Name: Enza Entreri Race: Human Alignment: Neutral Profession: N/A Title: N/A Level: 1 Fame: 0 __________________________________________________________________________ Health: 100 Mana: 100 Strength: 10 Agility: 10 Vitality: 10 Wisdom: 10 Intelligence: 10 Charisma: 5 Luck: 5 Offense: 0 Defense: 0 __________________________________________________________________________ Magic Resistance: N/A

I'm not sure what I was expecting… This is as normal as it can be.

I can’t wait to see this grow; I’m really looking forward to this.

Damn, I want to start moving again, but people have been looking at me like I’m some kind of retard. That’s probably, because only newbies start kicking and punching air, to get used to VR. Oh well, I’ll just have to wait a little bit, Musa and Ollie will probably soon be finished with the tutorial. I wonder what kind of avatar they’ll make.

I also dropped off a machine at Davut’s house, Ömür’s, Onur’s and Muhammed’s. I think Mo texted me to say he couldn’t make it today, but Davut should show up any minute by now…

Trying not to wait in vain, I take a look around. The city looked pretty good. It was well maintained and there were a lot of people walking about.

Hah, it feels exactly like real life. Everyone is walking in a hurry to their own destination, not giving a single fuck about each other. Oh well, wouldn’t want to have it another way.

The building that attracted the most attention was definitely the church. It had a lot of priests, who were all busy trying to help people by healing, or curing curses. There was a whole queue lined up to receive help.

A few sneaky players even flocked around the church to help; they all probably had priest related classes, and thought they might make a profit if they could lure some customers away from the church, to help them instead of the priests from the church. It doesn’t look like they’ll profit a lot though. The NPC priests from the church, are seemingly working for a very low price, there are also a lot of them, so every customer receives help pretty fast.

Suddenly I hear a fetching voice behind me, I turn around quickly to see who called out to me:

“Yo, Mathijs.”

Hmm, now who might this be?

I narrow my eyes, because the sun was shining quite brightly from the direction I was trying to look in, and try to get a better look at the person who called out to me.

It was definitely an elf. He had long, blonde hair that reached his shoulders, and you could call the face quite handsome. He was a little taller than I am, and you could see that he was amused, at me not knowing who he was.

Hmm, I would have expected Ollie to choose an avatar like this, but the way he walks…

While the Elf was walking towards me, I could see by the way he walks, that it was more probable for him to be Musa.

“Hiya Musa, how’s VR?”

I smile and try to bluff my way through, I’m still not sure if it’s him.

“It’s amazing; I never thought that there would be so many details. And damn, you can even feel the wind and the sun on your skin. Oh and by the way, I’m Ollie.”

I raise an eyebrow, is he serious? Nah he’s probably just trying to get back at me. Let’s bluff once more, if he’ll insist then I’ll believe him.

“No you’re not, I can see your avatar’s name dude, and it certainly isn’t Glinc. Oh and how did you know it was me?”

He starts smiling even broader and shrugs, probably a sign that he gives up:

“Yup you’re right, nice to meet you, I’m Helius. And of course I recognized you, you almost kept your same appearance, the only thing you changed, is that you made yourself look like a shitty anime character some more.”

So it was Musa.

This guy…

“Nice to meet you, Helius, you can call me Enza here. We should call each other by our avatar’s names, that’ll add to the immersion. Especially if we’re going to spend quite some time here, then this will make it more fun. I told you about the time conversion right?”

“Yeah I think so, it was 2 to 1 right?”

“Almost, it’s 4 to 1. That means that, spending one day in real life, will amount to 4 days here.”

I can see that Musa understood my explanation, he nods, and while he does, someone appeared out of thin air next to us.

“Hello guys.”

Now who might this be, this time there was an elf, who’s one or two heads taller than I am, he had long black hair that reached his shoulders.

The elf with the long black hair, was carrying a book, and moved his left hand to his glasses, to readjust them.

“Hah, I’ve always wanted to do that in a fantasy setting.”

“Ah, Davut! You made it. Good. How do you want us to call you in here? Warrific like always? You can call me Enza by the way, and Musa, can be called Helius.”

“Ha, those names are for faggots.”

I sigh out loud, not sure what I expected from him. Oh well, at least he’s smiling, so he isn’t serious.

I roll my eyes, and ask him if he knows about the general rules concerning the beginner levels:

“Anywayyyy, while we’re waiting for Ollie, we might as well, see how much you two know. Can one of you tell me how long we’ll be stuck in the beginner town, without being able to leave?”

Warrific’s eyes start to shine, and he immediately answers my question:

“One week IRL, and 4 weeks in here.”

“Yup, that’s correct. That means tha-”

While I was trying to finish my explanation, a certain flash of light, accompanied by a certain half elf, pops up next to us.

While I’m calmly studying the half elf’s face, Musa is the first on to speak up:

“I presume you must be Ollie?”

“You’re totally right! Woah, this is so amazing! Look at this!”

Ollie starts gamboling around, trying to show us something.

I have no idea what he’s doing…

Davut didn’t have any idea either, because he spoke up almost immediately after Ollie started making weird movements:

“Ollie, Stop! Haven’t you taken a look around? Everyone is looking at us, as if we’re total noobs.”

Ollie smiles and he stops skipping around.

I start to laugh at the remark Davut made:

“Well, technically, we are noobs. So who cares what others think about us right now? Although, I do agree with Davut, Ollie, or should I say Glinc, that looked like shit.”

Glinc looked precisely like a half elf; he had long ears and a little short, black hair. You could see that he had elven features, but they weren’t that noticeable.

“Well, sorry for being enthusiastic!”

I look at the three faces surrounding me, and tell them what I had in mind:

“Okay, you guys know the standard commands right? Like; ‘show status window’, ‘show skill window’, ‘show inventory’, and ‘options’. You won’t need the skill window anytime soon, because we’ll be stuck in the beginner town for a while. So we can’t explore a lot, or change profession for a while. Well, you can, but that would mean you’re willing to settle for one of the standard professions, like a cook, or one of the priests over there.”

I nod my head in the direction of the priests, and continue my explanation:

“So, this is what I recommend; is that we’ll head our own ways for now. Try to soak up as much information as you can, get used to the idea of spending a lot of time here. Try to get comfortable moving around, try to start creating a network in this town. Having NPC’s as allies, is always a good thing. You can start doing some random quests, or just workout. We won’t be able to level up for four weeks in game through normal means, but it’s still possible to raise your stats. For example; by running, fighting, getting hit and other things, will still raise your different stats. Although, it’ll take a really long time, and you might want to invest that time, into other things, that will benefit you more later on. For example: acquiring the cooking skill.”

I at the three faces surrounding me, and meet there gaze one by one. They all nod.

“Good, we can make a party later if we want, we’ll do that when we start fighting together. Right now we’ll just add each other as friends, and you’ll be able to pm each other, and find each other on the map.”

Having finished my explanation, I open the ‘contact’ window.

“Open contacts window.”

I selected the window, and added all the contacts I knew.

Contacts: Avatar name: Known real name: Known location: (city, country) Close friend Helius * Musa Gole Fellsmarch, Rinola Close friend: Warrific * Davut Dimar Fellsmarch, Rinola Close friend Glinc * Ollie Cinur Fellsmarch, Rinola Close friend Neith * Alisa Fall Malenas, Murhiel Vice pr. development Xanroar Theodor Stone Bredon, Rinola Development Director Menzia Felix Lindelöf Zeffari, Rinola Marketing manager Aliatris Felicia Lindelöf N/A PR management Contacts marked with ‘•’ are close friends, location and real name will be available for them.

Looking good.

Real names are only known, if you can add them manually, or if people allow others to see them. You can also add manually, who is able to see your real name.

The same counts for the location.

Let’s say, if you enter a hidden dungeon, and you’re a guild leader. You don’t want the new members to all flock to you, when you’re trying to finish this quest on your own. So you’ll just disable the location designator on your contact list, and only allow a few of your friends to see your location.

Furthermore, you weren’t able to see if someone was online or not. You have to pm someone to check if they’re online. Also, the location shows the last location known. So if someone logs off in the Elven capital: ‘Malenas’, you will see the name Malenas until they log in and travel somewhere else.

I also added a few colleagues I knew from work.

Most of them are humans; you can see that they are located in Rinola, which is the name of the Human kingdom. The only elf I know, is Neith. At the moment she’s in the capital of the Elven city: Malenas.

I added her as close friend; because she was the one I communicated most with and she was the one I brainstormed a lot with.

As I turn around and walk away, I can feel the gazes of the three I left behind, on my back.

Ollie calls out to me, while I was planning to leave them to themselves.

“W-Wait, Enza! What are you going to do first?”

Ah, he’s probably insecure about how to start. Well, that’s only normal, I would’ve been too probably, if I hadn’t spent all this time figuring out how to start.

“Right now I’m heading over to the training hall, or dojo if you will, because you can acquire stats and skills before we’re allowed to leave this city. I’m going to try to gain the karate, or martial arts, skill. I hope to gain some stats before I’ll be able to level up. I’ll benefit from them a lot later on, and I think I have the endurance to keep training for a while. But most of all, I want to try out all the different weapons! As you guys know, I have trained with a lot of weapons at home, but naturally, I could never try them out. I think I’ll benefit more this way, instead of trying to build a network, or doing silly beginner quests. Anyway, if you want help deciding where to begin, you can ask that NPC over there.”

I nod my head in the direction of an old man, standing a few meters away from us. A lot of new players were flocking around him, and you could see he was almost always busy talking with someone.

“He’s the one who helps beginners, by giving some random quests. You don’t get a lot of rewards for completing them, but you’ll get familiar with how this game works. You might also meet someone on a quest, which may lead to other quests. Anyways, after four weeks in-game time, we’ll make a party together. For now, just pm me if something’s up, or if you have any questions. Good luck boys, see ya.”

Time to start my training.

I should be able, to at least acquire the karate or martial arts skill, in a week or two. That’ll be worth it, because that way I can fight with my hands and legs, whilst using a sword.

A lot of people entered and left the Training Hall, even high leveled users. You might think that this is strange, but everyone was able to freely enter the Training Hall. Most of the time players wanted to test newly acquired skills, so they headed for the Training Hall, and started testing skills on dummies. You might be surprised when I say high leveled users, as the beta phase was just released yesterday. But most of the staff from the company, participated in the alpha, and leveled their characters quite a bit. They kept their characters even in the beta phase, so that they can still bug test higher leveled weapons and skills.

I enter through the door, and enter a narrow corridor.

I notice a guard, standing near the entrance of the training room, watching everyone who wanted to enter.

“Hello, sir.”

The guard knitted his eyebrows together at my greeting, and responded curtly:

“How may I help you?”

This is where flattery comes in.

NPC’s have very, very, smart AI’s. But most of the time, with some well-placed flattery, you can gain their affection. Which will most of the time help you, in one way or another.

“Ah, it just looked like you are very skilled with the sword, and I’m really enthusiastic about picking up the sword. You see, I aim to be a knight one day. And right now it looks like you’re someone who can guide me, if you think I’m worthy enough. Would you mind telling me where I can pick up a training sword, and where I might find a dummy?”

It worked.

I could see how the face of the guard brightened immediately, and he started to respond enthusiastically.

“You shall find martial training absolutely necessary, when you come face to face with any opponent. Do you need my guidance? Let me tell you, take any unattended dummy, and strike him in any way you want. A wooden sword is placed in front of a scarecrow, and it is all yours.”

“Thanks a lot, sir. And thank you for the offer, but I’ll be able to handle myself.”

“Best of luck.”

“Open inventory.”

Common Bread (10x) Water Canteen (25L) - - - - - - -

Nice, that’ll last me a few days.

Especially that water canteen is surprising, 25 Liters… That’s a lot. There’s also free water at the fountain. That’s good.

The bread will probably taste like shit though. Oh well, when I make some money, I can probably eat something of better quality.

I head for an unattended dummy, somewhere in a corner, and leave the sword on the ground.

I stretch a little bit, to warm up my muscles. I notice that I’m finally able, to kick at head height, without any effort.

The feelings…

I’ve waited so long for this moment. I’m lost in ecstasy for a moment, while I’m doing all the kicks I could never do. Backwards round house kick, jumped side kick, Brazilian kicks.

After I finally regained my senses, I started by slowly doing some techniques on the dummy.

Ahh, it’s been a while since I’ve punched something. The only training I did, for the past 2 months, was without any impact on objects.

Left straight, right hook, left side kick, right uppercut.

I started to lose myself in the rhythm, it was a pleasant experience.

*Thump*

*Thump*

*Thump*

The dummy emitted a dull sound while I was badgering it with techniques.

Damn, so much sweat.

I think I lost track of time.

When I look at the clock in the game menu, it says 5 hours have passed.

What the.

When I look around me, I can see a lot of people looking at me and whispering

Shit, I didn’t know that I would attract this much attention.

Oh well, who cares anyway.

I pick up the wooden sword lying next to the dummy, and switch to practicing some sword techniques. I’ll combine my martial arts later. For now, I should just focus on using the sword.

I feel like… I’m going to puke.

No, I have to keep going.

I can finally achieve everything I’ve dreamt about.

I can finally fight with a real sword.

My experiences in real life, all that training, it wasn’t worthless.

I will continue!

*ting*

Strength has risen by 1 point (+1 STR)

Vitality has risen by 1 point (+1 VIT)

***

Hmm, what to do now?

I readjust my glasses, and look at Enza walking away from us.

Well, time to start exploring too.

I have already decided on the class I want to take.

I’ll be the best necromancer there is.

I’ll start by debuffing and raising simple familiars, it’ll work out because we’ll have a big party.

Then, eventually, I’ll raise whole undead legions and start a war or something.

I already started to study some tactics and strategies, about how warfare works in this world.

I can’t contain my smile, just thinking about what I’ll achieve, and it starts to show on my face.

Only problem is, there hasn’t been any clue yet, about how to obtain the necromancer class… Oh well, I’ll be the first one to figure it out then.

“Warrific, you’re showing a creepy smile… What are you thinking about anyway?”

Oh, I forgot all about Helius and Glinc.

As if I’d tell them what I’m up to… They’ll probably just want to follow me, and bother me.

“Ah, nothing important, just that Enza looks stupid from this angle. Anyway, I’m off too, later boys.”

I turn around and start walking away, after making a sarcastic goodbye.

“Later.”

“Bye, bye.”

As I walk away, I can hear one last sentence from them, before their voices are blocked out by all the noise around me:

“Hey, Olli-, ehm, Glinc, do you want to explore together for a while?”

“Sure.”

Hmm, as I look around me, I can see the church towering over the plaza, and a lot of buildings around me.

Well, let’s start off, by walking in the opposite direction of the church.

As a necromancer I don’t want to have anything to do with the priests…

Hmm, it’s a little annoying that I had to start in the human capital, but I always wanted to try and play a lich necromancer.

The regular necromancers are so cliché.

Lost in my thoughts, I didn’t notice that I had walked quite some distance already. It was almost at the point where you couldn’t see the church anymore. If you looked around carefully, you can see that more alleys started to appear, and the NPC’s started to look shabbier.

There weren’t a lot of players over here, or at least, not where I could see them. I started walking and looked around.

I’m not sure what I’m looking for, but I feel like I should find at least something over here. As I keep walking, I suddenly see a player walking in a fast pace.

What the.

What’s he doing here?

He looks like a human player who has quite a high level.

At first, you would only notice that he was clutching a book, and that he’s wearing a shabby, black robe. But if you take a better look at it, you can see some highly detailed engravings on the cloak.

Is that... A skull?

I narrow my eyes, and start to follow him.

It’s hard to keep up with him, but I’ll manage.

Shit! He suddenly started running!

I start running too, and try to follow him through the maze of alleys. Damn, why was I following this guy again?

My gut feeling still tells me that I took the right choice, and I always trust it. But I’m not sure what I can expect.

I start noticing how the surroundings have changed even more. There aren’t any regular houses in sight either.

Woah!

I almost crash into a beggar who was lying on the ground. But I managed to regain my balance and keep chasing the robed guy. I was starting to sweat, and my breath was running low. But I ran way too much to give up now. I didn’t have to worry about losing the way either, because the virtual map, was always there by my side.

The robed man suddenly made a sharp turn, and took a side alley.

Damn, was he on to me?

No I don’t think so, the distance between us never shortened than 20 meters. I should be fine.

As I keep running and take the same turn he had, I suddenly trip, and fall head first into the wall.

You have received a little damage, by hitting your head. You have received 10 damage.

Is it even possible to take damage from falling?

Still a little dazed from the sudden fall, I hear a voice talking:

“WHO ARE YOU?!”

The next thing I know; is that there’s dagger on my throat.

Shit, are you serious?

How am I supposed to get through this situation?

Is it even possible to die in the human capital, when I haven’t even played for a week?!

Hmm, maybe my honesty will save me for once, I’d rather lie, but I can’t risk it. Not when he’s probably 50 or more levels higher than I am.

“N-No one of importance, I just thought I might benefit from following you.”

I try to read his face, but the hood he was wearing conceals everything there was to see about him. Initially, I thought he was a human, but now I’m not even sure.

He removes the dagger from my throat while speaking:

“What the hell, I thought you were dangerous. But you’re only a beginner, hahahaha.”

He started laughing… What is wrong with this guy?

His laughter came to a sudden end, when his voice suddenly became serious:

“Now tell me, why shouldn’t I kill you? You can still be killed at level one, and you’ll lose a lot of your stats. The only downside for me would be the increased infamy, but I can sure as hell live with that.”

Hmm, by the way he acts; I can tell he had a hard time, that’s probably why he acts so paranoid. He looks like he’s into dark arts too. Maybe he’s a necromancer even, the irony.

Maybe I can get him to sympathize with me, let’s add some lies, and mix it with honesty:

“I’m sorry, but I’m trying to become a necromancer, and I had a really hard time trying to find some clues. Everyone shunned me, and after a while, even the church didn’t help me anymore. I’ve been roaming these shabby, dark, alleys for a long time now. Never did I come even a little bit close, to a clue, as how to obtain some information about a quest or the class. Then I suddenly saw you running, and I thought: ‘This is it! Here is my chance.’.”

Now, let’s see how he reacts…

He sheathed his dagger, and even removed his hood.

I could see that he didn’t spent a lot of time on maintaining his character, because there were stubbles all around his chin.

But the most noticeable things were his eyes.

Because he didn’t have any.

Yes, you heard me right.

He didn’t have any eyes.

It was impossible to see through his eye sockets, because it felt like a dark abyss would consume me if I kept looking.

Furthermore, he had blonde short hair, and he was definitely a human. The scowl he had before totally disappeared as he listened to my story, and he even showed a grin on his face.

“Haaaaaaaa, I can totally relate man, I’ve been through all of that too. I would like to tell you that I can’t say anything. But I’m not that evil.”

He winked and continued:

“You did a good job following me. That takes guts, I’ll tell ya. Anyways, I won’t give you my name, but you should enter this building behind me. Maybe you’ll get the thing you’re looking for, but it’s all up to you. Oh, and wait a few minutes before entering, I don’t want you to put your nose in my business. When you see me leave you can enter.”

W-Wait, was he even a player? Or was he an NPC?

Damn, his name only showed some question marks.

Huh?

*ting*

Quest: A Shop Selling The Abyss

A mysterious man has given you information about a shady shop; he told you that you might find something you are looking for, if you’d be willing to enter it. Enter the shop, and figure out the true meaning of his words!

Difficulty level: F

Quest requirements:

-Follow the mysterious man to the shop.

-Raise the intimacy with the mysterious man, so that he will provide you with the information.

I lick my lips, and start to form a creepy smile.

Haha, I’m so lucky, I knew it was a good idea to follow him.

I don’t think it’s a trap… Well, probably not. I’ll just stay cautious.

Getting such a quest, with tricky requirements, is not something you encounter very easily, especially if you’re still level one!

*Ting*

You have accepted the quest!

***

Volume 1 - Chapter 4