[Tutorial Metal Helm - Dull Trash: (DEF +4) (PHY +1) (Durability 15/15)]
[Tutorial Metal Plate - Dull Trash: (DEF +4) (PHY +1) (Durability 15/15)]
[Tutorial Metal Vambrace - Dull Trash: (DEF +4) (PHY +1) (Durability 15/15)]
The rest of the gear was lighter variants of the same equipment, or duplicates. In all, Raine received fifteen pieces from the swindlers. Physique directly increased Defense and HP. If he had these three pieces before his fight with the golem, he might have been able to take a single hit, significantly reducing the stress of the encounter. The added weight, and comfort of knowing he was once more protected in metal armor sent a satisfied zing through his limbs. He’d always preferred heavy armor in the past, and he doubted this time would be any different.
He was quite happy with these pieces of gear in particular, as the additional Physique further boosted Discipline to nineteen. Meanwhile, the leather variants boosted Finesse, which would only increase his attack and movement speeds. The end result would be slightly less damage, while providing less protection.
After Raine equipped the items and stored the leftovers, he resumed his trek to Mirror Lake Town. On his way, he saw several groups doing a decent job battling wolves. A few parties wore matching colors, clearly denoting them as belonging to the same guild. Why anyone would waste their few starting coppers to buy matching headbands and the like was beyond him. Unsurprisingly, not a single player he saw had risen beyond level 0.
To level up even once, a player would have to kill a hundred Mangy Wolves by themselves. If they died even once, their SP would be reset to zero. Considering how easy it was to aggro additional enemies, and how fast-paced the battles were, normal gamers, even combat junkies, would have a hard time adapting. If they fought in a group, then the SP would be split, drastically reducing their leveling speed.
By the look of things, there would be several groups of level one players by the end of the day, at least in Mirror Lake Town. Every single player in this town came from the same place in real life—Carter City. A city that was not at all known for having a strong martial arts showing. That would change soon, but for now, the number of martial artists who chose to play ZionLine from Carter City was few and far between. Other cities with more prominent dojos would likely have level two or three players before long.
Then there were the elites to consider. Regional or national level champions in reality would have an unbelievable advantage in the game. Some would soon discover that the combat in the game drastically increased fighting capabilities in real-life. That’s when ZionLine would see its first massive boom in popularity, quickly skyrocketing to the most played game of all time. The profits of so many people in one place would then attract the attention of the corporation piranhas.
Currently, only the lucky few who jumped at each new game, or those wanting to experience the new tech were playing. Of course, there were small companies already involved. Selling VR items in real life had been a valid profession for decades. Raine knew word of the brutal fight was already spreading. Martials of all kinds, challenge seekers, and the bored ultra-wealthy had certainly taken notice. Raine’s fists clenched as his time to pull ahead felt shorter and shorter with each step.
He soon reached the town and continued directly toward a trash vendor that had a particular item he was going to need soon. As he was crossing the main square, a grumbled shout caught his attention, "Hey! Aren’t you the guy who's been conning people into following you out of town and stealing their gear?!" Raine turned to see his best friend—the boisterous conman—and his two cronies.
They were lounging near the center of town where new players spawned, likely waiting for more suckers while licking their wounds. Raine wasn’t the only one who heard them. Dozens of heads turned and a sea of angry faces began cursing his existence.
"Does anyone have Identify? Get this guy's name and make a post on the forums about him!”
“Yeah! We can't afford to have such a villain running around our town causing trouble. People need to be warned!"
Realizing what was going on, Raine ignored them and continued to the vendor. The boisterous man didn’t relent, following after with a trail of level zero ducklings waddling behind, "Nothing to say? How disgusting can you be? When we're all level 5, Righteous will take revenge on you for the sake of the people you've screwed over! Don't think for a minute you're going to get away with what you’ve done!"
Arriving at the vendor, Raine took out a looted piece of tutorial leather gear, making an obvious show of handing it to the vendor. The surrounding crowd went into an uproar at the sight of him selling someone else's item. They shouted and fumed, demanding he return everything he had taken. Luckily for them, they were unable to touch him due to the PVP protections. Had they actually attacked, the town guards would have wiped out the lot of them in seconds.
"Five copper, not bad," Raine's first spoken words sent a wave of appalled silence through the crowd. Within seconds, crimson was spurting through the air as blood vessels burst in a dozen foreheads.
"That gear isn't yours!”
“Give it back to the people you stole it from!" The boisterous man was yelling loudest of all, his mouth frothing with unfathomable rage.
Raine stopped what he was doing, his eyes lighting up and his mouth shot open in shocked realization, "That's actually a great idea!” He pitched his voice so all would hear, “Selling tutorial equipment for twenty-five copper each!" Raine’s shouted offer washed over the crowd, once more stunning them into silence, "First come first serve, I only have so many left and anything not bought is going to this vendor. Looks like he's reselling it for one silver and twenty-five copper. Damn, maybe I'm being too generous. Guess I'll have to increase the—"
"I'll take that deal!" A man next to him shouted, realizing this was a perfect chance for him to get ahead.
"Me too!"
Suddenly, the crowd flipped to desperate beggars. Within a minute, all the excess gear was gone and the crowd dispersed. As expected, the members of Righteous had slunk away when their ploy to turn the town against him failed. Only a few remained, and they clung to their anger like a toddler’s blanket.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
One of those people, a young woman with red eyes and hair, stared at Raine with an unreadable expression, "You're not the one who robbed them, and you could have returned the equipment, yet you chose to extort them instead. What an interesting game." Without waiting for a reply, she turned and walked away.
image [https://i.imgur.com/l6sMQyK.jpg]
Raine's heart skipped a beat when he recognized the speaker's voice. She looked so different from the woman in the past that it was nearly impossible to tell she was the same person. However, that grating voice heard on interviews was unmistakable; it held a domineering quality, as though the people around here were mere mortals and unworthy of breathing the same air.
That was definitely Crimson Nebula. I remember she started late, like me. We couldn't have been more different. While I was useless and needed help, she killed everyone and everything in her way, friend and foe alike. Despite making so many enemies, she was one of the first in the Tri-glades to unlock a fourth tier class, becoming an early powerhouse.
Should I try recruiting her? No, with her personality, she's more likely to cause problems than help.
Can’t forget to keep an eye out for Fizgore. Not worth hunting for him though. I know the perfect time to meet and recruit him.
Raine ran his eyes over the twelve people still crowding him. He shook his head sadly, "Next time, don't fall for such an obvious scam. This gear is all trash, it's not worth fighting over. Mark my words, when you get something actually worth a damn, people are going to try to take it from you. Best to learn this lesson now while it’s over something cheap. Imagine the poor sap who gets a drop worth ten gold and gets scammed out of that! You should be happy to learn this today, and not tomorrow when the stakes are higher."
After saying his piece, Raine turned back to the trash vendor and opened a trade with him. He had lots of useless wares for sale, including the one piece of tutorial gear Raine already sold him. Down near the bottom of the list was the item he was after: Trokt Steak. After buying one hundred steaks, he was penniless once more and done with the starting town. Nobody tried to stop him as he left, and soon he was on the road that ran northwest around Mirror Lake.
image [https://i.imgur.com/7AF18SZ.png]
Two hours passed in the blink of an eye as Raine traveled the road gently looping the gargantuan lake. He made decent time, utilizing the long-travel aspects of the dirt road to triple his movement speed by burning two points of Discipline every minute.
Out of nowhere, a buzzing notification caught his attention. Seeing who was calling, he answered right after adjusting his profile settings to private. The avatar of a young man with dark hair and bright, innocent eyes populated the corner of his vision.
Before Raine had a chance to say hello to his brother, the man was already launching into an excitable ramble, "Big bro! Are you having fun yet? I can't believe this game, it's so much better than I ever imagined!"
Raine smiled broadly, finding it impossible to resist being swept away by his brother’s exuberance, "Yeah, I'm having more fun than I thought I would. How did the tutorial go? Did you manage to meet up with your friends yet?"
Richtor scratched the back of his head with a laugh, "It was fine, I only died twice! No, I haven't met up with them yet. We checked the map and it turns out the towns are separated by huge zones with no way to cross except walking. It could take us weeks to all group up."
"If you stick to the roads and walk with the intent to use your Discipline to travel faster, you'll enter a traveling mode that triples your speed. Still, I wouldn't suggest it until you're level five since low-level monsters will ambush you along the way."
"Seriously?" A few seconds of silence passed and Raine could practically hear his brother typing furiously in the background. "That info's not anywhere on the forums. Just how much did you overhear from those devs? Are you still holding out on me? What else do you know?"
A bubbling lightness rose from Raine’s chest, exploding out in the form of full-belly laughter. His little brother's excited and expectant face was too much. He couldn’t remember the last time Richtor was this happy and seeing it was a boon to Raine’s frayed nerves.
"Plenty more where that came from, Ricky. You can use your Discipline to jump and sprint, too. Hey, are you paying attention?"
Richtor was looking to the side, his face skewed in concentration, "Yeah! I'm just writing all this down, keep going!"
"All right, you should tell your people to form groups of two for the first two levels. Get used to dodging first, and then counter attacking. This isn’t the kind of game where you can trade blows back and forth with the monsters. Dodge or deflect, and then strike vulnerable spots. Most level one and two monsters only have three attack patterns. Despite moving like real animals, their actual attacks are simple once you know what to look for."
"Why groups of two?"
"A full group of five won't necessarily help you kill faster, but it will drastically reduce your SP gain. Also, with five people beating up a single weak monster, how the hell are you going to learn to fight?"
"Gotcha! That makes so much sense! What else?"
"Don't buy anything, hoard every copper you make, you're going to need a lot of it to progress past level ten. Max out the attunements on as many weapons and classes as you can since you’ll get permanent attribute increases for each one."
Richtor’s eyes shone with fanatical zeal as he hastily typed down every word. By the end, he was vibrating with the anticipation of ending the call so he could tell his friends the news.
"One last thing, most starting towns have a quest giver somewhere nearby for an aspect. If you took my advice to skip that portion of the tutorial, you should seek out those quests ASAP."
"A few of us did, yes. But how do we find those NPCs?"
Raine didn’t bother correcting his use of the term. They would learn eventually, "Once you start seeing level tree monsters, you'll know you're close. All right, that’s all I’ve got for you until next time."
"Okay! Thanks again! I'll get you back for all this, promise!"
Before Raine could tell him that wasn't necessary, he was gone.
This is how it should be. ZL could have been the most amazing experience; bringing people and families together to explore, fight amazing raids, and celebrate a grand era of longevity. But they turned it into a living nightmare where a life of slavery was extended into three.
Not this time.
In the distance, Raine saw his next objective; a thriving village of clustered-together huts held aloft by thick supports driven deep into the outskirts of the sodden lakebed. Surrounding the village, beasts patrolled en masse. They ranged in groups of four and five, walking so close together there would be no chance of pulling one at a time.
Half lizard half man, they stood upright and were covered in thick scales and bones that protruded into short spikes. Intelligence shone from within deep-set sockets. Long, clawed fingers brandished an assortment of metal weapons more advanced than their rickety village appeared capable of producing.
Between their cooperative formations, iron weapons, and sporadic pieces of armor strapped across bulging muscles, the beasts left an impression of a true fighting force. Compared to everything he had fought so far, these creatures were easily the most threatening.
With a predatory glimmer in his eyes, Raine examined the closest one, a relatively weak member of its race.
[Adolescent Croglock: Level 8 - HP ???/???]
image [https://i.imgur.com/p7BNQN3.jpg]