I strolled through the portal and a notification appeared.

Which city would you like to make your home:

Chicago

Las Angeles

Houston

New York City

Phoenix

“Houston” I said

The small town of new hope village faded away for the last time. Good riddance.

Bright lights dazzled and blinded me as shapes and colors and sounds began to crescendo in my ears. Players walked by in the hundreds, merchants peddled their wares to anyone and everyone all the while bards and minstrels played beautifully by a large fountain of a bull chasing a star.

The buildings themselves were practically stacked on top of each other, competing for space as they crawled and clawed for the sky.

All around me players continued to appear out of the blue dazzle of lights, all of them lvl 10 as well.

After being out for a month, the game was released to the rest of the general public and the total number of players increased by more than 10 fold. I was witnessing first hand the influx of those. Trolls, goblins, humans, rogues, warriors, and every which assortment of all the races and classes strolled, ran, and walked around.

I began to get this sinking sensation as I felt more and more eyes begin to watch me. I looked around and my suspicion was confirmed.

“Hey, look!” explained a nearby side character that has zero importance except to move along the plot.

“He’s the elder elf supreme sorcerer!” Exclaimed another irrelevant side character.

“How did you do that?” Exclaimed a third, fourth, and fifth person.

“I'll give you some gold if you’ll tell me your secret!” Interjection another.

“I’ll give you double what he will.” Said another and another.

I ran, as fast as I could in a random direction. A mob of people close on my heels. I turned a corner and slammed into a brick wall. I fell backwards with a loud thud. I looked up and to my surprise I saw a beefy orc decked out in shimmering plate armor. Essentially, a brick wall.

“Watch where you are going noob!” The orc spat as he shrugged and walked on.

He was flanked by a group of 9 others: 4 in cloth armor, 3 in leather armor, and another 2 in plate mail. Each and every one of them in very expensive looking armor and to my surprise, all of them were over level 50. According to their emblem, they were a part of the Yellow Phoenix Brigade. One of the largest in the Houston area.

The crowd behind me seemed to forget me as they looked in awe at the group of Phoenix elite members. I used this opportunity to slip into the crowd going in the opposite direction.

I had someone specifically I was looking for, someone that Malfin told me I needed to speak to when I got to the city. A hermit named Toru. Malfin didn’t specify where, but that I should seek him out first chance I get.

“What I seek is lightning!” a voice yelled. His voice was drowned out by the immediate crash of lightning that followed. A crowd began to gather. I was curious as well so I moved towards the source of the commotion.

“That is win number 127!” exclaimed a booming voice. “Is there no one else among you who thinks they can take on the champ!” the crowd cheered, “The rules are simple, if you manage to survive 10 seconds in the ring you will get 10,000 gold!” He then waved around a large bag of gold breaking to the top. “Only 100 gold to try, player death protection is active while in the city so there no chance of losing your valuables. Anyone level 10-15 can try.”

Hands shot up all around, and the large man pointed to a nearby one. get up here he said. Sir Squiggle was a level 15 human warrior brandishing a large 2h axe.

Sir Squiggle handed the man a small sack of coins and stepped into the 30ft by 30ft ring. His opponent was a small boy with pointy ears.

lvl 10 electromancer.

Electromancer, that’s not one of the starting classes. It only took me a moment to realize that Jirashima also had a secret class, most likely from an elementalist. Elementalist as the name suggests can choose either fire, water, earth, or wind to specialize in once they reach lvl 10. Somehow Jirashima, like me, had stumbled across something special.

The match began and ended as expected. It only took a snap of his fingers and lightning cascaded down from the heavens on the charging warrior, depleting all of his health in a moment. I smirked and walked away. What a scam, none of these players had a chance. “That is win number 128!” the announcer proclaimed.

I got a few steps away when a deep baritone voice shot out behind me, “Look alive everybody we got a real celebrity in our midst.” The crowd turned where he was pointing, which incidentally was at me, “ Mr. Gray Rain the butcher of New Hope Village.” I hesitated and turned back to the large announcer, “And will you look at that, you even got yourself a secret class and race. You only had to murder 2000 other players to get it didn’t you!” The crowd began to boo.

Nope, I’m not hanging around for this. I’ve been enjoying the last few weeks of not being hated by everyone and I don’t plan on going back. I turned to leave again, but this time the crowd wouldn’t budge.

“Now now.” The voice continued, “No need to be afraid, and besides this one’s one the house” His smile broadened.

The crowd pushed me forward until I was in the arena.

A notification appeared:

Do you wish to participate in a duel?

“No.” I said, and turned to leave. The crowd surrounding the edges prevented me from departing.

Jirashima chuckled, “Coward.” he sneered at me.

“I don’t care, I’m not doing this.” I replied flatly.

“Come on lad, give the crowd a show.” The large entertainer exclaimed while lifting his hands to rile up the crowd. They surged in agreement

I stood there; arms folded. “No.”

Jirashima who was previously lounging on a chair on the opposite side of the arena slowly approached me. “Come on you filthing coward. You don’t have anything to lose.” His smile revealed a row of gold teeth with diamonds inset in them.

“Look, I don’t know how many times I have to say no. But no, I’m not interested.”

Jirashima started laughing uncontrollably as the distance between us shrank to inches. He was more than a head smaller than me, but his body was doing this weird shoulder roll.

“I’ll make you a deal,” he said calmly, “If you survive even one of my attacks, I’ll give you the 10,000 gold.”

Zachim, the larger entertainer, almost had a convulsion as he stabilized himself on a nearby beam. “Now Jirashima, aren’t you being a little hasty?” he said, his eyes pleading.

level 12 bard

“Bud out Zachim.” His gaze fixed back on me, “What do you say, Mr. Butcher. Think you can survive some static electricity?”

I put on my best innocent smile, “you mean just one of your attacks is all I have to survive?”

“Yeah, mate, think you can hang.”

“Nope, now let me out.” I said for the nth time that day. He burst out laughing and walked to the other side of the arena. “ Too bad you don’t have a choice,” an evil grin encompassing his face.

A notification window appeared:

Battle type: Arena Free for all, ever participant who steps inside of the arena can participate.

A 60 second countdown began

Well, that’s completely unfair… I turned to leave the arena, but the crowd smirked as they locked arms to prevent me.

“Time for the butcher to get butchered.” A mouth breather said in the middle of the crowd. The mob thought this was catchy and soon everyone began chanting. “Butcher the butcher.”

30 seconds left

Well, suck. I had 3 options. Option 1, fight seriously, which wasn’t going to happen. Option 2, don’t fight at all, strong possibility. Option 3, don’t die and get paid 10,000 gold. Although I wasn’t sure how honoring they were going to be. Let’s try my luck at option 3, couldn’t hurt to get paid.

The crowd began to pitch forward. 10.. 9.. 8… The crowd counted along with them.

I whispered, “ Ra (to create)” and small particles of purple arcane began to float around me, “Lam (to condense)” I thought about the shape of the mana shield I was accustomed to using. The arcane began to fold around me similarly.

7..6..

“Ra, Lam” I said again, creating another barrier around myself.

5..4..

“Ra, Lam” I said, creating another.

3..2..

“Ra, Lam” I said, creating the final barrier. Completing the fourth barrier around me.

1...0…

“What I seek, is thunder!” Jirashima exclaimed as he dramatically snapped his fingers. Lightning crashed down from a sudden rain cloud. A theatrical thunder rolled in its wake

A blaze of intense white light surrounded me destroying 3 of my barriers and a third of my mana. Not bad.

As the smoke cleared, both Jirashima and Zachim had a soured expression on their face.

“Pay up,” I said holding out my hand to the entertainer. He hesitated and looked around at the mass of eyes upon him.

“Double or nothing!” Jirashima yelled, while rolling up his sleeves.

“I’m good. Now pay up” I replied with my hand still outstretched expectantly.