SUMMONERS TALE
When he came to, Godric found himself standing in a large, grassy clearing, his eyes widening in awe as he took in his surroundings.
He was standing within a large, enclosed village deep inside a forest, massive trees growing all around and vanishing into the sky above, the trees were so huge that he couldn't even see their tops. Artfully built into the trees was a web of buildings and walkways, the lowest standing at just ten feet off the ground and the highest at over a hundred feet, walking across the walkways and the ground below were the many inhabitants of this village. Everywhere he looked, Alex could see dozens of elves walking about, NPCs going about their daily business he guessed. Mixed among the elves were a variety of other races, all of them dressed in various types of armor and weapons, these were most likely players as few NPCs would live in a village not of their race.
Snapping out of his awed state, Godric took a look around before spotting a post with a map attached, the guide had said such maps were located in the spawn areas of every city. Making his way over, he was quick to spot his current location before making his way to a nearby pond and taking a seat.
"Menu." Godric spoke up, watching as a wheel of symbols appeared before him. "Whisper, Account 108134."
-User 'Moneyrep185' is online, please speak your message.
"Hi, I'm calling about my gold purchase." Godric spoke, knowing that no one around him would be able to hear the words spoken during a private whisper. "My reference number is RNC334T65."
Having sent the message, Godric took the time to further gaze around as he awaited a response. Now that he took a closer look, he noticed a few things that he'd missed the first time around. First were the various small groups of armored elves spread all over, each looking alert and vigilant, these were most likely members of the villages guard force which would put them around level 200 at minimum.
The second thing he noticed was the small red dot floating a few inches above many individuals.
From what he'd read, this was the only way of easily differentiating between an NPC and a Player, the dot was only visible to players and would only appear above NPCs. This was an addition that had been added to the game years after its launch, before this addition, many players had been scammed by users posing as NPCs, often handing over expensive items in hopes of receiving a quest.
With the new system, it was harder to pose as an NPC.
-Moneyrep185: Thank you for your purchase customer, what is your current location?
Grinning at the prompt response, Godric quickly brought up the whisper option and replied to the message.
"I'm by Dewdrop Pond in the Casak Forest."
The response to his message was much faster this time.
-Moneyrep185: Please wait there, a representative will soon be there with your purchase.
"Thank you." Godric replied, returning to watching the city around him.
The detail put into this world was outstanding, if he hadn't played a few VR games at the local arcade before, Godric would have found it difficult to believe that this was truly a video game.
"Are you Godric?" a voice asked, startling him from his thoughts and drawing his attention.
Turning to the voice, Godric spotted what appeared to be an elf with short brown hair and green eyes, the elf was dressed in the same simple clothes as Godric and had no weapon equipped.
"Er.. yes?" Godric replied, caught off guard at the sudden appearance of the elf.
"Please repeat the reference number."
"Oh," Godric spoke, catching on. "It's RNC334T65."
The elf nodded and held out his hand, a leather pouch appearing in a small flash of light and dropping into Godrics quickly raised hands.
"Thank you for your purchase, please consider us for your future needs."
With that, the elf shimmered and faded away in a flash of light, the tell tale signs of a player logging off. Godric could only blink at the quick exchange before shaking his head, that was a bit surprising but whatever.
"Inventory."
As the window popped up, Godric noted that he had 10 rye bread, an empty canteen, 10 copper and 1000 gold, quite the pleasing sight.
"Stats." Godric spoke up, deciding to make sure everything lined up as expected before setting off.
[quart=Character Name,Race]Godric,High Elf[/quart][quart=Alignment,Level]None,1[/quart][quart=Profession,Title]None,None[/quart]
Character Stats
Fame
0
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[quart=Health,Stamina]80,80[/quart]
Mana
120
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[quart=Strength,Agility]8,11[/quart][quart=Wisdom,Intellect]11,12[/quart]
Vitality
8
Luck
0
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[quart=Attack,Defense]2,0[/quart]
Magic Resistance
0
Godric was satisfied to see that his stats matched up with what he'd expected for his race. Unlike the human race, with fully balanced stats and the bonus Leadership stat, the high elf was physically weaker and had less health but it was slightly more agile and had far more magic potential.
"Skills."
-You currently have no skills.
Nodding to himself, Godric set off towards the village map.
'Lets see...' he mused, glancing over the map. 'Ah, there it is.'
With a destination in mind, Godric set off into the village, confidently making his way through the mass of bodies surrounding him.
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"Greetings young adventurer, how may I help you today?"
The speaker was a beautiful, long haired, female elf with golden eyes, she was seated behind a large desk and was staring at him with polite curiosity.
"Uh.. ya." Godric muttered, a bit taken aback, he wasn't used to talking to such beautiful women even if she was an npc. "I'd like a library card please."
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
"Ah, another adventurer come to expand their knowledge of the world." The woman replied, smiling happily as she nodded. "I can provide you with a card for 10 silver coins."
Godric nodded along as the woman spoke, this was information that he was already well aware of, many mages had posted information on gaining quick stats and learning spells. Reading books was the easiest way to gain mental stats, especially as you couldn't cast spells until you were a mage, which required fifty base intellect. Despite being such an easy method to grind stats however, most newbies couldn't use it as they could barely earn enough to afford the library card, so they were often forced to level up and spend points before they could become mages.
Luckily, this wasn't an issue for Godric, he had more than enough gold to afford the card.
"Here you go."
"Thank you." the woman replied, taking the stack of coins from him and handing over a small wooden square with glowing words on the surface. "This establishment is open from sun up until sun down, you are permitted to borrow up to three books for a maximum of one week at a time, if you do not return borrowed books on time you will be charged a fee of 50 copper coins a day."
Nodding in understanding, Godric stepped past the desk and entered through the door behind the woman, taking only a moment to glance at the words on the small, wooden card before tucking it away in his inventory.
[p=center]Casak Public Library.
Membership Card.
-Present this card to be granted entry-[/p]
Looking around the library, Godric couldn't help but whistle in awe at the sight before him. He was stood within an extremely large, circular room which appeared to have been naturally grown from the massive tree trunk in the center of the room, the large plant stretching up past the roof and into the sky above. Surrounding the tree in the center of the room were a score of tables and chairs, many of which were filled with npcs and higher level players, players that were most likely searching for hidden information on both discovered and undiscovered dungeons.
On the outskirts of the room, starting a few feet to his left and encircling the entire room until ending a few feet to his right, were dozens of large bookshelves, each one holding several dozen books of varying subjects. As if that wasn't daunting enough, there were three floors of such large bookshelves, totaling several thousand books in this massive library.
'This is going to be harder than I thought.' Godric sighed, glancing over the hundreds and hundreds of books in the room.
One of the largest complaints on the forums was about the organization pattern of libraries in Royal Road, mainly because there wasn't one. Books of all subjects could be found on any one shelf, author names and publication dates were placed at random and even book series' by the same author could be scattered between several different shelves.
It was difficult to find books on a specific subject and damn near impossible to find one specific book.
Luckily for Godric, he wasn't here looking for a specific book and the subject didn't really matter, he was just here to grind his mental stats and hopefully discover some interesting information.
'Still, I should probably stick to books related to magic and creatures,' Godric mused, walking over to the nearest shelf. 'Maybe I can pick up a few relevant skills while I'm grinding.'
Spotting three relatively small books that matched his exact preference, Magical Foci: Crafting and Use, Beginners Guide to Spell Casting, and Beasts of the Spirit Plane, Godric grabbed all three and made his way to an empty table.
Politely nodding to the few people that looked his way, Godric took a seat and opened the first book, sundown was still hours away but he'd need to read fast if he wanted to finish these books before then.
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It may have taken him three hours but Godric managed to finish the three books and while they had been small and quick to read, the books had been far more helpful than he'd expected. Not only had he gained some stats from reading all three, he'd also picked up a new skill. Sure, it may have been a simple skill that he could learn at a nearby guild but he'd still managed to get it for free, which proved that his current course was the right one.
Intellect has increased by 1.
Wisdom has increased by 1.
Skill: You learned Woodworking.
Woodworking (Beginner Level 1 | 0%)
Enables you to carve wooden weapons such as bows and arrows, staves, wands, etc.
* Requires a carving knife.
The woodworking skill was quite the useful skill for his future profession, it wouldn't do much for him at low levels but once he got it much higher, it would allow him to craft his own weapons. Decent staves and wands were quite expensive at higher levels, as were the materials to craft many of them but he would be able to hunt for those on his own, this would save him quite a bit of cash in the future.
There was also the bonus that leveling woodworking would boost his agility at higher levels, not one of his main stats but an important one for dodging damage.
"The library will be closing momentarily, would you like to borrow these books sir?" a voice asked, startling Godric and drawing his attention.
Looking up, he was met with the smiling face of the elf from the front desk.
"Oh, no thanks, I just finished these." Godric replied, closing the book in his hand and placing it on the pile with his other two. "Can I pick out another three to borrow?"
"You may, I will put these three away so you may leave them here." the woman answered, bowing slightly before making her way to another table of readers.
Watching her walk away, Godric shook his head to clear his thoughts before making his way to a nearby shelf. Skimming through the book titles, he picked two that seemed to have some relation to elemental magic and another one related to spirits, these seemed the most likely to provide him with information for his future profession.
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