotten a rough idea of how the visors worked. She lay herself on bed, clicked the game into a port situated on the side of her visors and put them on.
Kira then closed her eyes and said
“Log in!”
Everything went dark. After several seconds there was a flash of light.
Kira let out a gasp. She was now standing in a white room. She stretched her hands out in front of her, stretching her fingers in the process. She then looked down at her feet. She had been lying on a bed a few seconds ago, however now she was standing.
Kira looked up when she heard a female voice.
“Welcome new player to the world of Hero’s Legacy!”
“As you are a new player and you are using this device for the first time, out of precaution you will be asked to complete several exercises...”
Kira was told to walk, jog, sprint, run and throw a few punches. Kira felt good moving her body around in this new place.
“Thank you for completing the instructions!”
“I will now explain the basic mechanics of the game, with the help of several examples.”
“For almost every action in the game there is a skill to be learnt with it.”
“Unlike other games in Hero’s Legacy a character’s level is not estimated upon the amount of experience they receive from killing monsters. A character’s level is estimated by the skill level of all the characters skills added together, this includes non-melee skills. To further explain this I will give an example.”
“There are two players. One is specialized in crafting skills, the other in melee skills. The character specialized in crafting has the same level as the melee specialized character. If the crafting specialized character has level twenty-five in sewing and blacksmithing, he is registered as a level fifty player. The player specialized in melee skills and has for example level fifty longsword mastery will also be registered as a level fifty.”
“As a level for a skill grows it becomes harder for it to level. So in this example the player specialized in melee skills, may have been playing longer, or may possibly be more experienced, but is registered at the same level as the crafting specialized player. Who has obviously spent less time playing and aside from his potentially deceiving level, he has amassed zero sword mastery bonuses.”
“Which brings me to my next explanation, concerning the leveling of skills. As a player levels his skills, unlike other games his accuracy and proficiency won’t increase. His damage however will. To farther explain this I will give another example.”
“There are two archers. Archer number one has never held a bow before, until the moment he started playing the game. His average hit point damage is twenty. This archer hits the target one in the five shots. Archer number two is an experienced archer in real life. His hit point damage is five per shot, as he has a lower archery level than archer one. However archer two hits his target five out of the five times. Which amasses a total of twenty-five, which means he dealt 5 more damage than archer number one, who was a higher level but less experienced.”
“To conclude my explanation the overall level of a player in Hero’s legacy is only a number, not a way to measure one’s skill.”
“Now you might be thinking how do we estimate someone’s skill?”
“The answer is simple, just like in real life you have to get a diploma or certificate. Hero’s legacy has many training halls where one can receive such a certificate.”
“Some NPC’s will decide not to request certain things from you, if you don’t have a certificate or an earlier recommendation to prove your worth.”
“If you are interested in becoming a mercenary, you are also recommended to keep record of your work. So you can prove to an NPC that you can take on harder jobs.”
“The possibility to train a skill opens up for a player when he or she completes a certain action.”
“This can even be something as trivial as pulling weeds, or something quite useful such as pick locking.”
“By increasing the level of a skill the effects may not always be positive.”
“For example; having a level twenty weed picking skill, does not come with any bonuses. However your characters overall level does increase with this.”
"This may sound obvious but we still have to inform players, that spending one hundred hours on picking weeds or certain farming skills won’t change the components of the object in question."
“With that i have concluded my basic explanation of the in game mechanics.”
“Are there questions?”
“No, I understand everything.” Said Kira
“Continuing on to character customization.”
“The land of Tempora is divided into four kingdoms. The kingdom of Ver, Aestas, Autumnus and Hiems.”
A large map appeared before Kira. As the women called out the different kingdoms they lit up on the map. The kingdom of Hiems was north on the map, Ver was east, Autumnus south and Aestas west.
“As you travel the world you will come across more than a dozen different races. These races all have different familiarity levels with each other. An example would be the relation between orcs and humans, who have been in dispute with each other for over millennia.”
"So choose carefully!"
All of a sudden more than a dozen different images of Kira formed around her. The races were all unique and completely different from each other. As Kira looked around the circle of races, she remembered a story her mother used to read to her and her brother at bed time.
“There was once an elf with beautiful white hair and crystal blue eyes. Her dream was to be remembered by the people around her. However her friends were all stronger, wiser and smarter than her. The white haired elf wasn’t as strong, wise or smart as her friends. However she still had the most important attribute of all and that was love. She came to realize that as time passed, the only thing that really mattered, was that everyone could live together in peace and love one another.”
Kira once again looked around the circle and spotted the elf race. Ellen reached her hand out at the human with pointy ears.
The female asked
“Will you choose the elf race?”
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“Yes.” said Kira
“Would you like to customize your character and if so what would you like to change?”
“I would like to change her hair color to white and her eye color to a crystal blue.”
Kira’s elf character got pure white hair and crystal blue eyes. She now looked exactly like the elf on the cover of her favorite childhood story.
“Are you satisfied with this character?”
“Yes I’m very satisfied.” Said Kira with a sparkle in her eyes
“In what kingdom would you like to start?” said the female voice
“I’ll go with… Hiems.” Said Kira
Kira liked the sound of Hiems more than the other kingdom names.
“Would you like to choose a specific town to start at?”
“No.” said Kira as she shook her head.
“Then you are now ready to enter the world of Tempora!” said the female voice
“May your travels be safe adventurer!”
"And may the light always guide you!"
Kira was enveloped in a bright light, the next second she was gone.
When Kira opened her eyes she took a deep breath. The scenery was breathtaking. Kira was standing in a small clearing just outside a forest village. What made the village even more beautiful, were the large pine trees that let the sunlight pass through at certain gaps in the braches.
Kira was admiring the village when she realized something felt off. It was strangely quiet.
After a two minute walk, Kira arrived in the village. In the village all the doors were shut and the windows closed. The village seemed to have been deserted.
“Hello is there anyone here?” shouted Kira as she walked past several abandoned homes.
Kira was about to call out again, when she was pulled into a dark passageway. A hand was pushed against her mouth. Kira tried to pull herself free but the person’s grip was too strong.
“If you promise not to scream I’ll let you go.” Said a soft male voice
Kira nodded. The man let her go. Kira turned to look at the man. It was dark however Kira could tell he was around her age.
“Why did you do that?” said Kira with a frown
“You’ll see.” Said the young man as he stepped back into the dark
Before Kira could reply, there was a loud roar. A dark shadow covered the small forest village. The leaves rustled as the beast descended from the sky. It was a pure black dragon.
Kira was speechless.
The dragon landed on the ground with a large crash, crushing several houses in the process. As the dragon lifted its head, Small flames rushed out of its snout as it breathed in the fresh forest air. The dragon then started striding through the village, shaking the ground with every step. The dragon slithered its head around in all directions, as it searched every nook and cranny
“Why is there a dragon here?” asked Kira as she turned around
However the young man was no longer there.
The dragon was slowly progressing in her direction.
“Great I’m screwed!” said Kira as she looked around.
She decided to head farther down the alleyway. Only to end up at a dead end.
“What!”
“How did that guy get out?”
The dragon was now only twenty meters away.
Kira turned around and looked up at the dragon. At that moment the dragon's head turned around. Their eyes met.
Kira felt a shiver go down her spine, as the amber colored eyes of the beast pierced her soul. The dragon spread its wings and with two blows its large body came off the ground. It hovered over the ground for several seconds before swooping down. It was heading straight towards Kira. In a matter of seconds ,the dragon stood at the entrance of the alleyway.
With a husky voice the dragon roared
“I smell my master’s blood. However you are not my master, name yourself elf!”
Kira couldn’t believe her ears the dragon could speak.
Kira took a large breath and then shouted
“My name is Kira!”
“Now i demand your name dragon!” said Kira as she looked the dragon in the eyes
“What impudence!”
“A mortal that does not know the name of its own ruler!” said the dragon with an even louder roar
“You don’t rule over me!” said Kira as she swiped her hand in the air
“It would be wise not to anger me elf!” said the dragon as it breathed fire out of its nostrils
The dragon then lifted its head and looked around. It had devastated the entire village.
“My master will be quite glad to hear his kin is present in the land of Heim.”
“However I currently have more urgent matters to attend to, when I’m finished I will come for you elf!”
The dragon flapped its wings and ascended into the sky. Several seconds later the dragon was gone.
“That was some show!” said the young man who was now leaning against the brick wall behind Kira.
“However I’m afraid the celebration party can wait.”
The young man lunged forward.
Before Kira could react, the young man struck her with lighting fast hand movements. Everything went black. Then a blue text box appeared.
Attention!
You have been knocked down unconscious.
You won’t be able to log in for the next twenty-four hours.
When Kira opened her eyes she was back in her room.
Kira lifted the visor off of her head. She then pulled her arm over her face.
“I just want to find my brother!” said Kira with a cry
“I’m so stupid to have thought I’d see my brother the second I logged in. To make matters worse, there’s a dragon after me and now I’m unconscious.”
As Kira looked around her room lost in thought. her gaze finally rested on the silver visors that lay next to her. She carefully picked them up.
“How was brother able to afford the visors, game and internet fee?”
“The bank wouldn’t have allowed us to borrow money. Where did he get the money from?”
Kira sat up on her bed.
“What if he stole these things?”
“But that wouldn’t explain the internet fee…”
“He must have gotten money from someone or somewhere, or he found a well-paying job but why would he have left home then?”
Kira then looked up at the clock it was still morning. She had been in the game for roughly an hour. However only fifteen minutes had passed in real life.
“The instructions booklet said the time ratio was 1 : 4, however it’s still amazing to see the game goes four times as fast.”
Kira still had two hours left before she had to go to work. So she decided to get dressed and head outside.
“It feels weird walking around town without Kian.” Whispered Kira to herself
Kira was walking around town, when she noticed how quiet it was.
“Where is everyone?”
“You haven’t heard?” said a lady in her late forties
Kira turned around to look at the lady.
“Heard what?” asked Kira
The lady replied with a grim face.
“That half of this city is now permanently stuck, in the virtual reality game Hero’s Legacy!”
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The chapter updates may be a little slow because i'm also working on another LN. Anyways thanks for reading everyone and i hope you enjoyed reading this chapter!
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