Tec Mage Chapter One: Knowledge Is Power But So Is The Fist

Ben appeared in a black room, he assumed it was a room because it was that special kind of darkness. The darkness was all consuming no light, even space had something. After a moment a soft female voice spoke.

-Select the name of your avatar-

Ben was tempted to use his real name, he wanted the transition to be as smooth as possible so he could learn easier. He then realised that it wouldn't be wise, the more information anyone has on you the more power they can have over you. Ben was a tad paranoid after he got demoted.

"Mmmmm Atlas" Ben picked this name because it was simple but also powerful and the fact he had seen a bronze figure outside one of his sites at work holding the globe.

-Select your gender from male, female or neutral-

"Male" it was a simple choice.

-Royal Road has forty nine races. you may select your race from the primary forty nine-

"Human" Ben was listening very careful, he new that you could make only one avatar from the forms he found, so no mistakes were aloud.

-You may alter your appearance-

"No"

-Your account has been activated. Your stats and class shall be determined while you are playing Royal Road-

-Select a city and kingdom you want to start at-

Ben knew which city to start out, by reading the website of the royal road tutors it turned out they had a guild in Ledern Kingdom.

"Ledern Kingdom"

-Welcome to Royal Road-

Light, blinding light flooded his eyes and then the world. A huge city came into view with towers and shops, big grand guild halls and small stalls. The town was busting to the brim with people. Atlas was shocked but only his eyes said so, wide eyed he stepped forward and noticed the cobble stones lining the road. The smell of the air full of activates, the wind on his skin, it was all there a total reality, a 2nd life. Pulling himself together atlas walked forward, almost immediately he could feel something wrong.

Atlas talking to him self spoke "shoes mmm". 14 years of working in big heavy steel toe caped boots made him unused to anything else, he felt unprotected. He thought that he would have to change that as soon as possible but until then money was the first thing.

During the two days Ben waited for the capsule to turn up he made contact with a guild called MGexchange that swap real life money with in game gold. The guild in question managed to get a lot of gold by taxing the members 10% of any gold earned though dungeons but gave the share of real life money in turn. Ben made arrangements to meet up with a player to exchange gold/money.

In the game atlas asked directions towards the grand market where the exchange would take place. After about 30 minutes the grand market was in front of him, he was tired panting for breath. Never did he feel so weak, atlas understood why. To make this game true and fair everyone started off with base stats, even if you were the strongest man in the world or a paraplegic no one had an advantages over anyone. It was all about the effort you put into the game, only skills and experiences with the mind carried over. That was one more thing he would have to sort out.

Many people were around doing there business but Atlas was looking for a well armoured man for the exchange, spotting such a man he walked towards him.

"Good evening are you the rep for MGexchange"

The warrior started to turn around, he was tired of noobs asking question and more so angry that he didn't get anything from it. He was in a foul mood so before he even faced atlas he was spitting nails.

"Get lost you little sh...", the warrior had to pause he was facing Atlas, the man was a good foot taller then himself and border then himself even with armour, it only took a split second for him to realize that the man was a beginner judging from what he was wearing. The giant was in beginners clothes and no weapon, he pulled himself together quickly.

"No", the warrior felt ashamed that he backed down so fast and that it was to a noob.

"Oh ok then, thank you" Atlas turned to search for the rep for MGexchange.

The warrior was angry with him self but more angry with Atlas, he assumed that Atlas had altered the character to be big and intimidating but what really stood out was the name of the rep he said. MGexchange was well known, if you messed with them or there money you would feel the full force of the guild. The warrior also knew that they exchanged money for gold and visa versa. This was a good chance to get even and earn a bit of money, and so the warrior followed Atlas.

Atlas found the rep eating a apple near a stall selling food.

"Hello are you the rep for MGexchange" asked Atlas

The man was in shiny armour that covered him completely but not the eyes.

"That i am, are you Ben" said the man in shiny armour.

"Yes but here I'm called Atlas" replied Atlas

After that brief exchange of words the deal was made, 5000 gold pieces was handed over and the rep was checking the money transfer.

"Ok, all good here" said the man in shiny armour as his finger flicked though a invisible screen.

Pocketing the money Atlas turned away to be meet with the warrior from before, face to face.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

"yes how can i help you" Atlas asked

The warrior was eyeing him hard and with a low growl said "hand the cash over or you can taste my iron"

Atlas thought something like this may happen but so soon, it wasn't that bad he just needed to explain why he would not hand over a single coin.

"If yo..." Atlas began saying until he was interrupted by a strike to the jaw.

"Crack"

Atlas fell to the floor with a single punch.

"I'm not playing, hand over the gold"

Atlas felt sick he hadn't been so easy knocked down since he was 13, he spoke louder so many could here what he had to say next.

"If you hurt me any more not only will you bring the law over, you'll likely go to jail. If you kill me i will lose no skills or levels but maybe drop a very small amount of money. On the other hand you will earn no experience and get a murders mark meaning you will be hunted with no mercy by players and NPC. Your drop rate will increase so if killed you will lose money, items, a level, skills and be locked out for 24 hours, so no i wont hand anything over to you".

Atlas stood up brushing him self off, every thing he said he had found on Royal Road web site.

The warrior was looking around, they had gathered a big crowed. He him self was only level 53 warrior and knew that as soon as the red mark of a murder was on his forehead he would be killed. Pulling himself together he looked Atlas square in the eye

"This isn't over, its only a matter of time before you leave this city then I'll have you"

Atlas wasn't worried, his plans were to just study why would he need to leave the city.

"Well until we meet again" Atlas replied

The warrior just turned and walked off like nothing happened. Then there was a tap on Atlas shoulder, it was the shiny warrior, he cleared his voice

"You handled that very well"

Atlas looked a bit taken back "were you going to help if i needed it"

The shiny warrior was shaking his head "no, if you had been killed i could of killed him no questions asked and you may had to get more gold from my guild. If you died that would of been a win win for me".

Atlas understood, it made sense. He didn't like it but it was true and easy to understand.

"I'm sending you a friend request not only do i like the way you act, you may need more money in the future and if you come to me I'll get a commission" said the man in shiny armour.

A pop up appeared in front of Atlas.

Lance has asked for a friend request

Atlas accepted, it might be useful to have a higher level player on his side and the added beneficent of an easy to access money exchange might be useful. Atlas was about to say he's goodbyes when lance interrupted

"If i were you i would get my stats boasted a bit by going to the training hall, it will help with your strength, stamina and other things".

Atlas knew this but asked a question "repeating a movement increases stats and wearing weights increases how fast the stats come but how do you increase wisdom and intelligence fast".

Lance was a little surprise, he expected Atlas to be a warrior, judging by his size Atlas would make a good tank but Atlas had just asked about the two stats that was linked to a mage.

"Well hard books, big fat books with dead languages, riddles, any new info, undiscovered knowledge, just stuff that very few people know about" answered Lance.

The only reason Atlas was asking was that on Royal Road forms there was skills that helped to study even faster like bookworm. You can gain this skill by just reading lots of books according to the forms.

Atlas had a plan but it was good to have a back up plan, he said his goodbyes and moved to the Royal Road tutors guild. The building it self was hard to find as it was so small. Atlas thought that business was bad for tutoring, entering the guild, there was no one around expect for a old lady sitting near the desk.

Walking up to this lady Atlas asked "are you open for business"

The lady looked up "yes but everyone is out doing things, you'll have to make a appointment".

"mmmm ok when is a tutor free, a would like to start out with one of the three main science... chemistry, biology and physics" Atlas explained.

The old lady spoke clearly "Well the guild is out on a raid at the moment they left about 1 week ago so they will be back in about 2 months"

Atlas was a bit surprise at the time frame, Atlas asked a new question "is that in game time or real life"

"What's in game time deary" asked the lady.

"No, nothing i was just thinking out loud" answered Atlas

That answers that, if the lady didn't know of in game time she was a NPC and it would be about two real life weeks before they got back.

Well that means his other plan would have to come in to focus, training this body to be able to move without it shutting down. So to the training hall but before that four things needed to be done first.