Chapter 1

And so the days passed. Dave managed to leave the hospital and went back to his small town. However his injuries were never healed, his leg and right hand were truly a mess right now. He would limp every time he tried to move and his right hand was unable to even properly hold a cup. Truth to be told, he became even more of a mess than he was before the incident. And now due to his suffering, he is incapable of regular work his former boss kicked him out from the petrol station due to his injuries but said that it was due to Dave’s tardiness and his absence from work.

Dave could do nothing but sulk at the injustice that happened to him. More so now that he has to rely on his left hand to do all sort of menial tasks, it was a torture.

Thankfully, Dave was not without friends. Ralph, Dave’s best friend just came back to town and saw the condition of Dave. They met at a coffee shop and Ralph was shocked at the current condition of Dave he then urged him to tell him of the reason for this but Dave had to keep quiet afraid of implementing his friend in his problems, he had to tell him how his injuries happened though.

“I fell down the cliff, it was nothing serious Ralph, don’t worry.” Said Dave, however, his tone betrayed his words, truly Dave was depressed.

“Listen up man. You know, I know I don’t have the right to say this, but you should have finished your studies and went to college, at least you could have managed to get a decent job, or enough experience to get a desk job. Working part-time or doing this kind of works have no future… il tell you what. Do you know about Conquest?” he said

“Ah, that game? Yes, I read about it, but what does this have to do with studies man? Or work. You cant make food out of a game right?”

“No, this is where you are wrong. I am a member of one of the strongest guilds in the game, I even receive a salary by just playing and doing some tasks. Though I am not a core member, I still manage to get about 5000$ a month by just playing. And due to the time dilation between the game and reality, I can manage to play for a long time, doing different quests and bringing honor points to the guild will earn people more income. Last month I managed to get 12K my salary plus the benefits of doing a hard quest and managing to get the name of our guild in the server announcement.”

“Wait wait, you are saying that you got 12 000$ just from playing a game? Holy shit I could barely get a third of that by working my ass off all month long!” said Dave.

“Yes, you heard me right, and that was just because I happened to be on the same party of that did the quest. The guy who discovered the quest received 50 000$ from the leader. This is all about commerce and sponsorship basically, if you get to do a legendary quest and manage to get the name of your guild or party up in the server announcement, you can input the name of one of your sponsors there, doing publicity to them. Thus you will gain sponsorship and receive money.” Said, Ralph

“This sounds interesting. How can I join? I remember the price of those machines costing about 10 grand.”

“Well, you 're right, they are quite costly. But if you manage to get one you can start ahead and create your own character, once you do that you will be able to join the game. Listen up, there is a minimum requirement for joining our guild, its to hit level 50. Once you are level 50 you will be eligible to access the guild, with a recommendation from me of course. But be wary just because you joined the guild doesn't mean you will be immediately paid. You will need to start doing some quests and help to achieve some objectives. And if you discover a new dungeon or region you will be awarded by the guild. Though now that three years had passed, it is rare to find new zones or new dungeons. You will have to be lucky.”

“So this means nothing. I will never be able to do anything. The game started 3 years ago, and by what I heard many bosses have been taken down, and many dungeons have been conquered. What would an insignificant person like me achieve, I better just stick with regular work.”

“ No, no. who said that you need to do just quests. There is a contribution system in the guild. Each month, you can exchange your contribution points from the guild to money or gold coins”

“Oh, those contribution points are easy to come by I presume?” Dave asked

“Yes, you just need to farm some dungeons, do some repetitive quests. If you gather 5000 contribution points you will be paid the exact some in hard cold cash. On the other hand, by doing these quests, you will earn some gold coins. The exchange rate is 1:1” said, Ralph.

“Oh, so 1 gold coins is one dollar that is not bad.” Said, Dave,

“That doesn’t mean it is easy to get gold coins, however, it is also not hard. It is much more profitable too. Do you remember the hype about bitcoins? This is almost like it, but the gold coins can be exchanged rather rapidly. So what do you say? Wana join?” asked Ralph

“It sounds interesting enough,” said Dave”But I will have to decline for now. I don’t really have enough for the moment” Dave lied. But he knew well enough why. “I will join the moment I have enough cash to buy one.” Said, Dave.

He knew that Ralph was a good friend of his, and he knew that the moment he joins the game he will dote on him and try to help him as much as he can. If he were to do that he will have bothered him a lot.

That is why Dave wanted to rely on himself like when he used to play old MMORPG games he always went solo. Doing stuff like joining guilds was never his thing. But before he joins the game he needs to do massive amounts of research.

“Hey, listen up I can help you buy a gaming capsule,” Said Ralph, but he was immediately interrupted by Dave.

“No need bro, I know well enough that you want to help, but for the moment I need to find a job first. I can’t just rely on the game to pay you back, who says when I will reach level 50 I might even give up on the game and you would have wasted money on me while I will be forced o get cash to pay you back. 10 000$ might not be that much to you, but it would take me a lot to gather it I should work and save up to get the gaming helmet myself” said Dave.

“Sigh, do whatever you want bro. anyway, if you ever join, send me a private message. My game name is Blaster.”

“Alright Blaster,” said Dave snickering “I will send you a PM once I join,” he said.

The both of them spent time chatting and speaking the whole evening.

Then Ralph bade Dave farewell and left.

The night was still young and Dave went back to his apartment.

It was a shabby place. Yet it was not filthy, it had the bare minimum of tools. Two chairs and a small table, a desk near his bed and a small kitchen and a shower for his use. It was not the best of places but the rent was really cheap.

Currently, Dave’s balance was about 17 000$ that remained from the money he was given by that man in black. Truth to be told he felt disgusted at using the money but he still was unable to get a job so he had no choice but use it.

“It seems that I will be needing to use this to buy a capsule… sigh”

That day, dave went online and began by doing some research about the Game Conquest.

There were several classes in the game, ranging from hunters, thieves berserkers tanks and many other classic classes. There were even some hidden classes with superior attributes but they need to be unlocked by following a questline or doing some various odd jobs. The game was separated into multiple giant cities and territories. The players had the ability to conquer other territories and claim land. However, due to the three years since the establishment of the games the political map of the game has been changed. No longer was the original kingdoms the current rulers of their countries, but guilds took over. Killing the king of the said country would grant the killer the right to rule.

So it was really easy to take control over land. However, it still meant that the moment the king of said country is killed they will lose their kingdom.

This hower is only applicable under certain conditions, the kingdom must be forced to undergo war. This was not easy to achieve. There is an item that is needed to start a conquest. A territory attack Conquest. Those items are dropped by High tier monsters and rare and ancient chests.

These high tier monsters would require thousands of players to fight against and even if they defeat them, the chances of the territory attack conquest to drop are abysmally small.

From the begin of the game. Three years now, only three of such items were found. And they were used to conquer three major Kingdoms.

As such the current game rulers are three guilds. Heaven’s Dawn, that took the northern kingdom under it. Blood Rage, who took the Southern Kingdom of the desert. And The Devastators who took over the western Kingdom. Naturally, these super guilds have strong backing. Above each of these three are three rulers. Zhang Shi. From the Chinese guild Heaven’s Dawn who took over the guild and is declared king over the north. And Warlord, who is an American player that rules over the Western kingdom and leader of the Devastators. While Wan Yi, ruler of the Southern Kingdom and leader of the Blood Rage guild. Each kingdom was named after their guilds. And Ralph was obviously a member of The Devastators.

The world map was split into four great regions. Each of these regions has their own territories and quests and geography. Each of these regions has tens of thousands of miles of territory. To travel from one end to the other of the map would take about ten months of travel on foot.

This just serves to speak of the immense size of the game. The designers of the game have implemented a super AI that is managing the game and creating more terrain and quests by each passing minute. Thus the game never suffered any setbacks and always moved forward with new content.

Of all the four regions, only the eastern region was left without a guild to command due to the nature of that kingdom it is an impossibility for it to be conquered. Why? Because it is ruled by an eastern emperor who rules over actual living dragons!

There were several footages showing the might of the eastern army. They actually claim themselves to be an empire and have ruled over the land for thousands of years. Also, their position is in a highly dangerous area with monsters of high level.

Normally the highest level in the game is 1000.

While the highest player currently is the leader of the Devastators, Warlord with level 422. Even after three years of gaming, no one managed to reach the max level. This just tells people how vast the world of Conquest is.

While the rulers The domain of the eastern kingdom is vast it also harbors highly tiered monsters and creatures. The lowest level beasts range from level 400 to 450. Even the highest level player cannot take on these beasts thus the almost impossibility to conquer the kingdom.

Still, this doesn’t mean that they didn’t try but looking at the footages of the conquest against the kingdom many had seen how impossible it is for casual or even Hardcore players to take down the kingdom, even reaching the borders with an intent to fight is rewarded with instant death from the superior guards of the place.

So for the moment, many players are intending on leveling up their characters in order to conquer the land and gain a huge income.

Due to the nature of the game once a king establishes rule over a land they are entitled to a percentage of the gold that circulates in the territory. Mainly, taxes. The rulers get to hog taxes from the kingdom, from fixing equipment, or buying anything, a small percentage of the money is sent toward the kingdom’s treasury, and the king of the land is able to use that money to either reinforce his kingdom or use it as his own.

The rulers of the three super guilds are currently billionaires, due to the amount of money that is circulating, however, they don’t use that cash just for themselves. They use it to empower their guilds and reinforce their lands. This way they will not fear the day when someone tries to take over their kingdom and take away their golden egg laying goos.

This is the basic idea of conquest. One must take over territories to gain power. And due to the vastness of the kingdoms, even if a person manages to take over a city within the kingdom and is appointed as a baron by the king, they will be able to take a percentage of the taxes from the said city while also sending a percentage of the tax to the king however they will be needed to supply the king with forces if need arises, so to rule over a simple city is enough to make a person rich for life.

The game encourages people to conquer new lands and new dungeons. The person who conquers a new dungeon will be eligible to Hogue the dungeon for themselves and will be able to set a fee for everyone else to access the dungeon. This, of course, is another mean to get rich, however, most of the dungeons are owned by one of the three major guilds. Still, some players were lucky enough to gain access to some dungeons.

Dungeons rights can also be sold, and many players who manage to conquer dungeons would sell these rights to one of the three guilds for a huge some of the money.

Basically. This game is about gaining power, financial power! Many companies are supporting the three major guilds for a share of the pie by giving financial support and organizing events to gain advertisement.

After reading about this Dave felt thrilled if he were to own a small dungeon or conquer a dungeon he might get rich by selling the dungeon right to any of the three major guilds. However, to do so he must first level up and go to uncharted territories. This is not easy especially after knowing that others had about 3 years headstart. This will be really hard, but if he is lucky enough, he might be able to turn this situation upside down.

Dave then submitted a purchase order for the gaming capsule and waited for it to arrive.

It took about two days for the gaming helmet to arrive, and in that time Dave did his homework on the game’s mechanics and classes.

Once he set up the gaming helmet he put it on, hoping that the 10 000$ would not be a waste he logged in the game.

A white light soon blinded him for a moment before a notification showed up before him.

Welcome to Conquest!

Please speak to ALFRED!

The notification then soon disappeared.

Looking at where I stood, it was a blue platform where there was an old man wearing butler clothes and a single lens glass. He fixed his lense and moved forward.

“Welcome to the world of conquest. Adventurer. Here you should know that everything you will be doing will affect not only you but anything and everything around you. Let's make this brief, let's start with your race, which race would you like to be?” asked the butler while with a wave of his hand he showed all available races

From humans to elves dwarfs gnomes even orcs and trolls. Looking at the characters one would see the difference in each of their characteristics and basic stats. Basically, it was the normal thing that most MMORPG had.

“Name Death Stroke. Race: Human, keep the same features,” said Dave

“Very well, quite direct I may say.” Said the butler named Alfred.

“Then where would you like to start your journey?” asked Alfred.

“I am more of a solo player, I would like to start near the eastern Kingdom,” I said

“The eastern kingdom… I don’t think you will be able to survive there… especially with that” said Alfred as he looked at my right hand.

“Ah… I totally forgot about this!”

“Worry not,” said the butler and with another wave of his hand the mangled right hand and right leg were like new.

“Wow! That is amazing? How did you do that?”

“The Headgear is attached to your brain, I just tempered with your brain waves, now you would not be bothered by your injuries in this game but do know that once you leave the game the injuries will not disappear.” Said the butler

“Ah, I can’t thank you enough. I was going to go for a caster class due to this now that I can move my hand like I used to… I should probably go for the regular tank class.”

“You cannot choose a class here, you must do the required tasks first before that”

“Ah I know, I am just thankful,” said Dave.

“Hmm… many people came here, not bothering with this old man. They were eager to play the game while you are being courteous enough to thank an artificially made character…”

“Artificial or not, it doesn’t matter, you did right by me I need to do right by you, thanking you is the least I could do.”

“Well enough, still this doesn't mean I will give you any favors now be on your way if you have nothing else to ask.”

“No no! wait!” Said Dave.

“What is it, Adventurer?”

“What is Inheritance? I never had the chance to study them would you mind explaining some of them to me?” Asked Dave.

“Hmm, this is currently known knowledge I can answer anything that is already been divulged to the public. Inheritance is powers given by the gods of this game, there are several Inheritances throughout the game and to discover them is not easy. These inheritances are separated into Tiers from S to E. S being the strongest. For Every class, there is one major inheritance that is given by the Deity of the said Class those are all unique inheritance and are given to only one person throughout the game The Berserker class has the inheritance of the god of war. It gives immense power to the wielder and a lot of special sets of skills specialized for the class. However, for the moment all of the S class inheritance of the known classes have been found and are already owned.

“Oh, so that means that there is still the possibility of an S class inheritance to show up if a new class is discovered?” said Dave with a smirk.

Actually, that was a smart deduction on Dave’s behalf, he understood that the butler meant that even if the inheritance of the major classes has been discovered, the top inheritance of a hidden class has yet to emerge.

“Hmm, indeed, there are some hidden classes who have yet to be discovered and they too have a unique inheritance to them. However, this doesn’t mean that they are easy to acquire, first, you must find the hidden class and then you must search for a way to obtain the inheritance, believe me, that is easier said than done.” Said the butler

“Well, that means it is hard, and not impossible, thank you for the information.” Said Dave. Actually, he already did his research on the Inheritance and saw many footages of people that owned them wielding immense strength, but due to the uniqueness of them, he felt sad for not being able to obtain them. Still, the butler now confirmed that there is still some hidden Inheritance that some Hidden classes can own. He just has to find himself a hidden class then.

“Anyway, this is all I wanted to ask. Let's meet again then” said Dave as he waved his hand to the butler.

“By the way,” said the butler

“I am the AI of the game if you happen upon a bug or something that you deem worthy of my guidance or question please do not forget to call upon my name. Now, be on your way,” said the butler as he waved his hand and a portal appeared before Dave. He then disappeared.

“Ah shit I didn’t ask him where my exact location will be!” said Dave to himself.

“Well, it doesn’t matter. Let's just look where we will land and hope it is not somewhere dangerous.”

Right after that Dave walked through the portal and found himself in an almost vacant town.

He looked at his character and saw that he was wearing some brown wool pants and a white shirt.

The basic of basics.

“Status screen!”

Level

1

Health

100

Mana

NA

Stamina

100

Rage/Focus

NA

Intelligence

10

Wisdom

10

Dexterity

10

Agility

10

Vitality

10

Strength

10

Magic Resist

0

Defense

0

HP Regen

0.1/sec

Mana Regen

NA

Stamina Regen

1/sec

Rage/Focus

Regen

NA

Title

NA

This looks all right…

“Hmm, Rage? Focus?. Ah it seems that these are related to classes, I guess by the moment I gain a class I will be eligible to access those stats”

“If I remember correctly. Wisdom is related to Mana and intelligence is related to magic damage. The more wisdom one has the more mana they will have, and the more Intelligence one has the stronger their attacks. Strength, on the other hand, relates to how hard one can hit with their weapon. Every weapon has a range of attacks, and due to strength, the damage can increase. Vitality is related to Hp. 1 vitality is 10 Hp. As for stamina, it is a necessary stat to almost all classes. It helps with movement and rate of attacks, Thieves would need high stamina to chain attacks, every physical attack would cost a bit of stamina. So, the more stamina one has the more they can hit or dodge. Then there are defense and magic resist. They are stats that help resist a percentage of the damage dealt to a character. If I remember correctly. An attack of 1000 damage if it lands on a character with 100-defense only 900 damage will be dealt to the character. The same goes for magic resist. Quite simple actually.”

Stamina regen, mana regen and health regen are related to the speed of regenerating these stats. The more regen a character has the more HP they can regain after being damaged. A character can regenerate HP even if they are in combat. High regen equipment can help prolonge a fight.

“Well now that I understand the basics… I should probably get myself some equipment, but to get the equipment I need to do some quests! Time to start noobie quest!” said Dave as he happily moved forward towards a character who had an exclamation mark on their head. It seems that there is a quest!