Chapter 8

Part 1

The rat monsters were quite big in size. They were almost as big as a small dog, but luckily they were weak, it was only their size that was intimidating about them. A few hits from this common sword I had was all it took for me to beat them. It was a quest meant for a beginner, which I was, but not in mind for I had over hundreds of hours in RPG games, I was ready for this world.

“Congratulations quest has been completed.”

A light blue transparent screen appeared in front of me.

“5 out of 5 rat scavengers defeated. “

“Reward: Leather boots.”

“Nice,” I said, as I looked at my inventory and found the leather boots in it. I put them on, they were quite agile. I thought as I jumped in them, trying to get a feel for them.

“Stat increase speed by 1.”

“That’s awesome,” I thought, though I didn’t feel any faster, granted it had only increased by one point.

“Now on to the next quest, find 4 herbs of Luna.”

I looked around the open field and wondered where this herb could be hiding when I saw something sparkle in the corner of my eye.

I walked toward it and luckily it was just what I needed. I plucked the four herbs of Luna and placed them inside my pocket.

“Quest completed.”

Another transparent screen appeared in front of me.

“This quest was so easy,” I thought as I made my way back to the adventurer guild to collect my rewards from the guild.

***

As I entered the guild building, I noticed that the clerk that took my info in the beginning was there and I couldn’t help but feel a tad bit nervous.

“Be cool, is just a game,” I jokingly told myself. She was really cute but she wasn’t real, she was just an NPC nothing more and nothing less. This was all fake despite feeling so life-like.

I took a deep breath and walked toward her. In a way, it felt like I was approaching an end-game boss and I was extremely under-leveled.

“H-Hi,” I said, giving her an awkward smile.

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“Hello young adventurer how can I help you,” she said, which to be honest took me by surprise. It felt cold and aloof that for a moment my nervousness vanished.

“Of course, she didn’t remember me, I was just one of millions of players to her.”

“Y-yea sorry, I came to turn in some quest,” I said, keeping it business only. She looked at me and smiled, letting out a giggle.

“Sorry, sorry,” she said,

“I was just teasing you, you should have seen the look on your face, noobpunisher1337.”

Hearing my in-game name made me cringe that for a minute I wanted nothing more than to log off the game and never returned.

“I really should have picked another name, what was I thinking.” I thought.

“Max is fine,” I said, feeling like my face was as red as a tomato.

“Of course Max,” she said, taking my hand,

“Now let me just access your data and complete the quest in our system.”

As she took my hand, I couldn’t help but stare at her. She was so pretty. She had green eyes and long light brown hair, and her eyelashes were so long and pretty. Whoever designed her model was a master-class sculpture.

“Your reward is a leather shirt and pants with a common sword.”

She finally said.

“Here you go.”

A bunch of equipment appeared in front of her.

I grabbed them and equipped them on.

“Stat upgrades: Strength + 1, Hp +1.”

“Now you look like you belong, it looks good on you,” She said smiling at me.

“T-Thanks,” I said, trying to keep myself from blushing.

“Well since you finished the other quest here are two more quests for you, also you can get other quests from other people around town but most quests are given by us.”

“Sounds good, thanks for the information.”

"You're welcome, and good luck Max,” she said, as she waved at me as I left the guild building.

“Well, unto my new quest,” I said, reading the next quest window, and ready to keep advancing in this world I found myself in.

***

“ARRRG!” another rat monster let out as I slashed it in half.

“Experience points gain +2 !“

I heard the game voice said.

I opened my status windows and saw that I was close to leveling up soon.

So far, every quest I have done was at a beginner level. I was close to level 18, and already tired of grinding this new player area that I was forced into for all it's worth.

I needed an adventure, the only problem was that every quest had a gate-keeping mechanic, perhaps to stop new players from getting over their heads, but I wasn’t a new player, no, I had thousands of hours of playing RPG games. I was just under level. I knew the mechanics needed to survive high-level quests.

I let out a sigh, as I sat on a piece of rock,

“Should I keep grinding until I’m at the required level for the other quest? I guess I can keep killing trash mobs like giant rats and horn rabbits. “

I began to scan over the quest I had completed already. All I needed was to go to the guild building and get my rewards.

“The guild building,” I said, thinking about her.

I’m not going to lie, I kind of wanted to see her, and to be honest, I didn’t care if she was an NPC or real player, okay maybe I did care, I hoped she was a real player, but then again did it matter, is not like I would meet her in real life, a guy like me only had a chance inside the game with a beautiful woman like her.

I had gotten her name by now. It was Amanda, and I thought it suited her since it was pretty like her.

"Amanda,” I thought, almost getting lost in thought when I heard my name.

“Hey, Max!”

I turned around and saw another adventurer, a level 14 Mage I had teamed up for a quest before. It was a gathering quest and I didn’t want to gather the 100 roses I needed by myself.

“Have you finished your quests already?” he asked as he made his way toward me. He had on a white robe that went to his legs a wooden staff, and a full set of brown hair, he looked like your stereotypical mage inside any RPG game.

“Yes, I have.”

‘Nice, what level are you now, I’m level 17 now, you know what that means?” he said, grinning at me,

“Yeah,” I said,

‘We can tackle the dungeon quest, I hear you can get good material and equipment from there. “

The dungeon quests were social quests given by the guild for adventurers to team up and foster the social aspect of the game. You needed to be at least level 17 to enter them, and even though you only qualified for simple dungeons, they were better than just killing mobs for the hundredth time to get some measly experience points.

The dungeon part is really where this game excelled at. They even had a one-hundred-man dungeon, but so far none of the adventurer guilds that were already established in this game have done one, they were that brutal, for this game also had permanent death, so if you died you lost your character and nobody wanted to gamble their high-level character, but luckily you could make another character if you paid, but of course I paid the cheapest option so I only had one character.

“We should join up and tackle one of the beginner dungeons, what do you say Max? “

I thought about doing one soon, and I was already familiar with his playstyle, and he wasn’t a bad mage either.

“Alright,” I said, as I got up from the rock.

“Perfect,” he said, placing his hand on my shoulder like some longtime friend,

“Let’s go conquer this world, Max.”