Chapter 1
I was finally out from the world. I no longer had to follow the rules and the norms. No more… It was summer and in my vision I saw something which looked like a village farther up ahead. Maybe two kilometers away. But as I started to move, a blue box appeared in front of me.
WELCOME TO GOD'S DOMAIN, PLEASE SET YOUR NAME. TO SET YOUR NAME, SAY IT OUT LOUD
Oh yes, I have to name my character. Let’s see… How about Gabriel? He is after all the right hand of god, maybe it’ll give me some special bonus. I chuckled slightly.
“Gabriel.” I said out loud.
CONGRATULATIONS, YOU HAVE SET YOUR NAME. AS YOU HAVE JUST STARTED, YOUR LEVEL HAS BEEN SET TO LEVEL 1. TO REACH YOUR CHARACTER MENU WHERE YOU CAN: APPLY STAT POINTS AND SKILL POINTS, MANAGE QUESTS, ADD FRIENDS AND MUCH MORE, SAY CHARACTER MENU OUT LOUD. NOW THAT YOU KNOW THE BASICS, WE OF THE GOOGLE SOFTWARE DEPARTMENT, WISH YOU A PLEASANT GAMING EXPERIENCE. GOOD LUCK IN FINDING THE GARDEN OF EDEN.
I made my character menu appear before me. As expected, the usual 10 in health points and 5 in every other stat. Stamina, Strength, agility, wisdom, intelligence and luck. Six stats, pretty standard. I also had 18 equipment slots: Head, neck, shoulders, back, chest, shirt, tabard, wrist, hands, waist, legs, two fingers and two trinkets.
The head, chest, wrist, shirt, hands, waist and legs were rather self explanatory. But tabard, fingers and trinkets were a bit more tricky. It was extremely similar to the old online game World of World craft.
Tabard slot: Insignia for guild or faction – group of players creating a group to help and support each other.
Finger slot: Essentially for rings, both those with effects and just those for looks.
Trinkets: A item with an effect that can fit in the back of the pocket. Usually only giving stat points for one or two stats.
Well, this was everything I could deduce from the slot names. I was a rather avid player of world of Warcraft. I used to go around boasting about my level 80 mage in vanilla.
It was a shame though, in the end the final level ended at 200. I stopped playing it ages ago.
Did it still run? I don’t know.
Frankly, it didn’t matter.
Only virtual reality games drew the crowd nowadays. Ordinary games with keyboard and mouse were only played by old people, who were either too scared to go try virtual reality or just purely stupid.
I suppose I can understand them. Not many dares to venture into the unknown. Especially those who like their current life. I guess that’s why it was so easy for me.
He walked towards the village. Only my shirt slot and leg slot were filled. I had a plain white shirt and a pair of black trousers. Damn, this world like white and black. Don’t they understand that everything isn’t black and white? Well, that’s not surprising, the current government just ignores its citizens wishes.
I don’t have any underwear, does that mean that if my clothes, shirt and trousers, were to be unequipped, he would be bare naked? Should I try? Naa, I’m fine.
After about thirty minutes of walking, I arrived to the village. I had actually gained 1 agility and 1 stamina from just walking. It seemed as though physical exercise or strain would result in an increase in stat points.
The village was rather small one. It looked like a normal medieval village. Wooden houses with market stands a bit here and there. In the middle of the village, I saw an old man. I went forward to the old man.
“Old man.” I said. “Do you have anything that I can help with?”
I knew that it was very common for old men to be quest givers in games and that’s why I asked the first old man I saw. So don’t misunderstand, I don’t have a thing for old men. Urgh.
“Eh.” The old man turned around and looked at me. “What do you want youngling?
I cleared my throat. “Old man. Do you have any quests?”
The old man inspected me up and down. “Not for you, youngling.”
He pointed east. “Go hunt some wild rabbits until you get stronger.”
“Ok.” I could do nothing but resign. “Wait, old man, do you have any weapons I can borrow?”
He laughed. “Do I look like a merchant or a smith?”
“No...” I answered.
“That’s right.” He laughed “Now get going.” He gestured for me to go away.
I sighed and walked away. I looked around for sign of a merchant or a blacksmith.
After a while, I found a sign with an icon of a hammer and an anvil. “That’s gotta be a smith, right?” I entered the shop.
*Clang* *Clang*
The sounds of metal hitting metal reverberated in the small store. Several boys, who I guessed were disciples, forged weapons. At least they tried I guess. I looked around until I caught sight of an old man.
“Always old men…” I sighed. “Old man.” I hurriedly made my way to him.
The old man turned around. “Old man?” Without me being able to react, he lightly flicked me on the forehead. “Who did you just call old man, you little rascal?”
“You.” i said. “Who did you just call little rascal.”
*Haha*
The old man laughed. “I like you kid.” He stretched forward his hand which I shook. “But don’t be too much like that, it might hurt you one day.”
He gestured for me to follow him. “So why are you here? A new adventurer? Need some weapons?” He laughed again.
“Yes.” I explained. “Some old man in the center of the village told me I was too weak to help him and that I should go hunt rabbits until I got stronger.”
“Yeah.” He laughed once more. Goddamn old man, don’t laugh so much. “That sure is old man rector! He’s becoming too old that geezer!”
I sneered inside. Dude, you are too old. You seemed to be even older than that geezer outside. Of course, I couldn’t say that. Then I might not get any weapons.
“Anyway.” I wanted to go and get stronger as fast as possible. “I don’t have any money nor any weapons.”
I Wonder if this will be too much of a stretch. “Could you give me a weapon?” I asked the smithing geezer
“Are you drunk little rascal?” He looked at me strangely. “Why would I give you weapons for free?”
Crap, it was too much of a stretch.
“If I give you some of the loot i get from the rabbits?” I asked. “If not, I’ll repay you once I get the money?
“Little rascal.” The old man furrowed his brows.”Do you know how many adventurers who die when they are out?”
“Nope.” I smiled. “It won’t matter, I ain't going to die!”
*Haha*
“Sure then.” He took forth a dagger, a pole and a sword. “Pick one of them.”
Hmm. What should I choose. I wasn’t proficient in any of them. But in some of the other virtual reality games I had played, I played as a mage or summoner which used staffs. A mage was a spell caster who mostly used fire or ice spells and a summoner was a spell caster who summoned monsters and used them to fight other monsters.
“I’ll take the pole.” I said. It would also work good with both defense and offense.
The old man looked slightly “Hm” but still gave it to me.
“Little rascal.” The old man said. “My name is old man cai. This weapon costed me 10 copper to produce. When you got 10 copper, come give it to me.”
Ten copper. And how much was that?
“Okay.” I replied. “But could you tell me the money system in this world?”
“You don’t even know about that?” Old man Cai said surprisingly. “That's basic knowledge for small kids... Sure, I’ll tell you.”
“100 copper is 1 silver, 100 silver is 1 gold and 100 gold is 1 platinum and 100 platinum is 1 diamond.” Cai said.
“Thanks old man Cai.” I turned around and was about to go. “I’ll leave then, wish me good luck.”
“God bless you!” Old man cai said. “Don’t forget my ten copper!” He started to further instruct his disciples trying to produce weapons with their hammers.
“God bless you?” I thought and pouted. “Fuck god, I hate that guy.”
I left the store and made my way to the east with my new-equipped iron pole.
CHARCATER NAME: GABRIELTITLE: NONESTA: 10INT: 5AGL: 5WIS: 5STR: 6 [+1]LUC: 1
HEAD: NONEHANDS: NONESHOULDERS: NONEWAIST: NONEBACK: NONELEGS: BLACK LINEN TROUSERSCHEST: PLAIN WHITE SHIRTFINGER 1: NONESHIRT: NONEFINGER 2: NONETABARD: NONETRINKET 1: NONEWAIST: NONETRINKET 2: NONERIGHT HAND: COMMON IRON ROD [STR +1]LEFT HAND: NONE
Looks pretty neat, huh? Let’s go hunt some rabbits then
I arrived to a field of green grass still covered in sweet dew.Some cheerful rabbits jumped around in the grass. They seem to be rather weak, right...?
Chapter 2
Above their head, I saw a blue box. Grey rabbits, level 1.
I looked at myself, level 1.
I looked at my weapon, an iron rod
I looked at their weapons, none.
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I looked at their size, small.
I looked at my size, big.
“I can do this.” I took up my iron pole and grabbed it in my right hand, it made me feel a bit stronger. It had to be the 1+ in strenght It gave me.
The grey rabbits still jumped around like carefree idiots, they didn’t know what was about to hit them. That’s right, my hard rod. Damn, that came out so wrong. I shook my head and charged forward.
But as the rabbit discovered me, its eyes turned red and it displayed its fearsome teeth, they were black.
“Whaaaaa?”
As I saw it I shuddered and unconsciously moved backward. Too scary. But it was too late, the rabbit jumped quickly as a streak of lightning and bit my in the shoulder. A blue box came up.
-11
I had 10 stamina, which meant I had 100 health. Just a tiny bite in the shoulder chewed away over ten percent of my health bar. But could it be called health bar in this world? No, it was my life.
I readied myself, the rabbit jumped again. I used my rod and made a overhead swing that hit the rabbit spot on.
“Bingo, seems like it wasn’t so hard.” I exclaimed of happiness. But then to my despair, I only say its health bar go down by about twenty percent.
It jumped again, but I dodged by a hair's width. Why was a little bunny so dangerous? C’mon!
But after a while, it eventually died after my continuous overhead strikes. From its corpse, a copper coin and a piece of linen cloth dropped.
“What?” That was the only thing I got for risking my life?
I lost fifty percent of my health ya’ know? 50 percent! But nonetheless, I continued to kill rabbits. After a few, I heard a *ding* sound and yet another blue box appeared.
CONGRATULATIONS, YOU ARE NOW LEVEL 2. YOU HAVE GAINED 3 STAT POINTS AND 1 SKILL POINT.
With the ding sound, I opened my character menu and applied the stat points on strenght and agility. 1 on strength and 2 on agility.
Why? It was really annoying to get bitten by those freaking rabbits. It hurt like hell. I opened the skill menu as well. I had zero skills. What a surprise. On the other hand, I had 5 skill points. In the corner of the skill menu, there was a field where it stood: “Generate random skill – 5 skill points.”
Damn, what a surprise. So they expect me to use up all my skill points just like that. Do they really think I, the smart me, will fall into this trap?
*Ding*
CONGRATULATIONS, YOU HAVE GAINED THE SKILL "SIXTH SENSE". FOR MORE INFORMATION, OPEN THE SKILL MENU.
Sorry, I couldn’t stop myself.
I opened the skill menu and looked at the skill. It was a skill which made me be able to discover weaknesses in the opponent. I could use the sixth sense to find out vital spots of the opponent. It could for example be the beak of a bird or the tongue of the snake. Naturally, some were really obvious. But nonetheless, it could be of help.
The great me continued to farm grey rabbits until i hit level 3. I got several great loots such as a ragged cloak and a pair of tattered leather sandals. Well, it was better than nothing. I opened the player leaderboards.
PLAYER LEADERBOARDS1. ROYAL HEADMASTER LVL 72. FALLEN LEGEND LVL 63. DRAGONSLAYER 76 LVL 64. EPO72 LVL 65. SATANS SPAWN LVL 634256. GABRIEL
WHAAT!? How the hell can some players already be level 6 and 7? Do they cheat...? Whatever, Guess they are just nerds.
By the way, where are other players? There's no one here. My thoughts wandered as I made my way back to the village. With my rabbit farming I successfully made myself 23 copper. It would suffice to pay back the smith and maybe get myself some armor. As I arrived to the village, I directly went to Old cai’s smith. The sound of hammers hitting metals was still there.
“Old man Cai!” I yelled which immediately got his attention. “I got your ten coppers!”
He walked toward me. “That’s great.” He laughed. “I didn’t think you would make the money so quickly.”
I gave him the ten coopers. “Old man Cai. Do you perhaps have a helmet I can buy? One that is less than 10 coppers but still useful.”
Old man Cai pondered. “Well, you see.” He said. “I might actually have.
He walked behind the counter and fished up a black object. “This is a helmet I found in some ruins ages ago.” He gave it to him. “It seems to have been some adventurer’s helmet.”
“Unfortunately, no one wanted to buy it.” He sighed. “First, i set the price at 5 silvers, it yielded zero sellers.
Eventually, I removed it from sale. But now, since you show such promise and I kind of like your personality, I’ll give it to you for 10 coppers.” The old man smiled.
“Thanks old man Cai.” I said, took the helmet and gave him ten coppers. “I’ll take good care of it.”
“That’s how it should be. Anyways, get going now and find that geezer, rector. I heard he need some help!” The old man said.
“Thanks!” I replied and exited the building.
I inspected the helmet. Suddenly, a blue box came up before me.
HELMET OF BLACK DESPAIRHEADBLUEITEM LEVEL: 23REQUIRED LEVEL: 3STA: [-3]STR: [+10]AGL: [+4]SPECIAL SKILL: AURA OF DEATH
“Skill menu!” I said.
AURA OF DEATH+ SPECIAL EFFECT: CAUSE THE OPPONENT TO TREMBLE IN FEAR FOR 1-5 SECONDS DEPENDING ON LEVEL DIFFERENCE.- SPECIAL EFFECT: MIGHT CAUSE YOU TO SIGHTLY LOOSE CONTROLL OVER YOUR ACTIONS.
Well, that doesn’t seem to be too bad. Luckily I saved the stat points from leveling up to three. I put three of my remaining three stat points into stamina. Now, I had 100 health points again. After a short walk, I was once again by the old man.
“Old man rector! Old man Cai told me you needed some help.” I said.
The old man turned around. “Youngling, you seem to have become more powerful. Very well,you might be up to the task.”
“Yes, I’ll do whatever you ask.” I replied.”Is it to kill orcs? To kill big bears? Or Maybe a fearsome dragon?”
The old man began to laugh. “No youngling, it’s to clear out a cavern infested with those nasty small goblins.”
Damn, why do old men laugh so much?
“Sure, what reward can I get?” I asked.
“Youngling.” The old man’s face turned serious. “This is no joke. Didn’t old man Cai tell you that this is a fearsome world we live in.”
“Monsters can really kill you here… Anyways, you’ll get four silvers.” He waved for me to go. “Now, get going. It’s a few kilometers to the south. You’ll see those green pests”
I exited the village and began walking south. Sadly, i didn’t meet any other players. Even if I wasn’t the most social person, some company would be appreciated. After a bit more an hour of walking, I arrived to the cave. In the vicinity of the cave I saw small human-like creatures with blunt stone weapons.
“OK.” I took a deep breath and checked my character menu.
CHARCATER NAME: GabrielTITLE: NONESTA: 10 [-3]INT: 5AGL: 9 [+4]WIS: 5STR: 17 [+10]LUC: 1
HEAD: HELMET OF BLACK DESPAIR [STA -3, AGL + 4, STR + 10]HANDS: NONESHOULDERS: NONEWAIST: NONEBACK: RAGGED CLOAKLEGS: BLACK LINEN TROUSERSCHEST: PLAIN WHITE SHIRTFINGER 1: NONESHIRT: NONEFINGER 2: NONETABARD: NONETRINKET 1: NONEWAIST: NONETRINKET 2: NONERIGHT HAND: COMMON IRON ROD [STR +1]LEFT HAND: NONE
“Okay.” I readied myself. “Let’s go slaughter some goblins!”