Chapter 2 “Strange haired Arata”

[New player detected]

[Initialization of beginner stage]

[Teleporting now]

Arthur Rain appeared in a small room office. Second ago he was floating in the sky but out of sudden now he was sitting in a chair. Before him was a large old fashioned television in which some program started. In that program a figure of old man with gray hair and gray beard appeared. Wearing a brown suit it was Kristopher Horvitz. He began his speech.

-hello there, my name is Kristopher Horvitz. You may already know me as a genius who created VR and this game ‘eye of Adventure’. You may also know me as person who likes to sleep and slack off at work. Well, find me a person who says that he doesn’t like to slack off at work and sleep. What you found him? Sorry to disappoint you but he is lying. Right now, you must probably be thinking, where is the ‘skip button’ option? Hahaha, you don’t have to rush yourself, it won’t take long. You may think that I just wasted a minute of your life but that’s not true it was only 12 seconds. Strange, isn’t it? Anyway the reason you are watching this video is that you just for the first time ‘full immersed’ yourself into EOA. If you are not familiar with the term, it is from “eye of Adventure” the name of this very game, and no, the thing that letter “e” is in small letter is not a mistake. But EOA is all in caps lock yeee! You also may think that this is just some old video that is released because I want to be more famous…

Old man stooped for a moment and then went on.

-all my money and my fame, it doesn’t matter to me, the thing that I always wanted didn’t exist. I couldn’t find it. I couldn’t buy it, and that’s why I decided to create it. This world, this world of swords, might and magic. The world of adventure. The world which I always seen in my dreams, but I couldn’t see it with my eyes yet I knew that it was waiting all this time to be discovered. Many people share my dream and I am happy that I could help them fulfill it, well that’s what I was saying on TV and interviews, but in truth the most important thing was that I could fulfill my own dream. Some says that you should find a meaning in life and do something so the world becomes a better place, but I could not do this, my wish was always high in the skies, but I took my childhood dream and make it alive, that is the effect of all my creations, everything was leading to this. Right now, I plan to spend the rest of my time to live in this new world that was my dream for so long, hope that you will like it as well. Now then, to end my speech I just wanted to add. Although you may think that soon you will become best player in this world I will only say this…

-good luck with that, but I will pown you, muahahahahaha. Evil laugh is the best way to end this, oh yea you won’t know that it’s me but I will kill you so many times that you will come to hate this world, muahahahahaha.

The clip on the old fashioned TV ended, Arthur was taken back.

“That is the creator of a game who wants people to play it?”

Technically the true creator of EOA was an AI but everyone referred to Mr. Horvitz as a creator.

[Initialization of character creation process]

[Teleporting now]

Arthur was once again teleported to other room. This time it was a simple white room with no chair to sit on. There was only a big screen there floating in the air.

[Welcome to the character creation process. Please enjoy our highly developed character creation system. The number of choices that you can make is 2 or 3 depending on your first choice, congratulations! After you finish, there is a small quiz awaiting you. Please answer every question carefully and truly.]

The letters appeared on the screen but at the same time they were voiced out by an artificial sounding voice.

[Gender detected: Male]

[Please choose one of the races. Note that there are 5 races unlocked, Human, Dwarf, Elf, Mils, Quantin. Number of still locked races right now is 23, in next year 5 more races will be available to unlock, further development is still unknown.]

-can I get any more information about races?

[No, muahahahahaha]

“I think I know who wrote that.”

[Sorry about my inner evil laugh, that how I was programed. Once again, no information is given to any new players, all I can tell you are that every race is balanced, choose the one you want.]

“Well in case like that, I should go standard. Standard is the best option. First off all I don’t know anything about Mils or Quantin. Elves always have it hard in fantasy world, they were always somewhat lacking in many respects. The only good thing about them is that they were often long lived but that doesn’t matter in a game. Dwarfs are famous as well, but everyone laugh at their height, yes standard is the right option.”

-human please.

[Are you sure that you want to choose that race?]

-yes.

[Many players chose humans as their race, it is fairly common, they think standard will be the best, well it is a safe choice, but I have to say that those who chose human are… boring, they don’t have the vision.]

“This is the most annoying character creation ever, and I only have chosen the race so far.”

[The looks in your life are very important. The same goes for EOA, so you want to create the most awesome looking avatar ever. Know this, that as a human you have one additional option in character creation making it one option available.]

“It is a good thing that I read basic tutorial as it wouldn’t be good to read all those stupid messages without it.”

[Do you want to choose your real life look as a look in EOA?]

-no.

[Those that didn’t choose their real look are surely ugly, but don’t worry you ugly person, as not everything that shine is gold not every person that is pretty is good.]

“Yes, really annoying.”

[Your look will be randomly selected please choose your nickname]

Arthur didn’t thought about it much.

-Arata.

[Your nickname is Arata correct, not Ararol, Rata, Art, Rat]

-yes.

[Rat it is then]

-noooo!

[Name of new adventurer ‘Arata’. Nickname that was created in 60% thanks to letter ‘A’. Congratulation on your creativity!]

“…”

[Now before you enter the new world answer following questions.

Note that they are important and weren’t made so that character creation was longer, they may have impact on the start of game so answer them truly. If you try to lie you will be struck by lightning. Muahahahahaha.]

“Character creation process was definitely made by ‘thing’ with that guy’s character.”

[First question: how did you come up with your nickname?]

-it was a nickname that used in the pass, and I like it, I don’t really remember where I heard it first, character in book or movie maybe.

[Congratulation you have answered truly without a lie. Sometime answer I don’t know or I don’t remember, is the right answer.

Question two: what is your experience in VR, VRMMO or MMO genre in general?]

-it is my first full dive into VR so my experience is experience is nonexistent, without saying that it also means that I don’t have any VRMMO experience. As for MMO genre, five years ago I used to play “Light in the Citadel” I had the same nickname there as well.

[Question two follow up: What was the guild name in which you were in?]

“Strange, question but fine let’s just get over with it quickly”

-WhiteSuns.

[Congratulation you have answered truly without a lie.]

[Question three: what is your knowledge about this game, list out which website you look up before you entered a game, what you read about. What you heard about. This is last and the most important question, it also helps to keep the balance of game for newcomers.]

“I wonder how someone who had heard too much about it has to say, well in my case it different.”

-Two days ago I read one article called basic information. It had some information about character creation, so all your messages weren’t as annoying as they could be. There was some technical information. Gameplay wasn’t touched practically at all. Author wrote that it would be best if I didn’t have any information what so ever so I stopped there.

[Congratulation you have answered truly without a lie.]

[Conclusion]

[You are a person who lived in a jungle without any information about the world, or at least in some remote area. Surely there were no people around. You may also be enemy of VR who was somehow convinced to start it or you are an 80 years old grandma.]

[Congratulation nothing is locked for you, you are free to take up any route that destiny has in offer for you. Seek it out.]

“Finally”

[With this character creation is over, no more programed interaction like that will happen again, also there won’t be any evil laughs or poor jokes of creator so rest assured. Once again welcome to the eye of Adventure]

[The game starting in 5…4…3…2…1…]

When in ‘eye of Adventure’ new adventurers were appearing one after another, their actions were always quite similar. First, they don’t move but just stay in place with their jaw dropped. Some try to pinch themself as if they wanted to check if they are not dreaming. More adventurers one by one appeared at the main square. EOA had it grand premiere two years ago, but its main bloom wasn’t that long ago. Before many people were afraid that they couldn’t play this game as it was said to be very hard and demanding. It required from a person various abilities to do well. Also there was no tutorial what so ever, if you try to read anything about the game you always find information, it is better that you don’t know. The saying was that if you had any information about the game it became harder, and most important things were locked for a period of one month, which was the game starting point but also really important period of time.

Let’s say for example that you wanted to become sword fighter or a mage. You want to get a class related to it. You read what should your choices be when making the adventure, where to go and what to do. You logged in, do everything that you were supposed to do but at the end of the month you ended up with profession like Gardener, Beggar or a Fisherman. Why? Because the path that you took was already locked for you.

‘eye of Adventure’ was known for its desire to make people feel bad, and laugh at them with evil laugh of Horvitz. Because profession was really important the guys in Space Electronics made one and only step for people who played the game. But it was not good hearted at all. You had to get to 100th lvl and then you could reset back to level one and start the game again. More things would be locked, but you might get better class. Although it was designed to help, it’s still quite problematic, so unless someone has really bad class they wouldn't do it.

That’s why, anyone who ask their friends for something before starting the game is kindly answered.

“-for your own good, don’t ask that question again”.

Nevertheless the first minutes of every player were always the same. First you stand and see if you can control your new body, then look around for about five to fifteenth minutes, then you run to the mirror to see how you look like. When you finally get used to everything you start to wonder, ‘what I am supposed to do?’. The game does not give you any instructions. In the end everyone end up going in random direction. Especially people who didn’t have any gaming experience were lost. Most people, who played any RPG before, come up with simple logic.

“-If I want to be a warrior I should do some training with sword or something like that. -If I want to be a mage I have to go to library and read some books. -If I want to be an archer I should go and train with bow. -If I want to be a healer I should go to find chapel, temple or other shrine.”

Truth to be told that logical thinking and following that route you often ended up in good normal class. But people without gaming experience had a hard time coming up with anything. Right now most of new players were people like that; they didn’t know what to do and even though nothing was locked for them, they would end up with class like Carpenter. But on this very day, someone appeared, the one who had once experience the pinnacle of MMO’s on the highest level possible and his name was Arata.

“Just looking around is worth every penny, I have to agree on that”

Those were Arata’s first though as he looked around. He appeared on the big central square just like every player who choose human race at start and the medieval city was around him.

“Well that’s to be expected, as this game ceased to exist ‘Light in the Citadel’.”

He once again, Arata went back in thought to time when he was playing this game. He ended up in the best guild even though he was ten years old when he joined. For the whole duration of the guild he was its youngest player but still he was one of those who created it. He was invited by dwarf warrior named Wolfstark after Arata showed his skills in one of the dungeons. At first, he hid his age but after some time he revealed it. Although people were not happy about being beaten by a kid, he stayed in the guild. It was friendly a guild with great atmosphere and kin-hearted Guildmaster, so long as he had skill and didn’t annoy everyone, there was no problem.

“Well it’s not a time to think about the past, I have to give it all in the first month, profession is everything.”

As he thought that he was about to run in random direction but was stopped by someone.

-hey, you! How did you do that?...

At first he didn’t know it was about him so he started the run but when he did that he heard.

-hey wait!

“Me?”

Arata stooped, turned around and saw that people were staring at him.

“What did I do already?”

It sometimes happened that he did this or that without thinking and got in trouble.

One small fellow run to him and asked.

-so how did you do that?

-no idea what you are about. I just logged in. It wasn’t me. I didn’t do anything.

-first month no information, right?

-yep. By the way, could you tell me why some people are now looking in my direction, I think there are many better sights to look at.

-haha, that’s funny I thought that you managed to hack the system somehow, but it looks like you are just some lucky fellow.

“Lucky hmm”

There was a time when Arata felt that he had luck. For example, for a test at school he learned only 5 question because he spent whole day playing with his friends outdoors, then at night he went with guildmates to the dungeon. Next day was the test and out of 5 questions that he had learned three of them appeared on test and other two didn’t require any knowledge in the first place and could be done with ‘try and error’ method. He considered himself lucky at that time, but his luck run out one day and a bad thing happen.

-so can you tell me why I am so lucky?

-sure, just look in the mirror.

Arata looked at the mirror and saw himself for the first time in this world.

“Much similar to me in real” he thought to himself. In fact in real life he was better than average looking and had athletic body, all thanks to hellish training that his grandfather bestowed upon him. Arata himself looked much like Arthur Rain. Both in height and body build. Same was with the face and his blue eyes. Arata chose the random option as choosing the same as real life sounded fishy but he ended up looking just like that. Still there was one big difference and it was his hair. Just as he looked at it he said.

-long time no see, Arata.

His hair looked exactly like those of original Arata. His hair was not long but also not short but what was probably catching the attention was the color, or rather the fact that his hair were in two colors. One was his original color black. Actually his hairstyle was also the same as in real. Still the upper part of his hair was white as if someone were to paint it in white paint. Combination of white and black was something that one didn’t see very often in real life. In Light in the Citadel, Arata spend a lot of time and money so his character looked like that but it seemed like here he got it as a default. {[(picture of hair concept below in the comments)]}

“Such a win.”

He thought to himself.

“No wonder I am attention grabber. Although when I was designing it, it was only for a game. I never planned to have them like that in real. Well, I am still in a game, so it’s not real. No matter how I look at it they look strange. Ah well I will get used to it. It’s not like I can change it anyway.”

-well I think that the secret is to eat vegetables and drink a lot of water, anyway I don’t have time right now, see ya.

As he said that Arata ran of the central plaza.

“Now where is training station?”

Following a logic ‘-if I train with sword I will have warrior class’ Arata went around looking for some training place or something similar to it.

After running around for an hour without a success he recalled old rule of MMOs.

“If you are looking for something ask the guard.”

He already passed few of them so finding one wasn’t that hard. He came to one guard that was patrolling the road and asked.

-excuse me, could you help me find training arena?

-ah hello there, you must be new to town, why do you look for training arena, might I ask?

-I wanted to train my sword skills a little.

-ah so you wish to become swordsman it is indeed wise to train sword in order to become one, but you are looking for a wrong place.

-what should I look for then?

-let me explain training arena is a place where new recruits or people without much experience fight each other, if you manage to win in future it may be that you will find yourself becoming a swordsman, but firstly you need to visit training center and speak with instructor.

-I understand, so where can I find training center?

-oh you have to walk this way by the wall for about 20 minutes…

The guard pointed in direction to his right.

-there you should spot large round building. That is a training arena. Just next to it is the training center.

“He should just tell me where training arena is then, well I wondered around for an hour already, few seconds won’t cost me much.”

-thank you for your help.

-not a problem it’s one of guard duty, but you look like decent fellow, so could I ask you to bring this to instructor.

[ You have been asked to do a job.

“Guardsman request”

Guardsman who was on patrol asked you to bring a letter to the instructor at training center. Message wasn’t that important as he could give it to you, the person who he just met.

Reward: Instructor opinion of you will increase. ]

-I am going that way so that’s no problem.

[ You have accepted the job ]

-great, when you are at it, tell the instructor that Joseph has send you so he could pass one some of his skills to you. Good luck on your road, I am now returning to my duty.

As the guard walked of Arata crossed his fingers and looked at him. Menu options pop out and he could see small green dot over guardsman’s head.

“For a moment I thought that was real person.”

Now for the first time he looked on the menu. It was rather simple. He clicked on quests and jobs icon. Then message appeared.

[Welcome to quest and jobs section. It is here that you can view your quests and jobs. Difference about them is simple jobs are easy to get but you can only have one of them at the time. You already have a job, if you want to take another one you have to complete it first or discard this one. Note that discarded jobs are unavailable to those who discard them. Jobs are mostly running errands or hunting monsters. Quests on the other hand are much more difficult to find and complete. All of them have their ranks from ten to zero, where level zero means the hardest of kind. Rank ten is easy compared to level 9 but still not many people can complete it with ease. Remember that finding the quest itself is not an easy task.]

“They hide quests? This game is really not user friendly”

Arata went to training center.

-another tournament will begin in an hour! Those who want to participate, this is the last call! In twenty minutes we are closing and you won’t be able to sign up anymore!

As Arata reached the arena, there were many people around it. He also heard a man that was announcing something about the tournament.

“Oh yes guard was saying something about that too. Well, I think that first I should see the combat system. Tournaments can wait for later.”

He went up the hill and found a man standing near the gate to the training center. It was the instructor. He was a man of great build but old in age.

-hello there, are you the instructor of this center?

-oh yea I am, what’s brings you here?

-I want to train here, and learn about the ways of the sword. But first, I have a message for you.

[ You have completed “Guardsman request” ]

[ You have leveled up by 10% ]

-yes, yes good old Joseph, he had no talent for a sword, but under my training he managed to become a guard. Although, it took him ‘some’ time.

Instructor responded after he received the message.

-I think that he is suitable to be a guard.

-now yes, but back in the day, haha! You should see him. But you came here because you wanted to train is that correct?

-yes.

-I already see that you will do much better than Joseph, you have that look in your eyes. Anyway do you have any experience with sword?

-only a little, never really fought against anyone.

Arata was trained by his grandfather so it was not entirely true but in this game, he indeed never fought against anyone and had no idea how combat system worked.

-well most of newcomers are like that, don’t worry. But it is strange. I thought that you had a lot of experience. Normally I can easily guess how much skill one has.

-well my grandfather once taught me how to hold a sword.

-that’s a good grandfather you have there, he knows the world. Anyway you seem like a good fellow and I don’t need to test your honesty as you brought me this letter. I will train you but first I need to see what you can do.

-I am to fight against someone?

Arata asked and in a second he regretted this words.

-hmm, I thought that you should attack that dummy over there but if you want to fight, so be it. Go to the arena, sign up for the tournament and do some fighting, this will be killing two birds with the same arrow. First you will gain experience in tournament, second you will understand the rules. You won’t win as there are some of my students there, but it will be a good opportunity to see your skills. After that we will begin training according to your performance.

[ You have been asked to do a job

“Arena’s Black Horse”

Instructor in training center proposed that you should take part in tournament even though you don’t know how to hold a stick. But he believes that you capable of incredible things. He also thinks that he has a good eye for people, so you should not disappoint him.

Minimum: survive 5 minutes in the first fight.

Reward: Accordingly to your performance general opinion of you will increase.

Failure: Instructor opinion about you will decrease.

Refusal: Instructor will take you for a coward and won’t train you. ]

“… Ah, no other way, that to do it”

Seeing the instruction on the job, Arata was left with no choice.

-I am always up to the challenge

[ You have accepted the job. ]

-excellent I was right about you. Now, let’s go, I will show you a way.

There were around twenty players near the arena. Some of them were talking with each other, other were resting before the battle.

-five minutes till the deadline! So far we have fifteen participants, one more and we will have a full set, does anyone want to join?

The same man as earlier was still looking for more people. At the same time, there were few people that were talking.

-do you know that this guy over there, he already has level 7.

-Level 7! Then what is he doing here?

-he was one of the finalists in last tournament and then he only had level 5, he must have been leveling up like crazy to ding 2 levels in just five days.

-well, with someone like that in the game, there is no reason to participle then. As I said we shouldn’t even think about tournament. Why did we even join?

-you want to have fighting profession right?

-well, now that I think about it, I may be not cut out for this.

-don’t worry all you need to do is ding up some levels and you will be fine. It’s the same for everyone. No one here has a lot of experience in fighting. Everyone is a newbie.

-well that’s true I guess. Then maybe next time we will have chance.

-that’s a positive thinking.

-hey look at this guy! He is coming with instructor.

-with instructor? … Ah poor guy, as far as I heard, instructor only comes with player to the arena when he gives a job called “Arena’s Black Horse”.

-and what is a job about?

-it is for those who came to him right before tournament starts, he sometimes ask them to fight in arena without any training.

-I would decline right away, how does that guy intends to fight?

-the problem is that if you decline this job, you won’t receive help from instructor later on. You won’t even be let inside the training hall.

-ah, unlucky fellow, but hey look at him he got himself a nice avatar.

-that may be result of this. You have luck in one thing, and then you have no luck in other.

-but man how he got such avatar, look at the hair.

-I hear that if you have strong image in your head you can somehow change your look.

-that’s not true, it is randomly created.

-It’s not random, it gives you an avatar that suits your character.

-so you are saying that those hair suit anyone?

-well it doesn’t matter, let us see how he gets beaten up, I will feel better if I see this fellow on the ground.

-his tactic may be, oh please, please, let me survive 5 minutes.

-anyway let’s go and watch the guy with level 7 maybe we will learn something.

“He went with me all the way down here and didn’t left until I signed up. Bastard.”

Arata thought to himself.

“In the first place, MMO’s are a game of level, the person with higher level mostly wins, skill is only important when both fighters are around the same level. But most important thing is I don’t even know the combat system! I can’t win even if I am against level one. Wait there is still some time. Let’s ask instructor for some tips.”

Arata went up to instructor who was about to leave him.

-do you have any fast advice for a new guy, like me?

-all you have to do is believe in yourself and in your training. With all your strength attack your opponent, and fight to last breath. Don’t worry you won’t die, you will just be a little beaten up, but it’s still better than being beaten up by me, I always say to my students that the failure is much more rewarding than victory.

“How can I believe in training if I didn’t have any!”

-and how the tournament works?

-well although it is called tournament it’s nothing grand and take place once every week. Those who wants to take sword path needs to at least win it once. The more time you attend the higher chances you will get to secure a win. It is also a good passing point for those who are not meant to be a swordsman. It’s better to figure it out now, rather than later.

-and the rules?

-you are placed in the ring with your opponent, both of you gets a wooden sword. The one that stands at the end wins and goes to the next round. Winning tournament is nothing more than being the last man standing.

-that’s simple enough.

-see, don’t worry and do your best I believe in you.

“There is no need to worry, it will be normal if I get beaten by those who are level 4 or higher. I think I could put up a fight against someone who has level 3 somehow. I wonder what levels do others guys have.”

-excuse me, could you tell me what is an average level for participants?

Arata went and asked first better person.

-newbie, right?

-yes today is my first time in VR.

-that’s some progress on your part if you are here already on the first day.

-I have some MMO experience.

-in my case I arrived here at day 10. Before I logged in I didn’t play any RPG before, I was more of RTS gamer.

-the only RTS that I played was Meteor Fall.

-that’s some old classic but let’s talk about EOA. At first, I didn’t even think about trying this game but everyone was saying how great it was and that it’s a new world, so I thought I will give it a try. I saved some money and ordered the capsule.

-well, mine arrived just this morning so I know how you felt.

-so when I first logged in, and went through this terrible character creation.

-yea right? Who normally does things like that, you should make people want to play a game, not scary them away.

-it is short at least, so you can somehow survive it. Anyway at first I had no idea what to do, I walked around the town and looked around. I get few jobs so that I could buy some food.

-you eat here?

-oh you still don’t know, well it is a right thing to do, I mean coming here without any information. Let me tell you then, eating here is just as important as in real life, if you don’t eat you will just simply die of hunger.

-I will have to think about it later, what happens when you die?

-I heard that you lose 10% of your current level and you can’t log back for two days.

-doesn’t seem that bad.

-yes right now you won’t lose much but consider level 100 for example, dying means -10 levels. So, yes dying is bad. Also with 2 days of break this world will move +10 days, that on the other hand doesn’t do much to high level players, but consider our position. If you or I were to die, our precious time of first month would decrease resulting in useless profession…

“I have forgotten about that.”

-anyway, after I managed to save some money I thought to myself that I should do something meaningful so that my class won’t turn out to be bad. Then I wandered around did some things here and there and on the tenth day I came here. Fighting in tournament felt meaningful so I decided to participle. I trained under instructor for 8 days and now I try my best in tournament. I still have 12 days left so it’s not so bad.

-back to my question what is average level for this tournament?

-normally it’s 4, but this time it’s 5, thanks to that fellow over there who is level 7. I am level five myself, what about you?

-eh, level seven? I hope I won’t get him in the first round. As I said I play this game for about 2 hours so as you can guess it’s level one.

-why do you even try then? It’s stupid,

-I know it’s stupid.

-ah… it was, how was it called? Instructor’s job for the unluckiest?

-yep.

-don’t worry you should be able to survive those 5 minutes, just focus on defense and dodging.

-thanks for advice.

Soon enough the tournament began.

-The time has come for our weekly tournament! Who will become the winner, and prove himself as a swordsman! The number of participants today is 16! The roster is over there. Maxus and Roller have an opening match, go inside the arena and fight for your honor!

Arata was now sitting on the balcony for participants.

“It’s a good thing that I am in the sixth fight I can at least look at others people battles and learn something about fighting system.”

The first fight was about to begin.

“Oh, that guy who is level seven.”

-fight!

The commentator shouted and the battle started and ended, in a span of one minute.

“Yea… I learned much. Levels in MMO are the thing.”

Fight was too one sided. Roller the player on the left, right away attacked Maxus who had level 7. Maxus took the blow, he didn’t even try to block or dodge at all, he just took the shoot and before other person moved he launched a counter attack. He landed two hits one after another and the fight was finished with Roller on the ground.

“Five minutes! Don’t attack, focus on defending.”

That’s the plan that Arata come up with right away.

The rest of the fights went in similar way. Even if they weren’t that much one sided, the person with higher level mostly won. When fighters were at about the same level, the one with better luck was the winner.

-that was a fight! Now the next battle Rock versus Arata!!! I must say it is very brave of participant Arata to come here today, as I heard he just arrived in our city, will he became the black horse of the tournament, look forward to it.

Said the commentator, there were some reaction from the stadium.

-ah guy with that job again, unlucky fellow,

-it will end even faster than the first fight,

-maybe the opponent will give him those five minutes,

-doesn’t look like it, it’s Rock after all he is level 4, and he is not kind-hearted guy.

-well let’s just see how fast it will go.

Arata heard all comments.

“The fight is already over! Level 4? Why!? Well, I will just have to try my best. Let’s see how much real fighting experience helps in this game.”

Arata went to pick up the wooden sword from person who was giving it out and asked.

-excuse me, could I get two swords instead of one?

-why do you need two? Don’t you know that it’s easier to fight with one?

-I have somewhat more experience with two.

His grandfather though him how to fight barehanded and with swords and few other weapons, it was all on basic level but unexpectedly Arata had somehow some talent in sword fighting, so he focused on that. In the end, two swords were his best fighting style.

-you can have it, hey you, you want two as well?

-hahaha, two swords? Do you know that controlling two swords is impossible for normal people. It may look cool in movies but even though we are in game without real skills you won’t be able to do a thing.

His opponent laugh at him, Arata answered.

-well, I am just level one newbie who started a game two hours ago, cut me a slack.

-haha, don’t worry I will go easy on you. You need those 5 minutes right? I will give you at least that. Just don’t give up right away when you lay on the floor.

-I already accepted this quest so I will try to do everything I can on my own.

-do what you want then, and it’s not a quest but a job.

-eh, who was the one that called it a job, I don’t understand it.

-quests are things that are epic, have story, and brings changes, Jobs are well, to simply put it, annoying things that you are forced to do to get gold. But enough chitchat. Let us start already!

After saying that, Rock rushed at Arata with his sword.

“How it was again, -in fight, first attack is the most important, always be the one that attacks first. Not that one. -when someone is rushing at you blindly, dodge his attack and counter it.”

As Rock slashed his sword at Arata, Arata took only small step to the back. The sword slashed down right before him all the way to the ground. Arata wouldn’t say it was a good slash.

Rock was frozen after Arata avoided his blow. “what the hell?” his face was saying. Second later he received two shots from Arata’s swords. Rock hp went down by less than 10%, seeing this Rock again rushed towards him.

“There also is -If you fight the opponent that is stronger than you use his power against him.”

This time Rock attacked from the right

“Use his power against him? Good luck with that, dodge!”

Arata crouched avoiding enemy’s horizontal attack. Rock went in circle after his attack though as he didn’t control the power of his swing.

“-never show your back to your opponent, unless they are twenty of them surrounding you.”

“Second remark was not needed but I see your back Rook.”

Instead of attacking him with sword, Arata kicked him into back and Rock fell on the ground belly first, Rock couldn’t do anything at this point. Arata stood on him and started his series of attack. Even though every attack took less than 5% of health, in a minute the ‘fight’ ended.

-we have the unexpected winner, our black horse, Arata!

[ You have leveled up by 90% ]

[ You have gained a level, current level 2]

[ You have fulfilled a minimum of “Arena’s Black Horse” job.]

[ You have moved to second round of the tournament]

“It looks like that as long as I don’t get hit it’s not that bad, although my opponent was just idiot who rushed at me. Well for now, at least I completed the job. Also ‘DING’!”

When Arata returned to his seat, everywhere he heard.

-hey who is this guy, did you see that?

-maybe it someone who resent his level to get better profession?

-no one sane would give up 100 levels.

-some did, but I don’t think that is the case, I think that this is some kind of hacker.

-why did you say that?

-did you ever see someone who fights like that. There must be some kind of trick, or cheat.

-I don’t think so, as you know this game is well protected.

-there is always a way around, that first dodge you seen what I seen.

-no I think it must be some player who reset level after all. Also look at his hair isn’t it strange, It doesn’t looks like something that one can have at level one.

-hair is one thing but his skills, in the first place did you ever heard about someone who uses two weapons to fight.

-many have tried. The only person that I heard of that used two weapons, two two-handed axes to be precise was Spike form WhiteSuns.

-yes but it is more about brute force of those axes, but one of three dwarfs of WhiteSuns is one thing, but guy with level one is another.

-there should be more players as well, anyway let’s observe him and see what he can do, maybe it was simply a luck.

Arata observed rest of the fights until it was his new round. He came up with a theory.

“Fighting system in this game is combination of old MMO level system but it also involves skill of the player. I had some teaching so I should manage. On the other hand if someone like my grandfather were to enter this game, I think he could defeat even strongest player out here with max level while being level one. It would just take him a year as the damage output would be low and enemy’s HP high.”

He also saw another important thing.

“Those guys here don’t have any experience in fighting at all. Some doesn’t even have a basic knowledge about MMO. That’s why. There is no way that I will let those noobs beat me!”

-In the next fight our black horse Arata will fight against veteran Mario! It is already his fourth time in the tournament, how will he mange against newcomer!

The commentator announced Arata’s second fight.

-you might have won the first fight but you won’t win this time, after last fight I leveled up to level 6,

Arata’s opponent said to him while they waited for starting ‘gong’.

-you know that there is no way that I will lose to someone that have tried 3 times already and failed.

-ha, you have some confidence for a newbie.

-yes. I am rather sure that I won’t lose to anyone here…

His opponent was taken back, seeing this fighting spirit, Arata attacked just on the signal. After rush and two hits on his enemy who didn’t even react he started.

-let me show you why I have such confidence, oh you great veteran. First of all you are full of openings, here look at this…

Arata pierced forward with his sword at his opponent neck.

-see in the real would you would be already dead…

“-What is happening” Mario face was clearly saying this, he was already in state of panic and probably did not hear Arata’s words.

-right, remember to take notes so you can learn something. Second, the way you hold your sword is pathetic. Look with just one swing it flies like that.

Arata swing with his left sword at Mario’s hands and sword indeed felt from his hand.

-now, now, pick it up…

Mario went and picked up his sword while Arata was patiently waiting. But after picking it up he started rushing at Arata.

-now another advice, suicidal attacks don’t work most of the time…

First slash, second slash, Arata dodged it all. Then he started again.

-If you keep on doing it I will do this…

After he dodged another of Mario attack he went for foot with his sword. It gave marvelous effect. Mario tripped and fell right on his own sword and ended up killing himself.

-we have a first death! Our tournament is finally getting into higher gear, the winner Black Horse Arata!

[You have leveled up by 30%]

“I hope that failure is indeed better teacher than success, because you need the greatest teacher that is out there.”

His opponent died but it was a game, after two days he could return and try again, although it was possible that his first month of play just ended.

Arata’s next battle went even easier than previous one, his opponent was only level 4, and got a fast beating. Arata’s level went up by another 10%. He was still at level two.

-and now the finals that we all been waiting for, on the left side we have Maxus! Last week Maxus also reached the finals even though it was his first time. I have heard that many people didn’t want to sign up today only because they knew that he will take part in the fights. However on the other side we have the black horse of this tournament, against all odd he survived right to the end. His strange hair and battle skills will long be remembered! On the right side we have Arata!

-You might have some skills but this is a game, and in games the stronger player wins.

“Stronger player hmm… back in the day when he was playing Light in the Citadel, level didn’t mean much. Everyone dinged max level eventually so what did it mean? To be the best, what player needed was a time and skill, those who had both become the best.”

On the tribunes there were many excited viewers.

-it’s finally the final Maxus versus Arata.

-it could be easily predicted that it would end like that.

-a great battle between two strong players.

There was also laugh of the old man that heard that. That was an instructor.

-hahaha. Great battle? Two strong players? I wonder about that.

-what do you mean by that instructor?

-wait and see child, wait and see.

Right before the battle, Maxus continued.

-you stay silent, are you perhaps afraid to fight against level 8? I also have some skill, last time I went to the finals and that was when my level was not that big.

-eh, I will waste my words on you but so be it. You keep talking about how your level is higher than mine, what so great about it? You played for a longer time, yet you try to show off to me who just started… You better remember this lesson well in this game level is not everything.

Arata rushed at his opponent and attacked him. Clean attack on the chest. Maxus did not block he did the same in his first match and tried to catch Arata’s sword. But this time he just took another two shoots on hand. Maxus changed his tactic and attacked with sword. His downward swing was easily dodged and countered. Seeing as it doesn’t work, he decided to change the tactic. Maxus changed his stance, holding his sword just like baseball player holding his bat, even though he was getting hits he said.

-in real life I am the baseball player, 4th batter is my position. Let me show you some of my skill as well.

He swung the sword and then made a powerful blow. Seeing it, Arata instead of dodging decided to take it head on.

“-use the strength of your opponent.”

Swords clashed, all the momentum of powerful swing was taken by Arata swords, they lunched backwards, but Arata made use of that force, he made pirouette and returned the power to its owner.

Effect was tremendous it made Maxus fly up a little and thrown him two meters to the right, although his hp was only on 50% he could no longer move, he was now lying on the ground unconscious.

[ You have level up by 60%]

[ You have gained a level, current level 3]

-We have winner, all shout to Arata!

[ You have completed job “Arena’s Black Horse”

Against all odds you won the tournament which was supposed to be only your first training ground. Many people will remember this day your sword skills and your strange hair.

Reward: Instructor opinion about you has increased. He will teach you his unique skill and also give you special gift.]

[ You have leveled up by 100%]

[ You have gained a level, current level 4]

[ You have managed to win weekly arena. You are now on the path to warrior profession, keep up the good work.]

After the fight Arata went back to training center where Instructor was waiting.

-hey there lad, see I was right about you.

Instructor said first with a grin.

-guess you were. I wasn’t sure at first but in the end it wasn’t that hard.

-ah, it was nice to see someone’s skills that were so refreshing. In truth there is no much that I can teach you.

-you surely have something to your slaves. At least teach me basic of combat system.

-oh I will, but there isn’t much to it, and here I promised you good training.

-you don’t have to, as you saw many others needs you more.

-man’s word must always be kept and I thought of something. Back in the days I was known by name ‘lighting speed’, it was thanks to my best skill that I got that name. It increases greatly your movement speed by far making you move like lighting. I will teach you how to do this…

[ You have learned new skill ]

[ Skill name: Lighting speed

For short period of time increase your speed by 100%. Useful when you want to dash to your opponent, run away from him, or make dodge at the speed of light.

Coldown: half an hour.

Cost: 100 stamina at use, for first 7 seconds. You can keep it up for longer but it cost 50 stamina/second.

Current level of skill 1(0%)

As you increase its level, speed will increase and duration will be longer]

“That’s a reward that you should get from something like this.”

Although Arata didn’t know, this skill was very rare and useful, as it was a movement skill. In the future it may even become his best skill.

”Well for now I have 144 stamina so I don’t think that it will be very useful.”

At the current point in time he could use it once.

-now as for basic combat information, it’s really easy, It’s combination of strength and skill, you have skill but you lack the strength but don’t worry as you do various things you will become stronger…

“NPC can’t just say level up.”

That was Arata’s thoughts although it was entirely true.

-there are many skills that help you fight. Attack skills, defense skills, magic skills, movement skills. Every skill that you can use is a great boost to your abilities. Some of them are passive like for example sword mastery, others require use of stamina or mana, like lightning speed. Most skills you will get from your profession. That’s why profession is really important you may use swords to fight but without a profession it will be great hardship to be even close to those who have it.

-so I should focus on getting good profession right?

-not exactly, how can you focus on something that you can’t change, profession is like destiny we do not choose it.

“What about all previous gamers who wanted warrior profession and come here to fight in this tournament?”

-well do you have any advice as what to do now?

-for now increase your overall strength, you see that dummy over there attack him with all might for three hours and you won’t be disappointed.

-I don’t have any weapon on me now.

-oh yes, I forgotten about the most important thing, here is one sword that you won in the tournament…

[Copper sword.

Damage 1-4.

Beginner’s weapon for those who won the tournament. First weapon of many future fighters.]

“It’s always something for the start.”

-I know that this sword may offend someone with your skills, but I saw that you use rare style of two swords, so you need the two of them, now here is the real thing.

[First sword of “Lighting speed”

Damage 5-10

Strength +2

Agility +3

Stamina +100

Requirements lighting speed ability.

‘Lighting speed’ was once known for his incredible speed on the battlefield. This is his first iron sword that he used. It’s your duty to bring honor to this sword once again. ]

-thank you.

After that Arata started his training on dummy.

“I just need to hit it for three hours and I will get some extra bonus? Easy enough. After that, I logging out so I can get something to eat.”

Arata was hitting the dummy with both his new swords. It wasn’t a new experience for him as he already did something similar in his grandfather training. It was one of the most basic ones but it was very good, especially for beginners to get the feel of the swords. Well Arata didn’t really need to do that now but he thought that there might be some extra bonus for doing it.

“’First sword of lighting speed’ is the thing, and it even increases my overall abilities, to the point where it’s overpowered. The other, well it’s a sword at least. Still I didn’t think about it before but should I go for dual wield? It’s not like I have to but I am best in this style I guess, so why not?“

After three hour a message appeared.

[You have completed basic training.]

“Well that would be all as for hitting those dummies but why I didn’t get anything for that? Three hours waste but whatever, it’s sometimes is good to just hit some dummies to clean your mind. Anyway, time to eat something, then I will think of what to do next.”

Arata though crossed his fingers and clicked logout button.

After Arthur ate dinner he logged back to the game.

Arata appeared at the entrance of training center in the place from where he logged out from but then, second later, he fell to the ground as his legs couldn’t support his weigh. He was laying there and the first thought that appeared in his mind was.

“I am hungry!”

How did that happen he didn’t know. After all he just ate dinner. But then, Arata recalled words of one player that he spoke with.

“

-if you don’t eat you will just simply die of hunger.

”

“Remember not to die, that’s important. But what can I do now, looks like I can’t even move.”

Right now Arata had a status, ‘never eaten anything in his life’.

For some time he was laying there thinking of what to do. His ideas were ‘try to crawl somewhere’, or ‘beg for food someone who pass by’. Both options didn’t sound appealing but Arata had to do something. Just as he was about to start crawling someone walked next to him and dropped some bread near him. He heard gentle voice of some girl.

-here eat this, thanks to that you should get enough time to find a job and make money for eating, don’t thank me I was in the same shoes once…

“There are some good people in this word.”

Hearing this Arata thought like that. Then he tried to say thanks but he was laying head first to the ground and didn’t have strength to say anything.

-I am in rush so I am going now, good luck!

The girl ran away after saying that. Arata tried to look at his savior. He only saw her back. She was wearing long gray-white cloak and she had long light-blue hair tied into a ponytail. He didn’t see more as she ran to the streets and disappeared behind some buildings. Arata didn’t reflect on that as there was only one thing he could think of right now.

“Time to eat!”

He wolfed down the bread.

“Hunger is indeed best spice out there.”

Right now that simple bread tasted like 5-star cuisine. The bread disappeared in the second and then Arata though.

“I am hungry.”

At least this time he could move. He got up from the ground and slowly moved with his primitive instincts of smell.

“Instead of a normal job, food comes first. For now I need to find some kind of restaurant and work for them and as a payment I will receive food, yes that’s a best way of action.”

Although Arata didn’t have any knowledge about VRMMO he had an instinct of a gamer, which helped him to make good decisions. Still it didn’t work this time although it was not because his idea was wrong.

Just as he found some kind of restaurant, two kids, boy and girl run to him asking for help.

-please help momo, she can’t get down!

-sorry I don’t have time I need to eat something first…

Arata replayed with low hungry voice, but after that, both kids started to cry. To that Arata couldn’t leave them alone anymore.

-okay, okay, I understand. But what is momo anyway?

-she is our cat. She is on that tree come quickly…

Kids catch Arata’s hand and run with him around the restaurant. Although he didn’t see it from the street as he entered the small garden he saw it.

“That’s some freaking huge tree.”

-quickly momo is afraid of height!

“If she is afraid of height why did she claim up in the first place?”

Arata started climbing the tree. It was hard for him as he had not much strength left, after all he was barely moving, still he climbed nevertheless.

“Why can’t I resist when someone ask for help. Follow some common sense dammit!”

Each time he grabbed a branch he felt like fainting. Still he managed to reach the place where the cat was.

-come here buddy.

Just as Arata cached the orange cat he lost his balance and fell to the ground, from about 4 meters.

“Game over.”

This was Arata’s final thoughts as he landed on ground. Well he managed to save the cat at least.

[ You have fainted. ]

[ Note: Logging out right now will result in dying. ]

?

?

http://www.royalroadl.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=333&t=2979