《Virtual Empire》 -2 Basic Leveling System @@ Tier 1: Apprentice Warrior Levels 1-20 Tier 2: Official Warrior Levels 21-50 Tier 3: Master Warrior Levels 51-100 Tier 4: Grand Master Warrior Levels 101-200 Tier 5: Saint Levels 201-500 Tier 6: Legend Levels 501-??? *I just used warrior in the levels as an example, the title can be changed depending on the class. More on Legend rank and beyond later on when I have the level system more fleshed out. * Only players use levels, while NPCs use early rank, mid rank, late rank, peak rank to describe the differences in levels.@@ -1 Empire/Kingdom Levels @@ Grade 5 Kingdom: Capital City with 50,000 people 10 surrounding towns with 5000 people each *Needs one mid-stage master tier, ten early-stage master tiers Grade 4 Kingdom: Capital City with 100,000 people 10 surrounding cities with 10,000 people each *Needs one high-stage master tier, ten mid-stage master tiers Grade 3 Kingdom: Capital City with 500,000 people 10 surrounding cities with 50,000 people each *Needs one peak-stage master tier, ten late-stage master tiers Grade 2 Kingdom: Capital City with 2,500,000 people 10 main cities with 250,000 people each *Needs one mid-stage grandmaster tier, twenty early-stage grandmaster tiers Grade 1 Kingdom: Capital City with 10,000,000 people 10 main counties with 1,000,000 people each *Needs one peak-stage grandmaster tier, ten late- stage grandmaster tiers Grade 5 Empire: ??? *More details on the empire/kingdom levels coming out later@@ 1 Starry Dawns Announcemen "Dude, did you hear about Starry Dawn?" James looked up from his phone to see that the person who was talking to him was his best friend Max. "Max what are you talking about?" "They are a massive gaming conference to reveal their latest project!" "That''s impossible, haven''t they gone out of business a few years ago? Have you been on any fake news sites recently?" "No, this time its real, check your phone." James looked down on his phone and went to the news, and sure enough, every site was going on about Starry Dawns big reveal. He was surprised that a dying game company was gaining this much attention for its newest product. "Do you believe me know?", asked Max. "This is crazy, how can this many news site be talking about Starry Dawn?" "I guess we will and wait and see tomorrow." The next day James was on his couch waiting for the conference to start. After a few minutes of waiting, it finally began. A beautiful lady walked out on to the stage and began talking. "It has been 15 years since our company has released anything to the public, but all that time has been used to develop our new game console World Dive. World Dive is the first full dive VR game console" When she said that, all the reporters started to go crazy. Suddenly a capsule appeared on stage, and the lady walked inside on it. Then screens came up on the wall the showed the virtual environment. She demoed many of the thing that you can do in the virtual world. She talked about how you can change the sensitivity of touch, taste, and pain. Everyone was shocked to see the new system. "We will now answer any questions you have now", said the lady as she walked out of the capsule. "Will any one be able to test out the World Dive system?" asked a random news reporter. "There will be capsules sent to our stores across the globe for anyone to test out for free." "Has Starry Dawn produced any game for the World Dive?" "Their is a game in development that will be ready to launch in a few months. There will be another conference to introduce this game in a month. The date of release will be announced then along with other details. That is all for this conference, thank you all for coming" said the lady as the event came to an end. 2 Short Group Cha @@ James was in shock when the conference ended. He couldn''t believe that Starry Dawn, a company which he had thought was done, created a full dive VR console. A text tinge from his phone brought him back to reality. (Text Message Now) Laurence: Did u guys see the conference? Max: Yeah that was insane James: I''m checking their site to get reservations. According to this, they only give 5 min of free demo per person, and we have to pay extra if we want more time in there. Laurence: How much? James: $5 per min Max: 3 The VR Tes After waiting for a week it was finally Saturday. James met up with his friends at the store waiting for his appointment. "I wonder what it will be like in there" said James. "I just hope that that this isn''t bullshit" said Laurence. "Well we''re about to find out, it''s our turn to try it out" said Max. Then an employee came out to show them the machine. He got them hooked up, and then started up the machine. "Have fun." When it started up for James, there was a dark space. He then saw a selection screen come up showing him the options for the locations he could experience. He decided to pick a mountain. The dark space faded away, and then he was on a mountain. It was unbelievable. James walked around and was speechless. It was just like he was on an actual mountain. He could feel the air on his face, he could breath in the fresh mountain air. Then he tripped and fell. ''Damn that actually hurts a little. Other than that everything is f****** amazing.'' Just then the mountain faded out of existence, and James was brought back to reality. He was unhooked from the capsule and exited the machine. "That was unreal", said Max as soon as he saw James and Laurence. "Yeah, I would love go back in if it wasn''t for the insanely high", said Laurence. "Hey, what locations did you pick?", said James. "The moon."(Laurence) "I picked a forest." (Max) "Hey how much does all this cost together?"James asked the employee. "This is a prototype, it is not for sale. The model for commercial use will be available in one month." "Okay then, how much does that model cost?" "The World Dive capsule is dived into multiple tiers, and the higher the tier the more expensive it is. There are 6 tiers total." "Okay, but I asked about the price, not all of what you just said." "It is required of me to say all of that. The prices are on this pamphlet." (Prices on the pamphlet) Tier 1 - $5,000 Tier 2 - $10,000 Tier 3 - $50,000 Tier 4 - $100,000 Tier 5 - $500,000 Tier 6 - $1,000,000 "These prices are crazy high!" "That''s the price to pay for an otherworldly experience. If you can''t afford to buy it, you can enter the raffle for next month. They''re giving away 100 capsules in total, one tier 6, four tier 5s, five tier 4s, ten tier 3s, ten tier 2s, and the rest are tier 1s." "How do we enter this raffle?" "Just create an Starry Dawn account, and you can enter the raffle from there." "Okay thanks." James and his friends then left store and rushed home to enter the raffle. 4 Chapter 4 @@ After a month of waiting, the results of the raffle were announced. James had won tier 3 capsule, while Laurence and Max both won tier 2 capsules. (Text Chat Start) James: This is great, we got the capsules without paying. Max: Yeah Laurence: But you were the luckiest, getting a tier 3. Max: Do you guys know when Starry Dawn will announce their new game? James: Not sure Laurence: I just checked their site, the announcement will be in a couple of weeks. James: When will your guys capsules be installed? Max: It says that it will arrive and be installed in a few months. Laurence: Same here James: Did you guys see what David did in school? Max: Yeah, it''s crazy that he bought Jasmine a tier 4 capsule. Laurence: It''s pretty obvious what he wants. James: We all know that he did it because he has a thing for her, most people have a thing for her, but David is the richest one. Max: That rich asshole can just think that he can throw money at everything and get what he wants. James: But that works for him. Jasmine agreed to go out with him. Laurence: If only I was that rich... James: Daydreaming is useless, you''ll never be rich if you don''t work hard. Max: Coming from one of the laziest guys out there. James: It''s still true either way. Max: Anyways I got to go now. Laurence: Me too. James: Ok, bye. (Text Chat End)@@ 5 The Game Conference @@ After a few months of waiting, the reveal of World Dive''s first game is about to begin. James was sitting on his couch waiting with excitement as the reveal will happen in a few minutes. ''I wonder what the game will be. Will it be a FPS or will it be some kind of game where you can build stuff? The wait is killing me.'' Finally, it began. A stage appeared with a capsule on it. TV screens showed up behind the capsule. The screens lit up, and it showed a medieval themed world. A person then showed and began to explain the new game. "This is the game that we have been working on forthe longest time. The games name is The Realm of Legends. It will be a VRMMORPG, in a medieval fantasy world. There are countless opportunities in this world. Those who are poor can become among the rich with this game. The world itself is a few times larger than Earth itself. Many of the NPCs can make their own decisions and are not restricted by the system. If you players try to do any harm to the game world, they will fight back. Rise will start up in two weeks. Prepare yourself, and use this time to get use to the World Dive system." As the conference ended, James was excited for Rise to come out.@@ 6 Chapter 6 The next day, James checked forum sites to see what were people thinking about. No surprise, it was about The Realm of Legends. People were going crazy over it. They were all speculating on how the game will work, considering that the game''s site only had the minimum amount of information. There was nothing on the world itself. The explanation on the leveling system was very basic. After looking around online some more, James found something really surprising. Apparently, many people tried to get the information from Starry Dawn with money, but Starry Dawn turned them all down. There were also news of many famous guilds in other RPGs holding auditions for the upcoming game. Even some large corporations are hiring famous gamers to form guilds ran by them. James found this startling. ''Why are so many people trying to get an advantage before the game even starts? Is there something that I don''t know about?'' James then decided to look more into the reason on why people are seemingly going overboard for a video game. After looking at some sites with speculative opinions in this, he started to understand why this was happening. The potential value of in game properties is the reason. With such little information about the game, and all the hype surrounding it, some people are willing to take the risk for a profit. Out of curiosity, James decided to take a look at the World Dive capsules prices. He was shocked to find out that the prices had nearly doubled. He then realized how lucky he was to win a tier 3 capsule from the lottery. He then went into his capsule to try and get use to virtual reality before the game can out. When the menu showed up, he picked the coliseum. He tried to run without tripping, but he mostly failed at that. But he was determined, and he kept running until he stopped tripping. He then tried practicing a simple punch and kick. In the real world James was not very athletic, so it took him awhile to get those things right. While doing all of that, James had an idea form in his head. He logged out and started exercising. He did that for a week before going back into the capsule. When he tried doing basic movements in virtual reality, he found them slightly easier to do than the last time he was on. James was excited to find out about this, then he realized something. If an average Joe could figure this out a week before the release, when did the smart ones figured this out. There are also many athletes with years of training. These are the type of people who will have the advantage when the game launches. With this information, James decided to do what he can to get an edge when the game starts. 7 Before The Launch One Week Left: James started to exercise more often after his discovery. He also looked up basic martial art moves and began to practice them. He tried to familiarize himself with fighting, but all he could do was practice the skills and do some shadow sparring. Then he tried out the skills in his VR pod. According to the system evaluation, he did okay. Then he summoned some practice dummies to test his moves on. At first it felt awarded as he never had to hit something before, but after some time he got use to it. 5 Days Left: After constantly hitting dummies, James then decided to to practice on moving dummies in the virtual world. It was hard for James to touch the moving dummies, much less hit them. He then logged out to exercise some more. 3 Days Left: When James logged back into the virtual world, he got asked by the system to create a personal room for him to stay in when he isn''t playing the game. He decided to make the room have a view of Earth from the moon. He also made the interior of his room look like a palace. He then searched news related to Realm of Legends. He discovered something crazy. Starry Dawn announced that in order to start playing the game, one must have been using a World Dive pod for a month for medical reasons. James didn''t really understand why this was a rule, but he was glad that he got his pod installed over a month ago. In the news people were pissed about this, they tried to force Starry Dawn to change this rule, but they would not budge. One Day Left: James was trying calm his mind. The next day would be one to go down in gaming history, and it was for this reason that he was trying to calm himself down. He tried meditation, but that failed. Then he tried to take a hot bath, but that also did not work. He then just decided to tire himself out by jogging. He went online to check out how the internet was reacting to the approaching release. Some people were excited , some were worried, and others just didn''t care. James logged into the virtual world, and decided to look at some scenery that he could not see in real life. The experience was unreal. He saw Niagara Falls, he saw what the world looked like from the peak of Mt Everest, and he saw two planets crashing into each other in space. It was breathtaking. It made him wonder what the scenery would be like in Realm of Legends. Just the thought of it made him excited for the release. One Hour Left: James was pacing back and forth in his virtual room. He had opened up a count down to the game''s start. Starry Dawn still hasn''t put up much much information on the game, and that made the wait all the more exciting. James couldn''t wait to get into the game, and discover ancient secrets to become one of the strongest in the game world. He didn''t believe that would happen to him, but it was still a nice thought. Then the there was one minute left. 8 Character Creation With one minute left until the game finally opens, James becomes more excited. Every second feels like a year, and at some point it even seems that the countdown even stops, but that was all in James head. Then the countdown reaches zero, and a portal opens up in front of James, and he walks through it. He was greeted with a dark space. Then all of the sudden, an angelic figure appears from the darkness. "Welcome to Realm of Legends new player. This world has endless secrets to be discovered, and countless treasures to be taken. But before all of that, you must create an avatar for this world." All of the sudden, a figure appeared. It looked exactly like James. "You are only allowed to change your appearance, but you cannot change your body figure." After hearing that, James wasn''t that surprised. ''I wasn''t gonna change that anyways, after all it would be difficult to get use to a different body figure than I an use too.'' After some time, he decided to make a couple of changes. He decided to turn his brown hair a silvery white, and he turned his brown eyes into a sky blue color. He then tried to see his options for a race. "Hey, why is my only race option human?" "Because that is the only one available to you." "Then how can I get more race options?" "You can obtain them from certain quests or from treasure chests." With that sorted out, James started to think of an in game name. He decided on then name Astro. "I decided on a name. I chose Astro." "Name already taken, please choose another one." "Then Noir." "Name taken, please choose another one." After some time James started getting pissed. "Fine, my name will be Sirius!" "Name available, do you want this name for your character?" "Yes." "Before you can start up the game, you have to open your gift boxes." "What do you mean?" "Because you bought a tier 3 pod, you were given three gift boxes to help you out in the game. The rank of the prizes are Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, and Legendary. There are also Unique and Unknown rank treasures. Unique mean that there is only a few of that treasure, and unknown means that there is no information on that item." "Open all the boxes." Three black boxes with golden outlines showed up. James walked to each of them, and opened then up. The items then came out with their rank and description. Boost Card: Elemental Affinity Rank: Rare Description: When used, it will increase one of the players elemental affinity to a random affinity level. Can only be used once. Use card: Yes/No ''This seems like a useful card. I could probably sell it and make quite a bit a cash, but it''s probably better to use this on me instead.'' James then used the card. "Congrats player, one of your affinities to an element has been boosted." "Which one?" "You will know of that when you enter the game" ''That''s dumb, might as well move to the next item.'' Skill: Random Chance Rank: Rare Description: Activates at random times, and gives the player a random effect. "Do you wish to obtain the skill?'' ''This skill seems kind of weird, but it can help me out at random times.'' James then pressed yes to gain the skill. "Congrats on gaining the skill, Random Chance." "Alright, time to move on to the last box, hopefully this last item isn''t a bust.'' As James looked at the final item, he was stunned. There was an eyeball. The iris was violet, and it had a golden pupil. It gave off a mysterious, yet alluring aura. He then went to read the description. Item: Mysterious Eye Rank: Unknown Description: An eye that can be bonded to a player. Everything else is unknown. Do you wish to bind the eye to your avatar? Yes/No ''This eye, it gives me chills. Should I really bind it to myself?'' After some thought, James decided to go for it. He pressed yes. The eye then floated up into the air, and it rushed into James left eye. "WHAT THE HELL, WHY DOES THIS HURT SO MUCH?!?!?!", James yelled as the eye was binding to him. He nearly passed out from the pain. After some time the pain went away. "The binding process is now complete. Congrats on gaining on the skill Inspection.'' Skill: Inspection Rank: Common (Can Evolve) Description: Player has the ability to see the stats on any common rank item. Has the small possibility to discover an unknown skill on said item. "Do you wish to enter the game now?" "Yes" ''Finally, after all this time I can see what this world has in store for me.'' 9 Entering the Game A portal opened up. "Step through the gate to enter the game " As James walked through the portal, he was blinded by a light. As he recovered, he realized where he was. He was in the sky on a giant floating city. "All players, come to the central building within 5 minutes if you want to pick your main class." James quickly made his way to the central building, only to find a sea of players. James didn''t go directly into the crowd, instead he decided to stay at the edges, but he could still hear everyone cursing at each other, and launching dumb insults. "Look at all these idiots, all trying to get in the front. What, do they think that they''ll get a special prize for being in front? Hmph, what a bunch of morons.", said a voice behind James. The person who said that was an incredibly handsome man, about the same age, as him with blonde hair and red eyes. "Well, it looks like-," the man suddenly stopped as he looked at James. "You there, how did you get different colored eyes? The system would not allow me to do such a thing." "Oh, this umm, I got it from the gift boxes before I went into the game", James made up on the spot. "Is that so," said the man as he left no longer interested. ''That was interesting.'' Then someone appeared on stage. It was a big muscular man and a slender woman. "I know you all want to get into the game and start killing things, but we have to explain a few things first. In order to pick your your class, you need to go through some testing to see all of your aptitude''s on certain aspects. Next my partner here will tell you the situation of the world." The man stopped talking, then the woman started to talk. "There are five known continents in the world. They are known as the North continent, West continent, East continent, South continent, and the Central continent. Each major race owns one of the continents, except for the Central continent. The human race owns the north, beast clans in the west, elves in the east, and the monster races in the south. The Central continent is the largest continent with the most resources, so it is in a state of eternal war, as all the races want it. Since you are all human, you will all be sent to the Northern continent. With that out the way, we will shortly begin the aptitude testing, and then we will send you all to some destination." 10 Aptitude Tes When they were done talking, multiple portals open up. "Step through a portal to go to the testing site. More about aptitudes will be explained there to you." James stepped through a portal. When he stepped out of the portal, he entered a building. There were many pillars, and the ceiling was painted like the night sky. On the edges, there were multiple doors. The on stage a slender women wearing armor with a sword on her back, and a tan man wearing a robe and a mages hat showed up on stage. "Hello we are the people in charge of testing your aptitudes. Although there are many classes you can pick, they are boiled down into two main paths for us humans. They are the part of the warrior and the path of the mage", said the mage. "The world is filled with many forms of energy that the races can strengthen themselves with. Only certain races can use certain energy forms, except for life essence. All race have the ability to use life essence, and life essence is the ''experience points'' that you foreigners use to ''level up''. You get xp from killing any living thing. Usually you need to use special techniques to absorb it, but all of you ''players'' were granted with physiques that can automatically absorb it. Other than life essence, other energy forms are race exclusive. The elves use spirit energy, the beast clans use battle qi, the mister races use desolate energy, and we humans mana. This is the reason why race doesn''t try to invade each other''s gone continent. Only the Central continent has all these energies", the mage concluded. Then the warrior started talking. "The main difference between mages and warriors is were they store their mana. Warriors store mana in their body''s mana vessel, while mages store them in their realm of conscience which is located in the brain. The only reason you can go on one of these paths and not both, is that when you store mana in the mana vessel or the brain, you cannot store mana in the other vessel. No one knows the reason for this. Back to aptitudes, they are ranked 1-10, one being the worst, ten being the best, and five being average. There are also various physiques that can help you out. The ranking of physiques are mortal, earth, heaven, saint, divine. In order to get tested, go through one of the doors. After you get tested you will get sent out to a village or an academy based on your talent." After she finished speaking, all the doors swung open, and people started to go inside. James walked through to the nearest door. When he entered, he saw a crystal ball on a table with a person behind it. "Place your hand on the ball and we will begin the test", the person said as he looked at a screen. James placed his hand on the ball. The a pop up showed up. Show talent menu? Y/N James pressed yes. Then a menu showed up. Talent Screen Name: Sirius Warrior Talent: 6.5 Mage Talent: 6.5 Physique: Thunder Body (Earth Rank) Bloodlines: Human (99.99%) Unknown (00.01%) When James saw his talents, he was having mixed feelings. "Your talent on the mage and warriors path are the same. That is rare occurrence, but a 6.5 is considered adobe average. You also have an additional bloodline, but the concentration is so low, that it is of no use to you. The best thing about you is the fact that you have an earth ranked element body, just that alone can get you into a decent academy. Most people go down the path that they have the most talent in, but since your mage talent and warrior talent are the same, I will open up both doors and you can choose which path you shall walk down." As he finished talking, James heard the sound of doors opening. He turned around and saw two doors open. One has the word ''warrior'' above it and the other has the word ''mage'' above it. "Which path is better to walk down?" "They both have advantages and disadvantages, but neither is better than the other." "What do you mean by academies? I heard outside that after the testing we would be sent to a village." "Only those with talent or special physiques can get into an academy early on, and the rest will be sent to a village. The academy will provide resources for you, and when you graduate, you can gain a certain position in the nation it is based in. With you talent, you couldn''t get into an academy, but you have an earth ranked physique. You physique can get you into an academy of a high ranking kingdom, but it isn''t good enough to get into an empire. Going to village can be good as well. Depending on where the village is, you could find a dungeon with special items, or an ancient inheritance out there. You can make that choice once you pick your path." James then turned around and started walking to a door. 11 The Academy (Author''s note: From now on in the game James will be known as Sirius) Sirius walked through a door and was teleported to a screen. "Select starting location" - Red Road village (Red Star Kingdom, grade 3) - White Valley village(Zenix Kingdom, grade 3) - Mountain Sea Academy (Ten Mountain Kingdom, grade 4) After scrolling down the screen some more, James found the perfect location for him. - Arcadian Royal Academy (Arcadian Kingdom, grade 2) ''Arcadia is the best place for me, it has the highest kingdom grade, and it is the only grade 2 country that is offering a spot to me. I wonder what are the requirements in order to get the attention of a grade 1 kingdom, or a lower ranked empire.'' After selecting the location, a countdown began. After the countdown was over, a hole opened up under him, and it swallowed him whole. Before He could feel shock, he found himself on a field of grass. After looking around some more, he realized that he was in a courtyard. There was a group of people also in the courtyard. After waiting around for some time, a person came out from the majestic building. He was wearing a white robe with purple outlines. "Well it looks like everyone in here. Let''s get started. Welcome to the Arcadian Royal Academy, you being here means that you have enough talent to reach the master tier if you work hard. You are either here because you have great talent, or if you have a special physique. Before we sort you out into classes, I''ll tell you the academy''s rules. Don''t destroy any academy property, or you will be paying for damages. Do not steal from the academy. And the last rule, no killing or crippling. There is a list of more detailed rules inside. Follow me." As he finished talking, massive doors opened up, and everyone followed him inside. There were many tables, with people being registered. After being registered, Sirius was given a dorm key and was told that classes started tomorrow. When he went to his room, there was already another person in there. "Hey there my name is Sirius, who are you?" "My name is Daniel Rose, son of Duke Rose. What is you standing?" "I am a foreigner." "Then you must have some good talent in order to be able to get into this academy", Daniel said with a bit of a condescending tone. "What path are you going down and what class are you in?", Sirius said, hoping to change the subject of the conversation. "I am in class one, the best class in the academy. As for my path, I have better talent to be a warrior than a mage, so I will become the greatest warrior in the kingdom. So how about you?" "I am in class three. I am walking down the path of a mage." Daniel nodded, and went to bed since it was nighttime. Sirius decided that it was also a good time to log off for the day. 12 Forum Check After logging out of the game, James decided to go for a walk. When he went it dawned on him that he was in the game since morning. ''The game opened up at 11, and I logged out at 7pm. Time really flies in the world. Might as well check the internets reaction to the game.'' When James went online, he was surprised to see what was in there. People were outraged about how the game handled where players went based on talent. It was also confirmed that the higher tier pods gave the player higher talent and rarer physiques. James checked the Starry Dawn website to see if they posted any response. The only thing that they responded with was this: Physiques helps the player go down a certain path to a higher level and increases the chances of getting to a certain tier, while talent determines the speed of which the player levels up. That is all they said in response. ''Since I''m here, I might as well check the player ranking if there is one.'' Player Ranking List: 1. Name: Crimson Lord, Class: Apprentice Knight, Level 18, Race: Human 2. Name: Atlas, Class: Apprentice Necromancer, Level 17, Race: Wolf Man (beast clan) 3. Name: Purple Jade, Class: Apprentice Archer, Level 15, Race: High Elf 4. Name: Black Rose, Class: Apprentice Mage, Level 15, Race: Human 5. Name: Fishy, Class: Apprentice Warrior, Level 13, Race: Orc (monster race) .... ''Damn, all these people are nearly at the official tier! How did they do that within the first day? Some even have special classes! The top ten must either have a divine or saint physique, with top tier talents. I haven''t even solidified my class yet. I I thought that I was all that with my earth ranked thunder physique, but according to the site, that isn''t that special. Maybe,that eye could be of use later, but it only gave a common skill and it made my eyes have different colors, so it probably isn''t that special. Well I am gonna check the sites stats on physiques to see if I was lucky or not.'' Player Physique: Mortal (60%) Earth (20%) Heaven (10%) Saint (9.99%) Divine (0.01%) ''The numbers here are insane! There are currently millions of players, and more will come over time, so the divide is pretty big. I guess I was lucky to get an earth ranked physique. Well look at the time, I should go to bed now and continue the game tomorrow.'' 13 Becoming A Mage James went to work the next day, and while working, he heard some of his coworkers talking about Realm of Legends. He even heard his boss praising the game. "Hey James I heard that you got a free pod from the lottery, is that true?" "Yes." "You are only the only one that I know who got something from that lottery. I was really disappointed when I didn''t get one. So tell me, how is it like in the game?" "It feels more real than any game before. If it wasn''t for the system, I really would have beloved that I was in a different world." "Damn, that sounds great. Now I fell like working more to get moneys faster so that I could buy a pod." "Enough chit chat, get back to work," said the boss. After work, James went home. He then went on his phone to text his friends. (Text Start) Max: I''m gonna miss you when I get to college. James: It''s hard to believe that you and Laurence got into one of the top colleges. I wasn''t smart enough to even apply there. Max: Which college did you get into to? James: I''m going to the local community college. Anyways, good lick over there. Max: Bye. (Text End) James was deep in thought. His friends are all going to top tier colleges around the country, while he was stuck at home. It would have been depressing for him, but he has more time to play Realm of Legends than them. He then logged back into the game. When he logged in, he found himself on the bed that he was sleeping on. He saw that his roommate left. ''I should get to class now, can''t fall behind everyone at the starting point.'' When he go to the class, he was surprised. He was told that he was no longer apart of a class, but instead he had to directly report to a professor in order to learn. "I am sorry about this, but the king has decided to send you less talented foreigners to branch academies. Those who pledged loyalty to the kingdom would be given better resources than those who have not." "Am I given the option to do that?" "It doesn''t matter if you pledge your loyalty or not, you still would have been demoted to some branch academy, but a professor has taken a interest in you, so you better not screw this up. Report to him within the hour." Sirius was confused by the sudden change of heart by the kingdom, but he didn''t think too much into it. He then went to see the professor. He arrived in front of a wooden door with black steel handles. As soon as he touched the door, he felt a electric shock go through him, but it felt strangely comfortable. When he walked inside, he saw a tall man with golden hair, wearing a white robe with blue outlines. "Ah, you must be Sirius, pleasure to meet you. My name is Ronald Fargen, but you shall call me professor Ron", said the man as he approached to shake Sirius hand. "Professor Ron, why did you take an interest in me?It must be something really interesting for you to go out of your way to keep me in the main academy." "The only reason why I am keeping you here is because of you thunder physique. As you can see I am a mage who uses the power of thunder and lightning. So I often do experiments with thunder, but no one can ever assist me, because they will probably die, but you are different. You have a much greater affinity and resistance to thunder than most people. So I will teach and train you, but in exchange you must help me in my experiments." "I agree, but I haven''t even reached the apprentice tier yet, so I don''t know how much help I could provide." "Do you want to be a mage or a warrior?" "A mage." "Then I will help you advance today, but after your advancement, you will help me in a certain experiment right away." "Okay, but how will you help?" "I will put a sliver of mana in sea of consciousness, helping you to become an apprentice mage. Are you ready?" "I am." Just then Sirius felt a flow of energy enter his body, making its way to his brain. He also felt another, more familiar energy enter his body''s core. He then called out his status screen to see what has changed. Name: Sirius Class: Apprentice Mage Tier: Apprentice Level: 1 EXP: 0% 14 The Professor’s Explanations After checking his job page, Sirius decided to check his stats and skills. Stat Screen: Strength: 0.9 Agility: 0.82 Vitality: 1.0 Perception: 2.25 Mana: 2.0 Innate Skills: Random Chance: When activated, something good or bad will randomly happen Bloodline Skills: Inspection: Has the ability to look at that the stats of common grade items. Small chance of discovering an unknown function. Can also see stats of apprentice tier beings. ''Is this all? Why are my stats like this? Strength doesn''t even have a single point!'' "Hmm, these stats seems okay for someone like you. Its average across the board, except for your perception, it''s pretty high for your level. It''s also one of the hardest stats to increase." "What does perception even do?" "It affects the speed in which learn spells and martial skills. It also has other purposes, but you can use that later on. Your innate skill though, seems unique to say the least. To put it bluntly, I have never seem random chance before, but it has the ability to change the situation for better or worse. This could be useful in the experiment. You also have a bloodline skill, even though it is a common skill, it is still a bloodline skill." "What is a bloodline skill?" "It is a special skill that comes from your bloodline, while innate skills comes from the soul. So it is pretty surprising that you have awakened a bloodline skill before the official tier. Your bloodline skills will strengthen with you when you get stronger, you might even get more bloodline skills later on. However you cannot get any more innate skills." "Why are all the races fighting over the central continent? From what I heard, it is several times larger than all the other continents combined, so why can''t they just split it?" "I do not know the answer to that, only the highest echelons of humanity and the other races know the truth. From rumors I heard, the central continent has the secret of how to dominate all races, but those are just rumors." "Can you demonstrate a spell for me?" Professor Ron looked at him surprised, but he still agreed. He then turned and walked in from of a target. Sirius heard him speak an incantation, and lightning shot out of his hands, leaving burn marks on the target. Sirius was shocked. He had seen movies and games that had characters show off spells, but it seems much more real than he had expected it to be. "If your already shocked by this, it pains me to imagine how you will end up in the future. The spell I just casted was a simple scatter spell. I will teach it to you later on, but now it is time for the experiment." 15 The First Ques *Ding* Quest: Help the professor in his experiments Success: ??? Failure: get demoted to a branch academy Accept/Deny ''Really have no choice do I?'' Sirius thought with a bitter smile. He pressed accept. Professor Ron lead him to a table. ''Might as well try inspection now.'' He then used that skill on the table. Item: Oak Table Rank Common Description: a normal oak table ''That was pointless.'' The professor than pulled out a box. When he opened it, there were a bunch of potions in the box. The off pulled one out and handed it to him. "Drink this, I promise that it won''t kill you, probably." "What!! Are you serious?!?" "Yes, drink it, or you will be sent to a branch academy." Sirius reluctantly took the potion from his hands and gulped down. He felt dizzy and then he threw up. (Player has received food poising, duration is a few seconds.) "Hmm, must have added too much snakeroot. Try this one now." After trying all the potions in the box, Sirius felt quite sick. The professor ron pulled out a small box. When he opened it, the was purple colored potion inside of it. Sirius thought that he had seen a lightning strike inside the bottle, but then he thought that he was hallucinating from the potions before hand. "This round of potion testing has helped to confirm some things that I needed to know. This is the last potion you will drink today. I wasn''t sure if you were ready, but seeing that your still conscience, it would be a waste not to have you drink it." Sirius got the potion and gulped it down like the rest, but it was different. He didn''t fell sick at all, he even felt that his body was getting stronger as a comfortable energy spreader through out his body. *Ding* (Vitality has been increased to 1.1, strength has been increased to .99, agility has increased .95, mana increased to 2.5) "Looks like my hypothesis was right on this potion." "The effects are amazing, how much are you gonna sell them for?" "That potion can only be consumed by people with an innate thunder physique, so only you and I can take potions like this and have a positive effect. I gave you that potion to strengthen your body, because you going to come with me to hunt down ingredients for my other experiments. But for now I will teach you a basic spell of you choice as a reward for today. Here is the book pick one carefully." Sirius was given a book filled with basic spells.He flipped through the pages to find one that seemed useful to him. "I pick mana arrow." "You sure about this? This is a difficult spell to learn as a beginner, plus it takes up 0.75 mana per use, so you can only use it three times." "I am sure, but I have another request to." After Sirius told him his additional request. Professor Ron was surprised. He agreed to it. When he was demonstrating the spell, a notification popped up (Mana Arrow learned: 1/6) After the professor repeated this six times, Sirius got another notification. (Spell Learned: Mana Arrow: can use mana to form an arrow to penetrate the armor of enemies. Current Success Rate: 20%) After learning, Sirius practices the spell until the success rate reached 80%. The professor supplied him mana recovery potions to speed up the process. Then the professor then started to teach him the other thing that he had requested. When it reached nighttime, he went to his room and logged off. 16 Preparation for the fores When James left the pod, he was greeted by a pretty, yet angry face. "Dumbass! Didn''t I tell you to limit the amount of time you play that game? How will you able to control yourself when I leave next week?" "Sarah clam down. By the time you leave, I will-" "Why do you look sick? This is what you get for staying in that damn pod for such a long time!" "Don''t worry about that, I''ll be fine." "Who will take of you when you get sick? Get a hold of yourself. Mom and dad aren''t here to look after us anymore." "You don''t need to worry. I will get this under control. You just focus on getting ready for the elite high school you got into to. Besides I won''t be here alone, grandma is here too." After hearing those words, Sarah calmed down, but she still left the room with an angry face. James sighed when he saw that, but he still got ready for dinner. After dinner, James went to bed early. After work the next day, he logged back into the game. After logging back in, Sirius walked towards the professors lab. "There you are Sirius, I have the items that you requested. Here is a box filled with common grade daggers, and he is the daggers mastery skill book." "Thank you for getting me these items, where they hard to get?" "It wasn''t much trouble to get the daggers, but the skill book took a little more effort. You were lucky that this skill book was cheap, or I would have not done it. But I am curious, why do you want to learn dagger mastery skill book even though you are a mage? And why daggers, it is easy to get into the beginner level, but it is much harder to reach higher levels in it, compared to other weapons? "Even though mages have unimaginable strength at higher tiers, but we are the weakest class in the apprentice level, so it is better to have a weapon to fight with early on then to depend on spells. As for daggers, it easy to keep them hidden, and can be used as a trump card." Sirius then went to his room taking the box of daggers with him and used inspection on them. All the daggers were low grade and didn''t have any special effects. Then... Item Name: Rusty Dagger Grade: Common Description: A rusty dagger made of normal iron. A special feature has been found, remaking dagger. The dagger then started to glow. The rust disappeared, and the dagger turned into a silver color. Small blue colored runes appeared on the edges of the dagger. Sirius then used inspection to re-evaluate the dagger. Item Name: High Quality Iron Dagger Grade: Common Description: A dagger made of high grade iron. Has runes that cause certain effects when mana is poured into it. Effect 1: When mana is poured into it, sharpness increases by 10% for one minute Effect 2: When mana is poured into it, strength increases by 5% for 30 seconds. ''So that''s what happens when a unknown effect is found. It completely changed the dagger! This will definitely be useful in the forest. Might as well use this skill book now'' Sirius then used the skill book. He then checked his skill menu to see if anything changed. New Skill added Name: Dagger Mastery Grade: Common Description: Effects how well you use the dagger. Level: Beginner "Are you ready to go to the dark forest?", asked the professor as he walked into Sirius''s room. "I''m ready." "Then let''s go." 17 The Slime Stampede Sirius and Professor Ron soon arrived at the entrance of the forest. "The dark forest takes up 25% of this island. It is the most dangerous place in all of the Derock islands." "Island?" "I forgot that you were teleported here directly along with the otherworldlers. There are many islands in the Derock chain, but it has three main islands. The highest grade countries here are only grade 2 kingdoms, and there are only three grade 2 kingdoms here at that. Our Arcadian kingdom is the weakest, as it''s grade advanced 50 years ago. The other two kingdoms are the Ogden Kingdom and the Faske Kingdom. If the Derock islands were unified by any one nation, that nation would become a grade 1 kingdom, and the path to the humans main continent would opened." "What, I though that-" "Thought what? That you were in an important area of humanity? In the face of the strongest empires of man, we are nothing more than a backwater village. It''s a miracle that three grade 2 kingdoms arose in such a place, but that is nothing in their eyes. In order for an offshore country to have contact with the human continent, they must be at least a grade 1 kingdom, that is an iron clad rule of humanity." After some more talking and walking, they arrived at their destination. Sirius then started to pick the plants that the professor told him to pick. He used inspection on one of them. Item Name: ??? ''I forgot that inspection only works on common grade items, this just makes me want to level up more.'' Then all of the sudden, he saw a slime. "Be careful, even if it is weak don''t underestimate it.", said the professor from behind him. Sirius then lunges at the slime, only for it to dodge at the last second. This continued for a while until he got a lucky hit. *Level Up!* ''About time.'' Stats: Strength: .99 Agility: .95 Vitality: 1.10 Perception: 2.25 Mana: 2.50 "Why didn''t my stats increase?" "Stats only increase when you cross bottlenecks. The first bottleneck is level 10 to l level 11, that is when your stats have a noticeable increase." ''Damnit.'' Then they heard a lot of squishy noises, and the ground slightly trembled. "It''s a slime stampede! Get ready boy, take these potions." The professor then threw him some vitality restoration potions and some mana restoration potions. The stampede came. It looked like a wave of slimes. They started running, but the slimes were catching up. Sirius wildly used mana arrows hoping to slow down the stampede, but that didn''t work, but he still kept on doing that and kept drinking the potions. Eventually some slimes caught up to him, so he then used dagger skills to kill them. They got away shortly after. The Sirius heard something. *Level Up!* *Level Up!* *Level Up!* *Vitality has increased by .05, Mana has increased by .05* He then checked his level. Name: Sirius Class: Mage Tier: Apprentice Level: 5 ''Finally at a decent level.'' 18 The Professors Contract Beas "Although l that slime stampede was unexpected, it provided me with the rest of the materials that I needed. It also allowed you level up. It seems to be getting dark, and that''s when the true demon beasts come out." "I don''t think we''ll make it back in time, should we hide out somewhere?" "That won''t work, the demon beasts would find us, and those ones have the strength and power of a late-stage grandmaster tier. I have a way for us to get back to the academy fast." Then he whistled, and a loud roar was heard. The ground trembled as loud footsteps were heard getting closer and closer. Then it showed up. It looked like a giant lizard, but instead green skin, it had bright red and orange scales. It''s teeth was as black as charcoal. It''s eyes looked like as if it was on fire. "WHAT IN THE HELL IS THIS?!?!?!" "Calm down, this is my contracted beast. It is a flame lizard, we formed a contract a few years ago when this guy was a baby. The only reason that it looks this fierce is due to all the treasures I fed it. This will be our ride back." That was the professor noticed that Sirius was still in shock, so he threw some powder on him. "What was that?" "Something to refocus your mind. Get on the lizard.It''s speed doesn''t lose out to an early stage grandmaster beast, so it can get us out of here quickly." "You keep on calling the monsters demon beast, why is that?" "That''s because they are separate races. Monsters are powerful beings with ancient bloodlines that can use desolate qi, they also have intelligence compared to humans. Demon beasts are creature with no intelligence. They use whatever energy is most available. The demon beasts the human continent uses mana, while demon beasts on the elven continent uses spirit qi, and so on. They also can special bloodlines. For example,my flame lizard has a thin bloodline of the fire flood dragon, a powerful monster that can reach the peak of the grandmaster tier. The bloodline is really thin and diluted though, so it can only ever reach the early stage master tier in its life and time." "Did anyone try to kill your beast for its bloodline?" "It''s too much work for such a thin bloodline, but those beasts with thicker bloodlines are hunted down by those who wants their bloodline. Ah here we are, you should go and get some rest or you can go train in the training hall. Here is a token to let you in there, and take some mana recovery potions too., said the professor as he handed him those items. Sirius then went to the training hall, and began to train in using mana arrow to increase its proficiency and lower its mana cost. After trying for a few hours, he decreased the mana cost .50 per spell, and he increased proficiency to 85%. ''It seems like today was a great day for me. I finally reached level 5, my spell is getting better, and I even saw a powerful demon beast. I wonder if I could ever get a powerful demon beast one day. Look at the time, might as well log off for the day.'' 19 The Choice @@ James went to work the next day as all ways. He has heard some rumors that companies rivaling Starry Dawn have begun to heavily invest into a VR game of their own, and that they are having rapid success. After he work he went to the online forums and saw countless complaints about the game itself. A lot of people said that aptitude and talent system were extremely unfair, and others saying that it is taking forever to level up. He then checked the site to see the top ranking players and was shocked to see that they were all stuck at level 20. ''This really isn''t like any other game, in other games the top player would be at level 50 by now, but they are all stuck at level 20. No wonder why so many people wants to quit the game. If the rumors that I heard earlier were true, then those companies have their work cut out for them.'' He then logged back into the game. He was told to try potions as usual. This was his in game schedule from day to day. Occasionally when he logged in, they went to the forest to collect ingredients for professors ron potions. He never even taught him another spell after mana arrow. He couldn''t get the professor to get him any items after the dagger and skill book. After the usual potion and occasional crafting experiments, he usually went into the training room to train mana arrow, or his dagger skills. After a month of the same boring schedule, something finally changed. The professor called for him. When he entered the his office, he saw a hammer and an empty potion tube on there. "It has been over a month since you became my student. You have lasted longer than anyone else, as they nearly died or decided to run away. Since you lasted a month under me, I am obligated to teach you an secondary class as well. So I am giving you a choice. I specialize in magic crafting and potion making, so choose one of these for me to teach to you." ''Is this really happening?!?! My patience has finally paid off! What to choose, what to choose?''@@ 20 The Draf "I choose potioneering." The professor smiled. "Good choice, even though magic crafting is one of my skills, I am only at the intermediate level with that. Potioneering on the other hand, I have reached the grandmaster level. I am one of the most experienced potioneering masters on the Derock island chain." "Then why do you work here if you are that good?" "They give me all the research materials that I need. Anyways drink this." He handed him a gray colored potion. Sirius drunk that and had a slight headache. *Potioneering Skill gained. Current Level: Beginner* "Here is a potioneering set. I''ll let you pick a recipe for free." The professor threw a book at Sirius. After looking around in the book, he picked fasting potion. "Why did you pick this potion?" "So I don''t get hungry on long trips or certain adventures." "I''ll demonstrate for you a few times and that''s it. Watch closely." The professor demonstrated a few times. With his perception, Sirius got the hang of it after a few times. He was then given materials to practice on his own. He failed after all the attempts he did on that day. The professor said that it was normal to fail during the first week. Even super geniuses fail on their first day. So after two weeks of trying and using up a lot of resources, he finally succeeded. "Finally, you succeeded after two weeks. That is considered good to most people, but to me, you barely reached my expectations. With the amount of resources you had, you should have succeeded earlier! If you had kept on failing, I would have kicked you out of the academy for making me lose face!" Then an armored guard came into the lab and gave him a letter. He then left. The professor read the letter, and as he read the read the letter, his face turned sour. After the letter, he slammed his fist down on the desk in rage. "Damnit!" "What is it?" "Read this!" After he read the letter, he was shocked. The letter stated that the three grade 2 kingdoms finally went to war. It also stated that Sirius was drafted into thewar. He was to report to Fort Denvis by the end of the week. "I had a whole training schedule planned out for you. Then this came and ruined all of that! And this is an order by the king!" "The king asked for me specifically?" "Not you specifically. The king ordered that all otherworlders must report to a military base at camp by the end of the week. I can''t do anything about it. So before you leave, I will cram everything that I planned to teach you into a few days. Get ready for hell." ''I have a bad feeling about this.'' 21 The Potion Squad "Name?" "Sirius." "Ah, you must be the disciple of the great potion expert, professor Ron. You have been placed in a special area due to that. Go to lab 4." As Sirius was walking to where he needed to go, he recalled what happened in the last week. He shuddered as he remembered all the professor put him through to prepare for the war. Forcing him to master the basic healing potion, make his dagger skills to the intermediate level, and getting to level 12. The worst part of it all was learning how to dissect demon beasts to get valuable materials. The corpses were terrifyingly gross. He suddenly reached a door when he was done with his flashback. He entered into the room. "Hello, my name is Sirius. Nice to-" "So you''re that lucky bastard who got the legendary potion grandmaster as a teacher! You must have some great talent to become his student! I would like to see that talent. I challenge you to-", the rude man suddenly punched so hard, that he flew into the wall. "I am so sorry about that, my name is Vivian, and I am in charge of the fourth potioneering squad. That person in the wall is Reginald, don''t worry about him. He is just a little jealous that you are the student of the teacher that rejected him. Even so, I''m curious on the reasons why the professor picked you to be his student? Countless people tried to impress him with their potioneering skills, but they all failed. What potions can you make?" "I have a 83.7% proficiency in fasting potions and 47.2% proficiency in basic healing potions. I started making potions around three weeks ago." "Learning two potions in three weeks under the grandmaster is pathetic! Even I know more than-", Reginald, who seemed to have recovered and got out the wall was punched into another wall byVivian. "Shut it you moron! You only have learned six potions with decently proficiency in each, and you have been doing this for five years!!" She then turned to Sirius. "So you were accepted even though you didn''t know anything about potions at all, so he must have taken you as a student for some other reason. You don''t have to tell me, I don''t care. The rest of the squad should be arriving tomorrow , but for now, it''s just the three of us. Here is your station. I need you to make eight fasting potions and four basic healing potions. Here are some ingredients. When you are done, let me know and I will have someone send you to the bunks." Sirius then went to make the potions. He was glad that the people here weren''t sticks in the mud, but the were somewhat comedic people. He just hoped that the rest were decent as well. 22 Contribution Points After a few days of making potions, he received a medal with the number 27 on it. "What is this Vivian?" "That is the medal containing your contribution points. You only get this when you get points. When you turn in potions, you receive a certain number of points depending on the quality of the potion. You can exchange the points for some resources, spells, techniques, recipes, and other such things to help you to survive the war. By the way, anything good costs at least 50 points." "So you can get anything with contribution points?" "Some of the more better items have other conditions to be fulfilled in order to get them. You can also get nobility points when you do something that can effect the war in our favor. Nobility points are significantly harder get, but they can be used to get a noble title and a territory, or can be exchanged for resources at a reduced rate. You can exchange contribution points for nobility points, but it is a 100:1 conversion rate, and you need at least 50 nobility points to get the knight title." "Thanks for the information, where can I exchange the points?" Vivian then directed Sirius to the store, and he went on his way. When he got there, he was given a catalogue of what he could get. He was told that he had a catalogue that was better than those given to common soldiers due to his physique and his teacher. He flipped through it skimming what he could get. ''Vivian was right, all the decent stuff is at least worth 50 points. Even this vitality boosting potion that increases your vitality by .001 is worth 45 points. Seriously everything in here is way overpriced.'' After flipping around some more, Sirius found something interesting. He found a page of bloodlines that you exchange for. Bloodlines: Wind Wolf Peak Tier: Official (early stage) Description: Increases wind affinity and agility by 0.5. Can help one to increase their chances of becoming an official tier. Cost: 250 contribution points Water Snake Peak Tier: Official (early stage) Description: Increases water affinity, increases agility by 0.25, and perception by 0.003. Can increase ones chance of becoming an official tier. Cost: 300 contribution points Iron Monkey Peak Tier: Official (mid stage) Description: Increases strength and vitality by 1.0. Can increase ones chance of becoming an official tier. Cost: 300 contribution points ''Figures, these bloodlines can only reach the official tier, but some of these additional effects are pretty good.'' After looking through the catalogue, Sirius developed a plan of what to get, and how many points he needed. 23 Advances in the Bloodline Name: Sirius Level: 12 Class: Mage Stats: Strength: 1.05 Agility: 1 Vitality: 1.2 Mana: 3.0 Perception: 2.25 Bloodlines: Human (99.99%), Unknown (00.01%) Skills: Random Chance: When activated, a random effect occurs. (Innate) Inspection: Can see the stats and effects of any common class item, has a low probability of finding a hidden skill. (Bloodline) Dagger Mastery: Beginner Spells: Mana Arrow: 75% proficiency Thunder Strike: 5% proficiency (physique) ''Looks like getting to level 12 allowed me to automatically get a thunder spell due to my physique. All my stats have finally gone over 1, but most of the soldiers have an average stat of one across the board. But I have finally gotten enough points for the thing that I want.'' He then grabbed his contribution medal and left his room to go to the store. When he got there, he flipped through the catalogue until he found what he wanted. He then told the person at the counter, and exchanged the points. While he was waiting, he could not stop shaking from the excitement. Then the person came back with a black box with red designs, and a golden flower. He took them and then rushed back into his room. He then opened the box, and a blood colored potion was inside of it. Sirius could barely hold the temptation to swallow it whole, but he decided to use inspection on it. Name: Bloodline Enhancement Potion Rank: Common Description: Can increase the bloodline thickness by 1-3% of the lowest ranked bloodlines, effect diminishes with higher ranked bloodlines. The flower was an uncommon ranked item, so he couldn''t use his skill on it. The flower has the ability to increase your luck by a small amount for a few minutes when swallowed. He then initiated his plan. He first swallowed the flower. *Ding, you have swallowed a low rank luck flower. Things might go in your favor for a couple of minutes.* He then swallowed the blood potion, and activated random chance shortly after. *Ding, you have swallowed a low ranking blood potion, increasing your bloodline thickness by a small percentage.* *Ding! Random Chance has been activated. The bloodline potion effect has been increased.* After the effects of the potion stooped, he checked his bloodline. Bloodlines: Human(99%), Unknown(1%) ''Yes!'' *Ding! Due to the increase in bloodline thickness, the skill inspection has leveled up to Uncommon. It can now see the stats of uncommon ranked objects. There is a small chance to find a hidden feature on the object* *Ding! Perception increased to 3.50* ''This is great!'' 24 First Figh It was the middle of night in the game, and Sirius was up late at night trying to get more points to get an exp potion. He was carful not to to touch Reginald''s experimental potions, because they blew up 95% of the time. All of sudden he heard a faint noise. He turned around and saw nothing. He then went back to his room and pretended to go to sleep, but when he heard movement, he began to follow the noises silently. He sent a message to the law enforcement unit through his medal, and he got a response saying that they would check it out. He didn''t believe that they would actually go there and check it out. So he kept following the noise, with a few of Reginald''s potion in hand just in case. Then the lab blew up! Sirius got so surprised, that he blew his cover, and flying knife barely missed his face. The knife left a small cut on his face which blood came out of. ''That actually hurts! I thought the pain tolerance was set to 0! I need to change that, but I can''t do that now! For now, I need to go get help.'' As he turned to get help, he got stabbed. "AHHH!!!!!!" * -45% HP* He fell to the floor twitching in pain. "That''s what you get for stalking us kid, now prepare to die!", said a feminine voice. Sirius quickly drunk a health potion, and quickly dodged the blade. The enemy kept swinging her blade, hitting him most of the time. The pain was effecting his movements, but he kept drinking heath potions to survive. Then he activated mana arrow and aimed it at her after he got some distance between them. He missed, so he kept on firing the spell, while missing. She got close and stabbed in him in the legs. She then got close to him. "Accept your death coward.", she said as she was about to stab him in the head. In order to survive, Sirius put all of his faith on his luck, and fired thunder strike. The spell worked, striking her in the face. "AHHH!", screamed the enemy, as she covered her face dropping the blade. While she was covering her face, Sirius quickly grabbed her blade, and he slit her throat. Blood flew from her neck, staining his robes. Sirius was trying to calm himself, but he wasn''t sure if he even felt upset about this. He cane up with the reason he wasn''t feeling that upset was because he killed in self defense. *Ding! For killing an early-stage official tier, you leveled up to level 15! Mana increased to 3.75* Then he realized that he was in the game. But it frightened him that he thought that this was real life. Then another person started to attack him. ''Seriously!!! I just killed one, and now another one is here! If I could only blow them up.... I forgot that I had Reginald''s potions. That fight early was for nothing?!?!? Well anyway I still have the potions to use.'' He then threw the potion on the oncoming enemy. When it hit him, he was blasted backward and set ablaze. That attracted more enemies to come to him, but it also attracted help to aid. Most the enemies got away, but a few were captured for questioning. He then decided that he had enough gaming for the day and he logged off to cool down. 25 Noble Titles When Sirius logged in the next day, he was called over to the interrogation room. When he entered the room, he saw a terrifying man. He told him to retell the events of last night. While he told the story, the mans gaze softened. "So you''re saying that she didn''t kill you right away, but instead she messed around with you?" "Yes." "Don''t fell to proud about killing an official tier assassin, she got cocky and played with like a big That she could crush anytime. The reason being that if even you hit her with a mana arrow, it wouldn''t have done much damage. She had a necklace that blocked all apprentice rank spells. The only reason you killed was because of your thunder physique, which allowed you to kill her with an elemental spell. Only official tiers can use elemental attacks, so your attack caused a moment of shock, which you used to kill her. Just know this, if you had hesitated for even a second longer, she would''ve recovered and got serious. Now this other person you damaged, you got him because of your luck as well. He came in, got shocked about seeing his dead comrade, and while he was in shock, you threw an explosion potion at him. Well either way, you still killed/captured official tier assassins of the dark guild. There will be a reward ceremony for you and the others who obstructed the invaders this evening. You get time of till afternoon, someone will prepare you for the ceremony. Get out now." Sirius bowed to the man and he then quickly left. He had thought that the award would be modest for getting the assassins, but that talk made him realize that this was a much bigger deal than he thought. Then he saw Vivian run to him. "I heard that you killed and injured official tier assassins, is that true?!?!" "Yes, how bi-" Vivian then cut him off after he said yes. "Damn! You are really lucky to have a master tier come over for the ceremony. I heard rumors of the rewards you could get, and some of them could help you become an official tier! I even heard rumors that some of you guys could get presented with a noble title! I''m really jealous of you, in most situations people only get noble titles when they become an official tier. Yet here you are, a mid-stage apprentice, might have a chance to get a noble title!" "Hey, what are the noble title ranks?" "First there is knight. This title is given to all those who have reached the mid-stage official tier. They govern a few small villages, and certain resources, such as mines. The next title is mayor. This title is generally given to knights who have developed their villages greatly, or to those who have done a meritorious deed for the kingdom. They generally have a few towns and the surrounding area as their territory. The next title is baron, and in order to become a baron, you need to reach the master tier. They have a control of few mayors and the surrounding territory. The next title is marquis, and in order to gain this title, you must become a peak-stage master tier. They have a few barons under their control and the surrounding territories. Then come the dukes. In order to become a duke, you must become a grandmaster tier. They each have a main city and the surrounding marquises under their control. Every time a new duke title is given, an entire city is built from scratch for them. This title isn''t hereditary, only early-stage grandmaster tiers can become dukes. Then there is the king, he is a mid-stage grandmaster tier himself. I heard that he is attempting to become a late-stage grandmaster tier, so that he can rule over the entire Derock island chain." "Wow, thanks for the description. That really cleared some things up for me." "Well, look at the time, I got to go and meet my quota for the day, see you later." Sirius then went to his room to digest all that he heard today. He realized that he severely underestimated the gap between tiers. He then also realized how lucky he was to survive, and kill an official tier. After some time, someone got to his room and started to prepare him for the award ceremony. He was cleaned up and told of what he must do in order not to offended anyone. He was also told that he had the lowest status of anyone in the award ceremony. He was put into a black suit, and his hair slicked back. He was in front of the door leading to the main hall, waiting to be called in. Then he heard his name called, and with a deep breath, he went in. 26 The Award Ceremony When Sirius entered the main hall, he was completely shocked. The pearl white pillars had red drapes coiling around it. The walls were draped with red and gold curtains. The chandeliers looked like crystals that released a golden colored light. There was a silver carpet leaded him to the stage. He had quickly recovered, and continued to walk to the stage. When he got there he was told to sit down on a seat next to others. He looked at the others on the stage, and they all had a noble air around them. He recognized one of then as Daniel Rose, his roommate, before the king made rules about otherworlders going to branch academies. He liked the most cocky, as if this is all for him. He then looked at everyone else''s face, and realized that they all had similar look. ''Why do they all look like that? Did they contribute to the stopping of the enemy raid that much?'' Then all the guests start to show up, and the tables start filling up. Sirius assumes that they were all nobles. Then the ceremony began. "We are here to celebrate these youngsters for stopping an enemy raid at this fort. I, Marquis Don, will present them the rewards in order of most contribution to least contribution. First is Sylvia Ester, daughter of Duke Ester. She will be awarded the title knight and a peak grade rare fire blade for destroying the lab that the enemies were after. Next is Daniel Rose, son of Duke Rose. He will be awarded the title knight and a late-grade ice spear for killing two official tier combatants. Next is Evan Hazer, grandson of Duke Hazer. He will be awarded the title knight and the mid-grade steel sword ''Feathered blade'' for capturing three enemies. Finally is Sirius, a commoner. He will be awarded with the title squire and three low-grade experience potions for killing an assassin and injuring another." While he was speaking, Sirius noticed something about the speaker and the crowd. When they were talking about the kids of the dukes, everyone clapped and looked proud and sincerely appreciative, but when he was mentioned, the distaste on everyone''s face was as clear as day. He reasoned that maybe the others accomplishments weren''t as good as they sounded, and that they probably had a outside help, but he couldn''t say anything about it out of fear of punishment from the nobles. When the ceremony was over, they went down from the stage to eat the banquet that was set. The others were congratulated, and praised constantly about their futures, while those who talked him did so in an arrogant manner. He even heard in some conversations that this was the peak of his life, or that he somehow fooled the higher ups into giving him awards. It was upsetting to hear this. When he went to the others for a chat, they all just glared at him until he left. He then decided that it was best to leave early. Then next day, he got a letter from his professor on getting a title. Later that day a guard came in. "Squire Sirius, since you now have a title, you will be transferred to Fort Geret, the fort closest to the dark forest. When you get there, you will be placed in the hunting department, in which you would be responsible for getting resources out the forest. You will be sent there tomorrow, so pack your bags." The guard then left, leaving Sirius alone with his thoughts. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. 27 The Ques "Welcome to Fort Geret. Get off the wagon and sign in." Sirius left the wagon and walked inside the Fort. Surprisingly, there were only a few others that came with him on the trip. When he got into the fort, he was given looks of pity. This confused him greatly. He turned to the others to see their faces deprived of hope. When he signed in, he asked a guard a few questions. "Hey, what is the purpose of the fort?", asked Sirius. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "You weren''t told were you? Well it''s better for you to know how you will die. This fort defends against the demon beasts of the forest, it also has a high death rate. Did you offend anyone to be sent here?" "I don''t think so." "What''s your name?" "It is Sirius." "Your that guy who got a title at the ceremony for the dukes descendants. That explains it. One of them probably didn''t like sharing the spotlight with you, and pulled some strings to have you sent here." "..... Where do I report to?" "According to this, you report to the lab to make potions." Sirius thanked the guard for the information, and he went on his way. He was pissed off that just because he got an award, some f***ing spoiled b**** had him sent to the fort with the highest death rate. It reminded him of some unpleasant memories of his childhood. He reported to the lab and started making potions. He then felt the ground shake. Someone told him that the shaking was normal. After making the potions, he went to his room and he drunk the exp potions that he got as a reward. *Ding! Level raised to 14!* That was the peak of his day. He continued to make potions in the fort, and he wasn''t allowed to leave. He also learned that the contribution points system extend to this fort due to the danger of sending high value items there. Sirius felt like he hit rock bottom. All he did was make potions for the week, and his reward was a short walk around the base. While he was walking, Sirius considered whether it was better to delete this character and make a new one. But then he felt something. The feeling cane from his bloodline. It caused him to desire whatever was in the forest. He soon regained control of himself due the lack of bloodline thickness. He suddenly then got a quest. Soul Bound Quest Description: You must find whatever is resonating with your bloodline. This is a chain quest. As this is a soul bound quest, you cannot turn it down. Reward:??? Failure: Character gets deleted. 28 Joining The Forest Exploration Team When Sirius received the soul bound quest, he was ecstatic. He finally had a plan to go forward! He needed to get into the forest to move the quest chain along. He went to the officer head quarters to see if he could get moved to the forest exploration team. He wasn''t sure how this would go, because the last time he went there to get moved to a different base, he was shot down. "What are you here for?", asked the officer. "What must I do in order to get into the forest exploration team." The officers eyes went wide, and his jaws dropped to the floor. He wanted to ask if he had a death wish. But instead he replied with an answer. "There is a test coming in a few days to see if you can join the team. I will send your record to the higher ups, and they will determine if you can take the test." After Sirius left, the officer sent a message by bird to someone. The bird traveled at top speed at night . In the morning the bird reached a mansion. It flew inside to a young person resting in a large bed. When the person woke up, they reached out to the bird, and they took the letter. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "HA! That otherworlder trash really has a death wish, wishing to join the exploration team. I just had him sent there for stealing my spotlight at that award ceremony, but for him to walk to his own death is just the icing on the cake! Well who am I stop him from his wish." The person sent the bird back with the letter stating that he could join the exploration team if he wanted too. He then sent a message to Sirius stating that he could take the test. Sirius was glad about that. He planned to take the test a support unit, suppling recovery potions. When the time came to take the test, he was surprised to see that only a few people came to take the test. When he told them that he was applying to be a potioneer support unit, they had him make whatever potion he could make. He made the fasting potion and basic health potion with ease, which made him the top scorer of the test. He was told that he would sent out in a couple of days. So he used that time make a stock of potions, and he some of them for a few back ups Incase something goes wrong in the forest. 30 Game News James logged out of the game and he went on to the news to see what was happening around the world. James lives in the Vergun Federation on the planet named Gaia. The Federation was in a power crisis, and in order to solve that they created a base on Flender, Gaia''s second largest moon in order to get resources to use in nuclear reactors. The base has been operational for 20 years, but the federation didn''t want to completely depend on Flender''s resources, so they created the Five Elite Academies so that the elite of the younger generation would be able to beyond Gaia and get new resources on other worlds. James failed to get into the elite academies, but his friends got into Academy #5, but his sister was recruited and given a scholarship by Academy #2. As he was watching the news, he was to surprised to see news of Starry Dawn. "The hacking competition has ended and no one was able to hack into Realm of Legends or any of Starry Dawn''s files. In other news gaming companies such as Vega and Kintendo have reached a massive bottleneck in the progress in making their own full dive games. Even though they are far from finishing, they are receiving massive amounts of support from people from around the world, including a shocking number of players from Realm of Legends. Speaking of which Phill, What is your opinion of the game?" "Well Kathy, the graphics of the game are absolutely amazing, and the NPCs function like real people, but they act too real for my taste. They make the game much harder to play, and many of the players agree with me. It is very difficult to start up in Realm of Legends unless you get really lucky. And there have been no responses from Starry Dawn on this matter." "Interesting Phill, maybe that''s the reason why so many people are supporting other companies for attempting to make their own VR games. We will be right back after the break." James then closed the TV and went online to check something. He wanted to see how many players were left in the area where he was in. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Region Name: Derock Island Chain Number of Players: 1 31 Into the Fores James was shocked at seeing that he was the only one left in the Derock Islands. He went to the forums to see why he was the only one left. He couldn''t find anything about the Derock islands, but he did find that many people had restarted their accounts due to the fact that the npcs in the high tier kingdoms area just saw them as cannon fodder. He started to wonder what would happen to Starry Dawn when their rivals actually make their own virtual games. He decided to put that thought in the back of his mind before logging in. When he got back into the game, he started brewing the haste potions that he learned to do a while back and health potions. He ended up with a dozen potions. He then went to meet up with the group to go out into the forest. "There you are newbie." -??? "Better not wet your pants punk!" -??? "Let''s just go already." -??? The group started to head into the forest. When Sirius tried to get the names of everyone in the group, he was met with hostility. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Listen here punk! The only reason we accepted a mid-stage apprentice like you is because we need to meet a certain number of people before we could go out! You are not even worthy of learning our names!" -??? They continued to walk down into the forest. They meet a few monsters, but before Sirius could do anything, the monsters were killed. After the fights were done, Sirius offered to give them potions, but they turned him down in a harsh manner. Over time he realized that a couple of people in the group seem to have other intentions other then getting materials. He could sense some blood lust from the hooded ones in the group. He wasn''t sure who it was, but he decided to stay away from them and make an escape plan in case things go wrong. After camping in the forest overnights, arrived at a large tree. It looked like a normal oak tree, except for the fact that it was enormous, and it blue veins on the surface. "This is it. Let''s hurry and get a branch of the blue vein tree for the fort before the guardian beast comes back. You there keep an eye out for the beast. Warn us when you see it. I''ll go and collect a branch." The man then went up the tree. He nearly fell a few times, but he still held on. While he was looking for a high quality branch to use, Sirius noticed a blue fruit hidden in a leaf pile on the ground. He then took the fruit without anyone noticing, and he hid the fruit on himself. "Found it! This is the highest quality branch that I have ever seen! This will turn into a great tree when I plant it outside the fort!" He then climbed down the tree. Just as he was got to the ground, his head was sliced off by one of the hooded men. "It''s a spy from another kin-" He was stabbed in the heart by another person before he could finish his sentence. "That peasant had the nerve to accuse us of being spies. I''ll just let the rest of you know who we are." "What are you doing?!? Just kill them all ready!!" "My pride won''t allow them to die unless I know that I am a loyal member of the kingdom. Listen up! We work for the second prince. He wishes to refine this branch into a trump card for himself. So you can all die knowing that your deaths contributed to the kingdom!" "You f****** moron! You weren''t suppose to say anything!!! Just kill them already and prepare to be punished when we get back!" While they were talking Sirius tried to reach for a potion, but he couldn''t move. After some bickering between the two, they started to kill everyone else. There were a couple of people left to be killed, but then a great roar was heard. It distracted the hooded men, and released Sirius from the restriction placed upon him. He then took a haste potion and ran in a random direction. The other were about to run in the direction opposite of the beast, but when they turned there heads, everything turned to darkness." Meanwhile in a golden palace, there was a young man looking at a wall filled with jars. Each jar a miniature plant inside, and at that moment two plants withered away. "Looks like those nimrods died before I could get the branch. The strongest in the group that they were sent with was a mid rank official tier, so they couldn''t have been killed by them even if they weren''t that cautious, so they must''ve been killed by the guardian beast. The beast will now be on high alert, so it will be impossible to get a branch from there for now. This complicates things, but in the end I will be the one sitting on the throne." 32 Information Overload When Sirius was sure that he was out of harms way, he stopped running and took a moment to gather his thoughts together. He then felt a desire to keep going in a certain direction. ''This must be where the quest item is!'' After some walking, he came across a cave. It was a small cave, and you wouldn''t be able to notice it unless you were looking for it. He entered the cave and started to walk towards the darkness. While he was walking in the darkness, the ground suddenly opened up beneath him. When he recovered from his fall, he saw that he was surrounded by glowing crystals. In front of him there was only one path. While he was walking, he decided to take a look at the fruit that he got earlier. ''This fruit looks like that it has a soft surface, but it is actually really hard. Might as well see what is inside this thing.'' He then suddenly threw at the wall. When he went to check on the object, there wasn''t a single blemish, much less a crack. ''For this thing to be this tough, it can''t possibly be a fruit.'' Sirius got excited at the fact that there might be something precious hiding inside the hard shell. He banged it against a rock with all his might multiple times. That resulted in the rock getting smashed instead of the object. He tried injecting some mana into it, and the object just absorbed it and nothing else happened. He continued to pour his mana in until the object accepted no more mana. In frustration, he threw the object and used lighting strike to attack it. As soon as the lightning touched the object, time seemed to have slowed down. It released all the built mana it had and it shot it at Sirius brain. Instantly large amount of information was poured into his brain, more than he could handle. The system then suddenly took over. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. *Player mind is unstable, launching emergency protocols. Logging out of game. Attempting to remedy situation in players personal virtual space. ERROR! ERROR! Unable to remedy situation! Extracting excess information and placing it in personal space. Logging player out of virtual world, putting player is stasis until mind is stable.* 33 A.I Purchase *Before James was logged out* While Sirius was laying unconscious, a mysterious figure appeared before him. The entity was wearing a dark robe which covered its face. "Hmm, so this is where the ruckus was." He then bent down and picked the metal colored orb which knocked out Sirius. "What is this little thing? Oh, it seems to be a Saint ranked core of a metallic warrior. Where is the residual soul? Oh it seems to be trying to take over that mans body. I might as well help him as payment for bringing me this core." As he was about to do something, Sirius''s body stopped twitching and calmed down. There was also a small amount of red mist surrounding his body that was easily missed if one did look for it. "Oh, it seems that his bloodline took care of that... WHAT THE F***!!! One has to have at least a very thick and pure legend rank bloodline along with a divine physique! But this person has a peak earth rank physique and a thin bloodline! But this presents a great opportunity for me." He then waved his hand and a golem appeared before him. The golem picked up Sirius and carried him to the man. The man then touched Sirius''s hand, and a mark suddenly appeared. "Consider this as an investment. Hopefully you will surpass all others in the coming trials, and help me leave this damned lesser realm! Carry him back to the fort in front of the forest." *Back to the present* "What happened, how long was I out?" James then checked the pod and he was shocked to see that he was in there unconscious for 10 hours. "This doesn''t make any sense! I really want to log back into the game to see what had happened, but it''s probably not a good idea to go back in now. I''ll wait for a day to recover before going back in. When he was about to leave the room, he saw a message on his computer. When he read it, he got pretty mad. "What the f***!!! According to this I need to purchase an AI to clean up my virtual space! Why does it even need to be cleaned -" He then suddenly remembered the message he received before blacking out. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Freaking hell! No wonder what everyone is so pissed with this game. Might as well look at the prices." AI Grade 1- $500 AI Grade 2- $1000 AI Grade 3- $2000 "These prices are not that bad, but it will still leave a mark in my bank account. I might as buy the cheapest one, just because I think that I am on to something." He then purchased the Grade 1 AI and installed it onto the pod. However, since he got the cheapest one, it would a few days to put everything in order. 34 Boby Refinement System After the AI fixed his personal virtual space, James logged back into the virtual world. When he got back in there, he was shown all the information that was deemed useful to him. After looking through the information from entity that tried to posses him, he learned that the core''s owner was a powerful warrior and a respected blacksmith. There was some really advanced techniques that was lost on James, but luckily for him, there were some beginner and mid level techniques that build to the more advanced ones. There was even an incomplete technique that was far more superior and advanced compared to the others even in its incomplete form. There were also golem creation techniques, but there were only beginner level techniques. And the last thing that James found were warrior training regiments. He didn''t look throughly through the information due to his character being a mage. After briefly looking at the warrior methods, he found something that shocked him to his very core. "Is this the legendary body refinement training!?!?! AI confirm this at once!" Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. *After analyzing the contents of the memory, this does indeed match up with what is known about body training methods known to the public. This training method could only take you to the peak of the first stage of body refinement.* "This is good enough for me! Put all of this into text form and send to my computer in reality. Use every encryption method or privacy protocol to protect it from others. This is for my eyes only! Understand?" One thing that one must understand about the world of Gaia is that it is very old, and there have been many eras of civilizations that have something unique about them, and that unique thing is something that generally very useful to the modern era. The body refinement system came from one such era thousands of years ago. No one knows how it came to be and the era which it comes from remains mostly unknown to the modern era. When it was discovered, a world war was nearly started over the few training methods that were found. A treaty was signed before a war started, and many more training methods have been derived from the original few, but their value was astronomical as one could expand one lifespan and personal power with this system. Just reaching the first level alone could increase ones lifespan to 120 years. That is why James got so excited by this. He logged out and went to see this training method, but his attention was caught by a letter that was left on his desk. 36 Soul Devourer "I''ll ask for the money later when I have an excuse, But for now, I''ll just go back into the game now." James then logged back into the game, and he got a few notifications. *Ding, player leveled up to level 17!* *Ding, player has gained a Low Earth affinity!* *Ding, player has gained the title ''Soul Devourer''!* *Ding, player physique has evolved to Heaven rank!* "Wow, I jumped all the way to level 17 from level 14? That is great! Might as well check the rest of my stats." Name: Sirius Level: 17 Class: Mage Title: Soul Devourer Physique: Heavenly Thunder Body Stats: Strength: 1.15 Agility: 1.3 Vitality: 1.45 Mana: 4.0 Perception: 3.50 Bloodlines: Human (99%), Unknown (1%) Affinity: Thunder(MAX), Earth(LOW) Skills: Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Random Chance: When activated, a random effect occurs. (Innate) Inspection: Can see the stats and effects of any common class item, has a low probability of finding a hidden skill. (Bloodline) Dagger Mastery: Beginner Soul Devour: Can devour souls of weaker creatures (small chance of getting soul skills or memories, can increase mana) Spells: Mana Arrow: 75% proficiency Thunder Strike: 10% proficiency (physique) "Wow, it looks like my stats increased all around the board, and I even gained a new skill along with the new title. I wonder if this title will cause me trouble in the future." It was then that Sirius remembered that he fainted in a cave, but when he looked around, he realized the he was in a small room. There was then a knock, and then someone came in. "Professor its you! How did I get here? The last thing that I remember was being in a cave." "Your body floated in the river near the base, and you picked up by guards. If I wasn''t here, you would probably be interrogated by now." "Why would they do that?" "Because you are the only survivor of the group trip into the forest. Tell me what happened, so that I could clear your name." "Well, we went to our location, the mana tree, to get some resources, but then we were betrayed by two members of the group, and I ran away in the chaos. I ended up near a cave, where I fainted out of exhaustion. What has happened while I was out? Have there been any progress in the war?" "There is a ceasefire for now, because the inheritance zone has been opened up. In two weeks a tournament will be held to fill up spots for our kingdom to go to the inheritance zone." "Why is there a limited number of spots?" "Because that is how the zone works. Each kingdom will bring a set number of people, and if they receive the mark, they can go into the inheritance zone." "Does the mark look like this?", Sirius asked after showing the professor the mark on his right hand. 37 The Mark When the professor looked at Sirius right hand, he was shocked. "That''s, that''s an inheritance mark! You now have the right to go into the inheritance zone! I''ll send this information to the top brass right away!" After that, he left the room, and sent a letter by bird. The bird traveled a great distance within a couple of hours, and it then entered a golden palace. An attendant received the letter, and as soon as he saw who it was from, he rushed to the kings chamber. As soon as the attendant came in, he ran into the first prince. "Why were you running servant?" "We received a letter from the great potion grandmaster Ron." "Well what are you waiting for give it here!" The prince then snatched the letter but before he could read it, the king asked to see it. "Well father, what is the letter about?" "Well it seems that some one already has received an inheritance mark." "What?!? Who in hell dares to do so before the tournament?!?! I''ll have home killed off!!" "No need to do so, this person is Professor Rons student. If we had anyone try to harm him, the professor would probably leave the kingdom, and go to one of our enemies." "Well how did he get a mark?" Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "According to the letter, his student went out on an expedition to the dark forest, and was found a week later floating in a river. According to his testimony, the rest rest of the group was killed by some traitors, and he ran away before they could get to him. And as for the traitors, they are missing. So we can''t do anything to him. No matter, announce it to the rest of the nobility. Also announce that only decedents of dukes or greater could compete in the tournament. We already have one commoner with a mark, and that is enough to satisfy the masses, and if they try to protest, well you know what to do." "I shall do as you say father." 38 Purchasing Materials and Family Legacy James logged out of the virtual world and began to come up with a plan to prepare for the military exams. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. ''I need to get a good score on it, so that I don''t get sent to any dangerous areas. Trying to increase my academic knowledge might be good, but that is not enough to get into the officers program. Before the end of the year I need to reach the first level of body refinement. I just need to ask grandfather for the money in order to buy the materials.'' James then walked over to his grandfathers room to ask for the money. "Hey grandfather, can I borrow some money?'' "How much?" "10,000 dollars." "Why do you need that much money James?" "It is for materials to improve myself before the military exam." "If it is like that, then I can give you the money, but first you must promise me something. You must get a high rank in the military and you must get back the family heirloom." "What heirloom?" "For generations our family has passed a sword that use to belong to the founder of our clan. Even when our clan was declining long ago, we still held on to this sword with the hope to rise once again, until a black sheep known as my grandfather sold it for money that he gambled away! This has been the greatest shame for our family and it was at that point we lost all prestige and became a normal family. I am too old to get that sword back, but you have a chance." "Grandpa, are you off your pills again?" "Shut up and listen! This isn''t a senile statement!" "Okay grandpa, but why me? Doesn''t Sarah have a better chance though? She got in the second academy at a young age, and she is somewhat famous for it." "She can''t get it because this is a mans job! Now promise me or you won''t get the money!" "Alright fine, I promise to do everything I can to get the sword back. But first you should me a picture or tell me its name." "I only have a painting of it, and I forgot the name." "..." "Don''t look at me like that! Take the money and get what you need." James then went onto his computer and began to purchase the medical herbs and necessary equipment online. He went to the more reputable sites, even though he had to pay then he would have wanted to pay. According to the sites, the materials will reach him in a couple of weeks. He then started to think about what his grandpa told him about the sword. He really didn''t believe it, but seeing his grandpa''s face, he knew that his grandpa was serious about that. He then decided to think about the sword later,and begin studying the body refinement manual that he had. He spent all of his free time studying it, and he also memorized the breathing method that came with it. The manual can with two main points. First was the breathing techniques that he was to perform when he starts absorbing the herbs. The second one was a set of exercises that he was to do when he fully adsorbed everything, and another set of breathing techniques that he had to do with exercises. 39 Name Known Throughout the Kingdom When night came, James logged into Realms of Legends. He woke up in the game world in a carriage. The carriage was heading to the capital city of the Arcadian kingdom. In the carriage across from him was the professor. "Good, your awake now. We are almost at the capital. Before we get there, I need you to prepare for what is to come. You have become famous for the past few days, even going so far as to get thee nobles annoyed." "For what?" "You got an inheritance mark. That means you have a guaranteed slot to get into the inheritance zone and get some treasures. There are quite a few nobles that are jealous of you. They won''t try to harm you, but they will try to humiliate you, so be careful. Also, since you are considered a commoner, even though you have the title squire making you a half noble, the king decided that the rest of the marks be decided in a tournament that only a dukes or a royal descendant could participate in. Even with those strict qualifications, there will still be around 200 people participating in the tournament.'' Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "How many spots are left for this kingdom?'' "There are 19 spots left. Usually in an event like this, the royals get 10 and the dukes get 10, but you a mark already, making the competition even more fierce. The usual balance between the factions are now offset by you, and the battle in the inheritance zone will be even more crazy because of looming war. This time in the inheritance zone may give one kingdom the winning edge, allowing it to become a rank one kingdom, and establish contact with the Northern continent." Sirius entered into deep thought as the carriage was about to enter the capital city. They went to the professors residence, where he told him about his own experience in the inheritance zone. Sirius learned that the inheritance zone would be opened up every 50 years, and in that area there are many things that can be taken. There were ancient potions and medicinal ingredients, powerful artifacts, and even cultivation techniques that can allow one to forcefully enter the grandmaster realm. He them told Sirius that there would be a reception tonight in the palace, and that he was invited. He also told him that the tournament starts tomorrow, and that he should go watch it. 40 The Palace Banque As night was approaching, Sirius got ready for the banquet in the palace. He put on a black suit with crimson outlines. He had prepared many plans earlier depending on how the situation at the palace will go. He then left to go to the palace with the professor. When they arrived they were greeted by a butler who led then to the room where the banquet was being held in. When he entered the room, he was amazed at the decorations. There were pillars that looked like shiny white pearl, there were magnificent paintings all across the walls, and there was a golden throne on where the king was sitting. The king was a middle age man who gave out a aura of a ruler. Next to him were his children, the three princes and the two princesses. They all had a look of arrogance. When he saw the first prince he felt a flash a killing intent, and then he felt normal. ''The professor was right when he said that these nobles were extremely arrogant. This arrogance is not deserved though. I read up before coming here and learned that this kingdom and the others were nearing financial ruin, because of the constant wars with each other. In these wars only low level nobles and soldiers fight, so where do they get off on being so arrogant. Why do think that they are the chosen ones just because they were born as nobles or as royalty? Why?!?!? WHY?!?!'' As Sirius was beginning to show signs of rage, the professor calmed him down using a spell before anyone could notice. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Calm down. I know these nobles are getting on your nerves, but you mustn''t show it or else they will get rid of you. They won''t kill you on my account, but they will try to end you in secrecy. It is true that the quality of the nobles in the grade two kingdoms are going down and if the islands are not united or peace is found, the kingdoms will collapse, causing the islands to fall into chaos. Knowing these nobles they will just foolishly bicker for short term benefits until they are dead. That is the reason why this inheritance battle is so important. The final layer of the inheritance will be unsealed, causing the kingdom to get the most stuff from out of there to likely become a grade one kingdom. The important thing for you now is to make contact with the nobles and royals and to get something of value out of the zone and give it to the kingdom for a backing." "Why can''t I just keep what I get?" "Because you are not a full fledged noble. They have way of detecting treasures on your body when you come out of there. Now go and mingle about with the noble heirs, but beware of the first and third prince. They are the most arrogant out of all the royalty. Beware of the two princesses as well, they usually use underhanded means to get what they want, and they often cause damage to many commoners wherever they go. The second prince is the most cunning out of them all, but he is the best royal to make a connection with. He doesn''t care if you are a noble or a commoner, as long as you are willing to help him reach his goal, and not get in his way, he will gladly be your ally." 41 Game Update and First Level Before Sirius could get ready for the banquet, he received a notification from the game. *Certain Conditions have been met, and the game will be undergoing its first major update in 10 min. The update will take 24 hours to install. Thank you for your patience.* ''Thank god, I was not ready for the banquet. Might as well log out now and see what is being updated.'' After logging off, James went onto the starry dawn website to see the updates, but before he could do that, he got a notification from the news. It turned out that starry dawns competition finally broke through the bottle neck, and have made major developments. According to the site, their games should be entering beta at the end of the year. After that James checked the mail, and received a letter from the military. It was a letter excusing him of military work. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. ''What? How did this happen? This makes no sense, unless somehow Sarah was able to get me out of military duty, but she still is in her first year, and doesn''t have much influence, so who could it be? I will look into this later.'' After that he finally went on the website to see the updates. Most of it was hidden, but of things that were revealed, the auction house function is what interested him the most. There were local in game action houses that used the game currency to get items, and then there were server wide auctions in which all players could participate in. In this auction you could only use real money to get the in-game items. There was now a currency converter. You could spend money for in game currency. It was even possible to get money for in game currency depending on the market. This updates alone made James very excited about the future of the game. After that James went to work. When he came back, he got a package. It was the herds that he needed to reach the first level of body refinement. His body was ready from all of the exercises that he did. He mastered the breathing techniques. All that was left was the medical bath. He also had a low voltage taser with him to trigger the medical bath that will transform him. In the bathroom, he filled the bathtub with warm water and the herbs. He striped down and entered the bathtub and began the breathing techniques before turning on the taser to trigger the herbs. After touching the water with the taser, James immediately felt the change. His grip loosened and the taser fell in completely. His body felt the full brunt of the shock. He then soon lost his conscious, but his still continued the breathing techniques as if it were normal. Over the next couple of hours, James body completely absorbed the medical baths nutrients the electricity of the taser until it ran out of power. James then became conscious. ''That was more dangerous than I thought, but luckily I was not hurt in any way. In the future I must be more careful. Since I am fine, I must have successfully reached the first level!'' James then cleaned up the bathroom, did some exercises to confirm that he reached the first level. After confirming the fact, he spent the rest of the day resting. 45 The Final Deal After days passed in game, it was time to leave. Sirius was led to the port by some royal guards and the professor. The ship that he was going to go in was a large ship that reminded of a cruise liner. There were the high nobility and royalty on the dock wishing the descendents good luck, and various other things. Even the king was not there, the prime minister came in his stead. Before he stepped into the ship, the professor gave him a medallion. "This is a one use item. When activated, it gives an all out affect equivalent to a peak grandmasters ultimate attack. Use this only when you need too. Good luck and goodbye." He then boarded the ship, and waived goodbye. When the ship was out of view, the professor went to the prime minister. "I will out for a while in the mountains doing research. I''m not sure when I will be back, but please give this note to the king." Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Very well," the prime minister said with disdain on his face. He never understood why this old scholar was so important to the king. He still had the letter sent to the king. In the palace, the king was sitting on his throne, devouring a great feast filled with many rare delicacies, and his beautiful concubines surrounding him. An attendant came rushing into the rom with the letter in hand. The king was a bit upset at first, but after learning who the letter came from, he waved away the his concubines and the attendant to read the letter in private. "According to this letter, the professor would like to have one last deal with me. I would be able to finally get my hands on the blood cultivation method, in exchange for giving his remaining assets to his student. I would love to take this deal, and kill the commoner scum, but knowing him, he will certainly have some backup in case that happens. Very well I will agree with this." The king then bit his thumb, and used his blood to sign the contract. A red light shot out of the letter, and into the kings brain, imprinting the blood scripture into his consciousness. A small snake tattoo showed up of the kings neck, barely noticeable to the human eye. "Finally, after all that boot licking, I finally have a sure path to reach the peak of the grandmaster realm! This snake tattoo should disappear once his little student gets his things. It will also disappear if he dies there. I will now be able to dominate this tiny island chain as the first step to conquering the entire northern continent! THE WORLD WILL BE MINE! Ha ha, HAHAHAHA!!!! The kings crazy laughs echoed throughout the castle. 46 The Voyage On the ship, Sirius learned that the trip to the island will take a few days. On the boat there were countless servers serving all the nobles needs. He was able to get some great food from them sent to his room. He then went to his room. His room was spacious for a sea cabin, but it small compared to the cabins of the nobility that he has seen. His room had a bed, a large desk, and a cabinet to store his things. There was also a small window to see the ocean. He then went out back onto the deck. He saw the high nobility chatting around, and when got near them, they got silent and glared at him. When he was far enough, they started snickering and pointing at him. He ignored them, and looked onwards at the ocean. He spent the next few days in his room studying his spells, and preparing some more potions. The day before they were supposed to arrive, he got called by someone important. There were big guards who literally picked him up by arms side by side, and then they took him to a large room. The room was filled with luxury and treasures. He then realized that he was dragged into a royal princes room. He then thrown to the ground in a kneeling position in front a large chair. When he looked up, he saw the second prince. He had a slender physique, with light blue hair, and icy blue eyes. If one looked closely, one could see tiny ice particles surrounding him. "Hello Sirius, I am the second prince, Yale Arcadia. I have invited you here to become a temporary worker under me. You should know that my brothers and sisters find you very displeasing to the eye, and the same could be said for the other high noble inheritors. If you choose to work with me during this expedition, I can guarantee your survival. You should also know that the royalty and high nobles from the other grade 2 kingdoms will also be there as well. So what do you say?" "I''ll join you, but why do you want to work with me in the first place?" Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Unlike most of these idiots here who only focus on pedigree and bloodline, I tend to focus more on those with potential. With the competition of the throne soon to come, any item that I get in there will put me one step closer to the the throne. You managed to catch the professors eye and became his student. If it was just that, then I wouldn''t care, but you actually managed to get him to teach you a lot more than his other students. Not only that, he also left you with quite a few items. That shows me that investing in you now will surely benefit me in the future. Take this pendant and refine it with your mana. It is used to communicate over long distances. Now go back to your room and rest up for tomorrow." 52 Temporary Break In preparation, Keguan Please wait a moment, after the updates, you need to refresh the page to get the latest updates! 53 Notice - The Master of Fantasy (a cultivation story) - Rise of the Transcendent Mage (isekai fantasy story) - Path to the DIvine (modern day world with game elements)