Man Made God 001
Page 9
Adam walked into the forest in search of his prey. He found everything from level 2 [deer] to level 2 [wild rabbits], but there didn’t appear to be any [wolves] near the forest entrance.
There were several players grouped together inside of this forest and grinding for experience. Most of them were killing the [deer] and [wild rabbits], but he found a few fighting against level 4 [grass snakes], which were several feet long snakes that attacked when you stepped into their territory. They were the first aggressive monster he had come across. It looked like the players, which were still at level 1 and only had a single level 2 among them, were struggling.
Adam ignored all the people and monsters in this area to go even further in. Within the next area he found the [wild boar] monster, which had a level of 5. It was not a [wolf], but since its level was pretty decent, he decided to start leveling up with that.
The current [wild boar] that was his target didn’t appear to be doing anything. It was just roaming around aimlessly. Adam thought for a moment before kneeling to pick up a rock—and marveling at how the in-game mechanics allowed him to pick up a random rock—took aim, and threw it at the [wild boar].
-1
A small number appeared over the head of the [wild boar] as the rock struck it. The [wild boar] unleashed an enraged squeal as it turned toward him, its eyes red with anger. It stomped its hooves against the ground, squealed again, and charged at Adam, who remained calm as he unsheathed his sword and waited for the creature to reach him.
[Slash]
-15!
Just before it looked like the [wild boar] would ram him, Adam dodged to the left, swung his sword, and felt the resistance of the enemy’s flesh as he cleaved through it. A pained squeal echoed behind him, followed by a thump. When Adam turned, it was to find the [wild boar] picking itself back up and shaking its head. He couldn’t see any blood. However, it looked like there was an odd gash on its side to signify the damage Adam had done.
Adam wondered how much HP this [wild boar] had, but he didn’t want to waste a scan scroll on it. He also noticed that unlike the villagers, who he could see the basic status of, he could not see the status for this enemy, meaning the only way to discover its stats was to either use the scroll or acquire the [Scan] skill.
Since he didn’t know how much HP it had, Adam went on the attack while it was still recovering. He used another [Slash] followed by a [Thrust]. The creature squealed in anger and tried to attack him, but he would swiftly dodge its charge each time and attack after it moved past him.
-15; -17; MISS; MISS; -15; MISS; -15; MISS; MISS; MISS!
One thing Adam noticed as he attacked was that he didn’t always hit the [wild boar]. He would sometimes miss even when it seemed like he had hit it. That was probably due to his Hit-Rate stat, which was only at 5%. He was probably lucky to hit the [wild boar] as many times as he did.
Out of curiosity, Adam swung his sword but did not use a skill.
-1!
“Oh?” Adam perked up.
He swung his sword, again without using a skill.
-1!
“So attacking something without using a skill results in only -1 point of damage being dealt,” Adam murmured.
-1; -1; -1; -1; -1!
“What’s more, it seems I have a 100% Hit-Rate while attacking without activating a skill. That’s interesting.”
Done playing around, Adam struck the [wild boar] exactly ten times with [slash] before it died. He quickly calculated its HP in his head. He hit it ten times and did about -15 damage with each attack, plus the -6 he’d done with his attacks that didn’t use skills, which meant it had somewhere around +150-160 HP.
Ding!
[You have defeated the monster [wild boar]! Items dropped: [wild boar’s ear] and 30 gold coins. +50 experience points!]
Ding!
[You have leveled up! You are now at level 2! HP+10, MP+10, +5 SP!]
“Oh?”
Adam had not expected to level up so soon, but that was only until he realized he had just solo’d an enemy four levels higher than his current level. It made sense that he would gain more experience than someone who killed a monster at the same level or when a group of players killed a higher level monster.
Since he was a little curious, Adam decided to check out his new stats:
Name: Adam
Class: Warrior
Lvl: 2
SP: 15
AP: 0
Experience: 0/300
Strength: +5
Constitution: +5
Dexterity: +5
Intelligence: +5
Speed: +6
Attack: +15
Health: 60/60
Hit-rate: 5%
MP: 20/20
Movement: +6
Physical Defense: +10
Magic Defense: +5
Dodge-Rate: ???
Magic Attack: +5
It looked like the way his stats increased was Strength+1 = +2 Physical Attack, Constitution+1 = +2 Health, +2 Physical Defense, and +1 Magic Defense, Dexterity+1 = 1% Hit Rate (it probably also affected Dodge-Rate, but he didn’t know how since his was full of question marks), Speed+1 = +1 Movement, and Intelligence+1 = +2 MP and +1 Magic Attack.
Adam didn’t really understand what the Speed attribute was for. What was Movement? Did that mean the higher his Speed was, the faster he could move? That was what it sounded like to him. He could not see a use for it right now, but maybe it would let him travel more quickly over long distances.
It looked like he also had +15 status points available, so he invested them all into his Strength stat, which caused his Physical Attack to increase.
It looked like whenever he leveled up, whatever his current stats were added to his overall abilities. When he was at level 1, his Strength had been +5 and his Physical Attack was at +15. That was because Strength+1 added +2 to his Physical Attack. At +5 Strength, his Physical Attack was +10 plus the additional +5 from his sword. With his Strength now at +20, his Physical Attack was +40 plus the additional +5 he gained from the sword.
Since these [wild boars] were at a fairly high level compared to him, Adam decided to grind his level here—at least, until he found a [wolf] to slay.
The Missing Son
Ding!
[You have leveled up! You are now at level 6! +10 HP, +10 MP, +5 SP!]
Adam wiped the imaginary sweat from his forehead. He’d been grinding for several hours now… well, he thought several hours had passed. In truth, he didn’t even know what time it was or how much time had passed since he began playing. For whatever reason, there was no in-game window with a clock, leaving him to guess the time himself.
After leveling up the first time, Adam had noticed that the [wild boars] did not give the same amount of experience. It looked like the further the level gap was between him and his enemies, the more experience he gained per kill, meaning he needed to consistently fight stronger foes if he wanted to keep gaining a lot of experience points.
To that end, Adam had traveled deeper into the forest and eventually came across the level 6 [wild dog] and the level 7 [wolf]. Since his current quest [Slay 10 Wolves!] was to kill this type of monster, Adam decided to stay in this area and kill all the [wolves] therein.
He had killed the first 10 [wolves] required by his quest easily enough, but since they gave such good experience points, he decided to stick around and keep killing them until he reached level 6. Now that he had, he could allocate the new status points he had acquired, which he put into his Strength.
Now his stats looked like this:
Name: Adam
Class: Warrior
Lvl: 6
SP: 0
AP: 0
Experience: 162/4,800
Strength: +50
Constitution: +5
Dexterity: +5
Intelligence: +5
Speed: +6
Physical Attack: +100
Health: 100/100
Hit-rate: 5%
MP:
50/50
Movement: +6
Physical Defense: +10
Magic Defense: +5
Dodge-Rate: ???
Magic Attack: +5
He looked over at his stats. While his stats were skewed toward Strength, he didn’t see this as a problem. The best defense was to not be there when an attack struck. So long as he was able to accurately evade his enemy’s attacks, how much health he had didn’t matter. The only thing he really needed to worry about was his Hit-Rate, which was horrendous.
At least these monsters weren’t very strong right now. Even if his Hit-Rate was awful, he could still kill them with ease.
Since he was finally at level 5, Adam decided it was just about time to log off. Several hours must have passed by now. However, before he could log off, there was something he needed to do first.
Adam traveled through the forest. As he came upon the forested areas with weaker enemies, he noticed there were a lot more groups gathering together and grinding. He observed them but didn’t stop moving.
“Quickly surround it and attack! Archer and mages, provide cover fire! Priests, heal the injured!”
“Take that! Ha!”
“It’s so fast!”
“Come here, you stupid snake!”
All the players close by belonged to the same guild, though he didn’t know which since they had no identifying clothing yet. That would change once the game really started. If this was like any other game, then once they left the Village of Beginnings, players would be able to change from a combat class to a non-combat class like Tailor, which would allow players to create customized clothing. In the last game, large guilds had created unique uniforms based on things like family colors and coat of arms.
“For the Rising Phoenix Alliance!”
Ah. So they belonged to the Rising Phoenix Alliance. That was a relatively large guild in the gaming world. He couldn’t remember which family had created that guild, but it wasn’t like he actually cared. The only guild he had an interest in right now was the Pleonexia Alliance.
After leaving the forest, he traveled back to Sterk at the barracks and presented him with ten [wolf pelts]. The man looked quite shocked by his arrival. His eyes went wide and his mouth dropped, but he still took the pelts.
“Well, I’ll be damned. You actually managed to kill 10 [wolves] so quickly. You know, you might not be the first otherworlder to talk with me, but you are the first one to complete my quest. You can have that sword as a keepsake. Also, you can have this cuirass. It’s the best piece of armor I have and should provide you with decent defensive capabilities until you leave the Village of Beginnings.”
Ding!
[Congratulations! You have completed the quest [Slay 10 Wolves]! Experience +500! Items received for quest completion: [Iron Cuirass] and 100 gold coins!]
The Iron Cuirass that Sterk gave him looked like something from a fantasy VRMMORPG. It was a classic metal cuirass with a dull gray coloration. There were no decorations, so it didn’t have anything special about it. One thing he did notice, however, was its weight. It was heavy. Other VRMMOs never added weight to their clothing, armor, weapons, or other equipment. It always felt like he was wearing feathers.
Item Name: Iron Cuirass
Item Type: Armor
Grade: Low
Use requirements: Warrior class
Description: A low-grade iron cuirass given to you by Sterk.
Abilities: Defense +10
It didn’t look like this chest plate was all that good, but if he compared it to the equipment he was currently wearing, which couldn’t even be called equipment, then it was amazing.
He put the iron cuirass on, which just required pressing it against his body to equip. The iron cuirass in his hands disappeared and reappeared on his body. This method of equipping items was unrealistic, but he wasn’t going to complain about that.
“You look like an actual warrior now!” Sterk laughed.
Adam smiled politely before asking a question he’d been wondering about. “Do you know if any of the other villagers might have quests for me?”
“Course they do,” Sterk said, crossing his arms and looking at Adam like the answer should have been obvious. “I know for a fact that Trader Wilkins is currently having issues. You can find him in the potion shop. He’s the store owner. Just look for a building with the sign of a potion hanging over the door. I’m told that his son has gone missing. Hasn’t been seen for several days. Could be that his son was attacked and killed by wolves, but he might also just be lost in the forest. In any case, you can ask him if he needs help finding his lost son… or at least finding his son’s corpse.”
“Thank you for the information,” Adam said with a polite bow.
Sterk laughed at how polite he was, which caused Adam to once more feel a little astonished. He had noticed it before, but these NPCs had very un-NPC-like personalities. No one would have been able to tell this person was not a real person if they didn’t know Age of Gods was a game. Even knowing it was a game, he found himself subconsciously thinking of Sterk and the Mayor as real people.
Since Adam had gained everything he wanted for now, and several hours had likely passed since he logged in at 12am this morning, he decided to log out.
The world around Adam suddenly went black. Then a ceiling appeared above him. He took a deep breath and sat up, stretching his muscles out. He didn’t feel too bad considering his mind had been sent into a virtual world. He was a little tired because his mind had still been active all this time, but his body felt oddly rested. Did that mean if he slept in the game world, it would be as if he was sleeping in the real world? That was probably a question for those philosophical people who cared about such things.
A glance at the clock revealed the time to be 8:30am, which meant he’d spent over eight hours in the game world. He felt like one of those shut-ins who spent all their time playing video games and never leaving their rooms.
Chuckling at the thought, Adam grabbed an outfit from his dresser, left his room, and traveled into the bathroom. This apartment had two of them. One of the bathrooms was for Fayte’s personal use, but the other belonged to him and Aris whenever she woke up. He relieved himself, took a quick rinse underneath scorching hot water, and dried himself off.
He put on his underwear, slid the black jeans up his legs, then donned a simple white T-shirt with an atom on the front. Since he wasn’t planning on leaving today, Adam didn’t bother putting on socks and left the bathroom.
Because it was a habit, Adam went straight to the kitchen and began preparing breakfast. His first thoughts were about Aris and what she would like, but Aris was currently in suspended animation and would be for at least a month and a half if not longer, so he shifted gears and thought about Fayte. She wasn’t a fan of savory foods and preferred lighter fare. At the same time, she didn’t want to eat anything too sweet for fear that her sweet tooth would act up.
“A parfait then,” Adam mumbled to himself.
He looked in the fridge and pantry to see if they had the necessary ingredients, which they did, fortunately. It would have sucked if he needed to travel to a grocery store just to make breakfast.
Parfaits were pretty easy. It was yogurt combined with sliced strawberries, blueberries, and crumbled granola. He could have also added blackberries and raspberries, but Fayte didn’t have either of those in her fridge. He combined all the necessary ingredients into a 10 ounce cup. After making the simple meal for Fayte, he cooked four sunny-side up eggs for himself and lightly seasoned them with salt and pepper. They sadly did not have any bacon, but he did add a slice of toast with some butter.
He also made a pot of coffee.
He had just set his and Fayte’s food down at the coffee table and was getting ready to turn on the television when Fayte appeared before him. She was a vision of loveliness as she walked into the room, dressed in simple pink pajama bottoms and a white T-shirt that was several sizes too large. One side had slid down, baring her
left shoulder. That look would have caused most men’s mouths to go dry and their hearts to throb with desire.
Adam only appreciated the view for a moment.
“Good morning,” he greeted. “I’ve made breakfast.”
Adam gestured to the yogurt parfait and coffee mug with the depiction of a grinning fox on it. Fayte smiled as she walked over, sat down next to him, and first grabbed the coffee.
The moment she came over, a gentle and aromatic scent entered Adam’s nose. He could tell Fayte had just taken a shower, not only because her hair was still damp, but also because he could smell her shampoo. Mixed in with the shampoo was the slightly bitter aroma of coffee.
“Good morning. Thank you for making breakfast,” Fayte said in a voice so soft and delicate that Adam was reminded of the lilting melodies of a professional singer. She took a slow sip of coffee, sighed as it warmed her insides, and then set the mug back on the coffee table. “I’m guessing you played Age of Gods the moment it went live?”
“I did.” Adam confirmed his words with a nod, then glanced curiously at the woman next to him. “You?”
“I did, though I didn’t play for more than four hours. It was already late, so I was tired.” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. It was a smooth and fluid action that drew Adam’s eyes to her slender neck and beautiful collarbone. “The only reason I went on last night anyway was to connect with the other member of our guild.”
“And who is the other member of our guild?” asked Adam.
“Her name is Susan Forebear, but I usually call her Su. She’s currently sixteen years old and is one of my best friends. I met her during a social function several years ago. She’s a very kind and timid young woman who has trouble saying ‘no’ to people, but she’s also incredibly intelligent and a talented hacker. She’s the reason I was able to track down your location.”
Fayte grinned at him as she nudged his shoulder, then took a spoonful of the parfait and brought it to her mouth. Her eyes closed as if she was experiencing bliss. After that first bite, she ignored the coffee in favor of finishing the parfait. Meanwhile, Adam watched her with an amused smile.