Swallowed by the bright light akin to a portal, Jaden had to close his eyes due to the searing luminosity. The surrounding was quiet but moments later, Jaden opened his eyes only to be greeted by something that couldn't be comprehended with mere words.
All kinds of colors mixed together surrounded him as he traveled inside this tunnel-like passage made up of rainbows of lights. Jaden looked around and he saw a gigantic celestial body beyond the throngs of light in front of him. He figured out that the tunnel was going that way and that place was probably the "Boundless Continent".
*Bzzzzzooow*
Suddenly, he was once more showered with all kinds of radiant lights forcing him to close his eyes, at this moment, Jaden felt like he was traveling at an incomprehensible speed. And finally, everything went still as Jaden eventually heard a bustling sound of caravans and merchants doing trades.
"Am I at the EverGuard City yet..." he muttered quietly.
And as if answering his question, Jaden heard a system prompt.
[Ding! You have now reached the EverGuard City! As the first player to have arrived in the city, you have been given the title, EverGuard's Warrior.]
[Ding! As the system's compensation for reducing your starting attributes, you have unlocked the Fighting Aura attribute!]
"Wow! Rewards alread-" shouted Jaden in astonishment as he looked around as soon as he opened his eyes. However, he couldn't even finish his words before his jaw nearly dropped to the ground.
What filled his vision was all kinds of extravagant buildings that one couldn't even see in the real world. It was a mix between fantasy and medieval style which gave off the feeling that you have really entered a whole different world.
Jaden remained in a daze as he started walking around, taking in and processing everything.
Towering defense walls, sacred temples, huge arenas, grand mansions, and villas, luxurious restaurant and houses, everything could simply be said to be dignified and refined yet delicate and classic at the same time.
After walking around for a long while, Jaden then remembered that he received two rewards earlier when he stepped foot in the game officially. He immediately checked both of them.
_______________________
Title:
[EverGuard's Warrior]
Rank: Rare
Description: You are the first heaven's chosen that have reached the EverGuard City and you have become a praised warrior of EverGuard. Go forth and bring glorious achievements to the city to upgrade your title further.
Effects: > 500 Reputation Points within EverGuard City. 10% discount on everything that you buy in the city.
> You will receive the treatment of the lowest ranked aristocrat in any other Empire, Kingdom, or cities.
> +10 STR, AGI, CON, and VIT.
_______________________
"The effects are great! Wait, what are the ranks of titles in this game..." Jaden asked himself before remembering that he could connect to the DF Forums even when in-game.
(DF = Destiny Forged)
Jaden didn't really do anything except search for the ranks of titles in-game. Within seconds, he already found what he was looking for. In an announcement of EGC, the titles within Destiny Forged were ranked as follows: [Common], [Rare], [Unique], [Epic], [Legendary], and finally [Myth].
"A title that can be further upgraded...alongside the unlocked attribute, the system's compensation actually seems to be fair..." he muttered quietly.
After checking the title, Jaden then looked at the attribute that he unlocked and read its description.
_______________________
Fighting Aura(Innate Attribute): Fighting aura is capable of many miraculous things, not just in the field of combat.
_______________________
"...that's it? It's not a vague description at all is it," said Jaden with sarcasm. Unable to figure out what it could do, Jaden checked in the DF Forums but couldn't find anything useful since there wasn't any information about it.
"I guess I can only find a way to increase it and see its effects then."
Since he's been walking all this time, Jaden suddenly found himself in front of a training grounds called Basics of Combat. Suddenly feeling the desire to train, Jaden opened the humungous gate in front of him and entered inside.
Surprisingly, the whole place was empty except for the wooden dummies that seemed to be newly replaced as they seemed as good as new.
"Helloooo? Is anybody here?" shouted Jaden, only to hear his echoes without any replies at all. Finding that there wasn't anyone around him, Jaden simply picked up a wooden sword from a weapons racket and walked in front of a dummy.
_______________________
[ Wooden Sword ]
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
Type: One-Handed Sword
Rank: White
Damage: 1 - 1
Description: A wooden sword.
_______________________
"Although I feel bad for being here without any permission, this is the perfect place to train myself to try and get used to this new body."
_______________________
[ Basic Dummy ]
HP: 300
Defense: 10
_______________________
Jaden held the sword and fixed into a stance. Immediately, he stabbed the dummy with a speed that one's eyes couldn't even keep up with.
-120.
A three-digit number in the color of red appeared above the dummy's head once it was hit by Jaden's stab.
+300
However, suddenly another three-digit number in the color of green appeared above the dummy, restoring its health fully once more. Seeing the damage, Jaden struck out once more.
-211
+300
Yet again the dummy was healed and restored back to full health.
"Haha, this is perfect." Jaden laughed giddily when he found out that the dummies could heal themselves automatically.
"Now I can practice non-stop..." Suddenly Jaden struck the dummy again with inhuman speed.
-144, -212, -232
Within an instant, he struck the dummy three times! If a normal person saw this scene, he would probably think that Jaden was a high-leveled player since it was impossible for a Level 1 player to do such a thing.
Seeing the wooden dummy collapse, Jaden moved with insane speed unto another dummy and attacked it similarly.
-222, -102. -196
That dummy then collapsed as well.
"So it takes roughly 5 seconds before a dummy restores itself..." Jaden smiled when he figured this out after he kept destroying the dummies.
And then time passed. Seconds turned into minutes, minutes turned into hours yet Jaden was still in the training ground and was repetitively training his swordplay.
Hours passed before a system prompt resounded in Jaden ears, interrupting him.
[Ding! Due to your hard training, you have received +1 STR, AGI, and CON!]
His eyes widened when he saw the system log and found out that he can actually receive free attributes simply from training.
"I should take advantage of this and increase my stats as much as I can before I level up. Although I'll get left behind by most players, I'll have way more attributes than them and when I catch up to their level, the game wouldn't even be fair for them anymore." thinking this, Jaden laughed loudly like a madman before continuing his training.
At this moment, the humungous door from the entrance opened as a man that seemed to be in his early 30s with long white hair entered. He was donned in an illustrious golden armor that seemed to be impenetrable, his pauldrons had the carving of a shield with a dragon in the middle, and he also had a spear that was near twice the size of a human in his hand.
The man was surprised when he saw someone on the training ground. "This place was closed for the week, how come there's still someone here..."
Just when he was about to call for him, what Jaden was doing left him stunned. He saw the kid jump from dummies to dummies only taking a millisecond before being able to destroy each of them. At first, he thought that this person was a high-level warrior at first but when he used his identification skill, although he couldn't see the person's attributes, he saw his level, and he was actually only Level 1.
"So it's a heaven's chosen...he's the first one that reached this city yet." smiled the man as he remained quiet and kept watching Jaden. He didn't plan to interrupt him and simply watched from afar.
However, although Jaden was low leveled, his stats were simply monstrous and way beyond his current level. Especially so for his perception which was monstrously high even though it was an innate attribute.
That's right, Jaden sensed the white-haired man even though low-level warriors have no chance to sense higher-leveled ones if it wasn't on purpose.
Jaden glanced at the system logs and looked at the total of attribute points that he received from the inhuman training.
[Because of your arduous training, you have pushed your limits further and have received: +13 STR, +15 AGI, +20 CON.]
"48 attribute points for a total of 5 hours of training, that's not bad," he muttered.
Although he trained for 5 hours in the game, only an hour has passed in the real world. One hour in the real world equaled to 5 hours in-game, this duration of time that passed was also one of the announcements of EGC when they released {Destiny Forged}. The announcement left the world in an uproar since this was the first time that a VRMMO had this feature.
At this moment, Jaden stopped his training and looked in the direction of the white-haired man.
"Oh?" the white-haired man was surprised when he saw the young man staring at him. "He can actually sense me this far away? What powerful perception!" he then smiled and started walking towards Jaden.
'Is he the owner of this place? Is he mad that I trespassed without permission?' wondered Jaden as he prepared himself.
He opened his mouth and just when he was about to speak, his eyes narrowed sharply when he saw a wooden spear coming his way rapidly. With lightning reflexes, just when the spear was about to pierce his forehead, Jaden moved his body sideways and dodged with ease. Before he could even ask what's going on, another attack headed his way approached.
This time, Jaden dodged the attack once more, fixed his stance, and slashed forward with his sword, towards the man's neck.
From the start, the white-haired man was surprised to see the young man dodge his attack the first time, he was even more surprised when he dodged his attack twice. Although he was higher-leveled, he brought down his strength and speed, and reduced them greatly, matching someone with abilities around Level 20. However, when he saw the young man attack, he couldn't help but be a bit serious.
He dodged the attack and clenched the wooden spear as he swept sideways with ferocity, it was as if the wind was being sliced as it sped towards Jaden.
Instead of panicking and moving backward, Jaden lowered his body and stepped forward while stabbing his sword towards the man's head with a speed incomprehensible of someone who's Level 1.
The white-haired man was again forced to bring up his power by a bit when he saw that he couldn't deal with the brat with the same strength and speed. He brought back his spear and jumped away to dodge the attack. He smiled as the aura around him changed, Jaden narrowed his eyes and thought 'Seems he's getting a bit serious...'
The man charged at Jaden stabbed forward repeatedly and relentlessly. The speed was just inhuman and could be said to be simply impossible to dodge, yet Jaden was able to evade them all somehow.
They fought back and forth, without the use of skills, only with raw combat techniques along with their instincts and senses. The man's surprise kept increasing as he continued to fight the young man. His earlier evaluation of him kept rising as he had to keep increasing his current power just to keep up with Jaden.
Of course, if he simply used his real strength, Jaden wouldn't even last a few seconds...
After nearly an hour of fighting, the white-haired man laughed. "You are good! Every time that I thought that I could beat you down, you only kept proving me wrong time and time again. This is the first time that I've seen anyone like you."
"Thank you...I guess?" Although Jaden didn't know the man, he still felt grateful to him. This was the first that he was actually being suffocated and suppressed in a fight, he had forgotten this feeling for a long, long time. Jaden only felt excitement when he fought this person whom he knew was way, way stronger than the current him.
Even though Jaden didn't know this man, everyone, as in everyone, in EverGuard City knew him. If they heard this man actually praise someone like so, then they wouldn't even believe it even if someone beat them to death!
"I'll take this up a notch by a bit now, keep up!" said the white-haired man as he laughed carefreely. However, at his heart, he was excited beyond belief.
'What a treasure I've found!' he thought.