A winner is me! Huzzah! The spiders body disappeared. But left behind was something on the ground.

I walked over and picked it up.

Apotheosis Core Obtained.

It was just a shiny rock. I mean, it was very pretty, it shined and glowed in my hand but I don’t know what to do with it. I’ll just ask someone later, for now into my pockets it goes.

My real question is, where the heck is that pendant? I was suppose to get it for the old man and that was like, the final boss right? Short game but I had fun!

Looking around, I noticed there’s now a hole in the wall opposite to the door I came from. An exit? I walked over. Entering, there was a platform. It was a circular platform with a weird magicky symbol on it. What are they called? Runes? I’m gonna go with runes.

But that was boring compared to what was in front of me.

A chest! Woohoo! I ran over and opened it without a second thought.

Inside was a sword!

Longsword Obtained.

And a pendant! Yes!

Village Chief Stan’s Pendant Obtained.

Was that his name? Well I’m sure Old Man Stan will be happy to have his thing back.

I equipped the Longsword. It has to be better than my short one. It’s longer after all!

Now how do I get out of here? I looked at the platform thing. I decided to stand on it and sure enough my body was engulfed in blue light and I vanished!

Next thing I knew I was back at the entrance to the cave, surrounded by a bunch of people.

Nobody even paid me mind though, as if they saw people teleporting from nowhere on the daily. Hmph, fine! It wasn’t that cool anyway!

At least I got this stupid rock.

“Hey!” Someone said. I looked at the source. It was a guy in the same starting gear as me. He had red hair that clashed with his blue eyes. Smiling at me the guy continued.

“Can I have that core in your hand? I’ll pay you 100 gold.”

One hundred gold!?

“Yes! You can!” I said to him. I’m rich!

Trade Request from RazorKarma. Accept?

I hit yes. I placed the core in the window and he placed the gold. We both hit accept and the trade was done.

“Awesome! Thanks idiot, time to sell this in town!” The guy said as he ran off. What? Why’d he call me an idiot? That’s rude. What a jerk. I got his money though so that’s all that matters.

Two lights flash and two adventurers appear. They looked advance compared to me, with full armor and fancy looking weapons. ...I wanna look that cool.

“Man, another bust, how many times are we gonna have to run this dungeon to get that core?” The one guy said.

“I know, why did the devs put such a rare item in the first dungeon of the game? Stupid goddess and her dumb Apotheosis Core. I’d buy it if it weren’t so expensive. Thousands of gold man. Too expensive!”

…

That jerk! I took off in the direction the guy went.

I ran down the path, not paying any mind to the slimes I came across. Down the path that led into the village, I saw that jerk enter. I ran after him.

Entering the town, I saw the red headed jerk standing in the middle of the square. He was shouting.

“Selling Apotheosis Core! Highest offer only! I repeat! Selling Apotheosis Core! Highest offer only!” The jerk said over and over.

“There’s no way a noob got one of those.”

“He must be lying.”

The other players started to say around him. Still, the jerk kept yelling. I approached him.

“Hey jerk! I want my core back!”

The mean idiot smiled at me. “Your core? You sold it to me fair and square, so it’s mine now.”

“But you tricked me! I could have sold that for hundreds and hundreds of gold you jerk!”

“Yes, you could have but you didn’t. Your loss sorry!” The jerk laughed. He laughed! I fumed, my fist clenching.

“Give it back or else.”

“Or else what?”

“I’ll report you for scamming!” I threatened. I’m not even sure how to report someone but I’ll figure it out!

“Not against the Terms of Service, idddiooottt!” The jerk stuck his tongue out.

“I’m NOT an idiot. My parents say I’m a smart kid.”

“Your parents must be stupid too then.” The jerk said. I’ve had enough, tears welling up in my eyes.

“GIVE IT BACK GIVE IT BACK GIVE IT BACK…” I said over and over again. People began to look at us.

The Jerk looked troubled as he told people to come back. “You’re scaring everyone away! If you want it so bad I’ll cut you a deal.”

“A deal?” I had a confused look.

“Yes,” He nodded. “If you can beat me in a fight, it’s yours! But if I win I get that gold back I gave you.”

I smiled. “Okay! But you’re gonna lose because I’m the strongest!”

The jerk just smiled back. “Whatever you say, idiot.”

PVP Request from RazorKarma. Opponent is offering Apotheosis Core as a bet. Do you accept? Do you want to bet an item/gold?

I bet my one hundred gold. I hit accept.

A flash of blue expanded from us. A dome appeared that covered the center of the square. The rest of the world looked red past a certain point. The jerk pulled out an axe from seemingly nowhere.

“Are two noobs fighting?”

“Did one of them loot a better sword or something?”

The crowd murmured but I didn’t care. I was focused on one thing and that was the object that jerk was holding in his hand now.

“You’re such an idiot. It benefits me though because I get my gold back and this core!” Grrr… showing me that just to mock me!

“I'm not an idiot, you're just an aro-cant jerk!”

“That’s not how you spell ‘arrogant’, moron.”

“I’ll show you how to spell my sword in your freaking face!” I pulled out my sword. “I’m not gonna lose to someone like you!”

With that, our battle began.

I dashed forward, my sword glowing. “Power Strike!”

“Defense!” That jerk’s body glowed blue. He took my blow without even flinching. His own axe glowed. “Power Strike!”

I was hit square into my body. I went flying, almost passing by the barrier. How the heck did he move after using Defense? It had to be a cheat. He’s cheating!

“Why are they taking the time to type out their attacks?” A person said from the crowd

“I don’t know man, but it is entertaining.” Their friend replied

Shut up other people! I’m trying to fight here!

I stood back up.

“Aww. If only I knocked you out. That would have been instantly my win.” The jerk said.

“I’m not gonna go down that easily!” I said. I took a rock from the ground.

“Stone toss!” I threw it hard. When it reached the jerk though he used his Defense skill again. His axe moving to just whack the rock away.

He came towards me again, his axe glowing blue as he did so.

Ha! I’ll just steal your trick!

“Defense!”

I glowed. The blow landed on me… but I was still knocked by slightly? My hp dropped and I fell over.

“Finishing leap!” The jerk yelled. His axed slammed into me. Knocking my HP down to barely anything.

The jerk hoped back off of me and then laughed. “My Defense skill is a rank C! Your Power Strike can’t hurt me. Any last words, you colassole idiot?”

I got up. “Yeah. That’s not how you spell ‘colossal’.”

The jerk looked livid. “That’s it. Time to end this.” His axe glowed blue and he came towards me again. What do I do? He’s leaping at me and-

Leap!

I spun just as his blow was going to hit me. I didn’t even have enough time to yell Reversal out this time. The redhead went flying back towards the center of the arena.

“What? That’s cheap! But I can do that too.” The jerk said, before recovering off the ground. “Reversal!”

The jerk spun himself, his axe forming the whirlwind around him.

“Reversal!” I shouted. Our whirlwinds collided… but mine was bigger! It hit the jerk first, sending him back once more.

“Ugh! Quit being so cheap! Who even raises Reversal past F rank?” He complained. I didn’t listen.

“Reversal!” I shouted. “Reversal! Reversal! Reversal…” I spun and spun and spun. My whirlwind was undying. I slowly closed the distance between us. The jerk’s body glowed blue again, but even with being able to move while using Defense that’s all he could do. My whirlwind was big enough that, even with it being blocked and reduced, he couldn’t counter attack before I unleashed another whirlwind. Slowly his HP began to lower with each blow.

“Stop!” He pleaded.

I didn’t give a response as I dealt the last blow. During the time it took to shout that he couldn’t put up another Defense. The jerk went flying outside of the barrier on top of emptying his HP.

PVP battle won! Apotheosis Core Obtained.

“I TOLD YOU I’D WIN!” I said. I was so happy. I totally kicked that stupid jerkface right into the ground!

The core appeared back into my inventory. I took it out into my hands and smiled. I did it! I really did it!

I did a victory dance right in the middle of the square.

“I lost… I can’t believe I lost to such an idiot. That wasn’t fair! You cheated using a cheap tactic!” The jerk whined. I’d call him a whiner but I’m not entirely sure how to spell that.

“I can’t believe that noob won with such a dumb strategy. The other noob should have stone toss right? Why didn’t he use that to knock him out of the endless Reversal. It’s like combat 101.” One guy in the crowd watching said.

“Shut up!” The red jerk said. “I knew that! Only idiots use a skill you can’t even rank up though! You’re all morons! I’m not gonna forget this Skier you hear me?”

The jerk fled the scene. Leaving me in the square alone. Ha! A winner is me!

Now that I have this I can sell it for a lot of gold!

In fact I’ll do that right now. I looked around for a shop. I think before when the old man was dragging me off I saw one over down south. Or was that west? Whatever, it was this way. I walked towards where I think I saw it.

My assumption was right. The shopkeeper was right there! I handed him the Core and he gave me four thousand gold. I’m rich! For real this time!

“Hey!” Someone said from behind me. “I saw your fight and it was pretty impressive.”

“Thanks! That jerk deserved it!”

“I’m sure, but did you not get an Apotheosis Core afterwards? I’m willing to pay you for it.”

I tilted my head. “Sorry I already sold it.”

“Already? To who?”

“This guy!” I pointed at the shopkeeper.

“...You sold it to an NPC. Dude that was worth at least a mil if you gave it to a player.”

“What’s a mil? Is it worth more than four thousand gold that I got?”

“How old are you? I refuse to believe any adult is this stupid.”

I gave him an angry look. “I’m not stupid, my parents say I’m a smart kid, especially for only being eleven!”

I began typing more but my mother called me. Something about dinner? I don’t know. I’ll have to go downstairs and see.

“Sorry, I gotta go. See ya!” With that, I logged out of my first day in Airant.