Phew, Chapter 4 FINALLY finished. I blame a combination of laziness and adapting to my new university schedule. I have a lot of time between classes so I'm probably going to be writing then.
I had intended for a lot more to happen in this chapter, but, well, it would've ended up being over 5 or 6 thousand words, and I'd like to keep these between 3-4.5k. This one ended up being 3.9k.
Once again, these are only lightly edited at the moment, so if you see any mistakes or inconsistencies, please report them in the comments!
Happy reading!
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Once again, James found himself in a location vastly different from before. This time, however, there was no sweet scent of fresh air and grass.
Indeed, within the time it would take you to blink, he had found himself standing solidly on the cobblestones of a town square.
Looking around slowly, James realized he had found himself in a large medieval town or even city. All around him were were timber and stone buildings that didn’t exceed more than two stories tall. Circling the square, which was literally an open square surrounded by buildings, were small stands made of wood and dyed cloth. James assumed they were merchant stalls. The streets were built off rough cobblestone that had been worn down by countless feet over the years.
Then, the smell hit him.
James gagged mightily as the scent of feces invaded his nostrils, choking on the vileness of it. He coughed a few times and tried breathing through his mouth, which made it a little better.
He sighed. Did DGS really have to implement that part of a medieval society as well?
Still, despite the poop, the place was incredible. It was something you couldn’t see anywhere else on earth these days. Everything was either skyscrapers or modern suburbs.
However, there was one thing missing. There was no people.
One would expect that in a city market at midday there would be people bustling here and there doing their business, but the town was eerily quiet.
James was alone.
And then, with a bright flash, he wasn’t.
A little ways away a short stubby man with with a long gray beard had appeared suddenly. He looked strikingly like a dwarf, and from his sudden appearance, James assumed he was a player as well. He raised a hand in greeting, which the dwarf returned. He didn’t seem to be much interested in conversation, however, as he sat down on the ground and looked over his body.
James winced as he saw the man touch the ground. The poor guy didn’t know what he was sitting on.
The other player reminded him that he was in a new body, one that was supposedly free of disease.
Gingerly, James lifted one leg and placed in front of him, ever so slightly putting more and more weight on it. Soon, a wide grin split his face as he stood on one leg. He felt no pain, no muscle soreness, he didn’t feel like he was about to collapse.
Only the amazing, incredible, beautiful, strength!
James laughed joyfully, uncaring if the dwarf heard him or not. He was finally free!
He felt like he could do anything! He could jump!
James jumped off the ground a few inches.
He could walk!
James took a few wobbly steps forward.
He could shoot lasers out of his eyes!
James stopped. Well, okay, maybe he couldn’t shoot lasers out of his eyes. Yet. This was a game world after all, anything was possible. Right then and there, James vowed to find a way to shoot lasers out of his eyes.
While James was exploring his newfound mobility and laser shooting prowess, all manner of creatures had been popping into existence around him. There were elves, dwarves, beastmen, beasts, and monsters alike appearing in flashes of light. Most of the humanoids had not much issue getting used to their new bodies, but the more beastly ones...
Well, let’s just say they wouldn’t be getting up any time soon.
Even as James watched, a gigantic spider with a human torso attached, just like the one the goddess had shown him, appeared near the edge of the plaza. Slowly, his legs slipped along the cobblestone and he flopped pitifully onto his belly. The human torso looked down confused and tried to move his new limbs, only getting a few twitches in response.
A few minutes later, the flashes stopped, and James counted 22 other beings in the square with him. Moments after the last one appeared, a gigantic screen lit up above one of the houses, attracting the attention of all the players.
James was unsurprised to find Thomas Walthers’ gigantic face peering down at them once again.
There was a muffled tapping, and Thomas muttered, “Hello? Is this thing working?”
After a moment, he broke out into a grin. “Welcome everyone! Welcome to the grand world of Dimos, where your dreams become reality! I see that you have all arrived correctly, and are already adapting to your new bodies. For those of you who have chosen inhuman avatars, we will be conducting an intensive survey on your experience with it, so make sure to research your bodies as much as possible! For the rest of you, a smaller questionnaire will be given to collect data on your opinions on the world and its citizens.”
Thomas looked thoughtful for a moment, then continued. “I do believe that is everything. In that case, please enjoy your experience in the world of Dimos! I wish you good hunting! Joe, activate the NPCs!”
With that final remark, the screen flicked off, disappearing from the sky. Immediately after, the sound of a hundred doors being flung open simultaneously rang out, and James looked around to find streams of people exiting from the houses surrounding them.
It seemed the townspeople really were in town. Despite the realism, the simple fact that they didn’t move until commanded drove home to James that they truly were programs, and not people.
The citizens didn’t seem to be interested in the players whatsoever, and simply flowed around them without a second glance, a sense of purpose in their steps. Soon the stalls were filled with small time merchants and the streets with traveling consumers.
Wide eyed, James watched the townspeople intently. The place was so alive, so vibrant! Whoever was in charge of the AI must be a genius. A far cry from games that made their NPCs follow set patterns, James watched as people laughed, cried, and lived their lives seemingly uniquely.
Across the way, a small girl trips and falls onto the cobblestones and starts crying. Her mother fusses over her, picking her up and whispering sweet things into her ear. Soon, she stopped crying and they went on their way.
To his left, an argument breaks out between a fruit merchant and a scruffy looking man. James strained his ears and caught snippets of their conversation.
“Listen!... Have money... Buy...”
“No... Please!... Children to feed!”
“... Sorry, can’t... Of my own!”
Soon the man, a vagrant, James assumed, stumbled off drunkenly, casting glares back at the merchant, who pointedly avoided looking at him. Another customer stepped up, and the merchant adopted a wide business smile.
James decided he had had enough of people watching, and decided to explore the vibrant city he had found himself in. He picked a random direction and started walking unsteadily.
He had no idea where he was, or where he was going, but the simple act of walking made him overjoyed. Finally, after so many years, he was able to walk about and explore on his own. He felt like a kid again, free to play and do what he liked!
James passed the shopping district, a place populated with seemingly well off citizens and found himself wandering a housing district. The buildings here tended to be about 2-3 stories tall and were squished together tightly. The design reminded him of medieval London, with tall thin houses packed together to allow as many people as possible to live in a space.
The people here were far sparser than in the merchant district, but James was able to tell that they were similar to the shoppers. If this was a class society, which it might very well be, James thought them to be middle class citizens.
Soon, his wandering brought him to a slightly rougher part of town. The tall buildings faded into single or double story wide buildings, and the cobblestones became dirtier and not as well maintained.
From various places, James could hear the pounding of hammers against steel and saws against wood. He peeked into a few buildings and found people hard at work building all manner of products; furniture, weapons, tools.
James marveled at how neatly the various districts were separated. He wondered about the funds needed to build a city this organized, and guessed the ones in charge must be very wealthy.
James stopped in his tracks, having noticed one of the players from the square. It was the man-spider, and he seemed to have gotten control enough of his legs to make his way over here.
James slinked closer, trying to listen to the heated conversation going on between manspider and a rough looking craftsman.
“What do you mean you’re out of stock?! I can see you have loads of daggers in that barrel behind you!”, said manspider loudly.
The craftsman, apparently a weapon smith, shrugged his shoulders and looked away aloofly.
“dey’re all on ‘old for somebahdy. I ain’t got none left.”, he growled out.
Manspider seemed ready to explode. “Like hell they are! That’s what the last three of you bastards said too! There’s no way you have nothing to sell me.”
The man looked down on manspider, scowling menacingly. “Ya dun’ like it, ya dun’ come ‘ere! I ain’t gotta sell ya nothin! Now get outta here, ya damn bug, yer scarin’ off me other customers!”
Manspider clenched his human fists, and for a moment James thought he would hit the man. Instead, he turned around and scuttled off, muttering to himself darkly.
Unnerved by the racism, James backed away from the smithy and picked a different street to go down. He did need a weapon, but he wouldn’t be buying one from a racist dick like that guy.
As he thought of buying something, James suddenly realized something very important.
He had no money.
Well, he wasn’t actually sure he had none, but he searched the the clothes he had come in and didn’t find a single coin.
He pondered for a moment, and decided that before he got too deep in the culture, he needed more information. Particularly, about himself. This was a game after all, and Cara had confirmed there were stats and classes.
Unfortunately, the method to view such things was left out of the explanation. Maybe they thought figuring it out was part of the experience? James snorted. What kind of game didn’t come with a tutorial?
Experimentally, James muttered, “Stats”, under his breath. To his surprise, a window appeared before him. A quick glance around confirmed that either nobody else could see it, or they were used to it.
He scratched his head. There was no way he could’ve guessed it first time right?
Determined to figure it out, James tried to find a way to close the screen, but as soon as he thought about it, the sheet winked out of existence.
“Is it based on intent?”, James pondered aloud.
To test out his new theory, he focused and thought of the phrase, ‘status screen’ strongly, trying to envision the window he had just seen.
Unsurprisingly, it appeared again. Satisfied with his discovery, James looked over the new information.
Name: James Monsere Race: Human Primary Class: [Unavailable] [...] Secondary Class: [Choose] [...] Tertiary Class: [Choose] [...] Health: 100/100 Stamina: 100/100 Mana: 100/100 Strength: 10 [...] Agility: 10 [...] Dexterity: 10 [...] Intelligence: 10 [...] Wisdom: 10 [...] Luck: 10 [...]
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Name: James Monsere
[center]Race: Human [center]Primary Class: [Unavailable] [...] [center]Secondary Class: [Unavailable] [...]Tertiary Class: [Unavailable] [...] [center]Health: 100% [center]Stamina: 100% [center]Mana: 100% [center]Strength: 10 [...][center]Agility: 10 [...] [center]Dexterity: 10 [...][center]Intelligence: 10 [...] [center]Wisdom: 10 [...][center]Luck: 10 [...]
Everything looked to be as he was told it was going to be, though James was surprised he already had options for his secondary and tertiary classes. He pressed the ‘Choose’ button and found he had three options: ‘Blacksmith’, ‘Spy’, and ‘Carpenter’. He assumed he had gotten the crafting classes from watching the craftsmen work, and the spy must have come when he was, well, spying on the manspider.
The Secondary and Tertiary classes had come easily, simply from watching people work or doing a simple task, but the Primary class slot remained unavailable. James remembered Cara telling him that the Primary slot was the most important, and could not be changed. Thus, it must require some kind of special action or lesson for it to be available to him.
After a little more digging, James found that the first levels of the available classes did not give him any boosts. He would have to equip them and level them up to get any advantages.
He shrugged and equipped ‘Spy’ in the Secondary slot and ‘Blacksmith’ in the Tertiary. While he didn’t plan on doing any blacksmithing any time soon, ‘Spy’ would probably level up just from listening in on conversations.
Next, he investigated the stats. Choosing the ‘[...]’ option brought up a tooltip with some general information on the stat, and a notification that there were no modifiers in place.
After another once over, James was satisfied that he had found all the secrets the screen had to offer. Now, there were a few more things he wanted to try.
Thinking ‘Skills’ brought up a screen that was completely blank save for the title. Understandable considering the only thing he had done since arriving was wander around a bit. He would have been disappointed if he had gained a pointless ‘Walking’ skill.
He tried a few more commands before attempting to open his ‘Inventory’. Due to the realism of the game, James assumed nothing would happen, but was surprised when he was proven wrong by a small screen.
Warning You cannot activate this skill because you have not learned it yet.
Considering the screens had not lied to him yet, James decided there must be a way for him to get the inventory skill. This was hugely important. If the system would tell him when he was trying to activate a skill, he could find out the names of every skill in the game, with a little effort.
He shrugged. It was a lot of effort for little gain, in his opinion. Perhaps he would find a way to sell the information when the game launched.
He continued his tests eagerly, hoping for another discovery. Unfortunately, he only found one other working command.
‘Options’ brought up a tiny window with a single button, ‘Logout’.
James still had a bit he wanted to do before he left, so he closed the screen and picked himself up from where he sat, dusting his pants off lightly.
He thought for a moment about what he needed to do next. If he wanted to make money and survive in this world, he needed to find a job. He might be able to become a craftsman’s apprentice, but he had just been given a new body, he wanted to use it.
Besides, this was a game. A game where even if you die, you would come back right after, right as rain. A game filled with fantastic beasts and wild adventure.
What kind of person would pass up such a chance to do some whittling?
Well, James could think of a few of his online guildmates who would rather be whittlers, but not him! James refused to spend his time in the greatest game in history playing with his wood.
He would become a warrior, fighting for fun and justice, saving innocent maidens, toppling evil despots, and generally having a good time.
Thus, with a sort of goal in mind, the first thing he would need is a weapon.
James immediately set off to find a weaponsmith, preferably one that wasn’t racist.
He wandered through the crafting district for a time before he found a shop that seemed to be somewhat high quality, but cheap enough that they would accept some manual labour for a weapon. He was broke, after all.
‘The Wyvern’s Hoard’ was a quaint little workshop located a few streets away from the middle class housing district. The front of the shop was left open, allowing passersby to see the products and the men in the back working.
James walked in cautiously, hoping he would be welcome. There was nobody at the front desk, but a small bell sat next to a sign that read, “Ring for service”.
Deciding to look around a bit before summoning a worker, James wandered around the shopfront, gazing at the shining weapons and armour that adorned the walls and tables of the shop. Considering the front was open, James was surprised they didn’t have a problem with thievery.
The question was answered, however, when he picked up a long silvery dagger.
It was wooden. The top was painted or coated in metal to make it look real, but the bottom was simple wood. There was no value to anything here, save for as decorations.
Somewhat disappointed, James turned to go to the front desk, and was shocked as he found himself face to face, well, more like face to chest, with the biggest man he had ever seen.
The man was so tall he nearly touched his head to the ceiling, and was built like a mountain. He was fat, but James could tell the man had huge muscles beneath it. Through his surprise, he wondered how such a giant could sneak up on him like that.
The giant frowned down at him, and said in a rather normal pitched voice, “If yer lookin’ to steal from me, boy, yer out ah luck. All the stuff in ‘ere is models of the real stuff.”
James swallowed in nervousness. If he wanted to, he was sure the giant could snap him like a twig.
“No, sir, I was just looking around. I actually am interested in purchasing a weapon.”
The big man frowned, but nodded. “A’ight. Ya seem honest enough. I ain’t no Sir, though. Leave that for tha knights.”
He turned away from James and lumbered silently over to the counter. James watched his feet, curious how he could do such a thing, and noticed that he walked strangely. Instead of placing the heel of his foot on the ground first, he stepped with the right ball of his foot and seemed to roll it against the ground.
James followed him, trying to emulate the technique, and found it made a huge difference in the sound of his footsteps.
A ding rang out, and James instinctively looked to the counter where the bell was, but to his surprise it was a screen that greeted him.
Congratulations! You have learned the first level of the skill, ‘Sneak’!
James grinned and fist pumped in celebration. His first skill! Not exactly a warrior’s skill, but useful nonetheless.
He was brought out of his merriment when the man coughed lightly, trying to get his attention. Embarrassed, James snapped to attention, and he felt his cheeks burning.
The man grinned at him mockingly, no doubt enjoying the boy’s antics.
“So then. What’cha lookin’ for, boy?”, he asked.
“Well, whatever you’re willing to give me for some hard work. I’m a bit short of money, as in I have no money.”, James scratched the back of his head awkwardly. Judging by what he had seen so far, the NPCs around here weren’t too welcoming if you were dead broke.
The man scowled at him. “Bah, whatcha comin’ in ‘ere for if ya ain’t got no coin?! But, well...”, He looked thoughtful for a moment.
“I s’pose if ye be willing to work hard, I could give ya one ah me crappy apprentice’s swords.”, he continued.
James nodded happily. “That would be perfect! Thank you so much!”
“Bah, don’ be thankin’ me yet. You ain’t seen the abominations those fools be makin’ back there!”, he grinned.
A muffled voice could be heard from behind the wall. “Fock off, Ger! I bet my swords could slice a gob’ right in two!”
“Aye, maybe if tha’ mis’appen piece o’ steel you call a sword were swung by a nephilim!”, Ger shouted back.
There was a string of muffled swears and Ger turned back to a baffled James.
“Right then. What I’m gonna need ya to do is bring that there shipment of short swords to the guard’s office up past the merch district. It’s the tall buildin’ with all th’ flags hangin’ off it. I’ll lend you a hand cart so ya don’t break yer back.”
He pointed to a barrel that stood about up to James’ waist.
James nodded. “Alright. Deal.”.
He held his hand out to shake and Ger took it firmly. Then he squeezed hard and leaned in menacingly. James let out a little squeak in surprise.
“Let me just warn ya now, boyo. Don’t you be gettin’ any ideas about runnin’ off with the swords. You’ll not only have tha guards after ya, but I’m a level ninety myself.”, Ger warned him.
James nodded frantically, and he was released, much to his relief. The man’s hand was like a damn vice!
After retrieving the wooden hand cart and loading his cargo with some effort, James headed out the door, shouting behind him, “I’ll see you soon, you better have my sword ready!”
He heard a grunt, and he was on his way.
The trip to the guard’s office was uneventful for the most part. He got slightly lost and had to ask for directions once in the merchant’s district, but otherwise he found the building easily.
It certainly didn’t blend in.
The place stood out like a sore thumb, even in the colourful shopping district. To begin with, it was a story taller than any other building James had yet seen, and was so solidly constructed James thought he was looking at a fortress, not an office. What, did they expect to have an in-city siege or something?
The whole building was framed by fluttering colourful flags, the left holding one design of flying bird outlined by a setting sun, and the right being a complicated piece with weapons and animals seemingly placed at random.
James was about to make his way up the front steps and knock on the door, when said door flung open with a bang.
A large body filled his vision for an instant before it slammed into him, knocking them both into the street.