OldBegginings:[Major thanks to Jinkaku and Nexus wolf for their reviews. We did a review swap in which I gave them 'some' help, and they've given me quite alot of help especially with the skill lists. I think I've fixed most of Jinkaku's problems already, and I'll start editing for Nexus' problems later today. But anyway, thanks for their criticism, it was definitely not as harsh as I thought it would be, and thanks for explaining the major problems with enough details to correct. If anyone else has anything to add, please say it. This fiction is in a state of constant improvement, or attempt to do so... So any pointers will be taken on board whilst doing this.]

*'Hiiro'*

Hm. I was thinking whilst trying to pin-point the actual direction and distance to the closest city, which I presume is Skimmington, that this would be WAY easier to find with a map.

They said Skimmington was roughly north west, in the range of 1 mile to 50 miles... So helpful. I had to find a better way of locating things, or spend the entire day continually looking for this city.

...

Hm, maybe I should try finding a map. Let's think...

After exploring the basic menu, I first checked the options, since I've seen all the other parts of the interface at this point. If a map was hidden, it'd probably be somewhere I never checked. I was surprised, but not confused with the lack of graphics settings. Eh. It didn't really matter...

I was more surprised to see the 'mini-map' option. I turned it on, and a little mini-map popped up in the corner of the mini-map. I see if I can interact with it...

I find skimmington, and point at it.

Ooh, nice. A marker was placed on the map. I now zoom in the map, and as expected, an arrow shows me the most efficient way to get there...

The map also showed me dots, red dots probably stood for 'figures' who were Programmed to hate me, green showed those figures who weren't Programmed to hate me as I stand. It gave me some nice closure that I wasn't going to be snuck up and annihilated when I eventually took a break.

And I wasted my time with the NPCs, what a rookie mistake of mine...

With this knowledge in hand, I set out to go to the city.

-

The journey is long, considering I was just walking, I saw an inconspicuous cave on the side of the road. Seems like a perfect training area for my mobs, which were now walking besides me. I was followed by 5 hob-goblins and 5 imps, I had summoned for the illusion of company on this long journey... Not much more to be said.

The path has been one thin, but long dirt path. I passed some fields with different crops, like maize earlier on the journey, probably belonging to the farmers of the town I was in, but now it was just oceans of grass, and not much else...

This cave wasn't labeled, unlike the other, so I assume it's not a dungeon. I was reasonably bored walking for the hour or two I had been, so felt like taking a break to test my mobs.

As I walk up to the cave, there was snoring coming from inside.

A bear maybe?

I turned my mobs back into their non-physical forms, so they wouldn't make a noise, or randomly attack the enemy I supposed was in the cave.

The cave it's self was dark... Duh, it was another being cave in which they're probably sleeping. I practically tip-toed into the cave, and reached a large room with-in. I made out a figure lying there... And there's no way that's a bear.

It looked way larger, and I could swear the outline was more lizard like, with what appeared to be a long, smooth and pointy tail coming out of one side of it... I think it could be a dragon.

I whisper 'How cute' making an almost inaudible sound, and checked it's stats...

'Hm, maybe I shouldn't fight this with my army of merry mobs?' I thought this for about a second before going on, looking at the statistics shown. It was a dragon. A level ??? one at that... Yeah, I definitely couldn't beat it...

Then the devil on my shoulder reminded me, 'If I beat it, I'd get so much XP for me and my army, it wouldn't be true!'

A nagging feeling started to make me feel unsure though. reminding me 'If you fail, you go all the way back to the town you started in, another hour or two walking... Do you really want to sacrifice that and forget the likelihood of you losing just for tons of experience?' Oh, I had an annoying decision to make...

I stood there, thinking in frustration, the two sides of the argument were yelling at me inside my head to go either way... 'What, are you weak? You can surely kill it with your amount of skill coward...' seemed to be switching with 'If you die, you'll have to walk for two more boring hours... And if you get hit you die.' as the argument built up in my mind.

I calmed myself down, knowing rash thought is a major killer in games, and thought about it. Which is more important, the possibility to level up massively, or the possibility of getting an ID and being able to go to another continent?

After a moment of thought, I chose the other continent, with the final reason being 'I can still get lots of XP out of it later. It's strong, so I doubt it'd die that easily'. I left the cave without waking up the sleeping dragon, and continued with my mobs towards Skimmington.

-

Eventually after the countless hills and forest areas, I could eventually see the city on the skyline. It was pretty large, not real-world city size of course, more like a large town side. My mini-map was almost in range to see the city too. Finally my journey had finished.

That was when a message popped up on my screen.

Event: Fighting between clans.(If you don't want to get caught up in the event, don't enter this city.)

Huh... This was unexpected. I would have thought the admins would have told me about an event like this...

Oh, wait. That's probably why _______ told me to go here in the first place. He could have told me about the mini-map though...

'Well, I might as well go to see what the event is.' I thought as I continue to the 'city'. I stop momentarily to turn off pop-ups, so I wouldn't get distracted. I then continued, looking cautiously around as I did.

-

The city was pretty big, as stated before, and had a wall encompassing it. I was now at the gate, and was surprised that no one was watching over it... I guess the event must have something to do about it.

I walked through the gate... The first scene I see?

A desolate street, with two groups on either side... One having multiple females in samurai garb, the other having males with multiple different armour types. The bickering from both sides reach me, about 200 meters away... Oh boy, what a hassle.

The member's of each group were glaring onto the other side, with their hands quivering over their weapons, ready to get out their weapons instantaneously... I look at my mini map, and see that I'd have to go through this conflict if I was going to get the town hall, where I assume I have to go to get registered.

I sigh deeply, go into the skill menu and activate both Volume_Increase and Auto_Correct, then confront the groups. Startled by my present, both groups glare at me, with a babble of noise, most saying things like 'This is our fight, back off'... I slap my cheeks metaphorically and start talking loud enough to be heard.

"Ever heard of the saying 'Don't bother people with your personal problems?" I state in a mocking tone. The intensity of the death glares increase, but not caring about that, I continue. "Really? You're not going to stop... You realize that your stubborn little temper tantrum is disrupting this entire city, right?"

Surprisingly one of them decided to respond with words... "It's their fault... Trying to mock us with their imaginary strength, they're only women you know?" A giant of a man said, with his allies standing proudly besides them... I feel like I'm going to gag soon.

"And? We're stronger than you guys, hence we're fighting you. You reject our challenge request, and continue to mock us on our weakness. Grow some balls and head us straight on if you're oh so powerful!" Responded one of the many girls wearing samurai-like armour on the other side... Her allies raising their weapons, pumped to start the fight.

"And why does 'strength' matter again?" I asked the first question in my head, but met with confused heads, I decided to explain what I meant... "Surely being the wisest, or most skilled, or the better fighters would be more of an appropriate title for you to be competing at, rather than only the strongest... If it's only strength you care about, have a weight lifting competition or something that might prove who can lift the most weight, since that's all strength is. And maybe not this fight that ends up wasting the entire cities time for your own selfishness and stubbornness."

Some of the confused faces turned to anger, unsheathing their weapons, the others looked some-what embarrassed, taking their hands off their weapons... Seems like they didn't know what strength actually was...

I examine some of the people from both sides. And they seemed to all fit between level 30 and level 60, with the supposed leader of the male group being level 63, and the leader of the female group being level 75. The male group looked undeniably weaker... But I definitely couldn't fight this head on...

Both sides lacked any range, with only a handful of battle mages on the male side, and none on the female side. My looks resembled that of a battle mage, or attack focused healer... So maybe they'd not get my actual class. But it's still one hit no kill. If I abused my mimic sub-class then I may stand a choice, or my skill at the game alone might easily win the fight. But should I confront, or not? Failure probably results in me re-spawning close, but I have no idea how much will be robbed off me...

As I analyse them, they remain silent, glares turning to stares, both sides are in a state of stalemate. With seemingly confused faces scattered between both crowds, I think they're trying to rethink what's happening.

My remaining question is why both groups fight unquestioned... No one's even trying to prohibit this, just an empty street with no obstructions. There's no damage to any building, are they perhaps the strongest groups here?

Oh, I see now. A message popped up on the interface. Since I turned them off, I had no idea... It's easy to see why there was such an awkward silence...

Pick which side you wish to join.Samurai_GirlsBack-handsNone

Hm. Those are the names of the most powerful clans? Also I could help both sides? Wasn't this meant to be the battle of the genders?

Questions rushed into my head in quick succession. Way faster than I could answer them. I decided to look at the groups. From the conversation earlier, the female side seemed to have both the stronger motive, and the stronger clan, so joining them was the obvious right idea... But I didn't really want to join either. Joining one to be harassed by the other seemed like a hassle... And both were leading the the problem I wanted solved.

I know they're NPC's, but they're realistic enough for me to treat seriously in this debate. The main question is what happens when I answer, do they start fighting for good, or just continue debating again... If they start debating I had a chance, if not I was screwed.

The awkward stand-off maintained like a freeze-frame, both sides surprisingly not getting bored at me thinking for a couple minutes so far... Hm. I've waited long enough, I think I'll go with my ego.

I selected the 'none' option, and looked back at the two groups. They glared back at me as if I was an enemy...

"'Those who aren't our friends are our enemies...' Kind of a stupid remark to think, right? Both of your groups stand for stupid rash decisions, idiotic ideals and ridiculous commitment to these stupid things... And you expected me to join one of you? How funny!" I remarked. I wanted to get out of this without violence, so tested this to see if they worked. My Volume_Increase and Auto_Correct seemed permanent, since both were still working.

One of the two leaders rebutted my statement."You interrupt our argument, and preach your own shallow ideologies, and you think you're not our enemy? If you're so smart and wise, win against us... Or shut the hell up!" The other group nodded in agreement.

I smirked in response... I guess I've got to go all out on these noobs to prove who's the best. We all draw out weapons in sync, both sides turning to me first.

'Oh boy this is going to be fun.' I thought as the battle started.