《World of Tala》Chapter 1 – Dream
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The sunlight warms my body as I comfortably sleep in my bed but something’s weird… My bed feels harder than usual and I can smell the scent of the grass and hears the rustling of the tree leaves. Our house isn’t in the middle of a farm or forest, it’s along the highway so I should be hearing the sound of cars and motors and smell the scent of the exhaust. Also, there’s something tickling me for a while now so I stretched my hand to feel what it is. It feels like grass but how can a grass grow in my pillow? I slowly open my eyes to check why there is a grass-like thing in my pillow. The first thing I see upon opening my eyes is grass, after that trees, too many trees which looks like I am inside a forest. I slowly raise my body and rub my eyes. Maybe I am not seeing things right. I open my eyes slowly again and the scenery did not change. I look around and all I can see is trees, grasses, some mushrooms and trees once more.
Am I inside a forest? How did I end up inside a forest when I am riding jeepney to go home? Did the jeepney had an accident and I am thrown out to this forest? Wait… In the first place, is there a forest near the highway? As I am asking myself these questions, I suddenly remembered what happened last night. Last night, I saw a strange creature and a giant worm devoured the whole jeepney after that the passengers panic including me then… What happened next? I don’t remember but if I think about it clearly, I will surely die if those things really happened. Meaning it’s just a dream, a very bad dream, since I am still alive. But it still doesn’t explain how I ended up here. Hmmm… I cross my arms and think once more but no matter how hard I think, there is no answer that comes in my mind. I decided to think about it later and stand up. While standing up, I noticed that it feels a little heavier than usual, it’s not to the point where I will have a hard time standing but it feels like I am wearing something a little heavier than clothes. When I look at my body, I found out that I am wearing a leather armor with a scabbard hanging on my waist also my clothes is different to what I am wearing and it look like the type of clothing you will see on Game of T*rones. In short, I am wearing a medieval type of clothes. I suddenly remembered that I watch that series at the vacant period yesterday but waking up wearing clothes from medieval period with armor on it doesn’t feel real. Maybe I’m dreaming? Including the incident that happened last night, maybe all of this is a dream. That sounds plausible. I am currently dreaming and I will wake up sooner or later. Anyways, having this kind of dream isn’t bad in its own way. The last time I dream like this was in high school. The period where my imagination was on its peak, sadly I don’t remember the details very well but I think it was a mixture of different games I played that time.
“Well, these kinds of dreams are rare where I am aware that I am dreaming….”
I stretched my body while muttering those words to myself. As I am doing stretches, my feet hit something and when I look at it, it is a short double edged sword. I pick it up and strangely it feels familiar. Well, this is a dream in the first place. I put it on the scabbard on my waist and start to walk randomly inside the forest when a message box appears on my sight.
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Welcome to the world of Tala.
Establishing connection to the world system…. Done.
“What’s this?”
Searching nearby country…. Done.
Searching nearby settlement…. Done.
Initializing basic background…. Done.
Installing language comprehension based on current race…. Done.
Suddenly, the message box shows something like a log, reporting everything to me.
You are now a resident of the village called Pinar in the Kingdom of Sevir.
Would you like to start the tutorial?
Pinar? Kingdom of Sevir? So this message box is telling me that I become a resident of the Kingdom of Sevir without registering myself? Wow… I don’t know what kind of dream I am having right now and it totally freaks me out. But, this message is asking me if I want to start the tutorial. Normally, the player will skip the tutorial and learn how the world works in a hard way but sadly I am not like that. I am the type of person who will not skip anything while playing a game I don’t even skip the credits. It might look like it’s a waste of time but I feel that I should let it end on itself since the developer put it there. But the problem is I don’t see any button to press. Maybe it uses voice commands? Well, there’s no harm at trying so…
“Yes”
Since you accepted the tutorial, I will now explain how this world works.
1. This world’s residents have levels. You will start as level 1 which is the lowest and the highest level is level 1000 but the level varies depending on one’s job and race.
2. Experience gathering and leveling:
· For Combat Job: Hunting monster will yield more experience than crafting.
· For Crafting Job: Crafting items will yield more experience than hunting (Doing transaction for Merchants)
· For Supporting Job: Hunting with party will yield more experience than hunting alone or crafting items.
3. Changing jobs can be done after reaching level 10 at [Villager] job and visiting the [Association] of your preferred job.
4. To view your status, say “Character Information”.
5. To view your learned skills, say “Skill window”.
6. Doing bad things such as killing without valid reason, caught pick pocketing, raping, kidnapping, etc. will raise the ‘infamy’ according to how grave the things that you have done.
7. There is no concept of revival in this world. Once you die, you die.
8. Fame will increase as you clear quest, explore dungeons, and create something.
With high fame, the store will give you discounts, it will be easier to talk with nobles, and other advantageous treatment while Infamy will be the opposite of the stat Fame. Infamy decrease as you gain do charitable works or being punished to the crimes you committed.
9. Skills that can be learned are limitless but there are skills that are profession exclusive and some professions had specialization on some skills.
10. Items can be collected through dismantling the corpse of the enemies.
11. If you want to learn more about your skills or learn more about the stats in your character information, just say “[Skill name]/[Stats Name] Help”.
This is the end of tutorial. If you wanted to view the tutorial window again, kindly say “Tutorial” and this window will appear.
I never thought that I will be having a dream about medieval period, game-like world. Did I really want to play MMORPG that bad? The last time I played a MMORPG was second year high school? I don’t remember but the last MMORPG game I played is World of W*rcraft. But for my dream to have these rules, what a very detailed dream it now feels like I am transported to a fantasy world. What if I really am transported to another world? Maybe I’m a cheat existence like the protagonist of the “isekai” genre, like the Gods of Loli, or the Devil.
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Who am I fooling? I better separate reality and fantasy, it’s bad and it will only make me look like a fool if I mix them up. But this is a dream since magic didn’t exist, that giant worm can’t also exist, and lastly, that creature didn’t exist. I am still riding a jeepney sleeping peacefully waiting for the jeepney to reach Libmanan. Yup… This is a dream. And also, there is a weird rule mix with them that rule no. 7 “There is no concept of revival in this world. Once you die, you die.” Does it mean that once I die in this dream I’ll die in real life? How would I die in real life? Had a heart attack when I die in this dream? Or did that rule really meant that once I die, I’ll wake up? It will be a waste if I die in this dream and wake up without thoroughly enjoying it.
*Sigh*
This dream is set to only have 1 life huh. I wonder if I eat a green mushroom would it become 2? Well, the rule stated that there is no concept of revival in this world so instead of gaining a 1 UP maybe I’ll die upon eating a green mushroom.
“Anyways, let’s check the status… [Character Information]!”
Upon saying the keyword, a status window appeared.
Character Information
Name: Jasper Perez
Age: 21
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Base Level: 1
Job: Villager Lv 1
HP: 100
MP: 100
Title: [None]
Base experience Point: 0/100
Job experience Point: 0/100
Fame: 0
Infamy: 0
Physical Dmg: 5 + 10
Physical Def: 5 + 4
Magic Dmg: 5
Magic Def: 5
HP regeneration: 5 per 10 seconds
MP regeneration: 5 per 10 seconds
Accuracy: 5
Evasion: 5
Speed: 5
Status Points
Strength: 10
Agility: 10
Intelligence: 10
Dexterity: 10
Vitality: 10
Wisdom: 10
Status Point Available: 0
Resistance
Fire: 0
Water: 0
Earth: 0
Wind: 0
Light: 0
Dark: 0
Equipment
Head : [None]
Head : [Normal Glasses]
Head : [None]
Body: [Leather Armor]
Shoulder: [None]
Wrist: [None]
Legs: [Leather Pants]
Feet: [Leather Boots]
Main hand: [Short Sword]
Off hand: [None]
Secondary: [None]
Ammunition: [None]
This dream is a game. No doubt about it. Did I really miss playing MMORPG that much? It seems that [Base Level] and [Job Level] is different from each other. If I were to guess, [Base Level] means my overall level while [Job Level], is the level of my job. In the game Ragna*ok, leveling [Base Level] will give you [Status Points] while leveling the [Job Level] will give you skill points. Maybe this dream runs on the same system as that game but the [Job] aren’t taken from it, if it was then my [Job] right now would be [Novice]. I wonder where did the [Job: Villager] comes from? As far as I can remember, I haven’t encountered a game with a villager job. Maybe it was taken from animes and LN. But, looking at this window, this dream really is pretty detailed. Almost everything is written on this window so it’s easy to understand. [HP] is health points, [MP] is magic points, [Titles] are titles gained through specific routes, I wonder if the [Titles] gives additional stats like other games or it is just a fancy name. Well, almost all of them are self-explanatory but I am curious what is this [Title], the tutorial said that I can check it to know more about a certain stats.
“Hmmmm….. Let’s see, [Title Help]!”
[Titles] are given after finishing a specific task for the specific title. [Titles] can raise the user status or give bonus damage to specific enemies.
“So the [Titles] gives different bonuses huh… Not just a fancy name. I understood the meaning of other stats by reading their name but maybe I should check it.”
So I check each stats and this are the results.
[Strength] – Increases Damage(melee only), allows the user to carry heavier objects.
[Agility] – Increases evasion and speed.
[Dexterity] – Increase Physical Damage(Range only), improves accuracy, improves the quality of crafted items.
[Intelligence] – Increase maximum mana and magic damage.
[Wisdom] – increase magic defense and MP regeneration.
[Vitality] – increases maximum health, defense, and HP regeneration.
[HP] – Health points. The representation of how many hits you can take. The moment the [HP] reaches zero then you’ll die. Recovers when out of combat depending on the [HP regeneration] stat.
[MP] – Magic points. The representation of how many spells you can cast. When your [MP] becomes lower than 50%, you will feel dizzy and when it reaches zero, you’ll lost consciousness. Recovers when out of combat depending on [MP regeneration] Stat.
[Fame] – Raising this stat will allow you to get a better chance of winning at bargaining and other preferential treatments. This stat can be gained by doing good deeds.
[Infamy] – Raising this stat will slowly make you a criminal. This stat can be gained by getting caught doing bad deed.
[Physical Dmg] – Physical Damage. This is the representation of how strong your physical damage.
[Physical Def] – Physical Defense. This stat decreases the damage taken from physical attacks.
[Magic Dmg] – Magic Damage. This is the representation of how strong your magic damage.
[Magic Def] – Magic Defense. This stat decreases the damage taken from magic attacks.
[HP regeneration] – The rate of regeneration of HP out of combat.
[MP regeneration] – The rate of regeneration of MP out of combat.
[Accuracy] – This stat tells about the accuracy of your ranged attack and how well will be the created items.
[Evasion] – This stat makes the attack seems slower and the chances of avoiding the said attack raises.
[Speed] – pertains to the movement speed and attack speed.
Pretty much the same of what I understand from their name. I guess the [Resistances] will be decreasing the damage from their respective elements. I close all the windows and I notice a red bar and a blue bar below it at the upper right of my vision. When I look closely, there are words written below each bar it says [HP] for the red bar and [MP] for the blue bar. Wow. This dream really is detailed, it even added an interface that allows me to look at my [HP] and [MP] without opening [Character Information] but I hopes that this dream also contains the [World Map] since it will be hard navigating without a map inside this forest, even a mini-map will do!
I tried various command to summon a map window but nothing happen, let alone [World Map] not even a [Mini-map] appeared.
*Sigh*
What should I do now? If I remember correctly, the message boxes said that there is a close settlement here called [Pinar], maybe I will go there first but the problem is, I don’t know where is that [Pinar]. Walk randomly? What if I got farther and farther from [Pinar]? Well, if I ended up at [Pinar] while walking randomly then lucky, if not then keeps on walking until I find a highway.
“For starter, let’s walk straight in front of me.”
As I am walking, I keep marking the trees I pass so that I will know if I already walk pass here, it will also allow me to get back to the starting point.
As I am marking a tree, I hear some footsteps coming towards me. I pull the short sword from its scabbard, holding it with my right hand. I put my left side forward facing the source of the sound and lower my hips so that I can dodge easily. I don’t know why I did this stance but my body moves after I raise my vigilance towards the footsteps. As the footsteps come closer, I raise my vigilance towards it.
After a while, the source of the footsteps is now visible. It has a white fur, standing on two feet with its two front teeth peeking out from its mouth, two red eyes that are as red as a blood, two elongated ears. It is a rabbit. You say why I am on guard if it’s just a rabbit? Well who would not be on their guard when the rabbit standing in front of me is already as high as I am. No matter how I look at it, it’s a monster even though it has cute appearance.
“Go on… Don’t mind me, I’m just a harmless man…”
I said to the rabbit hoping that it will understand what I mean but instead of going away, it readies itself to fight me. The rabbit puts its two cute hands forward like a boxer and started to hop. I thought that I will only see this kind of development at cartoons and animes but this a dream so anything goes.
The rabbit slowly lower its body and suddenly jumps, like its feet has springs, towards me. I estimated the time it will land and jumps back while slashing in my former position. The slash hits the right hand of the rabbit separating it with its body. Blood gush out of the wound like a fountain soaking the ground where the rabbit is. The rabbit let out a scream full of agony while holding its hand. I quickly fix my posture just like before while concentrating at the rabbit. The rabbit then glares at me while lowering its posture again. This time, it didn’t jump but it pushes its whole body using its spring-like feet. Its speed is fast but I faced an enemy before which practically teleports while dashing like that so I think I can dodge it.
(Of course I don’t mean in real-life, even though I had a fist fight before, the opponent can’t do something like that, what I mean when I said “I faced an enemy before which practically teleports while dashing” is from a game. You’re saying differentiate games and real-life? Oh come on, I am inside my dream right now so what’s wrong with mixing them up? This whole dream is a mixture of different online games I played in a medieval period setting.)
As the rabbit dash towards me, I lowered my body much farther and wait for it to come inside the reach of my blade. When it’s already inside my reach, I jump towards its right body while holding the short sword with both of my hands and slash it vertically with all my might. There’s a resistance when the blade touch the body of the rabbit but I put all of my strength to my arms and let the momentum of the rabbit cut its body. My sword cuts through its chest to its back resulting to the upper part of the rabbit fly while scattering blood and the lower part to stumble and fall to the ground soaking it red because of the blood gushing out from it. Actually, it’s too gory that I wanted to look away from it and puke. Really, what’s with this dream?
After the battle, my short sword was soaked with blood so I swing it left and right copying what I saw in the anime before. The blood soaking the blade scattered as I did this leaving only a little blood stains on my blade. They said that blood makes the sword rust but I don’t have a cloth to clean it, maybe I should just wipe it at the rabbit’s corpse. Having these thoughts, I walk towards the corpse of the rabbit and wipe my sword from its white fur. Looking at it, it really is gory. The internal organs of the rabbit come out of its wound while blood makes the ground red.
“If I remember correctly, to gather the loot you need to dismantle it…”
Looking at the corpse of rabbit makes me want to puke but I need to dismantle it so that I can collect the loot? I avoided gore movies and now you’re telling me to dismantle this corpse just to collect the loot? No way~ I can’t do it and in the first place, I don’t know how to do it. I think I read about it somewhere and the first thing I need to do is to drain the blood, but how? Tie it upside down on a tree? I don’t have a rope. Clean it in flowing water? I don’t know if there’s a water source nearby.
As I am thinking about these things, I realize one problem. It’s not about how weak I am for a gory scene but… I don’t have a bag to carry the loot. It can’t be help then, let’s just leave it here. I turn around and continued to walk hoping to find a settlement. Just to be clear okay, I didn’t dismantle it because I’m weak with gore stuffs! It’s just that I don’t have a bag. Don’t misunderstand.
I continue to walk towards a random direction while leaving corpses of rabbits in my path. Maybe I am walking for an hour now but I still can’t hear any human activity nearby. By the way, my level rose to 2 and the [Status Point Available] become 3. I didn’t add any stats for now since I don’t know what [Job] are available so I let it be. I am planning to build my stats after knowing all the [Job]s available. If I were to guess, maybe this dream has the standard [Jobs] for an RPG games like [Swordsman], [Thief], [Archer] and [Magician] for [Combat Job], [Alchemist] and [Blacksmith] are the standard for [Crafting Job] and [Acolyte] or [Priest] for [Supporting Job]. Well, if I were to choose among these random guess, it would be [Archer], a [Combat Job]. [Archers] are range damager, which mean I can kill my enemy without approaching it and besides, an arrow can’t make a gore scene right? I will not see their organs or the blood that sprouts out from their wound so it’s a good job but the problem is I don’t know how to use a bow. I saw someone uses a bow at the internet but I don’t think I can copy what he is doing. Well~~ I’ll manage somehow after all, this is a dream.
Without me noticing, I finally am out of the forest and there’s a highway in front of me. It is not the typical asphalt highway which you will see in the modern times but a dirt highway. The highway is made in the middle of a forest so there are trees on each side of it. I think it is properly maintained since the ground was flattened and you can’t find any rocks or weeds on it. There are also some freshly made tracks of wheels of a wagon and footprints heading to my right. I wonder if I follow this tracks I will reach the settlement? Well, there’s no one I can ask and there’s nothing I can do but try so let’s follow it!
~ Chapter End~
Character Information
Name: Jasper Perez
Age: 21
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Base Level: 2
Job: Villager Lv 2
HP: 100
MP: 100
Title: [None]
Base experience Point: 10/200
Job experience Point: 10/200
Fame: 0
Infamy: 0
Physical Dmg: 5 + 10
Physical Def: 5 + 4
Magic Dmg: 5
Magic Def: 5
HP regeneration: 5 per 10 seconds
MP regeneration: 5 per 10 seconds
Accuracy: 5
Evasion: 5
Speed: 5
Status Points
Strength: 10
Agility: 10
Intelligence: 10
Dexterity: 10
Vitality: 10
Wisdom: 10
Status Point Available: 0
Resistance
Fire: 0
Water: 0
Earth: 0
Wind: 0
Light: 0
Dark: 0
Equipment
Head : [None]
Head : [Normal Glasses]
Head : [None]
Body: [Leather Armor]
Shoulder: [None]
Wrist: [None]
Legs: [Leather Pants]
Feet: [Leather Boots]
Main hand: [Short Sword]
Off hand: [None]
Secondary: [None]
Ammunition: [None]
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