Chapter 03    

The next afternoon after I have the entire house set up I start to take a look on the computer and read all about the world happenings, after a while I search for Aysha. I can find her in a quick search and dammit she is a reporter. They are such nosy people. I used to have reporter friends back in the day but still I need to be extra careful. Hacking the phone company I get her cellphone and without stopping to doubt myself call her.

Ring, ring, ring, ring, she is not answering. Voice mail, ok, no need, I call her later. Now I will enter the VR game let’s see what is all the buss about. The technicians and salesman sure where all excited about it. Setting everything up I enter the game quickly passing through all the options and I’m placed on a random city as was my choice. Testing the virtual reality soon I find it lacking. Sure anybody else wouldn’t even have noticed but I did and it annoys me. This is supposed to be a VR. The image resolution is lacking, the sound, and the physics simulator, pretty much everything. Even the monstrous lag of 20ms. The time dilatation device is trying to mess with my brain chemistry. I got all the data I need and leave the game. Taking the tolls and tech supplies I bought I set to fix all that I see wrong. Resolution, depth of color, quality of photon reception…boring you again aren’t I? Let’s just say I fix everything I could think of. I add some hardware, program a little, test, redo. Most important I deactivate the time dilatator, I can do that by myself. I keep at it until 38 hours later I got myself a brand new VR helmet.  Getting in the game I test every joint, every muscle, every tendon to know I can, and all in order I check the game itself.

Inventory, 10 barley bread, one wooden sword. Status windows:

NameNascAlignmentNeutralProfessionNoneTitleNoneLevel1Fame0Health100Mana100Streght10Agility10Vitality10Wisdom10Intelligence10Leadership5Luck5Offense3Defense0

Magic ResistenceNone

Great having spent plenty of the time I was modifying the VR helmet researching the game I already know about how to start on the game. Not really a recommended path from most, but what do they know? I go to the martial arts center, enter and greet the dojo master:

-Hey, I came here to train if you would allow it.

-You are welcome to train as much as you would like. I see you have a wooden sword.

-Yes, my starting sword. Would you please show me where is it?

-Come with me. – Nasc follows the instructor a few steps and position himself by the side of the instructor facing a wooden training mannequin. The instructor pike up a wooden sword and swings it a couple times hitting the mannequin. It seen very sloppy but the hits are very well placed, with no wasted energy, all the right angles. Always hitting vital or hard to defend places.

-You have very good form. –Nasc says. The instructor eyes him and says:

-You have good eyes, most wouldn’t have noticed.

-Thank you. Would you do me favor and land me your practice sword?

-Yes, I just wonder what you would ever want with it. Yours is just as good and new. – With a tiny smirk Nasc receives the sword, positions himself in front of the wooden mannequin and with both swords stars to hit. One hand, the other, one again, the other, and keep hitting in slow pace.  Slowly he increases his pace until it is a rhythm he can sustain for about 6 hours and no slower.

The instructor watches awestruck not having expected the normal looking youngling that just entered his dojo to be as good if not better than himself. He doesn’t have the strength or speed yet but there is no mistaking it. And strength speed stamina, he will develop it in time. He just needs to train. Not slacking for moment the young man keeps at an incredible pace. Though if he keeps up even the best would give up in some 15 minutes, half hours tops. His form is however not transiting that felling. It seems he is going to stay there hitting forever. Half an hour pass and a new student comes he instructs the newcomer and gets back to his sitting position watching Nasc. An hour, two hours, three hours…six hours. Plenty of people stopped by, watched a little in admiration, some trained normally, others tried to imitate but soon all of then leave as is usual. Only this crazy little mother fucker keeps at it.

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I, at the limit of this body, stop. Soaked in sweet, pain all over my body, heavy limbs and everything you would expect of someone doing this in real life. I activated all the realism options, including pain and even programed a couple extra. According with my research had I kept going there would soon be a message of negative status because of overuse. Regardless I received a notification over an hour ago stating that I had gained +1 stat in the three stats that you can change in this dojo. At this rate with 2 sessions every 24 hours at slightly higher pace lasting about 4h30 I can get the maximum 40 points in Strength, Vitality and agility that is possible, through this method in this dojo in a month. And I set it up to be able to be done in  month so I can get the maximum stats before even level up or be allow out of the city. Well maybe I will level up a little by doing quests in the mean while. Thanking the instructor I leave the dojo and stroll around the town. It really is a very well created world. Even though I spend the whole day yesterday complying about how crap the physics simulator, the resolution and everything else is, in reality it is amazing. I was the one to be able to spot mistakes and that would be expected, being me.

I watch the grass, the wind blowing, the dust around me, the sky, light, shadow and really everything, they’re just amazing. I feel like I can really enjoy playing this game though I doubt that following the power trip path is my thing. I probably already am the biggest, baddest MTF around, at least in this world. That doesn’t mean there is anything inherently wrong with power, hehehe. Getting on the front of the library I enter it.

It is relatively small but it is organized in such a fashion that there is so much books. A few tall and long rows of books crammed with books, and more books. From here looks like about half the books that of a small college campus library. The attendant is on the counter, with a book on his right hand and a pen on the other, appears to be copying another book. Walking toward him before I can reach him he speaks up, though without any real interest behind his words, just because it is his job.

-Hi, what can I do for you?

-Hi, I came to see if I could get a job working here. – His mood lighted up in an instant and he said:

-Well, of course you are very welcome, to come, you just need to accept the quest I will be giving you and the job is yours. The pay is not all that great but it’s 2 steady copper coins per hour pilling up.

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I smell something fishy but it doesn’t seem that he has any ill intention, he probably is just happy that he can get rid of the job without penalties or something.

I then see the quest that he talked about popping up in front of me.

The Rosenheim Kingdom secret quest

The Rosenheim Kingdom had an embarrassing theft. They need to restock copies all the stolen books by any means necessary. After accepting this quest you will be either trying to find the thief, find book dealers, staling from other academies that use the same book or any other possible method.Quest cannot be dropped.Quest can be transferred.Not making progress too long on the quest will lower fame, alignment will drop, extra items will be dropped in case of death, luck will lower among other negative attributes.Discuss this quest with anyone will cause negative attributes.For each recovered book a significant reward will be given. Poor quality copys, damaged ones and wrong books will not be rewarded.For detailed info on what, where, how, whom, and when accept the quest.

Time limit: until all books are replaced.Reward: Calculated at standard rate of 1 copper coin per book page (standard word count page)

Accept?YesNo

He probably tried to get out of having to complete the question because of the side effects but he can’t just discuss with anyone and most would flat out refuse this quest because of the side effects.

-Quite an interesting quest. Where did you got it?

-Ohhh, from another player he was moving on to higher leveled ones. – He says as if trying to make light of it, but it really seems he wants to get rid of the quest he got stuck with. Maybe this quest has been around for a while now trading from adventure to adventure and nobody really finishes it. There is no harm in it but I will inquire a little further before accepting it.

-I see you are writing there. Are you doing this quest trough copy of books?

-Yes, it is quite an easy way to do it. You just copy and you have a significant return.

-Then why are you dropping it?

-Hann..- he stammers a bit – I will be getting eve better ones now that I can leave the city.

-Won’t I be stuck with it afterward? What if nobody wants it? – not really having expected this question and thinking he just blew his chance to get rid of it, he no longer is energetic and droops on the chair.

-Well, someone will and even if it’s a bit of hassle this quest can earn you quite a bit of money. At least considering that there are no requirements to it. –

I know he is mostly full of shit, but while answering my question, even if with just lies I could some sense of truth. I then accept the quest and he quickly changes his demeanor.

-You really are gonna do it don’t you? –He says not believing what he just saw – Great, here in the desk is everything you are gonna need to perform your duties as a librarian. You already went to a library didn’t you? Of course you did. So you already know what you need to do. – He already up and moving away – Bye, good luck. And don’t forget to accept the library quest as well.

Smiling because he got hid of this job and quest he was stuck with, he leaves.

Nasc then thinks, well, young people trying to deceive older people. That is what happens. It’s not like the situation won’t be advantageous to me, but he doesn’t know that.

- Bye. - I say, and turn to the table. He didn’t even bother to take the supplies to copy the book with him. He probably wouldn’t use it, no not even see it. I sit on the same place as him. Quickly I go through all that is relevant on the table. I will find the record books already half knowing what I will find there and how to fill it. So quickly and all already setup to me begin the work. I pull the book he was coping and turn it shut. Basics of magic, an in-depth study by Archmage Rudeos. Well take a look at that, I will begin to copy a very good book. It would probably be a book I would have read on my own. Now I will know how this magic system works, and gains magic stats to boot. Taking a look at the writing of the previous librarian I think that I would be surprised if they accepted that as a copy. Barely readable rubbish, it’s all full of mistakes and smudges. He could never be a scribe with that attitude. I will need to begin anew the writing process. Luckyly I have plenty of supplies so I won’t even need to buy for this first book, neither paper nor ink. The book I got is a fat looking one, about 600 pages. And he probably chose the smallest one available. About 6 silver pieces per book. Thinking it trough he would probably be able to copy a page in 10 min so a book would take about 100 hours without stopping. At 12 hours a day pace, about 8 days. Now for me, considering that I’m able to write about 3 times as fast as your average Joe and that I will be writing with both hands at the same time that gives me about 16 hours per book. Or an income of 40 coppers an hour, minus the suplies.

First page of the book, I pull a blank page and a pen and position the blank page under my left hand and another on my right one for the 2 page of the book. With a coordination that suggests long practiced movement I begin. At the same time that I’m writing barely paying attention to the mechanized acts of transcribing, all I read I’m very much paying attention to. The theories about how mana interacts with the body and the environment. Hypothesis that is the reason most thinking living creatures can use magic. Reading the book now I’m sure, this was not written by human hands but by as close as the Unicorn Corporation could make to a true AI. And not just a programed AI to write about magic or whatever, but a full-fledged one. Actually, not just the AI but a whole environment with a bunch of independents Artificial Intelligences. The simulated environment would be studied by the AIs the same as we humans study the Universe trying to coax answers and theories about it. That also means that all that is thought to be truth in Royal Road my just be an approximation, or even flat out wrong, like the “fact” centuries  ago that the earth was flat.

This game just gets more and more interesting. That means that they must have created a basic form of the game like hundreds or thousands of years ago and let it run to some point at accelerated rate. Possibly changing little things and key people but, overall not doing much else. So by large majority today all the “NPC’s” were born raised and will die at some point. The process likely is a simplified one but still. It’s truly amazing. I stop my wild thoughts and come back to pay attention to the book. I should learn a little and afterward I will do my own research on mana.

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Thank you for reading a little piece of my work. I hope you have enjoyed it. Any suggestions, praises or otherwise, please comment below. As stated in the synopsis I’m not a “English” native, English is my second language and I just started learning it about 3 years ago. Any mistakes please point it out below I would appreciate that.