—The scan on your iris and vein has determined that you are an unregistered user. Do you want to create a new account? —
“Yes.”
— Select the name of your avatar—
“Nayir.”
— Select your gender from male, female or neutral—
“Male.”
— Royal Road has forty-nine races. You may select your race from the primary twenty-nine—
“Half-elf.”
— You may alter your appearance—
“Give my face more defined angles; make me five centimetres taller; give me a light tan; make my hair longer, so that it reaches my shoulders, and put it in a ponytail beginning at the crown of my head; make my hair a light red and my eyes a deep, chestnut brown.”
— Your account has been activated. Your stats and class shall be determined while you are playing Royal Road—
— Select the city and kingdom you wish to start in—
“The city of Dessera; the kingdom of Urias.”
— Welcome to Royal Road—
***
After breezing through the character creation process, a brief tutorial followed. Contained within it were various rules, aspects and systems of a beginner’s gameplay that had to be taken note of, such as how to move the virtual body, call up system windows and how to use skills.
Following the completion of the tutorial, a new player was born on the continent of Versailles, in the online virtual reality game Royal Road. An extremely, annoyed player.
“That tutorial took far too long! Getting in the way of my new adventure!”
Nayir took a moment to gain his bearings in this new world.
Through the clearing in which he was standing, merchants were hawking their goods to passing players or offering a variety of services, from tailoring to enchantments, haggling with their customers and arguing over prices.
Among the merchants, there were throngs of people that travelled somewhere with a purpose, or were calling out requirements that a group were searching for, to include in their quests.
Bordering the Square were rows of brick buildings and in the middle, a majestic fountain stood. The centrepiece of the fountain was a male warrior, in full weapon and armour, with his sword raised; a historic figure from the city’s beginnings.
Moments passed as he took in the scene until he quickly reeled in his focus on to what it was that he was going to do first.
Scanning over the people to his left and right, Nayir searched for a person who would be able to point him into the right direction, to the place where he could take his first step onto his chosen path.
Nayir soon decided that if he wanted to gain the information that he seeked quickly then it was best not to be picky and choose the first person he lays his eyes on.
Selecting the nearest merchant, he approached her.
“You. Where is the mage’s guild? I want to be a mage.”
The merchant continued in her interaction with the customer at her stall as if he had not spoken a word.
“So, that’s…
“Hey!”
“…five fox meat…”
“You there!”
“…and ten rabbit furs…”
“Merchant girl!”
“…your total is…”
“Answer my question!”
“… four silvers and twenty coppers….”
“Where is the mage’s guild?”
“…thank you very much…”
“I want to be a mage!”
The merchant slowly turned to face Nayir, her sales smile vanishing off of her face.
“You selfish, little… don’t try to interrupt my work! I could’ve lost a customer, you fool! I’ve heard that elves can be haughty but there must be a limit to how arrogant a person can be! If you want the mage’s guild, it’s a ten minute walk after taking the east exit from the Square; it has a sign above its door so it’s impossible to miss. Now, clear off! You’re obstructing my business!”
Nayir walked away from the merchant’s stall but, after several steps, he realised something.
He did not know which direction east was.
Doing what people would normally do in such a situation, he decided to ask for directions.
Returning towards the merchant’s stall, he placed himself between one of the people browsing and the stall to make sure he got her attention quicker.
“Which way is east?”
The merchant glared hard at Nayir.
She gradually moved around her stall to the same side to which he has standing so that she stood directly in front of him, toe-to-toe.
The female merchant lashed out with her fist, landing it square on his nose. The impact caused him to stagger backwards and fall, ungracefully, onto the floor.
The surrounding people stopped still in their movements to watch what would happen next.
“East is that way.”
Nayir looked up at the merchant from where he was lying to see that she still had her arm outstretched. She was pointing in the direction over Nayir’s head.
He quickly scampered backwards away from the merchant, in case another attack came his way. Once, hopefully, out of range of additional surprise attacks, Nayir got to his feet and inspected the damage that had been committed against his nose.
He was bleeding.
Nayir had not seen his own blood for many years; the sight of it brought him into shock.
“I’m… bleeding… pain… it hurts…”
The spectators’ hearts swayed to his side, whispering to each other.
“Can you believe she did that?”
“He didn’t do anything!”
“I feel sorry for her future husband!”
“He looks like he's just started.”
“Poor lad.”
The merchant stared at the surrounding people in surprise.
“But… but… he… he deserved it!”
The whispering intensified and the merchant flushed red in embarrassment.
Nayir managed to calm himself down and wiped the blood onto his clothes.
He checked his health, by following what he had learnt in the tutorial. It was the top bar hovering in the corner of his vision.
Roughly a quarter of it had been taken off by that hit.
He shook his head from side to side, sighing.
He turned away from the merchant, clicking his tongue and muttering “violent wench”, before heading off in the direction given to him.
“Why! You…! I heard that!"
Nayir’s head whipped around to see the rapidly approaching merchant and promptly determined that it was in his, and his nose’s, best interest to run away. Quickly.
“Don’t run from me!”
The people who had been watching, moved to impede the merchant’s path.
“Let him go.”
“He’s only new.”
The merchant struggled against the wall of players.
“Come back here, you ingrate! Scum!”
The profanities poured out of the merchant’s mouth like a torrent as Nayir dashed across the Square.
He was soon out of earshot of the atrocities that had resounded after his speedy escape but he did not want to take any chances and continued to run.
After several moments from Nayir’s disappearance from sight, the crowd dispersed leaving the merchant alone, in the centre of the Square, in a seething rage.
“Calling me violent! Me! Who do you think you are! I’m a lady! There isn’t a violent bone in my body!”
The merchant shouted to the east before returning to her senses and going back to her stall.
***
For a few hours after that event, there was a certain stall in the Square where people were uneasy to approach.
“Don’t go near that stall. The merchant will try to kill you if you don’t buy her goods.”
“Doesn’t she know what will happen if she does?”
“I don’t know but I wouldn’t risk it.”
“She’ll cut each of your fingers off before slicing your throat!”
“She’ll force red-hot pokers up your nostrils!”
“She’ll hang you from a roof, by your wrists, and beat you with a spiked club!”
After hours of listening to the comments escalate in elaboration, the merchant was now in a blazing fury.
“I swear to Freya that the next time I see him I will gut him and feed him his own entrails!”
The people in the Square drew back even further from the stall and its enraged vendor.
***
Your stamina has been depleted. You can run no further.
All stats decrease by 70% until your stamina is recovered.
Struggling to catch to catch his breath, Nayir’s back slid down the wall of a nearby building. Barely a few minutes had passed yet he was already physically exhausted.
Running. When was the last time he had done such a thing?
He could not remember.
People ran around him. People ran for him. He had never run himself.
“It’s a good thing that I don’t need stamina as a mage.”
Nayir glanced at his stamina.
“But to run out this quickly… it’s stupid.”
After resting for several more minutes and taking a drink from a canteen that he had found in his inventory, along with ten pieces of barley bread, Nayir felt comfortable enough that his body would be able to support itself as he made his way to the mage’s guild.
Gingerly, Nayir pushed himself to his feet.
Looking in both directions, he determined which way he was going to walk.
“I don’t think I’ve passed it yet, so it should be further down this street.”
Nayir began to move on the path that he had chosen, walking at a leisurely pace, examining the surrounding buildings and whether they had anything to offer.
He passed a couple of craft buildings where he saw people doing what seemed to be arduous physical labour.
He laughed at their efforts.
“I guess someone has to do it, I suppose.”
Not long after, whilst Nayir was browsing the buildings he passed, he spotted something that stopped him mid-step.
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It was a large building that radiated the sense of power. It even had a sign above its open door.
Welcome to the Mage’s Guild of Dessera
“What luck! I’ve found it.”
Nayir pivoted, still mid-step, and wandered through the door. He was greeted by a large hall with clusters of robed men and women.
Above him, he noticed, were several balls of light orbiting around a larger sphere.
“Wonder how they do that…”
Towards the rear of the hall, Nayir noticed there was a large counter. Behind it sat a young woman who was also wearing a robe.
As he strolled towards the young woman, she turned and smiled welcomingly at the new visitor.
“Hello. How may I—“
“I want to be a mage.”
The young woman’s smile faltered slightly before smoothly reinstating itself on her face.
“Certainly, Sir Elf. Naturally an elf, such as you, would be very intricately linked with the force of magic, or… at least… that’s what I learned during my history study…”
She looked to him for a response.
“Make me a mage.”
“Yes, of course, Sir Elf. As I’m sure you are aware, though you are new to the continent you are still an elf, being a mage grants you the ability to tame the elements, as well as the pure essence of magic, and utilise them as tools for your own purpose. Due to your elven blood, the access to magic will grant you more benefits than it would a human—“
“Mage.”
Her lips tightened together and there appeared to be a little tension in her forehead and around her eyes.
“Do you wish to change your class to that of a Mage?”
You have been offered the chance to convert to the class of a Mage. If you choose to convert, you will be able to learn skills that are specific to the class.
Do you want to convert to Mage?
“Yes.”
Finally!
Class changed to Mage.
Gained 10 stat points.
Increased Magic Resistance:
* Fire Resistance increases by 5%
Water Resistance increases by 5%
Earth Resistance increases by 5%
New Skill: Magic Arrow.
Tier 0 Spell
A basic projectile of pure mana is launched towards the target in a straight line.
Damage: 2
Casting Time: Instant
Mana Consumption: 5.
Effects are added and enhanced as levels increase.
New Skill: Meditation.
Recover mana at a doubled rate.
Skill does not level.
New Skill: Memorise.
Allows you to remember and recall spells.
Amount of spells increase with level.
Current: 1/10
“…”
Nayir waited…
“…”
…and waited…
“…”
…and waited…
“…That’s…it…?”
“Sir Elf?”
“Where…are my spells of destruction? My tools of annihilation?! My instruments of death?! My keys to omnipotence?!”
Nayir was roaring at the young woman, who had paled visibly yet, somehow, still managed to retain her smile.
“C-c-c-certainly, Sir Elf. A class ch-change only provides the basic spells and skills that are available to all mages. L-l-learning additional spells requires spells books or intensive study and practice.”
A blank expression had passed over Nayir’s face.
“…ridiculous…”
Nayir spun on his heels and stormed out of the mage’s guild.
“Sir Elf?! Sir Elf! Sir Elf! Sir Elf! You’ve forgotten your new…”
The young woman called after him but, before she had finished her sentence, Nayir could no longer hear her.
Relationship with the receptionist of the Mage’s Guild of Dessera has decreased.
He left the building and started to walk down the street in the same direction he was travelling before he entered, away from the Square.
Nayir was completely wrapped up in his own thoughts as he stalked down the street.
“How could they do this to me! They lied! The commercial clearly showed a mage fighting against an army of tens of thousands of monsters with this huge array of devastating spells! So, why?! Why?! Why have they given me this one measly, lousy attack spell?!”
As if to punctuate his point, Nayir raised his left arm and pointed at the first thing his attention was drawn to. A cat.
“Magic Arrow!”
The cat, who had been blissfully dozing in the mid-afternoon sun, reflecting on the fun it had hunting rats the previous night, was propelled backwards a couple of inches along the ground.
The cat righted itself, rounded on Nayir and hissed.
“See that! It doesn’t even do damage to a cat! This is stu--“
A sharp burst of pain on his calf caused him to yelp mid-sentence.
Nayir quickly looked down at his leg, only to see slashes in his trousers that were gradually being stained a blood red.
He glanced up at the cat, warily.
The cat was closer now and seemed poised to leap in for another attack.
Checking his health, Nayir hoped that it had regenerated from earlier so he was not too close to dying and still had a chance to get away.
50/60
It seemed like it had been at full, or close to it at least.
He looked at the cat again with a dawning realisation. He could only survive, at the most, five more attacks.
“I hate being this pathetically weak!”
Nayir shouted as he dashed off once again, for the second time on the same day.
As he passed the cat, however, it pounced towards him with claws extended.
40/60
Nayir ran. Harder than he had done previously. Faster than he thought he could possibly move.
He knew cats could run faster and were lither than humans but he did not want to tempt fate betting that a half-elf could outrun it.
A brown streak shot past him on his left, veered sharply and catapulted into him.
28/60
The cat had managed to embed its teeth into Nayir’s thigh, resulting in a scream of pain from the attached owner.
Not satisfied with just the teeth, the cat opted to include its claws also causing another scream.
18/60
Another cry erupted from his mouth.
“Whose idea was it to let you feel pain?! It hurts!”
Nayir persisted in his attempt to escape whilst attempting to rid himself of his new attachment.
The cat had other plans and decided to bite his thigh once again, causing Nayir’s health to drop to 6/60.
Nayir’s ultimate panic mode switch was flipped.
He swiftly grabbed the cat around the middle of its body, hoping to somehow prevent his impending death, and pulled the cat off of his thigh with his adrenaline-powered strength.
In his terror-induced frame of mind, however, Nayir had not noticed that the cat’s teeth and claws were still penetrating his flesh.
The force of his pull resulted in long tears developing along his thigh, followed shortly by a system message.
Died from loss of health.
Cannot log in for 24 hours.
Skill proficiencies will decrease as a result of player’s death.
Level will not decrease as player is level one.
-END CHAPTER-
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Thank you for reading the first, of hopefully many, chapters of my first FanFic. I sincerely hope that you enjoyed it.
I started writing this story with no idea of what the main character was going to be like and this is how he turned out.
As LMS gives very little detail on the mage profession, and magic in general, a lot of this is going to be my own creation, hopefully I'll be forgiven.
I proofread this myself so mistakes can easily slip through and I will thank you for pointing them out to me.
I have too much fun making tables. It will be tables galore from here on out!
I also thank you in advance for taking the time to comment after reading. I love reading comments and any criticism so that I can see people's reactions to my imagination as well as to further improve upon my story writing.
Finally, I only have a few hours in the week where I am likely to have free time to write, come September, so I may not have regular updates in the future. At the moment I've got a few chapters nearing completion but I'm aiming to post weekly to give myself more time to write as well as live my life.
~Emeki