Chapter 003

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‘ ‘ for thoughts

“ “ for speech

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After logging in AO suing FuDi mode, Jack woke up and checked IGT, which was 11:00am and RLT was 8:45pm. His satiety and thirst were almost full, so Jack decided to cancel IGT alarms for 1pm and 4pm. He also added an alarm for 6am RLT. ‘I must not skip my daily exercise and rhythm. Sure I will get a few hours of extra time, but I will lose my fitness in RL.’ Jack resolved. Jack concentrated a bit, and breathed in rhythmic pattern so as to activate Controlled Breathing.

He glanced around and noticed that the locker near hid bead was closed. He recalled that it was open, when he had logged off. Jack opened the locker and saw a single note there. He read the note, which instructed him to meet Madam Curie, as soon as he returned. Jack jogged downstairs towards the Head librarian’s office and knocked. After hearing a curt “come in” Jack entered. Madam Curie glanced in his direction and wrinkled her nose.

“Next time you come in my office, I want you to take a bath.” The head librarian instructed Jack.

“Umm, ma’am where do I take a bath?” Jack inquired.

“Ah I forget that you travelers can be a bit odd. Right across your dorm room, there is a common bath for male employees. I will also have a set of uniforms sent to your locker, so that you can change into something better than your current set of rags.”

“Thank you Ma’am. Can you please tell me why you had that note near my bed?” Jack inquired.

“Oh right. You will go to train under Theon now yes?” The head librarian inquired. Jack nodded an affirmative and Madam Curie continued,

“I thought you would be useless here and quit at the first sign of hard work, since it doesn’t involve beating dummies violently. But you do show some potential. Return here after you had a bath, and after your dinner time. I will give you a self-study assignment. Now get your stinky self, outside my office.” Madam Curie shooed him away.

Jack thanked her thinking ‘Looks like I managed to exceed her expectations somewhat. I will discover what exactly this special reward is.’ Jack exited the library and jogged towards the training hall. He entered the training hall, greeted Instrutor Theon. Theon grunted and acknowledgement, and just motioned Jack to begin. Jack noticed that the old man from last time appeared to be dozing in the far corner. ‘He is dressed like a beggar. Probably Theon lets him sleep inside. But for some strange reason, I get odd vibes when I look at him.’

Jack shrugged and focused at the task at hand. He wanted to train in some sort of throwing weapons. Jack inquired about this possibility to Instructor Theon. Instructor Theon pondered a bit and motioned him to follow him and went behind the door. Jack followed up the flight of stairs and in the second floor there was something akin to an Archery range with static targets at various positions. Instructor Theon came to a stop and pointed at a couple of barrels.

“This here is a modified archery range. Most people prefer bows as a backup to their weapon, but throwing weapons are an option too. You should start with darts with the closest target. When you can consistently hit that, move to targets farther away. Your missile weapons should be thrown from behind the yellow line. Once your projectile hits the target or the walls, it will automatically return to their respective barrels.” Instructor Theon explained and left Jack.

Jack dumped as many darts as he could in his inventory. He could carry around 370 of them without reaching his weight limit. Unfortunately he could stack only 10 darts in each slot. Jack reasoned that throwing with some weight penalty in effect would cause him to gain throwing mastery faster. But if he was too overloaded, he couldn’t make a successful throw. Jack stored around 500 darts in his inventory. The barrel seemed to have unending amounts of throwing darts.

The throwing range had 7 bullseyes. Each of them was approximately 3 m farther than the previous one. The first bullseye was around 3 m away from the yellow line. The yellow line divided the room into half approximately. Jack inspected the other barrels and found a variety of throwing weapons including throwing knives, javelins, throwing axes, types of boomerangs, and chakrams of a variety of sizes. Jack set an alarm at 7pm IGT, for his appointment with Madam Curie. ‘I will have enough time to take a bath, eat and meet Madam Curie before 8:30 pm IGT’ Jack thought.

Jack grabbed a stack of 10 darts from his inventory with his left hand and started throwing them at the closest target with his right hand. He missed quite often at first, but that was to be expected. For the next stack of darts, Jack swapped hands and so on. After a while he could hit the closest target consistently and he moved on the next. Whenever Jack ran out of stamina, he meditated for a bit, although with controlled breathing active at all times, that happened less often.

When he could consistently hit the third target, Jack was out of darts. Jack switched to throwing knives and repeated the same pattern, but started from the second target. Jack could consistently hit the fourth target when he ran out of daggers. Jack was about to select some boomerangs, when he received a notification.

*Ding*

Alarm Notice: 7pm In Game Time

Jack ran to the library. He decided he could review his status while taking the bath. After he entered the library, he entered the door opposite to his dorm-room and saw a public bath. I wasn’t anything grand, but it was empty. He stripped naked, and soaked himself in the bath, washing himself with some kind of crude soap. He reviewed his notifications. Most of it was stat gains in dexterity. He also gained some points in strength, agility, vitality and willpower. He didn’t unlock any special stats this time, but he noticed occasional gains in Endurance, Sustenance, Flexibility and Balance.

Jack had gained a skill Thrown Weapon Mastery. He had also gained two subskills to his Thrown Weapon mastery, namely Dart Throwing and Knife Throwing. ‘hmm, so different thrown weapons have different subskills governing them? Guess I should pick up all the available ones at the training hall then’ Jack thought. He reviewed the skills he had gained.

Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:Thrown Weapon MasteryBeginner285.38%

You have learnt techniques to use thrown weapons effectively. This skill increases the range and projectile speed of your thrown weapons..

Current level effects:

+11% to projectile speed.

+6% to projectile range.

Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:Dart ThrowingBeginner415.24%Subskill of Thrown Weapon Mastery

You have learnt techniques to use effectively use darts as weapons. This skill increases the damage and critical damage of your thrown darts.

Current level effects:

+18% damage of thrown darts.

+14% critical damage of thrown darts.

Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:Knife ThrowingBeginner385.67%Subskill of Thrown Weapon Mastery

You have learnt techniques to use effectively use throwing knifes as weapons. This skill increases the damage and critical damage of your thrown darts.

Current level effects:

+16% damage of thrown darts.

+13% critical damage of thrown darts.

Jack noticed that his Thrown Weapon Skill hadn’t improved much. ‘Maybe because I wasn’t moving around much? I will try to move around and hit targets at different ranges to increase Thrown mastery faster. Also the subskills seem to provide damage and critical damage bonus, but with different weapon types. I will get all of them, but I should probably specialize if I want to maximize my damage potential. Meh, I will train all of them for four weeks, and specialize in those which I find fun to use. I will also alternate unarmed practice and throwing practice.’ Jack planned his future course of action at the training Hall.

Jack was almost finished with his bath and reviewed his status screen.

STATUS WINDOWNameJackClassNoviceRaceHumanGenderMaleLevel0 (0%)Fame / Infamy20 / 0Title---CONDITIONHP330/330HP/s0.3729/sMP90/90MP/s0.7232/sStamina330/330STA/s4.3392/sSatiety / Thirst97% / 97%Weight Limit2.5/40Active EffectsControlled Breathing (Beginner lv6)STATSStrength21Vitality21Dexterity21Agility21Intelligence12Willpower17Luck10Endurance12Sustenance12Balance12Flexibility12Concentration6Wisdom6Free Stat Points0SKILLSAmbidexterity (Trait)Meditation (Intermediate Lv 3: 18.18%)

Controlled Breathing (Beginner Lv 6: 85.98%)

Meditative Stasis (Trait)

Thrown Weapon Mastery (Beginner Lv 2: 85.38%)

Dart Throwing (Beginner Lv 4: 15.24%)

Knife Throwing (Beginner Lv 3: 85.67%)

Unarmed Mastery (Beginner Lv 4: 62.23%)

Jack reviewed his stat growth while grabbing a bath robe. He put his beginner Cloth set in his inventory and went to his dorm room. He equipped one set of Library Employee Tunic, Library Employee Pants and a pair of Library Employee shoes. None of them gave any defense bonus unfortunately. He dumped the bathrobe he had equipped in his locker and jogged to the cafeteria where he had his dinner.

After dinner, he went to meet Madam Curie. She instructed him to read about the different kinds of magic, after he had finished with his job of sorting the books. Jack looked a bit panicked, if sorting books took the whole night, then he would never learn anything. Noticing his expression, the Head Librarian assured him that all of the alcoves combined had a hundred books, unlike his first day where each alcove had around hundred books. She also stated that, she had ‘disciplined’ the regular employees in the library, and that there would be far fewer books, on the tables in each floor.

Jack went to the first floor of the library, and started dealing with the unsorted books on the table. To his delight, there were roughly a third of the books he had encountered on the first day. He started tackling the alcoves. Since there were far fewer books, Jack decided to start form the sixth floor and move downwards. He dumped as many books as he could in his inventory and sued the sorting trick to deal with them as quickly as possible. It was 1 am before he could start reading. Jack decided to start reading about magic, as Madam Curie instructed and later move on to history and geography of Terra. Jack was now quite familiar with the layout and classification of his library. He quickly zipped to the introduction to magic section, and started reading about mana. After reading a variety of books on mana, he summarized his findings in his NOTEPAD.

Mana is the currency which fuels Magic. No one knows the exact nature of mana, and there are many conflicting theories on the subject. However most agree that for sentient beings, maximum mana capacity or Max MP, depends on the user’s mental condition. Depending on the willpower and concentration of the user, the user slowly absorbs MP from the surrounding. There are potions made from various herbs and monster parts which quickly restore MP. Disciplined users could also enter a special state of mind in order to regenerate MP faster naturally. Certain places also had beneficial or detrimental effects on MP regeneration. However, there were no naturally occurring places were MP regen stopped completely. It was theorized that constructing places where MP regeneration stopped completely was almost impossible for mortal mages.

He received an alarm notification, signaling that it was time for breakfast. Jack had his breakfast and continued with more unarmed training, and returned to the library. After he was done sorting the books, It was 6 am in Real Life Time, and it was time for him to wake up. He regretted that he couldn’t read any more, but decided to log off.

After Jacob woke up, he went for his customary morning parkour circuit. He returned, to have a quick shower and breakfast, before connecting to AO through instant mode. Jack continued his grinding in the training hall, sorting the library books, and reading about magic in whatever time he could spare. He adjusted alarms as necessary, for having Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner both in RL and IG. He was playing Asunder Online almost all day in his vacation from work. He used Full Dive mode, only when it was time to sleep in RL. Periodically Jacob reviewed his AO gameplay videos on his computer, and stored a few clips of each of his grinding activities.

Jacob was in touch with his circle of friends from work. As agreed, they didn’t give much character details, or even locations or the name of their avatars for that matter. They just discussed a vague overview of their avatars. Carlos was an elven mage specializing in fire and thunder. Adam was some sort of human priest who specialized in healing, but had some offensive options with earth magic. Dion was a human tanky warrior. He was however, aiming to turn into a paladin of a deity which would provide him offensive spells.

All of them were in the level range of 8-10, grinding on the mobs they had access to inside the starting city limits. But above level 10, they experience the got form those weak mobs was almost negligible, so they were filling their time doing various quests and errands to gain ingame currency for better equipment, while waiting for access to better hunting grounds, outside their starter zones.

Meanwhile, Jacob’s avatar was still lv 0, and diligently following his grinding in the training, his work and reading assignment in the library. His friends were shocked that he was still Lv0, with his starting equipment and 10 coppers, but Jack explained that he had stumbled upon a very demanding quest with a grade of ???. His friends were even more shocked. Quest Grades ranged from F to A. There were supposed to be special quests with Rank S and above, but no one expected any player to encounter it for a year at least. Jack made them swear, not to reveal in any message boards about his ??? quest grade.

Ingame, Jack learnt more and more about magic. There were two main types of magic, namely Arcane and Deific magic. Arcane Magic’s power depended solely on the user’s mental condition and spells used, whereas deific magic depended largely on the user’s faith and patron deity. Most metals interfered with the casting of arcane magic and introduced a chance of spell failure. Whereas, it was observed that channeling the power of your patron deity became much more taxing on the mana pool of divine magic user. Hence priests were usually lightly armored. Meanwhile, paladins had less usage of divine spells, and concentrated more on increasing the effectiveness of their allies. There were rumored to be certain metals, which dwarven mastersmiths could forge into armor, which could bypass these restrictions.

The most common type of arcane magic was hermetic magic, utilized by hermetic magicians or simply ‘mages’. They had a very rigid system of closed magic. Researching new spells was very expensive and time consuming, although researching a spell with the same effect independently, resulted in exactly the same spell. Hence mages formed guilds, most often form the same kingdom, where the most academically inclined studied the hermetic system of magic and researched new spells.

To cover the costs of researching spells, rest of the mages bought spells form the mage’s guild. Basic spells were cheap, but higher tier spells were very expensive, and the mage sometimes had to earn enough favor with his guild to be able to buy them. Most mage guilds were had amicable relations with each other and were academic in nature. Their spell-casting action required complicated gesture and chants. Extremely powerful spells were usually rituals and required sacrifices.

There were many other systems of casting arcane magic, but gaining access to their secrets was no mean task. There were druids, who could use a variety of nature based magic, but their spells were generally considered weaker than mages in cities and locations further form nature. Most druids were hidden covens of elves and were very secretive about their magic. The most enigmatic of spellcasters, were perhaps the Shamans. They were essentially arcane spellcasters, but made deals with spirits, both benevolent and malevolent in order to gain access to arcane knowledge. Shamans are powerful, but specialized depending on the spirits they have contracted with.

Some researchers theorize that druids are essentially shamans, who have contracted with Gaia, the spirit of Terra, but it has never been proved more than conjecture. There were many more systems of arcane magic rumored to exist ranging from warriors in harmony with the elements who dive into melee with blades of fire and armor of earth, to cursed warriors who gain strength from slaughter and exude an aura of insanity. Yet none of these rumors have been verified and documented.

Deific magic was essentially magic granted by the deities. There were two main classes of deific magic users, namely priests and paladins. Priests were similar to shamans. Whereas most shamans got their knowledge of spells from deals with spirits, priests gained their spells from their faith and the veneration of their patron deities. Paladins could be termed as mortal warriors of their patron deities. Paladins could cast fewer and weaker spells than priests, but more than made up for it with their fighting prowess, which was usually on par with warriors, approaching the martial prowess of knights.

After Jack familiarized himself with the basics of the various magic systems over two weeks, he decided to study the history of Terra and the main deities who granted spells to their priests and paladins. The world of Terra was once a utopian society in antiquity guided by divinities, where many sentient races lived in peace and prosperity. The deities, who had invested a lot of their power to created Terra and life on it, had expected to recover their power from the devotion and veneration of sentient creations. For a time, it was so… however the races of Terra advanced magic themselves, and slowly neglected to venerate their creators.

The divinities began fearing the loss of their power in the declining faith of their creations. They granted certain mortals a portion of their power, and instigated proxy wars against each other, which soon degenerated into full-scale wars where they created their avatars among mortals to monopolize their worshippers in what was dubbed as The Divine Wars. Although there were neutral faction of deities, they were few and far in between. This caused an age of turmoil and destruction which lasted for centuries and Terra was devastated. In the present day, no reliable records exist, which chronicle the time before the war of divinities, beyond legends and folk lore.

Unknown to the deities Gaia, the spirit of Terra, had woken up from her slumber. Seeing such devastation on her, she gave an ultimatum to the divinities. They either stop their interference on Terra, or she wipes out all sentient life on Terra, leaving them nothing to fight over. Now the collective of deities were more powerful than Gaia, but Gaia’s real was Terra, and she could easily fulfill her promise. Most of the divinities agreed to a treaty. They will never interfere directly with mortals on Terra, nor create powerful avatars to do so. They would also greatly reduce the power they grant their mortal followers. Most deities agreed that this was the most sensible course of action.

However, there were a group of gods, only known as The Forsaken, who refused to secretly comply with this treaty. They continued to secretly wage wars on Terra. Gaia, noticing this, was furious and started sinking the continents which were being devastated by The Forsaken. The other deities, shocked at this, launched The Divine Inquisition. In the mortal realm Gaia was on a rampage, and in the divine realms the deities brutally flushed out The Forsaken. They stripped The Forsaken of their power, and banished what remained of them to eternal sleep.

By the time The Divine Inquisition was over, only one continent was left on Terra. The deities had succeeded in restraining their own, and Gaia returned to her sleep millennia ago. Much of the knowledge of technology and magic, before the Divine Wars was lost, and all civilization returned to its infancy. Jack absorbed the salient features of the history/mythology of Terra. The exact role of specific deities in The Divine War and The Divine Inquisition has been lost to history. There are many deities, some prominent, some unknown. However, the most popular among them are:

Isis: Goddess of childbirth, healing, fertility and reincarnation.

Osiris: God of the afterlife, reincarnation and justice.

Zeus: God of sky, rain and thunder.

Hecate: Goddess of the underworld and enchantment.

Minerva: Goddess of wisdom, protection and peace

Mercury: God of Luck, chance, commerce and dreams

Neptune: God of the ocean, marine life and voyage

Astarte: Goddess of War, Victory and sexuality.

Diana: Goddess of the moon, hunting and protector of virgins

Saturn: God of harvest and farming.

Vulcanus: God of fire, forge and crafting

Cybele: Goddess of Earth, Dungeons and revenge

Jack concluded that the deities of Terra were a bunch of jerks who fucked up royally. ‘Oh well, I don’t plan to be a priest or a paladin. If want some divine magic to remove curses or something, I can pay the churches.’ Jack reasoned. After Jack had finished reading up on magic, history and the popular deities, his four weeks of confinement to the City of Rotang were almost over. It was almost time for him to log out for his morning parkour circuit in RL. ‘Hmm let me review what four weeks of grinding in the training hall and library have got me. After that I can do my free running circuit, and have breakfast. When I return, I can turn in the quest to the head librarian. I sure hope the reward is worth the slave labor I put in every night.’ thought Jack, as he summoned his Status Window.

STATUS WINDOWNameJackClassNoviceRaceHumanGenderMaleLevel0 (0%)Fame / Infamy20 / 0TitlePackratCONDITIONHP900/900HP/s1.044/sMP450/450MP/s3.1784/sStamina900/900STA/s12.992/sSatiety / Thirst67% / 67%Weight Limit4/102Active EffectsControlled Breathing (Intermediate lv1)STATSStrength51Vitality50Dexterity51Agility50Intelligence50Willpower51Luck10Endurance40Sustenance40Balance39Flexibility41Concentration41Wisdom40Free Stat Points0SKILLSAmbidexterity (Trait)Meditation (Intermediate Lv 5: 23.18%)

Controlled Breathing (Intermediate Lv 1: 05.18%)

Meditative Stasis (Trait)

Thrown Weapon Mastery (Intermediate Lv 1: 05.38%)

Axe Throwing (Beginner lv 5: 87.34%)

Boomerang Throwing (Beginner Lv 9: 12.25%)

Chakram Throwing (Beginner Lv 6: 67.34%)

Dart Throwing (Beginner Lv 8: 15.24%)

Javelin Throwing (Intermediate lv1: 25.34%)

Knife Throwing (Intermediate Lv 1: 23.67%)

Unarmed Mastery (Intermediate Lv 2: 12.23%)

‘I got the “Packrat” title? Nice! Guess that is what increased my inventory slots by 10. My HP, SP and Stamina are 9 times what they were initially! I probably have more HP than a Lv10 warrior who puts half his stats into Vitality! My unarmed mastery, thrown weapon mastery and controlled breathing are all intermediate now. I didn’t unlock any more special stats, but the once I unlocked are almost 40, except Luck that is… And base stats are around 50. Although I lack money and equipment, I hope the head librarian gives me something juicy! Anyways let me check my Unarmed Mastery and Controlled Breathing.’ Jack thought and summoned skill info windows.

Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:Unarmed MasteryIntermediate212.23%

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:

+36% Damage

+24% Attack Speed

+31 to 62 Bonus Attack

Feedback Damage is 1% to 5% of damage dealt.

Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:Controlled BreathingIntermediate105.18%Subskill of Meditation

You have adapted your meditative breathing techniques to function out of your meditative state of mind. This subskill increases your natural HP/SP and STA regeneration, but to a lesser degree than meditation. It can be activated outside meditation only without system assist.

Current level effects:

+16% to natural HP/MP and STA regeneration.

Jack was satisfied with his progress in unarmed mastery. The Intermediate tier reduced his feedback damage to 1% from the previous 3% to 8%. ‘Hopefully, the next tier will eliminate all feedback damage.’ Jack thought as he fantasized pulverizing monsters with his arms and fists. He was a bit disappointed by the regen bonus from controlled breathing, having expected a higher regen bonus from intermediate tier. ‘Oh well guess the AI managing AO doesn’t want anyone to get too OP easily.’ Jack speculated as he lay down in his dorm bed and waited to log off from FuDi mode.

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