Walking back to the wall with the projection, Chester changed the slide showing a list of potions, their effects, and estimated prices.
“The next major task is to dominate the potions market. In Caelus Online supplies like potions, weapons, materials, and such are limited. One of the most lucrative markets is potions. Since they are one-time consumables and can perform a number of roles like healing, mana and stamina replenishment, buffs to temporarily increase stats, xp buffs, and so on. They will be in high demand, especially at the beginning of the game since there will be few alchemists with the ability to make them. Marie, can I leave the job of producing potions to you?”
Marie jumped up from her seat and loudly exclaimed.
“Huh, me? Yes, of course, Chezzi! I will make so many potions you can drown the market with them!”
Putting his hand on his forehead, Chester exasperatedly sighed.
“I forgot all about that nickname you gave me…” Chester unconsciously spoke his thoughts aloud with a tinge of sadness.
“Huh, what do you mean?” Marie questioned with a quizzical gaze, having just heard Chester's words.
Realising he spoke his thoughts out aloud; Chester quickly cleared his throat before replying.
“Huh? Oh! Don’t worry about it, anyway, back to what I was saying. I will need Ash to take on the role of gathering the botanical ingredients for potions. Due to the skill he has shown me in the past with a sword, he will easily be able to go to dangerous places to gather the rare ingredients for us.”
“Not to mention that I think we all agree the role will fit him quite well.” Chester quipped with a chuckle.
Seeing a few nods of agreement, Chester moved on to the next slide which depicted a number of ores, their qualities, and their uses.
“Next are precious metals such as mithril and adamantite. We will be needing these in massive quantities, so Ali, can I leave you to work on that with Connor? It will require the guild's manpower to achieve. The in-depth details of the different projects are in the document.”
Handing over the document, Chester looked at Ali who was rubbing his chin with a thoughtful expression.
“Rare minerals? And you have some vein locations? Sure, I can get it done.”
Pleased with the response, Chester returned to the projection which changed to a rough hand drawn map of the world. The map had rings around various places with the details about each location such as monsters and drops in each.
“Good to hear. Ok, next Roxanne, Tyrell, Russel, Ben. Your main focus will be levelling up and becoming proficient in combat, both against players and mobs. There are a large number of items and materials we will need that can only be acquired from enemies, and we will have no shortage of conflicts against other players. As such I have written quite advanced class guides that I think will suit each of you quite well.”
Chester moved and handed the 4 their respective documents.
“Alright.” Roxanne smiled in agreement while Russel and Ben quietly gave a short nod.
“You got it, boss.” Tyrell also nodded as he accepted the small pack of papers.
Hearing them all give their affirmation; Chester returned to where he was standing.
“In addition, Roxanne, I want you to nurture an intelligence group like you have previously done in the past. Your document has additional information on the best way to implement that.”
Giggling behind her hand, Roxanne responded, flashing a smile with a hint of menace.
“Oh, it’s been a while since I caused some trouble inside a game, this should be fun.”
“Glad to hear it, just don’t go too crazy alright?” Chester responded with slight amusement just thinking about the chaos Roxanne had caused in the past.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
In acknowledgement, Roxanne just winked.
Happily smiling at everyone’s positive responses, Chester once again returned to the projection which was now showing a bullet point list.
“Right, with that everyone knows their jobs, now, I will explain more about the game in general…”
And with that, Chester began his long explanation which stretched late into the night.
****
Monday 20th September, 2027,
England, Branford Estate.
****
Two days later the gaming pod was delivered and placed in Chester’s room. The pod was black and pill-shaped with a one-way tinted window on the top to allow the user to see out but to block the sight of those looking in.
The time finally came for Chester to enter the game again, and like his first experience, he was quite excited. He could feel quite a satisfying feeling knowing that his skills and knowledge were some of the best in the world at the current time.
Back before Chester had died he was an average player in terms of his gear and stats, however, his skill when it came to PvP was exceptional. He had spent a lot of time early on in the game fighting against players while at a self-imposed disadvantage which later helped him massively when the game changed during the Great Upheaval. Now that Chester had a second chance to start from scratch, his future potential was frightening.
Chester changed out of his clothes and only put on some comfortable shorts, and then entered into the pod. He pressed the power button on the small panel in front of him, and a screen lit up, the inbuilt system ringing out.
[Welcome new user. Genetic registration will commence shortly. Please lay down in the position indicated on the screen.]
Chester made himself comfortable, laying down with his hands by his side while holding the indicated handles as he waited for the registration to begin.
[Registration commencing, please keep your hands on the handles and remain still]
[…]
[Registration complete. Would you like to commence login into: Caelus Online?]
Smiling to himself, Chester answered.
“Yes”
[Commencing Login]
After hearing the system's acknowledgement, everything became black. Waiting for a few seconds in a state that felt like drifting in zero gravity, Chester found himself once again standing on a platform made from clouds floating above an unknown mountain range, the area he recognised was used for character customisation.
As he waited for the guide to appear, Chester inspected himself. As expected, he was wearing a crude common white shirt, black trousers tied with a string, and worn leather boots, the equipment all new players started with.
Noticing that the guide had just appeared, Chester looked up to see a golden-haired woman flapping her large white wings to slow her descent, lightly landing in front of him. She was wearing an ancient Greek style dress that hugged her stunning body, while her golden eyes seemed full of energy as she looked at Chester, her gorgeously beautiful face wearing a warm smile.
After a short silence observing the woman, Chester broke the silence while resting his fist on his chin with a thoughtful expression.
“… you are definitely not the guide.”
The lady let out a small laugh, hiding it behind her hand in an elegant movement.
Continuing on from his comment, Chester resumed speaking.
“I might say an angel, but given the absurdities which brought me to this moment, I would be more inclined to say goddess? Or something to that effect. Would I be correct?”
After hearing Chester’s conclusion, the woman started to speak, her words sounding elegant and refined.
“You would indeed be correct. I am the goddess of luck, Fortuna.” Fortuna introduced herself, keenly observing Chester for his reaction.
Nodding in satisfaction, Chester began to speculate his thoughts aloud.
“So, the Roman goddess of luck huh… interesting. So, this game does indeed have some hidden power behind it, back then there were many theories, but it was gods in the end. So does this mean that Caelus Online is the god's way of looking out for humanity?”
Chester looked back up at Fortuna after asking.
Amazed by Chester’s clear lack of surprise, Fortuna calmly tried to hide her reaction.
“Yes, in a way.”
With a nod, Chester continued speaking and posed another question.
“I see. Then why was I thrown back in time after getting made into a kebab?”
Perplexed by this question, Fortuna slightly tilted her head while responding.
“Made into a… kebab…? I can’t say I know what a kebab is?”
Stifling a slight laugh, Chester smiled smugly while explaining the glory of a Turkish kebab.
“A kebab is basically meat that is cooked on a metal stick. It’s quite tasty, I can recommend you a few restaurants if you would like?”
Fortuna upon hearing Chester’s response and finally understanding his joke let out a laugh.
“I see a type of skewer then, that’s quite amusing. I thank you for the offer, but that won’t be possible. Maybe in the future perhaps.”
Hearing that answer, Chester raised an eyebrow.
“Oh, in the future? Now that’s quite an interesting comment.”
Gasping while covering her mouth with her hands, Fortuna became flustered.
“Oh no, please forget that last part, I will be put on clean-up duty by Minerva if she finds out!”
Chuckling at the goddess's slip-up, Chester got an idea of this goddess's personality and decided to throw her a lifeline before teasing her again.
“So… about why I was sent back in time?”
Calming herself down, Fortuna quickly provided an answer to the question, clearly eager to change the topic.
“Oh, yes, well, I can’t tell you much about that sadly. Let’s just say you were lucky and leave it at that.” Fortuna smiled awkwardly while looking away.
Seeing that Fortuna was not willing to say more, Chester asked another question.
“So, what about the people who killed me?”