2 - Resources_Gate to Utopia

"I may be level 1 but i'll be damned if i'm gonna bow my head to anyone!" Alex spoke as he looked out once more into the demon lord's castle courtyard.

Alex watched as many demons, wraiths and monsters roamed around awkwardly as their A.I. pathing looped in a circle. Suddenly, he remembered something useful from the leaked strategy guide. The strategy guide stated that if at any time you get stuck in the game, picture the word "help" and a column will appear.

Alex reluctantly tried to materialize it and to his surprise, the help column really did pop up in front of him.

Alex quickly read over the prompts and guidance section to see what abilities a level 1 demon king would have. Unfortunately, demon lord was not an available class out of the fifteen classes in the list.

"Of course I wouldn't be that lucky..." Alex scratched his head and kept reading. It could be said that in this moment, Alex was extraordinarily calm despite facing the threat of death.

Whether his calm was out of ignorance or stubbornness was unknown.

"Here we go, in the status column is an advanced section that gives full details." Alex focused and opened the status screen.

When he had succeeded in opening the status screen he then focused on getting more information. An additional screen opened beside the status screen, displaying the things the status screen previously did not.

Name: Shadow

Level: 1

Race: Demon

Class: Demon King

Title: One who rules the underworld

Skills: -

Pet: None

-Stats-

Strength: 10

Dexterity: 10

Endurance: 10

Wisdom: 10

Intelligence: 10

Spirit: 10

Health: 100

Mana: 100

-Equipment-

Weapon: Iron Dagger + 1

Off Hand: None

Head Gear: None

Chest Gear: Beginner's Robes

Leg Gear: Beginner's Leggings

Foot Gear: Beginner's Shoes

Ring Slot 1: None

Ring Slot 2: None

Neck Slot 1: None

Special 1: None

Special 2: None

Experience: 0 of 1100

Languages: Common, Undercommon, Demon

Money: 0 Mithril

0 Platinum

0 Gold

0 Silver

0 Copper

Special Abilities: Dominion, Territory Management

"Dominion, huh... I also definitely feel like I can speak demon and undercommon if I try." Alex thought about what this meant.

Alex focused on the word dominion, and an additional dialogue box popped up. A small volume button appeared in the top right hand corner. Alex clicked it.

"Dominion: Control over the denizens of Hell. NPCs and monsters will not directly attack the owner of this special ability. This special ability does not allow you to control demons or monsters in any way. Angering an NPC through the wrong dialogue will still prompt them to attack." The A.I. chimed in.

"This could be expectantly useful for me. Next, the other special ability..."

"Territory Management: The castle of the demon king has existed for thousands of years. As the new demon king is appointed, all existing structures are removed from the castle to start anew. The new demon king has absolute control of all territory within the demon lord's castle." The A.I. chimed again. The same monotone female voice spoke out.

Considering his options carefully, Alex left the demon king's castle and closed the door behind him. He made his way down the large stone steps and through the monsters.

As if he was invisible to the monsters, they continued on their predetermined path and walked around autonomously. Alex smirked as he kept walking toward the massive black iron gates protected by the 2 colossal demons.

Quite naturally, Alex spoke to the colossal demon in it's own tongue.

"Can I walk through these gates?" Alex spoke carefully.

The colossal demons, as if confirming something, looked at each other and looked down at Alex.

"Granted." The jaw of the colossal demon looked as if it was about to fall off just from speaking that one word, and Alex truly believed the only reason it hadn't fallen off was due to the massive screws holding the jaw in place.

The two colossal demons stood from their sitting position and pushed open the massive black iron doors. Though Alex only required a small crack in order to traverse through, the A.I. was set to fully open the doors unless the colossal demons were attacked.

As the doors opened slowly and a dust storm kicked up, a completely new view came into his sight. Although the view as Alex shifted his head up looked like it was on fire with dancing reds and blacks intermingling, it was as true a sky as any other.

The land that came into his view was also quite unexpected, in a very pleasant way. The path split into three different routes, and in the middle of the road was a large disk the size of a fountain. The disk rotated slowly but began to twist faster as Alex approached it. The hills beyond the three paths were deep and seemingly unending, with many different monsters howling and flying around just beyond plain view.

"Is this... A warp gate?" Alex pondered.

From the information given on the strategy guide, a warp gate was placed in every beginning town, minor and major city and at the entrance of party dungeons. In order to activate it, one must step into the disk and a popup will give all available locations per level.

That is to say, if you are in an advanced area that is beyond your level, you can use the teleport to go back to a place equivalent to your power but you could not use that warp gate again until you unlocked it at the appropriate time.

Alex was confident in the information from the strategy guide but consulted the Help button before trying it.

"Warp Gate: Allows one to use ancient magics to teleport from one location to another. Level restrictions apply when teleporting." The A.I. voice spoke thusly.

"Let's try it out..." Alex was not one to shy away for no reason.

He stepped forward and the wrap gate began to twist and sparkle with him inside. just as the strategy guide said, a popup with the available warp gates appeared.

"Town of Bells, Demon Lord's Castle. I have two?" Alex thought about it, but eventually clicked the Town of Bells.

Alex's vision blurred for a few seconds, and when he opened his eyes he found himself in the middle of a sleepy little town.

The great sky of red and black was no more, replaced with a typical sky of blue and white with clouds flowing against a golden sun. The town was small, with many small paths leading in every direction. The smell of soot and brimstone was nowhere around this nice vibrant town besides clinging to Alex. Looking around, the NPC children were playing on a looped A.I. kicking a ball around the square. Many of the housewives were taking down laundry and the sounds of heavy machinery could he heard from the distant mines.

Though the town seemed normal enough, with the NPCs going about their business, something was peculiar about them.

More than a few NPCs had twisting tails and black irises, just as Alex had envisioned his previous demonic character model.

In large demonic print was a signboard beside the warp gate with notifications. This was in the strategy guide under -Guide Post- that detailed available quests and was also a handy map to the town.

Alex looked over the available quests, and then at the town map. He had completely forgot, but considering there is no playable race for demon then wouldn't he not have to share resources?

As if to confirm this suspicion, he walked around town looking for other players. Just as he suspected, there was no one in sight. It was just him, all alone except for the NPCs.

Alex headed back to the -Guide Post- and looked for anyone that could give skills. Normally there was at least one or two NPCs that could give skills. One was for the beginner skills, and the other was for the advanced version of the skills.

"Skill apprentice..." Alex found out the address of the NPC and headed over. An old demonic looking hag was sitting on her porch in a rocking chair, knitting an intricate looking cloth. Though it looked like she was knitting, her hands were in fact doing the same movement and she was not making progress at all.

"Excuse me, skill apprentice?" Alex walked onto her porch and stood within a couple feet of the old hag.

"What do you want!" The hag yelled.

As she did, a display column appeared in front of Alex. Alex looked over the skills but found that only a few of them were in the strategy guide. Some of these skills were not a part of the original fifty skills that the game claimed to have.

1 - Minor Contract Summon - 10 Silver

2 - Poison Use - 20 Silver

3 - Skinner - 10 Silver

4 - Herbalist - 10 Silver

5 - Blacksmith - 30 Silver

6 - Unholy Magic - 40 Silver

7 - Soul Force - 40 Silver

8 - Soul harvest - 20 Silver

9 - Alchemy - 15 Silver

10 - Fiend Form - 20 Silver

11 - Shadow Magic - 40 Silver

12 - Magical Weapon - 50 Silver

13 - Tough Hide - 50 Copper

14 - Siphon - 20 Silver

15 - Taking The Lead! - 15 Gold

The lowest costing skill was 50 copper for Tough Hide. Alex sighed and walked away from the old hag. The dialogue box closed automatically when he got five feet away from her.

"Good for nothing!" The old hag yelled as the dialogue box closed.

Alex walked away, obviously peeved, but this was the beginning town, naturally the first thing he had to do was make some money. Even if he did not have the skill for it, one can still attempt to do the skill itself when it came to gathering like skinning and herbalism. There was a much higher chance of failure, however.

Alex headed back to the -Guide Post- and accepted a few available quests. One quest was to find a goblin den and see what has riled them up, another was to pick 10 bundles of a certain herb from the plains of asphodel. The final accepted quest was to hunt a large boar in the nearby pumpkin patch that had been terrorizing the farmers.

Quest: Goblin problin Accepted.

Quest: Plains of Asphodel Accepted.

Quest: Here piggy piggy! Accepted.

The last quest had a recommended level of 3, so Alex decided to heed that advice and save that quest for last. Naturally the easiest would be to gather the herbs, so he pinged his map for the plains of asphodel and headed in the direction.

Along the way the houses became more scarce and forest became much more noticeable. The tree colors were different shades of green to red, as if the forest was a large dancing gentle fire. There was no sign of wind or rain coming anytime soon.

When Alex arrived at the plains of asphodel, he saw a beautiful sight of many multi-colored flowers just waiting to be picked. From his knowledge he knew that many of them were not poisonous, but could be compounded to make low level healing potions if one had the alchemy skill. Alchemy was one of the cheaper skills to choose from, so he decided it would not be a bad idea to pick that one up early.

It was just as he had suspected, there were no other players and that meant he got the share of their resources as well. This was an obvious perk to being the only player in a specific race and class.

Forget being alone, this was about survival.

He began to attempt picking up the flowers with fervor, an eventually he had picked the fields of asphodel clean. With a success rate of 30%, the amount of flowers in his inventory could be considered quite good. He also got the 10 needed items for his quest.

Now it was on to the next quest before heading back and turning them in. Alex pinged the map for the goblin's den and headed along the recommended path.

The path winded and twisted, but as he neared the entrance he could quite clearly see goblins in a very aggressive stance guarding the perimeter.

In undercommon, Alex called out to the goblins.

"Goblins, what has caused you to be so agitated?"

"Pah! Someone has stolen! Stolen from US! Our precious FIRE! We find and kill! Probably Stupid kobolds!" The goblin retorted.

Just as the special ability Dominion stated, the goblins were neither passive nor overbearing. It was a calm neutrality between them and the demon king, despite them being on high alert.

"May I approach and see if I can help?" Alex asked.

"You help? Bring 5 kobold heads, that help!" The goblin spit at the ground.

A quest screen popped up in front of Alex with a large blinking light around the Accept Quest button.

Alex accepted the quest and asked the goblin for directions to the kobold camp.

Quest: Kobold headhunting Accepted.

The only reason he accepted the quest was the promised experience. 500 exp for 5 kobold heads was not much work from what he could tell.

On his way to the kobold camp, he came across a snuffed out campsite that had recently been used. 3 kobolds slept huddled close to each other not far away, with 2 other kobold guarding by watching the same direction.

Alex couldn't help but snicker to himself, as these creatures seem quite dull in the head. According to the strategy guide, the kobold race was clever and enjoyed ambushing players, but rarely came out of their cramped caves unless something compelled them to.

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It would appear this issue is larger than it appears. First the goblins and now a pack of wandering kobolds.

Alex shrugged his shoulders and readied his dagger. He crept up towards the kobolds keeping watch as quietly as possible. First he slit the throat of the one on the left, and then stabbed the one on the right in the gut with the innate skill of the dagger (plunge). Alex twisted the dagger into the kobolds body and pulled it out, causing both kobolds to have a bleed effect.

The bleed effect was often caused by striking a critical weakness of a certain enemy. Having similar anatomies to humans, the jugular and kidney would both definitely be considered weak points.

The kobold with his throat sliced attempted to stand and ready his weapon, but quickly fell over from excessive blood loss. The body disappeared, leaving behind a pile of loot. The kobold that was stabbed screeched in terror, waking up the other 3 sleeping kobolds. As the stabbed kobold attempted to ready his shield, his health disappeared rapidly until it hit 0. The kobold disappeared just as the other one did, leaving behind some loot.

One of the pieces of loot left behind was a shield. Alex quickly grabbed it and equipped it onto himself. Though the shield was made for a small person, it still served him adequately well in that moment as the three kobolds readied their weapons.

Two kobolds lunged at Alex, but their attacks were incredibly telegraphed, to the point that Alex was able to completely evade with a swift tumble left. The kobold that did not lunge was hurriedly attempting to cast some type of spell. The words it spoke were unrecognizable to him, so the kobold was clearly not talking undercommon, the language of Hell.

Before the chanting kobold could finish his spell, Alex lunged forward and pierced the kobold's skull with the iron dagger. A critical hit to the kobold's head meant instant death, and it's health gauge slowly drained from 50 to 0.

"RAKKKkkkk!" One of the kobold screeched as it again attacked Alex, the other standing behind defensively. This time it was a straightforward attack with no weapon skill or overly complicated movement.

Alex remembered that the A.I. was very specialized for low level beginners, and was programmed to allow only one attack for multiple aggressive targets against a single player except during an ambush. This intuitive system was why ||Gate to Utopia|| received such high praise in the first place.

Alex raised the shield up and successfully defended the attack, but took 10 points of damage in the process. Before the kobold could strike again, Alex sliced it's chest with the dagger to force it to back up. The kobold took the slice to the chest and staggered backwards from the force, taking 30 points of damage. Out of 50 points of health, it was already over half dead.

The kobold standing in the back began to chant just like the previous one, but the chant was somehow different. A white light encircled the kobold as it casted the spell, pointing at the injured kobold.

Alex understood that it was attempting to heal the damage the kobold had taken, but before he could strike it down the heal spell went off.

Luckily, the healing spell only healed 10 hp and was not even enough for the kobold to survive a second hit from Alex's dagger.

The kobold fell to the ground with the second wound flowing blood, and it's loot appeared where the body fell.

One final kobold left.

"Kuruuu...." It seemed to be completely defensive, and Alex dove into it's bosom to bait an attack.

As the kobold opened up to attack Alex, he dodged the downward slice with a left tumble and sent two swift slashes at the kobold's chest. Two deep gashes sliced open the kobold's leather armor, and in an instant the last enemy had fallen.

Relieved, Alex quickly went to pick up the loot and return.

Kobold Head x 5

Kobold Shield x 2

Broken Kobold Sword x 5

Kobold Armor x 4

Small Short Bow x 3

Small Arrows x 15

Kobold Magic Staff x 2

15 Silver

73 Copper

1 Broken Necklace (!)

Returning to the goblin den, Alex quickly handed over the 5 kobold heads.

"You do good! Filthy kobold head to eat later!" Goblin laughed hysterically.

Exp + 500

25 Copper

Goblin reputation + 10/10

Reputation: Not Enemy

"Why you still here?" The goblin lifted his small spear and poked Alex.

1 Point of damage.

"Ouch!" Alex flinched after getting prodded. "I'm here to help you get your fire back!"

Though he felt no pain from being prodded, for some reason he still reacted as if he did. He surmised it was most likely an unconditional side effect from the dive.

"OH! You can bring FIRE? Come! Come! we LOVE fire!" The goblin walked further inside the goblin den.

The inside of the goblin den reeked of rotten meats and feces. Alex had to hold his breath in order to convince himself to not start swearing at the horrid smell.

The goblin den itself was nestled firmly underneath a large oak tree on top of a small mound. This allowed the goblins to have the high ground during fights against their hated foes, the kobolds. As if to affirm his suspicions, he found a few barrels of hacked up kobold chunks.

"We eat later! Come meet chief!" Seeing Alex interact with the barrels prompted the goblin guard's additional dialogue.

Alex couldn't help but laugh at all the effort these bastard GMs put toward the game.

"Chief, I brought a humy! He's not dumb and weak like the others!" The goblin gestured for Alex to approach the throne of the goblin chief.

"Shut up, I can see that! He is different! Go AWAY NOW!" The goblin chief threw a small bone at the goblin guard and laughed hysterically.

The goblin guard ran away in fear, cursing at the goblin chief.

"Thank you for seeing me, goblin chief. I heard you have no more fire?" Alex bowed.

"You have fire? Bring it quick quick and I won't kill you. I promises!" The goblin chief smiled a large toothy smile. Anyone could tell he was lying.

Alex thought about it for a moment.

"I could give you the fire, but wouldn't the kobold just take it again?" Alex openly answered the goblin chief's secret fear.

As if the goblin chief had been completely seen through, he cursed and kicked up dust at the thought.

"You not weak humy, bring me stupid kobold king head! Bring me head and give me fire! I give you my riches if you do this!" The goblin chief's eyes sparkled. There was no lie there, he really would give up his most valued treasures for such a good event to happen.

It would appear that Alex had passed the required verbal prompts as a popup appeared in front of him.

He accepted the quest only after some deliberation. The time limit was 3 days, so he had to ensure he had enough time to get it done.

Quest: Head of the Kobold King Accepted.

"Why you still here? You go now!" The goblin chief was digging a hole beside his makeshift throne with his hands.

Alex was resigned and left the goblin den, as he was leaving, the goblin guard that had accompanied him in walked up to him.

"Did you give us fire?" The goblin asked questioningly.

"I'm going to bring you the kobold king's head, then I will make you fire." Alex responded.

"Might as well bring 5 more kobold heads then too!" Another quest appeared.

The quest was exactly the same as the first one he accepted from the goblin guard, but the experience was only 250.

With nothing to lose, he accepted the quest and left the goblin area, returning to the Town of Bells.

Repeat Quest: Kobold headhunting Accepted.

After traveling back to civilization, he could openly tell that the smell was completely different. Unable to stand his own stench any longer, he entered a nearby Inn and paid the fee for hot water to wash up. Without having to fear being taken advantage of by other players, he left his clothes to be cleaned by an NPC while he bathed.

Though he was washing himself, the automated system of an NPC washing clothes was complete in only 30 seconds. Therefore his clothes were fresh and ready to be worn by the time he dried off.

As he donned his clothes, he remembered the Broken Necklace is his inventory.

An A.I. voice chimed in, "Broken Necklace: A small necklace with the initials R.C."

As Alex studied the necklace, a quest popup appeared.

"Return to Rudy Chaplin?" Alex pondered but since there was no downside, he started the quest. A new marker appeared on the map within the Town of Bells.

Quest: Rudy's Necklace Accepted.

"Oh!" Alex had forgotten to check how much experience he had earned for the kobold killing and quest turn in.

Needless to say he already had 500 for the quest, but you also received a smaller amount for defeating an enemy.

The status screen opened quickly as Alex thought about it, and checked the advanced section.

Experience: 1000 of 1100

So a kobold is about 100 experience for one. Alex took this information, closed the status screen and headed to turn in the quests. Just as he closed his status screen, he noticed that the damage he sustained during the fight with the kobold was gone and it showed 100 / 100.

First, he went to the alchemy house and turned in the fields of asphodel quest. As he did, he received 500 experience and 20 silver.

As the new experience amount surpassed the level 1 limit, Alex's body began to glow a bright gold and white. A wave of energy spread out from Alex, and then returned to him, disappearing into his body. As he checked his status again, the level had changed to 2 and the experience cap had changed to 2300. His health had changed to 150 and his mana changed to 125. His attribute points also increased in accordance with his class.

Alex quickly headed to the other turn in point. The guard post had been the ones to ask why the goblin's were acting up, and Alex had accomplished his mission. The turn in experience was 500 points, and he was already close to leveling again. He received 30 silver as a reward and left the guard station.

Traveling down the road, he accidentally walked past the house that Rudy Chaplin was in. Doubling back, he took a quick look at the place, but found that the house was incredibly rundown, shoddy, and the windows were all smashed in. This was clearly no house for a small girl to be living in. Alex didn't give it much thought though, as they were just A.I. NPCs.

Alex knocked on the door of the house and a layer of dust fell from the door as it rattled. A small twin-tailed girl in a pink dress answered the door cautiously.

"Yes, Mister?" The girl hid behind the door.

"I'm looking for Rudy, I found something that belongs to her." Alex could see the marker over her head, but decided not to say so.

"Rudy has nothing in this world, Mister. Not anymore." Rudy continued to hide behind the door.

Alex removed the Broken Necklace from his inventory and showed it to the little girl. Though her eyes lit up initially, she could not bring herself to accept the necklace.

"Mister, the necklace is broken, therefore it isn't mine." Rudy pouted as she grasped the hem of her skirt tightly.

"How about you take the necklace and keep it safe for me, and when I come back we can fix it up." Alex brought the necklace closer to the girl's hand.

After slight hesitance, Rudy eventually accepted it and asked for Alex's name.

"You can call me Shadow, can I call you Rudy?" Alex asked.

"Uh-huh." Rudy nodded.

"Then, Rudy, when I return, we'll see if we can get that restored. I have to leave for now, i'll return soon." Alex waved goodbye.

Exp + 300

Just as the quest completed and gave him his experience, it was just enough to level up once again. A larger glow of gold and white expanded and retracted, and another quest popped up in front of Alex. Since he was getting easy experience, he might as well accept the quest.

Quest: Restore Rudy's necklace Accepted.

He quickly opened up his status screen and advanced tab.

Name: Shadow

Level: 3

Race: Demon

Class: Demon King

Title: One who rules the underworld

Skills: -

Pet: None

-Stats-

Strength: 10 + (4)

Dexterity: 10 + (4)

Endurance: 10 + (4)

Wisdom: 10 + (4)

Intelligence: 10 + (4)

Spirit: 10 + (4)

Health: 200

Mana: 150