Leroy spent half a day crunching numbers and finally decided he had to play the game, after all. With that decision made, next was easy. He went through all the materials available about the game, analysis and guess work and made his own inference. He then chosen mostly likely method to be lucky. It involved few rituals including spitting, using a lock of a virgin (his own), buying a rabbit foot and many more completely un-scientific methods. He used psychology and science too. Instead of just liking or forwarding some event about the game in Wave, he turned into a reasonable anti-fan. PR love such people. Firstly, it sparks a debate, which means more exposure. Turning an anti-fan to a fan is even more explosive news, worth even more media coverage.
Don't know which method worked but Leroy became one of the lucky few players who got code to enter tutorial island a bit earlier. He had to sign tons of forms, including NDAs but he had no wish to make name though this, so it was okay. After getting the code, Leroy went to his dorm room, went into gaming pods. A soothing fragrance emitted along with melodious lullaby, which he had chosen previously. When his mind was relaxed, he was pulled straight into VR lobby.
Feeling stupid, he talked aloud in that empty space, " I have early access code for the tutorial island for the game - For the Glory." A moment's pause, an eternity of shame and humiliation to Leroy. And he was pulled into the game, just like that. Ever moved in high speed elevator? Yeah, that sudden change in gravity, that stomach dropping feel. Same thing here. By the time, he was feeling better enough to open the eyes, he was standing on picturesque island.
The setting and architecture was typical RPGish, the developers had still retained common pattern of previous games, so as to not startle the players. There was a hot looking lady waiting for him, looking at the way he gawked at everything that his eyes could see.
"Welcome adventure, to the island of learning and adapting." The lady drawled. The dark brown long flowing robes was not too form fitting, leaving nothing to imagination but showed off her charms nicely. Heck, in real world, girls would go ga-ga over such intricately designed dress and wear it for parties with pride. And such dress was worn by a guide within the game.
What Leroy did not notice was that the robe was enchanted, the designs mimicking what was awesome worthy to the viewer. Maintaining this illusion island was not a task for weak levelled person. Daaya, the guide for Leroy was actually maintaining six such islands and teaching six new souls at the same time. Is it a wonder that her robes were enchanted?
"Would you invoke help from a deity in your endeavours in this world?" Daaya asked. In short was he going to be a noob, amateur or a professional. Leroy knew he was a salted fish. Traditionally, this meant he would choose to be a noob or an amateur but he had decided to be a professional. Why? More experience. He could do less work, get more rest. Isn't this good?
"The deity's powers is all encompassing, I'm mere a frail body. I'm not worthy of invoking deity's power yet." Hah! Take that! In these days, who doesn't know how to use flowery words?
Daaya just nodded. He was not first adventurer who wanted to use his own strength, he would not be the last one too. She started her introduction.
"In this world, all the beings are quantified. This means you are able to know your strength and weakness. Few might be able to train their discerning eye skill to learn such details of others too. I am bestowing the skill temporarily for you to know how it works." A small white orb materialized and hit his head, sinking completely inside it.
Leroy hissed. His brain was instantly overloaded with extra knowledge. Shaking his head to reduce the heaviness, he tried to use the skill. Just because he did not play games regularly did not mean he never played them before.
When he got stabilized, Daaya showed how to use the skill- Discerning eye.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Discerning eye -Tier zero, level zero (0/100)
Can see quantification of the objects within five levels of individual. Trying on higher level beings leads to backlash. Backlash efforts might range from ringing sensation, heaviness in head to temporary stamina loss.
Can be upgraded.
Daaya explained other things too. Like this was one of the skills not requiring mana or health but concentration of a being. Even monsters and others were able to use this skill. Higher tier not only increases the limit but helps in initial appraisal too. Higher the level of skill, more detailed the quantification.
Leroy just had to concentrate on being quantified and say the name of the skill mentally. No need to say out loud.
He used the skill on himself first.
Name - Leroy
Race - Human.
Current form - immortal soul.
Level- N/A.
Class - None
Jobs - None
EXP -0/????
Satiation - 100/100
Damage - 1 ( physical and magical)
Defense -1 (physical and magical)
Body capability-1 ( Value is 1 for humans)
Magical capability-1 ( Value is 1 for humans)
Outerwear - standard tunic and pants,
Articles- standard shoes
Weapons and accessories - None
Skill -
Discerning eye - Tier 0, level 0
"Did you check your status?" Daaya asked, " You can try them on thers too."
Stupid Leroy forgot the disclaimer and used the skill on Daaya, the guide.
Name - Daaya (????)
Race- ?????
Current form - Guide
Level -?????
Class- ????
Jobs- ????
Attributes- ?????
Outerwear - ?????
Articles- ????
Weapons and accessories - ????
Skills- ????
Inspite of seeing just question marks and not learning anything worthwhile, Leroy got a splitting headache. It was worse than migraine attack.
"Told you to not use on high level beings. This is mildest punishment due to backlash because I held back other punishments. Now...want to try again? On something else perhaps?" Daaya was like a teacher who had repeated the same lesson hundredth time. It held no joy or sorrow. It was like she expected the adventurer to be stupid and burn his fingers.
Daaya was not ruthless though, a wave of her hands and a healing skill dropped on him, bringing up to normal level. This time Leroy tried on other objects. A plant here, a flying insect there, a fruit on that tree, that flower on the vine, that insect crawling on the ground, that house far away....anything that caught his eye he checked. Farther the object, higher the difficulty. That's what he found via experiment. He could see status of living and nonliving objects. The data did not always show completely. Many times, there were lots of question marks even when they were level 1.
But good news was leveling this skill was pretty easy. It was already Tier zero, level zero (23/100) in the last few minutes.
Next Daaya talked about classes and jobs. Classes were how you hunted and jobs were what you were in other times. FTG gave autonomy to the players to try to their heart's content. One of the famous catchlines used in marketing the game.
As this was tutorial island, he had to try all classes and jobs. But before that, he had to condition his body. Which meant exercises. With and without weapons of all kind. Daaya did not go easy on him and made him to try and practice all types of weapons. It was not routine single handed sword, double handed sword, daggers and shields. No, no, he was to get adapted to others like sabers, spears, lances, poles, halberd, axes, whips and more.
For magic side, he was made to read and learn the theories of various kinds of magic. He was made to meditate, focus, concentrate and disperse energies.
If that was not enough, just to build up the stamina , he was made to try all the jobs. Be it a boring forager or gatherer or money burning jobs like forging, smithing, potion making, enchanting or special categories like mechanic, builder, architect, appraiser etc.
Just getting ready took nearly a month of game time for Leroy. Then....he found that what he practiced was truly just a warm up. In the tutorial island, all the skills were free. But apart from basic skills which could be mastered in an instant, higher level or higher tier skills had to be learnt. So if a thief could learn level zero skill - shadow meld as soon as he used the skill orb, he had to learn and practice for a long time to get the better skill like Stealth or Vanish, even after absorbing the skill orb.
Guess how long this phase took? Leroy Fletcher, the self proclaimed genius, the one who did not believe in revisions and yet ranking second, broke down completely in the tutorial island. In later stages, he got out of gaming pod just to fulfill daily needs and get some sustenance. Other than Daaya, there was not a single soul in the whole island that Leroy could chat and pass time. The lady herself would vanish after ordering him to do set of things. After Leroy had suffered due to non-completion of the tasks, he had followed the orders to the T. This was not playing and wasting time. This was h*ll mode tutorial.