Ch. 8.0
Part 1
*Ping*
A message popped up while I was eating my pastry. As for where I got the delicious treat it was when Boss was dragging me out and we just happened to passed by a tray of cooling pastries. I may have been too shocked to curse at Boss but I was never too shocked to stock up on some good food.
You have received one new video message.Would you like to play the message?YesNo
Curious since I didn’t remember the packet mentioning that Royal Road had such a feature and since I haven’t spoken to any players yet I pressed yes.
The message disappeared and the face of Dr. Cha soon appeared on the screen.
“Hello everyone, I forgot to mention another special feature of my modified capsules. Thanks to my brilliance I can directly send a message from out here to your in game characters. Oh right, before I forget I just wanted to notify you all that there will be a physical checkup scheduled for all of you today. We are aware that there is a possibility that some of you are currently busy or occupied in the midst of an important quest/event. That is why you do not have to log out immediately but just make sure you find some time today to get your physical exam.”
After the message ended another message popped up saying Do you wish to replay the message?
Answering with a no Alexander closed the message window. Finishing up his pastry Alexander decided to plan his next course of action.
“Guess I’ll get the checkup done now since I can’t really do anything at the moment.”
After being kicked out of the pastry shop a few players nearby were attracted to the sounds of what appeared to be an elf cursing at the owner of a pastry shop. Alexander equipped his hood before taking off but it was too late.
The players that saw him soon spread the news that the elf swordsman was disguising himself with a hood. Soon every player that was found wearing an overly large hat, a hood or anything to cover their head was pestered until they finally took it off. Pretty soon he would stick out like a sore thumb since there were fewer players walking around with their head gears equipped.
Making sure there were no players in the area Alexander quickly logged out. He prayed that nobody saw him logging off. If someone did spotted him he would have been greeted by the site of a huge welcoming committee consisting of every player in the the entire city camping right at his log in spot. With a flash of light his avatar was gone.
Opening his eyes Joshua saw nothing but darkness. He reached out over to where the open switch for the hatch of the capsule should have been. However there was no switch and his hand swiped through empty space. After a while he soon realized that his body was still wearing the beginners outfit meaning he was still Alexander. While floating through the empty space he realized with some effort using his mind he could control the movement of his body. He was moving his avatar slowly but at least he had some control.
“This is weird. Am I still playing? I’m pretty sure I logged off. I did say log off right?”
“Is this a glitch in the system, will anyone notice? Am I stuck here forever?”
Alexander’s face contorted as he worried for soon his mind was clouded by negative thoughts over the abnormal situation.
As he fought to stay calm in his current predicament he felt something stir in the darkness. Whatever it was he could definitely sense that whatever was moving it was something that he did not want to mess with.
He winced as a sudden flash of light entered his eyes. Eyes adjusting he could see the area around him was getting brighter and brighter. The source of the intense light was coming faraway rising steadily up towards him. Looking down the distant object appeared to be a small glowing dot. As it quickly approached at a groundbreaking speed he soon realized that the so called small dot was getting bigger and bigger and pretty soon it became bigger than any of the mountains he saw. And due to his constant outdoor trainings in various locations he had seen and climbed many of the Earth’s well known mountains.
Having no means to get away in time Alexander could only watch as what appeared to be a giant mass of white flames in a spherical shape was hurdling straight toward him.
Wincing at the idea of being roasted alive he flinched when unexpectedly the giant wall of fire about to impact his face suddenly exploded in front of him. Trails of white flames could be seen spreading out towards the entire area. Soon he was surrounded by the white flames that started swirling around, trapping him with nowhere to go.
However, despite being trapped by the whirling mass of white fire his eyes focused only in front of him as a shape began to form-no emerge out of the swirling mass of white fire. Soon he could see a head. But what surprised him was that the fact the head belonged to that of a dragon. As more of the colossal sized head emerged Alexander could only keep staring, transfixed by the mysterious beauty the beast showed.
With scales made out of a union of white and silver the beauty of its scales were further enhanced by the traces of pure white flame covering portions of its body. Not only was the dragon magnificent and more elegant than anything Alexander ever saw he could sense the enormous strength it had despite nothing happening.
Because he was so mesmerized by the appearance of the dragon he didn’t realize that the white flames so close to him now weren’t bothering him at all. Strangely it was comforting for him as the white fire passed over his body. But despite the comforts he was feeling from the white flame his heart was beating loudly like a drum.
Ba-dump!
Ba-dump!
Ba-dump!
Alexander’s breathing became heavier and heavier, his heart was beating faster and faster.
And then the dragon opened its eyes.
The sudden pressure was overwhelming! As he stared into its eyes his heart appeared to stop and it seemed time stopped along with it.
He watched as the dragon opened its mouth and let out a deafening roar, a roar so loud that it was only possible for a creature of its size!
Suddenly other color of flames appeared. A golden flame arch through the swirling white flames along with green, blue, red and then there was an explosion of black flames. The black flames started to dominate the other flames first the green then the blue and soon enough the golden and red flames were also overwhelmed.
From the approaching black flames he could hear a collision of weapons and the roars of screams
of all kinds of races fighting against the roars of the black flames. Soon all was quiet.
Then suddenly the dragon was gone! The swirling vortex of white flames still remained surrounding the area. Then came another collisions as the white flames faced on the incoming black flames. It was then that Alexander realized he could still hear its roar. The roar was coming from him-no, he wasn’t roaring the dragon was still roaring and suddenly he realized he was the dragon and the dragon was him and together the two roared as shadows soon covered the light. Still roaring Alexander conscious faded as he slowly started to black out.
Part 2
Opening his eyes Alexander quickly sat up.
Bang!
“Oww…”
With a groan Alexander who is now Joshua again was gripping his fore head from the unexpected pain.
His hands searched and finally found the hatch release button. Pressing the button the capsule opened allowing Joshua to get out. Heaving himself out of the electro gel Joshua’s heart slowly started to calm down again. His body shuddered as he remembered the vivid scene and he soon began to shiver.
“Tha-That was”
“That was so freaking unbelievably awesome!”
Joshua wasn’t shaking out of fear he was actually shaking because he was excited!
After performing a series of stretches and doing a few jumps, kicks and jabs working off the excitement of discovering how fun the game was he started to slowly breath in and out calming his body once again. Still he was very pleased to discover that after a whole week in real time of no activities his body was left in the same condition as he started.
“Hate to admit it but Dr. Cha sure is amazing.”
“Glad to hear.”
Joshua turned around only to see that the tall doctor was standing right next to his capsule. After checking off a few things on his clipboard the doctor merely glanced up from his inspection and while looking at Joshua with an emotionless face he said
“Although, it doesn’t really mean much to me since the compliment was coming from you.”
With that the doctor walked away with Joshua standing there who couldn’t believe what he had just heard. It seemed the doctor had an exceptional talent at pressing the wrong buttons when it came to Joshua.
Right before he had a chance to curse behind the doctor’s back the doctor suddenly turned around to face him again except this time the doctor had a confused look on his face.
“Well? Are you coming? I assume you came out of your capsule for your physical exam, that is unless you simply want to continue showing off your ahem* amazing skills like a circus monkey.”
Correction, the doctor definitely had an exceptional talent for pissing off people, especially when it came to Joshua.
After making Joshua perform a series of exercises while praising his amazing “circus skills” the doctor soon started poking unnecessarily hard in various places on Joshua’s body. Finally after having his eyes checked up Joshua was done with the physical exam and was allowed to go back to his capsule.
Just as Joshua turned to leave the doctor stopped him.
“Wait Joshua, before you go where exactly did you started in the game?”
“Rosenheim Kingdom. Why?”
“Oh no reason was just curious that's all. You may leave now.”
Puzzled by the doctors behavior Joshua headed back to his capsule wondering why on earth the doctor wanted to know such a thing. But seeing as he hated the doctor he soon forgot about it an logged back into the game.
What Joshua didn’t know was that the video message served as another function. After sending a video message to the recruits a list would appear stating where each player was currently at in game. This feature was added by the doctor himself upon the request of the Colonel. This way they could keep track of where the players were time to time from the real world.
The doctor chuckled to himself as he observed the list for it showed that only 1 recruit started off in a different city. The other recruits all started together in a different city.
Although Joshua sensed the hostility from his fellow recruits little did he know how much his fellow recruits shunned him.
Back in the capsule Joshua once again found himself floating in the darkness of space.
A message soon appeared asking him if he wanted to connect to Royal Road.
Quickly pressing yes Joshua waited to reunite with his new fantastic world.
His body changed and he was once again Alexander. Still floating the darkness of space he began to wonder if he would see that awesome dragon again. After a sudden blinding flash of light Alexander opened his eyes half expecting to see a gigantic dragon. Instead all he saw were the buildings and the passing npcs walking down the streets.
A notification popped up when he headed towards the streets.
Luckily for him according to the message the GM (Game Masters) notified the system administrators about the increasingly worrisome behavior some of the players were showing inside the city.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Notice by AdministratorsJust as in real life you must respect the privacy of others in the game.
Any excessive behavior/action will be reported.
If the reported behavior/action is deemed unreasonable said behaviors/actions will be penalized.
With a smile Alexander equipped his hooded cloak as he headed towards the streets as he thought to himself
-Thanks to that notice I can finally go where I want. It’s time to pay a visit to a certain npc.
After all it’s only fair to respond to a message.
Meanwhile at the training hall hundreds of players could be seen coming and leaving the training hall like a passing tide.
There the instructor could be seen observing the players swinging their wooden weapons at the scarecrows.
The instructor sighed to himself.
"So many weak minded warriors dropping their swords after a few swings. I mean sure there are the occasional few that show promise and some that show an impressive amount of perseverance but the things I would give just to have a few more like that elf."
Sighing to himself once again the instructor looked sadly upon the players as none of them were as exceptional as the elf swordsman. The elf warrior had greatly impressed the instructor by displaying his impressive techniques and how well they were executed. However more so than the strength and techniques which were impressive he was more proud of the fact that the elf warrior took his training seriously and as the sword came to life the elf shined with radiance over the joy of swinging his sword. That man was the only one he saw so far that displayed the characteristics of a truly great warrior.
Bored of watching the random comers and goers the instructor took out his lunch packed by his loving wife. Just as he was about to take out the wrapped containers his hand stopped.
There he saw a hooded figure quickly approaching him. Although he could not see the entire face completely the instructor could see the eyes of the person approaching him. He quickly stood up at the unexpected appearance of the elf swordsman.
“Ah! Warrior I see that you have returned. You seem much stronger than befo-gah!?”
*Slap*
The instructor could not believe what had just occurred. As he was greeting the hooded warrior the elf suddenly took out a folded letter from his cloak and proceeded to slapping him across the face with the letter.
Before the instructor could get angry Alexander took off his hood revealing how furious his face appeared to be. His wild eyes further increased the fury in his look. Intimidated the instructor could only stare as he listened to the angry shouting of the elf who proceeded to slap his face with every word.
“Thanks to you”
*Slap*
“Thanks to your careless, crude words”
*Slap*
“Now I lost both my job and a good friend who hates my guts all thanks to you!”
Of course Alexander was never really became friends with Boss and only said he was to make the instructor feel guilty rather than angry as he proceeded to slap the instructor over and over and over again.
At this point the instructor who was being frantically slapped and feeling an overwhelming sense of guilt lost all train of thought and tried to think of a way to please the stranger in hopes of forgiveness.
“Puh-Please wait elf warrior! I’m sorry I know I’ve wronged you but please give me a chance!”
“NO! You’re sorry? FORGIVE YOU? Oh **** No!”
“Listen to me good sir, May Freya have mercy on your pitiful soul for only Freya knows my anger and my wraith and only Freya knows what I am going to do to you!”
At this point the poor instructor became a victim of Alexander’s bullshit acting skills
which resulted in his mind temporarily breaking from a mixture of both guilt and fear.
The instructor soon begged the elf once again.
“I-I’m sorry! I truly am! Please elf warrior I know it may not be much but please
if you forgive me not only will I give you an iron sword for passing the basic training course
but I will also gift you any one of my swords from my personal collection!”
At this point Alexander was caught off guard, he did however had enough sense to keep his faked angry (I’m still freaking pissed off) mask on. Inside however he was doing a mental jig at the unexpected but welcomed gifts.
-Woohoo I’m getting free swords! Oh yeah~ I rock uh huh yeah who rocks? This guy~!
Ahem* please forgive the protagonist he can be immature at times
-What? Who the **** do you think you are calling me immature? You got a ******* problem with me you say it to my face Vsinity you got that?
How did you hear that? Hey how are you messaging me I blocked you already!
-Hah! You thought you could block this? Let me tell you what you **** ***** **-
[vsinity has logged off. The recipient is not available at this time.]
-Oh **** no you did not just cut me off agai-
[and back to the story!]
As the instructor was still begging for me to accept his offer and for forgiveness while keeping my fake anger persona on I agreed to his proposal. The instructor with a smile on his face bowed to me in gratitude and gestured to follow him to where he kept his vast collections of swords.
Upon entering the back room after the instructor unlocked the door I was swept away by the site of so many swords. From barrels containing swords all around to the swords covering the walls it was like entering a candy shop but instead of candies there were swords everywhere.
With a quick glance Alexander could tell that the impressive collections of swords were of high quality. There were so many different swords some that were amassed by the instructor himself when he was questing in his younger days, some were presented to him as a reward and the rest were gifted to him by his many students who have all long since made their mark in the world.
Eying the numerous swords before him Alex picked up every sword giving them a swing to test the balance and the weight. He ignored the thinner swords like the rapier for although it was fast he preferred a more stronger/durable blade. He also chose to ignore the bastard and broad sword and any other heavy two handed swords. He did have enough strength to wield the swords but he disliked how slow it felt.
Strangely enough there was a handkerchief out in display lying on a rather luxuries pillow. Raising an eyebrow Alexander passed by the handkerchief wondering why it was displayed as so.
However since he came here for a sword he went back to the task at hand.
Finally after swinging hundreds of swords he came across one that he truly liked.
The sword was under an enormous pile of other swords probably placed there since there was no more room to display them. It was a strange experience for Alexander for it seemed to him the pile was calling out to him. As he cleared away most of the layers of swords off the pile he came across a sword that had a long enough hilt that it could be wielded using two hands but still usable with one.
The beautiful sword seemed to call out to him and when his hand gripped the handle a sudden comfort filled his body as if he was previously missing a piece of himself but now after finding the missing piece he had become whole once again. The sheath of the sword had a long winding design of a silver tail coiled etched into the sheath. After a quick glance he could see that the design wrapped around the entire length of the black sheath. The guard was made of two black pieces of metal with a slight silver hue. The guards were in the form of two unfolding dragon wings as if it was about to take off. Even though there was no basis for his judgment Alexander knew the leather covering the grip of the hilt was probably dragon leather.
Before I had a chance to pull out and test the blade a notification message popped up.
Ding!
New Quest: Uncovering the Secrets of a Mysterious Vision
After recently having a vision of your ancestors past you have found an ancient sword
forged by a master black smith inspired by events of the past of the battles between the dragons
and their enemies.
At one time dragons roamed the vast continent of Versailles in large numbers but after their fierce battle involving the whole of the continent only a few dragons roam the continent of Versailles. Strangely there is no records or memories of such an event occurring.
Discover the truth behind the battle of your ancestors!
Difficulty: B
Rewards: Unknown
Restrictions: Must be a dragon or part dragon.
Must have witnessed a vision of the past.
Must have discovered a clue of the past.
Alexander stood in silence as he continued to stare at the sudden quest. In his hast over getting such an epic quest restricted for only him since none of the other players were part dragon Alexander quickly accepted the quest only to keep staring at one part of the quest. Rank B.
From his understanding the higher ranks means more difficulty and from based on what he knew he could already tell that he won’t be starting this quest anytime soon until he gained a lot of levels.
Picking up the sword Alexander went to ask the instructor where he had obtained the sword.
The instructor had so many swords he did not keep track of them all so Alexander was out of luck in that department.
With nothing else to do he forgave the instructor and exited the room only to face hundreds of players gathering there under the rumor of someone seeing an elf heading to the training hall. He quickly left surprised that none tried to stop him even when he hadn’t equipped his hood.
The reason why nobody approached our dear protagonist is quite simple.
The players that wanted to team up with him so badly before gave him a wide berth of space for they had all witnessed him bullying the instructor and to them anyone that could make the strict and fierce instructor cower in such a demeaning way was someone they should avoid at all cost.
With nothing else to do and having finished the last of his pastries Alexander headed towards the kingdom’s gates for it was about time for him to start his adventure.
Woohoo finally done with that! Was planning to show a stat window and skills but I'll just show it in the next chapter
I've been getting some make Joshua/Alexander suffer! comments and I please ask for some patience.
Since I just came up with a very wicked idea and need some time into figuring out how to place it into the story and
a small spoiler over his miserable event
Spoiler :
it won't be happening until after he meets up with his recruits in game. also I will not be breaking the fourth wall for sometime wasn't really planning to do so here either but I'll listen to some requests
Hope the plot isn't falling apart with all my random ideas.
speaking of random lets all have a moment of silence for I just received news that randomleech (one of my readers) was stomped to death by a horde of anons...may Freya bless his poor soul.
Thanks for reading. {[999abo}]