“Yes!”

Grace replied immediately when the massage appeared in front of her scared that it may disappear if she waited any longer than a second. She was immediately transported to the white room where she would create her character but she didn't realise than and panicked in her mind as usual.

'Where am I?! I see anything, I'm not standing on anything?!'

— The scan on your iris and vein has determined that you are an unregistered user. Do you want to create a new account?

“Hiiiii! Yes!” she screamed at the voice that appeared out of nowhere.

Even as a child Grace was afraid of a lot of things. This and the fact that she was quite timid resulted in most of the boys teasing and picking on her. The other girls knowing that Grace had no way to preventing this and was naturally like this, tried to protect her. But this just stirred the boys to do more extreme things.

Stealing shoes, throwing water, pulling hair, using insects, telling ghost stories were the few things that they did to her that the other girls were not able to prevent.

— Select the name of your avatar.

'What do I do? What should I name myself? This is really hard....Serena then.”

“Serena....”

Grace thought about the name over and over again but the AI decided it was her chosen name.

— Select your gender from male, female or neutral.

'Wait wait wait! I didn't choose it yet! Is there a way to go back? No....I have to stick with it then...'

“Female...”

As a girl at the very beginning of puberty, Grace had an interest in boys. However the torment that the other boys put her through....cancelled all of that completely and as such she didn't even have thoughts on playing a male character.

— Royal Road has forty-nine races. You may select your race from the primary twenty-nine.

“Half-Elf!”

Grace had heard somewhere that half-elves were kind short like her. Even among the other children she was quite short with only a height of 144 cm she was really really short. Also she needed to be a Healer so there was no point in having a character that can fight really well. But Grace was also thinking of other things as well. 'If I don't make my character a Healer than Hina will.....'

— You may alter your appearance

“Can.....you....show....me....?”

In front of her suddenly was a half elf character that was her. The same height, face and hair except for her ears which was slightly pointed. Her hair was actually not that long but it was compared to her short height. Her hair which went down to her thighs were actually the same length as hair that was only middle back length. Grace had light brown hair and didn't intent to change anything, being completely satisfied with her appearance.

“I'm...done...”

Over time she was teased by a large number of people. The boys naturally picked on her for no reason besides the fact that she was timid and wasn't going to fight back. Some girls who believed that her reactions were just an act also picked on her. The adults not knowing of this just believe that Grace was just paranoid even though she told them over and over again that people were picking on her, bullying her but they never listened once. However one day there was a new female teacher in her school. Unlike the others, she immediately found that Grace was telling the truth and got certain people involved. The parents of those other children for starters were brought in with their children altogether with the police and other important people for the ministry of education as well.

Almost immediately the parents complained that they had no right to bring them here but they were shut up with the glares of the threatening looking people that were here to talk to them about the behaviour of their children. Nervous the children could only look away when asked very direct questions on whether they were bullying and making Grace's life miserable. Of course the parents tried to protect their children and started insulting Grace and her dead parents.

However the teacher simply smiled as if this was what she wanted to hear.

'I believe this is enough proof that these children need to be....corrected in their view of the world with their parents. Take them away.'

The parents and children were taken into correction centres by the people the teacher brought in. Ever since that day Grace wanted to be like her teacher. Strong and resolved. With growing resolves when the AI asked the final question, Grace was no longer afraid.

— Your account has been activated. Your stats and class shall be determined while you are playing Royal Road. Please Select a city and kingdom you want to start.

“Witchhelm!”

The light are blinded Grace was the first stop on her journey to find herself anew.

[p=center]xXx[/p]

Serena opened her eyes to find herself in an unknown place with trees, buildings and other life. She looked around nervously trying to find this fountain the others talked about. Serena only hoped that she was placed near it.

'What if I get lost?'

With that lost she panicked a bit looking around even more nervously. However luck was on her side as she found someone that looked like Hina and Serena ran up to her tugging on Hina's arm.

“Help...me...” Serena plead hoping that Hina wouldn't just abandon her here.

Hina smiled and said, “I'm Miriel, what are you called?”

'This person isn't Hina....?' With that single thought Serena let go of this stranger's arm and moved away several steps. Building up her courage to speak to others she said, “Are.....you....Hina or not?.....” Miriel's face almost glowed as she moved in quickly and started pinching Serena's cheeks.

'Why is she pinching me? Is there something on my face?' Serena thought while trying to get free from the arms of Miriel. However when Miriel said, “Yes I am but I’m called Miriel here so get used to it.” Serena did the opposite and started clinging on her trying to not let go. Serena then whispered to Miriel, “I'm Serena here.”

Feeling happy that she got a new friend, Serena walked with her to the fountain. Both Mark and Ian were already there but they were not talking to each other let alone looking at each other. Then Miriel said to the two standing there, “So you two got here early” which shocked Mark enough that he showed a slight trace of emotion on his face. Serena laughed inside, 'They are funny.'

A few moments later Peter arrived with his dark blue hair and a smile and said to everyone here, “Is everyone here yet?”

Serena looked around next to Miriel and found that Maria wasn't here.

'Maybe I should ask Miriel about....Miriel....?'

Serena looked at Miriel's increasing pissed off face and when she almost shouted, “Maria isn't She's late!” like a child, Serena immediately moved away from her and towards Ian who was just happened to be standing there. Peter gave a wry smile seeing this.

“So are we going to introduce ourselves while we wait for Maria?” Sain asked the rest of the group noting that it was best not to wait for now.

“We might as well” sighed Miriel saying her thoughts out loud, “Anyway I'm called Miriel now so call me that. I'm a Night Elf.”

“Raven, Human” said Mark after her.

Serena was still shy to the group but she managed to talk to them, “I'm called....Serena...a Half-Elf...”

Ian simply said the words, “Shadow, also Human”

Sain then introduced himself last. “I'm Sain also a Human. Anyway we should friend each other while we can. Um...how do I do this?” Sain was trying to remember the command to friend other people.

Miriel sighed and said quickly, “Send Friend Request to Sain, Serena, Raven and Shadow.”

Miriel sent you a friend request. Accept?

'Eh?' Serena was shocked that a box appeared in front of her so suddenly and almost panicked by the sight of it. No, she did panic and moved closer to Shadow. After a moment she moved her finger to accept the friend request.

You have accepted the Friend Request

When Serena was about to calm down from the sudden box appearing, another one appeared form the words from Sain, “Send Friend Request to Serena, Raven and Shadow.”

Sain sent you a friend request. Accept?

Once more Serena was shocked at how it just appeared and yet still managed to accept it.

You have accepted the Friend Request

“Send Friend Request to Serena and Raven.” said Shadow out of nowhere.

Shadow sent you a friend request. Accept?

Serena immediately reacted the same way again and clang to Shadow's shirt for support. Then Shadow tugged her and Serena thought, 'Are you telling me to go next?', while looking at Shadow.

“Send....Friend request to Raven!” shouted Serena to the expectation of Shadow.

You have sent a Friend Request to Raven

After a few moments another box appeared.

Raven has accepted your friend request

“Tch!”

Serena looked at the source of that sound. Miriel was becoming more and more irritated by the second and this frightened Serena. 'What happened to the Miriel from before?'

Then a slightly red haired woman ran up to us all cheerful and waving. It was Maria and she was going to get done in by Miriel.

“I'm here~” were the first words she said to the group. However the group was not reassure since there was a certain someone very pissed off right now. That certain person went up to Maria and hit her head, hard.

“Ow! Wait, what's this message I'm seeing?” Maria cried then looked in interest.

'Its most likely the game saying that you were hurt.' Everyone thought to themselves.

“Your late!” shouted Miriel in rage. Serena tugged Shadow's shirt a bit more when she heard those words.

“Anyway sent a friend request to everyone of us. No, tell us your name and we'll friend you. It'll be much quicker that way.” demanded Miriel which was a 180 degree turn in attitude compared to how she treated Serena.

“My name is Lyndis, a normal Elf.” said Lyndis.

[p=center]xXx[/p]

“First of all you guys know how to open your inventory right? Just say open Inventory and a window saying what you have will appear which should be 10 pieces of Rye bread and a Canteen of Water. You can refill the Canteen using a Fountain like this but you have to buy Rye Bread for 3 Copper each. Try it out.” said Miriel.

“Open Inventory Window.” said the 5 of us.

Inventory

- 10 Pieces of Rye Bread

- I Canteen of Water

- No Money

Everyone looked and pointed at the window that was only visible to themselves. Sain then moved his hand and took out what was the Rye Bread for everyone to see.

'This looks....very hard to chew', everyone thought seeing the Rye Bread in Sain's hand.

“Anyway next is the Status Window which you will see all of your stats and such. Same thing as the inventory, just say Open Status Window.”

“Open Status Window” said the 5 again.

Status Window[quart=Name,Alignment]Serena,Neutral[/quart][quart=Level,Profession]1,None[/quart]RaceHalf-ElfTitleNoneHealth80Mana120[quart=Fame,Infamy]0,0[/quart][quart=Strength,Agility]9,11[/quart][quart=Intelligence,Wisdom]12,10[/quart][quart=Vitality,Stamina]9,9[/quart][quart=Leadership,Luck]0,0[/quart][quart=Offense,Defense]10,10[/quart]Magic Resistance0%Elemental Resistance[quart=Light,Dark]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Fire,Ice]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Earth,Lightning]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Wind,Nature]0%,5%[/quart]Bonus- 5% increase in Magic Skill Effect

- Nature Affinity increase by 5

“Okay now that you know your status window, we have to talk about distributing stats. Know that it is better to be a master of one than a master of many. However don't let it stop you since its your character and we don't need to be something like the strongest. Now let's go our separate ways and find a class in these 4 weeks we have. Don't aim for the hidden classes since they may take too much time to get and don't just resolve yourself on being one of those common classes people get. I'll see you guys here in 4 weeks time.” said Miriel before leaving us to do whatever we want.

[p=center]xXx[/p]

When everyone else left on their own, Serena was....well still there alone. She did not know what to do at all. No sense of direction, no good luck and no knowledge to back her up. As a result she was wandering around for quite some time on her own.

'What should I do? What should I do?' repeated in her mind as she walked and walked. Until a certain message appeared out of nowhere.

Hunger is at 50%

'I should get one of those Rye bread soon...'

From what she knew from the very, very brief knowledge she had with the game, she knew that if her hunger hit zero, she would starve to death which leads to her being banned from the game for a full day in real life and 4 days in game which would be very counter productive enough the Miriel would instantly kill her if not for the fact that that would be even more counter productive than letting her live.

'Wow...I thought they said this place was mostly deserted but there are so many people around. I hope that nothing bad will happen'

All around Serena were people, lots of people. People that knew what they were doing and people that she could not for the life of her tell apart from other players who may be a hidden motive or a NPC which may not have a hidden motive but was still scary to her.

'Where should I go?' Serena thought. Just about when she decided to go to a shop and get some work a person appeared in front of her. 'Who?'

“Are you lost?” asked a man of many years above the tender age of 15 of Serena. The man was met with other of his friends. All of them male and all of them staring at her like she was an insignificant being. 'I don't like the look of this person, or his friends'.

At this Serena backed off a bit and only managed to say with a timid voice, “Umm” before one of the friends said in a loud arrogant voice, “This person is definitely a NPC! Hurry up and get the quest!” which was almost a shout which drew the attention of other people.

'NPC? Quest? What is this person talking about...?' was all that she thought before the man in question grabbed her and attempted to drag her away as if this was all planned.

“No!” she let out a cry. Serena attempted to escape immediately but the man was much stronger than he was and he had no intention of letting go of her. Those men were kidnapping....'helping' her and looked like high levelled players that you would see in a typical 'How to be a dick and pedophile' manual.

“....”

“....”

“....”

For some reason they did not even say anything but surrounded her on all sides, trapping her.

Serena looked around for help on the surrounding people that were watching, but no one came to help only to avoid the gaze of these 4 men that had literally trapped Serena. Each of the four were of a different class based upon their equipment. One was a warrior, one was a archer, one was a mage and one was a thief. All four of them had flashy armour, even the thief.

'This is bad, really bad for me. I wonder if someone will help me.....please let someone kind enough to help me' Serena was screaming in the inside for someone to save her from this but no one still came. Wondering what was going on Serena started to hear what the people around had to say. Her sharper sense of hearing was developed as a child to avoid the bullies that want to torment her.

A pair of a man and woman to the right was looking on with great concern but looked much weaker than the four and would be just killed. The female who looked like a priest said, “We have to help her” but the man who looked like a swordsman stopped her saying, “They're part of 'that' guild! They rule over this place. If we help the child then we....” he did not finish the sentence but the woman got the message.

From this conversation, Serena could only think, 'What guild?' not knowing who or what the guild did to allow these people to terrorise others.

Another group of people that looked on had a frightened look on their face. They looked like high school friends that came on to play for a bit.

“Not again...” sighed a man with a funny hat on. Serena didn't laugh since she was in quite a bad situation herself.

'This happened before?'

“How many times has it been now? They've been saying they part of 'that' guild and stealing all kinds of stuff already.” said a concern woman who was tightening her grip on her bag.

'What is this guild and what does it have to do with stealing? Is it a thief guild since they steal?'

“I feel sorry for that kid. She's the type that gets bullied and the type that attract trouble.” said what seemed to be the leader of the group who was wearing sightly better armour from the rest.

'Then help me you idiot! If it bothers you so much than do something about it!'

“Yeah I know....and they only had to declare that they thought she was a NPC for them to not get punished by the lord.” said another woman.

'Oh, why would you know this? Is it because you just stand there and look on as they do whatever they want?' At this point Serena was getting pissed off at the bystanders that did nothing at all more than the four that cause trouble.

“I hear they give him a lot of money to not report.” said someone else as well. So Serena knows that they are strong enough to flaunt whatever they want, they have money to bribe officials and most importantly they had useless bystanders looking on at them without doing anything. Also they were part of this guild.

'It looks like this may be the end already...' Serena had a grim look on her face, it seemed this was the day that she was not going to get out of it more or less fine. In the game Royal Road, it was natural that those under 18, hell everyone female was protected from rape. However it did not stop some people on trying and traumatising the victims even though it has a lot of morale issues that this narrator will not list due to the fact that there are too many things that have to be said with such issues and may involve several long chapters to even describe what the victims feel.

However this series is not going to talk about all of that since such a thing will never happen in this series. Why? Because a certain person appeared just then.

“Why does it seem like you four are about to kidnap this kid?” asked a feminine voice that turned the heads of all that heard.

'Who?' Serena had a shocked face since there was no one that helped her before so why should there be someone who would now?

The person who appeared was a woman with long black hair and what you call a beauty. She was wearing a plain white one piece dress which screamed NPC to everyone there. However she did have some odd tattoos on her which made her stand out even more but did not even dent her beauty. Such a person could not be a player at all.

The sight of this person immediately caused the four to switch their target to this person and let go of Serena which took the chance to get away a couple of metres.

Even for Serena's perspective she could feel the utter disgust that came out of them as they stared at their new prey. Serena could only shiver in fear as a new player that just started the same day, 'Please....please let that person be all right...' Serena plead to whatever God that could hear her.

The warrior person using his power immediately tried to persuade the lady in front of him by grabbing her which in turn had no reaction from her at all. But the woman did just a smile at the attempt. And then started the four's start with their talk on how 'great' they were which almost made Serena want to just commit suicide since it was so cliché.

“Hey girl why don't you come with us for some fun” the man said gleaming with lust. The other three started chuckling at his words knowing the true meanings of his words. Then the archer guy then continued proving their attitude, “We're part of the guild 'Sleeping Sheep'. I believe you heard of them.”

At that point several people already ran away. They were not players but the NPCs that were in the area. Why did they run...? The players will see that soon enough.

The woman continued to smile at the four without any kind of ill intent from what Serena could see and replied, “Yes I have.”

Did this narrator also mention that these four read the book called 'Minor bad guys that make a speech and then get killed'? No? Now you know.

Stab~

The woman's smile did not even flinch as she stabbed her hand through his armour and chest in one go making it very apparent that her hand was through him literally.

“Cough” The warrior man collapsed onto the ground in front of everyone spurting blood everywhere. It happened so quickly that it was like magic was used to cause this. But the hand and the blood on it prove it did not. It was simply that the woman was that much stronger than everyone else here.

Serena almost couldn't believe her eyes as a high levelled player just died just like that. No the person with a hole in him was still alive even though common sense says that he should be dead.

“What the hell?” said the three immediately noticing that something was very wrong right now. They retreated back and drew their weapons and then immediately started to attack hoping for the best.

“Fire Wave!” shouted the mage sending a wave of fire to the woman.

'Look out!' screamed Serena in the inside.

The woman in a quick moment dodged the fire wave attack and moved in to kick the mage in the balls while the archer who just about to fire an arrow was suddenly met with a golden sword in his knee.

“Ahhhh!”

The mage collapsed gasping his balls that were most likely broken and the archer who was screaming holding his knee in pain letting go of his bow. The only one left was the thief...who grabbed Serena's neck from the back. And a certain sharp object was pointed at her neck as well like a hostage....no she was most definitely a hostage at this point.

'Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!! Nooooooooooo!' Serena at this point started panicking. Serena was frightened. More frightened then she was than the time a certain boy decided it would be a fun joke to hold her down and steal her underwear and graffiti it along with her desk at school.

That time the person was definitely punished to the point that they were kicked out of the school and those around him were punished as well which in turn made everyone pretty much hate her for the rest of their time in school which was the very start of her long time being bullied until...a certain person came up to her and asked if she wanted to escape from her hell. That man was most likely the person who got her into the current group she was in right now and she could not let them down.

'I don't want to be that helpless again! I want to change!' were the words that Serena had engraved into her heart.

Suppressing her fear Serena waited for the time where she could be something else than the princess that was always saved by the hero.

“Stand back or this one gets it!” the man behind Serena shouted at the seemingly scary figure in front of them. The woman arm drenched in blood didn't even blink an eye as she walked towards them even though Serena was being taken as a hostage.

Serena thought, 'Does this person know that I will do something to help her?'

As if in response to her thoughts the woman smiled and as a result the knife started to cut through Serena's neck.

The man using Serena was a hostage was definitely frightened since the blade was shaking and it was not cutting Serena's skin properly. The woman walking towards them looked like she knew this. When the woman was quite close the man decided to act which was also the time Serena and the woman decided to act as well.

'Now!' Serena opened her mouth and bit hard on the arm of the thief oozing blood through the bite.

“Damn you brat!” he said in contempt as he moved his knife to slit Serena's throat. Serena had a slight flash back during this and thought, 'I don't want it to end yet!' with all her might. But Serena did not die. In fact she was not harmed at all besides the cuts she got when was was being taken as a hostage.

“Ahhhhhhhh!” the man behind her screamed holding his arm which the knife was on. His arms was drenched in blood.

Splash~

Blood suddenly came out of the man's body as if her was slashed. Serena looked behind her to find that the woman did not do anything as far as what Serena could see but there was no one else who could've done such a thing.

Covered in blood now, Serena once again almost fainted but managed to keep it together enough for the woman to drag the four men together with an evil smile.

'Is there a point in grouping them together?' though Serena while wiping off the blood. Years of being conditioned made Serena more....tolerant of blood and the gore.

“So do you four knew who you just pissed off?” the woman said devilishly. Serena could feel some sort of big feeling coming from the body of the woman.

The four men, two of them barely conscious at this point shook their head as if they were children being lectured by an adult on their misbehaviour. They looked smaller and smaller compared to the woman that helped her in Serena's eyes. They no longer looked frightening at all.

“Really you haven't noticed? You guys have been using my guild's name after all.” she said not smiling anymore. At those words the four went pale. Even the two that were bleeding to death slowly went even more pale at those words.

Those words seemed like the declaration of Satan himself. Frightened to the point beyond reason the only one that was capable on moving more or less, the archer took the golden sword that was impaled into his knee and tried to slash at the woman who at this time, everyone knew was the guild leader of 'that' guild. The sword didn't even reach her.....literally. The golden sword stayed where it was just barely away from harming her and the archer could not even move it as if it had a will on it own. When the man let go the sword was still in the air as if it was floating or something similar.

'Impossible....how can....' Serena thought as she watched this horror movie like scene. But that was not all that happened. As if the woman was not human at all, her eyes and tattoos glowed the same colour as she if she was having fun.

Then a sudden shock wave appeared out of nowhere and Serena got several messages from the game at once.

You are in the presence of the Destroyer

You are in a state of Fear

You are in a state of Panic

You are in a state of confusion

All skills will be sealed

Stats will be reduced to half

All regeneration will cease

Movement will be heavily restricted

'What on Earth.....is....this.....?' Serena thought on her knees due to the sudden pressure on her like there was something crusher her body and mind.

The demon like woman touched the hand of the archer. It was a small touch but his hand got ripped off like pudding being scoped up by a spoon. The man let out a soundless scream. His tears poured out of his eyes like a flood and looked like he was begging to be forgiven. However the woman was not so forgiving. With a swift motion she ripped off the limbs of the man leaving him to drown in his own blood pool.

With that sight or rather because of that pressure she was feeling all that time, Serena did faint this time with the last thing she saw was the woman running to catch her.

[p=center]xXx[/p]

When Serena woke up on a soft bed, she was in an unknown place. She looked around to find that she was in a house of some sort which had a number of plants and books which diagrams of the human body and other creatures on the wall. The place was so cramped with things that it seemed smaller than it really was.

'This place is....?'

“So you're finally awake. You slept for a full day, not that I blame you considering that you experience that person's power” said a woman, a different woman than the one Serena saw before.

Unlike the dark haired beauty Serena saw before, the on in front of her was more of a green haired person wearing green clothes. While not at the same level as the previous person, people would still think of this person as a beautiful person. Then Serena looked at herself. She was wearing a green robe that had a similar design to the one the woman was wearing.

“Oh, I changed your clothes since, the rags you had before were covered in blood...and blood stains are hard to get rid of.” she explained while flicking through a book quickly.

Strangely enough, Serena was quite calm. Compared to what she felt before, it was like this was very insignificant to her. 'Is there something wrong with me? Normally I would be scared waking up like this....'

“Where am I? And who are you?” asked Serena to the woman.

“I am called Mel, and this is my home which also doubles up as my workplace on discovering stuff to heal people and creatures around the world, well mainly those I like. Anyway a friend brought you here since you seem to have some potential to become my apprentice” said Mel. Mel moved around the large room with little space to move about quickly as if there was nothing in her way.

'Apprentice? What is she talking about?' thought Serena confused about what happened recently. First she was about to be kidnapped then a person appeared saving her but also caused her to faint with blood everywhere and now she was going to be the apprentice of this other person whom she had woken up in the house of.

“If you wish to ask questions then you have to be my apprentice, just for you to know. If not, then I'll knock you out and throw you at some random alleyway.” Mel said while collecting some more books and materials.

Become Mel's apprentice

Mel has fancy you and allowed you to become her apprentice.

- You will live with her until your apprenticeship finish

- You will be fed food

- You will be given training directly from her

- Will gain the title 'Nature Wielder Apprentice'

'So do I have a choice?'

With some reluctant and some expectation Serena said, “Yes.”

You have become the apprentice of Nature Wielder Mel

You have gained the title 'Nature Wielder Apprentice'

- Intelligence will increase by 1

- Wisdom will increase by 1

- 5% Less Time to Cast Spells

When that message appeared to Serena Mel had finished gathering all the books and other stuff she needed to teach her new apprentice as if she knew Serena would accept. Mel looked at Serena and said, “Now you can ask some questions. Its better to get these things done with before the training starts.”

Prompted, Serena started asking questions one after the other, not wasting a breath on any unneeded questions.

“First, who was that person I saw back there. The one who helped me. I want to be like her!” Serena asked very curious with great expectations on her face. Mel hesitated to tell her the truth but managed to somehow alter it a bit in order to crush the young girl's dream.

“The person is...well the guild leader of my guild. Actually one of three guild leaders. You can say she's very strong in almost all areas besides anything that doesn't involve not destroying stuff...” answered Mel making sure to alter as much of the truth as possible for Serena's sake.

Serena nodded and thought, 'So I may meet her in the near future.' and shot off another question. “What is this guild?”

Mel looked a bit shocked than regained her calm, “You don't know? We are famous in the wrong ways...well you'll find out later either way. Anyway don't you want to know what I do? Or what I will teach you?” she asked.

Serena thought about it for a bit and shook her head and said, “I want to know about that person”. Mel sighed thinking, 'Are all girls like this these days?' with great fear on what will happen in the future.

After a moment of thought, Mel decided to use the old fashion bait in training a person, “I'll tell you everything if you can finish my training, deal? Also you can't ask about that person anymore until then” to which Serena immediately nodded her head in agreement. Mel turned around picking up a book and thought, 'Good, she took the bait' while smiling.

[p=center]xXx[/p]

A while back...

Mel was reading a book on the ecosystem of Orcs which has been somewhat decreasing in numbers recently. One of the jobs she had was to investigate the increase and decrease in population of many species at once. By now, it had been Mel's second nature to research about every kind of species she encountered.

Knock Knock Knock

“I'm coming in Mel!” shouted a familiar voice. At this voice Mel immediately decided to run and hide but it was too late to do even one of these things. The person Mel was trying to run away from was already in.

Mel turned and looked at this person with a half broken smile that looked more forced than trying to make a Orc act like a gentleman.

“It has been a while Eden. What have bring to me this time?” Mel asked making sure that Eden would not get offended in any way possible.

Eden frown and said, “You say that like I bring trouble to you every time I visit.”

'You do bring trouble with you! Every single time!' Mel screamed in her heart. Ever since in the past when Mel was still travelling as an adventurer, they had the misfortune of meeting those three. However neither she nor her friends ever regretted meeting them. They were all....unique and powerful to boot. However for some reason they were always met with challenges greater than they can handle and by some series of miracles blast through them.

Mel looked at Eden to find that she was covered in blood and a person was hung on her shoulder. Mel sighed and asked, “Did you kill someone again? And what's with this person?”

“Hey! They were the ones who attacked and took a hostage first! Besides they were using our name and were harassing the people knowing that they will not oppose us. Anyway I found you an apprentice. She's one of my kind.”

With those words Eden dropped the poor girl and went to one of the hidden closets in the house taking out new clothes, leaving the blooded ones behind.

“Mel make sure you teach her well enough. The others already have new apprentices from yesterday and I want some new members to play around with and use for some tasks.” Eden said while throwing a dress to Mel for her to dress the girl up.

“If its any task, then you can do it right? Even the Emperor likes you doing important tasks for him and that says a lot since he's one of the few people with almost perfect records if not perfect.” complained Mel thinking of all the time that she would have to waste training someone to be someone else's toy.

Eden left the house leaving behind the words, “I'm retired. Besides company is a good thing once in a while. You might actually get attached to this one.”

'On the other hand bad company is worse than no company at all like with you....what am I going to do....' Mel looked worryingly at the young girl that was suddenly placed under her care.

But before Eden could leave Mel shouted a question at him, “Why are you wearing that dress?” with a large grin on her face. Red faced, Eden shouted back, “Lost a bet with Alexandra!” before slamming the door.

[p=center]xXx[/p]

“First of all a Druid is mainly a Healer who is affiliated with nature. While there are those who are born as Druids, namely those who have the race Druid, there are those like me and soon you who will become something similar in terms of class. Do you understand so far?”

Serena nodded her head trying as much as possible to not think or ask questions about that person she desperately wants to know about.

“We are called Healers but we also manage the team we're in. If there is a tactician in the group then our orders are secondary to his or her in who should heal and protect.”

Serena made a confused look and asked, “Why should we obey a tactician's order to our own?”

“Because a tactician has to consider everything to ensure victory even if it means sacrificing allies. We only need to keep as many alive to prolong the survivability of the group. The main difference is the will to see friends and comrades fall and get killed before your eyes without doing anything about it. Can you stand to see one of your friends to get hurt and die without you doing anything even if it means danger to yourself and others around you?” Mel explained asking a question at the end.

Serena thought about it thinking of her new friends dying and shook her head feverishly. With that Mel started to explain about the role of such a person.

“A Healer can be anyone who can recover the strength of a group. They do not need to be of a basic yet effective class such a cleric or priest. Shamans can also use healing spells as well as other certain classes as well. There are spells that can only affect one person, affect a group and affect the entire area, a nation and even those which can affect the continent as a whole and perhaps even the world. The magic I will teach you will be on the level of affect single persons and a group or two. Any more will be too much for you right now. Any questions?”

“Why are you only teaching me the first two levels? Isn't it more effective to just use the magicks that can affect a larger area?” asked Serena.

Mel smiled at this and answered, “That's because the effectiveness, the power of the spell will thin too much if spread too much. An example would be the curse of fire and curse of ice a long time ago.”

'Curse of fire and curse of ice? What is she talking about?' thought Serena not knowing that Mel was talking about years ago when Royal Road was still considerably new.

“Once upon a time a certain King in the northern continent had his Kingdom invaded by countless monsters. To save his people he lured the monsters into an area and used the power of the Ice Witch Bead which cracked in this event which caused the northern continent to freeze in extreme cold. Years later a certain group in their greed caused the wrath of the King of Fire Scorpions and the whole continent heated up several degrees without exception. Despite the power of the Curse of Fire which affected the entire continent, the northern Continent though a bit warmer still had its frozen temperature. I difference is that the curse of ice only affected the northern continent while the curse of fire affected the whole continent. While the curse of fire had the same or higher power than the curse of ice, it still could not overcome it since the power was more focused at the north. Namely in context, if you had the power to heal a person completely in one go and used it on an entire army, it won't do much.”

“So its better to use smaller spells over and over again? Or is it better to use one larger spell?” asked Serena.

“It depends on the situation. Now I am going to give you a class even though it is too early since you can't learn my spells easily without it.”

You have been offered the class 'Druid'. Do you accepted?

Druids are linked to nature more than elves and thus have powers that Elves cannot use. However the class will allow any and all to learn those secret skills. Besides the power of healing, Druids have the power of protection and also have the power to bless themselves or others with the power of nature.

“Yes!” replied Serena immediately.

Class has been changed to 'Druid'

Intelligence, Wisdom and Stamina increase by 10

Nature Affinity increase by 5

Nature resistance increase by 5%

You have gained the skill Mediation

You have gained the skill Mana Blast

Serena checked her Status window knowing that her stats have increased somewhat.

Status Window[quart=Name,Alignment]Serena,Neutral[/quart][quart=Level,Profession]1,Druid[/quart]RaceHalf-ElfTitleNoneHealth80Mana160[quart=Fame,Infamy]0,0[/quart][quart=Strength,Agility]9,11[/quart][quart=Intelligence,Wisdom]12 +10,10 +10[/quart][quart=Vitality,Stamina]9,9 +10[/quart][quart=Leadership,Luck]0,0[/quart][quart=Offense,Defense]10,10[/quart]Magic Resistance0%Elemental Resistance[quart=Light,Dark]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Fire,Ice]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Earth,Lightning]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Wind,Nature]0%,5%[/quart]Bonus- 5% increase in Magic Skill Effect

- Nature Affinity increase by 5

- Intelligence, Wisdom and Stamina increase by 10

- 5% Less Time to Cast Spells

Serena checked her stats again. Her mana was twice as big as her health now while her other stats did not increase at all. Serena was quite saddened by this fact even though it was only her second day in the game and getting a class in two days was already extremely good itself.

“Okay now that you have the class I should tell you that we can heal three kinds of things. That is Health, Mana and Stamina. Normally you can't heal Mana but I can be done. The only thing you cannot heal is mental damage. That alone relies solely on the person's own will and nothing but that person can do anything about it. Also we do not specialise in healing directly but letting the person recover quickly or regenerate. Here's the first skill.”

You have gained the skill Minor Health Regeneration

Minor Health Regeneration Beginner level 1 (0/100)

Heals 100 Health over a total of 100 seconds or 1 Health per Second

Mana Cost: 10 Mana

Cool Down: 20 Seconds

“At first you can only heal 100 Health per 100 Seconds but when you reach Intermediate Level with it, it will increase to 500 and in Advance it will go to 1000. Likewise Moderate Health Regeneration will Heal 1000 Health over 100 Seconds, then to 5000 Health per second and eventually gets to 10000 Health per 100 seconds. Advance Health Regeneration will start off at 10000 Health per 100 seconds, then 15000 Health and finally 30000 Health per 100 seconds. Then there is Ultimate Health Regeneration which will heal even more than that. However normal Healing Spells can do this as well. Do you know the difference?”

Serena answered, “No.”

“The answer is simple. It is the amount of mana the spell relies on. Regeneration spells while taking a while to be fully realised on a person will cost much less than normal healing spells. The a Healing spell cost 100 mana than its equivalent in a regeneration spell will cost 30 or less. Its simply whether to focus on an immediate effect or not, the end results are the same. Also we can stack the effects which makes it more useful overall as well.”

[p=center]xXx[/p]

Mel held out a small cute hamster in her hands. Serena looked at it with interest as all girls at her age would since it was cute. However Serena sensed that something wrong was going to happen.

“Now its time to teach you the application of your spell.” said Mel taking out a knife and cutting the cute hamster.

'Noooooooooooooo!!! Why?! Its so cute!' screamed Serena inside with her expression showing great grief at the sight. Mel held the injured hamster in front of Serena saying, “Heal it.” Serena immediately shouted, “Minor Health Regeneration!” feeling her mana draining from her and into the spell. The hamster glowed a bit at the cut and it healed in a couple of seconds.

“Serena, healing spells are more difficult than normal destructive magicks since it requires some certain knowledge. Healing spells are only half of effective when you point the spell at someone at random. If someone is cut on their arm, then it is better to focus the spell onto their arm than their whole body which means you must learn the details of the human body, elven body, dwarfish body and Orc body among others things as well. Here are a couple of books you should read in your spare time.”

Mel handed Serena a stack of books which had titles such as 'The Human body', 'Bones and their functions', 'Tissues are noobs' and 'What not to break and why'. Serena decided to read them later but not now since Mel had other things to say.

“Also you would need a staff of course! Staffs are useful since they can amplify your magic and stabilise it as well. I think I have an old one for you to use....somewhere” Mel looked around the messy room that was almost covered in junk and other materials. Mel looked at Serena almost pleading, “Help me find it.”

“...”

[p=center]xXx[/p]

Several hours later Mel managed to find the staff under a pile of books....and this was the tall stack of books which numbered 30-40 and the small 4-5 book stacks. Mel handed over the wooden staff to Serena which she checked and equipped.

Old Wooden Staff Durability: 16-25 Damage: 2-5

An old wooden staff that is used by beginners in magic.

Requirement: None

Options: Intelligence +1

“Its a bit old and damaged a bit but its not like you'll whack something with it right?” Mel said while packing up the numerous books that had fallen due to their search.

[p=center]xXx[/p]

“Oh its already night, better get some sleep Serena.” said Mel noticing that she was lecturing Serena on various things over the last couple of hours. She took out a glass and filled it with water and drank it to drench her dry throat.

Serena went into her room and slept through the night.

[p=center]xXx[/p]

2 days later Mel took Serena somewhere and they were on the process of walking there. Serena tried to keep up with Mel but was struggling to do so. On the way Mel was giving Serena some instructions.

“When we get there, you must address me as Master, okay?” ordered Mel with a glare.

Serena could only say, “Yes Master” timidly while running behind her. A bit worried, Serena thought, 'What has gotten into her? She wasn't like this yesterday and the day before.'

After a hour or so they arrived at their destination. It was some sort of barracks and it was filled with soldiers and others training heavily for battle. Serena could hear the loud chanting of harsh words even outside the place. While Serena was hesitant on going in, Mel on the other hand immediately ran in dragging Serena in with her.

Near the centre of a large field was some sort of....death training machine and there was a person who Serena recognised in there.

'Raven?!' she thought with great distress. Although they did not know each other more than a couple of hours, Serena had grown quite friendly with the others as they considered her as a nice younger sister. However Raven was dying in front of her. The strange lines of dolls were beating him to death and a old man was standing nearby watching all of this calmly while the other people nearby were too frightened or did not care at all to help.

Mel ran up and shouted, “Minor Health Regeneration!” healing Raven in one go. Although Mel has taught Serena this skill, Serena knew that her skills with it was far cry from the level of her master's.

In the next 10 seconds Raven managed to finish whatever the course was that nearly killed him. Serena sighed in relief but Mel had other ideas besides being calm.

“Park are you trying to kill your apprentice?! His health dropped down to critical levels just then!” she shouted at the old man.

The old man named Park looked at Mel startled but then placed on a smile that looked kinda fake to Mel saying, “Mel! It has been a while....How nice for you to drop in”, Serena could've sworn that his smile was twitching. Likewise Mel was smiling at this Park person with a fake smile as well but this one felt more frightening than Serena originally thought.

'She somehow seems more scary then I remember....'

“If I remembered, a certain person was bowing down to me begging for me to help teach his new apprentice.” said Mel. Serena along with everyone else in the area who heard had their eyes popping from their eyes.

For some reason the other people seemed to have the expression ,'I wish I saw that happen' look on their face.

Park on the other hand was very distressed by those words retorting, “No no no, I didn't beg at all!” as quickly as possible.

Then everyone had the expression, 'So he didn't do it?'' on their face this time.

“Huh?”, Mel gave a threatening look to Park which he submitted with “Yes I did beg now please down hurt me” in a pleading voice to Mel. At this sight Mel smiled and decided to throw salt in his wounds saying, “To think an old man like you is able to bow down to the 'young' me.” with great confidence.

'I have a good feeling that Mel is just making fun of this Park person now.'

But Park was confused and said almost unwittingly, “How old are you now? Weren't you 10 years my senior?” which was one of the forbidden questions in the world to be asked for a woman. Feeling great danger Serena ran to where the others were backing away from the soon to be scene of the crime. In the shadow of Mel's now frozen smile Serena and the others could see the shadow of a raging dragon in their.

Mel started chanting a high levelled spell, “The leaves of nature fall and reduce to ash-”

'Eh? What is this spell?' thought Serena half curious on what it was and half frightened to death since it may kill everyone here.

Park tried to stop her from casting the spell, “Stop! Are you trying to kill us all?!”

Serena looked more distressed now since Park's attitude was indeed making everyone think this spell was a really bad idea.

However his words did not reach her ears as she finished the chanting and activated the spell, “crimson light reflect onto nature's gaze. Type 5 Nature Magic: Nature's Hell!”

Then in the air there were a large number of leaves coming out of nowhere. They turned into green dust and floated around the place. At first everyone thought this to be a harmless spell....until the wind blew it into a building and it disappeared without a trace.

'Holy....better run now while we have the chance!' everyone thought at the same time, running already from the green dust that would kill them if they were covered in it. But everyone did not get the chance to run as the Wind God seemed to hate everyone there for some reason and blew the green dust to them.

“No no NO”

“I don't want to die yet!”

“Why is this happening to us?!”

The trainee shouted their inner thoughts right before they were about to die. But instead of being covered by the green dust and dying, a shield of some sort appeared in front of them, saving their lives.

'We're.....saved?'

“Honestly why is it every time you two fight, the bystanders are almost always in danger of dying?” asked another 'young' lady in purple robes. She too held a staff and created another layer of the same shield that protected them all.

““Jenny?!”” said the one who was using a large scale destructive death sentence spell and the one who was cowering away said at the same time.

'Whose Jenny?' thought both Raven and Serena at the same time.

The person named Jenny simply smiled and said to Mel who was actually the person shivering now, “Stop your spell or else.” The next second the spell disappeared immediately and everyone sighed in relief. However everything was not done just yet. Park was about to draw his sword out while Mel was about to cast another spell.

But Jenny already got in between them and with a glare asked, “Do you two want to experience my personal Dragon's Bane move designed to take down dragons without harming them?” the two trouble makers were pale white now.

'That person reminds me of Miriel for some reason...' thought Serena bit frightened.

[p=center]xXx[/p]

Raven, Serena, Park and Mel were together right now talking about the training that both Raven and Serena was to do together since it would help improve the skills and abilities of both of them at the same time.

“Basically while Raven goes in there again”, Park pointed at his prized machine, “Serena will heal him when he gets close to dying.” Serena nodded while Raven looked distressed even though it didn't appear directly on his face, his body showed more than enough to know. Seeing this, Mel patted Raven's shoulder and reassure him, “If things don't go well, I'll help Serena help you and punish Park without killing everyone else as well, I promise!” however it only gave the opposite effect and Raven seemed more depressed than before.

“Serena will wait over there until your health goes under a certain point and will heal you. Me and Park....needs to meet with Jenny for a talk.” said Mel before leaving with pale faces.

“...”

Serena looked at Raven who was silent for the entire time though she thought she saw a hint of emotion when everyone was about to die.

'I should try to talk to him...'

“So how was your experiences so far?” asked Serena wanting to know what happened for him to be forced through all of that. Raven then suddenly looked worse than before as if he was trying not to remember what happened and was breathing irregularity. Seeing this, Serena ordered, “What's wrong? Try not to think!” while trying to think of a way to lessen his pain. After a few seconds Raven's breathing was stable again.

Serena decided to just speak since it was unlikely that Raven would any time soon, “Anyway I have a couple of skills I can do but I'm here to train my healing abilities. My version of Minor Regeneration only heals 100 Health over 100 seconds which means its 1 health per second. Also I can recast the spell once every 20 seconds so you should be fine if I stack the skill over and over again. Are you....going to go through that again?”

Raven nodded and picked up his shield. He went at the start of the course again and waited for Serena to cast her spell.

'Oh is he going to...I better start then'

“Minor Health Regeneration!” she shouted.

After Raven looked at the space in front of him he immediately charged into the training device thing that almost killed him before. The dolls were hitting him where ever they could and the only thing Raven could do was endure it. Serena counted the remaining time for her to cast the spell again.

'5....4....3....2....1...now!'

“Minor Health Regeneration!”

You have generated the Skill Magic Mastery

You have generated the Skill Nature Mastery

'Eh?, what are these?'

Serena quickly went into the skill window and opened their information to see.

Magic Mastery Beginner level 1 (0/100)

The ability to manipulate and use magicks of all kinds.

Increase Casting Speed: 3%

Increase Magic Damage: 10%

Nature Mastery Beginner level 1 (0/100)

The ability to manipulate and use Nature Magic.

Nature Affinity Increase: 1

Nature Magic Strength Increase: 5%

Reading the texts quickly Serena went back to helping Raven with his training since he was going to die if Serena did not help him.

After Serena had healed him a bit he continued through the course and Serena had enough time to cast the spell two more times on him.

[p=center]xXx[/p]

The next day Serena went over to the barracks again to help with Raven's training since it was most likely that he was going to die if not for her or a priest on site. When Serena got there she saw that Raven and three other people were there training on scarecrows already. Serena looked at Park confused. 'Why did he call the others here as well?'

“Right! Now we can finally begin!” shouted Park. Park took out a shield in front of Serena and threw it at Raven saying, “Raven! There's no point in holding that dull heavy thing. Feel the force of the blows and counter it!”

And so the other three trainees surrounded Raven about to start the training. They begun but did not move at all, they were all just staring at each other. The one of the trainees attacked Raven and he blocked and then another attacked almost immediately after the first and the third attacked after the second which resulted in Raven getting hit hard on the side.

Raising her staff at Raven, Serena shouted, “Minor Health Regeneration!”

After this happened the trainees started to move faster and hit harder for some reason smiling all the way. Something was wrong and Serena was about to stop it but Park held her in place. After 20 seconds pasted, Serena was about to cast a healing spell on Raven but Park stopped her forcing her to just watch saying in a whisper, “You stay put no matter what happens.”

'Eh? What is happening? Why is he stopping me from helping Raven?'

Then one of the trainees started hitting the wooden shield so many times that it started cracking, taunting Raven with, “What's wrong freeman?! Why don't you just die!”, parts of the shield broke off and well to the ground leaving Raven more defenceless than before. Serena stood there frightened of what was going on.

'This wasn't training at all. It was more like torture for Raven and the three were the torturers that liked harming others.'

“Take this!”

One of the trainees punched Raven in the stomach. Raven went to his knees grabbing his stomach in pain. The trainees started kicking him and insulting him even more. Serena saw anger in Raven's eyes, anger that she could relate to. Anger of someone who endured and was suppressed by others.

“Kill.....I'LL KILL YOU ALL!”

The words came out like a scream that deafened all other noise. Raven got up in a weird broken way and kicked the nearest trainee bully onto the ground while the other two stood there shocked of what just happened. Then Raven lifted the half broken shield and smashed it into the stomach of the downed trainee.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

Blood poured out like a fountain and Raven smashed the shield into the trainee using the sharp end a couple more times before the person died. Then Raven turned to another trainee who knew that he was going to die and nothing was going to stop that.

“No....NO STOP!”

Raven walked up to the man that pissed his pants from fear and started hitting the man so many times that he eventually died. The last person tried to escape. He really did but Park was there and threw him back in range of Raven who just finished with the second one. The man died screaming for help till the end. When the deed was done Raven just stood there blank until something woke him up.

Clap, clap, clap.

It was Park. Hearing the noise that pulled him back in reality he immediately dropped his half broken blood stained shield. At this time Serena was really really pale and was about to faint but restrained herself to at least faint anywhere but near Raven for his sake.

“Good job on venting your feelings. Don't worry those guys are spoil rich brats that were kicked out of their house and handed to me to punish. You did not crime in killing them.” said Park trying to reassure Raven but it did not help.

Raven was making faces of despair and hopelessness.

“Raven you have to face the possibility that you will kill other humans even if you try to think this is a game. Trust me, I know many young people go insane from the act and try to consider killing a game. Every last one of them broke in the end....even me.” Park sighed and called out to Serena.

“Sorry Serena for showing you this. Mel requested me to as a sort of training. There are many things a healer will see and cannot prevent. Make sure your comrades don't go too far and that is all you need to do.”

'Damn you! I'll make sure to tell Mel about this!' Serena thought in order to take revenge for Raven against Park.

With that the training for the day ended with Raven covered in blood.

[p=center]xXx[/p]

“I see...so that happened....thanks for telling me Serena. I'll make sure to 'talk' to that idiot later” said Mel with an evil smile on her face. Then Mel looked at Serena with an almost innocent smile and said, “Its time that I teach you how to restore stamina. It cost a bit more but it'll help later on when you and your friends are going through dungeons.”

You have obtained the Skill Minor Stamina Regeneration

Minor Stamina Regeneration Beginner level 1 (0/100)

Heals 10 Stamina over a total of 100 seconds or 0.1 Stamina per Second

Mana Cost: 30 Mana

Cool Down: 20 Seconds

Serena looked at the message and noted that it would be better to use it when her mana was much higher than right now.

“Anyway I have to tell you about the other...skills I have up my selves. Being a Druid does not mean we are completely defenceless. We do have....certain skills that help us along the way. The skill that I kinda accidental used was one of the more powerful ones. Druids as you know have the power to use bits of nature itself. Not all of it, that only lies in the domain of Gods and those of similar powers, but even a bit of that power is enough to topple an army. Do you know why Druids and those who use such powers are now so feared?” asked Mel smiling all the way.

As Mel was talking she had this feeling that she was describing something in the distant past. Serena didn't know what it was but it sounded powerful...dangerous but powerful at the same time. To the question Serena said, “No Master. I don't see how using the power of nature is that dangerous. I mean how is using some power to boost your skills dangerous?”

Mel shook her head at this. Mel did not expect that her apprentice would say that after seeing what she did some time ago. 'I even demonstrated it in front of her and everyone else in the barrack as well....' Mel thought distressingly.

“Do you remember the spell I used in the barrack?” asked Mel a bit concern about the insides of her apprentice's head. However her worries were not met since the moment Mel said those words Serena's face pale to the point that you would think she was a ghost. Mel sighed in relief and explain further, “Although you won't be using such a spell for a long time, you have to understand how dangerous it is. Another example of the application of nature magic would be.....growing roots I suppose.”

“Root?”

“Yes, I remember that a certain person made a contract with a God and obtained the power to manipulate roots.”

Serena's eyebrow raised and she said, “And this skill was extremely powerful as well right?”

“Yes it was. In terms of the number that person could control, it was in frightening numbers and the strength of each one was not to be joked about. I believe there was only one time which the world saw that skill. I believe you heard of the forest named 'Ruler's bane' right?”

'Isn't that....? THAT place which was very famous since the biggest army got wiped out in a number of minutes' Serena was shocked since even those who for some reason had little or none relation to the game knew what that place was since it was still widely talked about. Serena once heard a story where a large group of people wandered into the forest trying to find a dungeon to find countless corpse half stuck in trees as if the trees grew with the corpses that were still flesh.

“It looks like you have. Well that was created using that skill.”

A bit more curious now Serena asked, “What about the large Dragon and the flash of light?!” in a very quick manner.

“Oh those are different skills. One of them was part of a church and the other.....well let's not talk about that person. She's more frightening than Jenny......and Jenny got most of her skills from that person as well.....” near the end of the sentence Mel muttered to herself that she needed to bring some gifts to 'that' person soon.

Waking up from her fears after a few seconds Mel clapped her hands and said, “Well then, I have a job for you which will be very useful in the future.” Mel dropped several thick books in front of Serena.

“Master.....?”

“These are books on the several languages including some runes, holy script and several more that you may need. Of course you can't deny this request!” Mel's eyes somehow had the money symbol on them when she said that.

“...”

“Also I'll be giving you some quests in translating some stuff later. Don't worry, I'll give you a reward for your efforts.”

“...”

Serena quietly weep inside knowing that she was going to get exploited.

xXx

Serena was reading a book leisurely at the barracks while Raven and the others took a break from their hours long training. Why she was doing this? It was because Raven wasn't doing the Hell Training since it was apparently too difficult for him right now and he needed to becomes stronger in order to do it.

'Poor Raven....training to be tortured later on....' the thought casually went into Serena's mind as she was lazing around on the ground reading.

After another couple of minutes she would have to cast some spells on them, recover her mana and continue reading. After a while when Serena finished reading a book on some ancient language, a notification appeared.

You have obtained the skill Language Comprehension

Wisdom and Intelligence +5

Serena initially ignored the message but then noticed that she was actually understanding more and more of the words on the pages as she read.

'Is this the effects of the skill I just gained?' she thought opening up the skill menu and selecting the new skill she gained.

Language Comprehension Beginner level 1 (0/100)

The ability to naturally comprehend what you read no matter what language used. While the precise details of the meanings of the words are lost, their general meaning is known. Words that have been understood will automatically translate permanently later on to a certain extent.

Reading Speed Increase: 10%

Serena read through the very not detailed explanation of the skill.

'So.....the more I read the more I understand and the more I remember in the future?'

Serena place this thought in the back of her mind and continued reading while casually healing the trainees in the barracks.

xXx

Several days later, one week since she started playing the game and while she was actively helping with Raven's training, someone she did not expect appeared. It an almost average looking man that did not stand out but did not fade away from your sight. It was Sain.

'Oh! I can't believe he's here as well! Is he going to....yep he is.' thought Serena.

At this point Sain joined the most recent group of trainees in their first training exercise which is laps....until you drop. Serena wondered how long will it take for Sain to drop out since Raven lasted hours while at one point Serena tried and didn't even last one hour. Serena silently prayed that Sain would not overdo it.

xXx

Several hours later, Sain was the last person running and he looked really bad. Not the bad when you're wounded and can quickly recover from spells but the bad that you won't get better any time soon bad. As such when Sain collapsed there were already a number of people rushing to help him including Serena and Mel who were the most qualified healers here in the barrack of soldiers and the other likes.

“Don't move him yet!” shouted Mel pushing several people away from Sain in fear that these people would harm him unintentionally. Mel went and moved his body carefully onto his back and started examining him.

“....”

Mel was silent for a few moments which made everyone sweat in fear that something was wrong with Sain.

“Don't worry....its just exhaustion.”

Everyone sighed in relief.

“But...it may take some time for him to wake up. He pushed himself too hard for too long and his body needs to recover on its own else his mind may take some damage....someone grab him and put him on a bed. Something not too hard or soft.”

One of the instructors took the liberty on carrying Sain to one of the beds that was used as an infirmy and left Serena and Mel to do what they want there. Then Mel started one of her lessons again.

“Serena there are some things that can only be heal with time. This is one of them. However we can still help with the recovery process through our spells. An example would be recovering his stamina while in turn helps him recover a bit faster. Anyway we better leave to help with the other's training.”

xXx

“Serena how was your week?”

Hearing the voice Serena turned around to find that Miriel was there in front of her. Feeling a bit happy, Serena ran up and hugged Miriel with a big smile. Miriel also smiled somewhat and said with some struggle, “Serena you're going to....” without being able to finish the sentence due to Serena.

Noticing this a bit too late, Serena let go a bit embrassed by her sudden actions. Seeing this, Miriel

almost hugged the cute doll like Serena.

After this the two talked about....well girl stuff.

xXx

When Sain finally woke up, Serena was alone in the room with him. Sain looked around the room and said, “Serena?”

A bit surprised that he would wake up so suddenly and happy that he was fine, Serena said, “Oh, Sain your awake.”

Looking a bit confused Sain asked, “What happened after I collapsed?”

'Is that really the first thing someone would ask? Don't they usually ask where they were?'

“Both our Masters took you here and let you sleep. After that my Master used you to help me with my training”

After Serena answered, Sain tried to get out of bed which according to Mel was bad since it would strain his body too much if he moved too much. Remembering this, Serena immediately went to stop him from getting up with her staff.

“Don't move!” she shouted while pointing her staff at Sain. While she had a serious expression on her face, inside she was thinking, 'Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, what am I doing?!'

Not believing Serena would do anything to him, Sain tried to get up where Serena blasted him back onto bed using one of her spells, Mana burst.

BANG

Sain was pushed back to the wall which he hit due to the spell. Serena took this opportunity to try and restrain him with ropes and started to tie him to the bed.

Mana burst as its name was just a random burst of mana through a medium. Many mage characters have this spell but never use it since they always use all their mana in one go until they learn not to and control it. Another reason was that it had a low attack power and cost a lot of mana at the same time as well but it served well as a self defence spell.

“What was that loud noise? Sain are you okay....”

Hearing the noise, both Gen and Mel ran into the room. Everyone stopped at that moment in shock.

“...”

Sain and Serena were shocked that their masters were here and the masters were shocked at what their apprentices were doing. What was worse was that Miriel and Jenny was there as well witnessing this event.

However Gen smiled first and said, “Do you two need some space?”

'Wh-wha-wha-wha-what?!'

Turning red Serena slapped Sain on the face and got off him saying in a fragmented sentence, “It...it...it's not...wha..what..it...look...likes.” before running off out of the room with Mel running after her concerned.

“Wait up Serena!” called Mel catching up quickly to the fleeing Serena who was blushing heavily right now. A few seconds later Mel managed to catch up to Serena since she had more agility and stamina than her.

“Why are you running?!” asked Mel shaking Serena.

“...”

“Okay then, what don't you want me to know?”

“...”

“I know he's just a friend. There will be no misunderstandings.”

“...”

“Anyway we still have a lot to cover today. Also have you handed in the translated texts yet?”

“...”

“I take that as a no.”

xXx

And so 3 more weeks passed by. By this stage Serena levelled up once due to the numerous high difficulty, low gain quests that Mel kept on giving her. But on the other hand her stats rapidly increased and her skills as well gained a lot more experience than she thought she would.

Due to Serena's extensive reading throughout the four weeks, her wisdom somehow became higher than her intelligence at some point which was good in learning new spells and casting them.

“Serena you have now graduated from your apprenticeship with me. Be proud, not many have even gotten the chance to become one of my own and none except for you have graduated.”

You have Graduated from being the Apprentice of Mel the Nature Wielder

Fame +10

You have levelled up

You have levelled up

You have lost the title 'Nature Wielder Apprentice'.

All Bonuses from the title will be removed

You have gained the title 'Nature Wielder'

- All Stats increase by 1

- 10% less time to cast spells

Status Window[quart=Name,Alignment]Serena,Neutral[/quart][quart=Level,Profession]4,Druid[/quart]RaceHalf-ElfTitleNature WielderHealth120Mana205[quart=Fame,Infamy]30,0[/quart][quart=Strength,Agility]9 +1,14 +1[/quart][quart=Intelligence,Wisdom]20 +11,25 +11[/quart][quart=Vitality,Stamina]10 +1,9 +10[/quart][quart=Leadership,Luck]0 +1,0 +1[/quart][quart=Offense,Defense]10,10[/quart]Magic Resistance0%Elemental Resistance[quart=Light,Dark]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Fire,Ice]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Earth,Lightning]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Wind,Nature]0%,5%[/quart]Bonus[full- 5% increase in Magic Skill Effect

- Nature Affinity increase by 10

- Intelligence, Wisdom and Stamina increase by 10

- 10% Less Time to Cast Spells

- All stats increase by 1[/full]

“Also here's a gift for you to threaten....I mean relieve your friends from the pain of a slow death.

You have gained the skill Quicken Death

Quicken Death Beginner level 1 (0/100)

Kills any allies that you target.

Mana Cost: 20 Mana

Cool Down: 40 Seconds

“...”

'Why would I use this spell Master?' thought Serena confused.

Skill Window

- Magic Mastery Beginner 3 (15/100)

- Nature Mastery Beginner 2 (38/100)

- Mediation Beginner level 1 (23/100)

- Mana Burst Beginner level 1 (4/100)

- Minor Health Regeneration Beginner level 2 (54/300)

- Minor Stamina Regeneration Beginner level 1 (79/100)

- Quicken Death Beginner level 1 (0/100)

- Language Comprehension Beginner level 1 (0/100)

Seeing that she was not completely useless to the others Serena went out to the gate where everyone was going to meet up. Serena gave her goodbyes to her Master and went out to fight for the first time.

Unknown to her, Mel had planted something into her as an experiment.

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