Skye opened her eyes. And blinked twice.
She was standing next to a fountain that marked the center of a spacious plaza – which was completely empty at the moment.
So this is Royal Road.
“Now…where should I start?” She smiled gleefully.
*****
This obsession of hers – to become the “best” in everything she did (which was literally everything) – sprouted during childhood.
If there was a race, she would push herself to the extreme; she could not bear to not try her best. Even if she felt like dying and regretted it afterward (as she usually did), she did it again and again. At some point, her parents thought she had Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. But no, she was just extremely competitive.
Then if she saw something new of interest, she wanted to try it out as other kids did, but she was obsessive about it.
When she was eleven, her family went to see Swan Lake. As soon as they walked out the door, Skye called out, “Mom, mom! I want to do ballet! Can I do it? Pleeeaaase.”
*Raises eyebrow* “You really want to do ballet?” Her mom thought it was going to be a waste of time. Children had short attention spans and, they usually gave up soon after they started. Mostly, it was a waste of time and money.
“I promise to try my best-” Skye looked up with big doe eyes. They glistened with eagerness.
*Sigh* “You can start taking lessons next week.” Her mom didn’t expect much…but, who knows? Children should be allowed try out all kinds of different activities…even if they didn’t last long.
What happened was rather surprising.
The first day after her lesson, Skye stepped out of class looking dejected. Her mom was worried, but didn’t say anything.
The second day, she still looked downcast, but she continued lessons without objections.
After a few days of mild depression, Skye started looking happier. Then finally, after one month (with lessons twice a week), she came out of class with a spring in her step. She bounced toward her waiting mom and asked, “Mommy, can I take extra lessons?”
Surprised, her mom asked, “Did something good happen today?” Not that she was against it. But her child’s transformation was quite unusual.
"Hehe, she praised me."
Right then, Skye’s ballet instructor walked over. “Hello, you must be Skye’s mother. I’m Renée, nice to meet you.”
“Oh, hello. Thank you for taking care of Skye.”
“No problem,” she gently smiled, “In fact, I’m quite happy that you brought Skye to me. It’s only been a month, but I can tell she has talent. To tell the truth, we were doing Grand Jeté today, and Skye leapt the highest.”
Her puzzlement must have shown on her face, because Renée said, “It must be because you haven’t sat in for lessons before. Almost all the other children in this class have been doing ballet since the age of four to eight. Skye was the only complete beginner. I thought she would quit and enter another class for younger children, but she chose to continue. Now, we can see that she has determination and potential.”
The pieces clicked together. So that’s why she was depressed in the beginning.
Skye's determination or obsession wasn't to be underestimated either. She diligently attended all her lessons with enthusiasm and continued asking for more, until she had classes every day except Sundays. And she improved drastically - she was on par with the best students in class (by now, she had entered the Intermediate
Since that day, her mom let her try out whatever she wanted – the violin, gymnastics, sports – Skye was an unusually fast learner (to say the least), and she had talent in the arts and an athletic physique. Of course, her mom, who managed the family finances, succeeded in satisfying Skye's new "interests" within the family budget. Although their family was better off than the average household, classes were expensive, and private lessons even more. Skye seemed to realize this, and had started making fewer requests in the recent years. Even though she continued some hobbies permanently like ballet, she did lose interest in painting, golf, and several others within a few months. Skye felt guilty sometimes.
But with the release of Royal Road, a brilliant idea presented itself in her mind. Why didn’t she learn in Royal Road? Tutors were free, and time went by four times as fast. The capsule was ridiculously expensive and monthly subscriptions weren’t cheap, but in the long run, Royal Road was cheaper, four times as effective and fun (a gross understatement). Hence, this was how Skye was able to convince her mom to buy her a capsule for her fifteenth birthday.
*****
“I think…survival skills should come first.”
She’d watched a video of a newbie player's first encounter with a rabbit. Yes, a rabbit. She had almost fallen off her chair, laughing, when the screen had turned black momentarily before exposing a white, fluffy bunny labeled as the "Terror Outside the Walls," with obviously fake fangs that were scribbled on the screen. She had thought it a joke before she read the comments; some of which said,
"OMG. I HATE rabbits now. This one group of bunnies actually killed off our whole group on the first day we got out!"
"Honestly, I didn't know rabbits could be that vicious… in fact, I thought rabbits were herbivores? I still remember watching my friend being eaten alive as I ran for my life – but they're SUPER fast and they got me too in the end… *Shudder* They seriously have fangs, FANGS!"
She'd shuddered along with some of the descriptions of their gruesome deaths… she would have also underestimated the bunnies – who could have known? Properly warned, Skye had vowed to never underestimate the monsters (especially the cute ones) in Royal Road.
Shaking her head, she came back to the present.
“There should be a map around the center of town…”
Exiting the plaza, she chose the widest street, following her hunch (instinctive realization that wider paths = more trodden and probably led to the center of activity).
Bingo!
She detected a large map glued onto one side of a clock tower. Walking up to it, she read the words in bold, “Delistair City, Subain Kingdom.”
A red dot marking her location was situated in the upper middle segment of the city. Training Hall, Training Hall…there it is. *Pause* Great, it’s all the way down south. Well it’s a noticeably big building – I won’t get lost. *Sigh* Time to get running. I don’t want to lose time after all.
Facing south, she looked down the empty street.
“Okie dokie. Now to test if real life skills are transferred over to Royal Road.”
Stretching her arms above her head, she rotated her neck then reached down to touch her toes without bending her knees; Skye was testing her flexibility. Amazing, it feels like my real body. Well, except the loss of her muscles (from avatar changes) and a sensation of…weakness (from low stats).
Crouching down and bending one leg while keeping the other knee touching the ground, she gingerly placed her fingers on the floor in set position. Ready.......... go!
Skye broke out in a sprint. She was on the varsity track-and-field team at school. For her, this was as easy as breathing. Keeping her spine partially tilted forward and moving her arms in sync with her legs, she flew past houses and the occasional bystander. Rounding a corner, she momentarily slowed down before picking up her tempo again.
Uh-oh. I’m going to run out of breath too quickly. Her stamina didn’t cross over from real life, apparently. She slowed down to a reasonable pace and continued jogging. Honestly, she could have stopped running by now – but she loved the wind in her face and the burning in her calves; she enjoyed physical exertion and forcing herself to go on. (Doesn’t she seem kind of masochistic?)
After around ten minutes, the fatigue set in completely, and the stamina and satiety bars were glowing red. Blegh. I feel like passing out. Am I there yet? She had slowed down considerably but had refused to stop running.
Then she noticed a huge building with a worn down sign that said “Training Hall.” Finally! Dredging up the last of her reserves, she erupted into a final sprint at her maximum speed.
All of a sudden, she heard three simultaneous notification alerts.
Ding!
You have gained a new stat: Sustenance
SustenanceYou are less likely to use stamina in action. You are prohibited from distributing points into this stat.
This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Sustenance increased by 1.
Ding!
You have gained a new skill: Feather Foot
Feather FootWhile this skill is active, you use 5% less stamina and gain a 5% increase in speed. Percentages will increase with skill level. Mana Cost: 5/sec
Ding!
You have gained a new skill: Runner’s Stance (Passive)
Runner’s Stance (Passive)By properly distributing your weight, balance is maintained while running. You are able to move in any direction from this stance. Reaction time +10% and Speed +10%
So this is what they mean by creating new skills through action.
She had collapsed onto the floor while she had read the messages. Despite her exhaustion, she was in a good mood as she opened her inventory and took out a stale, tasteless-looking rye bread that new players ranted about in the forums. Grimacing, she took a bite.
Hey, this doesn’t actually taste all that bad. God knows she tasted things worse off. Thanks to her useless dad, she’d been forced to experiment with spoilt food while camping with her family. Taking care not to choke (she forgot to fill up the canteen with water), she took small bites until her satiety bar filled up.
Then she just sat there on the floor for a while as the stamina bar crept back up.
After a minute or two, she dusted her butt as she stood up, then walked to the entrance of the Training Hall about a hundred meters away. Enormous doors were propped open to reveal a huge opening the size of a museum entrance. Abnormally huge. Peeking in as she walked up the stairs, she was startled by the number of people.
No wonder. I’d thought the plaza was too empty, even for a “sparsely populated” city. Why are all these players gathered here?
Thwack! Swish-
Is that fighting I hear?
Approaching a middle-aged man near the doorway, she asked,
“Excuse me, do you know what’s going on over there?” as she pointed to the crowd clustered in a misshapen circle.
The man turned around – oops, not middle-aged – and said, “They’re-“ and broke off.
He cleared his throat and tried again.
“A famous sword master arrived yesterday and announced that he’d take on the strongest man here as his disciple. The men you see in there,” he pointed to the middle of the circle, “are the finalists. You missed most of the fighting.”
“Thank you,” she smiled. Doesn’t hurt to be polite.
“D-do you need help with anything?”
“No, I don’t. Thanks for asking.” Not. I can take care of myself, thank you very much.
Ignoring the man at her back, she moved toward the crowd and blended in, until she could make out two men circling each other, wooden sword in hand.
The man on the right looked bruised with a bleeding gash on his off-hand, but he still seemed lively enough. He was the leaner of the two, and at the moment, his handsome face was twisted in a haughty smirk. On the other hand, the strawberry-blond teenager on the left was similarly bruised, but he was favoring his right leg.
Someone whispered, “Hey, I heard that Valgard ambushed Jared last night with his men – that’s why he was moving weirdly at the beginning of the match.” Hushed voices continued.
“Seriously? Well everyone already knew that Jared was going to be one of the finalists. He’s damned good for a newbie.”
“That Valgard. Sometimes I want to wipe that smirk off his face. He’s rich as hell, and he acts like everyone should kneel and kiss his foot,” someone grumbled.
“I know, I know. And I think he rigged some of the matches in Haven's annual competition a while back…”
After listening to gossip for a while, she discovered that Valgard had quite the reputation. Most people recognized him by his signature smirk and willingness to flaunt his wealth. Everyone knew he was rich and powerful, with connections to leading guilds and their high-leveled players. That's why even if people knew he was cheating, no one dared to cross him.
He's not very well-liked, is he? Pompous and arrogant, and a cheater to boot.
Recalling last year's competition, she grew annoyed. She'd prepared for months for this specific tournament, but due to a single cheater, all her efforts had been invalidated.
Oh, I know! Why don't I give that teen a little help? I don't have anything to do right now, anyway.
This game was making her take risks she wouldn't take in real life. As she entered her "thinking" mode, she promptly ignored the fact that she would also be “cheating” if she tampered with the match.
Pushing to get out of the crowd, she stepped out and looked around the hall. In this gigantic room, there must be something I can use. As she searched around, she noticed something gleaming on the floor. Walking over, she picked it up. A needle. With thread attached. She smiled. She had a plan. Quickly glancing about her to make sure no one saw, she scooted to a corner and unraveled the thread. Pretty long. This will do. She re-threaded the needle while tying a knot using the least amount of thread she could. Secured, she also bound the end of the thread to her pointer finger and tested the length.
Once more, she merged with the crowd, but this time, she approached the side near the man called Valgard. Moving forward until only one body stood between her and the dueling man, she waited. Positioning her needle like she was holding a pencil, tiled up so that the point was parallel to the ground, she steadied the arm holding the needle by grasping the elbow with her other hand.
She’d visited an acupuncturist before, who had enlightened her on some of the vital points on the body after she had pestered him with innumerable questions. She didn’t know all of them of course, but she remembered a specific point on the neck, where he said it would cause paralysis if struck. All she needed was a split second.
Now, she didn’t have any guarantee it would work since she had to aim with a needle. But it didn’t really matter if it didn’t work; it was a hasty plan scrounged up for fun. Also, she wasn't too worried about being discovered. She was pretty confident she could pull back the needle unnoticed when everyone was watching the fight, not the back of Valgard’s neck. This game is making me impulsive. *Shrug* I don't have much to lose anyway. (You aren't gaining anything either!) Besides, she really disliked cheaters. Well, if by some chance I succeed and he dies – the acupuncturist did say it could kill – I won’t be sued for murder.
There he comes. The crowd was going haywire. They'd both lost their wooden swords somewhere in the fight and had been left to brawl with their fists. The strawberry-blonde was muscling his way toward Valgard, who shifted backward in (what it seemed) cowardice. But as soon as his back nearly touched the edge of the crowd and Jared gave a massive punch highlighting the climax of the fight, Valgard gave his signature smirk…
…As he felt a shooting pain in the back of his neck and froze in place – as the punch he was going to dodge actually connected with his temple. In that moment, Jared looked surprised. He hadn’t expected the punch to connect. As Valgard crumpled to the ground, silence flooded the room until the shocked audience sprang up with whoops and bravos. Jared’s friends ran forward to clap him in the back as he stood there, stunned.
All’s well that ends well. She hadn’t expected it to hit home and was pleasantly surprised with her handiwork. She cheered for a while then quietly snuck out – I should come back another time – only to be interrupted by a hand on her shoulder.
“Excuse me, miss. May I talk to you for a second?”
Uh-oh.