Logan wandered through the streets towards the south. He could see the occasional flash of light accompanied by the arrival of other players.

“Looks like this town is not that popular. I think only people who took the tutorial are sent here.”

He could see the townspeople busy with their daily activities. Some were prepping their weapons, presumably to go on a hunt, while others were hauling dead animals on their shoulders and walking towards the butcher’s shop.

“Hmm I wonder what the money system here is. And I haven’t yet checked my inventory.”

“Open inventory”

Logan glanced at the window that open in his field of view.

“It says that I have 10 energy capsules and a canteen in the consumables section. Do people get hungry in game? I’ll have to check on that later.

What’s this? There is a card in here. It says 10 copper credits on it. They have a freaking credit card in-game! This is ridiculous man”

With that Logan opened the help menu to the money section and read it

“Money in DR is in the form of credits. The lowest form of credits is copper credits. The higher denominations are silver, gold, diamond and platinum credits. Each denomination is 100 times the previous one. Transactions are carried out through the card given to you. The default given cards have the chance of being dropped upon death. It is advisable to procure a soul-bound card that doesn’t drop on death. All the money you have will be stored in the cards.

Owning multiple cards is possible and the cards do not have an upper limit. You can buy chips that can be used to transfer credits to people without the card. The chips have an upper limit depending on their quality. Expensive ones have higher limits.”

“Hmm so this card can drop on death, that’s troublesome and another reason not to die!”

He had arrived at the south gate without noticing it. He searched for the training hall and found a 3 storied building that had the image of swords and guns hung above its front door.

He entered the building and found a receptionist desk and a male receptionist who appeared to be day dreaming.

Approaching him he said

“Hello my name is Logan. Is this the training hall?”

“Hello Logan, Yes this is indeed the training hall. We provide training in all kinds of weapons and techniques just for the nominal sum of 10 silver credits per month. If you are interested in joining us please fill out the form and return with the money. Thank you”

With that the receptionist pushed a form and a pen on to his hands and resumed day dreaming.

“Huh, this guy behaves like the sales person at a mall. And what the hell! 10 silvers! This is a rip-off. No newbie can get training here at all”

“Excuse me I’m not here for the training actually I’m –“

“If you are not here for the training then don’t waste my time and get lost!”

“This bastard cut me off! Look here, I’m looking for instructor Thren. Where can I meet him?”

“We don’t have someone named instructor Thren here. Now bug off!”

Just then someone shouted from inside

“Hey Mario what’s going on? We were supposed to be have an influx of trainees staring from today”

A stout muscular man walked out from the inside.

“I don’t know nobody has come today”

“So who are you?

“I’m Logan. I’m here to meet instructor Thren”

“Thren eh? Who told you about him?”

“Uh a guard near the captain’s office. Why is something wrong?”

“No no nothing’s wrong. Why don’t you come with me? I’ll take you to Thren”

He started walking towards the door to the right of the desk. Logan hurried and followed him.

“I’m Darius and I’m an instructor here. Thren is the headmaster of the training hall”

“Nice to meet you. I think I know why you don’t have any customers”

“Do you now? Enlighten me”

“Uh first of all the receptionist Mario kinda pushes everyone to leave so that’s one of the reason. More importantly

the fees of 10 silvers is preposterous! We barely start out with 10 coppers. We can’t afford 10 silvers.

I’m not here to train, might as well be honest with him”

“10 silvers! Who the fuck said that the fees was 10 silvers?”

“Uh Mario said that. You mean he’s just raising the fees so that nobody joins? He can do that?

“He bloody can’t! That bastard is lazy as a sloth and more customers means more work. No wonder nobody joined.

10 silvers is too much. The actual fees is just 10 coppers! I’ll have to ‘deal’ with him later then.”

“OK the way he just said ‘deal’ sent shivers down my spine.”

“We’ve arrived. That is Thren’s office. Whatever you do boy, don’t anger him. Consider it a heads up for telling me about Mario”

“That doesn’t sound good."

With that he entered the office, and saw……

Nothing, There was absolutely nothing there, not even light.

Logan was starting to get afraid so he turned around and felt for the door so that he can go out, but he couldn’t feel anything too!

Now he started to panic and tried concentrating his senses.

“Damnit what the fuck is going on! I’m supposed to have night vision and improved hearing and smell. But I can’t see anything, neither hear anything nor smell anything!

I can’t even feel anything. Does this place shut-off all my senses?

If that is so then I’ll have to rely on the method that uncle taught to sense my surroundings when my other senses are of no use. I do hope that that method works in the game”

In a different room within the training hall, two people could be seen watching a mirror.

But the mirror didn’t show their image, instead it showed Logan in what looked like a room full of traps and contraptions.

Darius was intently watching Logan and said to the person standing beside him

“Thren, why do you want to test him this way? I know you don’t like training unworthy people but isn’t this too much?

A newbie will lose his life in there. I know they say that they don’t actually die but I don’t want to test that”

The tall thin man who looked too frail to hurt anybody looked at his friend and said

“I’m not testing whether he will die or not. I felt something in him when he first entered the hall. That’s why I’m having him take this graduation exam.

Besides, he told the guard that he knows how to fight. Let’s see him deal with this exam. It’ll be fun I’m sure” with a feral grin.

This was precisely the headmaster Thren.