He arrived in his room in the Inn. His body was slightly sore, especially his sword arm. He quickly got up from the bed and walked into the main hall. He sat at an empty table and motioned for a maid to bring him some food. He ate quickly as he was slightly concerned about how long he had been away. He finished eating and left the inn. He ran toward the guard building once outside.

He arrived at the guard building and asked the guardsmen who answered the door if the captain was present. They told him to wait outside like the previous day. The captain came out a few minutes later.

“Welcome back, let's go into the back.” The captain said while he walked down out of the building. They walked to the back and stood before the weapon rack again.

“Today you will be doing 1500 swings at the dummy. Begin.” The captain told him as he stood watching.

He picked up the sword he used yesterday from the rack and stepped up to a dummy.

He began swinging at the dummy. His swing was more compact from yesterday and slightly more fluid.

“He is a fast learner.” The captain thought as he walked away. He returned to the guard building.

Greg swung his sword at the dummy all day. He took short breaks to get water, but his hunger grew stronger as time passed. The guardsman didn’t provide food to eat at this stage in the training. He accomplished all 1500 sword strokes and only took an 1 hour longer than yesterday. He put the sword back on the stand and left. He found the nearby guardsman that held his timesheet. He filled out the time sheet and got a signature from guardsman and took the sheet with him. He walked slowly back to the inn sore from the training. He needed a signature from a guardsman to prove that he was spending time training even though they could obviously see him train. He left the guard building and returned to the inn. Once at the Inn he got some food before going to his room. He didn’t want to stay logged in at night with nothing to do so he logged out of the game.The headache returned, luckily it was not that painful.

I need to do some research while i wait. I need to figure out this headache and how to get some ingame currency for the Inn and maybe i can buy some snacks while training.

He took the headset off and stood up to stretch. He performed a few quick stretches before nature called

Oh wow i just realized that i didn’t have to go to the bathroom once while in game. Thats weird i guess i don't have to worry about any embarrassing situations.

He finished up before he went to his bedroom. In his bedroom he sat down at the computer desk and moved the mouse. The computer awoke from its slumber. He waited a minute for it to become fully functional. He opened the browser and searched for Crimson. The search results led him to the official website. He opened the website and clicked the link to the forums. There were many different forum posts on all aspects of the game since it has been release for over a month now. He input “Headaches after logging off” into the search bar. A pinned thread popped up with many replies, a gm reply was highlighted. He clicked the the gm response and a few pages of text popped up. He read the GM response and was relieved. The GM has explained why the headaches happened and that they should go away after about a week of playing. He said the braining adapts very fast and in some cases it will improve memory and processing speed.

Cool, i wonder i’ll become a genius….nah i doubt it He chuckled to himself as he thought himself becoming a grandmaster at chess.

That solves the headache issue now let's look up the money making process for beginners.

He cleared the search bar and replaced it with “ Starting Guide to making money” and hit enter. This time there wasn’t as many replies as the first issue but enough that he shouldn't have any problem finding the answer. He search the titles of the threads before settling on the one titled “Making money for Noobs”. He clicked on it. The guide was pretty helpful. It explained that to make a little money he could do a variety of things. He could do quests, kill monsters, make weapons, gather herbs...etc. Since he was already preoccupied with training he wouldn't be able to make any money just yet. He figured once he started his 1 month stint as a guardsman he would be able to make a little money killing animals and gather any valuable plants he may find.

Well it won’t be that bad. I have enough money to cover the inn bill for a while now and I have already bought my beginning gear. The captain said that the guardsmen will give him a outfit as well, will they also give me a salary?

He set aside his money worries while he copied the guide and saved it to a word document se he could study it later. He remember skills and wanted to figure out how they worked since he wasn't notified of gaining any skills even though he swung the sword over 2500 times.

He input “How to learn skills” into the search bar. He clicked the result titled Mastering the Game”. The post wrote about how passive skills were learned with experience and active skills could mostly be taught by npcs. It was very rare to learn a active skill from scratch. Most passive skills were about repetition and actives skill were about technique. Hence the reason they would need to be taught. He again and copied this guide into a text document and save it into a folder called Crimson Guides. He moved the other document into the folder as well.

Going by this guide i should learn a passive skill by the end of this training. I should be able to learn an active skill from the captain as well. When i log in again i'll ask the captain about teaching a skill when i get back to the training ground.

He returned the computer to its silent slumber and stood up. He left the room and walked back to the couch.

It sorta hard to believe it's only been around 3 hours since i've got off work. In game i've already been training for 2 days..It will be cool when I can play with John. I should call him tomorrow morning and see what he thinks of the game. He laid down and logged back into the game.

The familiar sight of the room in the inn greeted him. He got off the bed and entered the main hall. He knew that he needed to go to the guard house to continue training, but he decided to get some food first. Today he chose another random table to sit at. He ordered his food from the maid and looked around the room as he waited. He didn’t wait to long before another person walked over to his table and sat down.

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“Hello, I haven't seen you around before my name is Waylin what's yours?” The man reached his arm out across the table for a handshake.

“My name is Hebin, I’ve just arrived in town recently and am still enjoying the sites” He replied while he shook the man’s hand.

“Cool, so how you liking the game so far?”

What? How does he know i'm a player?

“It’s more realistic than i imagined it to be. How did you know that i was a player?”

“I thought so. Players will have a symbol above their heads indicating they are players. You seem to not have activated the feature yet. All you need to do is think “Display Heads Up Display” And it should help you distinguish between npcs and players also it will help you keep track of your health and stuff. Go ahead and try it.” Walylin smiled as he waited.

Display HUD

Gregs vision instantly filled with different statistics around him. He looked around in shock. Above each person’s head was either a small Player or a small NPC. The maids and bartenders were all NPCs which he had assumed but most of the people in the inn were players with a few npcs mixed around.

He also noticed a health bar in the upper right side of his vision along with the inventory symbol in the bottom right side of his vision.

This will make things a lot easier.

“Thank you.”

“No problem man, I noticed that you seemed new to the game. The time difference is crazy. I've been playing the game for half a month now in reality but i've been in game for over 6 months now. There is so much to do and explore. Anyway, I’m looking for some people to go exploring with do you want to come?”

“Sorry, I can’t I’ve signed up for the towns guardsmen and won't be able to go anywhere for at least a month.”

“Oh I see, well that’s cool. I did that too when I first started it is well worth it. The captain will teach you some basic skills. It is especially worth it if you don’t have any real world experience. How about this I’ll add you to my friends list so we can keep in contact and maybe when you have some free time we can hang out?”

“That sounds cool with me.”

*Player Waylin Rust has added you to his friends list. Do you accept?*

A notification window popped up in Greg's vision. He accepted the request.

*Waylin Rust has been added to your friends list. *

“Alright dude i'll see you around I got other people to bother” Waylin laughed as he stood up.

“It was nice meeting you, If I have a question I might bother you seeing as you have more experience then I do.”

“No problem dude, bye” HE walked away heading towards another table of players.

That was nice maybe I can ask him to help me out when I get done with training.

The maid showed up with his food right after Waylin left. He ate quickly so he could start training.

He left the inn and went to the training yard behind the guard building. This time as he walked down the streets was a big difference. All the people had the symbols but also important buildings displayed there names over their roofs as well indicating to the players what they were.

This will help out greatly when using the map I can just head in a certain direction and find the building with the correct name above it.

He made it to the guild building and notified the guardsmen that he arrived.

The captain came out as usual and guided him to the back.

“You have gotten better at wielding the sword. Today you will hit the dummy 1500 times but in addition to the sword you will use a shield in you other hand. The shield is to be raised in a defensive position and held there. Let me demonstrate.”

The captain took a sword and shield from the weapon rack and armor stand. He stood before a dummy shield raised and weapon posed to attack. He lunged forward with a stab followed by a wider swing of the sword. The shield was held in front of him the whole time.

-0

-0

Damage indicators floated above the dummy as the captain made contact.

“Do you understand what I want you to do?”

“Yes sir. I understand.”

He picked his own sword out of the rack while also chose and new shield from the armor stand.

“Like this sir?”

He copied the Captains stance and swung and stabbed the dummy keeping the shield raised.

“Yes just like that.”

Good i'm starting to understand more.

He continued to attack the dummy as the captain watched. The captain left after 100 swings saying to continue on.

Greg continued this routine of training going back to the inn and logging off the rest of well into the night. Each time he came back to the training yard the captain would have him train with sword and shield longer and with more complex maneuvers. The last few hours of gaming he actually sparred with other guardsmen learning movements and how to attack moving targets. They still used wood weapons and they wore extra padding so nobody would be injured but he still ended up with many bruises. Fortunately it was only ingame and nothing change in reality. His thinking became slightly more calculating though as a consequence of the constant beatings.

Today in the training the captain walked over and observed him training on the dummy. Greg moved around the dummy strike at it in different vital areas while he kept his shield raised to protect himself.

“Stop. Come over here.”

He stopped attacking the dummy and walked over to the captain. He stood before the captain and waited to see what he had to say.

“You’ve learned the basics to be a guardsman come with me.”

I’m done? But i only feel like i've just scratched the surface!

He followed the captain into the guard building. Inside the building they walked through a room filled with metallic weapons and armor to another room filled with a few npcs and tables. They stopped and stood before the npcs. The npcs each stood up when the captain walked in each carried a different item in each hand.

“Gentlemen this new recruit Hebin Kilnu has completed the basic training to become a guardsman. I hereby announce that Hebin Kilnu is a Gadol Village Guardsman.”

*Title received Gadol Village Guardsman*

*Skill learned Sword Mastery*

*Skill learned Double Strike*

*Skill learned Shield Bash*

*Skill learned Shield Mastery*

*Reputation with Gadol Village has increased*

Cool! I was wondering when i would get the skills.

The guardsman congratulated him and welcomed him into the ranks. He received an official outfit with a iron sword and shield from the guardsmen.

“Wear this outfit with pride and honor. This sword and shield shall be used to protect the citizens of our village and those in need. Now go back and rest. Your service has officially begun.