《Elemental Mage》


 1 Reborn as a... What?!

    Am I really dead?


    My whole life leads up to this moment¡­


    And it all ends during my first time outside in ages¡­


    Getting hit by a car¡­


    I still have stuff I want to do¡­


    Dreams I want to achieve¡­


    If I get a second chance¡­


    I want to do it right¡­


    My life was dedicated to that game¡­


    Just like everyone else¡­


    Yet I never got the chance to realize my dreams¡­


    And be the strongest¡­


    The best of the best¡­


    Hopefully in my next life¡­


    I can change that¡­


    ____________________


    ''Ugh, my head¡­''


    Avery slowly open his eyes and try to get up. His head slowly clears up and he realizes that he doesn''t know where he is.


    ''Where am I? Did I somehow live through that car accident?'' Avery thought while looking around. The room looked like it was an apartment room belonging to a university student. There are books stacked on a desk next to a laptop and the air smells terrible. He''s currently laying down on a bed.


    Slowly, Avery fought his fatigue and stood up. Coughing, he opened the window. The air smelt terrible and he couldn''t stand another second of it. Even in his room where he pretty much stayed in 24/7, he at least had an opened window and make sure his living conditions are decent. Yet this room was littered with scrap papers and garbage everywhere. The small kitchen had a stack of instant noodle containers stacked in the sink that weren''t clean, the desk was covered with papers, even the bed that he was laying on before was dirty. How could anyone survive here?


    As he looked around, Avery felt that something was off. He didn''t feel pain, but his body felt strange, he smelt a sweet fragrance and he felt that he was missing something.


    Puzzled, he looked around for a mirror. ''Great!'' he thought, as he saw a bathroom next to the door. ''There''s a personal bathroom in this room, so there''s got to be a mirror in there''.


    He shuffled over to the mirror, still trying to cope with his headache. But when Avery looked into the mirror, what he saw almost gave him a heart attack.


    Looking back at him through the mirror was a 19 year old girl with short brown hair and blue eyes. She has pale skin that has definitely seen better days. She''s wearing some pyjamas that loosely fit her. Altogether, she looks pretty depressing.


    That''s all Avery noticed before he realized that he was that girl. ''WHAT THE HELL?!'' he screamed inside his head. ''WHEN WAS I EVER A GIRL?!''.


    At that point Avery''s headache got worse and his brain was flooded with memories. Apparently, he was reborn in a parallel world. Not much is different though. The only big difference is that the prices of VR helmets are extremely cheap, so pretty much anyone can buy one. VR helmets in Avery''s previous world were priced in the thousands, but here they were around ten bucks. Of course, those were the normal ones, the best were still in the hundred thousands. Either way, not much of a difference.


    His headache worsened. More memories flooded into his brain. The memories of the girl. They both had the same name, Avery. Her family was well off. She had a good childhood and some good friends up until high school. She got bullied for not having the latest and most expensive clothes and make-up. Her friends became bullies and started to pick on her. Her parents tried to comfort her and told her situation to the principal. The bullies got in trouble and everything was good for a while.


    Then, the bullies spread around rumours about her. Everyone started to talk about her behind her back. There were hatful messages on her locker and her desk. In the end, she got depressed. Her parents told the principal again, but the principal couldn''t do anything because no one knew who wrote the messages.


    It went downhill once she went into university. The rumours got spread around campus and she became the school freak. She had no friends and was always picked on. She stopped talking to her parents and became an introvert. Her parents bought her an apartment room close to the university so she didn''t have roommates that could bully her. Didn''t help her too much though, because she skipped classes, cried in her room and do nothing for hours before she ended up suffocating because she didn''t open the windows, thus making the air condition terrible.


    After getting those memories, Avery was shocked. ''Damn, this girl had it bad'' he thought. He never knew being a girl could be that bad just because you weren''t rich. It''s most likely that she was just unlucky, but still.


    Looking at the date, Avery realizes that it''s one day before the release of the first Dreamscape VR game, ''Realm of the Elements''. The girl didn''t buy a VR helmet, so Avery decided to go out and buy one himself. In a year, pretty much everyone will be playing this game, so he need a head start. Playing on the first day means that I can finally be an expert. People shall admire me and respect me! Even if I have to be a girl, it''s still worth it.


    In the game, you can become rich, famous, powerful, anything. You can convert the in-game currency into money to become rich, get multiple achievements or get on the leaderboards to become famous and level up to become more powerful. Well, only in the game, but still.


    Avery decided to take a shower first and clean up before he go outside. He needed to clean himself up before going outside to get a VR helmet, unless he wanted to go outside looking like a freak. Looking through her memories, he found out that girl hasn''t showered in a week, gross! She never cleaned up and was broke after spending all her parents money and never asking for more. She has 12 bucks, which is barely enough for a VR helmet. If the VR helmets were the same prices the ones in his original world, than he would have to say goodbye to getting the VR helmet and get a job.


    Avery stripped down and got into the shower. That''s when he remembered that he was a girl, and that meant down there¡­


    After showering and having a nosebleed, Avery looked at himself in the mirror again. ''Damn, this chick is absolutely beautiful'' he thought. He realized he was getting horny by looking in the mirror! The girl''s face looks beautiful! No makeup needed. If the girl had gone through puberty before getting bullied, she would''ve been the school goddess.


    After looking in the mirror, Avery walked over to the dresser and see what clothes the girl had. All the clothes aren''t that expensive, but not cheap either. Her parents wanted to get her good looking clothes before she left, and they did a great job! The clothes suited her well and looked very nice. Sadly, the clothes were untouched. Looking back through her memories, the only things she wore were the loose pyjamas and her school uniform, which she never cleaned. ''Wow, she must''ve been quite depressed'' Avery thought.l


    Either way, he didn''t dwell on those bad memories. He swore that if he ever saw those bullies again, he''ll give them a piece of my mind for her! He knew judo, so yeah! Even though it''s been awhile since practiced, he still managed to get a black belt before he quit!


    Anyways, what to wear. Avery didnt want to wear something to good or else guys will try to flirt with him. Hmmm¡­ Oh! This is perfect!


    He pulled out some jeans, a t-shirt and a hoodie. Perfect! Avery used to wear that style. Also, it was the most casual outfit. Sure, someone might end up flirting with him, but he didn''t stand out as much. It''ll lower his chances of people noticing him, and that''s just what he wanted. He also took out a pair of underwear and a bra and put it on while trying not to get another nosebleed


    After putting on some clothes, Avery grabbed the girl''s wallet. ''Wait'' he thought. ''Is it my wallet now, or is it still the girl''s wallet? Eh, I guess it''s my wallet now, because I''m her now. Then, would everything else she had be considered mine as well? Probably. Ugh, my brain is killing me. This is so confusing''.


    Putting on a pair of sneakers, which is the only pair of shoes she had, Avery headed out and started her new life as a girl.


    Walking outside, Avery look through the girls memories for the nearest game store. After realizing that she hardly goes outside and didn''t know, Avery decided to go back inside and search up the closest game store on her laptop.


    Okay, round 2. Walking outside, Avery started to head towards the closest game store. It''s called Elly''s Electronics and sells games, electronics and consoles, including the VR helmet.


    The VR helmet was a giant leap in VR technology. Developed by the company Dreamscape, it lets you play the game in your sleep. It monitors your heart and brain, so you don''t get a heart-attack or something like that. If something life-threatening happens to you, it immediately calls 9-1-1 so an ambulance can come and help you. The technology is ground-breaking and no other company has come close to developing something similar to it yet.


    The first game that came out for it was ''Realm of the Elements'', which is a VRMMORPG (Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) game, and the only game available on the VR helmet for years. The company Dreamscape announced that once players got bored of ''Realm of the Elements'', they would drop another game. Of course, that wouldn''t happen for a long time, because players were constantly playing and exploring.


    VR helmet were sold at any game store for a cheap price. Dreamscape manage to mass produce them for 10 bucks each. In her world, they sold for around 1000 bucks, so each one would make the company money. But, in this world, they wouldn''t get any money from selling them. Dreamscape relied entirely on their in-game currency conversion, so that rich players could pay a lot of money for the in-game currency.


    Anyways, After a short 5-minute walk, Avery arrived at the game store. The giant sign saying ''Elly''s Electronics'' kinda gives it away. As she walks in, she sees a few people looking at the games trying to decide which one to pick. There''s a guy behind the counter. Avery assumed he one of the workers at this store.


    She headed over to the VR helmet section and look at the options. The only ones there are 10 bucks. The VR helmets all come with ''Realm of the Elements'' Preinstalled for the first month, so Avery didn''t have to worry about buying the game separately. She picked up one of the VR helmets and head over to the counter.


    Avery put the VR helmet on the counter. The guy''s on his phone ignoring her. "Excuse me, can I buy this VR helmet?" Avery asks. ''Wow, I never knew how sweet my voice sounds. It''s enchanting'' Avery thought. And apparently the guy thought so too, because he immediately turns his head and his jaw drops. Avery didn''t blame him. You wouldn''t see that many pretty girls when you work at a game store.


    "U-Uh, sure! I''ll scan that right away!" He said. He looks extremely nervous and fumbles with the scanner. Once he finally manages to scan the VR helmet he says "$11.50 after tax". His face is flushed red. It''s getting a bit too weird for her, so she quickly take out her wallet and bought the VR helmet. Just as she turned around to leave, the guy suddenly says "Wait!". ''Crap'' Avery thought. ''I swear if he asks me out I''ll be pissed''.


    Avery turned to him. "What is it?" She asked, hoping that he won''t ask her out. "Are you buying that for yourself or for a friend?" he asks. "I''m buying it for myself" she replies. She doesn''t know why he asked her that. Unless¡­ "Uh, if you''re buying it for yourself, do you¡­ um, do you want to play together?" He says. Avery wanted to leave. It was getting too cringy for her. ''Why do you have to ask me out...'' she thought. ''Even if you just ask me to play with you, it''s practically the same thing. Not really, but still! Maybe I can bluff him¡­''


    "Sure!" Avery said. "But, I don''t know how to send you a friend request". ''Hah!'' she thought to herself. ''There we go. Do you know how to send friend requests out of the game? I think not!''.


    "Just tell me the number on the back of your VR helmet and I can send you a friend request"


    Avery wanted to leave as fast as she could. She doesn''t want to give him her number. And by number she means her VR helmet number. Or phone number. Sadly, there''s no way out of this, unless she became rude. But she doesn''t really wanna because that''s mean. Plus, karma''s a bitch, so she don''t want bad luck to bite back.


    In the end, Avery told the guy the number on the back of her VR helmet and left. It didn''t go as she wanted, but at least he didn''t directly ask her out on a date. That''s a positive.


    I head back to my room. The room is actually part of a apartment building because the girl didn''t want to share a room with others in fear of getting bullied, so she rents a room in a fairly inexpensive apartment building. Her parents pays rent, so I don''t have to worry about that now. Is it actually my parents? Ugh, this is so confusing!


    She enter her room and was immediately bombed by the sight, smell and, uh, another sense of the dirty room. She couldn''t stand the sight of it! If you want to be an introvert, at least don''t be such a slob and clean up! Looking at the time, she saw that it was 4:00 pm. The servers go on at 8:00 pm, so she decide to clean up her room. After 2 hours, the room was tidyed up and clean. For the last 2 hours, she made some dinner and showered. By made some dinner, she meant that she ate some instant noodles that were in the fridge because that''s all that was there. Avery''s a good cook, but she can''t make a feast out of thin air. Showering was quite difficult though. It took some massive restraint not to get horny over her own body, but she managed.


    Finally, everything was done. There was 2 minutes until the servers go online, so she quickly put on the VR helmet, turned it on and waited.


    [Enter your gamertag]


    "Avrix"


    ["Avrix" set as gamertag]


    Avrix was her previous gamertag, so she decided to use it again. Plus, she''s not that creative with gamertags. It took her a solid hour to come up with that username before.


    [10]


    Ok, the game''s finally starting.


    [9]


    [8]


    This countdown is really suspenseful...


    [7]


    [6]


    [5]


    Hurry up already!


    [4]


    [3]


    [2]


    [1]


    [Welcome to Realms of the Elements]

 2 Starting Ou

    ''Finally!'' Avery thought. Her journey starts here.


    [Choose your elements:


    Fire: focuses on AOE (Area of Effect) and DOT (Damage over Time) attacks


    Water: focuses on flexible but weaker defence and mana regeneration


    Nature: focuses on binding and draining attacks, as well as alchemy


    Wind: focuses on quick mouvement


    Earth: focuses on large and sturdy defence


    Lightning: focuses on chain damage and stunning


    Metal: focuses on small but strong defence and smithing


    Ice: focuses on binding and slowing attacks


    Light: focuses on health regeneration


    Darkness: focuses on blinding and poison DOT attacks


    Note: you are limited to 2 elements. Once you level up, complete certain quests or find certain items, you can get more elements]


    Avery stumbled across his first problem. Creating a character. There are no bad choices, just options that don''t suit the player. She finally decided to go with [Lightning] and [Wind]. [Lightning] because it deals heavy damage and has stunning, which is a nice side effect. It was one of the most underestimated elements back in her world. Once people knew of it''s power, they became extremely envious of it. Some even reset their character so they could choose it.


    [Wind], on the other hand, was considered the most annoying element. Not for the people who chose it, but the people who went up against the people who chose it. Imagine trying to hit someone that can avoid all your attacks. It''s quite hard, so it became the most annoying element.


    Well, Avery never cared if it was the most annoying element, because it''s one of the best elements. Plus, she was planning on getting more elements later.


    There are 3 main ways to get more elements. One way is becoming level 100. Once achieved, you would get to choose another element, making your character much stronger. Another way is doing certain hidden quests. Hidden quests are extremely rare, and usually take lots of luck to find. Of course, that didn''t apply to Avery, who could use her past knowledge to get all the hidden quests.


    She''ll do one of those quests once she finishes making her character.


    [Chooses your class:


    Bard (Support, Range): Uses songs to give elemental buffs


    Berserker (DPS, Melee): Uses axes combined with elements


    Gunslinger (DPS, Range): Uses guns combined with elements


    Knight (Tank, Melee): Uses a sword and shield combined with elements


    Mage (DPS, Range): Uses elemental spells


    Ranger (DPS, Range): Uses arrows combined with elements


    Rogue (DPS, Melee): Uses daggers combined with elements


    Shaman (Support, Range): Uses chants to give elemental de-buffs/resistance


    Swordsman (DPS, Melee): Uses a sword combined with elements


    Guardian (Tank, Melee): Uses a shield combined with elements


    Avery almost forgot how weird the class selection was. It''s really strange. It doesn''t really give you an in depth explanation of the class, just a brief overview. You have to rely on previous game knowledge to make a good choice.


    Each class is just like all other games, except you combine it with the elements you chose to get a unique play style. For example, if you wanted to be a healer, you would choose the mage class and the light element. If you wanted to be an assassin, you would choose the rogue class and the darkness element. If you wanted to be a sniper, you would choose the gunslinger class and the wind element. The game''s unique character creation system means that it''s difficult to find someone with the same stuff as you.


    Avery chose [Mage] as her class. The classes are pretty balanced, so the only thing that makes someone good is their elements, items and skill. [Mage] was her previous class and she knew every spell and how to use them skillfully. Being bored and memorizing it for fun has its perks...


    [Choose your stats (Remaining Stat Points: 30)]


    Charisma: 1


    Constitution: 1


    Defence: 1


    Dexterity: 1


    Intelligence: 1


    Luck: 1


    Strength: 1


    Willpower: 1


    Wisdom: 1]


    ''Ok, time for my stats'' Avery thought. Mages need [Intelligence] for spell damage and [Wisdom] for mana regeneration. Other than that, the stats don''t matter too much. [Willpower] helps a bit with magic defence and [Luck] and [Charisma] are good for everything. So, now her stats are:


    [Stats (Remaining Stat Points: 0)


    Charisma: 3


    Constitution: 1


    Defence: 1


    Dexterity: 1


    Intelligence: 14


    Luck: 4


    Strength: 1


    Willpower: 6


    Wisdom: 8]


    Great! Everything is done. The game doesn''t allow for the players to alter their appearance, so she couldn''t make herself a guy again... No matter! She can still dominate in this game!


    [Character Complete! Spawning In...]


    [Joining Beginner Village Spawn No. 23...]


    [Complete!]


    Avery''s vision faded to white as she was sent to the beginner village. She materialized into a village square filled with other players.


    In the game, there''s multiple spawns at the beginner village so players can roam around without the need to push or shove. The beginner village shouldn''t have been called a village. Calling it an extremely large town would be more suitable. Still, the village is crowded, so levelling up at the beginning is hard. The spawning grounds are overflown with massive amounts of players and it''s incredibly difficult to level up at the beginning. Well, unless you''re Avery, who immediately headed off towards a hidden quest another player accidentally found at the beginning of the game.


    On the forums, there was a thread about a swordsman called "Hidden Threat" that found a hidden quest that gives you extra elements. They stumbled into an alleyway and chatted with a random beggar. That beggar was actually an extremely powerful NPC that gave him a hidden quest. When he completed it, he was awarded with 2 bonus elements. He bragged about it on the forums to make other people jealous. He mentioned the co-ordinates on the forum as well. Some people followed those co-ordinates, but ended up in an empty alleyway. But, since it''s the start of the game, and that person only found the beggar a month after the game released, Avery could do the quest way before ''Hidden Threat''.


    While heading towards the alleyway, Avery could tell that multiple people were staring at her. Damn, why did she have to reincarnate as a girl... Sure, you might think it would be nice, but getting stared at by a bunch of guys is annoying. Avery needed to get a mask or something.


    After getting multiple lustful stares, Avery made it to the alleyway and found the beggar laying on the ground. Damn, he''s seen better days. He''s wearing rags as his clothes. At least every player spawns in with class specific gear. For example, she''s wearing a mage''s robe that gives her +1 magic defence and a staff that gives her +1 intelligence. All starting clothes give you +1 gear, but it''s better than nothing.


    "Ah, young adventurer! Can you give an old man a hand?" the beggar sits up and asks. "Yes!" Avery replied. "Ay, my son is somewhere in this town and I''m looking for him. But, it''s been quite a few years. Can you help me find him?" the beggar says.


    [Quest: The lost son


    The old beggar is looking for his son. It''s been a long time so he only knows his name. Find his son for a reward.


    Completion Reward: ???


    Failure Penalty: None


    Time Limit: None]


    "Yes! I accept!" Avery said. This looks promising. If she actually gets 2 bonus elements, then she can finally be the strongest!


    [Quest Accepted]


    "Thank you young adventurer. His name is Elliot Magifield. I hope you can find him for me" the beggar said. "I will" Avery replies. Satisfied with her response, the beggar lays back down again. Avery headed out of the alleyway and start to look for the beggar''s son.


    Avery approached a random NPC in a stall along the streets. "Hello! I''m looking for someone called ''Elliot Magifield''. Do you know who he his and where I can find him?" she asks. The NPC then looks at her in a weird way before saying "You don''t know who he is? He''s the famous military captain. People say that he can whip anyone into shape. He helps everyone out for free, in exchange for them to help him find his dad. It''s such a shame that his dad went missing at such a young age" they said.


    Damn. Double damn. First damn is that they gave out so much information. Avery guesses it''s because that guy''s famous combined with the fact that she put a couple points into [Charisma]. Second damn is that the old beggar abandoned him! What kind of dad does that?! Even though it''s just a game, it''s still kinda messed up!


    After calming herself down, Avery asked the NPC where he was located and they pointed her in the direction of the military barracks. She headed over towards that direction, and after a short walk and more lustful stares, she finally made it to the barracks.


    As Avery walked in, she saw a large man training a squad of players. She assumed that the large man is Elliot. Those players that he''s training must''ve also heard about Elliot and how he''ll train anyone, so they came in hopes of a hidden quest or something. Too bad he''s just a military captain. They won''t get much from befriending him other a good workout.


    Elliot noticed her walk in and told the players take a break. Great. Now she''s also getting glares from them. They must think that she came in hopes of finding a hidden quest. Well, she already has a quest and it involves this guy! "Hello ma''am, what can I do for you?" Elliot asks. "Well, I met someone that says they''re your father and that he''s looking for you" she replies. Avery could see the shock in his eyes. "Really?! Take me there immediately!" he says. Well, he''s on enthusiastic fella. "Follow me" Avery says while turning around and walking out.


    Seeing Elliot follow her out, the players that he was training got confused. ''What did that girl say that made him follow her?'' they all wondered.


    Meanwhile, Avery and Elliot made their way to the alleyway. There were less people around the streets because everyone is either asking around for quests or grinding mobs out in the fields. Once they made their way to the alleyway, Avery got a system prompt that her quest had been cleared. The beggar looks up, gasps and ran to hug Elliot. Elliot, with tears in his eyes, embraces the beggars hug. And Avery''s wondering how the hell they know that they''re father and son just by instinct.


    "Thank you young traveler!" said the beggar. "I don''t have much to give you, but back when I was younger, I used to be an adventurer myself. I was considered a legendary figure. Then, I met a girl and fell in love immediately. We got married, settled down and gave birth to Elliot here. But, some enemies I made during my adventures came and burned down our house, killing my wife. I managed to escape, but lost Elliot in the flames. They chased me everywhere and I recently managed to escape. I came back here in hopes of finding Elliot once more and settling down once again, putting my adventurer life behind me. Here, take this. It helped me on my adventures, and I hope it helps you on yours" he says, while handing me something that looks like a crystal bead before walking away with Elliot.


    After they left, Avery inspected the bead. Yep. Did that straight away. Totally didn''t wipe away her tears after hearing the beggar''s story. Yep. didn''t cry at all. That''s totally what happened.


    [Elemental Bead (Grade S)


    An elemental bead that is made for people that want to pass down their legacy by taking away the creator''s elemental power and sealing it into a bead. Can be made after expertly honing every single element. The person who consumes this gains the power to use all elements. Effects are lessened if there''s negative feelings between the creator and the consumer]


    Holy shit! She just hit the jackpot! This is an amazing find! Gaining this early on gives her such a huge advantage!


    Wait, if "Hidden Threat" only got 2 elements before, then he must''ve been quite mean and untrustworthy. Well, it''s not that she really care.


    Avery used the elemental bead. Immediately after using it, she felt a huge surge of power rushing throughout her body. It made her blood boil and she could feel herself change on the inside. That feeling lasted for 15 seconds, before everything went back to normal. ''Is it done?'' Avery thought. She expected it to be a bit longer than that.


    "Status" she says


    [Status:


    Name: Avrix


    Level: 1


    Stats:


    -Charisma: 3


    -Constitution: 1


    -Defence: 1


    -Dexterity: 1


    -Intelligence: 15 (14)


    -Luck: 4


    -Strength: 1


    -Willpower: 6


    -Wisdom: 8


    Elements:


    -Fire


    -Water


    -Nature


    -Wind


    -Earth


    -Lightning


    -Metal


    -Ice


    -Light


    -Darkness


    Items:


    -Starter Mage''s Staff (Grade D)


    +1 intelligence


    -Starter Mage''s Staff (Grade D)


    +1 magic defence


    Active Quests:


    Elemental Skills:


    [Fireball (Tier 1, Level 0)


    Creates a fireball that is launched at enemies. Upon impact, it deals 100 damage and creates a small circle of flames. If an enemy steps in it, or it the fireball directly hit an enemy, it deals 50 damage over 5 seconds. Can be stacked.


    Cost: 50 mana


    Cooldown: None


    Note: Not suitable for baseball]


    [Water Shield (Tier 1, Level 0)


    Creates a shield made out of water that floats around you. If attacked, it automatically protects you and nullifies 75 damage. Can be stacked up to 4 times.


    Cost: 100 mana


    Cooldown: 30 seconds


    Note: Imagine a shield/shields circling you. That''s what it looks like. Except it''s made out of water]


    [Entangle (Tier 1, Level 0)


    Traps an enemy within 10 meters of you in vines. Drains 10 health per second. Requires 5-strength*2 seconds to break out. Is destroyed after 20 seconds or taking 50 damage. Cannot be stacked.


    Cost: 75 mana


    Cooldown: 1 minute


    Note: It''s a very strong hugger]


    [Flying Cloud (Tier 1, Level 0)


    Creates a cloud that you can fly on. Can carry 1 person at a time. Maximum height of 5 meters. Is destroyed after taking 100 damage. Only one can be made at a time.


    Cost: 100 mana


    Cooldown: 10 minutes


    Note: Tastes like cotton candy]


    [Rock Wall (Tier 1, Level 0)


    Creates a wall made out of rocks that''s 10 meters wide and tall. Is destroyed after 1 minute or after taking 250 damage.


    Cost: 80 mana


    Cooldown: 2 minutes


    Note: YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!!]


    [Lightning Strike(Tier 1, Level 0)


    Brings down a bolt of lightning from the skies. Deals 95 damage. Any enemy within 50 meters takes 40 damage.


    Costs: 65 mana


    Cooldown: 20 seconds


    Note: the power is kinda¡­ shocking]


    [Metal Guard (Tier 1, Level 0)


    Creates a 3*3 half circle shaped guard for cover. Is destroyed after 5 minutes or after taking 500 damage.


    Cost: 150 mana


    Cooldown: 5 minutes


    Note: The only weakness is that enemies can just walk around]


    [Frost (Tier 1, Level 0)


    Blows multiple small ice crystals onto surfaces and enemies. Enemies take 10 damage per second and losses 50% of their speed. Once an area or an enemy has been attacked for more than 5 seconds, they are frozen for 5 seconds. Frozen enemies can''t move and enemies in frozen areas are 15% more likely to take critical hits. Can''t be stacked. Once free, enemies are immune to frost''s freeze and slowness for 5 seconds.


    Cost: 20 mana per second


    Cooldown: None


    Note: An easy way to escape the frozen effect is to let it go]


    [Ray of Hope (Tier 1, Level 0)


    Shines a ray of light onto an ally or yourself. Heals 50 health for 5 seconds.


    Cost: 50 mana


    Cooldown: 30 seconds


    Note: Don''t look at the source of the light. Unless you want to become blind]


    [Smog (Tier 1, Level 0)


    Creates a smog that covers a 5*5 area, dealing 10 damage per second to whoever''s in it. Disappears after 10 seconds. Cannot be stacked.


    Costs: 75 mana


    Cooldown: 1 minute


    Note: This is where all the toxic tryhards live]


    Other Skills:


    Health: 1100


    Mana: 250 (240)


    Defence: 10


    Magic defence: 61 (60)


    Health regeneration: 1.5 per second


    Mana regeneration: 5 per second]


    ...


    Avery almost forgot how long these status screens are...


    But, on the other hand...


    Damn, she''s overpowered!


    But, she needs to make the status shorter, because it''s way too long...


    "Shorter Status" Avery says.


    [Status:


    Name: Avrix


    Level: 1


    Stats:


    -Charisma: 3


    -Constitution: 1


    -Defence: 1


    -Dexterity: 1


    -Intelligence: 15 (14)


    -Luck: 4


    -Strength: 1


    -Willpower: 6


    -Wisdom: 8


    Elements:


    -Fire


    -Water


    -Nature


    -Wind


    -Earth


    -Lightning


    -Metal


    -Ice


    -Light


    -Darkness


    Items:


    -Starter Mage''s Staff (Grade D)


    +1 intelligence


    -Starter Mage''s Staff (Grade D)


    +1 magic defence


    Active Quests:


    Elemental Skills:


    [Fireball (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Water Shield (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Entangle (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Flying Cloud (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Rock Wall (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Lightning Strike(Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Metal Guard (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Frost (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Ray of Hope (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Smog (Tier 1, Level 0)


    Other Skills:


    Health: 1100


    Mana: 250 (240)


    Defence: 10


    Magic defence: 61 (60)


    Health regeneration: 1.5 per second


    Mana regeneration: 5 per second]


    There, that''s better. Now that she has everything sorted out and an overpowered advantage, it''s time for her to do some grinding. And she has the perfect spot for it...

 3 Shadow Valley

    Avery headed out of the beginner village in search of the area she was going to grind in. Walking through the gates, she saw the fields all around the beginner village swarmed with players. All the fields around the beginner village were the village spawning grounds, and where the majority of common quests are done. If you couldn''t find a rare quest (Or a hidden quest like Avery), then you had to do one of the common quests. One of them was from the village chief, where you have to go and kill 10 Wild Boars and 1 Wild Wolf.


    [Wild Boar (Level 1)


    Literally a wild boar


    Health: 500


    Mana: 0


    Defence: 10


    Magic defence: 10


    Abilities: {Charge}


    {Charge (Tier 1)}: Charges in a straight line. Deals 200 damage if it succeeds, but gets stunned for 2 seconds if it misses]


    [Wild Wolf (Level 3)


    Literally a wild wolf


    Health: 1250


    Mana: 0


    Defence: 50


    Magic defence: 50


    Abilities: {Bite}


    {Bite (Tier 1)}: Bites down on an enemy, dealing 350 damage if successful]


    It would be fairly easy to finish that quest, because the wild boars are pretty easy to kill and the wild wolf requires a bit of skill, but is still manageable. The problem is that it only counts if you get the finishing blow. And since the game was just released, everyone is scrambling to level up and grind quests. The spawning grounds don''t have enough monsters to support that many players, so everyone is rushing to kill any monsters that spawns. barely anyone can complete the quest. And for the people that do, they get the next one where you have to kill 5 more wild wolfs, meaning they have to join all the other players in scrambling for some kills.


    There are other quests as well, but they''re practically the same thing. Some will require you to deal a certain amount of damage, some will require certain materials from the wild boars and wild wolfs and some will require you to do errands for them.


    There were a limited amount of those, so the unlucky players didn''t get to do them.


    But Avery doesn''t care about that because she''s going to a higher level area called Shadow Valley. It''s meant for players level 5-7, but Avery doesn''t care. It''s currently the best place for her to level up.


    In her world, after the game was out for about a week and people started to go to Shadow Valley, someone found an exploit they could use on any enemy in ShadowValley. It was difficult to pull off, but an extremely good way to grind levels. It involved the lore of Shadow Valley, so no one could know of it unless they''re lucky or they read the lore of Shadow Valley.


    Shadow Valley used to be a regular valley. It was lush with vegetation and was very lush. But, there was an evil shaman that found the valley and decided to make it their home. It soon became his lair for all his evil deeds.


    His life was dedicated to making a new element. He called it the "Shadow Element", and he used everything in the valley to help his experiments ranging from plants to animals. Countless heroes and mercenaries had tried to stop him, but he was too powerful. Alas, he ended up using the valley itself for his biggest and last experiment. He failed, resulting in the valley to be infused with countless darkness elements and killing all the plants and animals.


    Some players speculated that he failed because the "Shadow Element" was actually a part of the darkness element, but no one really knows. It''s the best explanation.


    Either way, the valley has been abandoned since. Mercenaries raided all the treasures of the shaman. Animals moved in and started to fuse with the darkness element to become shadow monsters, hence the name "Shadow Valley".


    When the mercenaries first tried to take the shaman''s treasures, they were greeted with a lot of hidden traps stopping their progress. It was until one knight with the light element accidentally used one of their skills on a trap and immediately destroying it that they realized the traps are weak to the light element. So, many mercenaries with the light element went and took all if the shamans treasures.


    Avery couldn''t care less about the shamans treasures. She came to Shadow Valley to grind Exp and level up. Originally, she was going to go somewhere else, but now that she has the light element it''s easier for her to grind here.


    With her spell, killing the monsters around here will be a piece of cake.


    [Ray of Hope (Tier 1, Level 0)


    Shines a ray of light onto an ally or yourself. Heals 50 health.


    Cost: 50 mana


    Cooldown: 30 seconds


    Note: Don''t look at the source of the light. Unless you want to become blind]


    The system gives a weird description of everything, so it''s hard to judge a skill by it''s description. For example, this spell says that it can be casted on an ally or yourself for some heals. But, it doesn''t say what will happen if casted on an enemy. In her world, after a complete study of all elements was done by a group of dedicated game theorists, they found out multiple untold things about every element and their skills. It was extremely thorough and well done, not to mention very practical, so Avery did her best to remember it extremely well.


    One of the things mentioned was that if you use light element skills against the darkness element, it deals quite a bit of bonus damage. Even if it''s a heal spell, it still does that bonus damage. This trait is evident with every element. some elements are stronger/weaker when facing a certain element. They made an element chart to represent it.


    Fire: Strong against nature, metal and ice. Weak against water, wind and earth.


    Water: Strong against fire and earth. Weak against nature, lightning and ice.


    Nature: Strong against water and earth. Weak against fire, ice and darkness.


    Wind: Strong against fire. Weak against earth.


    Earth: Strong against fire, wind and lightning. Weak against water, nature and ice.


    Lightning: Strong against water and metal. Weak against earth.


    Metal: Strong against nothing. Weak against fire and lightning.


    Ice: Strong against water, nature and earth. Weak against fire.


    Light: Strong against darkness. Weak against nothing.


    Darkness: Strong against nature. Weak against light.


    Anyways, it''s a unique part of the game that''s not mentioned. The game creators did the same thing with a bunch of other things, so that you''re forced to make your own playstyle. You have to find out lots of things by yourself in order to fully play the game.


    Like another thing Avery was going to exploit. When you attack a monster, if you attack certain areas, or weak spots per say, your attacks ignore defence and magic defence, dealing more damage. If you attack a monster that has a defence or magic defence higher than your attack, you can''t do anything. But, if you attack their weak spots, it ignores their defence/magic defence and deals damage. It''s a way to beat monsters that have a higher than you.


    Those features give people that dedicate themselves to research the game an advantage. That means that Avery can use everything she learned before and use it to her advantage to beat the monsters in Shadow Valley. She already knows the best grinding strategy for the area, so she can confidently grind for however long she wants.


    After a while of walking, Avery finds herself at the entrance of Shadow Valley. It''s pretty close to the beginner village, but because of the level difference, not many people came here to level up. And for the people that did, well, they immediately died.


    Everyone is either at the spawning grounds, or trying to explore the other areas to try and grind for levels. But, all the people that explored inevitably died, so they soon gave up and joined the insanely packed spawning grounds.


    Well, those people didn''t know what to do unlike Avery, so she can do things others can''t. She walked through the entrance of Shadow Valley and walked a bit before seeing the first monster.


    [Shadow Rabbit (Level 5)


    A rabbit infused with the abundant darkness elements in Shadow Valley, gaining an increased strength


    Health: 2200


    Mana: 50


    Defence: 100


    Magic defence: 100


    Abilities: {Shadow Steps}


    {Shadow Steps (Tier 2)}: Fuses with the shadows and passes through the shadow plains]


    It looked like a regular rabbit. The only difference was that it''s fur was black and it had red eyes. It looked very satanic and ready to kill. But Avery wasn''t going to give it a chance.


    "Ray of Hope!"


    She shouted her spell and she immediately prepared it. A split second later, there was a ray of light descending from the skies onto the shadow rabbit. It screeched out in pain and rolled on the ground for 5 seconds before the spell''s duration finished.


    [Direct hit! Dealt 750 (50*5*3) damage to {Shadow Rabbit}. 1450/2200]


    After the spell stopped, the shadow rabbit tried to crawl up. But Avery didn''t stop her attack.


    "Fireball"


    4 fireballs appeared around Avery and flew toward the shadow rabbit. It was still trying to get up, so it couldn''t dodge and got hit.


    [Direct hit! Dealt 100 damage to {Shadow Rabbit}. 1350/2200]


    [Direct hit! Dealt 100 damage to {Shadow Rabbit}. 1250/2200]


    [Direct hit! Dealt 100 damage to {Shadow Rabbit}. 1150/2200]


    [Direct hit! Dealt 100 damage to {Shadow Rabbit}. 1050/2200]


    The shadow rabbit was panting on the ground, struggling to get up. it''s body was on fire, but 5 seconds later they were put out and Avery got another notification.


    [Direct hit! Dealt 50 (10*5) damage to {Shadow Rabbit}. 1000/2200]


    [Direct hit! Dealt 50 (10*5) damage to {Shadow Rabbit}. 950/2200]


    [Direct hit! Dealt 50 (10*5) damage to {Shadow Rabbit}. 900/2200]


    [Direct hit! Dealt 50 (10*5) damage to {Shadow Rabbit}. 850/2200]


    "Damn! This is some massive damage!" Avery thought. This was so satisfying to look at. Seeing so many notifications about all the damage she dealt was somewhat oddly satisfying. She waited a few seconds for "Ray of Hope" to go off cooldown and to regenerate her mana, before casting "Ray of Hope" once again.


    [Direct hit! Dealt 750 (50*5*3) damage to {Shadow Rabbit}. 100/2200]


    The shadow rabbit was clinging on it''s last bit of life. It was about to die, but at least it wanted to go out fighting. It collected itself and pounced at Avery.


    "Shit" Avery cursed. She used up all her mana and had to wait a few seconds for her mana to regenerate so she could attack again. The shadow rabbit didn''t give her that chance and bit her.


    [Received 396 damage from {Shadow Rabbit} 704/1100]


    The shadow rabbit dealt a big blow against Avery, and before she could cast a spell, the shadow rabbit phased into a shadow and backed away.


    "Dammit, It''s {Shadow Steps}!" She cursed. It phased into a shadow, so Avery''s spells won''t work at all. Only light element skills will work, but Avery''s "Ray of Hope" has a 30 second cooldown. There''s 15 seconds left, which means she has to wait. She can''t use any other spells, or else she won''t have enough mana.


    The shadow rabbit pounced on her again, and she couldn''t do anything except run. When it leaped, she rolled out of the way to dodge. She barely dodged the shadow rabbit, but she couldn''t celebrate just yet.


    After missing it''s attack, the shadow rabbit turned and pounced at her again. She couldn''t dodge again, so she took some more damage.


    [Received 402 damage from {Shadow Rabbit} 302/1100]


    "Come on!" She said. She didn''t have enough health to take another hit. Luckily, the cooldown just finished, so she could cast "Ray of Hope" again.


    "Ray of Hope!"


    The shadow rabbit was gleeful. It thought that it was about to die, but it managed to turn the tables around. Just as it was about to finish it''s attacker, it was hit with a blast of light coming down from the skies and died immediately.


    [Direct hit! Dealt 750 (50*5*3) damage to {Shadow Rabbit}. 0/2200]


    [Congrats! Defeated {Monster}! Received 15 Exp. 15/100 needed to level up]


    Finally, Avery beat that shadow rabbit. It was quite hard, but she managed to pull through in the end. She got a decent amount of Exp as well.


    Exp is hard to come by in the game. Usually, the amount of Exp you''d get from a level 1 monster is 1 or 2 Exp, so you''d need to kill 100 boars or 33 wolfs at the hunting grounds to level up. Shadow Valley is an area meant for players level 5-7, so if you were level 5-7, you''d have to kill around 100 monsters to level up. But, Avery is level 1, so she can kill around 7 to level up. It''s easier to level up in a higher levelled area.


    Avery sat down to wait for her mana to regenerate. All of her spells cost a good chunk of her mana, so it''s best for her to wait and get it all back before grinding again. She doesn''t have to worry about other players showing up, because it''s such a high level area. Plus, even if they somehow do, they can''t copy her. They wouldn''t know how to rapidly cast spells like her.


    One of the features in the game is about actually doing everything yourself. For example, if there was a quest to catch 10 fish, you''d actually have to learn how to fish instead of casting the line and waiting 10 seconds before you automatically catch a fish somehow. Or, if you want to make a potion, you''d have to learn the recipe, prepare all the ingredients, have the proper tools, measure the specific amount, maintain a specific potion heat, pretty much manually do everything. It goes the same for elemental skills.


    No matter what class you choose, you have to learn how to use elements. It''s how you use elemental skills, or in Avery''s case, elemental spells. The elements kinda feel like a part of you, and needs a bit of time get used to. Once you do, it becomes much easier to use skills and you can use them faster. Usually, someone in the early stages of the game would require around 10 seconds to prepare a skill by trying to call up their element. Once they got enough practice and more familiar, they can use skills faster. After a year, the average person would take 3-5 seconds to prepare a skill. But they still wouldn''t be able to go against Avery. Because of her dedication and some free websites that could simulate using elements, Avery''s control over all the elements is top notch.


    Take Avery''s "Fireball" for example. In the description, it said that you can have as many as you want at one time. That means with enough mana, you could have 100 fireballs made in a second. Well, that is if you have extreme control over the fire element. You''d have to practice for a year to get that much control over it. and that''s just for that one element. To get control over all elements, you''d have to spend around 10 years to have full master over all elements. It shouldn''t be possible. Yet Avery was so dedicated (and had nothing better to do) that she managed to do that.


    If you didn''t have good control over the fire element, It would take a few minutes to make 100 fireballs in a second. Of course, Avery could do it easily, but he doesn''t have enough mana to support it.


    Either way, Avery can go around Shadow Valley in peace without worrying about getting attacked or someone stealing her strategies, because no one could replicate it.


    Oh well, she doesn''t really care about that. Her mana has regenerated, so she could continue to grind all she wants.


    Getting up, she headed deeper into Shadow Valley.

 4 Shadow Wolves

    "Ray of Hope"


    Avery finished off a shadow rabbit and looked at her Exp.


    [Congrats! Defeated {Shadow Rabbit}! Received 16 Exp. 507/500 needed to level up]


    [Level Up! Gained 10 stat points. 7/1000 needed to level up]


    "Finally" Avery said, looking at the notifications, she felt very accomplished. She allocated her stat points before checking her shorter status.


    [Status:


    Name: Avrix


    Level: 3


    Stats:


    -Charisma: 3


    -Constitution: 1


    -Defence: 1


    -Dexterity: 1


    -Intelligence: 26 (25)


    -Luck: 4


    -Strength: 1


    -Willpower: 6


    -Wisdom: 17


    Elements:


    -Fire


    -Water


    -Nature


    -Wind


    -Earth


    -Lightning


    -Metal


    -Ice


    -Light


    -Darkness


    Items:


    -Starter Mage''s Staff (Grade D)


    +1 intelligence


    -Starter Mage''s Staff (Grade D)


    +1 magic defence


    Active Quests:


    Elemental Skills:


    [Fireball (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Water Shield (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Entangle (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Flying Cloud (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Rock Wall (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Lightning Strike(Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Metal Guard (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Frost (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Ray of Hope (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Smog (Tier 1, Level 0)


    Other Skills:


    Health: 1100


    Mana: 360 (350)


    Defence: 10


    Magic defence: 61 (60)


    Health regeneration: 1.5 per second


    Mana regeneration: 9.5 per second]


    ''My stuff is looking good'' she thought while looking at her status. She spent 2 hours grinding to get to level 3. Other players are probably still at level 2, and maybe some players are lucky enough to get to level 2. But, Avery is confident that she''s the only level 3 player. No one could level up as fast as her.


    Looking at her stats, she considers whether she should go in deeper and fight higher level monsters. She increased her mana and mana regeneration, so she could use more spells at a faster pace. It gave her a bit of confidence, so she decided to give it a go.


    Heading through Shadow Valley, she felt that it was getting a it darker. She felt that something was watching her, but she couldn''t tell. "Shit!" she cursed as she realized what was going on. She moved out of the way in the nick of time just as a wolf pounced on her previous location. Seeing it, she involuntarily shivered.


    [Shadow Wolf (Level 7)


    A wolf infused with the abundant darkness elements in Shadow Valley, gaining an increased strength


    Health: 5000


    Mana: 175


    Defence: 250


    Magic defence: 200


    Abilities: {Shadow Steps}, {Shadow Spear}


    {Shadow Spear (Tier 3)}: Creates a spear out of shadows and hurls it at an enemy. Deals 650 damage and has a 25% chance to ignore defence/magic defence]


    ''Almost forgot about these...'' She thought, blaming her ignorance. She was focused on so many other things and still a teensy bit shaken about her rebirth that she totally forgot about the shadow wolves. It gave many people nightmares back in her world. It was so fast that even Avery couldn''t hit it''s weak spots, so Avery can only use "Ray of Hope" to deal damage. If he didn''t have all elements, well, she''d be screwed.


    "Ray of Hope"


    She immediately casted "Ray of Hope" before making a mad dash away from the shadow wolf. The shadow wolf managed to avoid a direct on it''s weak spots, but still got hit.


    [Hit! Dealt 550 damage to {Shadow Wolf}. 4450/5000]


    Hit by the light, the shadow wolf howled in pain for 5 seconds before the attack wore off. It recovered after a second because it''s stronger that the shadow rabbits she fought before.


    The shadow wolf use {Shadow Steps} and blended into the shadows before it started running at her. It didn''t really matter if it used {Shadow Steps} or not, because "Ray of Hope" was the only spell she could use to deal damage.


    The shadow wolf was right behind Avery in a couple of seconds. She couldn''t do anything because close combat was the bane for every mage, bard and shaman.


    Mages, bards and shamans are the 3 most helpful classes. Mages deal massive damage, bards can give insane damage boosts to teammates and shamans can make fights much easier with their de-buffs.


    The only problem is that they suck in close combat.


    Mages, bards and shamans don''t have a default attack, unlike the other classes that do. So, mana and skills are crucial to them. Whenever there''s a life saving skill book for one of those classes, the price goes unbelievably high. Worse ones can go for 100 gold, while the better ones can go for up to 10 000 gold.


    One copper would be equal to one cent, one silver is equal to one dollar and one gold is equal to a hundred dollars. So, the prices of one life saving skill could be up to a million dollars. That shows how valuable they are.


    Currently, gold is hard to come by in the game. The money to currency exchange feature only comes out a year after the release, but you can trade currency for money at the trade centre.


    Either way, mages, bards and shamans are very weak when it comes to close combat.


    That means Avery is in a bad situation.


    [Received 266 damage from {Shadow Wolf} 834/1100]


    The shadow wolf scratched Avery and she stumbled, but still managed to continue running. If she stopped, the shadow wolf would be able to bite her, dealing even more damage.


    When you get attacked you get dealt damage. If it''s a stronger attack or a heavy attack, like the shadow rabbits bite from earlier, it deals double damage. That''s why the shadow rabbit''s bite was stronger than the shadow wolf''s scratch. If the shadow wolf bit her, than it would''ve dealt double damage, which she wants to avoid.


    She could only run. If she used "Rock Wall" or "Metal Guard", the shadow wolf charging into it would be considered a heavy attack and immediately destroy it. If she casted "Frost", well, the shadow wolf used {Shadow Steps} so she would have to cast "Ray of Hope" beforehand to cancel it. Even so, the shadow wolf is fast enough to dodge "Frost", so it wouldn''t work. She could cast "Water Shield", but 75 extra defence isn''t too much. But, it''s better than nothing, so...


    "Water Shield!"


    Avery casted "Water Shield" while running and a floating shield made of water started hovering around her. It wouldn''t do much, but it''s the best she has right now. She did have a plan, but it''s going to be hard.


    Back in her world, people found out an exploit where there''s a small crack in the wall, and if you go in it, shadow wolves cannot reach you because they''re too big and the crack is too small. It would only work for shadow wolves because shadow rabbits were small enough to go in. The only flaw to the exploit is that you have to be very fast so that you can make it there before the shadow wolf kills you.


    And Avery isn''t that fast.


    [Received 202 (257-75) damage from {Shadow Wolf} 652/1100]


    "Come on!" She said, running as fast as she could. The water shield helped her a little bit, but she still got hit hard. Looking behind her, she checked how far the shadow wolf was, and was greeted by a giant shadow spear heading straight at her.


    [Received 650 (Pierced) damage from {Shadow Wolf} 2/1100]


    The spear went straight into her stomach and launched her forward around 20 meters. ''Are you kidding me right now'' She thought. She could die by just a scratch from the wolf right now. All she could do is keep on running.


    The shadow wolf, sensing that she''s weak, slowed down a bit to enjoy the thrill of the hunt. Avery used that time to cast "Ray of Hope" once more when it went off cooldown.


    "Ray of Hope"


    The shadow wolf was enjoying chasing her and didn''t notice the ray of light before it was too late. Hit by the light, it once again howled in pain and rolled over the ground for 5 seconds before the spell wore off and it got back up, with a trace of bloodlust in it''s eyes.


    [Direct hit! Dealt 750 damage to {Monster} 3700/5000]


    Avery kept on running, ignoring the in front of her. She didn''t have enough time to think about it because she can see the small crack up ahead. She makes a sprint for it, barely missing the shadow wolf''s scratch from behind.


    "Finally" she signed. She almost died running away. The shadow wolf was clawing at the crack, but unable to get in or hit her. It started preparing a {Shadow Spear}, but stopped when Avery went in deeper and turned around a corner, thus making it impossible for the {Shadow Spear} to hit.


    Avery stayed in the crack for 5 minutes, spamming "Ray of Hope" when ever it went off cooldown. The shadow wolf stayed in front of the crack, unwilling to leave until she came out.


    The monsters had a weird aggro system in the game. Pretty much whoever generated the most aggro by attacking, healing or using skills, would be targeted until the monster dies or the player dies. That way, you have to finish a fight or run all the way into a safe zone like a city or village. It''s a unique battle system that gets rid of unfinished fights.


    After killing it, the shadow wolf howled one last time before falling t the ground and disappearing. In it''s place was a shiny black orb. Avery was a bit shocked. She knew exactly what it was, but didn''t expect it to appear so fast.


    [Congrats! Defeated {Shadow Wolf}! Received 34 Exp. 41/1000 needed to level up]


    [The {Shadow Wolf} dropped a {Darkness Orb}]


    [Darkness Orb: levels up an elemental skill of the darkness element. The amount of orbs needed equal to the skill tier]


    An elemental orb. A goddamn elemental orb. These things are rare. One in every thousand elemental monsters have one. And the prices are quite high. One would cost a gold piece. That''s a hundred dollars for one orb. So, if you grind elemental monsters, you can slowly make a fortune.


    The only problem is that one major guilds realized this, they immediately sent out forces to conquer all the areas elemental monsters spawned. They were made so well known that they were dubbed "Elemental Areas".


    Either way, Avery didn''t care about money right now, because she had a money-making plan that''ll make her rich.


    Avery used the darkness orb on her "Smog and it levelled up, gaining more power.


    [Smog (Tier 1, Level 1)


    Creates a smog that covers a 5*5 area, dealing 20 damage per second to whoever''s in it. Disappears after 11 seconds. Cannot be stacked.


    Costs: 75 mana


    Cooldown: 1 minute


    Note: This is where all the toxic tryhards live]


    The damage doubled and the duration was extended by a second. It didn''t get a massive increase of power, but was 100% better. Plus, there was no point saving it because it would take a while to get the next tier of spells.


    Skill tiers represent how powerful by default a skill is, and how many elemental orbs are required to level it up. For example, if there was a skill that was tier 6, you''d need 6 elemental orbs of that element to level it up.


    The level of a skill can go up to 100, so tier 1 skills can possibly be more powerful than a tier 10 skill.


    Anyways, Avery was content with what she got, and she decided to stop grinding for a while and go complete some regular quests. Usually, quests give you a decent amount of Exp and some currency. The most important part is the currency, because you don''t get money from monsters, so quests were the main way to get money.


    Items are important too. You either buy items from shops or the auction house, get them from dungeons/bosses or finding treasure chests.


    Treasures chests are hard to come by because the loot from them are amazing. Apparently, you can get some sweet stuff, but they were extremely hard to come by. Plus, no one posted that they found a treasure chest on the forums unless they wanted to get hunted down by PKers (Player-Killers) wanting the stuff they got. So Avery couldn''t go to every single treasure chest location and get overpowered items easily.


    Speaking of treasure chests, Avery noticed a glimmer of light from deeper in the crack she was in...

 5 Treasure Chest and Life

    Turning her head towards the glimmer, Avery saw an outline of something deeper in the crack she was in. She walked towards it, and discovered a treasure chest sitting there. ''Wow, speak of the devil!'' She thought. Finding a treasure chest was extremely rare. Because of the massive amount of players, every area in the game was massive. Later in the game, in the higher levelled areas, it gets a but smaller, but for now, every area is around the size of a small city. Finding one chest in the whole area is nearly impossible. Lady luck must''ve blessed her.


    With greed in her eyes, she promptly opened up the chest to see what was inside. What she saw amazed her. Then again, treasure chests are pretty much game breaking, so no matter what it would''ve surprised her.


    [Eclipse''s Robe (Grade A, Level 10 {0/6500})


    The robe of the darkness shaman "Eclipse". After his failed experiment, he fled into a crack in the wall and casted a camouflage spell to protect his things before his life faded away. After a long period of time, the camouflage spell faded, revealing his stuff. Sadly, the majority of his stuff was worn out, either becoming useless or diminished. One of his things was his robe with powerful but worn out enchantments that increase and enhance both defence and magic defence


    +50 defence


    +50 magic defence


    Note: It''s been hidden away for a long time and is extremely stinky. Better wash it!]


    [Eclipse''s Mask (Grade S)


    One of Eclipse''s most valued items. It changes the user''s face to look like whatever they want and makes the user more inconspicuous.


    -Changes the users face to look like whatever they want


    -Hides the users username and cannot be tracked, marked or identified by any skills


    Note: The face keeps the gender of the face the same, so no guys who get this can peep on girls in the girls locker room]


    [Eclipse''s Staff (Grade A, Level 10 {0/6500})


    A staff made by Eclipse himself to boost darkness elemental skills, as well as increasing the user''s intelligence.


    +50 intelligence


    -Increases the power of darkness element skills by 50%


    Note: Made of wood from Darkwood Forest]


    ''Jackpot!'' Avery thought. This stuff was amazing. Well, she could think of more powerful stuff she would''ve preferred, but beggars can''t be choosers.


    She would''ve never guessed that she would''ve found the shaman''s old stuff. Apparently, his name was "Eclipse". Kinda fits, because he was trying to make a shadow element, and an eclipse is when a planet''s shadow covers another planet. Or something like that.


    Either way, the stuff she found was amazing. It would solve a lot of her problems in the future, especially the mask. She can cover her face so no one stares at her anymore. Too bad she can''t make it so that she looks like her old self. It would''ve been nice.


    For items, the most important thing is their grade. The higher the grade, the more powerful an item is. For example, if the staff was a grade D item, it would only give +10 intelligence. But, because it''s a grade A item, it gives +50 intelligence.


    The grades, from lowest to highest, are D, C, B, A, S, SS, SSS and X. The most common item grade in the game are grade D items, with a few grade C items mixed in. It''s expected, with the common level still being level 1. Some people are dedicated and quick, so they managed to get to level 2. And very few, who had lots of outside power, wealth and people, managed to secure a private grinding area and made it to level 3. Those people then went into the next area, Sunbeam Forest, which was a levelling ground for players level 3-5. Of course, their levelling speed could never match Avery, who was grinding shadow rabbits, but it would be better.


    The level of a weapon is, well, the level weapon. By default, any item bought by a normal NPC or just created would be at level 1. To level it up, you just have to feed it Exp, which is basically to use it/wear it while grinding. The amount of Exp you get would also count towards your items, and they''d slowly level up as well.


    Of course, not all items have levels, like the mask and Avery''s starting gear. The mask doesn''t have any levels because it doesn''t give any stat bonuses, therefore nothing to level up. And Avery''s starting gear are, well, starting gear. The creators of "Realm of the Elements" wouldn''t want people running around with starting gear that was level 100. So, they didn''t include levels with it.


    Anyways, after examining her new stuff, she equipped it and checked her status again.


    [Status:


    Name: Avrix


    Level: 3


    Stats:


    -Charisma: 3


    -Constitution: 1


    -Defence: 1


    -Dexterity: 1


    -Intelligence: 75 (25)


    -Luck: 4


    -Strength: 1


    -Willpower: 6


    -Wisdom: 17


    Elements:


    -Fire


    -Water


    -Nature


    -Wind


    -Earth


    -Lightning


    -Metal


    -Ice


    -Light


    -Darkness


    Items:


    [Eclipse''s Robe (Grade A, Level 10 {0/6500})


    +50 defence


    +50 magic defence]


    [Eclipse''s Mask (Grade S)


    -Changes the users face to look like whatever they want


    -Hides the users username and cannot be tracked, marked or identified by any skills]


    [Eclipse''s Staff (Grade A, Level 10 {0/6500})


    +50 intelligence


    -Increases the power of darkness element skills by 50%]


    Active Quests:


    Elemental Skills:


    [Fireball (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Water Shield (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Entangle (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Flying Cloud (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Rock Wall (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Lightning Strike(Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Metal Guard (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Frost (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Ray of Hope (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Smog (Tier 1, Level 1)


    Other Skills:


    Health: 1100


    Mana: 850 (350)


    Defence: 60


    Magic defence: 110 (60)


    Health regeneration: 1.5 per second


    Mana regeneration: 9.5 per second]


    Looking at her stats, she wondered if anyone else could''ve gotten as strong as her this fast. It''s pretty amazing that she managed to get so strong in a bit less than 2 and a half hours. It was currently 10:30 pm. There was no time difference, so the time spent in game is the same in real life. It wasa 1:1 ratio.


    At first glance, you''d think that if there was no time difference, than the casual player wouldn''t have enough time to play if they have school or work. Well, there''s a solution to that! When you play the game, it''s the same as sleeping. Well, other than the fact that you''re gaming. The game pretty much puts the body to sleep, but instead of falling unconscious, it takes the consciousness and puts it into the game. So you can play for as long as you want, until you want to wake up.


    Avery''s planning on playing till around 8:00 in the morning, so she decided to grind for a long time before she longs off again


    ____________________


    [Congrats! Defeated {Shadow Wolf}! Received 28 Exp. 4006/4000 needed to level up]


    [Level Up! Gained 10 stat points. 6/1000 needed to level up]


    ''Finally made it to level 8'' Avery thought. She''s been grinding for the whole night, and finally made it to level 8. Of course, it was mostly thanks to her new stuff. It levelled up a while ago, so now she has +55 intelligence, along with a huge amount of mana as well. With her 900 mana, she could use 8 "Fireballs" at the same time to badly injure any shadow wolf that comes in her path, then camp in the crack for her mana to regenerate before killing it with more fireballs. It made grinding a breeze, and possible to get an insane amount of levels.


    Of course, she could''ve levelled up faster if she got infinite mana, or didn''t have to waste some time after each kill to look for some more shadow wolves, but it''s still amazing.


    "Shorter Status" she said.


    [Status:


    Name: Avrix


    Level: 8


    Stats:


    -Charisma: 3


    -Constitution: 1


    -Defence: 1


    -Dexterity: 1


    -Intelligence: 80 (25)


    -Luck: 4


    -Strength: 1


    -Willpower: 6


    -Wisdom: 57


    Elements:


    -Fire


    -Water


    -Nature


    -Wind


    -Earth


    -Lightning


    -Metal


    -Ice


    -Light


    -Darkness


    Items:


    [Eclipse''s Robe (Grade A, Level 11 {999/8000})


    +55 defence


    +55 magic defence]


    [Eclipse''s Mask (Grade S)


    -Changes the users face to look like whatever they want


    -Hides the users username and cannot be tracked, marked or identified by any skills]


    [Eclipse''s Staff (Grade A, Level 11 {999/8000})


    +55 intelligence


    -Increases the power of darkness element skills by 50%]


    Active Quests:


    Elemental Skills:


    [Fireball (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Water Shield (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Entangle (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Flying Cloud (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Rock Wall (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Lightning Strike(Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Metal Guard (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Frost (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Ray of Hope (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Smog (Tier 1, Level 1)


    Other Skills:


    Health: 1100


    Mana: 900 (350)


    Defence: 65 (10)


    Magic defence: 115 (60)


    Health regeneration: 1.5 per second


    Mana regeneration: 29.5 per second]


    Her stats were amazing. She put her stat points into wisdom so she could get her mana back faster. If she didn''t, how would she get her 900 mana back fast enough to maintain a decent grinding speed?


    Oh yeah, she also managed t level up her staff and robe. Sadly, even after all that grinding, she only managed to level the up by one level. She''ll need to grind in higher levelled areas to continue to level them up.


    Looking at the time, it was almost 8:00 am. Avery logged off because she needed to get up and get everything in her life organized and ready. This previous Avery was such a slob, so she needs to pick up the slack and do so many things. For one, she needed money. She couldn''t be living on her parents money forever.


    Thinking about the topic of parents, Avery''s mind drifted to her previous life, when her parents tried to support her, but because she was a teenager then and very rebellious, her parents worried about her a lot. Her family was well-off, but her dad got a heart-attack and that changed everything. The doctors realized that her dad had a heart disease, so it cost a lot to pay for the medical fees. Her mom, fed up with her, kicked her out of the house. She had to fend for herself. She eventually got a minimum wage job and learned some life lessons, before finally pulling her life together.


    A while later, she got a decent paying job, learned how to life independently and could finally help pay for her dad''s medical fees. Sadly, by then, her father couldn''t be saved. The doctors couldn''t do anything and her dad passed away. Her mother, filled with grief, shut herself in and spent her days depressed before she passed away naturally. Avery tried to comfort her the whole time, but she could never manage to cheer her mom up. Avery ended up not knowing what to do with her life, until she found "Realm of the Elements". It filled up her life, counting as entertainment, a job and a way to keep her occupied. She stayed inside 24/7. She ordered food and groceries online for delivery. Even though she never left, she still was self sustaining and cleaned, did laundry and dishes, vacuumed, made meals, all the things a normal human being should be able to do.


    It was all going well. She had some ups and downs while playing. Sadly, one day, she accidentally insulted the leader of the second largest guild in the game, "Blood Butchers", and got PKed till she lost everything and got reset to level 1. After that, she got drunk to forget about her losses, she walked out f?o?r? ?t?h?e? ?f?i?r?s?t? ?t?i?m?e? ?i?n? ?f?o?r?e?v?e?r? for the first time in a long time. She didn''t notice the car coming her way and got hit, ending her life and starting her, uh, other life...?


    Well, whatever. All she cares about is not letting her previous mistakes happen again. She will make money in this game, care for her new parents and not let them worry about her.


    Wait, doesn''t her parents want her to finish university? Oh God, not school again...

 6 Work? Jobs? Why not play games?

    Today was Saturday. On Monday, she needs to go to the university classes. She was pretty good in university. In her previous world, she sucked at remembering anything, so she studied for so long that it got stuck in her memory. And for some reason, in this world, Avery took the same classes as her. So, she doesn''t really have to study anymore. It''s a major relief, but it''s not her biggest problem.


    The biggest problem is her social status. Currently, she''s treated like garbage. Nicer people tend to ignore her and meaner people write messages on her locker and desk, while others push and shove her around.


    The old Avery would absorb all of it in and ignore the bullying. But, that''s not what she was going to do now! She absolutely hates bullying, especially since she used to be bullied before! Yeah! Like that time when, uh, someone stole... stole her apple! Yeah, that''s bullying, right? Whatever, she still hates bullying and that''s all that matters.


    Other than that, she needs to make some money. She didn''t really want to work though. She worked enough in her previous life, and with her memories, she should instantly become rich!


    There was only one flaw in her plan. The only things she paid attention to was about "Realm of the Elements" She never remembered any lottery tickets, because who the hell can predict that they''ll reincarnate into a parallel universe that''s practically the same?


    With that said, Avery has no other choice other than to get a job. Such a shame that it''s the fate of a reincarnator to still have to work, but that''s life.


    Wait a second...


    Work? Jobs? Why not play games?


    In "Realm of the Elements", you can sell or auction off valuable items for a lot of money, either in-game currency or actual money. Of course, right now it''s only in-game currency, but later on when the money to currency feature comes out it''ll be added.


    Plus, there''s the trade centre to trade money and currency with other players, so you can still make money by trading.


    Making up her mind, Avery decides to continue to play "Realm of the Elements". But instead of grinding for levels, she''ll grind for items.


    After making up her mind, Avery planned ongetting some stuff done around the place before she continues. The "stuff" she''s talking about is giving her room a proper clean. Yesterday, she couldn''t do too much, because she was still processing what was going on and only managed to vacuum and digest what was going on. Now, she''s in the mood to work.


    It took her around an hour to get everything cleaned up. She changed her sheets, made her bed, organized a bit, then tidied up her desk with her computer. Then, she ate some instant noodles for breakfast while going on her computer to browse the game forums. She wants to see if there''s anything new or different in the game because of her actions.


    There wasn''t anything that stood out too much. The majority of it was just complaining about how long it takes to level up, people discussing about the different elements and skills, and people bragging about their quests they managed to snag.


    [Why is this game so hard?! Devs, pls fix!]


    [Ha! Look at this! Grade C quest!]


    [Why aren''t there any healer classes? Are the creators dumb?]


    [Fire and lightning element users are such asses kill-stealing! Watch out!]


    [People above level 3, what''s your grind guide? It so hard!!]


    Yep. just people complaining. Not everyone is as high levelled as Avery. The majority of people are around level 1 and 2. The luckier and stronger people are around levels 3 and 4. Even some of the strongest people that are grinding 24/7 are only around halfway to level 5. That''s because no one else can easily go to a high levelled zone like Avery and immediately kill every monster without needing to develop a strategy or study it''s attack pattern, because she can easily remember the optimal strategy to grind.


    Closing the forums, Avery put on her VR helmet, laid in bed and started up the game, with the goal to grind for items in mind.


    [Welcome to Realm of the Elements]


    [Logging in as "Avrix"]


    She spawned back in Shadow Valley, where she logged out previously. The game lets you log in or out anywhere, except if you''re in combat.


    She walked out of the valley and walked onto the main road. She got to Shadow Valley via the main road, and she could go to a bunch of other low-level areas around the beginner village using the main road for the beginner village. One of the areas was called Loot Lagoon, which she was heading to right now.


    Loot Lagoon, sadly, didn''t have any secret loot that Avery knows of. But, there''s a greater chance of enemies dropping gear, which is why Avery decided to grind for gear there. Plus, the drops are pretty good. The lagoon is only populated by fish, and each fish can drop it''s carcass when killed, along with a chance of dropping an item.


    Walking along the beginner village''s main road, Avery saw the lagoon from the horizon. She sped up until the lagoon was right in front of her, then looked for a certain spot.


    Loot Lagoon is a grinding spot meant for players level 7-10, so Avery can grind for loot without worry. Plus, it''s not a great grinding spot without a great exploit spot.


    Avery finally found what she was looking for. A section of the lagoon where the water''s shallow. That''s the spot she was going to grind monsters... wait, no... fish. Where she was going to grind fish! The only monsters in the lagoon are a few different species of fish. There was only one type of fish that lived in the shallow part of the lagoon, and thats what she''s going to grind.


    [Blue Dragontail Fish (Level 7)


    A common fish found at the shallow parts of Loot Lagoon. Tastes best when it''s grilled.


    Health: 2500


    Mana: 1000


    Defence: 0


    Magic defence: 0


    Abilities: {Slippery}, {Water Invisibility}


    {Slippery (Tier 2)}: Naturally able to dodge the majority of attacks


    {Water Invisibility (Tier 5)}: Becomes naturally invisible in the water. Can only be detected by someone proficient with the water element]


    The dragontail fish is considered a rare fish, even though it commonly found in Loot Lagoon. The reason why it''s considered a rare fish is because of it''s [Water Invisibility].


    If you even want to see this fish, you''d have to have the water element and be proficient with it. And to become proficient with the water element, you''d have to constantly practice using the water element to become proficient with it. Of course, Avery, the person who had no life, already mastered the water element, so it isn''t a problem for her.


    The only problem that will arise is it''s [Slippery] ability. It will end up dodging the majority of Avery''s attacks.


    Some people would think that it''s easy to grind the fish, saying you just need to have the lightning element and shock the water. The only problem with that is that the creators of the game already thought of that, and made any attack, skill or item used underwater/on water function the same, as if it was done normally. It''s to prevent using elements to your advantage. For example, if someone''s in the dark, you can''t say that they''re now the darkness element and use a light element attack and deal a ton of damage, right? Now, replace water with dark and darkness and replace light with lightning, then you''ll see what the creators were trying to do.


    Walking over to the shallow area, Avery saw a NPC fishing in the shallow area. ''That''s weird'' she thought. She never saw the NPC before. It could possibly be a one time quest, or maybe even a hidden quest, but she didn''t know. They looked like a fisherman, so it would be normal if the average player saw them. But Avery knew there wasn''t supposed to be someone here. Puzzled, she walked over to try and ask what they were doing.


    "Excuse me?" Avery asked in a polite tone. "What are you doing here?". The fisherman NPC turned to look at her and Avery could see his face clearly. They were around 6''3", easily looming over Avery. His hair was ragged and oily, but it was covered by a fishing hat. He had blue eyes that gave him an experienced vibe. He was wearing a common set of fishing clothes.


    "Eh?!" The fisherman exclaimed. He wasn''t expecting someone else to be near him. Luckily for Avery, all NPC''s didn''t care for appearances, unless it''s specifically programmed in, like a perverted thug. Plus, Avery still had her mask on. She didn''t know what to make herself look like, so she settled with making it look like a black surgeon''s mask. It looks pretty cool, so she doesn''t mind.


    "Hello young lass. Don''t mind me. I''m just trying to fish here" he said. "Which type of fish are you trying to catch?" Avery asked. But, on the inside, Avery was making fun of the fisherman. ''Fishing here? Is this guy an idiot? This place is populated with monster fish! A regular fisherman can''t catch any fish in this lake, unless they have a death wish!''. Of course, she never said that out loud, but the sheer stupidity bugged her.


    The fisherman sighed, then spoke. "I heard that there''s a fish around here called ''Blue Dragontail'', but I can''t seem to find it, much less catch it. Hell, I can''t even see it! That scumbag mayor forced me to catch 5 by tonight, or he''ll take away my daughter and slander my name... But, I can''t seem to find this fish at all. Sigh...". Avery listened to the story and a grin slowly formed on her face. She realized that this was a one time quest! It wasn''t a hidden quest, or else the fisherman''s story would probably include fire-breathing dragons or something.


    "If you''d like, I could catch one for you" Avery said. The fisherman was surprised, and asked "Are you sure? I''ve been waiting here for a long time. You may never find one".


    [Quest: Fishing for Freedom


    The mayor of a local village is forcing a local fisherman to catch and kill 5 Blue Dragontail Fish for him before 5:00 pm or else he''ll take his daughter and slander his name. Catch and kill the fish for him 5:00 pm to complete the quest.


    Completion Reward: ???


    Failure Penalty: ???


    Time Limit: Before 5:00 pm]


    "Don''t worry, I''m sure I can catch one for you" Avery said with a smile. With her reply, the quest was considered accepted. "Thanks. Oh, by the way, my name''s Jerold" Jerold said with a smile as well. "My name''s Avery" she replied.


    Avery walked over to the shallow water and looked in. With her insane control over the water element, she could tell that there was a good amount of fish currently in the water. There was about 20, so she could slowly kill all of them using a bunch of fireballs.


    Because elemental skills work the same underwater/on water, Avery could easily bombard the area with fireballs. She''s grown fond of using them. If she didn''t accidentally find that treasure chest, she probably won''t be using fireballs excessively, because she wouldn''t have enough mana to support it.


    Watching Avery look into the lagoon, Jerold wondered what she was doing. "Um, what are you-" He was cut off as Avery summoned 18 fireballs and launched them into the lake. Jerold saw the fireballs go straight into the water. Jerold was shocked. ''How the hell is that considered fishing?!'' he thought. ''That''s just burning water!''. Yet, he was once again surprised when Avery reached down where she launched her fireballs and pull out a fish carcass.


    "Wha... what the hell?!" Jerold exclaimed. Avery stood up and looked at him while holding the carcass. "You''ve been fishing for these fish as if they were normal fish. But, these are actually monsters. Tasty monsters, but still monsters nonetheless. They have a camouflage ability as well. You''d need to be a monster hunter and be proficient with the water element to even think about easily getting one" she casually explained, not expecting Jerold to understand because they''re a NPC. But, Jerold surprised her a bit and asked "Then, wouldn''t the mayor know that? He should''ve, because he knew where to get it. Then, why did he make me fish for them...". She never thought that Jerold, a NPC, would have that sort of deduction. Indeed, she herself originally suspected that it was a set-up from the mayor, but he shouldn''t have been able to figure that out.


    Suddenly, Jerold eyes widened, then he scowled. "That fucking mayor... the scumbag almost tricked me! His son wanted my daughter for himself, so he tricked me and knew that it would be impossible. What if he makes a move while I''m not here...". Then, he turned towards Avery and said "Thanks for your help. Sadly, I must go now, but take this. I would''ve given it to if you caught all of the fish for me, but your explanation made me realize something very important. Now, I must go". He gave Avery a small fish ornamental and bolted away.


    Avery was happy. She wasn''t happy about the reward, nor happy about Jerold''s misfortunes. She was happy about not having to do anymore work for the quest. She didn''t want to waste so much time grinding for 5 fishes without getting any Exp.


    In the game, if you accept a kill quest, you can''t get any Exp for killing the specified monster. You''d still get Exp if you kill a different monster, or if the quest doesn''t specify a certain monster, but if it says the exact name of the monster needed then you''re out of luck.


    It''s not always that bad, because the reward would be slightly more generous. Not all the times, but most of the times.


    Anyways, Avery inspected the fish ornament to see it''s stats.


    [Jerold''s Fish Charm (Grade B)


    A fish charm given by a fisher called Jerold. This is his lucky charm for fishing and was blessed with luck for fishing.


    -Fish type monsters, if possible,always drop there carcass and, if possible, are 5 times more likely to drop an item


    Note: This was treasure by Jerold and was given to his savior, A.K.A you. So you better treasure it like he did]


    ''Nice!'' Avery thought. It was just a grade B item, but it''s effect could compare to a grade A item. Sadly, it was only limited to fish type monsters, or else it would''ve been way better. Still, it''ll help her grind for items.


    The items that Blue Dragontail fish drop are massive. It could drop any type of gear for any class or any element, so it would be worthwhile to grind here for a while. The item levels range from levels 5 to 7, so to normal players it would be considered top tier gear. The average player level would take about a week to get to levels 5 to 7, and even then, it would take a few months for someone to become proficient with the water element, and by then the only value in the fish for them would be the fish carcasses.


    Even so, Avery would still be able to get way more fish carcasses and items than any other player with the fish charm, so she would never have to worry.


    Thinking about that, Avery started her grind into riches.

 7 Dregon

    [Congrats! Defeated {Blue Dragontail Fish}! Received 31 Exp. 2241/6500 needed to level up]


    ''I think I should take a break'' Avery thought. She''s been grinding till noon and she got a large amount of gear. If she didn''t get that charm, she would need to grind till midnight to get the same amount of gear she got.


    "Status" she said.


    [Status:


    Name: Avrix


    Level: 9 (2241/6500) {Forgot to add an Exp bar}


    Stats:


    -Charisma: 3


    -Constitution: 1


    -Defence: 1


    -Dexterity: 1


    -Intelligence: 85 (25)


    -Luck: 4


    -Strength: 1


    -Willpower: 6


    -Wisdom: 67


    Elements:


    -Fire


    -Water


    -Nature


    -Wind


    -Earth


    -Lightning


    -Metal


    -Ice


    -Light


    -Darkness


    Items:


    [Eclipse''s Robe (Grade A, Level 12 {8199/10000})


    +60 defence


    +60 magic defence]


    [Eclipse''s Mask (Grade S)


    -Changes the users face to look like whatever they want


    -Hides the users username and cannot be tracked, marked or identified by any skills]


    [Eclipse''s Staff (Grade A, Level 12 {8199/10000})


    +60 intelligence


    -Increases the power of darkness element skills by 50%]


    [Jerold''s Fish Charm (Grade B)


    -Fish type monsters, if possible,always drop there carcass and, if possible, are 5 times more likely to drop an item]


    Active Quests:


    Elemental Skills:


    [Fireball (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Water Shield (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Entangle (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Flying Cloud (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Rock Wall (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Lightning Strike(Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Metal Guard (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Frost (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Ray of Hope (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Smog (Tier 1, Level 1)


    Other Skills:


    Health: 1100


    Mana: 950 (350)


    Defence: 70 (10)


    Magic defence: 120 (60)


    Health regeneration: 1.5 per second


    Mana regeneration: 34.5 per second]


    The fish were a good way to grind. She levelled up herself, her robe and staff all in one go. Before, she didn''t have enough mana regeneration to be able to efficiently grind the fishes, but now with 34.5 mana per second, she cast cast around 3 "Fireballs" every 10 seconds. So, she just saves up her mana and unleashes it all in one go to guarantee hitting the fish, or else it''ll narrowly dodge and barely live because of it''s [Slippery] ability.


    Anyways, she got a good haul of gear and plans on selling everything.


    "Inventory" she said.


    [Inventory:


    Money: 0 coppers, 0 silvers, 0 gold


    -Gear (133)


    -Consumables (240)


    -Ingredients (0)


    -Recipes (0)


    -Favorites (3)]


    The inventory keeps track of all gear pieces/items that you don''t have equipped. It also keeps track of your money.


    "Gear"


    [Gear (Sorted by Grade):


    -7 Grade B pieces of gear


    -49 Grade C pieces of gear


    -77 Grade D pieces of gear]


    She got very lucky and managed to get 7 pieces of Grade B gear. Each can sell for 2 or 3 pieces of gold. Plus, there''s a price inflation, so right now items/pieces of gear that are Grade C+/Tier 2+ have there prices multiplied by 5.


    Because the game released yesterday, nobody has good gear/items yet. Everyone has Grade D/Tier 1 gear/items, and the stores only sell Grade D/Tier 1 at the moment. So, the most common type of gear/items are Grade D/Tier 1 items/gear.


    Barely anyone has Grade C/Tier 2 gear/items, much less anything better than that. So, the prices of Grade C+/Tier 2+ gear/items are multiplied by 5.


    After a week, Grade C/Tier 2 gear/items will be common and after a month, Grade B/Tier 3 gear/items will be common, and their prices will go back to normal. But right now, she could sell the for way more than what they should be worth. Of course, it would only work if she finds the right buyer, like someone from a major guild. But that shouldn''t be a problem because there are a lot of famous guilds transferring over to ''Realm of the Elements'', and they have enough money to spend. Any major guild would be fine. Well, except "Blood Butchers" for obvious reasons in the past.


    Avery left Loot Lagoon onto the main road and headed towards Beginner Village. While she was walking, she got a notification from her social tab (Don''t think I have to explain this). Wondering who it was, she opened it up.


    [Friend Request from {Dregon}]


    ''Who''s Dregon?'' she thought. She didn''t know why someone sent her a friend request out of the blue. Unless...


    [Accepted the Friend Request from {Dregon}]


    After a couple seconds, when Avery accepted the friend request, she got a message from them.


    [Dregon: Hi. It''s me, from Elly''s Electronics]


    Yep. Avery had a sneaking suspicion that it was him. Figures, he did have her VR Helmet''s number.


    [Avrix: Hello


    Dregon: Do you want to from a party together?


    Avrix: No thanks, I''m doing something else right now]


    Avery didn''t really want to from a party with him yet, mainly for 2 reasons. The first reason is that she''s afraid that Dregon will flirt with her. It''s probably not too much of a problem, because from her first impression, he looks like he never talked to a girl.


    The second reason is that she was telling the truth. She did have other things to do, like sell all of the stuff she just got. So she didn''t have time to form a party.


    [Dregon: Well, then after doing what you need to do, do you want to go meet up?]


    She couldn''t really deny him a second time, that would be a bit too mean. She''s got to cut him some slack, even if she has to let him hit on her.


    [Avrix: Sure, I guess


    Dregon: Great! Does 2:00 pm at the sushi place in the beginner village sound good?


    Avrix: Works with me]


    Welp, she can''t really escape this one. Hopefully Dregon doesn''t get any ideas and try to hit on her. Or, even worse, exploit her body. Even she wasn''t fully used to it.


    After finishing her chat with Dregon, she arrived at the beginner village. When she walked in, she saw the streets were full of players wandering around, chatting with NPCs and trying to sell there stuff on the side of the road. She walked over to join the people on the side of the road, where they were selling their stuff.


    She found a spot along the road with no problem. Some people gave her a weird look because of the mask she was wearing, but other than that no major problems arose.


    She set up a stall and put all her items into it. Afterwards, she activated the auto-sell feature and left.


    When you set up a stall along the road, you can either stay and managed everything manually, or you can make everything automatic. The problem with an automatic stand is that you lose 5% of your sales, and at the current stage of the game, every copper is precious.


    She walked away from her stall, planning on wandering around and taking a break from grinding before she meets up with Dregon. She needs to take a break from mindlessly grinding, and enjoy her new life for a bit. There are some things she needs to decide, and she doesn''t really know the answer.


    Speaking of that, she''s facing a major dilemma in her new life. It is very important, and can impact multiple things in her new life. She needs to choose wisely, because it will decide her future. The problem is that she doesn''t really know the answer. Either way she chooses she will have to dedicate herself to it. The question is...


    Does she like guys or girls...


    ____________________


    Unyielding Glory was walking around the streets, looking for anyone selling gear. He was a Senior Officer from the guild "Invincible Experts", which was considered the third best guild in the game. It''s not set in stone yet because the game was released yesterday, but his guild was considered the third best game overall, gaining countless achievements from other games in the past. So naturally, at the current stage of the game, his guild kept their standing.


    There are rankings for guilds, as well as players, but the creators of "Realm of the Elements" announced that it was going to be added a week after the game launched. By then, everybody would have had enough time to level up and get on the leaderboards. If they''re the strongest, of course.


    Because the game is still new, the Guild Leader and Co-Leaders of his guild are currently holding a meeting to discuss the guild''s future plans. Glory has a high position in his guild, being a Senior Officer which is one rank below the Co-Leader rank, but he still hasn''t done any major contributions to the guild, thus he can''t advance any further. His fellow Senior Officers have made a good amount of contributions to the guild, either by investing money or getting lucky. They all had a good chance to get promoted because of their contributions, but Glory made it to his position just by using his skill.


    Knowing this, the other Senior Officers give his pointless or boring tasks, like teaching new Officers what to do and look in the auction house for gear or items. He always had to accept, or else they wold ridicule, making fun of the fact that he doesn''t invest in the guild and stuff. It never bothered him, but they never gave him any important jobs.


    Today, he was forced to look for gear/items. The only problem with that is that the NPCs gave out a limited amount of gear. You could only buy one piece of gear a day, and they were all Grade D level 1 pieces of gear. They were terrible, but it was the best anyone could buy off of NPCs.


    He chose to browse the player stands, to see if anyone was selling anything good. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw an empty stand, with the word "Automated" over it, meaning someone decided to leave there stand and do other stuff while losing 5% of their profits. No one was buying from it because they assumed it was a noob who didn''t know how important money was at this stage of the game.


    Glory agreed with this unanimous decision and went on to check out the other stands. After a while, he gave up because he couldn''t find anything good. Every stall he checked had overpriced gear they bought at a shop and decided to re-sell. Wondering what to do, Glory looked at the automated stall once more and saw that no one was buying from it. Out of ideas, he went over to check what they sold, and was extremely shocked at what it sold.


    ''Grade B gear?! What the hell?! And it''s all level 7?!'' Glory just realized he hit the jackpot. Even though the prices were high, especially the Grade B gear costing 15 gold per piece, he still bought it all. He got a third of the guild''s funds to buy anything that the guild needed, which was 200 gold. It was from countless members grinding quests and pooling all the money together, as well as spending an insane amount of money at the trade centre for gold.


    In total, he spent 105 gold on 7 pieces of Grade B gear, 49 gold on 49 Grade C pieces of gear and 19 silver and 25 copper on 77 pieces of Grade D gear. It was worth it to get the Grade D pieces of gear because it wasn''t overpriced and they were all level 7.


    ''I have to get in contact with the seller'' Glory thought. He knew how valuable a good seller was. Maybe he could get a promotion...


    ____________________


    While Avery was pondering over whether she likes guys or girls, she got a bunch of notifications.


    [You sold {Golden Robe (Grade B)} to {Unyielding Glory}]


    [You sold {Enchanted Shield (Grade B)} to {Unyielding Glory}]


    [You sold...


    Avery was notified that all her stuff got sold, and after the automated stand tax, she got 150 gold, 28 silver and 29 copper. Someone called "Unyielding Glory" bought everything she had for sale. A few moments later, she got another friend request.


    [Friend Request from {Unyielding Glory}]


    She got a friend request from the person who bought her gear. She didn''t have anything better to do, so she accepted it.


    [Accepted the Friend Request from {Unyielding Glory}]


    [Unyielding Glory: Where''d you get all that gear?]


    ''So that''s why'' she thought. They were wondering where she got all of her gear from.


    [Avrix: Trade secret


    Unyielding Glory: Then if you get anything new, instead of setting up a stall, jus6t sell it to me directly. Especially if you get something good


    Avrix: Sure]


    It is better to sell it to someone directly, so it''s good for Avery to have a buyer. She doesn''t have to deal with the 5% tax for automating her stand.


    It was 2:45, so she started to walk over to the sushi place. She still didn''t know the answer to her question she''s been thinking, but she could always decide later. In the meantime, she can wait for Dregon at the sushi place. She doesn''t have anything better to do anyways.


    Thinking about that, Avery headed over to meet Dregon.

 8 Dregons Friends

    It was 3 minutes before 3:00 pm when Avery walked into the sushi place. She saw a guy wave at her, so she assumed it was Dregon. Walking up to him, she started up a conversation, hoping that he doesn''t try to flirt with her.


    "What''s up?" she asked while taking a chair and sitting next to him. "You''re here!" he said, with a hint of joy. She was a bit puzzled about his joy, but didn''t mind it. "Why''d you ask me to meet up with you?" she questioned, getting straight to the point. "Oh, yeah" he started. "I... kinda need to ask you for a favor...". "Go on" Avery said, wondering what he needed.


    "Me and my friends are actually a group of experts, and we just transferred to this game, like countless others. One of them found a hidden quest, but it requires 6 people. Sadly, our group of friends only have 5 people including me, and we don''t trust others that we know in fear of our quest getting snatched. So... could you join us for the time being?" Dregon said.


    Avery was shocked for a second, before regaining her composure. This was a pleasant surprise for her. She never expected Dregon to find a hidden quest and share it with her. But, as she thought about it, it started to make sense. He probably thought that she was a newbie because she bought the game a few hours before the game launched, while people who were waiting for the game for so long would buy it the second it came out. Too bad that she only bought it late because she got reincarnated. Well, she''s not going to correct him, and he wouldn''t believe it either.


    Seeing that Avery wasn''t responding, "Dregon thought that she didn''t know what he was talking about, so he continued explaining. "If you join us, you won''t have to do much. You can just stay behind and we''ll protect you. You''ll probably get a lot of Exp, and if there''s an item for Mage''s we''ll give it to you. We don''t have a Mage, so it''s ok". Avery listened to what Dregon offered, and was fine with his conditions.


    "Sure, sounds like a good deal" Avery said. "Great, we might as well meet up with my friends now" Dregon replied. He got up and left. Avery was about to leave, when a thought struck her.


    "Actually, Dregon, can we stay for a bit? I''m kinda craving sushi..." She said. They were at a sushi place, so why not eat for a bit? She has enough gold, so it''s not a problem. She looked at Dregon, who was about to say no, so she quickly added "I''ll pay!".


    Dregon was contemplating what to say, but he eventually gave up and decided to join her. If she was paying, it didn''t matter to him, right?


    Avery ordered a few different types of sushi that looked good, when a thought struck her. She realized she could probably sell her fish carcasses here. But, she put it to the side as the sushi was coming out from the kitchen, so she decided to sell them after.


    ____________________


    "Ugh, how much longer do we have to wait" Twilight said. Dregon''s group of friends/experts have been waiting for quite some time. Twilight was complaining that Dregon was taking too long just to find someone to fill in the party. He was fiddling with his dagger in his hand. He was the group''s Rouge


    Unbreakable, the group''s Knight, was rebuking with him. "Just wait! It doesn''t matter how long he takes, as long as he finds someone. Plus, we should welcome everyone! No need to exclude anyone!" He was a good Samaritan, and was always good-hearted to anyone new. Him and Twilight often argue a lot about various topics, but it doesn''t effect their friendship.


    "Cut it out you two!" Sunshine, the Shaman of the group said. She always tried to stop Twilight and Unbreakable''s bickering. It didn''t work all the time, but it usually stops them. "Hmph!" Twilight said, while looking away.


    "Seriously, stop acting like a child. We need another party member, so deal with it" Moonlight said. She was the group''s Ranger. She didn''t bother too much about small squabbles and didn''t feel like breaking them up, so that job always falls onto Sunshine.


    "But for real, when is Dregon coming over? Didn''t he say around 3:10 or something?" Twilight. Indeed, it has been a while. That was because of Avery and her sushi desire, so they were running late.


    "Dregon messaged me saying that they''re coming over right now. He said they were 5 minutes away" Moonlight said to Twilight. "So" she continued. "For once, have a bit of patience". Moonlight had a cold personality. She didn''t act like she cared, but deep down, she still has an unbreakable bond with this group of friends. It was fortified with countless hardships and difficulties. Her looks never showed it though, with her pure black hair and cold eyes, backed up by her height of 5''10". She looked like a beautiful yet deadly assassin, even though she was a Ranger.


    "Fine..." Twilight said while sighing. He sat down and leaned against the wall. They were currently just outside the beginner village''s gate, and he was leaning on the outside wall, trying to act cool. He bought a hood and wore it, in attempt to look cool. Everyone else in the party knew what he was doing and always thought it was super weird, but didn''t mind it too much.


    After seeing that Moonlight finally stopped the bickering, Sunshine laid down on the grass to take a small nap while waiting for Dregon. Some people who were heading out of the beginner village''s gate stopped to look at her, until they received a cold glare from Moonlight. No one could blame them though, because she was a cute looking loli. Standing 4''8" feet tall and a child-like appearance, anyone would mistake her for a young girl.


    Unbreakable was getting a bit bored, so he pulled up the forums in-game and started reading them. He was giving off a imposing aura. It kinda helps him, because someone would think twice if they wanted to fight him. Everything about him looks like someone you shouldn''t mess with, ranging from his height of 6''4" and his giant build to his stance when wielding his sword and shield. The only problem was that he''s a good guy at heart but his appearance makes it difficult to make new friends. He somehow ended up with his current group of friends, which he''s currently content with.


    Even though all of them were doing their own things, they all shared one thought. ''What the hell is taking them so long!''


    ____________________


    Avery and Dregon finally finished eating after 20 minutes. Dregon was rushing Avery because she took too long, but she didn''t really care. It didn''t matter to her if they were late or not.


    She also sold her fish carcasses and paid for the meal. She got one silver each, because they were tier 3 fish carcasses, adding up to 2 gold and 40 silver. Minus 5 silver for the sushi, and she made a net profit of 2 gold and 35 silver. So, even if she didn''t manage to sell the gear she got from grinding, she could still sell the fish carcasses for a decent price. Sadly, she couldn''t overprice the fish carcasses, because she sold them to an NPC, which isn''t affected by the changes in the market, and no one would waste their hard earned money on fish carcasses. Maybe later in the game, when someone sets up a seafood restaurant, but not now.


    Currently, Avery and Dregon were heading towards the beginner village''s gate to meet up with Dregon''s friends. Avery was wondering what they were like, but she left that thought for when she meets them.


    After a short walk, which would''ve been longer if it wasn''t for Dregon rushing her, they finally made it to the beginner village''s gate. "Hopefully they aren''t too angry with us..." Dregon said. "Eh, whatever" Avery said back. All she cared about was that quest, and she''s pretty much guaranteed to get it. The only problem is that the whole party will treat her like a newbie, even though she has more experience with the game then they''ll ever have.


    As Avery and Dregon walked through the front gates, they heard someone say "What took you guys so long?". Dregon recognized that voice, and replied "None of your business Twilight, it just took a little longer than I thought". Avery looked at the person called Twilight and knew they were a Rogue just from his attire.


    All classes have a certain way they look, so just from one glance you can easily assume their class. For example, Rogues have leather clothes and sometimes a hood. Plus, they''ll always look shady, like they want to sell you something in the alleyway. But, a Swordsman would look different. They might wear leather clothes, but they could also wear iron armour. Plus, they''ll always have a sword, so it''s easy to tell.


    Avery looked at the rest of Dregon''s friends. There was a Ranger, a Shaman and a Knight, as well as the Rogue. If you include Dregon, they have a group of 5, one person short of 6 people which they need for the quest.


    "Is this the girl you were talking about Dregon?" The Ranger asked. "Yes it is, Moonlight. She''s called Avrix" Dregon replied. Moonlight looked at Avery for a second before looking away, acting indifferent. Avery could tell that she didn''t care about her. She probably assumed that she wasn''t worth her time, because she''s just a random newbie.


    Twilight, the Rogue from before, looked at her with a lustful gaze, before getting slapped by the knight. "Twilight! Do you have no shame!" He yelled. "So what, Unbreakable? It''s not like she would care" Twilight spouted back. Avery immediately disliked Twilight. He assumed that she was oblivious. That ticked her off quite a bit.


    Unbreakable turned to Avery and said "Please don''t mind him. He''s always like that, doing whatever he wants". He then looked towards Twilight again, who went back to leaning against the wall, trying to act cool. Avery looked at Twilight as well, and like everyone else, knew he was purposely trying to act cool. It wasn''t really working though.


    "When we do the quest, just stay in the back and use your spells. We''ll protect you, so fire away all you want" Unbreakable said. "Ok" Avery said in response. Unbreakable was an ok guy in her opinion, while Moonlight seemed to not care about her. So naturally, after being blatantly ignored, she didn''t really like Moonlight that much. Dregon was ok, but a bit shy to girls he never met. And Twilight, in her eyes, is terrible.


    She looked at the last person, the loli Shaman, who was lying on the grass. The Shaman noticed her gaze and walked over to her. "My name''s Sunshine" She said. "We''re just gonna stay in the back and use our skills. It''s pretty simple, so you should have no problem". "Ok then" Avery said in response.


    Sunshine, in Avery''s opinion, was pretty nice. But, there was one problem with her, like everyone else. It was getting tiring after noticing everyone had that problem.


    Everyone thought she was a newbie...

 9 The strongests guild

    "Ok everyone, let''s go meet up with the quest giver and start this hidden quest!" Unbreakable said. He then led the group over to a secluded part of the training ground. There was a small outpost there. Unbreakable went up ahead to talk to a guard there. After talking, everyone got a notification saying that the quest started.


    [Quest: Lost Map


    Kris, a guard for Beginner Village, has lost his family''s treasure; an old map, a long time ago. He requested for a group to find it for him. Find the old map for his and he''ll reward your group handsomely.


    Completion Reward: Unknown


    Failure Penalty: A sad Kris :(


    Requirements: A medium-sized group (6-10)


    Time Limit: Infinite]


    [Quest Accepted]


    "..." everyone was dumbfounded by the failure penalty. What the hell?! How is that bad?!


    Unbreakable, who already knew about the dumb remark in the game, laughed and said "Hurry up guys! We don''t have all day".


    "..." absolute silence. Everyone else was pissed at him. You knew beforehand, so why are you bragging about not being fazed!


    Before anyone could refute, Unbreakable started walking. He already asked where Kris last saw the map, so he headed there straight away. Everyone else followed after a couple grumbles


    They went to Sunbeam Forest, the next place players would go to after levelling up in the training grounds. There were a large amount of players, but not so much that there isn''t enough monsters. Unbreakable was following the game''s directions to find a dungeon called "Cave of Mourning" in the forest. Avery, of course knew about the dungeon. No one managed to finish it because the "Strongest" guild blocked the entrance and kept on trying to beat it, until the whole community banded together to break through and freed the entrance to the dungeon ten days after the launch of the game. Even so, it took another ten days for a group of 20 people, the maximum amount allowed into the dungeon, to beat it.


    Avery and the group finally made it to the dungeon entrance, where there was a crowd of players. "What the hell? Why''s there so many players?" Twilight cursed. Avery already knew it was the work of the "Strongest" guild. No, not the strongest guild, but a guild that''s called "Strongest".


    "Let us through!"


    "Stop blocking the dungeon!"


    "Fuck off!"


    Curses and yells could be heard from all directions. The rest of their group realized that people were blocking the entrance to the dungeon.


    Dregon pulled someone over to the side and asked "What''s going on?". The player instantly replied "The fuckers the "Strongest" guild! Just because they''re the 9th best guild doesn''t mean that they can control the first dungeon, especially this early in the game!" before joining the crowd once again.


    "What now?" Moonlight asked. They couldn''t do much if there are players blocking the entrance. Unbreakable replied "Simple, we charge through!". Everyone else was shocked by his answer, even Avery.


    "You sure we can do that?" Avery asked. "Don''t worry noob, we can protect you!" Unbreakable said back. Ignoring the pissed Avery, Unbreakable started to organize the rest of the group. "I''ll be in front and tank, Dregon will stand by my side, Twilight will take out their support, Sunshine and Moonlight will stay back for support and Avery..." He said while turning towards Avery. "Just stay and the back and use your spells. Moonlight will protect you". He said before disregarding Avery once again.


    "CHARGE!!!" Unbreakable yelled while charging through everyone, with the rest of the group behind him. Sighing, Avery also charged with them. The players crowding the dungeon stood back while mumbling things like "Idiots..." and "Do they have a death wish?".


    When they got to the front of the dungeon, they saw players blocking the entrance. They immediately saw their group charging and organized a defence. It didn''t work that well, as they didn''t have enough time and Avery''s group was simply stronger. Dregon wasn''t lying when he said that his group is filled with experts. Dregon was using his sword skills to his liking and each slash always hit someone and dealt a sizeable amount of damage. When someone tried to retaliate, Unbreakable quickly moved in front to block the attack. Twilight already went to the back and was massacring the supports. Sunshine was healing anyone that started losing health and regenerating their mana. Moonlight was shooting anyone that got too close.


    And Avery, well, she was still a bit upset, so other than a few fireballs, no help came from her.


    Suddenly, Avery felt a surge of darkness element coming from behind her. She turned around to see nothing. But Avery instantly knew that it was a rogue using the darkness element to conceal themself. Much like the fish and the water element, Avery can sense someone if they''re using a certain element and don''t bother to conceal them using it. Obviously, that comes with experience, so you have to master using the specific element before you can do that.


    Avery casually launched a fireball that way, making it look like she was aiming for someone else. The fireball hit the rogue directly and sent him out of his invisibility. That was the problem with the Rogue''s first darkness spell; it was cancelled the second they took damage. Later in the game, they''d receive a better version of it where they stay invisible no matter what, but for now they have to deal with what they have.


    The Rogue was shocked about the fact that he got hit. Was that a stray fireball? Am I really that unlucky? He didn''t think about it for too long, because he was quickly impaled by an arrow.


    Moonlight, drawing back her bow again, was thinking about how lucky Avery was. ''She fired a stray fireball and somehow managed to hit a random Rogue in stealth. What kind of luck do you need for that?''. She brushed off that thought and continued shooting.


    Sunshine was the opposite. "Wow, you''re very lucky! How''d you manage to somehow hit him? You must be filled with beginner''s luck!" She rambled. Avery didn''t bother too much and just replied saying "Yeah, just got lucky", when in reality, she knew exactly what she did. ''Blaming it on luck, eh? You can try saying that later...''


    Nothing much interesting happened after that. Their group managed to push through the "Strongest" guild and finally killed all of their players. Avery was a bit surprised. Dregon''s group wasn''t just a couple of friends, they were top tier experts! They could join the professional scene and dominate!


    ____________________


    Flawless, the guild leader of the "Strongest" guild, was chilling in his guild base when he suddenly received a message from a Co-Leader of his guild saying they were defeated by a group of players.


    "Shit! How the hell did one group of measly players manage to defeat our entire squadron there! Did you at least get a name?" Flawless demanded. Charging Ram, the Co-Leader who was stationed at the dungeon to protect it and was also messaging the leader, replied back saying that they never mentioned any name.


    "Fuck! Are all of you guys useless?! Go back and find out which group it was!" Flawless messaged.


    "But what about the dungeon?" Charging Ram responded.


    "Who cares about the dungeon! We already have enough of a head start, so we have the best chance of beating it. Plus, they don''t know how insanely difficult the dungeon is yet. And the group that killed you guys are probably doing the dungeon as well. Just stalk the entrance until you see their faces and voila! Ambush them, then camp the spawn points for them to come out to ambush them again till they''re level 1 again!"


    Reading the plan his boss came up with, Charging Ram couldn''t help but nod in agreement. It was the perfect plan, and if nothing went wrong, they''d get their revenge easily.


    He couldn''t wait to see the looks on their faces when they ambush them...


    ____________________


    Oblivious to what was going on, Avery and the rest started to prepare for the dungeon. Not much was needed, just a bit of time to heal up and organize their attack. Of course, Avery was left out due to "Not understanding" what they were planning. All she was made to do was sit back and launch fireballs. The rest of the group were making their formation.


    "All right, so we''ll do it the same way we did it when we were facing those guy from the "Strongest" guild" Unbreakable said. He was the group''s planner. Usually, he was goofy, but when things get serious, he gets serious as well.


    "Once again, Me and Dregon will be in front. Twilight, when you see an opportunity, strike. Me and Dregon will switch between each other to draw enough aggro. Sunshine, keep healing us whenever necessary. Moonlight, stay back to protect her and shoot some arrows if your safe. And Avery will stay with Sunshine again" He said while drawing some crude drawings in the dirt with a stick. "Got it?" he asked to everyone.


    "Yep!" everyone replied. Except Avery, who got bored of all those tactics which were useless to her and decided to browse the forums while waiting.


    "Ok then, let''s go!" Unbreakable said while leading everyone into the dungeon, which was going to be quite the surprise for everyone...


    Well, except Avery of course.

 10 Cave of Mourning

    The whole group entered the Cave and saw the gloomy atmosphere. It was dimly lit and gave off an uneasy feeling. It was so quite that you can here water dropping from somewhere in the cave. The rocks were roughly shaped and slimy. There were a few puddles of water here and their. But worst of all, if you listened close enough, you could here some creepy noises echoing off the cave walls.


    Everyone in the group was put on edge. They didn''t like how the dungeon felt, but it defenently had something sinister in it. "Um.. w-wasn''t this supposed to be a beginner dungeon?" Stuttered Sunshine, who was obviously afraid of the dark. "Yeah, this shit''s fucked up. IT''s giving me some creepy vibes" Twilight commented.


    Avery, of course, was unaffected by the atmosphere. She already beat this dungeon a few times in her previous life, so she became immune to the creepiness. Of course, on her first run she was scared and creeped out as well, but now it doesn''t mean jack shit to her. All she cares about is finishing the quest.


    She knew everything about the monsters that were coming up because of former experience and online guides. She knew about why there are creepy noises coming from deep in the cave. She knew the weaknesses and strategies for the bosses. And she knew what those red dots shining in the darkness in front of her group are.


    [Blood Bat (Level 5)


    A common bat found in the Cave of Mourning. It can steal health from its enemies.


    Health: 1000


    Mana: 1000


    Defence: 100


    Magic Defence: 500


    Abilities: {Flight}, {Life Drain}


    {Flight (Tier 3)}: Naturally able to fly


    {Life Drain (Tier 5)}: Drains the health from the enemy. Deals 100 damage over 5 seconds. Any damage dealt gets converted into health]


    [Bloodhounds (Level 6)


    These bloodhounds travel in packs and love to hunt for unsuspecting prey.


    Health: 2500


    Mana: 500


    Defence: 500


    Magic Defence: 300


    Abilities: {Hunt}, {Thrill of the Hunt}


    {Hunt (Tier 2)}: Naturally able to locate enemies through a excellent sense of smell


    {Thrill of the Hunt}: Targets an enemy. Once targeted, the enemy will have their defence and speed halved for 10 seconds. But, the user can only attack them for the 10 seconds]


    "Get ready!" Unbreakable yelled. Everyone in the group got into their places as the Blood Bats and Bloodhounds attacked. The whole group clashed and fought. Avery didn''t really do anything and was enjoying the show.


    After a long fight, the whole group managed to finish off the group of bats and hounds. One of them even dropped an item. Everyone crowded around to see what it was, and it shocked them.


    [Blood Bat Tooth Necklace (Grade C, Level 5 0/1500)


    A necklace with a tooth from a killed Blood Bat. Grants a small portion of their power, if used correctly.


    -When using a spell, it has a 2% chance to heal the user for all the damage dealt during one attack


    For: Mages


    Note: Even though the effect is really good, it''s takes awhile to activate it]


    "..." The whole group was speechless. How come they did all the work, yet the item they worked so hard for turned out to be only for Mages! What the hell!


    Ignoring the whole group''s stunned faces, Avery was grinning from seeing this pleasant surprise. "Since you said all Mage gear goes to me, I guess I''ll be taking this"" Avery shamelessly said. Everyone else wanted to say something, but couldn''t refute. They were the ones that made that condition, and if they demand for it back she could leave the party and they wouldn''t have enough party members to finish the quest.


    In the end, they had to go along with her shameless behaviour. They can only suck it up and continue.


    ____________________


    Avery''s group have been plowing through the dungeon for about an hour. It''s been going fairly well for their group. But the same couldn''t be said for the other groups trying to beat the dungeon.


    Th players that were trying to beat the dungeon were stronger than the average player. Everyone was at least level 3 and everyone was forming parties ranging from 6 to 10, with 6 as the minimum amount of players needed to enter and 10 the maximum


    "Group of 4 here, looking for a light element user and a extra DPS!"


    "Group of 8 here, looking for 2 light element users here!"


    Shouts for team members were heard from everywhere. Lots of people were looking for groups and lots of people needed groups.


    Some people already went into the dungeon when it first got opened by Avery''s group, but 5 minutes later some people already came out.


    "What the hell! The dungeon is fucking impossible! How are there level 6 monsters in there!"


    One of the players cursed loud, and everyone could hear it. ''Level 6 monsters?'' they all thought, as the idea shocked them. How could a beginner''s dungeon have level 6 monsters? ''They must be lying to stop anyone else from going into the dungeon'' Everyone thought.


    But, their suspicions were destroyed after all the groups came back either dejected or cursing. All of them faced the level 6 monsters. None of them could survive their onslaught and inevitably died.


    If it was a boss, or even an elite monster that was level 6, then it would be acceptable, because they''re special existences. Elites are much stronger than regular monsters, not to mention bosses. But, if a regular monster was level 6, then what level would the bosses be?


    Thinking about that, the players felt a cold shiver run down their spine...


    ____________________


    Avery''s group was still mowing down monsters. Their pace was decent and they were getting a lot of experience. There was only one problem...


    The group looked at the freeloader relaxing at the back of the group doing nothing. Everyone was annoyed that she wasn''t doing any of the work in killing the monsters. Avery, the freeloader in question, wasn''t bothered by the cold looks. Hey, they wanted her and said she was a noob, so why don''t I act like one?


    Avery was getting a bit of experience from the group. All the experience was evenly split among the group members, so she got an even share of Exp.


    "Status" she said.


    [Status:


    Name: Avrix


    Level: 9 (2310/6500)


    Stats:


    -Charisma: 3


    -Constitution: 1


    -Defence: 1


    -Dexterity: 1


    -Intelligence: 85 (25)


    -Luck: 4


    -Strength: 1


    -Willpower: 6


    -Wisdom: 67


    Elements:


    -Fire


    -Water


    -Nature


    -Wind


    -Earth


    -Lightning


    -Metal


    -Ice


    -Light


    -Darkness


    Items:


    [Eclipse''s Robe (Grade A, Level 12 {8268/10000})


    +60 defence


    +60 magic defence]


    [Eclipse''s Mask (Grade S)


    -Changes the users face to look like whatever they want


    -Hides the users username and cannot be tracked, marked or identified by any skills]


    [Eclipse''s Staff (Grade A, Level 12 {8268/10000})


    +60 intelligence


    -Increases the power of darkness element skills by 50%]


    [Jerold''s Fish Charm (Grade B)


    -Fish type monsters, if possible,always drop there carcass and, if possible, are 5 times more likely to drop an item]


    [Blood Bat Tooth Necklace (Grade C, Level 5 69/1500)


    A necklace with a tooth from a killed Blood Bat. Grants a small portion of their power, if used correctly.


    -When using a spell, it has a 2% chance to heal the user for all the damage dealt during one attack


    For: Mages


    Note: Even though the effect is really good, it''s takes awhile to activate it]


    Active Quests:


    Elemental Skills:


    [Fireball (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Water Shield (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Entangle (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Flying Cloud (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Rock Wall (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Lightning Strike(Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Metal Guard (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Frost (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Ray of Hope (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Smog (Tier 1, Level 1)


    Other Skills:


    Health: 1100


    Mana: 950 (350)


    Defence: 70 (10)


    Magic defence: 120 (60)


    Health regeneration: 1.5 per second


    Mana regeneration: 34.5 per second]


    Seeing the small amount of experience she got, she started to pity other players. She can easily kill monsters multiple levels higher than her with a flick of the wrist and 20 fireballs, but that''s not the same for other players.


    In her past life, she once believed that if she found out the best way to kill every monster, she could then easily kill every monster, then go and grind high level monsters easily. So, after a few months of research about every monster in the game, she successfully found out every monster''s weak spot, where her attacks can ignore defence and magic defence. Sadly, she realized that her reasoning was flawed. She still needed high damage so it won''t take forever to kill one monster and also dodge all of the monster''s attacks so she doesn''t die. Both of those things are pretty hard, so she started to give up on her idea to grind high levelled monsters. But, her research on monster''s weak spots was well worth it. She never had to worry about monster''s defence or magic defence with her research, so it helped a lot.


    "Look up ahead!" Shouted Unbreakable. Avery broke out of her thoughts and looked ahead. There was a giant door, which indicated it was the boss room.


    ''Eh, maybe I''ll help here'' Avery thought, because this is one of the places the rest would need all the help they could get.

 11 Drax, the Vampire Ba

    "Shit, what the hell is that?!" exclaimed Twilight. No one could blame him though, because in the middle of the room was a giant bat hanging upside down on a giant ledge. It looked different than the Blood Bats, because they were black. But, this bat is red and has very large and noticeable fangs coming from it''s mouth


    When the group stepped into the room, it suddenly woke up and screeched. Then, every got the information about the boss.


    [Drax, the Vampire Bat (Level 10 Boss)


    Leader of the Blood Bats and the first boss you can find in the Cave of Mourning. It''s devious and always goes for the weaker enemies. It''s difficult to track it, but still possible for the strong and skilled.


    Health: 9000


    Mana: 9000


    Defence: 400


    Magic Defence: 400


    Abilities: {Flight}, {Life Drain}, {Camouflage}, {Screech}, {Rage}


    {Camouflage (Tier 2)}: Naturally able to disguise its presence in various areas, but can still be detected if the enemy is skilled enough


    {Screech (Tier 5)}: It, well, screeches, dealing 250 damage and ignores defence. Anyone within 5 meters of it gets stunned for 5 seconds unless they have 25 or more willpower


    {Rage (Tier 1)}: An ability every boss has. Once it''s health is at 10%, it''s stats doubles]


    [Received 130 (250-120{Magic Defence}) damage from {Drax} 970/1100]


    "Welp, we''re screwed" said Moonlight. She already gave up the second she saw the stats. They barely managed to make it past the monsters from before. the problem is it''s defence and magic defence.


    Earlier on, the whole group (other than Avery) struggled to kill the monsters. The problem is that they don''t do enough damage to break through the monsters defence.


    For Avery, killing monsters has been a breeze. Because she knew every monsters weak spot and has complete control over every element because of sheer boredom, killing monsters has been extremely easy. But, not everyone has that knowledge, so they have to do something different.


    One way is to get lucky and find the weak spot of the monster. It''s not that reliable because not only do they have to use multiple skills just to find one weak spot, they also have to make sure that they won''t get killed trying and they won''t take forever to kill it. Plus, there''s the other problem of making sure that their attacks constantly hit the weak spot which is quite difficult in it''s own way.


    The other way is to break their defence/magic defence. It''s much easier and simpler to do. You and everyone else in your party attack a certain part and if you do it enough, there defence/magic defence will break in that spot. Essentially, instead of finding a weak spot, you make your own.


    But, it has it''s own flaws as well.


    Other than flaws like before where you still have to make sure you''re dealing enough damage, not getting killed and make sure you''re actually constantly hitting that spot, you also have to attack the spot enough to break the defence/magic defence. To do that, you have to deal the same amount of damage as their defence using physical attacks to break their defence and/or deal the same amount of damage as their magic defence using magical attacks to break their defence. So basically, an enemies defence/magic defence would be added onto the enemies health, making it even more difficult.


    Another flaw is that it has to be a focus attack. AoE attacks wouldn''t work because the damage isn''t focused and instead spread out, so you can''t use those attacks to make up for precision.


    All of the flaws combined makes it incredibly difficult to beat the boss, which is why Moonlight said they were screwed.


    "Come on! At least try! We''ll get some insight at least!" Unbreakable shouted, boosting the teams moral.


    Drax, the boss, bared it''s fangs and swooped down to attack the party. Unbreakable stood in it''s way and blocked the attack.


    [Received 289 (419-130) damage from {Drax} 2111/2400]


    "Shit, this guy''s strong!" Unbreakable shouted, then continued and said "Focus on healing me!". Sunshine nodded and started healing Unbreakable.


    [Healing! +5 health for 60 seconds]


    "To bad we don''t have any other healers..." Unbreakable mumbled, then had an idea and turned to Avery. "Hey, noob, what''s your other element?" he asked. "Why do you want to know?" replied Avery mysteriously. She was fed up with being called a noob, and now can get her petty revenge. It''s not a big deal to her, but it would feel satisfying.


    "Just tell me!" Unbreakable said, getting annoyed that a newbie would talk back to him. They gave her free Exp and some gear, yet she''s being petty. "Well, if you do want to know, it''s the light element" Avery said. She knew that he would need more health and he hoped that her second element was the light element.


    "Great! Than heal me quickly!" Unbreakable said. He was trying very hard to tank the attacks. Dregon, Moonlight and Twilight chose to try and break it''s defence on it''s left wing, but it wasn''t going too well. Drax was constantly moving, and if it wasn''t for Unbreakable tanking the attacks and making sure Drax stayed grounded, it would be even more difficult.


    A lot of the attacks were missing, but they were slowly getting into a pattern and getting better.


    Meanwhile, Avery and Unbreakable were still bickering over healing.


    "Hmm, why should I heal you? You keep on calling me a noob, and if I were a noob how would I know how to heal you?" Avery mentioned. Unbreakable was getting pissed, but he couldn''t do anything about it and could only accept getting made fun of Avery.


    "Seriously, stop goofing around. I''m not trying to make fun of you by calling you a noob, it''s just that you are" Unbreakable said. "This is your first game that you''ve played, so calling you a noob isn''t supposed to be mean, it''s because you''re new to gaming, thus a noob". Avery thought that was a decent argument.


    "Still, I don''t want to be called a noob. Call me by my name and I''ll heal you" Avery said. Unbreakable signed. "Fine, Avrix, can you heal me?" he said. He was handling the boss well, but was slowly losing health. Sunshine couldn''t keep up with the healing and he had to use some health potions. The whole group pooled in a lot of money to try and buy as many health potions they could. But, it cost way too much.


    Health potions were sold by the beginner village''s apothecary, and you could only buy 5 per person every day. Plus, they each cost 1 gold, so it was quite expensive. Luckily, they saved up their potions and each had ten. They had to trade real money for gold to get it, but it was worth it. They never had to use the potions before, and they fought well enough in the tunnels to not need them either, but now Unbreakable was losing a lot of health and Sunshine couldn''t keep up. With Avery in the mix, that could change.


    "That''s better" Avery said as she healed him.


    [Healing! +50 health for 5 seconds]


    With a grin, Unbreakable continued tanking the attacks. ''Now, we have a chance!'' he thought.


    ____________________


    At the entrance of the dungeon, there was a constant flow of groups going in and coming out a few minutes later. No one lost Exp, because there''s a level protection where if you''re level 10 or below, you don''t drop any items or gear, nor do you lose any Exp. So, groups were constantly going in and out, trying to kill the monsters.


    The only groups you could see were maxed out ones. Every group had ten people in it to maximize the chances of survival. Still, no one manage to get past the first wave, much less meet the first boss.


    "Make way!" said a loud voice coming from afar.


    Everyone turned to look at who was making the commotion and saw three different groups of players, each lead by a different person. When they got closer and saw their usernames, they instantly backed away.


    Backup, a Senior Officer of the "Invincible Experts" guild, which is the 3rd strongest guild. He''s known for coming in and helping out his allies at just the right time.


    Slaughter, a Senior Officer of the "Blood Butchers" guild, which is the 2nd strongest guild. He''s known for PKing others and can be devastating enemies in battles


    Outplayed, a Senior Officer of the "United Powers" guild, which is the strongest guild. He''s known for coming up with strange and unique ideas that works most of the time. Whenever it doesn''t work, it was because of a surprise variable.


    The three of them were leading their respective groups over to the dungeon entrance. All of them seemed to be talking, even though they should be mortal enemies. Butt, they soon realized why.


    "Remember, you have to honour the bet. Whoever clears the dungeon first gets 500 from the losers" Outplayed said. "Come on, we''re not fucking idiots. We already have a contract and everything" Slaughter said.


    "What happens if by chance another groups manages to clear the dungeon before us?" Backup mentioned. Outplayed thought about it for a second, then continued and said "Then no one gets the gold I guess. But, for real, how would anyone else manage to clear the dungeon. Heck, no one can make it past the first group of monsters!" Outplayed said.


    "Ok whatever, I''m going in. You guys take too long" Slaughter said as her lead his group of players into the dungeon. The other followed him and one by one, they entered the dungeon.


    Everyone had one thought on their mind. ''Who''s going to get the first clear?''

 12 Its just skill

    Avery''s group has been fighting Drax for about one and a quarter hours, and they''re dealt a large amount of damage in that timeframe. The 3 DPS were constantly dealing damage and Unbreakable, with the help of Avery and Sunshine, was tanking all the damage. They got into a system and were slowly but surely taking down the boss.


    "Ok everyone, things are about to get messy!" Unbreakable shouted. The boss had 1000 health left, and in a few seconds it was about to activate it''s boss ability, {Rage}.


    {Rage} has been the bane of every players existence forever when fighting bosses. The problems with it isn''t that it''s stats double, it''s that it goes into a blind rage like the name implies and doesn''t have an aggro system anymore.


    If you don''t know what an aggro system is, basically whenever a player deals damage to a monster, heals an ally or uses a special skill that grabs a monsters aggro, they will generate monster from that monster. The monster will attack the player with the highest aggro, so usually a tank with high health, defence and magic defence will try to generate aggro so they can tank all the attacks while the DPS will attack the monster.


    To do that, tanks would have a skill that generates the monsters aggro. But, in "Realm of the Elements", tanks like Knights and Guardians will get an aggro skill for their tier 2 skill no matter what element they chose. Well, because every tier 2 skill generates aggro for Knights and Guardians.


    But, before that, they don''t have any skills that generates aggro, which makes it really hard for tanks to properly tank damage. Luckily, for Unbreakable, he found a hidden quest for Knights and Guardians that gives him an aggro skill. So, for Avery''s group, him tanking is fairly easy.


    The only thing bad about that was a small teasing session when he announced that he found a second hidden quest that the group is doing right now. Everyone called him "A lucky break" and he didn''t really like it (Even though it was hilarious).


    Back on track now, if Unbreakable couldn''t tank the attacks, then they could get attacked next. None of them has enough health to get hit a lot, so it will get a lot more difficult.


    "Get ready!" Unbreakable shout, just as Drax''s health went below 900. "Screeee!" Drax let out another screech, but it didn''t deal any damage. It''s eyes turned red, and it was looking at all of them, before charging them once more.


    "Crap!" Twilight cursed, as he saw it charge him straight away. He narrowly dodged, and cursed while running away a bit to make some distance. Drax didn''t bother with him anymore and went straight into Moonlight who was in the back. She tried to dodge, but got grazed and went down. It didn''t kill, but Drax turned around and charged her again, killing her. Dregon was close by, and started running as well. Drax didn''t allow that, and killed Dregon in a few seconds. Dregon tried to fight back, but couldn''t do anything.


    Drax wasn''t done yet. He turned towards Twilight, who was still running away. But, Unbreakable appeared in it''s path, blocking him.


    Drax couldn''t get to Twilight without going through Unbreakable, but that would take some time, and he was restless. Sadly, he couldn''t fly anymore because when the DPS were attacking Drax''s left wing, it broke and now couldn''t be used. So, the only option for him is...


    Drax turned around to face Sunshine and Avery who were chilling in the back. Both of them knew that Drax would go after one of them, so they split up and ran in different directions. Sunshine headed to the right, where Twilight started running to so they could meet up and Avery headed to the left where... no one else was.


    Unbreakable was running as fast as he could and headed over to Sunshine and Twilight as well, but Drax was faster. Sunshine finally made it to Twilight and Drax was a few meters away from them. Twilight vanished, but Drax continued chasing Sunshine. Suddenly, it felt a prick on it''s left wing and stopped.


    [Lightning Backstab (Tier 1, Level 0)


    Backstabs someone while using lightning elements. Deals 100 damage and stuns them for 3 seconds


    Cost: 100 mana


    Cooldown: 2 minutes


    Note: Great for betrayals, because you leave them shocked]


    [Shroud of Darkness (Tier 1, Level 0)


    Envelops the user with a shroud, concealing them from an enemy. Lasts for 60 seconds. Goes away once you touch a player/monster


    Cost: 100 mana


    Cooldown: 5 minutes


    Note: Invisible prank #1 blow into someone''s ear and then run away]


    Twilight is a lightning/darkness Rogue, and just used his 2 skills to try and stop Drax. It worked, and he started attacking while Sunshine ran away. He knew he couldn''t escape, so he should deal as much damage as he could while stalling so Unbreakable could catch up and protect Sunshine.


    He got Drax down to 700 health, but the stun wore off and Drax swiftly killed him in one blow. Rogues usually don''t focus on getting good defence or lots of health, and the same goes for Twilight, so the buffed Drax one-shot him and went straight for Sunshine.


    But, Unbreakable made it there in time and started protecting Sunshine. Drax, unwilling to give up, kept on attacking Unbreakable. He was dead set on killing him.


    ...Meanwhile Avery was enjoying the show.


    "Hey, Unbreakable and Sunshine, I have a proposal" she shouted. "The hell is it!" both shouted back. They were in a dangerous position, while she was doing nothing. Unbreakable was stopping the boss, while Sunshine was frantically trying to heal him.


    "If I help you guys out to clear the rest of this dungeon, can I have first dibs on whatever I want?" she asked. Unbreakable and Sunshine were confused about why she asked that. "What can you even do? You''re just a noob!" Sunshine said. She didn''t want to deal with Avery now because she needed to help Unbreakable. But, Avery was the only damage dealer that they had.


    "Hey, didn''t I say it''s not nice to call someone a noob?" Avery said back. She was enjoying her petty revenge. You can insult anything about her, but don''t even dare insult her knowledge about the game.


    "We already established that we''re not being mean, it''s just that you''re new, so you''re a noob!" Unbreakable somehow managed to say, even though he''s fighting a boss. "Who said I''m a noob?" Avery said back. She then continued, saying "You guys assumed I was a noob, so I played along. Now that the charade is up, do you want me to kill the boss or not?".


    Both Unbreakable and Sunshine were shocked. They thought Avery was a noob because of what Dregon told them. Their opinions were further affirmed when they saw Avery fight. But now, she''s saying it was all a charade. Who wouldn''t be shocked by that?


    "Ok, fine! You can get first dibs. Just attack the boss already!" Sunshine said. "Deal" Avery replied with a grin on her face. Sunshine didn''t know, but the deal she just made guaranteed their group the dungeon first clear.


    "If you''re not a noob, then when I say att-" Unbreakable was about to say something when Avery suddenly summoned 15 fireballs and launched them at Drax. The fireballs flew fast and Drax couldn''t react in time. Unbreakable watched as the fireballs hit the back of Drax''s head. He was instantly disappointed. First, he was shocked that Avery could have so many fireballs, but he assumed it must''ve been a special item or skill. He was disappointed because the fireballs missed Drax''s left wing where they broke both his defence and magic defence with arrows, stabs and skills. If Avery hit that, then Drax would''ve died. But now, it was over because Avery missed.


    Then, Unbreakable saw Drax screech once more and fall down. It didn''t move and stayed still. Then, a system notification showed up.


    [Congrats! Defeated {Drax}! Received 6500 Exp. 7134/1000 needed to level up]


    [Level Up! Gained 10 stat points. 6134/1500 needed to level up]


    [Level Up! Gained 10 stat points. 4634/2000 needed to level up]


    [Level Up! Gained 10 stat points. 2634/3000 needed to level up]


    [{Drax} dropped a {Drain} skill book]


    [{Drax} dropped a {Winged Bow}]


    [{Drax} dropped a {Hind Robe}]


    [{Drax} dropped a {Blood Bat Hind}]


    [{Drax} dropped a {Blood Bat Eye}]


    [Congrats! Your party got a first clear! Your party will go down in history! Do you want to name your party?]


    Meanwhile, Avery levelled up as well. After quickly putting the stat points into wisdom, she checked her status again.


    [Status:


    Name: Avrix


    Level: 10(2310/8000)


    Stats:


    -Charisma: 3


    -Constitution: 1


    -Defence: 1


    -Dexterity: 1


    -Intelligence: 90 (25)


    -Luck: 4


    -Strength: 1


    -Willpower: 6


    -Wisdom: 77


    Elements:


    -Fire


    -Water


    -Nature


    -Wind


    -Earth


    -Lightning


    -Metal


    -Ice


    -Light


    -Darkness


    Items:


    [Eclipse''s Robe (Grade A, Level 13 {4765/12000})


    +65 defence


    +65 magic defence]


    [Eclipse''s Mask (Grade S)


    -Changes the users face to look like whatever they want


    -Hides the users username and cannot be tracked, marked or identified by any skills]


    [Eclipse''s Staff (Grade A, Level 13 {4765/12000})


    +65 intelligence


    -Increases the power of darkness element skills by 50%]


    [Jerold''s Fish Charm (Grade B)


    -Fish type monsters, if possible,always drop there carcass and, if possible, are 5 times more likely to drop an item]


    [Blood Bat Tooth Necklace (Grade C, Level 8 69/4000)


    A necklace with a tooth from a killed Blood Bat. Grants a small portion of their power, if used correctly.


    -When using a spell, it has a 2.75% chance to heal the user for all the damage dealt during one attack


    For: Mages


    Note: Even though the effect is really good, it''s takes awhile to activate it]


    Active Quests:


    Elemental Skills:


    [Fireball (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Water Shield (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Entangle (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Flying Cloud (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Rock Wall (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Lightning Strike(Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Metal Guard (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Frost (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Ray of Hope (Tier 1, Level 0)


    [Smog (Tier 1, Level 1)


    Other Skills:


    Health: 1100


    Mana: 1000 (350)


    Defence: 75 (10)


    Magic defence: 125 (60)


    Health regeneration: 1.5 per second


    Mana regeneration: 39.5 per second]


    ''Looking Good!'' Avery thought as Moonlight, Dregon and Twilight spawned back in. When you die, you turn into a ghost pretty much and spawn back in if you get resurrected or your party wins the fight. You can watch you party fight and still get Exp and items.


    The three of them saw how Avery fought and was flabbergasted. Then, they all started apologizing. Avery laughed and told them it was ok. She already had her fun and she knew they never would''ve said it if she revealed she wasn''t a noob.


    But, Dregon still had one question. "How''d you managed to summon 15 fireballs and know it''s weak spot" he asked.


    Avery laughed and said one line.


    "It''s just skill!"


    Everyone else: "..."

 13 Sam

    Hearing that single line, everyone else was infuriated. She was just making it seem like it was all one big joke! Plus, she tricked everyone else into thinking that she was a noob! What kind of bullshit is that?!


    However, they could tell that she wasn''t going to give them any answers. So, all they could do is speculate.


    "Guys, look at this" Unbreakable said. He was still a bit shocked about what Avery did and say, but now that he digested it, he could process the system notification in front of him.


    [Congrats! Your party got a first clear! Your party will go down in history! Do you want to name your party?]


    Everyone crowded around him and Unbreakable showed his screen to everyone.


    "Well, that''s expected. It is a first clear after all. But, it kinda looks a bit misleading" Dregon commented. Everyone else agreed. It is normal to have your names announced after getting a first clear for a dungeon or a first kill for killing a boss. But, shouldn''t it say first kill instead of first clear?


    Avery already knew of this misleading problem, because everyone was confused by it. The creators made a small mistake and got called out by the community. Two days later, the creators announced that they fixed it and everyone who reported it in-game got a Exp potion that increases Exp gain by 100% for an hour. That caused a stir in the community, because some people didn''t report it in-game and only posted about it in the forums. They were angry that they didn''t get any reward, but they couldn''t only blame their bad luck. Meanwhile, the people who did report in-game were happy about their luck.


    After that, everyone who found a bug, glitch or problem immediately reported it in hopes of getting the coveted Exp potion. Who could blame them? Getting 100% more Exp for an hour is really good!


    "If it''s a bit confusing, why don''t we report it?" Avery casually suggested. Might as well have all of them get the Exp potion.


    "Sure, why not" Dregon replied, and everyone proceed to file reports in-game about the issue.


    "Anyways, back on the topic, what should we name our party?" Avery asked. Everyone else exchanged glances, then Dregon proceeded to talk. "Well, me and my friends are a professional hunting team in other video games, and we moved to this game. I didn''t explain before because, well, I still thought you were a noob..." He said. "So, what about it?" Avery asked.


    "Well, we already have a team name, so came we use that?" Dregon asked. Avery laughed and said "You were all worried about that? I''m a solo player, so I don''t really care about getting fame and all of that. Use whatever name you want!". Dregon and the other sighed. They didn''t know that Avery was a noob, so who knew if she was a part of a guild and wanted to spread around her guild''s name?


    Unbreakable typed something into the system screen, and then everyone playing the game got a notification.


    [Congratulations to the {Artistic Experts} party for getting the first clear for the {Drax} boss! {Unbreakable}, {Dregon}, {Sunshine}, {Moonlight}, {Avrix} and {Twilight} will go down in history!]


    [Congratulations to the {Artistic Experts} party for getting the first clear for the {Drax} boss! {Unbreakable}, {Dregon}, {Sunshine}, {Moonlight}, {Avrix} and {Twilight} will go down in history!]


    [Congratulations to the {Artistic Experts} party for getting the first clear for the {Drax} boss! {Unbreakable}, {Dregon}, {Sunshine}, {Moonlight}, {Avrix} and {Twilight} will go down in history!]


    The notification flashed thrice before it stopped. It was enough so that everyone could see it, even if they were in an intense battle.


    Avery was surprised when she saw the name of the group. It answered a lot of her questions about Dregon and his friends.


    Artistic Experts, in her previous life, were a group of experts that popped up out of nowhere in the beginning of ''Realm of the Elements''. In the first month of the game, they killed a wild boss with just the five of them. That''s how they made a name for themselves. They didn''t make a lot of achievements compared to large guilds because they had hundreds of players, but with the five of them they managed to snag quite a few achievements.


    Sadly, the other guilds didn''t like that, so around the time Avery first started playing in her previous world, they were hunted and all killed all the way back to level one. It was such a shame too. Many players ranging from solo players to small-scale guilds were fans of them. They thought they were heroes; clashing against the all-mighty large guilds which steal and plunder every resource in-game while being backed up by large corporations.


    Avery heard about them too, but never really cared about them too much because she was starting out and still didn''t know what a dungeon was.


    Seeing that she made them appear earlier, Avery wondered how it will change with the system announcement.


    Avery didn''t really care if her name was shown. In her mind, it didn''t matter if her name was or wasn''t shown, because you can always hide your username from other people. She''s been doing that the whole time, and same goes for other people. It''s handy if you want to go incognito, or if you don''t want vendors selling gear shouting out your name.


    "Should we continue guys?" Avery asked. The others agreed. They wanted to leave and gear up again, but they still need to finish the hidden quest. If they leave, then another group might beat the dungeon before them. And they don''t know if they''ll lose the quest item.


    But, with Avery on board, they feel confident that they can beat the dungeon, because in their eyes, Avery is a godly player. And, well, they''re right.


    "Before that, we should probably split up the loot" Unbreakable said. Everyone looked at the loot and proceeded to evenly split it up.


    ____________________


    Outside the dungeon, there were a large amount of people selling gear, finding parties, but mainly placing bets on who will get the first clear of the dungeon.


    "All righty here, place your bets here!" someone yelled out. People were constantly placing bets through him. He was a betting NPC that players can call over if there''s enough players around that want to make bets.


    "Okay, the bets will be sealed once a group beats the boss, or else there''ll be some unfair betting going on! Double your money if the guild you bet on clears it first and get fifty times your money if you bet that another group will clear the dungeon first!" he yelled.


    Lots of people are making bets because the choices are really good in their opinion. To them, they can double their money with a 1/3 chance. And even though if you bet that another group will clear the dungeon first you will get fifty times the amount you bet, it''s insane and a waste of money. Any average group that goes in can''t even get past the first wave of monsters, so how could any random group get the first clear?


    A distance away from the betting NPC, a group of players are having a heated discussion.


    "What the hell Martial! Why''d you use all of your gold to bet on the random group! That was 20 gold! All of your life savings! Just for a stupid bet!" a player was yelling at his friend. Martial Mage, the player being yelled at, was unfazed.


    "I trust my gut and the community of free players" Martial replied. Everyone else was used to his attitude under normal circumstances, but this was his life savings. They were the ones who helped him get all that money, yet he was blowing it all away.


    "You know what, I''ve had it with you! I''m leaving!" one guy said and walked away. Martial got a notification that the guy that just left unfriended him.


    "Same here!" "Me too" "Let''s leave". The rest of them left and unfriended him as well. Only one guy remained. He was Martial''s closest friend online, but he had a conflicted face. Martial knew he was going to leave as well.


    "I really don''t understand you..." he said. "You refuse to join our guild, saying that you ''Want to be free'' and you hardly make any sense. The only reason that you got to stay with use is because of your skills, but at this point it can''t cover up your attitude. I''m sorry, but goodbye". Then, he unfriended Martial and left.


    Martial was left standing by himself. He was determined that he made the right decision, but no one seems to understand him.


    Martial is a martial artist in real life, hence his username Martial Mage. His real name is Sam. He''s a martial prodigy, but it doesn''t really matter because nowadays martial arts is a unknown topic. The closest thing to it are a few commonly known martial arts like taekwondo, karate and judo, but in the eyes of an expert those arts are basic and impractical.


    Sam comes from one of the last and the oldest martial arts family. His family owns an insane amount of martial arts manuals, with the majority of them untouched. But recently, his family strayed from the martial path. It''s expected though. His father taught him everything he knew. His father also tried to teach his brother and sister, but they weren''t interested. His brother became a CEO of a large company and his sister became a supermodel. But, he became a martial artist and was subjected to the bullying of his siblings. Their mother died after giving birth to him, the youngest son, which was one of the main things they bullied him with. It was ok when his father was still alive, but when he died, it all changed.


    His brother and sister kicked him out of the house with all of the books, saying they were useless like him. They tricked their father into giving them all of the inheritance money and only leaving him with enough funds for a small apartment. He managed to make some money from some


    small tournaments, but it wasn''t enough. Then, he found out about video games and joined that community. He got really good and started making some money off of it. He played magic type classes because he found interesting ways to use them to him, it felt the same way as gaining insight on fighting techniques.


    In real life, he was considered a waste of a son who stays inside and rarely comes out but online he''s a gaming expert. By successfully chaining together spells and skills, he managed to climb his way up in gaming communities. He made a few friends and enjoyed playing video games


    When he heard that a VRMMORPG game was coming out, he was extremely excited. He could experience a video game first hand! The idea amazed him. Then, he heard that their''s 100% percent immersion (Well, except for pain. That would be pretty bad and probably unethical and illegal), which made him realize he could use martial arts in-game as well. He was hyped up! He told all his friends that he would be playing the new game and found out they would too, as well as the majority of avid gamers.


    After a while, it finally got released and him and his friends started grinding. But then, they realized how hard the game actually is. Sam was doing fine. He became a lightning/ice Mage class ,and made his character a mix between a Mage and a Fighter, even though there is no Fighter class. He just calls it a Fighter class, even though it could also be called a Brawler or a Pugilist.


    Using his martial arts and spells, he skipped past the training grounds and went straight to Sunbeam Forest, where other players wanted to skip levels but ended up dying. He could easily do it though by timing his spells and relentlessly beating up monsters. He found out if he keeps on attacking a certain spot with his martial arts, he can break the opponents defence in that exact spot, so that whenever he attacks there, his attacks ignore the monsters defence. With that knowledge and superb control over his martial arts, spells and body he easily killed his way through monsters.


    His friends on the other hand couldn''t even get close to one of the level 3 monsters in Sunbeam Forest and became envious of Sam''s skills. They ended up joining a guild for protection and help and asked Sam to join them, but Sam refused. He didn''t want to be kept by rules in a guild, nor did he need protection. He never join a guild during ever since he started playing video games. I his opinion, they were for weak players to join and be forced to obey the leader.


    In his mind, free players (a.k.a players that aren''t in a guild) are an oppressed community. Every grinding spot ends up getting snatched by large guilds and free players can''t do anything except obey, unless they wanted to get killed. He always believed that free players, if given the chance, can outshine guilds in talent and skill.


    That led him to betting all his life savings on then, causing him to lose the friends he made after a long time. But, if given the chance, he still wouldn''t have done anything different. Free players were bullied and oppressed like him, but given the chance they will flourish. That''s his belief.


    [Congratulations to the {Artistic Experts} party for getting the first clear for the {Drax} boss! {Unbreakable}, {Dregon}, {Sunshine}, {Moonlight}, {Avrix} and {Twilight} will go down in history!]


    [Congratulations to the {Artistic Experts} party for getting the first clear for the {Drax} boss! {Unbreakable}, {Dregon}, {Sunshine}, {Moonlight}, {Avrix} and {Twilight} will go down in history!]


    [Congratulations to the {Artistic Experts} party for getting the first clear for the {Drax} boss! {Unbreakable}, {Dregon}, {Sunshine}, {Moonlight}, {Avrix} and {Twilight} will go down in history!]


    And he always knew he was right.


    ____________________


    Meanwhile, the three senior officers of their respected guilds were looking at the system notification in their dungeon instances. They were all plowing through the monsters at a decent rate.


    Suddenly, the system sent 3 notifications to everyone in their dungeon instances.


    [Congratulations to the {Artistic Experts} party for getting the first clear for the {Drax} boss! {Unbreakable}, {Dregon}, {Sunshine}, {Moonlight}, {Avrix} and {Twilight} will go down in history!]


    [Congratulations to the {Artistic Experts} party for getting the first clear for the {Drax} boss! {Unbreakable}, {Dregon}, {Sunshine}, {Moonlight}, {Avrix} and {Twilight} will go down in history!]


    [Congratulations to the {Artistic Experts} party for getting the first clear for the {Drax} boss! {Unbreakable}, {Dregon}, {Sunshine}, {Moonlight}, {Avrix} and {Twilight} will go down in history!]


    Backup, the guy that helps just in time, was surprised that another group managed to kill the first boss. He told the other members that they must''ve gotten lucky, and they believed him. But Backup kept on worrying that they might not get the first clear...


    Slaughter, the slaughter, was outraged. He ordered his group members to go faster and they obey, not wanting to take on the wrath of him.


    And Outplayed, the mastermind, laughed when he saw the system notification. He knew an unknown variable can into play, yet he couldn''t do anything about it. His laugh reassured his group members that nothing was wrong, even though there was. Outplayed knew that the first clear might not be his, but it excited him. NO one knew this, but he''s a heavy gambler and always loved gambling. That''s why he trained to become the master strategist, so he knew his odds for every gamble. The thrill of luck always gave him a nice feeling, especially if their''s an unknown variable he can''t deal with. Anticipating what will happen, he and his group continued onwards...

 14 Update

I was busy this weekend and didn''t have time to work on this, so I''m planning on posting tomorrow. Sorry for making you guys wait.

 15 Souls in the cave

    The item drops that the group got from Drax were easily split up. Avery didn''t want anything because there was something she wanted deeper down, so the rest evenly split up the drops.


    Moonlight got the {Winged Bow}, because she was the only Ranger in the group and only rangers could use bows.


    [Winged Bow (Grade B, Level 10 {0/8000})


    +30 Intelligence


    -10% chance that an arrow will grow wings and curve around defences


    For: Mages, Shamans]


    The {Hind Robe} went to Sunshine, because only Mages and Shamans could use robes. And since Avery didn''t want anything and also had a better robe (Which she didn''t mention), the robe naturally went to her.


    [Eclipse''s Staff (Grade B, Level 10 {0/8000})


    +30 Magic Defence


    +30 Wisdom


    For: Mages, Shamans]


    The {Drain} skill book was the best item in the pile. Skill books are naturally better than items and also rarer, so it was obviously a good find. Twilight ended up getting it because it was a Rogue-specific skill book.


    [Drain (Tier 4, Level 0)


    Drains the health from the enemy by stabbing them. Deals 100 damage over 5 seconds. Any damage dealt gets converted into health


    Cost: 150 mana


    Cooldown: 60 seconds


    For: Rogues


    Note: Helps quench your thirst for blood. Literally]


    The other items, {Blood Bat Hind} and {Blood Bat Eye} were kept by Unbreakable, who was going to sell them after the dungeon and split the profit. None of them had any crafting side classes yet, so they were useless to them for the time being.


    After they divided their loot, they continued on exploring the dungeon.


    They walked and talked for about five minutes before coming across a new monster.


    [Lost Soul (Level 8)


    A soul that wandered off and got lost finding its way back. It now wanders the tunnels of the Cave of Mourning, making creepy noises throughout the tunnels, thus giving the cave it''s name.


    Health: 1


    Mana: 1000


    Defence: 0


    Magic Defence: 0


    Abilities: {Soul Form}, {Scare}


    {Soul Form (Tier 4)}: Can''t get damaged by normal attacks


    {Scare (Tier 2)}: Screams and scares away enemies. Any enemy within 10 meters and less than 25 willpower will run away for 10 seconds]


    "Okay, if you''re skill is legit, then one-shot that monster" Twilight said. While walking, the whole group was bantering about Avery''s skill. They didn''t believe that Avery''s skill was legit, so they wanted to test her. "Fine she said back. It wasn''t much of a big deal to her. The gist was up, so she could show off as much as she wanted.


    Summoning a fireball, she launched it at the Lost Soul. She decided to only use fire and light element skills to not draw attention to herself. Well, it''s not like she didn''t draw attention to herself already, but if she used all elements, people would suspect her of cheating.


    The fireball hit the Lost Soul directly in it''s centre. It instantly disappeared, and Avery got a kill notification.


    The rest of the group were amazed. They assumed Avery was lying about her skill, but it turned out she was telling the truth.


    They thought Avery couldn''t do anything about the monster once they saw it''s ability. It doesn''t take damage from normal attacks? Then they''d have to constantly get direct hits against those monsters to even do anything! There was no way Avery could know how to do that. Unless what she told them earlier was true...


    At first, when Avery said "It''s just skill", they thought that it was a lie. In their minds, they thought she looked for a weak spot on Drax or got extremely lucky. Avery couldn''t explain the truth though. No one would believe her if she said that she reincarnated.


    Thus, Avery came up with a fairly believable excuse. She claimed that she was a beta tester. Although the game never claimed that there was a beta test of the game, there were multiple rumours about a beta test with multiple players claiming that they were beta testers.


    It was a plausible excuse and made sense, plus it could always cover up the fact that Avery pretty much everything, so she decided to roll with it for the time being.


    Everyone in the group finally believed her, so they continued on through the dungeon. There were a lot of Lost Souls, but they weren''t a problem for Avery. After a while of walking, they came across a new enemy.


    [Angry Soul (Level 10)


    A soul who is unwilling to die until they kill whoever ruined them in their past life. They see a trace of that person in everyone, so they take out their anger on whoever comes in their path.


    Health: 1


    Mana: 1000


    Defence: 0


    Magic Defence: 0


    Abilities: {Soul Form}, {Vengeance}


    {Vengeance (Tier 5)}: Just before it dies, the soul launches a devastating attack dealing 1000 damage that ignores defence and kills itself in the process]


    "Stay behind me" Avery said. The group naturally did. They trusted Avery''s decision because they thought she was a beta tester, so she should know something they don''t. Plus, the Angry Soul''s {Vengeance} ability doesn''t sound too pleasant.


    "Fireball" Avery said, launching a fireball at the Angry Soul. It got hit directly and instantly exploded. Avery turned around and explained. "Angry Souls are pretty much the same as Lost Souls other than the fact that they explode upon death. It''s really annoying if you get close and they have a large aggro range, so it''s better off if you stay behind me. The rest of the group understood and heeded her advice.


    If you don''t know what a monsters aggro range is, it''s pretty much how close you have to be before the monster will attack you. Pretend that the monster is near-sighted. If you''re far away enough, it won''t be able to see you. But, the second you get close enough, the monster will attack you until you either kill it or escape.


    You might be thinking that you could just use long-range attacks, but sadly that doesn''t work. Usually, ranged attacks don''t attack farther than a monsters aggro range, so it doesn''t work. In Avery''s previous life, someone found a rare weapon that doubles their attack range and that broke the game. The creators had to remove it and compensate a hefty sum to the player for taking it. After that incident, they paid close attention to monster''s aggro range.


    Anyways, Avery was leading the group, killing every monster that came in their way. She was kinda showing off, but she didn''t care. It was all fun and games to her...


    ____________________


    Sam was grinding in Sunbeam Forest, where the dungeon was at, when suddenly out of the corner of his eye he saw a shine. With his heightened senses, he knew that his eyes never played tricks on him so he went to investigate the source.


    Unfortunately, when he was walking, a group of players stepped up in front of him and blocked his way.


    "Hey hey hey, looks like we got new prey!" One of them said. Sam instantly could tell that they were PKers. They only thought of him as free loot.


    "Hmmm, should we make him suffer?" one of them asked. "Eh, might as well. A guild-less bug doesn''t have anyone backing him up" another added. Sam''s eyes narrowed. He was itching to kill them. They just said his trigger word. You could insult him in any way, but the second you insulted him for not having a guild, he gets extremely angry.


    Having being kicked out by his family for "Not being up to standard" and "A useless martial artist", he began to loath people that insult his because of his status. That hate carried on into the game with people calling his guild-less trash. Being excluded, it slowly became his trigger word and he attacked whoever said it. Well, in the game. In real life, he automatically hates whoever says it.


    He took a step forward. The PKers laughed, assuming it was a last ditch desperate struggle. But, he then disappeared and appeared right in front of one of them and attacked them. The Pker he hit instantly died. A one-hit! The rest of the PKers were shocked before proceeding to attack Sam, but ended up missing. One by one, they slowly kept on dying until one of them were left. He looked like the leader.


    "You! You''ll pay for this!" he shouted as he pulled out an object and activated it before Sam could react. Sam felt a huge pressure fall on top of him, but he looked up and saw nothing. Seeing his reaction, the leader grinned. "Hah! You like this item?" he said. "I got it off of a lucky player when me and my group killed him. Who knew he would have such a treasure. It''s a one time use item, but I think right now''s a good time to use it". He walked up in front of Sam and continued. "It tests a player''s will to survive. It''ll slowly kill you unless you break out. But, breaking out is nearly impossible. What could a guild-less piece of garbage like you do?". He was staring Sam in the eyes at this point.


    At first, Sam was bitter. He tried to free himself, but he couldn''t use any spells nor move with the pressure on top of him. Then he started to lose hope. He slowly accepted the fate that he was destined to have. Slowly, he was getting destroyed by the pressure...


    ''No!'' he thought as he destroyed the pressure. He realized that people like him don''t deserve to be treated like trash. People like him can accomplish things. My not yet in real life, but at least in this game! He remembered how a guild-less party got the first wipe of the first boss! That''s an amazing accomplishment!


    "N-No way..." the leader stuttered when he saw that Sam stood up and destroyed the pressure. He couldn''t believe his eyes. It was a tier 6 item, yet it was destroyed just like that? He didn''t even realize that he was surrounded by white light, meaning that he died.


    Sam immediately killed the leader once he destroyed the pressure and got his bearings. His faith and hope for people like him, people that refuse to become a pawn for others, people like him that fight all by themselves exist and are strong. If he wants to join them, he has to become strong too!


    With his new hope, he continued on, not knowing how much he just changed...