by I. Felix
“It’s so cute!” Blake exclaimed. It was a small fluffy orange kitten with two tentacles coming from its shoulders. “I’ll name him Oliver!”
“Name the Displacer Cat? Yes/No,” a notification box appeared. Blake was surprised but clicked Yes. Then, May handed him his cat and he held him in his arms.
“I think I’m in love,” Blake said and his friends laughed. “I’m afraid that if I put him on the ground he’ll run away.”
“Homunculus are connected with our souls in the game. They don’t run away, no matter what. They can become hard to deal with and stubborn when they are doing things they don’t agree with but that’s all. They will be your partner forever. That’s why I’m fascinated by them and decided to learn the Art of Taming. Now I can hatch eggs and stuff. I was so lonely for so long but since I found them, everything became easier,” she said. Blake and Arche exchanged looks. She seemed sad for a second but the smile appeared again. “Well, you can’t learn any skills in level 1, so let’s go! You can’t even carry different gear, so I won’t even offer you some armor that I have. Are you still doing the Pureng Island quest?”
“Yep. That’s hell.”
“It’s harder than it needed to be, it wants to force the adventures to explore the game more and learn how to win it. It’s like your first test,” she said.
“I knew it! It couldn’t be normal!” Blake exclaimed and she giggled.
They left the city stepping on the swirl of light, right next to the Kefri NPC. Then, they were back to the surrounding map 1, where they could enter the Pureng Island. They didn’t even need to turn the navigation on, May knew where to go. They found the NPC that allowed them to enter and let them in.
They were back to the place that looked like it was made for cats. Oliver meowed when he saw the yarn balls everywhere but didn’t move.
May started to walk in front of them and Blake almost screamed for her to be careful. They were still pretty traumatized from the last experience. They almost screamed when they saw that May was getting closer to tons of purengs. The purengs there were so different from Arche’s little ball. Arche’s was small, pink, and barely had fur. The ones there were as big as bushes, extremely furry, different colors but they all had red eyes and sharpy teeth. Arche’s pureng had cute blue eyes.
“The monsters here are enchanted to be stronger,” May exclaimed, while she started to attract ten, maybe fifteen purengs at same. Blake couldn’t help but covering his eyes with his hands. He didn’t want to look at the slaughter that was obviously almost happening. The purengs looked furious, opening their shark-mouths, ready to slay May.
“I don’t want to look,” Blake said but it was too late. All the purengs started trying to bite and give headbutts at the same time.
They could barely reach May. Many notifications of “miss” appeared on top of the monsters. May looked at them, not a little bit worried about the fact that there were a bunch of monsters attacking her. Her HP was still at 100% and she didn’t move nor attacked.
“What are you guys waiting for? If you don’t kill them, I can’t help. We can only share XP to 30 levels difference.”
“Wait, what’s your level?” Blake asked, getting carefully close to the purengs.
“They don’t change targets, don’t worry. They attack the one that attacked them first,” May said and sat down, while the monsters tried to bite her, but couldn’t. “And I’m 183.”
Blake and Arche now looked at each other with their mouths open and eyes widened.
“What?!” Blake asked.
“Yeah. I’ve been playing for a while. I’d say years. Maybe a decade. I can’t tell, to be honest. You start to forget after a while,” she said, smiling.
Arche got closer, got his sword, and hit the first pureng. He was kind of worried that his own pureng wouldn’t appreciate that but he also started to attack.
“I guess the purengs either don’t live in families or they can’t recognize their own species.”
“It’s because the purengs here in the Pureng Island are enchanted to be harder to kill and also to be aggressive. Purengs aren’t aggressive usually.”
Blake also got his sword and started to hit the closest purengs. Just like May said, they didn’t turn to attack Blake or Arche, they kept focusing and obsessively trying to hit May, who looked more bored than worried. Oliver was also attacking with his little claws and it was adorable to look at.
After they cleaned up all the twenty or so purengs available there, a light appeared around Oliver and Arche’s pureng.
“They leveled up. It’s faster than with humans,” May explained. “You need to give your homunculus a name,” she told Arche.
“What about the Dark Knight?” Blake suggested.
“Like Batman?” Arche asked in disbelief. Blake chuckled. Then, Arche shrugged. “Sure.”
After some seconds, they could see a name below the monster. It was only Dark. “Dark for short,” Arche explained. May had already gotten up and started to attract more monsters for them to kill.
After what seemed an eternity, the boys leveled up. Blake jumped up and down when that happened.
“Nice!!” he exclaimed.
“Congratulations!” May exclaimed, kind, just like if that was an amazing conquer.
Blake opened his skills tab and looked at what he could choose. The only skill available was called The Path to the Class and it did nothing.
“Come on!” Blake complained and closed the tab, just to realize that his friends were already killing more purengs.
It was a long path in the Pureng Island, always following the same pattern of the weird yellow floor, the enormous yarn balls, the noticeable smell of tuna in the air, and all the fuzzy monsters around, always the same, always aggressive and scary. After killing so many of them, it became so boring that only the fact that they were talking helped the time pass faster.
“May, did you say this is your second time playing the game?” Arche asked. May looked up to him, to where he was exploding the purengs with extreme ease, and nodded. “But what do you mean?” he asked.
“It’s like that, first you get to choose a class at level 10. Then, you get to evolve this class to level 50. When you reach level 99, you have to reborn to become a transclass. You go back to the beginning, level 1 again, but when you get to level 10, you become a first-class transclass, then, when you reach level 50, you become a second class transclass, and finally, in level 99, you can reach an extreme form of your original class. Then, you can keep evolving till level 200, which is the highest. When you get to this level, you can decide what you’re going to do, you can live as a 200-level super-powered character or you can start from scratch, from the tutorial, level 1, choose a new class, and do it all over again,” she said, while they were killing more and more purengs.
“I think I’d choose the first option,” Blake said while sweating. He didn’t know characters in a videogame could sweat and he cursed the developers for doing things a little too real.
“I stayed a long time as a 200 level but it gets boring after a while, so I decided to try something new.”
“Which class were you the first time around?” Arche asked.
“I was a witch, which is the mage class,” she said, smiling. “Got sick of only being able to attack from a distance and decided to try a melee class.”
“And which class do you recommend for us?” Arche asked again. “I was actually thinking about becoming a swordsman, like you.”
“Yeah, the swords are pretty cool but you have an ethic code you have to follow and you report for the Knights Order. But besides that, you’re super strong, can kill easily, it’s easy to level up, there’s a bunch of cool gear. I could give you some,” she said, smiling, while they popped the last pureng and all of them leveled up at the same.
“So, it’s decided. It’s always been my favorite class in the games that I played back on Earth,” he said. “What about you, bro? Have you decided?”
“No
idea,” Blake said, sighing.
“We still have to finish this quest, so don’t you worry now,” May said and they kept walking, attracting more monsters.
They had walked a lot, so much they couldn’t see the starting point. The ocean was blowing a delicious breeze and made Blake want to go for a swim. He couldn’t stand that anymore all he wanted to do was finish that instance and move on. They had as well killed over one hundred purengs.
When Blake was about to ask to give up, they saw an NPC and a ship on the board of the island.
“I can’t believe it!” he exclaimed, almost screaming, and forgot everything, he started running to reach the NPC. “Finally, thank God! I can’t believe it!” he kept exclaiming, delighted. May laughed out loud and Arche shook his head but he was also smiling.
When they got closer, they saw that the NPC was actually the Master Novice, who gave them the quest.
“I see you have finally finished my quest,” he said when all of them got closer.
“But we’re still level 5,” Arche said. “It’s not enough.”
Blake hit him with the elbow. “Shut up, man!” he exclaimed, remembering his days of school when some unfortunate son of a bitch reminded the teacher that they had homework, just when the teacher was about to let them go to recess.
But the NPC smiled, resting his chubby hands on his prominent belly. “Oh, yes, I see that. That’s the whole point of this quest. It’s for you to prove that you won’t give up, even in face of hard monsters and slow leveling up. In fact, here’s the rest of the XP you should have received.”
He waved a hand in their direction and the most amazing thing happened. Five rays of light illuminated them, one after the other, with the sound of angels each time.
“You leveled up,”
“You leveled up,”
“You leveled up,”
“You leveled up,”
“You leveled up,”
They reached level 10 and a box popped in front of them,
“Congratulations! You reached level 10. It’s time to look for the Novice Master and ask to get your first class!”
“Congratulations! As you were determined enough to finish the Pureng Island, you got a permanent bonus of +3 in all of your skills!”
“That’s amazing!” Blake exclaimed.
“I knew the XP couldn’t be right. The monsters were way too difficult to kill for us to get only 1% with each. So you were holding the XP back for when we reached the end. And I bet that if we had given up, we would never get the XP,” Arche said.
“Exactly, my boy,” the Master said and laughed. “But you’ve proved worthy adventurers and that’s why you received the amazing bonus I granted you. Now, it’s time for you to change your class. We have five basic classes: Merchant, Archer, Mage, Swordsman, Acolyte. However, there are some special classes available.”
“Do you wish to proceed to the Changing Room? Yes/No. Your party may not join you.”
“Well, we’ll see each other on the other side,” Arche told May and Blake. “May, thank you so much for your help. I hope you won’t mind keeping being friends with two newbies like us.”
“I loved your company, you guys!” May exclaimed. “And, don’t forget our deal. Of course we’ll keep going. I’ll wait for you on the Novice Castle, how does that sound?”
“Great!” Arche said and turned to Blake. “Good luck, man. Choose wisely.”
Blake could barely smile. He was feeling his hands sweating and his heart beating faster. The time had come but he still hadn’t made up his mind. The notification box was still open, he exchanged a hug with May and a high-five with Arche and choose the “Yes” option.
Everything went white for a second.
Chapter 6 – Changing Classes
He was now alone in a dark room, with only the Novice Master in the middle of it. There were also five statues around him, each one different than the other. The Merchant had a small handcart beside him, just like the ones Blake had seen on Pruntire. The Mage was holding a staff and was dressed in long robes, wearing a pointy witch hat. The Acolyte was holding a book that could as well be the bible. The Swordsman was carrying a big sword and had one of the ostrich's mounts by his side, just like May had. Finally, the Archer had a big bow and was pointing towards an imaginary target.
Blake also realized Oliver had disappeared. He was completely alone in that dark room to make his decision.
Back on Earth, on the regular games, he always preferred to play melee. He couldn’t do well with targets, he was always too clumsy and got too close to the monster that then proceeded to attack him, and because of the small HP that the magical or ranged classes had, he always died. So he crossed Archer and Mage from the list right away. He was sure that Acolyte was the support one. It could be useful, but who really liked to play support after all? He wanted to go there and kill everybody. So, he crossed Acolyte from the list too. Now there were too. Swordsman and Merchant. May and Arche would be swordsmen already and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to abide by any rules regarding a Knight Order or such. He wasn’t one to go with the rules. And, then, Merchant was left. Merchant seemed to be one of the most boring classes in the world.
“What does Merchant do?” he asked the NPC. He smiled.
“Merchants are a master of buying and selling. They can get precious items with more ease than other classes, they can get discounts and sell overpriced items. It’s the best class to make money. Also, they know how to make their own items, like potions and gear.”
“Sounds good but I escaped capitalism once, I’m not going back,” Blake said with a sigh. “I don’t like any of the classes. What are my options?”
“Well, you could be a Novice forever,” the Master said like that was a serious option and Blake chuckled.
“I’d rather give up the game entirely,” he said. Now it was the NPC’s time to chuckle.
“There are perks to resilience like you learned. When the novices get to the strongest level, they can be one of the best classes ever.”
“You won’t convince me. Is there anything else I could do or will I have to settle?”
“You could take a personality test to see which class would fit you best.”
Blake frowned and then shrugged.
“Sure, I love these tests,” he said a little sarcastic. He used to take every type of personality test online, like those that tried to tell him which type of onion he was, or if he was a good person based on his Mcdonald's order. So, why not?
He thought it would be an actual test, but Master got closer to him and touched his head. It was weird and he tried to pull away but he couldn’t. He started seeing everything he did on this game in his head, from the tutorial to jumping off the cliff of the island from the first time, then stealing the lettuces, dying, the purgatory, the coziness of their first night in the Castle. He was dizzy when the Master finished and got away.
“For what I see, you have unlocked a class option,” he said. Blake widened his eyes.
“Sorry?”
“Yes. You have stolen, you have enchanted yourself with the Shadows property, and the homunculus connected to your soul is a Displacer Cat. You’ve unlocked the Thief class.”
“Thief?” he asked.
“Yes, and with your shadow enchantment, you would become a Shadow Thief. Thieves are experts in hiding in shadows, stealing, and fast attacks. You’d be hardly spotted by any monsters, you could hide yourself in plain sight, and you’re one of the classes with the highest agility and dexterity.”
“Sounds interesting…” Blake said, feeling an adrenaline rush.
“Also, with the Shadows enchanting, you’d get a +2 permanent stat added and you would be able to unlock extra skills. Your homunculus is also Shadow enchanted as it can displace and trick the enemy, so you would gain a bonus with it also.”
“Okay, you had me at +2 permanent stats add. Let’s do it.”
“Do you wish to change your class to Thief? Yes/No. This decision i
s permanent,” the notification box popped up in front of him. He confidently chose the Yes option.
Another one of those rays of light appeared around him, this time yellow, and his clothes changed, he thought he got a bit taller, and he felt more powerful.
Now he was wearing a weird outfit: dark pieces of fabric were wrapped around him, like bandages. It didn’t feel very protective but it was certainly light. His sword had disappeared and, in place, there was a small dagger. It was small but looked fierce. He also got a black mask to hide half of his face, leaving only his eyes and hair to be seen. He made a mental note of getting something to cover his hair too, in the future, so it was even easier to hide.
He opened his stats. They were all still 1, but he had a +5 permanent bonus in each of the stats. He also opened the skills and he couldn’t allocate any other points, as all of the ten he had received were in the useless novice class. But he noticed that one of the skills was already unblocked. It was called Shadow Attack and he opened it to read and see what it was.
“Hide yourself for thirty seconds and hit your enemy with a powerful strike after you come back from the Shadows.”
“That’s pretty good,” he thought, excited. Then, he looked at the Master.
“Are you ready to go back to the world? Yes/No,” he asked.
“Oh, you bet I am,” Blake said and thought about the yes option. Everything went white and he appeared back in the Novice Castle, just where he wanted to be.
As soon as he appeared there, he heard an exclamation and he turned around. May was there with Arche. Oliver appeared back at his feet.
“You’re a thief!” May exclaimed. “That’s cool! We don’t see so many of those around.”
“A Shadow Thief,” Blake said, showing his black hands, in a smug tone. “And you, bro?” he asked Arche, frowning. Arche wasn’t wearing the same outfit as May’s, and it didn’t look a lit bit like a swordsman. He was wearing long clothes, almost robe-like, and he was carrying a hammer. On his feet, there was a handcart and his pureng, Dark, was inside it.
“I decided to become a Merchant,” he said. “I was going to choose swordsman but then I realized it would be much more useful for us if I could craft us some items and get us money. Also, the second class of Merchant is an Alchemist, and that will be pretty useful,” he said. May nodded, in approval.
