Chapter 001

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‘ ‘ for thoughts

“…” for speech

Please PM me if you are interested in proofreading/editing for this FF. This chapter is a bit slow… the training arc will probably be a bit slowish.Hope you enjoy the chapter and don’t forget to R&R.

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After logging into Asunder Online for the first time, Jacob found himself in a small white room facing a wall with a mirror. He saw himself in the mirror almost naked, with the exception of the white underwear, which was different from the underwear he was wearing in RL. A sudden disembodied deep voice of a wizened old man could be heard.

“Many greetings to you, traveler. I welcome you, from your world, to begin your journey in the world of Terra. You can start your journey in this journey after you create your avatar. Would you like to know the basics of this world?”

“No that will be alright. Please continue with the creation of my avatar.” Jacob replied. ‘I didn’t spend hours reading the manual just to hear it all over again.’ Jacob thought.

What race do you wish to be? Currently only Human Elves and Dwarfs are available. Please state your choice.”

Jacob pondered a bit; he wanted to focus on a melee playstyle augmented by magic. The elves and their sub races were discarded because he didn’t want a melee penalty. The dwarves sounded cool with their crafting bonus, but they had a penalty to their magic capabilities AND their maximum height was 150 cm. So he made the obvious choice.

“Human please.”

“Traveler, you can see your avatar with your selected race in the mirror. Would you like to make some modifications to the appearance of your avatar?”

“Can you change my hair color to black, my eye color to black, my skin color to dark beige?”

Jacob’s logic was to stand out as less as possible ingame, so he avoided flashy anime style pink spiky hair and orange eyes or whatever was the fad these days.

“Yes that is fine. Thank you.” Jacob replied satisfied.

“By what name do you wish to be known traveler?”

“Jack” replied Jacob flatly.

“Where would you like to begin your journey in Terra? The mirror in front of you will show in red, the available starting cities for your race.”

Jack observed the mirror, where his almost naked reflection was previously displayed. There seemed to be one gigantic landmass, shaped somewhat like a profile view of a hunched back seahorse with its head facing the east, with the southern part (where the tail should be) was a massive peninsula. There were crisscrossing mountain ranges and many various sized bodies of water. There were many islands visible of various shapes around the main landmass.

There were red blinking dots all over the place, mostly in the southern peninsula of the landmass and he noticed none were there in the islands. ‘Mountains in general have higher level enemies, so I should start near one. And a big lake nearby will mean I can develop various skills like fishing and swimming. Hmm yeah I will ask the invisible old man to start me near those.’ reasoned Jack.

“Can you please send me to a city with mountains nearby? Also if possible there should be a big lake nearby. Any starting city with these conditions should do.” Jack said.

“The capital of the Hinazal Kingdom, Rotang city fulfills your request, traveler. Good luck on your new Journey.”

The mirror turned into a white wall and its brightness increased drastically. Jack became blinded for a moment. When his vision cleared, he found himself looking at a fountain with crystal clear water. He noticed three translucent bars in the top left corner of his vision. They were colored red, blue and white. He assumed that they were his Health Points (HP), Mana Points (MP) and Stamina (STA) respectively. In the top right corner of his vision he could see another two translucent bars. They were green and yellow. ‘They must be the satiety and thirst bars.’

He could see various buildings, most of which were 3-4 storied. There was a large circular ring of cobble stones about 130 meters in diameter, with the fountain as center. He saw many players who had just spawned are were looking around like him. Straight ahead of him, behind the fountain, he could see a road going extending towards a wide portcullis gate, flanked by two tall towers, and what he assumed was the city wall. He was too far to be sure, but he thought he saw guards patrolling the wall.

To his left, he could see a cathedral like structure towering above most buildings. ‘That must be the church. Guess it is for healing and stuff.’ thought Jack. He turned around while slowly surveying the cityscape. He could make out the noble quarter, which full of mansions and armed guards, opposite to the city gate, and rest of the city, probably the artisan quarters. He assumed the slums were further in that direction.

Jack tuned out the chatter around him and muttered “Inventory.” He saw a translucent grid pop up. He saw 10 copper coins, a water canteen, 10 pieces of bread stacked and a rusty dagger. ‘So the currency is in the inventory itself. That means each player has effectively 96 inventory slots out of 100, the rest being for copper, silver, gold and platinum coins.’ Jack closed the inventory with a command and bought out the games option menu.

The options menu had STATUS, SKILLS, QUESTS, INVENTORY, EQUIP, FRIENDS, GUILD, MISC and LOG OUT in blue ovals. Most of them were self-explanatory, so he chose the MISC. It had SYSTEM ASSIST in a green oval, CLOCK, MAP, NOTEPAD and ALBUM in blue ovals. Jack muttered “System Assist Off”. The green oval immediately turned a dull grey. The MAP option was empty. Jack figured he either had to get some skill or acquire maps to fill it. Investigating the CLOCK option, it had an in game clock, a real life clock with time and date, and a pane titled alarms.

‘This is nifty. Let’s see, I will set an alarm for 8 pm in RLT. It is almost 2 pm now, so that gives me 24 hours in game play time.’ “Set alarm for 8 PM real life time today, and in game time of 4 pm, midnight, and 8 am too” mumbled Jack. After inspecting the alarm pane, he was satisfied and continued exploring the NOTEPAD and ALBUM. The Notepad was a nifty blue translucent book. He could dictate notes and also write/draw with his finger tips. Wiping the window with his palm erased whatever he wrote. He saw that the present page number was in the right hand top corner of the floating window with navigation buttons around it. The ALBUM seemed to be for screenshots. It was arranged like a blank photo album, but the first page had a blank field below the text “Photo Trigger”. Jason touched the field and muttered “screnie”.

After he was done exploring the menus, he noticed that quite a few players were staring at him. Jack realized that he must have been waving his arms in the air. A few seemed to realize he was exploring the in game menu and started it themselves. He approached the nearest guard he could see to get directions.

“Greetings to you, good sir. Can you please point me towards the library, the training hall and some place where I can learn about magic?”

The guard snorted and said in an irritated tone

“Do I look like a tour guide? You may be a traveler…but you are newborn. Go bother them.” He waved at what seemed like a stall in which an old couple was sitting.

Jack was a bit shocked and wanted to abuse the arrogant guard. In MMOs, every guard had a set of directions for the city they were guarding. ‘I have to think of this not just a game, but as a new world and treat NCPs like people and be careful of my behavior to them. I am sure they have some sort of intimacy to determine their reaction towards me depending on my capabilities.’ Jack thought.

“Thank you. Sorry for disturbing you.” Jack apologized and started running towards the old couple.

“Good day to both of you Sir and Madam. The Guard there instructed me to come to you for directions.” Jack said pointing to the guard.

They both chuckled and the old man said “Don’t mind Alfred there. He is just pissed that many newborn adventurers are asking him for directions when they can get a Map of the city here!”

As if on cue, the old woman smiled and handed him a folded piece of paper. And she said in a raspy voice, “By the order of the King, all new adventurers are to be provided this free of charge. The guilds, various shops and important landmarks are already marked on your map.” Jack accepted the Map with thanks and muttered “Map”. An empty translucent pane showed up in his vision. ‘Oh I think I have to use the map first.’ Jack opened his inventory and tried to hold the map. It appeared in his hands. He unfolded it and he got a message:

“Do you want to use the map to add its information to your ingame Mapping feature?”

“Yes.” Jack muttered, and the map from his hands disappeared. He then dismissed the inventory, bought out the map function and selected Rotang Inner City. The map of the city appeared in front of him. He could see a blinking red dot near the southern half of the map, which he assumed was his position. On the right, a list appeared. Scrolling the list, it seemed to be the landmarks. ‘If this is a map of the inner city, then there should be an outer city. This probably means that I can go out and hunt some low level trash mobs even before four weeks are over.’ Jack pondered. He decided to stick to his original plan to grind his physical stats in the training hall and his mental stats in the library for the first four weeks in game.

Jack mentally concentrated ‘Highlight Training Hall.’ To his surprise, Training Hall was highlighted on the list along with a blinking green dot on the Map. ‘Now that is useful! I don’t have to wave my arms around like an idiot to access the system menu.’ Armed with this new knowledge he memorized the route, dismissed the map and started jogging towards the training hall.

After a few minutes of jogging, he reached the training hall. He felt a bit out of breath and he noticed his stamina bar was 80% full. ‘So my real life physique doesn’t affect my stats here.’ Jack thought as he entered the training Hall. Inside it looked like a dojo with plenty of barrels, each containing multiple copies of a wooden weapon. In the far back, he noticed an old man dozing.

The old man was in cheap dirty clothes and was completely bald without any hint of facial hair, except his silver eyebrows. He also saw a bored looking man juggling half a dozen wooden knives, near the left of the training hall. Jack approached him and waited for him to finish juggling. After the man noticed him, he scowled and continued juggling. Jack noticed that he had numerous fine scars on his face and his hands were calloused.

“Excuse me Sir…” Jack began.

“What do you want here? Don’t you want to go massacre rabbits, over and over again like your fellow travelers?” the scarred man interrupted him.

“No Sir. I was wondering if I can practice on the training dummies.” Jack replied.

“Don’t ‘Sir’ me. I am known as Instructor Theon. Just grab a weapon of your choice and practice with the dummies there if you have any idea to use a weapon. I doubt that though seeing as most of you travelers just blindly swing your sword.” Theon expertly flicked his wooden daggers into a nearby barrel and just waved his arms.

“Instructor Theon, is it alright if I practice unarmed on the dummies? I am Jack by the way” asked jack.

“Sure you can Jack. But I have to ask, why not pick a sword or a mace? You will be able to slaughter your rabbits far more quickly.” Instructor Theon asked interested.

“Instructor Theon, I believe that before we master other weapons, we should master the weapons we already have, our body and mind.” Jack replied confidently.

Instructor Theon burst out in a loud guffaw and said in a friendlier tone, “Good answer Jack! You can begin right away.” The old man at the far end of the training hall sat up alert and watched Jack with interest. Jack was a bit confused at the Instructor’s sudden friendliness but walked towards a dummy. Before he began his training, he viewed his status.

STATUS WINDOWNameJackClassNoviceRaceHumanGenderMaleLevel0 (0%)Fame / Infamy0 / 0Title---CONDITIONHP100/100HP/s0.1/sMP50/50MP/s0.3/sStamina100/100STA/s0.8/sSatiety / Thirst97% / 97%Weight Limit2.5/20Active Effects---STATSStrength10Vitality10Dexterity10Agility10Intelligence10Willpower10Luck10Free Stat Points0SKILLSAmbidexterity (Trait)

Jack was a pleasantly surprised. ‘Show skill info Ambidexterity’ Jack concentrated.

Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:AmbidexterityTrait------

This trait enables to use your off hand on par with your main hand. This removes damage penalty with your off-hand weapon and provides a bonus to crafting.

‘System Help on Traits’ Jack concentrated intently.

Traits are usually passive skills which do not have a level and cannot levelup. They provide bonuses or penalties. Helpful traits are very difficult to gain. Negative traits are usually the results of a powerful curse.

‘Oh! So my ambidexterity from real life has carried over to the game? It makes sense I suppose, although I can’t write as precisely as I can with my right, I guess it is enough for Asunder Online.’ Jack pondered.

“Disable all notifications except Alarm.” Jack muttered, as he didn’t want to be distracted by non-critical notifications while training.

Jack got into a practiced breathing rhythm, and loosened his muscles by doing stretches. He clenched his fists, but kept the rest of his arms loose. Jack made a few practice swings. Satisfied he imagined the dummy as a human, visualizing its critical points. He targeted the throat and his right arm moved like a whip with his knuckles making an impact. He felt a slight jolt in his arm and continued. Jack continued alternating his target to the imagined throat, armpits, solar plexus and eyes. After a while he mixed in kicks targeting an imagined knee with his heel. He then weaved in his foot work, and started dodging imaginary incoming blows.

Soon, Jack lost all sense of time and continued pounding the dummy. Weaved in with his relentless pounding were side steps, feints, lunges and a variety of evasive maneuvers. He didn’t notice but Instructor Theon was kind of shocked. This traveler pounded the dummy, without any discernible forms, but no doubt, his practiced eyes deemed it effective. Jack was flowing from one attack to another using all four of his limbs. Instructor Theon glanced at the old man, and was surprised to see him observing Jack with a twinkle in his eyes.

Slowly Jack felt his limbs getting heavier, and his movements getting slower, but he persevered on. After a while he could barely move his limbs, and each breath was labored. Jack noticed that his Stamina bar was almost empty. He also noticed that his hands were covered with bruises and were bleeding slightly. He deduced that beneath his equipped poor cloth boots, his feet were in a similar state.

Jack carried on till he could hardly stand, and it felt as if his heart was bursting. Finally out of Stamina, Jack came to a standstill and calmed his labored breathing. Once Jack calmed his breathing, he sat down cross legged in the lotus position. He closed his eyes and started inhaling and exhaling deeply through his nostrils while clearing his thoughts. It felt natural to him after 2 years of Yoga practice.

After a while he felt his heart calming. Soon he felt his previous vigor returning and felt rejuvenated. He opened his eyes and noticed that his Stamina was full. Jack got up, did a few stretches and resumed pulverizing the dummy with his limbs. Jack was in a trance and lost track of time. He repeated the cycle of pulverizing dummies and meditating to recover stamina. Each cycle he could abuse the dummy slightly longer before he needed to rest.

After quite some time, Jack noticed that his stamina had recovered a lot slower suddenly. He noticed that he was feeling a bit hungry and thirsty. His satiety and thirst bar were around 2/3rd full. He deducted that penalties to his Stamina Regeneration were in effect due to his satiety and thirst. ‘As long as I don’t start losing HP, I can go on. I had lunch in real life, and have set an alarm for dinner anyway.’ Jack mused and got back to bashing the innocent unfortunate dummy.

Meanwhile Instructor Theon was pissed and pleased. Pissed because he had to drive away newborn travelers, who dropped in from time to time, explaining to them that there was no reward or quest for practicing here other than the improve in their skills. He also had to shoo them away as they were gawking at Jack by telling them either to hit a dummy or to get lost.

Most travelers, in the short time they had arrived, only did quests with tangible rewards, then bought a weapon and started slaughtering rabbits. They weren’t allowed to leave the outer city walls for a month, but the meadows between the inner city wall and the outer city wall had plenty of peaceful critters. But Jack had pleasantly surprised him with his dedication. ‘This kid has potential.’ Theon thought. Glancing at the old man in the far corner of the hall, he wondered ‘Will he impress Janus?’ Janus had, to Theon’s surprise, a hint of a smile on his lips.

Meanwhile Jack continued pummeling the dummies, when suddenly…

*Ding*

Alarm Notice: 4pm In Game Time.

Jack slowed, did a few stretches and sat down. He opened his notification log and started reading the notifications he had missed. Most of them were increases to his Strength, Agility, Vitality, Dexterity and occasionally, Willpower. He gave them just a cursory glance and moved on thinking ‘I had 10 in all stats. I can just see the final stats at once anyways.’

He saw that the penalty for Satiety and thirst below 65% was a25% penalty to HP/MP/STA regeneration each. Jack had almost 40% left on his satiety and thirst bar. He had also gained a few skills namely Unarmed Mastery and Meditation. He had also unlocked a few special stats namely Endurance, Sustenance, Balance and Flexibility ‘Show Skill Info Unarmed Mastery and Meditation.’ Jack concentrated, and he saw two popups.

Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:Unarmed MasteryBeginner462.23%

You have learnt the Art of fighting with your bare hands and feet. Increases the damage inflicted, the speed of attacks and reduces the feedback damage.

Current level effects:

+18% Damage

+16% Attack Speed

+10 to 20 Bonus Attack

Feedback Damage is 3% to 8% of damage dealt.

Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:MeditationBeginner293.68%

You can clear your mind to increase your natural HP/SP and STA regeneration. It can only be activated outside of combat.

Current level effects:

+54% to natural HP/MP and STA regeneration.

Jack dismissed the windows and called up stat info on the four special stats he unlocked.

Stat NameEnduranceStat TypeSpecial

This special stat reflects your determination to carry on, despite hardships. This stat increases your HP and Physical Defense. You cannot invest stat points into this stat.

Stat NameSustenanceStat TypeSpecial

You have learnt to approach the true limits of your body and carry on with strenuous physical activity. This stat increases your Stamina and Stamina regeneration. You cannot invest stat points into this stat.

Stat NameBalanceStat TypeSpecial

You are quick on your feet and able to recover your balance quickly. This stat partially negates positioning debuffs (knockback, knockdown etc) and increases movement speed in difficult terrain. You cannot invest stat points into this stat.

Stat NameFlexibilityStat TypeSpecial

Your body is very supple and can twist in the nick of time, to avoid incoming blows. This stat increases your chance to dodge. In conjunction with Balance, this stat also reduces falling damage. You cannot invest stat points into this stat.

Jack grinned feeling very pleased at the results. ‘I gained two new skills and four new special stats for 8 hours of grinding! Now all that is left is to see my status, and then I can go to the library.’ Jack concentrated and analyzed his Status.

STATUS WINDOWNameJackClassNoviceRaceHumanGenderMaleLevel0 (0%)Fame / Infamy0 / 0Title---CONDITIONHP240/240HP/s0.12/sMP50/50MP/s0.17/sStamina220/220STA/s1.18/sSatiety / Thirst37% / 37%Weight Limit2.5/32Active EffectsHunger

ThirstSTATSStrength16Vitality16Dexterity16Agility16Intelligence10Willpower12Luck10Endurance8Sustenance6Balance6Flexibility8Free Stat Points0SKILLSAmbidexterity (Trait)Meditation (Beginner Lv 2: 93.68%)Unarmed Mastery (Beginner Lv 4: 62.23%)

‘Nice! I have more than double my initial HP and Stamina! And the +10 to 20 ATK boost from my unarmed mastery should be sufficient to compensate for my lack of weapons at low levels. The 3% to 8% feedback damage means I should be careful though, or I might end up killing myself. The %age damage bonus will become significant as my strength increases and I find more ways to make my unarmed strikes damaging. Also while checking my improvements, my HP and STA have regenerated.’ Jack happily concluded.

Jack bought out his map and memorized the position of the library. He got up and was walking towards the exit, when Instructor Theon shouted

“Tired already Jack? Are you going to massacre some innocent rabbits now?” Jack smiled and replied

“No Instructor Theon, I am going to the library to know more about this world.” Theon snorted and said

“Do you have a library card? Or 5 silvers? Because that is the minimum you will require to access the books in the library.” Hearing this Jack looked crestfallen and sighed

“Guess I have to butcher those innocent rabbits or do some errands around town before going to the library.” Theon looked amused and beckoned Jack to come closer.

“Come here Jack. Take this note to the Head Librarian Madam Curie, say my name and ask to help in exchange for a library card. You might as well do those errands in the library itself to gain your library card.” Hearing this Jack ran to instructor Theon, took the note and stored it in his inventory.

“Thank You Instructor Theon. I will be back for some training again!” Jack shouted while exiting the training center.

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