Chapter 2
[New Server Opened]
A screen appeared in front of Jose's face and the server options refreshed, showing another server to pick from. He saw a number beneath it slowly rise, a realisation hit Jose that it was the number of players joining.
That number was already past 5 million and was rising at a rapid pace. Jose quickly clicked on server 2, it would be much better for me to have the same starting point as everyone else.
[Customise Character]
There were a variety of options Jose could choose from. If he wanted to, he could even make himself a girl, but that would be rather weird, especially if his ident.i.ty was ever discovered by his family, Ryley especially.
At the bottom was the option to use your real-life body as an avatar, Jose chose that and slightly customise the appearance to make himself look younger. He had a short but neatly trimmed black bear, along with short combed-back black hair. His height was 6'1 with hazel eyes.
His name would have to be something good, something demanding of respect. He decided to go with the name that he and his fellow soldiers called their trainer, Devil's Mouth it was either that or d*ckhead and he isn't calling himself d*ckhead.
After clicking confirmation a new screen appeared.
[Choose a cla.s.s]
There were a total of five cla.s.ses to choose from, they all had differences between them, but they were all balanced. They were a.s.sa.s.sin, Swordsman, Magician, Tank, and Archer. There was a small introduction to each cla.s.s.
[Apprentice a.s.sa.s.sin]
Eliminate your foes without them ever realising how they died. a.s.sist your comrades by placing or dismantling traps. Help the team by scouting ahead.
[Apprentice Swordsman]
Fight against your enemies face to face, using only your sword you fight with honour. By using your high damage you a.s.sist your team by quickly eliminating enemies while taking a few hits.
[Apprentice Magician]
Using your vast array of spells you either a.s.sist your team through buffs and attacks or become a hindrance by debuffing your opponents.
[Apprentice Tank]
Become the one that stands before all danger with your s.h.i.+eld held proudly. Block all enemies from ever touching your comrades through your many provocation skills.
[Apprentice Archer]
Stay behind the team and eliminate any foes that appear to be problems quickly. By using the long-range of your attacks you strike your opponents from a safe distance.
Jose looked at the options in front of him. He wasn't sure as to what he should pick, he needed to take this first choice very seriously if he wants to beat his son in law. If he chose swordsman, he would be able to use his close combat skills learned in the military to fight, however, he felt as though that would be a boring option.
He would want to dominate his son in law using a cla.s.s Ryley wouldn't expect, one cla.s.s that still interest Jose greatly, all the while creating a nice challenge for himself.
There was one cla.s.s that immediately took Jose's attention. Magician. He couldn't help but let his childish dreams of using magic take the best of him, Jose clicked on it as he wanted to experience what using magic would be like. And if he didn't like it, he could just restart and change cla.s.s.
Granted, that could also be a slight setback, as it would be wasting all that time for nothing. That's when veteran players are able to swiftly surpa.s.s the new, they already know what they want and how to use the cla.s.s by playing on the first server.
[You have chosen Apprentice Magician, where would you like to start?]
A large map filled Jose's vision. On it was a bunch of different towns to choose from, however, they were all called Town of Beginnings. The only difference was the location of the towns and where you could go to after that.
There was also a difficulty level next to them, ranging from 1 - 5 while the hardest difficulty Town of Beggings had a skull icon next to them. Of course, who would want to choose a difficult town when they could choose an easy one. That choice was created for veteran players and players that might just like challenging themselves, that's what Jose thought of it anyway.
As for Jose, he chose the most difficult one there was. Although he's never played the game before from what he's read online during his first search, real-life skills can be used within the game to a certain extent. Which meant Jose would be able to use the skills he's acquired through his military career.
There was also the other reason. Jose may be old, but he liked the challenge, and since he wasn't able to challenge himself physically in real life, he may as well challenge himself in-game. The town that Jose clicked on had been surrounded by thick forest, the forest's name was what got his attention. The Forest of Spiders. Jose knows full well that almost no one would choose such a location due to their disgust in spiders, leaving Jose to conquer the town by himself.
[You will now be teleported to the Town of Beginnings]
Jose felt a sudden tug on his entire body before his vision went blank, a feeling of weightlessness overwhelmed him as he wasn't able to tell which way was up or down. After a few seconds, Jose could feel that his eyelids were shut, as he opened them his pupils constricted at what he saw.
A thriving medieval town appeared before my eyes. There were hundreds of players that were sprinting through the crowd to get to where they need to be. They all had different gear equipped, there were swordsman, magicians, a.s.sa.s.sins, archers and tanks.
Alongside them were small carts filled with an a.s.sortment of supplies.
Jose looked towards his own body and came to the realisation that he was also fully equipped with a few rags, granted it wasn't very good, but it at least provided Jose with a small amount of protection. Then Jose opened the menu to see if he had anything else.
[Inventory]
[Low Mana Potions: 5]
[Low Health Potions: 5]
[Apprentice Magician set: 1]
Jose looked towards the apprentice magician set, it was made
[Softwood Staff]
[Effect: 1 Magical Damage; 1 Physical Damage]
[Apprentice's Cloak]
[Effect: 1 Defence]
[Apprentice's Shoes]
[Effect: 1 Agility; 1 Evasion]
-----------
Name: Devil's Mouth
Cla.s.s: Apprentice Magician
Level: 0
EXP: 0/20
HP: 10/10
MP: 20/20
Equipment: 3
Skills: 0
Stat Points: 0
STR: 5, DEF: 5(+1), VIT: 5
EVA: 5(+1), WIS: 5, AGI: 5(+1)
LUCK: 1
----------
He looked at his personal character screen. It was rather simple but that made it rather easy to understand everything. He was able to go through the different parts of his character screen, in his equipment section there were only three things.
While in the skill section there was nothing there. Which was quite disheartening, but Jose was sure that he would be able to find something sooner than later to fill that void. As for his stats, they were rather easy to understand. Everyone started with the same stats and slowly increased them over time in a certain order to give themselves the best setup.
STR was his physical strength, increasing that increases his physical damage. DEF was his defensive capabilities which counted for physical and magical defence. VIT was his health, the higher that is the more HP he has. EVA is his evasion stat, the higher that is the higher chance he has of automatically dodging an attack. WIS was for his MP and magic damage, it was incredibly important for a magician to increase their MP at the start of the game. AGI was agility, it counted for his speed and manoeuvrability, it was extremely useful for the a.s.sa.s.sin cla.s.s. LUCK was obviously luck, the higher that is the higher the chance of getting something good from killing bosses and opening chests. Unfortunately, luck can't be increased through stat points and only through equipment, spells, and completing missions.
Speaking of missions.
[1 Mission]
At the corner of Jose's eyes was an icon, one that looked something akin to a scroll, it had a small number 1 on it. Jose clicked on it and a screen appeared in front of him, invisible to the players around him though. While usually, one would have to go to the mission hall to get missions, the first one is always already there. Usually, one would also have to go back to the mission hall to claim the rewards, however, for cla.s.s type missions one just has to complete them.
[Find the Wizard Solomon]
[Reward: Selection of Spell Rune - Fireball, Icy Wind, and Rupture]
The rewards seemed fairly good. This was probably the first choice among the many that would decide what Jose will be in the future. Jose wasn't certain of the effects of the spell, but his interests lie in Rupture and Icy Wind, both of which sound like they can interfere with the environment.
There was one thing that greatly annoyed Jose about this mission. There weren't any hints as to where the Wizard Solomon could be found, meaning that magicians would have the comb through the entire town without any sort of clue as to what the person even looked like.
Fortunately, it was still only the Town of Beginnings, not one of the major cities; so, it wasn't too large and shouldn't take too long to find the Wizard.
-2 Hours Later-
'Where the f*ck is the Wizard!' Jose shouted internally to himself in frustration. He had scanned through the entire town, to the point where he was even checking every house he pa.s.sed by as well as alleyways. Yet Jose had no idea where this d.a.m.n Wizard was. Jose felt like cursing this game for giving such a stupid mission at the start, wasting so much valuable time. Each player has a certain limit of how much time they can play, dependent on their real-life body's physical and mental condition. Having such a mission at the start annoyed Jose greatly.
Jose could only think of one more place this Wizard Solomon could be, he decided not to check there earlier because he found it rather ridiculous for someone to be down there, especially a magician which is a rather n.o.ble cla.s.s, but Jose was left with no choice.
Walking to the side of the streets, Jose leaned over and lifted a metal plate on the road, what entered his vision was a dark tunnel going down. Fortunately, there was a ladder attached to the side.
Jose heaved his body through the hole and began to climb down. He was descending for roughly 20 seconds, he looked up and saw a bright blue hole in which he entered through. When Jose looked down however, his vision was greeted with only darkness.
After another 30 seconds of descending Jose's feet finally reached a solid surface. He got off the ladder and tried to reach outwards, to prevent himself from running into anything. Jose stepped a couple of metres before a deep booming voice echoed through the sewers.
"Welcome Apprentice!"
The sides of the sewers were lit up by lamps connected to the stone, they looked old fas.h.i.+oned, as they gave off a yellow tinge. The lights seemed to be forming a path. Jose followed them until he reached a rather odd door. Obviously, Jose wasn't stupid, it could only be the place where the Wizard Solomon resides.
Jose went ahead and opened the door. What greeted him was a puff of purple smoke, his eyes turned watery as the stench was almost unbearable. He felt the urge to vomit all over the place before keeping it in.
Looking in Jose could see an old man standing behind a bench filled with what he could only a.s.sume were elixirs and potions. Jose will say though, that puff of smoke made him realise as to why this wizard is here. He had probably been forced down here due to the type of research he conducts.
"Welcome Apprentice, please, take a seat," Solomon said politely as he gestured to an old wooden stool by his side. Solomon looked like a rather normal young man, his hair was charcoal black and his eyes brown. He too swore magicians clothes, granted, he looked rather n.o.ble and elegant as they were colour a dark but vibrant purple, there were a plethora of gems woven into it of all different colours.
Jose shrugged his shoulders and went with it, sitting down he relaxed himself before taking a gander at the room. It was filled with diagrams, papers nailed to the walls written in a language he couldn't understand. Not to mention the bookcase, filled with several dozen books.
"I would like to congratulate you, you were the first person to find me down here, granted, I did think someone should have found me earlier but oh well," Solomon said as he shrugged his shoulders. "Now that's that over, which spell rune would you like to choose."
Three books flew over from the bookshelf, one fiery red with a picture of a fireball on it. Another, brown with a picture of cracks in the ground. While the last one was light blue, with a picture of the wind. All the pictures were located at the centre of the book, in a small circle surrounded by gold lining.
"I would like the Rupture rune," Jose answered confidently. On the mission rewards, you could get a preview of the spells and a brief description.
Fireball was the average run of the mill kind of spell, only doing direct damage with a small chance of giving the target the burn effect for 5 seconds. Icy Wind was exactly as it sounded, the magician sets forth an icy wind that damages the opponent, having a high chance of giving the target the freeze effect for 2 seconds all the while freezing the surroundings. As for Rupture, it created an earthquake in a small targeted area, doing big damage while creating hole and cracks in the ground, possibly trapping the opponent's limbs in the ground.
Jose decided to go with Rupture; without a team to go with he wasn't able to safely use fireball without being attacked by the enemies. And although Icy Wind was somewhat useful as well, it would only momentarily freeze the opponent, not to mention he too would have to deal with the frozen surroundings. As for Rupture, although he would have to deal with the cracked ground it would be much easier than dealing with frozen ground.
"Are you sure about your choice?" Solomon asked in a questioning tone, his eyebrows scrunched as he looked towards Jose. "You have looked through the other two spell runes, right? If so, are you sure you want to go with Rupture?"
"Yes, yes I want the spell rune Rupture please," Jose replied in a slightly annoyed tone. "Hurry up, because of your obscure spot I wasn't able to find you so easily."
"Alright, have it your way," Solomon shrugged his shoulders as he tapped his foot against the ground lightly. The two other spell runes went back into the bookshelf, the brown book floated in front of Jose before opening up and bringing forth a bright light, almost blinding Jose completely.
When he opened his eyes again, he realised the book was gone and he had got the spell. Solomon tapped his shoulder gently. "Alright, since you're finished here you can go now. And oh yeah, because you were the first to find me you get double exp gains for the next two hours to make up for you wasted time and a little special reward. Have fun."
Jose's vision darkened once again and he realised he was outside the room, looking back he noticed the entrance was gone, as though it just picked up and vanished. Jose shrugged his shoulders, he wasn't able to understand how the NPC Wizards worked and he wouldn't bother understanding right now.
Looking out the description of the spell rune his expression changed to confusion, it wasn't the spell rune he should have been given. Jose stood in the sewers for a moment staring at the spell, wondering whether or not the Wizard Solomon screwed him over.
[Earthquake Lv 0]
[Description: Break the ground beneath your opponent's feet, surprising them and dismantling their balance with a small chance of their limbs getting caught in the ground.]
[Effect: 10 Magical Damage]
[Cooldown: 3 Seconds]
Deciding it wasn't too bad Jose shrugged his shoulders. He would research later as to whether or not he had been screwed over, and if he had been, he should be able to complain to the game developers.
He made his way outside the sewers; the streets were still as bustling as before but this time many people were running around carrying a lot better equipment. Jose ran to the mission hall located back near the sp.a.w.n, it was a small one-story building made out of stone and thick wooden pillars.
Jose walked up to the girl at the desk, she stared up momentarily before nodding and another mission appeared in Jose's mission tab.
[Mission: Kill 5 horned spiders]
[Location: Forest of Spiders]
[Reward: 15 Exp, Hardwood Beginning Staff]