Hey, I am a Warrior
Two years passed by since Jae-Yong accepted the contract.
Over the past two years, Jae-Yong had done an intensive training with the help of Sang-Chol’s help. His daily days were worst than hell — During the first entire year of his training, Jae-Yong’s schedule implied; waking up at three in the morning, going jogging for two hours, going fishing for three hours, working at a blacksmith’s shop for five hours, sewing clothes in a clothes’ shop for five hours, working in a tunnel for two hours.
In addition, Jae-Yong never neglected his health, not even a single day. He maintained his body healthy, by eating three meal per day. Even though he only slept for four hours a day due to his intensive training, since Sunday was his day-off, it allowed him to maintain a balanced sleeping pattern.
Such intensive training allowed his body to get used to the feeling of the professions mentioned above.
In The Dark Ages, if one’s body was not used to the profession, one could unmistakably not use his maximum potential in that profession. For example, if someone forges for the first time in his life, there was no way he could forge a masterpiece on his first try. The same applies to the other professions. This was principally the reason as for why Jae-Yong had such an intensive training.
As for the remaining one year Jae-Yong had, he moved back into his grandfather’s dojo to train his weapons masteries.
Jae-Yong’s grandfather was a renowned martial artist. Normally, after the death of his parents, he was supposed to move into his grandfather’s dojo. But since the dojo was situated in the countryside, on the top of a mountain, there wasn’t a single that could treat his little sister Min-Ha.
Thus, back then, Jae-Yong stayed in Seoul instead of returning to his grandfather’s dojo. It was way better for Min-Ha’s well-being to stay in Seoul instead of going there.
Returning to Seoul after a long time, Jae-Yong first directed towards the hospital where Min-Ha stayed.
Entering the room, a young girl was peacefully reading a book. Hearing the door opening, she averted her eyes away from the book and turned her head towards the entrance. Seeing Jae-Yong, a bright smile appeared on her face.
“Jae-Yong oppa!” Min-Ha exclaimed.
“How are you feeling?”
“Not too well…” Min-Ha lively mood instantly dropped. She was now showing a sad expression as if she received a sad new. The sudden change of mood frightened Jae-Yong.
“Did something happened?” Jae-Yong worriedly asked.
“I… I miss you so much that I could have died from not seeing you!” Min-Ha revealed as she extended her arms, waiting for Jae-Yong to hug her. Her sad expression abruptly returned into the former lively attitude. It was her little joke to punish Jae-Yong from leaving her alone.
“You almost worried me to death!” Jae-Yong angrily said as he lightly chopped Min-Ha’s forehead.
“Hehe... Sorry.” Said Min-Ha as she giggled, satisfied by Jae-Yong’s reactions. Her devilish plan had perfectly worked against him.
Although Jae-Yong separated with Min-Ha after accepting the contract, he didn’t worry much about her. Both received a phone from Sang-Chol and they were texting every day since he started his intensive training.
Jae-Yong keeps talking with Min-Ha and stayed next to her the whole day. It was the day before the official release of The Dark Ages, so he wanted to spend today’s time only with her. They chatted about everything and anything that happened to them during these two years.
*****
Right now, Jae-Yong was standing in front of the virtual reality machine, reading the guidebook of The Dark Ages. The game had already started thirty minutes ago, but instead of directly play, he learned more rigorously about the game through the guidebook.
Knowledge was the key to have a better lead compared to other players. The more information one had, the better the choice one could make within the game. It was something that most professional players did before entering a game, which was to get the maximum useful pieces of information as possible to get a better lead once they played.
During these two last years, Jae-Yong had collected as much data as possible. If he was to claim that he was a beta-tester, no one could deny him.
“All right. Let’s play.” Jae-Yong said as he closed the guidebook.
Entering the virtual reality machine, Jae-Yong abruptly appeared inside a dimensional space. He couldn’t see the walls of the room, but when surveying at the white floor under his feet and the white ceiling above his head, Jae-Yong could already envision how immense the room was.
The dimensional space stupefied Jae-Yong who was looking at his surroundings, a transparent game-like window suddenly materialised in front of him.
Welcome to The Dark Ages. Please write your character name.
Jae-Yong didn’t hesitate and wrote Shy. It was his in-game name since he played games. If the name was taken, he would usually put one or two words to make the name available. touching on the [Confirm] button, another window came into view.
Please select your race from the list below:
-Dwarf
-Gnome
-Dark Elf
-Orc
...
...
...
Jae-Yong could see a list of countless names of different races below the message. After finding the [Human] race, Jae-Yong once again pressed the [Confirm] button.
You may alter your in-game appearance. Do you wish to change it? Yes/No
After a short hesitation, Jae-Yong pressed the [Yes] button and changed his appearance a little. The changes were minimal, his in-game character didn‘t change much compared to his current appearance, yet it was still a different person. His close friends and family might distinguish him, but others could probably not. Convinced, he pressed the [Confirm] button.
Your account has been successfully created.
Please select the kingdom and the city where you want to appear from the list below:
-The Aegis Kingdom
-The Beirut Kingdom
-The Green Emerald Kingdom
...
...
...
Looking at the list, choose the one from the bottom. People would usually choose the top 10 from the list because it was on their view, but Jae-Yong knew that the fewer people there were, the better it was. Choosing Velhart City from the Maeve’s Kingdom, a magic circle formed under his feet.
I hope you enjoy your moment in The Dark Ages!
As Jae-Yong finished reading the message in the window that just appeared, his body abruptly disappeared from the dimensional space, teleporting him to Velhart City.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
*****
Velhart City was one of the major city between the thirties city within the Maeve’s Kingdom. At two hundred kilometres away from the capital of the Maeve’s Kingdom, the citadel of Valhalla, Velhart City had a population exceeding two millions of inhabitants.
In front of a fountain in the main square of Velhart City, countless players appeared out of nowhere. They were the newcomers who just finished creating their in-game character and had chosen Velhart City as their starting town. Among them, was Jae-Yong.
Upon appearing, Jae-Yong was taken aback as he didn’t expect the massive numbers of players appearing one after one from left to right, immediately surrounding him. He thought that he had wisely chosen the less populated city, but he truly underestimated the number of players who played The Dark Ages upon its release.
Having finally squeezed out from the mob of new players that were infinitely spawning from left to right, Jae-Yong sighed in relief as he immediately left the main square.
This was one problem that Jae-Yong found in the guidebook. He truly couldn’t understand why the developers of the game made a quest giver non-player character (NPC) right in front of the spawning location. It was definitely a waste of time to try receiving this quest. Luckily, the rewards for this quest was only a few coppers coins and a beginner sword. It was surely not deserving to waste one’s time for such meaningful rewards.
This was the difference between a casual player who did not inform himself beforehand and a veteran player who already had such information, giving him a considerable amount of time. He could only feel sorry for them as he thoughtfully visited the city, searching for other quests.
Jae-Yong sighed as he left the commercial square. He tried to talk to every NPC he encountered during his visit, but none of them gave him a quest. They either already gave their quest to someone else, or they had none that were available. Even though he was only fifteen minutes left due to his reading the guidebook, it was still the fifteen minutes too much, the smartest players already took them before he got the chance.
“Oh, that’s right I still didn’t check my status.”
Opening his interface, Jae-Yong opened [Shy - Status], showing his characters’ status.
Character Name: Shy Level: 1 Class: Beginner Title: None Guild: - Gender: Male Health: 100/100 Mana: 50/50 Strength: 8 Agility: 6 Stamina: 10 Vitality: 4 Wisdom:
0
Intellect: 5 Luck: 0 Charisma: 0 Willpower: 0 Perception: 0 Attack Power: 20 Magic Attack Power: 0 Defence: 2 Magic Resistance Fire: 0% Water: 0% Earth: 0% Wind: 0% Light: 0% Dark: 0%
The Strength (STR) attribute increases one's Attack Power (AP), increasing one's physical damage dealt on an enemy. This was the most important stat for melee classes such as warriors, swordsmen, berserkers, and so on.
The Agility (AGI) attribute increases one's Dexterity (DEX), increasing one's Attack Power (AP), Critical Rate (CR), and Dodge Rate (DR). This was the most important stat for leather armour classes such as thieves, monks, archers, and so on.
The Stamina (STA) attribute increases one's Defence, and Health Point (HP). This was the second stat that a tank (such as knights, shield wearers, soldiers, and so on) need to increase after the Vitality attribute.
The Vitaliy (VIT) attribute increases one's amount of HP by a margin. Compared to the Stamina attribute, the Vitality attribute increases the amount of HP four times more than the Stamina attribute.
The Wisdom (WIS) attribute increases the amount of experience point (EXP), one could get after killing a monster or crafting an item. This stat was the most important one for levelling one's character or one's profession.
The Intellect (INT) attribute increases one's Magical Attack Power (MAP), and Mana Point (MP). This was the most important stat for spell caster such as mages, clerics, druids, and so on.
The Luck (LCK) attribute increases the percentage of Dropping Rate, a tiny amount of Critical Rate, and Dodging Rate. This stat is useful for dungeons, raids, or rare bosses since it helps one to have a higher chance of dropping a good item.
The Charisma (CHA) attribute increases the percentage of attracting someone from the opposite gender. This stat is useful for sub-classes such as dancers, merchants, bards, scholars, and so on. This stat can increase the percentage of receiving a quest from someone from the opposite gender.
The Willpower (WIL) attribute decreases by a tiny percentage of the duration from getting Crowd Controlled ((CCs) such as fears, stuns, mental controls, and so on). This stat is useful on Player vs Player (PvP).
The Perception (PRC) attribute increases one's Accuracy, a tiny percentage of Crafting Success (chance of creating an item), and Senses (detect traps, hiding enemies, better hearing, and so on). This stat is essentially useful in general. Attribute points cannot increase the Perception attribute.
The Attack Power (AP) increases one's damage dealt on an enemy. The higher the Attack Power, the higher the amount of damage one can deal. This stat is useful for melees classes such as warriors, swordsmen, berserkers, and so on. One point of Strength increases the Attack Power by 2 (the multiplier of STR to AP rate is different depending on the level of the user).
The Magic Attack Power (MAP) increases one's damage dealt on an enemy with a spell. The higher the Magic Attack Power, the higher the amount of damage a spell can deal. This stat is useful for magic spell casters such as mages, clerics, druids, and so on.
The Defence (DEF) attribute reduces one's physical damage taken. The higher the Defence, the lesser the amount of damage one receives. This stat is useful for tank such as knights, shield wearers, soldiers, and so on.
"I see now. The reason why I couldn't get any quest from talking to the NPCs was actually due to my Charisma being at 0." Jae-Yong muttered as he finally realised an important fact.
As Jae-Yong was walking through the commercial square, looking at his character status, an idea suddenly came into his mind.
“Why didn’t I think about it earlier?” muttered Jae-Yong as he directly directed toward the guild’s building.
Established in the centre of the administrative square, there were many people that entered and left the guild’s building. Besides the guild’s building, there was also the blacksmithing guild, the alchemist guild, the herbalism guild, the leatherworking guild, the cooking guild, the mining guild, the tailoring guild, the first aid guild, and the gem-cutting guild, the woodcutting guild, and the architect guild. It was the place where one learns a profession, join, or create a guild.
“Need a last cleric for a 5-man party levelling!”
“Newbie level 1 looking for a guild!”
“Dark Emblem is recruiting new members from all levels!”
Arriving in front of the guild’s building, Jae-Yong saw many people shouting from left to right. Compared to most of the new players that were trying to get the quest from the NPC in the main square, these players were a bit smarter; they were either trying to join a guild, recruiting new members, or looking for a party to farm monsters. Even if they lost a little amount of their time recruiting people, in the end, it was still a better choice than these players who were stuck at the main square, trying to get a quest that wasn't even worth.
“Need a last warrior for a goblin's village extermination quest!”
As Jae-Yong was carefully listening to the people who were shouting, the word “quest” suddenly entered his ear. Looking at his surroundings, Jae-Yong eventually found the man who shouted the announcement.
With a grin on his face, Jae-Yong came toward him as he muttered, “As I expected. You can also receive a quest that way.”
“Hey, I’m a warrior. I would like to join your party.” Closing the distance between the man and him, Jae-Yong said.
Turning his head toward Jae-Yong, above the man's head, was a green diamond.
In The Dark Ages, a blue diamond above one‘s head means that this person was a player. A red diamond above one's head indicated one as either a monster or a red player (PKer). As for the green diamond... it was none other than NPCs.
The man in front of Jae-Yong was not a player, he was an NPC.