Chapter 2

Igniting Dying Embers

Almost two hours after the game launch, a new player spawned in the Half-orc beginner camp within the Driftcloud Alliance’s borders. Dressed in shabby clothes and a huge rusty axe on its back, it looked around its surroundings. A blue name hovered above its head: Dawning.

Clay had told him to choose Half-orc for his race. He realized why as soon as he got into the character creation screen. Half-orcs were ugly. Clay was trying to make a fool out of him, but he didn’t mind. He didn’t care what his race was or how he looked.

The default appearance setting was how the player looked in real life. Hector now looked like himself, except for the orcish characteristics of slightly sharp ears, a pig-like nose, and protruding canines.

His chosen class was warrior. It was described as a master of different arms. Since he was also a close quarters combatant in real life, he chose this class which seemed perfect for him.

“Now, what do I do?” he asked himself. Observing his surroundings, it didn’t take long for him to notice the difference between players and non-player characters, or NPCs. Players had blue markers on their heads, while NPCs had white.

As he stood there in the spawn point, a burly half-orc NPC approached him, its heavy steps producing audible sounds. It held a spear in its hand and a round buckler was on the other. It stopped right in front of Dawning, releasing an intimidating aura.

“Newcomer, what’s your name?” it growled, sending spittle flying everywhere.

Hector can’t help but stare at the half-orc in front of him. It looked so real, yet he had never seen anything like it before. He was even tempted to touch its face and pinch its flesh just to be sure, but her remembered Clay’s reminder: Act like it was the real deal, do not think that he was in a game.

“Dawning,” Hector answered firmly.

“I have a job for you, Dawning. Wild boars have been acting crazy for a while now. In the outskirts of the camp and within the farms, a bunch of them had been seen attacking wildly, both our kin and our crops! Kill at least ten of them and bring back their tusks as proof!” After saying that, the half-orc crossed its arms and stood there in an imposing manner while glaring at Hector.

“What are you waiting for?! Scram and get rid of those boars!”

Taking the sign, Hector left the hot-tempered half-orc and went out of the camp. The camp was small, and along the way out he had seen most of what it had to offer. All the half-orc NPCs lived in small wooden huts, and those that offered services had small stalls built right outside of their huts.

There were players in the camp, too, but they all seemed to be gearing up in preparation to leave. They were buying the best equipments and items that the camp’s services could offer.

“Indeed, there’s a bunch of them here,” Hector said as he stood in front of the farm. More than a dozen wild boars half as tall as an average man were uprooting and tearing the crops.

“Well, let’s get to business.” Taking the axe from his back, he dashed at the closest boar and swung it horizontally. The boar noticed his approach and jumped backward to dodge the swing. Of course, Hector had already anticipated this. Taking three short steps forward, he let the handle of the axe hit his left shoulder. Using the same shoulder, he pushed the axe back and traced the same arc it had passed through earlier, hitting the boar on its right flank. The axe’s rusty blade barely sliced through the boar’s thick flesh.

“This will be tough,” Hector whispered under his breath while looking at the edge of the rusty blade. Nevertheless, he never thought that he would fail this job. At this moment, he had already taken the mindset he used whenever he went out on a hunt.

Standing still, he steadied his breath while keeping his awareness on the boar’s movements. The other boars in the area did not seem like they would attack unless they were attacked themselves. This was a much better situation than in the real world.

With his attitude renewed, Hector once more went in for the kill.

In the end, it took him almost an hour to kill ten boars. He got so into it that he kept on hunting them even when he already had the required amount of tusks until his axe broke. The boars respawned every few minutes so the amount of boars almost didn’t decrease.

“What’s the point of hunting them?” he thought as he watched the wild boars continue on ravaging the farm fields.

Even if he wanted to continue on killing them, he had no weapon and it would be a folly to use just his bare fists. Taking a last look at the preys he was unable to completely exterminate, he returned to the camp.

“Well done, young warrior! Here is your reward!” The half-orc’s attitude changed greatly after he submitted more than thirty pieces of wild boar’s tusk. The rewards he received were silver and copper coins, an increase in his Arms Proficiency, and a twelve-hour buff which grants a small boost to his damage.

Arms Proficiency was a skill unique to the warrior class. It increases the damage of melee weapons by 1% per proficiency level, and allowed him to learn warrior abilities and to equip melee weapons with levels not more than the proficiency level.

In Worldforge Genesis, there were no character levels and stat distributions. A character’s strength was determined by the skills learned and mastered, equipments, and a player’s real ability. Furthermore, to avoid having those with actual combat skills in real life completely dominate those without, a combat assist system was developed. This system enhances a player’s movements, matching their character’s movement with their desired actions. This system does not make a weak player strong, but turns a weak player into something that’s not cannon fodder.

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Even if you have poor athletic abilities, as long as you can think of a way to fight, the system will give you the body to do so. If you have strong athletic abilities, but no combat sense, then the system can not do anything to help you. That was how the combat assist system worked.

Hector Dawning, having both physical abilities and combat sense, was not able to utilize this system at all as there was no need to do so. Of course, he had no idea about it.

“Arms Proficiency?” He tinkered about with the translucent interface appearing in the edges of his vision. It was similar to the on-visor HUD he had on his PCS, so he got accustomed to it quickly. There was a Skills menu, so he opened it. He currently had two skills:

Arms Proficiency Lv.19

  - Increase melee weapon damage by 19%

  - Can equip melee weapon Lv.19 and below

  - Learned abilities:

     Lv.1 Power Swing

     Lv.10 Bash

Heavy Armor Proficiency Lv. 1

  - Increase heavy armor defense by 1%

  - Can equip heavy armor Lv. 1

These were the initial skills for a warrior class. Hector read the descriptions and the abilities he had. Power Swing was an ability he already had from the start. It allowed him to charge an attack by gathering his strength before releasing an attack. It consumes rage and stamina. Bash on the other hand was a simple ability that stuns an enemy by hitting their head with his equipped melee weapon. It consumes rage.

Rage and stamina were common words but for them to be consumed was a concept a bit out of Hector’s knowledge. That was when he noticed the four colored bars on the upper left corner of his vision. Highlighting them, he saw their labels and descriptions.

The green bar was his Health Points. It was how much life he had left. Losing all Health Points meant death.

The gray bar was his Stamina Points. It was how much energy he had left to move. Running, attacking, and other physical abilities will drain his Stamina Points. When this bar becomes empty, his movements will become sluggish.

The red bar was his Rage Points. It starts as empty and will fill whenever he attacks an enemy or when he is attacked.

The blue bar was his Mana Points. It is required for magic abilities.

Hector analyzed these four “resources” and tried to understand them. Obviously, health, stamina, and rage can be applied in real life, but mana was a bit out of his common knowledge.

“Magic, huh?” The magic he knew were tricks performed to entertain others. In fact, he knew a few using cards and coins, something he learned from his deceased father. He shook his head as his thoughts began to stray to a direction he didn’t like.

"I’ve got a few more tasks for you, Dawning. Seeing your previous performance, I am a bit hesitant to hand them out to you. They might be below your level of ability and would put your skills to waste.” The half-orc NPC interrupted his thoughts, and he thought that it was fortunate timing. Memory lane was a path he did his best to avoid.

“I don’t mind,” Hector replied. After accepting a few more hunting missions, he went and bought a new weapon and a few spares with the reward money from his first quest.

The inventory system was truly convenient. No matter how bulky and heavy his luggage was, they could be easily stored and retrieved from the inventory.

Once more, he left the camp to hunt.

It was already 4 am when Hector logged out of the game. He had been engrossed with hunting monsters. To him, the AI of those monsters were impressive. They reacted to his movements like they were real beasts. Furthermore, his low quality equipments increased the difficulty level. He broke three more axes, and they were better quality ones than his first.

His phone’s light was blinking, and he checked it to see a few missed calls and a voice message left behind by Clay.

“Hey, I’m guessing you’re still playing. You got into it pretty quickly, huh? And you were all skeptical at first. So, did you really make a half-orc? I was fooling with ya, man! Haha, sorry about that. If you want to change your character, you’ll have to buy a new account. With all the money you have, that won’t be a problem, right? Anyways, I just gave you call to tell you that my in-game name is Magiclay. That’s Magic and Clay a single C. Add me up and let’s meet up in Astoine, Driftcloud’s main city. You’re in the Driftcloud faction, right? Right? Don’t tell me you’re not!”

The call ended with Clay’s hysteric voice. It was all an act, though, and Hector knew that.

There were three factions in Worldforge Genesis: Sunmarch Empire, Moonwaltz Rebellion, and Driftcloud Alliance. As planned, Clay and Hector started in Driftcloud Alliance.

Stretching, Hector looked out the balcony. The deep blue sky littered with stars forming constellations were as impressive and beautiful as ever.

“It’s fake, yet looks so real…” Hector whispered. “Just like the virtual world.”

He turned and walked to his bedroom. Before he entered, he took one last look at the streamlined device he left on the living room table, then said quietly, “It’s not that bad…”

A small smile appeared on his lips and an absurd thought formed in his head.

Maybe, just maybe…

His bedroom door closed with a click and the living room was left in silence.