Chapter One: A Rough Start & A Shove in the Right Direction
- The scan on your iris and veins has determined that you are an unregistered user. Do you want to create a new account? -
The female voice startled Rei a little because it seemed to come from all around him.
“Yes!”
- Select the name of your avatar. -
Rei almost called out “Rei” without thinking but then paused.
Hmm... I’ve been so obsessed with making the money that I haven’t really considered a name. Usually, I just call myself ReiX, but that’s too lame... Ah! I’ll go with that one I used a while back…
“Knox!”
- Select your gender from Male, female or neutral.-
“Male!”
- Royal Road has forty-nine races. You may select your race from the primary twenty-nine. -
“List Races!”
A large list of races scrolled before his eyes. There were the generic: Elves, Humans, Dwarves and then, there were ones Rei had rarely heard of. Barbarians, Half-elves, Tarians, Halflings, Wood Elves... but then Rei saw something that made him catch his breath. Dark Elves! One of his favorite main characters was a dual wielding dark elf! (A/N: Long Live Drittz!)
“Dark Elf.”
- You may alter your appearance. -
“Show Appearance.”
A three dimensional image appeared in front of him. The Dark Elf was the same height as Knox with silvery white hair that fell almost to his waist and a leanly muscled build. The face was Rei’s own except the skin tone was slightly darker... And the eyes! They were grey like Rei’s, but in contrast the eyes of the Dark Elf seemed to glow with some strange inner light.
I look badass... Now for some finishing touches…
After looking at the options for appearance change, Rei only chose to alter his hairstyle and add a few tribal tattoos under his eyes.
- Your account has been activated. Your stats and class shall be determined while you’re playing Royal Road. -
- Select a city and kingdom to start your adventure in. -
“Random.”
- Cara City, United Kingdom of Briton. -
- Welcome to Royal Road. A brief tutorial is available to help new players familiarize themselves with the game. -
“Pass.”
There was another bright flash of light and then all his senses seemed to get turned back on at once. He could feel a slight breeze on his face and the ground through his leather boots.
“Woah. This is amazing!”
Then he looked around himself and realized he was in a rather rundown town square. Weeds were growing up between the flagstones, paint was chipped and faded and the NPCs he could see all seemed to be dressed in rags!
“What the hell...”
Knox muttered to himself as he looked around. He was getting hostile glares from all sides. There didn’t seem to be any of the things he’d read about. No merchants or market stalls, in fact as far as he could see there were no friendly looking NPCs at all.
What kind of starting town is this? It’s like someone dropped me off in Medieval Harlem…
After a few minutes of walking around and inspecting his surroundings, he shrugged off any uncertainty and decided to just treat it as another part of his adventure.
“First things first, - Stats Window! –
A transparent window popped up in front of his eyes.
Status WindowNameKnoxAlignmentChaoticLevel1ClassNoneTitleNoneReputationNoneHealth102Mana100Strength8Agility18 (+5)Vitality11Wisdom8Intelligence10luck0Leadership0Attack3Defense0Magic ResistanceFire5%Water0%Earth0%Black Magic5%
“Woah! I’ve got a ton of agility. Hmm... I wonder what the +5 is for... And Alignment Chaotic?”
* “Skills Window!”
* Skills:
Nimble Body (Racial Passive): Increase Agility by 5. An Additional 5 Agility will be added every 10 Base Levels.
Fire and Darkness (Racial Passive): An Affinity with Fire and Darkness. Boosts Fire and Black Magic Spells by 5%.Increases Resistance to Fire and Black Magic Spells by 5%.
“Cool, I guess...”
A shiver ran down Knox’s spine and he was suddenly pulled back to his surroundings. Surroundings that had suddenly become far more hostile! He was almost completely surrounded by people in rags, some of them carrying rusty weapons while others carried makeshift clubs.
“Huh?”
“He’s an outlander...”
“Looks like he might have some good stuff!”
“If not we can always sell him into slavery! I hear some of the nobles will pay good money for an elf!”
“Can’t we just cut him up?”
The things the crowd was murmuring were enough to make him want to wet his pants, but he just stood there for a few moments in shock. He was completely confused. He had read all the information available on Royal Road and he was sure that one of the things he read about was that players would not be allowed to leave the city for the first four weeks... It was supposed to be for the player’s safety, but as far as he could see, he rather thought the bunnies and foxes outside of town were the lesser of two evils.
He took a hesitant step backwards and then, all hell broke loose. A knife flew passed his head in a blur and he let out a startled yell.
“Aaaah! What the...!”
The entire mob of NPCs lunged forward and Knox turned and sprinted into an alley. He was surprised at how fast he moved at first, but soon realized it must be an effect of his high agility stat and was thankful for it.
“Damnit! I should have done the tutorial.”
He had a horrible thought on first entering the alley that it could possibly be a dead end and he was going to hold the record for fastest in game death. But much to his relief, that was not the case and he was soon sprinting through the back alleys of Cara City.
30 Minutes Later...
The entire city was a blur as he ran and ran. The first couple of system messages that had popped up had nearly cost him his life, but now he just ignored them and kept running. So it was a complete surprise when his body suddenly stopped moving like its strings had been cut.
Stamina has fallen below 10% All Stats decreased by 75%.
“Crap...”
He was huffing and puffing on the ground; his entire body covered in sweat and his arms and legs were shaking. All it would take is one glance into this alley and he would be in for a world of hurt.
“Adventuring kinda sucks.”
Just then, he heard the sounds of footsteps from deeper in the alley and his heart jumped into his mouth.
Damn, I’m screwed.
“Hohoho... A half dead elf has flopped onto my doorstep.”
Knox tilted his head and could see a man standing in the shadows. He had opened his mouth to speak, but shut it with an audible click and blinked his eyes. His eyes seemed to be playing tricks on him because the man’s outline seemed to be fading into the shadows making it hard to look at him.
The man squatted down right by his head and Knox still couldn’t make out anything about the man. It was like staring at a moving pile of black cloth. Then a hand came out of one of the sleeves and poked Knox in the forehead.
“Can’t you speak, elf?”
“What the hell is going on here?” Was all Knox could think to say.
“Well, this is the “Republic of Thieves” what did you expect?”
“Isn’t this the City of Cara?” Knox was completely lost at this point but the man just started laughing.
“Cara? Gahahaha! I haven’t heard anyone call this place a proper name like that in years! You must be some kind of bonehead adventurer to wander into this place without even knowing what it was!”
A Republic of Thieves... I’ll never pick random on anything ever again...
“So Elf, what made you come to this hellhole?”
“Adventure.”Knox answered truthfully.
“You don’t really seem to have the skills for that. Gahahaha!”
“Well...If I had started in a normal city I would have gotten them!”Knox complained.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“Hmm... Well I was watching you and that’s quite an agile body you’ve got there... Would you like to be an adventurer who can go anywhere and kill anything? No locks or traps will stand in your way and if you run out of money you can always get more! Gahahaha!”
“Well first you’d have to pass my training, but then... No path would be impossible for you.”
Just then, a new pop up message appeared.
* Ttring!
Quest: Shady Training Offer
A Man in the shadows
A suspicious man has offered you a path to become an unparalleled adventurer. It is unknown what waits at the end of this training.
Difficulty: D
Quest Requirements: Above average agility. Meet with mysterious man. Must have chaotic alignment.
Quest Rewards: Unknown
Does such an adventurer even exist? Or is this guy just crazy...
The man didn’t say anything after that and just crouched there waiting. Knox racked his brain for a few minutes before letting out a sigh.
“Well, the best part about adventuring is not knowing what’s coming next, so I suppose this is perfect for me. I accept.”
Quest Accepted.
“So be it.” The man replied without any inflection and suddenly Knox was quite nervous. The man reached out with a surprisingly strong hand and hoisted Knox over his shoulder before heading deeper into the alley.
“Wait a damn minute! What do you mean you were watching me? Couldn’t you have given me a hand a little sooner! I thought I was going to die!”
“Why? It was funny watching you run around like an idiot.”
This guy is a freaking sadist!
Once upright Knox was able to walk on his own somewhat, but the man was moving deeper into the dark alley with surprising speed. Then without warning the man stopped facing a blank brick wall. Without even looking the man kicked his foot at what looked like a random brick to Knox and suddenly the wall slid aside revealing a set of stairs disappearing down into the dark.
“Uh, what’s down there...”
“My home. It’s the only place I can get any peace and quiet and it’s where you’ll be doing your training.” And with no further explanation, he began walking down the stairs leaving Knox with no choice but to follow.
__________________
Knox was in hell. The current evil overlord who called himself Vennec was standing over his exhausted body laughing.
It had been a week since he’d followed Vennec into the underground of Cara and since then he’d been forced through Vennec’s “training” that Knox was pretty sure would make Knights cry for their mommies. It all started with the pit...
He’d followed the man down the stairs that seemed to go on forever. The man never bothered to pull out a light and Knox was soon using the wall and the sound of the man’s footsteps as a guide. Now that he’d been training under Vennec for a few days he realized that Vennec had purposefully let his steps be heard... Since then Knox couldn’t ever remember hearing him coming.
When they reach the bottom of the stairs, much to Knox’s relief there was light and a rather normal looking living space. There was a bed, a few pots off to one side and for some reason there was a large pit in the center of the room.
“Elf, what is your name?”
“Knox.”
“Weird name. You can call me Vennec. Come over here.”
Like you’re one to talk. What kind of name is Vennec?
Vennec was standing near the edge of the big pit and Knox cautiously approached and peaked over the edge. It appeared to be a completely black pit and the bottom was not in sight.
“What is it?”Knox asked.
“Glad you asked. It’s the first part of your training.”And with that Vennec tossed Knox into the pit.
“KyaaaaaaaaaAAAAHHHH!” Knox screamed like a little girl all the way down and then went splat.
-75 HP. Your hp has fallen.
No shit Sherlock.
Knox thought as he slowly got back on his feet. He couldn’t see anything at all, and the pit he’d fallen through was just a ball of light far above his head.
* Clang!
A moment later something fell to the ground beside him causing him to jump. Once he’d calmed down, he began feeling around the ground until something cut his finger.
-5 HP. Your HP Has Fallen.
Your HP is critically low.
New Stat: Endurance
Endurance rises by 1 point. (+1 END)
He found the hilt of the dagger and picked it up. A system message appeared as soon as his hand closed around the hilt.
* Rusty Dagger
Durability: 5/10
Attack: 1-3
A rusty old dagger that has seen better days. Please just throw it away.
Requirements: None
“You’ll need something to defend yourself, they don’t get fed very often!”
Vennec’s voice called down from above. Then a cascade of windows popped up in front of Knox.
* Ttring!
* Dungeon: You are the first to discover the Deep Crawler Pit.
+5 Fame
1.5x Exp for One Week.
* Ttring!
* Quest: First Training.
Description: Kill all the monsters in the dungeon, with the Dagger from Suspicious Vennec. Manage to escape the dungeon.
Requirements: Must agree to be trained by Vennec. Must complete dungeon in 3 days. Must not die.
Mobs Killed: 0/50
“WHAT THE FUCK! YOU DROPPED ME INTO A DUNGEON WITH ONLY 20 HP AND A FREAKING RUSTY KNIFE?!”
Knox stood there screaming for a while, but there was no response. Knox wanted to cry... He slumped to the ground and tried to think. He’d only been in the game for a little over an hour and it had already come to this? Was he just terribly unlucky?
He could delete his character and start over, but he was stubborn and to be honest he was kind of having fun. He’d thought it would be boring to sit in town for four weeks doing nothing.
Then he heard a slithering sound and saw a light coming from off to the right. Knox gulped and got slowly to his feet. As he squinted into the darkness he began to make out the shape of what looked like a huge glowing noodle that was slowly inching its way closer to him.
A red name tag appeared above it as it got closer. Neon Glow Worm
“Oh, this freaking sucks.”
He walked slowly towards the inching worm and couldn’t help but feel depressed... He was supposed to fight a worm. It was insulting... Or at least he thought so. Then in a movement so fast that Knox barely had time to dodge the worm shot forward towards his leg.
Knox was fed up. He stomped on the back of the worm and then proceeded to slam the rusty dagger into what he assumed to be the worms head.
Critical Hit!
“Yes! Die!”
He shouted. He’d done it! Then the worm started moving again. So Knox stabbed it again and again until it finally turned gray and disappeared.
* Critical Hit!
Critical Hit!
Critical Hit!
...
* Critical Hit!
Mobs Killed: 1/50
When it finally turned gray, Knox was ecstatic. He had killed his first monster. The very first step of his adventure!
You have gained Dagger Mastery.
Increase Attack Power with a dagger (+10% ATK)
Increase Attack Speed with a dagger (+5% ATK SPD)
“Gahahaha!”
An evil laugh echoed through the depths of Crawler Pit and Knox and his rusty dagger disappeared deeper into the dungeon.
...TO BE CONTINUED.
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Author's Notes: Chapter One has arrived! As always comments, critiques and opinions are welcome.
Proofreader Credits: Anonymreading & Kaine