Prologue

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/A few days ago…/

Dale was currently inside his room, typing on a computer with great focus.

He was currently inside a very modest and simple green room, there was a bed on the corner next to a black and smooth oval pod, he had a few shelves with things such as books and old mementos, and lastly, a white wardrobe inserted into the wall.

Dale didn't have a lot of things since most of his childhood was… Virtual.

But he did have a rather big collection of plastic toys…

Once he was done, he let out a sigh and read through it all again.

"I never thought writing such a simple plan was so tiring… But this should be enough, there isn't anything else to consider and I went over several possibilities in the past month or so."

"Anything else and I will die…"

He looked towards the wall and looked at the electronic calendar.

'The game release is approaching, being just a few days away, and I have to do my best to get ready for it.'

Dale looked at the window as he thought of the past.

"... Ever since that day I started to train madly, all for today… I'll find out what this game is all about…"

/One year ago inside the Beta…/

"HUFF! HUFF!"

In the ruins of a once magnificent city lay a modest and simple village.

Vegetation was exuberant and there was even some wildlife around the place…

"Hum? Oh! Did you bring what I requested?" Asked a man with a smithy apron

"Yes, here is your bread Mr. Kyt." Replied Dale as he gave the old man a sack

"Ah! Thank you, young man! Here's the coin for your trouble…"

[Quest Completed]

[You've received:

1 Zulls of Wood

1% Experience points

]

[DING]

[You have Leveled Up! Current Level 100]

Smiling widely, Dale thanked the man and left in a hurry.

'Finally! Level 100! I want to see what this Level has to offer!'

"Young man, since you're here, could you grab me a few pieces of bread?"

Dale looked at the blacksmith and said with a smile:

"No!"

And with that he left running, leaving the surprised blacksmith behind…

It had been a month and 3 weeks since the closed Beta of Azimuth went online.

The Beta was located in the tutorial area of Azimuth, and according to the developers, all players would be subjected to it although they could skip the tutorial if they so desired.

The tutorial area was a ruin of an old city, it was actually the most famous city in their previous game containing all sorts of Easter eggs and even some mentions of past famous players.

However, they said many times that this next game had no connection to the previous games and it would be its own world.

In the game, the tutorial area was meant to have the players get used to the game mechanics and help more casual players hit a playable Level, and this Level is 5.

And it's important to say that during the Beta, this Level cap is removed for testing purposes.

The Beta contained all sorts of miscellaneous quests and objectives to help the players, and have them get a sense of how the game would play out.

But as time passed, the first complaint came, and it was about the time it took to Level up.

It's important to note that an XP multiplier of 10000 was given to all players in order to make things more dynamic.

It took a week for players to reach Level 20 and two weeks for players to reach Level 30… But that was because, in the middle of it, they ran out of things to do. No more quests and no more monsters to slay…

And no one would remain hunting a single low-class mob for the remainder of 2 weeks right?… Right?

And it was clear that something was wrong, they did all of the available quests and hunted every day. How is it possible that with a 10K XP multiplier during an entire week, they only got to Level 20?

But the developers said that most of these missions were low Level and the base amount of XP they gave, even when multiplied, was still low.'

And that was why their Levels wouldn't increase that fast.

Otherwise, no one would play a game where it took 10000 weeks of grinding to become Level 20… For obvious reasons.

During the first week of the test, most players stuck with exploration, and Dale was no different, he explored all sorts of places and did all sorts of quests, soon getting a hang of what this game was going to be.

However, he realized the mechanics weren't that different from their previous game, just way more fleshed out and 'real', they felt really close to reality somehow, despite this being a virtual RPG.

Because of this, he quickly became more focused on learning the exclusive features rather than exploring, even if he was interested in exploring and playing the game, this was but a heavily limited version of the game and hence, there wasn't much for him to do…

And he didn't want to get used to something that most likely wouldn't be the final version of the game.

And he wasn't the only one to do so as he quickly found someone like him…

/Two weeks before Dale hit Level 100/

"What are you doing?" Asked Dale as he looked at a young man doing a strange pose on top of a house

"..."

/BAM!/

Suddenly, a lightning strike hit the young man, sending him falling from the ceiling.

Dale grabbed him and fed him a potion and soon enough, the young man was alive and kicking.

"Phew… Next time, don't startle me that way man, I almost failed there." He replied

"..."

'He has an extreme American accent… And he seems a bit older than me.'

"Did I do something wrong? I apologize." He said as he bowed a little

The young man shook his head and said:

"Nah dude, it's fine, besides, I think this is a discovery worth sharing!"

He started to share with Dale how he tried to copy something from the previous game, and an ancient ritual he saw in a quest that was done right at that very house…

And it worked!... Kind of.

"It seems some events from the previous game still work! But at the same time, they don't… More research is required!" Said the young man excitedly

"Oh yeah! I didn't ask your name? Mine's Jelly Donuts without Sugar…" He said seriously

"..."

'What a long ass name…'

"I'm Kindred Flamingo…"

"BWAHAHAHA! What a terrible name!"

Dale got embarrassed and said:

"Yours is fucking worse!"

And like that, a beautiful friendship formed.

/Time passed…/

For the next week, the two tested many useless things as they played together until Dale found a glitch.

"You did what?" Asked Jelly Donuts

"Look, I'll repeat myself once, there is a bugged questline. If you do things right, it resets every time and you don't have to wait for the 24/h cooldown."

Jelly was astounded.

"Tell me how."

"Know the blacksmith? The one near the river… Yeah, that guy. You select his bread quest where he asks you to fetch some bread and then you go to the bakery nearby where the owner will ask you to fetch his kid that went out to play again in exchange for free bread."

"You find the kid near the river and you help him gather 8 stones for him to play in the river if you select 8 high-quality stones the kid will give you a bonus reward and that is what bugs the questline."

"Once you go back to the bakery, the kid will run away once again, and once you go back to the blacksmith… He will just ask for more bread, and it repeats. In a single run, you can complete 3 quests and even get a few coins."

"It took me 2 minutes to do these quests after I perfected my run a few times, but I am sure we can cut it in half… We still have 2 weeks, how about we bet on who reaches the highest level?" Asked Dale with a smile

"No."

But he was surprisingly refused by Jelly.

"I'll stay here testing my things, if you wish to grind those Levels, just do it man, in exchange tell me about the Class changes if there are any."

"Oh yeah, the Class changes… I forgot about that since we aren't level 20 yet."

Azimuth has a simple yet super complex Class system.

You can choose from 3 basic Classes:

Villager

Fallen Noble

Outcast

Each Class has its strong and weak points, but overall, they are supposed to represent the warriors, mages, and archers.

What makes this game diverse is how many possibilities you have access to… Every Class can evolve into something, you think it exists.

Depending on your actions and luck, you can find yourself with the opportunity to change or evolve your Class into something else, perhaps even Unique.

From a villager to a soldier and from that to a knight.

Or even from a villager to a wanderer, and from that to a Mercenary.

Every Class can lead to different outcomes and they even intersect, meaning that even if you select a villager, you can still follow the path of magic.

And that is how the game becomes diverse… The longer you play it the harder it is for someone to have the same playstyle as you, but it also becomes easier for someone with a broken build to appear…

Classes also have ranks, divided into what the game calls 'The Star System'.

The lowest rank Classes and items are 0-Star while the better they are, the more stars they get… Although this isn't always precise as Dale and the other players found out.

How you play your Class and how effective you are with it… That is what makes a Class strong, although it's true that higher stars tend to be more consistent in the way they are oftentimes stronger.

In this Beta, all Classes were limited to 0-Star at most, but thanks to this players were forced to test more play styles instead of becoming used to a single one.

This was one of the major issues raised by the players, how would balancing work in a game where the possibilities are endless?

Even if they already did a good job in it, it is bound that someone will luck out or think outside the box, fusing those Skills into something that will break the game, be it PVP or PVE.

And to be honest, there will always be that person who will break the game in some strange way…

But the developers said that they had plans for it and that it was alright, so everyone just shut up.

"So I'll be going to grind." Said Dale as he turned around

Jelly smiled and waved as he said:

"I'll stay here and test something else… I'll call you in 10 minutes with either good or bad news."

With a smile, Dale and Jelly agreed to share information and 2 weeks passed…

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Notes