[YAWN]

I stretched out my limbs pleasurably as I gave a big yawn.

"aaahhhhhmmmmmnnnn..." Enjoying the sensation.

This is probably the most relaxed I felt in days.

Recently, I have been having problems sleeping.

Everytime I closed my eyes I remembered what happened in my first foray in Transcend: Online.

Not a pretty picture.

But today, strangely enough, I fell refreshed and energized. Almost like the feeling after a satisfying workout.

I stretched some more keeping my eyes closed as I didn't want to get up yet. Luxuriating from the sensation.

"Ohhhhhh..."

I let out a deep groan as I felt some of my joints pop in place and the stiffness in my body melting away.

I felt a cool breeze brush by my body.

Brrrr... It's kinda drafty today. Did I forget to close my window last night? Well, I'm not getting up to close it!

I turned over on my my bed reaching out with hand and trying to find my blanket.

And kinda noisy as well.

I could hear people talking. The voices amused but somewhat indistinct. I don't really care enough to listen.

Jacquie must have the volume up on the tv.

I gave up trying to find my blanket and curled up in a fetal position.

[Poke, poke]

And, here comes Jacquie waking me up.

"5 more minutes, squirt. hummm..." I entreated.

"Ehem, ehem." sounded out accompanied by another series of pokes.

I turned over and opened my eyes.

"Oh for godsakes, Jacquie. What ar..." I couldn't finish as my eyes widened in shock.

A truly horrifying face was at present watching me as if waiting for the next entree.

A pair of bloodshot eyes, flaring nose, and dual tusks coming out of either sides of its mouth was framed by a humongous green head.

Then the beast smiled or grimaced, I really didn't know. All I can focus on was its large teeth and the drool flowing out of its mouth.

OH MY GOD! Its hungry!

I tried to scramble up screaming along the way.

"WAHHHHHHH.... MONST..."

[POW]

"Ugh..." I fell back down with the blow from the beast.

"What were you saying?" A deceptively coquettish voiced laces with steel asked.

The contrast between the voice and the face was disturbing.

Then it hit me. I looked around. I wasn't in bed! I was still logged in to Transcend: Online! I was still in my last location.

There I was, just inside the large gate where I collapsed and again surrounded by a crowd of people.

They weren't even trying to hide their amusement as they guffawed at me.

"Pffftttt... Chased by Rabbites! Hahaha." A buffed individual bent over laughing his head off said.

"Hahahaha. Way to go kid! that was the funniest thing I've seen in ages!" One of the burly adventurer said.

"Hahaha. I haven't laughed this hard in god knows how long!" Another said.

"Hihihi. Thanks kid you just made my day." A pretty lady said.

"This is going to the message board! Imagine the views! Hahahaha!" I didn't even bother looking for that one.

I just stared up at them not knowing how to react.

"Okay guys. Enough of that. Let's give the kid some space to breathe." The orc with flirty voice said.

With a final look the crowd slowly dispersed.

"So how're you doing?" She asked.

"I think I'll just go and get a shovel to dig a hole to crawl into." I mournfully said.

"Hahaha." She laughed gently. "C'mon kid, it's not that bad. We've all been there. It's not really that rare here to see people get scared when confronted by the enemy, especially newbies. Once, I even saw a guy who peed his pants when faced with an enemy."

"Really?" I asked hopefully.

"Yeah, really!" She answered with a grin.

I instantly felt a bit better about myself. At least I didn't pee my pants.

"Yeah. Those rabbites are deceptively fearsome in my opinion."

"Oh. He wasn't facing rabbites, it was a fire dragon. You're the only one I know of that ran from rabbites." She said with a grin.

Splat goes my self esteem. I hung my head down in shame.

Maybe I can still salvage some from the floor.

Oh, look there's an itty bitty piece over there.

"Sigh." I heard from the orc.

Totally immersed in my depression I paid her no mind.

"C'mon. Let's go over there."

She grabbed my arm and dragged me over a small shack.

"Welcome to Elana's Sunhine and Sundries!" She proudly advertised.

"Elana?" I looked at her.

"That's me!" She beamed at me.

Elana the Orc?

I looked at her quizzically.

The name of the orc in front of me that was built like a tank is Elana?

"What?" She asked.

"Nothing..." I'm not commenting on the naming sense of the big, scary orc. Nope, not me. Not even touching that with a ten foot pole.

"By the way my name is Er... Myst, I mean. Nice to meet you." I changed the subject for my peace of mind.

"Nice to meet you too." She answered, eyeing me weirdly. "So Myst, can I ask how long ago since you've started playing?" She asked.

"Well, cumulatively, about an hour or two. This is my second login." I answered promptly. "Why do you ask?"

She grimaced before answering.

"Well you seem noobier than the other noobs." She answered frankly.

My face fell. I really didn't know what to reply to that.

"Sorry. I'm really not trying to make you feel worse." She sighed. "Sigh. Man, I'm bad at this. Look, I just want to say don't stress too much about having trouble fighting mobs. This is a new world for all of us. New frontiers and all."

I looked at her, not getting what she was trying to say.

"What I mean is, there are lots to do here aside from fighting. There are tons of quest that needn't involve fighting. You just need to find what you want to do. No need to force yourself. I mean, isn't that the point of all this. Choose your own way of playing or living in this world."

It was like a light bulb suddenly lit inside my head.

She was right!

I looked back and asked myself. Why did I even start playing this game?

It was supposed to be an escape.

Escape from life. From stress.

And here I am. Stressing over my stress relief.

I internally laughed at myself.

I looked out the window seeing the blue sky unfolded endlessly. The blindingly radiant sun framed by white fluffy clouds.

I again marveled at the realism of this game and thought about all the possibilities that this new world could present me.

Everything seems brighter now.

I looked back at Elana with a grateful smile.

"Thank you Elana. You don't know how much this helped me."

"No problem. Here." Her hand moved in the air.

[DING]

Friend Request Received

Elana

Yes / No

I accepted her friend request in heartbeat.

I looked back at her to thank her again but was surprised.

Floating on top of her was her name in green.

"Whoa!" I heard from her direction.

"Huh? What's up?" I Looked at her directly and asked.

"You have a title! Wow, congratulations. It's not easy to get one. Let's see what you got... Fainthe..."

She didn't get far before she fell down laughing.

"Bwahahahahaha..."

I was puzzled at first and then a sudden memory flashed in my mind.

No way. Don't tell me...

I quickly opened my status screen.

________________________________________________

NAME: Myst JOB: Freeman

TITLE: Faintheart of the Yellow Belly Legion

HP: 100/100

MP: 100/100

LEVEL: 1 FAME: -2

STATS:

STR: 10 (-5)

AGI: 12 (+5) ATK: 8

CON: 10 DEF: 19

INT: 10 (-5) CRT: 1%

LUC: 10

Gold: 0

________________________________________________

"Faintheart... Of the... Yellow belly... Legion..." I inadvertently read out loud.

It wasn't a dream!

"Bwahahahahahaha..." She laughed at my frozen expression.

"OH MY GOD!" I suddenly yelled as images of people rolling on the ground with laughter, kids pointing at me while sneering, and even of monsters guffawing at me when I pass by.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO..." I slumped to the ground defeated.

After quite a bit of convulsive laughter. She straightened up.

"Oh, my. That was good." She wiped away the tears streaming from her eyes (and the snot from her nose)

She then look at my lifeless form down on the ground. As if reading my mind, she crouched down and said.

"Oh, don't worry about it. Other players aren't able to see it, just your friends."

I let out a loud breath of relief.

"Thank you god!"

"Only NPC's would know and talk and start rumors about you." She happily added.

My world once again shattered.

I summoned my status screen again and frantically looked for a way to unequip the horrid title.

"Don't waste your time. The only way to remove a title is by getting a new one. Then, you can choose which title to equip." She cheerily said.

I slumped down.

Sigh. There's no help for it now.

On the bright side, players don't see it.

So what if NPC's can see it? I really don't need to be concerned with what the NPC's thoughts are about me. Right?

With a new perspective, I straightened up and bade my goodbyes to Elana.

"Just remember to stop by once in a while and buy your items here!" She grinned.

I exited her store and went my way.

Even with the discovery of the blasted title, I was still excited the idea of starting anew.

With a new spring in my steps, I walked and just enjoyed the sights occasionally stopping by some places to appreciate them more.

This got old after a while.

Okay, time to start again and this timeon the right foot!

I thought back to the past games I have played.

Usually beginner players start the game by talking to predetermined NPC's to get quests and accumulate experience before heading out themselves to hunt monsters.

I winced at my actions up until now. Oh well, water under the bridge. Let's not think about that again. Ever.

I looked around trying to find an NPC to talk to.

I saw people running to and fro going about their business.

There's a burly man hammering a sword on an anvil.

Good a blacksmith! If I'm lucky I can probably score some equipment off of him.

As I got closer.

Hmmm... He looks familiar.

Wait, wasn't he part of the crowd laughing at me earlier? Wasn't he a player? Or was he an NPC?

Sigh. This is tough. I can't even tell which were players and which were NPC's.

I can't very well start asking each and every Tom, Dick and Harry that I pass by if he was a PC or an NPC .

I saw one of the guards sitting down on one of the benches in the square. Probably on his break

Aha, Success! Found one!

Unless a PC started patrolling around the area regularly that definitely is an NPC.

Or is he???

He put down a steaming wooden mug on the bench and started unwrapping a package. Imagine that. A doughnut!

Well, there's no harm in trying.

I approached the guardsman.

"Excuse me sir."

He looked at me with a friendly smile.

"Why hello there young man. How can I help you." He answered pleasantly.

That's a good sign.

"Well, I'm actually new in this land and I was wondering if you can tell me more about this place."

"Say no more, I'll be more than happy to help you out. Since you're new here, let me just say. Welcome to Grimsby. This is an outpost of Lerathiel and serves as a hub of activity for adventurers in this area. We are under the management of Count Marlton. As you can see this is quite a busy town with lots of places to go to. " He paused to take a bite of his doughnut.

Munch, munch...

"Now, where was I? Ah, places to go. If your looking for a place to stay and have a bit of harmless fun, you can go to the Bent Copper Inn."

Munch, munch...

"If your looking to buy some basic gear and provisions your best bet is Igor's Emporium. For quality equipment you want to go to Lanry the blacksmith or if your feeling lucky the market square bazaar is always open. I heard some that even adventurers sell the treasure they find out there."

Munch, munch...

He looked at me briefly.

"From the looks of you, you're probably a fledgling adventurer as well. You should probably go to the adventurer's guild first to register and get some basic survival tips."

Munch, munch...

"Talk to old Melchior in the quest registrar over there if you're hurting for gold. Several townsfolk submit common requests there everyday. Just an advice, do your best to fulfill the requests to build up your renown. The better known you are the better the rewards and better requests will be available for you."

He crumpled the wrapping paper and grabbed his mug.

"That's about it. There's still a lot of places of interests but it's more fun to find it yourself. Now, is there anything else I can help you with?" He asked as he stood up.

"No, that's plenty. Thank you for talking to me and your advice."

"Well, my break is over. If you still have any question you can just look for me, my name's Dagun."

"Nice meeting you, Dagun. Thanks again." With that we both went on our separate ways.

After a while a sudden thought came at me.

I forgot to ask where the adventurer's guild was! Arggghhh!

****************************************************************************

An hour later I broke down and asked for directions and still got lost twice in the process.

Why couldn't they have given a map of sorts in the beginning.

At last, I found myself in front of a medium sized building.

The Adventurer's Guild.

Mentally preparing myself for whatever's on the other side of the door, I went inside. With the way my luck has been going it could be anything, from a bar brawl to the building crumbling on top of my head.

I opened the door and paused for a moment as I took a look inside.

Well, this wasn't what I was expecting.

I looked at groups of people neatly lined up in front of various counters.

It actually looked like one of those government offices, only better maintained and better staffed.

I suddenly felt some gazes turned towards me and low voices started talking in whispers.

"Look! It's him."

"Oh my god! It's really him!"

I looked behind me to see if there was anyone there. Nada.

I have a bad feeling about this.

"It really is him! Sir Faintheart of the yellow belly legion!"

I almost tripped myself upon hearing that.

"I heard he was seen being chased by a group of rabbites while crying!"

"That's nothing. I heard a five year old kid with a wooden sword asked him for money and he threw all his gold to the floor while yelling "Don't kill me!"

"You think that's something? I heard he once saw a mouse, then a loud squeak was heard, not from the the mouse of course, as he scrabled up a tree!"

Goddamnit! I'm right here, you know. And your whispers are worth squat.

I just lowered my head in shame and tried to act like I didn't hear them.

Goddamn title!

With watery eyes I proceeded to the registration counter, which thankfully was devoid of other applicants.

A young eleven maiden sitting behind the counter gave me a funny look.

"Welcome to the adventurer's guild sir Fain... "

"Please call me Myst." I quickly interjected.

"Ah, yes. So Myst, I assume you will be registering." She looked at me for confirmation.

"Yes, please."

"Alright. My name is Maya and I will be assisting you with the process. First of all please fill in this form. We will be using the information that you will record there for your guild ID so please make sure all fields are answered accurately." She handed some forms and a pen in form of a quill.

I filled in the necessary information quickly and turned the forms over back to her.

"Okay, look over here please." She motioned with her hand.

I put my hand over the counter to lean over and tried to see what she was motioning to when I felt a sharp pain from my right thumb.

"Ouch! What the..."

With a guilty smile she raised a bloody pin.

"Sorry, we need a couple drops of blood from you."

"You could have asked." I whined.

"I actually thought about asking but with the stories about you..." She finished weakly as she applied the blood to a small stone tablet.

Calm down, Eric, Calm down.

Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out.

"And... Done. Here's your guild ID. It will automatically update as you finish quests and get stronger. Please do not lose it. If you do, please report the loss immediately. You will need to pay for the replacement as well. " She said as if reciting a well practiced line.

I looked at the ID card that she gave me. It was gray about the the size of a credit card and was made of metal, iron I'm guessing.

I scanned the surface of the card.

_______________________________

Name: Myst Race: Human

Lv 1 Job: Freeman

Grade: Iron Rank: 5

_______________________________

I turned it over.

_______________________________

Current Quest: None

Status: Rating:

Quests Completed: 0

_______________________________

"Let me give you a quick run through of some important points you need to know about the guild. Adventurers are graded and ranked depending on the number of missions they have completed and assessment coming from the quest givers. First, there are 5 grades in total: iron, copper, silver, gold and mithril. Each grade is divided into five ranks, 1-5. The higher your grade the more difficult the quests available to you are,but of course, also more rewarding. For you to advance a grade, you need to be to get the rank up to 1. You will need to visit the closest adventurer's guild and submit a request for grade advancement, after which you will be supplied with a different ID according to your grade. Any question so far?" She asked.

"Please continue."

"Okay, let's go over to how to raise your rank. You can raise your rank by completing quests. But that's not all. After each quest whether it's a success or a failure, the quest giver will be giving their assessment of your performance with the rating value from A-E. After meeting the quota for the number of missions and also meeting the required rating, the guild ID will change its color to blue, signifying that you have reached the prerequisite for advancement." She paused a bit and looked at me, silently asking if I follow.

I just nodded.

"As for acquiring official quests, you can get them from the quest registrar counter. Just talk to the attendant there." She pointed to another counter by the side. "Quests acquired from outside sources are not counted towards your guild rating but will still raise your FAME."

Hmmm... So you can probably still get quests from NPC's.

"By the way monster subjugation quests start from iron grade rank 3..." She suddenly stopped and looked at me. "Ooops. I forgot, with the stories I've heard about you, you wouldn't be interested in that. Don't worry about it. I'll also give you a hand out for information about the guild's health benefits and life insurance as a bonus." She smiled slyly.

I accepted the pamphlet glumly, deciding to look into it later.

The sad thing was, I couldn't refute it if I wanted to as I really wasn't planning on meeting any monster anytime soon.

With a heavy heart, I just nodded for her to continue.

"Anyway, as I was saying. You can choose to apply for multiple missions but be careful, as some missions have time limitations. Failing to complete the mission on time will automatically give you a rating of E and it will also negatively impact your renown. Ah! I almost forgot. FAME is very important for an adventurer, the higher your fame the more missions are available for you to choose from. Sometimes you might not be able to apply for a mission even though your grade is sufficient due to the lack of FAME. Getting a good rating is a great way to raise so please do your best!"

She paused one more time to give me some time if I had any questions.

"Please go ahead."

She smiled and bent over to get something from under her desk.

"Very well. Congratulations on taking your first step as an adventurer. This is our welcome package for new adventurers." She handed me a package.

As I slowly opened the parcel, she continued with her explanation.

"Our welcome package contains some essential tools for adventurers. Let's check if everything is in there. First you should see a small bag there."

I took out a small belt bag.

"That is a small bag of holding. This will enable you to carry items many time your weight and size. You can store up to 15 varieties of items. As a novice adventurer, I think that would be more than enough, but of course when the time comes that you will be needing more space you can either come back and purchase another or trade it in for a larger one for a minimal fee."

I played with the magic bag for a moment before putting it down. I took out the next item.

"That one is a geocryst, one of the most if not the most important tool for an adventurer. It records your path and generates a map by tracing the areas you have already visited and produce a floating image that also shows your position relative to the map. With this it will be difficult for you to get lost."

Hahaha. Score!

Hello my old friend automap!

"You also get a small potion and a small ether. Lastly as a complimentary gift you also get a free training hall session coupon. Just show it to the training hall master to avail of the promo. You can also sign up for membership here you get 3 months for the minimal price of 5000 gold if you sign up today!" She happily finished.

"Err... Not right now I think." I couldn't even if I wanted to with my financial situation at the moment.

"Suit yourself. Now is there anything else?"

"Nope, nothing else. Thank you."

"You're welcome and have a nice day!"

I happily left the counter and equipped my booty.

Now, this is more like it!

I put away my loot after a bit.

Okay. What next?

I think it's about time I do something about the state of my finances.

No matter where you are, be it in the real world or this world, it always comes down to one thing.

Cold hard cash!

So, the next step is... Get myself a quest!

I remembered Dagun saying something about getting gold.

What did he say? Look for old Melchior?

He's probably at the quest counter.

I headed towards the said counter.

I saw an old man busily filing some papers to seemingly random boxes.

I approached him.

"Excuse me sir. I'm here for..."

"I know why you're here for!" He cut me off abruptly. "And the answer is no! I won't give a quest."

What the?!?

"Did I say or do anything to offend you sir?" I asked gently.

"No." He answered without even looking at me.

This old codger is really starting to annoy me.

"Can you at least tell me why?" I said through gritted teeth.

"Look kid, I'm doing you a favor here."

The old goat's crazy!

"What favor!" My voice slightly raised an octave.

He finally stopped what he was doing and looked at me.

"From what I hear about you and your exploits, you are not meant to be an adventurer."

"What exploits?!?" I exploded.

Then it hit me.

The goddamn title again!

As I recall the effects of the title includes the reduction of my FAME by 2.

I started with zero and now I'm in the red.

I almost groaned out loud.

"Look sir, everything is just a big misunderstanding." I tried to explain.

"Looking at you kid, I don't think you even have the backbone to complete the simplest quest." He snorted back at me.

"If you just give me a chance, sir, I'll show you I can do it." I pleaded.

"Sigh... Tell you what. I'll give you one chance." He relented.

I beamed in response.

He opened a drawer and retrieved a bunch of letters.

"You need to deliver these letters to their intended recipients by the end of the day. Come back here when it's done. If you can persevere and complete this request I'll give you all the quests that you want."

[DING}

___________________________________________________________

Quest Received

Old man Melchior asked you to prove your perseverance by delivering the mail.

Time limit: 6 Hours

Rewards: Melchior's trust, +2 FAME

Accept?

Yes / No

___________________________________________________________

What the hell? Did I just get an unofficial quest from the official quest giver?