Edit(23/6/15): I just noticed that several of the AI's dialog lines were cut out for some reason. I've added them in again but looking at the problem more closely, it seems like the forum code cuts out any line beginning with [I ...and takes it as a indicator of italics....
Note: I claim no ownership over all images used.
Satoshi’s Perspective (Right after character creation)
Part 1 – Link Start!
First there was darkness… then there was a flash! And an explosion of colour!!
Lo and behold, the world was created!!!
Or so scientists say…
But the light! It burns!
Well, not really…
I’ll admit that the sudden change from darkness to light did overload my senses for a few moments but that was only to the extent of stepping indoors on a very sunny day. Nothing too major, it just took me a few moments to regain my bearings.
Theatrics aside, after much time wasting, I arrived into the virtual world of Royal Road.
Wait, Royal Road was the name of the game wasn’t it? If I remember correctly the name of this place should be the continent of Versailles or something.
In front of me was a town square… or circle… of some sort.
Basically, it was a large circular piece of land which didn’t have any buildings constructed on it. The floor was made of coloured paved stone. There was a gushing water fountain in the middle of the town square.
It was pleasantly cool here. The sun shone brightly in the cloudless sky. Judging from the sun’s position, I guess it should still be morning in-game? Sometime between 9-11 am I guess? It was around the time that I wake up nowadays.
Since I spawned near the centre of the town square… circle, I was right next to the water fountain. Water occasionally splashed at me from the fountain so I quickly moved away.
This town circle was surrounded by buildings and had multiple walkways leading in and out of it.
There weren’t really that many people out and about.
Although I say “not many”, it wasn’t to the extent of a ghost town. There were people walking around in isolated groups but it was nothing like the city rush hours.
I guess that was to be expected.
Considering the fact that there were multiple races, multiple starting cities and that most people outside of Korea wouldn’t have access to the game yet etc etc, there weren’t going to be that many players yet.
I guess it’s because the game and monthly subscription fee wasn’t cheap and most people were probably waiting for reviews and guides to come out before trying as well?
I took a moment of silence to thank the connections I had that allowed me to play this game.
Okay! Now that that’s out of my system lets get back to business!
First is the GUI (Graphical User Interface) a.k.a. the controls.
On the left corner of my vision I could see 3 resource bars. One for Health, one of Mana and one for what appeared to be stamina.
Hmmm… was that all?
There were no other buttons present to open settings, character information etc.
I felt cold sweat trickling down my back.
“No logout button…”
No, I probably missed it.
I tried turning around to see if there was a button of some sort that I missed out. The resource bars moved with my line of sight. That was a bit distracting but I’ll probably just get used to that over time. No, now wasn’t the time to worry about that I had bigger fish to fry!
Come to think of it, that registration A.I. said that it would be with me for the first four weeks of something didn’t it? Let’s try calling it then.
“Umm…. Registration A.I. … how do I log out?”
[…]
No response? Have I been abandoned?
Hey hey, this can’t be happening! I don’t know how to log out!
What’s going to happen next?
Is some psychopathic game master going to take over the game and declare that death in-game will result in the capsule exploding and challenge every player to clear the game?
Will I become have to become a frontline loner who uses main character powers to seduce some hot chick in the end-game and then dies while clearing the game but somehow manages to escape the game alive only to find out that the chick has been kidnapped by some random relative and held hostage in another game?
Is that how my life is going to play out? Actually, the life of a beater is appealing in some ways but that’s not the problem here!
As I sincerely started to wonder how to log out a message appeared in front of me with a sound effect.
Ding!
Do you wish to log out of Royal Road?
Oh! Thinking about how to log out gave me a log out message. So the user interface is thought controlled?
Well, considering the fact that my thoughts were able to control my virtual avatar, it would make sense that thoughts could do other things.
If the system controls would be controlled in this manner doesn’t that mean that things like skills and spells could be activated with thoughts alone as well then?
If I continue on this train of thought then then doesn’t that mean that–
Ding!
You have a very active imagination for someone who was having a panic attack. Copyright agents might start targeting your life if this keeps up you know?
I repeat. Do you wish to log out of Royal Road? Aincrad still has several floors left for you to clear.
I jumped a bit with a start.
The hell? Oh…that’s how it was. I calmed down as I figured out what was going on. The A.I. was there after all.
Well thank you for scaring the shit out of me you crappy A.I.
“No I’ll stay in-game. The joke’s on me this time. How did you know what I was thinking?”
The A.I. responded cheerfully to my question.
[ I told you before didn’t I? I am part of the entity that runs this whole game. Thus, I am everywhere and nowhere at the same time.]
“Everywhere and yet also nowhere. That sounds strangely philosophical.”
No rather, I feel like I’ve heard about a power like that before…
[ I control everything and yet I also control nothing at the same time. Because of that, all the thoughts of all entities in this game have to go through me before action is taken. Here’s an extremely simplified example, if you wanted to lift your arm up, the command lift up player “Satoshi” with idXXXXXXX would be transmitted to me from your thoughts. Then I would perform several tests to check if your command is valid e.g. do you have enough stamina to perform this action, is your strength stat high enough to do this etc… then once all the tests are passed I perform the action of lifting up your arm for you. The speed at which this happens is instantaneous from the perspective of human reflexes though so your brain won’t notice the slight lag caused by this process.]
Hmmm… So basically you’re a proxy that controls everything in game. Hmmm… I’m pretty sure an A.I. was supposed to do something else though…
[Whilst doing all this, I am also operating in real time as well performing actions such as taking care of Unicorns management, sabotaging rival companies, hacking into world banks etc etc.]
Hacking into… Ok that’s just downright scary. Let’s pretend I didn’t hear that.
Speaking of which, this conversation is getting side-tracked in a weird way. Now that I found out how to log out, I don’t really need the A.I.’s help anymore...
“Is it really okay for you to be with me right now though? Don’t you have to manage other registering players?”
[I’m only a fragment of the whole system so it doesn’t really matter if I’m here are not. And technically, my capabilities allow me to do both at the same time.]
“So you’re just a slacker with the processing ability of a VRMMORPG program. What a waste… Another Yutaka Hasebe in the making except this time you’re not a public servant…”
[Rather than a public servant, I’m more of the “Oddball Handler” type. I always seem register for the strange people.]
Well that’s nice to know. Speaking of which my good “friend” lin4t also has the weirdo attractor attribute. He should have started by now, I wonder where he is.
[So what do you think about this game so far?]
The A.I. interrupted my thoughts. I look down at my slightly wet clothes. Simple beginner clothes. Nothing amazing.
“7.8/10. The graphics are great but there’s too much water.”
[Well that’s nothing a bit of Desolate Land won’t solve.]
Conversely my clothes were white. That’s amazing. The default equipment was the colour that was the easiest to stain. Forcing me to buy clothes early on so I don’t look like a hobo after falling down a few times? Was this intentional?
Or am I just delusional?
[I’ve seen cases worse than yours so don’t worry. You’re not that delusional.]
Not that delusional huh…
But in the end you don’t deny the fact that I’m delusional…
“I’m curious… What would be an example of a worst case than mine?”
The A.I. paused for a while before answering.
[Well you have people who are power hungry or just simply have a few loose screws in the head and also the occasional bullied loser too lazy to improve themselves until now but I guess those are just some boring generic cases. There’s also the chuunibyou cases… Oh! There are also the perverts as well. Those cases are all pretty interesting~]
Oh! The A.I. seems pretty enthusiastic about the last case. I guess she wants me to ask? Let’s grab the bait then.
“Would you like to share an example of the last case?”
With an excessively amused tone, the A.I. started talking.
[Well let’s just say that there was a person who had special interests and tried to do various things to the virtual avatar]
Various things… What like groping it or something? Is that even possible? Dammit I can’t believe that I hadn’t thought of doing that.
That being said I doubt that I would actually have the courage to actually do it. Now that I think about it, everything you do in the capsule is recorded as video data isn’t it?
In that case, I definitely wouldn’t have done that. I won’t do something that would leave evidence… I mean, I’m not desperate enough to do something like that.
Well you know the old saying: “smart has the brains but stupid has the balls”.
Not that I’m particularly smart or anything.
What a daredevil…
But to come up with that by themselves, doesn’t this mean that the guy who did this has both brains and balls?
Well, either way they have my respect.
“So what happened to that guy?”
I’m curious. What became of this revolutionary– this hopeless pervert?
[Well I can’t actually say in detail but various things happened involving a tight-ass gamemaster and that person was banned from choosing either gender or otherwise view their features.]
Eh? Gamemasters can do that? It seems like a pretty crappy as reason to stop someone from doing what they want in a game.
[It’s complicated. For your own sake don’t dive any deeper into this.]
“If you say so…”
[Of course that person always had the option of starting a new character but they refused to do so for some reason and instead tried to find a loophole in the system and requested I create a new gender for them which had the features they were looking for. But creating a new gender from scratch is a real pain so I simply cut corners and introduced them to a god who could grant their wish. (Of course I memory wiped the god afterwards.) Thus with the blessings of the Hideyoshi god, that person gained a gender which had the characteristics of both genders. Unfortunately for that person, the Hideyoshi gender also comes with a censorship (mysterious light) system which prevents them from accessing any 18+ material until they turn of age. In terms of bathroom and toilets, they are only allowed to enter ones specially built for Hideyoshi’s so no peeking or infiltrating the bathhouses.]
Hideyoshi… This again? What sort of otaku was this game made by?
“Actually, doesn’t this come dangerously close to breaching copyright laws?”
[ I believe that spreading the message for equal rights for Hideyoshi is a good thing! Gender inequalities are a thing of the past! No more will Hideyoshi be banned from appearing to the public due to copyright laws! No more will Hideyoshi be excluded from the census. No more will the right to vote be reserved for genders other than Hideyoshi. No more I say! Hideyoshi empowerment is intertwined with the respect for human rights! Equal rights for Hideyoshi! Society must accept the existence of the Hideyoshi!]
Woah! That... That was overwhelming... I was not ready for this kind of passionate speech…
Your words have moved me! When it comes to Hideyoshi, I too will not discriminate.
Come to think of it, it’s only been a few hours since the game first came out. I wonder where that pervert is now…
Well, time to stop sticking my head where it doesn’t belong.
After all, I am me. Worrying about strangers won’t get me anywhere. First I should address the matter at hand. The A.I. is an interesting conversation partner but I wonder how much it can actually do on this side.
“A.I. you’ve mentioned before that you’re a here as a help NPC. What exactly can you do?”
The answer was given instantaneously.
[Right now, I’m here to answer any questions you have about virtual reality or just the world in general. There are limits to how much I can help you though. To reduce interference to the minimum, I basically won’t talk unless you call for me and there’s a time limit on our conversation.]
Right now? So are you implying that in the right conditions you can do more than what you can now?
The A.I.’s choice of words was a bit vague.
[…]
The A.I. showed no inclination to answer my question either. Well, moving on.
“Are you an encounterable entity on this side of the game as well?”
[ I can make and control a body if I wish to, but I won’t interfere with this world unless something important happens. I’m something like Great Red swimming in the dimension gap. The strongest entity in existence but also something that cannot be battled with no matter what. Here’s a trivial fact, one of the names I go by is one of the most widely known deities in this world. Isn’t that neat? I’m practically a celebrity here~]
“Self-proclaimed celebrity! Please give me your autograph to pin on the wall of the house which I have yet to buy! On a more serious note, someone needs to raise flag for you to do something right?”
[Pretty much. I can’t tell you where and what the flags are though. Because of how it was designed, you’re more likely to raise flags by accident rather than on purpose though. Ah! We need to wrap this up.]
I’m guessing the time limit’s approaching then? Come to think of it we have been talking for a while now.
“Ah Okay. Anything In particular I need to know?”
[Hmmm… New players aren’t allowed to go out of the city in the first four weeks. To celebrate Royal Royal’s launching there is a secret event for a period of time where most of the public guilds give freebies to make life easier for Royal Road’s first players. Not really secret though since any NPC will tell you about it if you ask. It’s just something that’s not on the official website. By the way, the churches are forced to foot the bill for all these “free” general services and seem to hold a grudge against players because of that... Oh and don’t eat yellow snow~]
“Yellow snow?”
[…]
No reply. I guess I’m by myself now.
I took another look around. I hadn’t moved position during the conversation so my surroundings were the same.
Well there seemed to be more people around now but that was the only difference. A bunch of people were crowding around part of the town circle. I’m pretty sure they weren’t doing that when I arrived. Did something happen?
I moved to check out what the commotion was.
Part 2 – Princess Princess
As I moved closer I hear the sound of a raised voice.
Someone singing?
A street performer?
There’s someone begging at this time already?
“~Princess, princess!~”
This rhythm…
This tone…
The fact that there’s a male singer…
Something makes this song seem inherently familiar.
“~Princess! I love, love, love you!~”
I have heard this song before…
“~Princess, princess! Sparkle!~”
I have definitely heard this song before.
But where?
“~As long as I have you and all my friends I am invincible~”
Princess Princess…. If you translate this to Japanese then you get……………………………
………… The incantation for the magic spell which buffs bicycle riding speed.
What’s it doing in here? Another copyright infringement?
Ding!
Various things were absorbed from the internet in the process of collecting information to build this virtual world. As a result, not even the creators of this game know about all the elements in the game itself.
A rather informative message box appeared before me.
The question “What happened to keeping interference to the minimum?” did pop into my mind when I read the message but since I hadn’t really done anything yet I had no right to chastise the A.I..
By now I had joined the crowd and using my super special awesomely unique ability perfected by many years of lining up in the canteen line, I slipped through the crowd and saw…
… my “good friend” lin4t…
Dancing around a certain teddy bear tied up in bondage ropes…
Singing a certain song…
“…”
Immediately, I removed myself from his line of sight.
Simultaneously, I tried to remember the steps taken to download my video game data and upload this on facebook.
Then I closed my eyes, took a few deep breaths and calmed my mind.
As my special attack and special defence rose by one stage each, I opened my eyes.
Think.
Why would that guy do something like that?
Think.
He was the type of guy who tried to stay in the background after all.
Did he finally awaken his inner masochist and decide to graduate from being a closet pervert?
…Probably not.
Looking at it logically, it’s more likely that his weirdo attractor attribute acted up again and he ended up with some weird quest.
I took a moment to consider how badly that attribute affected him in real life. It wasn’t to the extent that interdimensional animal-guildys where attacking him but it was still pretty bad.
Yep, now I’m 75% sure that his current situation is because of the second case. But that still means that there’s a 25% chance of him gaining self-awareness that he’s a masochist.
“~Princess, princess!~”
But seriously, just watching him is enough to make me feel embarrassed…
Since I have the chance, maybe I should anonymously yell out “Encore! Encore!” and force him to repeat this again. Muhahahahaha! Suffer!
I’m not scheming of doing this out of ill intent you see…
I mean, if he’s a masochist then he’ll thank me…
Help your friends when they’re in need and cause trouble for them when they’re not, that’s the way the cookie crumbles. It’s the right and duty of friends to troll each other whenever the moment calls for it…
My motives are as pure as pure can be… Marvel as you bask in my saintly aura muhahahaha!
I’m certainly not scheming this because my pride is still sore from that chess match defeat earlier.
It’s definitely not because I still hold a grudge from a while back when he got the Creature Shard drop on his first Creature Creation kill a few years ago.
I’m not that petty…
So, the question remains… should I call him out?
After careful consideration of the circumstances, I ultimately decided against it.
I’m his friend… I will pretend that I never saw this.
For now, I will hide in one of the side streets and stalk him when he leaves.
Then when he’s by himself I’ll confront him and make things awkward by screaming “Yo, fancy meeting you here! By the way did you hear about how some guy was singing the bicycle song earlier? Wow what a retard!” to attract the attention of passer-by’s who will then point as they recognise him.
Muhahahaha! Let’s go with that plan.
And so I hid and waited…
I didn’t have to wait long for him to finish his business. During that time I fiddled around a bit and worked out the controls that I had.
After a while, lin4t stopped singing and broke out in a run, escaping from the crowd that he had attracted. He exited the town circle through one of the walkways.
Ah! He left his teddy bear behind. That won’t do.
As the crowd started to disperse, I casually walked past it and shoved it in my inventory.
You never know when it might be useful.
Maybe I’ll give it to him on his birthday as a joke.
But’s the future. What’s important now is the present. Thus, I started stalking my friend waiting for an opportunity to ambush, I mean, to greet him.
I walked while keeping a certain distance from him.
There’s really no trick in tailing someone other than to avoid attracting attention. Since there’s so many people walking around if you just act causally, you won’t get noticed unless the target is specifically looking for you.
Well, that’s from my experience anyway. This method has failed a few times so take it with a grain of salt.
Chance!
lin4t turned into one of the smaller side streets. This should be the perfect chance to greet him then. Conversely, since I was just blindly following him until now, I have no idea where I currently am.
I mentally prepared myself to yell out what I planned to do before.
I turn the corner and see…
…lin4t conversing to what appears to be the red power ranger…
Really now…
Even in virtual reality, one must not underestimate the power of the weirdo attractor attribute.
Why the fuck is there a power ranger here?
Even as I thought that, the red ranger leapt in the air, bounced off the sides of buildings at high speeds and vanished from sight.
lin4t turned around sighing. A look of exasperation and hopelessness on his face. Seeing that, the words I planned to say died unspoken in my throat.
He noticed me.
Hahaha! Nice expression you have there my friend, I think I can settle down with just that today.
He looked a bit confused so I think it’s up to me to start the conversation.
“Was that a power ranger I just saw?”
“–That… There’s a perfectly good reason for this. But no matter what you will never get it out of me!”
With some stuttering, he defiantly avoided answering my query.
Well, knowing how stubborn he is, probably won’t be find the truth of this matter unless I investigate it myself.
In consideration of that, I guide the conversation to another topic.
“Well that aside, I did not expect to meet you in-game so soon.”
“Yeah. What are the chances? I pick a random city but I still end up meeting you here.”
He picked a random city? Wow the chances of us starting in the same place really were slim then.
Could this be fate’s way of telling me to cause more trouble for him whenever I can?
“You were wearing a very evil expression just now. Just what were you thinking of?”
Damn, he knows me too well. My friend stared at me a warily.
Nevertheless, I tried to defend myself.
“What’s with that look? Have some faith in me well ya! I’m definitely not thinking of how to frame you and get a large bounty on your head…”
“Thanks… If I ever get in that sort of situation I know who to blame then I guess.”
“Oh so you get it then! I’m innocent! By the way if you ever get in that situation call me. I’ll be the first person to hand you in.”
“Hey!”
Calm down my friend... Of course I will also break you out.
I’m your friend after all.
Afterwards we’ll just switch locations and I will hand you in again for the bounty money. Then I’ll break you out and we’ll repeat this until they figure out what we’re doing.
The perfect get rich quick scheme!
… Well, not really.
“So what’s your name?”
His sudden question broke my train of thought.
Come to think of it, in this game you can’t know the names of any of the other players unless they tell you.
I get that the selling point of this game is its realism but making it too realistic also has its flaws. After all, there have been many famous(fictional) philosophers who have said: “life is a shitty game”.
Ah, I better answer his question. While I was contemplating all this, lin4t continued to speak.
“You probably chose something stupid like BallsDeep69 or DarkFlameMaster didn’t you?”
“Have more faith in me… Even I have my limits. My name is Satoshi.”
Considering how realistic this game is, I don’t think my heart could handle being called joke names for extended periods of time.
“lol Why a Japanese name?”
“Well it’s obviously because ~I want to be the very best, like no one ever was~ To catch(learn) them(skills) is my real quest~ To train them is my cause– ”
“Ah… last time I checked your reliable starter got its arse handed to it by a baby snake. I don’t think that name will live up to its hype. ”
“Oh don’t be such a kill joy.”
He stopped me short just before I was about to break out into song. Moreover, his choice of words brings forth some really vivid imagery… Speaking of which maybe I should say something about the bicycle song…
Wait… I was supposed to forget about that matter wasn’t I? Damn, at this rate I’m going to waste all my time goofing around instead of actually playing this game.
“So what’s your name?”
“…I am Lin.”
Lynn?
That’s a girl’s name right? Knowing him, it’s probably supposed to be “Lin”. I wonder if he noticed that issue.
“You are, as I can see, very in touch with your feminine side.”
“Fuck. You.”
Judging from how exasperated Lin sounds I’m guessing that he has?
“Well, in game time around an hour has passed since we started. Did you find out anything interesting?”
Since I wasted so much time on character creation, Lin probably has a head start over me now. I am curious as well about the chain of events that led him to doing what he was when I saw him.
“Nothing that comes to the top of my head really. Well, our current location is Illuin city in the Kingdom of Haven. A.I. is complex is just treat NPCs as people. I asked around and found out that this game has a lot of classes. By a lot I mean over 3000… Although a lot of them have similarities, each individual class seems to have its own thing going. The conditions for unlocking these classes vary. For some you go to the corresponding guilds while others only trigger after you do something.”
So some classes are unlocked under the correct flags. The A.I. could only act under certain flags as well right? Giving out classes was an action that the A.I. controlled then?
Lin looked at me expectantly. Time to share my information with him.
Although I was goofing around before, I was also collecting information as well. Well, I haven’t actually verified if it’s correct yet by asking multiple sources but well… since the source was the Registration A.I., my information should be reliable.
“Let’s see… Players can’t leave the city for the first 4 weeks in game time. Also, due to the actions of a certain entity, the fees for most public services are being paid for by the churches for a period of time. Conversely, the churches hold a grudge over this making it hard for players to join religious organisations.”
Lin nods as if he noticed some of these things. He holds up a map of the city saying:
“That explains why this was free.”
Oh, so there’s a map here.
When I asked about it, Lin said he got it from the Information guild. Additionally he added, “whatever you do, don’t take the request to find Kaze.”
I wonder if this had anything to do with the power ranger?
Afterwards Lin had “Oh shit!” written all over his face as he just realised that he just missed his chance to drag me into whatever mess he was in as well.
After discussing other things, we compared our current status tables.
Name
Satoshi
Alignment
Neutral
Level
1
Class
Classless
Race
Human
Title
None
Fame
0
Notoriety
0
Health
100
Mana
100
Strength
10
Agility
10
Wisdom
10
Intellect
10
Leadership
0
Luck
0
Attack
1
Defence
0
Status Window
Magic Resistance
0%
Name
Lin
Alignment
Neutral
Level
1
Class
Classless
Race
Human
Title
None
Fame
0
Notoriety
0
Health
100
Mana
100
Strength
10
Agility
10
Wisdom
10
Intellect
10
Leadership
0
Luck
0
Attack
1
Defence
0
Status Window
Magic Resistance
0%
Basically, apart from our names, everything else was the same. From this we concluded that all players… well at least human players started off with the same stats.
Eventually we ran out of topics to talk about so after adding each other on our respective friends list, we went our separate ways.
Part 3 – Waiting in line
After separating from Lin, I walked around aimlessly following anything of interest.
It was only now that I realised I should have asked Lin for directions.
But it’s not like I’m lost or anything!
Believe it! I wasn’t just walking around aimlessly, I was following the guidance of the almighty Helix fossil!
Since I’m new to the city, getting lost should just count as exploring the city right?
By now the sun was shining very brightly in the sky.
If it was morning when I logged on then I guess right now it would be approaching midday? Anyway, at this time of the day the sun’s heat had pretty much overwritten the night’s chill so it was getting quite warm.
As someone who prefers winter over summer, I decided to take a break from walking the sunlight and take a look inside a random building.
After checking that I was actually allowed to enter the building and not trespassing on someone’s private property, I went up to a large building and pushed the door open. Conversely, the door had a sign saying [Adventuring Guild] written on it.
The inside of the Adventuring Guild was not a luxurious hotel suite. Actually, if I had to pick, I would have say it leaned more to the cheap and rundown side of the spectrum.
The wooden flooring was slightly dirty as a result of the number of people entering and leaving. One of the walls was covered in posters though some parts seemed more worn out than others. There was a counter directly opposite to the door I just walked through. Behind the counter was a clerk and a behind the clerk was a curtained off section of the room.
As I stepped in, I was assaulted by the sound of numerous indistinguishable conversations from the inhabitants of the building.
There was a line of people lining up in front of the counter. Judging from the way that they all wore the same crappy clothing that I had, I’m going to assume that they’re all starting players like me.
Oh…. I’m curious.
There is a mystery before me… What exactly is this line about?
If there are that many players queueing up already it has to be something important right?
Unfortunately, my skills of observation and deduction were not godly enough for me solve this mystery so I joined the line and asked the player in front of me the question.
“Excuse me, what exactly is this line for?”
Surprised? When dealing with strangers, its best start off being polite. Even, I know that.
The guy in front of me turned around and replied. He seems older than me.
“This is a line to take the Basic Adventurer Exam.”
…And that pretty much tells me nothing
“Sorry but could you expand on that?”
“Taking exam allows you to experience a range of different roles so taking it may help you in deciding on what sort of role you want to take in this game. Additionally, this test must be passed to unlock the adventurer class.”
“What can the adventurer class do?”
“It is a class based around exploring so probably trap disarming, identification and the like. Don’t take my word for it though; I’m also a new player so all that was my speculation.”
I half expected to get shaken off irritably but instead I received a calm and concise explanation. I get the impression that this guy is used to managing a large number of people. An experienced guildmaster?
Something along the lines of that I guess. Moreover, this guy’s expression has not changed since he first started to talk to me. I’m getting a strong Bob the Builder vibe from this guy for some reason.
That it! From henceforth, you will be known as Builder-san!
“So at what rate does this line move?”
“At what rate… well, they call 3 people in every 20 minutes if that’s what you’re asking.”
Every 20 minutes huh…
“How long does the exam take? How many people take it at a time?”
“How long? Uhmm… I about an hour 1 guess. It’s 3 people at a time.”
Conversely, Builder-san was still wearing his poker face throughout this conversation. I’m impressed. Usually this degree of pestering would create some reaction in the other party.
Damn.
I want to break it.
Builder-san’s poker face that is.
To do that, I have to bait him I guess.
“One hour exam which starts every 20 minutes huh…. That means they must run at least 3 exams concurrently to fit that schedule. But if you take into account the time to setup and clean-up the exam, the time for the actual exam is probably closer to 50 minutes. No, there’s probably a buffer zone between exams as well. On the other hand, there could be four exams where only 3 are run while the 4th one is used for setting up. If we consider this option, then the time for the actual exam is a lot longer…”
Builder-san was looking at me intently as if he was reassessing me.
…Hey now, even if you stare like that, I don’t swing that way.
I think I have him hooked. Probably. It’s kind of hard to tell. Let’s check then.
“What?”
Builder-san paused a bit as if carefully choosing his words.
“You are… someone who likes to learn things thoroughly I guess.”
Well, I think the questions I asked were more logical than thorough. If his evaluation of me went up then I won’t complain. Now time for a light jab.
“Really? Senpai noticed me!”
No reaction. Was I trying too hard? Did the auto-translate ruin my attempt?
Wait! Builder’s expressions didn’t change but his eyes were showing signs of confusion. That look in his eyes... It’s the look that say’s “wtf is this guy going on about”. Evidently he didn’t get the reference. Conversely, I think the girl waiting in front of him did.
Since this is going nowhere it’s best to change the subject then.
“If you’re taking this test then I take it that you are undecided about what class to take?”
“Yeah. I’m thinking of picking the Warrior class but I want to take a look around before I decide.”
While on the subject of classes, I asked the question to which Builder responded to immediately without a second thought.
But picking the warrior class immediately. Honestly, that was–
“–A boring choice…”
“Well, I apologise for being a boring person.”
Oh! Did I just get some sort from reaction from him? Fufufu… I can work with this.
“Of course I meant no offence when I said that. It’s just that in this sort of fantasy world don’t you have any sort of curiosity about magic?”
“It’s not that I don’t care about magic, it’s just that I’m more concerned about efficiency and immediate power over anything else.”
Efficiency and immediate power… Was he a believer of the so called linear warriors, quadratic wizards trope? MMO classes tended to be balanced right now right?
Well, in short, it seemed that Builder was the type of gamer who placed emphasis on getting perfect IVs and EV training.
“What sort of class do you want then?”
During the time that I had paused to think, Builder slipped in a question of his own.
What sort of class do I want in this virtual world?
Since this is virtual reality, I’m not too keen on the idea of choosing a melee class. So probably a ranged or support class.
After further careful consideration, I gave him my answer.
“Being the lazy person I am, ideally, I would want a summoner class. That way, I can just sit back and watch my minions do all the work.”
“Heh. I thought for sure that you would say something over the top like ‘I want to be a great mage under the heavens!’ or ‘I will become the tyrant who rules over all creation!’”
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
G Great mage under the heavens? Normally I would have taken this as a joke but Builder seemed completely serious when he said this.
Damn, motivation levels dropping…
“…Please spare me. That sort of flamboyant proclamation is beyond me.”
“Eh? What’s with the sudden change in mood? It’s like all the fight got knocked out of you.”
Builder gave me a look of concern. Well, I managed to break his poker face… but now I seriously don’t feel like celebrating over that. Hah… as expected of Builder-senpai.
“… It’s nothing. I… I just remembered something unpleasant.”
Builder’s next actions surprised me. With a slight bow, he suddenly apologised.
“I am sorry if I said something that offended you. I was my fault so I will take responsibility.”
The sudden apology caught me off guard so I ended up giving a somewhat ineloquent response.
“Eh? No, I am the one at fault and I should be the one to apologise. After all, I just came out of nowhere and started pestering you with questions all of a sudden. Ah… Thank you about that as well…”
Then, noticing the awkwardness of that we just said, we laughed. Conversely, the girl in front of Builder had been eavesdropping on our conversation and seemed to be holding back her laughter.
After that brief moment of awkwardness, Builder started the conversation again.
“On the subject of games have you played Continent of Magick…”
Since there were quite a few people ahead of me in the line, I spent most of the waiting time conversing with Builder.
Although, he was a bit hard to deal with in his own way, Builder did not seem like a bad person. He was had a somewhat haughty side to him but I had no problem with that.
Considering my past experiences, I would like to think that I had a strong tolerance against the haughty and prideful types.
Quite a bit of time passed before I reached the front end of the time. Since the Basic Adventurer exam took in 3 people at a time, it seemed my fellow examinees would be Builder and the girl waiting in front of Builder.
The question is, would they be my rivals or my comrades?
It was just before the time when we were supposed to take our exam at a minor commotion occurred.
Part 4 – The Child Supervisor
Just from my perspective as a person waiting in line, I wasn’t quite sure what the commotion was all about. The staff of the adventuring guild was actively trying to hide the details of the problem from their customers but I think I got the gist of the situation.
Basically, something happened to one of the supervisors of the exam and the guild was desperately trying to find a replacement before the next exam starts.
Don’t ask me why they were so desperate about the issue. It seemed like it had something to do with the guild’s multi-year long reputation of always sticking to schedule or something.
Though, from what I can see, I would have expected such a large guild to be more prepared in the event that something like this occurs. I guess they underestimated the amount of new players and were just so swamped by the new players that they simply didn’t have the man power to handle it all.
“Um… I have brought the delivery from the magic guild!”
It was just as the adventuring guild staff were becoming more and more desperate that a shrill voice broke the atmosphere.
The speaker was a young girl who had just passed through the Adventuring Guild entrance. By young, I meant kid young. Judging from her appearance, the girl couldn’t be more than 6 years old.
Wearing simple clothes with her blonde hair adorned with a blue flower, the girl stared at the panicking staff with clear blue eyes unclouded by the troubles and stress that came with age.
Despite this simple choice of dress, it was clear from even from my eyes that this girl would grow up to be a beauty.
The staff froze as they saw the girl. A predatory glint appearing in their eyes. They huddled together and started to discuss among themselves.
“… we could still use her…”
“…Boss! She’s only a child… plus she’s from the Magic Guild…”
“…she’s a genius… She can handle it…. ”
“… but her uncle…”
“…I’ll treat him to something later… he wouldn’t mind…”
“… still to use a child…”
“… we bribe her with candy I’m sure she would cooperate…”
Since I was close to the front of the line, I could hear most of the things they said. This situation was starting to turn to a morally dangerous direction.
After a few more moments of hushed discussion, one of the guild staff quick went over and dragged the girl into the curtained off area behind the counter.
“You all saw nothing okay!”
The chief supervisor of the guild said that to all the dumbfounded occupants of the building before turning around and entering the curtained off area as well.
…
Did… Did I just witness a kidnapping?
I had no real time discuss this event with Builder as we were called to take the exam by the chief supervisor about a minute later. By we mean myself, Builder and the girl waiting in front of Builder of course.
We entered the curtained off section of the guild.
Inside there was a plain room with barely any furniture or decorations. Just a table, some chairs and a bunch of doors. Inside was the little girl from before along with the chief supervisor.
Without further ado, the chief supervisor started explaining about the exam completely ignoring the abnormal situation.
“As you know, you three will be taking the Basic Adventurer Exam– ”
“Hang on! Before you go on any further, I would like an explanation on what a kidnapped child is doing here.”
Of course such actions were basically asking for interruption. In this case, it was Builder who asked the question. In response to that, the kid piped out to defend the chief.
“I was not kidnapped. What I am doing right now is voluntary. The chief said that as long as I act as your supervisor, I get to see the Magic Guild products in action!”
This kid is our supervisor? Are we the ones getting babysitted or doing the babysitting? Even I was starting to get doubtful about the situation.
“Do you know what a supervisor is?”
“In the case of the Basic Adventurer Exam, the supervisor is someone who overlooks the actions of the examinees to ensure that they are properly following the established rules. Whether or not the examinees pass or fail depends on the supervisor’s own judgement on these matters.”
Wow… that was actually a pretty intelligent response coming from a kid. No wait, is she really a kid? She should just be some forever short midget.
“How old are you?”
“I’m six years old!”
Hmmm really? Well, damn.
With a slight cough, the chief stopped our conversation and continued.
“Ahem… Let me explain the rules of this exam. Behind each of these doors is an artificial dungeon made through a collaboration between the Adventuring Guild and a number of other guilds throughout this city. The three of you will enter the same dungeon and attempt to reach the exit within the time limit. Only one of you needs to exit the dungeon before the time limit for you all to pass. Any questions?”
The chief paused and seeing no-one interrupting him again, he continued.
“In your case the time limit is 1 hour. Inside the dungeon are multiple levels. To pass each level you will need to find keys and exit doors in strategically placed on the stage. The keys will only work for the exit doors on the same level which they were found in. You can find the keys in treasure chests which you will find in various places in the dungeon. The chests also contain weapons which you can try fighting with. The strength of all monsters in the dungeon is scaled to your level. Well, considering your current states, I think even a child would be able to take them out.”
The chief paused for a moment to allow us to ask questions. Then he continued, pushing the little girl forward.
“This is Aria. Due to a prior issue, she will be your supervisor. If you have any questions more questions you can ask her. She may be young, but I can assure you that she is capable.”
While saying that, the chief passed a hand clock over to Aria and turned to face us.
“Trust yourself and don’t lose sight of your goals. That is all.”
After that, the chief passed over the controls to Aria who had us wear a special vest. Apparently, the vest had the property of preventing the wearer from gaining inventory access. It was an anti-theft measure so to speak.
“You can only take the equipment which you can carry on your person during the exam.”
Apparently, that was also another rule in the exam.
“Hey you! Straighten you’re vest properly!”
“Eh?”
While I was thinking that, the sound of conversation interrupted my thoughts. I looked to see the girl who had been waiting in line in front of us pointing at Builder who was wearing his vest loosely.
It was only then that I realised that I actually hadn’t seen that girl’s full appearance yet.
Another flawless beauty.
Brown hair. Green eyes.
That girl was a holder of an unbelievable beauty.
“God. It really troubles me when I see people nowadays who think that this rough looking style is cool.”
She was so visually perfect that as soon as I saw her, I instantly thought, “It’s a trap!”.
And… there’s also the fact that she almost completely resembles Hideoyshi from BakaTest.
“Speaking of which, my vest is nice and tight.”
While I was thinking that, the girl walked up to Builder. Wait… didn’t the A.I. mention something about a pervert getting the Hideyoshi gender or something?
“A loose woman, a loose woman, as a loose woman!”
Don’t tell me…
“~I don’t want people to think of me as a loose woman after all!”
“Huh? Okay…”
Builder seemed confused by the girl’s actions. However… to be able to break Builder’s poker face so easily… I can’t help but envy her skills.
As we made eye contact, the girl suddenly gave me the thumbs up.
It was then that I realised, this girl was the same type as me. Through that realisation, I sense an unspoken connection between us. She was a comrade.
Through the whole time which I had been conversing with Builder, she had been listening in trying to locate his weakness.
She had the same goal as me.
We both wanted to smash Builder’s poker face.
In light of her first words, I decided to call her Student Council President or Prez for short.
In addition to the vests. We were given a notepad and pen and told to record information on the artificial dungeon as we go along.
Through much careful consideration and debating cough… rock-paper-scissors cough… it was decided that I would be the scribe for the exam.
After we equipped ourselves properly, Aria led us through one of the doors and into the artificial dungeon where the exam would take place.
Part 5 – The Basic Adventurer Exam
Thus, began the Basic Adventurer Exam.
As we stepped into the artificial dungeon the first thing that struck me was the sheer size of the dungeon.
I’m pretty sure that the Adventurer’s Guild Building was not this large. Well, at least I don’t remember it being that large when I saw the building from the outside.
In other words, it was bigger on the inside than on the outside.
What is this madness? Have humans somehow gained access to Time Lord technology?
When I asked Aria about it, she cheerily explained that it was due to something called an “undetectable extension charm”.
It seems magic has many uses in this world. I’m interested…
From what I could see, the artificial dungeon that we were currently in resembled the insides of a ruin. There were no monsters in our current vicinity but there were a number of closed doors leading to who knows where.
The place was dimly light up by flickering torches giving the place a creepy atmosphere.
There should be monsters in here right? The chief supervisor had said that these monsters were so weak even a child could take them out but that was by NPC standards. Who knows, maybe NPC children could take out unarmed new players as well.
As a starting player my sense of power scaling in this world as a bit vague but that can’t be helped I guess. That was something that came with time.
Cautiously, we nervously gathered around the door closest to us. Behind this door would be our first taste of what combat was like in this game.
Expectation.
Anxiety.
Fear.
It’s like the feeling you get when you start going to a new school or when you wait to hear the news on whether or not someone you know will recover from an operation.
We paused and checked that everyone was ready.
Then, Builder flung the door open.
We charged in the room, forcing ourselves to get ready to fight whatever was inside it.
I quickly took in the contents of the room.
It was a simple room completely lacking in decorations.
Near the wall directly opposite from us was a treasure chest.
Between us and the chest were our adversaries.
There were three of them.
Round.
Bouncy.
Smiling.
Our first fight in Royal Road was against 3 slimes.
I mean, of course! What else could I have been expecting?
Just as I let out a breath of relief, the slimes attacked.
“Yay! It’s the synthetic mobs first. Go get them!”
Meanwhile, Aria watched all this from the door way. I got the impression that she was cheering for the slimes rather than us though.
After a few minutes, we defeated the slimes. Conversely, Aria started sulking when we killed them.
Well, it’s not like we could let them live you know! We want to pass the exam as well you know!
In the end, our first taste of real combat turned out to be a really clumsy affair. Even if our opponents were only slimes I can’t deny that we performed terribly both as a team and individually.
That just can’t be helped though.
I mean, if a dog on the street suddenly attacked you, how would you react?
If that happened to me, I would be too flustered to think clearly and my first reaction to would be to run away.
It was the same thing in this situation. Between Builder, Prez and me, I don’t think any of us have been forced into a real kill or be killed situation before.
That’s why it just can’t be helped.
On a side note, fighting slimes barehanded was really a disgusting affair. After dying, the slimes left a putrid smell on us.
When this is all over I’m going to play in the water fountain in the town circle.
Due to all the flailing around we did, the three of us were still panting from our clash with the slimes. No, correction, me and Builder were still trying to catch our breaths, Prez seemed to have completely recovered.
All our stats should be the same should they? Was there a difference in technique or something?
Well, either way, Prez had been strangely subdued since we entered this dungeon. Maybe this person was spooked by the slimes as well.
Prez cringed as she smelt the leftover slime smell. Then taking a look at Builder and me who were both covered in slime, she said:
“Wow, if I didn’t know any better, I would have thought that there was some sort of fairy clapping marathon contest going on looking at you two.”
“Eh?!!!!”
I take back what I said.
Moreover, Prez, you should really what your language. There’s a baby on board after all.
“Eh? Fairies? What are you talking about?”
Speaking of which, Aria was looking at us with confusion written on her face. After giving her a vague explanation, we open the treasure chest.
The key we needed to progress to the next level was…
…not inside this chest.
Well, I would be suspicious if we managed to get it that easily.
Inside was a wooden sword.
On the notepad I was given, I jot down the location of this room the number and types of enemies and what the chest contained.
Through careful consideration and debating…cough rock-paper-scissors cough… Prez was given the sword to use.
Then we moved out and walked into the next room. That room had the same layout as the first room. Three slimes and a treasure chest. Inside the chest was a strip of paper with a complex pattern etched into it. It was called a spell tag apparently.
According to Aria’s explanation, the spell tag was another product created by the Magic Guild and was a consumable item that activated a spell once used. In the case of the Basic Adventurer Exam, all spell tags released the basic [Mana Bolt] spell.
Although I wanted Aria to continue her explanation in greater depth, Builder stopped her since this exam was being timed.
Oh well, I guess I’ll go visit the magic guild later on. I am interested. In magic that is…
After I recorded the findings of that room, we raided the next room. That room had the same layout as the previous rooms. There were also three slimes in that room as well. Did all these rooms have the same thing?
I tried using the spell tag on a slime this time and immediately found two problems. Firstly, when I used it, I momentarily lost the ability move. Secondly, the [Mana Bolt] was not strong enough to OKO a slime. According to Aria, the spell tags in this dungeon were designed to be that way.
After defeating the slimes, we retrieved a wooden staff from the treasure chest.
Still no key huh? We don’t know where the entrance to the next level is either.
According to Aria we have about 45 minutes left. We also need to clear another floor as well don’t we?
I could feel cold sweat trickle down my back.
We really need to pick up the pace.
After about 20 more minutes of slime killing, we found the room with the entrance to the next level. There were no slimes in that room but there were some strange patterns on the wall. It was probably a code of some sort but without any external knowledge, we were at loss on how to solve the code.
That is… until Prez noticed that there was a translation dictionary for the code painted on the ceiling. After translating the code on the wall we got a message written in old English that basically said something along the lines of: “Good job. There is only one more trial up ahead! XD”.
After about 10 minutes after that, we found the room with the key. By then we had found a variety of different (wooden) weapons in the various chest we found. However, due to the restrictions, we couldn’t carry all of it with us. All three of us experimented with all the different weapons and chose the ones we were most comfortable with.
In the end, both Prez and Builder chose wooden swords. I ended up using bow that didn’t need arrows. According Aria, it was called a Chargebow and had a special enchantment on it that lets it substitute mana as arrows. However since enchantment was still under development, the damage output was a lot less than if you use actual arrows. But then again, the common point of all the weapons we ran into was that they had extremely low damage.
Thus with less than half our time remaining, we opened the door to the next level and climbed up the stairs behind it.
We arrived to a large space which had a similar layout and look to the first floor. Basically, there were just doors and passageways surrounding us.
We approached the first door and opened it. I look it and see that the room has the same layout as the first level rooms.
Afterwards, we got assaulted by a large number of slimes. After a desperate struggle we managed to defeat the slimes, however due to our shoddy teamwork and my own inexperience, I sometimes ended up shooting Builder or Prez.
Well, actually… I don’t think I ever managed to shoot Prez before even by accident. She manages to dodge it every time. Yeah… now that I think about it, Prez’s reflexes are pretty insane.
Builder also has a better combat sense than me as well.
Against these two, I really just can’t compete.
Well, it can’t be helped…
After defeating all the slimes we opened the chest.
Inside, the key we needed to pass the exam was…
…not there. I guess it can’t be that easy.
Instead there was another wooden sword. Hmmm?
We raided the next room which seemed empty and got ambushed by slimes which were hiding outside of our initial line of sight. After fending off these slimes we opened the chest.
Inside was a [Mana Bolt] spell tag.
Déjà vu?
I sudden thought came to me. Could it be?
Perhaps the second level had the same layout as the first one… Perhaps all the items were placed in the corresponding rooms…
Under that assumption we could quickly get the key and find the exit room.
There was about 13 minutes remaining. We won’t pass the exam unless we take a risk.
I told my idea to my two teammates. Understanding my line of thought, they agreed to give my idea a shot.
Consulting the notes I had taken before, we rushed to the room which should have contained the exit.
Opening the door we found…
…the exit door.
“Wow that was surprising. I know it was my idea but I didn’t expect it to be true”
Builder stared at me when I exclaimed that saying:
“You really need to have more faith in yourself. Your defeatist attitude will one day turn into your shackles.”
Well, it’s sort of too late to be telling me that sort of thing.
“If he is the type of guy you likes being looked down on I don’t think you should be chastising him on that.”
“T That… I didn’t mean it like that!”
Of course there was only one person present who would break the atmosphere in such a manner.
However, Prez, there is one thing that I need to correct you on that.
“Rather than being looked down on I prefer to be one looking down on others.”
“Y You… Damn it. Dealing with you two is so draining.”
Builder got flustered as I joined in with the conversation. Damn… breaking this guy’s poker face is so fun~
“Well I get drained once a month but you don’t see me complaining.”
“A–Anyway, we may have found the exit but we still need to find the key. Aria how much time do we have left?”
“About 10 minutes.”
“Okay. We need to hurry!”
Taking charge of the group, Builder started walking to the room which should hold the key.
High fiving each other, Prez and I followed behind.
We arrived and the room and flung the door open. Inside was a treasure chest. No slimes visible. Another slime ambush?
Prez walked to the centre of the room intending to bait out any slimes in wait and pull then towards the rest of us who were waiting at the door.
A moment passed.
Nothing happened.
“Are there no slimes in this room?”
I found that quite strange actually. The room on the first floor had slimes didn’t it?
I walked to join Prez in the centre of the room. In was in that moment, I saw a look of surprise flirt across Prez’s face.
Then the floor caved in.
It was a pit trap.
I was naive to think that there wouldn’t be traps in this dungeon.
After several moments of confusion, we managed to right ourselves.
When we finally came to a stop, I found that I miraculously obtained front row seats in the Hideyoshi viewing theatre.
Basically, I was on top of Prez. Our faces were centimetre’s apart. In any other circumstance it would have looked like I pushed her down.
My right hand was on her right shoulder and in my left…
…I could feel something soft and round.
“Uwah! It’s moving!”
Prez’s face was flushed red for some reason. Wait… don’t tell me that I’m in the legendary main character situation now?
Speaking of which… the thing in my left hand, it was very jiggly and sticky.
I look down to see what I’m groping.
Oh…
It’s a slime!
I mean, of course!
What else could it be?
And it’s green!
Just like… the rest of the goo in the pit…
“Holy shit! This pit’s filled with slimes!”
“Uwah!!!! They’re moving! They’re moving!!”
“Stop trashing around! We’re sinking! We’re sinking into the pit of slimes!!!”
“I I–I can’t swim!!!!”
We panicked and that probably caused us to sink deeper into the pit of slimes. Actually, it felt more like the slimes were pulling us under.
Since I was on top of Prez, I wasn’t in excessive contact with the slimes until after we got dragged under.
We started trashing about around then. For the first time since I met her, Prez seemed to freeze up completely and just latched on to me refusing to let go. Meanwhile, I could feel the slimes touching and feeling every inch of my body. Oh God… that slime did not just go there…
No ignore it! Focus on getting out of here!
Conscious of Prez’s iron grip, I kicked about and reached something that appeared to be the solid ground.
I immediately kicked at it and we resurfaced coughing and sputtering.
Immediately after, I started to clear my mind.
Focus. Ignore all distractions.
First, review the situation.
We’re trapped in a pit of slimes.
However, although the slimes seemed to want to pull us under, it was possible to resist them and “swim” upwards. However, the slimes were a lot denser than water so it was very tiring. The first problem would to trying to stay afloat until Builder comes to help fish us out.
My arms were currently both restrained by Prez’s grip making it additionally harder to gain balance as I treaded “water”.
No scratch that, it was only now that I had calmed down slightly that I realised…
…my feet could touch the bottom!
I guess the pit wasn’t that deep then. The slimes only came up to around my shoulders.
So… first problem solved.
The next one would be getting out of here then.
Umm… let’s see, Prez was…
“… I apologise for watching tentacle porn… I apologise for watching slime porn… I apologise for…”
…having a mental breakdown. That’s not good.
“Hey! Calm down a bit!”
“… I apologise for watching …”
Ah… I don’t think she heard me.
I try to touch her under the “water” but since there’s so much stuff in the way I wasn’t sure if it was her I touched or the slimes. I’m pretty sure she would have thought that I was just another slime as well. Normally, I might have tried to capitalise on that but being covered by slimes in a pit pretty much drained all my energy.
Then, I guess I’ll just yell louder in her ear.
“HEY! CALM DOWN! OUR FEET CAN TOUCH THE BOTTOM!!!!”
“D–DON’T YELL IN MY EARS THEY’RE SEXUALLY SENSITIVE!!!!”
Oh it seems that she recovered.
After calming down, we forced ourselves out of the pit of slimes. Builder helped by traversing along the edge of the pit and whacking off the slimes that clung on to us.
After we got fished out, I stared at the slime pit in disbelief. I definitely need to clean myself off later.
“What kind of manic would make a pit trap and put slimes in there as well?”
“It was a weaver named Cloude who first thought of the idea long ago. He called it the Slime Hell trap!”
The one who gave this explanation was our genius child supervisor, Aria. Conversely, Aria was watching us from the doorway. Despite the fact that she had been cheering for the slimes the whole time and sulked whenever we killed one, it looks like she didn’t want to go anywhere near the trap either.
After taking a few seconds to recover my mental health, we opened the room’s treasure chest. The key we needed as inside.
I honestly would have been pissed if it hadn’t.
Anyway, after taking care not to fall into the slime hell again, we quickly made our way back to the exit room.
Opening the door to the exit room we found a set of descending stairs. Without much further thought, we moved down the stairs.
With 4 minutes remaining, we finished the Basic Adventurer Exam…
… at least, that’s what we thought.
However, at the bottom of the stairs we came to a round room. At the bottom of the flight of stairs there was a suspicious sign that said “Beware! Boss fight up ahead!”.
“This boss better not be a giant slime or something…”
It seemed Prez as still traumatised because of the slime hell trap.
In the centre of the room stood a humanoid metal figure holding a wooden staff. A statue?
Placed next to the walls were several identical statues separated along even intervals. Directly opposite from the stairs is a door.
Hmmm? Where’s the boss?
There wasn’t anything else in the room. Now that I think about it, the message on the first level didn’t mention anything about a boss. Was this some sort of trick to try and get us to waste time?
If it were a question of whether or not I would believe an encoded message or a suspicious sign, I would be inclined to believe the former.
Only just barely though.
3 minutes remaining.
Ignoring everything else, I grab the door knob of the only door in the room. Then chaos erupted.
“Woah! Look out!!”
The metal statue in the centre moved.
Swinging its staff around, it attacked.
Instantly, I let go of the door. If I had held on any long would all of the statues move to attack us?
Prez was the first to intercept the enemy. Dodging under its attack, she attempted a counter.
However… resistance was futile.
Even with a counter attack, the enemy was much faster than a beginner player.
Spinning its staff around, the enemy knocked away Prez’s sword, simultaneously striking Builder who had attempted to circle around and attack it from behind.
I shot an arrow at it from afar. Without a second glance, it batted the arrow away.
“… What the hell is that thing?!”
“It’s called a metal barbarian. It’s another product created by the Magic Guild. The most common use for it is being an opponent for the Beginner Training course.”
Although Aria gave an explanation, I wasn’t really listening to her words.
Prez moved to the side of the metal barbarian, striking out. The metal barbarian dodged by a hairsbreadth and grabbed her in a chokehold.
I shot an arrow at it. Just like the first arrow, it was batted away like it was nothing.
No matter what we do, we can’t get a clean hit on it.
Helplessness.
Taking advantage of that opening, Builder struck the metal barbarian’s hand and forced it to let go of Prez.
Although his hit had made it release its grip, Builder’s strike dealt no visible damage to the metal barbarian.
Even if we do hit it, we can’t even injure it.
Despair.
Victory is beyond our reach.
This test is a failure.
A sense of dread assaulted me.
But… I should be used to this by now shouldn’t I?
No matter how hard you try there is always someone better than you…
You could try to improve but keep in mind that your rivals also improve over time…
If you slow down even for a little bit, you get left behind…
But, this is just a game… it doesn’t matter if we fail now does it?
To learn from your mistakes requires failures and repetition.
It’s alright to fail now isn’t it?
You really need to have more faith in yourself. Your defeatist attitude will one day turn into your shackles.
Suddenly, I remember his words…
Silently, I observe the fight carefully.
Builder and Prez are still fighting. Using their shoddy swordsmanship and even shoddier teamwork they continued to get beaten by the metal barbarian.
However, they hadn’t given up yet.
If it’s them, they should have realised it by now.
No matter how good you are there are some things that are just plain impossible.
But still, they persevere with smiles splitting their faces.
They are people who like to be challenged.
They are the type that continues to hone their skills against the toughest opponents.
However, I am the opposite.
When given a choice between an easy task and a hard one, I would obviously go for the easy one.
~I’m just that sort of lazy person~
Therefore, my comrades, please forgive the fact that I am taking the easy task!
2 minutes remain.
I think carefully.
While Builder and Prez are keeping the metal barbarian occupied, I need to think of a way to get us out of this situation.
Compared to Builder and Prez, my base combat abilities are mediocre. I am just as likely to hit them by accident as I am hitting the enemy. It was only a fluke that I had been going so well before.
On the first stage, the message had clearly said there was only one more trial up ahead.
On the second stage there was no such message about the boss fight. In fact, the earliest warning that this the suspicious sign just outside of the boss room.
Against an impossible boss, this was obviously this was a trap to delay time.
If I am to believe the first message, then opening the door would signify the end of the exam.
That was the obvious choice.
No rather, it was the only option available in this situation.
I move my hand to the door knob.
But…
What if I’m wrong?
What if opening the door results in all of the inactive metal barbarians to suddenly come to life and attack us?
It would be futile to resist. We would die.
Between death and failure, which one had more weight?
If we fail, we can just take the test again. If we die, we lose 4 days worth of time in this world.
Was it all worth the risk?
“~Trust yourself and don’t lose sight of your goals~”
As I was torn by indecision, Aria suddenly quoted in an almost sing along tone the advice the chief supervisor had given before we entered.
I followed her line of sight and saw the words etched on top of the door frame. Those words… were they a motto or something for this guild?
Trust yourself? Don’t lose sight of your goals?
Indeed, that was the sort of vague and generic advice that would work in any situation.
I felt the tension leave my body.
Builder, Prez, I will apologise if this is the wrong choice.
1 minute remaining.
I open the door.
On the other side, I saw the curtained off waiting room behind the counter in the adventurer’s guild. Behind me, the sounds of combat stopped.
Turning, around, I saw the metal barbarian walk back to its original position and stop completely.
I… made the right choice?
I stepped into the waiting room. The other two came out shortly afterwards. They were panting heavily from the combat.
After making us return all the equipment that belonged to the Adventurer’s Guild, the chief supervisor looked expectantly at Aria who nodded quietly. Seeing that, the chief supervisor smiled and said:
“Congratulations, you passed the Basic Adventurer Exam.”
“““……..yay…………….”””
Despite the good news, all three of us were too drained of energy to celebrate. Ignoring our lacklustre responses, the chief handed us each a card and continued.
“These are your Adventurer cards. They hold proof that you have passed this exam and also have a number of other functions. If you’re curious about what else they can do, ask the clerk at the counter. Now that we’re at it, would you like to accept the Adventurer class?”
Ah… here is that class offer that Builder was talking about before. I don’t think I would really mind being an adventurer but I want to pay a visit to the Magic Guild before I chose my class.
“If we refuse are we barred from accepting the class again?”
One step ahead of me, Builder asked the question I had in my mind.
“Nope, as long as you have your adventurer’s card this road will always be open for you.”
“In that case, I think I will withhold my judgement on the matter until I view the other classes.”
““I concur.””
Hearing our responses the supervisor gave a wry smile.
“Well at the very least, allow me to grant you free membership into the adventurer’s guild. Take it as an apology for the commotion we had before. Well, given that the churches are already footing the bill for public services, I don’t think it really counts as free. Don’t worry it won’t prevent you from choosing another class.”
Ding!
You have gained a new title: Adventurer
+ able to learn all adventurer related skills to the Basic level.
Afterwards, the chief showed us the way out. Conversely, Aria, at some point in time had vanished entirely.
Outside the Adventurer’s Guild, Builder suddenly started talking to me.
“You’re an interesting person you know.”
Really? I’ll take it as a complement then.
“Haha I get that a lot.”
Laughing off the comment, I took a good look at Builder. He was someone who would end up flying to places. I don’t know why, but I want to see it. I want to see what kind of world this person will fly to.
Although I had a hunch about what the answer was, I asked Builder the question:
“Hey, this might sound a bit random but what’s your goal for playing this game?”
Builder looked at me as if it was a question that didn’t need answering. His usual poker face dissolving into a smile, he pointed to the sky.
“Of course, my goal is to go to the top!”
Go to the top. To be the best. In other words, world domination.
A smile splits my face as I remember the bet I made with Lin in RL a few hours ago. That had been a childish bet made on the spur of the moment. Something that neither of had expected the other to fulfil. Yet why does it feel like if I have people like Builder and Prez I can actually do it? It’s something that can’t really be described as anything other than charisma.
On the spur of the moment, I asked Builder a question which would heavily influence my path as a player.
“So it seems we share a common goal. So how about it? Want to form a guild with me? We can’t do it now because of the level restrictions but later on I mean. “
Builder nodded his agreement. Then I notice a problem and immediately make actions to correct it.
“Oh yeah! What’s your name?”
“You’re asking that now? Shouldn’t that be among the first things you say to someone you just met?!”
In response to Builder’s retort, I only smiled. I think he realised it as well. He is guilty of the same fault.
“As I remember it you haven’t asked for my name yet either so doesn’t that make you abnormal?”
“Guh- You’ve got me there. Anyway…”
Flustered, Builder seemed like he was looking for excuses but just gave up halfway. Then he straightened up and held out his hand.
This guy is as formal as always I see.
I took his hand and we shook. As we did so, I told him my name.
“My name is Satoshi. Nice to meet you.”
And likewise he did the same.
“I am Ray Bard. It’s a pleasure to be working with you.”
Ray Bard huh… that a strange sounding name. Maybe the auto-translate fucked up or something.
Just as we were about to let go, another hand reached out and placed itself on top of our hands.
“I don’t know if you’re doing it on purpose but ignoring me for so long is just mean!”
The one who interrupted us was Prez. Having taken some breaths of fresh air, she seemed to have recovered her former energy.
“Oh course you’re invited along as well. So you’ve heard our names. What’s yours?”
Prez smiled. From that smile I could tell her name was something she choice to get a certain reaction out of people.
Realising this, I mentally prepared myself. Against such people, it was important not to give them the reaction they want. Source: Lin. (And you can see where that has gotten him…)
“My name is…”
A dramatic pause.
“… Voyeur.”
Voyeur… wait as in Muttsurini?
So… you’re a character that looks like Hideyoshi but is named Voyeur… Okay. I can handle that…
“…”
“That name… is strangely fitting…”
With our introductions done, we added each other to our friends list and went our separate ways.
With my new acquaintances leaving, I am by myself again.
Of course the difference is that I now have a sense of purpose. Well, somewhat anyway.
Magic.
In the short hour I spent in taking the exam, I had seen a number of different applications for magic in this world.
I am interested it.
That’s it! I have decided.
I’m going to pay the magic guild a visit.
But first… I need to do something about my slime covered appearance.
I know!
Imma go play in da wata fountain!
------------------------
~Bonus Round (this may or may not reflect the true personality of characters)~
Voyuer: All this blossoming bromance is nice and all, but what about me? I was a complete background character whose only purpose was fanservice and dirty jokes!
Aria: Onee-chan, I didn’t get much screen time either!
Lin: Yeah, me neither.
Voyuer: Well, Aria, most of the first volume revolves around you and a certain sentai fanatic and Lin is the deuteragonist. Why am I the only one who gets this treatment? I am not a fan of abandonment play!!!!!
Nameless Adventuring Guild Staff: AT LEAST YOU HAVE A NAME!!!!
Aria(ignoring the nameless characters): Ah! Onee-chan spoilers!
Voyuer(also ignoring the nameless characters): Shush child... It’s not like I said anything important. No rather, when’s my character arc?!!!
Ninnin(also ignoring the nameless characters): Well, a lot of stuff has been planned to happen before that so your arc will have to wait a couple of volume–
Voyuer: Go home chuuin! You haven’t been introduced yet!
Ninnin: Aww….
Ninnin gets owned count = 0+1
Lin’s masochism count = 0 +1
Lin: Eh? Why me too?
Satoshi: YOU’RE GONNA NEED A BURN HEAL!!!
Note: these Bonus Rounds may or may not appear in subsequent chapters