As he was told by Daniel, the closest city he was allowed to spawn from Harine was Cosare. From the aerial view high above, it was quite a considerable journey to where Daniel was. There was a need to cross two rivers, a forest, a deep ravine, and long stretch of flatlands. There was no question on whether Ronald was intending to look Daniel up. Daniel had always been the early bird when it came to MMORPG. Since they were young, Ronald always joined later, out of interest after Daniel talked about it, or pestering from him. In exchange, however, he was always helped to level up and gear up by Daniel. That was over twenty years ago, though.
Therefore it was rather unexpected when, for his yearly birthday dinner, Daniel talked about Royal Road. No adult person ever had the time to play games. That was the logic he clung onto for the last twenty years. Daniel agreed too. Ronald had no desire to play any games too, ironic, considering his job was the boss of a marketing research giant, something he disliked. It was probably his damned underling too, that had called him earlier.
Apparently, Royal Road had its own economy system and all, complete with society, culture and so on. As unbelievable as it was, since it sounded like an entire world was crammed into it, and it was not just piecemeal, as per typical old MMORPG fashion. His firm was slowly moving to the Virtual Reality world. Now, Daniel was simply hooked to the game. No question about it.
Now that he mentioned it, Ronald vaguely recalled some of his own underlings talking in an excited manner about Royal Road. Since they dispersed so quickly when he passed by, and it was unbecoming for a boss, unpopular as he was, to ask about his subject’s private matters, he never paid any attention to it.
“I think I can understand what he was talking about, ”said Ronald to no one in particular.
He spawned near the fountain that marked the town’s center. Several other players spawned around him too. Most wore the typical newbie gear, like him. Further away, at the edges of the square, Ronald could hear the calls for items to be sold and bought. There were calls regarding quests and party members needed. It was a completely new experience from the old style, non-virtual, hanging on the air bubble he had. His short experience with the tutorial put some ideas into his head. But the tutorial did not provide much, besides teaching Ronald how to log out, give an explanation about death and being locked out for 24 hours, the game being clocked up four times real world speed, and also warning about not being able to leave the city for a month (game time) as a beginner. Most things about the game, Daniel had told him. But being told what to expect, and experiencing it, were two completely different things.
Winter, his chosen avatar’s name, had the look of it. His eyebrows, eyelashes and hair were pure white. The bluest pair of eyes Ronald could choose took in his hands, which he clenched and unclenched. Aside from that, there were no serious changes in his appearance. He cheated a little and reduced his weight though, making himself appear to be thin. Compared to some unusual physical features such as tattoos, piercings, impossible eye, skin and hair color, his adjustments were minor. Daniel would know it was him in a glance. That was the idea.
“Oh. Yeah. Training Hall,” Winter smacked himself in the head, for nearly forgetting where to go.
Every time both of them played MMORPG in the past, Daniel always played a range character while Ronald chose a melee type. Daniel told him that each beginner town had a lot of difference. The only constant was the Training Hall. He did add that it was grueling to clear it with bonus stats and good weapon when it was done. In fact, he was sheepish when he mentioned that he did not even last three days in his effort to add basic stats. Being the occasional boaster, Ronald claimed he would clear it before his time inside the city ended.
There was much argument about it. Daniel told him it was impossible. The fastest someone had ever cleared the training hall was five weeks and four days. And that was a professional. Already caught in his own boast, Ronald was forced to stick to his statement. Daniel knew Ronald well enough, so he kept his own thoughts to himself. And Ronald saw Daniel’s thought reflected on his face, which irked him even more. So he was determined to finish up what he started.
“Okay…. A canteen and ten rye bread,”
Winter checked his inventory. For practice, he manifested the rye bread and canteen then dismissed it. He finished by filling up his canteen to full, drinking a few sips after.
‘Wow. Even the water tastes so real.’
Asking for a little direction from players and guards, he finally stood in front of the arch that marked the entrance. The wide, double doors were open. A few hundred players could be seen smacking scarecrows around with their chosen weapons. He saw a good number of players obviously higher than newbie class testing their weapons too.
“Are you here to train?”
Winter assumed it was the instructor NPC that spoke to him. It was soon confirmed.
“My name is Baran. I am the instructor in this Beginner Training Hall. How may I assist you?”
The man might have been much taller than Winter, but he was a lot younger. He had some battle scars on his arms and face. But there was no question that he was polite. He even bowed his head a little in deference to his age.
TTRINGG!
You gained a new Stat.
Charisma
Charisma +1
“Huh… Status Window.”
He had looked it up during the tutorial earlier. It appeared to be all standard. The stat Charisma did not exist earlier when he checked. It now had one point.
It was unintentional. But it seemed like Winter’s current appearance carried good charisma. No idea on what standard it was used to determine it though, mused Winter.
A mild cough sounded close to Winter. He looked up at the instructor, still standing at ease in his chainmail armor with white tabard. A look of patient expectation was on his face.
“Ah, yes. I am in need of your training, good Sir,”
Dismissing the status window quickly, Winter replied in as dignified a manner as he could. Since it was a fantasy world anyway, he might as well play the charismatic character the hilt.
Baran nodded, his eyes scanning all over Winter’s body. A little quizzical glint in his eyes. Perhaps Ronald was imagining it.
“If you will please follow me?”
In a few minutes, Winter was equipped with a wooden training sword (Attack Damage : 2-2) and directed to a scarecrow. Baran gave him a few pointers on how to handle a sword properly and swinging it, then left him alone.
At first it was enjoyable. The impact of his sword against the stationary target was gratifying. It jolted his wrists and arms. Then it turned to a rhythm. After an hour, it became a little mind numbing. Winter could not believe he could get winded or sweaty in-game. But he did on both counts. The jolt with every contact he made now included tiny spikes of pain too.
“How realistic this game is,” He had the habit of muttering to himself when he was annoyed. And he was doing so then.
Ronald bitched a lot about everything.And was even lazy. A lot of times. But one thing he could not abide was to quit in his promise. Good thing he only made a statement, not a promise or a vow (this was how he usually weaseled out of what he said). He felt the daunting task of continuously hitting the scarecrow for five weeks when he felt numbed mentally, winded physically after about an hour. But, he would continue to go on until he could not anymore. If he made it to the end, good for him.
Nodding to himself mentally, he began to experiment with his blows. A few landed funny here and there. But he counted himself no worse than a lot of players doing the very same thing around him. Some players already left the hall when they realized the lengths they had to go. (Yes, this character has superiority complex! Now, beat it.)
It was eight hours later when he finally stopped. A bonus stat had appeared (Strength +1). It was a good excuse to celebrate a little. His stamina was doing fine, still remaining over half the bar. But his satiety level had hit dangerously low. The main reason though, was that he was really bored.
The rye bread that Daniel described as bland tasting tasted a lot better after a good workout.
Alternating between nibbling on the bread and sipping his canteen, Winter observed the rest of his scarecrow beating compatriots. Some had stopped to enjoy a break like him. But a lot more kept going. Now that he had the time to take it in, he saw some females too. All of them were young and beautiful. It held no interest for Daniel since he knew that they could alter their appearance to the extreme and even change gender. Therefore, there was no telling what was the truth behind the façade.
So Winter continued beating the scarecrow again after refilling his satiety bar to full. He was two hours in, before he felt some sort of discomfort.
“Good grief…..”
Recognizing what the problem was, Winter logged out. He had to answer the call of nature to… urinate. Ronald refilled his own personal, real life satiety bar while he was at it too, with a few cold slices of meat in between breads. After leaving a message to his best friend that he had gotten in just fine at the city he mentioned, Ronald logged back in.
It was around 11pm real life time when he fell asleep, mentally exhausted. He had finally upped his stat by two more points after savagely bashing the scarecrow for twelve hours straight (Vitality +1 Agility +1). He could do no more for tonight.
The next six days in-game passed like clockwork for Winter. He logged in, beat the scarecrow as hard as he could, took a break, filled his satiety bar. Then repeated . Ronald spent fourteen hours, real world time, abusing the standing target on his second day of playing (excluding necessary body functions and requirements). He also gained a few more bonus stat points (STR+2 AGI+3 VIT+4) and had markedly improved his stamina. Starting at 25, he managed to improve it to 38. He leveled twice for Sword Mastery (Beginner Lvl. 2 +10% Attack Power +6% Attack Speed)
“No, no. That is not how you do it!” Called a voice from behind him.
Winter had been beating the scarecrow for the last twenty hours or so. Baran, the instructor that had politely helped him out in the beginning, finally approached him. This was what Winter was waiting for. Daniel had told him that if he stuck around long enough, the instructor would give him a quest. Over his six days in-game, he had seen a good number of players being talked to by Baran. Most of them left, coming back later, and some never came back.
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Winter stopped himself mid-swing. After a while, he began tolerating the effects of the mental exhaustion that occurred. His physical body apparently reflected his mental state of exhaustion. He had gathered that pretty quick. He was doing considerably better now, less sweating, less out of breath and more focused.
He lowered the wooden sword and glanced at Baran questioningly. His left hand wiped the droplets of sweat that were about to run into his eyes.
“It’s the feet. You were not balancing it properly. You need to rotate your shoulders and wrists of your leading hand together and move them to an alignment. See?”
Baran was standing with his right leg spaced forward in front of the left one, swinging an imaginary sword. He caught on that Ronald did not get it.
“A demonstration then.”
Winter gladly offered the wooden sword to Baran. He was glad to be rid of it, even for a bit. Baran adjusted his grip then swung. It hit powerfully. Much more than Winter’s. The scarecrow swung like a pendulum on its base.
“Did you see that?” he asked. Winter nodded. His mouth was slightly ajar.
“That was how you swung your sword.”
‘Seriously?’
That was what popped into Ronald’s mind.
“This is how you do it properly. I will do it slowly for your benefit.”
Winter mimicked the footwork as best as he could, while Baran swung slow swings to the scarecrow. Then he landed a very strong blow. It sounded so sharp, so different than Winter’s blows.
“There. Do you get it?”
Winter’s empty gaze was Baran’s reply. He chuckled when he saw it.
“Just keep trying. I think you will get it soon.”
With those parting words, he moved on to the other side of the hall, his usual standing space, observing other players.
“Here we go.” Winter muttered again to no one in particular. He raised his wooden sword and began his attempt to reproduce what he saw.
Winter indeed managed to produce the blow. But he only managed to do it consistently after two more days in-game. He gained a few more stat points (STR+1 AGI+1 VIT+2) and some stamina (STAMINA 48). It was not much compared to his earlier attempts too, since he had to stop and continuously correct his swings. Surprisingly the secret to it wasn’t in the strength of his swing. He only found that out after hours of frustration, finally decided to keep swinging until exhaustion. It was his muscles being relaxed but controlled. He had a hard time producing the correct sound and feel after he took a break. He suspected his body unconsciously began to get rigid. It took more swings, a lot more, before he managed to get back to the same state. When he finally quit at the third day of his Royal Road playing, he managed to produce the cutting sound almost constantly, without being exhausted, too.
It was really quaint. He idly fell to the trick of mental image that he had dismissed once, since he felt it was unscientific. It took him practice to be able to hold a strong mental image of him swinging the sword in a correct manner. And what do you know? When he swung, it produced the correct sound perfectly.
Despite being a self-proclaimed hedonist, Ronald was accustomed to waking up early. Enjoying his morning coffee, he texted Daniel on his progress. If he survived abusing the scarecrow further today, he would have surpassed Daniel’s limit of three days by about six hours. It was little victory. But Ronald had always been a follower of practicality, taking any victory, no matter how small. (Yes, they had been in competition like this since they were kids). Of course, Daniel was calling him out on what he said about finishing up the training course before the week is up. But in his usual manner, Ronald weaseled out of it, leaving Daniel grumbling in protest. He acknowledged the point of superiority if Ronald survived another day.
At this point, Ronald was not even close to enjoying beating the scarecrow. He could live forever without swinging at the scarecrow. But he was determined to win. So he would endure another day.
He felt a little residue of mental exhaustion since he had only slept for six hours. Ronald reluctantly finished up his coffee and logged back in.
“I see you are back again, Winter,” Baran called out to him when he stepped into the hall.
“Sir Baran, I am indeed here again,”replied Winter.
“It is good that you are here. I am in need of someone to run an errand. It is not urgent in nature, but it will ease my mind if it can be done quickly. Especially since I cannot leave until the day is over.”
In other words, Baran was lazy, not wanting to go on his errand after he was done working, Ronald automatically translated in his brain.
“I will be glad to be of help, Sir Baran, if I am allowed.”
Their familiarity had markedly increased after their second contact. Over the frustrating two days, he had received snippets of instruction and numerous demonstrations. The mental image trick was supplied by Baran too.
“Good man. I am in need of some supplies. All of them are listed here,”he handed Winter a scrap of paper.
Dinner Ingredients
Training Instructor Baran is in need of help to gather some ingredients for his dinner. Go to the market to procure them.
Grocery list: 2kg of Beef, Four potatoes, one chicken, a bag of carrots.
Difficulty level: F
Quest Requirement: None
Reward: Increased Familiarity with the instructor
“Here is some money too. You can keep the rest,” Two silvers were dropped on Winter’s open palm.
After asking for directions and a short goodbye, Winter headed for the market. He was excited since he sort of embarrassingly forgot to be disappointed that he did not receive any quests earlier, when they were in touch. He chalked it up to being frustrated of his failure to produce proper strokes. The quest was also doing double duty, by getting him away from the Training Hall. After almost two weeks, he was a little sick of the place. Triple duty, was of using the leftover money to buy some food. He only had two more rye bread.
It was a quick trip. Barely two hours had passed and he had cleared the quest. A chicken, some beefs, a bag of carrots, and some potatoes. He of course, bargained for the produce. It left him with money to buy seven more rye bread that would last him until he was allowed to leave, and ten more coppers for his own keeping. His immediate future was secured.
You Leveled Up!
‘Yes!’
Winter high fived himself inside. His usual style would be to add all his points to AGI or STR or VIT. Since he was not fighting anything yet, he thought he might as well leave it alone. He could then allocate it according to the mobs he encountered.
Baran thanked him, promising to repay the favor. Winter jokingly said he would hold him to it.
Three days in-game, standing in the same space, beating the same target over and over again, took its toll on Winter’s sanity. He was amazed that he had lasted this long, since he had never been the patient one. Then again, most of the time, he had nobody to compete with. His stubbornness and obsession over victory was one of his primary traits. Daniel was destined to lose the moment he challenged Roland. Of course Roland always picked his challenges carefully, hedging his bets. It was very business-minded of him.
He had already crossed the threshold for winning by a good one hour in real life time. But he had already determined that he would stick to his original six hours margin. So, with temper very much fraying, he swung at the scarecrow again and again. Now, every blow that landed had the correct strength, posture and speed, without Winter giving it much thought. It had become an automated response for him.
Finally getting the knack of it, his stats increased quite a lot, with 5 points added to STR, 4 points to AGI and 7 points to VIT, combined with further increase in stamina (which was not dependent on how well he swung but how much he worked out) and Sword Mastery to beginner level to 4.
A pair of hands gripped his wrists at the apex of his swing. It was Baran. He had an understanding smile on his face. A contrast to sullen-looking Winter.
“I can see that you are frustrated. It is good to practice a lot. But you should learn to enjoy yourself too. Go. Walk around the town and come back later. You will feel much better, I think.”
Detaching the training sword from his hands, Baran shooed Winter out to the door. He was secretly very grateful to the NPC. Also, he mourned his stupidity and stubbornness as usual. It was not the first time this sort of thing happened to him.
If Baran did not stop him, he might have inadvertently, in disgust, thrown the sword to the ground. Judging by how realistic the VR world was, it might have damaged his relationship with Baran.
With every step further from the Training Hall and the accursed scarecrows, Winter felt better. A slow smile crept onto his face while he enjoyed the late afternoon air.
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Author's Note:
1. Credit to -The Slacker- for the diligent PR
2. Credit to several people that helped with bouncing ideas, being good listener, and random talk that leads to some creative process. No idea if they wanted to be credited for now. But I will leave it open.