Prologue – The stage
This Fiction is not about VR-gaming,
There are lots of reference, but it is not about VR.
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Part 0 – Stupid talks
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Greetings everyone, I am a MC of this story, not *the* MC though... just one of those MC
Sad to say, I am not the Main Character, just Minor Character compared to the great beings that will be mentioned. Still being a MC is better then being a DN, Disposable Name that will never again appear.
Who am I, you may ask... I have a small part in the play in the grand scheme of things. My time will come soon... but for now, I am empowered to tell your my life-story. Hopefully I can bring a smile to your face when you see me in action or hear about me in later chapters.
So... why am I here in the prolog?
You see... Androg-sama, who is the author, believed that most people don't take the prolog seriously. If something starts with Chapter 1, people will read it diligently... But when facing a prolog, most usually just scan through quickly, believing the real story only starts later. I think it is just a reflection of Androg-sama's bad habit while reading fanfics...
With many readers' lackluster attitude on prologs, Androg-sama thinks that placing 'OP-King' and 'Loser', our two main protagonist of this Fiction, in the prolog will be a waste, so the job is dumped on me... Not that I am complaining, I really like the extra exposure, otherwise nobody will ever remember me.
The author, who had written all this trash till now, wants me tell those who have kept reading till this point that:
1. Since Androg-sama cannot lengthen chapters without spoiling the contents, this Fiction will be using parts within chapters. This way, the great writer can both keep to style while readers can read more per posting. Prepare for monthly release, with 4-7 parts per chapter for high word count, so this reads like a book-novel, not web-novel... as if it makes any difference to most people...
2. This prolog, is written from the first-person's perspective... My Perspective. That makes me something great doesn't it... *Hahaha*... *Ahem*... Pardon me... Anyway, the style used in the prolog will be different from the rest of the story, Beware!
3. Androg-Sama also says: “Addition to the above point, the prolog is written with little thoughts and fill with spoilers. If you don't like the prolog, just abandon this and go to the next chapter.” *Boo!*...I resent that... You must read my life story, promise please please *sparkle eyes*.
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Part 1 – I am Lucky
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Since I am having such Air-Time, let me introduce myself. I am a Reincarnationist... new word not found in any dictionary. It means that I used to be someone, then I reincarnated into someone else then reincarnated further into another body... Complicated? But worry not, I will put my life story in a very simple and easy to understand way. Just sit back and enjoy...
Going in chronological order, I am starting with my first life.
Born on the world called Earth. A pretty simple world with no magic, no wild beast, no dungeons, and no adventures. It cannot be called dull because most people are busy struggling with this monster called Money... As I sense the foreshadowing of the 'Delete' button, I will not elaborate.
I am the son of a simple farmer in a rural part of this world. He name me 'Lucky' in the local tongue... funny name, but that is the name given to me. The reason for such a weird name is the death of my mother during my birth. I know that Earth has advance medicine and technology, but dying during child-birth is still very possible.
So... why am I called 'Lucky' when I cause my mother's death? The simple reason is: My dad find her committing adultery while carrying me. With her dead, he will not have any problems with regards to divorce, child custody and all the legal mambo jumbo. Doing a DNA test, my dad want to be sure I carry his genes before raising me... such a miserable existence...
Anyway, I grow up in a poor rural environment with only one parent. I am just happy playing with stones and leading a simple life but it all changes soon. On my 8th Birthday, my dad ask me for some numbers between 1-60... then Walla!, we suddenly become millionaires. Being named 'Lucky' may actually be very fitting.
Rising from poverty to riches, the path isn't easy... I will not elaborate much as Androg-sama isn't rich so it's not very wise to brag about wanton spending and risk unwanted wrath... Anyway, me and my dad end up migrating to a city, in the country called USA. There, I get to know about the most up-to-date type of games those rich kids play. It is called VRMMORPG, which stands for 'Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game'... Wow... What a mouthful.
Even with winning the lottery, dad still remain his miser self, not allowing me to buy everything I want. But that change on my 9th birthday. Similar to what happen a year ago, my family wealth rocket over a hundred million, thanks to the magic numbers I utter. Talk about Lucky being lucky... am I great or what...
Dad start working as a landlord: He end up buying several huge building using the money, then lease out the rooms for rental. He says that we will be getting about $250,000 every month just from all the rents he collect... Telling me that I need to learn the value of money, he gives me a monthly allowance of 20,000 dollars, saying he will only increase this amount after when I grow older... What a stingy man he is...
With my new allowance, which is a super improvement from a year ago, I join the rich-kids in their VRMMORPG. At first, I did badly because I don't know anything, but after many trials and errors, I finally understand how big the world is and how powerful money can be. There are so many people much better then me, but using money, I can buy advantages in the game.
Many thanks to inventory bags of the game, it enables me to carrying enough health potions to drown a small village, without having to drive a tanker around. With the huge amount of backup health, I can venture without restrain. Buying those potions cost me a quarter of my monthly allowance but since I am always at home and online, I can't think of other uses of my money.
To better myself further, I pay a little cash to the people calling themselves 'Dark Gamers' for information. That is when I am introduced to this person calling himself 'OP-King'... OP basically means Over-Power, someone calling himself OP-King feels so egoistic... Anyway, meeting this person online changed my perspective of avatar-building.
Since I want to bypassing all the tedious training others have to do, I meet up with this OP-King because I decide to buy an already strong avatar. This 'OP-King' guy sold me his for $32,334. Considering I am only 9 and cannot leave the house alone, I have most of my allowance save up. Without second thoughts, I agree to buy this chief-thief or something, multi-class avatar.
Even though I have to suffer a long lecture from my dad, buying that avatar is the best decision I have ever made. Why? you may ask. The reason is very obvious, when I play as a noob, I meet all kinds of trouble, scoring a critical hit is rare enough to want to host a celebration. It is all my own illusion of thinking how difficult crits are. With the bought avatar, basically every weakness of the enemy is outline in detail, I only need to poke them at the correct places and the hit becomes a critical strike... it is that easy.
For a highly-talked-about boss monster, the twin headed Orge King, it die very fast in my hands. I just have to poke the 3 glaring red dots on his shoulder and the related arm falls limp. Doing it to his other arm and I have a mobile punching bag. Poking the red patch behind both his knee and the 'Boss' becomes a just a lump of exp waiting to be harvest.
It is until I see a group of players fighting the same Orge King that I realize how OP the toon I bought is. They are a group of 5, all with levels higher then me, yet they are having much trouble against something I can easily solo. It is also at this time that I understand why that guy is called OP-King. Just one of his creation yields such power, what about the rest?
Unknown to him, that guy just gain another fan... I highly doubt I am the only one who admires his work.
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Anyway, I have strayed from the topic, so lets go back.
All in all, time pass quickly with me engrossed in games. On my 10th birthday, nothing happen. Even though dad ask for another set of numbers, none of them match the winning combination. I am not affected in the least because how many people can claim winning lotteries... and how many for winning twice?
Life goes on as normal, with a small exception: I now have a private tutor. Dad has hired a teacher for me, to make sure I will not become illiterate like him. He thinks that even if we are rich, we need to better ourselves. To improve my language skills, my tutor asks me to start reading. She has not specified what kind of materials to read, so I start my new hobby of browsing web-novels.
Within those novels, the ones that catches my attention are the 'Reincarnation' type. They talk about people living on Earth being transported into fantasy realms after the die. They then live a fantasy life full of action and adventures. From reading these stories, I start to dream about living a lives akin to those of VRMMORPGs. Those are interesting lives.
To prepare, in case I become like the protagonists in the novels, I learn more about that super-avatar I own. The correct class it has is 'Chef-Rogue'. Rogue is just a stealth-based class, nothing special except having bonus critical damage... but Chef... how did that help...
With further research, I find out that Cooks need to learn about animal anatomy so they can slice the meat without disrupting the nerves and muscle fibers, that is the reason for why my avatar can see all those red lines and spots on my enemies. It is like the Sashimi making class I once saw on television, they teach you to 'cut here' or 'slice there' so the meat doesn't 'leak juice'.
Dad is extremely happy when I ask our house-chef to teach me cooking. The brilliant me manage to make Kimpak, Makizushi and California Rolls all in one day... just don't look them up and simply show your respect to the super clever me!
After much practice, I am able to cook more sophisticated things like frying an egg with at 75% success rate. Considering how difficult it is, I am very please with my progress. With the Cooking skill mastered, I seek greater knowledge... Seeing our maid sewing loose buttons, I ask her to teach me tailoring too. After I master tailoring, I will then learn wood-crafting.
All these skills are 'just-in-case' because I may be reincarnated into a monster, like a goblin or lizardman. They do not have craftmen with them, so I learn enough to make armor and weapons. I skip on blacksmith because if there is a forge, I rather just buy top quality weapons then make mediocre ones. As someone important that I can't remember, once said, know yourself and it is half the battle won.
For the next few years, I diligently train my skills proficiencies every day, putting all my free time into action. You see... I am a busy person, so I can only pack those training into the little time slots I have as free time. My daily schedule consist of... 12 hours in VR-games, 2 hours with the tutor, 8 hours sleeping and 10 minutes family time with my Dad. I even sacrifice the 1 hour 'zombie time' I have everyday after waking up.
Seeing how much time I spent to build up my crafting proficiencies, I believe if there are skills and status box in RL, I will see all my crafting skills reaching Grand-master level... Maybe grandmaster is too much bragging... BUT at least Master level... If I get my hand on some rags, I think I can make a Legendary Unique Mithril Armor from it... never tried yet because I can't find rags in my house.
If you are wondering where have I time to read web-novels? I read them when the tutor is around, so I can ask her for any big words I don't understand. She is more useful then the dictionary, able to quickly reply to my questions. Using a dictionary means I have to stop... It becomes harder to continue reading a good story when I have to stop every few paragraphs.
My life then take a drastic change again, this time it is because of a meeting with a God.... Not the One Almighty God... rather she is just one of the many lesser ones.
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Part 2 – Meeting with a Goddess
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On my Fifteen birthday, I manage to meet a Goddess... can't really remember her name, I think it is TsunYan or YanTsun... She was the Goddess of Klutz and DereDere, which doesn't make any sense to me. Don't know what either of those titles mean.
Anyway, her entrance was beyond grand... Materializing in my bedroom clad in a soft glowing light, while walking toward me who is sitting on my bed, preparing to sleep, she tripped and fall down from... nothing! My room does not have any obstacles due to my early poverty childhood.
I don't want to brag but from young, since I don't have a mother and I don't have anything to my name, I always make sure my room is clean. After becoming son of a millionaire, I still keep to the status quo, so I am very sure I have not left anything on he floor for her to trip on. The random clothes I throw around the room, due to my newly acquired bad-habit, is always clean away by the maid while I have dinner.
Back to what has happened, this female appears in my room, falls down then pick herself up, while grumbling she morphed... I mean seriously, she was a big bosom adult with purple shoulder-length hair tied into a ponytail, dressed in something like my maid... then with a glow, she become a blond Loli with her waist long hair tied into twin tails in a Gothic Dress. Somehow, the glorious orbs on her chest disappeared with the change... wonder where she hide those...
She started by saying something while blushing:
“Its not that I need your help, I just happen to be here... Since I am already here, might as well ask you if you want to journey to a fantasy world full of Magic and Adventure.”
If she asks normally, I will just accept... I mean, I have been preparing for this moment the last few years... But she is acting creepy and have that spiteful attitude. Although my mind tells me I am annoyed, but somehow my body react differently...
NO!, Not what you are thinking... Even at 15, an age where I show interest in the opposite gender, I am not a lolicon... Maybe I will be more interested with her 'other' self, but not with this flat-chested brat... Anyway, while my brain is telling me to punch the entity in her face, sadly my body just went forward and pat her on the head... I know that she look cute, since I am looking at her, but still, I am regretting being unable to punch her for that stupid attitude!
Pushing my hand away, she pout while giving me an ultimatum.
“Are you coming or not? Or do we have to drag this for the whole all night? Its not like I cannot do without you.”
Since it was also my wish to journey into a fantasy realm, I decide to give her a “Yes!”
With my agreement, the Goddess morphed again, this time she has chest-length pink hair plaited into two braids falling down onto more developed melons... Yes yes, I am a 15 year old, hormone filled male human with great interest in the female torso... so I can't help but use them as reference.
More importantly, ignoring her body, the important part is the eyes. She has now scary looking eyes and they are looking at me, like a starving beast look at food. Those two orbs... The eyes!... cause my body to freeze over, too scared to move. With me immobile she slowly approached while materializing a huge battleaxe onto her hand... where she get that weapon is beyond me.
“You will not betray me will you?... I will eliminate anything that can harm you... so don't worry... Just depend on me...”
She is saying those in a soothing tone while walking towards me. Armed with an ax bigger then my head, her cutesy tone actually make her even more creepy and scary. With me almost wetting myself, I scuttle backwards while keeping eye-contact... not that I want to, but I feel that she will kill me if I turn my head away.
Sensing my attempt to run away, she cry out: “You infidel!” before charging towards me as her ax rise above her head. I can't even think anymore because by the time I try to react, I already have an extra metallic extrusion sticking out of my left shoulder... Stun at what looked like a crescent shaped pauldron, reddish fluid start to leak from the connection to my body.
The Goddess has then reverted back in her original appearance, the purple hair, the big bosom... ahhh... I think I am just have a bad dream when I am feeling no pain while she is apologizing:
“Sowiee, I didn't hit correctly, so you will have to wait 10 minutes before you die... I am really bad at this... I promise the next time I do it, I will strike the heart directly... I miss slightly, so please forgive me... pretty ple... *owie*... i it aye angue (I bit my tongue) ”
Huh?
You want to do it again??
what is this about missing my heart slightly when you hack my left shoulder???
Most importantly, how can a God bite her own tongue while saying simple sentences????
As the world start turning dimmer, I am pondering if all God or Goddess are as psycho as this one I meet. As I am Lucky, she ought to be some special God to become my patron...
The last thing on my mind before fading into darkness is:
“I am well prepared, unlike those protags in the novels I read. I am a Super-Crafter ready to pwn the Fantasy lands!! Muhahaha...”
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Part 3 – Meeting with more Gods
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After spending an undetermined amount of time in void space, I am reborn in the new world... This place is call Ailla. Unlike Earth, Ailla has magic and adventure. Here I am, ready to conquer this land with preparation done in the last life... NOT!.
Sadly, things don't usually work out as well as you plan. First, I am born a cripple, basically the ax is attached to me during reincarnation, so I am born with one less mobile arm and a piece of metal attached to my left shoulder. My father this time look at me with skepticism before drowning me... I am not even a day old.
I end up in a white space of nothingness before my adventures start. Being alone, I start to curse at the clumsy Goddess who is the cause of this stupid incident... It goes on for many many hours... or what seem like that because there is no reference of time here, I cannot actually know how long I spend swearing.
After venting, I am able to calm down. Putting myself in the place of the Goddess, I believe she will not appear to an angry person... When I do something wrong, I will always hide until my Dad... my previous Dad stop fuming before appearing before him. Thinking logically, the Goddess must have hidden herself somewhere waiting for me to calm down before approaching.
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Indeed I am correct, as my tantrums stop, the Goddess appears with 2 other beings... not sure if they are mortals or Deities, but better play it safe before doing the wrong thing. Also, the Goddess is in Psycho Mode with her pink braided hair and her scary stare. Looking at them with suspicious eyes, they catch the hint and introduce themselves.
The one standing in front is clad in golden armor, holding a balance on his right hand. He introduced himself as Elohim the Greater God of Balance... that is all, nothing more...
The one standing slightly behind Elohim is called Kismet, the Local God of Destiny, he is garb in what looks like an Egyptian Priest-Wear, something that cover the head and and below the waist, with nothing in between. He really has nothing to hide as his lean muscles neatly defined his shape. This Kismet guy... God... is the more talkative one, telling me that problems have arise due to my reincarnation.
Long story short, due to the stares from Androg-sama, basically my clumsy Goddess has cast the wrong spell and use the wrong method; Instead of becoming her Champion, I end up a native of this new world. To rectify this problem, the two higher ranking Gods have come, both to explain things to me and sort out my choices.
First and most important intelligence I gather: There will be a great battle between the Lesser Gods in 5 years time. Ailla doesn't have any religion yet and has been set up as a competition ground. Lesser Gods will fight over worshipers, if they manage to accumulate enough prayers from the natives, they will be allowed to stay and reign over. If they don't, they are ousted from this World.
Since Deities are not suppose to affect the mortal world directly, to minimize the risk for an all-out War between Gods. They will need Champions like me, Yes! the great me... to help them build up their religion. Detail will be given to me later by TsunYan, who is standing like a full meter away from the other two, signifying her lesser position. Also, when they say later... they mean 5 years later, there will be no communication with the Goddess until then.
With regards to my patron, I finally understand half of her title. Klutz basically means clumsy... so she is actually an Embodiment of Clumsiness... I just hope it doesn't mean I am also Clumsy... I know I get careless at times, but... never-mind, I will just admit I am clumsy... sometimes... As for DereDere, I still need some researching, maybe I will ask around to see if anyone knows... in the worst case, I will ask other Champions.
Kismet further explain to me that there are complications involved because of my premature arrival to the land. Champions are only suppose to reach Ailla years after, that means if they let me run free, I will have an advantage over the rest, that is where the old-dude of balance comes in. He will banish me if I try to do anything related to religion in my 5 years of stay. There are lots of other Mumbo Jumbos constraints that I choose to ignore, I can have TsunYan tell me of those later.
Also, I need to be reborn again. To reach full maturity in 5 years, I can no longer take the normal path of a person, instead I will be reborn as part-monster, something that is shun in this world. As Kismet has explained, only Humans, Elves, Dwarves and Orcs are considered people, other being, even if they are sentient, are treated as monsters.
Seeing that they are very accustomed to dealing with special cases, I accidentally ask them why. Without hesitation, Elohim simply says that another Lesser God has done something similar, so they are already well prepared for such events.
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Interlude:
Moron, the Lesser God of Imbeciles and Those who cannot Follow Simple Instructions. He has brought his Champion, Smiteodin, to Ailla even earlier. If he has kept quiet, the Champion can actually sneak pass detection, but NO, he has to make the world know about his ignorance and unwillingness to wait.
Also, that Champion ignore warning and even go against the Greater Gods in defiance, saying they have bad attitude and even 'give a low score' whatever that means... Anyway, I am told that Champion called Smiteodin has been stripped naked and hung head-down in the plaza of some city. Hopefully he will gain more wisdom and not sprout rubbish without thinking..
This Smiteodin guy obviously don't use his brains much, can't really blame him since he has Moron as his patron, but really... does he not even try to think of the reasons why the Greater Gods put out notices on specific behaviors and their repercussions? You know, he really represent the typical ones that think: 'Oh, I am so great, only what I think matters' type...
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Where were we... oh, the reborn stuff.
By agreeing to their conditions, I will be reborn again, I am given 5 years to get accustomed to this new world. After that, Champions of other Gods will be entering the fray and we will be duking it out to see which Deities will stay in the lands.
Its not like I need all those extra buffs, I can handle everything with my OP self; even giving some bonus to other champions is fine with me. With such thoughts, I simply agree with all the conditions those two set. With everything agreed upon, I am on my way to my adventuring life.
With an 'OK' by me, Elohim strike me on the head with the scales of his balance. I don't know how he does it, but it is painless just like how TsunYan ax me. However, unlike the slow fade-away, this time I just blankout.
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4. I am Lucky again
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After spending another undetermined amount of time in void space... again... I have am reborn in the new world...again... Same place with the name Ailla, that has magic and adventure. Here I am, twice-ready to conquer this land with preparation done in the last life... no... last last life.
Without any more unforeseen troubles, this time, I am born correctly and healthy.
I am born again in a rural part of the world... My birth killed my mother... again... My father then make sure I have his genes... again... Sadly all the events are very similar so there is not much new things to talk about... *sob* This is when I remembered Kismet saying my fate cannot be changed much as I following the pre-written book of destiny... He has really done a sloppy job because I am following my old life-events on Earth...
For anyone guessing how they check for paternity in a fantasy world, the simple answer is: They can't. The reason my current father can know I am his, is due to the fur on my skin. You see, my father is not human, he is a were-beast of the bear variant. He has dark eyes, black hair and stand at 2m tall in his human form... I forgot to mention, were-beast have racial traits of transformation, able to switch between human, beast and something in between.
Me, I am born furry, with a black coat covering my body like a snug fitting pajamas, leaving the hands, feet and head alone. Even naked, I look like someone wearing a tight black fuzzy jumpsuit. This assignment of body hair not only proof my heritage, it also allow me to stay in the village I am born in without being regarded as some wild animal. Unlike other kids who have no knowledge, I know fully well what will happen if my identity is revealed... and I need to be careful until I fully master the art of transformation; I am currently stuck in half-half stage, and quickly learning how to going either way.
Without fail, 'Lucky' in the native tongue, is my name again... but this time it is for a different reason. I am being named 'Laki', because of my potential talents, most were-beast can only take two classes, but I can have at least 3. Being aware that I may have a much brighter future, possibly bringing greatness to the race, my bear-father gives me that name to signify my luck.
Being half-monster, I am able to grow up into adulthood within 5 years. It is not just accelerated growth, more like skipping the useless parts. Shortly after being born, I can already walk. Few hours later, after they cart away what use-to-be my mother, I am already doing exercise to test my new muscular strength. Somehow, I feel that being a monster is much better then taking 10 years to grow up normally.
With regards to my deceased parent, I don't really feel anything because I don't have one in my past life either. Can't really feel bad when you don't even know what it is like to have. Its just like telling someone on Earth in year 2000 about VRMMORPG... they can imagine it, but will not be depress or miss the actual thing.
My other parent, bear-father, is either dense or maybe the were-beast race is special. He doesn't even flinch when he see me doing aerobics before I am even a day old. When I ask him to teach me skills, he finally release some emotion, more of curiosity then shock... weird race or weird father, I will leave that for later.
No luck on learning skills though... On Ailla, there are marble-like items that represent classes. By equipping them, anyone can take any class they want. As a special existence, I have 3 holders, located on the middle of my chest covered in hair, to place those class-marbles. They form an equilateral triangular shape with a gray orb right below. If counting the gray one, I have a diamond icon on my chest connecting those slots... Yeah! Body Art!
Since I don't have any of the marbles and all those that my bear-father own doesn't suit me, I spend the first day of my life chatting with him and gaining knowledge about this new world. He told me about the geography, the populous, something called Quintessences and how anyone not of the 4 primary races are discriminated upon. Its not that I need all those information, I just want to do something if I cannot train, feeling that 5 years will pass in the blink of an eye.
For Geography, basically, Ailla has 12 known Central Cities, 48 Grand Towns of significant sizes and lots of villages. The reason for those Central Cities is teleportation portals. You see, this world is much bigger then Earth and very much unexplored. There are 12 teleport gates, and from there grew the 12 cities we have now. They are named after the 12 zodiacs signs on Earth, namely Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces.
From each Central City, there were 4 smaller portals located 50m away on the North, East, South and West directions. These smaller portals are use to port to about 500 km outwards in their respective directions, which create the 4 Grand Towns around each city, making a total of 48 Grand Towns. Lastly, villages of various sizes are scatter within the zone between the Towns and the Cities, popping up around resource points like mines, lakes, forests and farmlands. Other villages spring up along the routes of commerce, dotting the land.
The portals are the only way that link the cities. Exploration teams have been sent out trying to connect the cities by other routes, but they either return to their starting location or never return at all. This situation create 12 great countries with their own culture. The 4 primary races that dominated these urban cores are Elves, Dwarves, Humans and Orcs... all living happily under one roof while discriminating against any other beings, deeming them monsters... Outside of Towns and Cities, the villages are more 'pure' as there is a higher concentration of certain races due to landscape.
The village I am currently at is located in Leo, somewhere between the Central City and the Northern town. It is a village consisting of mostly humans with some Dwarves, few Elves and no Orcs. From the village, it takes about five days of Northwest walk to reach the Northern Leo Town. That is also the amount of time I have, unable to practice anything. Reason: Those class-marbles can only be traded in Towns or Cities, sometimes in very large size villages, but not in mine.
Me and my bear-father set off on the day of my birth to hide my unique presence and also to get me some classes I want. After telling him I want to have both Chef and Rogue classes and explaining how powerful that combination will be, he agree to get me my class as soon as possible.
Enough of Geography, lets talk about the populous. There are 4 races that consider themselves people and regard other species as 'monsters'. Why are they so discriminating? I will go into details later, but to simply put it, 'people are weak, monsters are strong'... Yes, this 4 races huddle together because they are weak. They shun the others because of their weakness... One can only understand how pathetic they are after knowing this thing called Quintessences.
For skills and classes, the people of Ailla are skilled in everything as long as they have the correct class-marbles. Bear-father tells me these marbles are called Quintessences... or quints for short. They are basically classes, that can be equipped... just like weapon and armor. By gearing up with the correct quint, anyone can gain any skills. For example, if I want to be a chef, I need the chef-quint; Without it, every food item I make, even sandwiches, will taste horrible.
So, does that make everyone master in all trades? Obviously not! The reason is due to levels. The skills that come with the various classes can be leveled up. With enough levels on the skills, the quintessences itself will rank up. All quints start out as green which represent Beginner level, as they rank up, their color changes from Green, then Teal, Azure, Blue ending with Purple. Red rank is the considered the highest, but nobody have ever seen one... so it is considered a legend.
Telling him I will buy myself some Blue and Purple quints, I only get a laugh from bear-father. He take out an Azure-color quint, with an iconic bee wearing a crown, then toss it lightly towards me. This quint is his primary class, a Bee-Master, an upgrade class from the normal 'Bee-Keepers'. After catching his toss, the quint in my hands turn green, making me sulk... I guess I can't buy my way up...
Taking the quint back, it turn Azure in his hands. Bear-father then explain that Quintessences is just bringing out the latent powers within a person. Seeing my complex expression he tries to cheer me up by saying there are ways to upgrade the ranks without repeated labor. Perking up after hearing that, I clear my mind in preparation of making mental notes of the lecture that follows.
The first thing I am told is the creation of Quintessences. To generate one, instead of simply buying, I must do some actions related to a particular class repeatedly while thinking of that class. Using hunting for example, I must hunt in various ways for an extended duration while thinking of becoming a hunter. With perseverance, a new quint of the 'Hunter' class will appear on an empty place-holder of my body.
Every creature on Ailla have place-holders on their body. That means every creature will somehow start creating quints knowing or unknowingly. Rabbits that spend years munching on grass and evading predators will generate quintessences with classes like 'Voracious Eater' and 'Escapee'. As they eat more and escape from predators, they gain much experiences in their classes ranking those quints up.
When the rabbits are caught, the locals will skin the leather and take the meat because those are important food and materials. As for the quints, since they are so common, most are discarded. This is the difference between people and monsters. What the people discard, the monsters use to make themselves stronger... as the saying, a man's trash is a monsters' delicacy... or something like that...
You see, just chomp on the so-called 'useless' quintessences, the experience within the quint will flow through the body of the one chewing and imbue whatever quintessences the muncher is equipped with. This method comes with specific requirement: it is only valid if the last holder died with the quint equipped. The quintessences must also be eaten within minutes, or it will adapt itself to the new owner.
Bear-father also tells me that my personal quints can be eaten to boost other my other quintessences, but the empowering rate will dependent on how similar the classes are Large boost for similar ones while little to no improvements for opposite ones. Taking out an unused farmer-quint, he gives it to me telling me to just hold it. Being a farmer will be the last thing I want, but at least I have something now instead of 3 empty holders... as the saying goes, something is better then nothing...
Oh! before I forget... Remember me saying something about the 4 races being weak? One of the reason is that they have either abandon the practice of eating quints or lack the aptitude to do it. Quintessences are deem by the 'people' as sacred, so eating them is a no-no. Discarding it though, seems fine... Eat?No!, Throw away? Yes!... I don't know how they actually land up with such ideas...
The other reason is, those 4 races only have one quint-holder slot on their bodies. I mention that every creature have these quint-holder, and sadly those who label themselves 'people' only have 1. Just think of it, even rabbits have 2 quint-holder, that means if a rabbit trains smart and fights hard, it can plummet an Orc in a 1v1 fight... Does that sound weak enough?... Luckily those bunnies are docile herbivores that rather die with a full stomach then retaliate.
Were-beasts like my father have 2 or 3 quint-holders mostly due to being part-animal, and me, being the special and lucky, have 4. The gray orb is also a quint, a special one at that. Bear-father explains that Gray quints are attached before birth and stay inactive until some special event occurs... I just happen to know of the event... and when it will begin...
Putting words into practice, we detour slightly to catch some bunnies. While my bear-father is treating the rabbit carcass, I am happily munching on their quints, they taste like boiled quail-eggs coated in sugar, sweetness and crunchy exterior with soft and smooth insides... My farmer-quint rank up after gobbling down 20 of them and become Teal in color, telling me I am now an intermediate instead of beginner. I also manage to collect and equip 'Evader' and 'Grass Gourmet' quintessences, two uncommon classes that the bunnies have.
'Evader' sounds totally like an agility class, which I can use to transfer experience to the Rogue-Class I want. 'Grass Gourmet' is like a subclass for chef, which only work with salads... it even comes with the skill 'Detect Grains' which allow me to see weaknesses of the grass, flowers and trees.
Somehow I get the feeling the bunnies are already Chef-Rogues, just doing their work on plants instead of enemies.
Chapter 1