Name: Claire C. Copper

Level: 1 (Fixed)

EXP: 100

Trait: Unalterable | Dignified | Coolheaded

Status: [Vitality: D] (Fixed) | [Strength: F] (Fixed) | [Agility: E] (Fixed) | [Arcane: G] (Fixed)

Skills / Spells: Not Available

Enchanted Items: None

Claire willed the translucent screen that hovered in front of her face to vanish, and one blink eye later it did as she wished. She returned her gaze to the mirror in her hand, and stared at the reflection of a woman with amber eyes and brown hair. A visage that was not her, but of a familiar stranger.

The face she was currently looking at was that of Claire Chainsworths Copper, the head of House Copper, and the Countess of Eznor. She also was supposed to be an NPC from a game called Myth of Mergardals, an important quest giver that players would encounter should they choose a knight avatar.

How her former self, Silvia Sourots, had turned into Claire, she didn't know. She had tried to go back to her old world by sleeping away this madness, but when she awoke this morning and found herself still possessing Claire's body, she became certain that what she had previously thought a dream was a reality.

Claire tucked the mystery of her possession into NPC's body to the back of her mind, she would investigate her strange existence on a later time. Now, she had to deal with more important matter, namely an invitation from Marquis Witheroots in the form of a letter. The reason of invitation was not written, it only said that The Marquis wished to meet her.

Claire took a deep breath and looked at an old butler who silently stood near the door of her office room, she recognized the old gentlemen as he sometimes was the one who gave players the quests on behalf of herself.

"Connor, write a letter to the Marquis, inform him that I will come to visit him the day after tomorrow, and prepare all things that necessary for such a trip." Claire ordered with voice of a stranger, which startled her a little bit. I am Claire, I am Claire. She reprimanded herself.

"At once, My Lady." The old butler bowed and left the office.

As soon as the door was closed, and Claire was all by herself, she got out of her chair and started rummaging the bookshelf. Hidden entry to House Copper's vault must be somewhere around here. She thought to herself.

Claire The NPC was a quest giver, which means she was on possession of some quest rewards. She wanted to get a hold of such items and used it for herself, because the things that was written on what she suspected as status screen was bugging her to no end.

My level, Vitality, Strength, Agility, and Arcane power are all fixed. If it means what I thought it means, then I will not be able to get stronger, nor would I be able to level up. Not only that, I think I am barred from getting skills and spells too.

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Myth of Mergardals was an RPG game, there bound to be a lot of fights and battles to death. To survive, one would need more than influence and wealth. That was why Claire was trying to get her hands on enchanted items she knew were nearby. She planned to compensate her lack of personal power with mighty items.

Just as Claire started cursing at 'Unalterable' trait, she hit the fake book and the shelf started to move. It opened a passage to a secret room besides the office, and Claire didn't wait to go to the room on the other side.

Inside, she found the secret room was not quite a vault like she had hoped. Not only that the room was simply looks old, it also lacked a whole bunch of pile of gold. There were some chests here and there, along with some items and documents, but they were all neatly placed and organized. It made the secret room looks relatively empty and betrayed Claire's hope and fantasy.

Claire buried her disappointment and started rummaging the stuff around her. She ignored all documents on the table and went straight to open all chests and inspect the items at the drawers and the shelfs. After ten minutes long, she found what she was looking for. Just when Claire touched the items, a translucent screen suddenly appeared unprompted.

{Knife of Chain} (Epic) :

[This knife was made of a chain that once bound a Great Lich of old. A small soul fragment of a being that was felled by this knife will be trapped inside. Awaiting to do your bidding in exchange for their return to the embrace of death]

{Monocle of Mana} (Unique) :

[This one-eye glasses was made by overly curious scholar of arcane, and was manufactured with a drop of fairy tears as its main ingredient. Granting you a downgrade version of fairy's eyesight]

{Bead of Fire} (Rare) :

[The most basic offensive fire spell was engraved on this bead. The magic inside will be unleased upon breaking]

Claire willed the unprompted translucent screen to disappear and put her focus back on the items before her. A cool-looking black knife with chain wrapped around the handle, an antique monocle, and twenty red magical beads. These items were the only good rewards that players could get from her Questlines. Not much, as her quests were only intended to make the players power up to level 10. But to her, who was barred from getting personal power by the system, the function of these items was a boon.

{The knife of chain} was designed to help low level players in a battle by granting them the ability to call upon Combat Assistant so they wouldn't die too much on the game's initial stage and some of early boss fights.

{Monocle of Mana} was also designed to help players by revealing hidden traps in low difficulty dungeons so they wouldn't get too pissed at the game. But weirdly enough, in order to ensure that their effort didn't go unnoticed, the developers made it an achievement when players successfully triggered all the traps in a dungeon and rewarded them with a bunch of EXP.

The last item, {Bead of Fire} , was pale in comparison with the first two, there was nothing special about the bead besides to give players a taste on magic. In fact, this kind of item could be bought at merchants that were licensed by the Tower of Arcane. And just like any RPG, the rule of thumb in Myth of Mergardals was that, merchants items would never be as good as lore quest rewards and artifacts found in ruins and dungeons. There were good merchants items, yes, especially if one to compare them with rewards from low difficulty quest. But their might could only go so far if one to place them side by side with artifacts.

All in all, these items was gifted to players so they wouldn't rage quit the game and stick long enough to grow familiar with the game's playstyle. It also prepared players to get butchered when they stepped into the middle stage of the game and onwards.

Claire held tight the three items in her hand and proceeded to take a look at other stuff in the vault. There was quite a bit of gold, Mid-Grade Potions, and the some weapons that had no function other than being an antique. She also took a brief look into the documents on the table and found them to be important papers, like a royal decree from the King of old that granted them the rank of a Count.

The amber-eyed woman took off her gaze from the documents and stared around the items in the room once more. After some deliberation, she decided to grab few mid-grade potions and a handful of gold coins before leaving the vault with the main three items she had found. Once she exited the hidden passage, she pulled the fake book once more to close the secret entrance. She put all items on her office table and started tidying up all the books she had thrown on the floor.

Once all were said and done, Claire took out a piece of paper and began to write the plan for her next set of action. Her hand trembled as she moved the feather pen. Fear, Worry, and enormous uncertainty welling up in her chest.

While indeed that I have finished the game four times and took different route each time, surviving this game-turned-reality will be completely uncharted waters to me.