William PoV

We arrived to the blacksmith early in the evening, just about the time he was going to close.

The blacksmith in front of me is young, probably just a few years older than me.

“I was just about to close, sir, what can I help you with?”

The sir thing happens with a lot of NPCs, I’m guessing is because of my skill ‘Royal Presence’, just by having it, the people of this world act different towards me.

At first I thought it was the way they treated all adventurers, but when my brother arrived I realized they only act like that when talking to me.

I put the piece of wood on the counter.

“Can this be turned into a shield?”

The young blacksmith raises an eyebrow.

“Maybe, normally I wouldn’t even think about it, but somehow it feels like I can’t refuse a request from you”

Looks like the effects are stronger than I thought, I wonder how much will improve when the skill levels up.

“And how much would it cost me?”

I hope one silver is enough.

“This is an easy job sir, but I must tell you, a shield made with this wood won’t last long, so fifty coppers should do”

“Deal”

I take fifty coppers from my pouch and give them to the blacksmith.

“I will have it ready in the morning”

After that I thank him and leave the building.

My brother was waiting outside looking anxious.

“How did it go?”

I shake my head with a sad expression, as if the blacksmith had said no.

“He even destroyed the wood”

Gabe looks surprised and as he is about to storm into the building I burst out in laughter.

He sighs.

“You just have to make fun of me, don’t you?”

“Well, you are going to force into fighting with a weak wooden shield after all”

He ignores my commentary, as if I didn’t even mention it.

“And where is the shield?”

“It will be ready tomorrow”

My brother looks dejected, he really wants to go fight monsters.

“Oh, come on, monsters are stronger at night”

“Really?”

This time I sigh.

“Did you even talk to the villagers?”

He avoids my gaze.

Obviously he found a game and played all day long.

“Well, yes, monsters are stronger at night, so until we are able to easily beat them during the day, night isn’t even worth considering”

“I get it”

I wonder why he is so desperate to go hunting.

After all, his skills aren’t that great.

“Meanwhile, should we log out to have breakfast?”

“Sure”

We both leave the game.

Once outside in my room it takes me a while to feel awake.

It is weird a weird feeling, being in a different world, a different body, I can even say that lately I spend more time in the virtual world than in the real one, to the point that GDO is starting to feel more real than reality.

I stretch for a few minutes, my body felt numb.

After a while Gabriel comes to my room and goes directly to the computer.

“Look at this”

He shows me GDO forums.

People have started leaving the academy one after the other, every hour there is more information posted about the world.

Normally I’m not that interested, I would like to discover the world on my own.

But meeting with Victoria may have changed that, I need to find out where exactly I’m located and how far we are from each other.

Sadly, the village doesn’t have a map of the continent, at most I could find how to get to the capital of the empire.

In the screen there is a topic where people are posting information about their locations, the country they are in.

Many groups have been separated all over the world and are trying to find a way to meet up.

My brother said that he won against the god of games to be transported to my location, I guess we are lucky he chose to spend his time playing games.

So far six different countries have been listed, we are currently located in Arumio Village which is a part of the Ralor Empire.

I still don’t know where Victoria is, but in a couple of days a rough map of the continent will be created and we will be able to decide where to meet.

Besides the locations, players are starting to get how the system works, most of the people who have left the academy have taken jobs like me gathering money to buy equipment.

There are also people forming groups to beat monster together, it is safer.

In main cities you can find an adventurer guild, where you can register and get missions and jobs based on your rank.

So there is another reason to leave the village fast.

The problem is, I’m not sure people are being thrown around the world at random by the gods, there must be some reason.

If a minor god like the one my brother has can put him wherever he wanted, I think Naleya should have been capable of doing the same.

In fact, I’m not sure why she placed Victoria and me in different places. After all our classes are supposed to work together to reach their maximum potential.

“Hey! Are you there?”

My brother had grabbed my shoulder and asked concerned.

“I’m sorry, I was lost in thought”

“Let’s go eat already”

After we had breakfast, my brother said he would go back into the game in a two hours, meaning he would rather do something else until I received my shield.

I decided to login right away, luckily, the owner of the restaurant allows me to have a room to sleep inside the game.

So I just logged in to get some sleep.

Something that amazes me is that I can sleep eight hours inside the game, and then leave the game as if had slept those hours in real time.

Meaning if I were to only use the game to sleep, I would only need two hours a day to sleep.

I’m sure this will be useful when I have to go back to school.

Seven hours later I wake up.

My brother should be logging in already, I told him to meet me outside the smithy.

I greet the owner and explain that it is possible that I will not keep working here, as my brother needs help hunting monsters.

The man tells me that there is always a job in here and I can come back whenever I want.

I thank him and leave.

A few minutes later I find my brother impatiently walking outside of the blacksmith’s building.

“Took you long enough”

“Why are you in such a hurry?”

Again, he avoids my gaze.

This guy, I’m curious now.

“Tell me or I won’t go to hunt with you”

He looks at me, opens his mouth as if about to say something, then stops and it takes him a few minutes until he is decided what to say.

“I have something I need to test from my skills”

So he won’t say exactly what it is, fine I will wait.

“Let me get the shield and we will go”

Once inside the young blacksmith hands me the shield, it looks better than I expected.

“Information”

‘Improvised Wooden Shield

This shield was made from cheap wood in a small amount of time by a skilled young blacksmith.

Defense: 3

Durability: 10/10’

If I remember right, the shield at the academy had a defense of ten.

Well it should work to beat some goblins and buy a better one later.

I thank the blacksmith and leave.

When my brother sees me carrying the shield, he smiles.

“Let’s go!”

This guy has a lot of energy.

We leave the village for the first time.

Based on the information given by the villagers, it’s possible to find goblins near the forest but many advised not to go too deep inside, as groups of goblins and wolves wander around.

The plan is to find some astray goblin or wolf and beat it.

We walk around the edges of the forest, I spot some shadows moving inside but no monsters near us.

So we walk a little bit farther inside of the forest.

A young goblin rushes towards my brother, I easily block its attack.

My brother didn’t even see it coming.

These creatures are fast.

As its knife collide with my shield I feel how weak the wood is, I don’t think it will last long.

‘Shield Durability -1’

Only ten hits?

“Attack the goblin”

Gabe finally reacts, but instead of attacking he brings out a card.

“Card Summon”

What? He never mentioned that skill.

A grey bird pops out from the card and rushes to attack the goblin.

The goblin tries to run away, I would swear it is afraid of the bird.

The bird is way faster than the goblin and quickly hits it.

In seconds its health is diminished.

Ten seconds later after being summoned the bird disappears.

The goblin is on its last breath.

I hit it with the shield.

The creature falls unconscious to the ground.

Hitting it with the shield wasn’t enough to kill the goblin.

I pick its knife, it is rusty and worn out, but it will do the job.

With the same knife the goblin used to attack me I slash its throat and kill it.

When I turn around and look at my brother.

He is sitting on the ground, breathing heavily.

“Five mana per second left me dry”

I laugh.

“How long does it take to recover your mana?”

He shrugs his shoulders.

“First time I use the skill, but I would say I recover one point every thirty seconds”

“Meaning we should get out of here until you recover”

My brother nods.

But before leaving I return to the corpse of the goblin.

“Loot”

The corps glows and some items appear instead.

Hunters on the village told me that this way I can get the items from the monsters easily, but they will only be low quality.

To get regular or high quality items, you need to get the items directly from the body using a skill, it is also possible to hire NPCs skilled on item recollection to do it for you.

I pick up the items and put them inside of my bag.

Then we quickly leave the forest.

My brother sits on a rock outside of the forest.

“What was that?”

I’m curious as to how he got that skill.

“Well, my class skill was card Identification and I had one card, so I used it, once identified some info appeared on the card and a new skill appeared”

“Card Summon”

He nods.

“Supposedly I can use it on any magic card I get, every monster has a different mana consumption, I figured that the bird should be strong considering how much mana it takes to summon it”

Well, it was stronger than the goblin, a lot stronger.

“What did you need me for then?”

He sighs.

“I would have died before even having the chance to summon it, and let’s say I managed to beat one by myself, my health would be reduced considerably after one fight”

I understand.

“So I’m your shield for now”

Gabe grins.

“I will be in your care”

His voice sounds amused.

“Well, we managed to kill the goblin without losing health, but my shield lost two durability points, at most we will be able to fight four more goblins”

“What did it drop?”

I bring out the items from my bag.

“A pair of goblin ears and a couple of bones”

I pause and take a look at the knife in my hand.

“We also got this”

Gabe takes a look at the knife.

“Now you will be able to fight too”

I sigh.

“Not that I can be of much help with this knife, I need a sword to make use of my skills”

“Let’s beat some more and we can go back to town and get money from the loot, you can even try to sell the knife”

I guess there is no other choice.

After that we waited for his mana to fill and went back to the forest looking for a goblin to kill.