Chapter two: A start of a great friendship

On top of a hill stood a level one, classless, one armed and possibly race less being. It was the second time for him to be on the top of that hill because the first one didn't turn out so great.

As he respawned on the hill where he died, memories of people shouting and someone stabbing him flooded back into his mind. He could remember himself shouting before the stab and after it, he heard two very different shouts.

“Show skill description for Roar of Rage” he said as he sat down under the only tree on the top of the hill.

Roar of Rage:

A shouting skill that can be heard to great distances.

By channeling your rage trough your body you are able to exert it outward in the form of a roar.

Your rage is absorbed by creatures near you while leaving you calmed.

*The act of roaring is exhausting for your body.

-10 Rage

-2 Wisdom

-40 Health

Enrages beings in a 20m vicinity.

Clear mind activated

While using Clear Mind:

+20 Agility

+20 intelligence

+5 to all stats except rage.

*clear mind will be active till you experience rage again.

All enraged creatures will feel a strong bloodlust towards you, the more intelligence they have the less it affects them.

After reading the description for a long time, trying to understand what exactly happened, was he able to reach a conclusion. “The skill affects beings in accordance to how much intelligence they have, the less they have the more they are affected.” He nodded to himself as he said, as loudly as always. “My roar attracted some players for some reason, they were surely further than 20m but it seems that they were curious, and the roar can reach further than 20m although to no effect so it’s logical” he said again while nodding, adding “hmm” and “hmmmm” and maybe a definite “hm”, “then if I add it all up….” He said while finally getting to the point, “Then the player who killed me was very stupid! No regular player would have so little intelligence!” unfortunately for Eric most warriors did, but most warriors weren’t as hot blooded as the one who killed him. He is known (and feared) as The Great Dark Warrior Larry.

“Well no harm was done at the end of the day.. I didn't have any exp or skill proficiencies to lose… I couldn't log on for a day but at least I got some stress out.” Usually he would have decided to stalk the man and after ruining his social life killing him (in game of course! he’s not a real criminal you speculators out there!) but he had people he would rather payback, “And to get back at an admin you have to cause chaos in game” he said with a smile deciding to get strong enough to do just that.

The effects of Calm mind seamed to linger in him even though the skill got cancelled after he died. Eric felt calmer than he did in a long time and so the one armed man decided to go and punch some scarecrows with his only arm. All alone, just him, the one and only, singular, two minus one.

As he awkwardly went through the street of the capital, trying to get used to his new body, did he see many interesting things. Some players with the job of juggler juggled monster heads. An elf using water element magic to shoot streams of water all over the floor, causing the sturdy dwarfs fall and roll around as they tried getting up. That made Eric as well as many others burst out laughing. It seems there are ways to mess with people without actually attacking them, Eric decided to remember that.

What caught his eye was what the elf did afterwards. The elf pulled out many tools that were associated with the trade of a smith! The elf was a well-known smith, for his works of course and for his race which contradicted his class. But to the inner circles of smiths he was known for his unconventional forging methods.

The elf took out a long piece of metal and used fire magic on it to heat it up. After which he used his water elemental summon skill to summon a being that was ordered to spray high pressure streams of water at the metal! The metal was cut, then molded into a blade, then heated again and molded again and heated. The process had many steps but was carried out at a fast pace. And so the water spirit cooled the sword then cut away at the edge making the sword extremely sharp. After that connected the elf it to a hilt made of some magical elf tree. An observation Eric made by seeing tiny magical light streams dancing around it. The elf casted some spells to keep the blade as sharp and hard as it was when created and so he was done.

Eric decided that although brilliant and extremely talented, the elf was arrogant! As he showed everybody how he works without worry, thinking that no one will ever be able to copy him. He was right but still.

Passing by some less interesting affairs like duels and business transactions he made his way to the training hall, great big oaken doors blocked his path, on the door was a note:

Entrance is granted only to those who are able to open the gate

Eric made a sour face and grabbed a handle, pulling with all he had he couldn't open it. Then an idea came to his mind and he pushed, that idea failed as well. He tried the other door of the gate thinking maybe the first one was broken for some reason. He pushed, then he pulled, then banged on it, with no answer… He circled around the building, looking to see if there are other doors, but there weren't any. He tried climbing on the wall but didn't succeed at it. “Please let me in” he shouted at the door. The training hall was a very important step in his plans so he couldn't skip it. “Go away! We don’t take weaklings” someone shouted back.

*Inside the training hall*

Strange voices could be heard from the area of the gates to the training hall. A sort of pounding. The sound echoed through the training hall. As the pounding continued so did the sound of them continued, that was annoying the inhabitants more and more. Then one of them got up and went to the door, opened it and got greeted by a punch to the face. He raised his hand and with a lot of power punched back, sending the annoying disturbance flying.

As he walked back to meditate on his training he noticed a system message:

You have been lightly hit -1 health

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

As the man walked back he thought “huh… didn’t know someone could be so weak.” For some reason his nose had blood on it and everyone could see it but no one dared say anything as it was the instructor of the training hall.

“Daddy, daddy your nose is bleeding!” said a little girl as she handed him an handkerchief.

The instructor grabbed it with his right hand, messed the little girl’s hair with the other and said “thank you little Ela”

As he wiped the blood away he noticed it wasn't coming from him. It was in fact the blood of his enemy!

“Daddy does it hurt?” the little Ela asked.

The instructor smiled and answered “No, everyone! It seems that I got strong enough that my face now injures the fists of my enemies!”

At the sound of that everybody laughed. Some wondered what player is stupid enough to attack the strong instructor, others wondered what player could be so weak as to injure himself from the face of the enemy and a small, very small group of players sighed and wondered why warriors are usually so stupid. Not getting that the player injured his fist from the door… indeed warriors didn’t have high intelligence on Royal Road.

*outside the training hall*

Your fists are bleeding from continues punches at hard substances. You may start losing health due to blood loss if the action is not halted

You have fractured your fist -10 health.

can’t be used until healed

You have suffered a heavy hit -70 health

you have crushed into a wall -9 health

you are stunned. You can’t move for 60 seconds

Eric was laying on the cold ground while he was hurting all over. He was breathing irregular, his mouth was gasping for air, everything was spinning, lights were dancing in front of him vividly. Basically, he was stunned and by having just barely over 10% health left, saved from death. He had a feeling he will break some record by dying twice in the first month of Royal Road and that wasn’t a record he wanted to break.

Eric went to the fountain after he regained some health and the stun wore off. He wanted to get some water and hopefully clean all the blood of him.

As Eric splashed water over his hurting body he heard some people talking. “Have you heard about the demon sword and the divine sword?” an old NPC said. “No, but I would be glad to hear about it” answered a beautiful dual-sword wielding woman. “Me too…” the old NPC replied bluntly “off you go” he added waving to her. A while after that a Great axe wielding walked by the old guy, the old guy called out to him asking “Hey you! Did you ever hear about the Great axe of Milldorion?” The man’s eyes lit up and he eagerly answered “Yes I did! can you tell me anything about it?” He asked excited. The old man answered “Yes of course I can but it’ll cost you 15 gold” It was more than a fair price for precious information about the rumored ancient great axe so he gladly gave it to the old NPC, “ It’s an axe, but not just any axe, a Great axe, and it was either made or wielded by Milldorion, supposedly it’s a great Great axe.” Acts like that one kept occurring as the old man was bringing despair to all that passed him.

“What an amazing person” was all Eric had to say about the matter, he decided to pass by the NPC to see what he will tell him, “did you hear about the stupid punching bag that banged on the doors of the training hall in order to get in only to be sent away flying?”

Eric smiled and kept walking thinking that the old man was really unique, only… then the old man stepped over the line “I heard he even died in less than one hour after he arrived at this world! What a weak sad existence he must be” Eric didn't smile now, he walked over to the old man, and then when he got to him he took in a deep breath of air and shouted with all his might “HEY! EVERYBODY! DID YOU EVER HEAR OF THE SWINDLER NPC WHO WILL BAIT YOU WITH INFORMATION ONLY TO TAKE YOUR MONEY?!?!?!?” the look on the NPC face was enough of a reward. But then the man grabbed his hand and said “hey you… you have balls.. And you seem to be quite a revengeful person. I like that. How about you do me a favor that will benefit us both?

Quest: Causing mishap

You have gotten the respect of former King Victor the second, the dethroned king that turned street swindler. He wishes to get back at the current ruler by causing some chaos in the capital, it seems that petty revenge is driving him.

Rank E

Reward:

swindler's coin

favor from the king

Failure:

Get caught by the capital guards

“how exactly will this benefit me? And why would I do you a favor?” Asked Eric not giving any mind to the fact he was talking to a former king, for all he knew he was once the king of swindlers and was now trying to swindle him!

“I have a network of spies from my olden days so I know you got punched by the training hall instructor, I also know what happened to you yesterday, I’m sure you won’t mind getting back at the people of this city, but most importantly I know you are like me, hungry to spread chaos, I see it in your eyes” the man said confident.

“Okay, but on one condition” Eric replied

“I’m all ears” Victor answered.

“I want to punch you” was what he got back as a reply

and so Eric walked away and Victor was holding his bleeding nose.

You have accepted a quest