“Excuse me…”
“Elves not allowed in here!” shouted the bar tender angrily.
Weed sighed as he left yet another tavern this was getting ridiculous. Every time he entered a tavern or a pub, he was immediately thrown out.
‘How am I supposed to solve this riddle, if I am being thrown out the moment I stepped in?’
It was indeed awkward, no game before RREV had taken race disliking to this extent, had it been real life this would definitely qualify as racial discrimination. It is historically unclear who decided to interpret mythical stories of elves and dwarves not getting along. But if, Weed ever found out who it was, he would have socked them in the eye. The first pub, Weed stepped into fell into complete silence. The loud laughing and bustling noise immediately died out; only a morbid silence prevailed. All dwarves eyes were lock on Weed – the elf; a notable stranger who completely stood out from the surrounding. His distinguishable features like height, fair skin and pointed ears were a dead giveaway to his race. It didn’t help that his hair was silver; making him stand out even more.
Weed exited the tavern and discreetly checked behind his shoulder; luckily they were no longer there. Weed breathe a sigh of relief. Two dwarf finalists had been tailing him for a while. At first Weed did not notice them however the odd coincidence of meeting the same dwarves at the entrance of the pub was very creepy. Any normal player might have confronted the two and even cried foul. However, circumstances did not play in Weed’s favour. Apart from being in a hostile land, he would be accusing fellow dwarves of cheating. Even if the world was fair, there was always the fact, the finalists were clad in heavy armor and carried a massive axe on their back. It was obvious it would be detrimental to Weed to challenge them. Weed had mixed feelings when he noticed they decided to stop following him.
It either meant that they found the answer on their own or they gave up on Weed’s hunt…which made Weed wonder if he was on the right path himself to begin with.
‘Please take this time to rest and enjoy yourself. I recommend exploring the city..Theodore one day your riddles will be the end of me.’ Weed pondered and pondered, elementarem vim was turning out to be significantly more challenging than he was anticipating it to be. Challenging VR games do exist but the element of challenge was never hidden away in riddles. To elucidate, if a player received a challenging riddle in Royal Road, it was known to the player that there was a riddle that he/she needed to solve. In RREV, it was unclear to begin with whether there was a riddle or not hidden away in the vague words of the dwarf. The sheer knowledge of whether there exists a riddle to solve plays a big part in solving the riddle. With RREV, Weed often went through phases of self doubt, embarking on a journey to solve a riddle was equivalent to gambling. If one could sum it up, there was enough clue and direction to know there was riddle to begin with yet it was vague enough to leave a scope of doubt in the players mind. In both instances, Theodore made clear that elementarem vim was a game where riddles and twisted languages could hide the true meaning / nature of the quest.
‘The only place to rest and enjoy are taverns and pubs.’ Weed frowned as he tried to think of other places where on could rest and enjoy at the same time. ‘Carnivals? Festivals? – Too tiresome. Who would want to go to carnival or a festival to rest? Or maybe carnival is a place where one can rest too?’
“ARRGHHH!” Weed screamed in frustration. No matter how he looked at the singular line, it appeared to be completely out of context. If one were to assume another position, it could simply be said that there was no hidden meaning behind the riddle and it literally was just passing courtesy line. With no intuition or instinct to guide him on this riddle, Weed decided to rely on brute force. He would just have to eliminate all possibilities to know if there was a riddle to begin with; that began with visiting each and every pub / tavern in the Northern Mountain City.
If there was an expectation Weed had it was for now, not to be thrown out of anymore pubs. He had little doubt whether he might miss out on critical information in a pub from which he was thrown out from one. It was one the belief that Theodore brought him here for a reason. Theodore might be cruel, unforgiving, deceptive etc. but he was true to his words and blacksmithing. If Weed had anything to go by, it was on this assumption; that the NPC would not overlook details such as race restrictions. As Weed looked at it retrospectively, from the moment he met Rodriguez to receiving the elemental blacksmith profession from Theodore, everything fit and meshed in so well. There was no doubt left in Weed’s mind that he was on the path to uncovering one of the game’s greatest secrets. Though it is largely unpredictable what rewards await the user in the end. Weed wasn’t stupid to give up now especially after coming this far. Yet, it remained unknown when and how this would work out. If RR was anything to go by, then whatever the reward lay in front of him it was sure to have a significant impact or influence on the RREV world. This alone gave Weed the courage and hope to go on in the face of innumerable questions of self doubt.
After spending the entire day being thrown out of taverns, Weed left the lower levels of the city and was reaching the top. The quality of the houses, businesses, etc. was visibly poorer and he was starting to attract unwanted attention that he didn’t like. Dwarves in shabby attire, would stare at Weed as he crossed them. Some would stretch out their arms and even beg for little money. They would cry and beg for the simplest of necessities such as food. Weed had tears in his eyes, on a certain level he could empathize with them. He too knew what poverty was like and what it felt like to beg and steal so that one could have just enough for a single meal in a day. He hastened his pace as he tried to forget the memories of the distant past.
The flame torches in the streets grew fewer and the ceilings changed from water stone to ordinary cluttered rocks. It grew dimmer and darker, Weed hadn’t seen a guard in a while and he was leery of some of the locals that had started to follow him. No matter how quickly he walked, they managed to keep up with him, Weed began to panic. Dying now would mean a 3 day lock out of the game. It was an expensive penalty to bear given he could potentially be on the brink of solving the riddle which lead to a hidden profession. Weed quickly opened his inventory tab, he had 2 swords available; ‘Durability won’t be a problem.’
He equipped one of his own creations, the pinnacle of his blacksmithing. The sword as he called, ‘The Harbinger Version Six’ (versions one to five were deemed as failures). Weed quickly glanced at its stats for self satisfaction.
Durability: 163/170. Attack: 50.
This sword has high attack and very high durability. It weighs shockingly no more than a feather and is highly flexible. For those looking for speed and agility in combat, this is the weapon of choice.
Requirements: None.
Effects: Strength +25, AGI +25, DEX+25, Stamina Regeneration during sword play: +0.1
Weed gripped his sword tightly as he began jogging. Looking for a place to rest and enjoy was critical to the mission; there would be plenty of time to fight again. Confronting was the best option when acting in self defense; otherwise not only was it enjoyable violence but also a waste of time. Weed decided to lose the trailers. He left the jogging behind and began zigzagging across the city’s streets. Turning around the corner Weed realized that his efforts were futile. It was not a matter of one or two dwarves but several groups; his heart sank.
‘This could be a problem.’ he thought.
Three groups of dwarves, nine in total, had him surrounded. Weed could not gauge their levels but it was evident they were seasoned bandits; clad in poor quality leather armor and were fairly well scarred. What did not fit the image of these bandits were the weapons they held. Weed realised that they each had what appeared to be an old chair leg or bat in their hands and were smacking them into their hands.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
“Well if it isn’t the elf we’ve been hearing about boys.” Said one of the dwarves. He was a bit taller than the others, bulkier with muscles and clad in newer leather armor.
“I heard he thinks he’s a blacksmith that he’s good enough to learn from Theodore.” Added another.
“I heard he hasn’t paid his fees yet.” Replied the boss, while staring at Weed.
“What fees?” asked Weed as he started to back up. Behind him heard the sound of more dwarves
moving up blocking off the back way. ‘Great, that’s what I needed, more dwarves.
“Well there’s the apprenticeship fees, the visiting fees, the elf in a dwarf city fee, the bothering the neighbourhood fee, the running around the city fees, the trailing the wagon fees. The list doesn’t end does it boys?” The boss asked his minions who were drooling to have a go at Weed. In their eyes Weed had a beautiful sword probably worth a small fortune, a beautiful cloak worth a months meal and other small trinkets to give away to their loved ones.
Seeing more dwarves gather around to see what was happening, the boss led everyone towards a closed alley. Weed resisted but had no choice; he was dragged away by force. Once in the dead end alley, Weed was thrown against the wall.
You have received 5 damage.
Weed slowly stood up as his legs wobbled. This was not the first time he had experienced being cornered and beaten up. He was used to the discrimination. The continuous bullying at school resulted in Lee Jun in believing that there are two types people the brains and the brawns. The brains were a meek race with no fighting ability whatsoever and any hope of a fair fight was diminished by the ‘ganging up’ fighting formation. They could rely only on their intellect to outwit the opponent. The brawns as the name suggested was a race of humans who had their brains replaced with muscles. They were muscles all over. Sizing up the dwarf bandits; Weed concluded that he was dealing with brawns and boss who believed he had brains.
With his back against the wall and the dwarves cracking their knuckles in preparation to release some pent up frustration. Weed gulped, he needed to act quickly or he was soon going to be Northern Mountain city’s first racial discrimination victim of physical abuse.
“THEODORE HERE! I AM HERE!” Weed shouted out as he waved out to someone at the end of the street.
TRRRRINNGG!!
Deceit Skill now Beginner level 5!
TRRRRINNGG!!
Deceit Skill now Beginner level 6
‘Cool! Two levels!’
Ordinarily this might have never worked. However, the Balkan lineage in the Northern Mountain City was considered as good as royalty. Twice did their family save the city from feared monsters. It was also not uncommon that Theodore visited the upper levels. Unlike other dwarves, Theodore was considered to be a philanthropist and an oddity. If anything, Weed had just spoken a name which they revered and feared at the same time. Given his realistic acting and influence of the lying skill, the NPC dwarves could not help but believe that Theodore stood behind them.
As they turned around to check, Weed saw his opportunity. He screamed at the top of his voice.
You have used Lions Roar. Due to the surrounding location giving of an echo, the lions roar is twice as effective. Due to the close proximity of your enemies, they are now stunned and confused.
The dwarves held their ears in pain and stood frozen. Their heads were ringing in confusion and were unable to move. Weed smiled, this would have never worked in RL. Making most of the opportunity, Weed took a step forward and slashed a wide arc with his long sword at those nearest to him.
-6 HP Damage!
-6HP Damage!
- 6 HP Damage!
You dealt multiple damage!
Sword Mastery levelled up! You now deal more damage with a single slash!
The damage he could do at his low level was quite little, however it was sufficient to open up his path. The dwarves who were stunned simply fell over with a single strike. Weed slowly slashed and cleared a path, he wasn’t able to kill any dwarf because of the low damage. Weed did not go out of his way to kill the dwarves either. He only had the benefit of the Lions Roar, once it ended, he would be disadvantaged again. There was also the underlying repercussions of killing dwarves. Normally killing bandit NPCs would be very rewarding in a human society. However, dwarves treasured one another, good or bad. They would avoid killing each other as much as possible, unless of course their clans were at war. Weed could only guess that an elf killing a dwarf would not go down well in the city.
The boss of the bandit dwarves could only watch away in horror as the elf slashed and injured his comrades. He struggled to move as the stun was in effect. Injuring each dwarf, Weed quickly made his way past the dwarves and back out the alley. He ran at top speed towards the lower levels. Dwarf beggars who stood outside the alley, were shocked to see the elf step out unharmed. There were at least twenty thugs who had the elf corned, they were all seasoned bandits. Some were even trained warriors. Yet here a slender elf with a single sword was walking out of the alley unharmed. The beggars moved away in fear, the elf was not to be trifled with.
By the time the dwarves were able to finally regain control over their body and shake of the disorientation, the dwarf bandit boss could only menacingly shout “GET HIM.”
Unfortunately for him, his minions wore poor quality armor and even the little damage they took left them bleeding and injured. It didn’t help him to know that Weed had intentionally slashed the tendons at the joints of the dwarves with the aim of maiming them. To conclude, all of them were disable and required medical aid. As reinforcements arrived, Weed was already long gone.
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Authors Note:
1. Will be edited soon.
2. A short chapter. ~_~ still a long way to go before I reach till the amazing chapters....
3. Thank you so much Tewlve for helping me out on this tough journey called fanfic writing.
4. Thank you V4lkyr13 for doing a zing check on it. Without our countless discussions spread over several hours, the quality would have never been this good.
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Connect to Royal Road – Elementarem Vim next Chapter?YesNo
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