Don’t freak out. Please, John, don’t freak out. Something terrible happened, but Lucas can fix it. Didn’t he say that there was ‘unfreeze’ something once in the what color of the moon? My small hands shook as I nervously walked from one tree to another.
At level 0, my stats were pitiful, thus my body was demanding a rest, so I sat down and leaned my back against a pine tree. Status. A bluish transparent menu appeared, and I selected a tab of friends.
[You have no friends.]
No kidding game, my goodness. Founding Lucas wasn’t hard, and I was lucky because he was online and accepted my request.
[Lucas] Who are you?
[Princess] It’s me, John.
[Princess] Wait, my name is Princess? What the hell?
I panicked and called the character menu:
Name: Princess Class: Priest Race: Common Elf
[Lucas] Wow, that’s awesome!
[Princess] No, it’s not. I am a girl with a class of Priest. Can you check that?
[Lucas] Sure, let me log out.
My heart pulsated faster and faster as the panic attack clouded my judgment. I loudly breathed in and out and tried not to think about it. He was back so fast that I doubted he logged out at all.
[Lucas] Sorry John, but there was another Charlie.
[Princess] Another Charlie?! Don’t you dare to make fun of me!
[Lucas] Yeah, same as the dude, but she was a girl.
[Princess] So, can you change me back? Should I go to your apartment for the scanner?
[Lucas] That’s the thing you can’t. It’s too late, this ID is you. At least she is hot!
[Lucas] Sorry, tell me if you want to do some dung later. Priests are awesome healers!
The thing I feared most happened. Well, I could somehow live with being a girl, it’s not like gender was crucial. The girls will come here eventually, so the numbers will even out. No, that wasn’t a big problem.
The elephant in the room was the Priest class! How was I supposed to grind if I couldn’t fight? The weak class, a mage, could be a magic swordsman - that was decent.
What about the poor Priest? Priests were the worst combatants of them all; my playstyle was always playing solo. In QA, they paid you a bonus if you found a bug. If more QA testers found one, they would split the bonus.
I felt like my life had slipped through my fingers. My gaze went up to the beautiful forest; it was more real than reality. But then, the reality was fake anyway. Was it even worth it? That punk just should have let his father kill my simulation, and I wouldn’t know anything.
Raising up, I decided on a plan. It wasn’t like I was hopeless, was it? Nathan said that every class is important. It only depended on players how they will play it. Then I will be the ultimate Priestess in the entire realm! With a resolute step, I forged the path of the battle legend!
[Congratulations! You unlocked the STAMINA stat.]
The system had to remind me that the first thing every hero needs to do; exhaust himself. Herself, whatever. Ouch! A sharp pain of needles shot from my feet. Wait, what? Why was I barefoot? I checked the [Inventory] and found out that my poor character had only two items:
[Basic Robe] Quality: 0-broken Def: 0 Nobody knows why this ragged cloth is called a robe.
[Basic Staff] Quality: 0-broken ATK: 1-2 What a glorious way to call a stick.
I took a full breath and calmed down. My beautiful robe didn’t cover shoulders or hands, no sir! It looked like someone took an old bag, made four holes in it and then sew something to cover thighs, but it reached only to the knees. Oh yes, almost naked clothing for girls; that was a new thing for me. Whatever.
Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.
Judging by the surrounding trees, I was in a magical forest where the Elven players start. If I remembered correctly, this part was a woodland of dreams, so I should go north, exploit the Boss and quickly level. A good thing was, no one was around me — the bad thing was, no one was around me. Priests needed to play with others, no exceptions. Well, perhaps exploiters like me could be one?
Something rustled in the bushes behind me and before I noticed an enemy, a deep pain spread across my feet as something snapped at me!
“Ahhhh!” I couldn’t help but to shriek. This insane Princess person had set the reality filters to 100%! If I liked to change it, I would need to spam the support and wait. Damn Nathan. That’s why it felt so real! A weird mixture of a rabbit and a small bear tried to bite off a chunk of my leg.
[Congratulations! You unlocked the HP stat.]
[You lost 1 HP.]
[Bearbit Lv.1]
Type: 1-common Normal | HP: 8/8
“You wish, bastard!” My melodic voice surprised me, but then my warrior instincts kicked in and I destroyed him with my other feet.
[Congratulations! You unlocked the STRENGTH stat.]
[Due to low strength, Bearbit ignored the damage.]
Great, this is just great! I firmly gripped my staff and aimed straight for his head. The resulting dull, crushing sound was soothing my pulsating pain.
[Critical hit! Target lost 3HP.]
Yes! I tried various types of smashing until I had a complete victory and the weird, weak monster released me. If I was a warrior, I would just rip the sword through its head for x4 damage and one-shot it. Whatever.
[Bearbit has been defeated. +1XP]
Name: Princess ST: 2/15 XP: 2 AGI: 5
My good mood only lasted until I read my pitiful stats. Low hp, strength, and stamina. How was I supposed to fight with this nonsense? Whatever.
After a brief rest, my stamina recovered, and I continued my journey to the north. Bearbits were everywhere, almost like Nathan had designed them to level me at least once. The only bad thing was that I had to rest after every fight! I caught a glance of a thief in the distance as he was fighting at least three Bearbits at once. After I had complained once more, I resumed in my walk.
“Bearbits come at me! I am a master of a big stick!” I taunted them with my melodic voice. Two of them jumped on me and I expertly avoided the uglier one and with all my strength decapitated the second one. After the fight, the sweet tone of level up came up.
[Congratulations! You are now level 1!]
[Spell Heal unlocked. Mana unlocked.]
[You found a recalling scroll.]
[Recalling scroll] Quality: 3-rare Recalling scroll can be used to teleport to a teammate or a town in 2 miles radius. It requires 15s uninterrupted channeling.
Wait, a recalling scroll was still a thing? I guess Irwen was still slumbering somewhere. Anyway, finally I reached a level one! Okay, now the game starts for real. But first, let’s rest.
In the east of the same forest, Lucas was trying his first spell. He glared at a weird Chinese-like symbol in the help window, but when he tried to draw it in the air, he failed miserably.
What the hell am I doing wrong? This is nonsense! That was the symbol, alright!
When he was in deep consideration of the intricacies of this damn system, he got another message from John. He wanted to form a party. Sure, why not? He accepted the request and sat on a small boulder nearby. His failed attempts depleted all the mana, so it would take at least a minute to replenish it all.
Suddenly, a loud rumbling interrupted the calm, zen-like atmosphere of the quiet forest; it boomed almost as if something heavy crashed on a glass floor. Next, the wind blew violently, and all needles around him rustled.
“What’s going on?” Lucas jumped and scanned the surrounding grass. Just next to his stone was ground marked by a weird circle and inside it, he saw similar symbols like he tried to write before.
A Boss battle, maybe? He pulled his staff closer to his chest and prepared to face anything that would crawl from the magic thing! A few breaths later, a magic filled the circle with a light so bright that he couldn’t see a damn thing inside. When it disappeared, a shock drained all blood from his face.
Instead of Boss, he saw a girl he knew more than well. Her pale blonde hair tumbled over her shoulders, and the virtual reality helped her perfectly shaped waist; even her slightly more than average boobs looked bigger, but her legs weren’t even an inch longer than in reality; she would be sad.
She prayed so much to have a smaller nose and longer legs, but Lucas preferred her that way. And it was so cute when she used to be furious because of it in front of the mirror.
Her long, pointy ears, the signature feature of elves, took his breath away. He remembered the nights in the park when they talked about the future and how they will explore this new game world. That was before he made a mistake. That was before he lost it all, before they took her from him.
Her perfect white teeth flashed as she waved at him and his heart ached. He knew she was gone; he knew she won’t come back; he knew this was only an echo. He knew all that, but he couldn’t help but to smile back at his Charlie.
Ah, John, what have I done?