Merry Christmas. You get a new chapter.

Should I proofread this? Yes. Will I? Not really. Too lazy...

Gotta work on my combat scenes. Hmmm…

Thanks for reading. Please enjoy.

Chapter 6: Uncertainty

Frost ran into the forest, hoping he wouldn’t have to fight a pack of wolves as much because he preferred one on one combat as because he liked dogs and thought it would be a shame to have to kill them. What he didn’t expect was that he would run into a pair of monsters he had never seen the likes of before. This game had absolutely no information on monsters other than a few mentions of specific creatures in lore.

The monsters he faced now were large gorilla type creatures but with oversized arms, small legs, and fangs. “My, what an ugly couple,” He laughed to himself as he drew his sword. The beasts noticed him and their names appeared above their heads along with their health bars. They were called Grein and their levels were both seven, which was five above his own. Frost began to feel an emotion he hadn’t felt for a long time. Fear. However, it was an exciting, compelling feeling that made him feel alive. Frost promised himself one thing when he began the game, something that was required for him to be the very best. He would treat the character Frost as if it was his own body, his own self. And how could he let himself die?

Frost put some distance between himself and them, watching them, learning how they moved. They seemed to use their arms to propel themselves forward like a person on crutches. They were between eight and nine feet tall and they appeared very fierce, but their weakness was apparent. They had big, bulky arms that could reach their opponent before their opponents could get near them. They could reach around trees and block attacks with those huge arms of theirs. In that case, the only place to be was directly under them, and the only way to win would be to finish the fight as soon as possible.

He charged forward, sliding under the grasping arm of the Grein and hopping back to his feet in his rush to close the distance. By the time the brutish gorilla monsters realized where he was, it was too late for them. He reached the first one’s tiny legs and started hacking away, striking knees and other weak joints. His footwork kept him just beneath the monster and barely out of the hands of the second as it tried to grab him. Fortunately, they weren’t very steady on their small legs, so they were easy game to Frost who had higher agility. Eventually the first Grein’s legs could no longer support it, causing it to topple over.

Frost rolled out of the way, grinning, but found himself flying through the air in the next moment. He bounced off of a tree and hit the ground hard, feeling intense pain all over his body.

You have been critically hit

-183 hp

You have several fractured ribs. Your speed will be decreased by 20% for the next ten minutes.

“That’s not good,” he said to himself as he got up onto one knee. If he couldn’t move at full speed, he wouldn’t be able to dodge all of the attacks or stay under its feet where it couldn’t hit him. He couldn’t afford to take another hit like that and he was only barely able toThe only reason he was still alive was because of the boosts to hp and high vitality. He had become arrogant and now he would pay the price for his foolishness.

Under these conditions, there was little he could do to defeat such a strong beast. ‘I screwed up. I knew I shouldn’t have risked everything on hero’s burden. I’ll have to continuously fight monsters stronger than me. Maybe if I was better, I could do it, but I’m not good enough to fight like this. I’m even going to lose my first fight. What a fucking joke. Why did I think I could do this?’

Frost looked down and rubbed his stomach, getting a feel for the pain of broken ribs in the game. Since it was only ten percent of the real pain, it was bearable, and wouldn’t cause any more problems other than the decreased speed. When he looked down, he could see the dagger his parents had given him. They had done everything they could to make sure he wouldn’t die on his journey. They had given him clothes, food, and even that dagger to make sure that he would survive. They had believed in him. Ger had made his sword and staff, thinking that Frost would be able to find the God’s Ore and fulfill Ger’s dreams. Ger had believed in him.

Then there were his actual parents. His mother and father were always there, believing in him and supporting him. He had only just begun his journey towards becoming the strongest, so how could he give up already? ‘I need to stop with the dark thoughts. Giving up so easily isn’t like me. What the hell is wrong with me?’

He pulled out the dagger and stood up just as the beast nearly reached him. It had felt like a lot of time had passed but it had only been a few seconds since he was sent flying.

‘Time to stop acting like a little bitch and get back to work.’ Frost looked up at the Grein and smile evilly. ‘I really hope this works.’ The beast roared at him and he swung his arm, flinging his dagger at its face. The dagger hit the beast directly in its left eye, causing its roar to be interrupted by the pain. Frost was already charging forward, knowing this was a last ditch effort one way or another. As the beast reeled in pain, Frost swung his sword at full strength into the side of its knee, getting a critical hit.

The monster’s knee gave out, causing it to fall on onto one knee and use its arms to prevent itself from falling over. Frost took a few steps back, then ran towards the beast, running up it like a wall, then stabbing his sword into the beast and using it to propel him upward. He reached its head and grasped the dagger, holding onto the monster with the other. He began to stab the beast, starting with its other eye, then spinning around its head so that he was holding on from behind where the its long arms couldn’t reach because they were too big. He stabbed it in the neck, in the face, in the shoulder, chipping away at its life until it fell over dead.

The entire time, he kept an eye on the first one he had cut up since that one still had thirty percent of its health left. It looked like it was struggling to stand up so he was able to kill the one he was holding onto without interference. Frost had to calm down after frantically stabbing the Grein to death with the thing trying to throw him off and him holding on with one hand. Noticing that the other monster was recovering, Frost sheathed his dagger and picked up his sword, slowly walking over to it, seeing that it had finally managed to stand up with heavy support from its arms.

Frost grimaced and charged forward, dodging past the unsteady beasts arm and rammed his sword into its gut. The impact knocked them both over, but Frost wasn’t done there and quickly regained his footing before the creature could grab him. He gripped the sword tightly, growled with effort as he twisted his sword, and ran the blade up through the beast from stomach to head. Its soul escaped its body as its health bar disappeared. He collapsed onto his back as the battle ended and the information windows popped up.

You have gained 209 experience.

Level up!

You have defeated opponents much stronger than you through tactics, skill, and speed.

+1 Intelligence

+1 Wisdom

+1 Agility

The level difference and lone wolf burden together provided him with enough experience to level up in one fight despite his increased requirement for experience. This was what it meant to fight monsters with much higher level. He would have to constantly look for stronger monsters and every fight would be a life and death battle for him at a permanent disadvantage, unless, of course, he was able to take on stronger monsters as a result of having higher stats than everyone else. That was what he intended to do from the very beginning, he just hadn’t expected it would be this difficult from the very start. If he had this much trouble with mobs, would he even have a chance when it came to boss fights? This was not an easy game that someone could casually win a boss fight single-handedly.

You have recovered from an exhausting battle

+1 Stamina

You have recovered from broken ribs by healing naturally

+1 Vitality

The stat gains were welcome, but they weren’t what he was hoping for. Despite all of his training and fighting, he still hadn’t learned any skills. The game was too damn vague when it came to information about things like skills and monsters, in his opinion. All he knew about skills was that they were mostly self-created with system assist, but he should still get skills like sword mastery and other passive skills. Frost figured there was probably some other requirement that he hadn’t yet met and didn’t worry. He just needed to get stronger and everything would work itself out,. Probably.

After fully recovering, he rolled to his feet and collected the dagger as well as the drops. He found Grein meat and a few silver Dunari, the currency of this world. It was ten copper to a silver and ten silver to a gold. There were also other currencies such as tin and platinum but the actual worth of those coins tended to change based on the economy and location. Now that Frost was calm, he distributed his points between strength and agility with the extra point going to dexterity, and then continued walking into the forest.

3 Days Earlier

Deke sighed as he stared into mug. He was a sixty-eight year old tae kwon do instructor who would be retired but he had few friends and nothing to do with his spare time. In the past, he had won many championships and was considered a martial arts master by many who knew him. Now, he was old, and his body could no longer match even near to what he was once capable of. He still tried to stay in shape but feeling his body slowly deteriorate over the years was the worst torture.

Evelyn, his wife had died of illness eight years ago and his son was too busy with his career and family to visit an aging old man. He missed both of them deeply. He was lonely and beginning to wonder what he was living for when a friend came to visit him at his home. A few knocks on the door broke him out of his reverie. He walked over to the door and opened it to see a man with a smug smile on his face. Behind him, there was a company vehicle with the words ‘Undertones: Noticeable Quality” on it.

“Tom. What are you doing here?” The man at the door was Tom Therwell, a man who had brought his son, Reid, to Deke’s dojo at a young age and asked that he personally train the boy. Reid had been learning some martial arts since he was young, so they asked him to be strict and tough, not allowing their son to give up. He was to learn discipline and respect after having been in a fight. From then on, the boy was to take martial arts much more seriously. Deke had agreed to train the boy and expected that he would have a tough time of it.

Deke had been surprised to find that not only had Reid listened to everything Deke had said, but he had also thrown himself into martial arts passionately. He had never complained and was usually quiet. Deke had been impressed with his attitude and focus, but even more impressive was his talent. Reid’s ability to learn new techniques was impressive, but the boy needed to have more confidence in himself. There were times when his will would be unbendable, unbreakable, but there were also times when his will was weak. Over the past few years, Deke had become friends with Reid and his family.

“Well, I had meant to show up earlier in the week, but everything’s been so busy down at the office. I know it’s been four days or so since the game started, but with your skills, you can catch up in no time.”

Deke looked at Tom like the man had two heads. “What are you talking about?” It almost sounded like he was saying that Deke should play that game of his. He was too old to be playing video games and had a dojo to run.

Tom smiled. “I’m talking about Dead World Online, my friend. Lisa and I both have a free pass to the beta as well as the gear you need to play. She gave hers to our son, and I don’t really have the time to play these days, so I’m giving mine to you.

“I don’t have time to play either. I have my dojo.” Deke wasn’t really in the mood to talk about games so he started to close the door. “Not today, Tom, See you later.”

Right as the door was about to close, Tom said one last thing, the smile dropping from his face, replaced by a serious stare. “Don’t you want to feel young again?” The door stopped, then opened again.

“What are you saying?”

“Dead World is a virtual reality game, Deke. You can play it however you want. Even if you look like an old man, you can move around like you’re twenty. Or, you can look young as well. The point is that you can play this game and everything will feel real, as if you’re young again.”

“Why me?”

“The same reason I wanted you to teach Reid tae kwon do. You’re legendary, and I want to see the legend in action, fighting against monsters and men with a body like you used to have or even better than you used to have. I want to watch a master martial artist in action.

“What’s the catch, really?” He said somewhat cynical.

“We’ll be able to watch and record anything you do, at least during the three month beta.” Tom smiled and pointed at a box sitting on top of his car. “All you have to say is yes. So what will it be?”

“I’ll do it.”

Tom smiled, knowing that he had just introduced a new major player into the game world, and his side had a new influential member who would be important to their victory. That was the real reason Tom wanted Deke to play the game, but he couldn’t let him know. They couldn’t let anyone know. ‘Sorry friend, I’m using you and you don’t even know it.’

POV of the Keeper (Before the beta)

I stood at the window, looking down upon the world that had long forgotten me. Elves, humans, beastmen, and all manner of humanoid creatures walked past, oblivious to the fact that I was watching them, always watching. I had long ago lost almost all meaning in my life and everything I cared about. How long ago? Ages. I have no need to eat, breathe, sleep, or do anything that the living need to do. I am immortal and there is nothing for me anywhere.

So here I stand in my mansion in the middle of a busy city, waiting for something as a watch the passing of people and time. I used to have a name, but I have forgotten it as I watched seasons pass, turning into years, then to decades and then into centuries. Every day, and every moment of that day, people would inform of the important things that happened in the world. I hardly paid any attention to them, even tried to shut them out sometimes, but their words, their information flowed into me unceasingly and I could not forget any of it. I had to wonder if there was a purpose to it all.

I don’t remember being born, ever having family, or living a normal life. I just was. I just… knew. I knew that I came into being before any living creature, and I knew many, many things. I knew almost everything about this world. I watched and learned as other things came into being, as the plants grew and the world formed, even named myself at one point. There are, of course, things that I don’t understand such as how the world was changing and being formed. It could only be some form of god or gods that was creating everything.

In my musings, I have come to understand one thing. Part of my purpose. I…am a library. For what purpose I exist, or what the information is being saved for, I do not know. Even my appearance is that of a shadowy demon wearing a dark cloak, with glowing red eyes. For what reason do I appear to be a frightening monster. That is what bothers me the most because I am a being of neutrality, of knowledge, yet the few things I want the most are unknown to me.

So here I stand, watching this human celebration as snow falls from the sky. They decorate their houses and enjoy many festivities as their year comes to an end. They give each other gifts in honor of past events where the world was saved by the sudden and mysterious end to the Great War. I have never participated in a celebration in my thousands of years of living. Indeed, anyone who dares to look at my face is frightened by it. Well, almost everyone.

This year, the celebration day, December 25th, began to wind down and the sun sunk below the horizon. There was a feeling within me that I didn’t know the name of. I didn’t really know how to describe it other than not good. This was the only day of the year I would feel this way so I didn’t worry, as the feeling would be forgotten by tomorrow. One of my informers left, having given all his information to me, and he was replaced by the next in line.

“Yay, it’s my turn. I’ve been waiting all day.” A beautiful female voice sounded out, much to my surprise. All of my informants were very solemn and professional. There had never been a single one that said anything other than the words they were supposed to. I could not resist my curiosity, my thirst for knowledge, and so I turned. For the first time in centuries, I moved. A little elf girl stood at the front of the line of informers, smiling innocently, happily. I have seen this girl on the street, noticing that she had seen me before but was not afraid.

“Welcome, child. How can I be of assistance?”

“My name is Tafa, and I heard you were a demon. Is that true? I don’t think it is because if you were there would be lots of scary people and things coming to your house or you would be doing bad stuff but the only people that come here are these boring guys who tell you things that are happening all over the world so I don’t think you’re evil at all.” She spoke until she could barely talk any more, needing to take a breath before she could continue.

“I’m not a demon. I do not know what I am. No one but the gods do, if they do.”

“Doesn’t that bother you? Not knowing what or who you are?”

“Rarely. I have come to accept my fate.”

“Alright then, what do I call you?”

“I have no name to be referred by.”

“Can I give you one then?”

I turned fully around to face the girl. “Why are you here?”

The young girl stepped past me, walking up to the window. “No one looks up at you. They’re too afraid of you so they call you a demon, but I knew that you weren’t. Demons are heartless and cruel monsters, but you…you’re sad and lonely. I could see it whenever I looked up at you and saw you watching the people below.” She cocked her head when a sudden thought came to mind. “What do you do with all that information that those people bring?”

“I keep it,” I pointed to my head, “up here.”

She nodded as if having come to a decision. “I will call you Mr. Keeper.” She took out an item from her pocket, and then grabbed my hand. She put the item in my hand and closed it so that only a looped string could be seen draping out of the fist. “Happy Savior’s Festival Mr. Keeper.” She smiled and started to walk away.

“Tafa.”

“Yes?” she stopped and turned around.

If you ever visit me again, you don’t have to wait in line.” For the first time in many, many years, I smiled. It was difficult to see in the shadowy hood and strange skin of the Keeper, but the little girl didn’t miss it.

She smiled and waved goodbye as she skipped out of the room. I opened my hand and saw that inside it was a hand-made pendant. It was made from crude copper that was dented and scratched, but I could tell that the girl had put her heart into making the necklace for me. On the front, engraved into the relatively flat piece of copper it said ‘Happy Festival’, while on the back it said ‘Thank you for watching over us’

Just like that, the bad feeling that I had, the…loneliness, was gone. It had been replaced by a warm feeling and I knew that the feeling of loneliness would not be back any time soon.

I turned back to the window as the next person in line began to speak and watched as the girl gave me a secretive wave before disappearing into the city. I desired for an informant to watch over her and her family, but I could not give the informants orders. The next day, however, there was a new informant that gave me information about Tafa. He chuckled. ‘It seems I have more power than I thought.’