Scholar of the Road : Prologue/Chapter 1
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He was a quiet man with few if an friends, preferring the world within his books that were so much more exciting and interesting, of which he had quite a large collection. This tendency was not help by staying within such an old looking and quaint home town as he resided, where nothing ever happened. But, as a recent graduate with an Associate's Degree who wanted to take some time off, he didn't mind too much. As he had grown up within this small town, the bustle of a big city such as where he attended college was a bit much for him.
His parents are somewhat wealthy and very loving to their only child, but unable to be around as much as they wished because of their shared profession. For, you see, they were a somewhat renowned pair of archaeologist's within the academic community, jokingly called the Jones Couple, for always visiting such interesting ruins and working together even before marrying each other.
As the man was finishing his degree, the two were preparing to embark upon an extra extended trip, from the ruins of the Amazon, to ancient tombs within China. And having finished the basics of his college education and still unsure of what he wished to do, which field of higher education within which he could pursue, he was contacted by his parents with an offer.
"We know how hard it is to decide on a path for you to take your life." His mother tells him. "Your father and I have talked, and with you taking a break from schooling, we think it would be best for you to come back home and watch the house while we're away. You'll have plenty of time to decide until we return."
Spending the next day thinking it over, the man decides to accept his parents offer. Calling up his father to let him know. "Now son, we don't get to spend much time together, or even talk anymore, and we both know the trouble you find in making close friends." His father tells him. "To kill two birds with one stone, we've put and order in for a special surprise when you arrive." Curious and a bit apprehensive, the man gets to work on packing his belongings.
His roommate had dropped out halfway through the last semester, but as he had been a new roommate since his last had left for off campus housing, the man did not know him very well. And with the semester already started and plenty of extra space within the little used dormitories, he was allowed the room to himself.
As a result of this, the man was able to keep quite a bit of his collection with him. Beginning with his clothes at the bottom, he then piles the more expensive parts of his collection atop within his bags. The man brings out some saved cardboard boxes to pack the rest of the less expensive collection, random and strange artifacts his parents had sent him, books that go into the histories of the artifacts.
Making up the largest portion of his collection are his books on ancient legends and old stories. Covering the various heroes, the cunning tricksters and rogues, the wisest of men, rulers beyond compare, and unstoppable warriors. Stashed here and there within the books are more modern fantasy and various history texts.
Finished with the packing, just a few days later all that is left is a dark and empty room.
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The town in which he had grown up is quite far away from everything else. It was one of a few scattered throughout the countryside that had been deliberately set up to provide a more traditional and small town feel, away from the increasingly crowded and polluted metropolis and large cities that were brought about by accelerating technological progress.
The only ways to the town are a long and lonesome road through mountains, that branched off from a little used section of freeway, or the high speed railroad that passes by the outskirts of the almost village, rarely making stops. Usually the only vehicles that use the road are the large trucks that carry supplies of all kinds to the few shops that operate, while most food is grown locally by various farms nearby. As such, most people used the train, such as the young man that arrives on a very sunny and hot day.
Unfortunately for the man, he had been delayed quite a bit by complications within the dormitories, and was a day late in returning home. His parents, unable to throw out their plans, had already left. And all there was to greet him, was an empty station and clear road into town. Giving a sigh and rubbing his forehead in a combination of the heat and exasperation, he picks up one duffel bag and stacks his various boxes atop his suitcase, feeling relieved he had bought one that both had wheels and that they were large enough to be practical in transporting the excess luggage.
Setting off down the empty road, his mind blurring from the sweaty heat, it didn't take all that long to travel from the station to his family home. And soon enough he was setting down his luggage in an empty entryway, venturing forth into his deserted home to turn on the air conditioning.
"What?"
That's all he can say at the sight that greets him in the living room.
Off to the side against the wall and out of the way is a long silver and metallic object.
"Is this a tanning booth?"
Wondering over the oddity of his parents, who spent nearly all day, every day, outside, ordering a tanning booth, especially one that looked so strange. He notices a note atop a thick book on the table. Picking it up and reading, his eyes widen in surprise.
Hey hone, I'm sorry we weren't able to wait and pick you up, hope you made it just fine. The capsule in the room is the surprise we wanted to get you. It's the machine that is required to play the new Virtual Reality game called Royal Road. With this you'll be able to experience so many new things and interact with such different people, you're just bound to make friends! You'll even be able to easily keep in contact with us while playing the game! Your father and I will be gone for quite some time so this will give you something to do besides gloom over the possibilities. And don't even think about not playing, your father and I have already payed for a full year's subscription, and if we take longer to return we've set it to renew automatically. Now, the game hasn't launched just yet, but you'll be able to start playing the day after next, so you can have your time to research to your hearts content like usual. Now, remember to eat healthily and have fun! With love, Mom and Dad."
This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
Slightly confused and definitely surprised and being given such an anticipated game, the man finds himself with nothing to do but sit and go through the book that he now recognizes as a manual.
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Time passes and the light in the room slowly decreases from the evening sun. A quiet grumble echoes about the room. Surprised, the young man looks down from the book nearly on its last page to stare at his stomach, which rumbles again obligingly. Putting the manual down and standing in a stretch, the man makes his way into the kitchen to fix something for supper.
Washing dishes and satisfied, he stops to think after drying his hands.
'With nothing else to do, I probably will be playing this game.'
Giving a sigh and rubbing his hairless chin in exasperation.
'I wish they wouldn't waste money on me like that, but they always do.'
In truth, his parents had always felt guilty at having to leave for their career so often, even when they did their best to severely limit their trips until after he was able to care for himself. In point of fact, this false guilt was the source of many of the more rare books within his collection. Resulting in a cycle of guilt where he himself felt worse for theirs and whenever possible he did his best to refuse the gifts without harming their feelings.
Leaving the kitchen, he entered the entryway to retrieve the long forgotten luggage and bringing it all into his room, which looked nearly the same as he had left it before heading off to school in the past. A neat bed to the left, large window across the room with a desk in front of it, and bookshelves covering the whole of the wall to the right.
With a yawn, he realizes how tired he is from traveling most of the day and reading for the last few hours straight, he decides to put aside his belongings for the next day. Leaving his possessions in the center of the room and getting changed, he lays down and soon sleeps.
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The next morning finds the man hard at work organizing his collection of books by subject and author.
Setting the last of his collection into place, he stands and dusts his hands.
"Alright, everything is put away as I like."
Cracking his neck, the man walks over to his desk under the large window and sits down in the waiting chair.
"Might as well look up what I can expect in the game, my mother knows me too well after all."
Taking out a notepad and pen as his computer loads up, he prepares himself for researching the game as much as possible, with it having only just come out for sale and not even launching he didn't expect to find everything so easily and prepared to spend the rest of the day on it.
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Hours and a meal later, the notebook is halfway full and the beginnings of a plan on a piece of paper are both on the desk in front of him.
"Alright, let's go over the basics again."
-First, time is stretched to a 4:1 frame within the game.
-There are many different races available, but only about half are able to chosen at launch. The basic three are Humans, Elves, and Dwarves.
-Doing certain actions can increase stats and generate skills, supposedly only limited by imagination and tenacity.
-There are countless classes to choose from, some available to everyone, but most are restricted to those who fulfill certain prerequisites. Much speculation on there being hundreds and hundreds of secret classes.
-Players are locked within the starter city for a month in game, so as to become used to the virtual reality and prepare themselves for the world.
'Using the information I gathered, the best course for me would be to spend all my time locked in my starter city finding ways to raise my base stats and researching various classes to find out what exists and how to get the one that is closest to what I want.'
Getting up and stretching, the man went about his usual routine before going to sleep.
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The sun is high in the sky and the living room is brightly lit from its wide window. The young man stands before the capsule, the manual in hand.
"So I just press the button on the side and it'll open up. It will check my eyes and neck, automatically creating a locked account for me before I go into the character creation."
Both excited and slightly nervous he touches the side of the capsule at a specific location as indicated and the lid slide open with a quiet 'whoosh.' Taking a deep breath, he climbs in and the lid slides closed.
Checking iris and vitals
New User detected
Creating account
Would you like to connect to Royal Road? Y/N
"Yes."
As soon as he finishes responding, there is a bright flash and he can only see white.
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AN: Hey, thanks for reading this, about my second only fanfiction, with the first not counting as it went nowhere. Hoping I can keep this going since I have a good outline of what I want to happen and even have the ending figured out, just need the specifics of how he gets there.
May notice I kept from naming the main character, I did that as I wanted the real world and the virtual to seem as distinct as possible, most likely to not do too many real world scenes after this, but after I get confident I might want to experiment.
Again, thanks for reading and I would really appreciate any feedback you may have.