Chapter three: Giving chase.

Eric walked slowly as he passed by the market, taking the time to take in everything around him.

“Golems! We make and animate golems for you! Cheap trustworthy pets that follow commands to the letter, we have a great variety!” a small child looking player shouted, he wore a grey robe and had dirt covered hands, probably from clay or some other material, his job as a molder mage.

“Magical gems! We offer all elemental enchantment gems as well as blessed, cursed and many others! They may be a bit pricy but it’s all high quality” an old man wearing merchant’s attire announced. Talking at an astonishing speed yet totally understandable, only possible through his high level communication skill, he was a merchant with good connections to the enchanter’s guild, usually taking care of all their business.

“Pets, Riding animals as well as partners for life” a tall woman sitting on a stool said with melancholy, she was leisurely smoking a long pipe, giving out a sigh colorful smoke escaped the pipe, she seemed to not care for business or other players.

Some other players were scattered all over, they seemed low level, their shouts verified that:

“selling fox pelt!”, “buying wolf fangs! A great amount is needed”, “selling all manner of monster drops”, “selling rabbit fur, rabbit legs and rabbit meat”.

All of them were selling and buying low level japtem, seeing the beginners who were able to go out of the city made Eric envious, yet he was glad to see that he wasn’t the only beginner in the capital, it was recommended to him on a forum saying there were many high level players, leading to a lot of high level quest he could take part in by entering a party, it was a great town for fast growth.

Close to the end of the market area were the shops not many frequented, mainly food stands which were barely standing, only surviving on the noobs who couldn’t yet buy good food or make it themselves. Those shops were however on the rise as more and more new players chose the capital city as their starting point.

Last and very much least in the eyes of many of the players in the capital, were the weapons shops, selling weapon and armor made by local smiths or bought from other players passing by.

To tell the truth the equipment sold wasn’t bad, in fact the shops were much better than what many other cities had to offer, sensible prices, good durability, moderate verity and some sellers were NPCs who even offered to teach the art of smithing to players who were nice and bought some things occasionally, sadly the problem is that Enterilia is the capital of a kingdom populated mostly by player of the magical professions, rich with mines full of magical stones and gems, home to many magical guilds, its lands full of slow monsters easily picked by long distance attacks, it even had a blessing of a goddesses which raised mana regeneration rate and elemental affinity!, in short it was an haven for mages of all kind, as such not many warriors passed by, many of them were already fully equipped and those of them who weren’t were short of cash after a long journey to this land.

Eric was happy to see the weapon and armor shops, he didn’t have a class yet, what he did have are some “limitations” on his avatar, limitations he was aiming to overcome by having good gear from the get go, he did intend to pass the time until the ban wears off by adjusting to his body and Royal Road in general yet he would gladly do some quests to raise the necessary founds.

As he walked in the direction of the shops he passed by many other players, unbeknown to him he was getting a lot of attention, many of the players he passed were giving him looks, some astonished, some envious and some yearning looks from those who were attracted to him, his character, although a complete noob with limitation put on him, was truly interesting and unique, not many players took such a long time design and thinking about their avatars, either they stayed as is or changed the things they didn’t like about themselves, that was because the adjusting period to a different body was hard on most and annoying to all.

On that day many took note of Eric, high level players as well as lower ones, all wondering who such an interesting avatar belonged to and if it would be beneficial to invite him to a party or even a guild, power leveling was common, especially in the area, interesting characters quickly gained “sponsors”.

Some female players squealed as they noticed Eric, pointing and whispering between themselves, it was clear they were attracted to him.

You are the cause for the anger of people around you.

Rage +1

Eric of course wasn’t so oblivious he wouldn’t notice the girls action and quickly took note of the situation, “ apparently causing jealousy, maybe anger in others raises my rage stat, I should get people mad often, raising any stat even this odd one could give me benefits” he thought, luckily remembering to use his inside voice for once.

As he was now close to the Weapon&Armor shops he started hearing the sellers shouting lines:

“selling cheap armor!”, “selling cheap weapons”, “cheap materials for sale!”, “will forge you any weapon you desire for gold”, “interesting one of a kind weapons!”

The two last ones picked Eric’s interest, he meant to forge a path of his own in Royal Road, having a weapon was a necessity in the game, having one forged for him or buying one that is unique, those were the only options he saw.

The one shouting about forging any weapon was a young man, muscular and tanned, his most specific feature was the wild, long, unyielding rag on his head, it was in fact his hair, it covered most of his face and ran down to the middle of his back, Eric took some time but when he finally decided it definitely wasn’t a dead monster on the man’s head, he turned his gaze to the other possible shop.

The other shop had a slim elven woman as the owner, he heard that apparently she was the wife of the elf forger he saw before, the one using magic to forge, she sold all the things he saw as failures, in doing so gaining money without lowering his fame.

Eric took his time seeing the woman haggled and bargained over the prices, he noted that the weapons sold were quite interesting if nothing else, glass swords that could not brake, they used light magic attacks concentrating the light of the sun or the moon, each was different its design altering the effect, he saw great long metal spikes, they looked like the huge black needles, they had some intricate carving though and a variety of magical effects, there was even a tiny pink axe that was sold to a dwarven female warrior, Eric never saw the same weapon twice, either it was made of a different material or had a different design, even those that looked the same had different magical properties, it seems that the maker refused to make the same thing twice.

The elven woman might have been relentless in the prices department, which was quite fair, but she always had a warm tone, never raised her voice and always tried to help, she seemed like a kind person, or rather a kind elf.

In complete contrast to her was the “rag for hair” Eon the smith, looking down on everybody, shouting, cursing and sometimes smacking, he took great pride in his work yet not much in his attitude.

Eric pitted the man, Eric himself wasn’t a saint, in fact he was closer in his mindset to the smith than to the elven woman, yet he had one thing the smith didn’t have, he was cunning, he kept his emotions to himself most of the time, the smith was scaring customers away to the elven woman or the other sellers, though his obscenely high prices made up for his loses.

It cannot be said that the smith was of a low caliber, he had a secret smithing job that for sure, producing black flames, molding bone like it was metal and using all manner of ways to create terrifying weapons, he was a black smith (or dark blacksmith, whatever you prefer), awaiting his second job advancement to demonic smith, his weapons were widely known and feared, the smith himself, fortunately for him, was not.

“If you cant pay, get out of here!” he shouted at a woman, she wore a black cloak and was irregularly pale, “The Demon Sun guild is not short of money, I can promise you that” the woman said calmly defending her guild’s honor, yet it was a mistake, the smith’s face reddened with anger, “then what is it?!?!” he shouted, drops of spit shooting from his mouth at her, “If you doubt the quality of my weapons I would gladly demonstrate it on you!” he said as he raised a dark long spear, black smoke danced on the tip of its blade, at the end the woman paid and walked away with an amazing spear, paying two hundred gold more than the agreed upon price, the smith had a lust for money few could match.

You have been a witness to anger around you.

Rage +1

The amount of points his Rage stat got from the smith as well as the costumers was huge, he raised it to twenty two the first day and decided to stay for another one, hoping that the smith will be as bad natured the second day as he was the first.

Before logging off after the first day Eric went to the elven woman, wanting to look over the things he could possibly get his hands (or rather his hand) on, he waited for all of the other players to leave so that he could talk to her directly.

“Excuse me? Could you please help me pick out a weapon for myself?” Eric asked with the best innocent impersonation he had, hoping to fool the woman into taking pity on a beginner who desperately needs guidance, it might have been his plan to look like that, but he didn’t need much work as he truly was a beginner who desperately needed guidance.

The elven woman took a deep look at him, analyzing his avatar to the most miniscule detail she could dig up, and then she answered “You are, for some reason one armed, bows great axes, great swords, long swords, maces, as well as many other weapons, all will be hard to handle for you.” She gave out a clear cut statement, “that leaves you with small weapons, focusing on speed rather than strength, yet even with those...” she hesitated to say, “what?” Eric asked, now worried, “even with small weapons you have a disadvantage, they are usually coupled with a shield which you clearly cant use, if not they are dual wielded, not possible again, in some cases one might use the other hand to push on the back of the weapon for support while defending… why the heck did you chose to be one armed?” he finished with an outburst, “Oh excuse me I didn’t mean to offend you” she added after seeing Eric’s face, he of course already thought all about that, he hoped she had a solution.

“So what am I to do?” he asked.

*Silence*

“You should learn magic of course, that way you won’t have any problem, with magic everything is possible” a voice said, it was a male voice, one he didn’t recognize yet the arrogant tone was familiar to him.

An elf came out of the shadows, Eric did recognize the face, it was the elf smith that he saw before, probably came to pick his wife up.

“I want to fight head on though, I don’t like attacking from a distance neither does the low health and defense appeal to me” Eric said stuff he gave much thought about, he had everything planned out already.

“There is a misconception among players about Royal Road, it seems that they think that magic users are restricted to the norm, but look at me, I’m a magic user who is also a smith! You could be a magic user that fights head on, close combat, magic can do everything in here you know” the explanation gave Eric hope, and a new direction.

“I am Ata by the way that is Lyra my wife, you already met.”

“I am Eric, nice to meet you, thanks for the information”

“Yet I still have only one arm and starting out like that it’s going to be hard to get a class that would fit me” Eric added.

“That may be so” Ata stated clearly dodging Eric try to get some weapon from him for free.

“My advice is: do some quests for a magic guild of your choosing. there are lots here get some familiarity and learn a few spells without a job, that way when you go out you could have a chance.” That was help enough for Eric so he thanked him and told them it was getting late and he had to log off, not before adding them to his friends list.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

As Eric got out of the capsule he thought to himself, “It does help to fake being nice once in a while, having a way to contact such a great player will be of great help” Eric laughed to himself as a plan started to take shape in his mind.

Rage +1

Trough watching others you have gained a new skill.

You have gained the skill: Observe

With that Eric’s Rage stat got up to twenty eight, the growth slowed down considerably the second day, it was because specific repetitive action lowers specific skill proficiency progress.

It was close to sunset when Eric decided that the stat got all the points it will from Eon the smith, his plan was now the more important goal, it tied in to his quest but all he really wanted was to do something exciting.

Eric walked slowly, making his way to the stand that Eon occupied, the smith was quite calm for a change, that was because he just made a good sword that raised his bone molding skill proficiency by two percent, raising it to intermediate.

“Excuse me, I would like to buy your cheapest sword” Eric talked slowly and calmly, his intention was to anger the smith yet he didn’t want it to be too obvious, after seen how King Victor operated he learned a thing or two.

“ I don’t sell low level weapons, you can get what you want in the training hall, now shu shu” the smith said, pointing in the general location of the training hall with one hand and polishing the sword he dubbed “Spine Sword” with the other (he was never any good with naming) never raising his head from the sword.

“How about some armor then? Pretty much any will do, you can make low level armor right?” Eric pushed on the smith’s ego, the smith didn’t even sell armor, he specialized in weapons of course, everybody knew that, yet he did know how to make it, suggesting he didn’t was disrespect incarnate in his eyes.

“Are you stupid? Deaf and blind? Didn’t you read the sign or hear me yell? I make weapons, weapons per order, only high level ones and only of the highest caliber, of course I can make armor but even if you paid me I won’t make a piece of junk for a beginner like you… now leave me alone to my work or Ill test to see if I made this sword sharp enough on you!” he said, yelling at last part as he raised his sword up in the air ready to swing, “it’ll go through you like butter, I promise” he added, it seems that he didn’t take the bait easily,

“Okay okay” Eric replied rising his hands in the air to show he conceded defeat,

Eon lowered his sword back and continued polishing it.

“How about materials then? Sell me some?” Eric said hiding a mischievous smile, he expected an attack but he was still surprised as the smith smashed his sword down destroying table that separated the two, he slashed at Eric’s right, an upward slash that only hit air, for once Eric was glad he didn’t have a right hand as he would have lost it then and there, probably along with all of his health,

Eric jumped backwards twice, once to dodge a trust another to gain some distance, he thanked dear heaven that smiths usually had low agility, even more for them having close to no battle experience as he did too.

The two players, one a total beginner wielding no weapons, wearing no armor, he even lost an arm somehow, the other, a level two hundred and seven smith wielding a terrifying sword that had a level cap of two hundred fifty (his skills allows him to wield it) wearing armor made of ogre’s bone and dark steel enchanted with symbols made from dead-man’s blood, two players surrounded by close to hundred others, enjoying Eon’s latest anger fit, always great entertainment.

Eon and Eric circled one another, Eric looking for an opportunity to attack and Eric to escape, a sudden jump to the right by Eric and a slash that followed it, a dash to the left was stopped with a piercing motion by Eon, back and forth for almost two minutes till an opportunity presented itself for Eric.

The opportunity, or rather the sun finally setting and a woman signaling, gave Eric the conditions he needed to escape, the moon was not yet high enough to be seen as the roofs in the area were quite high, the moment all natural light escaped an elven woman used water magic to extinguish the light coming from lamps spread around the market place, her idea was that in that time Eric could log off without worrying about getting slashed, she thought Eric got that but he had other plans.

The moments all lights went off Eric used his skill, “Observe” he whispered, being able to make out some of the environment he pushed through the people the surrounded him, he slowly and silently went to an exit from the marketplace, yet he didn’t exit, he waited there, ready,

When the moon rose and light came back to the world around them Eric could hear a shout, “where did he go!” Eon looked around while spouting all manner of curses, he too got a system notification just like Eric, though he ignored it, “You cowered!” he roared.

“Right here” Eric said calmly yet loudly, players searched for the location the voice came from and soon enough everybody was looking at Eric, to them he was an underdog that just escaped sure death, cheers could be heard from the crowd of players.

Eon made his way to Eric, he pushed down all in his path waving his sword around to make the players scatter, “Get out of my way!” he roared as he grabbed a small player and threw her aside, he wanted to chop Eric up as fast as possible.

Once Eon made most of the way Eric started running, he got through the exit which apparently lead to an alleyway, he slipped through the tight openings and made his way, Eon who had much much higher stamina had to get down to a slow pace the alleyway allowed, his sword scratching the walls making terrible noise.

The crowd of players gave up on giving chase, the alleys had too little space, they couldn’t hope that all will be able to follow the fight, not that they would have a good view in there anyways.

A merchant took the opportunity and started taking bets, how much time Eric could survive, If he might escape, how will he die and many other bets were made, it was quite ingenious actually, as all bets were taken care of using the game system the result could only be what really happened, by doing so they will be able to find out what is happening and how things might turn out, the merchant that initiated all that was quite cunning it seems.

Eric took full use of his small built due to having only one arm and run like the wind, some turns behind him was the smith who was restricted to walking as fast as he could, he had to un-equip most of his armor to even fit in.

He noticed he was running low on mana, “damn, should have checked observe skill description, at least I don’t have any other skills” he said desperately, trying to forget roar of rage for now as he didn’t want to commit suicide in the near future.

When Observe got canceled because of lack of mana Eric had a hard time seeing, choosing which tight gap to pass through got hard and his pace slowed down considerably.

*bang*

You have been hit by many projectiles, Hp -67

A sword hit just behind Eric, going through solid rock, destroying a wall and sending a barrage of stone projectiles all over, Eric was in rage of “all over” and got hit by the flying debris, he was lucky to not get cut by the sword as that would have been the end.

Knowing that the slower pace he took wasn’t an option he reactivated observe, “wouldn’t hold out for long, neither will I if it won’t…” he used observe to look for something, anything that could help him with gaining some distance, it was too early to put the next phase of the plan into motion, he wanted to gain time.

Noticing a bar of metal stuck to a wall he gave out a sigh of relief, that specific bar was once part of a sign for a shop, that was before the marketplace was moved, it was a part of many alterations the new king made to the capital and kingdom.

Eric grabbed the bar and pushed himself up, jumping up from the bar he managed to grab the ledge of roof, he in fact grabbed loose tile, using all the strength his one hand had he pushed himself up, doing so just before the tile disconnected from the roof and fell, Eric took a moment to gather his breath as he heard the tile falling on something that was not stone, looking down he saw broken tile parts on a huge pile of hair, the tile hit Eon’s head! An evil idea came into Eric’s mind.

Back in the marketplace where the players gathered many just lost a bet, it was a bet about whether Eon would lose any health or not, about ten players just lost around twenty gold each, the money went into the merchant’s pocket as he betted in favor of Eon being hurt, so far he took money from close to fifty players, he was the only one that betted on Eric and so he kept gaining money, “with that.. Even if I lose all the other bets I still come out with a gain of…” he stopped for a second to calculate, “seventeen gold, not much but who said I won’t make more than that? That fellow is a gold mine!” as he smiled “oww” he cried out, his nose bothering him again.

Sword met thrown tiles and the tiles exploded, fortunately it only made the parts sharper and the damage higher for Eon, he only lost close to two percent of health till now and his health kept slowly regenerating, the tiles were relentless however and soon enough Eon tried climbing, failing to do so as he slashed the metal bar down in one of his rage full slashes.

Eric was in the middle of a throwing a tile as Eon took out his bow, he let go of the tile and started running fast, jumping from roof to roof, now that he had a higher view point it was much easier to run, he had more space and more light.

*swish*

an arrow passed by his head, missing and continuing its journey to some faraway place.

*swish* *swish* *swish*

Eon wasn’t a very good shot, coupled with Eric as a moving target and Eon having to move himself to keep up and now arrow came close to hitting Eric.

The arrows kept coming and many were lost into the night, never to be found, some however were found by the population of the capital, unfortunately they found them attached to themselves, the arrows shot by a monstrous bow went through the wood walls, through the roofs and trough close windows, hitting the NPCs and causing quite a bit of damaged to property.

-near the captain of the guard house-

*bang* *bang* *bang*

Someone was banging on the heavy wooden door of the captain’s home, he was in bed with his wife and they got interrupted by the unwelcomed guest at their door.

“I swear that if this is not important, someone will pay for this” he said as he left his wife and took his sword in hand, he was a tall man with one eye, he grabbed the handle of the door opening it, “what is it?” he demanded to know, a small man from the city’s watch was standing in front of him shaking, it was not clear if it was from the cold night or from fear, “S.. Someone is shooting arrows around the city” he mumbled, “And how is it my business?” asked the captain, “I’m.. I’m.. I’m.. Sorry sir, someone is shooting arrows at houses around the city, they just go through the walls and hit people” he finally blurted out.

-The chase-

Eon was out of normal arrows, he didn’t notice but he started shooting elemental ones dozens of fire, lightning and storm arrows causing mayhem all over were shoot, still being a bad shoot they all missed Eric.

-back at the captain’s house-

Two arrows went through the south wall of the house, a lightning arrow obliterated the wall and the fire arrow started a small fire inside.

“Oh he just made it my business” said the captain.