Finn Ashe was first told he was a genius when he was only 5 years old. That was when his kindergarten teacher found out Finn had learned 6 languages, and was better at math than the average 5th grader. He could already read and write at a very high level, so he was quickly advanced to the 3rd grade that year.
Now, 10 years later he is a senior in college, studying at the California Institute of Technology. He was given permission to triple major in his 3 favorite subjects, Bioengineering, Behavioral and Social Neuroscience, and Theoretical Physics. When asked what he wanted to do in the future he simply stated that his goal was to "improve the human race." This answer often confused people, as they wondered if he was joking, but he was dead serious. He planned to try and genetically modify humans to surpass the limits of Homo sapiens.
He had rarely been around children his age, so he was usually a social outcast. Thus he became skilled at observing and recording different types of relationships between people, and as a result of this, people began to become scared of looking straight into his eyes, as they were given the impression he was seeing straight into their thoughts and feelings.
For his final project in Behavioral and Social Neuroscience, he decided to do a yearlong project on how people's actions became different when playing a game in Virtual Reality. He had become interested in this when he heard about the new VRMMORPG called Royal Road made by Unicorn.
However large American companies and media had been discouraging people from buying the new game, as they couldn't believe a Korean company would be able to perfect the Virtual Reality system before the Americans could. Therefore it was almost impossible to legally buy Royal Road in America. Thus, Finn had decided to go to Korea, and do his study there, sending reports to the professor at Cal Tech. This plan had been approved by his professor and parents, who were tired of having to deal with a 15 year old who much smarter than they were. He had finished his coursework in the other two classes that summer so he could be ready to begin his project once the school year started. At the airport, his family, his professor, and what few friends he had were there to say goodbye. He waved to them once when he was past the security checkpoint, and then he was gone. The other students at the college barely noticed he wasn't there.
His trip was uneventful, and he soon arrived in Seoul. After he got off the plane, many expressed interest in the young foreigner all by himself in the large airport, and when he got to the baggage claim, some came up to him to ask if he was lost. All he had to do to ward them off was give them a look, and before long, the people were pretending not to notice the teen, something he was very much accustomed to. The family he was supposed to be staying with had volunteered to take him in, and now they met for the first time. Finn had no siblings, but now he got a younger brother and sister, who peeked out from behind their parents inspecting the new face. His new family spoke no English, but he had been speaking fluent Korean since he was 8, so they had no problem understanding each other. Their house was not far from Korea University, and they immediately began making Finn feel as comfortable as possible. The VR machine was going to arrive soon, but first they wanted to greet the neighbors who had moved in recently. Finn decided to go with them to observe the culture, and to fit in better with his new family. They knocked on the door, and a girl that was a few years older than Finn answered,
"Excuse us, as your new neighbors we would like to welcome you with a present."
"Thank you." The girl smiled at the family, "My name is Lee Hayan, it is an honor to meet you."
Finn's new younger brother had been given the task of carrying the present, a bouquet and some food, and he handed it over to Lee Hayan. A young man, around 20 years old, walked downstairs.
"This is my older brother Lee Hyun," said Lee Hayan. He welcomed us, and gratefully took the present.
"I'm sorry," he said, "We have no present to give in return."
Finn's new father assured him that there was no need for a return gift, and Lee Hyun seemed pleased that he did not have to spend his money giving gifts to his neighbors.
The next day the VR machine was installed, and Finn connected to Royal Road for the first time.
Connect to Royal Road
Yes | No
"Yes," he said.
-The scan on your iris and vein has determined that you are an unregistered user. Do you want to create a new account?
The voice seemingly came from thin air.
"Yes."
-Select the name of your avatar.
"Lucifer"
-Select your gender from male, female or neutral.
"Male"
-Royal Road has forty-nine races. You may select your race from the primary twenty-nine that are currently available.
"Human"
-You may alter your appearance.
"As I am"
-Your account has been activated. Your stats and class shall be determined while you are playing Royal Road.
-Select a city and Kingdom where you want to start.
Finn looked at the map of the continent, unsure of where to start. He looked at the population of each city, and decided on a city that was neither too large nor too small.
“The Citadel of Serabourg, Rosenheim Kingdom!”
-Welcome to Royal Road
Once Lucifer appeared in the game, he began to look around the city. Wherever he went, there were users and NPCs, and they tended to avoid his cold gaze. He passed the training center, where a few users were attacking the scarecrows. He decided he would pass on imitating them, as he was not planning on becoming a combat user. He eventually walked into a library.
"May I please have some paper?" he asked the NPC at the desk.
The NPC was a kind-looking old man, and he smiled at Lucifer.
"Of course," he replied, "would you also like a pencil?"
"Yes, please. Thank you"
Having achieved his objective, Lucifer attempted to leave, but the old man stopped him.
"You have to pay for that."
"What? But it's only paper!" cried Lucifer.
"If you don't want to pay, you have to show me what you have written when you are done. I would like to read something interesting to relieve my boredom."
A window popped up in front of Lucifer.
*Ding
[p=left]Relieve an old man's boredom
Darwyn is bored now that he has read all the books in his library. Write something that will interest him
Difficulty Level: E
Quest Reward: Depends on what you write and how much it interests Darwyn[/p]
Lucifer saw that this was a quest no one else had taken yet because they were so busy trying to level up their characters that they had no time to do anything intellectual. He also did not want to spend his precious money for food on paper. He did not hesitate for a moment, saying,
"Of course. It would be my honor to write something that stimulates the mind of a honorable elder."
"You are a very respectable young man. I look forward to reading what you bring to me."
*Ding
[p=left]Your familiarity with Darwyn has increased. He is known as one of the wisest, most knowledgeable men on the continent, and you may now hear the great wisdom he has gained from reading many books.[/p]
Lucifer left happily, as he could now receive a reward for doing work for school. For the rest of the day, he observed people's actions, recording them, and then comparing them to those he had observed in the real world. He quickly used up all the paper he had, and went back to the library to get more. When he got back to the library Darwyn was in the same place as before. He looked up and asked,
"Have you written something that will lift this curse of boredom?"
If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
"It is not complete yet, but you may read the beginning of my research. I believe it will interest you." Lucifer handed over the stack of paper. The man began to read the research Lucifer had done, and Lucifer was amazed at how fast the man was reading. He read a full page in only about 3 seconds, and it took him less than 5 minutes to read all the work that Lucifer had taken a day to write. Lucifer realized the AI behind the scenes was extremely advanced, much more so than anything on the continent at the moment. Darwyn seemed pleased with what Lucifer had written, and told him that his writings were on par with the greatest scribes of the old Arpenian Empire. Lucifer thanked him, and began to walk away. Again, Darwyn stopped him.
"I believe I can help you with your research."
Lucifer was shocked.
"What? How?" he asked hurriedly.
"I can teach you a skill that will allow you to see the attributes of any person or monster."
Lucifer was amazed. If attributes meant stats or level, then his research could also show the interactions between the strong and the weak across the Versailles continent. He might even be able to get a reward from Unicorn for a report on how they could improve their NPCs to make them more human-like.
"However, at the moment your wisdom is too low to learn this skill."
"Huh?" Lucifer was dumbfounded. He hadn't realized that he needed to raise his stats to learn new skills. He asked Darwyn how he could become wise enough to learn the skill. Darwyn smiled and said,
"I will teach you true wisdom. If you learn everything I have to teach, you will be able to learn this skill."
"Well then, lets get started," Lucifer responded, wanting to get back to his research as soon as possible. Darwyn began to speak about many things, telling stories about the great Arpenian Empire, Niflheim Empire, preaching about philosophy, and explaining the true meaning of poems and basically teaching Humanities classes to Lucifer. In other words, he was putting Lucifer through an excruciatingly boring class that really never ended. However Lucifer stayed with it since every few hours, he would get a message.
*Ding
Wisdom increased by 1 point (+1 WIS)
Another few hours crawled by.
*Ding
Wisdom increased by 1 point (+1 WIS)
Intelligence increased by 1 point (+1 INT)
After 8 hours, just before a new day started in game, Lucifer had to log off to eat dinner.
"How was your first day playing your game?" His new mother wanted to know.
"It was very fun." Finn replied. "I got more work done than I expected for the first day."
"Good."
After dinner, he went straight back to playing Royal Road until around 1:00 AM in the real world. He slept heavily that night due to jet lag, and when he woke up it was past noon, so after eating, he went straight back into the game. Unfortunately, he had run out of the bread he had been given to start the game with, so he had to buy more before continuing to listen to Darwyn's lessons. He continued gaining wisdom and intelligence as a reward due to Darwyn's teachings, and he learned a lot of material, which he believed would help him in the future.
Finn realized that he would need to do some kind of exercise each day, even if not for a long time, just to keep his body healthy. He decided to go to a Tae Kwon Do dojo, relearning in Korea what he had learned in America. He had started doing Tae Kwon Do when he was 3 years old, continuing until he was 11 when he entered high school, however he began again from white belt, as he had not practiced in 4 years. The training was a lot more intense than the training in America. His new family became interested in what Finn was doing, and his brother and sister often asked if they could try playing Royal Road. Their parents always reminded them that Finn needed to use the game for school, and told them that maybe if they were good, they would get to play Royal Road. Finn's sister was 12 and his brother was 7.
Darwyn's lessons went on for days, and two weeks into the four week ban from leaving his starting city, Lucifer received a message.
*Ding
Wisdom increased by 1 point (+1 WIS)
Intelligence increased by 1 point (+1 INT)
New Stat: Endurance
Skill: You learned Absorb Knowledge
Lucifer went to read about his new stat and skill
[p=left]Endurance: Reduces the loss of vitality and stamina. Stat points distribution is possible and depending on the character’s actions, it can increased by itself.[/p]
[p=left]Absorb Knowledge: Allows the user to learn any skill the target knows as long as his stats are high enough.
Mana Consumption: 250[/p]
Lucifer was ecstatic. Learning from Darwyn had paid off. He could learn any skill in the game without any charge! He tried using it on Darwyn.
"Absorb Knowledge!" he shouted.
A list of skills appeared before him. He scrolled through it, and found a skill called True Sight. He selected it, and a light flashed in front of Lucifer's face.
*Ding
[p=left]You failed to learn True Sight.[/p]
"What?" Lucifer was confused.
"You are not proficient enough in Absorb Knowledge to be able to learn high level skills." Darwyn said disapprovingly, "I told you, you can learn to have True Sight when I finish teaching you."
While learning from the old man, the last two weeks of Lucifer's time confined within the city walls ended, and finally he received the message he was looking for.
*Ding
Wisdom increased by 1 point (+1 WIS)
Intelligence increased by 1 point (+1 INT)
Endurance increased by 1 point (+1 END)
Skill: You learned True Sight
Lucifer was relieved he no longer had to listen to the old man's lectures. He was happy about the stat boosts, but he had no plans to begin an adventure, at least not yet, so what he had really been looking forward to was the new skill, which would make his research many times easier, definitely worth giving up a month of observation for.
[p=left]True Sight: Allows the user to see the level, stats, skills, and items of a target within a certain level of the user.
Mana Consumption: 10 per second[/p]
"Skill Window!" Lucifer shouted.
*Ding
[p=left][/p]
Status WindowAvatar: LuciferAlignment: NeutralLevel: 1Profession: NoneTitle: NoneFame: 0Health: 100Mana: 1500Strength: 10Agility: 10Vitality: 10Wisdom: 55Intelligence: 55Stamina: 10Endurance: 10Leadership: 0Luck: 0Attack3Defense0Magic ResistanceNone
Next Chapter