Novels2Search
The Player NPC
Chapter 2 : The First Level

Chapter 2 : The First Level

She stared at the VR set. Still amazed that Heater had given her one, and didn't desire to keep it as a memento or back up. The Beta started at midnight, there would only be three thousand players on. She wondered how many would be waiting for Lorali. Would Lorali be a taken name? Would someone try and pose as her? She swiveled in her chair, as she thought about it.

She looked to her bedside clock, it was already five after. That should be plenty of time to avoid any ques.

Standing she pulled the light cord, turning off her light and sitting down. She adjusted her bed and then the VR set. She tried to read up how it worked, but she got lost in all that medical brain jargon. Laying down she adjusted the head piece and switched it on.

A blue and purple nebula with stars splattered across the sky greeted her, then in ethereal calligraphy the game title appeared. Followed by the normal terms of agreement acceptance, and also that Aether Online wouldn't be liable for any damages ect, and then an additional warning to agree to. It stated that it would be unsafe to use the VR set for more than 10 hours in a row without a couple of hour breaks between, for mental sanity, as well as physical needs such as drinking, eating and hygiene.

"Covering all the basics," she said to the screen as she accepted.

There were only two options, New Game, and Exit. She selected new game.

The system paused and she was about to select it again when black and white lines appeared, almost like static glitch lines.

A small black screen popped up with a green flashing box. Soon the box spelt out : Error.

"Error? Wait."

Then more below it.

Warning Fatal Error.

The flashing green box was her nightmare. "Shut down." she said.

Initializing Transference....

"No. Shut down, don't trans-" her voice died away as the word went black.

----------------------------------------

When she came to next she was face down in sticky dirt, an alert flashed in the corner of her eyes. But she ignored it as all her sense came crashing back into her. The ground no longer swam before her eyes and it came in sharp and clear. She wish it hadn't, as something just plopped onto the ground not to far from her face, it looked like a wet slime covered meatball. The smell was bad too, a mixture of metal, body waste, body odor and nature. She could hear birds somewhere, and the rustling of tree leaves. Her mouth was dry and it tasted like dirt and blood. Then feeling returned to her. She let out a low groan of pain, her whole body hurt, like needles were being driven deeper and deeper into her. Clinching her eyes closed she attempted to breath through the pain, but all that did was make her want to vomit.

Focus Jan.

She opened her eyes and focused on the warning.

A pop up appeared.

A fatal error has occurred. Sending data to Aether Inco.

Please Enjoy your stay in Aether.

Past the warning she noticed another, above a bar with just a sliver, 1/22.

Pain sucks.

She closed her eyes again, unable to keep them open any longer.

Waking up for the second time was much better. She wasn't in agony. The warning pop up was still in her face, but she dismissed it simple enough.

Shouldn't you have protocols in to boot people if an error occurs? Stupid corporation.

She sat up and noticed first off that she was in some kind of grassy area in a forest, sun light was dispersed in patches from the over head canopy. Her heath was at full now too. But then her stomach turned as she was amongst a bunch of dead things. Goblins from the look of them. Greenish tan, with varying amount of oily black hair, long hook noses and jagged brown and yellow teeth. Dressed, what was left of them, in ragged leathers with clubs and shields.

Gross. This is not okay.

She sighed, closing her eyes, and focused on her senses again. No reason to be hasty, adjust and then do a freak out scream.

Wounds were still tight and sore and pulled almost painfully if she exerted too much force on an area. So soreness and wounds remain even when at full hp. That was beneficial to know. Her mouth and throat were still dry and still tasted like dirt and blood. The area around her stunk, blood, sweat, innards sun ripening, not to mention the actual body odor. It was a contrast to the happy bird song and the gentle rustling of trees.

Her eyes snapped open and her hands started to pat her body. She wasn't a She!

WHY AM I NOT A SHE?

Freak out mode was engaged.

Panting she felt as her calloused fingers touched padded armor over top a long sleeved white shirt. She looked down to her hands. Blood stained fern green skin greeted her through fingerless leather bracer gloves. She shook as her hands moved to her face and traced over what she could already feel. Tusks about an inch jutted from her bottom teeth. Her breathing was near hyperventilation now as she focused on ... other parts of her body.

"L...Log out," she said aloud and cringed at the sound of her own voice. Deep and resonating. Any other time she would have swooned over the sound, rich and deep, but not when its coming from her.

A pop up appeared. This time the screen was a translucent blue-green.

You do not have permission to perform this task, a fetal error has occurred.

I wanna go home.

She flopped back on her back and looked up at the canopy.

I hate this, and I haven't even started playing yet. She ran a hand over her face.

Look at the bright sides Jan, you don't have a pig face, and I'm not fat.

She let her arm flop back to the ground beside her. She was already covered in blood, dirt and who knows what else, what was a little more. Besides it wasn't as big of a deal in her current situation. No, being a male orc was MUCH more concerning.

Stats.

At that several pop up screens appeared in front of her vision.

STRENGTH

4

DEXTERITY

4

CONSTITUTION

4

INTELLIGENCE

2

WISDOM

2

CHARISMA

2

LUCK

2

Ability Name

Rank

Mana

Range

Description

Cure

1

1

Touch

Heals 6 health (+1 Elf Bonus)

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

Glacial Knife

1

2

Weapon

Adds 4 ice damage to weapon (+1 Elf Bonus)

Frostbolt

1

2

100 ft

Deals 6 ice damage at range (+1 Elf Bonus)

Blinking she stared for a moment. That doesn't make sense. Something is wrong. She moved on to the bio screen.

Name: Cagen Thak

Race: Half Orc, Half Elf

Level : 0

Racial Bonuses: Str +2, Con +2, Dex +2, Magic +1, Darkvision 300 ft, 4 hours of sleep

Age

19

Height

6’1”

Hair

black

Sex

male

Weight

276

Eyes

gold

Bio:

Cagen is the Heir to the Thak Clan of orcs. He is the eldest son of over a dozen children. He has two older sisters, the eldest often has him go off on adventurers in the hopes of him gaining strength and knowledge. He would however prefer to just laze about the camp and not do anything.

Um... what?

It felt like her brain broke, and she was unsure if she was reading anything correctly or not.

There are several issues with this screen, section, she made a motion with her hand indicating the name and race. Alone, that I can't even begin to unpack it all. First off, ew gross. An orc and an elf, that screams abusive. Second how, no why? And over a dozen children? ugh. I don't understand. And why am I so heavy!

She placed a hand on her stomach, it didn't feel like she was fat.

Doesn't explain the extra ability points, or the additional spell. Moving on, best not to linger here and make my freak out worse than its already going to be.

Anatomy

2

Balance

2

Bluff

2

Climb

2

General Knowledge

2

Herbalism

2

Hunting

2

Intimidation

2

Listen

2

Search

2

Spot

2

Survival

2

Ooo...kay... twelve skills not ten, cool. Starting to think I'm dead. Which is not great. But hey I Isekai'ed!

She closed her eyes and lay in the bloody grass, tears rolled down into her messy hair. "I didn't really want to be hit by truck-kun." the voice still caught her off guard as she lifted both her orcish hands up and covered her face.

I know it sucked, but my life wasn't that bad. I don't want to be an ugly male orc! I don't want a haram of girls! I don't want to be a main character in some stupid video game! I don't want to be a hero! I want to go home.

She sobbed and rolled to her side bring her legs up protectively. She gave the last screen just a glance before closing them. Not even reading what it was.

Hidden Quest:

Note: Hidden Quests will only appear once

Main: Defeat the Demigod. Reward: Go home.

It would have been comical to see a grown orc in the fetal position sobbing, but she wasn't feeling very humorous at the moment. Wallowing in her own self pity with a blank mind for as long as she could.

By the time she calmed down she was exhausted. Emotionally worn from the events and knowledge that this was her life now. His life? No that sounded way too wrong. She still had a sense of self.

The forest was quiet.

That wasn't normal. She shifted once she heard noises from the brush. That turned out to be a bad idea as an arrow lodged itself into her shoulder, and a red -4 popped into her vision. Pain exploded throughout her shoulder and arm. That kicked her butt into over drive as she stood, panicked. She moved behind a tree to give her some cover, as she patted herself down for a weapon.

Weapon... weapon? she panted heavily. She grabbed the sword loop on one of the two or three belts she wore, but it was barren.

She looked to the arrow next, it was clearly crudely made. Broken fletching and the shaft was lopsided. A popup appeared.

Skill Required: Anatomy 5 - safely remove crude arrow.

Oh... you've got to be fucking kidding me! She screamed inside her head. Right, I was a priest or mage in all the other mmos I played before. I got this! She stepped out and held out her hand, "Frostbolt!" she yelled in a very male raspy bass that wasn't her own, but was.

Two of the creatures, goblins by their similar appearance to the dead ones, stopped rummaging through a backpack she hadn't noticed before. They stood frozen for a moment, watching her with their sickly yellow eyes, waiting to see if the spell would conjure. Janet was waiting for that too, in all honestly.

When one started to run towards her with its club raised she let out the manliest of squeaks, and fled into the forest, but not before a second arrow caught her leg. A -4 appeared in her vision.

YES! Thank you for that as if I COULDN'T tell!

She hid in some thicker foliage and waited. The goblin with the club started to creep through the underbrush, weapon raised high ready to strike.

She was shaking, scared. Will I respawn like a player, or will I stay dead? That thought startled her. I don't want to die again. She brought a hand up and covered her mouth. How did she want to live? Like a coward that ran away from everything, taking control of nothing, or not? Flight was warring with fight inside. She had her pity party, yeah it wasn't done yet, but she still had one. Now it was time to grow some balls... She would decide how she wanted to live, after she was able to live.

She steadied her breathing and silently counted to ten as she watched the goblin make its way closer. Then a moment when it was distracted she tackled it to the ground. The club falling from its hand. Its black nails dug into her padded armor as she started to punch in its face.

Janet had never been in a real fight before, but she could feel the creature's nose break, and then the cheek bones shatter under her fists. She didn't stop. Her mother always told her, to not stop punching or stabbing until her opponent stopped moving. So she punched until the goblin stopped moving. Lifting her fist again showed that she had been hitting a corpse for a minute or two. The face was so caved in and a bloody mess it looked like sloppy joes thrown on top of lumpy mashed potatoes. Blood covered her even more now.

She stood and turned to vomit. Holding onto a tree for support.

If this is really the level of graphics of this game, I don't expect many to actually go out and take slaughter quests.

She looked at her arms and legs, the goblin in its struggle had inflicted more damage to her, and her clothes. She had 8 hp left, and she had noted that magic was not automatic. She focused on her cure spell in her hand and touched her padded chest. A feeling of relief washed over her as a green +6 and a blue -1 appeared in her vision. The arrows were still a problem, but for now, she ignored them, and cured herself once more.

Right, lets go kick goblin ass.

She picked up the club, and a pop up appeared. It told her that it was a crude club and did 2 damage.

My fists do three, but that was a bit too personal.

She made her way back and carefully looked out to the chaos. Now that she had a good look, it had been some sort of battle ground, and a bloody one, there were a couple of goblins cut nearly in half, and one that was gutted, its viscera spewed out over the clearing grass.

A goblin was still going through the backpack, a bedroll, tinder box, ration blocks and several other things were thrown about. Clothes about her new size for example.

She didn't give the goblin, or herself time to think of a rational plan. She rushed out from behind the tree. The goblin was startled but it reacted quickly grabbing its own club and swinging madly when she neared. One of its swings connect to her leg with the arrow. A red -3 appeared. Speaking of an arrow wizzed by her, but she didn't spare the archer a glance as she gripped the club like a bat and clocked the goblin near here in the head. There was a sounding crack and the club indented into the goblin's skull.

The goblin did the only thing its damaged brain could think of and bit into her leg. A sound came out of her mouth but she wasn't sure if it was a yelp or a groan or both. -4 damage tho, which meant the bite was as bad as an arrow. Or maybe worse if infections were a thing. An arrow grazed her arm, and she was startled to see a -2, from just the graze.

She bashed the goblin attached at her leg down into the ground and turned towards the archer in the forest. Lifting her hand like she was asking for its, she focused and ice started to form in her palm. An arrow stank into her padded armor. -3 appeared in red.

"Frostbolt," the rough voice still shocked her, she would have to get use to her new voice. A frozen bolt of ice shot from her hand and impacted the goblin. It let out a ear shattering shriek. It lifted up its bow to attack, but Janet was already rushing towards the goblin. The arrow flew past her in the creature's panic, and she brought the club around and slammed it against the goblin's ribs and knocked it into a tree, where it slumped dead.

She panted hard, as a new pop up appeared in her vision.

Level Up!

Level 0 → 1

Tokens: 6

Would you like to open the Leveling Screen?

Yes

No