The Temple was at the top of a small hill at around one hundred meters height. Zortex could see a medium sized city stretching on the flatland surrounding his place, probably eighty thousand people lived there, or so he believed, but he had no idea about the population density of this world. The view of the outside was covered by a tall wall surrounding the edges. He could not see exactly how big it was, but at a first guess he would say 10-15 meters tall. Of course he could see only one side of the city as what was behind the Temple was still unknown to him. Anyway it was quite a big wall for such a small city, but he guessed that dangers were also high with monsters roaming the world. And with magic present around, maybe building such things was much easier and faster compared to the real world.

When entering AoL for the first time the System would normally send you randomly to any of the hundreds spawning cities available in the main continents. The world here was immense and much of it was still unexplored. The number of 'players' was in the hundreds of millions if not even more. Obviously not all of them were staying there full-time, but they switched often to other Worlds. People, in the real world, switched often between their interests, thus also in Endless they would switch between worlds. That became even more common after a lot of friendships developed, with related people contacting each others from other worlds for invites.

Humanity population had increased drastically in the 21st century and, without most of the deaths due to old age, the numbers were enormous. Especially in what were once called the third world countries, where population was doubling at every generation, once free eternity was offered the number of lives increased drastically. The number of people in AoL was just a fraction of the entire real human population but still many compared to MMPORG of the past. The cost in energy in the real world was difficult for Zortex to comprehend, still here he was enjoying the progress that science brought to humankind.

In his case, the spawning city was chosen by himself because one of the possible options at the beginning of the process was to add the name of a friend who was still in their first month trial. Zortex would be directed to the same place as him/her to enjoy the company. This option was added to many worlds mostly for people who had met each other in one of the other Worlds in Endless and afterwards decided to start together in another place. It would have been regretful if a couple wanted to start together and then spawned in two different continents, so to attract people this option was added. There was some kind of competition between worlds to see which one would get the most real people. For him it was convenient that his friend Matthew entered Endless just two days before him in the real world, which meant he had been here for only around 20 days and his one month trial was not over yet, so he would be able to join him wherever he had spawned.

Zortex looked around and saw none paying attention to him. He noticed that some of the people walking around had a mark over their head while most didn’t. This was the way to distinguish real people from the NPCs, otherwise it would be impossible, as the NPCs behaved exactly as a real person would. The system was so well designed that it was basically creating humans itself. A person could spend years together with a NPC without realizing that it was not a real human.

Apparently there was no mentor coming out and explaining the world to him as it happened in many games of the past. That was why he had to read the instruction before entering the game. All the information he needed was in there and Zortex could access it again just by thinking ‘General Information’. Later I will finish reading all the rules, but now I want to enjoy the views Zortex thought.

The instructions said that for the first 30 days there would be a trial period he remembered. The person under trial could not leave the confines of the city and could not level up. On the other hand he had free access to food and teaching at the training center and wizard tower, or even other non-fighting professions. Zortex could also take part in little quests which would help him accumulate some money for the time he would start exploring the outside world.

Zortex checked himself from top to bottom. He was wearing plain brown clothes and leather boots. He had a bag on his back which he opened and he found 2 loaves of bread, some jerky and a canteen of water. On his side there was a knife 20 cm long in sheath. The typical noob style. He liked it as it reminded him of all the times he started playing a game for the first time and he would wear similar clothes, working hard to be able to change into something cooler afterwards.

Zortex decided to not waste any time. There was one rule about AoL that differentiated it from past systems for games. He could not choose his class as in many RPG games of the past. Here the world would choose his class based on how he would behave. At the end of the first month Zortex would get assigned a class based on what he did inside the city. For example if he spent most of his time at the wizard tower practicing fire spells, he would probably become a Firemage. If he spent his time at the training center practicing with the sword he would become a Warrior or something similar. There were also many other variables. To get special classes, people had to complete some of smaller quests or behave in unexpected ways. Sometimes completing quests would provoke strange classes, even bad ones. Zortex wanted a combat-oriented class, so he already had a plan about it.

Zortex had had always trouble in the past deciding between sword or magic. For the last 2 years he had struggled trying to make a decision, but then he realized that this was not a game. This was a world simulating a game. In order to survive, it was better to have many tricks at his disposal. A focused class may give him more power, but it would also increase the weaknesses that could be exploited. Combination of lower skills could also create a skill more powerful than what he would get focusing on just one path. So he had decided to train in both magic and sword fighting. Becoming a Magic Knight or something similar, he was sure it would give him many benefits in the long run. I'm awesome. Most people here cannot compete with me. Handling both magic and sword is something that only the best can do, so I should aim for it Zortex thought.

Obviously the real life skills transferred to Endless together with the person’s mind. He may sound arrogant, but Zortex knew to be great. He didn’t believe to be the best in the World at anything, but in his life he never found a person as skilled himself. He had not obtained the best grades at school, but he had been still among the top. He had spent his days reading books and playing games and not studying. He knew that if he had actually tried to study as much as the others, he would had easily surpassed them.

Contrary to the idea that if a person was smart he should be bad with his body, Zortex was always one of the best at sports. Basketball, Volleyball, Tennis, Football. He had tried many of them and he had excelled, although he had never tried to specialize in any of them. That was also the reason he didn’t get bullied at school. It was difficult for his classmates to call him a nerd when he could play any sport better than them. Still they avoided him because he didn’t care about their gossip and ignorant conversations. They may have wanted him in their teams, but as soon as the games ended, they would ignore him again. It sure was hard to be smarter and better than the others. They could not understand him, so they preferred to live their life in ignorance. He pitied them.

Of course there were some things he was bad at. He was not a god. For example art or art-related subjects were incomprehensible to him, and he was bad at swimming. He could not understand why, but he was barely able to stay afloat. Basically he was bad at the things which other people enjoyed the most. Still he would have liked to go swimming in the lake, just to be able to watch the girls in a bikini. He didn't like to show his weak side, so instead he had stayed at his home or at Matthew's place.

Not being an idiot, he understood that he could only compare himself to the people he had been in contact with, and in the rest of the World there would be plenty of others who could best him. He came from a rather isolated place after all. He was excited because finally there really was a chance to measure himself where he would give 100% of what he was capable of and still not come on top. Zortex considered himself perfect to both handle magic and the sword at the same time. He had also followed some online courses about sword fighting. There was no way he would fail.

“Can you tell me which way is the training center?” he asked a NPC close to him. He was told the directions to reach it, only a five minutes walk from his current position. I will first train for a few hours with a sword and see what happens. There should be plenty of other people there to compare myself to the average talent of those around me he thought. Also his friend Matthew could be there. He had said that he would get a sword related class and wait for me at the training center. He would have liked to contact him right now, but the instructions said that to make the connection for distance communication between 'players' inside AoL, he would have to shake hands with him first and get permission.

Zortex tried to get accustomed to this new scenery. In the corner of his vision he could see the line-bars showing his Health, Stamina and Mana. Around him the city looked like the typical Medieval style settlement, or at least how he always saw them portrayed. The two-storied houses seemed well kept and made of stones and wood. There were plenty of shops selling food around him. He stopped by one and noticed that almost none of the things exposed was relatable to the food of the real world. The fruits had weird colors and shapes and also the meat had the name of animals which did not exists outside of AoL. The bread in my bag also looked a bit weird.

He saw a weapons’ shop and obviously went to have a look inside, his curiosity at the highest levels since he could not see something live that in the real world. He wanted to be a fighter and he should get accustomed to the tools of his future job. There were plenty of swords, axes, bows and arrows, spears. His attention was caught by a Warhammer which was almost as tall as him. Maybe that is a bit too much for me. I definitely prefer swords. Looking at the prices he saw that the cheapest sword was sold for 20 coppers. He checked his pockets and found only 10 coppers. He would need to wait before getting himself a weapon. Anyway my knife looks better than that rusty old thing.

After walking a bit more down the streets, Zortex saw from afar the entrance to the training center. He started to move faster that way, enthusiastic to begin his training as soon as possible. Just fifty meters from the entrance a hand grabbed him from behind and he jumped making weird noises. He was so surprised that it didn’t even occur to him that there could be thieves around. Luckily for him it was not a thief. Some random dude was standing behind him without doing anything apart from looking at him. Confused, Zortex said: "Matthew?" and the guy nodded.

His friend Matthew was watching him with a smirk on his mouth. He was happy to have caught him unaware and Zortex felt an idiot for failing to notice. Matthew was a short guy, 10 cm less than Zortex, and with a slim built body. He had long brown hair and blue eyes. He always wore his thick glasses. That was in the real world, before entering Endless.

It took 30 seconds of staring for Zortex to really recognize his friend by looking at this stranger. Right now in AoL, Matthew had crimson hair and red eyes. His white skin had changed color to a dark grey tone and his ears had a slightly pointy edge. Damn it! If I knew that it was possible, I would have also changed my ears like that. No wonder Zortex had completely missed him while walking down the street. Especially the absence of glasses and different skin color made Matthew look like a completely different person.

“Finally you have arrived! I thought you slowpoke wouldn’t make it in time to see me” Matthew said hugging his friend.

“Hi asshole! What do you mean not make it in time? You still have 10 days of your trial left”. Zortex answered back.

“I’ve been here for already 29 days and tomorrow will be my last…probably it took your small brain a lot of time before connecting to the System.”

“Is that even a thing? I didn’t know it was possible.” Zortex asked.

“Of course it is possible. They told us in the course before entering Endless” Matthew replied looking at him weirdly.

“I wasn’t even listening this morning…I mean before entering Endless. The guy was explaining all the usual stuff and I hadn’t had a real nice sleep in the last couple of nights, so I was all busy trying to not start snoring during the talk.” Zortex huffed.

“Then your brain was stressed out, so probably that’s why it took you longer to enter the system. Or maybe you are just too stupid to make it work properly.” Matthew said in a derisive tone.

The two friends were standing in the middle of the road, so people started bumping into them. They decided to move to the side where there was a small park. They talked for more than an hour, mostly Matthew narrating what happened to himself during the last month. Most surprising for Zortex was to hear that his friend had almost entered a guild already. He said that he just needed to pass the last test and he would be in. He didn’t say what was it about or the name of the guild because it was a secret test. Most guilds were like this, at least the ones worth something. Guilds which accepted any noob count more on numbers than quality, so they ended up splitting as soon as some individuals fared better than the rest.

“Shall we go to the training center now? I still have to start practicing with the sword. I cannot lose too much time if I want to get a decent first class. The amount of effort has also a deep impact on your future combat class” Zortex asked.

“No, I have something better for you. I was just coming out of the guardhouse when I saw you. They just gave me a quest. And not a stupid one like cleaning pans or something similar. It is a fighting quest…almost. Basically I have to go into sewers and kill at least 20 rats. Apparently they are becoming aggressive” Matthew told him. “Quests with killing should be extremely helpful into getting a strong fighting class. I can also share the quest with someone else. There are always too many rats. Just come with me to that guard and he should give you the same mission”

“Hmm….can I do it right now? I still have no training and only a knife as a weapon. You at least have a short sword and that leather armor.” Zhortex replied judging his friend appearance.

Matthew looked at Zortex as if looking at an idiot. “Of course you can! It is killing rats, not dragons. Just throw rocks at them or kick them. The only difference can be how fast you finish the job.”

It make sense when he puts it like that. Once again I was forgetting that this is not a game. This is a World. You don’t use a bastard sword to kill rats. It is easier to just stomp on them.

“I just wish to level up to see my stats increase. After a month of training all day, my body still feel the same. But at least my skill proficiency with the sword has reached lvl 11. I am the second best at the training center. That’s one of the reasons why that guild contacted me.” Matthew added standing up.

Zortex thought to himself that he now had a first goal: he had to get more than 11 in his sword skill mastery before the end of the month! No way he was going to lose to his friend. He wanted to best him as always.

They made their way to the guardhouse and as promised he received the same quest.

Quest

Kill at least 20 rats by the end of the week.

Reward

20 coppers. If the guard is satisfied with your work you may receive another quest

“So, which way are the sewers?” Zortex asked.

Ten minutes later they arrived at one of the many entrances scattered through the city. Right away Zortex regretted his choice to follow Matthew. The difficulty of the mission was not given by the hunt of the rats. The fetid smell was the main enemy. Both him and Matthew felt like vomiting right after entering. After a minute to get a bit used to it they were able to proceed trying to cover their noses. The light from outside was soon lost, so Matthew took out from his bag a white crystal which started to emit a bright light when he touched it.

“What is that?” Zortex asked after a whistle of appreciation.

“It is a light crystal” his friend replied. “They sell them at the magic shop. They are really cheap. You can buy one for just 5 copper and it will activate as soon you send some mana into it and it can last a few days before shattering”.

Zortex felt excited about all this new things he was discovering. I cannot wait to try one myself he thought. Then he realized that he had no idea how to use mana. “How do I send mana? How does it actually work? It was never explained in all the guides I read.”

“It is discouraged to explain it to noobs like you. If you want to find out go to the wizard tower later” Matthew said. Zortex looked at his friend surprised. His tone was a bit too aggressive to be considered the usual bartering of friendly insults. He could feel that the competition was getting into him. After years waiting for this moment he also felt excited. He had to remind his friend who was the best between them.

Two minutes later they found their first rat. Matthew was the first to see it since he was leading with the light. He made a dash with the sword, but the rat dodged and started going back. Zortex’s friend continued the attack and with his second swipe he was able to cut it in two pieces. He looked back smiling and said: “Let’s go. From now on there should be a lot more of them popping out everywhere.” He was right. Afterward they could find small groups of rats almost every minute. Often they could escape before being attacked, but sometimes they became aggressive and actually attacked back. After one hour Matthew had killed 13 of them and Zortex 5. The sword had longer reach than the knife, and his friend was leading with the light, but Zortex had to admit that Matthew was really good with his sword style. He deserved to be leading the hunt. Not that I will tell him, otherwise he will start getting arrogant.

Quest

Kill at least 20 rats by the end of the week.

Killed: 5

Reward

20 coppers. If the guard is satisfied with your work you may receive another quest.

Zortex looked at the notification and decided to be more aggressive to not be left behind. He just got bitten once until now and it took away very little of his Health. It was strange to see his wound stitch back and disappear in a matter of 10 minutes. The Health recovery system looks really nice. Matthew also got bitten once, but his wound healed much more slowly. He got a notification that told him that it had infected, so his health recovery almost stopped for next hour.

Walking deeper and deeper in the sewers they found themselves in front of a weird situation. There were two rats that were not even paying attention to the two of them. They were already busy fighting against something else. Zortex looked better and his eyes widened recognizing their enemy. They were fighting a slime. Awesome!

The slime looked like a dense mass of ooze. A blob of a viscous dense liquid of green color. It had what resembled a face, but it was always shifting as if it had no solid stability. It was trying to catch the rats with sudden attacks stretching parts of its body into tentacles. The rats were avoiding the attacks with their dashes and then bite away portions of the slime. Zortex and Matthew watched the fight fascinated from what they were seeing. The turning point was when a rat moved behind the slime and started clawing and biting it. The slime reversed its body to attack it, but then it was the other opponent turn to assail it. After a few second the slime seemed to lose consistency and then simply melted into the ground, leaving a puddle of greenish ooze and liquid which looked more foul than even the rest of the sewer. The rats started licking at it, feeding themselves after the fight. That was when the two friends attacked at the same time. They killed one rat each and continued with their hunt.

In the next half hour they met two more slimes and many more rats. Matthew finally reached the goal of 20 rats. He then insisted for Zortex to take the lead and the light, after powering the crystal himself to last for two hours more or less, or so he said. He wanted to get out as soon as possible from the foul smell of the sewers. Zortex killed one more rat but was bitten once in return. He also got the infected status this time. He thought it was troublesome, but it didn’t really matter much. It was just hunting rats after all. The damage was so low that a few bites didn't matter much, no matter how awful they looked like.

They also met a slime that looked like a rat. That was a funny sight and when they approached, it tried to move like a rat, but it's green color gave it away. Apparently if a slime was able to kill and eat a rat it could change its appearance to mimic it. Or maybe that one slime was just a bit smarter than the others and tried to blend with the enemies. He wondered what would happen if the slime killed a human. How would it even eat a whole human? Better to not think about it. Zortex had no intention to die so soon. The instructions he read at the beginning said that if he died in AoL he could not get back inside the world for 5 days. Even worse, if he died during his trial, he could not enter again until the end of the 30 days period and then for 30 days more. Apparently the first people to enter AoL were too easy-going with their lives and killing each other or risking their life on purpose just for the feeling of the thrill of the risk. Endless implemented this rule to make people value more their lives. Once again he shouldn’t treat this world just as a game. Survival was important.

“Shouldn’t we start to get back the direction we came from? We can still find rats and so when I will finish my hunt we will be closer to the exit.” Zortex said.

“Five more minutes in this direction. Maybe we will find a nest and you can kill a lot of them in little time. If not we will double back. And if we are lucky we may find another exit closeby” Matthew replied.

They kept moving for a few more minutes until Zortex came to a stop. The corridor in front of him stopped. At his feet, the floor just reached an end and dropped down. Zortex extended his arm with the light to get a look at the hole in front of him. It was 4 meters deep, and at the bottom there was a big squared room. On the other side of the room there was a door with iron bars, as if it was a prison. Through the bars he could see another corridor. He looked to his left and saw the remains of a wooden ladder which was probably used in the past to go up and down. At that moment it was just some rotten wood. There were 5 slimes but no rats down there, but he had no way to descend even if he was interested.

It was at that moment that Zortex felt a weird sensation in his belly. He looked down and saw the tip of a sword coming out of him. After the initial shock he started to feel the pain. Before entering AoL he had selected the option to attenuate the pain. It would not dispel it completely, but it would not impede him too much during a fight. The sword came out of him and Zortex looked to his back while holding his navel with both hands.

Matthew grinned while looking at him. He had the sword in his hand. The tip of the blade was dripping blood to the floor, Zortex's blood. Why did his friend do this? What happened?

“You are probably wondering why did I stab you.” Matthew said in a low voice. “The test I received from the Malath Brotherhood, my future guild, was to obtain the class ‘Dark Knight’. They told me that one of the requirements to obtain that first class is to betray the trust of someone in the first thirty days. The more the trust, the stronger will be my rewards after the trial. They had seen it in me. The anger which was repressed for so many years. Even before meeting them I had already decided to crush you.”

“Since we met, you were always the one to be the best. School, games, sports. Always a bit better than me.” Matthew continued. “As a kid I did not mind, but the older I got the more it pressed on me. I was tired to be second. I had already decided to get away from an arrogant asshole like you. You could rot by yourself for all I cared. Then Khira arrived. I have never told you, but I’ve loved her since she first started talking to us. But once again you had to be the lucky one. She didn’t care about me. She was only spending time with us hoping that you would notice her as more than a boring friend you could talk to not look alone in front of others. And I kept staying with you two hoping that she would notice me instead. What an idiot I was.”

Matthew voice was getting louder and louder the more his monologue continued, his anger coming back to him. “When the Malath Brotherhood gave me the test I was ecstatic. The mission was exactly what I intended to do from the very beginning. The problem with my plan was that ‘travelers’, as NPCs call us, are not allowed to kill each other inside the city. That’s why I brought you in the sewers. This zone has monsters so it is not considered part of city proper. Even more, noobs like us during the trial cannot kill each other to avoid premature deaths. Even if I were to stab you a thousand times your health would drop just to 1 and stay there, never decreasing. But that will not block a rat or a slime from finishing the deal”.

Zortex had trouble focusing on what Matthew was saying. It wasn’t because of the pain. It was because it was not making any sense. Is it really my friend the one in front of me? he thought. They had grown up up together, they had shared everything. He was in love with Khira? Too many questions at once assaulted his mind.

“Luckily you arrived today. I was really scared when you didn’t appear after the first 20 days. I almost resigned myself to kill one of the noobs I befriended at the training center, but luck is on my side for once. Everything went according to plan.” Matthew concluded his speech. His look was really scary. The light reflecting in his red eyes showed a malicious vision. He started to move closer and Zortex moved a bit back, but his foot found no support. He was already at the edge of the floor. He found his balance before falling down and he looked again at his friend, if he could still call him so.

“Please stop. This cannot be. If we had problems we can talk about it. It doesn’t need to be like this. We are friends” Zortex pleaded.

Matthew stopped.

“This time I will be the one to win. You always said that you could be better than anyone else if you just put the effort to try. So why didn’t you? All your life you were never the best in anything, just wasted potential. Here in Endless you will also end up the same. I bet in 10 years you will be around telling everyone how strong you would have been if you had taken your training seriously” Matthew replied

Then he smiled and kicked him in the chest. Zortex felt himself falling down for two seconds and then when he hit the ground all the air went out from his lungs. Matthew watched him from above and laughed. “New world, new life. Right?” he laughed again before picking up the light crystal which Zortex had dropped when he got stabbed. Just like that he left and Zortex found himself in complete darkness trying to breath.