Chapter 1 – OPK is invited to Ailla
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Part 0 – VR, the new platform of gaming
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It was year 20XX where Virtual Reality became the mainstream gaming environment. Using VR as a platform made games more realistic and therefore attracted even more people. From the grand scenery created by CG, considerable amount of people also started playing VR games as a way of tourism.
As with everything great, there were problems. Due to Virtual Reality having much attachment to Life, RPG games based in VR started to have problems in terms of game-play and balance. A martial artist who played as a wizard could easily beat a warrior without experience in hand-to-hand combat. Players without RL tailor or smith skills would never produce anything better then those who had.
To deal with such problems, Classes and Skills were empowered. For those who know kung-fu or other martial-arts, they would need their respective expertise in game to utilize those skills; Hitting without the correct weapon or unarmed proficiencies would result in 99% damage reduction. With the introduction of time-dilation, Avatars with greater 'Agility stats' would experience slower time flow, enabling even a toddler with high agility to match an Olympic medalist in terms of reflex.
The craft classes were also tweaked: RL Designers or Crafter could still make beautiful clothes and items but stats gain from things produced would depend totally on the proficiencies of the related skills. Furthermore, with design templates, for players with no crafting experience, with enough in-game skill proficiencies, they could produce goods that looked better then those made by professionals.
Adding a finishing touch, most VR games allowed players to have multiple classes, to let skilled players diversify their potential. With duo classes, by mixing and matching, a greater variety of characters were made, diminishing cookie-cutter builds and making each gamer more unique.
Games that stuck to old traditional formats were soon ousted from the industry and the new norm took the place of the old.
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Part 1 – OP King
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Oliver Palmer King, with net-handle “OP-King”, was a 38 year old game addict and part-time hikikomori. He was considered a part-time hermit due to his addiction, which made him stay long durations within his own apartment, lasting from weeks to months playing online games. Unlike other shut-ins, who simply leech off their families or social welfare, Oliver earned enough to not only support himself, he had a healthy bank balance that could let him live his reclusive live for many many years.
Oliver's income came from his gaming. He was a RMT-gamer. RMT simply meant 'Real Money Transaction'. Oliver sold virtual avatars, items or money for a living. With his unusual way of thinking, he was always able to pull off stunts which both intrigued other players as well as shocked the developers. Yes, even game designers were often stunned by what he did with their codes.
The 3 craziest online persona Oliver awe the world with were the Chef Rogue, Mining Defender and Breeder Commander. Why were they special?
Chef Rogue
For most games, Chefs were side-jobs to improve monetary income, or simply enable players to fill their satiety when out in the fields. Chef usually had no combat-related proficiencies, but to allow them to better prepare food, they were given visual hints on where to cut on their ingredients. Oliver was able to 'bend' the rules by treating his enemies as 'food materials', just like slicing sashimi.
The Chef job allowed his stealth class to see all the points of weakness his enemy had; be it severing nerve points or cutting along muscles, Oliver's Master-Chef profession gave him visual to all these, yielding crits after crits. The Rogue class also enhanced those hit by improving critical damage, making his every hit draining 10-15 times more hp then any normal player.
Every strike being a critical hit was a dream many thief-class had... Every DPS wanted more damage output... So, the Chef Rogue was sold for over thirty thousand dollars in a 1 week auction.
Mining Defender
Defender was an especially defensive class. They clad themselves from head to toe in dense armor, forgoing all sorts of agility. They were the strongest TANK class that took puny amount of damage even from the greatest attacks.
Miner was the most under-estimated fighting profession, one that would really make people cry when exposed to their power for the first time. Using the sharp end of a mining pick, a master-miner could punch through Orichalcum like dirt, guess what it could do to the lower tiered materials like Mithril or Steel...
With the 'I will crush your armor like paper' adding to 'You can't deal any damage to me' combo. The Mining Defender owned by Oliver was sold for over a hundred thousand of dollars. The price was much higher then the previous because no one else could train another toon that reached its level of power.
Oliver's hidden training method consisted of 'mining' within the colony of giant ants. He mined not the walls, but the ants themselves. Ignoring all logic, he swung his pickaxe in a mining motion while killing those huge insects in front of him. Digging through chitins instead of dirt improved his mining skills while giving him massive 'Strength' and 'Piercing' stats. He also ignored mandibles poking at his sides while he worked, leading to enhanced 'Toughness', 'Endurance' and 'Stamina' stats.
The avatar was so 'broken' that the game company had to do a press conference to quell the masses complaining about 'OP-King' being too OP.
Breeder Commander
This was the most special and unique pairing that awed the world. Breeders usually reared livestock, like chicken, pigs, cattle and occasionally dogs. Not Oliver. As a breeder, he raised Avians (chicken), Orcs (Pigs), Minotars (Cattle) and Kobolds (Dogs)... hundreds of thousands of them.
With his own personal monster army, Oliver's Commander class allowed him to move them like his limbs. Using the unstoppable force, he dethroned many kings, claimed half the game map and created a legendary empire. He could have united the whole game under his banner, but decided against it.
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Oliver had just put his Avatar, Empire and all 18 Kingdoms he conquered, up for auction. Within minutes, the prices had already soared like crazy because almost everyone was made aware of his intention to sell... each kingship went beyond hundreds of thousands, with the price of the empire reaching nearly a million dollars.
The kingdoms would be bought by guilds or rich players that wanted ownership of land. There were less than 40 kingdoms in total. With so many guilds wanting land, it was natural they tried to outbid each other for the limited resource.
The empire itself would mostly go into the hands of some media company which would use it as a platform for advertisement. The game had over 800 million players, of which his empire owned half of the game lands. In simple words: placing posters all over the empire would net more viewership then the population of USA.
As for his Avatar, it was 'reserved' by the game creators for 1% of their company shares. From the sheer number of players, one could easily deduce that the game was a worldwide success, being offered 1% shares of a billion-dollar company that was growing even larger, was an offer beyond just numbers of zeros on a check.
Grinning at the raising numbers in the auction, Oliver finally emerged from his 'hole' and activated his 'social mode'. It was time to take a break from his 35 month and 28 days of hermit life and return to the living. He had just created a new personal record of self-imposed social isolation. Its not that he had Autism or liked to be alone, he just focused too much within games that made him lose track of life. Every time he started a project, he would withdraw and disappear.
Almost 3 years!!!
That was the amount of time Oliver invested for his current project, conquering half the game map
That was also the amount of time Oliver hid away from his thoughts of that Event...
During the time, his daily hikikomori routine consisted of:
- Sleep: 5 hours
- Stretching exercise: 15 minutes
- Ordering pizza delivery: 5 minutes
- Food + Hygiene + Forums: 40 minutes
- Between-game breaks: 10 minutes break every 3 hours
- Online gaming: The rest (18 hours with breaks)
It left no time for random thoughts, and everything was just focused gaming.
Oliver had never went on such a long project. All his other projects never went for more then a year. The Event, right before he started this time, disturbed him greatly, so he ended up channeling all his mopping and wailing into energy for gaming. Thinking about the Event, his smile did a flip. Even after avoiding it for 3 years, he still couldn't forget what happened.
Trying to do something more cheerful, Oliver started counting the empty pizza boxes he had accumulated. It easily went into 4 digits number, causing a wry smile to float on his face. To Oliver, Pizza was the best hikikomori food, because they can be kept for a whole day without spoiling. Hot or Cold, they tasted good. To signify his love for the 'flattened bread with toppings', the door to his apartment was specially modified to allow standard pizza boxes to be slot though, landing on the custom made steam-box that both kept the pizza warm while scalding any itchy fingers that stuck in.
Thinking he had too many pizzas already, Oliver gave a shrugged and swore off 'cheese on rounded dough' for a while... An empty promise it was, because once he started a new project, he would mostly be back to chewing pizza again. He needed to start another project soon to keep his mind busy before images from that Event starts to haunt him.
Since his game avatar was locked during auction, Oliver used the down-time to tidy up his living area. While cleaning, Oliver began to sing. He had not used his vocal cords for the past 35 months. Singing was the best way to exercise those neglected muscles, ensuring that they would still work as intended. From experience, if he didn't sing or talk loudly at the moment, he would end up muttering like a moron when he tried to speak later.
After 2 hours of cleaning and singing, the gathered up rubbish became a small hill. Armed with a wheelbarrow, Oliver decided to cart them to the garbage disposal area outside his apartment. Instead of doing 5 trips holding handful of trash bags, using the small hand-propelled vehicle, he intended to just run a single trip. As the saying goes: 'Multiple trips are for the weak'
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Part 2 – Lucida Serenity
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Walking out of his apartment with his trash, Oliver passed his neighbor’s door... ex-neighbor to be precise because she had left the world of the living he wasn't interested in the current tenant. She was called Lucida Serenity, a NEET, a shut-in, a game addict and a social withdrawn. She had a lackadaisical attitude towards life and was pretty much dedicated only to gaming.
Lucida was 9 years his junior, had unique hazel eyes, those that were green at the limbus and slowly turned red near the pupil. She stood at 1.7m tall, with messy brown hair of variable length because she would always buzz them somewhere in May and let them grow out again for 2 or 3 years before she repeated the procedure. Being neighbors for over 5 years, Oliver had seen her hairstyle ranged from a buzz-cut to shoulder length.
Always garbed in an oversized woolen shirt that covered till her knees, Lucida hid every feminine aspect she possessed regardless of seasons or time. Oliver once saw her naked, when he rescued her after she fainted from malnutrition, so he knew she had all the necessary curves to show if she ever decided to dress up. In order for her not to ever forget eating, he imparted his long-term gaming style to her: “One is able to clock more gaming hours, if one make constant breaks for food, hygiene and rest.”
Unlike Oliver, who relied on strategies and unique character-building, Lucida was more the 'hard-worker' type. She would grind for endless hours and become the best in whatever she do. Ranging from in-game Tailoring and Sculpting to Axe Slashing and Throwing, she practically spent all her time improving her skills and abilities of her avatar. When there was nothing more she could improve on due to mastery levels, she would work on her stats. When stats reached the maximum possible, she would resort of training personal reflex, setting the target of being 0.01 seconds faster before doing it again and again, until she had almost double the dexterity of everyone else.
Optimizing her love of being an axe-thrower and her singular profession, Oliver helped her by introducing a second class which made her original one much much more powerful. It became something that could even repel a small army.
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Blacksmith Axethrower
Axe throwers were basically a semi-ranged class which threw small hatchets at enemies. Now, imagine those thrown weapons being enlarged 5 times. Blacksmith jobs came with bonus strength, carrying space and ability to wield any weapon. So instead of throwing puny sized hatchets, imagine someone throwing dwarven two-handed axes... then imagine them throwing dozens at a time.
The sheer size of each weapon. The insane amount thrown. Just thinking of the absolute destructive power would make anyone cringed when facing such user. There was little resistance when she reigned as the Queen of PvP. Lucida was once offered 250 thousand dollars for the toon, but she rejected the deal.
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With both of them having extreme gaming addictions, they became gamer-pals, virtual trading partners, in-game buddies and almost soul-mates. Unlike the untidy, motivation-lacking girl that lived next door, the Lucida in-game was an active leader, powerful ally and great person to talk with... as long as it was nothing outside the game. Her only opinion on Life was: “A sh!tty game that has no define roles and no specific goals... everyone is just half-f*cked”
Being heavily influenced by Oliver, Lucida had turned her addiction into an acceptable source of income. By gathering and selling stuffs she used to throw away, she became a RMT-gamer just like Oliver. These so-called 'unwanted' items happened to be rare or unique items that others would kill for, so she no longer had to stay in the red.
To commemorate her new lifestyle, Lucida abandoned all her previous game identities and started to used the sound of the first syllables of her names to form her new unique but slightly degrading nickname. Oliver didn't like her new handle, but decided not to voice his thoughts because she seemed extremely please with that.
Sadly, Lucida passed away 36 months and 6 days ago at the young age of 26. She died of brain hemorrhage, silently and painlessly. When Oliver found that her avatar staring aimlessly for over an hour, he got worried and visited her place, thinking she had forgotten to sleep or eat again. There, he discovered her corpse, bleeding from every orifice of her head. The sight was gruesome and it burned deeply into his brain. Looking at her in that state, Oliver felt something broke within. He didn't cry back then because he thought he wasn't eligible to, but some part of him had died along with her that day.
Although they had been neighbors for years, although he knew her financial status better then herself, although he knew her favorite color, what food she liked and what she hated... But when simpler questions popped out... Who is she? Where she come from? Who is her next-of-kin? What is her middle name? Does she have any medical history?... Oliver found he had no answers for these.
With questions asked by the police officer that visited, Oliver found that he knew next to nothing about this entity called Lucida Serenity. When revelation struck, he started to fumble, not knowing how to mourn for her death when he didn't even know her. Collecting his grief, he locked them somewhere inside and threw away the key.
Oliver would never admit it, but the younger girl had a strong influence on him. When she first moved in, he unconsciously played less and spent time visiting her. When she fainted from over-gaming, he forced her to go jogging around the district with him, on the excuse of leading 'a healthier hikikomori' life... as if that sort of lifestyle could be healthy in any way...
He also took her under his wing on how to earn proper income by being a RMT-gamer. When others requested his aid, Oliver would usually just sent them over to some website, but for Lucida, he made an effort to show her the ropes. Looking back, he never took any projects, that would put him into self-imposed isolation, after she became his neighbor. The only thing that went close was helping redesign her game-character.
Further proof was shown when Oliver dropped all gaming just for her funeral, even going as far as to spending a week to make all the tedious arrangements so she had a good one. Compared to his own grandfather's funeral, where Oliver was late due to a repeatable daily quest he didn't want to miss... not the 'I miss a bus' kind of late, more of the 'he is already 6 feet under and all the guest had left' type.
After her body had be cremated and ashes scattered into the sea as per her will, Oliver went into full 'shut-in' mode and stopped all human interaction completely. He even resorted to a pure pizza diet, because he didn't even want to see the delivery person... Having the Pizza-boy slotted the food through the delivery hole on his door was his only interaction to other humans
Back from the sad memories, as he looked at the door that led to living quarters now occupied by new inhabitants, his vision became blurry. With his hands occupied with the wheelbarrow, he couldn't wipe those fluid away, so he just grumbled while blaming the non-existence dusty wind that irritated the windows of his soul.
Until now, 3 years after he last saw her, Oliver still couldn't find a reason to cry for her demise. He didn't know his place. What was him to her? Was he a teacher, a senior, an admirer or simply an outsider, a stranger. What was her to him? An apprentice, a junior, a love interest, a neighbor or simply just someone he knew... No, he didn't even know her... Without answers to his questions, Oliver buried his thoughts by not thinking.
Shaking away his thoughts from the unknown feelings, Oliver decided to go to some high class place for some high class food. He wasn't always into 'high-class' stuffs, but good food usually cheered him up. Oliver also thought that he deserved some reward for the massive 3 year project he completed. Money wasn't an issue, since he expected at least two million dollars to appear in his bank account within a week.
Eyeing a new 5-Star Hotel in view that wasn't around 3 years ago. Oliver confirmed that building to be the place he will pig himself out. He would compare the exotic cooking from VR games to the expensive cuisines made in RL and judge which was better.
Quickening his steps, Oliver first unloaded all the garbage at the junk pile, before hurrying back to his home to dump the vehicle he used. Chucking it right beside his door, he made sure his home was locked before venturing out to find a good meal.
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Part 3 – Goddess of Procrastination and Last-Minute Ingenuity
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Looking at the white space while standing on nothing, the area felt similar to new character creation on VR platforms, he waited for the familiar electronic feminine voice that would ask for his new account creation.
“Nothing? This is strange” Oliver commented after what felt like 10 minutes of waiting.
“What is strange? The space here?” an unknown female voice sounded out.
“Ah... Is this the character creation scene? Is it bugged out?” Oliver asked
The reply Oliver got was a girlish giggle, which acted as a catalyst that jolted his conscious back into gear. He did not remember climbing into his gaming device... In fact, he had yet to complete the transaction of selling his current avatar, it wasn't possible to make a new one yet... unless he had memory lost...
*****
Searching his memories, Oliver started to recall the recent events.
After leaving his apartment, he went to a restaurant located within a 5-star hotel. He booked an individual room and ordered a unit of everything on the menu. Remembering the manager's untrusting expression, he paid the 5 thousand dollar upfront, before settling in for his private dining.
As exotic food starting piling before him, he was delighting his taste-buds with their exquisite taste. The steak of waygu beef was especially juicy meat, the escargot chewed like rubber, Black watermelons were sweeter and crisper then normal ones while Cocoroco smelled like turpentine and tasted like paint thinner. Oliver also found out that shark's fin was all about the soup as it itself was inert.
Simply recalling the food actually made him drool...
Then his memories got fuzzy. Bad things happened. He vaguely recalled a large burning rock that flew onto his table entering from where there used to be a wall. The rock was so highly heated that it evaporated his shark's fin soup and lit his Cocoroco on fire. It also causing his skin to burn and peel.
Most likely due to his body being overdosed by Epinephrine or just experiencing the last moments of his life, Oliver calmly looked at the direction in which the killer rock came from, there he saw the sky from aligned holes made pass 4 concrete floors/walls.
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Ending his flashback, Oliver could only laugh, choking from it, then continue laughing louder.
“So you understood your circumstances?” The unknown female voice asked
“Yeah... I died... Death by meteorite, that is one unique way to go... so you are?” Oliver sounded calm.
“Ah, where are my manners, my name is Dietrich, the Goddess of Procrastination and Last-Minute Ingenuity.”
With that, a women clad in a glowing aura slowly materialized in front of Oliver. She was wearing the typical ancient roman wear, a blue loose tunic which extended to her heels covered by a toga which draped off her left shoulder and glided just above her ample bosom. Her black hair flowed straight down her back just like Cleopatra, ending just above her slim waist. She had sharp facial features attached to naturally smiling lips.
“I am here to offer you a proposal. A trade of terms and conditions.” Dietrich continued
“Proposal? Are you the devil trying to buy my soul?”
“Nonsense, we Deities only need Champions and Worshipers, not souls”
“Then what are you proposing?”
“You see...” Dietrich started. “Kami, the Greater God of Creation made a new world called Allia. For Minor and Lesser Gods, if we want a foothold on these new lands, we have to spread our faith there. As we cannot directly influence the new world, we choose people from realms with our influences, make them into champions that represent us. The Champions sent into new worlds can set up our churches there.”
“So you are going to choose me as a representative?” Oliver asked incredulously. “I can't think of any link between me a procrastination. I mean, from young, I have been drilled to prevent such actions, whenever I utter things like 'later' or 'tomorrow' I ended up with cane stokes on my butt. Those habits are already fused into my being.”
“Procrastination may be out, but you have 'last minute ingenuity' that could aid me.” Dietrich muttered
“Ingenuity... Yes, I have those due to my strangely wired brain, but not last minute ones” Oliver rebutted.
“Ok... I understand... we don't have anything similar” Dietrich raised her hands surrendering. “You just need to be my Champion in Ailla and forget about having similar traits to me. That is how Champions worked, Gods can pick anyone as their representatives, even those who are polar opposites can be selected, just like your case. If not for this, Gods like me would be forever living in Limbo.”
After much thoughts, Oliver decided he got nothing to lose:
“Alright then... I guess I will help you, I died anyway... but I have a small condition” Oliver requested
“What is it? Anything within my power”
“I want you to delete things in my computer” Oliver answered awkwardly
“Why is that?”
“There are things I don't want anyone finding out, my reputation is at stake”
Waving her left hand, a blue glowing panel appeared in front of Dietrich and she started fiddling with it. Finding her standing position awkward, she waved her right hand, causing a distortion onto the empty space. Within the blink of an eye, Oliver was now standing in a cozy room with Dietrich sitting comfortable on a sofa. Showing him to a chair nearby, she resumed her viewing of her glowing panel.
After reading for a while, a blush appeared on her face and she started giggling while reciting.
“Mating rituals of Orcs? Doggy style with Kobolds?? One-night-stand with a female minotaur???Avians only have one hole for XXX ??? You do have the weirdest interest... Don't mind, your secrets of unique porno fetish are safe in my hands”
“Not the browser histories... arrggg... those are pages I visited for research, I don't care if anyone sees them... what I want to delete is...” Oliver screamed at the Goddess's misunderstanding then stopped himself. Taking the offered chair, he started to massage his temples, for the Deity with him was giving him a massive headache.
Ignoring his rude behavior, Dietrich simply exclaimed: “Oh, so that means what you want to delete is this... *hahaha*... you do have a cute side... never expected our OP-King to have such a weakness...”
“Yes... Yes... go ahead and laugh all you want... Just sent a meteor into my room just like how you sent one to my dining table. It will erase everything I want to hide.”
“Oopsie... you got that figured out?” She asked slightly embarrassed
“It doesn't take a genius to know... since normal people don't get crashed by random meteors then meet some Deity that just happened to appear and offer a proposal. Not to mention, your gift was presented right onto my dinner... This life is getting boring anyway, so if the next one is fun, I will forgive you for killing me” Oliver nonchalantly brushed off the his death.
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“She meant much to you didn't she?” She asked.
“.... We are going out of topic, instead of questioning me, tell me more about this new world, realm whatever that is. I need information.” Oliver tried to steer the conversation back on track after slight hesitation.
“Spoil spot... anyway,
Ailla is a world that has a very similar environment compared to Spring time, it has no seasons so crops grow all year round. They grow this Jaya beans that taste delicious, its extremely sweet with a tint of sour and has a texture like jelly...
… Then there is the archipelago of Cancer, made up of many islands. There is one island in the northen part called Gastpol, with an abalone farm. Did you know abalones are not clams, rather they are a close relative to snails. Abalones are best when stir-fried with mushrooms found in...
… The great volcano in the southern part of Aries hasn't erupted since creation, it just leaks lava. When those lava cool down, it become something edible, people in the region called it 'magma biscuit', you need to dip those into coffee then the aroma...”
“CUT CUT CUT!!! Stop with all those random information, also are you really not the Goddess of Gluttony, all you talk about is food!” Oliver stopped Dietrich from continuing her endless prattler.
“Ah... Gluttony is actually the Lesser God of Hunger and Gourmet, he will also be participating in Allia, so try to keep his religion around, or else, all the food will start tasting bad”
*Sigh*
“Let's make this easier for me. I ask, you answer... ok?” Oliver decided on a better approach.
“Ok, so what will you ask?” Dietrich agreed
“Before I start, can I have a note pad? I want to jot things down.”
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Part 4 – Botanist
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Instead of a writing pad, Oliver got a something similar to a personal laptop. It was just a screen, similar to what Dietrich had used earlier, with all its functions thought-driven. Dietrich was kind enough to add simple apps into the 'computer' which allowed him to not only take notes, but also do 3d modeling, picture editing and image projection. It even came with a function that allowed him to show information boxes to others.
Happy with such a useful tool, Oliver started his 'interrogation' of the Goddess.
“Lets start with the goal, you want worshipers on this world called Ailla... correct?” Oliver asked
“Yes” A simple answer from the Goddess
“So what is the minimum criteria? Like... how many shrines, churches or worshipers do you need?”
“There is no limit to shrines or churches, but it is best to have at least one. If you happened to die, you can be resurrected if there is at least a shrine or church of mine. For me, what I need is Prayers. A Trillion units of Prayer, which can be done by any number of people.”
“Prayer eh? So what constitute one unit of Prayer?” Oliver asked out of curiosity
“When someone reciting a round of praises to me, I gain as many unit as their 'Faith' stats. As for the actual words, I can either leave it up to you to decide or we can work it out together. It just need to be something simple like 'Hallelujah', 'Amitabha', even 'Thank the lord' will be sufficient.”
“Wait... you only need someone to recite some words? Isn't that totally easy? Just get like... a hundred monks to recite it daily, akin to a chicken farm with the birds clucking.”
“No! There is a need for emotions when praising, not simply speaking the words. Also, almost none of the people currently living on Ailla have the 'Faith' stats, so you will need make them believe in the deities first before everything else. That's the reason why we need champions, to do deeds in our name, rather then just hiring a hoard of chanting monks.”
“Hmmm.... Things just got more interesting... I remember you saying there were more sentient beings the just humans, can those be your worshipers too” Oliver continued his questioning
“Anything that give praises are accepted as units of Prayer... So if you could make chickens cluck them, I will gladly accept those, but making animals earn the 'Faith' stats would be more difficult then just converting a village of another Deity to my religion. Elf, Orc, Dwarf and Humans are the races with the highest sentience, so they are also the easiest to gain the necessary stat.”
“What about were-beast and beastmen?”
“Were-beast are humans affected by animal virus, so they are still humans at the core. Beastmen on the other hand are something like wild cards. They and the sub-humans are treated as monsters, hard to tame and become religious, but they are loyal beings that will follow their Deity even in death if they ever converted.
During the competition on Earth, there were 7 Deities who made the sub-human species call 'Neardenthal' to pray to them, ensuring their foothold. Even when those sub-humans died out, they had already gain enough prayers to manifest miracles. Until now, they still have influences on Earth, just little to no worshipers... You should be familiar with them, as they are called the 7 sins.”
“The 7 sins are Minor Gods? Hahaha... that's interesting... Anyway, about Prayer, what if someone recite the 'catch-phrase' before going to battle or war? Will that help? I read in novels and history books that soldiers like to pray to their deities before rushing to die.”
“Those would be the best type, with large amount of emotions involved, even without faith, those would turn into many units of Prayer. That is one of the reasons why, Kildem, the Goddess of Death never lacked Prayers even when she had no worshipers.”
Sorting the information he collected, Oliver started reviewing them before he continue onto another area. Doing a quick summary, which resulted in 2 simple points:
1. The Deities needed prayers, so champions like him needed to find ways to make natives pray.
2. Every fantasy race are available in Ailla, but only the Humans, Elves, Orcs and Dwarves are considered beings, others are looked upon as monsters.
With that out of the way, Oliver started his information extraction again. This time, on jobs and classes
“So... What kind of Classes or Jobs do they have in Ailla?” Was his first question.
“Any you can think of. Some are common. Some are rare. Some are only open when you mastered the lower tiered one. I don't feel like explaining and describing each and every one of them, so I will just update the data into that little computer of yours.” Dietrich replied with a wave of her left hand, small sparkles of light emitted from her fingertips and floated into the floating panel in-front of Oliver.
“That's good, I want to explore them in details... But before I do, how many Classes or Jobs am I entitled to? Duo or Triple shall be cool, the more the merrier...”
“Unlike any games you played earlier, you can hold unlimited number of classes on Ailla, but you can only equip 3 at a time.”
While saying that, Dietrich waved her left hand again, creating a bracer that solidified onto Oliver's left arm. The bracer was made of leather with an ornate design of metal gilded onto the unknown skin. On the design, there was a cloudy red gem in the center, the spherical jewel had a diameter of about 1cm. On sides of the gem, were obvious place-holders for 3 more stones of equal size to the central gem. The 3 slots formed am equilateral triangular design with the original red gem taking the center.
Dietrich then took out materialize more marbles of equal sizes and gave them to Oliver. Unlike the embedded red gem, these were green in color. While examining the jewels, Oliver noticed small runes floating within each of them, every rune looked different from another.
Dietrich then explained:
“Classes are compressed into marbles like these, the people of Ailla call them Quintessences... or quints for short. The rune within will tell you which class it contained. The knight class has the horse shape icon, while the fire-mage class is signified by a staff with a little flame. The enchanted bracer I have given you allows 4 classes to be equipped at any time, but one of them is already taken and cannot be removed.
The strength quintessences are determined by color, ranging from Green, Teal, Azure, Blue and Purple, signifying Beginner, Intermediate, Advance, Master and Grandmaster ranks. After reaching Grandmaster, only the most proficient one will have its quint turn red, meaning there will only be one person who is considered the 'Best' or simply called Highest-Rank
The red quint you have is a representation of my religion, basically its the class called 'Pope'. Since you are my only champion, you will be the undisputed top, therefore it is red in color. I also have all the quintessences for the basic classes with me here at beginner ranks, Do you want any of them?”
“Ermm... I'll take all of them. I have already decided on my primary class, so I need to try out the rest to pick 2 others. I don't know how well those will mix and match, so I will appreciate if you can provide a testing place after I am done reading up the jobs.”
“Wow, you have decided on your class already? Care to disclose it?” The Goddess asked.
“Botanist.” Oliver proudly announced.
“Bota... What!?!”
“Botanist, basically a plant scientist who specializes in... well... plants”
“Of all things, you pick something like that? That class is even worst then a farmer, which is a class that I think about a quarter of the population in Ailla have. I don't know to despair or look forward to this choice of yours.” Dietrich complained.
“Do you know that in the last game I played, Breeders were considered god-forsaken?”
“Hahaha... you are really interesting... Let me ask you, for the last time, are you sure you want to be my Champion? This is your last chance to back away. If we journey to Ailla, it will be a road of no return.”
“Why are you still asking something so stupid again?” Oliver grumbled
“I have to... I am also going to tell you that the meteorite is just an illusion, you are just drunk. Drinking a whole bottle of Cocoroco, which has over 90% alcohol content, right after hibernating for so long... you are just knocked out. I want you to think carefully before making a decision.”
Looking at the flabbergasted Oliver, the Goddess snapped her fingers and he his world turned black.
*****
Oliver woke up with his face warm and unable to breath. Struggling, he waved around, found air and quickly inhaled... choked, then coughing out the shark's fin soup, he almost drowned in. As the Goddess had mentioned, there was no meteor and the room was as normal as it is.
After coughing out the remains, he breathed deeply to calm himself. Giving a burp, his breath smelled like disinfectant. With his mind cleared, Oliver pondered over his choices. Would he continue this RMT-Gamer lifestyle... or Would he take the plunge and go with Dietrich into the unknown.
For Oliver, the choice was easy. Life had lost much of its color since the passing of Lucida Serenity... He did not want to live like a zombie for his remaining days... Also, the new world would be like a new project, the only difference, he would be in the center of action himself instead of his avatar.
Giving a wry grin, Oliver fished up the remaining Wagyu Beef, stuffed them between his cheeks and prepared to make his way home. He got another bottle of Cocoroco as take-away in-case he needed that to meet Dietrich again. Even with a clear mind, his body was wobbly due to intoxication... It just made many heads turned towards him on his short journey back. Before anything else, Oliver wanted to first delete his 'weaknesses' on his computer.
*****
Back at home at his computer, Oliver first deleted the folder called 'Sweet Moments with Her' hidden under many password protected layers. To be safe, he formatted his harddisk 20 times. According to some rumor on the internet, this was the military standard procedure to data-storage disposal...
Thinking it was still not enough, Oliver unplugged his computer, brought it into the bathroom and lay it in the bathtub. He the started emptying several different types of flammable fluids he found, like Antifreeze, Liquid Pesticides, Paints, Thinners, Stain-remover, Charcoal lighter... he even added a can of hair-spray, some wool clothing, two rolls of toilet paper and a pile of unread letters.
Throwing a lighted match, he set the ceramic tub ablaze. Watching afar, Oliver witnessed the steel frame of the computer slowly turn from red to white then shattered when the hair-spray exploded. Being forced away from the bathroom due to intense heat, he met Dietrich standing in his living room, waiting beside a blue shimming portal, often seen in games.
“Let's go” was all Oliver said before he followed the Deity...
On that day, OP-King, the online gaming legend, disappeared from Earth, leaving 25 million dollar worth Auction unsettled...
*****
Part 5 – Blessings points and Bad news
*****
Back in the cozy little room, Oliver sat on the sofa and busied himself with reading up on various classes that could enhance his primary choice of a 'Botanist'. Dietrich informed him with some additional knowledge.
“Before you start researching about the classes, I need you to know about Blessing Points (BP). Elohim, the Greater God of Balance, ruled that each Deity can only give a certain amount of help to their Champions so the world will not become too supernatural. We can only use up to 1,000 BP, spending over the limit will result in instant disqualification...”
“Ah... I assume that is the variable for character creation, If I want something, it will cost Blessings?”
“Wow! You catches on fast. But BP is not only for you, every reality-altering things we do will cost some BP, so it is best to leave a good amount behind, then can we do some adjustments after you reached Ailla. We shall at least spent the 100 BP so we can telepathically communicate while you are there.”
“Can I do some testing with the points first? I don't want to recklessly commit.”
“You can test all you want here. We are still on Earth, so you can do trials on BP usage. I will only give you 500BP to enhance yourself... No, make that 490 since transporting you there will take up 10BP.”
“You talk about 500 or 490, so what can I use them for? Stats? Health? Skills?”
“Ah! I forgot to mention, but Health work differently on Ailla. They don't have HP like in games, its more like Earth where you can get incapacitated and lose limbs... Don't worry, nothing you can't fix with healing magic from my church. Stats and Skills will follow games rules though...”
“*Sigh* How can you miss out on such important information!!!” Oliver grumbled
“Carrying on... BP has 3 primary uses. First, Deities need them to perform miracles, that is for me only. Then, BP is also use to sets the job classes and skills of members of the Church. Lastly, it can also elevate your skills to higher rankings, so you can skip on training them” Dietrich avoid his stares and just stuck on topic.
Since Dietrich was avoiding reprisal from her negligence, Oliver granted her lenience and proceed on
“So, how many classes will be under your church?”
“I'm open to suggestion, anything from you?”
“If I get to choose, I will go for Priest, Holy-Archer and Holy-Knight. All will have something holy, with the Priest giving buffs, Archer dealing damage and Paladin for the Tank role.”
“Archer? Why not Clerics with maces for DPS?”
“Clerics are half here half there, but not anywhere. For single class games, they are great, but when duo or trio classes are available, they become redundant. Combat classes can simply take Priest for support while non-combatants can take Holy-Knight just to wear more armor. Clerics are worthless to take.”
“Ah! Interesting theory, I will keep that in mind” Dietrich nodded at his logic
“Back on topic, how much BP will it take to create classes for your church?”
“You don't need to worry about them, trust me on making some nice classes for my church. You are the vanguard that starts things rolling, the classes are for the others that will do the follow-ups. Making a full church of classes is tedious because not only combatants, there will also be many administrators.”
Hearing the word 'administrators', Oliver retracted his yet-proposed offer to help. He could do well in designing the game-related classes but had no experience in others. He then turn the conversation towards something else.
“You deal with the working of the church... So what am I suppose to do with the BPs you give me? Make new skills?” Oliver asked.
“Like I said before, you can have any amount of classes, but only equip 3 at a time. You cannot learn extra skills, however, you can have multiple sets of classes; Using Crafting classes while in town and changing to offensive classes when hunting, even switching between DPS, Tank or Support wherever and whenever you need to.
BP can only be used to improve the gems, so you start out with higher ranks instead of grinding the lower ones. 10 BP is needed to change a Beginner to Intermediate, 20 BP is needed for Advance, 40BP to Master and 80 BP to Grandmaster.”
“So... If I want to take my Botany Class to Grandmaster, I would need 150 BP?”
“Yes, simple maths isn't it? But to get Botanist, you need to have 'Farmer' at Advance, so you will actually need 180 BP total... Also to add, if you want more beginner quintessences for whatever reasons, you can buy extras from cities and towns. Except for the smaller villages, there will be Class-Shop that trade with those.”
“Can I try the skills out now?” Oliver asked eagerly, wanting test the grandmaster level of some classes.
“Alright, come with me.” The Goddess replied while materializing a door from thin air. She then led him to another area through the portal.
*****
On the other side, was blank white space again. Dietrich waved her right hand again, changing the scenery into open plains. With a small desert to the North, a forest to the South, a lake to the East and Mountainous paths to the West. In the center was about 10 acres of flat land, filled with tall grass.
'As expected of the Goddess of Procrastination, only creating the space when need be... But the last minute ingenuity sure is great' Oliver commented to himself
After making the area, Dietrich then created a small altar and placed a small statue standing on it. The statue was an unrecognizable person holding a small board with '490' carved on it. She then explained the workings:
“This little statue can assign BP for you, just put the quintessence here then say 'upgrade' or 'downgrade'. Whatever you placed on the altar will be altered accordingly with related points added or subtracted automatically.
You can test out your skills on summoned creatures, just tell the statue 'how many' of 'what' and it will summon them for you. I believe you will want to test them during live-combat. Just try not to die, it will be a waste of time.
You can also change your race, there are 4 types of Elves, 3 types of Orcs, 2 types of Dwarves and Human. Just tell the statue to change your race if you want. Different races had different BP cost, Humans cost 10BP, so you start off at 490
I already told you I am only giving you 500BP, so try to find your own optimized skill-built. Any questions?”
Seeing that Oliver had already made himself busy sorting the quints, Dietrich said before leaving:
“I needed to be elsewhere for a while, just call me when you are done, then we will journey to Ailla”
With that, she disappear with a blink.
*****
After a few days, weeks... what Oliver felt like a long long time, because there was no reference of time at his testing ground. Dietrich returned with a *pop*, Being disturbed by her appearance, Oliver turned towards her to find a frowning face.
“Why the glum look?” Oliver asked.
“I got 2 bad news, the bad one and the worse one, which do you want to listen to first?”
“Ermm... can I just not hear them?”
“NO!” A flat deny by the Goddess.
“Then lets hear the worse one.” Oliver steeled his nerves, something that a Goddess, who could direct meteors, said to be bad would never be just simply bad, it mostly fall into the region of disastrous or even catastrophic.
“The competition started yesterday and we have not even arrived. With the time difference, we will be late and reach there at least a month after everyone else started.” She complained.
“Is that it?” Oliver asked incredulously.
“We lost a head start, the others are already in action while we are still loitering here. We need to leave as soon as possible!”
“Wait wait... more haste, less speed... As a god, have you ever notice that persuading an atheist that there are Gods is 100 times harder compared to having people switch from one religion to another? Starting late isn't bad at all?”
“Are you sure? During the fight for Earth, the champion of the leading faction waged wars against the unprepared, claimed all others as heresy and destroyed many in the process. They even went as far as to wipe out the remains of by using 'Witch Hunts'. By starting late, we are on the back-foot already”
“Erm... Witch Hunts only work for the winning faction. If we are wining, then we will be the ones hunting. Not to mention, I am almost done with the preliminary preparation. If an enemy champion comes, I will score a kill... and if a dozen appears, then it will just be M-M-M-M-MONSTER KILL!.”
Holding up his bracer, Oliver shared his new skill-build with the Goddess. Seeing the she wasn't convinced at all since he had only Teal and Azure gems equipped, Oliver tried another method.
“Let's summon 100 goblins raiders for me to play with” He requested
“Do you have a death wish or just want to waste time?” She replied before fulfilling the demand
“Don't worry, it will be done in 10 minutes, Bring me an Orge-Lord too” Oliver replied nonchalantly.
The full 100 goblins with their 100 wolf-rides appeared 50m away. When they located Oliver, they started charging towards him. What Oliver did puzzled the Goddess. He started to scattering flour-like particles then summoning a gust of wind to bring those towards the charging horde.
Upon contact, vines started sprouting out of the ground, entangling all the goblins and their wolves. The vines though thin were steel-like, resisting cut from the goblin's weapon and wolf-claws. A wolf even lost a tooth trying to bite it. With all the enemies tied up, Oliver was already considered the winner, but he simply waited for something else to happen.
Just like a snake strangling its victim, the vine's hold became even stronger, making the mobs cry in shock and despair. After 4 minutes of being strangled, the goblins and wolves went limp and lifeless... Which brought Oliver's attention to the defiant Orge-Lord, tearing away at the vines while moving towards him, it was not affected and only slightly slowing down.
Oliver grumbled while he took out a small grain: A particular seed he had not finished developing. Putting it between his thumb and forefinger, Oliver flicked the seed forward, landing it about 2m from the Orge. Upon landing, the seed sprout instantly into a Venus-Fly-Trap... Orge-eating flower would be a closer description, because the plant waved one of its maws and snapped the top half of the Orge off. Two other 'flowers' fought over the remains and finally settled for a leg each.
The 'battle'... more like a peaceful slaughter, that took less then 8 minutes, created a small garden that displayed 201 corpse lots of vines and a monstrous plant... There are even flowers growing from the vines beside the contorted deceased. Spending the last 2 minutes of his proclaimed 10, Oliver harvested a bouquet of flowers from the vines, and offered them to Dietrich...
“Morning Glories, fresh from the fields” Oliver said while pointing to the massacre behind him.
With a grin, Oliver once again made the Goddess realized why he was called the 'OP-King'.
Seeing that he had recovered the Goddess' confidence, Oliver asked:
“The worse news wasn't really much, so what is the bad news?”
“Well... 'Loser' is selected as a Champion of another God, currently she is in Ailla” Dietrich replied
Oliver was shocked, too stunned to even breathe.
So many things were running through his head, his mind blank out.
With the brain malfunctioning, the body collapsed and started to shake uncontrollably.
***
A man wearing imposing armor faded into existence behind Dietrich, he looked at Oliver in seizure then asked in a dull tone:
“Are you trying to break your champion?”
“They will meet in Ailla, it is better to let him know about it now then later. Judging from his reaction of just hearing her name, do you think he can function normally if he actually meet her in Ailla without forewarning?
As you know, our champions have Traits similar to us, Oliver's hesitation lies in his heart, the way he keeps pushing his grieving to a later date... If not for this, he can never become my Champion... That is also why he needs to acknowledge this before he can really grow.”
“I guess you have a point. But Sloth, try to be at the battlegrounds soon. Everyone else but you have started moving. Chicana the God of Deceit and Subterfuge, somehow already have over a thousand units of prayer. You need to hurry.”
“Don't call me Sloth, I resent that name. If you ever do that in Ailla, I will personally name you 'Hubris' instead of 'Pride', my dear Keha.” Dietrich replied in menacing tone.
Keha, the God of Honor and Chivalry, also known on Earth as 'Pride' of the seven sins. Watching him shrugged noncommittally at her threat, Dietrich continued:
“Tell the alliance not to worry about me, for I will enter Ailla when my champion is ready. We already agreed not to interfere with each other for the first two years. Results will show for themselves when we meet up later.”
Keha just nodded, then faded away as if he had never appeared.
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To Chapter 2