Chapter 4

After the Fight

Rhinestone watched the battle with the boss. The girl in beginner wear dodged and attacked with extreme savagery and precision. Each blow she released were done with the aim of killing the enemy as swiftly and as efficiently as possible. She was not just focused on the single enemy in front, but on the entire battlefield.

"Seeing a real beginner pawn enemies like this, makes me feel ashamed of how we used to be when we first started the game," Firequeen Anna who was watching beside her commented.

"Her class archetype suits her well. I want to see how far she can go with it."

"So do I. The fight's almost over. It didn't take long."

"We needed new members, and these two feels like a Godsend. One's an expert in combat, the other's reliable in unexpected places." The two made a wry smile as they remembered the contrast between the pink-headed scout's attitude outside and during combat.

They watched as the boss finally fell and Pristine fainted on top of it.

* * *

"Hmm?" Kristine groaned as she woke up. It was still dark, and it took some time for her vision to adjust to the darkness. She was in her bedroom, originally her great-grandfather's.

"I'm out?" Slowly she got out of the bed. The digital clock on the table showed the time, 5:03 am. It should have been around five in the afternoon in-game when she defeated the boss and fainted, and the real world time should be around 2:30 am.

"This sense of time incongruence is confusing." She took a quick cold shower to completely wake herself, then changed into her training outfit, tight tank-top and shorts. She then went downstairs, grabbed a bottle of water from the kitchen and walked through the open corridor behind the house. On the backyard, an inconspicuous device could be seen if one looked closely. It was the equipment for playing the game, Tataria. How could something so small do something so complex, she thought.

Arriving at the other building, she quickly did warm-ups and stretches. This was the training hall. When her great-grandfather was still alive, they spent most of the time here.

She remembered the first time she walked into this hall. A white-haired old man suddenly taunted her, and she went berserk, only to find herself beaten many times. At the end, although she was hurt and exhausted, she laughed and cried her heart out. It was the first time she was able to express true happiness and sadness. It was the first time her world had color aside from gray.

After every training session, her great-grandfather would always tell her stories about the pre-war world. Green plains and hills, white-capped mountains, expanses of forests and oceans, and people living in countries that bordered each other.

"I wonder if Tataria is the same," she whispered under her breath as she proceeded with her daily training.

* * *

After class, Kristine and Rayhlee went to the clubroom together. Along the way she asked Rayhlee why there were only few members in the Adventure Club, although there were a lot of people who play Tataria. During class, Kristine heard some of her classmates whispering about what gear they got from the dungeon, or where did they go to grind last night, or when the next competition was. Rayhlee wasn't able to give an exact answer, so she asked the club secretary, Anna instead. Catherine was still busy with her class representative duties.

"Oh, I thought you'd never ask," Anna said with a smile. "That's simply because there are a lot more fun things to do in Tataria that is less riskier than probing in an unexplored dungeon where unknown high rank monsters could be hiding in. There are a lot of players in the game, but last night you only saw a few of them, right? That's because the town of Alfao is the very first town you will enter in the game. Most of the players that stay there are beginner players who are still learning the game, and chose to play solo. Those types of players are doomed to fail." Anna shook her head as she emphasized that last statement.

"Doomed to fail? Why?" Kristine was curious. Although playing solo was indeed hard, does it really ascertain failure?

"Tataria is like a second world. Players are free to do what they want in it, and some of those players want to try their hand in things they can't do in real life. Although their intentions may not be truly evil, but the morality of their actions are truly questionable."

"What do you mean?" Kristine was confused.

"PK," Rayhlee said as she hugged her shoulders. "Player Killers, the bane of all online roleplaying games. I first started out as a solo player, too, and I was lucky I have a skill to hide myself. I saw a lot of atrocities done by those PKs."

"That's right, and being a member of a guild means you can have people to party with, providing some protection against those malicious players."

The door suddenly swung open and Catherine entered along with a male student.

"This is Kenji Galve, the president of the Tataria Warriors Club," she said with an unpleasant expression as she entered the room and walked straight to the front. The male student followed and stood beside her.

"Hello, Adventure Club. I'm sorry for stealing some of the students from joining you, Catherine. It's not my fault that your club was too small and obscure."

"Your club name is just too extravagant, Ken."

"Hey, it's part of PR strategies."

Kristine and Rayhlee watched the conversations of the two with confused expressions. Anna coughed loudly to get the attention of the two club presidents, and smiled at them with an expression telling them to get straight to the topic.

"That's right," Kenji said. "My IGN is Almighty Ken," "Shameless." "and I'm the guild master of the guild Absolute Strength." "Truly shameless." His eyebrows twitched while he made his introductions because of the side-comments that Catherine made with a straight face. Doing his best to maintain a serious expression he continued, "I'm here to propose a joint operation with the Adventure Club's guild to raid an unexplored dungeon near the frontier town of Ran Seiden."

As soon as he finished saying that, Rayhlee raised her hand and asked a question, "There are other gaming clubs here in school with bigger guilds, so why didn't you invite them?"

"That's because---," "Absolute Strength is the weakest club guild amongst those in our school. The other clubs denied their invitation," before he could answer, Catherine provided one. With that, his expression changed into an angry one, and he pointed at Catherine.

"Your New Eden guild is even weaker than ours!"

"First, New Eden isn't mine. Second, have you forgotten about the guild tournament event last year?"

"Ughh," he groaned as he suddenly kept quiet.

Kristine leaned towards Anna and asked, "What tournament, and what happened?"

"Last year, out of boredom, some players set up a guild versus guild tournament. Each guild could have at most 10 players participate, and it was a team battle on randomly chosen areas. We only had four members participate, me, Catherine, and two seniors who already graduated, but we defeated Absolute Strength who had a full 10-man team without losing any casualty on our side."

With a cough, Kenji resumed the conversation with, "So that's the gist of things. Do you accept?"

"When will it be?" Catherine asked.

"This weekend."

"I see." She closed her eyes as if thinking of something. She then looked at Kristine and asked, "What's your growth corrections?"

"1.1 multiplier on all stats and combat skills," she answered. Kenji had a surprised expression as he muttered, "A new archetype?" Catherine glared at him and he shut his mouth.

"We accept," she said. Kenji sighed in relief. "See you girls on Friday midnight then." He then swiftly left the room.

* * *

7:43 am, North of Alfao.

It was a late dawn on Tataria. The morning breeze was cool, and rays of light started to peak out from behind distant mountain ranges. A lone figure slowly moved while crouching behind a fallen tree. On the other side of the tree, there was a bear-like creature with two heads sleeping on its stomach. The figure peeked from behind the log to check the beast, revealing its silver hair and red eyes. It was Pristine.

Twin-headed Forest Bear

The Twin-headed Forest Bear is an uncommon animal found on the southern forests of Tataria. It loves to sleep on cool mornings and is normally harmless. It only becomes aggressive if it is attacked or if its sleep is disturbed. Its meat is a favorite cooking ingredient by many cooks.

As soon as Pristine logged in, she found herself inside a room of the inn. She remembered the seniors telling her that they brought her there when she fainted after battling the Three-eyed Shadow Wolf. That way, she won't need to return to the Travel Portal when logging in. When she went down to the bar, a female NPC approached her and asked if she was busy, then suddenly gave a request to hunt a Twin-headed Forest Bear for its meat. Apparently, the inn has run out and needs it as soon as possible.

The Adventure Club was going to meet in the bar again around 10 am in game time. Noticing that she was way too early, Pristine accepted the request. She rushed to the town plaza and bought a cheap knife.

Multi-purpose Knife

This simple knife can be used as a weapon, as a carving tool, or even as a kitchen knife. Truly multi-purpose. It can break after repeated usage, so handle with care.

Smiling wryly at the item description, a stall selling magic spells caught her eye. Remembering the War Chanter class archetype description, it can fill any roles in a party, which includes healing support and magic damage-dealer. She bought the instruction manuals for the basic Heal Minor Wounds spell and the lightning element beginner spell, Shock Grasp.

In Tataria, players can learn all non-unique skills. Some can be learned automatically when performing specific actions, others can be learned only by using an instruction manual or through direct instruction from a NPC or a player with a rank of Master on the specific skill, and some can be learned by using either method.

Skills need to be equipped in order to utilize them. Initially, a player can only equip five non-unique skills, but the amount that can be equipped increases with the increase in Intelligence and Wisdom ranks.

After learning Heal Minor Wounds and Shock Grasp, Pristine went to the forest North of Alfao to hunt for Twin-headed Forest Bears.

As quietly as possible, she approached the sleeping bear and jumped on its back. Casting Shock Grasp on both hands, she grabbed the bear's two necks and held on tight as it stood up and thrashed its arms around in fury and pain. After a while, the bear fell down paralyzed due to the continuous electric shock it received. With practiced motions, Pristine stabbed its necks, killing it. After that she slaughtered its corpse to retrieve the meat.

"Finally done," she said as she placed the meat in her inventory. This was the third bear she hunted, and the amount of meat in her inventory looks satisfactory. She then checked her status and skills.

Name:Pristine VoidClass:War Chanter

StatsStrength:Apprentice ( 24% )Agility:Apprentice ( 13% )Dexterity:Apprentice ( 17% )Endurance:Apprentice ( 10% )Intelligence:Beginner ( 91% )Wisdom:Beginner ( 87% )

SkillsUnique Skills

War Chant: Apprentice ( 12% )

Impetu Parvu: Apprentice ( 12% )

Munio Parvu: Apprentice ( 4% )Non-unique Skills

Combat Mastery: Apprentice ( 42% )

Unarmed Combat: Apprentice ( 31% )

Holy Elemental Mastery: Beginner ( 7% )

Heal Minor Wounds: Beginner ( 7% )

Lightning Elemental Mastery: Beginner ( 34% )

Shock Grasp: Beginner ( 34% )

Butchery: Beginner ( 51% )

*Knife Mastery: Beginner ( 2% )

Her Dexterity stat increased quickly because of the Butchery Skill. She got Knife Mastery as soon as she used the knife as a weapon, but unequipped it to make room for Butchery.

As she prepared to return to town to submit the items, she received an e-mail from Rhinestone Cutter. They were already at the first floor bar of the inn.