Chapter 3: Start of the Journey

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The clock on the wall of the classroom read 3 o’clock. In front of several rows of students Professor Miyamoto was finishing up his lecture and started stuffing his books into a his bag before leaving though he canned the room and found who he was looking for.

“Yoichi, please come with me to my office for a while.” The professor said and left

“Woow Yoichi, you piss off the prof some how?”

“Maybe he’ll tell you that you flunked, haha”

Yoichi didn’t say a word to his classmates and just left heading towards the professor’s office. He knew what the talk would be about. It’ll probably be about one of the students that attended the class but hasn’t been seen by anyone for more than 5 weeks.

“You wanted to see me sir?” Yoichi started

“Yes, please sit. I believe you are close to Haruki Chitose, yes?”

“Yes, we’ve been in the same class for 3 years in high school. We also ended up going to the same university. I guess I’m his friend.”

“I see. As you probably know despite his somewhat tardy tendencies, he is one of few students in my physics class that can keep up. I could also say he’s the brightest I’ve seen so far.” The professor says while leaning

“Yes, Haruki started to change when his step parents died. He started studying all the time without actually enjoying anything... he practically aces all the classes he’s taken” Yoichi felt somewhat guilty revealing his friends personal issues

“I’m also aware of this. However the problem is that he hasn’t even come to class once since over a month ago. Other professors also wonder where he’s gone without notice. If this keeps up his grades will drop drastically damaging his future prospects.

Hearing this Yoichi sighed and thought for a while. I guess it just can’t stay a secret.

“Um, are you free professor? If you want I can take you to him...”

“That would be ideal” the professor started to stand

The two walked outside campus and started to head to the downtown district. Taking a cab to get there faster, Yoichi and Miyamoto didn’t exchange another word after leaving the office.

“Is he ill?” the professor asked realizing they were standing in front of Furuya Hospital

“I guess you could say that.” Yoichi entered and led the way They took the elevator to the sixth floor and stepped out. Turning left at the hallway Yoichi stopped and pointed to one of the rooms. Professor Miyamoto looked what he was pointing at and read what it said.

Room 623

Patients:

Haruki Chitose

Hime Chitose

Following the professor into the room Yoichi saw the siblings on the beds next to each other. Seeing his friend and sister so close but unable to meet Yoichi thought it was a bit ironic. With their VR gear still on their bodies rendering both unable to wake up Yoichi silently hoped he could meet his friend again.

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It’s been a 3 weeks since I started this training. With the training showing some results in stat growth I guess I should stop training here and maybe look for some real combat experience. Having reached level 5 he had grown a bit including his stat gains from various activities.

“Open status menu”

Status[quart=Name,level]Haruki,5[/quart]TitleNone[quart=Health,Mana]640,300[/quart][quart=Strength,Dexterity]41,38[/quart][quart=Vitality,Agility]49,61[/quart][quart=Endurance,Intelligence]32,15[/quart][quart=Luck,Wisdom]15,15[/quart]

Sword Mastery (Beginner) lv.6

Skill that increases the effectiveness of swords

4%+ attack damage, attack speed

Lightning Affinity (Beginner) lv.7

Increase effectiveness of lightning based attacks, also grants resistance

25% lightning damage, 35% lightning resistance

Lightning blade (Beginner) lv. 5

Imbues swords with lightning made from your mana

Lightning damage(small+), chance to stun enemy(small+)

Cost: 25 mana/sec

Athletics (Beginner) lv.8

Increases player movements. Includes running, jumping, parkour, acrobatics and other body movements

2% increase in agility, better body movement coordination

lightning discharge (Beginner) lv. 2

Able to produce lightning from various body parts according to players will. Direct contact will also affect user.

Mana cost depending on shape and size

Damn, turns out the mana cost increases with higher skill levels. With my current mana pool he could only use my lightning blade for a mere 12 seconds. There’s also the new discharge skill though I haven’t used it as much as the blade since even a few sparks sting a lot. Most importantly the vague mana cost description makes me realize I’m really lacking mana even though my attacks mostly use lightning. Since I’m level 5 I have 20 unused stat points so I guess I’ll just dump them into Wisdom.

With my Wisdom points now 35 my mana pool also increases and is now 700. At least I can use skills more frequently now. Now I guess i should buy weapons and armor. Since the training began I was still wearing my starting gear and don’t have a weapon since it was broken.

Having saved some money from fighting in the arena I headed toward the blacksmith. Prices were rather high but it’s better than walking around defenseless. Looking around I spotted a sword that caught my eye. It wasn’t a rare sword or anything like that. Just a basic steel sword, but in the shape of a katana and had a simple black sheath. It looked kind of like the sword decoration at my house and being Japanese I made up my mind to buy it.

Using the money I have left I buy some simple leather armor with a hood as I don’t like wearing clunky helmets. At least I look like a standard adventurer in this armor. With weather also effecting players I also bought a simple cloak to cover my body should the weather change.

“Haruki.” A man’s voice called as I stepped outside

“Ah hey Riley, you too Beth” I answered smiling

Spotting me they come up to me, but Beth just stays hidden behind Riley. In the 3 weeks I spent training Riley really helped me out with tips on stat growth and the game mechanics. I fell really grateful for their help at those times. Beth even healed me up a few times when I got some bruises from fighting and burns from experimenting with lightning. Still I guess she’s still shy as she’s hiding behind Riley.

“Finally buy some gear eh?”

“Yeah I should be heading towards Tyrne in a couple of days” I said

“I guess you’re really leaving huh? Well can’t helping if you’re looking for someone.... But why don’t you do some quests first? It’ll have rewards like money and other stuff. You’re gonna need money at least to buy some food.”

That’s right. Since I was here Riley and Beth sometimes shared food with me but after leaving I can’t count on anyone helping me out....

“Okay, thanks guys.” I turned to walk away but was stopped by Riley

“Wait, you haven’t been outside the city yet right?”

“Yeah.” I replied slightly confused

“As you know you can die outside so be careful.”

“I thought the monsters nearby were just low level ones?”

“I’m not talking about monsters. I’m talking about the players....”

Frowning I remember about Tyler and his gang from a while ago. I know that every game has people like them. Those who act like jerks and just do whatever they want.

“Player killers....” I spoke nearly whispering

Riley nodded and continued “As you know we don’t know a single thing about how to leave here. Some people still think of it as a game. But what’s worse is... some people think by killing other players you could get out of here.”

“What! But that’s crazy!”

“We’ve been here for 4 months without any news from outside. Some people will snatch any chance they have, doing anything they can...”

“ .....”

“Well, don’t just trust anyone out there and you should be fine I guess.” He said while patting my shoulder.

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Quest: Clear the cave near the City walls

Near the southern walls soldiers have found a cave infested with goblins. Being a low priority threat, the task has been given to adventurers to clear the caves to prevent goblins inside the city.

Quest Clear: Kill all goblins inside the cave

Difficulty: E

Seems like it’s an easy enough quest. I guess I’ll do it for now. Heading to the city’s south gate I carefully examine the field outside. Nothing that I see, guess not many people stay here. I always thought that it was strange that the city was rather deserted but Riley told me since the size of the world is huge and starting points randomized a lot of cities end up with only a few players like this one.

Stepping outside the gate. I look carefully around and started walking to the small cave just some 60 meters outside the gate. The cave only had small opening just enough for one person to enter. But as I went in I saw that the cave keeps heading down and turned out to be a lot bigger than it looked like. Walking quietly after adjusting to the pitch black cave I heard footsteps nearby.

Peeking around the corner I see 3 goblins. They were only as tall as my thighs but each carried a rusty dagger or sword. Knowing it’ll hurt to get slashed. I started crouching and slowly made my way to the nearest goblin. Careful to not get notice by the other two I sneaked up behind and grabbed the goblin’s face pulling him while slitting it’s throat.

Immediately, my hand felt warm and the goblin fell down limp. I looked to my hands and see that they’re covered in a slimy green liquid. Is the goblin’s blood? This world is just too realistic. Feeling a bit queasy because of killing for the first time I grit my teeth and went back hiding.

A goblin noticing one of them missing started walking over. Damn, the body’s still there! It didn’t just disappear... Seeing that a surprise attack was the only choice now I leapt out of the corner and rushed the goblin. Unable to react the goblin stood frozen while I slashed my sword on its head splitting in two. Noticing my attack the third goblin shrieked and a moment later 2 others showed up.

Great, now it’s 3 vs 1. I took a stance facing the 3 goblins and prepared to fight. One of them ran forward and tried to stab with it’s dagger. Parrying the attack I countered with a kick to it’s torso sending it flying back. The other two slashed but I locked them with my sword locking blades. Activating lightning blade made the goblins jump back with one of them stunned. Seeing this chance I slashed horizontally and beheaded the stunned goblin.

Following this I ran to the other goblin and before he could attack I rolled to it and ended with a stab piercing it’s chest. This only leave the goblin I kicked back which was already standing again. Now with just one left I charged and slashed while it tried to parry my blade. Unsuccessful the arm of the goblin ended receiving my slash and got cut off. With a cry of pain the goblin tried to run but ended being stabbed in the back of the neck.

“phew, the battles are really intense.... It’s like I’m fighting real monsters here.”

After the first battle, I slowly adapted and became better at fighting. Clearing each room I reached the end of the cave. It was a room filled with bones of of many animals and smelled rotten. Standing at the center was a goblin bigger than the ones before as it was nearly my height. It had much more muscles and it’s skin was a dark red tint. Carrying a huge two-handed sword it spotted me and roared while swing the blade.

Crap, if I block that I think it’ll just snap my sword! Not wanting to lose my weapon I just dodged to the right and ran to the edge of the room. It doesn’t give up though as it keeps trying to bash my head with his huge strength. All the dodging started to wear me out as I started breathing heavily. Maybe It’s level is too high for me? I was about to run out of the room when I felt a sharp burning sensation from my left leg.

“FU*K” I shouted

The tip of the blade stabbed through my left leg and ended up tearing some muscle. Nearly falling down I quickly turned back and with my sword slashed wildly at the red goblin. It easily dodged by moving back and my attack ended up missing. Unable to feel my left leg, I put my weight on my right leg and started limping.

“Damn, now I can’t even run away.”

The goblin knowing I can’t run started making snorts that sounded like laughing and just stood there. As just standing hurt like hell I could only point my sword to red goblin and ended up biting my lip till it bled trying to withstand the pain.

I guess this is a real life and death situation I got here. I slowly started circling the goblin with it’s eyes glued to me. I guess I just have to gamble on a frontal assault I thought and immediately rushed to it. Swinging my sword like a maniac it blocked each one of my attacks and pushing me back. Knowing it was only a matter of time before It’s attack would hit me I slashed down and it again blocked my sword.

This time though I let go and charged again at the goblin. Trying to stab my chest it’s attack barely missed and ended up cutting my shoulder. With nothing in the way I started clawing and stabbed my fingers into it’s eye socket making the goblin lose balance and falling down on it’s back. Knowing my attack could only do so much I started using mana and discharged lightning from my finger shocking me and the goblin. Thanks to my resistance the damage was nearly cut by half as I just clenched my teeth while keeping my fingers on the goblin’s face.

Ignoring the smell of both our flesh burning. I tried kicking the goblin’s hand with my left foot which made the pain much worse. However it ended up making the sword slip from the goblin’s hand and lying beside us. After a few moments the goblin was screeching in it’s pain as it was now blind. I than jumped to the left picking up the huge sword and thrust it at the goblin’s throat. After a few seconds of choking on it’s own blood the goblin stopped moving again.

After this the pain on my body started coming back which made me fall on back near the red goblin corpse. Checking my health I see that there was only 7% remaining while I was covered in cuts, bruises, burns on my hands, and unable to move my left leg.

“After I get back I should at least try to learn ‘heal’” I mumbled to myself

Quest Completed: Clear the cave near the City walls

You have successfully cleared the cave and killed all the goblins inside. Claim the bounty from the Guard captain at the city baracks

Reward:

-10 silver

-Exp up

-Title: Goblin Crusher (Strength +5; Endurance +5)

At least the quest is completed ......

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After claiming my reward I went to blacksmith and repairing my equipment I walked around the city visiting some shops. I bought a few of the lowest grade health and mana potion they sold and some bread and jerky. I tried visiting a magic shop to buy the spell tome for ‘heal’ but it cost 1 gold which was why I decided to buy those potions.

Looking at the world map I see that Tyrne is to the east and that there was a small town called Rygar on the way. I decided to head to Rygar first as it was the safest route there. Finishing my preparations I looked for Riley and Beth to say goodbye.

“Afternoon, Riley”

“Haruki, going to head out?” Riley asked me

“Yes, thank you for taking care of me this last month”

“No need to be so formal. Besides we’re not parting yet you know?”

“What do you mean?” I asked him

“We’re also planning to head to Tyrne. Might as well tag along right?”

“huh? But why?”

“We can’t stay out in the middle of nowhere forever. Tyrne’s a larger city with more players so it should be better to stay there.”

“Ah, That makes sense... Well, once again I will be in your care Riley” I say while lowering my head

“Relax, Haruki. We’re not strangers now you know!” Riley said while grinning “Come on, Beth. Lets get ready for a trip!” Beth just nodded silently

This is it. I am going leave this place and start looking for Hime....

When Riley and Beth returned we all headed to the east gate.

With this I finally took the first step beginning my journey

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