Five in the morning found me covering a yawn with my hand as I stepped into the kitchen of the apartment complex. I needed to get some food in me for a long day of grinding that was ahead of me. I needed to make seven levels to turn in this latest main quest, and I doubted it was going to be that quick of a task. Five hundred experience to make level two, a thousand more to hit level three… How much would I need for level four? The formula could go a few different ways and I could need anywhere from fifteen hundred to two thousand to make my next mark, let alone getting all the way to ten.

Lost in thought as I was, I didn’t notice that I wasn’t alone in the kitchen until a hand grabbed my shoulder and Archie’s voice cut through the rolling ideas running through my head. “Hey! Did you hear me? I asked how your first day in the game was!”

I jumped at the disruption to my thoughts and looked over to find Kayla sitting down and watching us as she stirred a bowl of oatmeal. “Shit man… Don’t scare me like that. Sorry, I was kind of spacing out.” I chuckled and shook my head, pulling out a bowl for cereal and a protein shake from the fridge. “Not bad for a first day I think. Got a Fairy and was accepted into House Tyrith with a rank 3 title, so it was productive.”

Archie raised a brow at me and shook his head. “Lucky bastard. I haven’t gotten a Fairy yet, although I have a good lead on where to get a good one that I plan to check out. As for a House, I am located in the lands of House Eventide but need to obtain a Fairy before joining officially. Kayla here got herself a Fairy too though.” He sighed and sat back down in his seat to pick at his bowl of sliced fruit.

“Oh? Glad to see I am not the only one who got a Contract. What kind of Fairy did you find Kayla?” With my breakfast in hand, I sat down beside Archie and dug into my simple meal with a gusto. While technically laying down all day, the immersion device was still triggering my muscles and burning calories at a decent rate so I needed to keep my health up if I wanted to keep up extended sessions. Thankfully I wasn’t sore when I woke up this morning, the night’s rest doing wonders to ease the aches of my body.

Kayla tucked some of her long blonde hair back behind an ear and shrugged her shoulders. “Oh, nothing too fancy, just a rare Celestial Fairy that looks promising, if a bit on the common side. I also got accepted into House Fairfield with a rank 1 title and have a nice long quest ahead of me today. What kind of Fairy did you get Dale?”

“Yeah, I saw a system message saying a Unique Fairy already entered the game. That couldn’t have been you though, could it?” His tone was more teasing than serious, thinking he could jab fun at me and that I only got a basic Fairy for myself.

“Uhm, actually it was. I got stuck with a quest to kill a boss class monster right off the bat, and one of the rewards from killing it was a Unique Fairy. Her name is Alysandaria the Chronomancer.” I grinned at the expression on his face, wide eyes and open mouth the picture of shock before he grumbled and shoved a piece of fruit into his mouth.

“Chronomancer? So if I get this right…” Kayla paused and tilted her head in thought slightly. “Chrono as in time, and mancer as in diviner or mage. Similar to pyromancer being a fire mage in most games. Damn, Dale. A titled Fairy on day one of the game is a bit on the broken side.”

“Heh, yeah a bit. However it isn’t as good as it sounds. Sure it is useful as all hell, but the mana cost of her starting ability is ridiculously high and has to be channeled. Add to that the fact that it is classified as a support type Fairy, and I can see it as only being OP at much higher levels. As it stands now, it is a bit of a boost, but not as useful as a Celestial or an attack type Fairy.”

The blonde woman nodded her head. “Yeah I can see that. High cost for a skill, then a long wait for the regen to let you use it again. Makes it so that it will only be an emergency ability for now. Having a healing ability right off is nice, but a rare quality Fairy will only take me so far. You get a scaling Fairy early that will grow right along with you as you start to level.”

“The both of you are enjoying the chance to rub this in, aren’t you?” Archie gave us a mock glare, but it soon fell from his face as he smiled. “Heh, don’t worry. I am just messing with you. I all reality I am glad for you both, and hope to join the ranks of hard mode Contractors by the end of the day! It is a shame we all got sent to different Houses though… I kind of wanted to get all three of us together in the game to take on some of the later content.”

“Don’t get all gloomy, Archie…” Kayla reached across the table and snagged a grape from his bowl to eat. “You never know, we might be able to meet up in time. Have either of you gotten the low down from your House representatives yet?”

Archie shook his head gloomily – to our amusement – and I spoke up. “Yeah, I got a basic explanation from the Guard Captain. Seems like we will all be enemies in the scheme of things.” I smirked at the pair. “Sounds like old times, really.”

That brought a chuckle from the both of them and Kayla shrugged. “Not the first time we have been on opposite sides of a war, won’t be the last either probably. But what I really wanted to bring up was the possibility of getting our Houses to join forces somehow. Or maybe we can even ditch our current Houses and head over to another.”

I shook my head at her last suggestion. “Nope, not me. I got into this faction at rank 3 to start! I am not going to let that go to waste. I am not against the two of you coming to join my faction, and I know right where Archie could get a Fairy in my providence. Where I got mine, there were plenty of others. I was actually planning on going back when I made level twenty-five and unlocked my second Fairy slot.”

Kayla remained silent as she pondered my words, but Archie had a look on his face that said he wasn’t a fan of that plan. “Well, to be honest with you… I think I might be able to pull off the same trick as you, Dale. With how hard my quest is, I think I might get a strong Fairy at the end and want to see this through. I am not against trying to join your faction, but if I can get a strong Companion early on it will help me in the long run.”

He had a point. I knew that in the long term, me getting a Unique Fairy would pay off dividends at the higher levels. It would make my early game a bit harder, but I also had a nice plan with my character build that took full advantage of what Aly could offer me. Our conversation devolved into casual chatter, the heavier topics done for the time being as we simply enjoyed a meal together just like we used to. All that was missing was Alex and his wife, who used to join us on a regular basis too when she was still only his girlfriend.

In all, we had a good time of it and were even joined by a couple of the other gamers in the complex. It was almost six AM when we parted ways at our doors, the sun coming up in the game shortly that would mark the start of the second day of release. All three of us were excited to dive back into the game, the desire to level our characters and experience as much of the world as possible driving each of us to want as much time in game as we could manage.

The log in process was becoming familiar to me as I went through the ordeal for a third time. I didn’t even pay attention to the ready room and rushed right for the doorway into the game world itself, welcoming the short feeling of vertigo before I blinked my eyes open to gaze upon Tyrith City just as the first rays of dawn lit up the street and buildings.

Aly flashed back into this realm and stretched her body with a cute yawn before settling down on my left shoulder. “Morning Calamity. Are we going to those ruins today?”

“Morning Aly, and yeah. As soon as I get my armor and potions I was planning on heading out. Vermund didn’t mark it on my map, but looking at it now I think I see where we need to go.” Indeed, looking at the expanded mini map showed me an area that fit the bill, and I set a waypoint marker so that my mini map would direct me towards the location.

I had a bit of walking ahead of me, the tavern I had logged out in front of being fairly close to the keep while the shops I needed to hit were at the north gate of the walls. Setting off, I waved at a couple shop keepers as they opened the doors to their buildings to get ready for the day.

Fifteen minutes of walking brought me into Amara’s shop first, my excitement at getting my new gear driving me to visit here first. Stepping into the shop, I didn’t see the woman anywhere and frowned. “Hello? Amara, you here?”

Amara emerged from a door behind the counter, bags under her eyes indicating a lack of sleep but a huge smile on her lips as she saw me. “Calamity! Good timing. I just finished the last touches on your armor and got my Master rank in Leatherworking! Once you collect your armor, I am closing up the store for the day and sleeping till night fall then partying with my friends.”

“Nice! I am glad for you.” And I found that I truly was. The AI made all of these NPCs seem so real and lifelike that I couldn’t help but feel happy for her achievement. “You didn’t have to stay up all night to make it though… Another day wouldn’t have been the end of the world for me if I had to wait.”

She waved me off and shook her head. “Nope. I wouldn’t have been able to sleep anyway knowing I had such rare materials to work with, and this way I can sleep satisfied at a job well done. Plus I have a lot of work ahead of me know to start stocking up higher grade armor to sell, so a day or two of rest will be much needed with the Master rank opened up before me.” Her eyes lit up suddenly and she turned back towards the rear room. “But never mind that! Come see what I managed to make for you.”

A broad grin spread over my face as I followed Amara into the back room. The space was set up as a work shop for crafting leather products, scraps and tools scattered over benches lining all the walls and an armor stand set up in the middle of the floor with my new gear set up on it. The coloring was that of the snake, a mottled dark green and gray pattern that broke up the outline of a body in shadows and looked quite cool to boot.

“I managed to make it at rare quality with a full set bonus on it too. A full eight piece kit, each item with an individual stat bonus on top of the full set bonus. It was just what I needed to advance my skill rank.” She grinned and motioned towards the armor. “Go ahead and try it on.”

With eager motions, I quickly moved forward and equipped the armor. Each of the pieces fit well, either by game design or being tailor made for me I wasn’t sure, nor did I care. The stats on the gear was nothing to sniff at either! In total I was looking at 34 armor, 8 Str, 6 Agi, and 2 Fort with another 5 Fort and Dex from the set bonus! My only concern was that the armor didn’t give me any more Int… Considering where the armor came from though, I supposed it was understandable. Since it was made from the hide of a snake boss, it imparted characteristics of the creature and the Grotto Guardian was surely strong and fast.

“This is amazing Amara. You have out done all of my expectations with this gear! I kind of feel bad that I only had some wolf hides to pay you with now…”

“Don’t give me that… You brought me a rare material that allowed me to level up my skill! That alone would normally be enough to pay for a set of armor like this. Not that I am giving you those hides back, mind you. Consider them payment for this being a rush job.”

I had to laugh at that and nodded to her. “Well thank you for the armor in any case. I will be sure to bring you any more hides or leather I find on my journey. For now, I should let you get some sleep… You look like you are about to fall over where you stand!”

She grinned at my tiredly and agreed with my words. “You bet I am. As soon as you are gone I think I am going to fall asleep right here in this room for a few hours just so I can make it home for a proper rest. Take care Calamity and I hope to see you again with more rare materials!”

With a final wave, I left the shop and crossed the street to pay a visit to the alchemist shop. Like the previous afternoon, the visit was straight forward with me gaining a few potions and minor poisons. The old man couldn’t legally sell me any poison, but there were no laws against giving them away if materials were brought to a skilled alchemist. Maybe a minor loophole, but I doubted there were many alchemists who would do work for free, even if the mats were provided.

The potions I got were of a better quality than what I previously had, giving me double the initial and regen HP amounts which were labeled as Basic Healing Potion. In total, it gave +50 HP, and the same amount again over 30 seconds. Not too bad considering my new HP levels. I also got my hands on a couple Weak Energy Potions which gave me an instant +150 to my energy, but had a 60 second cooldown on their use.

I only got two vials of poison from him, but they seemed to be quite useful in their own right. When used on a weapon, it lasted for one hour and granted a 25% chance of poisoning the target for 60 seconds, dealing 20 damage every 3 seconds. Each additional trigger of the effect would extend the duration, but it didn’t stack extra damage unfortunately.

My new belt had six quick access slots, so I loaded up three health potions, two energy potions, and one of the vials of basic weapon poison. The spider venom I would save for the chief, the chance to paralyze an enemy still being a much stronger element to my build when considering that I could potentially turn those five seconds into six with True Haste. Broken? Maybe.

I bid goodbye to the old alchemist, Aly and myself heading outside into the morning air to look around. I had a minor desire to look into a new weapon if I could find one that was affordable, but the versatility of my starter weapon made up for the lower damage it put out. Besides, my newly boosted strength stat should more than make up for it still being base tier weapon damage.

All set, I exited the city and started making my way towards the marker on my map. The few wolves that we encountered were easily dealt with, adding in more experience to the pool with minimal effort. I noticed that leveling up again dropped the exp I gained from each level 2 wolf by another 10 points, leaving me only gaining 30 exp per beast. Not too bad for such easy prey, but the animals took time to respawn and I really didn’t relish the thought of slinking through the woods in circles for hours on end when I potentially had more entertaining quarry awaiting me.

The trip took nearly an hour to make it to the edge of the ruins marked on my map. Crumbled stone buildings were slowly being reclaimed by the forest surrounding the area with vines covering the still standing walls, one house having a tree growing right out of the middle of a collapsed roof. It actually looked like the place was once a large town, the area it covered being roughly half that of Tyrith City itself, if less organized in the layout. Looking around from my position at the edge of the ruins, I couldn’t see any enemies about and frowned slightly.

“Right then. Let’s head on in Aly. Hopefully we can get some good exp here as I need seven levels before I can hand this quest in.” I smirked and readied my weapon in a spear form as I had taken a liking to the reach and power of the weapon. “Plus, I need you to learn some more skills!”

“I leave the combat to you, Calamity. Just feed me some mana and I will help you out though.” She grinned at me and flew up off my shoulder to hover over my head, staying out of the way and ready to move should the need arise. I agreed with her tactics, and was just about to step forward when a message appeared in my vision.

To all within Realm of Infinity, Rejoice!

A new Unique Fairy has been born into the world! The power this wonderful being has chosen is now unable to be obtained by any other Fairy until such a time has come that it is released from its Contract

I blinked as I read the message, then chuckled quietly as I hoped Archie was the lucky one this time. I dismissed the system message and began to make my way into the abandoned town slowly, eyes sweeping back and forth as I tried to find some of these goblins that I was supposed to be hunting. I didn’t have to wait long before catching sight of the monsters.

Rounding a corner of a building, I froze in my tracks as I spotted a group of three figures crouched down over something. They looked short, maybe three and a half feet tall with dull green skin, and wore only basic loincloths in the way of clothing. Stubby ears ended in points with small shocks of dark hair sprouting from the tops of their heads, the creatures looked thin but with the muscles of their arms well defined from what I could see. Each of them looked similar, so I focused on the closest one and tried to use inspect on it.

Goblin Sentry

Level: 5

HP: 250

The weakest of the warriors within the Goblin race, these creatures have limited intelligence but are stronger than they appear. Timid by nature, Goblins tend to only fight if they outnumber their foe and will try and flee if things start to look bad for them.

I chewed on my lip as I thought about what I was up against. Three mobs of level 5 might prove to be a problem for me if I wasn’t careful, and from the description I wasn’t about to get a chance to take them one on one… My armor rating was pretty decent now compared to when I fought the Grotto Guardian, but I still wasn’t sure just how much protection that afforded me.

An idea started to form in my mind, but I would need to get a better angle on them if I was to try and take them out with as little risk to myself as possible. I retreated back around the building and circled around the mostly standing structure until I was closer to the mobs. Still out of sight, I readied myself for the battle with a deep breath.

I readied my spear, then rounded the last corner to find the goblins still in the same position roughly ten running steps ahead of me. Trying to make as little noise as possible, I ran ahead with my spear leveled like a lance aimed at the back of the closest goblin.

Luck was on my side as I crossed most of the distance before the left goblin noticed me and froze, stunned into inaction at the surprise of my appearance. The pause was just enough to let me ram the tip of my spear into the back of my target. I stopped my forward momentum and thrust the spear forward to shove the goblin off the weapon. A quick push of my will on the spear brought the halberd head back into place and I spun to my right to drive the axe blade into the chest of that creature before jumping back to ready myself to their counter and checked their status.

The first hit I made must have had some bonuses from charging and attacking from hiding for the thing was nearly dead from that one hit while the right goblin had taken about 15% damage. The second hit wasn’t very promising, but at least my ambush attack had left the first one with only 20% health remaining.

All three goblins picked up rusty swords from off the ground and spun to face me, their bare feet shuffling to draw them forward as they barked at me in their guttural language that I didn’t understand. I grinned at the feeling of adrenaline that coursed through me as I set my feet in place and readied my spear to counter their attacks.

As one, they charged at me with swords raised, cries of anger directed at me. The center goblin was still the most damaged, so I thrust my spear at him as soon as he was in range. The point caught the goblin in the chest squarely, his HP bar draining dangerously low. Both flanking goblins started to swing their weapons, and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to dodge both of them. Making a split-second decision, I raised the haft of my spear to block the sword coming from the right, and took a cut to the back of my shoulder from the left goblin for a little less than 10% of my health.

Damn, the little bastards could actually hit fairly hard when I took my armor score into account. Using my speed, I drew back and thrust once more as I took the damage, killing off the first goblin and leaving me to face the remaining two on a more even footing.

Now came the harder part, as I didn’t want to kill off one of the goblins too quickly lest I have the last one running away and alerting more of the mobs that might be lurking nearby. My normal stance had me standing with my left side facing the enemy, spear held parallel to my chest and pointing at my foe for a quick and powerful strike. By no means was I a trained fighter with the weapon, and I supposed there were more potent ways to wield the weapon, but this strategy had worked well for me so far.

I kept a good eye on my energy levels as I readied my next move. At 80% still, it looked like I would have enough to not have to worry about running low for this fight as my passive regen ticked away slowly to refill what I had spent. Absent-mindedly, I wished that the actual number tables were available to see just how much my regen charged my energy bar per second, but the thought was driven away as the goblins both moved again at me.

Using the same tactic again, I blocked the right goblin’s sword and stabbed the left one in the throat to earn myself a crit against the mob for 33% of its health! Perfect. If things kept up like that, I shouldn’t have too much of a problem dealing with two enemies of this level at once. Before my foes could reset their balance, I pulled back my spear slightly and swiped it to the right, slashing the other goblin across the chest with the point for another 15% damage to him, roughly evening up their HP.

From that point, it only took four more exchanges of the same strategy to finish off the goblins, although I missed one of my blocks and took another 12% damage from the strike. I had held back from using True haste, wanting to save my mana in case of emergency, and it turned out I didn't need it in any case. My energy levels were starting to get low, only 25% of my bar remaining when the mobs finally kicked the bucket and several messages popped up before me.

Congratulations!

Alysandaria the Chronomancer has gained a level!

Current level: 2

Alysandaria has learned the skill Swift Regeneration. Select a new skill from the talent tree in order to continue the Fairy’s growth.

Congratulations!

Your skill Polearm Mastery has grown in level!

Skill level: 3 (6%)

Continuous use of polearms has deepened your understanding of their function and versatility.

+3% damage with polearms

+3% attack speed with polearms

Increase the skill level for additional bonuses

Congratulations!

You have learned the skill: Combat Tactics

Skill level: 1 (10%)

Using your head in a fight against multiple opponents has given you a new outlook on battle. While you have no assistance in combat, you gain the following bonuses:

+1% damage dealt

-1% damage received

Increase the skill level for additional bonuses

Let the bonuses rain from the sky! I grinned in pleasure at the messages, closing each one out as I read it over. The level five mobs had given me 150 exp a piece, and was more than enough when added to the wolves for Aly to learn her first second tier skill. Since they were a higher level than me, the exp they gave was boosted a bit, but that worked in my favor as my SL was much higher than my PL. It seemed almost unfair to be so much stronger than my level suggested, but I took solace in the fact that all of the other hard mode players were in the same position I was.

I looted the three corpses, gaining myself a total of 30 copper. It looked like their swords were of too poor a quality to even count as loot and remained on the ground. I tried to pick one up and inspect it, but no window opened up on it to indicate that it was a useable item. Pity, since I could use a backup weapon or two…

Opening up Aly’s menu, I selected the Temporal Step skill on her talent tree as my next goal as I thought over the last fight. It had seemed pretty easy, but these were supposed to be the weakest of the goblins, and I was still technically in a starter area. The fights were bound to get harder as I progressed through the levels, and this was just the beginning. One thing became clear to me after reflecting on the battle… I would need a stronger weapon, and soon. I liked being able to change the shape of my starter item, but the low damage output would soon be more of a hindrance than the versatility would be a boon.

Without crits, it took about six or seven hits to kill one level five goblin, and I doubted I would be fighting less than two of the mobs at any given time. I didn’t want to change my growth plan for my character, so that meant I would have to find something that would boost my damage without me having to invest stat points into Str.

I really didn’t want to go back to Tyrith City just to look into buying a new weapon, only to find out that I couldn’t afford something good, so I decided that I would just continue as I was and hope to keep up my current path of fighting smarter than the enemies. If it came down to it, I would just keep wiping out packs of these sentries to keep a steady income of coins and then head back to town if the next step up in difficulty was too much for me to defeat easily. My newest skill gave me hope that playing without a party for backup was viable, but at the same time I was worried it would only become harder to not bring others along with me.

All of my bars had refilled while I was pondering my situation, and Aly had settled on my shoulder once more in boredom as I stood still in thought. I shook my head and looked at the small figure. “Right, let’s move on and find the next group. We are going to have a long day ahead of us.” I checked my character and skill screens quickly, then headed off to resume my grinding of this area.

Name: Calamity

Player Level: 3

Stat Level: 21

Exp: 2120

Title

Nightblade

Fame

100

Armor

34

HP

310/310

Energy

310/310

MP

250/250

Str

32

Fort

31

Dex

29

Int

25

Agi

28

Will

21

Skill List:

Polearm Mastery: lvl 3 (6%)

Inspect: lvl 1 (94%)

Advanced Herbalism: lvl 1 (90%)

Combat Tactics: lvl 1 (10%)