Do these guys have unlimited stamina and speed?
They’ve been on the run for hours - she knows this because the sun is almost completely hidden in the bleak horizon - and yet the two knights with her show absolutely no indications that they intend to slow down.
The person carrying her - she assumes he’s the vice-commander the others had whispered about, thinks it’s funny how he chose the fake name ‘Vice’ - must have unlimited strength as well. He’d switched from carrying her under his arm like a dolled up chihuahua toted about by a rich old lady to holding her in a more comfortable position when she’d groaned from the discomfort awhile back, yet his grip remains as firm as ever and his arm isn’t trembling from the effort until now.
I suppose the ‘Hawk Legion’ must be some sort of elite force.
It’s getting chilly, so she pulls her robe a little tighter around herself - giving up on covering her head with the hood since it keeps flying back at this speed - and wonders if they’ll stop for the night somewhere to light a warm fire.
----------------------------------------
They don’t, at least she doesn’t think so.
When she wakes up - when did I doze off? - the sun is higher than she last remembers it to be, though her position remains unchanged.
Are they superhuman?
Deep green eyes remain focused forward, though it’s not long before the men gradually slow to a halt and she’s set gently down on rocky ground.
Well, this is awkward.
Lexi has no idea if she’s supposed to greet them - she supposes she should thank them for saving her - but it feels a little odd to break the silence that had held since leaving the castle yesterday.
When the men continue walking at a pace that would be brisk for any normal person, she hurries to catch up, stealing glances now and then at a scarred face.
“We’re almost at the border to the Barony of Yordes, my lady.” The sudden speech startles her a little, though the voice is gentle so her curiosity takes center stage.
“Why is that place safe?”
Calm emeralds flick to her briefly before turning back towards the front, face impassive as ever. “The current Baron of Yordes abhors the Viscount of Brego, my lady. He will let anyone but a member of House Brego pass through his lands freely.”
The three of them are dressed in clothes that have no family seal, which means they’ll be left alone by the baron and his people.
“Why aren’t you intending to reveal your identities to this baron?” Surely men of their rank can easily ask for assistance, given how the viscount and his knights reacted to their identities.
“It would be best to get you to the capital as quickly as possible, my lady.”
Are we not even going to get anything to eat?
She doesn’t have any snacks or food with her, and from the looks of it the two knights hadn’t brought anything with them either.
Though it’s a given considering their sudden need to escape, they’re literally just wandering about in the wild with nothing but the clothes on their backs, the swords hanging from the knights’ hips, and the old book in her hands.
Nibbling on her lower lip slightly, Lexi debates trying to read while walking, as that animated character in a quiet village had done.
Forget it.
She needs all her focus just to keep up with the taller individuals.
“Why did the viscount do that?”
Once more, green eyes flicker towards her, though this time they’re a little troubled. The knight by her side stays silent, even after looking forward again, and she wonders what to do next.
“Ray. Tell her.”
The redhead’s voice is completely different from when he’d been acting like a friendly young man new to the viscount’s knightage: deeper, smoother, and infinitely colder now.
Turning to peer up at a swarthy face, Lexi waits expectantly.
“My lady, what do you know of this world and the players?”
Nice deflection.
She supposes they’ll get back to the topic eventually, so she admits that whatever she knows is what the viscount had told her and what little she’d read in the book she’s carrying.
“That’s not nearly enough to survive.” This time that gentle tone is laced with worry, like ripples forming on a lake’s surface.
“Tell me, then.”
It’s a long story, but she’s grateful this scary looking man takes the time.
----------------------------------------
There are only 600 players at any given moment here in Terra, as this world is called. Each time a player dies, another is immediately brought to the world.
Of those 600 players, they are further divided into ranks by their class:
Normal rank
The 360 players in this rank each possess 3 active skills, 3 passive skills, and 2 ultimate skills; the only way to be a normal rank player is to be brought to this world as one.
Classes and accompanying attributes:
1. Thief: dark attribute
2. Warrior: no attribute, enhanced physical qualities
3. Mage: one random elemental attribute
4. Monk: holy attribute for hand-to-hand combat
5. Cleric: holy attribute used only for healing, protection, and purification
6. Archer: one random elemental attribute
7. Blacksmith: two elemental attributes (combination of two out of fire, lightning, metal)
8. Herbalist: two elemental attributes (combination of two out of earth, wind, water)
Unique rank
Comprising 150 players with 4 active skills, 4 passive skills, and 3 ultimate skills.
Unique ranks can either be brought into the world at that class, or they can be normal rankers who reach the minimum required advancement level and get randomly selected by the system. In the latter case, the system will then bring in someone to fill the newly promoted individual’s empty normal rank spot.
1. Sorcerer: upgrade from Mage; gains additional elemental attribute
2. Paladin: upgrade from Warrior; gains holy attribute for physical attack and defense
3. Dark knight: upgrade from Warrior; gains dark attribute magic
4. Rogue: upgrade from Thief or Archer; combines the attributes of both classes
5. Priest: upgrade from Monk or Cleric; combines the holy skills of both classes
6. Engineer: upgrade from Blacksmith; gains third elemental attribute
7. Pharmacist: upgrade from Herbalist; gains third elemental attribute
Rare rank
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
60 players divided equally among all 6 classes; each person has 4 active skills, 4 passive skills, and 4 ultimate skills.
With 10 players per class, players can either be brought to Terra as a rare class directly or a unique ranker may be selected to advance (which means the system then fills their now empty slot with someone new to the world).
Additionally, in the case of players brought directly in to fill an empty rare rank role, their classes are only visible upon reaching level 30:
1. Alchemist: upgrade from Engineer or Pharmacist with roulette style affinity for any two elements at once; gains time attribute
2. Sword master: upgrade from Paladin; gains immunity to dark magic
3. Druid: upgrade from Sorcerer; gains ability to summon plants and animals
4. Necromancer: upgrade from Dark knight; gains immunity to holy magic
5. Assassin: upgrade from Rogue; gains immunity to poison
6. Seer: upgrade from Priest; gains mind-reading abilities
Legendary rank
Only 30 people in the world hold a class of this rank, with 5 players per class. Each class comes with 4 active skills, 4 passive skills, and 5 ultimate skills.
The same rules apply for filling legendary rank slots: either the system brings someone in directly to the role, or a rare ranker is promoted while a replacement is found for their previous role.
In a similar manner to rare ranks, players brought directly in to fill an empty legendary rank role are unable to see their class until they reach level 50.
1. Sage: upgrade from Alchemist; gains the power to manipulate all 6 elements
2. Saint: upgrade from Sword master; gains healing, protection, detox, and revive magic
3. Oracle: upgrade from Seer; gains insight into the world and receives real-time updates on anything they choose to monitor
4. Shade: upgrade from Necromancer, with additional mastery over shadows
5. Summoner: upgrade from Druid; gains ability to summon spirits which are either elemental magic-based or physical-based attacks
6. Dhampir: upgrade from Assassin; gains immunity to all magical attacks
In terms of upgrading, each time a player moved up to a higher ranked class, they would suffer a penalty:
1. Normal classes can upgrade upon reaching at least level 50, but would drop to level 25 if they successfully moved to unique rank.
2. Unique classes had to be at least level 50 to qualify, but would drop to level 20 at rare rank if they successfully upgrade.
3. Moving from rare to legendary required a player to be at least level 50 at rare rank, but their level would then drop to 10 if they successfully move up to legendary rank.
----------------------------------------
Ray, the Imperial Knight who looks like a brutal barbarian but speaks like a gentle scholar, makes it a point to tell Lexi that the upgrade potential from lower to higher classes is a source of conflict among players.
“Even if the promotion is random,” his eyes are somber, “many have killed for the opportunity.”
I see.
The warning is clear. With her time attribute, they and others in the viscounty know she’s either a rare or legendary ranker - which makes her the target of engineers, pharmacists, and potentially alchemists.
And it’s not only transmigrators who seek the powers of higher ranking players.
Lexi is glad they haven’t eaten at all, glad she’s only had a few gulps of cool water from a clear stream Eric led them to earlier. She’d been hesitant at first - who knew how many dead bodies were soaking upstream, how many people had defecated further up from them - but the red haired knight had given her a look and she’d reluctantly gotten down on her knees to try and scoop water up to her lips the way the Ray had been doing so easily.
Extraction.
When some players die, they vanish completely as though they’d never existed. Others turn into piles of ash, drops of water that immediately soak into the ground, flashes of light that shoot up towards the sky.
But the unlucky bunch - and Lexi is positive she’s in the poor unfortunate soul cohort - cannot die per se, even if the system recognizes their ’demise’ and brings a new player in to replace them. Instead, even when these select individuals are hacked to pieces and burned, even if they’re dragged to the depths of the ocean or eaten, their consciousness lingers.
It’s on this group that some NPCs perform dastardly experiments to harness the power within their broken bodies, doing whatever it takes to acquire immortality, control over time and summons, mastery over shadows and the dead.
And all the while the player remains aware of every slice of blade, every twist of screw, every crunch of molars.
I’m unfit and not trained for mortal combat, unlike these guys or even those knights back at the viscounty. And I don’t have a single skill that can protect me, not when usage of Foresight itself depends on timing and (I assume) a specific set of conditions.
That means if I get caught by the extractor bunch, it’s game over and farewell hope, all good to me is lost.
She can’t think of a way out of eternal suffering - not when she knows so little about this world, and not when it’s a fact that she’s ridiculously weak physically thanks to years of indolence and indulgence.
Her face probably gives her away immediately, and though she knows she should play it off as being an extraordinarily empathetic person, Ray’s eyes turn sorrowful when he looks at her.
Even Eric’s jaw clenches slightly, though Lexi isn’t sure if it’s because she’s stopped walking and they have to wait for her to catch up.
----------------------------------------
She’s quiet until noon the next day, and the men with her say nothing the entire time.
Lexi knows she should move on from the macabre information, find out more, be rational and pragmatic if she wants to survive. But it takes a great deal of effort not to give in to the despair exacerbated by exhaustion and hunger at the realization that her random welcome package - and her accidental activation of it - have resulted in her being tied to such a gruesome fate.
Not only did the system say I’m permanently disqualified from quitting the game, but look at the UX - when I wanted to quit, ‘No’ was on the right, but for every other command, ‘Yes’ is on the right.
Eventually, when hunger makes her stumble for the sixth time, Eric signals Ray before wandering off.
Where...?
“My lady, this way.”
Maybe she shouldn’t even trust these two. They’d saved her from the viscount - one of the monsters who performs extraction on players, and the real reason no Hargreaves has been presented to the Guild for initiation in seven years - but who knows if they’re taking her to someone else for the same cruel experiments?
In many transmigration, reincarnation, or time travel stories, emperors, imperial family members, and nobles are greedy, selfish, twisted creatures wearing human faces. Even knights and holy characters can turn out to be nothing but demons in disguise. It wouldn’t be a stretch to think that the two Imperial Knights who’d protected her and helped her escape would only later be selling her off to the highest bidder in order to line their pockets with money, or turn her over to their master - the emperor - who might make the viscount look like a teddy bear.
But then, if she doesn’t trust them, who else can she rely on right now - alone in a foreign world, with no way of returning home, without the barest means to survive?
“Please take a seat, my lady.”
Dumbly, she does as she’s told, legs shaking and every muscle screaming thanks to more exercise these few days than she’s done in years.
“Why did the two of you stop running and start walking?”
Lexi’s always been too curious for her own good. Her father had encouraged it though.
Ray has settled down on the ground near her, less than one long, trunk-like arm away but not too close that she feels uncomfortable in this vast plain of sandy soil and scrawny trees.
“It would be best not to overuse Flash while we are still twenty days out from the capital, my lady. It would attract the kind of attention we need to avoid for now.”
So it’s called ‘Flash’.
And the capital is HOW far away?!
Straightening at the realization, she turns shocked eyes to the stoic man who looks for all the world like he’s lounging on a couch in his living room streaming some mind-numbingly boring show or other.
“The Viscounty of Brego is located to the northeast of the capital, my lady.” He’s found what would be a stick in her hands, though in his it looks like a toothpick. With the same confident strokes she’d always envied her art teachers, a map begins to form on the ground.
“We are currently one day’s walk from the Bridge of Thorns, after which we will be in the County of Flamigratia. From there, we will head west for three days, before beginning to make our way southeast through the Duchy of Dromhuigh, Viscounty of Herkoun, and County of Nurslean.”
The toothpick meanders casually over sand before it draws a large, multi sided polygon. “We will enter the capital through the southeast gate, and then make our way to the Guild for your Initiation.”
All the names mentioned are buzzing around in her head, shedding consonants and gaining vowels, so Lexi gives up trying to remember and instead asks the question that’s been lingering on her mind all this time: “What’s the initiation?”
The toothpick snaps, and she wonders if she’s done something wrong. But Ray doesn’t move beyond that, and at length his melodious baritone fills the quiet air once more.
“It is a ceremony that records your name in the history of Terra and grants additional player functions. After the ceremony, the Guild will provide you with a welcome gift of a thousand gold coins.”
Is a thousand gold coins a lot?
“My lady.” Lexi’s always been told that her face is too expressive for her own good. “A family of six may live an entire year on just five gold coins.”
What the fu-
“Why is the Guild giving out so much money to new players?”
There’s no such thing as a free lunch.
For the first time since they’ve met, Ray looks pleased, though his face returns to its usual impassive expression quickly.
“Players are extraordinarily valuable individuals, my lady.” And? “They attract danger simply by existing.”
I see. It’s condolences, good luck, and a challenge all at once.
How she uses that money will be closely scrutinized, how long she manages to stay alive will be judged by everyone around her.
Given she now knows the bare minimum amount of money needed to survive for a year in this world, that means the excessive initiation fund is meant to help her bolster her standing and abilities in some way.
Wait a minute.
“Display status and skill screen.”
To his credit, Ray doesn’t even blink.
Oh, wait.
“Can you see this?” Her finger hovers just a hair’s breadth from her profile picture on the screen, but the burly knight shakes his head.
“Only players can see such things, my lady, though I have heard of a handful of players who can see another’s details in depth.”
Interesting.
When she turns back to the screen and casually glances at the information displayed, she wonders what’s wrong with the world.
----------------------------------------
CHAPTER 4 END