Chapter 2: Rising to the top

The glasses had no speaker; instead, they used bone conduction technology that was perfected over the years.

"Yes. Let's start our journey. Take me to Divinity," Ryder replied instantly.

As soon as he spoke, he instantly lost all control of his body and all his senses. His room disappeared, and he now found himself standing in a pitch-black room.

He looked ahead and found a girl floating in the air.

"Welcome to Divinity. I am your artificial intelligence guide, Maya. I will help you with the registration. Please select your Character Name,"  

The little girl floated in the air in front of him. She looked to be 17-18 years old and had short, greenish hair.

"My name is Hades," Ryder answered her. 

'Yeah, I know that the name is quite chuunibyou, but I like it. I used the same character name in the online games I played before.' He thought to himself without being even a little bit embarrassed.

"Hades...Name registered. Please customize the stats of your character. You have been given 25 stats points," Maya further said.

A screen appeared in front of Ryder. That had six stats on the screen with a 0 in front of all 6 of them.

A plus and minus symbol was also placed in front of each of the characteristics. These six characteristics that he could use skill points on were Strength, Defence, Stamina, Intelligence, Speed, and Dexterity.

A smile appeared on Ryder's face as he kept tapping on the plus icons.

After a short few minutes, he was finally done.

The screen in front of him looked much different now.

He had used 7 points on Strength, six on Defence,5 points on speed,4 points on stamina,2 points on dexterity, and 1 point on Intelligence.

"I'm done," Ryder informed Maya.

"Are you sure? " Maya asked with an expressionless look on her face.

"Yes," Ryder again nodded his head.

"Would you like to make adjustments to your looks?" She asked.

" No need," Ryder replied instantly.

"Registration complete. You will be sent to the novice village. You currently have no class. After passing the novice village, you will be able to select your class." Maya informed him before she disappeared in front of his eyes.

The scene distorted as Ryder found himself in the novice village.

It was a place that all players were sent to so that they could learn basic skills and get used to Virtual Reality before going on real adventures.

Players could get some simple quests in the novice village to increase their levels, and when they got to level 5, they were allowed to leave.

Ryder went through the novice village and completed some meager tasks like training with the village Sword Elder. He collected herbs for a store owner, helped in finding lost goods, and more. 

After a few days of effort and a whole lot of quests, He finally managed to pass the Novice Village. He was the 25th player to get to level 5. He was sent to the starting kingdom by the Village Sword Elder.

He was finally able to choose a class from the class hall. 

'I had already decided on the class that I would choose before I even started this game. That's why I put most of my stats in strength and defense. I chose to be a Warrior. After reaching a certain level, I would be promoted to a knight.' Ryder thought as he chose his class.

It was a fantasy world. He wanted to enjoy this place. Enjoy the feeling of real strength. Thus he selected the warrior class.

Ryder went on adventures, completed various quests, and increased his strength. He even joined a strong guild. It was the 3rd rank guild at the guild rankings, and he had managed to become one of its top members.

Although Ryder wasn't the guild's strongest player, he has managed to become one of the ten strongest players in the guild.

Three years had passed away right before his eyes as he continued leveling up.

He was level 175 at the moment. He had managed to get the class of a Royal Knight. It was the class that came after the Knight class.

After three years of hard work for the guild, he was finally given a chance to lead a party for an A-Rank quest.

The quest he received was to kill the dragon that had appeared in the Malta Valley. The Guild Master sent 20 players with 150+ levels and 80 players who had a level ranging from level 100 to level 150. It did look like a good team, but he still couldn't feel at ease.

It took him three days to get to the Malta Valley. Their fight against the dragon began.

As Ryder's party was fighting against the dragon, their people kept dying one after another. 

Dying in the game was a pretty bad experience that no player wanted to experience. Firstly, even at the low pain settings, they still felt a significant amount of pain.

Secondly, they lost a level when they died. The loss of a level wasn't concerning for lower-level players, but it was pretty painful for the higher level players as each level required a massive amount of XP.

And lastly, those who died were locked out of Divinity for 24 hours.

Even their top players were killed. This whole quest was turning out to be a disaster. The information he was given by the guild master was completely wrong.

They were told that the dragon was a level 190 monster, but it is not! It was a boss class monster who had a level in the 200s.