Chapter I: The beginning of the journey
Not far away from one of the beginners' town, inside a forest called The Thokar's Forest. Weak monsters such as goblins, slimes, and wolves were residing inside this forest.
The forest was large and there were a lot of players who started to leveling inside that area. It was the best leveling area for the beginners from the level 1 up to the level 10 and the nearest of the beginners' town.
In a corner of the forest, near the exit of the forest, situated a large plain surrounded by grass, 2 players were standing in the center of the plain facing a group of wolves.
One of the players was in the front line while the other one was behind him. Soujirou who was behind Kaname was looking at a tree behind the wolves. Noticing Amano who suddenly started running towards them, Soujirou Shouted.
"Kaname, now!"
At the same time as his shout, Soujirou cast a defensive spell on Kaname. A golden barrier suddenly surrounded Kaname protecting him from the incoming damages. Hearing the signal of his teammate, Kaname charged towards the group of wolves while activating his skill.The wolves, surprised by the sudden shout from one of their opponents didn't have the time to reposition themselves, following their instincts they offensively leaped towards Kaname.
"Tiger's Palm!"
A Tiger's palm 10 times bigger than his own palm appeared in front of him, without any possibility to dodge, the wolves have been blown away from the tiger's palm of Kaname. Amano who was standing behind the group of wolves, waiting for Kaname to activate his skill before unsheathing his katana, charged towards them while executing a 3-slashes movement creating 3 wind slashes directing towards the wolves.
"Air Slash!"
The 3 wind slashes were magnificently done, slicing all the wolves from their backs, the wolves disappeared right after that their HPs bar reaches zero. Copper coins, as well as items such as magic stones, furs of wolves or wolves' meat, dropped on the ground replacing the wolves who disappeared leaving only scattered pixels behind them.
Walking towards Kaname and Amano, Soujirou said.
"Nice job both of you." It has been 5 hours since Soujirou, Kaname, and Amano started their monsters hunting inside The Tokhar's Forest. After they finally managed to kill the group of wolves, their experiences bar finally reached the 100% and all of them leveled up to level 10. When Amano's party first entered The Tokhar's Forest 5 hours ago, they were having a lot of trouble fighting the monsters they encountered, they were only level 1 and didn't have any skills, they were inexperienced to the fights which were totally different back in the game.
It has been 5 hours since Soujirou, Kaname, and Amano started their monsters hunting inside The Tokhar's Forest. After they finally managed to kill the group of wolves, their experiences bar finally reached the 100% and all of them leveled up to level 10. When Amano's party first entered The Tokhar's Forest 5 hours ago, they were having a lot of trouble fighting the monsters they encountered, they were only level 1 and didn't have any skills, they were inexperienced to the fights which were totally different back in the game.
When Amano's party first entered The Tokhar's Forest 5 hours ago, they were having a lot of trouble fighting the monsters they encountered, they were only level 1 and didn't have any skills, they were inexperienced to the fights which were totally different back in the game.
It took them more than an entire hour to get used to the fights as well as the new fighting system before starting to hunt the monsters efficiently, after reaching the level 4, they finally learned their first skill's class which helped them a lot to kill the monsters faster.
It only took them around three hours to leveled up from level 4 to the level 10, which was ten times more efficient with their newly learned skills, during his leveling, Amano learned a total of three new skills, two offensive skills, and one passive skill.
The first skill Amano learned after reaching level 4 was an active offensive skill named the Air Slash, the Air Slash, as the name indicated was one of the first offensive active skill of the samuraï, without any mana consumption, the samuraï launches three air slashes by executing 3 strokes of katana dealing (3x +50% of the Attack power of the samuraï) damage to all the enemies in front of him and unleashes three air slashes flying straight towards the samuraï's direction up to a range of 15 yards dealing (+300% of the attack power of the samuraï) damage.
Even though the Air Slash's range is only limited to 15 yards, it was still a useful skill against enemies that are projected in the air by a knock up skill. It was the skill that Amano used during his fight against the wolves earlier, but it was also the strongest skill that he currently possessed.
The samuraï was a melee class, thus, it was necessary for him to have gap-closer skills to get closer to his target. The second skill that Amano learned was Rush, using only 50 MP (Mana Points) it was a low-cost skill, using that skill, the samuraï dashes towards its target within 30 yards, using his katana to land a horizontal slash towards it target dealing (+100% of the Attack Power).
Rush was the only gap-closer skill that a samuraï could learn before reaching the level 20. It was a skill that was unlocked after reaching level 6 and has a range of 30 yards which helps him to get closer to his target at a dazzling speed, in addition, to deal an average amount of damages.
The newly skill that Amano recently learned after leveling to the level 10 was a passive skill named The Samuraï's will. The Samuraï's will was a passive skill that increases the damage done by the samuraï by 1% as well as his chance to land a critical strike by 1% every time that the samuraï landed a critical strike for a duration of 15 seconds stacking up to 15 times.
Agility was a primordial stat for the samuraï, boosting their damages while increasing their chances to dodge, it increases their chance to land a critical strike. The Samuraï's will was one of the reasons why a samuraï was allowed to prioritize on Agility as their main stat, it was the same stat for Kaname to prioritize as well.
Between the three of them, Kaname was probably the most cheated class. His class, the monk, was mainly using filler-skills to generate combo points in order to execute devastating skills to finish off the enemies with those combos points. A monk could generate a maximum of 5 combo points, after generating 5 combo points, a monk could no longer generate any more combo points unless he spent them.
The mana required to use a monk's skills was next to nothing, thus a monk could spam his abilities without being out of mana. This was mainly the reasons why Kaname was such a cheat, he could spam his abilities without being oom and without restriction.
Kaname's first skill was the Tiger's palm, directing one of his palms towards his target, he creates a tiger's palm which is 10 times bigger than his own palm, blowing all the enemies within 15 yards in the air dealing (50% of the Attack Power of the monk) Physical Damage. It's a spammable skill that generates 2 combo points and only required 10 Mana Points per use.
The second skill that Kaname learned after reaching level 6, was the skill Jabs, using 2 combo points and 30 MP per use, once the skill is activated, the monk assaults the enemy by landing twenty quick jabs towards the enemy dealing (100% of the attack power of the monk) Physical Damage per jabs.
The DPS of that skill was on the average after reaching level 30 but it was devastating on the earlier levels. The third skill he learned after reaching level 9, was the skill Rising Kick, a skill that uses 1 combo point and 10 Mana Points to projects the enemy in the air dealing (300% of the Attack Power of the monk) Physical Damage, it was mainly used to start a mid-air combos following by others mid-air skills learned on higher levels.
The last spell that Kaname learned after reaching level 10 was a passive skill named Hit Combo, which increases his damage by 2% each time he generates combo points stacking up to 5 times, it was a good passive buff allowing the monk to deal insane burst damage during a fight after generating combo points.
Soujirou, unlike Amano and Kaname, didn't have a lot of offensive spells because of his class, the priest but on the contrary of Amano and Kaname, it also means that he a ton of defensive spells and buffs without mentioning even healing spells.
The first spell Soujirou learned after reaching level 4, was a healing spell, the Light Healing, using 2% of the base mana of the caster, the Light Healing heals a total amount of 500% of the Magic Power of the priest.
Soujirou's second spell is a defensive spell, the Light Barrier Shield, using 3% of the base mana of the caster, it shields an ally for 15 seconds, absorbing (550% of the Magic Power of the caster) damage.
The third spell that he learned is a defensive spell debuff, the Magic Dispel, using 3% of the base mana of the caster, it dispels the harmful effects on the target, removing all Magic and Disease debuffs.
As for the passive skill that Soujirou gained after reaching level 10, The will of the Priest, allowed him to reduce the incoming damage by 10% for each time he uses a defensive spell or a healing spell on an ally, stackable 3 times, it was one of the strongest defensive passive skill of the priest which helps him to not getting focused by the enemies during a fight.
In The Forsaken Kingdoms, after reaching the level 10, each class unlocks their class' talent tree but not only that, they also unlock the utility's talent tree as well. A talent tree is one of the categories in which a class's talents are divided. It is so named because the talents branch out similar to a tree structure. Those talent tree unlocks new skills which could be learned through the SP (Skill Points). Once the player learns one of the three skills of the first tier of the talent tree, three new skills of the second tier of the talent tree were unlocked. A player who learned a new skill on the first tier could not learn the two others skills from the same tier.
A talent tree is one of the categories in which a class's talents are divided. It is so named because the talents branch out similar to a tree structure. Those talent tree unlocks new skills which could be learned through the SP (Skill Points). Once the player learns one of the three skills of the first tier of the talent tree, three new skills of the second tier of the talent tree were unlocked. A player who learned a new skill on the first tier could not learn the two others skills from the same tier.
Once the player learns one of the three skills of the first tier of the talent tree, three new skills of the second tier of the talent tree were unlocked. A player who learned a new skill on the first tier could not learn the two others skills from the same tier.
Receiving 100 SP as a reward for reaching level 10, Amano could finally use the SP he received to learn new skills related to the samuraï's talent tree but he decided to keep them for the utility's talent tree instead. The utility's talent tree was a talent tree that was available to every class of the game, it was as the name said, a utility's talent tree which unlocks new defensive and offensive skills.
The first tier of talents traits available for Amano in the utility's talent tree was the Magic Barrier active spell, the Parry passive skill or the Magic Eater passive skill. All of them were defensive abilities which help the player defensively, they were a must-to-have PvP's ability depending on the situation.
The Magic Barrier is a defensive active spell that could protect the player against magic casters, it surrounds the caster with a shield that lasts for 10 seconds, absorbing the next harmful spell cast on the cast.
The passive skill Parry was a defensive passive against both melee and magic caster, it increases the chance to parry by 2%, and in addition, it gives the player the ability to parry spells.
The Magic Eater skill was the strongest defensive passive against magic caster of the tier, it grants to the player 20% chance to regenerate 50% of his total HP after receiving a harmful spell.
Amano was a samuraï, accompanied by his friend Soujirou who was a priest who could use defensive barriers skills, thus, he didn't find the Magic Barrier spell useful compared to the other two. The Magic Eater was indeed interesting, but the Parry passive skill was the most interesting skill to Amano in that tier.
Parry which was now upgraded to the maximum gave him 10% chance of parry but also gave him the ability to parry magic spells.
After a long thought, Amano came to the conclusion that parrying a spell could be done easily with training. In addition to that, increasing his chance of parry, later on, was a good option for a samuraï in PvP's situations.
Kaname unlike Amano, choose the Magic Eater's skill instead of Parry, a monk was a class fighting with their fists and not a weapon, the chance rate to parry an attack was lower than a weapon user and it was more useful to choose Magic Eater instead, it was the only option that he could choose and the best one for his class.
Soujirou's choice for the utility's talent tree was the Magic Barrier skill, it was the most viable defensive spell for a priest to successfully absorb any incoming harmful magic spell from a magic caster.
Soujirou was the weakest of the team when it comes to his total amount of HP (Health Points), receiving a single magic spell from a magic caster without his passive skill, The will of the Priest could be a fatal blow for Soujirou.
The Magic Barrier's spell was a must-to-have defensive spell for the priest to protect himself against a devastating magic spell that could one shot him.
"The EXP farming is slower than the last patch."
Said Soujirou while following a road with both of his teammates next to him. It has been around an hour since they left the Tokhar's Forest and were walking towards their next destination, the Sylvian Village.
It has been around an hour since they left the Tokhar's Forest and they were now walking towards their next destination, the Sylvian Village.
"Yeah, agreed. Unlike the last patch, the EXP farming through monsters got nerfed by ten. It's going to be troublesome to keep leveling to level 20 with only monsters farming."
"And the fights are really way harder than back in the last patch too..."
"But this is more fun that way."
Kaname said with a smile, Kaname, and Amano who already know Kaname for a long time could only sigh and smile wryly.
"By the way Amano, why did u choose the Samurai as your class? It doesn't really fit you."
Since the beta-test, Amano was playing magic casters classes such as a magician, sorcerer, druid, necromancer, warlock, and every other magic casters classes but this time, Amano decided to choose the Samurai's class, a melee class.
"Well, you see... since the last patch that nerfed the magic casters, I was thinking about playing a melee one, I was aiming for my character to be versatile as much in defense and offensive...That is why I want to try choosing Magic Enhancer or Elementalist as sub-classes, Summoner might be good as well."
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Sub-class, it was a feature in The Forsaken Kingdoms that allowed the players to choose a second class after reaching the level 30, one could choose up to 4 sub-classes before reaching the level maximum, it was an interesting option which favored the pro players by opening larges choices of possibilities in making team compositions.
"I see, you want to try a melee cleaves composition. Well, it can be worth but we still need to practice, it's our first time trying this kind of composition, after all, I'm not quite used to the SMP comp... But it's should be fine."
SMP, Samurai Monk Priest composition, it was a hard melee cleaves composition which stuns the healer to burst them down, It could also rely on CCs to control the healer and burst down a DPS.
The composition of the team relied on both of the DPS, the samurai, and the monk's insane bursting damage to take down one of the enemy's player the quickest way possible before getting disadvantaged in a long-term fight.
Melee cleaves was one of the best team compositions at the moment, magic casters who seemed to be too much op the last patch have been nerfed every single one of them becoming two to three times harder to win on a 3 versus 3's team composition, it was one of the reasons why Amano decided to choose a melee class on this patch.
"But to think that Kaname still chooses the class monk, aren't you bored of this class already?"
Kaname choose once again the monk class, it has been since the beta-test that he chooses that class and never changed it, which amazed Soujirou and Amano several times in the past, his knowledge and abilities while playing monks exceeded most of the monks' pro players of The Forsaken Kingdoms.
"Monks are the mighty class of the game, using their fists to dominate their enemies, this is the best class that I can play and my preferred one by far."
"I see."
Looking Kaname with an amazed expression, Amano was looking at Kaname and thought that he was the total opposite of him if Kaname was a guy who only loves one class and keeps playing that same class, then Amano was the kind of guy who loves to try out other classes.
Recalling their fights against the wolves, Amano spoke.
"But I must say, you played your priest really well, is this your first time playing priest?"
"Yeah, it was my first class back in the game. I didn't play it for too long but it was really fun to play, I want to try playing it again."
"I see, and what you guys are going to choose as sub-classes?"
"Hmm, my first sub-class will probably be Ninja or Warrior, I didn't decide yet for the second one though."
The first one to answer was Kaname followed by Soujirou.
"I'll probably choose the Knight or Shaman as sub-class probably, they have a lot of buffs and defensive cooldowns. As for the second sub-class, It'll be Paladin or Druid for the same reason."
"This is going to be interesting indeed, I can't wait to reach level max."
Imagining and looking forwards his futures matchups, Amano and his party were slowly walking towards the Sylvian Village to find an inn to sleep for the night.
*****
Meanwhile, in the beginners' town.
It was already night time, the players which were forced to log into the game were reunited and discussed in front the large plaza in the center of the town, there weren't only players but villagers of the town as well as guards of the town who were curious of such gatherings and came to observe them.
In the center of the large crowd of people, a single man was standing in front of them holding a speaker enhanced by magic, it was a magic item bought through the online shop.
"You guys should already know, but the logout button disappeared since the patch 9.0 opened. Most of the top guilds already started leveling without giving much thought, but this shouldn't be right! From what I've heard, some players also tried to talk with the NPCs to call the game masters in vain. You guys should probably be aware, but "The Nightmare" has once again fallen in the VR world, and this time it's The Forsaken Kingdoms who's been targeted."
"The Nightmare", it was one of the most terrible disasters that happened twenty years ago, when the creator of the popular VRMMO game, "World of Domination" trapped the players inside the game without any possibility to log out, it was an unforgettable disaster that killed millions of people back then.
The players who heard the man's speech became tense, 'Are we going to die after dying?', 'Is this even possible to get out of the game?', 'How are we going to return to our former world?', 'What should we do from now on?' Such thoughts could be seen from the faces of the players.
"This time, fortunately, it's better than "The Nightmare". We already learned that when a player died, he's resurrected in the church which is similar to the game we know, but unfortunately, we don't know yet the method to return to our former world."
Hearing the last sentence, the crowd panicked but the man stopped the panicked people with his next sentence.
"Rest assured guys! Even though we don't know the method to return yet but I may know the reason why we were summoned into this world!"
The man paused for a short moment then continued.
"You guys should already be aware of but since the last patch, new enemies are currently invading The Forsaken Kingdoms, one of the enemies are the demon races sent by the "Demon Gods" who seal has been destroyed after the release of the patch. I think we were summoned here to fight them and exterminate the enemies that are a threat for The Forsaken Kingdoms!"
That was indeed a good reasoning, this was the thought of the players who listened to the man in front of them, finishing the game by exterminating the demon gods should be the true ending of the game, the developers even announced before releasing the patch 9.0 that it was the last extension of The Forsaken Kingdoms. It was logic to think that by exterminating the menaces of the world, saving The Forsaken Kingdoms was the end of the game, by finishing the game, the players thought that it was indeed the key to return to their former world.
It was logic to think that by exterminating the menaces of the world, saving The Forsaken Kingdoms was the end of the game, by finishing the game, the players believed that it was indeed the key to return to their former world.
"Unfortunately, since this is a new server, we'll probably need to grind to the level maximum in order to fight against the demon gods. Those who want to finish the game quickly and exterminate the demon gods in the sake of saving the players who're trapped within the game against their wills please follow me!"
With that last shout, the people in the center of the plaza applauded the man in front of them, be it players villagers or guards all of them applauded, his speech was no need to say amazing. Some players didn't mind about saving the world and preferred to enjoy the game, they left the plaza instead of following the man to the guild's building. Others preferred to take this opportunity to make money on the new server and didn't believe nor didn't care that they were being trapped inside a game.
The fact that they could resurrect after dying didn't make a huge impact of "being trapped" in the game since they couldn't die anyway.In the end, excepted for the top PvP and PvE's guilds, a new guild formed after that night, it was the "Saviors of the Humanity" guild.
*****
Inside the beginners' town, in the royal palace inside the throne room, a group of soldiers was kneeling in front of an old man with a white beard and a red golden crown on his head, one could see the nobility of the old man from his luxury clothes, the red golden crown embedded in jewelry as well as the throne filled with diamonds on its back.
"This is the report about the "heroes" who were summoned to the town my majesty."
"Umu, the plan is being perfectly working, we don't even need to explain the situation to them. Very well! You can keep observing them for now until further notice!"
"Yes, your majesty!"
The soldiers receiving the orders left the throne room, once everyone left, a young girl with blue long hair wearing a magnificent white robe was walking towards the king.
"What if they found out about our plan grandfather?"
"They only think of us as "NPC", even if I don't really know the meaning of this word, they won't think of us manipulating them, after all, It was their own choices to choose to eliminate the demon gods after all."
The princess remained silent after hearing his grandfather, for her grandfather the king, to manipulate people to fight a strong enemy because they couldn't win against them was a shame for her proud and beloved kingdom. His grandfather didn't have that kind of personality to scheme against others, he was more kindhearted and wiser back in the past.
'Until that this man appeared...Grandfather...please someone helps us...'
Remembering the man who was the reason of his grandfather's changes, the princess was praying for whatever she could pray to the one who could come in order to reason his grandfather.
"Valencia, you should return back to your room, it's getting late."
His grandfather the king interrupted Valencia's praying and ordered.
"Yes, grandfather..."
*****
Near the Sylvian's Village, in the north-west region inside the Sylvian's Forest, screams of agony resounded.
"This was the last one, as expected of Agil-sama, the Soul-Machine seems to work really well."
The voice of a man could be heard, next to the man, dead bodies of players could be seen as well as a machine, the name of that machine was the Soul-Machine, it was a creation of the demon's god Agil. The machine absorbed one by one the dead bodies of the players without letting a single trace.
"We should return to the headquarters to report to our master about the experiments."
Following by a charming women elf with black long hair who took the Soul-Machine inside her space magic, the men opened a dark black gate and entered inside. Once they appeared, the man and the women elf arrived in a dark place filled with dark energy, walking towards the throne room of the castle, once they were close enough, they knelt on the ground in front of someone who was sitting on the throne.
In front of them, a skeletal being wearing a dark robe filled with dark energy was holding a beautiful magic staff with a black orb at the end of the staff, he was Agil Overlord, one of the demon god who has been released from the seal that imprisoned him.
Activating a magic spell, a dark magic portal appeared in front of the demon god, he took out a sheet of paper which was the one that the man was holding in his hand a few seconds ago, reading the report, the demon god leaked a pleasant smile and said.
"Well done. Gather as much as gold coins as possible for the next objective."
"Understood Agil-sama."
Ordered by the demon god Agil, the man and the women elf left the throne room.
Amano Hasegawa's stat:
Name: Amano Hasegawa Class: Samurai Sub-Class: - Title: - Profession: Blacksmithing - Jewelcrafting HP: 400 MP: 200 Strength: 25 Agility: 30 Vitality: 10 Stamina: 20 Intelligence: 10 Wisdom: 10 Attack Power: 180 Magic Power: 50 Magic Resistance Fire: 0% Water: 0% Earth: 0% Wind: 0% Holy: 0% Shadow: 0% Active Skills: [Air Slash], [Rush], Passive Skills:
[The Samurai's will], [Parry]
Soujirou Seta's stat:
Name: Soujirou Seta Class: Priest Sub-Class: - Title: - Profession: Inscription - Enchanting HP: 200 MP: 1200 Strength: 5 Agility: 3 Vitality: 10 Stamina: 7 Intelligence: 30 Wisdom: 20 Attack Power: 21 Magic Power: 130 Magic Resistance Fire: 0% Water: 0% Earth: 0% Wind: 0% Holy: 0% Shadow: 0% Active Skills: [Light Healing], [Light Barrier Shield], [Magic Dispel], Passive Skills: [Will of the Priest], [Magic Barrier]
Kaname Takeshi's stat:
Name: Kaname Takeshi Class: Monk Sub-Class: - Title: - Profession: Cook - Alchemy HP: 400 MP: 200 Strength: 23 Agility: 39 Vitality: 10 Stamina: 20 Intelligence: 10 Wisdom: 10 Attack Power: 163 Magic Power: 50 Magic Resistance Fire: 0% Water: 0% Earth: 0% Wind: 0% Holy: 0% Shadow: 0% Active Skills: [Tiger's palm], [Jabs], [Rising Kick], Passive Skills: [Hit Combo], [Magic Eater]