In the beginning, 12 warriors of light gathered to battle an ancient kingdom. After many trials and tribulations, blah, blah
Skip, skip, skip, skip, skip
I mashed through the introduction, eager to get straight to the action.
Rule number 1
Never start your story with exposition. It’s just boring. The X army defeated the Y army leading to the formation of Z kingdom. Heard it all before.
Rule number 2
If I wanted to read, I’d pick up a novel. Skip the text and lets get to it. No, I don't need a tutorial on how to walk or look around, thank you very much. Just let me at the monsters already!
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The text faded, and suddenly, I was there. The first thing that hit me was the unbearable heat—like opening an oven door, but the oven was the size of a planet. The sun glared down, so bright it hurt to keep my eyes open. Sand stretched in every direction for as long as the eye could see. The entire area was devoid of life.
Great. A desert start. Could be worse, at least it's not a snow or lava start.
I felt a heavy weight on my back and collapsed to my knees. I tried to take a step forward, but my legs wouldn't budge and struggling only sank me deeper into the sand. I managed to lift my arm but the movement sent me off-balance, and I toppled over like a felled tree. Face-first into the sand. Gritty sand filled my mouth, tasting like a mouthful of hot beach. I spat and sputtered, but my tongue felt like sandpaper.
Note to self: face-planting in a desert is NOT the optimal start to an epic adventure.
Encumbered Your current strength and levels are insufficient to equip this armor set
I glanced at myself. The Nightsky set: a legendary armor gifted to the Night’s Knight. Its black metallic sheen, etched with ancient runes was a beauty to behold. A masterpiece of craftmanship that any knight would kill for.
Too bad it was too heavy to actually, you know, use.
I pulled up my stat screen.
Name: Noctus Equitus Base Class: N/A Race : Human Elemental Affiliation: Dark Advanced Class: Knight of the Night Level : 1
Talents STR: F (Years of keyboard warfare don't build muscle) INT: SSS++ (System Warning: Anomalous Value Detected) CON: D (Too many energy drinks, not enough sleep) DEX : C (Fast typing doesn't translate to combat reflexes)
Main Stats HP: 100/100 MP: 99/99 ATK: 10 M.ATK: 70 R.ATK: 14 DEF: 10 M.DEF: 50
I squinted at the screens. No base class. Almost certainly a consequence of my exploits. But I wondered what the implications of that were. Usually, you carry over skills when upgrading from base to advanced class. But if I didn’t have a base class, was I missing out on a whole class worth of skills?
I sighed. Should have been more careful with this.
I inspected the rest of my stats.
Talents. This must have been what the lady was referring to. They seemed to be a reflection of my real-life self. SSS++ INT. Yup, totally me. On the other hand, F Str? Surely that’s an exaggeration. Memories of training sessions with that man flashed across my mind.
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“Child, in our business, it’s important to have both a strong body and mind.”
“But why sir, can’t I just hack them instead.”
“You can’t solve everything with computers. Now let’s start with some push-ups. Show me what you got.”
I groaned. Push-ups. Surely, I could manage one measly push-up.
"Down on the ground, arms extended. Now lower yourself slowly..."
I lowered myself to the ground. So far, so good.
"Now push back up!"
I pushed. And pushed. And pushed some more. My arms trembled with the effort. Sweat rolled down my forehead but the ground remained stubbornly close to my face. I had risen about two inches when my arms gave out. I dropped to the ground, landing with an undignified "oof!"
"Alright, alright. Maybe we need to start with something a bit... easier. How about we work on your stamina instead? A nice, gentle jog around the block."
Five minutes later, I was sprawled on the ground, wheezing like an asthmatic bulldog.
"You know, child, in all my years of training, I've never seen anyone sweat so much from walking to the mailbox and back."
“Am I really that bad sir?”
“… You can always hire a goon.”
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… Ok. Maybe an F is justified.
A pang of regret welled up inside me as I examined the rest of my stats. With my absurdly high INT and M.ATK, I would have been a great mage. Maybe I should have listened to the lady. But that regret quickly faded away.
Nah. I always play knight.
How about hacking my stats? I pulled up my cheat engine and attached it to the game process. First step, find the memory address for that cursed F rank strength.
"Let's see... stats are probably stored as integers internally. F rank would be 0, E would be 1..." I muttered, setting up the scan parameters. Initial value search: 0.
[Memory Scan Results: 1,847 addresses found]
Too many. I flexed my fingers and channeled some mana, watching my MP bar drop. Perfect. Now to filter for unchanged values since my strength shouldn't have moved.
[Results filtered: 126 addresses]
Better. I picked the most likely address based on memory region, 0x7FFE2B4C8D60, and tried changing it to 5. Nothing. Tried the next one. Still nothing.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
After a dozen attempts, my strength stat continued to mock me with that unchanging F. I shrugged my shoulders. Of course, they're not that amateur. Stats are probably server-side with client-side display only.
Grimacing, I forced myself back up and fumbled with the buckles, removing my armour pieces one by one, until they hit the ground with a dull thunk. My shoulders instantly felt lighter. I rolled my neck, reveling in the newfound freedom of movement.
My gaze fell upon the sword at my side - the one piece of equipment that hadn't tried to turn me into a human paperweight. The Night Sky Blade. Even lying innocently on the sand, it emanated an aura of power. I reached out, wrapping my fingers around its hilt.
Unlike the armor, the sword seemed to have no stat requirements. As I lifted it, its jet-black surface caught the harsh desert sun and absorbed every single ounce of light that fell upon it. It was a weapon that practically pulsed with latent darkness.
I couldn't help but grin. My inner edgelord was dancing with glee.
Then, from the corner of my eyes, I spotted a strange movement. An emaciated man dressed in tattered robes stumbled towards me. His face was hollowed and drained of life. But, the most striking thing was the pale-yellow glow emitted from his skin.
"It hurts.... It hurts... please make it stop." Each word seemed to physically pain him, like speaking itself was tearing him apart.
His body jerked and spasmed, joints bending in impossible angles. The glow beneath his skin pulsed in rhythm with his movements, as if something inside was counting down. Then his skin began to split, light flowing from the cracks like lava from a volcano.
His scream cut off mid-breath, replaced by a sound like breaking glass. Where his eyes had been, there were now just points of burning light, so bright they left afterimages when he moved. He crossed the distance between us faster in the blink of an eye, leaving trails of light in the air.
I raised my sword just in time. The force of his strike sent vibrations through my sword arm, numbing my fingers. His strength felt wrong, savage, like fighting a beast rather than human.
I sidestepped his next strike and brought my blade down in a desperate swing. The counterstrike caught him in the shoulder but the wound leaked light instead of blood. It wasn't enough. The sword got stuck in his bones, refusing to cut all the way through. My strength was too low. Damn. The man let out another screech, unaffected by the sword embedded in his flesh. His free arm swung wildly, barely missing my head.
I gritted my teeth and focused, using all my strength to pull my blade free. He thrashed harder. He was becoming more erratic, more dangerous. In a contest of pure strength, he would be the victor.
Light Zombie Level: 30 Threat Level: Extreme for current level Status: Light-Corrupted A human twisted by overwhelming light exposure. Nothing remains, only a vessel of burning radiance. Highly aggressive, unnaturally strong, and completely beyond salvation
New Quest: Defeat the Light Zombie Priority: Urgent Warning: Failure may result in death
Level 30?! I did a double-take at the floating text. Wasn’t this a bit too difficult for a tutorial battle? What kind of sadistic game design was this? Most games started you off fighting level 1 rats or maybe level 3 slimes if they were feeling spicy. But no, here I was, fresh spawn, getting thrown at a monster that could probably sneeze me to death. It felt unfair, I haven’t even figured out how to use my skills yet.
"This has to be a mistake," I muttered, dodging another swipe of those light-infused claws. "Or maybe it's one of those scripted battles where you're supposed to lose?"
No, the pain from that last hit felt real enough. This wasn’t that kind of game.
My brain kicked into overdrive. Think. THINK.
I ran through potential scenarios:
- Physical combat? With F-rank strength, I'd have better luck arm-wrestling a mountain.
- Running away? My cardio stats were probably in the negative.
- Magic? I had an SSS++ Intelligence stat. That had to count for something. In most games, high INT meant magical prowess.
Magic had to be the answer ...
Then reality crashed back in like a bucket of ice water.
I'm a knight.
They don’t learn spells. They hit things with pointy metal sticks. Dammit.
The man-monster was fast approaching me again, his claws ready to strike. In desperation, I pointed my sword at him and yelled “Fireball”. Reality decelerated to a glacial pace. The sun’s rays reflected off my blade, making it shine with a brilliant brightness.
And then …
Nothing happened. The man’s blow struck and knocked me off balance.
“Argg” I moaned. Naturally. What was I expecting? I suddenly wished that I hadn’t skipped the tutorial.
Come on. I focused my thoughts. There has to be some kind of menu, right? Every game has a menu.
The moment I thought this, a blue translucent panel materialized in my field of vision.
Skills
Found it, I smiled to myself. With a thought, I mentally selected it and the menu expanded out. I was disappointed. Except for a single skill, the menu was empty.
“Tch,” I grinded my teeth. But when I took another look at the skill, my frustration disappeared. This looked useful.
Skills Spellblade Channel mana to imbue your weapon with an elemental spell
Don’t I hate spellcasting? Nope. What I detest is cowardly spellcasters hiding in the backline. Sword and Sorcery, that’s hella cool.
And so, I activated it.
Spellblade
I could feel it. Mana flowed from my very core to my blade. Dark flames licked up the length of the sword. I raised the blade and brought it down in a sweeping, deliberate arc. The flames surged forward, consuming the zombie in a fiery vortex. His form twisted and squirmed in the dark fire. His screeches filled the air as the light was snuffed out from his body. Within moments, there was nothing left of him but ash, carried away by the dry desert wind.
Level up
Name: Noctus Equitus Level : 5
Main Stats HP: 11/135 MP: 23/130 ATK: 14 M.ATK: 90 R.ATK: 17 DEF: 14 M.DEF: 60
I stared at my status window, trying to make sense of these numbers through the post-battle exhaustion. Four levels from one fight? Usually, I'd be dancing around celebrating that kind of exp gain, but right now I was too busy trying not to die. The fight had taken a lot out of me and I barely had any HP or MP left.
My vision blurred as blue notification windows popped up one after another. Oh great, more things to read while I'm trying not to pass out.
Quest completed Gained Skill: Inspect Inspect: Inspect an item to learn more about it
I stared at the floating notification, waiting for something more impressive to appear. Surely this couldn't be it. Inspect?
I had been hoping to gain a skill with a little more grandiose. Something like "Soulrend" or "Shadow Strike" or even "The Blackest Night". But no, I got... Inspect.
I mean, what was I supposed to do with this? Go around examining things and saying, "Ah yes, this sand is made of sand"? Or maybe I'd discover the groundbreaking fact that my sword is, in fact, sharp.
I sighed. Maybe if I inspect things hard enough, I'll bore my enemies to death with unnecessarily detailed observations.
"Beware, foul creatures! For I shall describe you... to death!"
My laughter died in my throat as the memory of the creature's transformation flashed through my mind. The way his skin had split apart. The moment his eyes had burned away, replaced by those points of searing brightness. They had felt viscerally, horrifyingly real.
Was this what awaited the inhabitants of this world? To be slowly consumed from within by that burning light until nothing remained but a hollow shell of radiance and pain? The thought of that man's final moments, of his desperate plea - "It hurts... please make it stop" - sent a chill down my spine despite the desert heat.
And more disturbing still... could the same fate await me?
I shook my head, trying to dispel the encroaching sense of dread. Whatever that thing was, it was dead now. I'd made sure of that.
Suddenly, a scream pierced the air, raw, desperate, and terrifyingly human.