Lucifer's eyes opened. He was greeted with a wave of gasps. He yanked the arrow out of his forehead, causing further disturbance in the crowd watching him. He pushed himself off the floor of the dojo. Someone shouted a question at him.

"Are you a user?"

When Lucifer nodded, he was flooded with more questions.

"How did you get into the dojo the day it was closed?"

"Why were you lying on the ground with an arrow in your head?"

"Why didn't your avatar disappear when you died?"

Suddenly a new voice boomed over the others.

"Stop bothering him, he is more of a man than any of you!" It was the instructor. Lucifer was confused. He understood that the instructor wouldn't want him telling anybody about his victory, but why would the man say he was a man? He called him a rat before the duel. The instructor walked over Lucifer, the crowd respectfully parting in front of the man. He clapped Lucifer on the back, smiling down at him. He walked Lucifer through the crowd, who were now gaping at the boy because of the instructor's preferential treatment.

'Is it because I completed the basic training that he likes me now?' Lucifer wondered.

When they got out of earshot of the crowd, which seemed frozen in place, the instructor spoke.

"I've never seen a man such as you! You were willing to take an arrow to the forehead in order to win a duel!"

Lucifer was speechless. He was taken aback by the instructor's simplicity. The man didn't seem to understand the advantages of completing the basic training in a week to someone such as Lucifer. Recovering, he smiled back at the instructor, saying,

"Thank you. I am honored that you think of me as a true man."

"Of course. Only the greatest of men would be willing to risk death to win a duel. As a token of having completed my training, I gladly give you this sword."

[p=left]Hard Iron Sword

Durability: 54/54

Damage: 10-14

Awarded to those who completed the Basic Training Program.

This widely-used long sword is better than basic type weapons that are available in a blacksmith’s workshop.

Equip:

+10 STR

Limits:

STR 40+

VIT 35+[/p]

Lucifer thanked him. The instructor walked off, and the crowd quickly surrounded Lucifer again. They were amazed at how the instructor had treated him. Lucifer addressed them.

"If you would like to hear my story, then gather at the starters plaza. I will answer your questions there. The answers will be helpful to any beginners who happen to pass by, and I wish to be as helpful as possible to my fellow players." He departed from the training hall. He had to find a way to escape, but he was sure that there were players tailing him to make sure he could not. He went to the Adventurer Guild, and walked up to the Instructor.

"Absorb Knowledge," he said quietly so those tailing him couldn't hear. He selected the Detect skill.

Skill: You learned Detect Skill

[p=left]Detect: You can now not only see where living things and traps are around you, but you can also track living things that are a certain distance away from you.

Mana Consumption: 50 per second[/p]

Absorb Knowledge really was a useful skill. He could learn skills without paying money, doing quests, or any other time consuming activity.

Lucifer left the Adventurer Guild, and walked into an abandoned alley. He used his newly acquired skill. It reveled three glowing markers. Lucifer assumed that meant there were three players trailing him. He was a little offended that the players had thought that 3 people would be enough to catch him, but the less people he had to get away from, the easier it was to get away from them, so Lucifer wasn't complaining. He used True Sight to determine the amount of mana each of them had. All three had the Detect Skill, meaning Lucifer would have a hard time getting away from them. He discerned the amount of time it would take for their mana to completely deplete. None of them had any potions either, so there was no way for the to recover the mana they used other than to wait.

He began walking through the town. Just before the people tailing him ran out of mana, he darted into another alley. They quickly followed, but they were a split second too late, Lucifer had already disappeared. They no longer had any mana so they would have to wait a while before they could track him for enough time to find him. They could use their mana as soon as it was high enough to use the Detect Skill, but that was extremely inefficient, and it made it easier for the prey to get away.

Lucifer had disappeared through a manhole into the city sewers he had found recently. He ran through the sewers holding his nose. They smelled terrible. He had never been in a sewer before, but it smelled very real. A bit too real in Lucifer's opinion. He left the sewer, finding himself in yet another alley. He began running around the area to mix up his footprints, making it impossible to track him that way. He quickly set off to get as far away as possible so it would be harder to track him using other methods.

He went to a tailor shop to buy new clothes. A certain item caught his eye. It was a deep purple cloak with a hood that could conceal his face. There were no options on the cloak and the defense was pitiful, but it suited Lucifer's current needs. He also liked the color. He bought it quickly, before anyone else could come to the shop and recognize him. He put it on, flipping up the hood, which cast a shadow across his face, covering up his facial features. He left the shop, and swiftly began walking back to the alleys. Then he realized he hadn't even taken a look at his Status Window since logging back on.

"Status Window!" he shouted.

[p=left][/p]

Status WindowAvatar: LuciferAlignment: NeutralLevel: 5Profession: NoneTitle: NoneFame: 200Health: 850Mana: 1500Strength: 45Agility: 45Vitality: 45Wisdom: 55Intelligence: 55Stamina: 10Endurance: 10Leadership: 0Luck: 0Attack15Defense0Magic ResistanceNone

He had grown a few levels while training to defeat the instructor, but he had still not decided where to put his stat points. He had gained the full amount of stat points received from the basic training hall in only a week. But he had wasted a week, and now needed to get back to his research. He went to the main square, and spied on the gathering crowd. He wanted to write a report on what happened when he did not appear. He checked the time. He was supposed to appear in 5 minutes. He waited.

5 minutes later, 3 people arrived, sweating profusely with nervous expressions. When they saw that Lucifer wasn't there, they tried to escape, but a large man in the center of the crowd ordered their capture. Lucifer assumed he was the leader. The large man began reprimanding the three people.

"How could you let him escape? You said it looked like he had a low level, so he would be easy to track!"

The three apologized over and over, but the leader did not let them off the hook.

Lucifer looked on in glee. This was a gold mine for his research. He could see the effects of mob mentality in the virtual world. He pulled out his pen and paper, and started writing as fast as possible. He used True Sight to get a general sense of levels. True Sight had recently become Beginner Level 7, so he could now see the attributes of anyone less than 25 levels above him. Most people were between levels 15 and 25, and the only level Lucifer couldn't see was that of the leader. He watched as the crowd blamed the three people, and appeared to be contemplating killing them. In the end, the leader forced them to compensate the whole crowd of people with money. They equally split all the money the three had, and each person got a piece, the piece being about 70 silver.

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When Lucifer finished writing about the incident, he left his hiding place and went to the library. He chose to go there because he needed an out of the way place that he could spend a long time in. When he got there he gave his latest piece of research to Darwyn for him to read. Then he logged off.

After climbing out of the pod, Finn accessed a website where all the known skills in the game were listed. He needed to find skills he would definitely need if he was going to become a solo player. He didn't look at attacking skills, instead he looked for skills necessary for survival. He decided on two skills he would absolutely need if wanted to travel on his own, the Cooking skill and the Repair skill.

When he had finished going through the list, he realized he was famished. He went to the kitchen, and made himself some food. His parents were out at work and his brother and sister were at school, so he had the house to himself for the moment.

He went back to his computer and began going through a recording of his time in Royal Road. He needed a tape because he needed a copy of his work in the real world. He began assembling his work in a document, and then sent what he had found so far to his professor back in America.

His research had revealed many things including that people, instead of collecting all the monsters in a single place, or domesticating them to make them easier to breed and kill as people had done in real life, they preferred to go out and hunt them less efficiently. However, Finn noted, going out and hunting was much more fun than killing domesticated animals, and the point of the game was enjoyment, so it was natural that people would hunt less efficiently instead of making it easy for themselves. Finn also noticed that people had a much easier time killing users than NPCs, nut argued more with NPCs than users. Finn hypothesized that this was because people saw NPCs as something like slaves. Useful, but not on the same level as humans. Not worth killing, but not worth respecting either. If you killed a user, you could get items, so many people became PKers.

When he had finished compiling his work, he returned to the game.

Lucifer left the library and headed for the blacksmith guild. There he acquired the Repair skill. Then he went to a restaurant. He needed Beginner Level 3 in the Handicraft skill if he wanted to be able to get the Cooking skill. He used Absorb Knowledge to get the handicraft skill, but the only skill he had to level it up with was Repair. Therefore, he made his way to the hunting grounds, making use of the sewer system.

He stopped his research for a few days, focusing on leveling up his own character while constantly trying to make his equipment as worn as possible to practice his Repair skill and level up Handicraft as fast as possible. He made it to level 20, but he was yet to allot any of his skill points. However the progress of his skills was slow. His Repair skill barely made it to Beginner Level 2, and his Handicraft skill was yet to make it there. He logged out, and began searching for easy ways to level up handcrafting, but before level three, the main ways were forms of art, such as sculpting or painting. Finn was a terrible artist. The best people he could draw were stick figures, and he had never done anything like sculpting.

Finn logged back on, disappointed. He continued hunting, but now he began continuing his research. When he looked at his stat progress, he was amazed. He was at Level 2 99%. Then he realized that writing his research had contributed to his Handicraft skill. He was elated. He repaired his equipment, and got a message.

[p=left]Level up: Handicraft Skill [3]

Enables you to learn cooking and tailoring skills.

Increases attack power with melee and long range weapons. (+3% ATK)

Increases attack power with fists. (+5% ATK)[/p]

Lucifer was elated. He hurried back to the restaurant. He copied the cooking skill from the chef. Then he went to the Tailor's Guild. He thought he might as well get Sewing skills if he could. You never know when they might come in handy. Now he began taking out the meat and cooking. He gave some dishes to Darwyn to taste, and while at first, he didn't seem too pleased with the taste, after a few tests, it gradually got better, and Finn felt confident in his skill.

He went to the starters' plaza and began handing out free food to the newbies. Since there were many people just starting, he was able to quickly level up his cooking. He started by just handing out food to the newbies. Then some people came back, asking for more. Lucifer had caught them before they had the bread that they started with, and they had a hard time just eating bread after their first meal had been meat. He charged two copper for the newbies coming back for a second meal. Then 4 copper for the next meal.

The price increased exponentially for each time a person came back for another meal. A persons 10th meal cost 1 gold and 24 copper. However the prices were deceptive. Most people didn't realize the food would become so expensive so quickly because it started at such a low price, and therefore continued to come back for more food. It was a very effective business strategy.

"Have you heard about that guy who's giving out food to the starters?"

"Yeah, his food is pretty good, and it's also super cheap."

Rumors about a cloaked chef were spreading around the city. Lucifer's cooking began gaining substantial effects at Beginner Level 5, so many parties came to him for food. He made huge profits. He had collected all the meat from the monsters he had hunted, but he was running low. Once he was making over 10 gold per day, he paying people a few silver a day to get him more meat. He also began sewing clothes and repairing equipment.

He started by giving away his extremely low quality clothes to starters, but as his Tailoring skill improved he began selling his goods to higher level players. He repaired up to five items for free for each gold you spent at his shop. Now, even though he had to pay about 3 gold a day for supplies, he was getting a net profit of about 15 gold a day.

People also liked going to his shop because his demeanor was friendly, and he was always smiling. However, they did not see the true meaning behind the smile. All this while he had been observing the people who came to his shop. He was experimenting on all of them. They were his lab rats. He wanted to see if business strategies that worked in real life worked in game. They did.

By the time his Cooking made it to level 8 and his Tailoring to level 6, he was ready to pack up. His repair skill had only made it to level four, but his Handicraft skill had made it half way through level 9. He decided he would finish the day and leave that night.

He smiled to himself while writing his findings, thinking about how much his research had progressed in such a short time. Suddenly, in the middle of writing, a window popped up.

Skill: You learned Quick Study

[p=left]Quick Study (Beginnner Level 1 0%)

Enables you to master skills more quickly. (2%)[/p]

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